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All right, this evening I want to hone in there near the end of James chapter 5. Look down there, well before I even get into James chapter 5, just kind of do a way of introduction to the sermon where I want to get your minds thinking on what I really want to cover. There's gonna be a bunch of passages obviously we're gonna go to this evening, but I'll start off just with the title of my sermon is how bad do you want it? And this is gonna apply to just many different things that you want in your life and obviously spiritually speaking is what we're gonna be primarily just focus on the things of God, but we get so often so frequently we end up finding ourselves you know saying we have a certain desire a certain want that's the right thing and I'm not saying that we deceive ourselves or lie to ourselves but we genuinely want some things that are good we want to serve God and and if anyone were to ask you yeah of course I want those things yes I want that yes I want this my life yes I want to serve God at the utmost but we got to stop and ask yourself how bad do you really want that? How bad how important is it is another way of putting it? How strong is your desire to fill in the gap you know whatever it is that you want to do is it is it you know maybe maybe you're sitting here this evening and you've never led someone to Christ before never done that before and you're thinking you know what hey I'd like to do that is all right you would you like to be able to at some point in your life lead someone to Christ and and show them and and help them understand the free gift of eternal life and I'd love to do that and like yeah I would love to do that one day well how much do you really want to do that right and and just like anything we apply that to so many different things the reason why I bring this up because if you don't really want to do something oftentimes you just won't do it it just sits there as like a good idea like oh it's just kind of something I want to do but how bad you really want it how bad do you really want to do those things whatever it is that you want to achieve how bad it how important is it to you look at James chapter 5 verse number 16 the Bible says confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much now there's a lot of things stated just in this one this one verse it's talking about prayer and I think a lot of times people might have the idea that well I've tried praying and it doesn't really work yeah I've tried that maybe you're not doing it right now look prayer is not complicated at all so don't think like oh man what did I do like that I missed something in the formula there's no real formula to prayer prayer you're asking God for things but there are some aspects of prayer that you ought to realize and understand and if we're gonna go to God with a petition with a request which is what a prayer is we're asking God to help us in an area we should probably first consider am I listening to God if I want God to listen to me am I listening to him why in the world is God gonna want to listen to you when he's already instructing you he's already commanding you maybe you got yourself in a big mess it's like God's like look if you would just listen to me you wouldn't even be asking me to get you out of this mess you wouldn't be asking me to help you so why don't you just listen to me first and then I'll start listening and and hearing you and helping you out with your problems I already told you how to avoid this but God is graceful gracious and merciful we thank thankfully right even though because we all do stupid things from time to time where we do find ourselves going to Lord and say God help me out of this mess please and God is long suffering merciful enough to do that but he's not gonna just continue to keep answering real listening everything you have to say when you don't listen to him so how do we listen to God we read his word and not just read it but start applying it in your life you see something's wrong you see something's a sin you see something Bible kind of speaks negatively about that maybe you should stop doing it take the Bible's advice change right and look this is a long process it's a lifelong process we have to keep looking at this book and reflecting back on ourselves and going hey what do we need to change but don't stop doing that right we want God to see hey look even though we're not perfect even though I've already told them this before he's gonna have a lot more mercy on us going well at least I see they're still trying to make changes trying good I like seeing that so I'm gonna keep blessing them and I'm gonna keep hearing what they have for me because they are listening to what I say they're not you know always putting everything into place but they're still listening right and that's just one aspect you know I could take all night and just teach on prayer and all the things that we should do on Wednesday we went over that verse that says you know about regarding iniquity in your heart like God's not gonna hear you when you regard iniquity in your heart we're gonna see in James 4 actually just flip over real quick to James 4 you're in James chapter 5 James chapter 4 verse number 1 the Bible says from whence come wars and fightings among you come come they not hence even of your lusts that war on your members you lust and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet you have not because you ask not so a lot of people's problems is they're not even asking God for things they're not even going to the Lord in prayer they want things in their life but they don't even consider to think to like hey maybe I should ask God for this but then on top of that when they do ask he does you ask and receive not because he asked a miss you're asking for the wrong things that's not that's not what God even wants to give you that you may consume it upon your lusts you say oh well I thought Jesus said asking you shall receive he did say that but it's not this blanket statement that's just like he's your genie in a bottle well Jesus I want a million dollars give it to me I'm asking you said asking you know you shall receive no there's a little bit more to it than that right first of all if God loves you Jesus loves you he's not just gonna answer every whim and every lust of your flesh that you want to fulfill because he knows what's good for you and what's best for you and this is what James 4 is explaining here look you're you're you're totally asking for the wrong things you just want to consume something on your lust God's not gonna answer that prayer he wants to help you not to harm you there's many areas go back to James 5 there's many ways that we ought to be praying you know and here in verse 16 it says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much so you want to get your prayers answered well look at look at all these things are mentioned just in that one sentence if you want your prayer effective the effectual prayer well it's effectual fervent prayer there's there's some emotion there it is rooted deep you know you really want something so you will fervently pray to the Lord God please help me God please and it may come with tears with weeping with you know with crying out even Lord help me please but it's not an act because the things that you are hold so dear you are fervent in your prayer it is it is really important to you and the things that in your mind you can say are important to you you need to make them important to you because there are a lot of things in our minds that are important and do qualify as being very important and our things that we ought to be going to God for but we still aren't making the time to have effectual fervent prayer to Lord we have a lot of people in our prayers I'll just use an example there's many people have cancer cancer is life-threatening and maybe well very close loved ones that have a very serious problem like this I know it's important to you you love your family make it as important as you know it is but realize that make it real by fervently effectually praying for those people by taking it so you know what no I need to cut out part of my day to go to the Lord to get on my knees and go to Lord and prayer and I don't care I'm gonna wipe out any distractions I may have because this is important to me and I have faith in an Almighty God that can heal and it's not just a simple assenting of like well I need to go through my prayers able to pray for okay done as if you're checking off a box that is not the effectual fervent prayer that is not the prayer that Elijah had or Elisha had that is not what Elisha was doing when he prayed for it not to rain guaranteed God answers prayers and praise the Lord for answered prayers and we've seen that as a church we pray for people in the church we see the results and praise the Lord it's good but you have to ask yourself when you have a request when you have a prayer how bad do you want it how important is it really are your actions supporting what you might think or what you might feel in your heart because there are things you can do like prayer everything we ought to pray about now there's some things that you could even do more than just pray but some things all you can do is pray right something there's out of your hands all you can do is pray well then make sure that is where all of your focus is going to get that need met that desire or request met spend the time invest the time and when there's other things that you can do do those things as well right if you're looking for some other thing you're praying for a job you want you know God needs to help you earn a better income whatever well yes still pray fervently but also get your rear end out there for the work right don't just sit back waiting for God to do it when there's something that you can also do turn if you would to Daniel chapter 9 while we're on this subject of this you know this this idea of a fervent prayer how do we go to the Lord in prayer it matters it matters it does matter now look I know that God already knows our needs before we ask him he knows what you need and thank God that he still is very loving very merciful and does give us more than we even deserve and that just should you know we ought to praise the Lord every day for that and recognize that God does all these good things and oftentimes will give us things even when we don't ask for things but knowing we have an Almighty God we knowing we have a God that does hear us he wants to hear us he wants to answer your prayers he wants to do good unto you just as much as a parent wants to do good to their children and especially the kids that are listening especially the kids that are obedient especially the kids are doing all the right things hey when they've got a desire when they've got a request how much more do you want to help that child and how much more does our Heavenly Father want to help his children just as much as you know we talk about asking a miss your child asked for something stupid you're not going to give it to them because you love them you're looking out for them the same way with us and the things that we want God will be able to discern those things but look I want you to look at how Daniel here is praying to the Lord in fact I'm gonna just turn there I've got the notes here I got him copy and pasted but I kind of skipped some of it because it's very lengthy but now I'm reconsidering just reading through it all because it really should have an impact when you gauge your own prayer life especially on things that matter now what is Daniel even praying for in chapter 9 he's praying for understanding he's not praying for the health of a loved one he's not praying for some other aspect of his life that might seem really critical at the time and I'm not downplaying really important events in our lives I'm saying this to illustrate how strong is Daniel praying just to receive that wisdom and knowledge Daniel understands that wisdom is a principal thing he understands the importance of knowledge and he's desperately fervently seeking the Lord to help him and you know what God gladly answers his prayers but I think we could take a lesson from the prayer that Daniel makes in Daniel chapter 9 and we probably all can do well to think about our own prayer life and consider is this something that I throw on the back burner and just rattle off these words quickly so I can make sure I've checked the box and said my prayers for the day or am I fervently praying to the Lord for the requests that I have for the petitions for the things that really matter in my life and the things that I want that's a burden that sounds like you need to set aside quite a bit of time for that I don't have time for that well of all the things spiritually speaking that we do it's one of the most foolish things I think to set aside and disregard the prayer time we literally have a God that did say ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you that is a God he wants to help us but he says we got to ask and we have the examples it's it's it's the things that we desire can can be granted and given to us and I wonder how often we miss out just because we didn't ask I mean I'll never know the answer to that but but when we read the rest of Scripture we see how God's telling us instructing us hey ask us ask me ask and then we don't what do we miss out on it's a foolish to put this aside I understand the busyness of a day-to-day schedule look I do and and I'll admit right now that this is not where it needs to be in my life so I'm not standing here as someone who I've got this settled and I've got this perfect in my life I don't but the truth of the Bible is the truth of the Bible okay and sometimes I stand up here and I preach to myself just as much as I preach over you here okay and and I'm not gonna walk away tonight without making some changes in my own life I'll tell you that right now because as I was even preparing for this sermon it was striking a chord so I'm hoping that it's also striking a chord with more people in this room than just me look at verse number three Daniel chapter 9 I said and I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes right off the bat what is this prayer including here fasting he's not eating he's not drinking he is focused on this prayer sackcloth he's humbled himself he is again separated and humbled unto intriguing the Lord and ashes again is another form of humbling himself we see the sackcloth and ashes go hand in hand frequently out scripture when people are getting real serious about reaching Lord in prayer also when they're in mourning when they're grieved when they're sad when they're upset is another time why because they want to get a hold of God they really want to express and show even outwardly to the Lord like this is important to me God please hear me now obviously this isn't necessarily something you're going to do every day I mean if you fast every day of your life you're not gonna live very long you're gonna need to break that fast at some point and eat but is this ever ever happening in your life it's a good question and then that might make you question you know I've had some really important needs in my life I've never fasted I've never hey baby you've never thought about that fine I'm not trying to beat you over the head with that trying to help you when you have important things that you need to pray for make it important make it important make it a priority make seeking the Lord a priority you want that answered show God how bad you want it verse 4 and I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said Oh Lord the great and dreadful God keeping the Covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments we have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets which spake in thy name to our kings our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land he starts off just confessing not just you know his own sin but just the sin of all the people he's just including himself saying look we have done this we are wicked you've sent prophets we didn't listen you've been trying to reach us we disregarded and he's just coming out and open and just confessing first of all we are wrong God I've done wrong we've done wrong let's just start with that an acknowledgment of what we've done wrong let's continue on here verse number 7 Oh Lord righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the countries whither thou hast driven them because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee Oh Lord to us belongeth confusion of face to our kings to our princes and to our fathers because we have sinned against thee to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness is though we have rebelled against him neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws which he set before us by his servants the prophets yay all Israel have transgressed thy law even by departing that they might not obey thy voice therefore the curse is poured upon us and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God because we have sinned against them and there's some things that are I don't want to really dig into all the things he's mentioning here but like even them leaving then was a sin when they were getting carried into captivity you know they sinned every time they went to Lord and asked what they should be doing they literally just did the opposite every single time God's saying well no just stay there stay put then they don't want to stay put and God's saying no you need to just let yourself go captive they're not letting themselves go okay you know it's just like every time he's telling them what to do they just do the exact opposite and he's confessing all this stuff and just admitting hey look we did this verse 12 and he hath confirmed his words which he spake against us and against our judges that judged us by bringing upon us a great evil for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem and he's also referencing here God's Word and saying God you are faithful you said this would happen you prophesied this would happen in your law in your words and look we did it here we are we're guilty before you God and now we're reaping the punishment that we rightly deserve as you already said you would do and he's and he's while he's confessing a sin to the Lord he's acknowledging we should have learned we should have listened we should have known this you already told us God you're righteous we're wicked we're sinners right humbly in treating the Lord in so much and even just telling God that you're right we should have known as is written verse 13 in the law of Moses all this evils come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand that truth therefore at the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous and all his works which he doeth for we obeyed not his voice and now Oh Lord our God thou hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and has to gotten the renown as at this day we have sinned we have done wickedly this is all a confession in these 15 verses what I want to point out there too you don't have to be the best orator to pray to the Lord right you don't have to sit here and think wow well Daniel used all these words so how do I replicate that by using a lot of words that's not the point that's not the point what we're seeing here is how much Daniel has fought upon these things and thought upon this confession that he's making it is sincere and it's also very thorough it's not just something that's real flippant or on the fly or just off the cuff just off the top of that he's thought about this he's already spent time meditating on what's happening and what's going on and and how Israel has just completely disobeyed the Lord that's why he's able to speak what we might think as well that's a long prayer look we're not even halfway done with this thing yet okay like my prayers are like a sentence well seriously though now look is that always wrong no it's not always wrong okay I'm not saying it's wrong but you want an effectual fervent prayer Daniel's already illustrating his knowledge on this subject and knowing like all the areas in which they were wrong and where they should have gotten it right and just confessing everything because it matters a lot to him all of this matters to him verse 16 Oh Lord according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from the city Jerusalem the holy mountain because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us so now he's actually starting to make a request of mercy right please just turn away your fury God because of all this now we've become an approach a reproach to everybody your people your land Jerusalem has become a reproach now therefore or God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake oh my god incline thine ear and here open thine eyes and behold our desolations in the city which is called by thy name for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses but for thy great mercies Oh Lord here Oh Lord forgive Oh Lord harken and do defer not for thine own sake oh my god for thy city and thy people are called by thy name what does he want here he wants the city inhabited again he wants to bring glory to the Lord again he wants to return to God is what he's entreating for God your name your place is empty it's desolate Lord we need to get back there so we could glorify you for your own namesake Lord please just forgive us please show mercy unto us I'm sick of these reproaches from the heathen we need to go and magnify your name so so he's confessed their faults and now he's trying to show we want to serve you God please bring us back into our land for that purpose we've learned our lesson verse 20 and while as I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God yay while as I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly touched me about the time of the evening oblation and he informed me and talked with me and said Oh Daniel I am now come forth to give the skill and understanding God's answering his prayer he was still praying says while speaking he wasn't even done yet he's still he's still ready to keep praying and entreating the Lord and this angel shows up and he says all right I'm gonna give you understanding verse 23 at the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth and I am come to show thee for thou art greatly beloved therefore understand the matter and consider the vision then and then he he gives them more understanding on his vision and what all is happening with the 70 weeks and everything else in their captivity and the return and a lot a lot a lot more in depth than we're going tonight on Daniel I wanted to highlight that prayer Daniel's very beloved of the Lord right he's someone that that really took his faith seriously he cared a lot and he entreated Lord and you know a lot of people are benefiting from this prayer of Daniel a lot of his fellow countrymen are really benefiting from someone who wants to make up the hedge and fill the gap someone who wants to serve Lord someone who wants to lead the people back and bring glory back in honor unto the name of the Lord on the earth it's a lot more we go on that but I'm gonna withhold myself now and I want to turn to some other examples that was an example of a prayer prayer sample prayer someone who really cares a lot about what they're asking Lord want to turn to mark chapter 5 sorry I'm piecemealing some of my examples here there's so many to look at there we can't we can look at we don't have to want to I want to give this sense and hopefully let you walk away tonight with the sense of am I doing really all that I can to receive the desires or the requests of God or my prayers to God that I would like to have answered my life am I really am I really doing what I can we see an example here in Mark chapter 5 of this woman again a real popular story I think real famous story this woman who well let's just read it verse number 25 verse number 25 Biles is in a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of many physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing better but rather grew worse here's a person with a health condition and she's gone to all the doctors and she spent all her money she's done everything that she could humanly speaking physically speaking to go and try to have this problem solved but what it seems like she didn't do was first go to God some about all the men that she went to and all the humans that she went to try to deal with this issue so unfortunately this is last on her list instead of first on her list but she still made it a priority or made it a point when she realizes nothing is helping her it says in verse 27 when she had heard of Jesus now you know again maybe she never knew of Jesus but maybe she didn't know that much fine she was trying to go the route that she knew but when she heard of Jesus she came in the press behind and touched his garment for she said if I may touch but his clothes I shall behold she went to the healer and don't get this wrong while yes this illustrates a very deep and and another meaning on top of the service meaning the service meaning actually happened I mean this woman had an issue of blood and had a problem and she literally physically was healed it teaches much more than that it teaches us seeking Lord Jesus Christ to heal us of our iniquities to heal us of our Cindy you know to provide that ultimate healing that we all need but make no doubt about it she actually was healed of her disease verse 29 the Bible says in straight way the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she will he was healed of that plague she had some issue some fountain something some fluids in her body some Leo was messed up internally internal problems and as soon as she reached out and and and touch Jesus reached out for Jesus healed miraculously and Jesus immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him turned him about in the press and said who touched my clothes and his disciples said unto him now see as the multitude thronging thee and say as thou who touched me and he looked round about to see her that had done this thing but the woman fearing and trembling knowing what was done in her came and fell down before him and told him all the truth and he said on her daughter thy faith hath made the whole go in peace and be whole of thy plague turn back if you would to chapter 2 there is someone who is really diligently seeking her own health right she was seeking out a solution and was willing to give or to spend whatever she had that was a real important problem for her but we see thankfully she she also sought Jesus as a solution to the problem she went to the Lord with her problem with her issue and God was able to solve that problem even when no medical institution was able to solve that problem for him but she had the faith that he could do it and he did do it now I'm not gonna say because I don't believe this that you should never seek medical assistance or medical help and only pray to God no what I am saying though is that you first go to the Lord and you continue to go to the Lord and you continue to seek God's favor and God's healing and I do believe that God does miraculously heal people sometimes even today it happens but it doesn't mean you just don't try to do anything else also to provide some support and try to get healthy right similar to the job situation you do what you can you want you want to try to if you can fix something fix it if you could solve it solve it but all of your concerns are brought before the Lord mark chapter 2 look at verse number 1 here we see some real dedication and again this pays off as well we see how bad these guys wanted to help their friend verse number one the Bible says and again he entered in a Capernaum after some days and it was noise that he was in the house and straightway many were gathered together and so much that there was no room to receive them no not so much as about the door and he preached the word unto them and they come on him bringing one sick of the palsy which was born of four so there's this guy who's sick of the palsy and there's four people that are carrying him which was born of four he's not able to walk for himself right he's handicapped so he's got four guys kind of carrying him around on this stretcher on his bed whatever they're carrying him around in and they're trying to get him to Jesus they know hey we need to get this guy to Jesus but the rooms packed it's full I mean everybody wants to see Jesus are the do these guys just say oh well maybe we'll try again tomorrow oh we got here a little too late too bad no no this is really important we want this guy healed this guy needs Jesus he needs to see him we need to figure out a way to get this guy to Christ verse 4 and when they could not come nigh unto him for the press the press meaning how many people were there not like they weren't the paparazzi or something taking pictures just a lot of people there like a full court press they uncovered the roof where he was and when they had broken it up they let down the bed where in the sick of the palsy lay when Jesus saw their faith he said in the sick of the palsy son thy sins be forgiven thee they're breaking up the roof man they're like we need to get this guy to Christ stat we need to get him there now how more than we're gonna figure out a way to do this they don't just let it sit they are diligent they are effectual in their zeal and desire to have this man healed and he receives the best healing that anyone could get your sins are forgiven you hey man he could stay in that bed the rest of his life his sins are forgiven him but of course Jesus didn't just stop there later on I might read the whole story but he says you know take up that bed and walk now I bet you someone might have been upset that the roof was broken up but hopefully not right not after something like that it can't be how you be upset about that but they didn't let the roof stop them they didn't let the amount of people stop them it mattered it mattered a lot what's your need what's your trouble how bad is it these are friends of his too I mean that wasn't just him he couldn't do it how bad is your friends need how bad how many unsaved people that do you have they need Christ what are you willing to do to make sure they hear Christ they see Christ what are you willing to go through all of that effort for your unsaved friend the friend that needs healing how much do you love them ask yourself that these guys they prove their love for their friend who is sick of the palsy whether a relative friend they should they demonstrated that no we're getting you to Jesus now obviously you can't make anyone believe anything but are you gonna give them that opportunity at least all right I'm gonna skip a couple of more examples turn if you would to 1st Timothy chapter 3 we've seen a lot prayer and on healing big needs very important needs but maybe there's other things that you desire not just a healing for someone right other other things how bad you want it and again you know speaking of things that apply spiritually speaking especially and it really does apply to anything but maybe you're out there as a young man you desire the office of a bishop how much do you really desire that though right the Bible gives us 1st Timothy chapter 3 all the requirements that a person needs to possess in order to hold that position let's read through that verse number one about so this is a true saying of a man desire the office of a bishop he desire the good work that's a good thing you have that desire you have that that in your mind you in your heart you want to do that that's something that you want well how bad do you really want that because if you do first of all realize it's a good work which is gonna tell you if you want that job because you think it's an easy job it's a cush job where like in many churches it's I only have to preach one sermon a week that's it I just got to speak for 20 minutes and and that's my job no no not not if you want to be a biblical preacher not if you want to hold the office of a bishop the way God outlines it he says you want that job that's a good work you need to be willing to work and then says a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife you're a single guy out there you gotta work on this be the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behavior given to hospitality apt to teach I give an hospitality there's so many here we could we can just go on any every single one of these things but show yourself how bad you want this maybe maybe you don't have the personality that's you know some people are kind of more hostile than others well then work on that like something and what I mean by that is sometimes people don't even think about being hospital people it just doesn't really occur to them it doesn't really cross their mind much well if you notice that and say hey it's something I do it work on that think about it more memorize the scripture memorize this passage how about you you want if you have this desire you know what a really good place it's our be by Bible memory right here and that could go for anything that you want spiritually speaking scriptures we think I really want this month well how about you memorize that passage that'll help you to be thinking about these things a lot more often keep at the forefront of your mind blameless given hospitality apt to teach not given a wine no striker not greedy a filthy lucre but patient not a brawler not covetous one that rule it well his own house having children subject and on and on you read it here's the requirements here's the criteria do you want that work on that focus on that it's not just gonna happen by itself work on those things second Kings 13 is last place last script of your turn second Kings 13 how bad you want to succeed at the things you do and think about that in the sense of this as well you're already a Bible believing Christian you're here today I assume you are right I'm gonna give everyone a benefit out here and assume that you're a Bible believing Christian you love God and you want to serve God okay we all have a lot of different things we want to do in our life though the top should be serving God number one first foremost I want God to be pleased with me it's okay to have other desires and other wants of things you want to do with your life right it's okay you know I'm gonna say this whatever it is that you want whatever it is you want to do you should do all things heartily is unto the Lord and have that good testimony and everything that you do right so whatever it is that you want make sure you're gonna succeed at that have the good testimony as a Christian look we're not gonna be perfect I know that how about we try to just really be the best we can and have the best example in all that we do this is what a godly person is gonna do you know you're a child hey work hard at your studies work hard at your school work hard at the things that you have to do your chores right whatever it is take it seriously be good at it have a good reputation don't just do the minimum to get by make it important to you do you want is it important to you to please your parents is important to you please God well you know God and your parents are both gonna be pleased with you putting forth the best effort that you can wives same thing moms wives women your area of influence whatever it is that you do you teaching your children take it seriously make it a priority do it right do it good cleaning cooking whatever it is that you do on your in your role in your job be successful at it and make those things important and make it important to write men again same thing you might be important on you know do do things at the job on the job hey make it serve your master humanly speaking as you serve Christ have that good testimony make make all of these things important but look it a whole another sermon is going to be prioritizing your life all the various things that we do we need to have priorities for I'm trying to highlight some areas that you probably already know are important you've already decided that you don't have to say oh I don't know is it really important to me that my my real close relative lives like of course that's important to you I'm trying to illustrate the areas where we may not be doing as much as we can in getting things in front of God and in treating the Lord and even just with with whatever we can do right whether it's things we can only pray at or things that we could also do more let's identify what more we can do and do it second Kings chapter 13 and and this speaks to the attitude or to the heart that I was just trying to express for whatever area of our life we have here we have it we have a man here the king that's receiving some instruction from Elisha prophet of God and let's see how we respond to this look at verse number 14 second Kings 13 Bible says now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness where have he died and Joash the king of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face and said oh my father my father the charity of Israel and the horsemen thereof and Elisha said unto him take bow and arrows and he took unto him bow and arrows and he said to the king of Israel put thine hand upon the bow and he put his hand upon it and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands and he said open the window eastward and he opened it then Elisha said shoot and he shot and he said the arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria without shalt smite the Syrians in a feck till thou have consumed them I want to point out this is the first thing that he says and does and he's and he should by this point deduce ah this thing he's having me do is relating to what's gonna come in the future and a prophetic thing that it's not just totally random like it was random at first was like hey go get those arrows and get that bow you're dying why do you want me to get a bow and arrows right like and he's like open up the window okay I'll open up the window here you need some air okay now shoot out the window all right you know they didn't have a TV back then so he's like maybe wants to watch a Western like shoot out the window but then he's like okay look here's what's gonna happen now as real shoot you're gonna you know Syria is gonna you're gonna be delivered from Syria and this is now so look this is how the prophets did things too right they did a lot of this symbolic stuff to illustrate what's gonna happen and blessings and things like that so at this point he should know and I say all this as a preface because as soon as we get in this he's gonna tell he's able to take the arrows in verse number 18 and took them he said on the king of Israel smite upon the ground he's already in the throes of okay this is definitely gonna have some some spiritual impact this is important and we tell him smite on the ground he just goes tap tap tap and stops and it even makes Elisha angry so he smote thrice and stayed and the man of God was wroth with him what are you doing I told you it on the ground like that's what you should be doing get your heart into it I'm yo we're giving you deliverance here get excited about it get put your heart into it how bad you want to win these battles how this I mean that just reminds me how bad do you want to get that soul saved at that door are you walking up going like the dog can't even hear that if the dog doesn't hear your knock you need to knock a little bit louder to get the attention of the people in the house to let them know you're there no I'm not saying go don't do that we need to freak out the people inside the house but but don't be like oh they didn't answer let's go have a desire to want to talk to the people right in here he's taking these arrows and Elisha's going like what are you doing man he gets angry and said thou should have some in five or six times then it's now smitten Syria till I was consumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice you're missing out you're missing out because you didn't really take it that seriously because it wasn't that important to you you should have had your heart in it you should have just said okay we're gonna do this let's do it go all in so that was a bad example of someone here it's like okay he's kind of going through the motions okay yeah let's see well let's do this no get in it how bad do you want to win apparently not that bad how bad do you really want to serve God how bad you want to serve God how important is that to you how bad you want to be in a good church I'm willing to drive 10 minutes maybe 15 okay see how bad you want it how bad you want to win a soul to Christ you're in a church right now that will teach you that will train you that will bring you out and we do go out regularly multiple times a week you can't ask for anything more in fact I will personally go with you so winning I will work with my schedule and yours to go with you and hold your hand if needs be all right I will become all things all men I might by all means save some so whatever it is that you need to get out there and to learn this we will accomplish that here so don't you you have no excuse but your own how bad you want to win a soul to Christ how bad you want to fulfill the commandment of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel every creature how bad you want to fulfill that how bad you want to be obedient it's up to you how bad you want to see your children grow up in a world that's not overrun by perverts too many people go silent with the wickedness because they're scared they don't want to speak up we live in a dark world and more and more the people who think right the people who know the Bible is true are just too afraid to stand up to the terrorists to the alphabet terrorists LGBT pervert terrorists that want to defile your kids minds and are striving more and more and more to get to them young to get at them and during the stories to get their filth and smut put in front of their faces and get it into the schools and have infiltrated all these different areas and everyone now is afraid to say anything you might get canceled how bad you care about your kids future okay how bad do you care about the righteousness of God in general like like just I mean are you just okay with all manner of filth and perversion what kind of a Christian are you read the scripture not just with the homosexuality and stuff but how about like first Corinthians chapter 5 the church is being rebuked like you're allowing sin in your church that isn't even named among the Gentiles like what is wrong with you people you've gone too tolerant you've gone too soft hold some standards get some righteousness come on look we're not all perfect but not everyone some weird adulterer sleeping with his father's wife or whatever like come on let's let's let's have some type of standard within the church let's have some standards here we're not gonna allow certain things to go down we're not gonna company with the the fornicators and adulterers and the drunkards and revilers and extortioners and you know the whole list I mean we're just not gonna do it because we're hold some standards and we actually care about the Word of God and yeah it is important we're gonna show it's important and we want to be righteous in the eyes of the Lord fervently and I want my children to know what it's like to serve God and I want them to know what the Word of God says and I want the whole world to know what the Word of God says so the name of Christ is magnified you know how it's not magnified by censoring his word by withholding by putting your candle under a bushel that's not honoring that's not pleasing well I might get persecuted yeah in fact not might you will they nail Jesus to a cross you think you might be able to suffer a little bit for his sake he suffered and bled and died for you his soul descended into hell for you maybe you could handle some mean words by people who hate God how important is it how bad you want it as far as I've ordered prayer your Lord we love you thank you so much for doing everything for us for giving us all the opportunities that we have for saving our souls giving us a free gift of eternal life God I pray to please help us tonight whatever our areas are that are lacking help us to first see them acknowledge them Lord help us to just take a look inwardly and be able to make the changes necessary Lord that even as we're praying we're praying tonight we're asking you think we pray every service Lord and it's real and it ought to be real for all of us but but help us Lord to even in our entreaties to you we know that you know our needs yet you still commanded us and instructed us that we ought to be praying to you and we see the good examples Lord we we desperately want some things in our life there's definitely some areas where we have troubles and and problems Lord and and healings that are that are needed and I pray that you would please help us in our own life to make these things as important as they are in our hearts or in our minds and set aside the time and put down the devices or electronics or all the other wastes of time that we have or we think we don't really have any time and get rid of the garbage and be able to spend more time communicating with you in prayer with you listening to you and reading the Bible dear Lord and that you would just just help strengthen our spirit and and mortify the deeds of our flesh Lord we love you to Jesus name we pray amen