Good moms. Let you lick the beaters right
after they finished making some icing.
Great moms. Turn them off first.
Daughter asked her mom. What do you want for Mother's
Day? Mom replied.
I'd really like a doctor for a son-in-law.
Tell me if these questions sound familiar in your house.
Mom, where's my sock, Mom? Where's my outfit for tomorrow?
Mom can you make me a sandwich Mom?
I don't feel good. What's wrong with me?
Dad. Where's Mom?
Okay. A kid went to his dad and said.
Dad what's a man? Dad said a man is someone who's
responsible and cares for their family.
The kid replied one day. I hope to be a man, just like
Mom. One kid said, my dad thinks he
wears the pants around the house, but it's my mom who tells
him which ones to put. On.
Some of you can relate with this one.
My dad always taught me to share my toys with my siblings.
It wasn't to develop social skills or characters because my
dad was a cheapskate and didn't want to spend 50% or when to cut
50% out of the cost on spending on toys.
Here's another one. If you've been to the beach
recently, do you want to know my dad's are always tired from a
day at the beach? It's because they've been
exercising all day because every time they see somebody in a
bikini they suck in. College girl was asked, what is
the most influential book? Or what book is had the biggest
impact on your life? She wrote Into the professor, my
father's checkbook. That's that that's been the
book. Today, we are going to talk
about God's design for the family.
And I want to welcome you joining from all of our
different locations. So those of you here at 48th
Street, those of you in Macomb, Kirksville 929, Pike County,
Hannibal Lima, Mount Sterling Keokuk, Monmouth Jacksonville,
and to all of you watching online.
Line and inside I also want to welcome all of you who are
joining us for the first time or the first time in a long time.
And I want to encourage you, please take advantage of that QR
code. On the seat in front of you.
It'll give you a great opportunity for you to connect
with us on a deeper level. My hope today, is that no matter
where you are in your spiritual journey, that you would leave
knowing that this church loves you and that you can have an
intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Next week, I have a very special sermon For you a sermon that I
believe will be a gift to every relationship that you value.
So I can't encourage you enough to make sure you come back next
week. If you want to bring a friend I
believe it will be life giving to them.
But today I want to talk to you about God's design for the
family and there are some of you who you think your days of
parenting are over. And there are others of you who
are going. I thought my days of parenting
would be over. You're either raising grandkids
or you have kids that will not leave the house.
There are some of you listening to me right now and you're not
married. Yet, I want you to hear me
clearly lean in extra hard. You might be thinking this
sermon is not for you, but I promise this message might be
one of the most important messages you here, even if
you're in high school because one day, you are going to have
to navigate all of these Waters. And these principles will help.
Help you navigate them. Others of you are going to hear
this sermon and you're going to be going.
Nope, your ears are full of lots of pain, your family is so
jacked up. So dysfunctional that hearing
this message, feels more like salt in the wound.
Then healing balm. I want, you know, my family's
jacked up to however, I believe that if you stay through this,
there are principles that will act as Seeds of Hope for all of
you re. Regardless of your situation
even for stepdads and stepmoms. For those of you who are
navigating divorces or our divorce, those of you who are in
split up families and families that have been blown to pieces.
For those of you who don't know, I am a stepdad and I have had to
learn how to navigate some of these principles and navigate
some of these Waters. And I can tell you that these
biblical principles are trustworthy and you can build
build your life on them. And if you are here today and
your family is not turning out the way you thought and it's not
turning out the way you had hoped and perhaps your marriage,
and having kids was a lot harder than you anticipated.
I want you to know, you're in really good company.
Because if you were to read the Bible from cover to cover, you
know what, you would have a hard time finding a good family to
model your family. After most of the stories in the
Bible that go into deep detail end, up being incredibly messed
up. In fact, oftentimes what
scripture reveals to us about the families of Bible are more
cautionary, tales about what not Not to do than lessons of what
to do. Maybe raising a Godly family is
one of the hardest things you could ever try to accomplish.
And part of the reason it's incredibly hard to have a great
god-honoring family, is because your family has an enemy.
I'm going to keep drilling this verse Into the Heart and Soul of
this church because I want you to remember it John, 10:10.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
This is Jesus talking, but I Jesus have come that they may
have life and have it to the full.
In other words, your marriage has an enemy, your parenting has
an enemy, your kids have an enemy.
So everything that God wants to do for you, and in you, in your
family, Satan is trying to tear down.
He's trying to steal. He's trying to kill.
He's trying to destroy. Furthermore, there are very few
things on planet Earth. More powerful than a family.
I'm willing to wager. that if I were to ask you, your source of
your biggest pain, Your biggest heartbreak, your greatest
sorrow. Chances are it has something to
do with your family. Most people are not going to
therapist because the co-workers were mean and they had a bad
boss. It's because something happened
in their family, a place that was supposed to protect them and
care for them and nurture them and love them.
Somehow blue them, apart. So you have these deep family
wounds that you're trying to navigate and if Satan can
undermine God's plan for the family, he can do an
Indescribable harm to the greater world, but God has a
design for the family. His intentions are incredibly
clear in scripture Genesis chapter 2, but for Adam.
No suitable. Helper was found.
So, the Lord God caused the 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, and
the man said this is now bone of my bones 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 one flesh and it
is out of this Oneness relationship between A husband
and a wife that children would be brought into the world.
So not only is it's God's design for after the Oneness
relationship that the children are brought into the world, but
it was also God's design for every child to have a mother and
a father. Fathers and mothers, have unique
expressions of God's identity to bring to bear in the nurturing
and the development of a child. They have different gifts,
different skill, sets, different ways, of approaching situations.
And in that tandem leadership, they're able to bring to bear a
fuller picture of God's design into that child's life.
This is part of the reason why we mourn so deeply, the early
passing of a father or a mother Because something is Rob from
that child's life. That's why there's so much pain
for kids in who are navigating the pain of divorce.
Now hear me today, please please hear me this weekend.
I'm going to be talking to over 10,000 people, all across this
region, and I need you to know that I am fully aware that there
are hundreds, if not thousands of divorces represented in our
church family. I want you to know that I do not
know the specifics of your Particular situation.
You may have had really good reasons.
You may have had incredible difficulties.
You may have had challenges that I can't even begin to understand
and I want you to hear me say, I am not saying that God can't use
or redeem. The things that have been lost
or broken on your child's behalf.
I just want us all to see God's design and the impacts of what
happens when that design is changed.
I'm not here to shame. I'm here to help.
Okay, but God's design doesn't just have a design.
Fine. God has an order.
And our first priority is supposed to be God.
We are to be God first people. So God has a design for the
family, but he also has an order of how that family is to
operate. And the first order, the first
priority is supposed to be God, look what it says in Mark
chapter 12, love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind. and and with all your strength, in
other words, your number one priority as a human being is to
be a person who is exclusively seeking the will of God and the
expansion of his kingdom. I need you to hear me.
Say this, you can fully live out your calling from God, right
there. You do not have to get married
to be a great Christian. You are not going to get to
heaven. And Saint Peter's going to be
standing there. So did you get married?
Okay, well, you'll be in the warmer section of Heaven.
I mean, it's still heaven. No, I need you to hear me say
this. You can be everything that God
created you to be. As a single person.
Marriage is not an upgrade. Like you didn't become a more
spiritual person. Once you found somebody who'd
put up with you And some of you thought you found somebody who
would put up with you. Like I don't think I did I think
I was wrong. Okay so we are okay with me
taking divorce jokes. All right I just want to make
sure okay, hear me the Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New
Testament, guess what? Single Not only that in
scripture. He says, I got to be honest with
you, I wish more of you would choose to be single, so you
wouldn't have to spend so much time fighting with your wife,
taking care of your kids and you could fully devote yourself to
making Jesus famous Second thing, I mean, this guy's a
pretty big character in the Bible who was a single.
I want to make sure I say his name, right?
Jesus. Never got married.
Not once. He was just so busy being him.
And saving your soul is like, I'm not gonna bring a woman into
this. I'm just gonna keep doing what
I'm doing. So hear me if Jesus can fulfill
all of God's calling on his life.
And Paul can fully honor God with his life.
It is totally acceptable for you to go.
Yeah, I'm just going to be completely single and devoted to
the Lord. Okay.
Now there are some of you who are going to do.
I need someone to do my laundry and you are going to go.
I need to get a spouse hear me. Your first priority is to be to
God. But if you get married, your
second priority becomes your spouse.
It becomes your second, most important relationship.
And that is why you need to be so careful.
And so selective when it comes to who you marry and in out of
this marriage, comes your children and they take third
place. Look what's on 27th?
1:27 says children are a gift from the Lord and they are a
reward. From him.
And so you're going, can I return the gift?
Right? Are some of your like I like the
gift that somebody else has. I like the new model that
they're coming out with? I want one of those.
Yeah, I hear you. I hear you.
I just want you to know this. Every marriage has problems and
every kid has challenges, we all have to deal with the simple
impacts of that's in our hearts and in the hearts of those we
loved and it doesn't matter how spiritual you are.
You can still have areas of your life that are all out of whack.
It doesn't matter how much you love Jesus and how spiritual you
are. You still have to deal with the
fact that your kids have free will?
I want you to hear me? Say this.
I tell our staff this all the time, I go.
Look, your kids are not on staff at this church.
They're just not, your kids are just kids who attend this
church. And if you try to hold your kids
to a higher standard because their pastors kids, you're going
to blow them up because your kids are going to fart in the
middle of a prayer. Just like every other kid is and
your kids are going to have a bad day and they're going to
have a bad attitude just like every other kid.
And so let your kid be a kid who were trying to reach in this
church, instead of an associate pastor.
Or they're not paid to be here. In fact, they're here enough
times. We might as well pay them, but
functionally, you can mess up a kid.
If you start holding them to a higher standard instead of
letting your kid go through the Growing Pains of discovering a
faith for them. Selves, our kids deserve just as
much grace and love is every other kid who attends this
church now, do I want to know every time?
My kids screws up, you better believe it, but I don't want
there to be, like, one form of punishment, because there are
pastors kid and a different form of punishment.
I meant if they're not, some kids are just better, behaved in
public than others and some kids are nightmares when nobody's
looking. And I just got to be honest with
you. I would rather have my kids
repeal early and often, and in my home and get it all the way
out of their system than fake it, until they're out of my
house and then have to deal with those ramifications.
So in God's design, we see this. That our first priority is to be
God, our second priority, if we choose to get married as her
spouse and our third priority is our kids.
The problem is, sometimes we get this out of order and sometimes
it looks like this. You why?
That's a problem? Well one when you do this you
could end up with the wrong spouse.
Because you're prioritizing them over God.
I got to be in this world. You've seen this before,
somebody has a great relationship with the Lord, and
then they get eyes for somebody who doesn't have a relationship
with the Lord. And then they violate God's
principles for who they're supposed to marry to enter into
a relationship with somebody that they like.
And so they start worshiping this person.
This person gets in the number one spot, they haven't left the
faith but then all of a sudden they're married to somebody who
has two different priorities. Two different ways of viewing,
the world to different ways of living their life.
And when you do this, Things get out of whack things, get out of
whack fast. That's why the Bible tells us be
careful about being unequally yoked.
He's saying make sure you marry somebody who has the same
priority list as you do. Now, listen to me.
When you do this, check out what happens.
You're putting God in a position of redeeming.
What's been broken inside of your marriage?
Instead of blessing? What's been surrendered in your
marriage now? Listen God.
Will hear me? Hear me hear me God's.
Redemptive power is super stinking strong, but it is not
better than his Blessing. And if you want to give your
family a favor, put your family in a position that God blesses
instead of God having to redeem. The second reason why this is a
problem is your spouse makes a lousy God.
They will let you worship them because everybody likes to be
worshipped. But ultimately, your spouse
becomes a very lousy God. And when you put them in that
spot, you're putting them in a position to fail.
And then you get mad at them because they can't provide the
things that you need them to provide but they were never
equipped to provide you the things that you ultimately
needed because they are not a god But the issue I see the most
the issue I see people struggling with the most is
actually this order. Now remember I love you.
So the Bible calls any order that doesn't have God first, it
has a really cool word for it. The word is idolatry.
In fact, the very first commandment of the Ten
Commandments, for those of you who want to go old-school, is
you shall have no other gods before me.
God is saying, I am always in the number one spot. and if you
violate that order, You end up worshipping your kids and God
does not tolerate it nor does. God bless it.
Furthermore, when God is not first in your life, you cannot
be the spouse. You want to be the spouse.
You need to be or the spouse that God created you to be.
Furthermore when God is not first and you put your kids
first or you put your spouse first, you cannot be the parent.
You need to be the parent. They need you to be.
Or the parent that God called you to be and you have
effectively shut off the flow of God's blessing into the lives of
those. You care about the most in that
area, when your kids are before your spouse, it creates
resentment in your spouse. And perhaps, just because you
know, I want to make sure I get everybody getting frustrated.
when you put your grandkids, Above your spouse.
Oh, now here's what happens. Anytime God is not in the number
one spot. What you end up doing?
And I don't know if Becky dress from our Hannibal campus coin
this phrase or if somebody I don't know who did it, but this
is brilliant. This is what happens.
Credit card parenting. This is what credit card
parenting is. When you put off dealing with
things and being lazy and your parenting and having the right
priorities and then you end up having to pay it all back later
with interest. Is there an area right now of
your parenting of your marriage that you're going on.
I am paying interest, I make minimum payments for years and
now the bill has come due. When kids are in the first spot,
all you can do is credit card parent.
We end up spending more money than we should on our kids and
put ourselves in troubling situations, financially.
One of the biggest issues inside of marriage is how to have it
navigate your money this leads to divorce and and many The
circumstances or that Financial instability eventually, makes it
hard for our kids to have security and increases anxiety
in them. We end up spending so much to
put on them and around them that we fail to make sure that we
prioritize. What we put in them.
Proverbs 13:20 to says a good person, leaves an inheritance
for their children's children. We've become so used to taking
them through the aisle and getting them, everything that
they want because buying it is cheaper than saying no.
And then we spend ourselves into a position, or were so busy with
our schedule that we have made, our kids into an idol, that we
cannot actually afford to worship anymore and then
eventually it all catches up to us because it's not just in how
we spend our money. It's how we spend our time, we
can become. So busy worshipping, our kids
that we neglect, our spouse, or our relationship with God.
And this robs us of a Godly relationship with their parent.
And it robs us of the real spiritual power that we are
going to need to navigate the challenges of trying to be a
good Godly family. So many of us are so busy
worshipping. Somebody other than God, that we
don't have the power of God in our lives to navigate all the
challenges that come our way. That's why, the very first week
of this sermon series, I talked to you guys about having a
vision for your family, what kind of kids do you want to
raise Proverbs 22 verse 6 says, train up a child in the way he
should go. Even when he is old, he will not
depart from it which leads to this issue.
We need to be training towards Our vision but more importantly
towards God's Vision. Here's what I mean by that, what
kind of spouse are you training your child to become?
Have you thought about that that you are training a potential
future spouse for somebody? Ladies, what are all the things
that your son does that you can't stand.
Would you like to pass that blessing on to a unsuspecting
lady? Or do you like to go out, urine
spouse training mode? Today, we're going to learn how
to fold socks. Okay, what kind of worker?
Are you training your child to be?
So they can be a stable provider for the family.
Is your strategy? No work ethic no responsibility
till 28 then give them a girlfriend, a wife and four kids
and go figure it out. Or should we be training them?
Did you hear me say this? Because it is not what you leave
to them. That makes your child great.
It is what you leave in them. If what you leave to them is
more than what you leave in them, they will burn through all
that you leave to them. But if you leave so much in
them, it won't matter what you leave to them, because they will
have all the tools to make their own way.
So, what kind of relationship with God?
Do you want your kids to have? And are you training them?
There make no mistakes. Every single one of us we are
already training, our kids. The question is, are we training
them to be? Who God created them and called
them to be? Because there is a universal
parenting relationship principle.
Maurice caught than taught. Your kids are learning how to
treat a spouse. Because they are watching how
you treat yours. They are learning what you
prioritize and what you neglect. You don't have to tell them,
they know. They know if your phone is more
important than them, they know if your Netflix is more
important than them, they know if your job is more important
than them, they know if you cherish your spouse or resent
your spouse, when you're in the car, they're learning how to
treat them, is it okay to talk bad about dad when you're
driving through McDonald's or when you speak about Dad, do you
speak in uplifting? Kind encouraging, thankful
tones. When you don't like the way
things are shaking out in the house how you speak about their
mother matters when you're divorced, I bet it so easy to
get in the car because your ex stinks and you just want them to
know how bad their dad is. And you forget it is their dad.
and then this kid is having to choose between two people that
he can't help, but love, but the no longer love and value and
treat one another There's a challenge that we're going to
ask you all to do. It's at all of our locations,
it's a calendar challenge. We are going to sit down with
your kids and you're going to work through.
Where are our priorities? Where's God, where's our spouse?
And where's our kids? One of the biggest gifts you can
give your kids is a loving prioritize relationship with
their parent. Like shut up.
I'm kissing your mom for a little bit.
Letting them know they can say all they want.
I want them to know that. Dad loves Mom.
Hey, hold on a second. I'm just going to spend five
minutes talking to your mom. Go do push-ups or something.
And while they get frustrated, why are you?
Because I want them to know. Dad loves mom when my kids go to
bed at night. I want them.
Knowing mom loves dad. But I also want them to know
that Dad loves God. We are already training, our
kids, what's important? And the chance of your kid,
becoming a professional dancer. Or professional Trumpeter.
Or a professional baseball player are like. but the chance
of your kid being a father, a mother needing a relationship
with Jesus is really stinking High.
And if we were to go, I am going to start valuing these bigger
things. I love playing baseball with my
kids, but I'd much rather my kid be a great dad than a great
picture. I love watching my kids play
basketball. I'm a horrible basketball.
Coach, we lost like all of our games, but one, And you know
what, okay, chances are my kid being a professional basketball
player. Zero chance of my kids not
having the life of singleness very high judging, by the way
their behavior, they are ready to be married already and I need
to train them. Okay, can I take you on a quick
Journey? So I got convicted recently in
my own parenting because there are two issues.
I love my kids but you don't but I was navigating how to be proud
of them. I'm commanded by God to love my
kids. When we talk about God's love is
unconditional, but pride is conditional.
And I was realizing there was times I was using the word.
I was proud of them when I really wasn't.
And then I diluted the power of that word because you have to do
something to be proud. Now, you don't have to win the
basketball game, but I can be proud of your effort.
I'm proud of something. And my wife gets frustrated
because she doesn't like the way everybody in my house cleans up
the house. And then when we start to help
clean up the house, my wife is also a control freak.
And she will say, just stop. Just stop, just stop.
Like we'll be halfway through loading, the dishwasher, I'll
just do it myself, it's just better.
And so like, there's this constant fight, my wife wants
our has to be cleaner. She wants us to help out and
every time we help out, she just wants us to stop.
So she can do it, right? You guys.
Like, are you guys normal to? And so, My wife went away on a
on a little girls trip. And so, I was like, okay, how do
I train my boys to not be loser dads?
Michael Kay. It starts tonight.
Game on boys. Come here.
I have an assignment for you. We are going to learn how to
clean a house right now. It's a very special Mission.
This Mission has one goal in mind.
Make Mom's smile. Do you like it?
When Mom smiles to you have a great smile, you don't want to
make her not smile. Do you?
Do you want to fail your mother on?
What matters. Most I bring you here today
because we have a nation to Cock this.
This like kid you, not? It's more involved in that,
okay, I'm a psycho. And I said, so before we go to
bed, we are picking out our clothes.
The night before, we are getting our towel and we are laying it
out. We are getting our washcloth and
we were laying it out because we're going to be clean hensel's
before we go to bed at night. We're going to walk through the
house. We're going to make sure that
everything is the way it's supposed to be like, okay.
You have three minutes. They get it and they got pretty
decent job. And I look at them, Uncle I'm so
proud of you and the beam on their face was like, yeah, I
know how to clean a house. Now, mom comes home.
I go Mom, watch, boys, you ready for the test.
So here's what I do at night, I set out a fork, I go over to the
kitchen table and I pull out some chairs.
I grab something random thing out of the pantry and I leave it
on the counter and take a couple blankets and I mess him up
around the house. And I go boys, I'm seeing seven
things. And the test begins now and mom
sitting there in the boys start going around.
Looking okay, this is how a chair goes back in.
Now you guys are laughing but you go home and ask your kids to
clean up and see what happens. All of us now it's not anywhere.
Close to the way, my wife would like it done but now my wife is
doing the last five percent, not the first 95%.
My wife is now able to more fully engaging conversations in
our house because she's not frustrated all night long
because she has to keep clean after three chunky.
Boys and deep in my heart, my goal is that I am raising boys
that will cherish the needs of their wife.
I was fine with the way the house was, it didn't bother me.
I'm good. I mean, I'm not that dirty, but
I'm just dirtier than her. But I want them to look at their
wife and go what her standards matter to me.
And I want to build to look at my boys with integrity and say
I'm proud of you. We are training our kids.
Now I have a really good news for you.
I told you at the beginning that your marriage and your parenting
has an enemy He came comes to steal and kill and destroy, but
I want you to also know we have a tremendous Ally who has come
to give us life and life to the full.
And so while he is trying to steal things and kill things and
Destroy things, Jesus is trying to come into your life and bring
a full life, an abundant life if you follow his plan and part of
his plan is having him first, your spouse, second your kids
third, but it goes so much deeper than that, and I want to
show you what it looks like. Like and one of the most
familiar passages in all of scripture, this is what it looks
like when Jesus is your ally and you put things in the right
order. This what it says, the Lord is
my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in Green
Pastures, he leads me beside Quiet Waters.
He refreshes my soul, he guides me along the right path for his
namesake. Even though I walk through the
darkest Valley, I will fear no evil for you.
Are with me, your rod and your staff.
They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in
the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil my
cup overflows, surely goodness and love will follow me all the
days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. You have an ally and while Satan
wants to steal and kill and destroy Jesus is saying, but I
have a life for you. A life that is good and Filling
for your family, he's saying train them and the way they
should go. So when they are older they will
not stray from it. No.
Can I just walk you through the Highlight Reel?
How many of you want your kids to grow up with the Lord as
their Shepherd? And if they are they're not
going to lack nothing. How many of you want to raise
your kids in the Green Pastures of God and you want your family
to be able to sit by side this Quiet Waters.
How many you want your kids to know and your marriage to know
that God refreshes their soul and will nurture and take care
of them that he will guide them all.
Along the right paths, keep going, how many of you want to
know that when you walk through the darkest Valley, when the
storms actually hit your marriage, when the tough times
actually come in your parenting, that you have an ally that even
in the darkest of valleys, you have nothing to fear.
When they go out, and they're on their own, that they have
nothing to fear because they have a promise that has rung.
True for the ages that he is with them, that he will Comfort
them, that you would live in a state, where your cup is over
flowing, you are filled with joy and that ultimately in the wake
of your life goodness and love would follow you.
Follow your marriage, follow your parenting, follow your
kids, follow your grandkids and eventually that your family tree
would dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
That is what it looks like to have an intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. And you cannot be the person
that God created you to be. You cannot be the spouse that
you want to be. You cannot be the parent that
you want to be and you cannot raise the kids that you want to
race. If he is not the center of your
life, if you do not have an intimate, personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, so please don't put it off.
Remember to a time of decision, If you are here today, and you
haven't started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. What I just read is the cliff
notes version of what that looks like.
I want you to hear me say it. You can start that relationship
today. If you were to read through the
pages of scripture, what you'd find out is that to begin that
relationship with Jesus Christ, there's a couple things you got
to get right, one, you got to realize that there's a God and
that you're not him. You got to realize that Jesus
died on the cross for your sins to pay a price that you couldn't
pay. You got to repent of you Livin
Life on your own terms and definitely and never actually
saying, you know what, I want you to be in control, you
created me, you made me, you have a plan and purpose for my
life and then the Bible almost every time talks about people
who come to, this realization become obedient in the area of
baptism. And that when you become
obedient in the area of baptism in that baptism, you receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. We're God stops.
Working on you and he starts working in you.
He takes up residence in. You, can I be incredibly
practical for a second? This past month, don't raise
your hand. Please don't raise your hand.
Did you have a fight with your spouse or your kid if you did
just keep breathing? If you didn't, just hold your
breath. in that moment, where you being guided, By the Holy
Spirit. Or you being Guided by your
emotions. Or the words coming out of your
mouth. The healing words of Jesus or
the hurt of a soured heart. The Holy Spirit takes up
residence. and he bears fruit in us that in all of these
situations we can all we're still going to struggle with
sin, but we have power to overcome So, you see the
Highlight Reel of Clayton, Hensel.
And I try to let you know that I'm a bit of a turd but it's
worse than it than I let on. And I would say, one of my
biggest aches. has there been so many times in my marriage in my
relationships and even in my parenting where I have not given
them a Spirit-filled father, I've not given my wife, a
Spirit-filled husband, I have not given my friends, a
Spirit-filled friend. And you don't even have that
option. Until you're in a right
relationship with Jesus. So if you have questions about
what that is or what that looks like, I want to encourage you in
just a few moments the people around, you are going to stay in
and start singing. I'm going to hurt you to go over
to the step are over by the baptistry and there's somebody
there who would love an opportunity to talk with you.
To the rest of you in the room. I want you to hear me.
Say this. We need help in this area.
We need to do better in this area.
The people that God has placed in our lives, whether it's a
spouse, whether it's a kid, whether it's friends, they
deserve a Spirit-filled presence.
They deserve a Spirit-filled, you.
So, here's what I'm asking you to do.
Make sure that you are or reorienting your priority list
into God's priority list husband's right now.
Gut check is God, first in your life?
Is he a priority? If not what needs to change
after that? Is your spouse a priority when
needs to change and then, how does that impact your kids
wives? Same thing.
So, here's all. I'm asking you to do if you want
to, if you care about your marriage or if you're
navigating, A gating the throes of a divorce or you've been
divorced and you can't stand the person.
You used to be married to, I'm going to ask you to come up, get
down on your knees and pray for them taking.
That's my enemy, check this out. Jesus says, pray for your
enemies but they're they're making my life horrible.
Pray for those who persecute you.
You're going, but I can't pray that prayer.
Well, good news. You don't have to pray that
Prayer by yourself. He will Empower you to pray that
prayer. Got out how I'm going to get in
the car with my kids and because of what my ex-husband keeps
doing, Holy Spirit, I need your help to honor their father.
Even though I can't stand him, pray for your kids.
Pray for kids is marriage. Pray for your grandkids is
marriage. Leave a spiritual inheritance at
the steps this weekend, but you stand with me, heavenly father.
Thank you so much for today. Thanks for the time.
We've been able to spend together, I pray that you use
these next few moments to get our lives on the right track.
To put us pointed in the right direction and then give us the
power to live it out and your name.
I pray. Amen.
To put us pointed in the right direction and then give us the
power to live it out and your name.
I pray. Amen.