Abundant Living Family Church

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Well, hey, it is good to see everyone both online
and in church today. As you've seen, service orders a
little different, structures a little different because today's special. We
felt that in order of Valentine's Day, it's always kind
of a month where you talk about relationships and love
and commitment. That there's always people in church who come

(00:21):
to faith at a certain time in their life as
a couple. And sometimes we have individuals that maybe they
lived together, they never committed in marriage. They've been boyfriend
and girlfriend for a number of years, six seventy years,
they have kids and all these things, and they've come
to faith in Jesus and said, you know what, I
always hear the church talking about how important marriage is
when it comes to the biblical word of God, how

(00:43):
important husband and wife and father and mother are, And
so I want to make a commitment to the person
that I love before God but also before man. Or
also maybe they once got married, but it was under
pre existing conditions. It felt like a rush marriage. It
was a contingent marriage. And the individual say, you know what,
I really love you, and I really God has done

(01:04):
something in my heart that the first time I did it,
Jesus wasn't in the middle of that, and so I
want to do it now to commit to Jesus. So
in a few moments, that's what we're doing. After this
short message that's going to lead into it, Pastor Diego's.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Going to come on up here.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
In all campuses we're doing this, Pastor Diego's going to
come up here and lead some couples every service in
a marriage ceremony, and we get to be partakers of it,
and we get to celebrate their journey into relationship with
Jesus but also relationship.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
With one another.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
And so we're so excited that we get a partake
and be a part of that. That's what our years
called it's deeper. So today's all about deeper marriages, deeper
relationships that are found.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
In in Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
You know, before we jump in, if you have a
Bible iPad iPhone, I'm gonna read out of a scripture
today found in Ephesians chapter five, verse twenty one.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
We're gonna have it up on the screens as well
for you.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
This is the message that we're talking about today, and
if you were to take notes or all are taking.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Notes, the message today.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
That we're talking about is the foundation of family, the
foundation of family, or foundations of family, the foundations of
a husband, the foundations of a wife. We're going to
talk about some simple foundations that anyone can apply into
their life. So you may be in here and you
may be a young man or a young woman and

(02:24):
say I'm not married yet. This is a great time
to build some foundations. You may be in here and
you may be a single mother or a single father.
This is a great time to build some foundations. It
doesn't just take a husband or wife. This can be
done right now today. But specifically, what we're going to
talk about is the beauty of what God creates when

(02:46):
a husband and wife do something special, when they lay
Christ as the foundation of their family. God's word, the
Bible is meant to be a foundation for our lives.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
It's meant to be something that we can build our
life on top of.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
And Ephesians chapter five shares about this great mystery and
the apostle Paul calls both marriage and the church a mystery,
and God finally pulls the veil away from the mystery.
When I grew up, do you guys remember if you
grew up in the nineties or you were around in
the nineties, there was that magician that he would wear
a mask and he would show you the behind the

(03:23):
scenes of all the magic tricks. So he would show
you a magic trick, and then the next thing he
would do, he would cut, and then he would reveal
to you all the secrets behind it, the mystery behind it.
And a lot of magicians got pretty upset about that
because he said, hey, man, you're taking away our job.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
You're showing everyone what we do and how we do it.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
This Ephesians chapter five is a moment where God peels
the layer back on the mystery of family, the mystery
of marriage, and shares with us a little bit intentionality
that God has had when he instituted marriage. Marriage is
an institution of God, and family is an institution of God.
And so look at Ephesians chapter five. We're gonna read

(04:04):
a little bit this morning. Follow along with me. It
says this, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives,
submit to your husbands, to you, to your own husbands,
as you do to the Lord. For the husband is
the head of the wife, as Christ is the head
of the church, his body of which he is the Savior.

(04:24):
Now as the church submits to Christ, is it in
our job to submit to the will of God?

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
So, now as the church submits to Christ, so also
wives should submit to their husbands and everything. Okay, so
wives submit to their husbands. But now here's some wait
for husbands that a lot of husbands overlook. Husbands, love
your wives. Just as Christ loved the Church, and Christ
gave himself up for her, So husbands are supposed to

(04:55):
give themselves up for their wives, to make her whole
and cleansing her by the washing with the water through
the word of God, and to present her to himself
as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any blemish,
but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought

(05:16):
to love their wives as their own bodies. He who
loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one has
ever hated their own body. But they feed and care
for their body, just as Christ does the Church, for
we are members of His body. For this reason, a
man will leave his father and mother and be united

(05:37):
to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
This is a profound mystery, but I am talking to
you about Christ and the Church. However, each one of
you also must love his wife as he loves himself,
and the wife must respect her husband. What is the
mystery that's being revealed? The history that's being revealed is

(06:01):
the parallel between a man and a woman and Jesus
and his church, who Jesus loves. Jesus Christ came down
from heaven to die for his church, for those that
would follow him, those that would love him, those that
would make him savior. He sacrificed his whole life for

(06:23):
his church, for his bride, for you and I.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
And so the mystery is in the.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Same way that Christ loves his church, a man and
a woman must love each other unconditionally because we live
in a world that has conditional relationships. You see conditional
relationships say, I will love you as long as you
stay young. I will love you as long as you

(06:52):
stay rich. I will love you as long as you
stay healthy. I will love you as long as your
attitude is good enough for me. I will love you
as long as you're pretty. I will love you as
long as you do what I say.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
I will love.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
You as long There's always these conditions. So what the
mystery is is that Jesus has called us to love
our spouses unconditionally, in the same way that Jesus loves
his church. Imagine if Jesus loved you conditionally. Imagine if

(07:31):
Jesus loved you so long as you were on the
right track. Imagine if Jesus loved you and favored you
so long as you were doing things, you were praying, prayers,
doing these type of Imagine if you had to do
certain works to gain God's attention.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
But we do that in marriage all the time.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
I'll love you, I'll give back to you, I'll show
affection towards you as long as you do blink. The
mystery that's revealed is that cannot be conditioned, it cannot
have conditions.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
And the moment we say I do it says that
the same way.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
That Christ's sacrifice for his church, I'll sacrifice for my spouse.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
It's about laying foundations.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
This is a foundational principle to say Jesus Christ will
be the bedrock. In the same way that Jesus Christ
is the foundation of my life, he's also the foundation
of my family. He's the foundation of my marriage. It's
an important thing. But a lot of people today what
they do is when they're building the foundations for their life.
Every single person makes a decision. You may be here,

(08:37):
you may not be married. You may be here, you
may be a single mother, single father, wherever you are,
or you may be married. But we all at some
point have built some foundations for our lives.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
And so for a lot of people, what they.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Do is, you know, it comes and then it becomes
a There's a man that comes in and he's like, man,
I want I want to have a family. One day,
and so Black History Month, so I chose. I chose
a black kN right here. There was too many, uh,
there's way too many white kids for sale, so we
went and sourced the black kNs. So you got one

(09:11):
guy he said, man, I want to have a family.
And so he builds his life right here. And then
maybe he adds a little house to his life. He
got a little apartment, little house, whatever it is. It's like, man,
I'm building something. And then all of a sudden, maybe
he meets a girl. Right, the black barbie was hard
to find, so y'all must have bought it for your
kids already. So maybe he adds a woman into his life, right,

(09:34):
And then they say, oh yeah, but the man he's like,
you know what, I want to feel young again this marriage,
blah blah. I need to add me a car into this.
I need my little Lamborghini. I gotta add my Lambo
to this. And then all of us say, you know what,
I want a kid? Don't you want a kid? And
then they begin to add some things. They add a
little kid into their life. So what they do is
they start building this life. But you want to know

(09:56):
the thing that they forgot that was the most important,
the foundation that they build their life on.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
I mean, they're in some sand.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
What do you think happens if a little storm in
their family rises in this foundation? What do you think
would happen if a little wind came into their life
with this type of foundation. What do you think if
maybe he just lost his job with this kind of foundation.
What do you think if one of them got sick
with this type of foundation, What do you think would happen?
What do you think would happen if they tried to
build something with this type of foundation.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
It's not going anywhere, And.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
A lot of us we just think, as long as
I get the house, the car, the kids, the family,
the wife, I'll be good.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Oh well, No, what's the foundation? What is your foundation?

Speaker 2 (10:40):
So what happens is if I want to build something
for my life, then okay, then now I come here.
There's the hymn that I've shared at the top of
this year that says, on Christ the solid rock I stand.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
All other ground is sinking sand.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
So what happens now if I take Jesus and I
make him my foundation, and now as a young man
creates some non negotiables that are founded on scripture. So
now my family will pray, my family will read their Bible,
my family will come to church.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
My family will be generous, My.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Family will have disciplines, will have ethics, will show our
community what happens foundation. So if a girl comes and
she goes, oh, this foundation's a little stiff, then you
better get to kicking. My foundation is set.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sorry, there's no room for you. Women, same thing. God comes.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Oh what you mean we can't already have sex? No,
we can't have sex already. Man, this foundation's too hard. Well,
you better get somewhere else. You better go on that sand.
Now it means I could fill this with concrete. I
could solidify my life. This thing's not going ere that
I can have my kids. You want the car, you
can add the car. But guess what your foundation is.
None of those things. It's none of these things. It's

(11:55):
none of these things. It's this thing on Christ, the
solid Rockey Stan. All other ground is sinking sand. That's
what a foundation does. So let's just talk about we
have a few moments before the ceremony. Let's talk about
three foundations that all of us can walk away from.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
You may be married, you may not.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Be married, but we can say right away, I'm gonna
fix these three things, or I'm gonna apply these three things,
or I'm gonna address these three things. Here's the number one.
Here's the first foundation we gotta do. Is you gotta
set the foundation of atmosphere in your home, in your marriage,
and in your life. I love the Prophet Joshua and

(12:38):
my dad, pastor Diego. He grew up saying this verse
all the time, and it's one that always stuck with
me because.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
We all grow up in the world.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
We all grew up with people with different passions and
different relationships and things like that. It's one of the
most famous passages in the Bible, but it is profound
and it remains to be true Joshua, chapter twenty four,
starting in verse fifteen, it says this, and if it
is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose
this day whom you'll serve, whether the gods of your

(13:06):
fathers served in the region beyond the river, or the
gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

Speaker 1 (13:12):
But as for me and my house, we will serve
the Lord.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
As for me and my house, what he says is
he says, I do not. You can set the atmosphere
of your life however you want. You can serve it
after the gods across the river. You can serve it
after this. You can serve it after that. But as
for me and my house, the atmosphere of our home
will be the one.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
That serves the Lord.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
We will pray over our food, we will pray over
our family. We will be witnesses to our neighbors. We
will be examples to our community. As for me and
my home, we will serve the Lord. It's about setting
the right atmosphere. I have a question for you. If
you think about setting the right atmosphere. Let's just say
you're having guests over to your house. My wife, she's

(14:01):
kind of like a candle fanatic. She's got hundreds of
candles in our house and whenever we have company, I mean,
every single one of those things is lit. She's like
a fanatic on the atmosphere and the smell and all
these things like that. And so let me ask you something.
If you are having company over and you had to
set the atmosphere for the people coming over to your house,
would you choose?

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Right here, I.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Have a alo eucalyptus and lavender. Okay, eucalyptus and lavender.
In my other hand, right here, I have extra strong
stink spray. It says extra toxic, right Who would choose
this in their home to have company in their house?

Speaker 1 (14:41):
But instead, when someone comes over.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
You you know you want to put some lavender, some
eucalyptus like ooh man, it smells like a spa.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
No one goes over having company over.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Grab the extra stink spray, come bring it in. You See,
what we often don't realize is our walk with Christ
and the foundations with God. They can or can't leave
an atmosphere where we go. And so you set an atmosphere.
You set an atmosphere in your home. So you and
your wife what is the atmosphere that you set for

(15:12):
your kids. It is an atmosphere of chaos, and atmosphere
of anger, and atmosphere of arguing.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Is it an atmosphere of.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Gentleness, of kindness, of love, of compassion, of grace? Do
you establish the extra stink spray or the lavender and eucalyptus?
Is the home a place where your kids want to
come and they find solace in or they come and
they're anxious, and they have anxiety, and they're already built
up because there's an atmosphere.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
That we set.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
There's an atmosphere of coming to church. But here's another note.
I'll ad you may think that you can set an
atmosphere of eucalyptus and lavender at home, but out in
the streets you can have stink spray. And you think
that when you come home that stink ain't hanging on.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
You, Oh, and it is.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
It'll fill that room up, you don't think. So, invite
a cow farmer for your home. Over to your house
from dinner, straight from work and see if your house
ain't gonna hang around with what he came in with.
Say no, keep your boots on from work, keep your
pants on from work.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
We don't mind. We like the stink.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
We do that all the time, what we're doing in
our private lives and in other eras, we bring the
stink into our atmosphere.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
And then we wonder, God, why is that? Why is
there so much friction in my marriage? Why is there
so much friction in my relation?

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Well?

Speaker 2 (16:30):
What atmosphere you bringing home? Then what atmosphere are you
setting at home? See atmosphere It rules everything. And then
the second thing is is the accountability. Mom and Dad
are accountable to someone. There are some homes where Dad
is God, and that's dangerous. He's accountable to no one.

(16:50):
Dad answers to no one. I grew up in my
home where my father made it aware to us that
he answers to God. And I grew up in a
home where my father made it to a to us.
If I'm not living by the principles of God, if
I'm not living by the word of God, even my
children can approach me and say, Dad, I don't think
you're living like this. I don't think you're doing like this.

(17:12):
When me and my wife have conversations of what we
need to work on, they're around the biblical foundations of Christ,
not what I would like to see.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
It's more of you know.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Christ calls us not to gossip so much or complain
so much. And I've realized you and I we've been
complaining a lot, and we probably.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Need to fix that foundation.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
See, you got to be accountable to someone. Me and
my marriage were accountable to Christ. So we able to
use the word of God as a foundation for our
lives to say, how are you holding up to this?

Speaker 1 (17:40):
And how am I holding up to this?

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Let the Word of God be the beacon for my
life as.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
I'm accountable to it.

Speaker 3 (17:48):
You see.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
It says this in Galatians chapter six, verse one. It says, brothers,
if anyone is caught in any transgression, you, who are spiritual,
should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
What this verse says is it says, if you were
caught up in something, how would you like someone to
respond to you? Would you like them to come down
on you harshly? Would you like them to embarrass you?
Would you like them to go to Facebook or Instagram
or whatever. It is a lot of parents we don't
always understand too. We're always talking about our kids' failures,
their mishaps in front of the whole family, in front
of all the friends, and then we wonder, why is

(18:26):
my child not respecting the influence I'm trying to have. Well,
it's because you've been keeping them accountable without keeping yourself accountable.
That's a dangerous space to be in. It's about being
accountable to God. You know, when I was a youth
pastor one time, as many years ago, I was sitting
down with a young man and he was involved in gangs,
and he.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Was acting up.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
He was selling weed and all these other things in school.
He's in high school, sixteen years old. He's getting a
lot of trouble. And so his mom comes and she
sits him down in my office and she says, you know,
he's doing blank blank lists it. And I begin to
talk to him. And the first session, I'll tell you this,
it was a bust. I mean, he didn't he didn't
open up at all.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
He arms crossed, angry, heard everything.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Second session he comes, he's talking again, and just tell
him he needs to do this.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
He needs to do this.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
He's not he's not coming home on time, he's not
this like okay, So I asked the mom, would you
mind us, Would you step out of the room. I'd
like to tuck to your some private if that's okay,
and she said, yeah, that's fine. Once she left the room,
I began to talk with him, and I said.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
What's going on?

Speaker 3 (19:32):
Man?

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Why you know, why are you giving your mom such
a hard time? Why are you this? Why are you that?

Speaker 2 (19:36):
And he goes, you know what I'm most angry about,
He said, I don't have a dad in my life.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
I don't have a father. My father's never been around.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
And he says, then I come to church, and you know,
I'm going to youth and I'm supposed to have all
these mentors and this and that, and he goes. But
I find it so hard to respect anything that's said
in church because my mom, being a single mother, every
other weekend she has a new guy over at our house,
sleeping over, and he goes. So, so she comes to
church and she raises her hands as she does this,
and she does that.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
But then every.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Friday night there's a new guy at my house who
trying to act like my dad, who's trying to act
like he's trying to tell me how to live, trying
to stop doing this, stop doing that. And I'm looking
at my mom and I say, aren't you supposed to
be listening to the preacher too?

Speaker 1 (20:18):
He tells me that.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I say, man, you know the only thing I could do.
She're right, but hey, your mom needs to be accountable.
But here's how we gotta do it. We gotta do
it in gentleness and love.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
That's what the Bible calls.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
If we come at here and we embarrass her, your
mom's hurting, your mom's broken. Your mom too hasn't had
a husband in her life, same way you haven't had
a father in your life. She hasn't had a husband
in her life, same way.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's been hard for you, it's been hard for her too.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
So as we gained perspective, we brought the mother in
and we all wept together, and everybody left that space saying,
we're gonna build some foundations for Christ. The mom felt
much more freer, the son felt much more freer, And
over the course of the next months and years, we
saw a complete.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Turnaround from this young man.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Why because the mom said, I'll be accountable too, I'll
be gained for that. I'll build a foundation for Christ too.
And here's the last point as we begin to close
and get ready for our ceremony, the last thing is
we got to build a.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Foundation of attention. Attention, the foundation of attention.

Speaker 2 (21:24):
Jesus always said this simple principle for us Matthew sixteen,
verse twenty six. What will it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and forfeit his soul? Or
what shall a man give in return for his soul?
In other words, what he says is he says, what
would a profit a person to give their attention to
the world but lose their soul. I'd encourage you one day.

(21:49):
Maybe you wouldn't want to do this, or maybe you would.
If your kids are a little older, eight years old
and older, where they kind of are aware of your
life and your habits and stuff like that, go ahead
and ask your children, if you have children, what do
you think our mom and dad's top three priorities in
our lives?

Speaker 1 (22:06):
What would your kids say?

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Would God be anywhere within those top three priorities? Would
Christ be anywhere in those top three priorities? Or would
maybe the favorite car be in the priorities? Maybe it
would be mom or Dad on the phone every single day?
Would that be a type or oh, I know. Top
prior to number one is Facebook for you mom, it's Facebook.
It's Instagram for you mom. Or it's shopping, or it's

(22:31):
going out with your friend's dad. You always like to
go out with your friends. Where is your attention? Where's
your attention? Because God has called us that our family
is our greatest ministry in life. Our spouses, our husbands,
our wives, our children is the greatest foundation. It's the
greatest ministry and it's the greatest example that you can

(22:54):
set to any community is a nuclear family. It is
a family that is on mission to serve God, know God,
and love God and love their neighbors. That is a
missional foundation that says, my attention.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Is on God, attentions on God.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
And so what we want to do is we want
to build healthy foundations, right because even the attention on
God thing can be a deterrent too. There could be
mom and dads who don't do nothing with their kids
and just go to church every single day. So there
is healthy foundations that say, in my family, we're gonna
set an atmosphere. We're gonna set an atmosphere, We're gonna
set an atmosphere.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Of accountability in our home.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
So everyone, we don't answer to each other, we answer
to the Lord. And then lastly, we're gonna set an
atmosphere of attention. We'm gonna spend time with each other.
We're gonna love each other, we're gonna hang out with
each other. We're not gonna go out. And then one
kid gets their iPad over here, one kid gets the
PS four over. We just spend time together. But look
at each other in the eyes. If there's anything that

(23:54):
this world is losing with this next generation, it's their attention.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
And so what we want to do.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
So we want to say, let's dial in the attention
for each other, let's pray together, let's hold hands together,
Let's build. Like Pastor Diego shared last week with all
the ours, I encourage you go listen. Let's build some foundations.
Let's have some roles in our lives. That's what we
need to do as a family. You know, at this time,
as we get ready for our ceremony, come part and

(24:20):
we talked about all the foundations. That's where it begins,
part of the foundation for a family. Like we saw
in Ephesians chapter five, it begins with marriage. Marriage is
a foundation that God has laid. Why Because a marriage
that works well it symbolizes to the world God's relationship
with his church, Jesus's relationship with his church. A marriage

(24:41):
that rules healthy, where a husband sacrifices for his wife
and his wife submits to her husband.

Speaker 1 (24:46):
It's the way the church should operate. That Jesus Christ
sacrificed himself for us, and we submit to Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
It's a mere, for mere principle of what happens in
heaven to what happens on earth. Why marriage is so
important for God because your marriage is a reflection of
God's love towards his church, and when it operates correctly,
it is a way to show others the reality and
the realness of God in our life when we love

(25:14):
and sacrifice for our spouse.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Because there are.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
People in conversation, and my wife's gonna come up here,
she's gonna pray for us in a second as we
get ready for this marriage ceremony.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Because how many of you guys know you've.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Gotten some bad marriage advice from friends before they've given
some terrible marriage advice, you see, So a marriage that
rolls healthy becomes an authority to be able to speak
on marriage, to be able to share on marriage. And
so as we get ready for this incredible ceremony that
we're about to do, my wife of this year seven years,
so we're about to you know, break that seven year

(25:46):
humph type of thing. Ashley is going to pray for
this moment, pray for these marriages. Just so you know,
we've already prayed for the Rams today.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
They're gonna win. We're already aware of that.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
And so oh foundation has already been set for the
wind today. And so just so you know it's very
important for us. It happened already. Okay, So Ashley's gonna
pray for this moment, these beautiful couples that are coming
to come down and share an incredible ceremony together.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
Let's pray. Church.

Speaker 4 (26:16):
Would you just stand with me in agreement. Bowl your heads, Father,
we just uplift these couples. We come before you knowing
that they are making a dedication to you, Father, they
are dedicating their marriage to you. They are doing it
amongst the people.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Father.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
They are not hiding, Father, They're not hiding their faces.
They're coming before you and they're saying, God, we need
to stand in union as a couple. So we uplift
these couples that are coming down this aisle. Father, we
ask that these wives submit to their husbands with love,
with patience, with kindness, with joy. Father, and we ask

(26:54):
that these husbands love their wives like you love the church. Father,
uplift them, encourage them, tell them that they're a good mother.
Give them the words of affirmation.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
Father. Let their five love.

Speaker 4 (27:08):
Languages speak volume so that they get to know each
other more.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Father.

Speaker 4 (27:12):
But Father, let you beat the center of their marriage
and any marriage. And here, Father, that may be struggling. Father,
we just uplift them as well. Father, before you, we
know what you're going to do with this this service.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Father, you have.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
Set these beautiful couples within a church that loves marriage,
that loves you as the center of our foundation. Father,
So we ask that you give them the strength to
go forward. Father, Give them the peace. Father, give them
the family that they've always desired. Father, give them the community,
like Pastor Adams said, give them the accountability that they

(27:47):
need to be surrounded by. Father, that they're able to
have a healthy, full, loving, encouraging marriage. Father, that they
can be a light in this world. Father, that when
their friends are going down, Father, that they can point
to you to say, I know a God, I know
a foundation, and it is Jesus Christ that we will
stand on. So we just uplift this service, Father, that

(28:10):
my father in love's going to come and give this
a beautiful service before you. We know this is a
blessed time, Father, and we are excited. We are a
joyous because a union between a wife and a husband,
Father is nothing more beautiful.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Father, And we rebuke.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
The enemy right now, Father, that he will not have
any of these marriages.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
He will not have our children.

Speaker 4 (28:31):
Father, and we just thank you for who you are
because you have already redeemed and won the battle.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
Father.

Speaker 4 (28:38):
So this marriage, this union, this anointed time, Father, we
just ask you to just blessed Father, bless it for
future for thirty forty years. Father to come. We thank
you and we love you in Jesus' name.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
Amenhs man, only four.

Speaker 6 (29:28):
S, but I did have for me s s?

Speaker 7 (29:57):
Would it be if I for.

Speaker 5 (30:26):
T see.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
Dopod so avent to be.

Speaker 7 (30:42):
Just take my home.

Speaker 4 (30:58):
For I.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
Thank you.

Speaker 8 (31:35):
Hey, congratulations, this is a pretty big deal you're doing
right now. God's smiling, God's proud of you, guys.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Thank you for the courage to do this.

Speaker 8 (31:54):
It was less courage. It was less courage to stay
doing what you were doing before. This takes more courage
to do what you're doing right now. Your journey to
find God's best has now ended. Out of all the
men and all the women upon this planet, you have
decided to choose this person from all the other touches, looks, smiles, values, personalities, characteristics, godliness, kindness,

(32:24):
and love. You're now sure and sane. You're the one
I want. Each of you has passed each other's tests,
and you're the only one now standing by each other's
side saying you're the only one that I want to
spend the rest of my life with. Congratulations, You guys

(32:44):
are the winners. You both have gone through your preparation
for marriage, You met each other's approval, and you are
now ready to enter this covenant of commitment called marriage,
where everything you have becomes each other's, and everything you
are is for each other, and everything you do is

(33:04):
for each other.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
You are now.

Speaker 8 (33:06):
Giving up your independence and becoming co dependent on each other.
The world has the idea that marriage is just simply
a legal contract.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
It is a legal contract.

Speaker 8 (33:19):
We don't make light of that fact, but greater it
is a spiritual contract not just between you and your mate,
but between you and your creator.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
One, a mutual commitment and love.

Speaker 8 (33:35):
Marriage was not established by man, society, government, or religion.
Marriage was founded by God, and for the two individuals involved,
their love then must be founded, ordained, and subject to God.
There is an actual miracle, a God intervention that takes

(33:55):
place when the faith of these two people is released.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
In God's power.

Speaker 8 (33:59):
God God honors their faith and brings them into a
union together with an intimacy that from this day forward
will only be shared and expressed by each other.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
And Ephesi's a fifth chapter.

Speaker 8 (34:13):
In our sermon today, we heard the role of a husband,
and we heard the role of a wife. If you'll
just remember two key words from what this sermon said
and from Ephesians five. Husbands, you're always to love your wife,
and wives you are always.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
To respect your husbands.

Speaker 8 (34:38):
When two believers come before God to be joined together
as a husband and wife, the Bible calls it a
great mystery. This is because if you can rightly discern
the miracle of your relationship with God as a believer,
that that creative uniting and changing. Power that bonded you
with him will now bond you that same power with

(35:00):
each other. Let us never think less of this union
of perfection. That's what it is, a perfect institution. We're
too flawed and imperfect people with histories and past and
inadequacies and insecurities and sometimes even some weirdness.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Marriage doesn't fail. People fail.

Speaker 8 (35:26):
The love of God in you doesn't say I love
you when, and I love you if, and I love you. Sometimes.
The love of God in you just simply says, I
love you. It is unwavering, It is unchanging as well,
without reservation, compensation, consideration, or hesitation. It gives, and then

(35:47):
it gives, and then it gives, and it never stops giving.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Love is not an emotion of feeling, but a decision.

Speaker 8 (35:56):
Therefore, you'll never ever fall out of love or grow
apart art from love. If you make that decision, God
gives you both the grace, God's supernatural strength for everything
you need to succeed and to please each other.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
And nobody else on this planet will.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Have that grace.

Speaker 8 (36:15):
It's like God's wedding present to each one of you.
Do you husbands take your wives to love her sacrificially, responsibly, faithfully, carefully, protectively,
and by the standards of Jesus loving the Church for

(36:36):
the rest of your life. Do you promise to love
her romantically, affectionately and passionately, to only have eyes for her,
to pursue her, and to date her for the rest
of your life? Do you promise to be the priest
of your home, to intercede and to pray for your family?
Do you promise to be the pastor of your home,

(36:59):
to feed and tea which the profit of your own,
a man of vision and goals, the king of your home,
to protect and to initiate for the rest of your life,
and to enjoy it than say I do? Then, I
want you to turn to her now and say this,
I insert your name. I promise and vow to you

(37:26):
to love you with everything I have and everything I am.
To be your husband, your helpmate, your friend, your companion,
and your lover. From this moment forward, we shall be one,
united and never separated.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Stay in that position, wives, do you.

Speaker 8 (37:53):
Take your husband, submitting yourself to him, yielding to his lead,
and arranging yourself under with an attitude of respect as
unto the Lord for the rest of your life. Do
you promise to notice him, prefer him, esteem him, encourage him,
appreciate him, affirm him, and admire him for the rest
of your life. Do you promise to be a virtuous woman,

(38:16):
a woman of strength and dignity, A prayer warrior covering
your husband and your family, A princess of God, one
of loyalty, grace, and inward and outward.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Beauty, a steward of God.

Speaker 8 (38:27):
To care for your home and your children for the
rest of your life and enjoy it. Your response would be,
I do then say this and insert your name. I
promise and vow to you to submit myself to you,
to love you with everything I have everything. I am

(38:50):
to be your wife, your helpmate, your friend, your companion,
and your lover. From this moment forward, we shall be
one united and never separated.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
May I have the bride's ring? Please? Thank you, thank you,
thank you.

Speaker 8 (39:20):
A ring is a very precious token. It is a
sign of love and devotion and commitment. This ring is
made out of precious metal. It is a never ending
circle that indicates the continual love of God, a love
that the Bible said is patient and long suffering and
endures long It's never jealous, prideful, or selfish. A love

(39:45):
that believes the best of each other. A love that
never fails, fades out, or comes to an end. A
love that is built on trust, fidelity, and loyalty. You
will get into fights, excuse me, heated disagreements. You will
experience disappointments, You will get mad and upset. But love

(40:09):
is the key. You are to wear this ring for life.
It is a binding symbol. Remember, with God as a
foundation and number one priority in this marriage, it has
all the power in heaven to be righteous, everlasting and blessed.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
But if we draw away from God, then.

Speaker 8 (40:26):
You can expect the challenges of this world and the
enemy to affect your relationship.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
So let us love God with all our heart. Take
this ring. You make sure you get.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
The right one.

Speaker 8 (40:42):
Stay with me, hang on, don't put it on you
take the ring please?

Speaker 3 (40:46):
Is that the right one? Okay?

Speaker 8 (40:51):
I got one extra? Oh sorry, well, I don't say.
Cindy's going to be blessed when we get home. So
take the ring and place it on her finger, and
say this, With this ring, I the wed for better

(41:13):
and for worse, in sickness and in health till death.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
Do us part.

Speaker 8 (41:19):
I commit myself, my love, and my life to you
with this ring. This represents to me that this excuse me.
This represents that I will share my secrets, my weaknesses,
my challenges, my wishes, my hopes, and my dreams only

(41:40):
with you. Will you wear my ring as a sign
that I will serve you for the rest of my life.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
May I have the grooms ring? Please? Thank you, thank you.
A ring can mean two different things.

Speaker 8 (42:02):
It could be a never ending sign of love, or
it could be a sign of a shackle of bondage.
I'm gonna charge you with this statement. You should always
remember this woman stands by your side, not under your feet.
You have the responsibility of being the head of this union.
In the Book of Beginnings, Genesis E was taken from

(42:23):
the side of Adam his rib.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
It's the closest thing to his heart.

Speaker 8 (42:27):
Realize that she is not some chopped liver or cheap
piece of meat. She is prime rib and to be
valued because of her great worth. You have the spiritual responsibility.
I want you to wear this ring and remember it
so that she is your helpmate and truly your best friend.
Remember she is the gift that gives you favor with God.

(42:48):
This ring must never be a shackle of dominance, but
always a reminder of faith and love. There is no
place in the Word of God that gives peace the
right to dominate one another. Your vows stated that you
submit to one another and the responsibility of this life,
expecting God and His power always to make the difference.

(43:12):
Please take his ory. Say this as you place the
ring on his finger. With this ring, I thee wed.
I give it as a sign of my faith and love.

(43:33):
I believe with all my heart that this is forever.
This ring symbolizes my commitment, my love, and my faith
that I promise and vow to you in Jesus' name.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Why don't you guys take one deep breath. Here we go.
You did a good job.

Speaker 8 (44:00):
As a minister and representative of Jesus Christ, and before
the friends and congregation of Abundant Living. I want you
to recognize that you have bore witness of a sacred reunion.
I'm going to ask you, whenever you think about it,
that you pray for these couples and that you hold
them up. Maybe some of you will become friends to them.

(44:23):
Maybe some of you are already family to them.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
But let us fight.

Speaker 8 (44:27):
There's too many divorces, there are too many separations, there's
too many broken homes.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
Let's fight to keep these couples alive and married.

Speaker 8 (44:37):
And to you that are already married, I pray today
rekindled some fire in your life that said I remember when,
and you're going to just want to draw closer and
give that special love, not just tomorrow on Valentine's Day,
but to recapture your love. As a minister and representative
of Jesus Christ, by the State of California, before Almighty God,

(45:00):
the name of the Father, the creator of all things,
his son Jesus, the performer of those things, and by
the power of the Holy Spirit, the revealer of all things,
I now pronounce you one united together, bonded forever as married.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
You are now husband and wife. You may now.

Speaker 8 (45:18):
Kiss each other for the first time as a husband
and a wife.

Speaker 9 (45:37):
Come on, guys, let's give it up.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I didn't know if I was supposed to sing or
dance at that point right there. They didn't tell me
how long the exits. So are you gonna be seated
for just some moment? We got plenty of time just
to leave this place here together. If you came here

(46:44):
with any of those individuals, family or friends, they're gonna
have a moment together. We have a little spot for
them to have some cake and celebrate privately, and then
they'll be out in our courtyard. So anyone else who
wants to love on them or anything, they'll be out there.
You know, as we close, we just want to encourage
you may be in this place, and you may have
sat here, and you may have said, you know what,

(47:04):
in that same way that a marriage took place. Today,
every single day there's a bonding, a commitment, a marriage
that can take place of our lives, of our soul.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
It's the commitment we make to Jesus Christ.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
It's the commitment we make to say, Jesus, I confess
you as Lord and Savior. I recognize in my heart
that I'm distant from you, and I need a savior
and I want a.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Relationship with you.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
The Bible tells us that if we believe in our
heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross and he
rose again, and we confess him as Lord, the Bible says,
will be saved. And so today you may have been
in this place. The great first step to relationship with
God is making Jesus Christ your savior. God told us,
and so did Jesus himself. He said, no one could
come to the Father except for me. He's the one

(47:50):
who sacrificed himself. He's the one who died for us,
and he's the one who became triumphant raising three days later.
So you may be in this place, or you may
be watching online and saying, man, that ceremony, it just
makes me want to make a commitment to God in
this place. And so in this moment, I just want
you to confess this prayer aloud with us as a family.
It's not the prayer that saves you by any means,

(48:12):
but it's really the heart of what's going on.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
The Holy Spirit's already working in you and through you.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
We're just affirming the work that God's already doing. So
would you join me right now? Is there's people that
are going to enter Heaven's gates today. The Bible says
that when you make Jesus your savior, you're written in
the Lamb's Book of Life, which means you cannot be
ripped away. You cannot be stripped away, Your name can't
be blotted out in any way, So would you join me,
all of us together as a family, even if you're

(48:37):
watching online, repeat after me, Dear Lord Jesus, in this place,
I confess you as Lord and Savior. In sorry, our
audio team, I can hear you now. Sorry, one second,
I confess you as Lord and Savior.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
I will follow you for the rest of my days
in Jesus' name.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Amen.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Amen, Can we give it up for those that may
have said this prayer online or in this place? Hey,
you may be in here online. If you're leaving, you
could text next to eight one four one one. We
want to get some things into your hands, and so
if you want to grow in your life, if you
want to take the next steps of building foundations, if.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
You text that number as you leave here, anyone can
do that. You're gonna get two.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Free books by Pastor Diego, our founding pastor. First one's
the greatest invitation what it means to be saved. Second
one is what it means to be filled with the
Holy Spirit. So we want to make sure you're resourced
here today as well. If anyone additionally needs prayer here,
I believe we're gonna have some of our prayer team
up here in the front because our chapel space and
all that's used for our bride and grooms today.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
And so if.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Anyone needs prayer at all, you could come up to
the front. Our prayer team would love to pray for you.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Also.

Speaker 2 (49:54):
We'd love to see you on Wednesday or next weekend.
Today was just such a special ceremony. We've got two
more services with more groups of people being married, and
so we're blessed we get to be a part of that.
Thank you for being a part of today's special day.
Let me bless us out real quick and we'll all
leave here together. God, we thank you for today.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Lord.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I just pray that this moment today, though unconventional, is
special because we had church today all the same. Lord,
we saw people confessing You as Lord and Savior and
building a foundation for their marriage in this place.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Lord, we thank you so much for what you did today.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Lord, I just pray that all of us can love
our spouses a little bit more, be intentional with our
families a little bit more, and lean into You all
the more for you to build into us, for you
to speak into our lives. God, we thank you, Lord,
and also Father, God, we thank you for making La
Rams the champions today in Jesus' name.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Amen, God bless you guys. We'll see you on Wednesday
or next weekend.