Welcome to the Paul Tripp podcast, where pastor and best-selling author Dr. Paul David Tripp

connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life. If you had to pinpoint one specific

problem that plagues your marriage, what would you say? In today's episode, we'll listen to the second

session from Paul's conference, What Did You Expect, Redeeming the Realities of Marriage?

In it, he focuses on the one issue that affects everyone's marriage

and helps us understand what we can do about it.

Here's Paul with The Biggest Problem in Your Marriage.

We'll use another illustration that is beautiful and helpful.

It's the illustration of a fruit tree.

Think with me.

What's the easiest way to recognize an apple tree?

Apples.

If you see a tree laden with apples, you don't stand in front of it and say, hmm, I wonder what kind of tree this is.

You immediately know it's an apple tree, but stay with me.

You also know that this tree is apollistic all the way down to its roots.

If it didn't have appleism in its roots, it wouldn't grow apples as fruit, right?

You'll never plant peach pits and get apples.

If you plant peach pits and get apples, run fast, run far, something to happen to the universe,

and it's probably not good. Now, Jesus is saying, you've got to get the concept here, that in a fruit tree, there's an unbreakable organic connection between the fruit of the tree and the roots of the tree.

The organic composition of the roots actually cause this kind of fruit to be produced.

And in his illustration, the fruit is meant to represent your words and your behavior,

and the roots are meant to represent what's in your heart.

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