Well, good morning, Christian Church.
How are you doing today? It is good to be in the house of
the Lord. It is good to be with the people
of the Lord. It is good to be studying the
word of the Lord, applying that to our lives, and allowing it to
change us, and it will change us forever.
Amen. It is so good to welcome.
All the campuses that are joining with us all across this
region, 11 locations, every one that's inside.
Every one that's online. I've already got a great text
today that inside is all back so I know they've been like open
and shot and and lockdown and all sorts of things like that.
And I'm just thankful to know that the word of God is going
out with all of you as well, that's incredible.
And if you're like me I've been spending a lot of time watching
the news because my heart is really going out to the people
People of Ukraine right now. And of course, from last week to
this week, things have really amped up and things that were
frightening me. When I was a kid in the 60s, is
those things are fomenting again.
What I want us to do again. Today, is pray.
I want us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.
I want us to pray that God, he's never not in control, he's in
control. Just we just need to rest in
him. So if you're feeling anxiety
about it, like I think all of us are to some extent.
Let's just rest in the Lord, trust in him because he isn't
surprised by anything. Let's just take a moment and
let's just pray Heavenly Father. We pray right now for the people
of Ukraine, we pray that you would protect them as they're
being attacked. Father, I pray that that you
would calm people that are involved in and that father, you
would be even glorified in the midst of it.
I think about the scripture that says that you'll hear about wars
and rumors of wars, and I know that that's associated with the
coming of your son. So I just pray father that you
would we would recognize your lordship over this situation
that we would just continue to pray that you'd be glorified
father and that your people would be protected.
We pray that in Jesus name. Amen.
So we're in this series called better and we're talking about
winning at home and I just want to start with a question, all
right? And here's my question is kind
of a, you know, see if you can figure it out what do lovebirds
Puffins mice, Albatross? I don't know what the plural is
for Albatross. I'm just going to say Albatross
coyotes bald eagles vultures beavers, lizards doves,
seahorses Gibbons, cranes, owls geese, voles swans, monkeys
pigeons, parakeets, macaws, As wolves angelfish.
Foxes Penguins. Sea, turtles, flatworms.
And Condors have in common They all mate for life.
How many of you got that, right? Yeah.
See it's pretty good. And although they only account
for a small percentage of all the animals in the animal
kingdom, it's pretty fascinating.
Think about that. How fascinating is it that God
pre-wired those particular animal species to do that too?
Literally? Mate for life.
Do you know that is how we were designed?
That we were designed by God to mate for life, but unlike
animals who consistently act, according to their created
nature, and I want to stop right there.
Do you realize that do you realize that everything an
animal does? He does because he is acting in
perfect, harmony with his created nature.
It is how God created that animal to be.
So when you get upset potty training your puppy just
understand. He's acting according to his
created nature but he makes you act differently.
Then you're created nature. So we were designed by God a
little bit different than the animals, right?
Actually quite a bit different because we were made in the
image of God and God gave us something that is a reflection
of him because God as a sovereign, God has an absolute
right to make any choice. He wants and he gave us rights
to make choices. And so we can choose not to act.
According to our created nature, we can choose whether to follow
God's plan or not. Follow God's plan, unlike all of
those animals. Now, you and I, we were not
designed to act like a feral dog, or a feral cat. although
some of us have and some of us do, the Bible is crystal clear
that we were designed to mate for life.
Now I know right now as I'm speaking you're saying up,
Jerry's going to do a sermon on marriage and half of you are
saying that doesn't really apply to me.
Exactly right now in the, the season of life, I'm in, I know
that I'm dealing with half of you that are presently married,
the other half of you haven't gotten married yet and you'll
want to You haven't gotten married yet and you don't want
to you'd like to stay single, you have gotten married but it
ended in divorce and some of you have been separated by death
you've been you're a widow or a widower but all of us regardless
of our current situation in life are connected to this idea of
marriage and it is of critical importance to all of us.
And if it's true that we are hard-wired by God for this
relationship, then let me ask you a question.
Why is it so hard? Why are we surrounded with so
many tragic stories of like bitter divorce?
Or custody battles or infidelity broken homes?
Scarred and cynical children blended family struggles with
step parents and stepbrothers and stepsisters one-night
stands, sexual regret. A pandemic of pornography
deviant sexual behavior, the victimization of sex trafficking
and child sexual abuse. Why If this is how we were
pre-wired by God, it's because marriage is the most basic
construct of The Human Condition, and the human
Community. That's a big statement by the
way, and I'm going to back it up.
And if Satan can confuse marriage, if he can confuse that
most basic construct, if he can confuse it, if he can twist it,
if he could break it, he wins. It's at the root of who we are.
That's another big statement. The root of who we are.
At least from the perspective of God.
Now, I want to prove that to you.
I want you to think about how the Bible begins.
Like when you just open it up, you get past the faux leather,
leather cover, And the title pages.
Where are you? Like, how does the bible
actually begin? Do you know it actually begins
with a wedding. So God creates everything right
in Genesis. One talks about how he put it
together and as soon as he puts it together, there's a wedding
Genesis chapter 2 verses 21 to 25.
So the Lord God caused man to fall into a deep sleep.
And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and
then closed up the place with flesh.
Then the Lord, God made a woman from the rib.
He had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man.
In the man said, oh, thank you, God.
This is now bone of my bones and Flesh of My Flesh.
She shall be called woman for. She was taken out of, man, that
is why a man leaves, his father and mother and is United to his
wife and they become, would you say that with me one flesh?
Wow, Adam and his wife were both naked.
That's thank you, God, right? That was that.
And they felt no shame. Bible begins with a wedding.
God gave the first bride away. You know how the Bible ends?
With a wedding. It's in Revelation chapter 12
chapter 21 verses 1 to 4, and then I saw a new Heaven and a
new Earth for the first Heaven, and the first Earth had passed
away. and there was no longer any sea and then I saw the holy
city, the New Jerusalem, Coming down.
Out of Heaven, you know, you are his New Jerusalem, you are his
Temple. Created with living stones.
Prepared, as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's
dwelling. Place is now among the people
and He will dwell with them. I go to prepare a place for you.
I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am,
there you may be also They will be his people and he himself
will be with them and be their God.
And he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no
more death or Mourning or crying or pain. for the old Order of
Things has passed away, just before this in Revelation
actually talks about the feast the wedding feast, Is that
enough? Nah, let's go a little further.
It was the backdrop for Jesus's entire Ministry.
How did Jesus began his ministry?
I mean you have these like little stories, a couple of
little stories like when he was 12 and when he was born, you
have to have that. But it's all pretty silent until
you get to the beginning of his ministry and the beginning of
his ministry was all wedding. It was in a place called Cana of
Galilee. You got a little bit angry with
his mother because she wasn't he didn't, you know, I'm not, I
don't know if I want to do this yet.
They have no wine. Remember that?
And Jesus turned the water into wine.
It began his ministry and it was his very first miracle.
And it was at a wedding. You remember how Jesus ended his
ministry on Earth? He ended us Ministry on Earth in
an upper room and in that upper room.
He started telling his disciples getting them prepared for what
was going to come next. and some of the most profound words, he
ever said, we're said in that room, When he said let not your
heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me in my
father's house are many mansions.
If it were not. So I would have told you I go to
prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you, I
will come again. And receive you to myself that
where I am, there you may be also wedding language.
What? Every prospective groom said to
a prospective bride, it was The Proposal.
Of the Jewish culture. It book ended his ministry.
It's the Earthly relationship that the Apostle Paul under the
inspiration of God chose to help us understand the Eternal
relationship, Union between Christ and his bride.
The church will get into that in a minute. so, when you look at
God's word kind of in totality, you can see But this is a very,
very big deal to God and it's no wonder that it's being attacked.
Now, I want to I want to get something straight here.
This sermon is only going to last about a half an hour, and
that's not near enough time for the investment that this
requires. And this is something that is so
critical for for all of us to understand, whether we're in,
you know, in hard times right now, we're considering marriage
right now we're on the other end of marriage and we want to be
able to Mentor other people, you know.
So Alice and I are going to begin leading marriage, Retreats
its Be coming in the fall and it's going to happen in our new
retreat center. And that's being built right
now, Paul put together right now, and we're going to train
other leaders, how to do it as well.
Because this is going to have to be a very major deal for the
crossing, and it would be an incredible investment for you.
And I'll just, if you want to cheat, I'll help you.
Because we're going to be working out of three different
books that we're going to have everyone read.
Here's the 31, the five languages.
Of love. By Gary Chapman.
Some of you may already understand that one's going to
be love and respect by Emerson Aggregates.
And one of them is the one that we discussed last week, becoming
Better Together by EPS each. One of these has a different
approach to understanding and addressing how marriage was
designed by God, to work becoming Better Together was a
book about structure, the structure of a relationship and
timing of the relationship, and I dealt with that one last week,
okay? Okay, but today I'm going to
spend time on the other two, but I'm just going to touch on them.
So you're going to have to hang on, right?
We're going to spend that little bit of time on the five
languages of love. This is an emotional look at
marriage and love and respect which is a classic gender-based
biblical look at marriage. So I want us to dive in, Okay?
So I want to see how many people I relate to right now.
After church today. Going to get in the car.
And some of you will go home. But a lot of you are going to go
out to eat. And the guys going to say, Where
would you like to eat dear? And what is her answer going to
be gentleman? I don't know wherever you'd like
to eat. Now, listen, I know something
about guys. They are three.
They are thinking of one word, has three letters, and it is
this eat. Just that.
A lot of guys don't really care if it's a taco or a hamburger or
something fancy, they just want to eat.
Let's just get that one checked off and move on to the next
thing, right? But that's not what she's
thinking. I'll get to that in a second.
I don't know, dear wherever you'd like to eat, guys.
Don't have a problem making decisions because they don't get
emotionally invested into decision-making, they just make
one. So you're pulling off to one of
the local restaurants. Okay, I'll make the decision and
then she goes. No, I ate there on Tuesday.
Okay. Didn't where would you like to
eat? I don't know wherever you'd like
to eat. Listen, I've been married to my
wife, nearly 40 years and we have gotten so far down this
road, she will. Now tell me here are four
choices. You can't make She still won't
make the decision, right? Why is that?
I'll tell you why.
I already said, guys don't get emotionally invested in
decision-making because they just only think of very small
one thing at a time. Women are literally thinking of
everything in their life, all at the same time, they're thinking
three-dimensionally, not two-dimensionally.
They're thinking about how what I have to do with the kids.
This afternoon, they're thinking about what my house looks like.
They're thinking about other things that are necessary,
they're thinking about who they might meet and who they don't
want to meet, that could be at that Resident.
A million other things and that's why it's so hard to make
a decision. It's not because they're just
indecisive, it's because they're emotionally invested in that
decision because a lot of things could happen.
When the guys thinking what Now, I just connected to a whole
bunch of you. but there's some of you that went I don't know
what he's talking about because I'm talking about a gender
stereotype. It's a gender stereotype that we
actually get from God's word. But not everyone fits into that
stereotype. Let me tell you why I'm saying
that Ephesians, 5:21 to 32. Don't forget this first one,
I'll come back to it. Submit to one another out of
reverence for Christ. That is the whole deal right
there. Now, how do we do that wives
submit to your husband's as to your own husband's, as to the
Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body of which
he is a savior now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives
should submit to their husbands in everything.
And you know what husbands they just want to end right there.
That's just her submission. That's not his submission.
Husbands, love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church,
stop it. How much did Christ loved the
church? To be nailed to a cross.
And I've had a lot of guys upset in their marriage, but I've
never seen nail prints in their hands.
And gave himself up for her. That means you can make any
decision you want guys because the husband is the head of the
wife but she has total veto power because loving her is more
important than your decision. Oh, someone's going to clap.
finally, I got a sermon that connect to To make her holy
cleansing her. By the washing with water,
through the word, wow. Is talking about spiritual
leadership there. And to present her to himself as
a Radiant Church. Interesting that he calls a
woman a church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish.
But holy and blameless in the same way husband's ought to love
their own wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife,
loves himself after all, no one ever hated their own body, but
they feed and care for, I Too much just as Christ does the
church. We're all members of his body
for this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother
and be United to his wife and the two will become say it.
This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ in the
church. What I thought he was talking
about marriage. Well, he is because our Earthly
marriages are all true are all designed to help us understand
our Heavenly marriage, Eternal one, Go back to Ephesians 5:21
because the overall view is mutual submission submit to one
another out of reverence for Christ.
Let me help you understand that. I want you to picture here an
invisible altar. Okay.
Like altars in the Old Testament and in the New Testament Were
Made of Stone. And what would what happened at
an altar, an animal was brought and then sacrificed right on
this altar. So I want you to imagine.
Have you ever heard people are going to get married to get the
go to the altar? Have you heard that before?
So what does that actually mean? Well okay, I'll be the groom.
Here I am. There's the altar.
Here's everything I Han am everything.
I want to be every hope, every dream.
Everything. And I'm walking it over to this
altar. Here's the bride.
Everything that she is everything she hopes to be every
hope, every dream. And she brings it to the altar.
The altars burning. And they lay.
All that is their life. On this altar.
As a burnt offering. Marital love is supposed to be
Selfless. Love Altar of burnt offering
love. One flesh.
Love, because God takes two lives to hopes to dreams to
realities, and he forges it into a single one flesh relationship.
Only God can do it. Jesus taught it.
In Matthew chapter, 19 Verses 4 to 6.
He said haven't you read he replied that in the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said for this reason,
a man will leave his father and his mother.
Mother, and be United to his wife.
And the two will become One flesh.
So they are no longer two. You thought I just made that up.
It's poetic no. It's just Jesus.
They are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together.
Let no one separate. It's also back in Ephesians
verse 31 of chapter 5. For this reason, a man will
leave his father and mother and be United to his wife and the
two will become one flesh. We surrender ourselves to each
other and we form one new identity and it happens under
the lordship of Jesus Christ and the power Of almighty God.
That's how we form. One new identity.
So, Some of you. Really connecting with what I'm
saying, because it is classic. And what Ephesians 5 is teaching
is classic male, female stereotypes.
And you notice what they're asking men, and women to do
that, that husbands or prospective husband, husbands
have to love their wives and then gives the specific of how
their to love their wives. So it's about love and wife has
a responsibility of respecting Her husband, let me tell you
what that is actually accomplishing.
I'm going to write this word. Okay.
Love. And then this one respect.
These two things are mutually edifying.
In other words, if a wife is respecting her husband, it
should have the effect of empowering him to love his wife.
And if a man is properly loving his wife, it empowers her to
properly, respect her husband. But we're going to call this.
The crazy cycle. I'm going to tell you why.
Because it tends to go the other way.
It happens to go the other way. So, Well, what a woman needs
generally is emotional security. And there's nothing wrong with
that. Women tend to need emotional
security. You know why?
Because emotional being emotional is their currency.
They give themselves and they don't do it in pieces or parts,
I mean they they fully invest and, They require that.
It's like putting like it's like me like you driving your car and
you run out of gas. You get mad at your car.
Because that's what they run on. And you need to keep it filled
up. So if they need emotional
security, they receive that through love, if they're
convinced that their husband loves them.
It provides for their emotional security men.
On the other hand won't respect. You think a man would rather
hear I love you or would you rather hear?
I feel safe when I'm in your arms.
Men tend to love things that project strength respect.
And so there are ways that we have to understand.
Again this is stereotypical, but there are ways that we need to
understand how this works and so this is how that Mutual
edification grows a relationship.
But it also goes the other way because if a husband starts
loving other things and he just compartmentalizes his love for
his wife. What ends up happening?
She gets frustrated with that and responds with things like,
hey, be nice if you were home one.
It's in a while. Be nice to for these kids knew
that they had a dad, right? Disrespect disrespect, what that
what does that do? A man makes him one to replace.
His wife was something else like bowling.
Or. Grilling or sorry.
You know what I'm saying? Anything else.
Anything else? And it starts the crazy cycle.
Now, the crazy cycle really isn't circular.
I don't think that's fair. It's actually this If?
Cuz that's what happens. It's a spiral because if we
don't receive what we need and we lash out at one another and
they feed on each other and you start going in circles, but you
spiral down until the relationship is utterly broken,
right? Give me something positive
Jerry. Here comes.
The good news is the crazy cycle is reversible.
The spiral is reversible, if someone can start being
selfless, even when they don't deserve the the the partner
doesn't deserve selflessness. If they can do that, which is
very hard to do, it can reverse the cycle.
The crazy cycle can move in the opposite direction.
The spiral can go up as well as down.
I've a lot more I can say about that, but that's what Retreats
your for, that's Those that book love and respect is for, so
we'll just have to leave it there.
S one you're not relating to what I said.
I've just said all that stuff and it's like there he goes in
solid male, female stereotypes in this not fit me.
I get it because some of us are wired differently emotionally
and there's a lot of things that go into that how we might be
different. Emotionally could be our roles,
and culture could be generational issues.
It could be the lack of to roll Miles because of single
parenting. We all have things that
contribute to those differences. Okay, we have a lot of
differences here. However, each one of us has an
emotional love language, that's irrespective of gender.
And that emotional language is how we understand how we give
and how we receive love, and that's what we call a love
language. Okay, so I'm going to give you
the five love languages. So first one is words.
Of affirmation. Words of affirmation, you know
what that is? if, if a man's love language is
words of affirmation, it's like you know, it could be sexual the
sense that it's like, you know, gun show today, like your I'm
liking that. You know.
And a guys like, yeah. It could be on the other side,
could be receiving words of affirmation, your female like
me. And you are defining Hot In
Those Jeans. Right.
It could be other things that could be like affirmation about
what you've accomplished. Like one of you accomplishes
something in your career in the other ones like we got to go out
and celebrate because nobody. Nobody does that as well as you
hear incredible, at this is words of affirmation, right?
We got that second one. Quality time.
Which is not the same as time. Quality time where you're
actually accomplishing something in that time that's focused on
your relationship or on your spouse going.
I'm saying, let's just, we need to be together.
We need to get reacquainted. I remember first time Allison.
I went to Israel. Allison was like, I'm not
leaving my kids. I'm not leaving my kids and I
had I told her I said, you know, the best thing you can do for
your kids is give them a good marriage.
And we need some quality time, because what happens?
I mean life happens, right? And then you get to get
reacquainted quality time. Does that number three?
Ax. Of service.
Don't you be trying to get with me when those dishes are dirty?
Really. What's that got to do with love?
Like vacuuming. What's that got to do with it?
Yeah, because sometimes that's what we crave.
We crave, service. Like when we serve one another,
that's what it's about. Number four.
Physical touch. Is it goal touch?
Physical touch is not always sexual touch. right, it's a lot
of it has to do with just Like those people that sat in front
of you last week at church and it's like, would you just stop
you know, like where are you know they're doing this with the
hair on the back of the other person stop it, you know?
And it's because they're communicate, they're actually
communicating non-verbally, that's a love language.
You're actually experiencing holding hands when you walk.
You know, that kind of that kind of thing where there's actually
touch involved you know it isn't necessarily sexual but it can be
Actually last one. Gifts.
And it's not, if you love me, buy me a Lamborghini.
It can be something simple. Like I can tell you in my
marriage. If my wife's love, language is
not gifts at all. She's a minimalist, but if I am
going to give her something, it needs to have sentimental value,
it needs to have it needs to convey a story.
Like we were just cleaning out our closet, so, you know, and
our kids have given gifts over the.
If she can't ever throw any of those away, can't do it.
So these have nothing to do with gender stereotypes.
This is hitting everybody because we're all this way.
And every you have every one of you has a primary and a
secondary love language. So, this is why this is such a
big deal, ready? It's a big deal because some
marriages are soul mates. You know what I mean by soul
mates. It's like you would like all the
same things. These are the people that you
see and they like buy clothes, so they can dress alike.
I want to throw up when I see that, but some people are that
way. I mean, they're just so many
say, like you say so, how are you doing in your marriage?
Like, we don't need to talk about we never argue ever, I'm
like boring, right? These are people that tend to
have the same Love Languages but most marriages are Opposites
Attract and I'm going to amend that a little bit.
It's not necessarily opposites, its differences differences.
Attract. And these describe different
Love Languages so you're going to you might marry someone that
is not at all. Like you not wired like you
understands gives and receives love different than you and
you're trying to speak love to that person in your own
language. And it's impossible to
understand because you're speaking two different
languages, you're not fluent in that language and it could have
a profound impact on your marriage relationship.
Here again there's so much more to say about that.
That's what Retreats your for. That's what that book is about.
Okay, that's what five languages of love is about.
In any case God's design, think about this, his fingerprints are
all over these things. There is a profound spiritual
reality to love and marriage and how it relates to an in
experiential understanding of our relationship with Jesus.
That's why that last scripture in Ephesians says, I'm speaking
of Christ in the church. Because what it does, it shows
you the physical emotional chemical and spiritual realities
profoundly. We're going to school in a
marriage about how we're supposed to be in relationship
with Jesus, and it's amazing how strong your marriage can be.
If you have a spouse where both of you are committed to each
other with a solid spiritual Foundation, an intimate,
personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
You have a good understanding of how you're wired emotionally and
physically and a realization of how much Satan is attempting to
destroy it. You can not only have a
successful marriage, you can have a compelling marriage.
A compelling marriage is one that other people look at and
they're like I want that. I'd like to have a marriage like
that. But how do you start?
Well, I want to challenge you today.
I want you to find a place to eat.
Oh great. Well, that would be the end of
that. Where would you like to go?
I don't know. Wherever you want to go.
Great. so, if you can survive that, I want you to ask each
other some questions. Maybe just one question.
Which approach did you connect with?
Like quit telling a person about what you asked, a question,
which one connected with you, which one of those love
languages? Are you?
Did the bill of the biblical model work with you from
Ephesians? What about that?
Relationship attachment model? That Jerry talked about last
week, how about that? Start the conversation there?
Try to guess Each Other's Love language, ask each other.
They fit The Stereotype asked if we have things in the right
order and the volume levels are at the right place by a book.
Read it together, invest make it a part of your date night.
Have a date night. Don't give up.
Pray together. Take a step, just a step.
Take it now. I'm going to call all of our
campus pastors up at all of our locations because we're moving
to a time of decision. Whether you're in this room or
you're watching online right now, he referred to a step.
Jerry said, take a step. Any step and I know again, I
know what you're probably thinking.
There's a whole bunch of different people.
Hear different stories. You guys are in different parts
of your life, but I'm telling you there's a step that you can
take today that'll draw you closer to Jesus.
Let me just talk to you to the first group of people in here.
There's a group of people in here.
You've been searching for true. Love You've been, you've been
searching for peace. You've been searching for
acceptance and you've been trying to find that in a person.
And I want you to know that today, in this moment, you can
find that inside, an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. Jesus, absolutely, adores.
You loves you cares for you. Accepts you and it doesn't
matter what you've done. It doesn't matter what you did
right before you came into this church.
He looks at you and he says you are mine.
He shows us. What love is a love that we
definitely don't deserve. And he says you can have it and
you can you can claim that true today.
You can leave here today. Stop searching the world to find
it because it's found in a relationship with Jesus.
If you never started it, you've never experienced true love
before but you can today Just call on the name of Jesus, just
a little bit. There's going to be some one
right over here. One of our pastors, right by the
baptistry and they love to help you make that step of Faith.
There's actually one person taken that step, today, you
wouldn't be alone. You can say, I believe I submit
my life to Christ and you can experience that true love today.
If you're online you can simply just type in.
I'm ready and a chat host. Would love to help walk you
through what it looks like to walk in that relationship with
him. And I would encourage you to
that's the very best step you could take today.
The next group of people may not want to talk to is if you're
married in this room. Listen, if you're not, I'm going
to get back to you in just a bit, but if you're married and
your step is, we made it an intentional step for you to take
today up here at our steps. And if you're online, you can
just go to the crossing dotnet forward, slash family, and
you'll find this. But up here is a packet and
maybe your first step in just a little bit.
When the music starts is just to take your spouse by their hand,
walk up to the steps, grab one of these, get on your knees and
pray over it. And what's inside of this is
going to help you succeed in a date night.
There's eight different cards that you would open on this one
night and you just go through it.
The first one like Jerry said is just picking a spot to go eat
and then it will progress throughout dinner this may be a
tool that can turn your marriage around.
It could be a tool that continues to invest in your
marriage to keep it going strong.
I don't know where you're at but I believe, man, if we can do
this as a church and we can get serious about taking a step.
What can what can God do through that?
I can't wait to find out all the married couples and just a
little bit. When you come forward and you
pray. Listen.
And some of you, your spouse's are not sitting next to you.
Maybe your step is coming to grab one of these and praying
for your spouse by name, getting on your knees, humbling
yourself. And just saying, Lord, I don't
know how he or. She will take this, but I'm
going to take this challenge as well, and you can have some
incredible incredible conversations over dinner.
But maybe you're not married. Here's what I want you to know.
Listen, this actually can be for you too, because you have
relationships. Some of you, grandparents, you
have a son or a daughter or grandchild.
You can take to dinner. You could take one of these
challenges inside of it, and just replace the word spouse and
just invest in that relationship.
God can take a lot of ground in that relationship.
And you know, I think those five love languages, you can actually
accomplish all five over this date.
If you think about it all five of them can be fulfilled.
And just this one time where you get together with your spouse
your loved one, your friend. but as always, you could here's an
option and we start singing, you could just stay still, you could
You could just say, man. That's our marriage is good or
our marriage has passed help. We can't we can't do anything
else. You could just say I'm good, but
I believe we're a church. That moves I believe.
We're a church that just wants to take these steps and here's
what we want to do. We want to move out of our seats
and let God do what only God can do.
So I hope you're with me. Let's stand to our feet and
let's just give God all of this right now in this moment.
Let's take a step, Heavenly Father, you are our Firm
Foundation. You are our Solid Rock all other
ground is sinking sand. So God in this moment we just
offer up whatever relationship. We need to offer up in this
moment. Got a pizza, a marriage.
I pray for those spouses God that they would, they would
relate to what you say, in your word.
Some of these incredible resources that we talked about
today, but God, I pray, that the spouse would take a step today.
That marriages would be restored and healed today.
In your name, Jesus, you can do even more than we ask or imagine
Lord, if it's a relationship that just needs investment in.
I pray that you do. What that, what you can do in
that and that relationship, Lord.
But as we sing these songs, I pray that we're a church, that
moves a church. That responds a church is
saying, I'm not. Okay, with where I came in at, I
want to draw closer. Sir, to you and invest in these
relationships. Oh God.
Let us be a church. That moves in Jesus name.
Amen.