Illusional Devotion | Pastor Paul McGee

Hallelujah, no more distance, Lord, Amen.

The veil on the temple was ramped from top to bottom,

Scripture says, when he gave up the ghost from that cross.

Amen. The writer of Hebrews said, now

we can boldly enter into the throne of grace.

We can boldly enter into that place that only typically a

priest could go, but now all mankind, regardless what of our

office is or our position is, can bodily enter into the throne

room of grace. We can make our petition known

there. There's no more distance, Amen.

There's no more distance. I thank the Lord that there

isn't, Amen. I'm glad I don't necessarily

have to go through someone, but I can go to Him, Amen.

I can go to him, Amen. Tonight, Hallelujah.

If you understand with me this evening, just for the reading of

the word Amen, we are glad for our guest here tonight.

It's always good to have guests when you have some of your home

folks that are gone. It's always, it's like the

product of replacement, Amen. So we're happy to have you Amen,

with us. Even in spite or Despite that,

we're happy to have you with us, Amen.

Tonight. Going to be turning to the Book

of First Kings Chapter 11, First Kings chapter #11 here this

1 Kings 11 · chapter mention

evening. And I want to look at a couple

of verses, although the the first several, several verses of

this chapter would be important perhaps to what I'm hoping to

convey tonight. First Kings Chapter 11, I'm

1 Kings 11 · chapter mention

going to read verse #4 and I'm going to read verse #6 as well

tonight. Bible says in verse number four

of First Kings 11 For it came to pass, when Solomon was owed,

that his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his

heart was not not perfect, or another word would be not

complete or not whole with the Lord his God I was as was the

heart of David his father. Verse 6 says And Solomon did

evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the

Lord, but not fully after the Lord, as did David his father.

Amen. For a little while tonight I

want to talk to you on this subject.

Illusional devotion, not delusional, but with AI

illusional devotion. Amen.

Can we ask the Lord to help us the next little while for a

moment? Father, we need you tonight.

God, I love you and I put my faith in my trust, my confidence

in you, God. Bring captive, Lord, every

thought in this place, and let our hearts be centered, Lord,

upon you, God, for the next space of time.

I pray, Lord, that you're able to help us, Lord, in this

endeavor tonight. Let your word arise and let it

stand Lord upright God, and let it speak into our spirits.

God, those that are here, those that are watching online, those

the Lord that we'd hear in the future.

I pray God something sad God will be of some benefit.

Lord, I pray God to someone tonight will not fail to thank

you Lord for what you accomplished.

Lord, through your word we love you and we thank you for it in

the name of Jesus Christ that we pray a man of the church say

man, a man. You may be seated tonight in

Jesus name, illusional, illusional devotion.

When we talk about when we talk about devotion, we are talking

about total dedication. Total dedication to A cause or a

person or a purpose. Devotion is not something that

you measure on a on a spectrum or a continuum devotion.

That's not the way that you measure it.

It isn't measured by degrees. It's not measured by by levels.

Devotion is a word even in its definition that devotion is a

all or nothing type of concept. You're either devoted or you're

not devoted to XYZ thing or purpose.

It's just the way it goes. As a matter of fact, the very

nature of devotion implies total commitment.

I don't know how else you can define total than total.

Total commitment to something many of us, maybe even today's

world, would not, would not have passed Abraham's devotion test

in the Old Testament, the book of Genesis.

He had a promised son, and he had a promise made to him of

many descendants that would come through his loins and his

lineage. But he only had one son of

promise, only one son of promise.

And that son's name was Isaac. And that very son God would ask

Abraham to sacrifice on Mount Moriah.

And because devotion requires sacrifice.

And so whenever he said Abraham said yes to God, yes to this one

thing, as we do often in life, instantly we have said no to

everything else. That is in essence the feel of

devotion. When you accept this thing and

are devoted to that thing, you're saying no, and you are

avoiding everything else. But we live in a predominant

generation today where we like to keep our options open.

We like to keep our options open.

We don't want to be exclusive just by chance if something

better comes along. But the Bible tells me in the

word Moses spoke in Exodus 1511, he said, Who is like unto thee,

O Lord among the gods, who is like thee, glorious and

holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.

Samuel even said in first Samuel 2 and two, he said, There is

none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is

there any rock like our God. In other words, there is nothing

better. There's no reason to keep your

options open concerning if it comes to true devotion and total

commitment to God. It's not as though you're going

to be partially devoted, if that's even possible, Or or

incompletely devoted. Perhaps, like Abraham, some of

us would have cut the wood and we'd have travelled the distance

to the spot. Maybe we would have bound our

only son upon an altar, but God interrupted Abraham whenever the

Bible records in Genesis 22, the Abraham stretched off his hand

and took the knife to slay his son that God stopped and he knew

what was about ready to take place full devotion, complete

devotion. He stopped him.

Others might call along the path all those various steps.

They might say, well, well, gathering the wood that was

partial devotion or or traveling to the spot that that that was,

you know, somewhat of a devotion.

But the reality of the matter is the summation of the whole

process from gathering the wood, climbing up the mountain, laying

the sundown bound upon an altar and to the apex of taking the

night, then even to his son, the whole process is actual

devotion. Because I'm afraid in my life

sometimes I've cut wood that will never be laid on an altar.

I I I for myself, I believe maybe sometimes I've taken trip

up mountains sides with no intentional purpose of going

through with what my trip was for.

Amen. I, I bound some things and laid

it on an altar without ever laying a knife to it.

And someone said, oh, Patrick McGee, you've done good.

You're that's great. Partial devotion, you know,

taking the trip. No, no, no devotion really.

To call devotion partial or incomplete is an anomaly.

There, there is not a degree to devotion.

It either happens or it don't happen.

You, you are or you are not Amen.

It's an anomaly. It's a a deviation from the

rule, Amen. That idea even betrays the very

meaning of devotion. Devotion that lacks

completeness, that there's divided loyalty somewhere,

divided allegiances somewhere. That's the reason why Jesus said

in the Gospels of Matthew 624 he said no man can serve 2 masters

for he'll either hate the one and love the other or else he'll

hold to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and Mammon. You know what he's saying?

He's saying devotion is a all in game devotion to someone, some

cause, something, some purpose. It's a all in thing.

You can't be partially devoted to God and be partially devoted

to all the other things that don't work like that.

It's a all in ball game. There's there's no such thing as

partial devotion. There's no such thing as if you

will just incomplete a little short of full No, we are either

devoted or not says you can't serve God.

And mammon. Mammon was a siric word, a name

given to the idol worship as the God of riches.

And yes, the passage that Jesus said that him, he was focusing

on wealth and riches and material goods, but just as much

as he compared it to that, anything else could have been

filled in that blank. You cannot serve God and mammon.

You cannot serve God and other people.

You cannot say that the list could go on and on.

You could fill in the blank. What's the purpose?

Because devotion isn't about God along with everything else.

He doesn't want to be another God among your gods.

He wants to be your God, God alone, all by himself.

Because the problem in Scripture is there are plenty of people

that wanted to accept God as God, but just as another God

along with their other gods. That's not devotion.

No, not at all. That's compromised that.

That's just allowing something else to be on the table with

everything else. God is what he's asking for.

If the song said it tonight. He don't want there to be any

distance. He doesn't want there to be any

favoritism except toward him. He doesn't want Amen.

Devotion cannot be partial, Amen, because divided allegiance

is really just a failure to commit.

There's no middle ground with masters, right?

There is no middle ground with our devotion.

Matthew 15 and 8, Jesus said this as well.

He said This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and

honor with me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Because when we attempt what we might like to call partial

devotion, it is like serving God on Sunday and chasing every word

we desire every other day of the week, right?

Right. It's a masquerade devotion.

A masquerade, just like the Pharisees in the Gospels did.

They had all the outward mechanics and all the outward

doings of obedience, Amen. But their heart was far from

God, Amen. That's not devotion.

I know it looks like devotion. It has, if you will, the facade

of devotion, but that's not devotion, Amen.

Can we truly call it devotion if it's not wholehearted?

Can we truly call it devotion if it's not complete?

Folks, when we look at the life of Solomon, there's so many

great positive aspects in Solomon's life.

His wisdom was unparalleled. One of the high watermarks of

his life is his wisdom that whenever God said, ask of me

what I shall give thee, when he could have asked for the moon,

so to speak, He asked them God to give him and grant him that

wisdom. And since he didn't ask for

riches and some of these other things, God says, I'll give

these things to you because you asked for wisdom.

That wisdom was a gift from God. Solomon could discern the truth

and very complex situations. We have illustrations in

Scripture him using his wisdom in a very very good and

profitable way for the Kingdom of God.

Early on the Bible even tells us that Solomon acknowledged

whenever he became king. He acknowledged he said I am a

child or meaning I am an I'm inexperienced.

I don't know it all my my dependency.

God really depends upon you. I know I got this wisdom, but I

still need you. I know I got this intellect, but

I still need to. He did some great exploits in

his life. He headed up the construction of

the most embellished and elaborate temple there ever was,

Amen. He did that in only seven years.

A lot of great things happened, Amen.

Through him, his reign was a reign of peace and serenity.

He had some organizational skills that he put to use as a

king that helped protect, if you will, the economy and the

governance of his Kingdom. Most of Israel's wisdom

literature that you read, such as Proverbs and the Song of

Solomon and Ecclesiastes, flowed from the pen of Solomon.

All those little tidbits and principles of wisdom and

instruction came from him. He had such a reputation that

leaders around from the known world, such as the Queen of

Sheba and others wanted to come and was astonished by his

reputation that he had. And who can forget that at the

dedication of the temple Bishop, that great long, elaborate,

flowery prayer that Solomon prayed at the dedication of the

temple? As a matter of fact, if you look

at the chapter right before our text in First Kings chapter #10

it is a celebratory chapter for Solomon.

Queen of Sheba showed up. And she's taken in everything

that she has heard about. She's taken in everything that

people, other people have said concerning Solomon and what she

sees and what she experiences it.

It exceeds her wildest expectations.

His wisdom to her. Her estimation was on point, as

she questioned him, and he answered her.

The structures that he had built were remarkable.

Amen to her in her eyes. Verse #5 of that chapter says.

And the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and

the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and his cup

bearers, and his ascent by which he went up and to the House of

the Lord, There was no more spirit in her, which basically

meant it, her breath. So this, this is astounding.

The wisdom, the pomp, the prestige, the way that he orders

his servants, the way that all this fits together.

For that matter, you skip down a few verses later in chapter 10,

verse 23. And the Bible says so King

Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for

wisdom and all the earth sought to Solomon to hear his wisdom

which God had put in his heart. And so if we were to read

chapter 10 alone, we're like this is tremendous.

This man has built a temple to God none like it most

embellished. He has wisdom to decide hard

things. Just from that snapshot of that

light. Surely someone would said this

is a devoted man. But the Bible continues then in

verse #1 of Chapter 11 and says, and we have we have the

contrasting word. But King Solomon loved many

strange women. It goes to verse 4 that I read

in your hearing and says that when he was old that his wives

turned away his heart after other gods, and it states that

his heart was not perfect or not complete with the Lord his God,

as was the heart of David his father.

If I can say tonight, the tragic flaw of Solomon, the fly in the

ointment for Solomon was, if we could say it like this, his

incomplete or lack of devotion. Some might say, well, no, his

problem was women. Well, in reality, I know what

you're talking about, but women were just the tool.

They weren't per se the absolute problem, Amen.

We could fill in the blanks. For others it might be this, or

for others it might be that, or several other things.

But it boils down really, his problem was a lack of devotion,

Amen. What he and others may even said

was incomplete or partial devotion.

The reason why I want to illustrate this, and I know

partial devotion, again, that's irony.

But if I can use it in this saying tonight, I'll say this.

He was where he was. He experienced what he

experience in Chapter 11. Because incomplete devotion will

set you up for total seduction. Whenever you like devotion,

you're set yourself up for total seduction.

He's an old man, yes, but the fact, the fact that he was old

doesn't mean that that this is something that only aged people

face. Aged people face a problem of

like a no, no, no, that's not what this is illustrating.

What it is illustrating is this. You can waste your whole life on

a facade. You can waste your whole life on

living a front. You can live your whole life not

being genuine. You can live your whole life

with just a artificial. You can live your whole life

masking devotional issues. The true issue was lack of

devotion. Oh, but Brother McGee, he built

a temple. I know you can build a temple

and still not be devoted to the one whom you built the temple

to. But Brother McGee, he had great

wisdom. He used that in great ways.

I understand that. But you can do all of the

mechanics, all the theatrics, if you will, of a devoted life, and

still not be devoted at the core, at the heart, at.

We read in first Kings chapter 3 and verse 3 and Solomon loved

1 Kings 3 · chapter mention

the Lord verse 1 of Chapter 11 but King Solomon loved many

strange women. What did Jesus said?

You either love the one or you'll hate the other.

Solomon, you can't be devoted to God and be devoted to all these

other women that you brought in your life.

And please understand, I'm not just talking about his wife.

I'm talking about he's got all these concubines and all these

wives. You you can't do that because

chapter 3 and Solomon love God sounds like devotion, but

Chapter 11 showcases something different.

It showcases a man that had some divided allegiance.

It shows a man with a contradictory phrase above his

life, a partial devotion if you will, Amen.

With which it was definitionally no devotion.

Amen. It's not sound.

And the Bible says he went not fully after the Lord.

Not going fully is empty. What does that mean?

It doesn't matter all of his incredible wisdom.

It doesn't matter how much riches he has.

None of that compensates for incomplete devotion.

It don't matter how high I can scream, how far I can jump.

None of that can compensate for incomplete devotion.

Money can't buy it. Wisdom can't reason it into

existence. The pimples we build cannot

compensate. He could organize communities,

he could organize people, he could organize hierarchies, but

he could not command his own commitment.

People are flocking to him, astonished at him, but what they

don't know is there's not a full surrender of him and his heart.

Bible says yes, that his wives may have turned his heart after

other gods. In reality, his heart was not

complete or perfect with the Lord anyway.

And that's the issue when you're not devoted.

When you're not devoted, something may come by that looks

better. Unless you forsake all others.

Forsake all others. That issue of of of lack of

devotion invited them total seduction, Amen.

His marriages were basically just symptoms of his absence of

devotion, Amen. Some might even argue, well, he

married strange Pagan women and he allowed them to worship their

little GODSS, their gods, and he tolerated that and he built

shrines and temples. This is in your Bible.

Amen for their gods and eventually we read in Scripture

that he would worship their Pagan gods as well in verse 5

where the Bible says he went after Astara and Milkham.

That's exactly what that means him going after is him

worshiping those gods as well. And so they might claim well all

of these strange women was the motivation for his downward

spiral. But I back it up further than

that. It's not that.

It's his lack of devotion that really has, if you the angle on

all of that, Solomon got a bride from a lot of places, but one

place he got a bride from was Egypt.

He also got some horses from there and Chariots from there.

And there's a law on Deuteronomy for kings that says they should

not multiply horses, they should not multiply Chariots, they

should not return to Egypt. Amen.

But he does it anyway. Amen.

What is that a product of? It's the product of a lack of

devotion. It says, it tells very clearly

he had peace with a lot of areas, but the reason why he had

peace is these areas where it could get tumultuous sometimes

he married the Princess of that region.

That's where one of his marriages come into play, so

that maybe he could keep the peace that his father secured by

war. He would try to keep, if you

will, by marriage, but that marriage was a compromise.

It was a lack of it was a lack of devotion.

He was trying to secure peace with compromise.

He meant secure peace with the enemies or with people who had

been enemies at the cost of losing his peace with God.

It was the actions of somebody that doubted that God could be

their defense. It was a lack of devotion.

Did not even David his father? He meant the writer makes the

comparison. He didn't go fully like his dad

did or after his dad David had wrote in the Psalms, that's some

trust in horses and some in Chariots.

But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

You know what he's saying? He said just let me be devoted

to the king. Just let me be devoted to him.

It doesn't matter about all these other things.

I want to be completely devoted. Didn't have a complete perfect

heart went not fully after the Lord even in his here's how we

can masquerade even his dedicory prayer of the Temple of First

Kings 861. Solomon is praying this he says

let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God to

walk in his statutes to keep his commandments as at this day

devotion can be masqueraded because that sounds like a great

prayer. That sounds like tremendous

advice to let my heart be perfect when then the end story

in First Kings 11 tells me his heart wasn't perfect.

When we are not solely devoted to the Lord, we open ourselves

and we're vulnerable to seduction.

Seduction by sin, seduction by worldly desires, seduction by

false teaching that itches the right spot, scratches the right

spot, maybe of our itch. Rather, when we're not totally

devoted, it'll create gaps in our spiritual defenses, leaving

room for temptation to take hold, our heads not turning

another direction toward whatever it may be.

Because I only have eyes for one, We read in the scripture of

Judges 16 of Samson. He's consecrated from birth as a

Nazarite. Nazarite vow, Don't touch dead

things, don't drink through to the vine.

He was to leave his hair uncut, honoring his Nazarite vow.

But before he ever laid his head on Delilah's lap, he had touched

dead things. Good possibility to read the

scripture that he had made himself available, perhaps to

the fruit of the vine, and that all that we ever want to

concentrate upon is the Delilah scenario and the cutting of the

hair. And like, boom, there it is.

No, there was a lack of devotion already somewhere back here.

The Delilah scenario was just the evidence of what been going

on. Someone say man.

And as a result, a Samson that was not he was born.

Listen, he was given to his parents who were barren, mind

you, he was given to his parents, which were barren to

begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines, All right.

And so, yes, there was some great exploits that happened to

Samson. As a matter of fact, you read in

Scripture and you'll see the phrasing over and over again

that the Spirit of the Lord moved upon him for this episode

of Exploit and that episode of Exploit.

But the problem with Samson was this.

He misunderstood the Spirit of the Lord moving on him for

justification, for his lack of devotion.

He felt comfortable and his lack of devotion because he felt the

Spirit moving upon him. That's the reason why I'm the

final episode of everything and Delilah has had his head shorn

and he's weak as another man. The Bible says that Samson says

I'll go out and shake myself as I did other times.

Why? Because all the other times when

he touched the jawbone of a donkey, which was something

dead, and he got honey out the lions mouth that he had killed,

which was something dead. All the other times it seemed

like everything was okay. He had illusional devotion.

He thought I'd, I'd still feel the Spirit of God at times.

I, I still feel the power of God sometimes.

But folks, you don't need to interpret those times as though

you're right. You need to interpret those

times that that's a loving father trying to woo you so

there'd be no distance trying to woo you, that there would be

nothing that would stand between and you.

He's trying. Charming a good stand, Amen.

Before the best judgment seat. Look at the temple I built you.

Hey, look how I used all your wisdom.

God says all of that doesn't matter much because I'm not

worried about all of all of the mechanics I'm worried about.

Do I have your heart? Do I have your heart?

I know you you can show up every time the doors are open and

that's great. But I when you're there, do I

have your heart? And do I have it on Monday and

do I have it on Friday? Do you?

Because our heart can be far from him.

In New Testament, Dimas is a fellow laborer.

Demons is a fellow laborer, faithful fabled laborer with the

apostle Paul. You see his name mentioned on a

couple of different accounts as being a fellow laborer with him

and you think of the apostle Paul, you think of 2/3 of the

Scripture being written by his pen.

You're thinking, man, he's in good association here.

He he, he, he must really be, you know, on fire and so on and

so forth. They have all this association

going on with being a fellow laborer, Paul, But the Bible

tells us that somewhere along the way that Demas forsook him.

And the Bible states This is why in Second Timothy, Demas had

forsaken me. Having loved, having loved.

Listen, that's just not a love that started today.

That's a love he has loved and he's continued to love this

present world. What is that?

That is split allegiance. That is not partial devotion.

That's no devotion. It had all of the appearances of

a fellow laborer. But at the crux of the matter,

it was a man that lacked devotion because he didn't love

the Lord his God with all of his heart, with all of his mind,

with all of his might, with all of his strength.

So it seems all appearances solemn you started right, But

there's there's distractions, there's compromises, there's

erosions of commitment, there's what lack of devotion that is

left cracks in your spiritual defense.

It's it's invited, if you will total seduction into your life.

Can't serve 2 masters. True devotion isn't about really

appearances and actions and moments of inspiration.

True devotion is about consistent, wholehearted,

exclusive commitment to him. Like Abraham, that requires the

following through. Not just preparing for an act of

obedience, but completing, following through.

I've got to ask myself tonight, Lord, have I allowed some

divided loyalties in my life? Has has there been some subtle

compromises? Has there been some?

And again, this is a contradiction of terms.

Is there an incomplete devotion in my life?

God, are there altars I built that I never put sacrifices on?

Is there, is there pieces of my life that I put the caution tape

up and say, God, you can have this area, that area, this area

and that area, but that area, that's my protected area.

God, you can deal with me and mess with any of these areas of

my life. But that area, that's my

protected area. You can have everything else

except that. That's not that's not full

commitment. That's, that's, that's not,

that's not wholehearted commitment.

You understand for me now, I won't hold you much longer if we

just close our eyes tonight. I need to ask God, God, are are

there parts of my life? Maybe I'm blinded to it?

Maybe, maybe, maybe there's a blind spot.

And listen, we all have blind spots, right?

I know cars nowadays, they flashlights and everything else.

So get your blind. We all have blind spots.

Cars do. We do too.

We need to ask God daughters, there is this places in my life

where devotion is incomplete, right?

Are there some skewed priorities?

Are there some alliances and relationships?

Are there some desires, God? If there is, Lord, If there's

ones that I'm, I'm just not Privy to or unknown to me, God

make them known so I can confess them to you, God, because I want

to acknowledge tonight that you alone are worthy of my undivided

commitment. The McGee, this is the holidays

in Christmas. What you talking about that?

Well, the New Year's come and that's when everybody wants to

make their resolution. So God help me, Lord, to have

undivided commitment. Listen, we, we fool ourselves,

folks, if we're going to chalk devotion up as just some

emotional moment, right? A shout over in the corner, A

welling in the back Pew. No, no, devotion is not an

emotional moment per SE. Devotion is a daily decision.

It's a daily decision. And I'm at this place like God,

I want to resolve right now to live a life that's wholly

devoted to you. And if that means saying no to

anything that competes for your place, even if that means saying

no for anything that's competing for your place, in my heart,

because let me tell you, the competition's out there and the

competition sometime is rough. God, I don't want to settle.

And these altars are open. Lord, I don't want to settle for

an illusional Lord devotion. God, I want to pursue a life

that is completely surrendered. God, I, I want, I want you to be

my first love. You remember, do you remember

what he said to one of the churches of the of the churches

of the seven churches of Asia in the Book of Revelation?

What he tell him he said you left your first love.

You've left your first love. What's he saying?

He said you lack devotion. You left your first love.

He said your highest priority should be that first love that

needs to be your only master. Hallelujah.

Remember, incomplete devotion is no devotion at all.

Hey, man. It sets us up for failure and

makes us vulnerable to total seduction.

Hey, man. But when you have a full,

unwavering, uncontended devotion, you know what that

does. It invites the power of God in

your life. It invites the peace of God in

your life. It invites the purpose of God in

your life. Build your temples, exercise

your wisdom, enjoy your riches. Have all, if you will, the

acknowledgement of others because them astonished by your

life. But if Heaven isn't impressed,

it don't matter what my peers say, it don't matter what my

family says. If Heaven isn't impressed, if

I'm not totally surrendered, totally devoted, totally giving

myself to him, that's what he wants.

He wants me. He wants you.

All the other things that come with that would be the

byproducts of that. We can't use all these other

things as facades and fronts, masking the lack of devotion.

I got to be devoted tonight. I need to be devoted.

Oh search me, oh Lord, search me, oh Lord, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way

in me. The Proverbs of four and 23 that

we're to keep our heart with all diligence, for out of it flows

the issues of life. Whenever you read Solomon, you

want to read him and you want to read everything he wrote.

When you read the Song of Solomon, which is about Solomon

and his beloved, the Shulamite woman, that's the way that

things are supposed to be, right?

Enraptured in that love moment with the beloved.

That's the way things are supposed to be.

And whenever you read Proverbs, all of the wisdom and stuff that

is spoken, we're enthralled by that.

But then there's Ecclesiastes. And Ecclesiastes is the writing

of regrets of a Solomon that had missed complete devotion to God.

And he says I built structures and it wasn't satisfying.

I exercised my wisdom in all things that it wasn't

satisfying. You know what he was saying.

There's nothing like complete devotion in so much that his

final words of Ecclesiastes were this he said, let us hear the

conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his

commandments. For this is the whole duty of

man. You know what he's saying.

The whole duty of man is for him to be devoted to God, for him to

be devoted to God. These halters are open.

They'll prepare a song. I wonder if we could just meet

the Lord at a position and at a point, if you will, of

confession at a position and at a point of reality, at a

position and at a point of just realness with him.

God, I'm peeling back every layer of my life.

I'm peeling back every facade. I'm peeling it all back tonight.

And Lord, I want you to help me, Lord, in the area of devotion.

God, oh God, I don't want to serve.

I don't want to serve any other master but you.

I don't want to serve anyone else but you.

God, I pray, O Lord, tonight I want it to be you and you alone.

I don't want to keep my options open.

I don't want to be blown about by every wind to this thing and

that thing. No, Lord, it's you forsaking all

others. You, you, you, you, you alone.

Hallelujah, Jesus.