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I want to preach this morning about praying
in the closet.
Praying in the closet.
I want you to go to Matthew, the
sixth chapter, if you will, please.
Matthew, the sixth chapter.
Let's start verse six.
Very familiar passage of Scripture.
But thou when thou prayest, this is Jesus
speaking, when you pray, enter into your closet,
and when you have shut the door, pray
to the Father which is in secret, and
the Father which sees in secret shall reward
thee openly.
When you pray, use not vain repetitions as
the heathen do, for they think they shall
be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them, for
your Father knoweth what things you have need
of before you ask.
Then he goes on teaching them the Lord's
Prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for truth.
We know, Lord, that you called us to
the city and you've raised up pastors to
stand with us to preach the truth.
We came here, Lord, to hear your word
and to obey it.
And you have raised up a body of
people who love the word.
We love your word in this house.
We honor your word in this house.
And Holy Spirit, without your anointing, the word
has no impact.
It does not get into the conscience of
men.
So Holy Spirit, come now and dig into
our consciousness.
Dig into the conscience itself.
Lord Jesus, speak freely through my lips.
Sanctify these lips and sanctify our ears to
hear what the Lord through the Holy Spirit
would say to our hearts this morning.
In Christ's name I pray, Amen.
I've got a question for you.
In this time of darkness and uncertainty in
the United States and around the world, when
you look back over the past five, ten
years, that uncertainty that's in the world and
the perplexity keeps magnifying itself and intensifying.
Think of the tsunami.
Think of 9-11.
Think of terrorism.
Think of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq
and then recently in Lebanon.
And you think of nuclear weapons in the
hands of madmen.
You hear the news and you hear the
secularists.
You hear even those who are very, very
liberal in every sense of the word.
And you hear fear and you hear anxiety.
And you remember the words of Jesus, the
time would come when all men's hearts would
fail them for fear of watching those things
coming on the earth.
And you see this rapidity of events coming.
You see and feel the intensity.
When gas prices were skyrocketing, there's fear.
There's fear everywhere.
And many have said, well, we've begun the
Third World War.
You hear all of these things and people
are turning it off.
They can't handle anymore because it's just been
overwhelming.
And my question is this.
What can the church do?
What does the body of what is the
body of Christ called to do?
What can we do?
Because most people think that problems can't be
solved anymore, that we are we have reached
a place, a zenith of hopelessness, that there's
no more hope.
And a lot of young people now are
turning to drugs.
A lot of people are turning to alcohol
because of that hopelessness.
What can the Church of Jesus Christ do
when we see these things?
What do we do?
We just we just sit down and wait
for the coming of Jesus and say, well,
we many preach.
We're not going to go through the tribulation.
I'm not going to get into that.
I believe we're going to go through a
lot of suffering.
But do we just sit and come to
church and and praise the Lord and thank
God that we are saved?
Is there no power left?
Is there nothing that the Church of Jesus
Christ is called to do in the worst
times of crisis?
Do we listen to the devil who says
you can't do anything now?
Why don't you just thank God that you're
saved?
And he will use scripture to reinforce that.
But why evangelize anymore?
Because the Muslims or the Islamics are taking
over the world.
So what are you going to do?
Because if you preach the gospel in an
Islamic country, they're going to cut your head
off.
And we listen to all of this and
we see the the Islamic religion being forced.
I was listening to a news program of
a group of young Islamics in London, and
this is what they said.
And it would set a knife in my
spirit.
He said, we are Muslims.
We're not Christians.
We don't turn the other cheek.
We cut your head off.
He said, that's our religion.
This was I'm not making a comment on
the Islamic religion.
This is what I heard.
This is what the young terrorists believe that
the young militants believe.
And in the midst of all of this,
what does the church do?
What do we do?
And the image of a lot of Christians
now, the church has become so weak, it's
turned to materialism, preaching the success gospel and
getting rich on Jesus and making sure you
get your Mercedes and you get your big
fancy house.
I'm not against any of that.
And God does bless people and thank God
for the blessings.
But if you watch a lot of if
you see modern television, you see Jesus portrayed
as a Santa Claus who's just trying to
make sure that you get your part of
the American pie.
And it's an abomination in the eyes of
almighty God.
And so really, the world looks on the
church as being an absolutely powerless entity.
Now, let's go back to what the prophet
Joel said in a similar time.
He said it was a day of darkness
and gloominess, a day of thick darkness that
was coming, a day such as there never
was seen before in history.
And Joel cried out a day of the
Lord is at hand, a time of destruction
from the almighty shall come.
It shall come.
So what does Joel say to do in
times like these?
You go to the you go to the
Old Testament.
You see the pattern for the new.
And here's what the prophet Joel said for
the church to do.
Therefore, now turn to the Lord with all
your heart, with fasting, with weeping and mourning,
rend your heart and turn to the Lord,
for he is gracious, merciful, slow to anger.
He's of great kindness and he repents of
the evil.
Even now, listen to this.
Even now, who knows if he will return
and repent and leave a blessing behind him?
And I was reading that in these two
words hit me hard.
Even now, even now in the time of
the worst apostasy in the history of the
world, now in the time of militant homosexuality
and the breaking down of moral standards, men
wanting to marry men and women wanting to
marry women and adopting children in a time,
even now when the courts are trying to
drive Christ, drive God out of society, despising
his name.
Even now, when it seems like the day
of mercy is over and God has seemed
to have said enough.
He said, even now, call together the assembly,
begin to pray, begin to weep and repent
before the Lord.
He said, even now, when gross darkness covers
the earth, even now when society is losing
its moral compass, even now, call on the
Lord, even now, listen to what he says,
for he is gracious, merciful, slow to anger,
of great kindness and repents of the evil.
And even now, who knows if he will
return and repent and leave behind the blessing
behind him.
Folks, we have to be aware of what
the devil is saying.
He's saying the generation is too wicked and
he's going to twist the word of God
and say, God has set judgments.
Now the vials of wrath are coming and
they are that folks right up to the
last day, the last breath that we breathe
before Christ returns to the very last.
The spirit of God is still here on
this earth.
He's still wooing.
He's still calling.
He's still moving.
And God does not take into account anything
that comes from any other God, so-called
God, not Mohammed, not Allah, not any of
the million gods in India.
God does not take account.
His word stands true.
And God, all the prophets and everything that
God says through his prophets to the church
is that the darker the times become, the
more chaos that is the time to press
in.
That is time to believe that God says,
I'm going to honor my name.
No name will be raised above my name.
And God honors his word and he honors
his name and he wants to pour out
his spirit.
And the prophet Zachariah said in a similar
day, a similar time as ours in gross
darkness, when it seemed like the world was
shaking and coming apart, he says God is
going to pour out a spirit of supplication
upon his people.
There's going to be a spirit of supplication.
The scriptures, Joe, by the way, said, blow
the trumpet, call a fast, call the church,
gather the people and the elders and all
the ministers of the Lord.
Come to the altar and begin to seek
me again.
And what were we to pray?
What is the church to pray in times
like this?
He said, call the people together.
Start seeking God as never before.
Don't get discouraged.
Don't believe the lies of the devil, that
there can't be an awakening of his spirit
before Christ returns.
Don't give in to the despair.
Don't give in to the feeling that one
of these days, the Islamic religion, the Muslim
religion is going to take over the world
and that they're going to take over England
and Europe and they're going to take over
the United States.
Folks, that's unscriptural.
It will never happen because God can change
things overnight.
When hard times come and folks, when there's
if there were avian flu and when all
these gods, Allah and the million gods of
India and all the gods around the world,
when they fail, the same thing will happen
that happened in Sri Lanka and in other
countries.
When the tsunami came, they said, where was
our God?
Where what happened?
And every false God, every God that people
are serving today.
Folks, I'm not afraid to preach it.
I'm not afraid to speak.
We don't we we don't rail against religions
here.
But folks, when we've got a whole we've
got nation after nation of Islamic standing up,
say we're out to destroy Christianity.
They're not going to scare the true Christian
of Jesus Christ, the true believers in Jesus
Christ.
It will not be a spirit of the
flesh, but there'll be a spirit of the
Holy Ghost rise up in us and say
enough is enough.
The Holy Ghost will move and stop any
invasion that would hinder the missionary endeavors of
the Holy Spirit in the last day.
So we're not to give in to the
fears of this generation.
Folks, if you have to turn off the
news, turn it off.
Keep up.
Keep in touch if you please.
But folks, don't let any of those reports
get into you.
Keep the calm of the Holy Spirit.
God still has everything under control.
Here's what we are told to pray.
Let the people say, stop the reproach of
your name.
Hear it.
Stop the reproach of your name.
This is Joel 217.
Don't let your church be reproached any longer.
Stop the heathen from trying to lord it
over your church.
I'm paraphrasing.
Let it no longer be said to this
about this church.
Where is your God?
Let it never again be said.
He said, call the people together and pray
that this reproach be lifted from the ministry.
That reproach be lifted from the church of
Jesus Christ.
That it's powerless.
It doesn't have any power.
Folks, we have power in prayer.
We still have power in prayer.
We always did and always will.
Are you hearing anything I'm saying here?
You see, we can propitiate this Lord that
we serve.
We can plead.
And God still hears and answers the sincere,
effectual, fervent prayer of his believers.
Now, back to Zachariah.
Twelve chapter.
Don't turn there.
But let me read what in a similar
time he's saying.
I will pour out upon the house of
David.
That is the church, the spirit of grace
and supplication.
The land shall mourn.
Yes, the land shall mourn every family apart.
The family of the house of David.
Now, that's the church.
The family of the house of Levi.
That's every family apart.
And their wives.
That's individuals apart.
Now, the prophet Zachariah is establishing the fact
that God wants to meet his people in
three places.
Three places.
Now, when Israel went into the promised land,
God ordained Bethel.
He ordained Shiloh.
He had places where he said, I'll meet
you.
You come to Bethel.
You go to Shiloh.
There were places that he chose.
There are three places that God has ordained
through the prophet Zachariah in that time.
And I believe that that is a dual
prophecy.
It has to do today.
He said, I'm going to pour out a
spirit of supplication.
That's a spirit of prayer and a spirit
of grace and enablement to pray.
And he said, it's going to begin in
the house.
That's the gathering.
He said, my house shall be called a
house of prayer.
God's call first is to the church of
Jesus Christ to pray and seek the face
of God.
All history has been changed through the power
of prayer in the body of Jesus Christ.
All history has been changed.
Nations have been changed.
Church is going to Burundi with Pastor Carter
and his staff and the staff of this
church and invited by the president of Burundi.
And God has put in Pastor Carter's heart
and all of those who are praying for
Burundi and anticipate going that God's going to
impact that nation.
And it's surrounded by countries now that are
being overrun by forces of iniquity.
And we believe that God is going to
answer that prayer.
And God has put that in heart, Pastor
Carter.
And I believe that through prayer, God can
save nations.
This is about nations and not just about
pastors and their problems, but that Lord will
raise up such a zeal and such a
faith and such a confidence in their hearts
that as they seek for their own country,
they rise above their own battles and their
own fears and their own situations.
And their individual churches rise above it and
see the greater picture that God is wanting
to move nations.
I think our God has been too small
for us.
Now, I want to talk about this and
I want to expand on this.
He's saying, I'm going to pour out my
spirit and I want to meet you, first
of all, in the house.
Holy Spirit came first to the house.
He came to a gathering of one hundred
and twenty in the upper room.
He came to the church and the Bible
said they continued steadfastly in prayer.
Remember, in the New Testament church, Peter was
released from prison.
And how is it?
Because and the church prayer was made continually
for the release of Peter.
God releases through the power of the corporate
prayer of the church.
He releases powers.
He releases angels.
He does the miraculous.
And that's where this begins.
He calls us.
This church has led the leadership of the
church on occasion and almost every year, this
year included, that there'll be three days of
prayer and fasting here in New York City
beginning Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
And, folks, God answers that kind of prayer.
We are called to this corporate prayer.
And there's nothing more beautiful than to be
in this church when the spirit of prayer
hits, when the spirit of prayer comes from
the Holy Ghost and it just lifts us
into another realm.
It's a glorious thing.
We have prayed for situations and things.
We prayed that God would open Manchuria, for
example, and our prayers and others worked.
And God has opened wide Manchuria.
God opens countries who have been praying for
Cuba.
And Cuba is beginning to open up.
It opens up nations.
God has answered prayer for individuals that were
referred to here at this church, including my
son.
And God has done these miracles through the
body of Jesus Christ.
That is the first call of God to
get the church on its knees seeking the
Lord.
But you see, corporate prayer is limited.
It's limited to schedule.
Now, if you came to every service at
Times Square Church, six services, I figured six,
seven services at the most.
And services, our services last about two hours.
And if we spent one hour in every
service for prayer, you would get six at
the most seven hours of prayer for the
week.
And we and many of us are thank
God for that.
That's that's wonderful.
And that is God's design.
That's where it begins.
But many people, you ask them to a
pro.
I just come from three days of fasting
and prayer.
Yes, I pray.
But you see, there's there's another invitation.
There's another place.
God said, I want to meet you.
And he said each family apart.
This is the two or three that gather
together in my name, Jesus said.
This this is this unity prayer of of
having somebody to pray with.
Now, let me tell you, if you're a
believer and you love to pray, if you
have someone that you pray with of like
spirit, you're one of those.
You're one of those blessed persons on the
earth.
If you have someone you can get on
the phone with or someone that you pray
with, that's a miracle that God has done
a wonderful thing.
It's family.
It's.
And folks, I believe that every family should
have prayer time.
When did I pray every day?
We pray for years for our children.
Not one would be lost.
We prayed for our grandchildren.
We have prayed away girlfriends and boyfriends that
we knew could destroy them.
I'm working on a couple of grandsons right
now we're working on.
We prayed him away.
We prayed some girls away.
We prayed some boys away.
I'm going to get off on that.
Are you too busy?
To pray with your mate.
You know, I grew up.
I'll tell you why I'm standing here.
I grew up the family prayer meetings every
day.
We would be where we're playing.
It was either before school and in the
summertime we were playing.
Mother would go to the front door.
David, prayer time.
Jerry, Juanita, Ruth.
Don wasn't born yet.
Prayer time.
Everybody in the neighborhood do.
And sometimes I hated it.
And sometimes I would gripe and groan.
I wasn't a preacher then.
I was a kid.
But, you know, it was something happened in
those meetings where the call of God was
moving.
And God did great things in our lives
through those prayer meetings.
See, there is such a thing as this
unity prayer of the one or two or
three that are agreeing together.
Folks, most of the intercessors that I have
met in my lifetime comes in twos or
threes.
Twos or threes.
And that is one of the calls that
grace talk to my God said, I'm going
to pour out my spirit of grace.
And it's not enough to just have a
part in corporate praying in the church.
It has to be praying in the home.
You say, well, my husband is not saved.
My wife is not saved.
My children are in rebellion.
Have your prayer time right there, because that's
your house.
Did you hear me?
That's your child doesn't own your boy.
I don't care if he's 18.
He doesn't know how you can pay the
bills.
You pay the rent and you have every
right, not in rebellion, not in kind of
any putting your face thing.
But just get your Bible out, kitchen table,
sit there and bow your head and pray.
And when they see and hear that for
a time.
But now I come to the heart of
my message.
And that is the closet praying the individual.
This is what Zacharias said.
And I read it again.
I will pour out my spirit.
I will pour out the spirit.
It begins with the house, Zacharias said, and
then it extends.
Here it is.
Every family apart and every wife apart.
The wife representing the individual.
God said, then I will pour out my
spirit.
And God can't pour out his spirit until
he finds individuals waiting upon him upon which
he can pour that spirit that's been promised.
Now, Jesus said, when you pray.
Let me find it here in just a
minute.
But when you pray, enter into your closet.
This is the text that I gave you.
Matthew six, six through eight.
Enter into your closet.
Now, folks, let me stop there for just
a moment.
In the Oriental House at the time of
Christ was giving these words in the center
of the house, the Oriental House.
There was a room called the storage room,
a small room where they they stored goods.
And that was in the center of the
house.
And it was this select place.
He said, you enter into the closet.
And when you have shut the door, pray
to the father who's in secret and your
father who sees his secrets.
So reward you openly.
Now, folks, listen to me.
God's been speaking to my heart.
We're in New York and we this is
the apartments are small.
And for a number of years, especially since
I came to New York the past 20
years, when I got to this, these words
of Jesus, I've just backed away from the
more or less.
And I've been preaching.
I look over some of my old notes
and saying, well, now you can you don't
have a private place.
You can't find a secret place.
So where you're on the bus, whether it's
subway, wherever you're at, just just make that
your secret place.
But, you know, the more I walk with
God, the more he see, I'm seventy five
and I'm still being trained.
I'm still being taught.
And the Lord kept telling me, go back
to this.
And so in my own life, I've had
to do this.
I it's not just I have prayer walks.
Yes.
And I do that.
But, you know, every time I've walked, I've
been interrupted.
I don't have that special uninterrupted quiet time.
And he said, go into the closet and
shut the door and pray the father in
secret and the father in secret.
And I've been saying, well, that's OK.
And I'm afraid sometimes I've eased up.
I have not made it clear what Jesus
is saying because I didn't practice it and
see it in my own life as I
should.
That's all changed because, see, when my son
became sick and doctors couldn't fight about it,
it demanded of me not just taking it
by faith, even though I had a promise
from the Holy Spirit and I promised him
the Lord that God had everything in control
and that God was going to bring healing.
The more God said that to me, the
more I wanted to go in alone with
him and keep pressing in until I saw
it and felt it and knew it was
in my hand.
It's not enough just to take it by
faith.
Let us just do that.
We're going to take it by faith.
And we use that an excuse from having
this secret time with the Lord alone.
And we excuse it by saying, I don't
have the time.
I don't have the time.
I don't have a place.
And thirdly, I don't know what to say.
I can't endure more than 10, 15 minutes.
But folks, if even if you gave the
10 or 15 minutes, let me show you
what Jesus said.
And in the morning, this is Jesus practicing
what he's preaching here.
And in the morning, rising up a great
while before daylight, he went out and departed
into a solitary place.
And there he prayed in Matthew 11, 14,
23.
And when he sent away the multitude, he
went into a mountain apart to pray.
And when evening came, he was there all
alone, all alone.
One of the great writers of the Puritans,
one of my favorite writers, one of the
godliest writers ever in the history of mankind.
I believe that with all my heart.
I have a set of 17 of his
books, and I devour them.
Brother Thomas Manton said, we seem to have
no time to pray secretly, yet we have
time for everything else, a time to eat,
to drink, time for children, a time for
our careers.
Yet we don't have time for the one
thing that sustains all else.
We say we have no private place.
But Jesus found a mountain.
Peter found a rooftop.
The prophets found a wilderness.
And if you truly love someone, you will
make sure you find a place alone.
You will find a place.
You see, God often allows afflictions to bring
us into the secret closet.
David said before I was afflicted, I went
astray.
But now I keep your word.
He said before I was afflicted, God never
flicks or allows affliction except as an act
of love.
He never hurts one of his children.
And sometimes he allows afflictions to bring us
to our knees and to wake us up.
I know from the letters I received around
the world, people that are under affliction, many
of them have told me later, God was
trying to get my attention.
David's acknowledging that there was something in his
life.
You see, when times are calm and things
are serene and everything is going well, the
Bible says we're bent on backsliding.
There's a temptation to just ease off in
our prayer life.
There's a tendency not to carry the burden
of Joseph for the nation or to get
involved more and more in prayer.
In fact, when things are going smooth, when
you're not in affliction, that's the time to
begin to seek him alone and get closer
to him than you've ever been in that
time so that you have the resources, you
have the power and you have the authority
when the enemy comes in like a flood.
So many people are surprised and they're shocked.
They're not ready.
They've not been shut in with the Lord.
Folks, thank God for the prayer of this
church.
Thank God for corporate prayer.
Thank God for that one or two gather
together and those of you getting in smaller
circles.
Folks, the prayer meeting in this church, the
Thursday night prayer meeting is the heart of
this church.
It's the heart of any church.
I don't know any church that on the
face of the earth where I've traveled, where
God is blessing that didn't have a vibrant
prayer meeting.
And it's vital that you be a part
of that because if you're there, you know
that you have been praying secretly with the
Lord.
You've had your time.
It's one of the evidences because you want
to be with the body so you can
express what God has shown you in private.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray.
John Calvin, one of the great commentators, said,
We never give obedience to God till we're
compelled by chasing.
We don't fully obey his commands until we
are compelled by chasing.
C.S. Lewis said, God whispers to us
in our good times, but he shouts in
our pain.
His test is a megaphone to wake up
a deaf world.
Pain removes the veil.
He said in good times, God speaks quietly.
But here comes a time that he's got
a megaphone in his hand.
Wake up.
Seek me while I may be found.
In Jeremiah, the third chapter.
And I've got to rush on right now.
Jeremiah is speaking to Ephraim in a time
when there was total darkness and there was
confusion, just like ours.
And they were praying.
There was grief in their hearts.
And God came to him, said, I feel
your grief.
I hear your cry.
And when they heard that from the prophet.
Listen to me closely, because this is the
this is a key section of what I'm
trying to put across to you today.
Ephraim is being chastened by the Lord.
They're under great affliction.
They're asking why.
And they come to this conclusion on their
own, because the spirit of God had moved
on.
Ephraim represents Israel.
They said, God, you have chastened us for
a reason.
We were like a young, untrained bull.
But after I repented, then I received instruction.
Get this, please.
The prophet said, you've been like a wild
bull.
God had a purpose for you, had a
plan, a wonderful plan for your life, a
future for Ephraim.
But when I put you in school and
I allowed some afflictions and I brought the
rod, because when you're under the old fashioned
schooling like I had, they had a rod
in school.
Now, I know that's not politically correct anymore
to have a rod, but we got spanked
in school.
We had a rod.
And she'd tap you on the shoulder or
rather on the wrist with the little ruler.
We got the rod.
And the Bible talks about being instructed by
the rod.
And you see, we're like wild bulls, young,
wild bulls, full of energy, full of life.
We want to win the world.
And sometimes we rebel against that.
And this is what happened to Ephraim.
He said, we were like young, wild bulls
and we went our own way.
In other words, we saw the affliction.
We said, we don't have to take this.
Why is God doing this to us?
This is Ephraim.
We're God's people.
We're chosen.
We're called.
And yet we're being afflicted.
And the Holy Spirit had to reveal the
reason for your affliction.
And sometimes incredible afflictions in your home, in
marriage, wherever it may be, in career.
These things come at us.
And the Lord's saying, I'm trying to take
the wild bull out of you.
I'm trying to take this thing out of
you that runs every time there's something that
comes into your life that you don't understand
and say, I don't have to take this.
I give up.
And folks, the only antidote I know, the
only antidote of that.
You see, the wild bull runs away.
And what they said when we came to
the rod, we came to affliction, we ran.
But we have returned to those very words.
If you said we returned and we submitted
to the rod, we submitted to correction and
we didn't ask questions anymore.
We didn't even accuse the devil or anything
else.
We just said, we submit to you.
And then we started learning.
We started receiving instruction.
And I know that's how God deals with
me.
And now, rather than fight it, I submit.
I don't want to be a wild bull
running around doing my own thing, making my
own decisions.
And the only antidote is to be alone
with Christ in the secret closet and waiting
on him until I get the anointing of
Jesus, till I have replenished my spirit through
intercessory prayer, worshiping.
If you can't do anything, go into the
secret closet for 15 minutes, just say hallelujah,
hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Glory to God.
Praise him.
If that's all you can do, get alone.
If the kids are at school, take time.
If you have to get up in the
morning, half hour early, whatever it is, get
alone, get alone, get alone.
I'm going to close in just a minute.
I don't know any other way than to
be replenished and get my resources from being
shut in with God alone.
Not with my wife, not with any prayer
warrior.
There's a place for that, and I do
that, but there comes a time.
We just got word last week, a bishop
friend of ours, he was with us in
Israel.
A month or so ago.
And we got an e-mail about 10
days ago from this bishop.
He's bishop of the Pentecostal movement in Budapest
for the whole nation of Hungary.
He's a good, dear friend of mine.
And he sent us an e-mail about
10 days ago, and he was cooking at
his grill, and his clothes caught fire.
Dangerously burned, terribly burning.
I got an e-mail about 10 days
ago, and he said, Pastor Dave, I'm not
feeling well.
He told about what had happened.
The church prayed, and they thought it was
all well.
And he went to the hospital last week
to have them remove the bandages and died
suddenly of blood clots.
The whole Pentecostal movement in Hungary right now
is broken before the Lord.
Now, we sent money to that wife, but
what does money do?
She's got a whole denomination praying for her,
but that's not going to heal her.
She's got a loving family around her, but
that's not going to comfort her.
And I'm going to send this message to
her, and I'm giving her word now publicly
that we will pray with her and stand
with her.
It's her only hope.
You see, the Comforter, when he comes, does
one thing, and this is his purpose.
When the Holy Ghost comes, he brings to
remembrance everything Jesus said to us.
And what did Jesus say?
When you pray, go in the closet and
shut the door.
He said, I'm going to reward you openly.
What that is, a countenance of peace.
Rest with the Holy Spirit.
There's no other hope.
There's no psychiatrist, no psychologist, nobody.
You have to come to that conclusion, and
some of you need to hear this now.
You're not going to get it from somebody
else.
You're not going to get it from husband
or wife.
You're not going to get it from a
counselor.
You're going to get it alone in the
secret closet with Jesus.
He's going to come and appear there, and
you'll come out of that place renewed.
At the same time, in Honduras, there's a
precious pastor and his wife.
They have an orphanage in Honduras, and we
help support and measure.
And they have about 17 in that orphanage
now.
They found, five years ago, they found a
baby, two years old, worm-eaten, half-dead,
and they brought the baby to the orphanage.
And that little five-year-old boy became
the prince of the orphanage and more or
less adopted by this pastor and his wife.
And two weeks ago, children got in the
van with one of the staff, and they
had to stop for a moment, and some
of the children got out.
And this little five-year-old boy was
evidently in the front seat, and elbow hit
the gear shift, I guess, and the car
went in motion.
Little boy fell out, and a car ran
over and killed him.
And we sent Dr. Smith, who has been
in this church, and he's one of our
full-time missionaries, we sent him down last
week just to counsel them.
And while Brother Smith was there, he fell
and broke his hip.
And you see, these people, these dear people
have been inconsolable.
And the children all saw it happen, inconsolable.
I'm asking you, what hope is there?
Who can get through?
What can you say?
You can't start quoting scriptures to people that
are going through this kind of pain.
We do.
Here's what the Bible says.
Yes, it does.
But, folks, I can only say, and again,
I send this message, and we'll send it
out tomorrow.
We're pledging, and I want this couple to
know that this church stands with them in
prayer.
And at the close of this meeting, we're
going to pray for these two occasions.
I'm not trying to be sensational.
I'm trying to make a point.
First of all, to have you pray for
these dear people and to let them know
that I can't write them a letter with
any scripture.
I can't give them anything from 50 years
of preaching.
I can't touch that hurt, that pain.
I can't touch it.
And I'm saying to them, get along.
Your sister, go to your own place.
And to my dear brother, go to your
own place and just sit there in his
presence.
I know you have, but, folks, that is
the only hope.
That's the only deliverance from pain.
When you're in a bad marriage and you've
tried everything.
I opened a letter yesterday.
Here's a beautiful young Christian girl, prayed, fell
in love and married a young man who
was in partial ministry and everybody admired him.
Great Christian, gets married, and she's expecting a
child now, and she just found out he's
a pedophile.
And she said, Pastor Dave wrote, she said,
I have to divorce him, I don't want
him to attack my own child.
She said, I don't know what to do.
And I'm sitting at my desk, my God,
what do I say to her?
What can you say?
Who on the face of the earth can
walk into that situation and say, well, here,
I've got an answer.
No.
Only Jesus.
I take everything to him.
I have a place.
And everywhere I go, the first thing I
do, I look for my place.
And look for that.
Interesting spot.
Nobody.
Because, you see, when you're praying in the
church, you're not liable.
That's not the venue where you're going to
confess everything out loud.
Are you?
You're not going to say, Lord, I've had
a battle with lust today.
You're not going to say that in church.
You're not going to even say it when
you're two or three.
You're going to say that alone.
You're not going to unburden your heart except
when you're alone.
And I'm asking God that there be every
Christian in this house and every believer that
came here visiting for the first time, that
you make a pledge, I'm going to find
a place.
You'll find it.
As being too busy, nobody was busier than
Jesus.
He couldn't find time to eat and hardly
sleep.
And yet he got up before the daylight,
and he found a mountain.
He found a place.
That's where I am now, this hunger and
this thirst to just seek his face and
his presence.
And then when I come to the prayer
meeting, I'll come with a little bit of
fire burning in my soul.
And I won't need Pastor Neil to drag
me out of my blues or drag me
out of the pit.
I'll come and I'll be blessing this man
and I'll be blessing those in charge of
the prayer meetings.
I'll come to every service renewed and having
resources to add the fire fuel to the
fire of the Holy Ghost here.
Will you stand, please?
I'm going to make an invitation that I
hadn't planned to visitors and those who call
this your church home.
Listen to me closely, please.
I'd like everybody to stand at attention, please,
for just a moment.
We'll let you go in just a moment,
but please hold still.
I want everybody in the annex watching on
the screen and here in the main auditorium.
I named three cases here, very serious cases.
And you're here and you're going through something
very, very serious in your life.
You're going through, I mean, a life and
death crisis right now.
I don't know if it's the death of
a loved one.
I don't know whether it's news that you
received recently from somebody that just pains your
heart.
Telephone call, but you're in a real crisis
and you need the prayers of the saints.
I invite you to step out of your
seat and come here and we will pray
with you in this church.
We'll pray and we will believe God to
turn things around.
We'll believe the Lord to comfort you and
you walk out of this church renewed with
resources.
If you don't know Christ, if you have
backslidden, you've turned your back on the Lord
or you've just drifted away, your heart's grown
cold, I invite you to get out of
your seat up in the balcony, come.
And even in the annex, if you can
just step back to the lobby, the ushers
will show you how to get into this
auditorium.
You come down the aisle, we'll pray with
you.
But listen to me, please.
I don't know how to do this, Holy
Spirit, unless you give me direction.
I don't know how to do this.
I don't want to put anybody on the
spot.
I don't want to embarrass anybody.
I'm just going to have to open up
these altars for those who want to make
a public confession before the Holy Ghost.
I have not been praying.
I don't have this continual communion with the
Lord.
I don't get alone.
And then you remember that scripture that says,
my people have forgotten me days without number.
He said, they forgot me.
I want you to step out of your
seat and say, Pastor David, it's been so
long since I have prayed and sought the
Lord.
Obey the Holy Spirit.
I don't want to put anybody on the
spot.
I don't want to embarrass anybody.
But sometimes if God's been talking to you,
and especially if you at one time had
a wonderful prayer life, you had wonderful communion
with the Lord, you had a daily walk
and you were alone with him.
Folks, please, this is not bondage.
I'm not putting any bondage on anybody.
It doesn't mean that if you miss a
day or a week and you're overwhelmed with
business or anything, God, this is not to
condemn.
God speaks like this only because he knows
where the resources come from and he knows
what's ahead of you.
And he's trying to get you replenished.
He's trying to get you full of resources
and come to the to the fountainhead to
satisfy your thirst.
Now, you can come while I'm talking, but
I want the rest of the congregation all
over the house.
I'm going to ask you to make a
pledge.
First of all, those from this church, Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday, not asking for a pledge
for that.
You'll come because the spirit draws you.
I'm not asking you for a pledge to
pray in your house with somebody else.
I'm asking you to pledge before the Lord
by your grace, Lord.
I want to begin.
Today.
To find that place that you said when
you pray.
Enter into your closet.
And shut the door.
Could be a storage room, can be your
bedroom, can be any place.
It can be in a park alone.
Find a place.
Early in the morning, late at night when
everybody else is asleep.
Mine often is late when everybody's asleep and
I'm alone.
You do find that time.
I want you don't you have to raise
your head.
I want you to make that pledge before
the Lord.
Heavenly Father, I pray that what has been
preached this morning will not go in one
ear and out the other.
My God, in Jesus name, through your spirit.
Oh, God, speak to this congregation.
Lord, there's coming a time that we're not
going to be able to meet together for
a season.
There can be a time, Lord, of such
chaos.
We will not be able to have meetings.
It could last, Lord, for even a month
or so.
They're going to be times, Lord, that not
be able to touch the body and be
together.
So, Lord, we pray now that we would
establish now this time.
We will make the time.
We will pledge the time.
We will do what it takes.
And so God sees that we mean business
to meet with him and so love him.
And that we're not going to be so
busy.
We'll not be so tired.
We'll not be so empty that we would
refuse you this precious time alone with you.
This love time, this intercourse with you, Lord
Jesus, that is so vital.
Hallelujah.
Now, congregation, look this way, if you will,
please.
I want to know how many of you
came because you're in a time of crisis
need.
Will you raise your hand, please?
You're in a time of crisis need.
Will you keep your hand raised while we
pray?
Congregation, look at these hands and join me
in prayer and let's believe the Lord.
We don't pray into the air.
Our prayers don't fall right before us.
We have a God that answers.
We go to the throne.
I want everyone to pray, if you will,
please.
Father, we pray now for all these hands
that are raised.
Heavenly Father, you look upon this and you
see from your throne.
God, look upon these, carry burdens that we
don't know anything about.
Lord, crisis time.
Lord, with burdened hearts that need a touch,
need a healing, need a word.
God, bring a word of faith.
Bring a word of hope right now.
Holy Spirit, you have to do it.
I can't give it.
I don't have the word.
Speak faith now.
Speak faith, Lord, right now.
And for everyone that's been backslidden, those who've
grown cold, draw them by your spirit right
now, Lord.
Let peace flood their heart because they're making
a decision to begin to seek you with
all of their heart.
I want everybody in the house to raise
your hands.
If you love the Lord, just raise your
hands.
If you're embarrassed with that, just stand at
attention.
That's okay.
Nobody will look at you.
But we're going to worship the Lord right
now.
And those that are in crisis, will you
thank God right now that he has heard
your prayer and that God's going to give
you comfort?
Let's praise him.
Just praise him, my Lord.
We give you thanks.
We give you praise.
For you have heard the cry of your
people.
Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, thank you.
Give him thanks.
Lord, we thank you.
You're a mighty God.
Mighty God.
Now will you pray with me for the
pastor's wife in Honduras who lost their little
five-year-old precious child.
And for the family of the bishop in
Budapest.
And for this wife who is in pain
about her husband and about to bear a
child.
Heavenly Father, we pray for these crises, needs.
Oh, God, comfort this pastor's wife in Honduras.
Jesus, you're the only one.
And as they draw near to you, you
said you'd draw near to them.
Draw nigh unto me and I'll draw nigh
unto you.
We're asking, Lord, hundreds, even thousands here today,
praying specifically.
God knows what he's doing.
God has a plan.
Don't be afraid.
The Lord is with you.
Hallelujah.
And, Lord, we pray for this family in
Budapest.
Even while we pray here in New York,
go over the miles now and lay your
hand on that precious wife and her family.
Lord, encourage and lift up their spirits and
let them know that God does all things
right.
And that the Lord will bring healing and
comfort.
Lord, for this wife that is in such
inconsolable pain, console her heart.
Lord, let her get along with you and
cry out her tears.
Cry out her heart and then come and
meet her in that special place alone.
Lord, it's beyond us.
All of this is beyond us.
But, God, you're a mighty God.
You can handle it.
You can take care of it.
Lord, as we draw nigh unto you, come,
come, Lord, and show us your presence and
show us your glory.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.