Complementarianism

Welcome to have you not read a podcast seeking to answer questions from the text of Scripture for the honor of Christ and the edification

Of the Saints before we dig into our topic. We humbly ask you to rate review and share the podcast.

Thank you I'm Andrew Hudson joining me today are Michael Deere and David Kasson All right, we have a question.

It reads I consider myself a compliment arian It seems like God made man and woman to compliment each other lately

I've been hearing several young men talk about being the patriarchy They talk about gender roles and I can follow that well enough, but other examples seem arrogant

They bring up passages about how the focus of the wedding was on the groom in the wedding

They brought up how the bride is described in Revelation 19 and how much more glorious the groom is described

Surely Christ is more glorious than all but should Christian men Compare themselves to Jesus in relation to their spouses

Michael Okay, so I think that when we

Hear this question. It's good to kind of walk through it define the terms that are being used. Yeah, what is compliment arian?

so compliment arian is going to be used in a

Contrasting relation to a different type of understanding of an arrangement between husband and wife man and woman and so egalitarian would be a contrast to Compliment arian.

So what's the difference an egalitarian understanding of husband and wife? has of course spillover effects into Understanding how society should be ordered how the church should be ordered.

Why is that because Family was the original society everything in human society

Has its DNA in the family and the family started with husband and wife.

So whatever we say about husband and wife about the marriage relationship has massive implications for all the rest of Society civil order the propriety of what goes on in the church and we find that this is definitely the case as we read through the scriptures, so compliment arian versus egalitarian now the questioner gives a definition for Compliment arian ism when the questioner says it seems like God made man and woman to complement each other

You can just hear that in the term itself. Oh, yeah So there is a sense in which the egalitarian side would say the female saying to the male or the male saying to the female

Anything you can do I can do same if not better you just kind of you know It's it's not based upon the differences in our

Sex it's not that it's not a difference in the fact that you're male and female Not a difference in gender male female that has no bearing on How well

I can do something how well you can do something or What roles we should play?

egalitarianism would say any type of proclivity or role that the wife or Mother should have or that a wife should want to be even be a mother.

Okay No, that shouldn't even be there She could be the breadwinner and he can stay at home

He could raise the kids or he can clean the house and she can be the breadwinner It doesn't matter either way or they should both work

And so there's there's a sense in which very much so male and female are fungible. You can exchange them out

It doesn't matter so complement arian and recognizing that God made male and female different but both good and They are meant to cooperate together in a particular type of relationship that brings glory to God and It's not something where the man looks at the wife and says anything you can do

I can do better It's something where he says to her and she says to him There are things that God has designed you to do that you do better And I'm glad that you do those and I welcome that in our relationship as Loving Actions and then the husband says to the wife there are things you can do that I can't do as well

You do these things so much better than I do and I am so glad that you are bringing that into our

Relationship into our family and I appreciate that and I applaud that that's complement arianism

So I think there's a bit of difference anything else to add to that or nuance This is a Christian asking this question and within the church right now where there is a debate regarding complement arianism and egalitarianism and I want to differentiate how you defined egalitarianism from the pagan culture around us or male and female are completely

You know fungible and and you can change change genders back and forth. What even is that term right to them, right?

Yeah, the best way to promote equality is to get rid of all differences entirely so I want to make sure we draw a distinction because there are

Christians who use verses like in Christ There is neither slave nor free Jew or Gentile Male or female all of those previous differences that's filled or that they had their place back in the day are no longer important in Christ and they're trying to develop their egalitarianism based upon that that's very different from the greater culture around us that says

You know where patriarchy is used as a pejorative, you know

Any kind of gender role is inherently evil and oppressive as so we need to get rid of all of that I had a actually a friend of mine that I spoken to recently that she's raising her to her two boys trying to raise them

Without any gender roles whatsoever because those are those are garbage. Those are those are hurtful You know, that's that's what she's doing in her family and she's definitely the leader of her family but this is a this would be more of an in -house debate this is someone who considers themselves a

Complementarian in the church as opposed to the an egalitarian in the church you have a compliment

You have someone who's saying okay, there's a compliment. There is a role that both of these play and they have

Distinctions and as you said, they're the husband and the wife The male and the female have things that they both do

Differently and better and those are actually rooted in the created order

We read Genesis 1 both male and female are created the image of God We know that you know as far as they're standing before God and their value

They both have the same derivative value off of God made in the image of God That's why they both have value because it may have both made the image of God But also they made them male and female and those roles if you look through Especially in the

New Testament Even though in Christ, there's neither Jew nor Gentile slave nor free male or female

Those roles are listed out, especially among husband and wife.

There's a husband and wife role There's a submission role that that a wife has to her husband, but women in general don't submit to men in general

We don't see that we see congregation submitting to their leaders Who are men?

There's a general submission to leadership and there is a a spousal submission

And within that as well But is there anything in the scriptures that say that women are to be subservient to men or women in the church are to be

Submissive to men in general. Do we see any any of that or if somebody thought that where would they get that?

Well, everything is run through discussions in 1st Timothy 2 and 3 and describing the differences between men and women based out of creation and with reference to the fall and The then the qualifications for elders and deacons these things are rooted in, you know

Genesis 1 2 & 3 the description of proper order in the church 1st

Corinthians 14 This is rooted again in the structure of the family if women have an objection to what is being preached

Or they have a serious question rather than going to other men They should be going to their husbands, but there's a implication there that a woman should not be

Deriving the the teaching ministry of the church Right by saying no

We need to talk about this instead And this is the this is the background For proper order when it says when

Paul says that women are to be silent in the churches He doesn't mean don't pray don't talk don't encourage don't worship. Don't sing

That's not what he's saying in the context if you read it, he's talking about proper order and and who should be taking the lead and Men shouldn't be talking over one another and being confusing and it's all about proper order but the proper order that he talks about when it comes to male and female in the church is

Deeply rooted into the structure of the family itself. And so that's what this questioner is asking.

So here's something to consider This person says I consider myself to be a complementarian

Why that instead of egalitarian? What makes the difference for you? Why are you complementarian rather than egalitarian if it is because I think that's what the

Bible teaches If you think it's because that's the instructions that Christ has given

Then excellent. We are in very good ground here to help us move forward to answer this question

When somebody like an egalitarian quotes that passage that you mentioned

David there is neither Slave nor free either male nor female in Christ what that is referring to What is that what what that is pointing to is that we are to identify ourselves as Christians Not I'm a male

Christian. I'm a female Christian. I'm a black Christian. I'm a white Christian that that's not in the vocabulary

That's not what we're supposed to be about. We're not to put anything at the right hand of God next to Christ Christ alone occupies that spot furthermore

Christ in his authority gives specific instructions to masters and to slaves specific instructions to men and women husbands and wives

So Christ himself giving instructions to his people and in general

He isolates and identifies and there are instructions given to Jews and Gentiles about how to love one another and accept one another in Christ, so Just because we have a passage that says there is neither this nor that in Christ.

We can't then read that some somewhat in the elementary way Literalistically and read it over and against contradicting other parts of the scripture

Yeah, we don't want to see that one versus normative on all others exactly We have to keep it in its immediate context, which was you know, just do

Jews have better standing in Christ than Gentiles exactly Yeah, no. Yeah, so putting all that into context the there is a debate, you know side a egalitarianism side

B Complementarianism and as usual Jesus says no Right, like we think that this is the debate

We have an Overton window the right side on the left side which side are you on? But here's the question if you are complementarian why probably because you say this is the instructions of Jesus that we should be so well

Let's pay attention to the instructions of Christ and let's see where we end up I doubt is going to look like the current form of complementarianism that is so often taught and celebrated in our churches

I figure it's probably gonna be deeper Richer more thorough the instructions of Christ concerning marriage and family is going to be a lot more totalizing than we realize

Right and that's not to say that what it is is this some sort of patriarchy where young men can parade around and be arrogant

Right, that's if that's the case that's wrong But if that's the argument it's a straw man argument those men that he was referencing says part of the proud to be part of The patriarchy it's it's like they were going over and against, you know, the culture that's want to be hyper

You know feminist and it was to be a smash the patriarchy Well now I'm gonna go the opposite and I'm gonna I'm gonna be part

I'm gonna be proud of that that patriarchy and it seems like they're drawing their Definitions just to be contrary to the culture rather than drawing their definitions from the scripture itself

Yes swing in the pendulum way too far, right? That's that's common, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Sure It's very easy to be against something rather than for something

So swing the pendulum way too far there if somebody is being arrogant about being a part of the patriarchy that is not appropriate now when we have the metaphor in Revelation 19

Indeed the groom is described as far more glorious than the bride indeed our salvation depends on the superior glory of Christ and our glory is dependent upon his a reflection of his

Not something independently of ourselves It was given to her to be dressed in fine linen white and clean it says so the glory that the bride bears is

Derived from the groom and this is essential for our Meditation on on salvation, but as far as the question is should

Christian men compare themselves to Jesus in relationship to their spouses There is a way to do that poorly

Right Christ has all authority. He's king of Kings. He's Lord of Lords He's at the right hand of the Father a name which is above every name.

Everybody should bow to him He rules from Mount Zion with an iron rod smashing the nations like clay pots if they rebel against him so on and so forth and in this regard obviously, we are not to be comparing ourselves as Christian men to Christ in relationship to our spouse in every single biblical metaphor that there is yeah

There's only one Christ, right? And so that would be a misuse of those metaphors a misapplication but where we do have discussion of husband and wife the best

Metaphor that we have the best explanation that we have is one in which we see a comparison between Christ and the church so when we go back to Genesis chapter 2 as Jesus was he when he was answering the question about divorce and saying what what marriage is all about he said from the beginning it

It's not so so when you go back to Genesis chapter 2 We remember that in Genesis 1 first of all

God creates male and female in his image He created them and he said to them be he blessed them and said be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it

So he makes them in his image. He makes them in his likeness male and female Image of God now we discover in chapter 2 of Genesis after God forms man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being that He was made first and eat.

There's no Eve yet There's no woman yet and God plants a garden puts the man and it says you tend and keep it

He has the man see a parade of all the animals they all come by two by two they you know, there is male and female male and female and They look different, you know, they look different.

They have different capacities different capabilities It's clear that this lion and this lioness they're both lions

But there's a difference between them and it's a good difference But it's not good for the man to be alone.

The man needs a help me How can he be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it without a help me? It is not good for the man to be alone

He must have a help me and so the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam Verse 27 21 and he slept and he took one of his ribs and close with the flesh in its place

So Adam goes into a deep sleep. It looks like death God takes a rib out surgery

Adam bleeds from the blood of The first Adam by the wound of the first Adam the first Eve is made

It is therefore not some crazy stretch for Paul to reflect upon Marriage and the archetype marriage of Adam and Eve and to say this is a mystery in Ephesians 5

But this is ultimately about Christ and his church in an axe. He says that Christ shed his blood for His bride the church and so when we think about the relationship between Adam and Eve We're to think about the relationship between Christ and the church we are to understand marriage and reflection to comparing ourselves as Christian men as Husbands and a relationship between Christ and the church in those regards.

So I think yes, we are to compare ourselves to Christ within those proper

Metaphors now, we do not relate to our wives as Christ relates to the nations, right? We don't relate to our wives as Christ relates to creation

We relate to our wives as Christ relates to the church specifically I think we have to say that yeah,

I think Paul does that that very thing I mean he does that in the you know, the quintessential passages regarding how a

Husband should regard his wife. What is what does it say? It's if it's Ephesians is

Ephesians 5 25 husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

You know this is what this is what Christ has done for the church sanctified and cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word

Presented the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing So it's not like husbands can die on the cross as a sinless sacrifice

To redeem their wives. That's not what Paul is saying

It's like have the same mind in you that was in Christ where he gave himself up for the one that he loves

And that is the the charge to human Christian men they're using that as an example.

I should be willing to die, you know each day, you know for my wife You know that that's the standard.

Yeah, so this is where we need to dig deeper in Ephesians 5 and dig deeper than the egalitarian complementarian

Conversation. Yeah, it's not it's not either or it's no. Yeah, exactly. No, but here's how it works

So when we read wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord We remember who has the right who has the authority being made in the image of God?

I do have authority that I am to use but I'm mediating that authority from God. It's not my own

Extrinsic. Yes, so her submission to me. It should be as unto the Lord not as if I am

Christ himself Okay but ultimately her Submission a wife's mission to her husband should be an act of submission to God of submission to Christ Okay, sort of like all of us we we obey lawful

You know laws because government is put in in place. It's derivative that power derives from you know

That's God's servant. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and so we we should obey proper laws

But when those laws go outside the bounds of Christ, we have an obligation to obey Christ first same thing

There's an obligation to obey Christ first and then the Word of God actually outlines how we go about doing that Yeah, we go but this is how

I want you to submit to Christ do it this way So when we think about wives submitting to their husbands

We are to think about the husband being the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church The Savior of the body now it says as the church is subject to Christ So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything in everything now

This isn't this is not popular. But think about a church. How is a church subject to Christ in everything?

Well, that's not that's not easy for the church. We very often, you know I think we have a better idea or maybe

Christ's commands are too strict perhaps too narrow Sometimes I turn people off from joining with us

Yeah, once they find out that we you know, we obey Christ's command here or here boy that that looks really strict

It doesn't look like the church has really enough freedom to flourish and do her thing And yet the church is to be subject to Christ.

He died for the church. He he shed his own blood He in her place and for her sake he died and he was raised from the dead and he was raised

And so the church is to submit to Christ to be subject to Christ in everything This is one reason why my commitment is to preach

Christ from all the scriptures till he was formed in all of his people That's my that's my mission That's my goal

And so we preach passage by passage throughout the scriptures because this is Christ's Word by his

Spirit to us Even as whatever the father would say the son says by the Spirit to the church

And so we have to listen to that and obey him So in the same way let the wives be to their own husbands in everything now the idea

So how often do we normally hear? Well, I'm gonna have to check with a wife now.

It's good to Submit to one another and recognize that your wife has several commitments for the good of the household

Right because she's helping the household to flourish. She's helping the household to be prosperous She's helping the household to to function really really well in ways that I'm not good at right

It's it's a very important when I make some kind of commitment that I ask Amy to check the family calendar that she keeps right because I will

I will mess something up or I will I will commit us to Something that when we already were committed to something else She saved me earlier this week with that calendar the

Proverbs 31 woman has a pretty pretty detailed calendar Okay She's got a lot going on and how happy is the man?

Who has a wife with a full calendar with things that are very very good for the family, okay Amen, however when this turns into and this is a part of the

Ephesians 521 you're submitting to one another You know, we looking to you know, it's like hey, you know,

I want to be conscientious of all this effort You've invested and I really appreciate it. However, the wife has to be subject to her husband's and everything

So when the husband walk around and says well the boss says it's time to leave Well, I got a check with the boss and those kinds of expressions.

That's that's not biblical right and Also, it's not biblical for the husband to say well

I would but my wife, you know again You're not taking responsibility for your household in that in that manner, you know, we would but fortunately

My wife has scheduled this and I'm so thankful for that and we're gonna go do this because this is really important for our family

It's good for us. And so I'm looking forward to to leading out in this endeavor I'm taking responsibility for everything in your household

So it doesn't sound like well, I got checking with the boss or blaming your wife like Adam blamed Eve You know or blamed

God and Eve When you treat your wife in that way as in you're the boss you have all the authority you just shirked all responsibility

It's a way for you to shed your responsibility. It says well, it's not my fault. Yeah Like yeah, it is

You're the head of your house and you you bear that responsibility and that weight in a way that she does not

So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies He who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it

Just as the Lord does the church so a man who doesn't take care of himself You know, we call them a slob or at least we used to you know

Now that would be well, I don't know probably some sort of hate speech But but we look at somebody's like, you know, you're an overweight slob, you know, you need to catch your act fat shaming

Yeah, you need it. You need to clean up your act So also is a man being irresponsible and not not doing his his job if he does not take responsibility for everything that happens in his household and seeks to To lead his wife and to nourish her and to support her even as he would his own body

You know, how thoughtful is a man about his health, especially like post 35 moving into the 40s

A man thinks a lot about his health trying to take care of his own flesh. How does he take care of his wife?

Well, just as the Lord does the church and so there's this mystery He says Paul says this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ in the church nevertheless

Let each of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband

So, yes indeed I think this would be very very good a wife should very much want her husband to be comparing himself to Christ in relationship to the church

So that he would in it and if the husband would so do that Then he would love and nourish and cherish his wife.

He would support her in so many different ways He would lead her into things that are good.

He would take responsibility for the household and Will this complement the marriage well, certainly it would and then she would have her roles to complement as well but it's more than just Complementing one another that is a big part of it

But it's not the whole picture because there are indeed there is authority that the husband is to wield

Which means taking responsibility for everything and there is respect and obedience on the wife's side

That's more than what complementarianism is usually expressed as now

It could be expressed that way but it's more than it but it's usually is we talk about submission and then obedience and we're using

The comparison with you with with the government and that derivative authority what you just said Scarce the heck out of a lot of women because they see centuries of abuse you have

Let me do the Christian standard as far as a husband goes and and and submitting to that the complimentary passage out of Colossians 2

Colossians 3 because we're say teens wives submit to your husband's as is fitting in the Lord husbands Love your wives and do not be harsh with them

You know contrast that with what you know Peter said live with your wife in an understanding way with a weaker vessel so that your prayers will not be cut off so there's a role that husbands are supposed to provide in the

Context of Christ loving the church giving himself up for her protecting providing not shirking responsibility not shoving it off on on her but providing that environment where she can flourish and be safe and if you're treating her in a harsh way or Abusive you are not fulfilling that.

You know that that role that is also a violation, but the way to protect ourselves is not to Do away with all general rules,

I mean, that's though That's the whole part that that's why they you can get away and get rid of all the roles then the oppression will cease

No, it won't it actually opens up for all manner of all manner of oppression from multiple different sources

Yes, yes So if a husband is not going to compare himself to Jesus's love for the church

Then what will he compare himself to what will be his standard? The the husband is to follow

Christ He is to follow Christ in everything including his marriage.

So he is to think about Christ's relationship to the church and comparatively Nourish and sacrifice and lead and so this is this is the model that we're given.

It's there in all the way back in Genesis 1 and 2 and it is only affirmed in Ephesians and Colossians and Peter and I you know, it's clear that that a perhaps a stereotype

New newly married, let's say somewhere around five years into the marriage husband and wife as they continue to grow in the faith

Wanting to know how to you know, have their marriage strengthened by the word looking at these passages

You're right David it's pretty nerve -wracking for the young lady to hear

I need to Obey my husband and everything. I need to respect my husband as the church is submitted to Christ I'm supposed to be submitted to my husband but my husband is full of all of these flaws and problems and he messed up here here and here and I was right the whole time if he had just listened to me.

We wouldn't have had these problems and He has no idea what to do with the with the baby, you know

You know if if he was on his own I wouldn't you know, I don't know if he would survive You know three months if he was on his own, so there's a sense in which

There is a there has to be a learning to to respect the husband even as in this only goes hand -in -hand with learning to trust the husband and To submit to the husband even though he gets it wrong

He doesn't understand everything and he's going to just gonna mess up He just is but it's not good for the man to be alone he needs a help meet somebody who can meet him and help him and be by his side to encourage him and to support him and Back him and so, you know eventually

That trust and that obedience in that respect should be developed now, however

If this whole model is devalued Right. The biblical model is devalued then who's going to teach it and instruct it?

What was the biblical answer who should be teaching? Young women to love their husbands and keep a good household in the biblical model the older women

Titus to yeah Titus I mean just absolutely all this bears on if you flip the Titus you're gonna get a lot of great answers

Yeah, these questions. This is a great question here that we received and of course, you know, we've done our best to answer however,

I Encourage you if this is a question from a young woman or from any age woman okay,

I would encourage you to go find a godly woman who you could see as a spiritual mentor discipler and Somebody who is committed to the scriptures and Asked this lady asked his sister in Christ to help you understand

What does it look like to submit to your husband when he doesn't have it all together? Right.

I mean that's and for those not together husbands to be discipled by the elder men.

That's right Word. Yeah, so when you look at the Titus to this is not something This is not warrant for we're going to have older women teaching younger women doctrine

It specifically says I mean doctrine is going to be involved undoubtedly as it always is

But this is older women teaching younger women on how to love their husbands how to raise their children

This is this is very important Paul said to Titus This is the solution for Cretans and man if it were for Cretans it could work for Americans Well the this this passage that means is quintessential passage regarding the roles of wives and husbands and in relation to each other in relation to Christ and and you mentioned it, but the the previous verse verse 21

Says submit to one another out of reverence for Christ Then moves into verse 22 wives submit to your own husbands and in verse 25 husbands

Love your wife now, of course when this was originally written or no chapter divisions no verses that this flows right into it

Can you address? What does it mean to submit one to another out of reverence for Christ in relation to these roles that husbands and wives have been?

Given that's an excellent question Remember that the verse 21 is appended to it's a participle flowing from the previous instructions

Okay, so when we when we back up just a little bit we read verse 17 Therefore do not be unwise but understand what the will of the

Lord is and do not be drunk with wine And which is dissipation but be filled with the Spirit. What does that sound like? What does that look like?

Well speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the

Lord But a little highlight there and hold on to that as we get done at the bottom of this passage

Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Submitting to one another in the fear of God I think it's great whenever you study the worship wars in recent church history and even going back

Even further how many of those conflicts would have been solved if the Christians who were trying to figure out the exact precise way to sing

Would have submit to one another in the fear of Christ Hello, that would have been that would been helpful, right?

So this is appended to the previous but it still has an Impact on husband and wife because after all if we're looking at Christian marriages a husband and a wife

Married and both in Christ Also our brother and sister in Christ So there is going to be some kind of submission to one another in in what ways that you mentioned the passage in Peter Husbands are to treat their wives.

They are to husbands are to modify their speech their actions their attitudes

Husbands are to modify themselves in such a way as to bear with their wives in an understanding way an applied

Study the metaphor that in that Kirk Cameron film fireproof, you know, you know,

I've got I've got my masters I'm learning my wife. I've got my masters in understanding my wife.

I'm working on my PhD, you know I'm learning and I'm learning my wife Okay So this is a way of the husband submitting himself to the wife in like I'm trying to learn how to live with you in Understanding way that means

I'm denying myself in order to to serve you in this way So I can be a better understanding of you and the wife of course is given the instruction in verse 22 immediately

How does a Christian wife? Submit herself to her Christian husband as a sister to a brother in Christ wives submit to your own husbands as to the

Lord See wives immediately get that instruction later on we see Instructions to the husbands to Christ sacrificed himself for the church

So also, you know and nourishes the church. So also the husband should be doing that So that's that's what it looks like.

There is a submission to one another There is a denial to the self to affirm the other in accordance with the roles that have been prescribed

You know We don't get to fill in our own Definitions of what it means to submit to one to another

Paul does this for us in the succeeding chapter and he does it as you said within the context of Family.

Yes. And again, the reason why this question is so important is because what happens in the family?

Critically the core of the family being husband and wife how the husband and wife relationship is understood how marriage is understood is the nexus from which all society proceeds so if marriage is understood as You know all the different Dynamics of marriage are playing out in society all around us

There's no difference between men and women in the marriage. The roles are, you know, genders are fungible

You can take it or leave it marriage can be taken apart. Well society can fall apart as well.

Kids are unimportant You know, you just go down the whole list and you can see every ill of society found in every ill of marriage

That's the way God made the world Thank you for addressing that question Is there any media you've been consuming that you'd like to recommend or talk about?

yeah, well, I I read a little book called what is New Covenant theology an introduction by Blake White and I was introduced to Blake White as he spoke at a conference at Was it pecan?

Pecan Creek the church of concrete. Yes, so they they've got a YouTube channel Sermon audio and Blake White was at a conference there and speaking and he has just a little primer on New Covenant theology

And it's easy read how they recommend it the church of pecan Creek is in Denton, Texas and it's a

Lovely little congregation that has welcomed me as as the weird cousin that occasionally visits once in a while they

They're great I I will show up on a on a Sunday and after not being there for several weeks or several months and They're they're glad to see me.

Remember me and and says when are you gonna bring your family? Please and like that's so it's just it's just they're just lovely group of people.

I had mentioned this I taught on Wednesday night a few weeks ago, and I had mentioned

Matthew Henry's a way to pray so I'm gonna bring that with that one back up again. Matthew Henry is best known for his commentary

It's available online. You can get it for free both the abridged and then the mother the unabridged versions but he wrote this this book on how to pray or a way to pray is what he called it and it was

He felt it was so important. He stopped his work on his commentaries in order to write to this book He thought it was so important and it's possible that that he didn't finish his entire commentary series because He was working on this so if you haven't read

Matthew Henry do so and This is a something that you can add to your add to your repertoire a way to pray

Matthew Henry This may be a little circular, but whenever I'm not here with the brothers doing the podcast.

I listen to the podcast There have been a couple episodes recently where I haven't been involved in any of the production and yet I'm listening to it and being edified by the conversation that's happening the scriptures that are being read

The teaching that's coming from it leading to questions where I may not necessarily

Have agreed with the way it was put or some of the conclusions by going to the word

There's nothing better than than being knit together Being built together with your with your brothers and sisters at the congregation

It's it's a wonderful thing. So it's it's not necessarily that I'm trying to plug the podcast

It's just been a great blessing and I would highly advise you to To listen along.

I'm sure you'll get Something out of it as well All right. Well, what are we thankful for?

I'm thankful to God for the the health and strength to work and to labor and to do so with my sons and It's been it's been a real joy lately.

We're working on a shed in the backyard and to have Benjamin and Emmett and Toby out there and we've got hammers and nails and we're just whacking away, you know

It's a it's a real blessing. Just I'm just thankful for that. We had some bad weather

Just last night. I am very thankful that house and Everybody's okay that we have the church members that were a little bit further south that then they seem okay

As well as but the tornadoes caused a lot of damage so I am incredibly Grateful for God's mercies during that time and it is a reminder that he is master of all creation and those displays of power remind us of who we are and then who he is but I am

Very very thankful that he has preserved us in our church and in spite of the bad weather yesterday I'm thankful to God for favor with my professors.

I'm continuing in my undergraduate studies Extra credit is it's a great thing

When you when you need it, and I thank God for the extra credit that I was afforded these past couple weeks very grateful

And that wraps it up for today We are very thankful for our listeners and hope you will join us again as we meet to answer common questions and objections