The following resource is from desiring God.org. I wonder if you wonder if I feel weird.

Well, I don't.

Well, I don't. I am so happy to be here. I mean, I used to be a pastor here. It just feels so good to be a pastor here just feel so good to be with my ladies.

I've been meeting with you on and off for 36 years so that's before some of you were

born I remember those meetings I wrote books about them and I wanted to say out loud that the

privilege really is moving to me because I just think one of the biggest issues in our world is what it means to be male and female.

And you have been such a intelligent, articulate, mature Bible-saturated kind of gathering

every time we've met that I have found an echo so that I've been

taught I've been refined I've been helped and encouraged and I don't think I could have written the things I wrote

or preached the things I preached. I was just with the Council on biblical manhood

and womanhood last week all day

all day long everybody talking about these issues of manhood and womanhood

and they asked me to close the day

and I'm doing it again

and I'm going to use some of what I said there here,

but all that just to say, I don't feel out of place here

I think this is what pastors should do and and so I hope it's okay that I still feel

that way about you and well here's another little

reason why you know we can argue about the appropriate roles of ways to exercise authority in the church, right?

And the eldership and teaching and various things.

We can argue about that, but here's what I think there really is no argument about.

You are, and I'm thinking now, I know a lot of you are single, and I'm thinking now of moms. I't know maybe half of you through quarters I don't know how many

...