certainly appreciate the open door, and I don't take these things lightly ever. I don't just go around and call pastors and try to book meetings and try to pick up a Sunday here or there, but I contacted Pastor Seeley. The Lord impressed upon me to contact him, and the Lord knows why. It's not a matter of us cajoling or coddling or just, you know, the old howdy-doody. It's the reality that We need to be where God wants us, especially in the ministry, when God wants us there. And I don't take this lightly. This isn't just another Sunday. I don't think any Sunday is just another Sunday. I don't think any service is just another service. I never believed that. I believed when I got saved, I had an expectation from God that God would meet with us. And so we thank you for the opportunity that God could meet with us. I'm gonna go to Proverbs 14, and that's where I've been personal study, my public study, my private study, you name it, but in Proverbs 14, I'm gonna take a look at just a couple of verses here and to see what the Lord will do for us in these verses. Proverbs 14 and verse 25. He says, a true witness delivereth souls. Now, what is that true witness? Well, we know that God is true. Every man's a liar. We know the word of God is a faithful witness. We also know the spirit, the water and the blood bear witness on earth. Now, I've been in contention, not in a proudful way, just going back and forth over several years over this matter. And I believe it's manifest twice, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. The Spirit comes, is involved in the new birth. And the water, the washing of the water, regeneration, the renewal of the Holy Ghost, and then also the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanseth us from all sin. I believe it's in John chapter three. I believe we see the witness, the spirit, the water, and the blood in 1 John chapter five. God, dear brother, and listen, I don't contend with this. When that Roman centurion and his men stood by and they watched the death of Jesus Christ, when that spear pierced his side and the blood and the water ran forth, we know that it was the spirit of Jesus Christ when he cried, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. That's the witness of God. And then the witness also upon earth is only the witness of Jesus Christ, his spirit, but it's the witness of that water and that blood upon earth, that truly this man is the Son of God. And that's the witness that we're looking for, a true witness, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. That's how you try the spirits. That Jesus Christ is, present tense, bodily resurrected, come in the flesh. That is our hope, that is our only hope, is that he's come in the flesh. And so he says, a true witness delivereth souls, but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. That's that spirit that said Jesus Christ is not come in the flesh, he speaketh lies. That's why all liars have their part in the lake of fire. Why? Because they lie in their deceit, they deceive themselves, they deceive others, that Jesus Christ is not God. You know, when you wrestle with the JWs at the door, And many times in my life, sometimes I've wrestled, sometimes I've just kicked them off the property. There's times I've gone out there and I've pronounced wrath upon them, judgment upon them in the name of Jesus Christ because of their damnable heresies that they teach and they preach. And one of the things they propagate is that simple matter that Jesus Christ is not God. They do not see Him as God. They believe He's the Son of God. They believe He's a great man. They believe He was born of a virgin. Some do, some don't. But what they do not believe, that was God in flesh. And I'm saved today because that was God made flesh. That was Jesus Christ, the Godhead, amen, and His witness on earth. And a faithful witness will tell of that, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God. But a lying witness, a deceitful witness, bears witness that He was not the Son of God, bears witness that He was just another being or just another person. Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. That is Jesus Christ. Three, the very record in heaven, the Father, the word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. I was very much a novice, even more than I am now. And I was teaching the adult Sunday school class at my church when I first got saved, started going to church. And I remember preaching a several part series on what Jesus. And I went down and just pared through different religions and different ideals of what Jesus. And ultimately what it boiled down to is Jesus Christ of the scripture. That's the only Jesus Christ that can save. That's the only Jesus Christ that can deliver your soul. Because he's that faithful witness. He's that true witness. And we paired that class down from about 50 down to about 20 people with just those five or six weeks of preaching on what Jesus. And everybody's upset with me. He said, hey, he's destroying the Sunday school class. I said, no, I'm just telling the truth. What Jesus are we talking about? You die with the wrong Christ, you'll die and go to hell. You don't just magically get in because you believe in a Jesus. He has to be the Jesus Christ of scripture. He has to be the Jesus Christ that died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried after three days. He rose again according to the scriptures. That's the Christ of the Bible. All others are antichrist. All others are lies. All others are false. Yet so many will not see that, will not believe that today. A deceitful witness speaketh lies. Verse 26 of Proverbs 14, in the fear of the Lord, is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge. If you hold your place there, or be willing to turn back there, if you would, go to chapter eight of the book of Proverbs, and let's just look at the fear of the Lord for just a little bit. He said, and the fear of the Lord is strong confidence. People will say, you know, how can you know? How can you know for sure? How can you have assurance that you've been saved? My wife and I dealt with an individual this week. He just said, you know, I don't have condemnation. I don't have judgment. I don't, I don't see God's not showed me I've lost. I just don't have assurance. And I did what I do when I tried people. I said, go back and find where you left God. Then you don't have assurance. Go find where you left God. And if you keep going back and you need to find out you never found him, you need to be born again. And that is that faithful searching that God commands you to do. If you have not examined yourself, you've disobeyed God already. If you've not searched the scriptures, you've disobeyed God. You're disobedient. Don't name the name of Christ unless you've searched the scriptures. For in them ye think. That's in your mind, your reasoning, you have eternal life. And a lot of folks today think they have eternal life based on a whim, based on a supposition, based on their ideology, but you must be born again. You must have the new birth. It's not an epiphany. It's not a spiritual movement. It's the entrance of Jesus Christ into your life, the word of God, and what a difference he makes. He is that faithful witness. The fear of the Lord will give you that confidence, give you an absolute confidence that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you've been born of God. It's not some kind of arrogance or some kind of pride that we puff up and say, well, you know, because I've done this, I know I've been saved because I do this, because I'm a preacher, I know I'm saved. You realize most clergy members are dying and going to hell because they've denied the blood of Jesus Christ, denied the offering of Jesus Christ. They've denied the very work of God. Most clergy members in America are just as lost as the person on the streets. They just have no knowledge that they're lost. They just got a job and got a position. They chose the career of being clergy. They chose the career of the chaplaincy or they chose the career and the college position of the THD and the PhD. And if they made up their minds, they wanted to be clergical. They love the idea of counseling people and doing weddings and being a member of the golf club and the country club. It's amazing now south you look at the Southern Baptist Church listings, you look at the United Methodist Church listings and part of the call to the pastorate there, part of their package is of course the 401k and the IRA and the life insurance, the retirement plan through the Southern Baptist Convention and many of them and I remember the day seeing the First Baptist Church of Jasper, Georgia the offering of the assistant pastor. Not just the pastor, even the assistant pastor of the membership at the Jasper Country Club, where they can go and they can mingle with society and be a part of society. It's a glamorous life for some of the average clergymen in America. According to the figures they state, makes about $129,000 a year. It's a job to them. It's a job just like you and I, nine to five, you go and you lay carpentry, or you lay carpet, or you wrangle cows. That's a little more than nine to five, but it might probably work nine to six. You know, you go, you work at a grocery store, you go and you buy, you sell, you trade. Clergy has become a job today. But it doesn't mean they're saved. Doesn't have been born a God. Listen, I haven't worked a job, a normal job, in 17 and a half years. And I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not embarrassed by that. You know why? Because God called me with a holy calling. God called me in the fear of the Lord and put me in the ministry. I couldn't have done this without Him. I walked away from my job making money. I walked away from my job with a 401K. I walked away from my job with life insurance and with health insurance and retirement plans. I walked away from it all because God called me with a holy calling. God's established my goings. And I have the confidence of knowing that I have this full assurance of faith in the person of Jesus Christ. The doubts are gone. There's a little back of my mind, there's little wonderings. I remember as a teenager laying in my bed and looking out the window and seeing those clouds with the silver linings, as the cumulus clouds rolled across the heavens and me laying there and seeing the sunbeams come out and having been to church that morning and me sitting there wondering, is there even a God? Is there a God that cares about me and realizing the plight of my soul and the desperation of my soul? I remember going down to the revival meetings Going down to the house of God on strange evenings, amen. My mom didn't miss, thank God for that. Being under conviction and condemnation. God showed me I was a sinner. God showed me how vile I was in His sight, yet rejected His Son. But I also remember the day when I came to grips with the reality that I was lost. There was no more doubts, I knew I was lost. The Holy Ghost blessedly wooed me and drew me as only He could do and drew me to Himself. Revealed the Father to me and the Father called me unto himself and drew me with an everlasting love. He said he's drawn me. Then he revealed my lost estate, revealed to me that I was a sinner, showed me what a condemnation I was under, but then he gloriously revealed his dear son to me. Allowed me to come to that mercy seat, that I might obtain mercy. I came to that mercy seat and was gloriously saved that day in April of 1997 and how my life changed. But I don't run back there for assurance. I just run back there as a testimony. I run back to a place where I know God saved me. You know where I go to assurance? I go to the Word of God. I don't go to my profession of faith. I don't go to a place where I called on God. I don't go to a place where I got dipped in the water. I don't go to a place, I go to the Word of God that I might have that confidence in Jesus Christ. And this is what the scripture said as we read our text, the fear of the Lord. Isn't that a wonderful thing? The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, our next verse. What is the fear of the Lord? Let's look at chapter eight, verse 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Brother Zach Vernon, a priest back in June, we were down in Moxville, North Carolina, Brother Zach preached a great message. on evil, talked about the destruction of evil. And then he went through the scripture and showed where God does evil. People say, well, no, God can't do evil, but God does. Evil's not wickedness, evil's not sin. Evil is that destructive force, that destruction that comes upon man to hate evil. I've done evil in my own life. I've done evil unto myself since I've been saved. I've done evil unto my children since I've been saved. I've done evil unto my wife since I've been saved. Those things that are destructive, those things that hurt them, those things that bring things upon them that are to their destruction, not to their benefit. The fear of the Lord is to hate those things, those revilings. I look at my children, I look at the damage I've done just in their short lives by my indifference, my laziness, my carnality, my flesh. And I weep over those things, but I hate it. I fear God in their lives. I fear God in my life. I fear God in our marriage. I hate evil. I hate what it does to us. I hate every evil way. You know why? Because I fear God. That's not hyperbole or words made up or just cajoling you for the sake of a message. I'm just being transparent in honesty because the integrity of my heart, I couldn't preach this and try to paint myself in a picture where I've never done evil under someone, never done evil under people, never done evil under my family. you turn up the covers of my family, you'll see flaws in my children where their daddy erred, where their daddy was wrong, where their daddy made a mistake. You'll see things in my wife that have been of a great destruction to her because of her husband and his lack of a spirituality, his lack of a walk with God. And I hate those things. I hate those things in me. I hate those things in them. I hate those things in the church. I hate those things in your life. I hate those things that have wrought evil in our lives. Why? Because I'm watching lives absolutely destroyed by evil. It's not wickedness. That evil is destructive. That evil is to harm. His basic word, it's to harm, to do evil. When evil comes upon you, it's a hurt, it's a sorrow, it's a grief. And I hate it. And if you fear the Lord, you hate it. You watch people, their family's being destroyed because of their indifference and they don't even care. The situation not too long ago, a man, three of his four children have left the home bitterly, angrily. Without fail, he blames someone else for his children. Without fail, he blames somebody else for the destruction. He blames them for the rebellion, blames them for the children going awry because evil has been wrought in his children. Evil has been made manifest in his children. Evil's been done to his children. But even speaking with him this week, to try to tell him, listen, you need to take responsibility for this. He can see no wrong in his doing. He can see no wrong in his way. You know why? He doesn't hate evil. He hates the effects of it. He hates the prison time. He hates the bad relationship. It's amazing how many people. It doesn't bother them that their children are in vile relationships. It bothers them more when the relationship is over because of the hurt of their children. I'll make that more plain. The children out there dating lost people, out in the world dating sinners, dating Jezebel. It doesn't bother them. But all of a sudden the relationship comes to an end, they're boo-hooing on mommy's shoulder, and now all of a sudden mommy's all tore up because of the hurt that evil has done, not hating the evil. The ungodly relationship is the evil. That's what's causing the pain, that's what's causing the destruction. It's not the fruit of it, and folks sit there and lament the fruit of it, and they cannot see they're the ones doing the harm. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Not the effects of it. To hate the work of it. Be amazed how many people, when evil is wrought in the congregation of the righteous, that is the church, they don't lament the evil, they lament the fruit of it. Oh my, more people left the church. We're diminishing in numbers, we're not growing. They have no concern over the evil that was wrought, the destruction to families, the destruction to families that leave out of the will of God. I said out of the will of God. I look back at people over the years that have left church out of the will of God. You say, how do you know? Because it's been made manifest in their family. You don't lament the fruit of it. You lament the evil that was done because you hate it. To fear the Lord is to hate evil. He goes on and says, pride. That's why we don't want to acknowledge it. You ever hear a man, and this comes out of his lips, well, that's just how my ex is. What pride? A lady, that's how my ex-husband is. What pride and arrogancy. God hates a proud look. God hates a lying tongue. God hates every false way. When are we gonna accept the reality that we've let evil in? Because we didn't fear the Lord. We didn't fear the Lord. And now destruction has come upon us, our homes, our churches, our lives. And because we didn't fear the Lord, it came upon us and now we're sitting in the ashes of the defeat of our lives. Like Job, scraping our sores with the potsherd, lamenting the fact that we're even alive because of the destruction that we sowed. Why can't we admit it? Because we're too proud. Too much arrogance. I joked with your pastor this morning. For those of you that know, we usually stay here when we're here preaching. We stay down in the fellowship building. And I told him this morning, I said, brother, I'm kind of disturbed by the fact that we have to park up here with the commoners today. That was a joke, by the way. We don't get our usual reserve parking spot, we're up here with you common folk. But you know, there are people that live that way. There are people that love that preeminence. There are people that love that position. But they'll never acknowledge the evil they've done. They'll never acknowledge the destruction, and by the way, you men, the destruction of your home lays at your feet. Every time. You don't like my children, how they act, you blame me. You say your wife's got a bad attitude towards everybody, you blame me. You blame me for working that evil in their lives. Because at some point in my life, I didn't fear God. How much do you fear God? To know that sudden destruction can come upon you and upon your home and upon your family. But because you got away and that judgment wasn't speedily executed, you feel like you got away with it and you just continue on that path of destruction. My wife and I had a couple of months ago, we came to a decision we made together. He said, how would you make it? I made the decision and my wife nodded her head. We came together on it. Because I was watching my children and I was watching some of the downfall of things in my children's lives. And I had to make a decision. The Lord in prayer showed me, stop it now. And I went to my wife and I said, this is not negotiable. And I laid a rule down in our home, not negotiable. Because I'm watching my children, the suffering of the effects because of my neglect, because of my indifference. And God forbid I'd be so proud. Lay that at her feet, lay that at her responsibility. When the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, arrogancy in the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate? Now how much do you fear God? How much do you fear the Lord to hate all of that? That froward mouth, that mouth that speaks in deceit, the mouth that speaks to foolishness, the evil way. And by the way, without salvation, your way is evil. It's gonna lead right into the pit of destruction and the damnation of hell without changing your way. Why won't men change their way? Because they don't fear the Lord. They're too proud. They're arrogant. They're not gonna change their way. I watch people so puffed up. They claim they fear the Lord, but their ways are the ways of destruction. Nothing good has come from their way. You watch the rich, or those that would be rich, those obsessed with finances, obsessed with money, obsessed with making money, and you watch the error and the folly of their way, it's an evil way. Will they change? Not without the fear of the Lord. You see, when your desire is to just get rich and to make money, you're just shaking your fist at God saying you can't take care of me. I'll go this far and say you're just a coward. You're so afraid of being desolate in this world. so afraid of being poor in this world that you've never considered that you might be poor for all of eternity and you might be desolate for all of eternity because evil's gonna come upon you and you'll be damned forever because you loved your riches more than you love God. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. People ask about investments. I'm not just talking words. You know, the greatest investment I've ever made has been the church. God's people, missions, people, needs, men of God, widows, fatherless, It's an investment that will return over and over and over again. And you don't have to like me saying it, you don't have to believe me saying it, but you can rest assured this, I know it's true. That evil day has come upon us. People are ranting and raving over their loss of their savings, loss of their portfolio, Their bonds are collapsing. Where will we buy food? 70% inflation on the average food bill in America in the last, what, two years. How are we gonna make it? How are we gonna survive? Vehicles triple the rates they were 10 years ago. Home prices skyrocketing. How are we gonna do this? How are we gonna make it? Well, I guess you could always try God for the first time in your life. You can always fear the Lord for the first time ever. You can always put yourself in his hand and try him. I can testify to you, he'll take care of you if you just believe him. Well, Mitsuho Fujita, the great Japanese World War II hero, I hate saying that in America, people get irritated by that. He was the leader of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He became an admiral. It was designated a god by the emperor of Japan. At the end of the war in 1947, MacArthur, during the Japanese war crimes, MacArthur had called him into Tokyo to testify. And it was, I believe, on the way to the subway, a man gave him a gospel tract called, I was a prisoner of Japan, written in his language. Fuchida was very troubled about this track. It talked about words like forgiveness, which is against Japanese cultures. Aibatsu is Japanese culture. That means you avenge the wrong that's done to me. That is evil, by the way. If you avenge anything in your life, it's evil. You have to hate evil. Mitsun Fuchida received a plot of land from MacArthur. And here's this great admiral, considered a god in Japan, and now he's reduced to being a chicken farmer. And one day he's out there with his chickens and he's doing the best he can. He's a very educated man. He read all the books and he read all the instruction and got the very best feed and the very best watering systems. And he found a way to protect them from weasels and such and the bandits who would kill them. And he'd come out in the morning and find chickens dead. And he'd come out in the evening and find a chicken dead. And he'd come out and he'd find a nest where none of the eggs hatched. He'd find another nest where all the chicks hatched and then they all died. And finally, Fuchida said, you know, there's something else keeping these chickens alive. Maybe I better find out who that is. And when he got that gospel track, I was a prisoner of Japan and said he read it over and over. Finally, back in Japan for the trials in an old bookstore, he found a Japanese Bible translated into his language. And he began to read in there, began to read about this great God that can sustain all things, the creator of all things. And he began to read about this savior that wasn't concerned with Zabatsu, which is revenge, but he found a savior that was concerned with mercy and with grace, and that could offer you forgiveness, even the forgiveness of sins. It was there that a Japanese chicken farmer was convinced by the things he saw that there was something greater than him, that he was convinced by the tract, that there was a need that he had, that he was convinced by the word of God that his need was that he was a sinner. And the only hope he had was a Savior, Jesus Christ. And by his own words, he testified for many years as a preacher of the gospel. He read the verse that he that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And he realized that he had never lived. And that day he was gloriously saved. He went back to his wife. He had to leave his girlfriends in Tokyo. He went back to the little farm where his wife was raising the chickens and bowed at her feet and apologized to her, which has never taken place in Japanese culture. Never. His wife took him in and forgave him later on by the way she left him because of the gospel. Wanted nothing to do with it. He had the chance to go preach to thousands of people in the cities of Japan as a great war hero. He had preached this man, Jesus Christ, to them. He was an admiral. He was the hero of Pearl Harbor. He was a God in this country. But he began to fear God. Then God reveals himself to man. Man says, I'll do this myself. I'll take care of this myself. God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. To hate pride. To hate arrogancy. I tell these little church girls all the time, you could end up at a convenience store, and listen, I made up this girl probably 15, 16 years ago, But you know who she is, I've talked about her here. She's got blue hair, a bone in her nose, tattoos on her cheeks. Angry with God, hates the world, curses God in her heart. But you realize she's somebody that Jesus Christ died for. And if you think you're the slightest bit better than her, that's your arrogancy. You have no fear of the Lord. I used to walk down those streets in Baltimore. Folks laying in the gutter. I remember the man in Philadelphia, my wife and I, I think we had just been married not too long when we were down in Philadelphia. There's a man laying down in the front of the building in the gutter, just filthy, wretched, vile, covered with sores. And we saw a lady give him a sandwich and he wasn't even cognizant of the fact that she was there. He was so high or drunk and he just took this sandwich, just kind of stuck it in his mouth and was just laying there, never even sat up, just kind of gnawing on this sandwich. And I remember vividly remembering that man's face and remembering him laying there thinking to myself, oh, that could be me. But the grace of God. That's how you learn to fear the Lord. When you realize that could be me. I could be dead in hell today, but the grace of God, that could be me. And by the way, I deserve to be in hell today, but by the grace of God. All the arrogancy. I'm a little bit better than them. We got a little bit better than them. You all have heard the testimony of Brother Dale Morey. The life of Brother Dale Morey. You know, I told him in our church when Brother Morey was there, I believe it was last year. I told all them little church girls, I said, you think, you look at Brother Morey and you say, man, what a testimony, what a testimony. And I told those girls in our church, I said, you know, you think that's a great testimony. I said, I'll take the testimony of my niece Lydia any day. Raised in church, raised in her daddy's home, her daddy's a preacher. Raised under a King James Bible. Grew up learning scripture, grew up singing, never smoked, never drank, never cussed, never wore immodest clothes. One of the nicest young ladies you'd ever meet. Never listened to rock music, never listened to country music, rap music, only listened to gospel music. Didn't have a double life, just lived in her daddy's home. But at 15 years old, word of God got her. She was lost as lost could be. A Friday night after October meeting over at Black Creek on a Friday night in her bedroom wrestling with God, God showed her, you despise your parents. You're a rebel against me because you hate your parents. She told me later on, she said, I knew I hated my daddy being a preacher because there was things I couldn't do because my daddy was a preacher and I despised him for it. She came across that verse, he that cursed her father and mother, let him die the death. And she said she realized that she cursed her father and her mother in her heart every day because she couldn't go out there and live in sin like she wanted to do. And God saved her that day. But Dale Moore, he quoted me the other night. He said, boy, but people talk about, oh, my great testimony. He said, brother, he said, I'd much rather have a testimony like these church kids. I'd much rather have a testimony like that little girl. He said, I'd much rather have a testimony that I didn't live in sin, I wasn't on the streets, and I wasn't in prison, and I wasn't marked up with sin. How much greater it'd be to have a testimony, listen, I got saved sitting on a church pew. I got saved in the condemnation of God sitting on a church pew. Never had to have the scars of sin, the life of sin. But because that is you, you don't have the right to be arrogant. You better fear God. You better hate that pride, that arrogance. And to hate every evil way. I've said it many times in this church, I'll say it again. As I stand here and preach, my wife and I can probably count on several hands, probably have to take our shoes off and count on toes the number of children we've preached to in churches that are out living wickedly in sin today. Because they didn't fear the Lord. Many of them preachers' children. Sodomites, lesbians, addicts, curse God. Since I've been here last, there's a lady that I knew, my wife never knew her, used to be in meetings with the family. I preached for her husband, knew her, knew her family. Back in early July, She came to the end of herself. Preacher's wife, mother of 11, grandmother of nine, I think it was, talented, sang in church, played the piano in church, preacher's wife. Ended her own life. My wife and I began to cyber stalk, not in a bad way, And I found five years ago, all of her children that sang in church, and they sang and played instruments, and everybody just loved them, this great family. All of her children, five years ago, all those YouTube videos stopped. And about three years ago, son's playing in a bar in Nashville, singing drinking songs. Now the son's got sleeve tattoos up to here, left his wife, got a new wife. Singing some, I try to be kind, some effeminate sounding little religious song in some effeminate little religious organization. You got a daughter that's a lesbian. Destroyed by sin. Destroyed by sin. Why? No fear of the Lord. To hate evil. To hate that pride. Can you think of those younger children? There's ones right now, 14 to 16 years old. Their mom's taking her life by her own hand. The brothers are singing in bars, their sisters living with a woman. And all they heard their whole life was the King James Bible is the word of God. And they watched an entire family that didn't believe what God said because they didn't fear the Lord. And I weep for them. And they know no one's been ripped out from underneath them. Every life they've ever been told is real has become completely false to them. Everything they've ever heard now has become an evil way. And do you think you're better than that? No. It could be my family. My children aren't grown. It could be my home. There's young people sitting in here have not heard a word I said because they hate God in their heart. They despise God. There's older folks in here that haven't heard a word I said because they've despised God. There's no fear of the Lord. They don't mind that froward tongue. They don't mind that evil way. Everybody's gonna have a little bit of pride. Go down there in Philadelphia where the rats grow about the size of cats. And at night, you're literally in danger of losing your life. And you go down there and you see the refuse of life, which includes people. I see in the back of the Hooters, no, I was not at Hooters. The back of Hooters, I saw a man crawling out of a dumpster with old chicken wing bones. hot sauce all over his face, eating rancid chicken wing bones. Could that be you? Yes, it could. Could that be me? Yes, it could. But by the grace of God. Yet there's some that have had every opportunity, every word of truth, Every right way preached. And you just haven't made up your mind to fear the Lord. He said, counsel his mind and sound wisdom. Why? Because they come from God. Do you think that you could be raised in the house of God, get born of God and fear the Lord and end up eating chicken wings out of the dumpster? I don't believe you can. I don't believe you will. Because God rewards those that fear him. It doesn't mean you're gonna get rich. It just means you don't have to eat rancid chicken wings out of the dumpster behind the Hooters. Doesn't make me better than that man. When I got saved, God put a fear of God in my heart. I hate every evil way. I had a man this year accuse me of being 80 grit sandpaper. So I apologized to the church for compromise, and I said, I certainly thought I was doing better than that. None of them laughed. They weren't handling the 80 grit. They couldn't take the 20 grit, buddy. 20 grit's like falling on a sidewalk that's just been chopped up with a jackhammer. That's what it feels like. But by the way, it'll help you too. People said one time, they said, man, McVeigh's a tough preacher. And I said, no, he's not. I just hate every evil way. I don't come in your house and make you live it. I just tell you how to live it. And then pray that you do live it. I don't even have an expectation that you live it. but doesn't excuse my right to tell you. You think God saves you to leave you miserable? You think God saves you so you can have a little secret life? You think God saves you so you can have all these little deep, dark secrets in your life and in your heart? You think God saves you so that you'll be homeless? You think God will save you so you have to live on the streets? You think God will save you so you have to rent yourself out and sell yourself and remain an addict? No, he doesn't work that way. God will deliver you from sin. He'll bring you out of the dung heap, put your feet on the solid rock. He said, grew me up out of the miry clay, established my goings. Why? It puts fear of God in me. And he'll put the fear of God in you too. Because the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, arrogancy, the evil way. And by the way, that frowardness, God forbid, that mouth that speaks the vulgarity, the profanity, the filthiness, the foolishness against him, that's the froward way. How many times have we preached here, 30? To some people, it's never impacted. They're not gonna fear the Lord no matter what. There's others hanging in that thread. They want so bad to just cash it all in, but they're looking at the price. They say, I can't pay the price, it's too much. And then if some of you made that decision a long time ago to just cash it all in on Him, Some of you years ago, some of you decades ago, so you know what, I'll just go with God. I'll just walk in the fear of the Lord. And by the way, you know it by the fruits. The peaceable fruit of righteousness. And I thank God for those of you that have the peaceable fruit of righteousness. It doesn't mean you're living in a mansion. If you don't have a $100,000 car, adorning yourself in gold and jewels, no, but your countenance will have peace, and your home will have peace, and your life will have peace because of the fear of the Lord. Greatest decision I ever made in 1997, living the life of a partying fool. Greatest decision I ever made is just walk with God. Let him take control of my life. I look back, it's hard to believe how long it's been. I have two distinct divisions in my life. Half my life of being lost. Just slightly over half of my life walking with God. And I look at the awfulness of 25 years of sin. And I look at 27 years of gloriously being saved. I look back at the wasted years and say, what a fool I was. I didn't hate evil. I was too proud, too arrogant. Even as a lost man living in the throes of sin, the despicable life that I lived, I could still look at others and say, you know what, at least I'm not like them. Now I look at the clergy with the country club membership and I go, at least I'm not like them. Amen. Not with pride, just the mercy of God. Just the grace of God. Pastor Seeley, I'm done.