RELATIONSHIPS

PART III

Review

• You were created to be completed not by another person but Christ.

• It is possible for a lonely, insecure, unhappy single person to become a lonely, insecure, unhappy married person.

IDENTITYPeople sometimes confuse identity with: • Our RolesI am a teacher; an engineer; a student; a deacon.• Our ResponsibilitiesI am the cook. I am the manager.• Our RootsI am Jamaican, I am an alcoholic,• Our Relationships I am John’s wife, Peter’s father, Mrs. Brown’s daughter.• Our RaceI am Black, Brown, White, etc.These do not define you, they describe you in terms of the positions you fill, the functions you carry out, or the people of things to which you are affiliated.

Our identity is linked to our Creator.The Bible says we are created in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

ApplicationIndividuals: You need to know your identity in Christ.Couples: You need to know your identity in Christ, as individuals.Parents: You need to ground your children in their identity in Christ.Church: We need to know our corporate identity in Christ.He completes us and gives us security, sufficiency, and significance.

I. ONE QUESTIONEphesians 5:21-24Verse 22 is a verse to the wives!Note verse 21

We are all to be submitting ourselves to each other.

Ephesians 5:25Verse 25 is a verse to the husbands!

I. ONE QUESTIONConsider Philippians 2:3-11Ladies

Was Jesus equal to God? Jesus voluntarily submitted Himself to

the Father. This was not an attack on His dignity,

nor did it imply any inferiority.

I. ONE QUESTIONConsider Philippians 2:3-11Men

Jesus laid aside His glory; He laid aside His comfort for others.

Philippians 2:3 Philippians 2:7 Jesus took on the form of a servant. Jesus took the road of the cross. Philippians 2:9

II. BIBLICAL PRINCIPLEGod takes responsibility to exalt

those who humble themselves.Mark 10:43-45John 13:1-17Husbands, whatever power you

have, use it to serve your wife.Singles, whatever power you have,

use it to serve others. Wives, whatever power you have,

you submit it to your husbands, serve him.

II. BIBLICAL PRINCIPLEShe doesn’t deserve it. He doesn’t

deserve it. That’s true…but Jesus does.

The primary point in marriage is not to make you happy but to make you (Holy) like Jesus.

The “wrong person” is the right person for me because God has a higher agenda for my life than giving me a flawless wife/husband and that agenda is to make me more like Jesus!

III. THE BIG QUESTIONWhat can I do to serve you?

Servant/Leader:One who takes initiative for the benefit of others.

IV. HOW CAN WE DO THIS?

Ephesians 5:21 “Out of reverence for Christ.”

The power to submit your life to your spouse is a supernatural power that the Spirit of God has to give you, and He does as you grow in reverence for Christ.

SCRIPTURES

EPHESIANS 5:21-2421 submitting to one another in the fear of God. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything

EPHESIANS 5:2525 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her…

PHILIPPIANS 2:3-113 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

PHILIPPIANS 2:3-118 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

PHILIPPIANS 2:33 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

PHILIPPIANS 2:77 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

PHILIPPIANS 2:99 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name

MARK 10:43-4543 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

JOHN 13:1-171 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.

JOHN 13:1-175 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” 7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” 8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” 9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

JOHN 13:1-1710 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” 12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

JOHN 13:1-1715 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.