 Come on, let's rise to our feet if you're excited to be in the house of God. I want you to lift up a shout of praise to our Lord. Come on, I heard about two people. Come on, let's make some noise for Jesus. Our God is alive. I want to welcome each and every single one of you. Can you guys turn to your neighbor and say, neighbor, welcome. And turn to your other neighbor and say, neighbor, Jesus loves you. Come on. Jesus, let's lift up a shout of praise to our God. Come on. We're healing today, and there's two different prayers I want to pray today. I feel it deep in my spirit that we have started to normalize generational curses that are specifically involved with infirmity. That we have normalized our relatives generation to generation to generation, dealing with cancer, dealing with mental illness, dealing with heart disease, high blood pressure. These things are demonic, and we need to address them as such because we know that here at Hungry Generation, we not only go after the demons, but we go after generational curses to be broken so that we can release the generational blessings, amen? On earth as it is in heaven is what the Bible says. That means that we can decree and declare. We can decree and declare that our family will be of good health, amen? Our family does not need to be plagued by anxiety. It does not need to be plagued by fear. These are attacks on your family that end today. So I want us in your seats to raise your hand, to stand in the gap for your family, for your friends who are dealing with these generational curses, whether it's infirmity, cancer, mental illness, anxiety, fear, and watch how the Lord breaks it in Jesus, my team. God, we come before you right now in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, knowing every generational curse will break in the name of Jesus Christ. We release generational blessings over our children, over our children's children, that they will not deal with mental illness. They will not be ridden of fear of anxiety, that that liver cancer that has plagued every single woman in the family will be broken today in Jesus, my team. Every father, every grandfather that has always struggled with heart disease will be broken in Jesus' name. We release the power of God over our family in Jesus' mighty name. We pray. Now this second prayer, I want us to take a step of faith that if you're here in this building and you need healing in your body, I want you to run to the altar right now. Not only will our pastors pray over you, but we will have our congregation stretch your hands. So come out of your seats. There's physical healing in your body. Make room. Come out of your seats right now. There's more people here. I know it. We do not just pray and hope that Jesus heals you. We decree and declare what the Bible says that as we lay our hands on the sick, they will be healed in Jesus' mighty name. Amen? So as we start to lay our hands on those who are sick, those in the congregation, stretch your hands and by faith decree and declare over each and every single one of the people here this morning, they will be healed because that is God's promise because by His stripes we are healed. Let's pray. In the name of Jesus, Father, we come against every sickness, against every infirmity in their bodies in Jesus' mighty name, Father, against every arthritis, against every back pain, against every muscle spasm, against every father blindness, every problem with the ovaries, every problem with the stomach, every problem with the muscles and the nerves in the name of Jesus, every growth, every cancer, every sleep apnea, every problems in the skin, every exam, in Jesus' mighty name, we rebuke you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, Father, we send forth your word, Father, that declares the Father that by your stripes we are healed. We stand on a promise in Jesus' mighty name and we send forth your word and we declare be healed in Jesus' mighty name. Be delivered from every affliction, every disease in Jesus' mighty name. Father, we come, Father, against that sickness and we rebuke you. We break your grip over a generational curse, every family curse of sickness. People have issues passed down from generation to generation. We break your grip in Jesus' mighty name. We rebuke you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, every sickness you got to go. Every disease, go in Jesus' mighty name, every pain, every affliction in Jesus' mighty name. We rebuke you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, Father, we send forth your word. Like you said in Psalm 1-7, Father 20, you send forth your word and you heal them all in Jesus' mighty name, Father, we send your word right now into that body, into that bone, into that muscle, into the nerve, into that tissue, into the fluid in Jesus' mighty name. Father, be healed in the name of Jesus, be healed in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Yes, Lord, we thank you, Jesus, knowing, decreeing and declaring the power that is in your mighty name. God, we thank you, Jesus, for the miracles that are happening right here right now. And God, we thank you for the testimonies that are going to come standing in faith that today is their day of complete freedom. And the church says, amen, hallelujah, Jesus is alive here and today. And if you don't think you're worthy to receive a miracle from God that is a lie to the enemy, he wants to heal you, he wants to set you free, and he wants to have an encounter with you, amen. You can take your seats, greet your neighbor to your left and right, and please set your eyes on the screen. The altar is empty. There's no stories of new life being birthed and chains being broken. Everything is 20 years outdated. Nothing is fresh. God has a word for you. It's actually very simple, but it's a secret, and that is this. As you develop depth, the strategies that are correct start working. Jesus says, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It's just to build it, that means I have to develop my own personal depth in my relationship with God. As long as you maintain that which God tells you to do, God will continue to do what he wants to do. God is interested in bringing revival. Hungry generation, good morning, good morning, good morning. So I'm going to give God a round of applause for what he did, what he's doing, what he's going to do. Put your neighbor to your side and say, I'm blessed to sit next to you. Look to your other neighbor and say, good morning. Come on, come on. Glad to see every one of your beautiful faces. What you just saw was a promo video for our pastor summit, April 27th through the 29th. Come on, somebody give God a shout of praise. I want to encourage every single pastor, every single view all over the world. Every pastor, I encourage you, join this pastor summit. The life will be blessed. And now is the time for tithes and offering. And Malachi 3, chapter 3 verse 10 and 12 it says, bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my temple. Somebody say food in my temple. If you do, says the Lord of heaven's armies, I will open up the windows of heaven for you. I will borrow a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in. Try it. Put me to the test. And all nations will call you blessed for your land will be such a delight, says the Lord of heaven's armies. Now, usually when I speak on this verse, this scripture during tithes and offering, I tend to say, if you give today, God's going to bless you above and beyond shaking up, stirred up, baked in the oven, put on your lap, eat it, and it's going to be great. You're not even going to handle it. It's going to be too much, too much blessing. But when I was reading the scripture, God showed me a different perspective. He said there's not only a connection, a blessing for the sower who gives, but there is a connection, a blessing for the land that it will be transformed when we give. That God uses the church when there is enough food in the storehouse, when there is enough food in the temple, God will use the church to change the land. Somebody say amen. And when God compares the church, he compares it to a body. And fuel for the body is food, just like generosity is fuel for the church. Let me say that again. Fuel for the body is food, just like generosity is fuel for the church. Now when you fuel the church, you're not fueling pastors' cheeseburgers after work with no tomatoes, no lettuce, extra fries, and the water to just be a little bit healthy. You're not fueling pastors' cheeseburgers, all right? You're fueling the advancing and the establishing of the kingdom of God. What you're fueling, you're not fueling something carnal. You're fueling not just something in these four corners. You're fueling something national. You're fueling something international that we're doing. You're fueling conferences for the saved, for the lost, and for the sick. You're fueling unashamed clubs that we have here at church. When we go into the schools to bring Jesus, to bring prayer, to bring the Word of God back to the young generation and back into our schools, you're fueling these services to encourage and to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Because of the generosity, because there's food in the temple, the Bible says, I will change the land and we're already doing it. And because of the generosity, since December of last year, we now have $950,000 in our church new building fund. Somebody give God some miraculous, miraculous praise. Now that's miraculous. That's miraculous generosity. Because of your generosity, the new building is going to have a facelift. It's not going to be like this. It's going to be more like this. It's a modern, fancy, stylish. It's new. It's in. So we're going to get a church of facelift. Come on. You're going to get a church of facelift. We're expecting more and we're believing that God's going to provide. Amen. Amen. Thank you for every single one of you. Not just a vision. Not just a member, but you're a person, a part of the vision of establishing and advancing the kingdom of God. And there's three couple ways to give. There's an envelope, church center app, online, hongijen.com, slash give, text any amount to 84321 and there's platforms such as Cash App, Venmo, and other things. So bow your heads as the baskets go around and let's pray. So Father, we come before you. Jesus, we thank you for every person that's giving, whether it's a little or a lot. Lord Father, we know that every dollar is advancing and establishing your kingdom. Every dollar is going towards saving more people, delivering more people, helping more people, bringing the gospel to more people. So Father, we thank you that what you're doing in this ministry, Father, I thank you that you're using each and every one of us to be a part of your grand plan to save, heal, and deliver. We thank you. In Jesus' mighty name, everybody said amen and help me to fix your eyes on the screen. I was raised here in Pasco, Washington. As I was growing up here, I grew up in a split home. So my mom and my dad were always arguing and fighting you. And there was really no attention on me and my siblings. So in the middle of all this, I kind of just started hanging out with the wrong crowd and I was able to get out of the house with nobody really like paying attention to me. So I ended up becoming involved in this gang and in this lifestyle with the drugs and kind of like trying to fit in and be a part of the scene because I really don't have a father figure, you know, like my dad's always gone. So these gang members that I'm being surrounded by, they become my father figure and I see that as they're people that get respected and people that get looked up to in the school. So that's who I want to be. And so I end up becoming involved with these gangs. And at the age of 15, I get, we get arrested and stuff. I get arrested for a possession of a firearm charge and I end up going to do some time for this, for a minor in possession of a firearm charge. And I end up doing some time for that. I get, when I get out, I get kicked out of school. And so it just kind of makes me get more involved in the gang because I don't have to go to school now. So I'm kind of more in the mix of all the gang stuff. And at the age of 20, I'm about to turn 21, I get arrested for a felony rioting charge and a felony possession of a firearm. And I end up having to go do a prison sentence. So a friend of mine, two friends of mine got shot. And now they're saying that now I'm starting to kind of catching up on everything that's been going on. And another friend of mine got shot and got shot in the finger in his head. And but he survived and he was good. But and as we're driving down Coors Street, the rival gang pulls up right next to us. And at first I don't notice it, but I hear like someone yelling and stuff. And so I roll down the window and I noticed that it's these guys, you know. And I have my kids in the back in the car seats and stuff. And so they're over here and one of the guys waves a gun. And I mean, I had a gun as well in the car at the time. But I didn't want to shoot or do anything because my kids were in the car. And so I told my friend, I was like, hey, just take me home. And I kind of sit there with the kids and I'm kind of panicked a little bit too because the situation could have gone really bad. And I knew if they would have shot the car, they would have shot my kids or just the car alone. So this girl tells me that I should go to church and stuff like that. And so I go to church and I'm at the church and the message that they were preaching kind of was speaking to me like to what was going on in my situation there in that time. I wasn't a person that had a lot of patience. So I want stuff to happen immediately. And stuff's not happening for me. It's already been like a couple of weeks. And Pastor Tony had given me this Bible and I'm reading scriptures and all this stuff and I was like, man, I've been praying and nothing's really happening. I'm already looking for other alternatives to instead of just waiting, forgot to come through to start selling drugs or something so that I could get myself back on my feet. That week I had gone with my brother and gone to a dispensary because when I went into prison, there was no dispensary and I got out and weed was legal. So I had gone with my brother and we had been smoking dabs. And now I'm here like a couple of weeks later and I know it takes more than 30 days to get clean. And my probation officer calls me and he tells me, like, hey, you need to come in. You were supposed to be here yesterday. And he pulls out a UA cup and he tells me, he goes, can you give me UA? And so I was, I kind of stared it for a little bit and I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. And he tells me like, are you clean? And I don't know if he could tell that I was like nervous. And I told him, I was like, oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, I'm like, I'm clean. But I remember I was saying this little short prayer and I was like, God, I was like, if you're real, I need you to show up like right now. I need you to help me. So when he gives me the cup, I look at the cup and I'm clean. Like, like THC is all normal. Everything is normal. And I'm kind of like, at all a little bit, I'm kind of like, oh my gosh, like I'm clean, you know, as we're driving back home and stuff. My sister was a Christian and she was also trying to get me to church. And I just never really went with her. So she's listening to this radio station called Caleb. And as we're driving, there's this guy and he comes out and he's on the radio and his name's Luis Pallon. And he's talking about how in the Hebrew language, there's no word for coincidence. And he was saying that that is happening is because the guards ordained it that way and that the Hebrews believed in that. So the sooner that we stop saying that it's not a coincidence or that it's luck, when we start acknowledging that it's God, that the more we'll see the blessings poured out upon us. And it just, like to me, it just hit me. And it hit me hard. God was telling me, like, no, it's not a coincidence. It's me. All this stuff that's been happening positively is me. And so I'm looking out the window and I'm just kind of like lost. And so as we drive home, I turn around and look at my sister and I'm kind of emotional. Now I'm just seeing God move and I can just see him, that he's all over me. He's kind of like pushing me to go to church. And I feel like he's just answering me, like everything that I'm asking is just happening fast. And I get to church and the service that they're having is just hits me again and God's all over me. And I just feel like emotional. And they call people up and they're like, you've never given your life to God or to Christ to come to the altar. I'm just like emotionally broken and I start crying at the altar. So I cut out like everything I cut out on the relationships, other friends and stuff like that. Like I go back and I kind of just go back into my word, go back into prayer, go back into having a relationship with God. And I'm moving forward. I cut out doing tattoos because I was doing tattoos as well. And I know that that was something that God wanted me to cut out. So that was something that was hard for me cause I was making good money. And it was something I didn't want to let go cause as a kid I was always like drawing and doing art. So I ended up cutting that out too. And I was, I already knew that it wasn't what I wanted that is what God wants. And that's what brings me joy is doing what God wants. So that's what I decided to do. And that's what I'm going to continue to decide to do as I continue forward. Come on. Wasn't that an incredible testimony? Yes. Good, it's still morning. Good morning church. I added double check. I'm here for three services. Turn to your neighbor and say, hey, good morning. Say you're, and turn to your other neighbor and say, hey, you're about to be blessed. Come on, come on. Couple of things before we dive into the message Pastor Vlad and Pastor Lana were in South Carolina and they're a couple of places. They will be here next week to share the message. We are diving into a series, marriage series in March. Yes. Are you guys happy? The last service wasn't really that happy. No, I'm just kidding. Somewhere, somewhere, I'm just kidding. But we, and I love the fact that we're diving into a marriage series. A lot of the people in our house, in our church have got engaged. So we're entering into a season of weddings and it's worth to celebrate. Amen. Who got engaged? Raise hands, raise hands. Come on, yes. Let's give them a round of applause. Amen. Praise God. Marriage should be celebrated. Amen. And I know that these messages are kind of like very informational. It's a teaching, but God also wants to heal. I know a God that heals. A God that restores. A God that redeems. Amen. A God that reconciles. And that is what he wants to do in your marriage. Now, I know there's many different situations, some that are married, some that are single, some that are engaged. Some of you that maybe are newlyweds or some of you that have been married for 27 years, whatever the case may be, the Lord wants to speak to you. Amen. Because this message pertains to relationships. And many of us are surrounded in relationships. Amen. Isn't that true? Who you are today is the effect of a marriage or relationships that you had at your home. Amen. Some of you have been thriving and some of you have been working on healing coming out from the home that you are in. And I believe there's such an importance that the Lord wants to bring to us that we receive ministry in our home. So the hand of God is in our home, amen. That not just that we go to church and go to work and we are successful there, but when we come home, it's broken. That is not God's portion for your life. Can you say amen to that? Are you guys receiving that already? The enemy is already attacking and we can see it's extremely evident. If you turn, go on social media. If you go on the news outlet, if you go Hollywood even in all movies, it diminishes the covenant that the Lord wanted you to establish with your spouse. It diminishes the idea of marriage and everywhere you go, so that our mentality is shaped and warped to understand that marriage is just not that important, but it's crucial. It is crucial because the enemy is after our marriage and not just our marriage because he understands that when the marriage is destroyed, the family is destroyed. And we've heard this before that when the family is destroyed, the children are destroyed. The next generational line is destroyed, amen. He's always after the bigger picture. It's not necessarily always you that he's attacking you. He's attacking what can bring forth from you, which is the children and the children's children, which is the lineage, that the generation that God wants you to be blessed and for you to dominate. And I'm not saying dominate in a bad way, but as he promised us in Genesis chapter one to have dominion for us to multiply, amen, to expand our territory because we are God's children and he wants to shine light in all facets of our life, not just in one area. He wants to shine his light in our family, in our marriage, in our home, in our relationship with our children. He wants to be the center in our home, amen. Are you guys believing in that as well, amen? So no matter what the situation that you come with, I want us to quickly pray as I dive into the message for your heart to be open to receive, for it to speak to you at any level, in any way that the Lord wants to bring a light in any area of your life, amen. So let's just pray real quick and just invite Holy Spirit so he can minister to you today. Precious Holy Spirit, I thank you that you're here in this place already. And I just ask Father that you'll begin to minister to hearts today. The Lord that you'll begin to rekindle certain things that are, that have been quenched in relationships. I pray, Precious Holy Spirit, that you'll begin to soften hearts. Lord, that forgiveness takes place, that healing takes place in the soul. And Lord, I thank you that you are here and that Lord that you want to touch hearts, heal relationships, and Father sow seeds of truth that the enemy has used to lie to them, that you're breaking off of them through this message in Jesus' mighty name, amen. Amen, all right. So I just want to really say this real quick, as we're talking about marriage, please don't do your best not to start thinking about your spouse. Like he did this wrong, she did this wrong, and start being like, yep, that was her. Yep, that was him last week. Yep, that was him right before we came to service. I want us not to start naming or labeling what our spouses did, but I want us to have that moment between us and the Lord that we're reflecting inside of us, and then not reflecting on what they did wrong. Can we do that? Yes, come on. So I want us to really quickly is I was curious to define marriage. And I just went on Webster's dictionary, and I looked it up and the marriage definition means that legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners in a personal relationship. That it's recognized as a union of a personal relationship. Personal and it's a partnership. Can you say partnership? And if you're sitting next to your spouse, say you're my partner. Yeah, if they're not, don't say that. So I say that because it's truly a partnership. See, the Lord wants to give each and every one of us that is about to get married or is married or in this area of your life, whatever it may be, if you're going through divorce or have gone through divorce, whatever the situation is and that you're hurting in this area, I want you to know that the Lord wants to minister to that area. He wants to, like I mentioned earlier, to reconcile, to restore and to give hope, amen. He doesn't want you just to cut it off and say, well, it's too late for me. It's never too late for you. Amen, a God that redeems and He always does miraculous works, even if it feels like it's come to an end of you. A lot of times when it comes to the end of us, that's when He can begin. Yes, amen. So I want our hearts to be receptive of that. But what's interesting to me is that there's a partnership. Marriage is powerful, but marriage is also beautiful. It shows the characteristics of our God, amen. His faithfulness, His commitment to us is supposed to shine His character through our marriage. And our marriage is powerful because as it says in Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse nine, it says two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. Two are better than one. And if that's not the case for you, God wants that to be the case for you, amen, that it's better to be together. Come on, two are better than one. See, the enemy knows the power of your partnership, the power of your covenants, because when you have a vision in your marriage and when you two come together, you're an unrecognizable force. I tried to say that word, bear with me. But you are a force to be reckoned with. That's what I meant, amen. This is my second time for you to guess, come on. So yeah, that part. For whatever reason, I'm totally going blank on it, but the enemy knows the power of partnership. He understands what you two are capable of against the enemy. He understands that and that's why he attacks it so much. See, the devastation is that we understand there's an attack on marriage in our society, but what has happened is that it's come inside our home, that we are starting to attack each other because we are supposed to be our spouse's partner to fight against the enemy. But what we have done is we become partners with the enemy to fight against our spouse. That's what's happening. And you say, what does that mean? If we are not building up our spouse, we're tearing them down. Slowly, but surely. A lot of times we do that with not even realizing or recognizing not only is our relationship and intimacy being diminished, but then the attacking starts happening. We attack the person instead of what's behind that person. We start to realize that they're against us, but we're not a team, that we forget that we are on their side. Does that make sense? And so what's happened is that we are called to be our spouse's helper. As it said in Cleasiastes 4-9, it says to be, to help them, to lift them up, right? If you can bring back that verse, if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. It's not just the wife that's called the helper in Genesis, we're supposed to help each other as well. It's husband and wife, and that's what it brings to Ecclesiastes says, for us to both help when someone is down, discouraged in depression, dealing with certain battles, dealing with certain things internally. Instead of seeing it as if they're against you, that you are for them and you're fighting for them, not against them, amen? And so what the enemy has done, he has found his way, slowly but surely, for you to be against your spouse, to be against our marriage, to fight each other because we started taking it very personal when they fall or when they have a shortcoming. Isn't that true? We do that all the time. And so I believe that certain tools that I wanna talk about will be helpful for you because you have to go back home today, amen? Yeah, so we're not gonna hang out here all day. We have to go back home to our spouses and the Lord wants us to thrive in our homes. And so I wanna just break down three things that are going to help you use as tools to win your spouse's heart over. And when I say to win your spouse's heart over, that I want you to realize is that there's someone competing for your spouse's heart and you're saying, what do you mean? Not just competing over Satan, but competing over bitterness, competing over resentment, competing over unforgiveness because that's what comes from is in relationships, those things harbor. Yes, am I right? And when your heart gets, you feed on bitterness and resentment and on those things, you don't necessarily have your spouse anymore. You have those things activated and acting out in your relationship. And you're like, where is my spouse? Where can I find my spouse? But all of those things are hiding your spouse when we place those layers. And so we are competing with our spouse's soul, not soul, but heart. So that way it's tenderhearted. That's why it's soft. That way our relationship with them has intimacy. So how can we do that? The first one that I want to talk about is one of the things that slowly kills our relationship which kills or destroys our intimacy with our spouse is we choose laziness over action. And I know that's not talked about very much but I want us to think about that. How many times have we sabotaged our own selves or our own relationship because we were just too tired, right? Exhausted and you have every right to be. You just came from a big day of work, right? So much demand, even children. There's so much that is required of you that is pooling from you that when you go home, what do you want to do? Anybody want to say it out loud? Like Netflix, watch a movie or completely shut off or play on your phone, some type of game or whatever. But you want to shut off and shut away from the world. That includes your kids and your spouse. Am I right? Yes, yes. Okay, that happens to each and every one of us. And when that happens, the fact is, is that we give our spouse our last, not our best. And we need to give them our best. And the way to do that is we, I understand that sometimes it takes a lot for us to be able to have a conversation or ask how they're doing. It takes energy. You know, Dr. Jordan Peterson once said that there was a study that he said, in order to have a thriving relationship with your spouse, you need to take about 90 minutes and have a conversation within a week with them. 90 minutes can be just full on quality time, talking to one another, having a conversation that doesn't have your phone, 90 minutes. No matter how busy we are, because we're all busy. Yes, we all have places to go, things to do. We live in a society of busy. But I believe that the Lord wants to establish certain tools for you to succeed. And when we hear these type of things, we need to establish them, amen, so that we can be in a place that thrives. And so 90 minutes, whatever that may look like for you. But see, these 90 minutes are very difficult because again, it requires energy. It requires effort. And a lot of times we go to the place of just being lazy, idle, lethargic. We're just exhausted and tired and we're like, she's good, he's good. He'll be fine without the conversation or she'll be fine and all of that. We just kind of brush it off. But every time we do that, we are choosing to tear down what we're trying to build. Does that make sense? Because the Lord wants to give us building blocks to build our marriage and our connection with them to be strong. But every action that we have is either a building block or something that we're tearing down, every action. And so that being said, laziness is a form of selfishness if you think about it, has to do with you and what you're capable of. And that means you're like, I peace out, I'm good for this moment if I could put it in those terms. But selfishness puts the fire out quicker than anything else. It removes that intimacy. It removes that the fire that you too can have and would have had. The pursuit of your spouse isn't over when you get married. It must be greater. Did you guys hear that part? The pursuit of your spouse isn't over. It must be greater. And I say that is because a lot of times when we get married, we tap out, isn't that true? We settle. We settle and we're like, we're fine. And I want to say it's not the time to settle, it's time to strive up, right? It's the time to place that effort. It's the time to continuously pursue our spouse, our husbands and our wives, what they like, what they don't like to be a teacher and a student of them every time. We teach them how to treat us and we're a student on how to treat them. Amen. We must always be teachable. There's always certain things that are changing and wavering but you should be a teacher and a student at the same time telling them how to treat you, what you like and what you don't like and to be a student of what they like and what they don't like. Amen. And so to be able to be corrected, to be able to be teachable and those things take effort. Those things take energy. And so we have to choose to act instead of being idle. There's a scripture in Proverbs 24, 30 through 34 and you guys can write it down and they can put it up there. Proverbs 24 verse 30 through 34 talks about what laziness does. And I love this because it describes it well. I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense. Thorns had come up everywhere. The ground was covered with weeds and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. What's very interesting is that I looked up the effect and the impact of weeds and thorns when it comes to a vineyard. And what happens is that weed management is critical around vines where weeds compete for nutrients, water and light. And what I thought was interesting is that everything when you see the weeds and all of that and there should have been a beautiful vineyard, a beautiful marriage but laziness robs you of your own potential marriage and we did it to ourselves. Isn't that crazy? Is that laziness robs us of our own potential? Laziness, I know enemy does his job but the thing is, is that if we leave our vineyard idol that enemy gets the opportunity to work. He partners up with our laziness and he said, you know what, if you won't work it, I will. Come on, haven't we seen that? So we need to be active in making sure that we are aware and alert. As First Peters talks about even for us to be alert and to be aware of the enemy prowling like a lion, ready to destroy. And that is even in our area of our marriage and our children, we have to be alert and we have to be aware and we have to protect, come on. And so we don't need to be in a position to be idol but to be that person and those people that carry excellence, that we look into every area of our life and we say, what can I do to make this better? What can I do to allow the Lord to cultivate and to be able to grow a vineyard where it produces fruit? See marriage produces life, it gives us children but there also should be life of the Lord in the atmosphere, in the home, in the center of it all, amen. And if some of you are here at this very moment where you're like, man, I'm just tired, I'm tired of her asking me to take out the garbage or to clean the garage. I'm tired, doesn't she know that I worked all day? You know, and then she's asking me all those things and all those small little things are great things. I say that because when you respond with honor and say, hey, I'll go do that, it shows that you care. It shows that you listen. It's not the fact that who's dominating one or the other but you see that it's a team effort that you guys are helping each other in the smallest ways are the greatest things. Does that make sense? And so I want us just to look before we move to the next point is to understand what area in my life and my marriage have I stopped doing that I did when I was dating but I'm no longer doing for my spouse. Is it those flowers that you should have stopped by at Yoke's and picked up? You know, when you said, oh, that extra stretch of five miles, that's $25, you know, we make these excuses that are constantly derailing us from bringing a potential in our home. Does that make sense? So we need to ask ourselves, what can I do to cause my marriage to thrive? Of course that's Holy Spirit will help you and that's what I wanted to say is that you are called to be your spouse's helper. Not just the wise but the husband as well. I want us to invite Holy Spirit because he is called the greatest helper. In John 14, it describes Holy Spirit as our helper. He can teach you and show you how to be the greatest helper in your marriage. Amen? To cultivate, cultivate but also to show your children what that looks like. He wants you to create standards in your marriage and which is the word of God to be the standard in your marriage and which he's calling us to be helpers, to lift them up in the times that they need it but also throughout the day. Amen, are you guys getting anything? Come on. The next one that I want to talk about is choosing servanthood over selfishness. In Matthew 20, 20a it says, I did not come to be served but to serve. What a great quality. That shows that when we are serving our spouses, our family, our home, it is showing Jesus. Amen? He is the center and should be the center of our home. How can he be in the center of our home is by cultivating those characteristics of God. Amen? Jesus himself said, I did not come to get served but to serve. There's another scripture that I absolutely love that talks about his servanthood that I'll go into in just a moment but it's things like how can I help you? I love, my husband has on his calendar a little pop up every single day and it says ask how can I help you? And it almost feels like really, is that cheating? No, that's not cheating, that's rewiring your brain to think a certain way. If something didn't come naturally to you or to us, or we didn't get that opportunity to see an hour home in our raising of when we were kids, but God wants us to do things that will bring us maybe reminders and even if you have to remind yourself on the phone, make sure I ask my wife how she's doing. I mean, if you need to do that, it's not cheating, it's just to kind of spark to get something going, to act. And if you need a little reminder instead of her reminding you, wonderful. She'll think it came from you, you know? So come on. And it's just small things like that that we could adjust, small little things that seem so insignificant, but they're so significant. And you slowly build, one brick is not a big deal, but it builds a whole home, right? One at a time. So all these small little efforts cultivate that home that we are looking for to allow the Lord to be the center of. And the way to make him the center is to allow his characteristics to evolve in us, to ask, how can I help you? How are you doing? What is it that you need? Remember I said to be a teacher and a student of your spouse. If they tell you, I love A, B, and C and you don't do it, it hurts all the more because they communicate it to you, they maybe even send you links. These days I send links. I'm like, this one, this one, this one. So at any time, I'm like, when you're feeling like you want to bless me, you know, and remind me that you love me, here you go, you're welcome. I have made it so easy for you. I'm not letting you guess. I'm not letting you like, let him figure it out. No, I'm giving you the code. You know, when you say that women are hard to figure out, I'm like, you know what? I'm not gonna let you figure me out. I'm gonna let, I'm gonna communicate. This is what I like and this is what I don't like, amen? And sometimes we do that for each other, but because of laziness, because we're sometimes so focused on other things, we completely miss what they have said. Am I right? I encourage you to break it off, to shake off idleness, to break off that lethargic behavior and allow Holy Spirit to come in and invite him because he is the one that will give us that energy that we need, amen? He will give us that grace, but also the desire to create a great relationship in our marriage. Come on. So, servanthood, selfishness chooses me first. Servanthood, selfishness chooses me first. Servanthood chooses me last. I want you to hear that again. You know which one is operating in your life if you're always thinking what about me, what about me, what about me. Wouldn't it be wonderful to create in us what about him, what about her first before you? When do we do that? And I'm not saying for us to be condemned, but to create that characteristic in us. What about them? Selfishness always chooses us first. Servanthood chooses us last. Say, I'll go last. I want to help you. Does that make sense? Now, a lot of times servanthood requires our, how do I say, when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, that aspect of servanthood, when he was about to go on the cross and he had a lot of needs himself, many times the Lord will call you to serve your spouse when you have needs that you need the most to be fulfilled. And it's hard and it hurts, especially when your spouse or it feels like your spouse has neglected you or has abandoned you emotionally or spiritually. But then what happens is, is that the Lord calls us sometimes to serve them, the ones that have hurt us the most. See, the Lord is very wise. He knows what he was doing when he said, pray for your enemies and those that have persecuted you. Amen? He knows what he's doing because he knows how to protect his heart. He said, and you're thinking that, well, I don't want to be walked all over. No, no, no, no, no. When you serve, you're not walked over. You're walking over the problem. It's not allowing it to walk all over your soul. He understands the principle and that's why he guided us in Luke 6 to do so. He understands the concept of protecting our hearts to pray for those that hate you and those that persecute you. But he also said to be kind to those that are evil and ungrateful. That's what he said in Luke 6. People miss that part. But it spoke to me heavily because sometimes it feels like our own spouses are ungrateful. They don't appreciate us. Am I right? I'm not gonna talk about the wicked part. I'm just gonna talk about the ungrateful. But what did the Lord tell us to do? To be kind to them. And kind is not just an action or an attitude, but it also is shown through the act of servanthood, to serve them in those moments where it feels like you need to be served. But Psalm 23 verse one says that the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. I sometimes don't even understand that revelation or that verse that deep yet, where to the point I don't need nothing. Now I'm not saying that we don't teach our spouses to be able to fulfill our needs or to validate us or validate our emotions. I'm not talking about that. What I'm talking about is readjusting where the Lord belongs back on the throne and to repent that we put our spouses on the throne and are making them be our God to fulfill our needs and our wants. They are complimentary, but they are not from the Lord. Amen. The Lord can only fill the void that is hollow in our souls. He can only fix the brokenness that is in our souls, not our spouses. Some of us will need to go to a place of repentance and say, God forgive me that I have idolized my spouse, that I've idolized my partner more than I have given you the throne to be able to take care of my needs and my wants. And like I said, they have a duty. There's a reason why we're married. They are responsible. But what I am saying is the priority. Amen. Where you're going to the Lord first before you go to your spouse. So that why you don't have them on a chokehold to be like, hey, you're supposed to fix me. Hey, you're supposed to make me happy. Hey, you're supposed to fill my wants. They are not responsible to make you happy. You are responsible to make yourself happy. They are not responsible for your joy or your happiness. You are between you and God. It says that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Amen. Not your spouse. Amen. This is crucial because some of us are self-vocating our own marriage demanding things they cannot give us, you know. And maybe they can at times and will fix it for a moment. It's momentarily, but it's not for the long game. Amen. So then when you get your nice little flowers or we get where they actually take the garbage out or something else where we fulfill their need and want you'll ask for it again. Well, it's been a month, right? It's been last week. It's this thing where it's again and again and again. It's because we're looking at the wrong source. Wrong source. God is the ultimate source. And what the spouse gives is complimentary. Amen. Are you guys getting something? Come on. The last one is choosing humility over pride. This is a big one. Choosing humility over pride. Sometimes we have a better relationship with our ego than our spouse. Uh-huh. It's true. Some of us have a better relationship with ourselves or our ego than our spouse. I want to protect my ego. I do nothing wrong. Nothing ever. You know when pride is operating, when you know how to point, but you never point what's going on inside. You know you have a pride problem when everyone is wrong, but you're never wrong. Never. You know what? I want to hang around you because you must be sitting on the high throne of Jesus next to him and you know exactly everything. I mean that attitude that's so prideful where we never do nothing wrong, that's impossible. We are human beings. And if you have a soul wound, you are more able to be wrong because you're looking through the frame of broken glasses. So your perspective and perception is likely 95% wrong a lot of the times. When your soul is whole, we can talk. But when your soul has fragments and it's broken, it's very difficult for you to see correctly every time, to think correctly every time. Am I speaking to someone? How many times have we accused or assumed on someone or on our spouse, which we ended up being wrong? You're like, I wasn't wrong. I just caught them at a wrong time. You really have a deep problem. I'm just kidding. But really, there's a lot of times where our spouses will bring us to a place of humility. Come on. Where marriage exposes a lot of times our brokenness. It expresses and shows our character. That's why sometimes it's really hard. They say that marriage and having children is the end of your life. That's incorrect. Your marriage and your children is not the end of your life. It's the end of your self-centered life. That's the end of it, because it exposes how selfish you truly are. Because you have to serve. You have to take care of your children at all given times. The reason why people don't like it or they're negative about it is because they're speaking out of flesh. They're speaking out of their self-centeredness. Your life isn't over. It's actually just beginning a place where you can cultivate that godly character. The life Christ-centered life that God has designed for us. And our spouses provoke us a lot for that, yes? So going back to the pride and the humility is we must accept we're not always right and that we all carry toxic traits. There was a message that everyone's like, hmm, feeling out that. We all can carry toxic traits. Okay, the more that I would read or the more things that I was guided towards, I recognized I was like, oh, that's toxic and it's not him. It's me. And that takes a lot of self-awareness with Holy Spirit conviction to do that for us, yes? That is it possible that that toxic trait is you? That not everyone is wrong, always wrong and you're maybe the one that's wrong and that you've created the shell around you that everyone does wrong except you. We need to break ourselves. I'm not saying to be a broken person but a broken humility, surrenderance, yield and say, Lord, work on me, fix me. Not only should we be teachable and students of our spouses, but we need to be students to be teachable between us and God. Where he said, hey, the way you talk to him, that was disrespectful. When you were talking to her, you were provoking something. Speaking of blaming game, my husband and I have this fun thing over the years. I don't know, it's a trait and it's fun but he like, you know how like poke the bear long enough and you're gonna hear him roar? And so he has this call it fun personality trait about him but like poke, poke, poke, poke until you see something, you know, if there's anything in there and if you catch me on a good day, you can't get to me, you know? I'm like, uh-huh, uh-huh. I joke it off and I'm, but if I'm going through something in my mind and my husband decides to play that game and he starts poking, poking, you know, playing the poking game, oh, then you're gonna see something, you know, come out where it's like, he's like, oh, I was just joking. Pause, pause, time out, time out, I was just joking. And so I'm like, it's over at that point, you got me to the other line and sometimes we do that as fun or joking in our relationships but he likes to say, he's like, what's the point of having a wife if you can't blame her, you know, and so that's a joke for right now but I'm just kidding. We shouldn't do that to each other. That's my point, okay? That's toxic. So not saying about him, I'm just saying that there's certain things that we blame game, we blame each other, we provoke each other and all that stuff. It's fun for like jokes and things and if you guys have that, you know, in your personality and your relationship but what I'm talking about is where it's like this, you're constantly blaming, you know, that person for having an issue when you have a log in your eye, you know, a huge log where it's like, honestly, you're so focused on that person and they're wrongs that you're the one that's blind to self, right? So we have to constantly come back to a place of humility. Philippians two, three, eight says this. Two, three, through eight and the script will be in the back. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit rather in humility. Value others above yourself. Not looking to your own interest but each of you to the interest of the others and your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. How do we bring Jesus into the center of our relationship is having a Christ like mind and he said, always value and look up to others more than you with a humble heart. It's creating that cultivating that servant hood, creating that place of humility that I will be teachable that when they come and they're helping me with my blind spots that I don't attack them. But when he or she comes and not necessarily corrects at times corrects, sometimes speaks of your blind spot sometimes say, hey, could you be softer with me? Can you be more graceful for me? Can you stop looking at your phone while I'm talking to you that hurts my feelings or et cetera, et cetera that we take what they say and we listen to their critique because when you listen to them you make the relationship better. You're not losing, I promise you're winning, amen. It feels like you're losing because that's ego losing but your relationship is winning, amen. In the midst of all of this that we're talking about where we choose to act and pursue our spouse not be lazy in the midst of serving and not being selfish in the midst of humility instead of pride, what we're doing is we're cultivating a safe place for our marriage. A safe place for your spouse. I wanna ask you, are you a safe place for your spouse? You know if you are when they come to you and they had a shortcoming and you exposed them or you made them feel unsafe you responded out of anger, you condemn them, you judge them, you rebuke them, whatever it was but you weren't a safe place. The Lord wants us to cultivate a safe place for our spouse so that we can help each other to get closer to Christ. See what happens is that if you're not a safe place for your spouse, you tempt them to sin. See it's already hard for them outside world to tempt them. There's temptation all around us, am I right? Constantly knocking on our doors seeing if we will open the door to that temptation to that sin, to that shortcoming to falling. We are all tempted but what happens is is that the beautiful part about two are better than one that when one falls you can help them get back up or you push them down. Do we partner with the enemy at that time or do we partner with Holy Spirit to help them up? And by doing that, this is the example I wanna give, I have an example, okay? Recently, when I'm talking about being a safe place for our spouses, I had a situation that happened a couple of weeks ago where there's a stereotype about women on their driving skills, okay? And especially with the curbs, so I wanna tell you and I'm confessed right now, the curbs find me, I don't find them, okay? I don't know how many times I'm like, where did you come from? Until it's over and I went up the bump and there's times in the seasons where I'm really good and then there's times where it sneaks up on me and I hit the curb and you know, anyway, moving forward, this time I hit the curb and it was on a little bit extra high speed, okay? It wasn't slow speed, it was high speed and it was just a glimpse of a second that I was distracted and I was like, oh no, we just took the car two days ago to get it aligned and then here I am like running over a curb one more time with high speed, which is worse than the first one and I can't tell you enough how much anxiety and I was freaking out. I'm like, okay, I was really scared and I was like, okay, I'm not gonna tell him, no I have to tell him because we're leaving out of town and we're driving, he'll figure it out and so I'm being tempted to lie, okay? I'm being tempted to sin, okay? Lying is a sin by the way, devil is a liar, right? So I was tempted to make up the story completely to cover my tracks. Are you guys following me here? And so I was so tempted because I was like, I don't want him to get angry or upset or you know, whatever and I want him to know I'm a good driver, you know? Like I am good, because I am, I am good. But anyways, but I was reminded of how my husband has really like came to a new level of how he responds to me with such grace and such ease and he's been so gentle to me. So it gave me the strength to confess because I knew how he would respond to me. I knew that I was going to be in a safe place telling him my shortcoming. Are you guys following what I'm saying? So I texted him and I told him the truth, okay? I did, I did not lie. I told him the truth and he said, that's okay babe, but how fast were you going, you know? And I was like, why are you asking for details? Like you never asked for details and like never and he's like, pass the details, just tell me the point. But now he's asking me for the details, like how fast were you going, where was it at? He even asked me where it was at and I'm like, why? Why do you even care? So, but mind you, the concern of the car, okay? But all that to say, I had the strength to come to him because I knew he was a safe place instead of rebuking me, condemning me and making me feel bad. Amen. I wanna bring up a scripture about the aim for each and every one of us, Proverbs 31, verse 11 and 12. It says, the heart of her husband safely trusts her so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. That's a good place to be. And I wanna ask you today, are you a safe place for your husband, for your wife? Are you a place where they are compelled to tell you instead of tempted to hide? See, sometimes we have issues or your spouse is struggling and they're struggling silently. They're struggling silently because they're afraid of being safe with you because they already rebuke themselves for falling, for falling short, for falling again, for having attempted and falling. But are you a safe place where you understand that you're not fighting your spouse, you're fighting a darkness and entity behind them? And you said, I am your partner, I'm on your team, I am on your side. And we're gonna pray together, it's gonna be all right. You may have a hiccup, yeah, it hurt me a little, but I know that we're gonna hurt the devil a little bit greater, amen? So I want to ask you, are you a safe place for your husband and for your wife? Can they come to you when things are short, when you fell out of grace, when you think that you're not good enough, when business seems like your hands are not blessed but they're cursed? Can your spouse pray you through? Can your spouse be the one to help you? I want you to know this is not a time to condemn but to remind you that you have the power, wife, you have the power, husband, to lift them up because you are called to help them. You have the power and the authority to lift them out of the dark entity that they are fighting, amen? You have the power and the authority. And just because circumstantially you're reminded that it feels like no one listens to you at home, you're constantly yelling, you're constantly trying to tell them, will you please listen to me but they ignore you? I want you to know that the spiritual realm, trust me, they know your authority. Sometimes circumstantially we doubt how much power we have as a wife and as a husband but I want you to know is that you do carry power and authority because when you pray things shift and the enemy's a liar and he's been telling you that when you pray nothing's happening it's getting worse but it's about to get better. I want you to know that when you pray against that generational curse, it's falling off. I want you to know when your husband is addicted, I want you to know is that it will fall off in the mighty name of Jesus. This is the time for you to know that you can lift them up and be a safe place for not only to confess but to cultivate and thriving relationship with the Lord and with you. You can come to a place where it's intimate because when you come to a place of intimacy, they can come to a place of intimacy with the Lord. You can become a safe place when you dwell in the secret place. Some of us have neglected that and that's why you're not safe. That's why we have partnered with the enemy as an accuser and as an assumption or a summer, whatever that word is, assumption or the fact that we respond with anger or we act in a, we have an atmosphere of animosity. All of those things create a toxic environment but when we dwell in the secret place more, we become a place that is safe and we begin to carry the characteristics of the Lord. Amen. And that is how we can be in the center, Christ centered home. Come on, amen. This is where I want us to, I want to take us. Is if the Lord has been speaking to your heart, what I want us to do is we're going to pray and if we can all just rise up as the worship begins to happen and if you are with your spouse, I want us to take the opportunity. Now, if you're engaged as well, you can fiance as well or to take them by the hand and if you need prayer, the pastors are gonna come and minister to you. Some of you guys need to come to a place of asking for forgiveness, saying I'm sorry that I have not been a safe place for you. Some of us have to come to a place of asking for forgiveness, confessing and if you need to do that at home then do it or say I'm so sorry that I have been lazy and I stopped pursuing you. Whatever that is, I want you to grab your spouse's hand and we're gonna pray and pray as a church. So I don't want you to be shy. I want us to take a step of action instead of being idle and step forward and we're gonna pray for you and believe that your relationship is not gonna just survive. It's going to thrive. It's gonna be full of life. It's not gonna be a death. It's not going to be where it's sufferable but it's gonna be a place where the Lord can shine and show his character through both of you in Jesus' name, amen. So I want us to, as the worship happens, I want you to start just coming up. If you need prayer or want prayer, just grab your spouse's hand and come up. Don't be shy. I know there's a few that's okay in Jesus' name. So this time we're gonna pray and we're just gonna take this as an act of faith in the mighty name of Jesus, amen. So let's just begin to worship, begin to pray for each other and then the pastors are gonna pray for you, amen. As the pastors continue to minister to couples, I wanna pray for you in Jesus' name. Father, I pray for every person that is here. I pray for every couple that is here, Lord. I come against every demonic scheme to destroy marriages. I come against every darkness that is planning, plotting against marriages in our house, in our church. Father, I establish by your authority marriages in this house. I break every plan, I break every demonic scheme, every demonic force that's fighting against marriages, every darkness in Jesus' name. I secure marriages by the fire of the Holy Ghost and by the blood of Jesus Christ. I come against every disunity. I come against every demonic darkness that's trying to sow a seed of despair, a seed of fighting and conflict in Jesus' name. I come against every demonic darkness that is bringing fighting into a marriage and it's trying to separate and cause disunity. In Jesus' name, Father, I secure our marriages, marriages in our household, marriages in our church with your peace, with understanding, with kindness and love and passion towards each other. I pray for the marriages gathered on a break of divorce. I pray for a miracle of restoration. I pray for the marriages gathered, the passion and love has died. Lord, there is no spark between each other, Lord. I pray that it will be resurrected right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, I pray that our marriages, Lord, will be ruled by forgiveness and love and kindness towards each other. In Jesus' name, we cover marriages with your precious blood, with your love in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, I pray for those that have gone through divorce, those that lost marriages, Lord, and some of them don't even have a hope for another marriage, for another relationship. I pray, Father, that you shine your light and your love in their heart. I pray, Father, for second, third and fourth chances, Lord, you are God of chances as long as we trust you. I pray for restoration in marriages. I pray for restoration in relationships. I pray, God, for opportunities, God, to get remarried and then to build their house, Lord, on you and to have a great future, God, great marriage in Jesus' name. We bless every person, God, that is watching us, every person that is physically here present. Lord, that we will have strong and happy marriages, relationships in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah. I believe that we're gonna have strong marriages in our church, in our church. We're gonna have strong marriages in our house, hallelujah. Those of you that have been ministered, you feel free to go back home. The rest of you just hold for a second. I wanna, I want everybody to bow your head and close your eyes. If you're here in this place, maybe for the first time, the second, third time, whatever time, but you have not given your life to Jesus. You have not given your life to Jesus. Right now is the time, and it is the moment to give your life to Him. Maybe you have this void in your heart, you're searching, you're looking for something, or maybe you're looking for those things in someone, like my wife said, your spouse cannot replace Jesus. He cannot give you what only Jesus can give you. Your spouse is only a compliment, it only adds, it's a complimentary things. It's not the main course, it's not the main meal, it's not the main thing. Only Jesus can feel that void, only Jesus can give you that love that you're searching for. You can only receive from Him. And right now, I wanna invite you to give your life to Him, to give yourself to Him, to surrender your life so that you can live that fulfilled life and not only live a fulfilled life on this earth, this life on earth is short, but your eternity can be secured with Jesus because at the end of the day, I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you, but there's only two options. You either in heaven with Jesus because you've given your life to Him, or you are separated for eternity without Him in hell, in condemnation and torment. Jesus has provided a way by dying on the cross for you, securing eternity for you with Him, and all you gotta do is say yes to Him, surrender your life to Him, invite Him to be the Lord of your life, and He can save you for eternity in the mighty name of Jesus. So if that's you, you need to give your life to Him, lift your hand, and I'm gonna pray with you. The church is gonna pray with you. We're gonna introduce you to the greatest relationship in the world, a relationship with the Father. Those of you that are watching us online, you need to give your life to Jesus. Comment in the chat below, and our moderators will reach out to you and we will pray with you as well. Anyone, you need to give your life to Jesus. This is your moment in time. But now let's just pray together as a church. And maybe you're not ready to come and make the public statement, but you're ready to commit in your heart. Just pray this prayer with me, church, let's pray together. Say, Lord Jesus, I come to you as a sinner in need of your mercy and your forgiveness. Wash me with your blood. Forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you. Be the Lord and Savior of my life. And I promise to follow you all of my life. I surrender to you, Jesus.