How about now? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he messaged me yesterday evening sometime or yesterday afternoon, I suppose and I was busy and I seen it yesterday evening. Wanted to know if I'll wanted to preach tonight, and if I'd have enough time to get ready, well, I'll just tell you right now, I have not denied anything that the Lord asked me to do, or a man of the Lord had asked me to do, for lots of years. The only time that I can remember ever not doing what the Lord asked me to do was we had a young lady, when I first got saved, I don't know, I'd been saved probably a couple years, and been serving in the church and a lot of other places. But you know, I had never really prayed out in front of nobody. And we was on a hayride one night, and that lady, of course, she knew that, you know, I was in it for Jesus. She asked me to pray in front of those kids, and there was three or four other adults on there. Man, that just tore me up, brother Bubba. I just, I didn't think I could do it. And I passed it off on my buddy. I had a buddy there, he prayed all the time in front of people, so I just laid it on to him. And hey, it went all right. She was not mad at me. And you know, everything was good, but boy, did that Lord beat me up, I'm telling you why. Man, after I didn't do that, I felt like about that big bubba, and I just absolutely decided at that time that if somebody asked me to do something for Jesus, I was gonna do it. I was not gonna hold back. And you know what I have figured out, that if you have got enough umption to get up here in front of people, hey, I used to do it all the time when I was drinking. I wanted to be the center of attention. Oh man, oh man, let me tell you what. Why not be the center of the attention for the Lord? You know? Why not show a little craziness for Jesus? You know, I had a guy preaching at our church one time, and he said, man, let me tell you what. He said, I went to Revival one time, and he said, man, they was in there preaching and singing, and man, I was tore plumb up. He said, it was just like being at the bar. He said, besides, when I left, I could go out to the car and find it, he said. And you know, ain't that the truth? Man, you can have a better time serving the Lord than you can ever have serving this world. And you know, tonight I'm just going to listen. I don't know what's going to happen here tonight. I went about two new messages, Brother Tyler, four old messages, and that devil had beat me to the ground about two o'clock. I give up. Yeah, I just give up. And I said, I went in the house for a little bit and I come back out. And I thought now, shoot, what's up with all this? You know, new church, but you people, I love you. You know, I loved you the first day I come in here. And you know, we come to church here several times to revival, to your tent revival and to here and you know, We know where we needed to be probably five years ago. Guarantee it. We talked about it. And we were going to a good church. You know the church I'm talking about. Good pastor. But the Lord was telling us where we needed to be. I love hard preaching. I love a guy that'll challenge me and stomp my toes so bad that they'll bleed. And let me tell you what, because I need it. I'm a dirty, rotten old sinner. That's all I am. Unless I've got Jesus. I'm worthless unless I got Jesus. And you know, our girl, we started, my ex-pastor from, used to be in Grantsville, the guy I got saved under, he moved to Florida. And he asked me, I don't know, it was 2019, during COVID, if I would be interested to help with a internet church. And had several local people there in Calhoun County and around some other counties that was listening to him because most people wasn't going to church at that time. So I said, sure, I'll do it. And we opened up a little church and had a big screen TV and we broadcasted into his messages And I preached some and was doing great. And that old devil, of course, he got involved in it. There was a lady come one night, and she had COVID, or one of her girls did, and it brought her anyway. Well, that made people mad, of course. And before you know it, things had wiggled down. We closed the church, but I was still pastoring those people in the area, and me and Paula was still watching it on our phones and on the TV. was thinking that was enough. I mean, I was listening to Brother Jason about every Sunday. I mean, I was getting Jason's messages, my pastor's messages, and about five other people that was preaching. And I'm thinking, well, I'm going to stand up with it, and I'm still feeling good, still serving Jesus. And, you know, Claire was coming down here and Brother Clay, And they knew where we needed to be. My wife knew where we needed to be. And I finally had to give in because I knew where we needed to be too. And praise Jesus that we did. You don't realize how much you miss fellowship until you're out of church for a while. Even though, listen, even though I was getting the word of God and living for Jesus, that fellowship is important to me. God wants us all to be a family. And, you know, I see that here, and I've talked enough, and let's preach a little bit. Anyway, tonight, I'm going to preach to you tonight out of Proverbs chapter 3, and I'm just going to give you a little message tonight and try to encourage you. Solomon was trying to encourage people in this message, in this scripture, trying to encourage people to help them to have a better life, a healthier life, And that's what I'm going to try to do tonight. I try to be an encourager to people. Let's go ahead and read chapter 3. I'm going to read 1 through 23. It said, My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart. so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord. Man, we need to do that. With all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. Praise Jesus. Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil, It shall be healthy to the navel and morrow to the bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son despise not the chastening of the Lord. Neither be weary of his correction. For whom thy Lord loveth, he correcteth. Even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies and all the things thou canst desire, and not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her. and happy is every one that retaineth her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth. By understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and doctrine. So shall they be life unto the soul and grace unto thy neck. Now listen to these two verses. Then shalt thou walk in the way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Ye, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we just thank you, Jesus. Lord, I just ask you tonight, Lord, to give me what I need here tonight, Lord. Lord, I ask you to be at this congregation here tonight, Lord, that I might be a blessing to them. And Lord, I ask you to just give me the words to touch their hearts and their souls, Lord. And Lord, if they'd be some here tonight that might need to just get a little better in their life, or Lord, that just might need anything, Lord, that you would just give me the words tonight to say to them to help them grow in you and to be what they need to be. Lord, I ask you tonight, I never want to forget, Lord, to ask you for the forgiveness that I know I need. Because as I said, I'm just a dirty old sinner. But a dirty old sinner that you picked to preach your word. And Lord, I just ask you tonight to help me, Lord. Give me the excitement, the zeal, the knowledge that I need to preach in a way that people will stay awake. And Lord, that they'll want to hear what I've got to say. Because Lord, I ask you to give me your words, not my words as I preach. I just pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Well, you know, I just was thinking a little bit about this today and, you know, I want to ask you tonight, where's your heart? You know, have you ever heard that old saying, maybe when you're playing ball or doing something, somebody said, well, you ain't putting your heart into it, Bubba. You know, why ain't you putting your heart into it? You got to put everything into it. And, you know, that's just exactly the way it is serving our Lord Jesus Christ. Man, he wants it all, don't he? He don't want part of it, he wants it all. And you know, I'm just going to give you a few things tonight that might help you. And you know, I just want you to be the best you can be for Jesus. Now listen, God will do and give you whatever you need to serve Him. If you're here tonight and you know Jesus as your Savior, you ought to be serving Him in some kind of capacity. You know, we shouldn't be an idle congregation because let me tell you what, we'll get in trouble. You know, that old devil's just waiting to slip through that door. You know, he'd like to get in here and get in some of our minds and you know, he'd like to get us on the wrong track. But let me tell you what, if you'll just put your heart into it and leave this old world out of it, God's gonna touch you. And as he touches you, he's gonna have you touch somebody else. And that's just how it works tonight. And it tells us, my sons, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the tablet of your hearts. And listen, God wants us to keep His commandments. Now listen, He gave us some commandments that some of them are pretty tough sometimes. But let me tell you, if you've got Jesus in you, and if you're walking close to Him in your daily walk, They won't be as hard as what you think. You know, I was thinking about one of them is, you know, putting God first. He wants us. He told us he wants us to put him first in our lives. He don't want us to have any grieving images. And you know, man, it's so easy to get just a little bit away from God. And before you know it, you're putting something ahead of him. You know, it might be going to the ballgame. It might be shining on an old car. Let me tell you what. Boy, I love that message that old guy preached here the other night. But let me tell you what, it don't take but a minute to get your eyes off of him. And the next thing you'll know, you'll be breaking some of those commandments. God wants us to follow him. And you know, when he tells us to do something, he wants us to do it. And you know, if we don't, there'll be something that happens. And before you know it, you might get yourself a little whip. And just as that praying, I was asked to pray, I know when she asked me, I should have just done it. But because of fear, I let myself be talked out of it. Man, don't fear anything. I have figured out that if you're a singer or a preacher or a teacher, it don't make any difference what you're doing for Jesus. He is going to touch you. And he is going to give you what you need to get through it. Listen, whenever I come in the parking lot here tonight, I was still nervous. And I don't know why. I hardly ever get nervous anymore when I'm preaching. But I've heard each and every one of you preachers preach. And I'm going to tell you, Brother Jason, he's got a good bunch of men down here preaching the Word of God. And you know why that is? Because he's a great pastor. He's somebody that's trying to teach you something. And there ain't a lot of that going around, I'm telling you right now. There ain't a lot of churches like this one. And you think, well, this thing ought to be filled plumb up, Brother Jason. I don't know what you're doing wrong. I'm gonna try to figure it out. But let me tell you what, it ain't nothing that he's doing wrong, it's what he's doing right. When you got a church that is preaching the word of God, and you know, any church can get in here and read you some scripture, any pastor can read you scripture. But man, when he relates it to your life, You know, whenever he starts punching those buttons, Brother Dawson, hey, Jason's punched a few of my buttons since I've been here, and I know that I needed to change some things in my life. Boy, when that happens, that's when the good stuff starts. But a lot of people don't like that. You know, just as they don't want to keep their commandments, they don't want to walk through those doors and sit in a church that the pastor's going to stomp their old toes. I like to get down here and talk to you. I ain't able, but I'm going to. You know, I think about, whoo, the first time I went to a Baptist church was the best time of my life. We had went for several years to a Methodist church. My wife went as a little girl. And not to put Methodist churches down, brother, but hey, they wasn't preaching what they needed to be preaching all the time. You know, they said, hey, you know, why don't you just come get baptized and join the church. And you know, I never said nothing about salvation. You know, I didn't know no better. Listen, I was just going there because she was making me. Yeah, she was making me go. And I wasn't liking it. So I just went along with it and I got baptized. And I wasn't a bit more saved than a man on the moon. Listen, I acted like I was saved for 20 some years. But until I went to that Baptist church in Grantsville, West Virginia, and she drug me to it too, let me tell you what, that old preacher, whoo, boy, he got up that morning and he preached the word of God, and man, I sat back there, Brother Dawson, and I had my hands on, and I was shaking because I knew that God was talking to me, and let me tell you what, wow, what a feeling. And I told her from the beginning I'd go on Sunday mornings, Brother Tyler, but I wasn't going Sunday evening. Methodist church don't have services either, Sunday evenings and Wednesdays. I mean, Sunday mornings are plenty, right? Most of the time we didn't even stay for preaching. I was glad of it. So anyway, I'm just saying this to say that my Lord, man, whenever I got up that afternoon, and started putting my church clothes back on. She said, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm going to church. She said, I thought you wasn't going to go on Sunday evenings. And I said, now listen, that old boy preached to me and stomped my toes. There is no way he can do that twice, and I'm going tonight just to see. True, I mean, that's exactly what I told her. And I went that night, and let me tell you what. My old toes was bloodier the second time when I went out there than it was the first. And, you know, we was there I don't know how many years. How many years, honey, did we go there? Probably 12 years. And, we drug our kids there. And, God worked with me. And, I got saved. And, in 2010, this wasn't even what I was supposed to be preaching. But, I'm just going to give you what God's put on my heart. But in 2010, me and the pastor, I went everywhere with him. I mean, if he went someplace, I was on his heels. And I was encouraging my pastor, and that's what we need to be doing, folks. You need to encourage your pastor and be there for him. And if he went, I was going. If them church doors was open, I was coming. And buddy, one night, we was going up the road, going to Elizabeth, to the Baptist church there in Mineral Hills. God had been, he'd been preaching there, we'd been preaching revival, and he's, I don't know, it's probably second night. I said, how do you know you was called to preach? He said, I don't know. He said, you just know. I never said any more. We got in there that night and let me tell you what, the good Lord started working on me. It's like he's preaching right to me. My own pastor. I was in a strange church. I mean, I was just going there to support him. I wasn't there to get anything from it. You know? I was just there. I was his driver. And I'll be darned, the Lord at the end of the service, he said, boy, You're being called to preach. And I thought, oh my gosh. You know? That's way above my pay grade, Brother Jason. I mean, I wasn't ready for that. And I was thinking, you know, he was telling me the whole time, you need to go up there. He was giving that altar call. You need to go up there. And I was thinking, man, my wife, I ain't got no family here. They're going to kill me. You know, I went. Best decision I ever made in my life. Man, let me tell you what, God has used me in so many ways, and I ain't bringing it's all Jesus. You know, I ain't the best preacher, bubba, and I ain't probably the loudest preacher, and I ain't the most exciting preacher. I love that car message. I could talk some cars to you. But you know, God's using me. And people were getting saved. And I'm telling you what, it's amazing what God can do with it. It wasn't nothing that I'm doing. It was what God was doing with me. Because I'm nothing. Absolutely nothing. Paula said, ask if it was the clock. I said, I don't know if it was the clock or not. She said, were you going to bring your phone in? I said, so? I'm a preacher, right? I always try to be obedient and try to get you out of here on time. But tonight, I just want to say, I'm going to get back to the message. That's what he leads me to. But tonight, you know, you need to be obedient to the Lord Jesus to be a great servant. You need to try the best that you can to keep those commandments that God gave. Listen, we're all sinners. We're all going to fail every day. And God knows that's why he died for us. But you know, we need to try to keep those commandments. And not only obedient, but you know, God wants us to trust in Him. Listen, I couldn't preach a message at all if I didn't trust on Him. You know, even as much stuff as I struggled with this afternoon, and the way I was beat up and down, I started to just lay down in the garage floor and cry a couple times, because I'm telling you what, it's rough! But you know, I know that when I got here, and I appreciate you having them boys pray with me, because that definitely helped. But I know when I got up here, God was just going to give it to me. You know? I know that. I just needed to trust him. But, boy, ain't it easy sometimes to let the old self get in the way and forget that, man, God's going to take care of it. You know, it says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Boy, it's a good thing I don't lean into my understanding because you'd be in a shape tonight. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. And you know, he's been doing that since I was in my 30s and got saved. He's been directing me. You know, Brother Tyler, there's some times that I might weaver off a little bit But man, he always brings me back. You know, if you're here tonight and you know Jesus as your savior, I always describe it like this to people that I lead to the Lord. You know, I just feel like I've got the devil sitting on this shoulder and the good Lord is sitting on this shoulder. And you know, when I go to veering off the track, the old Jesus starts hollering, come back, come back over here. And that old devil's over there hollering, son, it's way sweeter the way that you're going. But you know, God always conquers him. Paul asked me this evening, did you just tell him to leave you alone? I said, yeah, I told him to leave me alone. But you know, ain't that the truth? You know, any time you get to veering off that path, you know, we can't do nothing without Jesus. It's been proven. You know, Brother Jason was a drug addict. I was an alcoholic for years, was a terrible, terrible dad. And, you know, I was there for my kids whenever I was in the house, but most of the time I spent in the garage drinking beer. And, you know, I'm nothing without him. I don't, I'll mess up every day, but I gotta use his knowledge, not mine. When I'm doing something, I gotta use his knowledge, his understanding. But, man, sometimes we get busy and we forget. Just, we forget, we get a little, I'm telling you, it don't take long to start falling away. And it's easy to do that. And you know, it is hard to get back. You know, as easy as it was for me to walk through those doors, however many Sundays there goes of being, I kept telling myself I was all right. You know, I mean, I wasn't going to hell or nothing, but man, I wasn't putting my whole heart into it, Brother Jason. I wasn't doing what I could be doing. You know, I'm stronger since I started back here. You know, I've, listen, I'm one of these guys, Brother Dawson asked me the other day, we standing on the street putting a light post up over in Grantsville and some guy walked by and I said, you know, Jesus, have you ever been saved? The guy said, yeah, but we had a great conversation and, you know, God wants you to talk to people about it. Even if they ain't saved, man, it can encourage you. Hear their story, maybe. Brother Dawson said, did you just do that? How do you just do that, more or less? I don't remember exactly the words he said, but you know, God will just give it to you. Hey, it's just like riding a bicycle. When you first start riding that thing, you're going to be wobbling. and maybe wreck once in a while. But after, you ride for a little bit, it's just the same. And once you get off of it, you just get back on and start paddling again. I was blessed. I had a guy that come to our church, and he was an evangelist, and I still fool with him, Zebi Volpe. And, man, I got to running around with him some, and he talked to everybody. Hey, he would have asked every one of you folks if you know Jesus as your Savior. He just did it. And, you know, I thought, man, I'd love to do that. I just loved hearing people. I've seen people saved, and I wanted a part of that. You know, iron sharpens as iron, right? I wanted that. You need to hang out with people, folks, that knows Jesus and that's excited for Jesus. Now listen, if you sit on a pew beside somebody that ain't doing anything, you ain't gonna get too excited. But if you rub some shoulders with a pastor or maybe rub some shoulders with somebody that's serving God before you know it, If that guy's excited for Jesus, you're gonna get excited for Jesus too. That's just how it is. So you know, we need to trust him. I just trust him anymore. I just do what he tells me. If he puts in my mind to talk to somebody about Jesus, I just do it. And he puts it there a lot. I'm here to say tonight, if you're sitting here in a pew, and I hope Brother Jason don't get mad about this, but if you're sitting here tonight on a Wednesday night, Thursday night, right, on a Thursday night, thank you, brother, if you're sitting here, and God's not putting nobody on your mind to talk to, I'd be coming up here tonight and kneeling down at this altar, because there's something going on. You know? You're either one or two things. You don't know Jesus as your savior. Boy, that's kind of harsh, ain't it, Brother Jason? Or maybe you know him and you just ain't close enough to him. Listen, you're close enough to Jesus. He's going to be talking to you. Now, he might not be sitting there in that chair physically and saying, hey, Steve, you need to talk to so-and-so. I hear him. He's telling me, he's saying, now, Steve, those people need you. You need to talk to them a little bit. You need to trust me. I'll get you through it and tell you what you need to say. And he just does that for me. And, you know, I'd went Oh, it'd probably been a year up to Clarksburg to pick up some stuff that my boss had bought, and it was in a storage unit. And pulled in, and there was these two guys. It was some big stuff. We needed some help loading it. And the guy that sold it sent a couple of his workers out. And there was two guys, Brother Tyler, standing there at the back of the truck. And we got out, and we was talking a little bit. And I just asked him, I said, Brothers, do you guys know Jesus as your Savior? Brother Jason, you wouldn't believe the looks on their faces, like they'd seen a ghost or something. They looked at me, and that guy looked at his buddy, and his buddy looked at his buddy, and he said, you ain't gonna believe this. I said, what's that? He said, we was just talking about how we needed to get saved. Boy, that gives me glory bumps just thinking about it. Now think of that. Up in Clarksburg, I didn't know these guys from nobody. I'd never seen them before in my life. They'd never seen me. but they was talking about Jesus and how bad this world had got, and that they needed to be saved. Well, guess what? God just helped me to tell them how to be saved. We joined hands right there in the parking lot of them storage units, and those two men asked Jesus in their heart. Now listen, God, if you trust him, he'll do it. He'll do it. But think about, what if I hadn't have asked? Well, somebody else probably would have come by, Brother Tyler, and talked to him. I mean, that's what we say, isn't it? Ah, well, let so-and-so do it. Well, what if so-and-so don't do it? What if that was their opportunity? God gives people the opportunity to be saved. What if that was that guy's opportunity and I hadn't asked? Let me tell you what, when God puts it on your heart, you just need to listen to what He's telling you. You need to trust Him. And the last thing tonight, you know, we need to give Him our first fruits. You know, if we're going to serve God and do what we need to be for Jesus, we need to listen to Him. Hey, He's given it to us, isn't He? And you know, we need to be obedient with our money and our time. And are you putting your heart into your wallet, folks? Huh? You know, I mean, listen, I can't help it. Brother Tyler, God just, he put it on my heart to say that. Are you, are you got it in your heart to give what you should be given to your church and to Jesus? Not only, you know, your money, but your time. You know, hey, listen, it's easy to get tied up in this world and not take the time to serve Jesus. It's easy to get out there and go to a ball game and, you know, but forget about where you ought to be. Forget about maybe there's some old people down the road that might be needing a little Jesus. I had a couple that I used to go pray with that couldn't go to church. And, man, I have never in my life been blessed as much as what I was every time I went through those doors. That little old lady might not have been able to walk, but, buddy, let me tell you what she could pray. And when she prayed, it felt like the house was coming down. I would go out of there stepping about that high, Brother Jason. Them's the kind of blessings God will give you if you give to Him. It takes money to serve Jesus. It just absolutely does. You know, it takes money to keep the lights on in this church. Where's your heart tonight, you know? Where's your heart in your service? What are you going to do for him? You know, I'll just ask you tonight, we're going to go ahead and stand, and I know that probably wasn't much of a message, Brother, let me tell you what. I'm just going to tell you, I'll just give you what God, I had a lot of other stuff wrote down, but I just feel that God's telling me to stop. Tonight, as Brother Jason closes, I just ask you to think about, where's your heart tonight? Are you trusting Jesus? Are you being obedient to Him? You know, I think probably a lot of us could do better. But I also want to ask you tonight, you know, I never take for granted that somebody might be lost. If you're here tonight and you don't know Jesus as your Savior, let me tell you what, like I said, I went 20 some years and dabbled in it. Man, after I finally truly got saved, what a blessing it was. It was a blessing to my wife. It was a blessing to my family, Brother Tyler. Hey, I was a better worker for my employee. That's what God can do for you. I was a better friend. But man, it sure does take you when you put your heart into it. I love you all tonight. I hope you enjoyed the message. Maybe next time Brother Jason won't ask me like the night before, I can actually prepare for one. Love you, Brother Jason. Appreciate you. You know what I got out of that? Amen, preacher. Good job, brother. Aren't you thankful for that? Say amen. Amen. You know what I got out of that? God uses preachers, amen. Everybody's different. Everybody presents different. Everybody studies different. But God's always got something in there for you. Amen. That's right, brother. And that's for somebody in here tonight. Amen. Somebody needs to have faith in God. and trust Him and just obey what He wants them to do. Amen. We've got preachers through the room. Bubba's a testimony of that. I mean, when he got up and started preaching and getting out and going to them shelters, Delbert going too, Bubba's going into full-time ministry now. God's using these men. And Johnny Talbert stepped up, said, I'm gonna go. But it ain't just for preachers. Last night, bless me so much, Daddy, over at Esther, watching, it's an old church. All the folk in there, they're about my daddy's age. I remember when we was all young. That's how it is. Some of them holler churches. But what's a blessing about it is all them old folk in there, been in there 50 years together, and to watch them have a service, everybody participates. Multiple people testified that night. Multiple people sang. The preacher wasn't there, and the preacher that was supposed to preach got sick, and another preacher got up and preached, and just God uses all them people. That's how it's supposed to be. We've got new people singing. They're trusting and obeying. Keep singing. Keep finding new songs. Keep asking me if they're alright, if I'm gonna let you sing them. But keep bringing them, amen? Let's keep singing. Let's keep serving. Let's keep teaching Sunday schools. Let's keep preaching, men of God. Just trust and obey what God tells us to do, and He'll be in it, like Steve said. He'll bless it, amen? Thank God for that. That's a great message, brother. I appreciate that. We've got to trust and obey the Lord, amen? Grab your Red Book. Look at page 157 tonight, and let's sing this song.