It's only been a couple weeks since the new year came. It's been a weird month for me, anyway. I was on crutches at the beginning of the week. Thank goodness my legs feel good now. I couldn't eat for three weeks because of my teeth. And then I had the wisdom teeth pulled, and it was worse. And then everybody was sick, and I didn't feel good. It was a tough week. But that is nothing compared to what Sean and Lauren's been going through. That family, God bless you. You know, there's a book out full of stories of people's lives. It's called the Bible. Did you ever hear of it? In that book, there's all kinds of things written about people and what those people went through and what they endured. You don't see a whole lot of blessings and joy. You see a whole lot of troubles and trials. A whole lot of pain and sorrow. One thing common through it all, they all got through it with God's help. And not only did they get through it with God's help, they were stronger when they came out on the other side. and God got the glory for it. And because God got the glory for it, He shined in other people's eyes, looked to the light where they went through and they allowed God in their lives to get the honor and glory for it, and other people came to know the Lord. And that's what it's really all about, coming to know the Lord. coming to know by hearing the Word of the Lord. And that's why we have a book that is not written by man, it's written by God Himself. You might say, man wrote it. Yeah, it wasn't really them. The Bible says holy men wrote as they were moved to write by the Holy Ghost. God's real, He's a God of miracles, He's powerful, He's awesome, He's so good, He's so kind. Yes, He's scary too. You know why? Because He's real. He doesn't play around. He doesn't play games. He tells it like it is. And boy, does he tell you like it is when he tells you he loves you. Boy, does he tell you like it is that he said hell is real and the day you die, if you do not have salvation, you will be dropped into a place you don't ever want to go. He came to save. He came to seek and save that which is lost. He came to open his arms for everyone. And in this book, there's so many people that have gone through so many things. And you can read it and you can relate. And here we are today and there's so many people in this room and so many people are going through so many things. And I know about most of it. And I'm praying and I know that if you'll just do what they did and not give up, you'll see God get you through the other side. He'll go through the fires with you. He'll go through the floods with you. He'll go, you're not going to be alone. Everybody wants God to put the fire out. He says, no, I'm just going to go with you through it. And you're going to learn more in that fire, in that trouble, in that trial than you ever were anywhere else. And that's what it's about. It's about learning. It's about changing. Not completely changing everything about you, but changing the bad things and adding the good things. You have qualities about you that are amazing, but we have also qualities about us that hold us down. We have things that come in our lives and set us back. We have, sometimes it's mostly our own doing, but we end up digging holes and we fall in it. And then it takes forever to get out. And you're wondering, when's this gonna come? And some of us are like the hamster on the wheel. We just keep doing the same things over and over and over and over, and our life goes nowhere. Well, that's not what God wants, and that's not what God intends. God wants us to have a good quality life. Now what you might think of good and quality life may not be exactly what God says is good and quality life, but I'll take what God says is good and quality life over what you think any day. Because God knows what you need and he knows what's going to make you happy, really happy. It's called joy. Joy comes from within. You can have joy in the deepest, darkest moments of your life. But you can't have happiness unless things are happening that are good. So as soon as happiness goes away, it's when things that are happening aren't good, your happiness is gone. But joy remains when you know the Lord. The reason I'm saying all this is because as I know people are going through so many things and that song just touched me, I thanks a lot. I have lots of things in my eyes all the time. I love the Lord. He loves me. Why? Because he loves me. He loves me just the way I am. Loves me with all my faults. But he's telling me and he's teaching me, Michael, you can be better. You can be stronger. You can be wiser. You can be everything that I said you can be in this book. And not for you, but for them. And that's what we have this Bible for, not just for you, but for your children. So your children can have a real father and a real mother. So your wife can have a real husband and your husband can have a real wife. Because in all reality, none of us know how to be one. I've learned how to live by TV. I thought act like John Wayne and you're a man. It didn't work out, even though I like John Wayne, but it didn't work out that way. But God, our Father, and the creator of you, and the lover of you, and the one who cares about you, He's given us things, and He's put names to them. Things that I want to be. And this new year coming up, the title of the message is, Things That I Desire. You may not desire them, but these are my desires and what I want. It's not a New Year's resolution. It's something that I know is capable. I know that it's attainable. I know that it's real and I know that I can really truly get it. But I got to do some things to get it. I want you to look with me in chapter 18 of Proverbs. We're going to read the first couple of verses down, the first four verses. Now I want you to see the first verse. It says, Through desire, through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. I want you to realize that there's the King James Bible that I know is from God, and that's all I use. Whatever Bible you use, you better at least believe in it. I know what I have, that's the voice of the Lord. But most other translations will say like a stiff-necked person, not a good person. Here, this is a person that through desire, they separate themselves unto God so that they can intermeddle with wisdom. They want to get involved in what wisdom's involved in. They want to know wisdom. In other words, they want to be wise. And you know, I have seven things that I want to be this year, and God talks about them all through the scriptures. And I even pray, start reading your Bible. Really start, man. Start. Don't give up on it. It is the word of life. It is the strength that you'll need. It is the joy that you can get. It is the peace. It is the knowledge. It's the wisdom. It's everything any human being would ever need is right in this book. And it's the Word of God. And that's what Jesus is, the Word of God. Because everyone needs Jesus. You know why? Because He's God. and he knows everything, and he loves you, and he's got a preparing a place for you. He doesn't want you to be alone. He doesn't want you to be unhappy. He wants everything to be good for you. He said, I've come that you might have life and life more abundant, the abundant life. But you're not going to get it just by hearing it. There's some things you got to do. It says, this man through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. It's desire. It's what his desire is. His desire was to have wisdom. And you know what? We'll do many things for our desire. The desires of our heart will make us do some crazy things. I know, and I'm not talking all you, but I know as someone that's been down that road and has helped many people off of that road, when you are a drug addict or an alcoholic or whatever it is, you have desire to do that drug, you'll do anything to get it. you'll go anywhere to get it. You'll be in the worst neighborhoods at the middle of the night that you would never go to just to get it. When you have a desire for something bad and something evil, you'll get it because your desire is going to make you want to get it. And that's what I want you to think about my desire for this year. And I'm going to tell you what it is in a minute, but right here, it starts off through desire. A man having separated himself. If we have, if we really want what we, what we say we want, there's some things we're going to have to do to get it. And one of them is separation. We're going to have to separate ourselves from certain people and certain places and certain things. Because those people, places, and things have held you back, held you down, and hurt you. It hasn't helped you. And you might say, but they're my friends. Well, then you don't really want what God's going to give. We have to make some sacrifices in our lives that get some changes in our lives. And I know that if we really have a desire to do it, we'll find a way to do it, but you gotta be willing, you gotta actually have it to actually separate yourself from the things that will hinder you, that hinder your growth. Listen to me, I'm gonna tell you this, and listen up, and I'm not even gonna charge you, but I should charge everyone 50 bucks for what I'm about to say. Some of yous don't need it. If you smoke and you're born again Christian, you won't grow. The Holy Spirit will not allow you to grow anymore than you've already led up to. There always comes a point in the child of God's life where no matter what they're doing, God will bless them as long as they're following and learning. He'll bless them and they'll grow, but there's always a ceiling. And then the Holy Spirit will say, okay, son, daughter, now it's time to separate that. Get that out of your life, and then we'll go further. And if you never get that out of your life, that's as far as you go. And the rest of your life, you're wondering why I'm not growing. Why am I not being like the Bible says? How come I don't have wisdom? How come I don't have knowledge? How come I don't have joy? How come I don't have peace? The peace, Jesus Christ is the prince of peace. He owns peace. If you don't have peace, it's because you're far from him. I know because I've been there. And the easiest things can get us far. But he said, you have to have desire and you have to separate yourselves if you really want wisdom, because wisdom is the principle thing. You know, Jesus said this in John chapter 17, when you go home and it's snowing, maybe you have a fireplace, put it on, but I'm putting eagles on. And I hope that they have that snow game like they did against, was it Detroit that game? Where McCoy, not McCoy, it was Westbrook. Ran for like 200 and some yards in the snow, it was fun. See, I'm sorry, but I like the Eagles, and I'm a football player, I played football my whole life, and I hope they win. I hope they win. I'll be cheering, either way I'm gonna be yelling. I will, it's just the Eagles, you gotta yell at them. But the thing that I want to say is in John 17, Jesus Christ, the Lord himself, he knew he was going to the cross. He knew that he was going to have to drink the cup of sin, become your sin in him. He knew that he was gonna be beaten, whipped, tortured, nailed to a cross. He knew all that. And in that whole chapter, he's crying out his prayer. The whole chapter is his prayer to God, his father. And the thing that he cared about the most, you know what it was? It was you and me. And he cried out and he said this one part in John 17, 19, he said, for their sakes, Father, I sanctify myself. Not for me, but for them, that they also might be sanctified. Jesus set himself apart. Jesus didn't go where he could have went. Jesus didn't do what he could have done. Jesus didn't have fun when he could have had fun. He could have done whatever he wanted to do, but he made sure he sanctified himself. He separated himself from things of life. He didn't have a girlfriend. He didn't have a wife. He didn't have a home. He didn't have a family. He didn't even have a place to sleep. And he separated himself just for one reason. so that he can be so sanctified that he can sanctify you. And he says this, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And if Jesus separated himself for us, in this new year, I want to sanctify myself for you. I want to be used by God for you. I want to see the blessings of God on you. I'll be honest with you. You know what makes me happy? When church is over on Sunday and there's a lot of people missing, after I'm done preaching everything I have inside of me, I'm very low and I'm down and I'm depressed because I feel like I'm not doing a good enough job and blah, blah, blah. But when I come in the church, I see people here that I haven't seen before and new visitors in the back. And last week we had all those visitors. I can't tell you even this week when I was on crutches and couldn't eat because I had joy. I was fired up because of you. So when I think about God's telling me, you know what makes me happy? When you guys are happy. You know what makes me excited? When you're excited. You know what makes me feel like I'm on top of the world? It's when you know the Lord and you're on top of the world. So therefore, because of that, I desire this year to be wise. I want to be a wise man. The Bible talks about the wise man all the time. I want to be called that. I want to be known as that. I don't want to just look at it and read about it and talk about other people. I want to be a wise man. But I have to separate myself from things, and certain things, and I have to separate myself to God, to be able to be a wise man. It says, through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh an inner metal with all wisdom. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17, the Bible tells the people of the church, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. He tells us, come out from among them. Maybe you're hanging with some people that is just not gonna help you. Depends on what your desire is. I know my desire is to be better. And also in Jeremiah 17, well, let's look at this second verse. In verse two, it says, a fool has no delight in understanding. See, that's the problem, Tony, is people just don't, they don't care. No delight in understanding. People that know the Lord and have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. People that have gotten a hold of the Word or the Word's got a hold of them. There's different, something different about them. And they got a little pepper in their stepper. They got a little joy. They're a little excited. Matter of fact, they think about church. They never thought about church. They're, like, excited to come. See Chris back there? And Nate? Man, they got me fired up. Nate got me all fired up. Some young kid. And he's telling me, man, that was good. God's good. I can't wait. I can't wait to bring my friends. Woo! He just lit my wick. I'm on fire because of him. And because God's doing something in his life. And I see Joe. And I see Joe. And I see Tony. And the rest of you guys. And getting on fire for God. And I'm like, yeah, man. This is awesome. I like this. But it says a fool has no delight in understanding. It says, but that his heart may discover itself. A fool doesn't care about learning the things from God. It just wants to discover itself, just wants to have fun. It says, but his heart to discover himself. Think about that. Every one of us have a heart. Every one of us have desires. Every one of us wants things. Every one of us likes things. Some people don't like certain things. Some people like others. We're all different, amen? But we're not different when it comes to God. We need Him, He doesn't need us. And when you get to know Him, that's when you realize, wow, He's pretty awesome. And so you want to know Him more. And the more you know Him, the more you start to fall in love with Him. And the more you know Him, He starts to just fill you and give you and strengthen you and help you. Because I know you haven't needed any help. This poor family, they're going to write a book. It's a bestseller and I can't wait. Matter of fact, when the movie comes, I'll play myself. No, I won't. Just get Kevin Costner to play me. I love him too. The Bible says that a fool doesn't have the light and understanding, but all he wants is his heart to discover itself. I want you to think about your heart and your desires, what your heart really follows after, what your desires really are. Because whatever your desire really is, you're gonna get it. And I think about the heart, and everybody thinks, well, this is how I feel, but what does the Bible say about the heart? In Jeremiah 17, nine, it says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It says, who can know it? He says that they want to know their heart. Who can know it? So you can't trust your heart. Your heart changes. One minute you like me, next minute you want to kill me. Thank you very much. That'll change soon. Don't worry. No. One minute you're happy, one minute you're not. I'm just saying you can't follow your heart. Can someone say amen? Thank you. So he says a fool doesn't delight in understanding. And then it says in verse 3, when the wicked comes, then comes also contempt. Wicked isn't a wicked person. Wicked is a wicked spirit. Because the Bible tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of spiritual darkness and rulers in high places. When you have a problem, contempt. Keep on doing it. Amen. Amen. Let me give you the seven things I want, desire this year. And I'm just going to give them to you quick. I want to be wise this year. I want to be known as a wise man. At least think I am. I want to be prudent this year. I'm being prudent, man. The word prudence in the Bible, the word wise in the Bible. I want to be a righteous man. I want to be a righteous man. I want to be an upright man. I want to be pure. I want to be pure-hearted. I want to be pure. I'm sick of feeling I'm pure. I'm sick of feeling just regular. I don't want to be regular. I want to be a Christian. I want to be a child of God. I want to be a man of God, like I read about in the Bible. And I'm going to have to do some things and not do some things to achieve these goals of mine. I want to be faithful. I wanna be godly. You know, these seven things, wise man, prudent man, righteous man, upright man, pure-hearted man, a faithful man, and a godly man, are all able for every one of us in here to obtain. Because God says, I'm gonna make you. if you follow me. Jesus said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Follow me and I'll make you. And that's what we, we have a God that wants us to follow him, wants us to love him, wants us to need him, and wants us to believe in him. And I'm just saying, when he says a fool has no delight in understanding, but his heart discover itself. Psalm 37 four, one of the best verses that you'll know in the Bible. Psalm 37 four. Listen to what it says. You got it up there? I never know what's up there. So it says, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of your heart. Is God a liar? Is he a deceiver? Bible says, you know what God cannot do? He cannot lie. If he says it, he has to do it. Remember that. He is so pure and holy that when he speaks and says it, it comes into existence because that's how powerful he is. He cannot lie. So if God says, if you will delight yourself also in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart. And that's what I want. I want you to have the desires of your heart this year. Don't you? Come on, be with me. Do you want the desires of your heart? Yes. Do you or don't you? Do you finally want to have what you've always wanted or thought you wanted for your whole life? Do you or don't you? Well, listen, you're not going to get it with that attitude. Thank you. I'm not going to get it. Yeah, I want it. Yeah. Sorry, Martin. Sounds like you don't even believe God. God just told you if you'll delight yourself in him, I will give you the desires of your heart. I want that. I want it. I want it for you and you and you. And you, and you, and you, and you. I want you to receive what you really want the most. Because he promised to give it to you. But he said, delight yourself in the Lord. And that's the problem, is that people don't delight themselves in God. They delight to know their own heart, to have their own fun, to do what they wanna do. And listen, I'm not here to give you any kind of preaching that's gonna convict you today. If you get convicted, that's on you by the Holy Spirit. But I'm gonna tell you that it's true that so many people, they want God, but they only follow him for a couple hours during the week. They come to church on Sunday morning, you never see him again, never hear from him again. And I'm like, what are they doing the rest of the week? I have no clue. But all I'm saying is that God said you need to separate yourself unto God. I want, I desire to be a wise and prudent man. I do. And then, and so I must delight myself in the things of the Lord. I must separate from some things and onto other things, God's things, amen. In Proverbs 18, where we are, Proverbs 18 in verse three, It says, when the wicked comes, then comes, I'm sorry, then comes also contempt and with ignominy, reproach. And I just want to let you know what that means is wicked spirit means disagreeable spirit. It means sinful. It means harmful. You're only hurting yourself. It means opposition to God's will. You see, when wickedness comes into you, you might not think it's wicked, but God says whenever your heart or spirit in your mind is opposite of what God wants for you, right there, you become an enemy of God. God, your Father, wants something for you, He loves you, and you don't want it, you want something else. Who does that make you? It makes you a little Satan. That's exactly what the devil did. God had a plan for him and he said, no, I don't want to do that. I want to do this. And I'm here to tell you, you can never, ever have the desires of your heart from God unless you're willing to trust God and follow God and just do what he wants you to do. It's not hard. It's not. And every time you do it, He blesses you. I'm telling you right now, it's the greatest thing in the world, but it means a disagreeable spirit. You know, and the Bible tells us that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities in Ephesians 6, 12. In Proverbs 10, 1, you know what it says? I love this verse. It says, a wise son makes a glad father. See, I want to be wise so I can make God happy. I've been saved for 32 and a half years. 32 and a half years, I've been a Christian. In 32 and a half years, I've done a lot of stuff. Not bad. Good. I've done a lot of things for God. A lot of people got saved. A lot of people, you know, helped a lot and all this stuff. But that's like not even the hem of the garment of what I know God can do with me. And so I want to be wise. And the Bible tells us very clearly that when I wrestle, when I have a problem, the problem's not with a person, the problem's with a spirit, an unclean spirit, a wicked spirit. The problem's with spirits out there trying to stop me from being the man that I want to be. or stop me from getting the desires of my heart, to stop you from getting the desires of your heart. So we've got to fight through that. Amen? And you know how you do that? By separating yourself. I'll tell you right now, when you separate yourself from people, places and things that are hurtful, and you separate yourself from things that are hurting you, can I get an amen? You can add whatever that is, all right? And you separate yourself. Now you have a big empty What do I do with it now? Now I gotta add something in. And that's when you start to add God into your life. And you start to add His Word. And you start to add prayer. And you start to add church attendance. Amen? And you start to add the things of God. And stop adding the things of the world. Because I'm here to tell you, the world is a liar. It's gonna tell your heart, oh you have fun. Yeah, great fun. When everything's destroyed in your life. Everything's destroyed in your life. You know, in Proverbs 10, 1, it says, a wise son makes a glad father. Proverbs 4, 7 says, wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And with all I get and get understanding also. God is saying wisdom is the number one thing you need to have. And the problem is, if wisdom is the first and most important thing to have, how come we're not wise? We keep doing the same things. We're fools. I'm foolish sometimes. I don't want to be anymore. You know what I mean? I want to be a wise man. I'm tired of looking at myself and going, you idiot. You did that again. I'm tired of that. I want to be the guy up on top of the mountain that people are coming up to and answering the question. Oh, wise man. You know, I'm joking. But I want to be a wise man. You know, it says in Proverbs 3.13, it says, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that get it understanding. For the merchandise of that wisdom is better than the merchandise of silver and gold. Wisdom and understanding, God is telling you, is way better than any money. He said money comes and money goes. And what you think you can buy with money? Oh, yeah, that's happiness. You're happy for a little bit, then it's gone and you're not happy no more. But with wisdom and understanding, you can have joy and peace and even love and all kinds of things during the worst times of your life. That little family right there, the Keeney family. I love them. You have no idea how much I love them. You have no idea what they've been going through. I can't even believe it. There's going to be a book right next to Job. It's going to be Sean, or it's going to be called Keeney. Because what they've been going through in the past few months, I just don't know what to say. But I get to know one of the heroes of my faith, and her name is Lauren, and his name is Sean. And they are the heroes in my life. They, I know, to them, they're like, yeah, right, you just don't know how bad it is. I know, but how do you think it was for everyone else? How do you think it was for King David? How do you think it was for Solomon? How do you think it was for Moses? Think everything was roses for them? Are you kidding me? People were trying to kill them every single day of their life. But the thing is this, this family has been going through so much, more than any other person I've ever heard in my life, and yet keep on going. And I can't believe you're here today. Is any of them, any of them not sick? Little better Praise the Lord. How you feeling Sean? You're handsome too. Listen when they had the movie play yourself in it. All right And every time you get a little ahead, you get far back, it's back. Ron and Robin aren't here today because their sewer backed up. I know, oh no. I was going to tell them to get your guy, and I thought, no, I better not. The guy you got. Really? Their whole house flooded with sewage. But anyway, that's nothing. That's nothing. That part is nothing. But let me just tell you what it says. It says, the merchandise of wisdom and understanding is better than any gold. Turn with me, if you would, in 1 Kings chapter 3. Turn your Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 3. And David is my favorite character in the Bible. And this is about his son, Solomon. And I just want you to know this little story in 1 Kings 3, starting in verse 5. It says, in Gideon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ask what I shall give thee. God appears to him in a dream and says to him, tell me what I can give you. Whatever you ask me, I will do it. Now look what it says. It says, and Solomon said, thou has showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee. And thou has kept for him this great kindness that thou has given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. Cause he was just made the new king. In verse seven, and now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father. Look what he says, but I'm but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen, a great people, talking about all of Israel, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude, give therefore thy servant an understanding heart. to judge thy people that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this thy so great a people?" He said, give me understanding so that I can be a good person. Give me understanding so I can be a good king. Give me understanding so I'll know what's bad and what's good and I can do the right thing. Give me wisdom and understanding to be able to rule this people. And here as a pastor, I certainly don't rule you, but I am here to feed you and to teach you. And I want more than anything to be a wise man and a prudent man and an upright man so that I can have wisdom from God to give to you. And that's what he wanted. And look what happened. It says in verse eight, Verse 9, Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord that Solomon asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hath not asked for thyself long life, neither hast thou asked riches for thyself, Nor had thou asked life of your enemies, but has asked for yourself understanding to discern judgment. And God said, behold, I have done according to thy words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall there arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which you have not asked for, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as thy father David did walk, then lengthen thy days. And Solomon awakes, and Solomon becomes the most wisest man to ever live. He was the richest man ever recorded in the history of human beings. I read a thing saying the money that he had, if we put it in today's money, it'd be over $17.5 trillion. Elon Musk and them can't even come close to how rich he was. He had, and listen, I know this is kind of crazy, he had a thousand wives. His kingdom, he married all the other king's daughters. So it was all peace everywhere. There was peace. There was no wars. Say it again? Kids? Oh, he had lots of children. But the thing is, he had every single thing a man could ever want. He had riches, fame, and fortune. He had peace. He had wisdom. He had understanding. And because of all that, he set his mind and his heart, his heart, the Bible says, to try everything. So he said, I set my heart to see what partying is going to do. And he drank, and he did this, and he did that. And he realized, he said, it just leaves me empty in vexation of spirit. So I said, let me build things. And he built big, giant towers, and buildings, and all this. And he said, he still felt empty. So he said, let me build trees and groves and flowers and and vegetable gardens. And he grew the best that there ever was. And he still didn't feel good. He said, let me try women and see what it's like having every woman and any woman I want. And he tried that and he did every single thing that his heart wanted to do. And you know what he kept saying? It's all vexation of spirit. My spirit isn't happy. I'm not I don't have joy, even though I have everything I could ever want. I'm unhappy. And at the very end, read it for yourself, in Ecclesiastes, he said, let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Solomon was allowed by God to experience anything and everything he could. And the wisest man that's ever lived tells you, follow God. Follow God, fear God, keep his commandments, and you'll be a happy person. In Proverbs 18, 15, in that same chapter, it says the heart of the prudent gets knowledge and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge. In Proverbs chapter 27, verse 12. Got it up there? Proverbs 27, 12. It's all right. If you don't, it's okay. Proverbs 27.12 says this, I love this verse. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. A prudent man, someone who is prudent, wise, and doing the right things, he's going to have something that other people won't have. He's going to see that evil's coming. He's going to see that bad's coming. He's going to see hard times are coming. He's going to see and know that what is coming, and it says, and he hides himself. I'm here to tell you right now, where is your hiding place? What if World War III was to happen tomorrow? What if Fires and earthquakes and storms. What if armies, invasions? What if the apocalypse, whatever? What if bad things are coming? Do you have a hiding place to hide, to be safe? You know what the Bible says is my hiding place? The Lord. Because I know where he's at and I go to him every day and I spend time with him every day. and because I can go to him and spend time with him, he's my hiding place. And the Bible says the prudent man foresees the evil, hides himself, but the simple people, they pass on and they are punished. And I'll tell you right now, I want to be prudent. I want to be one of those people that are prudent. Prudent just means cautious. It means circumspect. It means practical. It means wise. It means careful of the consequences of your actions and sins. So a prudent man sees, if I start doing that, I see where it's going to end up. I'm not going to do that. If I start watching that, I see where it's going to end up. I'm not going to start. I see if I start going that place, what's going to happen? Prudent man sees the evil in his life, sees what one drink will do, sees what one cigarette will do, sees what one this will do. And you might say, that's nothing. You're right. But when you're prudent and you're wise, you see what one thing can do. I know people that one drink destroyed their whole family. So you can say it's okay all you want. A prudent man knows what's going on. One drug, one hit, just one needle. That's what everybody thinks. Just one, it won't hurt. I'm just here to tell you, if you were prudent, you would know. Psalm 37. It tells us that God will give us the desires of our heart. But he also says that the little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. I desire to have my prayers answered for you. I'm tired of praying and not getting answers. I love it when prayers get answered, amen? In James chapter five, in James chapter five, verse 16, if you want to turn there or if Brian's going to put it up, I don't know, but it's a great verse. I'm going to go quick for you. And James 5.16 says, confess your faults one to another. And what? Pray for one another that you may be healed. Pray. I've been praying and praying and praying for you guys. I've been praying and praying for you, Linda and Marcy and Donna. And the people of our church that have been sick, so many sicknesses. John Sotiris, I don't know where he just went. And I looked over, he was there. I just did his daughter's funeral yesterday. Place was, yeah, Joe was there. He's 40 years old. It's like the worst thing in the world as a parent to bury your child. And the place was packed. There was a lot of people. And John had a piece about him. And I kept asking him, you okay? You okay? And he said, I'm all right. She's with the Lord. And she had a testimony that she spent time with Jesus. She knew where her hiding place was. Pray, it says, confess your faults to one another and pray for one another, listen to me, that you may be healed. And then it goes on to say, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. So if I've been praying for you guys, and I'm praying for all of you, right? I need my prayers answered so you'll get answered. Can I get an amen? I'm trying to go quick because time's out. And so I need to be righteous. The fervent prayers of a righteous man. So I not only do I need to be wise and not only do I need to be prudent and not only do I need to be righteous, but I need to be so my prayers could be heard. But you know what else? I also I need to be pure. You know, the Bible says in Proverbs 15.2, it says, I desire to be an upright man, a man of understanding that walks uprightly. Proverbs 28.18 says, whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved. I want to walk upright. I want to be an upright man. Now they say he's an upstanding man. I want to be that. They say he's a wise man. I want to be that. And the truth of the matter is, is each and every one of us can be that. But there's some things we're gonna have to do. Psalm 24, verse three and four says, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart. Matthew 5, eight, Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I wanna see God. I want to see you. Blessed. I want to be blessed. I want my prayers to be heard. I want my church to be great. I want you to know the Lord in such a way that you have so much joy, love, passion, and power that everyone around you is saying, what happened to you? And you can tell them about Jesus. Amen. And they can come in. So I thank you guys for coming, because it's a blessing. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. My heart's desire is to see God. My heart's desire is to be faithful. Matthew 25, and I'm going really fast. Matthew 25, 21. This is what I desire. And I want you to listen real close. It says, I desire to hear my Lord say, well done. How good and faithful servant. That's my desire, I want that to happen. How many people in this room say, I want that to happen too? Can it be your desire that when you do die and you stand before the Lord, He says those words, well done. He claps for you. All the angels, all the angels are all clapping. All the saints of God are all clapping because you showed up in heaven and Jesus says, well done. Well done, Sean and Lauren, well done. I gave you the worst of the worst and you kept on going through it. You're a Rocky, amen? It's not about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit, right? And move up, keep moving forward. Well done, I want to hear that. You'll never hear it if you're not faithful. And you'll never hear it if you're not a servant. You can play your games all you want, and you will never hear that unless you are a good and faithful servant. The other things that I wanna do in 2025, I'll finish with this. In Psalm 37, verse four and five, it says, the Lord is, it says, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. It's a promise. And it says, commit your ways unto the Lord. Trust in Him. Now, I'm gonna finish with this. Turn to Isaiah 58. I'm gonna ask Kira to come up. In Isaiah 58, it gives us the answer, but Psalm 37, four. You're up there too quick, so you're ahead of me. In Psalm 37, verse four, it says, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of your heart. So as I read that, I want the desires of my heart. How many people in this room? Come on, we're gonna finish in two minutes, all right? You want desires of your heart for real? Well, then there's some things you're gonna have to do. You have to separate some things, get rid of some things and add some things. Can I get an amen? Jesus said, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be given you. It says in James chapter 1 verse 5 down to 8, it says, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, freely. And he upbraideth it not. He doesn't hold back. It says, But let them ask in faith. Nothing wavering. For the person that wavers is like a wave tossed by the wind, tossed to and fro the wind. And he's an unstable man. And he said, let not that man think he'll get anything from God. So I want you, you've got to have faith. Amen. You've got to be strong in the Lord. Amen. You've got to believe and act like you believe and tell God, I believe God. I believe God. I believe God. And so the only way that I know how, I searched God. I said, God, how can I delight myself in you? And now you can put it up. It says in chapter 58 of Isaiah, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, that's the Lord's day, from doing, listen, pay attention, because I'm done, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath of the light, church of the light, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him. Listen to this, not doing thy own ways, nor finding thy own pleasures, nor even speaking your own words, Then shall thou delight thyself in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. So what does it all mean? I'm done. I'm sorry for being so long. I just had a lot to say. How do you delight yourself in the Lord? You ready? Church. I'm not saying it because I'm the pastor. I learned this, I was not the pastor for 20 some years. And God made me the pastor because I found out this formula. Found out a formula, how to delight myself in God. You know what he said? Jesus said, I died for the church. I gave my life for the church. I gave my blood for the church. I gave my word for the church. I gave my spirit for the church. I gave everything I had for the church. and you are supposed to be part of it. So when, listen to me, he said, on my holy day. Now, if you want to come to church just once a week, you do what you want to do. You do what the Holy Spirit pleases you. That's fine. Because he didn't say come every time. There's other verses that tell you that, but I'm talking about right here. He said, on my holy day, don't do what you want to do. Don't go where you want to go. That's my day. See, the Bible says I've given you six days, do whatever you want. Seventh day is mine. So you know how you honor God? Come to church. Be part of what he's part of. And he'll give you the desires of your heart. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Nobody looking around at this moment. I want you to think about right now, what is the desire of your heart? For me, I want to be wise. I want to be a wise man. I want to be a prudent man. I want to be a righteous man. I want to be a faithful man. I want to be a pure man. I want to be a godly man. I truly do. And so God, I'm speaking now out loud to you, but also to God. Father, I'll do whatever you want me to do. I'll go where you want me to go. I'll be what you want me to be because I trust you. I commit my life to you. I commit my heart to you, my spirit to you, my soul to you. Take my life and make it yours. Whatever I have, use it to help other people. Lord, I want the church and the church folks to know you in such a way that they have love and joy and peace in their heart. Give them strength. Give them healing. I pray a fervent prayer of a righteous man. I pray, Lord God, that you would make me righteous, that you would help me to have fervent prayer for my friends, my family here in the church. Heal those that are hurting. Heal those that are sick. Save the soul that's nearest hell. Whatever, anyone in this room is not a truly believer, have not received Jesus, may this be the day of salvation. May they not play around anymore. May they ask you, Jesus, to save them, for that's why you came. If there's anyone here now, not 100% sure, 100% Bible reason sure that if you died today, you would end up right in heaven. If there's a slightest chance you might end up in hell, it's only because you don't have Jesus. And the only way to get Jesus is to ask Him. He died on the cross for you. He suffered for you. He loves you. But He will never force Himself on you. You've got to invite Him in and ask Him to be your Savior. If you want salvation today, eternal life, and God with you forever, raise your hand and I won't call you, I'll just pray for you. There's one, there's two, there's three, there's four, there's five. six people you put your hands down if someone in this room wants to be saved today and know that they they will never go to hell i'm asking you to listen to me be wise don't be a fool just repeat after me but say that you mean it say lord jesus i'm a sinner And I know sinners go to hell. I believe that you died for me. I believe you took my pain. I believe you took my sin. And you died for me. And you were buried. But on the third day, you rose again. And you're alive right now. And your spirit's here. I can feel it. Jesus, say these words. Say, Jesus, save me. Save me, a sinner. I give you permission. Give me eternal life. Wash me, cleanse me, make me whole. Help me to be wise. Help me to be prudent. Help me to be everything that you know will make me happy. Jesus, I trust you and I thank you for all you've done and all you're going to do. Thank you, Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, say amen. Keep playing. The hour's over. There's no service tonight, so I guess I can use that as an excuse for going long. Please don't leave if you have a question. I got a Bible. I can open it up and show you right in the Bible how you can be 100% sure you're going to heaven when you die. It's God's way. Jesus said, I'm the way. It's not hard. You just have to have enough faith to believe in him. If you believe that he is God, you gotta believe that book is real. And he tells us hell's real. If you die without Jesus Christ, he cannot let you in. Because you have sin in you. You have to have your sin removed. The only way you can do that is through the sacrifice of God's own Son. His blood washes you clean. His Spirit will come into you. And your name will be written in His Lamb's Book of Life. And He will call you My Son and My Daughter. It's a fact. So we are done. We're going to close in prayer. But there's some donuts and coffee out there. You don't have to leave. Eagles aren't on until 3 o'clock. but I just want you to invite you to come back and I'll have better messages for you where you can be all happy and peppy. But this is something that was on my heart because I desire to be a wise man. And I know that if I desire it, maybe someone else does. And God tells me I can be one. I'm tired of being foolish. I'm tired of making the wrong decisions. I'm tired of not being what I can be. And the only way I can do that is through Christ. And he loves us and he's really good. He's really good. I want you to know him. But if you don't know if you go to heaven when you die, please see me. It'll literally take four minutes to show you in the Bible. And all you have to do, Jesus said this, you have not because you ask not. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God doesn't send anybody to hell. People send themselves to hell. Amen. Amen. Brother Dave Hollingsworth, could you please close this in a word of prayer?