Be a Thermostat, not a Thermometer

[Music] all right what's up everybody welcome to i town church and part two of this series called my own worst enemy want to say hello once again to our church family in bluffton to all of our church family watching online through itownchurch.com or the mobile app and of course all the correctional facilities that are able to stream this on a mobile device all throughout the week come on sharks let's put our hands together welcome everybody today go ahead and grab something if you haven't already to take some notes with i believe god is going to speak to us as we jump into his word last week we kicked off this series with our theme verse from romans chapter 7 paul says man i know that there is nothing good in me i am my own worst enemy because i have this sin nature this earthly part of me and i want to do what is right i have a desire to live right but evil is always there undermining my own attempts to be the man god's called me to be and he comes to this conclusion man i am miserable some of you can identify with that man you're trying to live a righteous life trying to follow god and yet at the end of the day there's something in you that keeps derailing the call that god has on your life and you're saying man i'm my own worst enemy who will rescue me from this horrible cycle from this body that brings me death and the answer we see of course is in jesus christ our lord that's the theme of this series and the hope that i hope you hear today is that it's never too late to become who you might have been all of us have those self-destructive tendencies but god is bigger amen everybody he came to set us free so you can live the life he's called you to live and our whole series is based around a character study of a man named samson who lived in the old testament he was one of the judges in the old testament they were in this cycle the nation of israel where they would follow god and they'd be free and then they'd wander from him and serve other gods then they'd be oppressed by a foreign nation and then when they would cry out to god he would raise up a judge and that's what samson's role was god had called him to be a judge to free them from the rule of the philistines and so we kind of summarized his life in one sentence last week jot it down if you don't have it in your notes samson was an incredibly strong man with a dangerously weak will he was his own worst enemy he was physically incredibly strong because the nazirite vow that god had him take don't cut your hair don't drink any alcohol and then don't make yourself unclean which would be to touch dead animals dead people and set yourself aside for the lord's work as an azerite and when he did that god gave him this incredible physical strength to be a deliverer and yet we watch him in his life time and again violate who god had called him to be and the covenant that he had taken as a nazarite in fact last weekend we kicked off the whole series with these thoughts about the attitudes that you and i embrace the attitudes that samson embraced that lead us to this self-destructive behavior he walked four miles into enemy territory he saw a philistine woman that he desired that god said was off limits and he said i want it and then he reached down and touched the deadline getting honey out of the rotting carcass because he said i deserve it and then he throws this keg party at the end of the story last weekend as he's in preparation for the wedding and he drinks violating another one of the vows that he had taken telling himself i can handle it and those are the attitudes that get every one of us in trouble we see something in the world that we say man i really want that i deserve to be a part of it because i've been a good person i can handle it it's not going to derail me and time and again the devil uses that formula to cause us to fall beneath the call that god has for our lives and so today we're going to continue on with this story and find out what happens at the wedding ceremony and all the fallout of that afterwards and i just want you to know today is like a spiritual smorgasbord it's kind of like a a buffet if you will there's going to be something for everybody all right we're just going to walk verse by verse through this story and we're going to get five tips of life advice and five pieces of marriage advice as we pull truth out of this story we're gonna pick it up in verse 10 exactly where we left off last weekend remember the father is going to set up the marriage and samson throws himself this keg party the feast as was customary for the bridegrooms so i want to start this week where we left off last weekend and i don't know if you jotted it down but you need to life advice number one is that just because it's good for others doesn't mean it's good for you sampson threw this keg party because it's what everyone else did it was customary for the bridegrooms and too many times we end up falling into the temptations of culture that we're actually called to change god has called us to be a light to the world and yet it's fascinating to me as believers how many times the things in the world that we're called to correct are the very things that trip us up that happened time and again for samson and the reason why is because we tell ourselves well everybody is doing it everybody's doing it is the worst reason to do something just so you know and for far too long in america unfortunately as even the body of christ we have allowed our morality to be based on the opinions of others and the shifting sands of culture and today in the church you see people teaching heresy about god's word saying that sin is no longer sin because we've elevated or mistranslated or we kind of have a different perspective and it's all it's all good it's okay and i'm just here to tell you it's false it's alive from the pit of hell just because the world says it's okay doesn't mean it's okay god's word is god's word and we have to base our lives upon it we have to make sure that our value system and our morals are based on the unchanging truth of god's word and so just because everyone else is sleeping around just because everyone else is drinking just because everyone else is doing drugs just because everyone else gossips just because everyone else lies doesn't mean it's okay for us just because the world engages in it doesn't mean it's no longer sin or no longer has consequences and even while at times it may look like everyone else is getting away with it i promise you it's just for a season it always has its consequences sin always has a way of making you pay and so listen young people just because everybody else is doing it doesn't mean it's okay it ends up in destruction and so samson should have never drank alcohol he should have never compromised his values but he did it because it's what everyone else was doing all right on with our story verse 11. when the people saw him they chose 30 men to be his companions now i feel like that's a little overboard just if you want my commentary they're setting up a wedding party you ever been to those weddings you're like how many people do you think you know why are people still walking in to this wedding party like i think five to ten ten is kind of extravagant but 30 is off the charts like you ever been to a wedding where like 30 people stand up there like there's no way he's close to this many people he was just picking random people because she had so many friends he was just like all right you're tall yeah you're fine i remember you from third grade cool so he gets 30 guys typical man he doesn't know any of them in his wedding party because he just had to have guys and so he says let me tell you a riddle he said to them if you can give me the answer within seven days of the feast i will give you 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes but if you can you can't tell me the answer then you have to give me 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes so what samson does is what a lot of us will do we take a normal moment in life that's meant to be full of celebration and we turn it into a competition so he says hey we're just hanging out let's compete let me give you a riddle and and the thing that's really bizarre to me is he's like we're going to buy each other outfits doesn't seem appropriate for guys like we're going to buy each other some outfits so to translate it into modern day vernacular we're just going to call them jordans you owe me 30 pairs of jordans i will buy each of you a pair of jordans that makes more sense to me so because everybody who competes knows that it's really not that fun until you put some skin in the game we got to make it cost you something in order for it to be fun but here's life advice number two life isn't always a competition now i put this in the notes because i'm trying to make myself believe it i don't really believe this point to be honest with you because i love i love to compete i love to compete in everything competition is why i'm breathing air right now it is lifeblood to me i enjoy it i don't just enjoy competing i enjoy winning and winning big my goal is not to beat you my goal is to demoralize you so that you never want to compete ever again i want you to give up victory isn't victory at the end of the game victory is victory when you concede i no longer want to play the game that is what makes your pastor tick and i know that i need jesus but it's my own thing so you all know we went to florida a couple of weeks ago on vacation and we decided to drive and we had a a couple of the guys on the team their families went with us the coles and the schwanders and so we had to compete on the way down we like to race to the beach of course the coals are not really that competitive so they automatically lose they have an amazing gift of taking a 10-hour trip and making it 15 hours i don't know what their problem is but we knew they were easy easy money but the schwanders they like to compete and so our kids are like we're like hey call your friend call their daughter and see if they'll get what are you looking at right now what's going on and john told his kids if you give up our position to the summer halls you're grounded for a week because it's it's intense we like to compete it's important now we did the summer halls we did win all the way down and we won on the way back some raws rule come on somebody praise the lord yeah john walked into the parking garage at 5 30 in the morning and laughed out loud when our car was already gone of course he hid his car from us so i didn't know when they left but the kids are in the back going i really gotta pee like find a bottle we're beating the schwanders focus focus it matters doesn't matter no it does not matter but to me it really matters it matters i wonder how many of us if you're wired like me have ruined happy moments in life that should have been great and ended up not being so great because we decided to compete in something that didn't matter how many times we ruined a moment with our kids when we should have just had some light-hearted fun and we got a little upset in the competition that competitive spirit got a little fired up and we like hurt our kid or did something that our attitude our emotions come out and all of a sudden it ruins this happy moment like a wedding celebration or we mess up our marriages because instead of complementing one another and celebrating each other's victory we get competitive about it we feel somehow like we're losing if our spouse is winning man there's sometimes in life the competition really doesn't belong there and we'll see this tremendous fallout that came because samson decided to tell a riddle and put some money on it this whole thing gets sideways because he brings competition into something that probably shouldn't have had it and as much as i love to compete at everything in life the truth is there are just a few moments in life that really it's inappropriate and if we can learn that balance especially as high strung competitive people our lives will be so much richer and so much better and so we have to learn that life isn't always a competition back to our story here's the riddle samson says out of the eater something to eat out of this strong something sweet well the bible says for three days they couldn't give him the answer so on the fourth day verse 15 they said to samson's wife coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us or we will burn you and your father's household to death hello did you invite us to the party to steal our property life advice number three is don't overreact don't overreact all right when you get in competition when you get in these moments of life sometimes we have this propensity to overreact now maybe life advice number three should be don't gamble with people who are willing to shoot your family but i feel like that's a given so those of you that are dealing with loan sharks just wise up a little bit all right you don't need people disappearing so too many times we overreact you ever had that moment when you're in the heat of competition and something doesn't go your way and then you do something you're later embarrassed of you overreact now i have never overreacted in any moment of my life i've always been very calm never gotten fights with church members on the basketball court or said things i regret but i remember a long time ago we were playing golf it was like before i even met kate i was playing golf up at uh in notre dame's uh home course there and uh it's a beautiful golf course and i actually was playing pretty well that day and i hit this terrible shot with my wedge and i turned around and i went to throw my golf club at the tree that was next to me now you all know that they say trees are 80 air now all golfers know that when you hit a golf ball at a tree that never proves out it always hits something solid and falls straight to the ground but the fascinating thing is it proved to be true with a golf club so i took my golf club and i threw it at the tree just being upset and it went right through the tree and landed in the retention pond behind the tree and i had to climb into the pond because i needed that club and play the rest around in my wet underwear completely embarrassed learning the lesson that it's you look like a fool as a grown adult when you're throwing golf clubs around now it is good for the soul i will admit that just makes you feel better something about it that just like releases some tension but the truth is too many times we overreact how many of us have knocked over board games or yelled at somebody flown off the hook and just been like a little over the top of something that doesn't matter in fact the other day kate and i were talking and she was like you know i got to be honest with you i feel like you've kind of stolen a part of our our marriage because i told her at the beginning of our marriage i don't play board games i don't do it i can't do it you know why because i love to compete but i like to compete at things where if i lose it's on me like it's my fault because i like to play sports where i can play a little bit harder i can out work i can out hustle i can hit you a little harder i can try to get in your head whether it's golf or basketball whatever the physical competition is i can get in there and mix it up and then if i lose it's frustrating but at least i could give it my all in a board game it's just like that's my contribution i feel like there's something out there controlling my life and i can't handle it because now i'm going to lose and it's just not fair it's why i don't play board games don't play video games i just can't handle it i just don't like the feeling of being out of control and she's like you really need to mature in this area of your life because all my dreams of like having people over and like having game night is gone and i just feel like you've stolen that from me and i'm just appreciative of a wife who's honest with me and i just told her babe you're just gonna have to deal with it i'm not changing no i said i'll try and grow i am freakishly good at sorry she can attest to it i win sorry every time it's the only board game i'll play i could be totally behind every single person at home you could have three people all in the safe zone and i still win it's just a miracle of the lord i have a sorry anointing on my life if you'd like to come over and get beat at sorry you are welcome to outside of that no board games why because the overreaction we have this on the inside of us and sometimes we ought to dial that back a little bit and learn that there is appropriate responses in the appropriate times and we need to compose ourselves by the power of the holy spirit amen verse 16. samson's wife threw herself on him sobbing you hate me she says you don't really love me you've given my people a riddle but you haven't told me the answer marriage advice number one avoid extremes samson's getting ready to marry this girl and he has not told her the answer to his riddle and her conclusion is you hate me how many all know it's a little extreme the appropriate response may have been you know i just i i feel a little slighted i feel like you're shutting me out i don't feel like we have honest conversations i feel like there are things you're keeping from me these are all valid things she could have said to samson to develop a better relationship but the problem often time with marriages is when we feel slighted or frustrated or shut out instead of having honest conversations or that can be productive we invalidate the argument by immediately going to the always and never you always disrespect me you never come home on time you always leave your underwear on the floor you never take out the trash you're like i have never complimented you i have never taken out the trash and all these years of being married together never not one time never you've never ever ever once even once witnessed me picking up my underwear and putting them in the dirty cloak never well now obviously there's no progress to be made because walls come up because it feels like you're attacking each other and we get into these extremes and we can't actually make any progress those of you who are married need to remember there is a way to have these conversations that can be productive it's it's important for you to voice your feelings and your perspective but if you do it in an accusatory type of way like samson's wife does you hate me you obviously don't love me immediately you're gonna get the other one to shut down but if you come at it from an angle of hey this is how it made me feel and this is what i think we could work on and are you open to this dialogue then you can have an honest conversation that makes progress avoid extremes when it comes to marriage verse 16 samson responds i haven't even explained it to my father or my mother so why should i explain it to you yeah that's a problem marriage advice number two is leave and cleave everybody if you don't know what i'm talking about let me take you to genesis chapter 2 the lord creates the very first family adam and eve and he says therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh there's a miracle of oneness that takes place in marriage but that miracle can't take place until the previous step is taken you have to leave your parents to cleave to your husband or your wife and this is for somebody here today y'all got parents that are way too much up in your business now it's great for them to have wisdom for you it's great man we love when parents can help us with marriage advice and with wisdom in life but mama it's time to cut the umbilical cord all right you got to let that boy have his own marriage and his own home and his own life and i know you may not agree with how the grandkids are being raised and you need to have a voice and all of that because you care about your grandbabies but at the end of the day they've got to before god make a decision as a couple for how they're going to handle their money and how they're going to handle their marriage and how they're going to handle their wife and every one of you in here that's married is thinking i hope she or he is listening to this praise the lord that's why it's so quiet y'all like it's time you can't establish that new family until you disconnect from the previous family samson's making a huge mistake here saying my parents are more important than you are hello that is a major problem verse 17. she cried for seven days of the feast now he gave the riddle on day one they couldn't solve it for the first three days then they threatened to kill her on day four so what was she crying about on day one two and three because she cried all seven days maybe it was just because she was getting married to samson i don't know she knew he's gonna be a handful so on the seventh day he finally told her because she continued to press him marriage advice number three crying still works all the time ladies it just does crying works there's something about a man that loves you that just can't handle it and if it goes on long enough we'll be like okay fine so if you haven't gone to that well in a while ladies just remember it works it works verse 17 she in turn explained the riddle to her people marriage advice number four healthy marriages have healthy boundaries just like you need to have a separation from your parents to create a solid family unit you need to remember that that marriage covenant is sacred and you need to hold that marriage in high esteem higher than your friendships and the people around you so you not only have to disconnect from your parents but you also to some degree have to disconnect from your friends now i'm not saying that you shouldn't have friends in fact i'm encouraging you to have them and everybody needs to jump in a circle this semester because you'll be better for it what i am saying is that you have to have a place in your life if you're going to have a healthy marriage you've got to have that place of trust and safety where you know when you're the most vulnerable with your spouse that it's a safe space that you can talk about your deepest fears and your dreams and the things that you're working through in life and know that it's not going to be discussed on the golf course or in the weight room it's not going to be discussed on a phone call it's certainly not going to be blasted on facebook and instagram that it's a safe space and he she did not create a safe space for samson now samson of course we'll see next week has a problem with picking women who love to expose his deepest secrets to the world around them but we need to understand that marriage is a place where you have to sometimes keep confidences and i so appreciate kate for this our relationship is safe what we talk about together when we discuss very deep and personal things is safe and what that leads to is vulnerability and connection and intimacy in your marriage but if you're blabbing to other people to your guy friends to your girlfriends the things that you're discussing you're not creating that safety and then walls go up communication breaks down the marriage falls apart we have to make sure that we understand the things that we talk about when samson sharing these secrets with his bride-to-be that should have been kept in confidence but instead she leveraged it for what she perceived to be her own gain instead of being honest and saying hey samson they're threatening my life which should have been no problem for him because he's a big strong tough dude as we'll see in a minute instead of being honest and vulnerable about why she needed the information she just manipulated him for it and used it to her own advantage you start doing that in your marriage and it'll fall apart it'll crumble immediately and so we need to understand open honest communication that's safe is the foundation of great marriage verse 18. so before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion of course his riddle was about that lion that he killed that had the bees inside where he ate the honey from it and you can watch that on last weekend's message if you missed it and so samson replies in verse 18 if you had not plowed with my heifer you would not have solved my riddle marriage advice number five hopefully should be obvious never under any circumstance call your wife your heifer if you had not plowed with my heifer now i get it samson's frustrated he's been exposed he's probably embarrassed he's probably even angry at his bride-to-be but with all joking aside besides the fact that samson is an absolute pig we have to understand the principle here that there are moments that we get frustrated there are moments that we get angry and the bible says life and death is in the power of the tongue and the world says sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me well the reality is the deepest wound of every person here likely is tied to toxic words that have been spoken over your life and so we need to understand in marriage it's supposed to be that safe space that we are talking about and when frustration happens in marriage as it will when fights happen when moments of disappointment or frustration happen you know the deepest darkest secrets the the greatest vulnerabilities the greatest points of weakness of your spouse how dare you use your words to tear them down and hit them the hardest where they would hurt the most just because you know them closest of anybody else and samson is using his words in public to tear down his bride because he's mad at her how many times have we had those moments where we think i'm going to tell you what i really think and you you have all these things that you want to say i'm just saying if you have said it praise god that jesus is the one that heals broken-hearted people but it will be a miracle to erase those things from a person's heart if you have the opportunity not to say it hold your tongue because james says you can light your whole life on fire with the words that you speak don't ever say those toxic things over your spouse because you can damage their identity their confidence their reality in ways that may be irreparable for your marriage if you don't turn to jesus if we can avoid it why not avoid it have your moment go outside into the trees go sit in your car tell god exactly what you're thinking because he'll forgive you and he'll handle it but don't speak those words over your spouse don't in a moment of anger say what you really think because you'll regret it and i can't tell you how many times and and thankfully it's not a ton but there's been a handful of times in my marriage that there are things i wish that i could take back moments i wish i could have gone back and said something different because i didn't really mean what i said and it created pain and i know all of us are the same listen if you're newly married avoid the pain that comes from a loose tongue because it will save your marriage it'll save your life don't speak those words over your spouse don't speak those words over your kids don't speak those words over your friends no matter how frustrated you are tame your tongue verse 19 the spirit of the lord came powerfully upon samson and he goes down to ashkelon a philistine city and he struck down 30 of their men stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle so just keep in mind he started with a riddle now 30 people are dead burning with anger the bible says he returned to his father's home now samson is mad at the world but i want to rewind for a moment and let's think about logically why he's mad because samson was the one who wandered into enemy territory samson was the one who demanded to marry a girl that god said was off limits samson was the one who violated god's law and ate honey out of a rotting carcass of a lion samson was the one who had the idea to give a riddle samson was the one who set the wager at 30 different garments samson was the one who had the secret samson was the one who exposed that secret to his bride everything samson is mad about is samson's doing i wonder how many of us here today are mad at the world for things that we refuse to take responsibility for in our own lives yeah some of you are like oh that stinks he's right do you hate it when god's word is true sometimes it's pretty painful we wake up every morning mad at our boss and matt at our job when the fact is we haven't put out a resume we're the ones that dropped out of college we're the ones that are settling for less we're mad at our spouse because we feel like they're not meeting any of our needs but when's the last time you stepped out to meet their needs we're mad because we feel like we're drowning in a sea of debt but we're the ones that haven't shut off the credit card listen angry softball guy it's time to disown up to the fact that you weren't good enough for the big leagues and it's why you're playing men's softball it just is what it is brother if you were good enough they'd have found you sometimes we just have to own up to the fact that the things that we're mad about are things of our own doing and we have to understand the rage that rises up on the inside of us but the thing that's fascinating about the anger that samson had is that his anger actually became a righteous anger because god had called him to be a deliverer from the philistines but instead he fell in love with them and so he was way outside the call of god even in the entire story trying to marry this girl in the first place and so for once in his life he actually becomes angry about something that he is called to solve and he gets inside of god's will and there's a difference let me show it to you life advice number four jot it down is that we need to learn how to control our emotions instead of letting our emotions control us i'll show you the difference ephesians chapter 4 verse 26 says it this way in your anger do not sin which means it's possibly to be angry but not sin there can be a righteous anger it says do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold what that's saying is if you're allowing your emotions to control you then it literally happens from sun up to sun down you're stewing over it you're fuming about it and when you do that you're giving the devil what the bible calls a foothold that greek word is topos or place of influence place of authority when we're allowing our emotions to control us we're throwing golf clubs we're yelling at the world we're doing things that make us feel and look foolish taking ourselves outside of the call that god has for our lives but there is an anger that will fuel your calling and your destiny just like samson i've shared many times about my anger for religious environments that shuts out people that are searching for god that makes people feel unworthy and unwanted and so we have this passion here at i town to continue reaching lost people because that anger that burns on the inside of me it's a righteous anger we have huge foster care ministry and direct implications in our own personal family because kate's anger towards those that are in danger those children that are orphans those that are unloved and unwanted there's a righteous anger on the inside of her that those children would be taken advantage of and not reach their full potential it drives many of the outreaches and ministries of our church your anger can be fueled for good things if you'll channel it in the right direction for samson he's finally on the right path so in his anger he goes and he gets these outfits and he goes back but see the problem is that's not always sustainable so the anger subsides and he gets back into the same old pattern the same old sin we're going here next weekend talking about how many of us will do that he grows likes again and he goes back to the father's house in the philistine territory says i want my wife that girl i was gonna marry and the guy says the the father says man i can't give her to you i married her to somebody else at the wedding incidentally that's why they put us all in the same tux guys it's a safety mechanism for the bride if the groom bails which samson did he took off and killed a bunch of people everybody just takes one step over continue the ceremony that's why they don't say do you take dave to be your husband they say do you take this man here's one they're all the same do you take him that bride was ready to go samson's slot got filled and so now samson is even more enraged again he gets back to where god is called him to be and he goes and catches 300 foxes he ties their tails together and lights them on fire and lets them go in the field and destroys all the crops for the philistines and then the philistines respond by burning this poor girl and her family to death like they promised they would sampson responds by picking up a jawbone of a donkey and killing a thousand people that is a bad dude how many all know like chuck norris can take on two or three dudes at once an avenger maybe five or six but come on a thousand people at one time and your weapon is the jawbone of a donkey samson is a strong bad fighting machine stepping finally because of this holy anger into the role that god had called him to be in doing what god had called him to do to set the nation of israel free but the bible says in verse 18 after this victory he was very thirsty he cries out to the lord you have given your servant this incredible victory but now do i have to die of thirst am i going to be given into the hands of the uncircumcised and god opened up this hollow place and water came out of it and samson drank that water and his strength returned and he revived you see the reality is every single one of us here today no matter what the condition of your life single married frustrated all of us are thirsty probably not physically thirsty but we're thirsty for affirmation we're thirsty for significance we're thirsty for safety we have needs in our lives just as samson did and what we see developing in samson's life and in his heart is he finally finds the call that god has for him he's finally channeled in the right direction and in that moment of thirst he cries out to god see i think our thirst can drive us to god or it can drive us from god either drives us far into philistine territory into the world that we're actually called to change and we look to it to meet our needs and i'm just telling you if you do that you'll never be satisfied but if you'll let that thirst drive you to god he'll open up those rivers of water the living water the presence of god the spirit of god that will minister to your soul it's the only thing that can restore and revive your thirsty soul so my question for you or the last piece of life advice is you need to know where your thirst is driving you where is that thirst driving you today is it driving you to god as it did samson now he's stepped into the call of deliver and he sets off 20 years of complete peace in the nation of israel because he's finally accepted his role are you looking to the things of this world with every head bowed in every eye closed i want you to examine your heart for a minute because i want to pray that god would use that thirst in your soul to drive you to him he does have a call for your life you've called you've been called to be a deliverer for the people around you the people in your world but you have to channel that strength appropriately you have to let your need drive you to god some of you here today have allowed it to drive you from him you've looked to the world to satisfy the longing in your heart and today you know it only leaves you brokenness and pain i want you to know that god's not mad at you for that he loves you more than you could possibly imagine he wants to restore your soul help you be the person he's called you to be if you'll just simply surrender to him we can do that in a simple prayer together i'm not going to make you stand not going to have you come to the front i just want to connect you with jesus right where you're at if that's you today would you take one bold step of faith just to slip your hand up high today for just a moment to say dave that's me i need jesus come on right now just put your hand up high say count me in yeah that's incredible all across the room i'm so proud of you i've been bluffed and i'm proud of you at all the correctional facilities those watching online i'm proud of you put your hands down here's what we'll do i'm going to lead you in a simple prayer you can pray it quietly in your heart you just need to mean it just say lord jesus forgive me today i repent of all of my sin for all the things that i have pursued in this life today i surrender to you i need your spirit i need your presence come and fill me today satisfy the longing in my soul refresh me and restore me then just tell him god i give you my life i give you my life in jesus name father i'm so thankful for every person here so thankful for your word thank you that it speaks to the everyday issues and pressures of life thank you for the wisdom that it gives us for marriage god i pray that you would help us to put these principles in place this week god i pray that you would help our righteous anger fuel us to be the deliverers that you have called us to be to truly make a difference and god we thank you that our thirsty souls would drive us continually to your presence we declare today our complete dependency upon you god we cannot live this life without you we love you today in jesus name we pray and all god's people said amen amen come on church would you celebrate with those who prayed that prayer today [Applause] [Music] thank you so much for joining i town church online today we would love to have the chance to meet you and your family in person at one of our campuses or of course you can join us streaming live online this weekend now for more details about times and locations and even some of our streaming options you can go to itownchurch.com i sure hope to see you soon and god bless [Music]

Channel: ITOWN Church

Views: 561

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: PvxoxIn5n38

Length: 39min 56sec (2396 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021