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Men, I want to look back at verse number one and the Bible reads very famous verse through desire a man having separated himself, seeketh an inner metallist with all wisdom and this conference is a mighty men's conference. And so the title of my sermon this evening is this mighty through desire mighty through desire. Now go if you would the 2nd Samuel for a moment go to 2nd Samuel 23 and we're going to find a list of the mighty men, you know, they're describing the Bible as David's men and when we think about someone being mighty what we think about as synonyms we think about strength right you think about someone who's strong someone that can handle themselves someone that's fierce in battle someone that you don't want to mess with someone that's you know definitely proven themselves in some way and when we look at the mighty men of the Bible the Bible kind of gives us some descriptions as to why these men are mighty but look at verse number 8 2nd Samuel 23 look at verse 8 the Bible says these be the names of the mighty men and David had the tachmanite that sat in the seat chief among the captains the same was a dino the s night he lived up his spear against 800 whom he slew at one time now when you read this entire chapter you're going to come across a lot of different people and a lot of different names and a lot of different things about them but what is it that it's really trying to emphasize in correlation to the fact that this is a mighty man it's how many people he killed at one time right it says that his spear against 800 whom he slew at one time now when you read the stories of the Bible like this there's definitely a spiritual aspect here or supernatural aspect to some of these battles that these men are going through because no man is going to be able to literally lift up his spear and stab somebody 800 times by their own physical strength it's obviously a picture of these men trusting in the Lord and the Lord giving them this drink but what I want to draw from this is the fact that deciding this man's mighty is tied to something it's tied to the number of men he killed what if it said this guy was a mighty man he killed a buddy one time you know he killed a cockroach one time he killed three cockroaches you know we'd be like really but 800 men that's a pretty big feat right and it's a quantifiable feat it's something that we measure and we look at and that's how we determine that this person's mighty is by looking at something that's very quantifiable it's something that you can look at and if we were to look at men today and we're just deciding that this guy is someone who's mighty and I'm not saying biblically I'm just saying in general right if you're gonna look at someone and say this guy's really strong this guy's really mighty how would we quantify that typically we would say something like this guy can bench press 400 pounds right we'd say something like that someone who can lift 400 pounds on the bar you know on a bench press that's a lot that's a lot of weight that's not a normal person on a normal man that's someone that we would say is mighty right whether that be a bench press whether that be a squat or whether that be dumbbells or or whatever this guy can do a thousand push-ups you know they have strong men competitions what are they doing it's how many things they can lift or they push big heavy balls how quickly they can do it and so they're being measured by the things that they're doing now for someone to get to this position they have to do a lot of things it takes a lot of effort it takes a lot of dedication it takes a lot of time and they slowly build up and they get that strength but whenever you're desiring to be this strong man or you're desiring to be this mighty man what do you have to constantly do you have to constantly measure yourself you have to go to the gym and say okay how much can I bench press right and you say hey I want to get the 400 you go and you bench press and you lift 50 you're like okay well I'm not very close right but you get that instant feedback and you say all right now I'm gonna go for 75 next week I'm gonna try and do 75 and then 100 150 then 200 and you start working and building up but what's needed is that instant feedback what if someone says I am the strongest guy ever it's like what do you lift I've never lifted well how do we know you're strong just trust me you know I just I just know that I'm really strong well it wouldn't that have to be measured in some way wouldn't there be something to kind of look at and really the people that get to this position they're constantly looking at themselves they're measuring themselves they're going in there they're testing how many reps can I do how much weight can I do how many push-ups did I do how long did I run you know they're looking at all these elements and they're measuring themselves and they're looking at what they're doing in their performance and that's helping them push themselves to go to new limits to new heights to constantly get better and better and better and it doesn't happen magically it doesn't happen just automatically no that person actually desires to improve and so they're constantly measuring themselves and measuring themselves and ultimately you know it's very painful process it's very lengthy process they say no pain no gain why because if it was easy to be super strong wouldn't everybody do it yeah but it takes a lot of work to get there no one is a very strong person a very strong man instantly it takes a lot of hard work and in fact some of the men that I've met that are actually very strong you know they're not just a normal person and I've either witnessed them or worked out with them or talk with them or whatever what I notice is they're always looking for ways to improve you know that they'll go and they'll look at somebody that also is strong and they'll say like oh what's this exercise you're doing or they're looking for tips or ways to improve or you know they say like I've been plateauing in this area of you know building muscle or doing whatever hey do you have any ideas of what I could do another workout or another way to improve in this area they're constantly looking at how to get better and they're trying to seek how to get stronger you know new tweaks new workouts new tips and things like this and because it takes so much effort very few do it right we think about in the military you know the commercials I remember it was the few the proud the Marines now it's a bunch of trainees or something but the few the proud the Marines but here's the thing why is it that it was said the few the proud the Marines isn't it because they had a really high standard in order to become or each they had certain things that you had to do physically in order to even be qualified to become a marine you know they take a lot of physical and I don't know all the specifics but you know so many push-ups you have to run so many miles you have to do it so quickly yeah I mean you have to do certain amount of pull-ups and just all kinds of different physical endurance factors and many of the people that try even fail they have a desire but here's the thing they didn't get to that certain threshold that objective threshold and they didn't push themselves high enough and so because they didn't get there they're not the few they're not the proud they're not mighty physically okay and at the end of the day you know the Marines while they've had a lot of valor in the past that they kind of just started to deteriorate people don't have as much respect for them but you would say why because they lowered their standards that's why it's not as hard to be a marine anymore all you have to do is be a woman and claim your dude and it's like okay well you can do girl push-ups and you know you can do that they lower their standards so now they're not as mighty though when you lower your standards you're less might when you have high standards you're gonna be more mighty more even more strength and you're gonna have more respect you know just our military our schooling our society our country it keeps lowering its standards and you know what that does it's causing our country to be less mighty yeah less strong the higher the standards that you have the more you're pushing yourself and measuring yourself and trying to figure out how to get better and improve the mightier you're going to be when you constantly go down to the lowest common denominator then everybody's just a weak a feminist boy so you want to be mighty it takes being different than everybody what was that verse that I talked about through desire a man having separated himself seek of an inner medal of the law wisdom you know a marine has separated himself in a sense from other soldiers because he has a higher standard he can do things that other men can't do it now I'm using this to really just kind of help you understand the basis for my sermon it's very carnal application but it's a very true application but here's the reality the same is true spiritually if you want to be mighty spiritually it's going to be the same process of constantly seeking to improve having a desire to get better having a desire to improve and those that don't desire to improve physically will never make it those that don't desire to be mighty spiritually will never be mighty spiritually it's through desire you actually get better and you actually become someone might when you don't have this desire what it does is it starts you it plateaus you get to a certain level of contentness you get to a certain level I don't want to get any stronger I don't want to get any faster I've reached where I want to go as soon as you get content what do you do you stop getting better what causes you to constantly improve is a desire to get better is the idea of constantly having new goals and constantly trying to improve good a second Corinthians chapter 10 good a second Corinthians chapter number 10 if you want to be mighty the best vehicle is going to be through desire you're not going to accidentally become a giant spiritually on accident you will not be a mighty man spiritually without pushing yourself setting goals measuring yourself thinking about how to get better you can't do it unless you want to do it no one is just going to accidentally look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and look no one's going to accidentally look like Arnold Schwarzenegger spiritually yeah it takes desire that person it through desire separated himself notice he didn't just separate himself no it took something because you said why does it take desire because it's hard yeah just as hard as it would be to go to the gym every single day and constantly lifting the weights and going through all the pain and the exercise and not eating because you want to get you know those guys that are super strong they don't eat in fact whenever they're going to go perform for their little show or whatever they typically eat like nothing for a few weeks virtually and they're only they're just eating like chicken and broccoli and not with cheese on it you know I'm just like you know it's just like just raw chicken not just without bland chicken or whatever they cook it I'm just saying but like maybe there's nothing with it just like chicken and broccoli chicken and broccoli and they're just like oh man I'm sick and tired I want some McDonald's you know or they want some fries they want some pizza or they want some look they don't accidentally look like that it takes so much sacrifice and hard work and dedication and here's the thing if you want to be someone mighty spiritually it takes the same amount of desire and strength and endurance and pain and separating yourself and saying no to things you don't just magically become a mighty man spiritually look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 for through for though we walk in the flesh we did not war after the flesh for the weapons of our work were not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every spot to the obedience of Christ and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled now I don't want you to get the wrong idea and say okay well I can be super mighty on my own no everything comes through God and obviously the mighty men in the Bible they weren't able to do the task that they did physically without God's strength there yeah guiding but I guarantee they didn't look like some soy boy Richard Simmons or something walking you know no I'm sure they look really physically tough I'm sure they were really strong too yeah but it's just here's the thing by your own strength you can make it here's the thing when you have God on your side you can well here's the thing you need to still improve yourself you need to still try to be strong and do the best that you can and God will be there to fill in the gaps but notice what it has that's two really important aspects here of becoming mighty okay and in our warfare here what is the fact that in verse five casting down imaginations now here's the thing who does that you do that who's in control can I control your imagination it's not inception here okay you know look obviously I can influence your thoughts and obviously I could try to manipulate you and obviously the TV and news they try to put ideas in your mind but the end of the day you're in the driver's seat yeah you get to decide what's flowing through here and at the end of the day if you want to be mighty you have to decide I'm gonna cast down imaginations I am going to what bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ you say that sounds hard yeah we're not talking about things that are easy here yeah being mighty is not automatic yeah being a mighty man spiritually someone that's willing to say you know what I do want to take my thought life and put it in control I am wanting to say you know what I need to do something I need to put forth some effort and it takes a desire to say I want to have a pure mind that's good verse six and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience not I just love how this is worded because it's saying you're ready to revenge all this will be the same like when you screw up you're ready to fix that right away like you're mad at yourself you're like man I'm ready to revenge this is obedience yeah I'm not just like I screwed up whatever no you're like that was terrible yeah you know you look at sports athletes you look at these people that are really great whenever they have something off in their shot or they do something wrong they make some kind of a mistake they think wow I need to fix that I need to practice more I need to do more wraps or I need to do something to fix this because that was a horrible mistake that I made you know the quarterback keeps throwing interceptions like I need to pick something right and he's ready to revenge himself rather than just being like oh just whatever you know it's just not my day or night someone's saying you know what I'm gonna do better yeah I'm gonna fix these things and at the end of the day you have two ways that you can really get better yourself and harkening into instruction right someone can tell you something to do better to do it or you can tell yourself to do something better and you can choose to do that right and when I think about this is like there's a lot of men who say you know I want to be a pastor but when I think about this and I think about looking at men deciding you know is this guy someone that could be a pastor this is one of the most important things that I think of when it comes to someone being a pastor it's number one is how well does this man improve when instructed when he's told something that he's doing wrong there's some way that he can get better how good is he actually taking that advice and then doing it yeah that's good because at the end of the day if you're supposed to take the word of God and hear God's instructions and then implement them if you can't implement instruction you're gonna be a failure in your life you know someone that can't take instruction and actually follow that instruction is not going to be a good leader it's not going to be someone who's mighty it's not someone that should be in charge of others and it's it's frustrating because some people can be told straight to their face what they need to do and how they need to improve you just won't do it but that someone's not that person's not a mighty person you wouldn't say that no person's a rebellious person when you say that are lazy person or stupid frankly I mean if you're doing something wrong and someone can point it out to you and make it clear to you and then you still make that same mistake wouldn't you look at your stupid or something or you're lazy or your rebellious I mean there's not a good attribute to that person when you give someone clear instruction and then they just don't do it do that you know you identify a problem and you try to help them by giving them clear instruction but they don't want to take that instruction and then most importantly is this how well does this man improve when not being instructed and look if someone cannot improve themselves without me having to tell them I would never be a pastor why because as soon as they become a pastor now they answer to God they're not going to have someone going around telling them what to do they have to have a desire in their heart to improve themselves and become in the pastor someone could be so filled with pride in their heart and think like why right now I've made it no one needs to tell me what to do now but here's the thing we all need to constantly be told by this book how we need to get better and if you can't even lead yourself how are you going to lead others if you can't even improve yourself how are you going to improve others yet I think many people today many men today they never honestly look at their life on a daily basis and think how can I improve they're not just thinking like I need to get better today I need to do something better you read the Bible and say wow I'm not doing that I need to fix something and then coming up with a plan or an idea of how to fix that say hey this is a problem in my life I need to try and look maybe you fail one time but then you say well I'm gonna try another one I'm gonna try something else and you say what what's that key ingredient desire because if you don't desire to be better here's the thing you won't improve no one's just gonna automatically do it and you know it takes it takes self-awareness now think about going in the gym how do you do that self-awareness 50 pounds all right 50 pounds right you look at it and measure it you weigh it you look at things so when you look at the Bible when you're reading the Word of God and you're saying okay well this is what the guy's supposed to be doing look at yourself and say am I doing that yeah how much am I lifting what does my life look like in comparison to the Word of God to the men of God to what the Bible's telling me to do and you say well I never do that well let me tell you something you're not improving right I never have these thoughts you're not getting better you're not you know Moses his boss was God right but he still needs to improve he still needs to get better but at the end of the day you know when you get to certain positions in your life it may just be God's the one that's over you hey if you're a small business owner you own your own business I mean there's no one to tell you what to do and even in a church like a church or small business yeah you have to be you know accountable to your customers but your customers in your church can't tell you what to do and a real church okay obviously you could just tell your customers take a hike you could tell your church take a hike right at the end of the day so you need to have a desire to improve in a pastor with an attitude that they don't need to improve is dangerous a pastor with an attitude that they don't need to improve is dangerous anything it's dangerous for any person but especially that person now think of some people that are great go to first Kings chapter number three go to first Kings chapter number three what's a person that finds himself in this position where they answer to God there's no one to tell them what to do how about Solomon how about a king wouldn't that be someone that's in a position where no one's going to tell Solomon what to do at the end of the day Solomon gets to make every single decision however he sees fit he's the top of the food chain okay now why would God want Solomon to be at the top of that food chain I'll tell you why because of what was in his heart now look at first Kings chapter 3 verse 5 and give you on the word appeared to Solomon in dream by night and God said ask what I should give thee Solomon said that was showing my servant David my father great mercy according as he walked before the in truth and righteousness and then a brightness apart with me now it's kept for him this great kindness that was given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day and now Lord my God that was made my servant King instead of David my father and I am but a little child I know not how to go out or come in now stop yourself does Solomon have self-awareness how could he make this statement he says I'm a little child he's looked at his years he says I'm not an old person I don't have much life experience and he says I don't know how to go out I don't know how to come in I don't know how to do these things he's assessed himself and realized I'm not the person like I suck what I am a novice I am weak I don't have the skills that I need but didn't God put him in a really important position and here's the reality obviously he has some character he has some knowledge he has some level of understanding it's not just zero but at the end he even sees himself as someone who needs so much more wisdom and so much more knowledge and to me this would be the idea a person that becomes a pastor they look at themselves and like all right why would that person look like I don't know how to do this I still need to improve I still need better having a strong self-awareness of what this person needs he says in verse 8 and my servant is in the midst of thy people which thou has chosen a great people that cannot be numbered or countable to do give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people what does he want he wants to know more he wants to understand more he wants to get back does Solomon think that he is the is the best at this point or is he say I need to get better he has a desire to be better and to be the right person to leave he understands the importance of his role the importance of the job that he has and he's saying I need to get better I need to have more understanding I need to have more knowledge I need to have more wisdom and so that's what yeah God says you can have anything Solomon what does he want I want to get better and that what he says he doesn't want the spoils of life he wants to get better he could have anything and here's the thing we need men today that look to God and just say I just want to get better I mean what is it that you want in your life well I want more money I want to have more prestige I want more fame I want more honor I want that promotion I want to have this house I want to have these things how about this how about just being better spiritually having that desire these things won't get there unless you have that desire look at chapter 4 and look at verse 32 now what does God do God gives that to him and then he gives them everything else on top of that but look at Solomon and think about our first verse through desire a man having separated himself okay well look at something about Solomon first Kings chapter 4 look at verse number 32 and he spake 3,000 problems and it's wrong for a thousand five now does anybody know how many problems are in the Bible in the book of Proverbs how many verses they guess 915 versus now I don't know how the Bible quantifies this okay I don't know because sometimes proverbs in the Bible are like two verses right sometimes it seems like maybe it could have been counted as multiple per verse I don't know how God quantified it but to me you would have to say this 3,000 was more than what's written in the book of Proverbs now does anybody in this room have every single proverb memorized but think about this yeah he's beyond that he's at 3,000 isn't that different than you and I isn't that a little bit different than the normal person he had a desire to get better he had a desire to have understanding not only does he speak 950 probably 3,000 problems that doesn't happen overnight that doesn't happen accidentally right it took a lot of effort and taking a lot of diligence it took a lot of study to get to that point and then God like this is the wise guy well why do you think that happened he didn't just wake up one morning just like I'm the smartest guy now no one proverb two proverbs three proverbs thousand two thousand three thousand I mean this is some incredible amount of effort that Solomon had to go through and look hey you want to be a great preacher it's gonna take some effort some people like why I'm not good at preaching it's like well how much effort are you including how much time do you spend working on becoming a better preacher and let me tell you this you want to become a better preacher listen to your own sermons why you say well self-awareness listen back and here's the thing when I listen back to the sermon and I try to listen I don't listen all of them but I listen to a lot of them you know what I'm doing the whole time thinking how I can get better that's the only thing I think I don't wow really good point I'm thinking like that was kind of a dumb thing to say why do I have that filler word you know or this is what happened there's tons of times when I'm preaching and a thought kind of is creeping up in my mind if I can first that I want to go through or something I want to say but it's just not sharp enough and so I ignore it but then when I listen back to my sermon I remember that thought and then I can go look it up and sharpen it so I can have in the future or I miss quote a verse or I miss do some kind of a reference or something and then I look it up and I make sure I get it exactly right every single staff every single word every single verse every single thought that I say how can I get better and you say well why would you do that why wouldn't I do that if you want to be better at something and look whenever we do a men's preaching class you know what I do when I listen to the guys preaching I think how can this get better sometimes it's really obvious how about this how about listen to someone that you think is a great preacher or he knows a lot better at preaching than you and try to figure out what it is that they're doing and do what they're doing it's good yeah good I mean if you went to a strongman competition do you really think that they would look very different from each other they all look about the same I mean they have about the same looking pecs and biceps and trying I mean it from you and I to them they all look the same all right I mean it's all kind of look around I mean you wouldn't expect to go to the strongman competition see someone that just looks way different than everybody else I mean they all kind of generally look about the same and you think from a spiritual picture let me tell you what they're all going to kind of look the same go to matthew chapter 16 go to matthew chapter number 16 there's an interesting thing in the bible where whenever they're looking at other men of god they're constantly confusing them you say well why would they be constantly confusing them because they're really similar yeah because they're going for the same attributes the same characteristics look at matthew chapter 16 verse 13 when jesus came to the coast of caesarea philippine he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that I the son of man am and they said some say that thou art john the baptist some alliance and others jeremiah's or one of the prophets he's like you know who's all really similar elias john the baptist jeremiah's in fact they're just pretty much like all the other prophets and they're like hey elias is like elijah and they just are constantly like the same person and then the same attributes and you say what were they doing they're all copying jesus it's good that's good and you say why because it's the same spirit right it's the same spirit yeah look if you're filled with the same spirit of god that other men of god are filled with you should be really similar that's why when i hear preaching from pastor i'm like i don't recognize that spirit that's not the spirit of god hey when they're preaching false doctrine that's not the spirit of god that's coming out of the mouth it's a different spirit it's a false spirit at best it's them being carnal right at worst they're filled with a different spirit right yeah because at the end of the day whenever you have the same holy spirit and you're trying to be like christ you know what we're all going to be pretty similar so if i look at a guy and say this guy is filled with the spirit of god and this guy's striving to follow christ you know what i would try to be like that guy you know you can't accuse me of trying to somebody like hey pastor anderson sounds a lot like jack isle's oh i wonder why you think that he takes that as a negative thing that's a compliment can you imagine someone's like you're like elijah you sound a lot you're like great you're like jeremiah's cool you're like john mappins you're like yeah sweet why would that be an insult right that would be a compliment wouldn't it look at the guys that you think and have respect for and say well i need to take on some of their characteristics and try to be like them wouldn't it be pretty uh awful if they said man you remind me a lot of total esteem this is my bible and i am what i say is it him you sound a lot like kenneth Copeland you remind me of kenneth Copeland oh what is like you're preaching it just reminds joyce my oh you're preaching sounds a lot like jack isle's it's like great yeah why would i want why would i want them to say anything else yeah yeah what is the other comparison and look at the end of the day you know you're going to work it out somebody's like you're working out like short snake or you're working out like this other of course because there's going to be a lot of similarity there and if you want to get better look at the people that are really great and try to be like them look at the sports athletes today what do they do they try to be like their idol they try to be like michael jordan they try to be like the greats the wayne gretzky's or the tiger woods or whatever they try to emulate their swing they try to emulate their mental characteristics and their work habits and their practice routines and all the things that they do because they say how are you so great and they're like i practice 12 hours a day i need to practice 12 hours a day right but they're not going to go and like paint their skin black okay that's not going to make you like mike but if you pick up their personal you know uh uh practice routines and habits and the disciplines and the things that look you can borrow from other great men look at what they're doing ask them questions say like what do you do yeah right and try to be like that person or identify things that they're doing you know whenever i was wanting to be a preacher or a pastor i looked at uh pastor and i went to his church i trained to be with him i looked at him and i said you know what i really like about his preaching he's constantly quoting scripture and you know what i did i heard he says he memorized like 140 chapters of the bible before he ever became a pastor do you think that's different than your average person you think this is different than your average pastor yeah i would be surprised if all the other baptists in arizona collectively have 140 chapters but through desire men have been separating themselves seeketh and intermet with all wisdom he said why is pastor anderson such a good preacher he's just naturally gifted how about memorize 140 chapters of the bible and then come back to me and see what your preaching is like yeah that's good amen it's like why do i suck at preaching it's like well have you read the bible cover to cover no do you have any bible verses memorized no do you ever study no it's like i know why you suck at preaching like it's not rocket science okay it just takes a lot of hard work and dedication and getting better go to proverbs chapter number three proverbs chapter three and you say well i don't want to be a pastor i don't want to be a preacher okay but here's the thing you should desire to be a spiritual person right a spiritual man and a leader you say well i'm never gonna be king well guess what you're king of your cows yeah you're king of your castle yeah who makes the decisions in your house above you yeah no one you answer to god there's the myth do you look at your job and your house as important as solomon did his job i mean isn't your wife's life important aren't your children's lives important how about your brothers and your cousins and the people that look up to you and your fellow church members that are looking to you and looking at your example and the influence that you have in their life are you taking that as serious do you have a desire to be better for them amen proverbs chapter 3 verse 13 the bible is happy as the man that finds wisdom and the man that get it understanding you know one thing that robs me so wrong is when people are content with being stupid content i'll never learn that language i'll never study that i'll never look it's like i don't want to be better why would you go around and brag about not wanting to be better that's the worst attribute in the pastor yeah someone that does not desire to get better is going to get worse go to proverbs chapter four and look at verse five the bible commands you first five get wisdom yeah anybody arrived yet i haven't get understanding forget it not neither decline in the words of my mouth forsake or not and she shall preserve the lover and she shall keep the wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all that good and good understanding exalt her and she shall promote me and she shall bring me to honor when that doesn't embrace her hey you want to be mighty get wisdom hey you want to be mighty spiritually get understanding it says it's the principal thing what does that mean the primary thing the most important thing he's saying this is what's really important get some wisdom better proverbs chapter 16 proverbs chapter 16 but what do these verses underpin the importance of what a desire to be better don't they because getting wisdom is something you don't already have something you're striving for you're trying to attain until you're trying to get more of more understanding more wisdom please ask this chapter 7 look at verse 19 wisdom strengthen that the wise more than 10 mighty men which are in the city notice it's an attribute of what strength of being mighty and he says wisdom is better than 10 physically strong men he said you want to be truly mighty wisdom is better than physical strength amen yeah let me prove that go to please ask chapter nine please step right let me prove this to you look at verse 13 please ask chapter nine verse 13 this wisdom have i seen also under and it seemed great underneath there was a little city and few men within it and there came a great king against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it it was found in a poor wise man and he by his wisdom delivered the city yet no man remembered that same poor man then said i wisdom is better than strength nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised his words are not the words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that rule is among fools wisdom is better than weapons of war one center destroys much good what is the bible telling us it's telling us that wisdom is actually better than strength but here's the thing it's rare it's rare that men will seek wisdom over physical strength yeah it's easier to find a lot of mighty men physically than to find a lot of mighty men spiritually and he's saying even though it's actually better people are more interested than the other thing and often in verse 17 says the words of the wise are heard in quiet more saying hey i want to go to the big church where they have all the fancy stuff yeah but are the words of the wise there how much better of a person are you going to become listening to roasty james joyce meyer you're going to become a better man listen to joyce meyer she tries a little hard to make herself a man but you know what she's not your role model she's not the right person to make you win why don't you go and find someone that can make you a better person and go listen to what they have to say unfortunately you say i don't you know that doesn't sound as much fun it's not it's not as much fun to be told that you are in need of improvement that you're doing things wrong and it oftentimes will cause people to get very offended when they hear problems that they have but the reality is that we all have blind spots in our life and as much as we need to strive to have self-awareness and try to encourage ourselves to be better oftentimes we need others there to help us in the areas of blind spots that we have things that we don't see in ourselves things that we need to work on weaknesses that we have and in fact in today's age if someone has enough courage to point something out that you're doing wrong it's probably really wrong because most of the time when you think someone's doing something wrong you just kind of like keep it to yourself when someone actually verbalizes something that they don't like about you or criticize you in some way it's typically it's got to a point that they were just like i just have to say something yeah yeah and obviously there's some people walking around criticizing everyone but i'm just saying when someone criticizes you you should take that as an opportunity to say i might have something seriously wrong with me yeah this might be something that i can actually improve on and what does that do it encourages good growth it encourages you into an area where you can actually get better going to hebrews chat number five hebrews chat number five we need other people to help us understand issues that we have so we can be we can have a full vision we can have that perfect look at ourselves because oftentimes you can't see yourself for who you are you can't see your weaknesses for who you are because it's a weakness because it's a weakness you probably aren't noticing it and when someone else is able to point that out or give you some kind of advice you shouldn't just immediately excuse that or get offended but look at it as an opportunity to get better look at hebrews chapter 5 verse 13 for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe but strong meat belongeth to them that are a full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil now in hebrews chapter 5 is talking about people in church that have been there for a while yet they haven't really grown they haven't gotten better frankly speaking they haven't applied the instructions that they've been getting and they haven't been developing and getting more understanding and more wisdom and so what uh whoever the author is basically explaining them well i would like to give you something else i'd like to go on and move on and give you strong meat something better more nourishing but you can't handle it and look a baby cannot eat steak no matter how good steak is no matter how tender it is i mean a baby with no teeth it just can't do it it still has to happen it has to grow and it has to get better and here's the thing there are certain people that you look at them and they have not spiritually grown so if you were to point out something that they need to work on and improve they would just be offended and they would never grow they wouldn't be able to handle it just like a baby couldn't handle steak and it's frustrating when you look at people and you think i i want to say this or i want to talk about this issue and i'd like to help this person but i feel like they can't handle that right now they're on a different stage they haven't grown to this point and you and i both know there's people you look at you like this guy has this problem but if i say something there he's not gonna be my friend anymore he's gonna be mad at me he's gonna take it the wrong way he can't handle criticism can't handle being told he's doing something wrong let me show you an example of this a lot of them are chapter four mark chapter number four they can't take the heat they can't take the pressure they succumb to any kind of outside force there's certain people that i look at and i say they have a serious problem in their life but if i told them what they need to hear they'd probably leave they'd probably quit now at the end of the day as a pastor as a preacher you have to be a pastor first and a pal second yeah you have to be a boss first and a buddy second so sometimes that's what happens sometimes you just basically it gets to that point you say look this needs a fix or you need to change this we preach something and there's like and then they leave but you know at least they got to hear it yeah how i do it now look at mark chapter number four verse number 16 is the parable of sower and these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves and so endure but for a time afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake immediately they are offended so saying there's a group of people they love the positive things of the bible but they don't root themselves now what would be a rooting yourself spiritually growing in knowledge growing in wisdom having a desire to become more strong spiritually and because they're not strong spiritually any kind of outside force that comes upon them immediately destroys them immediately gets them out of the word of god immediately offends them in this case it's saying persecution affliction but look even criticism can have the same effect on people where they can't handle the preaching you and i both know someone some visitor comes in and it's not the right sunday morning they can't handle the preaching again did he just say faggot it's like back it back it back did he just say four did he just call someone a bastard why isn't he wearing two masks up there look you look at someone with two masks on in the store they can't handle any criticism that you would give them could they right now right why because they're so far from wisdom they're so far from understanding they're they're not even a spiritual baby and the same can happen to us when you're not desiring to improve when you don't have a desire to improve you can't handle criticism can you it's good you're already robbing yeah i'm already there i don't desire to get better pastor why would i come in here or how i could get better yeah i'm already the best church member you've got go to isaiah 50 for a moment and here's the thing sometimes people look at someone and they think they're spiritual well they're going to church or reading the bible or doing these things but let me tell you something someone can't take criticism is not spiritually mighty it's not a spiritual person if you cannot take criticism you will never be a mighty person for god you want to know how many you want to talk about Christmas how about just every man of god in the bible yeah do you think there was Moses ever criticized by anyone i think anybody was upset with anything that Moses did and look men of the god a lot of times their criticism was faith was false it wasn't even a real criticism but here's the thing whenever you're a leader whenever you're trying to do something right you will face criticism you as the man of your house wanting to serve god will face criticism from who your mother-in-law from your aunts from your uncles from your dad from your brother from your friends and your cousins anybody they will press why do you want to go to that church why do you want to wear that shirt why do you want to read the bible why do you go out solely why you're going to constantly go so winning you'll get criticized all the time do anything spiritual and you're going to be criticized up and down yeah you're going to constantly be attacked and persecuted and afflicted and look criticism can only be positive if you have the right mindset because if it's false rewards if it's true then i have an opportunity to get better so please explain to me why criticism is bad yeah i think a lot of people don't realize how poorly they take criticism hey if someone gives you bad advice who cares but if someone gives you good advice isn't that the one that usually stings a little bit the one that's kind of true something that you're doing that's not right and you want to talk about someone who had a lot of criticism and deserve none of it how about jesus yeah how much criticism did jesus deserve wouldn't it be zero yeah i mean there's nothing to criticize he's perfect yeah yet they constantly criticize them up and down everything he did every move every word they falsely accused him yeah do you know what he was like when they were criticizing well look the bible gives us a hint look at isaiah 50 verse 7 for the lord god will help me therefore shall i not be confounded therefore have i set my face like a flint and i know but i should not be ashamed hey they criticize him and he does his setbacks he didn't change his countenance he didn't get upset about it it didn't worry him he didn't have to settle every score he didn't have to say no i really am the son of god he just kept him around shut he knew who he was yeah if someone criticizes you if someone says something mean about you do you have to well that's not the spiritual person what would jesus like just looks at him in the eyes just stares him down he doesn't even have to say anything art thou the son of the blessed i am just looks at him why he can take criticism you can hurl anything at him they're literally he's he's been crucified and there's they're mocking him they're railing on him when he's out there he can take it all yet we oftentimes can't take any kind of criticism go to proverbs chapter 15 go to proverbs chapter 15 his face was harder than the flint you want to talk about someone who's spiritually mighty jesus christ who never did anything wrong in his entire life and he took all the criticism and all the accusations and all the railing and all the stuff and he just took it yeah just took it like a man and you know what a man just takes it a man doesn't have to revenge himself he doesn't have to settle every score he doesn't have to right every wrong he doesn't have to answer every troll did you see what this troll said about me how many trolls do you see me arguing with on facebook those of you on social media can you find me just constantly just getting in these weird arguments with trolls let me tell you what people that get in lots of arguments with trolls are not spiritually mighty the stupid silly game someone that's spiritual doesn't care i don't have to go and talk to beau ballad online and wonder everything that he says or jake strickland or seth bookout or whatever i mean that guy made like a thousand videos against me maybe it was like i don't have to write every single wrong who cares right did you hear what they said about did you hear what they did who cares yeah and if it was true then i'll fix it if it was something that was real why not just say well great i can improve on that look at it says in proverbs 15 verse 10 correction is grievous and then that forsake of the way and he that hated reproof shall die so notice someone that's wicked that forsakes god he hates being corrected yeah yeah the worst thing that could happen to him but you should embrace criticism go to proverbs nine go backwards proverbs chapter nine and look at verse eight reprove not a squirter lest he hate me rebuke a wise man and he will love me why would someone love you for rebuking them because you're giving them opportunity to get better if i desire to be better you know what i want criticism hey you know when i went to faith word baptist church you know what i beg for from everyone criticize me how can i get better what can i do that you know hey if you see something i'm doing wrong tell me about it so i can fix it a bad leader is someone that can't be criticized right that can't take it that guy thinks i'm doing something wrong yeah maybe you are okay maybe you really do something bad go back to verse 15 proverbs chapter 15 look at verse 12 a squirter love is not one that reproveth them neither will he go unto the wise why would you go on the wise to be reproved why would you not go into the wise so that you're not reproved why would i go because i have a desire to to be better i want to be mighty through desire go to proverbs 29 go to proverbs 29 say do you have like three points no i don't okay i have one point desire to be better and you say well i don't desire to be better well you're going to just not be a great person you're just not going to be mighty if you say i'm never going to go to the gym i'm never going to work out i'm never going to run you're never going to look physically fit you're never going to be really strong it's not going to no one gets really strong eating Doritos and sleeping and working at a desk job like it just doesn't happen if you really wanted it you'd have to do it and here's the thing if you truly want to be spiritually mighty you have to do it you have to put in the time you have to put in the energy you have to put in that that all the sacrifice to do and be that type of person and at the end of the day one of the worst things you can do to yourself is not embrace all the criticism you could possibly get look what it says here in is it verse one i think eat at being often reproved harden at his neck he'll suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy take criticism well you know pastor anderson in his preaching class he said whenever i criticize someone after their sermon he says if they just like roll their eyes they can't handle the criticism they just kind of like answer what does it mean to harden your neck they make that face right they make they can't take the criticism they get all offended he says he'll never hire that person you say well how many times does that person have to do it once once it's a horrible attribute in a person people that don't like correction because they're worried it makes them inferior to the corrector but that's a foolish attitude keep your finger to psalms 119 go to psalms 119 look just because someone corrects you doesn't make them better than you why can't you take correction if you need to be corrected look your wife telling you need to fix something doesn't mean she's better than you maybe really stink yeah you need to take a shower maybe your dress kind of weird maybe you're kind of socially awkward you know maybe you have problems and she's just there to help you and if she's bold enough to say something she was probably thinking it many times before she said it but you still need to work on yourself and have this desire to be better and look you can even be better than everyone that teaches you but you have to have more desire than look at psalms 119 like verse 99 i have more understanding than all my teachers for that testimony or meditation your teachers are not going to hold you back you're going to be back that's good you will hold you back and if you're intimidated by someone being better or wiser than you then you're never going to be this person hey he had great teachers he hearkened them and then he listened to them but you know he has such a great desire to look at the bible look you want to know what the bible is it's telling you why you suck yeah just open the bible it's everything that's wrong with you every problem you have is right here when you say when you read the bible what do you what are you thinking about i need to do that i need to i need to have i need to be more upright i need to be more righteous i need that we have more faith i need to praise the lord i need to pray more i need the same praise of the lord i i don't look at the bible and think like check check check i mean i'm thinking like oh man i got a lot of work to do yeah so how can someone constantly reading the bible you know without the desire to be better get better they can't you have to have that desire first you know you're wasting time reading the bible if you don't think you can prove or if you have no desire to prove what's the point what if i just went to the gym and i just looked in the mirror but i never lifted any weights i'm at the gym i have some pick it up i mean yeah it's good i watched i looked at lots of magazines about getting strong and i thought about i drew pictures of me with big muscles like you got to do something yeah now here's another thing when someone criticizes you that doesn't make me better than you but even if they were who cares yeah what if someone started a baptist church right next to us and he was a better preacher and he was a better solar than me and his church had better programs and the chairs were more comfortable and he let all your kids have toys in the service world it didn't smell weird and you're like i'm gonna go to that church it had a better name somehow and every one of my church members left my church and went to his church now let me ask you this question i'm just saying projectively he said why would i be upset if every single person in this room if i care about them and want them to be the best that they can possibly be and they actually found themselves in a better situation why would it me me being upset why would that be a good thing i should actually be excited and i'll come join you i have two options it can motivate me to be better right or accept that someone else is better and just get on their program yeah there's nothing wrong with that why you know it's weird to me when people look at someone that's better than them and and they they have this envious attitude where they don't want them to succeed you should want every single person to see and here's the thing if you just constantly want to get better you want to be around people that are better than you so that you can be the best that you can be right yeah that's good or what if i thought well i hope every pastor out here just sucks really bad so i don't even have to improve and everybody just want to come to my church wouldn't that be a pretty poor attitude rather than being motivated to be better what if someone in your workplace came in a new hire and they're better than you at your job but it's going to do better for the company it's going to cause you to work harder and become better you could think like i don't want them to be here actually you could embrace that and if they give you criticism you could say well i can get better yeah it's giving me an opportunity to do more and to get better and a seeming other better than yourself you know if you really care about your family you really care about the people in your life you're going to want what's best for them no matter what happens to you and when someone gives you criticism look say it well this is an opportunity to be better person or just get on their team don't be envious of vain glory don't be offended by competition or the idea that someone's better than you because then you won't improve and you won't be able to respond well to criticism you know we should desire criticism scrutiny and think about it this way when you go out of soul winning and you look at someone you ask them what does it take to get to heaven they say be a good person and you say well the bible says something a little bit different they say oh i already know what the bible says no the bible literally has something different can i show you no i already i'm good what is that person lacking they desire to get better yeah and you know what's going to do that what's going to happen to them they're going to be destroyed yeah because if they never desire to get better then they'll never hear the gospel and they'll never choose to believe what they need in their life the desire to get better who are the people that get saved yeah i'd like to hear yeah i don't know someone that's willing to admit i want to get better i want to hear something new i want more wisdom i want more understanding but look it doesn't stop at salvation right you didn't arise yet some people get this attitude that they've already right yet people that are very spiritual pastors and other they can look at the congregation say like you guys need more information you can look at people and say you need to grow you need this but if you have no desire to get better eventually you'll just get offended by the criticisms that you receive in the leaf why do people leave hard preaching because they stop desiring to get better yeah they stop they stop desiring to get wisdom they stop desiring to get understanding they get offended by the criticisms that have been pointed out in their life and here's my question if you were criticized up and down in church well how would it benefit you to leave or to quit look you can be doing something wrong and still be in church you can be criticized you know that the pastor could say that you're doing something really bad and still choose to keep going to that church it's called life i guarantee we all read the bible and think i could do better you know looking at that perfect law of liberty go to hebrews chapter four some people just don't want to know what they look like but when you look in the bible it tells you exactly what you're looking and sometimes verses they'll just describe you up and down and you're just like wow but then they just walk away from you rather than embracing the fact that they could be better why because pride because they don't want to look like they're inferior or something or they have some kind of problem they have something they could work on because it shows them to be weak in their mind but a weak person is someone that doesn't want to improve that thinks that they already arrived a strong person never thinks that they've arrived they're always trying to get better they're always trying to improve their desire to go above even what their teachers have taught them how can you go above your teachers you're not even listening to your teacher that guy's going through his teacher and he's going to the word of god and he's letting empty his teacher the bible says in hebrew sport 12 for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even the dividing of the center of soul and spirit the joints of marwin's the discernment of thoughts and intents of the heart you say well pastor shelly i want the truth then tell me what's the truth you can't handle the truth is what i'm telling you there are so many people i look at and i think this person needs this truth but they can't handle it what if a pastor or me or someone walked straight up to you and just said you're lazy would you just quit the church if someone just literally walked up and just said you're a lazy slothful jerk that would kind of hurt with me hey the bible said piercing didn't it let me tell you some men that come to my church are lazy but if i just walked straight up to you and told you i don't know if you can handle it i don't think you can handle it i'm just telling you probably can't handle it you say why because you don't have a desire to get better or i say you're selfish you're a selfish person or if i look you said you have no self-awareness i see your wife looking at you and making all kinds of noises and saying things and you have no idea your wife is pissed at you and you have no idea i can look i'm like wow you did something wrong you got some issues there buddy and they just have no idea or you look at this person's a really awkward person but imagine you walk up you're awkward you're lazy you're i want the truth can you handle it it's good and you say well why can't i handle it because you don't desire to get better you could look at someone say you're just a bad leader there's some people you're just really honestly just a bad leader you're indecisive you're not you're not strong you're showing yourself to be a good example you're just a bad example there's some people are looking at yourself you're literally stupid i mean you need to improve in knowledge you need to become wise look we make fun of other churches there's other churches that were kindreds of ours maybe not as much as more the people getting up by the pulpit are calling themselves stupid but they are yeah but look if someone walked up you said you're stupid you have two options embrace the criticism or reject the criticism right but why wouldn't you embrace it if it's true hey what if i walked up to solomon and said you're young you don't know how to go out you don't know how to come in you don't have an understanding heart you're not ready to take care of this people well quickly what did he say well then i'm going to ask god to give that to me and then i'm going to study the word of god and fix that problem with my life and here's the thing sometimes you need to come to church and hear some more preaching so that you can fix things in your life yeah get more specific okay some men don't know as much bible as their life that's embarrassing yeah yeah some men wives want to go to church more than them how can you say you're mighty spiritually don't don't make your wife drag you to church that's that's gross yeah you should be leading the family and going to church leading the family going the soul winning you should be the best in every area of your family and you should be a leader you said well she's better than me at something well they get better she knows more about finance than learning about finances she knows more about any every single task is figured out ask the lord to give you understanding and wisdom and be the best leader that you can possibly be you're in charge of your house you answer to god nobody can tell you look if you get out of church there'll be no one in your life telling you to get better in your marriage and your life or anything no one and if you have no desire then you will just plateau and you won't be mighty and look why don't compare yourself to the men of this world that would be like saying well i want to meet the marine standard of today why not the marine standard of 1980 and 1950 be what they used to be like or how about what the word of god says don't compare yourself to the guy in the pew next to you or the chair next to you compare yourself to jeremiah good yeah to solomon to jesus and say well how am i doing there's some men that make themselves more comfortable than their family they make themselves more comfortable than their family rather than taking the burdens of their family onto themselves they push their burdens off onto their family how is that a leader like if you want to be a mighty person spiritually you know you take other people's birth did jesus come down from heaven and give you burden or did jesus christ come to earth and take away all of your burdens right oh yeah and didn't it say that jesus is like the head of the church and it's like his wife and what did he do for the church he took all of her work didn't upon himself that's what a real man's like not shifting all of his burdens and all this problem you know some people are just a burden giver just in general they come to church and they just literally just give burden to every other person they want everybody else to fix everything about their life and make things harder on them and give them more work to do rather than taking burdens from other people some people just constantly complain and look complaining is never a spiritual a mighty spiritual person someone that's complaining to me they just like downgraded themselves so much they say how many complaints one you know and you should also be able to disagree with authorities that are in your life and still submit sometimes people they love coming to our church when they agree but soon as pastor sully says something that they don't agree with well that's not how pastor adenas does it well that's not how pastor anderson does it well i think the bible says something different okay you're wrong or hey even if you're right you should still do whatever the authority in life says hey if you're someone you need to tell you to do something you do it that's good if your pastor tells you to do something you do it and you say well i don't like that then go to a different church but don't go to somewhere where you can't submit to the authority when you disagree when you disagree you say well i have a better idea than that can you do something follow someone's instructions when you even think that your idea is better can you follow their instructions still good some people are very presumptuous don't be presumptuous if you want i what's a presumptive person expecting things assuming things i'm the best church remember you got that's the most presumptuous thing i've ever heard believing that you're the best is such a presumptuous attitude thinking that you're you know go to galatians chapter six say how are you going to preach for it well get better go to galatians chapter six look at verse number three the bible says this for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceived himself what did this person not do they didn't check themselves they didn't take any self-awareness they didn't think about it and have no desire to be better where they just they're already there he thinks himself to be something rather than being solomon or being any of the great men in the bible and never thinking that they arrived never think that they've obtained the apostle paul i mean if you're going to say like i've reached apostle paul's status isn't that about one of the highest uh climaxes you could get to spiritually he says he hadn't attained yeah he was still pressing towards the mark he still desired to be better the moment you stop desiring to be better is the moment you start getting worse and you will not be mighty i have a few more proverbs and one more verse i'm gonna go power 16 you know david and saul i come to mind when i think about this and and david's considered a very mighty man physically carnally and spiritually right but think of the difference between saul and david because while saul had his battles nobody typically thinks of it as being as mighty as david or being as strong as david or definitely not spiritually as might as david but when saul is confronted with his sin the bleeding of the sheep what happens when he's confronted with error he immediately blames other people he doesn't take responsibility for his actions he has no desire to be better but think about what happened to david david's confronted with nathan and think about the statement he said thou art the man yeah i mean he's like you committed adultery and murder and he's like that's you right isn't that about the harshest criticism you can have just like right in the face yeah and what did david do he wept he repented he took the criticism because he's a lot different person than saul someone has a desire to be better it says in proverbs 16 verse 32 he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruled his spirit than he that take it a city look at a quality or action to someone that's mighty is someone that's slow to anger hey why would you get angry maybe someone criticized you maybe someone someone did something wrong to you but this person's slow to get through that anger isn't he and he's ruling over his spirit he's putting forth effort to be better look at proverbs 24 proverbs chapter number 24 and look at verse five a wise man is strong yay a man of knowledge notice this increases strength hey you want to be strong spiritually you want to be mighty spiritually i mean the mighty men conference is it who's going to win at the watercourse king of the hill who just scored the most points who won the most volleyball games is that when you walk away is that really the goal or the goal to be mighty spiritually well you got to increase knowledge don't you a man of knowledge increases strength gaining more knowledge will make you stronger look at verse 10 if thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small hey when you finally get criticized when you finally get compared you finally have to get measured up you perform and you don't perform well and it's a day of adversity you know there's something going on and you quit you stop you don't have the desire to get better your strength is small what makes someone strong they can go through something difficult they can literally kill 800 men with a spear you don't think he was tired under the first hundred and then 200 he's like i've been like this all day you know i mean can you imagine just killing that just like bam bam yeah i mean even if he's killing them a rate at like 30 seconds that would take hours just that's a day of adversity what if he quit after the first guy his strength isn't he doesn't have great strength what gave him great strength he just kept going the closet chef one place last place i'm gonna have you turn this evening clause in chapter number one and look the sermon simple you want to be mighty okay desire to be better desire to be good look at clause in chapter one look at verse number nine for this cause we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you and desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you might walk worthy of the lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of god strengthened with all might according to his glorious power and to all patience and long suffering with joyfulness so we see the apostle he's praying for these christians he wants these colossians to be what strengthened with all might we should want us to become stronger we should want to be strengthened we should want to be mighty that's not a bad thing to desire it's a great thing to desire but you say well how do i get that pastor shelley how am i going to be strengthened oh mike look at the statement right for it increasing in the knowledge of god a desire to get better a desire to know more a desire to have more understanding and you say well how does that work well the more you know this book the more you're going to see all the problems that you have and have the opportunity to fix them and that's going to strengthen you and give you true spiritual might according to what his glorious power no you want to be mighty through god you get it through this book and you get it through the knowledge but i'm telling you you need that desire and you say well i don't desire it well you should pray and ask god to give you that desire because it's it's hard it's difficult you know working out is one of the hardest things i mean i have i always wanted you know and life looks busy but you know what's even harder than that is working out spiritually yeah it's hard and you know the only thing that's going to carry you through that is that true desire you get deep down in your heart and you should pray and ask god and you should seek to be better and someone that can't take criticism i'm telling you don't have that desire you should check yourself and think about yourself and say can i handle criticism and i'm telling you never stop desiring to be better want to be mighty but be mighty through desire let's go to prayer thank you have your father for all these men that have come out here and shown themselves to be seeking you and i pray you just give these men a strong desire in their heart to increase in knowledge to draw closer to you to separate themselves spiritually so that they can be the greatest husbands the the greatest fathers the the greatest soul-winning leaders the greatest church members the greatest preachers and pastors and evangelists and all the the callings that you have in their life you give them that strong desire to separate themselves so that they could do mighty works through your glorious power and in jesus name we pray amen