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Redeeming Marriage: The Bible's version of marriage differs significantly from the way cultures have viewed it over time. Paul's teaching on marriage is not based on men being superior to women, but as a picture of Christ's relationship to and love for the church. The path to change and growth in marriage is costly, but if you do the work, the result will be a life and marriage which is honoring to God, your spouse, and yourself. Recorded on Oct 30, 2022, on Ephesians 5:21-33, by Pastor David Parks. This message is part of our sermon series “Redeeming Regular Life,” from the Epistles of the New Testament in the Bible. The Epistles are letters from the Apostles to the early Christian churches around the Roman Empire, helping them understand and apply the gospel to life. The way of Jesus changes everything, including marriage, sexuality, singleness, parenting, work, politics, and friends. In some ways, it’s easier to accept Jesus our Savior than it is to accept him as the Lord of our lives who wants to make some changes in our lives. In Christ, regular life is a gift. The way of Jesus is not easy, but it’s the way of redemption which leads to true and lasting freedom, joy, and peace. Sermon Transcript: So all year, we’re focusing on Learning the way of Jesus. And we just spent three months working through a very famous teaching of Jesus called the Sermon on the Mount. If you missed any of those sermons, you can always go back and watch them online or listen to the audio podcast if you’d like. But today, we get to start a new sermon series called Redeeming Regular Life. And this series is from the Epistles of the New Testament in the Bible. The Epistles are letters from the Apostles to the early Christian churches around the Roman Empire, helping them understand and apply the gospel to life. “To what part of life?” you might wonder. And the answer is: to every part! The way of Jesus changes everything, including marriage, which we’ll consider today, but also sexuality, singleness, parenting, work, politics, and friendship, which we’ll cover in the weeks ahead. All very easy topics to talk about, right? No, I know this series will be challenging for us, especially compared to what the world believes about these things. In some ways, it’s easier to accept Jesus our Savior than it is to accept him as the Lord of our lives who wants to make some changes in our lives. But my hope is that you’ll see that in Christ, regular life is a gift. The way of Jesus is not easy, but it’s the way of redemption which leads to true and lasting freedom, joy, and peace. So today, we’ll start our series with a message on redeeming marriage. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Eph 5:21. We’ll read this first and then unpack it together. Ephesians 5:21-33 (NIV), “21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself,