Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - The Vow, Part 3: The Vow of Partnership

Episode Date: June 25, 2017

Wedding vows are more than a declaration of love—they hold the keys to a strong, lasting marriage. Whether you hope to get married someday or you’ve already tied the knot, discover what The Vow can mean for the future. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Thanks for joining us here at Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God allows us to be a part of through church online. If you ever have any questions or you want to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.cuch. Or we'd love to stay connected with you throughout your week and everywhere you go with the Life Church app. It's available for free wherever you download your apps from. You know, we're in a message series talking about marriage.

And in a marriage, it's not about one person. It's not a contract, it's a covenant working together. We know we're always better united rather than divided. That's easier to say than it is to do. But thanks to our senior pastor Craig Rochelle, we'll find out how to do just that in week three of the vow. Hey, a big welcome today to all of our life churches, all of our open network churches, our family all over the world at church online. I'm so glad that you guys have joined us today. We're actually in part three of a four-part message.

series called The Vowl. If you've missed earlier weeks, what we're doing is we're doing a full court press to help people prepare today for a godly marriage in the future. And we're trying to do everything we can to equip those who are married, to have the tools and the spiritual understanding to have the relationships that we know that God wants us to have. Because let's be honest, everywhere we look, there are marriages that are struggling. This is unacceptable to us, God wants something better. And so today we're going to dive in to hear God's word, part number three of the vow. And we're actually going to talk today about the vow of partnership.

All of our churches, those of you that are married, how many of you married somebody that was kind of opposite of you? Different in many ways, raised up your hands. What's interesting is people often say when you're dating opposites attract. When you're dating opposites attract. Unfortunately, for some people, when you're married, what do opposites do? They actually attack. Don't elbow the person sitting next to you if you're married, but you can say amen if you don't know what I'm talking about. Sometimes that happens, they tend to attack.

For example, when you're dating, you know, she may be really laid back and she may be, you know, really kind of easygoing. And then when you get married, like, she's a lazy bum. She needs to do something. He may be, you know, kind of really organized and really driven. to get married and he's a control freak you know offices tend to attract and then later on they often attack and my marriage amy is very very different than me uh she's an introvert i'm an extrovert she's a feeler i'm a thinker she stops to smell the roses i drive over them because i'm i'm in a hurry i've got lots of wild ideas she's got lots of ralas she's got lots of

reasons why my ideas are too wild to try. Late at night, she loves to have conversations. That's all I'm going to say about that. And the good thing is, is that we are really different, because if we were the same, then one of us would be unnecessary, right? Because God actually uses the differences to enhance and strengthen our relationship. The problem is Satan wants to use the differences to divide. God wants to use them to strengthen. And that's why today what I want to do is talk about the vow of partnership and let it speak to us in a way that I believe can really strengthen our marriages. If you were with us in week number one, what did we learn? We know that God is our one, our spouses, our two vow number one was this. I promise that God will be my what

say it with me, all of our churches, God will be my first priority and my spouse will be my second. Week number two, we talked about the vow of pursuit. How does it go? I promise I will what? I promise I will always pursue my two. Week number three, this is our vow for today. I promise our marriage will be about we and not about me. The vow of partnership. Whenever we enter into a covenant relationship with our spouse, till death do us part, from this moment on, life is not about me, me, me, me, me, me, life is about we together, us, serving and glorifying God,

our life will be about we and not about me. And we're going to take this vow from the very same verse that we've looked at for the last couple of weeks, and we'll look at it again next week. Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, says this. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and is what? This is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife. And they become one flesh. A man leaves his father and mother is united to his wife and they become one flesh.

The word united comes from Hebrew word. The root word is the word akkad. Cod. And it means united or it means completely joined as one. Completely joined as one. The two will be united as one flesh. In a moment, I want to show you that Jesus actually quoted this exact verse and then he added some additional truth to this verse from Genesis. Before I show you what Jesus said, I just want to say with all sincerity that what I'm about to say, I say with tremendous sensitivity and an understanding that there are so many people in our church family that have experienced the pain and the brokenness of divorce. And I know that there are so many

of you that would say, I didn't want this. I would have done anything for it not to happen. I know there are some of you would say, you know what? I did some things that were stupid, and I was really at fault in many ways. And so my heart, I want you to hear this, is not to create any guilt or condemnation for what's happened in the past. But what I to do is build a foundation today that we can build upon for marriages in the future that will not only last, but they will be God honoring and generation changing. And so when I say this, understand I'm saying it with a heart that understands we can't change the past, but we have to be honest about what scripture teaches us. This is what Jesus said, as he quoted Genesis. He said this.

He said, Matthew 194. For this reason, a man will leave his father. and mother and be united to his wife. And the two will become one flesh. Verse sixth, he said, so they are no longer two, but what are they? They're one flesh. They are no longer two, but they are one flesh. It's now a we forever and ever. And he says, therefore what God has joined together,

let no one separate. Because they are no longer two, because they are now one. What God joins together, let no one ever separate. How in the world can we actually live this out in a world of selfishness, so much divorce, and so much pain? Let's start with a foundational understanding of what marriage is. So often people say, well, marriage is just a piece of paper. Implying that marriage is just a contract, it's just something a justice to the peace would sign,

a judge would sign or whatever. What we need to understand is that marriage is not a contract, but marriage is actually a covenant before a holy God. And there is a big, big difference between a contract and a covenant. If you're taking notes, let's look at one of the big differences. What is a contract based on? A contract is actually based on mutual distrust. In other words, since I don't know you well enough to take you at your word, I'm going to make you sign on a piece of paper to say you will live up to your part of the deal. A contract essentially says I'm in as far as you're in.

Since I don't trust you fully, I'm going to have you signed this contract to prove your faithfulness. And if you're not faithful, I have recourse against you. For example, I've done rental properties for 30 years. Somebody manages them for me, but I always have a contract. And the reason is, we don't know who these people are. You have to pay. If you don't pay, you can't stay. If I don't deliver and keep the house an adequate condition, then you can come back against me.

It's a contract, unfortunately, based on mutual distrust. A covenant, though, is entirely different. A covenant isn't based on mutual distrust. A covenant is based on mutual commitment. We are both in 100% with every part of our being. In fact, the Hebrew word translated as covenant is the word bereath, and it means a cutting, it means a binding agreement, or literally it's a blood covenant. In fact, if you look in the Old Testament, whenever a covenant was created, there would be a shedding of blood, there would be an animal that was sacrificed, the new covenant, what was it? When Jesus, the Lamb of God shed his blood, we're no longer under the old covenant, now we're under the new covenant.

And this is what a marriage is. In fact, what I'm gonna tell you may seem a little bit graphic, but it's actually quite beautiful when you think about it. In the Old Testament, oftentimes, when a bride and a groom would get married, a man and wife would come together,

they would stand before a priest of God. And the priest would take a knife and would cut into the hand of the groom. Then he would take the same blade and cut into the hand of the bride and they would start to bleed. They would then touch their hand hands together mingling their blood. The reason is because the book of Leviticus says that the life

of the person is in the blood. This was symbolizing that their life was becoming one. Then the priest would take a cord and bind their hands together showing the two had become one flesh. If you take it to the next level, then they would go to the honeymoon and in God's perfect world, this is what would happen. The virgin man would enter into the virgin woman, and there would be a shedding of blood. And this was a holy, righteous, beautiful occasion ordained by God, symbolizing both physically they are united,

but spiritually in the eyes of God, they are now one flesh. And this is one of the reasons. why the gift of lovemaking is beautiful, righteous, holy, and reserved for marriage. I'm about to sound way crazy, wacko, old fashion, and just bear with me. What I'm going to tell you is admittedly weird. If you want normal, you can have normal. When I look around and I see normal relationships with hurt and mistrust and adultery and divorce and pain.

I don't want anything that has to do with normal. If you want something that other people don't have, you've got to do something other people won't do. And I'm going to talk about a path very different than the world is taken. And that is reserving and waiting to share the gift of lovemaking until your marriage. Is that even possible? All things are possible with God. Can you even do that today?

Is that even possible? This was something that Amy and I waited and waited and waited and shared. this gift, and this is one of the reasons I believe that there is a foundation that help build the marriage that we have today. Not to say if you are married and you didn't start that way, that, you know, life's over, but for those of you that one day have that opportunity to marry somebody, what if you honored God into something different? Here's what happens today. Let me just say it, and I'm going to be pretty direct. Today, people do married things before they're married, right? Wait, very common today. Hey, you know, I think we like each other. I kind of

love you, let's save money, and move in together. That used to be what married people do. Okay, let's, you know, here's my toothbrush next to your toothbrush. We'll buy a sofa and we'll buy a coffee table. And we'll do married things. If you know what I'm saying, trying to keep this, you know, there's kids in the room. We're doing married things. Then what happens is, I don't like you anymore.

You're looking at that guy at work. So I'll take the coffee table. You take the sofa. I'll take my toothbrush and we go on. And what happens is, if I can just kind of be blunt and exaggerate slightly, you may do that with two people, three people, five people, maybe 18 people do married things. Essentially, what are you doing? You are pretending to be married, and when it doesn't work out, you're practicing divorce.

You're pretending and doing married things, and then you essentially do what divorce people do, which is split it up and move on down the road and try to start over. And it is no wonder today, tragically, the first time many marriage is start to struggle, what do people do? They fall back on what they've been practicing for so many years. Because we did married things before we were married. We practiced divorce and now we find ourselves in a very real difficult situation. This is why we don't enter into a contract. I'm in as far as you're in. This is a holy covenant. I'm in 100%. From this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or for poorer, sickness and in health, forsaking all others, I will be faithful to you as long as we both shall live.

So help me, God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, a covenant, a binding agreement that I'm in 100%. You have to understand, this isn't 50-50. not I'm in as far as you're in. It's 100%. Marriage is never ever dividing everything in half. It's giving everything you've got. It's giving everything you've got. It's never ever do unto others as you want them to do unto you. That's not marriage. It's due unto others as Christ has done unto you. He gave his life and That's what we do in the context of marriage.

I want to shift gears for a moment and talk about this. This is a partnership. It's a partnership. It's a till death do us part. It's about we and not me. What is a covenant partnership really about? I want to summarize it with one statement. If you're taking notes, here it is.

A covenant partnership is godly leadership and mutual submission. It's godly leadership and mutual submission. Now, the moment I say the word submission, I know some people, you know, freak out, and it's understandable because this word is often misused and is often abused. What I want you to notice is that I said mutual submission. Whenever the Apostle Paul talks about marriage,

he actually starts with submitting to one another. Ephesians 521 says this, submit to one another out of reverence for, Christ, submit to one another. Let me ask a question, all of our churches. Some people are more dominant, some are more passive. How many are more dominant? Raise your hands. How many more passive, raise your hands? If you have to ask the person next to you what you are, you're passive. I just want you to know, okay? You're passive. I'm more dominant in the relationship, more externally driven. But what I want you to understand is Amy and I, we mutually submit to each other.

the dumbest man alive, if I didn't leverage and maximize the unique gifts, talents, and passions that this amazing woman brings into our covenant partnership. In fact, I listened to her so many different times. I mean, she's got one area, discernment about people. She's like way up here. I don't even register on the discernment scale. If people just tell me, you know, anything, I'm like, okay, I believe you. And she can see sometimes that person is not always telling the truth. Anytime we hire anybody in my office or near me, she's always involved in the interviews,

and I will always submit to her discernment. Same with my crazy ideas. Sometimes she's a little slower to come along with them, but at the end of the day, if she ever just says, you know what, I don't feel comfortable about this, I'm not moving forward because we mutually submit to one another. Paul goes on, the first thing he says is submit to one another. another. Then verse 22, he says, wives, submit yourself to your own husband 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, which is the savior. The husband is the head of the wife. One woman said, well, if he's the head on the neck, and I'm going to tell him where to go, okay? That's whatever you want to do with that, that's fine. but scripture is clear, the husband is the point lead of the family. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands and everything. When we read this, I know a lot of people immediately have a sense of pain because this has been abused quite a bit.

And so rather than me trying to say, hey, here's what, you know, ladies, here's what you should do, just like in all the weeks, I've asked Amy to answer some common questions about this, and here's her take on the subject. Honestly, I think submission, the word is beautiful, and it's gotten such a bad rap because it has been abused. But Christ himself, submitted himself, he laid down his lie for us,

and he calls all of us to live surrendered and submissive lives. We're to submit to one another. And in marriage, yes, submit to one another. But it's my honor to be able to submit to Craig, the wife submitting under the husband, is the rightful order in the home. Now, of course, a man can abuse that, but if we're submitting, surrendering as unto the Lord, God honors that. And so I think that we live to honor God even over our husband. If Craig's asking me to go rob a bank to do something sinful, I'm not submitting to him.

I must obey God. But other than sin, I'm submitting to him and I'm honoring God in that way. I realize that I have a husband that is easy to submit to. I praise God for that. And I realize that there are many marriages where it's not easy. And unfortunately, that happens. But, you know, if I were speaking to the men, I would say you don't want to lord your authority over your wife. You don't want to be a bully or a tyrant. That mutual submission, the heart of Christ is a servant leader.

And the Bible tells you. the Bible tells you to lay down your life for your wife, right? And so your leadership should reflect him. And I think that's why it's so easy to submit to Craig is because he's just becoming more and more Christ-like. He honestly is in his life as a servant. And so he is easy to submit to. I trust him. I trust that he hears from God. And I realize that, you know, not everybody has. has that, but it doesn't mean that it won't get there. We're all on a journey. So the thing is, you're not married to Jesus Christ, and he's not either. I am not perfect. We're two imperfect people, and we have to have grace for one another. Such a big part of marriage is having grace

for one another. My husband's not always going to get it right. He's going to make some decisions that are just off and wrong, and I'm going to do the same. But I want to err as a wife on the side of following under his leadership on decisions. And I may totally disagree, but it's not my job to be right. It's my job to let him lead. And so I feel like that I'll always be in the right place in my spiritual walk if I'm allowing him to lead. really thankful for that girl just so you know whenever we do fight she can hold her own just want you to know that she can hold her own and i want to talk to the men for a minute because i know uh some men are

are more dominant and use their authority and abusive way what i actually see more of today kind of in our church context unfortunately is i see really passive men that are abdicating leadership and what i want to say is men, you're called to lead. Leading doesn't mean that you make all the decisions. That's dictatorship. That's not leadership. What you do is you set the tone and the direction. I lead the church, but I don't make all the decisions. We meet in 26 different locations in eight different states. I have people that I trust and are empowered to make decisions all day long. I set the tone and the vision. What we're going to do, men, is we set the spiritual tone in our families. Our wives contribute all day long and massive and amazing ways. We co-direct and lead.

our children into living relationships with God. We lead with honor, we lead with dignity, we lead by serving first. If I'm going into a battle and I'm leading other people into the battle, I'm going to be the first one on the front line of the battlefield. In my home, I'm going to be the first one to serve, and that is someone that a wife can come along and serve with. Amy and I were working with a couple one time, and this guy was being a jerk to his wife right in front of us, and he was belittler, and I just wish she'd submit to me, she'll blah, blah, blah, blah.

And he was incredibly rude. And finally, I wouldn't normally be this confrontational. Maybe I would. But I just said, I said, hey, ma'am, if you gave her something worthy of submitting to and treated her with some dignity, maybe you could get something done together. But he was being a total jerk. You don't lord anything over anybody you serve first and you lead in a direction. Amy and I came across something that was, it was like one of the most valuable treasures that we've ever found.

We found a cassette tape that we made back when we were engaged to be married. Now, somebody don't know what a cassette tape is. I talked about a mixtape last week, and some of you are like, what's a mixtape? If you don't know what a mixtape is, you know, you just download your little Spotify songs. Now, there was a time when you actually had to call the radio station, ask for your song, wait for an hour. The moment it played, you had to push play and record at the right time. If a DJ was talking, your song was blown.

And then you had to get a double cassette tape boom-bond. and record one to the other, and it would take you hours to get the perfect mixtape. But if you got it right, you took it on your date, and you play a little air supply at the right moment, and the presence of God would fall on that place. And so, anyway, we found this cassette tape that we recorded back when we were engaged.

I was probably 22 years of age, Amy was 19 years of age, and we were talking about our future. And besides us, sounded like two uneducated hicks from Oklahoma, where those accents come from. from, I hope they're mostly gone. And what we talked about was it was so moving. I can't even describe it. The first thing we said, we were engaged, is later on in our marriage, we will always be Christ-centered. We'll be Christ-centered in our marriage. We talked about we're going to be

debt-free as early as we can. We didn't use the words irrationally generous, but there was the same spirit that we're going to be debt-free and we're going to help people. We said that we're going to give our lives to the local church. At that time, I was a junior Methodist pastor. I thought we'd be like serving First Methodist Church and Grove, Oklahoma or something like that. And we were so excited about that because we were going to give our lives to the local church. We talked about home educating our kids before we ever knew anyone that home educated their kids. We didn't even know anybody that did that. We talked about having two kids, a boy and a girl, Josh and Joy. That's where we blew the whole thing up.

Evidently, there was a lot more love than we projected, you know. And what was so emotional to me is to recognize over 26 years into marriage, we are living out the vision to this day that we set before we were ever married. That's a partnership. That's a vision. That's not a you, be quiet and do what I told you to. Let's come together and do what God created us uniquely to do. That's leadership and mutual submission toward a beautiful picture of what God wants for marriages.

And this is what God wants for you. About this time, if I can just say, what tends to happen is people will start saying, well, we're really happy for you, Pastor Craig, in your perfect little pastor life. You need to Amy, little naive little things. you just go, m-nam, little six-old kids. We're so happy for you, a little pastor Craig, naive little pastor Craig. I'm going to get up in your business just a little bit. I'm going to just kind of call it as it is.

What I want you to understand is that our schedules, I promise you, are every bit as difficult as yours. Promise you. You're busy. We're just as busy. I promise you. Satan attacks us as much as he attacks any one of you. I promise you, unfortunately, my flesh is as vulnerable to temptations as anyone else's.

I'm embarrassed to say, I've sinned against God, amy a sinned against God. We've hurt each other, we've let each other down. Tell you like it is, there's drama in our extended family at times. Everybody's got a little crazy in their families. We faced health issues with our children, with Amy, serious health issues. We lost Amy's brother at the age of 34. He's no longer here. We have serious expectations from a lot of people who hold us to a very high standard.

And we have a very blessed marriage. I want you to know it is not because we're pastors. And it's not because it's ever been easy. It's because we work very, very hard at it. Because we work very hard at it. And what I'm going to say is about to make some of you mad, but it's dead true. Your marriage will be as good as both of you decide it will be.

Period. Let me say it again, and you don't have to clap for this. Your marriage will be as good as both of you want it to be. And every word I've said there is important is as you decide, as both of you. And I understand some of you are in a place where one of you isn't all in. You can't change that person, but we're talking about a covenant. We're not in, as far as someone else is in. We are in with everything that we can bring to honor God in this relationship.

And if God does a work in both of you and you both come together and decide, we want to honor God, you can have a very blessed and special relationship, but it will never, ever be easy. It will always be a choice, and it will always take work, and it will always take putting God first, and it will always take dying to yourself, and it will always take pursuing one another, and it will always take being about we instead about me.

And I can promise you, there will be times when you don't feel like it. I don't feel like loving. I don't feel like forgiving. I don't feel like working at this. get over your stupid feelings. There's no other area of your life where you can get away with saying, I don't feel like it.

Well, I don't feel like feeding the baby today. Well, try that on for a few days. I don't feel like going to work. I hope you don't feel like eating if you don't feel like going to work. I don't feel like paying taxes. Well, I hope you don't mind going to prison. Sometimes you have to get over your feelings.

You have to get over your feelings. We need to understand, your marriage is not measured by your feelings. Your marriage is measured by your commitment. It's measured by your commitment. You're both in a covenant. Say it again. Your marriage is not measured by feelings. It's marriage measured by a commitment.

Feelings will follow commitment when you stay committed. You may say, but I'm not happy. I'm not happy. We fell out of love. And I understand. And I don't want to belittle that. I don't want to say it's not horrible. I don't want to say that you might be around somebody that's incredibly difficult.

And Pastor Craig, you don't understand. And you're right. I don't. I know. I've seen it. And it can be unbelievably bad. But just because you don't feel love doesn't mean you throw in the towel. Let me say it this way.

We fell out of love. Getting divorced because you ran out of love is like selling your car because you ran out of gas. What do you do when you're out of gas? You fill it back up. What do you do when you run out of love? When you're in a covenant, you fill it back up, you fill it back up, you fill it back up. Because this isn't about me. It's all about we.

A covenant, a mutual commitment before a Holy God. God, we can be united or we can be untied. What's the difference between united and untie? It's all about where the I is. If the I is in the right place, we are united. If I am in the wrong place, we are untied. Where do I need to be as difficult as it is submitted under Christ, serving my bride, laying down my life for her? I cannot control what she. does, but I can serve her with all of my heart, mutually submitting to one another and leading toward a common vision. And when I am in the right place with the help of God, and when she is in the right place,

we can be united as one flesh. And that is a marriage that honors God. So, Father, we pray today that your Holy Spirit would do a work. I know there are so many that are hurting. I pray, God, you would do a miracle, miracle in marriages and bring healing. God, for those who are not yet married, I pray that this would so. spur on a desire to live in a way today that would help prepare us for whatever you have for us in the future. All of our churches, as you're reflecting in prayer today, I want to take this to a

different level spiritually. Those of you who are followers of Jesus, you're already Christ followers. Where do we submit first? We submit unto God with all of our hearts. Because of our sin nature, we're often rebellious. I would love to ask those of you who are Jesus followers to say, I would love first and foremost to be even more submitted to my God, but I could serve those around me. If that's your prayer, would you lift every hands high right now? Hands going up all over the place. Father, I pray today that is Jesus submitted to you and served us, that we would submit ourselves to you and serve you.

God, help me, help us to get over our feelings and to do what's right, to live according to your word. God, for those who are married today, I know that there are some that are in good shape, some that are okay, some that are struggling. God, I acknowledge the pain, and I ask, God, as far as it's concerned with us, may we do what's right. God, I pray for miracles. I know there are some spouses here whose spouses won't even come to church.

We pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would pursue them, love them, run them down. God, bring us all to full submission to your son, Jesus, that we could serve one another as we're called to serve you. Do miracles, God, we ask in the name of your son. as you keep praying today at all over different churches. I talked about the I being in the proper place. This in so many ways is at the heart of the root problem that we have when it comes to God. If we sit down together and just had a conversation and I said, hey, where do you stand with God? A lot of you might say, well, you know, I kind of believe or I kind of go to church or I kind of

try to do good. I try not to do bad. And those would all be legitimate answers. But if we really got down to it, I'd have to ask you this, do you know that you know that you know that because of the new covenant, because of what Jesus did, that you are right with God and you are following his son, Jesus? What is the new covenant? Jesus shed his blood, the Lamb of God as the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. When you're really, really honest, you recognize that I am bent towards sin. I am out of the right place with God. What I have to do is, die to myself to surrender fully to the perfect work of Jesus. At all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize you've done wrong,

you may feel guilt about it, you may feel shame about it because of the death and the resurrection of Jesus, because he has risen from the dead, when you call on his name, he hears your prayers. Your sins are forgiven and you are made brand new. And all of our churches, there are those of you that you recognize you're here today, not by accident, but because God wanted you to be here today, to call on the name of Jesus. When you do, your sins are forgiven. You don't become a better version of you. You're a new person. And that's why you're here. All of our churches, those who say, yes, Jesus, I trust you. Yes, I turn from my sins. I give my life to you. That's your prayer.

Lift your hands high right now. All of our churches and say, yes, Jesus, I surrender to you. As hands are going up at all of our different churches, those of you at church online, you click right below me. And would you do the honor of praying with those around you? Nobody prays alone. Pray Heavenly Father. Today I trust you. To save me, forgive me, and make me new. Jesus be first in my life. Forgive me of all of my sins. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, serve you, and follow you for the rest of my life. My life is not my heart. My life is not my own, today I give it to you. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus name, I pray. Life Church, would you celebrate big? Welcome those born into God's family today. You know, here at

Life Church, one of our biggest honors is being able to walk alongside of you in your faith journey, and we would love to continue to do that. You know, one of the things that sticks out to me after hearing a message like this is the concept of being united and not divided. That is true in a marriage, but it's also true in the family of God. We are one together. We're better together than we are apart. We're united. We're not divided.

And one of the best ways that we get to do that with other churches around the world is to what we call the Life Church Open Network. It allows us to partner with thousands of church leaders and pastors around the world and provide them with free resources. That's videos, graphics, sermon outlines, anything we have. We get to partner together and stand united rather than be divided and allow God to use us in ways beyond, what we thought were possible. One of those churches we have the honor of partnering with is in the Bronx, New York. It's New Life Church and their senior pastor, Fernando Cabrera,

has an incredible story. Check it out. Man, I just see pain. I really do. And I just see a lot of hurting people. I see a cry for help. It turns me apart. And at the same time, gets me up in the morning

to say, Fernando, what are you gonna do about it? The Bronx and specifically the area where I live, we have the poorest congressional district in all of the United States. And we're talking about large families that are in desperate need, and it drove me to start a church in the Bronx, New York. It's very challenging to do a ministry here in the Bronx. It's one thing to have a big dream, and then you see the resources and you find yourself in a gap. So the live church open network literally fills that gap. I'm talking about children's church material. I'm talking about the graphics, the videos, the live impacting messages.

If we didn't have those resources, we'll be literally 20 years behind. We wouldn't be able to do what we're doing right now at the level that we're doing. The open network is literally touching lives in parts of the roughest neighborhood in all of New York City. It's changing that drug addict. It's changing that broken up family that is coming through our church. Those resources that we're getting is giving us the tools that we need to bring about a life-changing church. It's at the end of the days about people who are hurting, who are desperate for a life-changing experience. So, Life Church, thank you from the bottom of my heart, on the bottom of our church.

on the bottom of our church heart, you truly, truly are making a difference right here in the Bronx, New York. Thanks again for hanging out with us here at Life Church. You know, we say it all the time, and it's our mission. It's to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. That statement drives everything we do. Here is a church, all because we truly believe. Whoever finds God finds life.

We'll see you next time.