Marriage, God’s Design, Not Man’s Tradition - Elder bruh Chet Davis

Marriage, God’s Design, Not Man’s Tradition - Elder bruh Chet Davis

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to America Doc Radio. This
is Pastor Mike Philip and that's my son calling me
right after I just told him not to do so
we have a great show for you today. I have
some men that are experienced and faithful and trusted in
the things of God, and one of them is my

(00:43):
This is the only man for a very long time
that I would call bruh Chet Davis. We've had him
on the show before to talk about issues with naval
things and UH disaster mitigation and because of his past
in the Coast Guard in his work, but but we're
having him on today to not only hear a Bible

(01:07):
study that God has laid on his heart about the
so important topic of marriage. Marriage is such an important thing.
It's just it can't be overstated how important marriage is
in this world today. And and but the other thing
is that there's there, with our growing congregation and audience,

(01:27):
there's going to be times when I can't get to
somebody or or there's there's something that a situation that
that God will use somebody else to deal with. And
so there will be times when I'm going to direct
you to this man if you reach out to me
on certain things. Now, Peter Downing is the other one.

(01:50):
And Peter just became an honorary brah, so now it's
okay to call him that. And so Peter and Chat
are too wise and experienced men that I have put
some trust in and added responsibility in church. And so
get to know this man. We're gonna be talking about

(02:12):
marriage today and Chet is going to be doing the
majority of teaching, and I'll be here for I guess
what you call color commentary. So Chet, introduce, to introduce
yourself to everybody. I'm going to step away and listen,
and I will jump in periodically, but I will be
listening to you and take care and be blessed.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
All right, thank you, Mike Well, Chet Davis, that's my name,
and it's I'm fighting the human nature to to inflate
myself in my own mind and try to be stay
humble with all the accolades you just laid upon me.
But you know a little background about myself. I did.

(02:54):
I did spend several years in the Coastguard. That was
my primary career, and I saw a lot of man's
inhumanity to man during that time. But I also saw
a lot of God in situations where the people were
without hope, without anywhere to turn, and uh, and so

(03:17):
it was. It was a very rewarding career, not just
in the in the sense of economically speaking, but spiritually
speaking as well. And I didn't know Jesus back then.
As a matter of fact, I didn't know Jesus until
just a few years ago when Mike Philip himself was

(03:40):
able to baptize me in the name of Jesus. And
from that day on, so many things. Well, my entire
life has changed considerably for the better because of it.
And one of the things that he has really changed
is my may marriage. And so the last couple of

(04:03):
days that has been impressed upon me to maybe do
a Bible study with Mike on the notion of marriage,
Where did it come from? And where's it at today?
But the title of the Bible study is marriage God's design,
not man's tradition. And we hear it all the time,

(04:24):
we see it all the time all around us. The
divorce rates are just have always been going up and
up every year. I don't think I can recall the
time when it ever went down for any you know,
for any significant value. And I think one of the
reasons it's like that is because the traditions of men

(04:45):
have just altered God's design of marriage into something other
than what it was intended to be. And we can
start off by looking at at at Genesis. But first,
before I want to do that, I want to back
up just a little bit because I want to put

(05:06):
you in remembrance of something, especially those that may be
new listeners are here for the first time. I am
one god apostolic. I didn't I've probably always been that,
but I just didn't know it for most of my
life until my baptism. But I want to put us

(05:26):
in remembrance of something. If I were to go to
Mike and say, Mike, your mother has made your favorite
meal for you, or your wife has made your favorite
meal for you, and Mike would look at me and go, well,
how so, how do you know that's true? I don't know.
I just had a feeling. I just have a feeling. Well,
the chances of him believing me that that is true

(05:46):
or not are remarkably low. But if I told him
the same thing and he asked, me, well, how do
you know, and I said to him, because I was
eye witnessed to her making it specifically for you. Well,
that would change things, wouldn't it. It would make you
a believer that she has actually made his favorite meal.

(06:08):
So likewise, I want to put us in remembrance about
the things of God. And one of the things we
can find it in Colossians chapter two, verse eight. Now
I'm using the King James Bible version, and so the
language is going to be a little poetic. Some people
find the King James version difficult to read and understand.

(06:31):
I was one of them not long ago. But I
tell you, the more I get into it, I find
it the easier it is to read and to understand.
Now there are things that I do to help me
along with that understanding, Like I use a concordance along
with the Bible to help look up words, and we
can do a whole nother Bible study on words that

(06:53):
don't mean the same thing today as they used to mean.
But Colossians, too, after two and verse eight says, beware,
beware right off the bat. Beware it's gonna happen, so
be on the lookout for it. Let any man spoil
you through philosophy and vain deceit. After the tradition of

(07:16):
men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
Marinate on that for a second. And while we're thinking
on that, let's go to Two Peter chapter one, verse sixteen.
This kind of couples with Colossians chapter two, verse eight

(07:39):
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we
have made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But were eye witnesses of his majesty.
We saw it happen. We were there, Okay. And so
what the apostles taught all throughout their time on this

(08:00):
earth was the things that they witnessed Jesus God in
the flesh doing while he was here, before he ascended
up onto his throne, before the New Testament came into effect. Okay,
So keep this in your minds as we talk about

(08:22):
the design intent of marriage moving forward. So the divine
origin of marriage, we can start by looking at Genesis
chapter two in verse eighteen, where it says and the
Lord God said, it is not good that the man
should be alone. I'll make him a help meet for him.

(08:43):
In other words, I want to give him somebody that
he can rely on is going to be of benefit
to him. Is going to profit him and his endeavors
and help him with the chores around the house. I
added that last part forgive me. But you can see
right there, right off the bat second chapter of the Bible,

(09:04):
that this is of God. Man and woman is of God. Okay,
and so it originated in the garden of even not
in human culture. But we have, through philosophy, in vain deceit,
we have been deceived into thinking that marriage is something

(09:29):
other than what God has intended for us. All right. Now,
He put man and woman together. He made eve from man,
which actually is what woman means. The definition of woman
means from man. And so our culture is such that
you can be any gender or sex that you want

(09:51):
to be, and that's just not so. That is a
path just running headlong into damnation and destruction. And you
won't convince me of that any other way. But He
took part of man and made woman from Adam. And

(10:12):
today it's like, well, you can marry anybody you want,
you can be anybody you want, and it's just so
not God's intent when it comes to marriage, and that's
why so many of them fail. Now that being said,
failure of marriages is from a variety of reasons, and

(10:38):
one of the other ones is selfishness. We marry and
this well, and I can only speak for myself with this.
I don't want to be overgeneralizing, and I don't want
to be too prescriptive in trying to fix a marriage
or anything out there. But somebody out there that may
be listening. My first marriage, my first marriage which ended

(11:00):
in divorce. Obviously it was a selfish motivated thing for
me to do and as I during that time of marriage,
and it lasted eighteen years, so it wasn't from lack
of effort trying to make a marriage work. You hear

(11:20):
that too. You got to make a marriage work. Yes,
it does take work, but when Jesus is involved and
that marriage is sanctified in his name, it's so much
easier for a marriage to work. I won't say it
can be self sustaining for a large part of it.

(11:42):
And there are times when you're still going to have
arguments and things like that, but the way you deal
with these arguments in these disagreements differs wildly from what
it is without Jesus, without him being the one that
has sanctified that marriage. But selfishness is one of the
key reasons why marriages failed because the individuals stay individuals.

(12:06):
They you know, they don't lose their identity. And I
know someone who is married hasn't been married too terribly
long and probably seven or eight years, and the only
reason I think they haven't been divorced yet is just
because of convenience. For the most part, they don't have

(12:30):
any children together. But he pretty much has told me that,
he has told her, I'm going to do what I
want to do when I want to do it, and
you can either abide with that or you can leave.
And that's that's uh, that's that's a very tenuous situation

(12:52):
to put yourself in or to tolerate on the other side,
you know, if you're the other person, and there's a
lot of that, and of course marriages can degrade into
even more heinous situations, you know, where there's physical and
physical abuse, verbal abuse, psychological abuse, trauma, the whole nine yards,

(13:17):
even death, and that is not what God has intended
marriage to be. So it was God's idea, this whole
idea of marriage, a sacred union between one man and
one woman. And it's established before it was established, before
sin even entered into the world, showing God's intent for companionship, unity,

(13:42):
and purpose in our lives. You can also equate, and
I'm kind of jumping ahead a little bit here, but
you can also equate marriage between a man and a
woman with the marriage of the Church and Jesus Christ.
Because the Bible is just replete with the the relationships

(14:04):
of Church and God as being the Church being the
bride and God being the bridegroom, and so the design
is clearly there, and the intent is clearly there. The
marriages of God when we make it after the traditions
of men, many times it's not going to go the

(14:25):
distance because God's not involved in it. And so I
have to look at why is it important to view
marriages something God created rather than a social situation. And
I think I just outlined a large part of why
that is. We make it a social construct and all
the safeguards go out the window. His blessings and his ownership,

(14:53):
He owns marriage. The Bible says God created all things.
There's nothing made that wasn't made by Him for him.
But let's look at some more of Genesis real quick.
Let's go down to skip down to verse twenty one
through twenty four, it says, and the Lord caused God

(15:15):
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept,
and he took one of his ribs and closed up
the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord
God had taken from man, made he a woman and
brought her unto man. And Adam said, this is now
my bone, of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman, because she was taken out

(15:37):
of man from man woman. I bet if you ask
anybody around you on any given day what's the definition
of woman, they'll just stammer and stutter and give you
all kinds of garbage that they've heard talking points or whatever.
But the actual literal translation woman is from man. They're

(16:01):
not going to say that. They don't notice say that anyway.
That's all my old piece of commentary on that. And
then verse twenty four. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother and shall cleave under his wife, and
they shall be one flesh. This is the whole idea
of marriage, the two becoming one. If you're in our selfishness,

(16:30):
it's difficult, if not impossible, for us to become one
what I call reconciled with each other, reconciled with each
other and with Jesus, and if there's selfishness in us,
it's going to be very difficult to succeed and to
move that marriage forward. Okay, so I hope you are

(17:05):
tracking what I'm saying. It is pretty clear for me.
But we're going to move on next to the covenant
nature of marriage. And here we're going to talk about
the marriage as a covenant, not just a contract. God
loves covenants and commandments, and when we follow His covenants

(17:30):
and commandments and statutes, we're in pretty good shape. One
of the ways I like to do that is going
into prayer each and every morning first thing, and when
my eyes open, i'm still laying in the bed, I
go to hero Israel Deuteronomy six four, hero Israel, the Lord,
our God is one Lord. And I go through that

(17:54):
before I even allow my feet to hit the floor.
Many times, I mean, I'm not always successful, because sometimes
I've got to get out of it quite you know,
pretty quick, for whatever reason, maybe over slept or something.
But that's what I like to do. And God himself
is a witness to the marriage covenant.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
So many religions, so many what's the word I'm looking for?
Not religion. Well, doctrines, so many doctrines have just taken
God right out of it and it's not recognized. It's

(18:34):
wholly different from from what marriage was intended to be.
And breaking that covenant through unfaithfulness and grieves the heart
of God because it's something that He made and when
we don't honor it as a covenant that it is
in any situation, whether it's marriage or or just life
in general, it grieves him deeply because He has such

(18:58):
a deep love for all of us. And it's people say, well,
you know, I'm in a bad marriage and I can't
understand why God has done this to me. Well, chances
are he's not doing anything to you, or everything that's
happening is you've done it to yourself. So let's see

(19:19):
and we should we should approach marriage vows with reverence, uh,
because they are commitments before God and UH. And I
don't see where we do that either. And I keep
going back to say, selfishness is just ringing in my
ears right now. Selfishness between two people is just not
going to work. One of the things, one of the

(19:42):
big tenets is UH. With the hero Israel doing only
sixty four is love thy neighbor as thyself. Well, our
neighbor could be our spouse, our neighbor could be our
literal neighbors around our where we live. Our neighbors could
be those abroad in other countries. And we are called
to love them, and in loving them, to serve each other.

(20:07):
And if we're not serving each other, then we're not
following his commandments and statutes. You know, he said, Uh,
there's all kinds of scriptures, and Mike's done several Bible
studies just on that alone, about you know, the serve
of service to God and being a humble servant. And

(20:31):
we should always strive to put the other first in
our marriage, always try to. And that's where you know,
you'll find where you're most selfish when you start doing that.
If you don't do it already. Oh, then if you're
looking to make a change in your marriage, take a

(20:52):
look at yourself. That's that's where everything begins. Really, are
you of let's let's call it what it is. Are
you a selfish individual in your marriage? Are you always
making demands on your spouse, uh, to accommodate your needs
and your wishes and your wants, or do you serve
them and see to their needs and their wishes. Now

(21:15):
not talking about doing all the chores around the house
for them or anything like that. It can be a
shared adventure in that respect. My wife and I we
we busted up the duties of running the house. You know,
I would she made different She may disagree, but I
think we've split it pretty equitably. I take care of

(21:37):
a lot of the outside things, you know, one of
the grass and trimming and edging and you know, trim
and bushes and things like that. And I help with
the housework, but she's mostly interior. She takes care of
a lot of the cooking in the laundry.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
But I do offer myself to help out wherever I can.
Sometimes that she's busy doing something else related to maintaining
the household, and I'll jump in and help her with
some other chore that needs to be taken for. So
it's a give and take. It's it's got to be

(22:14):
give and take. I think one of the best pieces
of advice I would give any married couple is to
seek the truth of Jesus. If you don't have it already,
if you haven't been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
If you don't know who he is, if your marriage
is struggling, or if you feel like everything's falling apart,

(22:37):
that's where you got to start. You got to you
gotta start with yourself and be honest with yourself. A
lot of the things we experience in a life without Jesus,
those hardships, those trials and tribulations are nothing more than

(22:58):
Him calling to us to bring us to him. We
lay our burdens, in our sins at his feet. We
take upon us his yoke and his burden, for his
yoke is easy and his burden is light. You've heard
that probably sometime in your you know, at some point
in your life. It is absolutely true, Absolutely true.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
Man.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
I used to struggle with everything, every aspect of my
life before Jesus Christ. Not only my marriage because that
was that was headed for the rocks pretty quick. To
be honest, my second marriage, which with Jesus, I feel
like this is going to be the marriage. Oh, things
have turned around so much. But anyway, everything in my

(23:45):
life was just it seemed like a struggle. Everything was
a struggle. Everything was just keeping things peace together. And
there was very little joy in my life, very little
joy in my life. I hear people talk about, Oh,
I can't wait for Halloween. Oh I can't wait for Thanksgiving.
I have such a good time of Thanksgiving, and oh

(24:05):
I love Christmas and this and that and the other.
That joy is temporal. Mike did a study on that
as well. Those joys are temporal and they are fleeting.
Oh if I just had a bunch of money, you know,
I'd be so happy. And you know, sometimes God will
bless you with that, with that abundance if you ask,

(24:27):
but without him, he'll give it to you and then
he'll see what you do with it. A lot of times,
a lot of things we do are very selfish things. Anyway,
I want to try to stay on point with the
marriage aspect of this, but it's no different in marriage.
If we're selfish, a lot of our marriage is going

(24:50):
to be lived in strife, very little joy, and any
joy that we do have is going to be temporal.
We're going to take a cruise, we're going to going
to go on vacation, We're going off to Rome or whatever.
And then once that trip is over, and even during
the trip, there could be a lot of strife and headache,

(25:11):
and it's just because we're just not connected to him
the way we should be. And our marriage is held
together with duct tape and bailing twine. He is the
glue that holds it all together, absolutely holds it all together.
So next I'm moving on. I'm sitting here and just

(25:33):
elaborate all day long. I apologize. But if we go
to Malachi chapter two, verses fourteen through sixteen, You're going
to see where my marriage is a covenant and not
just a contract. God is a witness to that marriage covenant,
and breaking that covenant through unfaithfulness grieves his heart. So

(25:54):
let's go over to Malachi. I'm going to jump into
my Bible here too and go with you to Malchi. Hello,
mister Mike.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
I just wanted to say you're doing great. I'm really
enjoying this. You're very calm and collected and very almost grandfatherly.
Dare I say, very good, very good stuff. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
I appreciate that. I feel I probably put in half
of them to sleep.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well, it's good. It's good to be calm every now
and then. I'm a little more animated usually, but I
do want.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
To be animated anymore.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
It's still off my arm. It's too hot and mobile
to get all excited and fuss.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
That's right, Yeah, you sweat enough as it is without
being all excited.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
I just wanted to add it takes for a lot
of guys and some women too. It takes a long
time to grow up. It takes a long time to
learn to be a man. It takes a long time
to learn to be the calm one and not throw
fuel on the fire in an escalating situation. And uh,

(27:07):
there are things that your wife needs.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Man.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
There are things that your wife needs you to be.
No matter what your specific family dynamic is in your marriage,
whether you have kids or not, your wife needs you
to be strong and and and not not only strong,
but smooth and collected. The other thing that your wife

(27:32):
does not need all of the time is for you
to be her buddy and be nice all of the
time and always trying to bend over backwards for her.
She'll respecting you, she will start resenting you if you
do that. I'm telling you right now, and and you
so go ahead, chet guess.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
Well, that's what I was trying to get at when
I was talking a minute ago about serving the other,
you know, be there to serve the other. No, it's
not waiting on a hand and foot. That's that's not
the eye idea I was trying to convey. It's it's
more than that. It's more than that, you know. It's
it's just making sure that, like you said, you can't
be their buddy all the time. Sometimes you have to

(28:10):
lead a lot of times you have to believe you
have to lead. That's your position as the man in
the marriage. And a lot you see it all over
the place. You go out on any given day and
you see guys that are married, and you know they're
dressed like twelve year old kids, you know, playing in
a sandlot. And it's not that it's not the way

(28:33):
they dress so much, it's the character and the way
they're acting. You know. It's very selfish nature, Yes, very
selfish nature.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
And there should be no doubt, zero doubt in her
mind that you are one hundred one thousand percent hurts.
And the other thing too, like if you've got it
like a hidden porn habit, or you're texting other rolls
on the side or emailing or calling, or she might

(29:05):
not know that specifically, but there's going to be a
vibe in your house and it could turn dangerous. A
bad marriage is dangerous. I was talking to dominic Izzo
and I asked him what was the worst call he
ever went to as a Chicago police officer. He said
it was a domestic dispute where a pregnant woman had
been stabbed twenty six times. During the lockdowns, the liquor

(29:31):
stores were opened when everything else is shut down. And
my brother was talking to an RCMP officer in LaDuke
and he said the domestic dispute calls were off the charts. Now,
these are people that at one time made a commitment
to love each other and put the other first, but

(29:51):
it went horribly wrong and people got hurt. And you know,
there can be times when your wife will will be
condescending and resentful and try to shame you publicly. We've
we've all seen examples of that. Or we've known somebody
that a married couple, they show up at a party
and and and the wife starts bad mouthing the husband

(30:15):
and it's just a mess. And so what what what
eldebra chat is talking about today? You really need to listen, Okay,
you really need to listen because what he said about
young young guys looking like a twelve year older you know, uh,
being a peacock right looking good for everybody else, or

(30:36):
the wife getting overly done up to go to work
to look good for other men and and and and
other women, and that you've got to eliminate and tried
and vanity from your life. And if you do that,
she will respect you. She needs to hear you praying,
She needs you need to lead spiritually. My goodness chat.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
One of the things that that has changed in our lives.
I you know, five six years ago, I would not
have put money on this being the case. But uh,
prior to prior to coming to Jesus, you know, we
we we'd get a meal and we just PLoP down
and start watching something on TV and eat and that'd

(31:22):
be that. You know. Uh. Now we we say grace
at every meal. And it doesn't matter if it's in
the afternoon snack, there's still we bless it. You know,
we're holding hands, we're blessing our food. We pray together,
not not all the time. I mean in the mornings.
We have a prayer in the morning together when we're
sipping coffee and uh and talking to Jesus.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
That's like the first thing happens when we when we
wake in the morning is we have coffee with Jesus
and I'll say a short prayer and then we'll get
into Bible scripture and she'll read, you know, she'll she'll
read her her Bible and I'll read my Bible. And
if there's something that that arises that that catches one

(32:04):
of us, we'll bring it up and we'll have to
talk about it and yeah, it's great and uh. And
then after that, you know, we go into our separate
prayer closets and and we take care of that and
we're you know, it's it's so much different because there
was none of that before my baptism. You know, because

(32:25):
str straightway, I'll be honest with I straightway, when I
came back from Edmonton, Alberta after being baptized by baptized Lena,
you know. And what was really what was really cool
about it is that I didn't have to ask her
to do it. I didn't have to talk her into
doing it. She was just she was willing already.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
And it's it's in the Bay of America, the Bay
of America there.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
The Gulf of America. Yeah, nothing so grandiose, but baptism
one of the lest.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Listen, I'm gonna I'm gonna duck out and let you
finish up, continue with your study. I just I'm really happy.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Well, I appreciate the input. Maya. It's it's a shame
you have to duck out, but I understand.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
So I want to hear your study, and I I
will interrupt. That's how I am one more things before
I go. I have made it a point for several
years now to ask God in prayer to make me
the husband that he intended a husband to be from

(33:32):
the beginning. That's something that I ask him to do
every day, and to put the kind of love in
my heart for my wife that he purposed it to
be for a marriage. Let me tell you something, he's
doing it. My love for my wife grows every day.
We laugh, we smile, we will just stand in the
kitchen hold in hands like a couple of little kids.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, there's joy and affection. And it's not the inordinate
affection either, you know where you know doing a tonsilect me,
you know, But it's it's the holding of hands, you know,
and it's it's showing the appreciation, and it's there's joy there.

Speaker 1 (34:11):
Yeah. And when I'll getting in too much detail, other
things are really good too.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
It okay, all right, So I was going to take
everyone over to Malachi, chapter chapter two and verses fourteen
through sixteen, and it says, Yet you say, wherefore, because
the Lord hath been witnessed between THEE and the wife
of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet
is she thy companion and thy wife the covenant? Huh?

(34:44):
So what do you think is going on here? You
have dealt treacherously with your wife? Well, it's like Mike says,
you know, if you're if you've got a porn habit,
you're texting other women, you're flirting in public, flirting in
public in front of her, You're dealing treacherously well with

(35:06):
your wife, and vice versa. You know, we'll just say spouse,
that she could be on any foot man or woman,
and did not he make one? In other words, aren't
you supposed to be together as one flesh? Yet had
he residue? Yet had he the residue of the spirit?

(35:28):
And wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore,
take heed to your spirit what's going on inside, And
let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, Saith, he hateth
putting away for one coverth violence with his garment, Saith,

(35:49):
the Lord of Hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit,
that ye deal not treacherously. There's going to be some
serious recompense for what's happening between you and your spouse,
and a lot of it is just out of simple ignorance.
We don't know any better, and that's not an excuse.

(36:13):
We will not be held blameless. Okay, we will not
be held blameless. So anyone who may be listening to
this bimble study, there may be something stirring in you
right now that is maybe giving you some a little

(36:37):
bit of peace and a little bit of joy and
maybe a little excitement. And that's a good thing. But
there needs to be some reflection, some inner reflection about
who you are in this marriage. And my advice that

(36:58):
I meant to give this earlier is one of the
best things that you can do. And this has to
come from you. It cannot be because I said so,
or Mike said so, or because you want your marriage
to succeed. It can't be a selfish reason. It needs
to come from within to go and be baptized in

(37:22):
the name of Jesus. If you are struggling and you
don't have a church, or you're in a church and
maybe you can't speak to your pastor for whatever reason.
I know there's situations like that. Mike and I are
available or accessible to help you, maybe find a church.

(37:45):
But God has to be the focal point of all
things in all things. Seek Christ in all things. This
is every aspect they're telling us, every aspect of our life.
We need to put God before all things, all right.
And when we do that, when He is the head
of everything in our lives, it's like everything else just

(38:08):
falls into place. When before, as I mentioned, you know,
there was very little, very little that I took joy.
And as a matter of fact, life was so joyless
for me. I didn't give two flips about anyone, about anyone,
because I was so preoccupied with trying to find my
own joy, trying to make myself happy, and see that

(38:31):
selfishness make myself happy, all right, I can't make myself happy. No,
Only the joy and the love of God can make
someone happy. Truly happy. True happiness does not go away.
You will have days that may be a little trying.

(38:51):
You may have arguments, you may have disagreements and not
see eye to hide with your spouse. And that's okay.
How we deal with it changes dramatically. Okay, how we
deal with it, how we respond to it, changes dramatically.
So let's go. Let's move on the purpose and order

(39:14):
in marriage. We have Ephesians. We would go to Ephesians
to look at the purpose and order in marriage. So, marriage,
as I mentioned earlier, mirrors Christ's relationship with the Church,
the husband's role, as Mike was talking about just a
minute ago, It's a loving relationship modeled after Christ's sacrificial love,

(39:36):
sacrificial love, servitude, serving others, all right, putting others before yourself,
all right, put your spouse before yourself. Now, I know
there are situations out there where someone may be saying,
but jet that's all I do. I wait on this person,

(39:56):
hand and foot. Everything I do is for them. I
do nothing. I do very little for myself. Well, maybe
the problem isn't with you necessarily, if you are with Jesus. Okay,
as I mentioned before, I wanted to make myself happy.

(40:18):
You can't do anything, Paul says, I can do nothing
without Christ, but I can do all things in Christ.
With Christ, I can do all things because it's not
him doing it. It is the Holy Spirit. It's the
Holy Spirit within him. That's the difference. That's the difference.

(40:45):
All right. So we were going to look at Ephesians five,
verses twenty two and twenty five through twenty five. So
let's go to Ephesians. We shoot, Yeah, there we go.
I don't know what just happened, but we're on our way.

(41:08):
To Ephesians chapter five, verse twenty two through twenty five.
It says, why submit yourselves unto your own husbands as
unto the Lord? Oh boy, you hear some women taking
big issue with that statement. Okay, but it's not it's

(41:30):
not what you think. It means to submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord. The words submit,
and I find this a lot with a lot of
words that we're spoken in Jesus's time that don't mean
the same thing as they do today. Submit in some
cases it means to permit, to allow. All right. Another

(41:56):
word that I find doesn't mean the same today as
it did then, is charity. You ask anybody on the
street today what's charity, and if they're not a one
God Apostolic, Pentecostal, they're probably going to say, well, you know,
that's when you just gift stuff you don't want any
more to other people that might be able to use it.

(42:17):
That's charity. No, charity is love. Charity is love. And
when we have a charitable heart, we have that love
within us. And when we have that love within us,
we're going to want to put others' needs first, other
people first, even our neighbors, okay, And that's a good

(42:38):
place to be. That's Jesus likes to see that. And
it continues verse twenty three. For the husband is the
head of the wife, even as Christ is the head
of the church. Now remember marriage is a design by God,

(42:58):
all right, and he wants the men to be the
head of the wife. As Christ is head of the church.
Christ is head of his bride, the church. We the
head of our bride here on earth. But now we
are one. That doesn't mean I'm sitting there with a
hand handed fists and you know, dictating her every move

(43:20):
and you know you're gonna have my dinner on the
table at five point fifteen, every after every evening. No,
that's not not what that means. That's not what that means.
Continuing on in verse twenty four. Therefore, as the church
is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to

(43:40):
their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.
I would lay down my life for my life. I would,
I will, I will. I would before when I was

(44:02):
a very selfish person. You know, God's still working with
my selfishness. There are still some ways I can be
polished up in that respect, but I now that that
would not have been a thing for me, to lay
down my life for my life, but it is now anyway.

(44:28):
Moving on, So the wife's role is willing to support
and respect, all right, modeled after Christ's devotion to the
Church's devotion to Christ.

Speaker 5 (44:38):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
And it's not about dominance. This thing is not about dominance,
but about divine order and harmony. All right. So we've
we've been so conditioned, uh since birth, in in society
and in the world, uh, to look upon things as oh, derogat.

(45:00):
I guess it might be a good word. It's a
derogatory word to be submissive to your husband, because women
power and women have their own strength, and yes you do.
You absolutely have strength where men do not. That is
that I have seen that, and it's displayed every day

(45:21):
when I am with my wife, I see her strength
and I pray that she can see mine as well.
And it should be complementary, not one over and above
the other. So how does this understanding, How does understanding
marriage as a reflection of Christ and the Church change

(45:42):
how we treat our spouses Because it's a responsibility. When
we enter into that marriage, we are taking on a covenant,
and a covenant is a responsibility where we have to
do certain things. We are responsible for certain things, for
maintaining certain aspects of the marriage, all aspects of the marriage. Really,

(46:06):
you know, both parties are. And when this is sanctified
and consecrated in Jesus' names, it just it works. It
just works so much better. And I can't even really
explain it fully the way I would like to, but
just understand that it can turn whatever marriage you may

(46:30):
be experiencing. If it's not optimum, he can certainly turn
that around. Put him first in all things, even if
you're just in the kitchen making peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Thank him for it. Bless that sandwich, because you wouldn't
have it if it weren't for Jesus. He made all things.

(46:55):
He made the glass that the jar of the glass
that the peanut butter sits in, or the plastic or whatever.
Man doesn't just come up with these things. He puts
it in their minds to create them, to make them, uh,
for the for our benefit. Okay, everything you see around you,
the lamp behind me, decide it's not over here? Uh

(47:21):
it made you know, somebody made it, Yes, with their
own hands. But I guarantee you the idea was not
of their own. That idea was given to them a
blessing from God. Well here's how you do it, right.
So that's the way I mean, that's the way I
see things as anymore. Before it was like I just

(47:42):
took all this stuff around me for granted. But I
thank him so much for the cover over my head,
especially when it's raining and cold outside. So it seems
are great. Anyway. I'm sorry, I'm taking up a lot
of time and we're almost we're almost coming up on
the on the hour So that was Ephisians Ephesians chapter five,

(48:03):
verse twenty two, and twenty five through twenty five. I'd
like to bounce down to verse twenty eight of Ephesians
chapter five two, verse twenty eight and thirty three, not
through but eight or not through but and twenty eight
and thirty three. Twenty eight says, So ought men to
love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth

(48:23):
his wife loveth himself. Yeah. Do you know if you
don't love yourself, you can't love anybody if you don't
love yourself, and loving others helps you love yourself. And
so that's one of the that's one of the things
I pray for, is for God to put his love
in my heart, because without it, not only am I

(48:44):
not a good person, I don't love anybody. It's impossible
for me to love anybody without his love in my heart. Okay.
And then verse thirty three, nevertheless, let every one of you,
in particular, so love his wife even as himself. And
the wife see that she reverence her husband. Okay, So

(49:06):
what is reverence? What does reverence in this in this
situation mean? Well, this is when I like to go
to a concordance and look up these words like we're reverence.
You know, people say, well, that means revere. You have to,
you know, always hold your husband up as the greatest
thing since slight bread, even though he's you know, cheating
on me. No, that's not what that means. It's to honor. Well,

(49:29):
let's take a quick look at it. Let's see. I
think I've got my concordance. Here, give me just a moment.
We're in Ephesians. Ephesians.

Speaker 6 (49:44):
Got a song in my heart and it's for the Lord.
I can't let it go. He's just fill in my soul.
This is so fun, all right?

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Uh so verse thirty three it said, nevertheless, let every
one of you, in particular so love his wife even
as himself. And the wife see that she reverence her husband. Reverence.
Reverence is the is the Greek word phobio fabeo, not
fabio forbeo too. And this is the You read through

(50:23):
this and you'll see something that says, well, yeah, that fits.
And some of it is like, well, not in this context,
to frighten, that is to be alarmed by analogy, to
be in awe of that is revere, revere all so

(50:43):
it can mean in whatever content. And that's the thing.
You got to look at the Bible as well to
what context is this being given in. So it's not
necessarily fear. It's not fear your husband. It's to revere them,
to honor them, to You're not going to be out
in public speaking ill of them just because they didn't

(51:04):
put the cheese on the right side of the sandwich.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Of your or on social media or oh.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Yeah, yeah, don't don't be doing that. Don't be doing that.
God doesn't like that. He does not like that at
one bit one bit. So we have the We just
went through the purpose and order in the marriage, what
the husband's role is and what the wife's role is,
what the structure is. It all comes back to Jesus, though.

(51:31):
He has got to be the head and focal point
of everything in our lives, everything in our lives. Does
that mean you're down on your hands and knees twenty
four to seven thinking and praising him. No, it does not.
There are times when you need to humble yourself and
be on your knees though, and I would be I
would ask each and every one of you listening that
you you do that first thing every morning, even if

(51:53):
you have a hectic schedule. Even if you have a
hectic schedule and you don't have a regular life, try
this for the next five business days, for the next
five business day, for the next five days, carr out
just a little bit of time in the morning before
you do anything else. Okay, before you do anything else.

(52:16):
If you need to go, get a sip of coffee.
Get a sip of coffee, but find your prayer closet.
Make a prayer closet somewhere somewhere in the house. Quiet
that you can be alone. Get on your knees, if
you are physically capable of doing that, get on your knees,
and just thank him. Just thank him. Thank him for
everything he's done for you. Thank him for all the
gifts and blessing he's bestowed upon you. The fact that

(52:39):
you opened your eyes and took a breath this morning
as you woke up, Thank him for that. Thank him
for that. And if you do that before you get busy,
before you jet out of their house for work, set
your alarm clock ten minutes earlier, whatever you need to do,
give him that attention first thing. Give him that, and

(53:02):
see what your day goes. See what's how your day goes.
Just see, I'd be very surprised if it didn't change
for the better. Anyway, we were going to go to Ecclesiastes.
Do we have time, Mike, or you start looking at
wrapping it up?

Speaker 1 (53:22):
No, Elder, you go on, you're doing just great. I'm
listening and I'm heading over to Ecclesiastes with you.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Okay, So let's run over to Ecclesiastes chapter four. We're
going back in the Old Testament, Ecclesia, Ecclesiastes, the Church Church,
and we're going to go to chapter four of Ecclesiastes.
And this is going to be versus nine through twelve,
Verses nine through twelve. Ecclesiastes, chapter four, Verses nine through twelve.

(53:54):
It says two are better than one. You've heard that
expression to eyes are better than one. Two heads are
better than one. Two are better than one because they
have a good reward for their labor. All right, you're
working together, all right. You're more productive when you're working
in tandem than if you're working independently or even working

(54:16):
against each other, which can happen a lot of times.
For if they fall, the one will lift up this
fellow but woe to him that is alone when he fallows,
for who hath not another to help him up? Who's
going to help you out when you stumble? Right?

Speaker 1 (54:33):
You see, you see a lot of older feminists who
have decided to, you know, exclude men from their life.
And then they get older and they're just they're so
alone and they have no help and they you know
what I mean. And we're supposed to remember the fatherless
and the widows. So yes, that's a good time to
bring them to the gospel. But it's a very sad

(54:56):
situation when when the realization hits them that they the
best years of their life I've gone by, and they're
just alone, and you know, maybe they've got a bunch
of cats or something trying to fill that void of
having somebody in their life. And so, yeah, two are
better than one. And then let me tell you something.

(55:18):
You ain't perfect, and neither is she. And there are
things about you. Your body's gonna make embarrassing, weird stuff,
and you've got habits that are strange, and getting those
things that people tried to hide from the world, those
things are all evident and open in a marriage. And

(55:39):
those are the things that I have learned to adore
about my wife and her about me. I'm let me
tell you something, chet, I'm a weirdo. Okay. I Like,
if I am thinking about something, my arms will start
doing stuff and I'll start mouthing words, but nothing's coming
out in my mouth. So like, I'll pacing around the

(56:00):
house shoeing this. And there's a rule if my arm
goes this way, it has to follow the same path back,
like there's a tunnel, mate. And so I was doing
that yesterday and then I snapped out of it, and
Jennifer goes, she's kind of chuckling, and she says, you're thinking,

(56:23):
aren't you? And I said yep, and she goes, I
love it when you do that. Let me just say
this too. There was a movie called Goodwill Hunting with
Matt Damon and uh and Robin Williams. And Robin Williams
was kind of this older wiser counselor that this young

(56:45):
hot peacock was going to and you know, he thought
he knew everything was slick, and he was talking about
this girl that he was thinking about getting together with
and they were sitting there having a one on one. Uh, well,
you know with the wiser, older man. And he said,
and he asked him because because Rob Williams character in

(57:06):
that movie, his wife had gotten sick and died a
few years earlier. And he told him a little story.
He said, this girl that your fancy, and here will
let me tell you something. Both of you.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
You you do.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Everything to look your best in public. You do everything
to do things perfectly as long as everybody else is watching.
But let me tell you something, slick. You ain't perfect,
and neither is she. And as you get older, your
body's going to start doing weird stuff. And he said,
my wife had this thing where she would just as

(57:44):
she was falling asleep, she would fart. And he said
it was a thing. And he said one night she
did it so loud that it woke her up, and
she woke up and blamed me. And he said, I'm sorry, honey,
because he's I didn't want to embarrass her.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
See now that.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
She's gone, I miss it like you wouldn't believe.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Oh bet.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
And that was a good story. I thought that was
written into that script. Obviously it was a secular movie
with a lot of swearing and whatnot, but it just
put me in mind of it when I was reading
your outline of your study that you were going to
go through today. That's the thing. If you're always trying
to stay young and pretty in vain and it don't work,
you're a blade of grass. Your time on earth is

(58:33):
going to fade. And once you know. It took me
a long time because I was a peacock. I thought
I was hot, I thought I was smart. I thought
I you know what I mean. And I've really enjoyed
getting older. I've really enjoyed losing that vanity and just
being comfortable with who and what you are and shutting

(58:56):
out the noise of the outside world when you're alone
with your wife and giving her that attention. And I
tell you I did not always have a good marriage.
It was very stressful and tumultuous at times. And when
I think back, it was my fault. It was my fault.
I couldn't. You know, there's Billy Joelsong. She's always a woman.

(59:19):
You know, he's just blame it all alone, you saylf
because she's always a woman to me. And once you
get used to that, and once you get used to
the fact that this is how people actually are, not
the Hollywood version where nobody ever goes to the bathroom
or you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Yeah, society puts so much pressure on us to be
a certain way, or that marriage or relationships are supposed
to be a certain way. There's got to be a
certain amount of heat in the relationship all the time,
you know. And you even hear people and writing books
and going on talk shows talking about, oh yeah, you

(59:56):
can have you know, you can have heat in your
marriage at eighty you know, I stuff, you know what,
I don't want that kind of heat in my marriage
at eighty. I'm too tired. I just want to go sleep.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
You know. There was a social scientist named Tony Campolo,
and he was in an argument with a bunch of
feminists and he was telling this story. But they were
saying that once the once the erotic passion leaves a marriage,

(01:00:35):
then the love is gone. It doesn't work. And he said, uh,
I remember the story. He said. There was this this
man I knew, and his wife and him were one
morning just to have a breakfast, and she just slumped
over dead and uh, he like a teenager, peeling out

(01:00:59):
of the driveway, load her in the truck, took her
to the hospital, but it was too late and after
the funeral, him and his adult children were standing over
the over the site of the grave, and uh, he
looked at them and he said, this is a good day.

(01:01:22):
This is a good day. And he said, what do
you mean, Dad, she's gone. He said, I didn't want
her to have the pain of burying me first. Yeah,
and so he said, he said, the love that they

(01:01:43):
had for each other versus just the erotica makes your
statement superficial by comparison. And then he goes, I knew
I had him, but that that those years and and
the greater can concern about greater things in regards to
your wife or your husband. That's what you need to build.

(01:02:07):
That's what you need to build. Uh. Chat, I'm gonna
let you go on.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Okay, just a couple more things real quick, and then
we can we can wrap it. Uh. You spoke about love,
and love is you know, initially when we meet somebody,
we're you know, figuring each other out, and you know,
maybe a possible suitor or something like that. You may
have that feeling in your in your chest cavity, you know,
that special feeling, and that's good. That's supposed to be there,

(01:02:34):
and we we want that. But at some point, like
you said, you know that that is going to fade.
That doesn't mean the love is fading. Love is more
than a feeling. That love is a commitment. It is
a commitment. I've committed myself to you in the eyes

(01:02:57):
of God, in the sight of God, and we will
become as one flesh. And this is something that is unbreakable.
When then we have this bond created by God, that
bond will be unbreakable. We can weather storms, the disagreements

(01:03:20):
because we're putting each other first. We're putting each other
first in that selfishness. There's still some areas I'm selfish
with and and God is working with me on those
as well. And I've seen improvement, which is good. But
that yeah, that that man that that buried his wife,

(01:03:42):
I I I feel what he's saying, and I can
agree with that fully. We just don't know what God's
will is in that respect, you know, and so we
have to understand his will. But I do know this will,

(01:04:06):
whatever the case may be. I feel at this moment
that she or I could either one of us could
rest easy knowing where the other one, what reward they
went to. So that's and that's another thing we help

(01:04:27):
each other. When it talks about when Ecclesiastes was talking
about you know, you've got a partner there, we're still
reading some of that. You've got a partner there to
help you. It goes on to say again, if two
lie together, then they have heat. But how can one

(01:04:48):
be worn alone? And so that's that's the benefits of
being in a marriage that God recognizes and is active in.
And that's one of the things we have, you know,
because that's on us works as it were, Ah is

(01:05:08):
making sure that that that we are there for the
other one when they need us. We're not being selfish,
because you can you know somebody, your your other may
need you. And if you're in a selfish life, you're
not going to be there for him. You might do
something for him, but you're not gonna you're not gonna

(01:05:29):
want to, you're not going to enjoy it. But with
his love and with his with his bond, you want to,
and and you you and if they're not, if they're angry,
or if they're hurt, it hurts. It hurts you because,
as you said, if you look hard enough, you'll probably

(01:05:50):
find that you're the source of that hurt or that anger,
and that's that's not that's uh, he's he's working with
me on that, you know, to make those times less
common less common. And then I think the last verse
of Ecclesiastes we're going to look at is and if
one prevail against him, too shall withstand him. And a

(01:06:13):
threefold chord is not quickly broken. What are you talking
about three What are you talking about three corps? We're
talking about you, your spouse and God. That's it right there,
and putting him first in all things, especially your marriage,

(01:06:34):
because that marriage you to your wife is like Christ
to the Church. And we have gotten so far removed
from that today is no wonder we have a divorce
rate the way we do, and all the issues that
go along with that. So all right, we have real quickly.

(01:06:58):
One set of marriage is even talked about in Revelations.
Gang you believe it, well, wait a minute. Revelation is
about things to come. Revelations hadn't happened yet. Well, if
you don't have the truth, you would think that. But

(01:07:18):
this is also something that is spoken about in the
Book of Revelation. An earthly marriage points to a greater
spiritual reality and we've been we've been pinging on it,
this whole study, the union between Christ the bridegroom and
the Church the bride. So and our ultimate calling is
to be a part of that heavenly marriage supper, and

(01:07:43):
a godly marriage on earth becomes a living testimony of
the Gospel. So those are some key points when we
get a look at these scriptures real quick. We're going
to go to Revelation chapter nineteen, verse seven through nine.
So we'll go to Revelation.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
I believe we were just here yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
I believe, so, you know. And that's the funny thing is,
and I mentioned to this to you last night that
a lot of what you talked about God's wrath and jealousy,
there were so many things that tied into this Bible
study that you talked about yesterday. I was just blown
away by it. So we're going to Revelation chapter nineteen

(01:08:26):
and verses seven through nine, and it says, let us
be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for
the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife
hath made herself ready. Church is ready, the bride is ready,
and to her was granted that she should be a
raided and fine linen clean and white. For the fine

(01:08:46):
linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me.
Right blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the lamb, and he saith unto me. These
are the two say of God. Marriage is of God. Marriage.

(01:09:06):
God designed marriage, beginning from the start with Adam and Eve,
who made man, or who made woman from man? Woe
man from man. And it's not it's it's not a
struggle of dominance, not in any stretch, not in any stretch.

(01:09:31):
As a matter of fact, when you start applying these principles,
Jesus first, servitude, giving of yourself, putting others first, dominance
is the last thing you're thinking about, and you're going
to see such. You're going to see changes. You're going

(01:09:51):
to see changes, but not again, I'm going to go back.
I'm not trying to be prescriptive in any way. Some
marriages are entire straits. I get it a lot. Yep,
many of them are, and it will take time. Even
when God is in your marriage and you're putting God first,

(01:10:12):
there are times when things just aren't happening the way
you think they should, and these things take time. Be patient.
That's another thing. If you ever prayed for patience, be careful.
He will kick you in the chest with patience.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
Its it hurts.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
So just understand God's time, perseverance, pray always, don't give up,
don't weary in well doing. But keep Him first. That's
probably the best piece of advice I could say, is
keep Jesus first. So wrapping up marriage is not a

(01:10:59):
product of cultural culture or convenience, although we've made it such,
and that's why so many of them fail today. It's
a divine design that reveals the love, faithfulness, and the
covenant nature of God. He made it of him, for him,
by him, and we build our marriages on the word,

(01:11:23):
his word. He is the word, and not on the
philosophies of the world. What you see on movies, what
you see on TV is all horse hockey, it's all garbage.
We reflect Christ to a watching world through our marriages,

(01:11:43):
and so I guess the closing scripture here Hebrews thirteen,
verse four. Hebrews Chapter thirteen, verse four marriage. Marriage is
honorable in all and the bed undefiled, But their horrormongers
and adulterers. God will judge I'm just going to leave

(01:12:03):
you with that one and for a quick prayer to
wrap this up, if I may, Mike, Heavenly Father, thank
you for the gifts of marriage and for revealing your
love through it. Help us to honor our covenants, to
love you as you love, and to build our homes

(01:12:27):
on the foundation of your word. Keep us from worldly deception, Lord,
and let our marriages reflect the beauty of Christ and
his Church.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
In Jesus' name, Amen, in Jesus' name, Amen, I want
to give one final piece of advice. Absolutely, you got
to know when to hold them, Uh, don't. You don't
have to know everything. Wisdom is knowing when to shut

(01:12:57):
up to And if you're burying yourself and the things
of the world and you're mad at the flat earth
and the Jews and the the Democrats and the that
is not going to help your marriage. That is that
you're dragging stuff in that that is Uh. See a
lot of people that they're reaching around looking for stuff
to blame for misery in their life and hardship, and

(01:13:22):
they're they're looking at all the wrong things. You've got
to look in your own home. You need peace, you
need you need Holy Ghost peace in your home and
in your marriage, and you don't have to be right
about everything, and you don't have to be lecturing all
the time. And uh, praise God.

Speaker 2 (01:13:38):
You want to be right or happy.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
God, jet you did a fine job today. I really
think that, uh, this this was well and blessed of God,
and that he put it in my heart to have you.
Have you come on and give a word today, And everybody,
this is Elder bro Chet Davis. And uh there will
be times in issues and matters of counseling or dealing

(01:14:04):
with different things where I will be sending you to
him for private consultations. And he has pledged to step
up and be faithful in all things with the church.
And so I wanted you to have a face to
have with the voice, and as well, that was some good.

(01:14:25):
Chet is older than me. Chet has been married longer
than me, and I tend to listen when there's an
elder talking. So if you are in a loveless marriage
where their strife, start looking inside first in yourself as
to what you can do and not blaming her or
not blaming him. You have so much good things that

(01:14:50):
you are throwing away if you do not heed these words,
and frankly, it's dangerous for you, it's dangerous for your children.
And often times in a bad marriage that children get
caught up in it and they're ping pong ball, going
back and forth between two divorces being used to punish
the other. And there's so many damaged people walking the

(01:15:15):
earth because their parents had a bad marriage. There's so
many people walking the earth that are damaged and guys
having to pay child support. And if you had just
done what God wants you to do, you would have
avoided so much pain and destruction. And so this is
very important what we're talking about here today. Thank you

(01:15:37):
so much, Chet for coming on. I appreciate you. I
love you. Man. Your salvation is one of the greatest
miracles I've ever seen in my life. Like, how God
just tell everybody what happened really quick if you don't mind.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Oh badism, yeah yeah yeah. So all right. As I
mentioned earlier, I was in the Coastguard. I retired from that.
I got a job, uh working for another company uh
in in Brudo Bay, Alaska. And while I was there,
I subcontracted with a third company that I work with
now solo pretty much or uh not solo but that's

(01:16:21):
the company I contract with now is uh and and uh.
Mike was doing a study and and he's been a
couple of months, maybe not even a year intwo doing
these Bible studies and I've been learning so much things
that I never knew about the Bible. And I was like,
I was raised in the Presterian Church.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
I know, Huh, you even went to seminary too.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
Yeah, I did. I went to Presterian seminary. I was
baptized in the titles Father Son and Holy Ghost and uh.
But there was nothing in that. There was nothing there.
There was no no, nothing, There was nothing there. And
so I hadn't been to church in decades. But what

(01:17:05):
Mike was doing was just opening my eyes so much.
And I just prayed a short prayer to the Lord.
I said, Lord, I want to be baptist and your
holy name Jesus, but I want Mike Philip to do it.
And he honored that. I got I'm I'm in southern Alabama.
Mike's up in Edmonton, Canada. And a couple of weeks later,

(01:17:26):
I'm getting a phone call for the company I subcontract
for and they said, well, you need you to teach
this class I said, sure, where is it And they
said it's Edmonton, Alberta. And I said, are you kidding me?
I said, I'd be more than happy to So it's
baptism is so important that that he heard my short
little prayer that I just happened to say under my

(01:17:50):
breath almost on one afternoon with a beer in my hand,
by way, and yeah, full disclosure, you know I'm not
the man I used to be. But thank you Jesus.
But not only did he send me over three thousand
miles to get his name put on my forehead in

(01:18:13):
holy baptism, he paid me to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
So that's how important baptism really truly is.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
And we had to take chet to a church building
because I don't have Ethel.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
Yeah, that's my rebirthplace, Bethel.

Speaker 1 (01:18:32):
Yeah, and we're going there to baptize a girl this
on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
Yeah, so we're sister, she's my sister. Now we're rebirthed
in the same location.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
Yeah, but I was going to say Pastor Grange. So
like a week after you or a few days, we
had a couple that God brought here from Ontario. A mother,
a widow and her son gave them ten thousand dollars
through to Canada revenue agee after they prayed to come here.
And then we had a family of six, and so

(01:19:05):
like there's you know, God used me to bring like
nine baptisms to Bethel, one from all the way from Alabama,
one all the way, two from Ontario, and then a
family of six. The pastor of that church took me aside,
Michael Grange, and he said, I got to tell you something,

(01:19:26):
brother Mike. We haven't had a baptism in quite a
while because it was the lockdowns and all that. And
he said, I had specifically been praying for baptisms, and
you showed up here with these people from all over
the place. And that's how God. See. So like God
answered your prayer. I had been praying for God to

(01:19:47):
lead me to hungry souls and give me the heart
of a shepherd and a servant. And at the same time,
Pastor Michael Grange about Lapstock, had been praying for baptisms.
So like God answered the prayer through uh And where
was your employer at that time? California? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
No, the one I subcontract to with now is in Virginia.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
So he took people from all over North America and
orchestrated it culmin eating in the baptism in Jesus name
and of the elder brough Chet.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
Well that's the thing too. I mean, if you do
forensics on this, you know, I mean, there's dozens of
people in this company that they could have you know,
called up and offered this particular training event too. But
they found me. Yeah, as there's like, yeah, we we

(01:20:44):
just wanted to check to see before we start going
through the phone tree if you'd be willing to take
this training. And I'm like, oh so you called me first. Yeah, absolutely,
I'll take it. But there are other things because they
could have called anybody, you know, people that have been
with the company a lot longer than I have. It's

(01:21:05):
just amazing, though.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
You'd have to be a smuck to think that God
didn't do all that, like Siria, you you'd have to
You'd have to be stretching to explain that without God,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:22):
And no, that's that's absolutely right. There's I mean, I'm
not the brightest crayon in the box, but I was
probably God had something to do with it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Thank you for listening today, everybody, and uh jet you'd
be ready because I'm gonna call you one of these
days to come back on and and speak life and
and let your tongue be a tree of life to
our listeners and our our people in the church that
we love so much. And uh, God bless you other hand,
h if and to those of you watching. I get

(01:22:03):
a lot of people calling me for counseling and things
like that. And if you've heard something today come out
of the mouth of Chet Davis that has picked your
heart and you want to go further in your life
with it, reach out to me at American doc Radio
at gmail dot com. That's American Uck Radio at gmail

(01:22:24):
dot com. And if you want to be put in
touch with Chat, I will facilitate that. And that goes
for anybody out there, especially those who are of the
household of faith. If you want to get together with Chet,
you've got some stuff you've got to get off your
chest or or discuss or or pray through. Uh, Chet

(01:22:44):
your guy. And I'm and this is not because I'm
lazy and trying to delegate all my responsibilities to other people. Okay,
I just want that to be known.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
Thanks for having me on Mike, and God bless everybody listening.
To the broadcast.

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
Thank you for being my friend and my brother, check
my bro. Everybody have a good and blessed day. In
the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Speaker 5 (01:23:11):
Amen, I wonder you daring everybody here who late had.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
Been nice, shed right until all because you loved no
one to help you a long the way and all long.
And if that is anyone, w let me tell you.

(01:24:07):
Let me tell you what I've done.

Speaker 4 (01:24:10):
I'm at see to be offense around me and protect
me every day.

Speaker 5 (01:24:17):
I don't it the wajee be a bird all.

Speaker 3 (01:24:26):
Around when I get bur the world. I want you
to better.

Speaker 5 (01:24:35):
A travel.

Speaker 3 (01:24:38):
World.

Speaker 4 (01:24:40):
Sometime it will hurt you to your heart to.

Speaker 7 (01:24:44):
See low one, see low one to the barn brought
you've been then then the foor stranger to me anyone.

Speaker 3 (01:24:57):
And all Lord, but just the Lord. As you stay
in the phone, you never have the worry when they're
knocking you Overdoe.

Speaker 4 (01:25:09):
There's that Jesus to be of fits around you, and
you never have to worry anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:25:16):
Just bottle down. So jeez, peel f wall around me
when you get better. So Gee, I want you to pertect.

Speaker 5 (01:25:36):
When you're getting lone, peel fatal around.

Speaker 2 (01:25:46):
And world.

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
Jeeves beel Fath

Speaker 5 (01:25:53):
Have a frol