Forever and Always- Pastor Chris Lindberg

Hello, men and women, so good to be able to speak into your life here from Life Fellowship Church into your tablet there in the in the facility that you're at. What an amazing thing that is to me. The reason why it is is because my name is Logan Williams, my TDC number was 1490218. And when I was locked up, I didn't have a tablet or I didn't have access to all of the amazing content that you guys are have available to you in the place that you're at. What a blessing that is, gosh, you guys should give thanks to him every day for that. It's it's so good. We're here at Life Fellowship and you are a part of our Life Fellowship family. We want you to know that. We pray for you. There are is a Monday night prayer group that prays for you. There's a Saturday morning prayer group that prays for you. If you happen to be in one of the facilities that we go in and you give us prayer requests, they all get laid out on the stage here and prayed over. You're important to us and you're important to me because I've been where you are. If you're in the state of Texas and I know it's all the all that comes with that. I know it sucks. I know it's it's got anxiety and worry and is this it and am I ever going to make it? I'm ever going to get out of here. But I want to encourage you, man. Use this time wisely. Use this time to dive in and to actually participate in trying to change your life. Like I discovered that it's not as easy as just come to church and it's a magic wand waved over you and you're different. We actually have to partner with God. We have to say yes to him and we have to submit to him. We have to pick up our cross daily and follow him. But man, all things are possible with God. And I just I know it's hard to believe that if you haven't experienced it, especially

if you're in a really messed up place. I know a lot of you are. Some of the facilities you're at are dark and and full of drugs and full of chaos and full of violence and all of that. But I want to encourage you. God can do anything, even in the midst of where you're at. He can use you right here, right now in the place that you're at. He's just looking for your yes. Tell your friends and family they can download the same Pando app on their phone. We just went to a Pando. It was called Revival Night. It was all of the churches and people that that participated with with Pando to give you guys content. We all got together. We had just a worship night. It was worship songs that were written by inmates somewhere and and they were they were came and performed them. So the idea was to take the revival that's happening behind the wire in some of the facilities that you guys are in and bring it to the world. It was amazing. It was awesome. You're going to see that on there pretty soon. Excuse me. So tell your friends and family, man, so they can watch the same stuff. They can experience the same messages and the same teachings and get the same downloads and revelations from God. Maybe they'll get a different one and you'll be able to talk about it. It's it's it's a really awesome thing. I just want to read some scripture over you. I was going to talk about Matthew chapter seven verses number 24 through 27.

But as I was looking at it like there's so much right before that that is so just important. And so I'm just going to read it over you and I want you to just take it in and and then we'll talk about Matthew 7, 24 through 27, building your house on the on a firm foundation or on sand. Are you on the rock or are you on sand? But I want to start back in verse 12, do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. Like all that law, all that back in Leviticus, all that stuff can be summed up in treat others as you would want to be treated. It's just that simple in love, of course, with love says you can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad and its gate is wide for many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow, very narrow, and the road is difficult and only a few ever find it. Guys, that scares me. That's a scary scripture. That's saying that there's people out there, pastors out there, life group leaders out there, people in your facilities, leading Bible studies, chaplains, volunteers that come in that you look up to that are deceived, that they think they're on this road, but they're really on this wide road because it says the road is difficult and only a few ever find it. You know, is your Christian walk easy? It's saying right here, it's gonna be difficult. Have you really laid it all down? When you really lay it all down, it's difficult. When you wage war against your sin, it's difficult.

When you strive to live a righteous life, it's difficult. Verse 15, beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit. That is by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name, but I will reply. I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws. It's another scary scripture, guys. There's another translation that says, we prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and did many good works in your name. And I think about my life, we're doing some good works.

We're doing some good stuff. We're doing some things in the prisons. I'm doing some things in outreach, in the memory care facilities. I really just minister to forgotten people and put together teams of volunteers. It's an awesome thing. But if I believe this scripture to be true, there's gonna be a day where there's gonna be people like me who come before him and he's gonna say, I never knew you. Get away. Make sure you know him. My prayer is every day, man. Somewhere in that prayer is, God, I must know you. Speak to me, I must know you. I don't just want to know about you. I don't just wanna learn about you. I want to know you. It's like, I got a friend who loves LeBron James. He knows all about LeBron James. He knows where he was born, how old he is, where he went to high school, all his kids, all his whole journey. He probably knows more about LeBron James than LeBron James knows about LeBron James. But if he were to go and let's say they were in town to play the Mavericks, and let's say you saved up a bunch of money, you got that floor seat right next to the Lakers bench, right?

Where he's gonna be walking by you. You're gonna be in contact with LeBron James. And you're like, yo, LeBron. He's gonna look at you and be like, who are you? I don't know you. Yeah, you might know about me, but you don't know me. And I wanna encourage you guys to, man, know him. That's more important to have a relationship with him. And he desires that for you so much, so much. This is the scripture I wanted to actually talk about. Verse 24, anyone who listens to my teachings and follows it is wise. Like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and floodwaters rise and the winds beat against the house, it won't collapse because it was built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my words, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. But anyone who hears my teachings and doesn't obey is foolish. Like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and the floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash. So what are you building your house on? I'm talking to saved people, born again believers, followers of Jesus. If you're watching this video right now and you haven't called upon his name, called upon the name of Jesus to be saved.

Maybe you've gone to church, maybe you've been baptized, maybe you've go to the Bible studies, but you've never called on his name. I want you to call upon his name. It's just that simple if you've never done that. But I'm talking to saved, born-again believers. What are you building your house on? Are you putting into practice Jesus's teachings? Like when the storms come, are you gonna stand firm? Are you going to, because that's the true test, right? Like we can all go to church and we can all do the Bible studies and we can put this facade on of how we're just good church-going people. But when the storms come, that's when we find out. That's when we find out what we've built our house on. Are you obeying Jesus's words? Are you being doers of the word or just hearers of the word? And I can take that a step further. I can be a hearer of the word. I can be a memorizer of the word. I can be a regurgitator of the word. I can just regurgitate something I heard on Pando even from some other pastor and I can just spit it out, but am I applying it to my life? When the storms come, when you get that set off, is your house gonna collapse? When you find out that something happened

to your grandmama or your mom, man, that was my worst fear. That was my biggest fear is, man, something's gonna happen to my mom while I'm locked up. Because she was old, man, and she was alcoholic and she was alone and she'd given up kind of on life. Thank God he preserved her. Now she lives with me. I take care of her and she's not alone anymore. But guys, I know that, but what if I would've got the call? What if the chaplain would've given me a lay in and I get that news? What is your house built on? How are you gonna respond? Because see, the people built on the rock and the people that built on the sand, look, they both heard the same message. They both heard the same message. They both went to open church. They both are looking at Pando. They're both hearing the same message. They both face the same storms. Guys, if you're not in the midst of a storm, most of you are if you're in the place that you're at. But there's three kinds of people. People that are in the storm, people that are coming out of the storm, or people that are about to go into the storm. Like it's coming. The storms are coming on planet Earth.

And the third thing that they both did was they both built a house. So we all heard the same message. We're all facing the same storms and we're all building a house, which is our life, our Christian life. How do we walk this thing out? And so a strong life, a life built on the rock is built on obedience to Christ, not knowledge, not what can I memorize, how can I impress people with my eloquent speech play, if you will. It's the obedience. I don't know about you, but when I was locked up, see, I never, I was in prison four times and I never got out and was able to walk it out. Although I went to church, although I did all the programs, I did all the things, I didn't obey. I didn't, I wanted to just keep on living however I was gonna be living. I was still doing the hustling and the gambling and the questionable stuff, the drugs, tobacco, all that stuff, whatever you had, man. And my thought process was, okay, I'm going to church, I'm learning these things. And when I get out, I'm gonna put them into practice. When I get out, I know what to do. But man, while I'm in here, man, God, it sucks in here. I'm just gonna be as comfortable as I can. Surely God will give me a pass on that.

But when I hit the gate, I know what to do. And that's the thing is where my house was built on sand. And when I got out, I was easy prey for the enemy. I was easy prey for the girls that wanted to hook up. I don't know what it is about guys getting out of prison that just seem to be attractive to some females, but guess what? It's not church-going females that are hooking up with us. No, it's females that got dope in their purse. They got bolos in their purse. They got, you know, and I was right off again because my house was built on sand because I wasn't obedient. I had deceived myself into thinking that just because I've learned all this stuff, now I'm gonna put it into practice when I hit the gate. But here's the thing, I'd already. built the house and it was on sand. Because we all hear God's words, but the stability comes in doing it. And if you can do it in the places that you're at, you're gonna be miles ahead. Storms are inevitable, trials are inevitable, temptation is inevitable, suffering is inevitable. But you found out what foundation you're on real quick when the storm comes. And here's an interesting thing. Some of you are leaders, some of you are preaching, some of you are field ministers, some of you are life coaches and you're leaders, man.

Like there's inmates that look up to you and that's awesome, that's a great thing. But the thing about the foundation is, you can't see the foundation of the house from the outside, it's hidden. And so our foundation is, what are we doing in the secret place? What are we doing with prayer? What are we doing with humility? Are we repenting when sin trips us up? Are we being obedient? So you can't see those things from the outside, but that's what the foundation is. And so I just wanna encourage you guys to examine the foundation that you're building on. Do I need to build on a different foundation? Do I need to stop building this house? Do I need to stop the life that I'm living right now and do something different? Because when you hit that gate, it matters what foundation that you've been building on. And so I just wanna encourage you guys, man, this is the, Christianity is not easy. It's not rainbows and bunny rabbits. It takes denying your flesh. It takes denying yourself, picking up your cross and following Him and that's not easy because we've been used to doing whatever we wanted to do all of our lives. And that's what got us here.

But now that we're here, Romans eight, we can, He's gonna work it for the good. So you're in a position where you can change. It's just gonna take some effort. Father, I thank you for the men and women that you've drawn to yourself, man, that have clicked on this video, that of all the things on that tablet they could be watching, you have them watching this. That did not come from them, that came from you. And that is evidence that you are after them. That is evidence that you have left 99 and are searching for them like that woman searched for that coin in Luke 15. And so God, I thank you for that. Man, I thank you that you've called us. I thank you that you're after us. I thank you that, for your word, God. And I just pray that the men and women who are watching this right now would examine their foundations, that they would make some changes in their lives. None of us have it all together. None of us can say, yeah, man, I'm good. If we do ever say that, that should be a red flag that pride and arrogance has creeped in and that we are on sand, perhaps. And so God, I pray that you would just, your convicting spirit would just fall,

not, and I pray against and bind the spirit of condemnation, God, that no one would leave this video condemned, but that they might be convicted and that they might change and that they might realize that you wanna use them right where they're at and that even in the place that they're at right now, man, they can start right now building on the rock. And so God, I thank you. I love you. We love you so much, God. I'm just so grateful. I'm just so grateful for just your loving, gentle spirit calling us back. And God, I pray that you would just, faith would rise in these men and women, that hope would rise in these men and women, knowing that no matter what they've done, nothing handcuffs you. There's nothing that they can do to out send the grace of Jesus, that your love, grace, and mercy, that there's nothing like it. And so God, I thank you. We give you all the praise and glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, guys. And you know, I just got one more question. Who's house?

God's house. Let's give him some praise. Good morning church, it's so good to see y'all all in the house of the Lord this morning. Thank you so much for joining us for worship. Here in the temple of my heart And living who you are, and once again This is where I'm meant to stay And anything's deep inside of me Remembering who you are, and once again I see the Lord forever glorified Exalted and lifted high And all of the kingdom decries you are You are the Lord This is eternity Keep calling deep inside of me I'm right where I'm meant to be Here with you This is your family Searching as far as I can see I'm right where I'm meant to be And once again I see the Lord forever glorified Exalted and lifted high And all of the kingdom decries you are You are the Lord Seated upon the throne The God who is three in one Father, the Spirit, best and you are You are the Lord Oh, you are the Lord Yeah, you are the Lord Holy you are You are the Lord You're worthy, you are You are the Lord Holy you are You are the Lord Worthy, you are the Lord Holy you are You are the Lord Worthy, you are You are the Lord Holy you are the Lord This is eternity Yes, I see the Lord forever glorified Exalted and lifted high And all of the kingdom decries you are You are the Lord

Seated upon the throne The God who is three in one Father, the Spirit, best and you are You are the Lord Oh, you are You are the Lord You are the Lord Oh, you are You are the Lord You are the Lord You are the Lord You are You are the Lord Party You are the Lord Party You are the Lord You are the Lord You are the Lord Oh You are the Lord ♪ You're worthy, you are, you are the Lord of all ♪ ♪ You are the Lord, you're worthy, you are the Lord of all ♪ ♪ You are worthy, you are, you are the Lord of all ♪ ♪ You are worthy, you are, you are the Lord of all ♪ To lift up your name, let us never forget to make you the center of everything. Jesus, be the center. Maybe we've made this complicated more than it was ever meant to be. Hasn't it always been about the same thing? Lord, bring us back to simple things. You be the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. My savior, all in all. You're the one I hold on to. For the beauty of your name, my soul will live to sing.

Jesus, I love you. Teach us to discern the moment. When to serve and when to sit here at your feet. Keep us awake to what's important. Just like Mary chose the better thing. All over you, be the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. My savior, all in all. You're the one I hold on to. For the beauty of your name, my soul will live to sing. Jesus, I love you. All over you, be the center of it all. My heart belongs to you. My savior, all in all. You're the one I hold on to. For the beauty of your name, my soul will live to sing. Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. I love you. Oh, how I love you, Jesus. Oh, how I love you. Don't you see the miracle? Just how much you love me. Just how much you mean to me. Oh, Jesus, we love you.

And I hold you for your glory. My heart for your glory. For your love, my heart, for your love, for everything, for the honor of your name. And if my days were to stop, with me, everything, for the honor of your name. For your love, my heart, for your love, for everything, for the honor of your name. And if my days were to stop, with me, everything, for the honor of your name. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. For your love, my heart, for your love, for everything, for the honor of your name. And if my days were to stop, with me, everything, for the honor of your name. And my whole life, for your glory, my whole world, for your only everything. And if my days were to stop, oh, let it be of your only everything. Everything for the honor of your name, Jesus. Hold me for the glory of your name. Let my life be a reflection of who you are, Jesus. Oh, Jesus, we give you all the glory, yeah. In my whole life, in my whole life, for your glory, my whole life. Everything for the honor. And if my days, oh, let there come a story that points to you, Jesus. Hold me, Jesus, for the honor of your name. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Jesus, I love you.

Oh, for you, be the center of me. My heart belongs to you. My Savior, I love you. You're the one I hold on to for the beauty of your name. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you. My soul will live to say, Jesus, I love you. Oh, how I love you. Oh, how I love you. Amen. Father, we have come to bow down in worship. Lifting up our hearts, we bow down in praise. Come on, church. Hallelujah. Come on, sing lover of my soul. Lover of my soul. And hallelujah. Come on. With all of heaven, we are singing. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Come on, we join with heaven this morning as they sing holy. Yeah. Come on. Oh, bright and morning sun, your eyes blaze like fire. Come on, sing shining like the sun. Shining like the sun, you're our one desire. Bright and morning sun, bright and morning sun, your eyes blaze like fire. Shining like the sun. Shining like the sun, you're our one desire.

Come on, sing hallelujah. Come on. And hallelujah, you're the lover, lover of my soul. You are the lover of my soul. And hallelujah. Come on, with all of heaven. With all of heaven, we are singing. We sing hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. You're the lover of my soul. We love you so much, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, with all of heaven. With all of heaven, we are singing. Come on, with all of heaven. With all of heaven, oh, we are singing. Oh, with all of heaven, we are singing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, Jesus, we join with heaven as they sing, holy are you Lord. Holy are you Lord. Oh, Jesus, we cast our crowns down at your feet today, God. You alone deserve all the praise, oh, God. We praise you, Jesus. Come on, church. Sing it out. And all the angels cry, holy is the Lord God. All the earth reply. Come on.

Yeah. Oh, all the angels cry, holy is the Lord God. All the earth reply. Holy are you Lord. All the angels, they cry holy. Yeah. All the angels, holy are you. All the angels, we join with heaven as they cry holy. And all the earth. Come on, let's do it again. All the angels, they cry holy. And all the earth, we cry holy. Let's sing it one more time. All the angels, we cry holy. We cry worthy. And all the earth, we cry holy. Come on, sing hallelujah. Come on. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Holy are you. We sing hallelujah. Whoa. Whoa. Hallelujah. Holy are you. Holy are you. Holy are you. Holy are you.

We sing holy are you. Holy are you. Holy are you. Join with heaven as they sing. Holy are you. Holy are you. Holy are you. Whoa. Jesus, you're so holy. It's not right. We pause to just tell you how holy you are. We thank you that we have our home in heaven. And we thank you that we get to worship you. It's an honor, a privilege to worship you, Jesus. And as we continue on in this service, Holy Spirit, continue to have your way. We love you and we adore you. In Jesus' name we pray. Let everyone say amen. Come on, let's give it up for Jesus. Amen. It is good to be in his presence today, amen. As you guys are finding your seats, I just wanted to come up quickly and say how grateful we are that you would choose to spend your Sunday with us. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Matt Ferguson, and I'm the Next Gen Pastor here at Life Fellowship. And it is our honor to have you here. If you're new today, I want to encourage you to text the word new to 51010. That's a great way for us to meet you and for you to meet us. And then also if you've been here for a couple of weeks or a couple months or maybe even a couple years and you're looking for your next step,

how do we get plugged in here? What do we believe at Life Fellowship? How are we structured? You can find all those things out in our Growth Track class. And you can find out more by texting growth to 51010. Either of those things are great steps for you today as we get closer to what God has called and created us to do. You know, we don't know each other very well, you and I, but I can tell you this, I am not a sports guy. I don't really do sports, but I have somebody in my household who loves sports. We watch all the things, don't we, buddy? We watch the Olympics. We watch NFL, NBA, arena, all of it. And this week we were filling out our March Madness bracket, and we started talking about Steph Curry. And so we've got this picture of Steph Curry, and if you don't know Steph, he's one of the greatest basketball players of a generation, massive following, massive amounts of character. And what you see in this shot is you see Steph taking a shot in a basketball game. You see the game point there. You see the arena filled with people, the energy that he must be filling. But what you don't see in that picture is you don't see the endless amounts of hours he spent in practice, running drills, taking shots. You don't see all the shots that he missed. You don't see the early mornings and the late nights. What you see is one big moment. And sometimes our faith can be just like that. We like the big faith moments of salvation, of baptism, people being healed, miraculous signs and wonders being worked. But here's the truth.

While those things are important and will be celebrated, they're just as celebrated as the everyday spiritual disciplines that we do every day, when we get up and we spend time with the Lord in prayer, when we read our scriptures, when we fellowship with one another. And one of the things that we forget in that is that often generosity is one of those spiritual disciplines that we can develop. In Luke, Jesus says that to those who are given little and are faithful with little, he will give us much more. And that's not a prosperity. That's a truth, that the more you develop those skills, the more you develop what the Lord has given you, the more he is going to give you. to increase your territory. And so when we give, when we practice that generosity, we're flexing muscles that help us develop spiritually. We're losing control, we're showing trust, we're giving God the opportunity to move. And so as we get ready to receive the offering this week, the ways to give are on the screen, but I wanna encourage you, if you have never given before, this isn't about us asking you for money, this is about us encouraging you to flex all of your spiritual muscles and ask the Lord to help you grow those things. And if he prompts you to give, fantastic. If he prompts you to grow in other ways, fantastic. But we know that when we give and we know that when we practice generosity, that God is helping bring his kingdom here to earth.

And that's what it's all about for us today. So as we get ready to give, let's pray together. God, we thank you for the service. God, we thank you for this moment. We thank you for the fact that we don't have to invite you in because you are already here. So God, as you continue to fill us through more, continue to fill us with more of your spirit, God, would you use this moment to make a difference, not just here in McKinney, but around the world as well. And we pray this because of Jesus, amen. You guys, we are wrapping up our Kiss and Tell series. It's an incredible message today. You're gonna wanna take lots of notes. Let's get ready to watch this together. ♪♪♪ Well, hey, everybody, good to have you with us in service today. We are in the final installment of our series called Kiss & Tell, and we have had so much fun. I want to say a big hello to our Church Online family. What's amazing is we have folks that are literally in every state of America that join with us every single week, and so we want to welcome you, as well as all the men and women in all of our Department of Corrections around America. Come on, everybody. Make them feel welcome today. God bless you guys. Okay. While you're pulling up your message notes, a couple things I need to ask you to help me out with. Number one is this week on Tuesday and Wednesday, if you think about me, please pray for me. I am going to a cabin out in the middle of the woods. I've already got a place to go. And I am going to seek God in solitude and silence for two days. So that's like no speaking, just listening to what God is wanting to download in my life for our church and our future. And so I just, if you think about me, say a word because I won't be speaking any of them, okay? So I'm just going to seek and seek the face of God, and so it's going to be really good.

And then I want you to know that we are only four weeks away from the week that changed the world. It's Easter week, and Holy Week for us is going to begin on Palm Sunday. On that day, I'm going to bring you a message. I'm going to insert you into a doctoral level study of the events that took place on Palm Sunday in a way that I promise you that what I'm going to share, you have never, not a person here, I promise you, not a person here, you have ever even thought, heard what we are going to discuss on that day, which is going to release us into Holy Week. And I need you to pray for me because we've got ten Good Friday and Easter services that will be happening, and so pray that God gives us strength. And I'm just asking you, think about who it is you can bring, because I'll say it like this, that if you'll do the work of getting somebody here, I'll step into the gift that God has given to me, and we will partner together to see that individual's life changed for eternity. And so let's partner together, and then also on this day, we're believing God for a $400,000 Kingdom Builder offering. So we only take two special offerings a year here, one at Christmas and one at Easter, and that's it. You don't hear me get up here and arm twist you and all that, we do. And so this year, that offering is going to be used as we are going to endeavor to add on parking to the back half of our campus. Here's what's happening right now. Yes. It would shock you how many services throughout the year that we have... people that pull on to our campus. They cannot find a parking spot and they pull off our campus. And I think it breaks the heart of God. I know it breaks my heart. I literally think every time I get on this platform to speak, I think about that there are some people that God has been spending decades to get them to walk through the doors of a church, and I have the privilege of delivering the Word of God. And I just believe that we need to create more space for more people. And in addition to that, we want to take part of those funds to begin the exploration process of expanding this auditorium. So this auditorium is based off of the old vision of when we were a church that were on the east side of Allen with about 350, 400 people. And today, thousands of people now are part of Life Fellowship. And so there's about 550 seats that are in here, and we really believe that maybe we can expand this to maybe 1,100 or 1,200 and increase the expansion, increase the opportunity to impact more people. And so there is a need for it. There is an opportunity for it. And I'm just asking you. I'm actually looking for 400 people that would say,

hey, I'll give $1,000. Some of you can give $5,000. Some of you can give $25,000. Some of you would come along and say, I can do $100. It's not equal gifts. It's equal sacrifice. And so let's create space for more. And then we're really excited because it happened on March 1st that we no longer are partnering with our preschool that we were with called Lionheart. In fact, we've launched our very own called the Academy at Life Fellowship. And it's really cool because we're able now to take all of our heart and our values and our creativity and the spirit of excellence and the way that we love kids and the way that we pour into them, and we're able to infuse that into each and every one of the children that come here. And so really, I mean, this is actually really exciting for us as a staff. And I'm just asking you to help us out in a couple things. So number one, if you're looking for a job, we're looking for exceptional teachers that would come alongside and help us to instill truth into these incredible kids. Number two, if you know somebody that has their kids in another preschool, tell them, unenroll your kids from that place and get your kids over here. Yeah, because it's going to be a much better experience. And then thirdly, help us spread the word. So when you hear, when you see posts and whatever, help us share the word and let's get the news out about this incredible academy that I believe is going to be used by God to shape, change and transform this younger generation that is so pliable in his hands. So praise God for that. All right, let's jump into the message. If you were to ask me the question, what's the most important statement that a couple can make when they are getting married? I would have to tell you hands down when they are standing, looking in each other's eyes, making a covenant between God, heaven and the angels. It would be the statement till death do us part. Like it's the most important statement. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that most couples, they don't understand the gravity of that statement. Maybe, maybe that's why so many end up in divorce in our culture. So what we're going to do today is I'm going to actually immerse you in a study of what the deep meaning of marriage is. And we're going to do that by looking at the rich tradition of the ancient Jewish Old Testament weddings. So what you would need to know is that in ancient Jewish times, marriage didn't actually begin with the couple. It actually began with the families. So both set of parents would come together, they would make an agreement and they would arrange a marriage for their kids. And after that arrangement happened, that agreement, the kids then would enter into a season called betrothal. So this betrothal season

was as important to them as marriage is to us. So the only way to break off a betrothal was actually to get a legal divorce. So it wasn't just an engagement. It was amplified. It was way more than that. And typically, an average betrothal would last about a year's period of time. That preparation season would extend a year, sometimes way beyond that. And that's because I... I believe that great marriages require great preparation. Here's what's odd to me, is that most couples today, they spend more time preparing for a wedding than they actually do preparing for marriage. And so let me kind of give you a sneak peek in what to that preparation season, what it actually looked like. So for the groom, for an entire year, his own father would pull him aside and the father would, he would teach him the Torah, the first five books of the Pentateuch. And then on top of that, he would teach him godly principles and he would model for him and teach him how to be a spiritual leader for his home. The bride, on the other hand, she would be mentored by her mom. So for an entire year, her mom would pull her aside, teacher of God's word, God's principles, how to be a godly wife. And they would work adamantly to protect her purity because the greatest gift that she could give her husband is her virginity. And that's why this Shulamite woman that we see here in the Song of Solomon, she talks about this young girl.

Look what she says. She says, we've got a young sister whose breasts are not grown. In other words, this girl here hasn't even reached puberty yet. So what should we do for our sister for the day that she is spoken for? So in other words, how in the world do we prepare her for marriage? What are the steps that we're taking? Here's what they say. If she's a wall. So in other words, if she's protecting herself, we're gonna build towers of silver on her. But if she's a door, so if she's vulnerable to the sexual advances of men, then we're gonna enclose her with panels of cedar. In other words, we're gonna really do our best to guard who she is. And then this girl that's writing, the Shulamite woman, she flips the script and starts talking about herself. And here's what she says. I am a wall and my breasts are like towers. Thus I have become in his eyes, in Solomon's eyes, like one bringing contentment. Now that word there that you see, contentment, in the Hebrew language, it is the word shalom. That's the word. And shalom means peace, it means satisfaction, it means contentment.

Interesting enough, the root word for Solomon is shalom. And here's in essence what she was saying. She was saying, I bring peace to the one who is my peace. Now I want you to dovetail that with what's happening in culture today. Because watch this, society has become more successful at preparing people for divorce than marriage. Because it used to be that there were certain things that were reserved only for marriage. And now the only difference between dating and marriage is a little ceremony that doesn't mean much to many people because people are doing the same thing when they're dating as when they are married. So what we have is an entire culture that is, they're playing house. We're pretending like we're married, we're doing married people things even though that we're not married. And here's the problem with that. Whenever a couple gets into an argument, disagreement, there is some contention that takes place. What do they do? They pick up their toothbrush, pack up their broken heart, and they head down the road. They practice divorce. And this happens now two times, four times, 10 times in a person's life. And when they finally get married, is it any shock to anyone that when they walk through a difficulty,

when they walk through tough times, that the knee-jerk gut reaction is, hey, I'm just gonna pick up my toothbrush, all my stuff, my broken heart, and I'm gonna head down the road. Here's what's happening. Society is training us in divorce. So here's what she said, verse number six. Place me like a seal over your heart. And that word there, seal, notice that. That word there, actually, it's literally a signet ring. That's what it means. They would use these rings, and they would press it into wax. It was the way that they paid for things. When a signet ring was on somebody's family shield, it meant. That belongs to me. I take ownership of that. I have responsibility to protect that, to provide for that, to care for that. And she said, place a seal, place Me like a seal over your heart. Like a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as what? Come on everybody. Love is as strong as what? Death. That's where we get the statement in the wedding vows, till death do us part. That's where it comes from. It's jealousy is as unyielding as the grave. And I just want to say this, that couples that understand that, they understand the permanency of marriage.

Man, there is this fire of passion and love that happens. It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Like here's what she's saying, watch this. She's saying, may only death separate us. And if any other thing separates the two of us and this covenant that we're making before God, may we both go to hell. That's what she said. Now, isn't that interesting? During the ancient Jewish Old Testament weddings, what would happen is, is that the couple during the ceremony, there would be an animal that they will have sacrificed and they would have cut it up. Sometimes it was a lamb. Sometimes a goat. Sometimes an oxen. They would cut it up and they would put it all around. The husband and the wife, the bride and the groom would join arms together and they would walk through all of the pieces. And then they would make this statement. They would say, what has happened to this animal may have happened to us if we ever break this covenant. So how do you get, how do you create a marriage, a love that lasts always and forever? I'm going to give you four things today. Here's the first one. Understand this, forever and always love is possessive. I belong to you and you belong to me and nothing will ever separate us. So I've got a pastor friend. He was telling me about this couple that he was counseling. The wife had had an affair on her husband and he was working hard to try to get them to reconcile, to get this thing worked out and the husband was not having it. He was done.

I mean, he was done. And so when they finished up the counseling session, they were walking out and the guy asked my pastor friend, he said, hey, which by the way, my pastor friend, he begged them. He said, please work on this marriage. I said, I think we can make this thing work. But the guy was done. Again, he didn't want anything to do with it. So they're walking out and this guy asked him, he said, hey, pastor, does the church have any kind of life groups for people that are drug addicts? The pastor said, well, why is that? He said, because I got a brother and man, he has been in and out of jail. He's a drug addict. I've bailed him out so many times. I pay all his bills. He will do whatever it is that I ask him to do. And if there's a group, I would love to get him involved in it because it will change his life. And so the pastor responded and said, yeah, we have a group like that here. And while he was saying that, he was thinking to himself, well, this guy is really committed to a brother that seems to abuse his generosity. So I'm not making an excuse for what his wife did, but it was a one-time senseless act. One time. And yet he's willing to dispose of her. So he asks this guy the question, says, hey, can I ask you, why is it that you're willing to be committed to your brother and yet you want to treat your wife as disposable? And the guy laughs. He literally laughs. He said, that's easy. He's like, it's my brother.

It's family. It's blood. She's not blood. And I think that we need to come back to a new understanding of what Scripture teaches about marriage, that marriage is actually a blood level commitment. Blood level. So I got a blood level relationship with my kids. My DNA flows through them. So if my kids, God forbid, ever went off on the deep end, you know, became a prostitute, got all caught up in drugs, ran from God, I will chase them down to the ends of the earth. You can't run far enough for me to just grab you and pull you close. Why? Because they're blood. And there's not a parent that's here that wouldn't do the exact same thing. So then why do we treat our marriages so differently? In fact, I would say it like this. I'm saying that marriage was never meant to be a contract. It was meant to be a blood level covenant. I won't leave you till death do us part. I'm just, I'm not going to divorce you. I can kill you, but I ain't divorcing you. Some of you laughed a little bit, you know. So listen, I feel the pushback. I know it. I feel it. Because I know that some of you are thinking, come on pastor, like come on. We live in a different culture, a different day and age, and I'm just asking you, try things God's way. Listen, whatever your past is, whatever has happened in the past, let Jesus take care

of all of that. And I'm just saying from this day forward, like have a new definition of what marriage is. Have a new definition. Like let God give you a blank page to it all. Today you get a fresh start. In fact, if you would like, for those of you that maybe are walking through some difficulty, we actually have a class here called Re-Engage. Happens on Monday nights, 6 o'clock. You can just show on up. We've got trained mentors that would love to come alongside you in your marriage and help infuse fresh thoughts and ideas and God's care to help create a strong, thriving marriage. And that's available for you and it's free. Here's the second thing and that's this, forever and always love is persevering. So I need all my married folk to help all of my singles out because we've got a lot of young people in the church. And a lot of them live in this fantasy world that if I find that perfect somebody, we're going to be tiptoeing through the tulips every day. It's going to be coffee dates every morning. We're going to be goo goo in love with each other for forever and ever and ever. And so anybody that has ever been married that has a marriage that is worth something of substance, if you realize and recognize and would agree with me that marriage can be tough and that there is difficult seasons that you go through, come on, would you help my younger single folk out today? And if that's true, come on, can you give me a good amen? Now some of you said that way too loud. But it's true. I mean it's tough. Listen.

I'll say it like this. There is not situations that you go through that Tatum and I don't walk through. There's not, and I know that there's uniquenesses to every person and every relationship here. I get that. But I'm just telling you, we walk through the same scenarios and we've just made a decision that we're going to stick with each other. In fact, I'll say it like this. Here's what covenant says. Covenant says, I surrender my rights to serve the relationship. Convenience says, I protect my rights and I avoid responsibility. And at some point, every marriage is going to have to make a decision. Am I going to protect my rights or am I going to protect the covenant? Am I going to fight for my rights or am I going to fight for the covenant? Because I'm going to just promise you this, the grass is not greener on the other side. I know you think it is. And if it's greener, it just means the water bill is higher. You know what I'm saying? The grass is greener where you water it. Listen, if you want a beautiful yard, it's going to take extra time and thought and effort and energy. I mean, you have to aerate that thing and water that thing and fertilize that thing. If you, listen, if you see a couple that's in love 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years down the road, that's not accidental. That's because there is a husband and a wife that have made a commitment that they're going to go through difficulties, they're not walking, they're going to go through tough times, and they're gonna stick with each other. They're gonna push through the difficult seasons. They're gonna invest in each other. They're gonna invest in dating. They're gonna invest in being romantic with each other.

They're gonna support each other. They're gonna pray together with each other. They're gonna do it together, and at the end of that, you see a marriage that is strong. If the grass looks greener on the other side, it just simply means that the water bill is higher. So invest in your own yard. Invest in your own relationship. Here's the third one. Forever and always, love is protective. That's why I'm working hard right now. Now, it doesn't look like it. It looks like I'm up here all calm, cool, and collective. I illustrate it like this, that you see me, and I'm just like this little duck skimming across the water. You think, oh, that looks just so easy. You have no idea what's happening under the ... I'm telling you, my little legs are paddling faster than you can ever imagine. I'm fighting for you in prayer. I'm fighting for you in this message. I'm fighting for you because I care for you. Listen, when my kids still lived at the home, they've been gone now for, I think, five years. When they were here, I remember I would tell my daughter, I'd say, Blake, I know you want to do this. I'd say, hey, Nash, I know that you want that. But my answer is no, no. I'm going to need you to trust the fact that these 44 years know a whole lot more than your 17 years. Come on, parents. I'm helping you out here. All right?

I'm just going to need you to trust me because I want to protect you because love protects. Tatum and I, we talk openly about our weaknesses. We talk about this, that, hey, if we were to ever fall, this would be the area, this would be the place, this is where we would, this is where it would happen. And some of you are like, you guys talk about that? Yes. Yes. Let me tell you something. People think, well, you're a pastor. You're not supposed to have problems. I've got to tell you that I am just as much of a man as any other man in this auditorium right now. I just don't want to be a dumb one. Like, you know, offices, you go up to our offices. It's an open environment that is there because we want accountability. You go in, if we have any private offices, they have windows floor to ceiling. If our pastors ever counsel somebody, the door is always open, whether it's a man or a woman that they're counseling. Like, we keep things open. We have filters on all of our internet. I've got filters on my internet, on my devices. Listen, why? Because we are fighting for the purity of our staff because love protects. Love protects. Let me tell you something. You may not like me, but I'm fighting for you. I'm fighting for... Listen, I love you more than you know because love protects. And here's this Shulamite woman, and she is appreciating all of it. And I want you to see what she says again.

I want to reread this statement to you. She says in verse 10, I am... Notice that word there. That's a bad arrow, sorry. But I am a wall. In other words, I'm not a door. I'm not one that all kinds of men are just flipping through. I'm a wall. And she says my breasts, and I think this is funny, she says they're like towers. So she's not bragging here, okay? She's saying they're out of reach of everybody else. That's what she's saying. And then she makes this most incredible statement. She says, Thus, because I've become one that I've listened to my family and I haven't been a door and I haven't been like one of the veiled women, I have become in Solomon's eyes, in his eyes, like one who brings him contentment. And again, that word contentment in the original language means peace. It's shalom. Here's what she's saying. Look at my eyes. She's saying, I did a lot of things early on in this relationship that were very hard. There's a lot of things that I didn't want to do that I actually did. I didn't want to do that, but I did it. I paid the price and now I have a relationship. I have a marriage that everybody else wants a marriage like I have. And then on top of that, there's peace in our home. Listen, some of you say to me today, Pastor Chris, like I've already messed up. I've already been a door. I've already botched it all up. I've already been through a divorce.

Please look in my eyes today. Please stop. Stop allowing the condemnation of the enemy to get into the middle of who you are. And here's what I need you to understand today. Whatever your past is, whatever story you can tell me, the love, the goodness, the grace of Jesus is greater than it all. So that means that you get a blank page, a fresh start. What that means is that beginning today, you begin to say, I'm going to wall this bad boy in, I'm going to be faithful to my spouse, and I'm going to walk in the ways of God from this day forth. I'm not going to treat my marriage as if it's just a piece of paper, a contract. I'm going to treat it as a blood level covenant between God, my spouse, and me. Like we're going to walk this journey together. And if you're single, you're going to look at whoever it is that you're dating and you're going to let them know, you can't touch this, right? Until you walk an aisle, you put a ring on my finger, and you make a covenant before God, heaven, and the angels, that I will be with you till death do us part. Amen, everybody. Amen. Here's the fourth one, and that's this, forever and always love is peaceful. And what I've been trying to do throughout this entire series is I've been trying to lure you into this, because some of you have actually given up hope that you could have a marriage that other people want. Some of you have given up hope that God could take what seems so dark and change it. And I'm just begging you, do things God's way. In fact, I want to close this entire series by reading to you the very last four verses of this incredible book of Song of Solomon. Here's what it says, verse 11. Solomon had a what? A vineyard.

So notice that word there. It's the big reveal. Remember, I told you that her brothers early on made her go out into the field and work and because of that, there were some problems that happened with her skin and she was so disappointed by it. Guess who owned the vineyard the entire time? It was Solomon's vineyard. So he led out his vineyard to these tenants. Who were the tenants? It was her brothers. Each one was to bring for its fruit a thousand shekels of silver. So in other words, that's what Solomon was paying her brothers to be able to take care of his fields for him. But my own vineyard is mine to give. And here's what she's saying. She's like, my body? I don't have a vineyard to give my husband, but I have my own body to give to him. The thousand shekels are for you, Solomon. So hey Solomon, my lover, have your way with me. And two hundred are for those who tend its fruit. What's she doing here? She's actually thanking her brothers for forcing her to go out into the field and do some things that she didn't want to do. Because she recognizes, had she not been out there doing that, Solomon would have never seen her. And then watch this. This is how good God's word gets. These are the last two verses of the entire book. It says you who dwell in the gardens with friends in attendance So here's what's happening right now Solomon is at work

and She says let me hear your voice in other words He's thinking about his woman So guys, can I give you a little secret here? There's a little secret. This one's a freebie Tomorrow when you're at work when you're at the office Whatever you do for work Just stop throughout the day text your wife Just say hi, baby. Hey, baby Just want you to know I'm thinking about you I just think you're so pretty You're beautiful to me I Am in love with you And I can't wait to see you tonight, and then maybe give some fun little emojis in there You Here's what's gonna happen after she faints She's gonna get up and she's gonna say Whoo-hoo. I Love my man She can probably text back. Hurry home, baby Hurry home Like There's gonna be this exchange that happens and so watch this here's here's the last verse in this entire incredible book last verse She says come away with me my beloved my beloved my lover and be like a gazelle That's a gazelle. That's kind of like Hebrew for like hurry home get your butt home be like a gazelle or Like a young stag on the spice laden mountains And I already told you in week number three with those spice laden mountains were Okay, because it is what you think that it is Come on everybody put it together put it together put it together There it is you got it

So I I don't I don't ever tell you things about my personal life with with Tatum unless I ask her I don't normally give you too much. Sometimes I still do some tell you some things but I Ask Tatum and she gave me permission So Tatum will She'll leave me a little love notes around the home That I have to go find or that I just actually just just fine. In fact this morning when I got up I went to my little iPad to kind of look through my message and pray through it for this morning and sitting on there was this little note from Tatum So she does this all the time and this one just simply says I'm thankful for you Love of my life forever and always and there's all these little hearts on there I don't know why you girls always got to put the little hearts But there's hearts Yeah, that's cute Sometimes she'll take lipstick and put it on the mirror Sometimes she'll send me some hot texts and I'm not telling you what's in those hot texts You're gonna have to use your own imagination But I get those and I'm like they we need to hurry home Hurry home. Listen, the Bible says enjoy the wife of your youth Don't get so caught up with dutiful Distraction that it's just about paying the bills and going to work and raising the kids and mowing the yard and doing all that Like have have fun have fun Have fun and so I'm gonna close this entire series with this thought You can have everything that I've talked about and more You can be the best Spouse you can be the best lover But you can't skip this one step And that is in order to love you have to experience that love And that's why God loved you

first so while you were While you were a sinner while you were rejecting God while you were Still caught up in your own thoughts in your own sin You wanted nothing to do with God God and his great love he sent his one and only son to be massacred on a cross for you Jesus endured unimaginable pain Just so that you could have a relationship with his daddy And that's why it says in first John we love Because he first loved us. So how am I able to love the person that is my? Maybe hurt me. We've gotten into this argument. Maybe there's been some betrayal. There's been lying. There's been difficulty How can I love you? How can I love that person? You can love them when you realize those are the exact same things that you were to God and Yet in his great love He looked past all that and saw your heart and said I'm after you And he forgave you he brought you close and when you experience that kind of love it gives you the capacity to love And so I'm gonna close this entire series out With a verse today that I want to just pray over you It says this in Ephesians it says that I pray For you life fellowship that Christ will be more and more at home in your heart. I Think about him every day The Scripture says I will keep him in perfect. Peace whose mind is stayed Stayed stayed that's the key word there. It stayed on him More and more at home in your heart living with you as as you trust him May your roots grow deep in the soil of God's marvelous. Love and may you be able to feel I want you to feel it and

Understand how long and wide and deep and high his love really is and experience this great love for yourself So do me a favor I want all of my married couples I Would love for you just to join hands right now, and I want to speak over the two of you So if you would would you bow your heads And You know, there's something's very significant about the two of you And I believe that God doesn't just want to give you a marriage that other people would say Oh, I wish I had a marriage like theirs and he does But I need you to see that Hidden In that covenant Relationship that the two of you have Is a seed that will produce generational trees of impact With your kids It's your grandkids You know for the two of you that are holding hands right now I can promise you that there's been times that you've you've probably had the thought I don't know if we can make it This has been tough And yet the two of you are here today Because God's grace has been upon you He's gonna continue to be upon you And so I just pray that God's goodness his grace would be there I pray that the hallways of your home would be filled with laughter That you'd be filled with great romance passion and love And I pray for those that are here that maybe you're single And you're walking through the season of winter right now It's a season of preparation and I've been praying that God would give you a

Grace and a strength to be able to remain pure In a sin-soaked sex society that we live in today Because God's got that he's got the person for you. He's got them all ready And then there's others here that your hearts are heavy Maybe you've walked through a divorce Maybe for you that was Your spouse was a part part of your life, and they're not there anymore And your heart is breaking today, and I just pray Lord Oh wonderful Holy Spirit wrap your arms around them Bring healing and life where there's been pain and disappointment In Jesus name And if you're here today and away from the Lord Don't you just surrender your life to him Just pray this with me to say Jesus I give you my life I give you my I give you my life I give you my life. I give you my My regrets and my sin I I give you my life the best I know how Please change me make me new In Jesus strong name I pray And all God's people come on say a man. Amen. Come on. Can we just celebrate those that have made that decision for the Lord? Amen What an incredibly encouraging message today, and I don't know where you find yourself in all of this. Maybe the Lord's dealing with you with a heaviness that you're grieving. Maybe you just accepted Christ for the first time and you're trying to figure out how to do all of this. I want to encourage you to text the word Jesus to 51010. We'd love to send you some resources. We'd love to partner with you because you're not designed to do life alone. And as Chris mentioned, maybe the Lord has been speaking to you, maybe He's ministering

to you in this moment. We want to invite you to continue in that. Our prayer team's going to be down front. They would be incredibly honored to speak with you today, to pray with you, to offer you encouragement, to offer you some hope. And so as we stand together, I want to remind you of a couple of things. We're going to stand together, and then next week is an incredible Sunday at Life Fellowship. It's our annual International Sunday, March 15th. We're going to celebrate all the different cultures, all the diversity here at Life Fellowship. One of my favorite things about this church, we're going to have a special speaker, lots of treats, lots of surprises in store. You do not want to miss out on that. So as we get ready to go today, I would love to pray just a quick blessing over you guys. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for what you've done today. We thank you for the truth that has been spoken, for the seeds that have been planted. So God, as we go today, would you water those seeds? Would you grow that truth so that we may see more life change and more kingdom impact here in our city, in our country, and around the globe? And may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. Amen. You guys be blessed. We'll see you next week.