In this sermon, Jason Dohm discusses biblical gender roles and their significance in the first chapters of the Bible. He highlights the twofold mission that men and women are called to engage in together: to be fruitful and multiply, and to subdue the earth for the glory of God. Dohm explains how sin entering the world affected the relationship between men and women, introducing conflict and a power struggle. He also discusses how the Apostle Paul applies the teachings on gender roles from Genesis to the life of the church, emphasizing the importance of the creation order in understanding God's design for gender roles. Throughout the sermon, Dohm encourages listeners to view these roles as bonds of love given by God, rather than chains that need to be broken.

All right, let's pray. Our Father, any time where we can come into Your presence and read Your Word, and think about what it says and about what it means, it's a good day. We thank You, Lord, for giving us this opportunity. And We pray for an abundance of fruit. We know that when the Word is preached it requires that the Holy Spirit would come and apply it for there to be an abundance of fruit.

So we pray for it God. We plead that you would come and make this a very, very profitable time. God we come humbly, desiring to be under Your authority. We want to come under the head of our church and learn from You and then obey. May it be so in Jesus' name, Amen.

So today we're talking about biblical gender roles. Something that is a very controversial topic in many quarters, maybe a little less so in our quarters. And yet, I think we find ourselves in some of the things rising up in our hearts as well. Whenever we approach a topic, the place where we ought to start in that topic is the design of God. We ought to see what God intended for the topic of discussion.

And we ought to understand what was in his mind, what would please him about having created something, and how we can honor him in that category. And so biblical gender roles is another category. It's not different than the other categories. And so we, this is where we start. We start with the design of God.

So turn to Genesis 1. Biblical gender roles is so foundational that it's taken up in the first chapter of the Bible, the second chapter of the Bible, the third chapter of the Bible. I think we're actually even going to touch on the fourth chapter of the Bible. We are not going a chapter-by-chapter exposition of the whole Bible, but we are going to start where God starts on the topic which is in Genesis 1. When we talk about the biblical gender roles, no matter how many years we may have understood the doctrine or accepted what the Bible teaches, we grew up in the United States.

We grew up in the churches that were that were here and we find ourselves with with prickles that come out when we talk about this and a knee-jerk reaction where we would arch our backs a little bit because the things that the Bible teaches are so countercultural so contrary to the world that we've been immersed in, that it causes us to tense up a little bit. But what I want to suggest is that when we look at what the Bible actually teaches, that the tension that we feel when we start to think about the topic evaporates. And what we see is something that is so beautiful and so worthy of our God and such a blessing to both men and to women that we find that the ways of God are compelling and they're beautiful. We'll begin in Genesis 1, 26-28. And it's a general description of God making men and women.

Genesis 1.26 Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them.

Then God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." In the very beginning, God created man, humankind, in His image. And male and female He created them.

Men are in the image of God. Women are in the image of God so that in that sense there is equality. Both are image bearers of God Most High. It's not that God was made in the image of man and women were made in the image of men. That's not what the Bible teaches at all.

It teaches that we were all together made to bear the incomparable image of God. And made in that image, we were given a twofold joint mission. In other words, there's two parts to the mission, and men and women were called to engage in this twofold mission together, jointly, joined together to do these two things. Here are the two things. And by the way, God puts it in the context of blessing it's not in the context of conflict and hardship at all in Genesis 1 but the text actually says and God blessed them and said and gives them this to full twofold mission so when we think about how these things relate together, we're thinking in the context of blessing.

This is the blessing of God, that God would join men and women together in this two-fold mission. The first thing is be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. Men and women are meant to engage together to fill the earth, not just so that the earth would be full, but so that the earth would be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. That the glory of God would spread from horizon to horizon, that God would be known as great everywhere where the sun shines.

And that everywhere where there are people, there would be worshippers. Everywhere where there are pockets of people, the worship of God would be expanding. The kingdom of God would be going forth as we've been studying in our study of Matthew. The second—so that's the first thing. Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth.

The second thing is subdue the earth, have dominion. And so that is very compatible with what we've just been discussing. It's to fill the earth and it's to subdue it for the glory of God. It's to take the glory of God with us everywhere and have dominion, not for our own purposes, not for our own thoughts, our own glory, but for the glory of God. That King Jesus would be king everywhere.

And so God has joined men and women together with a gigantic, glorious mission. Now if you miss this, you end up with conflict and disappointment in the relationship between men and women. The Relationships were designed to function with a gigantic and glorious mission and for men and women to be joined together in this gigantic and glorious mission Now we move to Genesis 2. In Genesis 2, in many ways, says much covers the same topics that were given to us in Genesis 1, but it fills in a lot of detail. And the verses that we look at in Genesis 2 will fill that function.

They're going to go back to the creation of woman and give us a lot of details that we didn't get in Genesis 1. So we're going to start in chapter 2 verse 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. Out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.

And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place.

Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Woman in Genesis 2, we learn that woman was created to be a helper to the man.

Man has noticed something. He's noticed that even though he's been naming all these things, that there's nobody that's like him. There's not a companion for him. There might be things that he can harness and get good work out of, but there's nothing that's like him that can be a companion for him. And so I believe it's implicit in this text that you see that God has paraded all these things in front of Adam so that he'll notice that there's nothing like him there's nothing comparable to him and then he causes him to sleep and he takes the rib and he makes woman and he brings the woman to him and he says this is your helper you have this glorious you have this good gigantic glorious mission and now you have someone to share in this mission with you, to engage in this mission together with, and she'll help you.

And we see that Eve was not a beast to be harnessed. He had beasts to be harnessed. She's not that, but she is a companion to be loved. Not a beast to be harnessed, but a companion to be loved. Somebody to join with in this gigantic, glorious mission that God has given to them, to the point that Adam will cease to be himself alone, but she'll be joined to him, and they'll be called one flesh.

They'll begin to be viewed by God as a single entity. They're one flesh. And so this isn't an ox being harnessed to plow up the ground. This is a lifelong friend to go and conquer the world for the king. And we'll notice here that this is pre-fall.

The fall hasn't happened. This is pre-curse. There's no curse on the earth. This is all still in the context of blessing, and so there's no conflict built in to what we've seen so far. Now Paul seizes on this, so keep a finger in Genesis because we're coming back here, but turn to 1 Corinthians 11.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, when he talks about the life of the church and how it ought to be conducted, Paul draws on what we've already seen in Genesis 1 and 2. And so we're in 1 Corinthians 11. And in 1 Corinthians 11 3 Paul says this but I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ the head of woman is man and the head of Christ is God. So we have a chain of command up here. We have a hierarchy given to us by God.

It is God, Christ, man, woman. And then Paul continues to comment on this in verse 8 and following. And he's taking us back into Genesis 1 and 2. For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through the woman. But all things are from God." So we have headship described here. This is the headship according to God.

God is the head of Christ. Christ is the head of man. Man is the head of woman. And he gives us the basis of this. The basis for this was the intent of God as expressed in creation.

It's not anything else. It is this way. It's God, Christ, man, woman, only because God intended it that way in creation. And so he takes us back to the creation order. Unless man become proud and think of himself as independent, Paul reminds us that man comes through woman.

That any man who has a mama ought to not be too proud because there's an interdependence between men and women that ought to be acknowledged and appreciated and we depend on one another. And then he ends by saying all things are from God. And this reminds us that we share we share alike in being image bearers of God. All things are from God and so we're equal with different roles in the church. Now Here's a place where we run into trouble.

Here's where a lot of our conflict comes. And men, I'm speaking to you here. We disconnect the roles from the mission. In other words, we like 1 Corinthians 11, but we don't like Genesis 1. We like the thought that we're up the chain that God establishes at 1st Corinthians 11, but we're not really interested in the gigantic glorious mission.

So we want to talk a lot and appreciate the fact that our wives should submit to us, but we're not intending to take over the world for Jesus Christ, to spread his kingdom, to advance his agenda. And so for the wife, this becomes a very tough pill to swallow, because we're not headed anywhere. A gigantic, glorious mission, headship, and authority make sense. If it's just so I can serve an idol, that's not very compelling to a wife. Now, what a wife should do in that instance is a completely separate subject that I won't even touch on today.

But I just want to ask men, Could it be that some of the dissatisfactions that your wife has in this whole matter is that you've loved 1st Corinthians 11, but you haven't really paid much attention to Genesis 1? You've liked the idea that you are up the food chain, but the whole reason why there's a food chain in the first place, that there would be a gigantic, glorious mission, that you haven't really been all that interested in the follow-on. Now let's go back to Genesis 3. Genesis 3, starting in verse 6. In Genesis, so far so good.

Everything's been great. It's one flesh. It's union in a gigantic, glorious mission, and things, the wheels start to come off in Genesis 3, verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you?

So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded that you should not eat?" Then the man said, "'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.'" Eve was created to be a helper to Adam. This was not helpful. This was not fulfilling her role as a helpmeet.

A helpmeet means fitting. That's what helpmeet means. It's someone who's fitting to help. She was to be along his side helping him in a gigantic, glorious mission, and she failed in that respect. She was not helpful to her husband.

She eats first. She does it unilaterally. And then she gives to her pathetically silent husband and he eats as well. And then God comes and God calls Adam's name. This is incredibly significant.

Eve eats first. God calls Adam's name. And Paul picks up on this in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, which says, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive Eve was the first to sin in the garden and yet when Paul assigns a representative head through which sin came and stained all of his race you bear the stains of what happened it's pinned on Adam incredibly significant have you ever asked yourself what should have happened in the garden in this sequence because the serpent comes and the serpent is trying to deceive Eve Well, she should have consulted her head. She should have said something to the effect of, Beloved, this tree is good for food, it's pleasant to the eyes, it's desirable to make one wise, I think we should should eat of the fruit the serpent says we won't die and then Adam would have been obligated to say beloved God has said that we must not. If a thousand serpents come to tell you that you should eat of this tree and you won't die, we should reject the counsel of the thousand and believe God.

Surely God is true. See the commandment had been given to Adam in the verses preceding Eve even ever having been made. God made Adam responsible and he was to lead his household in obedience to God. And instead of following Eve into sin, Adam should have been leading Eve into righteousness. This is what got flipped on its head in the garden.

Adam was responsible, but Eve made the call. That never should have happened that way. Adam was to lead his wife in righteousness and instead she led him into sin. And things are turned upside down. Now let's look in Genesis 3, verses 16-19.

Now we come to the curses. To the woman, He said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.' Then to Adam he said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake.

In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you will return." So we turn to the curses for disobedience. And to Eve God says your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. Now understand this rightly. This is...

We shouldn't read this and say, isn't that so sweet? Her desire is going to be for her husband. This same structure appears again in Genesis 4 with Cain and Abel. They both brought an offering. Abel's offering is accepted.

Cain's offering is not accepted. And then God has this dialogue with Cain and he says, If you do well, this is Genesis 4-7, if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, just like the curse in Genesis 3, but you should rule over it just like the curse in Genesis 3. So when we read, your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you, we should take that in the light of Genesis 4 and match these things up and grammatically they're the same.

It's the same construction in both. And that there was sin crouching at the door and it desired, it desired Cain. Like a lion desires a gazelle to gobble him up. But God's command was that He should rule over it. And so what's being said in the curses here is that now conflict is built in.

Naturally, pre-fall, pre-curse, the intent of God was one flesh. The powerful and unified joining together of a man and woman in a magnificent, gigantic, worldwide mission. But now, because sin has entered into the world, the unity that was intended, the one flesh that's intended is going to be challenged every step of the way. And it's going to be ground that has to be reclaimed through through the work of the gospel. The natural state is one flesh, very natural union, And the cursed state is a built-in power struggle where a wife desires her husband, but he will rule over her.

And everything's harder. And ground has to be reclaimed through the work of the gospel. God says to Adam, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. He's not saying you should never listen to your wife, but he's saying, In this instance, Adam, you were responsible to lead your wife in righteousness but instead you followed her into sin the ground is cursed because of this now we're leaving Genesis turn to first Timothy first Timothy two 1st Timothy.

1st Timothy 2. So Paul again in 1st Timothy 2 brings this into the life of the church. And how men and women ought to relate together in the life of the church. 1 Timothy 2, starting in verse 11. Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.

And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. Paul addresses the implications of gender roles in the life of the church and he says, a woman shouldn't have authority over a man and she shouldn't be teaching, but that she should learn in silence with all submission.

A question for you. Are these words from Scripture like fingernails on a chalkboard to you, or is it just me? When you hear these words of Scripture, now I'm not talking about an interpretation of the words of Scripture or a commentary on the words of Scripture, I'm just saying the bare words of Scripture, when you hear these, is this all the way down the chalkboard to you like it is to me, even after all these years. And I just want to suggest that it's not our understanding of the Scripture that's the problem, And it's not the scripture that's the problem, but it's us that is the problem. God is not the problem here, but we've been raised in a certain environment.

We've been immersed in it forever. And that environment is at war with God on this point and many other points as well but especially here and it's Psalm 2. The world looks from the outside and it sees this and it says Those are chains that need to be broken. Those are cords that need to be thrown off. And there's a rising up against God and his plans and purposes saying that we need to be done with this.

We need to be unshackled, like it says in Psalm 2, not realizing that these are bonds of love that God is giving us. God is giving us bonds of love, but the world says these are chains that need to be broken and cords that need to be thrown off. And this enmity that the world has for the ways of God has crept into the church. And this is why it's controversial in so many quarters, because we think like the world thinks on so many points. And so when we hear just the bare words of God, it's like fingernails on the chalkboard.

We can't even believe that God would say these things. But God isn't the problem. It's the waters we're swimming in. We've been immersed. And that isn't by chance.

It's exactly what God said would happen in the garden. That a wife would desire his husband, but that he would rule over her. And that the one flesh, very natural, very easy union before the fall has been lost, and a power struggle is now built into these relationships that we can feel every day and we have to be at war against, And it requires the work of the gospel in our hearts to overthrow these things and bring us back to what God has always intended and what He designed the universe to be like. Paul gives us the basis here in 1 Timothy 2. It's the creation order.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve. That's why Paul says church life ought to be this way. That's why Paul says that a woman should learn in silence with all submission, because Adam was made first and made responsible and made head. And Eve was then formed and made as a helper to him. Paul is not arguing on the basis of culture or male superiority or training or skill set.

Paul is arguing on creation week, the order of things, reflecting the design and the intent of God in Creation Week. Now let's look closely at verse 14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Paul is not arguing that the principle is that women are more easily deceived. That may or may not be the case.

It's a topic for another day. I'm just saying this isn't what this text is arguing. I think we can find a few men who are deceived, can't we? I don't think that women have cornered the market on being deceived so that God is saying that based on ease of deception now, men ought to be teachers in the church. That's not what Paul is teaching here.

Paul is teaching that what went wrong in the garden is that Adam was the head, Adam was responsible, but Eve made the call. And he's saying when you make a woman a teacher in the church, that you're doing the same thing all over again. Men are held responsible by God in the church because it's His design. And because He's the head of the church, because He's the God of His people, He gets to say the design. And what he's saying is, you may not flip it on its head again like the garden.

It's a replay of the garden. Adam, having the responsibility. Eve making the call. And so Paul says, when you let a woman have authority over a man in the church, you're flipping things on its head again. The men will be responsible because they've been made responsible by God.

And so they're responsible by definition, but you're having women make the call. It's a replay of what's happening in the garden. It isn't that women aren't smart enough to teach. Some are, some aren't. It isn't that women don't know the Bible well enough to teach.

Some do and some don't, just like men. Some men are and aren't. It's that God has given this role to men. It's that it seems like a good idea to God. And so he ought to find his people embracing it and loving it.

1st Corinthians 14 verses 34 and 35, let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is shameful for women to speak in the church. More fingernails on the chalkboard. More things that our sensibilities revolt against.

And I want to say that it is not appropriate to translate what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 14 to shut up women. To have a switch in our mind that would translate what Paul is teaching to women be quiet. That's not all that Paul is teaching here. Paul does say that it's shameful for women to speak in the church. But have you considered that Paul is actually promoting women learning and asking questions?

Paul can't win for losing. In his own time he was this grand libertine. In a time when he was writing where women were so undervalued, Paul was viewed as this great pathway of license into the church. Women, ask your husbands at home. Learn.

But now he's a grand chauvinist And he can't win in any age, but God is right. Let God be true and every man a liar. Paul is promoting women learning and asking questions. And we should take the words for what they actually say, not what our upbringing has translated them to in our minds, which is a woman ought to be in church learning the Word of God at the elbow of her husband and when she has questions she ought to get she ought to engage with her husband at home. This is not just a polite way for him to say don't talk in church and you know if you have a question I guess you can ask your husband at home.

And that is completely... If that's how we thought of this passage, we've imposed it on the passage. It isn't native to the passage itself. And this encourages doctrinal unity. One of the big problems in the church today is that men and women have parallel theological universes.

The men are learning their theology, and the women have a parallel theological universe where they're learning their whole other set of theology from Beth Moore or whomever. This is not a categorical condemnation of Beth Moore. I know very little about her. I do know it's very inappropriate for men and women to be studying all different things all the time and having their theological perspectives just diverging one degree at a time. And that there shouldn't be parallel universes, there should be one universe where we actually discuss these things in our home, and we're building unity around what the Word of God actually teaches.

So there's not a disconnect developing, there's unity developing. Finally, the punchline is Ephesians 5. Turn to Ephesians 5. That will be our last text. Ephesians 5, starting in verse 22.

Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word.

That He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery that I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband." The punchline is in verse 32 that all of this has been a great mystery. All of this relationship between men and women have been a mystery since the creation until the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's not a mystery in the sense that it's unknowable, that it's complicated.

It's a mystery in the sense that God's been hiding it to reveal it at the proper time. And it's a mystery that just wouldn't have made sense before Jesus came and lived. It's a mystery that's based on seeing how Jesus relates to the church, how Jesus sacrifices for the church, how Jesus leads the church and lays down His life for the church. We've been seeing that the basis for gender roles is God's creation design. The creation order has been the basis of what we're talking about.

But until God revealed this through Paul, we never knew the ultimate basis for God's design. Everything was going back to God's design, but we never had the answer to why. Why did he design it this way? Paul tells us. He says it's a mystery, it's been hidden, but now it's revealed.

And the reason is Jesus Christ comes to purchase a bride. It'll be His church. He'll be one with her forever. This really, really, really, really, really helps us understand our roles, doesn't it? Having it now cast in this light.

How is the husband the head of the wife? As Christ is the head of the church. A husband ought to love his wife and give himself for his wife because Christ loves the church and gave himself and continues to meet the needs of the church, to nourish and cherish the church. A husband ought to wash his wife with the water of the Word, because Jesus Christ is the Word. And he bathes his church in His Word.

A husband ought to love his wife as his own body. He ought to nourish and cherish that wife of his, because Jesus does that for the church. Because the church one day, there will be a consummation, and we will be together with Christ forever. It's one flesh. We've come full circle back to Genesis 1.

Brothers, is this you? Do you love your wife that way? Do you lay down your life for your wife that way? Do you nourish your wife that way? Do you cherish your wife that way?

Or do you conduct yourself in a way that makes your wife sorry that she's a woman? Have you conducted yourself in your marriage in a way that instead of seeing a glorious design of God behind all this, she's just sorry. Shame on us if it's so. The way we interact with our wives is intended to be a display of the gospel, of Jesus Christ laying down His life. Wives, as the church is subject to Christ.

Can we just agree that that is so easy a thing to think of? Who could object to the church subjecting itself to Jesus Christ? That in that way that wives also should subject themselves to their husbands in everything, not because she's inferior, not as smart, doesn't know the Bible as well, not as educated, not as able, but because she is playing a glorious part in this depiction of the gospel. She's playing her role to put the gospel on display. John MacArthur calls marriage a sacred reflection.

That's what it ought to be. Paul says, let the wife see that she respects her husband. Not because her husband is respectable, he may be or he may not be, but because she desires to honor God. In conclusion, there's obviously a next level down here that we haven't even talked about with respect to how men and women play these roles. For men, Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 5 and 6 and Colossians 3 ought to be texts that we get very familiar with on exactly how we flesh this out.

For women, obviously Proverbs 31 and Titus 2, our chapters have incredibly important things to say to you. But I hope that we're able to see and set before our eyes a compelling vision for what these relationships were designed by God to be from the very first page of the Bible through the revealing of the mystery by Paul in Ephesians. It was not designed to be a power struggle with each side trying to get theirs. It's not what God had in mind, though that's how it plays itself out in millions of homes in our nation. It was not God's design for it to be that way.

It was designed that a man and a woman would be joined together into a single entity, one flesh, given a gigantic, glorious global mission to advance the agenda of Jesus Christ the King and to be a picture of the gospel. Let's pray. Father we thank you for what your Word says. May we be satisfied with it. May your gospel be clearly seen by the nations as we strive to play out the gospel.

Jesus Christ laying himself, his life down for his church, and the church submitting to him and everything. May this play itself out faithfully in our homes. And may there be much fruit. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

Amen.