Gary Wilkerson emphasizes that God not only meets our needs but also delights in fulfilling our wants, encouraging believers to embrace their desires without guilt. He shares personal anecdotes to illustrate how God can exceed our expectations, as seen in the story of a woman who found a better apartment than she imagined. Wilkerson challenges the notion that wanting is inherently selfish, asserting that God desires to bless us abundantly. He encourages the congregation to eliminate evil desires, illuminate good ones, and take action towards their aspirations, reminding them of the goodness of God as a loving Father who wants to give good gifts to His children.

Let me pray for us and just ask the Holy Spirit's blessing on our time together. Father, we we invite your presence to come in a very manifest way that the presence of God be so real here that as it says in Corinthians that people would come into the house and they would sense the presence of God and they'd fall on their knees and say truly God is in our midst. Through the worship we've experienced that, through the special song, through now the ministry of the word. We just come Lord Jesus to have your way. We give thanks for it in Jesus' name and everybody said together amen? Amen. A very unusual subject matter this morning, maybe one you've never heard in church before, maybe one when you first hear the subject matter title you'll think I've gone off the deep end, off my rocker and maybe this will be the last time you'll ever see my face. You've sent me off with a nice standing ovation and that'll be the last you see of me because I want to talk to you this morning about how to get what you want. How to get what you want. How to get what you want. Yesterday my wife and I had an amazing lunch. I was so shocked. It was here in Manhattan. It was up on an upper level apartment building, 20 something floor. It's up and on the table was spread out these beautiful fresh vegetables, green salad, different kinds of greeneries. It was so fresh and then there's a beautiful protein, some pork loins and what a lovely meal. Then we went out to the woman we were having lunch with and she took us out into her balcony. It was a beautiful big balcony. I was like wow, this is great. It overlooks part of the city and if you peeked over you could see the river. I was just like wow, what a great gift. She told me the story of how this came about. She was in another apartment and through some economic differences in her life she wasn't able to sustain the rent in that particular place. It was getting too expensive for her. Then they wanted to raise the rent as well. So she needed to move. She needed to find a different place to live and so she did what many people do that are living in Manhattan. There's a change in cost of living or an increase. You start looking maybe in further circles out into amazing places around the region as well. It used to be Brooklyn. Now you can't afford Brooklyn, right? Then they went over into New Jersey. She was looking all around in upstate New York and New Jersey and Florida. No, not Florida. Looking for places close by where she could continue to work her job and have her friends and go to church here. It was a church that she loved so much. She was saying but she couldn't find anything. They were raising the rent where she is and even if she went out to the furthest parts of the region, she would still be paying exorbitant prices than the transportation to get back in to the city. She was saying, Lord, you know what my needs are. You know I need a place. Maybe even if we don't mind asking the Lord sometimes, you know what I want as well. I need a place to live with my daughter but what I would want is to stay in the city. What I want is to have a place that is right where we have our life already. As she was praying for this, she went into the lobby of her building and the building superintendent saw her and said, hey, you're the one looking for a new place. Let me show you a place. The building superintendent took her up to the same floor that she's already on, opened the door of the apartment next to hers. It was bigger than hers and had twice the size outdoor balcony and it was less expensive. Isn't that good news? What she needed was shelter. What she wanted, God gave her. What we need, we know God supplies. He supplies all of our, what's the word? Needs according to his riches in glory. Everyone in this building that has had any relationship at all with Jesus, whether it's new or like me, 50 plus years, you know that God meets your needs. Can you say amen to that? He meets your needs. I want to say to you today something that might surprise you. He likes to meet your wants. Oh, it got a little quieter. Big amen with he meets your needs. Everybody's looking at each other. Should we say amen when he said he meets our wants? Ephesians chapter three, verse 20, if you take a moment to go look there, Ephesians chapter three, verse 20 says this. Now to him, speaking of God, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. All my math is not that great, but I think I learned this in, in school. All is all right. Am I, are you tracking with me? And so to get immeasurably more than all almost seems mathematically impossible. If you already have all, how do you get a measurably more than all, but that's exactly what was promised to us. Not just all in the sense of all your needs, but immeasurably more than all here's my all it's full. And then God says, somehow that overflows. The cup overflows. The, the, the rivers overflow, the blessings overflow, the grace overflows. The kindness of your father overflows. The thoughtfulness of the father towards his children overflows. The, the, the thoughts that he has for you and the plans that he has for you overflows into an abundance of grace, goodness, kindness, and mercy that we don't deserve, that we don't expect, but the good, good father loves to give to us. My friend was experiencing Ephesians 3 20, when she found out that she needed a new apartment, but that she got more than all that she could ask. Imagine according to his power. I don't know about you, but I have an amazing imagination. It is an amazing imagination. When I grew up in New York here I used to play basketball every single day. And so some kids want to be in the NBA. I never really thought about that. I just wanted to be my favorite player. And so I'd be driven to basketball and you have to excuse me for my, my old school. Like I don't, you know, LeBron and, and Curry stuff. I don't, you know, I don't know as much of them, but Willis Reed and Walt Frazier and Dave the Busher. So it's like, I want to be Willis Reed. You know, I hope I, my skin turns black because I want to be black and I want to Afro and I want to walk down the streets of Manhattan wearing a mink coat. That was, that was Walt Frazier. If you remember him back in the, back in the day, this was back in the 1840s for those of you that, that don't know, you know, Abraham Lincoln used to come to their games. It was no, it wasn't that old. And so I wanted to be that. So I would just imagine, you know, I could, I could, and I would actually play a whole game. And Walt Frazier has the ball. There's 10 seconds left. There's, there's five guys covering him and he shoots falling away on one foot and it scores and they win the game and they carry him off. And that's my imagination. So, and that has not gone away. I still have an imagination. I still think it's like, and Gary preached a sermon and the crowd went wild. Ten seconds left in a sermon. That's why the crowd went wild. More, more than all. So, so if he says, Gary, I gave you that imagination, whether it be for your family. I imagine amazing things for my family. Oh, I imagine my children thriving and loving and, and warm hearted and hospitable, having great hospitality and thriving in their destinies and their calling and, and being fruitful in life and love and ministry and, and, and, and being blessed to be able to be generous everywhere they go. I picture them being able to see a need in an orphanage and be able to write a check just here to pay for that. I just, that's the kind of stuff I imagined. And so God, we have this picture of God saying like, Hey, wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's not get out of control. I know I said above and beyond all that you think or imagine, but you know, like writing checks for orphanages and your kids being content and you know, healthy families, you know, you're asking way too much, you know, you know, tamper it down. Sometimes we have that image of God that, that he's just a God that he sees some basic needs and says, that's all you, that's all I want to do for you. I don't want to go beyond that because if I go beyond that, you're going to get proud or haughty or selfish, or you're going to get indulgent, or you're going to become materialistic or can become consumeristic. God has a way of dealing with those things, but he still loves to give. He's a good, good God. If he asked you to give, where does that nature come from? If you ask you to be generous, is it because him, him in heaven saying, Hey, I'm not going to be generous, but I expect you to be, I don't want to give anything above and beyond what you think or imagine, but I expect you to do that. No, no, no. He is more giving than you are, more giving than you'll ever be. He's more generous than you'll ever be. He's more, more, more thoughtful of things that you need. And he knows it like you will never know. I don't know all that my kids need, that my wife needs, that my friends need, that my church needs, that you need, but Jesus does. He sees all that you need. And the good news today is he sees what you want. Don't be guilty. Don't live in guilt and condemnation and shame. Don't, don't keep rebuking yourself for wanting something. God put a lot of those wants in your heart. The message translation is Ephesians 3.20 says this, God can do anything. You know, don't you like that? God can do anything. You know that he can do anything for far more than you could ever imagine or guess. That's a good word too. I guess God could do that. Well, he can do a lot more than you guess he can do or request in your wildest dreams. I believe that God is a God of our wildest dreams. And it's still quiet in here, but maybe before it's over, we'll be a little bit more tracking on the same page. Wanting has a bad reputation in Christian circles. It really does. We feel like, well, I'm not supposed to want, I'm supposed to, I'm supposed to just like accept what he wants to give. And I know he'll meet all my needs. So if I want, I got to stop wanting something. It's seen as selfish. It's seen as greedy. The Bible says he shall supply all your needs, but we add, he doesn't, he doesn't promise to. The Bible says he shall supply all your needs. We quickly add our own non-scriptural reference after that, but he doesn't promise to supply all of our wants. Have you heard that before? I heard that my whole life. He promised to supply all my needs, but he didn't promise to supply all my wants. Good thought makes sense, but it's not biblical. You added that I added that God didn't add that. He likes to meet some of your wants. Not all of them. We'll talk about that in just a moment. What we fail to see is God's amazing goodness in supplying all of our needs and his extravagant nature of kindness. As he adds the provision of many of our wants that he doesn't want us to live in guilt because there's something we have a desire in our heart. He says that he loves to give us the desires of our heart. And sometimes he'll give us the desires. And sometimes he gives us our desires. It's the desires, not just, it might sound more spiritual. If he said he'll give us the desires of his heart that, that I feel safer to me. Doesn't it to you? Because sometimes my heart, you know, asks for things that I shouldn't be asking for. Again, we'll talk about that in just a moment, but, but he wants to align our hearts to him to in such a way that become these wants, these longings, these desires, these ambitions. Many people, Christians don't like to wake up in the morning. Your snooze button barely exists because it's so worn out because I don't want to get up. Why? Because it's another day. Thank God it's Friday is the expression of many Christians where I think Christians should be saying, thank God it's Monday because Monday I get to start a week loving on people and sharing the good news and walk in the streets of my city and getting on the subway and sitting next to a homeless person and wrapping my arms around them and telling them, Jesus loves you so much. Looking for people. My wife did this yesterday in the hotel we're staying at one of the maids who was in the hallway with her cart. And she walked up to him, her, and just said, Hey, I want to tell you some good news. I just, I just want you to know this morning, something great is, is happening. And what is it? She said, it's what's happening is that Jesus has loving you 24 seven. And she went, well, I'm a Muslim. And my wife said, well, that didn't change anything. Jesus loved, there's still good news. Jesus loves you 24 seven. And, and she tried to argue a little bit, the way he tried to argue a little bit. Kelly just kept saying that doesn't change anything. Jesus loves you. And finally she said, we're going to be praying for you. We're going to see the glory of God. And that woman just lit up. And so when you live like that, you don't want to push the snooze button. You don't wish you had another 10 minutes of sleep. You, you, you, you, you, you're, you get up before your alarm clock goes off and you say, this is the day that the Lord has made. I going to rejoice. I'm going to be so, so glad in it because, because God's not just meeting my needs, but he's meeting my wants as well. I want to love people. I want to touch people. I want to minister to people. I want a healthy family. I want to, I want to pay my bills. Don't you? Yeah. So there's things that I want and God loves to meet my needs. You see, there's very few things we really need. Did you know that I need to be saved? And that's about it. I'm serious. You say, well, you need food. No, because if I die, I'm saved. I'm going to have a feast. It's waiting for me. So I don't, I don't need food. I may look like I need it, but I don't, I don't need a, um, you need a house to stay in. No, if, if I don't have a house to stay in, I'll, the elements might kill me and I get a mansion in heaven. So I don't need a house. I'm okay without a house. I live in Colorado. I can get a tent. If I, if I don't have finances, I got riches stored up from heaven on streets that I walk in and gold. So, so I don't need it. I just need to get saved, you know, and once I'm saved, then I got everything I need. I got Jesus. I don't need anything but Jesus. So everything else in my life is a want. I want a healthy family. That's, that's, that's a want. I want a good job. That's a want. I want a nice, if you don't mind me saying it sounds greedy, maybe, but I want a nice house to live in. I, I much prefer living in a nice house than I do in a, you know, a shipwreck, you know, living in, you know, in some ratty place, you know, I just don't want to be there. You may want to be there and say like, I'm suffering for Jesus. And so I'm going to say, I'm going to go crazy. I don't even need air. Hold my breath till I faint and die. And I go, I go to heaven. It's like, you know, somebody said, all I need is the air I breathe. No, I don't even need that. So, so when it comes to him supplying all my needs, according to his riches and glory, my list is very short. I don't know about yours. So everything else for me is in the category of wants. And that makes it fun. It's like, I kind of want this Lord. I kind of like to see this happen. I, I, I want to be married. I am already, but, but I want to be, I want to stay married. Let's put it that way. Look at this. Wouldn't you want to stay married to this? I've never called you this before. Look at this. Look at, look at her. Look at her. She's amazing. She gets pretty every year. We've been married 40 years last month. I want to stay married and I want to be happily married. I don't want to. And, and, and does God say to me, well, you know, I gave you a wife. Now you're asking for a happy one. You're keeping me far too busy, son. Just, just stay satisfied that you got married. You're lucky you got married. I can't believe you're asking me for more now that that's ridiculous. Stop it. I want to see my four kids live great. I want to see when I want to, when I see them, I want to see, I want to see the huge smile on their face and, and I want them to give me big hugs and say, I love you, dad. I'm so how are you doing? I'm so, and I don't want them to say I'm fine. Fine is an excuse for somebody who's covering up. My life is miserable. I want them to say, I am amazed. I am delighted. I am overwhelmed. God is good. Life is amazing. I'm so happy. I'm so filled with joy. This is, this is the way our life as Christians is meant to be. Everything else that we have or wants, but I have a lot of, of wants. I, I want to live a life that's fulfilled. I want to, I want to, I want to be radically in love with Jesus every single day. I want to know the word really well, but I have other wants too. I have other ones. I want to, I want to, I've lost a little bit of weight. I want to keep it off because if you charted my weight loss up and down, it would look like the stock market, you know, it would crash at times. And then it'd be like, and so I want, I want to lose weight, but I want to keep it off. I want to, I want to stay in good physical health. I want to exercise a little bit more because I find when I exercise, I wake up a little bit more refreshed in the morning and I have a little bit more energy in the day. Then I get to serve Jesus even better. So I want to, I want to be in good health. Do you want to be in good health? You want to be in shape? Those 16 people that are clapping their hands right now, there's a class called body weights here at the church. And so, so you don't have to go because you're already there. It's those who didn't clap need to come to that class. Check it out. You may be laughing, but I'm serious. I'm serious. I do that every day. Pastor Carter does that every day. Just moving the body as we get older. If we don't move our bodies, somebody else will have to. I want all God has for me. I want, I want to live a, I want to have a fruitful ministry. I want people that I minister to, to prosper and be blessed and grow and be challenged and stressed, stressed, stretched. I want, I want you to, uh, I want to preach sermons. I love preaching. I want to, I want, I wanted to preach today. I woke up, I said, I cannot wait to preach. I can't believe they invited me to preach at Times Square church, one of the greatest churches in the world. I get to, I didn't come here today. Like another sermon. I got to preach. Oh my goodness. I can't wait. I got to fly to this place. And I got up. No, it was like, yay. Times Square, amazing church. And I get to stand up here and take two hours to share my heart with you. I want to preach, but I want to preach well today too. Is that, is that, is that greedy or selfish evil, or is that from God? I want to preach well today. And I want you to be more than ever before. And I want you to experience more now than ever before the, the nature of God and the character of God and the love of God for you so that you might wake up every morning and live every Monday and live every day of your life saying, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and I promise I'm going to be, I'm going to be glad in it. I'm not going to survive in it. I'm not going to press through in it. I'm not just going to survive. I'm going to thrive in it because he made it for me and he made it to be filled with my needs being met, but he made it to be filled. Part of the great desire, a joy fulfilled is a, is a, is a happy thing. When your joy is fulfilled, when things are not, there's a discontent oftentimes in our heart. Desires unmet can cause discontentment. And sometimes, yes, we have to suffer through that. And there are hardships and there are long periods of times where we go without. And Paul understood like we do, we know what it's like to be shipwrecked. We know what it's like to be beaten. We know what it's like to, to be in trials and tribulations beyond our, our understanding and to be, to grieve. We know what it's like to grieve and we know what it's like to suffer loss. But the reality of our day is through it all, through it all, as Andrew Crouch said years ago, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God. And, and I, and I, I have joy when I wake up when the calm lakes are all around me. And I wake up with joy when I'm seeing storm waves, rage and roar and roll and thunder clouds and claps of thunder and peals of lightning are all surrounding me and threatening me, my life, my family, my ministry, my finances, my health. When any of that's under threat, as it has been many, many, many times, I can say through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus and Jesus. And Jesus makes me happy. I'm a happy pastor. I'm a, I'm a happy man of God. I'm a happy prayer warrior. I'm a happy intercessor. I'm a happy missionary. I'm a happy evangelist. I'm a happy leader of world challenge. I'm a happy guest speaker here at Times Square Church today. Is that selfish? Is that greedy? Is that evil? Then if it's not God suggesting that good, healthy, beautiful, loving, giving experiences of things we want is selfish, greedy, and evil, then who is? Do you hear what I'm saying? If, if what I'm talking about is not evil, selfish, and greedy, then who's suggesting to you that it is the devil? There are times where I've, I've asked God for something and I felt, man, that seems kind of selfish. Years ago when Times Square Church first started, my wife and I were on staff here. I was working for my father. We had one son. Our second son was born. We moved to New Jersey. Our third, we started getting this bigger family. And so, and I'm kind of an outdoor guy. I grew up in New York, but then I moved to Texas. When I was in high school, I got a job on a ranch working with horses and cattle. And, and it was like the greatest time of my life. So I fell in love with the country. Please don't hear me saying second-class people live in the cities because these are the great cities of, this is the great city of the world. And you have an envious position as you live here in the city. But just for me, my nature, I'm built for the country, but I was living here, working in the city. And I was getting a little bit like, oh, I want my kids to grow up with some land and some, you know, just some property. And, and the Lord said, well, what do you want? And I said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. And, and the second time the Lord said to me, same day, no, tell me what's in your heart. What do you desire? What do you want? Second, I did. I said, I rebuke that voice in the name of Jesus. You foul spirit, you will leave my house. You will not take authority over me. And the third time the Lord said, what do you want? I said, I rebuke you. He said, stop rebuking me. It's Jesus. This is ridiculous. I've never been more rebuked in my life. Stop. And so, so I stopped and I said, I said, and I was just so shy. I was like, oh, I can't believe I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this. I hope there's no lightning. Oh God, I want to live in Colorado. And, and the Lord said, wow, beautiful. That's a great place to live. Let me make the arrangements. I went and took a shower. My phone rang. I just reached over, got out of the shower, put a towel around me. It was my friend, Steve. Steve said, hey, this is out of the blue, but I've been praying for you this past week. I'm opening up a ministry in Colorado. Would you be willing to move there and help me start this ministry? I said, wow. I hung up the phone about an hour later. Another friend of mine called. He goes, hey, I'm in Wyoming. Every, every week I travel down to this Bible study in Denver, Colorado, and it's just going to be too much. It's growing. And a lot of people there, I was wondering if you would be interested. They're looking for a pastor. Would you be willing to move to Colorado and help start this small group of people to launch a church in Denver, Colorado? This is the same day. This is two hours later. Thank you, Jesus. He gives us the desires of a heart. Now, now there are times he says no. Do you remember James and John wanted to call fire from heaven and strike down a whole city and burn them up? And you say, yeah, we're not going there today. Let's hold off on that idea, but pretty much anything else you might want. Let's talk about that. But so there's some things that, that we don't want. James chapter four, verse one says evil desires that were within you. You want what you don't have you scheme and you kill to get it. This is where the enemy has twisted scripture, just as the enemy did when he was tempting Jesus to be derailed. And so Satan has twisted the scripture where we no longer say, Satan wants you to get to live for evil desires. And if he can get you to live for evil desires, he'll get you to believe that all desires are evil. Did you follow that? He wants you first of all, to live for evil desires, carnal fleshly, sexual immorality, drunkenness, greed. But if he can't get you to do that, he just wants to take one word out of the scripture, evil and put, start the sentence with desires, desires that were within you, you want, and you don't have you scheme and kill to get it. And so he, Satan wants us to believe that desires are evil, not evil desires are evil. And, and just in case you don't know, I'll make it super clear for you. Evil desires are evil. Good desires are good. Wow. There you go. You're with me a hundred percent. Thank God. Uh, me, as I told you earlier, wanting health, wanting a family, my friend, wanting a new apartment, was that evil? Or were those those things that God as a good, good father loves to give gifts to his children? Desires are not evil. Evil desires are evil. You want what you don't have, what you want. Why? Because you don't ask. See, most of us would, if we had to fill in that blank ourselves, we would say, you don't have what you want because I have an evil and unbelieving heart. My heart is deceitfully wicked. And therefore I don't even know what to want. Everything I want is evil, but that's not, you know, because you're a Times Square church and you know, the new covenant, what has God given you? A new, a new heart. So your heart is not wicked and unbelieving. Your heart is not deceitfully wicked anymore. You have a new heart and it is, starts with the letter C. What is it? C L C L. How far am I gonna have to go before you get to C L E A N. Way to go. Clean. You have a new and clean and Jesus-like heart. It's in you. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. That is amazing. So, so your heart now has love, joy, peace, giving, prosperity, security, family, wonderful friends, meaningful work. Those are not evil desires, are they? No, no, no. They're not evil desires. You have these things because you ask and you have a loving father who likes to hear what you're asking him and likes to release all the powers of heaven and all angelic forces and all resources of heaven to come to earth to see that he is showing and demonstrating his love for you. That's good news. Uh, when I was about eight years old, I was looking at a comic book and on the back page of the comic book, there was this, I think a 300 or so piece civil war set. I don't know if you've ever seen that. They're little plastic men and half of them were blue and half of them were gray. You know what that means, right? North and south. And they had, uh, cannons, little bait, little cannons, little plastic cannons and, and horses. There was a Calvary, like 12 of these guys of the 300 of blue and 12 of the gray were on horses. And then there was this huge, like, uh, unrolled, like a tablecloth and it had rivers and pictures of mountains and fences. And then he actually had even little plastic fences that, you know, you can get guys caught on and like paint some blood on them. It was just like, I just, my imagination went wild. I can't wait to get this. And, uh, and my dad is a very generous, if you remember him or know him personally, so generous. And, and so I said, this is a done deal. I mean, it just, I'll just, you know, if he says no, I'll just tell him like, you know, you help thousands of drug addicts around the world, your own son, you just want this little. So I took the, I took the comic book out and he, I remember, I'll never forget. I just like, like it happened yesterday. It was like, he was sitting in a lounge chair and in our back patio. And, and I showed him the dad, look at this 300 sets, civil war set, you know, only 29 99, three easy payments. It's like, even you could afford this. This, come on, this is great. I'm going to get this. We never seen it on my dad's face. He's never been cranky one day in my life growing up. He never yelled at me. He never once raised his voice at me, but looked at me and goes, why do you ask me for things? I give you everything you need and you come out here and now you're asking me for stuff like this. No, you can't have that. And stop asking me for stuff. And I just went, wow. I remember just literally like this. I was shocked. It's like, I felt so guilty. I felt ashamed. Like, wow. I'm so, I'm so selfish. I'm so greedy. I just, yeah, he's right. You know, I got a nice house to live in and wonderful family. And I go to church and I pray and it's just like, you know, so I got everything I need. So I'm so ashamed that I wanted more than I should have than more than I deserved. And it kind of started me thinking like, you know, it's not good to ask for things. It's not good to want things. It's not good to ask somebody you trust for things because they might not be in a good mood. They might be going through something bad. Maybe God is, a lot of us see God in a bad mood a lot of times, don't we? It's his son that's in the good mood. Jesus is happy and the father is, you know, destructo. And so, so, you know, we don't want to ask the father for things. And so it kind of set something in motion in my heart. Six weeks later, my father walks in and he has this big box. I'll never forget it. This big, this big box. And he says, son, look, your name is on it. Eight years old. I've never gotten mail before in my life. This is my first piece of mail. It's bigger than any mail my, any of my family's ever gotten. So like, man, I am special. I got this piece of mail. He says, open it. And I just, I ripped it open. It was that Civil War set. And, and we, and he, he put it on the table and he opened it up and, and he says, let's play. And I said, okay, but I get to be blue. Seriously, I remember that. I couldn't wait to be blue. And he goes, okay, I'll be the South. And it's no offense if you live in the South. Watching online, we love you in the South. And so, so we set up this thing and I remember like we had all set up and I was, I had my horses here and going, my Calvary's attacking. My Calvary's attacking David Wilkerson. And I'll never forget. He took his Calvary and went like, ah, I'm getting out of here. He ran away. It was like one of the best days of my life. It was amazing. Just, my father taught me a lesson. I pray that you would learn in this house today. You have a good, good father. He knows what's in your heart. He loves you so much. He, he wants to meet all of your needs according to his riches and glory, but he wants to meet the desires of your heart as well. And then not only that, he wants to surprise you with it and open the package and then be there with you and experience it with you. It doesn't just say, yeah, I'm going to help you have a happy marriage, but I'm going to be there with you in the marriage. I'm going to have wonderful children, but I'm going to be there with you and celebrate your children. Like, yeah, your children are doing so good. I'm so happy for you. It's not like, your children really should be much better than they are right now. I just, my expectations were much higher on your children. I just like, I'm not sure why I'm talking like a nerd. I don't think I've ever talked like a nerd before, but we falsely see God sternly demanding us to live things we don't want to live and to like things we don't want to like and to do things we don't ever want to do and to avoid pleasant experiences at all costs and make sure if you're having a good time, you cease immediately. Get back to tithing, money you don't want to give to anybody. Make sure you're going through enough church services each week that you're sufficiently, no, I don't want to say this because this is a good church, but some people would say bored. Make sure you're reading enough devotional books and make sure they're from people who are already dead because, because dead theologians obviously must be better than the new ones today because God's not doing anything good or new today. He only did it back in the 1700s and before that, that's not, make sure you, you, you, I was at a meeting in Poland recently and a young man walked up and there's like, I guess there's a division in Eastern Europe between Pentecostals and Charismatics. Pentecostals, they don't clap their hands when they're in church. They wear head coverings. Sometimes women sit on one side and men on the other. Charismatics are crazy. They dance and they sing and they laugh and they, and this man walked up to me and said, you sound like a charismatic. And I went like, yeah, charisma means in Greek means gifts. I have the gifts of the spirit. Well, I am a Pentecostal. I hate Charismatics. I said, wow, I'm so sorry, brother. So sorry you hate them because that's, that's, but what he was talking about is hating the joy, hating the life, hating, hating the freedom. And so it's like, some of us would like, you know, we want to, it's like, we feel like if we don't go to the church of our perpetual response, our lady of perpetual responsibility, we're not going to a healthy church. It's like we have to go to, to, to places that are, are difficult on us. And I believe God is saying to us, he wants something for us that is good for us, that he, he's extremely passionate about. And I'm, I am passionate. The reason I love being here this morning is I am passionate about seeing people's lives, whether it's lost people that we meet in hotels or airports or restaurants in our hometown to sharing the love of Jesus. But I'm also passionate about them or us in this church today coming alive once again, coming up and saying, this is the day and coming up and not hitting that snooze button and coming up and saying, thank God it's Monday. And thank God it's Tuesday. I thank God for what, why wouldn't we want to thank God for every single day of the week? I'm extremely passionate about seeing the will of God fulfilled in your life. I want to see you thrive and not just survive. I want to see you living, not just lives, but abundant lives. That's what Jesus said. He had promised for you. I don't want you to just exist or survive. I wanted to see you come into the fullness that Jesus has for you. You're saying, isn't this just positive thinking or Gary, have you got off the trail? Like into positive thinking, imagine this with me, David, King David, or before he was a King, a young man. And he sees Goliath there and he says to himself, I'm going to take this guy down. My little stone knocking this dude out instantaneously watches. Oh, wait a minute. That's positive thinking. I better think like, who am I? What am I? Why am I here? Hey brothers, come help out. Cause I can't do this. That's the mentality that many of us believe is holy. I can't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't try. That's why so many Christians are living bored, mediocre, mediocre, lifeless, abundant, less fruitless, challenge, less exciting, less lives because they're afraid of positive thinking. They're afraid of thinking. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. They're afraid of thinking with one stone that giant can fall. They're afraid of thinking, oh, we're at the red edge of a river. We better go back. No, they're think positive thinking. Godly thinking is saying, no, this river will open and we're going to walk through on dry ground. It's believing God. It's not a worldly positive thinking. That's a bunch of hogwash. It's a Oprah Winfrey nonsense. It's, it's, it's, it's just, it's, it's, this is Jesus thinking Jesus. Yes. Is the glass half empty or the glass half full for Jesus? The glass is overflowing. It's overflowing. It's not even full. It is. It is more than full. Okay. I'm going to wrap things up real quickly here. Three quick things take about three minutes, one minute on each one, three things you can do to experience a life full of your desires being met in Christ Jesus, according to his riches and glory, according to the desires that he places into your heart. Number one, eliminating all evil and selfish wants and desires. If you say, I want to hold a grudge against my surly deadbeat ne'er do well husband, the rest of my life. Thank you, God, for giving me everything I want. I want him to get hit by a bus today. Okay. Number one, eliminate evil wants. And how do you do that? Study to show yourself approved. Dig into the word you'll learn here. So, oh, okay. Don't want jealousy. Don't want sexual. Don't want your neighbor's wife. Oh, okay. So that's, that's off my list now. You know, it's like, okay, don't be greedy. So, so, you know, be satisfied. I've got, you know, I got enough and now I can give more and, and I thank God for his abundance, but I'm not going to live in greed and like, you know, every book I read is, has the title money in it, you know, it's just not going to go there. And so I read my Bible and it says, okay, so I can eliminate those things and, and, and then begin to ask the Lord, Lord, if you're going to give me my wants, the first thing I want is to not want this. That's what I want. I want to not want to be greedy, to be selfish, to be angry, to be prideful, to be bitter, to be unforgiving. I don't want, that's a want, right? So even her saying, you're not supposed to have what you want. Well, maybe you might not get that then. And you'll be practicing these things that God says, eliminate, to eliminate, eliminate from your life. Number two, illuminate all the good and pure wants of scripture, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, health, provision, prosperity, grace, peace, just presence of God, love of Jesus, evangelistic power, love for your neighborhood. All these things say, I want that. Yay. Family. It's not bad. Look, if you're single here today and you want to get married, don't like, you know, as Paul says, it's better to be single. Like, and it's like, oh, please God, please God, no, please God, no. Don't just throw around scriptures like a blanket, like I'm supposed to wear this. Say what you want. Tell God what you want and tell people what you want. I mean, maybe not today during the church service if you see somebody, but that could be scary. Hey, I want, Gary said, I want to be married. Hey, baby, I want you. You know, it's not, don't, don't go there. That's so illuminating, illuminating all good things. Many of us have been afraid to ask or want because of fear of disappointment. You grew up in a family. I had one experience that was somewhat minorly traumatic to me. I remembered it, but you've had traumatic experiences in your family. You've grown up where every day you've been hurt and abused and wounded and neglected and forgotten. And so for you to want something is very dangerous, but I want to say to you, please, I pray that the Holy Spirit would anoint you to hear this with your ears and receive it in your heart. You have a good, good father. Who's not like your earthly father. He loves you. He cares for you. He's different. He's, he's other, he's, he's unique. He's one of a kind and he does nothing but heap blessings upon his children to, to eliminate the things that are evil in our heart so that we can live a good and godly lifestyle. Identify it clearly. Don't be afraid to say it quick experiment. All right. In, in five seconds, in 10 seconds, I'm going to ask you what you want. I don't want you to shout it out. Okay. And, and, and just what, and don't, don't say Jesus because you already got them. Okay. And, and nobody's going to give you like, you know, you're offering back today. If you yell out Jesus, that's now, if you don't know Jesus, that's please say that because that's the best thing in the world. Seek him first and everything else will be added unto you. So, so maybe if you don't know Jesus, that'll be the greatest thing you'll ever do. And so just in five seconds, just, I want you to shout the name, Jesus, and we'll pray for you today to get saved, to get to know him, to fall in love with him and to receive the, the, the knowledge and insight of who this good, good father we're talking about is today. But, but if, but if you already have Jesus, you have all that you need, something that you really want. Okay. Something specific. Okay. Ready? Five, four, you're going to shout out five, four, three, two, one. That was decent. I didn't hear anything anybody said. So, but for many of us, it's hard to actually think of something we want because we've been so trained to say, no, no, no, no, please don't. I only want to, I want to do, you know, I want to give, I want to others. It's like, take, take care of yourself. So proverb says my own vineyard. I haven't kept, I've kept the vineyard of others, but my own vineyard, I haven't kept. And it's not selfish to say there are certain things in your life that are desires of your heart. Lastly is activate. So eliminate, illuminate, get clear, have it in your mind, put it on a prayer journal. Here's what I want. God, here's what I'm praying for. Here's what I'm believing for. And God might say no, and you don't get disappointed with him. And, and you just, just learn to, okay, that's in the category of a no, that's fine. Sometimes it's a no. Lastly, activate your wants through actions. So I've talked to people and they say, I want my, you know, I went to the doctor that day and my blood pressure is through the roof. It's crazy. I want my blood pressure to come down while they're eating a donut. I want my blood pressure to come down. Meet me at Long John Silver's. We'll have some fish and chips together. I'm going to pour, you know, this much salt on the French fries. And then we'll go to McDonald's and have, have a McFlurry extra large. You know, it was like, okay, if sometimes the things that you want, you have to participate with the father who's giving it to you. So he, so he has given you DNA molecules, blood types, things working and functioning in your body. That if you will do what he says to do and live a healthy life and eat well, if he's, if he's telling you that, I want to, I want to lose a hundred pounds or I want my blood pressure to come down. And then he says to you, okay, I want you to have that too, but you have to eat well. It doesn't, it doesn't just disappear. Like I said, at the pastor's conference, like you cannot have a three scoop brownie Sunday with extra fudge and pray over and say, Lord, take out all the calories. It doesn't, the new covenant as good as it is, does not cover that. And so, so you have to activate through action. Some of you are saying, I just wish I had a steady income at a better job. Even though I've quit the last six jobs because my boss wasn't nice to me or the working of somebody who was smoking during the break, or I didn't get a raise quick enough. Stay with it, work hard. You want a steady income, then take some action. You have to maybe invest in learning a little bit more about your trade or, or go to night school or, or, or just say, there's certain things that, that I want in my heart. See, once you release the wants, once you illuminate the wants in your life, it's going to give you the action plan. You're going to say, yeah, I wanted to go there. Yeah, I want to do that. I want to be an artist, but I don't want to go to art school. You know, I just wanted to come as a gift, just like, looks like Mickey mouse. That's like not, not good. No study. The Bible even says that study to show yourself approved. Does that mean just only if you're preaching sermons and you study your Bible? No, it's study your craft, study the things that interest you, find something that you're passionate about and give yourself wholeheartedly to it. It is not wrong to say I want amen. Amen. If a few minutes, a few minutes ago when I was saying to you, what do you want? You shouted some things out. Was there anybody in here today that was in agreement with me? Yeah, that I like this thing about want, and maybe the first step, if, if the Bible is true and says, seek first the kingdom of God, that's Jesus. And then everything else will be added unto me. That reality. Let me start off today by taking that first step and getting to know Jesus. Then we'll start dealing with some of the, all these other things will be added unto you a little bit later. But if, if that's you, you said that, or maybe you didn't say it, but you would wish you would have said it. And, and, or you want to say it, you want to get prayed for right now that that Jesus thing might become your reality today. Would you just raise your hand wherever you are up in the balcony? You're saying you either said Jesus or you want Jesus. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Anyone else? Come on, raise your hand. There's some others here over here. Is there more? There's got to be more. There's like, there's probably a hundred people that probably gonna raise their hand right now. Just say Jesus. Yay. Anyone else? Just, just, we'll wait for you. Just say, I'm not gonna ask you to come to the front. I'm just going to ask you to raise your hand and we're going to pray for you right where you are. Anyone else? All right. Jesus, three or four people here today. I'm blessed. There's no way I could, I love walking through hotels and talking to staff, and I like walking down the streets and stopping and praying for people, but there's no way I could lead three people to Jesus today. And I got a chance to do that right now. I'm leading three people to Jesus here. Maybe, maybe more I didn't see, but everyone that raised their hand, Jesus, introduce yourself to them. Tell them I'm your friend. I'm your savior. I forgive all your sins. I take away all the evil of your past. If you just confess your sins, you'll forgive me for all my unrighteousness. And now Jesus, you will give me a whole new heart and a whole new life. I receive that now in the name of Jesus. My friends, the Bible calls that being born again, like a whole new start. Old things pass away and all things become new. Come to the one o'clock service and begin to learn about this new life that you're experiencing. But right now, thank you in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, you have received salvation. Let's put our hands together and thank the Lord. I want to pray for your wants now. I don't know if you've ever had anybody pray for what you want, but I'm going to do that right now. How many of you have a big want in your heart? Maybe it's even a desperate one. Maybe it's even a crucial like, this is kind of life and death. It's, it might be close to a need. And so leave your, hold your hand up for a long, leave it up the whole time I'm praying. Would you, if your hand gets tired, get in shape. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, thank you. Number one, deliver us from false guilt, shame, and condemnation. Number two, delivers from evil desires that we'd not want selfish ambitions. We'd not want strife. We'd not want selfish gain and, and a filthy lucre, as the Bible calls it. We'd not want things that you don't want us to take that away. Oh, but God, there are things in our heart that you have planted from long ago. There are things you put in our DNA that we were created for. And God, there are artists in this room and there are financial geniuses in this room. And there are business creators in this room. And there are singers and dancers in this room. And there are administrators in this room. And God, there are people who work on construction sites that just have a love for that, you know, get ripping things up and getting things done and bless them. God, their creative nature, all that there are teachers in this room. God, there are some that are just ready to give up now. And we say, no, in the name of Jesus, you will not give up. And we put now behind us all shame, condemnation. When we walk out of this building today, say, wow, this following Jesus is much better than I ever imagined, because he's for me and not against me. In the name of Jesus. Amen. And amen. God bless you guys. Thank you so much.