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.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
P.O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771, or
calling 903-963-8626.
You are welcome to make additional cassettes of
this message for free distribution to friends.
However, for all other forms of reproduction or
electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.
I'm a little limited in strength today, so
I don't know how long I'm going to
speak for, but I do have something that
God's been stirring in my heart for several
days.
So if you would pray with me.
Father, I thank you, God.
Lord, you said that in weakness your strength
is made perfect.
I believe that with all my heart.
I believe that you sit at the right
hand of all authority and all power.
I believe that in you I rule and
reign.
I thank you, God, today that there's no
power of hell that can stand against what
you are destined to do in this house.
I thank you, Lord, that you're going to
move sovereignly and powerfully, and the kingdom of
darkness will suffer great violence.
I ask, O God, for every demonic power
that's at work in this house to be
demolished, the lies of the enemy to be
exposed.
I ask, O God, that you move so
powerfully that there be a shout of freedom
come into the hearts of many that will
never leave their lives.
It will be forever until you come and
take them home and then and beyond.
And, Lord, I thank you for it in
Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.
Judges chapter 16, right after the book of
Joshua is Judges.
It's time to call off the party.
Judges chapter 16, beginning at verse 23.
Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them
together for to offer a great sacrifice unto
Dagon, their God, and to rejoice.
For they said, Our God has delivered Samson,
our enemy, into our hand.
And when the people saw him, they praised
their God.
For they said, Our God has delivered into
our hands our enemy and the destroyer of
our country, which slew many of us.
Now, folks, you have to understand something.
The day you came to Christ, you entered
into...
We had battles before we came to Christ,
but the day you came to Christ, you
entered into a battle, a much more powerful
battle than perhaps many things that you'd ever
known before you came to him.
And some may not realize it today, but
as you are continuing to live for Christ
and you are testifying for him, there are
many powers of darkness, many principalities of evil
being destroyed before you that you can't even
see.
Just as you share a word of encouragement
and hope with someone who's suffering or struggling
in sin, or every time you lead a
sinner to Christ, that dominion of Satan is
being broken.
And many, many plans, battle plans that have
been formed against all of humanity begin to
be scattered to the wind, literally.
And this is what was happening with this
man called Samson.
God had touched his life, and through his
life thousands were being slain.
And now they've gathered to rejoice over him.
In verse 25, it says, It came to
pass, when their hearts were married, that they
said, Call for Samson, that he may make
us sport.
And they called for Samson out of the
prison house, and he made them sport, and
they set him between the pillars.
And Samson said unto the lad that held
him by the hand, Suffer me, that I
might feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth,
that I might lean upon them.
Now the house was full of men and
women, and all the lords of the Philistines
were there.
And there were upon the roof about three
thousand men and women that beheld while Samson
made sport.
And Samson called unto the Lord and said,
O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee,
and strengthen me, I pray thee only this
once, O God, that I may be at
once avenged to the Philistines from my two
eyes.
And Samson took hold of the two metal
pillars upon which the house stood, and upon
which it was borne up, of the one
with his right hand and the other with
his left.
And Samson said, Let me die with the
Philistines.
And he bowed himself with all his might,
and the house fell upon the lords and
upon all the people that were therein.
So the dead which he slew at his
death were more than they which he slew
in his life.
It's time to call off the party.
David, the psalmist, Psalm 35, says it this
way.
Now, David was always aware that powerful enemies
surrounded him and were forever waiting to rejoice
over his fall.
And David said it this way in Psalm
35, verse 16, he said, With hypocritical mockers
and feasts they gnashed upon me with their
teeth.
Verse 19, he says, Let not them that
are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me.
Verse 21, he says, Yea, they opened their
mouth wide against me and said, Aha, aha,
our eye has seen it.
In other words, David is saying, I am
aware that all around me are powers and
principalities of darkness that are waiting for me
to fall.
They're waiting for the testimony of Christ to
be proven of none effect.
And they gather round me, David says, and
they say with their mouths, Aha, our eyes
have seen it.
We are watching him now, a man that
was touched by God, but now he's fleeing
from his enemies.
Now he's hiding in a cave.
Now all hell seems to be around him.
In verse 25, David says, Let them not
say in their hearts, Ah, so we would
have it.
Let them not say, We have swallowed him
up.
And folks, I want to tell you something.
Every person who knows the anointing of the
Spirit of God enters a warfare.
And it's a warfare that is so far
beyond anything of our own understanding, our comprehension.
It is a warfare designed to take the
very testimony of Christ out of your heart
and out of your life.
Paul said in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
12, We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
In other words, we wrestle against a spiritual
entourage that is forever waiting to devour that
which is closest to the heart of God.
John, the beloved apostle, saw it when he
wrote in the book of Revelation chapter 12
and verse 3.
He said, There appeared another wonder in heaven.
And behold, a great red dragon, having seven
heads and ten horns and seven crowned upon
his heads, and his tail drew the third
part of the stars of heaven and had
cast them to the earth.
Now, he's seeing in a vision as it
is what transpired in heaven when Satan drew
a third of the angels with him and
caused a rebellion against God because in his
heart he was lifted up and he wanted
to be as God.
Bottom line, he wanted to rule himself and
he wanted to rule God's creation.
He wanted to be as powerful and ultimately
more powerful than God himself.
And John said, The dragon stood before the
woman which was ready to be delivered, for
to devour her child as soon as it
was born.
Now, the devil knew that God had spoken
a word.
That word was spoken to him right in
Genesis when he caused humankind to sin.
God said, I'll put enmity between thee and
the woman and between thy seed and her
seed, and it shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel.
The devil knew that God had spoken a
word and the word of God is powerful,
quicker, sharper than any two-edged sword.
We see in Matthew chapter 2, Herod the
king moving to slay all the young children
in Bethlehem.
But you see, Herod is unaware that he's
being animated by an evil that's much greater
than himself.
John saw it.
It's not Herod trying to devour these little
children, these little babies, trying to kill the
Messiah.
It's the devil himself.
He's after that seed of God.
He's after the very life of God.
He always has been.
For that's what he has to overcome in
order to reign.
If he can't overcome the life of Christ,
there's absolutely no way he can reign and
he knows it.
And Herod moves unaware, as most people who
are without God are unaware, that they are
being animated by an evil much greater than
their own mind and their own heart.
Thinking perhaps that he's forming this thought in
his own heart and unaware that the devil
himself is behind it, trying to swallow the
very life of Christ.
You see, Satan knew that from Israel, and
Israel is a nation and a people of
God's promise, from that nation was going to
come a Messiah.
Those who would be born of his seed,
that means born of his life, would rule
and put in subjection the same powers of
darkness forever.
Now, beloved, that is our inheritance.
Our inheritance is not to be the tail,
but it's to be the head.
Our inheritance is not to be dominated by
darkness, but to stand with Christ at the
right hand of all authority and power and
to rule and to cast down every argument
that is contrary to the truth of what
God has already done for humanity through Jesus
Christ.
Now, Satan knew from the time God had
spoken to him in Eden that the only
hope of reigning was to go after Christ's
life.
He had to go after the life of
Christ.
Now, Jesus himself in Mark chapter 12 identified
this battle.
He said in verse 7, But those husbandmen
said among themselves, This is the heir.
Come and let us kill him, and the
inheritance shall be ours.
You see, he's talking about not just the
Pharisees, not just the Sadducees and the religious
that were going to send him to a
cross, but he's speaking right to the powers
that animate them because they're not under the
influence of God, therefore they're under the influence
of the devil himself, open to his suggestion.
And the enemy saw, they said, this is
the heir.
Here is the one who is destined by
God the Father to inherit all things.
Here is the giver of life.
Here is the one who has the right
to rule and to reign.
And he has been given of his father
an inheritance, so therefore we must kill him.
And in killing him, the inheritance will become
ours.
Now, we ask ourselves, what is the inheritance?
Is it just the things of this world?
Is it New York City and all that
it involves, and all the great cities and
kingdoms of all time?
I'm sure that's part of it, but it's
much, much more than that.
Now, here's what I believe the inheritance is.
In John 17, when Jesus was praying, he
said these words in verse 9 and 10.
He said, I pray for them.
I pray not for the world, but for
them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine, and all mine are thine, and
thine are mine, and I am glorified in
them.
And this is the inheritance.
The inheritance is you and it's me.
Jesus was given an inheritance.
He was given that which is closest to
the very heart of God the Father.
He was given the souls and the lives
of all those who would trust in him
for their salvation.
With the day you and I trusted in
Christ, we became his inheritance.
He inherited, yes, the power of glory.
He inherited everything that God promised, all of
these things.
But ultimately, that inheritance flows right down to
you and I, because you and I are
precious in the sight of God.
God formulated a plan in his heart from
before the foundation of the very universe itself
to come as a man and to redeem
those that he would create, who would be
the dearest and closest to his heart.
Beloved, it's a tragedy, but many people will
never understand how greatly loved you are of
God until we stand one day before his
throne.
Some have the privilege of beginning to unlock
that mystery here on this side of eternity,
to understand that God so loved you that
he became a man.
And even if it was only you, if
you were the only one in all of
the generations since Calvary who would have yielded
and given your life to Christ, he still
would have come and he still would have
died.
You are the inheritance of God.
You are precious to God.
You have to know that.
Deeply precious.
The writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter
12, verse 2, that we are to look
to Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God.
We are to look to him.
Every contrary argument to truth was thrown at
him.
He was tormented to the maximum degree that
Satan is allowed to test and torment a
man he was tested.
He was brought into the wilderness.
He was offered brides to bow down and
to yield from doing the will of God
the Father.
He was tested to an incredible degree as
he was on that cross, and yet he
did not lose his confidence in the word
that God had spoken into his heart.
And it was because of that confidence he
was able to die and to promise life
for all of those who would trust in
him.
The scripture tells us that he despised the
shame.
Now, I used to believe the shame, and
I've heard it preached, was a loincloth that
basically represented nakedness in his generation, that he
was raised up on the cross in a
loincloth and as such exposed as naked for
his generation.
And that was the shame of the cross.
Now, there's a measure of truth in that,
but it's so far from what really what
the author of this particular scripture is speaking
about.
The shame was not a loincloth.
It was so far beyond that.
The shame, beloved, was the taunting ridicule of
the devil.
This ridicule was designed to have him believe
that his confidence in God the Father's promises
was worthless.
There was a shame that the dragon himself
tried to spew on Christ to get him
to believe that circumstance, which was the cross,
had triumphed over the promises of God his
Father.
In Matthew chapter 27, we see a crowd
of people that are completely animated by the
devil.
Matthew 27, verse 39, the scripture says, And
they that passed by reviled him, wagging their
heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple
and buildest it in three days, save thyself,
if thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross.
In other words, the devil was throwing right
into the face of Christ through a crowd
that is animated by the power of darkness.
Where are your boasts now of supernatural power?
You've made a great boast of what God
is able to accomplish through your life.
And now here you are, helpless, hopeless.
Tell us now where your boasts are of
supernatural power.
Give us some display of this thing that
you've been speaking about.
And if it's true, come down from your
place of suffering.
If it's true, show us truly that you
are the Son of God.
In verse 42, again they continue to mock
him.
You have to understand, these are powers of
darkness that are mocking the Son of God.
Saying he saved others, and himself he cannot
save.
And you know, there's an inference in this.
And the inference is destined not only to
touch Christ, but also touch the crowd that
are gathered around the cross that are still
hoping.
And the inference is just simply this.
If you cannot help yourself, then your promises
to others are worthless also.
If you can't save yourself, then you can't
save anybody else.
If it doesn't work for you, then it
doesn't work for anybody that you preach to.
And that's the inference.
Going right after the heart as it is,
of his confidence in the promises that God
the Father had made to his heart.
And then finally, the devil saves his best
for the last.
In verse 43, he says he trusted in
God.
Let him deliver him now, if he will
have him.
For he said, I am the Son of
God.
If he will have him.
That's the inference.
And there's a whole bunch of words.
And there's couched in these words right in
the middle.
A thought.
And it's the same temptation that the devil
brings against those who are Christ's.
Those who want to live for God, who
want to serve God.
The thought is that God has found some
fault in you and rejected you.
There's something in you that you don't see,
but God sees it.
And because of it, because he has seen
this thing in you, he's going to reject
you.
He says he trusted in God.
Let him deliver him.
If he will have him.
And we see the devil tormenting Christ.
Right to the very moment of his last
breath, he's tormenting him.
But the author of Hebrews says he despised
the shame.
In other words, he counted it worthless.
He counted it as nothing.
These are just empty words of a defeated
fault.
Because God had given him a promise.
And the scripture says for the joy that
was set before him, he endured the cross
and despised the shame.
The joy was not that he would be
seated at the right hand of power.
The joy is that you and I would
be seated there with him one day.
The joy is that his life would come
down and be manifested in and through our
lives.
Carrying us, sustaining us by the same promises
through which he had been carried of his
father.
He would come and empower us.
And he would give us, by these promises
and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, he would
give us the same power to triumph over
the devil that he had known.
We would enter into the victory.
We'd become the spoil as it is of
the war.
The inheritance of the victor.
We would be given crowns.
And the Bible says we are going to
rule and reign with Christ for all of
eternity.
We would be able to stand.
The Bible says against all the wiles of
the devil.
We would walk through fire and through flood.
And even though we'd go through hard times
and trials, the fire would not burn us
and the flood would not drown us.
Paul the apostle went through hard times in
his life.
But he had a prayer in his heart.
And that prayer was just simply this.
Having done all, at the end I will
still stand.
Having been under the barrage of everything the
devil could possibly throw at me.
Paul says, by God's grace and by God's
power, when it's finished on the last day,
I'm not ever going to cower before my
enemies.
I'm going to stand in the grace and
the power of God.
Because Christ has triumphed over the powers of
the enemy.
Christ has given great promises.
And by these promises, daily, I've become a
partaker of the divine life and nature of
God.
And that life and nature of God is
the first fruit of the promise of God.
That having trusted in Christ, I have a
sure future and I have a guaranteed eternity.
I'm no longer under the dominion of sin
or the powers of darkness.
Now, Satan has to bow under my feet.
Because Christ is in my heart and in
my life.
Luke 23, 46 says that finally, the last
words of Jesus, in spite of all the
taunting, He said, Father, into thy hands I
commend my spirit.
In other words, you've made promises to me.
And circumstance makes it look like those promises.
Circumstance would try to dictate that those promises
are not going to come to pass.
And I'm about to breathe my last.
But you have promised that I would be
raised.
You promised that I would sit and have
an inheritance with me through all of eternity.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And, folks, that is the absolute key.
An unbroken faith in every promise that God
the Father had ever made him.
And Hebrews writer says we're to look to
him.
He despised the shame.
He despised the lies of the darkness.
All the powers of evil and all the
suggestions would try to come against your life
to destroy you.
The Bible says look to Jesus and follow
in his footsteps and despise the lie.
Put it away.
Recognize where it comes from.
Recognize you have an enemy that has committed
himself to devouring the very life of God
that you.
I often wonder, was it party time in
hell?
The moment that Jesus breathed his last and
gave up the ghost as the scripture says,
was there a party?
And if there was, I know exactly what
the theme was.
The theme was simply this, because Christ had
said it earlier.
The inheritance is ours.
We have defeated the word of God.
Humanity is in our grasp forever.
And Satan, if he was leading this party,
would be saying all of humanity that will
ever be born.
That which is closest to the heart of
God.
I now have the right to rule and
reign.
The inheritance is now mine.
Often wondered if the devil planned to build
a party palace on Calvary.
Day one, celebration in hell perhaps.
I'm only speculating because the scripture doesn't say.
Day two, you can see all of the
bragging and boasting.
We took him.
He was unable to come down from the
cross.
Day three, suddenly, hell stands still.
Did a henshling demon come running into the
very throne, supposed throne room of Satan?
He himself has said, call off the party.
Something seems to be wrong.
Things have not gone as planned.
Jesus is gone.
He has risen from the dead.
I can imagine the very terror, the shudder
of terror that must have gone through hell
and the powers of darkness.
The understanding that God by his power had
raised a dead man.
Even though hell had thrown everything that hell
has against him.
God had raised him because his confidence in
the word of God had never been eroded.
It had never been taken away.
And I can see the demonic powers gathering
around saying, what do we do now?
The son of God has risen from the
dead.
Which means that everything that has been spoken
about us is going to happen.
We're going to be trodden underfoot.
We're going to be dominated.
What do we do now?
And I feel the only plan that darkness
had left is just simply this.
We must go after the inheritance now.
We must try to shame their trust in
God and devour the seed of the child.
We must attempt to devour the very life
of Christ in them.
Now, beloved, sanction is a type of so
many who for whatever reason have allowed the
enemy to build a house of mockery over
their heads.
There's so many Christians today that are living
in a place where the enemy is laughing
at you and mocking you.
And as it is throwing a party over
your life.
You came to Christ and there were promises
given you.
And you held to these promises.
And then for a season it looked as
if the promises God gave you were not
going to come to pass.
But beloved, listen to this.
The Lord is not in a rush.
And his ways are not our ways.
And his thoughts are not our thoughts.
And neither are his plans our plans.
He does things quite often in ways that
we don't understand.
And thank God that he does.
That's what makes him God.
That's what makes you and I dependent upon
him.
But in those times of trial and testing,
the enemy will come and try to build
a house of mockery right on the top
of your head.
Try to influence and infiltrate your thoughts.
And somehow get you to feel that God
has rejected his plan in your life because
of some mysterious iniquity in you.
Or perhaps it's because of something you do
struggle with.
There's so many different things that children of
God have to face even after we come
to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And the enemy comes and tries to tell
you, well, it hasn't worked for you.
What right, then, do you have to think
that it works for anybody else?
And tries to take the very testimony of
Christ out of your mouth.
Content, perhaps, to lose you for all of
eternity.
But attempting to destroy the life of Christ
in you.
To swallow the man-child as it is.
To take away that testimony, that confidence in
God's faithfulness and his power.
Because that is the very life of what
we preach.
Paul, the apostle, said, your faith is not
to rest in the arguments of man, but
it's to rest in the power of God.
It's the faithfulness of God.
The reality that everything that God has spoken
to you, he will do.
The things he said he will perform, he
will perform.
The victory he said he would give, he
is going to give.
He is not a man, he cannot lie,
the scripture says.
And finally, Samson said to the lad that
held him by the hand, he said, Suffer
me that I may feel the pillars whereupon
this house stands, that I may lean upon
them.
Now, folks, Samson is saying, show me upon
what this house stands.
Now, here are all these Philistines, which is
a type of the demonic powers.
And they built a house over his head.
They're all up above him looking over the
balcony.
And they're rejoicing, and they're laughing, and they're
mocking.
Because this man that God called and anointed
is in a circumstance that appears to have
rendered him powerless.
And, beloved, that's where many, many people live.
But finally, Samson, something gets into his heart.
And I'm praying to God that it will
get into some hearts that are hearing my
voice today.
And he says to the young man that
he's not, I don't believe doing this of
his own accord.
He's being moved upon by the Holy Ghost
now.
And he says to the young lad, show
me what this house stands on.
And you need to have that cry in
your heart.
To say, Holy Spirit, show me what this
house of mockery is standing on.
That's over my life.
That is trying to convince me that the
power of God is of no avail for
me.
That somehow circumstances are going to swallow me
and overwhelm me.
Beloved, it stands, the house stands at mockery
because so few are willing to call out
and believe for the power of God.
To enable them to overcome their situation.
And finally, Samson calls out.
And he says, Lord God, remember me, I
pray thee.
And strengthen me.
Only this once.
And that, to me, I feel is a
tragedy.
You see, Samson was living in a day
of miracles.
He was living at a time when God
so empowered him, he could take a donkey's
jawbone.
And with that, he could slay a thousand
men.
And then God, out of that same jawbone,
would give him water to drink.
It was a time of absolute miracles.
I think of Israel when the Scripture says,
they limited the Holy One of Israel.
And because they limited Him, they ended up
living in the wilderness all of their days.
And there's so many people, tragically, that even
profess the name of Christ and they live
in the wilderness with a mockinghouse of laughter
over them.
Almost all of their Christian life.
Who knows what God would have done?
Had Samson asked Him for more than he
did.
If I would have been Samson, in my
heart, I feel, if I would have felt
moved upon by the Spirit of God, I
would have asked Him, and perhaps God would
have given Him back His eyes.
I believe in my heart.
Now, it's only a personal belief.
It's not registered anywhere in the Scripture.
But I believe in my heart that God
could have given him His eyes back.
Could have restored his ministry.
But He didn't ask for it.
He was moved upon and He said, just
once.
All I ask for is just an anointing
one time.
And I ask you to bring this house
down and kill me.
And kill those that are mocking me.
But folks, I want to tell you something.
That is not what the New Testament Christian
is to ask for.
Jesus said, I came that those that are
blind might receive their sight.
Now, He's not talking about a physical blindness
only.
It's a spiritual blindness.
I came that those that don't know who
they are in me might have their eyes
opened to see where they sit and stand
because of my light that's going to be
in them and upon them.
I pray that their eyes might be opened
to the understanding that every promise of God
is yea and amen to those who believe.
God cannot fail you.
He will never fail you.
He never fails those that call out upon
His name.
He may allow you to go through a
season of trial.
There may be circumstances come against your life
that threaten to overwhelm you.
But they will not overwhelm you because the
power of God is within you.
The light of Christ is in you.
The Bible says the same spirit that raised
Christ from the dead will also quicken your
mortal body.
Will give you life.
Folks, Paul says that we are to know
that the power that we possess comes of
God and not of ourselves.
I wish Samson had asked for more than
he asked for.
I wish that he had asked God to
give him back his life and give him
back his ministry.
And so many people are content with just
the victory of the day and they don't
ask for the life.
They ask for victory from a circumstance or
a particular situation.
They may find themselves in.
Or for a time when the enemy seems
to have free hand to torment them.
But I believe that God says, No, I
want my people to ask for more than
that.
I want you to ask for life.
Absolute divine life to flow through you.
Life that tears down dominions and powers and
principalities of darkness.
Life that has the faith to speak a
word and see darkened hearts brought to light,
sickened minds made straight, wounded bodies made whole,
people captivated by sin released into the power
and victory of God.
Folks, do we dare ask for more than
just momentary victory?
Is it only about getting free from one
circumstance or situation that we might face?
And that's where so many people live.
But God says, I want you to live
beyond that.
I want you to look far into the
future.
As long as you live and breathe, God
says, I'm going to sustain you.
I'm going to keep you.
I'm going to give you a testimony that
can't be triumphed over.
You're going to have to go through hell,
some of you, so that you will have
the authority in your words to say, God
has been faithful to me and God will
be faithful to you.
Jesus showed us the way.
Everything that could be heaped on humanity was
heaped on Him.
And I'm not talking now by the hand
of God.
I'm talking now about the powers of darkness.
It was all put against Him.
And He was tested and tempted.
The Scripture says, in every way, just like
we are, yet without sin.
I pray that you and I would ask
for more than Samson did.
Hallelujah.
Psalm 18.
I'm going to conclude with that.
Listen to what David said, the psalmist, in
verse 3.
I will call upon the Lord, who is
worthy to be praised, and so shall I
be saved from mine enemies.
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the
floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
The sorrows of hell compassed me about, and
the snares of death prevented me.
In my distress, I called upon the Lord
and cried unto my God.
And He heard my voice out of His
temple, and my cry came before Him, even
into His ears.
Verse 36.
David says, Thou hast enlarged my steps under
me, that my feet did not slip.
I have pursued mine enemies and overtaken them,
and neither did I turn again until they
were consumed.
I have wounded them, that they are not
able to rise, and they have fallen under
my feet.
You see, beloved, that is the inheritance of
every child of God.
For Thou hast girded me with strength unto
the battle.
Thou hast subdued unto me those that rose
up against me.
Thou hast also given me the next of
mine enemies, that I might destroy them that
hate me.
They cried, but there was none to save
them, even to the Lord, but He answered
them not.
And then that I beat them small as
the dust before the wind, I did cast
them out as dirt in the streets.
Hallelujah.
Now, folks, I believe today it's time for
many in this house to call off the
party.
There are people here today, the devil is
rejoicing because he reigns in you.
The devil is rejoicing because you are without
Christ in entirety.
You don't know Him as Lord and Savior.
You are animated by darkness.
You have no power.
You have no authority to turn from the
sin that's in your life because sin has
dominion over you.
The devil has built a house over you.
And I want you to have this picture
of Samson with three thousand, the enemies of
God, all animated by the powers of darkness,
peering over and mocking him and laughing at
him.
And that's exactly what the devil does to
those who are without Christ.
Animates you, causes you to do what you
don't want to do, causes you to live
in a way that you know is bringing
you to destruction and rejoices over you the
whole time, rejoices in your fall.
Only a fool would ever want to serve
such a master.
Only a fool would ever want to live
in sin's grip when he now has the
knowledge that God loved him so much that
he became a man and died on a
cross to give him victory over sin and
to give him power over all of his
enemies.
You'll have to be an absolute fool to
continue to live in sin when that knowledge
has come into your heart.
And I make no apology for that statement.
I'm better to say it now and have
you offended and turned to Christ than one
day to have you stand before the throne
of God to then realize what a fool
that you've been.
Especially having been in a church and having
heard of the love of God, the power
of God and the victory of God through
Christ.
And because of reputation, because of pride, because
of some other foolish things in your heart,
you've put it away and you've chosen to
allow this house of mockery to be built
over the top of your head, not even
aware of the peril that you're in.
Not just for time, but the Bible says
for all of eternity.
For eternity, I want you to consider them,
those that are without Christ.
I believe that darkness is a place of
absolute mockery.
Every devil of hell will laugh in your
face for all of eternity.
If hell has a tape recorder, then the
devil will replay my words into your ears
that you sat here in Times Square Church
and you heard this day and you defied
in your heart.
You had an opportunity for eternal life.
You had a chance for heaven and turned
it down.
I want you to picture turning that down
and one day standing with a thousand, ten
thousand mocking spirits laughing at you, replaying the
words.
Because the Bible says in hell the worm
never dies.
The conscience never goes away.
It is the absolute opposite of heaven where
there's no more sorrow, no more sighing, no
more suffering.
But in hell, it's ever increased sorrow and
ever increased sigh, especially those who had an
opportunity to know God and turned it down
and chose instead to live blind and powerless
between the pillars of an ungodly house built
only for the purpose of mocking you for
time and eternity.
And I make no apology to tell you
today that if you are without Christ, that
is your destiny.
That is where you're going.
There is no priest, there are no prayers
that can be prayed after you die that
will ever get you out of hell.
When you die, the book is closed.
If you have rejected Christ, you've rejected life,
both life on this side of eternity and
life in eternity.
You've rejected the right to be the inheritance
of Jesus Christ, to rule and reign with
him over the powers of hell forever.
You've rejected life, absolute life, and the promise
of God's blessing and presence as long as
you live.
There are others here today that circumstance is
hard.
There are taunting voices that are trying to
shame your faith in Christ, trying to tell
you it doesn't work for you, it's not
working.
Then where is your authority to tell others
that Christ will sustain them?
Folks, I want to tell you something.
I do thank God for every trial in
my life.
I thank God for every hard place.
I thank God for the impossible places.
I thank God for times when it looks
like there is no tomorrow.
I thank God for everything that before my
natural eye looks impossible.
You want to know why?
Because God is going to bring me through.
God is going to bring me through.
When I've run out of strings to pull,
and I've run out of levers to press,
and buttons to press, and I've run out
of ways to manipulate and try to procure
what I think should be the inheritance of
my home and family and my own life
and ministry and everything else.
When I've run out of everything, there are
some days when you feel perhaps that you
have no more than an ounce of God
in your life.
You say, well, if the Holy Spirit is
in me, He's no bigger than my little
toe.
If it were possible for God to divide
Himself, I want you to know that one
ounce of God has more power than all
the nuclear weaponry this world possesses today.
Samson cried out and said, God, show me.
Show me upon what this house stands.
The house of mockery stands only because of
unbelief.
You take away unbelief and the devil crumbles.
His kingdom crumbles.
His mocking voices crumble.
His sneering laughter crumbles.
All of his weaponry that he forms against
your life crumbles if you take away unbelief.
And I see Samson putting his hands on
those pillars of mockery, the pillars of that
house of hell itself, and saying, God, strengthen
me.
And folks, if you will pray that simple
prayer, you see, it's the delight of God
to be honored in your life.
Jesus said, my glory will be manifested in
them.
My life will be seen in them.
It's not about us.
It's not about anything we have.
It's not about our strengths or abilities.
If we think it is, God will take
it all away and prove us wrong until
we finally see that we are weak and
blind without Him.
No, it's not about us.
It's about Him.
It's about His triumph on Calvary.
It's about the Holy Spirit.
It's about the promises that God has spoken
into every one of our lives.
It's about a God who promises He will
not fail us.
He will carry us and sustain us until
the day He takes us home and then
beyond.
In the midst of your trial, if you
will just call out and say, Jesus, be
glorified in this situation.
Be glorified by giving me strength to walk
when I can't walk anymore.
By giving me strength to hope when hope
is gone out of my heart.
By giving me strength to see when nothing
of my natural sight looks like there's any
victory or hope ahead of me.
God, give me strength that can only come
from the Holy Ghost.
There's no other source of life and strength.
Be seen in me and be glorified in
me.
And when you raise your hands to God
and put them on those pillars of unbelief,
God says, I will move them and I'll
bring down the whole house of hell that
has tried to wreck itself over your life.
I'll bring it all down.
The whole thing.
The enemy wants to try to tell me
that I'm not going to physically make it.
But I'm telling you this day and I
make no vain boast in my God.
I'm going to stand in Nigeria and I'm
going to see hundreds of thousands of people
come to Christ.
Hallelujah.
Oh, God.
I'm going to sing a song for you.
As I sing it, if the Holy Ghost
has spoken to your heart and you would
like to see the house of laughter demolished
over your life, join with me at this
altar and we're going to pray together and
believe God for a marvelous victory.
How many would say with me, Pastor Carter,
I am a sinner and I live without
Christ.
I've never trusted him to be my Lord
and Savior and I'm deserving of hell because
of it.
But I've heard the gospel today and I
don't want to spend my eternity in hell
and I don't want to live the rest
of my life underneath a house of mockery
of the enemy.
I want to live for Christ.
I want to be free from my sin
and I want the power of God in
my life.
I understand today that Jesus purchased me as
an inheritance and he's promised to give me
eternal life and he's promised to give me
a full and abundant life here also on
this side of eternity.
And today, this day in January 2002 in
New York City, I want heaven to record
that I gave my life to Jesus Christ
to be my Lord and Savior.
If that's you, please raise your hand right
now.
Balcony, go ahead, nice and high, made sanctuary
at the altar.
Education annexed without shame.
Say, Lord Jesus, you died for me.
You despise the shame.
Oh God, I'm going to live for you.
Now let's pray together, everyone in this house.
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
I thank you, Lord, that you died for
my sin.
You paid the price for all the wrong
things that I have done.
And this day I open my heart.
I confess my sin and I ask you
to come into my life to be my
Lord and my Savior.
You died for me to justify me before
God.
And you were raised from the dead as
living proof that those who trust in you
will have a new and an eternal life.
I trust today and I believe that you
are forgiving my sin this very moment and
giving me the Holy Spirit to give me
the power to live a new life for
now and for eternity.
I believe that from this moment forward, because
of the promises of God in Jesus Christ,
I am saved.
Hallelujah.
Now Father, I ask you in Christ's name
to strengthen my brothers and sisters at this
altar.
God, especially those that are going through the
trial of their life, when there doesn't seem
to be any strength left or any hope.
And God, I'm thanking you now that as
we ask you for strength, that you are
a God who cannot fail your people.
You will never fail those that call out
to you.
You'll give strength and hope and life.
You'll open doorways that no man can close.
You'll give power that the enemy cannot resist.
Father, I thank you for it from the
very depths of my heart.
God, you are infusing strength this very moment
to those that are asking for it.
God, we ask you for the spiritual eyes
now to see the pillars of this house
of mockery come crashing down, to see the
powers of darkness and disarray full of fear
and sent into chaos.
Mighty God, thank you for what you're doing
this very moment.
Father, thank you, Jesus, that you are breaking
these powers that want to torment the minds
of your people, of God's people.
Thank you for faith arising in our hearts.
Father, into your hands we commend our spirit.
We give ourselves into your hands.
Lord, you cannot fail us.
You will never fail us.
The same spirit that raised Christ from the
dead is now upon us.
God, you will lift us.
You will carry us.
You will save our children, O God.
Lord, you will bring us home.
You will take us through battles.
You will take us through the shame and
mockery and trials that come to everyone who
is on the side of eternity.
God, having done all like the Apostle Paul,
we will stand in the end and we
will give glory to your name.
We will honor your name.
We will praise your name.
Father, we thank you for this.
We praise you for it in Jesus' mighty
name.
Bless the name of Jesus.
Bless his holy name.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.