Yesterday, we invited Justin and Tricia Davis from Indianopolis (A pastor friend of Micah Watson) to come and share with us about their story. I opened up the sermon reading:
“Catch the foxes, the little foxes, that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards are in full bloom.” Song of Songs 2:16
Have you drifted? The only way to keep from drifting is to keep your eyes on the shore. Even in good intentions, the waves can drag you away.
Justin said when he was at the bottom:
- He wanted out of his job.
- He wanted out of his marriage
- He wanted out of his relationship with God
Tricia said when at the bottom:
- She wanted to be resentful
- She realized the greatest power is to forgive
Tricia asked the church, is there a hard step you need to take?
Justin said on the road of restoration, “Forgiveness is free, but trust has to be earned.” “It is so tempting when working on restoration to go to a painful place, then back off. We do that in our attempt to control the situation. Give the other what we think they can handle. That is like playing God.”
FOUR THINGS THAT RUINED OUR MARRIAGE
- We rarely prayed for each other
- We underestimated the imact of the past
- Our intimacy fell away
- We believed our marriage would be better if we withheld truth
BOTTOMLINE: Intimacy cannot move forward without truth!
Justin and Tricia’s website is: www.refineus.org
PS: God woke me up at 4:30am this past Sunday. I wasn’t preaching, but my heart was heavy with where we would be going this morning. The scripture God placed upon my heart, “If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgement, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.” 2 Chronicles 20:9
I believe God hears us! I believe that God steps into our distress! I believe there is hope! I believe God rescues!
I follow your blog and listen to your sermons. I thank God for your willingness to bring this out in church!!! I have forward these sermons to my FB, my blog, and also myspace..bc I want hurting perople to see there is HOPE!!!
Thank you for listening to God!
Rachel
Pastor Todd and staff,
Thank you so much for having us. It was an honor to be with you this past Sunday! Thank you for the encouragement and love you showed me and our family this weekend.
Justin
Todd,
I thought it was great having Justin and Tricia this past Sunday to share thier story. It is great how they are willing to let God use them even in thier brokeness but on the way to being restored. I loved how honest they were. Even after nearly 10 years of going through my divorce I learned things that I wish someone had told me and Troy (kids dad) so many years ago. I do hope and pray for couples that may be struggling they heard God’s word on Sunday and don’t listen to satan’s lies and just through thier marriages away. But stay together and make it work. I want to tell anyone that thinks it is better being single it is not. Learn to love, and cherish the one you may have chosen to marry so many years ago. Stick it out and make it work. It is truly lonely being single and you thought it was bad dating as a teenager guess what it is no different being an adult and in your 40s or 50s. Same stuff just older. So I just want to say for all you married couples that think it would be better to get divorce than put the effort in to make your marriage work; think twice hang in there it will be worth making it work.
Tamara, You are so right. That is exactly what I would tell young people today. Remember why you married in the first place; you can get it back if you try. Just don’t give up and divorce because you think that will be easier. It only creates a new set of problems. After 42 years of being married to the same guy, I can say that I love him more today than I did back then. Sure we have had some trials, but who doesn’t. God helped us through them and will continue to help us as we reach our senior years.
Sunday Morning after praying before the service in the prayer closet with the worship team, Pastors, Justin and Tricia I knew nothing of what they were going to speak about. God spoke to me, and I responded by thanking them before they spoke for sharing their story. God told me they were going to tell a story about my life and they did almost exactly that. We will be celebrating our 35th year of marriage in August and I tell people every day, “It is only through the Grace of God we have made it.” Before my walk with Christ we shared a similar time in our life. God Is Good! Thank you church for loving all the people. P.Lof
Thanks for the comments to this post. I am humbled that Justin Davis joined the conversation, and I am even more humbled to hear our people affirm what God is speaking to us at this hour. I know God will be glorified when light dispels the darkness. I once heard it said that we are sick as our darkest secret. Praise God there is freedom and restoration in Jesus!
Pastor Todd
I cried through most of the message last week with my kids holding me on either side. How do you stay in an abusive marriage and still be a Christian? How do you keep loving a man that your kids want nothing to do with? I love how the pastors talk about how they met, got engaged, dated, etc. – it gives my kids hope that there really can be a happy ending!!! I love my Mt Ararat family for being the example and for telling it like it is! Yeah GOD!!!