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Spirit-Filled Home | Pastor Morgan Butcher | Venture Church

Venture Church

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  1. Hi, and welcome to Venture Church Online. My name is

  2. Kelsey and I'm our online campus pastor. We're so glad

  3. that you're joining us. Drop a comment below of where

  4. you're streaming from. We would love to interact with you.

  5. We hope that you enjoyed the new service.

  6. I don't know about you, but that music just like

  7. puts me right in the Christmas mood right there. I

  8. like all the vibes with that. We just needed, like

  9. the yule log on the screen. How we should start

  10. a petition actually the entire month of December. Just giant

  11. yule log on the screen. Amen. Okay, maybe text Pastor

  12. Brandon just while you're while you're while you're sitting there. Uh,

  13. good morning. If I haven't met you yet, my name

  14. is Morgan Blessed me one of the pastors here at

  15. our Mill Creek campus, and you are joining us as

  16. we conclude our series through the Book of Ephesians, you

  17. might be like, wow, dude, we still got actually a

  18. lot in the Book of Ephesians to finish up on

  19. in one morning. Well, thankfully for you and for me,

  20. I'm not preaching on all of that. We actually did

  21. a series and we touched on the Armor of God

  22. at the very end of the Book of Ephesians, just

  23. a couple months ago. And so if you want to

  24. catch that sermon from Pastor Brandon on the Armor of God,

  25. you can just go back a couple months to September.

  26. You can look on our app and you can find

  27. that sermon there. But we're kicking, we're clueing, concluding this

  28. series going full into Christmas mode. Who's ready for Christmas?

  29. Come on now, fast time now. I confess this a

  30. couple of weeks ago. I am a holiday purist, so

  31. in my home, Christmas doesn't start until after Thanksgiving, right,

  32. thank you. You know, it's the way it should be.

  33. Just deal with it. But last week was actually the

  34. saddest week of the year in our home because last

  35. week is the week that we throw away all the

  36. leftovers from Thanksgiving, which means I have to wait another year.

  37. That's like the moment of reality, like I have to

  38. wait another year to get all that good stuff again.

  39. So I'm in a little bit of a morning phase.

  40. But that's what. Hey, we're excited for Christmas. We hosted

  41. Thanksgiving at our house and the Butcher Home. We had

  42. about twelve friends and family over at our place. And

  43. I don't know if you're like this, but sometimes like

  44. you just walk through your house and like, we just

  45. need like a little reset in the home, right, Like

  46. we got to freshen things up a little bit. And

  47. so we were looking at our house getting ready to host,

  48. and we had a couple opportunities come up, and we're like,

  49. you know, we're gonna do a little refresh of the house.

  50. Our house isn't big, so hosting twelve people is kind

  51. of like a little overwhelming in itself. So we did

  52. a little We did a little refresh. We got a

  53. new couch, and we got a couple new things. We

  54. cleaned up. How many of you just like love when

  55. you get to like do the reset in the house.

  56. There's something about coming into a space and coming home

  57. and it just feels like it just feels good to

  58. be in there. Right. You put all the kids toys

  59. back in their room, you know, you clear out all

  60. that clutter, you get things reset, and there's something about

  61. coming home and feeling at peace and comfortable when you

  62. walk in the door isn't there. And on the flip

  63. side of that, when your home is not in order,

  64. how many of you know you feel that too, right,

  65. Like you feel that you feel when you come in

  66. the house and it's just like oh right, like I've

  67. stepped on four legos and I've been here for three minutes.

  68. Right now, I'm talking about kind of a physical environment

  69. of the home. But friends, I want to petition to

  70. you that, in the very same way that you can

  71. feel it when you walk into the home in a

  72. physical sense, you can feel it when you walk in

  73. from a spiritual sense, right. How many of you know

  74. that when you walk into the home and there is

  75. there's a great spiritual presence in the home, you feel it.

  76. And in those seasons where there's not, you feel it. Amen.

  77. I don't know about you, but sometimes home is like

  78. the easiest place to lose our sanctification. It's like the

  79. easiest place to lose our sense of holiness. Right. Like

  80. we go to work and we are sent out every

  81. single way we make Jesus famous. And so we go

  82. into our work week and we think, man, I'm gonna

  83. make Jesus famous in my workplace. I'm gonna make sure

  84. that I represent Him well to the world around me.

  85. We go to work and we're like on the mission field, right,

  86. like we're making it happen. We pray in the car

  87. on the way home. We quote psalms like we're a

  88. poet and a jazz alley. We're just like snapping to ourselves. Right.

  89. You sing worship songs on your commute like you're auditioning

  90. for the Venture Worship team. You worship Jesus with hands

  91. raised in the driveways, you prepare to go in the house,

  92. and then you walk in the door, and depending on

  93. what you come home to, you can lose that holiness

  94. in a moment. You know what I'm talking about. Right,

  95. you walk in and the fridge door is open, cold air,

  96. and your salvation just drifting away. Men, the dog ate

  97. that flannel you just picked up at Costco. I've seen

  98. you wear it. Right, The kids are running an unsanctioned

  99. WWE event in the living room. It is chaos. And

  100. suddenly the scripture that you were just quoting like a

  101. poet on the ride home, you have substituted in your

  102. mind with other words that we don't find in scripture.

  103. And as I thought about this, the reality really hit me.

  104. It really set in. The truth is is that when

  105. you really think about it, the home is the most

  106. real testing ground of our spiritual maturity. It's the home

  107. because our guard is down. It's my safe place. It's

  108. the spot that I can unwind. The most real testing

  109. ground of our spiritual maturity. Can I just tell you

  110. it's not here on a Sunday morning. It's not in

  111. the middle of a small group. It's not in the

  112. lobby where everyone says hey, or what are you doing,

  113. and everyone says that I'm blessed in a highly favored right.

  114. This is not the real testing ground. The home is

  115. where a spirit filled life is either affirmed or it's

  116. gently or maybe violently exposed. Think about the journey that

  117. Paul has taken us on so far through five chapters

  118. of the Book of Ephesians. Listen to some of the

  119. powerful truths. These like mountaintop truths that Paul has hit

  120. us with so far. In this scripture Ephesians one to three,

  121. he tells us that we're blessed with every spiritual blessing.

  122. In Ephiesians two, chapter two, verse six, he says we're

  123. seeded with Christ. In Ephiesians five eighteen, he says we're

  124. filled with the same spirit of God living within us.

  125. And isn't it interesting? That he immediately goes from these

  126. mountaintop truths, these so these profound truths for our lives,

  127. straight into talking about marriage, parenting, and household relationships. And

  128. here is what I sense Paul is saying to us

  129. by putting these things in this order. It's almost like

  130. he's saying, if the Gospel doesn't shape the way that

  131. you treat people at home, you don't really understand the gospel.

  132. If the Gospel isn't transforming the way that you live

  133. within your home, then maybe the Gospel hasn't really transformed

  134. your life at all. Uh. Oh, that might be slightly convicting.

  135. I know that even to a sense, I'll be vulnerable

  136. with you. As I read the scripture this week and

  137. sat with that reality, it was convicting to my own

  138. heart this week. So today we're diving into Paul's instructions

  139. that he gives for the Christian households. He's beginning to

  140. map out what a spirit filled home really looks like,

  141. what it feels like, what the relationship dynamic should be.

  142. And when we pick up in Ephesians chapter five, we

  143. read in verse twenty one, are you guys with me?

  144. This morning? We pick up in verse twenty one of

  145. chapter five. This is what it says. I'm gonna read

  146. some scripture for us this morning. You can follow along

  147. with me and your bible. The words will be on

  148. the screen. Here it says, submit to one another out

  149. of reverence for Christ's for Christ, wives, submit yourselves to

  150. your own husband as you do to the Lord. For

  151. the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ

  152. is the head of the Church, his body, of which

  153. he is the savior. Now as the church submits to Christ,

  154. so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

  155. Now he talks to the men. He says, husbands, love

  156. your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave

  157. himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her

  158. by the washing with water through the word, and to

  159. present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain

  160. or wrinkle, or without blemish, but holy and blameless. It

  161. is in the same way husbands ought to love their

  162. wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife

  163. loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body.

  164. But they feed and care for their body, just as

  165. Christ does the Church, for we are members of His body.

  166. Verse thirty one says this first. For this reason, a

  167. man will leave his father and mother be united to

  168. his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This

  169. is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and

  170. the Church. However, each one of you must also love

  171. his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must

  172. respect her husband. Let me pray for us this morning.

  173. We'll dive in Father, God, thank you so much for

  174. your word. Got to thank you that it is alive.

  175. I thank you that your word preaches for us, and

  176. so got to pray that your word would illuminate off

  177. these pages into our hearts and transform us. God, make

  178. us different. As we walk out of these doors. Lord,

  179. we love you. We thank you in Jesus name. And

  180. everyone said, amen. I don't want to bury the lead.

  181. So I'm just going to give this to you straight

  182. up front. If you tune me out for the next

  183. twenty minutes and thirty seconds, Here's what I want you

  184. to hear about this passage of Scripture. It's that a

  185. spirit filled household is built on mutual submission. A spirit

  186. filled household is built on christ like love. It is

  187. built on Godly order, and it is built on the

  188. conviction that every relationship is ultimately submitted unto God, every

  189. single relationship. To fully understand what Paul is saying here

  190. in this text, we need some cultural and some historical

  191. context to bring us up to speed. In the ancient

  192. Greco Roman world when Paul is writing here in Ephesians

  193. chapter five and six, household codes were common, and these

  194. household codes were mapped out for how families should operate

  195. and how they should kind of work together under the

  196. authority at the time of the male as the head

  197. of the home. And this was a very common cultural

  198. code that was built into the foundation of households for

  199. a long time. But what Paul is doing here in

  200. Ephesians chapter five is something that, as he's speaking it

  201. to the church in Ephesus, would be unraveling the way

  202. that people have been living their lives within the culture

  203. context of their lives. He would be revolutionizing their thoughts

  204. of how the home should be operated and how relationships

  205. should be built within the home. And what he's doing

  206. is he is transforming it from the inside out, and

  207. he does it by doing a couple things. We see

  208. him doing a couple things, just even in these first

  209. few verses of this portion of Scripture. The first thing

  210. that Paul is saying is that what he's doing is

  211. he's centering all relationships on who Jesus. Everything comes back

  212. to Jesus, all relationships come back to Christ. It all

  213. comes back to how you and I follow, honor, love,

  214. and obey Jesus with our lives. But he's also doing

  215. something else. He's putting dignity, and he's putting value on

  216. every member of the home. And the last thing he's

  217. doing is something that should probably shake us up a

  218. little bit, because what he's doing is he's calling those

  219. with the most power to sacrifice the most. And it's

  220. this very same framework that Paul is mapping out for us,

  221. the same framework that he's building for us here in

  222. chapter five. That is largely why Christianity as a whole

  223. has historically transformed societies for generations. It doesn't start with governments,

  224. it doesn't start with institutions. What we've seen for centuries

  225. and centuries and centuries is that it always starts when

  226. the home is transformed from the inside out. It starts

  227. in the home and it transforms the world around us.

  228. It was and has always been a transformation that happens

  229. from the inside out. And Paul begins with this one

  230. sentence in the beginning of this portion of scripture that

  231. kind of hangs as the banner for everything else that

  232. follows it. He says, submit to one another out of

  233. reverence for Christ. The first thing that Paul is saying

  234. as he's speaking to the church in Ephesus about what

  235. a spirit filled home should look like is he says

  236. that spirit film filled homes begin with mutual submission. He says,

  237. this is where it has to start. This is the

  238. foundation of everything else that comes after it. Submit to

  239. one another out of reverence for Christ. The Greek word

  240. for submit is actually translated to mean this volunteer, to

  241. voluntarily place someone else's good above your own. Paul saying,

  242. a spirit filled home begins with a spirit filled posture.

  243. How we live our own personal lives, how we view

  244. those around us, how we live out our own life

  245. and friends hear me say that a spirit filled posture

  246. is one that says, I'm not first. A spirit filled

  247. posture is one that says, my preferences may not be

  248. the most important thing in life. A spirit fulled posture

  249. is one that says, my way isn't the only way.

  250. A spirit filled posture is one that says Christ is

  251. the lord of this home, not me. When we say

  252. Christ is the lord of our home, that word lord,

  253. it means that he is the supreme authority, that he

  254. is the owner, that he is the ruler of the home,

  255. not me. A spirit filled posture says these things. And

  256. let me just pause right here for a moment. It's

  257. very quiet in here, so I sent some tension in

  258. the room. If this is if this is bothering you,

  259. if this is rubbing you the wrong way and offending

  260. the view of family hierarchy, I just want to challenge

  261. your thinking, just for a moment, because what I believe

  262. what Paul is sharing with us, he's revealing something that

  263. I think is countercultural to a lot of the ways

  264. that we live our life. And what I want to

  265. contest to you this morning is that mutual submission is

  266. not weakness. Mutual submission is not weakness. Why do I

  267. believe that so strongly? Why I believe it because Jesus

  268. submitted to the Father. So let me ask you the question,

  269. was Jesus weak because he's submitted? Absolutely not. Let's go

  270. even further scripture says that the spirit submits to the sun.

  271. Does that mean that the spirit is lesser? No, not

  272. at all. It's almost as if what Paul is outlining

  273. for us is this reality that submission is one of

  274. the most christ Like things that we can lead with.

  275. And notice what Paul begins with in the scripture. He

  276. begins with this idea of mutual submission. You see, the

  277. question in a spirit filled home is never who gets

  278. to be the boss, is never who gets to have

  279. the last word. It's never whose word carries the most weight.

  280. You know what a spirit filled home looks like. The

  281. question in a spirit filled home is who gets to

  282. be like Jesus today? Who gets to demonstrate the posture

  283. of Jesus himself today? And that posture will shape and

  284. mold and provide the foundation for everything else that the

  285. home is built upon. Are you guys with me this morning?

  286. Paul then begins to address what this posture looks like

  287. in various different relational dynamics within the home, and he

  288. starts with spirit filled marriages. He begins to outline that

  289. in the portion of scripture that we just read in

  290. Ephesians five twenty two through thirty three, he starts with wives,

  291. but dudes, get ready because he got a lot to

  292. say to us. In fact, he spends three times as

  293. much talking to the husbands as he does the wives,

  294. but he talks to wives first. He says, wives, honor

  295. your husbands. He says, wives, submit yourselves to your own

  296. homes as unto the lord. I want to pull some

  297. important clarifications from this text because I see a lot

  298. of manipulation happen with this text. There's a very important

  299. word in this portion of scripture. It says, submit to

  300. your own husbands. Can I just have you underline own

  301. like five million times? Do you know what this means?

  302. That own husbands is very important because it notes that

  303. this doesn't mean that you are called to submit to

  304. all men. It says, submit to your own husband. And

  305. this submission, built within the context of marriage, hopefully for you,

  306. is a voluntary submission, meaning this you weren't forced to

  307. marry into that. I hope this was a decision that

  308. you made together. Mean, you chose to marry this man.

  309. You kind of agreed to this whole marriage thing, hopefully,

  310. And this submission hear me say this, This submission is

  311. said to be unto the Lord says, why submit yourselves

  312. to your own husbands? As unto the Lord? So do

  313. you know what that does not mean? It does not

  314. mean that you are submitting to them as unto what

  315. culture says. You are not submitting to them, as to

  316. what force will do, or what manipulation will do, or

  317. what fear will do. Paul says, whyves submit yourselves to

  318. your own husbands? And what this is not? I just

  319. feel like I need to speak to the wives in

  320. the room. This does not mean for you that you

  321. are inferior. This does not mean that you are to

  322. be silenced. This does not mean that you are meant

  323. to be pacivist. This does not mean that you are

  324. meant to be dormats. I don't have time to walk

  325. us through it this morning, because I only have eleven

  326. minutes and eighteen seconds left. But if we look at

  327. the Book of Proverbs thirty one, and that scripture paints

  328. a pretty clear picture of a wife who is strong,

  329. who is strategic, who is wise, who is entrepreneurial, who

  330. is confident in who they are. The big thing that

  331. I want you to catch from this text is that

  332. submission is about honor. Wives. Hear me when you honor

  333. your husband. You are creating an atmosphere in your marriage

  334. where your husband can thrive and is God given role

  335. within the family. Your honor gives him the confidence, It

  336. gives him the strength, It gives him the security that,

  337. through thick or thin, or whatever life may throw at you,

  338. you are by his side. So he says, wives, submit

  339. to your own husbands. But then he goes to the

  340. men and he says, husbands, love your wives just as

  341. Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.

  342. The Greek word here that is used describes this sacrificial,

  343. self giving kind of love. Now, I want you to

  344. notice something interesting about these two verses that we've just

  345. pulled from. The wife is told to submit, but husbands,

  346. there should be a little thing that nudges in your

  347. heart when you read this text, because while wives are

  348. told to submit, husbands are told to die. Look at

  349. the text again, Husbands, love your wife just as Christ

  350. loved the Church and gave himself up for her. Can

  351. I just tell you mutual submission as as christ like

  352. as it gets in marriage? Husbands, hear me say this.

  353. A christ like love pursues, a christ like love protects,

  354. a christ like love, sacrifices and nourishes and cherishes. Here's

  355. the truth that God revealed to me this week. It's

  356. the truth that your wife doesn't need a king. You

  357. know why. She's already got one. His name is Jesus.

  358. But you know what she really needs. She needs a

  359. christ Like man. She needs a christ Like man who

  360. will pursue and protect and sacrifice and nourish and cherish.

  361. She needs a man who represents Christ for her. Your

  362. leadership is not about domination. Let me say it again.

  363. Your leadership is not about domination. It is about the

  364. responsibility that God has placed on your life. And that

  365. responsibility comes with the understanding that your tone sets the

  366. atmosphere of your marriage. Your tone sets the atmosphere of

  367. your home. I was thinking about flying on an airplane

  368. and my good friend Jeremy is a pilot for Alaska.

  369. Thank you, Jeremy for your service to this community and

  370. all people that you fly. But you know, every time

  371. I hop on a plane and the pilot comes over

  372. the intercom and a guy like Jeremy is calm and relaxed,

  373. you know what I'm thinking, Sweet, We're gonna make it home.

  374. I have no fear. I have no worries. I just think, okay,

  375. just stand up protocol. We're gonna make it home. But man,

  376. if that pilot ever came over the intercom and he

  377. starts freaking out, do you know what happens in the plane?

  378. People start taking those biscuit napkins and they start writing

  379. their will on them. Okay, like, things go crazy in

  380. the plane if the pilot is not calm. Husbands, hear

  381. me say, your voice is the pilot seat of the home.

  382. You set the tone. I just want to encourage you

  383. today as you lead, lead with calmness, lead with prayer,

  384. lead with faith, lead with a christ like love that

  385. will transform your marriage. And the truth is is that

  386. your marriage, you're my marriage is that they're preaching a sermon.

  387. And let's just be honest. There's some bad sermons out there.

  388. This might be one of them. I don't know yet,

  389. But your marriage is preaching a sermon. It's preaching a

  390. sermon to your kids every single day. It's preaching a

  391. sermon to your friends and your family members who don't

  392. know Jesus. It's preaching a sermon to your neighbors. It's

  393. preaching a sermon to the entire world. Paul says that

  394. a spirit filled marriage is founded on mutual submission. It's

  395. where it has to start. But now Paul moves into

  396. the next relationships and he begins to talk about parents

  397. and children. He talks about spirit filled parenting in Ephesians

  398. chapter six, and he says this. He says children, He's

  399. speaking to children. He says, obey your parents in the Lord,

  400. for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which

  401. is the first commandment with a promise, says, do this

  402. so that it may go well with you and that

  403. you may enjoy a long life on earth. This is

  404. kind of an interesting note, but this is the only

  405. command in scripture that is addressed directly to kids, and

  406. the command is to obey. In the Greek, this word obey,

  407. it says, its meaning is specifically to listen under and

  408. to pay attention. If you will be faithful to do this,

  409. If you will be faithful to obey, to listen under

  410. and pay attention, there will come a promise for your life.

  411. Paul says, it will go well for you and you

  412. will have a long life. Where's my young people out.

  413. You don't have to wave at me. I know there's

  414. I just saw like somebody in their fifties, like, I'm here,

  415. Can I just speak something to my youth kids right

  416. up here. Honor is not outdated. Honor is not culturally

  417. out of touch. Honor is not old fashioned. Do you

  418. know what honor is. It's kingdom minded. It demonstrates the

  419. posture that is exactly what Christ had in store for us.

  420. So honor. Your father and mother live under them, pay

  421. attention to their words, pay attention to the way that

  422. they live. And Scripture says it will go well for you.

  423. But then he talks to parents specifically, he goes on

  424. and he says in verse four he says fathers, but

  425. he's really speaking to all parents. He says, fathers, do

  426. not exasperate your children. And other translations, it says, do

  427. not provoke your children to wrath. Instead, bring them up

  428. in the training and instruction of the Lord. Paul says,

  429. do not provoke your children to wrath. That word provoke

  430. in the Greek, it means to enrage, to frustrate, to crush,

  431. to embitter. Paul is saying parents, don't pair it with harshness,

  432. don't parent with intimidation, don't crush your kids with criticism.

  433. Don't treat them like projects. Sorry, I'm getting emotional because

  434. my daughter's sitting in the room. But what does Paul says?

  435. He says, instead, bring them up. He says, bring them up.

  436. The phrase in Greek it means to nurture them. It says,

  437. nurture them with training and instruction and counsel. I am

  438. both a parent of two amazing kids, and part of

  439. my role here at the church is overseeing next gen

  440. at our church. So I oversee our kids, our youth

  441. and our young adult's pastors, and they're amazing. We have

  442. some of the best young next gen pastors in the

  443. entire region. I believe that. Yeah, seriously, they're amazing. But

  444. let me just remind you of how we partner together

  445. with our pastors as they raise up the next generation.

  446. Pastor Jonathan, as he ministers to our kids, his job

  447. is to supplement what their faith is. He's giving them

  448. foundational truths as things to guide their life. When they

  449. get into the youth ministry. Pastor Johnny is there to

  450. reinforce these truths in their life as those tests, as

  451. those truths are put to test in the world that

  452. they live in. But parents hear me say, we are

  453. called to disciple our kids first and foremost. It's not

  454. Pastor Jonathan's job. It's not Pastor Johnny's job to be

  455. the primary disciple of your children. Know who it is.

  456. It's us. We are called with the responsibility to nurture

  457. them with counsel, with care, with instruction, with intentionality. I

  458. heard somebody say once that children are like what cement?

  459. And when I heard I was like, what are you

  460. talking about? But it totally makes sense. Everything that touches

  461. them leaves an impression. So parents, our tone, our reactions,

  462. our discipline, our love, all of these things leave a

  463. mark that shaping who they're becoming. And the last relational

  464. dynamic that Paul brings up is he talks about a

  465. spirit filled work relationships. Now historically and contextually, he's speaking

  466. to slaves and masters, which were a common part of

  467. the household, but how many of you know work often

  468. comes home. He speaks to the slaves and the masters.

  469. He says to the workers. In verse five of chapter six,

  470. Paul says this. He says, slaves, obey your earthly masters

  471. with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just

  472. as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to

  473. win their favor when their eye is on you, but

  474. as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from

  475. your heart. Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord,

  476. not people, because you know that the Lord will reward

  477. each one of you for whatever good they do, whether

  478. they are slave or free. Paul says, serve and work

  479. as if you are serving the Lord. He says it

  480. over and over and over throughout this text, as unto Christ,

  481. as servants of Christ, as to the Lord, not to men,

  482. he says, over and over and over. And what I

  483. want to submit to you this morning is that Christians

  484. should be the most reliable and dependable employees on planet Earth.

  485. We should be Why it's not because your boss is amazing,

  486. mine is great. Make sure make sure you record that

  487. it's not because you always get along with your boss.

  488. It's because you work as if you are serving the Lord,

  489. not a man with the title, but a God on

  490. the throne. Your work is worship to Him. Everything that

  491. you touch, your attitude, your posture, the way you speak

  492. to others, the way that you serve, the way that

  493. you sacrifice is worship unto Him. It's an offering to

  494. the Lord every time we step foot in the workplace.

  495. And then he speaks to masters, all of my business owner, bosses,

  496. leaders in the room. He says this to us. Verse nine,

  497. He says, masters, treat your slaves in the same way.

  498. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who

  499. is both their master and yours is in heaven and

  500. there is no favoritism with him. Paul tails, masters, stop threatening,

  501. treat people with fairness. Remember you also have a master

  502. in heaven. A spirit filled leader doesn't use position to manipulate.

  503. They use their position to bless those around them. Man,

  504. I love meeting with some of our business owners and

  505. the great leaders and bosses that we have here at

  506. Venture Church, and I love just hearing about the ways

  507. that they're finding ways to bless those that are a

  508. part of what they're trying to accomplish in their workplace.

  509. I think it's one of the most spirit filled things

  510. that you can do as a leader or as a boss.

  511. Over and over and over again all throughout this text,

  512. Paul is saying, spirit filled relationships in a spirit filled

  513. home will be measured by mutual submission to each other,

  514. treating every relationship submitted under God's ultimate authority. So the

  515. question is what does this mean for us? As we're

  516. reading through this what does it mean for us? I

  517. hope for you when you read this scripture it causes

  518. you to do the same thing it caused me to do,

  519. and that's simply to look at my own life and

  520. take some inventory and say, Morgan, where do you need

  521. to grow? Where does God want to rEFInd you? Friends?

  522. You and I are called to lead our homes and

  523. our families. Well, the scripture should lead us to ask

  524. some serious questions about how we should be living our lives.

  525. Maybe the question that you need to ask yourself and

  526. you need to begin to take inventory on, is the

  527. question of is Christ the center of your home? Because

  528. here's the thing. I know how easy it is to

  529. make the schedule the center of your home. I know

  530. how easy it is to make hobbies the center of

  531. your home, and sports the center of your home. And

  532. I'm standing here talking to a bunch of church people.

  533. Can I just tell you sometimes we make church activities

  534. the center of our home. But friends, I want to

  535. petition to you that there is one who should stand

  536. above all as the center of our home, and it

  537. is Jesus Christ living in our own hearts and overflowing

  538. into our homes every day. And the question that we

  539. might just need to ask ourselves is that being modeled

  540. in our home? Maybe the question we need to ask

  541. ourselves is have I invited the Holy Spirit to set

  542. the atmosphere of my home? Let me ask you a question,

  543. what does it feel like when you walk into your house?

  544. They're not in here this service, so I'll point them out.

  545. But some of our dear friends, Jim and gentlemen Man,

  546. I love visiting their home because every time I walk

  547. into their home, it's like I can feel the Spirit

  548. of God just residing in that place. Because they've been

  549. intentional about making their home a home of prayer. They've

  550. been intentional about making their home a home of encouragement,

  551. a home of patience, a home of repentance, a home

  552. of forgiveness. Maybe you're home, when you walk in, you

  553. feel harshness, Maybe you feel criticism, maybe you feel sarcasm,

  554. maybe there's avoidance in your home. I just want to

  555. encourage you because the Holy Spirit has the power to

  556. transform people and atmospheres, and if you and I are

  557. faithful to invite him into our home. I just believe

  558. He has the power to change that. Maybe the question

  559. we need to ask ourselves is am I leading myself well?

  560. Husbands lead like Christ, Wives honor like the church. Children

  561. listen and obey. Scripture says it will go well for you.

  562. Parents disciple with gentleness and intentionality. Leaders, bosses, business owners

  563. lead with mercy and grace. I just believe that all

  564. of our relationships are to be submitted as unto God

  565. and Church. Hear me say this at its core, you

  566. know what all these things are Their worship. Your marriage,

  567. it's worship. The way you parent your kids, it's worship.

  568. The way that you work, it's worship. All of these

  569. things are our worship under God. Now, if you're anything

  570. like me, you're probably thinking, man, I got some work

  571. to do. You're looking at your life and you're thinking, man,

  572. there's some things that I need to address. Maybe your

  573. marriage feels tense, maybe your parenting feels overwhelming, Maybe your

  574. home feels chaotic, maybe your work feels draining. Can I

  575. just encourage you with the same hope that God reminded

  576. me of this week. It's the truth that the same

  577. spirit who fills us here in worship can fill us

  578. at home. He can feel you in your home. He

  579. can provide that patience that you don't always feel like

  580. you have in your home. He can feel you with

  581. those words that you feel like you lack at home.

  582. He can fill you with that love and that grace

  583. and that mercy for those you love the most. In

  584. your home. He can heal broken marriages, he can restore

  585. wounded children. He can break generational curses. He can transform hearts.

  586. He can bring peace. He can lead us to forgiveness. Friends,

  587. you and I don't need a perfect home. You know

  588. what we need. We need a spirit filled home. We

  589. need homes where we invite the Holy Spirit to reside

  590. where we live first in our hearts, so that it

  591. transforms the home from the inside out. And don't want

  592. to give you an opportunity to respond. So with every

  593. head bout, every eye close in this room, if you're

  594. here this morning and you just say, Morgan, I need

  595. to walk out of this place knowing that I have

  596. the Spirit of God living within me. God, I need

  597. the transformation to come from the inside out. Maybe you're

  598. taking some inventory and you're looking at your marriage and

  599. you're like, God, I don't even know what step to

  600. take to restore what's been broken. Maybe you're looking at

  601. the way that you've been parenting your kids and you're

  602. just thinking, God, I don't have the patience required. Can

  603. I just tell you this morning that God wants to

  604. fill you with a power that will sustain you. He

  605. wants to fill you this morning with something that will

  606. walk with you and empower you. And So, if that's

  607. you here this morning and you just say, Morgan, I

  608. want to walk out of here knowing that the spirit

  609. of God lives within me, and then as a walk

  610. into my home, I want that spirit to overflow in

  611. the atmosphere of my home and in the relationships in

  612. my home. If that's you here this morning and you

  613. want to just respond to that, you want me to

  614. pray this prayer over you. Would you just lift your

  615. hand wherever you are. I just want to know who

  616. I'm praying for this morning. Thank you, Thank you, thank you,

  617. thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

  618. Hands up, all of us can put your hands in.

  619. Would you stand to your feet with me this morning?

  620. I want to pray over us. As we conclude, let's

  621. pray together this morning, Father God, I thank you so much. God,

  622. I thank you for the call that you've put on

  623. in our lives God, to not just blend into the

  624. culture around us, but God, to stand out and be different.

  625. And God, what I know that that requires from my

  626. own life is for me to not rely on who

  627. I am, but God, to call on your spirit to

  628. empower me to be different. God, I cannot do it alone.

  629. And God for those who raise their hands, I just

  630. pray that there would be this moment of repentance God

  631. that says, Father, forgive me for thinking that I could

  632. do it on my own. And instead, Father, I pray

  633. that you would fill us with the courage, with the patience,

  634. with the love, with the words, with the mercy, with

  635. the grace to lead ourselves so that the love that

  636. we have might overflow from our hearts, into our homes,

  637. into our marriages, into our parenting. God, Father, give us

  638. grace where we feel like we have none. God, give

  639. us mercy for those relationships that feel a strained. God,

  640. and Father, I just pray that you would lead us

  641. as a church. God. I pray that venture church would

  642. be marked by people whose homes are filled with your spirit. God,

  643. whose lives are filled with your spirit God, and that

  644. the sermon that our marriages and our parenting and that

  645. our homes speak would be one of life and hope

  646. and love and grace. God fill us as we go

  647. back home. We pray that in Jesus' mighty name, and

  648. everyone said Amen, Amen, as you Morgan, come on as

  649. you go out today, I want to point to our

  650. What's Next page. You can find on our app a

  651. lot of content that you can kind of make a

  652. part of your walk as you go out. Christmas Seas

  653. is around us. Youth parents sign up for Winter Camp.

  654. We love you all so much. God bless you.

  655. Thank you again for joining us. If you enjoyed today's service,

  656. go ahead and subscribe to our channel so you can

  657. see future messages. If you'd like to learn more about

  658. Venture Church, you can click the link that's in our bio.

  659. We hope to see you again.