I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis. Genesis 1. I want to begin looking at a new area this evening. We had completed our study of end times last week, ended in Revelation. Go from Revelation to the very first book of the Bible this evening. And I mentioned this morning that one of the reasons my desire is to take a couple of weeks, and this fall we are gonna be starting an emphasis for our families on building strong families, particularly through the offering some parenting classes for those that send their kids to Tri-City Christian Academy, but also for our church family. And the desire is to really help in these areas and strengthen the home. Start doing this on Wednesday evenings and starting with a parenting class for those who are parents of teenagers and doing that first semester and then in the spring and after the first of the year for younger children. But to provide some instruction and doing it in such a way that it won't take away from small groups for too long and it would be in specific areas. But the goal is really to consider the biblical view of marriage and family. And my desire for us as a church family and in the evenings for a couple of weeks is really to look at the foundation actually stepping back before the parenting because before Understanding parenting there has to be a proper understanding of personhood That we are made in the image of God And frankly, that's where we are struggling in our culture today. That's where a lot of the confusion comes. I think it's interesting that as we completed our study of end times, you know, going from the last book to the first book, and yet it's interesting to note that the Bible begins with a marriage and ends with a marriage. In Genesis 2, we have the description, the discussion of when the Lord brings Eve to Adam, And so we see that marriage beginning there at the first book of the Bible, the very opening, and then we concluded by looking at the marriage of the Lamb in Revelation 19. And seeing that aspect. Now, in understanding that as we begin, I think it's important to also remember that while everyone who is married was once single, not everyone single will marry. And sometimes that almost becomes a pressure in a church that I think is, we have to be careful. There are some good truths to realize about singleness. Taking these from the book, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, these are half of the ones that are listed there, but I think they're helpful for what we're gonna be considering this evening, that God is sovereign over who gets married and who does not, and he can be trusted. that recognizing that we can trust the Lord, that marriage as we know it is not the final destination for any human. In Mark chapter 12, verse 25, it's an interesting passage because the Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection are asking the Lord about marriage after the resurrection. And Jesus says in that verse in Mark 12, 25, when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. So marriage, as we understand it, is not the final destiny for humans. I think it's good to remember that Christ never married. And so sometimes people think, well, I have to have that to be complete as a human. No, Jesus Christ was the complete human, and he never married. And mature manhood and womanhood are not dependent on being married. It's really based on a relationship with the Lord and a biblical understanding. And so I think it's important to have these key concerns, but I want us to start with the foundation of what really is the biblical foundation for the image of God. And man, I've had you turn to Genesis chapter one. I think never before in our Western civilization have we seen the very definitions of family, of marriage being under attack like they are today. There was always the idea of what was the family and what marriage meant. Now, there were problems with that, obviously, but the very definitions are under attack today. And the cultural crisis really reveals a deeper problem that there is a spiritual crisis. The biblical pattern, the view that is given in scripture, sadly in our culture, is just viewed as one of many options. Okay, well that's good for you, but there are other options. And really what we have to understand is the Bible, God's word, is the blueprint. It gives us God's plan. It's the blueprint for the home that God intended. The word of God does not need human approval or acceptance to be true. It's not put to a vote. But it does necessitate us submitting our ideas to it. And I think this is important even for us as believers because we are bombarded with unbiblical, anti-biblical thinking from our culture. And if we're not careful, we become swayed simply by the emotion of it. We need men and women of God. We need to learn to think biblically. And we need to understand what it means to be men and women of God. To be men and women in our culture. because that is under attack. Now, I've given you the verses. We'll look at a few more of these in just a moment, but Genesis is the first book of the Bible. It's the first of what are known as the Pentateuch, the first five books. We know them as the books of Moses. Which I think is interesting because when we start in Genesis 1, we're starting at the very beginning and we go back to that. Obviously Moses does not come on the scene for many, many years after this. And so understanding the very context of what we find in Genesis was being written, God used Moses as the human instrument, the Holy Spirit's word, but it's given to Israel in preparation for going into the promised land. It provides for them examples of good marriages and bad marriages. But it gives them the foundation, the initial audience being Israel, the instruction teaching them of what God's plan was, his purpose, but understanding as well that the instruction and teaching applies to families of all generations. because it's rooted in the character of God and His creative acts in making male and female. So at that foundation, look with me in Genesis 1. I want to begin in verse 26. I've put verse 27 on the screen, but I want us to begin in verse 26 to get the context as We're reading the creation account. It says in verse 26, then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food, and it was so. Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. In this passage, we see God's creating of man. We read that there is that aspect that he was to rule. And in our consideration of end times, we saw that purpose of God, that millennial reign, and the aspect that man really was created to be the vice regent, to reign for the Lord. Obviously, the sin messed that up. But what I want us to see this evening is the aspect of creation that man and woman are created in the image of God. Now, for us, this may go without saying, but sadly, in our culture and with what is being pressed upon us and upon our children, this is where the questions are. These are the areas of discussion. It says in verse 27 that God created man in his own image, in the image of God created him, male and female created he them. If you want to turn over to chapter five just very quickly and look at verse one, Genesis 5.1, it says, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he created him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female. He blessed them and called them mankind in the day they were created. And what we see from these passages is that humans are utterly unlike all other creatures. Because humans alone are made in the image of God. They're made in the likeness of God, both men and women. It's interesting that when you read, as we read in these verses in chapter one, the first mention of sexuality is in the creation of humanity. Now, obviously, we know, just as God had created the animals, the birds, and told them they were to reproduce, they were to bring forth, be fruitful, and reproduce after their kind, obviously, there was sexuality. There were males and females. But it's not mentioned until the creation of man. And understanding that, that this is an aspect of our humanity, And yet this is the area where there is so much question and confusion today. I've said before that the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s really gave way and led to the homosexual revolution, which has now given way to the gender confusion. And we see that around us. The question of what is gender, Well, I went back to the Webster 1828 Dictionary, which Dr. Tetreault would say, that's where you need to go to see the... Because that was before any political correctness came into the definitions. Here's what they say about gender. The first definition is properly the kind or sort. Second, a sex, male or female. Hence, the third definition is, then it talks about the difference of words and grammar and having gender. Now when you go to the current dictionary, the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, it says the sex sense. The second definition is the behavioral, cultural, or physiological traits typically associated with one's sex. And then it says gender identity. And it speaks of those who get to choose what they want, or it mentions Massachusetts, where you're able to put an X on your driver's license, because there is now the non-binary designation. It's not either male or female. And then you've got social media, where there are, I think the last I heard, there were 73 different options for choosing gender. Like, how is that even possible? But it shows the confusion because our culture has moved away from the image of God. It's the rejection. And lost in the confusion is the very concept of what it means to be masculine and feminine. And this hits to where we seek to train our children, our young people, to be men and women of God. What does that even mean? when we're not even clear on the definitions. The truth is, men and women are different. And yet, equally, we display the glory of God, and it's seen in the very act of creation. But also lost in all of the confusion is not only God's purpose is lost, but God's plan for human relationships. And we see the problems today. The failure to recognize God's plan results in a superficial understanding, and then superficial remedies to problems we face today. The unhappiness, the suicide rates, the insecurity, the problems, the abuse is massive, and much of it can be tied back to the lack of understanding that man has made the image of God. But we have to put ourselves under Scripture. Humble ourselves and be submissive to the truth that we can then apply it rather than campaigning for our own independence or justifying because of Situations that we see only God's Word truly transforms a life If you want to go back to Genesis chapter 2 it says in is chapter 2 expands on what we read in chapter 1 But in verse 18 of Genesis chapter 2, it says, and the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him. Now, in one sense, if we looked at it from a technical sense, Adam wasn't alone. He's surrounded by creation. He has fellowship with God. There's lots of animals. But what this is bringing out was he was incomplete. There wasn't a helper comparable, suitable, like him. And so on the one side there was fellowship with God, but there was an aloneness. So verse 19 says, that out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep. to fall on Adam. And he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man." So as I said, it begins with a wedding. God gives the bride away. He brings her to Adam, and in these verses, we see that the fact of Adam's aloneness is now impressed upon him with the realization, as the animals come, as the birds come, and they have a helper, they have a mate. And as he's naming them, he realizes something's different, that he is alone. He doesn't have a partner, he doesn't have a helper for him in the garden. And so God provides that spouse, performs the ceremony, and gives the bride to her husband. Now the clear teaching of all of this is that both men and women are made in the image of God and are utterly like any other creature. So the theory of evolution that we've just evolved from other life forms does not hold true. God created man as a special creation. He created men and women to equally display His glory. The tendency today is to stress the equality, though, and minimize the uniqueness. And one of the reasons I spent some time with our college students just before college got out and just walked through, the very biological differences are in the chromosomes of our cells. You know, when we're told, trust science, Science tells us there's a difference. And it's in the cell, it's in the makeup. But there are physiological differences. The average man is taller and heavier than the average woman. Women are more sensitive to sound than men. Men are typically over 30% physically stronger than women, especially with upper body strength. In fact, almost 50% more upper body strength. The differences then, there's also differences in lung capacity and intake. The differences in intake and delivery of oxygen translates into some of the athletic performance. So when a man jogs, at 50% of his lung capacity, a woman will need to work at 70% of her capacity just to stay even. This is why the men who are in women's sports, it's such a disadvantage. And I wonder, I look at this, having been on the college side and all of the hoops you have to deal with and jump through on the academic side, I'm thinking, how do those who have pushed for Title IX let this go? I mean, that's what they fought for, and now it's just because somebody says, I identify as a woman, oh, that you can run in this athletic event. Just the physiological difference in lung capacity gives men an advantage. But understanding that man is made in the image of God, that humanity is utterly different. So the real question then is what does it mean to be Man or a woman because this is where the insecurity in our culture comes the clear teaching of Genesis though is that both men and women are made in the image of God and There are ways that God has for us to serve him What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Well, it speaks of an equality of personhood. I You know, that there really is, and yet this is where the confusion has come, an equality of personhood, that neither is less of a person, that truth is equally applied, that the differences physically do not mean that there's a difference of personhood. There's an equality of dignity. 1 Peter 2.17 says, honor all people. Love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. But honor all people. 1 Peter 3, 7 says, Husbands, likewise, dwell with them, your wives, with understanding, giving honor to the wife. Honor is to be paid to people because they are persons made in the image of God. And again, For years, this was just kind of assumed, but in our culture today, it's really not. Chivalry from the Middle Ages with knights and bravery and courtesy really spoke of being gentle men. Courtesy showing honor. That's the idea of the equality of dignity, that we respect people because they are made in the image of God. And so it brings us then to mutual respect. Respect isn't one direction. The image of God in people may be tempered by sin, but it's not destroyed. And so we're to show respect. And lack of respect tears down boundaries, and don't we see that in our culture today? The anger, the hostility, it disregards differences, it destroys inhibitions, it leads to destruction that, frankly, is God-ordained because of the image of God in man. equality of harmony. God's design is that there would be peaceful cooperation, that we find ways to make things run smoothly, and that there's an equality of destiny. There's a unified destiny. In 1 Peter 3, 7, I read the first part of the verse, husbands love you, likewise dwell with them in an understanding way, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel as being heirs together of the grace of life. And then it concludes that your prayers be not hindered. That how things are in our relationship between our spouse really can make a difference in our prayer life. that we're destined to for equal enjoyment of the glory of God because we're made in the image of God. And so there's this equality in these areas because we're made in the image of God, but we also see that there is a complementary aspect. You know, in music, in the music of relationships, you don't want everything to be the same note. We don't want everything sung in unison. And when God created men and women, men and women, it's with that complementary idea. It's the ability to sing parts, to appreciate differences, to affirm the value, the differences. Not just endure the differences. So going back to 1 Peter 3, 7, husbands, dwell with them, your wife, in an understanding way. Well, that's this aspect of the complementary role. But unity does not equal uniformity. We don't have to duplicate each other. I think one of the examples, and I've shared this with our college kids, but I think an excellent example of the differing, the unity and complementary aspects, the equality with difference, you can see in the Winter Olympic event of figure skating. Now, it is not my favorite event. Of Winter Olympic events, I really, I think if they combine figure skating with hockey, then it would be exciting. or at least with curling for the Canadian sport. But what you find is that you have two people, equality in their ability, equality of dignity, Mutual respect, but they have different responsibilities. They can both be excellent skaters. They can be regarded as seeking a harmonious performance. They can complement each other's role, and they will receive the applause equally. But they have to have different roles. One does most of the lifting, the man, by the physiological aspect of having more upper body strength. And yet they are equal. They receive the awards equally. But they have different roles. And understanding the differing roles is vital in recognizing what God has done. That God has established different roles for men and women. And so the question is then, okay, can he do that in such a way that God might actually want some responsibilities to fall heavier on one sex than the other? Could there be different responsibilities? Is equal respect shown in the same way? And I think what we see in Scripture and what we see in these opening verses of Genesis is God intended from the beginning for our equality to be expressed differently. And that's why the word complementary. And recognizing that. That the difference goes to the very meaning of manhood and womanhood. That the man, by nature of his manhood, is called by God to lead for God's glory. And the woman, by nature of her womanhood, is called by God to help for God. I will make a helper, a complement suitable for him. Now, I say this and I'm spending time here because all of this is pre-fall. The fall has not yet happened. And the marital troubles, the problems, the abuses that come, the male domination, the feminist insurrection are both vandalizing God's creative plan. And they multiply human misery. but recognizing that there are differences. So how do we see that in Scripture? How do we justify that? And what I want to do is just kind of give some bullet points that I think can help us. And I mentioned the book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, written about 30 years ago, it's an excellent book. Really, the first chapter's probably worth the price of the book. But it talks about some of these things, and then the Andreas Kostenberger has written a book on God, family, and marriage that is an excellent book, came out several years ago, but really dealing with the issues that we're facing today. The order of creation, Adam was created first, that God made, you know, God could've just made two dirt piles. and breathed over both of them. But he didn't do that. If he had done that, he wouldn't have to do the rib surgery that we just read about. And it would have definitely emphasized equality, but we see the equality emphasized, but he did it differently. And the firstness of creation does create an obligation and a responsibility for man. It communicates responsibility, not superiority. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 13, it says, for Adam was formed first, then Eve. And understanding, this was written to the Hebrew mind. The firstborn in the Hebrew mind carried responsibility. The firstborn son had responsibility. Now, sometimes in our thinking, we say, well, but animals were created first. The Hebrew mind would never think that if there was a cow born before a son that somehow that cow got preeminence. That would never cross their mind. That takes our more Greek-thinking minds to come up with that kind of loophole. No, they understood personhood made in the image of God. But the firstborn son had responsibility. There were obligations that fell because of that. And they would understand this. We see it in the recipient of creation. The object that the woman was made for the man, a helper, a completer, a complement, suitable for him, as verse 18 in chapter 2 said, I will make a helper for him. So she was made for him. We see it in his providing the name. And so we see in verse 23 of chapter 2, back in Genesis 2, 23, it says, and Adam said, this now is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. His first words that we have recorded are poetry. It's Hebrew poetry. As Adam is speaking of her and calls her woman because she was his counterpart, he recognized her in that way. But it was that Hebrew poetry, but there's an element of responsibility because he names her. He's given that responsibility an opportunity. We see as well there was an obligation, a responsibility in the garden. That Adam received the teaching back in verses 15 and 17, we didn't leave these, but it says that God took the man and put him in the garden to tend it, to keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, verse 16, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. Okay, that's verse 17. Verse 18 is when it says now it's not good for man to be alone. So God has given the responsibility, the teaching responsibility to Adam before the creation of Eve in the context here. and we don't find it repeated. And so Adam had a responsibility to teach, to lead, to take the spiritual aspect of leadership and responsibility. In essence, he was given a trust. Verse 15 speaks of that spiritual service that he was to do. He was to tend and keep the garden for God. He had a spiritual responsibility. And that's really the idea in the Pentateuch of what's taking place here, which then leads us to the liability that falls to him in the garden, in the living there. There was a burden, an onus that was on Adam. Because when the fall takes place, and when we began our study of when God asked questions, and we came to this, and God, we saw that God walks in the garden, and in verse nine, he says, the Lord called to Adam, chapter 3, and said, where are you? And I mentioned then, didn't God know who had eaten first? Of course He did. But He's calling Adam because Adam had a responsibility. And so now because of his responsibility, the liability falls to him. And there's an important aspect for us as husbands, as fathers, as men, that we need to take spiritual leadership in the relationship in our home when it comes to reading the Bible. When it comes to what we do and our calendars and our spending, that there is a responsibility that we have before God that we would lead for His glory. We have a responsibility, we see it in Ephesians 5, that as the husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loved the church and he gave himself to sanctify and cleanse it. We have a responsibility to sanctify our homes. Don't corrupt the spiritual life of somebody else. And we need to be careful, you know, it's one thing when a man falls into sin, it's another when he leads others into sin. Because we have a responsibility that if we fail, when we fall, we fail in our Christian morals. When we lead others into sin, we fail in our Christian manhood. Because we're called to lead for God's glory. And these are hard truths because we don't hear any of this in our culture. And yet this is why we have to say, okay, what does God's word say? that God built the male headship into what Adam was to do, not male domination. Now, when after the fall, that's what we see. In fact, if you wanna drop down to verse 17 of chapter three, you see this aspect of liability continuing. Then to Adam, he said, we know the story. When God says, what have you done? And Adam says, well, it's not really my fault, it's the woman you gave me. And the Lord says to Eve, what have you done? She says, well, it was the serpent. And we know that God judges each. But in verse 17, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake, in the toil of it you shall eat of it. All the days of your life, the thorns and the thistles, and it continues on, the difficulty in bringing forth produce. But what I want us to notice in verse 17, that there are two aspects for the judgment to come. Adam listened when he was supposed to be leading, and he sinned. But it says, because you hearkened, because you heeded the voice of your wife and ate. Now, Adam had a responsibility to say, no, God told us we can't do this. And he didn't do it. And I would say that another aspect where we see this responsibility is that opposition that came toward creation. I think it's interesting, and I brought this out when we considered this earlier, but in verse one of chapter three, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, why did he go to the woman? Because he's attacking God's leadership structure. And he says, well, didn't God say you can eat of every tree of the garden? And she said, well, no, not of every tree. There's one we can, and if we touch it, we'll die. And we know what takes place here, but when you read through this, it says in verse 6, "'So when the woman saw the tree was good for food "'and pleasant to the eyes, "'a tree desirable to make one wise, "'she took of the fruit and ate, "'and gave to her husband who was with her.'" He was with her at that time, and he ate. And I think we see the opposition. The serpent went to the woman, she ignored the man, and convinced her. Now, I read in 1 Timothy 2, and it talks about how Eve actually was deceived. Adam was not, but he sinned willfully. And the responsibility that came. And, of course, the result of the fall then are all the problems that we see. Devious women and dominating men. And isn't that our culture today? Man, because of their strength, tend to dominate, to intimidate, to try to put down and women sinfully try to manipulate. And we see that in our culture, and this is not God's plan. But the essence of corrupted maleness is the selfish effort to subdue, control, and exploit women for his own personal and private desires. The essence of corrupted femaleness is the effort to subdue and control and exploit men for her private desires. And both of these are against God's plan. And this is why our families, our homes are under attack. The truth is a male wimp is a very dangerous person. And that's what we see in Adam in the fall. One moment he's passive, the next he's abusive. When God says, you know, what's happened? He said, well, if anybody's gonna die here, it ought to be her. No, that's when he ought to step up. He ought to man up and say, I failed. But he says, you know, it's the woman. It's her fault. If somebody dies, it should be her. And that's what we see. And the anger, his anger, he blames her for his problems. Society looks at abusive men today and says, well, you need to be more passive. Our society looks at women and says, you need to be more aggressive. And both of those emphasis miss the root problem. Selfishness. Neither one is seeking to say, how can I glorify God and glorify Him because I am made in the image of God? So we need to have a biblical view that women seek to find ways to subdue men. Her words nagging his lusts. Sinful women use their bodies to manipulate men. You see that in the advertising industry. Men seek to control and dominate. We need a biblical moral vision for manhood and womanhood, for life, for family, for our children. So let me give you in conclusion a couple of definitions from that book, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, that I think are very helpful. For what does it mean to have biblical Christian masculinity and maturity? At the heart of mature masculinity is the sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for, and protect women in ways appropriate to a man's differing relationships. In that first chapter of this book, they take apart every word in this definition. That benevolent sense of responsibility for the good of somebody else, not selfishly motivated. but sensitive for the good of others. That leadership that's humble servant leadership, but not passivity. A humble leadership that leads to repentance. A responsibility. It doesn't mean that the man has to initiate everything, but he senses that responsibility. To lead in prayer before a meal. To lead our families in family worship. to deal with the kids when they're acting up. It's not, well, let my wife deal with them, I'm tired. Yeah, we've all been there. She's tired too. But it's part of our responsibility. That responsibility that we see that we have a responsibility in these areas to protect. You know, it used to be that when ships were going down, they would say that it was women and children in the lifeboats first. Why was that? Because men are better swimmers? No, it was that sense of mature masculinity to protect in ways that are appropriate, that we recognize and find those ways. And then on the other side of that, at the heart of mature femininity is the freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men in ways appropriate to a woman's differing relationships. appropriate to different relationships, different responses, but the same attitude. The attitude means that there won't be an inappropriate relationship, an inappropriate display of intimacy. And none of this should stifle our manhood and womanhood. None of this should stifle women. Because ultimately what we need to see is that our whole life is devoted to the glory of God. That whether we live or die, we're to do it for His glory. Whatsoever we eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. That we're seeking to follow Christ faithfully, completely, and when we do that, it actually brings peace, joy, security, and strength. The pushback against biblical manhood and womanhood in our culture has not led to stronger homes and marriages. It hasn't led to more secure Young men and young women. It's led to insecurity and confusion and abuse. We have to be people of the word and of prayer. And it means we redeem the time. That we would develop maturity. That as men, as young men, our young men, that they need to think in a way that they use their time wisely and not waste it. That we develop patterns. that is not wasted in video games and idle chatter and social media and not spending time in God's Word. That I keep under my body, I bring it into subjection. That for those who are single, use that singleness to serve the Lord, to develop character of godliness. That we would be godly men and women, showing mature manhood and womanhood. And that we would evaluate our lives and our service for Christ. That wherever we are, we serve Christ fully. I say all of this because there's a spiritual battle raging. I have a burden for our homes, for our children. I love our kids, we have great kids. But our world wants them. Satan is after the hearts of our children. And Satan is after our homes. So let's think in the terms of responsibilities rather than rights and strive to be men and women of God. That we would have families that honor the Lord and that we would strengthen and encourage one another. That we would be building strong families at Tri-City Baptist Church. Helping one another raise children who love God and serve God. Because parenting's always been challenge. It's always been strenuous, but I think it's especially so in our current culture. So let's pray for one another and seek to live for the glory of God. Let's pray together.