Sermon: "Husbands and Wives"

First in the "Becoming Better People" series.
Delivered February 5, 2006 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2

Theme: We bring so many expectations to our relationships as married people and many times we are disappointed. How might a better understanding of 'mutual submission' bring the kind of healing we often need?

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

Click to Download & Listen (6.0MB)

Video clip: "I don't know why I have always been big on happy endings. You see to me the most romantic, beautiful love stories ever were the ones where two people meet, fall in love, and then 50 or 60 years later one of them dies and then a few days after that the other one dies, because they just can't bear to live without each other. Not that that is such a good example of a happy ending, I mean you've got two dead people in that example, but that is how I always thought things would be for Katie and me, not that we would be dead, but that we would be together forever."

That brief video clip is from a movie called "The Story of Us" and don't go out and get that as a family movie. It is rated R, and there are parts in there that we could never use, but we could use that and there is another part that you are going to see in just a moment that we will use as well. But you know isn't it true, I mean he was talking about marital expectations. We bring so many expectations to our relationships as married people and we are not just talking about marriages today, we are focusing on that, but we are talking about a lot more. And I just wonder how the expectation level of your marriage is, if you are married, and what the state of your married life is. If you have to give a 1 to 10 number today, 1 being in the pits and 10 being somewhere near nirvana, what would your number be today? Don't anybody answer, but think about that number internally and just as a quick thing; I didn't do this at the 8:15, but I did it at the 10, would everybody who is married here, please stand? I want to get a quick scan or inventory, about half. All right. Stay standing. If you have been married less than 10 years sit down. If you have been married less than 20 years sit down. If you have been married less than 30 years sit down. Oh look. If you have been married less than 40 years sit down. Wow, look at that. Less than 50 sit down. Wow. I wish I had a prize. I don't have a prize. You can sit down. That's great. That's wonderful.

But you know what, true or false; here is a true or false quiz; I don't care how long you have been married, marriages can be challenging at times, true? Anybody want to say false to that? Okay. So I realize that not everybody here is married, some have been married in the past and are no longer married. Some hope to married in the future. Some single people here today are wondering if they want to go there. Some people are hoping that they will go there. Some are considering it given the right person. And there are those worried today about the marriages of others, those who might be concerned about the marriages or engagements even of others today. But, no matter what your status, I believe it is safe to say that we all root for happy marriages and relationships because happy marriages, and I should say healthy marriages are not always happy, but they can be healthy. Healthy marriages obviously create healthy families and healthy families create a healthy church, and a healthy church creates healthy communities.

There is a 165-question survey that pastors and counselors use; its just one thing that people use for premarital counseling, and I use it and it scores about ten different areas of married life. The people who compile this survey and score it decided to do a little digesting of 10,000 surveys; 5,000 men answers and 5,000 women; and they asked the question you know, to identify the top issues that men and women most often highlight as concerns in their relationships. Now this is pretty good information because you've got 10,000 people taking a 165 question thing and they mark off certain things and certain statements and here they are.

Here are the top five that women reported as concerns in their relationships: My spouse can be too stubborn, some differences never seem to get resolved, I wish my husband were more willing to share his feeling with me, I wish my partner were less critical and negative any my partner often does not understand how I feel. Now women, maybe some of you are relating to some of these statements, okay. Now here is what he men said, these are the top five issues for them; my spouse can be too stubborn, skip down to three that is similar too; sometimes differences never seem to get resolved, two - difficulty dealing with partner's moodiness and then four and five, serious disputes over unimportant issues, it depends on what's important to whom I guess and wish partner were less critical and negative. And you can see on both lists three of them are identical right; spouse can be too stubborn, some differences never seem to get resolved, wish my partner were less critical and negative.

Then on the other two that are unique where the women report - I wish my husband were more willing to share his feelings with me and my partner often does not understand how I feel, that is really a huge thing in relationships and why relationships get stuck. And then men say, difficulty dealing with partners moodiness; well, that's just another way of saying that men are idiots when it comes to understanding what their women are feeling like, right? And then serious disputes over unimportant issues; many times those unimportant issues are fueled by powerful feelings. And so you can see that there is kind of like this magnet, right? It's kind of like a void and its really tough sometimes because of the way men and women are wired to communicate and then you add some children at different ages, and then you add maybe two careers, or you add health issues. You can put all that stuff in the mix and you can see how the challenges easily mount and I mean I really don't have to illustrate the struggles that marriages do through nationally or globally speaking. I mean they are ending all the time.

But what this survey does show and I think it gives a little hope is that this is normal. I mean in some ways some of the struggles here are pretty normative and many times we kind of beat up ourselves or we can even get down on ourselves because we think that we are the ones that have this problem. I mean I come to church and look how happy they look, you know. They look so together and all of that and we can start to think like we are the only ones who are struggling with this stuff and that's just not true. Communications and feelings though really are critical to look at and again, women are generally experts in all of that and men are kind of ignorant about that kind of stuff, which is why somebody did that spinoff book titled "Women are from Venus and Men are Idiots". I don't know if you have seen that one, but marital challenges poorly navigated can also lead to disillusionment and feeling stuck and really not knowing what to do and that's what this next video clip kind of points out.

Video Clip: "Now, my love. Who wants to go first, Erin? Okay, my high day is that I sat next to Austin Butler at lunch. Oh, that's nice. Is that the boy with the three-legged dog? No, Joel Cummings has the three-legged dog. Austin has the turtle that snores. And your low? Camp. What about camp? I don't know. Honey, you had such a good time last year. I know. What is it? Are you afraid you are going to lose touch with Austin over the summer? I don't know. Well, you could always write to each other and when you sign your name you could put those little x's and o's on there, guys love that right? Can't get enough of that. Honey, you are going to have a great time. What about you bonehead, what was your high today? Well my high was that Gary Ellise's mom bought a new juicer and today I went over his house and drank a chicken. And your low, I don't have a low. You've got to have a low. Look, I have been sitting here racking my brains out and I do not have a low, okay. All right, all right what if we have the chicken smoothie in the high and low category? How about you mom? Well. I know what your high is; it's your anniversary, what are you guys going to do tomorrow night? Well, I was going to take your mom out for a romantic dinner possibly some dancing. But your right sweetie, that is our high. Look, I would like to stick around for your low, but the Dodgers are playing the Giants. Go. Go. Can I go too? Go. Look, I really don't care what we do tomorrow night. I don't care if we end up at different restaurants. Just as long as the kids see us leaving together and coming home together. Great."

"On our first anniversary, I gave Ben a plastic spoon. You know the take out kind from a Chinese restaurant. It was the one we used when we shared our first bowl of won ton soup in the park. He was afraid he has lost it and I remember how his face lit up when he opened the little jewelry box I had wrapped it in. I keep asking myself when is that moment in a marriage when a spoon becomes just a spoon?"

Now, there is a question that I bet you didn't think you would be asked today in worship, but it really points out something very deep behind it that feelings fade, that passions fade and Andy gave me a great article from National Geographic that I can share with you if you want, but it's a wonderful article about how there are chemical reactions when we are first attracted to people that really mirror obsessive compulsive disorder. Seriously, it's true. And they do these brain studies and it's very similar. So many people think that falling in love is like being a little bit mental; seriously something is wrong. And those chemicals fade after a while, but as relationships deepen other chemicals can be measured that show depth of bonding and so it's really interesting to think about that whole physiological aspect of things, but it points out how we can't expect things to be on a certain high all the time and so what do we do?

And we can teach people how to actively listen and we can talk about well, here's what I like and here's what you like and how do we do all that. That's hugely important, but more importantly, is to ask what does God have to say about all of this because God created marriage, created us, created marriage and so in order to understand the depth of marital oneness and how we can navigate some of the challenges of relationships, we need to turn to the scriptures in Ephesians, Chapter 5, because here we will see in Ephesians, Chapter 5 that a really good marriage, a really healthy marriage takes three. Okay, takes three, not two, it takes a husband and wife and the Lord Jesus to be the ruler, to be the master of each ones heart, because only when that happens can we really grasp everything else that is about to be shared in this text. So let's pray and read Ephesians 5:21 to 33.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you again for this day and for this morning. Pray that as your word is read and taught that what's true of it that I preach will be remembered and what's not true will be forgotten, that you would help us all to understand and more than understand, to be transformed in some small way, some shaping of the will, some decision today that makes us more like you and we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

Okay, Ephesians 5:21. It starts with 21. Some of your versions probably don't show it starting with 21, but it really does start with 21, not 22. So Verse 21 says:

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

Now of course that is speaking of Christ in the church.

"In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church- for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

A number of times there in that text Paul talks about Christ and church. It's almost like he is talking about husbands and wives, but then it almost becomes like secondary to his real passion of talking about how we all relate to Jesus Christ. In order to set this into a deeper context, lets go back to Ephesians, Chapter 5 in verses 1 and 2 and look; we could actually go back to Chapter 1, but we don't have time, but 5 kind of gives us a sense, 1 and 2, of what involves everybody no matter whether you are married or not. Let's look at it together. Ephesians 5:1 and 2.

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Now that is speaking to everybody in the church. We are a family. We are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. God is our Father; that we are one in him and this speaks to our identity as children birthed by God, to be loving and sacrificial as Jesus was towards us in the power of the Spirit. And then after he talks about being children of light, we go to Verse 15 and Paul kind of says be very careful then how you live. He is saying remember that is you live wisely and with discernment in all your relationships, you will be able to show God's love, make most of every opportunity. Every opportunity you can to show God's love by how you relate to one another, take it, because that is really what the church is all about. And then we come to 18 and 19 and he says, "Don't get drunk on wine", in other words he is saying look when you get in to life's situations and you get stuck and you feel like bailing out and you don't feel like doing the hard work, hey do not check out on some drug or alcohol, don't go in to somewhere else because that is just a waste, but he says be controlled by a deeper power and again this is in union with Jesus Christ. Be filled with the Holy Spirit; be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, that is the main verb. It's an imperative be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's not a suggestion. It's a command to Christians.

Then follows four verbal adjectives or participles and they basically are speaking, singing, teaching, and submitting. They are all in relationship and take the cue from the lead imperative, that when you yield to the power of the Holy Spirit, these things, these characteristics are going to be part of your life and you are going to be speaking to each other in Psalms and hymns and you are going to be singing in your heart and you are going to be thanking God and submitting too; submitting to each other out of reverence for Christ. And you know what, there are times in all of lives when doing any one of those things is very difficult, which kind of points to the fact that it's the Spirit inside of us creating those things, okay? But I share all of that to emphasize how 5:21 is connected to the empowering of the Spirit and precedes the conversation about wives and husbands. Let's look at that 5:21 again. "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." This really literally says submit to one another out of the fear of Christ; out of the fear of Christ. I will talk about that in a second, but this may be repeated for you, but I don't know, but submit and some versions say be subject to, some versions say subordinate yourselves to, but notice what it says, its to one another out of reverence for the Lord.

Now the Greek word for submit, that's translated in this version as submit, is hupo, prefix meaning under and tasso is a verb meaning to order or to determine and it's a military term, it was originally used as a military term to rank under. Now Paul by using this word is not saying that the church is to be some hierarchal system in which we are all show our place in no uncertain terms as though there is a chain of command. That's not what he is talking about at all. Rather, individual Christians in the power of the Holy Spirit, there is subordinate yourselves, as really what's here because it the middle voice, which simply means that you do it to yourself. And active voice would be, I subordinate you. I am subordinating you. A passive voice is you are being subordinated. You can't help it, but a middle voice says, I subordinate myself. And that's what it is; it's in the middle voice.

And so we are told to submit ourselves to each other out of reverence for Christ. And that submission idea is not just a submitting thing, it's really a coming underneath and lifting up. Have you ever heard people talking about 360 degree leadership that you can even help lead from below those who are above, at least in terms of rank or anything; that you can come underneath and lead from underneath. This comes through in 1st Peter 5:5 where submission and humility start to really look very similar. 1st Peter, 5:5 ties these two together. And here it says,

"Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another."

Notice you can draw a circle around submissive and a circle around humility and connect them; they go together. Why? Because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Remember the magnet illustration? When we are not experiencing the grace gift of submission in our lives toward one another, we are going against the flow of the universe, because God's opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble. We will flow with God's Spirit as we learn to subordinate ourselves one to another out of reverence for Christ.

An early mystic said this, "We were all conceived out of the laughter of the Trinity." I think that is a beautiful statement. And what I think he is trying to say is that we were built and created for relationships. And that, those relationships mirror Father, Son and Holy Spirit all perfectly connected, united, subordinating somehow to one another, which we will never understand, but somehow we see it coming through all the way in the scriptures, how the Father and the Son are related and the Spirit is related to the Father. We were all conceived out of the laughter of the Trinity. That's how important it is to have healthy relationships and not only that, but this is where the whole universe is going. In 1st Corinthians 15, when Paul is starting to talk about the end of time, he shows us this subjection and submission to God's grace and power are where the whole universe is going. Look at that slide. Either look at the slide or you can turn to 1st Corinthians 15, Verses 24 to 28. Where he says, he is talking about Christ coming and it says, "Then the end will come." This is the end of time. "The end will come when he, Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for he has put everything under his feet.

Now, when it says that everything has been put under him, look at all that subjection there, it is clear that this does not include God himself who has put everything under Christ. Look at 29: "When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him, who put everything under him so that God may be all in all." I tell you what, that is a little tough to understand, right. But it really says where the universe is going, doesn't it. Where everything is going and if we are going to be in the flow of what God is doing, then we need to learn that its not a humiliating thing to subject ourselves to one another, it is a very God thing. In fact, the one we serve did this very thing. He lowered himself, it says he regarded equality with God as nothing to be grabbed for. But he lowered himself and he took on a dependent form of human, dependent on God and Jesus said that, he said, "I never do anything on my own initiative. Whatever I see the Father doing, that's what I do."

So, to be non-submissive is to be against everything Godly and that is talking about all of us. That's the college end of the body. We are not to do that because a pastor said so or not to do that because a boss says so or a husband said so; we are not to do that because of the irresistible charm of loving people or because we are just such a magnetic group of people, we are not to be motivated to subject ourselves because of the value we place on another person or the intrinsic worth that we think that they have.

In fact, one of the reasons that we don't submit one to another is because we think we are wrong, each other is wrong sometimes. We are deficient. It says be subject to one another out of fear of Christ. That's why we do it. Now why does it say fear of Christ? Some commentator's think well, maybe that's a little bit of a hint towards again the end of time. Now we know that fear without love is a horrible thing and it is not what God is about with us, nor with what we should be about with one another. In fact, the Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear, to lead us back again to slavery, but the power of love and the Holy Spirit, but it also says we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We all need to have a holy reverence on that fact and how we have treated one another in the body. And we are going to stand before Jesus who lowered himself and took on human form and we are going to talk about why we weren't submissive. That's not going to wash, is it? And so, I take the time to say all of that and I spend an inordinate amount of time on Verse 21, because it sets up everything about marriage, relationships, husbands and wives.

You know even becoming a Christian is about submitting to Jesus. I mean you don't become a Christian because you just pray a prayer or because you walk in to a church. You become a Christian because you realize that God is God and we yield to his love and in yielding to his love we start to understand his grace and power in our lives. In fact, the Bible says a natural person, a person who is not led by the Spirit, not connected by the Spirit yet, his flesh or her flesh cannot even submit to God; it can't even do it if it tried. And so God early in Ephesians makes us alive with Jesus; quickens us and we respond to God, but that response is an act of the will. It's a submission. That's how a person comes in to union with God and Jesus Christ responding to that love.

Now we come to Verse 22 in a couple of words here in this text, there are trip words or words we trip over. Words like, wives submit to your husbands. Now Verse 22, that word submit I s not in the original text. It is understood by Verse 21, be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ, but then it says wives to your husbands. We also trip over the husband is head of the wife. We are going to talk about that. But it says wives submit; now this is not talking about all women to all men everywhere at every time. This is talking about something very unique and dynamic about the gift of marriage and the marital relationship between a husband and a wife. It's a core specific, interdependent dynamic where both submission and agape love are flowing back and forth, one to another.

And wives are to do this just like everybody else in the fellowship is supposed to do this, but in particular in relationship with their husband, that one person whom God has united them with, they are to come underneath and support and be like a mainstay on a sailing ship. I love that image because it doesn't have anything to do with hierarchy or rank, but the mainstay is that taut line that holds the top of the mast to the base of the deck of the ship to keep it steady. I remember in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", do you remember that movie when the lady says, "You know what, the man might be the head, but the wife is the neck turning the head whatever way it wants." Not quite that, but you know what, that mainstay image is kind of like that. There is a supporting function that is so critical because if that is not given to the husband, it will be given somewhere else; maybe to your children.

You know that one of the major complaints in married relationships is that when children come along, loyalties are divided. Now you know what, it has to be that way sometimes, because we are taking care of dependent creatures, but if you look into different aspects of how families get stuck, sometimes you see a wife more supporting a child or a husband more supporting a child, rather than the first order of a wife being a mainstay for the husband and when that is in place then the children are happier and happiest. And so there is nothing subservient about this idea of wives to your husbands, as we are subject to Christ. Nothing whatsoever. It's a beautiful beautiful image and it's rooted on theology of the creation. God says that there could be found no helper suitable for the man. And so, he created a woman from the side, not the top, not the feet, but from the side. And Paul quotes Genesis in this text. And if Paul wanted to say something about the head being like a dominant thing, he could have quoted Genesis 3, "Your desire shall be for your husband and he will rule over you." But he didn't. He quoted from Genesis 2,

"For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife and the two will become one new family, one flesh, one kin, oneness."

God is referred to as a helper in the Bible. There is nothing subservient about being called a helper.

It also says in the scripture that the Holy Spirit is called to be a comforter and a helper. How can that be something low? This qualifies the term in everything. "Be subject to your husbands in everything", because it wouldn't mean if your husband said, okay lets go rob a bank, okay? Then submission does not work. As we are subject to Christ as head in that sense, wives are to be that mainstay for their husbands. And it's easy to understand resentful feelings on the part of women and wives as we read through this, because it seems like everyone else gets a free pass, but wives are told to do this. But that's not what Paul is teaching as you can see from Verse 21. And there is little difficulty doing this when the husband's role and responsibility is really clearly being expressed. And what's that? Verse 25, "Husbands, love your wives." There is another command. Agape love, sacrificial caring love and Paul after 25 says, "Just as Christ loved the church." And then again Paul goes through talking about Christ and the church and he gets so wrapped up in talking about Christ and the church he almost forgets what he is illustrating.

And basically he says that basically Jesus' love for the church is a sanctifying, cleansing, beautifying, nourishing, cherishing thing and that's what the husband is called to lead the relationship toward. If you want to get past this trip word of head, think of it as a colloquial expression, go ahead. Go ahead and love your wife. Go ahead, right? What are you waiting for? Go ahead and love your wife, because that's your call. That is your core responsibility, just like that mainstay responsibility or the core responsibility in a husband wife relationship. The husband is called to be a servant leader, not a dominating leader, a loving nurturing leader. The word cherish in this text means to keep warm. And that brings us full circle back to the whole idea of caring for our wife's emotional well-being. And that's where we hit the wall sometimes because of all that we said about how hard it is for men to connect at an emotional level.

The core calling of a husband is to be a respectful, loving servant leader, not passive, not dominating. Again, Jesus said of the church, the core calling of a wife is being a loving, respectful servant mainstay, not usurping, but supporting. And all of that because we are subject to one another out of reverence for Christ and really if you think of Verse 21 trumping everything else, then there might be times when a husband upon further review might need to submit to something that his wife is suggesting.

Do you remember the emotional needs expressed by that survey, I want to give men, because men are really really deficient at this, four words that will make you the Hank Aaron of husbands, okay. You will be a home-run hitter if you use these four words in anything, anytime in communication between the genders, but especially of the wife. You come home and your wife is harried, and you know what it doesn't matter if your wife works, doesn't work, homemaker, these are core roles, but you come home or whatever and you get together and you both have had a tough day and the woman starts to talk about that day and here is the four words if you use these words you are all good. "Tell me about it." Not, well why did you do that? Well, tell the kids to go to their room when that happens. You know that solve the picture thing? Tell me about it, because that starts to unpack everything that's both content and feeling.

Then, you can get the three words. It goes from four words to three words. This gets easier. "Tell me more." That's it. I am not talking about being manipulative, believe me. I am not talking about that, because honestly guys I am the first one to admit it, I'm really just like any other guy, when it comes to emotions and feelings, I mean I try to get in touch with all that, but when it's in the heat of... look I am Greek, you know Ellen is Italian, you know we have this thing sometimes. It is just part of who we are, but I mean we love each other deeply. We have a tremendous marriage, but you know even tremendous marriages can get stuck sometimes. And it's hard because we just don't' hear one another. Did you know that one of the most unconditionally loving things that you can do for each other is simply to listen for feelings? It's hard, but it is a servant thing to do. I mean it is one of the most subordinating things you can do. And when we do that, we are serving each other so much and we are allowing those feelings to be expressed and unpacked.

Anybody who says, "look I am not going to get help. I don't want people knowing our problems." That is such a non-submissive attitude. It is like a magnet where I am not asking for help. I am not going to put myself down. You know what? Tiger Woods needs a golf coach! If Tiger Woods needs a golf coach, to help him understand his swing and where it might be going off a little bit, who are we to think that we don't need some coaching every now and then in our married relationships? And I will admit to you and I am not ashamed; Ellen and I have done that at times. We have gone and we have asked somebody else to be a coach for us. Sometimes they are referred to as a counselor and sometimes they are referred to as a friend. Sometimes they are referred to as somebody in our small group, but we go and ask help of one another because that is one way of suborting ourselves to each other out of reverence for Christ. And you know what, when we do that, we get unstuck, because somebody can step back and help us to think and hear a little bit. But when we are really clipping together, we don't' need that and we can hear each other just fine.

But you know, every step along the way of life is not always the same and different stressors; if you put enough stress on anybody and they are going to crack and you need the extra help and we need each other for that extra help. Now I don't know of any great marriages that doesn't consist of two great forgivers. We need to forgive each other regularly because our expectations they get missed sometimes. But you know you can be here today, married or not and be fighting feelings of unforgiveness or bitterness. You can be perhaps a woman who has not been treated fairly or a man and your relationship has ended. Well, let me tell you something, you have somebody who will be your husband, his name is Jesus. He is a kinsmen Redeemer. He has bought you and he will love you and he will nourish you and he will cherish you. And one of the great things about the church and about Jesus is that we get to have other chances and get restored, and if you are a guy here and you have been feeling ripped off, then you are a part of the bride of Christ and Jesus knows your every need and cares for you too, and will meet you where you are. And that's why we come to this table. We come to this table to be re-nurtured and re-nourished through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit around these communion elements. So let's do that. Let's pray and gather around the table to be helped again.

Lord, we give you thanks that you are a God who saves, you are a God who comes to us in humility, you are a God who has lowered himself in ways that we just cannot fathom, and so Lord we ask for your Holy Spirit to move among us, to help us wherever we are to be more real with each other, more authentic, more open, more forgiving, recognizing that this is a gift of your spirit and we cannot do it on our own strength. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.

© 2006, Rev. Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org