And it's been kind of a long day, but I drank me one of them energy drinks, you know what I mean? You do that when you're a 73-year-old, you risk your life. That's what you do, but I had to have some help. Had to have some help to get through the day. Glad to have my wife with me, and amen, and appreciate a good wife, a blessing. And then I appreciate this church been helping me ever since I met you. monthly, financially, preferably, and then I preach quite a bit here just out of the kindness and sympathy, feeling sorry for him, I guess, but I appreciate it. I've been doing prison work for 33 years, and I pastored the church for a while, about 10 years, so I've been at this quite a while, amen? And I know a lot of folks don't think much, a lot of folks, about prison ministry. They think it's just a jailhouse profession. But you know, out of all the numbers of people I've seen profess to get saved, surely God, amen, at least half of them got the real thing. You know what I mean, amen? It's just like folks come through here, all these empty seats. Everybody blow through here, really got saved, said they did. You wouldn't have no place to sit tonight, amen? And you know, it's not my job. I just sow the seed. pull in the good fish, bad fish, God's gonna separate them, amen. I just appreciate the good Lord letting me do anything. And then folks like you having confidence and enough and kindness to help me pay my bills and travel and thing, you know, everything's quite expensive, but I've never done without anything I've ever needed. So I have no sad stories to tell there. The Lord's been good to me and taking care of me and my wife and my family and amen. Thank you for your kindness and your generosity along the way. Thank you for whatever. as gift tonight. I appreciate that. And I really do. Thank you for the real nice motel room over here. Amen. Holiday Inn. I don't get to stay in a whole lot of them. Amen. Amen. Most of them, as long as the roaches ain't bigger than me, I can handle it. You know what I mean? But this is not too bad. Holiday Inn's a pretty good place. Amen. But I've stayed, Ricky was talking about the other day, we've stayed in some rough places, ain't we? I'm telling you. And amen. They'll ask you, how you like that? You know, if you tell them, It's great, you're lying, amen. And if you tell them it's a mess, they get mad at you, so you're just stuck. But anyhow, appreciate the kindness and the blessing of God's people. 1 Chronicles chapter 28. If you have a Bible with you, 1 Chronicles. I don't think I've preached this here. And I hope it's a fitting message for New Year's Eve to start I'm glad I made it through this one, ain't you? And truly, it's had its ups and downs, but God's been good and through it all. I'm gonna read a few verses. You can stand if you like, if you're physically able. If you can't, that's quite all right. But here in 1 Chronicles 28, verse 1, it said, David assembled all the princes of Israel, the prince of the tribes, the captain of their companies, the minister to the king, of course, And the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king and of his son, with the officers, with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men unto Jerusalem. Then David the king stood up on his feet and said, hear me my brother and my people. As for me, I had in my heart to build a house, a rest for the ark of the come the Lord and for a footstool of our God and made ready for the building. But God said unto me, thou shalt not build a house for my name because thou hast been a man of war and has shed blood. Howbeit the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever, for he has chosen Judah to be the ruler, and of the house of Judah, and the house of my father, and among the sons of my father, he liked me to make me king over all Israel. Father, we thank you in Jesus' name for letting us get here. Thank you for the good day we had with the other brother we was at earlier today. Your kindness to your people, and in traveling mercy, and these good folks has prayed for us. Please help us now, be a blessing to this dear pastor that's been a friend, and truly a friend, and trust me, the preacher, his people, and I pray tonight you'd help me be a help to him and those, in Christ's name, amen and amen. Here, I'm gonna look at one verse, and Brother Ricky might have preached on this somewhere along the way, I don't know. I just preach, if anybody preach something that helps me, I scribble it down, and meditate on it a little bit and try to put my own little world in it. Amen. I think that's all right, don't you? But he said, how be it, verse four, the Lord God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father, king over Israel forever. For he has chosen Judah to be the ruler of the house of Judah, the house of my father. And among the sons of my father, he liked me to make me king over all Israel. That's the only place in the Bible you'll see where God said he liked anybody. And he said it about David, at the end of David's life, God said, he chose me. I mean, David said, he chose me because he liked me. Amen. I want to preach this a few minutes tonight on does the Lord like you? Amen. I know he loves me for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, who shall not perish, but have everlasting life. We know he loved us. He died for the sins of the whole world. But my question is, does he like you? Amen, amen. And you know, if you was living in Bible days and you saw Judas, say you walked by when Judas kissed the Lord, you say, boy, he really loves the Lord. And if you, amen, if you walked by when Simon Peter was cussing and denying the Lord, you say, surely that man is not saved. but it's just the opposite sometimes. And when we think of David, we cannot help but think about David's sin and with Bathsheba and all the things and the death of Uriah and all the misery that brought. But in spite of all that, he said, you've been faithful over a few things and I'll make you rule over. He didn't say you've been faithful over everything. He said, you've been faithful over a few things. Amen. Ain't nobody here being faithful over everything, but he said, you've been faithful over a few things. Amen. I'll make your ruler over many. Amen. That's not talking about how your position in heaven has something to do with. your position in the millennial kingdom here upon earth. Amen. During the reign of Christ. But you know, Enoch, he had a testimony. He pleased God. Abraham was called the friend of God, but here David said, God liked me. Amen. If there's anything I want God to do, I want him to like me. Amen. And you know, a lot of folks say, I love everybody. Well, I wouldn't say that because you know better than that. You don't like everybody. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Don't look at me like that. Amen. You know, I got some family that I love, but I don't like. Amen. And you know, because I'm kin to them and I have some compassion that God put in my heart. If they were hungry and they have groceries or they didn't have a place to stay on a cold night, amen, don't make no difference. They strung out on dope, whatever, drunk, whatever, because they're my kinfolk. And I had the financial means to help them in that crisis. I'd rent them a room, buy them some groceries, and give them some cash money. Whatever they did with it, I'm not responsible for that. I'd do all that, but outside that, I can't stand being around them. How am I doing on that one? Amen. Isn't that right? They'll take the joy right out of your day. Amen. Amen. The Bible said, we live peace with all men as much as lieth in us. Sometimes it's just not enough in me. You understand? There's even some first aid people that get on your nerves. Amen. Amen. They just, some of them you cannot get along with. Amen. That's the truth. Amen. Amen. And I know, I know that's not popular preaching, but I'm just telling you, they just, some folks, they think it's their job in life to steal the joy right out of your life. Amen. Or to bring the bad nature, that Adamic nature, and get you back to it like they stay all the time. Amen. I start to stay away from them. Amen. You know, if you're gonna have friends, you gotta show yourself friendly. You know, and folks say, well, you know, you gotta have a real burden for everybody. Oh, Jonah, he didn't like those folks before they got right, and he hated them after they got right. Explain that to me, amen. And you can understand why, amen. I've met some, amen, I didn't like them before they got saved, and I have a hard time geeing on with them since they got saved, amen. How am I doing? You're doing good, helps, amen. Hallelujah, amen. I'm glad I drank that energy drink. I ain't getting no help nowhere else right here, but amen. You know, he said, he said, be not unequally yoked together with unbelief. What fellowship of right and unright? What communion hath light with darkness? What concord is Christ with Bella? What party hath he that believeth within them? What agreement hath the temple of God with idol? You're the temple of living God, and God said, I dwell in them and walk in them. and be their God. Everybody's saved, got God in them. But I'm not dissatisfied with God being in me. I like when he walks around in me. You understand what I'm saying? We all know that. If you've ever been filled with the Holy Ghost or been in a meeting where the Spirit of God's moving, you know what I'm talking about. Amen. When the well gets a bubbling, the wind gets a blowing down in the courtyard or so, when God gets to walking around in there, I love that. Amen. Hallelujah, amen. Whether I get any help or not, I'm bad of code, amen. Y'all ain't helping that either, praise God, amen. And the truth of the matter is, I want him to like me. Amen, you know what I'm saying, amen. I want him to like me, I want him to walk around in there, amen. I wonder sometimes, I know God loves every saved person and people, but I wonder if he likes them. I like to hang around people I like. Amen. And the reason I say I wonder some people, God likes them, don't seem like He ever comes around them. Anybody want to testify on that high note right there? Hey, man, I'm just trying to tell you, I want Him to come around me. Amen, I just want him to come around me. And we know that David obeyed the Lord and his commandments, saving in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. And we know all the terrible things that David experienced because of his sin, how his family rebelled and tried to kill him. Some of them, one of them raped his daughter and all that stuff. But in spite of all that, in spite of all that, at the end of David's life, he said, God chose me because he liked me. Amen. I want to preach just a few minutes on some things that God liked about David. Amen. First of all tonight, David was content with just being David. Amen. You know when he went out and then Philistine, that loud mouth, Goliath has run his mouth. Amen. He said, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that has defied the armies? Living God, is there not a cause? And an old Saul put his armor on David. Saul stood head and shoulders taller than anybody in the land, but that didn't fit David. David took it off because he hadn't proved it. David found out right away if God was gonna use him, he'd have to go in his own armor. He'd have to go be in his self and not be in somebody that he really wasn't. Amen. I've learned in almost 50 years of being saved, just be yourself. Amen. Just be yourself. You don't have to be like everybody else. You can't do it like everybody else. Just be you. Amen. You know, and if you're just yourself, everybody's not gonna like you. Amen, but it doesn't matter if they like you as long as the Lord likes you. That's all that matters, amen. And be honest with you, those that like you are like you and not that person you're trying to pretend to be. Amen, that's all that matters anyhow. Whether they like you or not, as long as the Lord likes you, as long as the Lord will visit with you every now and then, that's all that matters, that's all you need. If he's for you, who can be against you? Hallelujah, amen. Every time some new clothes fad comes along or some crazy hairdo, amen, or this decal society we live in. I'm not picking on you. I used to have a tattoo, amen, and I've told this here before. I'm just as stupid as anybody else, amen, and if you're a veteran and you got them things, I'm not picking on you, but I'm just trying to tell you, amen, I thought I was in love. When I turned about 13 years old, you lose your mind, you know. And you quit playing with little trucks in the dirt and some little girl walks by and you say, I believe I love her. You go crazy, amen. Things start happening to you, amen. And I thought she loved me and I got me some Indian ink and some thread and it's what they call a jailhouse tattoo. That's one you do yourself, you know. It ain't this professional stuff nowadays. And you put her name on your arm and said, I love this woman. And three days later, she dumped me. Hallelujah, amen. And I'm glad she did. I saw her about 25 years later. She had got somewhat larger and grew a mustache. And I went to the doctor. I said, God, get that ugly woman. That's a true story right there. I'm not kidding, amen. Amen. I'm just trying to tell you, amen. We don't have to fit in. We don't have to take up every fad that comes along. We don't have to fix our hair like everybody else just to win them, amen. That's a bunch of nonsense, amen. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. It might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Just be yourself, amen. Just be yourself, amen. So many folks are discontented with their lot in life. where God put them. Amen. God put you somewhere. Amen. Some folks are bitter because his raised poor. Amen. Y'all remember when you was poor? I can vaguely recollect. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Amen. That's right. Everybody we lived around was poor, so it wasn't so bad. You know what I mean? But the truth of the matter is, everybody's been out of shape, but they're a lot in life. Paul said, I've learned whatever state I'm in, therewith to be content. Being content with food and raiment. You have to learn. You have to learn that in life, or you'll run around disappointed all the time, trying to be somebody you ain't. You know that, and some of you younger people don't know, but Jonathan Winters, that comedian, he used to be on TV, he was funny. Some say he was really funny, I hope not. I liked him, amen, everything he said was funny. And I heard this, I read this somewhere, that he played so many different characters that he ended up in a mental institution because he forgot who he really was. I said, he must have been a Baptist. I've met a lot of Baptists. There's one person on Sunday, another person on Monday, different person on Friday. You know what I mean? Confused. Amen. Amen. Just be yourself. Amen. Be who God made you. Do what God let you do. David found out right quick if he's going to kill that giant, he's going to have to do it being the way God made him. Amen. and everybody don't like you, but we all got a different set of fingerprints. We all got a different personality. Amen. Some folks are smarter than others. You know what I mean? That's just the way it is. I can't help it if God made a genius out of me. That's just part of it. Hallelujah. Amen. I'm just trying to tell you, y'all ain't going to get in on this. I can tell this is a tough crowd tonight. Amen. Amen. You didn't eat too much, by God, what you did. But too bad is you need to be just content. Amen. I've learned that. I'm just going to be me. Amen. You know, when you first get called a preacher, Caleb, and I'm sure you, you, you get infatuated, uh, different preachers, you know, you're like, you're just young at it. And you see somebody, they get this little cliche that you like. Somebody said, brother, that's how you get in the prison. I'll tell you here in a minute. Amen. And you know, and that's good to have a godly person as a hero. And I like blood and gut preaching, amen. I mean, I can take it, amen. Just sling blood and guts everywhere. I'm fine with it. Just put a little oil and wine on it, patch it up before I go home. I'm all right with it. But the truth of the matter is, I went blue. I started Rock of Ages prison ministry. He's a blood and guts man. He wasn't afraid to preach. He'd skin your hide up one side and down the other. And I went to hear him one time. I'd heard him on a CD, on tapes, and seen him, people told me about him. So I went to hear him. Man, I mean, he laid everybody out. Hey, man, I liked it. And he got this little cliche. He said, some of y'all would gag a buzzard off a gut wagon. I thought, well, that's a neat little saying. I passed a little church that time, and I went back, and some of them had aggravated me a little bit, and I was a little mean that day, and I said, some of y'all will gag a buzzard off a gut wagon. Next thing I know, I'm in the prison ministry. That's how I got there, amen. But the point is, that was Ed's armor. When everybody went to hear Ed, that's what they expected, because that was Ed. It worked for Ed, but it wasn't my armor. It didn't work for me. I learned about just be me. Am I making any sense here? This year coming up, just be yourself. Amen. Just wear your own armor. Do what God will let you do. Amen. Amen. Amen. I'm just trying to preach here and I ain't getting nowhere. Amen. Y'all ain't helping me much, but that's all right anyhow. I got some notes here. I'll read them verbatim if you don't help me. Amen. That's pretty boring, ain't it? Amen. He's just content. God liked that about David. He said, He chose me because He liked me. He likes those that's just who they are. Not trying to impress nobody, just be yourself. you'll be surprised how God will help you and use you. And then David was concerned with what God was concerned about. Amen. He said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defile the arms of the living God? Is there not a cause? And we live in a world of Philistines. Amen. Amen. Not just these heathens from other countries, but this country we live in. Amen. These giants. Amen. We got the government. Amen. Amen. Just a bunch of heathens. Amen. And most of them's communists. Hallelujah anyhow. Amen. They talk about socialism. That's just a nice word for communism. They say he's a liberal preacher. That means he's a lying preacher. He's a liberal politician. No, he's a dirty lying politician. Amen. That's all that is. But we ought to be concerned with what God's concerned with. I'm concerned about this scripture here, this book right here, amen. And I know everybody here is a King James Bible only believer. Amen, you can't be saved and be so stupid you don't know this book's right. How am I doing there? Somebody said that's not a good word. I thought that was my first name, first 20 years of my life. I'm just trying to tell you, amen. And I knew this book was right before I ever heard there was even a debate about it. Amen, I got saved, the preacher preached from this King James 1611 authorized verse. It ain't just a good trans, it's a perfect copy of God's word in the English language. Amen, you don't have to be saved to be that smart. Amen, if you just believe, if you believe that God, there was a God, you believe, I believe Jesus Christ is real forever got saved. I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the resurrection. I believe it was God in the flesh, best way of a sinner. Amen. I believe this book here was a holy book before I ever knew God. You can't look up at the sun or the moon and not realize somebody put it there. Amen. All the galaxies and multiple billions of stars out there. I mean, as far as you can go somewhere out there, he's out there somewhere. Amen. I mean, you don't have to be saved to know that. Amen. God made the first man Adam of the dust. I believe that is a heathen. Amen. That God breathed the breath of God in his mouth to become a living soul. I have no trouble with that. I believe the historical fact. Amen. You can't think that God could do all that and can't get us a perfect copy of God's Word. He requires perfect righteousness, perfect holiness. Amen. He requires a perfect book. Amen. You don't have to, I believe you ought to contend for the faith. That's his book here. Faith come by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Amen. Well, I'm not trying to be ugly, but amen. I'm concerned about this battle over this Bible. Amen. Even in our circles, independent Baptist circle, you can see them drifting. First thing that goes is their music. They start playing that trashy music. Next thing you know, they change Bibles. Amen. Next thing you know, the preacher's wearing blue jeans but holds him, got a little diamond in his ear, got a t-shirt on that ain't big enough for him for all the girls to see his muscles and all that stuff. Hey man, how am I doing? Got that music. that garbage to listen to it and act like God's in that mess. I believe every one of them fellas lost as a duck in the desert. Amen. Help yourself on that one. Amen. Truth of the matter is, you ought to be concerned about it. scriptures. Amen. I'm concerned about the saints. Amen. Bible said, we know we pass from death unto life because of love of the brother. He that loveth not his brother by the death, he that hath his brother's murder, and you know no murder, have eternal life about you. Hereby I proceed with the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, while also laid down our life for a brother. Whosoever hath this world's goods, hath his brother have me, shall he up his bowels with compassion? How dwelleth the love of God? Let us not love in word and in tongue, but indeed in truth. People say, I love the Lord, but I don't love church. Well, you're lost. You can't love him and not love us. How am I doing right there? Amen. The Bible said, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of food, amen, and you say to him, to pardon Pete, be you warm, be you fill, notwithstanding you give not them the things that need for the body, what does it profit? Some folks, you know, our church gets down, maybe somebody lost their job, not a fault of their own, they got a mortgage, they got car payments, got kids, they're trying to get educated, amen, they're struggling. They're not going to beg you for help, amen. But if you know, if you really love the saints, if you know they're struggling, amen, and you had the means, your bills have been paid, you had a few hundred extra bucks, Amen. You wouldn't yell it out, but as they slipping out of the church that night, you could tell they was going down, having a tough time. It wouldn't hurt you to slip them three, $400 if you had it. You say this ain't going to fix all your problem, but it'll make this day a little easier for you. Just kind of slip it to them in private, and you don't have to tell nobody about it, and they probably won't tell nobody about it, because they don't want to be embarrassed. How am I doing right there? Amen. That's what we're supposed to do, help each other when we're struggling. And I'm just trying to preach, and y'all ain't getting nothing out of this, but I'm going to finish it anyhow. Hallelujah. Amen. I'm concerned about these scriptures. I'm concerned about the saints, amen. Hallelujah, amen. I love them, amen. I fell in love with them the day I got saved. I got saved on Sunday morning, showed back up on Sunday night before I knew it was a sin not to be there. Hallelujah, amen. There's something about them. They used to make me uncomfortable. They always made me feel welcome, but that preacher never made me feel comfortable. But when I got saved, 1974, I walked in Fireview Bible Baptist Church on a Sunday morning. Earlier that morning, I was in a dope house in the housing project department doing what drug addicts do, trying to get over doing drugs on Saturday night and trying to get high on Sunday morning to get over being sick from doing all you did on Saturday night. And the Holy Ghost, hallelujah. The Holy Ghost came over in that dope house where I was at, and you say, Preacher, God don't talk to sinners. Well, you better hope he talks to you. Somebody was talking to me, amen. I was miserable in my sin, ashamed of my life, and somebody was talking to me, said, David, put that dope down, that booze down, if you're in a hurry, you get over at that church before that meeting's over. That's not normal thinking for a rank sinner, amen. I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I thought I was losing my mind, but I struggled with that. Finally, I laid the dope down, the booze down. I turned around. Them old boys I run with, I said, fellas, I'll see ya. They said, where you going? I said, I'm going to church. They said, why? I said, I don't know why. They said, you must be stoned. I thought to myself, stoned, drunk, or crazy. I'm sick of all this. I didn't go to get saved, didn't know what it meant. I pull in that church parking lot weeping like a baby. I didn't know why I was falling apart like that. Walked in that church till 11.30 with hair down on my back, a pair of bell-bottom britches on with patches on them, a t-shirt with a peace sign on it, a half-man needle tracks in both my arms, the smell of whiskey beer on my breath, depressed on my way to hell. I walked in there, I didn't know what I was doing there. When I got there, by 15 after 12, I was born of the Holy Ghost. I washed in the blood. I sealed under the day of redemption. On my way to heaven. Thank God Almighty. They didn't make me nervous no more. Amen. How am I doing right here? I'm glad I got in, amen. I'm concerned about it. I love it. I'm in church at least three days a week, and a lot of times more than that. Amen. Amen. I'd rather go to church than did in your world. Hallelujah. Go down there and watch them little fairies leap around. Help yourself. I've been down there two times in my life, first and last. The only reason I went then, I didn't want to pay alimony. Hallelujah. My wife said, we need to take the boy somewhere. I said, I ain't got no money. Oh yeah, you got money. I seen you had a hold of that money. Every real man hides money from his wife. I said, that's my gun money. You got a gun. I said, I seen a bigger one. I don't shoot things, hang them on the wall. I just like to watch them blow up. Don't you? Praise God. Hallelujah. So it drives 600 miles. That's a blessing. takes you three to two days to get there. Amen. Go in and pay $65 back then to go in and look at a guy dressed up in a dog suit called Goofy. He ain't Goofy. You're the Goofy one. Amen. How am I doing right there? Amen. Amen. And then the kids want to talk you into riding Space Mountain. That's that roller coaster in the dark. Makes you throw up them hot dogs and cokes you just drank. That's a wonderful time. Hallelujah. Amen. They call that a vacation. Before you get back home, you talk about divorce. I'd rather go to church. Amen. Hallelujah. Am I doing any good right here? I just want the Lord to like me, don't you? I just want the Lord to like me. I want to be concerned with what He's concerned with. Amen. Well, let me hurry up here. Amen. And then David had courage to face life's difficulty. Amen, when he faced this giant, this man about six foot tall, much of a man, I mean a monster of a man, amen. David had already seen God working his life in private. Amen, when he's over there taking his sheep, a lion and a bear come and got one of his little sheep, and he tear that lion and took that little baby away from him. See, he'd been with God in private. And then God put him on display in public. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and shut the door. Pray thy Father's secret, thy Father will see that thy secret shall be opened to thee openly. Sometimes we have a hard time getting in that closet, that private, private place. Amen. Everybody saved needs a prayer closet, that private place. And you need to get in there and shut the door. It's hard to shut the door. be sober, be vigilant, as the devil, as a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, steadfast in faith. Prayer is an act of faith. That which is not of faith is sin. And the devil hates it when we go on our knees in private and tell him every rotten thing about us and ask him to forgive us. He hates it. He don't like it to have peace. Be careful for nothing but in everything, but prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made unto God. Then the peace of God passes all understanding, which keeps your hearts and minds through Christ. See, He knows if you get in there, get that door shut, amen, come clean with God, get the sin out of your life, peace sets in. See, He can't steal your soul, but He can steal your peace and your joy. and your victory, and if you got something that's grieved the Holy Spirit, and you try to get in there to get right with God, He hates that, and He's gonna pull on that door, doorknob, and try to keep you from getting the door shut. But if you can get that door latched, amen, He can't beat you up every day. Amen, my problem, I have a hard time getting the door shut, and I let Him beat me down all the time. about stuff that God don't even remember no more. Amen. Am I doing any good here? Amen. The reason we can't handle giants in public is because we don't spend enough time in the prayer club in private. David had seen God work in private when nobody else was over there with them sheep, but him and that lion and that bear, God let him conquer them. And when David had to face this loud mouth idiot, amen, I like how he dealt with him, don't you? He went down in the brook, David did, brooks run through valleys. You can't find a rock on a mountain that'll throw straight. I liked mountain top surface where we're shouting, but that ain't where you'll find a smooth rock to deal with a giant. Sometimes you got to go through the valleys. You got to go through them tough places. Amen. And that water had been running over them stones, them five smooth stones. And that's where it's happened. When you go through the valley and God's Word starts knocking the rough edges off of you. Amen. That's what church is for. He starts smoothing you out with His Word. Sometimes He sends you through some real difficult places in life that you don't really like going through, but He's smoothing you out that you'll fit that sling. The Bible said He got five smooths on. Five's the number of grace. We all know that. Put them in the shepherd's bag. I think about the church. God places every member of the body where it pleases Him. You got to hang around the bag. Three times a week at minimum. Let the word of God smooth you out. Amen. And then he reached his hand down in there. Sovereign hand. Just grabbed one of them. Any stone in the bag could have got the job done. And if you're really saved, you're hoping that he'll reach down there one day and get ahold of you. Let you knock some fool's brains out. I'm talking about spiritually. I like how I dealt with that. Hit that guy, he ran right at him in the name of the Lord, and sunk that bad boy right in his forehead. That's how you deal with them. Get them before they get you. Hallelujah, amen. And then he went over there and jumped on him and took his own sword out of his holster. Might as well, he wasn't using it. And cut his head off. Amen, that wasn't hardly going on 700 Club too good with it. Or TBN. old stage. I spent 30 days in jail just to slap that guy. I spent 30 more to slap his wife. Hallelujah. Amen. They make me sick. How am I doing on that? I had a tender moment right there. Can you see him with that bloody head? Singing, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful? That's my kind of Christianity right there, amen? Got no use for no sissy, amen? Little old sissy boy, limp wrist, wiggle when he walks. Somebody said he's saved. He ain't saved fair enough for me. Stay away from me, amen? Till you learn how to walk, hallelujah, amen? That went over real good, hallelujah, amen? You know, sometimes life deals you some real giants. Some things that will frighten you, scare you to death. Amen. And you know, you just have to deal with whatever you have to deal with. It doesn't necessarily mean you ain't going to be afraid. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have mountain-moving faith. But I do know one thing, if you'll just be faithful. Amen. You won't like going through that, but God'll help you through it. Amen. God likes that. Amen. Sometimes, you know, pastors, they face giants. Sometimes they have to face wolves or false prophets who slip among their sheep. Amen. They have to deal with them. Amen. You can't save a wolf. A wolf can't get saved. You have to kill a wolf. Amen. He'll destroy the sheep. Amen. And folks don't understand it. Sometime when the preacher has to deal with somebody that's causing friction or division in his church. Amen. Amen. Somebody trying to come in and act like we don't have our doctrine right. We'll go down the road. There's plenty of nuts like you down the road. Amen. Help yourself. And then sometimes parents have to face worry. They worry about their family. They worry about their young ones. Are they going to turn out right? Are they going to marry the right person? this, that, and other. And sometimes people just have to face the world, their old flesh. Hey man, just this wicked flesh. Hey man, I say this all the time, I could live right if I didn't have to drive so much. Amen. I'm telling you, I mean, I did pretty good today, but I was in the fast lane rolling along. Amen. If there's any policemen in here, you'll have to forgive me, but I had to get up here no matter what the law said. Amen. Hallelujah. Amen. You know, you say, you didn't obey the laws of the land. I didn't today, and I didn't get caught, so mind your own business. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. I know what Romans 13 says about, you know, the powers that be ordained. Amen. I know all that, and you just pay the fine and shut up about it. Hey, I'm just trying to tell you, amen. You know, my wife say, you're so impatient. And you be in traffic, and I said, no, that guy up there is brain dead. That's what's the matter with him. Don't he know I'm headed to church to spread joy and cheer? Get out of the way, you idiot, amen? I've got things to do, praise God. Well, some of you don't like that. That's all right, anyhow. I'm having a pretty good time. I'm talking about, does God like you? Some of you don't like me, but it don't matter. Lord, God likes me. I'm all right, amen. Does God like you? Don't you want him to come around you? If we get to that, 2024, we may not. The Lord may come in a minute. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we snatch this out of here tonight? I mean, really just, I mean, that's how it's going to be. Just sitting all set. Gone, man. And if you ain't saved, you're going to sit here looking like some of you look right now. What's he talking about? He's coming, amen. Now those children abiding in him, that when he shall appear, he may have confidence, not be ashamed before him that is coming. If you know he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteous is born to him. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, and the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now with the son of God does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when he shall appear, we shall be like him. So see him, and every man have this hope in him. Purify himself, even as he is pure. Is there anything in your heart tonight that ain't right in case he comes? Amen. Well, let me move on here. I killed the meeting on that and praise God. Then David also had an unquenchable thirst for the things of God. As the heart painted after the water brook, so painted my soul after. It's a world's ugly world. Amen. You can't get, you can't work a whole week and the devil be on your hoof. Amen. It's like a deer running from a mountain lion. There's a heart painted after the water. So painted my soul after the oil. This deer running from, done been wounded. And the lion's chasing and he's thinking that's where the world is. And the lion's chasing him and he thinks, if I could just get down there to the creek. If I could just get down there to the water brook, I heard this, I forget who it was that heard him say it, but he was preaching. He was talking about a deer that had been wounded and bleeding and panting and couldn't get his breath and thinking, boy, if I could just get down there to the water. He said that this deer had been wounded, if he can get to the water and lay down in the water, the water will stop the bleeding for a while. That's, to me, that's what church and the Bible's for. Stop the bleeding a little while. Amen. We get wounded and beat up out here. We get down to the house of God. God can fix the bleeding, patch us back up. Amen. Amen. That's the desire I have. Amen. I'm not no match for the devil. He's compared to a roaring lion. A lion can run 35 to 45 miles an hour, leaping one bounce 40 feet. His feet are padded. You can't hear him coming when it roars at night. You can hear him 8 miles away, and he's the king of the jungle, and we live in his domain. I ain't no match for that, amen. But I know somebody that is. This book right here, The Sword of the Spirit, amen, which is the word of God, amen. Praying all the way for all price, supplicating in the spirit. I'll tell you what, we can defeat him, amen, through the word of God. We can get the victory by being faithful to the things of God, amen. And then David also knew all his earthly blessings come from God. He said, forget not the Lord that daily loaded us with his benefits. You know, the Bible said, and everything give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. Amen. You remember when God found you and saved you, but got you up out of that filthy mess you lived in? I don't know about you, I was in so bad shape. When I got saved, I didn't have $5 in my name. I owed everybody in town because of drugs and alcohol, where I lied and cheated, had no character, no integrity whatsoever, no moral fiber whatsoever. God saved me, rescued me out of that. Hey, hey, I forgot, never forgot where he found me. Hey, hey, I'm just talking about, we seem to forget. He's loaded us today. He's loaded us today with benefits. Amen. I love this country. Why anybody want to change our way of living? Anybody could vote for Biden, it'd be on me. I don't care if he likes it or not, amen. He's an ungodly, filthy man. And he's not the one pulling the strings around here anyhow. Amen. He don't know where he slept last. I'm gonna do it right there. Amen. If you voted for him, you voted for killing babies. You voted for same sex marriage. Some man married another man and all that filthy mess. That's what you voted for. You say, Preacher, I don't like it. Well, that's all right. I don't preach to get everybody to like me. I'm just trying to tell you it's a mess. Why would they want to mess up our life? Greed. Power. It's not just him. There's some rotten Republicans too, so I'll just throw them in the pot. Amen. I know that killed them eating right there for sure, but I'm just trying to tell you, we've had it made. Amen. We've had it made. Why would you want to mess it up? Amen. It's a spiritual thing, for one thing. It's something, amen, evil men and seducers are waxed worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. That's where we're at. Amen. That's where we're at. And the Spirit speaks expressly that some should depart from the faith in the latter days. That's where we're at. Amen. I'm glad we know the truth. Amen. You say, preacher, you're preaching politics. Well, yeah, that's what's the matter. Nobody wants to say much about it. afraid to offend somebody. You ever wonder how them apostles and disciples all got martyred? Because they'd run around and said, just love everybody. Don't want to offend nobody. They got sown asunder, fed to lions. They watched their youngins being put animal skins on their youngins, trying to get them to recant their faith as they fed them to the lions. They watched them tear their babies, and they didn't back up. Amen. Well, let me move on then. I fell a little rift on that, and amen, that's all right in the end. The truth of the matter is, amen, David never forgot how God blessed him. Amen. I'm telling you, God has blessed my life. It's abundant. It's amazing, really. My boys, my pastor, I'm proud of it. Amen. Got two kids, grandkids that ain't never sinned. That's right. They don't sin, them grand youngin', amen. I'm tellin' you, amen. One of them's name's Tucker, he's tender-hearted. One of them's named Tanner, he don't have a heart. Hallelujah. Mean, amen, amen. My boy said, whoop him, Dad. I said, I ain't whoopin' him. I ain't seen him do nothin' that deserved a whoopin'. You whoop him. You didn't have no trouble whoopin' me. I said, you needed it. Hallelujah, amen. I'm just tryin' to tell you, amen. Been married to her 44 years. Wonderful. God's been letting me go all over this country. I've never done without anything I've ever needed. Amen. My bills have always been paid. I'm just trying to tell you, He has blessed my life. Amen. And I'm not a naming, claiming, prosperity preacher, but I do believe one thing. You honor the Lord, He'll honor you. Amen. Amen. That's exactly right. He'll honor you. Let me hurry. Shut up. Amen. And then David never did anything half-heartedly. The Bible said he danced before the Lord with all his might. You know, some folks don't like old time worship. Amen, I like it. I like old-time worship. If you ever get a good dose of the Holy Ghost, amen, where the Spirit of God just smothers you real good, you'll never be satisfied, nothing less. You won't do things half-heartedly. Amen, amen. You'll try to put everything you got in it. Amen. And you'll search everywhere trying to find another experience like that. Amen. You'll never be happy just, oh, dead religion. Amen. And some folks make fun of it, say it's just a flash. He don't have no trouble at the ballpark. Amen. Go down here. I live in Tennessee. They'll, 106,000 people, they'll paint their head orange. Amen. Go down there and write names. Take your shirt off and write the names of all them athletes on their chest and amen. And carry on like crazy. People will pay two or $300 to go in there and watch somebody with a zipped up bag of air run up and down the green grassy field between two poles and think they got a bargain. Amen, I could do that too for $700 million like that guy, that baseball player, they hoot and holler at him, come to church, sat there like a wooden Indian. One fella said, David, you know when you used to first started going to camp meeting, you know you was like an Indian. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. He said, you've been at it so long now, you're like a chief, you just sat around going, ugh. Amen, that's about it. hug. That's about how we get, amen. I like it. I'm telling you what, me and old Homer, he was the other day and Brother Proper, we was in a meeting over in North Carolina. Old Homer, he'd been here many times, good man of God. Amen. He rode back and forth to the motel with me and my wife and we laughed and cut up. Amen, and then on Wednesday night, me and this other preacher was supposed to close it out, and then we never got to. God sat down in that place, and folks got to shoutin'. 10 people got saved. This rejoiced a little old youngin'. Little old youngin', I'm talkin' about little old youngins. God got on so much they couldn't get their breath. Amen, and old Homer is weepin'. He said, boy, it's been a long time since I've been in one of these. It was wonderful. And then me and Brother Rick sittin' in the motel on Thursday morning, biddin' each other farewell. said, Homer, we love you, we'll see you. He went home, went to bed, and woke up in heaven. Hey, that's the way it goes, amen. I like it, amen. What a blessing. Wouldn't that be something? God let you do that. That's a special way to go. We just do things half-heartedly. Well, preacher, if nobody else cleaned the church, I'll do it. I do everything else around here anyhow. You ever heard that? If it's done wrong, preacher, I must have done it, because I do it all around here anyhow. Well, if nobody else would mow the lawn, preacher, I guess I could. Half-heartedly. Come to church late. Don't come to Sunday school. Don't show up half the time on Sunday night and wonder why God don't seem to like them and never come around them. They never get in on it. and never get in on it. He don't like that. Amen. How am I doing right now? I'm preaching right now. It seems like I'm half-hearted right now. I'm doing the best I could. You ought to look at this crowd, try to say something that makes any sense. Amen. You'd be up here yourself, amen. But we ought to give it our best. He gave us his best. Gave us his very best. And we just drag around, half-heartedly doing stuff. Let me get down here. Some folks think they've really done God a favor when they tithe. That's God's money. And we appreciate you doing that, because you ought to if you saved. You learned that, 10%. But you know, you ain't give God nothing until you give above that. That's half-hearted giving. I've done some of that myself, amen. I'm just trying to tell you. That went over big. He told me to say that. That didn't work too good, did it, amen? No, he didn't. And then last of all, and I finally got there, I don't know, I want the Lord to like me. He lets me live a few more hours and, you know, up there in New York, a million people. Can you imagine? Piled in there like sardines to watch a ball drop. It's just a big party and a bit of filthy parties, all it is. That's what they look forward to. Can you imagine? I'm not looking for no ball to drop. I'm looking for the Lord. Amen. That's right. I'll tell you last of all, and I'm done. And David was a good repenter. He's a good repenter. You know, David committed that sin. And for about a year, you know, he carried on and somewhat tried to cover it and hide it, whatever. But God's man, Nathan, the Bible said the Lord sent Nathan. He didn't just go if a brother or sister be overtaken to follow you which are spiritually restored. He went in leadership of the Holy Ghost. And he confronted David about his sin. And David first got angry and said, a man that did that, he ought to die. He said, you're him, you're the man. And immediately David, he said, I've sinned against God. He repented. He's a man after God's own heart. Because inside, he really wanted to please God in every way. He repented. You can't only get folks to repent. Amen. Just repent. Just come clean. They act like God don't know about it or something. Amen. We all need to repent. Amen. You know, David paid dearly for his sin, but God still liked him. I believe God likes it when folks just repent. And you don't necessarily have to do it here. You can do it in your car, do it at home, but there's some things that get in your life, you can't get it fixed nowhere but right here. I can't explain that. It's just something about church. And God wants you to repent. When I got saved, I remember when I got saved, you know, I struggled when I first got saved. And amen, I didn't know much about the written word. I had God the author of God's word living in me, the Holy Spirit. I'd go to church, you know, excited, and first God saved, had that first love. Whatever song, this song make me weep. Whatever the preacher preached, exactly what I did. It seemed like the Holy Ghost, He'd just squeeze the joy out of me and just let me enjoy his presence, and then I, sometimes sin would get in my life, and I didn't go, I didn't know much about the written word, I went on about how I felt, and I knew when things weren't right, because it didn't feel right, I knew something was wrong, I'd go straight to the altar. Amen. And I'd ask the Lord, say, Lord, I'm too ignorant maybe to see it all, but I want this straightened out, I want you to like me, I want you to come visit me. Am I making any sense? I actually thought, you know, I go to the altar quite a bit, and I thought that some folks, I thought, man, maybe I'll get like the rest of these people, amen, at that spiritual level, who I don't ever have to come up here. You know, like some of y'all. And I hear some of them old Pharisees in the church, they say, wonder if he really got saved. He seemed like he has to go up there a lot. I wonder if they did. Am I making any sense right there? I first got saved. I didn't have a car. The bank repossessed the car I had because I used their money for my wickedness. But they have this old boy come up from Knoxville, Tennessee. He run a street mission. His name was Art Jones. He wore bow ties, checkered suits where they give all that free stuff away, tennis shoes, white socks. He was a really weird guy. But he come up 60 miles up to the town I lived at the church where I went to teach Bible, and I'd hitchhike. I could have borrowed a car, but I was too ashamed to ask. I'd hitchhike out there, wanting to know more about the Lord. And I asked him one time, I said, Brother Jones, I said, I know this fella that just can't seem to get from week to week without messing up. He's always having to go to the altar about something. What would be your advice for me to tell this young man? He said, Brother David, if I was you, I'd ride that altar all the way to heaven. If I could just keep that tenderness in my heart. Does that make any sense? I plan on it. If that's the only way I can have him like me and visit with me, I'll ride it all the way to heaven. I want to keep things out of my life. Does he like you? He loves you, but does He like you? Does He visit with you? Speak to you? Squeeze them tears out of your eyes every now and then? Stir up in here? You know what I'm talking about if you've ever had that happen. Come on, preacher. I've been too long with it. I'm done.