Ancient Stories Part 1 - Adam & Eve: Staying United

hello and welcome to cf online if this is your first time joining us thank you we are starting a brand new series called ancient stories in this series we're going to be learning about relationships from the past so we can learn how to establish healthy relationships today can i get an amen come on you know also we would love to connect with you the best way to do that is by filling out a connection card you can do so by texting cf miami to 313131 and we will get you plugged in here at cf and well christ fellowship as you guys know this weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the tragedy that happened on 9 11. i mean many of our people families that were impacted by so many loved ones that were involved in this and so maybe even you right now who are watching online maybe you could have been impacted greatly by this and so before we worshipped we just wanted to take a moment to stop and pause and reflect and pray for those families that were involved in this so family i ask you let's pray right now lord we're so grateful that you hear us god we want to lift up all those from 9 11 lord as we remember this day lord we want to remember and ask that you would give your comforting love and encouragement to all those and the families that are remaining here today god and lord we don't know how but you made it clear in your word that absolutely you work all things together for the good of those who love you and call it according to the purpose to your purpose and so god we just ask for your comforting hand your love and encouragement and to work these things out lord and we promise as a people we will continue to look towards you god continue to protect this great nation and so we can be a people who freely serve you and all of god's people said amen and amen well family let's get ready for worship i want to welcome you to christ fellowship wherever you are singing with us let's celebrate we serve a great god let's sing [Music] [Music] you see my victory when all i see is a mountain you see the mountain move [Music] [Music] there's [Music] [Music] i'll sing through the night [Music] [Applause] you [Music] for jesus there's nothing impossible you see the beard [Music] [Music] i he and almighty fortress you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god you're shining the shadows you in everybody's nothing nothing can stand against the power of our god you gonna be [Music] against the against the power of [Music] [Applause] oh god the battle belongs to you [Music] amen can you sing with me hallelujah come on here can you say with me hallelujah hallelujah praise be to our god we're going to sing that in every circumstance we're raising hallelujah today wherever you worship and we say [Applause] we say i raise a hallelujah [Music] in the presence of my [Music] louder enemies the unbelief can you raise the hallelujah when you say and i'll raise a hallelujah [Music] heaven comes to fight for me foreign [Music] [Music] with everything inside of me [Applause] [Applause] in the middle of the mystery in the middle of the storm louder and louder you're gonna hear my praises roar up from me i chase hope will arise [Music] [Music] hallelujah sing a little louder sing a little louder sing a little louder [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] little louder in the presence of my enemies [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] is you're gonna hear [Music] is hallelujah [Applause] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Applause] come on let's give god a round of applause for what he's doing amen let's bow our heads and pray father god lord we thank you for what you're doing in our lives thank you lord for your sacrifice on that cross because of it we have no life in you and we can sing and worship you in jesus name we pray we came from glory to confess to save the lost grace and mercy spayed upon the cross our redemption he's a home for all mankind one name over everything one name over everything come on we sing jesus jesus over everything amen [Music] our [Music] jesus christ is lord come on let's lift our hands to the king of kings the lord of lords [Music] [Music] one day over every day [Music] jesus christ [Music] foreign jesus christ is true now we can sing and declare that jesus the power he takes over shame fear anxiety we give it all to him [Music] [Music] every every day he raised [Music] jesus christ [Applause] jesus christ jesus christ is [Applause] have you ever had a conflict with your spouse and you saw their spirit deflate i like to ask the question what is the issue when the issue isn't the issue what happens when a wife feels unloved she reacts in ways that feel disrespectful to her husband what happens when a husband feels disrespected he reacts in ways that feel unloving to her and i called it the crazy cycle if i'm feeling hurt i just spit it all out there my natural reaction is to attack back marriage was just hard right from the beginning conflict for us was continual that doesn't mean that every time we got together there was a fight sometimes you wouldn't know there's a problem so we found ourselves constantly arguing we weren't out to understand the other one's perspective we were just out to be heard i was coming to a point of being very tired of constant fights and i used the word divorce it kind of shook me up to say you know what for me to use that word means something is terribly long between me and her do you get on that crazy cycle it's the lack of love it's the lack of respect it's that sense of hostility it's a sense of contempt that keeps you spinning and causes the relationship eventually to fail this series is going to answer the question what is that issue when the issue isn't the issue [Music] all right cf family this weekend is group connect and it means it is the perfect time to join a small group small groups are a great way to get connected to other people and to build lasting relationships fun fact i started my small group seven years ago and i'm still best friends with one of the girls in there we have small groups in all types including groups for men women couples special interests young adults anything you can think of we probably have a small group before and if you're married like my friend al over here do not miss out on the couple small group and start investing on your marriage all you need to do is sign up and go to cfmiami.org groups fill out the form that says join a group come on somebody and it doesn't stop there we want to give you guys a free gift so when you sign up today to join a small group you're going to receive a free subscription to right now media this is the world's largest video bible study with resources and incredible content not just for adults but kids right a little change right kids all the way up to students and uh young adults so it's gonna be great now over the past six years the ladies in stitches ministry and our global ministry have partnered together to provide clothes for under-resourced children in our global locations and their surrounding communities the ladies in stitches ministry is a sewing ministry that makes clothes from donated materials and things like fabric and men's shirts creating amazing designs for children the ladies have dressed children in my native country of jamaica colombia guatemala cuba and even haiti listen family it's because of your generosity that we're able to support our global locations with making a strong impact on their communities with sharing the gospel and meeting people's physical needs church family i want to encourage you guys today to continue to give so that we are able to have that impact not just here in miami but at our global locations as well the easiest way to do this is to very simply take cf give to the number 31 3131 family thank you for your continued generosity let's pray lord we're so thankful for what you're doing here would you continue to bless the people of god of christ fellowship so that we can be a blessing to our city and not just here in the city of miami but abroad as well lord we are excited to see what you're going to do with your people and all that god's people said amen [Music] come on as we continue in our time of worship i want to encourage you guys to lift your hands when we do so when we lift our hands in worship it basically just means we're surrendering to god we're not enough without him in psalm 63 it even speaks about us blessing the lord's name forever but lifting our hands when we do so as an act of surrender so during this next song i pray you'll feel encouraged to lift your hands and surrender to the king of kings you are here moving in our midst i worship you i worship you you are here working in this place i worship you i worship you you are here you are here touching every heart i worship you i worship every heart i worship you i worship you cause he is cause you are way maker miracle worker promised keeper light in the darkness my god that is who [Music] light in the darkness my god that is [Music] you come on lift your hands you are here [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] i [Music] is [Music] is who you are [Music] [Music] is who you are [Applause] who you are [Music] come on across all campuses we're gonna declare that there is power even when we don't see it even when we don't know it god is always working so we sing even when i don't see it you're working even when i don't feel it you're working you'll never stop you [Music] [Music] you never stop [Music] [Applause] my god that is [Music] is who you are [Applause] is who you are [Applause] hey church family hey do you believe in your heart that every that even when we don't see god at work he is at work in your family in your lives and your children listen he is a god who's faithful and a god that we that will be with us every single day of our lives amen let's give a shout out praise to our god let me pray for us before we get my lord god we believe oh lord that you are a waymaker that you are a promised keeper father you are a faithful father to us and father as we open up your holy word father your servants are ready to listen may god create a heart of humility in us to receive your word with eagerness and humility and so father we pray now that you would bless now our time and that you would be glorified in us we love you lord it's in jesus name i pray and all of god's people say amen let's give another shot of praise to our great god hey welcome to cf my name is omar and i have the honor and the privilege of serving as a lead pastor here and if you're watching us online for the first time or maybe at one of our campuses hey thanks so much uh for joining us it's an honor to have you here with with us it's a great day because today we start a brand new series called ancient stories you know sometimes we look at scripture we look at these old stories and we may think they are they are irrelevant but the truth of the matter is that they have a lot to teach us about how to have healthy relationships today and so today we're going to be looking at this the ancient story of adam and eve to kick off this series and so wherever you find yourself open up your bibles to genesis chapter 2 and also mark chapter 10 and you can follow along with me as i read listen to what god's word says therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become what you can do a little louder than that and it shall become what yeah one flesh and then listen to what the lord said in mark chapter 10 he said so they are no longer two but what one flesh what therefore god has joined together let no man separate in other words when god brought adam and eve together in marriage listen he envisioned them to be one to be in the visible that is god's word you could go and take a seat at all campuses you know just a few weeks ago camila my little girl went had her first day at school and so it was a big day for her she went to christ he's going to christ fellowship academy right here at the palmetto bay campus and it was a sweet moment for my wife and i just to see here with a little lunch box coming in and so it was a very very sweet thing and by the way if you are looking for a great education with a christ-centered environment listen christ fellowship academy is the perfect place so i would encourage you to check it out whenever you can if you're interested but one of the things that all of our students at christ fellowship academy academy do every single morning is that they recite several pledges and one of the pledges that they recite is the pledge of allegiance in fact how many of you by show of hands remember saying the pledge of allegiance where you're a little kid yeah man i said i said that thing so many times it was embedded in my mind now let me just give us a little bit of a history of a context of of how the pledge of allegiance came to be because it was written by initially composed by a captain in the military named george bulge and he did this right after the civil war you see this captain had witnessed the how gruesome and how divisive this war was and the impact that it had on this country and so he thought it was necessary to create something to remind ourselves what our founding fathers envisioned when they created this country and so he wrote the pledge of allegiance you see he knew that this nation would face many difficult seasons along the way many trials many really hard times in the in the future of our country and so he wanted to write something to remind every single american son and daughter what our founding fathers had envisioned when they create this country was was which was to have a united country and so i thought you know i was going to read the pledge of allegiance for us but i thought nothing's better than to hear the pledge of allegiance than some of our kindergartners from christ fellowship academy yeah and so i'm going to call some of the kindergartens to come out here right now yeah come on give it up for them big time come on you can do a little louder than that right over here right here and right here you all ready go for it i [Music] for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all oh okay yeah thank you ladies you guys were awesome thank you one more time come on give it up to show them some love this way but you gotta love that right but family i want to just zero in on three small phrases of that pledge of allegiance and here they are the three words are just key are one nation under god indivisible in fact everyone say one nation one nation under god under god indivisible and folks let me just and folks don't miss a point because the pledge of allegiance listen carefully was meant to remind every american son and daughter of what our founding fathers envisioned for us that we would be one nation under god indivisible and family let me just bring all that over to our time to together because folks what an image of what our god does for us in his word and by that it means that just like the pledge of allegiance was meant to remind us right of what our founding fathers had in mind for us one nation under god indivisible just like that and here's the big idea for today when we open up god's word it's almost like a daily reminder of what our heavenly father envisioned for us when he created this thing called marriage so that whenever we would go through hard moments in our marriages difficult challenges discouragement disappointment listen we will always remember that what our heavenly father envisioned would be one marriage under god indivisible amen and who knows maybe right now you're watching you're thinking no more i get that concept i'm tracking with you but the reality is that daily life sets in and there are arguments there are difficulties there are misunderstandings and so to live up to this ideal of one marriage under god indivisible it seems almost impossible so what do we need to know in order to live and and live out the life and the marriages that god envisions for us we're going to find out from the book of genesis all right so if you have your bibles turn to genesis chapter 2 and today i have three thoughts for us on this thing called marriage so write this down as point number one you need to first know that god's highest priority in your marriage is your unity in fact listen to what god's word says in genesis chapter 2 it says this it says then the lord god said it is not good that the man should be alone and i will make him a helper fit for him so the lord god calls a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the lord took that the lord god had taken out of the man he placed he made into a woman and brought her to the man and then the man said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of the man and therefore listen carefully what the lord says now therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become what one flesh now stop right there for a moment and let's look at the most ancient story that we're going to look in this series that is the story of adam and eve which describes the first marriage now what's important about this ancient story are the words that god utters first after creating the first marriage because it reveals to us what is god's highest priority what is god's most basic design for marriage and not only does it is it important what he says first but it's also important what he doesn't say first you know he doesn't say therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall experience romantic love it doesn't say that they shall experience euphoric sex it doesn't say that they shall experience happiness or children or beautiful vacations or financial stability listen all those are byproducts of this thing called marriage but it's important to note that the first thing that god utters the moment that he creates marriage is that they shall become one that they shall be united that they shall be indivisible see folks marriage is the only relationship on earth where he takes two individual sinful people and brings them together and in a way tethers their soul together and now they begin to function like one person and they begin to to balance each other's strengths and weaknesses to accomplish the purpose that god has entrusted to them you see unity could all could be seen because be defined as oneness of purpose and so when you look at what god has really envisioned for every marriage is that every marriage is designed to glorify god to honor god by reflecting the gospel you see the gospel that the the gospel is really the relationship right between christ and the church where us who are sinful people far away from god when we came to realize what christ has done for us he died on the sin for us when we put our trust in him and we started this relationship with christ scripture's very clear that he unites us to the lord right now we're with him forever you see folks that's exactly what he envisioned for a husband and wife to come together in this beautiful way so our unity in marriage and carefully reflects god and the gospel but when there is this unity on the other hand it actually reveals how far away we are from god and reflects our spiritual life and our character and so the question that i want to pose to us especially as we kind of start diving into god's word is whether your marriage is reflecting the unity that god envisioned are you as united with your spouse in the way that the lord envisioned for you when your children look at your life do they see just mom and dad just living life or do they see you together unified when your friends and family co-workers people at church when they see you do they see you working as one unit to accomplish god's purpose because listen carefully that is what the basic design of marriage and god's highest priority is that you and your spouse will be together will be united will be a team and so folks if that is god's highest priority for your marriage then it only makes sense write this down as big number two that satan's highest priority then in your marriage listen carefully is division is the vision you know we see in the next chapter that we all know the story where satan comes and approaches eve and tempts her and eventually she takes that fruit off that tree she brings adam they both sin before god and after they have rebelled against god it says like the lord came to pay them a visit and listen to what it says in genesis chapter 3 verse 8 it says this it says and they heard the sound of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god among the trees of the garden but the lord god called to the man and said to him where are you where are you and he said i heard the sound of you in the garden and i was afraid because i was naked and i hid myself and he said who told you that you were naked have you eaten of the tree of which i commanded you not to eat and the man said listen carefully well the woman whom you gave me gave to be with me she gave me of that fruit and i ate now family stop right there because this is monumental when it comes to marriage because instead of adam saying listen we guess god we have both sinned before you yes me and my wife we have both together sinned against you what does adam say he says that woman yeah that woman she's the one who made me trip up she's the one at fault and so what do we see we see now in chapter two there were one and now guess what now adam is beginning to distance himself from eve and then just a few verses later god starts to proclaim some some consequences and curses because of sin on the man and woman and listen to what he says to eve he says to the woman he said i will surely multiply your pain in childbearing in pain you shall bring forth children and listen carefully your desire shall be what contrary contrary to your husband but she shall rule over you see in the original text the word there for contrary and desire it really was there's a desire now in the woman to want to dominate the man and so what do we see here that because of sin now now adam is pulling away and eve has a desire that are contrary to her husband and so what we see here is that already we see division and rivalry between the husband and wife it's a beginning of marital strife and division and some of the things that we struggle with today listen they began to struggle with them right there in the garden of eden you know they started having fights about adam not taking out the trash in time the dishes that's right adam got upset at eve for spending too much much much money at the eden mall oh yeah and and you know what eve would get upset after adam would come home and would be insensitive after a long day's work and and so what we see is right that satan got his way when it came to the marriage of adam and eve because he began to cause division among them and family even though this is an ancient story we're still feeling the effects of it because satan is still at work in every single one of our marriages in fact god's word says that satan comes only to steal kill and destroy and listen carefully satan's one main goal in your marriage every time he looks at your marriage the way that he knows he can destroy is by somehow some way causing division between you and your spouse and you know what his tactics are really usually take place slowly over time now think about it because two young people come before god on their wedding day and they are excited and they stand before a pastor and when the pastor says do you vow to take this person as your husband and wife for the rest of your life they say of course of course i love them and how is it that just a few days later a few years later they're already talking about divorce see because it is gradual and satan capitalizes on every single small opportunity to cause division for example we are first first and foremost we are divided by sin are we you know whenever we sin against one another listen it's always gonna cause division right it's always gonna cause issues in the marriage but it also when we sin secretly without the other spouse knowing listen carefully even that causes division so husbands listen if if you watch pornography and even though your wife will never find out can i tell you that causes division because in your heart listen intimately emotionally you begin to feel divided distant from your wife and ladies when you talk to somebody else to a bunch of people about the struggles in your marriage and you bad mouth your husband and in a way you're slandering your husband you know what those other ladies they're fueling that fire and they want you and their words begin to create division in your life in your heart so even when you do things that your spouse will never find that listen that's causing division in your marriage another example isn't we are oftentimes divided by mistakes you know how things are you know sometimes in a marriage people are going to make mistakes someone forgot to pay that bill on time they forgot to register the kids for this uh they broke something by mistake and sometimes when these things happen the other person wants to make that other person feel bad about what they did and so they'll start taking jabs at them because of the mistake they did and you think you are gaining the upper hand because you're making them feel bad for their mistake but are you really winning what you're allowing is for the enemy to use those little jabs to cause division between you and your spouse listen we are also divided by disagreements i don't have to tell you listen in marriage there's just always going to be disagreements people have different points of views it's hard to agree at times but listen here's what happens when we get into these debates about whatever the case may be how much you spend on a piece of furniture uh what to do with the children whatever the debate is somewhere on the line we think well if i raise my tone if i use harsh words in this conversation then i'm going to gain the upper hand in this disagreement and i'm going to win but did you really win did you really win all you did is use all those harsh words and allow the enemy to get into your marriage and create division and sometimes listen we're divided by high stress situations you know when there's financial issues when there is health issues with a family member something going on with your children listen it's easy in those high stress moments just to blow off some steam and the person you want blow off some steam who is it is your spouse i remember you know when when camilla was was was very young in the middle of night she began to have some night tears and we didn't know what it was and we realized how in the middle at 3am so much stress not knowing what to do we started blowing off steam on each other why because in those moments all you're doing is you're trying to figure it out but here's what happens when you blow off steam and you say certain things you allow the enemy to allow in those critical moments to come in and cause division see sometimes we think in those moments we're in control things and we're winning and we're we have a good handle what's going on but the truth of the matter that you don't have control in anything you're giving control to the enemy to of your marriage and so here's what happens either two things happen after a while either those two people end up getting divorced or they don't get divorced but they just live as roommates in the same household for the rest of their life and they even though they're together physically right they're not divided physically they're divided emotionally and they're divided spiritually and you see folks the reason that satan is hell bent listen on causing division in your marriage is this reason are these two reasons write this down as letter a and b is because division brings pain to your marriage and division brings pain to those around you you know since oneness is really one of the the basic concept of a marriage listen division will always cause pain in your relationship you know a good example is that of an atom you know i've given you the example of the atom before the atom is the smallest known matter to man it's called the building blocks of life and one atom one little atom get this it is 10 million times smaller than the width of your hair tiny but here's what happens when that little tiny innocent atom when it experiences any kind of division it creates an explosion an explosion that causes this intense heat all around it and consumes everything on its path you see the reason for this is because the atom was not meant to experience division and the moment that it is divided it causes a ripple effect that it impacts everything around that little atom and folks when it comes to our marriages we think that when we have division in our marriage it only applies to us but it actually starts hurting everyone around especially our children you know going back to the book of genesis we see that after adam and eve began to experience division in genesis chapter 3 in the very next chapter genesis chapter 4 we see they have two sons cain and abel and we see that at one point they're supposed to be brothers united close together but we see that they come and they present an offering to the lord god accepts abel's but rejects cain and so listen to what happens what they're out in the field it says this it says and when they were in the field cain rose up against his brother abel and what and killed him so family don't miss this because in genesis chapter 2 adam and eve are one perfectly one in genesis chapter 3 now they are divided because of sin and in genesis chapter 4 their children also are divided and folks listen maybe perhaps you're watching right now online or maybe one of our campuses and this is exactly where you're at when you're looking at your marriage listen you are divided you are not as close as united as you thought you would be there's issues at home and your children are now suffering because of it and the truth of the matter is that you're sitting here right now or watching at home and you are discouraged but let me tell you listen if that's you if you are discouraged like listen lift your head up because god has not abandoned you amen in fact when you look at the book of genesis even in the midst of sin where was god god came in the middle of that garden in the middle of the sin to let adam and eve know listen i am not leaving you alone i have a plan for you i have a future for your life and you ought to follow me if you want to experience life and so listen carefully if you are right now in a marriage that's struggling be encouraged because god is here with you he wants to restore your marriage he wants to renew your marriage and he wants to bring you together the way that he envisioned if he is a god who can turn water into wine he can restore your marriage as well can i get a meant to that listen god is a present god and folks he has not left us alone but you know the truth of matter is that even though god is with us we have to do our part we have to allow god to work in our midst and so here's what we need to do write this down as big number three we need to make our marriages division proof division proof and here's the first step in that write this down as letter a the first step is that you need to unite in purpose and purpose and another way of putting it listen you need to align as to the purpose of your marriage you know a while back uh my car when when when i started going over a certain amount of a certain speed it began to shake and i thought to myself my goodness i got to get new brand new tires and so one day i was able to pull it to a shop and i told the gentleman hey i just need four new tires because they're shaking whenever i pass a certain moment at a certain speed they start to shake and folks to my surprise the gentleman said listen you don't need new tires what you need is alignment you see even if i would have bought brand new tires and put them on my car guess what sooner or later i was going to have issues again why because my wheels were not aligned and folks there are a lot of marriages rattling and shaking and sometimes we are trying to fix our marriages by putting on new tires don't we well let's go down to date night oh you know what let's go on vacation we need to get away for a little bit oh you know what let's have another child that's a classic one let's have another child and fix our marriage and you know the truth of the matter sooner or later you're back to square one because you never came back and solved the basic problem of alignment aligning the purpose of your marriage and you know what even if you align and you agree on the same purpose it might not be the right purpose because you just like of a car you can align the tires of a car right the wrong way and the moment you start driving it starts going the wrong way and many people try to align their purposes according to their own wisdom but they don't realize that if they want their their marriage to head the right way they need to be aligned according to god's word they need to be aligned and say you know what our marriage we may have messed up big time in the past but as we move forward listen we are going to be aligned and our purpose is to glorify and honor god in our marriage amen yeah you can clap for that you see god's word says this listen whatever you do do it to the what to the glory of god listen in the context of marriage whatever you do in your marriage do it for the glory of god and so some of us need to have that conversation where you say to each other you know what from now on whatever happens in our marriage what we're gonna do is always going to be geared to what is going to honor god what is going to glorify god because check your marriage you may be fixing the wrong thing instead of aligning it towards the purposes of god and once you've aligned your purpose write this down as letter b you need to unite now in decision making in decision making see once you've agreed that the fact that your marriage is solely focused right on glorifying god and honor god then every single decision every single disagreement everything that you try to do is now going to be filtered through that lens of what is going to ultimately glorify god in our home and let me tell you something not only does that apply when you're making decisions together and you have that type of mentality but it also apply when you are not with your spouse you know if you're out in the store and you know that buying this one thing is gonna cause issues with your spouse and cause division and cause not to not to honor the lord listen don't buy that one thing if you're at work and this other co-worker begins to flirt with you listen put it to the lens is this going to honor the lord and it's going to cause division in my marriage and if it is run away from that relationship you see even when you are away from your spouse even your decision making could be put through the lens of what's going to honor and glorify the lord and you know what even when you're making decisions if you have children listen you need to unite in decision making when it comes to your children far too often children see their parents the way that they make decisions is well mom doesn't want to do this but dad wants to do this so we're going to do with whatever dad wants can i tell you that's the wrong way to parent your parents to your kid to not see conflict between both of you and disagreements and being split in decision making they should see a united front making a decision for the families does that make sense they shouldn't see you divided from your spouse and your decisions and even in your finances you know last week i heard pastor al williams say that his grandma when things got personal she used to say i'm gonna get up in your kitchen and so i'm gonna get up in your kitchen right now for a little bit because finances are a big portion of it you know far too often i see people who have been united by god tethered to each other with separate bank accounts and here's what happens a lot of the counseling that we have to go through are these competings the different things that go on the issues that come along with that and so somewhere along the way in their mind yeah we are one before god we are tethered to each other we are one in purpose but we keep our money separate and so think about this when you a marriage is supposed to reflect the relationship between christ and the church isn't it do we see that christ in scripture we see that christ and the church that we are coheirs with christ you've read that before right everything that's for christ we're going to inherit as well but what you don't see in scripture is christ has his own inheritance from the father and and the church has another inheritance over there we don't see that do we why because the moment that we came to faith in christ that we became united with christ guess what we are now co-heirs with christ and you know in my own life the moment that i got married with ashley we combined bank accounts right away and i went to the bank and i said i want to change the label of my bank account and go it i changed it from free checkings and i renamed it to gridley family checking account so that every single time that i log on or she logs on it's a reminder that this is the there's the money that god has provided for us together as a family and even in our budget in my spreadsheet i don't have omar's income and ashley's income i have god's provision and god's provision because it is god providing for us as a family and so i would encourage you listen if that's an issue it may if finances are an issue in your life perhaps that's an important step because when i spend something i am extremely cautious for ashley and when she's spending something she knows hey with this we are in this together and i'm telling you it solves a lot of issues when it comes to marriage and here's the third thing write this down as letter c we need to unite in suffering and uncertainty during those moments you know folks the the reality is that the moment that a lot of marriages experience a lot of division is a moment of suffering of uncertainty and you may be wondering omar how exactly how is it that you're able to stay united during the hardest moments in your life are you all ready for the answer are you ready come back next week yeah we're gonna be looking at the story of abraham and sarah and we're gonna be learning how to stay together united even during the hardest times right so be back next week for that but let me end with this just a few uh weeks ago we all saw what took place in afghanistan right and aside from all the political side of it listen you know that i will never drag politics into this pulpit this pulpit is holy and i will never bring politics into this pulpit but the reality of what happened in afghanistan is just very sad because the leadership of that country was entrusted 83 billion dollars worth of military equipment folks 83 billion [Music] and folks they were giving everything necessary to not only stay united as a country but to fight the enemy and even though they were afforded all the resources possible to stay united and to fight the enemy guess what the leadership walked away and we saw what happens and we're seeing the consequences of that now [Music] and family what an image of many marriages because many marriages for all marriages god has provided every single resource for you to stay united to fight for your marriage listen first of all he's provided his word with his own worth with wisdom with truth he's provided pastors who love you who care for you he's provided counselors in the church and christian counselors outside the church to help you during those hard moments and times and can i tell you he's also provided the people of god you know in our church our couples small groups are critical in the health of our marriages because week and week out they get together they study god's word they form relationships they encourage each other they pray for each other and folks that is the reason that so many marriages are strong in this church why because they are together in a couple's small group and as you heard earlier listen to this weekend is group connect as a group connect it is a perfect time to join a group whether on zoom or whether in person listen we have couples groups in every format in every location and so if you're thinking you know i need to be surrounded with god's people this is a perfect time just go to cfme.org slash groups or scan that code we will follow up with you and we will get you connected but listen god has provided everything for you to stay united to stay indivisible right and fight for your marriage and so let me end with this in a few moments i'm going to ask a few folks to stand up and i want to spend some time in prayer for you and the first group of people that i'm going to ask to stand in a few moments are those of you who are married and so when you stand up if you're marrying a few moments when you stand up i want you to stand up and i want you to hold hands with your spouse you may have not held your spouse's hands for a long time but listen stand up and hold their hand and hold their hand also if you are engaged and you're already looking towards marriage i want to ask you to stand up in a few moments as well because we want to pray that god will begin to solidify the importance of unity into your heart and if you're here and you're married but your spouse is not here listen i want to stand up to because we want to pray for you whether your spouse is far from god or close to god doesn't matter we want to pray for you that god would through his spirit would renewing you a new sense of commitment to stay united and fight for your marriage amen and so if you're married if you're engaged uh go ahead and stand up right now at all campuses i want to spend some time praying for you all and listen if you're not standing up right now i would encourage you pray for the people around you pray for these marriages and here's why it's because a healthy church is composed of healthy families and healthy families are composed of healthy marriages amen so if you think about it the health of our church the health of the church is dependent on how healthy the marriages are in our church amen so you pray for those around you as well so let me pray for us right now father god we come before you o lord and father we know that you are a waymaker that you are a promise keeper that you are a god who can restore every single marriage even if though it may be fractured father we you have the ability o lord to unite our marriage so father i pray for the couples here today that i pray that you would bless them father i pray that as they're holding the hand of their spouse father i pray that you would put a renewed sense of unity a commitment to be together things may not be perfect but father through your spirit and through your truth lord they can be stay united lord father we pray for those of us here who are engaged father i pray that as they head towards that commitment my god we pray that you through your spirit would solidify that commitment to each other and that they will long and start their marriage strong knowing that unity is your highest priority for them father for those of you today who are spouse may not be here maybe they are struggling maybe they're not believers father we pray for them father they may be alone here but they are not alone because you are with them and so father we pray right now lord that you would bless them that you would you create patience in their heart towards a spouse father you may create a desire to honor them and that they will do their part and we pray for their spouse that wherever they are right now father may you work in their heart and that you would draw them closer and closer to you lord as a father as a church family we thank you god because just like you were in that garden lord with adam and eve even you and if you are here with us and so father we praise you we we give you all the glory and we ask for a special blessing over all the marriages in our church we love you lord is in jesus my praise and all god's people say amen let's give it up for the lord everyone hey i'm going to call all the campus pastors to the front list i want to encourage you join a small group a such a critical part of your journey with your spouse and be back next week as we continue our series called ancient stories right love you all have a great great weekend use all the tools you have to fight for your marriage and start today by joining a couple small group you can do so by going to cfmiami.org group and click on the button that says couple small group now maybe you aren't married small groups are definitely still for you it's a great way to grow closer to god through studying his word and also by making new friendships you can sign up for a regular small group at cfmiami.org groups absolutely and then family don't forget next sunday september the 19th at 10 45 we're going to be hosting our cf 101 experience church family cf 101 is designed so you can see who god is and who we are and how you can discover your place here at christ fellowship we host these experiences at our campuses and even online so if you're listening to this right now and you're like i gotta get signed up what is this all about the easiest way to do it is to text cf miami to you guessed it 31 3131 and simply check the box that says cf 101 and we'll follow up with you there awesome so next week we're going to be exploring the story of abraham and sarah and how we can trust god with our family invite a friend or family member to join us have an incredible week and we'll see you back here next week online

Channel: Christ Fellowship

Views: 485

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: cfmiami, Christ Fellowship, Christ Fellowship Miami, church, church miami, church online, florida, church online miami, miami fl, Sunday church, Sunday service, sunday sermons, preach, Jesus loves me, Christ Fellowship Palmetto Bay, Jesus, jesus christ, church online platform, vous church, rich wilkerson jr, sunday church service, cfmiami youtube, cfmiami online, cfmiami fl, Adam and Eve, Marriage, Unite in marriage, argue in marriage, love, healthy marriage, conflict marriage

Id: OdbvUR5gtRQ

Length: 73min 21sec (4401 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021