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[applause] >> Amen. Praise the Lord. Thanks. God once again for great music to prepare our hearts. Before you're seated, at the end of the service today, those standing at the exits will have cards. There's the name of a young person on this card. We did this a couple of years ago.
>> [music] >> We have a thousand, 1,400 young people in our church. And they need prayer. I'm asking you to prayerfully consider taking one, and then to commit to pray every day, calling this person's name in prayer. I have mine. You will have yours. And
>> [music] >> that's part of the daily routine for me. I kept the card in my Bible, and when I would begin my prayers, I would call that young lady's name in prayer. So, please, I gently say this, don't take it if you don't mean business. This is not a bookmark. So, we believe God's going to take care of our young people. But we're going to continue to take them to him.
Now, Father, I thank you for this moment again. Oh, it seems like the time is passing so quickly. Seems like we were just here yesterday. But you have allowed us to live and breathe, and we are back this morning. I ask you today, oh Lord, to do in us what we don't even know we need. We, we think we know so much, God, but what limited people we are. We don't even know our own selves. So, I ask you to do a great work in us. May this word absolutely change somebody's thinking today. And I ask it in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
I think I'll have you just go ahead and be seated. I'm going back to the Garden of Gethsemane. I'm just a little bit curious. Did anybody read that this week? And did you, did you sense anything different about those passages? Well, I'm going back to Matthew chapter 26, beginning with verse 36.
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." And he took with him Peter, the two sons of Zebedee, that would be James and John, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Jesus wanted them with him in his sorrow. I noted Jesus wanted them with him on the Mount of Transfiguration. Those were the only three. There Jesus glowed as he spoke with Moses and Elijah. And those three disciples were privileged to see him in his glory. And now he wants them to see him in his grief. In the agony of the garden, about to suffer what no human being has ever suffered, he wanted Peter, James, and John to be there with him. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even to death." Think of those words said to three men. "Stay here and watch with me. Watch. Watch." Jesus already knew the, the crowds were coming to arrest him. Jesus in spirit saw Judas betray him. He saw the exchange of money. Jesus knew that that bunch of, uh, traders and religious hypocrites and murderers were coming for him. That's why he said, "Watch for me. I've got to pray."
He went a little farther and fell on his face. And he prayed saying, "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with me 1 hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak."
I still can't grasp this. I've been reading it again this week, these passages about our Lord's agony. And to think that the sinless Son of God, who knew no sin, there was never a foul word in his mouth, not a deceitful word ever crossed his lips, he never had an evil thought. He never had an, an ungodly action. And if you wonder why the grief in the garden, it was at this time that the Father put on an innocent, sinless son all of the sins of the world. Someone who knew no sin now carried everybody's sin. I'm trying to preach it, but you can't get it any better than I can preach it. The sinless Son of God was now taking every foul, rotten, ungodly sin upon him that this world had.
But when he came away from that first session of prayer and found the disciples sleeping, he said, "Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak." Everybody knows about that. My spirit wants to, the Holy Spirit in me wants me to, but there's that part of me that's still so earthbound, so selfish. And Jesus was warning the disciples that every day you have to make a decision. Salvation is not a one-and-done thing where you get saved, fill out the card, and now you can live your life. Salvation is a continual, incessant, never-stopping walk with Jesus. A daily crucifixion of the flesh. A praying without season walk with God. I should say, unceasing walk with God. Jesus was telling the disciples, "If you think it's bad now, just wait a little while longer. And you're, you are personally going to find out how weak you are. How unspiritual you are."
So, I am learning from the words of Jesus that my hourly victory, I said hourly, you noticed that, didn't you? It's not daily, it's hourly. My hourly victory over sin is in direct proportion to my prayer. My prayer life. I am taught from the word of God that unceasing prayer paralyzes flesh. Do you believe this? Unceasing prayer, walking in the spirit, weakens the flesh. Paralyzes the flesh. The more I pray, the more spiritual and the more powerful I am in Jesus Christ. The less I pray, the more I act like the world he saved me out of.
Even Jesus, the Lord's prayer they call it, said, "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Listen. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." I do not want you to think for a moment that Jesus was saying ask the Father not to take you into sin. I believe, and I believe in context when you read scripture, Jesus was saying when you pray from [snorts] your heart, say this, "Father, when I'm weak and prayerless and careless, do not let me have my way. Because my way will eventually destroy me. My way will create damage in my life, in my family." I pray that you hear what I just gave you. Father, we're, we're to pray, "Father, lead us not INTO TEMPTATION. DON'T LET US HAVE our own way. LORD, NEGATE THE flesh that's in us and around us. Help us to be strong in you, in your word." The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. You could teach on this for a long time, but everybody knows how weak the flesh is. Everybody here knows what it is to be in a wonderful worship service and, as we say it, feel the presence of God and within 30 minutes after leaving, foul things in your mind, out of your mouth, actions, attitudes. Who can understand these things? That's because we're not home yet. That's because this treasure is in an earthen vessel. We still have flesh all around us.
Yes, I'm still preaching from last Sunday. And you cannot trifle with the preciousness of your salvation. You cannot pray, afford to go to church and pray and offer up a worship and then go out and take a chance by not praying and not reading. Jesus said, "Watch and pray. Keep your eyes open. Be aware of the times. Know what's going on. Understand yourself. Know your own weakness. You have a tendency to sin. But if you will watch, watch yourself, watch the things around you, and pray, God can deliver you from that kind of thing."
Jesus said, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation." See, there's a difference between being tempted and entering into temptation. Before I leave the building today, possibly before I walk off the stage, I will be tempted. Anybody agree? Not just for me, for you, too. I'll be tempted. Something will happen to ignite something in my flesh. Jesus was saying, "Watch and pray that you enter not. Don't go into it." You're going to fight the suggestions all the time, but you turn and you run and you stand on the word of God and you rely on THE HOLY SPIRIT. WATCH AND PRAY. WATCH AND PRAY.
Folks, the people that are most successful in this spiritual warfare do not consider prayer a once-a-day thing. They consider it breathing in the spirit. I stood the other day in a building and a lady walked up to me that I've known for a very long time. I knew her before she was married. I know her now. She's married with two grown children who are also just recently married. And we had a good long conversation. She asked me about someone in our church that she used to attend here, there in ministry somewhere else. She asked me about this individual and I said, "Um, well," she said, "What, what do you mean?" I said, "They don't go here anymore." She said, "What? You mean they've gone to another church?" I said, "I wish that were the case. I wish they had gone to church somewhere else. But they go to church nowhere. They've, they're living lives of pure sin." She was astonished. "I can't believe that. I watched that family worship. I watched those kids in camps." She said, "Well, what about so-and-so?" I said, "You know, I hate to tell you this, they're gone, too." "Where did they go?" Have no idea. One day they just weren't in the pews anymore. They don't return phone calls, they don't do texts, they don't do emails, they didn't explain to Pastor Greg or Pastor Anybody, especially me, that they were gone. I have no idea.
And she said, "Pastor, every morning of my life I get up and I go to the prayer room. She said, "I have two children and they gave us a fit. We wondered if they would ever make it. I expected the worst phone call ever from from either or both of them. But God saved them. Wait now. Wait. And they are both married to good people. But every morning I go there and I say, "GOD, WHATEVER IT was that caused that family to backslide, KEEP ME FROM IT. WHATEVER IT WAS THAT CAUSED THAT YOUNG COUPLE to separate and divorce, keep them from it." She said, "I said to God, it's different for everybody. I see all kinds of people backsliding all the time. I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT MIGHT COME AGAINST ME, but I'm asking you, Lord, to deliver me from whatever it is. DON'T LEAD ME INTO TEMPTATION. DON'T LET ME ENTER INTO SOMETHING THAT'S GOING TO DESTROY MY WALK WITH JESUS. DON'T LET MY CHILDREN ENCOUNTER THAT THING that's going to drag them down and tear THEM UP. OH, LORD," SHE SAID, "HEAR MY CRY. I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THIS. ALL I'M ASKING FOR IS HELP." DON'T LET THAT thing come to me. Don't let those things go to the people I love."
I thought about that every day since then, because as a pastor, I cannot tell you how many people I've seen backslide. Now, the word backslide is not in the New Testament. It's in the Old Testament. It's related to unbelieving, half-hearted Israelites who believed for a while and then turned away from the commandments of God. Folks, I can't tell you in all these 48 years of pastoring this church how many people I've seen fall, leave, quit, walk away. I have come to the conclusion that it can happen to anybody. I walk in a holy fear that it can happen to me. So, I join with that woman and I say, "Lord, whatever it is, you see all things. Whatever it is, you know I'm weak for. Whatever it is that could get a hold on me, deliver me from that evil THAT I MAY WALK IN TRUTH THE rest of my life."
The Bible says, "Flee the appearance of evil." If something appears to be ungodly, run from it. Don't watch it. Don't listen to it. Flee. Run. Scamper from the appearance of evil. Paul taught the church, "Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts." That means don't plan to sin. Don't keep stuff around you that will make you sin. Don't associate with people who will drag you down. Don't go back where you were. Don't reminisce ON HOW IT WAS. DELIVER US FROM EVIL, O LORD. GIVE ME THE KIND OF watchfulness that makes me alert and astute to everything going on around me. Give me spiritual discernment so that I know if that person that's trying to get close to me has AN EVIL HEART. DON'T LET ME RUN WITH THE WICKED. OPEN UP MY UNDERSTANDING, O God, our God, so that I WILL NOT MAKE PROVISION FOR THE FLESH. I won't provide the flesh anything to get a hold of. That's what Jesus meant when he said, "Satan is coming to get me, but he has nothing in me." Wow, what a verse of scripture. He has nothing in me. In other words, Jesus said, "He's coming, and he'll cause his crowd to arrest me, but I am willingly letting them do it. Satan has nothing in me. There's no attitude, there's no word, there's no mind, there's no mindset, there's no sin in me that he can get a hold of. But he's going to take me because I allow him to take me."
Here's what I want to tell you. Oh God, I wish I could say it with the way I feel it. I want every young person to hear me. If you're in the youth group, lift your hand up. If you're under 20, lift your It's not that hard. You do that. Yeah. And if, if you can't do it, let somebody beside you push it up. I, I want you to hold it up. Hold it up. All right, you can put your hand down now. That was tough, wasn't it? I want you to hear me when I tell you, don't feed the flesh. The flesh will thrive only if you feed it. If you look at ungodly stuff, your flesh will grow. If you indulge in ungodly deeds, your flesh will control you. Don't go where the weaknesses in your life can get a hold of you. Stop watching stuff online. Stop investigating every new thing that somebody says. Stop looking at nudity and the, the provocative images that are everywhere. How do you stop looking at it? Pastor, don't you look at it? I look at it, but I don't see it. Cuz you can't get away from it. If I turn around this way and see it, I just don't look that way anymore. And keep on going. Flee the appearance of evil.
But do you understand, Pastor, that? Let me tell you something. That sounded ugly, didn't it? That sounded like a, a mad daddy. YOU CAN'T COME UP with a scenario I don't know about. You can't say, but do you understand? I understand it all. At my age, I've been through it all. And in what I do, I've been through it all. And I am telling you that we have a lot to do with our own victory. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, but we've got to fight the good fight of faith, and we've got to lay hold on eternal life, and we've got to say no to the flesh, and yes to the spirit. And we've GOT TO RIP OFF the old man and put on the new man, which is created in Christ Jesus. If you just walk along saying, "I hope the Lord helps me today." You probably won't make it very far. What you have to do IS SAY, "BY GOD'S GRACE, I STAND ON HIS WORD. I'M WATCHING AND I'M PRAYING THAT I WON'T ENTER into temptation."
I read just a couple of weeks ago about Abraham. Remember how God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees? And in that passage in Hebrews 11, it says, "They that say such things." Meaning they're looking for a city. "They that say such things are looking for a city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God." Meaning they're headed somewhere that way. But if, it says, "If Abraham had had his mind on where he came from, he might have gone back. He might have had opportunity to return." So, it is important that not only do I repeat these things, but that you understand these things. When God calls you out, HE CALLS YOU OUT OF SINFUL LIVING. BUT, YOU CAN'T KEEP LOOKING BACK. God called Abraham and said, "LEAVE IT ALL AND KEEP GOING AND DON'T LOOK BACK BECAUSE IF YOU DO, YOU MIGHT THINK ABOUT RETURNING." THIS IS GOOD PREACHING THIS MORNING.
And one of the problems we have in American Christianity is that is that we go to the altar, BUT WE DON'T GO TO THE PRAYER ROOM AFTER the altar. WE DON'T LIVE IN THE PRAYER CLOSET. WE'LL READ EVERY KIND of book or magazine we can get our hands on, but this one remains neglected. The others will kill you. This will make you live. And if we COULD LEARN TO WATCH AND PRAY, THE TEMPTATION IN OUR LIFE WOULD BE LESSENED DRAMATICALLY. FLEE THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. DON'T MAKE PROVISION FOR THE FLESH. DON'T FEED THE flesh because your adversary, the devil, is walking around like a roaring lion seeking whom HE MAY DEVOUR, BUT RESIST HIM IN THE FAITH. FAITH HAS TO BE NURTURED, FOLKS. THE BIBLE BUILDS FAITH. SCRIPTURE BUILDS FAITH. SO, you can't resist the roaring lion with A SMALL, HOPELESS BIT OF FAITH. YOU'VE GOT to read and pray and watch. And chase after God so that your faith grows and when the enemy does come IN, WHEN THE ROARING LION DOES COME your way, your faith rises up the word of God in you and says, "I resist you in the name of Jesus Christ." Hallelujah.
So in Luke chapter 21, verse 36, we have Jesus admonishing not those disciples, but us about watching and praying. Watch this. "Take heed to yourselves." Do we ever do this? Do we ever stop and take heed to ourselves? Look at who we are, what we're doing, where we're going. Just stop and think about it. "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly." I tell you, folks, that is on me every day of my life. That day is about to take place, and I do not want that day to catch me unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. "Watch therefore and pray always, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the son of man."
So I'm supposed to get up every day and and remind myself, whatever problem comes, I cannot let it weigh me down. I give it back to Jesus. I get up every day and say, "Oh, I feel a little frivolous today. Things look good. I think I'll overindulge in something." You, you name what it might be for you. "Well, today I just can't carry this family burden anymore. It's killing me." Jesus said, "Give it to me." Watch and pray and turn all this stuff over to me because you cannot afford to be weighed down with anything else.
In Acts chapter 20, there's another warning about watching. Paul said to the Ephesians, "I'm leaving today and you'll never see my face again, but listen to these words. After I leave, vicious wolves will come in to the congregation of this church. Selfish men who are self-appointed teachers and apostles and everything else. And they will teach the wrong thing and they will seduce you. Be careful whom you listen to." And I'm telling you that this morning. PAUL SAID, "WATCH OUT FOR people like that. IF YOUR SPIRIT DOES NOT BEAR witness with whom they are and what they're saying, THAT'S THE HOLY SPIRIT. I want to tell you something. Everybody that's walking around preaching out of a Bible is not of God. When you get weak in spirit, you will tend to accept about anything if they can tell you what you want to hear. Paul said, "I'm warning you now, Ephesians church. Bad people are coming in among you. The problem is they've got great personality and they have great illustrations in their preaching, BUT THEY ARE NOT PREACHING the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are false teachers." I want to tell you again, many of you, listen, not everybody WHO WALKS AROUND WITH A BIBLE TEACHING HAS BEEN CALLED BY GOD. NOT EVERY BIBLE ON THE MARKET IS A LEGITIMATE BIBLE. HOW DO I KNOW, PASTOR? YOU WATCH AND YOU PRAY. THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU THIS MORNING. PASTOR, YOU STUDY ALL THIS STUFF. YOU'VE BEEN IN THIS LONGER THAN I HAVE. HOW DO I KNOW? YOU KNOW BECAUSE watching and praying gives YOU SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT. WATCHING AND PRAYING WILL OPEN UP HOLY SCRIPTURE TO YOU. YOU'LL know when IT'S BEING TWISTED. YOU'LL KNOW WHEN SOME HIRELING HAS COME BY AND JUST LIKES TO TALK, HEAR HIMSELF TALK, and use the Bible to do it. IF YOU WATCH AND PRAY, GOD'S HOLY GHOST WILL GIVE YOU A DISCERNING SPIRIT AND SOMETHING WAY DOWN DEEP IN HERE WILL SAY, "UH, SOMETHING'S not right here." AND I'M TELLING YOU, LISTEN TO THAT.
Let me ask you three questions and then I'm finished. In Psalm chapter 1, you can turn there if you like. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night." So, let me ask you this question and I, I'm still addressing the young people that are with us today today. Where are you getting your advice? Cuz it says right here, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly." Who is influencing you? Who are you discussing things with? What are they telling you about what you ought to do? If it's not a godly person, you are on the road to destruction. The problem with your generation is that you spend most of your life online. And you think because somebody has 2 million followers, THEY MUST BE SMART. THEY'RE NOT. THEY'RE IDIOTS. BUT THEY'RE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW if they dress the right way and say the right things and have the best background, THEY CAN JUST ABOUT SAY any foolish thing and people who like the way they dress, who like the fact that they're stars, will listen to them and they will influence you. I hate the internet. I hate what it's done to THIS GENERATION. I HATE THAT ACCESSIBILITY TO anything is available. I hate it. I wish I could take my own phone and throw it. No, first I want to stomp it. And I want to grind my heel on it and then I want to throw it in a fire and dump gasoline on it. I hate the thing. But you guys can't live without it, see? And therein lies the problem. You listen more to entertainers and sports stars than you do to preachers. And somebody came by and said, "Oh, preachers, they're all hypocrites." And I hear this all the time. "Well, I quit going to church because I had a bad experience in church when I was little." >> [snorts] >> That, that right there is your seat. But let me go back again. Kind of tense in here right now, isn't it? I don't go to church because I was treated badly when I was young. I don't go to church because people there are hypocrites. On and on. Let me say something to you. That is a cop-out excuse that will send you to hell. Jesus didn't do that to you. A person did that. BUT YOU DON'T PUT JESUS IN the lump with everybody else. JESUS LOVES YOU. JESUS CARES ABOUT YOU. JESUS DIED FOR YOU. JESUS WANTS TO LIVE INSIDE OF YOU. YOU'RE NOT PUNISHING THE CHURCH BY NOT GOING TO CHURCH. YOU ARE JEOPARDIZING YOUR OWN ETERNAL SOUL. AND I SAY TO ALL OF YOU YOUNG PEOPLE WHO LISTEN to those kinds of people, I'd shut them off and defriend them or debunk them or undo whatever you have to do. Don't listen to that foolishness.
"Blessed is the one who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly or stands in the way of sinners." Who's your friend? Who are you hanging with? WHO ARE YOU CHILLING WITH? WHAT GROUP HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO WALK AROUND WITH? LAUGH WITH? CUZ IT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. I'm telling you right now, YOU ARE NOT STRONG enough to OVERCOME WHAT YOUR LOST GROUP OF FRIENDS is doing. You will give in to it every time. SO, WHO YOU HANGING WITH? Are your friends Christians? Do they go to church? When you go to their home, is the home FULL OF ALCOHOL? DO THE PARENTS TALK FOUL LANGUAGE? Do your friends cuss and swear? YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE it hanging around people like that. But they're, they're, we got a lot in common. We, we play on the same sport. I don't know what I'm going to do. Sometimes I think I'm just going to scream. YOU, YOUR SOUL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR SPORTS PROGRAM. YOUR SOUL IS GOING INTO ETERNITY SOMEWHERE. SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME, you're going to step into eternity. Who are you hanging with? The Bible teaches the safest place to be is in the body of Christ. The best place to be is in the congregation of the righteous.
Then he said, "nor sits in the seat of the scornful." I just have to believe there's a process there. If you're listening to ungodly people and running with ungodly people, you'll finally sit down with those people and your whole life will be filled with scorn. I, I've been done wrong. Uh, we need, we need just justice done in this. And the church has done people wrong. And the church hates people. And you just become a scornful person. Bitter, angry, no joy in your life. Well, brother, if you don't watch and pray, that's exactly what you can expect. He said, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord. His delight is in the word of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night." See, we can have a good time when we come together, but this is still the toughest, bloodiest battle being fought on earth right now. Satan and his emissaries are determined to destroy every young person in this building, every young person he possibly can. He's determined to catch you off guard. He's determined to make you think about something other than Jesus, and I'm coming here with this straightforward message right now and telling you that Jesus, IN HIS LOWEST, DARKEST MOMENT, HAD THE DISCIPLES' WELL-BEING on his mind WHEN HE SAID, "I'M ABOUT TO GO TO THE CROSS, BUT YOU BETTER WATCH AND PRAY SO THAT YOU DON'T ENTER INTO TEMPTATION." And that's where we all are right now. The most important thing you'll ever do is start a life of watching and praying. Watching and praying. Examine everything. Be suspicious of people when, especially when that thing inside is firing off in you. Beep, beep, beep, something's not right here. Sandra says that to me a lot. People around me say, "I, I just don't feel right about that person. Something's not right about that." You know, occasionally we'll have somebody disrupt one of our services and you know, make a lot of noise so that everybody starts looking at them. And then when someone goes and says, "Please, could you tone it down?" "No, I won't tone it down. You don't know what God's done for me. And what we've had to say is, first of all, you're a visitor. And you don't walk into a visiting church and act any way you want to act. Second of all, God hasn't done any more for you than he's done for everybody else in here." Yeah, but I was in drugs and I mean, a thing. I, I didn't, I NEVER DID A DRUG IN MY LIFE, BUT I WAS ON MY WAY TO A DEVIL'S HELL. I KNOW WHAT GOD'S DONE FOR ME, AND I KNOW WHAT HE'S DONE FOR WHAT HE'S DONE IS THAT HE HUNG AND HE DIED, AND HE WAS BURIED, AND HE ROSE, AND HE WENT, BUT HE'S COMING BACK AGAIN TO GET US.
>> [applause] >> HALLELUJAH. Stand with me, please. Hallelujah. Watch and pray. Watch. Be alert. Be awake. Be aware of what's going on around you, of who is around you. And pray. Because prayer is the most powerful thing you can do. Watch and pray.
[music] And then don't let one single morning pass that you don't delight in the word of the Lord. Because Jesus, from his own mouth, taught us
>> [music] >> we are kept by the word of God. Lord, keep them through thy word. Thy word is truth. I'll leave the pulpit this morning wondering what I said. It seems all jumbled up to me. But this is what I want you to know.
>> [snorts] >> You won't ever have to worry about entering into temptation if you will live on your knees, read this book, watch and pray. Here's what James said. Don't let anybody say when he's tempted, "God is tempting me." Because God cannot be tempted, nor does he tempt anybody to evil. But listen, "But every man is tempted WHEN HE'S DRAWN AWAY OF HIS OWN LUST. Then when lust conceives, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." So when the PRAYER IS, "LORD, DON'T LET ME BE LED into evil," IT'S SAYING,
>> [music] >> DON'T LET ME LET MY FLESH take control. Let me crucify my flesh. And remember I belong to Jesus Christ.
[music] We have names in these boxes. Again, that wasn't something we did for just one time.
>> [music] >> I want council members and wives and other spirit-filled people walking close to the Lord to come down and lay your hands on these boxes. If you would, come right ahead. And we're going to pray for God to move in their lives. And then when you leave, you'll take a card. And you'll commit to holding this person up in prayer every day. Pray for them. Oh, Jesus. Hallelujah.
Here's something else I want to do. All you young people singing in the choir today for First Family Sunday, come down here and stand with me, please. If there's a young person in the congregation, lift your [snorts] hand up. You're in this group, lift your hand up. I want those who are around you to gently lay their hand on your shoulder or back throughout the place. I want people to understand this is not playtime. This is not a game. The devil's after these young people. The devil wants to soil them in every possible way. But I believe GOD ANSWERS PRAYER. AND I'M NOT GOING TO GIVE UP ON ANYBODY. AS LONG AS THERE'S breath in their lungs, I just ask God, save them, keep them, strengthen them in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, Father, >> [snorts] >> Rob, come up and help me. Winston, come up and help me with these guys. Just lay your hand [music] on them. I, I'm probably going to get in trouble right here. Abishag, are you headed out of? You're going to a another university, a university? Yes. You won't have this, this anymore for a while. Anybody else [music] leaving after this besides Abishag? Guys, you don't understand how important >> [music] >> what we're doing is. Going out there is a wicked place. Classrooms are wicked places. The devil has appointed and planted [music] uh philosophers and teachers and professors there to taint your mind against the faith of the church. But this morning, I'm going to do everything I can in the name of Jesus Christ to arrest heaven and cause angels to stand up and even the Father [music] to get to the edge of his throne. I want you all now to point your hand in every direction for these young people.
Father God, I come to you now. I come to you as one of yours. We come into your throne room boldly. We come because of the blood of Jesus. WE COME BECAUSE THESE YOUNG PEOPLE MATTER. They are valuable. You died for them. You sent them into the world. Lord, you paid a price for THEIR SOUL. ALMIGHTY GOD, I'M asking you today. Let them understand that they will LEARN NOTHING GREATER OR MORE POWERFUL THAN TO WATCH AND PRAY that they might not enter into temptation. Lord, >> [music] >> we are sick of this world. We are SICK OF THEIR SUBSTANCE ABUSE, their immorality, their confusion, [music] their lying. We're sick of it. But God, we ask you to put a hedge around these young people today. May they realize that Jesus is the only one that can satisfy them. They don't have to experiment with the world. Every experiment with sin BRINGS TOTAL EMPTINESS. BUT IF THEY WILL DELIGHT themselves in the law of the Lord and walk in the Holy Ghost, THEY WILL LIVE A LIFE worthy of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.
>> [snorts] >> Let us sing a little bit of that verse so we can be reminded what he's done for us. I'm going to let you go in a minute. But you see, I'm always thinking this could be my last sermon. I want everybody to hear the, the of the Lord. Young people, all of you listen to me. All it takes is one bad decision. One split-second bad decision and your life could be over. You could be dead. You could be incarcerated. There's all kinds of stuff that could happen to you. One bad, stupid, sinful decision and your life will never again be the same. But if you will watch and pray, if you will read God's word every day, if you'll stay in the fellowship of the saints, pick good friends, do good things, >> [snorts] >> you won't have to be drugged through the mud. You won't have to get up and go to what they call a CR? What is that anyway? Celebrate Recovery. You won't have to go. So, I'm Here's a, a dying preacher begging you from the bottom of my heart, watch and pray so that you do not enter temptation. THE SPIRIT IS WILLING, THE FLESH IS WEAK. KILL THE FLESH. WALK IN THE SPIRIT. READ THE BIBLE. CHOOSE GOOD FRIENDS. GO TO CHURCH. TRUST GOD. LOOK FOR JESUS TO COME AT any moment.
>> [applause] >> Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in THY SIGHT, O LORD, MY STRENGTH AND MY REDEEMER. AMEN. Love you, church. See you next time. Thank you, guys.
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