No Sanity Required
No Sanity Required is a weekly podcast hosted by Brody Holloway and Snowbird Outfitters. Each week, we engage culture and personal stories with a Gospel-driven perspective. Our mission is to equip the Church to pierce the darkness with the light of Christ by sharing the vision, ideas, and passions God has used to carry us through 26 years of student ministry. Find more content at swoutfitters.com.
No Sanity Required
Defending God's Design
In this episode, Brody dives into the biblical design of marriage, discussing manhood, womanhood, and how God's intentions for both husbands and wives shape relationships. Whether you're married, single, or hoping for marriage in the future, this conversation offers valuable insights. Brody addresses the constant attacks on marriage, the roles of men and women, and the importance of guarding and nurturing relationships. He also shares practical wisdom for men in their responsibility to protect, provide, and lead, while encouraging women to co-labor with their husbands. Ultimately, Brody reminds us that marriage is a reflection of Christ's love for the church and that fulfilling God's purpose in our relationships points to a future eternal union with Him.
Genesis 1-3
Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.
Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.
In this week's episode of no Sanity Required, I want to talk a little bit about manhood and marriage.
Speaker 1:We've got our Be Strong event coming up next weekend, and there'll be men from all over the country coming to that event.
Speaker 1:I just want to share some thoughts as we're kind of gearing our minds towards that and preparing for that. I've had a lot of things happen in my life recently just ministry situations and opportunities the Lord has put me in. I feel like that the Lord is putting this topic or this subject matter right in front of me right now, and so I just want to share some thoughts that I think will be helpful, not just for husbands but for wives, and not just for married people but for folks that hope to be married, and not just for newlyweds but people that have been married 30, 40, 50 years. So today we're going to talk about relationships, specifically about God's design for men and women in the context of biblical marriage. We've got our be strong event coming up. Then we've got our women's respond conference next month, so a lot of attention being given to that right now, and so I hope this is going to be helpful for you and I'm thankful that you would tune in and listen. Welcome to no Sanity Required.
Speaker 2:Welcome to no Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. A podcast about the Bible, culture and stories from around the globe.
Speaker 1:Most people are going to find themselves married at some point or another. And some people you might be thinking I don't know, I'm starting to give up on it, and I would just say you know, the Lord has a plan for all of us. And some folks marry a little later, some folks marry earlier, younger, um, and and some people are in their second, maybe third marriage and maybe fourth, fifth, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know where you're at, I don't know what, what your situation is, but I know this that marriage is an incredible opportunity to reflect who God is and reflect who Christ is. It's a, it's a shadow of an eternal truth and reality, and but it's also because of that, it's a perfect platform for the enemy to tear down what God has designed. I think that's why you see an attack on marriage in the world. There's a constant attack on marriage. That attack may come in the form of opportunities and encouraged promiscuity and adultery. It could come in the form of an attack on gender. It could come in the form of an attack on sexuality. Regardless of what culture you're in, marriage is always under attack. Let me say it again your marriage is under attack, no-transcript. And so let me give you a little background to some things that have happened in my life recently. In the last month, I've had three different situations where I have found myself in conversation with men who are, who are going through divorces with their wives, and so and none of these three guys are connected or related, none of them knows the other one and none of them are men that well, let me take that back. One of them is a guy that I already knew, I've got some history with. Two of them are guys that the way I met them was that they're in the midst of like a crisis in their life. One of them is a local guy that he's not from this area but he's lived in this area for a while. The Lord crossed our paths and he's going through this area, but he's lived in this area for a while. The lord crossed our paths and he's going through a pretty tough divorce or breakup. I don't know if it's a divorce yet, but that's where it's headed. Another one and and and another one where the guy I think drugs are involved and there's been a lot of uh, dependency on drugs between them. And then another one where I think it's more um, money and and just life and busyness and raising kids and going in different directions and multiple careers and just the stress and pressure of life, and so three very different dynamics, but each headed for the same end result, which is a failed and broken marriage and all that's going to be associated with that, and a lot of our listeners are divorced and have. Maybe, maybe you're in your second marriage, or maybe more than your second marriage, um, but it just kind of made me realize that this is something that that the enemy has always been attacking and is always going to be attacking, and it also made me realize just just reminded me that, uh, in every single society, marriage comes under attack, because that's where the enemy is going to attack God's designs. So God designed a man to be one way and a woman to be another way.
Speaker 1:Men and women have complementary but different roles. Rules are pretty much the same Be faithful to the Lord, be faithful to one another. Different roles, whether you hold a more complementarian view of marriage, which is that God has designed men to do certain things and women to do certain other things and vice versa, and they complement one another. Or if you hold a more egalitarian view of marriage, which that's where the roles are interchangeable and so an egalitarian view of marriage or church might mean that women can be in headship or leadership if they have different, stronger giftings towards that when a complementarian view of marriage and or church would be. There are certain roles of headship and leadership that are reserved for men, but then there are certain roles that God has laid out for a wife or a woman in that relationship. And so, regardless of if you hold a complementarian view, which is what we hold here at SWO and what I hold personally, or an egalitarian view, which there's still some good biblical framework for an egalitarian point of view, regardless of what view you hold, there are some things that we need to understand, and it's that God has designed marriage to function a certain way, to look a certain way, so that it might reflect his glory and help us paint a picture of the fellowship and union that exists between Christ and his people. And so it makes sense that the enemy would be wanting to attack that. I think one of the ways the enemy attacks that, first and foremost, is he attacks the man in terms of his role in in the relationship. He attacks him personally and he attacks the woman personally in the in the terms of her role in the relationship.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to tell, I wanted to point out actually, uh, a passage of scripture in Genesis, couple of passages, and then give you some thoughts, some comment on that, on those passages. The first one is in Genesis two, when God creates the first man, it says the Lord, god said it's not good that the man should be alone. So we know that God had created the man and then determined that it wasn't good for the man to be alone. But before God recognized the need the man had and then created the first woman or brought a wife to the man, before God ever did that, god had given the man some structure and some parameters and some instruction. And we see that if we back up a few verses in Genesis 2.15. It says the Lord, god, took the man, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. So the man is to be a worker. He's to work to provide and to bring the basic needs of life under his dominion, so to provide food and shelter and clothing and things like that for his family. But then it says he's to work and keep. But then it says he's to work and keep, and so keeping just means simply that he's to defend and protect and guard that word guard your heart. In that Proverbs, chapter 4 passage, guard your heart, it's the same word. It means to keep or protect. And so the man is to be, he's to stand guard, he's to protect, he's to be ready to fight for the things God's given him to fight for, and most men.
Speaker 1:We like the idea of working and protecting in terms of I like to work hard, make a living, you know, go out and accomplish things. In my field of work, whether that's in the trades or whether it's in, you know, finance or construction or accounting, or business ownership or government or education, we like to work in what we would call our domain or in the public square, the marketplace. We like to work and then, out of that work, we like to accomplish things and be competitive and set goals and tasks and we find fulfillment in that. We also have to be careful, because we can struggle to find our purpose and our identity in that, and as a man, you've got to be careful that you don't find your purpose and your identity in your work. You find that in Christ, and then your work is an expression of the joy that you have in the Lord, and so we work as unto the Lord. In everything that we do, we do it to give glory to God, work as unto the Lord, and everything that we do, we do it to give glory to God. And then, um, so, so a lot of men feel like, well, I'm, I find a lot of pleasure and and, and I find a lot of purpose in my work. But then also, um, it says that the Lord, god, put the man in the garden to work and keep, and so we like that idea of keeping or guarding. We like to guard our sons and daughters, we like to guard our marriage, we like to. You know, a lot of us are concealed carry. Guys, you know, like to.
Speaker 1:Um, people ask me all the time what do you conceal carry? So I personally, most days I don't carry the same thing every day. Most days I carry a Gen 5 Glock 19, an MOS model that has a Trijicon RMR red dot optic on it and I carry that pistol with 16 rounds of ammunition and an appendix holster on the front of my belt. And if I'm traveling I'll have a couple of spare magazines. I carry a flashlight, a pocket flashlight.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of talk about EDC. Have you ever heard that terminology? I know the men that listen to our show, our podcast, probably do everyday carry. So my everyday carry is a Glock 19. There's some days I carry something different, but most days that's what I'm carrying. I carry a flashlight, I carry. I usually don't have a wallet in my pocket. I keep that in my truck. I like to keep my pockets pretty empty. I carry a knife, um. I carry most days a fixed blade knife made by a company called Bark River. If you ever see me in person, ask me to check out my Bark River knife. I'm very proud of it. I've carried it for years and years and miles and miles and I love this knife. That's my everyday carry knife, um, and that's about it.
Speaker 1:I don't you know, I guess, my phone. I carry my phone. So I don't carry a lot on my person each day, but what I do carry I'm prepared to protect my family. So recently traveled out of, traveled out of state. We flew me Little, my oldest daughter, Lailie, and JB flew with us, and so the four of us flew. We traveled to Florida and I carried a handgun. I checked a handgun at the airport and I carried it.
Speaker 1:Why is that? Do I think I'm going to get in a gunfight? No, I don't think I am. I really don't think I am.
Speaker 1:But I live in a. I live in a state of reality where I know there are evil people in the world and I'm prepared to fight to defend my wife, my children, the people that God's entrusted me with. I'd rather fight with a gun. If I'm fighting somebody with a gun, that that person has a gun. So anyway, why do I? Why do I go down that rabbit hole? Well, I go down that rabbit hole because, as men, we like the idea of being protectors, of being guards, of standing guard.
Speaker 1:But let me challenge you with something. Is it not maybe more critical and more practical that you guard the hearts and minds of those God's entrusted you with, so your wife, your sons, your daughters we need to guard and protect what the devil wants to do to them. We need to know who their friends are, who they're communicating with, what they're using their phones for, who they're, who they're hooking up with on the weekends and connecting with, and where they're going. And we need to know that. We need to know what content they're viewing on the internet. We need to know how much time they're spending indoors in front of a screen. We need to guard their minds and their eyes, and so there's not just the physical guarding, but we need to guard their hearts, their minds, their imaginations.
Speaker 1:So, as a man, I'm to work, not just to put a roof over our heads, but I'm to work to build relationships and then to guard those relationships. So I'm a workman. Paul tells Timothy you are a workman that does not need to be ashamed. We're workmen. And then Paul also writes we are Christ's workmanship, created for good works, and so we are to be workers, we're to be. As a man, you should be a hard worker.
Speaker 2:And as a woman.
Speaker 1:As a Christian, we should say men and women, we should be hard workers, we should be. I find that most women are hard workers. Some men struggle with laziness. That tends to be um, now, that's, that's pain with a broad stroke. But most women and I don't know if it's just a result, I think it's a result of what we're talking about A result of the fall is that men either tend to be consumed with their work and they find their identity in it, or they're lazy.
Speaker 1:Um, some men are are stressed and overworked. Some men are lazy. Some men are stressed and overworked. Some men are lazy. Some women are driven and overworked. Some women are lazy. I'm not saying that there aren't both, but I'm saying that for men, we have to guard against laziness, even if you're a hard worker. I know a lot of men that work their rear ends off all day driving a truck or running a welder or whatever, but then when they come home, they want to put their feet up, slide back in the chair, crack a cold beer, get your favorite you know soda, whatever, and watch your show and just chill for the evening. Where most women come home, if they work, they come home and they work till bedtime, you know, around the house or whatever. They tend to have more of a constant on switch with that or whatever they tend to have more of a constant on switch with that.
Speaker 1:So all of the parameters for men and women that are laid out in Genesis 2 are really helpful, especially for Genesis 2.15, where men are told hey, you've got to be a provider, a workman, someone who does what needs to be done to create an atmosphere of Eden-like dominion, where you have dominion over the world around you through the power that Christ has given you and raise our children in that nurture and admonition of the Lord, and then be aware of the devil's schemes.
Speaker 1:The Bible says Understand the dangers and pitfalls of the world and protect and guard against them in your own life and in your children's lives and your wife's life. And then so it's. And then, right after that, god gives the man some instruction. In Genesis two move, move down to the next verse, for 16,. The Lord, god commanded the man, saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. So he gives him instruction and he says to the man I want you to take the word of instruction I've given you and then instruct your wife and your children in that. So as men, we're to shepherd.
Speaker 1:I think Votie Bauckham breaks this down You're to be a prophet and a priest. A prophet the job of a prophet is that a prophet takes the word of the Lord and he goes before the people as a representative of God. So as a man, you represent God to your family, to your wife and to your children. And then a priest takes the needs of the people and goes before the Lord. So if you think about in the Old Testament, the priest would take the sin of the people, bring it to the altar, cover it with blood and represent the people in the presence of the Lord. So the priest represents the people. Bring it to the altar, cover it with blood and represent the people in the presence of the Lord. So the priest represents the people to God. A prophet represents God to the people.
Speaker 1:And what the scripture teaches in Genesis two is that as a man and in my home, I'm to do both of those things. I'm to be a picture and a representation of God to my wife and children and I'm to be a representative of my family. I'm to represent them before the Lord. You think of passages in the scripture like when Job gets up early in the morning and prays and makes sacrifices for his children, he's taking a priestly role. One of the greatest honors you have as a man is to play that priestly role for your children, to go before the Lord on their behalf. And so the way I would kind of roll all that up is to say and roll it up into one category and say that as a man you're to be, you're to shepherd and pastor, and so that's what God tells the man to do.
Speaker 1:And then God creates the, the, the woman, and he brings her to Adam and late in chapter two of Genesis Um, they're married and Adam erupts into song. He just rejoices at the goodness of the Lord to give him this great gift of marriage and his beautiful wife, and and they enjoy sex and sexual union, and it's pleasing to the Lord and it's. They see one another in their nakedness and there is no shame, there's nothing to hide, there's just purity of love and relationship and purity of sexual expression, gender expression, man, woman honoring the Lord, and then together. If you back up into verse chapter one, verse 27, it says that God created male and female and he created them both in his own image. And then it says in verse 28, genesis 128, he blessed them and he said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Speaker 1:Many of you have heard the story I tell of when my oldest son was seven years old and we went bear hunting here locally. It was a snow day, there was no school and it was snowing and some buddies of mine had been trying to get they were really trying to get Tuck his first bear. And one of my favorite memories as a dad is we we killed that bear and I'll tell I've told that story before. I'll tell it maybe some other time but it was intense. I mean it was. The bear wasn't that big, but the hunt was intense because there was three or four inches of fresh snow on the ground and we had to climb probably 400 vertical feet and he didn't want me to carry him, he insisted on going his own way and we get up there and when he shot that bear it came out of the tree and had to shoot it point blank. You know, in the in the base of the right under the ear, just shove the muzzle into its ear and shoot it and it's fighting the dogs and it was just really intense.
Speaker 1:And I remember that night my my good friend, bradley Clodfelter, bradley Bradley, who works at Chestnut Mountain Ranch, he was the one that guided us on that bear hunting trip. And we were having it was just me and Bradley and Tuck were having a meal and there's seven-year-old Tuck is sitting there. The girls weren't there, I don't remember where they were, but we're eating fried bear meat and fried taters and onions and and uh, and I said talk, we've said the blessing. And here here's this seven-year-old kid sitting at the table, no shirt on, wearing a bear claw necklace, cut all the claw, we'd taken all the claws off off of the front paws of that bear and he had a necklace. And and I said we say the blessing, he said, lord, thank you that today we took dominion over this buyer. And I remember just thinking that is so good, what a good, what a good picture this kid has of dominion.
Speaker 1:You know, and the scripture teaches us that Jesus took dominion over darkness, jesus took dominion over sin, jesus took dominion over the fallen creation. And that's because we, we didn't do what God told us to do in Genesis one 27. We're told to take dominion, and we, when we failed, we allowed the creation to take dominion over us. What I mean by that is, god told the man hey, in the middle of the garden there's this tree, and what I need you to do is is is abstain from from taking the fruit of that tree. There's this tree, and what I need you to do is is is abstain from from taking the fruit of that tree. You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. God gives him clear instruction don't eat from that.
Speaker 1:And so god is saying here's a way that you take dominion over creation. You can't. Okay, let me give you a biblical principle. You cannot take dominion over something that doesn't pose a threat at taking dominion over you. In other words, I'm not taking dominion over an infant. I may possess and own and hold dominion over that infant, but but I'm not taking dominion by conquest, if that makes sense. Um, or uh, or a kitten or a puppy. You know, there I'm not taking dominion over an inanimate object like my belt or my shoes or my you know, those are things that I have possession over, I have stewardship over. But the picture of dominion is a picture of conquest and domination. And so imagine one general defeating another general and bringing him into into sub subjugation or subjection. He's taken dominion.
Speaker 1:And so God put Adam and Eve in a creation that they needed to rule over and maintain dominion over, because that creation has the strength, the power, the potential, the capacity to reverse and take dominion over them. And so God puts this tree in the middle of the garden and says you got to maintain dominion. And the way you do it with this tree is you don't eat the fruit from that tree. And then we know the story. If you don't know it you can go read it Genesis two and three the serpent, also part of creation, comes along and the serpent, using the fruit of the tree, tempts the woman, appeals to her desire for autonomy and self-authority and takes dominion over her. And in doing it he's taking dominion over the man, because the man has what he's done is he's abdicated his responsibility. That means he's relinquished the task and the responsibility and the authority that God's given him. He said I don't want to fight, I don't want to do it, I don't want to. I don't want to fight, I don't want to guard, I don't want to protect, I don't want to work, I just want to experience and this is a lie that a lot of men believe A man that's having a sexual, adulterous relationship. He's saying I don't want to fight for my marriage, I just want to feel and experience the sexual pleasure, the mental or emotional pleasure, the fleshly fulfillment that comes from having sex with this woman. That's an abdication of responsibility, the fleshly fulfillment that comes from having sex with this woman. That's just an abdication of responsibility. You're removing yourself from the fight, and so Adam removed himself from the fight.
Speaker 1:Eve falls into sin, and what happens is when Adam and Eve sin against God. I want to point something out. God comes in and he lays down a curse for them. He says here's going to be the longstanding repercussions and consequences of your sin. He says to Adam, so to the man, okay, genesis 3,. First he speaks to the woman. This is Genesis 3.16, and then in 3.17, he speaks to the man and he tells him here's what the consequences of your disobedience and your sin is going to be. He says to the woman I'll surely multiply your pain and childbearing In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband. He shall rule over you. I want to focus on that word desire, because I think this helps us understand the tension and the contention in a lot of marriages. Your desire will be contrary to your husband, but he'll rule over you.
Speaker 1:That word desire is used two other times in scripture. It's a Hebrew word, um. That means the other two times it's used. That the next time it's used is one chapter later, in Genesis, chapter four. And the context of Genesis four is that Cain is about to kill his, his own. Cain is about to kill his own. Cain is about to kill his brother, and it's in Genesis 4 and verse 7, it says let's do verse 6.
Speaker 1:The Lord said to Cain why are you angry? Why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. So we get a little bit more of an expression in the word there, or a little bit more explanation or definition.
Speaker 1:What does sin want to do to Cain? It wants to dominate him, it wants to take dominion over him. It wants Cain to rebel against God, to murder his own brother and to master Cain. And so what God is saying to Cain, he's like Cain, I know you're about to you've. You've, you've offered me something that I will not accept because your heart is not, is not pure before the Lord. This is a matter, an issue of your heart, and you're bitter right now. You're resentful towards your brother Abel because I've accepted his offering. And you better get this in check because if you don't, your sin is going to consume you and control you and manipulate and dominate you.
Speaker 1:And the word he uses to describe that is desire. He said sin has a desire that is contrary to you, has a desire that is contrary to you. Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. So there's the first time after Genesis 3 that this word is used. The idea is that the desire is to take control, dominion, to rule over this other person. So now plug that into Genesis 3, 16. God says to the woman your desire will be contrary to your husband. You're going to want to rule over him, control him, dominate him. You're going to want to be in charge. In other words, you're going to want to flip the order that God has created, just as they've already flipped the order in that they're supposed to have dominion over the tree, dominion over the garden, dominion over their own will, dominion over the tree, dominion over the garden, dominion over their own will, dominion over the serpent. Instead, the serpent takes dominion. Creation takes dominion over the woman. Who takes dominion over the man?
Speaker 1:And in doing that, they're trying to take dominion over God and his design, and so the desire that Eve is going to experience is going to be the desire to control and dominate and manipulate her husband. Now there's a there's a complexity to this word, because I want to then unpack a second definition of that word, a second meaning of that word, and it comes from the book of song of Solomon, or the song of songs, and in that expression of the word it's, it paints a picture of a woman who will do anything to win her man. It literally means to distort or stretch to contortion. So it's a word picture. That's like twisting something out of its intended form to make it manipulate or control or work in a situation. Make it manipulate or control or work in a situation. So think of something that's rubber or like a putty that you can warp and bend and distort to make it fit what you want it to fit. That's the other way the word desire is used, and so it's like saying this woman in that passage it's like she's saying I'll do whatever it takes to win you over and and and. So if you take this complex, multifaceted definition of this word desire, what you've got is, for women. What you're going to struggle with is either to control and dominate your husband or to allow allow him to control and dominate you, neither of which is God's design. Want you to think before we move on to the man and his struggle.
Speaker 1:We all know people and we've we've witnessed marriages and maybe you've been in a relationship like this, where a woman controls and dominates a man. He is neutered, he is worn down, beat up. He just does what he's told. He has no expression or identity of himself. She is the alpha dominator in the relationship. She snaps and orders him around, boss him around and she's the boss. We see a man like that who is essentially emasculated and he does not accept his God-given responsibility to lead and take headship as a workman, a protector, a guard, a shepherd, a pastor, a priest. He doesn't do those things, he just exists and does what he's told. That's not a healthy marriage and a lot of times you see this from a man who had a mom that did that to him, and so then he looks for a wife that'll do it to him.
Speaker 1:The other scenario how many of us we know of a situation and maybe you've been in one where a woman will endure abuse. Maybe it's sexual abuse, maybe it's emotional abuse, maybe it's verbal abuse abuse, maybe it's emotional abuse, maybe it's verbal abuse. I recently was asked to intervene in a relationship between a husband and wife where the husband was practicing adultery but he wanted and the wife knew it and she was willing to let him continue on that path If he would just stay home and he was willing to stay home if she would let him have the girlfriend. So I ended up in the in the home of this couple who they're not part of our church, they're not there, they're, they're just folks that are acquaintances, um, that I know, but not real well. And the husband's sitting there saying I don't want to give up my girlfriend because I love her, but I don't want to give up my wife and children because I love them. And he's warped and distorted his own reality and the wife is willing to let him do it because she has such a desire that her desire is warped. She's willing to distort and manipulate reality to make it work. So we either have women that control and dominate and put a man under their thumb until he breaks or leaves, or we have women that are willing to let their husband abuse them in whatever capacity, because they can't stand the thought of being without the guy. Ladies, that's, those are the struggles you're going to tend to have. You're either going to want to be a dominating controller, boss, lady in charge you do what I say, you're not my boss or I'll do whatever it takes to keep you. You can do whatever you want to do to me or against me. I'll do whatever it takes. That's the struggle a woman's going to have. You see all of that in that one little word desire. Okay. Now then, in verse 17, we're almost done.
Speaker 1:Genesis 3, 17, adam said or I'm sorry to Adam, he said because you've listened to the voice of your wife, you've eaten the tree of which I commanded you. You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you, in pain. You shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face. You shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. What God's saying to the man is because you did not guard and work and protect and keep and stand in the gap and represent me to your family. Because of that, you're going to struggle now to find yourself and, as a man, you're going to struggle to find your identity. You're going to find your identity in the approval of people. You're going to find your identity in your work.
Speaker 1:Work is God's design. Let me be real clear, people. God designed us to work long before the fall and sin came into the world. There's a misconception, I think a lot of people think well, work is a result of the fall. Well, it's not. God put the man in the garden to work. What's a result of the fall is things like laziness, strife, working in futility, trying to get ahead but staying behind, having to pick up a second job because you can't pay the bills and you're going further into debt, debt that you can't pay back, high interest rates, the struggle to just survive in a world that's constantly working against you. All of that's a result of the fall. Work is supposed to be gratifying and fulfilling. I'll tell you what else is a result of the fall for men finding your worth and your value in your work. Solomon writes this and he addresses this in Ecclesiastes, where he talks about the futility of work. He's like I worked. I built the greatest structures of the day. There were engineering marvels, architectural marvels that we built. We accomplished what no man had ever accomplished to that point in time, and yet I didn't find fulfillment. And at the end of the day, I didn't find fulfillment.
Speaker 1:Think about somebody that accomplishes and achieves so much. I think about Joe Biden, donald Trump. Here's two guys that are both around 80 years old. I'm not getting political, so don't worry, this has nothing to do with politics so I'm using both those guys because it'll serve the same point. These are men that, as they near the end of their lives, biden has now left office. What is his day like? What is his purpose and his worth? What has he accomplished? He's accomplished. You cannot accomplish more than he accomplished. Regardless of what you think about him and I have strong opinions about that dude you cannot deny the fact that he achieved the high status a human being in the world's eyes can achieve. He became the president of the United States of America, the leader quote unquote of the free world, most powerful position in the free world. He achieved that and now what's he doing? I don't know. Eating ice cream, looking at the waves crash on the beach. I don't know how he's spending his retirement. Let's talk about Trump.
Speaker 1:Trump is in the heyday right now of his career, at almost age 80. I think he's about 80. I think he's at least he's late 70s and he has an incredible capacity for energy and vibrance and vitality. But he's in the twilight of his life and three years from now we're going to be nearing the election that will see the end of his presidency. He's got four years from now. It's over.
Speaker 1:Then what's he going to do? What's he going to go find fulfillment in? The same could be true for a person who I have a friend who flew fighter jets all through the cold war. He became a fighter pilot in the 1970s and flew fighter planes in the seventies, eighties and nineties and now he just struggles. He's he's a retired dude but he's like just trying to busy himself. He's into like planting flowers and stuff around his property. You know he loves. He loves like horticulture. But you think this guy flew F-15s against enemies, domestic and foreign. He's flying off the coast of Florida guarding Cuban airspace and now he's planting shrubs in his yard in his house that he bought with his retirement money. I'm not downplaying that there's a lot of fulfillment that can be had in that.
Speaker 1:But what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes is if you find your purpose and your value in your work as a man, then you're going to be struggling when that comes to an end and you can't work forever. And so the the hope and promise for us as men and women is that we can find fulfillment and be in the men God's called us to be. We can work and provide and protect and guard and shepherd. We can be prophets and priests. We can speak on behalf of the Lord to our sons and daughters and our wives, and we can speak on behalf of them to the Lord and wives. You can co-labor with your husband and together you can build the strength of a fortress and within that fortress raise sons and daughters that that see Jesus in the way that you live your lives. They see you sacrificially give of your resources. They see you care about your neighbor and the destitute. They see you care about the unborn, in that you don't just lobby against abortion but you strive to meet the needs of children who are orphans and who have been left to the fostering community. They see you care about your community and your world. You're going to raise strong sons and daughters if you bring them into the mission of life.
Speaker 1:And we do all of this knowing that all of marriage and manhood and womanhood is a reflection, it's a shadow of a future and eternal experience that we're going to have with Christ forever. So I don't find all of my value and fulfillment in this life. Ladies, if your desire is for your husband, you need to turn it so that, first and foremost, your desire is for the Lord, and and the beauty of that type of desire is that it works whether you're single or married or widowed, or whether you're a mom or not. Like men, we find our value and our purpose not in our work, not in sexual experiences, not in the domination or dominion of sexual experiences and how many women you can sleep with. You find it in the dominion over sin and temptation. You take up the sword dominion over sin and temptation. You take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and you fight against the desires of the flesh to bring into captivity your thoughts so that you create a world of spiritual domain and dominion, and you fight for what God would have you to fight for we love our wives sacrificially.
Speaker 1:Ephesians 5 is Christ loved the church. We express ourselves through love and kindness and strength and mercy and honor and grace and tenderness, and we work hard with calloused hands to provide for our families and we fight when we need to fight and we pray when we need to pray. And we and we know this, men, here's, here's, the final word for you. Your children will know who God is as their heavenly father most clearly based on what you reveal to them as a representative of God. In other words, the way you father them is going to teach them a lot about who God is as our heavenly father, but they're going to learn a lot about who Jesus Christ is as our Lord and Savior in the way that you love your wife, their mother or their stepmother, the way that you love your bride, the way that you care for your wife is going to show them and express to them the reality of who Jesus is, because the scripture says that we are the bride of Christ. Jesus loves his church sacrificially. So you can say a lot to them about who God is, about who Christ is, and the way that you love them and love their mama.
Speaker 1:And so, as we turn our attention towards this coming weekend and the Be Strong event at SWO, there's a word, just a word, for you to think about. If you're coming to that event this weekend, man, hopefully this will kind of prime your pump. If you're not coming, hopefully it's a word that will give you a glimpse of some of the stuff that we're going to be challenging men with this weekend. And just a word for husbands and wives we ultimately have to find our place and our peace in and um. And just a word for for husbands and wives, and and we, we ultimately have to find our place and our peace in and with Christ, and then we'll love one another well and we'll do what God's called us to do.
Speaker 1:You guys, have an awesome week. I plan on having an awesome week, um. By God's strength and power and grace, I'm going to do it and I hope you will too, and I'm excited to see some of you this weekend. Hopefully, get to shake some of your hands, hug your necks and you get to meet Bruce, who was on last week's episode, excited for you to meet him, and meet some of our newest additions Andy Miller, joseph Wainwright, new guys here at SWO. We've got a new guy, sam, who's coming in to take a job on our maintenance staff. So God's moving and doing some cool stuff here at SWO. Hopefully some of you men will get to meet some of the new guys here and maybe some of you that we've never gotten to meet. We're looking forward to catching up and meeting you this weekend. So, whether we see you this coming weekend or not, we'll see you here next week. On no Sanity Required.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to no Sanity Required. Please take a moment to subscribe and leave a rating. It really helps. Visit us at SWOutfitterscom to see all of our programming and resources, and we'll see you next week on no Sanity Required.
