John K. Jenkins Sr - Be Swift to Hear

I'm preaching a little bit differently than I normally do today. I'm not going to give you three points ; as a matter of fact, this is a one-point message. One of the things that I've discovered recently is that people are good at taking notes, but we have difficulty transferring the notes from the page into our lives. There are a lot of folks who have notes from the past 5, 10, or even 15 years of me preaching. They can go back and say, "Pastor, I remember you said this sermon right here; you had three points." But when I look at their lives, there isn 't any change, so I think I've concluded that, while I don't know if I'll do this all the time , I'm going to try giving you just one point. Since you can't work on all three, maybe you can walk out of here and work on one. This is a one-point message , and I'm hoping you'll get it and walk away with it. I am blessed today that I have been married to the same woman for 28 years. Oh yeah, that's a miracle right there ! That 's a miracle , especially in this day and time when people are walking away from their marriages at record numbers. That 's a significant achievement-to survive for 28 years. I wish I could tell you that we survived for 28 years because I have been the perfect husband . I wish I could tell you that I dotted every "i," crossed every "t," had it all together, that I was a leader, compassionate , and sensitive. I wish I could tell you that I was doing all the right things, saying all the right things, and being a great husband, but that would be far from the truth. As a matter of fact, a lot of stuff has happened over the years. On some occasions, I know my wife got frustrated, and on one occasion, she was going to leave . She went into the closet and broke out her suitcase, started packing her clothes. She said, "I'm leaving," and I didn't know what to do, so I went after her, broke out my suitcase, and said, "I'm leaving too." I asked her, "Where are we going? Because I'm going with you." But we've survived-28 years! A lot of stuff has happened over those 28 years . First of all , we had six kids. When she was in between contractions with our first child, she looked over at me and said, "You will never touch me again another day in your life!" You can see that didn't last-six children and one grandchild , amen! During those 28 years , both of her parents were saved and are now with the Lord. We had the usual drama with the kids; somehow church people think that the pastor's kids come out saved . They don't! My kids did all the stuff your kids did. They talked back , had bad school grades , and all the girlfriend and boyfriend drama. My kids climbed through windows . I never forget-I wish I had a camera tonight-when Joshua was climbing in the window in the wee hours of the morning , and I was standing there waiting for him to come. The truth be told , our family could be a reality show . We've had some dramas and experiences , but there's one particular incident that stands out in my mind as different from all the other events. There 's one specific situation that occurred that, in my mind, was a turning point in our marriage. That was the night that my wife, sweet, saved, sanctified, Holy Ghost-filled Trina Jenkins got so frustrated, upset , and mad with me that she grabbed the expensive jewelry box I had bought her and threw it out the closed window-with the jewelry inside! Oh, and did I tell you that the window was closed? I know you may have a tough time believing that sweet, innocent, saved, sanctified, godly First Lady Trina Jenkins could ever do such a thing. But oh yes, girlfriend flipped out and threw the expensive jewelry box out the closed window! It was at that moment in time that I realized something in our marriage was seriously wrong . What had happened was that my wife had been trying to talk to me ; she had been trying to communicate her pain and frustration . She had been trying to share with me the difficulty she was having with raising the kids, which she felt was her burden alone, while I was always gone - always traveling, always preaching , always working overtime , never home . She was getting frustrated , mad , and angry. All the time she had tried to communicate and share with me , I never heard what she was trying to say. So it culminated ; it reached a climactic point. Her frustration peaked, and in a moment of rage and anger , she took the expensive jewelry box and threw it out the closed window. I will never forget trying to explain to the man who was repairing the window what happened to the jewelry box.