 Good afternoon, Pastor David. Hey John. Welcome everybody to a random moment unfiltered with Pastor David We did something a little different on Tuesday Where we spoke on communion and so on Thursdays We are now we're wanting to focus a little bit more on your upcoming marriage and family series that will happen in June Right at the wrong June and they're probably the second week of June or so we'll begin somewhere around there It's gonna be a I think it's gonna be a great series and what a time in today's time When marriage and family are under attack and so today pastor I wanted to speak a little bit if you would share a little bit on on the importance of keeping our marriages or even just relationships Christ-centered because even in my own life when I've taken my eyes off the Lord My life is all which was the loose right? It's always it's and the importance even now in the institution of marriage or even in a Relationship, what's the importance of keeping Christ our focal point? You know we're Christians, you know when you're a Christian you're you're supposed to already have on an individual basis You're already supposed to be building your life on the foundation of Jesus Christ and and what it means to be his follower I mean if that is the focal point of your personal life your your your Your source of identity for yourself will put it that way if you're a Christian well, you know everything that you do is to be built on the foundation of the word of God and the walk of the Spirit and things of that nature fellowship Your prayer life your service you're giving all of that supposed to be Centered and I realize as a young person in the 20s and all that Those are things that you're still sorting out and you're still kind kind of finding yourself In this world as a Christian, especially if you got saved in your 20s will say so Everything is to be built on the Lord Jesus Christ that would include of course most important personal relationship You have outside of your salvation Which would be your your marital relationship? And so if somebody is a believer and They want to take somebody out it begins first and foremost on Whether that person you want to take out is a believer also Because you don't want to take an unbeliever out you won't you are commanded not to You're not to be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, you know in the Old Testament You see quite a number of scriptures that relate to God's judgment on the nation of Israel for Having marriages with pagan women and so you know that's forbidden in the old and it's Reiterated it's repeated in the new so we're to be married Paul said but only in the Lord With that said if you're a Christian then you're looking for somebody and you know in your prayer life in your heart and The way that you would seek somebody will say You're you're looking for somebody who loves Jesus that that should be the key Oh, and a second thing is that and I learned this after being married for several years Somebody came and spoke at our church and and it locked in something that that I saw is very important when this guy said there's a Man from India who was a pastor in India. He had said Before he got married he had prayed and asked the Lord to please gift him with a woman who loved Jesus more than he did and As I heard him say he said my reasoning behind that was because I love the Lord and if I married somebody Who loves him deeper than I do it gives me the freedom to grow and to serve the Lord in the way I'm called to because she's going to release me So it's only going to be a win-win situation right which it was in his case He married a woman who he asked what do you want for your? Birthday he was giving her a present. She says I want a bullhorn So I can stand on the street corners and preach to people about Jesus Christ, right? So so you need to make sure that you're you're praying according to the will of the Lord and seeking somebody That loves him and even going so far as to say Lord me this person love you so much that it Encourages me to love you with all of my heart So it all begins on the foundation of your faith in Christ and your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ You would never want to date somebody who will keep you away from Jesus. You never want to Be in engaged to and then marry someone who says eventually It's either Jesus or me. I've heard that more than once where that has happened in a man's life I remember speaking to a man on one occasion and he he came to share with me. He wanted to Sell me radio time and a particular station and he said, you know Before I started selling radio time I was a pastor and I looked at him and I said What do you mean you were a pastor? He says I had to quit the ministry. I said, why is that? He said because my wife said to me either it's Pastoring or your marriage. It's not gonna be both So you want to make sure that you married a person who loves the Lord You need to make sure that you first and foremost love the Lord and then that That that combination of your love for Christ and her love for Christ and and the knowledge of his love for you That will cement you in your relationship And then the rest of the the marriage can be built on that and the importance of spending time in the word together praying together Keeping Christ centered as we mentioned and we want to wrap it up with this pastor We want to be sensitive toward our listeners the different attacks on the marriage Even today is the importance of focusing on God's word Well, you know God's word gives us instruction. I don't see how I can be equipped for the battle if I don't know the manual and You know if Satan worked to destroy the first marriage What makes us think that he doesn't continue to destroy marriage in the first nine chapters of Genesis you find three institutions that were established were that were intended for the betterment of man and and it was the church and it was Government and it was marriage and those are the things that every society should be built on, you know a faith in God and Relation in relationship and a government that is under the authority of God. I mean that's that would have been his design Seeing that Adam fell and he put that design in place after the fall But that's what you see and so yeah, I would I would believe that if if especially in these days where People are talking about Their test or their trial marriage to see if it works. Oh, I learned some lessons and now I can get married and be successful So you use somebody's life as a test tube to discover what your own weaknesses and Selfishnesses are you need somebody else that you abandon them so you can be a better person for somebody else Entering into a relationship with that mentality is a recipe for disaster. It's a deputy recipe for divorce That's what's going to happen if you don't die to self if the husband doesn't wash his water with the word if he Doesn't act in sacrificial way the way Christ loved the church and gave himself for it How do you expect? your marriage to make it when it's built on you and your selfishness and and Let's face it, you know We already are inclined to taking care of ourselves. It's the dying to self When two two people together die to self that that new entity that one flesh can actually thrive So if I'm constantly trying to fulfill my own desires and at the cost of my my wife That's a recipe for divorce Wow And so it's a sober reminder that we're gonna keep our eyes focused on the Lord and keep Jesus centered in our marriage Amen, led by the Holy Spirit and in God's word. Amen, pastor. Thank you so much for Sharing some information inside on this and one of our church family to come out this Sunday as we have a guest speaker It's Garrett Beeler and services are at 8 30 and 10 45 and to keep you in Marie in prayer because you'll be heading up to a conference I'll be doing a conference in what in the state of Washington I think there are seven or eight churches that join together for a men's conference and pastors Gathering and so I'll be I'll be teaching a few times on on Saturday so we'll make sure we keep you in prayer and that you guys have travel mercies and And church family will look forward to seeing you and thank you for tuning in and God bless you