Marriage, Divorce and Singleness (2021-10-03)

to [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning city sanctuary why don't you stand to your feet in this place as we honor the lord [Music] you come at the right time [Music] so why should i be surprised [Music] you say [Music] that i will see the goodness [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] is [Music] you write my story you hold it all together [Music] you write my story [Music] [Applause] [Music] hold god all together [Music] [Applause] [Music] we testify [Music] you write my story cause you hold it all together [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in this place [Music] [Applause] testify cause you hold it all together when things falling apart you hold it again [Music] i will see the goodness of the lord [Music] [Music] your faithfulness [Music] [Music] come on just lift up your hands to this place one more time just follow the lord saying lord your words and to be praised can we just sing that chorus again i believe and i believe that i will see the goodness of the lord i'm confident [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] your faithfulness [Music] oh we serve an awesome god amen for he's true he's faithful he answers every one of his promises we just thank you lord that we can just submit ourselves under your authority to give you worship and to give you praise even in this place today in everything that we say and do let it be pleasing unto you in the name of our lord [Music] we're creation suddenly articulate [Music] cries [Music] let's see together [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] me [Music] if [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] for there is no one greater than you and we submit ourselves fully under your authority so our [Music] is [Music] glory with all the angels [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] oh christ be back to finding me oh christ being magnified let its praise arise christ be magnified in me christ [Music] oh god [Music] bless your name jesus christ be magnified [Music] christ be magnified [Music] bless your name jesus [Music] let's have a meal and let me reveal who i am i'm your savior cause i will kneel down wash all the sin from your soul [Music] so let my light give you life [Music] i sustain it is [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] my [Music] [Applause] i am [Music] we cry [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] highway [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i am [Music] worthy [Music] we cry [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] let's is [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] you're there oh jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm thankful for [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're glad you're forgiven come on and worship him he's worthy today oh hallelujah come on and praise him you're worthy lord oh you're worthy to receive our glory you're worthy to receive all honor all praise and thanksgiving hallelujah [Music] worthy lord [Music] so worthy lord your worthy lord we praise you lord we adore you lord we bow down we worship you're so worthy lord so worthy lord so worthy lord your alpha [Music] [Applause] [Music] we adore you now before you give praise and adore you hallelujah [Music] let's hallelujah him let's bow down before him oh hallelujah hallelujah he saved us oh yes he's holy he's righteous omnipotence of bishop the almighty he is jehovah yeshua our savior hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah glory glory glory glory holy holy holy holy holy [Music] oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah amen oh praise him in this house give him an ovation to pray hallelujah come on and shout unto the lord avoid the triumph clap your hands all your people rejoice in him he is worthy he is worthy [Music] he's so worthy you see all you need is his presence psalm 22 and verse 3 talks about how that he inhabits the praises of israel or his people hallelujah he said well pastor you're kind of fanatical well i am fanatic about jesus i'm fanatic about his salvation i'm fanatic about his abundant life i'm fanatic about his sacrifice a fanatic about his power his authority psalm 27 13 of the songs they sang i want you now to understand he said there unless [Music] i would have believed that i would see the goodness of god in my lifetime my foot would have slipped i would have fainted i would have fallen out [Music] but he said that the lord blesses the next verse he blesses his people with strength the lord blesses his people with peace because they believe they believe god is good and that god is going to bring and work all things together for our good in our lifetime oh i believe him i praise him oh hallelujah hallelujah oh and praise him i believe the lord let face arrive let healing arise let deliveries come let joy re-emerge in jesus name oh hallelujah devil we defeat you we rebuke you we find you we put you under our feet in jesus name and lord we praise you for victory over all evil today oh come on we praise him we praise him we praise him we praise him we praise him we praise him amen oh yes one more time we praise him we praise him we praise him we praise him we praise him we praise him amen hallelujah give him a praise today in this house oh hallelujah praise you lord you're worthy you've redeemed us from every kinder pride national tongue you're worthy to receive glory honor richard powers strength you are worthy of lord today oh hallelujah hallelujah [Music] hallelujah hallelujah spirit says let the people praise me amen let the people praise me oh lyn would you praise him one more time give him a praise that come on praise him all your people one more time don't get tired don't get tired he's worthy he's worthy go love the lord with all your strength today love him with all your heart today your mind your soul amen and amen praise god well you might be reseeded if you can we're going to go from praise to intimacy we've come through the outer court where judah is a tribe of judah we come in with praise come past the brazen altar and the laver we come to the holy place where there's the word of god the menorah the lamp of the spirit and the altar of incense and then we go into the holy of holies which is communion you see he gives us communion because it is only in absorbing him it's only in absorbing him you see superficiality in religion won't get you far i'm just going to tell you this is free this is friend to friend i want to tell you if you want your life changed it is intimacy with christ that changes it anybody that's an intimate lover of jesus out there today amen amen well don't clap your hands you might put grape juice on somebody's good clothes jesus said in luke 22 14 that i just love this rendition i read the most from luke's gospel account of this because it has these two passion words in it and it's in the king james it's earnestly and desire there's two words that both mean virtually the same thing i have with great desire or with desire desire i am really desired to eat this passover meal with you now just when it when he says do this in remembrance of me remembrance in the hebrew is reenactment so just imagine jesus sitting in front of you close your eyes if you need to just imagine jesus giving you the bread [Music] saying daughter son take this this is my body i want you to absorb it my victory my life i want you to put it into yourself [Music] he said i earnestly desire to eat this passover with you before i suffer and i will never eat it again until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of god with you when he had taken the bread and gave thanks he broke it and he gave it to them and said this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me take the bread thank you lord thank you [Music] [Music] they help us to remember holy spirit reenact it for us reenact it in our hearts right now be reenacted help us to remember the passion of god of jesus in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten and he said this this cup is poured out for you it is the new covenant in my blood as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you show forth my passion my death until i return again would you take blood the cup thank you for the forgiveness of my sins thank you that we overcome the dragon by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony for who shall lay any charge to god's elect it is god who justifies his god who purifies for he has made us redemption and sanctification [Music] thank you lord that we stand complete in you thank you lord we can do nothing to earn our salvation but as nahum said salvation is from the lord 100 by grace are we saved through faith and nothing of ourselves lest any of us should boast so today we will worship the lamb we will worship him and we will exalt his blood but you say oh the blood let's sing it [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] thank you so much [Music] this morning i want to give an invitation for salvation [Music] psychologists say that most mental health is due to regret shame [Music] and that therapy cannot hold a candle to religion and what religion does of course we know the gospel it does for people to be free from guilt and shame and regret and i tell you that forgiveness in the old testament was covering atonement means to cover 100 times but in the new testament we have a better covenant salvation means to wipe away or wash away all of your sin god will not remember our sin that we confess and repent of and be washed away somebody here either online or somebody that is here today needs to ask for god's forgiveness maybe you need to ask him into your heart for the first time maybe you knew him younger in your life but you have strayed away i want to tell you that he knows that you are in torment of something in the past some kind of shame of the present and he wants to give you the blood to forgive you and wash away all of it and free you from that today says your bowel please no one looking around you say pastor i that's me i want to give my heart to him i want to have the blood forgive me i want to oh devil you are a liar you will not keep them in bondage anymore in jesus name they are going to be free right now in the name of christ there's a battle for your soul there's a battle for you there's a battle to control your emotions and control your life and your trajectory but jesus wants to set you free today don't put him off you know he's knocking at your heart you know your heart's beating fast you know that's the spirit of god is working with you now is your time so i'm going to ask you if you want to either be saved you want to get right with god you want to get that forgiveness you need from christ i want you just to raise up your hand hold it up raise up your hand hold it up raise your hand god bless you sister god bless you sister god bless you sister amen god bless you sister god bless you brother god bless you today god bless you today god bless you today amen thank you jesus the devil your power is broken today in the name of jesus we will not live under bondage you will not live under that [Music] so everyone pray with these that raise your hand just pray this prayer out loud if you would please lord jesus thank you you've called for me today the devil is a liar and i have the victory over him through you today i confess my sin [Music] i repent and turn from it forgive me now wash all of it away [Music] [Applause] i receive complete forgiveness i receive complete freedom [Music] i am no longer under bondage to guilt or shame or regret thank you for setting me free help me to live in the joy of the lord and help me to live for you all the days of my life amen and amen now we give god a praise always thank you lord i praise you lord i thank you lord i'm forgiven i'm forgiven [Music] i'm free i'm free thank god i'm free i'm free i'm free and free i'm free get behind me saying i'm free thank god i'm free i'm free and free hallelujah hallelujah thank you jesus thank you jesus i'm free and free and free and free so free and free and free hallelujah hallelujah oh there's worship in the house today for jesus there's worship in the house for jesus today oh we worship you jesus thank you lord we give you praise amen and amen amen if you meant that prayer today then there's a card somewhere in the pockets the seats in front of you please pull one of those cards out and defeat the enemy testify put your name down so you got free today in christ and be sure and drop it at our guest point so we can rejoice and also follow up with you god is so good well praise god i feel like i feel like going home i think i'm done i think this is good it's been great god bless you but let's uh i think we want to try to stay connected but you know the drill go on the city sanctuary app and it's time to worship the lord with giving so be sure and know that you should do that right now and in honor of him and give him the first fruits first corinthians 16 verses 1 2. on the first day of the week set aside first fruits as each one has been prospered and to worship the lord with that tithe and offering father we thank you for giving to us we praise you today's been glorious may christ be magnified in us uh we surrender lord we surrender [Music] may christ be magnified glorified in us and through us may we be crucified with christ and the less live yet not us but christ live in us the life that we live may we live it by faith in the son of god who loved us and gave himself for us christ be magnified be magnified in us jesus christ thank you holy spirit thank you god [Music] we worship you thank you spirit of god lift up your head my people and rejoice do not be downcast but lift up your head and be glad for i am the lord your savior for i am the lord your redeemer and i say unto you this day that i have bought you with a great price now glorify me in your body indeed let my life be glorified through yours i speak to you this day you would not be downcast but be lifted up for the lord's love is upon you be let christ be magnified in you says the spirit of the lord amen and amen praise god and i thank you for the holy god amen you know i was sensing all along sensing all along that christ wanted this that the spirit of god wanted to speak and it's about intimacy it's about intimacy this is what christ wants he wants to have an intimate relationship with us do you feel him in this place do you sense him beloved this is my desire that we all draw close to him and that christ be magnified in us some people don't understand about tongues and interpretation of tongues and prophecy and the three speaking gifts first corinthians 12. those nine gifts in first corinthians 12 the gifts of the spirit are simply to replicate the ministry of jesus on the earth that he has sent another comforter and so when jesus was here he had gifts of speaking he had gifts of healing miracles all these are gifts and his gifts of speaking or prophecy tongues interpretation of tongues interpretation of tongues is not a translation a translation is you say well you know the tongue was longer than the interpretation or yeah it's because not a translation it's an interpretation all of it tongues is to get your attention that god's in the room read first corinthians 14. and once he's got your attention then you have to test the spirit when the word comes forth is that set to testify my heart that's from the lord sometimes it's like the last phrase of that prophetic interpretation sometimes humans get their minds mixed up people aren't perfect sometimes we stumble sometimes people don't obey the spirit don't even give it right let me tell you the gifts are to replicate jesus is with you that's the point i knew he was here and i knew he wanted to testify so would you one more time just magnify him [Music] lord i thank you for encouraging us not to be downcast but to lift up our heads because you have redeemed us and you do love us so we give you praise today we thank you lord that you are among us come on somebody thank you that we can sense you not only in us but among us today so christ be magnified in us and may we always have the intimacy that you desire in jesus name and everybody said amen amen well we're going to have a rude awakening now we're going to go to the announcements prepare yourself hey good morning city sanctuary family let's take a couple of minutes to make sure you're staying connected this week candyland fall festival is only a couple of weeks away and we are still looking for a few more volunteers to get plugged in and help us pull off this amazing event if you could volunteer email us at volunteer at citysanctuary.church let us know and someone will get right back with you to fill you in and plug you in to one of the positions that are available we're also taking candy donations and you can drop those off in the main lobby but more importantly this is a time to invite people to come on out to a christ-centered event here at the city sanctuary it's going to be a great time for all of the family and it's an easy way to invite someone to come and experience and hear the saving message of jesus christ so candy landfall festival and family blitz october 16th volunteers and invitations and you can register right on our website today hey as a reminder our global bridegroom fast is happening this monday and tuesday you can take a look at your staying connected for special areas of prayer emphasis as well as the gathering times but take some time monday and tuesday join other believers across the globe asking the holy spirit to be released everywhere and in every situation hey you don't want to miss this opportunity for our family worship day october 24th we have special guests the schultz family who will be with us here in both of our services justin lee schultz is a 13 year old piano prodigy and he's in a band with his sister and his dad and you don't want to miss this day in october to bring your entire family together to worship so they'll be here both services october 24th invite your friends and make sure your family is here we look forward to sharing this time with you if you have been wanting to become a member here at the city sanctuary church november 14th is membership sunday and we have a special membership meeting on october 24th at 5 p.m so make sure you sign up for that you can do so right from our app or from our website we're giving the church a call let us know you want to become a member again the membership meeting is october 24th at 5 p.m and then our membership sunday is november 14th all right lots of good stuff and uh pastor james and pastor peter marcus have had birthdays this past week so happy birthday to both of those pastors where yeah i give them a big god bless and uh we had our children's pastor candidate come on friday night and the number turned out that was good uh he'll be doing the children's church on october the 16th excuse me 17th on sunday after candyland so parents grandparents have your kids here we're continuing our series on you asked for it but in october it's going to be about the family now again next month next month next week i'm just out of it i don't just come back up and play at 12 15. so no matter where i'm at we'll just uh get send these good people home uh and so uh next week we'll be talking about the bible and lgbtq so please uh i would suggest you don't bring young children in if they're here not that we're going to be grossly engaged in some things that would horrify everybody but we are going to have to deal with things that are in our culture and so we're going to do that with truth and grace next week today is about marriage divorce and singleness aren't you glad the lord moved today so he won't be here long isn't that great [Music] you guys are going to have to learn to be happy sometime don't wait till you get to heaven all right first corinthians chapter seven uh if you haven't read that in a while that's a pack full of good stuff in there so let me just say now concerning things about what you wrote me it's good for a man not to touch a woman but because of sexual immorality each man should have his own wife each woman to have her own husband the husband will fulfill his duties wife and wife the husband but i say to the unmarried and the widows that's good for them says good for them to remain as i which he was single but if they do not have self-control let them marry it's better to marry than burn with passion but to the married i give instructions not i but the lord that the wife excuse me that the wife is not to leave her husband but if she is if she does leave she's remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband and that the husband is not to divorce his wife so for some you know today this may conjure up guilt feelings or condemnation and i didn't go through anything i went through previously because of any of that uh we're about going forward here folks uh whatever happened in the past you know we can't change it can't we you are locking down on me already um thank you amy for a minute we're talking about moving forward okay we're not here to bring any condemnation on anybody we're gonna bring the love of christ and just to deal with some issues and and hopefully we'll do that with the grace of the lord father we thank you for them service today thank you for your presence just let us take this presence with us as we go in jesus name amen so the context paul wrote to corinth corinth was like san francisco or las vegas it was a pretty sensual city about 650 000 wealthy city and uh it had 12 temples one of them was aphrodite the goddess of love a thousand prostitutes at that temple so this uh saying in corinth was to corinthianize somebody was to really uh make them promiscuous so they had a reputation but there was a church there so the church had questions how do i deal with human sexuality living in las vegas or san francisco so basically uh many of them would uh mimic this whole time magazine article who needs marriage right that marriage was uh really uh maybe uh not on the decline but it was promiscuous uh with again lots of uh invitations for uh sexuality to be uh out of bounds this guy josh duggar you might remember from 19 kids in counting he was the youngest kid on the duggar program and he was put as a family research council executive director for promoting family issues so it was as you know that he was not only found to have uh sexually abused many young girls but also four of his five sisters and also uh he was found on the list from ashley madison which was a website designed for married people hookups for adultery 40 million people in the scam that came out 40 million americans were on this ashley madison website that was expressive for married people to try to find an adulterous affair i just want you to think about that for a minute 40 million americans were on that website sometimes we may in church be like josh duggar we we have a religious pretense or a game day face but we really are struggling with some some sexual temptations that are getting the best of our victory in our spiritual life marriage and our culture is is built on romance uh you might be interested to know that uh it was not until 1896 that the whole dating culture began to emerge with marriage for that it was mostly family-arranged marriages and uh it was um kind of the you know you come over and into the parlor maybe you can see uh our daughter among all of us watching you with eagle eyes for a few minutes before you marry 1896 though dating became popularized in fact in 1900 you could be arrested for taking a woman out giving her something to eat and buying her some kind of gift because it was thought that she would be a prostitute so makeup came uh big uh after the 1900 after 1900 because makeup was used by prostitutes to make themselves up to look appealing not that makeup's bad i'm not preaching against makeup you know god forgive me and nobody rushed the stage right i'm just saying that hollywood has taken this and run with it so now people are spending thousands of dollars on weddings on trophy weddings and and they're basically also this whole dating culture has gone nuts where people are going uh looking for some something that's spectacular some something that maybe is not even realistic some kind of fantasy that hollywood made us think that we could all have also it it's sometimes our culture says that marriage is made for our happiness which again uh happiness is not mentioned in the genesis account of marriage but it is generally assumed that marriage would be something that would be satisfying but marriage in our day is all about maybe a license to have sexual freedom to exploit someone or to lift up our social standing that we married up and we can prove that we're success because of who's on our arm as we escort them and it's really for all of my happiness i mean it's like we want somebody who's emotionally attentive to us but we may not want them to be mostly needy for us we don't want to mess with their stuff we want to we may want someone that's always attractive but yet we want to let ourselves go we may want somebody who is making lots of money to support us but we don't want to work or contribute but it's all about my happiness after all right number three there is sometimes an agreement between two people under the sovereignty of self the sovereignty of self instead of the sovereignty of christ covenant marriage is where you submit to christ the third part of your marriage and you say he's sovereign he tells us how to live treat each other reconcile how to live in his will and his work but marriage in our culture is more about sovereignty of the self some people don't even get married sometimes it's uh you know a cohabitation sometimes it's just uh a lifestyle from us promiscuity sometimes it is a uh a situation where we are uh trying to postpone marriage maybe it's just like ephesians chapter five we talked about don't let there be any hint of sexual immorality or which is the same words used in our text or of impurity or of covetousness because back in those days you know money was affected in all the relationships that going on as well marriage in the bible is known as a covenant it's known as a blood covenant everything with god is covenantal so a blood covenant started in the exodus excuse me i keep going to exodus genesis chapter 17 verse 13. where the male is brought in the blood covenant of god through the right of circumcision shedding the blood and his genital is bringing in the blood covenant god then upon conjugation on his wedding night with his wife uh the breaking of the hymen and her causes there are many times to be a blood uh shed as well so bringing her and him and blood covenant with each other and then the two of them are in blood covenant together with god this is how god sees it and the covenant in the old testament shows like the covenant new testament that there has to be a real seriousness of a life commitment with blood or if you don't keep the covenant then there is possibly a loss of your life because you didn't keep the covenant so marriage in the bible is supposed to be until death do us part we know secondly that it is a picture of salvation a picture of salvation is from the wedding uh in genesis chapter two to the wedding in genesis or revelation 19. the central metaphor of our relationship with god is that of a marriage he's the husband in the old testament he's a bridegroom in the new testament it depicts the most intimate of relationships that we are to have with god so it is it is a picture of that salvation number three it centers on our responsibilities not our rights in genesis 2 23 24 the lord says that for this reason a man will leave his father mother and cleave to his wife so it is a leaving so why would we leave everyone else only to leave the person that we we left everybody for and cleave why would we distribute the cleaving we had for one to everybody else it is a responsibility that we are going to with a covenant we made we're going to fulfill our responsibilities why does it matter why does marriage and who i marry and who i sleep with matter to god i'm glad you asked the question because what we see is that each christian marriage preaches the gospel to the world each christian marriage preaches the gospel to the world how is that well god has unconditional love for us right can you say it i heard a few amens got i'm looking for raymonds wherever i can get them because i know i probably get a lot so god loves us unconditionally all right and so we are also to love each other unconditionally see how it connected those two dots we look at reconciliation that he has given to us the ministry of reconciliation so we should be reconcilers in our families amen good preaching thank you very much so we look at how each christian marriage testifies to that if we don't keep that then it's not testifying those things that god wants us to testify we will never reach maturity without keeping our commitments we'll never reach maturity without keeping our commitment one of the signs of adults is responsibility right that we're able to be responsible if we say we're going to do something that we do it and so when we look at our just just eternal adolescence where we're we are afraid of commitment or we make a commitment and then we break the commitment and we're basically setting a bad uh a bad precedent for all of our life that we break down our entire society if we can't keep our most intimate and sacred vows in a marriage then how can we say we're going to not cheat our employer or cheat our taxes or cheat uh time in school or cheat on school exams or you know if we're going to cheat there then it breaks down everything and no there's an integrity crisis in our nation because nobody wants to keep their commitments that's why the lawyers rule our lamb because all then if you you won't keep your commitment then we're going to sue you so now we've seen the breakdown from the marriage commitment to all the other parts of our life we look at real love as demonstrated through time and sacrifice not just sex and superficiality and as we look at covenant marriage we have to say to ourselves that just like that the lord betrothed israel and has he's betrothed us and there we took a communion meal as a sign of what we're going to have in the wedding supper of the lamb one day and he promises to work on us from the time that we're saved until we see him again obviously he's got a lot of committed love for us right how many of you are perfect huh this is like yeah thank you i saw it on him that's all i had right here and so we understand that god has made a commitment to us even though we aren't the perfect spouse right for him we're not the perfect uh a person in relationship but he has committed his love to us and understanding that we are not going to be perfect until we see him but he's going to keep on loving us and working on us so many times in marriage we don't understand the phases there's the honeymoon phase there's the the period of disillusionment where you know there's some disillusionment then there's a period of misery hallelujah i mean just don't raise your hand during the period of misery and then there's a period of true awakening where we awaken ourselves think you know what the grass is not green on the other side of fence everybody's got problems right and so you know i just need to work through my masterpiece how maybe a masterpiece is not done in a day right a masterpiece takes some time to make this may sound really great but you know it's tough it's not easy sometimes to work through the idiosyncrasies work through the sinful behavior we have as christians our own areas of disobedience that do not conform to god's will so therefore it's tough for for us sometimes that patience with each other but again true love is demonstrated in god for us and that's the testimony of a christian marriage to the world that we are staying in that to again take care of these things now i know there's a thousand different individual circumstances i'm not here to address the individual i'm here to give you the general teaching all right so we look at divorces destroying our culture look at how divorce is destroying our culture this is not to make anyone feel bad that has had a divorce it is basically to talk about even from a sociological perspective how that the breakdown of the family uh does not enable us to keep progressing even as a society how do you mean that first of all you cannot reproduce in chaos right you have to have a a calm base in order for even reproduction when you find uh cement tremendous split ups happening over and over again that doesn't enable first of all the birth rate you know america's birth rate keeps falling we only have only 1.7 birth rate right now which you know proves that we're going to be overtaken and by many other countries that have a a greater birth rate than we do so we look at the chaos well all the families no wonder we only have 1.7 kids and you decide who the 0.7 kid is in your household but you know we we have all this chaos with all this divorce so it's impossible to reproduce so it is as a christian family it's impossible for you to reproduce disciples if in fact you cannot have a uh orderly home base if you're you and your husband or you and your wife are always fighting you're always in chaos it's always a bickering it's always a problem then guess what it's really hard to reproduce christ and disciple your kids because there is all this chaos in your married life so again we have to understand that it is a destructive force we must also provide a great example for the world what we see when paul talks about hey i also want to say to those that are they they were they got married secular but one of you got saved should you stay with that husband or wife yes he said stay with them because you sanctify you sanctify the home the old testament principle was if you touched anything unclean then you became unclean but the new testament principle is that christ when he's in you whatever you touch becomes clean so he says if you're born again you have christ in you then whatever you touch if you're in the home you you you make that house clean you bless that house because i'm in you and nothing can overcome me right so you bless that house so believers stay with that unbeliever if they're willing to let you stay because of your faith and bless that household this is radical stuff and it's radical because only god's power can accomplish it right that's why we look at this whole thing about creating a great example for the world that is that the christian marriage the covenant marriage is a uh let me say a a a counter-cultural um stand on marriage that is the culture doesn't as now as you can tell by the things the supreme court's put in online and we'll talk about that next next week all these things are changing the cultural norms of what our our supreme court is defining marriage as so as a counter-culture what's the witness the witness is you need to have the best marriage possible if you're married or you're going to get married sometime you need to have an incredible marriage you say well you don't know who i'm married to pastor hard to do that by myself well let me tell you by yourself you can be a redeemer you can be a reconciler you can be someone that says i am not going to make the crazy choice to just fall into the world's heavens i'm going to make the crazy for christ's choice to be the redeemer in my marriage and i am going to love like christ's love i'm going to forgive i'm going to be that kind person i'm going to try to make it as best as it can be with the power of jesus christ in me i guarantee you people in the world after they have the hookups the hot this the hot that that they're going to file see that fall down to the ground because pleasure and sin only has a season then the reality that this is not satisfying comes to the forefront then the brokenness of that other person their relationship comes to the forefront they are going to be looking for somebody that says they're a christian who has a vibrant relationship with god and a vibrant family life and they're going to say tell me what your secret is tell me how i can have that in my life and all i can say christ be magnified in me lord what no matter what's happened in the past forgive that forget help us get past that but god help us to move forward in the power of your love and may our family reflect the love of god to everyone who sees it now it's a good time to clap let's praise god for that amen love is tough right something is fine so we got kids five to seven who are going to be our experts today here's glenn age seven wise guy at seven if falling in love is anything like learning to spell i don't want to do it it takes too long i got you glenn we hear you bud angie age 10 has already been scarred by the world she says most men are brainless so you might have to try more than one to find a live one not sure what her family looks like here's tom age five kindergartner he says once i'm done with kindergarten i'm gonna find me a wife that's right you must have an awesome mom that's all i gotta say and then there's mike age 10 on the first date they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go out on a second date mike you're wise to the world bud you are certainly street wise kenny age seven it gives me a headache to think about that stuff i'm just a kid i don't need that kind of trouble [Applause] well said so we're talking about marriage and divorce now we're going to talk about being single and pastor james coming up in five minutes so you only have five minutes to endure there's another five minutes after the music starts you know how it goes so paul addresses singleness too and uh he says the media well he didn't say sorry the stats today say the median age for marriages uh rose to 29.5 for men and 27.4 for women that is that people are postponing marriage right the average age that men get married is 29.5 years of age and women 27.4 that by the time today's young adults are 50 years of age a fourth of them will have been single all their life and that for the first time in american history there are more singles in america than married people so if you're single you say hey take that huh seismic shifts why is there more single people well sometimes removal of sexual taboos you know sometimes it's been because the morality was stronger years ago that people wanted to be more moral so they knew that to fulfill their sexual ambitions they'd have to get married but now since sexual revolution in the 60s and so forth those have been removed two more couples are living together outside of marriage 59 are cohabitating instead of marrying young adults are postponing marriage which we just said what does the bible say about singles glad you asked that question too the bible affirms singleness so you're not saved single and second class is this mic on you were not saved single and second class guess who was single jesus was single yeah you say well he was uh he was god he could handle all the pressures oh that's docetism that's a heresy that he was 100 man like 100 god he had to be 100 man in order to endure all the temptations that we go through in order to help us so jesus was single paul was single right the apostle paul said first corinthians 7 8 is better if you remain single like i am right but why did paul say that you have to think about what we see in the bible is that paul from corinthians chapter 12 he went up to paradise had his vision of god he had this tremendous vision of heaven he had this he heard things spoken there he couldn't even repeat he had this vision that caused him many theologians believe to want to live just unto the lord because remember marriage is temporary that uh according to matthew 22 30 that we will not be married in heaven so that's uh if you've got a good marriage it's kind of a sad note but if you don't have a good marriage it's kind of like thank god it won't last forever right hallelujah somewhere braddock can i hear an amen out there hallelujah so the bible gives dignity to all individual believers that is in galatians 3 28 there's neither jew nor greek circumcised uncircumcised male or female bond or free but all that matters is that you are in christ so your social standing your economic standing doesn't matter it matters only that you're in christ so whether you're married or single your your glory is in is in christ the bible also tells us marriage is temporal i mentioned that so what's the challenges of singleness the challenges of singleness are that you can be obsessed with marriage if you're single you can be obsessed with marriage you know it's like the one college girl they said you know when are you thinking about getting married she said constantly i'm just always thinking about it and again you can be obsessed with that that's kind of like the end game that has to be the way it is or you can be opposed to it obviously feminism has brought up all the things about marriage being slavery and all the negative things about the marriage uh relationship but also you can come from a family that had a bad example your parents may have had a bad marriage maybe you're some relative you know had a bad marriage so you don't want to do it but how did jesus look at it he looked at it as an opportunity an opportunity as you come to the worship yeah the opportunity is this matthew chapter 19 verses 11 and 12. but he said to them not all men can accept this statement now this got done saying that that in the beginning god did not mean for there to be divorce and and he said except for the cause of fornication put away your wife or husband you commit adultery and when he said that the disciples then said the disciples said well then it's better for a man not to marry [Laughter] i'm sorry you don't see any humor in that but you know they had at that time two rabbis and they had different views on marriage one said you could kind of get divorced for any reason uh she burned the toast divorce or whatever and the other one said you could get divorced but it had to be more serious than that but he acknowledged jesus acknowledges that moses gave a bit of divorcement because of the hardness of your heart [Music] hallelujah so christ seems to think he has the power god has the power to hold your your marriage together if two people will let that happen so that just that discussion took place where they said well man it's better not to get married then he blows their mind with this he said not all men can accept this statement like i'm about to rock your world but you know that jewish patriarchal culture that everything was about your family right that they believe in the genesis commission that i have to replenish the earth so it's all about family right so if you weren't married in the jewish culture it was like you were really second class so then jesus says well i'm going to hit you right between the eyes so get ready for this punch but only those to whom it has been given but there are eunuchs that were born that way from their mother's womb there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by people and there are also eunuchs or people who choose to be single who made themselves eunuchs not by any kind of castration but just by spiritually made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven the one who is able to accept this let him accept it now if you've ever seen people with their jaws dropping that's what was happening right then because this was a jewish patriarchal society remember in deuteronomy 23 for a different place leviticus that eunuchs couldn't even go into the tabernacle to worship because they had such a disdain for people who could not fulfill the genesis commission you're talking about a stigma so jesus said well you have read isaiah 56 verses 3-5 coming says the lord that there's going to be a time when eunuchs eunuchs will have a greater inheritance than the sons and the daughters because they are going to be the people that will be delighting themselves to do my will what's he talking about what he says right here what he's talking about is this he said that there will be some who choose to stay single in order to for the kingdom of god's sake fulfill the will of god in the earth why is that first corinthians seven because if you're married your devotion is to the wife or the husband if you're married you are distracted with serving them instead of serving the lord now again he says if you if you're married don't seek to be loosed so if you're married don't say hey i need to get single right away to serve god no you said if you're married stay married all right gonna put the brakes on there and if you're single though don't seek to be married why first of all you're operating the gift that you're in but he's i'm we're talking about singleness right now singles are not saved in second class i said singles are not saved in second class but if you are single at this time understand that jesus was single and what did he do he made himself a eunuch for the kingdom of god's sake [Music] why is it beloved that why when youth of the mission is blowing up around the world why is it that campus crusade for christ is blowing up why is it that ihop international house of prayer is blowing up with young adults and singles that are going around the world that are praying that are giving themselves to the kingdom because god knew that in the last days there's going to be all these singles he knew there's going to be a breakdown in the family there's going to be different situations but god was saying i'm going to use whatever happened there for the good and i'm going to raise up some eunuchs for the kingdom of god that's why you see in these last days god is raising up all these single organizations with people that are on fire for god it is the last days phenomenon it is a last day's work how can young people be i'm going to put off marriage so i can serve god so i can be a missionary go around the world so i can spend all the time praying it has to be a work of god he said if you can accept it let me tell you there's going to be a higher reward if you want to give your whole life to me i'm going to bless you for it and use you and give you a greater inheritance he said if you're willing to do that then i am willing to bless you to do it i'm here to tell you if you're single praise god you have an opportunity you don't have to just be obsessed with marriage you don't have to be just opposed and hurt you can be uh knowing i have an opportunity to make a difference in this world like never before so i'm not going to be sad and wish i was this i'm going to tell you if you want to be sad you could be married the wrong person you can be sad let me tell you don't be obsessing over marriage oh no understand that if you're single or you're married god has put you now in this place for such a time as this if you're married glorify him in your marriage let the world see your sermon let them see your family life let them see your reconciliation if you're single let them see that you're not depressed you're not discouraged that you haven't had that soulmate yet that that hookup that you're looking for no you are happy you're fulfilled you're complete you are serving god come on somebody you are happy you are complete you are serving god and you're going to make an impact you're going to make a difference for god [Music] chairman of the western psychological foundation said that that by the time that kids reach 21 years of age today they will have spent 10 000 hours on video games 10 000. you can get a master's education in ten thousand right ten thousand hours on video games now again maybe you're going to be the person who creates video games like one of our young adults here and he's got a full-time job doing it maybe it was time well spent but 10 000 hours for a lot of us is just a lot of wasted recreational time right i'm just here to tell you that we're living in the last days and i'm here to tell you that it it's time to make a difference with whatever family fabric you've got if you are married like i said to find a way to preach to this world about god's love about his relationship if you're single understand that you can make an impact for god and it's time for us to redeem the time it's time for us to not have chaos in our marriages chaos in our hearts about being single because you can't reproduce with chaos it can't reproduce with covet chaos you got to get all the chaos out so you can really reproduce and make disciples in the old testament it was about fulfilling the earth by replenishing the earth but in the new testament it's about making disciples it's about before he comes who can i reach for jesus christ it's time that we get out of the relational trap that the devil has set for us who live in corinth that is there's all kinds of sexual temptation all kinds of pornography all kinds of dysfunction that's in the world today but friend it is that this time that god puts you in the planet so that means that if he puts you the planet now he knows that he can empower you to overcome whatever the sensuality and the sexual license that's going on around us and that you can be the married couple you can be the single that lives above sexual debauchery and immorality and you can live wholly before god you can live empowered and guess what you can live happy [Laughter] you can be happily married you can be happy and single you can be happy if you're single again you can be happy if you've got some kind of a foster family you can be happy if you're doing this that you can be happy you can be victorious you can have a smile on your face because you're going to testify that jesus christ redeems all things he heals all things he's going to use my situation in life to be a witness to somebody no matter what my family life is i can use it to be a witness i can leverage it for jesus there's somebody god has for you there's somebody god has for you he has him in your pathway he's waiting for you just to recognize that you have a testimony whatever your fabric is give praise to god tell what god is doing in your life and let someone else know that there's hope for them in their life and their family fabric if you believe that let's give him our thanks one more time please praise your name lord amen hallelujah hallelujah to god now how are we going to end this service well i'm glad you asked first of all we have to know that there's wounds we have to know that all of us have had head wounds the difference between wounds and scars is that wounds are still fresh and hurt scars have been overcome flesh has grown over there's no more pain to touch anymore because it's a scar jesus in luke 24 showed his disciples his scars he showed him that i was wounded but i've overcome them all [Music] just waiting for the wave to hit the room i was wounded but now this is redemptive now i can tell you about my scar and i can tell you how god brought me through it you see all of us have been wounded in relationships all of us have been hurt it's just the way it is in this life you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna suffer things in this life but for the christian it's all about the wounded healer it's all about okay here's my wounds so lord heal them some of us been hurt the most by by marriages or by family relationships or siblings or something but yet do we have to stay in bondage to that no because we know jesus jesus is the healer so i just call you out of every wound in the name of jesus and i ask the holy spirit to to heal that and give you a scar that's redemptive that you can say here's here's where i was wounded but the lord healed that and now i want to tell you he can heal yours as well [Music] hallelujah so beloved first uh i want you to take a moment if you're with your if you're with your spouse or you're with yourself you're single uh i want you to take a moment and just give to the lord any wounds because i really feel like that the lord is just so full of compassion today it says come unto me all your labor you know and i'm going to give you rest i want you to ask him to heal anything because healing comes so that then you can get rid of the chaos so you can reproduce this world needs people to reproduce christ you need to reproduce disciples you need to heal other people with what you've been healed from there's no condemnation here today for whatever's happened in our life we're hearing about going forward but you have to be healed let's bow our heads and pray with your spouse you can grab their hand father [Music] this is real stuff the devil we're not ignorant of your devices we know that unforgiveness is one of your biggest ones and shame and guilt and that's the context of second corinthians chapter 2 verse 11 and following or we we thank you that there is hope for us we pray that there is healing for us we thank you lord that you have allowed us to go through things even whether we made foolish decisions or we didn't you have planned to redeem everything so you are here to heal heal every regret of every person who's beaten themselves up over past things come on somebody say lord heal me from everything every regret lord we give you as you said in hebrews chapter 12 we lay aside every sin and the regret that does so easily the weight of regret that does so easily entangle us oh we curse your regrets we curse you shame we curse you guilt in jesus name we curse you in jesus name we will not live under your bondage anymore we lay aside every sin and every regret and every weight of the past or senses of failure or senses of shame we lay it all aside we put it under the blood of jesus and in the name of the lord we let's leave it today come on it's in your heart i leave that wound i leave that pass i leave that regret i leave it in jesus name i am leaving here free i refuse to be under bondage anymore i will not be depressed about my past in jesus name then we ask for healing to come hallelujah we ask for assurance to come then lord you see us as forgiven you see us as sanctified you see us as washed you see us as redeemed you see us as loved you see us and you are smiling over us every day all day long and lord you're raising us up to now reproduce lord may we reproduce may we again have the scar that we can tell the story how jesus healed us and how he can heal someone else right now we commit to using those scars to be a witness to them our mess will become our message we will not be hindered we will not be bound we will not be gagged in our mouth we will share the love of god and how he redeemed this how he forgave them how he restored this how he's leading me forward from that oh hallelujah in jesus name we're going forth healed we're going forth whole we're going forth to be a witness and reproduce your love in the earth your grace in the earth your witness in the earth no whether we're single or we're married or single again or whatever we are god we are going forward by faith today we're going forward healed we're going forth in joy we're going forth we're bringing our sheeps with us god because we're going to see that even weeping endures for the night but joy is coming in the morning we're going to have something good come out of this we're praising you for oh we would have fainted unless we believed we would see the goodness of god in the land of the living and so today we will wrap it up we praise you and we acknowledge and declare and decree that the lord is working all this together for our good all these things he's working together for our good in the name of the father in the name of the son and name of the holy spirit amen and amen if you believe that come on and give the lord praise right now hallelujah if you sing that song christ let's stand together come on let's worship [Music] oh yes [Applause] [Music] workers magnify hear me one more time please [Music] hit me [Music] we have altar workers here for prayer if anybody wants individual or couple family prayer please don't leave if you want to have prayer we'll be here for you again remember next week a special week a week of love and grace so sure and be here think that everybody needs to understand these things from the word of god and that we again can go forward with truth and grace people need a caring church father may the lord bless your people may the lord keep your people may the lord cause his face to smile and shine upon this your people may the lord continue to lift up his countenance upon you and be gracious unto you and give you peace in jesus name amen and amen god bless you beloved amen have a great lord's day christ be magnified [Music] me [Music] is [Music] you

Channel: City Sanctuary Deland

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Id: wH1UAEzF97E

Length: 113min 10sec (6790 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021