Skip to main content
Back to Building and Battling By the Book

Sermon Notes

A Christian Husband's Love - Part 3

Sunday 22 July 2018 Pastor Craig Ledbetter Ephesians 5
Download Audio

I. Introduction (Nehemiah 4:10-14)

“Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight FOR your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

A. As I have said three weeks in a row now, We Need to Fight FOR our families

  1. You may think your wife, or husband, or children are the problem, but just remember, we have an enemy that uses the people closest to us, to destroy everything good
  2. Our enemy, Satan is warring against everything that God loves
    • And that includes every family here
    • Too many homes / if not MOST families have been destroyed by Satan’s lies, and pressures, and temptations and sorrows
    • Our homes need saving Gentlemen!
  3. It starts in a very powerful way…

B. It Starts with Loving your Wife, Gentlemen

  1. Probably THE most important thing you need to do well
    • NOT that you ignore loving your children
    • NOT that you fully understand your wife either
    • But that if you do THIS well, most problems in a home will greatly improve!
  2. Men believe they already DO love their wives… enough
  3. And we believe that the LAST thing we need is ADVICE on how to be a husband
  4. But the truth is… we DON’T love like we should
    • We have believed and followed Hollywood’s style of love and attraction
    • Only to find that our efforts are based on a very selfish and destructive kind of love and lust
    • The truth is, We don’t love well
    • Not when we compare our efforts to love like Christ loves us!

C. Don’t think this doesn’t relate to YOU

  1. You either will be married one day and this will help prepare you
  2. Or this will help you to understand Christ’s perfect love for the likes of messed up people like you and me

D. Understanding God’s view of marriage helps us understand God’s love for each of us (Ephesians 5:31-32)

E. Have you ever thought about the fact that we husbands do so many things FOR love, and so little TO love? Ephesians 5 changes that!

II. Preview - What a Husband’s Love Should Look Like

A. In simple words, a Christian husband’s love life should look like Christ’s love for us

B. Does YOUR love for your wife look like that?

C. On a scale of 1 to 10, Let’s mark how well we think we are loving our wives

D. And at the end of this message, let’s see if we have been honest

III. Review - What a Husband’s Love Should Look Like (Parts 1 & 2)

A. A Husband’s Love is a Result of Being Spirit Filled (5:18; Galatians 5:22)

  1. A Christian man is NOT just one who is saved - but someone who is controlled by the Holy Spirit of God!
  2. Being constantly FILLED with the Holy Spirit of God
    • We men forget this
    • We try everything else to fix things in our homes, besides trying to get right with God
    • Gentlemen, you NEED to be filled with the Holy Spirit instead of:
      • Filled with Drink
      • Or Sports
      • Or your Work and Career
      • Or just full of yourselves
    • DO YOU HAVE a walk with God, daily?
    • How many Men, and especially HUSBANDS in this room ACTUALLY ARE READING THROUGH THEIR BIBLE, every day?
    • How many of us are making the time to DAILY, fall on OUR knees, and cry out to God for wisdom, and help, and strength, and guidance, and love?

B. A Husband’s Love is Sacrificial (5:25)

C. A Husband’s Love is Purifying (5:26-27)

D. A Husband’s Love is Nourishing (5:28-29)

IV. What a Husband’s Love Should Look Like (Continued)

A. A Husband’s Love is Unbreakable (5:31)

  1. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife”
  2. The word “joined” means glued, welded together
  3. What God has joined together, let not man put asunder

B. A Husband’s Love is a Mystery (5:32)

  1. It pictures Christ and the church
  2. The world cannot understand this kind of love
  3. Only those filled with the Spirit can experience it

C. A Husband’s Love is Honouring (1 Peter 3:7)

  1. Dwell with them according to knowledge
  2. Giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel
  3. As being heirs together of the grace of life

V. Application

  1. Is your love Spirit-filled or self-filled?
  2. Are you sacrificing for your wife like Christ sacrificed for you?
  3. Is your love helping her grow spiritually?
  4. Are you committed to an unbreakable bond?
  5. Do you honour her daily?

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. This is the standard. This is the goal. And only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we achieve it.

Back to Building and Battling By the Book All Sermon Series Resources