This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling
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I want to talk to you this morning
about Christ, the searcher of men's hearts, the
searcher of men's hearts.
Would you please go to Revelation, the first
chapter, first chapter of Revelation.
I'm going to read from verse 9, starting
at verse 9 through 16.
I'm reading from King James.
Christ, the searcher of men's hearts.
I, John, who also am your brother and
companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and
patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle
that is called Patmos for the word of
God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
I was in the spirit on the Lord's
day and heard behind me a great voice
as of a trumpet saying, I'm Alpha and
Omega, the first and the last.
And what thou seest, write in a book
and send it to the seven churches that
are in Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis,
and to Philadelphia and Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice that
speak with me.
And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.
And in the midst of those seven candlesticks,
one like unto the son of man, clothed
with the garment down to the foot and
girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
His head and his hairs were white like
wool, as white as snow.
And his eyes were as a flame of
fire.
And his feet like unto fire, fine brass
as they burned in a furnace.
And his voice is the sound of many
waters.
And he had in his right hand seven
stars and out of his mouth went a
sharp two edged sword and his countenance was
the sun shining in his strength.
Verse 17, And when I saw him, I
fell at his feet as dead.
He laid his right hand upon me saying,
Fear not, I am the first and the
last.
Heavenly Father, I'm asking you now to come
with special anointing, an unction from heaven.
God, I want you to search my heart
first and search the heart of everyone within
the sound of my voice.
What a loving Savior to love us so
much that you would search us out and
find those areas that we're blind to and
show them to us that we may be
healed, that we may grow in grace, the
knowledge of our Savior.
God, you're in this house, you're in this
place, and we're hungry people.
We've come, oh Lord, to hear your word.
We're not afraid of reproof, Lord.
We're not afraid of anything that you say.
If you say it to us, Lord, in
your grace, in your love, we receive it.
In Christ's name I pray.
Amen.
Now, Christ loves his church.
The Bible said he's the head of the
church.
He's the founder.
He's the foundation stone of the church.
The Bible said Jesus said the gates of
hell shall never prevail against his church.
He said his wisdom and his glory abides
in the church.
He sent the Holy Ghost to help establish
the church and to make us conformable to
the very likeness of Christ, that his body
would be clean and pure.
I'm saying this again, and I want to
emphasize it.
Jesus Christ loves his church, and that's why
he comes to search it out.
If Jesus Christ so loves his church, why
does he come to the church with such
awesome visage as described here in the first
chapter of Revelation?
Why the flaming eyes of fire?
Why a two-edged sword coming out of
his mouth?
He's speaking words that are so piercing.
It's like a two-edged sword cutting right
through the marrow of the bone.
Why a voice so loud, so piercing, that
it's almost like thunder?
Why is he coming at his church that
he so loves with this kind of visage
that is so powerful and overwhelming that the
disciple who had leaned on his bosom is
now falling on his face, trembling and in
fear?
And Christ himself explained why he came in
this visage, and it's found in Revelation 2
.23, and he says, and all the churches
shall know that I am he that searcheth
the heart, the reins, that's the inner man
or the soul, and the heart, and I
will give unto every one of you according
to your works.
He said, I want everyone in my church
to know that I'm the searcher of their
hearts.
I want my church to know that I
will not allow them to continue in any
form of blindness, any spiritual apathy or blindness,
but I will keep coming and I will
search.
And this is what this is all about
this morning, what I want to bring to
your attention.
John falls on his feet and the Lord
Jesus Christ says, don't be afraid.
But he said, I'm coming to search my
church with flaming eyes, with no uncertain sound,
no double talk.
In other words, I'm coming straight forward and
I'm going to speak what I see in
my people that I love.
I come now to search hearts.
Are you willing to be searched by the
Holy Ghost this morning?
Are you?
The flaming eyes of Jesus, those loving, those
are not flaming eyes of hatred or bitterness.
These are loving eyes that pierce through all
of our facades and pierce through our apathy
to get to the very issues that are
in our heart.
He saw some things in his church and
he instructed John to write these things down.
Everything that I tell you, everything that you're
going to see and hear from me now,
I want you to write seven letters to
seven pastors of seven churches in Asia.
And I want you to write them and
I want you to send these letters to
these seven, the Bible calls them angels of
the church, but that actually means pastors of
the churches.
Jesus called these pastors, by the way, stars.
He said, John, the stars you see in
my hand are the angels of the pastors
of these churches.
In other words, he said, I love these
men.
I called them.
I anointed them.
See, God loves his servants.
He loves his pastors.
He loves his evangelists.
He loves his prophets.
He loves them.
And when he comes to correct, he does
it out of love to purify the body
of Jesus Christ.
Can you imagine what it would have been
like?
For example, let's take the church at Ephesus,
the first letter that was received.
And the pastor opens that letter to the
church at Ephesus, thus saith the Lord concerning
your congregation.
Here's a pastor that is really proud, spiritually
proud of what God has been doing in
the church at Ephesus.
The scripture says they didn't faint.
They were hard at work.
The scripture makes it very clear that they
hated evil.
Good measure.
In fact, let's just read it.
The first chapter or second chapter, verse one.
To the angel of the church or to
the pastor of the church of Ephesus write,
He saith, saith he that holdeth the seven
stars in his hand and walketh in the
midst of seven candlesticks.
Now, can you imagine this pastor receiving this
letter and opens it?
And he's sure now he's told that this
is from the heart of Christ.
And he's sure this is a letter of
commendation because this church is really been charitable,
loving, caring.
This church has a reputation of patience and
labor and couldn't bear them, which were evil.
You've tried those that are apostles and they're
not and found them liars.
You're born.
You've had patience for my namesake.
You've labored.
You've not fainted.
And he is he's enjoying this commendation from
the Lord himself.
And then his eyes fall on this.
What a shocking moment.
But I have something against you, pastor, and
I have something against your congregation.
I have something against you because thou has
left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence you are fallen and
repent and do the first works or else
I will come unto thee quickly and remove
the candlestick out of its place, except thou
repent.
Here's a pastor saying we who are justified
by faith, walking in covenant promises, we who
have been faithful and we have not fainted,
we have loved, we have done all of
these great things for the sake and name
of God.
And he's saying repent.
He's saying that he will remove our testimony
if we don't repent that that we have
strayed from our first love.
And we're told to go back and go.
Remember how it was at the beginning and
do it again as we did at the
beginning.
And I have to read this to the
congregation that I so trust.
I see so many great things happening.
And I'm going to stand up in the
Sabbath and I have to read this to
the congregation.
Remember, therefore, once thou has fallen and repent
and do your first works or else I
will come quickly and remove your candlestick out
of its place.
Folks, if Christ speaks so searchingly to the
church at Ephesus, to a wonderful congregation, this
has to be serious business.
A church that he so loves, pastors that
he so loves, and he speaks with such
searching, digging, powerful, two-edged sword message.
It's serious in the eyes of the Lord.
First to the pastor, repent.
Your love for me is not what it
once was, has been a neglect of communion.
In other words, this is very serious business
because I believe it has everything to do
with the abiding, awesome, manifest presence of Jesus.
He's saying there's something has been lost in
the church and it's that awesome presence of
Jesus.
Now, folks, I'm not preaching at this church.
The messages that we preach here go out
all over the world.
I'm preaching to this church.
Yes, I'm preaching to the church body, the
corporate body of Jesus Christ, wherever the message
may be heard.
But you see, the issue here at the
Church of Ephesus is that they have lost
something that they once had, and it's affecting
the presence of the Lord in their midst.
It's the loss of affection.
It's the loss of that that diligent, incredible
first love that they had for the master.
And not only for the master, I don't
believe this has to do with just love
for Christ.
It has to do with love for one
another in the body, something that had crept
into the church that affected that body, where
the people were just taking one another for
granted.
They were not meeting the needs of the
body of Jesus Christ, and they became self
-centered.
There were some things here that only God
could see, and they were blinded to it.
You see, we get so busy doing these
good things in the Ephesus manner.
We get so busy in our ministries and
in our good works, just our good deeds.
I thank God for all the good deeds
that are done in this church and around
the world.
And there are some churches that outdo us
a hundred times in the charitable outreaches they
have.
But you see, you can get so busy.
The last thing Jesus said to all the
churches was, he said, I stand at the
door of your heart and I knock, and
any man open, I'll come in and I'll
sup with you and you with me.
And that's where he was going with all
of this.
He said, what I really want is to
just have love time with you.
I just want to have prayer time with
you.
I want to have quality time with you.
I want to speak my heart to you
and I want you to speak your heart
to me.
I want supper time with you.
I want to sup with you.
And that's where this is all going to.
And he says, I don't have that time
now.
You're so busy working for me.
You're not spending time with me.
And, you know, Jesus comes knocking at the
door sometime and there's a note on the
door saying, Jesus, I'm sorry I missed you,
but I'm on my way to hospital visitation.
I'm on my way to prison ministry.
There's somebody who needs me.
All of these things are vital.
All these things are the part of the
heart of Jesus Christ.
But, folks, you can get so busy doing
the good works of God that you begin
to stray away from that supper time with
Christ, that daily quality time with the Lord.
And when you lose that quality time, you
lose the presence of the Lord.
You lose the awesome nearness of Christ.
And he takes this matter of prayer communion
very seriously, so much so that he warns
that if there are not changes made, if
you don't come back to that hunger and
that thirst for me, and if you can't
see it and hear it when I speak
it to you, I'm going to have to
take away your testimony.
In other words, you will not have the
authority.
You will not have it.
I take this matter very seriously.
And, folks, I want to emphasize that this
has to do with love for other people.
It's so some of you that are here
now, many that attend this church work with
social agencies and folks that some of the
hardest people I've ever met in my lifetime
are people who work with people in welfare
department.
And some of you that ever been on
welfare or you've gone to some of the
agencies here in the city, you'll meet some
of the hardest hearts you've ever met.
You can meet it in Christianity as well
because they get so hardened by what they
hear.
Some of the most the hardest nurses I've
ever met and hardest doctors in Staten Island,
where they have all of these deformed children
and those who have mental problems.
And those nurses, some of those nurses, not
all of them, I'm not indicting all of
them, but when I was there, some of
the hardest nurses, they have hardened themselves because
of the cries of the people.
And that can happen in the church of
Jesus Christ.
You hear so much, you can harden your
heart.
The Lord said, you were once so tender
with people, you had such a love for
people and you listen.
Now you don't listen anymore.
Folks, don't ever let that happen in this
church.
Don't ever let that happen to any of
you that work in any agency or those
who work in the Sunday school department and
you deal with all these children and some
of them have no fathers and they're difficult.
Go up Sunday afternoon between services where there
are single mothers and these kids have no
fathers and some of those kids run wild.
And you think what a church this must
be.
They can't control their kids.
And then you can get a hard heart.
You can't think of those kids at home
without a parent, without a husband, without a
father.
Folks, this is what Jesus is talking about
in the church of Ephesus.
There's a very serious side effect when a
church loses that presence of the Lord, where
the Lord says, I'm going to have to
let you know what it's like.
I'm going to let things just go cold
for a while.
And I've been in churches like that, where
the spirit of God had moved to where
the presence of Christ was so real.
And a season comes where nothing seems to
move.
There's a deadness, there's a dryness for a
season because God said, I want you to
know what it's like without my presence.
And folks, it's a horrible thing.
It's an awful thing to go and sit
in a church where there's no presence of
Christ, nothing to move you, no conviction of
the Holy Ghost, nothing to move your kids.
It's a horrible thing.
And it can happen.
It happened in Ephesus.
It can happen in Times Square Church.
It can happen if I and other pastors
of this church are not giving him that
time and so busy ministering to you.
We're not ministering to Christ anymore.
It happened to me.
It has happened over the years many a
number of times where I never want it
to happen again because I know the horribleness
of it all, where the Lord says, because
I love you and because I want to
bring you out of that lethargy, I'm just
going to let you know what it's like.
And folks, what happens?
I have about 800,000 people in my
mailing list, as you know, and I use
that figure just to tell you how many
people we draw from.
And as I've told you a number of
times, the number one complaint is I can't
find a church where the spirit of the
Lord is.
I can't find the presence of Jesus.
I go from church to church.
And that's the problem, because many people who
can't find a church, they go sit at
home, they turn on the television and they
hear a television teacher or preaching.
That's the only place they have any spiritual
food.
They forget the assembling of themselves together with
brethren.
And folks, there are some of you that
are visiting here, perhaps, and you say, I
can't find that church.
But you can't use that as an excuse
to stay home and you're not going to
grow.
In fact, you're going to grow hard and
indifferent if you are not going to the
house of God, if you're not finding about.
Go to the deadest church you can't find
and just sit there under your breath and
pray for fire to come down.
Pray for the pastor.
Do anything.
But whatever you have to endure, don't sit
at home in front of a television box
and think that that's all the church that
you need, because many, many who've said, I
can't find it.
So they stay home and they are backslidden
now.
They've lost the touch of God.
Now, I can understand if you can't find
a church and you make your secret calls
at the church and you go in there
and seek God, you give him quality time
and you're into the word and God has
given you revelation and you're sharing it with
people.
That's a different story.
But it doesn't happen that way.
Nine times out of ten, you just sit
you do that hour with some Bible teacher
evangelist and you say, I've had my church.
No, no, no, no, no.
You're going to drift away completely and end
up with this indictment.
Jesus gave against the church at Ephesus.
Now, there were seven literal churches in Asia.
They were actual churches.
And some teach that that's that represents seven
eras of the church or dispensations.
I'm not going to get into those doctrines.
I'm not going to talk about that.
What I see when I read Revelation two
and three, I see Christ searching the hearts
of all people in all ages.
In all eras, all dispensations, a Christ concerned
about spiritual blindness that can happen in his
body and in his church.
Now, Christ had a controversy with five of
these seven churches, but I want to focus
on just the three have already dealt with
Ephesus.
I want to talk about Thyatira and Laodicea.
Now, see, the problem with Ephesus here is
a loss of intimacy with Christ.
They get so busy, they're no longer intimate
with Christ.
The problem in Thyatira is, listen closely, folks,
I'm going to ask you, and I'm not
trying to be theatrical, but if you've ever
listened to me in the 16 years I've
been in this church, I want you to
listen now, because a true shepherd doesn't just
feed you.
He has to protect you from wolves.
He has to protect you from false doctrines.
And you've got to hear what the Spirit
says, because God has put this in my
heart to save many sheep here in this
building and those who hear this message on
video or audio.
The church of Thyatira, the problem that Christ
saw was a flirtation with seductive devilish ministries,
seductive devilish ministries.
Revelation 2, verse 18, beginning to read, And
unto the angel or the pastor of the
church in Thyatira write, These things sayeth the
Son of God, who hath eyes like unto
a flame of fire.
Now, how would you like to be the
pastor?
You open up and that's what you hear.
A flame of fire, the eyes.
Hath eyes like a flame of fire, and
his feet are like fine breast.
I know thy works, charity, once again, commendation,
service, faith, patience, thy works in the last
to be more than the first.
But nevertheless, and notwithstanding, I have a few
things against you because you suffer, you tolerate
that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess,
to teach and to seduce my servants, to
commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols.
And I gave her space to repent of
her fornication.
She repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed,
and them that commit adultery with her into
great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds
and will kill their children with death.
And all the churches shall know that I
am he which searcheth the reins and the
hearts, and I'll give unto every one of
you according to your deeds.
Christ, once again, is commending this church.
I know your deeds.
I know you love me.
I know you're good people.
You have a heart for me.
That's exactly what Lord Jesus is saying.
They're not being reprimanded for loss of intimacy,
as it was at Ephesus.
Here's a congregation with faith committed.
Christ says, I know you love me.
I have a few things against you.
And he says, you are tolerating something that
I despise.
He's saying this to the pastor first of
all.
He said, you're tolerating the teaching in your
church.
You're allowing ministers, you're allowing teachers and evangelists
come into your church to seduce my people.
You are allowing those in your pulpit.
And folks, this is happening all over.
I am so shocked at the lack of
discernment in the ministry today.
People that are allowed to come in, pastors
who found out that so-and-so, this
evangelist can draw a crowd, and allow these
to come in and stand in the pulpit
and deliver that which God despises, that which
is seductive, that which is immoral, the fornication,
that which is the food of Satan itself.
Does it seem to you inconsistent that a
pastor can allow?
Here's a man, here's a pastor that Jesus
said was a loving, good man.
It seems inconsistent to me that a loving,
good pastor would allow anybody in the pulpit.
Folks, one of our first obligations to a
congregation, to this congregation, is to make sure
that nobody ever comes into this pulpit.
First of all, these pastors listen to at
least two tapes.
They check the man out, they check his
morals, they check his preaching.
Nobody's allowed into this pulpit.
And if somebody would accidentally slip in and
we heard one word, we would get up
and we would stop him and make him
sit down, and we'd escort him out the
back door.
Now, that sounds a little rough, a little
gruff, but that's what God demands, and that's
what this heart of Christ is all about
here, this seductiveness that has come into the
house of God.
Jezebel.
I've heard it said, in fact, that the
word does have a connotation of covetousness.
But folks, there's a scripture that says, make
no provision for the flesh to fulfill the
lust thereof.
In other words, there are people that have
lust, but the Lord says, don't scheme, don't
plan to make it happen.
Allow it to happen.
No schemes.
It may be in the mind, I'll cleanse
your mind.
I'll help you to make no plans.
But you see, Jezebel doesn't mean covetousness.
It means the fulfillment of that covetousness, a
scheme, a plan, an evil scheme to fulfill
that lust of covetousness.
And this is exactly what Jezebel did when
Ahab, her husband, desired his neighbor's vineyard and
his beautiful plants and shrubbery and his wonderful
garden.
She made a scheme to kill that man
and take his vineyard and give it to
Ahab.
The sin was in the plan.
It was in the scheme.
Yes, it was a sin to have that
covetousness in the heart, but she schemed it.
Jezebel is a schemer, has to do with
money, materialism, me-ism, everything
that God despises.
Jezebel represents everything that schemes and robs from
his widows, from the poor, from the body
of Jesus Christ, who come as angels of
light to deceive, who have a gospel that's
95% pure, but the 5% of
poison destroys and seduces the body of Christ.
And most of them end up in New
York City, in Madison Square Garden.
Now, folks, I don't want any reaction from
you, please, for the next five minutes, but
I'm on a mission from heaven.
Some of you dear people sit in front
of a television set, and the fornication mentioned
here has nothing to do with sex.
The fornication here and the food that is
offered to idols has to do with the
message that you eat.
It's what you eat, the sound that you
hear from these men, prosperity preachers, who will
take any dime, last dime, from a widow.
You hear this, the fornication caused them to
fornicate means that you give yourself, you sit
under their teaching, you sit under their message,
and you feed on this, and you become
a part of this.
It is a bonding, it's a yoking of
the flesh, flesh to flesh, spiritual fornication.
And some of you come to this church
and you hear a pure word from God,
and sometimes we don't know why you don't
grow.
Some of you have heard the message, sitting
here for 10 years, and you haven't grown.
And the reason is because you have been
sitting, listening to somebody on television feed your
soul, all of this stuff, all of this
fornicating stuff that comes from the very pits
of the wicked one.
How many of you have slipped away when
these evangelists, you've heard the pastors with tears
stand in this pulpit and beg and plead
with you that you have discernment.
And here's what Jesus is saying to this
church, this church with good people, good people,
they're not backslidden people, they're wonderful people, they
give you anything, they're loving people, they have
faith, but they have this little attraction for
the big show.
They've got this attraction, there's something inside saying,
oh, you've got to hear this man.
And I see people come, they want to
hand me tapes, and I'm thinking if they're
handing me tapes, how many are they passing
around the church?
Be careful, saints, they're sad with love, be
careful anybody brings you a book or a
tape or anything from any evangelist, television or
otherwise, bring in the pastor and get it
checked out.
What a dangerous thing.
And you go, you slip off to Madison
Square Garden, or you slip off because there's
some healing events, there's somebody in town.
Now, not all healing events are under this
indictment, not at all.
But when a man stands and tells the
whole United States in one of his meetings,
I curse any man or preacher who stands
against my ministry, I curse him.
When a man stands before the people on
television and says, Jesus Christ has told me
that one day he's personally going to attend
and be in one of my meetings.
That's blasphemy.
That is the doctrine of demons.
And yet you sit there and you say,
this sounds good, it looks good, it looks
like people are being healed and you are
being fornicated with.
You're into fornication, spiritual fornication, because you don't
have the discernment, because you see the big
shot.
And one recent evangelist that was here, I
get a call from a pastor who worked
with him and said, Brother Dave, you should
have been here this morning.
God came down and we raised two million
dollars.
I said, I don't want to talk about
it.
He said, I don't want to talk to
him.
And we are under an obligation before a
holy God to warn you.
And I say it with tears and brokenness.
There's a lack of discernment all over the
body of Jesus Christ.
And you've been better taught than that.
You've been better taught.
Folks, they're in and out of town.
We're here and we stay with you through
the tears and the brokenness.
We stay with you.
I've been here 16 years now.
We don't have any plans of running from
you.
We're shepherds.
Folks, hold it, hold it.
He said to the pastor, you tolerate allowing
your people to slip off to meetings of
false prophets, evangelists who practice divination, making merchandise
in my people.
Every time you go to them, come on,
tell me the truth.
How much time did you listen to them
raising money?
How much you've ever heard about raising money
in this church?
What did you hear today about raising money?
You didn't hear a word.
We trust God for our money.
And dear sister, we don't want your rent
money.
We don't want the food money belongs to
your kids.
Jesus said, I've been patient with these false
prophets and teachers and evangelists.
I gave them warning time to repent and
they've refused.
Behold, I'll cast her into a bed.
He's talking about when he talks about her,
it's a whole system, this whole Jezebel system,
going to cast it into a bed of
affliction.
He said, I'm going to deal with it.
And he's doing that right now.
Many have been exposed already.
Oh, I remember letters that God had me
write to famous evangelists, warning them, pleading, you're
robbing widows.
God's going to expose it.
And then wait and watch and see it
all come down.
God said, I'm going to cast you into
a bed of affliction.
And you say, what harm is it to
just go and listen?
Well, let me tell you what the Bible
says.
I will cast her into a bed of
affliction and them that commit adultery with her
will go into great tribulation.
God said, you're in bed with fornicators.
He said, and I'm going to cast both
the evangelist, the false teacher, the false prophet,
and those who support them, those who are
into it, those who are part of this
whole system into tribulation, great tribulation.
That's a powerful warning.
That's not my warning.
That's from Christ who stands before John with
flaming eyes.
He said, I examine and I search the
hearts.
And something Ezekiel said stirred my heart.
And I've seen this every time people get
involved.
He said, you are going to end up,
and he uses the word stronger than I
have to use it in public.
He said, you're going to lay down in
front of every passerby.
He said, you will lay down to submit
fornication to every passerby.
In other words, you won't be satisfied with
one.
You're going to run all over the country
and around the world.
You're going to lay down in front of
every passerby.
And I've seen that happen.
You get into that.
My heart bleeds for them.
And Christ spoke to that same church, to
those who were not involved in this Jezebel
seduction.
There were those who were steady, well-grounded
saints with true discernment who could see through
the flesh.
And here's what the scripture said.
And those who have not this doctrine, verse
24, those who have not this doctrine and
have not known the depths of Satan.
You know what Christ is saying?
These men are taking my people that are
seduced into the very depths of Satan.
Depths of Satan.
He said, but you that have not been
seduced, I want to talk to you.
He says, I want you just to hold
steady.
I have no other obligation.
I have no burden to lay upon you.
He says very quickly that which you have
already hold fast till I come.
He said, you have learned discernment.
You can't be twisted and pulled by every
wind and wave of doctrine that comes down
the turnpike.
You are steady.
You are part of a body in Jesus
Christ.
And you know what is evil and you
know what is righteous.
And he said, hold steady now.
I don't have any burden to put upon
you now, but just hold it till I
come.
Don't let anyone deceive you.
That's my cry for you today.
Don't let anybody deceive you.
Glory to Jesus.
We come now finally to the Laodicean condition.
Revelation 3.
I begin to read verse 14.
And unto the angel of the church of
the Laodiceans write, these things saith the man,
the faithful, true witness, the beginning of the
creation of God.
I know thy works, that thou were neither
cold or hot, and would thou were cold
or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm and neither
cold or hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth.
Because you say I'm rich and increased with
goods and have need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched, miserable,
and poor, and blind, and naked.
I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that you may be
rich and white raiment, that thou mayest be
clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear.
Anoint thy eyes with eye salve that thou
mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten.
Be zealous and therefore repent.
Behold the door, I stand at the door,
and knock many men open.
When men hear my voice and open the
door, I will come in and will sup
with him and he with me.
Now, my question is, how can a whole
church wind up, in Christ's own words, miserable,
wretched, poor, blind, and naked, and not know
it?
I think a blind man would know he's
blind.
I would think a naked man who has
no clothes would know he's naked.
This is an amazing thing.
He says, you don't know what's happened to
you.
You're totally blind.
And that blindness has caused the lukewarmness.
He said, you have changed and you don't
know that you're changing.
You don't know.
Oh, I love to hear people say, I
know I'm changing.
I'm not what I was last year because
I'm growing in Christ.
That's one thing.
The other side of the coin is they'd
be blind to the fact that you're not
where you were last year.
In fact, you are now into the whole
area of lukewarmness and you don't know it
because you still think you're hot.
And he said, you're naked and you don't
know it.
And the Greek root word is, strip the
resources.
He said, I've had to strip your resources
because my resources, my strength, my power, my
might, my glory is given only to those
who have a need, who know it, and
call out of their need to me.
He said, it's a need.
And you've lost the sense of need.
You say, I'm rich and increased with goods.
This is the American church per se.
This is the American gospel.
This is a capitalistic society.
And capitalism says you grow or you die.
In other words, expand.
If you don't expand, you'll lose.
That's the American enterprise.
That's all right for business, but that's infiltrated
the church of Jesus Christ.
Now we've got a capitalistic Christianity.
Now it's all about growth, grow or die.
It's not about brokenness anymore.
It's not about the old rugged cross anymore.
It's about how many people do you have
in your congregation?
Rich, increased with goods, and that increase means
numbers as well.
Oh, you're increased in anyone without discernment.
What a powerful church.
And the Lord comes as a searcher of
men's hearts.
And he says, you don't know what's happened
to you.
You're wretched and miserable.
What he's doing is prophesying the end of
what happens.
This is where it all ends up.
This nakedness without resources where a man thinks
he can do it on his own.
He doesn't need to pray anymore.
He doesn't need the old-fashioned kind of
gospel that convicts you of sin.
And now they go to a nice church
where they get a few little tidbits, short
message, one hour service, Sunday morning, and that's
all.
That's it.
You can see him lined up for miles,
getting into these churches, this capitalistic Christianity, and
it's a 15-minute message on how to
cope with life's problems, how to be patient,
how to love your family.
All wonderful truth.
You can get it from any psychologist.
Same thing.
You add a few Jesus words to it
and make it sound palatable to the church.
And God says, I'm sick of that.
I'm sick of that.
Folks, we are bent on backsliding by human
nature.
And we have to have the piercing gospel.
We have to have the searching eyes of
this flaming fire, of the eyes of Jesus
Christ at all times.
I pray every time I sit here, every
time a pastor or a visiting pastor gets
up, I say, oh, God, search me.
There's some things that I may not know
if I'm blind.
I plead with God every day.
I plead with Jesus last night.
If there's anything hidden in my life that
I don't know, if there's anything that I'm
blind to, you've got to show me.
You owe it to me, Lord.
Show me.
There may be things in my heart that
I don't see.
Now, he's not just probing, looking for something.
I don't live under that kind of torment.
Not at all.
But I say, oh, God, if here's a
church, a whole church that you love and
they're totally blind, they're charitable, but they have
no sense of need.
And what the Lord is saying, whom I
love, I chasten and reprove.
And what he's saying, I'm going to create
some situations in your life now.
I'm going to bring some chastening into your
life so that I can create a need
because I can only give my resources to
those who are in need.
You don't need to pray anymore.
You don't need to give them quality time.
You're going to balance it with good works.
No.
He said this is all about something with
me.
It's all about that knock on the door
and my voice saying, I need you.
I want time with you.
And when he says in this 18th verse,
counsel to buy of me gold that may
be rich in white raiment.
Folks, don't look at some deep theological thing
there.
Don't try to explain all that.
That's just the Lord saying, I have all
the resources you need.
I've got the glory.
I've got the anointing.
I have the strength of power.
I've got everything you need.
But if you're just I'm calling, I'm begging,
I'm pleading give.
And I'm going to tell you, this is
the coin.
Bible says, Isaiah said, you come and buy
without money, but there is a price.
And I'll tell you what it is.
Nothing more, nothing less than quality time.
That's your purchasing power.
He says, I'm at the door and I'm
knocking.
You see, and I'm going to close with
this.
No, I'm just going to close for you.
Listen, here's what I've seen in the spirit.
With this I close.
Standing here right now, I have names that
are just clicking in my mind.
The people I know over the years who
are now settled in, either don't go to
church at all anymore because they say I
can't find a church.
So they've just given up and they're backslidden,
absolutely indifferent, lukewarm.
No, they don't smoke, drink, curse, carouse, but
they have no more intimacy with Christ.
And then I have others that I know
that used to come to this church and
sit under that preaching and they were so
on fire.
They couldn't wait to get back.
They would sit in church and the next
week get the tape that was preached on
Sunday morning and listen to it again going
home the next service.
On the car, in the car.
And now you see them occasionally Sunday morning
they come.
God help Times Square Church if it becomes
just a Sunday morning church.
God help us.
I don't believe it ever will happen.
Not with the pastors you have sitting here.
Never.
But you see, that's what happens when they
settle down and they're changed.
I meet them and they're changed and they
don't know it.
They still think I'm the same old man.
I'm the same woman.
I'm on fire for God.
I love the Lord.
And they don't spend any time with the
Lord.
They've changed and they don't know it.
Oh, what a terrible place to be.
But oh, thank God for the love Jesus
has for his church and the love he
has for his pastors that he just keeps
coming.
Remember, it's not just a knock, but it's
a voice.
Anyone who hears my voice and hears my
knock, if you just open up, I will
sup with him.
That is fellowship.
Fellowship.
And out of that fellowship comes all the
ministries to the poor, to the needy, hospitals,
jails, all.
It has to come out of that supper
time with the Lord.
I preach the message here called feeding Christ,
where that's his food when you allow him
to talk to you, where you just sit
in his presence.
And folks, I've been tested on that.
I've had times where I've spent so much
time alone with the Lord.
And I said, Lord, is this really true
that you want me to sit here and
wait on you and give you quality time?
And I just wait.
Wouldn't that be easy for the enemy to
come in and speak or my flesh to
take on the voice of the spirit?
The Lord said, no.
He said, if your heart is open to
me, just ask me now to put the
wall of fire around you.
The enemy doesn't know he cannot come in.
I'll not let you be deceived.
I will not deceive you or let you
be deceived.
You will not hear strange voices, but giving
him that time.
And that's what it's all about.
After over 50 years of preaching, if I
was to distill everything I've ever learned in
50 years of preaching and walking with God,
it has to be this.
My time with Jesus.
Quality time.
Quality time every day.
Just loving him.
And then sitting and waiting until he speaks
his mind.
That's when the revelation, that's when he'll come
and reveal these things.
That's when he'll search you.
And he does it with such love because
he says, I want you to be, I
want you to be that lamp stand.
I want you to be that testimony.
Stand with me, please.
You may be one that has to acknowledge
this morning.
Something you said, Pastor Dave, just like an
arrow into my innermost being.
You know, the Holy Ghost has been searching
you this morning, your heart.
You love the Lord, busy for him, but
you've been drifting.
You've been drifting.
You're really not where you were.
It's not where you want to be with
him.
There's been a drift.
I want anyone who's backslidden in your heart
and willing to acknowledge that.
Anyone here that's not right with God.
You are not intimate with Christ.
You may not be angry at him, but
you don't have intimacy with Christ.
You don't know what it's like to be
intimate with him.
You've never, some of you have never walked
down an aisle.
You've never come forward like this in any
church, any meeting before.
But the Lord wants to change your heart.
He wants to leave this building changed so
that you're not going to go on just
like you were.
There has to be a confession for sin,
something that may have a hold of your
heart.
I want you to get out of your
seat.
It always amazes me how quickly God responds
to a cry and a need.
He responds immediately.
It's not some long, drawn out thing.
It's instant.
He comes.
He said, call and I'll answer.
And by your coming forward, it's a cry.
Lord, here I am.
My heart's reaching out to you.
Oh, God, melt my heart and break me.
Look at me, please.
You know what he said?
The scripture says, to this one while I
looked.
And that's a broken heart and a contrite
spirit.
A brokenness, a yieldedness, a willingness to say,
Jesus, I've got to have you.
It's not money that I need, though I
need that as well.
And it's not a husband or wife or
a friend.
I need you first and most of all.
I need you.
I need you present in my life.
I need to know when I walk on
the subway and walk into my job that
you're with me, your presence is with me.
And I'm walking with you.
It has to do with your walk and
your talk.
And the change that will happen if you
mean it from your heart, to confess your
heart and believe with your mouth.
Most of you that are here know what
to do.
You've done it.
But this morning, when you do it from
the heart, when you do it with a
cry that says, Jesus, I don't ever want
to be lukewarm.
I'd rather be cold than if I can't
be hot.
I'd rather be cold, I prefer that state
than the lukewarmness.
At least when you're cold, you have a
quicker chance of facing your need.
I'm going to pray for you.
Then I'm going to ask you to have
you pray with me first.
Just close your eyes so you're not looking
at other people.
Pray this prayer with me from your heart.
Dear Jesus, I do need you.
I know that deep in my heart, there's
a cry that no one can help, no
one can answer but you, Jesus.
And I stand here in your holy presence,
asking you to forgive me for trying to
work it out myself and leaning on friends
and people instead of you.
Now I come to you, Jesus, cleanse my
heart.
I trust you to forgive me and love
me and search me and find any wicked
thing and I give it to you.
Thank you for loving me and searching me.
I give all that I am, all that
I have, and the best I know how,
here and now, in Jesus' name.
Would you just thank him now?
Now let me pray for you.
Lord, I pray for those who came forward
and those in the congregation, in the annex,
the overflow rooms, and here in the main
auditorium.
Oh, holy Christ.
Christ, the son of the living God.
How dependent we are on you.
We're dependent.
Lord, I hear your voice saying, I want
to be with you.
I want time with you.
I want to sup with you.
I want to dine with you.
I'm knocking.
Lord, that's what the whole message is about,
just the knocking and the crying of the
heart of Jesus, saying, I have everything you
need if you just give me your time.
Look at me, please, before you go.
Would you make up your mind right now?
This is strictly something you can do.
You have the power to do it.
You don't need to be super endued from
the Holy Ghost to do this.
You can do this by your own human
will.
You can set your heart right now to
give God time, to give Christ time and
go.
If all you can start is 15 minutes
a day, it's not one of those prayers
as you walk.
Prayer on the subway, that's fine.
You do that too.
But I'm talking about shutting yourself away.
Find a place alone, if you can, and
spend a time just talking to him.
Please don't ask for a season.
Don't ask for anything.
Because if you get close to him, he
said, I'm more willing to give you or
to receive.
He said, I know before you ask.
I know what you're going through, but I
just want fellowship with you right now for
a season.
I want you to love me.
Then after we've stopped together and you let
me talk to you, then ask for the
city, ask for the nations, ask for what
you will.
But I need to just talk to you.
Get close to Jesus.
That's the whole thing.
I thank God for that.
Hallelujah.