If you're turning your Bibles to 2 Kings 8, the pastor is going to read for me there. 2 Kings 8. And he's going to begin in verse 11. 2 Kings 8. Verse 11. and he settled his countenance steadfastly until he was ashamed. The man of God wept. And Hazael said, Why weepest thou, my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel. Their strongholds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with a sword, and wilt dash their children and rip up their women with child. And Hazael said, But what? Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord hath shown me that thou shalt be king over Syria. Thank you, pastor. That's good. I want to preach on the Hazel complex. And I want you to know that We live in a very dangerous age. We have diseases that take place. I remember a few years ago, I came down with pancreatitis. Now, what they do to treat you for pancreatitis is they put you in the hospital. and feed everything through a tube. You can't have any food. You can't drink any water. Everything just comes through that tube. And matter of fact, they wouldn't even let me eat ice chips. They would just dampen the washcloth and let me touch my lips with them. If your pancreas, they do that for three or four days. And if your pancreas starts working again, great. If it doesn't, you die. So I remember the doc came in. I was on two IVs. And the doc came in, and he says, is there anything I can do for you? And I said, yes, I need another IV. He said, why do you need another IV? I said, I want one with chocolate. I'm having withdrawals. I want to mainline it and see what it does. He said, you really are sick, aren't you? People don't know how to take me sometimes. I'm not all here, but I'm having a good time. The prophet of God warned Hazel what he was going to do. And when he told that to Hazel, Hazel said, what am I, a dog that I would do such a thing? In other words, I could never do something like that. And that's the syndrome or the complex that people have sometimes. I could never do anything that bad. But let me tell you something, it doesn't matter who we are. It's possible that we could do the worst of things. The best of us in this room Or I should say the best of you, because I'm sure there's many of you much better than I am. And the best of you could fall prey to wicked devices. And it could happen. And we've got to be careful. We've got to walk with the Lord. We have a flesh that will deceive us. I love chocolate. I remember one time we were seated at a table, and there was a box of chocolates. And my wife seated next to me. I wish you could have got to meet my Donna, but it just didn't work out this time. The people here at the church will get to meet her tomorrow. My Donna was seated there. I reached and got one piece of chocolate, and I said, that's one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Ghost. She grabbed the one. She said, one for the flesh, one for the devil, and one for the world, and put them back. Then went my chocolate. She takes such good care of me. I appreciate it so much. I really do. But we have a flesh that will deceive us. We have a mind that will mislead us. Oh, every one of us, if we're not careful, our mind can mislead us. It can happen to the best of us. Be careful with your mind. That's why it's so important. If you do watch TV, that you be careful what you watch. If you listen to music, you be careful the music you listen to. I was awakened quite early this morning, but I wasn't up to being able to come to the meeting. And I was able to get nearly an hour of prayer in laying on the couch in the room next to my bedroom where my Donna slept. The Lord helped me, and I love it when I can pray and get an hour in. It blesses me so much. And the Lord will give us grace if we ask for it. He doesn't always say yes to every prayer request, but when you ask for grace, He always says yes. to that. We were standing in line at the airport, and they'd gotten us in line, and we were waiting for everybody to get the plane clean. And standing there, there was a TV monitor with CNN on it. And they were talking about abortion. pro-choice or pro-life. I tell you, I'm pro-life all the way. And these ladies in front of us, they were watching that. And one said to the other, those idiots, don't they get it? It's our bodies, and it's not theirs. It's none of their business. I couldn't let that go. So I said to the ladies, I said, I'm one of those idiots you just mentioned. But I said, let me tell you why. I said, the Bible that I use, any time it mentions a woman is going to have a baby, which we call pregnant, it says she's with child. And I said, so God calls that in the womb a child. We believe that is a child. We can't act any other way. That's what's so important to us. One lady said to the other lady, I didn't know that. That does make a difference. They didn't say they were pro-life, but at least they heard the story of why we are pro-life. That is a child. Really and truly is. I want you to know we have an enemy that hates us. Boy, how Satan hates the children of God. We ought to be so careful that we live close enough to the Lord that He defeat the devil in our lives. You know, I remember one scooter wreck I had, and out of many, this one wasn't my favorite. I hit a cow, and I only got one wreck out of that scooter. I could usually get four or five good wrecks out of each scooter, but only one cow. But I was able to keep going. The Lord blessed me, and He blessed the opportunities that I had to witness. I was going down this gravel road one day, and I knew I needed to turn left, and it was the first house on the left. I headed down that road, and this German police killer dog came after me. Now, in the car, they'd bite your wheel. On a scooter, they'd get your leg. I sped up as fast as I could on that gravel road to keep from wrecking. And I missed the turn. And I went to the next one and turned. I pulled into the first house. I saw this Harley Davidson with these big handlebars on it. I thought, well, another biker. I went up, knocked on the door. This big guy filled the whole door. He was big and he had on this black leather jacket. I told him I was a preacher and I was there to visit. I didn't know the name of the people I was to see, so I couldn't tell him. He looked at me and he said, could you baptize me? And I called him Bubba. That's what you do in Arkansas. If you don't know their name, just call them Bubba. I said, well, Bubba, I don't know if I could or not, but I'd have to talk to you first. He said, well, let's sit down out here on the porch and talk. After a while, I led him to Christ. And he wept like a baby coming to the Lord. So I said, now, Bubba, I can baptize you now. And he says, all right. When do you usually do that? I said, usually on a Sunday night. He said, give me two weeks. And I want to have a bunch of my friends there. So I remember. And I knew if I ever got him in the water, I'd never get him out. So I had one of my deacons help me. And he had a whole row of bikers there. Man, that's a crowd I'm trying to preach to. And so they all came. We preached the gospel. We baptized him. I wish I could tell you if all of them got saved, but they didn't. And Bubba's mom had been praying for him for years. And God had answered her prayer. Thank God for a praying mother. That reminds me that I prayed for one man, Berlin. I prayed for him for 20 years before he finally got saved. And now he's saved and faithful in church and loves the Lord. But he was on my prayer list for 20 years. And I thank the Lord that he answered that prayer. But we have an enemy that hates us. We have a world that will destroy you. The world, the flesh, and the devil. Boy, they're... a team trying to destroy us. We need to stay close to the Lord because the world is after us. And then you have a conscience that can misguide you. A conscience that can misguide you. Don't live by your conscience. Live by the Word of God. I tell people God is always good and God is always right, not because I got a little better and got to where I could preach or got to where I could do things more. I tell people that because the Bible says it. You see, if you go by your feelings, you may believe it one day and not the next day. But if you go by the Word of God, it doesn't change. You just stay right with it, believe it, and trust it, because the Word of God is so true. I want you to know, I was typing a letter to a pastor I knew having problems. And I was just beginning to learn to type. And I meant to put, I'm 100% behind you. And I pushed 1 in the percentage sign. I'm 1% behind you. He really thanked me for getting behind him. But men, love your preacher and stay behind him 100%. There's two people God always blesses in the Bible. One is that person who blesses God. Anytime you find in the Bible somebody blessing God, you find God blessing them. And then the one that blesses the man of God. Anytime you find in the Bible somebody blessing a man of God, you find God blessing them. So bless the man of God. Take care of him. Be a blessing to him. Ask God to give you opportunities to be a blessing to him. And God will use that in your life. But please do remember this. You're capable. of anything, you're capable. Because of these enemies that we have against us, they are so powerful. But they're not more powerful than God. I thank God this morning. I thank Him for being Almighty God. You know, a lot of times atheists, and agnostics, they believe this, God is good and God is all-powerful, therefore, there should not be any suffering in the world. But let me tell you something, God is more than just good and all-powerful. God is all-wise. He's all-knowing, all-seeing, He's more than just good and powerful. And I can trust him with my life. And so can you. Please trust him. Please depend on him. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to quit. I hope I was a blessing to you this afternoon. Let's bow for prayer. Dear Lord, thank you so much. your precious word to us. Lord, I thank you that day I did get to win, Baba, to the Lord. What a blessing that was, sitting on that porch, getting to the wrong house, but it was the right one after all. Lord, I thank you for your word. Thank you for being all-powerful, Almighty God. And may You just help us depend on Your power and rely on You. Help us enjoy ourselves in the Lord. That's so important. Lord, I pray You'll bless these men as they travel home. Give them safety and watch over them. And thank You for them, everyone. In Jesus' name, pray.