This is “Missional Marriage”. To hear more inspiring messages from Jentezen Franklin, visit http://jentezenfranklin.org/watch?cid… & subscribe to this channel: http://goo.gl/yfkXHy

♪ ♪

>> Welcome to Kingdom

Connection.

Thank you so much for

joining us today

and I am excited about

the message that

you’re gonna hear.

It actually was preached

at our annual

One Marriage conference.

And I encourage you

to listen and lean in.

There’s a prayer line available.

We care.

You can send in prayer requests

online and we pray over

those prayer requests.

You need to know

that your family

and your marriage

has God’s eye today.

Listen to this message

and let it speak to you.

I believe this word will

bless you and your family.

♪ ♪

>> So I wanna talk to you

for a few moments tonight,

I’m gonna share something

that I’ve never shared before,

never spoke this anywhere,

never heard anybody

preach on it.

It’s just kinda crazy, and,

but the more I looked into it,

I began to find material

and people who had picked up

bits and pieces,

but I’ve often wondered,

why is it in the New Testament

you cannot find many couples?

It’s like, in the Old Testament,

the Bible’s a Book

about couples.

It’s Abraham and Sarah.

It’s Adam and Eve.

It’s the famous couples,

and I could just go on and on

and on and on, naming couples.

You move to the New Testament,

and about the only couple that

I could find was

Mary and Joseph,

and he disappears at some point,

and she’s left by herself

at the Cross.

I mean, let’s just tell

it like it is,

it never mentions him

again after the birth.

[Laughter]

That’s in your Bible.

And so, and then I’m searching,

I’m like, I know that

Paul was married,

because to be a Pharisee,

in that sect, you had

to be married.

But, his wife

is never mentioned,

he ended up living by himself,

we don’t know if when

he got converted, you know,

because it was a major

conversion, and because

of the change of religion,

many theologians believe

his wife deserted him

and left him with the blessing

of the Jewish community,

because he became

a Christ follower.

We know that Peter was married.

The only way we know that

is ’cause his mother-in-law had

a fever, and Jesus healed her.

That’s all it says.

It’s just nothing in the Bible

about couples, it’s kinda scary,

and I’ve found one couple

that really are —

the more I looked at it,

the more powerful they became.

The more obvious it became that

there was more to their marriage

than a physical union.

There was absolutely a divine

assignment and mission

attached to this couple.

They’re found — their names —

and this is interesting, every

time their name is mentioned,

it’s together.

They’re mentioned eight times

in the Bible, in six different

passages, or six different —

yeah, six different passages,

and every time, their names are

mentioned together, and their

names are cool, too.

Their names are Priscilla

and Aquila.

That’s just nice names,

when you — you know that God’s

in it when your names rhyme.

Priscilla and Aquila.

It’s just good names,

Priscilla and Aquila.

They were a middle-class couple,

I’ll prove that scripturally.

They did not have

a prophetic ministry.

They did not sing in church.

They did not preach.

They did not perform

any miracles,

but they’re mentioned

eight times in the Bible,

and all they did was every time

that they’re mentioned,

they’re together, and yet,

there was a profound assignment

and mission to their marriage

that I pray you never

forget what I’m about

to share with you,

because I wanna preach tonight

on “Missional Marriages”.

If you’re gonna make

it together, sometimes,

life will try to pull you apart

because the enemy, Satan,

knows that there’s a mission

attached to your marriage.

There’s more to it than

just making love.

There’s more to it than

just living together.

There’s more to it than living

in the same house

and raising babies,

but there is a mission that

God has for your marriage.

There’s no doubt about it.

There’s no doubt about it.

So there are four phases

of marriage.

First of all, there’s

the attractional phase.

And that’s why you

married that person.

Marriage isn’t all spiritual.

Marriage has to do with

physical attractions.

Say “Amen,” somebody.

There’s the attractional.

I hope that you were

attracted to your mate.

Turn to your mate and say,

“At one time, you were

attracted to me.”

I don’t know how you’re doing

now, but at one time,

you couldn’t keep your little

beady eyes off my rear end.

You couldn’t keep —

your hands,

were like they had

magnets in it.

You ought to be attracted

to one another.

There’s attractional —

and we need to stay sharp

for one another.

Stay attractive for one another,

and look good for one another.

But that’s gonna change.

You say, “Well, I haven’t

changed in 30 years.”

Go look in the mirror.

And thankfully,

mirrors don’t lie,

and thankfully,

they don’t laugh either.

But, there’s the attractional

phase, it’s love at first sight,

it’s exciting, it’s powerful,

it’s passionate.

It’s real.

That attraction,

you’ve never felt

anything like that,

and it just is amazing.

And then, after you’ve

been married some time,

you don’t have to lose

that attractional phase,

it’s important.

But after you’ve done that,

then you move into,

most marriages,

the parental phase,

where the kids

start coming along.

But here’s the thing that

I want you to understand about

the parental phase.

It’s when things really

get crazy, because for us,

we just cranked ’em out,

one every two years

for five years.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

Five children, and then life

becomes about diapers,

and homework, and soccer games,

and basketball and football

and cheerleading,

and one thing after

another after another,

and one of ’em’s sick,

and one of ’em’s got

an assignment,

and one of ’em —

and it just starts to get crazy.

And at some point,

you just wonder,

where did all the love go?

‘Cause you’re on edge,

and it’s tense.

But you don’t have to let

the children take the joy out

of your marriage,

and the romance out

of your marriage,

and the love

out of your relationship.

Then, there’s the third phase,

it’s the survival phase.

It’s just,

you go through seasons,

and this is serious

for a moment.

The average marriage

lasts 8.2 years.

Something happens after they get

married, the attraction is real,

it’s there, and then on top

of that, the children,

and all that that brings,

the challenges,

the car payment,

the house payment,

the insurance, the this,

the that, the all kinds

of things that happen in life.

The survival stage.

You go from attractional

to parental to, sometimes,

a marriage moves into

a survival stage.

But the fourth stage is the one

that will hold you together

through the tough times,

and it’s the missional phase.

That’s where this couple,

Priscilla and Aquila, show us,

I think, a remarkable example

of what our marriages

are supposed to be.

A common mission together that

God placed us together for.

When God put you

and your spouse together,

He puts couples together

on purpose for a purpose.

We’re joined together

as a missional couple.

God allowed us,

out of billions of people,

to gather and meet and fall

in love and get married,

and a marriage is two

funerals and one wedding.

You can’t have a marriage

without two funerals,

two people dying to self,

and becoming one.

He made you different

to make you one.

So you’re supposed

to be different,

but you have to have two

funerals at every wedding

if you’re gonna have a marriage.

>> ANNOUNCER: Fires caused

by rockets

and incendiary balloons

from the Hamas terrorist

group are a constant threat

to the nation of Israel.

In 2021 alone,

over 4,425 rockets have

been fired into Israel.

When these attacks are launched,

they cause massive fires

that threaten lives,

and also burn through large

areas of crops and farmland.

Remote places, like Eshkol,

the region in Israel closest

to the Gaza Strip,

are often left fighting

these fires on their own.

That is why Jentezen Franklin

Media Ministries has remained

committed to providing comfort

with grace to these

Jewish people in need.

Our latest initiative

is to provide fire stations,

fire trucks, and equipment

for the volunteer fire fighters

to protect their towns

and families.

>> The region of Eshkol

desperately needs additional

fire stations and equipment.

And because of our generous

partners just like you,

we hope to provide comfort with

grace to the people of Israel.

When you give

to a project like this,

God said in Genesis 12:3,

“I will bless those

that bless you, Israel,

and I will curse those

that curse you.”

Made that promise to Abraham

and you can be a part

of that blessing today.

Get in.

>> Israel is under constant

attack and your support today

matters more than ever.

These desperate Jewish families

urgently need your help.

Call now or go online today.

>> Aquila and Priscilla

were newlyweds.

When we first hear of them

in the Bible, they’re newlyweds,

and they’re living in Rome.

Now, here’s what happened.

Aquila was a Jew,

he got saved in Jerusalem,

your Bible says that.

He then goes to Rome,

and when he goes to Rome,

he meets a Greek girl,

who was Roman,

meaning she’s from

the city of Rome,

and he falls in love with her.

They’re from

different religions,

they’re from different

backgrounds.

She was a pagan, but he,

because he had Christ,

won her to the Lord.

And now, they’re living

as a young couple in Rome,

and they’re having

their honeymoon.

I mean, how romantic would

that be to live in Rome

on your honeymoon,

and while they’re living there,

on their honeymoon,

something happens.

There is racial tension,

like we would call

it racial tension, in that —

the Roman culture despised Jews.

They were very prejudiced

against Jews, and Emperor

Claudius did something,

he expelled all Jews from Rome.

Therefore, this young,

newly-married couple,

who had both been converted

to Christianity,

he out of Judaism,

she out of pagan worship

of idols,

but they’re passionately

in love with Jesus and have

been changed and transformed,

and now something

amazing happens,

as this Emperor Claudius

decrees that all Jews

have to move out of Rome.

And so, now, they’re forced

in an injusticed situation,

in a brutal situation,

to leave everything

that they have,

and they have to go to Corinth

to find another home.

It was a big deal for a young

couple, and here’s the point.

They had a chance to allow

bitterness to get in their

heart in that moment.

They had a chance to allow

unforgiveness against the people

who had done something

to them that was unjust,

it could’ve got in their heart.

And the Lord spoke to me

when I read that,

and He said that one

of the greatest enemies

of the mission that God has

for our marriages is bitterness

and unforgiveness,

and sometimes,

that can be from the outside

situations that you’re

dealing with,

or it can be from inside

your own marriage.

When the enemy wants to destroy

the mission of a couple,

he comes with his number-one

weapon, bitterness

and unforgiveness.

But missional couples don’t

get hung up on bitterness

and unforgiveness,

their mission was driving them

to a greater place of destiny.

So they go from Rome, and now,

this new couple moves

to Corinth, and while they’re

in Corinth, something amazing

happens to this young couple.

They’re there, and there happens

to be a guy by the name of Paul.

Very few people have ever heard

of him in the body of Christ.

He has recently had an encounter

with Jesus Christ,

and he’s stopped killing

Christians and persecuting

Christians, and God is doing

work in his life.

He doesn’t have anywhere

to live, he’s gone through such

a transformation that all of his

peers, his Pharisee friends,

have kicked him out.

He’s homeless, and this couple,

in the Bible, in Acts 18,

take an unknown guy by the name

of Paul into their apartment.

They had an extra room,

and they gave it to him,

and this is what

I thought was interesting,

and Paul lived with them

for 18 months, in their home.

Can you imagine?

The great apostle Paul,

the man who wrote half

the New Testament,

living in your house

for 18 months?

And they didn’t know that

the guy in their little

apartment was writing half

the New Testament.

They didn’t know that he would

write words that we would sing,

that would shake us

and comfort us.

“If God be for me,

who can be against me?”

Words like: “I can do all things

through Christ who

strengthens me.”

Watch this.

Paul felt led by the Spirit

in Acts 19 to leave them after

18 months, and go to Ephesus.

Now, I’m just teaching tonight,

can I just teach?

You with me?

You okay?

I’m talking about

missional marriages.

And he leaves,

he leaves Ephesus —

or he leaves Corinth,

and he goes to a city

called Ephesus,

and it was exceedingly wicked.

And revival breaks out,

and the whole city turns to God.

The Bible said they turned

from their idols,

and they’re having

revival in Ephesus,

and in Acts 19,

Paul sends for Priscilla

and Aquila to come and help him

start the church in Ephesus,

and your Bible said that they

turned their home into

the first church in Ephesus.

And we have the whole Book

of Ephesians and all

the miracles that God did from

a couple that obeyed God,

opened their home up,

realized they had a mission,

that, yes, they had to go to

work every day and make tents,

and yes, they had to pay bills,

and yes, they had to put food,

and yes, they had to raise kids,

and yes, they had struggles

and things that

were aggravating,

and things that were going —

but they were understood,

and we have the Book

of Ephesians, because

this couple had a church.

And the sermons that you read,

and the scriptures you

read in Ephesians,

came from the church

that was in their house.

And while they’re there,

a guy by the name of Apollos,

who was a great speaker,

very eloquent in speech,

but he only knew

of the baptism of John,

he had never heard

of the baptism

in the Holy Spirit,

and the Bible said

Aquila and Priscilla,

after he gave a speech,

pulled him off to the side

of the pulpit,

and laid hands on him, said,

“We wanna show you

a better way.”

And when they laid hands on him,

the Bible said he was filled

with the Spirit

and began to preach.

That’s a missional couple.

And then, something

tragic happened.

There was a guy by the name

of Nero who didn’t like

what was going on.

And so, he burned the whole

city down and blamed it

on the Christians,

and it’s a historical fact

that in that city,

he burns down the city,

and he burned their home down.

And now, they’re being forced,

this generous, hospitable couple

are being forced now to leave

Ephesus and go back to Corinth,

because a man burned

their house down.

This super-effective couple

in the gospel, they’re doing

so good, and then a fire comes.

But see, when the fires come

and when the troubles come,

and when the issues of life

come, when bad things come,

when you’ve got a mission

to your marriage,

you just grab hold

of each other and say,

“We’re going through this.”

God’s not taking us out of it,

we’re going through chemo.

We’re going through this,

we’re going through this attack.

We’re going through

this setback.

You got laid off,

you’re not alone.

We’re gonna make it, baby.

We’re gonna make it through

this, because God is with us,

and He’s got a mission

on our life.

But here’s what got me.

Here’s what got me.

This no-name couple, had such

a touch of God and a mission

assigned to their marriage

that in the Book of Romans,

or 1 Corinthians, it’s actually

Romans 16, I knew it was.

Listen to what Paul said.

“Greet Priscilla and Aquila,

my co-workers in Christ.”

That’s a very important phrase,

I looked it up.

Paul is saying, he’s using

the same word that Jesus used

when He said He thought it not

robbery to be equal with God.

Paul says, “I want you

to know there’s a couple

in the New Testament,”

they did not have a ministry,

they didn’t pastor

a mega-church,

they didn’t have a television

ministry, they weren’t

a musical band.

They were not famous

for anything spiritual,

they were tent makers,

but there was such a touch

and such a mission

on that couple,

that they became co-equal

with me in the ministry.

Everybody thinks about

the great apostle Paul.

But he says, “When I look

back over my ministry,

when I look at how

God has used me,

I have to say,

the only reason that I have

been able to do what I’ve done,

write all these books

in the Bible,

by the power of the Holy Spirit,

is my co-laborers were

a power couple,”

who had more than

modern-day feely love,

that threw in the towel when

the thrill was gone.

But they made it through

the fire and the burning

of their house.

They made it through being

done wrong, bitterness

and unforgiveness.

They didn’t let it ever take

up root in their heart.

And because of it,

and then he goes on to say,

in the next verse, he says,

“They risked their own

necks for my life.”

You ought to do research

on that.

He said — somewhere,

the theologians said somewhere,

the literal Greek means they

were almost killed for my sake,

and many theologians believe

it was when Paul was being

followed by assassins,

and they placed him in a basket,

and the Bible said

that there was those,

his friends, the Scripture

called ’em his friends,

I forget where

it’s at in the Bible.

But it said that he lowered —

his friends lowered Paul,

assassins are knocking

on the door, and this couple

puts him in a basket.

They’ve got the New Testament,

half of it, in that basket.

Everything’s swinging on the end

of that rope, the gospel that

we celebrate and preach so much,

“I am not ashamed of,” —

all of that is hanging by rope,

and guess who’s holding it?

A couple with a mission.

And Paul says, “I can’t leave.”

He’s given his final goodbyes,

and he writes a greeting

to a power couple, and he says,

“Your marriage was so missional

in my life that I see you

as co-equal with everything I’ve

done for the cause of Christ.”

I want that kind of purpose

on my marriage.

I want that kind of purpose

on my family.

I want that kind of purpose

on my home.

♪ ♪

>> You may be watching this

program right now

and you feel like

your marriage is crumbling

and falling to pieces.

I have such compassion

for you today.

I know Jesus cares.

The first miracle Jesus

ever performed happened

at a marriage.

And maybe you’ve tried

everything in your power

to keep your family together.

And you’re staring at the screen

today and you’re listening

to this message

and you’re starting

to lose hope.

But I believe God

had you hear this so that

you could know He put

you together.

Even if the circumstances

that brought you together

were not perfect in God’s eyes,

He makes all things new.

And when you got

married to your spouse,

God said, I lay

my hand of blessing,

because you’ve done

it under the Lord,

upon this marriage.

He can renew your relationship,

He can heal your family,

and what you need to do

today is trust Him

and put Him at the center

of your home

and your marriage.

Remember, marriage isn’t a duet,

it’s a trio.

It’s man, it’s woman,

and it’s Jesus Christ

intertwined as the glue

holding the two together,

making the two one.

And it’s so powerful

and so holy,

your marriage,

that God even likened

the husband and the wife

relationship to Christ

and his bride, the church.

And all of Heaven

is about a marriage,

the marriage supper

of the Lamb,

between the church,

the believers,

being married for

eternity with Jesus Christ.

Maybe you’re watching this

as a couple, why don’t you —

maybe you’ve been so mad at each

other you haven’t touched,

you haven’t even hardly

talked to one another…

Why don’t you just grab that

husband or that wife

by the hand and get on your

knees right there in your home

or wherever you’re

watching this.

I’m gonna tell you just that

simple of an invitation

to God in your home

and in your marriage.

To get down on your knees

together and hold hands

and say, “God, we don’t have

the answers.”

Be honest.

“I’m mad, she’s mad,

we’re angry,

but we need You today.

We invite You today.”

Do it.

“We invite You today,”

say those words,

“into our marriage,

into our home,

into our family.

Oh God, Prince of Peace, Jesus,

bring peace to our lives,

bring love.

Renew, restore, and give us

a mission for our marriage.

In Jesus’ name, we pray.”

Go to the phone if you

would like prayer.

You can dial the number

that’s on the screen

or send us your email today.

We would love to hear from you.

It means so much

to hear from you.

Thank you so much for praying

with us and believing with us.

♪ ♪

>> ANNOUNCER: Fires caused

by rockets

and incendiary balloons

from the Hamas terrorist

group are a constant threat

to the nation of Israel.

In 2021 alone,

over 4,425 rockets have

been fired into Israel.

When these attacks are launched,

they cause massive fires

that threaten lives,

and also burn through large

areas of crops and farmland.

Remote places, like Eshkol,

the region in Israel closest

to the Gaza Strip,

are often left fighting

these fires on their own.

That is why Jentezen Franklin

Media Ministries has remained

committed to providing comfort

with grace to these

Jewish people in need.

Our latest initiative

is to provide fire stations,

fire trucks, and equipment

for the volunteer fire fighters

to protect their towns

and families.

>> The region of Eshkol

desperately needs additional

fire stations and equipment.

And because of our generous

partners just like you,

we hope to provide comfort with

grace to the people of Israel.

When you give

to a project like this,

God said in Genesis 12:3,

“I will bless those

that bless you, Israel,

and I will curse those

that curse you.”

Made that promise to Abraham

and you can be a part

of that blessing today.

Get in.

>> Israel is under constant

attack and your support today

matters more than ever.

These desperate Jewish families

urgently need your help.

Call now or go online today.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

>> We hope you’ve enjoyed

this teaching

by Jentezen Franklin

and thank you

for your continued support

of this ministry.

For more information

about this message

and other ministry resources,

visit us online

at JentezenFranklin.tv.

♪ ♪