The Wisest Man Who Ever Lived — Carter Conlon

Solomon’s Wisdom in Proverbs 5

I want to speak to you today from Proverbs chapter 5 about the wisest man who ever lived. If you have your Bible or some kind of device that can bring you to the scriptures, I'm using the New King James just because I like the translation, no other reason.

It's Proverbs chapter 5. Now, Father, I thank you, Lord, with all my heart, God, for your presence here in the sanctuary today. I thank you, Lord, for the gladness that touches us, the truth, Lord, in these beautiful songs that we've sung today, which you long to make a reality inside of each of us.

I pray, God, for the grace to deliver this message. And I ask for the grace to hear it, Lord, for those that you've gathered here today, both in this campus and on North Jersey and online and in the main sanctuary, Lord.

I pray, God, with all of my heart, oh, Jesus Christ, Son of God, God Almighty, send your Holy Spirit and enable us, Lord, to embrace, to long for, to love, and to live in truth. It's only truth that will keep us, only truth that will set us free, only truth that will lead us on a pathway of becoming everything that you have destined our lives to be.

Lift us out of weakness and poverty into the strength of your presence inside of each of our lives. We thank you for it, oh, God Almighty. Help us to love your word. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. The wisest man who ever lived.

Proverbs chapter five, I'm just going to start with verses one and two, written by Solomon. Solomon, King David's son, my son, pay attention to my wisdom. Lend your ear to my understanding that you may preserve discretion and your lips keep knowledge.

Now, Solomon was a unique man on the face of the earth. He was uniquely gifted by God, touched by God, empowered by God. He had such wisdom given to him that even the queen of Sheba came from a distant nation because she had heard about this wisdom.

And the divine operation of God that flowed not only from his lips, but everywhere, everything his hand touched had the touch of God on it. She came into the temple that Solomon at that time was heading.

And when she saw just the way the people moved, when she saw the attendance, how they moved, the incredible divine order that was everywhere, the scripture says she had no more spirit within her. She had no resistance in a sense to what she was seeing.

She was seeing the hand of God in a phenomenal way, moved through the life of a man who had been set apart for a divine purpose. In the book of second Kings, or first Kings rather, chapter three, verses 12 to 14, tells us that when the Lord appeared to Solomon, now Solomon prayed a prayer and God responded to his prayer.

God’s Gift of Wisdom and Solomon’s Covenant Responsibility

And he said, in verse 12 of first Kings 3, 12, he said, behold, I've done according to your words. This is God now speaking to Solomon. See, I've given you a wise and understanding heart so that there's not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.

In other words, you will be the wisest man who ever lived apart of course from Christ Jesus, who was fully God and fully man. But Solomon being an ordinary human being like you and I, there would never, you are not smarter today than Solomon.

I know there's some people here who think you're smart, but you're not smarter than Solomon. He said, nobody before you will have such wisdom and nobody after you. And I've also given you what you've not asked for, both riches and honor, so that there will not be anyone like you among the kings all of your days.

So if you walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. So what an incredible promise. God comes to this man and says, I'm gonna give you wisdom like nobody before you and nobody after you will ever have the wisdom that I'm about to give you.

I'm also gonna give you what you didn't ask for. I'm gonna give you riches and authority and power and there'll be a divine presence on all that you touch. And there'll be not a king in the earth that can make the boast of having the things that you have.

And if you will walk with me, if you will have a heart like your father David, I'll also lengthen your days. And that has an incredible connotation. It's not just that you'll live long on the earth, but you'll leave a posterity.

After you're gone, there'll be like a savor that follows you because of the presence of God that emanated through your life. In the book of First Chronicles, chapter 28, verses nine and 10. Now, David, the king, in the last stages of his life was speaking to Solomon as a young man that was being commissioned by God to do a specific work on the face of the earth.

As for you, David says, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. The Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.

If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Consider now for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary, be strong and do it. Consider the calling, David said to his son Solomon.

Consider the calling on your life. You have been called for a specific reason on the earth. And I would like you today also to consider your calling. The apostle Peter tells us that as living stones, we are fitted together, building a house in a sense, where God is glorified on the face of the earth.

And that's what God gave Solomon to do. David the King was given the pattern of this incredible temple. There would be the envy of the world where the tangible presence of God was going to dwell, where there would be answered prayer.

Even for the stranger coming in, he would have his prayers answered. And Solomon was given the responsibility of building this house and maintaining this house, dedicating this house and keeping this house.

That was the work of God given to him on the earth. That was the primary work, as well as being king over a nation. It all emanated. Everything you do, doesn't matter, your family, your career, your future, all gathers its strength and its highest purpose in how you view the calling of God on your life to honor him, to be a dwelling place of God.

We are the temple now of the Holy Spirit and how we choose to honor that call. Everything flows from the honoring of that calling in our lives. Now, rabbinic tradition tells us or holds that Solomon wrote Proverbs chapter five when he was middle-aged.

He wrote, they say, he wrote the Song of Solomon when he, in his youth. He wrote Proverbs chapter five when he was around 40 years of age and he wrote Ecclesiastes, which essentially is a lament of a wasted life in his older years.

At this point, when he wrote Proverbs chapter five, he was, his wealth was the envy of the kings of his day and he had success, which was unparalleled anywhere in his time. Now, there are various commentators on Proverbs chapter five and let me read to you a couple of them.

One says, given Solomon's demise later in life, it's absolutely shocking and serves as a fitting warning to us. What all of this means is that Solomon, much like many of us, thought he was an exception to the rules.

He knew full well that he was holding fire to his chest, but he thought that he wouldn't have gotten burned. It's a particular frailty of the human heart that we have this propensity inside of each one of us, as was sown in humanity in the garden of Eden to become God to ourselves and to declare something to be good, which God says is not good and to somehow convince ourselves that we can partake of things and there'll be no consequence to it.

This is exactly what Solomon did. Another commentator says, if one should ask, if Solomon is the wise author, how could he have died such a fool? Let it be noted that he constructed his own gibbet on which he impaled himself.

That is, he ceased listening to his own instruction. Spiritual success today does not guarantee spiritual success tomorrow. And Matthew Henry, the incredibly respected commentator, said it this way, it's easier to see a mischief and to show it to others than to shun it ourselves.

Solomon’s Decline and the Consequences of Disobedience

Now, for those today who don't know, Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, but he finished his life a disillusioned old fool. Having built the house of God, he finished his days by building heathen temples.

Temples that were an abomination to God where children were offered in sacrifice. Temples where some of the most vile and immoral practices happened, inconceivable, inconceivable, that a man to whom God had appeared twice and spoken to him directly, a man who knew the glory of God so powerfully in the temple that everyone was on the floor and nobody could even stand, nobody could minister in the presence of God, a man who was given a promise of life and wealth and wisdom, a man who knew the divine operation of God.

How is it possible? How is it possible that he ends up building heathen temples at the end of his life? How is it possible that he writes words at the end of his life that all is vanity and vexation of spirit?

And I looked in all the works of my hands and there was no prophet under the sun. How does a man like this not put up his feet in his bed at the end of his days and shout glory to God, be talking to his son about who God is and what God has done in the past and what God is willing to do in the future and the promises that God has given him?

How does it happen that the wisest man who ever will live ends up this way? Instead of leaving the glory of God in the nation of Israel and a strong and mighty people, he leaves behind a very weak son.

He leaves behind a soon to be divided and weakened nation. He leaves behind a pathway for the enemies of God to eventually plunder everything that God had given him and everything he had ever worked for.

Let me read to you from 1 Kings chapter 11 about the end of his days. Verses one to eight, 1 Kings chapter 11. "'But King Solomon loved many foreign women, "'as well as the daughters of Pharaoh, "'women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, "'Sidonians, and Hittites.'".

In other words, he loved women of those who were the avowed enemies of God and the kingdom of God. "'From the nations of whom the Lord had said "'to the children of Israel, "'you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you.

"'Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. "'Solomon clung to these in love.'". He knew what the scripture said. To be a king in Israel, you had to hand copy the Old Testament. You had to write it out.

It was one of the qualifications of sitting on the throne at that time. And he knew this scripture. He knew what it said, but he chose, as we said earlier, he somehow believed that the rules didn't apply to him.

And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. You imagine trying to keep track of birthdays even in all of this. And his wives turned away his heart. For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods.

And his heart was not loyal to the Lord, his God, as was the heart of his father, David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, that's sensuality, after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not fully follow the Lord as did his father, David. Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab on the hill that is east of Jerusalem.

And for Molech, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So this is the end result of the wisest man who ever lived.

And if it doesn't put the fear of God in your heart today, nothing will. I pray a prayer every day. I prayed it this morning on this platform. Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, let me finish well. For your namesake, oh God, let me finish well.

Let me not assume that everything is right and everything's gonna be okay. Keep me diligent. Keep me in love with your word. Keep me in love with your truth, oh God. Because if the wisest man who ever lived, his wisdom could not keep him.

I'm not as smart as Solomon. God help me. That's my prayer every day now. Now, if only when God had appeared to him, he had asked for not only wisdom, but for a heart to obey what he would be taught. The Lord appeared to him and he said, ask, ask whatever you will and I'll give it to you.

Ask. And so he says, well, God, I'm just young and tender. I don't know how to govern such a people. So give me wisdom that I might be able to come in and go out among the people. Now, if only he had stretched his prayer just a little bit more and said, don't just give me wisdom, but give me a heart to obey what you teach me.

Or God give me intelligence in the study of the scriptures, but God give me the heart of my father, David. My father, David, wasn't perfect, but he is a man. You even described today as a man after your own heart because he could be reasoned with, he could be spoken to.

He could be turned from evil and turned back to good. Oh God, give me a heart to follow you. That's my prayer. That ought to be your prayer today. Give me a heart to follow you all of my days. Give me a heart to obey what I know.

Give me a heart to follow what you will teach me. So now we go back to Proverbs chapter five, where we began. Now, I believe he's 40. God knows his future. God knows your future. And when you open the word of God, he will speak to you about certain things in your life.

He will bring it back to your understanding time and again. If you're involved in something, if you're pursuing something, if you're going somewhere that's going to cost you, it's going to perhaps cost you everything.

It's going to weaken your family. It's going to divide your home. It's going to destroy the testimony of God. But God knows. Remember, spiritual success today does not guarantee success tomorrow. God has to be able to speak to us even when we're living in a time of victory.

So Solomon is 40 years of age or so at this time when God gives him this word. And he's going to the temple no doubt every day. And he's become familiar with the operation of God. He's become familiar with the presence of God.

He's seen prayer answered. There's never a lack of resource. It pours in from all over the place. Kings are still coming in. Foreign emissaries are still coming in. The scripture says they brought apes and peacocks and silver and gold and things that were precious in their land, they brought to him.

And in the days of Solomon, it says silver was accounted as nothing. Everything was gold. Even the inside of the temple was all overlaid with gold. God had so touched this man's life and everything he had touched.

Now at the age of 40, he is writing the inspired text of the word of God. You understand, this is inspired by the Holy Spirit. The pen is in his hand, but the scripture tells us that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for instruction and righteousness, et cetera, et cetera.

And so God is speaking to him. That's why in Proverbs chapter five, I don't believe that he's writing to Rehoboam, his son. I believe that God is speaking to him and he's writing it down. That's my personal opinion on this, because it starts, my son, pay attention to my wisdom.

In other words, I'm teaching you things. I'm speaking to you. You're learning, but pay attention to it. Don't just write it. It's not just something I'm giving you for other people. It's not just something so you can increase in knowledge and put another certificate on your wall or stand and boast about how much you know about my kingdom, but pay attention to it.

Lend your ear to my understanding that you may preserve discretion and your lips may keep knowledge. You won't end up at the end of your days, Solomon, lamenting the loss of what could have been. For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey and her mouth is smoother than oil.

But in the end, she's as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death and her steps lay hold of hell. Unless you ponder her path of life, her ways are unstable. You do not know them.

I believe that God's trying to speak to Solomon and saying, you're falling into a trap and you think you're smart enough to get through it, but you don't understand what you're dealing with. You might be smart, but you're not smart enough, Solomon, to get through this one.

You've fallen into a trap, you've fallen into a seduction, and you believe that this is acceptable in the sight of God and you believe that there will be no consequence to this. Therefore, hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Remove your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others and your years to the cruel one. Lest aliens be filled with your wealth. I want you to think about the armies that subsequently came into Israel after Solomon and plundered the temple and took away the shields and took away the gold and eventually took everything, even the vessels of the temple.

Lest aliens be filled with your wealth and your labors go to the house of a foreigner. Think about Solomon building temples to Ashtoreth. Goddess of seduction, really. And Milcom, where they would heat this metal beast and offer their children alive into the fire.

And your labors go to the house of a foreigner. And you mourn at last when your flesh and your body are consumed and say, how I have hated instruction and my heart despised correction. I've not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me.

I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly and the congregation. Now this is, if you read Ecclesiastes, when you get home, you will see this is where Solomon finished. This was the end of his day.

On the verge of total ruin, coming into the assembly, not seeing what's happening in his life, not understanding how evil is encroaching more and more into his thinking because he's toying with something that he's been completely and thoroughly warned by the word of God to walk away from.

He thinks he won't get burned. He thinks it won't affect his testimony or his life, but he does not know. Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well. In other words, listen, Solomon, it's me, the Lord says, who's been speaking to you.

It's me who's given you wisdom. It's me who speaks to you in the morning and tells you at night. It's me who's been the source of the intelligence that is supernatural that's been given to you and is being imparted from you.

So don't go to another source to get your information. Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well. Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?

Let them only be your own and not strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of your youth. In other words, Solomon, you're leaving your first love. Just as Christ spoke to the church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation, which many believe is the church of the last days.

You're leaving your first love. You're rich, you're increased with goods. You don't see your need and you don't know. You don't understand that you're walking away and you're embracing other loves in your heart.

And you think you will not be hurt by this. As a loving deer in a graceful doe, let her breast satisfy you at all times and always be enraptured with her love. For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman and embraced in the arms of a seductress?

For the ways of men are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all his paths. His own iniquities trap the wicked man and he's caught in the cords of his sin. He shall die for lack of instruction and in the greatness of his folly, he shall go astray.

So the Lord starts by saying to Solomon, my son, pay attention to my wisdom and lend your ear to my understanding. And he concludes his thought by saying, his own iniquities will trap the wicked man. He'll be caught with the cords of his sin.

He will die for lack of instruction and in the greatness of his folly, he shall go astray. If only he had asked for a heart to obey God. If only he hadn't assumed that wisdom was enough to keep him. There's a lot of people who have degrees.

There's a lot of people who spend their time studying the word of God. Now that's admirable, I thank God for that. But if you're gonna do that, you better pray for a heart to obey what you're studying.

You see, because your service to God, even being here today does not substitute for obedience. Don't think you can substitute one thing for another and somehow get to the same result. Samuel, remember, came to King Saul.

When Saul was in danger now, he'd come to the point where he was going to lose every promise that God had ever made to him. He was about to lose the kingdom, the work that God had entrusted to his hand.

He was on a pathway just like Solomon of forfeiting everything God had promised him. And Samuel came to Saul. Saul is sacrificing, you understand, he's sacrificing. He feels that what he's doing is right, even though the instruction of God has told him not to do this.

And Samuel comes to him and says, learn what this means. I will have obedience and not sacrifice. Learn what this means, learn what this means. You can sacrifice, you can do works, you can give to the work of God, you can do all kinds of things.

But if you're not obeying the truth of the word of God, there's a blindness that comes into your life. And trust me, folks, I've lived this, I've seen this. I've seen people finish in an absolute train wreck that had a lot more knowledge than I had of the scriptures.

But there was something in the heart, just like with Solomon. They felt that they could embrace something and not suffer for it. That yes, consequences came to everybody else, but this same consequence can't possibly come to my life.

After all, God has favored me and cleansed me and calls me his own and wakes me up and walks with me in the morning, has given me wisdom and provision. Surely God will not hold this little thing against me.

This little lust, this little love, this little walking outside the boundaries, this little foray into fields that I've been warned I ought not to go in. Surely God will not hold this against me. In John chapter 16, verses 23 and 24, Jesus spoke words which I'm taking to my own heart now in a new way.

Asking for Wisdom and a Heart of Obedience

And here's what he said to his disciples. Most assuredly, John 16, 23, 24, most assuredly I say to you, whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. I see that word to me and to you from Jesus, identical as to the time when God appeared to Solomon and said, ask me what you want for, and I'll give it to you.

Ask me. And so realistically, we are probably 1600 Solomons and Solomets in this assembly today. Add to that the people in the annex, add to that the people in our 810 home fellowships and those in North Jersey and others who are online with us today.

We are the people that God has appeared to in the face of his son, Jesus Christ, has given us his word. And if you can hear it as powerfully as he did with Solomon, although we will never be as wise as Solomon because the promise to him was no one will ever be as smart as you are or as wise.

But he says, I say to you assuredly, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Do you believe that? I believe that with all my heart. I believe, according to the apostle James, that if I ask of God for something and it's not to consume it on my own lust, if I ask for the right reason, according to the will of God, it will be mine.

I can even ask for wisdom. And the scripture says it will be given to me and God will not withhold. He will give it to me if I want wisdom for the right reason. And he says, until now you've asked nothing in my name, ask and you will receive that your joy might be full.

Ask of me and I will give you a joy. I will answer your prayer. And a full joy to me means that I make it to the end, that I make it all the way through. It's not just a joy that's temporary, not just a joy at 10 o 'clock, Sunday morning in September at Times Square Church that lasts till Monday at two in the afternoon.

Ask of me, I will give it to you and your joy will be full. Your joy. Your joy. That means when you get to your deathbed and you put your feet up, if God should give you that moment, your joy is full.

God, I've been involved in the work you gave me to do. I've built your house by the power of your Holy Spirit and by the direction of your word. I have no regrets, Lord. I've done it the best I know how.

I've obeyed your word as much as I know. And when I've been in error, you've corrected me and my heart's been opened. And so I'm not leaving a weak family. I'm not leaving behind me weak children and a weak house and weak grandchildren.

I'm leaving behind me the promise that my joy will be full, that when I get to heaven, I'll stand at the gate and I'm gonna wait for my sons and my daughter and my wife and my children, my grandchildren, and they're coming home and they're gonna live for you too, not in a weak and divided kingdom, but in a place where you have promised blessing.

Oh, how beautiful to finish your life and get to that place where you say, God, I trust you. God, thank you for not letting me go. God, thank you for giving me a heart, giving me a heart, because every human being doesn't have it on their own, but giving me a heart to obey you.

Thank you, Lord, for helping me to turn in the direction you were calling me when it was the hardest thing to do in my life. Thank you for leading me to forgive when everything in me wanted to hate. Thank you, God, for giving me the strength to forgive even my enemies.

Thank you, Lord, for helping me to make restitution when everything inside of me wanted to keep that little bit for myself. Thank you, Lord, for giving me the courage to walk humbly when others had a word of correction to bring into my life.

Thank you, God, for changing my heart from image to image and glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Thank you that even in my deathbed, you're giving me a vision of the future. Thank you, Lord.

That was your promise in the book of Acts and through the prophet Joel, that your old man will dream dreams. Thank you, God, that I see something in the future for my posterity, something that will not end after my death, a weakness that will not follow me because I thought I could live in duplicity and somehow still have the blessing of God in my home.

Thank you, Lord, for giving me a heart to follow you. That's the cry of my heart. I'm 65 years old next week. I will most likely be in heaven in the next decade or 15 years at the most, for real. I'm not afraid of that thought, doesn't bother me at all.

I'm ready to go, as the apostle Paul said. I stay for your sake. I stay for my children's sake. I stay for my grandchildren's sake. I have no other reason to stay. Ask, ask, and your joy will be full.

Ask, and here's what you ask for. God, give me a heart to obey what I know. Don't let me think that I can embrace something like Solomon did and think that I'll not get burned. Give me the courage to not push away the hard things in your word and just gravitate to the easy things.

Give me the courage, Lord, the courage that I need because your promise is that my joy will be full, full, full, not half empty, not full of regret, but full. God, my joy will be full. I'm not smarter than Solomon, but then again, maybe I am, if I ask for a heart to obey what I know.

Finishing Well and Leaving a Godly Heritage

Now, Father, I thank you, Lord, with all of my heart, with all of my heart, I thank you for your people. You are drawing us in this last hour of time to you, you are drawing us to a place where we love truth enough to obey it.

You are drawing us to a place, Lord, where we are willing to turn away from falsehood and embrace that which is right. Help us, Lord, to learn from the example of those who have gone before us. Help us, Lord Jesus Christ, to be like the apostle Paul when he finished and said, I've fought a good fight.

I've run the race that was set before me. Now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, but not me only, all those who have loved the Lord and loved his appearing. And so, Father, I thank you, Lord.

Thank you, God, with all of my heart. I pray, Lord Jesus Christ, for my own house, my own children, my own grandchildren. I ask, O God, that my house would be known for missions for years to come. I ask, Lord Jesus Christ, that you would remove every obstacle, every hindrance, every contrary argument.

I ask, Father, that you would protect my grandchildren from every encroachment of hell that will try to get into their minds, and you build a hedge of fire round about them and keep them. I ask, O Lord Jesus Christ, that through my life, a heritage of godliness will be born into my house.

I pray for your people today, Lord, for every young person that's here, every man, every woman that's here. O Jesus Christ, would you give us a heart to obey your truth? Do you give us a heart to turn away from sin and turn to what is right?

Give us a heart to love you and to let our bodies become the true temple of your Holy Spirit. Help us, Lord God, not to live in duplicity and compromise. Help us to put away that which will make us blind, ineffectual, and weak.

Help us, God, to understand that all the devil needs is a toehold in our lives, and soon he will come in. Give us great grace, Lord, that we not end up like Solomon. Help us, Lord, to finish, even in the midst of our mistakes, as King David did, a man after your heart.

Lord, I bless you, and I praise you, God, for the simplicity of this moment, but yet it's not that simple. And I thank you in Jesus' name. I'm going to give an altar call. I'm going to give an altar call, and I'm going to give it with a story, if you'll just hold still for one moment.

The Welsh Revival and the Call to Obey God

It was roughly 1904 to 1906. The whole nation of Wales was aflame with the presence of God. A spiritual awakening had begun that was going to touch most of the known Western world of its time. It was because of the Welsh revival that Azusa Street happened here in America that brought the renewed understanding of the power of God to the church of our time.

Evan Roberts, a young preacher in training, was the vessel that God chose to use for that spiritual awakening, and there was a service probably similar to this. If I remember correctly, there was well over 1 ,000 people in attendance in the service, and everybody was waiting for this man of God to speak, and they waited, and they waited.

He sat in his seat, and they waited, and waited, and waited. There was a stillness and a silence to the point where it became very uncomfortable. Finally, he left his seat, strolled into the pulpit, bowed his head in silent prayer, then lifted his head up and said two words, obey God.

You see, the point is that people already knew what to do. There was no more knowledge needed. No more instruction had to be given. There was not gonna be a revelation of some new little bit of truth that was suddenly gonna ring the bell and everybody was gonna be a spiritual millionaire.

They already knew what to do, and he went back and sat in his seat, and the writer of this particular book said, people began to stand. They began to confess theft that they had to make right. They began to make restitution.

They asked for forgiveness. In other words, everybody already knew what to do, and so that's my altar call today is, God, would you give me a heart to obey you? This is what I ask for, and if you ask, you will receive it.

You will. A heart to obey you in what I know and in what your word reveals to me. Would you give me the heart to obey you? Pray this with me. Lord Jesus Christ, give me a heart to obey what I know. The things you've already spoken to me from your word.

Help me not to push it away from my conscience and from my practice. Give me the strength to live an obedient life to your word. Thank you, Lord Jesus. For your promise to me that you will answer this prayer and my joy will be full.