We surely appreciate that tonight. Thank God for that. But 1 John 1 is where I got my mind and I may go to another place in the Bible here in a minute. God really has got my mind this week on something. You see people, you see these movements and you see people around being saved. And I sometimes wonder about things. You can't get saved until you know that you're lost. Jesus is just not something you put like on an accessory on your car, like I'll take that upgraded leather seat or the sunroof. I believe a lot of people think Jesus is just like a little additional add-on to their life to improve their life. You can't get saved until you see that you're lost. The Bible says in 1 John, a very familiar portion of Scripture, 1 John, I want to start in verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Who's John writing to? He's writing to other Christian people. He's writing to people who are believers in Jesus Christ. That's who he's talking to. He said if we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The worst kind of deception is self-deception. He says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. He's writing to Christian people right here. Then chapter two, verse one, this little verse, my little children, that's what John refers to, the congregation there that he's wrote this letter to, preaching, my little children, he says, these things write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate, boy, that's a special word right there, with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. I wasn't going to plan on getting on verse 2, but we need to hear it. And he, who? Who's he? Jesus Christ. And he is the propitiation for our sins. What does that word mean, Brother Kevin? That's a big Bible word. Propitiation simply means satisfied. That's what it means when you see the word propitiation. The word means satisfied. It means mercy seat. The same words used in the Old Testament refers to the mercy seat. Satisfied. He is the propitiation for our sins. That means He's satisfied God's wrath, God's judgment, God's justice against sinful mankind. Because he follows us up and says, not for ours only, because we've been saved by the grace of God, but also for the sins of the whole world. And I'm not going to get on the doctrine of propitiation tonight and what all that means, but that verse right there tells me, Brother Bubby, that Jesus Christ died for every man, every woman born into the world, for the sins of the whole world. There's people out there that said this cross just died for this little certain crew of people, this leg. But I've talked to those people before, and it's amazing to me that it simply means, Brother Gavin, that their family just happens to be the one that's elect. Your family, well, they might be something else, but their families are the one that's elect. But that's a whole different time and a whole different sermon altogether. But in 1973, something very important happened. You said, brother Kevin, you was born in 1973. Amen, I was. That's something very important, ain't it? Something very, very important happened besides the birth of old brother Kevin in 1973. A psychiatrist by the name of Carl Menninger. Now, Carl Menninger was a psychiatrist. Harvard got the Freedom Medal from Richard Nixon. You've not heard nothing about him probably in your life, reading and going through college. I know he wasn't. I happened to be studying, come across old Dr. Menninger here. He wrote a book, and he was a psychiatrist, and he worked with, we worked with people, and he worked a lot in the prison system, and he worked a lot with people that just had a lot of problems. But he wrote a book, and here's what his title was to his book. Whatever Became of Sin. That was a book that he wrote. And man, all those psychiatrists in the medical field, they just went after him, and they, probably why we don't see his name, but he was a Christian. He was a Christian. And he said to society, in 1973, he said this. He said in society, sin was renamed as sickness. He said, we've just turned it into sickness. He said, wrongdoing's been reclassified as something else. That's what he said in 1973. He said, crime is just lost all together with an immoral category. He said, 1973, he said, preachers stopped preaching about sin. He said, and people stopped taking responsibility for anything. Now, he was a psychiatrist, and he wrote this book called Whatever Became of Sin. I've read some of it this week, and there's a whole lot of goodness, a whole lot of good things in there. He said, by removing the word sin, this is what I got from him, he said, by removing the word sin also removes the hope of forgiveness. He said, because you cannot be forgiven for something you don't admit. Boy, that's where we're at right there. Old Dr. Menninger might have known something, didn't he? He said he had patients come into his practice, and they would say, Dr. Menninger, I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He said, well, I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. I want to see you in my office again in five days. He said, I'm going to give you five things I want you to do before you come back. He said, I want you to go to the wrong side of town. I want you to help people over here in the nursing home. Volunteer over there this day. I want you to go see some homeless people. I want you to go take somebody and sit with them that's in the nursing home somewhere. He gave them assignments to do five days in a row. He said, well, if you'll do that and focus on other people instead of focusing on yourself so much, it'll help you in your life. Boy, I believe Dr. Meninger might have known something, didn't he? But I got to thinking about something. He said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. He says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, here's what John's saying, Brother Bubby. John's saying those Christian people there in 1 John that he's writing to, he's saying, look, because we carry around this human nature that we have, Because we are what we are, but we're sinners saved by the grace of God, Ricky. You and I are going to make mistakes, amen? We're going to wrong people at times. Even after you're saved by God's grace, you're going to have mess-ups come up in your life. At least a man can mess up anything that man puts his hand in. Listen, don't show me the perfect church, Isaac. Because I'll go and I'll mess that thing up. Because mankind in its very nature is a sinner. But we're told all along, we get this moral belief, well I'm morally better than this one, or I'm morally better than that one. But to just pull it down Listen to this, we're all sinners. We're all saved by the grace of God. And apart from the grace of God and what God does in and through us and by us, hell would be our home, amen? But listen, just like the little baby that our sister's holding right there. That little baby is just as good enough as God wants that baby to be. But listen, inside that little baby, it has a nature, brother. That baby a lie, it'll manipulate. She'll have to teach it to share. So you have to teach it to tell the truth? Where'd that come from? Nobody ever teaches you how to lie. Nobody ever teaches you how to be selfish. Nobody ever teaches you how to be jealous or get mad about things. It's our very nature that we have within us. Now if a man's stretched out here on this front row, and he's dead, and he's been dead two days, and then we got another man's been dead out in the parking lot. Let's say that man's been dead for two years. Listen to me, which man is the deadest? The man that's been out there laying in the parking lot, two years dead. Or the man laying on the front row, that's dead, ain't even cold maybe. Both of them are dead, brother. But the state of their deadness, one's sure gonna stink. A whole lot worse than the other, ain't it? That's the state that we're in. And John recognizes this. Right into that little church right there. He said, if you say that you have no sin, he said, you deceive yourself. He said, because your very nature is to sin. You and I have sinned enough in our minds today, in our thought patterns today, to go to hell for a hundred times over. It's our very nature. And I remember grappling with that. when God was dealing with me. Oh Lord, listen. I'm just as good as this one. Or I'm just as good as that one. But that don't mean nothing at all. Because I had some problem within me. And that problem was sin. But listen to this. John's got a plan right here that he writes out. And the plan is found in chapter 2 verse 1. He says, My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. Now listen, the very plan of God is this. That we don't go out here and be sinners. That we live close to God. That we live a holy and obedient, a separated life unto God. That's the main plan. I've heard people get up in the pulpit and say that we sin daily. I know what they mean by that. Our very nature is a sin nature. But you and I hadn't wanted to go out here and plan to live ungodly. You and I hadn't wanted to go out here and sin against God or sin against your body or sin against the church. The very plan here stated that you sin not. Well, how do we do that, Brother Kevin? When you get saved by the grace of God, you get all the Spirit of God that you're going to get. And the indwelling power of the Spirit of God enables you to walk the Christian walk. It's that enabling power, that indwelling Spirit of God that causes you to want to do things that you used to not have any interest in. To want to come. And hear the Word of God. I want to be around your brothers and sisters in Christ. Listen to me. That indwelling power of the Spirit of God. Paul says in Galatians 5, we got it out here on our sign. It's been hanging ever since. It says stand fast, therefore in the liberty of wherewith Christ hath made us free. Listen and be not entangled again. with the yoke of bondage, because somebody in sin is tangled up, ain't they? Tangled up in themselves, or tangled up in all the vices of the devil. But the blurry plan from the get-go is that we sin not, and I'm telling you tonight, the more this Bible that you put in your heart, the more this Bible that you put in this mind, you'll get to where you listen. Paul said, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill of the lust of the flesh. How do you walk in the Spirit? How are you Spirit-filled? You get Spirit-filled and walk in the Spirit, not by how high you can shout. Honey, I've seen them shout real good and run around and be living ungodly out here. It's how much this Word of God is in your heart, amen. That's the plan right there. Get that Word of God in you. Hey man, you got the Spirit of God in you. Listen to me, that indwelling Spirit of God, to mortify those things. Then he says in John chapter 2, verse 1, here's the provider, the provision of this. He said we've got something called the advocate. Boy, that's an interesting word right there. That word advocate means a paraclete. It means somebody that comes along beside you. It also means an attorney or representation. You don't want to go down to the courthouse, listen, and stand before a judge without legal representation. You need somebody to advocate before you. That's what this word is, brother. It's somebody that goes between you and the judge. Well, who is that? We've got Jesus Christ as our advocate. That word's used in John 14. It means comforter. It means somebody that comes alongside and comforts you. Our advocate. God has given us something in the Holy Spirit of God. Listen, as our advocate of Jesus Christ. You know what? When God looks down, Brother Lewis, when God looks down at heaven, and you're praying, He don't see you. He sees you in Christ. You're an advocate. You're somebody that comes along, beside you, that represents you. Aren't you glad tonight? Listen, if you're saved by God's grace, that you're never alone. And you've got an advocate right beside you, alongside of you, and inside of you wherever you go. And that advocate is Jesus Christ of the Lord of glory. Amen. Here's what I want to get on today. I told you the plan. The plan is, Gavin, that you sin not. He's given us all that we need. He's given us the Word of God. He's given us the Spirit of God. He's given us an advocate right there in Jesus Christ. In 1 John 2 and 1, He said, you've got an advocate that comes along beside you that just helps you in this way. But 1 John 1 and 9 says this. It says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. from all unrighteousness. So here's the prescription tonight on how to get things took care of with God. Because I found out something brother Ricky about myself, and I'm sure you'll agree to this. Brother, you and I can make a mess, can't we? You and I, after God saved us, can make a real mess of things. Listen, you and I, listen, I can get off track sometimes. You and I can get off the way. Now, I've met these people, brother. They say they've been saved 40 years, and they never sinned against God. The Bible plainly says that they're a liar. Listen to me. There are times in this life, even though the plan is we shouldn't want to sin, even though the plan is we shouldn't want to miss the mark. There are times, man, when we get off track, ain't he? There are times when we get in the flesh. There are times when it's so nature. Man kicks in and we make a mess of things. But God has given us the prescription right here before us in the Word of God. Of how to get things straight and right. And take the medicine to clean up our mess. So many times. Here's what he says in 1 John 8. He says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. He said if we confess our sin, you know what that word confess means? It means to get in agreement with God. Don't come confessing to me, I can't help it. Listen, these Catholics go and confess it to somebody sitting in a booth. Man, I ain't going to talk to no pedophile in a booth somewhere. Why do you want to tell another sinner about your own sin? He says if we confess our sin to God, we've got to go to somebody who can take care of that sin. And that is Jesus Christ of the Lord. But look what he says. He says if we confess our sin, listen to me, nobody ever gets right with God. Nobody ever gets their mess cleaned up with God. Until they first, number one, learn to acknowledge and admit that they've got a problem. Until they acknowledge and admit. that they've got something wrong with them. Well, what is it? It's called sin. Brother, listen to me. I believe our offices are full. Our psychiatrist offices are full. I believe the mental wards are full because a large part of it is because people won't say, I've got a problem with me. I've got a problem. I want to take responsibility for me. It's in our nature to put it on somebody else. But nobody gets right with God. Nobody gets their mess I cleaned up with God until they say we have sinned against God. Amen The prodigal son God we love that don't we? Luke 15 Luke 15, brother, he went out there and he lived it up. But there's a verse in there, verse 21, Luke 15, 21. The Bible says this. He said, I'm going to go back and say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. Well, before that verse, it said when he came to himself, You know how you get saved and get things right with God? You've got to acknowledge that you're the one that made a failure. You have to acknowledge and admit that you're the problem. That you're the one that stands before God. You know what we're real bad to do in our nature? We want to do all Adam and Eve done. We want to deflect it, don't we? We want to blame somebody else. Listen to me. I talk to somebody that makes a mess about something, I always look at this. Are they taking responsibility for what they've done? Are they taking responsibility that they've sinned against an almighty God? But you know what we're so bad to do? Oh, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and the old snake didn't have a leg to stand on. You'll get that in the morning. But we deflect things off on everybody else and play the blame game. Well, listen to me, we can't get our mess cleaned up now until we say we're the ones wrong, amen? We got to admit we're the one that's in the wrong. We want to blame everybody else. We won't blame this and that and the other. Well, the reason she's like this and it's like that. Listen to me, mom's and dad's best thing you can do is teach your children how to take responsibility for their own actions. Don't go down school and clean up their little mess they get into. Don't go clean up their mess in their rooms. Make them take responsibility for things in their life. They need to take responsibility and learn that, brother. Because they'll get 45 years old and they still ain't learned that, man. And they're coming in and out and all this stuff. Let's learn. Listen to me. We can't clean up our mess until we acknowledge that you're the one that's wrong. That you're the one that's made the mistake. That you're the failure. And you can't deflect it. Ha! You know something else? I see them do this in church sometimes. Ha! You'll preach on sin, man. Ha! Brother, they'll sit there and they'll say, Ha! I'm a pretty good fellow. No, I just told you I'm not. Ha! None of us is no good, the Bible says. Ha! But they'll deny. Ha! They'll deny everything. Ha! If deflection don't work, Brother Jason, Ha! Then they deny. Ha! That's found in Genesis 1. Ha! God Almighty came to Cain. Ha! I ain't never got over this. Ha! I ain't never preached this just right. Ha! But God Almighty came to Cain, knowing that Cain killed Abel, his brother. And God said, hey Cain, where is your brother? And you know what Cain said? I don't know where he is. Am I my brother's keeper? He looked God right in the face and lied to God. and people do Wednesday after Wednesday, Sunday after Sunday, day after day, and deny, listen, Jesus dealing with their soul, and deny what they are, and draw on them, and they're saying, who's he talking about? Brother, he's talking about you, he's talking about me, and you can't get your mess cleaned up now, until you take responsibility, and don't deflect it, and don't deny it, and sure don't do what Saul did, he defended it, amen? You ever heard of this called Stockholm Syndrome? You ever heard of that? I went to Hostage Negotiation School back in 2006, 7, out in Colorado. We studied all these things. and when somebody gets took hostage if they're held long enough now hostage they found they could develop a syndrome and they call it the Stockholm syndrome because they found it with some Swedish bank robbers and what is Stockholm syndrome that is if they're took hostage by somebody that's a hostage taker And after a few days of that fear in their mind, they begin to feel sorry for their hostage takers. They have actually even fought the police to help their hostage taker. When the police come to get them out, they'll fight the police to get away from the hostage taker. Why? Because they get so close to the hostage taker. And when they even get them out of the situation that they're in and get them somewhere else, man, Gavin, they have to work with them and work with them and work with them. Because they've developed such a love, listen, for their hostage taker. You say, Brother Kevin, that's the craziest thing. I'll tell you what, I've seen people do it right here, man. I've seen people say, well, that's not that bad. Just a little bit of drugs ain't that bad. Well, listen, the devil's got them in a snare. Maybe they're living together in sin. Maybe they're doing drugs on the side, or slipping around and drinking, or doing things they ain't supposed to do. convict you, brother. That order brings some sort of a stir or something in you. But I've seen, Ricky, people actually defend that. They're took hostage by the devil, ain't he? And they'll defend. They'll develop a spiritual Stockholm Syndrome, man. Well, they'll begin to defend the devil and defend the devil's crown. They'll be quoting saying things like this. We handing in our judge now. And they doing up the wrong down the road. Man, defend the very things. that God has condemned, man. Listen to me. Listen. You get in that kind of shape, man. That's a bad way to be, amen? Amen. You can't clean up your mess. Can't clean up your mess by deflecting it. Can't clean up your mess by denying it. Can't clean up your mess by defending it. Here's something else we do. I'm talking about admitting that you got a problem. Because that's what the Bible says. Admitting you got a problem. Can't help nobody until they admit they got a problem. Until they admit, I'm the one that's failed. I've dealt with people in the church, had to deal with preachers. Man, it messed up, brother, now pride gets a hold of you. And they'll do whatever they'll set, and they'll defend it. They'll deflect it, blame it on somebody, somebody's out to get them. Why does we always get something like that? Well, you know, it helps you better if you just say, you know, I'm the one in the wrong. I'm the one that shouldn't have been looking at something I shouldn't have been looking at. I'm the one that shouldn't have done that, shouldn't have sent that text message. I'm the one that shouldn't have been watching that. I'm the one that shouldn't have done this. I'm the one, no, we don't want to do that, do we? We want to put all these things out there, and meanwhile, listen, come to church, or go wherever else, or put the Facebook throwin' hands up, babe. Listen to me, we gotta say, God, I'm the one. We can't never get no peace, and our mess don't ever get it cleaned up, until we look in the mirror and say, God, I'm the one. I'm the one that acknowledges my fault before you, amen? Then, I'm trying to help you about how you get some help with God. Then, after you acknowledge, watch this. Then after you acknowledge that you're at fault, that you've sinned against God, acknowledge that you're the one that's made a mess, then you can get to ask for forgiveness. See, people want to ask for forgiveness, but they don't want to acknowledge no fault. Amen, preacher. Amen. Amen. If we met down here and sang for two hours and put on a show, pack up the building. Amen. Oh, yeah. And you'd feel sorry for Paul Jesus, don't you feel sorry for him? Paul Jesus hanging on the cross and you won't even come to him. I mean, Lord have mercy. That's why they preach Jesus Christ. Paul Jesus, he's standing there wringing his hands crying, just want you to come to him, see, see. Amen. That's the way it works, boys. He ain't up there crying. He's sitting on the throne. Amen. He's given men and women an awful time. He's called preachers to preach. And before you can ever ask forgiveness, you've got to admit there's a fault there. I use old Bartimaeus as an example all the time. Bartimaeus. Everybody here, what word did I leave out when I said Bartimaeus? Blind. I leave it out on purpose because you know it off the top of your head. Blind Bartimaeus. Everybody in town probably knew it was Blind Bartimaeus. That's what he was known by. Blind Bartimaeus sat by the wayside begging on Jericho Road. Jesus walked by Blind Bartimaeus one day, the last time Jesus Christ would ever go through Jericho Road. Brother Jason Burke, Blind Bartimaeus said, Jesus thou son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus Christ stopped there on his journey, turned around, He said, what is it that you want me to do for you? He had his cup out there shaking his cup. Jesus didn't call him blind, barn of mess. Jesus turned around and looked at him. He said, what is it that you want me to do for you? He said, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus Christ said, now you were in business, son. Now you got your sight. You said, why did y'all say all that for me, Brother Kevin? Because if he had said Jesus, did God spare a nickel to change? I believe Jesus would ignore him and walked on by. But when Jesus said, when he said, I can't see, Jesus said, now you're in business. Why, Brother Kevin? Because Jesus knew he was blind. The whole town knew he was blind. But Jesus wanted to make sure that Bartimaeus knew that he was blind. Amen. Amen. That's what we've been up here trying to preach. God knows the state you're in. People around you know the state you're in, but the last one usually finds out about how really they are is you and me. But you know how we get to a place where we ask forgiveness? We gotta admit that we're the ones that fall. I'm the one that sinned. Even after you're a Christian, even after you saved. Now the water don't wash away sin, you know why? An old preacher down in South Carolina, He walked up to a man, he said, do you believe that water saves you? He said, I do. He said, well, let me ask you this question. He said, do you believe the Bible? He said, I do. He said, well, right here in this text right here, it says that if we say we've not sinned, we make God a liar. Do you believe that? He said, I do. He said, well, what do you do every time you sin? He said, what do you mean? He said, well, the water washes away your sin. What do you do every time you sin? Do you got a big barrel of water on your back? Do you walk around with it and just do this all day long, ducking yourself? Huh? But we all use our head for something more than a hat rag, don't we? It's the blood of Christ that cleanses us. But you gotta admit that there's a fault there. And here's the thing, before you can ask for forgiveness, you gotta admit there's a fault. Look in the Bible, I'm gonna show you something real quick. Psalm 51, real quick. Let me show you by asking for forgiveness right here. Here's a man that asked for forgiveness. You know what forgiveness is? It's foregoing, It's forgoing your right to charge you with something. It ain't got nothing to do with feelings. If Drew does something against me and I've got all legal right to exact that debt from Drew, and I forgive Drew, I forgo my right to hold that against Drew. There's no feelings involved in that whatsoever. I just withhold my right. When Jesus Christ saved your soul, listen to this, God Almighty forgoes His legal right to condemn you and put you in hell. because Christ paid the debt for you. That's what this is all about right here. Jesus Christ paid your debt. Well, some people don't think they got no debt. Well, you do, and I do too. Look here at Psalm 51. Why don't you talk to your Bible, if you've got a good King James Bible, let's say to the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. What happened brother? David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he tried to hide it. Then he thought he got by with it. He had a man killed and everything else. But the Bible says in Psalm 51, this is a prayer that David prayed. When did he pray it? He prayed it after Nathan the prophet. Who was Nathan the prophet? Nathan the prophet was a preacher. And he wasn't like some of these preachers on TV. Nathan the prophet come and preached God's word, preached truth, preached it bold, and preached it right at David, and brought David under such conviction of sin, where David admitted he was the one that had the problem. where David admitted that he was the one that had a failure in his life. And before you can get saved or get things right with God, you got to do what? Admit that you've got a failure. So here's what David said, Psalm 51. He says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgression, wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. He said, for what he said right here, for I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou might be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. He said, behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden, and thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me, says with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than stone. Make me to hear joy and gladness. You know, when you're in sin, ain't nothing to make you happy. You can take every pill in the world. It won't make you happy, man. When you've got sin in your life, that's what David's saying right here. He said, my bones are aching. He said, hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. He says, create in me a clean heart. Hold God and renew a right spirit within me. Watch this now. Ten times. Ten times in Psalm 51. He said, have mercy. He said, blot out my transgressions. He said, wash me thoroughly. Cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be white as snow. He said, hide thy face from my sins. Blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart and look at number 10. Renew the right spirit. Within me that was his prayer that God would forgive him for what he done I believe that he was broken money about his sin. Listen to me That's how God does with us when we cleanse our sin. We cleanse it through Jesus Christ We got a myth that we got a wrong. We got to come to him for forgiveness. Amen And you know what he'll do You know what he'll do He'll forgive you He'll forgive you He'll forgive you. But here's the thing, we can't get by step one to get to step two. We can't acknowledge our fault, brother, because we're so full of pride. We're so full of self, we can't get no forgiveness from God because we can't get past our own self. Amen? That was my problem for a long time. I was so full of pride, Jason. I mean, I didn't need forgiveness from God because I wouldn't admit I was a failure. What do you mean a failure? I mean, I failed. I've sinned against God Almighty. And I couldn't get to the place where I could get forgiveness of God, because I didn't listen to Him. There wasn't no conviction inside of me. Then once God forgives you, listen to me, once you accept that forgiveness from the Lord, we can really appreciate the faithfulness of God. Listen to what old Lamentations said on Jeremiah Road. He said, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3, 26, 3. God forgives faithfully. God forgives consistently. And God forgives completely. Aren't you glad we got a God like that, man? I'm glad that he sends preachers in our path to preach to us and bring us under old time conviction and draw us somewhere where we can get things right and fix up with God. Amen. Now watch this, what God does to us. You ever mess up, you mess up, man, God shows you through a preacher that you've messed up. You come in here, man, Bobby, God'll use a Nathan in this pulpit that you, man, you break your heart, he brought you conviction of sin. You'll get somewhere, God'll forgive you of that. And you say, thank you, Lord, that you forgave me of that. Here's where we mess up a lot of times. We don't aim to fortify where we're weak at. Are you listening? Areas that we're weak at, We don't try to strengthen that area up. You know, a man kept coming to the altar one time, and he said, Preacher, pray for me. He said, I got tangled up in that web again this week. Preacher said, all right. He prayed. Next week, he came down to the altar again. He said, Preacher, pray for me. I got tangled up in that web again. I sure will. Came the next week, said the same thing, said, preacher, pray for me. I got tangled up in that web again. Preacher said, we're going to pray, but we're not going to pray that you get tangled up in the web. We're going to pray God kills the spider that you hang around with and take it away. Are you listening now? There's a man in the Bible named Eutychus in the book of Acts. He's upstairs, brother Gavin. Paul was preaching, and Paul preached two or three hours at a time. Oh, you because it's sitting on the windowsill, but guys, and buddy, he was like that window. Paul got pretty long brother and hold you because fell off the window buddy and die. Paul went out there and thank God pray for him. God had mercy and raised him up. Wait, say I'm saying is sometimes you sit too close to the windage and you're gonna fall. If you sit too close to the windage, I don't care how safe you are, you're gonna fall. Don't trust your flesh one inch. Because your flesh will go and go and go. That's what I'm talking to you about. And we make a mess, mess, mess, mess, mess. And then somebody like me will get up, preach, preach, preach, preach, preach. And they'll get mad at me and run out of here, man, and go somewhere where they ain't going to hear that kind of preaching because it brings conviction to their sin. Amen. We need to be convicted, don't we, Ricky? We need to get somewhere where we get some conviction on us. But it's a funny thing to me, when God really starts to deal with you, you want to hear it. You want to hear it. Now, here's what David done, and what we do when God does something in our life. We want to try to fix, don't we, what we did wrong. Huh? Zacchaeus got saved. Zacchaeus was the biggest thief in town. You know the Bible says Zacchaeus was a short man. You ever thought about that? If you was born a dwarf in that day, you know what they done with you? They went over there and throw you over the hill and killed you. That's what they done that day. If you was born a dwarf, they'd throw you over here and kill you. That's true. Zacchaeus had to grow up in that Jewish culture, a dwarf, a Jew. He couldn't work nowhere and do nothing. And you know he got picked on all his life. You know he did, being that way. So Zacchaeus done this. He said, I don't know what I'll do. I'll fix them. He becomes a tax collector. That means he sets up a receipt of custom and brother, He can sit there and say, Bubby, you need to pay me these taxes. Bubby said, I don't owe you that much. I know, but I'm Zach Kiss. I'm the tax collector. And if you don't pay me, the Roman soldier's going to come and get you, Bubby. Ha, ha, ha. And he done that all day long to everybody in town. Everybody hated Zach Kiss' guts because of that. But I believe old Zach Kiss was a little bitter man full of anger. Got pooped on all his life. And I believe when Jesus come back, the bitch that got in his heart, all that bitterness got washed away, man. And listen to me, when he got saved by God's grace, he said, I'm going to pay everybody back that I ever stole from a threefold. And after God does something in your heart, after you get forgiveness of God, man, you want to try to fix things up, and you're going to try to pay restitution. It might not be money, but you're going to try to pay God back in some way to fix all the wrongs. that you made. Amen. That's what you want to do. You want to get things fixed up, right? And then you want to follow after God's Word after all that. Listen to me, dear people. Listen to me. Listen to me. You ain't going nowhere with God where there ain't no preaching of the Word of God. No teaching of the Word of God. You ain't gonna go nowhere with God. You gotta get that put in your heart right there. You said, Brother Kevin, you need this. Now I'm telling you, you need this, I need this. All the time, I need this. I don't need to go somewhere and three hand claps for Jesus. Oh, thank God for Jesus. Let's get a pretty Facebook picture made out in front of the church. We don't need that, brother. We don't need that. We need somebody to tell us the truth. Our youngins are dependent on us. Our church is dependent on us. Our communities are dependent on us. We need somebody that's going to get right with God and stay in there and say, I'm going to be one that's going to get things fixed up right and do things right for God. Amen. He said, we confess our sin. He's faithful and just to cleanse us of our sin. Now, here's what we are. A daddy one time, come home late from work and he had a little three-year-old boy in there and he opened the door and it's about two o'clock in the morning and that little three-year-old boy that boy had got in the bathroom he's sick he has stomach virus so you just connect the dots here he had made a mess in that bathroom awful mess i mean from the walls he tried to wipe things up he just little boy he went get his mommy up he's sick he's coming out both ends you know what i'm talking about His daddy walks in there and sees all that mess. And the little boy starts crying. He says, Daddy, I've tried my best to clean this mess up. I just made it worse. I've just made this mess worse trying to clean it. Ain't that what you do? That's what I do? We try to clean things up for God. We try to help God. We don't need to help God. We need God to help us. Here's what the daddy done. The daddy cleaned the little boy up and he set him aside. The daddy got on his hands and knees and the daddy cleaned the bathroom up, cleaned the walls up, cleaned the little boy up, took him and put him in the bed. That's what God does for us. He didn't yell at him. He didn't scold him. He didn't shame him. He cleaned him up and put him in the bed. That's what God wants to do for us, dear people. That's what God wants to do for you, lady. You, man. That's what God wants to do for us. But we can't get past point one because we are always right about stuff. And we're not. Amen? And we can't ask for forgiveness because we've not admitted that we've failed anywhere. Can't get forgiven until you acknowledge you've failed God. If we confess our sin, that means getting agreement with God. Getting agreement with God. You're speaking the same thing God's speaking. You're not deflecting it. You're not denying it. You're not defending it. You're saying, God, I messed up, man. I need to get right with you. God help me. He said, Brother Kevin, I don't know what to pray. The best prayer in the Bible is, oh Lord, help me. That's the best prayer I've ever prayed, really. Oh Lord, help me. God have mercy on me. That's the best prayer I've ever prayed right there. Lord, just have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. And Jason, listen to me. I'm gonna tell you something right now. If you're saved by God's grace, you don't need a preacher beside you all day long. If you say something up there at the door that ain't right, there's something inside of you that says, Brother Dwight, you shouldn't have said that. You shouldn't have looked at that. Or you shouldn't have talked that way. You shouldn't have went with that. Something inside of you does that, no. And you say, man, that makes me feel bad. Good. Good. Well, we ain't supposed to feel guilty in life. Yes, you are. You've sinned against God. That's what God puts in us. We can't be at peace, Bubby. We can't be joy until we get things right with God. God's wired us that way, dear people. That's why we got such a drug problem. That's why we got all these issues in the world. Because man's wanting to find peace. Man's wanting to find joy. But God's so wired us up, people, that we can't find that outside of getting peace and right with God. Amen. He says, my little children, I write unto you that you sin not, but if you do, you got an advocate. A logger, a comforter that comes along and helps us. Amen. Let's stand in line by our heads. I'm going to pray for us while our heads are bowed. And I'm going to ask Drew to sing when I get done praying. If you need to come and pray, by all means come and pray. We love you. Go and pray in your seat. Do business with God.