Your life is incredibly brief, you’re a mist that appears for a little while and vanishes.

We must ask God, to turn when into now.  Because I don’t know if you’re anything like me but most of my life I spend wishing away.

When something happens, I’ll be happy, when I’m not working or doing this project I’ll serve more.  When I am done with this I’ll get in the word and pray, when I finish this sin this time, I won’t do it anymore, when I’m not so busy I’ll live more for God, share his message with others, give 10% when I have a better job.  When I’m out of this season I’ll be more dedicated to fellowship, be with my family more, change this behavior. 

We have to change the direction of our lives now.  Because some of us have some good intentions but your on a path that will lead to destruction.  And I don’t know when or what, your when is, but today we’re gonna ask God to turn our when’s into nows.  God has called us to change this world.  He has called me and you to be a put of a movement of God in which we see people come from life to death, in which we see orphans adopted, the homeless fed, the elderly loved, where we impact people in our neighborhoods, at work, and see them brought in front of a Savior who offers life, joy, meaning, purpose. 

We’ve been called to live with integrity, flee from sin because we serve a holy God, we’ve been called to have amazing families that we love and care for, prioritize, marriages where we love our spouse like Christ loves the church.

There are people here today who are in a sin and you know God has called you to get out of it and you think just because your intentions are to be Godly that God understands.  What good intentions do you have that you haven’t acted on.  Maybe He wants you to forgive someone who hurt you, to start obeying Him and tithing 10%, to spend time with Him, to break up with that person you’re dating cause they won’t commit and they’re not living to the Lord.  Maybe your heart cries out to end poverty, to bring the peace of God to those hurt by rape or abortion, maybe you have a heart to help drug users or single mothers.  Maybe it’s working with AID’s patients, or working with people over seas.  Intentions without action means nothing. 

God wants to do something amazing with your life, and some of us settle for a life so far below what it could be. 

Ephesians 2:10.  I have talked to too many Christians who when I ask them how they are, they say just making it, or just trying to survive.  You are a son or daughter of the most High God, how can you just get by, you have unsearchable riches in Christ, you are more than a conqueror.   And most of us never explore that life that He has given us. 

And that’s why right now, there’s nothing better that you could do with this moment than say Jesus I want all of you, I don’t wanna do my own thing.  I don’t wanna live with this sin in my life that is destroying me, I wanna know your grace, and your mercy, I wanna know your word, I wanna know you more than anything else, I want you to be the reason I live, I wanna spend time with you, I wanna turn my whole life, my whole heart towards you.  Not just a part of me but every single ounce of me.  I wanna be a part of something great. 

You don’t have to clean yourself up, make amends, your just gotta come before your Father and confess.  You gotta give Him your life, so He can change you.  Salvation is found through no other name, Buddah, Hinduism, Islam, your own philosophy, its only found in the name of Jesus. 

Here are some of the highlights

The church should be the most accepting place on the planet, because God accepted us, when we were dirty and disgusting.  We should accept the worst of people, no matter if you’ve been in prostitution, drug and alcohol addiction, murder, greed, lust, multiple marriages.  God wants to use you no matter what you’ve done. 

I want you to judge others as you would have them judge you. 

If you knew it was coming back on you, how would you judge the people around you?  Because I know when God judges me, I want mercy.  I want a judge who says I forgive you, I’ll help you, I wanna love you and care for you, a Judge that’s patient.  And praise God we have that, one who never gives up, leads no matter how many times we get it wrong, who died on the cross when we deserved Hell.

And what the passage is saying is when you confront you go with compassion, the compassion that you would want.  A compassion that says there’s probably something that caused them to be screwed up there, some things we don’t know.  Some issues we haven’t factored in, another side to the story.  Some insecurities there, some lack of knowledge, so let’s be patient and kind, not jump to conclusions.  And let’s go trying to help, out of compassion, not out of anger or annoyance. 

When I see something in you that causes me to wanna form an opinion about you, write you off, talk to others about you, confront you, as soon as I feel that I should immediately think, I wonder what God wants to deal with in my life.

And what this passage is saying is the enemy lies and he puts things in your head and isn’t your memory amazing when it comes to all the reasons someone is wrong, all the things they’ve done, how selfish they are, how sinful, how, you feel in the blank.  And His point is because we have an enemy, you need to look at yourself first and make sure your motivation is right.  That your desire is for them to love God, nothing else. 

And isn’t it true that much of our culture has written the church off as hypocrites?  You see, its not that culture doesn’t recognize they have a speck in their eye, it’s that, they have seen an unwillingness on our part to deal with the plank in our own.  And we justify our position by saying that God doesn’t approve and you know what you’re right, but because we won’t first look in the mirror, we lose our leverage with the people who need to be addressed. 

You see, you know you have issues, insecurities, fears, sins that you struggle with and that sometimes you’re on a path of self destruction.  And in fact when you see an issue, the only reason you can recognize it, is because you’ve either had it or you have it now.  And so simply coming at me and telling me about the issues you see, when I see issues far worse in you, doesn’t help me.  And if anything you make it worse, because its hard to listen to you, because I realize that you lack the same self awareness that you accuse me of.  So why should I listen to you, I mean I’m not saying that I don’t have a speck of dust in my eye, but oh my god have you looked in the mirror lately.  You see the strange thing about the gospels is that the apostles and Jesus were some of the most confrontational people that ever lived, but they were rarely, if ever accused of being hypocrites, have you noticed that? 

You can’t expect someone to listen to you, when you have gapping sin in your life.  That’s why some of you kids aren’t listening to you. 

And some of you God is calling you to confront and you’re not out of fear.  But if someone was about to fall off cliffe, or your child about to run across street would you let them, would you say I’ll pray about it, get advice.  Or would you go out there.  And yeah it can be uncomfortable but you gotta.  

If you keep throwing out bible says don’t, would you just stop for a second.  Because perhaps one of those people are coming to you because they have been exactly where you are and they know exactly where you’re headed and they love you too much to leave you alone.  And if you continue to throw up the smoke screen don’t judge me, you will never listen and never learn, because you’re hiding behind something that’s not in the scriptures, that’s not a part of Christianity, its just something you’ve learned so you can shield yourself from truth God wants you see.  Proverbs 15:32. 

Here are some of the highlights of the message

I take care of the birds and you don’t think I’ll take care of you.   I love you, you are so much more valuable to me than them.  Do you not trust me?  Do you not believe that I want your best? 

If He overcame it last time, He’ll overcome it again.

We serve a God who speaks past tense about the struggles you’re facing.  Stop worrying about the battles He’s already won.  If God gave you salvation and provided for your sin, He’ll take care of the smaller things. 

What good is it gonna do for you to worry anyways?  Are you really that prideful to believe that you control the universe?  I see what your doing, I’m there when you have all those conversations in your head, coming up with all these imaginary scenario’s and figuring out what you would do, if scenario 112 happened.  But have you not seen over and over, that all those scenarios that you create, don’t even happen?  Are you really gonna fall into that again, thinking you control the future?  I mean, if you can control the future, why don’t you just go ahead and change it, just do something easy like adding an hour to your life.  Can you not do that?  Then let me control the future.  Stop trying to be God and let me be God.  I haven’t left the throne, I’m still God, I came through for you in the past and will in your future. 

Worry is a down payment on a problem you may never have. 

We are so wrapped in trying to plan our future that when God drops the future in front of us we aren’t able to see it or in position to respond. 

Today God’s calling control freaks, saying stop, I have an amazing plan for you, I want to change the world through you, stop trying to tell me what you’ll do, when you’ll do it, who you’ll talk to, how you’ll do it.  Stop trying to handle things on your own.  I have incredible plans for you Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 2:10. 

I have a vision for you life that’s amazing.  Your not something insignificant, worthless, you’re more than a conqueror, let me prepare you for greatness.  Give me control, let me handle it.

We think that by worrying we can create a better future for ourselves, but God’s like listen I have a better future for you than the one you’re even worrying about not having.  He’s like I don’t even care that much about the lilies compared to you and I clothed them better than Solomon, why are you worried? 

The things we think would satisfy us, if only I was in this situation, if only I was out of this situation, had a job, a new job, out of school, had this possession, didn’t have to deal with my wife, kids, nothing would change.  And Jesus is like you’re just like the world.  You’ve put all your trust in getting all these things, security, control, a bigger house, better car, your kid doing well in school that’s why you’re worried.  Because your worshipping, stuff, control, people’s opinion, what your family thinks, security.

You gotta switch the object of your devotion.  It’s gotta be God I want you more than anything else, because you’re the great prize.  And when this happens you start seeing miracles, God coming through in mighty ways, because He’s first. 

Worry shows us things are off, and it’s God’s reminder, put me first.

Holding unforgivness is like taking a poison pill and hoping it kills them. 

You’re not the first person to wrestle with forgiveness, Peter one of closest to Jesus struggled with it. 

You’ll have to forgive people hundreds of times for the same offense.

Forgiven people forgive.  Not 7 times but 77 times. 

Every one of us has sinned against God and our debt is great before God.  We have belittled His name, lusted over his children, thought murderous thoughts against His children, worshipped His stuff over Him, racism, greed, pride, addiction, not giving Him the rightful place in your life.  You and I will stand before God and settle accounts for how we lived, loved Christ, served in the church, served others, loved our family. 

Have you thrown yourself at the feet of the king and asked for mercy and forgiveness.  You can’t be good enough, you need a Savior.  But oh we have a Savior who loves, who went to the cross for our sin, with you in mind.  And if you’ll put down your pride and throw yourself at the king’s feet you can have eternal life.  Stop trying to make it right, and receive the One who can make it right.

We go to the Master wanting grace, and leave wanting justice.  We want revenge, secretly hoping bad things happen to them.  Every time their name enters our head we think something negative, want them to be taught a lesson, God how could you bless them. 

When you think about all your sin, do you really want to go before God and say I want fairness, or do you want grace, mercy and forgiveness? 

This is why we have to forgive others, because when we don’t we mock God.   Matthew 6:14-15.  And the point of this passage is not that you have to forgive to earn your salvation but this, if you’re not a forgiving person you don’t know Christ.  It’s a spiritual impossibility to not forgive someone and really be saved.  And today God wants to remind you of the grace you have received, of how He lavished His love on you, and He wants you to forgive.

When you receive the Holy Spirit, He begins to craft you and change you into someone who can change the world.  You’re not someone who was designed to be insignificant, to have no purpose.  You were designed to change the world. 

The same God   who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, who tells the clouds where to go and sun when to shine. 

No matter where you’re at in life, where you’ve been God wants to use you in incredible ways. 

I saved you from Hell, I redeemed you, freed from sin, give you joy, peace, meaning, eternal life, I’ve gifted you, provided for you so offer yourself as a living sacrifice.

Your gifts were not given so people would think highly of you. 

I’ve met so many who brag about how gifted they are at prophesy, I’m so good at hearing from God, you’re stealing God’s glory.  I am such a great teacher appreciate me, roll out a carpet.  I’m so good at healing, appreciate me, compliment me, tell me how talented I am, recognize me, give me attention.  And what Paul is saying is that’s not the purpose, you don’t deserve anything.  Don’t get angry when you’re not recognized for your gifts, when people don’t appreciate you, or call you, no you be the initiator because you don’t exist for yourself, you exist for the church. 

If you never get recognized, noticed, praise God, for the rewards in Heaven.  Rather make it your sole ambition to serve others, encourage, care, minister to, with an attitude that says I don’t care how I’m treated, I just wanna serve, an attitude that knows every good thing that gets accomplished in your life, comes from Him.

You can not receive all of the gifts, because if you had all the gifts, you could be your own church. 

We are all called to prophesy, although some will have greater gifting in it.  Prophecy is a word from God that He wants you to tell someone else. He may tell you a word of knowledge about something someone is going through that He wants you to tell them, so they can know God loves them.

I want to urge you to begin asking God for words, so you can pray for people, encourage people, give instruction. 

When’s the last time you encouraged somebody, your wife, kids, a friend, your Pastor, amen.  Are you encouraging or negative? 

Christians are called to give 10% and some of you are in sin today because of your giving.  And the reason you don’t have enough is because you’re not giving.  We need you to step up because we are called to reach this city, meet the needs of each other, the poor, orphans, widows, etc…

We should all be praying for miracles, healings, laying on hands, because maybe the world shouldn’t believe if we aren’t being like Jesus. 

Here are some of the highlights from the Easter Message.

Because of man’s sin, the God of the Universe came down in flesh as fully man and fully God and was beaten, crucified, spit on, mocked, rejected and at the 9^th hour he gave up His spirit.  And on Him, was laid all of our sin, our hatred towards others, our selfishness, the violence and cruelty, the way we talk about others, addiction, the way we hoard money when there’s people in need, lust,.  And He went to the grave, separated from the father, in Hell where the wrath of God fell on Him.  But Sunday’s coming, amen.  And on the third day, He was raised from the dead, because you can’t hold down perfection, and He triumphed over our sin and death. 

He offers life to anyone who puts their trust in Him and receives Him as Savior.  He offers forgiveness for sin, and not only that, but the ability to change and turn from the ways that destroy you.  He offers a life of power, joy, meaning, depth, purpose.  He offers reconciliation with God, the ability to have a friendship with the creator of the Universe, to be adopted as a child.

Some of us wanna love God the way we want not the way He wants.  You don’t love Him.  His love language is commitment, passion, tithe, serving, worship, time. 

When you meet Jesus and receive Him as your Savior, there’s this change and no longer can you stay in sin, no longer can you spend all your money on yourself, no longer can you not be a part of this movement where Christ is reclaiming the earth.  You just get crazy about Him, you fall in love.

Do you know Jesus as the one who is worthy of full devotion. Do you know Him as the Lord, whom your entire life revolves around, who you’re crazy about?  

Does the way you give, serve, come to church, love others, fellowship with God, flee from sin, show you’re a believer? 

God is determining right now if you love Him and He’s gonna share that with you on judgement day.  Some of you have only had an emotional experience with God but haven’t met Him yet. 

God is a God of second and third chances, He lavishes forgiveness and He’s not through with you no matter what you’ve done.  But today its time to receive Christ.

The purpose of your life is to advance the gospel and when we line ourselves up with His purpose we become unstoppable.

I dream of the day when we have warred against poverty at such a level, that the government doesn’t need to step in anymore.  I dream of the day, when the church is the first line for people struggling with unplanned parent hood, suicide, addiction, when their are no orphanages or foster care system because the church has taken care of it.  I dream of the day, when the gospel goes forth to every nation and people come before God and receive Him as king and find the joy they were missing.  

We can see the greatest movement of God that’s ever been seen, because if God is for us then what can stand against us.  Our mission is unstoppable, not even death can stop it.  With 12 people, Jesus changed, the world.  They risked death, were beaten, stoned, persecuted, crucified upside down but nothing could stop it from reaching 3 billion people. 

We will reach every people group in the world.  This mission will succeed.  This church will grow, we will reach this city and the world and we gotta claim that today.

If our friends, coworkers, family, the people in India don’t come to Christ they will go to Hell. 

But we know Jesus has come and died for us, we have the gift of life, freedom from guilt and shame, hope, meaning, joy.  Therefore we have been charged to take this gospel to the ends of the earth, that’s why we’re still here.

Your life, resources, family is supposed to reach those far from God.  The reason you live where you live, work where you work, in the family your in, kids play on the team is to reach people.  God wants His house full because there is life no where else. 

And what He’s saying in this is you’ve gotta make up your minds which team your on.  Because if your on my team, your whole life purpose is going after those far from God. 

You see Christianity doesn’t work if you’re not all in.  Because the reason you still have the problems you do, wondering if you’re gonna make it, about finances, depression is because you haven’t came to the place where you’ve embraced the purpose of life.  Because when the purpose of your life becomes advancing the gospel, suddenly you begin to become like Paul, I’ve been rich I’ve been poor, I’ve just gotta share with more people.  Then He’s beaten, jail, this is light and momentary suffering to what I will have in Heaven.  I’ve learned to be content no matter what, just have to be sharing the gospel. 

If the purpose of your life is advancing the gospel, then nothing can stop you.  If your lose your health it’s an opportunity for God to heal, or show that no matter if cancer strikes I will praise His name and tell others He’s enough.  If you’re struggling financially, you have the opportunity to pray for miracles and show people that God is enough no matter what you have.  When you’re mistreated you can show people I will act like Christ no matter how you treat me.  When someone important to you dies, you know their in heaven, and can use the tragedy to show people, God is enough. 

Our prayer should not be our kids comfort, security, our vacation budget, how are we gonna pay for this new car, but advancing the gospel and if something happens that upsets our comfort to advance the gospel, so be it.

The enemy will seek to distract us, to spend our money on ourselves instead of the church, our time on ourselves, to date someone who’s crappy.  But we have an opportunity to be a part of the greatest mission, greatest revival the world has ever seen.  For the sake of your relationship with Christ, for the sake of keeping the gospel from advancing, for the sake of the calling on your life, let us not trample on the blood of Christ.  Let us confess our sin and put everything we have into advancing the gospel. 

The resistance is the force that tries to keep you from doing what you know God wants.  And the reason Satan is trying to keep you in your sin is cause He’s seen a preview of the great things God has for you. 

You are more than a conqueror, you can do all things, don’t waste your life.  We don’t have to cower in fear, we can overcome sin, our situation.  We can be free from worry, because we serve a Sovereign God.  What mountain, failure, sin, sickness are you facing, Jesus is more.  What child problems, financial struggles, work stress-  Jesus is more. 

We could travel off of this planet in any direction at the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second, for billions of years and never begin to exhaust what we already know to exist.  All of that rests in the palm of his hand.  The power of one word from His mouth can create a galaxy.  He tells the clouds where to move and the sun when to shine.  When this God fills us we can see incredible things. 

When you line yourself up with His purposes, He’ll give you whatever you want.  And you’ll find that His purposes are the delights of your heart.  Psalm 37:4. 

This power comes inside of you that enables you to live a life where you are more than a conqueror, where you can see miracles, the supernatural, healings.  Where you can overcome no matter what your faced with, you can resist the enemy, take captive the flesh, and stand up too temptation.  It’s this life of conquering and today I wanna see that power unleashed. 

To live the life you’ve always wanted you have to receive the Holy Spirit.

I’m gonna be honest with ya, some of you today are familiar with Jesus, you got some morals and maybe you grew up in church, said a salvation prayer and you think you’re a Christian.  But the reality is your not, your luke warm and you haven’t received the Spirit. 

You see being a Christian is not about doing something better, being a Christian happens when you confess your sin and receive Jesus as Savior.  And when this happens the Spirit is given to you and He begins to bear fruit in you.  You begin to become dedicated to the church it becomes your family and nothing can keep you away.  You become selfless with your money and you’re not greedy anymore, because you have to see the kingdom of God advanced.  You get this desperate desire to see the supernatural, to see God save this city and the world, to see revival and the nations to worship Him, to fall down on their faces and shout out Jesus is Lord.  You become hungry for His word, and your heart just starts to worship Him.  You begin to desire to obey Him and please Him, because you love Him.  You’ve just got to have more of Him, because He’s what your heart desires. 

You can’t make yourself start doing and desiring these things, something has to change on the inside.  You can’t overcome your fear, depression, anxiety, you can’t start loving the church, becoming selfless.  You have to receive the Holy Spirit.

You come out broken, a sinner destined for Hell and the only thing that that can change you and get you back to the relationship with God that you soul longs for the only thing that can bring meaning, life and joy into your life, the only thing that can free you from guilt, shame and sin is the Holy Spirit. 

You’re not a believer if your not bearing fruit, if your not sold out and all in and you can’t start bearing fruit unless you receive a new heart.  You have to be born again and receive the new life that Jesus offers.

When we receive Christ we receive the Holy Spirit, in other words, the living God begins to dwell in us.  And when the living God dwells inside of you, there is nothing you have to fear, nothing that can stand against you. 

We could travel off this planet in any direction at the speed of light, 186,000 miles a second, for billions of years and never begin to exhaust what we already know to exist.  All of that rests in the palm of his hand and this is the God who wants to fill us with His fullness.  There is nothing that can stand in the way of those redeemed by the Lord.  He is all powerful and He dwells inside of us. 

When you receive the Holy Spirit, you are washed, regenerated and justified by the Spirit.  Colossians 1:22.  Because the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, you are now holy and righteous in God’s sight. 

Because of His conviction and presence the believer can no longer stay in sin.  He begins to convict us and rip it out of his. 

No matter what you’re struggling with when you receive the Spirit, the Spirit begins to overcome these things.  And I wanted to encourage you today, even though some of you don’t feel like your getting there, God is at work.  Philippians 1:6.

When things in the world seem random, we can know that God is being intentional in how He is shaping us to change the world.  Before your life fell apart God had a plan to put it back together.  God is bringing us into the life you’ve always wanted. 

Today we’ve gotta submit to that plan and stop telling God what He needs to do in our life, trying to control the God of the universe, and start responding to the ways He’s moving.  Getting passionate about His work, His church, saving orphans, widows and the poor.  He will overcome the fear, the depression, the anxiety, the worry, the guilt, the shame. 

The Spirit of God lives inside of us, we don’t have to walk around in fear and shame anymore.  We are children of the King, not beggers on the side of the road.  We don’t have to be held captive any longer, we can see great things, we can break the strong holds that the enemy has, we can overcome the desires of the flesh.  We can see God move mightily on our behalf, we can see whole nations come to know Him.

We can see struggles we’ve been in for years melt away, we can lives where we are more than conquerors, where we see mountains move from here to there. 

We are new creations, the righteousness of God.  We can live this life, we can put down sin, see revivial in this city.  We are not slaves anymore.

Some of us today are grieving the Spirit. 

God is calling us into great things, but some of us refusing to go.  Sins of commission and omission.  We’re holding back clinging to sin, clinging to control, to our possessions, not stepping into the greatness and vision God has for us. 

We are a new creation and the reason some of us are so miserable is we’re not stepping into the life God designed us for. 

Today God’s telling you I have the desires of your heart waiting for you, but you gotta put down the sin.

No matter what you’ve done in the past, there’s nothing you can do to make Him stop loving you.  He accepts you exactly where you’re at.  When you give Him your life, He will never leave you nor forsake you.  You don’t have to worry if you’ve done enough, for him to be happy with you, when you give Him your life, you become His child adopted into His family.  And some of you never had a parent love you unconditionally, but our God does.  God choose you before you committed those sins or those things happened, so therefore He still wants you after.  After the divorce, after the abortion, after the addiction. 

2.  That our homeless, foster care and elderly ministries can make a huge impact on this city and that we can see amazing things through these efforts.

3.  That our church finds a small group coordinator to help us take our discipleship and small groups to the next level. 

4.  That God continues to do amazing things in our youth group and children’s ministry.  I am praying that God takes our 15 member youth group and 18 member childrens ministry and doubles or triples it.  I am praying that our kids get on fire for Jesus and change their high schools and their city for Christ. 

5.  For God to increase our finances at 24-7 so we can make an even bigger impact on this city.  I am praying that God pours out financial blessings on this church, so that we can take some of the huge next steps he is calling us to.  I also pray that the people in our church continue to learn the joy of giving and that those who are not can take the next step and learn what its like to live the abundant life.

6.  I pray that God continues to teach me and grow me into a follower of Him.  I pray that He deepens my intimacy with Him in such an amazing way, to where my heart is more passionate, more dedicated, and more in love with Him.  I pray that He frees me from everything that hinders me from going after Him with all I have.

7.  I pray for my friends that do not know Christ and those that claim to know Christ, but aren’t living for Him.  I have two families that are really on my heart that I am praying for like crazy right now.  That God would save them and show them how amazing life is with Him.   There is nothing greater than the life Jesus has to offer and I pray for their eyes to be opened to this.  I also pray for my friends who claim to be Christian but aren’t really living for Him, I pray that God would show them how much great it is, when you fully give your heart to Him and how much they are missing out on. 

8.  I pray that God would make me bolder than I have ever been.  I want to be sold out to Christ and want to obey Him no matter what it costs.  I want to be freed from all fear and things that hinder me from being completely His. 

9.  That our church could see miracles, healings, and amazing things that can only be attributed to God.  I want to see God do such incredible things in this city, that people are awed by how great our God is. 

10.  That I would hurry up and finish Seminary.  I have three weeks left and I will have my Masters of Divinity Degree.  I can not wait to get done, so I can spend more time on ministry.

11.  That God would do amazing things in my relationship with my wife Jennifer.  I love her like crazy, and we have an incredible relationship, but I want to take it to the next level.  I want to be more romantic, tender, kind, serving, selfless, loving and caring.  I want God to teach me how to love her like Jesus loves the church.

He is very clear in His Word that Christians and non-Christians, or the luke-warm should not date. 

I’ve seen so many people base their relationship decisions off impulsive feeling instead of the word of God.  And they end up destroying themselves spiritually or in a bad marriage.

You can’t date people in order to change them because your name isn’t Jesus, you’re just teaching them Christians compromise. 

Are they passionate about Jesus, His church, serving others?

Are they gossips, selfish?

And God has someone amazing for you, don’t settle for a crumb off the floor when He’s called you to feast. 

Sex is a great thing God made it and blessed it and the church is not against sex.

The church is for sex, so much so that it is passionately opposed to anything that tries to destroy sex from being the best it can possibly be.  That’s why the church is for sex in the context of a secure relationship in which people can reach the heights of love, pleasure, security, sacrifice and selflessness.  That’s why sex outside of marriage destroys what God had in mind. 

What was supposed to be done as an evidence of commitment, is now done in place of commitment and why get married if you already get what you want.  What was supposed to provide security, now provides insecurity because you never know when they’ll leave or change.  What was supposed to provide long lasting pleasure now provides short time pleasure, that rips people’s hearts apart because it hurts a lot more when you break up after sex, because you leave a part of yourself.  What was supposed to be sacrificial, morphs into you just getting your needs met.  Sex is great, but the people in the church need to reclaim it for what it’s supposed to be. 

Does this relationship encourage purity?

God bought us with a price, and when we have sex outside of marriage we shout to the world, God’s way isn’t best, we’re sinning against God’s indwelling Holy Spirit which lives inside of us.  Men she’s the bosses daughter and we’re defaming His name.

No matter what you’ve done in your past, if you confess, God forgives and He’ll bring beauty from the ashes. 

The reason the enemy tells you these lies about just give in, your already married, marriage is overrated, is because He’s seen what God wants for your life.  He’s seen your purpose.   God wants to change the world through you, to start a revivial through your life.  He wants your marriage to be amazing, and the enemy’s trying to destroy it before it starts. 

God has called women to change the world, to lead Godly lives that inspire people, to raise children that love the Lord, to respect their husbands in a way that leads to an incredible marriage. 

A women or man’s 1^st area of submission is to Jesus.  We are called to be sold out to Christ, in love with Him, passionate about Him, passionate about advancing His kingdom, bringing the message to those far from God, and if anything gets in the way of that, we are to disregard it. 

The 2^nd area of submission is to a husband.  Our job as men is to make it as easy to follow as possible.

Being the leader makes us lead servant, responsible for sacrificing, caring, loving like crazy.

Men and women are equal but men have the responsibility of leading our family and we will stand before God and answer for the way we lead the family. 

While men are ultimately accountable for the decision, thereby having final authority, we should weigh her opinion the same as ours if you’re the same flesh.  If she feels something off, you should not go ahead with it, you should be in unity.  

Submission is two married equal people coming together, becoming one flesh, in which the women voluntarily follows a man in their pursuit of Christ.  Just like Christ submits to God the father, showing there is no inferiority, so a woman is to submit to her husband, in a head long passionate pursuit of Christ. 

Every time God addresses marriage he always starts with the woman because it’s impossible to lead a woman who isn’t sold out to Christ.  If you won’t be submissive to a man, then you aren’t submitted to Jesus.

You see many believe respect must be earned, but the same way the Bible commands him to love you unconditionally, so the Bible commands you to respect him unconditionally.

74% of men would rather be alone and unloved than inadequate and disrespected.  81% of men felt unrespected by their wives.  

Will you continue to follow him even when he messes up, does wrong, loses his cool, makes a horrible decision?  Are you his number one encourager, when everything falls apart?  Do you build him up in front of others or do you gossip about how ungodly he is to all you friends, cut him down in front of the kids.  Do you counsel him respectfully, when you disagree?

Are you a gossip do you go talk to all your friends about other people or your husband, saying I have a spiritual concern?  Are you always trying to get attention and men struggle with that one too?  Are you pure in the way you deal with other men, or do you flirt and share all your problems, because you don’t feel your husband listens aka emotional affair? 

Do you withhold sex from your husband, so you can get something, do you protect your husbands purity by regularly having sex, or do you always say I’m tired, not in the mood?

If you’re not being intimate your marriage will fall apart. 

Do you protect men from lust by the way you dress, or do you show your cleavage either out of ignorance or trying to get attention? 

98% of men put their response to an eye catching woman in the can’t not be attracted category. 

We gotta deal with pornography and lust.  If you wanna be free of it, you gotta confess it.

Women desire to be thought of as beautiful and to be loved and it shows a beautiful part of His heart, of how God wants to be desired, not just taken for granted, and how He desires genuine relationship.    

91% of women under 45 acknowledged that sometimes I feel insecure about my man’s love and the relationship.  77% said I have a deep need or desire to know that my husband/ significant other finds me beautiful.

We are called to pursue like crazy, to show her that she rocks our world, that we’re crazy about her beauty. 

Do you show her that your just absolutely crazy about her by the way your serve her, talk about her, touch her, spend time with her, buy her gifts?

The king is enthralled with your beauty and you don’t need validation from some guy, when our God thinks you’re beautiful. 

You don’t have to be a prisoner to the past (2^nd Corinthians 5:17).