F3 Knoxville

Hot Pursuit

The Project

THE SCENE:   31 and clear
F3 WELCOME & DISCLAIMER:  Skipped for you bunch of veterans
WARM-O-RAMA: 

  • Michael Phelps
  • RFTS / LIH
  • Growing arm circles
  • Imperial walkers
  • Squats
  • Down/up dogg
  • Merkins
  • Mosey to the pool wall for 10 wall-ups

THA THANG:

Mosey to the playground;
Max pull-ups
Partner-up:  Max sit-ups in 1 minute

Mosey to the bell
Max merkins in 1 minute
1.5 miles for time

MARY:

Max burpees in 5 minutes

COUNT-OFF & NAME-O-RAMA

Me and 9 of the best men I know

CIRCLE OF TRUST/BOM:

Once upon a time, I was dating a real hottie – the whole package; legs…hair…figure…smart…her sense of humor…  Incredibly – she seemed into me as well.  It was 18 years ago yesterday that we shared our first kiss on the patio of the Student Union at Oklahoma State.

I was crazy about that 19-year-old girl…and I did crazy things because of how I felt about her.  Like the time I drove to Houston just to spend a few hours with her – then turned around and drove back.  Or the time I tipped a mariachi band the entire contents of my wallet – a few hundred dollars – to play some songs at our table.

Back then, I was crazy about that young woman – who is now my wife.  I was nuts about her and was pursuing her to be my wife (mission accomplished!).

The Word we talked about this morning was “pursuit”.  We looked at two passages in Genesis.

First, in Genesis 2, God creates Adam – then Eve.  Adam writes this impromptu poetry about his wife saying, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”.  Scripture then says, this is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.  We often hear this passage read during marriage ceremonies…

“and is united to his wife…”  Some other translations say “hold fast to his wife” or “bonds with his wife” – the Hebrew word there is from the root word dabaq.  That word is used 54 times in the Torah – often in the context of a CHASE.  In other context, the same word is translated “in hot pursuit” (1 Samuel 14), and “pursued hard after” (Judges 20).

When I was enamored with that young woman, “debaq” could have described our relationship – I was in hot pursuit!

There is another story of pursuit later in Genesis – this time in Chapter 29.

Jacob was looking for a wife – he meets and falls head over heels for Rachael.  He makes a deal with Rachael’s father to work for him for seven years in exchange for his daughter.  He does – he works for seven years and at the end of those years, Laban pulls a fast one and gives Jacob his other daughter, Leah.  Jacob complains “no, I’m supposed to marry Rachael” – and Laban agrees to give him Rachael as well – in exchange for another seven years of work.  And here’s the thing… Jacob gets Rachael – then continues to work for her after he already had her as his wife.

How amazing would our marriages be if we continued to work for our wives after we’d already married them?  What if we continued to be in hot pursuit of our spouse, like we were when we were dating?  If you want your marriage to THRIVE, pursue her like that again.  Pursue her mind.  Pursue her heart.  Pursue her spirit. 

If you are scrambling for ideas – here are some tips from the internet (written by a woman, so I suppose they are expert tips 😊)

  1. Write her a special note
  2. Plan some quality time with her and let her know in advance
  3. Tell her how you feel about her. Compliment her. You can never compliment her too much
  4. Tell her often that you love her or that you miss her
  5. Text her when you are thinking about her.

But also, men, nobody should know better than YOU how to pursue your wife.  You should be the world’s foremost expert on that.  Ending with a quote from John Piper…

“Don’t marry so you can stop pursuing women. Marry so you can perfect the pursuit of ONE woman for a lifetime.”

MOLESKIN:

  • I’d love to hear how you pursue your wife’s heart today – drop it in Slack or DM me!
  • SKEWER – you crushed your spring scores today, brother.  Nice work!
  • Everyone made improvements – good work all around!
  • Hat tip to my lovely wife for being the inspiration for this Word
  • Hat tip to Craig Groeschel for the Hebrew background info
  • Hat tip to Shanti Landon for the pro tips above

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • Oak Ridge Halloween party – next Thursday evening!  Bring your kiddos to trick or treat.  Come staff the F3 tent!
  • Brolympics Nov 5