Surviving The Anointing (Video) — Shane Idleman

Lessons from Samson: Surviving the Anointing

The title of the message this morning is Lessons, Lessons from Samson Surviving the Anointing. Surviving the Anointing. And I want to encourage all of you, since I'm speaking on this important topic Wednesday night, this Wednesday I'm going to be talking about praying, prayer, and waiting on God.

Waiting time is not wasted time. Anytime we're waiting on God, we think we're just wasting time, and we're wasting time. So this Wednesday, I want to encourage you to come at 6 o 'clock. I'm going to talk about that a little bit.

But let me get into Samson. Most of you, I'm assuming, know who Samson is. Correct? Even unbelievers know who Samson is. Take a survey. Walk down the mall and ask anyone if they've heard of Samson in the Bible.

And most people have heard of him because he was an incredible character. The context, though, if I had to go through the whole story of Samson, it would take us a while. But if you have your Bibles, I'm going to start at Judges 16 .16.

Judges 16 .16. But before I get there, let me give you the context. Samson is anointed by God. The children of Israel are in bondage. Judges 16 .16. The children of Israel are in bondage. Does that ever happen to you?

You get bound, and you're in bondage, and you've walked away from God. So God would often send a deliverer to deliver his people, that being Samson. You'd hear the Nazarite vow of not eating certain foods and touching dead carcasses, not having alcohol touch their lips.

It was a Nazarite vow. It was this call because Samson was anointed by God. Now, here's the interesting thing. The more I study this, the more I realize, and I think most of you realize, that as believers, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are anointed.

Do you have any scriptures for that? I do. 1 John 2 .20. It says that all true believers have an anointing from the Holy One. And actually, the word Christ means anointed one. Anointed one is where God puts his Spirit upon a person for a particular purpose.

So you hear that word anointing. The pastors have to be anointed. Well, so do fathers. I believe God has anointed everyone in this room if you are a believer. In construction, in law enforcement, in aircraft, in all these different areas.

Wherever you're at, it doesn't have to do with preaching. And that's where we make the mistake. Anointing is God's call upon your life. What he's called you to do. He's anointed you. Acts 10 .38. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

So, in a nutshell, God will anoint the believer because they believe in Jesus Christ. They have the Holy Spirit in them. But the degree that you are anointed is directly reflected by how much you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

Because many people might say, well, Shane, that's nice, but I don't feel anointed. I don't have the spiritual power. I'm not witnessing. If the truth be told, church is kind of boring. Worship is a little boring.

See, the anointing's been quenched and it's been grieved in many cases. Because the anointing is the work of the Holy Spirit on our lives. And as we begin to not be men of God, we begin to quench and grieve that anointing of the Holy Spirit.

So, we're not doing anything for God. That's a miserable place for a Christian to be. Have you ever been there? That is just a miserable place for any believer to be because they know the Holy One of God.

They're anointed. They feel this, I want that spiritual power, but I'm not walking in it. How frustrating would that be? To know something, but not be able to walk in that. So, I think we can gleam a lot from Samson.

Fruitfulness, Spiritual Warfare, and the Cost of Anointing

And what I mean by being anointed is, as men, we are called to be fruitful and we're called to be fighters. How are we doing? And this is a time where we do take inventory. Like Chris said during that song, many times we don't want to take inventory.

Are we being fruitful? Are people being led to the Lord? Are we being an example in our workplace? What kind of example are we leaving for our children? Not perfect fruitfulness. It doesn't happen on this side of heaven.

But is there fruit in our lives? Can somebody look at us and say, there's some fruit growing there. I see some fruit. And then also, are you fighting? Are you fighting sin? Are you fighting the enemy?

Are you interceding on behalf of your family? That's what men primarily are called to be, fruitful and fighters. And the anointing of God upon our lives is for that very reason. To fight the good fight.

And I will just tell you this up front so you know. The more anointed a person is, the more the world will hate you. The more you follow Jesus Christ, the more you will offend the world. The more you will upset the status quo.

The more you will not quite fit in. And you're actually going to offend lukewarm Christians. You're going to offend Pharisee Christians. Pride and arrogance. They don't want to be challenged. And you're going to offend because that anointing is the light shining into the darkness.

And I run into people all the time. They say, well, Jesus didn't offend. He was just so nice. Why can't you guys be so nice? Well, did you know Jesus said he's the only way, the only truth, the only life?

You can't get to the Father except through him. He said it. That's pretty offensive. Well, but he didn't really mean that. You know, he's open. No, he's not. Did you know he rebuked entire cities? Oh, Chorazin.

Oh, Bethesda. If the good works were done in you that were done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago with sackcloth and ashes. And he couldn't do many works there because of their unbelief.

He upset the whole religious system. Yes, we should draw sinners to us who are open. But many sinners are not open. They will not like the work of Christ. I can tell you, I can invite an unbeliever to church, and if God's working in their heart, if they're open, they'll thank me.

If not, I'll get a middle finger emoji. What's it, is it called emoji? What's the difference? See, the heart's not open. They don't want to hear from me. I spoke at a memorial service Monday of a friend of mine, and you'd be amazed at how many people don't even want to shake your hand.

You walk by and they just look in the other way. You know when somebody's avoiding you, right? Come on. I've been around the block. And how many people just avoid you? I bet if they could hit me and get away with it, they would.

Because they just hate you. So be prepared for that. Because sometimes we think, well, the world hates me. People don't, maybe there's something wrong with me. Now, it's a good reminder that your attitude shouldn't offend people, okay?

The attitude should be one of loving, compassionate, caring, graceful, good listeners. But your truth that you uphold and that you promote, when God opens that door, will upset and offend people. So to survive the anointing, what I mean by that is actually David Ravenhill.

Have you heard of Leonard Ravenhill? He's got a son named David Ravenhill. I emailed him a year ago, and he sent me this whole box of books. I think we gave them all out. The title is, and I would encourage anyone to read it, Surviving the Anointing.

Because many Christians start out well. Do you know how many don't finish well? I know with pastors, it's one out of ten finish well. Stay in the ministry. That's a little alarming. I texted two people to come to this event.

Both of them have left their marriage. And there's kids involved. Started well. Said all the right things. So how do you survive this anointing, when God put his Holy Spirit on you to do something? Because guess what, now you're a target.

How do you survive that? Well, let's look to Samson, Judges 16, 16. And it came to pass. I'm going to read this whole passage this morning. And it's very important. And it came to pass when she, who is she?

Delilah. You don't think about this this morning. We're not given a description of Delilah. So I want to ask you to think about this morning. What is your Delilah? It's anything that is taking you away from God.

It can be a drink. It can be pornography. It can be another woman. It can be whatever it is. Another man. What is Delilah? And here's what she did. She pestered him daily with her words. And she pressed him.

I know that sounds like some of your homes. So that his soul was vexed to death. Have you ever been there? Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Woman? Delilah? So his soul was vexed to death. It means he's had enough.

So he finally told her all that was in his heart. He said to her, no razor has ever come upon my head. For I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me.

And I shall become weak and be like any other man. We don't have a lot of time to go back on Samson and talk about this. But it really wasn't that. You've probably seen the movie Samson and different things.

It's not the hair that gave him strength. The strength came from the anointing of God. And to go deeper, it came from his consecration. The more consecrated you become. The more Christ-centered you become.

Full of the Holy Spirit you become. The more dangerous to Satan's kingdom you become. So it was in the consecration. God says, don't do that or I will withdraw my spirit. Don't go there. Don't do that.

There's a consecration. I believe men of God are called to be consecrated. Where are those old topics of holiness at these days? I talk about it and people say, oh, here he goes again. Holiness. Well, it's biblical.

Because there's a consecration. The more holy you become, the more like Christ you become. Not following rules. Oh, I've got to do this. But holy and set apart. And so we can stop here for a minute. What does that mean?

To annoy repeatedly with demands or to be pressed and pressured. Men, are you ever pressed and pressured? I would say that's why many of us often, many people fall away from God. I'm done with this. I'm pestered.

I'm all these demands of life. So here's the first thing. Surviving the anointing involves knowing who to run to when you are pressured. Here's why this is so important. Most people, most men run back to anger, back to alcohol, back to porn, to pills, to doubt, to unbelief.

We run back to something. We run back to Delilah. And to survive that anointing, if God's called you to do something, you must run to the correct person. We, of course, know who that is, right? Proverbs 18 .10, the name of the Lord.

Just the name of the Lord. It's interesting he doesn't say the Lord. He says the name of the Lord because one of his names is a strong tower. And the Bible talks about the different names of God. Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Jireh, my provider, Jehovah Nissi, my banner, my strength, and all the names of God.

He said the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man, what, runs into it and is safe. So where do your feet take you in times of despair? And if I were to take a survey right now, I would guarantee that most of us who have fallen back in sin, this is why.

Because our feet have taken us to the wrong thing. When God says, run to me, I'll be your strong tower. Strong tower? What is that? Well, parallel today, we're sitting on a Navy battleship with a nuclear submarine to the right and warships to the left.

And you're in this strong tower. Nothing's going to penetrate that. You run to the tower of safety. So when you feel the pressures of life, and they're coming, if you don't, I feel them. You run to that strong tower in desperation.

But what does pride do? Pride says, I don't need that. I've got this. Samson said, I will get up as other times as before and defeat the Philistines. He lost almost his life. See, I hate pride. I hate the look of pride.

Because it destroys. Because I see it in my own heart. Seven things the Lord hates. What are they? A haughty look. I hate the look of pride. God says, I hate a lying tongue. I hate hands that shed innocent blood.

I hate feet that are swift to run into evil. I hate one who sows discord among the brethren. I hate an evil heart that plans wicked ways. At the top, I hate the look of pride. That look. I don't need God.

I don't need to run to Him. There's a song we sing. I think we're singing it today. Not for a minute was I forsaken. Not for a minute was I forsaken by God. And I will run to that strong tower. Verse 18.

Guarding the Heart Against Sin

When Delilah saw that He told her all of His heart. Be careful, man. There's a key right there. When Delilah saw that He told her all of His heart. She sent and called for the lords of the Philistines saying, Come up once more for He has told me all of His heart.

So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. Then she lulled Him to sleep on her knees. And called for a man that He would shave off the seven locks of His head.

So obviously, on this issue of heart, surviving the anointing means that you must, must, must guard your heart. Think about it this way. Our heart is this. They are our desires, our will, our thoughts, our feelings, and our choices.

Those must be guarded. It's not just the heart, the pulmonary, you know, your heart, your physical heart. It's the core of who you are. Guard that heart. Did anyone come over the hill this morning? Why are there guardrails to guard the vehicle from going off?

So you have to guard your heart. What guards my heart? What guards your heart? What has to guard our heart as believers? The Word of God. So you run the filter of your feelings through the Word of God.

The desires, the choices are ran through the filter of the Word of God. So I've got this guard up. I'm not going to say too much. I'm not going to do the wrong thing. When I do, when you do, we fall forward into God's arms of grace.

But there's a guard. There's a safety around our heart. Woe be to the man who just caution to the wind and just reveals his heart, reveals his feelings, doesn't put them under the gauge of God's Word.

Is what I'm feeling line up with the Word of God? That's why one of the guys who just left his spouse and little children, I want to slap him if I could. Please pray for me. Run that through the grid of God's Word.

See, you're not guarding your heart. You're open praying for the enemy. He's looking for that heart to be open to the work of Satan and not the work of God. See, you can't defeat your demons if you still enjoy their company.

For those who like to tweet, just go ahead and tweet that later on today. You cannot defeat your demons if you enjoy their company. Proverbs says, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life.

Another translation I learned many years ago, it says, guard your heart. Guard your heart for from it flows all the issues of life or from it flows the wellspring of life. Everything flows from the heart.

And what are the three things that are hurting men? Well, I'll tell you right now. It's anger, pride, and giving in to temptations. That removes the guardrail. And you've heard me say this before in other sermons, but you'd be amazed at what God does with humility.

You'd be amazed at what God does with humility. That's why it's so hard. That's why it's so hard. There's so much power and humility when we humble ourselves. Could you imagine just for a minute when they sang that song, Reckless Love, and Chris talked about that.

That is so true. The men, we don't want to open up. Can you imagine this altar being full of men? What prevents that? Pride. Put my hand on my heart. I don't need to go to that altar. I don't need to raise my hand.

I don't need to worship God. Pride. Don't you see how deadly it is? You'd be amazed also at how much pride blocks his blessings. He resists the proud. Could it be this morning that God is resisting you because of pride?

Could it be that God is resisting you because of pride? He says he gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. Then what? She began to torment him. Think about this. He tells her all his heart.

She lures him to sleep. I don't know what he's thinking. I don't know if he really thought that would happen because part of pride is thinking, you know, that's not really going to happen. You know, so I don't know if he was just telling her that to get her off of him or what, but she began to torment him and his strength left him.

Isn't that interesting? Be very careful. Guys, remember this. I'm thinking if there's any takeaways, this should be one of them. This should be one of them. Sin. Like here, sin fascinates. Then it assassinates.

That will change your directions. Sin fascinates. This is so fascinating. That same sin that fascinates you is going to assassinate you. It's going to take it down. We need the pulpits to get back to the holiness of God and fearing God and fearing sin.

Not saying, oh, it's just a bad mistake. It's just a bad choice. No, it's sin that put Christ on the cross and it will fascinate you until it assassinates you. It will take you down. That's the goal of sin.

The goal is not to play patty cake. The goal is not to just torment a little bit. That wasn't her goal. Their goal was to torment and take him down. Take Samson down. And then verse 20, and she said, The Philistines, Samson, they're upon you.

Here they come again, because the last three times he got up and he kicked their butt. Not this time. Samson, here they come. So this is so classic. So he woke from his sleep. He said, no problem. No problem.

I will go out as other times. And I will shake myself free. They bound him. He was bound. He said, no problem. I'm going to shake myself free. Uh-oh. He can't. This theme of sin fascinates and assassinates.

Do we realize what happened to Samson? Have you ever had your eyes gorged out? Obviously not. They would lay you down. They would tie you down and get a metal instrument like an ice cream scoop. And they would gorge that eye out or they would pull it out.

That's where this led him. I will go out and shake myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. I love the King James. And he wist not that the Lord had departed from him. He knew not that the Spirit of God departed from him.

The Departure and Renewal of God's Spirit

Now this is so interesting. I don't want to get off track here. But he can go meet with a prostitute and still have the anointing of God. He can go tend to marry somebody unequally yoked, marry a pagan wife, still have the anointing of God.

But he got to a point where once that consecration was gone, once the hair was shaven, and he began to be like all other men, the Holy Spirit of God said, enough. And I do believe there can become a time where we're confusing God's patience with his approval.

Because we know that God is patient. He's patient. He's long-suffering. Patient, long-suffering. But there comes a time where God might say, hold on guys. I'm going to remove my anointing, remove my influence in your life.

But for those maybe who aren't well versed in theology, let me just encourage you in this. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would descend upon someone. The Holy Spirit would come upon David, would come upon Elisha, would come upon Samuel, would come upon Saul, would come upon Samson.

And the Holy Spirit of God could be removed. Scary. But New Testament believers now have the Holy Spirit of God residing in them that cannot be removed. So what happens? We quench and we grieve that fire.

So this fire that should be an all-consuming fire, this fire that should change all of our lives, this fire that should give us a boldness for Christ. A fire that should help us at home be good husbands and not get the last word in and not be loud all the time.

This fire of God begins to be quenched. And it's just a little flicker. And I wonder how many churches know not that the Spirit of the Lord has departed. When you begin to walk away from God's absolute truth of His Word, the Spirit of the Lord will withdraw.

When worship becomes entertainment, when sin is not confronted, where disunity is running rapid, the Spirit of God lifts in that place. I'll never forget what A .W. Tozer said. I started reading him 20 years ago.

I'd encourage you to read him. I had to put the book down. It was so impactful because it's so true. He said, in the early church, if the Holy Spirit was removed from the early church, 90 of the work would have ceased.

Today, if the Holy Spirit is removed from the church, 90 of the work will continue. That's why I often say we didn't come to play church. We don't want a social club. We want to meet the living God.

We want the power of the Holy Spirit here. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. Gaza. I pronounce it Gaza.

They bound him with bronze fetters. It's like what we would call handcuffs. Behind and front, bronze fetters. He was bound. He was now a prisoner. He became a grinder in the prison. This mighty man of God, this deliverer, is now bound with his eyes removed.

He's probably on some type of system. It says with oxen. There's a grinding machine that you just push. You push around and you grind the wheat. You grind the barley. You grind whatever it is. That's all you're doing all day long.

Grinding in the prison. That's where he found himself. God, I don't know about you guys, but we've got to take the call of God seriously. God doesn't do that anymore. It's not the Old Testament God and New Testament God.

I honestly don't know why. Maybe a lot of that spiritual power has left the church. We don't see the miracles like we used to. God wasn't playing around. Have you heard of Ananias and Sapphira? They lied to the Holy Spirit and God struck them dead.

That's the New Testament God. I think it's good to be fearful of sin. I've gave this analogy before, but some of you men weren't here. In my past, I was a heavy equipment operator. Jason, you know. When you're digging and it says next to you, 8-inch high-pressure gas main, it'll be painted in yellow and say HP high-pressure.

It's like, holy smokes. Or watch out, over here is a 12 ,000-volt Southern California Edison. You hit that and you're done unless your tires are grounded. You've got some rubber there to offset the voltage through you.

I've lost a couple friends in construction. Electricity, one got ran over by the loader and different things. But there's a fear. You don't just go to work, ha-ha, let's just dig down and hit it and we'll fix it later.

No. There's a fear. You go in, there's a trepidation. Let me dig down, pothole, and find it. And then let me dig around it. And as you're digging around it, you're still like this. You put this on low throttle so I can barely feel it.

Can I feel even a rock that I'm getting? And there's this fear, there's this respect, there's this reverence. Why shouldn't it be like that for God? It will change the way you live your life. It will change the way you treat your spouse and others.

The fear of the Lord, Proverbs says, is something we shouldn't even worry about. The fear of the Lord is a beginning of wisdom. It's a beginning of knowledge. So he was grinding at the prison. I just wonder if that's applicable for us today.

He knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. So again, is there any area where compromise has entered in? The guard is down. Are you saying, I will go out as before and shake myself free?

I'll go out before and shake myself free. And you might be wondering when I talk about sin, what am I talking about? Well, I love a definition that John Wesley's mom gave, believe it or not. She said this, whatever weakens your reasoning, whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God or takes away your relish for spiritual things, in short, anything, if anything increases the authority of the flesh over the Spirit, that to you becomes sin.

Even if it's a so-called good thing. So the definition of sin is pretty easy. In the Hebrew, it originates, it means missing the mark. Like you're shooting an arrow at a target and you're missing the mark.

The New Testament talks about sin as sinning against God. Doing things that go against his character, against his nature, against his will. Even good things, good things take you away from God. I would say most of you in this room are not having a sufficient time alone with God because other things are taking you away.

There's something they're contending for our heart and affections. Isn't it interesting, they removed his eyes. It's a good parallel because the enemy targets your eyesight. Did you know that? Not physically.

Your eyesight, because where you see is where you go. He's after our vision and what he's called us to do. Then the Philistines put out his eyes and brought him down. And you know what, I looked up, all five verses that I looked up about removing eyesight would be, you have this image of groping.

Have you heard that before, you're groping like a blind person? It was never in the affirmative. It was never positive. Actually, in the big chapter, Deuteronomy 28, most people read the Bible a lot, Deuteronomy 28, blessings, cursings.

Well, part of the cursings of walking away from God, it says this, you will grope at noon, and the blind man gropes in darkness, and you will not prosper in your ways, but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually with none to save you.

You will grope, it's this groping. When we leave God, we're groping, we're like blind. That's what sin does, it blinds you. So the enemy's going, because you say, I'm called of God, I'm a man of God, I don't feel worthy, but because of what Christ did, I'm going to fulfill that.

I see the calling, I see where I'm taking my, I can see, I've got vision. For without a vision, a revelation of God's word, the people perish. I've got it. So the enemy goes after your vision, and now you're groping, now you're just finding your way around life and not knowing.

That's why you're making bad decisions here and bad decisions. I have no purpose. You ever feel like you're just groping, just going through the motions? The enemy's after that God-given vision. When a man of God said, this is what God has called me to do, this is what he's called my family to do, and this isn't just me, it's any type of work, any type of responsibility as a man.

I see where I'm going, now he can't get me off target very easily. You watch a Super Bowl, you'll stay on target for three and a half hours. Nothing's going to distract you, except in an emergency, you're focused.

You've got it. This is what I'm doing for the rest of the day. You don't think God wants even more of that? He'll go after your vision, what he's called you to do. There's nothing like confusion to ruin our lives, is it?

And then Isaiah 59, we grope along the wall like blind men. We grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday and at the twilight. Among those who are vigorous, we are like dead men. What's Isaiah's problem?

Confronting sin in the people. They had rebelled so much against God that now they find themselves groping. It's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, and to remove our sight and grope.

Confronting Sin and Spiritual Complacency

And all these things lead to the prison of bondage. You know, and some people, I heard this this week too, that, man, Shane's too hardcore. He's always, oh, oh, sin, holiness, oh. You know what, that's the only thing that's really going to change us.

I went on a very popular Christian website with hundreds of sermon titles. I'm on there. It's oneplace .com. I'm not putting it down. It's a good website. But just about every title was encouraging. I love it.

Thank God. I need to be encouraged. But if everything I'm listening to is encouraging me in my sin, I will not change. If every pastor is being a cheerleader, not a coach, you will not see change. I still remember my high school coach.

The hardest coach I ever had, his name was Dad. Dad, I don't feel like it. Get up. We're going to play baseball. You're going to pitch. You're going to throw 100 pitches. You're going to have to learn to get up and do the things you don't want to do, son.

Life is not easy. Get up. Let's do this. Looking back, I thank God. Because we are raising a generation, the millennial generation, iPhones and Twitter, and they act so tough, but they're so fragile inside.

We have to be challenged. We have to be confronted in this area. And all these things that leads to the prison of bondage. He became a grinder in the prison, barely hanging on, going through the motions.

Do you ever feel that way? I'm barely hanging on. I'm going through the emotions. I think this is what really motivates me a lot at church, is I see so many Christians going through the motions. Right?

They start at 11 a .m. sharp, and they leave at 12 p .m. dull. They'll take or leave church because there's not a mighty move of God. Sermons aren't piercing the heart. Worship is a performance. Throughout our landscape, church has just become something we do.

Can you imagine the New Testament church seeing a lot of churches today? The power in the New Testament church of being that close to God. Grinder in the prison, barely hanging on, going through the motions.

And I believe that's why we put this on this morning. To awaken the spiritually dead, to crush the proud, and to encourage the downtrodden. I said this at the opening prayer. Often as the man goes, so goes the family.

Prioritizing God, Family, and Prayer

So to survive the anointing, you must also prioritize your life. If you want to survive what God's called on, God's put a call on your life, you better prioritize your life. You know what that means? First things first.

And they should be spiritual things. The first thing must be your relationship with God. And then from that, filters into our family and into what we do for God. But we have it often reversed. Many times, the priority in men is what?

The workplace. Paying the bills. So that's a priority. And then guess what? Everything else does not fall into place. Because our priorities are off. Look at that fast food place. It closes down on Sundays.

What is it, Chick-fil-A? And they're like, one of the most popular. But you're losing millions and millions and millions of dollars. I don't know where they're at spiritually. I'm just using it as a parallel to men.

Putting first things first. Interesting scripture this week that I stumbled upon. I knew all about it. You men know about it, too. But sometimes we don't read it enough. 1 Peter 3, 7. Husbands, in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives.

And treat them with respect. As the weaker partner and as the heir with you of the gracious gift of life. So that nothing will hinder your prayers. If your prayers are being hindered, could it be? Could it be?

That we're not honoring our wives? Which means to admire, to appreciate the gift. They are a true gift of God. To listen to them. To elevate them. To hold them in high regard. Could it be that that's why God's not honoring our prayers?

I know this is a tough area. Many of you, or some of you were at the men's conference where John White spoke. How many of you were at that? I don't know. There's a couple throughout the room here. And he talked about, Wade, you were there, too.

He talked about his wife, Jane. And I actually met them up in Hume Lake four or five years ago. What a wonderful couple. And we got back from Hume Lake. And Joe, I think, told me. And she went in for a stomach issue.

Really sore. After all the diagnostic machines and the diagnosis. And they said, she's got three weeks, maybe. And he talked. John talked about how to love your wife unconditionally. And that will change you when you've got three weeks.

And John just passed away a few weeks ago. But that really touched my heart. It really reminded a lot of us that we have to get back to that tender heart. The heart that's praying for our spouse. Because God sees.

See, we can fool a lot of people, can't we? We can walk in and we can say, hi, brother, how's it going? They don't know if you just looked at porn and got drunk last night. But God does. They don't know if you just cussed and you dropped some F-bombs in your house.