Willow Ridge Sermons | Genesis Week 3 | God Creates Us With Purpose

Sunday, March 26th | Beau Bradberry

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." — Genesis 2:24

–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch

Creators & Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast.

This is where you can find audio from Sunday morning messages and more.

Make sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss future episodes and thanks for listening.

Well, good morning.

If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Genesis, chapter two.

That's where we're going to be.

As you turn there.

Got a couple of maybe reinforcement on some couple of announcements.

Easter is April 9 and so we're excited.

You heard an announcement.

The flow of that morning should be a great time together.

Outdoor service, weather permitting at 08:00 A.m.

And then we'll have a breakfast at 09:00 A.m..

Really excited about that.

This would be the second time that we do this.

I'm going to maybe speak and make sure I don't step out of turn.

But like grits, bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy fruit, right?

So we're healthy now and then donuts so you'll want to be there for that.

I promise you won't walk away hungry.

So we'll have a wonderful time and then we'll have a service at ten.

For the most part, the 08:00 A.m.

And the 10:00 service are going to be the same service.

So if you want to be a double dosage of worship that morning, you're more than welcome to come and be a part of both of those.

But they will be Lord Supper in both pretty much same message worship modified from outside to inside.

But other than that we're looking forward to.

And this is a you're invited, so you are invited.

And then here's what we'd love for you to do.

Stick this in your wallet.

In your pocketbook.

In your pocket.

And then there's somebody that you know that may not be willing to come to church at any point in time during the course of a year, but.

On Easter they're open to an invitation.

And so with that, we want to just encourage you to invite someone to come and join you here that morning.

I think it was Scott and Sarah McGrady posted about this on social media a few weeks ago and they made the statement within their post, you've got.

A seat beside us.

And so I just want to just encourage that the personal invite that comes from you to a friend who has the opportunity to hear about Christ.

Secondly, this wasn't an announcement we announced this last week.

We are hosting an event here at our church that's a worldwide event that a lot of churches from a lot of different denominations in a lot of different countries will be hosting called Secret Church.

And it's going to be a wonderful time for us to kind of gather together and experience for a lot of other places what church is like.

A lot of places in the world is not like what we experience right where we come and we see other people going to church and it might not be the norm anymore but it is still a culturally custom within where we live for these things to happen.

And so churches are open.

None of you walked up here this morning or I hope not afraid that you're going to get arrested for being out today, right?

If you were afraid of getting arrested, there's some other things that we need to walk through with you and it's not because you were here, but that's not the case.

And so many churches can't meet every Sunday, every Sunday morning during key times.

And so they may meet once a month, they may meet once every several weeks.

Their meeting may be inconsistent, but it might be during the middle of the night.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to gather here and being led by Dr.

David Platt, we're going to walk through the Book of Jonah that he's going to teach us.

And as he does that, it's going to be a man with global missions.

And then specifically what a lot of churches are facing and dealing with.

And specifically we're going to look at the church in Iran where right now, of all places, Christianity is booming compared to places like the United States where Christianity is declining.

And so I want to encourage you to be a part of that.

It is free.

We are paying for that out of the budget for you to come and be a part of that.

So there's a card here with a little QR code.

We're going to start at 630 when we're going to gather everyone here, 06:30 p.m..

The event will start around 07:00 P.m.

And we'll go.

This is April 21.

It will end on April 22 at.

01:00 A.m..

All right, so come comfortable.

I will not be wearing this.

I'm probably going to embrace the sweatpants and hoodie for me that night.

All right, so just come just ready to dive into God's word and do that but would love to have you there.

Last and certainly not least, Sam John.

Our missionary partner that we partner with.

In India is in the United States.

And specifically in South Carolina right now and he'll be around here in Lexington.

And so we'll be talking about some things in the coming weeks with India.

We're going to get a lot of that this morning.

But then also he's going to be speaking at other churches.

And so as the Lord lays on.

Your heart, sam is speaking at a.

Church in Aiken, South Carolina to share about the ministry.

And so we want to lift him up in prayer this morning.

So let's go ahead and do that before we dive into God's word.

God, I thank you for so much for this opportunity and time that we could be here today.

Lord, I pray for Sam as he is sharing at the church in Aiken, Lord, that the people there will not hear him in his story, but they will see you and they will hear the story that you are doing in.

The work all over India.

Lord, Lord, just pray that you would empower him with your words to say.

Of clarity and so that much is made known of Jesus, Lord.

And I would ask the same thing for us here this morning.

May our eyes and focus be on.

You and you alone.

May you be glorified in all that.

We do and all that we say.

And it's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

So we are going to finish Genesis, chapter two today.

So we'll start reading.

We're going to read.

Verses two through 14 says these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth, and the heavens when no bush of the field was yet in the land.

And no small plant of the field had yet sprung up for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land and there was no man to work the ground.

And the mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground.

Then the Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And the man became a living creature.

And the Lord planted a garden in Eden in the east and he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground.

The Lord made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

And the tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil.

And a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.

And there it divided and became four rivers.

In the name of the first is Fashion and it is the one that flowed from the whole land of Hivala where there is gold and the gold of that land is good.

Deblium and ox onyx stone are there.

The names of the second river is.

Gallon and it is the one that.

Flowed around the whole land of Kush.

And the land of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria.

And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

And so here what we see is we see a picture of man in the garden.

So I want to kind of give a little bit of context to what we just read and why?

Because there can be some confusion in the creative narrative of what's happened in Genesis one.

And now what do we see happening in Genesis chapter two?

So what we see in Genesis one through two three is the first seven days in creation.

And we see all that happens and we see all that takes place.

And if you think of it, we're looking at this from happening from the top of the Empire State Building, okay?

So we've got this massive view of all of creation of the heavens and the Earth, of every piece of land, every animal, every creature, everything that happens in this.

And then what happens in Genesis, chapter two is Moses, who most believe is the one who records and writes.

Genesis takes the story of creation from all that we've seen in Genesis one one, all the way through Genesis two three.

And he puts it under the lens of a microscope so that we see some of the details.

So Genesis one is the 50,000 foot view.

And then what we see in Genesis two is this more narrowed view of what happens, okay?

This is not some separate creation.

This is not these seven days happen.

And then this happened.

This is this happened.

And now let me go from this moment and kind of jump back and narrow down a little bit specifically of what has happened and particularly when it comes to the formation and the responsibility of mankind.

Now, the reason for this, as we've seen, is that man, meaning mankind that we're going to use is different than all of other creation.

In Genesis 127, God says, Let us make man in what our image.

We see the Trinity.

This is important.

But we see god didn't say this about the mountains, about the rivers, about the streams, about the moon and the stars.

But God said this about mankind.

Let's make mankind in our image.

And then in verse 27, it says that he made them male and female.

And then what we get here is.

This personal account and it's beautiful.

And there's some things that we see that are maybe like hot topic issues that we face when we look back at verse seven.

So we see in this in verse seven that creation, not evolution, is how man came to be.

We see something that's also unique, that man is made with age.

Born as an adult I'm sorry, created as adult, not born as a baby.

And what God did here is God formed man physically.

The microscope account says that man was formed from the dust of the ground and woman will be formed from his side.

Was formed.

But then God gave life spiritually in that God, through the very breath of.

God, breathe life into his lungs.

And then here we see what's going to be a large tension conflict in.

Chapter three in the future.

Here we see the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And so we see this snapshot.

So let's look at verse 15.

Man is created, says the Lord.

God took the man this is male.

Man and put him in the Garden.

Of Eden to work it and to keep it.

And the Lord commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree.

Of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.

And there's a lot from these three verses that we're going to look at next week when we look at Genesis, chapter three, when we see this.

But some things that I want us to draw out from this a little bit is that God created us.

God created mankind to both work and worship.

So we see this interaction that man is going to have with God in worship, with every part of who he is.

But we're also going to see this unique interaction that man is also going to have in creation, that God has took the man and put him in the garden.

Man did not create the garden.

God created the garden.

And God put man in the garden to both work it and keep it.

And so what we see here in Genesis, chapter two, is the biblical concept and the biblical truth of stewardship.

So God puts man to steward all that is man's.

No.

All that is God's.

This is God's creation.

Everything that man knows in this moment is not his.

It is God's.

And God gives man authority and dominion and work over all of this.

This wasn't a signing away.

This is now yours.

This is God saying, I've created you to steward this.

I think it's interesting that one of the topics that consistently flows over and over again in the parables that Jesus talks about is the parable of stewardship.

And it's so important for us in both understanding work and worship and what God has called us to.

So what is stewardship?

Stewardship is obedience to God.

With all that God has given us, with all that God has entrusted us with, it is still his.

But he's entrusted us to steward it, to care for it, to have authority over it and to work it for.

His name and for his glory.

Long before there was a worship service, there was go work.

Go work and go be and do what I've called you to do.

And so when we obey God, that means we operate within the plan that.

God has given us.

And this is what I love.

God gives Adam, god gives the man here a garden and a plan.

Keep the garden, he tells the man.

Eat of every tree, he tells the man, but do not eat of that one.

Do not eat of that one.

Leave that one alone.

And so God places Adam in the garden and gives him freedom.

Freedom.

Think about it this way.

In these commands that God is giving, it is freedom.

Go and have, go and take, go and do.

And even in what can feel like God's restriction is God's freedom.

And if you disobey me, if you decide that you are going to do this, then you will eat this and you will die.

I'm not jump too far ahead.

But it's what we're going to find when the freedom of man chooses the freedom of man over the freedom of God, right?

And what we find so many times in Christianity, the perception of Christianity, is there's just a bunch of rules that.

You have to follow.

And the sad part is this, that we as Christians have lived our lives in the way that this negative portrayal of a walk with Jesus is received from the outside world.

In this context, it's not their fault that they think this.

This is our fault that we think this.

But what we find behind the law of God, what we find behind the commands of God is the heart of God.

Look at God's reason for not eating this.

Go eat of them.

Go enjoy.

Taste the fruit.

This is good.

This is what I've given you.

But don't eat that one, because if you eat of it, you will die.

Not because God wanted to be selfish, not because God didn't want him to experience life, not because God wanted to deny him of his feelings, but because God did not want him to die.

Moses don't need it.

There's great freedom in that.

Because when God gives us commandments, it's not to restrict us.

It's the heart to protect us because he loves us.

We're talking about marriage here in just a moment.

But one of the takeaways that I walked away with this and we as a staff talked about, this is the heart of God.

And in everything that we want to embody, whether it's in our marriage, whether.

It'S in our parenting, whether it's in.

Our family, whether it's in our work, whether it's in our relationship, as you and I want to embody the heart of God.

And here's kind of one of the takeaways that I love here.

When we see God in Scripture, here's what God is beautiful at doing.

God gives a command, god gives a rule, like whatever you want to call it, and he gives the why.

He gives the why.

God, in his goodness and graciousness, looks at those kids, me and you, that say Why?

Why?

And in his kindness and his compassion, he tells us.

And so just for us in this.

When we're navigating through, when we're walking through with life, when we're laying down the expectation whether it's for the good of the company, the good of the marriage, the good of the relationship and we're beginning to establish these things.

It's not just important to give the explanation of what we are doing, but it's also important to give the expectation of why we do it.

As a parent, it's a very hard.

Lesson for me to learn when you've got kids that can ask that why?

Over and over and over and over again.

And what do we want to say?

Somebody say it because I said so, right?

And God says, because I love you.

Let me tell you why.

Do they always agree with it?

No.

Do you and I always agree with it.

No, but he does.

Jump down to verse 18.

This is then the Lord God said.

It is not good that the man should be alone.

I will make a helper fit for him.

Now of the ground.

The Lord had formed every beast of.

The field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature that was its name.

And the man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.

And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and he closed it up.

He closed up its place with flesh in the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

And the man said, this at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

So in this narrative, what we see is we see the creation of woman.

And in this, God created relationships and God created marriage.

Look back last week, days one through five, even part of day six, God created.

And the word that God used was what?

It's good.

But look back at verse 18.

Then the Lord said, it is not good that man would be alone.

I will make a helper fit for him.

I want us to take some time and look at this verse, because I think this verse is very powerful of why God created man and woman the way he did, and then how God sets marriage to work and to thrive in the way that God sets marriage to work and thrive.

So what was the problem?

The problem was man was alone.

Now, we're going to work out and work in on this.

And here's why I say God does not intend for you to be alone.

Now, this doesn't mean that every one of us is going to end up married.

And this is why I didn't say here that God creates marriage, even though he does.

Because in here we see that God creates relationships and marriage.

And the problem was that man was alone and life was not designed to be that way.

Life was not designed for you or for I to say I don't need anyone other than myself and I will lean in and depend on me.

There's a couple examples, believe it or not, how Hollywood has taught us this really well.

I've talked about the show.

Have you ever seen the TV show alone?

Have you ever seen that?

Basically they take 16 people, they take them into northern Canada, as if southern Canada wasn't cold enough.

And they drop them off but separate from one another.

And they say, Survive.

And then here's what happens and takes place.

Everybody who they drop off there, at least in their own mind, is a survival specialist.

And it's pretty neat to watch because they're like walking around and they're like.

Do you see this little stick right here?

You can get three days worth of.

Protein if you eat this.

Now, it tastes like hot death, but it'll sustain you, right?

And they do it.

And then here's what happens.

Sometimes they make mistakes so they have to leave.

Sometimes they have accidents, so they have to leave.

But the number one reason people leave.

The TV show alone is because they're alone.

They're alone.

They have no one to talk to.

They have no one to encourage them.

They have no one there to help them.

They're alone.

Y'all remember the movie castaway Tom Hanks will throw back?

I think it's a wonderful social experiment.

Of what will happen if you put a man by himself.

He desperately needs someone so bad that he will find a volleyball, put a face on it and talk to it, right?

This is what we do.

This is what happens when we are alone.

And God doesn't intend it to be that way.

Genesis 127, the verse we keep our feet over and over and over again.

God said, Let us make man in our image.

God's not alone.

And when God comes and he creates the world and creates the people, he puts them together.

And then what does God do?

God chooses for himself a nation.

Not a person, but a nation.

And so there will be a people.

And then Jesus comes and he calls followers, he calls disciples because Jesus wouldn't be alone.

And then Jesus ascends and he multiplies and he sends out the disciples to go and form the church.

So that God made us in relationship and made us to be together.

But in this God said it is not good for man to be alone.

And so what is God's solution?

I will make a helper fit for him.

Now this is interesting.

I think this is interesting.

In the world that we live in, this verse is picked apart and this verse is picked apart in this context that Christianity in itself is offensive because the word helper is offensive.

And I've heard this argument not just from people who say they're not Christian.

But I've also heard this argument from.

People who say that they are a follower of Jesus.

That to look at what God does.

Here in this moment, that man is alone.

And so what I'll give him is a helper.

It's offensive.

And I would say if you misunderstand the word helper.

Yes.

I'm talking for just a moment to Dads for a second.

The trauma that we went through that we then imparted onto our kids, and every kid's going to get it, and every wife knows when I start telling the story.

What happens in this moment?

You ever had a plumbing problem in.

Your house under a sink, and you need to replace something?

The problem is, how many of us have lights installed underneath our sink?

None of us, right?

So what do we need?

We need a flashlight.

Well, how many hands did God give us?

Two.

So we have a right hand and a left hand to do the work underneath the sink.

So what do we need?

We need another set of hands to come and hold the flashlight.

So what do we do?

We're smart enough because we understand the conflict that will happen with our patients in this.

If we call our wives, so we call our sons or our daughters and we say, hey, dad needs some help.

We always say it kind, right?

Come here and help dad.

Well, what do you need for me to do?

I just need you to hold the flashlight and point it right here.

And what happens for the next 30 to 45 minutes is that flashlight points at every spot underneath that sink except.

For the one spot that we needed to point to.

And in that, we become angry and we have terrific traumatic flashbacks to when we were kids and our dads did this to us, and we continue in on the cycle of trauma to our kids.

So, Emma and Grayson, let me say this in front of everyone.

I am sorry that I have done this, and I'm sorry because I will do it again, probably in the future, unless I'll just get Brent to come over and fix plumbing problems.

He does that for us, too.

Here's the deal.

When we hear this word helper, that's.

What we think of someone to come.

Quick to my summon, that I can use my words and create these moments of tension and pain and strife and struggle.

And that's what we think of the problem, is that's not that word?

That's not that word helper that is used here in this verse is the word ayazar, and it's really unique word.

It's only used 21 times in the entire Old Testament.

Two times that it's used.

It's used in reference of Eve.

It's used in the way that we just saw it three times.

It is used to describe a person who helps another.

16 times.

It is used as the description of what God is for us.

Do you know that God is our helper?

So if it's not belittling for God to be our helper, then why do we feel like it's belittling for me to say that God gave Aaron as a helper?

For me, the problem is not the role, the problem is not the word.

The problem is the sinful man that's embraced that and then manipulated that for.

His own selfish purposes, not what God calls us to.

So God specifically says that he is going to make a helper fit for Him.

Fit for him.

Some things that can be helpful, some people that can be helpful in the.

Right solution, in the right time, in the right situation.

Here fit means according to the opposite of him.

I like that, according to the opposite of him.

So what God wanted to do was to create an appropriate match, not a.

Competitive duplicate in the context of marriage.

So here's what I think of my right and left hand.

They look the same.

If you get up closely, you'll see.

Differences.

Not just differences that life has brought.

One hand has scars on it, one hand doesn't.

But the fingerprints are different.

One hand does want some things really well.

One hand does other things well.

So they look the same until we inspect them and see that they're different.

But what happens is they perfectly fit.

Together in the way that they're intended to.

And in this, I think it helps us see what is fitting in how it fits together.

And so God is going to create man, has created man and God creates woman with different roles, with different gifts, with different callings.

And he beautifully and wonderfully fits them together.

The greatest lesson I ever heard on marriage talked in this passage of scripture and it was the picture of why did God take a rib?

And I don't know.

I don't know.

There's thoughts to it.

I don't know.

But here's what I can tell you, that in this, god did not create man out front.

God did not create man from behind.

But what God did do is in the unique difference of their equality.

And we're going to talk some more about leadership too.

God created them side by side.

And so here's what I'll tell you in your marriage, be side by side.

Be side by side.

Men, don't get out in front.

It's not how God created you, ladies.

Do not force Him behind you.

That's not how he created you.

Instead, embrace and be side by side.

And so God created man in his own image and in the image he created Him.

Male and female, he created them.

Genesis 127.

Let's keep in Genesis two, verse 22.

And the rib that God had taken from the man, he made into a.

Woman and brought her to the man.

And then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and.

Flesh of my flesh.

She shall be called woman because she.

Was taken out of man.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

So as we look.

At the context of marriage, remembering that all of this is happening, all of this is created before the rule and reign of sin that we will see come and take place in the life of Adam and Eve in chapter three.

But what we see here is marriage done God's way.

Marriage done god's way.

I love Adam's words.

Now, if we understand this in the way that I'm reading this right, this is day six.

Adam is created and then later on in day six, let me tell you how this guy is.

Look at his words.

This at last.

I don't know how long he was there.

It wasn't that long.

And finally, God finally here she is.

And what we see here is marriage that's built on faith and trust in the Lord and not marriage that's built on an experiment.

When sin enters the world, what mankind does is they say, let me wander from this direction that God's given us in this moment.

And we've seen it.

It's not a new story that has started happening over the last several years.

It's been a story that's biblical from the beginning of time when sin enters the world.

When man says, I'm going to do this my way, I'm going to do this my way.

So we see, we'll see later on in Genesis, the gender experiment.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Male and female, he created them.

We don't need to try to redetermine the gender.

We don't need to try to redefine what marriage looks like.

God says this is marriage.

One man, one woman.

We're going to see the sex experiment.

We're going to see in scripture where men take more than one wife.

It's never God's plan.

Never God's plan.

We're going to see it happen from outside the context sex happen outside of the context of marriage, never God's design, never.

We're going to see the finance experiment where we intricately weave bits and pieces of our life.

Like, think of this like.

I don't trust the Lord enough for me to.

Marry you.

But I'm going to trust us enough.

As we take all that God's called us to steward and meld it together, we see the social experiment of let's.

Figure out I love this when people say this.

Let's figure out if we're compatible before.

We get married and not trust in what God's going to work and do.

And in this, we see it fail.

When we try to weave our lives together in false senses of intimacy, trying to replicate what God has created for marriage.

They fail every time.

Two things that I'd say about marriage, number one, it's two part, it's hard and requires faith.

Marriage is hard and requires faith.

Aaron and I got married and if.

You were to ask her what it.

Was like to be married to me that first year, she would say it was a breeze.

No, I'll tell a story about that here in just a minute.

It was hard.

It was hard taken to young, selfish people who had always either lived in a dorm room or with their parents and said, now come together and work through life without the out.

And here's how that works.

I can't tell you how many nights she would pray that God would work and move in my life.

And I can't tell you how many nights I prayed that God would work and move in her life.

And what made and what makes our marriage successful is this faith in God that God can do it and he.

Does and he's faithful.

So the first thing I tell you about marriage is it's hard and requires faith.

I thought about this this morning.

Emma is four years away from being.

The age that you were when we got engaged.

I heard this, this, this.

We got engaged young.

We got married young.

I don't recommend it, but I don't regret it.

Like I heard that.

I'm taking that right.

Here's the second thing in God's design.

It's so worth it.

She's my helper.

She's my best friend.

She's my love.

She's beautiful.

She works and moves in ways to make me more like Christ and not.

More like the man she just wants me to be, but more like the Savior that she knows.

And I hope that there's a glimmer of that that I do for her in done God's way.

It's worth it.

So if you're out here, don't play marriage.

Don't play marriage.

Playing marriage is like playing war.

You can't replicate it.

You just got to be in it to understand what it's like and what God can do.

Now in marriage, and we're going to close with this.

God gives us a rhythm.

He did last week.

We saw the rhythm of work and rest.

And now God gives us a rhythm.

And we're going to be really brief on these rhythm.

Number one in marriage, make her the priority.

Make her the priority.

Look back at the command.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother.

A man shall leave his father and his mother.

Where does the ownership come on, man.

On Adam, on us as we move forward.

Men, here's how you lead.

Lead by making her the priority over every earthly aspect of your life.

That's what it looks like.

And here's how you do it.

Grow up.

I've got to tell that to me still grow up.

When the boyish childish pursuits of my life want to take up and rise over her as the priority that God has called me to.

What I need to do is grow up.

And here's what God does when he gives you a Godly woman, she will call you to grow up.

Here's my story.

We hadn't been married long.

We got married in June and college football season starts in september.

She woke up one Saturday morning and said she's going to visit her grandmother in Lawrence.

That's a two hour drive from where we lived.

I know that that visit would probably take three to 4 hours because she wouldn't just see her grandma, she'd see her aunts, she'd see her uncles, she'd see her cousins, they'd go out to lunch, they'd go out to dinner.

Two hour drive back.

I just shared earlier, my only living experience has been a dorm room and my parents.

Now we have a town home and.

She is leaving for the day.

What will I do with my time?

And here's what I decided I would do after she left.

It would be a day filled with college football and nothing but college football.

But around noon, I created a problem.

As I'm watching game day getting started, I started to get a little hungry.

I didn't want to work.

So right down the road from our town home was a beautiful restaurant that.

God had given us called Crystal.

If you're unfamiliar, it's Crystal with a.

It is wonderful.

And at that time, before we were all health conscious, they sold these things called Sackfuls.

And you could get 24 Crystal burgers for about $10.

Makes sense to the economy, makes sense to me.

I bought 24 Crystals and chili cheese fries.

Two orders, but I've got to hydrate as well.

So what's behind Crystal Walmart?

I go in, walk the soda aisle and there was a new creation by Dr.

Pepper.

Vanilla, vanilla, cherry, Dr.

Pepper.

I bought a twelve pack.

I came home, I sat back down on the couch with a big tall big gulp of ice, the twelve pack of Dr.

Pepper, 24 Sack of Crystal.

And I did not get up off.

The couch that day.

About 07:00, aaron comes home.

I don't think there's anything wrong with what I'm doing.

And I don't remember what her exact words were, but let me sum them.

Up by saying this.

She walked in and said, you're not.

Going to live this way.

You're better than this.

Grow up.

Ladies, sometimes when we're children and you're not the priority, you need to tell us.

Grow up.

And men, we need to listen.

Number two pursuer.

Pursuer.

Hold fast to his wife.

Let go of the immaturity and hold on to the maturity.

But here's the thing, holding on is work.

So work to hold on.

Holding on is work.

So work to come to hold on.

If you do not pursue her, something else or someone else will.

And so what God has given you, men as you lead, is the ability to let go of all those things that make you childish.

So you cannot wait for the next thing that makes you childish, but so that you can pursue her as you hold on to her.

So hold on to her as she's the priority.

Number three become one become one.

Scripture says they shall become one flesh.

And this is more than sexual intimacy.

This is the oneness of marriage we began.

It became one house, one bank, one schedule, one church.

It becomes one dream, one goal, one retirement, one future.

And so we became one.

We're becoming one.

And we set our mind to continue to be one.

And I found that how we continue.

Becoming one is not working independently of each other, of what one looks like.

But we become one as we communicate with one another, what the one is that we're chasing after.

And this is unification in marriage.

The two became one.

Unified doesn't mean I unified doesn't mean me.

Unified doesn't mean her.

Unified means us as two become one flesh.

And then lastly, we see the sacredness of marriage.

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Marriage, when committed to and done the way that God has given us, is a wonderful place of freedom, of joy, of satisfaction, of worship and growth.

The only problem we have is when we step out to do it our way.

And with sin come shame.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, we thank you for this time that we could be here.

We think of the beauty of Your Word and the calling you've placed on our lives, God.

I pray that as we go into.

Our time of response, Lord, that the.

Message that we shared would ring true in our lives.

Whether we're married, whether we're singled single, whether we're divorced, whether we're widowed.

The overall question am I pursuing, Lord.

What you have for me?

Am I trying to run an experiment that I want?

Or am I trusting in the Creator, in the heavens and earth, trusting in the God who saves me, who sustains me, who keeps me, who sanctifies me, who changes me, who brings me joy and satisfaction and contentment and a hope?

Or am I trying to eat from the tree that brings death?

Or am I looking to the one that brings life?

Jesus, search our hearts and draw us to you.

It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next week for another episode.

In the meantime, you can visit us@willowridgechurch.org or by searching for Willow Ridgechurch on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.