In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes that God has a purpose for every young person's life. He uses the example of David from the Bible to illustrate this point. The speaker encourages young people to ask God to fill them with the Holy Spirit and to believe that He will. He also challenges them to seek God's purpose for their lives and not to simply go their own way.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Thank you for that song, Brother Caleb. I couldn't have picked a better one if I would have sat down and taken my notes and looked through the songbook. Praise the Lord. All right, we want to get right into our session here this afternoon and get down to business today. We've made our introductions and those things yesterday, and now we must get right into the meat of our subject. The title of the message this afternoon, Purpose and Power in David's Life. Purpose and Power in David's Life. I left you with a challenge yesterday to consider that God, the Sovereign Lord of the universe, has a plan and a purpose for your life. You may not see it. You may be going your own way. You may have your own ideas. You may have your own plans about what you're going to do. But the God of the universe who made you has a plan and a purpose for your life. God said, we saw it yesterday, I have provided me a king. Now that statement is pregnant with purpose. And that's what we want to begin with this afternoon. That statement that God made about David is pregnant with purpose. Now David will not be a king for twelve more years. And I want you to note that. If he's eighteen years old, he's not going to be a king for twelve more years. But here is the God of heaven, the God who calls the things that be not as though they already are. He has said, I have provided for me a king. This is not a quick statement that God has made. He has been working on it for years already in David's life. And he will work on it for twelve more years before David sees the reality of that statement which God made to Samuel. I have provided for me a king. In 1 Samuel chapter 13 and verse 14, Samuel said these words to Saul. The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart. Dear brothers and sisters, dear young people, God's heart has not changed. He is still going to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for men and women like David who are those who are after His own heart. When God finds a heart that is after His heart, God will focus on that life. That may be why some of you are having some troubles in your life these days. God heard your heart. And He is preparing you for the work that lies ahead. Many of you sat in Bible schools just like this one fifteen years ago, young people, or filling beautiful, responsible places of service today. God said fifteen years ago, I have provided Me an elder, a godly father. I have provided Me a missionary. I have provided Me a pastor's wife. I have provided Me a teacher. I have provided Me an evangelist. I have provided Me a servant to be My servant. That's God. God said that fifteen years ago to some godly elders that stand in pulpits and preach the Word of God today and meet a whole flock of the people of God. They sat here fifteen years ago. They sat where you're sitting right now. They got their little notebooks out and their pens and they took notes on the things they heard. And they took seriously the things they heard, by the way, or they wouldn't be sitting in those places today, I guarantee it. I have provided Me an elder, a missionary, a pastor's wife, an evangelist, a teacher. And now it's your turn, young people. What will you do with what God gives you this week? That is the question. God had a purpose for David's life and He had been working out that purpose for many years before He made that statement and many years before we come to I Samuel chapter 16. Long before He said, I have provided Me a king, God was busy. Today, I want to convince you young people of one thing, that God has a purpose for your life. You may not know what it is. You may not have any sensing of it. You may think I'm a bit crazy standing up here telling you that today. But my heart is to convince you that just like God had a purpose, a high and a holy purpose for David, God also has one for you. And it's so much higher and it's so much greater and it's so much far-reaching than anything that you might think. And it's there. And it's in the heart of God. I promise you it's in there. It's beautiful. It's exciting. It's fulfilling. It's challenging. You young men, you want some adventure? Huh? You like adventure? Let me give you some adventure. You set the sails of your life this week to find out and fulfill all the will and God's purpose for your life. You take that challenge on. I tell you what, you get a good glimpse of that and sailing around the world in a sailing ship will look like joke to you. You want an adventure? God is giving you one. It's beautiful. It's exciting. It's fulfilling. It's challenging. It's rewarding. And if you haven't figured me out yet, I love it! I love it! Oh, if you could get a glimpse of it. If you could get that sense that God, the eternal God of the universe has something for me to do. Something for me to do. I remember when I got born again. I remember when the presence of the living God came down upon my life for the first time the day after I was born again. I knew it! God has something for me to do! And I've been pursuing it all these almost 33 years. I've been pursuing it with relish. I love it! That sense of purpose was on David's life. Long before he was called from the sheep to come to Samuel's sacrifice, God was brooding over that young man's life. Long before he heard that runger coming from the distance and finally huffing and puffing there and saying, David, your father, your father is calling you. They stopped the whole sacrifice and they're not going to go until you come. What? Let me just interject to you young people here today. I don't believe that David was totally shocked at those words. Because the Spirit of God begins to work in the heart of an open heart much before those calls come. And David probably pondered, what does all this mean as he ran back to Bethlehem that day? God? What is it? Is it now, Lord? Is it now? Maybe you've had those kind of thoughts before. Is it now, Lord? Or is it later? What is it, Lord? What is it? Young people, God doesn't just walk by someday and shake you and say, oh, by the way, I want you to be the king over all of Israel. God doesn't work that way. No. He starts brooding over a life way before then. And you may not understand what is going on inside of you and frankly, maybe it's not real good for you to know everything that God wants you to do. If all we're talking about today is that that holy sense of God's purpose for my life is settling down over you in the youth of your life so that you can engage your heart and prepare. Amen? God doesn't just walk by somebody and shake them and say, oh, by the way, I want you to be the king over Israel. And He won't do that with you either, young people. He won't do it that way. If He finds you asleep, if you are sitting here complacently wandering your way through life, He probably will not knock on your door when He's got some glorious work to do in His kingdom. He's not going to knock on your door. He's not going to wake you up out of your sleepy lethargy and say, by the way, I've got something very good for you to do. He'll walk right past your sleepy door and go find somebody else's door where they're sitting there alert and open and listening. That's what God will do. And my heart's desire here this afternoon is somehow just to wake you up to the reality of some of those things. Purpose, young people. May God wake us up to His purposes. I want you to use your imagination a little here for just a few minutes and picture David. Just picture him. See him there. He's just a small boy. Who knows how old he is? Maybe he's ten years old. When God begins to flutter over his life and drops those little impressions in there, thoughts about what was spoken in the synagogue on the last Sabbath day, thoughts about who God is, thoughts about God's creation as He is out there with His little sheep and He's out there underneath the beautiful stars. See David there. God often starts when you're younger. See him there walking out in the fields with impressions about God and thinking about the God of Israel. See him there. I wonder how old he was the first time that he probably as a boy reached out and picked up a harp and just started plucking it a little bit. Can't you just see the Lord sitting on His throne that day, the first day that David picked up a harp and the Lord leaned forward and looked down on that young boy's life as he had that harp in His hand because God knew. God knew what David was going to do with that harp. Oh, he's just a little boy and he just has a little harp in his hand. Is that right? Imagine the God, sovereign God sitting on His throne that first day when that little boy picked up a sling and put it in His hand and started this way, you know, and reached out for His first stone and put it in there. And maybe the first time He went around a few times and it went off over there instead of over there. But the Lord leaned forward again and looked down on that boy because He knew what that sling was going to do someday. Amen? You get the picture? You get the picture of the purpose of God on somebody's life? I don't know what kind of harp you have in your hand. I don't know what kind of sling you have in your hand. I don't know what you have in your hand, but I hope what you have in your hand is holy that it would cause God to lean over a bit and look down on you because He knows. He knows. Because of His foreknowledge, He knows already. See Him there. God has a purpose for your life, young people. Young man, young lady, it's not just David. We live in such an anemic state here in America. We don't even stop and think that God might have something for us to do, but He does. And all the while, we sit in our anemic state and I know there's some of you sitting in this room that are exactly that way today. See, I saw you. God saw you. All your frivolity and all your nonsense, God saw you. And you're so anemic, you don't even have a clue that God would have anything for you to do. But I pray that God will wake you up this week, that you would realize that there is a God in heaven and He is the Almighty God and you're going to answer to Him someday for the life you wasted! The life that He gave you and you wasted in your frivolity and your nonsense. I told you we were going to get down to business today. And all the while, God is searching for tender hearts that are turned His way. And He goes to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for that tender heart that is turned His way, that heart that's upright, that heart that is... that gazing heart, that pondering heart, that wondering heart, that seeking heart. Oh, you may not know what God wants you to do yet, but your heart is turned upward and you wonder and you ponder. God is watching. See David there out under the stars at night singing. Singing. Oh, He's not doing anything important. He's just singing to the sheep so they'll settle down and go to sleep. That's all He's doing. He's just singing to the sheep. Don't worry about it. Don't bother yourself about David. He's just out there singing to the sheep. That's all. Oh yeah? Maybe you've been singing to a few sheep too and you didn't realize what you were doing. Yes, David, sing. Sing, David. Sing to your little sheep, David. And taste worship out underneath an open heaven on a starry night. Sing, David. Sing. Let the stars preach to you, David. Let the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show you, David, personally, His handiwork and His power. Yes, David, you sit out there under the stars and let that sense of God's purpose settle down over your life, your young life. Yes, I know, in those days, he didn't have any idea what God was wanting him to do. And you probably don't have any specific ideas either and you really don't need them yet. Probably could spoil you or scare you so bad you wouldn't move forward. I've been scared a few times, I'll tell you that. I'm glad God didn't tell me what I was going to do way back there when I got born again. And He just put that sense of purpose on my heart. And I started to prepare. Day one. Day one, I started to prepare. My prayer to God today is that that same sense of that divine purpose would settle down on your hearts. Oh, young people, so many Christian youth in America are flip-flopping their way through life. They go to church. They carry a Bible. They sing their songs. But they have no purpose. They have no vision. They have no dreams. And probably not much will ever happen in their lives. But, you sit here this week and I'm telling you, you are hearing things here this week that those flippant young people probably will never hear. You're hearing things this week that I didn't hear when I went to Bible school, young people. You're hearing those kind of things. And God has and God will arrest your attention. Because He is calling you out of a complacent world, out of a lackadaisical world, out of a worldly world, God is calling you into His holy purposes. He's calling you, young people, to sell out to Him and to get in tune with His purposes for your life. He's calling you. I know He's calling you. It is as if God, through my voice, is calling out to your hearts today, I have a purpose for your life. Will you give me your life so that we can get on with my purpose? See David there? His first struggles with his lot in life. He was the tenth born, like we said yesterday. And he had his share of family trials to work through. He didn't just pass all his tests, just like you don't pass all your tests with your big brother, or your big sister, or your little brother. He didn't pass all his tests either. See him out there in the fields with his sheep? He has an hour or two with nothing to do, and he's just reflecting all of this pondering and praying and bringing these things up to God at night. Maybe his big brother Eliab let him have it that day and was a little unkind with him and pushed him aside and told him, don't bother me now. It hurt him. It wounded him. It was real. It was a real pain. And there he is out there with his sheep, working through these things in his heart. You know, David, he had a real world to face, just like you do. He wasn't some chosen vessel that God protected all through the rest of his life. I promise you that. God does not make His chosen vessels that way. He has His chosen vessels. His chosen vessels are the ones that are willing to submit themselves to a sovereign God's work in their life, in their day-to-day, everyday life. Those are God's chosen vessels. And He doesn't put them in some little greenhouse somewhere and give them a nice little perfect life where they never have any problems or any difficulties to work through. That's not how God makes chosen vessels. David lived in a real world. He had real problems, just like you and I do. Real battles and real disappointments. See him there, young David. You know, he's not on the scene yet. He's just in God's quiver. You know, he's nobody important. See him there. Maybe his father Jesse had a little misjudgment that morning in a decision that needed to be made at home. And David knew as he left the house that day to take his sheep out there into the fields, he knew Father didn't do too well today. He knew. And he's sitting out there on a rock watching his sheep. And the verse comes to his mind. That one there in the fifth commandment. Honor thy father and thy mother. Which is the first commandment with promise. That it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long in the earth. David was working through issues and struggles and battles in his life. He didn't have a perfect dad. He didn't have a perfect mom. He didn't have perfect brothers and sisters. And neither do you. See him there meditating under the stars, thinking about the Word of God. I don't know where it was the first time that those words gushed up out of his heart. You know, the ones you find there in the Scriptures. Oh, how love I thy law! I'm not sure when it was that those words gushed out of his heart the first time, but maybe he was out there one of those days as he was meditating. Meditating on the commandments of the Lord in the night watches. It is here in this setting that God began to provide Himself a King, young people. There. You know, we kind of have it different. We have a different mindset in America today. If God's going to provide Himself a servant, you go away to a Bible school and you stay there for four years and you sit in classes all day, every day and all that. That's not how God prepared His servants. Sorry. It was a bit more of a real world for them. Yes, this is where God began to provide Himself a King in obscurity, out there by Himself. Nobody special. Nobody famous. No attention on Him. He's the last one in the family. That's where God provides Himself a King. Who's going to watch the sheep? They said one morning. One of the other brothers piped up, Let David do it! We have more important things to do. And the sovereign God sitting on His throne leaned over again and whispered, Yes, let David do it. Let David do it. That's right. Let David watch the sheep. I want to teach David to keep my sheep someday. Yes, let David watch them. Oh, David, trust God. Trust God, David. Trust your parents. It'll all work out. David, don't give in to those thoughts, David. Don't give in to those attitudes. Let David watch the sheep. Don't give in to those attitudes, David. Sovereign God is sitting on His throne watching over your life. And while you are tempted to think, Let David watch the sheep. God is saying, Yes, yes. Let my son David watch the sheep. And He is the sovereign God and He has some lessons to teach you, David. And He is going to make you a man after His own heart out there while you watch the sheep. Don't miss it, David. Don't give in to those rotten attitudes and miss what God wants to do in your life while you're out there in that little sheepfold, David. Don't do it. Don't do it. He's going to train you to be a man after His own heart by doing the least jobs, the one that nobody else wants. The God of glory, David. The God of the universe. The sovereign King and God and Lord of all the earth. That God is training you, David. Go watch the sheep, boy! Well, I don't know this afternoon, I don't know what kind of sheep you are watching, but do you get the analogy? I don't know what kind of sheep you are watching. I want to tell you this, young people, if you will look into the Scriptures, you will find out some of the most powerful men and women whom God used far beyond anything you can imagine. God trained them in an everyday life. Keeping the sheep. Serving Potiphar. Working in the jail. Bearing the King's cup in Babylon. That was Nehemiah. I don't know what kind of sheep you are watching, but I know that God has mysterious ways to train His servants. I mean, look at Moses. He took Moses, trained in all the abilities and all the arts and all of the sciences of the Egyptians, and God takes him and puts him out on the backside of the desert for 40 years to do what? To keep sheep! To keep sheep! For 40 years! And after Moses is all done, or I should say all undone, there's a difference by the way, and he's all empty, and he's stuttering, and he's lost all self-confidence, then God says, Come on Moses, I've got two million of My sheep that I want you to lead. That's how God does it, young people. That is how God does it. Don't underestimate God's training program. You may think, What am I doing here? You may think those thoughts. Maybe the job you have, you think, Well, what can I do? And here I am. And maybe some of you girls feel that way. And you're just helping your mom take care of all those little babies that are at your house. And yush! How long am I going to do this? And when will I ever get to do something for God? Careful, careful. Don't underestimate God's training program. You may be mother to a king someday. Don't you evaluate till you lay your head down on your pillow just before you die and go to glory. Then you can look at it all and see whether it was right or not to follow God in all His simple, awesome, mysterious ways. My dear young people, if you could get that sense of divine purpose that it would settle down upon you and set your heart to be faithful and to prepare and to serve where you are, God would train you for His higher purposes. I know that He would. God has something for you to do. David was an ordinary person with an ordinary circumstances just like you and he had an ordinary family setting just like you do. But, there's one thing that may be different between you and David. He had a deep sense that God had something for him to do. He had this deep sense that he was fearfully and wonderfully made for a purpose by God. For a purpose. As I look at David's life, I see preparation with a capital P written all over his early years. God was preparing him. And for your sakes, young people, I'm glad that he was young. So you can't put him up there on some super special pedestal and say, well, that was David, but it's not for me. I'm glad that David was young. So we can all learn, just like with David, God has something for me to do. You are in a stage of preparation in your life right now. And young people, there's so much to do. Not a one of you can dare think what can I do when there is so much to do. I thought about it yesterday. There's 600 and some of you here. God would lay His hand on every one of you and sanctify you and cleanse you and fill you and use you for His special purposes. Every one of you. And He still wouldn't get done with all that needs to be done. Don't you dare sit there and think, what can I do? Ask stuttering Moses what you can do. Rather, get that lofty heart that gazes heavenward and says, and do it in humility and do it in brokenness, but look up there and say, I wonder what God wants me to do with the life that He gave me. And then, prepare. Prepare. Maybe you sit here today and you say, you say, life's pretty meaningless for me. Pretty humdrum. I just kind of go through it one day at a time. No purpose. No direction. Maybe you're bored. Maybe you join in with some of your friends, you know, on a Friday evening or a Sunday afternoon and you say, what do we do? What should we do tonight? I'm bored. What should we do? Let's just go driving around. Hey, let's go down to so-and-so's place and see if there are any games going on down there. What do we do? I'm bored. Are you bored? You give yourself away, my young people. You give yourself away. You may as well put a big sign and hang it around your neck. I don't live very close to God. You may as well just get a big sign and hang it around your neck. Girls, fooling around, teasing, laughing, joking, just put a big sign and hang it around your neck. I don't live very close to God because you give yourself away. I've noticed through the years of my ministry, and that's a lot of years now, when someone gets in tune with God, when someone gets all the sin out of their life, when they get thoroughly right with God, when they surrender everything to God and come through to that open heaven in their life, immediately, God's purposes begin to emerge. Oh, God may not tell them that day when everything clears up and opens up, this is what I want you to be doing in 15 years. He may not tell them that. But all of a sudden, that sense of God's purpose for their life, it's just there. It's just there. May I encourage you young people, seek God until that sense of divine purpose begins to beat in your breast. Don't stop until you have that sense in your heart. I've noticed that through the years. I've seen men that were 50 years old get in tune with God, and two years later they were on a mission field in a mud hut in Africa. You know, you would think, in the natural you would think, 50 years old, what are they doing going over there? That's for the young ones. But not for that man. I mean, when he got in tune with the God of the universe, all of a sudden he realized the God of the universe has some reason for him to be here on this earth. And he got with it. It's that way. You get into that place where your heart is right with God, and then you begin to listen. And God will put meaning in your meaningless life. He'll do it. Give your life to God and start to prepare. Get in God's school. And by the way, most of the time, God's school is right where you're at. But most people don't realize that it's God's school. But it's usually right where you're at. It was there all the time. You were just missing it. Young people don't settle for anything less. God's purpose and power in David's life. That's why we're studying about this man. That's why. God's purpose for your life is hidden in God. It's hidden there. When you come into reality, God's hidden purposes start to come. Do you believe that? It will be that way. It may take you five more years to get it figured out, but it will be that way. Now let us move on to the power in David's life. Let us move on to there. You can turn to 1 Samuel 16. We'll be reading a few verses there in a moment. By the way, the power flows out of the purpose. It is because David was filled with that sense of God's purpose in his life that David found himself at that place where he was empowered with God's power for his life. The one brings on the other. The one flows out of the other. And it's right for us to stop here and look at this subject of the power that is in David's life. Because we will be looking at some amazing things in David's life. And I think it's important for us to put it in its proper perspective. Reading in 1 Samuel. These are favorite verses for me. Reading chapter 16 and verse 11. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest. And behold, he keepeth the sheep. Ah, that little statement looks different, doesn't it, by now? That doesn't look so lowly anymore. He keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in. Now he, David, was ruddy. That word ruddy means pink cheeks. You know, have you ever seen a young man who had pink cheeks? He was ruddy. And with all of a beautiful countenance. And goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. See, Samuel, he made the mistake that we make sometimes. He went through all those boys already. And he looked them over one by one. Oh, look at that big strapping fellow. This surely must be him. And then the next one came. My, what a handsome guy he is. Surely this is the one. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Passed by the strong one. Passed by the handsome one. You know, when Joshua was a little boy and we were teaching him this chapter, he started going around the house after that saying, Mama, God's not going to use you. Because you're pretty. No, God will use you if you're pretty. And God will use you if you're strong. But if you think you're pretty and you think you're strong, you'll probably sit there until you get wrinkles all over your face before He picks you up and uses you. God said to Samuel, Arise, anoint him. This is he. My, those must have been sweet words out of God's heart. This is he. This is he. I've been watching him. I've been watching over his life. I watched him pick up that harp the first time. I watched him pick up that sling the first time. I watched him as he went out there to be the shepherd boy the first time. This is he, Samuel. This is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. That's far enough to read. Samuel took up his horn full of oil. And it wasn't just oil. It was holy anointing oil. It was special oil. They were only supposed to use it to anoint prophets and priests and kings. May God do the same thing here this week. Anoint some prophets, some priests, some kings, some queens, some princes, some princesses for His glory and His honor. It's holy anointing oil. It isn't used on just anybody for any old thing. It's used to anoint prophets and priests and kings. It smells. It smells beautiful. It's like the sweetest perfume you ever smelled. And it's not Chanel No. 5, I guarantee you. It's the sweet smell of the Holy Ghost on a sanctified life. That's what it is. Put yourself in David's shoes that day. You've come from the sheepfold. You've been out there and all the lessons are behind you. It's going through your mind. Lord, is this an important thing? Somehow he would sense those things in his heart. While the holy oil was being poured on David's head, according to what the Bible says, the Holy Spirit came upon David. Now, I can assure you, each one of you, that when the Holy Spirit falls on someone, they know it. David did not get up from that anointing and walk away just like he did when he walked in there. He knew something was different about him from that day forward. That oil landed on his head and began to run down over his face and down upon his garments. And as that oil was running down over his head and down across his face and onto his garments, the oil of the Holy Ghost fell upon him. And the Bible says it was upon him from that day forward. From that day forward, a new power, a new ability, a new inspiration, a greater measure of faith was upon David from that day forward. This is important for you at Bible school, dear young people. It's good for you to know this. Because, you know, you sit through a Bible school like this and you hear lots of good teaching and good challenging messages and, you know, there's a danger for you to rise up in your heart with resolution and say, OK, that's right, we're going to do it and I'm going home and I'm going to pray like I never prayed before and I'm going to fast when I get back home and I'm going to do better when I get home. And I'm here to tell you this afternoon, young people, resolution will not reach. It's not by might and it's not by power. It is by My Spirit, saith the Lord. And if all you have is some good resolution, when you leave here at the end of this week, you'll fall flat on your face. I promise you, you will fall on your face. But God would have you to know that there is a way that you can live this victorious life that you're hearing about. That the provisions are already made, young people. And the promises are sure. You can't do it on your own. You will fail, I promise you. As David played and ministered to Saul there, and we'll read more about it tomorrow, he did it with the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon him. As David stood out there and stood face to face with Goliath, a giant, he did it in the anointing of the Holy Ghost. As David behaved himself wisely as he went out and came in before Israel and before Saul, he did it in the anointing of the Holy Ghost. As David fought valiantly again and again, delivering Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, he did it in the power of the Holy Ghost. And as David faced the greatest trials and sufferings of his life, he did it in the anointing of the Holy Ghost. And that's the only way that you will do it too, brother or sister. God wants to anoint some prophets and some priests and some kings and some princes and some queens and some elders and some missionaries and some godly fathers and some godly mothers to bring the influence and the authority of His kingdom down into a real world on this earth. God wants to use you to do that. Will you allow Him to do that with you? Who then will consecrate themselves for this cause? Who? We live in the age of these promises, young people. Acts 2, verse 39, the promise is unto you and to your children and to all those that are afar off. That's us. And if you turn over there to Joel 2, and I wanted to turn there, but the clock won't let me, but you turn there. But if you look there in Joel 2, one of the things that was prophesied in Joel 2, when He pours out His Spirit on all flesh in the last days, it says He will pour out His Spirit on our sons and our daughters and they will prophesy. That's you, brothers and sisters. That's you. That promise is for you. You don't have to wait until you're 30 years old. You don't have to wait until God gives you a call and ordains you into the ministry to be full of the Holy Ghost. God promised, I will pour out My Spirit on your sons and daughters and they will prophesy. You know what that is, sons and daughters? That's young people. You! Young people! You are the sons and the daughters. The promise of the Spirit, the promise of the power of the Holy Ghost is sure today as we sit here. It's sure. The Spirit of the living God coming upon you, the promise of an energizing, all-sufficient grace of God coming down upon your life in your youth is sure today, filling you, strengthening you and keeping you and giving you the power that you need to live out all your dreams and your visions, if you have any. It is the promise of the Spirit. And frankly, young people, you can call it whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me what you call it. You can call it the first blessing. You can call it the second blessing. You can call it the third blessing. It doesn't really matter to me what you call it. Get it? Get serious with God! Wake up! There is a living God and you will answer to Him. And you will! You will! The issue is not what you call it. The issue is you need Him. That's the issue. Ephesians 5.18 says these words, Be filled with the Spirit. Be not drunk with wine. Be not overcome with wine. Be not overcharged with wine. But be ye filled with the Spirit. That's a command, young people. That's a command. You say, well, Brother Denny, that's what I need. I want it! I want it! Well, first of all, it's not it. It's Him. It's Him. Like A.B. Simpson said so beautifully in a song that he wrote, Once it was the blessing. Now it is the Lord. Once His gift I wanted. Now the giver own. It's Him. It's Him. Don't seek after a blessing. Seek after Him. You will have all the blessings that go along with Him. I'm not telling you to go out of here and seek after some experience, some feeling. I'm talking about a face-to-face confrontation with the living God. That's what I'm talking about. So how do you get Him in closing, quickly? Number one, you get thoroughly right with God, young people. Nothing between my soul and the Savior. You get thoroughly right with God. And for some of you, you may never have been thoroughly right with God. You'll know when you are. Why? Why get thoroughly right with God? Because He fills clean vessels. This is holy anointing oil. So He fills clean vessels. Number two, empty your life of all questionable things. All questionable things. Why? Because He fills empty vessels. You come to Him with all your plans and all your dreams and all your ideas and what you're going to do and where you're going to go and what you're going to buy and what you're going to drive and all those things. You come to God that way, you'll go away with nothing from God. He fills empty vessels. Empty your life of all questionable things. And frankly, young people, you've got some questionable things that you've been hanging on to for a long time. And I'll tell you how I know because this thought goes through your mind pretty often. What's wrong with it? Oh, come on. What's wrong with it? They say. Let me ask you a question. What is holy and high and good and right about it? Get rid of all those unquestionable things. All those questionable things. Number three. Yield yourselves totally to Christ. Give it all up. I beseech you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Yield yourselves totally to Christ. Number four. Ask God to fill you and believe that He will because He promised that He would. Luke chapter 11 is such a beautiful example of that where Christ was teaching His disciples how to pray. And in the midst of teaching them how to pray, He taught them something that they should pray for. And He said it this way. He said, if you, being evil, know how to give good things unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? You say, well, Brother Denny, is that something you do one time? Well, I think I probably asked God to fill me twenty times already today. Twenty times. God, keep on filling me and keep on filling me and keep on filling me with the Holy Spirit. That has been my prayer all through the day today. As I sat and studied and prayed and sought the wisdom of God to say the right thing and say it in the right way, God, keep on filling me with the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to fill you. Once you're clean, once you're surrendered, ask Him to fill you and believe it that He does. And lastly, start walking from here. If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. In the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Then you just start walking from here. Young people, join David in the youth of your life. He was a young man filled with the Holy Ghost from that day forward. Don't think, well, someday when I'm older. No. If you will join David in the youth of your life, you will also join him in other things that he did. Join David in the youth of your life. Let me just say this and I'm done. Don't complicate your prayer groups today with trying to figure out, oh, how shall we pray and ask God to fill us with His Spirit. Don't complicate your prayer group that way. Get real today. Get serious today. Get open today. Get honest today. Say where you're at. Get clear today. Get surrendered today. Work on that in your prayer group. Don't confuse the whole thing with the discussion on, well, is it this way? Is it this way? Is it this way? No, no, no. You're missing the whole point. God fills and anoints clean vessels. Go for that, young people, with all your heart. Be like David who had purpose and power in his life, in his youth. Amen? Let's pray. Oh God, thank You. Thank You, Father. Thank You, God. Now touch them, Lord. Touch them. Don't let them be the same, God. Don't let them go their own little ways, Father. Touch them. Touch them with conviction, Father. You promised You would. You would send the Holy Spirit and He would convict of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. God, I'm trusting You to do that today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.