WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.759 I want you to know that a quality life is no accident. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:08.880 It is a collection of principles that God has laid down. 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:21.920 If there is a part of your life that is not satisfactory, be it personal or be it in your home, or your business, your money, or any other venue in your life. 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:36.479 If it isn't satisfactory, if you're experiencing frustration, it is because you've either neglected, disbelieved, or simply a great principle has been obscured. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:46.159 Now I'm going to share a principle tonight that God awakened me to a number of years ago, and uh I want you to get it. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:50.719 And you don't get it by trying to understand it. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:57.039 You get it by doing what the principle entails, okay? 00:00:57.280 --> 00:00:59.439 You just say, I receive it. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:00.240 Okay? 00:01:00.880 --> 00:01:06.400 Now the pastor has gone out on a limb, as far as uh as that goes, in having me. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:08.079 You don't know me. 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:14.719 I have survived the church for 50, for uh almost uh sixty years. 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:19.200 I've been in the ministry a lot of that time, and I survived that too. 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:21.840 And so at least I am here. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.280 I am still extant, I'm in existence. 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:28.879 So I'll call upon you to just take the pastor's word. 00:01:29.200 --> 00:01:35.120 I could be uh believable, and it might be wise for you to accept what I'm going to share. 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:37.840 So I just want you to say, I'm gonna get it. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:41.120 I'm really gonna get it. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:43.040 Okay. 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:45.519 God help you to get it. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:51.599 Open your Bible, please, with me to the second chapter of the book of Genesis. 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:59.040 I'll need to work toward the text to set you up for it, and then work from the text with a story. 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:02.000 And uh where did you tell me the clock was? 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:03.519 Oh, there it is. 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:06.879 Uh-oh, it's later than I thought. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:09.360 Already, it's all right, no problem. 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:17.840 Uh a number of years ago I was writing one of my books, I think maybe the fourth one. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:22.800 And um I j I just hit the wall early. 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:25.439 I always I always did that. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.960 When I realized I didn't have enough sense to write a book. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:34.560 And um I I said, Lord, what am I doing? 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:40.240 And uh I I said I I was writing about the home. 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:49.199 I felt like that I had uh become a custodian of some experiences that had changed my wife's life. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:53.199 By the way let me present my wife. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.560 Would you let me do that? 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:57.439 Jerry stand up. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:10.400 Now I know what you're thinking. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:18.479 Uh y you you need to know that we have been married a year and a month and a half. 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:19.759 That's about it. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:22.319 A year and a month and a half. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:27.759 I lost my wife two and a half years ago, she lost her husband six years ago. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:33.840 And uh a couple of years ago, a little over that, God led us together. 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.919 I never present her, but what it haunts me what you're thinking. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:43.759 How did you get that? 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:47.599 So I think you deserve an answer. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:55.439 I had come upon me a powerful anointing for romance. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:06.400 And I became to her absolutely irresistible. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:07.280 Okay? 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.879 Just thought you needed to have that answer. 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:16.720 Anyway, I was married to my wife for forty-seven and a half years, Barbara. 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:19.439 She was married to her husband for thirty years. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:28.160 We have seventy-seven and a half years uh to recommend us to uh be able to make it in marriage. 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:29.360 Hallelujah. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:36.079 So I just heard myself say wife and realized she hadn't been presented. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:38.879 You're so pretty. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:41.600 What a smile. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:45.120 Anyway, I was gonna write a book on the home. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:59.680 I'd been married probably, oh, twenty-five years at the time, and and we had recently turned a corner and I wanted to chronicle what I had learned that brought us to a new level of joy in marriage. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:13.120 And so I had a sneaking suspicion that the words that closed out Genesis chapter 2 were very, very important. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:24.959 After all, they were a part of almost every wedding ceremony I'd ever attended, and every ceremony I'd ever had a part in. 00:05:26.079 --> 00:05:29.600 And suddenly I awakened to the fact that didn't have a clue what it meant. 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:34.959 I went to the big thick books and realized they didn't either. 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:37.839 I tried my Hebrew. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:40.000 I took Greek, I did well. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:41.439 Hebrew took me. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:44.160 I I never never got it. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:46.399 So that didn't help. 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:52.879 Now I did something that to me has become a rule of hermeneutics, whatever that is. 00:05:53.600 --> 00:05:58.399 I think it's a law of biblical understanding and interpretation. 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:04.800 And uh there are some times when there are passages that are totally obscure to you. 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:06.480 You just don't get them. 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:16.160 And when I exhaust every possibility, I just stop and say, now Lord, do you remember what you meant when you said that? 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:29.360 And would you mind so much releasing what you remember to me because what I read in the King James or in the other versions, it just doesn't come through. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:31.120 So let me set it up. 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:34.000 Adam was alone. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:38.879 God had created prior to his creation all the animals. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:44.879 I'm sure Adam had spoken before, but we have no record of it. 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:51.279 What you're about to hear is the world's first husband's first words. 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:57.680 If you please, the world's first father's first words. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:59.279 Bound to be important. 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:03.120 Monumental times call for monumental words. 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:11.519 You don't land a man on the moon and he descend the ladder and put his foot on the moon and say, Oh, shucks. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:17.439 He goes down the steps and he says one. 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:21.040 He said something. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:22.480 What what what was it? 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:28.560 One small step for man, one giant leap for uh for mankind. 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:30.160 And we'll remember that. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:34.319 It'll be written in history books as long as time exists. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:44.000 Now Adam's listening, and God says, You know, it's not good that man be alone. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:49.360 I will make a helper suitable for you. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.279 That's an interesting word, I'm told, in the Hebrew. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:08:00.399 It's a sort of a double, it's a suited helper, a helper helper, a good helper, a helping helper. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:03.600 Somebody that'll do you good all the time. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:06.160 I'm gonna make one for you. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:17.600 I'm sure Adam was mystified, but the strange thing is that after God said that, instead of pursuing what he promised, he headed in another direction. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:25.759 He began to send all the animals by Adam, and he said, I want you to name them. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:27.839 Now what did Adam have in his mind? 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:30.319 A helper-helper. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:38.879 And so here they came, large and small, of every kind and every size and every shape. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:42.399 Poor Adam didn't know whether to name them or claim them. 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:47.360 I mean, you you could understand down the road around the corner came a hippopotamus. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:49.360 I maybe that was the original name. 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:53.279 Maybe Adam was saying a hippopah, I hope that's not her. 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.639 You know, it's uh it it works like that. 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:02.320 And he named all the animals. 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:06.399 And the name stuck, so says the scripture. 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:10.639 It says here, this is not my text, but uh the pretext. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:21.600 So he gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field, and those names were what their names still are. 00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:30.879 And then thoughtfully the writer says, But for Adam there wasn't found a helper. 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:46.399 And by now Adam is a little shaken up and uh a little hopeful and a little excited and uh God puts him to sleep. 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:54.879 He takes one of his ribs out and closes the wound and evidently it rapidly heals. 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:10.240 And with that rib from next to his heart, he made a woman, her name meant taken from man. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:12.559 What a moment. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:22.960 Why, the rest of time on earth would center around what would happen in this union, a man and a woman. 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:29.440 Every culture would rise or fall on the quality of the relationship between the two. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:37.120 And and you know, as I began to see that, I said, Dear Lord, I've got to know what that what what it meant when he looked at her and responded. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.879 Now let me read to you what he said. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:59.840 So he wakes up and there standing before him in all her unadorned splendor, he sees her, and he says, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:03.840 She shall be called woman before she was taken out of man. 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:07.919 Now, whether the rest of this is coverage or what he said, we do not know. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:13.919 For this reason a man will leave father and mother and cleave unto her and his wife, and they shall be one flesh. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:17.039 Now, I wasn't satisfied with that translation. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:25.360 Sounds more to me like a laboratory report than the overflow of an aesthetic heart. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:28.159 And so I've revised it a bit. 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:31.039 Wow, it's a good start. 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:35.279 I don't think he looked at her and spoke in monotone. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:40.000 I think he looked at her and said, Wow, this is it. 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:52.320 The rest of me, part of my structure, mine to have and care for, taken from me, given to me, worth leaving all for and cleaving to forever. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:53.679 And we're one. 00:11:53.919 --> 00:11:54.559 Wow. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:08.639 Now, I was writing the book, and it began to roll. 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:17.519 I don't know how many of you ever wrote a book, but if you've reached this time, it's a writer's dream, where something breaks, the dam breaks, and you begin to write. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:21.279 And I began to write, I don't type very fast anyway, but I couldn't type fast. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:27.919 The ideas were rolling over me like a like a dam bursting, and I began to I began to write. 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:28.960 It began to come. 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:36.240 I never had a period that I remember in my life where more revelation came about a thing than what I'm going to share with you. 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:44.799 In fact, it was so it was so overpowering that we were moving at the time, moving from one house to another house about two and a half miles away. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:51.759 I said, I said to my wife, don't move my study, don't move me, move everything else, but I'm staying here. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:52.799 I'm on a roll. 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:54.799 So I I was writing. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:12:58.080 Woke up in a couple of days and I was the only thing in the house. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:12:59.840 And and I I got lonely. 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:01.600 It's not good that man be alone. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:24.559 So I said, Well, move me, and we had moved to a wonderful estate and a nice study in the woods, and there I continued, Well, I I was it was rolled on in my study and and the book was taking shape and I I I just was giving myself time to write and and I just dropped by to pick up my mail real early one morning and there was a woman there. 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:39.759 I knew her, I knew her husband, and and she just was she looked awful, her face was red and splotchy, her eyes were bloodshot, her hair was disheveled, she looked like she had been run over by a truck. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:43.279 She said, Pastor, you've got to talk to me and my husband. 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:50.080 We had a knockdown drag out last night, and I I thought to myself, Now I'm writing a book on the home. 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.960 For goodness sake, I I don't want to get caught up in counseling marriage. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:57.919 And there was something inconsistent about my thoughts. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:02.080 I fell under sudden conviction and I said, Well, will he talk? 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:03.039 She said, Yes. 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:07.360 But you need to know he never has he never has told the truth to a counselor yet. 00:14:07.519 --> 00:14:11.200 I'm getting more excited about this uh this counseling session. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.360 I said, Okay, uh, how about this afternoon at two o'clock? 00:14:15.519 --> 00:14:16.720 She said that'd be fine. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:17.840 And I was writing. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:23.440 The last thing I wanted to do was getting embroiled in a controversy between a husband and a wife. 00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:26.000 But here they came, absolutely on time. 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:33.759 And uh I bring them into the house and and I I set uh George over here and Van Lee over here. 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:36.720 And I usually ask a wife, now what's the problem? 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:41.519 She pours out a tale of woe like never heard on land nor sea. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:51.200 And then when she's through, I turn to him and and he says, I didn't know there was a problem. 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:53.360 Dumb. 00:14:54.639 --> 00:15:00.559 Well, I thought I'd do a a change for uh for this one, and I said, George, what's the problem? 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:03.440 Now this is almost exactly what he says. 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:06.720 I think I've brought the message uh in his presence. 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:08.799 I said, Yep, that's what I said. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:15.279 He said, I'll tell you, preacher, she's overweight and sloppy, a terrible housekeeper. 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:26.559 And uh to tell you the truth, I can't understand how anybody could be as dumb as she is after living with somebody as intelligent as I am for twenty-two years. 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:31.600 Now I perceived right away that there was a a problem in the marriage. 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:34.639 Now he didn't stop there. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:41.360 He's the type of fellow who's gonna talk at the drop of the hat and drop it himself and and and then keep on talking. 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:46.000 And he said uh he he just kept on vituperating. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:47.600 I that's a wonderful word. 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:52.480 I don't know what it means, but that's what uh I'm I'm sure that's what he was doing. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:56.080 And I was getting bored with it, and so suddenly I stopped him. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:58.159 Now this is what's going on. 00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:09.279 Rather slowly, but absolutely with with a bursting revelation, God began to speak to me. 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:14.639 This couple sitting in front of you, this is no accident. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:19.440 I'm teaching you a principle, and this is the laboratory. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:21.600 Thanks a lot, Lord. 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:30.559 If you will listen to me, I'll bring your principle from a principle to a practice. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:32.480 I'm listening. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:35.039 And so God gave me a thought. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:38.000 I stopped him, dead in his tracks, speaking. 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.480 I said, George, hold it just a minute. 00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:43.840 I said, Were were you married in church? 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:45.440 Let me back up. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.320 I just remember the question. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:57.279 I realized that what Adam was doing, there are five things, I won't share but one of them with you, I'll just go over them. 00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:12.720 What Adam was doing in the presence of God, in the presence of Eve, speaking to one of the other, in the hearing of the other, he was making a declaration of unconditional acceptance. 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:14.640 He was receiving her. 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:18.880 That's what you were asked to do at the wedding altar. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:21.599 Receive her, receive him. 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:26.720 He to love you, you to respond to his receiving love and receive him. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:28.559 And this is what I began to see. 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:35.279 Love is not in this wedding vow, but it is absolutely throughout the vow. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:37.119 It involves receiving. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:38.799 Love is acceptance. 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:52.799 Love is acceptance of a person from a as a gift from God, and that acceptance liberates that person to be to you all that God made them to be, and in response, allows that person to receive you. 00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:58.240 That will allow you, empower you to be everything to that person that God made them to be. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:10.480 So you have two people living together, total strangers in the depths of life, in the really soul uh understanding, and all of a sudden they begin to react to one another. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:16.000 Their receiving is partial, their rejection is overpowering. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:18.480 It's uh you're different than I thought. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:21.839 You you have quirks in your personality, I can't understand. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:24.240 We we we just can't do it. 00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:41.200 But you see, love is receiving, love is accepting, and love or receiving empowers that which is received to be maximized in what it can mean in the life of the one receiving. 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:42.400 Well, I just went crazy. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:45.680 I I just wow, I love, Lord, this is wonderful. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:47.680 I I'm it's wonderful. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:53.519 And uh I was about there in my study and there was George vituperating. 00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:56.240 And I'd had enough of it. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:58.160 I I didn't have time for any more. 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:00.400 And I just had a bright idea from the Lord. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:02.640 I said, George, stop just a minute, let me ask you a question. 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:03.920 Were you married in church? 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:04.480 Yeah. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:14.079 Um did you uh Did you hear the preacher say anything like, uh, do you take this woman? 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:14.720 Yeah. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:18.960 I said, uh did did you say I do? 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:20.960 He said, Yeah. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:26.640 I said you lied, didn't He said, What do you mean? 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:27.359 I said you lied. 00:19:27.519 --> 00:19:28.960 You hadn't taken her yet. 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:31.200 You have not received her. 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:37.839 And I opened my mouth and began to share with him something of what I'm sharing with you, and he was, I mean, he didn't want to say anything. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:43.359 His eyes were wide, his mouth was open, and his jaw was dropped. 00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:49.920 And I thought, well, I've got this fellow maybe where he needs to be, and I'll just I'll just let her all out. 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:59.359 And God began to speak, and I began to be impressed with what I heard, and the more I heard, the more I wanted to hear myself, and so I just continued to share. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:04.880 George stopped me in a minute and he said, Preacher, I never heard anything like this in all my life. 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:06.720 I said, I hadn't either. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:12.400 He said, Why hasn't somebody shared this with me before today? 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.480 I said, No, no, I didn't know it. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:16.559 I got to you as quick as I could. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:21.279 So I continued. 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:38.960 I continued to talk about the power of receiving love on the part of the husband who was commanded to love the wife unconditionally, without some evaluation, not saying, I will love you a bit, but I will withhold the rest until I straighten you out in my image. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:42.799 You see, it's a terrible game we play in the marriage. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:44.559 I want you to change. 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:46.000 I want you to change. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:49.200 If both of them change, they have to start over again. 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:51.680 How do I want you to change? 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:53.440 I want you to like become like me. 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:55.599 Uh how do I how does she want me to change? 00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:57.759 I want she wants me to become like her. 00:20:57.920 --> 00:20:58.799 Both of us change. 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.440 We look at each other and say, whoa, we need to start over. 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:02.480 You understand? 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:11.200 And uh I was I saw it. 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:15.920 I saw the power of receiving. 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:23.440 You are sitting there, a composite of what you have received and what you have rejected. 00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:28.079 You have a marvelous, you have a marvelous quality called the will. 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:36.880 God put that in you, and I am absolutely convinced that the will he has put in you is a part of his own sovereignty. 00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:39.119 You have the right to choose. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:42.799 You can choose against God or you can choose for God. 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:47.519 When Jesus said, I stand at the door and knock, he wasn't standing before a door. 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:49.759 He was standing before your will. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:56.079 And you can say no or not open the door and keep that door shut, or you can open it. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.759 Your life is of the quality that is commendable. 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:05.680 With what you've opened your life to and what you've shut the door to in your life. 00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:26.880 And if there is an area that is not victorious, not productive, not peace-bringing, not joyful, it is because the principle has been neglected, willfully disbelieved, or simply obscured. 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:28.400 You're not aware of it. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:31.359 And so you're becoming aware of it tonight. 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:37.440 So I challenge you to begin to do it. 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:44.559 Well George and his wife were smitten. 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:56.400 I said, um, George, you know Van Lee is God's perfect gift to you. 00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:00.480 He said, No, preacher, she ain't she ain't perfect. 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:05.519 I said, Well, maybe you've been looking through the wrong eyes. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:10.240 He said, Well, I've I've just got two. 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:11.839 Are there others? 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:13.759 I said, Yeah. 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:18.319 Would you like to know how she looks in the eyes of God? 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:21.119 He said, Well, yes. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:33.440 I said, Let me let me just remind you that she has been found acceptable in Christ, and God has received her as his very own gift. 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:39.119 And Jesus has received her as his dying is reward for dying. 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:40.480 And you know what? 00:23:40.559 --> 00:23:41.519 God has judged her. 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:42.160 Listen to this. 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:45.599 Whom God foreknew, he predestinated. 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:47.920 Whom he predestinated, he called. 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:49.759 Whom he called, he justified. 00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.559 Whom he justified, he glorified. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:54.559 George wants to tell you the truth. 00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:02.880 You've been living with a foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, glorified woman for twenty-two years, and most of the time you've been griping about it. 00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:10.400 You don't say Well, we got through. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.599 And I looked at her and I said, Vanley, you know why you've rejected him? 00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:18.000 Because he's rejected you. 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:30.400 It just goes like that And um George and asked him, you receive this one? 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:32.720 First time. 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:38.880 He said, Well, yeah I said, Van Lee, will you receive him? 00:24:40.079 --> 00:24:41.279 She said, Yes. 00:24:51.440 --> 00:24:56.160 We slipped over there and they put their hands on the little post in the middle. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:00.000 We had a little wedding ceremony, went something like this. 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:04.880 George, you do you take this woman whose hand you hold to be your wife? 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:06.160 I do. 00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:10.720 Do you receive her unconditionally? 00:25:12.319 --> 00:25:16.000 Thereby releasing her to be to you all that a woman's made to be to a man. 00:25:16.160 --> 00:25:24.880 And do you give yourself to her in such a manner that God can make you all to her that a man was made to be to a woman, he said I'd do. 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:28.000 Did the same thing with her. 00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:30.400 We had a prayer and off they went. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:37.359 I've lost track of George and Van Lee, but I'll tell you this, from the time I knew them on until I lost track of them. 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:40.319 They had a different marriage, not a perfect marriage. 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:50.400 Now, I had just a few minutes to launch from there into the broader sea, the broader river of that principle. 00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:54.960 Again, let me repeat it. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:26:05.039 You are sitting there, I am standing here, a composite result of what I have accepted and or rejected. 00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:11.279 This is the book of information about what to reject and what to accept. 00:26:11.519 --> 00:26:18.400 If you accept what ought to be rejected and reject what ought to be accepted, you're in big trouble. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:22.799 The marriage truth is just the beginning. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:27.039 And what Adam was doing was saying this. 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:28.240 God. 00:26:30.079 --> 00:26:31.359 Well, I'm not sure. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:36.480 He may have been talking to her in the presence of God, or to God in her presence. 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:39.200 Regardless, both of them got it. 00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:44.799 Lord, I unconditionally receive her. 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:49.920 Secondly, it was an expression of grateful possession. 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:58.240 This is bone of my bone, as much mine as the very skeletal structure of my body. 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:04.160 And it was an issue of, Lord, I thank you that she's mine. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:09.920 Thirdly, it was a it was an acknowledgement of responsibility. 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:13.599 I'm as responsible for her as I am my own body. 00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:15.359 I own that right now. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:20.240 Fourthly, it was a a commitment of permanent togetherness. 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:25.039 For this reason, shall a man leave father and mother and cleave unto the wife. 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:27.440 And finally, it was a celebration of unity. 00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:30.240 Now let's leave the marriage for a moment. 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:31.519 I want you to take that. 00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:37.119 And as I leave it, I'll ask you, wife, husband, have you received your wife? 00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:40.000 Have you received it? 00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:41.200 I mean really received it. 00:27:41.279 --> 00:27:42.799 Well, I shouldn't be asking you anyway. 00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:44.160 I should be asking her. 00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:46.000 Do you feel received? 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:48.079 Do you feel accepted? 00:27:49.279 --> 00:28:01.920 Or have you taken a stance, husband, of saying, you know, there are some things it'll take me a while to iron out, but I'll love you partially until then, and then I will bestow on you all my love then, when I have perfected you in my image? 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:05.039 Big deal. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:09.200 How do you know? 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:24.799 When you've received something or somebody, when you have a grateful service of thanksgiving over it, God, I thank you that when this one came into my life, she brought your presence and your will and your pleasure. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:29.200 And then a wife, it it's rather easy for a wife. 00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:35.519 A wife is very difficult for a wife to receive her husband before she is received by her husband. 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:46.559 But when two receive each other, the potential for blessing in each other's lives is maximized. 00:28:47.519 --> 00:28:52.720 Reception releases energy for fulfillment. 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:55.119 Rejection locks it up. 00:28:55.359 --> 00:28:58.000 Now, I I'll leave the marriage with this. 00:28:59.119 --> 00:29:07.839 What if you are trying to force your wife into a form, into a mode by pressure? 00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:23.680 Do you realize that that pressure itself is a form of rejection and what you are intending to do, maybe with good purpose, is locking her up instead of releasing her. 00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:28.880 Let's go from there. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:34.720 This is a principle that's absolutely universal. 00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:37.839 How am I saved? 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:39.200 Listen to this. 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:46.000 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:51.200 All that he did for us, he did for those. 00:29:53.359 --> 00:30:02.960 But his death and life and promises and grace prove useless to them because they refused to receive. 00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:05.519 They received him not. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:12.880 But to as many as received him, he gave the power to become the sons of God. 00:30:13.119 --> 00:30:18.640 The power to become the sons of God, transformed, human beings, plus holy God. 00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:19.599 That happened to us. 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:20.000 Why? 00:30:20.240 --> 00:30:28.160 Not because of something we did, but because we had the grace and God moved upon us, giving us the gift of repentance. 00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:35.359 We willingly received repentance, exercised it, and received faith and were gloriously saved. 00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:44.559 No thanks to us for everything that we received, including the manner we received it, came from him we just received. 00:30:45.200 --> 00:30:51.119 And if you're here tonight and you don't know Jesus, it's really not all that complicated. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:57.119 You're lost because you've never accepted him, you've never received him. 00:30:57.680 --> 00:30:59.759 One second of receiving. 00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:01.200 Receiving. 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:06.079 You've been set out. 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:09.519 He's here and you're here. 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:14.880 It's going to be very difficult for you to walk away because you face the truth. 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:19.440 If I reject him, all that he did in my behalf is for naught. 00:31:19.680 --> 00:31:21.039 I must receive him. 00:31:21.279 --> 00:31:22.559 And I do that tonight. 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:25.599 And you you don't have to wait another 10-15 minutes for me to finish. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:26.960 You don't have to be lost that long. 00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:28.240 Just get saved right now. 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:29.519 Lord, I receive you. 00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:30.880 I accept you. 00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:34.079 Well, what about a believer? 00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:40.640 You know, I got saved in the country church uh about uh 59 years ago. 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:44.480 And uh all I knew is uh how to let Jesus in. 00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:46.319 I'd I just said come in. 00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:51.279 That's all the instruction I got, except somebody told me to sit down. 00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:53.680 And I I I didn't get any. 00:31:53.920 --> 00:31:54.880 They they must have thought. 00:31:54.960 --> 00:32:03.440 I I said, Well, I I gave my life to preach at fourteen and uh I didn't know the first thing about what to do with him. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:05.359 I I had it I knew he was inside. 00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:11.440 I just didn't know how to treat him, didn't know I I thought the best thing to do is for me to learn all I could about him and copy him. 00:32:11.839 --> 00:32:12.720 Ape him. 00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:16.160 Uh first book I read is what would Jesus do. 00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:20.880 The problem with that book is if we knew what he would do, we couldn't do it without him. 00:32:21.359 --> 00:32:23.200 That's the big thing, you see. 00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:27.759 And I said, I I tried to be like him for eighteen years. 00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:32.400 Until I had a hernia in my soul trying to be like him. 00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:36.799 And one day I said, God, I give up. 00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:37.519 I can't. 00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:41.359 Everything I like is either illegal, immoral, or fattening. 00:32:42.720 --> 00:32:43.920 It ain't working. 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:46.319 I can't do it. 00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:47.440 I quit. 00:32:48.240 --> 00:32:58.720 And I th I thought I'd just hear a moan and a groan from heaven and God would say, Oh no But instead I heard more like a whisper. 00:33:03.119 --> 00:33:04.799 I've known all along you could. 00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:09.440 And it's been a pain in my heart seeing you try. 00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:14.400 And I heard somebody say it. 00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:18.400