Making Marriage Great Again

Man, I appreciate that song.

I'm so thankful for the peace of God.

Aren't you?

And I'm thankful for the peace we have with God.

All right.

Brother Weatherby's gonna come on, preach for us.

Brother Weatherby again, Pastor emeritus of Victory Baptist

Church in Weatherford.

Friend.

And I appreciate already the good preaching.

Thank you.

How many of you know what pastor emeritus is?

Me neither.

But I think it's better than Pastor Enormous or emeritus.

Amen.

You glad you're safe tonight?

Say amen.

That was a beautiful, special.

Ma'am.

God bless you.

Beautiful.

I appreciate so much.

I've been in music all my life, and I just appreciate so much

when somebody like that knows how to serve a song instead of throwing

it at you.

Amen.

I mean, I've heard specialists, and you're almost, you

know, backing up like that.

And she just served it to us, and that was such a blessing and

good to see young people.

I meant to mention you this morning.

I didn't overlook you.

A lot of times us preachers get focused in because my wife really

needs what I'm preaching.

And so I kind of forget the sides over here.

But I appreciate the young people and I hope you're getting

something out of this as well.

It's probably hard for you to imagine or think, but you never know.

You might be married soon.

Somebody picked that young man off the floor.

He just fell off the chair.

You know, when Shelly and I got married, I didn't know a lot

about marriage.

The things I'm telling, teaching you or sharing with you,

I've had to learn over the years.

And I like to challenge parents.

Don't try to give your kids all the things you didn't have, but

try to teach them things you didn't know.

If I knew some of this stuff back before I got married and went

into marriage, I think it helped it a lot.

It wouldn't make, you know, we have to learn as we grow.

You never graduate.

But I thank God that he said, pass it down, pass it down.

And we do that with the doctrines of the word of God, and

we do these principles of marriage.

If you take your Bible and turn to the book of Galatians, chapter

number five.

Galatians, chapter number five.

And I'm speaking tonight on how to make your marriage great again.

A lot of people have given up and they've said, you know, I guess

the best years are over and it'll never be like it was.

And that's not true.

It doesn't have to be true.

And how to make marriage great again.

There's so much to it.

It's such a challenge to preach on such a big subject in just

a couple of days or nights or anything.

It's just.

I've got more sermons.

Every sermon I've preached since 1975, I have typed up and in

notebooks and a lot of times, because I'm not a very good organizer.

Don't say anything, honey.

And sometimes I'll think of a sermon and I can't find it.

They used to be alphabetical order, but they're not anymore.

I knit and put them back where they belong.

But so much that God wants us to know.

And I want to say this, but let's read galatians, chapter number

five, verse 16.

And I want you to think about this in the context.

I want you to think about it in the context of marriage.

Just think about that and make this application.

This, I say, then walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill

the lust of the flesh.

For the flesh.

Remember, that's our carnal nature, our old nature.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against

the flesh.

And these are contrary, the one to the other.

So that ye cannot do the things that you would.

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under by the law.

And in Ephesians, the next book, just a few pages over, in Ephesians,

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5.

I know you know this verse by heart.

In verse 18, it says, Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,

but be filled with the Spirit.

Filled with the Spirit.

I want you to think about that tonight.

Filled.

He wasn't saying, it's all right to drink as long as you don't

get drunk.

He was comparing the effects when you're drinking alcohol.

He says how it can affect you.

And then he says, but don't do that.

He says, be filled with the Spirit.

Because that's so much.

Obviously so much better.

Now, in Galatians, back in chapter number five, where we were,

I want you to look at verse 22.

But the fruit of the Spirit.

He said, walk in the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit.

You're thinking about home, family, marriage, parenting.

Your home tonight.

Think about it.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering,

gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.

Against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections

and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

How to make marriage great again.

And it's a simple answer.

The Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit of God.

I tell people this all the time and they always look at me very

strangely.

And I don't understand why.

I tell them the Christian life is not hard.

It is not even difficult.

It is not even a challenge.

It's impossible.

You say.

Now what you talking about, Lewis?

Think about this.

It is not hard.

The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard.

But not only is it not hard, it's impossible.

And furthermore, the Bible doesn't even tell us to live that

Christian life.

It says, Paul said it best.

I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

One of the greatest things that can ever happen to a Christian

is to understand the Christian life is letting Jesus live through

you.

It's his life.

He said, I'm going to give you a comforter.

I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit.

And that's going to be me in you.

You understand that Christ is.

I know the Holy Spirit is separate.

I understand the.

The thing, the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the

Holy Spirit.

But you are indwelt.

If you're saved, you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

God is in you.

If any man have not the Spirit of God, he's none of his.

We don't pray for the Holy Spirit.

We already have the Holy Spirit.

And yet the Holy Spirit is probably so much ignored and forgotten.

We get up in the morning, we want to read our Bible, we want to

pray to God the Father.

But very seldom do we start today and say, lord, I want to be

filled with the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes it doesn't cross our mind.

And yet the Holy Spirit is the enabler, okay, the enabler.

We're saved by grace, through faith.

But the Holy Spirit of God enables grace, enables us.

He's the one that helps us.

He doesn't just help us do it, he has to do it.

Either you walk in the spirit or if you're walking in the flesh.

Now you connect the dots, okay?

Because marriage, what a difference when a man and woman are

filled with the Holy Spirit.

I wish we could stay filled, don't you?

We're indwelt one time forever.

But to be filled, we have to be filled continually, constantly.

I don't know.

I've asked this question, theologians, no one has the right

answer to me.

I can't figure it out either.

How long can a person be filled with the Holy Spirit, preacher?

Five minutes, 10 minutes?

Paul said, when I do good, evil is present with me.

I mean, how long does it take to get into the flesh?

Somebody says something wrong or looks at you wrong, or you get

a phone call or this happens and that happens.

Nothing controls.

Sometimes it just hits you out of nowhere and before you know it,

we're in the flesh.

And a lot of times that happens.

I would say probably more times we get in the flesh at home

than we do anywhere else.

This is not going to be a very difficult message to understand.

And probably what you're saying and thinking, well, okay,

but how do we be filled and how do we stay filled with the Holy

Spirit?

Think about that, because this will change your life, it'll change

your marriage.

For a husband to come home and say, honey, how was your day?

I love you, and to come in and be filled with the Holy Spirit, then

you're going to have the fruit of the Spirit.

You see, we don't even produce the fruit of the Spirit.

He does, right?

Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branches.

The branches don't produce it, they hold it.

The branch just holds the fruit.

And there's nine of them.

We just read.

But Jesus said, if you abide in me, I'm the vine.

If you abide in me, my word abide in you.

That fruit and fruit is to be what is to be eaten.

It's to eat.

That's what fruit is for.

The taste of that Bible says, taste of the Lord and see that he

is good.

But in a marriage, wouldn't it be wonderful if a husband comes home

and can taste of the fruit of the spirit of God in his wife and

she can taste of the spirit of God, the fruit of the spirit.

Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness.

Just taste it.

Our children could taste it.

What a difference.

What a difference it would make.

How encouraging.

That's the hope.

The blessed hope is the coming of Christ.

But we also have hope that we can, by the power of the Holy Spirit,

according to the power that worketh in us, we can live victoriously

and we can enjoy, not endure, we can enjoy life.

The Holy Spirit, I think, is so grieved so many times, the Holy

Spirit, I could just imagine him saying, if they'd just give me

a chance.

Because you see, the Holy Spirit is not going to force you.

He's not going to make you.

He's right there.

He's cloak.

I mean, he's right indwelling our bodies.

And yet he's forgotten and ignored and overlooked.

Now, how important is the Holy Spirit to you?

And don't you think if you and I were the devil.

That's what we do is keep people from ever understanding anything

about the Holy Spirit.

He wants to keep us from the Bible.

We know that that's hard to do every day, read your Bible.

So he wants to keep you out of the book because you might learn

something.

My people are destroyed.

God said for lack of knowledge didn't mean they didn't have it.

They just didn't read it.

They didn't learn it.

They didn't hear it.

The devil would rather you go soul winning than read the Bible.

The devil would rather you pray than read the Bible.

I guarantee you that.

Because Satan is scared to death that the Bible, somebody's

going to take the Bible seriously.

I mean, he really.

Jesus was tempted 40 days and 40 nights and Satan came to him and

tempted him in all three times Jesus quoted scripture.

And on the third time the Bible says the devil leaveth him.

He came back.

He don't stay gone very long, but he's scared to death of the word

of God, of it getting into your heart, into your habits, into

your home.

But second of all, he don't want you to be filled with the Holy

Spirit.

He's in trouble.

And you may tell you something.

Now fasten your seatbelt because this is going to sound wrong,

but it's right.

You cannot sin and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let me tighten that shoelace a little bit tighter.

Are you ready?

You can't rob God.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

There's no way he's called holy.

And when you are filled, that means you're under the control of.

That's what it means, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It means you are yielded to the Holy Spirit.

And he's controlling the tongue, which has done more to tear

up marriages in the home and churches and everything else.

The tongue can no man tame.

But it doesn't say the tongue can't be tamed.

It says no man can tame it.

The Holy Spirit can.

And when we are yielded completely, and that's.

I understand that's probably where the problem lies.

And we'll talk about that in a moment.

But when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you can't fail.

You can't fall, you can't gossip and be filled with the Holy

Spirit.

Now you see why the switch goes on and off and on and off.

Filled, unfilled, filled, unfilled, filled, unfilled, back

and forth.

Carnal flesh, carnal spirit.

I mean, it goes round and round.

And even the apostle Paul gave a whole chapter In Romans, chapter

seven, said, the things I said I'm going to do, I don't do it.

I said, I'm not ever going to do that.

I do it.

He's just.

I mean, just read Romans, chapter seven.

You cannot fail.

You can't lie, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You can't abuse your wife or your husband or your children.

We can't lose our temper.

You know, that's kind of a misnomer, to lose your temper.

The problem is we need to lose it.

We find it too fast, we know right where it is.

Really think about it.

There's really no such thing, is losing.

But you can't be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Bible doesn't say not to be angry.

It says, be angry, but sin not.

You can't curse and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You can't look at pornography and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You can't neglect the church and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Kind of sounds like the Holy Spirit is the key to everything,

doesn't it?

And yet so little is preached, so little is taught, so much.

Very little of our thought is really given.

Lord, I cannot do this.

And God says, you really believe that?

Yes, sir.

But I can do it through you.

You can't do it, but I can do it through you if you'll allow me

to do that.

That's exactly what he wants to do.

He wants you to bear fruit.

The Bible says, herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much

fruit.

And that fruit ought to flourish at home.

And most of the time it does not, because there's too much flesh

and so little.

Holy Spirit, I'm gonna challenge you tonight.

And I'm gonna challenge me again.

And I've thought about more in the last couple years than I ever

have.

And that's probably why the devil's really still pushing me.

I've been thinking more and more, Lord, if I could just stay

filled with the Holy Spirit of God, what a change.

What a difference that would make.

If I could just do that.

You know, I think, personally, I kind of think Paul maybe had that

in mind when he said, when I'm weak, I'm strong.

In fact, he said, I glory in my infirmities that the Spirit of

God may rest upon me.

Don't raise your hand, but have you ever prayed?

Lord, give me strength.

Of course, but have you ever prayed, Lord, make me weak, keep

me weak.

Have you ever prayed that?

Would you consider me?

I've started.

I really have, honestly.

And I'm not saying I've got it all down, packed, but I have tried.

I have found on purpose, almost on a daily basis.

Lord, I want to be weak.

Driving over here today, yesterday and Friday, I'm driving

along and I'm praying in my heart and in my spirit.

And I say, Lord, I can't really be a.

I can't really preach very good.

I can't be a blessing.

I can't do these things, but you can.

And I'd say, lord, I want to be weak.

The weaker I am, the more I depend on you, the stronger I am,

the less I depend on you.

But I'm talking about marriage and what the Holy Spirit could do

at home and in the marriage.

How many of you wives would love to see your husband filled with

the Holy Spirit more often?

How many of you husbands love to see your wife filled with the

Holy Spirit?

Fruit is to be tasted.

You ever had rotten fruit?

You ever had a situation, you met somebody and talked a little

bit and they said things they shouldn't be saying and implying

things, and you walk away and you say, they left a bad taste in

my mouth.

That person, when I think of them, it just.

But when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, what a difference.

The old man and the new man.

I want to challenge you.

The fruit of the Spirit.

Love.

This is the love of Christ flowing through us and out of us.

That sacrificial love.

Bible says if any man love the world, the love of the Father is

not in him.

It doesn't say if any man love the world, I'm not going to love

him anymore.

No, God will never stop loving you.

His love is unconditional.

It's unending.

I mean, it's undescribable.

But he says if the love of God, if you love the world, he said

the love of God will not be flowing through our life.

And yet so many times we're so enamored with the world and we're

so caught up in the world.

The spirit of God is not flowing.

It's not expressed.

The love, the love of God.

And what about joy?

How much joy would you say is in your home and in your marriage?

Did you know, I think some of you, because I know your preacher,

he's taught you this.

But joy, real joy doesn't depend on people or things or circumstances.

No, not the joy that Jesus gives.

Happiness, well, that's different.

Happiness depends on what happens.

A lot of times we're not very happy because of what happens.

But a Christian can have joy even in the storms, even in sorrows,

even standing in the funeral home, even at the hospital, even

driving home after you've lost your job, you can have joy.

And I don't think there's any marriage that says, I don't need

any more joy in my life and in my home and in my ministry.

And you know something?

I think that's why I have such a hard time sometimes reaching our

young people is because they don't see much joy in mom and dad.

They hear a lot of complaining.

Gotta go to church.

What do you mean?

You gotta go to church.

You get to go to church.

But we give.

Sometimes our kids, sometimes we give them this idea that this

is something we don't have a choice, we got to go.

If we don't go, there's no telling what might happen.

Well, that really makes you want to become a Christian, doesn't

it?

And they got this idea, where did they get it from?

That Christians never have any fun.

They look at the world and go, wow, man, must be nice.

We probably thought the same thing.

We don't want to admit it.

But joy, that's different.

And then peace, the peace of God.

And you know something?

Let me remind you this.

You can't have the peace of God unless you're at peace with God.

And how can two walk together except they agree?

The peace that passeth all understanding.

Jesus said, I'm going to give you my peace, not as the world giveth.

It doesn't come in a bottle.

It doesn't come in a prescription bottle.

It doesn't come in immorality.

He said, I'm going to give you a different peace.

Peace, peace.

As you sang a moment ago, wonderful peace, a calmness.

You have calmness in your home.

Or is it chaos now?

If you have kids, there's always going to be some chaos, but

that'll pass.

But calmness, contentment.

I was reading in my devotion this morning that Paul said I had

to learn it.

He said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am to be content.

Do you have contentment in your home?

Do you know how to define contentment?

I'm just asking to cause you those wheels to turn just a little

bit.

Contentment, you have to learn.

It's not natural.

You have to learn how to be content.

Paul said, in whatever state I'm in, I've learned to be content.

But we want more and want more and more and more and more and more.

Our materialism is out of control.

In fact, I think it's borderline on idolatry.

We Give more thought and time and energy to material things.

Again, I always have to say this because people may hear something

I didn't say.

It's not a sin to have things.

Money's not the root of all evil.

It's the love of money that's the root of all evil.

If God could trust you with money, he'll give you money.

But if that's going to hurt you and draw you away from God, then

why would he want to do that?

It's a test.

So many times we spend money that we don't have to buy things

we don't need to impress people we don't really like.

Peace, contentment, security.

I love to read Psalm 23.

Do you ever get tired of reading Psalm 23?

Boy, you talk about peace.

You talk about, wow, wouldn't that be a great home?

Still waters.

He leadeth me, restoring my soul.

Oh, you just.

The picture is just so beautiful.

Could you ever have a home like that?

Not without the Holy Spirit.

You can.

And then long suffering.

We don't use that word very much, but boy, it's a lot in the

Bible.

God's long suffering.

You know what long suffering means?

It means you're willing to suffer for a long time for the benefit

of your spouse.

The short version, patience.

I don't like to use that word because that's my big sin is patience.

But it's the same thing.

Long suffering.

It means you're patient.

Could that help anybody's marriage?

I doubt it.

Patience, long suffering.

And by the way, I got a conviction about that because, you

know, the Lord told me.

I mean, he doesn't speak in audible voice, but man, a couple

years ago, I was sitting in the car waiting on my wife and I

was getting impatient.

I stopped honking the horn for her quite a while back, but I used

to do that.

And she tore the horn out of my car.

Now I don't do that anymore, but sometimes I race the engine.

And you know what the Holy Spirit says?

You know what?

You know what your problem is not patience.

He said, your problem is pride.

Cause you think you deserve better.

You think she should get out there because who you think you are?

I'm just sharing with you.

If you don't like it, whatever, that's fine.

But we all have problem with pride.

And we get impatient because we want people on our schedule.

Pride.

But long suffering.

Patience.

And then.

Don't you love the word gentleness there in those nine fruit?

Not fruits, the fruit of the spirit.

You don't pick the fruit on the Tree.

It's the fruit of the Spirit.

You get them all or nothing but kind and gentleness.

Don't you like that word gentle?

The psalmist said, thy gentleness, O Lord, hath made me

great gentleness.

Would that describe your marriage?

Would that describe your home?

The atmosphere in your home?

Gentle gentleness.

Just think about that for a moment.

Sometimes we're so harsh.

It's so harsh when we're not filled with the Holy Spirit.

We're not very gentle in what we say or how we say it.

The Bible speaks of charity, of being kind, easy to be entreated,

not puffed up, soft spoken.

Has God ever dealt with you gently?

Yes.

Yes, he has.

Gentle.

Doing good things for each other.

You see, the Bible.

Let me help you men.

Just a minute here.

The Bible is not a club to beat your wife or kids into submission.

Some people think that's how you do it.

I feel sorry for people like that and more sorry for women and

children.

That Dad's going to rule the roost and he's going to get out the

Bible and he's going to clobber you with it.

The Bible doesn't teach that.

No, you don't make your wife and kids behave.

You make them want to because they see it in you.

They see it in your life.

Daddy, husbands, they can see it.

You see servant leadership.

A leader in the Bible is not a dictator.

Not what God had in mind when he designed marriage.

It was for a husband and a father to say to his family by word

and by deed.

Let me show you how to do it.

Follow me.

And setting that example, that's a pretty big responsibility.

But it's not hard when you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

You try to do it without the spirit of God, man, you're going

to have World War Three on your hands.

Goodness.

Doing good things for each other.

I know there's none good but God.

So God has to do good through us by the Holy Spirit.

If you leave here tonight and you say, I don't remember exactly

anything he said, but it was something about, we need to be under

the control of the Holy Spirit.

You got it?

And tonight and tomorrow, the Lord willing to help you to say,

you know, here's the day, I don't want to mess it up, so fill

me with the Holy Spirit, lord.

And to 10 or 15 minutes later you feel like, uh, oh, then say,

lord, fill me again.

Heard a story one time of a woman that went to the altar over

and over again, over and over.

And I'm not Saying that's right or wrong.

And you shouldn't judge people because you don't know what they're

dealing with and what they're facing and the things going on in

their life.

But there was this woman, and she would just the altar and hold

her hands up and she'd say, fill me, Lord, fill me Fill me, Lord,

fill me.

Well, after a while, I mean, it was just every service.

Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.

And you can almost feel it, people.

Oh, here we go again.

Fill me, Lord, fill me.

One man, I know he probably shouldn't have said this, but he

said it a little too loud.

The rest of the people at church said, don't do it, Lord.

She leaks, you know.

We get filled with the Holy Spirit, but it leaks out after a

while.

The Holy Spirit will never leave you, but you can leave him.

And then there's faith, boy.

Faith will work miracles in a marriage.

What it simply means is God's going to keep his promises.

Standing on the promises I cannot fail when the howling storms

of doubt and fear assail by the living word of God I shall prevail

Standing on the promises of God Standing on the promises I cannot

fall Listening every moment to the Spirit's call Resting in my Savior

as my all in all Standing on the promises of God and then there's

meekness.

I'm almost through.

But meekness.

Jesus was meek.

He wasn't effeminate.

He wasn't weak.

Meekness means strength, but it's under control.

It's not someone prancing around trying to prove how wonderful

and great and strong they are.

No, you have strength, but it's not the human kind.

It's the kind that the Holy Spirit can give.

Strength.

Under control.

You're approachable.

Jesus was meek.

Moses, the Bible says there wasn't a meeker man on the face of

the earth than Moses.

And he led two and a half million Jews through the Red Sea.

I can't imagine.

And last of all, temperance, self control.

The control really of the Holy Spirit of God in your life.

I just want to encourage you, take the word of God and say, now,

Lord, as I read this, fill me with the Holy Spirit.

Because I want to live it.

I want to take it in.

I want to look it up in the Bible, let it in to my heart, and

then live it out.

But not me, Lord.

You live through me.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit, you have to consciously,

on purpose.

He's not going to just sit in there dozing and all of a sudden

the Holy Spirit grabs you and fills you.

And that's not the way it works.

But when you say, lord, I cannot do this by myself, I right

now am asking you according to your word.

I'm yielding to you right now.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit.

God will do it.

God will do it every time.

Ask in faith, believing.

Realize.

What's the other option?

If you're not filled with the Holy Spirit, who you gonna be filled

with?

The flesh.

Can you imagine, Brother Garfin?

Can you imagine on just one service, if every person walked in

the door filled with the Holy Spirit?

No wonder in the early church, they had 3,000 saved and then 5,000

saved.

The Bible says they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

But most time people come in half.

Filled or not filled, the flesh profiteth nothing but all the

power of the Holy Spirit.

He's a comforter.

He's a counselor.

Sometimes he confirms you're doing the right thing.

It's like his spirit bears witness with your spirit.

He confirms.

Sometimes he cuts.

Sometimes he convicts.

Sometimes he corrects.

Sometimes he cleanses us.

But, boy, if we could just let him do his work.

What a life.

Stand to your feet, please.

With heads bowed and eyes closed.