I want to speak to you on the
subject this morning, why the world hates Christians.
Do you understand you're hated?
Do you understand you're going to be persecuted?
That's what Jesus said.
We'll talk about it this morning.
Thank you, Father, for your word.
And I pray you anoint me this morning,
Lord.
I thank you that you put this in
my heart for my own welfare, but more
than that, for the body of Christ.
And I pray for an unction from the
Holy Spirit.
God, let us hear what the Spirit has
to say.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Go to John 15, please.
The 15th chapter of John.
Let's start at verse 16.
You have not chosen me, but I have
chosen you and ordained you, that you should
go and bring forth fruit, and that your
fruit should remain, that whatsoever you ask of
the Father in my name, He will give
it to you.
These things I command you, that you love
one another.
If the world hates you, you know it
hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world
would love His own.
But because you're not of the world, but
I've chosen you out of the world, therefore,
or for this reason, the world hated you.
Remember the word that I said to you?
The servant's not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also
persecute you.
If they have tipped my sayings, they will
keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto
you for my name's sake, because they know
not Him that sent me.
Now, here's what Jesus said in the commission
to all of us.
I've chosen you, ordained you, to go and
bring forth fruit.
And not only that, but He added these
words in that your fruit should remain.
In other words, that you would have lasting
fruit.
Fruit that would withstand the judgment day, when
we're all called to an account before the
throne of Christ.
Now, the Bible, when it says, I send
you forth to bear fruit, I take that
to mean the work of the minister of
Christ, doing His work.
We're all called to evangelize.
We're all called to preach Christ.
As a minister, I am called to make
disciples and train them, and cause them to
grow in Christ, and I can present a
chaste bride, just as Paul said, to Jesus
Christ.
But this is such a thing as a
false conversion.
Do you know that?
There are people who are called converts who
are really not converts.
Jesus warned the Pharisees.
Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites.
You compass sea and land to make one
proselyte.
And when he's made, you make him twofold
more the child of hell than yourself.
In other words, he said, you've gone out
and you have made what you consider a
convert.
You've got some kind of confession from him.
You've got him to attend your church, and
he looks right, he says the right words,
but you don't understand because you don't have
an experience yourself that what you teach and
what you preach has never had an effect,
an impact to change your life, and you're
just giving doctrine, you're giving theology, and you
have impure motives because you devour widows' houses.
You're cheating widows.
You're doing things in your life that are
dishonest, and your motives are not right, and
yet you're going out winning converts.
Jesus said, in the process, though they sit
in your synagogues and your churches, and even
though you call them converts and you add
them to your numbers, you have made them
a twofold child of hell.
In other words, they were going to hell
before you talked to them, but now they're
twice as damned as they were when you
talked to them.
Now, those are strong words, but they come
from Christ himself.
Jesus tried hypocrisy.
You make them twofold more a child of
hell, but you shall receive the greater damnation.
There are going to be many, many ministers
stand before the Lord, receive the greater damnation
than all the drug addicts in the world
put together because they, considering they have called
people converts, and I won't get into this,
it is possible for a minister of the
gospel, it is possible for those who evangelize
to make people twice fold the devil's child
according to the scripture.
He said, you shut up the kingdom of
heaven because you have no work of God
in your own heart.
You have literally, though you talk about God,
now these are scribes and Pharisees who were
Bible scholars.
They knew the Bible.
They knew the Bible of that time.
They knew the Torah.
They could explain it all, and they were
out zealous.
He said they scoured the seas and the
lands.
They went everywhere trying to make all the
plans and all the schemes to make one
convert, one proselyte.
Jesus said, you are so set on numbers
and building up your synagogues.
You go to these extremes to make converts.
You see, Christ despised the hypocrisy of shepherds
and those who evangelize more concerned about the
count than the conversion.
More concerned about the numbers than really seeing
a work, a true work of conversion done
into their heart.
Now I wonder what Jesus would say today
when he sees this same spirit.
He said, you roam sea and land for
new concepts and new ideas and programs to
get people into the church.
You are lost in this hypocrisy of numbers
and measuring success by the number of bodies
that sit in the congregation.
And what a hypocrisy this is in the
sight of God.
We have now in America what we call
mega churches.
Right now, this morning, all over the United
States, there were traffic jams in many, many
circles.
It took some people an hour just to
get in the parking lot of some churches.
Thousands and thousands lined up there, police officers
directing traffic in and out.
And people jamming into these places.
Some of the church edifices look like theme
parks.
I mean, they are like shopping malls.
You go to some churches, they have McDonald's,
they have their own malls.
Now folks, I'm not putting this down.
Many of them, there's a number of them
I know that have got these servants and
shepherds there that are preaching the gospel.
And many thousands in some of these churches
are being truly converted.
And I have no, I'm not putting that
down and no correction for any of that.
I'm in no position for that.
Times Square Church is considered a mega church.
Thousands attend this and this morning.
And people in overflow rooms and all the
overflow rooms have people in them hearing the
gospel now.
And I can assure you that there are
a number of people that come to Times
Square Church who call themselves converts who are
not converted.
Did you know that?
I'm not judging them, but I just know
for a fact that they have created their
own Christ in their mind.
They've heard the word that's gone in one
ear, not the other.
They've not allowed it.
And you can go to hell just as
quick here as any other place.
And you can become a two-fold child
of hell sitting under good Holy Ghost preaching.
But I can assure you if anybody goes
to hell a two-fold child of the
devil out of Times Square Church it's not
going to be the fault of any preacher
or the preaching from this pulpit.
It's going to be because you've hardened your
heart and you will not listen to a
convicting word of the Holy Ghost.
We will not stand before God with your
blood on our hands.
It will be not because there's been a
half-gospel preached here, but there'll be a
true gospel preached here.
It'll be preached this morning.
It's preached every time.
It may not be the best of preaching,
but it'll be the anointed preaching that'll touch
your heart.
Where are the John the Baptists today who
are unafraid to preach the gospel and lose
numbers in the process if necessary?
Not the purpose of it, but where are
those who have preached the same message to
presidents and kings as they do to the
lowly people that come into their houses and
worship?
Where are the John the Baptists today?
Not afraid to preach the gospel whether it
affects the finances or not, whether it affects
the crowd or not.
A friend called me recently.
He said, I'm going to a certain church
and I hear good concepts, but I don't
hear anything that convicts that go right from
the preaching into announcements and there's no conviction
and I'm trying and the pastor says, I
don't know what that's all about.
I don't understand that.
I don't understand this concept of conviction.
I tremble to think that it's possible that
I or any minister of the gospel, that
a message could be softened just to please
people, just to attract people, to soften or
preach less than an entire gospel without seeking
God with everything for a Holy Ghost anointing
to drive it deep into the hearts and
bring conviction.
I trouble to think it possible that any
preacher of the gospel could shut up the
heaven and make converts two-fold children of
hell.
That's what he said to these scribes and
Pharisees.
He said, you're making converts and you're preaching
your gospel, but you are actually shutting the
heavens and making your people two times over
children of hell.
I can't shake that when I think about
my responsibility here this morning in preaching the
gospel to you and those that hear this
on tape.
You see, I don't preach to be loved.
I don't preach to be accepted.
Now, my flesh wants to be loved, but
I'd rather send you home if you have
sin in your heart and give you sleepless
nights.
I would rather you walk out here and
say, I don't like that kind of preaching,
but you are thinking about it and the
Holy Ghost is dealing with you and you
are being changed by it.
Don't stop loving me just because I said
that.
The Bible said Jesus called his disciples together,
and listen to these words, and in the
audience of all the people, he gave this
scathing rebuke to these religious scribes, the scholars
of his day.
Beware of the scribes which desire to walk
in long robes and love greetings in the
markets, in the highest seats in the synagogues,
in the chief rooms at feasts.
In other words, beware of shepherds who love
the praises of men, who love the social
events to sit in high places and be
recognized by leaders and by politicians and want
to be accepted.
I want to tell you, sir, if you're
a pastor here and you're toast of the
town, something's wrong with your preaching.
The Bible says you're going to be hated.
The Bible says you're going to be despised.
If you're looking for acceptance, if on the
job you're looking for acceptance and you are
hiding your light under a bushel because you
would rather have the approval of your coworkers,
you're not living according to the gospel.
You're not living according to the commission that
Jesus Christ has given his church.
Beware of those religious Bible people who seek
the affection, the applause of the ungodly.
A church accepted by the world is an
oxymoron.
In other words, it's a foolishness.
There's no such thing as a church that
is truly preaching and working under the Holy
Ghost, fulfilling the commission of the Word of
God, that is loved and accepted by the
world.
It's impossible.
If you were of the world, the world
would love his own.
And because you're not of the world, but
I've chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hated you.
If you were of the world, if you
were their kind, they'd love you.
I've been greatly influenced by the writings of
a godly man called George Bowen.
George Bowen was a Presbyterian missionary in India
from 1848 to 1879.
He gave up all of his missionary support
and he moved in, in India, right into
a slum area and lived as the natives.
He lived there for years, living just frugally
and almost in poverty.
But he was one of the greatest men
that I've ever read about and his writings
have deeply affected my life.
And he warned, this is over 150 years
ago, he warned of the coming of a
Protestant Antichrist.
And he said that Antichrist is going to
be the influence of society being brought into
the church of Jesus Christ.
It's ways, it's methods, it's morals infiltrating the
church of Jesus Christ.
He called the Protestant Antichrist the spirit of
mixture with the world.
And he said the time is going to
come when this Antichrist may take his throne
and that time, you will know that time
has come when the church, the Protestant church
is no longer persecuted.
And it's now loved and accepted by the
world.
That means that this Antichrist spirit has come
and Jesus is no longer Lord, but the
ways and means and methods of the world
have crept in.
I received a letter two weeks ago from
a lady so distraught.
She said, I love Jesus and our church
used to be so on fire, but it
is backslidden now.
Every Saturday night in the gym they have
wrestling matches.
They bring in professional wrestlers and they even
have fake blood.
They have it all and the crowd goes
crazy, just like you see on television.
And she said, our church now is a
wrestling match.
You see, the Protestant Antichrist is determined, this
is the spirit of the last days, determined
to so intermingle society, its ways and means
and methods with the church that it's indistinguishable
from the world, so that the world accepts
it.
The world is now a part of the
church and the church is a part of
the world.
That is the Protestant Antichrist.
Woe unto you when all men shall speak
well of you, for so did their fathers
of the false prophets.
If we are preaching the word of God
as it should be, then like Paul the
Apostle, as a pastor of this church, I'm
going to be considered by the world out
there, by homosexuals, by politically correct people, by
leaders who are ungodly, and by the theater
crowd, and all those who have rejected Christ,
I'm going to be considered the off-scouring
of the world.
And so will you on your job.
Jesus said, don't think they will persecute me.
They persecuted me, and if they persecuted me,
they're going to persecute you.
He said, you're going to get it.
But most of all, we're going to be
hated by the backslidden religious crowd, by Bible
scholars.
New York Times today, you'll see a story
in the New York Times, I read it
last night before going to bed, a story
about thousands, in fact, hundreds and hundreds and
even thousands of young people lining up with
various Christian food organizations and charitable organizations ready
to go into Iraq as soon as the
doors are open.
They're going to distribute food and preach Christ
in Iraq.
And the article is so derogatory, but the
worst criticism came from a Baptist Bible scholar
who was shocked.
I think it's great that this work could
be used in some way to open the
doors and that thousands of Muslims turn to
Jesus Christ.
To me, that's the only way I can
make sense out of this whole thing.
But to hear, it was enough to hear
the world mocking it, thinking that it is
a right-wing religious ploy.
But to hear a Bible scholar saying, let's
mind our own business and to put it
down is the very thing I'm talking about
in this message.
Go to Matthew, the fifth chapter.
Just turn there very quickly.
Matthew, the fifth chapter.
Fifth chapter of Matthew, starting at verse 10.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men shall revile you,
persecute you, and do what?
Accept you and bless you and congratulate you?
No, they shall sell manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake, but to say
rejoice, be exceeding glad, for great is your
reward in heaven, for so persecuted they, the
prophets which were before them.
Now, folks, I know that some churches and
some Christians are persecuted for their stupidity.
They are persecuted because they have unfair dealings
with their friends in their business dealings, or
they are adulterers.
For example, there are churches that are just
doing foolish things and they're hated and they're
despised for that.
But I'm talking about those who have a
heart for Christ.
They're preaching a pure gospel and they have
a heart for a lost world.
The Bible says the closer you get to
the mission of Christ, the closer you get
to preaching the gospel that He's ordained, the
more hated and the more despised you will
be by the world.
Why does the world hate the church and
its pastors and its parishioners?
What's the cause of this hatred?
Jesus said, if the world hates you, you
know it hated me before it hated you.
The servant's not greater than his Lord.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute
you.
You see, the church and every true Christian,
every true believer, is hated because of our
mission.
I want to talk to you about the
mission of the church and show you why.
If you truly obey the true mission of
Christ to a lost world, you're going to
be marked.
You're going to be persecuted on the job.
You're going to be persecuted in the church.
And the time will come, the closer we
get to fulfilling God's mission in New York,
when you mention Times Square Church, people are
going to see their eyebrows go up.
Oh, that church?
Because you see, we're going to be taking
a stand against the powers of darkness as
we've never taken it before.
And all hell's going to get angry.
And everyone is walking with the enemy.
And the rejecter of Jesus Christ is going
to be an enemy.
You're going to find enemies on the job.
You're going to find enemies everywhere because you're
fulfilling the mission.
Now, let me talk about this mission.
And some of you are going to be
a little horrified by what I'm saying.
You're going to draw back and say, well,
wait a minute.
That's too strong.
But what is my mission as a pastor?
What is your mission as a witness for
Jesus Christ?
It's more than going out and just telling
people Jesus loves you.
It's more than trying to give people examples
of how much you suffer so they'll have
pity on you so they'll listen to your
gospel.
Oh, my mother just died and I'm feeling
a little sad, but I want to tell
you how Jesus can comfort.
It's more than that.
That's fine, but it goes far beyond that.
Our mission is to take from ungodly men
that which is dearest to their heart, their
self-righteousness.
You're commissioned to go and tell men who
spent a lifetime believing that they're doing good
and that they're achieving something.
I'm kind to my family and I'm kind
to people.
And they spent a lifetime building up what
they believe is integrity, and you come along
and tell them it's filthy rags.
You come to translate people out of a
kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light,
that kingdom of light that they think is
nothing but bondage and suffering.
You're taking away from their freedom.
More than that, you've been sent to execute
them, to kill them.
What do you think if people come in
and they hear us talk about dying to
the world and dying to sin, being crucified?
You say, wait a minute, isn't that our
mission?
Isn't this our mission to show them that
you have to die to sin and to
self-will and to self-independence and you
come along and they have spent their lifetime
killing their conscience, searing it and silencing a
voice, and you come along with a voice
louder than their conscience and say, without Christ,
and say it as lovingly as you can,
say it with tears in your eyes, but
you are speaking a voice louder than their
conscience and they have spent a lifetime achieving
this false peace, and you come along and
say, without being born again, you're a rebel.
To them, you're an executioner.
You've come to kill them.
All this time, I've been okay.
All this time, I know I've been through
this and folks, they have built their own
tower of babble and self-confidence.
They have an idolatry of a Christ they've
created in their own mind who's just like
them.
And you come along and talk about another
kind of Christ, a Christ who demands full
surrender.
You come along and you speak these things
to the world.
Folks, you'd better have the Holy Ghost with
you.
You'd better be speaking the mind of God.
There are people who are praising themselves that
they're not so bad.
And here you come, saying all your goodness
is an abomination in the eyes of God
that you've achieved in your own flesh and
your own works.
Here comes a Christian.
Here comes a pastor.
They come into church.
How many people walk into this church and
they have finally come to the place where
they believe God admires them now.
I'm not so bad.
I'm too good for hell.
Maybe not quite ready for heaven, but I'm
getting there very fast.
Then they come in and sit and hear
a man say, unless you're born again, you
can't enter the kingdom of heaven.
Folks, think of what our mission is and
how the world perceives that mission.
There are millions of people filling our church
pews today, thinking they're in God's good graces.
And they hear a message.
They hear a message that comforts them.
We come along and we preach repentance and
life change.
We preach that self-made integrity is not
acceptable to God, that rather than they being
in God's favor, God's wrath is upon those
who will not receive his loving call to
surrender all to him.
We come along preaching the blood of Christ
and separation from the world.
We talk about submission and obedience to the
word of God.
And they can't conceive.
You see, my job as a preacher is
to convince men to love a Christ they
can't even trust, to commit themselves to a
Christ they don't believe in.
Some will say, well, brother, that's not the
way.
You may be from the church and you
say, well, that's not the way to do
it.
You may be a pastor hearing me.
And you say, well, that's not the way
I approach my mission.
That's not my mission.
You see, I don't believe in confrontation.
In my church, I preach non-controversial messages,
just love and grace.
One pastor would say, I would never expect
anybody to leave my church uneasy.
And I would sure not like to take
anybody's sleep from them by what they heard
me preach.
I can't speak for other pastors.
I can't speak for other churches.
And I'm going to speak what I know
from preaching for over 50 years to some
of those hardest, wickedest sinners on the face
of the earth, to drug addicts for years
and alcoholics and prostitutes.
And more than that, preaching to Pharisees, those
who are church people for years and years,
not speaking about, but they've gone to church
and they believe they're all right and they're
hypocrites and they're blinded to their condition.
You've got them in the Baptist churches.
We've got thousands of Baptists going to hell.
Pentecostals and others have been to church all
their life and they're harder than anybody on
the street.
You can't reach them.
They're hardened to the gospel because they have
an image of Christ that they've created and
they accept all of the promises of the
Word, but none of the commandments and none
of the woes.
Let me tell you, suavity and softness and
half-truths are never going to break down
the walls of the wicked in the world
today.
You know, when Christ approached Saul of Tarsus,
that Christian killer, he didn't send a soft
-spoken preacher to take him out to lunch
and over brunch, slip a little Jesus to
him.
I'm not trying to be facetious.
He didn't take a poll of this man
and say, what do you think of Christ?
What would it take, Saul, for you to
change your mind and receive Christ and quit
killing these Christians?
No, no, no, no.
A blinding light, a full blast of the
presence of Jesus Himself that exposed His heart,
and that's what it's going to take in
these last days.
It's going to take John the Baptist in
the pulpit with a broken heart who knows
the fullness and the meekness of Christ and
Jesus preached with meekness and He preached with
love, and yet they killed Him.
I want to preach mercy, I preach grace,
and I want to preach through love, and
I want to preach through tears.
But folks, the walls that are up now,
the only thing that's going to bring it
down is a full blast of the presence
of Jesus in our churches and coming out
of the mouths of our pastors.
There has to be a full blast of
the presence of Jesus.
It has to be felt in every church,
and without the holy presence, the awesome presence
of Jesus, and without preaching the touch of
the heart, we're going to close the heavens.
And folks, there's no greater deception that I
can think of that I could be guilty
of than to count heads in the congregation
and make me look good and measure my
success by the number of bodies in these
seats and not be concerned about your soul
and close the heavens with you and make
you a two-fold devil of hell that
frightens my soul.
We watch for your soul, the Bible says.
Jesus said, I've chosen you out of the
world, and that strikes at the heart of
why we are hated.
He said, I've chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hates you for this
reason.
They hate you because I called you out
of their condition.
I called you out of their fellowship.
I called you out.
And not only did I call you out,
I sent you to call everybody else out.
And the Protestant antichrist comes against this very
thing that I'm talking about, that you don't
have to call people out anymore.
You can still live like the world.
You can be a part of all of
the morals and mores of society and still
call yourself a Christian.
What do I mean by the world?
I've called you out of the world.
Now, folks, when we talk about the world,
we think about lust and pornography and drug
addiction and all these things that call out
of the world.
That's a part of it, but that's not
the issue.
I've called you out of the world.
You see, the world in the eyes of
God is an unwillingness to surrender to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ.
That's worldliness in its fullest meaning scripturally.
That you want to be a Christian, you
want to be a follower, you want to
be called a convert of Christ, but you
will not come under the full Lordship of
Jesus Christ.
Because, you see, when you come under the
Lordship of Jesus Christ, you don't have to
have a man in the pulpit screaming against
your sins.
Oh, they can name them.
Yes, they are to name them.
Yes, there is to be reproof, but you
see, if you come under the Lordship of
Jesus, you cling to Christ, you begin to
love reproof, you begin to allow the Holy
Spirit to speak into your life things that
are unlike Jesus Christ, and He does the
work that no preacher on earth can do,
because you have surrendered to the Lordship of
Jesus Christ.
You see, you can't come under the Lordship
of Jesus Christ until you are brought face
-to-face with the cross.
And I'm telling you something now, and I
want you to listen closely.
I see young preachers, especially good young men,
pastors, wanting to build these great churches, and
some of them now stand in the pulpit.
They're preaching to thousands.
But I want to tell you something.
There is so little preaching of the cross
of Jesus Christ.
There's so little of bringing them face-to
-face with the demands that you come to
Jesus Christ, and you surrender to His Lordship.
You come and lay down your independence, and
we've got people living independently.
They're living just like the world, talking like
the world, drinking like the world, sleeping around
like the world, and in the house of
God, calling themselves believers, and there's no conviction,
and there's no coming to the cross.
And in that process, if we're not brought
to this cross, if we're not brought to
this absolute cry of God and absolute demand
of the cross to die to sin, and
die to my ambition, and die to my
way of doing things, and come to the
righteousness of Jesus through the cross, then I've
shut the heavens, and I've made converts a
two-fold member of hell.
Jesus once turned to some earthly relatives, and
He said these shocking words.
He said, the world can't hate you.
Now, think of that.
These are brethren.
Do you know what that infers?
The world can't hate you because you're of
the world.
Because the world does not hate its own.
And this, I think, is the measurement of
the church of Jesus Christ, to measure whether
it's fulfilling the mission or not.
That's how you measure Times Square Church.
One of the most damning things Christ ever
said, one of the most soul-destroying things
Christ ever said, I can't get it out
of my heart and my mind, and the
conviction of it makes me tremble.
No one had ever said of me, the
world can't hate you, David.
Jesus said they hated me without a cause.
They had no cause to hate me.
You know, you would think, you see, Christians
are called to be meek, gentle, kind.
And if you're a true believer, that's the
way you're going.
You're going in that direction.
You care about people.
And on the job, you're giving your heart
to people.
You're doing everything you know to help.
You're meek, and you're kind, and you're gentle.
It's not natural for people to hate you
for that.
Is it?
You ask people how they're doing on the
job, and you do everything you can.
You can say, I pray for you.
You give.
You may bring them a covered dish.
You do everything.
And you do everything.
Christians, I would think that you would hate
those who rob you and steal from you
and curse you.
That would seem more natural to the flesh.
But you see, when you are fulfilling the
mission of Christ, you're doing, you're not going
out trying to hurt anybody.
Folks, we are to approach the world with
patience.
We're to be like a tender nurse that
we're to preach with authority of the Holy
Ghost.
And folks, get out of your mind once
and for all wanting to be loved on
your job, loving to be applauded.
Now, you should be admired for being faithful
and doing a good job.
If you're lazy, you're not a good Christian.
If you're stealing, you're not a Christian at
all.
You're to be an example.
But if you're going around walking on eggs,
trying to have everybody say, he's a good
Joe, she's, she's, she, oh, what a wonderful
person she is.
Be careful.
The world can't hate you.
Why?
If you're fulfilling his mission, Jesus said, they're
going to hate you and they're going to
persecute you.
And folks, in the chaotic days ahead, there
is coming the most incredible persecution of the
body of Jesus Christ in all of history.
You're going to face it everywhere.
And the more you hear the gospel and
live by it, the more you hunger for
Jesus, and the more you speak truth out
of an honest heart, and you're fulfilling the
divine purposes in the ministry that God has
called his church to, you're going to know
what it's like for people to be so
condescending to you, to look down their nose,
in other words, at you, and to talk
behind your back.
They'll say things to you that are hurting.
There's going to be persecution more than that.
Many people are going to be losing their
jobs.
You see, you're not hated because of your
appearance.
You're not hated because of the way you
dress.
You're not hated because of the color of
your skin.
Now, that happens, but if you are Christian,
that's not why you're hated.
You are hated because you represent Jesus and
you're coming against everything that they believe is
right, everything that they've tried to earn, everything
that they stand for and what they call
their hope, and you're taking that hope from
them.
You've got to understand that.
You've got a hard mission you've been called
to.
But I'll tell you something else before I
close.
The more you're hated by the world, the
more you're loved by the body of Christ.
Oh, what a wonderful thing to come in
from a hectic week, come in from a
hectic week and all the things you've heard
and what people have said and what you've
had to go through and all the trials
sent out of hell.
I'll tell you, the devil has sent his
angels with some of you in the choir
and in this house, all over.
The devil's actually sent angels because he sees
your walk and your determination to go all
the way with the Lord.
And he sent angels out of hell and
he sent demon emissaries and adversaries against your
soul to trouble you.
I've never seen more trouble in the true
Christian world than there is now.
I've never seen so much suffering, never seen
it in all my years of ministry.
But I'll tell you what, he's strengthening the
body of Christ and when you come into
God's house, one little hug from a brother
or sister and they know that you have
the same spirit, you've been persecuted, but they
say, Welcome home, brother.
Welcome home, sister.
Here's your house.
Here's where you're allowed.
It's going to be more and more important
to come to God's house to receive and
give love, to build up the body as
it goes back out into the world to
face the persecution and trials that we still
face ahead.
Jesus said, I warned you.
If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.
Will you stand?
If you're here this morning and you're thinking
to yourself, Wait a minute, I know I'm
a Christian and I know I love Jesus.
But I'm not being persecuted and I don't
feel that hate coming at me.
I'm rather well loved.
Don't worry about it.
It's coming.
Don't worry about it and don't feel, you
know, I must be one of those that
the world can't hate.
No, I'm not going to put that kind
of fear on you at all.
But be sure that it's coming.
But don't be afraid of it.
Can I say something else before I close?
With Iraq and now the troubled economy and
all the personal things that come upon us,
all the suffering.
I think of Gwen with 28 operations already,
another coming up this week.
You know, I sit in my study and
all I hear is, Let not your heart
be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled.
Folks, can you believe that?
Can you practice that?
While you're standing here right now in the
presence of the Lord, can you just ask
the Holy Spirit to come and bring His
peace to your heart and say, Lord Jesus,
I'm not going to listen to all of
this.
I'm not letting it in my spirit.
Folks, if you listen to the news today
and hear all of this stuff that's coming,
turn off those talk shows.
If you listen to the radio, turn them
off.
It's going to make you angry.
It's going to get in your spirit.
It's going to trouble your soul.
You need to come in God's house without
a troubled spirit.
You need to walk through life and hope.
Let there be joy in your heart.
Put on some Christian music.
Put on Pastor Carter's tape or something.
And let the music fill your house.
Get in your car.
Slip in a Christian CD.
Turn everything else off.
And he said, feed your soul on the
good things.
Let the things of pure and honest good
report.
Think on these things.
Hallelujah.
I'm sick of all this stuff.
I don't want it in my spirit.
In fact, I was reading the New York
Times last night.
I only read it for about 15 minutes,
especially that article.
I just shut it down and threw it
on the side and said, I'm not even
going to buy this paper anymore.
I'm not going to have anything to do.
I'm sick and tired of this.
It just troubles your spirit.
Lord, bring peace to the house.
Bring the joy of Jesus to the house.
Lord, he said all these things, and if
they persecute you, look up and rejoice.
Just rejoice because you're counted worthy to suffer
with Christ.
Hallelujah.
Blessed be the name.
Let's just praise him right now.
Just give him an offering of praise.
We give you praise, Lord.
We give you love.
We give honor.
We honor you.
Lord, give us peace.
Rest in our hearts.
Because God is good and he's faithful.
His mercy endures forever.
Hallelujah.
I am led of the Holy Spirit to
give an invitation for just particular needs here
this morning.
Up in the balcony here and in the
annex as well.
Some of you, and I'm just speaking in
the spirit, some of you have your back
right against the wall.
You came here this morning that way.
It looks like there's no way out.
I don't know what the difficulty, I don't
know what the trial may be, but you're
up against something that you can't handle and
you know you can't handle it.
It may be a sin that you have
fought with and struggled with so long and
it's just discouraged you.
Because you say, with all the preaching I've
heard and all the teaching I've had, I
guess it doesn't work for me and you're
discouraged.
I'm talking to some discouraged people.
I'm talking to people going through the trial
of their life.
It may be physical, spiritual, emotional, I don't
know what it may be.
Some of you say, I'm just at the
end, Brother David.
I am at the end of my rope.
At the end of my endurance, I want
you to obey the Holy Spirit and walk
down.
We're going to pray a prayer of faith
and believe God to meet your need.
That's what the house of God's about.
That's what the Holy Ghost is all about.
And if this is a Holy Ghost church,
God's going to meet your need.
If you come with an open heart, up
in the balcony, go up the stairs on
the other side.
Now, if you're not right with God and
you're backslidden, you walk down.
Now, nobody will know who you are.
You come here right now and say, Brother
David, I've been drifting from the Lord.
My heart's not right with God.
I don't want to leave this church that
way.
I want God to touch me this morning.
And up in the balcony and in the
annex, I'm going to ask you to just
go forward between the screens and let me
pray for you because even though I'm not
in the room there, the Spirit of God's
in the room and as I pray, you're
going to know God's there and touching you.
You walk out of this place renewed.
The Bible says very clearly, Scripture said, Without
faith it's impossible to please God.
They that come to Him must believe that
He is, and He's a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him.
He rewards you, in other words, not because
you've earned it, but out of His grace
and out of His love.
If you believe Him and trust Him right
now that He's going to make it.
Now, second thing God told me to tell
you.
Listen closer now, please.
You have got to believe that God, your
Heavenly Father, who loves you, is interested and
concerned, knows all about the simplest details in
your life.
Everything.
The hairs on your head, how you feel,
what you're going through, your finances, your marriage,
your home, your job, everything.
Listen to me now.
There's not one thing that concerns you that
doesn't concern Him.
Not one thing.
You've got to come to that faith right
now.
I believe that He's concerned.
You say, well, He's so busy taking care
of the universe, the stars and the moon,
the sun.
His love is focused on you.
His concern is focused on you, on all
of us.
He cares what you're going through.
But He said, you can cast all your
care on Me, but you've got to believe
that I'm that way.
That's what I am.
And you've got to believe that I'm going
to reward you now.
Faithful.
He said, faithful just to forgive you and
cleanse you from all unrighteousness and reward you
of those who diligently seek Him.
In other words, here's how you seek Him,
by believing what He said.
Do you believe what He said that He's
interested in everything that has to do with
you?
Do you believe that everything that you have
in your heart now that troubles you, you
can take it to Him right now in
prayer and lay it down and give it
to Him and He'll start doing what He
has to do to, first of all, lift
you above the problem.
Do you understand what the first thing He
does?
He doesn't just take away all your troubles.
He lifts you by His Spirit above them
so that you're here sitting in high places
in Christ Jesus.
And then He said, you trust Me down
here, all these things.
Trust Me.
It's not going to happen overnight.
But believe that I'm behind the scenes working.
I'm doing things.
I'm putting things in process that are happening.
Just trust Me with it now.
Will you do that now?
Pray this with me.
Right out of your heart, Jesus, I know
You're interested in everything in my life, every
detail, every problem, everything that makes me sad,
everything that's come against me, everything in my
life, in my job, in my home.
And I bring it to You with confidence
that You love me and You care about
me and I'm giving You my faith.
Forgive my unbelief.
Forgive my sins.
And I come to You as a child
in simple faith saying, Lord, I believe.
I ask You to reward me now with
confidence that You would lift this burden from
my heart.
Lift it now.
Oh, Jesus, You promised You'll never fail me.
And You told me I could cast all
my cares on You because You said You
cared for me.
And I believe that.
Now let me pray.
Father, in the annex for those that are
standing between the screens, go there now and
here in this auditorium.
And I pray, Lord Jesus, that You hear
me from on high because You are here
now to meet us.
You're here to meet our needs.
Oh, God, we're overwhelmed when we think of
all the needs.
When we think of all the financial problems,
when we think of people that have come
to the end of their rope, they don't
even have any more tears left.
There are people here, Lord, that if we
heard their story, we would be so shocked
and overwhelmed.
We would probably be cast down and say,
Oh, Lord, it's beyond hope.
But nothing's beyond hope with You.
Nothing is impossible with our God.
Nothing.
Say it with me.
Nothing is impossible with my God.
Again, nothing is impossible with my God.
Now, Lord, let that be what we carry
away from this meeting tonight, this morning.
We walk out the door.
Lord, I turn it to You because nothing
is impossible to You.
And I believe You to turn it around.
Do whatever You have to do.
Give me strength in the meantime and give
me hope and put joy in my heart
and rejoicing.
Hallelujah.
Thank You, Lord.
We give You thanks, Lord Jesus.
We give You thanks.