EPHESIANS WEEK 14 - I AM LOVED - PTR. VETTY GUTIERREZ - 10AM MORNING SERVICE

3. I AM LOVED

4. EPHESIANS 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own
husbands as you do to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife
as Christ is the Head of the church, His
body, of which He is the Savior.
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so
also wives should submit to their
husbands in everything.

5. EPHESIANS 5:22-33
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as
Christ loved the church and gave Himself
up for her
26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the
washing with water through the Word,
27 and to present her to Himself as a
radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or
any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

6. EPHESIANS 5:22-33
28 In this same way, husbands ought to
love their wives as their own bodies. He
who loves his wife loves himself.
29 After all, no one ever hated their own
body, but they feed and care for their
body, just as Christ does the church—
30 for we are members of His body.

7. EPHESIANS 5:22-33
31 “For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his
wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32 This is a profound mystery—but I am
talking about Christ and the church.
33 However, each one of you also must
love his wife as he loves himself, and the
wife must respect her husband.

8. GENESIS 2:24
24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father
and mother and hold fast to his wife, and
the two shall become one flesh.”

9. The big idea here is LOVE.
Six times in this short section the
word “love” is used.

10. In our culture, love means you get
to do whatever you want.
According to the Bible,
love is a great mystery.

11. Here’s the big idea for the
Christian: there is no
understanding of love apart from
the Person and work of Jesus.

12. And so He says that God’s love is
shown for us like
a bride and a groom.

13. Jesus’ love for the church is like a
groom’s love for the bride. It’s this
timeless, amazing, devoted and
perfect commitment, covenant, and
affection.

14. Jesus loves all of His people
collectively together as the
church—it’s like a bride and a
groom.

15. Only God in Jesus Christ loves
perfectly, loves humbly, loves
continually, loves unselfishly,
loves generously all the time
without fail.

16. Here’s the good news: if that love
comes from Jesus, that longing
for love is met, we are loved
perfectly.

17. That allows us to start loving
others with the love that we
receive, and it means we don’t
have to be in a relationship.

18. We can be single, like Jesus was,
and still be satisfied because the
loving relationship exists whether
or not we’re in a dating
relationship.

19. FIVE WAYS
JESUS LOVES
THE CHURCH

20. 1. HEAD

21. Jesus loves us as our Head. The
Head is the preeminent. That
means that Jesus is in charge.
He’s in authority.

22. For our church family, very
practically, what this means is:
it doesn’t matter what I want,
it doesn’t matter what you want,
it doesn’t matter what we want.

23. The question is, what does He
wants? What does Jesus say?

24. The church belongs to Jesus, and
ultimately it’s to be governed by His
Word. If He wants something, then
that should be done. If He doesn’t
want something, then that shouldn’t
be done.

25. It’s your church.
You’re the leader.
This is about you.

26. And as you know, decisions get
made in your head, so Jesus is the
One who makes the decisions.
Jesus is the One who leads.
Jesus is the One who is preeminent.

27. 2. SAVIOR

28. He loves us, as our Savior—
that He is Savior of the church.

29. We are sinners and we need a
Savior. We’re not good people
getting better; we’re bad people
getting worse.

30. We cannot save ourselves. This
means that religions do not save,
philosophies do not save,
spirituality does not save, morality
does not save.

31. We need someone apart from the
system, someone who is unstained
and untainted by sin, someone who
is perfect to enter in and to save
us—to come as a rescuer.

32. JOHN 14:6
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me.

33. 3. GIVER

34. He Loves us as our Giver. That’s
one way that He loves. It says that
Christ loved the church and He
gave Himself up for her. Our world
knows nothing of this.

35. Love is a commitment that
compels us to act, and part of that
action is giving. It’s generosity.

36. What do you give your time to?
That shows us who or what you love.
What do you give your energy to?
That shows us who or what you love.

37. What do you give your possessions to?
That shows us who or what you love.
What do you give your wealth to?
That shows us who or what you love.

38. — who or what you love.
Jesus loves the church.

39. Whatever cause you’re into, in two
thousand years it will be over.
Whatever organization you are
committed to, in two thousand
years it will be over.

40. Whatever nation you were a
citizen of, in two thousand years it
will be over.

41. But if Jesus has not returned in
two thousand years, there will
still be the church of Jesus
Christ.

42. We’ve been going for thousands of
years. We’re the biggest thing that’s ever
been: more nations, more cultures, more
countries, more languages, more people
are part of the movement of Christianity
than anything in world history.

43. It’s because Christ loved the
church, and He gave Himself
up for her.

44. 4. SANCTIFIER
AND CLEANSER

45. He loves us as our Sanctifier and
Cleanser. We are dirty, and we are
defiled, and we are unclean, and
that’s the result of our sin.

46. Jesus is Sanctifier and Cleanser.
He’s there to clean you up and
help.

47. 5. NOURISHER
AND CHERISHER

48. He loves us as our Nourisher and
Cherisher. A lot of this language of
loving a woman like Jesus loves
the church is about cherishing and
nourishing.

49. Jesus cherishes His people like a
good husband adores his wife.
He nourishes His people like Jesus
nourishes, encourages, builds up
the church.

50. WHAT DOES IT MEAN
FOR A WIFE TO SUBMIT
AND RESPECT LIKE
JESUS?

51. EPHESIANS 5:22, 24, 33
22 ”Wives, submit yourselves to your own
husbands as you do to the Lord.”
24 “Wives should submit to their
husbands.”
33 “Let the wife see that she respects her
husband.”
1 Corinthians 11, 1 Peter 5, Colossians 3

52. 1. It does not mean that the wife
is less valuable, intelligent, or
competent.

53. Both men and women bear equally
the image and likeness of God.
They have equal dignity, value.

54. In addition, it doesn’t mean that
men are more important than
women. That’s not true.

55. It doesn’t mean that the husband
is more intelligent than the wife.
This has nothing to do with I.Q.

56. It also doesn’t mean that the
husband is more competent in
certain things than the wife is.

57. The man is the head of the home
and the leader. The wife is
intelligent. She is gifted. She is
capable and competent.

58. 2. This does not mean that men,
in general, are to be ruling over
women in general.

59. It doesn’t mean that we’re not
talking about gender issues; we’re
talking about marriage issues.

60. We’re not talking about every single
conceivable role for a highly
competent, intelligent woman; we’re
talking about architecting the family
like Jesus leading the church.

61. Our goal is to raise competent,
Godly, intelligent, well-educated
women, and then marry them to
men who are up to the task.

62. 3. It does not mean that the wife
does not have independent
thoughts.

63. She has her own thoughts.
Sometimes those thoughts are
different from others’ thoughts.

64. Any of you married men notice this
trend? It doesn’t mean that a wife
doesn’t have independent
thoughts. She does have
independent thoughts.

65. 4. It does not mean that the wife
cannot seek to influence her
husband.

66. PROVERBS 19:14
14 Houses and wealth are inherited from
parents, but a prudent wife is from
the LORD.

67. GENESIS 2:18
18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for
the man to be alone. I will make a helper
suitable for him.”

68. But she’s to be a prudent, helpful,
Godly influence. Of course a
woman should seek to influence
her husband, absolutely.

69. That’s one of the reasons that God
brought them together. He needs
help, and she can be helpful.

70. 5. This does not mean that the
wife does not express her
thoughts and feelings.

71. Just do so in a respectful way so
that you can help influence your
husband, rather than picking a
fight, and declaring war on him,
and getting into the crazy cycle.

72. 6. This does not mean that a wife
ignores all of her husband’s flaws,
but that she begins by encouraging
those aspects of his character that
are respectable.

73. You want to be married to a man
that you respect, and you, as
you’re married to that man, find
things that you don’t respect.

74. And to help those areas that you
don’t respect, you want to
encourage those areas you do
respect to help him to grow into the
man that God intends for him to be.

75. This doesn’t mean that a man is
flawless and without sin. It means
that the woman approaches him in
such a way to help him become
more like Jesus. That’s what it
means to respect.

76. 7. This does mean that a wife
sets a pattern for others to
respect her husband.

77. Women who publicly disrespect
their husbands encourage others
to disrespect their husbands.

78. This doesn’t mean you don’t
disagree with your husband but
you do so respectfully, privately.

79. 8. It does help guard a woman’s
tendency to distrust, to despise,
to disrespect her husband.

80. Eve is tempted to disrespect the
man and to take matters into her
own hands.

81. The result is the world in which we
live, where marriage is not going
well, and people are not staying
together, and we’re in a real free fall
and a crisis.

82. 9. This does mean that she takes
her cue from the Trinity and
Jesus.

83. In the Garden of Gethsemane
before He is to be crucified, the
Lord Jesus has this anguish-filled
prayer to the Father:

84. “If it would be possible to remove
this cup, this cup of suffering, then
do so, but not My will, Your will be
done. Your will be done.”

85. Ladies, to respect and submit
is to be like Jesus.

86. WHAT DOES IT MEAN
FOR A HUSBAND TO
LOVE AND LEAD LIKE
JESUS?

87. 1. Are you a good or bad
head?”

88. One of our great values at FCC is
that men take responsibility, as
Christ did.

89. They are to first take responsibility
for themselves, then they can
marry. They can consummate their
covenant and devote their life to
loving their wives.

90. 2. Men, we are not the highest
authority.

91. In authority over us are the elders of
the church. Above us is the
government. We may break the law,
we go to jail, get restraining order for
domestic violence, and things like
these.

92. We submit to higher authority of
government. There’s God’s Word
above us. We’re under the authority
of Scripture.

93. Above it all is the resurrected ruling
and reigning Lord Jesus. We’re not
the highest authority, men. We have
delegated authority, and it is to love
women and children.

94. 3. Men, we are to love our wife,
not just be in marriage.

95. The goal is to love your wife as
Christ loved the church. It’s easy to
get married. It’s really hard to love
your wife as Christ loved the
church.

96. 4. Your most important human
friendship is with your wife.

97. Our friendship with Jesus is our
most important relationship, but
our most important human
friendship is with our wife.

98. EPHESIANS 5:21
21 Submit to one another out of reverence
for Christ.

99. They know one another, they love
one another, they work out their
differences, and they make
memories together.

100. 5. Love your wife and not just
what you hope she will
become.

101. Jesus comes and says, “I’m
going to love you, and My love is
going to change you.”

102. Don’t love who your wife can be;
love who your wife is and see
who she becomes.

103. 6. Love your wife, whatever
comes your way.

104. 7. Men, we have to be tough and
tender to love our wife as Christ
loved the church.

105. Christ is tough with false teachers,
heretics, those who would come to
hurt the church. He’s very tender
with the people of God.

106. We need to be tough for our
family and tender with our family.

107. 8. As the family leader, men, we
take responsibility for the well-
being of the family.

108. 9. She is a garden; you are the
gardener.

109. What you don’t need is another
garden. You need to be a better
gardener.

110. The best thing is to love your wife
as Christ loved the church—to be a
good gardener and to pull up
whatever weeds come; to nourish,
to cultivate, to cherish your wife.

111. And if God should grace you, children
He gives you. And then, increasingly
over time, your home will become
more and more like a fruitful garden
where you’re glad to be because
there’s life, health, and joy.

112. But it means that the work
never ends, just like a gardener’s
work never ends.

113. CONCLUSION

114. For those of you who are married,
I want you to think and pray on
these things.
For those of you who are single,
90-plus percent of you will marry.

115. Ladies, don’t marry a man who
doesn’t love you.
Don’t marry a man who doesn’t
love Jesus.

116. Don’t marry a man you don’t
really respect.
Don’t marry a man whom you
wouldn’t trust to make decisions
for your family.

117. It’s better to be single than
married and miserable.

118. Men, don’t marry a woman unless
you really build a friendship with
her and want that friendship to
continue for the rest of your life.

119. Don’t marry a woman who
doesn’t love Jesus.