Latest / High Level Wife Podcast with Chelsey Holm / Your Marriage Was Designed to Reveal Christ

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Your Marriage Was Designed to Reveal Christ · High Level Wife Podcast with Chelsey Holm

• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the High Level Wife Podcast.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is Chelsea Holm, your hostess, and here we do marriage God's way.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this whole series, we've been talking about God's design.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: We started with authority.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about obedience, submission, headship, order.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But if you think that this series has just been about your marriage, honestly, you've missed a point because marriage has never been the point.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Christ has always been the point.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're talking about your marriage was never about you.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: God's design was always pointing to something greater.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if you remember, Ephesians 5 ends differently than we think because most people stop reading after wives submit husbands love.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul doesn't.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: He finishes with something extraordinary.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 5, 31 and 32, it says, This mystery is profound.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, I'm actually talking about Jesus here.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And marriage was always meant to preach the gospel.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I always tell you, marriage is ground zero.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's an earthy reflection of our heavenly relationship, right?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: The presence that we desire with our spouse is the presence that we must desire above everything else with the Lord, because that's the direction we're moving to.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is what heaven is going to be, being in God's presence always.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to understand that when a husband sacrificially loves, what people are seeing is they're seeing Christ.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when a wife joyfully respects and follows God's design and submits to her husband, what people are actually seeing is the church.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because marriage isn't merely about compatibility, it's theology on display, it's the gospel applied on display.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes the aroma and the fragrance of Christ.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is why the enemy hates marriage, because he hates the gospel.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he is hell bent on taking as many with him.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Hell was not created for us, hell was created for Satan.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he's going to try to take as many of us as many of us with him as possible.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he's like a prowling lion seeking to kill and destroy.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because how do you hurt the father?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: By destroying his children.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So destroying marriage, distorting the picture, confusing roles, blurring Christ, replacing order with chaos, hiding the gospel.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Marriage has always been spiritual warfare.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: But God's design was never arbitrary.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: He did not randomly choose headship, submission, one flesh, covenant.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Every piece of this points somewhere, and it points to Jesus.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was studying yesterday.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I went back to Genesis because I always go back to the original design in Genesis of how God created Adam, how great God created woman, Eve, how he set them apart and the functions that they have, and just the overall design of all of it.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have to go back there.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is fruit in God's design.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because when both a husband and a wife live under God's authority, the fruit begins to grow.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: There's peace, there's security, there's trust and respect, there's safety and joy, there's unity, intimacy.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your children get to witness the gospel lived out.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: They get to experience firsthand a home that reflects Christ, not because life becomes easy, but because everyone knows whose authority they're living under.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And flourishing isn't even the ultimate goal.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that this is where we've got it backwards too.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that when I call people into high-level life, I'm like, if you are a wife who wants to become fully surrendered, spirit-led, and set apart to flourish in marriage by God's design, right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm inviting people to flourishing.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I think even then that we're still missing the point that even flourishing isn't the highest goal.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Glorifying Christ is.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And ironically, when Christ becomes the goal, flourishing becomes the fruit.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is why if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, everything else will be added to you.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is why we go hard and high-level wife of seeking Christ first in all capacities, that we get to the point where there is nothing else I desire in this world besides God, that I seek to be in his presence above everything else, because when I do that, I am then able to overflow into every other area of my life, including marriage.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: John 15 reminds us to abide in me, remain in me, because apart from me, you can do nothing.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that the fruit isn't manufactured by us, it's not created by us.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Fruit grows naturally when we're abiding, when we're connected to the vine.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the same is true in marriage.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you're not going to see flashy gimmicks for high-level wife because we're returning to original design.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're not telling you something new.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are reminding you and calling you back to God's original design for you and your function and identity within marriage, because glorifying him is the point.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your marriage is bigger than your marriage.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Your children are watching.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So are your neighbors and your church.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: The unbelieving world is watching.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: We live in a world now where we could be connected to anybody around the globe at any time, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Whether good or bad, right?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's still a tool of connection.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so people have eyes on us in ways that we never had in decades past.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: So what are we doing with that influence?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: The question isn't are we happy?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: The question is what picture of Christ are we painting?
• 6:37
  unknown: Right.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not talking about externally painting a picture for the world to see and then being completely inconsistent behind closed doors.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about painting a picture that flows from the inward to the outward, not the outward to the inward.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the invitation for you, Christian wife.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: God isn't asking you to submit because he wants less for you, right?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's not trying to break you.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's inviting you into a story much bigger than yourself.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Your marriage becomes a living testimony, or at least it can if you're willing to fully surrender.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: But most are not willing to be broken because they don't understand what happens on the other side of the breaking.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: We can literally become a living testimony of the gospel.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we started with God's authority and then we looked at compromise for this series.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about competing worldviews and remembering God's ways.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget submission, right?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: That word that everyone loves to hate.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about practical obedience.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to see this that every road has led here.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And who is at this road?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because every command, every design, every role, every act of obedience has always pointed back to him.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: The world tells you to build a marriage that makes much of you, right?
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Make yourself happy, follow your heart, you do you.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, God calls you to build a marriage that makes much of Christ.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: To live as Christ and to die as gain.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because long after people forget your vacations, your house, your careers, they are going to remember whether your home reflected Jesus.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: How and why?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's going to impact generations to come.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3:17 tells us, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I have this on my windowsill above my sink.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because it reminds me.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: It reminds me that this includes everything, especially my marriage.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So Christian wife, don't settle for a marriage that merely survives.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't even settle for a marriage that simply flourishes, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not just a good marriage or a pretty good marriage.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Build a marriage that declares to the world Jesus is Lord, that every hurt, hang-up, offense, breaking of intimacy, betrayal, none of it can stand against the power of the cross and our message of reconciliation to first God the Father and then our ability to reconcile to those around us for God to restore the years of the locust beaten.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's done it in my life, and I've seen him do it time and time again in marriage.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that becomes a testimony that he develops in you, taking what the enemy meant for evil and using it for the good and saving of many to be deployed to the world for his glory.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: But are you willing to humble yourself to cry out to God?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do this, God.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to cry out to the only one who can do something about everything.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is Lord, because that has always been God's design.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if this series has shown us anything, it's that God's design is never random.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Every command and role and act of obedience reveals his wisdom and his glory.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's always about the Father being glorified.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said it.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I do what I do to glorify the Father.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the beautiful part.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: When we stop fighting his design and start trusting it, we don't lose our lives.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: We find them.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: For years I toned myself down to make myself fit in, to be more acceptable.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I became a shell of myself.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand what true humility meant.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand what it means for the first will be last and the last will be first.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't understand any of that.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And all of that burden I placed on myself and it crushed me and squeezed the life out of me.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: But walking in God's design is like throwing off all of the things that so easily weigh us down and being able to run full force forward with all speed and not growing weary because we no longer bear the burdens.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that when Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest, for my burden is easy and my yoke is light, and we understand it because we live it.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: So my prayers that you don't leave this series asking, How can I get my husband to change?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, at this point, can we please, can we please move past that?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: That should never be our question at this point.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, I pray that you leave asking, Lord, how can my life and my marriage make much of you?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because when Christ is a sinner, everything else begins to find its proper place.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where fur flourishing begins.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as the goal, but it's as the fruit of lives fully surrendered to King, the King, the one and only King, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole point.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you on the next series.