It's good to be saved. Turn to Romans chapter 7, if you would. Romans chapter 7. And in all seriousness and in all sincerity, God has sent The message for tonight, I'm just going to pick right up where Brother Timothy left off and give you a few simple truths. He and I have not spoken. We did cross paths this week over at the radio station. But I didn't ask him what he was preaching, he didn't ask me what I was preaching. But I'm going to ask you this evening, and here's my title, are you ready for the battle? A lot of young people, and I'm thankful for this ministry, I'm thankful for what it stands for, I'm thankful for the churches that are attracted to a church like this one, the pastors that would back a man like this one. We're not the only pumpkin in the patch, say amen. However, we'd be lying if we didn't acknowledge that mighty men are around us falling. Men who once stood where we're trying to stand have now learned a better way. Right? They've learned better. And we're dinosaurs. And they wish we were in a museum somewhere with a little plaque that said, this is what people used to believe. So again, I don't say that to lift us up. I say it to state a fact that if this is the way you're trying to walk, I promise you, you've got former church members who don't like it. Most of your church members are like Timothy and his brother. They come alone, and most of their family thinks they're really weird for going to your church. We need to be careful that we don't let that breed pride in us and we're snotty and ugly when we're around them at birthday and Christmas and what have you. If this is right and if we believe right, we need to be humble. We need to walk in humility. They need to see Christ in us. And the power of the Holy Spirit is the only way that's going to happen, because your flesh rises up, and you want to handle things in the energy of the flesh. Or am I the only carnal person? Timothy said he was the only. He said all the rest of us were spiritual, and I said, Amen, Amen. No, I want to handle things in the flesh. I want to stand, but I want to stand with the Christlike spirit. We're in a battle. We're in a battle. And I want to look at some truth. My heart is for the... I hope the Lord will speak to everybody here. My heart is for the young people. When you're in churches, when you're in families that make up the majority of these young people and you're sheltered, if all of you young people, if you care, if you're thankful this much or this much for being sheltered, I want you young people to say amen. If you're sheltered and you're protected, when you start to realize you've got a sin nature that is alive and well, It is very disturbing. It'll make you doubt your salvation. the first time you, quote, slip up and give in to that sin nature, when as a six-year-old, an eight-year-old, a ten-year-old, a twelve-year-old, a fourteen-year-old, when through all those periods you just had this tender childlike heart for the things of God and the preaching and the teaching, when you followed that and then you get to an age somewhere and you watch something you shouldn't watch, say something you shouldn't say, enjoy something that you thought was dark and ugly a year ago. The devil, who is the sorry rascal who tempted you to do it, then becomes the accuser of the brethren and throws it up in your face. And that battle, between the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new man, torments a lot of people who have come through, been raised, or at least been introduced at some point in their life, been introduced to this kind of preaching and teaching, the enemy will do everything in his power to destroy you, and then when you slip, whether it's a big slip or a little one, he'll be the first one to throw it in your face. Now I want to try to give you a few Bible principles to help you with that. In Romans chapter 7, Look in verse 9. My whole purpose for reading in Romans chapter 7, I'm not going to expound. It's a challenge to do that. I would want to do that if I thought it would be what the Lord led me to do tonight. I really want to use it as a foundation, and then we're going to move through the Bible and look at some principles to help you in this battle. My reason for reading in chapter 7 is to help you understand that approximately 10 years into his Christian life, is what Bible scholars say, at least 10 years into his Christian life, Paul was describing this kind of struggle. Okay? Verse number nine, I was alive without the law, but when the commandment came, when I realized the difference between right and wrong, sin revived and I died. Okay, young people, listen to me. If sin revived and I died, who's winning? Everybody say it, all you young people. Sin. Sin revived and I died. Ten. The commandment which was ordained to life What is the purpose of the law? To show me my sin, and in so doing, lead me to Christ. So, the end of the commandment, it was supposed to point me to Jesus. I found it under death. Okay? Eleven. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me. You young people ever been deceived by sin? The tool that the devil uses, whether it's your own mind or a friend or media, here's what he'll say just once. That's a lie. That's a lie. Okay? Fourteen. We know that the law is spiritual, that I am carnal, sold under sin. Oh, you young people look at me. From four and a half, age four and a half on, I was raised like you. The vast majority of you. I know there's exceptions. You're here, but nobody's making you come to church. You're here because you want to be. The rest of you got parents, teachers, Sunday school teachers, pastors that are pouring their life into you as Brother Timothy just preached. The vast majority of you. Somebody right now has built a beautiful, strong hedge of protection around you. Okay? You're rotten to the core. I don't care if you're Susie Sunday School and Billy Bible. Okay? Or if at the age of six you knew how to roll a joint. Okay? It don't matter. You're rotten to the core. Okay? One of our little girls is here tonight. Several years ago, she told her Sunday school teacher, she said, I'm a good little girl. Please don't let this form your opinion of our church, okay? The Sunday school teacher said, good little girls go to hell. She graduated to the next class, And my daughter was her Sunday school teacher. And Natalie came to me several months ago, Sister King, and she said, I think Alyssa's problem is she thinks she's a good little girl. And you know what? Compared to the brat she'd see at Walmart, And McDonald's? She was. That ain't getting you into heaven. And Natalie, she was weeping. She said, she's got a sweet personality. She's outgoing. She can converse with an adult. She's mannerly. She said, I don't think she knows she needs a Savior. Two Sundays ago, at 1.30 in the morning, her daddy texted me and said, Preacher, Alyssa just got gloriously saved. And we went to church Sunday morning, and I didn't even know if she'd understand my question. I said, Alyssa, What did the devil use to keep you from calling on Jesus? Why did you wait as long as you did? You say, preacher, how old is she? How long did she wait? You're acting like she's 30. Dr. Spurgeon said, if you're old enough to sin willfully, you're old enough to get saved on purpose. And she had told Jesus no. You can ask her mom and daddy. You know how a lost person will get mean when they get under conviction? She had got under conviction and everybody knew it but her. And I said, Alyssa, what did the devil use to keep you waiting? She didn't miss a beat. She went, he told me I was a perfect little girl and I didn't need Jesus. I said, what happened during the middle of the night? Her lips started quivering. Her eyes filled with tears. She said, I realized that I was a sinner and my sins put Jesus on the cross. And I wasn't as good as I thought I was. Do you know what she had to do? She had to do what everybody in this room had to do. She had to get lost. When you get lost, getting saved's the easy part. Jesus took care of that. That's shouting ground. Alyssa, you're safe, sweetie. Guess what? That old man, that sinner part, it's still in there. I am carnal, sold under sin. 15. That which I do, I allow not. What I would, that I do not. What I hate, that I do. Everybody get that? 17. It's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. There was a comedian, popular, about the time my daddy got saved. So I slipped around and hurt him. Until dad got born again, he'd say, the devil made me do it. And everybody'd laugh. The devil didn't make him do it, but that sin nature living inside of him did. Okay? Nineteen. The good that I would, I do not. You young people, if you understand that, say amen. The evil which I would not, that I do. Do you all understand that? Did you get that? Twenty. If I do that I would not, it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Twenty-four. A wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. You walk after the flesh, you're going to be sinning. You walk after the Spirit, you're going to be living for Jesus. Here's what John Owen, a Puritan writer said, be killing sin or it'll be killing you. Be killin' sin or it'll be killin' you. All you young people, say that with me. Be killin' sin or it'll be killin' you. That's today. That's tomorrow. That's Sunday. I don't care if you're in the glory all day Sunday, it'll be Monday. If you're in the glory all day Sunday with God's people, you might have an extra battle with the flesh on Monday. Okay? So let's talk about the battle. Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8. That introduction took about 15 minutes. The message is going to take about 15 and I'm going to dismiss you to eat some pizza. And if that's my members laughing, you're in trouble. I heard that giggle. One of them sounded like the woman I married 35 years ago. I reckon if anybody can get away with it, it's her. Young people say feed. Young people, young people say feed. Oh, you don't know what word, F-E-E-D, not T, feed. Feed, F-E-E-D, young people say feed. I think you can do better than that. Would you say it one more time? Feed. What are you feeding on? What are you feeding on? I talked to young people, and I said, Brother Morris, I messed up. I messed up. I'm so sorry. I messed up. Okay. Okay. Okay. God's good. Where were you? They'll tell me. Who were you with, Brother Morris? They'll tell me who they was with. What was the atmosphere? I know where you were and I know who you was with. That place could have been family or it could have been a party. What was the atmosphere? And they'll tell me. And I'll ask you a couple more questions and then I'm supposed to be the spirit-filled counselor and the spirit leaves and the flesh takes over and I go, what were you thinking? And then I go, oh, you weren't. I'm like, you were, this is where you were. This is who you were with. This is what was going on all around you. And this is the warning that was given to you before you went. So you didn't ponder the path of your feet. And I'm like, what did you think was gonna happen? Did you think revival was gonna break out? No, no, when you're with him, and you're here, and this is what's going on, this is what happens. One plus one plus one equals, this is what happens. Okay? So what are you feeding on? Where is your mind? What are you watching? What are you reading? Who are you listening to? I can tell you how you're doing spiritually. I can tell you how you're doing in the battle that our brother preached about. If you'll tell me one question, what do you laugh at? What do you find amusing? And I can tell you where you're headed. Somebody can tell a clean joke, just life happenings and stuff that goes on, and you're like, that's lame. Somebody can get that far off color and you fall in the floor. Tell me what you find amusing. Fools make a mock at sin. Fools make a mock at sin, okay? Deuteronomy 8.3. He humbled thee, suffered thee to hunger. Y'all there, did I say the wrong one? 8.3. Fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know, that man doth not live by bread only, but by every, say it please, young people, that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Where do you have every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord? You're holding it. You're holding it. You're holding it. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4. Jesus, tempted by the devil. All you young people, look up here. If the devil's bold enough to tempt Jesus, he is not afraid of you. Oh no. I don't care where you go to church. I don't care what your last name is. I don't care who your preacher is. And there are families and churches that I have the utmost, highest respect for. But let me tell you something. If the devil's going to drag Jesus out in the middle of nowhere and attack him after 40 days of fasting and prayer, he is not afeard of you. Matthew chapter 4 verse 4, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. What is Jesus doing? Quoting Scripture. If Jesus needed Scripture to help him avoid the temptation of the devil, how much more do you and I need it? And if it was good enough for Jesus to get him out of that temptation, don't you reckon it'll work for me and you? Oh, this is simple. This is a teenage class Sunday school lesson. And I make no apologies for it. Number one, because God told me to preach it. And number two, He dovetailed it with a message that every one of us needed. Well, I'm moving on. What are you feeding on? Say, Brother Ains, I've been in this church 25 years. God bless you. What are you feeding on? You could have walked with Jesus those first 24 and let your guard down the last 12. Saul was not a novice when he got careless. If anything, he had been at it too long and he had respect in himself and thought he could handle this battle. You can't handle this battle. There's not a soul in this auditorium, not a soul in this auditorium, and nobody you know knows the man I'm going to use right now to illustrate the point. And I say it with a broken heart, but a heart that's been restored by the grace of God. My pastor, not my father, the pastor of our home church, in his latter years, latter years, after a long-term ministry that God had blessed amazingly, Amazingly well, in his latter years, got careless and messed up. And I've wept. Like you said, I've thought. I wish he'd have just thought one time. I wonder what Larry and Doug will think when they find out up there in South Carolina. I wish that had crossed his mind one time. I might give a little lesson to the parents real quick. My dad knew about it four years before he told me. I was a grown man with a wife and two kids before dad got up enough nerve to tell me. And the only reason he told me then was he knew I was getting ready to hear it from another source. And he said, I want Doug to hear it from me. Be careful. If you've walked with Jesus a very long time, you know what you need to get up tomorrow, February 23rd, 2019. You know what you need to get up and do tomorrow? Walk with Jesus. Oh, the other kings are gone out to battle. I'm just going to have me a little siesta. Sip on a margarita here for a minute. No, you better get in the battle. Amen. What are you feeding on, church? 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. My first word is feed. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, 26. I hear pages turning. Please find it. What you're reading on the page is 10,000 times more important than anything I'll say to you tonight. I'm liable to mess up. This Word won't mess up. 1 Corinthians 9. Are you there? Say amen. Verse 26, I therefore so say it, young people, not as uncertainly. Young people, get you a purpose. Brother Raines, what does that mean? I'm not preaching on that tonight. Go to your preacher. Go to your preacher's wife. Go to your Sunday school teacher. Go to your mom and daddy. Go to somebody you respect and say, what does it mean to have a purpose? Paul said, I'm not just out here flopping around like a fish on the deck of the boat. He said, I've got a purpose I'm living for. David said, when his brothers mocked him for wanting to get in the fight, he said, is there not a cause? This is eternal, young people. What your friends that are temporal, temporal, temporal, that means temporary, what your friends are out there living for is not going to last. You've got an opportunity to invest your life in something that's going to matter in eternity. Not uncertainly so fight I, we run, we fight, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body, bring it into subjection, lest at any means, when I've preached to others, I myself, Timothy, should be a castaway. Number two, fight. Fight. When they say, hey, they get you on break. I left my phone in the car. Let me show you this. Don't look at it and then wish you hadn't. We know the culture we live in. I doubt it's a Bible verse. I doubt it's a camp meeting preacher. So when they say, hey dude, look at this, say, what is it? Well, they'll think I'm weird. Good. It could be a male asking you to look at it. It could be a female. They're pretty bold these days. Y'all figured that out? Ladies, would y'all do me a favor and help the rest of womankind learn how to be feminine again? They're scaring me. They're bold. Somebody, I need some help right there. They're both, you ladies, you are God's crowning creation. Look at the week, look at creation week. He stopped when he got to the woman. He did the man and he said, I can do better than that. My daughter's getting ready to get married. And they said, Daddy, we want you to do some counseling. I said, oh, I want to do some counseling. She said, we want you to do the charge at the wedding. I said, I want to do the charge at the wedding. I'm going to tell him in front of all those assembled witnesses exactly, Brother Winston, what he's getting. Would you like for me to bog in? Can I move up a few? I need some help. The weaker vessel, that doesn't mean weak and puny. That means a fine piece of china. I'm going to preach on the home for three minutes. Can I do that? Your wife's not a cast-iron skillet. I take cast-iron skillets when I go camping. When we have guests of honor, we get out the fine china. Seth, if you can't treat her like a piece of fine china, leave her in Newport. Tell your daddy. Here's what a guy does when he thinks he's bagged his prey. Like a deer, right? Got her. He moves on to something else. Come on, woman. I hope I never hear one of my son's-in-law call one of my daughters woman. Come on, woman. Oh, and I was a jail chaplain for seven years. If I ever hear him say the old lady, we got to have a meeting. Oh, no. We're not talking about your 96-year-old grandmother. That might be the old lady with all due respect. I mean, you ain't telling my daughter she's the old woman. I'm an old woman. You ought to have an old woman. She ought to hit you with a cast-iron skillet. That's what you do with a cast-iron skillet. So Fideye is one to be there. Hey, look at this. What's on it? It's just something of friendship. Would you show it? Well, Brother Ames, he teaches training union at his church. I don't mean that. That ain't worth a hill of beans. He'll still tell you dirty jokes and show you dirty pictures. I worked in the public for years and years and years and years. Okay? I didn't just sleep late and eat fried chicken. I worked two and three jobs. Okay? So are you fighting? If you're listening to something good and something bad comes on, do you fight it? Do you reach up there and switch the channel? If you're doing legitimate... I guess we could live without a computer. If my right eye offends me, I'm going to pluck it out. If my right foot offends me, I'm going to cut it off. If my computer offends me, I'm going to cut it off. And if I have to throw it out and do what Caleb did and fireproof, I'm going to take a sledgehammer to it. I need some help. How serious are you about dealing with sin in your life? Well, I need it for my job. Learn to be a welder. They don't need computers. The last I read, because I help my men when they come to me and say, Preacher, I hate my job, I help my men. The last I read, a certified welder with about five different certifications can make over $100,000 a year. That's what I read. He just said I was right. Okay, so I'm not going to have a job. I'm not going to lay temptation in front of my eyes. David said 4,000 years ago, I'll set no wicked thing before my eyes. It ain't worth it. You don't want to break. Look at those. Don't break their hearts. No, don't do that. Are you fighting? Everybody say we're not the only pumpkin in the patch. We're not the only pumpkin in the patch. If anybody ought to be winning this fight, it ought to be us. Come on now. We got people in our corner, Brother Mark. Me and you, we hardly know each other. I could text you. I could call you or text you and say, I need some help. You'd meet me at the nearest Waffle House. I need some help. Come on. We can make it, brother. If we want to survive, if we want to succeed, if we want to win in this battle between the flesh and the spirit, we've got everything we need to do so. Feed. Fight. 2 Timothy 2.22. And I'm two minutes over. Glad we didn't place bets. Christians don't place bets. But preachers will elbow each other and go, I'll bet you one thing, he ain't gonna finish when he said he would. 2 Timothy 2.22. Young people, what was the first word? You remember it? Number two, what's your second word? Second Timothy 2.22. What's my third word? Now whenever we hear the word lust, we automatically think sexual impurity. And many are succumbing to those temptations in the perverted culture we live in. And that is a real battle. But let me tell you something, for whatever reason, for whatever reason, for the same reason that Donald Trump has never drunk alcohol and never will, if there's something that's been taught to you from your family, a grandmother, an aunt, a daddy, if there's something in you where you're going to be morally pure, till the day you die. The only physical relations you'll ever have is with a husband or wife. You still have youthful lust that you need to flee. You could be morally pure and have such a hunger for money that you step on people left and right, you lay out of the house of God, and you're so full of pride that if you pull into a church parking lot and somebody's got a nicer vehicle than you, you're going to Asheville on Monday, and when you come back next week, you're going to have the nicest car in the church parking lot. I need a witness. I know people like that. Morally pure. Controlled by money. So whatever your youthful lust is, whatever the devil uses to bait you in, you're going to have to run from it. So my word is flee. I've got one simple example that all of you know, and I'm going to my last word. Joseph ran. He has happened to be sexual temptation. If somebody comes to you and the Holy Ghost inside of you raises a red flag and says, this is not of God, it may be a business opportunity. I could sit down with the pastors and in all likelihood, we've seen more families weakened if not destroyed by financial means than sexual. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It may not be money. That pride of life, that's a consuming desire to be. You're a big dog. You're not worried about money. You're not worried about women. You're faithful as long as you get all the attention in the room. That's a youthful lust that you better flee. Real quick, 60 seconds, here's the best way to flee that one. Serve somebody. Because if you'll admit in your heart of hearts, servant is way beneath you. So if you... I hit a stump. You say, preacher, are you talking to me? I'm talking to every one of us. Because we all think we've got a servant's heart until somebody treats us like a servant. Who are you talking to? You want me to do what? We want to marry young people to do that. No, God told me to hand you this mop. Everybody lift your heads, we're not praying. God told me to give you this cleaning rag. I was a smart aleck when I was a teenager. We had this woman at church, she wouldn't lift a finger to do nothing. Whenever she had a baby, thank God you haven't been this way. Whenever she found out she was having a baby, she became an invalid. And I'm like, great. I was a teenager. I said, it ain't an illness. It's not a disease. I said, that woman over there is working. I need some help. All the men are going, I can't believe you just said that. She wasn't in the motherly way, and we was working like slaves, like Trojan slaves, trying to clean the fellowship halls so everybody could... I think we had to feed in shifts that year at camp meeting. And we was feeding, trying to get everybody back in the church, and Dad wanted all of us in the church. He wasn't like, you were supposed to work, but you weren't allowed to miss church. And I don't know how we were supposed to... And I walked up and handed her a rag, and she looked at it like, what's that? I said, it's a cleaning rag. She never did take it. She ain't took it yet. And the look she put on me, I said, I'll clean her table. I married me a sweet one. Say amen right there. I also married one that was cleaning tables with me. That's a good way to know if you got the right one. Did y'all accidentally, not on purpose and call it an accident, I need a witness. Did y'all accidentally run into each other cleaning tables at the camp meeting? You're wiping this way and she's wiping that way and y'all, and you look up and you go, De Law? And you didn't get nothing out of no preaching after that. 2 Timothy 2.22. Oh, this is the best one. Flee also, youthful us, follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace. If you're following righteousness, faith, charity, and peace, you're going to avoid trouble. With, there's my next word, everybody say it. Them. You see it? Feed. What you feeding on? Fight. You're in a fight. Preacher, I didn't sign up for a fight. Too bad, you in one. Flee. Number four, friends. Some of you keep falling because you've got the wrong friends. Preacher, I need to talk to you. Preacher, I need to talk to you. I need to talk. Okay, which Waffle House do you want to meet at? Upward Road or Highway 25? Where are we meeting? Oh, you can meet with God at Waffle House now. When you got a fiesta omelet and scattered smothered spanked and stopped right there on the plate, God's in that place. I'll say, come on, where are we meeting? They'll tell me. I'll say, who was you with? They'll tell me. I'll say, there ain't nothing else for us to talk about. Grandma said it this way, birds of a feather flock together. Miss Frankie, raise your hand. Put it down. Fourteen, raised in a preacher's home. Sang, worked, worked like a man. She worked like a man. Good, I say that. Nice. Did everything her daddy wanted her to do. Taught Sunday school. Kind of a church plant situation. Youth worker. Went to teen camp, but when it was junior camp, she was a worker. Y'all know what I'm talking about. And the message that night was, tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are. And a godly Sister Dotson bless you. A godly pastor's wife. Felt led to go to her. Thank you for everybody you've ever helped. Salute you. Little Ivy, she's worth her weight in gold. And a preacher's wife went to her at a camp in western Kentucky and said, I'm worried about you because of your friends. She is a self-righteous, independent Baptist. Not the woman, her. She bowed up. You say, preacher, how do you know all this? She told us. We tell each other our salvation story at Progress. We love it. We all up in each other's business. Kind of clears the air. You know, it's like, I know where he's been. And she said, I'm worried about you. I know you're doing all the right things, but I see who you like to be around. You're this way when you're around them, but I see that glow in your eyes when you're with this crowd. Parents, you might not see that. This is message number seven. Somebody else out from under your roof may see that in your young'un. Seth, I counted it the mercy of God when somebody came to me and said, Stacy, Natalie, Adam or Emily responded this way at this point in time and I just thought you'd want to know. If you bow up and protect your little bitties, you might be sowing seeds of destruction in their lives. And she said, you act different when you're around this group. She is a self-righteous, independent Baptist. She bowed up in the back. She said, I don't know what you're talking about. That's not who I am. That's not how I act. Shakespeare said, me thinks you protest too much. Y'all didn't know I could quote Shakespeare. If they bow up in the back and start protesting loud and long, you might have hit a sore spot. Took about an hour, hour and a half. God the Holy Ghost cracked that hard shell. and said, the preacher preached on, show me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are. So, number one, what are you feeding on? Number two, are you fighting? Number three, are you fleeing? Number four, who's your friends? That may not be who you are. Listen to the preacher and I'm done. It may not be who you are. It's who you want to be. That's good for everybody in this auditorium. If you find me and Brother Dotson hanging out with men, either in person or online, admiring men who are personalities in the pulpit, but they've got a secret life, you've got reason to doubt me and him. Find me hanging out with men that are the same 24-7, 365. It's who I want to be. I love you young people. Let me tell you something. Live for Jesus all the days of your life. It's going to be a battle, but you've got every tool in the world to help you succeed. That's the burden of my heart, preacher. Stand if you would.