Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - The Children of Caesar Part 2
Transcript
- 0:32Speaker 1: In my last time with you this weekend, We get
- 0:36Speaker 1: to consider getting your house in order, getting our houses
- 0:42Speaker 1: in order. And I want to share for you basically
- 0:45Speaker 1: what I'll be sharing with you tonight is kind of
- 0:47Speaker 1: an overview of a book that'll be out really in
- 0:53Speaker 1: a week and a half. And the title of that
- 0:55Speaker 1: is Family Driven Faith. And Family Driven Faith is basically
- 0:58Speaker 1: an exposition of the Deuteronomy 6 principles of family discipleship.
- 1:04Speaker 1: We are losing faith. young people in droves. The Bible
- 1:08Speaker 1: teaches us what to do about that. The Bible teaches
- 1:11Speaker 1: us the things that we haven't been doing that would
- 1:14Speaker 1: explain much of that. So I want us to consider
- 1:18Speaker 1: those things here in Deuteronomy chapter 6 today. If you
- 1:21Speaker 1: have your Bibles with you, would you open your Bibles
- 1:24Speaker 1: with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6. The statutes, the rules
- 1:31Speaker 1: that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you.
- 1:35Speaker 1: that you may do them in the land to which
- 1:38Speaker 1: you are going over to possess it, that you may
- 1:41Speaker 1: fear the Lord your God, you and your sons and
- 1:44Speaker 1: your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments,
- 1:49Speaker 1: which I command you all the days of your life,
- 1:52Speaker 1: that your days may be long. Hear, therefore, O Israel,
- 1:56Speaker 1: and be careful to do them, that it may go
- 1:58Speaker 1: well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as
- 2:02Speaker 1: the Lord, the God of your father's, has promised you
- 2:06Speaker 1: and the land flowing with milk and honey. Now just
- 2:09Speaker 1: a word here. Remember as Moses stands here before the people,
- 2:13Speaker 1: they have been delivered from Egypt and they have come
- 2:16Speaker 1: to the promised land. They have had an opportunity 40
- 2:19Speaker 1: years before this time to possess the promised land, but
- 2:22Speaker 1: they did not do so. They sent spies in to
- 2:25Speaker 1: scout out the promised land. The spies came back with
- 2:28Speaker 1: two separate reports. The majority report was the land is
- 2:33Speaker 1: flowing with milk and honey. In other words, it has
- 2:35Speaker 1: everything that God promised us would be there. It is
- 2:39Speaker 1: a prosperous land. However, the people there are like giants.
- 2:44Speaker 1: We look like grasshoppers in our own sight before them.
- 2:49Speaker 1: The first report, the majority report, was a fearful report. Well,
- 2:53Speaker 1: then the Joshua and Caleb report, the minority report, they
- 2:58Speaker 1: didn't have sense enough to be scared. Yes, the land is.
- 3:03Speaker 1: Everything God promised it would be. And yes, the people
- 3:06Speaker 1: there are impressive and frightening. But yes, God can take them.
- 3:13Speaker 1: Now we say amen. That's not what happened. The people
- 3:18Speaker 1: believed the majority report and they were fearful. And in
- 3:22Speaker 1: the midst of their fear, they did not possess the land.
- 3:25Speaker 1: So God punished the disobedient, faithless generation. But he was
- 3:31Speaker 1: merciful to them. He allowed them to die off. while
- 3:35Speaker 1: wandering in the desert for 40 years. Now, you think,
- 3:39Speaker 1: that doesn't sound very merciful to me. Well, if you
- 3:43Speaker 1: don't think that sounds merciful, ask Ananias and Sapphira. Oh,
- 3:48Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you can't. God killed them. Not let them die.
- 3:54Speaker 1: God killed them. As a matter of fact, one of
- 3:57Speaker 1: my favorite sermons, I don't know if it's my favorite sermon,
- 3:59Speaker 1: it's my favorite title that I've ever had the privilege
- 4:02Speaker 1: of preaching, was the Sermon from Acts chapter 5, and
- 4:04Speaker 1: the title was, The God Who Will Kill You. So
- 4:12Speaker 1: many people, you know, the God on the left side
- 4:14Speaker 1: of the book, he's mean. But the God on the
- 4:16Speaker 1: right side, the God in the New Testament, he's nice
- 4:18Speaker 1: and he's sweet and he's not like that. You know what?
- 4:21Speaker 1: Ananias and Sapphira, right smack dab in the middle of
- 4:24Speaker 1: the New Testament. Right there. There he is. Took him out.
- 4:28Speaker 1: So 40 years wandering in the desert, I think they
- 4:30Speaker 1: would have taken that. Mercifully, they wander for 40 years.
- 4:36Speaker 1: The new generation rises up and they're about to take
- 4:38Speaker 1: the land. Moses seizes upon this opportunity to prepare his
- 4:43Speaker 1: people to go in and possess the land and to
- 4:46Speaker 1: continue to live as the distinct, as the distinguished people
- 4:50Speaker 1: of God. And as he prepares, he preaches a series
- 4:54Speaker 1: of sermons. And in this series of sermons, he gives
- 4:57Speaker 1: the law again, thus the name Deuteronomy. Deutero, to repeat, namas,
- 5:03Speaker 1: for law. And so as he gives the law again
- 5:07Speaker 1: to the people, to prepare them to go into this land,
- 5:10Speaker 1: to possess this land, we see his words here in
- 5:14Speaker 1: Deuteronomy 6. And he begins with this statement about them
- 5:19Speaker 1: possessing the land and being faithful in the land. And
- 5:23Speaker 1: we read, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the
- 5:26Speaker 1: Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your
- 5:30Speaker 1: God with all your heart with all your soul and
- 5:32Speaker 1: with all your might. These words that I'm commanding you
- 5:36Speaker 1: today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them
- 5:38Speaker 1: diligently to your children and shall talk of them when
- 5:41Speaker 1: you sit in your house and when you walk by
- 5:43Speaker 1: the way. And when you lie down and when you rise,
- 5:47Speaker 1: you shall bind them as a sign on your hand
- 5:50Speaker 1: and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You
- 5:53Speaker 1: shall write them on the doorpost of your house and
- 5:55Speaker 1: on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings
- 5:58Speaker 1: you into the land that he swore to your fathers,
- 6:00Speaker 1: to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give you with
- 6:03Speaker 1: great and good cities that you did not build and
- 6:06Speaker 1: houses full of all good things that you did not
- 6:08Speaker 1: fill and cisterns that you did not dig and vineyards
- 6:11Speaker 1: and olive trees that you did not plant. And when
- 6:14Speaker 1: you eat and are full, then watch yourself. Lest you
- 6:20Speaker 1: forget the Lord who brought you out of the land
- 6:22Speaker 1: of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is
- 6:25Speaker 1: the Lord your God you shall fear Him you shall serve,
- 6:29Speaker 1: and by his name you shall swear. You shall not
- 6:32Speaker 1: go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who
- 6:35Speaker 1: are around you. For the Lord your God in your
- 6:38Speaker 1: midst is a jealous God. Lest the anger of the
- 6:41Speaker 1: Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy
- 6:45Speaker 1: you from off the face of the earth. Amen. Hallelujah.
- 6:50Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. His anger will be kindled and he'll
- 6:56Speaker 1: destroy you from off the face of the earth. By
- 6:59Speaker 1: the way, they just saw that over a 40-year period.
- 7:03Speaker 1: They saw a generation wiped out. They know that God
- 7:07Speaker 1: means business. But how do we go about this process
- 7:11Speaker 1: of getting our houses in order? When we start with
- 7:14Speaker 1: that multi-generational vision that we had there in those first
- 7:17Speaker 1: few verses, beginning here in verse 4, I want to
- 7:20Speaker 1: give you several principles from this segment in Deuteronomy chapter six,
- 7:26Speaker 1: that we must embrace if we're to get our houses
- 7:29Speaker 1: in order. The first is this. If we're to get
- 7:31Speaker 1: our houses in order, we must worship God without rivals.
- 7:36Speaker 1: We must worship God without rivals. Verse four, very powerful
- 7:41Speaker 1: and potent verse. It's difficult to translate in the English.
- 7:45Speaker 1: It's almost like a play on words. Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu,
- 7:50Speaker 1: Yahweh Echad. Hear, O Israel, Yahweh, your Elohim is one Yahweh.
- 7:55Speaker 1: It almost doesn't even come across in the English, the
- 7:58Speaker 1: sort of word picture that's being painted here. Listen to me, Israel. Yahweh,
- 8:04Speaker 1: your Elohim, one Yahweh. Yahweh, covenant-keeping God. Elohim is an
- 8:09Speaker 1: interesting word there because when you talk about pagan nations
- 8:12Speaker 1: that worship many gods, that word Elohim is actually plural
- 8:16Speaker 1: when you take it out of its immediate context here. ironically,
- 8:20Speaker 1: they are about to go in and possess a land
- 8:22Speaker 1: where people worship multiple gods, where people are not faithful
- 8:27Speaker 1: to the one true God. It's almost as though you
- 8:30Speaker 1: hear here echoing, you're about to go into a land
- 8:32Speaker 1: where they have a God for everything, but you don't
- 8:36Speaker 1: forget that you have a God who is everything. Yahweh,
- 8:40Speaker 1: your Elohim is one Yahweh. He is God. All the
- 8:44Speaker 1: gods of the peoples, they're idols. They don't even have gods.
- 8:49Speaker 1: They worship things that are not God. If you want
- 8:53Speaker 1: to have your house in order, the first thing we
- 8:55Speaker 1: have to do is worship God without rivals. The moment
- 8:58Speaker 1: we allow rivals in, we get in trouble. The moment
- 9:02Speaker 1: we allow rivals in, we begin to fall into some
- 9:05Speaker 1: of the same things that Israel fell into early on
- 9:09Speaker 1: in the midst of the promised land. How do you
- 9:12Speaker 1: come to a place where you worship the pagan gods
- 9:17Speaker 1: to the degree that That like the pagans, you will
- 9:20Speaker 1: take your children and burn them on an altar. A
- 9:25Speaker 1: statue with his hands held out. Burn your children on
- 9:30Speaker 1: that altar in order to appease These gods who supposedly
- 9:36Speaker 1: bring you the rain and the produce. How do you
- 9:39Speaker 1: do that? How do you forget Yahweh your Elohim is
- 9:42Speaker 1: one Yahweh and all of a sudden become a people
- 9:45Speaker 1: who are willing to sacrifice Your children so that you
- 9:49Speaker 1: can somehow appease a God that is designed to bring
- 9:53Speaker 1: you greater material wealth How do you do that? The
- 9:58Speaker 1: same way you do this. You're young. And if you
- 10:03Speaker 1: have that baby, you won't be able to finish school.
- 10:07Speaker 1: You won't be able to get as good a job.
- 10:10Speaker 1: You won't have as much prosperity. But if you will
- 10:14Speaker 1: sacrifice that baby on the altar of Baal, you will
- 10:19Speaker 1: open up your opportunity for greater prosperity. Different idol, same result.
- 10:31Speaker 1: We worship the God of prosperity. And in many instances
- 10:36Speaker 1: in our culture, we're willing to slaughter our children in
- 10:40Speaker 1: order to do so. We worship the God of convenience.
- 10:45Speaker 1: How much, how bad is it? I'll tell you how
- 10:47Speaker 1: bad it is. We marveled as science was able to
- 10:51Speaker 1: look into the womb and detect certain maladies. Now, one
- 10:55Speaker 1: of the maladies that we can detect is whether or
- 10:58Speaker 1: not a child has a chromosomal problem. When this happened,
- 11:03Speaker 1: my ears perked up. Why do you want to be
- 11:06Speaker 1: able to detect this chromosomal problem? Well, we know why.
- 11:09Speaker 1: Because now, here's what we know for a fact. 90%
- 11:13Speaker 1: of all Down syndrome babies are aborted and not given life. 90%.
- 11:20Speaker 1: Why is it important to know about this chromosomal problem?
- 11:24Speaker 1: Because that baby is an inconvenience. Here's what I want
- 11:30Speaker 1: to know. What happens when we can determine eye color
- 11:34Speaker 1: and you prefer blue to brown? What happens when we
- 11:39Speaker 1: can determine intellect and you want to wait for your genius?
- 11:46Speaker 1: Because the rule is you only get two. A boy
- 11:48Speaker 1: for me and a girl for you, and praise the Lord,
- 11:49Speaker 1: we're finally through, okay? That's the unwritten rule. There's one
- 11:53Speaker 1: instance wherein you get to have a third child. If
- 11:56Speaker 1: your first two are of the same sex, we'll let
- 11:58Speaker 1: you try one more time to get the other sex,
- 12:00Speaker 1: but that's it. That's the unwritten rule in our culture.
- 12:04Speaker 1: And anyone in this room who walks into a church
- 12:07Speaker 1: with five, six, seven, eight, ten kids, I didn't say
- 12:09Speaker 1: the grocery store. I'm talking about the church. Christian folks.
- 12:14Speaker 1: You walk into the church with five, six, seven, eight, nine,
- 12:16Speaker 1: ten kids, they will look at you like you have
- 12:19Speaker 1: a third eye in the middle of your head. Why?
- 12:26Speaker 1: Because we worship the God of this age, the God
- 12:30Speaker 1: of ease, the God of comfort. We worship a rival God.
- 12:34Speaker 1: That's the circumstance in which we find ourselves. That's where
- 12:43Speaker 1: we are. We don't believe anymore that Yahweh, our Elohim,
- 12:49Speaker 1: is one Yahweh. We're in the midst of this culture
- 12:53Speaker 1: and we fit far too well. And if we want
- 12:58Speaker 1: our houses in order, one of the things that we
- 13:01Speaker 1: must do is fight with ferocity to worship God without rivals.
- 13:09Speaker 1: Our God is God. He's not running for God. He's
- 13:13Speaker 1: God all by himself. He was the only one around
- 13:16Speaker 1: when the elections were held, and there's never going to
- 13:18Speaker 1: be a recount. He's God. Amen? This means a great
- 13:31Speaker 1: deal to me, having grown up in the circumstance that
- 13:34Speaker 1: I did. I told you, having been raised by a
- 13:37Speaker 1: single teenage Buddhist mother, not having grown up around Christians
- 13:41Speaker 1: or Christianity, the first time I ever heard the gospel
- 13:43Speaker 1: was my freshman year in college. And so this idea
- 13:46Speaker 1: of idolatry means something to me. I remember going over
- 13:49Speaker 1: to a friend's house, and this friend of mine was
- 13:53Speaker 1: a short-term missionary, took several short-term mission trips, and his
- 13:56Speaker 1: ministry was taking people with him on these short-term mission trips,
- 13:59Speaker 1: and he collected a lot of things. And I walked in,
- 14:01Speaker 1: and there's this Buddha statue. And I looked at Buddha,
- 14:05Speaker 1: and I looked at him, and I looked at Buddha,
- 14:07Speaker 1: and I looked at him, and he was like, no, no, man,
- 14:09Speaker 1: I was, you know, funny thing, I was, you know,
- 14:12Speaker 1: when I told you I went to Asia, like, while...
- 14:15Speaker 1: back and that for real it's funny because you know
- 14:19Speaker 1: that I was going to put it out he thought
- 14:35Speaker 1: I was being hypersensitive I said I probably am because
- 14:39Speaker 1: I remember watching my mother kneel before that idol chant
- 14:44Speaker 1: before that idol Burn incense before that idol. Very sensitive
- 14:51Speaker 1: to that. Worship God without rivals. Period. End of discussion.
- 14:59Speaker 1: We worship God without rivals. One of the most popular
- 15:02Speaker 1: pieces of jewelry in the last 10, 20 years. One
- 15:07Speaker 1: of the most popular symbols, the yin and yang symbol.
- 15:10Speaker 1: You know the white half teardrop or the black half teardrop?
- 15:14Speaker 1: sort of intertwined. I can't tell you how many times
- 15:18Speaker 1: I was around young people, Christian young people, who had
- 15:22Speaker 1: something with the yin and yang symbol on it. That's
- 15:24Speaker 1: the symbol from Taoism. The idea of the black and
- 15:27Speaker 1: white teardrops over one another intertwined is this idea that
- 15:32Speaker 1: good and evil are equal, opposite, necessary forces that keep
- 15:38Speaker 1: everything in balance. That's antithetical to the message of the
- 15:44Speaker 1: God of the Bible. That's a rival to our God.
- 15:48Speaker 1: We walk around talking about things like karma. You know
- 15:51Speaker 1: karma is meaningless without the other shoe dropping. The other
- 15:56Speaker 1: shoe with karma is reincarnation. You see, karma determines what
- 16:01Speaker 1: happens when you're reincarnated. And so we walk around talking
- 16:03Speaker 1: about good karma, bad karma. These are people who say
- 16:05Speaker 1: they worship the living God. Yahweh, your Elohim is one Yahweh. Karma, reincarnation.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Hebrews 9.27, it is appointed unto man to die once,
- 16:15Speaker 1: then face the judgment. That's it. The whole idea of
- 16:21Speaker 1: karma and reincarnation doesn't fit into that. But how many
- 16:24Speaker 1: times do we have believers saying, who just flippantly fall
- 16:28Speaker 1: into conversations like that. You want your house in order?
- 16:31Speaker 1: Worship God without rivals. You find a rival to God
- 16:35Speaker 1: in your home, you destroy it, you get rid of it. Secondly,
- 16:39Speaker 1: not only do we worship God without rivals, look at this,
- 16:41Speaker 1: you should love the Lord your God with all your heart,
- 16:43Speaker 1: with all your soul, and with all your might. Build
- 16:45Speaker 1: your home on a foundation of biblical love. Build your
- 16:49Speaker 1: home on a foundation of biblical love. Not the Greco-Roman
- 16:52Speaker 1: myth of romantic love. No, no, no, no. And that's
- 16:56Speaker 1: the lie that we bought into This Greco-Roman myth of
- 16:58Speaker 1: romantic love. This love that says things like, this thing
- 17:02Speaker 1: is bigger than both of us. And you have to
- 17:06Speaker 1: say it like that too, or it doesn't work, you know?
- 17:10Speaker 1: Or this one, we don't choose who we fall in
- 17:13Speaker 1: love with. Or my all-time favorite. I have no idea
- 17:18Speaker 1: what it means. It's just my all-time favorite. The heart
- 17:21Speaker 1: wants what it wants. I have more degrees than a thermometer.
- 17:29Speaker 1: I can't figure that out. I don't know. These phrases
- 17:36Speaker 1: are all connected to the Greco-Roman myth of romantic love.
- 17:39Speaker 1: The Greco-Roman myth that believes that love is an overwhelming, uncontrollable,
- 17:43Speaker 1: sensual force. That's what we believe. That's what we've been
- 17:47Speaker 1: brought up to believe. What's the symbol of love in
- 17:49Speaker 1: our culture? Cupid. Cupid. Cupid just smacks you with his arrow,
- 17:53Speaker 1: and just depending on where you are, that's it. What
- 17:56Speaker 1: are you going to do? This thing is bigger than
- 17:57Speaker 1: both of us. We don't choose who we fall in
- 17:58Speaker 1: love with. The heart wants what it wants. Babe, hey,
- 18:01Speaker 1: I know we're married and everything, but look, I was
- 18:03Speaker 1: minding my own business in the airport. Cupid just smacked me.
- 18:06Speaker 1: There's this real cute girl. We're going off together. Can
- 18:08Speaker 1: you send me my stuff? That's the Greco-Roman myth of
- 18:15Speaker 1: romantic love. That's why we got people who've been married 25,
- 18:19Speaker 1: 30 years, walking away from each other, not even feeling
- 18:22Speaker 1: bad about it. Because we all understand anything you can
- 18:25Speaker 1: fall into, you can climb out of. It's just not
- 18:30Speaker 1: there anymore. That's the Greco-Roman myth. And because we believe
- 18:35Speaker 1: love is fickle like that, we've got a hard time
- 18:38Speaker 1: with our relationship with God. Because if that's the case,
- 18:40Speaker 1: then when's God going to fall out of love with me?
- 18:43Speaker 1: And if it's an overwhelming, uncontrollable, sensual force, this is why,
- 18:47Speaker 1: for example, mothers, when they get pregnant with child number two,
- 18:50Speaker 1: what are they worried about? Am I going to be
- 18:53Speaker 1: able to love this baby like I love the other one?
- 18:56Speaker 1: Why do we worry about that? Because we bought the
- 18:58Speaker 1: lie of the Greco-Roman myth of romantic love. What if
- 19:01Speaker 1: Cupid's not there when this one's born? Adoption with two
- 19:11Speaker 1: adopted children. People always want to ask us, you know,
- 19:15Speaker 1: do you, do you, do you, you know, they want
- 19:17Speaker 1: to say it. They want us to bail them out.
- 19:19Speaker 1: I don't bail them out. Spit it out. Well, well, well,
- 19:26Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I know, but I want to make
- 19:27Speaker 1: you say it. You better say it right. Well, I just,
- 19:32Speaker 1: do you, is attachment, are you, do you love them
- 19:36Speaker 1: like your natural children? Well, they're natural too. My baby
- 19:43Speaker 1: looked unnatural to you? That's what. You know what I mean?
- 19:47Speaker 1: Like your own children. They're my own. You know what? Okay,
- 19:53Speaker 1: I'll let you off the hook. Yeah, we do. We really,
- 19:56Speaker 1: I mean, yes, absolutely. They're ours. Absolutely. Yes. If anything,
- 20:02Speaker 1: truth be told, there's a little bonus in it. Because
- 20:07Speaker 1: of the fact that they were adopted like we were
- 20:10Speaker 1: by Christ. It's unbelievable. Can't even put it into words.
- 20:15Speaker 1: It's incredible. But why do we have a problem with that?
- 20:17Speaker 1: Because we believe the Greco-Roman myth. But when you look
- 20:19Speaker 1: at these words here, love the Lord your God with
- 20:22Speaker 1: all your heart. Interestingly, when we look at this in
- 20:24Speaker 1: Matthew 22, when Jesus quotes this Hebrew passage to a
- 20:29Speaker 1: Greek-speaking audience, he adds a dimension, or so it seems.
- 20:33Speaker 1: Because in the New Testament, it's all your heart's or
- 20:36Speaker 1: your soul, or your mind. Well, what's that about? Is
- 20:41Speaker 1: he adding something? No. You can't understand this Hebrew word, leb.
- 20:44Speaker 1: You can't understand. Your heart's a muscle in the center
- 20:47Speaker 1: of your chest that pumps blood. That's it. It knows nothing,
- 20:50Speaker 1: yearns for nothing, loves nothing, thinks nothing. It's a muscle
- 20:54Speaker 1: in the center of your chest. That's all it is.
- 20:57Speaker 1: All this head knowledge versus heart knowledge stuff, please. Your
- 21:00Speaker 1: mind's the only knower that you have. Your heart knows nothing.
- 21:04Speaker 1: It is a muscle that pumps blood, period, end of discussion.
- 21:07Speaker 1: So whenever we talk about the heart like that, we're
- 21:09Speaker 1: speaking in figurative terms about an aspect of our mind,
- 21:13Speaker 1: an aspect of our knowing. And so when he talks
- 21:16Speaker 1: here about love the Lord your God with all your heart,
- 21:18Speaker 1: he's really, you can't understand this if you don't add
- 21:21Speaker 1: the aspect of the mind when you're speaking to a
- 21:22Speaker 1: Greek audience. Because this is talking about your will. When
- 21:26Speaker 1: he talks about from your soul, from your nephesh, you know, literally,
- 21:29Speaker 1: love the Lord your God with all your intestines. Love that.
- 21:35Speaker 1: Look at my wife and I say, girl, I love
- 21:37Speaker 1: you with all of my intestines. Did not have the
- 21:42Speaker 1: desired effect. But the idea here is the seat of
- 21:49Speaker 1: the emotions. As a matter of fact, when we're nervous
- 21:53Speaker 1: about something, we say we have butterflies in our... Because
- 21:57Speaker 1: that's where you feel it. When we're all emotional, we
- 22:00Speaker 1: say our stomach is tied up in... Because that's where
- 22:03Speaker 1: you feel it. That's what this refers to, the city
- 22:06Speaker 1: of your emotions. And that last word, your muchness, you
- 22:11Speaker 1: put these words together and here's what you get. Let
- 22:13Speaker 1: me give you this definition. Biblical love is an act
- 22:15Speaker 1: of the will... accompanied by emotion that leads to action
- 22:19Speaker 1: on behalf of its object. Let me say that again.
- 22:22Speaker 1: Biblical love is an act of the will. It is
- 22:24Speaker 1: first and foremost a choice. It is accompanied by emotion,
- 22:28Speaker 1: and it leads to action on behalf of its object.
- 22:31Speaker 1: That's biblical love. It's a choice. We choose to love. Yes,
- 22:36Speaker 1: we don't choose who we fall in love with. Help
- 22:39Speaker 1: you if you believe that. If you actually believe that,
- 22:42Speaker 1: no marriage is safe. If you actually believe that, God
- 22:45Speaker 1: is unreasonable when he calls us to fidelity. If you
- 22:49Speaker 1: actually believe that, no, it is a choice. We choose
- 22:52Speaker 1: to love. Some days it takes more choice than others.
- 22:56Speaker 1: I don't know, you may not believe this, but there
- 22:58Speaker 1: have been times when my wife has really had to
- 23:01Speaker 1: like work at loving me. It's like once or twice
- 23:06Speaker 1: early in the marriage, but still, I mean, it is
- 23:14Speaker 1: an act of the will. I tell her all the time, girl,
- 23:15Speaker 1: you leave me, I'm going with you. It is an
- 23:22Speaker 1: act of the will. It is a choice. Bridget and I,
- 23:25Speaker 1: last two generations, both sides of our family, all of
- 23:28Speaker 1: our siblings between the two of us, our parents and
- 23:32Speaker 1: all of their siblings between them, Last two generations, both
- 23:35Speaker 1: sides of our family, 25 marriages, 22 divorces. Ours is
- 23:40Speaker 1: one of the three that hasn't ended in divorce. We've
- 23:42Speaker 1: been married 18 years, which makes ours one of the
- 23:45Speaker 1: longest lasting marriages in the last two generations of both
- 23:47Speaker 1: sides of our families, which is pathetic. Ours is one
- 23:50Speaker 1: of those three. What about those other two? One of
- 23:52Speaker 1: them ended in a premature death. The other raised one
- 23:55Speaker 1: child who was the result of an adulterous affair. That's
- 24:01Speaker 1: our legacy. That's our heritage. That's what we had when
- 24:05Speaker 1: we got married my sophomore year in college. I had
- 24:08Speaker 1: just turned 20 years old. The summer between my sophomore
- 24:10Speaker 1: and junior year in college. People thought we were crazy.
- 24:12Speaker 1: Our first baby was born 10 months later because we
- 24:14Speaker 1: were what you call efficient. We had our first argument.
- 24:24Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. It was our first real argument.
- 24:28Speaker 1: We hadn't been married that long. Bridget went in one
- 24:30Speaker 1: part of the house and I went in the other
- 24:32Speaker 1: part of the house and we both just wept uncontrollably
- 24:35Speaker 1: Neither one of us said anything to the other. But
- 24:38Speaker 1: here's what was happening. We knew marriages ended. We had
- 24:45Speaker 1: no idea that people could have serious disagreements and work
- 24:49Speaker 1: through them and continue to love each other nonetheless and
- 24:53Speaker 1: not walk away. And we thought, here we are, a
- 24:56Speaker 1: couple of months. That's all we made it. We got
- 25:00Speaker 1: together and we talked to each other and said, you
- 25:02Speaker 1: know what? We can make through this. We can make
- 25:03Speaker 1: through anything. We had our Cortez moment. Burn the ships.
- 25:11Speaker 1: Nobody's going home. Burn the ships. This is it. It's you.
- 25:16Speaker 1: It's me. It's forever. The D word is not an option. Homicide,
- 25:21Speaker 1: we leave on the table. Divorce, not an option. Not really.
- 25:29Speaker 1: I don't think she'd really kill me. That's true. I
- 25:32Speaker 1: don't think so. It's a choice. It's an act of
- 25:38Speaker 1: the will. We choose to love. It's accompanied by emotion,
- 25:43Speaker 1: which means, men, it's not void of emotion, which means, ladies,
- 25:47Speaker 1: it's not led by emotion. Amen, lights. Love that's led
- 25:55Speaker 1: by emotion, ladies, gets you in trouble. As Dr. Tony
- 25:58Speaker 1: Evans put it, you know, warn young women about love
- 26:01Speaker 1: that's led by emotion. Because if it's led by emotion,
- 26:04Speaker 1: your emotions change hourly on a good day. A woman
- 26:12Speaker 1: who enters into a marriage relationship, love that's led by emotions,
- 26:15Speaker 1: you start off thinking it's a good deal, it turns
- 26:17Speaker 1: into an ordeal, then you'd be looking for a new deal.
- 26:19Speaker 1: Do not do that. It's not led by emotion. But man,
- 26:24Speaker 1: it's also not void of emotion. I talk to men
- 26:27Speaker 1: a lot, you know, I'm a pastor and I talk
- 26:30Speaker 1: to men a lot and we have conversations and stuff
- 26:33Speaker 1: and You know, and sometimes there'll be men and I've
- 26:36Speaker 1: had these guys who, you know, I'm an engineered type
- 26:40Speaker 1: or whatever. I'm a this, I'm a that. I'm just
- 26:41Speaker 1: not a very emotional man. To which I always respond,
- 26:45Speaker 1: sell that somewhere else. What do you mean? My wife
- 26:49Speaker 1: wants me to be emotional. I'm just not an emotional man.
- 26:52Speaker 1: Sell that somewhere else. Don't open your mouth and say
- 26:56Speaker 1: that to me again because you're a liar and the
- 26:58Speaker 1: truth is not in you. You're supposed to be a pastor.
- 27:02Speaker 1: I am. I am. But here's what I know as
- 27:04Speaker 1: a pastor. When you're on the golf course and you
- 27:06Speaker 1: shank one, you don't say, I seem to have hit
- 27:08Speaker 1: that one poorly. When you're watching a ball game and
- 27:23Speaker 1: your team's getting beat like a tied up goat. You
- 27:27Speaker 1: don't just sit there and say, well, they have far
- 27:29Speaker 1: more points than we do right now. We're incredibly emotional
- 27:36Speaker 1: about the things that matter. Love is not void of emotion.
- 27:40Speaker 1: It is passionate. And it leads to action on behalf
- 27:46Speaker 1: of its object. Love acts on behalf of that which
- 27:52Speaker 1: is loved. And when we love, We act on behalf
- 27:56Speaker 1: of the other. This is biblical love. An act of
- 27:59Speaker 1: the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on
- 28:01Speaker 1: behalf of its object. You want to see a picture
- 28:03Speaker 1: of it? The Garden of Gethsemane. If there is any
- 28:05Speaker 1: other way, let this bitter cup pass from me. He's
- 28:08Speaker 1: praying and he's sweating drops of blood and he says
- 28:10Speaker 1: those words, nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.
- 28:13Speaker 1: It was an act of the will. It was a choice.
- 28:17Speaker 1: It was accompanied by intense, passionate emotion. In fact, it
- 28:22Speaker 1: is referred to as the passion of And it led
- 28:25Speaker 1: to action on behalf of its object. Jesus didn't need
- 28:28Speaker 1: the cross. No, no, no. His beloved. That's who needed
- 28:34Speaker 1: the cross. That's biblical love. See, we build our homes
- 28:39Speaker 1: on a foundation of biblical love and all of a
- 28:40Speaker 1: sudden everything is more secure. I don't necessarily feel as
- 28:45Speaker 1: close to God as I used to. That's okay. Love
- 28:48Speaker 1: is an act of the will. God loves you. An
- 28:54Speaker 1: act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to
- 28:57Speaker 1: action on behalf of its object. I just don't believe that.
- 29:00Speaker 1: I just don't feel the love of God. You feel
- 29:01Speaker 1: that air in your lungs? Well, yes. Guess what? You
- 29:04Speaker 1: just borrowed that from God. He loves you. He just
- 29:09Speaker 1: gave you another one right there. Saw your chest move
- 29:10Speaker 1: right there. He is acting on your behalf even now. Amen?
- 29:16Speaker 1: Your mind's working. You got all your faculties. He is
- 29:18Speaker 1: acting on your behalf even now. You know him. You
- 29:22Speaker 1: know enough to be worried about whether or not he
- 29:25Speaker 1: loves you. You know what it means to be his
- 29:28Speaker 1: and to be loved by him. Come on now. An
- 29:32Speaker 1: act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to
- 29:34Speaker 1: action on behalf of its object. Build your home on
- 29:36Speaker 1: a foundation of biblical love and all of a sudden
- 29:38Speaker 1: that love relationship between us and God takes on an
- 29:41Speaker 1: entirely new meaning. Thirdly, look at the next part of this.
- 29:47Speaker 1: These words which I'm commanding you today shall be on
- 29:49Speaker 1: your heart. It's very important what we did with that
- 29:51Speaker 1: word heart a little bit earlier. Because if we're just
- 29:54Speaker 1: talking about that muscle that pumps blood, we know we're
- 29:58Speaker 1: not talking about that. A lot of people look at
- 30:00Speaker 1: that and they say, well, we're talking about the city
- 30:02Speaker 1: of the emotions. Well, here in this context, the city
- 30:06Speaker 1: of the emotions was spoken of with our soul. But
- 30:10Speaker 1: when we talk about this being at least partly our will,
- 30:15Speaker 1: the core of who we are, these words which I'm
- 30:19Speaker 1: commanding you today shall be seared on your will. How
- 30:24Speaker 1: do we do that? I believe one of the things
- 30:26Speaker 1: that we do to do that is Teach biblical worldview.
- 30:32Speaker 1: We think biblically about everything. We take every thought captive
- 30:36Speaker 1: to the obedience of Christ. So all of a sudden
- 30:38Speaker 1: the words are on our hearts. So we don't have
- 30:40Speaker 1: to walk around with a piece of paper. Here's a circumstance. Oh,
- 30:43Speaker 1: wait a minute. Let me get my piece of paper
- 30:45Speaker 1: so I can figure out the rule that I'm supposed
- 30:47Speaker 1: to follow here. No, it's seared onto your very will.
- 30:52Speaker 1: He changes your want to. Amen. That's what you're looking for.
- 30:58Speaker 1: You're looking for obedience to God. So we punish all
- 31:02Speaker 1: disobedience when your obedience is complete. We take every thought
- 31:06Speaker 1: captive to the obedience of Christ. Every thought. A full-orbed
- 31:10Speaker 1: biblical worldview. That's what we're shooting for here. That's when
- 31:16Speaker 1: these words are on your heart. And so if we
- 31:19Speaker 1: want our houses to be in order, one of the
- 31:21Speaker 1: things we have to do is worship God without rivals.
- 31:22Speaker 1: Another thing we have to do is we have to
- 31:24Speaker 1: build our home on a foundation of biblical love toward
- 31:27Speaker 1: one another, toward God. Thirdly, we have to be committed
- 31:30Speaker 1: to a biblical worldview. We do things according to biblical truth.
- 31:35Speaker 1: And so many times we don't do this when it
- 31:38Speaker 1: comes to, for example, when it comes to parenting, you know,
- 31:42Speaker 1: raising and training our children. So many of us, we
- 31:46Speaker 1: want to hear from Dr. Spock, we want to hear
- 31:48Speaker 1: from Dr. Phil, you know, we don't ever want to
- 31:51Speaker 1: hear from Dr. Jesus. Amen? What does the book say?
- 31:56Speaker 1: I'm having these problems with my children. Really, what does
- 31:58Speaker 1: the book say? Well, I just, what does the book say?
- 32:05Speaker 1: Do you really believe? That all scripture is God-breathed and
- 32:09Speaker 1: profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, that
- 32:13Speaker 1: the man of God may be thoroughly furnished for every
- 32:15Speaker 1: good work. Do you really believe that? That everything to
- 32:19Speaker 1: which God will call you, the scriptures will equip you.
- 32:24Speaker 1: Do you really believe that? That every aspect of your life,
- 32:27Speaker 1: do you really believe that? That's what it looks like
- 32:30Speaker 1: when his commandments are seared on your heart. That's what
- 32:34Speaker 1: it looks like. Look at the next part of this.
- 32:38Speaker 1: You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall
- 32:40Speaker 1: talk of them when you sit in your house, when
- 32:43Speaker 1: you walk by the way, when you lie down and
- 32:44Speaker 1: when you rise. We've talked about this some earlier. But
- 32:48Speaker 1: if we want our houses to be in order, we
- 32:49Speaker 1: must teach the word of God to our children. We must.
- 32:54Speaker 1: We must. You know, I can talk about Southern Baptist
- 32:57Speaker 1: because I are one. And one of the things that
- 33:00Speaker 1: we know, for example, through surveys of Southern Baptist is
- 33:03Speaker 1: that less than 1% of Southern Baptist have family worship.
- 33:08Speaker 1: Once a year. Less than 1%. It's not part of
- 33:16Speaker 1: our culture anymore. It's not part of what we do.
- 33:21Speaker 1: We're not catechizing our children. We're not reading the scriptures
- 33:24Speaker 1: to our children. We're not worshiping with our children. We're
- 33:27Speaker 1: just not doing it. We've turned it over. By the way,
- 33:32Speaker 1: part of this, part of the responsibility for this lay
- 33:35Speaker 1: at the foot of the church is Because over the
- 33:38Speaker 1: last 30 years, the church has basically looked at families
- 33:40Speaker 1: and said, hey, we're trained professionals. Please don't try this
- 33:43Speaker 1: at home. You bring them to us. We'll even hire
- 33:49Speaker 1: a full-time guy whose job it is to do what
- 33:51Speaker 1: the Bible says is your job. Can't say amen, you
- 33:55Speaker 1: ought to say ouch. And so for 30 years, this
- 34:00Speaker 1: is what we've taught. For 30 years. When the Bible
- 34:05Speaker 1: says it's your responsibility to to disciple your children in
- 34:08Speaker 1: your home. Ephesians 6, 1 through 4, especially verse 4. Fathers,
- 34:16Speaker 1: do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them
- 34:18Speaker 1: up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. It's
- 34:21Speaker 1: your responsibility to teach the word of God to your children,
- 34:24Speaker 1: to teach biblical worldview to your children. to teach theology
- 34:28Speaker 1: and history, as we've heard moments ago, to your children.
- 34:31Speaker 1: Psalm 78 is replete with this. It's your responsibility to
- 34:34Speaker 1: do this. It's your job. You get one shot at it.
- 34:38Speaker 1: What's more important? What could possibly be more important? We've
- 34:46Speaker 1: missed this. Our children have become an appendage. What could
- 34:53Speaker 1: be more important? When you breathe your last and you
- 34:57Speaker 1: are dead and you are gone, what ultimately will you leave?
- 35:02Speaker 1: Because last time I checked, the death rate was one
- 35:04Speaker 1: per person. Nobody gets out of here alive. Amen? What
- 35:10Speaker 1: are you going to do when you die? You're going
- 35:14Speaker 1: to die and somebody's going to get all your stuff.
- 35:18Speaker 1: So what's that worth? What legacy are you leaving to
- 35:24Speaker 1: your children? Well, I'll leave my business. Really? To whom?
- 35:31Speaker 1: To whom? It amazes me that so many of us
- 35:36Speaker 1: have gotten it so backwards that here's what we do.
- 35:41Speaker 1: Dad says, I will consume myself with this over here
- 35:47Speaker 1: so that I can provide stuff to my children. Instead
- 35:55Speaker 1: of I do this over here. And this will be
- 36:02Speaker 1: the stuff that I'll provide to my children in addition
- 36:04Speaker 1: to my responsibility as discipler of my children, teacher of
- 36:08Speaker 1: my children, trainer of my children. And I love nothing more.
- 36:12Speaker 1: I would love nothing more than to be able to
- 36:14Speaker 1: pass on what God has given me to my children
- 36:17Speaker 1: and to train them to take over whatever this thing is.
- 36:21Speaker 1: It always amazes me. For example, at the end of the,
- 36:24Speaker 1: you know, the first term, the president's first term. How
- 36:26Speaker 1: many times did we hear this? At the end of
- 36:29Speaker 1: the first term, we know there are a lot of fallouts.
- 36:31Speaker 1: That's it, I'm gone. I did the deal, I'm gone.
- 36:33Speaker 1: That's been great. It's four years, I'm tired, I'm leaving.
- 36:37Speaker 1: And these guys who were 50 and 60 years old
- 36:41Speaker 1: were saying things like, I'm leaving now to go and
- 36:44Speaker 1: devote some time to my family. And I'm sitting there going, bro,
- 36:47Speaker 1: it's too late. Your family's gone. Where were you when
- 36:52Speaker 1: your children needed you? We got it backwards, folks. Work
- 36:58Speaker 1: hard when your children desperately need you. Don't be around
- 37:02Speaker 1: when your children desperately need you. So that when they're gone,
- 37:07Speaker 1: living a life that you didn't train them to live,
- 37:10Speaker 1: you can then have time for yourself. God help us.
- 37:23Speaker 1: How many times do we hear, I'm moving. I'm moving.
- 37:26Speaker 1: Because there's more money and a better opportunity as opposed
- 37:29Speaker 1: to I'm moving because there's a slower pace of life
- 37:33Speaker 1: and a more manageable position that will allow me to
- 37:35Speaker 1: make the investment in my family and in my children
- 37:39Speaker 1: that I need to make. And when they're grown and gone,
- 37:41Speaker 1: I can go full bore and do everything that I
- 37:43Speaker 1: need to do then. We got it backwards. We got
- 37:48Speaker 1: it backwards. Teach your children at home. You got one chance.
- 37:54Speaker 1: There are people in this room who could testify to this.
- 37:57Speaker 1: There are people in this room who've earned some gray hairs,
- 38:01Speaker 1: who look back at the lives of their children, who
- 38:03Speaker 1: are now not walking with God, who have gone completely astray,
- 38:08Speaker 1: and they say, oh, if I had it to do
- 38:11Speaker 1: over again. They love to testify. They try to testify.
- 38:19Speaker 1: They try to tell you, young man, don't buy the
- 38:22Speaker 1: lie that I bought. Invest in discipling your children. Do
- 38:28Speaker 1: that so that you'll leave something for the next generation.
- 38:32Speaker 1: More than just toys and stuff. Does that mean we
- 38:37Speaker 1: don't work hard? Absolutely not. We work hard. You model
- 38:42Speaker 1: that for your family. Don't sacrifice your family on the
- 38:47Speaker 1: altar of work. Teach the word to your children. Next.
- 38:54Speaker 1: Mark your home as God's territory. We look at this sometimes,
- 38:59Speaker 1: and it's hard for us to understand. Bind them as
- 39:01Speaker 1: a sign on your hand. It's frontals between your eyes.
- 39:04Speaker 1: Write them on the doorpost of your house and on
- 39:05Speaker 1: your gates. And we don't get this, you know. No,
- 39:08Speaker 1: mark your home as God's territory. If you've ever seen
- 39:10Speaker 1: the mezuzah with this text actually in it on the
- 39:13Speaker 1: doorpost of a Jewish family, mark your home as a
- 39:16Speaker 1: place that belongs to God. This is so meaningful to me.
- 39:19Speaker 1: I remember my mother's Buddhism has marked and seared my conscience.
- 39:24Speaker 1: It has. Why? Because it affected all of my senses.
- 39:28Speaker 1: I remember what Buddha looked like. my eyes. There was
- 39:31Speaker 1: a bell my mother would ring, and there were beads
- 39:33Speaker 1: that she would rub together, and there was a chant
- 39:35Speaker 1: that she would chant. I remember what that sounded like.
- 39:39Speaker 1: I remember what the beads felt like. There was fruit
- 39:42Speaker 1: that was in there with Buddha. I remember what fruit
- 39:45Speaker 1: tastes like. All of my senses, all of them were
- 39:48Speaker 1: engaged in her worship. And because of that, I remember it.
- 39:52Speaker 1: Some of you have an experience like this. There are
- 39:54Speaker 1: some of you, and every Sunday afternoon, there was that
- 39:56Speaker 1: same meal. And when you were a kid, you got
- 39:58Speaker 1: tired of it. But now that you're older, whenever you
- 40:02Speaker 1: smell that thing cooking, what does it remind you of?
- 40:06Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon at home. It marked you. Some of you
- 40:11Speaker 1: grew up with family worship in your home. It marked you.
- 40:14Speaker 1: By the way, This is the most meaningful way that
- 40:16Speaker 1: I know of to mark our home as God's territory
- 40:20Speaker 1: for our children. That we would have a place in
- 40:23Speaker 1: our home where we worship God, an altar in our
- 40:25Speaker 1: home where we worship God, music that they would hear,
- 40:28Speaker 1: that they would sing, instruments that they would touch. That
- 40:32Speaker 1: we would worship God in our homes and mark them
- 40:36Speaker 1: forever because of the praises that we send up to
- 40:39Speaker 1: the throne as a family. Mark your home as God's territory.
- 40:44Speaker 1: Mark your home as a place that belongs to God. Finally,
- 40:51Speaker 1: keep your prosperity in check. You know, when God brings
- 40:55Speaker 1: you into this land of milk and honey, when he
- 40:58Speaker 1: gives you all of these things, these cities and these vineyards,
- 41:03Speaker 1: when he gives you these wells, he says, then watch yourself.
- 41:10Speaker 1: Because that's when you're prone to forget the God who
- 41:12Speaker 1: brought you out of the land of slavery out of
- 41:15Speaker 1: the house of Egypt. That's when you're at your most vulnerable.
- 41:20Speaker 1: That's when you're prone to forget God. Prosperity is difficult
- 41:24Speaker 1: to take. Prosperity is hard to endure. That's why Jesus
- 41:28Speaker 1: said it's easier for a rich man to go through
- 41:30Speaker 1: the eye of a needle, or for a camel to
- 41:33Speaker 1: go through the eye of a needle than for a
- 41:33Speaker 1: rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, what's
- 41:37Speaker 1: that about? We try to figure all this out. Well,
- 41:41Speaker 1: you know, is that an idiomatic expression? Is it some
- 41:43Speaker 1: figure of speech? Is he really talking about something? No,
- 41:45Speaker 1: he's saying it's hard. Camels don't go through eyes of needles.
- 41:51Speaker 1: It's hard. The story of the rich young ruler. I
- 41:55Speaker 1: got all this stuff. Jesus says, no, you really don't.
- 41:59Speaker 1: Let me show you something real quick. I can mess
- 42:02Speaker 1: up all your piety right here. Go sell all your
- 42:05Speaker 1: stuff and come back and follow me. And he went away.
- 42:11Speaker 1: And why was he so dejected? Because great was his wealth.
- 42:16Speaker 1: He had a lot of stuff. That stuff's hard to
- 42:19Speaker 1: walk away from. Nothing will challenge your commitment to God
- 42:26Speaker 1: more than prosperity. Adversity has a tendency to drive us
- 42:32Speaker 1: to our knees. Prosperity has a tendency to turn us
- 42:40Speaker 1: away from God. We begin to look toward the gift
- 42:44Speaker 1: instead of the giver. We're seeing this, aren't we? We're
- 42:51Speaker 1: no longer, for example, raising women in our culture. We're not.
- 42:58Speaker 1: We're not raising women in this culture. We're raising men
- 43:01Speaker 1: who happen to have the biological capacity to bear children.
- 43:07Speaker 1: That's what we're doing. My daughter's 17. She just finished
- 43:12Speaker 1: her formal homeschool education or whatever. Everybody wants to know, well,
- 43:18Speaker 1: where's she going to college? She's not. What, is she
- 43:33Speaker 1: not smart enough? She's brilliant. She's brilliant. She's my research assistant.
- 43:40Speaker 1: She's brilliant. She's been doing master's level primary source research
- 43:44Speaker 1: for me since she was 15. Well, can you not
- 43:49Speaker 1: afford it? Man, there's all kind of ways to get
- 43:52Speaker 1: people to pay for college. All kind of ways. Well,
- 43:59Speaker 1: what's the deal? Who says she's got to go? Who
- 44:02Speaker 1: told you that? Who told you that? Who said that?
- 44:13Speaker 1: And if she were here and you were able to
- 44:15Speaker 1: ask her the question, what do you want to be
- 44:20Speaker 1: more than anything else in the world? She'd answer you.
- 44:23Speaker 1: I want to be a homeschool mom. I'd love to
- 44:26Speaker 1: raise eight, nine, ten kids. That's been her answer for
- 44:30Speaker 1: I don't know how long. We're not raising a man
- 44:44Speaker 1: who happens to be biologically capable of having children. We're
- 44:48Speaker 1: raising a woman, a wife, a mother. Well, what happens
- 44:55Speaker 1: if she doesn't get married? Then I'll take care of
- 44:57Speaker 1: her for the rest of her life. Because that's my
- 45:01Speaker 1: job as her father. Not to send her out, hope
- 45:07Speaker 1: she comes back with a good man, and if she doesn't,
- 45:09Speaker 1: she has a good enough job to live the rest
- 45:11Speaker 1: of her life as this independent, unprotected, vulnerable woman. No.
- 45:20Speaker 1: I am her covering. I am her spiritual protector. I
- 45:25Speaker 1: will not send her off for some university to act
- 45:29Speaker 1: in loco parentis. I don't need anybody to act in
- 45:32Speaker 1: my place. I'm here. That just sounds so radical. Yeah.
- 45:48Speaker 1: Probably does. You know why? Because we're a lot more
- 45:53Speaker 1: American than we are Christian. That's why. Because we do
- 46:01Speaker 1: the same thing everybody else does. And most times in
- 46:05Speaker 1: the exact same way. After step A, you take step B. Why?
- 46:10Speaker 1: Because everybody does it. And if you don't, You're messing
- 46:14Speaker 1: things up. Keep your prosperity in check. Because there's a
- 46:27Speaker 1: whole lot of women out there who've bought the lie
- 46:30Speaker 1: that says you can have it all. And the fact
- 46:35Speaker 1: of the matter is you cannot. And you were never
- 46:40Speaker 1: meant to. Nor were men. There's a role for us
- 46:46Speaker 1: to play. You weren't designed to have it all. But
- 46:50Speaker 1: here's what I'm wondering. Why would anyone who's been given
- 46:56Speaker 1: the incredible gift and privilege of being able to bear
- 47:04Speaker 1: and grow in them a life, nine months, why? Why? Why?
- 47:14Speaker 1: To have a symbiotic relationship between your body and theirs.
- 47:18Speaker 1: Between your heartbeat and theirs. That's why. So that they
- 47:23Speaker 1: know your smell. So that they know everything about you.
- 47:29Speaker 1: Why do they come here? And the first thing that
- 47:31Speaker 1: they desperately need to do is nurse. So that from
- 47:35Speaker 1: your breast they look into your eyes. Why? Because God
- 47:40Speaker 1: designed you to nurture them. That's why. And you know
- 47:44Speaker 1: what our culture says? That's not good enough. You need
- 47:50Speaker 1: to go share Adam's curse because Eve's curse is not
- 47:53Speaker 1: enough for you. That's what our world says. And our
- 47:57Speaker 1: world says as soon as you can, you rip that
- 48:01Speaker 1: baby from you and you hire somebody else to do
- 48:04Speaker 1: what God created you to do instead. That's what our
- 48:08Speaker 1: world says. God says, I've given you to this man
- 48:13Speaker 1: to be his suitable helper. What does our world say? Well,
- 48:19Speaker 1: let him go find somebody else's wife to be his
- 48:22Speaker 1: right arm and then you go be the right arm
- 48:24Speaker 1: of some other man. That's what our world says. When
- 48:33Speaker 1: we have the greatest gift, the greatest calling and the
- 48:38Speaker 1: greatest opportunity in the world Because the hand that rocks
- 48:43Speaker 1: the cradle is the hand that rules the world. What world?
- 48:53Speaker 1: You figure that one out. There is nothing more beautiful,
- 48:59Speaker 1: nothing more powerful, nothing more precious than authentic, strong, submissive
- 49:10Speaker 1: womanhood And there is nothing that is in shorter supply
- 49:17Speaker 1: except authentic strong, passionate, protecting, providing manhood. And as a result,
- 49:29Speaker 1: our houses are not in order. They are in complete disarray.
- 49:34Speaker 1: And we are raising men who are weak, and have
- 49:38Speaker 1: not been given permission to stand up and lead their homes,
- 49:41Speaker 1: and women who are unprotected and completely dissatisfied because somebody
- 49:47Speaker 1: told them that they can have it all, and rather
- 49:50Speaker 1: than enjoy and embrace this incredible, powerful gift of womanhood
- 49:56Speaker 1: and motherhood, that instead they should go out and share
- 50:01Speaker 1: Adam's curse and pay somebody else to do the menial job,
- 50:05Speaker 1: the menial task of raising and nurturing their children. God
- 50:11Speaker 1: help us. Did I just say any woman with a
- 50:16Speaker 1: job is a sinner? You know what? I got my
- 50:20Speaker 1: own house to run. I'm not here to run yours.
- 50:27Speaker 1: I said what I meant. I meant what I said.
- 50:31Speaker 1: Don't buy the lie. Worship God without rival's. Build your
- 50:38Speaker 1: home on a foundation of biblical love. Operate from a
- 50:43Speaker 1: biblical worldview, not a cultural one. Mark your home as
- 50:48Speaker 1: God's territory and keep your prosperity in check. You'll have
- 50:55Speaker 1: your house in order. And there's nothing in this world
- 51:01Speaker 1: that is more important, more valuable, more powerful, or more
- 51:06Speaker 1: needed than that. Thank you.