Live Free with Josh Howerton - Spend Time Around the Table • Dr. Tony Evans | Ep. 58 | Wednesday April 26, 2023

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

The table isn’t just for eating—it’s for leading. It’s where conversations happen, memories are made, and relationships are strengthened. Taking full advantage of this time together has the ability to impact *generations*. In this episode, Dr. Tony Evans continues through Psalm 128 and discusses the valuable structure of family and how it plays into God’s divine plan. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit.church slash daily drive. In this week's episodes, we will be hearing from our special guest. Dr. Tony Evans. And now, let's dive into today's devotional. Hello again.

On Wednesday, this is Dr. Tony Evans, walking with you through Psalm 128 about how to have a life on target. You got to stop by fearing God, taking him seriously, and that's what you do with your feet, not just with your feelings, and walking in his way brings benefit.

But now, once you do that personally, you're then to take it home to your family, because verse 3 says, your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like olive plants around your table. Well, that's your family. Because whoever owns the family owns the future. The saga of a family is the saga of a nation written large.

One of the great breakdowns we have today, that is the construct for all the chaos we see today, is the breakdown of the family, the first social institution instituted by God in history. He starts off with the man, because God always starts off with the man. That's why he created the man first,

because he would be held ultimately responsible. God didn't say, Adam, and he were y'all? He said, Adam, where are you? Because the man was responsible for making sure that stuff got off right. So he says, your wife, so he's talking to the man, shall become a fruitful vine.

That is, she will be a productive contributor to the well-being of the home, Why? Because you're partnering for the home as God created it to be. Your wife shall be a fruitful vine. So your man's job is to facilitate the productivity of the wife. A fruitful vine was a grape vineyard. Three things had to happen before that grape vineyard became fruitful. It had to first cling because in grape vineyards in Napa Valley, they tie the branches on post.

On the post, they then climb. When they climb, then they cluster. Of course, then you squeeze it. That's grape juice. You fermented. It becomes wine, and you know what wine will do? It'll make a sad man glad. So what he says is your wife will become a food for vine.

She will make you and bring joy into your life. Why? Because you're providing protection and provision and well-being. You're providing stability so that she can maximize her potential. You ought to be Jesus in the house. And what did Jesus do? He went to a cross. So if you're still alive, you're not finished yet, okay?

So he says your wife shall become a fruitful vine, but she is committed to the home. You know, we have a lot of ladies today who have sacrificed the home for their career. And there's nothing wrong with having a great career. If you've been trained, if you have gifts and skills and abilities. The woman in Proverbs 31, she was really a qualified lady. I mean, she had a real estate license because she's buying and selling property. she's got a ministry because she's serving the poor, but yet her home didn't go lacking

because she's taking care of her kids and she's taking care of her husband. In fact, her husband is known in the gates, okay, because she's making sure he's covered as well because she does not use what she does outside of the home to compromise her responsibility and the priority inside of the home. Says your wife shall be a fruitful vine within your house,

and then it says, your children shall be olive plants around your table. Not olive trees, olive plants. It takes 15 years for an olive plant to become a full-grown olive tree. But if you nurture it right, it'll produce olives for 2,000 years. Because over in the Garden of Gassimini, you know, I'm leading a group of 1,000 people over to Israel. And when we go over there, we will take turns going through the Garden of Gassimini

where there are 2,000-year-old olive trees still pumping out olives. You know why? Because their roots run deep. We have a generation of children with no roots. That's because we've got a generation of children with no parents. Oh, they may have them by name, but they don't have them by presence. He says, your children shall be olive plants around your table. Guess what?

You've got to be around the table. Because the table is not just for eating. The table is for leading. It's where you turn off the television, you put away the iPad, you turn off the phone, and you spend time leading, governing, praying, correcting, finding out who they're hanging out with, what's happening at school, are they getting their housework done? The table is for leading the family.

Our problem is folks on at the table. So roots are not being dug deep, and therefore the olive plants don't become olive trees. When you go through a metal detector, the old metal detector, old magnetomulus, when you go through there, it would beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, if you have metal in your pocket. The one time I went through, I had metal in my pocket,

but it didn't beat. that's because different people would set them at different levels of sensitivity. So based on how they were set, determined how easily they beat. We have a generation of young people today whose consciences don't beat. But guess why? Because mom and daddy didn't set them. It's the job of mom and daddy to set the regulating BIPA to give them sensitivity to God's perspective, God's will, God's word, God's way, so that when they grow up in a secular environment,

they have a sacred orientation. And that is the job of family for the next generation, because whoever owns the family owns the future. So in the words of Nehemiah 414, fight for your family. It's worth fighting for. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe. church slash daily drive.