You don't want that. Turning your Bibles to Daniel chapter 1 in verse 8. Daniel chapter 1 in verse 8. And while you're turning there, I do want to thank Pastor Combs for this opportunity. As Brother Sean said when he was up here a couple of weeks ago, you don't take this lightly. And far too often, I think a lot of churches pastors today take that lightly. I think that's why a lot of them are shutting their churches down on Sunday nights. And they basically have gotten to the point where they're just giving out devotionals instead of really getting into the Word of God. And this message tonight has really worked on my heart. And it was something I needed. I don't really feel worthy to stand here and give it. I want mostly the young people tonight to really listen to this and sit up and listen. Because a lot of the people here, the adults, I think I'm talking to a church that has a lot of these points in order. There's always room for improvement. But the young people tonight, maybe you're unaware of it, but we've all been at your age. We've been there. We know the struggles. We know the concerns you have. but we also know what not to do. And it's my prayer tonight that you'll really take heed to what I'm about to say. In Daniel chapter one in verse eight, we read, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. We're going to be focusing on that word tonight of purposed. And I'm going to pray and then we'll get into this here. Father, we thank you for the opportunity here tonight. And Father, we thank you for the word. We thank you for the King James Bible and how it speaks to us. Father, I just ask you tonight that if there's anyone here that has some struggles they're going through or or things that they need to change or recommit in their lives that we start this new year, that, Father, they'll get that straight and determined tonight to do that. And above all, if there's someone here that doesn't know you as their Savior, someone on livestream that doesn't know you as their Savior, that, Father, tonight is the night that they get that taken care of. And, Father, I just ask you to fill me with thy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Purpose, the definition of purpose. is the determination to do something, a resolve. The definition of determination is a firm unwavering to one's purpose. Daniel and Joseph, two men in the Bible who I feel depict this word purpose perfectly. Daniel purposed not to eat the meat. You know, he could have, but he decided He determined, he didn't just say, I'm not gonna eat that meat. He determined, I will not, no matter what happens, I will not. You know, you take what it took for Daniel when they put the decree out there, if you're caught praying, you're gonna go in the lion's den. Can you imagine, ask yourself, would I have had that kind of purpose and determination, no matter what, I will go to the lion's den? And when we read our Bibles, and the first point I'm going to get a little ahead of myself, but the one thing, when you read your Bible, put yourself in that as you're reading. Don't just read it. Put yourself in there, and that'll really help you understand what these people and the struggles and what they were doing. And Joseph is another one from a young age. I believe purposed in his heart he was gonna be an obedient child. You know, when you look at his life and read in Genesis the account of his life, it's an amazing story. It's a, I shouldn't say story, I hate when you label things as stories, it's an account. But when you read the account of Joseph, from a young boy all the way up into his adult life, it was one test after another, and that test, put that purpose to the test. And the one phrase that I've always heard, young people listen to this, the character of a man is determined by what it's gonna take to stop you. I'll say it again, the character of a man is what it takes to stop you. And you as young people, and I'm speaking to everyone here, but young people, Determine tonight that as you walk out those doors, you're not gonna be like you are right now. Because everyone has room for change. But I promise you, if you don't determine now to purpose in your heart to serve the Lord and do what's right, you will have a life of misery. There's no, as a Christian, there's no way around it. You will not have a good life. You will have tests. It doesn't mean living your life for the Lord, you're not gonna be without tests. Joseph's a good example of that. But he came through them all. And when you look at his life at the end, he had a victorious life. The reason I picked this topic tonight is because we just started a new year. You hear so many people, New Year's resolutions, but you rarely hear someone say, my resolution this year is going to be a spiritual resolution. I'm going to change my life spiritually. You hear them talk, I'm going to get in shape, I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to start eating right. And the type of work I do, I get into a lot of people's houses, and it never fails. There's that exercise bike in the corner. And then it ends up in a yard sale, and they pay 200 bucks for it, but in the yard sale it's 25. You know why they failed? They failed because they didn't determine, they didn't purpose that nothing is gonna stop me. I am going to determine and purpose this year. I'm gonna use that bike and get in shape. And our spiritual lives are no different. We can easily start this year out and not have a goal or a determination to fix areas that we see in our life that should be fixed. And we're gonna get into that. And many of you were here tonight that were here when I joined the church and I told you of a hobby that my father and I had and the hobby of team roping. And that's a great sport to have so many analogies. When I used to teach junior church, I used to have so many analogies in that sport. But, you know, the one thing I remember when my father and I decided to take that sport up, I remember a phone call he had with me the night we both determined we were going to do it. And my father, when he sets his sights on something, he's not going to stop. But he said this to me. He said, OK, if we do this, we are committed. We are not going to stop. We're going to get good horses. We're going to get ropes. And we're going to get taught how to do it. And we're going to do it. Nothing half-bakes. And he said this to me. If you don't want to finish it, then there's no sense in putting all this money into it. And went after it. We did. We practiced and we had dummy heads that we stuck into a bale of hay. And we roped those dummy heads, no kidding, thousands of times. But when we first started, we would miss, we would miss, we would miss, we would miss, and miss. Then we'd hit, and miss, and miss, and miss. And the next thing you know, it started to turn into hit, hit, hit, and our confidence grew. Then it got to the point where when you missed, you thought, what did I do wrong? And then it got to the point where we would challenge ourselves and we'd rope it with our eyes closed. Then we bought our horses. All that went out the window. Now you're on top of a horse and everything changes. But then you fell right back into practice, practice, practice. But my dad one day, against my mom's will, My mom went to work and my dad was downstairs roping the dummy head. And when she came back home from work, he was still downstairs roping the dummy head. And he had roped that dummy head the whole day in blocks of 100 and roped it 1,000 times in a row without missing. I say all that for this reason. Determination and purpose can take you far. and don't give up no matter what, no matter what. But we're going to discuss three areas in our lives that we should work on this year. And in some of these, especially the older adults here, they may just be small areas, small amounts that you need to tweak or fix. And I'll give you one more analogy here. After we got very competitive in the roping, my dad and I went to an arena just for a practice session. There were some friends of ours. There were a bunch of people there we didn't know. And we started roping, and I would miss and miss and miss and miss. And I was getting frustrated, missing. My dad was even looking at me like, what is your problem? And on the last time that I missed, A gentleman came off the one chute gate and was walking over to me, and I was gathering up my rope. And he walked up to me, and I knew who he was. His name was Roger Rasner. Roger Rasner was a professional team roper, knew his stuff. And he came over to me, and as he came over to me, he pulled my boot out of the stirrup, and he started adjusting my stirrups. He said, you want some advice? I said, I'll take anything. And he moved my stirrup down one notch. He went around to the other side, took my boot out, and dropped it one notch. He goes, now you're all ready. And he said, what's happening is, he said, you're all bunched up. And he said, you're bunched up. He said, your horse is confused. He said, your horse knows what to do. But he said, you're getting shifted in a way that he does not understand what you want. He said, it's throwing everything off. OK. So I backed into the box. The next five steers, we roped and completed. Just by one small adjustment. But had I not taken his advice, and listen to me young people, had I not taken his advice, the risk of injury is high. Let that sink in your head. But the first thing we're gonna discuss tonight is Bible study. Notice I said Bible study, not Bible read. I think it's great that we have the Bible schedules in the back about reading through the year. We must. I think once in your life, your eyes should fall on every word of our Bibles. But when I say study, I mean get into that book and study it. And I think one of the great about it is, let's turn in our Bibles to 2 Timothy 3.16. It says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, truly furnished unto all good works. Now you know, I told pastor, I said, that verse alone, there's like six or seven messages right there. But you know, if you just read that through, you miss a lot of good points that that verse is telling you. And I love word study. I love to take a word that we just read and don't really comprehend what it's saying. My dad does that too, and he did a study on the word will, W-I-L-L. And he said, don't change how you read your Bible when you study what that word actually is saying. I won't get into it, because then we want to be out of here by midnight. But another word in this verse right here, that word throughly, T-H-R. Do a word study on A lot of versions will use it as T-H-O-R, which is incorrect. That's the power of this book and why they wrote it the way they did. They knew exactly what they were writing. But what I'm getting at is I've gone toe-to-toe with people over that word. But that's called study your Bible. Know it. Because when someone comes to you, you better have the ammo to fight it and be able to defend it. And the sad part is a lot of Christians today really do not know this book. And one of the why study, I think it lets God speak to us. We call it God's word. It's his word. He's speaking to us through this book. And that's why instead of just reading through it, and I think it's great, as I said, to read through it for the year. But a lot of times we close it before he's had, as the pastor said it this morning, we close it before he's had a chance to really talk to us. And the worst thing we can do, and I'll be getting into this, the worst thing we can do is rush God. God doesn't work on our time. And God wants to speak to us in his time. And I think a lot of times we fly through our Bible without really understanding or really getting alone with God. It lets us learn the mind of God. It lets us learn. I don't think we'll ever understand fully the mind of God, but I think, you know, I love to read when Jesus Christ speaks because it really, I think you saw his love and how much he wanted the people to understand what he was saying. It also equips us. We're gonna talk about this part in the third point, but I'm gonna give you a little teaser on it. The third point is about soul winning. think every Christian ought not to be afraid to soul win. And I think a lot of times we are afraid to soul win because we are afraid of getting asked a question we don't know the answer to. And I think we are afraid to go toe-to-toe with Mormons. I think we are afraid to go toe-to-toe with Jehovah's Witnesses. We are afraid to go toe-to-toe with Catholics. We have the truth. We should not be afraid. It's all a matter of learning how to use it. I used to work with a bunch of Mormons. I keep saying Muslims, but a bunch of Mormons. And the one day, the one said to me, well, we think the same because we use the King James Bible. I said, no, we do not think the same. I said, you use the King James Bible until it disagrees with your Book of Mormon. And I said, we use the King James Bible because we're following what the Lord said, what God said. stock in what, who's the guy who started, Joseph Smith said, I said, so you are putting Joseph Smith over God and God's word. And he didn't know what to say. You know, to go toe to toe with a Catholic, one of the biggest questions you can say to a Catholic is, does baptism save you? I guarantee they're going to say yes. All you have to do is ask them this, okay, if baptism saves you, why was Christ baptized? They will look at you like a deer in the headlights. And when they look at you like that, zero in on it. Then say the thief on the cross didn't get baptized. And Jesus Christ himself said today, thou shall be with me in paradise. He didn't say, well, you better get down quick and get baptized. There's ways that you can make them think, I'm not saying do it out of, be arrogant about it. But we need to be strong with it. We need to know this book. And the only way we're gonna know this book is to study it. And if there's something that you don't know, talk to pastor. I don't endorse new Christians studying out other religions. Because you run the risk of getting confused. Or you run the risk of getting, siding up with them. That's why as older Christians, I think we need to know how they believe. When those Jehovah's Witnesses come to the door, we shouldn't hide in the bathroom, we should open it up and say, let's go. I guarantee they won't come back. You keep hiding in the bathroom, they're gonna come back. So, the other thing that it does is studying the Bible is turn to Psalm 119, 105. I love Psalm and Proverbs. In verse 105 we read, the very verse that we learn as a child, is thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. There's another one of those verses that, don't just read it, think about what it's saying, a light unto my path. And most of you deer hunters in here, you'll know, you go out in the woods at night with a flashlight, you're not looking like this as you walk. You're looking like this. I used to hunt in Colorado. Colorado rattlesnakes are everywhere. And I guarantee when you go walking to your stand, you're looking like this because there's rattlesnakes. And so that light is at your feet. This Bible here will shield everything else out around you and guide your path. You're gonna walk through some hard, difficult times in teens again. Your life is about to hit you real soon. you're on what the average age is, 14, 15, 16 years old, real soon you're gonna be getting married, you're gonna have your families, you're gonna have your life, and it's gonna hit you between the eyes. You better have that lamp. You better have that light to guide you. Because if you don't, I promise you, you're gonna marry the wrong person, you're gonna make wrong decisions, and then you're gonna get to be 30, 40, 50 years old and think, how in the world did I get here? I promise you it's a law of God. I promise you that. And it usually starts, that downward spiral starts right now. I grew up in church. I grew up hearing the great, one of the greatest preachers, one of my favorites was Ron Comfort. We're all familiar with him. I grew up and I would listen to him preach and walk out of that service. You know why? Because I didn't purpose. I didn't purpose to listen to what this book said. verse in this point here. Turn to Hebrews 4.12. I have really enjoyed studying for this because this verse here depicts what I'm about to say. Hebrews 4.12, it says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and the marrow, and it is certain of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The word that we fly over is that small word, quick. My dad had a horseshoeing business, and he taught me the trade when I was in my late teens, and I'm glad he did. But you know, on a horse's foot, there's an area that they refer to as the quick. That's where it's alive. And when you trim their feet, you get into that quick, he's gonna let you know you're in an area he doesn't like. And so when you read that verse now, It's quick. It's alive. This book is alive. It's the only book in the world that's alive. When it speaks to you, it's as good as it was when it first was written as it is today. It's alive. And it's the only book like that. And these are the ideas. I've given you a little taste of word study. When you read it, don't just go over words like that. Look them up. Because then when you go back to it, it makes sense as to what it's saying. The second point that we're going to talk about tonight that we're going to purpose in our heart this year is prayer. I know, like I said, I'm speaking to a praying church. I really believe that. But I believe there's always room to do better. If you don't pursue or purpose to do better, you will go backwards. Eventually, you'll go backwards. Why? because something's going to come in your life. Something's going to happen. You're going to say, I don't have time to pray today. So you don't. Then the next day, I still don't have time to pray today. So the next thing you know, you're a week that you've not prayed. You've gone backwards. And so this is a point that we need to purpose. Nothing is getting in the way of my prayer life. Nothing. And I'm speaking to myself. I am guilty of this. I get up sometimes in the morning, I'm late for work, or I've got a long day. Well, God will understand. The pastor said this morning, no, he doesn't understand. He wants to meet with us. But turn to Psalm 66, 18. And this is a verse that's very pointed. And it means exactly what it says. to misread it. It says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. I want you to read that aloud with me next time. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Remember I said about my dad, looking up that word will. If you look up and study the word will, that verse really comes alive. Iniquity is sin. Iniquity can be lying. Iniquity can be gossip. Iniquity can be murder. It can be anything. God does not put a label on it. If there's something in your life that you know that you are ignoring getting right, he doesn't hear you. Now, here's the problem with that. God says, I will supply all your need. That's a promise. That doesn't mean he's happy with you. Let me give you an example. I was a terrible student in school. I was not stupid. I was just, I did not apply myself. My sisters, straight A's. I was the bad one. And when report card day came, my mom would sit there with report cards by my dad's plate. My sisters would be on top and they'd be eating and happy and everything. My stomach would be churning because I knew mine was on the bottom of the pile. I knew he was upset at me. I could have gotten straight Fs, and that teacher on the back would have written, your son is just as dumb as a rock, but he is trying. My dad would have said, you're dumb as a rock, but I love you. But they would write on the back of that report card, he does not apply himself. He's the class clown, blah, blah, blah. And that would just make my dad flaming mad. Now here's the key what I'm trying to get at. I still had dinner that night. I still had clothes on my back. I still had a roof over my head, but my father was not happy with me. And that's the same thing when we sin, we think we're okay because my life's good. I don't think you realize how much power we've lost because of that sin. And that's what we're gonna get into here in this section here. Turn then to Isaiah 59 verses one and two. Isaiah is another one of those books that just kind of puts it there at you. It says in Isaiah 59 verse 2, or verse 1, we'll start there. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. Next word, but. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, that he will not hear. Young people, listen to me. He will not hear you. You got out with your parents. You're fighting with your parents. You're fighting with your brothers and sisters. You're living your life as you don't care. He's not hearing a word you're saying. And then you wonder why your life is a mess. I guarantee it's like I said, you're starting to tread. You're starting to trail of going down that road of ignoring God. And the longer you go on it, I promise you, it'll get worse and worse and worse. The thing that's interesting about this verse is, I keep getting back to this, don't just fly through your Bible. Look at verse two again where it says, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face. Your sins hid his face. He didn't hide his face. Your sins are what hid his face from you. And the other thing that's amazing to me is the first verse, he's telling you, I can hear you. I will hear you, I will listen to you, but you got junk in your life. You're a vessel that I want to fill, but you've got so much junk in that vessel that you need to get out before I can speak to you and use you. So I think it's time to get serious about our prayer life. Turn to James 5.16. James 5.16. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Effectual means successful, but the fervent means displaying a passionate intensity. Now this is where we're gonna get down to the rubber meets the road and then we'll get on to the final point. When I say pray, I think once we get our lives cleaned up, I believe we are guilty of not really getting a hold of God like He wants us to. God wants to hear, if there's another verse that I brought up here, Ephesians 3.20. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. He wants to do supernatural things in our life, but I believe we have dead prayer lives and we're not getting ahold of him like we should. How do we get ahold of him? It's gonna take effort. I don't think we can just do what I call meal prayers. Lord, thank you for this day. Bless this food to my body. Please help me feel better and bless all the people that aren't saved. That's where a lot of our prayers are. I'm talking a prayer where you get up in the morning at two o'clock in the morning, you say, wow, yeah, wow, get ahold of God. I like to think of it this way. Two o'clock in the morning, most of America is asleep. You got them all to yourself. Kind of an interesting thought. We need to be serious about this. And I think even husbands and wives, try this. I've done this and it's an amazing thing to do. Get your kids involved. Just pick a night where you have nothing going on the next day and pray through the night. And I know that hair lips a lot of people, but you know you can do it. and this is how you do it. Make a prayer list up, a detailed prayer list, section it off, and then pray for 15 minutes. One person prays for 15 minutes, the other person prays for the other 15 minutes. Take a break, discuss some things, and then go back to it, take another section. Next thing you know, there's 15 minutes, it'll turn into 20, 25 minutes. Get your kids involved in it. Say, tonight, kids, we're gonna pray through the night if you wanna join us at 10 o'clock or so. But get your kids involved in getting busy and learning how to hone their prayer life and to get serious about it. But we, I don't think we put the effort in like we could. And I think when you, I'm a big fan of fasting. I think fasting helps you really get in tune with just forsaking everything about that day and just getting ahold of God. You know, I think one of the The enemies of prayer are we're too busy. We are too busy. And when I say too busy, if you can say to yourself, I am too busy to pray, I think you need to look at your daily life and figure what do I need to change so that I can spend time with God. And if it means getting up at two o'clock in the morning, do it. No questions. He doesn't understand us not speaking to him. The second thing is unbelief and doubt. robs us of our prayer, that we do not believe he can do it. We just read a verse that I'm exceedingly abundant above all that you ask or think. But we are guilty of not really going after him. 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and will heal their land. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face. I think there's a lot to it than just a little prayer here and there. When was the last time you took an hour and prayed? When was the last time when you got done praying your face was wet? because you just sought the Lord and you didn't want to let him go. And when you were done, you felt like I really met with the Lord today, tonight. That's the kind of prayer he wants to hear. And this leads me into my final point. Our prayer list is filled with people that we want to see saved. I believe he wants to answer those prayers. I think it's a prayer that God, I mean, think of it this way. If I said to Lord, Lord, you've laid this person on my heart. Give me the opportunity to talk to them. Do you honestly think God's up there going, nah, not gonna answer that one? No. He wants us to fervently seek him. But here's the problem. We can go after those kind of prayers, but here is what needs to change first. And I've had this happen to me. And it happened on Brother Olson's missionary conference that we had. Brother England, actually turning your hymn books to 844. And we're on the third point here now of soul winning. This song I have never heard before. And Brother England had us sing it before the second night I believe it was of messages. And the thing that amazed me, I talked to Pastor about it, that Brother England does not converse with the preacher as to what's being preached. He picks the songs. And so many times, you've probably noticed this, how many times those songs are perfect for the message. That is not by chance. And it's something we shouldn't take lightly. God's working here. But I want you to, when we opened this song up, I had been having some, the messages up to that point were really hitting my heart. And the Lord had really burdened my heart for some people I know. I never heard it before, but I read the title and I didn't even have to sing the song. My heart already was just broken. But when we got into it, read along as I read these, I'm not gonna sing them. Say, Lord, lay some soul upon my heart and love that soul through me. And may I faithfully do my part to win that soul for thee. The second verse, Lord, there are souls that I should win, lost souls for whom you died. And may I never draw back or sin with fear or foolish pride. Third verse, this is the one that got me. Lord, may I love as you have loved the souls of those I know. and grant me power from heaven above by love for them to show. We need to get serious. I am all for giving out tracts. And it's amazing to me when you don't have them in your pocket, you don't get that little small voice telling you give this person a track. You don't have them. But it amazes me, I told the pastor, it amazes me when you stuff your pockets full, how many times you're at Lowe's or Home Depot or restaurant or McDonald's, how many times you get to give that person a track. That's the Holy Spirit talking to you, give that person a track. Think of this, that may be that person's only chance ever to hear the gospel. Think of that, let that sink in as we get into this point. Their only chance when we ourselves have sat for years at times and heard the gospel over and over and over and over. That's why I say you young people do not take for granted where you are sitting tonight. There are kids right now that are out doing whatever. That their parents don't care to have them in church. And one day those parents are gonna stand before them, we're gonna talk about this and give an answer. And those kids are gonna ask their parents, why didn't you have me in church? So the last one we're gonna talk about is soul winning. The, and I, oh, here it is right here. I have a burden for the lost. Okay, I'm gonna finish my story here. As we sang that song, Dave Olson got up and preached. And this is what got me. His second point, if you remember it, he looked out here and he said, have someone on your heart, have a burden for someone you know. And it went right along with that song that he brought up. And he said, I'm not against tracks. And remember him saying to us, everyone here right now can have someone on your mind that you know is lost. Immediately, I had 10 very close people that the Lord just put on my heart. And my prayer since then has given me that opportunity. I'm here, I'm enlisting, I want to tell them But what's happening to me though, when I did that, is it doesn't happen the next day. Because as Brother Sean said, God's a good chess player. When we make that kind of a request, we have no idea what he's doing behind the scenes in that person's life. To make that time available for me, but also what he's doing here. because the more I'm praying, the more he's holding back in answering that prayer, the more zeal, the more fire, the more determination I'm getting. Lord, I'm not gonna quit. And it gets back to that point about the character of the man is what it takes to make him stop. I'm not gonna quit. I'm not gonna quit praying to you. And I believe sometimes he holds off just to see how serious we are. Can you imagine if once we prayed one prayer and he answered our prayers? We wouldn't pray, we got what we need. But when you pray for something to the point that you're sick to the stomach, and when he finally answers it, you know that feeling that you got ahold of God and God answered your prayer. That's what we have to have. We have to give out our tracts. We have to get, but I believe we, got a little ahead of myself here. We have to have a burden for the lost. And I think we get so used to them walking by us every day. And here's why I believe that happens. I don't think eternity to us is real yet. I think it's kind of a fuzzy thing that someday it's going to happen. But it's going to happen as real as I am standing here. It's going to happen as real as I am standing here. People are going to stand before God himself at the throne of God. and I don't believe they're gonna be looking at them. I believe they're gonna be on their face. And I believe we are going to witness that day. Turn in your Bibles to Revelations, I'm almost done here. Revelations 20. Verse 11. It says this, I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And this is the verse that should get everyone. And whosoever, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire. If you look back at verse number 12, He says, the books were open, which is the book of life. And another book was open, which is the book of life. I believe it's like this. He had their life laid out before him, but then he had the book of life right here. He read everything about their lives. You're guilty of this, you've done this, this was great, but this is where I'm gonna judge you from, is your name here. Is your name here? And I ask you this, is your name here? And the sad thing is, I believe we as Christians will witness that event. And I believe we're gonna see people that we knew, people that we had the chance to give the gospel to, people we did give the gospel to. But I don't think we're gonna stand there and say on the ones that we did give the gospel to, they're rejected. Well, I told them, no, you're not gonna say a word. But here's the reason I say we're going to believe and I think we're going to feel sorrow. Turn over to chapter 21 of Revelation. Now I'm speculating here, but I'm just going to read it like it says it. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. Next verse, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. he has to wipe our tears away. Because when he wipes those tears away, I believe the loved ones that we saw cast in the lake of fire, we lost all memory of that person. We have to lose memory of that person, as sad as that sounds. Because in heaven, there is no sorrow. In heaven, you're not gonna sit here and think, well, I wish so and so was here. So think of this, and this should put a fire under you. to think of a loved one that you know, not only spending eternity in hell, but out of your mind forever. The other thing that I saw some of the footage of this is what's going on in California. Awful. I saw the one video cam of a woman driving her car through nothing but flames of fire. And I thought to myself, how horrible. That's gonna be, and the screaming that she was doing. And I can't imagine a person standing before a holy God and he announces to you, I never knew you. And for eternity, and I'm talking to people on live stream, eternity, and I said it in my testimony, when a billion years goes by, eternity will have just begun. You know, when you read this verse here about we stand before God, that kind of flies in the face of purgatory. There is no purgatory. And eternity in hell has to be eternal, because if it's not eternal, then you served a certain point, and then you're done. You had a point in your eternal life. It has to be eternal, because then it flies in the face of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, if you can get out. I close with this story, this account. In the early 90s, I was supervisor of a pharmaceutical, and I was a supervisor in a maintenance department. There was a group of guys there, they're good guys, good hard workers, and very respectful. And the one, they had their own rock group that they did together. But the one day I went into one of the rooms, and the guy was running an encapsulation machine. These machines are very, very loud. And he didn't know I was there. I was looking at the equipment log. And next to the equipment log was a stack of CDs. And the top CD had a grotesque image and a painting, an artist's depiction of hell and bodies falling into hell. And these are the two words written on the top of the CD. Hell awaits. I'll say it again. All that was said on that CD was, hell awaits. By now he knew I was there. He turned around and he saw me looking at this jacket. And he turned and he shut his machine off. He goes, you know, if you want to borrow that, you can. I was not amused by it. I said, Ryan, the only truth that that CD has in it is those two words. And he scoffed at me. And he turned his machine on and went back to work. About a week later, Another one of the guys that they associate with, his name was Tony. Good guy, hard worker, very friendly, easy to talk to. He came up to me and he said this. He said, man, I'm looking for overtime. If you got any overtime, he said, I'll take it. I said, actually, this Saturday I do. I'm working on a machine. You're welcome to give me a hand. So he came Saturday morning at 7 o'clock. We worked from 7 to 12. It was just him and I in that whole plant. No machines running. And for five hours, we did nothing but small talk. Now listen to what I'm about to say. As we got to the time clock, I said to Tony, hey, Tony, why don't you come to church with me tomorrow? He goes, yeah, it sounds like fun. I might do that. I don't have anything going. I'll be there. I said, great. So I sat in that back pew waiting, waiting on Sunday morning. He never showed up. I was very disappointed. Monday morning, I got there. And Tony had a best friend. His name was Jason. We called him JJ, equally as fun, easygoing guy. They were roommates together. And he worked there also. He came across the parking lot. And I said, hey, JJ, how you doing? And he looked at me. And he said, you didn't hear. I said, here what? He said, Tony was killed Saturday night. He went to a bar, got drunk, high rate of speed, running his car, his truck along a side road to Interstate I-25, which runs north and south in Colorado. High rate of speed, missed a bend. They estimated his truck rolled six times, ejecting him out the rear window up onto I-25, where he was killed instantly. 23 years old. All I did was ask in the church. That's great, but that's not witnessing. I was determined after that, that wasn't gonna happen, so I started witnessing to the guys. And about two weeks later, Jason, his best friend, got saved. Stood next to my truck after work. He got saved. I will never forget what he said to me. And he got saved too. This kid went down and got baptized. He really got it. This is what he said to me. Because I think it resonated and he understood. He said, did you tell this to Tony? I said no. I wasn't about to tell him I didn't have the chance because I did. I said, no, I didn't. Listen to what he said. He said, I grew up with Tony, and I know Tony, and he would have listened. We got to get serious. Tony was 12 hours from eternity when he punched out that day. Everyone here, including you teens, you're 12 hours one day from eternity. People we know are 12 hours from eternity one day in their life. We don't know when that is. That was 30 years ago this past October. For 30 years, I've enjoyed my life, and Tony has been in hell. And the only relief he will get is when God calls hell up out of hell to be judged before the great white throne judgment. That is the only relief he will have, only to be judged and cast into the lake of fire. This is what I'm trying to say, is we need to look at our Bibles. We need to read this and really take into consideration that this will happen. And we gotta get busy. We've got loved ones. It is worth getting up in the middle of the night and showing God, I'm serious about this. I want them saved. And I'm so serious about this. If there is anything on my heart, all three of these points all tie together. If there's anything in my life, Lord, dump it out. I'm dumping it out right here and now. I want to be filled because I want to be used of you. I'm serious about this. People every day are dying and going to hell. I believe there are people that still want to hear. There are still people getting saved. I think we get so tied up into, well, the Lord's coming back soon. He is. We don't know, though, when that is. There's one more point I want to make, and this is directed also at the teens, especially the teens. You make a point like this to change your life, I promise you one thing is going to happen. Then comes the devil. And that gets back to where we were saying in the very beginning about purposing and not quitting. We can't quit because things come up in our lives that alter that, that take that away from us, that make us stop. And I guarantee you make these kind of commitments to make these kind of changes, to make these kind of, I'm not quitting. He's gonna try to get you to quit. If he was bold enough to tempt Jesus Christ, we are nothing to him. He will try. And He knows your weaknesses. And you know your weaknesses. And when you know your weaknesses, you gotta say, Lord, I struggle with this. Give me the power. And He will. But if we don't seek Him, if we don't want Him next to us, God is not gonna throw Himself on us. That's why that word, and like Daniel did, about purposing, is so important. to not quit, no matter what. We're gonna fail. And when you fail, get back up again. It's like I said in the roping, many times we failed. I could have thrown it in that day, but we didn't stop. We continued and continued and continued. And for nearly 20 years, had a great relationship with my dad that I look back now, and they're good memories. But because we determined in the beginning, we weren't gonna quit. And same with our Christian lives. Don't quit. I'm guilty of it. I'm chief of it right here.