Happiness Will Never Happen Outside of God | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Matthew 5:6, Psalm 42:1-3, Philippians 3:8-14, 1 Corinthians 15:6, Luke 24:50-53, Acts 1:12-15, Matthew 7:13-14, Acts 2:4, 1 John 2:15-17

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--happiness-will-never-happen-outside-of-god
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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if you have your bibles and return with me to the book of matthew chapter five and verse number six matthew chapter five and verse number six while you're looking for that one passage of scripture i'm going to say praise the lord to all of our guests that are with us this morning i want to thank you for coming to first apostolic church this is your first time to be with us thank you for honoring us with your presence and your decision of the many many churches that you could be at today worshiping god that you would choose the first apostolic church of maryville as your place of worship is a tremendous blessing is a tremendous blessing to us i spoke to people this morning that's from the city of maryville i spoke to people today that are from out of town and they say anytime we come to the mountains we're always going to make this our place of worship would you be so kind to put your hands together and welcome all of our guests this morning thank you thank you so very much pray and hope that you feel the wonderful the wonderful presence of jesus christ in this in this house today matthew 5 and verse number 6 blessed that means happy happy are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled father i love you this morning lord god i thank you for your word i thank you lord how you speak to us god from your word how you direct us from your word how you perfect us o god in your word lord i pray for every man woman boy and girl that's here today i asked lord that as i am ministering the word that your spirit would move and walk up and down the aisles god especially touch anyone in this room that's lost today god touch anyone in this room god that's a prodigal today god touch anyone in this room that is lonely discouraged today god use your servant lord to bring inspiration to your people in jesus name we pray amen amen give the lord a hand to praise before you're seated thank you lord you may be seated you know the word happy today is a word that a lot of people don't use but they sure do search for it there's not only a lot of people searching today but there's a lot of people that don't realize what true happiness really is what true happiness really is and what true happiness really isn't um would you agree with me today that there are a lot of unhappy people in this world there's a lot of just people that are that are unhappy they're unhappy jesus the word happy is mentioned several times in the scripture and the time that jesus used the word happy was in reference to us serving one another he talked about washing feet and he told the disciples that if they would serve one another if they would serve one another that they would be they would be happy jesus the master teacher never been a teacher never will be another teacher like the master teacher jesus christ he gives us the key to being happy if we would but follow it he gives us the key in what is called the beatitudes and that word bless there just simply really means is another way of saying happy happy happy are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness they shall be filled jesus our master teacher uses natural things to bring to our understanding natural things such as our natural craving for food and our natural thirst for water he uses this natural thing of food and water craving and thirsting to help open our eyes to help open our eyes to the world of happiness to the world of happiness helen keller wasn't born blind nor was she born deaf at just about two years of age helen keller came down with a sickness that took her eyesight from her and that took her hearing from her but her world all changed um they tell about helen keller how as a child how frustrated and wild acting that she was because she was trying to communicate with a world that she was not able to understand in a world that was unable to understand her but helen's mother and father hired a nanny and that woman was so was so driven to break through the world of blindness and break through the world of her being deaf and it all changed one day when that nanny communicated with helen using water when they got one word they could communicate one word that helen could communicate with a world she couldn't see or hear that one word changed her life today if you and i could understand that happiness will never be found outside of god never it will never you can try to prove me wrong but you will die unhappy nothing of this world will make you happy the only thing in this world that will cause you to be happy is god it's the only thing and the master teacher says that in order to have this happiness you have to hunger and thirst after him there has to be a thirsting there has to be a hunger as natural as natural as natural as it is for hunger to come upon us if we're healthy if we're healthy those hunger pains that appetite automatically naturally begins to tell you it's time to eat that that that that thirst for for water for fluid naturally begins to tell you you're thirsty oh precious god this morning and maybe i'm preaching this sister calloway maybe i'm preaching this to me and maybe you all can be the audience today but there's something i fear i never want to lose my desire to live for god i never i never want to lose i never i never want to lose my desire to live for god i it's not a deep revelation but scripture shows us jesus riding two animals he rode a donkey and he's coming back riding a horse a donkey represents a burden a horse represents victory you will never ride victory until you've rode a burden you'll never know the heights of victory until you know what it's like to have a burden placed on you a desire let me use the word desire i never want to lose my desire i never want to allow cheap imitations that promise us happiness but do not deliver there are cheap imitations to happiness there are cheap knock-off imitations just like there's uh the real thing there's the real thing and then somebody will come up come up with the knockoff of that version the real thing costs several thousands of dollars but you can find somebody on a street corner in new york city and they can sell you one that looks just like it for nineteen dollars i had an unpleasant experience in new york with my wife wanting a particular purse and they promised they could give us this purse and they took us in the room and they opened another back room and another down in the alley and down the hallway i said we're going to get killed right here well it looked good till the sun hit it good same way it is with happiness isn't it how the world will offer us cheap knock-offs for happiness come do this come do that now you know i'm a pastor today and a pastor is like a good doctor a good doctor is always looking not only at the symptom but at the cause and uh as we ride the wave of this covet thing and hopefully prayerfully we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel hopefully prayerfully seeing the light at the end of the tunnel i've got a sneaking feeling that i'm going to have some work to do for the next several years because the adversary would like to offer us things during covet to take the place of the real thing can i tell you something i'm glad to be on the internet today but i'm happier to be in god's house i'm glad that we can go into the homes around our county around our state and around our world i'm glad there's people being baptized there are people that do not have an apostolic church in their area and we're even trying to work on something to even try to if we find a certain group of people to we're directing them to apostolic churches but let's not allow if we're able to get to the house of god if we're able to go let's not let's not allow the cheap imitation that says here this will give you happiness oh there's nothing that's so joyful as to come into the house of god greet one another in jesus name interact with one another in jesus name see god move upon people in jesus name oh let me move on today there's a lot of cheap imitations it's handed to us you got to make a certain amount of money that'd make you happy that's a lie you got to have a certain name brand suit on that's a lie you got to drive a certain car live in a certain neighborhood and the list goes on and on and on to have a perfect mate and the perfect kids and the perfect perfect make you happy it is all a lie there is nothing that will make you happy but god but god as children of god i want to you to hear this don't stumble at this as children of god yes we are convinced that we have the truth i am convinced as never before that the apostolic church preaches the truth if i wasn't if i wasn't convinced of that i'd be something else i'm not apostolic because i was born in an apostolic home i'm apostolic today because i am convinced as never before that that's the truth that god wants delivered to this world brother martin said something so beautiful today and brother martin would be what we would call relatively a new convert to this faith but he witnesses about this faith and he was witnessing to someone about the faith this week and he said what you're trying to tell me is that you believe that men that lived 300 years after jesus men that never spoke to jesus men that jesus never spoke to them that they would have more knowledge of what jesus wanted than the 12 that he spent three and a half years with is that what you're trying to tell me and i think he's got that man thinking about that because who would better know what should be preached so i'm apostolic today because i am convinced i'm not surfing the web i'm not trying to find books to see if we're right i've already found the book and the book tells us the truth so when it comes to the truth i'm not looking for another god i've already found the one god i'm not looking for another way to be baptized i've already found the way to be baptized i'm not looking for a way to serve god i've already found the way i'm convinced of this through the scripture some people say well you've got to convince me of this well what you ought to turn it around you ought to convince me that what you say is right and they fail to do that says carpenter as children of god we are convinced that we have the truth and the correct interpretation of the truth yet i'm going to tell you that i am never satisfied with my walk with god i am never at a place of satisfaction i want more of him i want more of him it wasn't when we broke a hundred in attendance here that i said i'm satisfied it wasn't when we got this building done that i said i'm satisfied i never want to become satisfied i want to always have an appetite for god and the things of god as we go through different seasons of our lives i serve god as a teenager some of you if you serve god as a teenager say amen you're not a teenager right now and you serve god as a teenager say amen i wasn't satisfied as a teenager i served god in my 20s am i served god in their 20s amen i served god in my 30s and 40s and 50s and now i've started that climb in the 60s and i want you to know that i'm still not satisfied i never want to get satisfied because he said blessed are they and he didn't put an age limit on it he said blessed happy are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled doesn't matter if you're a teenager or you're in your 80s today have a hunger for god have a thirst for god i don't want to lose as a matter of fact you can pretty well tell what you are like by telling what your appetite is you are what your appetite is for if you are for entertainment that's because your appetite but oh i want to hunger after god would you just lift your hands up right now and just in a prayer praise god i never want to lose my appetite for you oh god i never want to lose my desire i never want to lose my appetite god for you i never want to lose and you'll notice that that was a little weak but i think i'll show you in just a moment why it is a little weak psalms chapter 42 and verse number one the psalmist wanted to describe what he felt like in his heart toward god the psalmist saw something one day and he said that's exactly how i feel it is possible that he heard the barking of dogs it's possible as i studied this psalm out it's possible that the psalmist the man that wrote it heard the barking of dogs and he witnessed as the dogs were chasing after a deer and he witnessed he witnessed the deer in running for its life the deer was running for its life how many are in this for your life man i'm here today because i want to be saved i'm running for my life and he witnessed as the deer passed by he could hear the panting of the deer possibly the tongue of the deer had drooped out of one side of its mouth and the deer was running for its life and he says in verse 1 as the heart or the deer pantheth after the water brooks so pant of my soul after thee oh god oh you want to know what we should look like when it comes to our desire for god you want to know what it should look like to god and our hunger for god just like that deer running for its life tongue out the side of its mouth because he's panting after the water brook he knows that over the hill and down the dale he knows there's some water brooks and to put his tongue in the coolness of the water oh today we've gathered here on this sunday morning like a bunch of deer that's panting toward the water brooks life has been after us this week life and the hounds of hell have been barking in our heels condemnation and all kinds of things have been hot on our heels disappointment but somehow in our mind we said i was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord so here we are this morning like a bunch of panting deer i want to put my tongue in the water of the holy ghost today because i am not satisfied said in verse number two my soul thirsteth for god for the living god when shall i come and appear before god my tears have been my meat day and night while they continually say unto me where is your god where is your god can i tell you that in the seasons of our life church when either we said it to ourselves or someone said it to us where is your god in the seasons of our lives what kept us balanced and focused when we either said it from our own selves or somebody said it to us where is your god what sustained us in those seasons was that i had a desire for the holy ghost what sustained us in those seasons was my weeping after him was actually my meat is what the psalmist says said my tears my weeping after him you want to know how i made it through a season when someone would say where is your god i'll tell you how i made it i desired the lord i just desired the lord i desired the lord more than i desired what i was praying for i desired to the lord somebody give me a witness this morning i desired the lord more than what i was missing i desired the lord i desired the lord well this doesn't stop in the old testament writer of over half the new testament a man i want to i want to tell you who's talking here a man who was given so much revelation from god a man that was given so much revelation of god that god had to to allow a thorn in his flesh god allowed a thorn to be in his flesh the messenger of satan god allowed something very uncomfortable to prix paul's life he's given so much revelation he needed a balance he needed something in his life a man a man that was caught up to heaven that's commonly believed that paul had this out of the body experience when they stoned him you remember in the book of acts they stoned paul once and they left him for dead they thought he was dead and there's a good probability he was dead but while he was dead he writes about it and he said i knew a man about 14 years ago whether in the body or out of the body i cannot tell such a one was caught up into the heaven and saw things that there's no comparables you see we're able to describe things on earth because we have comparables but paul said i went to a place that there was no comparables he didn't even refer to him on his own self that i was that man here he is writer of over half the new testament here he is you can see how far off base we are this morning here we here he is in philippians chapter 3 and verse number 10 here he is that i may know him that i may know him that i may know him excuse me let me let me let me do this they were right with the screen and i was not on my notes let's start with paul in verse number eight yeah doubtless yeah doubtless see the problem with us today is we need to be on guard for doubt you need you'll never walk with god long with seeds of doubt you'll never stay put long with doubt you have to know that you know that you know it's how you stay the course paul said yay doubtless there's no doubt i count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that i may win christ wait a minute paul you're already saved wait a minute paul you're saved already say one i have one christ no win christ because in paul's mind he hadn't won him yet there was still a race to run he says that i may win future tents and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of christ the righteousness which is of god by faith that i may know him wait a minute wait a minute paul you were caught up to heaven wait a minute paul you have so much revelation wait a minute paul no you wait a minute son my desire is that i may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means i might obtain unto the resurrection of the dead not as though listen not as though as i had already obtained he says not as though i've already obtained it either we're already perfect but i follow after can i tell you today some doctrines that are in christianity today are so horrible in their effect on people there's one erroneous doctrine that tells you that once you believe upon jesus as your savior there's nothing you could ever do to be unsaved you are signed sealed delivered nothing you could ever do you know what's the harm of that verb that doctrine it causes people never to strive to be better why fight if i'm already in why pay your electric meal twice if it's already paid it's a doctrine that's not in the word of god because although we can be born again we still need to possess the spiritual appetite a baby can be born but we know the baby's in trouble if the baby has no appetite just like we are in trouble if we have no appetite death will soon find us oh god this morning i fear i never want to lose my desire to live for god but i follow after but i follow after if that i may apprehend that word apprehend means arrest i follow after if if that i may apprehend a rest that for which also i am apprehended of christ let's see how this works let's see how this works brother tyler christ came into our lives we were under conviction he he hounded us he convicted us he put knots in our stomachs and clumps in the back of our throat and our hands our knuckles turned white as we clench the pew in front of us because christ had arrested us as soon as he arrested us and we were born again we find ourselves turning around and now it's not so much as he is after me as i am after him man marriage retreat is marriage retreat is just around the corner that's a good message for marriage retreat it's not all about the guy now naturally it ought to be about the guy chasing the girl god don't get me started on that this morning but after the guy chases the girl and gets the girl the girl off to go go after the guy if you want a healthy marriage you go back and forth i'm after her and she's after me you want a healthy walk with god somebody looked at me like i can't believe he's talking that way it's the truth well i'm just waiting for god to come and do something for me he's already done something for you he saved your unreheard he forgave you of your sins every lie you told ever unclean perverted act you ever performed he came down and erased it all away and you're going to sit on a pew and say i'm waiting for him to do something he said i want to know do you love me enough to get up and come after me do you love me enough to follow me do you do you love me enough to come to i want to tell him this morning i love you enough to follow you i'm a prisoner of love i'm a slave to the master i want him to know i'm after him this morning come on if you love him today i'm after him i'm not perfect i've got a lot of flaws i mess up a lot i stumble and fall a lot but i gotta get back up because i'm after him i'm after him hallelujah that i that i may apprehend for that which i am also apprehended of christ jesus brethren verse 13 brethren i count myself i count not myself i count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing oh if we just get one thing down but this one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before i press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus this one thing i do i press i reach i stretch youth camp strong towers have been wonderful i have witnessed some of the most powerful moves of god at strong tower i have witnessed our young people laid out on the floor like core wood cut i've witnessed i've witnessed them beautifully slain i've witnessed all kinds of things but can i tell you this yesterday's meals may be a good memory but it gives no nutritional value to my body i'm glad god knocked me flat at my back 40 years ago and filled me with the holy ghost my tongue i remember my tongue come out of my mouth and that night on the way home my mama asked me said kenneth did you hurt your face when you fell in the floor i said no mama uh she said you kept rubbing your face i said mama i thought that string that held my tongue down had broke and i thought my tongue it felt like a big biscuit doe out of the thing it was laying and i thought here i'm landing the floor that string's done broke my big fat tongue's laying over here and i said mama i'm trying to put my tongue back in my mouth that's a good memory but it gives me no nutrition today and if i want some nutrition today i got to come to church on sunday morning not in some casual haphazard let's get out of here by 12. let's have three songs an offering a sermon a few minutes around no i got a hunger i gotta press press i press toward the mark i press toward the mark i'm not 20 anymore i'm 60 now but i'm pressing to the mark i'm pressing to that mark let's examine the early church for a few moments for insights for today's church let's examine the early church in first corinthians chapter 15 verse number 6 paul giving proof of the resurrection of jesus christ that he had witnessed the resurrection that he had witnessed the risen christ in first corinthians chapter 15 he gives a list of people that were eyewitnesses to the resurrection he comes to verse number six and he says these words after that jesus was seen of above 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present but some are falling asleep after the resurrection the resurrected christ appeared to an audience of over 500 people at one time luke records this in luke chapter 24 and verse number 50. he led them out as far as to bethany he lifted up his hands and he blessed them it's the same audience that paul was referring to paul gives the number luke doesn't give the number it came to pass that while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into heaven they worshipped him and returned to jerusalem with great joy and we're continually in the temple praising and blessing god amen now he had told the 500 the crowd of 500 do not leave jerusalem terry set be still in jerusalem until you are filled with the promise of the father go back to jerusalem terry until you are filled acts chapter 1 verse number 12. then return they unto jerusalem from the mount called olivet which is from jerusalem a sabbath day's journey when they were come in they went up into an upper room where abode peter and james and john and andrew and philip and thomas and bartholomew matthew james the son of alphaeus and simon zealots and judas the brother of james these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and mary the mother of jesus and his breath with his brethren and in those days peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said the number of names together were about a hundred and twenty now i've got a question to ask where's 380 people at how come a little less than 25 percent show up at the upper room where did over 380 people go i think the explanation the answer would be this they settled for a blessing when god wanted to give them the blesser don't settle for anything less than him a mate's not going to make you happy i promise to god they're not going to make you happy cars houses money positions ain't nothing gonna make you happy you'll find with positions come responsibilities and sometimes the boss would gladly trade places with you the only thing going to make you happy today get it in your mind is him where'd 380 go less than 25 then i got on that number there i got on less than a little less than 25 showed up and then i thought about the parable that jesus spoke of four types of soil four types of soil the seed that was sown on the wayside no good the seed that was sown on stony ground no good the seed that was sown among thorns no good the seed that fell on good ground did yield once again 75 of the soil didn't produce only 25 now i want to tell you today that i do believe with everything we faced i do believe that we're looking at the 25 here i do believe you're here today because you have a desire to live for god and that's something that ought to be celebrated that a group of people would love god on a sunday morning and not this not just this morning i told you it's an unusual church it's an unusual church the high 90s of our pledges come in it's an unusual church they'll be this size crowd tonight and maybe bigger it's an unusual church not only will that be this size tonight maybe a little bigger come midweek service we won't really vary very much from what we got here he said well how is that so unusual an average church if they have 500 on sunday morning they'll have 150 on sunday night and many of them are not even have midweek service because they can't get enough people together can i tell you that's not the times doesn't have anything to do well you just don't understand how busy people are today no you don't understand how less desire people have today for the things of god some of the gray-headed saints of god in this church can tell you of seven week revivals that they had where they had church every night they had church every night and they didn't even have a washing machine they didn't have all it seemed like to me we got more modern conveniences today and we got less time than we've ever had and i believe today if there's ever been a day that we need to have more church is now we don't need to have less church we got more sin we got more more things people can do to turn their lives into trouble for god's sake let's not have less church let's have more church more church what boy in their right mind would marry a girl nine months before they got married she would say now see i don't want you to come over every night like you've been doing i'd just like you to come over once a week i'm telling you i'd run i'd run from that relationship god we don't want to have less church here we love you here god we want to have more god more of you oh i got to work two jobs how happy are you now with two jobs i got to have that bigger house how happy are you now that you got that big house why do people when life falls apart want to go all the way back to a simple way of living and say back when we lived in that apartment and back when we didn't have all that big money coming in and back when we would go to church and sing in the choir and teach sunday school we were so happy back then you and they want to go back to that i want to preach today let's not leave that let's don't leave that as an apostolic pentecostal one god church let's not leave that i know what others maybe now i i uh yeah in study and study i googled what makes people unhappy if you google it don't do it now but you google it later google it later said one of the things that make people unhappy is they compare themselves to other people i mean you're about to get down in a ditch and dig and you just want to check your facebook out and just so happen you check out the facebook your best friend just posted they land they just landed in hawaii you just had an argument and you just checked your facebook and somebody gets in there most of that's you know well anyway you know my wife sometimes sometimes she reads out loud and and it you know she reads somebody's post oh i got up this morning and and and and i brushed my teeth and and and and i looked outside and robin was on the you know and i'm over here driving since who cares nobody cares nobody care i don't care you brush it can i get a witness i mean give me something i i mean i like real live posts i'm stuck in traffic i'm broke down but when they have less church and we start comparing ourselves with other churches not just other people other churches see there's one glorious thing i don't have to give an account of other churches i just have to give an account of this one and what other churches do is other churches business and if they choose to want to go that direction in that direction or that direction i'm not going to look and be unhappy or happy because the best way to be happy is just keep your nose in your own business lord the man's preaching today right and and and would you give me a little lead way as a pastor here could i get a joshua spirit on me this morning and say if it seems evil for you to have more than one service a week if it seems evil for you to have more than an hour half meeting if it seems if that seems bad to you then you choose this day whom you you'll choose how you want to have church if you want to have a slappy happy meeting if you want to watch the clock and get them out and get them in and if you want to be all mindful of a seeker-friendly church special orders don't upset us a burger king church if you want to have church like that you can't but as for me and my house we gonna serve the lord i said we're going to serve the lord i can't promise you you'll get out of here by 12. if you need to leave you need to leave i can't promise you that you're going to always hear a politically correct sermon and you might not but i can promise you this we're going to love jesus we're going to magnify jesus i'm going to try to get you to fall oh why don't you praise him right now oh hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah ah he's uneducated but i love jesus oh he's this but i love jesus you say whatever you want to say but i want you to be able to say but he loves jesus jesus is going to help us with our children jesus is going to answer our prayers jesus is going to make a way where there seems to be no way jesus is going to go with us when we leave here today i'm going to wake up in the morning with jesus on my mind i'm going to go through the day come on praise him right now if you love jesus i got to have more of him i got to have more of him where'd the 380 go where'd the 75 percent go where the 75 percent of the parable go matthew chapter 7 verse 13. listen to jesus matthew 7 13 enter ye in at the straight gate for wide is the gate broad is the way that leadeth to destruction many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life few there be that find it 75 25 you can go to hell from a from a number of different ways but you can only go to heaven one way at that road to hell if you want to go to hell that road is wide you don't have to look for it it's wide and many are going in but if you're interested in heaven you got to look for it you got to desire it it's a narrow passage you can't be number minded you you you you can't allow this to get in your mind well brother carpenter if this is so right how come so many people are wrong how could so many people be wrong i can't answer i can only give you some examples in the bible god brought destruction and out of the world's population only eight made it only one man was building an ark the rest of the people were partying but only one man made it i guarantee you there was some thinkers back then just like there is now that would say he's the only one building that he's the only one saying it's going to rain he's the only one he's the only one could all of us be wrong the answer came when the flood came i don't want to wait till the rapture happens to realize hey i really did have to go in that narrow door hey there really was one lord one faith and one baptism and one god and father of all come on church if you want to go here's the way here's that passageway but you got to want it two and four i preach just a few more moments musicians and singers please come acts 2 and 4 are you still with me today say amen acts 2 and 4. and they were all filled and they were all filled with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance the key to spiritual success is that the early church was so full of power because they were so empty of the desires of this world they were so full of power but you will never be full of god's power until you are first empty of this world's desires you will never be full of god's power and have the desire for the world at the same time you know why they were a church that could not be stopped they were full of power but they were also empty to this world the desires of this world some believe that the apostle john is about 90 years old when he wrote these words he had been in the apostolic church now for several decades he writes in first john 2 and 15. come on 90 year old john come on weathered saint what do you want me to hear listen to his voice today love not the world listen to the whole quivering voice love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love 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 eye and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world the world passes away in the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of god abideth forever can i say something to us today what will cause us to remain a powerful apostolic church in this community is that we remain empty of our desire to be in or like the world the fashions the things of the world the false security the false sense of eternal youth we've got to be empty of that love not the world love not the world neither the things that are in the world before he died a news reporter was granted an interview with the champ of all boxing champs muhammad ali the news reporter went to his house there in louisville this time the float like a butterfly sting like a bee strong champ shook because of disease in his body his shoulders were stooped his feet didn't dance like we've seen him in the ring his feet shuffled as he gave the interview the reporter wanted to know where's the rooms at with all your trophies and all your belts he invited him to walk outside the report said the old boxer took him outside to a barn it wasn't even completely closed in noticed that pigeons were roosting up in the raptors and he looked down on trophies and certificates that spoke of ali's greatness and the reporter was shocked to see several of the trophies with pigeon dung dripped all down the sides and basically what the old prize fighter told him is none of these things mean anything to me anymore none of these things mean anything to me anymore i don't want to get to the end of my life and pigeon dung and the things of this world come in on us i'm not a singer and i won't attempt to sing today but before i came to preach to you this morning i listened twice to a song it's my desire to live for jesus it's my desire to live for him if you could see where jesus brought me from and where i am today it's my desire to live for him you can have this world's wealth and riches i don't need its fame it's my desire to live for him would you stand with me right now would you begin to lift up the name of jesus today young old would you begin to pray right now this is a church message today it's my desire to live for him it's my desire to live for him it's my desire to live for him i need the holy ghost i need the holy ghost god i need your presence god i need your spirit god lord i need you in my life god i need you in my life god oh i wonder today if there's anyone here that wants to be baptized in that mighty name come right now does anyone here today you want to be filled with heaven sweet holy ghost come right now hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah oh god i reach out to you i reach out to you today god i reach out to you today god oh god i reach out to you today i want to ask you to listen to me for just just one more moment because i i i want to tell you my heart in about a 60-second capsule i love you church first lady and i love you you you you i guess you just got to be a pastor if there's one thing i can't give you but jeremy i can give you that there's probably not a day goes by that i don't ask god to touch this place i asked god my prayer journey around this dark room starts over here god touch our men i pray for all the men and somewhere in this middle aisle i change over to our women our wives and i ask god to touch our wives and somewhere back around up in here i turn to our youth but there's just some things i can't give you i cannot give you your reaction it's as if i send a child to college i have to put them in the car and say mama i've done everything that i know to do but i can't give you your response that's left up to you but i wonder as a pastor today i know i'm coming to the altar but i'm not coming for you i'm coming for me because i never want to lose my desire to live for god would you join me in this altar right now would you join me in this altar right now father i love you it was oh is glorious oh is oh right glorious i wasn't now you call me is is glorious day the chains break out is is now come on glorious is is you is now is glorious glorious has been lifted he did it well let's give the lord a hand of praise right now he did it he did it if you remember anything about the message today don't lose your desire don't don't lose don't lose your desire we have a precious lady that has been watching the program the website from texas and we've done bible studies online we've done bible studies on the telephone with her and uh although we could have directed her just to church around the corner to be baptized she wanted to come to maryville drove about 12 hours to come here uh to be baptized and i believe that they're getting they're getting her ready they may be going over some more scripture because it is very important it is very important we don't just believe in getting people wet all right we want them to understand why they're being baptized and so they may be ready to baptize here in a few moments and it may be a little bit later but none the case prayer meeting tonight at 5 30. service starts at six o'clock please church you're the 25 don't lose your desire the world needs us all right god bless you dismissed in jesus name god bless you