Help with the church van. I thank everybody for doing that. And we would like to let God take care of that. We can go on to the next phase of things. And don't want to get the church too much debt. Man, we've been in a lot of debt in our life, but Jesus paid it off. Amen. And praise God for y'all. Thank you so much. God is so good. Appreciate the Lord being good to us today and helping us. I hope everybody had a great afternoon. I'm thankful for dinner today. My daughter fixed dinner and what a blessing that was. I had some shepherd's pie. Eat, ate the shepherd's pie. The sheep ate the shepherd's pie. Amen. Let's look in the Bible, 2 Chronicles chapter number 17. 2 Chronicles chapter number 17. I'm going to ask you to pray for me on this one that I'll be able to say only what I need to say and try to present what God's laid on my heart. I'm going to use this text of Scripture and I just want to say a few things about this thought Oh, no, don't go with the flow. If you want to title this, Oh, no, don't go with the flow. How many of y'all know that it's easier just to go with the flow? It's easier not to, we would call, rub the cat the wrong way. And I was drawing the other day. I don't draw very much, but I had this thought. Maybe Brother Johnny can draw this pretty good, I know. And I was drawing the river. I don't know if y'all know the river goes one direction. This river down here goes one direction 24-7. It slows down and speeds up, but the fact of the matter is it's in one direction. And if you're downriver and you're trying to get upriver, you can't go with the flow. You've got to turn around and face the oncoming flow of opposition, however you want to call that, opposition or flow or what would slow you down, but it takes effort. It takes strength. It takes, amen, a 40-horsepower Tohatsu, amen, with a four-stroke and a long boat sometimes if the water's down low. and you can get to where you're going. Some of them boats, you can hear them coming from a long ways off. They got a little more power. But if you're going to go upstream, it takes a little more effort. The fact of the matter is you've got to be determined not to go with the flow. I don't know if y'all have ever tried to go straight across the river. I'm sure y'all all have. and all your float trips and swimming trips and all that, but at some point, sometimes when this river's down low, you may find an object across the river and you may walk 50 yards or 100 yards upstream and say, I'm going to jump in here and I'm going to hit that object, swim across. How many of y'all ever swam across the White River? Anybody ever swam across the White River? I know about all the way across. I think it was Brother Derek Collins one day, one of our pastor's conference, some of the youth challenged him when they was here if they could swim across. He said, I swam across the river today. I was like, what? Are you crazy? He said, it was hard, but I swam across. The thing is, he was down there by the bridge so he could walk the field and come back up. Some places down there, you're going to have to swim back across. But the higher the river, the farther downstream. that you're going to be if you try to swim across. And sometimes, if you're paddling, even if you're paddling a canoe or paddling a kayak, to reach your determined destination, you've got to time it just right, you know, because sometimes that river will take you faster than you want to go. And you try to turn around. We've done it. Turn around and paddle upstream Get back up in a creek or something or get unsnagged, amen? If you're on the river and you get snagged, pap, you just might as well just let it pop, huh, and keep going. And you need that 40-horse tahatsu, amen, to go upriver against the stream. That's like a motor, that's a mercury. If I say, Pat's got a mercury wannabe on his, but his tahatsu's doing pretty good, amen? And he's a mercury man that's running a tahatsu for the last 10 years or so, and it's doing fine, so we praise God for that. But anyway, if you try to paddle upstream, that gets tough. You got to have some strength and some durability to paddle upstream. And so is that same principle if you apply it to our Christian life. How many of y'all just know that if you just let go that it's most of the time not good? It's okay for a little while, but you can't just let go. Like your spirituality, your walk with God, the place that you want to be, your objective place that you desire to be as a Christian, you cannot just let go and expect to obtain it. You cannot just quit paddling and expect to become the Christian or the person or the father or the mother or the good son or the good worker that you want to be. It takes strength and effort and you have to go against the tide. You have to go against the flow in order to obtain that. It's kind of like climbing uphill. Always remember when you go downhill, what comes down must go back up. When you kill a deer around Calica Rock, Brother Perry knows that. hunted in Kansas and all that. And I remember Brother Johnny, the boys when they were boys, I mean the men when they was boys, amen, years ago when we first came here, they killed some hogs down in the hauler and I was like, where's them hogs at? And he's like, well, we brought them up in pieces. They had to tie off and pull off. I don't know what they did. But some of these haulers around here, you've got to really work at getting back to where you were. Amen. I remember one of the first messages I ever preached after I was called to preach, and that was getting back to where you were, and that was what was laid on my heart. I remember down there in Searcy at the church there and just trying to encourage people to get back, just to go back to where you were. You don't have to excel the mountain and climb the highest hill and reach the greatest top, get back to where you were. If you ever were at a plateau, you ever were at a higher position, you ever were at a closer place with the Lord, then just try to get back there first. Amen. I mean, that would do us all good. I mean, we've all had some ups and downs in our walk with God, and I know I have. I speak for myself. I've been better. I wanna say I've been better, I don't know, but I wanna get better now. I want to get better as I get older, but I don't want to die at one place. I want to incline. I want to go higher, go farther in my walk with God, in my relationship with God, and I want to be a better preacher. I want to be a better Bible studier. I want to be a better Bible student. I won't be a better Bible teacher until I'm a better Bible student. Amen, you have to, before you can teach, you have to learn. Amen, amen. And so God help us all to have the humility to admit that we probably have been at different elevations of plateaus in our spiritual walk with God, and the fact of the matter is, is probably, probably we're not where we were but we can get to where we were, and that's what we need to focus on. But it takes an incline to go against the flow to get to where God wants you to be. Then tie off, amen, and hang on. Tie a knot in the rope, amen. Hang on for Christ's sake. Hang on for Jesus' sake. So here you have, in 2 Chronicles, here you have the king Jehoshaphat. What a name, Jehoshaphat. I wonder if his wife was Jehoshaphin or something, you know. Anyway, there was a thick and thin couple right here. And he was the king that no doubt had a progressive decline in his leadership. Now listen, we really don't need a decline in leadership. Church leadership, Christian leadership, fatherism, we need an incline, not a decline. And what's going to happen if you let go, if you lose grip, you're going to slip. The book of Hebrews talks about that. Don't lose grip or you'll slip. You'll fall. You'll decline. And you've got to have a tight grip on yourself, a tight grip on Christ. He's got a tight grip on you if you're saved. But you need a tight grip on your testimony, a tight grip on your flesh, a tight grip on lust, A tight grip on cravings and addictions and a tight grip on all the things that will lure us away. Amen. So no doubt we need to get a tighter grip, all right? But we need to make sure that we're not just giving up to the pressure. I mean, here's what's on my heart. I'm going to read this in a minute, but here's what's on my heart. What I've seen in my own personal life and the life of Christians all my life, I've just seen an exhaustion. I've seen a weary body, weary mind, a weary Christian. a weary teenager, and I've seen the effects of them just letting go and giving in to the flow. Y'all with me? It's easy just to let go and give in to the flow. and when you and I, whatever takes place that causes us to just quit holding on or quit paddling upstream or quit trying hard, quit being faithful, then we'll have that letting go and then there we go, right? and you just look and you're just getting more distant and farther away and farther away and farther away from the object of the plateau or place that you really desire to be in your heart. And it's very dangerous. Let me just say this. I don't mean this. I'm just trying to mind the Lord. Let me just say this concerning this subject, that if you're not hanging on If you're not holding on, then you're floating away. you're drifting away from the place. If you're not fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil, if you're not striving to be faithful to the Lord, mind, soul, and body, if you're not praying and reading and trying, then, my friend, you can drift away on a padded pew three times a week in the Lord's house giving your tithes and offerings and supporting missions but God help us not to drift away because of old age, not to drift away because of apathy, not to drift away because of formality, not to drift away because of a mundane attitude and a lack of worship and praise. Can I remind you tonight, the greatest thing you can ever do to help you not drift away and go with the flow Make sure tonight that you have it slacked in your praise the Lord and your worship in God. I'm not trying to get you to do a bunch of good works. I'm not trying to get you to do and be somebody you're not, but let me encourage you, if you've been saved by the good grace of a holy God, if God birthed you with his blood, purchased you with his blood, cleansed your sins, my friend, you have every right to stand on your two feet and lift your hands into the air and say, thank you, Jesus, for saving a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. I was on my way to hell, and God, I just want to tell you, thank you, thank you, thank you for saving me. Praise and worship. Amen. And we don't need a band, praise and worship band, to work up a spirit to get us to praise and worship. We just need to praise and worship God. Amen, amen. Hey, I'm for all that stuff. I have a good time in it and you know I do. Hey, but my friend, I think we ought to be authentic in our praise and worship and we ought to remember why we should praise and worship and what Jesus did for us and who he's been for us and what he's going to do with us and where he's taken us to ought to be enough, amen? Washing your sins away, saving your dirty hide from the devil's hell, hey, giving you a wife, giving you a church, giving you somebody to sit with, somebody to love on, I think that's enough. I said that's enough tonight to praise the holy name of God. But here we have Jehoshaphat, and as I started out, as a good king, and he has this progressive decline because of influence. All right, let's read this. This is 19 verses. All right, verse number 1 of chapter 17 of 2 Chronicles. Are you there? Jehoshaphat, his father's name was Asa, by the way, his son reigned in his stead. and strengthened himself against Israel." Israel, he's the king of Judah, then you have Israel. And he placed forces in all the fences, cities of Judah, and garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa, his father, had taken, and the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David and sought not unto Balaam. Let me just say this about this word first tonight. The Bible does say, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things shall be added unto you. Never take the first things for granted. Give the first to God. That's why we go to church on the first day of the week. There's so many good things that take place when we give to the Lord first. That's why your ties come off when you give to the Lord first. And so anyway, the Bible says first. You know what? In the book of Revelation, it says that Jesus is first and he's last. He's alpha, first, the beginning, and he's last. He's omega, the ending. Amen. So we have first. The best thing you and I can ever do is put Christ first. Put Him first and then put Him last. Put Him first and put Him last. Get up with Him on your mind and go to bed with Him before you go to sleep. Praise God. Amen. He's the first and the last. Praise Him first. Praise Him last. Worship him first, worship him last. Somebody help me now. There's some preaching. You boys ought to preach on that. One of you boys ought to preach on that. Verse number 4, "...but sought the Lord God of his father, and walked in the commandments, and not after the doings of Israel." Notice that he started out good. Therefore, the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat's presence, and he had riches and honor in abundance, and his heart was filled up in the ways of the Lord, or lifted up in the ways of the Lord. He was excited, and his own heart was lifted up. He was in awe of God. Moreover, he took away the high places and the groves out of Judah. Look at this. He started out good. But then there's a progressiveness that takes place. Let's skip down some verses. I like verse number 10. It says, "'And the fear of the Lord fell upon the kingdoms of the lands "'that were round about Judah, "'so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.'" Here you have the blessings of God that was evident upon the king Jehoshaphat and all the enemies of God's people here. They were in fear and there was that peace. They did not fight. He mentions it in the next verse. The Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presence. The enemies brought him presence. The tribute of silver and the Arabians brought him flocks and 7,700 rams and 7,700 he-goats. I mean, the enemies were coming in and bringing him gifts. It's because God was blessing him and he was a good king. Amen. Praise the Lord. The Bible says you find the providence of God was upon him, very plainly the providence of God was upon him. Do you remember in your early years of your life, maybe as a young child, that you felt maybe the first time that you felt that the very providence of God was upon you? And I hope that you feel that now. But I remember as an early child when I started making it mine, when I started understanding what I had and that I wondered, was God going to bless me? Is God going to be for me like he is my parents? Is God going to bless me like he has my Christian friends? And then all of a sudden, God does something just for me. And he said, yeah, uh-huh, I'm with you, I'm for you. Amen. How many of y'all know that God is for you? Amen. If God be for you, then who can be against you? You just need to get God for you and don't worry about who's against you because they're against God. If you're for God, if you're walking in the will of God, the work of God, the way of God, the enemies of God are your enemies too, but God will take care of them. Don't worry about them. Just worry about you. Just focus on you being in the right way. Amen. Y'all with me? You make sure you're where you're supposed to be and keep your eyes on Christ. God'll take care of the enemies. That's not your job. All right, so here you go. Here Jehoshaphat is progressing. He's being blessed by God, has the providence of God, and then the prosperity that is built up. And it says in verse 12, "...and Jehoshaphat waxed greatly exceeding, and he built in Judah castles and cities of store." I mean, he was just prospering. He was a successful king because of the providence of God on his life. Let me tell you, tonight, every good thing that you have, every blessed thing that you're enjoying today is not because of you, but it's because the God that gave it to you. Amen. I believe we ought to give him glory and give him credit tonight for the things that we have, the blessing that we are able to enjoy upon this earth. It's because of him and because of him only. Amen. Let's give Him glory for it. Thank God for prospering us like He has. God has been good to you. Amen. So God is all about prosperity. He doesn't care if you prosper as long as you give Him glory with it. You go down through here and Jehoshaphat, all of a sudden, chapter number 18, verse number 1, Jehoshaphat has riches and honor and abundance, and joined unfeelingly with Ahab. Wait a minute. Why did he join with Ahab? Well, I wrote down pride beside this verse 1 and verse 2 because it says, "...and after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep," here's the sheep and oxen in abundance, "...for the people which he had with him, and persuaded him to go with him to Ramoth Gilead." peer pressure of a higher king. You call him a friend or you call him a rich man, another rich king that had pride, and here Jehoshaphat has linked up. After certain years of prosperity, certain years of blessings, he turns around and starts going with the flow. He turns around and accepts the peer pressure of Ahab to affect him, to influence him, and he seems to leave the blessings of God because of pride, and he turns and gets caught up with this old wicked king Ahab. Amen. Bad things do happen to good people. It takes place, but don't blame it on God. Amen. Don't blame it on the Lord. So here you have this progressiveness that is actually not prosperity, but it's a digression that takes place because of pride. Beware of pride. It will kill the prosperity and the very providence of God in your life. Pride is not your friend. It is your enemy. Amen, all right, so here you have pride swelling up. All right, verse number 3, King Ahab has already persuaded Jehoshaphat to go with him, and then he puts out the bait. And Ahab, king of Israel, verse 3, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, wilt thou go with me to Ramoth-Gilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art. and my people as thy people, and we will be with thee in war." Let's go fight. Now, he linked up with someone. I don't have time to talk about the history Ahab, but he wasn't a God-fearing, Holy Ghost-filled king. Amen? You know that if you know anything about his kingdom. All right? So he has this problem. Jehoshaphat is entering into a problem that is beginning to be out of his hands. But Jehoshaphat knows that he needs to have God with him and God for them if they go into battle. So I'll briefly say, he tells Ahab, says, hey, listen, make sure that God's told you to go to battle and if God tells you to go to battle, we're all going. We're all with you. He said, my people will be as thy people. We will be with thee in war. And so King Ahab talks to all his prophets. I mean, he goes to Joe Osteen, amen? He goes to all the levy-devy preachers and all the padded preachers of the day, amen? I don't know the names of them all no more. I've just forgotten about them because I'm not focused on that. And so he goes to all of them and they say, Oh, yes, go on down. Bless you, bless your kingdom. God will give you the enemies in your hands. Go on down and God will prosper you. But they find one old Holy Ghost-filled man of God called Micaiah. And right there in verse number 7, it says, And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, by whom we may inquire of the Lord. But I hate him, for he never prophesied good unto me, but always evil. He's always telling me the truth about myself. He's always putting some kind of negative intent and making me stick to God, walk with God, and stay separated from the world and all this stuff, and he doesn't never seem to be for me. He calls Micaiah, and the king Jehoshaphat says, "'Let not the king say so.' And the king of Israel called for one of his officers, said, "'Fetch him quickly, the son of Imlah.' And the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat king of Judah, either of them on a throne, clothed in the robes, and they sat in the void place of the entering in of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before him. They told him to go, told him to go, told him to go. And here comes Micaiah down there in verse number 12 and verse number 13, and Micaiah said, even what my God saith, I'll speak." What happened was the messenger said, he said, all the prophets, all the other preachers are telling the king to go to war. Micaiah, when you go to the king, make sure you tell him to go to war too. He says, listen, I'm going to say what God says to say. And so long story short, amen, amen, the prophet of God, the Holy Ghost-filled man of God told the king at first, said to go and all that, and he said, wait a minute, you've always been negative, but then he told him not to go, but they went, all right? They went, and you find that there's a lure. Verse number 20, the Bible says, and there came out of spirit and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him, And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth. This is what the prophet is telling about all the other prophets. He said, I'll be a lying spirit unto all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail, go out and do even so. You'll find that he tells the king Ahab, all your prophets are lying to you. They have a lying spirit. I'm the only one, amen, that got the word from God. Well, he gets mad, throws him in jail, takes him over there and captivates him, and this is a lure, my friend, and there's a price to pay. Long story short, the king Ahab dies because because he's deceived and goes to war and does not hearken to the prophet of God. He dies because of deception. Verse number 33, the Bible says he disguised himself with Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat, again, let me just remind you, Jehoshaphat's just on for the ride. He's just riding with Ahab. He's just riding in the wagon, riding in the chariot, riding in the car, just going with the flow. You don't find him in any opposition and trying to bias him in any way, shape, or form. He's just going with the flow. Well, the Bible says a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. So Ahab dies. Ahab dies and Jehoshaphat goes back home. Death takes place. That's what happens if you go with the flow, death. I want you to look in James chapter number 1. Just hold your place there briefly. Just real quick, James chapter 1, Hebrews, James chapter 1, and I want you to look in verse number 13, James 1, 13. Now, notice again, there was a price to pay because of the pride, and now there's pieces. There's pieces. There's a dead king and a broken kingdom, and Jehoshaphat goes back home, returns to his house, and he's kind of in pieces. His buddy's dead. What he got caught up in, he realized that it was not of God. All right, now look what the Bible says concerning going with the flow. If you'd let me say this, use the saying to describe this verse. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. Quit blaming it on God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. And what's that word? Enticed. Did you see that word over there in chapter number 18 and verse number 20? The Bible says, I will entice him. God sent an enticing spirit to the prophets to lure them into war, a war and a battle that they should never have been fighting and a battle that Jehoshaphat should never had to be battling with. He shouldn't have no part for this battle. but they were enticed." Notice the word in James. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed. And then, when lust hath conceived, notice how it takes place. It's a slow act of conception. It's a slow process. This luring and enticing is a long, drawn-out, slow process. Amen. Slow process. These murderers and these whoremongers and adulterers, they didn't start out, they wasn't born that way. These vile, wicked people today, they were not born that way, but they lived a life of enticing influence enticing influence and a constant knock and a constant pressure and a constant flow that they was going against until one day they were exhausted mentally, exhausted maybe even spiritually and exhausted physically where they let go and just started going with the flow. They thought it was easier to go with the flow than to say no. Somebody help me now. How many of y'all know the preacher's right this evening? Y'all could raise your hands and say, listen, I know you're right, preacher, because why do I know? Because I have memories, because I have thoughts, because I have scars, because I have things I've done and I know in my life that when I let go, and when I stopped fighting, and when I stopped pushing, and when I stopped paddling, I thought it would be easier for me just to rest a little while. But I came back with scars like the prodigal son. Can I say to you tonight that it is not worth it to let go. It is not worth it to slow down. It is not worth it to fall in comfort. Comforting. It is not worth it to turn and go with the flow. It is well worth it to fight for God, to seek the face of God, to search for God, to put God first. And so we see this death takes place. Notice the death of Ahab and the death of this passage of Scripture. Sin bringeth forth, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Amen, LSD right there. That's what you got. Lust, sin, and death, all right? Yeah, the world, the flesh, and the devil, the enemies of the Christian. Amen. The world, the flesh, and the devil, and they're the enemies. They're the lures. They're the Ahabs. They're the tempters. Listen to me. The world is a tempter. The world is like Ahab. Ahab is like the devil. He's the tempter. He's the enticer. Listen, church, you've got to hold on. You've got to stay. I don't want you to do it out of works, but if you've got to hold on out of works, Hold on, honey. Hold on, honey. And pray that God would come and bail you and help you. Tell God, hey, it's okay to tell God you're being tempted. It's okay to tell God you're getting weak. It's okay to tell God that you're losing grip, that you're slacking, and ask God to put some Aaron and hers underneath you or somebody to help you stand the test of time. But whatever you do, don't go with the flow. Josephette was given into outside pressures, all the kings and all the treasures, outside pressures. Outside pressures are everywhere. Amen. I love church. How many of y'all love church tonight? I love it. You say, well, ain't a whole lot of people. Listen, if there's one or two in God, we're the majority. Amen. I thank God that we can come inside from the outside pressure. And there ought not be no inside pressure. Amen. No competition. No pressure in the inside to be lured away from the Lord. King Jehoshaphat started out with the providence of God, the blessings of God, prosperity that God gave him, then almost lost it. Came back and returned home in chapter 19 of 2 Chronicles in verse number 1. He came back home to his house in peace to Jerusalem. Watch this in verse number 2. And Jehu the son of Hananiah the seer went to meet him. This is God's servant. said to King Jehoshaphat, "'Shouldest thou help the ungodly "'and love them that hate the Lord, "'therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.'" He said, listen, you got caught up in somebody that hated the Lord. You got caught up in a non-Christian situation. Y'all listen to me. Be careful about getting caught up into a non-Christian situation. If it's going to pull you into a non-Christian situation, it's pressure that we do not need to be involved in. Amen. Somebody help me. I really think that we have a lot of inside peer pressure that we've allowed. We have opened the door to pressures not just without, but we have opened the door to pressures within. We have placed our, you know, the Bible says, I was going through memory verses for Sundays and I've seen that in Psalms where it says, I will set no wicked thing before mine eye. And God went, what about that? How many people do you know and maybe even yourself at times that you've seen a wicked thing before your eye? You know what David said? I don't want that. I'm not going to trade my walk with God. I'm not going to trade the Spirit of God. I do not want to trade the praises of God and the ability to really worship God authentically in spirit and in truth just for a wicked thing that I would set before mine eyes that would grieve the Holy Spirit of God. I said, I think we are facing pressures within that we have been vulnerable and accepted that it would be a whole lot better off if we would just sustain from it 100%. Yeah, but I know it's foreign language. I know it's preaching. My friend, but I'm telling you here tonight, we'll never be able to go against the tide and progress in our Christian walk with God until you can get over what is pulling you down. until you can get over and get victory over what is keeping you in sin, until you can let go of that and take a closer walk with God. Isn't it right, church, that we must first— repentance and revival must first begin at the house of God? We cannot blame the world for their sin, the world for their wickedness, the world for their ungodliness, if the church is sitting around and watching it take place and are involved in it in our own selves. Could God Almighty, somebody out here, help me tonight? What happened to the saint of God that would walk holy life and separate it from the world, not because of who we want to be or some name tag on the side, but because we are in love with God. We're in love with God. My love for God and my passion for God and my worship and the Spirit of God, the praise, the wonderful fellowship with God is more worth anything, more worth any kind of pleasure and sin and a wicked thing or a wicked word or a wicked deed or getting caught up in some sinful, unchristian task. Amen. Be careful about the pressures because, listen, I know there's pressures. Every age in this room are facing pressures. And because of Satan, we have an enemy. Ahab is like Satan. I mean, he's Jehoshaphat's enemy and Jehoshaphat don't realize it yet. I mean, he's fixing to jeopardize the whole kingdom. But Ahab died and Jehoshaphat went back home. Amen. The old man is dead. Come back to God. Amen. Hallelujah to the Lamb. Aren't you glad we have a merciful Savior? Look in this text of Scripture. The Bible says that King Jehoshaphat should have helped. He said, Why do you help the ungodly and those that hate the Lord? And verse 3 says, Nevertheless, there are good things found in thee. in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, hast prepared thy heart to seek God. Remember back when you were seeking God first? Guess what? God said, I haven't forgot that. Amen. I know your heart. Now listen, just because God knows your heart does not permit you to live in sin now. Amen. Amen, God help us. But he says, nevertheless, there are some good things I found in thee. Amen, I believe that with all God's people. And the Bible says, and Jehoshaphat dwelt in Jerusalem, and he went out again through the people from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim and brought back unto the Lord God of their fathers. He brought them back, sorry, unto the Lord God of their fathers. He went out and got them people and brought them back to God. That's what he did. Amen. Hallelujah to the Lamb. I'm glad God didn't allow him to die like King Ahab. I'm glad God didn't kill me when I was in sin. I'm glad God's wrath is being held sometimes in all of God's people and especially the church as a whole in America. I believe the wrath of God is being held back because of the seeking the first, the passion, what God has seen in us before. But I believe we need to be careful about that. Never underestimate the power of the flow, the power of the pressure. I just came to encourage you tonight with this thought. Don't let go. Don't stop seeking God first. Amen? Don't give in to the pressure. You know, the Bible says in James chapter 4 in verse number 7, 8 and 9, right there in verse number 7, it says that we should resist the devil. It says, "'Draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.'" This is, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Warns us in 1 Peter 5, verse number 8, for the devil, for Satan is as a roaring lion, seeking about whom he may devour. Never underestimate him. He may seem quiet now. He may not be on your hide now, but don't think he ain't been watching you and not trying to get you to trip up or get you to fall in some kind of sin. Let me encourage you not to give in. don't relax, amen, don't let go, and don't turn and go with the flow, because Satan, he's got a bait, amen, he's got a lure, and every one of his lures has a big barb in it that's awful hard to get off. The Bible says to resist him, that's the action against the flow, resisting the devil. I love the scripture because the Bible says, I believe this, And I believe you do too because you probably practice it like I have. Resisting the devil and he will flee from you. That means he's turning around and he's got to walk away when you resist him. Amen. Resisting is the first action of success to victory. The path to success, to have victory, is resistance. Resistance first. Seek Him. Look at God first. Seek Him first. Remember God's blessings upon you first. It was God who brought you where you are. It was God that brought you and blessed you and prospered you and made you successful. He's given you breath. He's given you life. He's given you children. He's given you a job. He's given you a good wife and maybe a good mother-in-law. God has been really, really good to you. Somebody help me tonight. I'm telling you, it's because of Christ and Christ alone. Amen. I was thinking about all that could've, that Jehoshaphat could've lost if he'd just kept, let go. But he went back. He went back. Went back home like the prodigal son, went back home. Amen. The blessings of God. God remembered his first hearts, his first deeds, who he was before he let go and just went with the flow. God blessed him. I believe he had to go through some things, no doubt, in his kingdom and all that. God blessed him because of his grip he had. You know, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 25, husbands, 28, I think right there, husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. There's three things he says, you know why Christ loved the church? You know why Christ loves you? He said, husbands love your wife, that's Christ loved the church. Why did he give himself for the church? The first thing he says, to sanctify it. Christ gave himself so that we could be sanctified. Amen. Then he says that we should be cleansed. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereunto according to my word." Cleanse. Then he says the third thing, he wants to present the church, present it, a glorious church. Amen. Sanctify, cleanse, and present. sanctify, cleanse, and present. Did you know that that's what the priests and the kings had to do? They were outspoken in front of the crowd, but before that, a holy, godly king had to be sanctified. Why are there seers? Why are there priests? Because they were in direct connection to holy men, the priests and prophets. The kings were in great connection. Did you know when you got saved, the Bible said that you're no longer an outcast? You're no longer strangers. You're no longer foreigners, but fellow citizens of the house of the faith. The Bible even goes on to say that you are kings and priests. Can I say to you, hey, thank God for the sanctification power of the blood of Jesus Christ that helps me to be presented unto God. As kings and priests, don't never underestimate your salvation and who you are in Christ. Well, I'm just a nobody. I'm just a flunky. No, you're a child of the King. You're adjoined there with Christ. You're a child of God. You are kings and priests. That is pearls in the crown of a holy God. And He is proud to call you His children. Why should we decline? Why should we fall, decrease? Why should I let go? Why should I go in and give up and go with the flow? I'm a king's son. I'm a king's child. Amen. Amen. You may have been told all your life you're a nobody. You're never gonna go nowhere in life. You can't do nothing right. Amen. Mommy's not proud of you. Daddy's not proud of you. They're trying to make somebody perfect out of you, and you're fed up with it. Let me tell you, there's a God in heaven that's looking down in love, and he ain't said one wrong thing to you. He's lifting you up. He's loving you. He's cradling you, and he'll carry you. You've got a perfect heavenly Father. Hallelujah to the Lamb. Amen. He said he's gonna sanctify us and cleanse us. How have y'all ever been cleansed? Y'all know you're taking a bath in Christ. I love it. I love to spend time in prayer with God and you go down dirty and you get up clean. Tell God the same things you told him last time. Oh, they're sometimes the same old stuff, but he doesn't reject me. He doesn't beat on me. He doesn't batter me, but he takes my sin. He takes my sorrow. He takes my pain. He takes me just as I am and says, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Go down dirty and get up clean. That confession, cleansing through the blood. Anybody with me, church? Amen. God cleansed you. God reached down with his scrub brush, with his own hand and scrubbed your back, washed your dirty old feet, Yeah, man, God's been good to you to clean you and sanctify you, work on you. He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. He's still helping me on life's way, and He's not going to leave me the way He found me. He scrubs on. Sometimes that scrubbing hurts, don't it? Amen. Mama, she'd always check behind our ears. And I remember little Louie, she's a clean freak. She loves everything clean. I'm thankful for that. She loves you clean. I mean, if you was her boy, she'd scrub your neck and she scrubs hard. We'd say, Mom, I'm going to bleed. You're going to make us bleed. We'd say anything to get out of that, but it didn't work. You know why? She's seen the dirt that I didn't see. God sees the dirt you don't see. God knows the hidden things of the heart, and he's so good to us, he don't leave us, but he keeps scrubbing on us. Hey, God put a scrub brush on you, don't reject that. Don't reject that. Then he said he's gonna present it. Amen. A glorious church. Glorious church. These kings, their crown, their robe, their scepter that they had, all the attire of the king and the riches that was around their king, the king's throne, was to represent a presentation of the wealth and who they were. Amen. Present. One day the Bible says that God, Jesus Christ, will present his church, the ones that he came and bled and died for, the ones that accepted him their Savior. Y'all with me? Y'all ain't going to sleep, are you? Everybody awake? God's going to take you. I'm talking about you. He's going to take you by the hand and He's going to walk across the heaven's threshold. He's going to stand beside you, bring you up before God, present you to God and say, this is my son. This is my daughter. This is my child. This is my church. Amen. Verse 32 and 33 of Ephesians 5, it says that Christ said that husbands love their wife as Christ loved the church. He said, I say this concerning Christ and the church. Christ and the church. God loves the church. God loved Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat learned a lesson. Don't go with the flow. Oh, no, don't go with the flow. Let's stand our feet this evening. I'm done. I encourage you not to go with the flow. It's easy just to let go and go with the flow. Miss Billie, you want to play something. I sure appreciate y'all. Play something on the piano. It's easy just to let go.