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Solomon chapter 7. Look at the first words of verse number 1. It says, How beautiful are thy feet with shoes. The title of the sermon tonight is Beautiful Feet, Beautiful Feet. This concept of beautiful feet appears three times in the Bible. It appears in the Old Testament. Of course, this is one reference. It appears another time in the Old Testament. Again, it appears in the New Testament. And of course, you know, when we look at Song of Solomon, just a very quick reminder, of course, you all know that this is about the relationship between husband and wife, and they're speaking one toward another. And once again, we have the husband speaking to his wife, and he is once again complementing her looks. What we have different here, you may recall Song of Solomon chapter 7, sorry, Song of Solomon chapter 4. In Song of Solomon chapter 4, he also complemented his wife. But the difference in chapter 4 is that he complements her from head down, from top to bottom. This time in chapter 7, he begins at the feet. He begins complementing her from the feet, and you'll soon see that he begins working his way up. And there is something as we go through these compliments and all the things that he loves about his wife, there is a significant difference in chapter 7 compared to chapter 4, and we'll look at that in a moment. But it says, How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter. And then it says, The joints of thy thighs are like jewels. So you can see he's working his way up from her feet to her thighs. And then he says, The work of the hands of a cunning workman. So he says, essentially, and of course, it's the Lord God who's that kind of workman. It's the Lord God that has created us. And you know, what I'm reminded of when I read that verse is that God has created us exactly how he wants us to be. Okay? So our feet are the way that God has designed us to be. Our legs are the way the Lord God designed us to be, you know, our hips and our bodies, our faces, you know, it's how God designed us to be. And of course, we are the work of the hands of a cunning workman. And of course, that's the Lord God, our creator. The reason I say that is because we live in a society that is so obsessed with their looks. Okay. And, and, you know, we often find all the defects and we might compare ourselves to other people, but you need to remember that when you start to criticize your appearance, you're criticizing the work of the cunning workman. You're criticizing the work of God. This is why, you know, if you know me, if you know me outside of the pulpit, you know that I love to laugh. I like to joke around. I like to be sarcastic. I like to be silly. I like to have a fun time. So much so that sometimes I'll offend people just by being silly and things like that. I like to muck around. I just, I like to have fun. Like to me, life is, needs to be fun. I don't want to be serious all the time or cast down. There's enough things to upset me with the world. I'd rather have a great time. But one thing that I will never criticize someone is for the way God has created you. Okay. Your, your physical appearance. I might laugh at your hairstyle. You know, if you've done some, you know, if you've got some mullet look or something like that, I might do that because that's your work. That's your workmanship. That's not the workmanship of God. But really when it comes to someone's appearance, you know, we're all different shapes and sizes, aren't we? You know, and I remember, you know, going to, to school and, you know, when you, when you're amongst a whole bunch of other kids, people always mock you and laugh at you for whatever it is, whatever the issue might be. And I remember once getting into that habit and, and like, cause I said, I like to muck around and have fun. And I remember just at one time mocking someone's appearance. And I just, I immediately just had this huge regret because I was already saved as a young person. I just realized, boy, I've just mocked the work of God. Like this, you know, besides hurting someone's feelings, I've actually sinned against my Lord, but making fun of his workmanship. And so, you know, the big takeaway that I want you to take from this is please love what God has made you to be, you know, please, ladies, love your hair color, you know, love, love the shape of your hair and, and love the shape of your nose and, and love your body type. God's made you that way. And quite often we, we, we sort of look at our parents and, you know, maybe we feel unloved. Maybe we feel like, oh, I'm not attractive to, to somebody or this person or, and, uh, but here's, here's the thing about, you know, uh, love. And here's what we see in this book of Song of Solomon is that really at the end of the day, we just want to look beautiful. We just want to be handsome to one other person for the rest of our life, to death do us part. It's just about finding that one person. It's not like you have to be, uh, girls. You don't have to be pretty. So you have all these men chasing you. And like, you know, I can't wait for, you know, all these guys to be chasing me. You know what that lifestyle is just going to lead to a life of whoredoms, you know, fornication, just going to destroy the value of who you are. And you might even find that a man who would have appreciated you, they don't value you because you've wasted your body. You've been a whore, you've been a harlot, and simply because you're trying to attract the attention of men. Now, ladies, you need to attract the attention of one man who is to be your husband. And you know, God has made you made you beautiful. Okay. So when Solomon looks at his wife there in verse number one, how beautiful are they feet with shoes? You know, he, he likes her feet. You know, he loves every aspect of his wife. Now let's take a spiritual application of this passage. Keep your finger there. And cover me to Isaiah 52, Isaiah 52, Isaiah 52 and verse number seven. Isaiah 52 verse number seven. While you're turning there to Isaiah 52, I don't care if every woman in this world thinks I'm the ugliest man on the planet. As long as my wife thinks I'm handsome, I'm happy. I don't know if, but that's how it ought to be. And ladies, the same thing. Why should it matter if every man on the earth thinks that you're the ugliest thing they've ever seen, as long as your husband finds you beautiful, and he says, wow, how beautiful are your feet with shoes? I mean, that's what we want. You know, we want that one person that we're going to love till death do us part. And if you have found that person, look beautiful for that person, right? Like honestly, you know, I've worked, I've already preached in this, but I'm just thinking, you know, I've worked where ladies come to work, and they fix their hair, they put on their nicest clothes, they put on their makeup, and they want to look beautiful at the workplace. But when they get home to be with their husbands, they just don't care. It's the complete opposite. You know, if you're going to, but you know, man, fix yourselves up. If you're going to fix your hair or whatever it is, if you're going to hit the gym, you know, all of those things ought to be, just be more pleasant for your wife and ladies, you know, if you're going to fix your hair, if you're going to put on some nice clothes, do it for your husband's sake. You know, who cares what anybody else thinks about your appearance? What matters is between husband and wife. Now in Isaiah 52 verse number seven, we have another reference of beautiful feet. And it says in Isaiah 52 verse number seven, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publish of peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publish of salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Now the direct application like Isaiah, the book of Isaiah, Isaiah is warning the southern kingdom of Judah that look, you know, if they don't fix their ways down the track, the Lord's going to judge you and Babylon's going to come and destroy you. That's the big warning. Okay. And of course, leading up to the prophet Isaiah, the nation of Israel, whether the southern kingdom, you know, or Northern kingdom or, or combined as one nation, they've often had many wars against enemies and so forth. And so the first application of this passage is talking about how beautiful it is for messengers to come crossing the mountains and saying that God has saved the nation of Israel. As far as a, a physical salvation for the nation of Israel, where God has defeated the enemies, you know, or, you know, in this scenario where God may have very well stopped the, you know, the Assyrian empire from taking over the southern kingdom. This kind of news is something that, that, that publishes peace. This is something that people can rejoice in when they know that we're not in a time of war, but we're in a time of peace and that God has defeated our enemies. So the salvation that published salvation in this reference with Isaiah, you know, the first application of course, is the salvation of the physical nation of Israel against its enemies. It says in verse number eight, thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with a voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Of course, Zion is a reference to Jerusalem, that God has given Jerusalem peace. Then it says in verse number nine, break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem for the Lord have comforted his people. He have redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord have made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. And so again, if you know the context of Isaiah, this is talking about a physical salvation for Israel and God delivering Jerusalem from its enemies. And what you notice here is that when this good news is being published, as people have come across the mountains, given this information, the Bible says that these, the feats of these messengers is beautiful. It's beautiful to hear. And as people hear the salvation of God, you can see that the people of Jerusalem are what? They're rejoicing, right? They're rejoicing at the salvation of God. But then we take this passage to the New Testament and come with me to John, sorry, Romans chapter 10, Romans chapter 10. And what might appear in the book of Isaiah as simply a physical salvation of a nation. You can see that when we get to Romans 10, Paul takes these very passages and takes a spiritual application, a deeper application, a second application, if you will, of these passages. Romans chapter 10, verse number 12. Romans chapter 10, verse number 12. It says, For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Just, I want to repeat that. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. You know what that means? That means the Jews are not more special than the Greek. We're all one and the same in the eyes of our Lord God. God is not a respecter of persons. God is not a respecter of races. I feel like I need to say that every time the scriptures say that. Because till this day, there are Baptist people that say, no, the Jews are special. No, no, no, it's the same. There is no difference. What does that mean to you? There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. There is no difference between the Jew and the Australian. There's no difference between the Australian and the New Zealander. You know, we're all one in Christ Jesus. It says in verse number 13, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on him on whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And then it says in verse number 15, verse 15 is what we read in Isaiah 52. It says, and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, written from where? From Isaiah 52, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. How beautiful are the feet of who? Those that preach the gospel. So we're not going to be those messengers being sent from the army. We defeated the enemies. Go to Jerusalem. And we're going to cross mountains and get to Jerusalem. God's won the battle for us. We're saved. That's not going to be our responsibility, but our responsibility is to be soul winners. Okay, so the Bible takes a physical salvation, applies it to a spiritual sense. You know, our responsibility as God's people is to preach the gospel. And how do we do it? Using our feet, isn't it? That's why it's called beautiful feet. We've got to go house to house. We've got to go and talk to people. Look, I'm not against preaching the gospel to people over the internet or over the phone. I've done it. And I've seen salvations that way. Praise God. But that should not replace our feet. You know, for every soul winner, everyone that's gone, soul winner, anyone that's open your mouth, presenting the glad tidings of peace. God says, you've got beautiful feet. Just like Solomon looks at his wife and goes, wow, you're so beautiful to me. You know, when you preach the gospel, God is saying, you're so beautiful to me. Your feet are so beautiful. And again, who created our feet? The Lord God. He created our feet so we can go and be used by God to go and preach the gospel to those that are lost and dying without Jesus Christ. And so come with me now to Ephesians chapter six. So now that you see that, you can see that, you know, um, like I hope you can see how, how, how intricate and beautiful even the Bible itself is. To go from something that is physical to spiritual. Truly the Bible has so many layers. You know, that there is one truth, many applications, what I normally teach people. And, um, so when we talk about the King, you know, King Solomon saying to his wife, how beautiful are thy feet with shoes? You know, what else can we take from that? That his wife is someone that preaches the gospel. His wife is known as somebody that can open her mouth. His wife is known as someone who's compassionate for the lost. And not only does he love her physically, but he loves her spiritually. That she has a love and desire for those that are dying without Jesus Christ. And ladies, you know, soul winning is not just for the men. You know, it's, it's, uh, it's behind this pulpit, behind this pulpit, preaching to God's people. The Bible is very clear. It must be men. Okay. Women are not to assert authority over a man when it comes to church matters. When it comes to preaching behind this pulpit. Okay. So ladies, you're not allowed behind this pulpit to preach and to teach behind here, but God definitely wants you to have beautiful feet. Okay. Not just for your husband to go, wow, you got beautiful feet, but for God to say, you have beautiful feet, preaching the gospel, glad tidings, salvation of our Lord God. And remember the rejoicing that we saw in Jerusalem? The reason I want to see on our chat, this person got saved is so I can rejoice. And so you can rejoice not to rejoice and to glorify man, but to glorify God, to rejoice in a song saved, to know that, Hey, we're doing the work that God has called us to do as a church. So I can, I can know that God says, wow, new life at the church has beautiful feet. That's what we want, right? We want God to say it's a beautiful church, a chaste version for Jesus Christ. Now, Ephesians chapter six, verse number 13, Ephesians chapter six, verse number 13, the Bible says wherefore take unto you, the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Brethren, the Bible tells us that we must have the whole armor of God put on this. It's a spiritual armor because we fight a spiritual war. We have a spiritual enemy in the devil. All right. And the devil, do you think the devil likes new life at the church? Do you think the devil likes his pastor? Do you think the devil likes you? Even sometimes as brethren, we don't always like each other. I will have each other, but the devil certainly doesn't like us. Okay. And so we instructed, Hey, put on the whole armor of God. And so it says there in verse number 14, stand there for having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. But look at verse number 15, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Remember her feet are beautiful with shoes. Well, here it says that your feet needs to be shod. That means you got to put your shoes on. Okay. Say, what are these shoes? It says shod with, this is what you got to put on. Okay. You put on the nights. No, no, no. You put on the, what are some brands Reeboks? No, no, no. You put on the gospel of peace. It's called the preparation of the gospel of peace. You know, in order for you to be able to give the gospel to somebody, in order for you to be used by God, to use your feet, to go up to someone and open your mouth and give the gospel to someone. The Bible says you need to be prepared. You need to be prepared. You need a plan. Okay. You need to practice. You need to come out and be a silent partner. And you know what, if you say to your pastor, I don't think I can ever do it. I don't think I can ever open my mouth. Okay. But you can use your feet. I have no problem. If someone says to me, pastor, I'll be a silent partner forever. Great. We can make more teams. You can help out. You can pat the dog when the dog's barking. You can carry extra tracks. You can hold the Bible. Look, you're a blessing as a silent partner. And I'll tell you this, even if you take the view, I'll do it for the rest of my life, silent partner. At some point, at some point you'll be like, ah, I'll do it. I'll take the next door. It happens eventually. At some point you're like, I can do this. You know, I need to have a chance. But anyway, let's say silent partner for the rest of my life. Fine. Praise God. You're using your feet. Okay. You're being a support to the preacher that is next to you. It continues verse number 16, above all, taking the shield of faith. Wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. You know, ah man, sometimes I look at this, I look at this now and I wonder, do I have all my armor on tonight? I don't know. I need to assess that. Right. It's a great reminder. Have you got all of these things in place in your life right now? If you don't, the devil's got an opening to attack you and to attack your family and to attack new life Baptist church. But back to Song of Solomon, chapter seven, please. Song of Solomon, chapter seven. So her feet are beautiful. Her feet are shod with shoes. And then it says in verse number two. Well, I'm going to read verses two to five very quickly, just to show you that as he's complimenting his wife, he's working his way up, right? You're seeing from his feet, sorry, from her feet to her thighs. Then he says thine navel, that's essentially her belly button, is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor. Thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. So she's speaking about her belly. You can see there. Verse number three. Thy two breasts are like two young rolls that are twins. So he's working his way up. Verse number four. Thy neck is a tower of ivory. Thine eyes like the fish pools in heshbron, by the gates of Befrabim. Thy nose is as a tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus. Now, where's my wife? Well, she's not there. I don't think she'll like that one. Thy nose is as a tower of Lebanon. Honey, you've got a big nose. I don't know. Maybe it works for other ladies. I don't know. I don't know if my wife's going to like that one. But anyway, we have the example laid out by Solomon, right? He's working his way up all the way up to her face. Then he says in verse number five. Thine head upon these like Carmel and the hair of thine head like purple. The king is held in the galleries. Now look, her hair is not purple. Like she doesn't have crazy colours in her hair. It says here like purple because the colour purple is a royal colour. Because then he says the king is held in the galleries. So it looks like he's like playing with her hair or something. Like he's there in the midst of her hair. Like it's kind of like his hangout. Like there, you know, with his wife, touching her, holding her and what have you. But you can see clearly that he's working his way up. Can you keep your finger there quickly and come with me to chapter four. Chapter four. I just want to show you the difference there in Song of Solomon chapter four. We're not going to read it all, of course, but just verse number one. Song of Solomon chapter four, verse number one. It says he behold thou out fair, my love behold thou out fair. Thou has dove's eyes within thy locks. Thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead. So you can see from chapter four, he's working his way top down, right. Her eyes are mentioned, her hair is mentioned at the beginning. We're not going to read it all, just drop down to verse number five. It says thy two breasts are like two young rose that are twins which feed among the lilies. So even the language in verse number five is very similar to the language in chapter seven. And so, you know, you can see that he's doing this one way, then working his way up the other way. But the one thing that really stands out to me in chapter seven, if you go back to chapter seven for me, is verse number two. Let's read it again. Thy navel, so her belly button is like a round goblet, okay. So it doesn't appear that she's got this perfectly flat stomach here, okay. A goblet, if you don't know, is sort of like, it's like a cup, like a cup, but then it's got like a little stand that sounds like that, it's a bit higher up. And usually you hold it from there and you drink, okay. So it's usually round, a goblet, like it's a round look, okay. So just pretend that's the goblet there, that's the cup there, it's a round cup like. Then it says which wanteth not liquor. Wanteth not means it doesn't lack, okay. And liquor there, I know what you think of alcohol, but it comes from the word liquid, okay. So it's saying that essentially, again, if that's the goblet, it's not lacking liquid. So it's essentially it's full, it's full of water, let's say. Let's use water for example, okay. It's full of liquid, the goblet. And so what could that mean? Then it says thy belly is like a heap of wheat. So does this sound like she's got like a flat stomach or is the stomach getting a little bit bigger, do you think? Well, of course, right, a heap of wheat set about with Lily's, you know, her stomach is large, as it were, okay. And so what I believe, again, it's hard to be dogmatic about these things, but I think it's pretty, I think it's, if you take it as it is, I think what it's saying here is that she's pregnant. I think she's fallen pregnant, okay. Because all these chapters, of course, you've seen how intimate they've been, how they spend time together on the marriage bed and what have you, okay. And of course, when a woman falls pregnant, what happens? You know, she, you know, her womb grows and, you know, she's got that amniotic fluid, which the baby is then going to be growing from, okay. And of course, that amniotic fluid is liquid, it's water essentially, right. And so it sounds like she's just full of water, you know, the water that bursts. And like, you know, speaking about her belly growing. And when I think about this, like, do you guys see that as well? Or am I just coming up with that? Like, I hope you guys can see that. I think what's happening here is that sometimes I think ladies, when they fall pregnant, they become self-conscious about their appearance once again, okay. Because it is normal, it is normal to put on weight, okay. And not just weight where your baby is, but many times ladies put weight all over their bodies. And mothers, you know what I'm talking about, right. I'm sure, you know, and then not only do you put on weight, but after you have the baby, it's very hard to lose that weight. It's, you know, it's almost impossible to return back to how you were before you had children, right. Maybe with one child, maybe it's possible with one child. But once you've had two, three, especially if you've had twins, okay. The more, you know, you have children, the more your body's going to change, okay. And of course, there's the stretch marks, there's going to be certain defects on your body. You know, the extra weight and, you know, if a woman has to have cesarean, of course, there'll be scarring of that procedure, of that child coming through. And so what I can see out of this, especially husbands, men, man, I'll talk to you, is that your wives are going to become self-conscious about their bodies when they fall pregnant and even after have children. And they realise my body's not going back to the way it used to be, okay. So what's Solomon doing? Criticising his wife? Now he's telling how beautiful she is. Even with the bigger belly, even with the growing belly, he tells her, look, this is beautiful. And truly men, we should look at, you know, our wives having children as a very beautiful thing. You know, I mean, like, think about like, I don't know what it's like to have a human being inside of me. That's only something our wives are going to expect. Like, think about that. It's amazing. It's a miracle of God to be able to bring forth children. And so it's something beautiful. It's something amazing. Something special. My wife, when she feels the kicks in her belly, she's like, oh, feel the kick. I said, I don't know. I'm a bit weird. But some people, I see, because some people love to touch people, you know, pregnant ladies and even without permission, like, can I touch you? I'm not that kind of person. I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah. I kind of feel a bit weird when I feel the kicks and the whatever, you know. But, you know, what I love about this once again is that he's just making sure, reassuring his wife that she's beautiful, reassuring that he loves her. You know, no matter how your body's changing because of age and pregnancy and bringing forth children, you know, he's trying to make sure that he's dealing with her self-conscious issues that she has. You know, if there's anything men that you're going to take away from Song of Solo and Please, this is from the very beginning, chapter one, is that ladies, it's just how they are, that they are going to be self-conscious about their appearance. Like, we can say, oh, just get over it. You know that I love you or something like that, but it's not going to help. You have to tell, how many times does Solomon, how many times does the man tell his wife that she's beautiful? How many times? You see it over and over and over again. Our wives need to be reinforced that we love her, you know, that we find her beautiful. Please, you know, get into this habit of giving your wives these beautiful compliments. Um, okay, Song of Solomon, chapter seven, if you, if you've moved away somewhere, I think so, verse number six, verse number six, he says, how fair, how fair and how pleasant art thou, O love for delights. This thy stature is like a palm tree and thy breast to clusters of grapes. I said, I will go up to the palm tree. I will take hold of the bowls thereof. Remember, she's the palm tree. So he says, I'm going to the Palm tree. I'm going to grab a hold of her. And then he says, now also thy breast shall be as clusters of the vine and the smell of thy nose like apples. So he's describing her once again as that garden, right? Like she is the Palm tree. She is the, the clusters of the vine. You know, she's smells like apples. I guess she's got, I don't know where it is, right? But you know, he's describing her as that garden. And he says, look, I just want to take a hold of you. Uh, you know, even, even though you're pregnant, I still want to be with you. I still want to be intimate with you. I still want to hold you. I still want to get, grab a hold of you. And, and, uh, you know, men, once again, we need to embrace our wives. We need to show her that we love her and, and kiss her and, and make her feel special. And, and all of this. And I just, uh, I'm not really a poetic kind of guy, but I find this stuff to be beautiful. I mean, it's God's word is what it is. It's God's word. This is God's poetry, men. Cause sometimes we're not that romantic. I'm not that romantic. I think, I don't know, Kristin, you tell the ladies if I'm not or not. I don't know. But we know we have God's word here to help us men. You know, say, wow, look at this poetry. Look how he treats his wife. Look how he talks to his wife. I mean, I don't know about you men, but I feel challenged. Like I look at this and I'm like, Who did my wife marry? Like she could have married someone that was a lot more romantic, but anyway, no, no, he's hold on. God's word is there because it's there for a reason. God wants us to work toward being these kinds of people, this kind of husband and wife. Okay. So yeah, she's compared to a tree. It's like he's kind of climbing, grabbing the best fruits that she has. And none of this is graphic. None of this is vile. This is all beautiful language. This is all a beautiful relationship between husband and wife. You know, when we read this book, we ought to go, Hey, this is a G-rated book. You know, we have the schools trying to teach our children all kinds of publishing, all kinds of garbage. You know, the book, if we want to instruct our children on intimacy and marriage and the marriage bed, Song of Solomon is probably the best book to use. Well, it is the best book to use because it's the word of God. Look at verse number nine. He says, and the roof of thy mouth, like the best wine for my beloved. So once again, he's kissing her. If he can essentially taste the best wine at the roof of her mouth. I believe there's a second application here as well too in a moment, but it says here that go off down sweetly. Now you may recall the sermon on Sunday afternoon about alcohol. And how does, you know, how does a, how does a grape just become alcoholic? You know, the yeast consumes the sugars and turns it into alcohol. Right? So when we look at this passage, it's the best wine. Then it says this, that go off down sweetly. Is this alcoholic wine? No, because it's sugary. Okay. It's, it's fresh, fresh, freshly crushed grapes, right? Now it's, it's got a sweet taste to it. It says here, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. You know, I've taught for Song of Solomon, um, back at blessed or Baptist church a couple of years ago. And I'm obviously, I'm going through it again with this church, but I kind of just skipped over the last phrase there. Causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. Cause I didn't know what it meant really. I think I've got a better idea now. So you know, how I told you that of course, there's the primary application between husband and wife, but we've also seen in verse number one, when he spoke about his wife, how beautiful are thy feet with shoes. And we've seen the spiritual application of her being able to give the gospel, being able to see souls saved. Well, when you take that approach and you apply it to verse number nine. So the roof of her mouth is like the best wine. And of course you can apply that to the kissing one another, but you can take a spiritual teaching here. That because she's preaching the gospel, essentially it's like the best wine. Like it's the best tasting. It's the best sounding news that anybody can hear. And of course, when somebody receives the gospel, when someone places their faith and trust in Jesus, that causes as it were, causing the lips of those that are asleep, speaking of those that have passed away to speak. You know, so of course when somebody is saved, they pass from death unto life spiritually. You know, you pass from death unto life. You know, you were once spiritually dead, but the moment you believe on Jesus Christ and you receive the gospel message, you're born again. You've been given everlasting life. So when I look at that passage now in light of verse number one, I think this is also taking a spiritual application. She's getting soul saved. Like her husband gets to enjoy it physically, but spiritually, she's raising others from the dead spiritually, seeing them saved, seeing them born again. Those that were once dead now have the ability to speak. Now verse number 10, now the wife speaks in return. She says, I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me. That's very confident for her to say that. She says, what he desires is me. She's saying what, you know, who he wants to spend time with is me. That's what she's saying. Wives, can you say that about your husbands? Again, if you can't, it's a challenge, right? Now ladies, if you say pastor, my husband doesn't really have his desire toward me or not as much as it ought to be, or as much as I would love it to be, it's not always your husband's problem. It's not always your husband's fault. Now, look, when it comes to a relationship, it's always, it takes two to tango, as I say, right? It's, you know, whenever there's relationship issues, it's not just one person. There's always two that can fix things to make it better. But for now, I want to talk to the ladies. I want to talk to the ladies. Come with me to Proverbs 19. Come with me to Proverbs 19, please. Proverbs 19 and verse number 13. Proverbs 19 verse number 13. So ladies, if your husband's desire is not really toward you, here are some verses that will help you cause him for his desire to be toward you. Okay. Here are some verses to alert you of some issues that you can bring into the marriage that might drive him away from you. In Proverbs 19 verse number 13, the Bible reads, a foolish sign is the calamity of his father, but I want you to see the next part. And the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping. The Bible says wives, that your contentions, when you argue, when you push back, when you push against your husband's authority, the Bible says it's a continual drop into him. You know what a continual dropping is? Have you ever gone to bed? I've been like this. If you've got an ensuite or something like that in your bedroom and maybe, you know, the shower, the shower head's leaking. Have you ever tried to go to sleep and all you hear is, you hear this, just this noise. Like actually when it rains, when it showers, it actually puts me to sleep. But one drop at a time, I don't know about that. I don't know. That's how I feel. I can't sleep. It's frustrating me. Wives, don't be a contentious woman. You're just going to frustrate your husbands. You know, your husband's desire will not be towards you. Please allow your husbands to be the leaders God has made them to be. He's, you know, God's made men to be leaders, not for selfish reasons, but to lead and protect and to love a wife and children, to love a family, to do the best for the family. I was having a conversation recently, you know, as men, are we to submit to our wives? And my answer is, well, the Bible says that we need to submit one to another. But the submission is different to what the world thinks of submission. You know, when a man goes to work Monday to Friday, eight hours, nine hours, 10 hours, 12 hours sometimes a day, sometimes on weekends, that's how he submits himself for his family's sake. You know what, when he goes and by the sweat of his brow, he's trying to make an income for wives to give you a house over your head, to make sure you've got enough food to feed yourself and the family, to make sure you have the, you know, the finances to buy clothes and to educate the children. That's your husband going to labor, going to work for you, for the children. And again, when a man is able to see the bills are paid, the kids are taken care of, you know what, it gives a man great satisfaction. I'm fulfilling the role God has made me to be, to do. I'm doing the very work that God has made me to do and there's great satisfaction. So let your men lead. They're going to be the best husbands. You let your husbands lead, I tell you now, his desire is going to grow towards you. Instead of arguing and pushing back every time he's got an idea, making him feel inferior, making him feel stupid, comparing him to other men. No ladies, God's given him to be your husband, to be the head of the house. He's going to look after your needs much better than any other man. Come with me to Proverbs 21, Proverbs 21 verse number nine. So wives, if you say to me, I mean, don't say to me, you say to yourself in your head, seems like my husband just doesn't want to spend time with me. Sounds seems like as soon as he gets home from work, he's straight out of home and doesn't talk to me and he just wants to be somewhere else. So ask yourself, are you this kind of woman? In Proverbs 21 verse number nine, Proverbs 21 verse number nine, the Bible says it is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. A wide house is a big house. You go, wow, there's a big house with a lot of space. Yeah, but if the wife is a brawling woman, if she's always argumentative, always putting down her husband, you know, the Bible says he'd rather find the corner of the rooftop and stay there. He'd rather be on top of the roof than being in the big house with a brawling woman. Look at verse number 19. You say, pastor, I don't have the corner of a housetop like in the old days. Well, it says in verse number 19, it is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman. So yeah, if you don't have like an attic or something, or a way to climb the roof, you might find your husband just run away to the wilderness instead of being at home with an angry contentious woman. Look, again, relationships are complex. There are many factors. But why, as I'm just saying, if you can say, if you can say to yourself and to the Lord God, I don't know if my husband's desires toward me. Are you contentious? Are you argumentative? Do you brawl? Do you criticise your husband? If you're that way, you know, have you been influenced by the feminist movements? Do you not allow your husband to lead? Do you criticise his decisions? Then don't be surprised if you rather go to the wilderness with the boys. Now, that's not right. I'm not saying that's right. I'm not saying he should get away from you. He should be the leader and fix the marriage is what he should do. But what you need to understand is this will be the natural consequence. This will be the natural desire instead of his desire to his wife, he'd rather know my desires to just get out and not be part of the family. Cause I don't want to argue. I don't want to fight. Come with me to Proverbs 25. Actually, Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27 verse 15. Proverbs 27 verse 15. Please don't say pastor, this is a very anti-woman sermon. Look, we spent the first part of the sermon talking about how important it is to compliment our wives. Okay. You know, God loves women. Okay. The Bible says they're a weaker vessel. Not that they're inferior. They're weaker because as men, we're to love, protect, guide, you know, honour our wives. The Bible says in Proverbs 27 verse 15, a continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike. Again, that continual dropping, but here on a very rainy day. Brethren, we had planned a few weeks ago to go soul winning on a Saturday. And guess what happened? It was a very rainy day. Did we go soul winning? In fact, it wasn't the rain so much that stopped us. It was the lightning and thunder the falling trees. But the point is, when it's raining heavily, is that when people are out in the streets walking around? Oh, when it's raining, people are like, I need shelter, right? I need to get away from this weather. Ladies, when you're contentious once again, the Bible describes you as a man being caught in bad weather. You know, just rain falling upon him continually, no umbrella, no safety. And what he wants to do is to get away from you and find somewhere where he doesn't have to deal with a contentious wife. Well, that's what the Bible teaches. Wives this week. And I hope you're having sweet marriages. I don't know. I just, I hope so. But ladies, can you try this week to be a little sweeter to your husbands? Can you try this week to be more submissive to your husbands? Can you try this week to make your husbands know that they're the leader of the house, that they're valued, that they're appreciated? If you try this week, I believe God's word, that His desire, it will grow towards you. That He will want to spend more time with you. That He will want to take you out on that date. You know, I'm not saying we've been a week, but put it into practice. Put it into practice one week. And if you do it one week, then do it the next week. And then do it the next month. And then do it the next year. And just keep doing this. I have no doubt, no doubt, God's word says so, that His, your husband's desire will grow towards you. You know, you feel like you need to step in and tell your husband what to do. You know, for the sake of our family and our marriage, the best thing for you to do is push back. Pull back. Take care of the responsibilities that God has put to you. The responsibilities that your husband has given you as well. Take care of those things. You know, men work hard. You know, men stress about whether they're going to be able to take care of their families. You know, the last thing they want or need is being criticized by their wives. Come back with me to Proverbs, sorry, yeah, no, sorry, Song of Solomon, Song of Solomon chapter 7, Song of Solomon chapter 7. Let's read verse number 10 again. I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me. Verse number 11. Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field. Let us lodge in the villages. So what are they doing now? They're spending more time together because his desire is to his wife. Now they're going out. They're going to the fields. They're going to lodge in the villages. They're going out on dates, right? They're finding some place to visit. You know, they're doing a bit of sightseeing together and now they say, hey, let's lodge in the village. Let's stay the nights. Let's stay together. Let's get away from the day-to-day business of life. You know, let's go here. Let's go there. Let's spend time together. Families, we need to spend time together, husbands and wives. Like we need to go out from time to time. You know, look, it's here for a reason in the Bible. These things are here for a reason. Please don't be so righteous where your life is just. Church, soul winning, Bible reading, praying, listening to 10 sermons a week. Look, there's nothing wrong with all of that. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that. Okay, but you know, there's a time to just go and visit a village with your wife or your husband. Okay, I, you know, I've taught you guys about balance. We need balance in life. All right. And you know, I was describing my week to somebody today and not today, yesterday. I was describing my week and my week is very church, comparing sermons and dealing with admin work for church and then traveling and preaching and preparing and all of that. And then it's like, well, what else do you do? Well, I try to find other ways, other things. I listen to other things. I try to do other things. And sometimes I just try to get away from church. Like on a Sunday, once I'm done preaching on a Sunday, I've done two sermons and all that. Sometimes I try to catch up with people off the surface if I can. But on Monday, now, you know, I've started to apply this since last year, but on Mondays, I turn off my phone. All right. I don't look at the church emails and I'll spend time with my family. Say, what are we going to do? I'm a bit sunburnt today because we went to the beach. Oh, see, sunburnt. On Monday, we went to the beach, you know. Oh, that's ungodly. That's not right. I'm spending time with my family. I'm trying to enrich my marriage. I'm trying to build experiences. Without my family, I don't have a ministry. And please don't be so righteous. It's not righteous if you ignore your family. It's not righteous if you ignore your marriage. It's something about, you know, I replace it with being there every time there's soul winning. I replace it every time we hear in sermons. Look, just okay. You can get a bit of too much sometimes. You need to go to the village. Go on a date. Go try the new restaurant that just opened up down the road, whatever it is. Go and spend some time together. Go and blow off a bit of steam together, somewhere. Go lodge in the villages. Go spend the night somewhere else. Just break up the daily routine, the weekly routine in life from time to time. We need it. You need it. Man, I spent three nights for my, you know, 20 year anniversary in Brisbane. And the weather wasn't the best. That's why I went to Brisbane because it was raining. So we got to do some things inside. But I had a great time. Like even though it's not really a holiday or anything like that, but you know, once we were done, it's like, man, that was like, that was awesome. I feel refreshed, energized, like recharged. And all I did was spend some time with my wife, additional time with my wife. Because I want my desire to be toward her. Right? I don't want to live a life where she's living some other life and I'm living some other life and we have no idea what we're doing, one or the other. So these things are here in the Bible, you know, for a reason to teach us. You know, our relationships matter. Verse number 12. Let us get up early to the vineyards. Let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear and the pomegranates bud forth. There will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, oh my beloved. So once again, you know, they're hanging out, they're spending, lodging in the vineyards and then they're being intimate once again. Okay, spending time once again, physically, whatever, you know, everything that goes on with marriage, they're fulfilling all of those needs so they have one for another. Okay, so what I love about, what I love about, you know, verse number 10 to the end of it is the desire, the husband's desire for his wife, you know, and you know, I've said this story before, but I'll say it again, because I think it's important, you know, when I was first, or not so much newly married, because we had a couple of kids by then, but you know, working a job and just getting in the mundane life, you know, the same repetitive tasks and things like that. I was still used to hanging out with my friends. I was still used to playing sports and going and playing soccer and all these kinds of things. And you know, I was growing frustrated a little bit because I wasn't, you know, life gets busy and I wasn't really getting the opportunities to spend time with my friends like I used to. And I knew there was something wrong because, you know, God's given me a family, God's, and I love my wife, don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't love my wife, of course I did, of course I love my children, but I felt like there was an issue in my mind. The priorities just weren't wired properly in my mind. And so I just prayed to the Lord. I said, Lord, you're somebody that can fix my mind here. You can change my brain. I'm trying to change. And you know, the Bible speaks of the renewing of the mind and that's hard as a man to do, but Lord you've created me, you know how my brain is wired, you know how I think, you know how I think better than I know how I think. And I just prayed to the Lord, just got a hold of the Lord and said, Lord, can you please fix my brain so that my desire is fully toward my family, that I would finish work and my thought would not be, my desire would not be, let's go kick a ball or something like that. Lord, can you help my desire to be, I can't wait to just be home, quietly in my house, with my wife, with my children, to be a good husband, to be a good father. Lord, can you change that for me? I honestly, I prayed like that. And you know, I feel like it's so long ago now, but he did. I woke up one morning, I think within 48 hours, I reckon. I just remember just waking up, oh no, I remember going to work and then just being like at work, finished, I'm done. And like, man, I just can't wait to get home. Like, I just can't wait to see my wife. I just can't wait to see my family. And that's how I am till this day. You know, when I go to tomorrow, when I go tomorrow to bless it up at the church to preach, I'm not trying to get away from my wife. You know, I'm that first flight back on Friday morning. I'm on that flight. The 6 AM flight, you know, I've got to be up 3 AM Queensland time to get to that first flight. Why? Because my desire is to be with my wife and to be with my family. And there's been times in my life where I've had to say, Lord, can you fix my brain? And He has, honestly. Like, I think if you pray that, ladies, if you have a hard time letting your husband be the leader, let me encourage you, Lord, can you fix my brain? Can you allow me to have the desire to just let my husband lead the family the way he sees fits, the way he sees best? Can you fix my mind? And men, same as you. Lord, can you fix my desires to be to my wife? And Lord, if there are contentions and there are issues, Lord, instead of desiring to run away into the wilderness, can you fix my mind to fix, to bring a solution? If I'm the leader and the head of my home, then Lord, help me to address these serious issues before it causes more damage in my marriage, before it causes more damage in my family. Lord, can you fix my mind to think clearly, to prioritise the people that you've put under my authority? And I believe, if you go to God with sincere prayer like that, I know he'll fix your brain. He'll fix your mind. He's done it for me. He's done it for me. But I love how they spend time together. Okay, they go out and you know, they have the date night, they go on a holiday and what have you. But anyway, this chapter, started with the beautiful feet. How beautiful are thy feet with shoes? Beautiful feet. And you know, I think it's important from time to time, husbands and wives, you know, it's great to go soul-willing as a group, to go soul-willing as a church. Praise God when we can. But I think it's also valuable if you can go soul-willing with your spouse. Have beautiful feet together, you know, in the sight of the Lord, preaching the gospel and seeing souls saved. There's no greater joy than seeing someone come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, let's pray.