Matthew 19 (Part 1) :1-12

--- Matthew chapter 19 the first 12 verses will cover this morning let's go ahead and read through them it says

by the way Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem now for the last time and he knows that he knows that this is his final trip back to that area before he will be arrested and they're crucified and so forth and and I don't know how you deal with life when you know that you've got something very challenging in your future but I find it completely a blessing to read that Jesus came into the land of Judea knowing full well what was about to take place and he spent time touching people the people came to him they came to hear him there were great crowds and it says he not only he taught he spoke but he healed them there too he he touched and ministered and and you know when I've got a when I've got a scary thing in my life I want to just kind of go off and be in a hole or be by myself I don't know maybe you're different maybe you like to be around people I don't not not at a time like that I want to be by myself and and for better or for worse but I'm just blessed I'm blessed by the example of Jesus who who just reached out to people and verse 3 says that in Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause and he answered

they said to him why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and send her away and he said to them because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery the disciples said to him if such is the case of a man with his wife it is better not to marry but he said to them not everyone can receive the same but only those to whom it is given for there are eunuchs who have been so from birth and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven let the one who is able to receive this receive it stop there please and let's pray Heavenly Father as always we are utterly dependent upon your Holy Spirit to speak to us and to give us wisdom and insight and understanding and we ask it today and need it today no less than any other time we open up the Word of God may there be a corresponding openness to our hearts we prayed in Jesus name the question that was leveled toward Jesus by the Pharisees was really just another ploy on their part to bring Jesus into a hot-button topic so that they could you know whenever there's a hot-button topic and we know what they are in our culture today whenever you bring them up you know you're gonna have about 50% of the people hating you depending on which position you side with and that was essentially what they're they're they're attempting to do here is to draw people into a kind of a position of polarization you know with whatever position Jesus might take on this particular issue and so they asked the question is it lawful for one to divorce his wife for any cause and this was already a controversial topic in that day it was controversial because there were essentially two schools of thought that went along with this that were based upon the teachings of two very popular rabbis there in the first century the first was rabbi Hillel who was a very liberal man and he taught that it was essentially okay to divorce your wife for any reason and and that would mean if you know if she burned the breakfast or if you woke up one morning and she didn't happen to please you in the way that she looked I mean it was anything you could you could hand her a certificate of divorce and you could send her away now rabbi Shem I on the other hand taught that divorce was permitted only in cases of marital infidelity so you have a conservative and you have a liberal sounds like like nothing's changed right essentially now guess guess which position was more popular is that a toughie no yeah well the more popular position was the one that you could divorce your spouse for any and every reason yeah big whoop huh I mean that doesn't surprise any of us that's just kind of human nature well and the reason that it doesn't surprise us is that whenever a conversation gets started about the subject of marriage and we start saying let's talk about marriage shall we eventually somebody comes up with the question I have a question yeah what's your question we're talking about marriage how do you get out of it yeah I mean eventually it always happens it always comes back to the issue of divorce and what we're gonna find in this passage is that Jesus wants to talk about marriage and he wants to talk about what God intended marriage to be but these guys want to talk about divorce because you see that's human nature we're always looking for kind of a little way to you know wiggle out of things and we understand what marriage is fine enough we just want to know how if possible we can get out of it if things don't happen to go the way we want or if there if it's not living up to our expectations or whatever the case might be and that's what seems to kind of dominate our conversations when it comes to the issue of marriage but I want you to notice in this conversation that Jesus has with the Pharisees he brings up several points about marriage that I think are very interesting and we're going to look at them one by one looks again let's look at verse 3 it says the Pharisees came up to him to test him and we see right there that you know what their goal was they asked the question is it lawful for somebody to divorce his wife for pretty much you know any reason that he could possibly come up with and Jesus comes back in verse 4 and he says have you not read in other words have you ever cracked the Word of God on this particular subject and even looked at it he says have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female now he has more to say but he's already said something in this single verse have you not read that in the beginning and that's the first thing I want to point out you're gonna see that as Jesus talks to them about marriage he continues to use this phrase in the beginning and what he is saying by that is we're gonna go back and they want to keep citing the law he keeps going back to creation and he says in the beginning what that's his way of saying here's what God intended marriage to be this was his design this was his this was his original picture for marriage this is a wonderful thing to hear the Son of God you know who is God in human flesh talking to us here in the word about God's intention for marriage because you know we've really messed it up pretty big when it comes to that whole I mean you know for one thing it's God's institution he created marriage we didn't we didn't kind of one at some point kind of say gee you know kind of be cool if we kind of got together and made promises and then we husband that's a great idea let's do that we didn't we didn't that's not what happened it was God's it was God's creation in fact it was it with the very first wedding took place during creation week when the when God brought the first woman to the first man walked her down the aisle as it were presented her to the man and the man went whoa actually didn't say that but it was probably something like that it was one of the things you just can't translate in the Hebrew you know mama Mia or something I I don't know if he was Italian but he you know the Bible says he looked at the woman and he said this is yeah this is bone of my bone flesh my flesh he even called her a woman and and because she was taken out of man and it was a beautiful thing we see this first marriage ceremony it's God's institution it's his idea he came up with the whole process so he's going to say things here and he says here from the beginning your Bible may say at the beginning we're getting an insight here to what was in the mind of God when marriage was created with that understanding let's look at verse 4 again he says have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male Female stop there. Whoa, we just hit it right here. Talk about hot-button Topics, did you catch it? You catch what he said here? He said God made made them men and men and women From the beginning we see that God God's intention for marriage or the goal of marriage was to unite men and women Now that's not your idea that's not my idea that's God's idea it's right here in the Bible He says from the beginning when we're talking about marriage God created them male and female this was his intent This was his goal. This was his design and bringing people together for marriage that he made them male and female And I like the fact that that's not my idea I like the fact that it's not your idea and I like the fact that it's not one of the rungs on a political platform. I Like the fact that it is part of God's Word and that you and I don't need to apologize for it Nor do we need to even defend it from the standpoint that somehow we've got to explain or convince people of this You know, essentially my my feeling is listen if you got a problem with that whole issue then take it up with God You're really you don't argue with me about it. It says it in the Bible You know God intended marriage to be between a man and a woman and It's going to become clearer as we go on but we'll go ahead and put these up for those of you taking notes We'll we'll help you out here a little bit put these up on the screen The very what did Jesus say about marriage number one? the first thing we'll put up here is that God created marriage to be between one man and one woman and And again, we'll see how that is further defined as we go through The rest of these verses He goes on to verse 5. It says therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife The two will become one flesh and the old King James translation The words that were used there are leave and cleave and the reason I know that is because that was the theme at my wedding 35 years ago I don't know where it was written. Was it did we have bulletins or I don't it said leave and cleave Oh, the pastor said that I don't remember the pastor's message. Sorry about that. I was getting married In fact, I don't remember much about that day. I'm not sure if I was just excited or I've blocked it out one of the two but That was the theme though, right in fact there was even a song I think to that something about leaving and cleaving That's what he's essentially saying her man is to leave the family in which he was raised Why because when he comes together and marries this woman they're going to form a new family I like to share this with people when I'm doing pre-marriage counseling people you do not start a family when you have babies you start a family the day you say I do a New family is born. So don't get that get that phrase out of your vocabulary When are you gonna start a family you do it the day you say I do. Here's why we don't children don't make a family a Husband and a wife make a family and you bring children into a family Right. Do you know that's one of the reasons why so many married couples raise their children those kids get older and they leave home And they think they got nothing because the kids were the family and it's called child-centered parenting I didn't plan on talking about this But I might as well just throw it in there child-centered parenting can be a real detriment to the Institution of the family because a family if we're gonna see it and understand it from a true biblical perspective a family begins When a husband and a wife say I do You just started a new family. That's what that's what he's saying here for this reason a man will leave the family he'll leave his father and mother and the family that he was a part of and he will cleave to his wife because they are now a Family we have now begun a family. We're starting a family We started it, you know, and when we said I do important thing to remember But he says that the result of this leaving and cleaving is that they become One flesh and that's the second point on our outline here essentially that marriage Essentially produces or creates this one flesh union And if you want me to sit here for you and explain what that's all about I'm afraid you're gonna be sorely disappointed because it's a it's a it's a mystical union that we don't pretend to understand fully Because we know that even though it's called one flesh it goes beyond just the flesh In fact in the book of Malachi, I won't make you turn there but it makes reference to the fact that God's Spirit is involved in Joining this man and this woman and we know from the book of Ephesians that Paul says this one flesh union is a picture Symbolically of the relationship between Jesus Christ and his church his bride. So there's there's there's a great deal of Implication and dynamic involved in this whole idea of this one flesh Union between a man and a woman and there's a great deal that we don't understand about it But here's what we do understand about it. It's a God thing Okay, it's not something that that I simply choose out of my own free will to say I choose this woman I mean I do choose her but I cannot make us Functionally one flesh. It's something God does it because he recognizes the institution of marriage because he created it and And not and beyond just recognizing it He actually joins that couple and that's what Malachi talks about if you go through Malachi 3 He talks about how his spirit moves to join those people in this one flesh union And and it becomes this beautiful picture and they are and they're bound together in the Lord and so forth and bound together in such a way That he says in verse 6 look with me there He says so they are no longer two but one flesh and Then he says the big bad thing He says what therefore God is joined together Let man not separate. I Say that every time I do a wedding Unfortunately It doesn't always stick This is God's way of saying I put them together Get your hands off Get your hands off this thing what God has joined together you get your hands off it In terms of Breaking it apart. This is the third point that we're gonna put down for those of you taking notes man is not to end marriage It's it's really just simple as that this this mystical God ordained God made union between a man and a woman does not to be ended by man Wow, did you guys just feel the tension just kind of rise in the room there for a minute Say that you say things something like that and you know, you you potentially offend, you know about 50% of the crowd It happens frankly whenever we discuss the subject of divorce when it's mentioned in the body of Christ And I've always been kind of amazed by that I've always been amazed by the fact that you know If somebody knew ahead of time that we were gonna talk about divorce probably a good share of them would stay home Yeah, I don't either about that Because you know, it can be a pretense sort of a subject It can be kind of a sore kind of a subject and I've thought about that. I've wondered about it I thought wait a minute. Why is that? I mean don't we kind of just recognize divorce as Just another sin that that you know Christ died to save us from and we're forgiven from and and stuff like that and we are I mean The Bible does not say that divorce is the unforgivable sin by any stretch of the imagination You know, there is forgiveness there's redemption there there is moving on in Jesus You don't have to be a second-class citizen because that has happened But for some reason when you bring up divorce Even in the body of Christ, there's this instant You know just this tension it's very very kind of obvious very very tangible Yeah Yeah, I think most Christians do believe in theory that they can be forgiven I think most people do But I believe that one of the reasons the tensions rise among believers and not all believers But but but among some when divorce is mentioned is because that there are some in the body of Christ who frankly Don't want to see divorce as another sin They want to kind of just see it as a result of some bad choices and unfortunate circumstances And I'm fully aware as I say that that there are some people for whom divorce has come into their lives completely by no desire of their own And what I mean by that is that that there are there are many believers who did not want their marriage to end Desperately tried to save it We're willing to do anything To save that marriage and it ended anyway, I understand that and for those these words are not meant But there are a lot of other people in the body of Christ who just have to stop making excuses For the fact that they went through a divorce They need to humble themselves and they simply need to just come to God for forgiveness for doing exactly what Jesus said here not to Do and that is end that one flesh union for unbiblical reasons And if that doesn't raise the blood pressure of the room nothing probably will but the fact is it's just the truth We just deal with it. You know we need to deal with our sin We need to deal with our sin at the cross and again like I said, I know there are victims of divorce I understand that and I've walked through it with many many people whose spouse just simply decided one day You know what I'm done. I am done and there and they were gone and and the other person You know they were heartbroken over the situation they had no desire to see their marriage end and yet it did And you know it happens but there are a good many other people in the body of Christ who Knowingly and I'm not talking about people who've done this before they knew Jesus You know if you if that happened before you were you know a believer Then you've already covered the forgiveness issue when you came to Jesus You know the old man is gone the new has come or you know it's like hey We're new creation in Christ. Amen, and that's an important thing to remember So but but there are some who? knowingly understood the guidelines of what God's Word had to say what God has joined together a lot man not separate and they did it anyway and and they and and and and I've had people come up to me and over the years and just kind of want to make excuses You know but pastor you don't know the circumstances that made it Impossible for me to stay married to my spouse and you're right. I probably don't know the circumstances I don't know all the ins and outs and all the dynamics, but you know what if I'm not the one you need to be Talking about about it. I'm not the one who said what God joined together. Let man not suffer I didn't say that Jesus did talk to him about it and make sure whatever Happened you got it right with him and stop making excuses for it got so bad or it did this or it did just go To him and say you know what Lord that shouldn't have happened. I'm sorry that it did you know I did what you told me not to do and We were joined together. We were one flesh and I broke it and I ended it and I'm sorry and ask you to forgive me. Oh, what a wonderful talk about lifting the pressure You can move on you can you can you can move on with God? You know and not let this thing just kind of become this horrible Skeleton in your closet that keeps you from being able to just to move on with the Lord and serve the Lord with a clean Conscience and a clear heart, you know just just confess it say Lord. I shouldn't have done this you know Now the Pharisees when Jesus said this They objected to this and you can see that in verse 7 look with me in your Bible the objection of the Pharisees They said they said well if that's the situation then why then did Moses? And I want you to take note of their words. Why did Moses command? You like that word one to give a certificate of divorce and send her away. This is classic legalism there You know the the Pharisees are looking at what God said through Moses in the Old Testament, and they assumed that it was a command You know to to divorce like God was giving a command related to this whole thing so Jesus It needs to do a little correcting as it relates to their understanding look in verse 8 And he said to them because of your hardness of heart Moses did not command he allowed And that's the key he allowed you to divorce your wives, but look what he says. Here's this phrase again, but from the Beginning it was not so and there are two statements that are made in This verse will put them both up here number four is divorce was not allowed Or excuse me divorce was allowed due to sin in the Old Testament and fifth divorce was never part of God's plan Jesus told them rather than being Commanded to divorce they were allowed to divorce, but it was a concession you understand what a concession is It's a compromise It's a compromise because of sin and He's telling them the reason you are allowed to divorce was because your hearts are hard Because of sin, that's why divorces happen you guys the the the the world can try to whitewash it and Sterilize it however they can think of with whether whatever language that talks about Irreconcilable differences or whatever people let's just get down to brass tacks marriages end because of sin and And again like I said before I know there are victims in divorce and not everybody wants their marriage to end But when they do end there's some sin going on somewhere Let's just face it. That's what Jesus is saying listen divorce was allowed It was tolerated and mostly you guys this is a statement by the way to support women Essentially divorce was tolerated under the Old Covenant big to protect women They had very few if no rights at all and for a woman to be in a situation where she was unloved and unwanted Might you know eventually subject her to the cruel treatment of? Whoever she happened to be married to and so they allowed got allowed divorce because of the hardness of the hearts of some individuals But Jesus makes it clear that it was never part of God's original plan never When God created marriage he didn't say all right, here's what we're gonna do Adam Made you Eve Nice looking lady, huh? She's just for you now. We're gonna come together. I'm gonna have you guys marriage. Well. Here's the problem though You guys might not get along You might decide sometime down the road that you don't want to live together anymore You don't even want to look at each other. So we're gonna come up with this thing called divorce God didn't do that was never his intention never We see here from the scripture and what he is saying here is the marriage was Intended to be a lifelong commitment. That was his intention and that's what we're looking at here that's what the point that we're making and And Then as we go on and look at verse 9 in your Bible with Absolute authority Jesus outlines the only terms for what we call Biblical divorce and this is important to pay attention to verse 9. He says and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for Sexual immorality is the way the ESV translates it Marital unfaithfulness may be the term that is given in your Bible. It is basically in the Greek pornea Which is where we get the phrase sexual immorality. So and he says whoever divorces his wife except for this stipulation and then marries another Commits adultery that is the sixth point of our outline here our list Divorce for reasons other than sexual immorality followed by a remarriage equal adultery what Jesus is saying is When there is a violation of the sanctity of marriage meaning the marriage bed That it is the couple themselves Who are breaking the one-flesh bond now, he is not suggesting by any stretch that that breaking that violation of the marriage bond is a Requirement to divorce at all. I know many godly marriages that have come back from that kind of infidelity and through forgiveness and grace and Long suffering have have have come back to build some of the most powerful strong Marriages that you can imagine It's a reality and So he is not suggesting here. Hey as soon as that happens, boom, it's all over You might as well, you know, just kind of blow it off Not saying that but he's saying that when there is this breakage when there is this violation There is a freedom then for the the the the innocent party if you will To say, you know, you you chose this way. I I choose at this point not to Extend a desire to go on in the marriage. He said he said in that case Yeah, but if a divorce happens for any other reason and it's followed by marriage you are committing adultery Why is that? Why is it when you remarry after an unbiblical divorce that you commit adultery? Well, it's because Divorce for any other reasons you you if that happens You're leaving you're leaving a marriage that God continues to recognize as a one-flesh union you see It all comes down to that that mystical connection that you have with this person Whereby you are made one flesh and when you are made one flesh, you you know, you can't just break it because you want to You know if I decide well, I don't like you anymore You know and people do this all the time. I'm not in love with you anymore. So we're gonna go our separate ways Well that doesn't break the one-flesh union in God's eyes. They're still married. They split they go their own ways. Guess what? They both commit adultery because in God's eyes, they're still married There there wasn't any kind of a biblical breakage there wasn't any kind of grounds biblical grounds for divorce at that particular case So they're still married So he says and that's exactly what Jesus is saying and if that falls a little heavy on your ears well take comfort because it did with the disciples to essentially the disciples didn't care much for this and look what they said in verse 10 they come back and they say they go like wow that's the case well maybe it's better not to marry if these kind of restrictions are on the marriage union maybe maybe you just now that statement that saying maybe it's better not to marry is a statement that actually the Apostle Paul will go on to make a little bit later on when he writes his first letter to the Corinthians but essentially it's it you know and and well you know let me go ahead show it to you right now let me let me show you that that state first Corinthians chapter 7 this is actually where it is written he says this to the church now as a concession not a command I say this I wish that all were as I myself am and he's talking about being single by the way but each has his own look at this gift from God one has one kind and one has another all right this is what Jesus is talking about when he goes on in verse 12 and following and he talks about all these different levels of being a eunuch look with me in your Bible here now beginning in verse 12 he says well let's start in verse 11 because that's where he says but he said to them not everyone can receive this saying what saying is he talking about he's not talking about what he said earlier about marriage and divorce the saying is what the disciples said maybe it's better not to marry and Jesus said well not everybody can accept that you see not everybody can accept the idea that it's better not to marry why because only some people have that gift that gift we'll call it the gift of singleness which Paul refers to there in first Corinthians 7 he says one man has one gift another man has another and some people don't have the gift of singleness I don't you know I couldn't wait to get married and and you know have have very much needed that in my life and you know but some people are just like you know there they can they can handle the the single life and and so forth that's why he goes on to say in verse 12 look with me there now for there are eunuchs who have been so from birth and a eunuch by the way is somebody who is no longer able to procreate or chooses not to procreate a eunuch can be an individual who by choice chooses abstinence in their life over a life of marriedness if that's a word okay you see what I'm saying so a eunuch eunuchs described people who were surgically made unable to procreate and a eunuch frankly also described someone who had just made a choice it's rather than saying abstinence they called it like being a eunuch yeah you choose to be a eunuch I choose to live as if I were a eunuch sort of a thing so he says you know there there have been some who've been made so from birth in other words they're literally born you know in such a way that they they have no ability to procreate there are eunuchs who have been made that way by men men who were called to take care of like the Kings his his all his wives you remember in the book of Esther they were eunuchs and they made sure of it and then he says that there are those who have made themselves eunuchs okay this is by choice they've renounced marriage they've renounced physical relationships why for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and that's why he says let one who is able to receive it receive it again receive what the statement that maybe it's better not to marry something you know you can't just go around saying that to people hey maybe it's better if you just don't marry people are gonna freak out on you because some of them have that gift and some don't as Paul says in first Corinthians some have one gift some have another and by the way that leads us if we'll bring up all of our points again here our seventh point is only some people have the gift of singleness because they've kind of chosen that they just do it for the kingdom of God I think I think of some of the people that we know and respect maybe you've read biographies some of some of the great people of yesterday and and you know Amy Carmichael Corey ten boom even John Stott one of my favorite authors who not that long ago went to be with the Lord all these individuals never married they never took a took a spouse they they chose and and and walked in that gift of singleness for the sake of the kingdom of God and and they were able to to kind of you know give their whole life you know to service to God because they didn't have a spouse that they had to deal with along those lines and so forth so I'm sure there's probably some of the single people in our fellowship here right now who are wondering how do I know if maybe I've been called to that that if I've been given that gift you know to to be single or to remain unmarried and the answer is you know you just really need to pray and and seek the Lord but usually I usually tell people that if you have a strong urge to marry you probably don't have the gift because I mean with a gift goes the grace you know the grace in fact the gift and grace are really synonymous terms when you have the gift of singleness you have the grace to walk in that singleness and you usually it would go along with a corresponding passion and desire for ministry that frankly marriage would kind of get in the way of you know I mean Amy Carmichael if you read her story she made a decision way early on in her life that she was never gonna marry and it was like cool she was fine with it not a problem so I think that there's always a you know where God guides God provides you know where there's a where there's a calling there's a corresponding grace to walk it out so you know there you go that's and if you have that gift of singleness the rest of us in the body of Christ probably need to keep our yaps shut about why aren't you married because you know there are people who have that gift to be single and if they and if somebody has the gift then just drop it you guys and stop putting a guilt trip on people who are in their upper 20s and early 30s just because they haven't gotten married yet maybe they're gifted by God you just need to pray for them you know God would use their lives powerfully because they don't have the the thing kind of I was gonna say weighing them down but don't that's not a bad thing but it's a reality I'm sorry you know Paul said that he who is married has to be dealing with the issues of you know this world the issues of marriage when you're not married you can just kind of give yourself completely to the ministry in that particular way so let's review the points that are made here shall we let's put these up on the screen one more time number one God created this is what Jesus said about marriage God created marriage between a man and a woman one man and one woman marriage creates a one-flesh union maybe we should even go on to say God creates the one-flesh union number three man is not to end marriage number four divorce was allowed that's the word used tolerated if you will due to sin and it is still the reason for divorce divorce was number five never part of God's plan number six divorce for reasons other than sexual immorality followed by remarriage equal adultery so said Jesus and there were seven only some people have the gift of singleness let me just and once one more time by saying that if you're someone who has been involved in a divorce whether you were a victim of that divorce or whether you instigated breaking of that marriage bond you need to know something here today God loves you with an intense and everlasting love and that your life is still needful in the kingdom of God that's why you're here and although God you know although we can say God still you can still use you that's absolutely true we also need to understand that there are scars that go along with divorce and you can't avoid them there are always scars and those of you who have gone through divorce you know it better than anybody that what I'm saying is true and and and God can still use you for the kingdom of heaven and you need to recognize that you could you do not have to be a second-class citizen in God's kingdom God can still use you in fact if you're looking for an area of ministry let me give you one you know better than anybody the detriments the pain the heartbreak that happens in divorce you know it now you should be some of the most passionate voices in the body of Christ for staying married and honoring the sacredness of marriage you guys should do it shouldn't have to leave it to me you guys should stand up when the question comes up and say listen been there done that regret it don't go there don't do like I did God has forgiven me I've moved on with the Lord but listen there are scars there's always There's always scars when we go against God's, you know, design. But there's also redemption. There's also forgiveness. We serve the God of not only the second chance but the third, fourth, fifth and on and on it goes. So you can know today that God still will use you and you need to be careful not to let the shadow of that thing become this dampening field in your life that keeps you from being all that you can be in Jesus, but by the same token, don't hide it and don't make excuses about it and don't come up to people and say, well, if you only understood what really happened in my life, don't do that. Don't soft pedal it. Say, yeah, I went through divorce and it was wrong. Even if you weren't the one that instigated it. Even if you were the one who were the victim, yeah, I went through divorce. It was painful. It hurt. There's nothing good that comes out of that sort of thing. Let me tell you that what God's best is for your life. So you work hard in your marriage to stay married. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Wives respect and honor your husbands and the position that God has given him as the leader and the head of the home. Even if you think he's not worthy of it and let God take care of the rest. Amen. ---