Upset the Vows - Part 9

Tim Ross | April 25, 2021

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Transcription

Hi. I don't think that it's an accident that this final message that I'm teaching is on sex and that God would be so present and so intimate on the final message in this marriage series, and I'm ending it talking about sex, and He decides to make His presence felt in such an intimate way that the only thing that we can do is be still and know that He is God. He gave us a glorious moment, which is absolutely amazing because the title of my message is "Glorious Sex." I think I should just start teaching. Because what else should I do?

If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to 1 Corinthians 7. I'm going to read a few verses in your hearing, then I'll pray and get right into the message. 1 Corinthians 7:1 says this, "Now regarding the questions you asked in your letter. Yes, it is good to abstain from sexual relations." Can we just pause, go back to verse 1. Who said that? Who wrote that?

Paul?

No, I'm talking about the people that wrote to Paul to ask about sex. "What do you think we should be doing about sexual relations?" They're writing this. I wish the church would be more free to have questions and answers like the Corinthians. "Now regarding the questions you asked in your letter. Yes, it is good to abstain from sexual relations. But--" Thank God for that "but."

I ain't never been so happy to see a "but" in all my life like I did right here. "But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband. The husband should fulfill his wife's sexual needs-" Every married woman say it amen.

Only three women married in here? Y'all scared?

Wait, you don't think he can do it? What is the problem?

Let me help y'all today. "-and the wife should fulfill her husband's needs." All the men say it amen.

Married men.

"The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. Do not deprive each other of sexual relations unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so that you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won't be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control." If you're taking notes from this message, the title of this message is "Glorious Sex." "Glorious Sex."

My hope, my prayer is that every married person who can-- I know that there are a lot of issues that create sexual intimacy from being possible in certain marriages. We'll unpack all of that when Juliette and I talk on Unpacked, but I want to bring the glory back to sex for married people. I want to bring the context back to the way God gave it to married people so that you will understand that as a married couple, husband and wife, you should be having the best sex of anyone on the planet.

The world has literally robbed the act of sexual expression and made it seem like they're having more fun than married people, who God gave it to to enjoy, so I'm going to talk about glorious sex. By your hands, let's pray over the word. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would bring glory back to sexual activity in the marriage bed between a man and a woman, in Jesus' name, amen.

I want to give you some definitions before I get into this because when you hear certain words, certain words in culture have been diluted because we use certain words for everything now. Unless you go back to the definition, some of the words can be diluted and they lose their punch. It's just like, everything's amazing now. Is it though? Everything's amazing? "The zucchini is amazing. Those shoes are amazing. That movie was amazing. That basketball game was--" Everything's amazing?

You start using a word too much, it dilutes its potency. Sometimes you have to go back to the definition to get a context of what it is. I want to give you the definition of glorious. Glorious means, by definition, delightful, wonderful, completely enjoyable. That's what I want every married person to be experiencing in their sexual life. Something that is delightful, wonderful, and completely enjoyable. Sex in the marriage bed should be glorious.

There's a counterpart to glorious sex, and that is the word inglorious. Inglorious by definition means shameful or disgraceful. If I say that the objective of this particular message is for married couples to redeem the glory God gave to them to have in their sexual activity, then we must also acknowledge that if we are meant to have glorious sex, then there's somebody out there having inglorious sex.

Let me give you my definitions for these two words. Glorious sex happens between a man and a woman who have committed themselves to each other through a marriage for a lifetime. If you all can read what is on the screen, would you please read it along with me? Glorious sex happens between a man and a woman who have committed themselves to each other through marriage for a lifetime.

Inglorious sex is any sex that happens outside of a marriage by a man or a woman. If you actually read what's on the screen, would you please read it with me? Inglorious sex is any sex that happens outside of a marriage by a man or a woman. Can we be real and honest and admit that there is glorious sex, the way God intended, and I will give you the scriptures for it, but that means if there is glorious sex, there is also inglorious sex.

If glorious sex is supposed to be delightful, if it's supposed to be something that's completely enjoyable, then we have to also admit that there is some sexual activity happening that is shameful and disgraceful. I'll be the first to admit, I've had inglorious sex. Anybody else going to join me in the house of the Lord?

I love the fact that y'all so honest. Y'all are my favorite church. I told Rory before I came out here, I said, "I love this church." Honestly, how many people in this room have had inglorious sex? You've had inglorious sex? Good. How many people want to have glorious sex? You want to have glorious sex? [laughs] I love y'all.

Sign me up. Where is this at? Show me the way, sensei, show me the way. Let me give you a verse, Hebrew 13:4, "Let marriage be held in honor among all." Among who?

Among who?

"Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous." There's a couple of bullets I want you to write down. Here is the first one. Marriage should be honored by everybody. Everybody should honor marriage. We live in a culture right now where marriage is deemed dishonorable. "Oh, you got married, oh. Oh, you're handcuffed, oh, you can't go out no more. Oh men, now you're not going to have fun."

The way culture has made it sound is that if you get married, you no longer have fun, you no longer enjoy life, you no longer enjoy sex because now it's with the same person over and over "Oh that's so boring. I can't believe. Oh, that just sounds [sound]. That sounds so limiting. I can't believe. Oh, you went down there--" My wife has been hit on in Walmart because she's fine, she's just fine. When she go somewhere, men just think she's cute, some ladies too.

It's true, she's been hit on by both. Somebody will come in and inevitably will be like, "Hey, how are you doing?" Juliette is so sweet and so nice and so innocent that she's just like, "Hi, how are you?" She has no clue they're trying to hit on her.

He's like, "Yes, what are you doing?" "Oh, I'm just trying to get some food, what are you doing here?"

Two minutes later, he becomes a little bit more overt and she's like, "What? I'm married, I have a Timmy bear and I love him."

She was like, "No, I got some single friends," and they're like, "No, you," and she's like, "No." Inevitably when she says, "Are you married?" their response would be, "Are you happily married?" Wow, the level of disrespect. You didn't catch her at a club drinking some vodka, trying to get amnesia to me. You caught her in a Walmart queue waiting to get home to me asking this question.

Culture has made it seem like marriage, and more specifically sex in marriage, has to be the most boring thing in the whole wide world. Don't be a believer in Jesus, oh now it's the worst thing ever. The marriage bed should be kept pure. When it says the marriage bed is undefiled, another way to say that simply is that the marriage bed should be kept pure. How do you keep a marriage bed pure? Make sure you and your spouse are the only ones in it.

That's the end of the entire undefiled revelation. You want to keep your marriage bed pure? Make sure you and your spouse, man and a woman, are the only ones in the bed. Do not bring pornography into that bedroom. You and your spouse can have the most thrilling sex of all time if you would communicate your needs, tell them what you want, need, like, and when you come into agreement, have a ball. Hear me, when you come into agreement.

Some of us have been too informed by pornography to truly enjoy the sexual experience you could have with your spouse in the marriage bed because you've been so polluted by what you've seen actors and actresses do, that you actually think your wife is a porn star. You actually think your husband is a porn star, and so you bring all of this stuff you see actors and actresses do into the bedroom, and then you are shocked when your spouse is looking at you like, "What? You want to what? When? Where? How? Here? Now?

you want. It's Wednesday night, fool. I worked all day and so did you. We have two kids under five years old. I'm tired. She was hired."

I want to give you some points, some points that I think will help you understand. Just the way I did it last week when I taught on sexuality, by the way, that message on sexuality went off. We had feedback from heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, all the sexuals, that said, "Listen, I had no idea that you were going to teach this so plainly and not body slam us. I just knew we were about to get condemned to hell because of our attractions, and now I have a revelation that I didn't have before. I want to make decisions that please God, even if my attractions tell me otherwise."

That's all we can ask for, is to get people on a journey with Jesus Christ and not tell them, "You better have it all right before you follow me down the street," but, "Are you committed to at least follow me down the street and let me teach you along the way?" I have four points to this message and I would like you to take notes on this, okay? Point number one is, God created sex, blessed sex, and calls it "very good." Say it again, God created six, he blessed sex and he calls it "very good." Okay?

Genesis 1:27 says this, "So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them." What did he bless? He blessed those two and their sexuality and said, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, and the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground." Verse 31, "Then God looked over all he had made--" and on the sixth day, he made the rest of the animals and humans, that's the last thing he made, was man or woman, and he saw that it was what?

Very good. "Evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day." God created sex, He blessed sex, and he calls it very good. When you get married, you need to know that the God that called you into a relationship with himself created your sexuality and your sex drive. He blessed your sex drive, and he calls the sex you have in your marriage very good. Not just good, very good.

Here's the prayer I've been praying all week. Lord, I just pray that every able-bodied couple that can, after this service is over, that are married to each other, go home and have sex, so good that their eyes cross and they fall asleep and get the best Sunday nap they have ever had in their whole life. I'm actually trying to prophesy that too.

I believe you for it, God, do a miracle. Go play Fortnite, kids. Vbox for all. That's my prayer because I want it to be redeemed for us. He made it for us. God made sex for married people, we should be having the best sex of all time. It's been so hijacked by secular culture, that we've literally deified inglorious sex. Those of us that are supposed to be having glorious sex are looking at those having inglorious sex and then we're jealous of them. They should be jealous of us. I feel that thing. That's good.

Point number two, please write this down. God made sex for our pleasure. Now, the reason why this was a very important thing for me to put here is because a lot of traditional people that are scared of sex and sexuality will say that it's only for procreation, "Sex is for procreation. Is for making babies. Outside of that--" There's a lot of people that can't have babies. They've tried.

I've walked with people through heartbreaking stories of infertility, and they've tried in vitro and they've tried all these different things, and they couldn't have children. If we only focus on sex as procreation and not pleasure, then you'll feel like if you can't have children, then you shouldn't be having sex, but long after your childbearing years are done, you can still enjoy the intimacy of sex with each other.

I want to give you some pleasure reading right now. Song of Songs, Songs of Solomon 4. There's some innuendo going on here that by the time I'm done reading it, you will not have no problem understanding what is about to go down, what has gone down with these two people. Are you ready? Like to hear it? Here it go. Song of Songs 4:1, "You are beautiful, my darling, beautiful beyond words. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats winding down the slopes of Gilead." Let's go.

Give me all the farm talk. Let's go. I see you, shepherd boy, out here, bro. You're out here spitting game like the farmers do. Let's go, bro. "Your teeth are as white as sheep, recently shorn and freshly washed. Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin." Can I stop right there? Let me tell you why this has special significance because I'll be reading all the notes and stuff and all the commentators. The reason why this has special significance is because you got to remember this is a very old primitive times. There are no dentist. You find a woman who has made it to her late teens, early 20s, and she's still got all her teeth with no decay? You done found you a winner, bro. "Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with this twin. Your lips are like scarlet ribbon; your mouth is inviting." Speak to her. Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates behind your veil. Your neck is as beautiful as the tower of David, jeweled with the shields of a thousand heroes. Your breasts are like two fawns, twin fawns of a gazelle grazing among the lilies." Let's go, bro. Two twin fawns; perky. Let's go, man.

"Before the dawn breezes blow and the night shadows flee, I will hurry to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense, you are altogether beautiful, my darling, beautiful in every way. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Come down from Mount Amana from the peaks of Senir and Hermon, where the lions have their dance and leopards live among the hills. You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes."

I'm telling you, some of you guys, go home, wait a month, write that on a napkin. Just write it on a napkin to your boo. "You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace. Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine, your perfume more fragrant than spices. Your lips are as sweet as nectar, my bride." This is my line right here, "Honey and milk are under your tongue." You hear me, girl? I'm going to mack you down when this is over. It's sweet under there. Let's go.

"Your clothes are scented like the cedars of Lebanon. You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain. Your thighs shelter a paradise of pomegranates with rare spices - henna with nard, nard and saffron, fragrant calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, and every other lovely spice.

You are a garden fountain, a well of fresh water streaming down from Lebanon's mountains." This is all him talking. You ready for her response?

"Awake, north wind." That girl said, "Yes." "Awake, north wind. Rise up, south wind. Blow on my garden-" Blow on it, wake it up. "-and spread its fragrance all around. Come into your garden, my love; taste--" Let me pause. She didn't just say "enter," she said "taste." "Taste its finest fruits."

His response. "I have entered my garden, my treasure, my bride. I gather myrrh with my spices and eat honeycomb with my honey. I drink wine with my milk." You ready for the next response? This response is like from the bridesmaids. I don't know where they at. They should not be looking at all this. "Oh, lover and beloved, eat and drink. Yes, drink deeply of your love."

This is a glorious exchange back and forth between a husband and a wife building the anticipation that ends with their bodies coming together and then enjoying each other's bodies in all kinds of ways because this is glorious. Do you know how many people won't read the Song of Solomon because they think it's taboo? How can something be taboo when God made it?

It's our own negative impact and what culture has done to our society that makes us feel like we don't have permission to talk about everything he wrote. If it wasn't in here, I wouldn't read it. When you dedicate a whole book, a whole book, God's name ain't even mentioned. God's like, "Go ahead. Y'all just go ahead. You ain't got to mention me, I created it, have fun." When a whole book's being dedicated to it, I just think we should bring back the glory that we should be having in our relationship. I'm telling you, guys, take notes, girls, take notes. It's right here. If you're like, "I don't know what garden means." Go home figure it out.

Point number three. Please write this down. God gave us sex for our protection. 1 Corinthians 7:2, "But because there is so much sexual immorality--" Would everyone agree that our culture has a lot of sexual immorality in it?

Agreed?

Okay. "Because there is so--" I just want you to know America is on par with Corinth. Nothing new under the sun. "There is so much sexual immorality in our nation and our society." Yes, great, so it was in the Bible days. There's nothing new under the sun, whoop-de-doo. "Can't believe our country is just sliding down a hill into a slippery slope of Lava."

No problem, Corinth was about the same way. They asked the questions because remember what we talked about last week, all these people that were out here doing whatever they wanted to do gave their life to Jesus and now they're like, "Okay, so we've got memories, sir. We was out here having a whole bunch of inglorious sex. We gave our lives to Jesus and we've been following his teachings and we've been dying to our flesh, our will, our way, our particular desires."

I appreciate you letting me know that attraction is not a sin, but I don't want that attraction to turn into an orientation that turns into an identity that turns its back on God. The letter that we're writing is, "Should we get married and have sex or should we stay single?"

Paul's response is, "Hey, I know it would be really good, thank you for asking the question, it would be really good if you stayed single and stayed celibate, but because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman should have her own husband. The husband should fulfill his wife's sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband's needs.

The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time only so you can give yourself more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so Satan won't be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control." He gave us sex for our protection.

Now, when you live in a sexually immoral world, what they'll tell you is that unprotected sex is having sex without a condom. Unprotected sex is any sex outside of marriage. If you have sex and you are not married, you are having unprotected sex. The only protected sex is sex in a marriage between a man and a woman. Any other sex you're having is unprotected.

I'm not saying it doesn't feel good, because that's another lie that tries to come across the pulpit, "You're doing it wrong and you're going to hell." Before I got saved, I'm like, "It's great." Inglorious sex isn't about trying to tell people that "what you're doing doesn't feel good." Inglorious sex when I've communicated, what I'm trying to tell people is that it doesn't give God glory.

Glorious sex is sex between a man and a woman in the marriage bed, that gives God glory. Any other sex outside of that is inglorious. It does not bring glory to God. I want you to understand that sex was given for our protection because we live in a sexually immoral world. Isn't it amazing that in a sexually immoral climate, like Corinth, Paul's answer was marriage?

"We just came from doing all this Inglorious sex, and what are our options?" "Well, you can be celibate," and half the church was like, "Oh, dang." "Or you can get married." They were like, "We choose marriage."

Now we live in a culture that says, "Do we have to get married? Does that piece of paper really make a difference?" It absolutely does. The reason why I know it makes a difference because I've counseled people that have dated and lived with each other for 12 years, been married for 6 months, and now about to get a divorce. They're wondering and scratching their head, "I don't understand. We were together all this time, but then we got married, and now--"

You know why? Because there was a light that began to shine on your relationship in marriage that was never shining before you got married. All that inglorious sex you was having, it was all passionate and [groans] couldn't keep your hands off each other. You're throwing each other against walls and stuff and climbing all over each other. Then you get married and you're like, "Meh."

Why? Because you got addicted to something inglorious, and it gives you a rush that's not going to be there consistently in a glorious marriage. I'm not saying you won't have those moments, but it's the difference.

My friend, Jenna, she's going to be with us on Unpacked and she's brilliant. She's a sex therapist. She said that it's a difference between riding the Texas giant every day, inglorious sex, [sound] when glorious sex is supposed to be a vacation in Italy, where you get on the gondola and eat some cheese and drink some wine while you float down a canal, and then you might have a rush of passion, and then the next day just might be comfort, and then the next day might just be maintenance.

Then the day after that might be the Texas Giant again, but then three weeks later, it's just, "Oh, we need to come together. You bring me comfort. I've been going through a hard time. There are things that you do to me that no one else on the planet has permission to do to me. When you do those things, I feel better." There's a protection in that.

There's a protection and the exclusivity that Juliette and I have that we know we're not bringing diseases back to each other. That just brings you comfort. There's no stress involved. "I wonder if she was out with somebody yesterday." Juliette ain't checking my DMs. I'm not checking her phone. Why?

When there's protection, there's peace. You know that's mine on any day of the week. I ain't got to try to go convince somebody I don't know to give it to me. I got somebody for the rest of my life that's like, "When you want it, holla." When she comes to me, I'm ready already. She come through the door, I be like, "Yes, it's popping." I get up in the morning, I'm like, "Yes." She's like, "No. Go to work, come back, I'll be ready."

There's protection in it. There's a rhythm in it. I go out and I can see other people that are attractive and I'm like, "Hey man, hopefully, somebody finds you. I got mine." It's safe and it's protected, and there is a bond because we keep going to each other over and over again.

My friend Jenna made this ridiculously brilliant statement. I know it can go both ways, with a woman or a man, but this is most commonly a man. She said, "Men would rather spend time trying to get multiple women instead of committing to one woman and figuring her out multiple times." See, you actually think that you're the man because you've been with so many women. When by heavens account, you are the man when you can stay with one.

There are some ladies that have adopted this mentality of men, and they think the more men they have, the more control they have. When the truth of the matter is, you would really find glory in one man that you don't have to control.

He gave us sex in marriage for our protection, which brings me to point number four, please write this down. God's image shows up when we have sex. It's not just glorious because of the way it feels. We actually get an image of God when we have sex with each other. God's image shows up when we have sex. Say it with me, God's image shows up when we have sex. Again, God's image shows up when we-- One more time, God’s image shows up when we have sex.

Yes. Genesis 1:27, "So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female he created them. Y'all ready for it? Now remember, if you recall, earlier in the teachings of this series, I talked about that when you get married to your spouse, your spouse is you, outside of you, looking back at you, talking to you, about you. Y'all remember that?

Your spouse is you, outside of you, looking back at you, talking to you, about you. Well, God made male and female in His image in Genesis 1. Genesis 1, he made male and female in His image, but they didn't have any bodies. Genesis 2, he scoops the dust of the earth, and he makes man and he blows into the man His spirit, man becomes a living soul. The woman's inside the man. He puts the man to sleep, pulls out the woman, forms the woman. He made the man. He was like [sound]. He formed a woman. Then he brought her back to the man.

God sees His image during intercourse between a man and a woman who are married, His image literally shows up because He made man in His image, right? Male and female, He created them. When He made man, woman was inside the man until He took the woman outside of the man, and it's not until the woman and the man are back together that we see this beautiful image of God.

Let me tell you, married couples, Christian married couples when you are in the bed with your spouse, and y'all are having intercourse, you know what God says? "There I go. There I am. There we are." Why? Because He made the man and the woman, they were in one body. The woman came out of the man. When the man goes into the woman, they are one, and that oneness shows up and represents God and he goes, "There I am."

Here's your formula. Man plus woman plus marriage equals God's image. Man plus woman minus marriage equals your image. You're glorifying yourself. Man plus man minus marriage equals your image. Man plus man and marriage equals your image. Woman plus woman plus marriage is your image. Woman plus woman, no marriage, your image. Only man plus woman plus marriage equals God's image.

Whose image do you want displayed in your marriage? His or yours? It's your opportunity to give God glory. As you know from the Old Testament all the way to the New, you can't give God glory your way. You can't give God glory any way you want, down from the way he required worship in the tabernacle all the way through to when Jesus says, "There's coming a day where those that worship me will worship me in spirit and in truth." There was a way worship is required, but we give God glory in our marriages.

There's one last thing. We know that there's a blessed at Trinity in the oneness of God? There's God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Now, remember when there is intercourse between a man and a woman, it shows God's glory. There is a possibility in that interaction and in that exchange that life can be produced in that exchange. Think about the fact that in that exchange, the potential life that can be formed makes three of y'all present in this one act, the husband, the wife, and the new life that is conceived in that moment.

Listen y'all, I want to redeem sex for married people. I want y'all to like it. I don't want you to be embarrassed of it and ashamed of it. I know there's a lot of brokenness. You talk about sex and you are opening up Pandora's box. That's why when we do Unpacked today, we'll try to cover all the things we can. This is a limitless conversation. We have unlimited amount of time, so we'll try to get to as much as we can.

I hope and I pray that I have hit the points that really matter. The points that really matter are if you are married, you should be having. Not your unrealistic expectations of sex, not the stuff you want your spouse to do that you saw somewhere else, create your own narrative. Write your own song, produce your own experiences. Come into agreement on what brings you all pleasure. Experiment. Go on a tour. Do you like it here, there? How about here, there? Would you like me to blow on the south wind? I have Bible for it. Would you like me to wake up the north wind? I want to experience this whole garden. It talks about some springs.

I want to bring joy and love and purity back to the marriage bed. I pray that y'all can schedule something today. I pray this isn't like two or three days away. I hope you get a babysitter. I hope you get somebody to go somewhere so that you have the opportunity to produce glory today. That's the best way to say it. That's how I'm going to hit you up this week. I'll be like, "You want to bring God some glory? You down to manifest his presence today?" Yes, I'm down for all the things. Trying to get that garden wet today? We good?" Don't put that mask like you don't know. It's 22 years. I've been on a whole tour there. That's mine. I love it.

I want to normalize this conversation until you're not [sound]. The only reason why you're doing that because you don't talk about it enough. You do stuff that you don't talk about. I promise you're not experiencing glory until you do both. When you can communicate like grown adults not like seventh graders [sound], I'm telling you, you'll be having the best sex ever.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your nine-week series on Upset the Vows. I love you guys so much. I hope you have been blessed. I hope you have learned something. I hope your marriage is in a revival. I hope you believe that God's best for marriage is still in you. I love you. Bow your heads, close your eyes. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? Y'all sit down. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this marriage series, through this particular message on sex?

For married couples, I hope what he is saying to you is, "Go have sex." For single people, I hope what he is saying to you is, "Get married," if that's what you want? Some of y'all have made it through this whole series and you're like, "I'm celibate forever." That's okay. Singleness is not a curse. It's not an emptiness of anything. It's actually the commitment to everything that has to do with God, and there's glory in it.

I feel like God gave me this series and told me to walk through it very slowly over the span of three months to bring people into a context of how they should be experiencing God in each other in their marriage. The enemy's so violently attacking marriages. He so wants to destroy the family unit. I felt like I was compelled to teach for nine weeks on the subject. My prayer is that whether you are here or you're watching us there, whatever God is saying to you, hear him, believe him, obey him.

Lord Jesus. I thank you so much for my brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters. I thank you, Lord God, that as I have obeyed to teach what you've called me to teach that you would establish generational blessings that go on for a thousand generations between covenants that have been made in front of God and man to show the picture of Christ and his love for his bride the church. God, I pray that there is no weapon that prospers in any of the marriages and that every tongue that would try to rise up in judgment, you will condemn it.

God, I thank you that every single marriage under the sound of my voice both here and abroad is blessed, is saved, is strong, is loving, is kind, is joyful, is enduring. Lord God, may there be no more broken pictures of the image that we need to see between Jesus and his love for his bride. God, I thank you for everything that you have done and I leave it in your hands now in Jesus' name, amen.