How Can You Love Others If You Can't Love Your Wife - Tim Conway

now as the church submits to Christ so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself and splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish and the same way husband should love their wives as their own bodies he who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever yet hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh this mystery is profound and I am saying that refers to Christ and the church however let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband last week I started with husbands I entitled that sermon one of the most intimidating two letter words in the Bible the exact word I was referring to is that two letter word AAS as founded verse 25 of this fifth chapter of Ephesians husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her now I have I don't know how many more messages in dealing with the husband but I I really couldn't get away from just the preliminaries just laying down more foundation once again before we get into that list of all those different traits of that love that seemed to pour forth but here's a thing men if you're married or you hope to be married I'm I really must emphasize this again Paul is not in the least now notice this with me he is not in the least communicating impossibility in this verse namely verse 25 Paul does not say husbands I wish you could love your wives as Christ loved the church but knowing that it's an impossibility I'm just gonna pass on to some other topic that's not what he says if you take Paul for what words are worth you kind of guys do you not get the feeling that he really does want you to love your wife or your future wife after you marry her as Christ loves the church this doesn't sound like sarcasm it doesn't sound like jest this sounds like deer this this sounds like an apostle who is feeling pastoral and concern for these Ephesian Christians and basically is giving them instruction that has every sound in these words as though he's sincere as though he means this as though loving your wife as Christ loved the church is no more impossible really brethren than a lot of things he calls us to it wasn't it in this very letter that he says put on the new man that's created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness a that true righteousness and holiness men can you any more put on righteousness and holiness that is in the likeness of God can you any more put that on then you can do this my brother's isn't it in fact exactly the same thing isn't it I mean if I put on the new man created in the likeness of God what is God like the Bible tells me that God is like Christ right isn't he the exact Express image the very radiance of the glory of God himself isn't that what the Bible teaches us I mean basically what you see in Jesus Christ is filip have I been with you so long and you don't you don't even know who I am yet brethren loving our wives like Christ loved the church is loving our wives like God loves it is it is a demonstration of God likeness of true righteousness and holiness men when you do that Paul was no more jesting back there when he said put on the new man as he is here when he says husbands love your wives this is serious he means this he expects that you men are going to be able to look at this and you're going to be able to excel and make strides and you're going to be imitators of this he expects that now of course this is impossible to the natural man to the lost man look the best the natural man can do is this the natural man is a man that's bound in his sin he's found in his selfishness he's bound he's he's locked in the Dominion of sin the best he can do is act right I mean there's all sorts of hypocrites that are lost people the best he can do is act the best the natural man can do is come into the church and put on a good face in front of folks for a little while that's the best he can do basically brethren lay this down lost marriages may last until death but they're not good they're not good they're never good I remember seeing my grandparents I I know I've told this story before but I remember them they were both in their 80s and of course I when you're in your 80s you don't hear as well as you could when you were in your 20s and so they would mumble things under their breath all the time but the others couldn't hear because they were you know my grandfather had a hearing aid but I would but here I was a little kid 14 years old 12 years old 8 years old well my hearing was very keen I could hear them both over there in the kitchen mumbling other to their breath what the other person couldn't hear but we could hear very loud now they were married till death separated them but it was miserable and it always is when you take two sinners and you put them together and there is no grace no power of God in the midst of that they may manage to salvage that marriage until death and they'll do it for a number of reasons it's not socially acceptable we'll do it for the kids I mean it's just the way it is there's some cultures that it's just totally unacceptable there's been times in our own culture here totally there are reasons people will make marriage happen but when you stick to sinners together two very selfish people and there's no grace of God in it their brethren lost people don't have good marriages and the best lost people can do is come in here even if they have this this guise of Christianity the best they can do is have a rotten marriage at home come into the church and put the smile on right and they can act it out that's that's the best and of course Paul is not talking to the natural man but brethren I'll tell you this the home is always the true test it's the true test for all of us that's where the real man seen true Christianity follows a man home and you see that's where the hypocrite can't go you know what a man's wife and a man's children know the real man they do you can't hide from them they know what the guys all about look of course Paul's under no illusion here that natural men can do what he's commanding that's not who he's speaking to but I want you to make no mistake about it he is absolutely convinced that the Christian man can and must respond to this and grow in this now look remember this is the same letter that says this Paul is praying for these Ephesian Christians and his desire is that they might know what is the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward us who believe Matt was talking about this in the sunday school when when the Spirit of God was given to the church and God comes and indwells us and he puts his spirit in us brethren there is an immeasurable greatness of power by which we can fulfill this by which we can put the new man on my brothers think with me here think think with me you have a man who can't walk he's called a paralytic this is found in Matthew 9 you don't have to turn there it says found in Matthew and Luke as well you have this man he's a paralytic he's basically on a bed maybe some kind of platform that they could carry this guy on and they lower him down through the roof and he could they lower him down there in front of Christ now look Jesus Christ says this to a paralyzed man he says stand up pick up your bed and go home now there's a big problem with that paralyzed people can't do that guess what you say to a man who naturally is selfish he's proud he's arrogant he's just totally self-centered you say to a man like that love your wife like Christ loved the church there's a problem with that he can't in his own strength no more than the paralytic in his own strength but guess what the paralytic did rise up and take up his bed and go home you say but paralytics can't do that exactly they can't do that until Christ intervenes but Christ does intervene and in fact he says to them that day look I have done this to the paralytic that you might believe that I have authority to forgive sin but I would say this all those miracles Christ did there to convince us that Christ has authority over all things he has authority over the Dominion of sin he's got authority over this immeasurable greatness of power that dwells in you he has the authority to create the very thing that he commands that's what he did in the paralytic resurrection power that's what that's the kind of authority that's the kind of power that is within us it is resurrection power and immeasurable greatness of it now men this is the first step if I am almost certain that there are any number of different men that read that text and the first conclusion is I can't love my wife like Christ loved the church and there's your first step of defeat right there you've already convinced yourself it's not within my capacity to do that but I just remind you of this brethren every time you think that you remember the paralytic did walk home that day just from keep reminding yourself the paralytic did walk home that day and you remind yourself of this Jesus says I do this to teach you another truth that's what those you remember that storm did go silent when he said peace be still those demons did come out of the demoniac when Jesus said go why do i why do I go to all those things because I'm telling you brethren the first place you and I have to be is we have to believe that there is a sin conquering power in Jesus Christ by which we can grow in major strides in this area this defeatist mentality just isn't going to work from the look when the Word of God says rise take up your wife and love her you don't want to say well that's impossible no more than the paralytic rise take up your bed and go home brethren are you with me you see this so far do you believe this this is no small question because you know how Matt said now follow me here you know how Matt said that basically obedience flows from love if you love me you will keep my Commandments but basically when we love Christ obedience is the outflow of that you remember in saying that right and the Bible definitely teaches that but let's back up even one more step obedience comes from love but where does love flow out the Bible tells us that as well turn in your Bibles to Galatians 5:6 I want you to see this this is really key because we're told to love our wives but we are told to love them and love for our wives in the in the basic essence of what love is isn't different than our love for other people it's just it's focused on a certain woman but the very essence of love what we need to look at this we need to think about this Galatians 5:6 for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love in other words circumcision uncircumcision those things are all peripheral matters they don't count for anything they don't they're not what really matters those things don't matter at the heart and the core of true Christianity here's what counts for everything that stuff doesn't count for anything here's what counts for everything faith working through love love produces obedience it's faith from which love comes we have faith the faith begins to work and it manifests itself in works of love this is why I'm Judgment Day in Matthew 25 Jesus doesn't say okay you believed in me and you're on my right hand you didn't believe on me you're on my left rather he says I was naked and you clothed me you see it really is a test of who had faith and who didn't who had true faith and who didn't because it will manifest itself in works of love that's why Judgment Day is based on our works because works will always prove whether the faith was true and so faith is the spring head of love you know what that means if you're gonna love anybody men if you're gonna love your wives we've got to fight for faith we've got to fight for him now I'll tell you this we are in the midst of a sea this world whose waters are that they wave after wave they just come at us to douse faith we have an enemy brethren an enemy that is against us and who would seek to turn us from the faith yeh has God said he would he would have us question God right from the beginning brethren faith must be there it must be in the promises of God it must be in the person and the character of God it must be in the son that he sent to this world excuse me and we have all hell against us seeking to turn us from the faith brethren we've got to fight and fight we've got to be like those disciples of the old Lord give us faith you remember how it was the one who shares the faith of Abraham who is father of us all remember how it was with Abraham in hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told so shall your offspring be he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body you see that brethren the Lord of glory comes along through his apostle and says men love your wives every commandment in the scriptures is a promise lay it down you say how does that work it works this way back in Ezekiel chapter 36 you don't need to turn there but listen to this I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules do you see that the New Covenant says that every single commandment that God gives us stands behind this promise that God says my people I'm gonna put my spirit in them I'm gonna give them a new heart I'm gonna do such things within them that I am gonna cause them to keep my Commandments behind every promise of God or behind every commandment of God is a promise this promise that God will cause us to do it when we find husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church what you have right there is a promise now remember Abraham he's the father of us all of us who believe and it says he did he he considered himself he considered how old he was he considered how old his wife was brethren were in the same boat we can consider ourselves Christ says love your wife but we consider ourselves look at ourselves we know ourselves we know what we struggle with we know what we're made of we know that we still have the flesh and you can look at your wife just the same way he did he considered himself he considered his wife and he said this is no good this is impossible brethren were faced with just such impossibilities as he was but you see what it said his faith didn't stagger it wasn't shaken and that's where we need to be we need to stand on these promises this this is the starting point it's got to be faith men the starting point needs to be I believe that God can make me into a lover of my wife and so I'm gonna get look you can look at yourself all day you can look at your wife all day and you're not gonna find any help there in fact all you're gonna find there is hindrance but in the end look where he looked he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God that's where his eyes were they were on that promise but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised from that's where we if we're gonna be children of Abraham it is right there fully convinced that God is able to do what he promised are you fully convinced of that promise in the new covenant in Ezekiel 36 that he promises that he will cause you to walk in his statutes whether or not you convinced there's an immeasurable greatness of power at work in you are you convinced of this do you believe this well okay brethren is we fight and we claw for this faith remember this faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God so if you want to put this whole thing together you have obedience back up a step you have love back up a step you have faith back up a step you have hearing back up a step you have the Word of God men you're never going to get to the end unless you start in the right place you think there are men running around this world intently devotedly loving their wives who are not men of the scriptures don't believe it for a second they don't exist there's a pattern here brethren there is definitely a pattern there's a progression there's a process faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ so says Romans 10:17 but not wait I want you to catch this circumcision and uncircumcision it's kind of like wait a second circumcision shouldn't matter that it's uncircumcision is that circumcision things gone away this isn't even where Paul wants us to be that's not what he wants it's even concerned with he says the real deal the real issue what counts brethren in the Christian life what counts is not whether you have the right Bible translation whether you go so much to the right church those things are all good whether you sing the right songs as good as that is whether your your evangelistic and you have the right and the best tracts and you go out all the time and you hand them out that's all good I encourage you all to do it but you know what counts what really counts not that you so much even have faith to give a whole lot of money to missions that's good but that's not what really counts even if you have the greatest spiritual gifts and you can do supernatural things and wonderful things that's not ultimately what counts did you get what really counts faith working through love brothers love that flows from faith Paul says that's what really comes faith driven love is the highest commodity of the Christian faith you remember some of you folks remember Andy just here at the grace house but you remember how Paul says it there in first Corinthians 13 verses one through three listen to this if I speak in tongues of men and of angels but have not love I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal if I have prophetic powers understand all mysteries and all knowledge and I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love I am nothing if I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love I gain nothing you see you know what counts for everything faith driven love and if you don't have it by God's standard you are nothing brothers I hope you feel this deep don't you get the idea your real worth in the kingdom of Christ is seen by your love for others I mean ultimately on that day when we come to stand before Christ again I remind you it was our love for others that comes out in Matthew 25 you fed me you visited me you clothed me you took me in that's what Jesus says matters in that day that day when we give an account apparently whatever your life may have looked like whatever you might have accomplished if there's an absence of love you are nothing so my brother's well here's here's the question where are we at in our love what kind of test can we give ourselves what's the true standard where are we at here now men consider this could it be that your love for your wife is the truest test of how far you've come and loving others now just stick with me here I'm proposing this idea and I'm gonna try to build a case for it from the Scriptures you know what we can pray so eloquently for the salvation of the Quechua people down there in Peru for the conversion of children over there in China we can pray heartily and fervently zealously for Laredo we can think about our brethren going to India but folks you know and I know that it's easy to love far away Chinese children who we don't know brethren it's easy to love drug cartel members down in Nuevo Laredo that we hope will be saved when we don't know them but true love the kind God admires that's the kind of love that is able to love close not just at a distance now that's key that's important didn't somebody once say somewhere under inspiration something like this if anyone says I love God and hates his brother he is a liar now listen to this this is key right here for he who does not love his brother whom he had seen cannot love God whom he has not seen now have you ever stopped and really thought about that text John basically assumes there is that which is seen and that which is unseen that's what he assumes they're seen unseen and then he works from this premise that what is seen those who are seen is the truest test of our love that's what he says look the truth is it's easy to say I love God you know what it's kind of like that thing you know which is easier to say your sins be forgiven you or say rise up and walk we already considered that paralytic man which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you or rise up and walk it's easier to say your sins are forgiven you right why because if you say it like Catholic priests do all the time nobody knows for certain you can say it all day long but nobody really knows it but if you say rise up and walk to a paralytic now that's harder to say right because if you're a phony you get proven right on the spot that's why Jesus said it like that but brethren let me say this is it easier to love God who you don't see or to love your brother who you do see you see it's the same kind of thing there are people that walk around all through this world oh I love God I love God I love God what's the problem with that but you don't you can't see whether it's true or not but if you say you love your brother well hey that gets demonstrated right away if you're a phony you get proven right on the spot that's why John's coming at it that way the seen and the unseen it's easy to say I mean the same principle works this way very easy to say I love the Quechua people don't you hear how I pray for them on Wednesday night can't you tell I love them the Brethren they're easy to love because I've never seen him brethren I remember my brother-in-law Rick he used to live over here on a van not too far across the other side I 10 he lives over there and this is this is when he was going down to community baptist and so was i and one day I went over to visit him and probably had the family with me but we pull in and I get out of the car and I'm walking up to his house and I noticed his air-conditioning unit one of those window type Neels I don't think it was in a window I think it was actually just punched through a hole in the wall kind of like you guys had at the grace house and as I'm walking in I noticed that you know how window type air conditioners they have all those fins of course conditioners have air conditioners whatever kind they are they have all those things over them for dissipating heat it's the outside part of the air conditioner and so the heat generated in that a whole air conditioning process is vented to the outside it's got all these these little fins typically a fan on the other side that pushes the air through and so you get the dissipation of this stuff well then walking in I notice all the fins are just folded up flat and it just kind of took note of that I walked inside the house truth was Rick's air conditioner wasn't going to disperse any more heat I walked in there and I said Rick to deal with your air conditioner and he kind of got this it wasn't really an angry look it was just kind of a more of a disappointed look you see Rick had a woman from the church down there living with him three or four of her kids there she had husband the beater and he took her in and was trying to provide her a home so that she wouldn't have to be there in that abusive situation rick says yeah so and so her children beat the air conditioner with sticks basically just flattened all the fins solid it might sound funny to you and to me right now but in the middle of a San Antonio summer with sweat rolling down your chest that it quickly does not become funny brethren it's right there that loving three or four AC smashing children it becomes the real test I mean look brethren the truth is we can talk all day about Chinese children Indian children catch children offer our eloquent prayers for them and those are good things and we should do them and it can also very noble though the spiritual principle John is laying down for us is that our love for what is unseen can be measured with good accuracy by our love for those who are seen who does not love his brother whom he has not seen can I love God whom he has seen the unseen is always easy to love or at least easy to say we love but that which is seen is always the test of love we all understand why that is unseen people don't beat my AC unit into oblivion right but brothers unseen children like several million Quechua children we don't see we don't see you know four or five million Quechua children of Peru in our minds as a sea smashing children we see them like in the magazine photo sad eyes maybe big belly they're hungry they just want to be loved they're just waiting for us to bring the gospel and if we would they would all flood it into heaven and they would be all smiles and they would just wrap their arms around us that's that's how we picture faraway people but for children when they come at you know our property with sticks then we see them all too well all of a sudden they're not unseen anymore we see them too well and it's at that point right there that I love really gets tested brothers the thing is if we apply this principle to its furthest extremity I would ask this if love for those who are seen is the truest test and measure of my love for those that are not seen even more than that the test of my love for God who is unseen then wouldn't my love for my wife be the test of all tests as far as what is seen look I say this because men the truth is my brother who is seen doesn't get seen by me as much as my wife gets seen by me right I mean men when you get married you don't get to know anybody you don't get to see anybody more than your wife I mean she becomes if we're gonna apply this principle of the scene in the unseen she's in she's the scene for the fullest degree what makes those scene more of a test of our love than the unseen is going to be pronounced in our wide simply by their closeness and their scene this to us right I mean brethren what is it that makes it so easy all of those catch you a children it's because they're not at my house right now beating my AC unit to a pulp that's just a reality they're far away I don't know them and all the things about them that make them hard to love I don't know anything about but the fact is the closer you bring people the more their blemishes the more their defects and rather maybe even more than that the more your defects in response to it you see the real issue brethren is things like this true love is made up of things like love is patient let's see if I'm impatient that Quechua child can't stir up by impatience and therefore reveal my lack of love and it's easy when they're far away easy to put some money in the box and say oh I love those children but when you sit there like Rick and the sweats pouring off you and these kids have just battered this thing all the bits and you've got them stay in there and you don't have money to get the thing fixed well now your ability love gets tested far more because those things that naturally are going to test it are their brethren closeness has everything to do with with what our love is really like you know if somebody comes it brethren you got a family biz here for the first time if if I'm looking across the room and I'm watching you and this family comes in and you basically you know you go over to them and you introduce yourself and I'm watching you and I'm thinking well that's nice and bad we have people in the church that are really friendly to people who are visiting and I'm watching that brother over there and he smiles at them and he even goes over the counter and he gets one of those DVDs and he goes and gives it to them and I see that he invites them to the lunch in the afternoon brother use you and I still know he's got that guy at arm's length that family is not close he's been nice but now let's say all of a sudden our guy over here and his family they say to him guess what I'm getting thrown out of my apartment is there any chance you can help well now you take that family home and as kids go to smashing your property you know what that's gonna really prove what you're made of very easy on the one level because for the most part these people aren't seen they're not close you haven't brought them there Bethan have his kids pulverise your AC unit with sticks your real ability love comes to the surface as you see my brothers do you I'm not so much do you you do you may or may not take that family home with you but you do take your wife home with you now I'm not saying your wife beats your AC unit pulverizes it but she does other things and brethren how many how many new wives they basically you know what they meet this young man ladies if you're already married you know this if you're not married you will find this out when you do but you you meet this guy suddenly he's Prince Charming right but you I mean look it's no mystery well the ladies do it too when you meet somebody for the first time well you're interested there's something to be gained I would like to have this lady as my wife I really want that I'm gonna seek to impress her I'm gonna put the best foot forward I'm not gonna shout at her I'm not gonna yell at her I'm not gonna scream at her I'm not gonna be ugly towards her I'm not gonna lie to her I'm not gonna I mean I mean lost guys will lie and the whole thing will be alive but I'm not going to show my impatience I'm not going to try to show my pride my selfishness right we try to conceal those things but then how many young ladies they get married or older ladies I get married and all of a sudden after the honeymoons over wait a second this isn't the same guy I met I mean it is it actually was the same guy all the time but you just think he's all of a sudden changed but I can tell you this the guys at work don't think he's changed I mean other than they might think you know now he's more pampered and he's on a leash and but as far as just a basic look item they don't think he's changed why because his closeness to them has it changed but all of a sudden the closeness to this woman has changed drastically all of a sudden what he's really made up gets put to the test I mean if all the woman's weakness is art suppose the newness of the thing I mean it's all the things that test love love we're told is not rude and this guy was never rude to me before but now he's rude to me now that we're married well because his love really didn't go as deep as you thought it went because there's more rudeness and there's more impatience and there's more of wanting his own way and there's more of all that stuff that love isn't supposed to be than what you thought but the closeness Reverend the closeness now look I just throw this at you men I believe that you can love your wife more than other people I mean don't the tax collectors love their own I mean they do that you can love your wife more than you love other people but I believe that the way you love your wife is basically the ceiling I don't think you get above that certainly if you say I love God and you don't love your brother John says you're a liar I'd say this don't talk to me about your love for God don't talk to me about your love for others unless you're loving your wife your wife is going to be the standard because your wife is the closest one to you your wife is going to be what really reveals what you're really made of men don't come in here and act like you love everybody when your marriage stinks because the reality is if you got any of the brothers in here just as close to you they'd find out how much you stink they would that that guy out there that you are able to keep at arm's length and you're just you feel sometimes just glad be able to get away from whole life and whatever and you go to work and you say why is it my marriage feel bad at home but when I go to work it's so great yeah those guys you're at work with just get stranded on a desert island out in the Pacific with them where you got to live together every day and I'll tell you what the same thing is going to surface because you're the measure of your love brethren let me tell you something love in the scriptures is seen not so much as this entity that is focused at specific individuals it does get spoke focused in specific individuals but the fruit of the Spirit is love in other words where love is it's much like it's much like I have a rose bush at home I planted that rose bush when I got that I thought it would be nice to have a rosebush so that I could give my wife a regular supply of these white roses coming right out of that bush or at least they'd be there in the yard to just beautify things but here's the thing because of my wife's closeness to me she might be one of the chief benefactors of that that thing took root and it sprouts these white roses all the time but you see that rosebush is like love though my wife might be a chief benefactor because she's closest the truth is that anybody that walks by my house can see the beauty of it and they can they could if they're in the right direction they can catch this the fragrance of it you see love is the same thing where love is it's like humility do you think you can just be humble towards your wife and then when you're around everybody else brethren humility is it isn't it's a characteristic that the Spirit of God works in you and look basically if you look at your life and you look at your life at home and you look at that and it stinks then brethren your love stinks that's what's true if your love has fragrance about it and your wife knows it your wife can feel it your wife has a sense of it and that that will naturally flow out to all the others around you and the reason that I'm hitting on this is because it's a standard brethren as you seek to love your wife what will happen is your love will grow it will be nurtured and it will affect everybody around you look if if you're not loving your wife if your wife would basically stand up right now and say living with this guy is just it's it's hard I don't enjoy it at all he's mean he's cruel he's selfish you know what you can put on a smile and you can act away towards people at work and act towards the people in the church but you are what you are and I really believe that this scene unseen principle as as we can pull right what John says if you're not loving your wife you're a fake and I look I know we're all growing in this and I know we're at different places but look if you're if your life at home if your kids and your wife know it you're just he puts on a face all the time but at home it's just not real then it's not real basically this this love that men this love you have for your wives it is the ceiling it's it reveals what you're truly made of at the deepest level and so men if we strive you see here's what we're after after church that's growing in love a church that's growing in humility but men I don't believe that this is not the kind of thing where God sets a hurdle in the way in the first hurdle is loving your wife and you can just somehow run around that hurdle and think you can go on with the race after that it's not like that at all it starts right there at home it starts right there with your wife it starts right there with what is most seen do not talk to me about loving Christ who you do not see if you're not loving your wife who you do see it's not real the Bible says so but here's the thing if men if we apply ourselves I mean in faith we apply ourselves believing God is going to help me God is going to cause me to walk in these very statutes that he gives one of them being loving cried loving my wife as Christ loved the church and I believe it there's an immeasurable greatness of power there at my disposal I believe it is resurrection power I believe I can grow in this I believe I can strive I'm gonna get on my knees and I'm gonna plead to the Lord increase my faith and increase the love that flows from that faith increase my love for my wife increase my sacrifice increase it men you can have the greatest faith in the world but if you have not love you're nothing and if you're not loving your wife you're nothing because you're not truly loving others because that's the test if anybody else was brought just as close you'd respond to them just like you do to her so men if we're gonna grow here if this church I realize this church is young I mean its young in in several ways it's just young as far as physical age and it's young as far as how long most of you have been saved and brethren there's no question about that shining fruit of the Christian life love it's the thing that is most devoid when we come into this thing but we have the spirit he's been given to the church we're trusting that he is gonna work his fruit in this church but we've got a brethren it's the fight of faith and we've got a fight to love our wives we've got to fight to believe this we've got to fight against selfishness and fight against impatience and fight this fight brethren and it happens a day at a time it happens a moment at a time you say unloving things you do unloving things you give unloving tones in your voice you give unloving looks to the in the way you roll your eyes or they happen in moments our lives are basically made up of these moments of in in time folks and we've got to strive faith this all flows from faith faith working through love faith with our eyes set on Christ faith what he did on the cross he went to that great but he didn't stay there and he rose from the dead remember your baptism you went in those waters and you came back out to show symbolically that you have resurrected you have risen to life with him men we can we must love our lives like Christ loved the church we need to grow in it we need to excel in it we need to strive in it we need to move forward in it I guarantee you this the a patient of this church it's never gonna be pre-eminently one in which the world can look at us and say I know they're followers of Christ remember what Christ said there he said if they're in John 13 he said by this the world is gonna know you imitate me I've washed your feet brethren if you're not washing your wife's feet if that's not where it starts this is how the world's gonna know we need to grow in this we need to excel in this so men we're going to look in the weeks ahead at more of this headship it's probably coming next time this is no small thing because without this you're nothing you're nothing that's that's what the scripture says this is the foundation if we miss this brethren we can have so much right faith so as to move mountains but you lack this you're nothing

Channel: I'll Be Honest

Views: 9,782

Rating: 4.9016395 out of 5

Keywords: tim, conway, marriage, wife, husband, family, ephesians, 5:25, love, life

Id: cdOZECrk2hM

Length: 53min 30sec (3210 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 30 2011