All right. Well, you know, I'd never heard of bulletproof coffee. Anybody ever heard of bulletproof coffee? At that time, I'd never heard of it, didn't know anything existed. So I was waiting for ammo to come out or something like that. And, uh, good to see you this morning. I'm not going to say what I would normally say, except it is good to be with my friend. I didn't notice he is a genius. He's got five clocks put right here in front of the pulpit and none of them work. They're also facing you and not him, so that's even more encouragement down there. One thing I will say about your pastor and his, I appreciate his, what I would say is just an easy, excellent spirit. And there's all kind of people in ministry, you meet all kind of people in life. But some people just have a very easy spirit about them. And usually they're not self-serving then, and I appreciate the blessing of being able to cross paths with him and then to be with you here today. Also, I like the red jackets have also put me at ease. Being an Alabama fan from my childhood, I feel right at home. Ooh, I heard a roll tide. Where did that come from? God, I knew God was on that lady right there when I came in. All right, I'm going to do something I'm not supposed to do. I was told you never preach a new message to a new crowd. that you should preach a new message to an old crowd and an old message to a new crowd because it takes out the variability of having something not go very well. But I really prayed about what I need to preach this morning and so I'm going to preach a new message to a new crowd. Genesis chapter 3, if you'll turn there. Genesis chapter 3. I've been through the passage like you so many times, but I want to kind of look a little closer at this passage, one of the firsts in the Bible. When you start looking in your Bible, there's a principle called the first mentioned principle. And many times, if you'll look at that principle, it will give you some insight as to some meaning later on in the Bible. For instance, the word drunkenness or drunken. Noah was drunken, the Bible says in the book of Genesis chapter nine. And when he became drunk, there were several things that happened. One, there was nakedness. Two, there was a broken family. three, there was personal shame. And so what I would say is, I can learn a lot from that. Drinking alcohol is going to bring shame. It's going to break up a family and nakedness is involved. So God uses that as you go through the Bible. We're introduced in chapter three to our arch enemy, the devil. And if you look there in verse number one, the Bible says, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. The woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now, I can hear somebody saying, well, it doesn't say anything in there about the devil. Well, that's the reason you compare Scripture. Keep a finger right there in Genesis 3, and go with you to 2 Corinthians 11. Go there just a second, 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, so to identify that this serpent is definitely connected to Satan. If you look there in verse number three, the Bible says, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And then he goes on to talk more about how that we have an enemy, and I'm just gonna say this morning, what I'd like to start off preaching with is this thought, and I'd like to get this in your mind, the approach of the devil. How Satan approaches you and I. Now, I wanna ask you a question. In the passage, Eve has no sin, Adam has no sin, And yet the devil is interested in approaching them and affecting their life. I want you to be honest with me. How many of you think the devil is interested in you and pursuing something in your life to take from you or to cause you destruction? Could I see your hand? If you didn't put your hand up, I'm not upset at you. Here's what I'm gonna tell you. The devil, the Bible says, is a thief and a robber, that he is a liar, and that what he'll do is he is in pursuit of us. I stepped down from a church that I pastored for six years in Greenville, loved the church, loved, very good to me, to our family, God did a lot there, but my family had suffered, and so I thought if I would just take and step down, then we would get a reprieve. We would finally get to work on repairing and trying to be able to find some solid ground. And that's what I told people. I'm going to attend to my family instead of doing what I did so many years in attending the church, pastored 22 years in Alabama. And so I thought, well, I'm going to step out of the middle of the ministry and certainly, certainly we'll get a little bit of a break. But I want to report to you this morning. that whether you're in the middle of the hottest part of the battle, or you're seated on the sideline broken and wounded, the devil will never stop his pursuit of you and your family. He's not gonna stop until he achieves his purpose. And so when I say the approach of the devil, I'm talking about his approach, and that's only the first part of the message, so we'll move through that fairly quickly, but I want you to understand that the devil has a way that he approaches, and we can learn that from here. He has a methodology. In other words, it's not just something, well, I'm just gonna try this, try that. It's something that he's perfected over time. And I listened today as the pianist was playing. Didn't she do a great job? You know, she told me she's been doing that since she was five years old. She's been doing that, I guess, what, about 20 years now, 25, 30 years? She's been doing that a long time. She's proficient in what she's doing. The devil is proficient in pursuing God's people. I understand the context. I understand what we look at later on when God takes and clothes them with coats of skin. But at this point, this is Adam and Eve. This is the son of God. He is not the son of God, but a son of God. God made Adam, and Satan is pursuing one of God's children, and he is very proficient in what he does. He's good at it. So three points, real quick, on the approach to the devil. The first one is this. If you look there in verse one, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field. And I want to say, I'm going to have to say it anyway, because he's speaking to the woman and I can hear somebody say, well listen, that's an allegory. There is no such thing as an animal that speaks. We don't have anything like that. Well, you know, I don't believe that. Some of you folks that are older, you ever heard of Mr. Ed the horse? Anybody remember him? Yeah. And then you younger people, Guardians of the Galaxy and Rocket, I mean, that's a raccoon, that's an animal. He did a whole lot of talking. Scooby-Doo did a whole lot of talking. Winnie the Pooh did the same thing. Doug, anybody know who Doug is? Doug, he did a lot of talking. And all I'm just saying is this, animals are portrayed as speaking in our society, so it's not as if that's a foreign idea. But do you know that whales have the ability to communicate through songs and clicks and all kinds of noises and whistles? So they whistle, they click, and they sing. And they can do that 10,000 miles. A communication from a whale can travel 10,000 miles. And that's before the internet and cell phones. And all I'm just saying is, you say, Preacher, do you really believe that the serpent was speaking to Eve? I absolutely believe that. Now, but I want you to note his subtlety. In other words, he perfected the art of deception. How many of you hate to be lied to? Oh my goodness. It is such a hard thing to be lied to and he is very good at that. When you look in the Bible at the word subtlety, Jacob, Jacob was really crafty in stealing his brother's blessing. goat's hair on his skin, and he had the meat that his mother had made, and had the coat that smelled like his brother. I mean, he was really good at his subtlety. And not only him, but also Jonadab. Jonadab, the friend of Amnon, was really subtle. This friend convinced Amnon how he could take and be immoral with his half-sister. He was very crafty and tell him, hey, this is how you can do that. The strange woman, if you want to call her a seductress, in Proverbs chapter seven, very subtle, very crafty at knowing how to draw somebody in. And I'm just telling you, the devil is really good at deceiving people and knowing how to draw them in. When I was raised in Alabama there, we had a place called Swan Creek Reserve, and I would duck hunt there. And when you're duck hunting, what you do is you do some things. You take and you put out decoys, all right? The word decoy in itself. They're not real ducks, but they're decoys. You can even take and have some that are motorized that will move around. And you might put two dozen out there. And then you get camouflaged up, and then you take a call, a duck call. And when you see these ducks that are far off or geese or whatever it is, you start talking to them. There's all kind of things. You can throw a highball call to try to get their attention or you can do a little feeding call. It's called a chuckle. And what you're doing is you're saying to those ducks up there, hey, we found some real real good food right here. Y'all need to slip down here and get a little taste of what we're eating down here. Or, hey, hey big boy, let me get your attention. I've got some fine pintails on the back back here I want to show you. Hey, come this direction. And those ducks, those ducks will begin to circle. And the lower they get, the closer they get to being in range. You say, would you shoot a pretty duck? Absolutely. Absolutely. And what I'm saying is, the whole thing is a lie. The decoys are a lie, the call is a lie. It's all about deception. How deceptive can I be to get them close? And listen, church, are you listening? Are you paying attention? The devil is really good at getting you to believe a lie. He's really good at framing things to where you think that this is going to be the expected end. But it's not even close to what it's going to be. He's really good at putting something in front of you that looks good. That's why the alcohol industry is such a lie. They only show the front side where somebody's holding a highball glass or sitting around a fire or hanging out at a ball game. They never show you cirrhosis of the liver. They never show you a DUI where somebody's killed. They never show you any of that. You know why? Deception. And the devil is good at it. He's perfected the art of deception. And if you let him, he'll fool you. Sir, he'll get you believing that that other woman at work or maybe in the neighborhood would be a whole lot more satisfying than the wife God gave you. And I'm telling you right now, that is a lie from hell. That if I could just have a certain amount of money in life, if I could make this amount of money, so I'm gonna put in all those overtime hours and I'm gonna trade my family and I'm gonna trade my friends and I'm gonna trade my God, I'm gonna trade my religion, and what you're gonna find at the end is a bunch of money that the government's gonna take the majority of anyway. It's hard to keep. All I'm saying is the devil is good at deception and he uses deception. He's particularly good at using deception, I think, on God's people. He's particularly good at framing something in a way to get you to question some other things. That's my second point. He's also perfected the art of doubt. So look what he has, the Bible says in verse number one, the first thing was recorded in the Bible that Satan never said is, yea hath God said. What did God really say? And then when Eve replies to him, look at verse number four, I want you to look at, please underline it. You, you, oh my goodness, you're young people. Verse number four, and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. The devil is really good at causing you to doubt the word of God. He's also really good at causing you to doubt the character of God. But let's deal with the word of God first. God told Adam and Eve, you can eat of any tree of the garden, Whatever you want, you can have it. Whatever you want, save one. This tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you can't eat that tree. If you eat of the fruit of that tree, the day that you eat thereof, you're gonna die. Very simple instructions. Very easy to understand, not complex. Don't have to have a college degree. Don't have to have a degree in theology to understand it. Don't need to figure out the original tongues and languages to get it. He said, if you eat the fruit of that tree, you are going to die. And the devil said this, did God really say that? And then he said, God lied to you. I pastored long enough to know that, by the way, can I come down here? supposed to do what the pastor says now. I can't tell you how many people that I've dealt with in my ministry over the issue of doubting what God said about eternal life. I'm talking about I've dealt with people that say it can't be that easy. Are you telling me that all I have to do is believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and that if I will put my trust in that that he will not only forgive my sins but give me his righteousness as well? That's exactly what the Bible says. The Bible's very clear, he not only will forgive those sins, wash them away, but he will give you a righteousness that he earned while he was on this earth. Too easy, I don't believe it's that easy, you gotta do something else. And then God's people, God's people. I can't tell you the number of people that I've talked to that have been tormented, absolutely tormented about their eternal future. Pastor, I don't know why, but I keep thinking about the day that I got saved and I'm just not sure that I did things right. And then it's been driving me crazy. I can't sleep at night. I know some people say, well, you're just not saved. I don't really believe that. I believe the devil's really good at getting you to doubt what God promised. Yeah, but I can't remember everything that I prayed. What you prayed is not what got you into heaven. Faith is what put you in that. It's what put you in the family of God. Yeah, but I didn't cry, and I didn't understand the Trinity, and I didn't understand the doctrine of repentance. I understand all that. I'm just telling you, the devil's a liar, and he will bother you and bother you and bother you and tell you, you're not really God's child when you really are. 1 John 3 says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it does not appear what we shall be. Listen, what I'm gonna be one day is not what I am right now. Thank God for that. But I'm a child of God right now. And I don't always feel like it. Come on now, there are days I don't feel spiritual, I don't feel God's presence, but I do know this, he said he would never leave me nor forsake me. And I'm just saying, some of you that struggle with that, that is the devil perfecting the art of doubt. You can't believe what God said. After all, you've been saved 25 times now, you know 26 ain't gonna make a difference. Somebody get in the pulpit and say something and it just gets sideways with you. And the next thing you know, man, I'm up late at night and I don't know what I'm doing. And I mean, I believe that Jesus is real and I believe he died on the cross. Well, let me ask you a question. Is there anything else you could believe? No. Are you putting your faith in anything else? No. Then you really do believe that Jesus was real? Yes. You really believe that he died on the cross? Yes. You really believe he got up on the third day out of the tomb? Yes. You really believe that he promised salvation to those that would put their, yes, I believe all of that, but I'm just not sure I'm going to go to heaven when I die. You know why? That's because you have an enemy that's whispering in your ear. He lied to you. I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm serving notice on the devil and everybody that's at Currytown Baptist Church this morning. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are born again and on your way to heaven. It doesn't matter what kind of health you have, what kind of problems you have. You may have problems up to your eyeballs. I'm telling you, if you put your faith in Jesus, you're still on the way to heaven. You can't be taken out of his family. Pastor and his wife were pointing out their children today, and they also told me which one was favorite. If y'all got a little money, I'll tell you a little bit later. Nothing those girls can do to change who mom and dad really are. Once you've been born, you can't be unborn. When you have a birth date, mom and dad, that is your biological mother and dad, no matter how much you hate them, no matter what happens in life, no matter how things get turned upside down, that's still the same. And you know what? When you get born again spiritually, ain't nothing you can do to change that. But he's causing doubt in the mind of Eve. But not only that, he's also causing doubt about God's character. Look what else he says. The Bible says in verse five for God does know in the day that you eat thereof then your eyes shall be open and you shall be as God's. You know he's trying to say he's trying to say God's trying to keep you from something. He's trying to keep you from, let me tell you why he's doing it. He told you not to eat that, and here's why he told you. It's a lie, you're not gonna die, but he just doesn't want you to enjoy all the benefits that are gonna come from partaking of that tree. And I'm telling you right now, that is a lie that the devil has told over and over again about to God's children that we need to doubt his character. And listen to me, hear me out, hear me out. I know what I'm saying. When trouble comes, when difficulty comes, if cancer touches your home, if you bury a child. The devil says, you know, if God wanted to, he could have stopped that and he didn't do it. I don't know that he's got good character. You ought to doubt the God that said that he loved you that much. In fact, you know what the world often says? If God really is so loving, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? That's a common thing that is said about atheists. If God is really real and he loves so much and he's so good, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? You know a good answer to that? A good answer to that is, listen, God didn't cause all the pain and suffering in the world. And then they may even agree to that, okay, well I'll give you that God didn't cause it all, but why is there so much, here's what God did for us. Jesus Christ took on the form of a man and came to an earth. He left heaven. He left splendor, glory. He left all of that. He put aside his glory and he came down here and was laid in a trough that animals feed out of and 33 years later went to a cross and hung and suffered like no man has ever suffered. You say, if he cares so much, then why'd he let it happen? He embraced all of that. Are you listening to me? He came down here and embraced all of that suffering. At the cross of Calvary, he's looking at his mother, and he's looking at John, and he says, behold thy son, and behold thy, he cared about what was gonna happen to his mother. And hey, he cares for you. No, if God cared for you, he wouldn't have let mom die the way she did. He wouldn't have let that wreck take place. He wouldn't let you lose your business. He wouldn't have let you lose your marriage. You can't trust his character. Well, I'm gonna say it again. I'm serving notice on the devil and everybody here at Curritown Baptist Church. God's character is above anything that you could ever trust in. He proved his character when he went to Calvary and died for us. So what I'm saying is that the devil is very good at perfecting doubt of God's word and God's character. And he's very good at using deception. And the third thing, and I need to hurry on so we can get to the other part. The third thing is, is he's very good at seizing the moment. I want you to look at it one more time. The Bible says in verse six, and when the woman saw the tree was good for food. So she had to be there. She had to be there. I don't know how big the Garden of Eden was. I've seen diagrams. I've read books on it. I just know this, that she had to be in proximity of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And what else is obvious in verse number one, the Bible says that the serpent that he said, he said unto the woman, he didn't speak to Adam. So Adam's not there. Eve is there. And I want you to, here's the third, the approach of the devil. perfected the art of deception, the art of doubt, but also the art of seizing the moment. He's so good at working in the moment. And what I mean by that is this, there's a little phrase that's called carpe diem. Anybody ever heard of that phrase? Carpe diem is Latin for seize the day. Now, I don't know any Latin, but I've read that. So, you know, I checked it out on Google. It has to be true, right? All right. So, carpe diem, seize the day. In other words, the idea is this, that you ought to enjoy the pleasure in the moment and not worry about the future. That rich man, that rich man said, I'm going to build me bigger barns, eat, drink, and be merry. Now we say for tomorrow you die, but eat, drink, and be merry. And he said, because I've got many years. I've got much good for many years. In other words, I'm going to live my life, and I'm going to enjoy what I've got right now. But the idea that I'm trying to get at is he's coming to Eve and he's seizing on her in a moment when her support is not there. Adam is not there and she's at that tree and maybe she's just looking at it. Boy, thank you Lord. I can't tell you how many times somebody's told me there's nothing wrong with looking. You ever heard somebody say that? I've been told that. I've been told there's nothing wrong with looking unless you take a second look. Well, you won't find that in the Bible. And all I'm saying, he seized on that moment. He took a moment and he, listen, he has perfected the art. How many of you believe that David was a spiritual man? The Bible says he was a man after God's own heart, is that right? I mean, he wrote Psalm 23. I believe that David was a spiritual man. I believe he was a good man. But he was at the wrong place. at the wrong time and he couldn't get something he saw out of his mind and it ruined his children's lives. You say, do you believe the devil is there? Absolutely. I believe the devil showed up and said, Hey, now's the time step on out here. And he orchestrated everything he could and stepped into that moment. And I think that that exactly what Judas is the same way. Judas is there at the table in fellowship, and then a woman comes and breaks this alabaster box, this ointment, and he says, this could be given for, we could have sold it for 300 pence, almost a year's wage. And Jesus rebuked him. And when he got that rebuke, from that moment, the Bible says that he saw an opportunity to take and betray Jesus. Now listen to me, but he would only do it, only do it in the absence of the multitude. In other words, Judas, in his mind, is thinking, I cannot wait until I get alone. I'm going to go and I'm going to talk with those Pharisees, and I'm going to betray him. Nobody's going to talk to me like that. And the devil just kept throwing logs on that fire. I'm looking at you right now. Does anybody here ever talk to yourself? Some of y'all look like you lost that conversation. Do you know what I found out about my own self? I used to think this way. Well, the more you talk to yourself about that, the better prepared you are. Maybe, or maybe the more inflamed you'll be. That's right. Or maybe the more aggravated you'll be. Yes, sir. Amen. That's good. Because you know, you usually agree with yourself. Wouldn't you agree to that? Yes. I think I'll try that again. You usually agree with yourself, right? You're right. Right, right. Oh, that's right. That's right. And what I'm saying, that moment Judas' mind is being stoked. The devil's just saying, that's right, he should have never said that. Look, pastor, I've had people, a good family, a man stopped me outside the church one morning. He says, I think you want us to leave the church. And I said, what? He said, yep, I think you want us to leave the church. I said, why do you think that? He said, lots of reasons. I said, well, give me one. And he said, well, you don't call me as much as you used to. And me being, I wanted to say, well, that phone line works two ways now. You got to pick it up and call me. But he had gotten his, the church had grown. It had grown. And no, I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I used to. So he's, in his mind, the devil said, pastor don't like you. And so he's standing outside the church, the front of the church doors on a Sunday, said, I think you want me to leave the church. Why? Because you don't call me as much anymore. Well, you've lost your mind. The devil is feet. I had a lady. I preached on Sunday morning. She called me on that afternoon. She said, Pastor Logan, I got a question for you. I said, yes, ma'am. She said, were you preaching at me this morning? I said, absolutely. And she said, I knew it. I knew you were preaching at me. And before she could get wound up, I said, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. Sis, I preached to everybody this morning. And I have no clue what you're talking about right now. I said something in a message. Listen, I've been going about, oh, I don't know, maybe 25 minutes now. 25 minutes, 30 minutes, and when I was in Alabama sometimes it might be 45 minutes or longer. And one phrase, I had a guy, one time he came to me and he said, Preacher, you made me mad, I'm about ready to leave the church. I said, why? He said, because you're always preaching about NASCAR. I said, I am not. He said, yes you are. I said, I have preached one message on NASCAR and it was because, and I should even say this because I'm going to lose the whole congregation. because somebody died, and in Alabama, they were glorifying that man like he was God. He'll always be with us. There were people bowing down to his little... And it just really kind of infuriated me, so I said something about that. So yes, I checked that box. I did, one time, preach that kind of message. But I told him, I said, listen, why don't we do this? I got the keys to the church. Let's go down and let's listen to all the video... Let's listen to all the messages and see how many of them I preached. And here's what he did. He said, well, you don't preach all the message about it, but you always say something about it. I said, I do not. You know what's happening? The devil's feeding a good man. He's always talking about that. Have you ever had somebody say, why'd you look at me that way? I didn't even look at you. Did I look at you? You sure didn't. I saw how you were looking at me. I had no idea what you were talking about. The devil's just feeding, and feeding, and feeding, and he seizes the moment. Particularly, and I got a little bit off base there, particularly when you've got problems. When you come to a decision to make, when you got difficulty he's really good at setting up shop and saying I got something I want to talk to you about. That's his approach. So what I would tell you about that is, don't run from your support group when you've got difficulty and decisions. Stay right here inside this place right here. Stay connected. You'll pastor to other good people. Don't let him cut off all those people. I feel like if Adam would have been there, maybe he would have said, hey, hush your mouth. I'd like to believe that. And I'm just saying this, the devil's approach is very clearly laid out in Genesis. He's perfected the art of deception and doubt and seizing the moment. Now, how many of you hate the devil? Now, was he successful? Come on, was he successful? He was. You know, those two people suffered consequences they never dreamed about. One day they had a boy come to them and have to admit, yeah, I killed him. I buried him. Not that their boy died, but their boy died at the hand of their other boy. And you know what I'm sure was in the back of their head? In the day thereof thou shalt surely die. He was successful. But that's the second part of my message and I know I've only got five minutes left. I wanted you to see the approach of the devil, but I also wanted you to see the other side of that coin. I wanted you to see the pursuit of God. Yes, we're introduced to God in the beginning. God created the heaven and the earth and we're seeing him create, but here we're seeing him interact with people. And if you look there in Genesis chapter three, I know some of you just kind of took a big deep breath. Just stay with me about five minutes and we'll be okay. All right. This, this is, this is, this is the part of the message you really want. It's what you need. Genesis three, verse number eight. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves in the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden and the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? Here's what I want to say to you. I believe that God, God loves to fellowship with his children. Now, I feel guilty in saying that this morning because I go through times in my life where my fellowship with the Lord is really superficial, grab a chapter out of the Bible, pray on the way to work, do something like that, don't really spend a lot of time together, you know, that we should, but I'm telling you right now, God, God longs to fellowship with His children. And I can point out many scriptures in the Bible, John chapter one, the Bible speaks about that our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and I can say this, there's joy when you fellowship with the Lord. I don't know how many, listen, I stayed up and I, like many of you, how many of y'all stayed up and watched the election? Can I see your hand, anybody? How many could care less about that, can I see your hand? The people, just raise your hand, you were a whole lot happier that night than we were. because we're listening and we're entertaining, we're sitting down and getting this negative news. When you fellowship with God, listen, when you fellowship with God, you are not gonna be the worst for it, you're gonna be the better for it. And what I'm saying is, God wanted to speak with Adam and Eve. Two points and I'm finished. The first one is this, his pursuit was personal. Look at it again, look what the Bible says. Verse number nine, and the Lord God called unto Adam and said, where art thou? He's calling him by name. Aren't you glad that you don't have just some God that's generic and that his relationship with you is just generic? I don't like the social security system. I don't like just being a number in the doctor's system. I'm glad that I've got a God that's very personal. And what I mean by that, he called Adam by name. Do you remember Mary? Mary is there at the tomb, and she's weeping, and she sees Jesus. She thinks he's the gardener and says, if you'll tell me where you took his body, please. And then Jesus said, Mary, and as soon as he called her by name, she's turned around and she said, Master. Have you ever heard God call your name personally? I'm not just talking about salvation, I'm talking about on a relational level. I've told this before and people think I'm charismatic. I'll tell you, I believe the Lord sat down in the car with me. You said, do you see a light? No. I've seen some blue lights, but there wasn't any light when I got there. It was so real that I have gotten into the habit of making certain there's nothing in that passenger side when I'm driving by myself. And I'll invite the Lord if you don't mind to have a seat. I'd love you to talk. I know you probably think that's a little bit crazy, but it was really good fellowship with the Lord going down the road. Called him by name, called Mary by name. I'm telling you today, listen, we can talk about what God loves the world. God loves you. God died for the world, God died for you. Well, God cares for sin, God cares for you. It's a personal pursuit, amen. I pursued my way. Your pastor told me he pursued his wife, how old is she, 16? 15, 15 years. How long y'all been married? That's important. That's good, isn't it, sis? 31 years, 10 months and six days and two hours. God's pursuit of them was personal. Look at me, I'm just about finished. He's pursuing you personally. You may not feel like it. Listen, I'm a young person, I don't matter. Listen, I don't have any money. God's pursuit is personal. He wants to sit down and fellowship with you. Here's the second thing, then I'll finish. and they heard the voice of the Lord God. Where'd they hear it? Well, they heard it back up in verse seven, and the eyes of them both were opened, they knew they were naked, they sewed them fig leaves together and made themselves apron, and now they're hiding. Listen to me, this is real simple. Come on, listen. How many would agree with me that God, God pursued them at the lowest point of their life? We had the idea that, well, if I'm at this level, God will pursue me. But if I fall to this level, then it's over with, it's done. How many of you think that God could have made a new Adam and Eve? But he didn't. How many of you think that he knew they had sinned? He knew where they were. They're hiding, he knows exactly where they are, but he's still pursuing them at the lowest point. And I'm telling you this morning, I know I'm preaching, and I'm liking what I'm saying right now, because I know it's Bible. I'm glad I've got a God that pursues you even at your lowest points in life. I love the story of the prodigal son. That parable is such a blessing that that boy was out there in the hog pen, and he smells bad, and his clothes are a mess, his hair's a mess, he's got no money, he spent it all. He is not worthy of any investment, but the Father, falls on his neck and kisses him and loves him, you know why? Pursuing you at the lowest point. Maybe somebody here, you've had an abortion, feel like, well, God just never be able to take in, never be able to help me. I lost my first marriage, God'll never be able to help me. I've been in so many filthy things in my life, preacher, my life is a mess. I'm telling you this morning, God pursues you even when you're at the lowest point in your life. The psalmist said that when he was in that horrible pit, that the Lord heard his cry and reached in there and pulled him out of that grave. Man, I'm telling you. What a God. Now, let's make it practical. I'm gonna turn it back over to the pastor. How many of you think that a God like that is worthy of your love and faith? Let me add this then. If you saw the approach of the devil and some of y'all have been pulled, you don't have to hide your head in shame about that. That's a reality and I think y'all get help from the altar, get help from somebody in the church. But if you saw that God pursued Adam and Eve at their lowest point personally, how many of you think that we ought to be doing the same thing for other people that are out there? I'll close with this. Our world's been a little bit different in the last two years. And there's been a lot of people that I don't hear from anymore. And that's all right. But then there's other people that have called me up and said, hey, I'm coming through Greenville today, Joel. If you got a little time, How about you and I just meet for lunch, and I don't want any information. I just want you to know that I love you. Makes a difference. When I was out in the world at 16, 17, 18, went to Baylor University, and I was in such a mess, mom would write me a letter just about every other week. I'd open it up, and it had three $1 bills in it. And in that letter, she would always say, Joel, just remember. that you'll never really be happy until you give Jesus your life. And I would hate to get that letter, but I would love to get that letter. Because $3 didn't buy much. But Mom was still pursuing me when I was a mess. And maybe God just put somebody on your mind today. You know what? Maybe I need to make a phone call. Stop by their home. Oh, they don't look like we do this morning. Their world is not only upside down, but maybe at a lowest point. You have no idea what it might do for them if you would just say, hey, I'm gonna try to do that. Lord, I thank you for the privilege to preach at Currytown Baptist Church today. And we're grateful for what we see in the Bible, that though we have an enemy, oh God, we have an enemy that is so shrewd, so skilled, at taking and approaching your people. That when we fall, when we fail, I'm glad we also have another picture that we have a God that loves us and continues to pursue us. And I pray you'd help us to emulate that. Help us to do the same for others that are out there in that pit right now today. There are people that are not at Currytown that used to be. There are people that have children that used to be here. There are people that have all kinds of things in their life, not seated in this building today, not rejoicing, not singing, but Lord, in such a hard place. I pray you'd help this church be that voice that you were in the garden and make a difference for somebody, in Jesus' name, amen. Pastor. Thank you, preacher. Let's stand together. It's bowed, eyes closed, some are making their way to the altar. Listen, this morning, you think everybody's giving up. The world's giving up on you. There's a God that has it. If you're here this morning, you've never trusted him as your savior. Today would be a good day. Today would be a day. Doesn't matter where you've been, what you've done. He's a God of grace and mercy. Here's the other thing. He's a very courteous God. He's not gonna make you go to heaven if you don't want to, but if you want to, may I say this? He paid the price to get you there. If you're here today, you've never trusted Him as your Savior. Let me pray for you. That won't save you, but I sure would like to pray for you. Would you slip your hand up, say, Pastor, pray for me? I'm not sure if I'd die, I'd go to heaven today. Would you do it? Is there one? Thank you. Is there another? Thank you. Father, thank you for the precious souls that raised their hand this morning. Give them the confidence, the courage to step out so they can know where they'll spend eternity. Thank you for speaking to hearts. Thank you for your man this morning. Use this invitation for your glory. If you raised your hand or you didn't and you want to know for sure, From the Bible. He mentioned it. It's not an emotion. It's not a feeling. It's what God said. You've come. Maybe you do feel like you're on the bottom. Maybe you do feel like everybody's quit on you. Any good God, He won't quit on you. You've come. Whatever your need, you've come. Maybe God laid some out in your heart that you need to be the one reaching out to them. Ask God to give you some wisdom on how to do it. I'm glad he's a personal God. Glad he's personal. Heavenly Father, I thank you, I love you, I thank you for this dear man of God and the message he brought this morning. And thank you for every decision that's been made this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.