Powerful message

In October of 2002, I had just got off the highway from New York, driving back to North Carolina. Had a female in my car and stopped at Sally's Beauty Supply Store to get a durag for my locks. When I walk into the store, I see this beautiful, blazing sister behind the cash register, and I do everything I can to shoot my shot. To no avail. I leave her my number, and after about 2 months, she would call me back, and she and I began a dating relationship that lasted for a year and some change. That was— it was bliss during the time we was dating. During the time of our dating, our courtship, man, we laughed, we traveled, we went on trips, we ate good food. We were sinners at the time, so we did all the things that sinners do. We are intimate. I am smoking, we are drinking, we're doing all, and we're just enjoying life. And for a year and some change, it's bliss. In November of 2003, the following year, I am converted to Christianity in the bathroom of our apartment after my wife survived a car accident and her worship unto God on that day caused me in my suicidal state to desire the joy I saw in her in that moment. She would recommit her life to Christ, and then we would honor the Lord. Although we was living together, I slept on the couch, she slept in the room. We would honor the Lord until we was married, except for that one night we dishonored the Lord. It was the first time I felt sin in my life. And we would honor the Lord until we was married in the following year, in August. Now, after my wife and I get married, something shifted in our relationship. It felt like out of nowhere, just warfare hit our house. Out of nowhere, we are arguing about everything. We are fighting about everything. We at each other's throat about everything. I am seeing all of her flaws. She is seeing all of my flaws. It seems like every week was replete with fights and arguments. I mean, we are just in battle all the time. And I'm wondering, man, what happened to that time we dated when we was in bliss? And now all of a sudden we are married, it's like we're two different people at each other's throat all the time. It was in that season a man who I used to be in relationship with came to me and said, man of God, I had a dream about you and Lena. He said, I saw in the dream you were standing in the kitchen, you and Lena. A man walked up to you and whispered in your ear, Then he walked up to Lena and whispered in her ear. Y'all turned towards each other and started fighting, and then the man walked out of the room. As I prayed about that dream, man, I got revelation in my heart. That man in the dream represented Satan himself. And what the Lord was revealing to me in that dream is that after my wife and I came into a covenant of marriage, we became a target for the adversary. And then I realized that a lot of our fights A lot of our differences, our arguments, was being instigated in our hearts by demonic influences. I would feel things in my heart against her that was not biblical. She would feel things in her heart against me that was not biblical. We know the enemy can influence us demonically, for this is what he did to Jesus in Matthew 4. When the Lord is in a place of vulnerability after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, here comes the enemy to tempt him in his vulnerability. And so now, as I'm reading the word of God, I get to letters like the letter Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, and I realized that— watch— marriage is not only a covenantal relationship between a male and female, but marriage is also a picture of Christ and the church. Now it makes sense to me that in the natural realm we are fighting, but in the spiritual realm, every time the devil sees a biblical union, he sees something that aggravates him. He sees a picture of Christ and the church. And what he would do is take his knife of influence, lies and deceit, and on that canvas he would do anything he can to cut that canvas, ruin that canvas, distort that canvas, destroy marriage. Is there any evidence of that? Yes, because there's anecdotal data in this room, in the overflow, across that camera, of couples who got married and felt warfare after marriage. Is there any evidence of this in society? Yes. Statistics show 1 out of every 2 marriages ends in divorce, even in the church. It seems like we are struggling to stay married in our society, and all of it is not just we are bad people. A lot of it is that we have an adversary who hates marriage. Is there any evidence of that? Well, yes. We see people in society trying to redefine marriage, which is satanic. We see people in society who dishonor marriage, which is satanic. We see people in society, man, who treat marriage with no regard, which all of this is satanic. Is there a sanctity to marriage? Is this covenant more valuable than what we think it is? Is there a message in the text for even people who are single today and who are not married? These are very important questions that are being had in the discourse of culture, that are being had in the church. These are the questions at the center of this difficult text that emerged between— watch— a heated exchange between Jesus and some religious hypocrites. Matthew, who was there, records for us this conversation in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 1. Matthew records, now when Jesus had finished saying these things, he went away from Galilee and entered into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan, and large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. I want to draw your attention to a few things in the text. The first thing I want to draw the attention to is after he finished these things. This is a common line in the book of Matthew that he's using to transition us from the last section of teachings that Jesus gave to what he's about to do next. In the book of Matthew, there are 5 major blocks of teaching, 5 major sermons from Jesus. What we have just concluded was the 4th major teaching from Jesus, where he just taught us about community and humility and hospitality and dealing with sin and dealing with forgiveness. And now, on the heels of talking about forgiveness, He will now talk about the relationship that will be tested the most around forgiveness. And so after he finished these things, he went away from Galilee. I love that Matthew put these details there— boring for you, exciting for me as a theologian— because I know from this text that Jesus would never return to this area ever again. He's in Capernaum in northern Galilee, his home base of operation. He will never return back to his home base. Why? Because from here he's headed towards Jerusalem, where we know historically he would be arrested, he will be tried, he will be brutally executed for your sins and mine. He will never return back to this place. He will never see these people ever again. So he leaves and he travels down the east side of the Jordan River through Perea as he's making his way towards Galilee. He does not go through Samaria. Except for that one time he met that woman at the well. It says large crowds followed him. Now I want you to peep the text. Why are large crowds following Jesus? It was Matthew who told us earlier in the book that the Lord looked out at the crowds that was following his ministry and said, they're like sheep scattered without a shepherd. This was New Testament language to say, look at the people of his day who— watch— who were spiritually neglected by the bad teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I.e., look at the amount of people who were tired of bad doctrine. It's giving America. Tired of empty doctrine is giving Atlanta. Tired of foolishness in the church is giving Atlanta. And so now the crowds are hungry and they're searching for truth. And they're hearing truth in Christ, and they're latching hold of that truth. Because after some time, you can't keep eating cotton candy. It'll rot out your soul. At some point in time, you need meat. You need real doctrine. You need truth, even if it hurts your feelings. And now the people are wary. Watch, they are tired. These are mixed multitudes of people, man, who are dealing with the issues of life, and they're realizing that the teachings of Pharisees is not dealing with those issues. They are sheep scattered without a shepherd. They hear the Chief Shepherd, they see his teachings, they see his miracles, they say, we will follow him. I just want to throw this in there. Notice anywhere Jesus shows up, lives were transformed.