"Marriage" - The Apostolic Connection

the greatest Revival to hit us and to hit a marriage is when we are just simply truly thankful if you'd give me Matthew 15:36 you say Pastor my marriage needs a miracle and I will agree with you as a matter of fact all of our marriages need the miracle of God's spirit living inside of us there's no just perfect genetics it meet no perfect people that just meet if you have if you're married and your marriage is happy it's because somebody's been working at it somebody's been trying somebody's been putting forth an effort but there's a dilemma here in Matthew 15:36 there's a lot of hungry people and what they need is nothing short of a miracle to feed them and so Jesus he asked for bread he got bread seven Loaves and Fishes now notice this I I just overlooked this till I begin to study about being thankful the Bible said he took the seven Loaves and Fishes and gave thanks and break them and gave to his disciples and his disciples to the multitude now you realize the miracle took place in that one verse there when they gave him seven Lo Loaves and fish it was what they had but the Bible said he took what they had and he began to give thanks and then he performed the miracle some of us are waiting for the miracle to give thanks and God is waiting to for us to be thankful in order to have the miracle I I wonder if we could just start thanking God for life and for health and stop stop zeroing in on what's wrong with our and what's wrong with our spouse and we could just start thanking God that that you're with someone today that has God's spirit that that God has given you someone maybe that that that it's not always been a good life but thank God for the days that it was good I Praise You Lord I Thank you today I really believe that Thanksgiving is something that needs to take place in our lives in order for God to work a miracle he said giving thanks always for all things unto God and the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ then notice this next word uh verse and this is where a lot of folks put the brakes on pull the emergency break jump out of the scripture and stop reading because the word says in verse number 21 submitting submitting now right there oh go ahead and put I know you might not want to Jonathan put it on the screen come on now Ephesians 5:21 go ahead and put it on the screen submitting submitting now boy we start you know we start kind of putting the claws down you know wait just just one moment but but would you see what followed that would you see what followed that what followed that was a Spirit-filled person what followed that was a whole person what follows that is a person that that is a thank thankful person and now they are a submitted person now this is not just for the women this scripture here because the scripture says submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God that scripture is not written to just a male or a female it's written to both because we must understand something today that God's way is perfect God's way is perfect and if God says that we're to live submitted lives to each other then God's way is perfect not punishment Jesus said come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my burdens are easy and light my my ways are my ways are the good ways see the society that we're living in that's ever defining and redefining marriage they don't have the good way God has the good way and if we in the New Testament Apostolic Church can just realize that this word submission here and to be in submission and to be people that are submitted one to another because there's no one that has the position that's not submitted all of us are submitted today I as a pastor P although I'm in a place of authority I am submitted to you this morning I am submitted I am a part of this body that says that that that that I must be a spiritual uh uh leader and I I must make sure the climate is always right in this room for a miracle and a climate is always right in this room so you can get your needs met and the word of God and I'm always trying to submit myself to position us that God can take us to higher Heights and deeper depths in him I'm just not a Carefree preacher with a walk in the park but I'm submitted to you today because I must give you what God has given to me and on the other side you're to submit your lives to one another and in this submitting we are a we are a partnership today this church is a partnership today we we are working together in harmony for the well-being of each other right we're working together in harmony for the well-being of each other and we are working together I can testify to this I'm a better man since I got in the church I'm a better man since I submitted my life to God I'm a far better man how how about you today I'm I'm a better man since I've been submitted to God's ways his ways are not punishment but his ways are perfect he says submit yourselves one to another and then he comes to verse 22 and he says to our wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord now this is not when it says the next verse the husband is the head the husband is not superior to the wife see I'm going to make a statement today I am a better man than my wife will ever be I am Superior to my wife in the fact that I am a better man that she will ever be my wife is a far superior better woman that I will ever be and God made us male and female and you can't even get an offspring without a male and female we're each dependent upon each other that's the way God made us and it begins with the wives and it says to submit or to engage yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord as unto the Lord now if we could really understand that everything we do we need to do it as unto the Lord as unto the Lord being the wife being the the husband as in the light of the Lord um I I could say this morning that we would probably all be more enriched in our marriage is if we were in truly that relationship with God that we need to be and we truly considered all of our actions as if I was speaking to the Lord I was dealing with the Lord to submit and submitting is something that never can be demanded you cannot demand someone submits to you submitting is something someone does with their Spirit you may make someone do something you may make someone do something in their flesh but you can never make them submit their Spirit the little boy in school was told to go stand in the corner stop jumping up and down and you go stand still in the corner put your nose in the corner and stand still well he did that for a little while and the teacher asked him after a few moments said Johnny what do you think he said I'll tell you what I think he said my body standing here with my nose in this corner but said in my spirit I'm jumping up and down in that chair right now now well that's the truth your spirit has to be given to someone it has to be nobody uh nobody can make you be submitted you have to you have to surrender you have to yield that says for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and is the savior of the body now this word head here is not talking about being a dictator it's not talking about being a boss it's talking about being a spiritual leader men today our prayer needs to be God helped me to lead my wife God helped me to lead my wife and I am telling you in the fear of God this morning that if your wife is in a relationship with Jesus Christ that's her prayer too that woman wants a man that will lead her in the way of Jesus Christ there's nothing wrong men with us having Hobbies of hunting and favorite teams and what have you but I'm here to tell you today that there will be nothing that will Elevate you anymore in your wife's eyes than to find you reading your Bible and praying or to find you submitted to the house of God and to the spiritual leadership in the house of God that's strength and that is that is power that's strength the head there is not a dictator it's a leader it's a spiritual leader now listen to this for the husband is the head of the wife the leader even as Christ is the head the leader of the church and is the savior of the body therefore as the church is subject unto Christ see this is one of the many reasons that the enemy has attacked the biblical marriage is because marriage male and female is forever a symbol of a relationship between Jesus Christ and his church and he wants to erase all sign signs on planet Earth to anything that is Godly oh I'm thankful this morning brother Howell I'm so thankful to stand behind a pull pit and look at the faces of men and women today that want to defy culture and say we want to go by the Bible and by the word of God and raise our children up to go by the biblical definition of a marriage husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself wait a minute and gave himself for it and gave himself for it that he might sanctify now that word means to to bring this aside to bring something aside to bring something out of to separate something from that he might sanctify The Next Step cleans cleans it with the washing of the Water by the word now men listen to Pastor today that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish so ought men to love their wives as their own body he that loveth his wife love himself now notice how the parallel here is Christ and the church that God finds us in sin and God so loved the world that he gave I heard a heard a a minister say one time he said God hates The Sinner and I really have an issue with that that phrase I believe that God hates sin but I do not believe God hates the sinner uh we I we can hate cancer when it invades somebody's body but we don't we don't hate the person we separate the sin from the person and we love the person oh I'm so glad that God so loved didn't say the church your standards are no higher than God's don't look at some don't ever look at someone in discuss don't ever look at someone and think they're not worth witnessing to because you're saying that your standard is above God's standard he said I so love the world I so love the world he loved it he he he he loved the world he separated the the the people from the world the gospel calls us out of the world the true gospel calls us out of the world come out from the world and then he puts us in this environment he sanctifies us and then he begins to clean us he begins to wash us how does he wash us with his word you know men words are powerful especially to women that's why we need to be very careful with our words because our words can wound them our words can forever scar them and uh maybe maybe and and and and I'm I'm I'm just to those guests that may be here today I I'll say this for you but I'm very transparent in our 30 years of marriage I've had to set my family down on the couch and apologize to them because I hadn't been everything that I should be to them now let me go ahead and exclude some things I'm not to talk about going to jail or Robin Banks all right but as a Godly father brother Mike I hadn't been every good example I had let pressure from the church get on me I had let pressure from the from from from from from Ministry get on me and I had allowed schedules to get so busy that I I hadn't really bent my knee to God like I should and I don't care who you are you go prayerless that man that old man is coming back I don't care if you've changed from blue jeans to a suit the old man is coming back and I've been rude to my family before and I've been just pardon it but I've been an absolute jerk before and when I realized it and I went to loving Jesus and all of a sudden the spirit's not connecting with me and the Holy Spirit begins to say wait a minute you need to go make some things right with your family and then come back and start talking to me and I've set my family down now I know what some may think some may say oh man that that you that's a weak leader right there I'd never do that if I went to apologize to my wife my family man I mean they'd run Plum over me they just wouldn't think I was a macho guy like I ought to be no it's the opposite when you set them down and begin to pour your heart out to them you see hear them say that's all right Dad you're fine dad that's all right Dad oh honey I love you that's all right Dad kids pray for me kids help me out that doesn't diminish my my leadership that builds my leadership up and it establishes what's called trust so you know maybe you need to understand that words are powerful words are absolutely powerful today and when you speak those words I can you speak those words over my family and build them up or I can speak words over my family and tear them down I can either speak words and cleanse them or I can speak words and put dirt on them and he said he washes it the cleansing of the word that he might present it and I'm I'm I'm aiming this mostly to our men today that he might present it to himself a glorious Church Without spot without wrinkle you see before God ever came to this earth and overshadowed the Virgin Mary before God ever did a work he saw you and he saw me he knew where he was going in eternity passed he knew that we were lost and dirty in our sins and he knew that he had a plan that would take us from a life of dirt and shame and present us spotless before his presence in righteous Robes of white praising him he knew where he was taking us men today what's your plans for your family men today what's your plans how you going to start coming out of the situation what do you want your wife to be like who do you want your wife to be like maybe we need to turn some TVs off and maybe we need to lay some magazines down and maybe we need to start getting in the right atmosphere to really know what a Godly valuable woman is really all about and I'm going to tell you I'll help you out today in case you need some help I'm going to tell you what you want in a woman is a Godly woman you want a woman in relationship with God that will weather the seasons of life with you you want a woman that's not looking at how much you're bringing home but you want a woman that'll look inside of your heart these are what true marriages are made of people that bond together people that come together