<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

Heidi Martin

Communication That Carries Us Through

It doesn't seem possible, but we've been married almost 25 years.

That means that we have successfully not killed each other for almost 25 years.

That alone should give us some credibility, right?

So friends family you have known us probably over the last time with 7 years that we've been here You've seen us in good times and bad times But we are not here because we've mastered marriage.

It's really nerve-wracking to stand up here, especially for me.

But I can tell you that we're here because God has been faithful in the middle of it.

And so our message today is about relationships, but more specifically about how relationships endure when life gets heavy.

And if there was 1 truth, 1 truth that we want you to take home today, it would be this.

That love that truly carries us through begins with Christ and is sustained by His goodness and grace.

Our title for our message today that we want to share with you is entitled Communication that Carries Us Through.

Let's pray together as we open God's word.

Dear God, thank you so much for the privilege of sharing your word.

And thank you more than anything that we have you.

I pray that you would bless us today as we share and dig deeper in how we can be more communicative and walk closer with you in that process.

You know, I had met Heidi a handful of times when I was a youth pastor in Michigan.

You know, opportunities would come up, whether it was some event at Andrews University or some big event in the conference.

We would cross paths every once in a while, but going to see her on graduation weekend at Andrews University, that was bold.

Because, Well, it was her graduation, not mine, and we really didn't know each other, and well, you invited yourself.

Yeah, you just cut to the chase, honey, cut to the chase.

Because who do you invite to your inner circle on graduation weekend?

And here I was, calling her up, inviting myself, but she is so nice.

Those who know Heidi know how nice she is.

She was nice enough to actually welcome me and agree to hang out with me.

So on Saturday night, graduation weekend, we decided to drive out, not too far from campus, and drive to Lake Michigan.

Is that the name of the lake closest to the campus?

And it was an evening, and we drove out there, and we walked out to the shores of the lake, and we saw a lifeguard tower.

And it just seemed like the perfect spot for us to just climb up the tower, just her and I, and sit back and just talk.

By the time I dropped her off at the girls dorm.

Now, I'll be quick to say and I'll be honest with you, that was not part of my original plan.

I did not have intentions to stay up that late talking to her.

Honestly, my plan was to have a normal conversation.

Normal conversations don't go until 3 a.m.

Not because we were trying to impress each other.

No, it was because we discovered that something clicked.

And we were just having natural conversation.

In fact, I'll tell you why that actually happened.

No distractions, nothing else to catch our attention.

We were just completely giving each other undivided attention.

We, Neither 1 of us could believe it was 03:00 in the morning.

But the kind of presence that we had with 1 another is the kind of presence that reflects the very way that God relates to us.

There's a beautiful verse in, there's a beautiful verse, I just lost my verse, there's a beautiful verse in James 1, 9, and it says, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

Because listening demands our presence, and when we slow our speech down, we make room to be truly present with 1 another.

And I've discovered that God often invites us to have that same kind of connection, that same kind of intimacy, that same kind of relationship by calling us to slow down.

That's why you find a verse in Psalm chapter 46 verse 10 that says, be still, Just be still and know that I am God.

That word, be still, in the Hebrew, speaks about just completely letting go.

And when that happens with God, some intimacy begins to happen.

Because that word know is ginosko, which in the Hebrew, it speaks of the deepest intimacy that 2 can have.

Be still, slow down, and you will know God in an intimate way.

And that's what happened, that's what began to happen with Heidi and I.

Actually just to backtrack a bit, let's backtrack in our story, because this graduation weekend happened, you know, some time into us getting to know each other as friends, but I actually met Heidi for the first time at Camp Asabo.

If you're familiar with Michigan, it's the summer camp there in Michigan Conference.

And we met for the first time during a pastor's retreat.

Heidi was there because it was a summer camp.

And Heidi, just because of who she is and what she loves to do, she was the summer camp director, camp program director.

And she created all these events for the youth and whatnot.

And so we found ourselves on the same camp 1 summer.

Now, a little detail that I should share with you is that currently at that time, I was actually in a relationship with someone, with someone else.

Back to Menu

Communication That Carries Us Through

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine