Mixed — Jesus largely absent from a sermon on marriage and gender
A 33-minute sermon on marriage, gender, and discipleship contains no direct Gospel citation of Jesus. Matt 19:10–12 (singleness as kingdom vocation), Luke 10:38–42 (Mary in the disciple's posture), and Matt 23:8–12 (one Teacher, servant-greatness) are all notably absent from a sermon whose conclusions depend on the opposites.
Identifiable Biases / Harmful Rhetoric
Moderate misogynistic framing; patriarchal essentialism as doctrine
Gender is presented as hard-wired asymmetry ("guys are built to initiate, girls are built to respond"), women's speech about husbands is specifically policed ("don't trash talk them"), and Eph 5:22 is misquoted to heighten the hierarchy. No anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, or explicit CN content in this particular sermon.
Factual Claims & Evidence Check
Few falsifiable claims; one notable scripture misquote
The sermon is prescriptive rather than empirical. The clearest checkable claim is his rendering of Eph 5:22 as "honor your husband the way the church honors Christ," which is not what Eph 5:22 says. Latin etymology (provide = pro + videre) is correct.
Whole-Bible Engagement
Selective — one canonical thread presented as the canon
On marriage-as-universal-aspiration, gender hierarchy, and women's agency, the pastor draws on a narrow Proverbs-plus-household-codes register while omitting Jesus on singleness (Matt 19:12), Paul on preferring singleness (1 Cor 7), mutual submission (Eph 5:21), Gal 3:28, and women leaders across the canon (Deborah, Huldah, Prov 31, Priscilla, Junia, Lydia, Phoebe).
Summary
Wilson's second of three messages to young people on "coming of age and life between the sexes" builds a counsel-to-the-unmarried sermon around four Proverbs passages on prudence, plus Ephesians 5 and Titus 2. He teaches (1) that "providing" means seeing ahead, making marriage an economic and emotional project; (2) a "zone of vulnerability" model in which uncovenanted romantic closeness is categorically wrong; (3) that marriage is "a state that everybody should aspire to"; (4) that "guys are built to initiate, girls are built to respond"; and (5) that wives must "honor your husband the way the church honors Christ" and should not "trash talk" them or "complain with the girls." The sermon is expository of Proverbs and strongly Pauline in its gender model; Jesus's own red-letter words on marriage, singleness, women-as-disciples, and servant-leadership are essentially absent.
Timeline
Each marker = a flagged finding. Click to jump to the finding; hover for the title. Color indicates severity.
Marriage declared "a state that everybody should aspire to" — against Jesus on singleness
Why flagged: Jesus treats celibate singleness as a legitimate, even commended, kingdom vocation — explicitly in Matt 19:12, and implicitly by his own unmarried life. Universalizing marriage as the state "everybody should aspire to" stigmatizes precisely the vocation Jesus said only "those to whom it is given" can receive. The omission is load-bearing for the rest of the sermon, which has no category for the faithful single adult the young people in the room may grow up to be.
Pastor
It is a state that everybody should aspire to. All right, it's a state we should aspire to. There's nothing wrong with being ambitious for marriage.
The disciples said to him, 'If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.' But he said to them, 'Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.'
Matt 22:30
For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Luke 14:26
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Hard-wired gender script ("guys initiate, girls respond") contradicts Jesus's actual encounters with women
Why flagged: The hard gender-essentialist claim is contradicted by the Gospel record of how women actually related to Jesus. In the Gospels, the women who stand out for faith and theological competence are women who initiated — spoke first, argued back, pursued healing through the crowd, sustained the longest recorded theological conversation in John. Jesus commends this behavior, including explicitly ("great is your faith"). A pastor claiming a universal built-in male-initiates / female-responds rule should, at minimum, account for the Gospels.
Pastor
Guys are built to initiate, girls are built to respond. If a guy shows interest, there's something in in provided he's not a creeper or just weirdo. If a guy initiates, there's an instinctive pull. You want to respond.
Matt 15:22–28 (the Syrophoenician / Canaanite woman who out-argues Jesus)
And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, 'Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David'… She said, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.' Then Jesus answered her, 'O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.'
Mark 5:27–34 / Matt 9:20–22 (the bleeding woman initiates contact)
She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, 'If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.'
John 4:7–27 (Samaritan woman sustains and extends the conversation)
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.'… The woman said to him, 'Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?'… The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.'
John 20:11–18 (Mary Magdalene — first to recognize, first commissioned)
Jesus said to her, 'Mary.' She turned and said to him in Aramaic, 'Rabboni!' (which means Teacher)… 'Go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father.' Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord.'
Gender essentialism as divine design, delivered to teenagers
Why flagged: The claim is not offered as cultural observation but as an anthropological fact about how men and women are 'built.' Delivered to young people whose identities are actively forming, it compresses the range of permissible gendered behavior and pathologizes its inversion (a young woman who pursues, a young man who waits to be pursued). Reach × specificity × harm: moderate — specific, confident, addressed to a vulnerable audience (youth), in a congregation whose broader theological project is explicitly patriarchal.
Pastor
Guys are built to initiate, girls are built to respond… if a girl's attractive, guys want to initiate. And that by itself is not a good enough reason. You You can't initiate because you have that impulse… it's not a good enough reason to respond if just because he initiated. So, instinct, just that that instinctive built-in thing, there's nothing wrong with it. It's part of the apparatus.
Matt 15:28 (Jesus commends a woman who initiates and argues)
'O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.'
Luke 13:10–13 (Jesus initiates toward a woman; she was not pursuing him)
And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years… When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, 'Woman, you are freed from your disability.'
Women's speech about husbands policed without the corresponding husbandly speech ethic
Why flagged: The speech-ethic warning lands only on women. The parallel charge is never given to husbands (no "don't trash-talk your wife with the guys"), and the speech is framed as dishonoring the husband rather than as an ethical question for the speaker. Jesus's speech ethic is symmetrical and exacting on every speaker (Matt 12:36), and his teaching on relational hierarchy (Matt 23:8–12) runs in the opposite direction — leveling, not entrenching, status differentials.
Pastor
Wives, honor your husband the way the church honors Christ. Ephesians 5:22… Don't don't trash talk them, don't complain about them, don't get together with the girls and and complain about what your husband did or didn't do.
I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.
Matt 23:8–12
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers… The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Luke 8:1–3 (women are named disciples and patrons, not subordinates to be silenced)
And the twelve were with him, and also some women… Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
Mic 6:8 — part of the prophetic tradition Jesus inhabits
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Asymmetric marital speech code: wives silenced from honest complaint
Why flagged: The instruction folds legitimate grievance, disclosure to trusted community, and domestic-abuse reporting into the same category ('trash talk / complain with the girls') and forbids all of it. No corresponding limit is placed on husbands' speech about wives. In a tradition whose recent past (SBC abuse database; Sovereign Grace; Mars Hill; Acts 29) has documented how such gender-asymmetric speech codes suppress women's reports of harm, this is not rhetorically neutral.
Pastor
Wives, respect your husbands. Don't don't trash talk them, don't complain about them, don't get together with the girls and and complain about what your husband did or didn't do. You honor and respect your husband.
Matt 18:15–17 (the universal confrontation-of-wrong instruction — no gendered exception)
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone… if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you… if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Luke 18:1–8 (Jesus commends a persistent widow who will not stop complaining to the unjust judge)
He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, 'In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Give me justice against my adversary.'… And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?
lowAxis 1(absent from a sermon that instructs older women to teach younger women about husbands)
Absent: Mary at Jesus's feet — the Gospel's picture of a woman in the disciple's posture
Why flagged: A sermon whose Titus 2 reading reduces older-women's teaching vocation to instructing younger women about husbands has no place for Mary's posture at Jesus's feet — the disciple's posture — which Jesus explicitly defends against the domestic alternative. Not a contradiction per se, but a conspicuous absence in a sermon purporting to describe how young women should "come of age."
Pastor
[absent] — The sermon invokes Titus 2 to locate older-women-instructing-younger-women in the domain of 'how to respect and honor husbands.' Jesus's most direct teaching on women's learning role — Luke 10:38–42, where he defends Mary's choice to sit at his feet over Martha's domestic urgency — is not mentioned.
Jesus
Luke 10:38–42
Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'
Matt 12:48–50
Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?… whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
John 11:25–27 (Jesus elicits from Martha the central Christological confession — a confession Matthew gives to Peter)
Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe this?' She said to him, 'Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.'
Why flagged: Treating provision as specifically 'husbandly' collapses a broader biblical category into a narrower modern one. Luke 8:3 — women providing (out of their means) for the itinerant ministry of Jesus himself — is a text the sermon's theology of provision has no obvious place for.
Pastor
We are going to be looking at the husbandly duty of provision and this is a responsibility that has to be understood in the bones long before the provision actually has to be provided.
Luke 8:2–3 (the women who 'provided' for Jesus and the Twelve 'out of their means' — Greek diakoneō)
Mary, called Magdalene… and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
John 4:28–30 (the Samaritan woman who publicly convenes her town to Jesus — the first recorded evangelist in John)
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?' They went out of the town and were coming to him.
Whole-Bible Engagement (3)
For each major framing in the sermon, the pastor's claim is placed side-by-side with what Jesus said in the Gospels and what the wider Bible says (OT + NT non-Gospel). Surfaces cherry-picking, omitted counter-voices, and places where the canon itself contains tension the pastor did not acknowledge.
Marriage as universal Christian aspiration — one canonical voice treated as the canon
Topic: Whether marriage is the default Christian vocation
Why flagged: Jesus, Paul, Isaiah, and Revelation converge in creating space for celibate vocation. None are cited. 'Everybody should aspire to' marriage is the opposite of Matt 19:12 and 1 Cor 7:7–8 — not subtly, directly.
Canonical analysis
The canon contains a genuine tension on marriage. The Torah and Proverbs strand (from which Wilson preaches) treats marriage as the expected, celebrated, mutually-blessing norm. But Jesus, Paul, Isaiah, and Revelation together constitute a canonical counter-voice: eunuchs for the kingdom (Matt 19:12), a living-without-marriage resurrection vision (Matt 22:30), Paul explicitly wishing everyone were single as he is (1 Cor 7:7–8), Isaiah's elevation of the literal eunuch, and Revelation's celibate 144,000. A careful exposition on marriage for young people would acknowledge that a significant canonical witness — including Jesus himself and Paul — sees unmarried faithful life as not only acceptable but in some contexts preferable. Wilson's 'everybody should aspire to' formulation does not leave room for this voice, and in its absence the young person who is not called to marriage (or not yet, or not ever) is left with no vocational category.
Pastor
It is a state that everybody should aspire to. All right, it's a state we should aspire to. There's nothing wrong with being ambitious for marriage.
The disciples said to him, 'If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.' But he said to them, 'Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given… there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.'
Matt 22:30
For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
Luke 20:34–36
The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
1 Cor 7:7–8 (Paul)
I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
1 Cor 7:32–35
I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided.
Isa 56:3–5 (the eunuch promised a 'name better than sons and daughters')
Let not the eunuch say, 'Behold, I am a dry tree.' For thus says the Lord: 'To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths… I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.'
Rev 14:4 (the 144,000 include celibates)
It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.
Gender hierarchy preached without the mutual-submission and Gal-3:28 counterweight
Topic: How the canon describes authority and mutuality in marriage
Why flagged: Wilson's complementarian reading is presented as obvious biblical teaching. The cross-cutting voices — Jesus on levelling hierarchy, Eph 5:21, Gal 3:28, 1 Cor 7:3–4, Deborah, Huldah, Priscilla, Junia, Phoebe, Prov 31 — are not engaged. The Eph 5:22 quotation is not what the verse actually says.
Canonical analysis
On marital authority, the canon is genuinely layered. The household-code strand (Eph 5:22ff; Col 3:18–19; 1 Pet 3:1–7) is real and Wilson draws from it. But the canon also contains: Jesus's direct teaching that status-hierarchy is not to operate 'among you' (Mark 10:42–45; Matt 23:8–12); the verse immediately preceding Eph 5:22 (Eph 5:21 — mutual submission); Paul's striking symmetry in 1 Cor 7:3–4 (mutual authority over each other's bodies); Gal 3:28; and a parade of women who exercised authority that the sermon's model cannot easily accommodate (Deborah judged men; Huldah was consulted over male prophets; Priscilla taught Apollos; Junia is named an apostle; Phoebe is a deacon; the Proverbs 31 woman is an independent commercial agent). Wilson also misquotes Eph 5:22 — the Greek is hypotassō ('submit'), and the verse is sometimes rendered with the verb supplied from v.21 ('submitting to one another'); neither the verse nor any ESV/KJV/NIV rendering reads 'honor your husband the way the church honors Christ.' The narrower sermon model presented as 'the biblical model' is in fact one voice in a canon that also contains its counterweight.
Pastor
Wives, honor your husband the way the church honors Christ. Ephesians 5:22… Guys are built to initiate, girls are built to respond… Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven… The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Mark 10:42–45
You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Luke 10:38–42 (Mary in the disciple's posture — a gender-expectation-breaking scene Jesus actively defends)
Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
John 4:27 (noting that the disciples themselves were scandalized that Jesus was speaking theology with a woman)
Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
Eph 5:21 (the verse immediately preceding the one Wilson cites)
Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Gal 3:28 (Paul)
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
1 Cor 7:3–4 (mutual, symmetrical authority over each other's bodies)
The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
Judg 4–5 (Deborah — judge and military commander over men)
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time… And the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.
2 Kgs 22:14–20 (Huldah — consulted by the king's emissaries over male prophets)
So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess… and they talked with her.
Rom 16:1–7 (Phoebe the deacon, Priscilla before Aquila, Junia 'outstanding among the apostles')
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant [diakonos] of the church at Cenchreae… Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus… Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles.
Acts 18:26 (Priscilla teaching Apollos)
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.
Prov 31:16–18 (the capable wife — a commercial operator, not simply a domestic support)
She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Provision as exclusively male — a narrow reading of Proverbs
Topic: Who the Bible's pictures of economic provision actually are
Why flagged: The 'husbandly duty of provision' frame requires narrowing every wider-canon provider — Prov 31, Lydia, Phoebe, the Luke 8 women, Deborah — out of the field of vision. Proverbs itself does not gender prudence.
Canonical analysis
The sermon's four Proverbs texts on prudence/diligence apply gender-neutrally in Proverbs itself. Wilson's move is to gender them: provision is 'husbandly.' But the canonical gallery of providers includes the Proverbs-31 woman as a commercial operator; Lydia as a household-head merchant who hosts the Pauline mission; Phoebe as a patron supporting Paul; Luke 8 women funding Jesus; Deborah as judicial-military leader. Jesus's own teaching on provision (Matt 6) addresses disciples collectively and points to God as provider; his vision of final judgment (Matt 25) gives the provision criterion to all people, not to husbands. Applying Proverbs on prudence only to young men distorts both the Proverbs text and the canonical picture of who the Bible's providers are.
Pastor
We are going to be looking at the husbandly duty of provision… Do you also notice how hard your dad works?… Are you providing? You say, 'I don't I don't have a wife or a family yet to provide for.' No, you don't have to have a wife or a wife on the premises to provide for her.
Matt 6:25–33 (God, not the husband, is the framed provider; the addressees are all disciples, not gendered)
Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink… Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Luke 8:1–3 (women disciples financially providing for Jesus and the Twelve)
Mary, called Magdalene… and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.
Matt 25:35–40 (the returning Christ's criterion — care for hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned — is not gendered to husbands)
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me… Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.
Wider Bible (OT & NT non-Gospel)
Prov 31:16–24 (the competent woman is a field-buyer, vineyard-planter, commercial trader)
She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard… She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant.
Acts 16:14–15 (Lydia, dealer in purple, household head)
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods… And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.'
Rom 16:1–2 (Phoebe — patron of Paul)
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae… for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well.
Judg 4:4–5 (Deborah — judicial and military authority)
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.
Factual Claims & Evidence Check (4)
Empirical claims the pastor made during the sermon, with a verdict on whether independent evidence supports them. Verdict scale: Supported · Partially supported · Contested · Misleading · Unsupported · False. “Evidence the pastor cited” records whether any source was named in the sermon itself.
“Ephesians 5:22 says, 'Wives, honor your husband the way the church honors Christ.'”
Pastor's claim (full)
Ephesians 5:22 says, 'Wives, honor your husband the way the church honors Christ.'
Evidence the pastor cited
Citation given as 'Ephesians 5:22' (he also mis-numbers it at one point, and later says 'husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church' while citing Eph 5:25, which is correct).
What the evidence shows
Eph 5:22 in every major English translation reads some form of 'Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord' (ESV/KJV/NASB) or 'as you do to the Lord' (NIV). The Greek verb is hypotassō ('submit / be subordinate'). Eph 5:22 does not contain any word translated 'honor' and does not compare the wife-to-husband relationship to church-to-Christ in terms of 'honor.' The analogy Paul does draw is that the husband is 'head' of the wife 'as Christ is head of the church' (Eph 5:23), and v.33 tells the wife to 'respect' (phobeō — fear/reverence) her husband. Wilson appears to be paraphrasing a composite of 5:22, 5:23, and 5:33 and presenting it as the single verse. Whether intentional or not, the rendered version shifts the verse from subordination language (which raises hermeneutical questions) to 'honor' language (which sounds less controversial while preserving the hierarchy) — and attributes it to a verse that does not say it.
“The English word 'provide' comes from Latin pro ('before / ahead') + videre ('to see'), so 'to provide' means 'to see…”
Pastor's claim (full)
The English word 'provide' comes from Latin pro ('before / ahead') + videre ('to see'), so 'to provide' means 'to see ahead.'
Evidence the pastor cited
Stated as linguistic fact with no source.
What the evidence shows
The etymology is correct. Latin providere = pro- ('ahead, before') + videre ('to see'); the English word 'provide' descends from it via Middle English, and the foresight sense is attested in early usage. Cognates include 'provident,' 'providence,' 'prudent' (a contracted form of providens). Wilson's exegetical move (connecting providing → foresight → prudence-Proverbs) is etymologically sound, though etymology doesn't dictate current theological meaning.
“'Those who give themselves away find it returned to them 30, 60, and 100-fold.'”
Pastor's claim (full)
'Those who give themselves away find it returned to them 30, 60, and 100-fold.'
Evidence the pastor cited
No citation given, but the 30/60/100-fold language is clearly from Jesus's Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:8, 23; Mark 4:8, 20).
What the evidence shows
The 30/60/100-fold yield in the Gospels refers specifically to the fruitfulness of the word of God when received on good soil — the parable is about receptivity to the kingdom message, not about giving oneself to one's spouse. Wilson applies the figure as a general principle of self-sacrificial marital love. While the broader principle ('those who lose their life will find it,' Matt 16:25) is genuinely Jesus's teaching, the specific 30/60/100-fold citation is from a different parable with a different referent. Describing it as a marriage principle without noting the re-application obscures the source.
“Song of Songs 2:7 — 'Do not awaken love before the time' — functions as a prohibition on premature romantic involvement.”
Pastor's claim (full)
Song of Songs 2:7 — 'Do not awaken love before the time' — functions as a prohibition on premature romantic involvement.
Evidence the pastor cited
Citation given.
What the evidence shows
The verse exists and is typically rendered 'I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem… that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases' (ESV) or similar. The refrain appears three times in Song of Songs (2:7; 3:5; 8:4). Its literary function within Song of Songs is debated — many scholars read it as warning against arousing sexual desire before the relationship is ready, others as a protective refrain guarding the lovers' consummation. Wilson's use is a reasonable homiletic application but is not as self-evidently a youth-dating prohibition as the sermon treats it; the context is the erotic poetry between the lovers themselves, not instruction to teenagers about courtship. The application is defensible, but the sermon presents it as an obvious meaning rather than a contested one.
Marriage framed as a covenant made before God and the community (Prov 2:17; Mal 2:14) rather than a consumer arrangement — theologically consistent with the biblical witness.
A clear call to male self-sacrificial love grounded in Eph 5:25: "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her," with the specific instruction that men measure this by willingness to lay down desires and inclinations now.
Communion liturgy presents a recognizable gospel: Christ crucified, resurrected, and present by word and Spirit; Luke 24 (Emmaus) is rendered accurately as a story of Christ disclosed through scripture and the breaking of bread.
Closing benediction is a direct, faithful rendering of Eph 3:20–21 ("him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think").
Counter-signals
No named-party political content, flag imagery, or civil-religion rhetoric in this sermon.
No anti-Muslim, anti-Jewish, or anti-LGBTQ content in this particular sermon.
Explicit warning against objectification: the man who "falls in love with models in catalogs" is named as having "a personal problem," not a relationship.
Repeated emphasis on male responsibility (provision, long hours, mortgages, unglamorous household labor) as the content of the "total package," rather than male privilege as the content.
Acknowledges that honorable courtships can end without devastation ("disappointed is not the same thing as devastated") — leaves room for non-catastrophic breakup.
Table-fencing is modest: baptism in the triune name and not under discipline — does not narrow by denominational test.
Christian Nationalism marker rubric (Whitehead/Perry, Du Mez, Alberta)
Marker
Status
Notes
A. Conflation of national & Christian identity
None detected
No American or national identity content in this sermon.
B. Militaristic / warrior framing
None detected
No warrior, combat, or armor-of-God political framing.
C. Political opponents as spiritual enemies
None detected
No political opponents named or implied.
D. Dominionist rhetoric
None detected in this sermon
Wilson's broader project (Christ Church / Moscow) is known for postmillennial-theonomic language, but this sermon stays on marriage and sexual ethics.
E. Civil religion (flag, pledge)
None detected
F. Jeremiad / 'Christianity under attack'
None detected
G. Ethno-cultural 'real American' undertones
None detected
H. Strongman / authoritarian affinity
None detected in explicit political terms
Domestic hierarchy is strongly asserted (male headship, initiates/responds), which sits adjacent to authoritarian-affinity patterns in Du Mez's account, but the sermon itself names no political strongman.
Other Axis-2 sub-rubrics
Anti-Muslim framing: Not present in this sermon
Anti-LGBTQ framing: Not present explicitly in this sermon — The sermon's categorical male/female initiator/responder framing implicitly assumes heterosexual pairing as the only option but does not name or attack LGBTQ people.
Misogynistic framing: Present — see Findings 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 — Gender essentialism, asymmetric speech code for wives, husband-only provision frame.
Anti-Jewish framing: Not present — No Jewish-specific content in this sermon; no supersessionist rhetoric.
Full transcript
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[00:00:00]The text this morning are a collection of four texts from the book of Proverbs. These are the words of God. Proverbs 27:12. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. Then Proverbs 21:5. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to want. Proverbs 24:27. Prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house.
[00:00:30]Proverbs 14:15. The simple believeth every word, but the prudent man looketh well to his going. Our Father and gracious God, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you that you gathered us into families and households. We thank you that you've granted us many children. We thank you that you have called us to marriage and the ordinary way. I pray you give us wisdom as we contemplate how this comes about and how we are supposed to conduct ourselves on the way. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:01:00]So, to remind you, this is the second in a series of three messages on coming of age and life between the sexes and I'm addressing the young people directly. Others are invited to listen in. Uh next week I'll be at King's Cross and then the week after we'll conclude uh the series. So, it is certainly true that he who finds a wife finds a good thing. Proverbs 18:22. He finds a wife finds a good thing.
[00:01:30]18:22. This verse also tells us that a fortunate man, such a fortunate man, has obtained favor from the Lord. A man who gains a wife finds favor from the Lord. But there are other questions that accompany this truth, other questions that arise from it, and they are questions that do require solid answers. What kind of a good thing? What kind of a good thing? What kind of favor from the Lord? Good thing, favor from the Lord, all
[00:02:00]well and good. What kind of thing? The answer should be obvious. It is a very expensive good thing. That's how it goes, right? We are going to be looking at the husbandly duty of provision and this is a responsibility that has to be understood in the bones long before the provision actually has to be provided. All right? Provision is something uh provision is something that you don't just uh happen to collide with and okay,→ Provision framed as an exclusively male vocation; Provision as exclusively male — a narrow reading of Proverbs
[00:02:30]now I'm now I'm providing. There it has to it has to involve foresight as we're going to see. So, we have a small selection of texts here that emphasize the high value of prudence and diligence. The high value of prudence and diligence. A prudent man is one who looks down the road, sees what is likely to come, and so makes preparations accordingly. He looks down the road, he sees what's likely to happen, and he makes preparations→ Provision framed as an exclusively male vocation; Provision as exclusively male — a narrow reading of Proverbs
[00:03:00]accordingly. The word provide comes from the Latin pro, which means before or ahead, and videre, which means to see. So, providing means seeing ahead. All right? You look ahead. You anticipate. To provide is to see ahead of time, to anticipate, and then to act like you saw. Provision helps you to not be blindsided by the unexpected. Whoa, how did this happen? A prudent man anticipates the challenges
[00:03:30]and prepares accordingly. A prudent man anticipates the challenges and prepares accordingly. Simpletons do not. And they pay the price. All right? That's that's Proverbs 27:12. Simpletons don't think ahead, they pay the price, and the wise man, the prudent man, the diligent man, the man who provides, the man who sees ahead, uh prepares. The diligent man thinks it through and the hasty do not think it through. That is the difference between plenty and want. Proverbs 21:5. The the hasty
[00:04:00]don't think it through and the diligent man thinks it through. The diligent man is not just working hard, the diligent man is working smart. He and working smart means understanding that there's such a thing as tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. So, preparations for the future need to be ordered and structured rightly. It's not just enough to throw preparations for everything into a jumbled up box.
[00:04:30]Proverbs 24:27. So, you prepare your fields first and then you build your house. What what that means is that you have a revenue stream from the field before you start spending revenue building the house. You you the first things first, second things second, third things third. So, preparations should go in the right order. And simpletons believe anything on a cursory examination and the prudent man looks well to his going. Proverbs 14:15. The prudent man
[00:05:00]turns it over in his hand. The prudent man reads the fine print. The prudent man works it through. The simpleton just glances at it and says it seems good to me. So, heads up, look well, look around, look down the road. That's the summary of these proverbs. So, let me tell you a short parable. Suppose I was talking to a young man around 17 years old or so. He's a senior in high school, about to graduate. He gets good grades and he has a half-time job as a barista.
[00:05:30]He's seeking my advice about a girl he is sweet on, which happens to me regularly in springtime. The guy says, "Should I call her so-and-so's dad?" He's seeking my advice on this. And he asks, "When would be a good time to talk to her dad?" In the middle of the conversation, I appear to change the subject somewhat abruptly because I ask him if he would like to drive up to Spokane this weekend and shop around for a Lexus automobile, meaning one of the high-end models. He looks at me wide-eyed. "Those things cost a lot, like 40K or something. I'm a
[00:06:00]part-time barista." "Yes," I replied, "but you would look cute together." "Wouldn't it be fun to have a Lexus?" "Yes, it would be." "Okay, what but you can't afford it." So, let's walk through this deliberately. And I'm and I I know that some of you are going to feel like I'm pouring cold water in your soup and that's because I am.
[00:06:30]Right? And with and with no apology, your soup needed some cold water. So, financial responsibility is just part of it. Looking ahead includes all the other issues as well. Emotional expenditures can be just as costly as monetary ones. Now, imagine a big room and all the unmarried guys are on one side of the room and all the unmarried gals on the other side. In between the two groups is a zone which I call the zone of vulnerability, the zone of
[00:07:00]vulnerability. This is defined as the zone which, if you enter, you cannot leave without somebody getting hurt. All right? That's the zone. You've got guys over one side, girls on one side. If a couple gets in the zone, that zone is defined as if someone says, "No, this is not going to work," someone is hurt. Now, that's not the same thing as someone is disappointed. You could have a courtship where everybody was honorable and nobody was being stupid and it didn't work out, someone called it off, and you could be disappointed,
[00:07:30]but disappointed is not the same thing as devastated. Not the same thing as taken down. So, if a couple is way inside the zone and way tangled up, they cannot get out again without both of them being devastated. These crack-ups are often just divorces without the attorney's fees. All right? It they get way tangled up and they have no assurances of anything, they break up, and it's devastating. Also, keep in mind,
[00:08:00]there's another scenario. Keep in mind that there are instances where a pretty girl smiles at a guy and he's in the ICU for 3 days. When he gets out, he is completely in the zone. She cares. That is not a relationship problem. That is what we call a personal problem. He's the kind of guy that falls in love with models in catalogs and that's not the couple have nothing to work out. That's not a not a relationship thing. That's a
[00:08:30]personal thing. And it goes the other way, too. Uh uh a girl who's doing that. That's a different subject for a different time. But don't mis- don't mistake the point. It's not like the zone of vulnerability is a bad thing. Most of the people here in this room are married, which means that most of you are in the zone. We are designed by God to live within that zone. That's where we're supposed to live our lives. We are supposed to love and to love others is to be vulnerable. You cannot love others without being
[00:09:00]vulnerable. But God does not want us in there without being tied off uh with a safety harness. He wants us there to be When we are there, he wants us to be tied off with a safety harness. That safety harness is called a covenant. That safety harness is called a covenant made before God and man. The scriptures treat marriage as a covenant. Proverbs 2:17 and Malachi 2:14. In Proverbs 2:17, it's talking about a woman who's being faithful
[00:09:30]faith- faithless to the covenant of marriage. And then in Malachi, it's talking about husbands who are being faithless to the covenant. But both of them are violating a covenant. The covenant is symbolized in our culture with a ring. You you gather a church you you invite guests, you gather in a church, you take solemn vows before God and man, and you promise that you are going to stick by this person till death do you part. That's the safety harness. That's the covenant. And you're calling
[00:10:00]God to witness that you are not going to change your mind. Uh sickness, health, richer, poorer, all right, it doesn't matter. You're making this promise. You're making this commitment. So, if there is no covenant, you have no business being inside that zone. If there is no covenant, no business being It's just stupid to go into the zone. You know, remember a few years ago being at the Grand Canyon with a fence there and and signs on the fence, "Don't go
[00:10:30]beyond this fence." And sure enough, there are people beyond the beyond the fence and they fall off regularly. So, you have no business going past this uh this boundary uh if there isn't a covenant. So, prior to that time, prior to the covenant, which we would call engagement or marriage, guard your heart. Guard your heart. Don't be the kind of person who runs into the zone just because someone was polite to you. Um don't drift into the
[00:11:00]zone with someone that you get along with. You hit it off together and you like chatting, you like being uh like being together. And so, you're together more and more and more and all of a sudden, there you are. Now, well, how do you know if you're ready to get into that zone? Well, it's this is an issue of maturity, growing up into maturity. But this is another area where we misunderstand what maturity is, what maturity feels like, what maturity is like.
[00:11:30]So, maturity. We're all familiar with the kind of conversation that an older teen frequently has with his or her parents. I'm guessing that many of you have had this conversation. Dad, I'm 18 now and I think that I should {dot} {dot} {dot}. I'm 18 now and I think that I should We can all finish that sentence for them. The way it usually goes is that the
[00:12:00]young person will appeal to their age now as the basis for additional privileges. We have grown older and now that I'm older, I would like to ask for the privileges of this age that I've now attained to. This is baked into the heart of man. We always tend to reach for the privileges first. We reach for the privileges first. That's just natural. But what would actual Christian maturity do?
[00:12:30]What would actual maturity do if a if a young person is actually growing up into maturity, what would happen? What would actual maturity ask for? Dad, I'm 18 now and they're bracing themselves. They know how this goes. Dad, I'm 18 now. I was wondering if I could start contributing something to the car insurance payments. Mom rushes over, feels his forehead, "My poor baby, what have you done with my son?" You might have your sister standing by in the next room with smelling salts for your mom.
[00:13:00]Uh what Why would this be so unusual? Well, because it cuts against the grain of our natural bent towards selfishness. All right, the same principle You can see the same principle in other settings. You see you you're shopping for something and you see the little fish in the window of the of the shop and you think, "Oh, a brother. Maybe they'll give me a discount." Instead of, "Oh, a brother. Maybe I'll add 10%. When they invoice me, I'll add some I'll
[00:13:30]add some money. Give him a break because he's a brother." No, we always think in terms of getting a break instead of giving a break. We we tend to Okay, how can this benefit me? Well, if you're growing up into genuine maturity, young people, you are This is going to be evidenced by taking responsibility. Taking responsibility for more and more things. And authority flows to those who take responsibility.
[00:14:00]Authority flees those who try to evade responsibility. Um Mom, Dad, I want all the privileges of being uh you know, the son is taller than Mom now. I want all the privileges of being taller. I want all the privileges of being this age. I want all the privileges, but I don't but when it comes to paying for it, I want to just be a kid. But that's not how the world works. All right, it it all has to go authority, responsibility, maturity, privileges, uh
[00:15:30]is aimed at the total package. Real real maturity when it comes to being ambitious for that married state is something that is aimed at the total package. And this means for the responsibilities first and for the privileges that come along with it. You're aiming for the responsibilities and you remember what I said earlier about provision, providing, anticipating. You're if if a young man says, "I I just want to
[00:16:00]be married. I just I love her. I just want to be around her." And and I say, "Why why do you want to be around her?" If he says, "Because I because I want to listen all the time to her silvery laugh." Uh that is wanting the privilege first. That's just Now, nothing wrong with her silvery laugh. Nothing wrong with you noticing that it's a silvery laugh. Nothing wrong with wanting to be around it. But the total package means you should say, "Because I want a a house and a driveway to shovel and and I
[00:16:30]want a mortgage and I want to be I want I want to have to hang curtain rods when I don't feel like hanging curtain rods." And you say, "That's That's the total package. I I want to have a job that is frequently no fun at all because I've got mouths to feed." And this is this is ambition for the real world as opposed to the ambition for the make-believe world that is an artificial world that you can some call
[00:17:00]sometimes called the dating scene. The dating scene is if it's dating and courtship, if it's preparation for marriage, if it's real world, real life dating, real life courtship, then it's there's a um consistency between that and what's coming. But there's also an artificial carve-out like life in high school. And life in high school is where you you're grabbing all the privileges. You get to be with a pretty girl. You get to go out You get have companionship. You like it's Why
[00:17:30]why do people want to seek out Why do Why do guys want to seek out the company of the girl they like and vice versa? Why? Because it's fun. All right, it's pleasant. It's pleasant. But if all you do is veer toward that which is pleasant and you don't understand how the world functions, what you're doing is gearing yourself up for a great deal of unpleasantness, a great deal of unhappiness, a great deal of misery. So, if a young person is girl crazy or guy crazy, this is a
[00:18:00]disposition that is antithetical to any wise relationship. This is a mentality that is only aware of the privileges, mostly tied up with how cute and pleasant the other person is. This is because the privileges are all very visible and they are the only thing that the simpleton sees. They are the only thing that the simpleton sees. If you're looking at your folks and you say, "Well, Dad's married. Mom's married." Yes, they're married. And if
[00:18:30]they've got a great relationship and I would like to have that kind of relationship. Great, you should want to have that kind of relationship. Do you also notice how hard your dad works? You see that? Are you working that hard? All right, simple question. You've got You've got a uh limited uh limited realm of assignments. Are you shirking them? Are you doing them? Are you doing your school work? Are you Are you providing? You You say, "I don't I don't have a wife or a family yet to provide for." No, you don't have to have a wife or a
[00:19:00]wife on the premises to provide for her. You don't have to have that at all. You can provide for her now. Do your homework. All right, do the work that's assigned to you. Do what's in front of you. All your duties are in the next 10 minutes. All your duties are in the next step. So, the simpleton doesn't see that and all he wants in the moment is that which is pleasant and he wants to put off the responsibilities, if he thinks about them at all, to sometime mañana.
[00:19:30]So, remember that every married couple has the example of Christ and the church set before them. There's Ephesians 5 and other places. The example of Christ is set before husbands and wives. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Ephesians 5:25. So, that's not the privilege, right? Ultimately, when you zoom out far
[00:20:00]enough, yeah, it's a privilege, but it's a privilege to take responsibility. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Husbands, are you boys, young men, are you growing up into the kind of person who would lay down their life willingly for somebody else? And that you're going to measure that by how willing you are to lay down your desires, your life, your um your inclinations now, in the in the present. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
[00:21:30]to God's word, as you're setting a pattern or an example. People don't know it One of the principal ways we learn how to do things is through imitation. That's how That's how knowledge becomes instinctive. That's how knowledge gets down into the bones. When you can't explain how you know how you You can't explain how you know how to do that. All right, what Why Why did you do it that way? Well, I I don't know. I I just grew up in a family that was good with that sort of thing, and it just seems instinctive to me. It's Well,
[00:22:00]that's the way it ought to be. Good, sound, holy marriages ought to be on display in our community, and young people should be watching them. Young people should be seeing a pattern. And you young ladies should be looking to the older women to learn as it says in Titus 2. Uh the older women should instruct the younger women on how to respect and honor husbands. And young men, you need to be looking toward the men to see to see how to give yourself
[00:22:30]away. Because remember, those who give themselves away find it returned to them 30, 60, and 100-fold. In Ephesians 5, he who loves his wife loves himself. Uh when when men give themselves away the right way, it returns to them. It returns to them in remarkable ways. And young people, you are you are instructed to be watching that, to be looking at that, and to see how it works. See what's happening. So, how you marry
[00:23:00]is part of your Christian discipleship. How you marry is part of your Christian discipleship, and I'm not just talking about the 6 months prior to your wedding. How you marry is part of your Christian discipleship now. Because what are you What are you being called to do? You're being called to provide, which means you're being called to look down the road. I Remember I said last week, become the kind of person that the kind of person you would want to marry would want to marry. What is that? That's provision. That's
[00:23:30]providing. How What can I do today that will help me become the kind of person that the kind of person I would like to marry would like to marry? All of this is provision. All of this is part of your Christian discipleship. How you first show interest in somebody, how you conduct your first serious conversations, how you interact with her family, how you walk through these months and years, with however long it is, is a path that God has prepared for you
[00:24:00]beforehand. Ephesians 2:10. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to do. So, the good work of getting married, the good work of noticing a girl, the good the good work of talking to her dad, all of these things are part of what God's prepared for you and laid out for you before beforehand. And this includes Follow me closely. This includes flirting, but only the kind of flirting that could
[00:24:30]be offered up to God as a living sacrifice. Romans 12:1. Your body is to be a living sacrifice, which means the chair you're sitting in is an altar, the car you drive is an altar, the floor you're standing on is an altar, the bed you sleep in is an altar. Your body is to be a living sacrifice. Everything you do with it is offered up to God. And that includes noticing a girl, that includes initiating, that includes her responding. All of that should be under the lordship of Jesus Christ. So, and
[00:25:00]some people are your closest friends are going to tease you about it and say you're flirting. Fine, but it's a Romans 12:1 flirting. But only if it is a Romans 12:1 kind of flirting. It's something that will glorify him. 1 Corinthians 10:31. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, it should all be done to the glory of God. So, that would be the kind of What kind of holy flirting, what kind of godly flirting might this be? That would be
[00:25:30]the kind of flirting that knows where it's going. It's not You're not just instinctively doing this because it's fun to do. It knows where it's going. You thought ahead. You're looking down the road. You know where this is know where this is headed. It has to be in hot pursuit of the total package. Hot pursuit of the total package, not partial. You don't want to be like a dog that chases fire trucks and doesn't know what to do when it catches it.
[00:26:00]I was talking to a young man one time many year many many years ago, and he could not have done a finer job of getting a girl to fall in love with him than he had done. All right, it was it was a piece of a work of art, you know, flowers, pursuit. He He just did it all. And then after he had gotten to the point where if he had said, "Will you marry me?" she would have said, "Yes, what took you so long?" At that point, he came to me and said, "How do you know if a girl's the right
[00:27:30]It's part of the total package. But that by itself is insufficient. So, otherwise, Song of Songs 2:7, "Do not awaken love before the time." Do not awaken love before the time. You should be thinking about awakening it at the right time, and you should be thinking about how you're going to do that when the time comes, and you should be thinking about what you're going to do today and tomorrow that is going to equip you when that time comes.
[00:28:00]Everything Everything you're doing Everything you're doing in your life is either preparing you for that to help you do it better, or preparing you to help you do it worse. There's no There's no way you can just sit loose and not think about it and not have that be a preparation for something. It's going to be a preparation for a bad job. If you're doing a bad job now, that's preparation for a bad job in the future. If you're doing a good job now, that's preparation for a good job in the future. So,
[00:28:30]do not awaken love before the time. Song of Songs 2:7. If you're not going to cook the roast, then don't preheat the oven. Our Father in God, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you for your word. We thank you for how you've created us male and female. We thank you for the gift of marriage. We thank you for all the young people that we have in our congregation, and I pray that this would be an aid and a help to them as they are providing for themselves, as they are thinking ahead, as they're looking down
[00:29:00]the road. I pray, Father, that you would bless us as we repeat back to you the words that Jesus taught us to pray, saying, Let's pray and thank God for these prayers and for these tithes and offerings. Father, we thank you for these tithes and offerings, and we ask that you would pour out your blessing on those who have given this offering, and that you would pour out your wisdom on the steward of these offerings. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. As a quick reminder, all who are baptized in the name of the Father, Son,
[00:29:30]and Holy Spirit, and who are not under church discipline with their local congregation, are welcome at this table. We all look forward to the day when we are raised to new life, and we get to be free of sin and its effects on mankind. We all eagerly await the day that we get to see Jesus face to face where there will be no pain, no tears, no death. It is a good thing to look forward to the resurrection. But sometimes, because we long for the resurrection, we can be tempted to grow
[00:30:00]tired of the means of grace that God has given us in the meantime by which we can behold him. Those means being the word of God and the sacraments. And but we ought not to grow tired of the word preached and the inanimate bread and wine found in this table because it is through the word and through the sacraments that we get to partake in the resurrection on the final day. As a matter of fact, we can say with confidence that without the word and the
[00:30:30]sacraments and the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, the risen Christ could walk into this very room right now and we would be none the wiser. We know that because this is what happened on the day Jesus rose. In Luke 24, the risen Christ appears to two disciples and they have no idea who he is. It's not until he proclaims the truth of the scriptures to them and takes bread, breaks it, gives thanks, and gives it to them that they realize that they are talking to the resurrected Jesus. As we long for the resurrection, it is
[00:31:00]important that we do not become blind to the Christ that stands before us right now in the word and here on this table. So, come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, by this sacrament you signify to us the crucified Son. The bread as his body and the wine as his blood as he was broken and bled for us. Thank you for this bread and wine, signs and seals of your sacrifice for us. We ask that through this sacrament,
[00:31:30]which demonstrates death, that you would give us resurrection life knowing that if we partake of this sacri- of his sacrifice, we also partake of his resurrection. As we partake in faith, make us more faithful to your Son, Jesus Christ, who now lives and reigns with you in the Spirit, one God, world in world without end, and amen. So, the charge is this, a final word to you young people from Pastor Buzzkill. >> [laughter]
[00:32:00]>> What do we do What are we supposed to do? What am I supposed to do for the next desolate 10 years? Well, it's not 10 years and it's not going to be desolate. There are all kinds of things that you can do in groups. You can get to know your brothers and sisters in the Lord as brothers and sisters and you can get to know them very well in groups and make sure that you don't uh make sure the numbers are odd and even so you don't you're not paired four and four because then you've got this imaginary double date going quadruple
[00:32:30]date going. Don't do that. Just but spend time in wholesome, godly places in classroom, school work, get-togethers at at homes. You can get to know one another in good and healthy and wholesome ways with and while at the same time guarding your heart. And you're going to understand a lot more about these other people learning from a safe distance than you would in close quarters. And with believing hearts,
[00:33:00]receive the benediction of your God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Amen.