In this sermon, the speaker discusses the topic of temptation and how it affects every individual differently. He emphasizes the importance of taking control of our thoughts before they lead to sinful actions. The speaker also addresses the idea of spiritual warfare and the role of the enemy in our lives. He highlights the need to submit to God and resist the devil in order to experience victory over temptation. The sermon references James 1:14 and encourages listeners to draw close to God and seek His control in their lives.

As vice president there, Alan George, who was president, had a fabulous prayer life. I mean, just a man of prayer. I just thought, oh, it's so neat. You know, just touch me. It was so neat being around this guy and praying with him. And then when they booted me out of there and Mark in pity took me into ICBC, we met with Mark once a week praying. And if you haven't ever prayed with Mark, I mean, Harry's praying psalms back to God with his Bible closed, tears running down his cheeks, and it's like God's in this room someplace. I know he must be over there in the shadows, but God is in this room when you pray with Mark Bubeck. So I've had all of this for years in my life, and I'm going, why, why is it taking me so long? I liked what Marcus said because Marcus stole my thunder, although he never heard me say it, never heard him say it. But I'm reading the Bible through again and a new Bible. I was reading Genesis about where God told Adam to yada Eve. And then God wants us to have that yada relationship, that intimate relationship, and how Adam and Eve walked in the garden with the voice of God. And then Marcus picked up on that and thought, man, that's so great, because we were agreeing with him. But you know, when you have the same message, you always agree with the speaker. He's really sharp, smart, and intelligent. And I was reading all these, you know, so-and-so lives so long, so-and-so where he did that. But just before that, where the kid's son, I forget whose son it was, Enos or whatever son, Sam or somebody's son, began to worship God. Then you read all these people, and then all of a sudden out of that list, Marcus pulled out again, and I saw it. Enoch walked with God and was not. Between Enoch and Adam, all these people did the religious stuff. You know, the sacrifices, they did the religious stuff. But every now and then again, God calls somebody to walk with him. And I got my call late in life. I'm a doer. I'll do, you pray, okay? You know, I mean, I'm just real hyper-whatever. Probably drove everybody nuts. My parents and the Juvenile Delinquents Society in L.A. and everything else. I've just always been wound up tight. And so doing, and you pray. You know, I'm the Martha and not a whole lot of Mary in me. And all of a sudden, you know, I'm working up to Potter. He's in here. Don't get out and leave if I'm embarrassing you. But Aaron's in here. And I got Aaron's book. And I had to ask my question. And all my counselees, why don't I pray? Why pray? You know, now I lay me and bless the food in almost an accident. You know, the Skylobs and those kinds of things. But why didn't I have an intimate, deep walk with God personally? When I saw it all around me. And I realized that I had, I didn't know God by name. And I began to get to know, remember that's the third thing in warfare? A distorted view of God. I didn't have a distorted view of God. I had no view of God. Well, I could pass the names. I mean, after all, you know, I've taught in Bible colleges. So I could go, oh yeah, Jehovah, blah, blah, blah. But what did that mean? Say, what did those names mean? Well, he does this in this book. And I only found three good books on the names of God. And we have one at our office. Because I know that most of my counselees, they're not in sexual bondage. They're not in a mess if they have a walk with God. Sorry, they just don't. And if I don't get them walking with God when they leave there, all I did is remove some of the stuff. But they're going to be the dog back to his stuff, right? You know, what's Pearls Before the Swine or all that stuff. But anyway, this book is there. And Aaron did a phenomenal job on the names of God and explaining what they mean. Say, what book do we have? The other book, two books. This is all free beer to get into our stuff. But this is part of the stuff. What do you do after someone's delivered? Well, if we have teenagers that don't have a week, have them go through. We sell the book there. Lord, I want to know you by Kay Arthur. Because you interact in that book with the names of God. The other one is My Father's Name by Elmer Townes. And I've got all the names of God books that there were there. Now, you have some books now praying God's names. Excellent books. That the whole book is how to pray the names of God, using the names of God in your prayer time. But these others were getting to know who he is. So that was very important. So Aaron is here. His stuff is good. And I recommend it very, very highly. And I was really blessed by Aaron's stuff. Please buy this book. He has a wife and desolate children. Show them the hole in the bottom of your foot, Aaron, and the shoe. Show them, show them. Okay. When I fly, which I don't like flying, I'm not a white knuckler. I just don't. I've got long legs and they've made the seats closer together and all this stuff. So I take one of the new books. I think I've got 27 or 37 books waiting for me to read. So I picked up this one. I thought spiritual formation as if the church mattered, and how to have formation in a group. I thought that's interesting. This is a real emphasis of the school that I run, is that every fellow would have an intimate relationship with God in the three years, and giving them tools and that they can develop that. And then all the tools are secondary. Because I've taught in two other Bible colleges, and we saw a lot of guys graduated, you know, whether it's summa cum laude or whatever it is, and their lives are summa cum lousy. And there was somehow a breakdown between all this up here and down here, and I didn't want our guys to leave the school with lousy lives. I mean, I don't care if they can't do the Greek. If they can walk with God and hear God's voice and be directed by God, hey, that's unique. But let me, I read this. Dallas Willard is one of my favorites. He and Neil Foster and that whole crowd, the formational crowd. And that just means becoming Christ-like, how to become more like the Lord, the stuff they write. This is what he wrote. Dallas Willard reminds us, your system is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting. That is a phenomenal, phenomenal statement. Your system of counseling is perfectly designed to produce the results you are getting. Do you like the results? Then maybe you better look at what? What you're doing. And we're always looking. How can we make it better? Are we missing something? We better pray. Father, thank you for this time, and I just pray that you would help me to share. Lord, we know there are so many families that are hurting because of enemy activity and just crazy sexual stuff. And so I just pray, Father, what I share here may be a real help to those that are here. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Yesterday when I mentioned the young people that I had to deal with that were sexually addicted, one of the people in here, who is pretty well-known, said his three-year-old granddaughter is sexually addicted. And some are like, oh, really? That can't be so. You've got a guy right here that most of you would know if he stood up that talked to me yesterday and said, yes, what do we do? I'm sure you would know if I asked you, what would you do if someone is between one and two, two and three, four and five, in that age group that are sexually addicted, in a conservative family, no television, not putting kids in the church nursery because they've heard so many horrible stories, and never had babysitters. Though you can rule out a lot of that stuff. So what would have to be the obvious explanation for these kids being sexually addicted that have never seen anything? This one little girl would take a doll, she was three, take a doll and imitate the sexual love act with a doll and reach up in church and grab men in their sexual parts. Three years old. I mean, the folks are crying. You know, where does she get this stuff? Where in the world? This is sick. Okay. Anybody? Pardon me? No, it wasn't hospital. Basically, what would you look for in something like this when little kids are sexually addicted? What? Generational stuff. My book has generational stuff in it. Others talk about generational stuff. Remember the iniquities of the father visit to three and four generations. And that can start again. You know, a grandpa, I don't know how many monkeys are up our tree. My wife grew up on welfare. My wife grew up in inner city type situation where her family was all evil and wicked. Her sisters had babies. I don't know if they knew who the husbands were. My wife was a virgin. My wife witnessed at school about the Lord. And Jim, when he found out my wife grew up in welfare, could not believe it. Your wife was not in welfare. I said, yes, she was, Jim. You know, brother in prison. Terrible hellhole of a family. I mean, just, you couldn't be more of a cesspool. But God can lay his hand on someone there and keep them safe and sweet. My wife is sweet and safe and godly. If you ever met her, you'd say, what a godly woman. She just looks godly. She had to be. You know why. I said, do you ever wish you said I don't? So the generational thing. And it's interesting, the first time, and we won't go there, because my things are not generational. Someone did. The first time the Ten Commandments are given, it says God visits the iniquity. The second time the Ten Commandments are given, it says, God says, sin, transgressions, and iniquity. And out of that list, he says the iniquity of the fathers will be visited to children of those who hate me. And people say, well, I don't hate God, so obviously it's not going to affect my kids. I don't hate God. I'm a Christian. But we got the wrong definition of hate. There was a verse. I hope you brought your Bibles, because this is going to be out of the Bible. I'm sorry. I counsel out of the Bible, and I teach out of the Bible, because I feel opinions are like noses, and everybody's got at least one. And so what God says is far more important than any opinion I give you. I want you to go to, I can't remember where. It's Mark, Luke, or someplace in the Gospels. It's on top of the page. But when I was a counselor, not only did I teach in the Bible college and was teaching the counseling courses and so on, I also counseled all the kids. And we had 600 kids. And I told you what I said to them. They come in. You mean 600? How do you get through 600 in a semester? And I just say, is there anything you thought about not telling me? Something you don't want us to talk about? I said, start there. You know, instead of, well, let's work, and how do you feel? We haven't got time. Dump it, you know? And then I'm real good. I have handouts. You can't believe. Handouts. Well, that notebook we give you at the prayer retreat, I invite all of you to the prayer retreat, not women, but men, 673-page notebook out of seven three-ring notebooks that I have full of notes on prayer. So I have seven three-ring notebooks, and out of that, we took 600 and some pages to give you. I could write a book on praying the Lord's Prayer with about 20 different ways of praying the Lord's Prayer, or maybe more than that. And I love the prayer retreat, and that's really good for our guys to get alone with God. And you're only taught in the morning, then all afternoon, you're in the most gorgeous place, thousands of acres, lakes, paved roads, and nobody. You ever been to Upper Michigan in the pine trees and all of that and the retreat center is absolutely classy, classy, classy with an airstrip a mile behind it if you want to fly your private plane in and taxi it in under the whatever. Yeah, I'll tell you, it's Wolf Lake right in front of the place, acres and acres and acres of lake, and you can go in the woods and meet God. We teach you how to have solitude and silence and how to connect with him. Because someone said this, without silence, there's no knowing. Be still and what? And know. And if there's no stillness, there's no knowing. And it was very hard for me to get still, so I can teach you how to get still. Because none of you are as nervous and jumpy around as I am. But this verse is what these lousy kids in Bible school would give me. And I just hated it. And I knew it had to be a King James air or something. I think maybe his wife wanted it in there. Anyway, and that is Luke 14, 26. And I read it wrong the same way I read about hating God and that the Ten Commandments and iniquities aren't going to affect my families, no matter what the family iniquities are, because I don't hate God. Okay. And Luke 14, 26. If any man come after me and hate not his father, amen, I hated my dad, I can come. I didn't quite hate my mother, and I really didn't hate my wife. At times, my kids drove me nuts, but I don't think I ever hated them. Some of the brethren in the church I pastored maybe fell in the hate category. I could still be spiritual. And sisters, and yea, his own life also cannot be my disciple. I've heard people preach this thing away. You know, Dr. McGee was my pastor for a number of years. Best expositor of the Bible, as far as I'm concerned, you know, that has been on planet Earth since I've been around. And he explained it away. And then when I looked up the word hate in the Greek, I'm thinking, why didn't I start there? You know, Paul to make a living, because we don't pay him. We don't have the money. So he works at Olive Garden. You know, it's a place that they press olives or something in the garden. I don't know what Paul does there, but anyway, he works at Olive Garden at night so he can straighten me out in the daytime. So anyway, this thing here at the Olive Garden, when you go in, the girl gives you something. Sometimes the waitress brings out the table with your water. But what do they give you when you come in? They give you a menu. And I look in the menu, and I look at the Olive Garden menu, and I've got to make a choice. Well, anything with broccoli is real easy. What isn't broccoli here? But when I choose one, I'm choosing against all the other options. And hate means to what? Choose against. If I choose any of these things over him, then it's as if I what? Hate him with ten commandments. How does it start? Love him with all my heart. Remember, first, God first, and all these other things. And so when I put something in the place of God, it's as though I hate him. I'm choosing against him. That's why God is a jealous God. What is jealousy? Jealousy is the fear of being displaced in the heart of someone you love. That's why he's jealous, and his jealousy is right. Okay. Now, in our dealing with all the sexual addictive stuff, so the first thing we want to do is pray against generational stuff. Because I've never had a man in bondage that it didn't start at five years of age. I've already talked to some guys here that remember it was a five. Five years of age, they begin to have these sexual feelings, they begin to act out on this stuff, and begin to struggle. Even teenagers that we get. You look at the thing, we had a ton of teenagers in sexual bondages this year already. And then some on the phone that call me and ask if I can just maybe give them some help on the phone. It will start at five or four years old when they become sexually aware when they shouldn't. There's no reason for a kid in a godly home to have all of this, that are careful about what they're watching and they just can't watch anything, begin to have all of these strange feelings. Feelings that they wish they weren't male. I mean, a five-year-old boy wishing he wasn't a male. There's something not right there, right? And all kinds of weird stuff they're acting out. And so when you know it started at five, and it just begins to unfold, year after year, and they add, and they begin to experiment, and they begin to get deeper and deeper, and all kinds of stuff, well, you know that at five years old they had to be generational. Now, I have a different spin on generational. I'm not saying I'm right. I just have to do with what I believe. I believe that the generational thing that stops being a problem after a kid's eight or nine, it becomes his choices now. You say, well, I can't help it. I had a weird grandfather. He was sort of an ape in the tree. No, that may have been there, because I believe that what happens when there's inequities coming down generationally, that it gives the enemy a right to bring destructive temptation in the area in which the adult, you know, grandfather, great-grandfather, open their lives up to the control of the enemy. So it can pass down. And so it doesn't mean the person has to do this, but what does a five-year-old do? The confusion in a five-year-old with all this stuff going on, it's very, very difficult. And what is really good is when kids will talk. I was trying to think. If I do the big seminar stuff, and I don't know how many I've been in, maybe 300,000 in some of the big stuff we've been in, I tell them this, and I get all kinds of phone calls. Why don't you at some time ask your kids at the proper moment, do you ever hear anything no one else hears? Or do you ever see anything no one else sees? And you would be amazed at the phone calls I get of parents crying, because they didn't know the kids were hearing stuff. Never had any idea. Because I never asked them. Or that they were seeing things. And it's a good question to ask. And sometimes a young kid, you begin to sense there's something telling him to do evil, or this kind of thing, and he's struggling with what's going on here. And kids just think everything up there is themselves, right? A lot of adults do, too. That everything going on up there is just me, but not necessarily me. Okay, I want to go on. So we're looking at that. The sexual stuff can be iniquities coming on to the family, to the third and fourth generation, and so they're struggling under all this sexual stuff, sexual thoughts, acting out, all this kind of stuff. But in dealing with the sexual, if you only deal with the sexual, they will not have freedom. Now, we're not talking about DID. I don't even like talking about DID, because I'm always nervous I'm going to hurt them or say something wrong. The more I go to these classes, the less confidence I have. Am I going to set them back ten years? Dan deals with them. I don't, basically, because I only see people from out of state or out of the country. So you don't deal with a DID in a week. And I don't want to do some damage there in my week with them if they pop up. But Daryl and Vicky are very good. They're really close. They're in Colorado Springs. They're only one dial away. And if you have a DID that is absolutely, extremely difficult, and you don't know what to do, call Daryl or call Vicky. And they have been a real godsend for me with some really difficult, difficult, unbelievable, evil, evil, evil stuff. You know, not just a little disassociation, but really wicked, evil stuff done to them up through college age by their parents. It's hard to believe that a college kid could be so triggered. Brilliant guy. Triggered. I can only tell you, it's not even fit for men's ears, let alone women's ears, of what this family did to their son. Sick, sick stuff. And so I'm thankful that Daryl and them could deal with this. I call the guy every Monday. I'm mentoring him. I'm there for him. I love him. I want him to know I care. But I'm not going to get in Daryl's road. I try not to. You know, and I'm so thankful there are people that are experts. And sometimes these real fractured people need an expert, not someone playing with them. You know what I'm saying? Just try this or try this or try this if they're super fractured. Okay. So we found that just dealing in the beginning, the first thing we did was call up a demon. What's your name? Sexual. Or homosexuality, rather. And we cast him out and told him, Go home. God bless you. Everything's going to be fine. Got the demon out. They're going to go back and be fine. Well, we didn't ever call him on the phone to see what really was happening. We just hoped everything was fine. And, you know, so I looked at my method and I said, We better do something more than that and begin to work. Because we found that casting a sexual demon out of someone's life was not even the beginning of the end. Because there's a deeper problem. And that's what I want to share with you. I want to share the thing. If you talk to anybody who went through our counseling that was sexually addicted, they will tell you that when we dealt with the sexual stuff on Thursday for three hours, their sexual stuff, was not the thing that gave freedom. The freedom came on Wednesday. Even though they hadn't prayed about the sexual stuff, it was still there. And I want to share Wednesday with you. Because if you can get this, I know, I just tell you, this is one of the keys of the success of our office, is Wednesday. And I stumbled on this over a period of years. You know, it isn't like, boom. I want you to go back and I'm just going to take you through as if you were there for counseling. I want you to go to Isaiah. Isaiah 14. If I'm counseling teenagers, I'll go to Ezekiel 28. But if I'm not, I'll just go to Isaiah 14. Because the question is, what did Satan do that God booted him out of heaven? You know, what was it? Was it some sexual thing? Did he look at magazines? Was he listening to bad music? You know, was he doing drugs? What was he doing? So, verse 12. And it's a good question. If they have an NIV or that, it's really hard because people read Lucifer, it's translated Morning Star, and they read it as a shooting star. You know, the star shot out of heaven and it's not a shooting star. How art thou fallen from heaven? Oh, I'm sorry, 14.12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground that did weaken the nations? My counselees do all the reading. I mean, they're counseled for three hours straight with no break unless someone has to use the restroom. So we have 15 hours, but with three hours a day straight, they do all the reading. If they're home-teached, I like the kid, oh, you're one of the home-teach kids? Can you read? Okay, get your Bible, let's go. And they all laugh, home-teacher, I can read. What do you think? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit upon the mount of the congregation of the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. The first question I asked my counselee after I read that, who did Satan say the five I wills to? And almost 90% of them will say God. That's not what it says. Where did he say it? In his heart. The most important conversations you have, you have with yourself. As a man speaks in his heart, what did Jesus say? So is he. If I could get your self-talk, I'd know exactly where you are spiritually. You know? I went to the Bible, and I always, when I read the Bible through, I'm always looking for things. The last thing I look for, when a guy, I read his book, he said the most important word in the Bible is here. Well, I went through this Bible and marked every verse on listening. Not here, but listening. What does God say about listening or what a man says inside of himself? And I was amazed at how many times what a person says in the heart, that exact phrase is used over and over and over again in Scripture. It says a wicked man says certain things in his heart. It says a fool says certain things in his heart. It says a righteous man says certain things in his heart. You can stop an activity by obedience, right? God said don't. That's the beginning. You know how you know the end? It's when you don't think like that anymore. When this has changed. I was saved when I was almost 20 by the Navigators. Thank God for the Navigators. Best organization in the world outside of ICBC. Wonderful group. They discipled me. Three months later, I'm in the army. No Christian background. Nothing. And they gave me a little packet of verses to memorize. I didn't know I had learning disabilities and it was taking me forever to memorize 1 Corinthians 10.13. There's no temptation to take any of it, such as common man and so on, if you've been through the Nav stuff. And so I was putting together a Quad 50 machine gun under a blanket. I didn't have it right. The thing came back, smashed my thumb. I pulled it out. I mean, you can... It's a wonder I had a thumb there. It could take your thumb off. I pulled my thumb out, stuck it in my mouth and sucked it. I said, praise God. The guy next to me said, what are you praising God about? I said, I smashed my thumb. He said, why are you praising God? I said, I didn't even think of swearing. Something had happened. God was... I mean, I grew up in a family. We had a real good vocabulary. Literally taught us all kinds of words. Or we maybe just picked them up, you know. And I knew something had happened. Why? No, no. I didn't even say it. I didn't even think it because I was biting my tongue before. That's a change. You understand? That's a biblical change. You hear me? A biblical change is when I don't think like that anymore. But it's a process. I have to keep what? Washing my mind, renewing my mind, and so on. Okay. Now, it's the last I will that fits our study. He said, I will be like the Most High. Satan did not ex... I mean, pardon me. Satan did not ex out God. He didn't say God could be God. That's not what he did. He said, I want to be what? Like God. Now, this is where you need Aaron's book. What does Most High mean? Did he want to be like Jehovah-Jireh? Provide a sacrifice? Did he want to be like Jehovah-Raphae and heal people? No. So, if we know what this name means, we know exactly what's... See how important the names are? We know exactly what Satan wanted. Satan wanted to be like El-Elyon. El-Elyon is the one who rules sovereignly in the heavens and on the earth. What was Satan saying? He said, God, you can rule heaven and you can rule earth, but you can't rule me. The final authority in my life is going to be what? Me. When are you most like Satan? When you are running your own life. Fred Dickinson, my mentor, taught me warfare counseling at Moody's, said this. Satan became creature-centered. And Satan is selling his creature-centered philosophy to mankind. And if you buy into that, he'll rule over your life. Anybody that is being defeated with enemy stuff, what do you know? You know just from this one thing. They're creature-centered. What's the final authority in your life? Me. So if I cast demons out of them and send them out creature-centered, what's going to happen? Well, me is going to take over again. And we may get the demons clear in the parking lot. Or maybe even across the street. But they're going to be right back to their stuff. Because the problem was what? Me. And what do we mean, me? See, someone said this. I like this. I don't know who said it. But anything profound just really grabs you. I read somewhere. You know, I am not a real original profound person. But this is profound. Satan desired to be like God in control, but not character. Character. Now, I want you to go to Proverbs. We'll try to run through it barefoot. What time am I through? Does anybody know? I got some time. I got time? Okay. Well, we may put some running shoes on and go through Proverbs. Okay, Proverbs. When we're building life around ourselves, what we call that is pride. And the word has I in the middle. You know, I. When life revolves around me is really what pride is all about. And let's just look at verses on pride in your Bible, in Proverbs. And you're not going to find a good one. And it can really make me say, I better deal with this. I mean, what God is saying is going to happen if I don't do this. I'm in trouble. There are six things. Verse 16. There are six things the Lord hates. He hates seven are an abomination unto him. The word abomination is the worst word in the Old Testament. Six. Sixteen. So, abomination. There's no. It's worse than hate. It's the. It's way down there. Like, I hate broccoli. And it's almost abomination. But I really can't put in that classification because it's. It's the worst there is. And what's the first thing on God's list? A proud look. Pride on the kisser. God hates it. OK. Go to Proverbs. Eight. Thirteen. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy. God says. And the evil way. And the forward mouth. Do I hate? What's an evil way? An evil lifestyle. God said. I hate pride and arrogancy as much as any evil lifestyle you would choose. Why? Because pride and arrogancy will lead you into an evil lifestyle. When you're the final authority where it's going to take you. When you're a Christian. You know, the enemy wants you out there. OK. What's the difference between pride and arrogancy? In English, I knew. But I didn't know. In Hebrew. You know, I really had to rest. I'm not a. A Hebrew person. Although one of our students is super in Hebrew. Who's teaching at our school. It's nice when your students leave and come back and teach Hebrew and stuff. But he's teaching Hebrew. And pride and arrogancy is the same in Hebrew as it is in English. And that is you here can be very prideful. But it's not obvious. See, it's private. But when someone's arrogant, what do you say? Oh, that person's so prideful. Look, they're so arrogant. It's pride. Pride what? All over the place. It's displayed. And you can just pick up. And you say, oh, that person's so sickening. They're so set on themselves. Or, you know, whatever. Whatever. But anyway, God says, I hate both of them. Whether your pride is private or whether it's obvious. Because it will lead you to an evil lifestyle. You'll keep choosing to an evil lifestyle. OK. Proverbs 11, 2. Only by pride comes contention. We hate those verses. It should be usually. You know, you ever been in a church squabble? Over the color of the rug? Or what have you? You know, the new chandelier or what have you. They want the one from, what was it? Phantom of the Opera. They really wanted that one in the church, you know. So if the pastor wasn't really good, it could come swinging down towards the pulpit, you know. And let them know time's up or what have you. But, you know, churches squabble. You just get so sick of it. I can't imagine why a new Christian would even want to go to most churches. Are they through fighting? I'll go. They go there. Whose side are you on? What side? I'm on God's side. No, that's not enough. I mean, you know. Are you standing with these deacons or these? You know what I'm saying? Well, who's behind all of that? It's an enemy thing. He says, only by pride comes contention. You see contention, what do you know? You're not being critical. You're just discerning. There's pride issues here. When my wife disagrees with me, I want to be a godly husband and point out, you have a point of pride, Marguerite. No, I don't. My wife's sweet, but maybe not that sweet. I want to know why am I getting upset with the wife of my youth. Why am I standing up in the inside? What's the pride issue here? In me. Right? It's in me. That's what we're worried about. Not them. Me. What is the pride issue? God, show me. Because you're going to see pride is the most devastating thing that you could ever, ever be involved in. We're going to see that. Because you're going to end up a disaster. Okay? Look at Proverbs 15, 25. This is a strong one. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud. Guys, if you will not deal with your pride, it will take your family down. God promises. That's a promise in the word of God. That's not a promise we like to claim. You'll never get anybody claiming any pride promise at a promise meeting. Give your favorite verse. Oh, pride takes a family down. Hallelujah. No. So, I've got to realize I'm in big trouble. And the worst verse in pride in all the Old Testament is the very next one. The strongest verse on pride. And that is Proverbs 16, 5. Pride. Everyone. Not some. Everyone that is proud in the heart is an abomination to God. When do I become an abomination to God as a child of God? When I stand with Satan. Do you see what's going on here? That's what he is. And I stand with him, I become an abomination to God at that point. If I even regard iniquity in my heart, God won't hear my prayers. Imagine if you're an abomination standing with the enemy. Though hand join in hand, they'll not go unpunished. Some of the modern translations really help. Though they join forces. A church split is never one guy by himself. He's got to go out and get a crowd, right? Got to get out of the group. Look how big the group is. You're going to go down. Okay. Look at Proverbs 16, 18. Oh brother, I went too far. 16, 18. Everybody knows this. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Even unsaved know that verse. Somehow pride is going to take you down. If you don't deal with it, unless the Spirit of God show you where it is in your life, it will take you down. You know, one of the things that's really, really helped me is when I realized that I never have ever delivered anybody. Never have. And I've never given anybody freedom or victory. I like to spook out some of my counselees. I'm glad you're here. Did you come here to get victory? Oh, yeah. I said, we don't have it. Oh. Well, you already got it. Right? All we got to do is help you stand in what's already yours. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could sell victory? I'm telling you. I would be dressed better. I would have been up further in the airplane, up front, if I could sell. I'm what they call the second-class flyers. First class and the rest. One plane I was going so far back, I thought maybe I had the private room. Okay. Where were we? I mean, look, I got to go back. You guys interrupted me, and I didn't know where I was going. Am I going to the very last one? We just did what? Proverbs 16, what? 16, 18. See, the reason I'm so smart is I write the next reference right under that verse. You guys thought I had all this memorized. Proverbs 28, 25. Yeah, this is the last one in Proverbs. No, it isn't the last one. He that is a proud heart stirs up strife. And in Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride shall bring him down. And the question is why. What's the correlation between pride and my life crumbling? And we want to see that. I want to say something that I tell a lot of kids. There's one thing that has destroyed more Christian ministries, more Christian individuals, than failure. Success. Look what we have, what? Accomplished. Look what we have. Be careful. You're on thin ice. Anything that you do that has any lasting significance is God working through you. You hear me? Get out of the road. Get out of the road. Don't stand in His way. And when I counsel people, I'm constantly praying in my heart, God, show me what to do next. Where should we go? And it's amazing. Verses will pop up that I didn't even know I knew. Because I don't memorize Scripture because of my learning disabilities. It takes me forever. My wife is horrid. She doesn't understand submission. We were going to memorize Matthew 5, 6, and 7. I was on verse 3 of Matthew 5 and she finished all three chapters. You know, this isn't a race. But I didn't know I had learning disabilities so you wonder why can't I memorize? You know, what is wrong with me? And then when I found out, at least I know what's wrong. So I don't try to memorize them. I just read Scripture over and over and over again. And I'm getting it that way rather than trying to memorize a verse and trying to pull it up in my mind and all this stuff. It's really difficult. So I had a kid that came. He was ready to give up on life. Six-year-old kid. Good-looking kid. Even his muscles had a few muscles. You know, you want to see my muscles, Logan? Oh, wow. Do you lift weight or just steal food? What's going on here? And he was telling me he was worthless because he had dyslexia. I said, oh. And he didn't visualize. I don't either. And I said, I don't either. Ah, you're just saying that to make me feel good. I said, no. I said, if God can use me, a guy who can't visualize. You know, I said, I graduated from school. Come lucky. They said, we need the desk. We're too late. Really, I mean, if you went back to the Bible school and they said they taught you to had you teach in a Bible college? Were they cheap pay or what? Why did they hire you? I mean, I was likely not to succeed just because of my learning disabilities. When you don't know you have learning disabilities and they teach you like you have everything in place and you don't, you fail. And that just lets you know how dumb you are. So I told you about my dumb stuff. I want you to go to James 4 because this is where it really starts making sense. We looked at, what did Satan do? He wanted to run his own life. We looked in Proverbs that when I am running my own life, there's a lot of consequences in Proverbs as is going to happen if I do that. Now, James 4 puts it all together. Why is it that if I have pride in my life, I will live a defeated life? And where I'm defeated is not important. You understand? Whether it's sexual, whether you're stealing, whatever you're doing, you will be defeated. Okay, we got involved in the Swaggart situation. I know this is being videoed. You always got to be careful. Not dealing with him, but dealing with people involved with him. I don't want to go any further than that. And I'm going to share only newspaper stuff so there's no problem, right? It's in the newspaper. Okay, Swaggart, they realized that obviously a pastor that's struggling like this needed help. So they brought in a big-name demon caster that came and cast less demons out of this man. Hallelujah. Thank God, right? Praise God. This guy is a good preacher. This guy loves the Lord. I really believe with all my heart. But he was trapped. It's easy. We've had good people doing rotten stuff. My wife is a prophet. I come home. I said, you know, we've got this person doing this. I mean, we've had you name it on the spectrum from a guy who made his living in pono films and being a male stripper to the other end. I mean, everything. There's nothing that you could do that hasn't come through our office more than once. And so I said, you know, he's really a nice person. My wife's a prophet. Nice people don't do that. I said, but inside he's nice. Now we have rotten people. You know, there's some rotten people who do rotten stuff. And I never tell a guy who's, if a guy's rotten, I say, you know, you're really rotten. I mean, you don't want to counsel with me. I'm not the typical whatever. I don't know what all it's supposed to be, but I'll call it like it is, but I'll love him anyway. And they know I'm not rejecting them, but you are rotten. You better realize this. You're one of the worst guys I've ever had in here. Hoping maybe the Holy Spirit will use it. It just falls out of my mouth. I can't help it. I don't plan what I'm going to say to these people. It just comes. And I'm doing it because I love them. I don't think you will find anybody that ever counseled me no matter how evil, wicked, screwy stuff they were doing that didn't feel like I loved them and cared for them. I do. God just gave me a tremendous love for hurting people. And especially hurting because of wrong choices and just destroying their lives. How many HIV people have we counseled? Tons of them. They should have said no, but they said yes. Now they're suffering eternal consequences, or at least now, you know, here and now consequences with this horrible disease. It's getting them. Okay. Now, let's look in James because James tells us why pride will take a stand. James 4, 6. And I have them read this. But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. My question is, what does God want to give? And they'll say grace. And I say, you're wrong. Okay. Wrong? I say, yeah, you're right. It says God will give what? More grace. I said, if you had financial problems, in this hand I had some money, in this hand I had more money, what would you take? More money. Well, then, the question is, what's grace? And we had this guy running around the platform trying to tell us. But one of the definitions he uses didn't help me because it's a good Bible school definition. I think the teachers use that because they don't know what grace is. They say it's unmerited favor of God. Well, so is love and mercy. Well, are love and mercy and grace all the same thing or are they different things? It just means I didn't earn it. You know what I'm saying? There's got to be more to it than that. I really heard this and it stuck with me. You can react if you want to. Just say it is a definition of grace or a working definition of grace. But let me tell you, it will help you more to understand grace with this particular aspect of it. And I've looked at it in all the Hebrew and Greek and all that other stuff. Grace, or it's not grace in the Old Testament, but all the Greek stuff. Philippians 1.6 says, He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it on the day of Christ. Paul is committed to work on my life. But then he picks that thought up again in Chapter 2, verse 13. And he said, For it is God that worketh in you. And you're going, is he stuttering? He just said it in Chapter 1. Why are you saying that again? Saying the very same thing. But he adds something. Both. Both, that's two things. To will and to do of God's good pleasure. What's he saying? He's saying there, God is going to give me the desire, number one, and the ability to make choices that would honor God. That's what grace is. It's the empowering of God to live the way God wants me to live. It's His power. I was saved by what? I didn't one day say, Well, I think I'll become a Christian. First of all, I went all through a high school in Hollywood, and we never had any Christians in our school. I think it was 5,000 kids that went through that school and I was there, or 6,000 went through. There wasn't one Christian. So I didn't know what a Christian was. I didn't know what Catholics were. I knew what Ash Wednesday was because in Ash Wednesday we got permission to get ashes, so we went out of school, smoked our cigarettes, and went back in. That was some of my religious moments. As a teenager. I mean, that was my background. I mean, just nothing Christian at all. So it wasn't. It was God that called me. Go through the scripture. Look it. Called. Chosen. But I don't get all that stuff. I'm not as Reformed Presbyterian as my Reformed Presbyterian friends over here because they had to know if I was chosen. My wife chose me. I love Larry and Nora. Anyway, but I started looking at that, and I see everybody fighting over that. I've got it answered. Someone wants to fight over all this, you know, five-point Calvinism or ten-point Calvinism or whatever. It's very simple. I said, God chose me before the foundation of the world because he never would have afterwards. Hey, would he have chosen you? Think about it. Couldn't he have done better? I've got answers. Everybody wants to fight with me. I've got these real profound answers. They laugh and walk away. We're so glad that they did this to me. Okay, so if we could see grace as the empowering of God in my life to make right choices, let me give you a wonderful verse from Romans. If God be for us, what? But if God is resisting you, does it make any difference who's for you? And who does God resist? The proud. And don't think the enemy doesn't know Scripture. If he can get you to be prideful, he's got you in whatever issues you're doing. Can you see? We can cast all the lust demons out of somebody. After Swaggart had lust demons cast out of him and the assembly of God, this is all newspaper stuff, said, please step out of the church for a year and a half for your authority. He said, you can't tell me what to do. And a few months later, he was arrested in California for the same stuff. So the lust demons probably just stayed in the parking lot until they got in the parking lot. Do you see? So can I really help someone at all with any issue if I don't deal with this one? I don't care what the issue is. See, the issue is up here. We're looking at the hole in the bottom of the shoe. This has got to be dealt with or you'll never help anybody permanently. Maybe we don't help them permanently. At least they'll know what's going on. You know, if they do fall, I'll let pride back in my life. You know? Okay. So let's go back and look at this. That God has more grace wherefore he says God resists. And the word resists means push away, not to allow to remain or enter in the grief. God pushes away the proud. But he will give his empowering to the humble. Pardon me? It's in the Bible, honey. James 4.6. Okay. This is one of my favorite places. Now, I think sometimes we have a distorted view of pride and humility. See, pride is not feeling good that you've been used by God. You know, where it goes. One of the hardest things to do is when people praise you. What do you do with it? You know, because it can be flattery and it's a net for your feet and all this stuff. Are you trying to trap me? You said you liked what I said. Are you trying to trap me? Name of Jesus! I'm sorry, I said something. You know, if you do something and you do it well, whether you sing or play or whatever, as long as you weren't showing off your stuff, just say thank you. That's encouraging. Why did they say you were doing well? And what you did, you let them walk away and it's not all on me. But a humble person, you know, no, it wasn't a good talk. Or, no, it wasn't very good. You know, I know that I only hit the cracks three times when I was playing that piano number or whatever. Or my grandmother gave me the lessons and oh, sick. A humble person is God, if you, I pray, God, if I'm going to bless you, he's got to work through this. I'm just telling you words. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's got to be a God thing. It's not a me thing. We've got to get there, beloved. But God would somehow use the way we are, our personality. In Bible school they said I use my hands too much and I'd never be any good. And, you know, it looks like I'm drying them or something all the time. My gestures don't mean anything. They really don't. You know, they just go and I can't help it. You know, I don't care anymore. I used to think about putting my pocket, you know, this isn't working. If they don't like it, I can't help it. I just got to be, you know, I took the mask off. I hope it doesn't, you know, it's like Phantom of the Opera. I hope you didn't scream. It's off. Just me. That's all I can be is me. Okay, I want to be a better me but I, this can only be me. So, a humble person is God, work through me. Let me be a blessing. Father, let me have, give me a burden for the loss. Give me a, you know, a caring, whatever. God, work through, I just want to be a tool in your hand. That's a humble person. It's not I can't do anything and I'm no good and all that stuff. That's the enemy stuff. Okay, now, he gives all this grace to us. Then, we go down to verse 7. Now, we're getting into warfare, God's warfare stuff. The next thing, he tells us, first, we have to humble ourselves before the Lord. Verse 7 says, we're to submit ourselves, therefore, to God. Submit is to get under, like submarine. Submit to who? God. First. And then, God's ordained stuff in your life. We're to submit. What we have our counselees do at this point, we ask our counselees, would you, when you go home tonight, it's homework, this is Wednesday, I want you to identify all areas of your life. What are the areas of your life right now? Well, I'll give you some. You're a son, aren't you? Yeah, mm-hmm. Are you a brother? Mm-hmm. We're going to ask the Holy Spirit to come in and take control of these. Oh, you already talked about your rock music? Okay. What about music? So the Holy Spirit come in there. You know, what makes you you? And we put those down. It's like a piece of pie. I mean, we're a whole person, but they're different parts of me. And then, after we cast the spirits out, you know, we heard about sweeping a house clean. Ain't so good. We need to put something back there. So we pray the enemy out of someone's life and want them then to open the areas of their life to the Holy Spirit. What's someone filled with the Spirit? It's someone who is allowing the areas of life to be under the control of the Spirit. That's all it is. It's not a mystical thing. It's letting the Spirit be in control, but specifically opening up the areas of my life. This is what Worsby said. Any area... You write this one down. This is good. Any area of your life that you don't want the Holy Spirit to control, Satan will. You just put a bullseye in your chest. You know, there's an area, no, I can't give that to God. Well, you're in trouble because the enemy is going right after that area. You don't want God to control it? Okay. I'm after it. What are the two hardest areas for young people to give to God? I've got teenagers usually, and I don't care what homeschool group they're in or how squeaky their families are. Courtship or dating, for one, they can see the girl now, you know, ugly, horribly unattractive, but she's God's choice for me. You know, if I give it to God, I mess up my life with her. And the second is music. All I can listen to is what? Chamber music, as far as I'm concerned. Put it in the chamber and shut the door. I can't stand chamber music. But see, that's their concept. If I give it to God, what's he going to do? Mess my life up because he has what? A bad concept of God. Second Corinthians 10, 3, 4, and 5. One of those things there is what? Distorted view of God. It's one of the enemy wants, gets to have. I can't trust God. Why? Well, look what he's done or hasn't done and all this other stuff. So, 10, 3, 4, and 5. That's usually, that's the Monday thing. We start on, do they understand the parameters of warfare? Someone had it covered this week, I would think, in some of the warfare courses here because that's such an important, I mean, that's it. That's warfare in a nutshell, those three verses. Because off of that spins every different way. Okay. Now, let's go on. Now, after I'm willing to open the areas of my life to God's control, from that place, what can I do? What's the next verse? Resist. The devil on what? He'll flee from me. But if I'm resisting God, where will the enemy go? Nowhere. You see that? If I'm resisting God in my life, the enemy doesn't have to go anywhere. I need to what? Be submitted to the Lord. And I'll tell you, the first time around, I thought I really had arrived, I don't chew gum, I don't spit on the sidewalk, I'm not kissing girls, and that's that. Brand new Christian. I'm spiritual. Well, then God takes you around again, right? You know, I'm so glad I didn't get this guy running around the platforms thing of the list. So I got saved too quick and got away from all of the Christians. So I have a list of what Christians do and don't. I got to tell you about this one. The guys were always going down to Juarez, which is very reasonable girls for rent down there. And I'm a Christian now, not quite three months, and I don't think Christians do that. So I keep staying at the base all by myself. You know, I'd have a lot more fun if I wasn't saved. You know, I'm a new Christian and everybody's out there and I'm just all by myself. And I'll tell you, basic training in El Paso, Texas is not a really fun place to be by yourself out there in the desert. Well, one day they said, well, listen, okay, we feel bad about it, would you go to a movie? I said, sure. I always went to movies. So we went to a movie together and the movie was Niagara. And we're, it sounds good, you know, it was probably about a waterfall or something. So we're in the movie but the star, which I didn't pay much attention, was a gal that I was involved in X-raying her, Marilyn Monroe. I was unsaved then and now I'm a Christian. And this movie stars Marilyn Monroe and she's in bed and the covers are slipping and all of a sudden I remember I heard about the rapture, that Jesus was coming back from the Christians and I prayed he wouldn't come back because I knew he would come back and he would never look in that church for me. I mean, in that church. Same thing, it was a movie house. But I mean, no one had to say anything about movies good or bad or whatever. I mean, I'm sitting and I'm just dying. What if the Lord comes back and I'll be left? See, that was a good title for a book, Left Behind. I should have picked up on it all those years ago when I was in the army. But it's amazing what the Holy Spirit can do without a list. Do you know that? If you're just sensitive to the Holy Spirit. So then it wasn't, well, I got this list from the Baptist and I want to be a good Baptist so I don't do these things. I didn't do these things because the Spirit of God told me not to. I'm not a legalist. You know, my son's a runner. There's a lot of things he didn't do in junior high, high school, college. Now he's a youth pastor and he started running again after he got his marriage all settled down. And now he can run again. Now he's running and he loves running and there's a lot of things runners don't do because they want to what? Win. But they're legalists, you know. Because they won't do those things. No. They want to win. Do you see this? Well, this helped me to be what God wants me to be. That's how I look at it. I don't care if you chew gum. But you name ten good Christians that chew gum. Just ten, ten, ten. Name ten. I like that part of his message. See, I was listening. I was listening to the guy. Then after I resist the enemy, we usually don't go down to the spark, but draw close to God. But see, after we dealt with the enemy, we want to draw close to him. Because we switch from here to something else. I go to what time? Ten minutes left? Terrible. Five minutes. We'll finish the rest in the hallway. Well, anyway, I go through all the scriptures that people say, well, I don't believe that. I don't believe the enemy's behind everything. I don't believe What about the world, flesh, and the devil? And I'm going, what about the world, flesh, and the devil? The whole world lies in the wicked one. The flesh is where my sin patterns are, and Satan uses the world system. I do not believe that you're ever tempted apart from demonic involvement. The Bible never tells you to resist temptation. It says resist who? The devil. And there's a difference. I mean, if I was to resist temptation, couldn't I find one verse? Go to James 1. I mean, I'm sorry, we're running out of time, and we really are. I gotta give you a quick answer here and skip a lot, but you can buy my book, please. You know, I got grandchildren, two of them, in Iraq. I really do. A granddaughter and a grandson in Iraq, and a grandson that came home from there. It's all from one family. They all wave American flags. There's a real flag waving one of my families. But my granddaughter being over there but she's really neat. Very beautiful girl. I haven't seen her for years because we didn't have the money to see them. She's visiting our house. I said, honey, I'm really concerned. You're so beautiful. She says, grandpa, don't worry about me. I'm a virgin. If some guy messes with me, I'll shoot him. She's an MP. Amen! Right after her grandpa. James 1.14. But every man is tempted in the same way, but not every man is tempted in the same issues. But the process is the same for everybody in here. The issues are different because they're my issues. Right? My issue, yours. Every man is tempted when they're drawn away their own secret desires and enticed. And when those desires are conceived, they're going to give birth to sin and so on. That's why, what are we supposed to do? Take our thoughts captive before they give birth to actions. Right? That's what we're, the battle's up here. Okay, what's the answer? We're going to skip a whole bunch of stuff, but you can get it in the book. But, what's the answer for all of this? you've got to go to Philippians, you've got to go to Hebrews 4, and this is not part of the answer. Hebrews 4, 15 and 16. I love this. If, um, you will put power instead of grace, you will find probably the verse that's going to jump out all the more. Look at this one. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched through the feet and through the feelings of our firmateeps, which is all poised, tempted like we are. How was Jesus tempted? By the devil. Period. Yet, uh, without sin, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of power that we may obtain mercy and find power to help in our time of need. It's a throne of what? Empowering. It's a throne of grace. I go there. Why am I defeated? Because when I need to go there, I don't want to. Do you know there's pleasure in sin? And I enjoy the pleasure more than going to God and asking Him, empower me to make the right choice here. Empower me to say no instead of yes. And I've said yes for years, but I've got to start saying what? No. And you say, God, I need your help here. I'm going to that throne that will give me the power to make the choices that went on to God. Okay, what is the answer to pride? And the answer is this. How do we get rid of pride? Because we got rid of a lot of stuff this week. You know, they dump whiskey down the toilet, and I had a kid get rid of his marijuana and all this stuff that was there. So how do I get rid of pride? And the answer is this. In Luke 9, and that's this. I say, who woke up in your bed today? They said me. I said, you can't get rid of pride. Because pride is building life around the guy that woke up, isn't it? Pride is building life around who? Me. Jesus knew that. He said, if any man will come after me, his terms, let him what? Say no to self and take up his cross one Sunday a month or something, every day, and follow him. What did Jesus say in the garden? Father, not my will, but thy will. How do we deal with pride? Every day, we need to die to self. Jesus knew that. If I don't die to self, then I'm not going to live for Christ. I've got to say no to me. Lord, you take control today. Fill me with your spirit today. Lord, lead me today. That's what I need. It's a daily thing. I'll give you one more. Galatians 2.20, we won't look at that one, but that's a good one. That's Paul saying how he lived for self before and afterwards he lived a crucified life. But the verse I like the best of all, and if you look in a, what's that Greek thing where it gives you how it's translated? No. Lexicon. You look in a Greek lexicon and this verse 31 is only translated by another translation as it is in the lexicon as it was given in the Greek and that happens to be a translation I don't want you to say no to me. I don't care for that one too much. First Corinthians 15, 31. And I'm going to give you this like it is in the lexicon. I believe there was two reasons God used the Apostle Paul. And you know we have over a thousand biographies in our house of Christians and we always look for why did God use Hudson Taylor? Why did God use this person? Our kids were reading, why did God use them? What was the key? And often it stood out, you know, why they were so usable. Why did God use Paul? Number one, he said, this one thing I do. What is the one thing the greatest Christian ever lived did? He let go of the past. He put it behind him. That's what counseling has got to be about, isn't it? You know, dump your trash in the office in the cleaning radio, take it out, you know. Let it go a bit so you can reach forth to what? What's ahead. I ask them, how far can you drive focusing on the rear of your mirror? Not very far. Look ahead. The second one is this. Paul said, I die daily. You can be sure of this, brethren, as much as I glory over you in Christ Jesus. What was the key to Paul walking in victory? Letting go of the past and dying to self on a daily basis so God could work through him. That is the answer to all addictions, all emotional stuff, all everything. If you don't deal with this, all the other counseling is not going to work. Trust me. Remember he said, if you don't like the product, go back and look what you're doing. And what have I left out? What do I need to leave out? What do I need to put in? And we're still looking at what we should be doing and so on. And Paul is helping me to do that because sometimes you get your nose so close to the window and someone from the outside sees things. As long as he doesn't see any fault with me, I don't care what he finds fault with the organization, just not me. I'm not that fragile anymore, but I was at one time until I really learned how to die to self because a dead man doesn't get offended. Have you ever gone by and seen somebody in a cheap coffin? It's not even satin, it's cotton. And look, they could at least wash his T-shirt. I didn't know I had so many ugly tattoos. That's why I don't take my coat off, I don't want you to see my tattoos. I got a doozy on my chest though. It's the Lord's Supper and you can watch them chew. I'm a very religious person. But I'll tell you, there's nothing more thrilling than bumping into a kid you helped at 14 and seeing him at 20, 21. I've been doing this for 25 years and saying I'm still not doing that stuff. Why? Because I did something magic? No, because he's dying to self. He knows how to say no to this stuff. That's why he's walking in victory. The Lord wants all of us to walk in victory. We're not stepchildren. We're all his kids. And he has a greater desire that we would humble ourselves and lay up before him the issues and all that kind of stuff. If you have someone in your life you can't get rid of, and I like this one, and it's impossible for you to love them, ask God to love them through you. God, I'll just be a tool. Just love them through me. Show me ways of showing your love. This guy that wrote this book, he was doing marriage counseling. He's sick of it, up to here. He said, I did so much marriage counseling, there's books by the zillions out there, how to love your wife, how to kiss your wife, how to buy her flowers, all this stuff. He said, I've got more divorces in my church now with all those books than we ever had before. A guy that does marriage counseling says it's very simple. He says, what do I do? He says, love your wife. Go. That's it. Love your wife. Go. You don't need books. He says, it's working. We've got more loving going on in our church. We have a long time by handing them out all these books. It's amazing that Adam and Eve and some of these people made it in scripture, they didn't have all the books. I don't know how they made it without mine, but you know, some of these other ones, yeah. Let's pray. Father, oh, there's so many kids today involved in incest, pornography on the web and all this stuff, Lord, and they're just trashing their lives. I think of the parents that call weeping. Our office, what do we do? What do we do? Our kid is just, you know, he's over the edge and doing all kinds of weird stuff and all. But Lord, we're thankful that you've got the answer. We didn't even go through what we do with those that are sexually addicted, but we know, Father, if they don't do this, anything else we do is not going to work. So I pray that you would just take, this is so strong in my heart for here, that we would just see that what the bottom line issue really is in all defeated Christians' lives, regardless of how it's played out and regardless of what it is, it's because there's an area of their life that they're running. And the enemy is going after that and will take it down. So, Father, we pray that the Spirit of God, if there's some area of our life that we're not willing to release to you, that you'd show us and we'd be willing to let go of it and say, Father, you take it. Maybe it's our reputation. Who knows? Whatever it is. Our finances, our concept of what success is and all that other stuff. Father, we just want to be more like Jesus and show us those things that may be standing in the road and that you may be glorified in our lives and through our ministries. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Remember the book. Remember the book.