If you want to turn the speaker on downstairs this morning, I won't be mentioned. I don't think anything would be bad for the kids to hear. I know sometimes we cover topics that it's just, you know, I try to be- use some wisdom in anything I say. I know sometimes some topics is better left unsaid for young kids, but I- this is a subject that I have Learned through the years and still am. And I was going to tell you, this will take at least three Sunday mornings to cover. I'm not going to preach it on Sunday night unless God changes my mind. I'll just preach it on Sunday mornings. But turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 2. It's something that I think we all struggle with in some way, but I'm going to go into some testiques here to start with. So please try to stay with me. I hope I don't bombard you as soon as we get started here, but I want to kind of set a stage. But 2 Timothy 2, verse 15, when you find it in the Able, please stand in honor and read in the word of God. Stretch our legs one more time for just a moment. I'll try to finish up a normal time this morning. 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. Still hear a couple pages turning, So like most people, it says, study to show thyself to prudent to God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now I realize this was a later Paul's writing to Timothy, who was a young preacher, and I understand that the proper interpretation of most of this is in that way, but let me assure you this applies to everyone. He said, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doeth a canker. of whom is Hiathimaeus and, I didn't know how to pronounce those, Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrown the faith of some. Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this sealed, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. There is still Bible teaching for separated living. We should not live like the world. We should not act like the world. We should not be part of the world. When people see you, they shouldn't look at you and say, you are no different than I am. Amen. Thank you for the few amens. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth. and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also useful lust, and follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid. knowing that they do gender strifes, and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. That one applies to me there. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God perventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. Father, we thank you again for your word, for its instructions, for everything we know about you and everything we know about us. God, truly, Lord, when we venture outside of your word to try to learn knowledge and wisdom, God, we are in error. And God, if we use something against your word to try to say, but this is what this teaches, this is what that teaches, God, we are in error. So God, I pray this morning, Lord, that you help me as I cover this subject. God, you give me wisdom, you give me words. Spirit, you speak through me. I can do nothing without you. God, this takes you. God, if anything is going to be saved this morning, you've got to say it, and I ask and pray that you speak to the hearts of each one that's here this morning. God, have your way, Lord, I pray. God, this is bigger than I am, this is bigger than us, God, this is you. Lord, we always want to lift you up, Jesus, in everything we do. In the Lord Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. Thank you, may we be seated. This is one of Paul's last letters before he was beheaded. Some say it was his last. And this is kind of his swan song, if you will. This is his second letter to Timothy. He was in prison for the second time. When he wrote this letter, the first imprisonment was in a house where he was kind of comfortable and he could receive visitors and he could kind of live his own life if he sent him, though he was under house arrest. Still wasn't too bad. This time he's in a deep, dark dungeon that's not very accommodating. And he's writing this from his heart. If you notice in this particular epistle that Paul writes, he mentions names more than any other. It's more personal. If you read it, you'll understand. I read somewhere he mentions like 20 some different people's names or something throughout this epistle. So it's a very personal letter. This is kind of his heart. He knows that his time is short and it's getting ready to end, so whatever he's got to say, he knows he's got to say it right here, because he's not going to say much else after this. So he's writing this letter to Timothy and he's giving him some instructions. Now, it's safe to say that Paul, in any struggles he might have had in his life, or anything he needed to say, he was gonna say it right here. And I'd say that if we all be honest, there's some things we struggle with in our lives. Now, some vary from others. We all share some of the same struggles. Some I struggle with, you don't. Some vice versa, but we all have some that we share. And Satan's always looking for a place to break into our lives and to destroy us. And always saying, if you will, seek, divide, and conquer. That's what he wants to do, is divide. This morning's cynical class, that came up. And when I first came here, for the first few months, I preached all the time, and I probably need to mention it more often than I do now, that what Satan wants to do is get one or two people in this church who's a little bit disgruntled with another member, disgruntled with me, disgruntled with the deacon, disgruntled with the, whatever it may be. The way somebody dresses or something, I don't know, whatever it is. But they get just a little bit upset and if they can find someone to listen, they will start causing division. I've seen it happen in so many churches, that we get little cliques, and little, they gather groups and stuff, and next thing you know, we got a bunch of squabbling, and what comes after that is a division. And then a conquering, because I've seen churches divide and split, and people get mad and leave, and get on the road. I've seen people say, well, I got mad at the church, I didn't go back, and then their kids' lives are in ruins, their lives in ruins, but bless God, they showed damn, didn't they? So some things in our lives that Satan looks to do this. Now there are some things that's beyond our control, church. There's something Satan does to us, and it doesn't have anything to do with what you did or did not do. So anything you brought on yourself, we can give some examples from the Bible, and I will in a little bit. And there's nothing we can do to change it, nothing we can do to prevent it. It's just called life. And sometimes I still think conversations took place, like it took place between God and Job, when God said, if you're concerned of my servant Job, hey, I'd like for God to brag on me every now and then, but when God brags on you, you understand what comes with it. But sometimes we do give him a place to operate. Sometimes God didn't brag on us. We just simply opened the door and said, Satan, here you go, take your best shot. Now, some of his tactics and things we need to realize, and some of his offers, the things he offers us are designed to destroy us. His tactics are always designed, his offers are always designed in the end to destroy, never to help. At first it looks like things are good, things are okay, And like, well, what's gonna happen, preacher? What could be wrong with what I'm doing? What I'm doing's not that bad. Other people's doing it. Come on, preacher, I mean, really? I mean, hey, let me assure you, sin will always have a consequence, and Satan will always look to destroy you. You think nothing's gonna happen, nothing bad's gonna come from it. Wait till the chickens come home to roost, so to speak, and you'll find out Satan has a plan for you. Now, stay with me as I go through this, can somebody get me a water, please? An estimated 88,000 people, approximately 62,000 men, 26,000 women, die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Some of you right now are grinning. Apparently, you've tasted some recently. You say, does that affect me? It will. According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 72,000 people in the US are predicted to have died from drug overdoses in 2017. Let me read that again. More than 72,000 people in the US alone are predicted to have died from drug overdoses in 2017. I've been pretty fortunate. I've got to go, as I said before, I've stepped foot on three continents, a few countries. Everywhere I've been, third world or just as blessed as we are, there's a drug and an alcohol problem in every country that I go to. Nearly 200 a day, nearly 200 people a day in the U.S. die from drug overdose. That's up from 2016, which is already a record year, roughly 64,000 people in the U.S. die from overdoses. I don't know how 18, I don't know if we got the statistics in yet, I didn't find them. An estimated 208 million people internationally consume illegal drugs. In the United States, results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that 19.9 million Americans, or 8% of the population, age 12 or older, used illegal drugs in the month prior to the survey. You think 8% isn't that much. How about 19.9 million? That's quite a bit now, isn't it? Drug use is on the rise in this country and 23.3 million Americans are addicted to alcohol and drugs. That's approximately one in every 10 Americans over the age of 12. Now it's coming home. So that means according to that number, with the amount of people we got sitting here right now, we've got at least three or four people that's addicted to something right now according to that statistic in this building. You see a preacher in the church, don't you kid yourself thinking a church member's addicted to something. Don't lie to yourself. Wake up. We got church members who's coming to church stoned out of their mind, or alcoholics. Don't kid yourself. Better believe it. And in a group this size, according to that statistic, when I just read that, let me read it again, that one in 10. That means we got three people, according to that statistic, sitting here right now that's struggling with drug addiction, or alcohol addiction. I'm just looking around the room. If I look at you and spirit burns through you, that's between you and God. That ain't me. Now, we're going somewhere, so just stay with me on all this. Here's another one. Drug use is on the rise in this country and 23.3 million Americans, I want to read that again, are addicted to alcohol and drugs. That's approximately one in every 10 Americans over the age of 12. Roughly the entire population of Texas. but only 11% of those with an addiction receive treatment. And it's not because treatment's not available. Let me go a little bit further. More than 24 million Americans are addicted to drugs and alcohol, according to the National Survey of Drugs. 41% of first marriages end in divorce. I'm not knocking people that's been through divorce. God knows you've been through enough. You don't need me to attack you. But this is adding to the problem, is my point. 60% of second marriages end in divorce. 73% of third marriages end in divorce. In America, there occurs one divorce approximately every 36 seconds. That's roughly 2,400 divorces per day. Can we please change the setting on that thermostat to the cooling down to 72 and the heating to 68? I'm sorry. I don't usually sweat like this. That's nearly 2,400 divorces per day. Nearly 2,400 divorces per day. Something is wrong. 16,800 divorces per week. 876 divorces every single year. The average length of a marriage that ends in divorce is about eight years long. People wait an average of three years after divorce to remarry if they remarry at all. The average age for couples going through their first divorce is 30 years old, give or take a few years. All right, last ones, and I'm getting into the message a little more. Over 20 million Americans over the age of 12 have an addiction. We've read that one. Now, in this particular statistic, I read over 100 people die every day from drug overdoses. That rate has tripled in the past 20 years. Over 5 million emergency room visits in 2011 were drug-related. And you wonder why the emergency room waited so long. And I'll move on. I got more, but I'll just quit there. Last one, over 90% of those with an addiction began drinking, smoking, or using illicit drugs before the age of 18. Most people start out having fun and being cool. They don't think it's going to turn into something like this. I've been privileged to preach in a few prisons, and I'll run into a boy by coincidence one day in a prison. I'm not going to say where. I'm just going to say it's in the state of West Virginia. Growing up, he was one of the cool guys. He got the girls. He got the car. He got it all. Man, he was the man. He won fights. I mean, he was just popular. Everybody wanted to be him. The women wanted him. The men wanted to be him. But 20 years later, I meet him at 25 in a prison. He's wearing a pair of state-issued sandals that's not very pretty looking. He's got a pair of state-issued clothes that's not very comfortable. And I got to talking to him. He said, growing up, he's a man from years ago. He said, all I wanted was the boat, some dope, and some women. He said, I had it made. He said, I had my truck, had my house. He said, I thought I was leaving it up. He said, look at me now. He said, it wouldn't happen to me. It wasn't going to happen to him either. The word addiction only appears one time in the Bible. But the word addiction means dependence on or commitment to a habit, practice, or a habit-forming substance to the extent that it's, and I see it, substance abuse causes trauma. Take, the word take, means to get into one's possession by force, skill, or artifice especially. to capture physically, seize, take in an enemy fortress, to seize with authority, confiscate, to kill, snare, or trap. Now, the title of this message is this. Satan takes, let me make sure I get it right, we give and God returns. Whether you want to realize it or not, we ask God all the time as Christians to take something from us. Let me read the definition to take again. to get into one's possession by force, skill, or artifice, especially to capture physically, seize, take by enemy fortress, to seize with authority, confiscate, to kill, snare, or trap. It doesn't sound like much of a loving God to me, does it, you? The problem is Satan is the one that takes. In order for God to help you, you've got to surrender and give it to him. He is not going to take it from you because that means force. Give you an example. You gotta, I don't wanna use your Bible, I'm afraid it will tear it up. Bring that book up here, they're replaceable. This is Jimmy's problem as a Christian. Jimmy likes that problem or he would let it go. Jimmy don't wanna let it go. Now I'm not gonna point out some things for you, I will if you want me to that you're probably guilty of like I am. But anyway, Jimmy wants to hold on to it. He's saying, God take this from me, God take this from me, God take this from me, God take this from me, God take this from me, God take this, y'all getting the point? He can't because he won't let it go. God's a gentleman. Thank you, you can sit down. And the difference is, Satan breaks into our lives and gives us things, and when he gives us something, what he's doing is, in essence, he is taking something else without you even realizing it. And he rips stuff from your clothes that you love and enjoy and want and desire, and as he's giving you something, he is taking something from you that you don't even realize he's taken that matters to you. Now how many of you has asked God to take something from them? Everybody, I'll be honest. Thank you. You realize you're asking him to do what Satan does to us every day of our lives? See, God doesn't take. God gives. As you surrender to God, he gives. Satan takes. Remember the definition of take. By force, skill, capture. Number one. Satan takes all he can as often as he can. He doesn't quit, nor does he show mercy. He has no compassion. There's people on earth, I'll be honest with you, I don't like their company, I don't want them around me, and I don't want to be around them. I don't want to see anybody die and go to hell. If we was all honest, all of us follow that category. There's some people that just simply, they just don't, I don't know man, they just don't, they're not your kind of person. I mean, I'll be honest, they just don't jive with you. You don't jive with them, they don't jive with you. You don't really want to hold a conversation with them. And yet, in this, we see that Satan, even though we might have compassion on somebody that falls into that category, I still, there's certain people that I don't want to see, ever see again, but there's still things I don't want to see happen to them. Even as evil as our hearts is, we don't want to see things happen to them. We don't want to see there are certain things. When things start going wrong with you, that's when Satan turns the heat up. When it gets to the point you're ready to break, that's when He really kicks you're in gear. And He says, now I've got them broken. Be it now, I'm going to destroy them. In Job chapter one, verse 10, it says, God speaking to Satan at their own conversation, he said, has thou not made an hedge, Satan speaking back to God, has thou not made a hedge about him and about his house and all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the lamb, but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face. The Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power, all upon himself, put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. And he lent and he was granted his wish, if you will. So he goes. Satan leads the presence of the Lord. And in case you don't remember the story, don't know it real quick, I'll tell you. He had thousands of camels, thousands of oxen and mules and all these farm animals. And in a matter of one blow, Satan took every one of them. He had kids, I think 12, is that right? Is that right? Nine? Nine, 10, 12 kids. 14, I don't know no more than that. But he killed every one of them in a matter of a second. The only people that escaped was one servant to come back and tell Job, Job, you lost all your crops. You lost all your animals. You lost all your children. You lost everything, Job. You have nothing left. And Job was looking, saying, what in the world's going on? In Job chapter two, said Job, do not curse God. We'll get to that in just a moment. It said, so he come back, and Job still honored God and respected him, and Satan come back and said to God, said, going to and from the earth, and he said, as thou consider thou servant Job, and Satan said, you bid a hedge around about him, and here's Satan's next entry. He said, so Satan went forth in the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his head foot and to his crown. and he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and sat down among the ashes, and said his wife unto him, Doest thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. I wonder where she got that thought from. See, the challenge was, let me have him, and he'll curse thee to thy face. So here's the woman who Job most depends on, the one that's by his side, the one he loves and cherishes the most. Her opinion matters above all. Her respect matters above all. And she's telling him some very bad advice here. And he looked at her, but Job said in two words, thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? We receive good at the hand of God, and shall not we receive evil? In all this did Job sin. Did all this did not Job sin with his lips? So I would say, by saying it this way, Satan took everything Job had. He took all his possessions and he took his health in a very short amount of time. And I'll be honest with you, that would be tough to handle. Now, when we compare this to our life, let me ask you a question. Have you lost some things in your life? Have some things happened and you don't know where it's coming from? I'm going to tell you where it's coming from. It's coming from Satan. And what he wants to do is get you to turn your back on God and blame God, blame me, blame one of the singers, blame anybody who can but him. because he takes, and he takes, and he takes, and he won't have mercy. 1 Peter 5 and 8 says, be sober, be vigilant, because you ever said the devil is a roaring lion and walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He'll resist that fast in the face. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in you, they're accomplished in the brethren. You're suffering the very same thing that everybody else is suffering. You got to realize that. What he wants you to do is separate you and divide you and then destroy you in any way he can. Realize something. Satan hates everybody equally the same. He hates with a hatred that you and I can't begin to grasp. He has a hatred for us that we can't understand, and he's bent on total destruction. Anything God loves, he hates. He hates us as much as God loves us. When's the last time, let me ask you a question. I'll get out in a minute. Has anybody ever asked you to describe the love of God? Could you? Deep detail where you understand it. The only description I've got for the love of God is say, he gave his son to die for me. I can't understand how God can love me like he does. And I'll be honest with you, I know what you're saying, Earl, and I know what you're getting at, and that was a good answer. But when it get down to the point where we can actually describe God's love when I constantly do Him wrong, when I constantly disobey Him, when I constantly fail Him, when I constantly do what I should not do and not do what I should do, how can I describe someone who keeps loving me in that way, the way He does? I can't. Now as wonderful as that sounds, that's how much Satan hates us. He hates us with a hatred that absolutely will not quit. And all He wants to do is take anything that God wants to give you, He wants to take it from you. Now, why did I read all that about addictions and things? We can see the evidence of Satan's work before us that is visible. But what about the parts that aren't as visible? Now, that little illustration. Let's be honest. Let's be Christians. Do we have unforgiveness in our hearts? Does it not belong there? You don't have to raise your hand because not everyone of us is guilty. Do you have sometimes, maybe you repeat things that shouldn't probably be repeated. Maybe you make judgments about people that probably shouldn't be made. Maybe we watch things, listen to things, do things, don't do things. that maybe we should, but sometimes there's some things that's basically an addiction to us. I have preached a few times, and my Aunt Janet has heard a message, what's what you say to yourself, and one of the things we do is we get addicted to saying things to ourselves when we don't even realize it, and Satan is feeding it to us all along. What about the parts in your heart that nobody sees? You see, all this destruction of drugs and alcohol and pornography and things, which that was not as visible either, but it's getting more visible. By the way, let me park there for just a minute. That is absolutely destroying lives left and right. There has been many lives destroyed. It is a growing epidemic in our country and it's everywhere you look and it's becoming more and more accepted and people don't want to preach against it because it's too taboo. I will preach against it. I will teach against it. Sometimes people smirk and laugh when you mention, I don't care if you can do what you want. But I'm going to tell you right now, if you're messing with that, your life is fixing to go down the tubes. It is the most addictive thing there is on earth. And by the way, women are getting as addicted to it as men. Didn't know that, did you? I did have some statistics on that, but I don't have them. Many a ministry has been destroyed because that many a marriage, I've got blocks on my phone and my computer that I can't even see stuff because I don't need the temptation. If men, if you'll be honest, you should too. Because neither can you. Don't ever think you're stronger than it is because Satan will take something like that and prove to you who's stronger. I've yet to find a sin I can handle. If you do, let me know. I wanna hear your secret. I gotta hurry. In Luke chapter 22 verse 31, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you that he may shift you as wheat. Peter didn't know that, if Jesus hadn't told him. He had no clue that Satan was wanting to shift him as wheat. In other words, he wanted to just basically destroy him. but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. He didn't say, Peter, when you fall or you fail, he said, thy faith. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee into both the prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt try to die that thou knowest me. Now here, we find a different example of Satan wanting to take. The first example, Job was never told why this happened. Peter was warned before it even happened and he still failed. So sometimes we can even get a warning and we'll still fall victim to the trap of Satan. He'll still take, and that's all he wants to do is take, take, take, take. And all the while, you need to be saying, God, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender. If you don't, he will not take it from you because that goes against God's character, it goes against who he is and what he is, but Satan will gladly, by force, take everything from you and destroy your life. John's Gospel 10 and 10, it says, A thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am cometh, they might have life, and they might have it more abundantly. I got way more to cover on this, but I'll try to get to it. I've read stories where people are stoled. Sometimes to help themselves, most of the time for filthy gain. Rarely ever does anyone steal just because they're trying to feed their family. The Bible covers that, by the way. And it says if we steal something from someone and whether we get caught or not, God saw it, he caught you, we are to give that back. So if we've taken something from someone like Satan takes from us, we are to make restitution and give back, not keep it and say, God, forgive me. It doesn't work that way. You see, again, that's take. That's take. You see, what he took is he took from Job. Then he took his wife's support. And I'm going to tell you guys something in here. Some of you are married. Some of you are not. Some of you will be one day. But you understand, ladies, and I've mentioned this before, listen up real close. If you want to destroy your husband, you quit respecting him. Right. And you'll destroy him. Congratulations. You'll be highly successful. He will not love you. He will not honor you. He will not cherish you. And you know what? I'm not going to say that. I don't much blame him, but I can't say that. Because the Bible does not let us off the hook. Men, if you don't love and respect your wife, you will also destroy her. Men and women, love means two different things. Job could handle losing all that stuff. But when he lost the respect of his wife, that was a dagger through the heart. That was a different level. You see, Satan didn't just want to take what he had, he was trying to take his integrity. That's what he was after. Because if he could broke him by integrity, he knew he had him broken. He was trying to take that from him. So Job had to surrender and say, God giveth, God taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And Job surrendered himself down to God in all this and he sinned not in the sense of cursing God. Peter was desired to be sifted as wheat, and there's a wheat stone, a wheat mill, if you will, it's a great big round rock, and they put it on the wheat floor, and they go around and roll that thing around like that, and it mashes that wheat, and it is absolutely, there's nothing left, but the wheat, the chaff blows away, what's left is the wheat. Sometimes we go through that. And Peter, Jesus told him, said, before the cock crows thrice, you'll deny me three times, Peter, which we know the story Peter did. And immediately, the Bible says, he went out and wept bitterly. Satan tried to take and God returned because we give it to him. And I got way more examples, I'm out of time. We give things to God and God returns, Satan takes. God won't take anything from you, you have to surrender it. Let me ask you a couple questions and I'll close, I think. If you're saved, You had to give your sins to God. You had to give yourself to God in a humble way as a little child. If you do not do that, if you've never surrendered your sins to God, you're probably not saved. Now, that doesn't mean that we don't, hey, look here, I still have struggled with loving sins too because I'm flesh. I don't wanna love them. That's why we won't surrender stuff to God. That's why we're asking him to take it because we don't want to let it go. We say we don't know how. The problem is we do know how. What happens is this. As Satan is taking from us, he's trying to give you something that you think, and I'd hate to use this as an example, but it just keeps popping up. He's trying to give you something that replacing what he thinks will help you as he's taking this away from you. You see, it's a switch, bait and switch. And all he does is take, take, take. You're saying, preacher, I'm having a lot of fun right now. Good luck with that, because you're going to need it. I had a lot of fun, too, at times. You know something? Every day of my life, I'm 46 years old, I pay a price for the fun that I had. Every day. Not a day goes by that I don't shed tears. over the things I'd done growing up, because I didn't think it would affect me. I didn't realize what Satan was taking from me. So now, he gives us things to try to get us addicted to little things in our lives that we don't even realize that they're there. David said, Lord, forgive me for the secret sins, things I don't even know why I'm doing, Lord. If there's something about everybody in here raised their hand, that you've asked God to take something from you, I'm gonna tell you how to get rid of it. You bring it to this altar and you say, God, no matter what you say, I surrender to you and I'll do what you say. Most of us don't wanna do what he says. So we pick it up and we take it back with us and we won't let it go. Now that's where we live, folks. Today, Satan is offering you a bait and switch. He's coming, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and destroy. I come, they might have life, they might have it more abundantly. Illustration, and I promise I'm done with this. I seen a house a few months ago up near Edgewood where a tree had fallen on it. The guy was trying to get the tree off of it and had to rebuild back what was destroyed. Whether you want to realize it or not, in our lives, when we sin and do wrong, it's like a tree falling on our house. We got to get that tree off, then we got to rebuild what is damaged and destroyed. God will get the tree off when you ask him to forgive you the sin and help you with it. It's up to you sometimes to rebuild it. And that means doing some very difficult things and making some decisions you don't want to make. How do you know, preacher? Because I've had to do that. And I thought it was going to destroy me. I thought it was going to kill me. But you know something? I would probably not even be in church today if I hadn't done it. Much less pastor. This, by the way, folks, this is after I announced my call to preach after I'd been saved. This wasn't before I got saved. Let's be real about it this morning. We're not all Apostle Peters here. Let's be honest. We all got something. Everybody in here raised their hand when I said, if you ask God to take something. So if it bothers you enough, you'll do something about it. If it doesn't, keep right on dealing with it, keep right on asking God to take it, and Satan will continue to take. You see, Satan takes, we give, and God returns. It's that simple. I got a lot more to say about this, but we got two more, at least two more points to cover, and I'm not even finished with the first one. I asked God, I struggled, I said, God, how do I preach this? Do I preach it over time or do I try to get it all in one nutshell? He said, I want you to do it over time and then give little drops as we go. So this morning, let's start out by getting it settled right now. God has told you to do something with whatever it is you raised your hand he wants to take from you. You gotta be willing to surrender and do whatever he says with it. You think there ain't some things in my life I don't need to surrender? You better believe it. As we stand, we get a song. Go ahead, brother.