The Monday Morning Church Moving to Maturity

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The Monday Morning ChurchMoving to Maturity

• Ephesians 521-33

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• 21And further, you will submit to one another out
  of reverence for Christ.

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• 22You wives will submit to your husbands as you
  do to the Lord. 23For a husband is the head of
  his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the
  church he gave his life to be her Savior. 24As
  the church submits to Christ, so you wives must
  submit to your husbands in everything.

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• 25And you husbands must love your wives with the
  same love Christ showed the church. He gave up
  his life for her 26to make her holy and clean,
  washed by baptism and God?s word. ? 27He did this
  to present her to himself as a glorious church
  without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.
  Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28In
  the same way, husbands ought to love their wives
  as they love their own bodies. For a man is
  actually loving himself when he loves his wife.

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• 29No one hates his own body but lovingly cares
  for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which
  is the church. 30And we are his body.31As the
  Scriptures say, A man leaves his father and
  mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are
  united into one. 32This is a great mystery, but
  it is an illustration of the way Christ and the
  church are one. 33So again I say, each man must
  love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife
  must respect her husband.

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Ephesus the Artemisia

• Month long, yearly festival
• Worship sacrifice to Artemis -
• Purity - washing in the water of the sea
• Must persuade the goddess to provide
• All I can do is never enough for the goddess
• Drought? Infertility? Poverty? Disease?
• Petition the queen of heaven for provision
• Wanton sexuality Child sacrifice

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• Christ is different He gave everything for us
• Phil 25-8 Your attitude should be the same that
  Christ Jesus had. 6Though he was God, he did not
  demand and cling to his rights as God. 7He made
  himself nothing he took the humble position of a
  slave and appeared in human form. 8And in human
  form he obediently humbled himself even further
  by dying a criminals death on a cross.

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• Jesus revolution the kingdom of heaven is at
  hand
• Not a political or religious system
• Its a way of life Love God, love people -
  completely
• John 1512 I command you to love each other in
  the same way that I love you. 13And here is how
  to measure itthe greatest love is shown when
  people lay down their lives for their friends.

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• Refusing to live selfishly
• Gives us our example, lived out
• Sets the context for Ephesians 522-33

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• NOT about being inferior
• NOT about wielding authority
• NOT about being rigid, brittle, or hard
• ITS about Christ my relationship w/Him
• My life is a direct reflection on Christ

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• Being soft, flexible
• Willing to give in not insist on own way
• Being open for business
• Seeing people as people
• Not by function, class, or category
• Not interchangeable pieces in a machine

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• Husbands love your wives
• Agape - fully, deeply, completely
• HOW? With the same love Christ has for the church
  - unconditional, w/o measure
• Ephesus the courtesan/heterae system
• Gave up His life to make her holy clean
• Like you love your own body

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• Wives submit yourselves as to the Lord
• 1Tim 24 - Phileo - affectionate friendship
• Respect your husband
• Leave family of origin, be united to spouse

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LIVE SUBMISSIVELY

• Its a mystery - husband/wife bond is an
  illustration of Christ/church relationship
• Be soft flexible vs. Rigid brittle
• Willing to give in vs. Insist on own way