WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:19.039 Praise the Lord, who reigns above and beats His courts we all. 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:28.000 ! Praise the Holy God above and all His grace will show. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:29.980 ! Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:36.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:00:36.980 --> 00:00:44.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:00:44.979 --> 00:00:51.979 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:00:51.979 --> 00:00:58.979 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:00:58.979 --> 00:01:05.979 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:14.980 Timber, soft and simple, sound in His high praise on green. 00:01:14.980 --> 00:01:21.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:01:21.980 --> 00:01:26.980 All the reach of heavenly art. 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:36.980 All the powers of music, praise the music of the heart. 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:45.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:01:45.980 --> 00:01:52.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:54.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:59.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:08.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:02:08.980 --> 00:02:19.980 Praise Him, Lord, who reigns above and all His grace will show. 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:49.959 Praise the Lord in every breath, let all things praise the Lord. 00:02:49.979 --> 00:03:19.959 Praise the Lord. 00:03:19.979 --> 00:03:26.979 Praise the Lord. 00:03:26.979 --> 00:03:38.979 In the image of God, we were made long ago. 00:03:38.979 --> 00:03:49.979 With a purpose divine, hear His glory to show. 00:03:49.979 --> 00:04:00.979 But we failed Him one day, and like sheep went astray. 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:13.979 Thinking not of the cost we His likeness had lost. 00:04:13.979 --> 00:04:31.980 But from eternity, God had in mind the work of Calvary. 00:04:31.980 --> 00:04:38.980 The lost to find. 00:04:38.980 --> 00:04:49.980 From His heavens, O God, Christ came down earth to trod. 00:04:49.980 --> 00:05:01.980 So that men might live again in the image of God. 00:05:01.980 --> 00:05:14.980 Now that I have believed and the Savior received, 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:24.980 Now that I from the cry of my guilt am relieved. 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:35.980 I will live for my Lord, not for gain or reward, 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:47.980 But for love, thinking of what His grace has restored. 00:05:47.980 --> 00:05:54.980 I'll never comprehend. 00:05:54.980 --> 00:05:59.980 Redemption's plan. 00:05:59.980 --> 00:06:12.980 How Christ could condescend to die for man. 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:25.980 Such a Savior I'll praise to the end of my days, 00:06:25.980 --> 00:06:32.980 As I upward onward trod. 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:40.980 In the image of God. 00:06:40.980 --> 00:07:06.980 It's hard to be patient, isn't it, while somebody puts that thing on? 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:08.980 There must be a better way. 00:07:08.980 --> 00:07:09.980 I'm not sure what it is. 00:07:09.980 --> 00:07:11.980 There we go. 00:07:11.980 --> 00:07:15.980 Can you do something around here that I really like? 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:16.980 So I think I'll try it again. 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:18.980 Good morning. 00:07:18.980 --> 00:07:19.980 Good morning. 00:07:19.980 --> 00:07:20.980 Alright. 00:07:20.980 --> 00:07:24.980 It's a terrible morning, isn't it? 00:07:24.980 --> 00:07:30.980 You get wet out there, and it's cold, it's icy a little bit. 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:32.980 Glad you're here. 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:35.980 I'm glad to be here with you this morning. 00:07:35.980 --> 00:07:41.980 Perhaps you have noticed from your bulletin that we are going to begin this morning a family series. 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:43.980 Three Sundays. 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:45.980 Don't get too afraid now. 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:51.980 Just a very brief little series in between the holidays here on the matter of the family. 00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:55.980 And as I thought about that, and thought about some defense for it, 00:07:55.980 --> 00:08:00.980 Because I thought some might wonder, now why do we have to have a series on the family? 00:08:00.980 --> 00:08:06.980 I thought I would defend it by saying I really had nothing else about which to speak. 00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:08.980 But I didn't think you might believe that. 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:11.980 So there are some good reasons for it. 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:17.980 It's not because I've heard of so many family problems here at Maranatha, because I really don't know you that well. 00:08:17.980 --> 00:08:21.980 So you are safe along those lines. 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:27.980 The real reason for it is because Thanksgiving and Christmas are family holidays. 00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:33.980 We think a lot, we do a lot with family during this time of year. 00:08:33.980 --> 00:08:38.980 Perhaps more so than any of the other holidays any other time of year. 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:47.980 But a happy family relationship can make the holiday times just terrific. 00:08:47.980 --> 00:08:56.980 But a weak or wrong family relationship can make the holiday times absolutely miserable. 00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:07.980 It seems as though the holidays bring out either the best in the family relationships or the worst in them. 00:09:07.980 --> 00:09:17.980 So it seems to me a fairly appropriate brief span of time here to think together about this matter of the family. 00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:27.980 I want you to know that whenever I talk about the family, I do not speak about it as one who has all of the answers. 00:09:27.980 --> 00:09:35.980 As someone much more wise than I have said, I don't even know all the questions, much less all of the answers. 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:42.980 And I do not come to you this morning or any of these times as the answer man who has the final word. 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:44.980 I have a family, believe it or not. 00:09:44.980 --> 00:09:47.980 I keep them hidden pretty well from you. 00:09:47.980 --> 00:09:51.980 I had my daughter here with me on Sunday or Wednesday night. 00:09:51.980 --> 00:09:55.980 My little boy Mark this morning said, Daddy, can I go to Columbus with you? 00:09:55.980 --> 00:09:59.980 And I came about that close to bringing him this morning. 00:09:59.980 --> 00:10:04.980 I do have a family, a disgustingly normal family. 00:10:04.980 --> 00:10:08.980 We are not in any way, we have not arrived as a family. 00:10:08.980 --> 00:10:14.980 And I want you to know that that's the attitude with which I come to you this morning. 00:10:14.980 --> 00:10:16.980 I do not have all the answers. 00:10:16.980 --> 00:10:19.980 I am not the perfect husband, father, etc. 00:10:19.980 --> 00:10:21.980 Please understand that. 00:10:21.980 --> 00:10:25.980 I come to you in the spirit really of Charlie W. Shedd, 00:10:25.980 --> 00:10:33.980 who said when he first entered the ministry in the early days that he had a sermon which he preached and entitled, 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:37.980 How to Raise Your Children. 00:10:37.980 --> 00:10:42.980 Then, a few years later when his children began to come along, 00:10:42.980 --> 00:10:46.980 he changed the title and the content of that sermon to, 00:10:46.980 --> 00:10:52.980 Some Thoughts on How to Raise Your Children. 00:10:52.980 --> 00:10:55.980 And then, when they became teenagers, 00:10:55.980 --> 00:10:59.980 he again changed the content and the title to, 00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:02.980 Some Helpful Thoughts for Fellow Strugglers. 00:11:02.980 --> 00:11:08.980 And frankly, it is in that spirit that I come to you this morning. 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:14.980 Just some helpful hints for fellow strugglers in relation to the family. 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:15.980 Now that's enough introduction. 00:11:15.980 --> 00:11:17.980 I think you're with me. 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:18.980 I think you're awake. 00:11:18.980 --> 00:11:20.980 I can hear you breathing out there. 00:11:20.980 --> 00:11:23.980 So we're going to begin this morning at the beginning. 00:11:23.980 --> 00:11:26.980 Genesis chapter 2. 00:11:26.980 --> 00:11:31.980 Will you come back with me, please, to the Garden of Eden? 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:41.980 To me, it is always a healthy and a happy exercise to go back before the fall. 00:11:41.980 --> 00:11:56.980 And to find out just exactly what God intended, what God provided, what God had in mind when he established and got this whole shoot and match of the family started. 00:11:56.980 --> 00:12:00.980 As we shall see this morning, he was the one who got it started. 00:12:00.980 --> 00:12:04.980 So if you want to blame it on somebody, you have to blame it on him. 00:12:04.980 --> 00:12:06.980 God originated the family. 00:12:06.980 --> 00:12:11.980 Now this message this morning is an unorthodox message. 00:12:11.980 --> 00:12:16.980 This is the kind that homiletics teachers say never preached this kind of a message. 00:12:16.980 --> 00:12:20.980 This is the kind that is not a model for budding ministers. 00:12:20.980 --> 00:12:24.980 I don't know if we have any budding ministers around here or not. 00:12:24.980 --> 00:12:28.980 Blooming idiots, maybe, but not budding ministers. 00:12:28.980 --> 00:12:30.980 I couldn't resist that. 00:12:30.980 --> 00:12:32.980 You'll have to forgive me for that. 00:12:32.980 --> 00:12:33.980 But at any rate, where was I? 00:12:33.980 --> 00:12:34.980 Oh, yeah. 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:37.980 This is not the orthodox kind of a message. 00:12:37.980 --> 00:12:38.980 It's like a funnel. 00:12:38.980 --> 00:12:40.980 You know what a funnel looks like. 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:47.980 We start out very broadly, and I'm going to give you my outline so you kind of know where I am and don't get lost in the shuffle here. 00:12:47.980 --> 00:12:53.980 We're going to just take this passage apart limb from limb, and I'm going to dangle some details before you. 00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:56.980 That's the widest part of this funnel. 00:12:56.980 --> 00:12:58.980 Just all kinds of details. 00:12:58.980 --> 00:13:00.980 No rhyme nor reason to them. 00:13:00.980 --> 00:13:03.980 Just this is interesting and notice that and don't forget that thing. 00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:05.980 Just a bunch of details. 00:13:05.980 --> 00:13:10.980 Then we're going to move down the funnel to what I'm going to call some general principles. 00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:16.980 Things we're going to try to put together some thoughts as a result of these details. 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:19.980 And then at the very bottom of the funnel, something to take home. 00:13:19.980 --> 00:13:21.980 We'll call it some application. 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:25.980 So that's the format of what we're doing. 00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:27.980 So don't get lost in the funnel here. 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:30.980 Be sure you kind of know where I am. 00:13:30.980 --> 00:13:31.980 Excuse me. 00:13:31.980 --> 00:13:33.980 Genesis chapter 2. 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:39.980 My throat is not the best this morning, so I'll try to stay away from that microphone when I do that. 00:13:39.980 --> 00:13:40.980 Genesis 2. 00:13:40.980 --> 00:13:42.980 We're going to begin at verse 18. 00:13:42.980 --> 00:13:46.980 I think I will read the rest of the chapter here for you. 00:13:46.980 --> 00:13:49.980 Genesis 2 and verse 18. 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:52.980 And the Lord God said, 00:13:52.980 --> 00:13:55.980 It is not good that the man should be alone. 00:13:55.980 --> 00:13:59.980 I will make him and help meet for him. 00:13:59.980 --> 00:14:04.980 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air. 00:14:04.980 --> 00:14:08.980 And he brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. 00:14:08.980 --> 00:14:13.980 And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 00:14:13.980 --> 00:14:19.980 And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field. 00:14:19.980 --> 00:14:23.980 But for Adam there was not found in help meet for him. 00:14:23.980 --> 00:14:28.980 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. 00:14:28.980 --> 00:14:29.980 And he slept. 00:14:29.980 --> 00:14:34.980 And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 00:14:34.980 --> 00:14:38.980 And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman. 00:14:38.980 --> 00:14:40.980 And he brought her unto the man. 00:14:40.980 --> 00:14:42.980 And Adam said, 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:47.980 This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. 00:14:47.980 --> 00:14:51.980 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. 00:14:51.980 --> 00:14:57.980 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife. 00:14:57.980 --> 00:14:59.980 And they shall be one flesh. 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:02.980 And they were both naked, the man and his wife. 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:05.980 And they were not ashamed. 00:15:05.980 --> 00:15:11.980 And all kinds of details rush upon our minds as we consider these verses. 00:15:11.980 --> 00:15:15.980 So let me just point out a few that are very significant for us. 00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:18.980 I noticed the term in verse 18. 00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:24.980 It is not good that the man should be alone. 00:15:24.980 --> 00:15:26.980 Not good. 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:29.980 And all of the ladies said, 00:15:29.980 --> 00:15:32.980 Oh, well, okay. 00:15:32.980 --> 00:15:35.980 It is not good. 00:15:35.980 --> 00:15:39.980 Now that may not seem really like a very significant detail. 00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:45.980 Until you look back in chapter 1 and you find a tremendous contrast. 00:15:45.980 --> 00:15:49.980 Come back with me to chapter 1 and please notice the contrast. 00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:52.980 Chapter 1 and verse 4. 00:15:52.980 --> 00:15:53.980 We read, 00:15:53.980 --> 00:15:59.980 And God saw the light, that it was good. 00:15:59.980 --> 00:16:01.980 Look at verse 10. 00:16:01.980 --> 00:16:08.980 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:15.980 And God saw that it was good. 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:16.980 Excuse me. 00:16:16.980 --> 00:16:18.980 Verse 18. 00:16:18.980 --> 00:16:25.980 It says that God gave the sun to rule over the day and the moon over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:29.980 And God saw that it was good. 00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:31.980 Verse 21. 00:16:31.980 --> 00:16:44.980 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. 00:16:44.980 --> 00:16:46.980 Verse 25. 00:16:46.980 --> 00:16:57.980 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good. 00:16:57.980 --> 00:17:00.980 Look at verse 31. 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:02.980 Verse 26. 00:17:02.980 --> 00:17:16.980 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good, but it was not good for the man to be alone. 00:17:16.980 --> 00:17:19.980 It's a very significant detail. 00:17:19.980 --> 00:17:24.980 We'll come back to this in a few moments, and I dare not say too much here. 00:17:24.980 --> 00:17:29.980 But it does appear from this text that men need women. 00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:37.980 Remember, too, that Adam was, at this time, a perfect person, as perfect as a creature could be. 00:17:37.980 --> 00:17:47.980 He had an untested creaturely holiness, with a perfect environment, a wonderful occupation, spiritual communion with God every day. 00:17:47.980 --> 00:17:50.980 Nothing between he and his creator whatsoever. 00:17:50.980 --> 00:17:53.980 He had something to do. 00:17:53.980 --> 00:18:02.980 And yet, with all of that perfection around him, it was still not good for him to be alone. 00:18:02.980 --> 00:18:06.980 I think a very significant detail. 00:18:06.980 --> 00:18:11.980 Then, also in verse 18, we're going to jump on this word, help meet. 00:18:11.980 --> 00:18:18.980 God said, I will make him and help meet for him. 00:18:18.980 --> 00:18:25.980 Obviously, referring to Eve, or the woman that he was going to make for this man. 00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:30.980 He says, I'm going to make for Adam and help meet. 00:18:30.980 --> 00:18:38.980 Now, I think most people, when they hear the term, help meet, think of the term, helper. 00:18:38.980 --> 00:18:42.980 The woman is the man's helper. 00:18:42.980 --> 00:18:51.980 And the implication of that term is that whatever the man wants done, whether he wants to do it or not, the woman is supposed to do it. 00:18:51.980 --> 00:18:54.980 She is his helper. 00:18:54.980 --> 00:19:00.980 So, if he tells her to do something, she's automatically supposed to do it, unquestioningly and instantly. 00:19:00.980 --> 00:19:03.980 She is his helper. 00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:15.980 Like the husband who always wants his coffee just absolutely boiling from the hot plate on the stove right to his cup. 00:19:15.980 --> 00:19:20.980 Still has to be bubbling and boiling in the pot as it goes into the cup. 00:19:20.980 --> 00:19:26.980 And he looks at it and he says to his wife, I could use a little sugar with this. 00:19:26.980 --> 00:19:30.980 And she gets up and she gets the sugar and puts it on the table. 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:33.980 I could use a spoon. 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:36.980 She gets dutifully the spoon. 00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:40.980 You know, a little cream would be nice too. 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:50.980 And by the time he gets the sugar and the spoon and thinks about the napkin and gets that and sits back down, he says, you know a doughnut would really be good with this. 00:19:50.980 --> 00:19:51.980 And here's this woman. 00:19:51.980 --> 00:19:55.980 She's going up and down, up and down like some kind of a yo-yo. 00:19:55.980 --> 00:19:57.980 She says, I'm a helper. 00:19:57.980 --> 00:20:00.980 That's my role in life. 00:20:00.980 --> 00:20:02.980 Not a doughnut, but a roll. 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:05.980 That was terrible. 00:20:05.980 --> 00:20:07.980 That was really bad. 00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:10.980 Anyway, I couldn't resist that either. 00:20:10.980 --> 00:20:11.980 It's a bad morning. 00:20:11.980 --> 00:20:12.980 Where was I? 00:20:12.980 --> 00:20:13.980 Oh, yes. 00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:14.980 What does this word mean? 00:20:14.980 --> 00:20:16.980 Help meet. 00:20:16.980 --> 00:20:21.980 It really does not mean helper as such. 00:20:21.980 --> 00:20:27.980 It has much more the idea of a suitable companion. 00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:31.980 It's a very difficult word to translate, frankly. 00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:36.980 Some have translated it one who corresponds to the man. 00:20:36.980 --> 00:20:39.980 That doesn't mean one who writes him letters. 00:20:39.980 --> 00:20:47.980 Others have translated one who answers back to the man. 00:20:47.980 --> 00:20:51.980 And somehow that has a poor connotation to it. 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:54.980 So the idea of a suitable companion. 00:20:54.980 --> 00:20:59.980 And if you think about it, that's a pretty good definition of it. 00:20:59.980 --> 00:21:01.980 What kind of a person is Adam? 00:21:01.980 --> 00:21:03.980 What kind of a person is a man? 00:21:03.980 --> 00:21:08.980 Well, as was sung this morning, we were made in the image of God, man and woman. 00:21:08.980 --> 00:21:13.980 As such, we have personality. 00:21:13.980 --> 00:21:15.980 We have a mind. 00:21:15.980 --> 00:21:17.980 We can think with our minds. 00:21:17.980 --> 00:21:18.980 We have emotions. 00:21:18.980 --> 00:21:22.980 We can feel exhilaration and joy when Ohio State beats Michigan. 00:21:22.980 --> 00:21:26.980 Or some other such incidental thing like that. 00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:28.980 We have a will. 00:21:28.980 --> 00:21:29.980 We can decide. 00:21:29.980 --> 00:21:31.980 We can make choices. 00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:35.980 That's the kind of a creature man is. 00:21:35.980 --> 00:21:37.980 He's like God. 00:21:37.980 --> 00:21:38.980 He's like God. 00:21:38.980 --> 00:21:40.980 He has personality. 00:21:40.980 --> 00:21:42.980 He can talk. 00:21:42.980 --> 00:21:47.980 He can have interpersonal relationship because he's like God. 00:21:47.980 --> 00:21:56.980 And beloved friends, when God made a woman, he made her matched. 00:21:56.980 --> 00:21:58.980 A suited companion to him. 00:21:58.980 --> 00:21:59.980 Can Adam think? 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:00.980 So also can Eve. 00:22:00.980 --> 00:22:05.980 Does Adam have emotions? 00:22:05.980 --> 00:22:09.980 So also does Eve. 00:22:09.980 --> 00:22:11.980 Can Adam make choices? 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:13.980 So also can Eve. 00:22:13.980 --> 00:22:19.980 She is a perfectly matched companion for him. 00:22:19.980 --> 00:22:20.980 For him. 00:22:20.980 --> 00:22:32.980 Men and women were designed to complement one another. 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:36.980 To complete what Adam was lacking. 00:22:36.980 --> 00:22:39.980 So Adam would have someone with whom to think. 00:22:39.980 --> 00:22:43.980 Someone who could share his emotions. 00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:53.980 Someone who could help him make those decisions in life. 00:22:53.980 --> 00:22:57.980 A woman then is a helpmeet. 00:22:57.980 --> 00:23:04.980 A suitable matched companion for a man. 00:23:04.980 --> 00:23:12.980 Any view that puts women down as people who cannot think. 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:17.980 Or people who are somehow inferior to men. 00:23:17.980 --> 00:23:22.980 Is an unscriptural view of women. 00:23:22.980 --> 00:23:25.980 Well, there's some other details here. 00:23:25.980 --> 00:23:27.980 We found out it was not good for the man to be alone. 00:23:27.980 --> 00:23:30.980 And we found out that a woman is to be a helpmeet for him. 00:23:30.980 --> 00:23:34.980 I'm interested in this next section. 00:23:34.980 --> 00:23:36.980 We're simply going to call it the search. 00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:43.980 And of course, into the verses here, 19 and 20, verses 19 and 20 in particular. 00:23:43.980 --> 00:23:48.980 We find that Adam is now going to name all the animals. 00:23:48.980 --> 00:23:51.980 And have you ever wondered why he did that? 00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:58.980 I take it, as I understand this text, that upon deciding, now Adam needs a helpmeet. 00:23:58.980 --> 00:24:03.980 That God brings all of the animals by and Adam calls names to them. 00:24:03.980 --> 00:24:07.980 And we read at the end of verse 20, 00:24:07.980 --> 00:24:14.980 But for Adam there was not found any helpmeet for him. 00:24:14.980 --> 00:24:22.980 I take it that God paraded all of these animals in front of Adam in order to create an appetite within him. 00:24:22.980 --> 00:24:27.980 So that Adam would begin to sense, hey, I don't have a partner. 00:24:27.980 --> 00:24:32.980 All of these various kinds of animals, they have their partners, but I don't have one. 00:24:32.980 --> 00:24:41.980 And so there was a search going on, trying to find a suitable mate for Adam in the animal kingdom. 00:24:41.980 --> 00:24:45.980 But there was none who fit the bill. 00:24:45.980 --> 00:24:55.980 And so we have then God by special creation bringing into existence the woman. 00:24:55.980 --> 00:24:58.980 I'm going to read the verse again, verse 21. 00:24:58.980 --> 00:25:04.980 The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. 00:25:04.980 --> 00:25:08.980 Really, you have here the first anesthetic, do you not? 00:25:08.980 --> 00:25:10.980 And he slept. 00:25:10.980 --> 00:25:13.980 And you also have the first operation. 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:20.980 And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 00:25:20.980 --> 00:25:29.980 And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. 00:25:29.980 --> 00:25:37.980 Someone has said, and probably rightly so, God saved the best till last. 00:25:38.980 --> 00:25:47.980 If he created the animals and then he created man on the sixth day, he saved till last the woman. 00:25:47.980 --> 00:25:48.980 And he did not. 00:25:48.980 --> 00:25:51.980 Have you ever tried to think of how God did that? 00:25:51.980 --> 00:25:56.980 Taking a rib, one rib out of a man. 00:25:56.980 --> 00:25:59.980 And he formed that rib. 00:25:59.980 --> 00:26:02.980 He built it into a woman. 00:26:02.980 --> 00:26:05.980 That's fantastic, really. 00:26:05.980 --> 00:26:08.980 Probably doing it. 00:26:08.980 --> 00:26:14.980 You see, God could have taken dust like he did with Adam and he could have started afresh, couldn't he? 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:20.980 But in order to show the intricate connection between man and woman, 00:26:20.980 --> 00:26:29.980 he actually constructed her out of a part of the man's own body. 00:26:29.980 --> 00:26:38.980 There is a vital relationship there between the man and the woman. 00:26:38.980 --> 00:26:42.980 Well, then he introduces her to Adam. 00:26:42.980 --> 00:26:43.980 Look at verse 23. 00:26:43.980 --> 00:26:46.980 We're all going to pick up another detail here. 00:26:46.980 --> 00:26:47.980 Adam said, 00:26:47.980 --> 00:26:56.980 This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. 00:26:56.980 --> 00:26:59.980 The little word now. 00:26:59.980 --> 00:27:04.980 We tend to pass over that word in our English versions. 00:27:04.980 --> 00:27:09.980 The word literally means now at last. 00:27:09.980 --> 00:27:12.980 There is a bit of excitement in it. 00:27:12.980 --> 00:27:20.980 As he sees her, he comes to consciousness and God brings this beautiful creature to him now. 00:27:20.980 --> 00:27:27.980 The very first moment he lays eyes upon her, he recognizes her uniqueness. 00:27:27.980 --> 00:27:30.980 He recognizes her relationship to him. 00:27:30.980 --> 00:27:31.980 And he says, 00:27:31.980 --> 00:27:33.980 Now at last! 00:27:33.980 --> 00:27:35.980 Here is my helpmeet. 00:27:35.980 --> 00:27:38.980 Here is one who matches me. 00:27:38.980 --> 00:27:40.980 And he's so excited. 00:27:40.980 --> 00:27:42.980 He's so thrilled. 00:27:42.980 --> 00:27:44.980 And that little word now tells us that. 00:27:44.980 --> 00:27:46.980 Now at last. 00:27:46.980 --> 00:27:50.980 I have a helpmeet. 00:27:50.980 --> 00:27:55.980 Had he been Fred Flintstone, he probably would have said, 00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:58.980 Yabba dabba doo! 00:27:58.980 --> 00:28:02.980 Or had he been Uncle Jed of the Beverly Hillbillies, he would have simply said, 00:28:02.980 --> 00:28:05.980 Ooh, doggie! 00:28:05.980 --> 00:28:07.980 But he was excited. 00:28:07.980 --> 00:28:14.980 He was thrilled because he recognized here was his special companion. 00:28:14.980 --> 00:28:16.980 Well then notice verse 24. 00:28:16.980 --> 00:28:19.980 A few other details we have to grab here. 00:28:19.980 --> 00:28:25.980 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, 00:28:25.980 --> 00:28:31.980 and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. 00:28:31.980 --> 00:28:35.980 That verse is so loaded, frankly, we could spend the rest of our time right there. 00:28:35.980 --> 00:28:36.980 We hadn't better do that. 00:28:36.980 --> 00:28:41.980 But have you ever noticed, or have you ever wondered, 00:28:41.980 --> 00:28:45.980 why does it say man and not woman? 00:28:45.980 --> 00:28:52.980 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and he shall cleave to his wife. 00:28:52.980 --> 00:28:58.980 Why doesn't it say therefore shall the man and the woman leave father and mother and cleave to each other? 00:28:58.980 --> 00:28:59.980 Why doesn't it say that? 00:28:59.980 --> 00:29:01.980 Have you ever wondered about that? 00:29:01.980 --> 00:29:08.980 One man in commenting on this verse suggested, and I think rightly so, 00:29:08.980 --> 00:29:14.980 that the reason it says just the man, the man is to leave and he is to cleave, 00:29:14.980 --> 00:29:24.980 is that God is laying the responsibility for that home, for that relationship, for that family, on the man. 00:29:24.980 --> 00:29:32.980 It is the man who is to leave. It is the man who is to cleave. 00:29:32.980 --> 00:29:37.980 There is a sense in which it is the role of the young man to say to that young woman, 00:29:37.980 --> 00:29:42.980 I love you, I want to establish a home independent of our parents, 00:29:42.980 --> 00:29:47.980 I will love you, I will live with you, I will cling to you for life, 00:29:47.980 --> 00:29:49.980 we're going to make it together. 00:29:49.980 --> 00:29:52.980 That's the man's role. 00:29:52.980 --> 00:29:58.980 If the man grows up and straightens around, he settles down and things get going. 00:29:58.980 --> 00:29:59.980 That's silly. 00:29:59.980 --> 00:30:02.980 That's totally unscriptural. 00:30:02.980 --> 00:30:06.980 When a young man marries that young woman, he is saying, 00:30:06.980 --> 00:30:09.980 Hey, hang on, we're going to make it together. 00:30:09.980 --> 00:30:12.980 And I'm going to see to it that we make it. 00:30:12.980 --> 00:30:17.980 It is not the woman who is to hold the family together. 00:30:17.980 --> 00:30:19.980 It is the man. 00:30:19.980 --> 00:30:23.980 He's to do the leaving and he's to do the cleaving. 00:30:23.980 --> 00:30:25.980 And if there's some man who says, 00:30:25.980 --> 00:30:29.980 Well, I'm not ready to leave mother and dad yet, then don't get married. 00:30:29.980 --> 00:30:35.980 Because the word leave means just that. 00:30:35.980 --> 00:30:39.980 It is a very real severance. 00:30:39.980 --> 00:30:45.980 The taking of those emotional apron strings that we parents have on our children 00:30:45.980 --> 00:30:47.980 and there is a cutting of those strings. 00:30:47.980 --> 00:30:50.980 And we live independently the one or the other. 00:30:50.980 --> 00:30:52.980 There is to be a leaving. 00:30:52.980 --> 00:30:55.980 By the way, I did not say we're never supposed to talk to each other 00:30:55.980 --> 00:30:58.980 or contact one another or confer with one another. 00:30:58.980 --> 00:30:59.980 I didn't say that. 00:30:59.980 --> 00:31:05.980 But, beloved friends, there must be an emotional independence. 00:31:05.980 --> 00:31:07.980 It must be there. 00:31:07.980 --> 00:31:08.980 Leaving. 00:31:08.980 --> 00:31:09.980 Cleaving. 00:31:09.980 --> 00:31:14.980 Cleaving has the idea of clinging to. 00:31:14.980 --> 00:31:17.980 The man is to cling to his wife. 00:31:17.980 --> 00:31:23.980 Another word for it would be to be welded to her. 00:31:23.980 --> 00:31:26.980 Some have translated it to be stuck to, 00:31:26.980 --> 00:31:30.980 which lends itself to be stuck with. 00:31:30.980 --> 00:31:33.980 But we don't say that. 00:31:33.980 --> 00:31:40.980 He is to adhere tightly to be welded to her for life. 00:31:40.980 --> 00:31:44.980 You ever try to break apart a weld? 00:31:44.980 --> 00:31:48.980 That's a pretty solid bond, isn't it? 00:31:48.980 --> 00:31:52.980 That's the term used here for marriage. 00:31:52.980 --> 00:31:55.980 A man is to leave. 00:31:55.980 --> 00:31:57.980 And he is to cleave. 00:31:57.980 --> 00:31:59.980 And then the text says, 00:31:59.980 --> 00:32:01.980 They too shall be one flesh. 00:32:01.980 --> 00:32:06.980 And I understand that to be a reference to the sexual relationship 00:32:06.980 --> 00:32:09.980 between husband and wife. 00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:10.980 Mentioned in scripture? 00:32:10.980 --> 00:32:11.980 Yes. 00:32:11.980 --> 00:32:16.980 Because human sexuality is a creation of God. 00:32:16.980 --> 00:32:27.980 And within the marriage bonds, there can be and ought to be and must be a freedom of sexual expression, 00:32:27.980 --> 00:32:36.980 without guilt and without fear and without shame, between the husband and his wife. 00:32:36.980 --> 00:32:44.980 Obviously, outside of marriage, the Bible is very clear that sexual relationships are wrong. 00:32:44.980 --> 00:32:45.980 They are sinful. 00:32:45.980 --> 00:32:48.980 They bring the judgment of God upon people. 00:32:48.980 --> 00:32:55.980 But inside of marriage, with our marriage partner, there is a real freedom. 00:32:55.980 --> 00:33:00.980 And there is a real enjoyment that is supposed to be there. 00:33:00.980 --> 00:33:06.980 And that's why this verse is here. 00:33:06.980 --> 00:33:12.980 So we have kind of gotten through the detail parts of our funnel. 00:33:12.980 --> 00:33:14.980 We've talked about the... 00:33:14.980 --> 00:33:15.980 Well, you know what we talked about. 00:33:15.980 --> 00:33:16.980 Why should I review them? 00:33:16.980 --> 00:33:21.980 Just some of those details of the passage. 00:33:21.980 --> 00:33:27.980 We move from that down a little bit now to some general principles. 00:33:27.980 --> 00:33:29.980 Some general principles. 00:33:29.980 --> 00:33:33.980 It seems to me that on the basis of these verses, 00:33:33.980 --> 00:33:39.980 we ought to make some general statements that are based on these. 00:33:39.980 --> 00:33:42.980 And I have a number of them that I'd like to share with you. 00:33:42.980 --> 00:33:45.980 One such general principle is this. 00:33:45.980 --> 00:33:48.980 Men need women. 00:33:48.980 --> 00:33:54.980 Men need women. 00:33:54.980 --> 00:34:04.980 If Adam, in all of his perfection and completeness, needed a woman, 00:34:04.980 --> 00:34:07.980 then most men today need a woman. 00:34:07.980 --> 00:34:11.980 Now, I don't want that to be misconstrued. 00:34:11.980 --> 00:34:14.980 And I don't want to say it too solidly. 00:34:14.980 --> 00:34:16.980 Because I know when we come to the New Testament, 00:34:16.980 --> 00:34:23.980 there is another principle that comes along that says there is a valid form of single living. 00:34:23.980 --> 00:34:26.980 As a matter of fact, we're going to talk about that tonight. 00:34:26.980 --> 00:34:28.980 The single life. 00:34:28.980 --> 00:34:32.980 Does everybody have to get married to be a success? 00:34:32.980 --> 00:34:35.980 That's really the theme tonight. 00:34:35.980 --> 00:34:38.980 So what I'm going to say to you is simply this. 00:34:38.980 --> 00:34:43.980 Most men ought to marry. 00:34:43.980 --> 00:34:45.980 Most men. 00:34:45.980 --> 00:34:50.980 This is a general principle that does not apply to every specific case. 00:34:50.980 --> 00:34:57.980 But since we are all related to Adam, and Adam needed a woman, 00:34:57.980 --> 00:35:05.980 then it seems to me I'm on very safe and sane ground to say most men need a woman. 00:35:05.980 --> 00:35:08.980 And I think men ought to realize that. 00:35:08.980 --> 00:35:13.980 I think that will help us to have the right attitude toward our wives. 00:35:13.980 --> 00:35:17.980 Do you view your wife as a necessary evil? 00:35:17.980 --> 00:35:22.980 Or as someone who compliments you? 00:35:22.980 --> 00:35:25.980 Not compliments you, tells you how wonderful you are. 00:35:25.980 --> 00:35:29.980 But someone who completes you. 00:35:29.980 --> 00:35:31.980 I'll be honest with you. 00:35:31.980 --> 00:35:33.980 I'm thankful for my wife. 00:35:33.980 --> 00:35:38.980 She is a wonderful completer for me. 00:35:38.980 --> 00:35:43.980 I have some very real weaknesses, but she is able to help me. 00:35:43.980 --> 00:35:48.980 I remember in the early days of our marriage, around Thanksgiving and around Christmas, 00:35:48.980 --> 00:35:53.980 this very time of year, I would get very depressed, very sad. 00:35:53.980 --> 00:35:56.980 Instead of happy and glad like everybody was supposed to, I'd just say, 00:35:56.980 --> 00:35:59.980 Oh, brother, Christmas. 00:35:59.980 --> 00:36:00.980 And I myself was surprised. 00:36:00.980 --> 00:36:02.980 I thought, what's wrong with me? 00:36:02.980 --> 00:36:07.980 Why do these feelings of depression come over me at holiday times? 00:36:07.980 --> 00:36:10.980 Maybe some of you know what I'm talking about. 00:36:10.980 --> 00:36:14.980 My wife came from a family that looked forward to the holidays, 00:36:14.980 --> 00:36:16.980 and they knew how to celebrate the holidays. 00:36:16.980 --> 00:36:19.980 And our family, to be perfectly blunt about it, did not. 00:36:19.980 --> 00:36:24.980 Holidays were not happy times in my home as a child. 00:36:24.980 --> 00:36:28.980 And I don't think I really realized that until I was married, 00:36:28.980 --> 00:36:33.980 and Christmas rolled around, and all of a sudden my wife was making all of these happy preparations, 00:36:33.980 --> 00:36:34.980 and here was Lauren. 00:36:34.980 --> 00:36:35.980 Bah, Christmas! 00:36:35.980 --> 00:36:40.980 She helped me. 00:36:40.980 --> 00:36:43.980 She completed me. 00:36:43.980 --> 00:36:47.980 And that's just one little illustration of it. 00:36:47.980 --> 00:36:51.980 I think there needs to be a humility about us as men. 00:36:51.980 --> 00:36:58.980 Do not think that you are so self-made, so self-sufficient, 00:36:58.980 --> 00:37:02.980 that you have no needs, and a woman can contribute nothing to you. 00:37:02.980 --> 00:37:06.980 If you believe that, then you're better than Adam, 00:37:06.980 --> 00:37:09.980 and you know more than God. 00:37:09.980 --> 00:37:16.980 Because he said it was not good for the man to be alone. 00:37:16.980 --> 00:37:19.980 So we learned something about men. 00:37:19.980 --> 00:37:21.980 Men need women. 00:37:21.980 --> 00:37:26.980 Second, general principle I want to draw from this. 00:37:26.980 --> 00:37:29.980 We learned something here about women. 00:37:29.980 --> 00:37:30.980 And that is this. 00:37:30.980 --> 00:37:39.980 A woman is a valuable prize. 00:37:39.980 --> 00:37:43.980 A woman is a valuable prize. 00:37:43.980 --> 00:37:45.980 Do not other scriptures say, 00:37:45.980 --> 00:37:49.980 Whoso findeth a woman findeth a good thing? 00:37:49.980 --> 00:37:52.980 And did not the writer of the Proverbs say, 00:37:52.980 --> 00:37:54.980 Who can find a virtuous woman? 00:37:54.980 --> 00:37:55.980 Etc. 00:37:55.980 --> 00:37:56.980 As my mom would have said, 00:37:56.980 --> 00:37:59.980 She is as scarce as hen's teeth. 00:37:59.980 --> 00:38:01.980 Beloved friends, 00:38:01.980 --> 00:38:07.980 A woman is a valuable treasure. 00:38:07.980 --> 00:38:10.980 God made her from the rib of the man 00:38:10.980 --> 00:38:15.980 to show the intricate closeness of this woman 00:38:15.980 --> 00:38:19.980 in her origins with man. 00:38:19.980 --> 00:38:22.980 When he first introduced woman to man, 00:38:22.980 --> 00:38:26.980 in Adam's reaction we hear a note of excitement. 00:38:26.980 --> 00:38:28.980 Now at last, here she is. 00:38:28.980 --> 00:38:30.980 Adam didn't put his wife down. 00:38:30.980 --> 00:38:35.980 Adam was not ashamed of her. 00:38:35.980 --> 00:38:37.980 He was so excited. 00:38:37.980 --> 00:38:39.980 I'll bet he opened the car door for her 00:38:39.980 --> 00:38:41.980 five years after they were married. 00:38:41.980 --> 00:38:47.980 He considered her a prize, a treasure. 00:38:47.980 --> 00:38:50.980 And he was going to hold her in high esteem, 00:38:50.980 --> 00:38:53.980 and he was going to respect her and love her 00:38:53.980 --> 00:38:55.980 and cling to her. 00:38:55.980 --> 00:38:57.980 Now there is not a husband here 00:38:57.980 --> 00:38:59.980 who doesn't drop the ball every once in a while 00:38:59.980 --> 00:39:02.980 in this particular area, including myself. 00:39:02.980 --> 00:39:04.980 But beloved friends, 00:39:04.980 --> 00:39:06.980 we ought to make it a point. 00:39:06.980 --> 00:39:08.980 We ought to be very careful in the attitude 00:39:08.980 --> 00:39:12.980 we have toward our wives and women in general. 00:39:12.980 --> 00:39:15.980 Amen? 00:39:15.980 --> 00:39:18.980 It's true. 00:39:18.980 --> 00:39:21.980 Sometimes even preachers think that they make points 00:39:21.980 --> 00:39:24.980 with congregations or gain ground with people 00:39:24.980 --> 00:39:27.980 if in the course of their sermons they make the woman 00:39:27.980 --> 00:39:29.980 the butt of all their jokes. 00:39:29.980 --> 00:39:32.980 You don't impress God with that. 00:39:32.980 --> 00:39:36.980 Sometimes we have the notion, and we'll talk about this 00:39:36.980 --> 00:39:38.980 next Sunday when we get to the role of the husband 00:39:38.980 --> 00:39:39.980 and the wife. 00:39:39.980 --> 00:39:42.980 Sometimes we have the notion that, you know, 00:39:42.980 --> 00:39:45.980 I'm the boss around here and I do all the thinking 00:39:45.980 --> 00:39:48.980 and I make all the decisions and my wife, she's just here. 00:39:48.980 --> 00:39:50.980 She is a necessary evil. 00:39:50.980 --> 00:39:54.980 And then we blame it on our Christianity and say, 00:39:54.980 --> 00:39:57.980 well, the husband is the head of the wife. 00:39:57.980 --> 00:40:00.980 That means if he's the head, the wife is nobody. 00:40:00.980 --> 00:40:03.980 And we blame it on our fundamentalism. 00:40:03.980 --> 00:40:07.980 And we pit one part of the Scripture, we think, 00:40:07.980 --> 00:40:08.980 against another. 00:40:08.980 --> 00:40:10.980 We dare not do that. 00:40:10.980 --> 00:40:12.980 There's no necessity to do that. 00:40:12.980 --> 00:40:14.980 The Scriptures are a harmony. 00:40:14.980 --> 00:40:17.980 Genesis 2 does not conflict with Ephesians 5. 00:40:17.980 --> 00:40:19.980 They don't conflict. 00:40:19.980 --> 00:40:21.980 We need to realize that. 00:40:21.980 --> 00:40:24.980 And let us clean up our attitudes and say, 00:40:24.980 --> 00:40:28.980 hey, a woman is a valuable prize. 00:40:28.980 --> 00:40:33.980 Treat her like delicate china. 00:40:33.980 --> 00:40:38.980 She's a valuable prize. 00:40:38.980 --> 00:40:42.980 We learned something else about marriage here. 00:40:42.980 --> 00:40:46.980 There's so much here that I'd like to mention. 00:40:46.980 --> 00:40:56.980 We learned something about the permanence of marriage, don't we? 00:40:56.980 --> 00:40:59.980 How could I not mention that in that verse? 00:40:59.980 --> 00:41:04.980 Therefore shall a man leave and cleave, 00:41:04.980 --> 00:41:07.980 and they too shall be one flesh. 00:41:07.980 --> 00:41:10.980 I like what my former pastor used to say when he said, 00:41:10.980 --> 00:41:16.980 this is the only time when one plus one equals one. 00:41:16.980 --> 00:41:21.980 They too shall be one flesh. 00:41:21.980 --> 00:41:24.980 There is an indivisibility there. 00:41:24.980 --> 00:41:27.980 There is a permanence there. 00:41:27.980 --> 00:41:32.980 The fact that God intended for Adam and Eve to have more than one partner, 00:41:32.980 --> 00:41:34.980 he would have created them like that. 00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:46.980 But the fact that he created one woman for one man is symbolic of the fact that God intended one man and one woman to live together for life. 00:41:46.980 --> 00:41:53.980 Now, do not misunderstand what I'm saying. 00:41:53.980 --> 00:42:03.980 I think we need to realize that God intended for married people to stay together. 00:42:03.980 --> 00:42:08.980 And someone says, but Mr. Warren, it is tough inside of marriage. 00:42:08.980 --> 00:42:10.980 Right? 00:42:10.980 --> 00:42:16.980 We have this crazy notion, I'll probably mention this again. 00:42:16.980 --> 00:42:25.980 We have this crazy notion that the young lady walks down the aisle and the young man, one of these doors, walks out and boy they're all dressed in their tuxes, you know, 00:42:25.980 --> 00:42:32.980 and the little ruffles out here and the ruffles out here and the preacher comes out and everybody's in their finery, you know, 00:42:32.980 --> 00:42:34.980 and they look so happy and they look so mature. 00:42:34.980 --> 00:42:40.980 They've got it all together and the preacher says, wilt thou, and they wilt right there at the altar. 00:42:40.980 --> 00:42:47.980 And they go back out, you know, and they have their reception, they're off on a honeymoon and you think, man, there's a young couple, 00:42:47.980 --> 00:42:50.980 they got it all together, they're really going to make it. 00:42:50.980 --> 00:42:52.980 They're going to live happily ever after. 00:42:52.980 --> 00:42:56.980 I have some good news for you. 00:42:56.980 --> 00:43:01.980 Nobody, nobody lives happily ever after. 00:43:01.980 --> 00:43:04.980 Mr. Warren, something wrong with your marriage? 00:43:04.980 --> 00:43:05.980 No. 00:43:05.980 --> 00:43:06.980 Just normal. 00:43:09.980 --> 00:43:12.980 Nobody lives happily ever after. 00:43:12.980 --> 00:43:14.980 That is a myth. 00:43:14.980 --> 00:43:21.980 And you think you get in there and say, oh, we're going to love and love will answer all of our problems, et cetera, et cetera. 00:43:21.980 --> 00:43:27.980 Leave, cleave for life. 00:43:28.980 --> 00:43:30.980 Come what may. 00:43:30.980 --> 00:43:33.980 Oh, we know each other. 00:43:33.980 --> 00:43:36.980 We have dated for X number of months or years. 00:43:36.980 --> 00:43:39.980 You think you know each other. 00:43:39.980 --> 00:43:43.980 But it's not like living together. 00:43:43.980 --> 00:43:48.980 There's those tremendous trifles, you know. 00:43:48.980 --> 00:43:51.980 They're for real. 00:43:51.980 --> 00:43:54.980 The toothpaste tube trauma. 00:43:54.980 --> 00:43:59.980 Where he's the roller and he's got it all just right, you know. 00:43:59.980 --> 00:44:01.980 And she's the squeezer. 00:44:01.980 --> 00:44:05.980 And just about the time he's got it just right. 00:44:05.980 --> 00:44:10.980 And about four times that happens and all of a sudden the lid blows off the bathroom. 00:44:10.980 --> 00:44:11.980 Aha! 00:44:11.980 --> 00:44:13.980 Who's been wrecking my toothpaste? 00:44:13.980 --> 00:44:15.980 Miserable woman. 00:44:15.980 --> 00:44:22.980 Or even more important, what's called the toilet tissue issue. 00:44:22.980 --> 00:44:28.980 You know, at his house they always rolled it down. 00:44:28.980 --> 00:44:29.980 At her house they roll it up. 00:44:29.980 --> 00:44:36.980 Or the doorknob dilemma, we call it around our house. 00:44:36.980 --> 00:44:38.980 What are doorknobs for anyway? 00:44:38.980 --> 00:44:39.980 Well, they're to open doors or to... 00:44:39.980 --> 00:44:41.980 No, they're to hang clothes on. 00:44:41.980 --> 00:44:44.980 Et cetera. 00:44:44.980 --> 00:44:47.980 Those are called tremendous trifles. 00:44:47.980 --> 00:44:50.980 Oh, it'll never happen in my family. 00:44:50.980 --> 00:44:54.980 Oh, and those are just silly little things. 00:44:54.980 --> 00:44:57.980 Wait until the real things come along. 00:44:57.980 --> 00:44:59.980 Like the children. 00:44:59.980 --> 00:45:02.980 And discipline. 00:45:02.980 --> 00:45:04.980 And money, et cetera. 00:45:04.980 --> 00:45:07.980 I like to compare marriage to a pressure cooker. 00:45:07.980 --> 00:45:10.980 You know what a pressure cooker is, don't you? 00:45:10.980 --> 00:45:12.980 It's kind of a thing like that, you know. 00:45:12.980 --> 00:45:13.980 And it's got a lid on it. 00:45:13.980 --> 00:45:14.980 It's got a little gauge up there. 00:45:14.980 --> 00:45:15.980 And it's got locks on it. 00:45:15.980 --> 00:45:18.980 And a little escape valve and so on. 00:45:18.980 --> 00:45:20.980 That's marriage. 00:45:20.980 --> 00:45:21.980 You take the meat. 00:45:21.980 --> 00:45:22.980 You take the potatoes. 00:45:22.980 --> 00:45:24.980 You take the carrots and whatever. 00:45:24.980 --> 00:45:25.980 A little bit of water. 00:45:25.980 --> 00:45:26.980 You throw the thing in. 00:45:26.980 --> 00:45:27.980 You put the heat on. 00:45:27.980 --> 00:45:30.980 And the thing starts to boil inside there until it's done. 00:45:30.980 --> 00:45:33.980 That's marriage. 00:45:33.980 --> 00:45:37.980 God takes one young man, one young woman. 00:45:37.980 --> 00:45:39.980 He throws them in the pot. 00:45:39.980 --> 00:45:42.980 He puts the lid on. 00:45:42.980 --> 00:45:44.980 And he locks it. 00:45:44.980 --> 00:45:46.980 And he says, you're in there for life. 00:45:46.980 --> 00:45:47.980 You cannot get out. 00:45:47.980 --> 00:45:50.980 One man for one woman for life. 00:45:50.980 --> 00:45:51.980 That's it. 00:45:51.980 --> 00:45:59.980 By the way, incidentally, if that's true, then beloved young people, you better think twice 00:45:59.980 --> 00:46:01.980 about who you marry. 00:46:01.980 --> 00:46:06.980 It's not just any old Tom, Dick, or Harry that happens to come along. 00:46:06.980 --> 00:46:11.980 If I'm in this thing for life and I'm locked in there, I better make a good choice the first time. 00:46:11.980 --> 00:46:12.980 Right? 00:46:12.980 --> 00:46:15.980 We'll talk about that down the road, too. 00:46:15.980 --> 00:46:18.980 But anyway, here we are inside there. 00:46:18.980 --> 00:46:20.980 We can't get out. 00:46:20.980 --> 00:46:21.980 Then you know what God does? 00:46:21.980 --> 00:46:24.980 He turns on the heat. 00:46:24.980 --> 00:46:29.980 And the pressures begin to build inside that relationship. 00:46:29.980 --> 00:46:30.980 Oh, the money. 00:46:30.980 --> 00:46:31.980 What did you do with that money? 00:46:31.980 --> 00:46:33.980 Let's make a budget. 00:46:33.980 --> 00:46:37.980 And the children and the in-laws and the outlaws and all kinds of things start going. 00:46:37.980 --> 00:46:41.980 And the young couple says, hey, let me out of here. 00:46:41.980 --> 00:46:44.980 You know what God does? 00:46:44.980 --> 00:46:47.980 You're there for life. 00:46:47.980 --> 00:46:48.980 God's sadistic. 00:46:48.980 --> 00:46:51.980 He just likes to see us suffer. 00:46:51.980 --> 00:46:53.980 I know. 00:46:53.980 --> 00:46:58.980 Why do you put anything in a pressure cooker? 00:46:58.980 --> 00:47:00.980 To tenderize it? 00:47:00.980 --> 00:47:03.980 To make it useful? 00:47:03.980 --> 00:47:06.980 That's exactly what God does in marriage. 00:47:06.980 --> 00:47:13.980 He tenderizes our heart and makes us useful. 00:47:13.980 --> 00:47:24.980 You see, marriage is not the union of two already perfect people who live happily ever after. 00:47:24.980 --> 00:47:35.980 Marriage is rather the blending and uniting of two very imperfect and immature people who agree to grow. 00:47:35.980 --> 00:47:37.980 We all together. 00:47:37.980 --> 00:47:39.980 That's marriage. 00:47:39.980 --> 00:47:42.980 That's marriage. 00:47:42.980 --> 00:47:43.980 Permanence. 00:47:43.980 --> 00:47:47.980 It's biblical. 00:47:47.980 --> 00:47:54.980 That brings us then finally to some take-home applications. 00:47:54.980 --> 00:48:03.980 What can we take home to live out this afternoon, this week? 00:48:03.980 --> 00:48:10.980 Just some thoughts I'd like to share with you. 00:48:10.980 --> 00:48:12.980 One is this. 00:48:12.980 --> 00:48:32.980 It seems to me that if God created the family, and he did, and that if he recorded the creation of that family first in his word, then it seems to me that the family also ought to be first. 00:48:32.980 --> 00:48:36.980 We ought to be first in our priorities. 00:48:36.980 --> 00:48:39.980 You mean how to put the family before work? 00:48:39.980 --> 00:48:43.980 Or before church? 00:48:43.980 --> 00:48:46.980 And I'll have to explain that sometime. 00:48:46.980 --> 00:48:52.980 Or the family before some pleasure that I may want to have. 00:48:52.980 --> 00:48:59.980 You mean the family ought to have some priority in my time, and in my money, and in my planning? 00:48:59.980 --> 00:49:00.980 Yes. 00:49:00.980 --> 00:49:01.980 Yes. 00:49:01.980 --> 00:49:20.980 Beloved friends, the family, your children, your wife, your husband deserve and biblically ought to have some priorities in your affections and in your life. 00:49:20.980 --> 00:49:27.980 After all, God created it before he ever created the government, or your job, or even the church. 00:49:27.980 --> 00:49:28.980 Really. 00:49:28.980 --> 00:49:32.980 There ought to be some priority structure. 00:49:32.980 --> 00:49:37.980 We ought to be giving it some importance in our lives. 00:49:37.980 --> 00:49:39.980 That only seems logical. 00:49:39.980 --> 00:49:44.980 It grows right out of the order of the text here. 00:49:44.980 --> 00:49:48.980 But let's look at it a slightly different way. 00:49:48.980 --> 00:50:03.980 If indeed God created marriage and the family, if he did, then don't you think he knows how to make it work? 00:50:03.980 --> 00:50:10.980 Now, if I have a car problem, I want to take it to the people who made it. 00:50:10.980 --> 00:50:14.980 Because I think they ought to know how to fix it. 00:50:14.980 --> 00:50:19.980 We had a dryer from a certain company not too many years ago. 00:50:19.980 --> 00:50:21.980 It was a brand new dryer. 00:50:21.980 --> 00:50:24.980 Just a couple of months old, really. 00:50:24.980 --> 00:50:28.980 And it got to the point after a couple of months where it wouldn't quit. 00:50:28.980 --> 00:50:32.980 It just loved to dry so much, it just kept drying, drying, drying. 00:50:32.980 --> 00:50:33.980 Never would quit. 00:50:33.980 --> 00:50:36.980 I said to my wife, oh, don't worry, honey, I can fix it. 00:50:36.980 --> 00:50:41.980 Give him my trusty flashlight and my screwdriver, and I'll have it fixed in a few moments. 00:50:41.980 --> 00:50:45.980 So I went downstairs and pulled it away from the wall and got the cobwebs out of there. 00:50:45.980 --> 00:50:51.980 And I took those four screws off the four corners of the back plate, laid it aside, turned on my flashlight, 00:50:51.980 --> 00:50:54.980 looked all around in there, and yelled up to my wife, 00:50:54.980 --> 00:50:57.980 Honey, call Sears. 00:50:57.980 --> 00:50:58.980 They made it. 00:50:58.980 --> 00:51:01.980 They know how to make it work. 00:51:01.980 --> 00:51:06.980 God made it. 00:51:06.980 --> 00:51:11.980 He knows how to make it work. 00:51:11.980 --> 00:51:16.980 Therefore, we need to listen. 00:51:16.980 --> 00:51:23.980 When he tells us how to be a husband, when he tells us how to be a wife, 00:51:23.980 --> 00:51:27.980 and when he tells us how to find a mate, 00:51:27.980 --> 00:51:30.980 when he tells us how to be a child in the home, 00:51:30.980 --> 00:51:32.980 he made it. 00:51:32.980 --> 00:51:35.980 He knows how to make it work. 00:51:35.980 --> 00:51:39.980 Kind of like with E.F. Hutton. 00:51:39.980 --> 00:51:45.980 When God speaks about the family, we better listen. 00:51:46.980 --> 00:51:48.980 Father, we thank you for your word. 00:51:48.980 --> 00:51:53.980 We realize that this has been a little different approach. 00:51:55.980 --> 00:51:59.980 And yet we trust an approach that gets us into the text 00:51:59.980 --> 00:52:02.980 and helps us to think your thoughts after you. 00:52:02.980 --> 00:52:06.980 We thank you that you have put the solitary in families. 00:52:07.980 --> 00:52:11.980 You give us opportunity to live and grow together. 00:52:12.980 --> 00:52:17.980 Pray, Father, that as we continue thinking about you and your word in this area, 00:52:18.980 --> 00:52:19.980 we might learn. 00:52:19.980 --> 00:52:20.980 We might grow. 00:52:20.980 --> 00:52:21.980 We might change. 00:52:22.980 --> 00:52:24.980 We might be benefited. 00:52:25.980 --> 00:52:27.980 We ask it in Jesus' name. 00:52:27.980 --> 00:52:28.980 Amen. 00:52:28.980 --> 00:52:32.980 Hymn number 414, please. 00:52:33.980 --> 00:52:35.980 Hymn 414. 00:52:39.980 --> 00:52:41.980 This is a very general kind of a hymn, 00:52:41.980 --> 00:52:44.980 and yet it applies to our particular situation this morning. 00:52:45.980 --> 00:52:48.980 When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, 00:52:49.980 --> 00:52:51.980 what a glory He sheds on our way. 00:52:51.980 --> 00:52:53.980 Even at home, the Lord does that. 00:52:54.980 --> 00:52:55.980 Let's stand together as we sing. 00:52:58.980 --> 00:53:01.980 While we do His good will, 00:53:01.980 --> 00:53:03.980 let's stand together as we sing. 00:53:04.980 --> 00:53:06.980 Can we live together as we sing? 00:53:07.980 --> 00:53:08.980 Singing together as we sing. 00:53:08.980 --> 00:53:17.519 When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, 00:53:17.519 --> 00:53:24.360 what a glory He sheds on our way. 00:53:24.719 --> 00:53:32.760 While we do His good will, He abides with us still 00:53:32.760 --> 00:53:38.380 and with all who will trust and obey. 00:53:38.980 --> 00:53:48.099 Trust and obey, for there's no other way 00:53:48.099 --> 00:53:57.820 to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. 00:53:59.980 --> 00:54:03.539 We sing together the second verse as the final one, please. 00:54:03.539 --> 00:54:08.880 Not a shadow can rise. 00:54:09.019 --> 00:54:12.960 A cloud in the skies, 00:54:13.360 --> 00:54:19.539 a cloud with His eyes in the rain. 00:54:20.340 --> 00:54:24.380 Not a cloud nor a fear, 00:54:24.779 --> 00:54:28.659 not a sign or a tear, 00:54:28.659 --> 00:54:34.779 can I finally trust and obey. 00:54:36.379 --> 00:54:38.859 Trust and obey, 00:54:39.859 --> 00:54:43.659 for there's no other way 00:54:44.279 --> 00:54:49.659 to be happy in Jesus, 00:54:49.659 --> 00:54:54.539 but to trust and obey. 00:54:57.379 --> 00:54:58.539 Shall we pray together? 00:54:59.659 --> 00:55:03.599 Our Father, we are trusting you for a good series together. 00:55:04.859 --> 00:55:06.899 We pray that you would awaken within us 00:55:06.899 --> 00:55:09.480 an interest in the things of the Lord, 00:55:09.639 --> 00:55:10.619 the things of the Word. 00:55:11.539 --> 00:55:15.000 As well, Father, as an openness to rethink 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:17.719 how we are living at home. 00:55:18.800 --> 00:55:21.199 Father, it's very easy to be spiritual in public. 00:55:22.639 --> 00:55:24.300 It's very different at home. 00:55:25.659 --> 00:55:27.780 Grant that we might be those who are Christians 00:55:27.780 --> 00:55:30.179 in word, in view, in attitude, 00:55:30.440 --> 00:55:31.320 wherever we are. 00:55:32.599 --> 00:55:34.920 We ask it in Jesus' name and thanksgiving. 00:55:34.920 --> 00:55:35.920 Amen. 00:55:35.920 --> 00:55:36.559 Amen. 00:55:36.559 --> 00:55:36.659 Amen. 00:55:36.659 --> 00:55:38.659 Amen. 00:55:38.659 --> 00:55:38.920 Amen. 00:55:38.920 --> 00:55:39.500 Amen. 00:55:39.500 --> 00:55:41.440 Amen. 00:55:41.440 --> 00:55:41.500 Amen.