The One Thing That Will Change Your Marriage | Better Together | Craig Groeschel

good morning Free Chapel thank you so much for joining us I want to welcome all of our campuses today we deeply appreciate each and every one of you being a part of this amazing series it's just been incredible the last few weeks what God has been doing and today we are just in an amazing way blessed we have the pastor of Life Church Life Church whether you know it or not is the largest church in the United States of America and and they are ministering to over a 100,000 people real live people in in buildings and on top of that their online audience is enormous and it's because they love the Lord and they preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ Craig Rochelle and his wife Amy have been married for 33 years on a personal level I don't know of anyone that I uh look up to more and respect more than Pastor Craig Rochelle such Integrity such uh such godliness and wonderful parents amazing leaders uh just a leader in every area and someone who P has poured into my life and you know he was the one who challenged me all of you campus all of our campuses you wouldn't be in existence had I not had an encounter with this man and he kept pushing me you need to do campuses you need to do campuses and and Chang the whole uh trajectory of our ministry to be honest because he got my mind to wondering would it work for us and we have all these campuses now because he planted that seed we love you Pastor Craig and Amy it is an extreme honor you know I think this is the only place he's preached this year outside of his own pull pit and I've had the honor of being on his board and I know this ministry and what they do for God it's astounding would you stand to your feet and would you give a warm welcome at all of our campuses to Pastor Craig RI oh thank you thank you honor to be with you can you just uh why don't you touch the person next to you and tell them Pastor Jensen looks even better with a beard ah go ahead and be seated if you will I didn't know if he could get any more handsome and now he's got the spirit of the Wolverine coming to preach and it is a massive honor to be with you guys today I love your pastors more than I can describe and we had kind of the biggest moment in the church it was your pastor that I invited in to preach to our team and um it is an honor to be with you guys a big welcome today to all the free chapel campuses I was just with you all in Orange County on the front row shouting down your pastor a few weeks ago and uh if we're anywhere near a Free Chapel church and I'm not preaching I am on the front row because I love what God is doing if I were you I would thank God I get to be a part of this place every day you're under anointed powerful preaching and uh the best of leadership your pastor is amazing one of my uh closest friends it is an honor to be with you um my assignment today is to talk to you about one of my favorite subjects my assignment is to talk to you about marriage um I have been married almost 33 years uh we have six kids six kids you can clap for that some people some people look at it kind of weird right in the early years people would ask us do you know what causes that and I would always say yes we do and we're unwilling to give it up all all God's people said amen and uh it it is a very big blessing and so I want to just this gets the groundwork cover day uh what is today's date today's we're in what February February the what Fe February the 18th what's the year let's just be on the same page 2024 so it's February the 18th 2024 so I'm going to ask you what day it is and you say it because this is important okay what what day is today it's February the 18th 2024 would you just touch the person next to you lean over and say in case you're wondering is February 18th now now lean over to your second choice the one you ignored the first time and tell them it's February the 18th if you're if you're watching online just type in the comment section it's February the 18th now if it's September 21st you can type that in there because maybe you're watching it later just whatever the date is type it in the comment section but as for us what what day is today it's February 18 20 24 and the reason why I bring that to your attention is because years from now some of you will look back and you will say it was February the 18th in 2024 that God gave me one thing that changed the trajectory of my marriage today I'm going to give you one tool and it's the simple tool and it's so simple you're going to say like that was simple when I tell you what it is you're going to go that was really simple but it is so simple and I believe with all my heart for some of you if you will adapt this tool into your marriage that years from now you'll look back and say it was February the 18th 2024 that we started doing something that changed the trajectory of my marriage are you ready for the word today do you have your Bibles with you if you do um open them to Genesis chapter 2 Genesis chapter 2 it's pretty easy to find if you're new to the Bible it is the first book in your Bible very easy to find Genesis chapter 2 and I'm going to start in verse 18 this is the word of God the Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone and all the women said he's a mess he needs me for everything he can't find his way anywhere yes he's he's a he's he needs help it's not good for the man to be alone so God said I will make a helper who is just right for him so the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep you don't want to see what I'm about to do to you he put him into a deep sleep when the man slept the Lord took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening then the Lord made a woman from the rib and brought her to the man he looked at her and scripture says he said at last everybody say at last you can only imagine like the Adam sitting there he's going like okay God you did the giraffe and that was cool and the porcupine and that was confusing but the woman at last he says the man exclaimed this one is bone of my bone and flesh from my flesh she'll be called woman because she was taken out of man this explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife say it with me and the two are what the two are united into one the two are united to become one flesh the good news is that God will call many of you into a Holy Covenant called marriage and God loves to unite to to become one God wants a unified marriage God wants to unite the bad news is our spiritual enemy wants to divide what God unites the good news is that God is working the bad news is the devil is attacking and if you haven't noticed the devil's coming after marriages and families right and left one of the ways I think that is easy for us to um become dissatisfied discontented in our marriage is you look around on social media and you see other people's fake Lives who knows what I'm talking about you will see all these marriages that look perfect and then you look on and say I want that I want that I want what they have I want that and I want to tell you that is not real it's not real I I'll I'll show you just how real it's not just for fun Amy and I um tried to recreate what we see on social media I show a couple of photos first thing is this this is um this is something that you have never done you have never been driving along and thought hey let's pull over on the side of the road and let's get in the back of our vehicle and what we're going to do is lift the hood and then lay down and kiss each other where our four-year-old tries to get the perfect picture so we can post it you've never done that before you've never done it but Amy and I we actually have this is a real life incident where we pulled over on the back of the road on a really cold day and did that because because that's obviously real this is something I guarantee none of you have ever done if this next photo is you've never ever been watching Netflix and just said hey let's just take a break and go get those cute jeans that are have holes in them all over and we'll kind of wear matching tops and what I'm going to do I'm going to lay down the back of our sofa and then I'm going to lift you up in the air while we look into each other eyes while our 9-year-old takes pictures don't follow when we do this uh that's not real but this is real Amy and I do this all the time 
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 time you may be wondering why I'm wearing socks I did that for your benefit because my feet are 90% toes and it would gross you out you would get saved if you saw my feet you call on the name of Jesus and pray for me this next one is not only not real it's just not even wise this is what this guy right now he's trying to decide if he wants to stay with this girl or not what do you think should I stay with her should I not we're not nearly that dumb so we just got on our back porch on this one and just just did that everybody say that's not real what you see on social media is just not real in any sense of the term but people look on they go I want that they don't even know what that is what is that I don't know that's like it's like true love like walks on the beach and candalite dinners in Paris and make out sessions by the fireplace wearing designer jeans under our designer comforter you know whatever my my Pottery Barn comforter that's just not real and yet people try to get those things all the time if you ever look at a picture of Amy and me on social media and you say I want what you have I want to tell you what we have if you ever look on you say I want what you have I want to be really really clear what we have it is special and it is god-honoring and we are crazy in love we are so flirty it is ridiculous we had a person lived with us for a little while first day in there I just came up and I grabbed Amy in a very flirty way and my daughter who was like N9 years old that said said at the time said believe me when you live with them for five minutes you'll get used to that that's just what it is the problem is when I'm flirty with Amy it never works the same way twice you would think if I would say the same thing approaching the same way I get the same response but I can come up from behind and kind of give her a little love squeeze for the glory of Jesus and on one day I do it I'm cute and playful and adorable and I can do it the next day the same time of the day the same way the sun is even in the same place I say the same thing and I do it and I'm a pervert and I don't know why it's a mystery but it's the way women are and so what we have is is amazing we have a rich meaningful prayer life we have six grown children that are all serving Jesus in the church I got four son-in-laws that are all serving Jesus in the church got another daughter getting married to a guy in one month who's serving in the church and I'm broken heart cuz she's my baby and I'm trying not to like him the problem is I do and I'm trying hard not to like them but I do and so they're getting married and um and if you if you kind of roll your eyes and go you guys are you know gross you know you got your perfect little preacher marriage God bless you little preacher marriage I also want to tell you that we have complications we have complications Amy is beautiful but that chick has a temper don't let her fool you uh she's the tougher one in the family uh for sure she is incredibly stubborn I'm hard-headed she explodes I withdraw um we have what I call constructive conversations that's preacher code for knockdown drag out fights last time we got in a fight Amy came crawling to me on her hands and knees and she said get out from under that bed you coward and Fight Like a 
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 Man one time she threw a shoe at my head and I caught it with one hand and put it on that made her even angrier um she's hung up on me more than once she tried to get out of a moving vehicle any of you ever done that just curious praise God there's two other people that are weird we fight about how I drive we fight about how she drives we fight about how late she always is we fight about how uptight I am we fight about where to eat what to eat how I eat how I don't eat the good news is we never go to bed angry the Bible says do not go to bed while you're angry we never go to bed while we're angry last week we didn't sleep until 
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 Thursday but we didn't go to bed angry and when we were in bed angry we didn't go to sleep but we followed the international fight rules for couples in bed when you are in bed and when you are in a fight no one's ever told you do this but you know it's true you don't let your body cross into enemy territory there is no touching you are back to back not looking each other if by chance her foot drifts in your way and your toe accidentally touches you pull that toe back and say you're not getting any toe anytime soon you can touch your own toe that's what you do does anybody know what I'm talking about if you can relate I've got some good news for you because today is February the 18th 2024 when God is going to give you one ridiculously simple tool that could change the trajectory of your marriage or impact your future marriage Jesus said this in Matthew's gospel chapter 6:33 Jesus said but seek what every everybody say the next word with me he said seek not seek second not seek sometime not seek whenever it's convenient not seek whenever the spirit moves you not seek when it's Sunday morning and you know you're supposed to be in church but seek what he said but seek first and what do you seek first you seek God's kingdom and his righteousness and then all those other things that you are worried about and wanting and desire all these things will be given to you as well when does Jesus give you those other things he gives you those other things when you seek first the kingdom of God you seek first notice Jesus did not say to seek first a great marriage a great marriage is not your first priority your first priority is seeking Jesus you seek first a great uh you seek first Jesus he didn't say Seek first to have your kids on the honor role or the traveling team one of the best ways to mess up your marriage marriage is to be a child centered parent you seek Jesus first he didn't say Seek first the big house for the perfect countertops in the walkin closet with clothes everywhere so you can walk in and touch them all and say I have nothing to wear he said to seek first the kingdom of God before anything else we seek the ways of God we seek the heart of God we seek the values of God we seek the principles of God we seek the truth of God we seek the will of God before anything else we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then everything else will be added unto us Society has it all wrong when it comes to love society says seek what makes you happy or Society tends to believe that to really be fulfilled and happy in life you have to find the perfect one to really be fulfilled in life you have to find the one the reason your life sucks right now is because you haven't found the right one to really be happy and to fulfill it in life you have to find the one you have to find that perfect one you know the one that smells good and the one that walks just right and the one that when she does her hair like that it makes you go do like this you you need to find the one that makes all the love songs on the radio makes sense you need to find the one that you love so much that you'll buy a plastic walrus because she likes well you need to find the to really be happy and fulfilled in life you have to find the one and so when somebody meets somebody and they're like oh he's so amazing and oh he's so funny and oh she's so sweet I think I met the one but the problem is when Jesus was asked this question in Matthew 22 they said teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law what did Jesus say what is the most important thing of all Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind Jesus said you should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then every everything else will be added unto you before you look to love anybody else or anything else first you love the Lord your God with every part of your being you love God with your heart and with your mind and with your soul and with your strength you love him first you love him most and then you love others as you love him so instead of saying I think I met the one I think I met the one oh my gosh today I think I met the one if this happens to you you're going to say I think I met the two I think I met the two why because in a Christ centered marriage Jesus is your one and your spouse is your two come on somebody in a Jesus centered marriage it's centered around Jesus he is your one that means your marriage is not your one your kids are not your one I kind of implied this earlier but I feel like I need to stay here again your kids are not your one some of you you're not loving your kids good the reason you're not loving your kids good because your marriage is SED around your kids you want to really love your children you put Jesus first you want to really love your children you put your spouse seconds the best way to love your kids is to love Jesus and protect your marriage you seek Him First you seek Him First you seek him I think I met the two because in a Christ centered marriage Jesus is your one and your spouse is your too now before we look at the tool and hint the one little tool we're going to talk about today has to to do with seeking first the kingdom of God it has to do with loving God first with all your heart mind and soul and strength but before we do that I just want to acknowledge that there are a lot of you that are not married and I want to just acknowledge that to be married to be in the will of God seems to me you could make a pretty good argument Jesus served God faithfully and he was never married right you guys are being quiet I'm going to say it again this I'm this this is s I use a weird voice so it sounded sarcastic Jesus was not married and he served god well and you said amen because it's OB you don't have to single is a whole number but some of you you'll be called to singleness others you you're called to be married um just for fun show hands how many of you are not married you're single right now ra leave him up for a second just leave him up leave him up just leave him up just kind of look down your aisle look behind you look in front of you just just just take a minute just take a minute this is better than online dating just take a minute just take a minute and just just see if something happens see if your eyes don't meet see if when your eyes meet you don't feel something burning inside and then just when you just kind of walk down the aisle carefully you know you you look at it you watch you checked her praise finger there was no finger on her praise hand and she just walking down the aisle and you just kind of on the way out just kind of go up and say hey is it hot in here there that the Holy Ghost burning inside of you oh hey good good to see you remind me of my Bible just want to memorize you just do the just a little bit to like that just don't don't do that when that was bad just just just say just say hey is your is your is your name Faith is your name Faith because you're the substance of all things I've been hoping for just just something like that you know just just something like and then if you have like a holy ghost connection and you have a kid just name him Craig because God sent me here to help you find your two and because Craig is a name that no one calls babies anymore I've never met a baby called Craig we're just instantly born as grown-ups so if if you are if you are not married and you have a desire one day to have a god-honoring marriage what is the best thing that you can do today again really really simple if you want a Christ centered marriage in the future what do you do you live a Christ centered life today if you want a Christ centered marriage one day in the future live a Christ centered life today and I talk to people all the time they're like going oh yeah yeah yeah one day when I get married I'm going to settle down I'm going to really honor God then we're going to get involved in the church then we're gonna you know we're going to be really focused on God then and you know one day then when I have kids we're going to really get focused on God then but now I'm gonna to do my wild my thing you know because I kind of got got my own needs you know I kind of got my things and you know I'm doing my thing and I just want to remind you that your thing apart from God is sinful and if you want to live a god-honoring life in the future live a god-honoring life today remember this you don't build a life of righteousness on a foundation of sin you don't build a life of righteousness on a foundation of sin so if you want to really please God in the future with a spouse one day then let's start pleasing Jesus in the way that we live today so those of you that are married and you say I want to have a Christ centered marriage what do we do let's talk about it for a moment um can we acknowledge that there is a vast difference between saying that we're a Christian couple versus saying that we're a Christ cented couple there's a difference um are you a Christian like well yeah I'm I'm kind of Christian you know not Muslim you know I'm not Budd I'm a Hindu I'm I'm kind of a Christian i' say yeah we go to church on Easter we're kind of a Christian couple there's a big difference between saying that we're a couple that you we're Christians and saying we have a Christ centered marriage there's a big difference if you want if you want to have a Christ centered marriage Jesus is going to be at the center of all your decisions how you talk about money how you talk about raising your kids how you talk about disciplining your kids how you let your kids interact with technology who you let your kids run with you can't control who they run with but you can control what environments you put them in okay it's going to determine um how you speak the shows that you watch your uses it's going to impact every anything if you're a Christ sinner family so how do we have a Christ sinner family um if I would have taught this 10 years ago I'd have given you a ton of principles because there are so many that are important I want to talk to you about um being rooted in the church that those who are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish I talk to you about church I talk to you about community that your friends matter you're becoming like those around you I talk about you being in a real genuine Christ centered small group I talk to you about being in the word daily I talk to you about righteousness I talk to you about confessing sin early and quickly not letting sin re in in your life I talked to you about serving together in your marriage I give you a whole long list what I've discovered though is that if I come here and give you three things to do the odds are very high you're not going to do any of them so what I've learned to do is lower the bar and I'm going to ask for one thing and it is a ridiculously simple thing and today happens to be February the 18th 2024 and some of you years from now you will look back and say it was on February the 18th 2024 when some guy I can't remember his name came in and told them funny stuff show these funny pictures but he gave us one Challenge and we accepted the challenge and we started doing this together and it changed the trajectory of our marriage and we have never been more Christ centered than before the assignment is very very simple almost offensively simple but the reality is most of you are not doing this and if you do it can change your marriage the assignment is this simply pray together every day pray together every day some you go oh crap I shouldn't have come to D I want to do that now I'm a loser oh I don't want to do that I don't want to do that it's too personal pray P pray person it's funny when people say prayer is too personal in marriage like I can't pray because it's too personal like you go to the bathroom in front of each other is that personal it's gross but personal you kiss each other right with your tongue little tsel hockey that's personal right you swap and spit you know the right you guys are like like you don't do that we don't do that only with the lights off uh you you have you have babies together that's personal you can pray together and when I talk about praying together um what's interesting is you are you rank high on what I call you are welld discipled Christians you've been under great teaching of the word but even the most discipled Christians the percentage of couples that actually pray consistently together is embarrassingly low why because God loves to unite two to become one and when there's agreement there's power and the devil loves to divide what God wants to unite and so if I were the devil one of my strongest tools to keep Christian Couples from ever being Christ centered to keep them from that I would talk them out of praying together because when two or three gather together there's power in that household so I want to tell you you can pray together you should pray together you want to pray together and if you say I'm a little hesitant I'm a little uncomfortable I'll tell you right now I understand I can relate because Amy and I did not pray together consistently for many many years of our marriage and I felt bad about it and I would start doing it for a little while and then I'd stop and the reason that I didn't like praying with Amy is because I didn't like how long it takes her to pray you laugh it takes a long time I mean a long long I get so bored I think one time the holy Spirit told me he was bored honestly I just I just do it's like it goes on and on on and on and I mean it not even just like the prayer part but the warmup it's like it's like you know okay let's pray and then she like okay Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus I'm like Jesus Jesus get started Jesus get started Jesus it takes for forever and ever and so we didn't do it and we start and do a couple days and then we'd stop and I feel guilty and I feel like a big old loser because we didn't do this um along the way I want to tell you right now that um if you choose to pray together and make this a consistent part of your marriage it can change your marriage and let me just tell you a few ways um it is really really hard to pray intimately when you're mad at each other so if you're praying to get praying every day you got to work through some stuff before you pray another thing is it's really really hard to live an ongoing unconfessed sin when you're praying intimately you know that porn problem you tend to deal with it when you pray together every day got real real quiet in here maybe I should move on jealousy anger uh when you pray together guess what you also talk together because you talk about what you're going to pray about and you start communicating more about your kids or what's on your heart and on your mind because you're praying about what's on your heart what's on your mind and then what tends to happen is you don't really skip church when you're praying together because they're like a Monday oh we didn't go to church yesterday you feel kind of guilty so you get a little bit more plugged into church and when you're more plugged into church you're under God's word you're with God's people you're in God's presence you're strengthened by God's power and you're doing more of God's will because you're in the house with God's people when you pray together it's amazing how you're more prepared to fight off against all the Temptations of the evil one if I were the devil I'd try to talk you out of it because this is what Jesus said about two being united Jesus said in Matthew 18 I tell you that if two on Earth agree about anything they ask for it'll be done for them by my Father in Heaven if two of you come together in agreement in the name of Jesus it'll be done God says for wherever two or three Gather in my name there I am with them so let's just get real simple how do you do it if you're going to pray how do you do it I'm going to give you three really really simple thoughts and again I'm going to put this on the bottom shelf you do not have to stay on the bottom shelf what I'm telling you is a baseline you don't have to keep it here if I put it on the top shelf ain't nobody going to do it I'm going to put it on the bottom shelf are you ready three thoughts number one here's how you pray keep it short do I have to no but if I tell you keep it long you're not going to do it let's just start short keep it short number two keep it consistent and number three if you miss one day don't miss two there it is February the 18th the day that you heard the message and might apply the tool that could change the trajectory of your marriage keep it short why keep it short because if I tell you you got to pray together an hour a day nobody's going to do that and so just short start with short like it might be like dear Jesus help us do your will you may start there I put a prayer in my notes for you one sentence you could pray this you could pray this dear God keep us close to you away from Temptation and always in your will in Jesus name let's pray that together let's just practice just to show your lips can actually do this just say it ready here we go together 1 2 3 dear God keep us close to you away from Temptation and always in your will in Jesus name amen keep it short you pick a time Amy and I we do this right before I go to work and we have to keep it pretty short because I don't have time for a long prayer before I go to the office and it's short but guess what it is it's consistent and it's a part of what we do uh you might do it before you go to bed you might do it after dinner or whatever it is you keep doing it and what happens is you may start short and then one day the spirit moves and you get a little longer one day is dear Jesus help us to honor you and do your will next day is dear Jesus we honor you help us to do your will and oh yeah we pray for Harold for his surgery and next day oh dear Jesus help us do your will thank you for what you did in heral and oh we pray for we pray for our daughter today and the next day is oh dear God help us keep in your will but working our daughter's life and oh yeah father we ask that you would provide and then one day God we ask that you guide and God ask we that we we comfort and God when whenever we're heavy laden and we're burden God we come to you and we seek you God and we and we beseech you to be upon us God and we and we bind up the enemies attacks against our marriage and we tell them that he has no plac in this marriage God we believe that according to your word that we are blessed when we're coming in and we're blessed when we're going out God when we are heavy we will cast all of our anxiety on you God because you care for us and God we declare that we will not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition we take our request to you God because you are faithful because you are a good God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds and our souls in Christ Jesus we know you're a good God you're a faithful God you are working in all things to bring about your will oh God according to your power and purpose we know God we can do all things through your son Jesus Christ who gives us strength God may your will be done on Earth and in our marriage as it is in heaven you keep it short you keep it consistent you miss a day you don't miss two and oh yeah if you're not married and you want to be married one day and you want to have a Christ centered marriage in the future live a Christ centered life today like you can pray too today just start today you can pray for whatever God puts on your heart I would suggest you pray for your future spouse really powerful if you have a desire in your heart to be you start praying today what do you pray you name it like protect her bless him keep them in your will keep them away from Temptation keep other people away from them raise them up for me work Lord quickly do whatever clean up whatever in their life needs Clean Up in Jesus name do it now and come quickly Lord Jesus just pray this is what I did when I um before I was a Christian I lived a wild life I was building my testimony somebody said amen over there um God bless you you were there with me right this a wild and um so when I came to Jesus I had to detox and get all the ungodly stuff out so I did I called it dating Jesus it's kind of weird this was the 80s just work with me I said I was dating Jesus for two years on Saturday nights I didn't go out I stayed in my room I uh drank near beer non-alcoholic beer because I was getting off of beer and I would Journal how I wanted to be a man of God for my future wife and I would listen to cassette tapes on marriage if you don't know what a cassette cassette tape is you can Google it you can ask your grandma and I would listen to cassette tapes on marriage and then I wrote out love notes to my future wife I had a whole shoe box full of love notes in that time where I was praying and so when I met Amy God showed me she was my two you see what I did there because he's my one and she was my two and so about three weeks into it I took these shoe box full of love notes and I said for last couple years I've been writing love notes to the one who's going to be my wife one day and I just believe these are for you and so she read them and cried all the way through that's why we have six kids in case you're wondering and it was emotional moment and at the end of it I said really seriously and um if things don't work out I'm going to need that shoe box 
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 back February the 18th 20124 when you look at any kind of posts on social media say I want that just remember that's not real let me tell you what's real what's real in a Christ centered marriage is um two broken people desperately in need of the presence and power of the holy spirit it's people dealing with spiritual attacks every every single day trying to overcome their flesh trying to overcome their selfishness uh fighting off very well-planned strategic attacks of the enemy against our family and our kids and the best way to fight is to Stand United and the best way to Stand United is to Stand United in prayer father we need you we need your power we need your grace a Christ centered marriage is full of Integrity it's full of God's word it's full of scripture it's also Al full of Trials because Jesus said in this world you will have trouble but take heart he said I've overcome this world is full of disappointment hurts forgiveness and healing in Christ that's what's real and that's actually really really good so before I preach two things happen U one is I take a step forward it's kind of weird I just take a step forward and what I'm doing there is I'm stepping out of my insecurities CU like I'm new here unless you're like me and I'm kind of nervous so I step into the anointing into the authority of God's word I'm stepping out on myself and that's what I do is a ritual and then Amy always prays for me um every time before I pray I preach she prays for me this photo of her praying and um let me tell you what we're praying for right now uh we have six children um one of my daughters in particular at the age of 20 two weeks before her marriage um got sick and and never recovered here we are eight years later and she has ongoing significant serious um trials with um a chronic illness that that has not gone away um at our last family gathering her husband pushed her out to the Gathering in a wheelchair because she was unable to walk and so we We join hands every day and we pray for Mandy every day and we pray for God's protection for our children we pray for God's will for our children we pray for our church family we pray for family members in the church that are hurting we pray for we pray the name of Jesus and claim healing and restoration in marriage we pray for Spiritual intimacy and some of our prayers are short because I'm going to work others of our prayers are really long and really powerful because we developed the spiritual intimacy to do battle together when we pray here's what happens Jesus is our one Amy is my two and I'm three and what does that make Whenever two or three gather together in his name he is there in the midst of them and in his presence we call things that are not as though they were in his presence we ask for God's will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven in his presence we believe that the name of Jesus is above every single name in his presence we believe that there is no weapon formed against us that will ever ever prosper in his presence we believe that we have his power that we have faith to believe that mountains would move that we have faith to believe that demons would flee that we have faith to believe that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world and we stand together two are better than one we stand together in his presence calling on his name it is February the 18th in 2024 and I don't know who this is for if it's only for one couple who says from this day forward we will seek the one with our two because there is power in agreement if you adopt this one single simple tool I don't promise the perfect marriage I don't promise a problem free marriage what I promise is the power of Jesus meeting you daily to meet every single need and we serve a God who will do more than all you can ask think or imagine according to his power that is at work within you don't do marriage without his power today I'm seeking the one with my two and you'll never be the same so father we ask by the power of the holy spirit that you would do a work we are seeking first your kingdom and your righteousness we are loving you God with all of our heart mind soul and strength and as we're taking a moment to pray today um I'm going to give you the opportunity to actually pray with your spouse if you'd like or come up from but what I want you to do first of all is open up your eyes all over campus let's go and look up here at me I want to talk directly to those of you today who would say um I don't have an intimate relationship with God I want to tell you about the goodness of a relational God God is a relational God who loves you he's a relational God the first thing scripture says is God spoke he's a speaking God he wants you to know him as he knows you and if I could sit down one-on-one with you and just say like where are you with God are you are you close some of you might hesitate you might say well yeah you know I'm trying blah blah blah blah listen I don't want there to be any hesitation whatsoever are you close to God yes I am if you do not answer that way let me tell you how you get there it starts with what God did for you it starts with his love for you not you it's charged with him for God so loved the world that he became one of you that he sent his only son Jesus that whosoever would believe in Jesus wouldn't perish but would have eternal life who is Jesus he is the sinless perfect Son of God he's called the Lamb of God who did Jesus come for listen he didn't come for the perfect people he came for the Sinners he didn't came for those who were healthy he actually came for the sick he came for people like you he came for people like me and so what do you do how how do you get to Jesus kind of like I talked about you take a step forward what you do is you just step out of yourself you step away from your sinfulness and you step toward his grace you step toward his forgiveness you step toward his freedom when you call on the name of Jesus here's what he does scripture says God forgives all of your sins everything you've ever done it's gone forgiven you're changed you're new you're not just better you're new you're different the old is gone and the moment you cry out to him he changes you today there are some of you you don't know where you stand with God I'm going to tell you right now it's February the 18th and on that day you stepped out of the old into the new those of you watching online today that recognize you're not in an intimate relationship with God one step forward One Step by faith I step out of my sinfulness by faith I Surrender My Life by faith I give my life to Jesus if that's you today God brought you here it's not an accident it's here because he's loving you he's reaching out to you you can feel it and today is February the 18th 2024 this is the day that the old is gone this is the day that you become new today at all of our churches those who say that's me today by faith in front of everybody wait this is going to be embarrassing hey Jesus said it this way he said if you'll confess me before man I'll confess you before my Father in Heaven if you're embarrassed by me I'll be embarrassed by you so let's just go ahead and just say we're all in I don't even care who's watching those today who say I need to know Jesus I need his forgiveness I'm stepping away from my sin I Surrender my life to Jesus I give my life to you it's your prayer lift your hands high right now and let's just give God some praise oh my gosh Come on Free Chapel lift your hands high and say I need Jesus I need Jesus that all of our churches lift your hands up we praise God for you we praise God for you we praise God for you hands why don't you stand to your feet at all of our churches stand to your feet if you will nobody prays alone just pray this aloud we'll pray with those receiving Christ today pray heavenly father I step away from my sin and I step into your grace Jesus would you forgive my sins be the Lord of my life my savior fill me with your holy spirit so I could know you and serve you and follow you follow for the rest of my life Jesus be my Center be my rock be my Lord my life is not my own I give it all to you thank you for New Life you have all of mine in Jesus name I pray CU somebody shout and give God praise for his grace if you've been forgiven today give God praise if you've been delivered today somebody tell God thank you if you've been set free from something that held you hostage give God a shout of 
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 praise and now today what day is today February the 18th 2024 and if you're not currently praying with your spouse and you'd like to what better place to start it off than in God's house right at the altar what I want you to do right now is do not think and do not hesitate if you would like to commit to pray daily with your spouse grab her hand grab his hand and walk right down right now in front of everybody and say we're going to do it come on up the altar right now there are those of you yes oh come on let's do it February 18th today is the day praise God come on forward others of you you might want to pray for healing you might need a touch of God on your life some of you want to be praying for your future spouse come forward if you have any need in your life today you want to take it before God let me tell you what we're doing right here right now we're seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness we're seeking first God's will God's purpose so father we lift up the name that is above every name God we thank you for these couples that are going to put you first every moment for every day for just even a moment aligning our hearts with you would you bless these marriages God would you bring forgiveness wherever there's Brokenness would you bring restoration God would you re restore anything that the devil has tried to steal from these families would you bless their children God would you bless future marriages that you will arrange future children we surrender ourselves to you God we declare that your word is living it's active it's doing a work in our hearts if you want to pray with your spouse right now don't let me get in your way just pray just pray right where you are we pray we just speak the name of Jesus his name is above every name we speak the name of Jesus Jesus you are good you are always good Jesus you are faithful you are always faithful we declare it you've always been faithful to us you've always shown us your grace your goodness is present for your people blessed are those who are planted in the house of the Lord we give you praise with every breath in our body because oh God you are good oh you're faithful your word never fails lift up your hands and give him praise today we seek the one with our two we glorify you with every part of our Lives you are king you are Lord you are supreme ruler of our life we give you praise worship Him Church worship and worship and worship he is worthy of all praise who are withy of the goodness of your 
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 goodness your goodness is running out is running after me your goodness is running out it's running out to with my life laid down surrender now I give you and your goodness is running out is running after me your goodness is running after it's running after me your goodness is running after it's running out with my heart laid down surrender now I give you everything your goodness is running out it's running 
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 to what an incredible message from Pastor Craig Rochelle we are so honored and so blessed to have had him with us today if you're anything like Hamilton this this one's for you keep it short keep it consistent and if you miss a day don't miss day two always come back and do it so we thank you thank you thank you Pastor Craig for being with us I love how amazing and just simple that was also we want to say if you accepted Jesus as your lord and savior today we want to celebrate you easily hands down the most significant decision that you'll ever make for your life so if you could please do us a favor and text the word yes to the number 510 510 we've got some resources that we would love to send your way absolutely and if you are in need of prayer maybe your marriage needs prayer you personally need prayer we have a team of Prayer Warriors wanting to pray with you so you can text the word prayer to the number 510510 absolutely and before we close this thing out for the day we want to take a quick moment and thank everyone for your generosity the way that you consistently give and so seed into this ministry it means more than you know um and I can absolutely say without a doubt that God notices and it's something that he will hon honor but it's because of your generosity that we get to have impact locally and globally so again thank you so much for your consistency and given yes absolutely well we hope that you will join us next week it'll be our final week in our series of better together with Pastor Robert Morris he's incredible if you've never heard him we'd love for you to join us also if you're watching and your local we have a Better Together event this evening if you are 30 to 55 and you're single we would love to have you with us at our Gainesville Campus it's going to be an incredible event and we want to invite you so we love you guys we hope you have an amazing week and we'll see you next Sunday right can't wait to see you guys next 
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 week 
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