Chapter 29, as you stand, it will dismiss all the children that are fourth grade on down to three, four years old. And they'll go out this door and have kids bible hour a little more on their level. There I got but the rest of us, let's turn to Proverbs chapter 29 and and we'll read verse eight eighteen. I thought last night we had Drew preach and I thought Drew did a wonderful, wonderful job for the Lord and for us. It was a great, great blessing.

But now let's look at the word of God for this evening. I wanna look at Proverbs chapter 29 and we'll read verse 18 as our text. Proverbs 29 and verse 18. Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Again, where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Our heavenly Father, we do ask you, dear God, to help us as we look into your word. We we ask you, Lord, to speak to our hearts. Lord, we ask your spirit to help me to communicate the word, and also, Lord, use it in each one of our hearts. And we ask you, God, that you would be so good to us. You are always good as was just sung, we know, but that you'd be so good to us, God, to speak to each one of us that not one of us would leave here without a spiritual need, an important spiritual need being met.

And we ask this in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you. And you can be seated. Many times you'll hear a guest missionary or an evangelist like myself turn to this passage and say, if you don't have a vision for trying to reach unsaved people in a foreign country, then you won't be concerned about mission work and people will knock at the gospel, they'll die and they'll perish and they'll spend an eternity in hell.

And that is true. If we don't have a vision for a mission work, people will die and spend an eternity in hell. But that's not the primary message of the verse that I believe it's teaching. It is more if you have a vision to live for God, you'll do it. If you don't have a vision to live for God, you won't live for God.

Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. And I think it's talking to us about a vision for why we should obey God. Be dedicated, not half in, be all in. And until we get the real vision for why we wanna be all in, we just won't be all in. And I think in sports, when I was a kid, when I was a teenager, when I played in college a little bit, nothing huge, but a little bit in a bible college, you had to keep the motivation up.

And the same thing is with a workhouse. You've got to keep the motivation up for the team to work together to make the business go where it needs to go. But there's no greater business in the business of God. It's the most important business in the world. But we have lost our vision sometimes, and we've got to get it back.

And that's why we have these meetings. We trust God to give us that vision back. In Belfont, Pennsylvania, I met a street fighter by the name of Dane, and he said that he'd been in 73 fights and only lost three because he was fought dirty against. A friend of mine asked him, would you like to get saved? He was with me, and he said, get saved.

That's a joke. I've dated too many Christian girls to wanna get saved. Now there was a Christian school in the area and a lot of girls there in that Christian school and he met them and he would ask them out and he found they were no different than the other girls that didn't even claim to be a Christian. And they were no different, so he said, I don't want anything to do with Christianity. It's a bunch of hypocrites.

Well, those girls didn't have the vision for the way they live really did affect other people. And it's very important that we understand that. I mean, you can't get to heaven drinking a can of beer, but it's gonna be hard for you to get somebody else listen to your testimony while you have a can of beer in your hand. And I would rather get rid of anything in my life that might make another person have a better chance of burning in hell instead of heaven. Don't you agree?

And so we've gotta think about these things and get over ourselves, get our vision back for why we wanna live for God. I went to a Bible college, Bob Jones University years ago. They had a basketball tournament and they had 300 young people, Christian young people. And they asked them, how many of you feel that God wants you to be in a mission field or pastor? And if you're interested in this, talk to the dean of the school of religion.

Out of 300 plus, only one young lady had an interest in religion and serving the Lord in that way. Now I know that God doesn't call 300 out of 300 young people in in their twenties. God doesn't call them all to be preachers. No. If everybody was a preacher, who would be a Sunday school teacher?

Who would be a deacon? Who would pray, and who would work in a local church. But I do know that God is certainly calling more than our responding. And I think what it shows is we have lost our motivation. But why would we give our whole lives to God after all?

Why would we waste our life on that? I actually had a guy one time say to me, my son wanted to be a preacher, but I told him you're too smart to waste behind a pulpit. And even adults have this attitude of living our lives fully for God is in some way a waste. After all, we could make money. And I'm not blaming us to want to have good things, but I am saying there's nothing more important in all the world than the work of the Lord.

Now, nobody is a second class Christian if they are not a preacher. But if somebody will not consider serving God even in a nursery, they are a second class Christian. Because every Christian needs to be a serving Christian. But we just lost our motivation. And if we get our motivation, we'll get back to serving him.

In my youth group back home, a deacon son used to work in a bus route. Soon as he got out of high school, he got to drinking and going to the clubs. And I said to him, Dale, you know better than this. What are you doing? And he said to me, Mike, the Bible says there's pleasure in sin for a season.

Right? I said, sure. He said, I'm gonna live my season. I'm young. I'm just gonna live my season.

I'll get right with God. Now how many of you got up today and said, wonder how wicked I could be today? I don't think anybody, you're in church. But I do know this, there are people in church that still drink beer, and there are people in church that still use cuss roots. Am I right?

There are people that love God but still have a little problem with, like, love and sin. And the issue is not that we don't love God. The issue is we don't have the real vision for why we wanna be all in with God because I think most of us know when something is not right. But we just have to get motivated. And so here in this passage, it gives us that where there is no vision, the people perish, but we've gotta get the vision and then we'll keep the law.

Now I'm not gonna be deep, but I hope I'll be helpful as I'm helped by these things. I hope they will help us all. So tonight I'm gonna give us three reasons we wanna live for God and be for real living for God, not half in. All in. How many think all in is better than half in?

Amen? Alright. So here's the first reason that I wanna remind us. Number one, we wanna live for God because of Jesus. I told you I wasn't gonna be deep, but number one, because of Jesus.

Now take your Bibles and if you will turn to Amos chapter eight eleven and I'll read to us another passage of scripture, Psalm ninety seven ten. So you find Amos eight eleven, and we'll read it in a minute. I'll quote us Psalm ninety seven ten. It says, ye that love the Lord hate evil. Ye that love the Lord hate evil.

Now there's a principle in this verse and the principle is the more you love God, the more you're going to hate evil. Now why is that? It's because love increases hate. I'll say that again. Love increases hate.

Now the more you love, the more you hate at the same time. And I'll explain. When I was first in dating my wife Becky, she was dating another man at the time. I didn't know him, but I hated him. Now the more I loved her, the less I loved the guy who kept her away from me.

I went up to her and I said, why are you dating that guy? You're a preacher's daughter and he's a reprobate. I found out later he was a missionary. Now, it didn't matter who he was. I just didn't like at that time because of my immaturity.

I didn't like my competition. Now the more I love my wife, the less I'm gonna love a criminal would try to harm her. I might not hate him, but my love for her would be so great that if I had to, I would hurt him if I had to to defend her. Now, the more you love, the more you hate what would hurt a person. More I love my children, the less I'm gonna love a drug pusher who's going to ruin their lives.

And the more I love God, the less I'm going to like the things in my life that will hurt God. And what hurts God more than anything is when Mike Pelletier sins and Mike Pelletier does sometimes. But when I get in my head, no, I love God. I don't wanna do this. It hurts God.

And the more I love God, the more I try to not do the things that hurt him. So somebody says, I love God over here but don't over here they say I love a can of beer. Somebody says over here, I love God. Over here, they say I love cigarette smoking. Over here, I love God.

Over here, I love to just let it fly. It's just the way I am. I'm angry and that's just tough. No. It's just sin.

And somebody says, I love God, but then over here, yeah, I'm living with somebody I'm not married to. Now it doesn't mean you don't love God at all, but it means if we love God, we're gonna at least try to get rid of the things that hurt him. And nothing hurts him more than when we say we love God and then we drink it up. When we say we love God and then we cuss it up. And all of these things are done in the eyes of God.

He sees the good and the bad. So don't forget he does see the good. Don't you think it's good that God sees our good? But don't forget he does see the bad. And when we say we love God and we love sin, there's a conflict there.

So we've got to fall in love with God and it'll take care of our sin problems. So let's look at Amos chapter eight in verse 11 real quick. Amos eight and verse 11. It says, behold the days come saith the Lord that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the word of the Lord. Now, when you think of a famine, you think of lack of food, lack of water, bellies are bloated from malnutrition, they're not nice things.

But the famine here is not a lack of bread or water, but it's of hearing the word of the Lord. There's preaching, there's the word, but it's not being heard. Now it's sometimes being heard, but not heard. If you know what I mean. There are two ways somebody can hear something.

Number one, they can hear it in their head or number two, they can hear it in their heart. On the bottom of the cigarette cordon, it will say warning surgeon general says smoking causes cancer. Now I'm not trying to beat anybody up, but Americans believe that, but they don't believe that. Now if it does help somebody quit tonight, if you understand it's set in love, and it would keep you alive with this earth a little bit longer, with your grandkids a little bit longer, help you to have a better testimony a little bit better, then praise God. But I'm not beating anybody up.

But the Bible is saying we've gotta hear things about God in our heart. Now the bottom of the cigarette carton, it says warning surgeon general smoking causes cancer. Everybody believes it, but watch, they don't believe it. They believed in their head but not in their heart. Why?

If they did, they wouldn't try to get cancer. They would try to stop at least. So I heartily will change our behavior. Now, we love Christ and the reason we love him is that he died for us. So we love him because he first loved us.

And so we think about how he loved us primarily on the cross and we could all talk about it, but I think we've heard about it so much that we're hearing it sometimes in our head and not in our heart and letting it affect us like it should. It changed our behavior. So what I wanna do is talk about Calvary for just a little bit, but I wanna do it in a different way. I want us to try to hear it in our heart, not in our head. Now take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 15 where we'll read about the crucifixion.

And in Mark 15, beginning at verse 15, we read about the crucifixion. Mark 15 verse 15, it says, and so Pilate willing to contend the people released Barabbas under them and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away to the hall called Praetorium and they called together the whole band. And they clothed him with purple and plaited a crown of thorns and put it about his head and began to salute him, hail king of the Jews. And they smote him on ahead with a reed and did spit upon him and bowing their knees worshiped him.

Now if I was to ask you what Christ went through for us, we would be able to tell each other. You could tell me. They nailed him to the cross. It was terrible. But let me remind you that Jesus went through a lot more than just the cross.

Now first of all, not trying to be sacrilegious, but imagine yourself being God. And you're in heaven, and you're surrounded by the beauty of heaven and then leave heaven and come to earth. Now how many of you when you get to heaven are going to wanna come back to earth? That was a sacrifice. If we'll think about it and if we'll hear it in our heart, it'll do something.

I think about somebody moving from where they've loved to live for so long so they could help a parent. That's love. I think about somebody moving from where they love and been for so long so they can help somebody in their family who's sick or a friend. Well, here is the love. He left heaven where we all wanna be and came here where sometimes we don't wanna be and that was a sacrifice.

Now then he took on the form of a man and when he became a human, can you imagine being God and then taking on the human body? That was sacrifice. A woman said to me one time as we were talking about what Christ went through, she said, boy, that was terrible. But you know what I said to her? It wasn't just one day on the cross.

It was thirty three years of him being on earth in a human body. If I took thirty three years to build you a house, I said, I'm gonna buy build you a house, and I'm gonna save my money, and I put a little bit down, and another year went by. I'm working on it, and another year went by, I'm working on it. And then finally after three three years, come to you and say I finally paid for it. Here it is.

Would you appreciate it if it took me three days? Would you appreciate it more if it took me thirty three years? And she began to feel how Jesus went through this for so long being a human being, and he still is a human being. He never will stop being holy, 100% God, and yet at the same time, holy, 100% man. That will never change now for eternity for us.

Now then he went about doing good. He fed the hungry, the sick, raised the dead. After all the good he did, people hated him. You ever been good to somebody? Then they hate you.

What can you do? Well, that's what we did to Jesus, and we crucified him. But before we crucified him, it wasn't an easy road. First thing that we did, you did, I did, we were part of it, we are the sinners, is we scourged him. Now scourging refers to beating a man with a cat of nine tails.

If you don't know what a cat of nine tails, if you wanna do something mean to somebody, here's what you do. A cat of nine teals has a handle with nine leather strips and on the end of the leather strips are three or four inch long sharp rock bone and metal. They would tie a man up, spread eagle in the air through four rings. Sometimes one ring dangling from a tree. Other times, they would bend his body over a rack and tie his wrist to his ankles.

And once they would secure the person, a strong armed soldier, a Roman, would take the cat of nine tails back with a mighty arm, lash it across his back. And when he did it, he'd snap it. And when he would snap, the leather would ripple and ripple and then ripple sometimes eight, nine feet long and slam the bone rock and metal into his back. And it would go right into the skin and once it was in there, they would jerk it and it would rip off nine strands of flesh. And usually, they would beat a man 13 times from the left side and then 13 times from the right side and then 13 times down the center.

And they would rip flesh this way, this way, this way to do a thorough job. And after be beat being beaten with a cat of nine tails, his back would look like raw hamburger meat. Hear it in your head, it's just I know. But if we'll hear it in our heart, it will do something to us. We need revival.

We need to hear it. The next thing they did was they planted a crown of thorns and put it about his head. Now if you go to Israel, the thorns are up to six inches long. I've been there twice. They're very strong, and they put a circle together with the thorns.

They put it on his head to mock him. Then they hit him on the head, and they drove it right down into his skull. And the thorns would go underneath the skin up against his bone and slide behind the skin. They clothed him with purple. Now here his back was bleeding.

They put the robe on his back. That blood would saturate the robe. There's no doubt. How long was it on his back? Don't know.

Probably not too long. But in my imagination, I think, well, what if it had time to begin to coagulate? I don't know. If it did, the robe would have dried right into the scabs. And just before they crucified Christ, they ripped off his robe and that would have reopened all those wounds.

It definitely irritated the wounds. Hear it in your head, no big deal. Hear it in your heart, hear it in my heart. It'll do something to us. Now take your Bibles and turn over to Psalm 22, and it talks more about what Jesus went through for us.

Where there is no vision, the people perish. If you lose your vision, you don't keep the law. But if you get your vision back and if I get my vision back, if we get our vision back, we'll be more prone to say, God, I love you. I'm not saying I love you. I do love you.

I am going to go ahead and try to give up my can of beer, finally, because I love you. I'm not saying I love you. I love you. And I wanna get rid of what is hurting you. I'm finally going to admit my temper is not a manly thing, it's a sin thing.

My cussing is not just the way I am. My cussing is what God said, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. It is corrupt communication. God said don't. It's not that I hate God.

I don't. But it's do I love God enough that I'm even willing to try to get rid of the things that are hurting him. See? And love is gonna make us wanna change. Now not bad people, but we don't necessarily have that vision that we need.

Things will change when we get it, when I get it. We all need to get it. Never gonna have a fired up 20 year old. Never gonna have a fired up 30 year old. Never gonna have a dedicated 80 year old who loses her vision.

So here we go. Psalm 22 in verse 14. Now this is a messianic prophecy. It says, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint.

Now what does he mean when he's on the cross? I'm poured out like water. If you put water in a round bowl, it'll take the form of a bowl. You put it in a square box, it'll go in the form of a square. Why would he say I'm poured out just like water?

Keep reading verse 14. I am poured out like water. Why? All my bones are out of joint. Now, the form of a man's body is his bones and if his bones were out of joint, he'd be like water with no form.

So, why would Christ say he's poured out like water? Because his bones were pulled out of joint. Did you know that? We think about the nails, but we don't always think about these other things. I never thought about.

I never even thought about it until I was preparing for this particular message, but his bones were pulled out of joint. Now, it used to be a torture in Bible days where they would tie man's body to two different animals, big ones. They'd hit him and they pull the body apart in the in the belly. Now, it doesn't say that's what happened in the Bible, but his bones had to get pulled apart somehow. Some people think that Roman soldiers grabbed his arms and legs and pulled them out of their sockets and others thinking that they nailed him the cross, the cross beam being over 200 pounds itself and then the large beam being more weight and the soldiers lifted it up and they dropped it into whatever, six foot, four foot, six foot deep hole, and it hit with a thud and it jerked his shoulders out of joint.

I don't know, but his bones were out of their joints. And when they crucified somebody, they would pull out that arm, tie it, or nail it. This nailed it in Jesus' case, shoulder out of outer joint at least, probably elbow out of joint, shoulder out of joint, probably elbow out of joint, maybe wrist out of joint. They kneel him in. They turn the body sideways and they put his feet usually on a little board but sideways with his knees bent.

Knees out of joint. And then they put a nail right through both heels securing it to the wood. Now with this bone side of joint, arms spread, can't breathe, legs like this, knees out of joint. He had to lift himself up, lift his rib cage. Then he dropped down again.

Then he dropped down again. He'd have to lift himself up and even push off the nails. Wow. Now then it says in verse 15, Hear it in our heart. My strength is dried up like a potsherd.

My tongue cleave it to my jaw. He was so thirsty his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. And what did we give Jesus to drink? Anybody? Vinegar.

Verse 16 halfway through, they pierced my hands and my feet. 10 to 12 inch nails. Verse 17, I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me. Now how else could your bones stare on you unless they were protruding through your flesh? Not one of his bones were broken, but maybe where his back was pulled off with a cat of nine tails, it went down to the bone.

Maybe where his bones were pulled out a joint at the elbow, they came back through the skin of the elbow. All I know is you could see his bones. Now somebody said, why did it happen? We in this room know why it happened, don't we? The Bible says in Isaiah 53, he was wounded for what?

Our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace, the punishment we should have had, right, was on him. And with his stripes we are healed. And somebody says, serving Jesus is good, but let's not overdo it.

Let's not be weird about it or serving Jesus is good, but come on. Seriously? Give up my beer? Seriously? Yes.

Seriously? Oh, you're judgmental. Look not on the wine when it is red when it stirreth in the cup. Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is raging.

Whosoever is deceived, your body is not wise. Listen, friends, if you drink this stuff, I'm not your judge. I'm not your judge. God is our judge. And if God somehow can help you to get a different interpretation, I'm looking and I'm saying, look down the wine when it is red.

It stings. It bites. And it is a marker. And you know what I'm getting from that? God's not just condemning getting drunk.

He's condemning the substance itself. We gotta grow. We gotta get to where we're not saying, what can I do? How far can I go? I don't think we should ever get pharisaical.

But I do think he that love the Lord hate evil. And the way that we show God we love him, we say, God, see, I really do love you. I'm not gonna do what's hurting you anymore. So the first thing is Jesus. And how many of you like me would admit you've got a sin nature?

Would you lift up your hand? How many of you like me would say you sin too like me? But we have to remember the reason we want to stop and do better is he was wounded for Mike's transgressions. He was bruised for Mike's iniquity. And I have an obligation.

He died for me. So it only makes sense to live for him. Okay? Not a trick. It's just the way it is.

Alright. Now, number one, because of Jesus. Now, number two, let's take our Bibles and flip over really easy to Proverbs 28 and we're looking a vision for why we want to live for God and I wanna look at Proverbs chapter 28 this time and verse 14. It says, the second reason I wanna say and I may not spend as long time on this. Number one, because of Jesus but number two, because of you.

For for Jesus's sake and number two for your sake and I could say for my sake. Okay? Now, Proverbs 28 and verse 14, happy is the man that feareth all way, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. So it says that we all each have two kinds of lives that could be lived. A happy one or a one that is full of mischief.

Now the idea is we can have a good life or we can have a rough life. And what it is saying is the people that choose to live for God have a better life than those who choose to not live for God. Now, if we can understand this, it's the way it is. If I am like God, if I live like he wants, I will have a better life than if I live in sin. If I throw God off, if I reject God because all my friends are and they think that I'm stupid and weird, Let them do what they do.

Try to stop them, but don't you walk away from God if you want a good and happy life. Now the positive side, if we are gonna walk with God is we'll have happiness. Now the three things people want in life more than anything would be love, joy, and peace. Why do people have affairs? They wanna feel loved.

Why do people get drunk? Call it happy hour. Why do people who have drugs wanna hit peace? Well, you get apples from an apple tree, oranges from an orange tree, and love, joy, and peace comes from God's tree. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, and peace.

You ask Frankie, you got saved this week if he felt joy. You ask the dear lady yesterday who got saved. If she felt joy, she was crying tears of joy. I let a 68 year old lady to the Lord. First thing she said was I've got peace.

A 19 year old teenager, this is better than any high I've ever had. And it does come when we walk with God. Now many people think holiness is just negative. Don't drink, don't cuss, don't steal, don't get angry, don't, don't, don't, and it's just a bunch of don'ts. Well, change your thinking and I've got to keep my thinking straight.

Holiness is not negative, it's positive. Ye shall be holy unto me for I the Lord am holy. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Now if one man's walking that way and another man's walking that way, can you walk with them both at the same time? No.

God is going this way and I'm sorry. There's nobody in their right honest mind that would ever say they could see Jesus drinking up a can of Budweiser. I'm sorry. I don't believe that he would do that. And this is just an issue, but I tell you what, my issues are I have to keep my mind right.

I gotta keep my heart right. A lot of times there's a lot of anger that pops up. Nobody in their righteous mind could ever say that he could expect that Jesus would ever go foaming at the mouth like I have been a fool and foaming at the mouth sometimes. When we see that if I wanna walk with God, I'm not gonna be able to do that. And I see, okay.

If I walk in sin, there's pleasure in sin for a season, but summer's not here very long. Then come the payday. And then you see the fruit of the spirit is real love, real joy, and real peace. I would give up any sin. Though I'm not perfect, I'm trying to be what God wants me to be.

Why? Because the thing that that I get from God is so much better than I'd ever get from sin. Am I right? Alright. I think I'm gonna get something more from God than I'm gonna get from this.

I'm gonna get something more from God than that. So I want to at least try. I'm going to get something more from God saying, God, you take over my spirit and you give me the right response instead of me just getting angry and foaming at the mouth and hurting somebody. I'm gonna get more joy walking with God than I'm gonna get from playing in sin. Now the negative side is the wicked have fallen in mischief, and I'm not claiming to be perfect, but I do know this motivates me to try to do what's right.

When we get away from God, we cannot enjoy life. Why? Because number one, we eat the fruit of our own sin as a kind of already drawn attention to. They would not on my counsel. They despise my reproof.

Therefore, shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. Proverbs one thirty and thirty one. In other words, if you want your sin, God's not gonna force you to follow him. You can have it. Drink it up.

Shoot it up. Cust it up. Live it up. But you have to eat the fruit of it. And the fruit of sin will not taste very good to you.

How many have ever done something in your past? I don't wanna know what it is, but I have. How many have ever done something in your past you wish you'd never done? Didn't taste very good in the end. How many have ever decided I'm not gonna do the wrong thing.

I'm gonna do what God wants on this thing that felt really great. That's better. So let's do that. Now the negative side if we go into sin and we're doing anything, we're just at the beginning of the week. We'll talk about more specific things.

This is kind of general I know, but I think the Holy Spirit will tell us if we're doing something we shouldn't do. I maybe didn't even mention anything, but I many would say, there are other sins besides the things I've mentioned, right? And the Holy Spirit can tell us, hey, that's not right. That's not right. That's cheating.

That's wrong. Don't or whatever it might be. What are you doing? It's not right. And the Holy Spirit will tell us it's not right.

And then what we do is we sell Cal, go God's way or I'll go the other way. And we think sometimes, well, I'm just gonna do the wrong thing. Why? I'm gonna have fun. Guess what?

After it, it's not all that fun. And the guilt stare, self inflicted wounds. So you can't. The wicked have fallen mischief. So then, also a reason that we cannot enjoy sin if we are are in sin is number two, if a person isn't saved from his sin, he spends eternity in hell for his sin.

Now that's not very fun. Pleasure in sin foresees him, but the end over the ways of death. And the Bible says the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations have forget God. And the Bible also says that God doesn't want that. God so loved the world, not so hated the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

But you have to repent and believe the gospel. Sin's not gonna help anyone, but it can send a lot of people to hell. And there's not one thing in sin that's gonna make you a better man, but there is something in sin that'll make you a worse man and worse off. So choose. Choose the blessings, not the problems.

Another reason we can't enjoy sin if we are saved is because God chastens us when we sin. Now sometimes preachers will preach about God's judgment and they almost sound like they hope God does something to somebody to back up their message. I never have had joy one time, but I do know people have been punished by God for their sin. I believe it. I've had the punish and chastisement of God, at least the conviction and it pounds on my chest until I get it right.

But he was twelve five through eight. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto sons. My son despise not the chasing of the Lord nor faint without rebuketh him for whom the Lord loveth, he chasten it and scourges, get it, every son whom he receiveth. Now we've lost our fear of God. God's not gonna do anything, but the Bible says that God will do something.

Now when I was a boy, my mom and dad were pretty good disciplinarians, and they would spank as hard as they had to, but never harder, but enough. Sometimes all mom did would give me a hairy eyeball. And if your parents have a hairy eyeball, look at me and better straighten up. And I would. Sometimes I wouldn't.

And she'd come down harder and she might say my name. Mike. And if that didn't work, she'd call my middle name. Michael Andrew. And if that didn't work, there'd be bloodshed in the woodshed.

One time I got a spanking and I went upstairs, still had an attitude and said to my brother Paul, it didn't hurt. Paul being the good brother he was, went down and said, hey, dad. Mike said it didn't hurt. So dad said, Mike? I said, yes.

And he said, come here. I went down and he said, Paul said, you said now that didn't hurt. I knew I was in trouble. And so he said, get in the bedroom. This one's gonna hurt a little more.

So I went in the bedroom and that one hurt because I needed it too. Now God is the same way. He understands that we're flesh, but he also understands when we know what we're doing is wrong, we're doing it anyway. First thing he might do is take our joy away. If that doesn't work, he may bring a financial financial crisis.

If that doesn't work, he may bring something else, but he knows exactly what to do to get her attention. And he'll do what he has to to get our attention. And don't forget. He chastens. And he actually said, you have forgotten the exhortation God chastens whom he loves.

Don't forget that we need to have the fear of God not to disobey. Now, there was a friend of mine as I mentioned who is in sin. I said, Dale, what are you doing? He said, the Bible says there's pleasure in sin for season. I'm just gonna live my season.

Remember him? Well, he lived his season and he went to a beer party. He got drunk, true story, and he got in a fight. And he lost the fight, true story. He got messed up pretty badly.

And three guys came to him and said, do you want revenge in the guy who beat you up? He said, sure. What do we do? They took him over to the car and the back of their car were three rifles. They said, Dale, you get in and we'll drive over to the house of the guy who beat you up and at midnight, you can get out of the car, walk up to his house, and pound on the door and you can say payday and then we'll blow holes in his house.

Dale said, that'll get him. So, he went in the car with them, drove over the house, the guy who beat him up, and at midnight, they got out the rifles and they said, now, you go up and we'll blow holes in his house. So, Dale still drunk, walked toward that house to knock on the door. True story and they pulled out the rifles and he did not realize they had set him up. They brought him to an abandoned home.

And they were friends of the guy who had beat him up. And so they said, go knock on the door. So he walked up the knock on the door and instead of aiming the rifles at the house, aimed them at Dale's back and they pulled the trigger, hit the target, and Dale dropped. Now God was trying to get ahold of Dale. You say, how do you know it was God?

Here's how I know. Dale lived. I don't believe you live through three rifle holes in your back unless it's God. And I believe that God was trying to get a hold of him. And so my preacher went to talk to him and he said, Dale, God is trying to get a hold of you.

Are you ready to get right with God? I was not there, but I am told that he laughed in my preacher's face. Now some of you might say, man, I never do that. I never laugh at God. Well, some of you, God's been trying to get ahold of you in certain areas for quite a while.

I never do that. Listen, if God's been trying to get ahold of you about some sin in your life and you've been laughing, what makes you think you wouldn't laugh then? You've laughed so far, acted like it's not that big of a thing. And what I'm simply telling you is don't do that. It's a self inflicted wound.

God chastens and some of you could very well be ready for the judgment of God on some of these things. Well, that's old time fiery preaching. No. That is still a bible verse in the bible and God very much lovingly says, don't forget this. You have forgotten he chastens whom he loves.

Now are you a candidate for the judgment of God? Because God said he'll do it. Number one, because of Jesus. Number two, because of you. Now, for no other reason, I told you this is gonna be simple tonight and we'll get into some maybe some more specific things but we're just trying to get motivated.

How many agree we gotta get motivated sometimes? And so we do. Amen. And some of you could do a great job motivating us tonight. I'm not the only one who can motivate, but I'm the one who's preaching tonight.

I hope that the Lord is using these thoughts to motivate us all. Okay? Number one, Jesus. Number two, for our own sake. If you live for God, you will have a better life than if you don't.

You'll get more from God than you will get from even money. You'll get more fulfillment, more purpose. Had somebody call me just last week and they were telling me that they were sniffing cocaine or whatever they do. I'm not making light of it, but it was Monday. I think I even mentioned this yesterday.

Sorry for the repeat. But she said to me, it's only Monday. I can't do it. I got the whole week ahead of me. It's only Monday.

Life stinks. I said to her, Kelly, I'm happy. It's Monday. I'm happy on Monday. I'm happy on Tuesday.

I'm happy on Wednesday. I'm happy on Thursday. Happy on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I said, what are you talking about? I said, the reason is I keep telling you, Jesus saves.

He saves. Instead, you're looking to cocaine to save you and she told me, this is the only constant that I have is cocaine. He said, that is the very thing's going to put you in a grave and in hell. I'm telling you, Jesus saves and so she was totally miserable. The happiest man that furth always and we wanna live for God for our own sake.

Now, the last thing, I won't be long in this one, is we want to live for God because of our ability to influence unsaved people. If we are born again. Now, if you're not born again, you need to come to Jesus because your soul is going to go somewhere. Everybody's a sinner. The payment for sin is hell.

I am a sinner. The only difference between me who is on my way to heaven and others who are still sinners and on their way to hell is that I've been saved by Jesus. But every one of us can be saved from our sin. Now if you don't know you're going to heaven, listen, if you don't know you're going to heaven, you probably aren't. Don't be upset, but you don't even know you're going to heaven.

And if you don't know you're going to heaven, you probably aren't, at least you have doubts. It's a serious enough thing that you need to make sure. The Bible says these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life, and for your sake, you need to know you're gonna go to heaven. But the last thing is for the sake of the unsaved, we could say because of Jesus, because of you, and for no other reason because outside these four walls, them. There is a world that is dying and going to hell and we can get people to heaven with the gospel, but it's awfully hard when they see us not living for God through the week.

So our ability to influence people, we want to be living living for God because of them. The bible says that hell is not a fairy tale. Romans six twenty three, the wages of sin is death. Psalm nine seventeen, the wicked shall be turned into hell. Revelation twenty fourteen, whose driver was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Now one illustration and I close to try to drive home and be motivated. In Dalton, Georgia, true story again, 1979, four guys went to their favorite swim hole and they hadn't been there in a month. I had four people come to me through the years tell me that happened. I heard the illustration years ago and I used it on occasion quite often. So four guys went to their favorite swim hole.

They hadn't been there in a month. And the first teenager dove into the water, and the second teen was about to dive in. And the head popped up from the first teen, and he screamed, go back. Go back. And got sucked under.

Realizing his friend was in danger, he put his foot in the water, tried to help his friend, and the head popped up a second time and he screamed, go back, and got sucked under. One last time, he tried to help his friend and the head popped up with a final cry, blood curling cry, go back, and got sucked under. This tiny pool of blood rose to the surface. They ran to get help. The fire department came.

They drugged a swim hole, found the body, and what had happened? That teenager had dove head first into a nest of water snakes, And he was eaten alive. Now, when he knew that he was going to die, he would fight them off until he get his head out of the water and scream to his friend, go back and get sucked under again. Fight them off. Go back till finally he couldn't get up.

He was he was gone. And I thought about when I heard that and read that article from that newspaper, what would it be like if I could come in front of the congregations I get to preach to and take a magic saw? It hurts. It affect me. But what would be like if I got to go in front of a saw and we could tonight take a magic saw so to speak and cut a hole in the floor, cut a hole in the earth, cut a hole and get down and open the coffin lid to hell.

And then reach down and take hold of one man who's been damned and burning for a few thousand years. And pull him out of hell and let him preach and me sit down. Imagine we would hear the most eloquent sermon we have ever heard in our lives. Go back. Go back.

Don't come here. Go back. Why does it seem that we seldom wanna warn the wicked about hell until we're looking at them in a casket? And it's too late then. Ezekiel three eighteen, when I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die and thou givest him not warning nor seekest to warn the wicked, even seek to warn the wicked of his wicked way.

The same wicked man will die in his iniquity, but one problem, his blood will I require at thine hand. And the question is, how much blood is on our hands and how much blood will be on our hands if we don't get motivated in the American churches again? Let's bow our heads. Now, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed this evening, how many of you would say, brother Mike, I am not always what I need to be. But I do know that if I were to die, I would go to heaven.

And I have a Bible reason why I know it. The blood of Jesus, I'm confident that I'm gonna go to heaven. If you know that you're saved, you know a 100% with a bible reason, would you just slip up your hand? Maybe you don't know the verse, but you know the bible principle, Jesus saves, and I took him. Good.

Good. Good. Good. Good. Good.

Good. Wonderful. Amen. Praise God. You can put your hands down.

I do wanna ask, is there anybody here who would say, brother Mike, I don't know yet that I'm gonna go to heaven? And I am saying this with love. If you don't know you're going to heaven, you are in great danger. It's not a trick. You're in danger.

And you can get help. You need it. And we can help you. And I wanna ask you, is there anybody who would say that that's me. I don't really know that I'm going to heaven, but I know I don't wanna go to hell.

And if you can know you're gonna go to heaven, I'd like to know how would you pray for me. If that's you, I will not call your name. I'll just pray for you, and God will know who you are without calling your name or pointing out where you're sitting. But if you don't know you're gonna go to heaven and you know that you need to figure this out and you want help and you want prayer, would you just lift up a hand? I'll see it.

You put it right back down. I'll include you in a prayer. I know God will hear it and help you. Is there anybody like that? I don't know I'm going to heaven, but I don't wanna go to hell.

I want help. Pray for me. Anybody like that. Just lift up a hand and we'll include you in a prayer. Okay?

Now how many would say, brother Mike, I do know that I'm saved, but I also know that there are areas in my life that I am not pleasing God and I'm not showing God I love him in that area. And because I do look at what he did for me, I wanna say, God, see, I love you enough. I'm gonna try to stop doing this that's hurting you. And if you would say, brother Mike, there's something in my life that I need to say, God, love you more than I love that. Would you just lift up a hand if you say before God, I'm gonna deal with this God cause I do love you.

I'm not pretending. You know I do. So I'm gonna try to stop because I love you enough to stop what's hurting you. Amen. Good.

Good. Good. Good. Good. That'll change us.

That's a great way to start a revival week. I do wanna ask, is there anybody who would say, brother Mike, and I gotta be quick about this. You'd say, Mike, there's some things that I had in my life and maybe you already raised your hand and you you you see it. You thought it would make you happy. When you are involved in it, you think it's gonna make you feel better to vent or whatever it might be, but afterwards, the guilt is not good.

And you say, I don't wanna fall to the devil's lie that this is gonna make my life better when I know it's gonna make my life worse. And I wanna kill that snake before it wraps itself around me and destroys me. If that's you, would you lift up a hand and say there's something in my life that I thought was gonna make me happy, but I know it's a sin and it will not make me happy. Jesus will. I choose Jesus over that.

Good. Good. Good. Good. Good.

Great. Now one last question. Is there anybody would say, brother Mike, I think about how my life can affect another unsaved person's life or another Christian's life. Pray for me that I would be a better testimony for the sake of the other people in my life that I love. God bless you there.

God bless you here. God bless us all across the room. Could I ask us to have a revival? And I think I think he did not mean it lightly when he said if we would humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked way, he would hear, he would forgive and he would heal. And I want to invite each of you that said there's something in my life we don't force, we invite.

Why would we not want to come to forgiveness with Jesus or to strength? And across the room, I'm going to ask you, if we will, if we stand, would you who raised your hand be willing to just come and have a sweet prayer with Jesus about this? Say, God, I love you. You know it. And I'm gonna ask you to help me stop doing this because I know I love you more and I love that.

Or to change this or be more dedicated in that. Lord, help my testimony. That person needs to be saved and I want to be a good testimony. So I invite you to come and the way we'll do it is across the room. Let's all stand, and I'll have miss Katie play.

And as she plays, I invite you to come and join those who are already praying. Let's all stand with our heads bowed with our heads bowed and come.