Is Your Marriage a Bad One || Pastor Diego Mesa

Welcome to the ALSS podcast. Here at ALC we seek the loss, teach

the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by this

week's message. Let's stand on our feet for the reading of the Word.

This is our last session today that we've been in this month. It almost

seems like a marriage singles dating conference that we've been on and it's just been

marvelous. But we're gonna read a scripture today, a story, and we're

gonna break it down. But a man named Ananias, with his wife Saphirah,

sold a piece of property. However, he kept back part of the

proceeds with his wife's knowledge, and brought a portion of it and laid at

the apostles feet right in front of the whole church. Anonius Peter, one

of the heads of the church. He said this, Why has Satan filled

your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds

of the land. Wasn't it yours while you possessed it, and after it

was sold? Wasn't it your disposal? Why is it that you have planned

planned, you and your wife planned this thing in your heart. You have

not lied to people you've been lying to God. When he heard these words

Anna Nias, drop dead. Let's just say that word for me, drop

dead, and great fear came on all that heard it. If great fear

would come on me today too, if I was in that church. The

young men got up and wrapped his body and carried him out and buried him.

That was a fuse. First funeral service in the church, first mortician

business that ever started, and they began to prosper watch after three hours later,

stop laugh, take a note of that. His wife, it took

her three more hours to get ready to come to church. You talk about

you know, you get tired that you're in church for an hour and twenty

minutes or thirty minutes. That's a three hour service still going on when she

shows up to church. She shows up three hours later. But I believe

that was strategic. They planned it that way. And she says, tell

me what happened. Peter asked her, did you sell the land for this

price? Yes, she said, for that prize. Then Peter said,

why did you agree to test the spear of the Lord? Look, the

feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they

will carry you out bows. She falls down, drops dead at his feet.

Man, these guys are prospering in the church, in this funeral business.

When the young men came in, they found her dead, carried her

out, buried her beside her husband. Then great fear, her double fear,

came on the whole Chuir, we're gonna live, right, we gonna

live, Holy, were gonna bring our tithes. We ain't gonna cust no

more, for nicate no more. And the whole church heard these things.

You may be seated. What a great story. And I want to take

a different angle of this. Pastor Adam Masterfully. The first two weeks laid

a great foundation, and I'll piggyback off of one of his words that I

think really centralizes this whole series of four weeks. But now we get into

one that is very, very unique, and I want to talk about a

marriage gone wrong. I want to talk about a marriage that was dysfunctional.

I want to talk from a different angle, a marriage that ended in death,

or a marriage that ended in divorce. I think all of that can

be found in this story. But let me give you a few opening thoughts,

just to bring us up on some key people that have talked about what

marriage is and defined it. Here's some quotes about what marriage is. Martin

Luther King Junior said, this let the wife make her husband glad to come

home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave. It's a

great marriage. A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with

the same person. Pretty cool. Next one, this is Billy Graham's wife.

A happy marriage is a union of two what you don't get that?

Only five people said it. And last of all, the Prime Minister Britton

said, my most brilliant achievement was the ability to persuade my wife to marry

me. And a lot of men said amen to that. But here's another

thing that's often happens at the wedding altar that I think really brings out what

we feel. The thought is this is that the wife at the wedding altar

looks at that man and says, I can't wait to change him. And

the husband looks at that wife and says, I pray she never changes her

feelings toward me. Those are two common things that go on within a marriage.

Well, with that, I'm gonna break down some opening statistic and then

we're gonna launch into the Anonias and Saphira. But Matthew nineteen six says this.

It says what God has joined together, let no man divide or separate.

That includes the people in the marriage, not always the people outside the

marriage. It includes the mates, the husband and the wife, and the

marriage. There are some statistics I want to share with you about why marriages

are being divided today. One out of three women and one out of four

men are experiencing physical violence or domestic violence in a marriage. Twenty to twenty

five percent of men will cheat and have an affair on their mate, and

ten to fifteen percent of women will cheat on their mate. This one's huge.

Twenty percent of police officers are killed while answering domestic violent calls. Fifty

percent of marriages end to divorce. Watch it's no better. For the second

marriage, a sixty seven percent will end in divorce, and it's no better

in the third marriage. Seventy three percent of marriages will end in divorce.

Those are pretty powerful statistics, but we're going to make sure now that we

know them, we are not going to be part of those because we are

under Pastor Adam's word. We are under a covenant of marriage, not a

contract, a marriage contract a marriage. I'm only accountable to you, my

spouse coven in a marriage. God is the third person in the relationship,

and I'm accountable to him. And so I've got to fight a whole lot

stronger and believe a whole lot stronger than I would in the natural. MELOCHI

says this about divorce Melachi two and verse sixteen. The Lord, the God

of Israel, says, I hate divorce. Let's just say this together.

I hate divorce. It this is God saying that. He says, I

hate divorce, and I hate the cruel things that men do. I think

he's saying the things that happen in divorce, how cruel it is, the

emotion of it, the strain of it, the finances of it, the

kid's relationship, how we could have to submit ourselves to ungodly lawyers and the

courts that have to figure out our disputes for us. And he goes on

and says, so protect your unity of that marriage, and don't cheat on

your wife. Don't cheat on your wife. Those are pretty powerful things.

If Pastor Diego was to tell you some statistics, and I'm gonna read them

to you today, well, let me do it this way. Let me

first read the statistics. I'm gonna give you my slummation. Here's some more

statistics on the screen, please. Seventy three percent of marriages ended divorce because

of lack of commitment fifty six infidelity, twenty eight percent, domestic violence,

thirty one percent, lack of intimacy, twenty four percent, because of financial

stress, thirty one percent, arguing in conflict, twenty percent of parent disagreements,

and fifty percent because of gambling, substance abuse, and porn. We're

gonna make sure those aren't part of our relationship. I believe my number one

reasons why marriages end in divorce is selfishness and immaturity. Somebody in that relationship

got really selfish and only thought about what I want to do and my feelings

and didn't measure up to the standards of God and how to do a marriage.

That's called immaturity. And then again, Pastor Adam would tell you that

if I could speak for him, the number one reason why people get divorce

is because they don't see marriage as a covenant. They see marriage as a

contract, so it's easily broken for whatever reason. So now we get into

the teaching today that I want to share with you about Anonyus and Saphirah.

Anonius is the male in the relationship the husband. Sapphire is the female or

she's the wife in the relationship. So right out of the bat, I

want to challenge you, if you're married, do not be an Anonius in

your marriage, and do not be a Sapphire in your marriage. Now,

in a few moments, I'll break it down. But you notice in the

text we highlighted some things to give you a clue of where we're going,

but the reality is this, here we go. Do not date an anone

or I, and don't date a sapphire. Don't be ignorant a naive.

How many of you know it's essential that you do not fall for fool's gold,

which is powrite. That there's a difference called real gold. And a

lot of people cannot tell the difference between powrites and gold. But you know

what is essential for me not to be deceived or lie to or beguiled,

that I know what gold is and now I'm not dating someone that's powrites.

It's very, very imperative that you know the difference, or you'll be like

to you or deceived or taking advantage of that. You know the difference between

a cuban zirconium and a diamond. Now, I don't need anybody to get

upset today to go to your jeweler tomorrow and ask them is this a real

diamond? Only to here that is a cute cz But how many of you

hear what I'm talking about? If you're dating, do not fall for a

cuban zirconium when you think you're going to be marrying a diamond. It's got

to be tested. Pyride has to be tested, cuban zirconium has to be

tested, gold has to be tested, and diamonds have to be tested.

So here's the three things as we open up that are the signs of a

failed marriage from Anonius and Saphara. The first thing we see is the word

kept back a marriage that's on the verge of failure or in a dating relationship

or thing we should look out for is that when people keep back things from

us, when people hold back things from us, A bad relationship is when

it is around people living a reserve life, a limited life. I'm holding

back my body from you, I'm holding back my mind from you. I'm

holding back my opinion from you. I'm holding back my money from you.

I'm holding back my possessions from you. I'm holding back my past from you.

That's the recipe for a bad marriage. When you are holding back from

that person, you keep back, You keep back things from that person that

you love. And that's what happened within this relationship. They had this restrain

within them that they were doing their money, their possessions instead of being all

in and giving you my best and my better and my extra. I live

a life of restrain. You get ninety percent of me because I don't want

you to take advantage of me. And if this doesn't work out, I

want to be able to escape with a little money in the bank. I

know I am because only three people aren't many me. So usually when it's

quiet, that means you are really hitting people hard. If I don't trust

you, why would I ever want to date you? If I don't trust

you, why I would ever want to be engaged to you. If I

don't trust you, why would ever marry you? I should enter that thing

fully restrain, ready to jump and give you my extra, my best,

and I'm not holding anything back. You get my best body, my best

opinion, my best mind, my best money, everything that I am.

This is true. I heard it one time. I heard it one time.

You'll know, it's a funny analogy, but it says something. It's

a funny analogy, but it says something. There were four couples and they

were drinking, and they were getting a little buzz on. Okay, so

Lickor was speaking a little bit, and one of the guys that had been

married to his wife five year true story, had been married to his wife

for five years. When he was drinking, he accidentally farted and everyone heard

it. And she got so happy when her husband farted. She said,

in five years of being married to you, I have never heard you pass

gas. This is the first time you are farting in front of me and

the rest of the night he went. Now, that's funny. But I

know women who have never ever exposed themselves without makeup. So some I don't

know how you do it. You go to bed later, you go to

bed, you rise up earlier, but they never seen it because you're holding

back. Now. I know that's a simple illustration, but I think it

has deeper meaning. The second thing that I see within this marriage that created

a problem that's going to end in a death is that they lied. They

lied to God, they lie to others, and they probably lied to each

other. A recipe for a bad marriage is that when it's built around dishonesty,

in untruth and falsehood and deceit, and there is not full disclosure in

that marriage. If in that marriage, you have to be truthful, you

have to be honest with one another. This is the way a marriage conversation

goes. Sometimes where are you going, who are you going with? What

will you be doing? And how long will you be there? If you

don't want to hear that, stay single, Please stay single. You cannot

lie to one another. You can't do that. It will not turn out

well for you. I've got to be able to let you know that you

can ask me anything that you want to ask me without me getting huffy and

defensive. And I've got to know what you are asking so that I give

you the full truth. Even though you didn't ask me specifically, I know

what you want from me and you're inquiring, so let me share it with

you. Here's a principle. It's on the screen today, just a little

formula that shows about dishonesty and shows about truth. Honestly, he breeds confidence.

Every one of us wants confidence in our relationship, whether it's dating or

whether it's marriage. I want to have confidence in you. Truth creates security.

Every person wants security. And there are a lot of wonderful single women

who are having trouble finding men to date because they bring no security to the

table. That struck this single woman in the front row. Bring security to

the female relationship. That's what she wants. She wants a place to live

that she's not going to be evicted from. She wants to see that your

breath. It doesn't matter that what you're making, as long as you're coming

home steadily, that she could build her life around that income, Your emotions,

how you'll treat her is so important. I uh was dated Cindy,

and then I married Cindy, and we had living in Oklahoma. Then we

came back. We only have been back for like a couple of weeks,

and I was already working at a church and ministry, and so I came

home that evening. And you're familiar with one of these sayings, Cindy says

to me, as your spouse says, we need to talk. Okay,

it's serious. I mean that you don't you don't be doing something else.

You sit down, eyeball to eyeball and you sit and so she says,

I just want to tell you, now here's what you need to know.

Prior to me meeting Cindy, she lived with a man for three years,

and in those three years she was in love with that individual. And if

that man, foolish man didn't should have asked her to marry him hers,

she would have got married to him. So this wasn't just a little simple

boyfriend and girlfriend relationship. So she tells me, I went to the bank

today. I was going into the bank and that and that individual was coming

out and we talked. She said it was very superficial. She'll it probably

wasn't more than a minute. How are you, what are you doing?

Oh, you're back from Oklahoma. Have a great day. But she said,

I thought it was important for me to tell you that my stock in

Cindy went up to a whole other level. I knew that I could trust

this woman because I probably would have never known but her integrity, her ethics,

her morals, her love for me, and the value of the marriage

said, I need to bring full disclosure to my husband. She'll never know

as a man, how that minister to me as a man? How that

minister to me? The next point that I recognize the Bible talks about do

not be unequally yoked, And I see this marriage as being yoked together badly.

That's the third point. The first point is they kept back from one

another, they lied to one another. And then the third point was they

had bad agreement in the marriage. Bad agreement in the marriage. Do not

be unequally yoke, the Bible says. So here's the reality. How is

this even possible that I can be in church but the Church not be in

me? How's that possible? How is it possible that I could be around

the presence of God but not have the presence of God in me to convict

me of what I'm doing wrong or confront me, or me to feel repentance

or change. Oh, it happens all the time. It's not too confounding.

How I could be around Christians but I'm not christ Like. That's the

story of Anonaisi Sapharah. Watch it out. I'm gonna call it out.

They're frauds, they're fakers. They're pretenders. They're yoked together on wrong things,

fraudulent lifestyles. So they where were they bad? Where could we be

bad? Well, bad yoking could be in the fact of how we spend

our money. We don't tithe church attendances. That's bad yoke. Church attendance

is not important. Tax evasion, sexual impurities in our bedroom. We're in

agreement that you know what we'll bring in everything we can watch porn, bring

other people in your yoke. That's a bad yoke together. And so I

see this bad relationship. We're connected in sin, we're participating in Cindy.

Here's the reality, Pasor Kenny, this is one of your favorite words.

I've heard you said one hundred times. Tell the truth and shame the devil.

Ain't nobody telling the truth and shame the devil here? I'm very confused

why Anna Nias didn't call Saphara out, or Saphara didn't call Annonayas out.

What is within their Christian character that will not say I love you, but

I'm not participating in that bull driving scheme you got going down in this church.

If you want to go to hell, go to hell on your own.

I'll make you a meal and love you before you go to Hell.

I'll even make love to you, because that's my marital duty. But I

ain't going to hell for you, and I'm not gonna lie. See the

respect I'm talking about versus drawing the line and say, oh, I can't

submit to that. I could follow you up to a point, up to

the point where you start violating the Word of God and my consciousness every area

house, I will follow you, and I will submit to you. But

violation against my conscience and violation against biblical scripture, I cannot follow and I

cannot submit to. So we see just simply the bad yoke that took place.

Now here's a little insights. So it's very important that you see where

this came from because you act. Chapter five is where we started. So

we got to read the previous verse to connect maybe something that could be told

to us. So here's the last verse before you transition to the story.

Joseph, a levite of Cyprus by bird, the one of the apostles called

Barnabas, which is translated son of Encouragement sold a field, sold his real

estate much like Ada Nis and Saphara did. He owned it, he brought

the money, probably all the money, and he laid it at the apostles

feet. So these frauds, these hypocrites, these pretenders, say, man,

I want to be like Barnabas. I'm gonna covet his position in the

church. I'm gonna covet his title in the church. I'm gonna covet his

applause in the church. Did you see how many people pat on the bat

and said, good job. We want that attention and we got a guard

against spiritual envy in the body of Christ. Look at what they're driving,

look at who they're married to, look at where they're living. Look at

how much money they have. That's spirit. Look at how they sing,

look at how they preach. See, they wanted to be like Barnabas.

And whatever happened in the church that brought victory or celebration, they said,

we're going to do it too, but we're going to keep back a little

bit for ourselves. And that's where they aired. See, here's the reality.

The reality was this is that the male. I think it's important to

look at it, but it also can be interchanged. The male initiated it,

and the female responded. The male introduced it, and the female came

into agreement with it. Somebody's tracking with me. The male introduced it,

the male influenced it. The male influenced it. He initiated, and he

introduced it, and she submitted to it. You don't have to you don't

have to do that. So, first of all, men need to be

the protector and the WatchGuard and the gatekeeper as to what they're introducing into their

home and into their family. It's a spiritual authority position that you've got to

do. The nature of family is they follow the male lead. You carry

a lot of weight, and that could be your superpower of greatness or your

superpower of destruction. You bring anger to your home, You got an angry

wife, You bring cussing into your home. Your whole family cusses, you

bring bad stuff. Then the whole family just correlates to that. But you

make the standard as the example. Oh no, this will not go into

my house. I promise you everyone else will eventually follow that godly example.

Now again, you can interchange them, though, because sometimes Saphirah is the

one who introduces. Saphira is the one who influences, and we all have

to be on guard again when when we act like when we think or know

that our spouse is being an Anonys and being a saphirah in this situation.

So my question to you is why do we allow it? Why do I

allow you to be an Anonys to me? And why do I or why

do I allow you to be a saphira to me? When you and I

are driving down a road, it is so important that we do not ignore

the signs in the road. The signs in the road are precaution and preparing

us for possible things in the future that you don't know about. So signs

if you look at the signs, sometimes signs say warning or danger or watch

out for this, or slow down, or a corner taking place, or

things falling off the heel. And if you just blatantly think that you and

I don't have to obey the signs, it's going to cause an accident.

And so you and I have to begin to obey the signs or watch the

signs, especially if you're dating. Don't ignore, don't be naive, don't

be stupid. It'll never happen to me. I'm the best woman, best

man he's ever met. I'll change them, give them the deeds I want

to show you how marriages or dating relationships go bad. It's because we enter

into what we call the dumb stage. This is where you are just so

overwhelmed by how cute they are. You're not even aware that they have bad

breath. You laugh at everything, and every time they cough, you say

are you okay? And every time they sneeze. It's not even in your

wheelhouse to say God bless you, but all of a sudden you say,

God bless you. It's a dumb stage. The dumb stage is just is

when everything it's just fun, it's exciting. I get goose pimples. She

makes me it's not gonna last. That's not gonna last. Then you get

to the delusion state. I thought they were gonna be perfect. I didn't

think that they were gonna get a belly. I didn't think that they were

gonna age. I didn't think that they were gonna get wrinkles. I thought

they were gonna always be perfect all the time. When we went in marital

council in the Pastor looked across Cindy and he said, is there anything that

you would change about Diego? She said, no, He's perfect. That

lasted about one day. After I got married. She's never said it again.

It's the delusion stage that takes place. They don't meet up to my

expectations. The distortion stage. Everything is huge, everything is big all the

time. It's this distortion stage. Could be Petty's stuff. You're gonna fight

about petty stuff, fight about Petty. Now. I've been married past forty

years now working on forty one years, me and Cindy. So I want

to remain Christian to you right now and Godly to you right now. So

I'll really watch my terminologies with you right now that we have got into heated

disagreements of conflict and discussion as we debated with one another. Now you fill

in the blanks right there. What he's talking about. Here's one thing.

Here's one thing. My wife is a little bit of a hoarder, this

woman. I think there's a progressive commercial about that about Cindy where they use

stay tupperware about cartons, uh everything because one day you never know, I

might need it. I might need it. I might It's like Fred Sandford

in my head, we got something for everything. Just come to my house.

We could fix anything in the world. And it used to drive me

crazy. Here's another. But here's my fault. I don't pick up after

myself oftentimes, so I'll go like this and like this. I'm gonna pick

it up, but maybe in three or four days. And when I cook,

I cook like this and it drives her crazy. We've learned to do

a little bit better. But at the end of the day, we're not

gonna fight about it no more. It's just petty. It's it's just not

worth it. You have to figure that out. Let's just give them the

rest of it so I can remember what it is. Then there is the

divided stage where you just have complete independent lives, just complete independent lives.

Then the defective stage, and then the dead stage when it died. Defective

means this. This is a good one for me to describe to you.

You can't be married forty one years and like your spouse all the time.

And I'll surrender this pulpit to anybody that comes up. Oh, I've been

married for fifty years and I've locked you, dog on, liar. I

didn't sat in love Cindy. Sometimes I don't like her and sometimes don't act

like see see I can see married people looking at me. That's a sometimes

you just I need a break, a Cindy breaks. You need a diego

break. I'll be out in the garage. See all right now, you

know, gotta find something to do in this garage right now? Why?

Because we're human I'm not talking about cussing at each other, hitting at each

other the other. We're just emotion. We're humanity. We're tired, we're

waiting. We got all things in our mind and you're in front of me.

So I'm an event right now. Okay, I need time out.

Look, we don't like each other sometimes, but that's okay. It doesn't

mean we need to get a divorce or separate. It's not the will of

God. You got to be able to work through those things. Thank you

so much. Why I gotta finish now? Why is it that we allow

these things like anonize that we can't confront our spouse's weaknesses. I can't call

out my spouse's weaknesses. What is it within us? Am I afraid of

the repercussions? Is that why I don't do it? Do I lack integrity

and morals? That's why I don't do it? Am I just trying to

keep the peace. That's why I don't do it. Am I that naive

and ignorant that I don't see it? Do I think that I do?

I think that I don't deserve better, So I just accept and I just

tolerate it. Is it the fact that what's in me is just weak,

vulnerable, and susceptible. And this is really for singles? Why do I

keep continuing to defend, excuse and attract Anonius and saphar Us in my life?

Why do I continue to do that? Here's the thought. In Genesis

two and verse number eighteen, God says, I will make you a helper.

That means comparable, that means compatible. It means like this your counterpart

to your weakness. So you need to let your mate do their job again

speaking the truth and love. The strength of my relationship is that she could

speak into my life and I could speak into her life. And yes,

those things are sometimes encouraging and inspiring, but sometimes those things hurt. But

she knows my blind spots and I know her. And we are the counterpart

to each other to become dangerous against the kingdom of darkness, not the friend

to the devil in how we treat one another and live. So let me

do my job. Stop feeling insecure and fed. I apologize that every man

jacked you up in your life. I'm sorry that every woman jacked you up

in your life. I'm sorry that you didn't grow up in a healthy home.

But we've got to recognize we're Christians. We go to church, we

have the Holy Spirit. We are empowered that we can overcome anything. So

here's the reality of these balances or these counterparts that you often have. Pesse

Kinnie. You're a great Laker fan, aren't you. I'm not a Laker

fan, and I'll call myself out. I'm not. I'm just not a

basketball okay. But there was a season where I was, and I go

to the games. During the Magic Johnson season, I was there. I

was even there up to the early nineties. I have not been back since

the nineties. I went to one game or two games or something like that.

When Kobe and Shaq broke up, I started following. How many of

you believe that Kobe and Shaq were a dynasty? They won three how many

more could they have? But they couldn't get along a championship team that ended

in a divorce because of their personalities that clash, or their pride or their

arrogance to not get along. We don't got no more championships from them.

So here's the balances that you need to have in a relationship. Because someone

in a relationship has to be the stronger while someone gets is the weaker.

But you can't afford both to be weak at the same time. Here's my

counterbalances. One person in the in the relationship could be emotional, but the

other person has to be logical in that moment. You can afford two emotional

people in the relationship. You could have someone that has a rush spirit,

but you need someone to counter balance that to have a patience spirit. That

rush spirit wants to buy everything. Now the sale ends in an hour.

Sign the contract. Now, one person is a risk taker, the other

person is a conservative person. Let's sell everything and move to Colorado. What

do you mean, sell everything and move to Where are we gonna live?

We'll figure it out. We'll just get a copper or r v U haul

will just drive. One is the teacher, especially as it relates to raising

kids. The other is the disciplinary. One is the leader sometimes and the

other is the follower. One is the saverer and one is the spender.

You're in trouble if you've got too what spenders. One is the confronter and

the other one is the prayer warrior. You go confront and I'll be praying

for you in Jesus name. There's some things when I'll just say so,

Cindy go, Cindy's the bulleer, Just go, Cindy's goes. I'll be

praying for you. And there's some things she doesn't like to do where I

have to call and go through all the operators and automated systems because she gets

frustrated. You know, one person is the touchy person in the relationship,

but the other person has to be the words oriented relationship more dominant. One

person is the serving in the relationship, the other one gives the gifts in

the relationship. One controls the remote control and the other just yields. I'm

done, more than done. I want to How do we repair it?

Just very quickly? How do we repair a broken relationship? You got to

change lifestyle. You gotta stop, You got to go on a detoxification.

I don't know what your detox what your toxic marriage looks like. Both of

you have to stop it, just stop it. Stop hanging around bad people.

Stop watching and bad stuff. Stop going to the bar, the strip

joint, stop that dirty stuff your want. Stop it. Now change your

lifestuff. You're serious. Next, accept counseling or accept submitting your marriage to

a senior marriage and let them know all your crap, all the stains in

your marriage. It won't get better. Won't get better. You have to

find that couple. Next, equal prayer. Everybody goes to church, everyone

prays, Everyone reads their Bible. Both of us fast. Next, lots

of forgiveness and trust. Lots of forgiveness and trust, and then spend a

lot of time together. I have the greatest antidote for affairing proof your marriage.

How to have How many of you like to know how to affair proof

your marriage? Only two of you? Okay, let's go on to my

final story and have an affair with your mate. You want a fair proof

You'rre's go on an affair with your mate. Have a me and missus Jones

with you and your spouse. Nobody knows because they're all old people. Nobody

knows who me and missus Jones is. Meet somewhere at the cafe at four

o'clock. Put on your dark shades and your hat and your trench coat.

Have an affair with your mate. I end with this story. Cindy.

We had been married for less than a year. Cindy just started a job

at a carpet cleaning, carpet cleaning place, Jeanie's Carpet Cleaning, uh,

And we only had one car, so we drove each other. We'd dropped

each other up. We picked who timed everything, so that's what we had

one car. So I went to pick her up at work and she was

finishing up her day, her desk and all that kind of stuff. So

I just I just stood there and her her boss walked out, and she

introduced me to her boss and U and we shook hands and said hello.

And then I just stood there for a moment and I noticed her boss checking

out Cindy's behind. Now immediately I began true story to mad Dog. This

guy, I gave him the stink eye. Well, when we got off

work, I said, Cindy, we need to talk. I said,

I'm not comfortable with you working there. And here's what I saw. Now.

I'm sure because I don't remember it was forty some years ago, I

don't remember. I'm sure she would have say, oh, diego, you're

over playing there. You're over there. But if that she said, diego,

if that's how you feel, she called in the next day and said,

I will not be working for you no more. Little did I know,

six months later, because of our new marriage and our bills, I

needed a better job. During Bible School, I only sold girl shoes.

I sold women's shoes. I needed to make more money. And so there

was a jewelry. It was in the mall, a jewelry store. So

I went into the jewelry. So I had an interview, and I thought

I'd be interviewed in the store, but there was a food court next to

it, and the girl took me out to the food court. Well,

that's where Cindy was sitting right there. Okay, her dress hugged her body,

her skirt was right here, and she was whatever, and she sat

down. Look, Cindy's right there. But she don't know Cindy's right because

we just said wait here, and I go inside and got the interview.

But I could feel Cindy. Does any man know it? I could feel

Cindy piercing a hole through the back of my head. I could feel her

Cindy literally got up and walked out. She did, and I finished the

interview. I said, well, you know what, we probably like to

hire you then, So guess what happened when I got into the car.

I will not be working at the jewelry store. That's what a great marriage

looks like. Father, thank you today for healing, mending, restoring,

building, and strengthening relationships as individuals. God, if they're single today,

they'll know how to spot a cuban zirconium versus a diamond. If their marriage,

there can exchange the cubansir conium to become a diamond. And we don't

want to be an anonysis firah in our relationship. We don't want to see

it end in divorce. Would you come and restore? Would you come and

heal in Jesus' name Before you leave this place, we're gonna walk out of

this church together. Hold your seat please. Every one of us have a

God void within us. It's a void the way the Bible says is Eternity

is locked up in the heart of every person. We have this God void

and we fill it with all kinds of stuff, thinking it'll make us happy

if I just make more money, and then you make more money, but

you're not fulfilled. If I just marry this kind of person, but you're

not fulfilled. If I just live in this neighborhood, if I just go

here and vacation here and do this, and it leaves you still empty.

What are you looking for? Why isn't it that anything in this world that

you could possibly achieve or have accomplished cannot fill the void in your life?

Because the only one that can fill the void in your life is your creator.

Because until then, you'll never ever feel fulfilled in relationship to the purpose

of your life, the peace of your life, the reason why I'm alive.

Only Jesus Christ can fill the void in your life once he's there.

Now of a sudden, it all makes sense. Now, all of a

sudden, you do have that peace. You do have eternity in perspective,

you have the Kingdom of God in perspective. You're aware of things when you

were blinded and you didn't see it. All of a sudden, the light

comes on because the void has been fulfilled. I'm not searching anymore, I'm

not longing anymore. Or maybe you've accepted the Lord, but you've wandered away

from God. God's not mad at you today. God never left you,

but you left him. When I count to three, I'm gonna ask you

to raise your hand just as a sign I surrender. I need prayer in

that area. I have a god void in my life and I don't know

what I'm searching for. And I think more education, when more titles,

more money, is going to end. I'm not sure that that's the answer.

Maybe it's always been in front of me what my grandma told me,

or what a friend has preached to me, or I need to rededicate my

life to the Lord because I'm not going down the right path today. I've

got the world in my hip pocket and it's controlling me more than my relationship

with Christ. Here we go. You raise your hand and we'll pray for

you. Now one two, one, two three, Raise your hand all

across this auditorium, wherever you might be. God love you, God bless

you. I'm going to lead you to prayer. I want you to meet

it from your heart. Just say this simple prayer. Dear Lord Jesus,

you know who I am. You know everything about me. I come before

you. I've been looking, I've been searching, but today I found you.

Come and feel the void in my life, and be my Lord and

be my savior in Jesus' name. Amen. We really hope you enjoyed the

message, and if you said yes to Jesus, we just want to say

congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you walk out your faith.

Click the link in the description or head over to grow dot Faith the download

your devotional. Oh and be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your

friends. Thanks for listening to ALSC podcasts and we hope you tune in again