Family Survival Kit - The Secret to a Healthy Marriage

withstand life's storms. So, in a day of

confusion where people seem to be making

their decisions based on how they feel

instead of what God says, we're going to

turn our attention to a passage of

scripture that inspired Jesus first

sermon, his sermon on the mount. Uh

inspired the conclusion to that sermon

which said that uh if a person builds

their home, builds their family on the

teachings of God, then when the storms

come, and they will come, that that

house will be able to withstand the

storm. their house will not collapse.

And so many scholars believe that as

Jesus taught this parable that he had in

mind Psalm 128, which says this, how

happy. Anybody want to be happy this

morning? On a rainy Sunday morning. You

want some happy? All right. So, here's

how you get some happy. How happy is

everyone who one fears the Lord and two

walks in his ways. You will surely eat

of what your hands have worked for. You

will be happy and it will go well with

you. Your wife will be like a fruitful

vine within the house, your children

like young olive trees around your

table. In this very way, the man who

fears the Lord will be blessed. May the

Lord bless you from Zion so that you

will see prosperity in Jerusalem all the

days of your life. And you will see your

children's children, peace be with

Israel. So the heartbeat of that psalm

is the best thing that you can do for

your world is to have a strong and

healthy family. And the best thing that

you can do for your family is to have a

strong and healthy marriage. And the

best thing that you can do for your

marriage is to have a strong and healthy

soul. So change your heart, change your

family, change the world. Lord, we pray

this morning that you would speak from

your word, that you would help us and

encourage us, Lord. And I know that

there are a lot of people here today

that are in uh difficult marriages. Some

that have been divorced, some that are

widowed, some that are still single. And

Lord, we pray that you would be able to

apply this teaching to every single life

situation that's in this room and those

that are watching online as well. I pray

that your Holy Spirit would have free

access to not only my life but the lives

of my brothers and sisters who are

gathered here in this place. And Lord,

if there are any that are distant from

you today, if there's anyone here today

that does not have a personal

relationship with Jesus, they are not a

Christian, they are not saved, Lord, I

pray that today your Holy Spirit would

knock on the door of their heart, and

that you would speak to them through the

music, through the prayers, through the

message. Lord, I pray that you would

reach them with the gospel. Help them to

know that they are loved and cherished

enough that you sent your son, Jesus, to

die on the cross for them. And I pray

that in light of that love, they would

respond to you by giving their lives to

you. And Lord, if they have a family, I

pray that in that moment, not only would

you strengthen their soul, but you would

begin to strengthen that relationship

and that marriage that they are part of

as well. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Healthy marriages have a healthy fear of

God. So Psalm 128 gives us a little

sneak peek into God's playbook about how

to make a better world. Uh we know we

can pray for people. We do that all the

time. We know we can give money to

people in need. We do that all the time

as well. But there's this other great

resource that God has given us to make

our community a better place. And what

it is is a strong and healthy marriage.

And so you might say, "Well, how do I

get one of those?" I don't know, but God

does. So don't follow my example, follow

God's example. Um, so Psalm 128:1, he

Psalms 128:1

says, "How happy is everyone who fears

the Lord, who walks in his ways." Back

in the day, in the 90s, when I was in

high school, I saved up my allowance and

I got one of those No fear t-shirts.

Anybody remember those? It was like a a

a trend in the 90s, anything that had to

do with fear, it was really popular. Um,

so I got me a No Fear shirt. Uh, the

guys at school that had the trucks, they

they got the ain't scared, like the

bumper stickers on the back of the

trucks and stuff. And uh, but what I

didn't know at the time was that's

actually very theologically sound

because the most common command in all

of the Bible is do not be afraid. God

did not give you a spirit of fear. He

gave you a spirit of courage. And so if

God did not give it to you, then you

don't have to keep it. So if you're

scared of things, if you're scared of

people, if you're scared of change, if

you're scared of stepping out in

ministry, if you're scared of uh leading

your your team or whatever, like if you

have that fear, God didn't give it to

you. So you don't have to keep it.

However, there is one thing in scripture

that God says that we need to be afraid

of, and that is God himself. But it's

not the the fear of God like ah it's

it's fear of God out of awe and respect

for who he is. So fear of God according

to scripture is the beginning of

knowledge. It it's the beginning of

wisdom. If you want to be smart, if you

want to be wise, you start with a

healthy fear of God. The Bible says that

a fear of God is the portal to a a

better marriage. It's a portal to a

better parenting. It's a portal to a

better world. So, what does it mean to

fear God? Well, just look at some of

these pictures that are up on the

screen. This is amazing. This is James

Webb telescope bringing us some images

from the heavens that we've never seen

before. The the rings of Jupiter up

close. We see the that first picture was

called the the hand of God. Um, so

there's just this incredible uh cosmos

that we are a part of. And what you need

to understand is the God that sent Jesus

to the cross for you is the same God

that created the cosmos. He created

everything that we see. And so what we

should do is we should retract in terror

at the the mere thought of a being that

is so vast and so immense and so beyond

anything that we could ever entertain.

We should be scared of him, but we're

not. We're actually attracted to him. We

we draw near to God. We should be

afraid, but we're not because we know

that Jesus loves us. So what do we do?

We respect God. We revere his

commandments. We We stand in awe of who

he is. And we understand that he loved

us enough to send Jesus to the cross.

That's why I love that song where it

says Jesus bled like a lamb, but he also

roared like a lion. That that's a

healthy fear of God. It's understanding

that he is the lion that you should be

afraid of, but he is also the the lamb

that went to the cross for you. And what

happens is a healthy fear of God leads

you to walking in his ways. And when you

walk in the ways of God, you develop a

strong and healthy soul. And when you

develop a strong and healthy soul, you

are then able to develop a strong and

healthy marriage. And when you have a

strong and healthy marriage, you can

have a strong and healthy community or

city according to the scripture. And if

you have a strong and healthy city, then

you can have a strong and healthy

country. And if you have a strong and

healthy country, then the blessings of

God can ripple out to the very ends of

the world. So, let's back up for a

second. If you're learning to fly a

plane, when do you want to learn to fly

the

plane? Before you get in the plane,

right? So, for anybody that's single

that's listening or watching, uh, let me

just say that your your desire that you

should have more than anything else is

not to to be to be married or to be

dating. Your number one desire according

to scripture should be to fear God and

walk in his ways. Like the first thing

you do is get a strong and healthy soul.

And then the scripture teaches us that

we should look for someone else that

fears God and walks in his ways. Someone

that shares your convictions. And you

might say, "Well, but he's so cute."

Well, I'm glad he's cute. But guess

what? Beauty fades. Unless you're me.

Um, everybody else, beauty fades over

time. So what you want to do is find

someone who has Jesus' name written on

their heart the same way that Jesus name

is written on your heart. And when you

do that, then you can walk in the ways

of the Lord together. And you can write

a beautiful story uh with your lives. So

if you're uh walking in the the ways

that God wants you to walk, you're going

to find a spouse that shares your

convictions. And some would say, "Well,

PK, you're kind of oversimplifying

this." But I really don't think I am

because let's go back to Psalm 10 128

and look at the first three

verses. How happy is everyone. That's

all y'all. How happy is everyone who

fears the Lord and walks in his ways.

You will surely eat what your hands have

worked for. You will be happy and it

will go well with you. And your wife

will be like a fruitful vine within your

house. And your children, we're going to

talk about that in a couple weeks. Your

children are like young olive trees

around your table. So maybe you're

feeling overwhelmed today because you're

walking in here as a single person who

doesn't want to be single. Or perhaps

you're walking in here with a marriage

that is really far from where you

actually want your marriage to be. Or

perhaps you're discouraged because

you're feeling excluded today because

divorce is a part of your story. Well, I

want to make one thing perfectly clear.

God never shames you for your past. He

is always fighting for your future. And

according to the scripture, in your

future, you can have fruitfulness. So

just keep that in mind. And also,

spoiler alert, there are no perfect

marriages. Anybody got a perfect

marriage in

here? All right. So, just want to make

sure. Um, so no perfect marriages. So

you you may have heard people say that

like opposites attract. Um, they usually

say that when you're engaged. Um, but

then after you've been married for a

little while, it's more like opposites

attack. Like at first it's, "Oh, they're

so cute. They're so different than me.

They just complete me." And then after a

time, it's like, "They're so different

than me." You know, like that's most

people's experience in in marriage.

Um, I was brave, boy. Cindy's here, too.

Larry. Larry.

man, get saved. All right, so

um I I almost I thought I was dying.

Just gonna be very honest with you. I

thought I was on my deathbed. Uh I I

kept having these these moments where I

felt like I was going to spontaneously

combust. Like I would get so hot and so

sweaty and I just I I thought I had some

like weird disease. So I like called the

CDC. I'm like, "You need to send the

guys in the the hazmat suits to my house

because I got some weird plague or

something." I'm just I feel like I'm

going to explode. Like, and it kept

happening over and over and over. And I

told my wife about it and she's like,

"Well, you need to call your doctor."

And I'm like, "Okay, maybe it's my

medication or something. I don't know. I

need to get this figured out." But then

one day, I was in my car and I looked

down. I saw these three red lights on my

dash I'd never seen before. I'm like,

"What are those things?" So, I looked up

the little icon on my phone and it turns

out that I got a seat heater in my car.

I had no idea. Yeah. Yeah. And it was on

full blast. So I went back and told my

wife and she's like, "Oh yeah, I

borrowed your car." And I always keep my

heat seater on or heat seater. Heat

seater. Seater and heater. Seat heater.

Thank you. And I'm like, so I'm so

flustered. So I need you all to be the

judge and jury on this. All right. So is

it my fault for not knowing what the

three lights are or is No, you got to

hear my side.

It's the most non-reverential sermon

I've ever preached. Or is it her fault

for borrowing my car and not setting it

back to its original settings?

I knew you were going to say thank you.

It's both. I agree. Um, we're both

wrong. I like

that.

Anyway, there are no healthy marriages

that are absolutely perfect. However,

there can be marriages that produce

fruit. So, the good news is that God

doesn't call your marriage to be

perfect. He doesn't command you to have

a perfect relationship with your spouse,

which is great because I was an only

child, as you could just tell. Um, I'm

an only child. I need my stuff the way I

want my stuff, right? And my wife is

from a big family and so she doesn't

have that same mindset. So, when we got

married, we clashed a lot. But the good

news is that God never told us that we

have to love each other perfectly every

single day like it's some 1960s sitcom.

Okay? But what he does say about

marriage is that it should produce

fruit. He says it's like a fruitful

vine. So when you walk with God and you

walk in his ways and you labor with your

hands, the thing that is the outcome of

that is you're going to have a marriage

that over time becomes like a fruitful

vine. So So why does God choose to use

the metaphor of a a healthy vine to

illustrate a healthy marriage? So I

believe it's well first of all you got

to understand that like this is the Old

Testament which was written by Jewish

thinkers and Jewish people think more

poetically than Greek thinkers. So when

you ask a Greek thinker, which I think I

would be uh to describe God, I would

talk about his omnipotence, his

omniscience, all the omni words, right?

But when you ask a Jewish person to

describe God, they will use metaphors

and analogies. They will say he is a

rock. He is a fountain of blessing. He

is a he is the bread of life. And so

what we're going to do is we're going to

lean into the metaphor of scripture that

is being used here to understand why God

chose a fruitful vine to be the

illustration of what it's like to have a

a a wife in the heart of the home that

is being um that that is that is healthy

and growing and producing fruit. So he

uses a the picture of a vineyard because

there's like a magnetism to a vineyard.

If you've ever been to a vineyard and

you just walk around through the the

grapes, it's one of the most beautiful

places on earth. As a matter of fact, a

couple years ago, we had a a funeral for

a family member and after the funeral

was over, we had a reception for the

family at a vineyard and it was just

most just this peaceful, beautiful

place. And so after we we talked for a

while, I went out and just kind of

wandered through the the vines looking

at the beauty around me. And I noticed

that they had a wedding set up. Uh like

the chairs and stuff were out and I

noticed people milling around. And I'm

like, "Cool, there might be like a

wedding here." So, I just thought I'd

kind of watch uh what it looked like cuz

it was so beautiful. It was really weird

at first though because um the the the

pastor officient, I don't know who it

was that some guy came out and he was

wearing a hood and he had to pull down

real far and it was like this cloak and

he walks out to the middle, you know,

and then the groom comes out and I'm

like, "Oh my gosh." The groom was

dressed like Han Solo. So, so Han Solo

comes out and he's followed by his

groomsman with all dressed like Wookies.

So, he's got all the Wookies. Han Solo

and then of course Princess Leia walks

down the aisle and she takes her place

and there's like Jedi out from her and

I'm like, "Oh my good, a Star Wars

themed wedding in the middle of a

vineyard." But before the the sci-fi

convention broke out, it was a beautiful

setting, right? It was just the perfect

place to get married. And that's why

Jesus chose this this illustration, this

metaphor to teach us about what it looks

like when you have a a healthy home. So

if your spouse is stressing you out or

your marriage has got you worried, what

Jesus says is that you need to connect

with him and walk in the vineyard with

him. Remember Jesus teaching in John

John 15:5

15:5, he says, "I am the the vine and

you are

the branches." and if you remain in me,

you will produce much. So Jesus had this

Psalm 128 in mind as he was teaching

that passage of scripture to people. He

was saying, "Look, come to me. I've got

this I've got nail scarred hands. I paid

the price for your admission into this

vineyard. So enjoy the thing that I have

created for you." See, Jesus wants your

marriage to to thrive. And he explains

that in this metaphor because vines need

to be cultivated. The the word

cultivated means to promote growth with

labor, skill, and attention. I'll just

say it this way. You can't force

fruit. Husbands, you can't force fruit.

Wives, you can't force fruit. That's not

how it works. You have to cultivate

fruit. It says you eat from the labor of

your hands. That means there's something

that you need to do in the marriage to

help the marriage be healthy. The guy

that or the the person that works with

the the vines in the vineyard is called

a husbandman. And that really is the

literal technical definition of someone

who takes care of the vines, who helps

them to produce growth. And it turns out

that to get a healthy grape vine in most

regions, it takes up to three years. So

again, it's work, but it's not immediate

gratification.

If you lean into this metaphor, what you

learn is that it could take years of

diligent work to produce a strong and

healthy marriage. You have to cultivate

it. It takes time. It takes work. So,

you have to ask this question. What are

you cultivating in your marriage? Are

you putting the hard work in? Are you

putting the time in? Are you getting

your hands dirty? Are you checked in,

checked out, and giving up? or are you

focused on helping the marriage get

better? The the Napa Valley, which grows

a lot of the grapes that go into the

wine that um you all drink, uh they they

they actually use NASA scientists. They

use NASA scientists, these um

technicians and this equipment that they

would normally use to look at the

surface of the moon and the surface of

Mars. They hire NASA scientists to come

out and fly these planes 10,000 feet

over the Napa Valley to look at the

environment to use thermal imaging

technology to understand the soil and

the water and how the topography and the

exposure to sun affects the growth of

the grapes. And as I was reading that

story, I read about one husband that

said he's got 800 acres that he takes

care of, but he says, "I don't think

about it as one vineyard. I've got 800

acres that's broken up in my mind into

167 different blocks. And all of those

167 different blocks have different

needs throughout different seasons in

different climates. So what I'm telling

you today is that your marriage has

different blocks. It's not just one

thing. There are different components to

it. There are different seasons of it.

Needs are going to change. So, there's

no way in one sermon that I can just get

up here and give you a one-sizefits-all

way to fix what's broken in your

marriage or to restore things that have

kind of fallen off over time. What you

need to do is you need to listen to the

spirit of God because he acts like those

NASA planes flying over your

relationship, giving you information

about what is working and what isn't

working in your marriage. And so when

you feel prompted, you need to ask the

question of your yourself and your

spouse like what needs more water? What

needs more attention? What needs

adjusting? What what needs in your life

are not being met? How could this get

better? And what you'll notice if you

take the time to ask those questions is

you will cultivate a a relationship of

love and romance and security and

laughter because it's not you doing it,

it's God working in you. So, so how does

that actually work? Well, we got to

remember that vines not only are they

cultivated, but they cling. So, what the

husband men would do is he would go out

and he he or she would put these posts

in the ground and and they put wires

between the posts and they'd use

turnbuckles to make them strong and then

they would train the vines up the wires

and those vines would eventually spread

out, produce branches which would then

produce grapes. But what I want you to

understand is the staying power of the

vi of the of the plant is the vine

itself. So the power to stay connected

till death do us part or for better for

worse for richer for poorer in sickness

and in health. The power to as Genesis

Genesis 2:24

2:24 says to leave your father and

mother and cleave and start a new new

relationship a new family with your

husband to where two become one. The

power to say that we're not messing

around, that we're in this for the long

haul, that we are ride or die, never say

die spirit, that kind of thing. The

ability to produce that kind of fruit

does not come from your willpower. It

does not come from your skill set. It

comes from the vine's ability to cling

to the promises that God has for us.

which makes that whole statement of

Jesus made where he says I am the vine

and you are the and if you remain in him

then you will produce much. That's

right. So what God is saying is it's not

about you to be able to cling on to the

promises of God. That's not your

responsibility. You hang out with Jesus.

You stay connected to him and he will

hang on to the promises of God for you

and your spouse. He does the

stabilizing. He does the holding. He

does the clinging. And as long as you

can stay connected to him, then your

relationship will produce much fruit. As

a matter of fact, vines will climb

almost infinitely. Just go look at my

backyard. I got all kinds of vines and

they're climbing up my trees and I can't

do anything about it. And they're

they're actually destroying my backyard.

But we're talking about grapes here.

We're talking about beautiful vines that

do something good for uh the world,

right? So these vines will grow to

almost infinity if you allow them to. So

what that teaches us, if again we're

leaning into this metaphor that God is

using, is that you don't have to fear

your marriage getting stale. You don't

have to fear your marriage being

trapped. Like if you're connected to the

right vine, if you're connected to

Jesus, then you're going to have a

healthy soul. And healthy souls lead to

healthy marriages. So your marriage will

then be filled with fruit. There there's

literally no end to what God can do in

your marriage. Now again, will there be

storms? Yes. That's why Jesus closed the

sermon reminding us that people that

build their house on the rock and people

that build their house on the sand,

they're both going to face storms.

There's going to be storms in your

marriage. But keep this in mind. Even

the most healthy, productive grape vine

in the world only produces fruit between

100 to 150 days out of the year. That

means there's a lot of drought. There's

a lot of dry season. There's a lot of

time where that vine is not producing

fruit. Think about another way. The the

grapes that are turned into wine,

they're they're crushed. They used to do

that by stomping on them. I found out

they used to use your feet and stomp the

the grapes. Now they use these presses.

It's all mechanized now, but What that

means is like there's a crushing season

as well. But the beauty of that is if

you're in a marriage where there's a

crushing season or in a a drought,

there's still hope. There's still the

ability for God to produce fruit in you

and in that relationship because he's

always working for the good of those

that turn to him in the seasons of

crushing and the seasons of doubt. See,

vines need to be connected to something.

We would call that something a trellis.

Vines need to be connected to a trellis.

And so you would say, well, what what is

the trellis? What is biblically? What is

God telling me that the trellis is? And

the answer is in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

5 says that we need to be filled with

the spirit. We need to submit to one

another in marriage and we need to be

connected to the church. So, we need to

be connected to the Holy Spirit of God

as a married couple. We need to be

connected to to one another emotionally

and physically. And we need to be

connected to, get this, the church. And

I would encourage you to fact check me

on this one, go Google it, find out for

yourself if you don't believe me. But

the what the what studies have shown

over and over again, is that people who

attend church together have stronger,

healthier, and longer marriages. The the

most recent study that I could find was

done by the University of Virginia in

collaboration with Harvard University.

It was called the human flourishing

project. And they concluded in their

study that you are as much as 50% less

likely to divorce if you are actively

engaged in a Christian church together.

So keep your vine attached to the

trellis, not just to to God, not just to

his promises, but also to the church

that he created, and your marriage will

be able to grow to infinity and beyond.

Sorry, I had to do that. There's I'll

say it better. There's no end to what

God can do in your relationship if you

stay connected to the support system

that he has given you. And then lastly,

vines have a they have a goal.

Your marriage needs a goal that's

greater than just getting Billy into

college or Sally to soccer practice.

Like those things are good. It's good

goals to have. But God has a greater

goal for your marriage. And that

marriage that is to produce much fruit.

And of course, he's talking about

spiritual fruit. Love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness,

gentleness, self-control. That's what

God wants to develop in your in your

marriage. But he's also talking about a

more practical thing where you just have

this healthy home where when you come

and your heart is broken, you have

someone there that can cry with you. And

if you come and have a a great day and

your heart is happy, you have someone

there that will laugh with you. So, let

me close by saying that if your marriage

is in a drought today, then what I'm

saying is that you have to do some work.

And what I've noticed is a lot of times

we're quick to complain, but we're we're

kind of slow to cultivate So God says,

"You you gota you got to get your hands

dirty. I I can't solve all your pro like

you have to be involved in this. You're

going to need to maybe change some

priorities and change some schedules.

You're going to have to have these maybe

real difficult conversations. But what

I'd tell you is you only need to add one

grape at a time. The the average bottle

of wine has 1,42 grapes in it, which is

really funny, by the way, because I've

never had a drop of wine in my life. And

like I'm giving you all these wine

statistics. So, thank goodness for

Google, I guess. But, um, anyway, I'm a

tea totler when it comes to alcohol. But

the the thing is like the these these

grapes, like it's one at a time, and it

it finally builds into something that's

worth having. So, what you need to do is

just add one grape at a time. It's one

one simple change at a time in your

relationship. It's one conversation at a

time. It's one prayer at a time. It's

one worship service at a time. It's one

one walking in God's ways at a time. And

according to Psalm 128, if you just put

one thing in at a time, then there will

be fruit that's in your future. As I was

studying, I came across an article about

this restaurant in Paris. It's been

there forever. And they have a wine

seller with, get this,

320,000 bottles of wine in their wine

celler. And some of these bottles go all

the way back to

1845. And I also read in the article,

they had a bottle that went all the way

back to 1811. But get this, an employee

actually accidentally broke it. Um, his

resume is on indeed.com and it says used

to work at a winery, you know. So

anyway, but the interesting part of the

article was that these when the Germans

invaded France in 1940, the owner of

this restaurant flew back to the

restaurant and he built a tunnel, a wall

over the tunnel that was leading to the

section of the the um winery that had

the oldest bottles of wine. And so when

the German soldiers came into the

restaurant, they saw the new bottles and

they took all of those, but they didn't

find the old stuff. So the question is

why did he protect the old

wine? That's right. Because the old

stuff gets better with age. It gets it

gets more valuable over time. So let me

leave you with this. God didn't buy into

this cultural lie that over time our

marriages will get worse. What God wants

to produce in your heart, what he wants

to produce in your home, what he wants

to produce in your marriage is literally

something that gets better over time.

Something that gets more valuable over

time. God is producing in your soul and

then if you get married into your

marriage, a fruit that is so valuable

that the enemy is going to want to come

and steal it from you. And so what you

have to determine in your life is to

build a wall of pro of protection

protecting your marriage. How do you do

that? You fear God. You walk in his

ways. You do the hard work of

cultivating growth in the marriage. You

stay connected to the vine. You stay

connected to Jesus. You allow him to

hold on to all those promises that God

has for you. And then you submit to one

another in spirit. You submit to the

Holy Spirit. And your marriage will

climb to new heights as it produces more

valuable fruits over time. Things do get

better with age. But it all starts all

of that starts with one decision. One

decision. Whether you're single or or

widowed, divorced, or married. It starts

with one decision. And that decision is

to fear God and walk in his ways. So let

me pray that God will give you a spirit

that would be able to do that today.

Father, first of all, I just want to

thank you for the people that you've

placed in my life over the years that

have modeled for me what a a healthy

marriage should look like. Lord, I'm

glad there's no perfect marriages

because I would just get discouraged.

But Lord, I I am glad that there are

marriages that serve as examples for us

to look at and to try to emulate. So, I

thank you for that blessing. Lord, I

also thank you for the blessing of not

having to do this on my own. Lord, I

thank you that I don't have to to try to

cling to to anything because my strength

is it's weak. But God, I thank you so

much that you gave us Jesus to be the

one who clings to the promises of God

for us so that we as the branches, if we

just stay connected to him and his

spirit and his word, if we pray, if we

come to church, Lord, you will fill our

souls with things that will produce

healthy fruit. But Lord, we also

recognize in any marriage there are two

people involved. And so sometimes one

person is is following you and fearing

you and walking in your ways and the

other person is drifting. And we know

that creates a challenge. So Lord, for

them, for people in that situation, I

pray that today that they will know that

you are always in the restoration

business. Lord, that the only thing that

they can control in any situation is

themselves and how they respond. So

Lord, as they put in the work and try

their best, I pray that you would bless

that and that you would reach that other

person and that you would propel them

into a better relationship with you so

that fruit could be produced. Lord, we

also pray for those that have their

heart broken this morning. Maybe they

feel disqualified from even hearing this

message because of the different

circumstances that they've been through

in their relationships. And I pray that

all those schemes of the enemy would

just fly out the window right now. And

that they would see that you are a God

of love. That you are not punishing them

for past decisions. That you are a God

of their future, fighting for them and

helping them to be able to get to a

place where they can produce fruit

individually in their soul and also

fruit as a a married person maybe later

on. And Lord, for the marriages in the

room that are strained, I pray that you

would help them to be able to find peace

and knowing that it's just one grape at

a time. It's just one conversation at a

time. It's just one thing at a time that

will eventually add up to something that

is absolutely great. Lord, help them to

know that that's the truth. Help them to

sing Psalm 128 in their heart and

believe that their f their future is

fruitfulness. Lord, I pray for the young

people in the room that are in the

dating process. I pray that you would

give them discernment of the people that

they they yoke themselves to, Lord. that

you would help them to see uh to find

people that share a conviction of loving

you and serving you and walking in your

ways. And Lord, I pray that you would

provide them opportunities to meet that

person if that's what your will wants

them to do. But ultimately, Lord, we

just want to leave by thinking about

Jesus on the cross and his amazing love

that he displayed for us. Lord, the

thing that gives us hope into the

future, the thing that stabilizes our

relationships is the fact that Jesus

paid the price for our sin on that

cross. He bled like a lamb so that we

could find eternal life, so that we

could find truth and abundance here on

this earth. So Lord, help us to cling to

those promises today, to see him high

and lifted up and to find our our

courage and our strength to take these

next steps to restore broken

relationships in the power of Jesus

because we see the gift that he gave us

on the cross and the gift of his spirit

that indwells within us. And finally,

Lord, if there are any that are

separated from you today, I pray that

today would be the day of their

salvation. That they would not leave

this place without coming to talk to me

about how they can become a Christian.

We pray these things with great

confidence because we pray in the holy

and wonderful name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Please

[Music]

stand. I

have to follow Jesus.

I have

decided to follow

Jesus. I have

decided to follow

Jesus. No turning

back. No turning back.

[Music]

with

me. I still will

follow none with

me. I still will

follow none with

me. I still will

follow. No

turn. No turn.

My cross I'll

carry till I see

Jesus. My cross I'll

carry till I see Jesus.

My cross I'm

carry till I see

Jesus. No turning

back. No turning

back. The world behind

me. The cross before

me. The world behind

me. The cross before me.

The world behind

me, the cross

Turning

back. No turn back.