if you want to experience prosperity in every area of your life I challenge you to watch this video all the way to the end what's up y'all so have you ever been in a church service or at a conference and you just heard a sermon that just wrecked you and it really changed your life how you think how you manage your life well guys that happened to me not too long ago I was at a family conference and Dr Tony Evans was preaching a message from Psalm 128 and I've read that passage a million times but something clicked for me as a man as a husband as a father and I just want to share that with you I took a lot of notes I don't normally do that but I'm gonna uh share with you and kind of recap what he covered but also put a whole bunch of my own stuff in there that God has shown me since that conference and guys in this passage Psalm 128 you have four institutions that God lays out and if you get these four institutions correct guys we can change the world we can change the culture we can change the community around I'm going to go ahead and start off an institution number one is the institution of the individual I want you to notice what it says here in verse one it says blessed is everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways now this Hebrew word bless simply means happy or fulfilled or satisfied now I'm just going to be honest with you guys whenever I was a single guy kind of struggling along not really sure about what my purpose was where God was taking me my vision I was struggling with my Purity I was just struggling with life in general I did not experience this happiness I didn't experience this fulfillment this abundance this Prosperity this this peace and this joy that God wanted to bestow on me because I was walking in Disobedience for different seasons of My Life as a single person so here is the principle guys when we walk in disobedience cannot also at the same time experience the joy and the blessings and the prosperity and the happiness and the satisfaction and the Fulfillment that God wants for us because Joy and Disobedience are incompatible so now that we understand what the word bless means let's move on because it says how do you get that blessing by fearing the Lord and walking in his ways guys can I just be honest with you for just a moment it wasn't until I fully surrendered and started fearing God and honoring God with my thought life with my body with my time with my time spent with him every day with my giving in terms of what I give to my local church and in every area of my life this is when I began to experience Prosperity emotionally financially physically in my marriage this is when the prosperity began to unlock in my life I'm not saying that's what God's going to do in your life but I trust with this scripture if it happened to me it would happen to you as well and I want you to notice it also says he here you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands you shall be blessed and it shall be well with you when a man is working when he is aligned when he has a vision for his life when he has a career when he is working a hard labor with his hands he will enjoy and eat the fruit of his labor so when a man is fearing God walking in his ways eating the fruit of the labor of his hands experiencing the blessing and prosperity of God he is now poised and ready to move into institution number two which is the institution of marriage notice what it says here your wife will be like a fruitful Vine listen guys our role as husbands as Godly husbands is to shape and cultivate and nurture our wives into being the kingdom woman that God has designed and destined her to be but I love the picture here of being a fruitful Vine because it lets us know that this takes work this takes intentionality we have to be willing to cultivate this Vine it takes some sowing it takes some time it takes pouring into because any plant that is not being poured into is going to wilt and if I can just be completely honest with you guys I have not done the best job in my marriage of cultivating and shaping and sowing and pouring into my wife guys God forbid you are guilty of ministering to the masses and giving your best to everyone else and not giving it to the person who matters the most your wife he says when a man is fearing God walking in his ways working hard experiencing the blessings and prosperity of God he will then be ready to shape his wife into a fruitful Vine many men complain about their wives and not getting certain things that they want from their wives but guys I want to challenge us all the Bible says we reap what we sow maybe the reason why we're not getting what we want from our wives is because we're not sowing the right seeds maybe we're sowing some seeds of blame and criticism and uh negative talk and all of these different types of things expectations and all sorts of things like that maybe we need to switch it and start sowing some positive seeds into our marriage and then our wives will flourish and they will become a fruitful Vine our role as Godly men is to maximize our wives potential how do I get the most out of her spiritual gifts how do I position her to be a kingdom woman how do I maximize her talents how do I maximize her spiritual walk and how do I prioritize that as a Godly Man it says that when we do that your wife will be like a fruitful Vine within your house now ladies and want to speak specifically to you because it says right here if you want to be a Godly woman a kingdom woman it starts with making sure that your house is your number one priority notice I didn't say it was your only priority but it means that this is your number one priority guys we live in a time where uh women are working and having all these careers and things like that and that is wonderful as long as you can make sure that your home is your number one priority listen I'm going to give you some insight one of the best decisions that my wife and I could have ever made for our marriage and our home was about a year and a half ago we made the decision to bring my wife home and she was making really good money had benefits and everything like that for our family but when we started weighing out the stress and how much of a strain was putting on our marriage our relationship um spending time with the kids uh different things anxiety if I'm just being fully transparent my wife was dealing with depression because just so much she was trying to be a good uh wife to me supporting us supporting me in Ministry but then also trying to be a great mother trying to manage the home also trying to work at a Fortune 500 company with a high stress job and it was just too much now some women you watching this or you might be able to do that right but my wife made the decision I didn't pressure her my wife made the decision to sacrifice her career so that she could be a fruitful Vine thriving in her most important priority which was in the home so if you want to learn a little bit more about how my wife and I came to that decision and everything that went into it and how our lives were before as opposed to after I encourage you to watch this video right here and I'll put a link in the description below so when a man is fearing God walking in his ways eating the fruit of the labor of his hands and his wife is a fruitful Vine she's thriving in the home and the man is shaping her into the woman that God has called her to be then and only then the man and the wife are prepared to move into institution number three which is the institution of Parenthood notice what it says here your wife will be like a fruitful Vine within your house your children will be Olive shoots around your table now I love these two pictures that the psalmists use to describe the Parenthood or the role of parents it says that your children will be like Olive shoots now in my recent trip to Israel we saw all of trees there that dated hundreds thousands of years back and and so the idea of an olive shoot is though is that even though it might take time and intentionality to mature and to cultivate it can produce crops for many many years so this is talking about us as parents being intentional kids deserve our attention Our intention it says we have to we have to position our children so that they will produce fruit for many many years but the second picture that the psalmist gives here he says around your table I love this picture because we've gotten away from table time we've gotten away from dinner time and uh with the hustle of our lives and our culture and our families and activities and things like that it used to be that families every night would gather around the table this would be a time before cell phones and before all these distractions and things like that you would have intentional conversations with your kids about school about who their friends were about what happened during the day uh how they did on their tests how the teachers treated them things like that who got in trouble who didn't and this would be a time of intentional discipleship what would happen if we would get back to that time around the table that we would prioritize it might not be able to do it every single night but what would happen if we told our kids no cell phones hey this is time for our family Dr Evans uh speaks about that in his in sermon he talked about how he and uh Lois and uh their four children Priscilla Crystal Jonathan and Anthony they would prioritize that in the midst of The Business of Being a pastor of a mega church they would always make sure that they had time around the table and guys just full transparency I I confess that I have not done a good job my wife has been trying to Institute this in our home and I have allowed oftentimes the pressures and the responsibilities of ministry to be a greater priority than pouring into my own home around the table so I just want you to just take a moment and just ask yourself as as a man or even as a wife where are your priorities right now as it relates to family time so when Christian families are set up where the man fears the Lord and is walking in his ways eating the fruit of his labor experiencing the blessings and prosperity of God shaping his wife into being a fruitful Vine she's thriving in the home the children are like Olive plants and there is intentional time spent around the table it is then and only then that that Christian family can impact institution number four which is the institution of the community notice what it says here behold thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord I love that the psalmist is repeating himself anytime when you read the Bible it repeats himself he's trying to make sure that you get it he said if you want to experience Prosperity into blessings make sure that these things are in line in your life and then he goes on to say the Lord bless you from Zion may you see the the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life so now he's saying hey if you want to see Jerusalem the city around you experience this Prosperity not just financial prosperity but spiritual Prosperity emotional prosperity and physical and and all of the different types of ways that God can prosper you it starts with the end of the institution of the individual and then that individual being right with God fearing God honoring God walking in his ways and then pouring into his wife shaping her like a fruitful Vine encouraging her to be the kingdom woman that God has for her to be getting everything out of her that God designed and destined her to be and then the two of you come together and you create these children and you raise them up to be all the plants spending intentional time around the table when you do all of these things he says Jerusalem will experience the prosperity of God but I love this last part it says right here may you see your children's children peace be upon Israel there are a lot of generational cycles that have been passed down from family to family maybe it's a generational cycle of divorce in your family like it was in mine maybe it's uh abuse or alcoholism or sexual immorality or having a child out of wedlock or depression or anxiety or whatever it is guys it's time for us to stand up as Kingdom men and Kingdom woman and break those generational Cycles so that we can start to pass these traditions and these Godly values and virtues down to our children so that they will be able to impact the community around them and we'll be able to see our children then turn around and pass that down to their children and their children and their children so my friend as I wrap this up the secret to experiencing God's favor and prosperity in your life starts with fearing the Lord and walking in his ways and I encourage you to really really give some thought as to where you are right now in your life and I want to challenge every single man who might be married or even thinking about me married and you're watching this video are you cultivating your wife are you shaping her are you sowing seeds into her is she a fruitful Vine in your home and I want to encourage every godly woman every mother every wife is the home your number one priority raising your children in the fear and admonition of God I trust that when we do that we experience all that God has for us as a family we will be able to see the prosperity of Jerusalem the cities around us love you all I'll see you in the next video bye for now [Music]