Devil Stomping

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. I just want to say thank you to our tech team who kind of managed through this. I know it's tough being a mobile church at times. You're probably going to hear some buzzing in the speakers and things like that because we've had some extreme technical difficulties this morning.

We got here this morning and our soundboard wouldn't fire up. I mean, it just didn't do anything. So we might be looking at a soundboard issue. Hey, I hear some buzzing in the speakers a little bit. He likes to fix that.

And I'm going to come down here since I don't have a monitor today. And I'm going to kind of share for the floor. Is that okay? I can get down. We're at your level a little bit today.

Well, it's so great to have you here with us at Salt Church today. We are so thankful that you made it out on a very cold morning, actually. It was freezing this morning. I don't know about you, but I walked outside. Yeah, it was frost all over the ground.

And, you know, mornings like this, you just want to stay here. But it's good to be in the presence of the Lord. Amen. Just to be here today with you guys is amazing. Before I share in part three of our message series relationship goals, I do want to kind of share with you a little bit about where we are as a church.

I shared a little bit last week, and some of you were here and some of you weren't. So if you weren't here, just kind of recapping on where we are. We, at the beginning of the year, I shared some vision for our church where we want to go. And some big vision that God has put in my heart for Salt Church. And one of the primary things we have been aiming for is a new location.

We've been meeting here for a few years now, and we've been blessed. But we are looking to do a lateral move somewhere where we can be more of a presence in the community and our face can be known a little more. And primarily, we're not moving just to move. We move because we want to influence more people. We want to reach more people for Jesus Christ.

We're going to do everything we can. We're going to put ourselves in places. That's what I challenge our church this year with is that we're going to try new things. We're going to try different things. We're not going to get comfortable.

We're going to get comfortably uncomfortable so that we can reach more people for Jesus. So we've been looking for a while. And right now, we have Elevation 27, which is opening their doors to us to meet there. It's an excellent venue for worship services and worship experiences. But to move there, we have a hefty goal.

We need finances. We need finances to do this because this place, although it's great for our worship experience, it's not necessarily great for our kids. So we've been looking for some possibilities and getting a classroom trailer for our children and doing some things there. So last week, I shared with you that we have a goal of $20,000 that we're raising towards this. And I dropped another bomb on you last week.

And this was a big one because not a lot of, in fact, I was talking to someone who's the head of a major nonprofit. And he says, this is amazing because I don't see many people doing this in the nonprofit world. But we are going to give 20% of everything that you give towards Elevate 2020 is what we're calling it, towards our $20,000 goal. We're giving 20% of it to what we're calling Wade's Army. If you could show Wade's Army up here, I think we've got something on the display screen.

Let me just share a little bit behind that. Wesley, this little cute boy up here, was one of our very first Saul kids. And we lost him to the battle, to a battle, a battle of cancer. He fought really hard. His family is still super supportive of our church.

They live in Florida now. They moved out that way. But I just felt like God, I wanted to do more. I wanted to do more. Hey, if I'm going to ask our church to be generous, we're going to be generous as a church.

Amen? If we're going to step out in faith and do something like this, if I'm asking you to step out in faith, I'm going to step out in faith. We're going to step out in faith as a church. So we're giving 20% of everything that we bring in to Wade's Army. It's an organization that helps families that are going through the nightmare of childhood cancer.

And they also support research, childhood cancer research. And should you know, I think less than 1% of government aid actually goes to childhood cancer research. That's a very small percentage. So we want to do what we can do. And this was an organization that Amber and Peter Zucker, the parents of Wesley.

I asked them, I said, what organization can we help? How can we help? What do you believe in? And they went right to this organization. So they're doing an excellent job.

They're providing financial support, medical, health, just all kinds of things they're doing for those families. So they don't have to worry about their bills. They don't have to worry about their house. They don't have to worry about groups and everything. And they're helping these families.

And also really, really working hard to find a cure for childhood cancer. So 20% of everything that you give in LA 2020 to earn our goal, to get us to where we want to go, to get us over on Alaska Grove. We're going to give that away. We're going to give that away. So let's step up again.

Right now, I think we've got, we've hit about 5% of our goal. Hallelujah. We broke a thousand. So we've only got 19,000 more to go. So I'm just asking you to pray and consider even today what you can do.

Every little bit helps. Anything that you can do. And if you give a thousand dollars or more, here's another thing. We've got some really cool, is anybody wearing their socks? Yeah, that's fine.

hardlybits, that there's not going anybody else thatを? All right, all the things that could happen are in their pockets of exactly the size and price of $100... Let's see how we get there. And we're starting those weddings, group of five, four and, four, one. Okay, Hillary, stand up real quick.

You get one of these lovely shirts, and we'll have some ball caps as well coming in, and you'll get a gift from us for your $1,000 plus donation to our cause, but, you know, it is really about why. It's not about what we do, it's why we do it. It's why we do it, because there's a lot of people out there that are without hope, and we want to be the hope of the world. We want to be a light too low, that puts all mercy. You know, I just envision people reaching up to God in the darkness, just begging for mercy, begging for mercy.

We have a God of love that wants to reach down, reaching down to this world. The light came down into the darkness, and He was the light of life, and He brought life and brings life to people. Let's be a life in the church that brings life to people. Let's do everything we can to reach people who are just in desperate places. in the dark places, and God is their rescuer.

We show them that He is the rescuer. Through our church, through the church, in the world, you know, God used the church, has used the church throughout the centuries, and even today, to reach people for Jesus. And we're going to be that shining example. Amen? Okay.

Well, we're in part three of our series called Relationship Goals, and if there is some buzzing in the mics, I apologize. We're kind of, we, we, we, we, I know, I know for me, it kind of is a little annoying for me. That's just because, and I know for some of you, it might be that way as well. So, I do apologize if there's any tech issues today. It's white noise, and yeah, it might put you to sleep, actually, if I'm too bored or boring.

So, I get louder, so I keep you awake, right? So, all right. So, we've been working through a series in reference to relationships, and some of you come off on Valentine's Day, right? And some of you have enjoyed Valentine's Day, and some of you think that some of you may have invented, right? So, it depends on where you are.

So, we are working on our relationships and preparing for our future relationships. So, whether you're single, whether you're married, there is a message here for you. And all of us kind of know the term, and we're connected to Instagram or social media, the hashtag relationship goals. And the idea is, when you see a post of a picture of a lovely couple kissing or whatever, you think hashtag relationship goals. But the truth is, it's ideal, but it's not real.

So, we're really looking at what relationships are underneath the pretty pictures, underneath the relationship goals, tags, and all the beautiful pictures. As we compare ourselves to other people's lives, we need to take a step back and, wait a minute, wait a minute. You know, how can I have the best relationships? Because it's not real. It's not real.

Not all relationships are good. And it's important for us to be intentional about our relationships. So, whether you're married or not, we need to be intentional. No one goes into a relationship saying, oh, this is going to be a disaster 10, 15 years down the road. Nobody goes into a relationship and says, I'm going to buy a bunch of shiny things, and I'm going to drown in debt.

And then one day, we're going to fight over the stuff that we've collected one day, and then we're eventually going to part ways because of those arguments. Nobody says, I'm going to be a porn addict and have uncontrollable lusts and have no intimacy with my partner. Nobody walks into a relationship or a marriage with that idea. Nobody says, I'm going to start out with small lies and lie to my partner and then work up to medium-sized lies and then have big lies and then deceive my other half and then crush their heart. Nobody goes into relationships like that.

Nobody says, I'm going to be so busy with my life, with my work situation, with my chores, with my kids, that I'm going to neglect my spouse and we're going to drift apart and feel like we're just roommates. Nobody starts off marriage, starts off a relationship thinking that it's going to end up there. Nobody desires to do that, but it happens all the time. So we are not going to go into relationships accidentally, okay? We're going to be purposeful.

We are going to be intentional about our relationship goals. So whether you're preparing or you're in your marriage. So last week, or the first week, we talked about a Christ-centered marriage. How if we put Christ in the center of our marriage, it gives us purpose, it gives us identity, it helps us flourish, and anything else in the center of that marriage destroys that marriage. So we need a Christ-centered marriage.

The second thing we talked about last week is a mission-driven marriage, that we need to have one common goal, unity, a mission, a driving force that we both are aimed at, and together we're better on mission. So today I want to talk about, and I think this is significantly important, devil-stomping. We're going to be a devil-stomping couple. In my relationships, we're going to be devil-stomping. Now, a lot of you are like, devil-stomping, what does that mean?

Well, it means exactly what it means. You're going to stomp the devil. You're going to kick the devil. You're going to get him out of the way. He's not going to be a part of my home.

He's not going to be a part of my relationship. Next week, we're going to talk about covenant-keeping, a covenant-keeping relationship. We're going to look at those, and I'd invite you to come back for that if you're new with us. And they all build on top of each other. So what do I mean by devil-stomping specifically?

Here's the deal. The enemy hates everything that matters to God and everything that matters to you. If you're a Christ follower, he does not like you. And that's why Paul says to put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand against all strategies of the devil. He says, put all of God's armor on, for we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against evil rulers and authorities in the unseen world.

So your fight is not against your spouse. Your fight is against something else that's happening that you can't see. In the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world. Now, I want you to imagine just for a minute that the devil and all of his demons and all of hell are scheming. And they're watching, and they're strategizing, and they're studying you to kill your marriages and kill your relationships.

Imagine that just for a second. All of him is strategizing, is studying, is watching your every move, watching your every step, taking note of your every action to strategize. All of him. Demons, all the rulers of dark places watching you and strategizing against you because whatever God blesses, Satan curses. Whatever God blesses, Satan curses.

Whatever God loves, Satan hates. And he wants to destroy you. So if you're struggling in your relationship, if you're frustrated, if you're angry, if you're upset, if you're hurt, if you're afraid, if you're losing trust, your spouse is not your enemy. There is a spiritual power that is working behind what's going on. And we need to keep that in mind.

Just imagine for a minute if someone broke out of prison and they were a murderer and they were a thief. They broke out of prison and they knew who you were and they had been studying you. And they had been looking at you and they know where you live and they're coming after you. What would you do? I don't think I would be sitting back on the couch eating potato chips, watching movies, right?

We would be preparing. We would get guardrails around our house and probably put bars up on our windows, right? We would probably get the best security system that money can buy and put in our house. We'd get lights, motion lights to spot people. We would warn our neighbors.

We would warn our family. We would warn everybody. We would do everything we could do. We would get a dog that bites, right? And we'd have them really close by.

And we would keep praying. We would plan a defense strategy, right? If he comes into my house, if she comes into my house, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to have a gun. I'm going to have a knife.

I'm going to have whatever it takes to fight this person and to protect my family and to protect my home. I'm going to protect my home. We would do that. Well, in the same way, Peter tells us to do this exact thing with the enemy. This is what Peter tells us to do.

He says in 1 Peter 5a, stay alert. Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. So stay alert. You know he's coming after you because here's who he is. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Can I say it like this? He's prowling around looking for a marriage to devour. He's looking for someone to devour, a relationship to devour. He wants to hurt you. He does not like you.

He does not love you. He does not love anything that God loves. And God loves you. Therefore, he hates you. Now Satan doesn't just come in.

Hey, guys, hey, I'm getting ready to attack, right? Hey, everything's going well. So prepare. Get ready. Here I come.

I'm getting ready to trump on you. I'm getting ready to prowl at you or growl at you. I mean, no lion does that, do they? When you watch a lion, when you watch National Geographic, what do you see? Or if you've been to Africa and you've watched the lions, what do they do?

They prowl around and they watch and they sneak and they study and they look and they wait and they wait and they wait for the wildebeest at the very moment they pounce on them. So he's not sitting there like, oh, hey, here I come. Roar. And the lion jumps out and says, roar, here I am, you know. And the wildebeest and the antelope, they're just going to run, right?

There's no way he can gather his food that way. He studies them in the same way Satan studies you. And he uses two methods. And there's two things I want to talk about. Distractions and seductions.

He uses distractions and seductions. Let me just talk about distractions for a second. He was distracted by the fruit of the garden. Solomon was distracted by the people he was trying to please. Judas was distracted by money, right?

He uses distractions all the time. I love the Song of Psalms. It's a beautiful book. It's actually a very edgy book. I did a series on it last year and kind of walked through the Song of Psalms or the Song of Solomon.

Solomon wrote this book to his bride, to his lover. And it's a real kind of, it's a book that will make you blush if you read it. You know, it's a sexually tensioned, sexual tensioned book. It's got a lot of symbolism in it. It has a lot of things about what a relationship should be and how you should treat your other path, how you should treat your wife, how you should treat the person that you're with the rest of your life.

In fact, in the Jewish culture, young people were not even allowed to read the book until they became of age. Because it was so edgy and so borderline. You know, you've been naughty if you want to use that word. And throughout the book, he compliments his bride. He says this, he says, your hair is like a flock of goats.

Miranda, your hair is like a flock of goats. Now, I don't recommend you on Valentine's Day compliment your bride that way, okay? Or your teeth is like sheep, right? Your teeth is like sheep. Or your neck is like a tower.

You have a tower neck, right? I was on line the other day in a Babylon Bee. I don't know if you're familiar with the satire, Christian satire thing, Babylon Bee. And this came up the other day. If you'll show that real quick.

It's a conversation hearts from Solomon. Hey, tower neck. Your breasts equal funds, right? You have goat hair or your teeth are sheep, right? So, I mean, putting it in our context, I wouldn't recommend that in your relationships.

But in that day, in that context, it was a beautiful thing. We'll say eloquent things to her, lifting her up and talking about the beauty. But then he gets very serious. He goes through all that, and he gets very serious in one passage, in several passages, and he kind of repeats this throughout the book. And in Psalms 2, 14 and 15, he says this, Catch for us the foxes.

The little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom. Catch the foxes. What does he mean by the foxes? Well, the foxes would often, in that culture, come into the great vineyards, the vineyards that were planted, and they would eat the blossoms. They'd eat the little blossoms off the trees, and the blossoms weren't able to produce or fall off the trees and produce the fruit they wanted to.

So these are the things. Foxes were coming in, and they were little, and they were insignificant creatures, but they would come in and ruin entire vineyards. See, what he's saying here is the enemy will distract you like little foxes. He will be like little foxes. It won't be a big obvious thing, it will be little small things, and he will distract you with those foxes.

Perhaps one of those foxes is comparison. Maybe you compare your relationship with somebody else, right? You go on social media, you look at hashtag relationship goals, and you say, I want that! And you don't even know what that is, right? You just see a picture, you don't know what's going on underneath that, but you look at that, and you're like, man, I wish my husband would do that.

I wish my husband would romanticize me that way. Or maybe you're with a co-worker in the office, and she's treating you with so much respect, and talking and doing little things for you. And it might just be little things, but you begin to think about it. You're like, I wish my wife, I wish my wife would respect me that way. Maybe I didn't love a relationship.

You know, you start having those thoughts, those little foxes. And Solomon tells us to cut those little foxes out. Don't let the little foxes into our relationships. It could be fights over money. Maybe it's just talks about money, right?

Just little things about where we're spending our money. And they come in, and you don't have a plan, and you have no agreement. There's no trust over your money. Maybe one of you is dealing with control. Maybe you have control issues.

Or maybe you're critical, and you're very nitpicky about things. And they're little things. But maybe one of you is passive, aggressive. And one of you is passive, and the other is aggressive. And you're dealing with those things, the little things, the nitpicky things, the meaningless things that often come in.

And the devil uses those things to trigger our anger, to trigger our anxieties, our insecurities. And he uses them against us. He will tell you, you know, to be really compatible with you. You should have never made that decision with being together. You never should have even walked across that aisle.

You should have never done... You're not compatible with you. The little foxes that come in and distract us from our relationships, from meaningful relationships. The second thing is seduction. He attacks us through seduction.

He seduces us. He seduces us. I think it's interesting about sexual temptations that 60% of divorces cite pornography as a factor in divorce. 60% over half. If that's true, this is an issue.

And it's worth talking about, right? Sexual temptations. Paul says in Ephesians, But among you there must not be a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity. We don't even want a hint. We don't even want to crack the door open.

What is a hint? For many people, a hint may be different things. Let me just put you through a little test here for a minute. Let's play a little game. When is there a hint of sexual sin?

When is there just a hint? Okay? Okay. Here's one. You lie to your wife's spouse.

You go meet someone. You met online. You go to a hotel and have an affair. That's pretty obvious, right? That's a hint.

Wouldn't you say? Would you agree with me? Yeah, that's a hint. How about this? When you binge watch pornography on your phone.

You lust all the time. You can't control your urges. Yada, yada. I think all of us say, yeah, there's a hint of sexual immorality there, right? Yeah, we would agree with that.

Well, how about this? Let's just bring it down a little bit. Maybe it's not full blown pornography, but maybe it's a Netflix original program. It has a little bit of sex in it. Once in a while you'll see parks, body parts, and this and that.

But it's not showing everything. Is that a hint? How about if you dress provocatively and post on Instagram and put hashtag blessed or whatever it is. Is that a hint? All right.

Are borderline inappropriate conversations with your coworker, someone you're not in a relationship with? What would you say to that? Is that a hint? Let me just get real with you just one minute. Not a hint.

Not a hint. This is not Leon. This is not pastor. This is the word of God. It says not even a hint of sexual immorality.

We need to slam the door shut on sexual immorality. I equate impurities to poisonous snakes. Now, if you're walking down a path and you see a copperhead in front of you, what are you going to do? I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to come way over here.

I'm going to get over you guys and I'm going to I'm going to get over here. You know, I'm going to get away from it. Right. I'm going to get away from that snake, that poisonous snake, because I know if I get bitten, you know, things happen. I'm going to stay away from it.

Right. But so many of us do this. We draw the line of sin. I'll get just this closer to it. I'll just get this little bit closer to it.

A little bit closer to it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Come on. Come on.

You know, we play and we flirt with poisonous snakes. Here's what Proverbs says about that. Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of it. Avoid it. Do not travel on it.

Turn from it and go on your way. He gives you four things to avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn from it and go on your way. So what am I going to do?

I'm going to distance myself from anything and everything that will compromise or potentially compromise my marriage and my relationships. I'm going to avoid it. I'm going to get away from it. I'm going to slam the door on it. Not even a hint.

So if I'm in a vulnerable place on my phone, if I have issues on my phone, guess what? I'm going to block my phone. I'm going to keep myself. I'm going to block myself off of Instagram if there's issues there. If I'm doing anything that would begin to affect my relationship or sexual temptations, I'm going to immediately get rid of that phone.

I'm going to limit access to that. I'm not going to eat alone with somebody in an intimate environment that may compromise my relationship with a person of the opposite sex. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to cut that off. I'm not going to have ongoing conversations with people on social media that might be tempting me to think differently about my relationship and what I could have with them.

I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to... I'm going to... The gym is a problem for you, for instance. Going to the gym, if that's an issue for you, you know, maybe you need to start working out at home, right?

I'm gonna slam the door shut. I don't, you don't follow people visually or relationally that will tempt you. You don't follow old boyfriends and old girlfriends. If you think those are gonna be a problem, we have to cut those off. If somebody is at your job and they're making you think differently, if you feel like it's going too far, and your conversations are a bit too much, inappropriate, what do you do?

You cut those off. You change your position. You go to another place in the company to work. If there's not another place in the company to work, you start looking for another doctor. You need to cut it off, not a hint of sexual immorality.

Cut it off. You want to be blessed? You want a relationship that matters? You want a relationship that matters? You want a relationship that makes a difference?

You cut it off. You want relationships that are strong, that are pure, that are Christ-centered, mission-driven. You cut it off. You be a devil-stomping believer. You be a devil-stomping relationship.

You be a devil-stomping couple. You go away with those things. Shut the door on those things. Why fight a temptation in the future if you have the power to eliminate it today? Why?

Why would you leave the door open when you have the power to shut that door today? Don't wait. Do it. Do it now. Shut it off.

You can cut off that temptation right away. Now, there's two extremes that some people may be dealing with here. One of those extremes is like, oh, pastor, this is too much. Why do you like that? With another woman or another man, I mean, that's just kind of far.

So maybe you're there and you're thinking, man, that's just too far. And some of you may be on the other extreme. Man, I'm so trapped. I'm so trapped. I don't even see what I'm about.

I'm so caught up in what I'm in. I don't know how to get out with me. Well, I've got good news for both extremes. Look at 1 Corinthians. Paul shares.

It says, so if you think you were standing firm for those who, what does he mean? Those who are cocky. Those who think they got it together. It's not going to bother my relationship. Everything's going to go.

If you think you are standing firm, he says, be careful about you. And then he goes on to say, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful because we have a faithful God, right? He's there for it. God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. Meaning there is no temptation that he will place before you that you can't bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can endure it. We have a God that is faithful. We have a God that is with us.

So any temptation that comes into our lives, gets in our way, whatever, he's given us the power. He's given us the ability. He's given us the strength. And he's walking with us faithfully. But he will not allow us to be attempted past what we are capable of handling.

Some people say, well, he does give you more than you can handle because it makes you stronger. Well, maybe so. But you can handle it. You can do it. He gives you a way out.

Going back to the not marrying people. Well, a lot of this is not for me today. In fact, I've messed a big chunk of the series myself because it's not for me. And you're kind of listening to me again today. And you're like, I don't need this.

But here's the deal. The devil attacks you too. The devil attacks you just as well as marriages. And today matters. Today matters.

The decisions you make today matter. Yeah, some of you have been distracted. And some of you have been seduced away from your first love. Some of you are living that way now. And you're seeing this.

You've been seduced. You've been distracted. And maybe some of you are like, you know, one day I'll walk straight near him. One day, you know, I just want to do my thing. I mean, I know what's right.

But I'll bless marriage someday. I'll be faithful someday. I'll follow Christ someday. I'll be Christ-centered, mission-driven someday. But right now, I'm kind of where I am.

And I just want to kind of continue what I'm doing. Let me tell you. I tell this every week. I say this every week. And I'll say it again.

And I'm going to say it again next week, okay? You don't build a life of righteousness in the future on the foundation of sin today. You don't live in sin today expecting to have a righteous future. Every decision you make is important today. You don't build a life of righteousness in the future on a foundation of sin today.

Say not a hint. Not a hint. Don't even crack the door. Oh, you're worth so much more than that. You're worth so much more.

God's got great plans for your life. He wants to use you. He wants to use you now. He's not going to wait. He doesn't want to wait for you in the future.

He wants to use you to bless your life. The influence and the impact that you have. Purpose. You are built on purpose. You are made for a purpose.

Not a hint. Something that I think is important to do is when you're ever... I shared this a few years ago. I'm kind of repeating it again. Some of you haven't been with this for a while.

I've probably heard this. But we always have new people coming in. So I kind of repackage this sometimes. But I think it's important that whenever you're tempted to do something that might hurt your spouse or hurt your relationship, hurt your marriage, you need to play it for me. What would happen if I did this?

Whenever I'm tempted, I visualize the destruction. I just look at it. I visualize it. And here's what I know. I know that if I ever was unfaithful, first of all, I'd have to one day be God-faced with us.

That's a big deal. And I have to stand before you and give an account of the decisions I've made in this life. Secondly, I would hurt and disappoint hundreds of people. Leaders, people in the church, people in my ministry that I've had impact. People who feel betrayed and friends who feel betrayed.

I'd have to step down from the church, I'd have to forgive. Although God forgives me, the trust would never be the same. I would impress my kids, the godly man that they see every day in their home. My son here, right here on the front. What effect that would have on him if I ever went somewhere I didn't need to go in a relationship with.

And most importantly, I would devastate my wife and trust me. As you can tell you today, I have not even had jealousy or anything, Leon, because we have a relationship with trust. If I broke that trust, I would hurt my best friend, her mother, my children, and the one who sacrificed beyond her. The next time you're tempted, maybe you should play it for me. What devastation?

What would be the result of all people? So this week, I want you to discuss this honestly. Whether it's in your small groups, whether it's among a couple of your wife or your husband or someone you're dating or 40, I want you to be asking honestly about this. Where are we currently most vulnerable? Where are we most vulnerable?

And be honest, because you're only as strong as you are honest. I know it's hard to be honest, but we need to be honest about where we are and what we're most vulnerable towards. Because what God blesses, say you curse. What God loves, say you attack to you and compare to another person or your marriage. We want to talk about praying together.

And I would say if you want to battle Satan, if you want to be a devil-stomping believer, a devil-stomping couple, a devil-stomping marriage, you need to intensify your prayers. Put some intensity in your prayers. Not just praying. Like week one, we talked about, you know, just simple prayers for good among spouses. But you need to step it up and you need to use one.

You need to raise the sword of the spirit. God says the word of God is the sword of the spirit, the word of God. You need to know scripture. You need to speak scripture. You need to know no weapon formed against my marriage shall prosper.

You need to speak that. That greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And we together are overcomers by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And that we are not battling our spouse. I am not battling my spouse.

We are not battling each other. But we are not battling flesh and blood, but the powers and principalities and dark places in this world. Dark places. That we claim that. Now for some of you, you might be battling wrong.

Maybe you are in a marriage, you have no relationship. Maybe your husband or your wife, you are just not. You are not responsive, passive, you are disengaged. And maybe you are wrong example. Things like that.

Let me just say this. Fight for it. Fight for it. It is worth fighting for. It is something worth fighting for.

It is easy to get resentful. It is easy to get angry. But let me just say to each couple. For wives. Instead of getting critical.

Instead of gossiping. Instead of becoming resentful. Which is easy to do. Instead. Pray for it.

Encourage them. Build him up. Let them know things like I still believe in you. I still love you. I still.

I still respect you. Show him respect. And build your relationship. Not on what he is going through. What he is doing.

The decisions he has made. But he made. You do what is right. You build. You fight for your marriage.

If you are a man. Get up and lead. Get up and lead. Lead your family to Christ. Get involved in church.

Serve together. Don't just fight like a man. Fight like a man of God. Be a man of God. Can I just say that out loud?

Be a man of God. We do not have men of God in the church like we used to. We need men to step up. Step up in society. Be men of God.

Lead your families. Lead your children. Lead them to Christ. Show them a follower of Christ. And direct your families.

Be an example in your marriages. If a bad guy was coming into your house. What would you do? What would you do? If a thief came into your house.

What would you do? You'd protect your house. If you got up in the middle of the night. You heard something knocking on the door. You're going to get up in your tighty-whities.

Grab a bat. You're going to go at it. Right? You're going to be running downstairs with a bat in your hand. You need to fight for your family.

Fight your family. Fight for your family. Don't just. Don't just fight like a man. Fight like a man of God.

Leave them. Die for them. I know they can die for them. Well. Live for them.

Live today. Protect them. I think it's important. To know that. See some of this.

You kind of look at. At. Marriages. And you look at colors. And you see the hashtag relationship goals.

You know the real relationship goals. Aren't. Hanging off the side of the train. It's kissing. Whatever.

Those aren't relationship goals. The relationship goal isn't sitting. Drinking wine in a nice restaurant. That's how the relationship. That's not a relationship.

A relationship goal is. Thank you. Despite the challenges, despite the hurt, they've been fighting, and they've been praying, and they've been doing whatever it takes. They are Christ-centered, mission-driven, devil-keeping, covenant-keeping people that are working hard. I've got friends, I've got a couple that I know, if you saw them in church, you would think they were a perfect Christian couple, because they raised their hands, and they cry out to God, and hold their hands in church, and worship them together, and all relationships.

But I'll tell you, it's good, but it's only good because both of them have been really hard. Both of them have been in several marriages that you've been through, almost endorsement at home, working with some odd things, just some awful stuff I can't even share publicly. You'll see them in church, worship them in Jesus, if you like. That's a real relationship. It will be hard, it will take work, it will take prayer, it will take repentance, it will take commitment.

Because what God blesses, the devil attacks, but greater is he. Can you believe that? Can you believe that today? In fact, if you believe that today, give God some praise, okay? If you don't believe that David is Jesus in the world, by greater sin and sin, do you believe that today?

Do you believe that he is greater? He is greater than all this? He is greater than your hurt? He is greater than your pain? He is greater than your rocky situation that you're in?

He's greater than your financial situation that you guys just can't get past if you want a divorce over? He is greater than that sexual temptation that is in your life that has locked you down? He can break you from that. He wants to do that today. He's asking, greater is he that is in me, the Christ that is in me, the Holy Spirit that is in me, that he that is in the world.

If you believe that today, shout for praise, shout for glory, because he's doing something in you. In you. We pray with him. Lord, give us power. The power that is found in your word and the dwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

I pray for those who haven't given up the Holy Spirit. Those who haven't hurt. Those who haven't burnt. Those who haven't given up on any good in our relationship. That we would realize that someone doesn't complete us, that only Christ will.

We pray that you would agree. Reconciliation, restoration, healing, a miracle working power. That our relationships with you will overcome anything in the end of the throes of our lives in the world. Because we are putting on full armor. We're putting it all on.

We're putting on the armor. Every piece of the armor. We're covering ourselves fully. And when we confess our sins to you, we know that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins. So I pray for those relationships here that struggle.

I pray for those relationships that seem like there's no end in sight. We believe that it's by the power of your spirit. And as we continue to pray in the spirit of worship, in the spirit of honoring what has been communicated to us. With no one looking around, I'm going to ask this question. Would you believe it if I told you that God loved you?

That God gave his life for you? That if you called on the name of the Lord? If that's you today, maybe this is the first time for you. Maybe you've been coming for a little while. And you know that you cannot continue this life to build on sin.

Because you want righteousness now. You don't want to build your future on sin. You want to build your future on righteousness. And today you've got a new God that loves you. If that's you today, I'd ask you to pray with the magical in the prayer.

It's just for you. Father, I hope that you are the son of God. That you died on the cross. I believe that you will be coming again. So I ask you today, Lord.

I'm coming into your heart to transform. Now give God a hand clap. A shout of praise in today.