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My message this morning, God has not passed
you by.
God has not passed you by.
I'll be speaking mostly from 1 Samuel, the
first four chapters of 1 Samuel.
You can keep your Bible open there and
check me just to see if I'm telling
you what is written in this word.
Lord, we thank you for bringing us through
2005 with assurance of your faithfulness and your
blessing.
God, you have been faithful.
You have not failed us in one promise.
Your word has proven to be true.
You have blessed us.
You've blessed us as a nation.
You've blessed us as a church.
You've blessed us as individuals.
And we return to give you thanks.
And we face the future without fear.
We face it with anticipation.
Lord, that you're going to do something supernatural.
Thank you for your goodness.
Thank you for your faithfulness.
Now bring us to your word.
Open our hearts.
Let me speak your mind.
In Christ's name I pray.
Amen.
I want to take you back to one
of the darkest days in the history of
Israel.
It's one of the most incredible funerals ever
mentioned in the Bible.
Thousands in attendance.
Thousands of widows mourning.
Israel has just been defeated in the Battle
of Philistines and 30,000 Israel soldiers are
dead on the battlefield.
Some may not even yet be buried.
And in the middle of this, there's a
woman standing, an unnamed widow, standing in front
of three caskets.
Not only is she mourning, she's held up,
in fact, by two handmaidens.
And she's pregnant near time to give birth
to a child.
And she stands as a dead woman.
There's no life in her.
She's already spiritually, mentally dead because of her
pain.
And she stands in front of three caskets.
In one casket is her stepfather, 98-year
-old Eli, the priest.
He had just had word that the battle,
that Israel was defeated and the ark was
taken.
He was a fat man, the Bible says,
98.
A man living in apathy, living on filet
mignon.
In other words, the best of the meats
brought to him by his ungodly sons.
And he falls over, breaks his neck, and
he dies.
And he's in one casket.
And there's another casket where her brother-in
-law lies dead.
His name is Hophni.
He's an adulterer.
He was an adulterous priest.
He's the one who brought shame upon Shiloh,
the church that Eli pastored.
The church, the center of worship for Israel.
But she's standing over one particular casket in
which her husband lies dead.
His name is Phinehas.
This woman has pain.
She has streams of pain coming through her
mind.
First of all, the Bible gives us a
clue that she had a measure of a
heart for God and mourned over the ark
being taken.
So the ark representing the presence of God.
There was something in her heart that says
she's thinking the enemy has won.
In other words, the devil is winning the
battle.
The presence of the Lord has gone from
us.
She stands there.
And can you imagine the number of widows
that are pouring into Shiloh now?
I don't know how many thousands who'd lost
their husbands.
There are wounded men there, no doubt, that
are still bleeding from the battle.
The ark is gone, representing the presence of
God or God with us.
And she's convinced that God has forsaken her.
She's totally inconsolable.
And she stands in this utter, utter pain.
She has seen the downfall of the church.
She's seen the apostasy.
Can you imagine the pain of this woman,
a priest's wife?
The Bible doesn't give us her name.
Can you imagine, though, the report she's had
of her husband committing adultery and fornication, right
in the house of God, seducing those who
helped minister, those who were in the temple,
the females.
And she has these reports, and she sees
the backsliding of the church.
She sees all of these incredible things happening
in the church, where the people of God
no longer honor the sacrifices.
They hate to come to church.
They hate to come to the place of
worship.
So many fully strange things happening in the
house of God.
She'd lived with a prophet's warning.
An unnamed prophet had come to the house
of Eli and had said boldly to him,
all the children of your house shall die
young.
Thy sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall die both
of them in one day.
Now, if you're a wife, how would you
like to live with that hanging over your
head?
Your husband is going to die.
In one day, your two sons are going
to die.
And everyone that's left of your house remaining
is going to have to beg for bread.
And she's pregnant.
And she's thinking of, well, what hope is
there for my child?
Imagine the pain at the gravesite.
Here's a corrupted, idolatrous ministry, a church and
ministry that's going cold and apathetic.
The Bible says that they were out for
themselves.
The Bible describes the apostasy, the tolerance for
sin.
And she's carrying this triple grief, the grief
of the backslidden church.
She's carrying the grief of the apathy of
the nation.
And she's carrying the personal pain of the
death of her husband.
Those pains, you see, when you come to
this place of intolerable pain that can't be
described, something happened to this woman.
She just gave up the fight.
She heard that the ark was taken, and
she simply gives up the fight.
She tossed her faith aside.
To her thinking now is the enemy has
triumphed over the church.
There's nothing to look forward to now.
And the Bible makes it clear that she
collapsed.
And she gave birth in that collapse.
And she gave birth to a son.
And the Scripture says, when she heard the
ark of God was taken and her husband
was dead, the woman who stood by her
said, fear not.
You've just given birth to a son.
They tried to bring hope.
They actually were saying, in essence, be of
cheer.
A new day is beginning.
Something new is happening.
There's a new birth.
In the midst of all this death, in
the midst of all of this sin and
tolerance for sin, there's something happening.
There's something new.
There's something fresh coming.
But she was inconsolable.
She wouldn't look at the child.
She turned aside and said, his name is
Ichabod.
She wouldn't touch him.
She wouldn't look at him.
She turned aside.
I don't want to see him.
Just call him Ichabod, which means the glory
of the Lord has departed.
And with that, she died.
I believe she died of absolute hopelessness.
Paul tells us in the New Testament that
these stories in the Old Testament were told
to us for our own learning, for our
example.
And to date, we face these same three
streams of pain.
We see a church that is in turmoil.
I just came from Dallas, Texas, and there
was an account in a newspaper.
You know, there's such foolishness in the house
of God today.
Such utter foolishness that it's almost incomprehensible.
There are wrestling match churches now.
There are eight of them now established.
And instead of a pulpit, instead of a
choir or anything else, they have a wrestling
ring.
And the men, they had a picture of
it and a story.
The wrestlers, these are professional wrestlers who claim
they have Christ as Lord.
And they're banging each other over the head
with chairs and the fake blood and everything
else.
And then after, they give a little testimony
about Jesus.
And they say it's a new thing.
And I was driving down the road and
I saw a cowboy church last week.
And absolute tolerance for sin.
There's no mention of the cross.
There's no mention of hell.
There's no mention of heaven except here on
earth.
And you see, it causes pain to the
heart of the lover of Christ.
And you see all these things happening and
you wonder.
I get letters from all over the world
and e-mails and they say, Pastor Dave,
what is happening?
Who's going to stop it?
When is God going to move?
When is God going to do something about
this?
And then when you look at our society,
you feel the pain because every day there's
another attack.
There is another emission out of hell.
First, they take the prayer out of our
schools.
Then they take the commandments out of our
courthouses.
And now there is a new number of
states that's already passed.
And now this is concerning Congress, Senate and
Congress.
No longer can a chaplain.
And this is in the works right now.
No longer can a chaplain use the invocation
of Jesus Christ in prayer.
And you see this degradation.
You see this attack against Christ and Christianity.
And you see the filth of our society.
Not only the gospel of greed.
And this was the problem.
And this was the pain of this unnamed
widow.
It was the greed.
The greed of her husband.
The greed of the ministry.
The greed of the church.
The greed of the high priest.
Greedy men out to get their own on
the backs of the poor and the widows.
You're here if you love the Lord.
You feel that pain.
You feel that agony and say, God, where
does it end?
Incredible movie.
I mean, an incredible thought.
I just read the paper and it hit
this week.
There's a new movie out featuring homosexual cowboys.
And they say that it has a possibility
of winning seven Oscar nominations.
It's being advertised as the greatest breakthrough movie
in American history.
Glorifies homosexuality.
And they say this is going to change
the mindset of the United States of America.
Bringing new tolerance, which means tolerance for.
Homosexuality.
In your face, homosexuality.
You see and hear these things happening.
And the cry all over the world among
the house of in the house of God.
Those who are righteous and those who love
the Lord and say, oh, God, what's going
to happen?
You see that.
And then there is the personal pain we'll
be talking about.
Also, the very personal pain and the sorrow
and the suffering that we go through as
Christians.
Christians are being mocked on television.
They're being mocked in courts to be a
Christian.
And you're made out to be a fanatic.
You're made out to be stupid, to put
it bluntly.
You're stupid if you believe in Jesus Christ.
You're stupid if you believe in prayer.
You're stupid now because you see, there's an
attack.
This is an attack on Christ himself.
It's not attacked on any religious system.
It's attacked on Christ and who he is
and everything we've stood for and everything we
believed.
And everything has been the foundation of the
blessing of God on this nation.
She sees all of this.
And she despairs.
Folks, I want to tell you, we are
not to despair.
What we see coming on the world, we
can pray, we can be greed, but we're
not to despair.
This woman gives up.
There's no hope.
It's all over.
And she gives up in total despair.
God has forsaken.
He's forsaken his church.
He's forsaken the nation.
And he's forsaken me.
And she dies in that horrible sense of
hopelessness.
Now, let me take you back to the
church of Shiloh, the church of Eli, the
church of greed.
The Bible makes it very clearly that he
judges self-interest churches.
He judges those who give themselves over to
greed, who live in greed and preach about
greed.
God deals with it.
He will endure it so long.
But listen to what the Scripture says.
He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent
or the church which he placed among them.
He abandoned it.
And I want to tell you now, folks,
what I see in here, when I was
at a place where they had television just
recently on screen, and I was watching some
religious programs that had a religious channel on
that thing, and I was watching some of
the most popular religious programs, and every one
of them was about prosperity.
There was very little Bible, a little mention
of Jesus at the end.
And it was self-centered.
It was nothing but greed and prosperity.
And God wants to make you rich.
Let me tell you the problem and the
thing that this widow of Phinehas missed.
She missed the fact that that ark that
was taken had a mercy seat.
It was crowned with a mercy seat.
The mercy seat represents the presence of Jesus
Christ, the reality of Christ, the blood of
Christ, because the blood was sprinkled on the
mercy seat.
And let me tell you what happened to
the Philistines when they took the mercy seat.
They took the ark and the mercy seat
with it.
See, God's a God of mercy, the Bible
says.
His mercy endures forever.
He's merciful to the sinner.
He's merciful toward the United States.
He's merciful toward the church, even though it's
dead right now, but there comes a time.
Now, see, you can take the ark and
you can ridicule the law.
You can ridicule the commandments, and you can
do all of that, but when you touch
the mercy seat, judgment comes immediately.
And when they took the mercy seat into
the house of Dagon, their God, and they
began to mock and they began to ridicule
and said, we have taken dominion now over
this so-called gospel of God.
And when they began to mock and ridicule
and deprecate the mercy of God, His mercy
is everlasting, His mercy is enduring, but there
comes a time because Jesus Christ is the
mercy seat.
Now, they can curse the name of God.
They can throw away the commandments.
They can do all of these things.
But when they turn aside and mock the
mercy of God, the grace of God, and
this Christ who is His mercy seat, and
mock the blood of Jesus Christ, you know
that judgment is at the door, and God
touched, and He touched so clearly, and calamities
came that they couldn't say it was chance.
The Bible says they said the hand of
God is against us, because they touched the
mercy seat.
The very next day, Dagon is laying on
the ground, his head cut off and his
arms cut off, and he's laying on the
ground.
The mercy seat became the rod of judgment.
And that's where we're at in the United
States right now.
God, we should have been judged long ago
in this country, if we had what we
deserve because how we've allowed the courts to
shake their fists at God.
If we stand now and watch powerful forces
trying to force gay marriage upon our society,
we see all of these forces at work.
Folks, don't worry about it.
God has everything under control.
God has a plan.
God knows what He's doing.
But, friends, we've got to know that they
are...
You mess with the mercy seat.
You mock the mercy of God.
God has loved this country.
He still loves this country.
He is blessed.
He's prospered.
He's poured blessings on this country, beyond any
nation, on the face of the earth, hoping
and trusting that the goodness of God would
lead us to repentance.
And even now, He's still blessing.
He's still prospering.
It could be 206, it could be one
of the most prosperous years of all.
But He does that as the last resort
in His patience.
But the heart of my message is that
if you allow these things to roil in
your mind, if you don't see the big
picture, if you don't see God just standing
by saying, I'm patiently waiting, the patience of
God, the mercy of God, and that God's
going to take care of these things one
of these days.
And it'll come suddenly.
And go ahead, let them try.
Let them try to mock.
Let them try all they want.
But they've touched the mercy seat.
Now, here's what the widow missed.
And it was right under her eyes.
It was right there in her house.
You see, she missed the new thing that
God was doing.
Raising up out of the ruins of a
church of greed.
He was raising a new work up.
He was doing something supernatural.
He was speaking.
The glory of the Lord was right in
her house by the name of Samuel.
He lived in the house of Eli.
She grew up with this.
She saw what was happening.
But somehow she missed the work of God.
She missed the supernatural thing that God was
doing.
And I want you to hear this from
my heart.
God's been speaking to me.
Get your eyes.
Get your eyes off of what they're trying.
All of these forces of iniquity.
Don't focus on that.
Pray about it.
Yes, there is grief.
You can weep about it.
You can stand in prayer and believe God
to change things.
And even in the church of Jesus Christ.
Don't despair.
Don't give up hope.
Because there's a Samuel company God has already
have in position.
And the Bible says the Samuel company are
those who have heard from God.
Know the voice of God.
Understand his ways.
There was something right beside her.
Samuel had to have been at that funeral.
And there is the glory of God.
He was going to bring back the ark.
Folks, I still believe.
I believe this with all my heart.
Though there's one stream.
Wicked men are going to grow worse and
worse.
Evil is going to be absolute.
Crisis.
We're going to see and hear things that
will cause our ears to tingle, according to
the Scripture.
But God has had a people, and I
meet them all over the world.
I meet this Samuel company.
They see, they know what's coming.
The Lord has told them.
They didn't have to have a prophet come
to them.
They didn't even have to have a watchman
tell them.
They're in prayer, and they know what God
has said.
The judgment is at the door.
They know that.
But they know something else also.
And they are not talking doomsday.
They are not living doomsday fears, because they
have rejoicing in their heart.
They know that God, by his Spirit, is
going to raise up a people in the
last days.
He's going to have a people who trust
him.
He's going to have a holy people, righteous,
and not touched by the things of this
world.
Not given to the filthy theaters.
Not given to the filthy movies.
But touching God.
Seeking God.
Interceding, and fasting, and praying.
And there's a Samuel company.
It's in this church.
It's on this pulpit.
There's a Samuel company.
God is raising up.
Right in the midst of the ruin of
Ichabod.
Glory be to God.
This Samuel company is not going to concede
that the world is winning.
I will never concede that the homosexual community
is winning the battle for our society.
I will not concede one moment, and neither
can anybody in this Samuel company.
We cannot concede.
No matter what it looks like, God is
still winning the battle.
He's in full control.
Everything is going to come out according to
his plan and will.
Now I want to speak, for just a
short time, about personal pain.
You see, there's the pain of the church,
the pain of the nation, but now I'm
talking about personal pain.
There are some of you here in this
building this morning that know something of the
pain of this widow.
It can be the pain of the loss
of a loved one.
It can be the physical pain.
It can be a mental pain because of
the trial.
Some of you have such incredible personal suffering
and pain that nobody anymore can understand.
They can't explain it to you, and they
don't want to listen anymore.
And you have to take it to God,
the pain of a disease.
I'm talking about a pain and suffering so
overwhelming.
Not only test your faith, it shakes the
foundation of your faith.
I talked to a pastor this past week
living in such pain.
He falls on the floor in agony.
Doctors can't describe it.
They can't.
They don't know what it is.
Goes from doctor to doctor, doesn't know what
it is, but the pain is overwhelming.
He can't stand hardly and just breaks out
in cold sweats.
But you see, this wife of Phinehas made
a tragic, fatal mistake.
In her pain, in her suffering, she said,
God doesn't hear my prayers.
God has forsaken me.
God's passed me by.
And see, the enemy will come to you
when you are down and when physically you
don't feel like praying.
You are so overwhelmed by what you're going
through and the battle and the struggle, that
when you do pick up the Bible, it
doesn't register.
The words just seem to run together.
And then the enemy comes at those times
when you can't pray.
When you just sit there and say, God,
I'm just empty.
And the enemy comes at those times.
That's what the advice of the devil was
when David was on the run from his
son, Absalom.
The advice of his advisor was, let's wait
till he's tired and weary and then we'll
attack him.
And he comes when you're down and weary
and in living and enduring this pain.
And you'd be shocked this morning if we
could gather up all the corporate pain that's
here and just put it into one picture.
Some of you could not handle it, you
would pass out.
It would be so overwhelming.
And you'd be surprised among us who's carrying
the heaviest kinds of pains you never hear
about.
And nobody talks about it and nobody could
understand it if you did tell them.
And some of you have carried pain for
years.
But you see, that's when the enemy comes
in.
When you're on a cross and says, God
has forsaken you.
And then the question arises, Lord, have you
passed me by?
Have you blessed others and you walk right
by me?
And you see, the devil will come at
that time and the heavens will seem like
brass.
You can't get through.
And then he'll throw guilt and condemnation.
You haven't prayed like you should.
You haven't been faithful to the word of
God.
Here you go now weeks.
And then the scripture will come with Joseph,
the word of God tried him and the
word of God will try you.
Because you'll hear that scripture that says, you
have neglected me days without end, God said.
And the devil will hammer you with those
scriptures.
When all the time Jesus is there feeling
your pain and standing beside you saying, I
know what you're going through, I feel your
pain.
He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
the Bible says.
And I know there are a number of
you here.
Listen to me in the annex or wherever
you may be.
And you are in a kind of situation
that nobody can console you.
But the Holy Spirit.
Now, the burden of every true pastor, the
burden of every man of God who truly
loves the Lord.
And if he doesn't have this heart, he
doesn't belong in the ministry.
And it's something that I bear and I
know all these pastors bear before they come
to this pulpit.
And it's the burden of all the pains
and the hurts that that we know exist
in the people.
And if we're two shepherds and we're touched
by every lamb.
The challenge and the burden is, Lord, give
me a word.
What can I say?
What message?
What scripture?
Where, Lord?
And you pray and you see God and
say, Lord, give me something that will put
a smile and a song on the lip
of the suffering.
And God, give me something that will cancel
the doubts and the fears.
God, give me a message.
You see, men of God don't come to
the message just to preach sermons and just
to fulfill their time and take a paycheck.
Men of God shut themselves in with the
Lord and they come and stand before the
flock.
In pain themselves and suffering, some kinds of
pain and suffering that you couldn't even begin
to comprehend that go deep into the spiritual
world to the hounding of the mind.
The testing of faith that takes you to
the brink of hell and gives you a
glance into hell and say, you'll never make
it.
You don't have what it takes.
And there's that spiritual pain, mental pain, physical
pain, heart pain.
And we pray, oh, God, give me a
word.
I pray to God I could have some
great message.
I could stand here and give you three
or four ways.
I can give you a whole line of
scriptures and that would change it.
And yes, the word does have an impact,
but it has to be received by faith.
So in prayer about this message with this,
I'm going to close.
I prayed, oh, God, what do I do
this morning?
Because I am feeling as all these pastors
do.
We've been talking about it never before.
Since we've been here, a part of this
church, have we seen so much pain and
suffering as in this past year?
You have never endured more than you're going
through now.
Many of you now, if you're not going
through this, God bless you.
Rejoice in the Lord.
Call us next week.
But here's what God tells me.
It's been so simple and it just keeps
this.
This is what he's been saying to me
in my times of pain and suffering.
Go to the word.
Stay on the word.
There's no other way.
But to cling to his promises.
It's that simple.
There's no other way.
All the talk.
All the doctors.
Everything else.
Thank God for doctors.
Thank God for all of this.
But it comes down to believing what God
said.
And just going into this word and say,
Lord, I don't want just another sermon.
I want you to talk to me through
this word.
And I'm going to close by doing just
that.
I'm going to the word with you.
The scripture says in Hebrews 13.5, In
case the devil's telling you God has passed
you by and God's not heard your cry.
For he has said, I will never leave
you.
I will never forsake you.
Hebrews 13.5. Go to Psalms with me,
please, quickly.
Psalms, the ninth chapter.
We're going to go to the word and
we want you to stand on that before
we close the message.
Psalms.
Do you have your Bible?
Psalms, the ninth chapter.
Start verse 9 through 10.
The Lord also will be a refuge for
the oppressed, a refuge in times of what?
And they that know thy name will put
their trust in thee for thou, Lord.
Say it has not forsaken them that seek
thee.
Go to Psalm 37 to the right.
The 37th Psalm.
Folks, how many times does God have to
tell us?
Just go to my word.
Psalm 37.
Start in verse 23.
The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and he delighteth in his
way.
You're here this morning because God led you
here.
The steps of a righteous man are ordered
by the Lord.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly
cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with
his hand.
I've been young and now I'm old.
Yet, and I want to tell you something.
I'm older than David when he said that.
And I can tell you he's telling the
truth.
I've been young and now I'm old.
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread.
One more, please.
Go to Isaiah 15.
Keep going right.
Isaiah 49, please.
Let me hear the wrestling.
I'm going to say it.
Isaiah 49.
I think I said 15.
Isaiah 49.
I'll wait until you get there.
Verses 14.
Will you stand for the reading of this,
please?
Chapter 49, verses 14 through 16.
49.
Is that what I said?
I am old.
And I'm gray.
I've never seen the Lord fail me.
Verses 14 through 16.
But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me,
and my Lord has forgotten me.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that
she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb?
Yea, they may forget.
What?
Yet will I not forget thee.
I've graven you upon the palms of my
hands.
Thy walls are continued before me.
Thy children shall make haste and destroyers, and
they that waste shall go forth of thee.
He said, They may forget, but I will
not forsake you.
I will not forsake you.
Folks, I'm sorry.
I want you to be seated just a
moment.
I received a letter in the mail from
a mother in a little town of 700
people in Montana.
Well, let me read some of her letter.
I've asked permission.
I called her and asked permission to read
this.
It says, Thank you for taking time to
read this.
I've been involved in your ministry since 1970.
I volunteered a teen challenge in the past.
I've been fed by your ministry.
There's a picture of her daughter, 15-year
-old Raquel.
And she said, The girl on the picture
is 16.
I'm sorry.
She's 16, homeschooled.
She's a joy to be around.
But she has a physical degeneration of her
muscles, ligaments and joints.
She's in extreme pain 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
I lost my son to suicide in 1997
due to the same pain.
He was 22 when he left after nine
years of suffering.
He took his life.
He couldn't handle the pain.
My daughter's condition started a year ago.
She was a ballerina, in fact, she was
a prima ballerina at the time, last year.
She was much in pain.
In fact, this precious girl won the poet
of the year.
And she was supposed to go for the
reward and didn't have money for travel expenses.
So she missed it.
And now she also is in tolerable pain.
And let me just read a little bit
of it here.
Raquel, 16 years old.
She's mentioned in Who's Who.
She's a wonderful poet.
She's been published.
She was looking forward to coming to Juilliard
School here in New York.
But her dreams have been shattered this summer.
She was stricken with the same disease that
tormented her brother.
Doctors said her pain on a scale of
1 to 10 is 14.
And that the amount of painkiller to be
effective would destroy her kidneys, so she can't
take pain medicine.
She's elected not to take the pain medicine.
We homeschool her.
She loves the Lord.
Her desire, she had wanted to come to
New York to Times Square Church.
And she wanted to see the Empire State
Building.
And I think it was also the Christmas
tree.
So we flew them out, and they're here
this morning.
Just hold still.
Just hold still for just a moment.
Her mother and daughter almost lost faith because
nobody cared.
They asked for churches to help her get
to her award ceremony in Nevada, and they
just couldn't raise money.
It appeared, and her son, I think, said
he couldn't believe that the church cared.
But when we called the admissions department of
this church, they got in action.
Met them at the airport Friday night and
took them.
Yesterday, I think, to the Empire State Building.
Did you go to Rockefeller Plaza?
I asked them.
We asked them to come so that we
could pray.
That's what this church is about.
That's what Christ is all about, caring.
Mama, stand, if you will, please.
And Rachel, will you stand?
Just turn around so the people can pray
for you.
Just turn around.
Let's stand and pray for her right now.
Let's believe the Lord.
Lord, you have not given up on Rachel.
You have not given up on her.
You have not forsaken her.
And you know the pain that she bears
and her pain of her mother.
And, Lord, we're asking now as a church
body.
Folks, will you pray with me right now?
Lord, I'm asking.
I believe that God can change things.
I believe, Lord, that you can touch her,
you can heal her.
Lord, you can cause her to walk again.
You can cause her, Lord, to have faith
renewed.
Come now, Lord Jesus, and lay hold of
us.
Lord, we're not just preaching theory.
We're not preaching theology.
We are being surprised by the Holy Ghost
right now that God is in control and
God has arranged a miracle.
And I pray for this miracle to happen,
a change, a miraculous change in Christ's name.
Amen.
Remain standing, if you will, please.
Mom and Rachel, honey, we love you.
We'll see you back.
God bless you, dear.
You're loved.
And we're going to be praying for you
so much.
Because of this, I will know for the
rest of my life that God truly loves
me.
Thank you.
Rachel, come on.
Can you walk over here?
Did you see the Empire State?
Yes, I did.
Well, I saw Rockefeller Center and I went
to Saks Fifth Avenue and had dinner with
a lovely young man named Tim.
He took us around New York City, showed
us a very nice time over here.
You are loved and you have thousands of
people now praying for you.
You're going to see some changes in your
life.
God bless you, honey.
Would you take him backstage?
Thank you, Missions Department.
Pastor Carter, this Missions Department is incredible.
They get so excited about helping people.
We thank you so much.
Will you bow your heads?
Lord, will you please come in a special
way for a few moments again in this
special service and bring a healing touch to
those, Lord, who've had this terrible thought infused
in their mind by the enemy.
God has passed you by.
And they're overwhelmed by a trial, overwhelmed by
something they're going through.
My Lord and God, come now with comfort
by your spirit.
God, let this be turned into a healing
service right now.
Lord, turn it into a healing service.
If you're here this morning, and I don't
know how to describe this, but if this
message was meant for you, if something that
was said just go deep in your heart,
it's moved something deep inside of you, something
unexplainable, could be about your own personal pain,
I want you to come for healing.
I want you to come to have your
faith renewed.
If you don't know Christ, or if you've
turned away or backslidden, will you come and
join these people and surrender and say, Jesus,
I come to you because you're the only
way, you're the only hope.
Get out of your seat and come, and
we'll pray for you.
Up on the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side.
And those that are in the annex, I'm
going to let you come down also.
I think today there may be room for
you.
Just ask the ushers to show you the
way down into the Manotorium, even if you
have to stand in an aisle.
And we'll pray and come.
Please don't come unless the Spirit is moving
and you say, God is speaking to me
this morning.
I've got to have hope.
I have to have hope.
I need my faith renewed.
Whatever it may be that you're experiencing, come
as they say.
You are all that we want and all
that we need.
Come now and touch every heart that has
come here in hope and faith.
I want to give you folks a scripture.
I want you to listen to this, please,
from 2 Corinthians 4, 8 and 9.
We are troubled, Paul said, on every side,
yet not distressed.
We are perplexed, but we're not in despair.
We're persecuted, but we're not forsaken.
We're cast down, but we're not destroyed.
Hallelujah.
Will you take that?
Cast down, yes.
I get cast down at times.
Yes, I'm being tested and tried, and yes,
I'm going through pain, but we're not destroyed
and we're not forsaken.
And I was sitting in the pulpit anticipating
coming to the stage here, and I heard
the Holy Spirit whisper to my heart, and
it was the words of Jesus through His
Spirit to my heart.
It said, David, you're going to preach about
pain, but I want you to know I
feel your pain too.
And that's what He wants to say to
you.
I feel your pain.
I know what you're going through.
And He is a friend.
I approach Jesus as my friend, not as
my judge, but as my friend.
The Bible said He's a lamb.
You come to the Lamb, the meek Lamb
of God right now.
And would you whisper this prayer from your
heart?
Lord Jesus, I want to trust You in
my battle, in my pain.
Help my unbelief.
Lord Jesus, draw me to Your Word.
Draw me to the Scriptures and lead me
and speak to me through Your Word.
Now just thank Him.
Lord Jesus, we give You thanks.
We give You praise for Your utter faithfulness.
I want to pray one final purview.
Lord, we don't know how as pastors, we
don't know how to get down to the
very root.
That's the work of Your Spirit.
Only You know how to comfort.
We can give words, but in the final
analysis it's the Holy Spirit that we open
our hearts to and we say, Holy Spirit,
this body is Your temple.
You live here and You're here now.
You'll never leave me.
You'll never forsake me.
And You'll bring me to Christ.
And You'll bring me to peace.
And You'll give me grace.
You will see me through my battle.
Folks, thank Him for grace and mercy in
the time of need.
This is the conclusion of the message.