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So come on, let's read it together. Psalm 92, verses 13 through 15. With uplifted voices. 1, 2, 3. Those who are planted in the house of God, courts of our God, they shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Come on, Social. You sound good. You sound good, Social. You're gonna be blessed today. We've been in a series. SOS Relationships need help. How many been blessed by this series? Have it been good? And I love it because it's coming out of Song of Songs, which was written by Solomon. But 53% of Song of Songs gives voice to sister girl, the Shulamite woman. So that got me thinking. If 53% of song of Solomon is the voice of a woman, we cannot have a series and not hear from the lovely super duper, my bride of 13 years, Pastor Taylor Madu. Y'all, she's got a word. She's ready to preach it. Come on, Social. Fam, would you make some noise for my lovely bride, my beloved? Come on, Social.
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Can we give it up for King Jesus, who is worthy, full of glory and honor and power and praise. My name is Taylor, and I'm just honored to be in the room today. I just want to communicate that I am no relationship expert. I'm not speaking from a place of perfection. I'm this South Arkansas girl that moved here 20 years ago now, Texan. And I've faced divorce in my family and addiction in my family. And I got pregnant as a teen out of wedlock. And I remember the days of not knowing what the next day was going to look like. I felt ashamed. I felt broken. I felt lost. I felt worried and unloved. And yet. Jesus. Jesus. The name above every name. The name above depression. The name above shame. The name above insecurity. The name above addiction. The name above. The name above I am that I am. He is the I am whatever you need him to be today, he is that. And he stepped into my life and he set me free. And he washed me. The blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? What can wash away your sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And so today I stand with authority not because I'm perfect, but because I shouldn't be here, but I am. By God's grace. This is my story. This can be your story. He's accessible today. And so I'm excited and expectant. I'm excited. I love this series because we all are impacted by relationships. We're all trying to figure out how to navigate relationships. People are hard, y'all. Right, we are hard. But loving God and loving people, that is our mission as believers. And so I'm believing that today you won't leave the same. Whatever you. Whatever you're believing God to do. I believe that he's. He's able to do it. Sometimes it's the. Until he does it. But I believe the grace and the strength of the Lord is resting on your life and that he will give you everything that you need. He will be all that you need him to be when you leave here today. And God, I decrease so that you may increase. Speak to every heart, soften every heart to receive. Let it be soil that can receive the seed. In Jesus name, have your way. Amen. And amen. You can be seated. I am actually so very excited to teach this word. I don't think I've ever been so excited to teach a word. I had 17 pages yesterday, and I've spent truly 12 hours. 12 hours trying to get it down to 11. So we're here. But I pray that your hearts are open today to receive. I want to talk to the men, and I also want to talk to the women. I want to talk to the married, and I also want to talk to the single. So open up your ears to hear what the Lord wants to say. PR and I celebrate 13 years of marriage this August. If you're married, you know how big of a deal that is, right? Every year counts. And so the past two years, we have actually gone to something, a place called Cooper Clinic located here in Dallas. And it's a place where you go and just get a full body health exam. They do vision testing. They do hearing testing. They do stress testing where you get on a treadmill, you hook up, and you start running, and they test your heart, and they also do something that I've never heard of before. They give you this metal, this piece of metal, and you squeeze it, and it tests your grip strength. And so I go into the doctor at the end of the day, and she gives you all of the results and then compares it to the previous results. So I go in this year, and I'm proud to announce, y'all, that I'm healthier than I've ever been. Glory hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. And then also the doctor said, congratulations, Taylor. Your grip strength is actually above average. And I was like, okay, my grip strength is in the above average category. Wow. But then I was also like, what does that Mean, you know what I'm saying? And then she began to explain the benefits of strong grip strength. She said that it improves overall strength from your core to your muscles to your hand grip, all the things. She says that it reduces risk of injury, that it enhances endurance, that it increases lifting capacity. I know, right? Are you not impressed? I'm so impressed. And once again, I'm in the above category. The above average. Do you hear me just say? And then she says it is an indicator of overall health directly connected to the strength of the heart. And I'm like, that is absolutely amazing. But also, what does my level of grip strength, the fact that it directly affects the health of my heart and the longevity of my life, that blows my mind. So it sent me on this whole little pathway of researching how to strengthen my grip strength. And the answer was actually super simple. Hanging. Have you ever heard of it? Hanging? Y'all confused? I am too. I was super confused. So hanging. And so as I was researching, I came across this incredible woman who's a beast of a woman. I think she's in her 80s and she is hanging, right? So I'm like, wait a minute. That looks weird, right? But also, I wanna know more about it. So she's pouring tea in her kitchen. I'm like, that is goals for me. Like, I want to be pouring tea from the monkey bars in my kitchen by 2028. That is my goal. And so I was like, I'm gonna go out to my garage and I'm gonna start practicing, and I'm gonna get stronger every day. So if you follow me on social media, you've been following along the journey. It's ridiculous. But also, I'm getting stronger, so make fun of me. But wait till I have stronger hand grip strength than you do. And we're all out here. You know what I'm saying? So anyways, this is my first attempt to actually hang. I think we have footage of it. Hurry up. I'm cold. Look at y'all. Y'all aren't even laughing. Y'all didn't even think it was funny. You're like, this is weird. This is the weirdest church I've ever been to. Well, just stay with me, okay? So it actually is very, very hard. Who has tried hanging before? Raise your hand. Oh, a few of you. How hard is it? I think the first time, I got 10 seconds. I'm officially at 1 minute and 4 seconds. But I think, you know, that first time, that was the robe. The I don't want none robe. That Pastor Robert was talking about last week, the I don't want none robe in my house shoes. I think it was a little heavy for me, so, you know, I struggled a little bit, but anyways. Mm. So it blows my mind, though, that this one consistent, minimal, what seems to be pointless thing has major, lifelong impact. This tells me that just because something seems pointless doesn't mean it's not valuable. The small thing always leads to the big thing. Consistent flossing prevents heart disease. Did you know that? Flossing heart what? Writing down what you're grateful for. It boosts your immune system. What? But it also goes both ways. Positive and negative, good and bad. One night lack of sleep increases stress and weakens your immune system. One Adderall can lead to addiction. Yeah, I'm gonna talk about it. Yeah. It's a reality. One Adderall can lead to addiction. This principle, doing any one thing, good or bad, consistently leads to great impact. This actually translates into all of areas of our lives, including marriages. We often find ourselves downplaying the bad and undervaluing the good. I didn't know that grip strength could add longevity to my life. But there is power in doing the thing you don't feel like doing in order to give your body what it needs. There is power in doing the thing you don't feel like doing in order to give your spouse what your spouse needs. So I want to ask you today to the man. Where my man at? Listen, I'm building you up today. We're not tearing our men down. We're building our men up. Okay? Cause we have some incredible men in the room. But I do have a question. Do you truly know what your wife needs? I heard. Oh, maybe you're thinking right now, I need to tell her, you know, that she's beautiful more. And I need to give her more hugs. And that's awesome. Truly awesome. We appreciate it. Right, ladies? But also, let's put our laundry in the laundry bin. You know, super simple. To the woman, where my lady's at. Do you truly know what your husband needs? Maybe you're thinking right now, he needs more sex. He needs more intimacy, which is. I'm sure he would love that. Right? Sex is great. But do you respect your husband? Do you honor him with your words? Do you allow him to lead your family? Or do you control every single thing? You know, we're really good at control. Ladies, to the singles who have now checked out. I need you to check back in, okay? Don't go nowhere, because this is also for you. Understanding the Needs of a man. Understanding the needs of a woman are vital for this life. And today I want to answer these two questions. What does a woman need? What does a man need? Understanding this and taking action will change your marriage. And I say understanding this and taking action because sometimes we understand it, we just don't want to do it. So it's understanding and taking action, doing these things, serving and loving selflessly that will transform your marriage. The consistent affirmation, the one small date night once a week, the one small kiss on the cheek before you go to work. Not just kissing your kids, but acknowledging your spouse as well. It's not just hanging. It's not just flossing. It's not just fill in the blank. It's the small things done consistently that lead to great impact. You with me? So one thing I've learned on my hanging journey is that hanging is hard. You look stupid doing it. It doesn't make sense. It seems pointless. Hanging is very, very hard. But you know what else is very, very hard to me personally? Teaching out of the book Song of Solomon, that is very, very hard. PR was like, hey, I want you to do. I'm like, do I have to preach out of Song of Songs? But here I am, and we're about to break this down. Throughout the book, we see both the woman and Solomon affirming and celebrating what they love about each other. And since she kicks off the song, I want to first unpack what a woman needs. So go ahead and write that down. We're in school today. A woman needs four things. Affection, communication, leadership, and safety. Affection, communication, leadership, and safety. We see it in Song of Songs. One, two, Kiss me and kiss me again. For your love is sweeter than wine. How pleasing is your fragrance. Number one, it's evident we love affection. Affection is a broad term that can be expressed in multiple ways. And this is important because my affection may not be your affection or her affection or her affection. What affection is not? I can answer that really quick. I'm going to hug her more so that I can get more. Pure affection equals affection without expectation. The ladies, you know. You know what I'm saying? There's nothing like someone giving you something with a motive or expectation to get something in return. That's annoying. You know what I mean? Like, just keep it. I'm good. It makes me think of, like, maybe going to a birthday, celebrating someone's birthday, and you take them a birthday gift, and then all of a sudden, as you give them the birthday gift, you're like, where's My birthday gift. But it's not your birthday, but you're expecting a gift back. That's weird. But in the same way, God has called the men to honor your wives and love your wives, not necessarily based on their behavior, but just because they're worthy of love, they're worthy of affection. Right? So can you give affection just because what affection is? It's kind words and compliments. PR tells me after 13 years how attracted he is to me. That means so much, you know, I'm like, okay. Like, I don't care. But internally, I'm like, oh, my God. Thank you, Jesus. He still loves me. He still thinks I'm fine. Fine. He says, thank you, Jesus. 13 years. This is great. So how do you speak to your wife? Do you compliment her? Do you affirm her? You know, often in reviews, you only see people giving a review if it's negative. What is that about us? We love to run to reviews. We love to, like, I'm gonna unfollow. You know, it's so weird, right? I love that. That's like a threat. Like, okay, unfollow. I'm like, bye. What are we doing? You know? But it's like reviews and the negativity, and it's like, we only, like, pay attention to the negativity. And we rarely celebrate the fact that we just got off a plane safe. Did you go put a five star on American Airlines? Cause you landed safely? Or that you went to a steakhouse and you ate good steak and good mashed potatoes and Mac and cheese and broccolini? You know what I mean? Did you go write a five star or did you. You're good. Often the good is uncelebrated, and the bad is all that we see or all that we hear and all that we talk about. How do you talk to your wife? Have you told her, thank you for holding it down in the kitchen? Thank you for holding it down in the workplace. Thank you for holding it down as a mom. Thank you. How do you talk to your wife? Another expression of affection is acts of service, like helping with chores. This is super practical, but I'm telling you, it will change your marriage. Fold that laundry, watch what happens. Put those dishes in the dishwasher. Watch what happens. Take out the trash, watch what happens. I'm trying to give y'all some tips today, okay? Next, Quality time prioritizing date night. You know, one of the biggest tricks for PR And I is that we work together. We're together every single day. But just because we're together every Single day doesn't mean that we're actually getting that quality romantic time together. So we put date night on the calendar, because just because we work together doesn't mean that's a date night. I heard of a story of a guy, he was celebrating 52 weeks of date nights because there's 52 weeks in the OR. 52 date nights because there's 52 weeks IN the year. And that just inspired me so much that I created a journal. I recommend that you do this and every date night. I journal it and I write it down, and I'm counting. And my goal is 52 date nights because there's so many benefits to that. Prioritizing time with your spouse. Affection, like I said earlier, will look differently for each person because we all have different love languages. So learn the love language of your spouse. Also, there's a book called the Five love Languages that I recommend reading. It's impactful. So, number two, communication. Women love to communicate, and we see it clear as day right here. The woman speaks 53% and Solomon speaks about 34%. We want to talk about it, but I think how we communicate is extremely important. So I want to talk about three different things. One, two, three. One, speak kindly, Two, express clearly. And three, celebrate what you want repeated. So, number one, speak kindly. I can say the same thing in different tones, and it could be totally two different meanings, right? So, example, would you mind taking out the trash? That's one way. Would you mind taking out the trash? That's a different way. I would love a date night with you. I would love a date night with you. Same thing, different tone. Tone matters. Number two, express clearly. I have a phrase. Help me help you. So often we get so annoyed or mad and resentful towards our spouses. We haven't even communicated the need or the desire, and yet we're pulling away because they didn't meet the need or desire that we never communicated. Help me help you communicate clearly. Express clearly what you need to your spouse. Don't get mad at them because they don't know. They don't know. They can't help what they don't know. So let's express clearly. And number three, celebrate what you want repeated. That's a life skill across the board, from our staff social Dallas to my kids to my husband. Anything that I want repeated, I'm gonna celebrate it. The other day, PR Came in and he folded those quilts, so. And he thought I was being sarcastic, but I was like, thank you for folding the quilts. And he Was like, are you being sarcastic? I'm like, no. Because I want it repeated. I'm gonna celebrate it. So don't be offended. I'm very, very excited. And let me tell you, he's been folding those quilts, y'all. Yeah. Chapter two, verse four reveals another thing that a woman loves. She expresses that. He escorts me to the banquet hall. It's obvious how much he loves me. He escorts me. He leads me. Number three, women love leadership. He escorts me to the you do and do do. She's trying to get a man today. I know that's right. Number three, leadership. When a man leads his family, he loves his family. When a man controls his family, he doesn't love his family, he loves himself. So leadership does not equal control. Let's talk about it. When a man controls, that leads to a fearful wife, a resentful wife, or a rebellious wife. In 1st Corinthians 11:3, we see God's design. He says, but I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is man. This is God's order. The head of the woman is man, but only when the head of the man is Christ. So I have an announcement. Do not follow any man who does not have Christ at the head of his life. We love our men. But if you're trying to lead him spiritually and you're trying to convince him to come to church, and you're believing that you're gonna change him. We cannot change anyone. You cannot change anyone. Only the Holy Spirit can do the transformation. If he's not leading you while you're dating, he's not gonn you while you're married. Okay? So let's talk about what leadership is. Hold on, men. I'm coming for the women in a little bit, I promise what leadership is. Leadership is love, humility and sacrifice. It's serving, not dominating. It's getting a job and providing for your family. Some people, some men may not be capable of getting a job because maybe they're holding it down at home. Shout out to the dads that are holding it down at home, taking care of the kids. But what I'm trying to say is leadership is not lazy, okay? Going to the house of God is leadership. Not begging this man to come to the house of God. No, man, you should be getting up. Come on, family. We're going to church. We're going to the house of God. That is leadership. Not sleeping together before marriage, honoring her body and your body as leadership. This is a hard one. Sex is a beautiful thing within the context of marriage. PR Talked about it a few weeks ago. Fire outside of a fireplace is dangerous, okay? Water outside of a swimming pool will flood your house. Sex within marriage is a beautiful thing. Sex outside of marriage is dangerous. It'll destroy your life, not living together before you're married. That's leadership. That's a hard one, because some of you are living together now, and you're trying to figure out how you're gonna pay your rent if you separate. I'm telling you because I say this not to condemn you, but the truth is important. The truth sets us free. And maybe you had. You didn't have someone model out what a healthy marriage looks like. You thought this is what I'm supposed to do. But I'm telling you, when you follow God's word, okay, you follow God's word, you follow the order of God. You're opening up the heavens to receive the blessing of God, okay? When you follow this order, you align yourself with God's blessing. Sometimes people will come up. I recently had an individual come up to me and they ask, you know, can you please pray for my partner? He's not coming to church. I want him to get saved. And I'm trying to take care of the kids. I'm not sure what to do. And I said, well, first of all, I want to ask you simply, are y'all married? And this person said, no. And I said, well, you can try to pray for God's blessing, but you're out of order. So therefore, God's not going to bless it. Because if he blessed that, then he would be a God that should lie. And he's not a God that should lie. He's a God of order. And when you get in the order and in the alignment, he blesses what aligns with his word. So this is not to beat you up once again. This is just to teach you. We gotta get in alignment, okay? Number four, safety two, verse six. His left arm is under my head and his right arm embraces me. Safety builds trust. She continues to say this multiple times throughout the book, but what is safety? Colossians 3:19. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Your wife should not be afraid of you. She should feel safe. And when she's safe, she will submit. So I have a question. Have you created a safe environment for her to feel safe? PR And I, we have each other's social media handles. We share each other's location. There's no secrets with us. We create a safe Environment for each other. We trust each other. This creates safety. Another way that creates safety is being faithful and committed to one person. This Shulamite Woman mentions twice. 2, 16, and 7, 10. My beloved is mine and I am his. I belong to my beloved. And his desire is for me, not his desire is for us. His desire is for me. Marriage between a man. God has intended marriage between a man and a woman. One and one. And I had the hard time with this book. I had the hardest time with this book. I truly did. I'm like, wait, how am I gonna teach from this? Cause honestly, I'm mad at Solomon. I'm like, I don't like you, Solomon. And the reason I don't like Solomon is because Solomon had all these women, wives and concubines. And that offends me. It really does. Anyone else? It's like, wait, what? How is Solomon the wisest man that ever lived? I'm confused. And how is this book supposed to be an example of true love? What? But as I continue to study, the Holy Spirit in such a way, like he always does, began to reveal to me two lessons from Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. So this teaches me, number one, you're never too smart, too rich, too important, too godly to fall. Be aware of the open door. And number two, be cautious of culture's truth. And this is a big one, especially in 2025. Culture always seems to distort the truth of God. In this time period, culture normalized multiple wives for political reasons and all these other reasons. And every single time throughout Scriptures, we see that it led to chaos and downfall. We see it with Abraham, Hagar and Sarah, a mess. We see Jacob, Leah and Rachel, jealousy and rivalry. We see David, all the family chaos. Moses brought warning to Kings in Deuteronomy 17. He says he must not take many wives or his heart will be led astray. And now we see it in Solomon, 1st Kings 11, 4. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods. What this tells me is that God will always gift you warnings preceding the downfall. So you can't say, I didn't know. I had no clue. God is telling you today is actually a warning for someone in the room today to not take a quick look. Don't respond to that dm. Don't go out on that little date. Just meet up for one second. Shut the door for pornography. Some of you are inviting pornography into your marriage. That is a lie from the enemy. Some of you have open marriages because you think it's normal. It's not okay. And you've now opened a door and you're exposing yourself to the enemy. And this is the beginning of your downfall. This is truth in love. I'm not gonna tell my kids, you know they can play in the street cause I don't wanna hurt their feelings. No, I'm gonna tell em to get out the street cause it's gonna kill em. If we love you as pastors of Social Dallas, if we love you, if we are believers and Christians that love and are passionate about people, we're gonna tell you the truth. But truth in love, this is not to condemn. Some of you have no clue why. You don't know how. How did you end up here? His grace will cover you and he'll give you the strength and every single thing that you need to get you out of the situation and help you through it. The small thing always leads to the big thing. Song of songs 2:15 talks about the little foxes. Catch all the foxes, those little foxes before they ruin the vineyard of love. It reminds me of my amazing, beautiful baby boy, Bruno, our dog. He is. We have a picture of him, I believe. Yeah, there he is. Look how cute. He's just the most handsome thing in the world. £130. He's been on a diet, now he's 120. And we're celebrating. Okay. And so Bruno loves treat treats. Every time I go to get him out of his cage to take him outside, I actually rattle this. I say treat treat. And he runs to his dog, run. Okay. He's so excited. He almost takes me out every time. So it always blows my mind because he's 120 pounds. And yet this little tiny treat treat gets him so excited to where he runs, takes off run. And loses his mind and goes straight to the cage. Ultimately for me to shut the door and lock him in this little tiny treat treat. And as I was thinking about it, I was thinking about how many of you in the room and around the world, you're taking the bait of Satan. It's temporarily satisfying. It's. It's so amazing. It's tiny. And the enemy's just tree. Tree Treat. Throwing it in and ultimately shutting the door behind and locking you into captivity. Locking you in to captivity. Just one little look. Just one little taste. Just one little t. Come on, Pastor. It's a trap. It's a trap. Sin takes you further than you want to go. It keeps you longer than you want to stay. And it makes you cost you more than you want to pay. Pay attention to the little foxes. Don't ignore them. The small thing always leads to the big thing. Now, worship team, join me. What a man needs. Where my men at? We're getting stronger, right? We're getting stronger. You feel the strength in the room, ladies? We're getting stronger. We're getting stronger, men, you know, it's funny. They don't need much. You know, I love the men. Y'all don't need much. Much. Number one, men need respect. Respect fuels love, and love fuels respect. Three things. Let him lead, ladies. Let him lead. Appreciate his hard work and use honoring words. Ephesians 5,33, it says, however, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself. And the wife must respect her husband. Not the wife should try to respect her husband. The wife must respect her husband. Honor your husband. I'll follow PR Anywhere, any day. Because I honor the man of God that he is. Respecting and honoring doesn't mean you always agree. I don't always agree with prayer, but I honor him. I respect him. I respect the position that God has placed him in over our family. The kids will sometimes, you know, ask me a question in here, and they'll ask PR over there, and we're in two separate rooms, and, you know, Daddy says no. And they ask me, and I'm like, yeah. And they're like, well, Daddy said no. And I'm like, okay, well, then we need to do what Daddy said. And they're like, why do we always have to do what Daddy says? You're an adult, too. My response, as I teach them, is, because we honor what Daddy says. And some of you have immature friends that are. You don't need to listen to him, girl. You don't need to. And it's dangerous because God has called you to honor and respect that husband. You got some naggy, immature friends over here literally leading you in the wrong direction. Respect and honor him. Not because of any other reason except God says to. I'm able to trust PR I'm able to honor him because he's created safety for me. Safety equals trust. Men also want friendship. Did you know that there's men that are actually not praying for prostitution, but hiring girls just to be their friend? I know we think that men just sometimes just want sex. It's so much more. Sex is so layered. It's friendship. It's connection. It's the way God designed it within marriage. Friendship. He already has a mama, and the men say amen. He doesn't need another one. He doesn't need another mom. He needs a friend. Have fun. Laugh together. Some of you have built your relationship on sex instead of friendship. Then you got married and you're realizing there's a lot more to marriage than sex. And now you drive each other crazy because you were never compatible. You were just sexual. Make sure you are friends. Fight for your friendship. Number four, ladies. Intimacy. Men desire intimacy. We do need to do better. This message is for me as well. Just so you know. You know, I think often we get so caught up taking care of the kids or busy working, whatever, that we think that they're fine. We can wait another day, we can wait another week. And one of the tricks that the enemy he used on me was I had a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and a newborn. PR was traveling all over the world. I was exhausted. And I remember thinking, always, PR's grown, he'll be fine. Let me just take care of the kids. The kids need me. That was such a trick of the enemy getting us to run on exhaustion, run on empty to where we would neglect the very thing that God has designed. Our husbands need intimacy. I know that you're tired, but you should put it on the schedule. I remember laughing at our counselor for telling us, put sex on the calendar. I was like, uh, she don't know nothing. She knows everything. Sex on the calendar, super important. Always think about, I am the only woman on the planet that can meet that need for him. What an honor. What a privilege. If the enemy comes in, you're too tired, you're this and that. Ugh, it's. No. What an honor. You are the only woman. I better be the only woman. Can I just say that I am for sure the only woman on the planet that can give them that? Otherwise, I will set a house on fire and be on Dallas, Texas, tv, Instagram, just Pastor of Social Dallas. Set a house on fire for sure. Yeah. In Jesus name. So come back, Taylor. You know, I start getting mad thinking about it. I'm like, whoa, what is wrong? Maybe I need to go to therapy one more time. But it's a gift, it's an honor, and it's a privilege. I know that many of you have come in today and maybe you're like, I don't even know where to start. My marriage is falling apart. I hate my spouse. Hate is real because you love so deep that love can quickly turn into hate because of the pain that your spouse caused. Maybe you're not meeting each other's needs. It's not abnormal meeting the needs of the other. We're Opposites. So it's hard, it's unnatural to do these things. But by the grace of God, intentionality, the Lord will grace you to do the very thing that you need to do in order to get your marriage on track. You can stand to your feet. I bought trees last year and I loved a garden and all the things I bought seven trees. How ridiculous. Never bought a tree before I walked in and. Or I planted the trees last year. Well through the winter season. You know, it looked like they probably died. And so I've been waiting on spring to come to figure out if my. My actual trees survived the winter storm. And I walked out yesterday. You could put up the. The photo. What looked dead, dead gone. I walked out yesterday and saw the little glimpse of light. Life was in the dead. The thing that looked dead, life was actually there. It just had to stay planted. Spring was coming, winter was gone. And so I look at life and that's what I think about in some of your marriages today. It looks dead. You've grown cold and you don't desire your spouse anymore. But maybe you still have hope. And you need some sort of hope to know that you're going to be okay. I want to tell you today, keep holding on the title of my message. I'm giving it to you at the end. It's just hang in there. Just hang in there. Just hang in there. The enemy wants to destroy your life. He's always. It's been the same strategy from the beginning of time. He wants to take out the family. But by his grace, by his mercy, with therapy, with help, with showing up, with being selfless, with repenting, he is with you and he will bring healing and restoration to your life. So I want to invite PR today to the stage. We gotta dismiss them because of the parking lot. But today, marriages who are struggling, I speak healing over you. Those who have been unfaithful and need restoration. I speak healing and restoration to you. As you repent and turn from your wicked ways, there will be healing and restoration. Unforgiveness. I pray that you will let it go and you align yourself with the truth and be able to forgive what your spouse did. Healing from your past. You've carried trauma into your marriage. You're blaming your husband for what your daddy did. And husband, you're blaming your wife for what your mama did. I pray that trauma, it shapes you, but it doesn't make you. It shapes you. Yeah, created empathy and grace, but it doesn't make you who you are. You're a new creation. Some of you are living together. And God cannot bless your relationship until you follow his order. Some people are gonna be, hey, I gotta move out. And that's okay. Cause God's gonna give you everything that you need. So today I bless you. I pray healing over every marriage. I pray healing over every mind. I pray God that you continue to restore and finish what you started. What the enemy meant for evil, it's pay. He's going to regret that he ever came for any of us. I bless him today. Going out in strength, going out in boldness, going out in grace, going out in new mercies, going out in selflessness and love. Because that is who you are. I bless your people in Jesus name. Amen.
- [39:32]
A
Come on, social fans, love you.
- [39:35]
B
Come on.
- [39:36]
A
Can we give God some praise? I truly believe that God is doing a deep work through this series. If I were you, I would keep showing up. I would keep showing up. Because if you keep showing up, keep growing up, hang in there. You're not hearing a series from people who got it together that are perfect. You're hearing a series from people who have been through some stuff. But I'm so glad that we hung in there and we're still standing.
- [40:04]
B
Amen.