Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13 and 14. Now he's wrote 12 chapters, and Solomon has wrote this book. And this is what he said. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. After all I've said, fear God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Thank you, you can be seated. Father, I love you this evening. I thank you, Lord, for the privilege to be in the house of God this evening. We're so thankful, Lord, to be saved. We're thankful, as he just sung the song, Lord, that we're not going to hell. Lord, we're so glad to be saved by the grace of God. And I pray, Lord, that you will help me now. for a few minutes of time to preach this message. Lord, I pray you'll use it for thy glory to help your people. I pray, God, that it'll encourage them and stir them up. And Lord, if they're in that place in the message tonight, I pray they'll make the right turn and the right move and we'll love you in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Verse 13 says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. And I wanna focus on that word duty there for just a moment, and I wanna preach on moving from desire to duty. Moving from the desire to duty. One of the great generals, Robert E. Lee, said, duty is the most sublime word in our language. He said, do your duty in all things. You can not do more, you should never wish to do less. Duty, the definition is to owe, to be in debt for, to be under obligation, morally, to be found. Here in verse 13, we have the most important word probably in the entire Christian language concerning service for God, and that is the word duty. Let's think about four different things tonight. Let's think about a reality for a moment. A person starts out in their walk, like many of you have not been saved very long and you've been saved for several years now, but not very long. And then some of you have been saved, but you've been in church for a long time. But I wanna say that as a person starts out in their walk with God being saved, many times they'll be full of inspiration and zeal and the fire and the Spirit of God is burning in their lives. It seems like when you first get saved that you can't get enough of the Bible, you can't get enough of reading, you can't get enough praying. It seems like you can't get enough of church services and the things of God, and you're so excited of this newfound life and this newfound Savior, and the desire for the things of God has been burned and has been birthed into your heart, and you're excited, amen. And thank God you stand up and testify quite often about that. And so I must say something about that right quickly. I've actually talked about this and preached about this a lot in recent months. I do not believe that desire can be taught, but it's something that is birthed inside of a human being. I get very, very concerned about folks who say that they got saved and there's never, I'm saying never, there never hasn't been a desire that seems to be present at all in their lives at all. There's nothing there that seems to be pulling them to the Bible, to spiritual activity. There's no desire at all to pray, to hear, to try to apply preaching. Their lives, when you look at it, appears to be empty and void of spiritual hunger. And I don't wanna confuse with what I'm about trying to preach on tonight. I'm saying that people who have capital letters never had this desire at all. Well, only an individual would truly know that. I really can't tell you that I know that you've really had any kind of desire for God or not, but I believe that an individual would know that. I believe you know that in your life. If there's ever been truly a desire in your heart that was birthed by God when you got born again, only you know that. I don't know that. All I can do is make a judgment, but what I see in people's lives and I would say that if you've never really had that in your life, you need to really examine yourself to see if you've ever been born of God, amen. And I know after both of my first two professions, looking back, I can tell you, Brother Chris, that I never really had a desire in my heart to do anything. What I did, I was already in church, so I made a profession. and made another profession. I just sort of went along with what everybody else was doing for a while. And you know what? There's one thing about making a profession without getting saved. That profession will wire out in a little while. It won't take it long to burn out and dissolve, and you'll be right back at first base, and you're wondering what in the world's going on. And there's a lot of people that do that. There's a lot of people that make professions and I don't like to see people that do that. It happens, but thank God, you can really get bored of God and you can be saved, amen, and have that desire in your heart, amen. But for those who know something about that desire, you say, preacher, yes, there was a time in my life when I really believe I got saved. Preacher, I really had a desire. There was something working in my heart. God changed my life. God touched me, amen. But now, preacher, the reality is that that desire has almost dwindled in my heart. Well, the reality is that day comes and it will come to a lot of people that are serving God. Believe it or not, friend, but there'll come a time when serving God cannot be quite as exciting as it used to be. And depending on the person and the situations of life, this can happen to quicker for some than others. But you no longer feel like going on, but you're here, you're here, and you go ahead and go on because it's the right thing to do. When you make that decision to go on for God, to just go ahead and stay in church, and just keep coming to church, when that excitement has dwindled, and maybe that fire's not what it used to be, I wanna say that that is not necessarily a negative thing, but that's when you're becoming a good Christian. because you are doing it without the fire. You're doing it without that excitement. There's something still on the inside of you that's pulling you under the house of God. And although that desire might not be as strong as it used to be, there's still something down in there that'll keep you in the house of God. I tell you why people get out of the house of God. They don't have nothing in here to keep them in church. That's right. There are thousands of people who reached a point in their lives and instead of moving from the desire that they had to just buckling up and doing the duty that they needed to, they end up in a cold and a backslidden state, amen. And I do wanna say this, I do believe that people can backslide and get out of the will of God, but I don't believe it's as much as people that own to be. A lot of people say, I'm just backslidden. You really need to check up and see if you've ever really been saved, I would say. Because backslid people are miserable people. Backslid people, my friend, have lost their joy. Things just can't keep going on in your life like they are. If you really belong to God and you really get away from Him, you're gonna be a miserable creature until you get things right and really repent and get right with God, amen. And so when you're not so dependent upon a feeling or desire, but in your heart you know what's right and you serve God anyway, that's when you're getting somewhere with God. You've heard the old saying, that's the difference between the men and the boys, amen. So serving God out of desire is a great thing. And I still have desire. My desire has not really fluctuated a whole lot. It's like Brother Gil Mattson Gil said one time, he said, yeah, he said, I think I was back, said one time about five minutes. That's what he said. But for other people, it's just different, amen. And sometimes you can go for weeks and months on end and not really have that burning desire to serve God. But I wanna say that when that is gone, listen, There'll come a day when that burden of desire is low, you gotta make the move from that lost desire to duty and serve God simply because it's right to do. It's the right thing to do, amen. That's the reality, folks. Most people are not gonna stay on fire for God. You're not always gonna just be chomping the mist to get to church. You're not always gonna just be biting at the mist to do something for God. Your heart gets cold, it gets indifferent. You create distance between you and God. And when that happens, you lose the fire and the zeal of God. Oh, my friend, it goes on all the time. That's just the reality. It does happen, amen. Everybody that's not on fire for God ain't lost. They just need to be rekindled. They just need for God to breathe on them, amen. And so not only do we notice a reality, but I want you to notice a resolve. It's so important that you make this transaction in your life. When you have these times in your life and you're feeling cold on God, just to keep serving God, amen. Man, moving from desire to duty, this will be the difference between a great church and a good church. A great church will serve God when the tingles gone, and the thrills gone, and maybe the excitement's gone. What they'll do, they'll keep coming to church and praying and believing God, and they're gonna wait for the Lord to show up again. I just don't like it when it's months and months before the Lord shows up. I like for him to show up every time we come, but sometimes he don't always come every time. But thank God for the presence of God. I pray he'll just find a dwelling place here on these grounds. I pray when we set our feet on the parking lot out there, we'll sense the presence of God. Oh, I pray that God would come and just fill the temple, amen. So I wanna say serving God should be exciting, but there'll be days when it's not, but that's not the time to quit. That's the time to buckle down and stand there and do right and serve God because it's your duty as a Christian. We should renew our vows to the Lord to serve Him where we wanna serve Him and to serve Him where we don't feel like serving Him, amen. Oh, sometimes you gotta push yourself. Sometimes you gotta pick yourself up. Sometimes you gotta kick yourself out of the bed and say, get up and let's go, amen. Someone said, I slept and dreamed that life was beauty. I woke and found that life was duty. If you lose your desire, and that tingle, that excitement, you gotta move from having that to just doing your duty. You gotta get yourself in duty mode. You know, the Lord has blessed me with the greatest church in the world, and the greatest church in the world provides for me a car to drive, and it's a great, I mean, top of the notch, amen. And I'll get in that car sometimes, it's got all these buttons and gadgets and stuff. And I'll accidentally hit one of those buttons and it'll say, a green thing will pop up and it says you're in snow mode, or you're in mud mode, or sand mode, or all that stuff. And I'll have to knock that button off, amen. And put it on drive mode, normal drive, amen. That's right. Well, you know, sometimes you just gotta get in duty mode serving God. You just gotta push it up in there and say, it's my duty to do what I'm supposed to do. I don't really feel like going to church today. I just don't really feel like getting up doing it, but I'm gonna do it because it's the right thing to do. And every time I've ever done that, when I get here, God blesses me, amen. You miss out when you fall into that trap and you get to feeling sorry for yourself and you won't go on and go on to church and be faithful to the house of God and you know, you're just simply, you're just laying out. Just be honest, we've all done it a time or two. Well, I was sick, yeah, but you weren't that sick. I used to preach this a whole lot and it's still good, amen. If you can't be here for church on Sunday cause you're sick, you probably ain't gonna get that too much better than being able to get to work on Monday morning either. Miracles take place every Monday morning all across America, Brother Jack. Couldn't make it to church on Sunday morning, but boy, I can make it to work on Monday. Miracles take place, amen. The miracle of healing takes place on Monday morning. Why don't you just quit lying to yourself and to God and say, I'm just a sore individual and I just laid out because I didn't really feel like coming. Yeah, preacher, I probably could have been there, but... You might as well go ahead and say amen, because that's right. What you should have done was go ahead and shift her up out of the duty mode and said, well, I really ain't up to it, but I'm going to go anyhow. Got to get in duty mode. That's right. Thank God the feeling of comeback, the joy of comeback. You just got to be willing to live without it and serve God without it. I'm told that George Washington's motto was one word. George Washington, his motto, that's right. I wanna not say moto. Yeah, motto. Every time I say something wrong, I can't help but look at somebody and I know I said something wrong. He's my check on my English, amen. Moto, no, there's something moto, what is that? Hello moto, hello moto, moto. I thought that was a Chinese person or something, moto. Well anyhow, we're not talking about motto. We're talking about motto. George Washington's motto was one word. Anybody wanna guess what it was? Duty. You know, we sometimes, I don't make a habit of doing it, but sometimes people make New Year's resolutions. Why don't you make this one? When the time comes, and it will, you'll have times in your life, It's not the tingling there. I'm gonna move from all that. And I'm almost there. The fires are burning. It's not even burning at all. Just move to duty. Your love Jesus enough to do that, amen. I would say it's a right move. Number three, it's a right move. People say the first step in backsliding for a real Christian's right here. when you're, the feeling's not strong. And listen, I know we're not saved by feelings, we're saved by faith, and I know we're supposed to walk by faith, amen? But let's just get real honest. We like to feel something, don't we? I wouldn't give you a plugged nickel for something I couldn't feel every now and then. That's right. Amen. That's right, I like to be in the presence of the Lord, don't you? But sometimes I'm not in the presence, I'm always really in the presence of the Lord, but I'm not in the manifested presence of the Lord. My goal is to live in the manifested presence of God 24-7-365. That's one of my goals, to live in His conscious manifested presence of God. Some of the old timers did, oh yeah. I believe the dead. But right here's where the backsliding is, being careful. When the day comes, it will. It might already come for some. Serving God's no longer really exciting to you. Well, what are you going to do? Well, what have you done? What are you getting ready to preach? I'm about ready to quit. Don't quit. Shift your power to duty mode. Hang in there, praise God. Keep coming to church. Keep praying. Keep seeking God. Keep confessing your sins. Keep giving to the work of God and God will get you out of that. Amen. And he'll help you, praise God, to get to where, praise God. This is wonderful, Lord. Hallelujah. The right move is from not having the desire to doing your duty. You're not much of a Christian if you quit on God, because you might not enjoy serving like you used to, and maybe the excitement's waning, and it's not as strong as it was. You heard me tell my little story about that for about a year and a half. I went through all that, couldn't sleep, I couldn't find God, I couldn't sense his presence. I'm striving, I'm battling to get a message from God. I'm having an awful time hearing the voice of God, deserting the Spirit. It's like God just went dead, went out of my life. And I know He didn't, He's promised never to leave me nor forsake me. He was there all the time, but He pulled back His manifested presence away from me, and He kept it away from me. Let's see if I'd be willing to keep on serving Him without it. And I went through that for about a year or so. And finally, I hate to admit it, it took that long. Brother Danny, it took that long, but one glorious Sunday morning, about 4 a.m., that's when my study was over there in the back of the house, and I could look through the window, and I could look up through the trees, I see that big old moon shining. I was right there in my altar, tears were running down my face. I looked up through that window that night, and that morning I said, Lord, I said, this is the way it's got to be. If this is how it's gonna be, Lord, if you'll help me, if I never see your presence again, Lord, I wanna serve you to the day I die. If I have to do this cold turkey, no presence, no nothing, God, I'm willing to do it. And I'll tell you what, before I could get up off that ground, it's like the presence of God flooded that room and flooded my soul. And it's like he said, boy, that's all I wanted to hear. All this time you had to be willing and now I know that you're willing and thank God you don't have to do it without me. So when I do have those dry times, it's not as strong as I like for it to be. I just kick her up there in duty mode. Amen. And just wait on the Lord and he'll come back around. Are you willing to serve God and stand there for God when the way gets difficult, when your days are dry, when the nights are long, when you don't feel like it? Listen, we gotta get around them feelings and walk by faith and trust God to help us, amen. Oh, listen. We hear a lot of these, hear a lot from, well, I don't really hear a lot from them, I don't listen to them, but these health and wealth preachers that are out there, and they preach, well, if you follow Jesus, you'll be rich and have plenty. They're a bunch of liars is what they are. They're a bunch of charlatans, they're a bunch of false preachers, amen. But what about reality? What about reality? They're not living where I'm living. What about reality? Can I say that some of the dearest saints I've ever known down through the years were not very wealthy? They had sicknesses. They had trials. They had problems on top of problems. But one thing I watched them do is they stayed right in there with God. They stayed in the house of God. They kept their feet on the man of God. They kept giving what they could to the church. They kept serving God and was faithful to the house of God. Oh, friend, I'm telling you, that's where the real Christians are, amen? How them old saints, how they learned how to transfer that seemingly lost inspiration to their obligation to God. I'm afraid our generation of church goers are so plagued with the blessings of God that if they got to where they wasn't having them, they'd quit on God. When the desire is burning low and almost gone and the inspiration is gone, the right move is to go on from that desire and move on to your duty and serve God anyhow. If I could get you to say that it's not all about inspiration that causes us to do right, but it should be my obligation to do right. It's my duty to be here, to be faithful to God. It's my duty. I've got a duty to perform, amen, to do. So I'm telling you tonight, church, let's go in and serve God, not because we feel like it, but because we're supposed to. I tell you, I believe if you get ahold of that, it'll change your life. Somebody said this, greatness consists not in one seeking his own pleasure or things or advancement or glory, but in seeking one's own duty. Let me throw this out there right quick. What separates the A's and the C's in school? It's not brains, it's duty. What separates a young person who sells their decency for an evening of enjoyment and pleasure from those other people who walk down the aisle pure and clean in virgins? It's called duty. It's the right thing to do. What separates great preaching from mediocre preaching? It's not in pulpit performance, but in sweating in the study. Greatness is not in the recital. Greatness is found in the practice room. Greatness is not in performance. Greatness is in the preparation. Greatness is not found in the pulpit, but in the study. Greatness is not an A on the test. Greatness is improper studying for the test. Greatness is not found on the battlefield. Greatness is found on the practice field. Greatness is not found in performing great feats. Greatness is found in performing many small duties. Somebody said, I wish I had a dynamic personality. It's not a dynamic personality that you need. It's fortitude that you need. It's character, it's guts, it's decency, it's integrity, it's honor, it's obedience. And I'm sad to say we're lacking in those things in this day and age. Amen. What about number four, the reason? A reason. Why should I do this, preacher? This move from desire that may not be there to do it is very important. If you do not make this move, and some of you might need to make it tonight, you very well could get colder on God, further away from God, and even out of church. And some would even dare to be bitter at God and blame God for their situations. I've always tried to pray ever since I've been saved, Lord. It don't matter whatever happens or come ups in my life, no matter how horrific, how horrible it may seem to me, help me to never blame you or be bitter at you. Because when you do that, that's a bad way to go. It's a bad way to live. There are going to be times probably when you want to quit. It all starts when you're no longer enjoying doing what you're supposed to be doing. And you fail to transfer that inspiration to obligation as a motive for service. I wanna be able to enjoy what I'm doing. That's a high priority, Brother Chris, in my life, to maintain that level where I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I don't always enjoy it, but I'd say 95% of the time I enjoy what I'm doing. I love it. Amen. I love it, amen. Can I say this in closing, conclusion? There are a lot across this land tonight, there are a lot, there are multitudes of used to beers. Used to be. Used to be. They failed to move from desire to duty. and now they're a used to be. They lost their inspiration. They didn't go to obligation. So now they're a used to be. I used to be in church. I used to shout. I used to run around the church. I used to pray. I used to have joy in my heart. Used to. They're used to beers. I don't ever want to end up being a used to beer. Oh no. You've got to stay on top of things in your life. You gotta learn how to keep short sin accounts. You gotta run to God with your sin and not run from him. You gotta keep your well cleaned out. Can't let a bunch of junk get in there. You know, God put a well in us. We got a well in us, he said he did. John chapter four, shall be in you springing up, amen. What happens to our wells, they get old junk in them. Obedience, hurt, resentments, anger, bitterness, madness, all that stuff. Pride. I remember when I used to do that, preacher. We don't have to be that way no more. You can get back to God. He said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. He said two things, just two things. Fear God. Do you fear God? I hope you fear God not enough to do something foolishly. Hope you fear God enough to, if you say you're saved, to stay in church, to stay with God, stay in the church. Hey, people walking away all the time, folks. I mean, I've been reminded of preacher's kids turning their back on the faith and I mean, getting in messes. I mean, just totally, I mean, blow your mind that people's heard the truth and they turn their back on it. I got a preacher friend I've been praying for his son for several years now. And he told me several years back that his son has denied there's even a God. I mean, I'm talking about a preacher's boy who was raised in church under a preacher and now he says there is no God. And I've been praying for that boy. He's got his daddy all tore up. I'd be all tore up. Any of my kids ever do that, I'd be tore up. That's right. He said, fear God. That means to be afraid of Him. We ought to be afraid of God. But you got to have the right kind of fear. There's different kinds of fear. I fear Him as God, but I don't fear to go to Him. I fear God, but I don't fear to approach Him. I can approach Him through the Lord Jesus saved me. And through the blood of Christ. But I'm the fear, that means to stand in awe. Brother, that's where the church is missing it tonight, Brother Joe. We've lost our awe of Almighty God. Sometimes it just does me good to walk outside. I might be taking Baxter Sadie outside about three in the morning. And the time we live in, I mean, it gets cold, amen, right now. I'll throw my coat on, I'll take them out there. Just does me good sometimes when I'm out there just to look up through the heavens and just look at the stars. Although it just makes me feel like I'm closer to God when I do that. And while they're doing their business, I'm gonna do mine. And I'm not talking about what they're doing. I'm talking about praying, talking to the Lord. Go ahead in life, you need a good life. Some have been whining and crying for days, you need a good life, amen. Just look up through them stars, I just feel closer to God. That's one reason why I like to go out west every now and then. Get away from all the lights and all the cities. When you get out there, It seemed like you see billions and zillions of stars in the sky. You can't see all that here. There are too many lights, it fades them out. Did you get out there? Anybody ever done that? Man, it's amazing. And what amazes me, God's named every one of them. He got them named every one. And that's just what we can see. That's not all the millions of galaxies, other galaxies, that has that many stars. That'll knock your hat in the creek if you think about that a while. Good, Lord, it makes my brain hurt to even think about that. He's named all that. But guess what? That's not his favorite creation. You look in there, buddy. You, you're his favorite creation. He didn't die for the stars. He died for us, amen. Oh, how He loves us and cares for us, amen. Hey, listen, I don't wanna lose my awe of God. It means the reverence Him, to honor Him, to respect Him. Fear God, keep His commandments. Don't go breaking His rules. Don't go breaking His commandments. We're to guard them, we're to observe them, we're to do them, we're to give heed to them. Thou shalt not, well that means don't do it. Thou shalt, that means do it. Good Lord, you don't have to go to college to figure that out. You said don't do it, don't do it. Give heed to it, why? Well, if anybody here is a listener and not even cares anything about what I'm saying, verse 14. For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. I want to fear God, because when he gets to bring all them secret things into judgment, I'm hoping I've confessed everything and ain't much there to bring out. That's right. I'm telling you right now, sir, man, you ain't got nothing hid. He don't know about. He knows everything going on in your life. And you know what, that don't offend me, that don't hurt me, but I'm so glad that he does, because I want him to know everything going on in my life. I don't have a second life I'm living. I don't have a secret life I'm trying to live. I don't have all that going on. No, sir. My wife can pick up my cell phone anytime she pleases, and she can look through any of it she wants to. It don't upset me, make me nervous one bit. You know why? Because there ain't nothing going on. Amen, amen. Amen, that's good. Tell the preacher, help us. Now, if you got a problem with somebody, look at your cell phone, you done checked it off, buddy. You in something you ain't need to be in. Amen. I wonder if the preacher just took up your cell phone tonight, the preacher. How many would be willing to give their cell phone to the preacher? Brother Steve said, here it is. Look at that. That makes some people nervous. I tell you why it makes you nervous, because you're probably looking at something you don't need to be looking at. Hey, man, that's a good preacher. Woo! That's right, buddy. Yeah. God shall bring every work into judgment, whatever secret thing. Whether it be good or whether it be evil. Well, fear God, keep his commandments. The whole duty of man. Jesus said this, I'm gonna read you one verse and I'm done. Jesus said this to his apostles. Luke 17, 10. So likewise ye, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, this is what I want you to say. Jesus said, this is what I want you to say. We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do. So when I preach, Brother Chris, and come on Sunday morning, preach my guts out and go home, I'm supposed to go tell the Lord, I'm an unprofitable servant. I've just done what I'm supposed to do. Well, that's a good way of keeping your ego shaved off a little bit, ain't it? He said, I want you to say to yourself, we are unprofitable servants. We've done that which is our duty to do. So when we stand before the King one day, I hope I'll be able to say, Lord, I've just been an unprofitable servant, but I've tried my best to do my duty. Sometime in your life, And some of you there, maybe even tonight, you're gonna have to make that move when your fire is burning low and your desire is waning and you're discouraged about things in life and you're just having a hard time, okay? It's not really going like I'd like for it to go. Well, what you need to do is just, get a hold of that duty. Say, well, Lord, I may not feel all this. Lord, if you'll help me, I'm just going to do what I'm supposed to do. I'm just going to keep doing what I know to do that's right. Don't blame God. Don't accuse God. Sometimes Some of you may remember, it's not been that long ago, I preached a message several years back on necessary things. Can I remind Mr. Knight that sometimes everything that goes wrong in our life is not of the devil, but it's God working in you and he sees that it's necessary for this to go on in your life. This is going to be necessary for preacher dates." I said, oh, help me Lord. I read the text Brother Brown sent me. I didn't tell you what he put down below it, but he said all that and he put about 15 praising hands like he's praising the Lord underneath that. Excruciating, I can't say it like Chris can, excruciating pain. He said, I'm in such pain I can't even hardly move. So sometimes you just gotta, you just gotta tighten your belt up a little bit. Just be a man, be a woman. Say, God help me. you