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Go to Hosea, please.
I want to talk about Christ and his
harlot church.
Hosea, just go to the first chapter, if
you will, please.
Hosea, leave it out on your lap.
Now, I'm fishing.
I'm fishing for backsliders today.
I want every backslider, everyone who's grown cold
toward the Lord, everyone who's turned away from
the Lord and gone down the wrong path,
I want you to know that the grace
of God is here this morning to bring
you back, to bring you back to the
love of Christ and to bring you back
into the fullness of the Lord.
He wants to speak to you.
And this is a message not only for
the backslider but the church and the body
of Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word.
We pray that your unction and anointing be
upon us.
Lord, we have nothing of ourselves to give
but our very bodies.
We have nothing of merit.
We come on the merits of the blood
of Christ and the merits of being in
Christ.
And Lord, I pray that you speak the
mind of Christ.
You speak the mind of God.
Lord, speak to your church.
Speak to your body.
Let the Holy Ghost come.
Let the glory of God come on this
church.
Lord, in the annex and the overflow rooms
and here in the main auditorium, breathe with
life and power and anointing and unction from
the Holy Ghost.
Lord, we need you.
I have to have your power.
I have to have your anointing to deliver
this word.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Bible said Christ is married to his church.
He's married to his people.
Oh, backslidden children, turn for I am married
to you, God said through Jeremiah.
And here in Hosea, the prophet Jeremiah was
used by God to show us the pain
the Lord suffers when we cheat on him,
when we turn against him and we turn
to harlotry.
I want you to read, go with me
to Hosea 1 and read with me, please,
verses 2 and 3.
The beginning of the word of the Lord
to Hosea.
And the Lord said to Hosea, Go take
unto thee a wife of wardens and children
of wardens.
For the land has committed great warden departing
from the Lord.
So he went and took Gomer, the daughter
of Gilem, which conceived and bear him a
son.
Now, Gomer was a well-known, notorious prostitute.
She was a harlot.
Turn, if you will please, to Hosea 3,
verses 1 through 3.
Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet
love a woman beloved of her friend, yet
an adulteress, according to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel, who look
to other gods and love flagons of wine.
So I bought her to me for fifteen
pieces of silver and for an omer of
barley, half an omer of barley.
I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for
me many days.
Thou shalt not play the harlot.
Thou shalt not be for another man, so
I also be for thee.
That's the backslider.
That's the one who's turned to harlotry.
Go take a wife who is a harlot.
So he went and took Gomer.
The harlot here represents, now he's speaking, first
of all, to Israel.
He's speaking to both Judah and to Israel,
the ten tribes.
And we're going to talk about Ephraim.
And Ephraim is interchangeable with Israel.
This was the power center of Israel, of
the ten tribes.
And the power and authority was in Ephraim,
one of the largest tribes.
And Gomer represents not only those in the
body of Christ, but those in the ministry
also who have another love.
They have departed from their first love.
And the scripture says very clearly that this
represents the backslidden condition of many people in
the body of Jesus Christ today.
I honestly believe Hosea is about the church
of Jesus Christ of the last day.
All the lessons that we learn here are
so very powerful and so clear.
The love of the church of Jesus Christ
has been called like morning dew that evaporates.
And there are some of you sitting here
this morning that God wants to deal with.
You've lost the fire.
You've lost the love of God.
You once were, you knew that you were
in the Bridehood of Christ.
You came to Him and confessed your sins
and you have yielded yourself completely to Him
at one time.
And something has happened.
Another love has come into your life.
I'm not just talking about adultery, but there
was something that's taking your time and your
mind and it's taking you further and further
away from that commitment you made to Jesus.
When you came and you made your vows,
you said, Lord, I'll serve you.
And we have seen so many go through
the doors of this church.
And I'm just talking from my heart, how
many I've met on the street.
And they said, Brother Dave, how are you?
They know me.
I don't know them, but they were at
this church at one time and they were
full of Christ.
They were in love with Christ and they
were growing.
But something happened.
They don't attend church now.
They're back to their old crowd.
They're back to their old ways.
And many of you are here this morning.
You're in the annex.
You're in the overflow rooms.
You're all through this building.
And God has a message for you.
First, I'm going to tell you right out.
Though you may have angered God, you can't
get away from the love that he has
in his heart for those who've come to
him and a part of his body.
You may be wounded.
You may be broken.
You may have strayed.
But if you would hear the word of
God this morning, you just hear and listen,
God will show you his heart.
It's not how you feel, it's who God
is, what he is to us.
And when you get to know his character,
when you get to know who God is,
then that changes everything.
Absolutely changes.
Takes the fear out of your heart of
ever returning.
Here's a wife.
He takes this harlot, he takes Gomer, a
notorious harlot.
And God said, this is a teaching tool.
Now, I at one time couldn't believe that
this was anything but a parable.
I've changed my mind on that.
I've changed it very strongly because I believe
that with all the details here, it's so
clearly revealed and it so represents the heart
of God toward his church.
He goes and takes this notorious prostitute, this
harlot, and he marries her, hoping to change
her, hoping that she'll be a faithful wife
to him.
And really, he loved this woman.
Something had happened.
There was a love placed in his heart
for this prostitute woman.
And the Bible said she conceived him a
son.
Now, this represents intimacy.
This represents the one that Christ has gone
after and taken out.
Folks, he found you in harlotry.
He found me in harlotry.
He found us in our absolute despair, loving
other things, loving the world, the pleasures of
this world, the things of this world, all
wrapped up in ourselves and other loves that
had entered our lives.
And he takes her into his home and
into his heart.
And she conceives and bears him a son.
She bears another child, daughter also.
But at the same time that she has
been intimate and all looks well, it looks
like this woman has changed.
It's a lifetime change.
It seems like a miracle.
Here is intimacy.
Here is fruitfulness.
That represents the one who has come to
Christ and has known intimacy.
They've won souls to the Lord.
There's been fruitfulness and there's been faithfulness for
a period of time.
But Hosea is shocked and overwhelmed because he
discovers that she's been cheating on him.
Not only does she cheat with one man,
but she has many lovers, the Bible says.
She's sneaking out, she's sneaking out on him,
so to speak, and she is embracing other
loves.
And the prophet discovers this unfaithfulness and he's
heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken over it.
That was played the harlot with many lovers,
Jeremiah said.
Can you imagine the pain and the brokenness?
Can you imagine the pain and brokenness of
a married couple that could be sitting in
this church now?
And apparently things seem so well.
The past is forgetting.
Many of you have been saved from drugs
and alcohol and you've had to forget.
Maybe you're a wife and you married a
drug addict or you're a man who's married
a woman who had a prostitute to support
her habit.
And here you sit this morning and you
have forgiven and for a season you've been
intimate and things were going well.
And so I have a good marriage.
And then suddenly you discover that during this
time of intimacy and during this time of
apparent faithfulness, there's been cheating and there's been
unfaithfulness and you come upon your wife in
the arms of another man, embraced in a
kiss, embraced and it's all suddenly exposed.
And the pain of this man's heart, Hosea's
heart, is overwhelming.
He's saying to himself, I knew what she
was like, but I thought there was a
change.
I thought there was, I protected her.
I showed her affection.
She was intimate with me.
She promised to be faithful.
And he becomes so overwhelmed with his pain.
He names her Leruhama, which means no more
mercy.
In other words, no longer mine.
No more mercy.
I have had it with this woman.
I thought it was changed.
I thought there was a miracle and I
have had it and that's enough.
No more mercy.
I will drive her, chapter 9, verse 15,
I will drive her out of my house.
I don't want anything more to do with
her.
Gomer backslides into an old lifestyle.
Now, I told you I'm after backsliders today,
not to condemn you, but to show you
your way back into the arms of Jesus,
to show your way, to show you that
there is a path and there is a
way back.
God told Hosea, this is the house of
Israel.
This is a picture of my beloved people.
They've fallen into harlotry.
They've gone back to their old sins.
The Bible said your maker is your husband.
Your maker is your husband.
Isaiah 54, 5.
Your wickedness is before my face.
This is what Hosea is saying.
I see your wickedness.
I know what you've done.
You can't hide it anymore.
Everybody knows that you've turned from me.
You have left me.
You have forsaken me.
You're no longer mine.
God speaks to the prophet Hosea and what
he's actually saying, do you understand now how
I feel when my bride, when my wife
cheats on me, when my people have other
loves in their life other than me?
Do you understand the pain that God feels?
Folks, I don't think we understand the pain
when we turn aside to the things of
this world, where we leave our first love
for Jesus Christ.
I don't think we understand the pain and
the agon that we cause him.
We think about our own loneliness and the
sense of no longer having the presence of
the Lord in our life, but we very
seldom contemplate or think about how we've wounded
the heart of Christ.
He is a feeling Christ.
He's touched with the feelings of our infirmity.
Jesus weeps.
He's still a man in glory.
He's a glorified man.
He still has his manhood.
He is God, but he is also man
in glory.
If you and I saw him right now,
he would have the form of a human
being and he would look just like a
man, just like the man standing before you.
Not the same features, but the same feelings
and the same heart.
He still has that manhood.
And he is so grieved over this woman.
And he says, no longer God is speaking.
This is an illustrated sermon for Israel.
Israel, you've sinned against me.
And it's an illustrated sermon for the church
of Jesus Christ in the last days.
You committed yourself to me, but now the
things of the world have entered in and
you've turned away from me.
You're no longer.
You're no longer mine.
You know that, and I know it.
You're not for me, no matter what you
say, no matter how you try to excuse
it.
You're no longer my wife.
You've left me.
And some of you have left the Lord.
You've actually truly left him.
You've gone your own way.
He's also saying, you see how quickly you
can judge Israel for their backsliding and how
slow you are to consider mercy for Israel.
And perhaps he goes on to say, is
there something of this in your own life,
Hosea?
He lets you see yourself and the pain
that he feels.
Hosea is commanded to take her back.
Once again, he forgives her.
God said, I will have mercy upon the
house of Judah.
She comes back and she conceives again, this
time a son.
But once again, she plays the harlot, the
scripture says.
Once again, Hosea is angry and he's hurt
and he's broken hearted.
Again, she's indulging in her same old habits.
And this time he turns to the boy
and God says, now call his name Loami,
meaning not my people, not my child.
This is not my wife.
I am not her husband.
First, no mercy.
And now not my people.
At this point, God has every right to
give up on, or Hosea has every right
to give up on Gomor.
I've had enough of her backsliding.
I've had enough of her sin.
I've had enough of this.
I can't endure this any longer to every
right, morally, legally to shut her off and
never see her again, cut off all her
resources.
And folks, it could end here.
And if God has every right, legally, morally,
to cut us off at a certain point,
he has every right.
The story could end right there and God
would be totally justified.
God could have been justified if he'd have
cut you off when you fail, when you
went back, when you wounded the heart of
Christ.
He had every legal right to cut you
off or cut me off.
How patient he has been, how loving and
how kind he is.
To bring you into the house of God
this morning in your backslidden condition, bring you
here in the house of God, even though
you've walked away from his love and bring
you back and bring you a message directly
to you this morning, this time and this
place.
This is all about Christ and his bride.
How many times he had the right to
give up on me, give up on you.
And folks, we are guilty of the worst
kind of harlotry, the kind of harlotry that
causes an individual to be shut in with
God and say, I love you, Lord, with
all of my heart.
I have eyes for no one but you.
You're everything in my life.
And then turn right around and feast your
eyes on pornography.
Be so intimate with Christ and then go
out and commit adultery and fornication.
I think the worst harlotry of all these
last days, it's for the body of Jesus
Christ.
And this is committed by many of us.
I ask God every day to help me
with this kind against, fight this kind of
defilement.
We say that we are one in Christ.
We are one body.
And then we're all going to heaven together
because of the blood of Christ.
And yet we won't talk to one another.
We have individuals we won't speak to.
We have denominations that fight.
Their leaders don't talk to one another.
I just came from Brazil.
There are two assembly of God movements.
One movement has about 20,000 churches.
The other has 30,000 churches.
Ten years ago, they were one.
Now they're split.
There's no communication.
There is no working together.
I had to go to Brazil, told by
one denomination, if you want to come to
Brazil, you come to us and nobody else.
And the other said, well, you come to
us and they allowed a limited number to
come in.
I had to make a choice because of
the division.
That is the worst kind of harlotry.
This is what should cause God to say,
no longer mine.
This does not represent my church.
This is not who I'm about.
The church in New York City is divided.
Very little fellowship among ministers.
Pastor Carter's trying to start a pastor's prayer
meeting here, inviting pastors from all over the
city to come and pray.
Pray for that.
That'll work.
But everywhere I go on the face of
the earth, especially in Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, absolute
division.
Men who won't speak to one another and
men who speak against one another and fighting
and bickering and the young people by the
thousands are leaving the church saying we want
nothing to do with it.
And I meet the young pastors who say
we're tired of these high, mighty leaders who
will not fellowship.
It's different down here on our level.
And thank God one day God's going to
return the tables and drive that out.
These are robbers in the house of God.
He's going to bring it back to the
house of prayer.
Hallelujah.
He should have called it Ami, not mine,
not my bride.
Folks, she goes out, Gomer goes out now
and she takes the torturous path of a
backslider.
Can I talk to you for just a
moment about what that torturous pathway is?
It's very clearly outlined here in Hosea.
Hosea says, plead with your mother, speaking to
the children, plead with your mother, plead for
she's not my wife, neither am I her
husband now.
We are separated.
She has left me.
Tell her to forsake her sins and return.
He said, go tell my wife that I
want her back, but she has got to
separate herself from her sins.
She's got to break away from all these
other loves and come home.
Gomer answered, I will go after my lovers
that give me my bread and water and
my meal and my flax, my oil and
my drink.
Folks, this is the believer that's gone back
to the old crowd, gone back to that
career, that worldly crowd of drinking, carousing, partying.
It's this, this represents career, this represents a
way of life, going back to an old
lifestyle, going back to old friends, going back
to those who once led you astray.
I'm going back.
I'm going to find my pleasure.
Somehow Jesus was not enough.
Somehow that intimacy was not enough, because often
I believe that the roots have never been
taken out of the heart, never been plucked
up by the roots, the remains of sin.
Now we have that Adamic nature, yes, but
some stronghold has not been broken.
We're not allowed that strong to be broken
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I will go after my lovers that gave
me my bread, back to my old crowd,
sexual fornication, love of the world and the
things the world has offered.
Now, this is the choice he made, and
look at the torturous path, and this is
the torturous path of every backslider.
And I'm going to tell you, I'm just
going to read this from the Scripture, and
you'll know if you're sitting here this morning,
and you know that you have slipped away,
I'm going to explain to you the torture
that you are either in or will experience.
There is torture when you go after your
own loves of this world.
There's a torture for it.
Verse, chapter two, verse three, lest I strip
her naked, lest I strip her naked.
You know what he's saying?
He said, look, I've been supporting her.
All her resources are for me.
She has nothing except what I gave her,
the clothes on her back, the money for
food, everything.
I have supplied everything, but she's not going
to do it on my dollar now.
She's making her choice, and she's going to
come down so far.
All the resources are going to be cut
off, and the Scripture says she will become
helpless as the day she was born.
She'll become helpless.
God said, I'm going to cut it off.
And folks, that's exactly what happens when you
choose to go your own way.
You choose to walk away, back to your
old lifestyle, back to your old sins.
All those resources of the Holy Spirit, the
peace, the joy, the sense of his presence,
the sense of his favor, that getting up
in the morning with joy and not that
dark cloud hanging, that demiculous sword that's hanging
over your head, that sense of lostness, that
sense of having lost the favor and the
blessing and the touch of God, that something's
gone dreadfully wrong because of your choice.
Stripped naked, naked of all of those wonderful
joys and the blessings of being in his
presence and the fellowship of the body of
Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the saints.
He said, I'm just going to strip her
naked.
And secondly, he said, verse three, I will
make her as a wilderness and set her
in a dry land and slay her with
thirst.
It's a vivid description of the life of
the backslider, lost in the wilderness of pain
and confusion.
The pleasures are drying up.
There's no fulfillment in those things that she
left her husband for.
Thirsting for reality, thirsting for some meaning in
life.
And then Hosea said, I will hedge her
up with her way with thorns and make
a wall that she shall not find her
path.
He said, I'm going to construct a wall.
Now, this was not a literal wall, but
he said, I am going to take effort.
I'm going to do everything in my power
to put thorns in her pathway.
I'm going to block her path to her
other lovers.
I'm going to block her path.
I don't know what that is.
That's the Holy Spirit, I'm sure, bringing people
to you, witnessing to you.
You turn on the radio and there's another
thorn.
You hear somebody speaking the word and you
remember his word.
And then he said, I'm going to construct
a wall right in front of you.
There's no way over it, around it, under
it.
You're going to stand in front of a
wall in total confusion.
He says, I'm going to close you in.
Everything's going to go wrong.
All your pathways are going to end in
emptiness.
Everything is going to go wrong in your
finances, in your relationships.
Everything is going to go wrong.
You're going to hit a wall.
Now, why is all of this being heaped
by Hosea?
Why is this being heaped on Gomer, his
straying wife?
The answer is given very clearly.
Then shall she say, I will go and
return to my first husband, for then it
was better than it is now.
I'm going back because I remember how it
was.
I remember it was to have direction.
I know what it was to have the
peace of God.
I knew what it was to lay down
and sleep at night and have rest in
my soul at night.
I know what it is.
I know what it was like to be
loved, to know I was loved.
I remember the intimacy.
I remember all the good things.
And now what I have does not compare.
Oh, thank God that God never would let
Hosea give up on Gomer.
The Lord instructs Hosea, go yet or go
again.
This is chapter three, verse one.
Love her, though still an adulteress, according to
the love of God toward the children of
Israel, who look to other gods.
He said, Hosea, yes, she's an adulteress, but
she represents my church.
This is Israel, but it's also the spiritual
Israel.
Yes, she's a harlot.
She's sinned.
But go and love her and listen to
what it says.
Love her, though still an adulteress, according to
the love of God toward the children of
Israel, who look to other gods.
She's still not at the place she should
be in repentance, but God's love reaches out.
What an incredible thing.
When I think of the love of God
in my life, what an incredible thing.
Most of you would be sitting here who've
been delivered from horrible pits of despair, horrible
wickedness in your past life, and how in
his love he came and found you.
Many turned against the Lord and God in
his grace never cut off his love, even
though there was anger in his wrath and
in his pain.
God says, you're no longer mine, I can't
endure this, yet there's something happening in his
heart.
And he said, Hosea, I'm trying to say
something in my church.
I want them to know who I am.
This is who I am.
And we learn in Hosea 11 that God
was using Hosea to teach us how he's
going to treat his bride in the last
days, because he now refers to Ephraim.
Ephraim really is a type of Gomorrah.
I loved Israel, called them out of Egypt
and they turned to harlotry, they turned to
their idols.
God said, I took them by their arms,
but they knew not that I healed them.
I drew them with bands of love.
I took off their yokes, but they knew
not that I had healed them.
I'll ask you a question.
How patient has God been with you in
your sins?
Let's talk about the failure in your life
right now.
Maybe you have not run off into some
deep kind of sin, but there's something.
Let's just name it.
Is there adultery?
Is there fornication?
Is there pornography?
Is there cheating?
Is there some other love that centered your
life, the love of the world?
Is there pride?
Is there driving ambition in you?
You drive over people, you're running around with
a temper.
Folks, I saw ministers in my last tour,
I saw ministers that snapped their fingers and
caused my drivers to weep.
Dictators, absolute dictators.
In front of me, they acted so sweet
and gentle and turned right around to all
those that worked with them and said, you
blow the line.
And my interpretation, he's threatened to fire him
if he doesn't do what he said.
And I think to myself, how patient God
has been with these men.
How patient has he been with you and
your sin?
Why has he not exposed you yet?
Why has he not dealt with you in
anger?
How many times could you have been exposed
in your lifetime for sins that you committed
that could have taken your reputation, taken everything
away from you, and yet God preserved you.
God forgave you.
He's been merciful to you.
Do you have that same kind of mercy
for those that you find in sin around
you?
Are you willing to show that same kind
of love of God and mercy when God
has been so merciful to you?
God said, I took them by the arms
and they knew not that I had healed
them.
I drew them with bands of love and
I took off their yokes that they knew
not that I had healed them.
Now, God didn't overlook the sins of Gomar.
No, no, no.
She had to take this torturous path.
She had to be nearly turned over to
her sins.
It came very close to her being turned
over to her sins.
The Bible said God's people are bent on
backsliding.
People who still pray and seek him, but
yet there's a bent toward backsliding.
Why didn't God give up on Gomar?
Why did he keep instructing Hosea to bring
her back?
Listen, here's what God is saying.
How shall I give thee up Ephraim?
How shall I make you as Adma, destroy
thee as Eboam?
That's the type of Sodom and Gomorrah.
My heart is stirring in me.
My repentings are kindled together.
I will not execute the fierceness of my
anger.
I will not destroy it.
You see, God was angry.
Folks, we anger God.
That anger is based on the pain of
God.
That anger is at the devil.
That anger is the anger that says, if
you knew what you were missing, if you
only knew my heart.
And there's an anger of the lack of
understanding and the lack of foolishness.
And he said, I'm not going to execute
my anger.
I'm not going to execute my wrath because
there's something stirring in me.
My heart is stirring in me.
My repentings and my compassions are being kindled
all together.
He said, I'm not going to overlook your
sin.
There are consequences to sin.
When you walk away, there are consequences.
And there were, there was a time she
had to be isolated for a season where
even though she knew she was loved, there
was a time of isolation.
And some of you have known that awful
isolation, hearing a word, yes, you're loved, even
knowing that God loves you.
But that I can't seem to get back
to him.
I can't seem to get back to that
intimacy.
There are consequences, deep consequences to sin and
walking away from God.
But he says, how can I give up
on you?
If you return and seek me again, I
will rain righteousness down upon you.
In other words, God says, I'm going to
fight for you.
I'm not going to give up on you.
And there are some others sitting here, listen
to me now, God is fighting for you.
He's not going to give up.
There's a holy fight in him.
He said, I'm going to fight for you.
You know, we read about him taking a
wife into the wilderness and wooing her.
But first he said, I'm going to come
to you as a lion and I'm going
to come roaring.
And what he means by that, God said,
your sin is not hid from me.
Your goodness has faded like a morning cloud.
What shall I do with you?
The Bible said, he shall rise and roar
like a lion.
I will cut into your heart deeply and
I'll heal you by my prophets.
I will slay you.
In other words, I'll convict you with the
words of my mouth.
Then you shall tremble in return.
What he says, I'm going to put you
under preachers and prophets and men who will
bring you a word that will cut your
heart and convict you of your sin.
I'll heal you with the prophets because I
love you.
I'll bring you into the wilderness.
I'll cut off all your resources so that
you'll remember what it was like.
And he said, I will cut you.
And you're hearing a prophetic word this morning.
He's coming and cutting to the very core
of your soul.
He's coming down deep now and saying, today,
today is the day.
Right now, I'm dealing with you, giving you
a revelation of who I am and what
I want out of you is only to
simply to repent and return and come back
to my grace.
Now, how does this story end?
And what happens to Gomar?
Does she come back and become a faithful,
loving wife?
Does she forsake her harlotry and become a
true wife to him?
And when you find the answer to that,
you discover the answer to how the Lord
is going to bring forth a spotless bride
in the last day.
And the devil will not be able to
scream, she's still a harlot.
Because what the world may see, they may
see what they consider spots and wrinkles, but
not in the eyes of Almighty God.
He's going to have a spotless church through
his eyes, what he sees.
Let's get the answer.
Chapter 14, verse 4.
I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely, for my anger
is turned away.
Verse 6.
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall
be as the olive tree, and his smell
as Lebanon.
They that dwell under his shadow shall return.
That's Gomar, dwelling under the shadow of the
mercy and the love of Hosea.
That's a picture of the church.
God says, I'm not going to execute my
anger on you.
I'm not going to give you what you
deserve.
If you would just respond now to my
love.
Just say, I return.
Come.
Come back to my love.
Come back to my arms of grace.
And I'll heal your backsliding, and I'll love
you freely, for I'm no longer angry.
And my branch will be spread over you.
And beauty shall be as the olive tree,
and the smell as Lebanon.
They that dwell under his shadow shall return.
They shall revive and grow.
The scent shall be as wine.
There's a sweetness coming out of this relationship
now.
And if I read my Bible correctly, Gomar
comes back and she becomes a faithful wife.
There's a sweet-smelling savor now, and she's
abiding under the protection of his branches.
Ephraim shall say, and this is the words
of Gomar, or Gomar shall say, what have
I to do with idols anymore?
I have heard him and obeyed him.
I'm like a green tree now.
From me is thy fruit found.
He said, she said, now I'm going to
be a fruitful tree.
I'm going to be a faithful wife.
I'm going to close with something.
I was listening to one of Brother Carroll's,
William's messages, and he had a thought there.
I pictured, there's in Psalm 23, 6, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life.
And he went into the Hebrew meaning of
it.
Follow me all the days of my life.
And it comes from an illustration of, perhaps,
like on a football field, and somebody is
running in the wrong direction.
And this, it means to run after and
tackle.
I mean, to literally take hold and stop.
Surely goodness and mercy shall tackle me, because
I'm running in the wrong direction.
Notice, I'm not only going to fight for
you, I'm going to run after you, and
I'm going to tackle you, and I'm going
to say, listen to me, I love you,
I'm not mad at you, if you just
return.
Surely goodness and mercy shall chase me down,
and follow me the rest of my days.
Thanks, Latter, God's not mad at you.
I know, as sure as I know my
name, that God is after so many backsliders
here today.
I want you to stand in the annex
overflow rooms, here in the main auditorium.
I want you to stand.
Folks, I delivered this message in conversational language,
just to try not to stir your emotions,
but let the Word of God do work
in your heart.
Please stand at attention wherever you are.
And in the annex, the Holy Spirit of
the Lord is there, as well as He
is right here.
I didn't know how many would be here
that have strayed away from the Lord's first
love.
Some of you may have never known Him,
but God's been moving in this church.
He's been moving in a powerful way, trying
to get at the hearts of those who
have been slipping and running from Him.
He brought you a message of love and
grace.
I understand He did last Sunday, too, with
Pastor Carter in this pulpit, and He's doing
it again.
I don't want people to come down here
who just feel bad about themselves.
I'm talking about those who, in all honesty,
have to say, Pastor David, this message is
for me.
I have slipped.
I have drifted away from Christ.
Folks, I would deliver this message if only
one person came.
That's how much God loves you.
That He would arrange a whole service just
for you.
Just to meet you.
In the annex.
I'm going to pray right now.
In the annex in the auditorium, as I
pray, the Spirit of God is moving on
you.
You say, Pastor David, I want to accept
that love.
I'm coming back to His grace.
I'm coming back to His arms of mercy.
Unless you think you say, well, if He's
that kind of love, then I'll just go
backsliding.
He'll love me and come back.
No, no, no, no.
That's turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And folks, what that leads to is hardness
of heart where you can never get back.
Because He said, beware of the transgressors, for
they'll be forsaken.
Those are the hard hearts.
But if you're here now and you slip
from Him, I want you to just get
out of your seat and come and stand
here.
I'm going to pray with you and we'll
leave Christ.
I'm going to leave the Holy Spirit to
do a miracle in your life.
The Lord's coming after you.
Not with a hammer, not with a sword.
He's coming to you with His arms outstretched.
Just follow these that are coming.
In the annex, get right out of your
seat.
Go into the lobby and the ushers will
show you how to get into this auditorium.
Come down the stairs, down the aisle and
meet me right here.
We'll pray with you.
Up in the balcony, go the stairs on
either side and come down.
I want only those who say, this message
was for me.
I really know what God is saying to
my heart.
Heavenly Father, while I pray, I ask you
by your Spirit to sweep over this congregation.
Go into every nook and cranny of this
building in the annex and speak clearly.
Oh God, thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your incredible love for your
church.
We're coming after now, Lord, by grace.
We're coming after those who've been slipping away.
Something else has taken the heart.
That fire, that zeal is not there anymore.
There's a coldness, a lukewarmness that's crept into
the heart.
Oh God, don't let them leave this church
that way.
God, you brought them here this morning for
a purpose and you brought this message for
a purpose.
So, minister to us now in Christ's name,
I pray.
Just be patient, allow the Holy Spirit to
have time.
He's dealing with you.
Don't resist the Holy Spirit.
He comes in powerful times like this because
it's your time.
It's your time.
Today is the day.
What a shout in heaven.
What a shout in glory when you say,
yes, Jesus, I hear your voice.
I come.
I receive your mercy.
I receive your love.
Heavenly Father, I pray for a miracle now.
I can't do it.
Lord, I feel so helpless.
We can deliver the word, but God, your
Spirit has to come down and complete a
work.
Open up these hearts and let them know
how much you have been coming with love
and saying, now, now, give me all.
Turn away from everything in this world.
Turn away from everything that would hinder you
from giving me your whole heart.
Lord Jesus, there has to be a wholehearted
surrender today.
A wholehearted turning to you.
I want you to pray this prayer out
of your heart.
Dear Jesus, I am coming to give everything
to you.
I'm tired of running.
I'm tired of this world.
There's nothing satisfies but you, Jesus.
Come now.
Put your arms around me and let me
know I'm loved.
I receive your love.
Forgive me, Jesus, for being so selfish.
Forgive me, Lord, for all the things I've
done against you.
I repent and I give you my heart,
everything in my heart.
Now, Holy Spirit, come upon me now with
the assurance that I am yours.
And let me pray, Lord Jesus, thank you.
Thank him right now.
Just give him thanks.
You have to thank him for finding your
heart right now.
I thank you, Jesus.
Son, give me your hand.
Right here.
Son, give me your hand.
Lord Jesus, give me both hands.
Lord Jesus, thank you for what you're doing.
Break him, Lord.
Totally break him.
Lord, there's a great sorrowful sin, but I'll
let the joy of Jesus come into his
heart through wholehearted repentance.
Glory to God.
Son, he's doing the work of your heart.
Give me your hand.
Lord Jesus, are you giving everything to him
right now?
Come on.
Lord Jesus, thank you.
Put your hand on him now.
Embrace him.
Let him know.
I thank God for the tears, but it
has to go beyond your tears now.
There has to be a commitment made.
Lord, take all the desire of the world
out of my heart.
Take all the desire for the things of
this world out of my heart.
And I'll tell you, some of you are
going to have to change who you're running
around with.
You're going to have to change your relationships.
You're going to make some changes in your
life.
That's what this is all about.
You come down here to make changes.
The Bible said you're to forsake those who
walk in the path of iniquity.
You're to forsake them.
I'm not talking about your husband or wife.
I'm talking about any friend that would lead
you astray.
You've got to make a decision.
I'm going to break away from every ungodly
relationship.
Every ungodly relationship.
That's part of it.
Father, finish the work of cleansing and healing.
Lord, we thank you for what you're doing
in this church.
You're saving many people.
You're bringing backsliders home to your love and
grace.
Lord, what a miracle we're seeing happen week
after week.
Lord, you're going to be sending the glory
to this church like we've never seen or
understood.
Let the glory of the Lord be upon
us.
Let the glory of God be upon us.
I want everybody within the sound of my
voice.
Now, maybe you go to church, you're visiting
and you don't understand the raising of hands
and praising the God, but my particular Bible,
I may have a different one, I don't
know, but it says, I would that men
everywhere lift holy hands.
Lift holy hands to the Lord.
And let's just thank him for his grace
and his love for us.
Lord, we give you thanks for your grace
and your love.
Wonderful, Jesus.