Psalms 144, the 144th Psalm. I want to look at the last six verses. I think I told you 11 through 15. It should be 10 through 15, Pam. I'll talk for a minute because I can do that and give you time to get it plugged in. I just looked at my notes and realized they're wrong, but I know the guy that made them and he's been wrong before. Mankind wants happiness. Happiness is not a bad thing to seek. Happiness is not a sin. In spite of what some Baptists may look and act like, happiness is not going to hurt you. It's okay to be happy. You don't have to walk around looking like you're nibbling on green persimmons and sipping pickle juice. Happiness is something that we, by nature, seek. As a matter of fact, I want to read to you an old document. Let me know if you've heard this before. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the... Oh, my. You know the Declaration of Independence better than you know your Bibles. I probably couldn't pick but a handful of Bible verses you could finish that way. the pursuit of happiness is what our country is literally built upon the declaration of independence was our stating to king george in the rest of the uh... british kingdom that we were no longer part we were leaving kingdom we were stepping out we were moving away that we were doing this because the government's responsibility was to care for its people in England no longer cared for us. Mankind wants happiness. We all want to be happy. Nobody wants to be sad. The problem that we have is kind of like that old Johnny Lee country song. You remember that looking for love in all the wrong places? I found that if I include a country song in a sermon it relates to people and they feel like they understand what I'm talking about. You remember that looking for love in all the wrong places? I don't like country music. Yeah, you probably watched the show Urban Cowboy and that's where the song was debuted at. Mankind wants happiness, but he's looking for happiness in all the wrong places. He's looking for happiness in too many faces. He's looking for happiness. He's looking for traces. He's wanting something to make him happy. And I'm going to be honest with you, stuff makes us happy. i like stuff you have different stuff you know what i like i like pocket knives i have found that a pocket knife brings me happiness i never carried a pocket knife i thought that's what grandpa carried i don't need a pocket knife i got a knife in the truck if it gets worse than that i got a gun in the truck you know i don't need a pocket knife but then i started watching these people that collected old pocket knives and i said man that's old that kind of reminded me of my childhood and so now i've got My wife's here. I can't tell you how many I have. I have a bunch of old pocketknives. And they make me happy. And when I go into an antique mall and I look around and somebody has an old pocketknife, an American-made USA pocketknife, I start looking at it and I buy it and I don't, I take it home, I sharpen it, I put a little oil on it. It makes me happy. Stuff makes us happy. But the problem with mankind is that when our happiness is solely derived from stuff, Stuff fades away. Stuff doesn't last. Pocket knives rust. things don't last the things that bring our joy are not what last and although the lord will provide these for us and give us temporary happiness from them david in the end of this hundred and forty-fourth psalm gives us some really wise words and as i was reading through the psalms i read through the book of of psalms a couple times this year and if you read the hundred and forty-fourth psalm There's a lot of verses in here that are well known but the ones I'll be dealing with at the end are not is well known. David said teach my hands to war in my fingers to fight. I've heard a lot of people use that verse in the military and talk about how David was was doing that in praying for war. You've probably heard this verse, Lord, what is man that thou ask us knowledge of him or the son of man that thou take us to count of him? These are famous passages, but when we get down to verse 10, and this is where I want to focus, 10 through 15, David says he's going to sing a song unto the Lord, and he's going to sing it on a 10-string harp. Here's what the song is in verse 10. It is he that giveth salvation unto the kings, and delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of falsehood, that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. That our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace. That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store. That our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. That our oxen may be strong to labor. That there be no breaking in nor going out. that there be no complaining in our streets happy is that people that is in such a case yay happy is that people whose god is the lord the title of my sermon this evening is happy people i like to be around happy people don't you anybody like to be around sad people it's depressing in Well, that just kills your joy. You ever had those sad, grouchy people that never, you ever see them coming and you're like, oh, don't make eye contact. And don't ask them how they're doing, because you already know that answer. No, we love to be around happy people. Well, if we love to be around happy people, we as Christians who know the Lord Jesus Christ and have the eternal hope of salvation ought to be the happiest people on the planet. But sadly, that's not the way the world sees us. So tonight, I want to look at these verses and I want to give you seven things that God gives his people for happiness. Seven things that the Lord blesses his people with. Number one, protection for our country. You may not experience all of these things, but if you realize that God possesses them and is able to give them and it is solely the sovereignty of God that provides these blessings, you can have happiness regardless of what's going on. If you look with me again at verse 10, let's think about God providing protection for our country. Now the USA is not mentioned here, but if we realize that we're not an accident, and if we realize that the Lord raises kingdoms and tears them down, then we realize that we're only here because God allows us to be here. Look at verse 10. It is he, talking about God, that giveth salvation unto kings. We had an assassination attempt. No, wait, two assassination attempts just in the past few months, did we not? Y'all watch the news? I don't. I talk to people that do and save me the trouble. How in the world did a guy get that close and get off a couple of shots at a president and only nick his ear? How does that happen? Well, if you're a government conspiracy guy, you're like, oh, Brother Harold, you don't understand. They were letting them do this. It was an all-stage deal. If you're a liberal that hates Donald Trump, you say, he cut his own ear. He just nicked his own ear with a knife for sympathy. I'm here to tell you why the guy missed Donald Trump and only hit his ear. Because God sets up kings and God takes down kings and God said, I'm not taking Trump down yet. I don't know who the next president's going to be, but I know this. It won't be against the will of God. God won't be in heaven on election day, the day after election when they start counting all the ballots and the ones under the table and the ones that came in by mail late the next week. God won't be up there waiting to get the tally. God already knows. And David, as king, writing this, this is what he says. He says in verse 10, it is he that giveth salvation unto kings, who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. David has had people trying to kill him ever since he's been born, basically. Before David ever became king, before David ever killed Goliath, he was killing a bear and a lion as a boy taking care of sheep. It seems to me that Satan knew that David was something special and Satan tried to kill David from the get-go. David becomes king and they still try to kill him. His father-in-law, Saul, said, hey, you want to marry my daughter? You got to go kill this many Philistines. David killed double the amount. How did David get away with it? David must have had some real skills. David must have been... Boy, if we just saw King David, David was probably a giant of a man, probably had arms like legs, probably could have played linebacker for the Raiders. No. Saul was the big tall head and shoulders guy that was a giant of a man. David was a small fella when Samuel anointed him as king. But David had something that Saul didn't have. David had the protecting hand of God upon him. Now friend, if you want to be happy, here's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to realize that America is in the hands of Almighty God and if He's done with us, there ain't nothing you can do about it. You can watch Fox News 24-7 and it won't change a thing. You can march on Little Rock. You can march on D.C. You can become one of a million moms. You can do 9,000 things politically and it's of no use because God protects our country. And if we fall apart and God says he's had enough, what are you going to do about it? Now listen, if the Lord is your God and your God is the Lord, you can lay your head down on a pillow at night and say, I don't know what's going to happen to the country, but as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. And if it's my last day, I'll be in heaven. That puts a smile on my face, even if the other team did win the election. I can sleep at night, not wondering. Why? Because happy people realize that God is the protection of our country. Number two, purity of company. If you want to be happy, you're going to have to pick a different set of friends. You can't run with the old crowd and experience all the blessings and benefits of being in the Lord's crowd. Look with me at verse 11. Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children whose mouth speaketh vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. Who are these strange children? I've seen them in Walmart and boy they're wild. Nobody can control them. Now that's not what David's talking about. Strange children is really a foreigner. It's someone that didn't grow up in Israel. It's somebody that didn't share God's values. It's someone that didn't keep God's law. It's someone that doesn't reverence God's tabernacle. What David is saying is the outside influence that is coming in here, I need to be rid of them so I can be devoted to God. Can I tell you of a guy that didn't get rid of strange children? Solomon, the son of David. He had what the Bible calls strange wives. A bunch of them. And you know what happened to Solomon? You've read the book. They brought their religions with them. And they said, I don't want to go to your church this Sunday. I want to go to my church. And then that wasn't enough. I want you to go to my church with me this Sunday and not go to your... Of course, you know they went on Saturday. I'm putting this in our time. David said, if I'm going to be a happy person, here's what has to happen. I've got to get rid of the strange children. I've got to be rid of them. I've got to be delivered from them. Now, in your life, I don't know what this looks like. Maybe it's your old drinking buddies that get you out carousing around and get you in trouble. Maybe it's your old gambling buddies that drag you off to the casino. Maybe it's the guys that golf every Sunday. I remember one time a fella and his wife had been out of church for a while and they came back to church and they got in church and they got excited and the wife was so excited they were back in church and she would come on Sunday morning for Sunday school he'd come with her Sunday school Sunday morning and she'd come by herself Wednesday night and I said where's your husband at she said well he plays dominoes and cards with his army buddies on Wednesday night So every Wednesday night she'd put him on the prayer list to break away from his old army buddies and playing cards. Look, I'm not against cards or dominoes. But the point was he had some old friends that didn't share his values that were taking him away from his church family in a study of the Word of God and close relationship with his wife. And guess what? The Lord ridded him of those strange children. The Lord ridded him of those that do not share his values and he is just as faithful as anybody else every time the church doors are open. He said, in whose mouth is vanity. Going back to not sharing their values, they're concerned about temporal things and not spiritual things. He says in verse 11, in their right hand is the hand of falsehood. Right-handed people tend to use this hand for everything. If you're right-handed and you break your right arm like William Paul did, he told his mom, he said, I broke my favorite arm. That was the one he used, you know, as my favorite. If the thing that's most handy to you, the thing that's easiest for you to do is falsehood, and that's who's surrounding you is people that are not real, people that are phonies, people that are fakes, people that lie. You need a different set of friends. You're never going to be happy trying to fly the Christian flag in that camp. It just won't work. Happy people realize the protection of our country, the purity of our company. Number three, the prosperity of our children. Nothing will drag a person down like watching their children in turmoil. You could throw grandchildren in here, but you know what it's like to watch your children go through something. You want to swoop in like moms and dads do and fix everything, don't you? I remember my son coming home from work complaining about his boss and telling me, and I knew his boss, and I thought, man, I'd like to go down there and kind of talk. I was like, my son's 22 years old. at the time. He can talk to his own boss. I can't just swoop in there and fix his problem, even though I know his boss and he's a friend of mine and I can talk and work this out. No, sometimes you have to sit back and let that happen. But sometimes it's bigger than just a problem at work. David, talking about happy people, they have prosperous children. Look at verse 12 with me. Let's break it in half. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. Well, that's not a sentence you put together every day, is it? What is a plant grown up in its youth? A plant grown up in its youth means that from the time the plant was planted, it was nurtured, groomed, and cared for. Have you ever inherited or moved into a place and it already had a peach tree, or it already had an apple tree, or it already had a grapevine, and you're out there trying to make this wild-looking bush into something that looks right? Have you ever bought an old home? Have you ever... Missy and I got married, we moved into a house, it had a holly bush that was taller than the roof. I thought, well, I'll just cut that thing off level. Hey, at shoulder high, the center of that thing was bigger around than a coffee can. I couldn't just cut that off and make it look like the bush it originally was. Instead, I cut all the bottom limbs off and made a mushroom out of it. It was a giant mushroom, taller than the roof. And people would come over and go, what's the deal? I said, hey, man, you can't make a bush that's been out of control for 50 years look like a bush again. But have you ever been to these real green thumb people's house and they've got these trees that they've weaved the trunks together and they're real manicured and they're real neat. Have you ever seen their gardens and you ever seen their grapes and you ever seen all this. David is saying here make our sons as though they've been trained from their youth. make them as plants that we didn't have to cut back when they got unruly and overwhelming and sowed their white oats and David had kids like that. David is saying make our kids good from their youth up so that when the world looks at our children they say man those kids have got it together. They're well trained, well cared for, well spoken. I remember my daughter as a little girl, people would come up and go, well, aren't you a sweet little thing, you precious little thing? And she said, yes, and how are you today? And they're like, well, she speaks like a grownup. I'm like, well, we're trying to get her there. Did you want us just to keep baby talking to her? I mean, we want her to have intellect. We want her to be quick-witted. We want her to be able to think for herself. Same with our son. We wanted to invest in them when they were small so we didn't have to get them out of jail when they were old. Could you say amen to that with your kids? I mean, could you say that's not a good prayer? Could you say that makes a happy person? Yes, yes and yes. The prosperity of our children is something that needs to be considered. We need to be thinking about this and look, maybe we didn't do it all right. Maybe we've made mistakes. Maybe we did the best we could. Maybe we're like Johnny Paycheck or Merle Haggard, Mama Tried, you know. Maybe that's the case. You tried, but would it not make you happy to pray and for God to grant the prosperity of your sons? Yes. Look at the second half of that verse. Here's one you probably wouldn't pray for your daughter, but David did, and it's Bible, so I'm standing on it. That our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace. Who's ever prayed for their daughter to be a cornerstone cut out like a palace cornerstone? Let me put it to you this way, that our daughters may be sculpted and stable. That's not a bad prayer, is it? sculpted and stable. The cornerstone of the palace was a pillar that went up and supported everything coming off those two walls. It's what squared the whole building. If the cornerstone was to wobble, two walls would wobble and the roof would sag. If the cornerstone was there, and this is a king's palace, you're going to make sure that cornerstone is solid. But look, there's a big difference between being solid and looking good at the same time. The cornerstone in my house doesn't look like the cornerstone in the governor's mansion at Little Rock. The cedar beams on the front of my porch don't look like the ones in Washington, D.C. at the White House. What David is saying here is that we need daughters who are solid and sculpted. Now what would that look like in real life. It would look like this. We need daughters that are not flighty and we need daughters that look like they're put together right. I'm not just talking about beauty. I'm talking about inward beauty. What happens if you have a woman that's just pretty but flighty and unfaithful. Nobody wants a wife like that. Nobody wants a daughter like that. Well she's pretty but don't let her have the car keys and keep your eye on her. What if we had daughters that were solid, could be trusted, we could hand the family business over to them and they could run it? What if we had daughters that were well kept, well cared for, took pride in who they were and how they lived? That would be a double blessing, wouldn't it? If we had sons that look like they were being trained to be men from their youth and daughters that were stable and sculpted and well put together inside and outside, we could say that would make me a happy parent. Happy parents are happy people. So we see the protection of our country, the purity of our company, the prosperity of our children, preservation of our crops. Look at the first part of verse 13 with me. that are garners may be full affording all manner of store i watched the show just the other day on the food of the depression you know they didn't have cheese it's back in the depression they didn't even have cheetos or free those yet they didn't have microwave dinners because they didn't have microwaves hardly anybody had a freezer or refrigerator how in the world could these people eat, especially when they couldn't afford decent food. and i watched what the people a back there in the twenties and the thirties and and going into the second world war and i thought my stars they lentils on monday beans on tuesday lentils on wednesday beans on thursday lentils on friday and on saturday they put salt pork in a mixed up whatever they had left and if there was anything left they put it in the cake pan with a little bit of flour and they stuck it in the oven called it a casserole and aided on sunday I was like, dude, I would starve to death back then. And I like beans and I like salt pork. But that's all they had. The people in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl were picking the leaves off tumbleweeds and frying them like okra because they didn't have okra. When's the last time you had fried tumbleweed leaves rolled in cornmeal? David said, if we want to be happy, we need full barns. Our garners need to be full. We need to be able to go to the cabinet, open it up, and got plenty in there. We need to open the fridge and have more in there than ketchup and mustard and mayonnaise. We need a full storehouse. But notice what he said. He didn't want a full storehouse of beans. I like beans, but I don't like them seven days a week. He says, affording all manner of store. He said we need corn, we need wheat, we need barley, we need rye, we need cucumbers, we need the stuff to make a salad. He said we want all of this. Why? Because variety makes us happy. Have you ever argued, well argue is not the right word, have you ever had an informal discussion with your significant other about where to eat? Was it because there were no restaurants near you? Or was it because, we ain't there last week, I had Mexican two days ago. What happens when a new restaurant opens up in town? We all get happy and run down there and try it. Then complain about it, because we got too many choices. You know what makes us happy? The preservation of our crops. Having a full barn makes us happy. No cattle farmer goes into winter short on hay and happy and going to bed every night. I don't have enough crops in the barn. Here's another thing that'll make us happy. The propagation of our cattle. If you look with me at the latter part of verse 13 into verse 14, it says this. That our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. That our oxen may be strong to labor. I kind of feel like sometimes people are a little afraid to pray and ask God for what they really want. I can tell you that because I get to hear a lot of people pray, traveling around the country preaching. There's a word that occurs in prayer very often. Some of you may say it. I've been guilty of saying it. I still say it. And when I say it, I was like, I shouldn't say that. It's the little four-letter word, just. God, I just, would you just, just, Lord, we just ask you, just, just, do you ever see that? Like, what, you gonna ask for too much? Lord, just a little bit. Lord, could you send just a little bit of rain? Lord, could you help us just to catch a few fish today? Just enough to eat tonight. Just enough to dirty the skillet, Lord. Just as if we're asking for too much. David said, I want you to send our sheep and turn them into thousands. No, 10,000. Does David need 10,000 sheep? No. We got one that's hearing what I'm saying, everybody else is half asleep wondering why I'm preaching on sheep. If David said, give me a thousand, no, give me ten thousand. Why does he say that? You know what would make you happier than having a thousand cattle? Having ten thousand of them that the bank didn't own, right? Huh? Hey, what if all of my cows threw twins and they lived? I doubled my herd at the rate of every other herd around town. You don't think God can do that? Go read the story of Jacob and Laban, his father-in-law, and see how God blessed the man that put him first. The propagation of our cattle. You say, Brother Hound, I'm not a cattle farmer. Okay, what do you do? Are you retired? Do you have a retirement? Do you have stocks? Do you have investments? Do you have property? What if you're selling off your property to pay for your retirement? What if all your property values doubled? Well, that would just raise my taxes. It would also raise your net worth. Think about it. What if our finances were not just increased by a thousand, but ten thousand? You say, Brother Harold, that's bordering on prosperity gospel. That's the way David prayed. You got a problem with the way David prayed, then you got a problem with God for having him record it in the Bible, which is without contradiction the Word of God. If David said, hey Lord, send me a thousand, no, no, no, send me ten thousand. He didn't say, Lord, let my oxen pull the cart. He said, make my oxen so strong they can pull a heavy cart. We don't think about that. Sometimes we pray for an increase in our crops and we don't pray for a bigger truck to haul it to the barn. David, when praying for the increase of his crops, and the increase of his barn, and the increase of his sheep, said, I'm going to need stronger oxen to pull the carts. I'm going to need stronger oxen to pull the plows. If I'm going to plow ten times more ground than I plowed last year, I'm going to need ten times the tractor I had last year, or ten times the help I had last year. What if we talk about the propagation of our cattle in a way that it would increase and that we would be thinking forward and that we believe that God is able to do it? Let me ask you a question, because some of you sitting out there going, I don't know about all this praying for increase of your stuff. Would $100 make you happy? If you walked home and there was a $100 bill blowed up in your driveway. Anybody else want to take a shot at the answer? It's yes or no. Would you be happy to find a $100 bill blowing around? Would you be happier if you found 10 $100 bills blowing around? I don't want to turn you into prosperity people, but more is better. If we're going to pray for an increase of our cattle, we're going to pray for an increase in our ability to haul and move stuff and transport it to our barn that we're praying would be bigger. All of that would make us happy. Here's another one that would make us happy. Protection of our country makes me happy. Purity of our company makes me happy. Prosperity of our children makes me happy. Preservation of our crops makes me happy. Propagation of our cattle makes me happy. Peace for our citizens make me happy. Have you noticed today just how whiny people are? They complain about everything. If you don't, just get on Facebook and go to one of these resident forums. They complain about the trash service. They complain about the mayor's office. They complain about the city council. They complain about the downtown. They complain about the Santa Claus. They complain about the Grinch. I'm like, We didn't have any of that stuff when I was a kid. You couldn't go see all that. That wasn't there. We're burning our trash in a barrel out behind the house. Nobody came and picked it up and hauled it off. Once a year, we had to load up all the tin cans and haul them to the dump. And you're upset that they're coming on a different day, and you forgot about it, and it's the mayor's fault? Some of you have been on Facebook, and you know what I'm talking about. Look at what David says. I'm going to include some of this because I don't really know where the break is. Here's what he says in verse 14. That there be no breaking in nor going out. That there be no complaining in our streets. I don't know if the breaking in or going out applies to the cattle getting loose or somebody coming in and getting them. And I don't know if it applies to the people that are complaining in the streets that are going around murmuring and then rioting in the streets. But hey, I think it fits both ways. You know what would make me happy if the cows never got out? You know what would make me happy if nobody got their cattle stolen? I was coming down Puddin Ridge this morning and there's a cow out down there. I don't know who has those cattle there, but I come up by that church there on 64 and pulled out and there was another cow in the back of the church eating. I said, that's not just one cow chasing green grass, there's a hole in the fence somewhere. And then when I came in on 64 this evening, I saw a farm truck down there with a cube chute on the back. He was down there pulling fence together, wiring stuff up. Wouldn't it be nice if you had cattle and they never got out? I'd probably get some more if they'd do that. I'd probably get back in the cattle business. But what I don't like is 10 o'clock, do you have cows on such and such road? I don't know if it's that or if it's people coming out of their house rioting, complaining, marching on Washington. Wouldn't it be nice in this country if we had people that quit getting upset over silly things? complaining in the streets. Remember that fellow that died of a fentanyl overdose named George Floyd and they blamed it on the police department. The guy was a drug addict fighting with the cops and then everybody in our country went nuts and we had a total uprising for six months over a drug addict that fought the cops and died in the process and we were all the bad guys because of the color of our skin. You remember that? If you don't, I'll start reading headlines. You can give me the secret code, give me a yes, or you can say nothing. But listen, wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to put up with all these nut jobs that go around causing trouble for no good reason? Wouldn't that be wonderful if the news came on and they said, ah, we got nothing. Let's go to weather. You say, Brother Harold, that ain't possible. It used to happen. You say, well, it don't now. Well, when's the last time you prayed for peace in our country? Do you think God can't do it? Lord, we just asked for peace in Franklin County, just in Ozark, Lord. Oh, come on, pray for 10,000. Peace of our citizens. Look at that in verse 14, that there be no complaining in our streets. That would tickle me to death. If I got on Facebook, and it was back to the old Facebook, and it was just people taking pictures of what they ate, because they didn't have nothing to complain about. Everybody in our country was happy. The police were here to help us, and the fire department was our friends. Our elected officials did what they said they were going to do. This is what David is saying he's going to sing unto the Lord. Now, let's get to our last point, and then I'll read a few verses and we'll close. The possibility for Christians. If you're not a Christian, verse 15 don't apply to you, you're not going to find true happiness, so just go to the golf course and get the best you can out of this life. But if you're a Christian, this is a possibility for you. Happy is that people that is in such a case. If all of those things apply to you, the protection of our country, the purity of our company, the prosperity of our children, the preservation of our crops, full barns, the propagation of our cattle, our business is booming, everybody in our country is happy, wouldn't we be happy too? Is God not able to do every bit of that? And if He's not, why'd David write it down and record it for us and God preserve it for us? God's able to do every bit of that. Here's the problem. That's available and if we experienced it, we could be happy. And if we're not experiencing it, maybe we should be praying that it happens. But there's a greater promise. Yay, that's even more like, whoa, that's good, but hey, let me put it in terms we can understand. But wait, there's more. You remember those infomercials that come on late at night? I'm not paying $29 for a waffle maker. But wait, there's more. Oh, it comes with a toaster oven, honey. We probably ought to get one of these. You could be happy if God granted all this stuff. Yay, but wait, there's more. Yay, what? Yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord. If you are a child of God, you can be happy anyways. Do you want to know why I think the world doesn't believe our message of the gospel? We ain't happy about it. We're going around kicking rocks talking about the news. The news is cherry picking stories to make you depressed. We're going around talking about the weather, and it doesn't always suit us. We're going around. As Christians, we're at the ball fields arguing. We're at the family dinner, taking the last piece of turkey, eating the last piece of pecan pie, and laughing at those that were slow and didn't get it. That's how Christians act. They act like the rest of the world. And we tell them, hey, come to Christ, come to Christ. They're like, no. I'll stay over here and drink. No, I'll stay over here and play golf on Sunday. I'll fish this Sunday. You go do your church thing, you'll be just as unhappy as me on Monday. But if the Lord is your God, and you believe the Lord, and you follow the Lord, and you know Christ Jesus, then let me tell you something. You can be happy if our country falls to the Communists. You can be happy even if there's no other Christians for you to fellowship with. You can be happy if your children all run away and don't want nothing to do with you. You can be happy if your crops fail. You can be happy if your cattle are stolen. You can be happy if your country falls apart, crashes and burns, and everybody here hates it. you can still be happy. Why? Because you have a relationship with God and your life's bigger than what happens on this earth. And if Christians would ever get a hold of that and carry it out into the community, if we'd go to the cafe and eat lunch and have it on our face, if we'd go to the ball game and watch the guys lose and get cheated by the refs and still not be up there cussing like everybody else, the world would take notice of that. But we don't live any different than the world. We're not happy people. We're grumpy people. We keep to ourselves. We don't want to engage with other people. And we walk around Down in the dumps, depressed, worried, what's gonna happen? And the world's like, no, that message didn't change them, I don't think it's gonna change me. Now let me give you a word of warning before I quit. I got a clock, I know what time it is. You're welcome. I used to preach without them, them poor people, the Lord would give them a special blessing. I want to warn you a little bit. Don't go to God for stuff. David said God can give you all this stuff and you can be happy if you have all the stuff and God's willing to give you the stuff. But don't go to God for the stuff. Go to God for God. And if you go to God for God's sake, the stuff will take care of itself. You say, Brother Harold, can you prove that? I can. Right over here in the book of Matthew, chapter 6. Look with me at verse 25. That's not the right verse. Oh, that's chapter 7. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Four things are talked about there. Your death, your diet, your drink, and your dress. Those four things. Do you know what mankind's worried about today? Four things. I have two weeks to live. There's no cure for this. It's a terminal illness. Death. Where are we going to eat? Oh, I ate there yesterday. This food's good, service is bad. We'll spend hours talking about frivolous things like that. Drink. I know people who can't leave the house without a bottle of water, can't go anywhere without this. Can't drink water. I can only drink Diet Coke. If you don't have Diet Coke, I'll just die of thirst. Dress. I would go to church, but I don't have anything to wear. Just cover up and come on. The world is concerned about this. Those clothes are out of date. They don't fit right. As long as you're not going to pop a button and put my eye out, they're fine. All right? Just put them on and come on. But let's be real here. Do we come to the Lord and say, hey God, I'm coming so that I'll never have to worry about dying, I'll never have to worry about what I'm gonna eat, never have to worry about what I'm gonna drink, never have to worry about what I'm gonna wear, I just want all the benefits, don't want God. That's what most of the world thinks. They say, look, I want all the blessings of God, just not the obedience to God. But the Bible is different. The Bible says this, if you seek God, everything else gets provided for you. If you have the Son, you have it all. Look at verse 33 there in Matthew chapter 6. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." All of what things? The things I just read. The dine, the drink, the diet, the dress, all of those things. What you're going to wear, what you're going to eat, if you die, when you die, how you die, what happens after you die. All of that stuff gets taken care of if you put the kingdom of God first. Now, here's what false teachers do. They don't want to talk about the kingdom of God. They know you want the stuff, so they say, hey, man, you come to God, you sow a seed in my ministry, Harold Smith ministry, you sow a seed in there, look, God's going to give you tenfold. Your cup's going to run over if you give me a little bit first. No. No, God's not some kind of savings and loan. He doesn't run a mutual fund where you give Him a little bit, He gives it back. God doesn't need your seat of faith. What God says is, worship me because I'm the only one worthy of worship. And if you'll come to me for me, I'll take care of all the other stuff. If you'll put my word first, my kingdom first, all the other stuff gets taken care of. Now, if you look at David's life and you read the book, you go back and read 1 Samuel, read 2 Samuel, look at David's life. You say, Brother Harold, I don't think David had all the good life. I mean, he's fighting bears, he's fighting giants, he's living in a cave, he's hiding out among the Philistines, 150 people are trying to kill him, Saul's trying to kill him, then he finally gets in there, has an affair, commits murder, and then his kids try to kill him, his kids are killing each other. David lived for like 80 years. You saw about that much of his life. And even during that time, David was still happy. I'm thoroughly convinced Satan doesn't have anything new. What he's been doing works. True or false? I want you to think for just a moment in light of what I've been talking about tonight. We want to be happy, right? Stuff makes us happy, right? David said, if you pray, God can provide the stuff. If you have God, you may or may not get the stuff, and you can still be happy. Satan approached God, and he asked God a question. He said, would a man serve God for nothing? God said, have you considered my servant Job? He said, well, Job's just serving you because you give him all those cattle and those ten kids and all those servants and all that land and he's the wealthiest man around and he's just doing that because you give him all the stuff. God said, okay, let's put Job to the test. You can take everything he has away except kill him. And let's see what Job does. I always like to say God took everything he had but a nagging wife and turned her loose on him. Then he sent his three friends that the Bible calls comforters who came and accused him and said you probably did something wrong. But how do we know? How do we know that people serve God for God and God provides the stuff later? Because at the end of Job, in the latter chapters, Job said, I was wrong, God was right, though He slay me, I'll serve Him anyways. Do you know what that means? Job put God first and let God take care of his finances. And in one day, all of his kids died, all of his herds were stolen, all of his servants were hauled off, all of his land was confiscated. He lost it all. You read the end of the book, he had twice as many camels, twice as many donkeys, twice as much cattle, twice as many sheep, twice as many goats, twice as many servants. and 10 more children. He didn't get 20 children because he didn't lose the first 10. They believed in God. If your God is the Lord and you put Him first, He'll take care of the finances. He'll see to it that you don't miss a meal. You can live every day as a happy person. The question I want to ask you is this. Is the Lord your God? Are you looking for happiness in all the wrong places or are you happy in the Lord and He's providing all the stuff? If you can learn to be content, that's great gain. If you can be happy with what you have here, you're going to love heaven because it's more than you could ever imagine. Let's pray and we'll dismiss. Father, I pray that tonight's message would be an encouragement to us to put you first, to let you handle the outcome. I pray, Lord, that you would be in charge of our finances. I pray you'd be in charge of our increase. I pray, Lord, even if our country falls apart, Lord, even if the people of this country riot and revolt in the streets as they've done in the past, I pray that the Christians, Lord, would have a relationship with you that draws them closer and closer so that we see our lives for what they are, a vapor. Just a moment in time, and that the remainder of eternity is spent with you in a place of peace, in a place of triumph, in a place of love, in a place without sin. And I pray, Lord, you'd remind us of that regularly, and I pray that we would mold and shape our lives according to your word. Pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen.