The Story Of Marriage | John Bevere | LWCC

want to open up this morning with the book of Malachi from Eugene Peterson's message translation Malachi chapter 2 first 15 is where we're going to begin and I want to encourage because I noticed there wasn't a great offering this morning I can't remember your children's pastor who did it but I noticed she used the passion translation and I love that this church is doing that because I explained to the earlier service that there are eleven thousand six hundred words used in the Hebrew Aramaic and Greek Bible we only have six thousand words approximately in the English Bible which tells us this that we are missing a lot of the nuances and so that's why I think people that are very very wise will go to many different versions of the Bible to really capture what is being said so the Holy Spirit can illuminate it better this is why the Amplified Bible is a very difficult Bible to read I can't do it personally I know Joyce Myers does but I can't it's just cumbersome and the reason it is it's just because it takes so many words to cover one you know Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek word so I'm gonna read from Eugene Peterson's I think he really captures a real special part of this Malachi verse God everybody say God not you let's say this way God not government made marriage so how in the world can government redefine marriage okay I'm just gonna say it I'm gonna say it I'm gonna keep saying it okay how in the world can you redefine marriage and say it's between a man and a man or a woman and a woman it just is amazing to me God's the one who designed it and he designed it before there was ever ministry or business and marriage is so important to God why because it is an illustrated sermon of the way the church and Jesus are related we are the bride he is the bride groom and that is God's Illustrated sermon that he has given to people to show his love for his people for the people of the whole world for God so loved the world he loves every single person in the world even government leaders even media people he loves all of them okay don't mess with what God has designed don't redefine you know it just just think about you right let's say your name is Jim and you go somewhere and they call you the whole time Tony and you're like hey wait a minute my mother named me Jim don't you call me Tony I'm not Tony how can you redefine what my mother began with right well whoo-hoo I've been named all these years and God is the one who made marriage not government so I'm gonna say it again how dare government change it how dare are some judges on the Supreme Court redefine what God defined long ago well it will it be out of compassion don't you understand I'm gonna do it again I did last service I'm gonna do it again all right I got four boys I gave them lots of toys at Christmas Lisa I gave them toys that had to be assembled I mean Christmas Day for me and my kids we're in there you know 8/5 fourteen-year-old stage you know six to fourteen year old stage christmas dated for me was work any dad here understand what you talk what I'm talking about you spent the whole day assembling things right so on the classic dad I open up the box there's all these pieces I throw the the owner's manual to put together manual that they put together right I throw it to the side and I start building I spend two hours building it there's ten pieces still left on the floor when I'm finished then I turn the thing on and it doesn't work so what do I do I get the manual and I get it back and I start going okay I tear the thing apart takes another hour rebuild it takes another two hours and it finally works why cuz I went to the guys book who designed the toy okay God is the one that created us he knows what breaks us and he knows what fixes us hello do you know we do were the stupid dads when we throw away what he designed and say oh I know better do you understand I mean can you comprehend here pure love creates an owner's manual to help us live life and we say we know more than you how stupid that's me on Christmas Day okay in a different way with a different thing are you seeing what I'm saying so God not you made marriage his spirit now listen to this his spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage did you get that the smallest details well I want that one to settle in here okay so guard now watch as guard the spirit of your marriage not just your marriage the spirit of your marriage so let me tell you what is not acceptable to God that is two people existing together because you don't have the spirit of marriage because the spirit of marriage is pure love serving forgiveness peace humility kindness that's the spirit of marriage so if you're just existing together and you're not doing you're not together do you understand what I'm saying together you're not guarding the spirit of your marriage good preaching amen God never called married couples to exist he called us to thrive see one can put a thousand two can put ten thousand God intended for you to be ten times more powerful together than you are separate that's his will now when you guard the spirit of your marriage and you're walking together in unity guess what that means that's where God commands his blessing so that's why a lot of people are really struggling you know if you're struggling in life don't get me wrong there is the enemy's attacks but one thing you might want to check out is how how are you walking together with your spouse examine yourselves Paul said to see if you're in the faith right all right one more scripture I want to read jesus said the creator originally made man and woman for each other not man and man not woman and woman male and female and because of this a man leaves father and mother and is firmly bonded everybody say firmly bonded to is why becoming one flesh no longer two bodies but one let me tell you when I really learned this I mean when it became real to me you understand I heard teachers teach it but when it really became real to me is when we were first married you know like I prayed an hour and a half every single morning I set my alarm for 4:45 I was up by five I was outside a remote place praying until 6:30 every morning and I was that work by 8:00 don't tell me you don't have time to pray so but my wife the only time I ever saw her prayed was in the shower so I'm you know I'm bought into this macho man thing like I got to make the decisions on the head of our home right and so I'm making decisions and I'm not really interested in Lisa's input because I'm the man I'm the head of the home I'm making the decisions right because that pressures put on you as a guy in our society right so I'm noticing Lisa would give me a little hints like John I don't think it's a really good idea and I go no no no this is what we're gonna do and I noticed that over half the times my wisdom was stupid like after it played out I was I I had made a bad decision so I'm not praying one more no my god are you gonna have to talk to me about this I pray and I won't have every day you made me the head of the home then I pray an hour and a half every day she prays 10 minutes in the shower she's right more times than I am I said you got to talk to me and the Holy Spirit spoke to me that money he said son draw a circle on a piece of paper so I drew a circle right there's your circle it's gonna come up right he said put X's all over that circle I put eggs is all over that so he said now draw a line right down the middle of that circle he said the left side G's the right sides Lisa he said you are no longer complete in yourself you became one with her you're only half he said you know what those X's are I said where are those X's he's that's that wisdom the council the information you need for me to make good decision he said do you notice half those X's are on her side I said yeah he said if you were a wise leader you would draw out from your wife without making her feel intimidated what I'm putting in her heart so that you can have all the information you need to make a good decision that's when I really learned that we are one we're not two people anymore we're one good preaching Johnny man thank you so much [Applause] now notice God said in the book of Malachi guard the spirit of your marriage which means you know I think of what Paul said be renewed in the spirit of your mind so it's here don't get me wrong all life comes from here but it's got to pass through here and here either blocks it and allows a different death darkness to come in or allows light to flow out so when you're renewed in the spirit of your mind what it means it's a very I love how Paul Paul absolutely this is the way it's translated you can't change this and just say be renewed in your mind in the book of Colossians he says the spirit of your mind and I really believe this was his attempt to try to help help describe what they didn't understand back that then and that is how the mind works the Bible says we don't even though we walk in the flesh we don't war according to flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal they're not fleshly but they're mighty in God - pulling down the strongholds what are the strongholds he said reasonings imaginations thought processes knowledge that is contrary to the Word of God so in other words it's contrary to the owners manual that was created for the people he loves so what happens what science has discovered the last 10 years because I just did a course called porn free that's going to be launched by messenger international the first week of August because I was so upset when I discovered the latest statistics that 68 percent of the men that attend church watch porn on a regular basis yeah that's seven out of every ten men yeah thirty percent of the girls and you know this 50 percent of the pastor's according to the latest research 50% of passengers watch in the United States watch porn on a regular basis so I was just furious and what I found out I spent a whole day research researching neurological science your brain and what I found out this is this is one of the things is that your brain will always take the path of the least resistance it will come to the conclusion in other words the destination the decision your brain will come there but it will do it on the avenue of the least resistance now what do I mean by that your brain creates paths when we think something we say something we think it we say it we're creating a new or illogical path this is how athletes that aren't really talented get really good they keep doing it over and over and over and over now they do it without even thinking because such a neurological path is created their body responds to that do you understand this works in every area so when a guy's lonely a guy wants to be you know have a happy time he goes down that neurological path of the pornography this is why I was studying it but what I learned was your brain will always go to the conclusion of the least resistance so think about a woods let's pretend this is a woods in here right in Colorado we spend a lot of money to maintain our trails do you know that our trails just didn't appear they had to be created do you know they just raise taxes in Colorado so we could upgrade our trails right and so people had to go in there with machetes with chainsaws and cut all this Bunder brush out the trees out and create this path right now think about it Minnesota if I'm in the woods and I need to get back there am I going to walk over this and walk over everybody on the way back or am I going to go this way I'm gonna go this way because there's a path well this is where your brain is Paul calls is a strong hole but really it's a path so now let's just give a few examples here you had a dad that maybe wasn't a very good dad you had a leader that wasn't a good leader your husband's doing one little thing that might remotely remind you of that and what do you do you go down that path to the conclusion of he's a jerk like my you know leader was okay he made him a mistake he says he's not wired that way he's not but you are not guarding the spirit of your marriage because you're going right to the wrong conclusion because you developed a neural pathway in your mind that is contrary to learn of God because the love of God believes the best in every person good preaching her ouch so the problem we have is people closed up their hearts and a closed spirit do you remember Paul said to the entire Corinthian church you have closed up your affections to me we haven't done it with you we have loved you we have lay down our lives to preach for you we have stolen from other churches to preach for you and yet the more we love you the less you love us because why you closed up your affections how many times this happen in a marriage we literally shut our doors of our emotions because why we have these neurological past developed he's done this she's done this it reminds me of this this this this I'm not going through that pain again sure is quiet in this Methodist Church right now you still with me so the first thing in order for a marriage to flourish is there has to be forgiveness and the person that cannot forgive is the person that's forgotten what they've been forgiven us because what if Jesus would have said to the father why should I go die for them when they've done all this to us you got to understand what we deserved is to burn in a devil's hell forever you deserve to burn in a lake of fire forever and ever that is your just reward for what you did to God and what I did God I deserve to burn a lake a hell forever that is what I deserve that would have been a completely just reward for me but yet God chose to forgive me and when Jesus hung on the crosses that father forgiven they don't know what they're doing he wasn't talking about the soldiers and the Sanhedrin he was talking the next generation the next generation the next generation right down to you and me cuz our sins put him on that cross think about it did you deserve that no did I deserve that did we say I'm sorry to him no if you would have waited for us to say I'm sorry before he forgave us then we all would have been in hell he never would have died on a cross he forgave us before we ever said we were sorry so why can't you forgive your spouse before your smile says I'm sorry why are you waiting for your spouse to say I'm sorry because you're not forgiving like Christ forgave you're not forgiving according to the manual you're doing it your way you're doing the way that society has trained you because here's another statistic that just came out 53 / hours are spent by 15 to 25 year olds in the United States on screens do you understand what I just said the national average right now on a massive survey done I think with over 40,000 people 15 to 25 year olds spend fifty three point seven hours a week in front of a screen I'm talking about iPhone I'm talking about a pad I'm talking about television I'm talking about a computer so the spirit of the world look the spirit of the world loves to listen to disguise itself behind humor logic a worldly type of wisdom and knowledge so hey look we live in a world and Jesus said the sons of light or not as wise as the sons of we should be wise as serpents and harmless as doves there's nothing wrong but when every bit of your information is coming from Hollywood and how a marriage is supposed to be run we have this image of happily ever after and it's sex non-stop and it's all kinds of fun and everything and when my husband's not behaving correctly then all of a sudden now I have developed these neurological paths that goes right to the conclusion of I got a bad marriage and this is why so many marriages in the church are ending up in divorce is because we have been trained by the wrong thing we have developed neurological patterns in our brain that expect the wrong thing see do you know what David said the person who can offend you the deepest is the person who's closest to you why is that because our expectations are highest on them see have you ever heard of Christians say well you know the world treats me better than Christians how many of you've ever heard somebody say that come on be on look at all these hands oh my gosh I'm not the only it's our debt let me tell you why Christians will say that because their expectation on the world zero let's this is ground zero their expectation on their Christian brothers and sisters is here on their pastor is here and on their spouse it's here so when spouse does this much they've offended you by this much the world does this much you've been blessed by this or the world does this much you've been blessed this much so of course the world is going to be better because your expectations is low on the world your expectations high on your spouse what would happen if we entered in our marriage without expectations I'm going to tell you I've learned it becomes a lot better so here's the deal and this is what I've been trying to get to but the real the real reason I couldn't get to it right away it took me 20 minutes to get here it's because we can't go here until we forgive and you are not is not suggested it is commanded that we forgive as God forgave us through Christ all right so we can't we got to clear the decks okay number one problem in marriage is a fence that leads to a closed spirit that leads to all kinds of problems because you've not guarded the spirit of your marriage number two everybody say number two the way to have a successful marriage you want to know is to serve okay I'm gonna make a statement I want you write a statement down when you marry someone you in essence are signing up to serve that person the rest of your life that is your number one priority can I get a little Amen or so the the day came that I'm sitting there thinking about my marriage okay why is my marriage so crappy I mean we got to the point we were fighting for 18 months one time this is 20 years ago right and Lisa took off her engagement ring and said we may be married but we're not engaged whatever that means and I I remember I was just so upset with Lisa and she did something one day I just I lost it I was like I am out of here and it was a bad weather day in Colorado and the golf course was empty so I'm walking around the golf course I said you got ya do some of that girl you got do something with that girl I mean you gotta give her a bad dream send an angel you got it you got it and you know I go out in that golf course and God does not talk to me about Lisa he said son I want you to thank me for one thing about Lisa one thing one thing one thing and I said well she she's a good mom and I said lord thank you that she's a great cook and then all of a sudden thank you that she dresses really cool and thank you she's got gorgeous hair and thank you and all of a sudden you start pouring on me just pouring out of me I came back and I I said Lisa you are this and this and this and this and all of a sudden it just ended that 18-months feud and now I'm interested because I'm seeing a big difference in my wife right so I'm really meditating and and by the way can I say this okay neural patterns can be if they're if they're complaining and negative they're dark okay I have a friend who's a neuroscientist that told me this if they're positive and loving they're light so literally they can detect dark paths in people's minds and light paths it's amazing so my neural pattern unlike I've got it I've got to be renewed in the spirit of my mind I got a guard the spirit of my marriage and I started meditating I thought do I really understand how to be the head of my home and I started thinking well Jesus is the head of the church Jesus is the groom we're the bride so let me let me let me let me think about this for a while in the light of Jesus being the groom being the head of the house so you know where I felt the Holy Spirit led me and I don't felt at all I know it was him he let me - let me the last supper so I want to first of all let me can I can't can I can I read a scripture to you would that be all right okay you like scriptures around here I know Luke 20 to 27 I want it up on the screen listen to what Jesus says to his guys who is more important the one who sits at the table or the one who serves come on answer it the one who sits at the table of course right but look what he says but not here not in this kingdom he said I am among you as the one who serves so nineteen eight and night late nineteen nineteen seventy nine I got saved the early 1980s we did what Israel did with washing feet every Bible study I went to man they pulled out the bass and they got the picture and I got out cuz they ain't no man gonna be touching my feet and I always felt a little bad you know cuz I would slip oh I've got to study for a final I'm out of here right cuz I'm at Purdue University and and and I was feeling bad you know I was like man John I mean this is like in the Bible and they're washing feet and you're like making excuse me get out of Dodge and so I found out later it was okay because you know I remember how God said Israel Moses put put put a serpent on the pole to illustrate Jesus dying for us right and everybody looks on it's gonna be healed right well you know what they did but in about a generation later they made that that that's Serpent and that pole into an idol well we almost did that in the 1980s with Washington feet we didn't get it so let's look at this whole foot washing thing back in those days you got to understand well first of all Jesus and his twelve are having dinner in an upper room so in other words in this house there is a room upstairs that can house twelve guys for a full meal so obviously these people are rich they got a big house and back in those days when people have big houses they had twenty to thirty household servants okay they would have various responsibilities well the bottom servant and I mean the lowest of the thirty and usually it was a female their responsibility was to wash people's feet when they came into the house why because think with me they didn't have concrete they didn't have asphalt their roads were dirt and guess what they didn't have cars they had horses camels donkeys and you know when a horse has got to go to the bathroom they don't wait for the rest stop they let it out right there on the de Road so on that road you've got manure you've got urine you've got mud from rain and they didn't wear night tennis shoes or boots they were barefoot and if they had a little money they got sandals so when people would come into the home that lowest servant would wash their feet so these guys had just had this dug because they're coming into this very wealthy man's house and his lowest servant which is probably a female just wash their feet then twelve disciples in Jesus and they head up to the upper room and after dinner Jesus takes off his garment guards himself with a towel gets a basin and begins to wash these guys feet and Peter goes no because Peter just experienced that bottom-of-the-barrel servant washing his feet two hours he goes you're not doing this to me and Jesus said you'll have nothing to do with me if you don't enter into this and so Jesus washes all of them and he looks at me says hey you called me Lord and Master and you call me correctly if I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet I have done this as an example that you should do to one another so here's the head of the church washing their feet so you know what the Lord showed me one day after this 18 month standoff between me and Lisa because I'm seeing her desperately saying I need revelation because Lisa always didn't respond to me the way I wanted her to respond to me and I need a revelation so that I didn't just go back into this cycle again I needed to renew my mind I need to get some numeral part because you know what happens hah how do you get rid of a path in the woods don't walk on it what happens if you don't walk on it all the underbrush starts growing up right the tree and the path one day is gone and you create a new pathway so picture me just ripping out all these chairs creating another pathway to the back and I'm ignoring this one this one gets all the underbrush so I'm sitting there and I'm meditating I'm like okay I need a new neural pattern I have a stronghold when Lisa doesn't speak to me and what I believe is a respectful tone why am i treating her like this because I started thinking if I do this with Jesus that Jesus punished me the way I punished Lisa no he doesn't what happens if I don't listen to Jesus does he force me to obey Him no he doesn't say submit boy can I say this husband you say to your wife submit you tell her to submit you don't know what spirit your other would I got it I got a gray respond remember judge hey John and John and James they remembered Elijah called fire down those guys hey Jesus we call fire down you don't know what spirit you're out so you look at your wife and say submit woman you don't know what spirit you're of and you are adding to the problem and I wanted to stopped cuz I was one of those guys I would say to my wife when she would she was acting a little Arabic and Sicilian I'd be saying like hey woman on the head you need to listen to me and I'm like this is not going over well so I'm thinking and I'm praying I'm like Jesus doesn't do that with me jesus said I'm the chief servant okay are you are you following me has Jesus ever forced you to obey Him well he did with the Apostle Paul no he came to kill him and Paul got smart and got saved before he got killed he has never forced anybody and he won't the devil forces God doesn't I can show you all kinds of people don't obey Jesus now they're suffering the consequences if my wife chooses not to listen to what I feel is the right thing to do for the family and she'll pay the consequences but I'm not forcing her I'm just gonna keep loving her I'm gonna keep being kind and this is something I had to renew my mind cuz this is not the way we were going for the first 20 years of our marriage you understand what I'm saying so when Jesus says I left this is example I'm like whoa whoa whoa unless she's servant so you know what that means I do for Lisa what is best for Lisa I do for our family what's for the best for our family so let me let me get practical if there's only enough money in the budget and we got a big event coming up and there's only enough money to buy either a dress or a suit guess what we're buying because I'm the head serve and I get to make the decision we're buying the dress if Lisa wants to go to the beaches in Florida and I want to go to the lakes of Minnesota and fish for vacation guess what we're done we're going on the beaches cuz I'm the chief servant if the guys want me to play golf and I really like golf but my wife wants to spend the day together guess who guess what I'm doing I'm spending the day of my wife that's this happen with me my board members and I were in a place it was really beautiful the second best Golf Course in the entire state was in in that end two miles from where we were staying and we were all like let's go play golf and we were only there for three days and I looked at least I said are you okay with me going playing golf she said mm-hmm I called my board member I said hey I'm out get somebody else I'm gonna go look at furniture with my wife today and that's what we did I went to a furniture store and I can I tell you I had the best time and can I tell you the more I've lived this way the more fun I have the more fulfilled it is I was telling Jim last night I said the happiest nine years of my life have been the last nine years of my life why we've given away twenty one point six million resources to pastors and leaders in 111 nations or huh 98 nations in 111 languages and I said we have been able to give to them and they will never be able to repay us on this earth I said it's been the happiest time of my life well when I started doing this for my wife I started entering into the happiest time of my marriage iiiiii I will not lie i sat up here at the Friday night and I said if I was single I would be chasing after her and I meant that she would be the woman of my choice because I'm and this is a man who's married 37 years you know my number one marriage goal is number one I have marriage goal I don't understand how people do marriage they plan all these hours for the first day but they don't even talk about the middle in the end how you supposed to build a house without a plan so I have these marriage goals because then if you have these goals and you hit a speed bump it is that it's a speed bump but most people see it as a brick wall so even Christians we gotta end the marriage no as the speed bump because you got your your destination set do you know my destination number one destination said is for me in my mind the day Lisa Bevere leaves this earth I want her to love me more than the day I married her today the day number two merits go the day I leave this earth I want to love her more than the day I married her that's number two goal and we worked down from there so this radically transformed my thinking I mean I love what Kim so so let's read let Luke 22:7 and let's apply to marriage you ready you ready watch this who is more important the head of the marriage or the one who is told to submit the one who is the head of course but not here not in this kingdom the head is the one who serves so can we go to the verse that everybody uses to beat up women let's just be brave and go there okay Ephesians 5 I'm gonna show in Ephesians 5 look at this Paul said don't act thoughtlessly but understand what the what the Lord wants you to do don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life instead be filled with the spirit then he gives all the symptoms of being filled with the spirit right speaking yourselves in Psalms hymns spiritual songs right singing making melody in your heart to the Lord the English Bible the paragraph ends right there the Greek Bible it doesn't it continues I said it continues because here's the next evidence of somebody being truly filled with the spirit he says and further submit to everybody say submit to or another way of saying is serve one another okay out of reverence for Christ for wives this is the way it looks this means you respect and honor and submit to your husbands but look at this for you husbands okay so he's talking about submitting to one another everybody say submitting to one another serving one another say serving one another is part of being filled with the spirit for you husband's this means love your wives just as Christ loved the church he laid his life down for the church he served the church he got up and washed their feet and said I am the chief servant of the kingdom now when you approach marriage this way I love what Tim Keller says Tim Keller says this does not destroy the exercise of authority within a human relationship but it does radically transform it I'm the decision-maker I'm the head of the home so you know what that means all my decisions are based on what is best for Lisa me second you do this in your marriage you will have a transform marriage you will have a powerful marriage you still with me here so you being the head means your number one serve in the house now you know what the evidence is that you're dry see you can't drink one bottle of wine be drunk the rest of your life so what Paul is saying the Holy Spirit's the same you I got filled with the Holy Spirit 40 years ago June 3rd okay I've had to be refilled many times because Paul likens it to a bottle of wine because the guy gets drunk but the next morning he's not drunk okay you have to continually be filled with the spirit so what's the evidence of me being filled with the spirit I am a I am the number one chief servant in my home the day I start complaining for my rights my benefits why aren't I getting this I'm not feeling the spirit right now I need to get filled I need to get my butt outside alone with God and get filled with the spirit did you hear what I just said because right now there is strong evidence that I don't have that attitude so in other words yeah the neural patterns have changed but guess what there are times when you you can sit there and go I'm not displaying the fruit of being filled with the spirit right now see I'll be honest with you my wife my wife one of her gifts is not organization so I'm the first one out of bed in the morning she's out of bed an hour hour and a half after me but if I'm gone on a trip the bed doesn't get made all day so you know what I do when she slips out of bed and she's drinking her I just sneak into the room and I make the bed now I used to go I go Lisa why can't you make the bed and I thought what are you doing John you could you get a chance to serve her right now so just make the bed if we do this the world's gonna see how much Jesus loves us but how much I'm the men love their wives and you know what wives will always reflect with the way the husbands treat him you know I'm going to a restaurant I can tell you right away which wife in that restaurant is loved by her husband and which wife life is not because their physical face their countenance reflects it I can look at a woman go she hadn't been very loved by her husband I'm go get a woman she's gorgeous she looks beautiful she's radiant and she's in her 60s she just shines I'm going there's a woman who's loved by her husband so guys you know you have no one appoint two-finger out but you you're the head you're gonna set the tone of the whole family yeah I'm not saying that every wife is gonna respond because Jesus loves everybody in this world and not everybody responds but he still loves him and it took me 19 years to really realize how much he loved me I'm glad he didn't give up on me at 18 years hey I'm done with you you're not responding I've loved you all these 18 years I'm done with you no he kept he kept waiting for me to respond to his love and that's the way some of you husbands have to determine you gonna do it I am going to love her no matter how I'm responded to amen I want you to do something for me I want you to stand up husbands and wives that are here stand up and face each other okay if your spouse isn't here I'm sorry you just just stay stay seated and all you single people get inspired okay I want you to grab hands and I want you look right into each other's eyes and I want you to forgive each other for first thing I don't want you to say all you did this in this but I forgive you of it I want you to just look at her and I want you to initiate husband's just say hey I forgive you the slate is wiped clean clean you owe me nothing now wife I want you to look at him and say the same thing slate is clean I forgive you now I want you husband I want you to look at her and tell her some of the things you're so grateful to God for about her she's a good cook she dresses cool she's a great mother she's a very godly woman you can trust her around other men because she fears God and now wife I want you to do the same thing to that husband thank you for being a good provider thank you for handling our money well it's amazing how it's gonna start pouring out of you and now let me pray for you y'all just take your hands they're held and look at each other and let me pray for you father in the name of Jesus I thank you for every family that's represented every marriage every couple I pray your presence and your peace would rest on these homes Lord you said once we come into agreement we would be able to do 10 times more than we could have done separately may this happen in these homes I love and peace and joy abound in these homes now your presence fill them and people walk in when they get around these couples may they feel the love of Jesus may they sense the presence of God father I thank you for this if you're in here this morning you're away from God or you've never given your life to Jesus I want you to say this out loud say Lord God I give my life to you I repent of living my way I'm turning to you my Creator to give my life to and to serve the rest of my life [Music] thank you for your presence Holy Spirit for what you're doing here this morning in Jesus name Amen let's thank God for what he's doing amen you can be seated okay let me just say this here's the book I covered maybe a half a chapter it's the chapter I wrote on serving there's a lot more to that chapter than I even talked about you'll actually notice that all three of the services have been totally different so it's out there and I love it because it's easy to read there's devotionals in there there's questions that you go through as a couple or here is the course you can do this as a couple you've got the DVDs or at least and I teach together it's quite fun she is so funny I'm a little more serious she's hilarious but she's powerful and true that's what's so wonderful akule about Lisa and so that's out there you can get the course you can do it as a small group you can do it as a couple as a family however you want to do it because it's good that your kids would watch this with you amen and so that's out there I will say this I am flying home today we go to Peru this Tuesday we're bringing 10,000 missionaries in Peru we are we're going to do an altar call in every high school from tomorrow to Friday every high school and junior high there will be an altar call in the entire nation approved there's 30 million people improved okay and we're taking a thousand doctors dentists and nurses there there gonna be people administered to Craig Groeschel Lisa and I and I think a couple others Dominic Caruso will be speaking to probably 25 to 35 thousand pastors and leaders in this week and so it's a big trip my commercial flight leaves in really quick time and all the guys here are like waiting for me to run out of the building so I don't normally do this but I am like walking straight out and so that's why it's not because I don't want to see you and say hello to you I love doing that but pastor Jim and pastor Kristen thank you so much we love you so very much Lisa and I thank you for the great leaders that you are [Applause]

Channel: Living Word Christian Center

Views: 36,126

Rating: 4.9222798 out of 5

Keywords: john bevere sermons, john bevere 2020, john bevere marriage, john bevere, john bevere LWCC, john bevere living word christian center, The story of marriage, the story of marriage john bevere, john and lisa bevere, john and lisa bevere marriage, john bevere holy spirit, john and lisa bevere podcast, author john bevere, lwcc, living word christian center, john bevere living word church, john bevere living word, story of marriage, the story of marriage john and lisa bevere

Id: I2gySCGAQTQ

Length: 44min 6sec (2646 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2019