SPEAKER_02: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_03: Mike and Elaine Rice, and we have been married 48 years.
SPEAKER_01: And we dated five years before that.
SPEAKER_01: So we've known each other a while.
SPEAKER_03: Probably the thing that surprised me the most is that I really didn't realize how much selflessness and sacrificial love was involved in a marriage.
SPEAKER_03: I knew that I was called to represent Christ in our marriage, but I didn't really know how to do that.
SPEAKER_03: And I kind of began by loving him like the way I wanted to be loved.
SPEAKER_03: And I know that the Bible, I soon learned that the Bible said that husbands are to love their wives and wives are to respect their husbands.
SPEAKER_03: And so I had to really learn how to do that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a lot of practical things that you don't you don't realize.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up with two brothers, and then uh within a mile of my house, I had three other boy cousins.
SPEAKER_01: So I was used used to the way uh boys did things, boys saw things.
SPEAKER_01: Uh then sitting down with Elaine and going like, oh, you want me to a lot of words here.
SPEAKER_01: For me, it was just like, just get it done.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's do it.
SPEAKER_01: So to to understand the differences as we went along, uh that um, you know, a lot of the being a being a football coach, a lot of the decisions I've made in my my lifetime were in 25 seconds or less.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was used to um just getting solutions right away.
SPEAKER_01: And she wanted to talk about talk about it more than that.
SPEAKER_01: And so that was that was something getting used to.
SPEAKER_01: The other thing getting used to is to know that um you're responsible for the family as as a leader.
SPEAKER_03: Marriage is hard.
SPEAKER_03: Whether you've been married um five minutes or or almost 50 years, it's something that um is intentional that you have to do.
SPEAKER_03: And I think one of the keys is is loving sacrificially.
SPEAKER_00: All right, good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Brent.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the teaching pastor here, and I'm gonna be preaching this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're in it we're in a series, Song of Solomon, and it's it's a little bit, it's probably more a PG 13 series than a G series.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have any kids that you don't want to be a part of that, I would encourage you, take advantage of our child care.
SPEAKER_00: I will say this week's probably more PG than PG 13.
SPEAKER_00: It's not it's not quite as much as last week.
SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, you just got to see Mike and Elaine.
SPEAKER_00: Love hearing their story and just a lot of wisdom you guys can hopefully pull from that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, let's pray and we'll get started, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, um thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this book.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we get to dig into it and study it.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that this is a topic that you haven't let uncovered, that you have words that you want to say, you have you have uh thoughts and truths that you want to communicate to us about our marriages and our romantic relationships and our friendships, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, Lord, as we're going through this book, I pray you'd help us to just get every drop of truth out of it that we can.
SPEAKER_00: We want to learn from you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So come and encourage us where we need encourage, challenge us where we need challenge.
SPEAKER_00: We're here to hear from you.
SPEAKER_00: In your name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so if you remember from two weeks ago, I think this is written by a simple country couple.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's written in protest of King Solomon's lifestyle at this time.
SPEAKER_00: If you saw, I think it's in chapter 7 or it's in chapter 6, it says he's got 60 wives and 80 concubines at this time, and that's eventually gonna increase to 700 and 300.
SPEAKER_00: So Solomon ends up having a lot of wives, and I think this was written in protest of that, kind of warning him, Solomon, the path that you're going on, it's not gonna end well for you.
SPEAKER_00: So, with that being said, let's start at verse uh chapter one, verse four.
SPEAKER_00: I think they're married the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: I think this whole book is about their their mutually exclusive love relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So one four, and we're gonna go to verse 17 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We will exalt and rejoice in you, will extol your love more than wine.
SPEAKER_00: Rightly do they love you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm very dark but lovely, old daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kadar, like the curtains of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Don't gaze at me because I'm dark, because the sun has looked upon me.
SPEAKER_00: My mother's sons were angry with me.
SPEAKER_00: They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon, for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?
SPEAKER_00: If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock and pasture your young goats besides the shepherd's tents.
SPEAKER_00: I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots, your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.
SPEAKER_00: We will make for you ornaments of gold studded with silver.
SPEAKER_00: While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved is to me a satchet of myrrh that lies between between my breasts, my beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, you're beautiful, my love.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, you are beautiful, your eyes are doves.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.
SPEAKER_00: Our couch is green, the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.
SPEAKER_00: All right, that is God's word for us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So last two weeks ago, we left off at half of uh verse four, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so now let's let's pick it up there in the second half.
SPEAKER_00: She's stopped speaking, and her friends are now speaking into things.
SPEAKER_00: And they're saying, We'll exalt and rejoice in you, we'll extol your love more than wine.
SPEAKER_00: Rightly do they love you.
SPEAKER_00: And I talked about this a little bit two weeks ago, but I want to talk about it a little more.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you need people speaking into your relationships.
SPEAKER_00: As singles, you need your parents, you need your friends speaking into it, and their opinions and the truths that they share with you should carry weight for you.
SPEAKER_00: But also when you're married, you still need people speaking into your life.
SPEAKER_00: You and your wife and Jesus, or you and your spouse and Jesus, that's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's not gonna make for a healthy relationship.
SPEAKER_00: You need others involved as well.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I, we we have a friend, and um, she started dating uh this guy, and she's dating him, and um, as she's dating him, she also has a father, and her father is a he's he's not a believer, and he's kind of a hard-living man.
SPEAKER_00: He was a trucker, and kind of everything that you think of when you think of a trucker, that was him.
SPEAKER_00: He he wasn't a believer, and he was just kind of a tough old dude.
SPEAKER_00: And so she starts dating this guy, and and her dad kind of very quickly sees, like, I this he's he's not a good guy.
SPEAKER_00: And he went and told her, he said, Listen, you should not be dating him, and you certainly should not marry him.
SPEAKER_00: Do not marry him, he's not a good guy.
SPEAKER_00: And she didn't listen to her dad, and she married him anyhow.
SPEAKER_00: A few years later, they ended up divorced.
SPEAKER_00: And today, if you talk to her, she would say, I should have listened to my dad.
SPEAKER_00: And what you'll find sometimes is sometimes uh guys that aren't necessarily good guys, they're kind of guys that are a little bit bad, will see things in other guys, they'll see the bad in other guys because they have it in themselves, and they'll know that like that's not actually the kind of guy you want to marry.
SPEAKER_00: Because they're still your dad and they still love you, God will still speak through them.
SPEAKER_00: So God has sovereignly placed your parents and your friends in your life, and and even non-Christian ones can share wisdom with you.
SPEAKER_00: You still need to listen to them, they still might have advice that might be right on, even though their life is not right on, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, married people, we need this for singles.
SPEAKER_00: I think I just illustrated that, but I think also we need this in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We need people that are still regularly speaking into our life.
SPEAKER_00: And I have some questions up here because I think these are the kind of questions that you need to be asking.
SPEAKER_00: You need somebody in your life asking you this kind of question.
SPEAKER_00: If you were gonna fall, what would cause it?
SPEAKER_00: What's your greatest area of weakness?
SPEAKER_00: And can I keep you accountable on that?
SPEAKER_00: It's a rather intense question, but uh you need somebody asking you that regularly.
SPEAKER_00: Another one would be um, how is your sex life with your spouse?
SPEAKER_00: Is it healthy?
SPEAKER_00: How about your thought life?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you looking at porn?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any relationships outside of this, like with the opposite sex, that they've they've they're getting a little bit too close?
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is getting probably more personal, but again, you need people that are asking you these questions and keeping you on track.
SPEAKER_00: The next set of questions.
SPEAKER_00: Are you loving your wife and laying down your life for her daily as Christ loved the church?
SPEAKER_00: Wife, are you choosing to love and respect your husband as the Bible tells us to?
SPEAKER_00: Is there any area where you're not loving or respecting her or him as you should?
SPEAKER_00: And then the final set of questions, this has to do with discipling your children.
SPEAKER_00: Are you discipling them?
SPEAKER_00: Do your kids know and understand the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: And I think the most important one here is do they see the gospel lived out before them daily?
SPEAKER_00: Is this just who you are and it's just flowing out of your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a plan for a way that you're gonna disciple your wife and kids?
SPEAKER_00: And I know these questions are a little bit, they're kind of in your face, but if we could go to Proverbs, I'll tell you why I think you need somebody asking you questions like this.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to Proverbs chapter five, and let's read verses seven through fourteen.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Now, O sons, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: And in the context here is this is a this is a son who's thinking about having a relationship outside the context of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, don't depart from the words of my mouth, keep your way far from her, don't go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your ears to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength and your labors go to the house of a foreigner.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of your life you groan.
SPEAKER_00: When your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, Listen to this part.
SPEAKER_00: How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof.
SPEAKER_00: I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or inclined my ear to instructors.
SPEAKER_00: I'm at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.
SPEAKER_00: The brink of utter ruin.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have people speaking into your life, this is where you will eventually end up.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm talking about is being teachable.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're single and you're taking notes, what are you looking for in a future spouse?
SPEAKER_00: Two weeks ago, I think number one thing you're looking for is godly character.
SPEAKER_00: That's the number one thing you need to look for.
SPEAKER_00: But number two under that would be are they teachable?
SPEAKER_00: Are they somebody that you can go to them and you can bring something to them and they're they're gonna receive it from you and not just from you, but you know, will they receive it from others?
SPEAKER_00: This is something that you should be observing, it's something that you should be looking for.
SPEAKER_00: Um you you want to know, are they teachable?
SPEAKER_00: And I think some of you you hear these questions, you're like, I don't want somebody asking me that.
SPEAKER_00: That's way too personal.
SPEAKER_00: But if I could just kind of flip the question on you, can you afford not to have this in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Can you afford not to have this in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is are you really willing to pay the cost of each and every one of your relationships possibly being ruined because you had no one asking you how you were really doing?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone in your life that truly knows you?
SPEAKER_00: And this is where I'm gonna insert a little advertisement for our discipleship groups because that's what our discipleship groups in the church are for.
SPEAKER_00: This is a place where you're to have someone who knows you well and is asking you these kinds of questions.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be in a discipleship group, talk to Travis, get online, sign up.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be a discipleship group, but you need someone in your life that's asking you this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have it?
SPEAKER_00: If you have it, you're gonna begin to grow.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, I'm I'm a little bit worried for you.
SPEAKER_00: Verses five and six.
SPEAKER_00: I am very dark but lovely, old daughters of Jerusalem, like the Kents of Qadar, like the curtains of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: Don't gaze at me because I'm dark, because the sun has looked upon me.
SPEAKER_00: My mother's sons were angry with me.
SPEAKER_00: They made me the keeper of vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.
SPEAKER_00: So she's saying she's dark, but she's lovely.
SPEAKER_00: And then she's saying, like the tents of Qadar, these tents of Qadar, they were, they made them with black goats' hair.
SPEAKER_00: So she's again saying she's dark.
SPEAKER_00: But uh then she says, like the curtains of Solomon, that's all that's saying she's lovely, because the curtains of Solomon they would have been the nicest, most ornate curtains in the world, because he was he was the king at the time.
SPEAKER_00: So she's again saying I'm dark but lovely, just using more flowery language.
SPEAKER_00: Um what this means is that she spent time out in the fields taking care of the vineyards.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she says here it's because her brothers were angry at her and they made her go out and do that, but what it what it's expressing to us is that this lady was a hard worker.
SPEAKER_00: You know, at that time, being dark wasn't uh, you know, in our culture, if you if you're tan, we think that's that's more attractive, right?
SPEAKER_00: But in their culture, that wasn't what they thought.
SPEAKER_00: If you had to go out and work in a field, that meant you you you were probably of like the lower stratus uh economically.
SPEAKER_00: And people who were wealthy, they just stayed inside and drank nice drinks and ate nice food, and they didn't have to go out and get sun on them.
SPEAKER_00: And so it wasn't something that was thought of highly in this time.
SPEAKER_00: And um, whether or not you think tanning is beautiful or not, is still very culturally connected.
SPEAKER_00: When I lived in Taiwan, it rained, it rained more in Taiwan.
SPEAKER_00: We had more rain than you get in Seattle.
SPEAKER_00: But you know when people use their umbrellas the most?
SPEAKER_00: Not when it rained, when the sun was out.
SPEAKER_00: They would walk around with umbrellas when the sun was out because they didn't want their skin to get dark, because they thought in Taiwan, the lighter I am, the more beautiful I am.
SPEAKER_00: Completely different than our culture.
SPEAKER_00: And so that was their culture.
SPEAKER_00: It was more like the Taiwanese culture.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing that we can pull from this is this lady was a hard worker.
SPEAKER_00: She was not lazy, she was somebody who was willing to work hard.
SPEAKER_00: So, singles, if you're taking notes, here's I wouldn't make this point three.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's quite that important, but it should be up there.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to marry a lazy person.
SPEAKER_00: And again, let's go to Proverbs and let's let's see why.
SPEAKER_00: In Proverbs, in Proverbs is just Proverbs just kind of cuts right to the chase.
SPEAKER_00: It's very direct.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I kind of enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, chapter 20, Proverbs chapter 20, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Love not sleep lest you come to poverty.
SPEAKER_00: Open your eyes and you'll have plenty of bread.
SPEAKER_00: So it's basically saying if you're lazy, you're gonna be poor.
SPEAKER_00: In uh chapter six, similar kind of language, it's gonna say about laziness.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter six, verses ten and eleven.
SPEAKER_00: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
SPEAKER_00: So I think this is what it's saying for you as singles, especially for women.
SPEAKER_00: If if you're dating a guy who's lazy and you end up marrying him, you just need to be prepared that you're probably gonna be poor for most of your life.
SPEAKER_00: That that's what Proverbs is expressed.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you think that's a little bit cheesy, and that might not.
SPEAKER_00: That that's pretty true.
SPEAKER_00: That in most cases, that's what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that everybody that's poor is lazy.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of factors that factor into that.
SPEAKER_00: I know people that they're they're poor, and it's not because they're lazy, they work very hard.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're lazy, there's a good chance you will be poor, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so I would, I would just, that's something you need to be looking for when you're dating.
SPEAKER_00: I think you can think it's cool to be lazy when you're dating, but it's not gonna be cool when you're married and you're the one doing the dishes and cooking and taking care of the kids and they're just sitting on the recliner.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna find it attractive.
SPEAKER_00: Resentment will begin to build in your heart against them.
SPEAKER_00: For married people, we just kind of gotta ask ourselves, is this us?
SPEAKER_00: Am I a lazy person or am I a hard worker?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what would my spouse say?
SPEAKER_00: What would my friends say about me?
SPEAKER_00: Again, Song of Solomon's, it's incredibly practical.
SPEAKER_00: I uh I know a guy, he works a full-time job, he comes home, he cooks the food, he cleans up the dishes, he's the one that cleans the house.
SPEAKER_00: His wife does not have a job, there are no kids in the home anymore, I don't know what she does.
SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you that for him, that that is a burden for him.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that that is that's not easy for him.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure some resentment is building up in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I could flip it and I could show you the other way.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's some guys that are just barely hanging on to a job, they come home, they sit in a recliner all evening, they don't engage with their wife, they don't engage with their kids, and they're just they're just lazy.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_00: If you want your marriage to thrive, um you can't fix it on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to say, God, come and help me.
SPEAKER_00: I I I'm noticing I have some laziness in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Would you come and would you begin to change me?
SPEAKER_00: I need to find somebody to keep me accountable.
SPEAKER_00: I need you to come and change my heart, God.
SPEAKER_00: Come and make me a hard worker.
SPEAKER_00: I want to provide for my family.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're single and you're dating somebody that's lazy, I'd encourage you to break up with them.
SPEAKER_00: That would be my advice to you.
SPEAKER_00: Um really, you it will go, you'll have a better life.
SPEAKER_00: One, six.
SPEAKER_00: So this five and six, really, what you see coming out in this woman is her insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: Like, she feels a little bit insecure about how dark she is and and how hard she's worked, and you know, she feels like I don't have time to take care of my own vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't look as good as I I could because I haven't had time to care for myself.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I heard somebody say once that if you're treating your wife well, she'll just kind of she'll naturally look more and more beautiful over time.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that I found that to be true in my life.
SPEAKER_00: When when when a husband treats his wife well, over time, she'll just kind of naturally become more and more beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is you're gonna see in a couple verses here, this guy he he starts to encourage her right in that area of need.
SPEAKER_00: He starts telling her, No, you you are beautiful, you're you're gorgeous.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is just who you are.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't have some study to prove this, but I've seen it true.
SPEAKER_00: Like I've seen men who love their wives well, their wife just naturally becomes more beautiful over time because she starts to her insecurities start to decrease and she starts to believe that she really is a daughter of the king and that she is beautiful, right?
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing if you want this to happen in your marriage, I think it's gonna require that you actually be honest with your wife about how she looks.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're married, this has happened to you.
SPEAKER_00: Your wife has come to you and she has said, How do I look in this dress?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like most of you, that's happened.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, most men, a little bit of fear comes up in our heart, and we start to feel like, how do I answer this?
SPEAKER_00: Because um, I need to answer the right way.
SPEAKER_00: Is she having a good day or a bad day?
SPEAKER_00: How is this?
SPEAKER_00: I need to, I need to get this right because I have the power of life and death in my words here, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like that's we we feel that.
SPEAKER_00: And I've had some guys tell me, you know what, just lie and tell her she's good looking.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't like that, that's like you just avoid it, and that's probably the best thing.
SPEAKER_00: But what I've found is if if if I'm not honest with my wife, my wife knows me well enough that she knows I'm not being honest with her, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like she just knows me too well.
SPEAKER_00: I can't get away with that.
SPEAKER_00: Like I've I've been married to her too long and she'll pick up on it.
SPEAKER_00: So I have learned that I just have to get creative and I have to answer her in a way that it still speaks life into her, but it speaks the truth, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so if she asks me, you know, what do you think of this dress?
SPEAKER_00: How do I look in it?
SPEAKER_00: I will say something like, you know, you're you're a very attractive woman, but I don't think that dress is really bringing out your true beauty, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so you say, and and I think when I say that, my wife's she's at a point where she's she's okay with that, and she gets what I'm saying, or I'm saying, you know, the dress you were wearing two days ago, you looked amazing in that one.
SPEAKER_00: This one's just not quite doing it quite as well, you know, and and I let her know, like maybe another dress would be better, but in a way that's not offensive, and she still knows that I'm very attracted to her.
SPEAKER_00: Because um, because the thing is, if your wife comes out in sweatpants and a t-shirt and her hair is a mess, and you say you look great and you're about to go to a fancy banquet, that's not gonna go well, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like you've you've gotta be honest and say, you know, like we're about to go to a fancy banquet.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe you could get a nicer dress on.
SPEAKER_00: The sweatpants and t-shirt aren't gonna work tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I know wives are usually more clued into that kind of stuff than men are, but but what I'm saying is you need to be creative.
SPEAKER_00: Like when you were dating your spouse, you guys were incredibly creative.
SPEAKER_00: Both of you were incredibly creative.
SPEAKER_00: You'd send these long texts, you'd write incredible emails about how beautiful and wonderful they were.
SPEAKER_00: You some of you even wrote it down and you'd send them, you'd burn the edges of the paper and all this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I had a friend who used to always be burning the edges.
SPEAKER_00: That was like his secret, and he thought he was, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: My thing is that this is in you.
SPEAKER_00: You have the ability to be creative with your spouse, right?
SPEAKER_00: You used to do it, but I think what happens to us with men, I know a lot of you are hunters.
SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, when you go hunting, you get all dressed up.
SPEAKER_00: If you're going to get deer, you put the deer pee on you, you get the duck call, and you go out if you're hunting for ducks and you go out there and you start blowing the duck call and you do all the stuff that you got to do to bag that deer or bag that duck, and then you get home and you're done.
SPEAKER_00: We got it.
SPEAKER_00: We bagged it, good to go.
SPEAKER_00: And and you've kind of treated your marriage that way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you've said, you know, I was dating you and I've I've caught you, and it's kind of like now what?
SPEAKER_00: And and that's not how marriage is to work.
SPEAKER_00: Like dating was just to be the beginning, and you were to continue that throughout your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Like you were to continue to be creative, continue to use your words to build your spouse up.
SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, you another thing that guys will do is we will tend to be very creative with our words and very encouraging of how they look on days when we would like some intimacy with our spouse.
SPEAKER_00: And our spouses see right through that.
SPEAKER_00: I've talked, I talked to my wife about this last night.
SPEAKER_00: She was like, Yep, we see right through that.
SPEAKER_00: We know what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And so, like, this can't just be something that you do every once in a while to try to encourage your spouse in that way.
SPEAKER_00: It needs to be just who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you To regularly be encouraging your spouse and speaking life into them.
SPEAKER_00: But this issue of insecurity, it's something that every one of us struggles with.
SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe tomorrow you have a uh a presentation that you need to do at work.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll bet if you have a presentation tomorrow and you're a guy, I'll bet you feel insecure about that.
SPEAKER_00: Or a girl, you probably feel, I don't know if I'm good enough, how's this gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: Like you just feel insecure about it.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard many stories of NBA players that before the game, in the locker room, they throw up every single game because they feel insecure about their ability to go out and play basketball.
SPEAKER_00: Um, with women, I think you you know, you're on Instagram and Facebook and you're seeing your friends and their vacations are going on, and you're like, I don't know if I'm a good mom at all.
SPEAKER_00: These people look amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you know that on Instagram and Facebook, that's not how their life actually is.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a snapshot.
SPEAKER_00: You know that their vacation is just as crazy as yours is.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's kids in the back, young, are we there yet?
SPEAKER_00: Some kid throws up halfway through.
SPEAKER_00: That happened to them, they just didn't show it in the pictures.
SPEAKER_00: But we get insecure about this stuff and we start that, you know, am I doing well enough?
SPEAKER_00: Um I think as well, women, I think we can, you can, and this happens with men too, you can be insecure about your friendships.
SPEAKER_00: You can want to be accepted and loved, and you want people to understand you, and sometimes you just feel like you don't fit in and you start to feel insecure.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, we can encourage one another in that, but the problem is when you get insecure, you start to look at yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And you're looking here and you're just seeing all your faults, all the things that are wrong with you, and you're not looking at the right place.
SPEAKER_00: The way, the place that we're to get our value and worth is from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're to look to him, and that's to be where we get our value and worth.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus says is it doesn't matter whether you do good on that presentation tomorrow or not, I'm still gonna love you.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you lost your temper with your kids today or not, I still love you.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you had a great vacation or a terrible one, my love is still the same towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: And I I think this passage would be if you want a verse, some of you are new believers and you're like, I don't even know how to pray, I don't know what to begin to pray for.
SPEAKER_00: This is something you should pray over your spouse and pray over your friends.
SPEAKER_00: 835, 835, Romans 8.35, it says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Shall tribulation or distress, nor persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we're being killed all day long, and we're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: No, in all of these things we're more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_00: For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that when Jesus went to the cross, he took your insecurities with him to the cross, and they were killed there at the cross?
SPEAKER_00: And when he rose again, he rose again, and and it like if if you allow it to happen, those insecurities, they they can fall off of you, just like they fell off of him.
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, before the cross, we had to look at ourselves and how we are doing, and did we measure up?
SPEAKER_00: And every time we looked, we're like, yeah, compared to Jesus, I don't measure up at all.
SPEAKER_00: But then we realized if if we've repented of our tent sins and we've turned to Jesus, he now has come as a perfect sacrifice and said, This, this, my righteousness is now imparted to you, and you don't have to be insecure anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you look to me, well, you're a wonderful son or daughter of the most high God.
SPEAKER_00: That you you can't get a better place in the kingdom than that.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no reason for you to be insecure anymore, right?
SPEAKER_00: Verses seven and eight.
SPEAKER_00: Says, Tell me you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon.
SPEAKER_00: For why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?
SPEAKER_00: If you do not know, O Most Beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds' tents.
SPEAKER_00: What I think's happening here is she's kind of flirting with him a little bit and kind of saying, Hey, you know, I'd I'd like to come and visit you at work, but I'm not, I'm not sure if I can or not.
SPEAKER_00: Am I gonna be welcome there or not?
SPEAKER_00: And she says she doesn't want to be like a veiled, like one who veils herself.
SPEAKER_00: One who veiled themselves in that time in that culture was a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: And she didn't want people to misunderstand their relationship.
SPEAKER_00: She wanted people to know I'm your wife.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't want people to think like I'm a I'm a woman of the night, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so she's saying, she's kind of setting a boundary, really.
SPEAKER_00: Like earlier in verses five and six, we see she knows who she is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: She knows that she's she's dark, but she also knows that she's lovely.
SPEAKER_00: And so what she's saying is, I know who I am in Christ, and and I don't want any impropriety for people to think there's anything shady going on with us.
SPEAKER_00: I want them to know that we're walking in the light and walking in truth.
SPEAKER_00: And and look how he answers.
SPEAKER_00: He said, if you don't know, oh most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock and past your young goats beside the shepherd's tents.
SPEAKER_00: His answer is great.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Listen, don't be shy.
SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
SPEAKER_00: I will, I would love for you to come, come and visit me at work.
SPEAKER_00: I'm proud that you're my wife.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep this thing out in the open.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to hide this.
SPEAKER_00: I want everybody to know that you're my wife.
SPEAKER_00: And and so, what I think you see her doing here is she is she's having a healthy boundary.
SPEAKER_00: She's saying, you know, I'm not gonna come and and kind of sneak around, but I want to do this publicly.
SPEAKER_00: That that's my boundary because I know what I'm worth.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at Psalm 139, and this is this is for all of us, this is what God says about all of our worth.
SPEAKER_00: It says, You form me.
SPEAKER_00: 139, 13 and 14, it says, You form me in my inward parts.
SPEAKER_00: You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: I praise you, for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_00: Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well.
SPEAKER_00: And that's true for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: We were all formed together in our mother's womb by God, and we're all fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that for me, uh, my daughter, almost every night when I pray with her before she goes to bed, I pray this over her.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, uh you're fearfully and wonderfully made because I want this truth to just go deep into my daughter's soul.
SPEAKER_00: So this is another thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'd encourage you, pray this for your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: But what this lady's doing is she's having healthy boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do healthy boundaries look like in marriage?
SPEAKER_00: Boundaries are a little tough because it can be hard to enact.
SPEAKER_00: You need real wisdom in how you uh how you walk them out.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll I'll just give you some examples and I will say ahead of time with my examples, there are a lot of different cultures represented in this church, and in different cultures, marriage works out, it just works differently, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so these are some cultural examples that for some of you may not translate well, and maybe another one will later in the sermon series, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're a lady, and maybe what you enjoy is something you get joy from, is you enjoy cooking meals for your family.
SPEAKER_00: And so you cook a healthy, wonderful meal for your family every night and they eat it, and you just enjoy watching them eat it, enjoy the conversation around the table.
SPEAKER_00: But what you don't like is you don't like cleaning up afterwards and you don't like doing dishes.
SPEAKER_00: But what your family's been doing to you is when they finish eating, they just go in and watch TV and wrestle and they just leave you to clean everything up.
SPEAKER_00: And there's some resentment starting to build up in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so maybe having a healthy boundary looks like you tomorrow night at dinner saying, Listen, I've cooked another wonderful meal for you, and this brings me joy to do this.
SPEAKER_00: But you need to understand, I'm not gonna cook a meal tomorrow night if you guys don't clean up afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm starting to feel some resentment in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm starting to feel a little bit used, and I wouldn't feel that way if you guys would just clean up afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: So if you guys clean up afterwards, I'm happy to keep cooking, but if you're not willing to do that, then you guys are gonna have to fend for yourselves tomorrow night.
SPEAKER_00: That would be a healthy boundary that you can maybe enact.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe if you're a guy and maybe you've you've just been married a short time, you don't have any kids yet, and you're both working, and maybe you've realized that your spouse, she's just working too many hours.
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe she's working like 70 hours a week and you barely see her, and you realize that your relationship is starting to fray.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it just looks like you sitting down with her and saying, listen, this isn't, it's not working.
SPEAKER_00: Like this isn't gonna work long term.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be close to you, and I feel that's kind of pulling apart.
SPEAKER_00: We need more time together.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get our schedules out and let's figure out how can we spend more time because this isn't working, and and you guys working out that that thing together.
SPEAKER_00: That might be another just kind of a healthy boundary that you could bring into your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: But here's kind of what I'm talking about with boundaries, though.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to ask, where is your heart?
SPEAKER_00: It's important where your heart's at when you're going after the boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: And really what you're looking at is are you treating your spouse as someone who's fearfully and wonderfully made?
SPEAKER_00: Are they are you honoring them as a fearfully and wonderfully made person?
SPEAKER_00: And are you asking, am I putting my need, am I putting their needs before my needs?
SPEAKER_00: Because in a healthy marriage, it's not about you and what you can get out of it, it's about them and how you can serve them.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you start being all about you and what you can get out of it, you'll start to become very critical very quick.
SPEAKER_00: But if it starts to be what do they need, how can I serve them?
SPEAKER_00: And you're both doing that, it's it's a wonderful relationship to be in, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, one thing that will happen with this is sometimes I've had this happen, I've had this happen in my own marriage, where you know, my wife will come to me with an issue that she has, and she says, you know, you're doing this, it makes me feel this way.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Well, that's not my intent.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I, I'm, I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm perfectly fine with this.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Well, I'm actually not.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't feel good about this.
SPEAKER_00: And that's happened once or twice in our marriage, and it's like you kind of reach the stalemate, and it's like, well, she feels this way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not intending for her to feel that way, but it's happening, and so you're kind of stuck then, right?
SPEAKER_00: And what I've found, and and it's kind of the answer that I've got over many years of marriage, is you're one flesh now.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is if they have a problem, it's not their problem, it's your problem.
SPEAKER_00: And somehow you have got to figure out a way to still get that problem resolved, or it will continue to affect your marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you can do that by talking to each other.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can, maybe you need to pull a third party in that's got some wisdom, somebody you respect, but it's got to get worked through.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just let that lay.
SPEAKER_00: You you need you need to still work through that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, for people who are dating, maybe you're dating a guy who says, you know, um, I kind of want to keep this relationship a secret.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that, or girl.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe she's like, yeah, I don't really want people to know about this relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just kind of keep it quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not tell our parents and just kind of just keep it a secret.
SPEAKER_00: If if that's you and you're in that kind of relationship, what I would ask you is, why would you want to do that if you're dating someone who's fearfully and wonderfully made and their son or daughter, the king?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the kind of thing you'd want to trumpet to everyone that you're dating?
SPEAKER_00: And my advice to you would be again, I think you should break up with them because I think they're just not that into you.
SPEAKER_00: If they were into you, they would love to tell their parents, they would want to tell all of their friends, and what you're starting to discover by the fact that they want to keep it a secret is they're not that into you.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say if you're the person that wants to keep it a secret, you should break up with them, have the grace to break up with them.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're dating someone who's trying to keep it a secret, I would encourage you to break up with them.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's not super encouraging, but I think it would probably go best for you.
SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, verses nine and ten.
SPEAKER_00: I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots.
SPEAKER_00: Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.
SPEAKER_00: And and so this kind of seems like not the greatest compliment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're a mare among Pharaoh's chariots.
SPEAKER_00: If you say that to your wife, she's probably not gonna be ruining prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't, I wouldn't suggest it.
SPEAKER_00: When I was back in Taiwan, um, I was teaching through this book, and I went to play ball one night, I come back all sweaty, and I'm just coming through the door, and I see my wife, and she just looks great.
SPEAKER_00: And she knew I'd been teaching this book.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said to her, I said, Man, you are like a mare among Pharaoh's chariots.
SPEAKER_00: And she just laughed because she got it.
SPEAKER_00: It's so one time in my life I've actually used this and it worked.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it would work in really any other situation, but what you see here again is this guy, he knows where his wife has some insecurities, and he's gonna continue to encourage her in those insecurities.
SPEAKER_00: So, and this is something that's for everybody.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just for Mary, it's not just for singles, for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be the kind of person that is regularly encouraging other people.
SPEAKER_00: When I was uh the last church I was at, my staff, I told them, I said, I want to challenge you guys, I want you to spend 90% of your time encouraging people and just 10% of your time challenging them and correcting them.
SPEAKER_00: And if you do that, what's gonna happen is you're gonna build, you're gonna have this like margin in your relationship where they feel loved and they feel encouraged, and there's gonna be space for you to be able to confront them and for them to receive it well.
SPEAKER_00: 90% of your time encouraging and 10% uh challenging and correcting.
SPEAKER_00: And in most healthy relationships, that works well.
SPEAKER_00: There are some people that they have so many issues, they don't really give you the chance to encourage them a lot.
SPEAKER_00: They just need to be corrected on some things, and that's the way it is sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But I think in general, 90% encouraging, 10% challenging and correcting.
SPEAKER_00: Um 111.
SPEAKER_00: We'll make for you studded ornaments of gold studded with silver.
SPEAKER_00: So this is her friends again.
SPEAKER_00: They're speaking into her relationship, and they're just saying, you know, we want to we want to make some some uh some ornaments, we want to make you some jewelry and just bless you with that.
SPEAKER_00: The next passage here, 12 to 14.
SPEAKER_00: While the king was on his couch, so notice again, this is her calling him a king.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't necessarily mean he's a king.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's more a term of endearment.
SPEAKER_00: She's just trying to encourage him, and this is poetry, and so she's encouraging and complimenting her husband.
SPEAKER_00: She says, While my king was on his couch, my narth gave my gnar gave forth fragrance.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of smells in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved is to me a satchel of myrrh.
SPEAKER_00: There's another smell that lies between my breasts.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms.
SPEAKER_00: There's another good smell in the vineyards of Engedity.
SPEAKER_00: So you have a lot of smells in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: So again, you know, you need to smell good.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be a stinky person.
SPEAKER_00: That's very common.
SPEAKER_00: But if we could focus in on the vineyards of Engedi, Engedi was actually a desert oasis.
SPEAKER_00: It was a place out in the middle of the desert where it was this beautiful oasis, and everybody knew about it.
SPEAKER_00: So he's she's saying to him that like being with you is like being in Engedi.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're you're a refreshment to my soul.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm around you, I just feel refreshed, I feel encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to ask ourselves here: is this the kind of person that we are?
SPEAKER_00: When people get the chance to spend time with us, do they feel refreshed?
SPEAKER_00: Do they feel encouraged?
SPEAKER_00: Or kind of the refreshed and encouraged is over here, or the opposite side, are you the kind of person that just sucks the life out of other people?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, which one are you?
SPEAKER_00: If you if you ask your friends, if you ask your spouse, like which one are you more like?
SPEAKER_00: And what I've found is people that suck the life out of other people usually aren't aware that they suck the life out of other people.
SPEAKER_00: It's just they're kind of blind to it often.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't want to be that kind of person.
SPEAKER_00: Like, which one of these two people do you want to hang out with more?
SPEAKER_00: Over here for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you want to be around people that refresh you, that encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to John chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 37 and 38.
SPEAKER_00: John 7, 37 and 38.
SPEAKER_00: Says this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, In the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and he cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_00: And so what Jesus is saying here is that once you become a Christian, you've repented of your sins, you said, I'm I'm all in, I'm following you, Jesus, that your heart, the Holy Spirit takes up residence and just rivers of living water to flow out of our hearts as believers.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of person we're to be.
SPEAKER_00: We're to be the kind of person that our friends and our spouse can come to, and they just feel refreshed and they feel encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and it it's it's speaking of a fountain.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a lot of fountains all over the place in this town, and and what you're not is is the fountains, there's there's constantly water coming out of them.
SPEAKER_00: And why is water able to come out of a fountain?
SPEAKER_00: If you dig down and you see there's usually a big pipe down there that the water is coming up through.
SPEAKER_00: The only reason that water is able to come out of the fountain is because a fountain is connected to the source.
SPEAKER_00: And in our lives, it needs to be the same way.
SPEAKER_00: We need the only fountain that can give you that kind of life is you have to be connected to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're connected to Jesus and you have that kind of intimacy with him, slowly but surely, fountains of life are gonna throw, flow out of your heart, and you're gonna be an encouragement to your friends and to your family.
SPEAKER_00: But the only way that that happens is for you to regularly be repenting of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because sometimes our our pipes can start to get clogged up.
SPEAKER_00: Like we can have some sin in our life, and we want to be this fountain, and things can the flow can just get shut off, and we don't have a whole lot coming out anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's there's tough seasons in our life where that just happens.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way you can get out of that is you need to recognize some of those sins that are clogging things up and repent of them.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, I I need to get that out of my life, and I need you, Holy Spirit, to come and begin to flow through me again.
SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, you're beautiful, my love.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, you are beautiful, your eyes are doves.
SPEAKER_00: This is him just affirming her beauty again.
SPEAKER_00: He is constantly encouraging her and telling her how good looking she is.
SPEAKER_00: So this inscription, when it repeats something this much, it like blinkers should be going off in your head.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is repeated for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that we need to get.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what I'm hoping is these first two sermons, you've started to think about the nature of your friendships and your marriage, and you've started to think what kind of conversations happen?
SPEAKER_00: Am I really critical, or is this a place of encouragement and rivers of life flowing?
SPEAKER_00: Which one of those two is happening?
SPEAKER_00: And some of you maybe get convicted and you say, Well, I need to make this more of an environment of just encouragement for my spouse and for my friends.
SPEAKER_00: And you start to do that so that by the time we get to chapter eight, because you'll see the whole book, they do this.
SPEAKER_00: By the time we get to chapter eight, and I'm still kind of preaching on being an encouragement, you're gonna be like, Well, I've actually been applying this and I'm seeing the fruit in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Verses 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Behold, you're beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful.
SPEAKER_00: Our couch is green, the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see where they are?
SPEAKER_00: It says, our our couch is green.
SPEAKER_00: So they're sitting on the grass.
SPEAKER_00: The beams of our house are cedar and our rafters are pine.
SPEAKER_00: They're just out in the forest, just enjoying a day together.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't have some amazing application of this.
SPEAKER_00: I would just say I think sometimes it's good for you to get out in nature and enjoy nature with your friends and with your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: And I think as you do that, when you look at nature, God created that.
SPEAKER_00: And as you look at it, you're gonna see some just the goodness and the greatness of God and go out there in nature and enjoy God's creation and enjoy that you you serve the God that created all of that.
SPEAKER_00: So that's all for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Next week we'll have much more.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you you're like, we didn't talk about this yet.
SPEAKER_00: We got we got quite a few more chapters to go.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I have some questions up here, they're gonna come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you guys to pray about them and just ask God which one of these is for you?
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying to you this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you need encouraged?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you need challenged?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, I thank you that it is true for each and every one of us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
SPEAKER_00: You formed us in our mother's womb, and you love us far more than we could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that we would live out of that love.
SPEAKER_00: We would, we would, the identity that you've given us as sons and daughters of the Most High King, I pray we would just be who we are each and every day.
SPEAKER_00: I pray we'd be that to our spouses.
SPEAKER_00: I pray we'd be that to our friends.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you come and would you speak to us this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Show us where we're a little off and we can grow in you, and give us hearts to be quick to repent and quick to want to run after you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In your name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So video is gonna come up here on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: It's just some things going on in the church.
SPEAKER_00: I just ask you to pay attention to that and and see what's happening.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a few things we want you to know.
SPEAKER_02: Michael Smith is a mental health professional and will be speaking about issues of sexuality at our church on the evening of June 14th.
SPEAKER_02: All men are invited.
SPEAKER_02: The deadline for student camp is tonight at midnight.
SPEAKER_02: If you haven't registered, do so today at grandparkway.org slash events.
SPEAKER_02: Bridge Camp is happening this week.
SPEAKER_02: Join with us in praying for our students by grabbing a bracelet from the front of the stage.
SPEAKER_02: If you're new or would like someone to pray with you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_00: All right, if you're new here today, there are uh little cards in the back of the seat.
SPEAKER_00: And if you if you want to get to know our church and get a little more connected, please fill it out.
SPEAKER_00: And there's boxes in the back.
SPEAKER_00: The boxes in the back are also, if one of the ways you'd like to worship this morning is by giving, that's where that goes as well.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I just want you to know, as pastors here in the church, we we want to we want to know you, we want to pastor you well, we want to hear your stories.
SPEAKER_00: And so if any of you want to grab lunch or just get to know us better, we would we'd love to do that this week.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we'll be down here in the front to talk with you afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: So um if you guys would stand up and just put your hands out, I want to pray a prayer of blessing over you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you to each and every one of us you formed us in our mother's wombs and we are fearfully and wonderfully made, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, I ask that you would come this week and you'd help us to live out of our identity in you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that the cross, you you you kind of destroyed our insecurities, and you said, I'm gonna give you a better identity.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you the identity of being my son or daughter of the most high king.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this week you'd help us to live that out.
SPEAKER_00: I pray we'd be a place that's a just we'd just be a fountain of refreshment to our coworkers and our classmates and our friends and and the people we see where we're doing our hobbies and playing sports.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to look at them and and see what you see and speak it out.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be an encouragement this week, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In your name I pray, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for coming this morning, guys.