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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:18 How to part 3. This is the big 1. How to be married. Is anyone excited? I might be preaching to the right crowd0:30 today. There was literally no response whatsoever to the word married until I had to beg for it. Okay. Good. This is going to help somebody. How to be married. Is0:42 anybody, excited about being married? This is your chance, men. I don't know. You're failing at every level. All I hear is women. Okay. Check out waters church dot guide. It's looking like that0:54 if you're online. That way, you can take notes because right on that page is a tab saying today's message, and you can click that tab and fill in the blanks digitally along with us.1:06 So in week 1, I preached how to be a man. By the way, a very popular message, on our YouTube channel. And1:18 I talked about in the beginning of that message 3 people you don't wanna emulate, and 1 of them was the star tight end of the Kansas City Chiefs named Travis Kelce.1:30 He was in the news. He had taken this podium when he was getting his degree at, I think, the University of Cincinnati, and he he picked open a yeah. Here he is. Cracked open a beer can and guzzled1:42 it in front of the crowd, and the provost is just sitting there laughing it up. Well, the another chief got into the news today. I don't know. This week. I don't know if you know who this is. This is Harrison1:54 Butker. He is officially some of you know. Okay. He is officially my favorite chief. Okay? Alright. So this is the kicker.2:06 He's a 3 time Super Bowl champion just like Travis. I I you know, the culture kinda writes my sermons for me, so this is wonderful. This week or last week, he was at a graduation2:18 ceremony for Benedictine College, I believe in Kansas. He spoke before an audience of a grand total of 485 people.2:30 What did he say? Well, he talked about very hateful things. Very, very bigoted things. Things like being married2:42 and staying married and loving your wife and abortion is wrong. Very hateful, evil, vile, unacceptable things. But the2:54 line that blew up across the Internet and on all the talk shows is this this line right here. Let's look at this. Next slide. He said to the women in the audience, some of you3:06 may go on to lead successful careers in the world. But I would venture to guess, this is a guess. It's not a not a statement of fact, but he's guessing that the majority of you are most excited about your3:18 marriage and the children you will bring into this world. And then he went on, my wife Isabelle would be the first to say her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a3:30 mother, end quote. Everybody went to bed, everybody woke up, and the Internet3:41 exploded. For this, he was called a white supremacist. I don't know how you get from that to white supremacy, but somebody can do it. He was called a homophobe, a bigot, wrong side of history. You know all the3:53 things that people say about me. I I was taken aback, and and here's why I bring that up. Because ironically, at the same time that people lashed out, the4:05 NFL condemned his state. The NFL had to make an official statement about that. Condemning them. Condemning those words, the NFL. The NFL is home to 24:17 other players of note. 1 of them is named Rasheed Rice. Rasheed Rice dragged races Lamborghini at 120 miles an hour into a car holding a mother and a young child. And the NFL said4:28 nothing. The NFL is home to Tyreek Hill, who has sired 10 different children through 5 different women, none of whom he married. And the NFL said nothing about that.4:40 The NFL is home to repeatedly numbers of men who beat their wives, and they never condemned that. But dare to say4:52 something that this book says, and everybody flips out. So I bring that up because I just wanna give forewarning to all of those here and online and at our5:04 locations if you've got a very low threshold for microaggressiveness. I'm gonna share some stuff that's very similar. So we're gonna talk about marriage from the5:16 bible. From the bible. Because God created marriage.5:27 It's on the first page of his best selling work. By the way, it's on the last page of his best selling work, the bride of5:39 Christ marries Christ. We're all headed to a great big wedding ceremony. Marriage is a big deal to God.5:50 Jesus performed his first miracle. Where? At a wedding. God is pro marriage. What the world calls traditional6:02 marriage, which is just an which is just nomenclature for saying it's outdated. No. It's not outdated. It's divine. Man and woman for life. That's the protocol.6:14 That's the plan. And so today, let's talk about it. Biblical marriage because we are living in a brainwashed culture. And some of you6:26 who have a hard time with what I say, the reason why you have a hard time with what I say is because you've watched too many episodes of the view. You you you watch too many other people who don't care about6:37 your family, they don't care about your children, they don't care about your life. And so when I actually say truth, it's so foreign to you, you attack the truth teller. That's nothing new. They6:49 crucified my savior. He said, follow me. Take up your cross and follow me. And he said that to me. And so I don't have any problem being hated for telling people what Jesus said. And Jesus absolutely validated and7:00 vindicated 1 man, 1 woman marriage in Matthew 19 when they asked him about divorce. He said, this is how it was made in the beginning. 1 man, 1 woman. That's it for life. And outside of sexual immorality, no7:12 divorce. And everybody's like, that's really, really hard. And Jesus said, yes, it is. He didn't back down for culture's sake. He didn't appease the popular opinion.7:24 He stood for truth and the crucified didn't pour it, but his crucifixion became our salvation. Amen, somebody. So I wanna talk to you about how to be married. 47:36 problems facing marriage. Take the notes out. Write these things down. 4 problems facing men. 4 problems facing women. Now today, 4 problems facing marriage. We're gonna get to child raising in the next7:47 message. So number 1, the pursuit of pleasure. The pursuit of pleasure is destroying marriages because today, many7:59 people want to get married for themselves. And I want to drop a truth bomb right now right off the bat. Marriage is not there to make you happy.8:12 I know that sounds so foreign to our culture. Because, again, you've been brainwashed by Jennifer Aniston movies. There's 1 that's worth watching. It's called the breakup. I love that movie because8:24 as as they say, this is the rom com where all the other rom coms leave you off, and it's a very eye opening movie. Marriage is not about you.8:37 It's not about your pleasure. It's not about your happiness. It's not about you getting what you want from somebody else. It's not about somebody celebrating you. If so many people put so much money into the wedding8:49 day, I would say have a very minimal wedding and save your money for the marriage and the house. How about that? I'm so proud of my9:00 wedding. My wedding 24 years ago cost 5000 dollars, the whole thing. And that's not something that I am ashamed of at all. Don't don't go9:12 big on the first day. First off, you won't even remember it. And you might, ladies, have to take some pills just to get through it, which will further exacerbate the9:24 fact that you won't remember it. Money wasted. So pleasure. I want my wife to do this. I want my husband to be more like stop that. Marriage is not there9:36 to make you happy. What is there for, pastor? We'll get to that. Number 2, the misconception of love is killing marriages. Love is not an emotion. Love is9:48 not an emotion. Love is an action. Love is something that you do. You demonstrate love. You you show it through what10:00 you do and how you act and how you treat somebody. The Bible says about Jesus that God, verse 8 of Romans 5, God demonstrated his love for us in this. He10:11 demonstrated his what? His love for us. That while we were sinners, Christ died for us. While you weren't worthy, Jesus died for you.10:23 That's that's how you know you didn't earn salvation. He died when he knew you were a wreck. He died when he knew you would resist him for years. Some of you are still resisting him right now. And someday10:35 he's gonna put his hooks in your heart. And even now, I want you to know that he still demonstrated love for you at the cross while you still hate him. He does this because he is love. He didn't feel love10:47 toward you. He wasn't like, oh, I'm just so hopelessly, romantically loving of these people. He just said, this is what love looks like. When you lay down your life for what you love, and he chooses love.10:59 Some of you ladies and men who are married to each other, you stop choosing love at some point. It's time to re choose love actively and visibly in showing them you love your11:12 spouse. What happens is you're young and you date and you have romantic feelings, and young people listen to me. The feeling stage of life where if your feelings drive everything,11:24 eventually that dissipates. All the adults can tell you this. Feelings are really high barometers of how you act when you're young. That's why when you tell a kid, hey, clean up your room, he says, don't feel like it.11:36 But when you grow up, you have to do it because it doesn't matter how you feel, and you put feelings away. Amen? Well, what happens when you meet somebody is that you feel. It's all about feelings, and so when you meet11:46 somebody and you romantically fall in love with them, you say, I fell in love with them. You put the romantic love goggles on. That's what you do. The problem is there's no prescriptive lens in this thing. Okay? So you11:56 are all very blurry right now. I can barely see you, and this is love. This is love when you're falling in love. I can't help falling in love.12:08 You know, this is this is the mantra of our age. Love is this, you know, thing that we just we just fell at you. I'm divorcing my wife for this other woman. Why? We just fell in love. Look, anybody that12:20 anything that you can fall into, you can climb out of. Watch out about the language, the lingo, the nomenclature of love in this culture. It will kill you.12:33 In the words of the great theologian, Dean Martin. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie.12:46 When you've drunk so much wine that the world starts to shine. Bells will ring, tingle, ling, ling, ling, vida bellow. Harps will play, yippee yippee yippee yippee12:58 yippee13:14 When you dance down the street with the clouds at your feet, you're in love. That's not love. That is an acid trip.13:27 Dean was licking mushrooms. I'm telling you right now. Love is not a feeling.13:40 It is an action. Because when you take these off and you put these on, these stay on right through the wedding ceremony, through the13:51 honeymoon, and for the first, you know, day and a half after. Then God puts you some prescriptive lenses on, and you're like, who did I14:02 marry? I made a horrible mistake. Number 3, the tolerance of sin. The tolerance of sin is14:14 destroying marriage. What the devil loves to do, he has you understand that the devil cannot invent anything? The devil is not a creator. God is a creator. The devil is a14:25 manipulator. He has been manipulating what God creates or says from the Garden of Eden. Did God really say manipulation, manipulation, manipulation? So what do you think he's gonna do with marriage?14:37 What do you think he's gonna do with men? With gender? These are what Paul calls the doctrines of demons.14:51 In the ancient world, the demon spirits they worshiped were transgender, were male and female switching on a spectrum. All this stuff is coming back to America. All of this stuff is coming back to15:03 America through demonic influence. I'm so glad that we have so many godly men who open carry in this church. Amen. But,15:17 yeah, just be prepared someday. Just be prepared. Who knows? We have to tell truth. And this is what the devil has been doing with every part of our society for15:29 generations. To confuse our young, to destroy our children. And if you resist it, you are now15:40 anathema to the culture. This is an enemy of our soul we are fighting, not people. We don't hate anybody, but we15:52 teach the truth and let God provide the increase to his word. Amen? So we've gotta be clear. 1 man, 1 woman16:04 for life is God's prescription, and we have tolerated our way right into this insanity, and we're bearing the fruit of it in the next generation. Number 4, the16:16 idolatry of self. The idolatry of self is killing marriage. It's called the me marriage.16:29 I want my life a certain way. Well, you can't have it that way. And we are a self e culture. Always looking at what what somebody can do for16:41 us, make us what we want us to be. Paul said to Timothy in the last days, men will be lovers of self.16:53 That we focus everything on who we are and what we want, that's gonna kill your marriage. You understand? You're gonna kill your marriage that way. I I think that some of you today, the sermon could end right now.17:05 Your marriage could get better right now if you did this. Start acting like the biggest problem in your marriage is you.17:19 Oh, no. No. No. No, pastor. You don't know who I live with? You don't know what he's like. Oh, you don't know. He's terrible. She doesn't love me enough. She doesn't give me I get it. I get it. I17:31 understand. They are also selfish sinners too. But watch out for arrogance. Watch out for holier than thou. Watch out for17:42 pride. That's a killer. You see, we do this in the church. We contempt we compartmentalize sins. There's really, really bad visible sins, like, you know,17:53 adultery and, you know, homosexuality and all these things that and then we say, know, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, very visible, bad, bad, bad. And then over here, we got on this other side of the sin18:05 spectrum, all the sins that the church is okay with, like pride and gossip and slander and arrogance and judgmentality. Hello? We're okay with those sins. They come18:17 right into the building every single day. And we do this in marriage as well. He cheated on me. It's unforgivable, and God gives me a way out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He does. But but but wait. Wait. Wait. Were you completely18:28 innocent in the relationship? Oh, see, we don't talk about that. We just wanna make some sins worthy of more scorn than others. And when we do that, we're doing the game that the Pharisees played18:40 in Jesus' day. You understand that the religious people, those people over here with the pride and the arrogance, those were the people that actually asked for Jesus to be crucified. The people over here on this end of18:51 the spectrum were the people who love Jesus because they knew they were filthy sinners. They knew they needed help. And watch out that you don't bring that into your into your marriage because it's going to wreck you.19:03 Self will stain your spirit and bring such catastrophe to your marriage. And and and and it's both ways, and it's not just19:14 him, ladies. It's not and it's not just her, men. It's both of you. Your marriage could start healing today if you start identifying that the greatest problem your marriage is facing19:26 is your own selfishness. Who is quiet? Pastor's coming with some words. Those are the attacks19:38 on marriage. Let's talk about the solution. We're gonna go back to the blueprint. If I wanna know how something works, I talk to the creator. Do you know who knows how this thing works more than anybody? Do you know who19:48 who knows how this thing works more than anybody? No. Not the devil. He's not a creator. Who who knows how this thing works better than anybody? Tim Cook.20:00 He is the CEO of Apple. He has absolute control over the design elements of this device. He knows how it works. Maybe better said Steve Jobs,20:13 even though, you know, he's he's dead now. But maybe he knows how this works. So if I wanna know how this works, I should talk to the per best person to talk to is the person that creates it. If you wanna know how20:23 marriage works, the best person to talk to is the 1 who created it. So let's look at his blueprint. Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 and 28, it says, God created man20:35 in his own image, in the likeness of God. He created him male and female. He created them, and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion. Have20:47 dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the beast, every living thing that moves on the earth. Somebody say have dominion. The reason why I say ask you to say that is just back up if20:58 you got your Bibles open. Back up in Genesis chapter 1 to after God created the heavens and the earth, he spoke the light into existence. He separated the day from the night.21:09 He separates the land from the waters. And then what happens? And this is how creation goes down. 6 days of creation. Here's how it goes down. The first 3 days, God creates spaces. The second 3 days, God fills those21:20 spaces. The let me say that again. The first 3 days, God creates spaces. The second 3 days, days 4 to 6, God fills those spaces. Got it? So the first day, he creates light, but on the fourth day, he creates21:32 the sun and the moon to govern the night and the day. The light and the day. Got it? The night and the day. So the sun is this glorious huge ball of energy in the sky. It's way bigger than21:43 earth. It's massive. We can't even look at it. It's that powerful. It's that powerful. Can't even look at it. And God says, let the sun rule the day. Have dominion over the day. How many think21:55 light is pretty important? Very important. So God puts a glorious ball of power in the sky to govern the light. Then he puts22:07 the moon over the night, but the night the moon is only radiating the light of the sun back to the earth. And thank God for the moon at night. Amen? It's beautiful. Right? That's when it hits your eye like a pig's pie22:16 and all this stuff. So you had these glorious balls that got these glorious beings in the heavens that are given dominion. And then that same language is picked up22:28 here in verse 27 and 28 when God says, now let man and woman, let marriage, let this union have dominion over the22:40 entire earth. What I'm trying to tell you is we gotta have a big picture, wide angle view of marriage. The22:52 reason why I say that is because so much preaching about marriage is just advice. And and and I've done it myself, and and and I've heard it myself. I could23:03 advise you all day. Like, communicate more or serve each other more or hold hands more23:15 or women have more sex with him or men help around the house more often and pick up the kids and fold the laundry. And all those things, have a date night. Wonderful pieces of23:27 advice. But here's what I know about advice. I could give you that advice. You'll do it for about a week, and then you'll stop doing it. I want to give you a picture for the why behind the what.23:39 A big wide angle picture. Write this down so I know you're getting it. In marriage in God sorry. In God, marriage has a world shaping mandate that as the sun23:50 governs the day and as the moon governs the night, marriage governs this world. Marriage governs the future of24:02 our world. Moms and dads who are married, listen to me. You hold the future in your hands.24:14 Change doesn't come from Washington DC. It comes from moms and dads loving each other and staying24:26 together and raising their children together in the fear and the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can change this world in 1 generation of24:37 godly men and women. That's why I love seeing all the little babies at our church. People are popping babies out left, right, and center. I am so24:49 excited. Keep popping them out. Because we are gonna out breed the pagans. We are gonna build a generation of God fearing Jesus loving25:01 gospel saturated children to the glory of the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. When I was 1225:12 years old, I was at my best friend's house. And I bring this up because last week, my best friend 1 of my best friends in childhood passed away in the middle of the night25:25 suddenly. And I remember the day that I was at his house, and we were all 12 and 11. And his mom came in their mom came in25:37 and said, dad's not coming home anymore. He had been committing adultery for 12 years. And then he found a woman and he left. And I watched the25:48 disintegrating effects of that moment on the 4 kids in that home for the last 30 years of my life. It trickled into each 1 of their26:00 hearts. 3 of those children have married and divorced. 1 of them never married. Now 1 of them has passed away. And I remember that day. I still it's emblazoned in my head. I can remember where we were26:12 seated when their tears just burst out of their eyeballs at the thought of what they were about to experience. And the26:24 generational impact. Friends, listen. The generational impact of that man's tolerance for sin,26:37 redefinition of love, self centered pursuit of pleasure is like an atomic bomb that radiates out.26:51 And it's not an excuse for him, but that 1 day many years ago, a stranger started showing up at his house. An older gentleman started showing up at his house and giving him and his family all kinds of gifts27:03 every Christmas. And he always wondered about it. Who is this guy? And he found out that actually that guy was his biological father27:15 and that his sister was also the product of a different man. And the carnage, the collateral damage, listen, from27:26 1 generation to another. I'm begging you please to think about that. When you feel27:38 tempted to serve yourself in any way in marriage. And I look at my life and I say and you look at me every week and every location. You look at me and you say, what a man27:50 of god. Can I tell you why can I tell you why I'm here? Because my mom and dad didn't do that. My mom and dad, this August28:02 fifteenth, are celebrating 60 years of marriage. And listen, all my life, I have28:14 said to God, why am I the 1 that had that kind of life and they were the ones that had that kind of it doesn't make sense. I am who28:25 I am. You are blessed through what I do because 2 people stayed together and loved each other and served each other and dragged their kids to church even when they didn't want to. And I preach the28:37 gospel because of their generational impact. And I'm trying to get you to see a mandate for your marriage is bigger than holding hands and date nights and28:48 communicating and having your needs met. The world is counting on you being a man of God and a woman of God for children of God to the glory of God.29:01 That's what this is about. We are fighting a battle, and the battle is won in homes that get out of the self centered evil29:13 generation and consecrate their hearts to God. I'm telling you, ball's in our court. So 429:25 4 reasons or 4 ways to be married. Number 1, consider it blessed. Consider it blessed. If you're married, you can say it quietly. Just say, I'm blessed. You29:38 are blessed. The bible says in Genesis 1 28, and God blessed them. First thing he does, makes man a movement in his image, and God blesses them. The29:50 word bless in he in in the Hebrew is barach. It means to endow with power for success, for prosperity, and longevity. And all the research shows30:02 that married people, by and large, compared to their single counterparts, are healthier, are wealthier, are happier, live30:14 longer, and this is particularly true for men. Men, you guys gotta know something. Marriage is actually better for you than it is for women. You30:26 that was a layup, though. That was like a softball. She said we know. Men you know, when when you get older,30:38 if you're married, you're smarter, healthier, thinner, wealthier, and better looking30:51 than your single counterparts. Exhibit A. You gotta know why this is why married men are so attractive to women. It's true. Ladies,31:03 this this means that when you find a somewhat attractive man, marry him. You'll make him better looking. Consider him your31:15 project because my wife filters how I look. She filters what I eat. She filters how I act, how I speak.31:27 Marriage is a good thing. Proverbs 18 22 says, he who finds a wife finds a good thing. Husbands, if you're sitting next to your wives, you better underline good thing twice and let her see you do it. Let her see you do31:39 it. She's a good thing. The phrase ball and chain should not be in the mouth of a Christian husband. The old lady should not be31:51 in the mouth of a Christian husband. Jokes about your wife in the presence of other men should not be. Derogatory jokes. I know there's lighthearted jokes. Derogatory jokes should not be in your lips32:04 in in a Christian husband. Same goes for the ladies. Publicly, not tear him down. Do that behind closed doors because32:16 I know you're going to. Don't make jokes about each other in front of other people. This has always been hard for me. This is what Cheryl has done for me. She has she has put32:28 a guard over my mouth. I don't know if you know this about me, but I have a hard time being sensitive. Now God can use32:39 that because I don't care what you think. Right? That could be a good thing. But how many know too much of that could be a bad thing and the devil could use it? So God has given me a wife who after I preach says,32:51 Tim, why did you say that? And I say, I'm preaching the word, woman. And she said, no.33:03 No. And I'm like, and she's right. She shapes me. She makes me better. You know you're getting better if33:15 they drive you crazy. That's not pain without a purpose. That's pain with a promise. You know that old phrase iron sharpens iron?33:27 It applies to your marriage. That's you 2 sharpening each other. Friction sharpens the iron. It's a blessing to be married. Number 2, understand its purpose.33:40 So it's a blessing to be married, and then I have a purpose. If I'm married, I have a purpose. I have a purpose in marriage. God put marriage on the earth with a purpose. What is it? Letter a. Marriage is for33:50 procreation. Marriage is for you to get busy and make babies. D I n k s, dual income, no34:02 kids. These are people playing house. Get busy. Make babies, if you can. I know that the world will say, see, this is why we need to redefine34:14 marriage because it's not about making babies because there are some infertile people out there. We don't redefine cars because some of them can't drive. Why should we redefine marriage? Something as powerful and34:25 important in marriage. Because a few can't produce children. By the way, they could adopt children. And I wanna say to anybody who's ever adopted or thinking about adopting, do you understand that adoption is the picture34:36 that the Bible uses concerning our salvation? We are adopted into the family of God. When you adopt a child, you are acting like God. You are displaying the gospel.34:49 Okay? Have babies. If you don't want kids, don't get married. Because you could have friends outside of marriage. You can. And when you get married,35:01 this is what God says in Genesis 1 28. God said to them, the first word, to bless them. First words. First commandment of the bible. Be fruitful and multiply.35:13 Fill the earth. Go have babies. Make them. Then it says this in Genesis chapter 9 verse 1, be fruitful and multiply after the flood. Genesis 9 7, be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 35 11, be fruitful and35:24 multiply. Over and over and over again, God says, fill this earth with kids. Don't you understand? This is why you can't be a climate alarmist. Because at the heart of the climate35:36 alarmism in our culture is a hatred for humans. And now all the research is coming out. We have a depopulation problem. A depopulation problem. A replacement problem.35:48 We're not gonna have enough kids to supply the needs for the generation that's getting older. Make babies. This is God's idea. And time and time again, mankind thinks they're smarter than36:00 God, and they're not. Having children is a tremendous opportunity and blessing. And gentlemen, the best contribution that you can make to the world is not36:11 building a multimillion dollar business, or driving a Ferrari, or having a 5000 square foot, 6 bedroom, 3 bathroom house. No. It is raising a godly36:23 son or daughter. It's the greatest contribution. They will live after you. They will tell people about you. They will have stories of who you were and what you were like36:34 for generations. It's the greatest greatest contribution you can make. Number 2, marriage is for cooperation. Now we have to work together to increase.36:47 Look again at verse 28. He says, be fruitful and multiply now, pick it up, and fill the earth and subdue it, and, again, have dominion. Rule rule over the earth. Cultivate. Theologians36:59 call this the creation mandate that we take the natural resources of this earth and we refabricate them for god for human flourishing, and we, you know, develop machines and37:10 technologies and medicines and, you know, healthy foods, and and we're supposed to do that. And there's always a touch and go with that because we we're still trying to figure it out because the world has fallen, and37:20 we're fallen, and sin taints everything. But we should be working together as husband and wife in these things, cooperating to build a fabulous house. I think37:32 about how God put Adam and the woman in the garden together to rule over that. Some people say that the men and and only the men should work, and the woman should just stay home. That's actually37:44 not actually in the Bible. Did you know that? It's not actually in the Bible. Proverbs 31 talks about the noble wife. Let me just give you some verses from Proverbs 31, wives. Listen.37:56 Verse 16, she considers a field and buys it. She considers a field and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. Verse 18. She perceives that her38:07 merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. Proverbs 31 23. Her husband is known at the gates when he sits among the elders. Because why? Because she's given him a great reputation. Proverbs 3138:19 28. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. Please don't tell me the Bible is misogynistic. It is all about the empowerment38:31 of both male and female to cultivate and develop and work the land that God has given us for increase and profitability. But I think we do this best when we do it together as husband and wife. Wherever you I38:43 think the industrial revolution took fathers out of the homes and separated wives from husbands to our own detriment. And kinda thank God for Zoom and conference calls now online where we can38:54 actually stay home a little bit more and maybe work out a little bit more time at home so that we can raise our children in the fear and the admonition of the Lord in the presence of each other, and they can watch us39:02 work together. Now my wife and I are blessed enough that we get to lead this church together. I do the preaching, and she does a lot of other leading, and she does a lot of other cultivating and planting into the39:11 ministry of this church, and I can't do it without her. And I thank God for her. We do it together. It is a blessing, and our kids have watched us do it together. They've watched us fight over it. They've watched us win39:20 through it. They've watched us lose through it, but they've watched us hold on together through it. And I think if you can get there ladies and gentlemen, if you can get to a place where you both work together at theShow more
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