All right, let's go to Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud, so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Well, that verse is full of a lot of preaching in a lot of different ways and angles. There's a lot in that verse, but it's an encouraging verse. It's got encouragement. It's got, you know, admonition in it. It's got some commands in it and instruction and righteousness. It's full of everything. What we're gonna focus on tonight in this verse is the sins that so easily beset us. The sin which does so easily beset us. So I'm just gonna meddle for a while. That's what I plan to do tonight, is meddle. Is that okay? Yeah. Alright, if we're going to run in the race, you've got to get in the race to run. Are you in the race? Are you running the race? Do you have any plans to run the race? Are you just kind of watching the race? Or do you know anything at all about the race? And what's going on? What's really, everything's all about? Well, if we're going to finish this race with any measure of victory, we got to lay aside our besetting sins. People say we're sinless perfectionists. Well, we're not. I just don't promote sin. We don't believe in that. We don't believe that sin is the way it ought to be. Righteousness is the way it ought to be. We live in a sinful world. You know, we're constantly tempted and tried. We're constantly under attack from the devil, from evil, spiritual evil. I mean, it's plain the Bible talks about that. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So we do have a battle. We have a race to run. We want to finish this course like Paul did. I've kept the faith, I've finished my course. You know, we don't, I've fought a good fight. We don't want to end the race in defeat. We don't want it written over us that he gave up, he quit. Or he fell by the wayside. He couldn't make it. No, we don't want that. We want to win this race. And a besetting sin is one to which we're particularly prone. That's what a besetting sin is. And into which we most easily and most often fall. Now, that's different for different people. There's things that you may fall into often and easily that I don't. It may be the other way with me. There's things that trouble me and things that, and it happens to, and it changes with age. It sure does. We're prone to certain sins because of the way we're constituted. And by that I mean, there's a certain amount of our personality and traits that we're born with. I mean, you can't argue with that. But we've had too many babies in our family. And I've been around too many people through the years to not realize that when you're born, there's just certain things about you that it's just going to be, that's the way you're going to be all your life. Tendencies, strengths, weaknesses. You're prone to certain sins because of the way you constituted or the circumstances that we're in or both. You know, if you grow up in the house of a drunkard, you're going to be more prone to be tempted that way. You've grown used to it. You've seen it all your life. There's no shock factor in it for you. I mean, it's something that you've grown up in and it's kind of become a normal thing for you. Yeah, it's just something going on. Other things, you know, if you grow up in a household where there's anger and shouting and that kind of stuff all the time, you're going to be that way. You're going to be prone to be that way. You're going to have a battle with it all your life. What's put into you, what you're exposed to while you're young is going to set you up for struggles all your life with certain things. Therefore, certain sins can be different sins for different people. And our besetting sins are likely to change as we get older. The things at which we stumble in our youth are not, you know, they're not very often the same things that cause us to stumble later in life. You know, if you're striving to to walk with the Lord and follow the Lord, we're gonna get some victories over besetting sins as we run the race. You don't just, I just don't believe that it's the way that it normally happens, that you just fight and struggle with the same old sin all of your life. I don't believe that. I believe one point or another, you're gonna get victory over it or it's gonna get victory over you and you're just gonna wipe out. You know, I've seen a lot of people struggle with things like smoking and I've watched it. And it's either the smoking wins or they win. They either defeat it or it defeats them. I know people that aren't in church anymore, hate God and God's people with a passion now. And that was their besetting sin that got them that they wouldn't, couldn't, wouldn't give it up. Wouldn't lay it aside. Wouldn't put it away. So, if we're striving to follow the Lord, we'll gain victories over these besetting sins as we run the race. But others will appear after we defeat them that we also got to defeat. I mean, there'll be new ones just bubble up again. You know, there'll be something else to fight. The warfare never ceases. Now, we're talking about sins here, not weights. That verse said, "...let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us." We're talking about sins, not weights. We're talking about things that the Bible declares to be sin. Weights are not things that are morally wrong, but they're the things that use up our strength and occupy our minds and take up our time and keep us away from following or focusing on the work that God's give us to do, that we know to do. Weights are things that steal us away, take up our time, steal away our mind. There are things that we're prone to that are not shown to be sinful in the Bible, and we need to recognize them in ourselves and identify them as such. And I didn't mean to say not shown, I meant as shown. There's things in the Bible that are shown to be sinful, and we need to recognize them in ourselves and not excuse ourselves as if they're just a weight or something. So here we go. I'm just going to name some of them. This is where we're going to start meddling. One besetting sin is having an ill temper. You know, being angry is something that many people are prone to. And I've known all kinds of people all through the years, they excuse it as just, well, I've just got a hot temper, I've always had a hot temper, and I'm just that way. You better look out, because if you push my buttons too much, I'm gonna go off on you. Well, that's a besetting sin. Being angry is not always sinful. But we're instructed to be ye angry and sin not. And righteous anger springs from the evil doing of others. That's what righteous anger springs from. I was reading about that sheriff that shot that judge over in Kentucky. And when that happened, it's just like, oh my goodness, what in the world? But now the truth is kind of coming out about what really went on there. And there was some very bad evil doing going on. That's what anger does. That's what they're saying. He shot him. It wasn't a premeditated murder. He shot him in the heat of passion. And he didn't shoot him once. He shot him eight times. The sheriff shot the judge. Because he found stuff about his daughter on the judge's phone. That's just, that's enough right there for you to know. There's a lot more to it, but righteous anger comes from, and I'm not saying the sheriff's righteous because he murdered the judge, but I'm just saying that righteous anger comes from the evil doing of others. But anger is a dangerous, dangerous thing, no matter how, it's hard to parse it out and say, and justify yourself in being angry. It's a thing that anger that is of the sinful kind begins with frustration over our own problems. That's a difference, see? Frustration is the result of our being disappointed or defeated over full plans or something that we're denied. We get frustrated and then we get angry. Most of the time, these are simple selfish, they're just simply selfish interests that are frustrated and we get angry about it. Do you ever get angry about it? I mean, like you're on the highway and somebody cuts you off, pulls out in front of you, drives too slow. Do we get angry? I told you I was a good metal. I don't know of anybody that don't go down the road talking to everybody else that's driving. What are you doing? Why don't you stop that? Well, that's frustration there. But you see what happens, don't you? I mean, what's one of the major problems out on the highway now? Yes, sir. Road rage. And you better be careful. You just better not provoke somebody because anger is the deal now. Anger I'm telling you this kind of anger is of the devil. It's not of God now Jesus looked around on that crowd with anger, but it was righteous anger and Jesus didn't look on them with hatred and You know when you look the kind of anger that wants to kill somebody that's not righteous anger No matter what? We're over the line ain't that pretty obvious and You know no murderer has eternal life abiding in him, don't you? So if we just figure there's some people that just make us so mad that they need to die, then we're over the line a little bit, don't you think? It seems that people are angry everywhere now in this insane world where morality has disappeared. Now, what's wrong with everybody? I mean, everywhere, at the checkout line, out on the highway, everywhere, everywhere you go, everybody's angry. And it's beyond just frustration. It's anger. You know, they're just ready to kill you at the drop of a hat. It's something that we can easily get in the habit of indulging ourselves in, being angry. It's something that sets a horrible example to our children and others who observe us being an angry person. It ruins our testimony as a Christian. Do y'all know that? It ruins our testimony when people see us get mad and throw a fit. It's certainly not lawful. to allow anger to ourselves if we're gonna be a Christian and run this race. Now let us go back to the thing where we started here. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Do you think anger easily besets us? It sure does. Sure does. Besets us. I mean it sets us aside. It puts us out of the race. It's like blowing out a tire on your race car when you're in the race. You're out. You know. It's like having a wreck. and wrecking your car in the middle of the race, you're done. So we need to lay aside that stuff or we're out. That's the deal here. I mean, it matters. We can't run the race for God. And that's our pilgrimage in this world. Living a Christian life, that's the race. We can't do it if we won't lay aside these sins that so easily beset us. Fretting and worrying is another besetting sin for a lot of people this can't stop doing it You know, you don't mean let me tell you what fretting and worrying is it is anger But in a milder form That's what it is fret fret fret. It's a peevish passionate state of mind where we're apt to murmur and complain and It when you're worrying ain't you complaining? When you're fretting ain't don't that just a fretting and a stewing we we call it This just upset not happy you know You know having your mind all in a fizz or a tizzy because everything's just not like you want it to be and you're afraid that tomorrow things are not going to be like you want it to be. That's what fretting and worrying about mostly is about is the future, you know. You can't see yourself getting what you want or things being like you want them in the near future or the far future or whatever. A fretful person is one who is hard to please, and he's also discontent and angry. It all goes together. Under the influence of this sin, a person is really vexed easily and made unhappy very easily, and is constantly uttering complaints and accusations. That's what a fretful person is like. And this is a sin. I've said it to you so many times, but John Wesley said, he said, I would sooner curse and swear as to fret and worry because it is very offensive to God. This fretting and worrying. It's what the children of Israel were doing when they murmured and complained. That's what they were doing. It is the absolute opposite of trusting and resting in God. So many persons will seldom lose their temper in front of others. Many persons who will never lose their temper in front of others or seldom will do so. They're still extremely given to fret. A lot of people are fretters and warriors who don't blow their top at the slightest provocation. This is a sin and it must be laid aside if we're gonna finish the race and win the crown. You gotta strive lawfully. If you'd win, you gotta strive lawfully, the Bible says. So, covetousness. There we go, another one. So we got anger, and we got fretting and worrying, and we got covetousness. Do you think these are besetting sins? I do. I believe fretting and worrying puts you out of the race. I believe having a hot temper put you out of the race. I believe covetousness will surely put you out of the race. It's idolatry, the Bible says. Covetousness is idolatry. It's the very opposite of being content with such things as you have. It's having an eye that's constantly seeing things that you need or would, sure would be nice to have. I was thinking about this today. What would it be like if we really were content with just such things as we have? You know what I guarantee you? We'd have a whole lot less stuff. We would be able to find our stuff. We have so much, we can't even find it. We don't know where it is. We don't even know where to look because we got so many drawers, so many boxes, so many places that we've put stuff. I know I got one of them somewhere. What's the point of having stuff that you can't even find? You know, I've thought about this for years because I've always been one to save every bolt and every nut and every little piece of pipe and stuff because I might need that. That might come in handy, yes, yes, yes. But you know what I do when I need something? I go to the store and buy it because I don't know where to look. Ain't no way to find it. So it's kind of dumb, ain't it? There's something wrong with that kind of thinking. It's being controlled by that habit of being on the lookout for something else to acquire for yourself. That is what covetousness is. It's a habit of mind of just always a looking, looking and a wanting and looking and a wanting. Looking for something to want. You want to know how to stop it? Stop looking at Amazon. Stop looking at the marketplace. Stop going to the store. Stop looking and you'll stop one Don't look you won't covet Yeah, don't look you won't lust same deal it's the same deal Why do we feel you know, we're down on pornography and should be but why do we think that's you know boys shouldn't look because that's But then on covetousness, it's all right to just look at anything and everything and just want, want, want, want, want. It's the same thing. Say, well, it ain't as bad as adultery and all of that. Oh, it ain't? God calls it, well, it was the last of the Ten Commandments, which is the root of all the transgressions. You first covet, and then you'll lie, and then you'll steal, and then you'll commit adultery, and then you'll kill. That's the moral law, that's the progression of it. So the first step in all transgression is covetousness. So it is important. It destroys your peace of mind and your communion with God. You can't commune with God while you're shopping, can you? Now it's one thing to need something and look for it and get it, but it's another thing to just be a looking just to find something, just to find something. And you know that the whole world is set up to get you with that. It's the bait the world uses to draw you away from God and into the devil's trap. All the shiny things and all the flashy things. You're just like the fish in the pond and the devil's the fisherman throwing the bait to you. And you jump at it every time. No, we've got to stop. We ought to rein ourselves back from that. Lay aside that sin because it does easily beset us. Everybody's experienced the vanity and deceitfulness of the sin of covetousness. All of us have set our heart on something that we just gotta have. And when we finally get it, we're disappointed and wish we'd never gotten it. Have you ever gotten anything, you wanted it so bad, and then when you got it, it was a disappointment to you. If you wanna try that out, just order something from one of them ads of Chinese stuff you get from China. See if you ain't disappointed. We've also experienced the fact that the pursuit of things we have set our heart on most often occupies our minds and thoughts and our heart grows cold on God. It's idolatry because you get to wanting something and it's about all you can think about. Just every time your mind gets free, you go to thinking about it again and trying to formulate a plan and a scheme of how to obtain what it is you're wanting. We mourn the money we spent. Do you ever think about that? I mentioned here a week or two ago or sometime recently about if you just sat down and figured out how much money you spend on candy bars and potato chips and sodas or whatever you drink that you buy at gas stations and convenience stores and everything. You know, a boy was with us in Virginia there. He was there for, I don't know, two or three years. And one day I sat down with him and I said, you have made this much, we figured it out, made about $60,000 in three years. And I said, how much you got? Well, he didn't have nothing. And all he had to pay was insurance on his truck. And his truck, which wasn't much, I mean, it was a drop in the bucket. All the rest of it had just went for who knows where. Sodas and I told him I said you spent the rest of it on sodas and chips and junk Made him real sad Never had thought of that We mourn the money we exchange for the things we want we feel gypped cheating we feel like we've been wrong stolen from but we Volunteered to give it to them in exchange for their junk. I Covetousness is not good to us, and it's not good for us. And it's a besetting sin that puts us out of the race. Yeah, we mourn the money we spent, the wasted time and effort, and the fact that we spent our money for this when we could have used it to so much better purposes. What if you had all that money you're wasting? What could you do with it? I think about these people that still smoke. Now, you know, cigarettes, I don't even know, last I knew they was like $70, $80 or more a carton. Do you realize how expensive a habit that is? And that's almost a car payment. And you just burn it up. Does anybody know what that word means? Well, it's a variation of covetousness. It's the desire to hoard up things and continually save money somehow. It's always been called being a miser or a hoarder, and it's worth noting that this is very common, it's a very common malady in this society we live in now. I mean, they got TV shows, I guess. I've never watched them, I've heard about them, but they go to these houses where these people live. And I remember Dad went out, I've heard him tell about it a different time, went out to talk to the man there close to where we live about September one time and there was just a path in the house and he just had a little place to sit in the house because it was so full of junk. I've been in houses like that too. Now Barb, you're just moving in and I ain't talking about you. We've had times when it was like that at our house, but it wasn't because we just kept hauling stuff in to pile up. Well, it's a mental deal with a lot of people. They just can't stop it. They can't stop it. And somehow they think they're getting rich when they're becoming more and more poor all the time through it. It's a very habit-forming and therefore very apt to control your mind and your eyes and your heart, causing us to forget God. Many people find that their covetousness has put them in a situation where they can't give to missions or be available for the work of God because they've got to pay for the things they've coveted until they got them. You understand? I mean, you want, people don't, most people don't deal in little piddly things. Man, people deal in big things now. You know, like the house y'all built last year, a young couple, you know, now young couples have to have a $800,000 home to live in. You remember how much you paid for the house over here in town, Dad, when you bought it? A little house by the store. $4,600. Two little tiny bedrooms, one little tiny bathroom, and a living room and a kitchen that were tiny also. What that house, was it 24 by 24 or something like that? Something like that. And we lived in it, three kids, mom and dad, and had company come stay all night, you know, all the time. But not now. No, people don't deal. And I know that was 50 years ago plus. But still, when I was a kid, I can show you all the houses here in town where I know where the people lived and they raised families in little old bitty houses. And now, no, it's big stuff. So everybody wants this big stuff, because everybody else got all this big stuff. And so you go borrow money to pay for this big stuff. And then you got to work, work, work. She's got to work. You've got to work. You've got to skim everything you can and cut out everything else you can. And first thing you know, you're not available or you can't do anything. You're out of the race. We need to lay aside these sins that so easily beset us, and covetousness is one of those things. It's one of the Ten Commandments, and it is the sin where all other sins begin, and we've got to conquer this besetting sin in our lives and run the race set before us. I've seen people live very, very simply. Simple. Have very, very little. And here's what I've observed. The less you have, the happier you are. The more content you are. I've watched people get older and start paring it down, like Herb Dad did that. I mean, for years he just kept getting rid of stuff, getting rid of stuff until he just had, and the only thing he didn't was any shed. He didn't get rid of junk there. It took us three days to empty that shed, but it was just junk. Little pieces of wire and homemade tools and a bunch of jacks that he got at the junkyard. But everything else, if you go in the house, you could open the dresser drawers, there wasn't hardly nothing in any of them. You got rid of everything. Didn't need it, didn't need it. Not being completely honest, that's another besetting sin that hinders a lot of people in the race. Many people find it very difficult to be completely honest in all they say and do. That's a thing that's always bugged me. You ought to be completely honest with other people. tempted with little petty frauds and overreaching and almost everything. It's wearisome dealing with people who won't just be honest and tell the truth and be real. Why you gotta try to hide stuff all the time? Why you gotta try to deceive all the time? They're not honest and upright with themselves in their religious matters, so they're not upright with God either. And they're hypocritical in their very character, and they're not real in what they present to others. You know, what you see is what you get. That's what everybody says, but boy, it ain't the truth. Some people progress from this to living in outright falsehood. It does grow into fantasy until you don't even know really what the truth is about anything. They don't seem to love the truth for the truth's sake, but give a false coloring to almost everything they say. Tell the truth. Just tell the truth. It's a besetting sin. It ruins your testimony. It causes people to not have any confidence in you. Your word is very important. When you say something, it ought to be right. And if you have a name for that, then people will have confidence in you. And it'll be very important to you down the road someday. It's very important that people be honest with their children and truthful. Don't tease, don't lie, don't joke, don't do those things. Speak truthfully with them. Tell them the truth always. They try to project an impression that is not according to the truth, so you never can be sure about what they say. And it's obvious how this cannot be tolerated in this race that we're running. You can't do that. It's a sin. And we need to call it what it is. It's lying and hypocrisy. God hates it. And it's a damnable sin. And it must be laid aside and forsaken or we can't stay in the race. We're gonna be set aside out of the race. Slothfulness, laziness is another besetting sin. Many people are simply too lazy to do anything for God. They're just too lazy. How can a lazy person ever get to heaven? Do you ever think about that? Do you ever meditate on that and study that a little bit? All the winds of this earth are blowing as hard as they can toward hell and we must put forth the strongest effort to run this race or we'll be blown right along with all the rest. We got to strive, strive to enter in. That's what Jesus said. This is a thing. There's more to it than just floating along on flowery beds of ease. Everything in the Bible that it has to say about the Christian life presents this as a race, a conflict, something that requires all we have to fight with. So someone who is too lazy to put forth the slightest effort is not going to finish the race. Nope. What happened to Pilgrim when he took time to sleep, you know, got a little bit lazy, got in trouble. Let me hurry. Tail bearing, that's another sin which a lot of people allow to ruin their walk with God in their testimony for Him. Leviticus 19 verse 16, thou shall not go up and down as a tail bearer among thy people. That is a moral thing. That's not in the Old Testament, so we don't have to pay attention to that. That's a moral issue. God said, don't do it. You don't go up and down through your people talking about everybody. Proverbs 26 verse 22, the words of a tailbearer are his wounds. They go down into the innermost parts of the belly. That's gossiping. That's what we call it. Proverbs 26 and verse 20, where no wood is, the fire goeth out. So where there is no tailbearer, the strife ceaseth. What causes most of the problems? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Did you hear? Let me tell you what I know about them. Did you hear what they did? Did you hear what she said? Did you hear what's going on in their house? Did you hear what's going on over there? They're people who have become habitual tailbears. I mean, they live to tell what they know about other people. You know, I wish I could say this right, but I read something one time and it said, you know, weak minds talk about people. Great minds talk about higher things, God, eternal things, righteous things. The lowest kind of talking and conversation is talking about other people. They're always alert, habitual tail bearers are. They're always alert and searching for new information. And they seem to be in an agony until they can get to someone to tell them what they've just learned. Did you ever see anybody like that? I've known people that, man, it's just like they are on a fix or something. They're like a druggie that's just hurting for another fix. to try to get there first, to be the one to tell it first. Something bad about somebody else. Then there are others who simply don't refrain themselves from telling things about other people that would be much better left unknown. There's things that maybe you know about somebody that's just better not told. What is the good that's going to come from telling it and spreading it and letting other people know? What's the good that's going to come from it? Need to weigh that. Need to weigh what's happening. I mean, is it, what, you know, tailbearing is a sin that causes great harm to people and to all of us as a whole. It just causes a lot of harm. It's better not to do it. No wonder God said, thou shall not go up and down as a tailbearer among thy people. Don't do it. Stop it. Stop it. Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out. So where there is no tailbear, the strife ceaseth. You know, why there's trouble in churches and trouble in families and trouble at work. You know, what causes the trouble? Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. And usually you can track it down to one or two people and the source of all the trouble. Evil speaking is akin to tail bearing, but it's more about slander and bringing down another person's reputation. Ephesians chapter four verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. So the New Testament tells us here, stop doing it, put it away. It's a besetting sin, tail bearing and evil speaking. We need to recognize that it's sin. If charity thinketh no evil, then what is it to speak evil? Sure ain't charity. He that loveth not knoweth not God. Pretty serious, straight truth there. Evil speaking is done to cause others to think less of someone, not better. How many times do people come to you and want to tell you something good about somebody? Ain't that a shame? It should be that way among God's people. It should be that way. We should be able to tell good things about one another instead of evil things. But evil speaking is always about bringing somebody down. in the eyes, in the opinions, in the esteem of other people. It's totally contrary to the law of love that we're living under as the children of God. It's criticizing someone behind their back with the intent of discrediting them in the minds of others. You're wanting to make other people think less of them. It's a sin and it must be laid aside. Envy is another besetting sin. They say, well, are you ever going to stop? Yep, we're about done. When we see others rising above ourselves in wealth and influence or improvement in any area of life, does it hurt you if you see somebody else prospering and doing well when you're not? When we see others more beautiful, more humble, or more esteemed than ourselves, we're apt to lust to envy, as the Bible puts it. Shows a state of mind entirely inconsistent with the love of God and the love of our neighbor. Envy. It's like anger and frustration at another person because of their blessings that you ain't got. You feel like you ought to have them instead of them. You deserve it more than they do, or just as much as they do. Having a suspicious, that'd turn you against God, wouldn't it? Envy, bitter envy. Yes, it would. Must be entirely laid aside and denounced and repented of as a sin. So having a suspicious temper is also a besetting sin for many. Always on the watch to see if they're somehow slighted or someone else has given preference over them or if someone is being kept from them while others know about it. It's paranoid. Paranoid. What we call paranoid. Everybody's against me and I've got to watch out because ain't nobody going to get one over on me. That kind of attitude. Well, that leads to a hateful temper and attitude, and it has to be acknowledged as sin and forsaken. That is not like God. It's not godliness. It's not holiness. It's not righteousness, having that kind of attitude, that everybody's out to get me. Everybody ain't out to get you. Do you realize that nobody pays attention to you? Probably. I mean, that's kind of the way it is. There are many more besetting sins that we could name. Ambition, intemperance, pride, fleshly indulgence, unbelief, neglect of duty, There's a lot of things we could talk about here. But those are just kind of the main ones, I think, that are most common among all of us. There are many more besetting sins. In light of this scripture, we all need to search our own hearts and minds and lives and be thoroughly honest with ourselves and rid ourselves of the things that are hindering us in being what we should be for God. Are we running the race well? Are you running the race well? That's what every one of us needs to ask ourselves tonight. What's hindering me? What's hindering me? What is besetting me when I find myself just all out of sorts? You know, not in the mood to go to church, not in the mood to worship, not in the mood to witness to somebody, not prepared, not ready. I've been beset by something. Weights, but we didn't talk about weights tonight. We talked about sins, the sin which does so easily beset us. Well, did I miss anybody tonight? I mean, this goes for all of us. And we just need to recognize these things. That's what this verse is talking about. It says, let us lay aside the weights and the sin, which death so easily beset us. And we just, that word sin, we just kind of let it slide until we start naming what it is and identifying it. And then it'll help us if we'll do that in our own life. Recognize it as a sin. It's a sin against God. It's a sin. How bad is sin? Well, it leads to death and damnation forever. So it's a serious matter, and these things are serious matters. We can laugh about it, but we better not laugh about it. We'll be sorry someday when we face God, or even before when we see the results of what our neglect to deal with these things in our life has brought about. A lot of these things and their death, their death. They may seem innocent. They may not seem so bad as murder or adultery or stealing, but they'll bring the same result eventually. So we need to deal with it in our life. Father, thank You for the Word of God and thank You for this instruction. I pray it'd help us tonight. I'm including myself in it. Lord, help me. Help me to deal with things that would hinder me in walking with You and running this race and having victory in my life and in being a witness that's effective to other people. LORD, HELP US, HELP US ALL TO EXAMINE OURSELVES AND DEAL WITH OUR OWN LIVES HERE TONIGHT, AND RID OURSELVES OF SOME OF THESE THINGS. GET RID OF THIS EXTRA BAGGAGE, THIS HINDERNESS. TIME'S SHORT, AND LORD, THE RACE IS ALMOST OVER. I PRAY YOU'D HELP US TO REALIZE THAT TONIGHT, AND TO BE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS, AND TO THINK ON THESE THINGS AS WE LEAVE THIS PLACE, IN JESUS' NAME. AMEN.