John Hagee | First Conference 2017

Hey everyone, how are you?

Great to see you.

I told you this uh last night.

I'm so proud of you.

I'm so honored to be your pastor that when we say, Let's come together and give the first of our year to the Lord, you respond.

And it is such a joy to pastor people who love the Lord and want to press into God.

And so I'm so glad that you're here, every campus that's watching, and then those of you that are watching by television on Daystar, we love Marcus and Joni.

And so I'm so glad you're here.

We have another incredible treat tonight.

Pastor John Hagee is the founder and senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas.

Uh, also uh Pastor John Hagee Ministries, but let me tell you a little bit that you might not know.

He is the founder of Christians United for Israel.

They they have uh over 3 million, I think 3.3 million members, and when a senator or something comes up about Israel where our country is not doing the right thing, they can immediately flood with their members that senator's office with about 30 to 35,000 emails.

And this is a time in history unprecedented where America has begun to take a stand against Israel, the nation of Israel.

And Pastor John Hagee has done more for the nation of Israel than I believe any pastor in the world.

Something you don't know, he went on television years ago to preach and teach God's word and to raise support for Israel.

And if you send a gift to Pastor John Hagee, John Hagee Ministries, everything that comes into his television ministry goes to Israel, and they have now given in humanitarian aid and missions over a hundred million dollars to the nation of Israel.

So it is a joy for me to have him here.

He's one of my heroes in the faith.

Will you please welcome Pastor John Hay?

Bless the Lord.

Bless the Lord.

Remain standing for just a moment as we read the word of God.

Turn to Genesis the first chapter, verse 26, and following.

And while you're finding that, let me say what an absolute delight to be at Gateway tonight with Pastor Robert and his gracious wife Debbie at this beautiful and majestic Gateway Church.

Those of you who attend the Gateway Churches are privileged and highly favored of God to have this esteemed man of God and his wife as your spiritual shepherd.

You owe them your love, your loyalty, and your prayers that their lives and this church will continue to be a godly example to this nation about what's possible when people work together for the glory of God.

When Pastor Robert told me about what I should speak about, he said about something that has to do with first.

I said, everything in the book of Genesis is a first.

There's the first night, there's the first day, the first week, the first covenant, the first visit to Gateway.

By the way, this is the first time in 59 years I've ever preached in the pulpit without a tie.

You're never too old to learn something.

Talking about the book of Genesis, in my mind, there is really no Old Testament.

There is only the first covenant that leads to the second covenant.

The expression Old Testament leaves the impression it's out of date, it's worn out, it's cast aside, it's inferior to something else that has appeared.

Not so.

The first covenant is God's will concealed.

The new covenant, the second covenant is God's will revealed.

Everything that's in the New Testament started in the Old Testament.

They go together to a fine gyroscope of spiritual principle.

The first verse in the first covenant demonstrates the ability of the Hebrew language to mathematically transmit the message that God is sending to the world.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

There are seven Hebrew words in that expression.

Seven is the number of perfection and completion.

There are 28 Hebrew letters.

Four times seven is twenty-eight.

Four is the number of the earth, seven is the number of perfection.

The Hebraic numerology of that verse simply says that in at the end of the first verse, God has created a perfect world and a perfect creation for mankind.

At the end of the first verse, in the first covenant, we have the first covenant.

In the first covenant of everything that's living that was created, God scooped up a handful of dirt, he breathed into it, and man became a living soul.

The first surgery, God put Adam into a deep sleep and he woke up married.

It's enough to make an insomniac out of you.

There's the first wedding.

God is the first matchmaker, is bringing Eve, the first bride, across the green, grassy slopes of Eden for the first wedding.

And Adam sang the song.

I just feel like something good is about to happen.

God gave the first commandment to Adam and Eve: Be fruitful and multiply.

Say that with me.

Be fruitful and multiply.

That is generally misapplied in most churches.

You have not multiplied if you are married, you have not multiplied if you've only had two children.

You've only replaced yourself.

You haven't multiplied until you've had the third child.

And I can say Dana and I have done our fair share.

But that is a very accurate Hebraic expression that is a very powerful statement for America, because history proves in a nation that falls beneath that standard becomes extinct.

And America has now fallen because of abortion beneath that level.

Read with me, verse 26, 27, and 28.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him male and female.

Then God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over everything that moves on the earth.

What is this sermon about?

This sermon is about your marriage.

There was a first marriage, and this is the greatest marriage manual that you're ever going to read.

This is a church that has great influence in this nation, but it's a church made up of families, and those families are built on marriages.

And the strength of this church is the strength of the husband and the wife committed to each other.

That's what I'm going to talk to you about tonight.

You're going to see yourself.

I'm going to use humor because a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Father, bless this word to this congregation and all of God's children said amen.

You may be seated.

This sermon is for people who are married, for people who want to be married, and for people who are sorry they're married.

Every marriage can be a better marriage.

Say that with me.

Every marriage can be a better marriage.

There are three stages of marriage: lust, rust, and dust.

You know right where you are in that pecking order.

Marriages are made in heaven, but so is thunder and lightning.

A man in his mid-40s bought himself a new BMW.

He went out on the interstate for a nice drive.

He let the top down, and the breeze was blowing through what hair he had left.

It felt good.

So he pushed down the pedal, and he was going now a hundred miles an hour, and he saw the complimentary red lights flashing behind him.

He pushed down more and he's going 120, and he thought, What am I doing?

And he pulled over.

The highway patrolman came up and took his license and said, I'm tired.

This has been a long day.

If you can give me an excuse that I haven't heard before, I'm going to turn you loose.

And the man looked at him and said, Last week my wife ran off with a policeman, and I thought you might be trying to bring her back.

The officer said, Have a nice day.

Men and women get married and go on a honeymoon to find to become one.

And they come home finding out which one.

Psychologists state that girls tend to marry boys like their fathers, which is why I think most mothers cry at weddings.

A man was walking on the California beach and he stumbled across an old lamp and he picked it up and he rubbed it, and it was a genie, and the genie said, Thank you for releasing me from the lamp.

I'll grant you any wish that you want.

The man looked and said, I've always wanted to go to Hawaii.

I'm afraid to fly.

I get sick on a ship.

Could you build a highway from this beach in California to Hawaii?

The genie laughed and said, That's impossible.

Think of the logistics.

How would you support the beams that go all the way to the bottom of the ocean floor?

Think how much concrete, how much steel.

Then engineering impossibilities of that.

That's not a possibility.

The man thought and finally said, You need to think of another thing.

And he said, Okay, my wife thinks I'm insensitive.

Would you fully help me to understand women?

Why do they cry when they are so to be happy?

Why do they cry when they are mad?

Why do their moods change instantly and for no reason?

Help me fully to understand women.

Today I'm looking at an audience where several thousand marriages are represented.

And those of you who are watching in the churches around this city and on Daystar, and God bless Joni and Marcus for making this possible tonight.

Yesterday's hopes and dreams have been assassinated in your marriage.

You have marriages that are dead or dying.

Marriages were marriages that are as dead as Lazarus' corpse.

Yesterday's hopes and dreams have been bound in the grave clothes of bitter memories, of adultery, of betrayal, of rejection, of outright neglect, of abuse and abandonment.

Marriages where all meaningful communication is a dull memory.

Marriages where the husband has refused to be the provider and the protector and the priest and the prophet and the promise keeper of the house.

That's what you're supposed to be.

Today I'm walking toward the tomb of your sick, dead, or dying marriage.

And I'm saying in the name of Jesus, come forth, live in the mighty name of the risen Savior.

There is a new beginning.

Your marriage can be a better marriage.

Can I get an amen?

Your marriage can catch on fire again.

Don't raise your hand just yet.

Say, Pastor Hagee, it's dead, so was Lazarus.

It stinks, so did Lazarus.

I've given up hope, so had the family of Lazarus.

But the God that we serve is the God of all hope.

He makes a way where there seems to be no way.

He parted the Red Sea for Moses.

He stopped the sun for Joshua.

He appeared as the fourth man in the fiery furnace with the three Hebrew children.

When you get in the fire, God does not send someone, he shows up himself.

He's a miracle-working God.

If he raised Lazarus from the dead, he can raise your marriage from its dead, stagnant position and make it vibrant, happy, and exciting again.

And believe me, for some of you, it's going to take a major miracle.

Now hear this.

There are no perfect marriages.

There are only marriages in the process of becoming better or bitter.

There are four major reasons marriages die.

One is poor communication.

A wife said to the lawyer seeking a divorce.

The lawyer said, Do you have grounds?

She said, We have about a half acre.

Do you have a grudge?

She said, No, we have a carport.

Does he beat you up?

No, I get up before he does.

The lawyer said, Ladies, what's your problem?

She said, We can't communicate.

We have developed communication systems that permit men on the earth to talk to people walking on the moon.

Yet often husbands can't talk to their wives across the breakfast table.

They can't talk to their sons or their daughters sitting across from them right now.

Problems and differences in marriages and families are not dangerous.

They're only dangerous when you cannot communicate those problems to those with whom you live.

Communication is to love what blood is to the family to the body.

When it stops flowing, your marriage dies.

Communication, mister, is not out yelling your wife.

And all the ladies said, God bless all six of you.

Communication, lady, is not turning on the waterworks and trying to whip your husband into line.

And all the men said.

Arguing with your wife is as useless as trying to blow out a light bulb.

Try that.

You know that argument you had with your wife coming to church tonight, and you think you won?

It's not over.

A man and wife were on vacation.

She was the navigator with the map.

He was driving.

She decided to take a nap.

And they got lost.

She woke up, she was angry.

They had a few moments of intensive fellowship.

It's called an argument.

She said, We're lost.

We're going the wrong way.

He responded in anger.

After two hours of pouting, they passed a mule in the field.

And the husband said to the wife, Is that a relative of yours?

She said, Yes, by marriage.

Communication is when your wife can tell you how she feels, what she really thinks, what she loves, what she honors, what she esteems, what she hates, what she fears, what she desires, what she hopes for, what she believes in, and she can communicate that to you without starting World War III.

Words are a transcript of your mind.

Matthew 12, 34, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

The Bible says, by our words we are justified or condemned, and we are going to answer for everything you've ever said to your husband or to your wife before the throne of God.

The fact is, be careful what you say to your wife, husband, or about your husband, wife.

God is listening.

Paul says to the men that if you, as a husband, are not treating your wife fairly, your prayers are let.

That's the old English word.

It's in your Bible, King James Version.

Let is an English word that we now use in tennis.

When the ball hits the net, it falls down.

You holler let because the ball went nowhere.

It went down.

Paul is saying, when you as a husband abuse your wife and you pray, those prayers ricochet off the roof of your building and hit you straight on the head.

They don't go to the throne of God.

Marriages die from the lack of passion.

Fire.

Romance.

That's not a vulgar word.

A husband was sick.

The wife took him to the doctor.

The doctors examined him.

The doctor took the wife in his office to speak to her by herself.

The doctor said, Look, if you would cook three square meals a day, if you would have a meaningful sex life with him, he would be okay.

On the way home, the wife was quite angry.

She was driving, he was riding shotgun.

The husband asked her, said, What did the doctor say when you went into his office?

She looked at him and said, The doctor said, You're gonna die.

A frustrated wife took her husband to the pastor for counseling.

The wife said to the pastor about her husband, He has no fire, he has no passion, we need help.

The pastor listened to her story.

Walked around his desk, kissed her on the lips, looked at the man Caesar milk toast, and said, That's exactly what your wife needs.

He said, Great, I'll bring her in every Tuesday and Thursday.

Is your marriage losing its passion?

Is it losing its romance?

Turn off the television.

Turn off your cell phone.

It's not an adopted child.

You can shut it off.

It's not a sin to turn the wretched thing off at eight o'clock at night and talk to the people that you live with.

Turn off the lights.

You can take it from there.

Marriages die because of poor money management.

I would think that this church, with the pastor's teachings on the blessed life and finances, has to be probably the best taught church in America on this theme.

For those of you watching by television, listen.

A rich wife was yelling at her husband.

She said, if it weren't for my money, that Rolex you're wearing wouldn't be on your wrist.

She said, if it weren't for my money, that easy chair you're sitting in wouldn't be there.

The Mercedes you're driving would not be there.

The husband responded, if it weren't for your money, I wouldn't be here.

The road to marital happiness begins when we accept each other's differences.

1 Peter 3 and 7, husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge that your prayers are not hindered.

There's that word let again.

Before marriage, opposites attract.

After marriage, opposites irritate.

Women's faults are many.

Men have only two: everything they say and everything they do.

The major source of friction in marriage is the inability or the refusal to dwell with your partner according to knowledge.

The differences between the sexes remain when those differences are misunderstood and unappreciated.

The story is told that scientists gather to determine if a computer should be called a she or a him.

They divide it into two groups, the men and the women, to discuss the differences that a computer happened to present.

The women scientists that have said that a computer should be addressed in the masculine gender, they gave these three reasons.

One, in order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.

Two, they're supposed to solve the problem, but half the time they are the problem.

The women said, three, as soon as you commit to one, you realize that had you waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The men's scientists concluded that computers should be addressed in the feminine gender, and they gave these three reasons.

One, no one but the creator understands their internal logic.

Two, even your smallest mistakes are stored for long-term memory.

Can I get an amen on that?

You should see the elbows that are flying in this house.

Three, as soon as you commit to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck for accessories for it.

Accept the difference.

Men are different, women are different, and you must understand and accept those differences before you can have a strong marriage.

Here are four differences you must learn to accept.

One.

Difference one, women's right brain carrying versus men's left brain logic.

Now, this is a medical fact.

In 1981, Dr.

Roger Sperry won the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his breakthrough study on how the brain functions in men and women.

Dr.

Sperry discovered that between the 16th and 26th week of gestation, boy babies have a chemical reaction in their brain that girl babies never have.

Two chemicals are released that slow down the development of the right side of the brain.

That's the caring side.

Dr.

Sperry found out what all women already know that all men are born brain damaged.

The right brain, left brain feature affects every phase of your married life.

Tell your wife you're not rejecting her.

That's just how your brain works.

The right brain, left brain feature affects the memory of men and women.

For instance, my wife Diana can talk on the phone for 20 minutes, and she gets off the phone and she wants to give me a word-by-word replay.

I don't care.

When I talk to my son Matthew for 20 minutes, and he does most of the talking, by the way.

He's his mother's son.

Donna said, What did he say?

I said, He said he's fine.

What else?

She won't say word for word transcript.

It's not going to happen.

Ask a man about his honeymoon, and he'll be he'll be able to tell you that he took one.

Ask his wife, and she goes on.

I wore a white dress, I had red roses, these are the people who came.

This is where we went on our honeymoon, and on and on.

All husbands know the sinking feeling when your wife asks you, do you remember when?

You can't remember it ever happened.

Ladies need to realize there's a physical reason for our not remembering.

It's not that we don't care.

That side of the brain is not the same as yours.

Can I hear an amen from the men?

How does this affect the we respond to crisis?

Consider the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

Men reacted this way: who's in charge of the country?

What if Russia attacks us right now?

How many missiles do we have?

That's left brain.

Women said, poor Jackie, poor Caroline, poor John John, right brain versus left brain, not right and wrong, just two completely different responses to the same situation, which is an ongoing evolution of life.

Apply that to marriage problems.

Trying to solve your marriage problems through pure logic or pure emotion is an absolute disaster.

Neither logic from the man nor emotion from the woman is the basis for settling a marriage dispute.

The only basis of settling that is the word of God.

Men are not always right.

Ladies are not always right.

God's word is always right.

It says, dwell with them according to knowledge.

If you know something irritates her, don't do it.

Stop it.

Now listen to this.

This is the line that women use that hurts marriages a great deal.

When he changes to be what I want him to be, our marriage will be great.

That's exactly wrong.

No, it won't.

Why?

Because you, with your right brain creature, which by any other definition is a woman, is what you'll turn your husband into.

Who wants a limp wristd sweetie around the house?

One Bruce Jenner is enough.

God made you different for a reason.

Be fruitful and multiply.

Say that with me.

Be fruitful and multiply.

Some women, if they were married to Jesus, would try to change him.

And I can prove that.

Bible proof Jesus fixed fried fish for breakfast on the Sea of Galilee for his disciples.

What would your wife say tomorrow morning if you said, I want fried fish for breakfast?

She would say, This is not long John Silver.

Difference two, enjoying the process versus accepting the goal.

Women enjoy the process of reaching a goal.

Men want to get to the goal as soon as possible.

Forget about the process.

My wife loves to shop.

The process of looking.

I've watched her.

Look at this.

Look at this.

Look at this.

Look at this.

Look at this.

She has every sales lady in the store jumping out of their shoes, thinking she's going to buy that.

She shops like she's on a mission from God.

And she loves it and turns around, walks out, and buys nothing.

The sales ladies are chewing on the clothes hangers.

Myself, I call the store before I go.

I say, I'm looking for a blue suit, lay it out.

I walk in the store, I'm out in 15 minutes.

She wouldn't dare shop that way.

On vacation, my wife romantically says, as we're driving through West Texas, and West Texas is living proof that God took a nap on creation morning.

You can see forever.

She says, look at the sand dunes.

God forsaken monolithic piles of boring nothing.

My response: watch out for the radar.

I'm driving 90 and I'm trying to get home.

Women love to smell the roses.

Men will step on the roses if they can get where they want to go quickly.

Difference three, spiritual authority versus women intuition.

Ephesians 5.23, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.

I think it's interesting that Paul, who was a bachelor, wrote that.

Back to the first covenant, second covenant.

The first covenant says God to Eve, after she had eaten the forbidden fruit, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception.

Your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.

That wasn't originally Paul's idea, that was God's idea.

Husband, it is your God-given assignment to be the prophet, the priest, the protector, the provider, and the promise keeper at your house.

That's what you're supposed to be.

A spirit-filled woman can submit to that.

She cannot submit to a dictator quoting the Bible to her with a mean, vicious, junkyard dog personality.

Can I get an amen, ladies?

One lady said to me, Well, I just can't trust my husband's decisions.

I said, Guess not.

Look who look who he decided to marry.

The husband as the head of the wife is God's plan.

And that's the only plan God is going to bless.

Any one body with two heads is a freak.

God's not in heaven saying, Let's make a deal.

God's in heaven saying, This is the deal.

You do it after my model, and you will have the days of heaven on earth.

Can I get a witness?

Reason number four.

The days of wine and roses versus the days of thunder and lightning.

This has to do with the first marriage and the first curse, where God said to Eve, your conception, pain, and misery is going to be multiplied.

Within the body of every healthy woman who hasn't reached menopause, there's a cycle known as ovulation.

That means every 14 days of chemical balance, the days of wine and roses, and fourteen days of thunder and lightning.

Listen up, all you young guys.

Moods change dramatically, unexplainably, instantaneously.

One day a man comes home and his wife is waiting at the door, dressed in a negligee with a rose in her teeth.

He scoops her up in his arms, provided she doesn't weigh 300 pounds, and carries her off to the bedroom, pounds his chest and screams like Tarzan, it must be the cologne I'm wearing.

The next day, with his left brain logic in high gear, he gets off of work early and charges home for a repeat performance.

Only she's not at the door.

She's not in the kitchen.

She's not in the living room.

Finally, he spots her huddled in a chair in the den, crying her eyes out.

He walks over, reaches over to comfort her.

She snarls like a half-starved junkyard dog.

Don't touch me, you big ape.

All you ever want is my body.

What do you do?

You go play golf for three days.

You don't know how to play golf?

Learn.

You go fish.

It doesn't matter that you don't like fish.

It doesn't matter that a hurricane is coming.

Better a hurricane than what you got at home.

Go to the office and produce a rough outline for your next novel, Gone with a Wind.

I'm not a writer.

Start.

In closing, quickly, in the next three minutes, seven things the Bible requires to resurrect your marriage.

One, to forgive and forget the past.

Forgiveness is not optional.

The Bible says, forgive us as we forgive those.

If you don't forgive someone else, God will not forgive you.

Two, realize that the husband is the king, the priest, the prophet, and the provider in his family.

If you're letting your wife do all the work, get off the couch and go get yourself a job.

Three, realize that submission in the Bible is mutual submission.

Ephesians 5, 21, submitting yourselves one to another.

Say that with me.

Submitting yourselves one to another.

That's mutual submission.

Husband, you don't submit to her lead, but you do submit to her need.

If she needs for you to clean the kitchen, clean it up.

If she needs for you to go shopping with her, go.

If she wants to go to the opera, drag your cowboy boots down both aisles, but go with her.

Four, eliminate the absentee father.

You fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.

I am personally tired of hearing fathers say, Well, I just can't train my son.

Listen, I've been to SeaWorld.

They've trained a purpo out there to play basketball.

You can train your child to cut the grass, to clean up the room, and wash the dishes.

Get at it.

Five, start communicating today openly and honestly.

Six, live in sexual freedom.

1 Corinthians 7, 4.

The wife does not have power over her own body, but the husband, and likewise the husband does not have power over his own body, but the wife.

Seven, the Bible says the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church.

So ought men to love their wives.

Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself that the wife sees she reverence her husband.

Hear that word reverence.

Reverence means to stand in awe.

Would you like for your wife to follow you around the house saying, Oh, here he comes, Captain America.

Oh, oh, it can happen in your life.

Can we stand for prayer together?

How many of you in this room can say, Pastor, I'm going to leave here and give my best effort to having a better marriage?

Let me see your hand.

Let me pray this prayer with you.

Heavenly Father, in the power of your holy name, release upon this congregation a spirit of love and affection, of forgiveness and joy, that we may be one nation and one church unto God.

In Jesus' name we pray and ask it, and all of God's children said, Amen.