Here’s How Families are Blessed by God!

20th Sunday after Pentecost, 10/6/24 Ephesians 5:21-6:4 Here’s How Families are Blessed by God! I. We submit to each other. II. We fulfill our God-given roles. III. We put Jesus first in our lives. I’ve heard more than one of you tell me that you are blessed, and I’m always happy to hear you tell me so. As Christians, you realize that you might not have everything you want, but you have everything you need. You’re blessed. You realize that you might not have perfect health, but you’re still blessed. You might not be considered to be a rich person, but you are blessed. In fact, you likely would nod your heads in agreement when I tell you the Bible’s truth that you can lose everything in your earthly life, but it you still have your faith in Jesus, you’re truly blessed. Those statements reveal one method of measuring our blessedness. We base it on the amount or the quality of what we have. And that’s the natural way to do so. But there’s another way of measuring your blessedness, or of receiving blessings from God, and that’s through activity. Let me repeat that: Your blessings come from God through activity. But please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying you earn the blessings God gives you. I’m saying that he often blesses you as you carry out your life as a Christian. Conversely, we see too often what happens in people’s lives when they oppose God’s will for their lives: it brings hardship and ruin. This morning our worship focus is on the truth that Christians love their families. And that’s true. In some respects, it’s just natural. Even non-Christians love their families. But Christians have the highest reason—love for their Lord Jesus. In this morning’s text from Ephesians 5&6, we hear what happens when Christians love their families. We hear what happens when Christians follow God’s design for family life. We hear how God blesses families. Could your family use some blessing from God? Then pay attention because here’s how families are blessed by God. I. I imagine you listened to the opening words of our text but didn’t have much opportunity to ponder them. So, listen to them once again, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” The word “submit” means to place yourself under someone. That’s not a difficult word to understand, but, practically, how does doing what this verse tells us to do play out? And, if you take it to its logical conclusion, it gets silly, doesn’t it? What I mean is this. Suppose every one of us here right now took these words to heart. How could we possibly all submit to each other all at the same time? It’s not possible. And it’s one reason not to take these words of our God seriously. But he wants us to. How? How can we all submit to each other? The best example I can point to is Jesus. Recall that Jesus stated that he, even as the eternal Son of God who created all things and was absolutely above all things, did not come to be served. He could have. He would have had every right to expect it. But he didn’t. Instead, he came to serve. Not just some people, or nice people, or people who deserved it. But everybody. Every single sinner in the history of the world. The Son of God placed himself under every sinner—under you—when he came to this earth to be your Savior from sin. He put you ahead of himself. He demonstrated that on the night before his death. Do you recall what he did before he ate the Last Supper with his disciples? He washed their stinking, filthy, dusty feet. How’s that for serving? In essence, he told them, “As I have served you, so you also must serve one another.” Life in a Christian family is not about looking for what you can get from others; it’s about how you can serve others. Here’s how families are blessed by God. We submit to one another. II. That makes no sense at all to the people of our world. If you place yourself under someone else and serve them, eventually they will walk all over you. And the world doesn’t operate that way. It can’t. So, it goes back to the family drawing board. It tries its best to re-define roles and expectations. It tries to soften the concepts that are difficult for people, or eradicate what seems to be demeaning. And we’re not surprised. The world knows nothing about a Savior who submitted himself to them. But we do. And Paul now relates role-specific instructions on how families are blessed by God. I won’t read the entire section again. Permit me to summarize it. He tells wives to submit to their husbands. He tells husbands to love their wives. He tells children to obey their parents. And he tells fathers to raise their children according to the truths of the Lord Jesus. There you have it. Nothing more to say, right? If only that were the case. But it isn’t, because a “me-first” sinful nature lives in each one of us. That sinful nature is self-centered, self-serving, sinfully proud, lustful, greedy, selfish, oblivious to others, lying, and cheating. It wants to use family members, not serve them. But as a child of God, your God has given you a role to fulfill in life. And it’s a good role. In fact, it’s a perfect role, because these were the same roles he gave to Adam and Eve in a perfect world. But they don’t seem to work. No one can fulfill them. No one wants to try to fulfill them. It’s too difficult. And when do I come in? When do I get what I want? So, our world does what it does so well—it obliterates these roles. It calls them oppressive and demeaning. It views them as obstacles to happiness, not the way to happiness. And in the end, the world tells you there are no roles to fulfill, just hopes and dreams to chase. So, get going and get after them and don’t let anyone or anything hold you back. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” And this is another area of your life where Christ comes in. He knows how difficult it is to fulfill your God-given role. He struggled with his on the night before his death. And his role was to give his life as a sacrifice for the world’s sin, for your sin. How’s that for counter-ego and counter-cultural? And he comes to you on a daily basis with his full and free forgiveness. Have you failed to carry out your God-given role in life? Same here. Look around you. Same there. Same everywhere. And the answer to our problems with our God-given roles is not to eliminate the problems by re-defining our roles, but to confess our failures and to receive the assurance that we have forgiveness in Christ. The solution to the problem of sin is Christ, and Christ alone. Here's how families are blessed by God. They put Christ first. And that starts with each individual. Don’t ask others to do what you aren’t willing to do. Come to grips first with your own relationship with Jesus. Is he first in your life, or not? If he isn’t, then start there. Recall how your Savior loved you. Recall what he did for you. Recall why he did it—his eternal love for you. Recall that you have given him countless reasons to abandon you, but he never does. He’s still there, next to you, within you, with his love and forgiveness. He offered his life to redeem you, so that you could be his forever, so that he could bless you forever, far after your family life on this earth ends. Then you will begin to enjoy perfect family life as a child of God in his family. And the power of his love, the motivation of his forgiveness, and the assurance of your eternal life with him all enable you to fulfill your God-given role. And when you do, blessings abound. Blessings abound when husbands love their wives as Jesus loves his Church. Blessings abound when wives respect their husbands for loving them as Christ loves them. Blessings abound when children obey their parents in the Lord and parents bring their children up in the Christian faith. III. But there’s the problem. We’re not perfect, and neither is our world. So, we struggle with our roles. No one fulfills their role perfectly. In fact, we fail every day. And when we come to the conclusion that someone else isn’t serving faithfully in their God-given role, we easily become sinfully judgmental and resentful of them. And when those sinful attitudes are left unchecked, we then easily slide into self-righteousness, meaning, we immediately conclude that we’re a much better follower of Christ because we’re fulfilling our role so much better than they are. I can’t over-emphasize this portion of what the Lord tells us in this text. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Don’t miss about whom he is speaking. He's talking about you. He loved you so much that he sacrificed himself to make you holy—pure and acceptable to him. Not because of what you do, but because of what he has done. Recall that truth every day of your life, Christian! Recall that every day of your life is marred by your sins and every day of your life, Jesus makes you holy and pleasing to him. He blesses you with the gift you need most of all—his holiness, so that you can have an eternal relationship with him. And now he gives you countless roles to carry out in your life. And when you do, he blesses others through you. When you do, he blesses you and your family. May those blessings abound in your life as Jesus empowers you to live for him! Amen.