October 5, 2025
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
Proverbs 18:21 NIV
The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Ephesians 5:33 NIV
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Wives: I want you to look at your Husband and say: “I am committed to giving up myself to serve your needs”.
Ephesians 5:21 NIV
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:22-23 NIV
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do 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.
God created a wife to be a powerful gift that compliments what is missing in a husband.
Genesis 2:18 NIV
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
“helper suitable” = ezer (helper) kenegdo (suitable/opposite)
"The term establishes that the woman (wife) is an indispensable partner who supplies what the man (husband) alone lacks. The context rejects notions of inferiority; the same word later describes the Lord Himself. The marriage union thus images mutual dependence within God-given roles." – Biblehub.com
Psalms 33:20 NIV
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help (ezer) and our shield.
Genesis 2:22 NIV
Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:23 NIV
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
Genesis 2:24-25 NIV
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Then why is this passage so painful to read?
Ephesians 5:24 NIV
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Genesis 3:16 NIV
To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
Lack of mutual submission leads to power struggles instead of partnership.
In broken marriages:
- Husbands demand submission without giving love.
- Wives resist leadership without giving respect.
Proverbs 21:19 NIV
Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and nagging wife.
Proverbs 27:15-16 NIV
A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.
Proverbs 18:22 NIV
He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.
Proverbs 19:14 NIV
Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.
What does it mean to “submit” to my husband as the church submits to Christ?
1. Submission is not coercion or blind obedience, but rather a voluntary, Spirit‑led posture rooted in deep honor for Christ.
Wives: your husband will not be perfect, but Jesus Christ is!
2. Submission does not mean the wife cannot speak, influence, or contribute. It is not silence or passivity, but rather an honoring of the Leadership Mantle God has placed upon your husband.
3. Submission does not mean allowing or accepting evil! The principle is that it is rooted in submission to Christ. That submission must first be obedient to Him.
4. Submission is mutually expressed through humility, servanthood, respect, love, prayer, unity, deference, and sacrifice — not through domination or control (either passive or aggressive).
Wives, ask yourself: Am I showing respect, honoring, and upholding my husband’s role as the Leader in our home?
Am I using my words, behavior, and attitudes to bless and support, or to undermine or disrespect?
Weekend to Remember Familylife.com
- Louisville - October 24-26
- Cincinnati- February 27- March 1
- Indy - March 27-29