Wise Faith

Pastor Corey delivers his weekly message titled "Wise Faith"

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

So take your Bibles and stand with me. James chapter 3, beginning in verse 13. James 3, 13. We're going to read the same passage we read last week, but we're going to look at, we're going to focus in on something totally different. All right. James 3, beginning in verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility. Some versions say in meekness, by deeds done in meekness that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. And that word pure means holy. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. Now just just so you can see it. Last week we preached out of this passage a message about what people who are divisive look like, what they do. And now we see here at the end of this passage that peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. And we're going to look at today what um peacemakers are all about and why what people who have wise faith live like. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, and thank you that we can see today in your word how we're to live, and how those of us who are wise in your word should live. And I prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Now, because these two messages go together, I want to do a quick review of last week. And here's what we said last week. We gave you five things. We said, people who are dividers, number one, harbor envy and bitterness within their hearts. And we took it right out of scripture, out of verse 14. And then we said that they are motivated by selfish ambition. And then we talked about number three. We said that they see things primarily from an earthly perspective. They don't have the wide lens. They don't see it the way God sees it. And so it's all about what's going to happen here on earth and, you know, whether somebody, if somebody wronged me, you know, what do I have to do to get back at them? And they just see it from a worldly and earthly perspective. Then we said number four, dividers are unspiritual, and the behavior is motivated from a demonic source. And in number five, we said ultimately dividers create chaos, drama, disunity, which paves the way for all kinds of evil. When I preached this last week, this point five here, little did I know the can of worms that was being opened up by this one point. And that's the beauty of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will take things, you know. I like it when I don't know things, to be real honest with you, because it gives me the freedom to preach. And the whole time you're thinking, who told him? And what you don't realize is nobody told me anything. What you don't realize is that the Holy Spirit is up in your grill. And he is speaking to you through the word of God. The preacher doesn't know what you went what you're going through and what happened and what your situation is all the time. Very seldom does he know. And as a result of that, it's the Holy Spirit that's dealing with you. And I knew when I put number five in there, based on the scripture here, based on the disunity and and all of that, that I knew that it was going to touch a nerve, but I didn't know that it would touch the nerve that it did. And I I had uh uh several phone calls, I had uh several people talk to me about it and say, man, you just don't know what that point did and how it dealt with me. And and and you know, the word drama kept coming into my mind, and I was like, that's right, you're a drama queen. But anyway, that's right, God's dealing with you. No, I'm just kidding. So anyway, but but the point is this isn't it amazing how God will take his word and use a flawed human being, a pastor, uh, you know, just a human, and he will take his word and he will apply it to our life, and the rubber meets the road right where we live, and it really deals with us sometimes. Aren't you grateful for that? That's the mystery of the gospel. That's the beauty of it. And and so, you know, I I wanted to focus in on this in my introduction to say this that if God's ever dealing with you about something, very seldom does the pastor have you in mind when he's talking about that. As a matter of fact, he probably has no clue. And it's the Holy Spirit, it's God dealing with you and me through his word. And so keep that in mind. Sometimes God has to really deal with us and show us, hey, you're a divider in the way you're acting right now. You're creating chaos by your insecurity, you're creating drama, and as a result of that, it's creating disunity among God's people. And then it paves the way for all kinds of evil, for bitterness and hatred and slander and all of those things. So that's the wisdom of the world, the Bible talks about. So if you notice in verses 13 through 18, it talks about two kinds of wisdom. So I want us to look at the second kind of person. It's the wise person. So wise people, number one, I want you to see this, live the good life. They live the good life. You say, what are you talking about here? Well, look at verse 13. It says, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom. Earthly wisdom lives the chaotic life. Earthly wisdom and demonic wisdom lives the disjointed and the life that creates disunity. But wise people who begin to pattern their life after the word of God and after the truth that they hear. And let me say this by the way, if you constantly go to church and you constantly are under teaching, you're constantly in Bible study, you're constantly listening to preaching, you take notes and all of that, and that's great, and I hope you do, because I know for me, I go back to my notes and I'm able to get something out of it for myself down the road. And so if you do all of that and it doesn't change you, you're not applying the wisdom of God. You're not applying it. You're just a hearer only, but not a doer. And you're growing in Christ when you begin to do, and that's when you begin to live the good life. Listen, I'm just telling you this. And you can you can agree with me and disagree with me all you want, but it doesn't matter to me. I believe it's the truth. Listen, when you're living in chaos and in drama, you might think it's the good life, but it's not the good life. You are deceived. And when you're living in the wisdom of God and you're not living in all that chaotic drama and disjointed disunity and all that offense that you're living in, that somebody's always doing you wrong, and you always gotta get somebody right, and you're always in the middle of chaos. That's not the good life, my friend. That's the chaotic life which is inspired by demons, and it's not wise.

unknown 8:47

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

A wise person learns how to walk in humility and meekness. You know, the word meekness is not weakness, it's power under control. We talked about it today in Sunday school. It's like it's like taming a wild horse. You know, you think about a horse. I mean, we we give uh we categorize all engines by horsepower, right? Because they're very powerful animals. But a horse that's untamed is useless and can be destructive and dangerous and can hurt people. And and and and but but when you tame a horse and you you you you get that horse to to harness the power that it has, it can be used for good. Plowing in in the early days and and um and and hauling things and people being able to ride on it. I mean, the mail was delivered by Pony Express. And so the word meekness is harnessing that power. It's power under control. You see, a person that's not full of humility and full of meekness is a person that has power out of control, thereby living in division, thereby living in chaos, thereby living in drama. But the person who's wise, as the Bible says in verse 13, understands. It says, Who is wise and understanding among you? Here's what your life should look like. Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility, which comes from wisdom. Now I know that our home is in heaven, and I know ultimately we'll get our ultimate rest when we leave this life. There will always be a struggle. Look, the longer you live, I'm not trying to be a downer here, but the longer you live, the more this life will be filled with challenges, sorrow, pain, and disappointment. It's part of living. Right? It's part of it. We live in a fallen world. We live in a decaying body. We do. But the Bible teaches that we, even though we're living in this decaying body, can be changed day by day within us. We can see it the way God sees it and not the way humanity sees it or not the way the world sees it. And we can live the good life in spite of all of the things that are happening to us. Because you see, for the Christian, we can control what happens in us and how we respond. And I'll just be honest, I preached a message years ago titled, Why is my life the way it is? And the premise of the message was this our life sometimes is the way it is, because of our own sin. In other words, some of the things we're going through and the difficulty we're having, we caused it. We have sowed into our lives ungodliness, and as a result, that's what we're reaping. That's what's coming up. I mean, I just saw right in that field, right over here to my left, as you leave the church here on the right. And you notice, you know, I've learned this over the years just by observation that they don't plant watermelons in the same field every year. I think last year they planted right here, or two years ago they planted right here. And Eric could tell me better than that. Some of you can tell me better than that. I think it needs two or three years to recover or what have you. But they just planted, I don't know if they planted yet, but I know they put the plastic down and everything, and they're getting ready to plant if they haven't done it already. But they're planting watermelon right there. And guess what's gonna happen when they plant that seed in the ground? Some little green stuff's gonna start coming up out of the ground at some point. You know that? And then it's gonna start going across the across the ground a little bit. And I don't know all the concepts behind growing watermelon, but I know I've I've had I've had cantaloupes and and cucumbers and all that, and man, those things just get after, and they grow all over the place. And those things will start growing. And all of a sudden, I'm the pastor and I live next door, and I'm like, I want to go steal some melons, some watermelons. I talked to the Hodges, I think they're the ones who were forming that right there. I talked to them last year, and I was saying, Man, the watermelon field look good. And I think it was uh it was one of one of the brothers said, Well, man, go get you whatever you want. I said, I can't do that, that's stealing. And and um, and he goes, Look, go get you what you want. And I'm thinking, yeah, I'm gonna be the guy that's gonna be in the field and I'm gonna get arrested. And be coming out, y'all be coming to church on a Wednesday and I'll be coming like that because I got five or six watermelons in the back of my truck. Anyway, the point that I'm making, the point that I'm making is that in this life there are all kinds of crazy things that happen to us, and we create our own problems. We want to blame the devil, but when we plant something, it's coming up. And you plant watermelon seed, watermelon's coming up. So I preach that sermon. The second thing about that sermon that I preached was I said, some of the bad things that are going on in your life, it's not because of sin. You're actually living a clean life and a righteous life. It's called Romans 8.28, for God works together for good. All things, for those who love God and those who call according to his purpose. And then the very next verse says, so that we could be conformed to the image of Christ. God allows hardship to come in our life, to sand us down, to perfect us, to try us, to forge us in the fire and to make us what he wants us to be. So sometimes bad things are happening in our life. Not that God's a creator of evil or bad, but he allows it to happen to develop us. So some of it is our own sin, some of it is the fact that we're being obedient to God. But even in that, you realize that if you're in obedience to God, you're living the good life. Look, everybody, I don't fear a whole lot. My dad likes to say this. My dad always says, My mom's name is Vita. So he says, he goes, Look, I'm afraid of four or five things. He goes, uh, Bigfoot, snakes, um, God, and Vida. Not necessarily in that order, he says. And I say, Dad, I'm afraid of two things. God and snakes. Okay? So I'm I'm I'm growing in my faith. I'm farther along than you. And first of all, Dad, Bigfoots don't exist, okay? I I I had a conversation with my cousin the other day. Oh, Corey, they do. They do. I said, go kill one. I said, you think that anyway, all right. I tell you what I'm afraid of, guys. I'm afraid of one thing. For the majority, one thing. I'm afraid of getting out of the will of God. And if it means that it's God's will for my life to suffer and to go through some things, I'm not asking God why, I'm asking God what? What do you want to do with me as a result of this? How can you get the glory as a result of this pain? What can I do to glorify you and cause people to see you in me in light of this? That's the good life. So wise people live the good life. Number two. Wise people are humble people. I dealt with that for just a moment here uh uh earlier, but for just a moment, let me just say this. It says, let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in humility, in verse 13. It comes from wisdom. Humble. Humility. Meekness. You know, meekness is not just power under control, but it's when you have a chance maybe to smash somebody, you don't. When you have a chance to put one over on somebody, you don't. Wise people are humble because they realize that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Wise people are humble because they realize that they didn't create themselves. He created them. Wise people are humble because no matter how proficient they are in this life, no matter what they accomplish in this life, no matter how good of an expert they are in some field in their life, it's only for a short time. And there's one thing that they can't overcome, and that's the degradation of the body, and that's the fact that the Bible says there's an appointment we must all keep. For it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment. Every one of us, we're gonna die. Unless the rapture happens, and somebody's gonna be alive when that happens. The Bible says that you know that those who are alive and remain will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. But there's an appointment for all of us, and if that doesn't humble you, the fact that one day, one day, you're not gonna be in control, so you think of your life, that ought to humble you. And he says, wise people live like that. Number three, wise people are by spiritual nature or by nature peaceful. They are by nature peaceful. In verse 17, he says, But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, good fruit, impartial, and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. They are by nature spiritual, it's their spiritual nature to be peaceful. When you receive Christ, your desire from there on is to introduce other people to the peace that you have within you. What does the Bible say in Philippians chapter 4, verse 6? It says, um, be anxious for nothing, but in all things, by supplication and prayer, let your request be made known to God. For the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart in Christ Jesus our Lord. When you get saved, there is a peace that comes within you. You see, Christianity is not an outside-in religion, it's an inside-out relationship with Christ. He changes you from the inside, and on the outside you reflect that change that has taken place on the inside. And what happens is you become peaceful. The Bible says in Romans, live at peace with all men as much as it depends on you. Now, we're not talking about peace at all costs. If somebody breaks into my house in the middle of the night, we're not gonna have a conversation on what their intentions are. We're gonna speak loud with lead in our house. Now you can be a liberal and not believe in guns and protecting yourself, and you say, Well, God's gonna protect me. Well, God gave you a brain to protect yourself, too. He gave us technology on how to do that. And so if somebody breaks into my house, I'm not three. Thinking, well, I want to have a discussion of peace with this individual because he's probably gonna cut your throat, stab you, kill you for whatever little money you got because you ain't got none. That's how stupid he is. Most of us, we wouldn't, we wouldn't have a discussion, right? We would defend ourselves. So that's not what we're talking about here. But we're talking about by nature. We as Christians, we want peace. Going on mission trips to India, to um Africa, you know, all these places, but particularly in the east, where you have, you know, Hinduism, you have Islam. I'll never forget an experience that I had in Kenya in a town called Voy. And we were there trying to establish two churches. Y'all remember that, ladies? Those of you who came, and we were witnessing and sharing the gospel with a church launch on that coming Sunday. I had a translator, and I remember walking into this little courtyard, and this guy was hewning out stone, making something, and and you know, you could tell, man, this is what he'd done all of his life. And so, you know, I want to be very sensitive to that. And I asked if we could speak to him, and he said, most certainly, and I said, if I'm if I'm stopping you from earning earning a living or whatever, he goes, No, no, no. He goes, we have time. And then he said something, and my translator said said back to me, he's Muslim. And I said, Okay. I said, uh, I don't want to stand in in his yard and offend him. So uh can you tell him I'm a Christian and I want to talk to him about Christ, but only if he would allow me to. And the conversation went and came back and said, not only does he want you to speak to him, he wants to invite you to come into his home with his wife and family, and he wants to serve you chai and some kind of little dessert or something, and he wants to have you in his home. And man, I got nervous about that. I said, Does he understand that I'm not Muslim, I'm a Christian, and I don't want to offend him? And he goes, No, he wants to respect what you have to say, and because you're a guest in his home, he will sit and listen to you because that's what his custom is. And we sat there and he asked me, Why are you here? And so I'm okay. So I laid the gospel out and I shared it with him. And he had a few questions, and he was he he was thankful, and and and I thanked him for his hospitality. And the point that I'm making here is that you know the world tells us that you know people from these two belief systems have to kill each other. But I can't speak for him, but I can speak for myself. All I wanted was to speak, have the opportunity to speak truth to him in peace. And that's the nature of Christianity. Are you spiritual? Are you peaceful by nature? And you should be. And my dad wasn't the kind that liked to scream. My mom, you could hear her a long way. Love you, mama. But dad, every now and then, dad would say, Enough! And we'd be like, What? And he goes, peace. I'd do that, peace. Sit down, boy. I want peace and quiet for five minutes. Peace. And then he said, be still. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Silence! Long before Jeff Dunham ever said, Silence, I kill you. Dad looked at him and said, Silence! Your mama will kill you. Peace. We all want peace, don't we? But wise people seek it. One last thing I want you to see here in the passage, it says, that wise people reap a righteous life. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. Remember, we started a message with what you sow? Well, the same thing goes for good stuff. When you plant and sow peace and godliness and biblical wisdom, as your life goes on, that's gonna come up. And look, you know what's amazing? When you don't run your mouth about anybody, you can go to bed at night with a pretty clean account. That gives you peace. And I'll tell you what it does. It creates a sense of not self-righteousness, but the blessings of righteous living. It allows you to have peace in your heart and life. I need to talk to you. You said something about me. Well, what did I say? Because I don't recall saying anything. Tell me, talk to me, tell me. And and they tell you, and you're like, nah, I can tell you I didn't say that. Because I don't say those things. And then there are times when somebody says, I need to talk to you, and you go, because you know you're caught. I learned this lesson very, very difficult. It was a very difficult lesson that I had to learn, and I will never forget it. That's how much it burned me, that's how much it hurt me. I was in Romania in 1999. For 1998, we went to Romania and I preached at a youth camp. A youth camp in the Transylvania Mountains. Hundreds of youth. We slept there. We had worship there, all intense, the whole thing. And it was for Hope Baptist Church in Brasol, Romania. Man, God's spirit moved in a mighty way. It was amazing. It was just unbelievable. I wasn't planning to go back in 1999, and so by three weeks before their camp came up, I got a call from the missionary there and said, Look, we have tried to have somebody else come and it's not working out. Would you consider coming back to preach this week for us? And I'm like, Yeah, let me give me give me a few hours to see what I can work out. And so decided to go. Brought my brother and some other people. We ended up going. I made a fatal mistake, spiritually fatal mistake. I thought that I could just live on the wind of 1998's experience. So I didn't prepare my heart for that week. I just, ah man, it was awesome. Yeah, I know what to expect. You know, so I didn't I didn't get on my knees, I didn't pray, I didn't fast, I didn't, you know, I didn't, I prayed about it in general, but but I just thought, yeah, man, when we saw God move last year, he's gonna do it again. And when I got there, looking back on it, it was anything but that, man. It was the spiritual battle of my life, and I was unprepared for it. We get there, and there are other Americans from other parts in the country from different denominations that had come to help out during the camp. So I'm scheduled to speak that night before camp to 700 people at Hope Baptist Church on a Sunday night. And so I preached that night, and we have an interpreter, and some people got saved. It was awesome. When I finished preaching, came down off the stage, service was over, I had a lady from one of those other churches approach me. Now she came from a different denomination. I'm not gonna say the denominational name, but let's just say that the pastors, when they speak, they don't get emotional, they don't get hot, they don't get fired up. It's just my tone. She probably had never been exposed to what I was bringing to it. And to be honest with you, the pastor of that church was an American, David Butts, who she had never heard preach. And if she thought that I was loud and crazy, oh my gosh. So she approached me and she goes, I need to speak with you. I had never spoken to this lady before. She goes, You're an angry man. I said, Excuse me? I sense you're full of rage and anger. And I said, What where are you coming from on that? Well, I could tell in the tone of your preaching. And I just said, ma'am, I think you you've misunderstood my passion for my anger. However, I'll take what you're saying. And um, yeah, I got a lot of growing to do. And maybe God's using you to point it out in my life to deal with some anger. But boy, listen, it made me mad. So maybe she was right, right? It made me mad. But it hurt me too, and I was just like, I couldn't get it out of my system. And so my thought was, who does she think she is? Well, I just, I couldn't get it out of my system, man. So that night we left and we went to went to the camp. Now you have this big tent where everybody gets served and everybody eats, and it's it's the mess hall and where we have our worship services. And next to that big tent were all the girls, it was the girls' side where they camped, and then the boys we camped a little bit away from that. So I couldn't get it off my mind. Miss Carolyn, you were there, weren't you there? You went in 99, right? That's right. That's right. So I was talking to Miss Carolyn and the pastor's wife. And I just like, in the kitchen, I was just, now the kitchen is a tent. And I was like, this is what happened to me last night. And I told them, and then I and they were like, oh my gosh, what is wrong with that lady? And I said, listen, instead of she thinks that I'm angry, wait till she hears the missionary that she came to help preach. Man, she's gonna think he's raging, that he's like off the charge, because that dude is a screamer and a holler and he's passionate, he gets red and all of it. I was saying all that. And when I finished saying that, I turned around and there she was standing right there. She was in her tent and she heard me, and she came out and she said, I heard what you said. Totally destroyed me. Embarrassed, destroyed, and I'll be honest with you, it affected everything I did that week. And it didn't take very long, but I apologized to her. She left. She she took off, she went in her tent. Well, I'm not allowed to go to the tent there, so I took a few moments to gather myself. I don't remember what you said, Miss Carolyn, but I think I think something to the effect of, I think Miss Carolyn looked at me and said, Well, now you know what you gotta do, huh? I was like, Yep, I sure do. So I got on my knees and I got right with God, and then somehow got her out of the tent and I had a conversation with her. The point that I'm making to you is this whether she was wrong for what she said to me and how she said it after that service is beside the point. It's what I let it do in me and in my response. Rather than talking to people about her, I should have taken that to the throne of God. And I should have kept my mouth shut. And as a result, Satan got a hold of the guy who was preaching that week, shook my confidence, took me out of my element, you know, and and he meant to do that that night that he had that lady attack me. So the whole time I was preaching throughout the week after that experience, and after I apologized to her and she forgave me, um, I was constantly thinking, what does she think of me? The point I'm making is that when you when when you're not living with biblical wisdom, you're kind of always looking over your shoulder. You're wondering when you're gonna get caught, when they're gonna find out. And you reap what you sow. God's always kind of dealt with me that way that when I do something wrong, it grows fast. Like within hours, I get caught. Like that. Right? Like that. I'm never gonna say never, but I I I don't think I can ever get hooked on opioids because um, you know, when I when I've had surgery and brain surgery and all of that, and they give you that stuff, the moment I take any of that stuff, I get nauseated. Just like that. I reap what I sow right away. But when it comes to this, when you live the good life, you live the righteous life, you live in accordance with to God's word, you're living in wisdom, and you practice these things. You live holy, you're pure, peace loving, you're considerate of other people, you're submissive, you're submissive to God, not your way, but God's way. You're full of mercy. Instead of judging other people harshly, you show them mercy lest you be in that situation and you need that same mercy. You're trying to produce good fruit, you're being impartial in how you call it and how you see it, and you're sincere. And then because of that, peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. So what happens is when you start living like that, righteousness begins to set in, and it becomes a way of life to you. And you know, because you've experienced it, if you don't live that way, what you're gonna reap. And you've also experienced the blessings of living wise, living righteous, not self-righteous, but living in the righteousness of Christ, doing the right thing according to Scripture. And when that happens, you begin to reap the benefits and the blessings of that. You don't have to worry about what somebody might find out about what you said about them because you didn't say anything about them. You don't have to worry about somebody looking on your electronic devices to see if they can find something unscrupulous because you didn't go there. And there is a peace that surpasses all understanding that guards your heart and allows you to live your life. It's the abundant life Jesus talked about living life more abundantly. People will tell me stuff, Pastor, I need to talk to you, but you cannot tell a soul. You can't tell anybody, and they tell me. And for the most part, now the the thing that I have the hardest time with, because it's a happy thing, is when a couple says, I'm pregnant, but don't tell anybody. I'm like, oh my gosh, why are you doing that to me, man? Why are you doing that to me? I'm gonna forget that you told me not to tell. And I'm when I see you, I'm gonna go, how's it going? Hey everybody. So no. Okay. But most of the time when people tell me stuff, I take it in, I pray with them, and then I let it go. And then they'll come to me, you know, six months later and say, remember when I told you, but nope, I don't. It's amazing how how God will just clean that off. And it's the same way with with juicy tidbits in people's lives. It's not my life to live. I want the best for you, but I don't have to answer for you. I have to answer for how I responded to you and how I treat you. And I want to go the wise route. I want to have faith that produces wisdom, that in turn produces righteousness so that you can live the life God wants you to live without all this baggage hanging on to you. It's a good life. And if you're not there, why don't you obey him? It starts with obedience. If you're a Christian and you don't experience that, I'm telling you, you can. The Bible just promised it. Peacemakers will live in the blessing of righteousness. There is a blessing that comes with that. I saw this. Uh I don't get the paper, and I don't pay for the online portion, so I follow the, I follow WCJB on Facebook a lot, and so I get get a lot of their stuff there. It was, I think it was yesterday or day before. It posted something about how in the county, Elatro County, um, there's not enough for younger people to do as far as nightlife is concerned. I wanted to respond, but I just know that I better not get in an argument on Facebook. It won't end well for me. Um I started to think. And the whole deal was about creating that. The government wants to create things for teenagers and for younger adults to do after midnight. And I'm thinking, they not did they not hear the wisdom of a mother that nothing good happens after a certain time? Used to be nothing good happens after midnight, but at my age now, nothing good happens after nine o'clock. Get yourself inside and bathe. And I thought about it. I said, no, you know what young adults need. Young adults need a Christian life. They need a Christian ethic, they need to stay themselves home at that time of night. I guarantee you, you won't get hit by a drunk driver at that time of night. You might at another time. But your chances go down if you're not on the road. I'm telling you, I get a call at one or two or three in the morning, and I gotta go to the hospital, and it's a Friday or Saturday night. This this joker right here is in prayer. I'm not afraid, but I know it's out there, and I'm like, Lord, keep the drunk away from me and keep them away from everybody else. Let me get to where I need to go safely. There's not a lot of good that happens at that time. No, what young people need is they need people in life to show them how to live. Get yourself at home and get to bed at a decent time and get up early and go to work and go make a difference in your life. Go live the good life. You don't need a nightlife. Oh, well, you're an old dude, you're 55. You know, I was that way after I got saved when I was 18, man, went home. Heck, I got married. And all I'll say is this get married and you do it God's way. It's a good life. It's the best way to live. Honoring Him. I can go on and on. Would you stand with me? Father, we thank you for the blessing of your word. We thank you for the blessing of righteous living. And that we have that promise. That not only in the next life, but in this life, you'll bless us as we seek to be peacemakers, as we seek to be wise Christians, living our lives in wisdom, living the good life. So I pray for the Christian here that maybe is struggling with that, or for the young person that is battling certain temptations. I pray for the man my age or older, or similar in age to me, who feels like that maybe, you know, he's made some bad decisions along the way, or bad things have happened to him, and wonders if his life is even worth living. Help him to see that the best is yet to come if he will commit himself to you fully and completely. I pray the same for that mama, that wife, that woman, that widow who wonders what's left for me. There's a good life to live, Father, and a righteous way of living that will bring honor and glory to you through that person's life, and they will have peace and blessing as a result of it. Blessing within that money can't buy. So thank you for the goodness that we have in Jesus. As we get ready to have our invitation, folks, the altar's open to you for you to pray. We need to seek God like we've never sought Him before. We need peace like we've never had peace before. Because we have found out that the world won't give us peace, our businesses won't give us that, the government surely doesn't have the answer, only Jesus. So, Father, help us to obey you. And I prayed in Jesus' name. As our team leads us, this is God's invitation to you and me.