If you have your bottles with you and you are able to, I'm not sure you can there at the table very easily, but turn to Genesis chapter 3 verses 16 through 24, we are continuing on in our series of Genesis, and that's good, good be sure some seeing food pass. Again, you are invited to eat. Please continue to eat. Don't be afraid that I asked somebody to pass something along there as well too. And when we continue in our series last week, if you were here, we are Daniel was preaching and talking about how the fall actually happened. How Adam and Eve entered into a sinful relationship with God for the first time. Well, we're going to be picking up in right after that in verse 16. You can follow on the screen behind me or in your own Bible, but here God's word. To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains and child bearing. With pain, you will give birth to children. You desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. To Adam, he said, because you listen to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat of it. Curse it as a ground because of you. Through painful toil, you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken. For dust you are and a dust you will return. Adam named his wife Eve because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden chair of them and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. This is God's holy and inspired word that we come to and look at tonight. Well, to your own comfort I think tonight this was going to be one sermon and I've decided it's going to be a two-part sermon because it's just too much to cover here in one swoop here and it's too important. Because if you think about it, this is a pitiful spot in history. This is where we understand or give a little bit of understanding for what is the consequences and what was the actual curse that was given first to woman and then secondly to Adam, the man. Well, both are there and both are important and so rather than covering both Eve and Adam, we're going to cover just Eve or woman since that's the order that happens here. We'll begin with just that tonight. But in order for that, I want you to think about a couple concepts that I think are important as a framework for all of this. And the first one is this, sin is always a distortion of one God's design and secondly a deprivation of God's life giving power. Let me say that again. Sin always brings a distortion of God's design and a deprivation of God's life giving power. And I want you to think about it as an illustration. I think the first slide Benjamin has up here for us. Some of you, you might hear a plane pilot have a private plane license anybody? I thought it could be smiling group to size. Well, my brother happens to have his own pilot license and I'm very fascinated with how planes work. And I want to just give you an illustration of a little bit about this. That is an illustration of a wing. It wasn't flashing on my screen, but Benjamin, I don't know if you can make it stop flashing, but anyway, it's supposed to be showing the moving of air current over the wing. And if you know a little bit about flying and I know I don't fly, I know a little bit about it. What's important here is the level of V1 is greater than V2 when the speed of the wind going across the top of the wing is greater. Well, actually, it comes at the same speed, but because of the shape of the wing, because of the curvature of the wing, it moves faster over the top and slower underneath the bottom. And it creates, really kind of a suction. It creates a force. And that force is called what? Lift. Okay? Without that, your plane doesn't go up. If you kids that are wondering, gosh, this thing is so heavy. How in the world is it fly? You know, I got to have a little bit of a little light glider to throw in the air to fly. How does this, you know, I don't know how many time airplane get up in the air? Well, if it wasn't for lift, it wouldn't. And that's how strong the force can be to lift a plane of that magnitude. Well, just to give you that same idea, go to the next slide, Benjamin. I also have an uncle who has his own sailboat. And on occasion, I get a chance to go out on that. If you take the same idea, and I didn't understand this, anybody here, a sailor? If you take the idea of an airplane wing and you turn it upright into a sail, you get a very similar principle of how a sailboat works. I used to grow up thinking that a sailboat could go in the direction with the wind blowing directly onto the sail and that would push it. Well, most of the time when you're sailing, at the majority of the time, that's not what's making your sailboat move. You're using the same principle that an airplane does if you turn your airplane wing this way. Okay? So being shaped like this, you turn it this way with the air flowing over the top. And because of the curvature of the sail, the wind that's coming on the inside actually goes slower than one on top. It creates a pressure. And believe it or not, your sailboat, most of the time, unless you're flying directly with the wind, is being pulled. It's a better description of it is lift that's going, that's pulling it through the water, not pushing it, but it's being pulled. Now, I wanted to involve you understood and knew that. But here's what's important and what's critical for both the airplane and for the sailboat. If your wing or if your sail is damaged, if your wing has ice on it, you've heard of stories of planes that have ice on the wings and it changes the flow of the air so they can't flow properly or it disrupts it. And so it disrupts lift and a plane can crash with damage to the wing. With a sail, if a sail has a rip in it, or if the angle of the curvature of the sail is not quite right into the wind, you'll see it start to flap and it loses its ability to be pulled through. What I want to talk to you about tonight and use of that illustration is with the plane and with the same thing as a sail, that if that represents our God's design for us. If that is distorted, if we're a wing of a plane and we have ice on us, or we're a sail and we have a rip in it, or red at a poor angle, that distortion makes all the difference in the world. It throws it all off. A plane is a wonderful thing but believe me, you don't want to be flying a plane that has ice that's formed on its wings. You don't want to be out in the middle of the ocean with a sailboat that has a torn sail. And if you could use that same analogy of that wind blowing over, in fact the word for Holy Spirit can also be translated wind. And if you see the same important role that the Holy Spirit comes and brings power. If you did not have air moving across the wing, it doesn't matter how good the curvature is, or how perfectly shaped the wing is, the plane is not going to go anywhere. If you're in a plane hitting an air pocket, a plane can hit an air pocket without pressure drops in such a degree that the plane can crash because of that. And some planes have. A sailboat, when there is no wind at all, it doesn't matter how good your sail is. You sit dead in the water, floating with the current, wherever it takes you. Both are important. The design and the power and the propulsion. The design is the way that God's made us in His image and then the power comes from His Holy Spirit as His Spirit lives inside of us. When Adam and Eve sinned, the design was distorted. The Spirit of God that had been blown into Adam's nostrils and given him life died, even though his physical body did not at that moment. It just may matter of years to catch up with the Spirit. There was a real death that happened. There was a real distortion in design. There was a real loss of the power of the Holy Spirit. So taking that kind of analogy and thinking that in your mind, we're going to look specifically here tonight about what happened specifically to women, what happened specifically to Eve and next week we're going to look at what happened to Adam and what has happened to us as men. Well, women are cursed with a distortion of their design and a deprivation of power. Their original design has been distorted and their power has been deprived in and of themselves. Now the good news, which we'll also talk about tonight, is not just the bad news. The good news is the gospel has come and has brought a restoration power to that image that we were made in, the image of God. And it has also brought the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through that image. So there is good news. But before we get the good news, we've got to talk about the bad news. So bear with me that there's bad and good news as we talk about that tonight. And under that, there's two main consequences. There's two main curses that are expressed here in the scriptures that women experience, verse 16 sums them both up. To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in child bearing with pain. You will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. Well, first is the pain in child bearing, the physical, the emotional, the intellectual and so on, all the different elements that go along with bearing children. In fact, the word pain here that is talked about is also the same word that's used later that at least in the NIV has translated in verse 17 through painful toil. You eat all the days of your life and that the ground will produce thorns for you. The idea of toil that he talks about for Adam and the difficulty he's going to have with harvesting and gardening the ground. Being a farmer is the same word here that's used in talking about with women. It's translated pain, but it's with toil. It's with strenuous or continual labor that women will experience child bearing. Now, the only time I was trying to rack in my head this week thinking about, what is the most toiless? Is that a word toiless? Toilessum, thank you. There's a teacher in the room, but toiless sounds kind of cool, though. Anyway, I get toilessum, not that cool, thank you John. Toilessum, thing that I experienced here with this thinking physically, and I hadn't had a baby and don't plan any time soon, but was in 1983, I was on a bike trip with my youth group and we were going through the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were riding bikes, bicycles, through the mountains, and it's ever driven on your car. It's wonderful, it's beautiful, but it's a challenge. If you can imagine, you're riding on a bicycle. I remember one day, I believe it was Mount Mitchell, which some of you might know if you've been from that area, it's the tallest mountain peak east of the Mississippi in the United States of America, and the Blue Ridge Parkway pretty much goes right up through that mountain. I remember we were told by our youth counsellors, all right, it was a 14 week trip, some like day 10 or something, day 10s can be a really tough day. You have a 17 mile uphill to do on your bike. Unfortunately, it wasn't day 1, but we got to day 10, then they kept telling us, look, even though there's a 17 mile uphill, there's like a 20 mile downhill on the other side, and you're going to coast for 20 miles, it's going to be great, it's going to be awesome. There are, it's going to be 17 miles, and we had pretty fancy bikes for 1983, 15 speed bikes, that you're going to be in gear number one, and your goal is to keep the pedals moving. Some of you have been on a really nice bike, and first gear, you can go on like this and be going pretty slow. It's designed so going up a mountain top, you can just keep yourself moving. The next show is so low, or high, whatever the distinction is, but so it allows you to go up some mountains. And for hours, for I want to say, it was at least four hours, maybe maybe six, more than half the day, we are climbing this mountain, taking breaks, of course. You know, we're in high schools, so we're young and pretty, pretty athletic, but we are just barely moving our pedals, and the whole time we're thinking, okay, there's a 20 mile downhill on the other side. But for 17 miles, we rode straight up hill. Sometimes it was gradual. I remember there were points, there were points that looked like, I felt like we were doing a 45 degree angle, and it was laborious, it was strenuous, it was toilsome in that whole experience. Now, what got me through that was the hope on the other side, and ladies tonight, in men next week, as we talk about this, there is hope on the other side, but the reality is, there's toil as a part of the curse for men, there's toil as a part of the curse for women. And specifically here, it's in relation to child bearing. Now, let me expand your horizons in thinking about that, because the first thing that probably pops in your mind like mine was, yeah, having a baby. Boy, they call it labor for a reason, and I've been through that with my wife, I don't claim to have experience. Neaping like she has, let me set the record straight, but I've seen her experience, and I know it is a toil some experience, the nine months leading up to, as well as actual experience. But if you've even thought to about the toil and pain of not being able to get pregnant, there are women that can't even get pregnant, and who experience the power of the curse through the absence of a child. In fact, we have modern technology today to help us make it even more possible to be able to have children, but back in the old testament, in the scriptural times, women felt like it was a public disgrace when they weren't able to have children. And they were shamed by that, because it was such a natural thing about who they were, and their ability was to be able to produce and to have children. I'm thinking right now, a couple that I know, some of you know here, too, about where to say their name, but who have been trying for years to have children, who have gone through and have had tests, and are still having no success. And even in the process, when they considered finally adoption, the doors were shut there on adoption. I don't even claim to be able to identify that experience, but I know that the toil that is felt there by not being able to have a child is a burden that is extremely heavy on many women. That's one aspect of how the curse expresses and demonstrates itself. I know the toil and the pain of miscarriage. Some of you have felt and experienced that. I know. It is one thing to finally get pregnant, but then what if you get pregnant and you can't ever bring the baby to full term? There's a whole other element of where we see the power of the curse and we see the difficulty within the anguish that a mother and a father, especially a mother would go through in that time. What about the toil and the pain of the actual pregnancy, the actual delivery, the actual recovery process? We've had six children, as many of you know, five are biological, one is adopted, so we pretty much have had every experience. From two C-sections, Laura has, to natural childbirth, to the C-section one, to the C-section with the epidural, where the epidural went bad, and she had a wet tap for some of you that knows what that is, with the spinal headache for a week. We've had all kinds of things, but let me tell you, it is a laborious process. There is pain in childbearing, and we've just simply talked about up until the point of having children. Now what about once you've had children? What about the whole anxiety and the challenge of raising children? And then what that is for ladies. Author Susan Lane calculated that women without children have an extra 3.5 hours of housework per week, and 11 more hours of child related activities. Which, if you total that up, adds up to 754 more hours of work a year, and her conclusion is that the average woman without children has about three months more leisure time annually than a mother with children. Now imagine if you've got two, three, four children. Imagine if you have six children. My appreciation for my wife has gone up even this week, and she can't be here tonight, so I don't even say that, but wow, there is toil, and there is difficulty in childbearing, extra physical workload, extra anguish of raising children, and going through the difficulties and the challenges with them. And they aren't blessing, but there are challenges because you know what? They're sinful just like we are as adults, and we simply know how to polish ours up, and make ours look a little bit better, and they're not as good at doing that. But you know what? They're no less or more sinful than we are in the core of our heart and our being. But we see it acted out because they can't cover it up as well. They can't disguise it as well as adults do. So we see the whole challenge there, and kids going through tough times, and kids growing up in a sinful world, and kids having to come home, your children sharing about how they were called a name at school, or kids picking on them, or they get, or they're the last one to get picked to be on the team, or even if they get on a team, if they're in a real sports league, they never get to play, they sit the bench, and we have to go through that with our children in the anguish, but you moms in particular have to go through that and have a special understanding of what that experience of that curse is all about. That even we as fathers don't know and don't experience. And then what's the worst toilet pain, a child bearing? I had to see a friend of mine go through it last week. The possibility of losing a child. The first pastor I worked at that when I got out of college at Community Presbyterian Church in Moody, Alabama was a guy named Craig Schilds, and he had four children, two that were kind of older than there was a gap between those two 12 years before he had two more. His youngest child, 16-year-old, Cleach Childs, was driving down the road, coming back from basketball practice, and a drunk driver crossed the yellow line, hit him head on, and even though he had the airbag, even though he had a seat belt on, the collision, nobody had time to break. He didn't have time to break, and of course the drunk driver doesn't think about breaking. He was killed pretty much instantly, or brain did instantly. I was at the funeral this past Monday, and trying to, how do you gear yourself up for that? You know, and I have to be honest, I'm so selfish, I think the greater anguish I felt was the feeling of, what have that happened to me? More than I was really thinking about this poor, my four Craig and Jamie Childs, the parents that happened to her friends of mine. I had more of an anguish of thinking, what have that happened to me? What have I lost one of my children? I don't know how you cope with that, the 16-year-old. Parents aren't supposed to bury their children, the other way around, right? There is a curse that is associated, the curse is not the children, the curse is childbearing, with sinful natures and a sinful world, but it's a very real curse. We know there's a very real hope, there's a hope of provision, there's a hope of promise that comes from God. Psalms 127-3 says this, sons are a heritage from the Lord, children are a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth, blessed as the man whose quiver is full of them, they will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies at the gate. God says children are a blessing. Do you see childbearing and the difficulties and the toil as a curse? But even in the midst of the curse, children themselves are a blessing, and again it's evidence of where God's power is being demonstrated, even though Adam and Eve sinned, even though Eve's consequence was a curse, a childbearing, that she would bear a low that she would carry. God was still making a blessing come through even in the midst of that, the children themselves, though are a blessing. Not only that, but God's promise to give strength through the childbearing process, he hasn't left you mothers alone, isolated, trying to do it on your own. He says in 2 Chronicles 16-9, for the eyes of the Lord reigns throughout the earth looking to strengthen those whose hearts are completely His. When hearts come to Him, when women cry out to God in the midst of their curse and midst of their consequence of their sin, God meets them and He's there to strengthen. He gives children as a blessing, He gives a strength to raise those children, because He's called you to do that as a mother, as a mom. Of course, Jesus is the most blessed child that is given to us through the gospel, and His Holy Spirit is the tool that He strengthens us with. Remember, Daniel talked about and preached on it last week. John, Archer, just read it a second ago, when the pronouncement of the judgment upon the serpent is given, there's also the promise that from her seed, from the woman, will come one who will crush the head of the serpent. Boy, there's the most blessed reality of children, was the perfect child, was the Messiah, who we begin to celebrate, even with electrical lights, that is coming, His Advent, the promise of blessing that would come through that. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan was a famous preacher some time ago, and he had four sons, and they were all preachers themselves. One day, Smiley was at their house, sitting with the family, and thought he'd have a little bit of fun, just to put one of his children on the spot. He asked one of the children, he said, His name was Howard. He said, Howard, who they knew, by the way, had a great admiration for his father. They asked him to say, who is the greatest preacher in your family? And Howard, looking straight across at them, and without a moment's hesitation, said, my mother, and it is a reminder that moms, you have such a unique calling, such a wonderful opportunity that God has placed you, that you are a sermon to your children in a far greater way than you could ever imagine or know. And your children need to hear that sermon preached. I'm not talking about lecturing them. I'm talking about the sermon of your life, your love, your laying down your life for them, your loving them in a tough, consistent way when they need it, whatever the case is, but loving them truly with a love that comes from God. Well, there was a second side to the curse that was given to woman. One was the pain in child bearing, but the second side was a desire to rule over her husband, which takes a little bit more thought to figure out what is exactly being said here. But verse 16, let me read it again, says this. To the woman, he said, I will greatly increase your pains in child bearing. With pain, you will give birth to children. Then he says, your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. Well, this has been often debated in the key in looking at this text, is to understand, what does the word desire mean? Your desire will be for your husband. Because I don't know about you husbands out there, but, you know, some sense of that word that I could kind of like. I want my wife to desire me, and to want to be around me, or whatever. But that's probably not the kind of desire it's talking about here. We know that looking in very next chapter, chapter 4, the very exact same Hebrew word is also used here, and let me give you the context of this. This next chapter, which we'll talk about in a few weeks, is where Cain enables the sons of Adam and Eve, where Cain rises up, and he kills, it's the first murder ever in the Bible of a human being, and Cain kills his brother Abel. Let me read you from that real quick, just a few verses. It says, but Abel brought forth fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face so downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, that's the same word desires, but you must master it. Now Cain said his brother Abel, let's go out to the field, and why they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Notice what that said in verse 7. Sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must master it. Exactly the same word. So looking at this in this context, there is a desire that God is part of the curse that is seeking to, that's aimed at the husband, where the woman has freely served beside the man before sin. She was his strong consultant. She was his strong helper. By the way, the word for help is actually easier, or easier, it's pronounced in the Hebrew, that word is also a word that in its part, or in its fragments is also sometimes used for God, and it can be translated strong helper. When God is called a strong helper, that's the same word. So keep that in mind, ladies, this is not, again, your help may do comes, and it just picks up the trash after the husband. This is the top executive consultant that he needs. You are his strong support, his strong help that he needs. Eve was once in that position now, rather than being his strong helper, she wants to control. She wants to manipulate him. There has been a shift, there has been a change. But notice that she will be frustrated because, as it says, but he will rule over you. And notice that the frustration is not because he will rule, because, again, God has given him that role. God told Adam to rule over the earth, to subdue the earth. But where is the frustration? It's because she is not content and able to trust her husband in his role. She is afraid. You might be thinking, well, it doesn't talk about fear. It doesn't say the word afraid. How do I know that she's afraid? Well, let's look at the New Testament. The New Testament gives us some insight in 1 Peter 3 verses 1 through 6. Listen to this in a lot of the context of this curse. Wives in the same way be submissive to your husbands, so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives. When they see the purity and reverence of your lives, your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is a great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. As the New Testament expounds with the power of the gospel and the life of Jesus Christ, and it encourages women to live out their gospel-given power to be the wife that God's called them to be, which is what Eve was in the garden. The exhortation here from Peter is, these women are ones who do not give way to fear. And as you think about it, was it not fear that Eve gave way to in the garden? Was she not fearful as Daniel talked about last week that God maybe was holding back on her? Remember the serpent comes and says, has God really said, if you'll eat of it, you'll die. Then he goes on to say, and Eve explains, well, we can eat of all the trees in the garden, except for this one that we're not supposed to eat. And he tempts you with that. Well, the reason is that God knows the day you'll eat of it, you'll become like him, knowing the difference between good and evil. And Eve is all of a sudden, I'll wait a minute. Fear enters in. Is God holding back on her? Does God have something that doesn't have her best interests in mind? Can she trust God? Sin begins to enter in, in her heart there. You know, when Lauren and I talked about this in our own relationship, and we continue to struggle with this, even though we've married almost 15 years, and you would think we would have it down. And by the way, we're both communication majors from college, and that has helped zero. We struggle with communication like everything else. We can just simply talk about it when we screw up. Say, well, you know, that was such and such, you know. We can talk about it, but, you know, Laura calls it the dance. We do this dance. She gets in a place, and either one of us can start the dance, but since we're talking about Eve this week, we'll talk about Adam next week. So make sure you come back. You know, she can start to act in an untrusting way. She makes a dance move. And then all of a sudden I'll respond and act in maybe a defensive way, because she's not responding in a way I want. And then the dance goes on, with the appropriate response, with the appropriate response from the other end. And you know how the dance goes. It's not a pretty dance. But we have learned about it enough in recent times to be able to say it, and we'll even tell you to look, let's not start that dance. Let's not start going there. When we start seeing the fear pop up, her fear entrusting me to leader as her husband. And I'll be honest with you, sometimes I give her reasons not to trust me. Sometimes I do things that aren't respectable. So she has some very legitimate reasons sometimes to question that. You know, when am I being trustworthy? When am I not? But God still calls her to. And it's created her in such a way that she is still to respect and honor and to submit to my headship in the home. That's a challenge. That's very, very difficult. But here at the hope, the hope and the promise and the provision from God. That's where the curse is, the fear, the desire to control and manipulate because you can't trust just like Eve couldn't trust God when the serpent tempted her. She began to live a life where she couldn't trust anything God had given her. And what was the next thing that God had given her besides life was Adam. She couldn't trust Adam. But notice what Romans 8, 28, the 32. Most of us know Romans 8, 28. We can quote it backwards and forwards if we've been to church for any length of time. And we know that all things, God works for the good of those who love him. Those who've been called according to his purpose. Right? So there's the foundation of this passage. For those God for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son. That he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son. They gave him up for us all. How he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things. So God, here's what God's saying. Yes, all things were to get it for good. And how do you know that? How do you know that? Because God's most precious thing he had, his own son. He's sent to live a life in a sinful place with sinful people. Whether it weren't angels seeing his praises 24 or 7. But instead people who were neglecting him, people who were accusing him, people who would soon spit on him, people who would soon curse at him, whip him, time to tree, nail him to a cross, and crucify him. Because God did not withhold his own son, the most precious thing. You know he will not give you anything else that you need. And ladies, that's the foundation of hope. That you have here. If you have no husband, God your heavenly husband is protecting. And he is providing. Whether you have a husband or not. If you have a bad or sinful husband, and by the way, that covers everybody else. Either you don't have a husband, ladies, or you have a bad or sinful one. Okay? And hopefully you just have a sinful one, not one that's just, you know, physically abusive. And if that is the case, by the way, in all seriousness, if that is the case, talk to somebody. Come talk to me. Don't continue on that situation. Because there is a reality. But if you have a bad or sinful husband, God is still meeting your wifely needs. He wants to use you and to draw your husband to him. Remember what first Peter three said? Wives in the same way be submissive to your husband so that if any of them do not believe the word, in other words, if you find yourself a Christian married to a non-Christian or to a husband who says he's a Christian, but his life is nothing like Christ, live in such a way, be submissive to your husband so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Well, you can't do that if your husband is the sole source of that for you. But if God, the Father, is the sole source of that for you, you can. If he is your primary husband, what he tells you he is, he calls his church as bride. Guys, he's our primary husband. If he is your primary husband, then you have that hope, you have that strength. The hope of the gospel ladies will free you from fear and allow you the security that gentle and quiet spirit allow you the security to trust God's husbandly provision for you, realizing that your husband's failures or inadequacies never separate you from God's provision as your perfect heavenly husband. You know how I talked about this was in some ways kind of like a dance in this whole role here where the woman's desires for her husband yet he will rule over her. There's this tension that happens there. And if you're married, you know it. If you've been married, you know it. If you're even dating, you're beginning to understand it. And the kids, if you're out there too, you're beginning to pick up on it too, because you've seen it in your parents. I know mine have it with me and Laura. But there's this dance that goes on. One thought of it reminds me of square dancing. In fact, by the way, Laura and I was the first official day it was on a square dance. So if you ever want to know some trivia there, that's where it was. And by the way, square dancing is a great safe way to be able to do that and meet with people. In fact, you can dance with just about anybody. We've done some square dances and other churches I've been at. It's a great time. You don't have to hardly know anything. But you know what? Who's the leader in square dancing? The caller. The man, the woman. I mean, does it really even matter if there is a man and woman? I mean, yeah. You kind of like not to dose a doe with another guy or ladies with another girl. But does it really matter? I mean, it's, you switch around. You got your partner on one side. You got your corner. You're sometimes, you're sometimes dosy-dolling with this person. You're dosy-dolling with that one. It's a real easy, casual thing. It's a great place, great dating setting. It was a great first day for us at a nice time. But it's not the dance that God has called us to in our marriage. That's more like the slow dance. That's a very different experience. I'm just curious. Has anybody been to a wedding reception that did a square dance? Has anybody done that? That did a square dance. I haven't heard of one. You know, why not? Because when you're married, I mean, do you want to be doing this with your new spouse? I mean, is that, no. You want to have the first dance. You want to be in the embrace. Of course not. You want there to be intimacy. You want there to be trust. And ladies, it's a dance. But realize you got to understand that there is a partner, your primary partner. And his name is not your husband. His name is Jesus Christ. And he will dip you down low sometimes where you think you're going to drop. Just in time, you're got to be by the hand and pull you back up. He'll swing you around sometimes. You're not sure where you're going. He'll hold you close sometimes. You'll hear and feel his heartbeat sometimes when you're quiet enough to listen. But the reality of it is that he's the one that holds you. He's the one that gives you your security. He's the one in the midst of the curse has come and brings a blessing. Just like he did with childbearing, he does also hear too. He says, look, come. Come to your primary husband. Do you know why the Scriptures say that there is no giving and taking of marriage in heaven? There are no husband and wives in heaven. And that's a shock maybe for some of us. Because some of us usually think about that. If you go to any movie that talks about heaven, if somebody dies, that's usually who they end up with. Is their wife, their husband, whatever the case might be. That's the ultimate thing to get back and be there. Well, it's not in heaven because the church. There's one bride in heaven, the church. There's one husband in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ. We are his bride. There is a wedding feast in heaven. There is a wedding. But there is only one wedding. There is only one groom, bride groom. The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, if your spouse is a Christian, you'll see him. You'll have a wonderful time. I'm sure of that. But there'll be one that you'll be captivated with. The one you should be captivated with. The gospel is the power that comes and administers mercy and grace to us. And ladies in the midst of the curse, see Jesus' provision, see His protection, see Him in the dance as your primary partner. Then you'll be much more guided to know how to trust a husband-human partner here on earth. When you know that the real one that holds your hand, the one that really will catch you when you're in the dip, is if your husband doesn't, there's still another hand there. And it's so much stronger. And it's eternal hand. And it's a hand that's pierced by nail. And your name is graven on his heart. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, us pray. Father, we thank You that You have provided for us, that in the midst of a cursed reality that we live in, as we've just even talked about what it is for women tonight, because there is a real reality. I know there's some women here tonight that are desperate in thinking I can't get outside of the challenges and the experiences of mine with childbearing. Maybe women here who can't get pregnant, who want to be pregnant so bad, and women here perhaps have even lost children. Maybe women who have children that are estranged to them and that don't come that they don't have contact with anymore. Maybe children that are just worried about what's going to happen, but they carry that burden. God, we remind them that there was one child that came, that bore the sins of the world. And if you will not withhold your own son for our sake, you will not cease to give us anything that we need. You will give strength and you will get provision in the midst of that. Follow the reminder night for the ladies here that are struggling with that whole idea of fear, and that can they trust you and your sovereignty, God, that all things work together for good. Can they know God that their security is in you as their heavenly husband? Will you make that a reality in a new way, in a fresh way tonight? God, as we come to your table, we come. God, realizing that your body was broken for us, that your blood was shed for us. So you make that more of a reality in an equip, and just like that sale that has been tattered, will you mend the sale of our hearts? And God will allow your Holy Spirit to blow over the hearts of the ladies that are here tonight. So that is your spirit that is pulling them, giving them strength for one more day as a mother, giving them strength for one more day as a wife, giving them strength for one more day as a lady that you call them to be. Satan tempted Eve to be like God, but the truth of matter was she was already made in your image, and you were already shaping her more, more to reflect your glory, and then Satan distracted her with rebelliousness. God, you are about making us like yourself, and making us reflect your image, your image bearers, reflecting your glory. God, would you do that in the heart and the lives of our ladies here tonight? We do that with us as husbands here tonight as men. God, we let us pray for our wives, pray for our mothers, pray for our daughters, pray for our sisters in Christ, our friends who are ladies. Give us a burden to pray for them for them to be strengthened, to grow in your grace in a fresh way tonight. Let me pray this in Christ's name. Amen.