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last year and faithful and we expect no less from him who is our father this year. We come to you, Lord, on this first Sunday of this new year and with thankful hearts we also ask you to guide our steps. Make us determined to serve you.

Give us purpose in our walking and worshipping and our living. Guide us, Lord. We are lost and hopeless without you.

Teach us the dire importance of scripture, your word. Everything changes in this entire world except your word. Don't let us ever depend on the feelings and uh don't let us get to the place that we desire to dream and have visions because all of that can change just like a mist can evaporate.

But the word of the Lord stands sure. And it is that word that I preach to your precious people today. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Smile at somebody on the way down. I'm all the way back in Genesis again.

I've gone back to the third chapter. There're going to be several what what I call life lessons this morning. Man has fallen in the garden.

Eve was deceived. Huh. This is how it reads.

When When the woman saw that the tree was good for food. Her first mistake was to look. You see, Satan always comes to make you doubt what God said.

To sully God's reputation. Always remember that. He makes you question the scriptures.

So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, you notice the triplets there? Good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. I said last week, Eve was deceived, Adam was not. But, here is the almost unbelievable statement.

Adam chose Eve over God. Never underestimate the power of physical attraction. Mature Christians will tell the young Christians, parents will tell the children, and the pastor is telling the people, never underestimate the power of your flesh.

God made Eve for Adam. God put that natural attraction there. And Adam chose that natural attraction over the presence of God.

You better be careful who you date. You better pray about every relationship you have. Don't ever get to the place that you compromise the precious presence of God in your life.

There is no physical experience that is worth losing the sense of the presence of God. The presence of God is forever. Physical experiences are short and short-lived.

Adam chose Eve over God. Hey, as I say often, you may be tired of hearing me say these things. I've been doing this a long time.

I cannot count the number of young women I have seen who had a walk with the Lord, but they a man came into their life and somehow that relationship became more important than their walk with Christ. I know of young men that were called to the ministry, but they became attracted to the wrong girl. They're not in the ministry today.

In fact, one of them I'm thinking about is not even married today. The divorce took over. I can't tell you how many times I have seen uh young people, and I'm not not just talking about children.

This applies to everybody. Your own fire for God until the other fire gets lit. And somehow that takes the place of the precious presence of God.

The next thing I want to point out is that when Adam and Eve sinned, God ousted them from the garden. And put an angel, or I should say a It says cherubim. That is plural heavenly creatures stationed four directions with a flaming sword so that no one could ever go in that garden again.

But, reading more closely, God did not altogether remove himself. They didn't walk with him in the garden anymore, but some kind of worship was established by God outside of the garden. That's why Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to God.

It was a form of worship. So, you know the story, won't go into detail. God required that a blood sacrifice be brought, that a lamb be slain, and blood be shown, because he was preaching a gospel message already.

But Cain brought what he did to God, his works, the fruit of his garden, and God rejected it, and Cain was distraught and angry. And God said, He's talking to Cain. God is talking to him.

What are you upset about? If you do the right thing, I'll accept you. If you don't, sin's lying at the door.

I have made it possible for you to have a relationship with me, but you have to do it my way. So, why are you upset with your brother because he did it the right way? And the Bible says, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.

So mad about it, that he left the presence of the Lord. There's something I want to point out here, too. Cain killed Abel out of resentment.

He resented the fact that his brother did the right thing, and God accepted him. That line of thinking goes throughout history. Unspiritual people don't like I was started to say hate.

I think I will say it. Unspiritual people hate spiritual people. You know, in your family, if you're divided now, you may think it's politics, but the reason some of your family members won't speak to you anymore is because they resent the fact that you still go to church and you still serve God.

And they can say, "Well, we don't agree on that." It's not politics. It's the way of Cain. It's resentment of the fact that you see the importance of spiritual things.

I will never forget. One time when Dennis and Janice and I were young, I think I was a young teenager. An uncle of ours showed up at our house with a girlfriend.

This was his uh he'd already divorced and he had a girlfriend. And he showed up. And mom said, "I'll throw some dinner together for you.

Good to see you." And it said on and on and it time passed and it got darker and darker. And my uncle essentially said, "Y'all don't mind if we spend the night here tonight, do you?" My dad said, "You're not spending the night here. You're not married to her and I don't want my children exposed to that.

So, you cannot stay here." And that uncle stormed out. I'm going to say a year or so later, I happen to be with that uncle and another relative. And he exploded.

Here I am just a young teenager and he let me have it. "Your old daddy, you he's a hypocrite." He called him some pretty bad names, but he did it to me. And he had me crying.

And the other relative had to kind of say, "Hey, stop that. Don't do that anymore." You know why he did it? He wasn't man enough to say it to my dad.

I hate bullies. Did I just say that? I hate bullies.

If you're a bully, I don't like you at all. Never have liked a bully. If you slap a woman, you're a bully and you're a piece of trash.

If you abuse a child, you're a bully and you deserve to be >> [laughter] >> I did not mean to get into this. If you're such a tough guy, do it to somebody your own size. Hot shot.

I don't even know who I'm talking to. I think I'm just venting. But he resented my mother and my father till the day he died.

Because we went to church. We serve the Lord. And he thought that we were holier than or we thought we were holier than everybody else.

So I just want you to know light and dark will never get along. And you love your children with all of your heart, but if they're lost, they still resent the fact that you're going to church and you give them advice. They hate it when you bring up scripture.

They hate it when you open the Bible. They hate it when you tell them what God would really want them to do. And it's not you they hate, it's God they hate, but you represent that.

So Adam, I should say Cain killed his brother over resentment. And then the Bible says after the Lord confronted him with it, Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. He left.

He could have stayed right there. He could have made amends with God. He could have offered a sacrifice.

He could have repented. He could have remained in the presence of the Lord, but he was so stubborn and so sinful that he left the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod. Words matter in the Bible.

Nod in Hebrew means wander. When you leave the presence of the Lord, all you do is wander the rest of your life. There is no commitment, there's no purpose.

Foolish things begin to gain your attention, and that's what you go after. When you leave the presence of the Lord, you wander. I'm going to bring it up today.

When you leave the church, all you're going to do is wander. When this is a waste of time, when you don't need this, when everybody there is crazy, and you don't have to be that way, and you decide to live your own life, when you leave the presence of the Lord, and the presence of the Lord is here, all you're going to do the rest of your life is go after stuff and walk around in circles. Verse 17, Cain knew his wife.

She conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city. That matters. God had given them a garden.

And after they were ousted from the garden, God still had his presence there. But Cain said, "I don't want anything to do with God or God's presence, so I leave it, and I'm going to build my own world." My own city. And he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

That's not the same one that walked with God. This matters. To Enoch was born Irad.

Irad begat Mehujael. Mehujael begat Methushael. And Methushael begat Lamech.

>> [snorts] >> Then Lamech took for himself two wives. He decided he'd break God's commandment, one man, one woman for life. God made Adam and Eve.

But Lamech, right on down through the generations, decided he wanted to be loose of all of God's commandments, loosed from all of God's restraints, and he married two wives. One was Ada, the other was Zillah. Now, you'll find this interesting, I hope.

His Ada bore Jabal. That's how we say it, Jabal. In [clears throat] Hebrew, it's Yaval.

But I'm going to say it our way. Ada bore Jabal. He was the father of the beginning of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.

In the deepest study I could do this week on that passage, this simply means that he is the father of business and materialism and economy and profit and loss. He is the one that established going out and living in tents and wandering and buying livestock, and he got the corner on the corner of the market, the livestock market, and was making a killing, and everybody had to buy livestock through him. Hmm.

His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. As deep as I could go this week, this is what I found.

He was the father of entertainment. >> Entertainment that large part of our world that people crave because they are not satisfied in their spirit. Entertainment, whether it be Hollywood or sports or you name it.

What's the whole world going to do today? What's this country going to go crazy about today? Ball games.

What will people most people do if they don't like ball games? Watch movies. You see, there is something about the emptiness of the human heart that will go after everything but the thing that will satisfy it.

He was the father of entertainment. But then, he had a brother. Name was Tubal-cain.

You've read this before, haven't you? But I bet you just kind of skimmed over it. The third brother's name was Tubal.

We got Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal. Sound like they're from the mountains somewhere. But his name wasn't just Tubal, it was Tubal-cain.

Tubal, son of Cain. Cain was still a very renowned figure in the world. And what did Tubal do?

He was an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron. As deep as I could go this week, the first two were fathers of something, he was an instructor of something. He taught people how to take metals, the science of metallurgy, and make weapons out of them.

He taught them how to war. He taught them how to buy and invest in military stuff so that one nation could overtake another nation so that they could have the power to control people and folks what you have right there in the line of Cain in his great great grandsons is exactly the method the schemes the tactics of Satan today. He comes through us and it even happened in the garden.

Eve saw that it was good for food pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. It's the flesh. How can I feed the flesh?

It's how can I be entertained? It's how can I be in charge? It's about me.

Me. Being what I'm wanting to be. Think about what controls this whole world.

Money. The love of money is the root of all evil the Bible says. It didn't say money, it said the love of money.

Doesn't matter how much money you have. If you don't love it, but you use it for God's glory, it's fine. But the moment you fall in love with it, it becomes an evil thing that will only drag you down.

I cannot get away from this whole thing. Jabal, the father of business, isn't that what makes the world go around today? Jubal, the father of entertainment.

Isn't that what people are after? That's what they pay millions of dollars for. Just entertain me.

Get my mind off off my world off my problems for a LITTLE WHILE. I'LL PAY YOU ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY to entertain me. And Tubal, instructor in bronze and silver and the military.

The military, the might of the military. That's where the multiply trillions of dollars go every year around the world to the military. Because this world is run by those things.

Money, fun, and power. Don't you think for a moment that it stops there. Jesus nailed in the garden.

The same Satan that slithered up to Eve in the garden of Eden slithered up to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane and offered the same thing. If you're hungry, turn this food this these rocks into bread and feed yourself. Nothing wrong with eating.

But he was saying, "Use the glory that you have to feed your flesh. Lust of the flesh. Lust of the eyes.

Hey, if you're truly the son of God, you can put on a show right now. Let me take you to the top of the temple and you jump down. Wow, what a spectacle that would be.

Jesus turned him down. All right, I'll offer you this. Because I can do this, Satan said.

You bow down and worship me here and now. I will give you the glory and power of all the kingdoms of this whole world. I I I I I own them now.

I'm the prince of the power of the air. They are in my possession. I can do with them what I wish.

I can give it to whomever I desire. Fall down and worship me and it's ALL YOURS. AND WHAT DID JESUS DO?

He didn't ponder it. He didn't say, "Let me think about it." He wasn't even tempted with it like we are. We'll sit there and think about it.

Jesus said, "It's written." He went immediately to the scripture. He didn't let Satan wage any farther into this situation. It's written.

Can't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. It is written. Can't have any other gods before him.

It is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. It is written.

It is written. And Jesus overcame. I I say it often.

Jesus didn't win the victory on the cross. He won it in the garden. By the time he got to the cross, he was already victorious.

He won it in the garden when the serpent came in his mind and he in his presence and offered him everything that a human being might sell his soul for. And Jesus did not rely on his own strength or logic. He spoke the word of God.

I don't know how to say this any differently. That's the only way you are going to remain victorious. Parenthesis.

There is somebody in the world right now who did take him up on his deal. He's the Antichrist. He's somewhere in the world right now.

He He took the offer. And when you get to the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ and you see the Antichrist, especially in the last uh 3 and a half years of the tribulation, what's going on here? Money.

Cuz he's going to control the the economy. What's going ON HERE? ENTERTAINMENT.

WOW, WHAT ABOUT THE show when the false prophet gets up and calls fire down from heaven? The whole WORLD WILL MARVEL. WHAT A SHOW.

LAS VEGAS NEVER DID anything like that. And military power. He's going to be able to rustle up all the military might of the whole world to fight against the Lord Jesus Christ.

But what I want to tell you and you and you and everybody listening to me, when Satan comes against you, he will come in one of those three avenues. At least one. And if you are not founded in the word of God, are you young people listening to me?

Some of you are making plans. Right? I think I'm going to try this.

Have you prayed about it? I didn't say did you have a short prayer to say Lord lead, guide, and direct. Something that's going to affect you for the rest of your life, you ought to get on your face before God and open the Bible before you and search the scriptures.

You can't just have a a moment. You can't just be IMPULSIVE AND SAY, "HEY, I think I'm going to do that." God has a plan for your life. I just had a thought.

The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. But what about this one? The stops of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

God can lead you, he can stop you. And he's just as powerful a God when he stops you as he is when he leads you. This is so good.

Thank you for that, Lord. Some of you may need to be stopped. Cuz you're going full steam ahead, full bore.

Your mind is MADE UP. YOU'RE NOT REALLY sure how it's GOING TO WORK OUT. YOU'RE JUST GOING TO GIVE IT A SHOT.

You're going to experiment. Christians don't have to experiment. We don't have to, you know, read the wind.

We can get direction from the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus said, "I will send the Holy Spirit and he will lead you into all truth. He will GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH." God doesn't want you living in the land of Nod, wandering around in circles trying to find out what you WANT TO DO.

GOD HAS A PLACE, and that place is in his presence. AND IN THY PRESENCE, OH GOD, THERE'S FULLNESS OF JOY. I'M NOT CONFUSED.

I'M NOT UPSET. IN YOUR PRESENCE, I KNOW THAT YOU ARE TAKING CARE OF ME. WHETHER YOU'RE ORDERING MY STEPS OR MY STOPS, YOU ARE THE GOD OF MY LIFE.

YOU OUGHT NOT TO DO ANYTHING. I'm talking to everybody right now. You ought not to go into business without laying on your face before God.

You ought not to sign a contract till you lay on your face before God. You ought not to even date that person until you lay on your face before God. Why?

Because that's the only way you're going to be able to find the will of the Lord and overcome the power of the flesh. Did you hear me say never under- estimate the the attraction of the flesh? Well, that goes even into business.

It goes into every area of your life. There's an attraction. The flesh wants to do this.

The flesh wants to do that. But God, OH JESUS, HELP ME RIGHT NOW. GOD HAS A BETTER PLAN FOR YOU THAN THE THING YOU'RE TRYING to work up.

>> Amen. >> The book of Jude one chapter says people are lost in the way of Cain. They lose it all living in the way of Cain.

The same book says people who live in the way of Cain are like wandering stars. Who are committed to the blackness of darkness forever. Did you hear me?

Wandering. Uncertain. Folks, if we don't have a God that can direct us, what is this all about?

God said to Joshua, everywhere you put your foot. God said to Abraham, I've already given you a land. All Abraham had to do was go get on it.

All Joshua had to do was step out. But God never lets his people wander. You say, "What Bible says Abraham wandered?" No, he was looking for a city that had foundations whose builder AND MAKER WAS GOD.

IT IS OF UTMOST importance to me that you hear me today. Young people, moms and dads, everybody. This is not a helter-skelter kind of relationship with an almighty God.

This is one where you can know whom you have believed and you can know that he's directing your life and ordering your steps and the the Bible says he who is a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Wow. He who is a friend of the world goes in the way of Cain, leaves the presence of the Lord, wanders around in circles, builds his own city, and even and puts all of this into his grandchildren, and they become worse than he was.

Stand with me, please. >> [snorts] [clears throat] >> I want you to read a verse of scripture with me. 1 John 2 and 15.

1 John 2 and 15. Ready? I want everybody that is a believer to read these say these words with me.

Are you ready? Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away. And the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

>> Amen. There it is. >> [applause] >> Feel impressed with the Lord to do what I'm about to do.

So, for everyone that would like a a New Year's blessing, come down to the altar. >> [snorts] >> You know, the longer I stand here, the more scriptures I get. [music] I want to wait.

We have young people coming down the steps, and I really want young people to hear this next verse. The Lord Oh, my. As I think about this, my knees get weak.

The Lord saved me from a great disaster. A decision I almost made one time. The Lord stopped my steps.

Here's the proverb. [music] Everybody listen. Ponder the path of your feet.

Think about where you're going. Think about what you want [music] to do or are about to do. Think about it.

Do not feel about it. Ponder it. Your feelings will destroy you.

You will live the rest of your life in regret and a lower level. If you don't listen [music] to this verse, ponder the path of your feet. Let all your ways be established.

[music] HEAR THAT? NO WANDERING, NO WALKING AROUND IN CIRCLES. LET YOUR ways be established.

[music] Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. And Jesus prayed, this is what I want to pray over the church.

[music] Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. We know it's coming, church.

It's coming. But Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. Let him rule.

Your will be done. Your will be done, Lord. Not me, what makes not what will make me happy, not me discovering myself.

What is your will for me, Lord? Give us this [music] day our daily bread. Forgive us of our debts as we [music] forgive those who trespass against us.

Make us great forgivers. >> [music] >> Do not lead us into temptation. Meaning, Lord don't let me go somewhere it's going to cause me trouble.

Don't let me get myself in a place I can't get out of or that's going to scar me for the rest of my life. Lord, divert me. Stop my steps, Lord.

Deliver us from the evil one. And this morning, I'm asking God to keep his people safe from bad relationships. [music] Don't settle for anything less than God's perfect will.

Is everybody listening? Do not settle [snorts] for anything. [music] Girls, I know you get a certain age and you feel like you're too old and it's never going to happen.

Oh, listen to the preacher. More importantly, listen to the word of God. God has a time, God has a way, God has a day.

And you've heard me say it 1.2 million times. It's better to wish you were married than to wish you weren't. So, I pray this morning over this congregation and for those who are listening that [music] God will deliver you from dangerous relationships.

And I pray [music] that God will keep you safe from bad business decisions. >> [snorts] >> Don't go after something because a lot of money's involved. Don't go after something because it seems [music] like a good deal.

Lay on your face before almighty God, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord will lift you up. And that's the message for the first Sunday of this year. [music] In the morning when I rise.

In the morning >> when I rise. >> [music] >> That's it. >> In the morning >> [singing] >> when I rise.

Give me Jesus. >> [music] >> Give me Jesus. >> [singing] >> Give