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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Now, beloved, I don't feel that it's an
understatement to say that the future of some
who are gathered here today is going to
be determined by how you hear the words
you're about to hear today.
And this is something the Holy Spirit has
sown very deep into my heart, and that's
why I'm going to labor to speak very
carefully, methodically, so that you'll understand, because this
is something that I know the Holy Spirit
is speaking to us, especially those who are
yearning for Christ in this last moment of
time.
Hebrews chapter 10, the writer in verse 32,
he says, call to remembrance the former days.
Now, he's saying think about something that happened
in the past, in which after you were
illuminated, or in other words, you received your
sight in Christ, you endured a great fight
of afflictions.
The writer is saying think about this.
When you first came to Christ, you remember
how deeply the devil came against you.
And he came against you for a reason,
because there's incredible potential in every soul that
comes to God, especially those who want to
walk with Christ in truth.
Partly, he says in verse 33, whilst you
were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches
and afflictions, and partly, while you became companions
of them that were so used.
In other words, the people that used to
like you all of a sudden started to
say very nasty things about you.
They looked at you and said, are you
one of those now?
They began to reproach you.
They began to lie about you in the
workplace.
People that, many here today, you know exactly
what I'm speaking about.
And you found no fellowship now among the
unsaved anymore.
And you became a companion.
You started coming to Times Square Church or
whatever church you attend, and you became a
companion of people who are moving with God
and were used to these afflictions and difficulties.
And you found a new fellowship that is
not found anywhere outside of Christ.
For you had compassion of me and my
bonds.
Verse 34, and the writer says, you took
joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in
yourselves that you have in heaven a better
and an enduring substance.
You had plans, in other words, you had
ambitions.
You had things you wanted to accomplish.
You thought for sure that promotion in the
workplace was going to meet your need.
That new house was going to make you
satisfied.
All of these other things.
But coming to Christ now, a new value
system began to get a hold of your
heart.
And you took joyfully the spoiling of these
things.
If somebody before you was passed, you were
passed by for somebody else, you went home
and had the ability, by God's grace, to
begin to rejoice over these things.
You said, I'm now a companion of Christ
and of those who followed him.
You took joyfully the laying down, the putting
away of old plans and ambitions, and things
that you and I both thought would make
us happy and fulfilled.
But by God's grace, do you remember those
days, those that walked with God for any
amount of time, when no sacrifice was too
great, no trip was too far, no compassion
was too costly?
You just cried out, God lead me and
I will follow you, I will trust you.
Lord, you will meet my need as I
walk with you.
Then he goes on to say in verse
35, Cast not away, therefore, your confidence.
You had tremendous confidence in God.
You knew he would provide your every need.
You knew that heaven was more to be
desired than the beggarly things that had once
gripped your heart and mind of this world,
which has great recompense of reward.
For you have need of patience, that after
you have done the will of God, you
might receive the promise.
For yet a little while, and he that
shall come will come and will not tarry.
It's only a little while, beloved, until Christ
comes for his church.
It's only a vapor.
I can remember, I'm 50 years of age
now, and I can remember like yesterday when
I was just a child and going out
the back door to play football or some
other sport with the other kids in my
neighborhood.
Seems like yesterday.
It's an amazing thing and all of a
sudden you're 50 and another moment of time,
by God's grace, I'll be 70.
If the Lord is really good to me,
I might make it to 75.
For those that feel like you're a mover
and shaker in the house today, you might
be, but soon you'll just be a shaker.
You won't be doing much moving anymore.
Yet a little while, and he will come.
A little while.
We sing that song, it'll be worth it
all when we see Jesus.
Life's trials will seem so small when we
see him.
Our life, James said, is only a vapor.
It's only here for a moment, then it
passes away.
And all that we can take with us,
beloved, is our family.
All we can take with us are the
things that we obey God in.
The Bible says clearly there'll be a reward
given for those who, even in a few
things, chose to be faithful in what God
had called them to do.
And we can take with us every soul
that has ever bowed their knee and confessed
with their tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Everything else stays here.
Everything else stays.
None of it comes.
It's all going to pass away.
It's all part of a world system and
a world that is going to be, the
Bible says, dissolved.
It's going to be completely melted away.
There'll be nothing left.
Nothing.
No plans, no ambitions, there'll be no Manhattan,
it'll be gone.
All the buildings on Wall Street will be
dissolved.
Nothing that we see today will be one
day, and perhaps that day will not be
too far from us into the future.
A little while, and he will come.
So important to remember that when you're going
through difficulty and hard times, when the devil's
coming against you with the fullness of his
fury, it's only for a little while.
Weeping might endure for a night, but joy
is coming again in the morning.
Not a temporary joy, but an everlasting joy.
A joy that's going to last from eternity
to eternity.
After a million years of standing before the
throne of God and walking with Him in
the fullness of everything that entails, you will
not even have scratched the surface of what
your life is going to be like in
Christ for all of time and all of
eternity.
Now he says, the just shall live by
faith, in verse 38.
The just, those who have been justified by
Christ, have a deep inner confidence that the
ways of God are better than my ways.
The provision of God will always be there
as I walk with Him and obey Him.
He will never forsake me, He will never
fail me.
He will always be there, and even in
the things I don't understand, I can have
a deep inner confidence that there is a
purpose of God in even those things that
are unpleasant and difficult for my natural mind
to comprehend.
All things now work together for good, because
I love God and I'm called according to
His purpose.
All things.
If it were not so, then the word
of God would not be true.
All things.
That means everything that you're going through, if
you're a child of God and you love
God today, everything that you're going through has
a purpose.
There's a divine purpose in it right now.
But if any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them who draw
back into perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul.
If any man draw back...
Now, go with me to Luke chapter 8,
if you will.
Luke chapter 8, beginning at verse 22.
I'll read it to you while you're turning
to it.
Now, it came to pass on a certain
day that he went into a ship with
his disciples.
And he said unto them, Let us go
over unto the other side of the lake.
And they launched forth.
Now, beloved, you and I can remember that
at one time we were on the other
side of the lake.
We were on the other side.
We were in a place where there was
no hope.
You know the story.
He found on the other side a people
that were living without the power of God.
Evidenced by a man who was demon-possessed
and wandering through places of death, codding and
afflicting himself, finding himself without any hope.
And we were on the other side.
Paul says in Ephesians 2.12 At one
time you were without Christ, being aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without
God in the world.
That's where I was and that's where you
were.
But verses 23 to 25 tell us about
a journey that Christ began to undertake and
those who were with him went with him
to the other side.
They had to endure storms.
They had to endure their own inner struggles
and fears.
But ultimately triumphed on this journey because Christ
was with them, challenging them to have faith,
challenging them to believe through every difficulty they
would ever have to face that because they
were obeying him and going on a journey
with him that he would protect them, he
would keep them.
He had told them earlier, not a hair
of your head is even going to perish.
It's through much personal jeopardy that the gospel
came to us as it did to those
who were on the other side of the
lake.
It's come to us through those throughout history
who have trusted God for their provision as
they journeyed with him to us.
We have this Bible in our hands because
people took a journey.
They undertook it with Christ and they paid
a great price for this journey.
I think of James who was killed with
the sword.
I think of John who was exiled to
a barren, cold place of imprisonment for his
testimony of Jesus Christ.
I think of others who were sawn in
two and slain with the sword and paid
an incredible price.
The Bible says that the church of Jesus
Christ is built on the foundation of Christ
and the apostles and prophets and nobody else
can build but by truth on this foundation.
The gospel that we have in our hands
came to us at a terrible price for
many.
The apostle Paul was imprisoned, whipped, stoned, shipwrecked,
betrayed, went through all types of peril and
difficulty and out of it all came a
great portion of the New Testament that comforts
our hearts today.
Much personal jeopardy.
Luke 8, again, verse 26 says, They arrived
at the country of the Gadarenes, which is
over against Galilee.
And he went forth to land and there
met him out of the city a certain
man which had devils a long time and
wore no clothes and neither abode in any
house but in the tombs.
And when he saw Jesus, he cried out
and fell down before him and with a
loud voice said, What have I to do
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most
High?
I beseech thee, torment me not.
Actually, in the gospel of Matthew it says,
Do not torment us before the time.
Amazing.
The devils that had found a dwelling place
with this man, this man, this demon-possessed
man, knew that their time was limited on
the earth.
Knew and believed that a time of torment
was appointed to them.
Amazing when you begin to see this.
And they trembled before Christ.
They trembled before a man who was born
of God, led by the power of the
Holy Ghost, and they knew before such a
man they had no power.
And, beloved, I want to challenge you today.
When you and I are absolutely born again
of the Spirit of God, we are led
by the power of God, there is a
trembling in hell.
There's a trembling in the powers of darkness
because they know that when a man or
woman of God is yielded to God, they
have no authority, they have no power.
They know clearly the words of Jesus, who
said, I give you power to step upon
serpents and scorpions over all the power of
the enemy.
Nothing shall by any means hurt you.
They're very well aware of it.
So the devil will do everything in his
power to divert the Christian and the church
of Jesus Christ.
James, the apostle, tells us that true faith
in God must go far beyond an inactive
belief.
An inactive belief is not sufficient faith.
James says it this way in chapter 2,
verse 19 to 24.
You may want to turn there and follow
with me.
Keep a mark in Luke chapter 8.
James chapter 2 and verse 19.
He says, Thou believest that there is one
God.
Thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble.
In other words, a true faith in God
must go beyond an inactive belief system.
The devils have a belief system, but the
belief system never moves them into the life
of God, obviously.
But they do believe.
And James uses their belief as a type
of a faith system that has no part
in the kingdom of God.
He says, But will you know, verse 20,
O vain man, that faith without works is
dead?
And was not Abraham our father justified by
works when he had offered Isaac his son
upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works,
and by works was faith made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham
believed God, and it was imputed unto him
for righteousness, and he was called the friend
of God.
You see then how that by works a
man is justified and not by faith only.
And likewise also was not Rahab the harlot
justified by works when she had received the
messengers and sent them out another way?
For as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Now here's the type that James used.
He says, Abraham, his faith, the fact that
it was true faith in God was evidenced
by the fact that he gave to God
in the form of his son Isaac his
future and all of his plans and dreams.
He yielded it all up to God.
It was everything that he had ever lived
for, he had ever hoped for was bound
in this son Isaac.
But Isaac wanting to prove, or God rather,
that the faith in Abraham was genuine asked
him to offer up his plans and offer
up his dreams.
I wonder in my heart were Jesus Christ
to come to much of the professing church
today throughout the world and say, I want
to prove whether or not you have an
active faith.
I want you now to lay down all
your plans.
I want you to lay down all your
ambitions and all of your dreams.
I want you now to begin to journey
with me, trusting that if I choose to,
I can even raise the things that are
dear to your heart from the dead.
But still first you've got to give it
to me.
You've got to lay it out.
You've got to put it on an altar.
James goes on to use the illustration of
Rahab, a prostitute.
The fact that this woman received the message
and protected it and entrusted herself and her
home to the promises that came to her.
Here you have a man who's the type
of the father of faith and at the
other end of the spectrum as it is,
you've got a prostitute and both had an
active faith in God.
Both had a righteous faith.
Both had, at least in the sight of
James, had a commendable faith.
Rahab received the message that came her way
through the messengers that were sent.
She protected that message and she entrusted herself
and her home to the promises of God
that had come to her through the messengers.
Now again back in Luke chapter 8 in
verse 31.
Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come
out of the man.
Verse 29 says, He was kept bound with
chains and in fetters and he broke the
bands and was driven of the devil into
the wilderness.
And Jesus asked him saying, What is thy
name?
And he said, Legion, because many devils were
entered into him.
And they besought him that he would command
them to go out into the...
that they would not command him rather to
go out into the pit and the deep.
And that means the deathless pit.
You'll find that in Revelation chapter 20 in
verse 3.
It's amazing that they knew the scriptures.
They knew their end.
They knew one day they're going to be
placed in a bottomless pit and never allowed
out of it again.
And they besought him.
They said, Oh Jesus, please don't send us
there yet.
Don't torment us before the time.
And there was a herd, verse 32, of
many swine, that's pigs, feeding on the mountain.
And they besought him that he would suffer
them to enter into them or allow...
They said, Jesus, let us go into the
pigs instead of going into the bottomless pit.
And Christ said, All right, and allowed them
to go.
Now, we ask ourselves the question, Why pigs?
Now, first of all, pigs were considered an
unclean animal.
And secondly, when you think of a pig,
it's the type of a self-consumed animal.
An animal that will consume anything.
When you have garbage in the food, for
example, any farmer or any former farmer this
year, you'll know, you take whatever is inedible,
you take it to the hog trough.
Remember, that's where the prodigal son finally ended
up.
When he had taken his inheritance and wasted
it, he finally ended up at the hog
trough and it's there that he came to
his senses.
And the pig is a type of an
animal that is so self-consumed that will
eat anything.
Whether or not it has an odor to
it or is spoiled, or it will not
be touched either by human or other animal,
put it in the hog trough and the
pig will eat it.
It is a type of a self-consumption.
And the devils possibly assumed that they would
be granted their request.
For in their own thinking, they possibly felt
that their compatibility with such a creature was
justified.
Why would Jesus deny us?
We're self-consumed, that's what got us into
this mess in the first place.
And here's an animal that's self-consumed, so
we're compatible.
We're unclean, they're unclean, so let us go
into the pigs.
And Jesus said, all right, go.
Now, he was not being cruel to animals.
The story progresses that the herd of swine,
the devils went out of the man and
entered into the herd of swine and they
ran violently down a steep place into the
lake.
And in that lake they were choked or
they drowned.
Now, Christ was not being indifferent to the
plight of this particular animal.
But I see in this verse of scripture
an incredible object lesson.
He was trying to show these people on
the other side of the lake something that
they were very loath to hear.
And there is no scriptural evidence that they
were ever able really to hear him.
He was showing them their own futures.
He was showing the society that had gathered
around this area of the Gadarenes.
He was showing them what was going to
happen to them when they drew back from
him.
He was showing them what their future was
going to be.
You see, if you and I draw back
from Christ, if we shrink back from his
call, if we walk away from trusting him
or yielding ourselves to his work, if we
walk away from taking the gospel at whatever
personal cost to those who need hope around
us and around the world, then the enemy
of our souls will have access to lead
us into a sea of false reasoning.
And you see, that's what's happening to the
church of Jesus Christ today in much of
the world.
Many, many people gathering in the house of
God, but in their hearts they have drawn
back from the call of Christ.
In their hearts they're saying, Lord, it's too
costly, there's too much, and so tell us
now, put before us preachers that will tell
us something about you that doesn't require anything
of us.
Put before us preachers.
And you see, when that attitude gets into
the heart, the man or woman that says,
Lord, you can't touch my pet project.
You can't touch these things that I've longed
for, that I want.
I've wanted this all my life and I'm
not willing to yield it.
I'm not willing to give it up for
the gospel's sake.
I'm not willing to entrust my life to
your plan for me or your provision for
me or your protection for me.
You see, Lord, I've got a long life
ahead of me.
It's all mapped out.
I have dreams and ambitions that I've had
since I was a child.
And Lord, I'm just simply not willing to
forsake these ambitions and these dreams.
But oh God, I still want to come
to your house.
I still want messages about you.
I still want to know what you do
and what your power is like and how
you've touched people over the years gone by.
But the moment this issue gets into our
heart, we are now exposed to a sea
of false reasoning.
And false reasoning is gripping the minds of
hundreds and thousands of God's people now in
the Western world.
A false gospel, false pursuits, false concepts of
God, a calf called Jesus fashioned by the
hands and minds of men.
1 Timothy 6, let me just read it
to you.
1 Timothy 6 and verse 9, Paul says
this way, They that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in
destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root
of all evil, which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.
They've erred from the faith, beloved, not from
an unsaved condition.
The unsaved lust for money.
The unsaved have their hand in the bag
and are looking for gold at every turnable
opportunity.
The unsaved will do everything they can to
make sure all their swine and all their
herds are intact.
But then you come to Christ, and the
call of Christ is not to lust after
gold.
The call of Christ is to long for
God and the plan of God for your
life.
The call of Christ has never changed.
If any man will be my disciple, let
him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me.
That is the call of Christ.
Not that we willfully walk into any forms
of personal deprivation or suffering.
He says simply you find what your life
is to be.
You find it in the word of God
and you find it by the leading of
the Holy Spirit.
There is no other plan.
There is no other way to go.
But I hear and see today gospels being
raised up throughout much of the western world
and tragically are touching some of the poorest
areas of the world.
Gospels that tell the people that it's God's
desire for you to be rich.
The Bible says this gospel drowns men in
destruction and perdition.
It drowns you.
Better not to have known the way of
righteousness than to have known it and to
turn back to those things that we once
left behind.
Jesus says again in Luke chapter 8 and
verse 14.
He talks about the seed being the word
of God that is planted in the hearts
of men and women throughout the world.
And he says in verse 14.
And that which fell among thorns are they
which when they have heard go forth and
are choked with cares and riches and pleasures
of this life and bring no fruit to
perfection.
The context of this verse means God says
I put a seed of my life into
their life.
And that seed was to produce something of
me in them.
That seed was to guide them.
That seed was to become a great tree.
And all who are in need were to
find lodging because of the seed I had
planted within them.
But they went forth and while they were
going they brought something with them.
They brought with them cares, riches and pleasures
of this life.
There was an unwillingness to lay it down
and it chokes the life that is in
them.
Just like the swine who ran off the
hill and into a sea of destruction.
So those who are unwilling to lay these
things down find the life of God eventually
choked out of them.
It is so tragic and I've seen it
in this church.
I've been here almost 10 years now.
And I've seen even in this church people
who heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and
they began to move with it.
And they initially counted it no great sacrifice
to take holidays or even leave of absence
from their workplace and to go to places
throughout the world where the love of God
could be channeled through them to a dying,
hurting people everywhere.
And there was such life.
But today I see them drawing back.
I see now fellowships formed around convenience.
I see things happening and it's such a
grief in my heart because it's a grief
in the heart of God.
How tragic to see people literally draw back.
And now the conversation is no longer about
Christ.
It's now about the workplace.
It's now about cares and dreams and ambitions.
It's no longer God.
What would you have me do?
Where would you have me go?
What would you do through my life?
And Jesus said, If any man draw back,
my soul will have no pleasure in him.
Back in Luke 8, verse 34.
It says, When that fed them saw what
was done, they fled and went and told
it in the city and in the country.
And then they went out to see what
was done and they came to Jesus and
found the man out of whom the devils
were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed and in his right mind, and they
were afraid.
They also would sought, told them by what
means he was possessed and the devils was
healed.
They told them the story.
Jesus commanded the man to be free and
all these pigs ran off a cliff and
into the water.
And then the whole multitude of the country,
the gatherings roundabout besought him to depart from
them, for they were taken with great fear.
And he went back into the ship and
he turned back again.
The spiritual type breaks my heart of a
people who knew the power of God, but
something in the heart said, Jesus, we're not
willing to suffer loss to follow you.
We're not willing to let go of the
things that we hold dear.
When the scripture says they were afraid, they
were taken with great fear.
They were not taken with great fear because
the demon-possessed man was set free.
That should have caused their hearts to rejoice.
The Bible says clearly they had tried to
bind him, but he could not be bound.
His was a fearful condition before he was
set free.
No, they were not afraid because the demon
-possessed man was set free.
They were afraid because their pigs had gone
into the ocean.
They were afraid because in the heart of
every man standing there, oh, I see what
God can do, but I see also it
could cost me my herd.
It could cost me my pigs.
It could cost me my sheep and my
goats.
I see what God does, but I also
see the cost.
They saw it clearly.
And having made the choice of seeing demon
-possessed people set free or losing our pigs
into the sea, they said, Jesus, we'd rather
keep our pigs if you don't mind.
Would you please go somewhere else?
Would you please take your power and your
compassion and get in the boat and go
to another shore?
Oh, folks, there are countries throughout the world
where they've forsaken God for their pigs.
They've forsaken God for that which is unclean.
And still gather, still meet.
The demon-possessed man came to Jesus, and
he said, can I come with you?
Can I go with you?
And Jesus said, no.
Go back to your own house and show
the great things that God has done for
you.
And the Bible says he went his way
and published throughout the whole city how great
things Jesus had done unto him.
And so we see the people gripped with
fear because of their potential loss.
We watch Jesus leaving in the boat.
And now this man throughout the whole city.
I see gatherings.
I see great testimony meetings of the past,
but with no present working of God.
I see people gathering around stories, talking about
Martin Luther.
I see them talking about Evan Roberts.
They're talking about Hudson Taylor.
They're talking about those who had great personal
price, Paul, James, John.
They're talking about these apostles.
They delight to open the book and talk
about Paul and the words of Paul and
the bravado of Paul who said, what do
you mean to break my heart?
I'm willing not only to go to Jerusalem,
but to die there for the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
And they stand and they give testimonies, and
yet there's no present working of God.
It's all in the past.
Brother Smith, stand up.
Tell us what God did 15 years ago
in your life.
Sister Jones, tell us, back in 1935, how
God so miraculously delivered you.
And everybody gathers now to hear these testimonies
of the past.
Everybody, though.
Can you picture these people?
This man is standing there.
And he's a testimony against them.
And they don't even know it.
And he's standing and he's saying, here's what
was happening.
I was cutting myself.
And oh, I was so full of despair
and desiring to die.
But this man came and set me free.
And the people clapped their hands.
And it's such an exciting story.
As they gingerly just look by him.
They glance around him or over his shoulder
just to make sure all their pigs are
still in the parking lot intact.
You see, now we got the testimony we
got our pigs to.
And so everything is okay.
But does it ever dawn on them there's
no power anymore?
Does it ever occur to them that God
is not working the way He should be
according to the Word of God?
The blind are not seeing.
The deaf are not hearing.
The captives are not set free.
It's not an ongoing everyday work.
It's something all in the past.
Then people start coming to church.
And as long as their pigs are secure,
they come in and, oh, just tell us
again about Jesus.
Tell us what He does.
Open the book to us.
Tell us some new truth about God.
They leave all their pigs in the parking
lot and come into the house of God.
Oh, then it's time to put on the
holiness, the holy act.
Oh, where He leads me, I will follow.
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, by
the power of grace divine.
While looking out the window of the church
is to make sure all the pigs are
properly lined up.
All my dreams and ambitions are still intact.
Oh, I want God, yes, but I will
not give these things up.
I will not forsake them.
I will not let them go.
And so Jesus leaves.
He leaves.
And the evidence of His leaving is there's
no power.
There's no everyday working of His power.
You see, that's why the charismatic church has
been running all over the world looking for
God for 15 years now, because there's no
real power in their midst anymore.
You see, if you're a man or woman
who's knowing that everyday working or freedom of
God, you don't have to run somewhere looking
for God.
You know where He is.
On the other side, verse 40, it said,
it came to pass when Jesus was returned,
the people gladly received Him.
On the other side of the lake, you
see there's a stream of divine life going
right through the middle of this world.
And whether you like it or not, you
find yourself as I do on one side
of that stream or the other.
One side says, hey, we like the testimonies.
We don't want to pay the price.
Personally, thank you very much, Jesus.
Do you mind going somewhere else?
Oh, they never say it in those words,
but it's deeply embedded in the heart.
And on the other side are a people
who gladly received Him.
Oh, Jesus, there's a people in this church,
I thank God for it, who come here
Sunday morning and say, God, speak to me.
God, speak to me, guide me, lead me.
Touch my life, oh Lord.
And whatever displeases You, take it out of
my heart.
My God, I want to live for You.
My God, I want to serve You.
I want Your power in my life.
I want You, Jesus, to be honored through
me.
I want to walk through this life leaving
not with a trail of pigs behind me.
I want a saver of Jesus Christ to
follow me.
I want to be otherworldly by the power
of God.
I want my confused mind set in order
by the Spirit of God.
My divided heart rent and restored by God's
grace.
I want my powerless life filled with the
power of God.
I want the power, the compassion, the ability
to go anywhere throughout the world preaching and
teaching and publishing and defending the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
This is my desire.
And I know in my heart that there
are many who come to this church that's
your heart's cry, that's what you're like.
If you're visiting today and you're in a
church that has no compassionate outreach, no missionaries
going off to the mission field, no testimonies
of the glory of God, you are in
the wrong place.
You're in a dangerous place.
Better to find a Bible study group of
five people that have a heart for the
poor and begin to fellowship there.
People who want to live for God, not
try to cram God into man's ambitions.
The gospel that is preached in much of
America and Canada is a tragic gospel in
our generation.
Powerless, robbing the people, drowning those who would
come to God with a love for money.
Luke 8, verse 40, it says, the people
gladly received Him.
Verse 41, you see the evidence of that.
This man comes right away named Jairus, and
he says, Oh, come to my house, there's
problems in my house.
Jesus, You're the only one that can solve
them.
Come to my house.
That's the evidence.
That's the evidence of a heart that longs
for God.
I don't want you just in church, I
want you in my house.
I want you in my home.
There's death in my home.
There's sickness in my home.
I want you in my home.
God, come and be God in my home.
I yield everything I have to You, Jesus.
Everything I ever will be belongs to You.
My God touched my sons and my daughters.
Raise them up and use them for Your
glory.
Come to my house, O God.
Come to my house.
You have it all.
It all belongs to You.
I withhold nothing from You.
The Bible says also in verse 42, the
people thronged Him.
That speaks to me of an issue of
the heart.
There was something in these people.
They're not sitting and making a differentiation or
choosing between Christ and their pigs.
But there's a thronging.
Oh, God, we know who You are.
You're the Son of God.
You've come to set people free.
And they began to throng Him.
They gathered around Him.
And that's the evidence of people who genuinely
want Christ.
They thronged Him.
He becomes more important than all the other
issues of life.
In the midst of it, a woman who
had an issue of blood pressed through the
crowd and touched Him.
You see, miracles begin to happen as people
just touch Him.
The preacher doesn't even have to be preaching.
You can be here in the service just
worshiping God, and a miracle of God touches
your life.
There's virtue in Jesus Christ.
There's life in Him.
And all you're doing is raising your hands
and you're giving your situation to God, your
past, your present, your future.
And a miracle happens.
It can be in a son or daughter.
It can be in a family member.
It can be an issue of your own
mind or heart or life.
And as you raise your hands, Christ touches
you.
It's an evidence.
It's an ongoing, every moment, every day.
It produces an expectancy in the genuine Christian.
If you're a genuine Christian, you should be
living in a place of constant expectancy.
Oh, God!
I don't know what You're going to do
in an hour from now.
I just know it's going to be miraculous
if You're in it.
I just know it's going to deepen and
further my resolve to follow You.
And there's going to be a living, evident
testimony of Your presence in my life.
Then after this, somebody came to Jesus and
said, don't bother going to this man's house.
His daughter is dead.
And Jesus said something really incredible.
He walked to the house, verse 52, and
He said, everyone was weeping, and they were
all bewailing her.
But He said, don't weep.
She's not dead.
She's only sleeping.
You see, the devil always wants to bring
a report to you that it's too late.
You had a chance to walk with God,
but you blew it.
You had a ministry calling, but you forsook
it.
It's too late.
It's been five years now, or ten years,
and you've done nothing with this call of
God on your life.
You had a sense in your heart in
the early years that God wanted to use
you for a specific purpose, but you've allowed
the cares of this world to choke it
out.
Now it's too late.
See, that's always the devil's lie, that it's
too late.
Jesus said, no, it's not too late.
It isn't dead.
It's only sleeping.
Hallelujah.
Yes, what God began, and you might be
sleeping, but if you can hear His voice,
if you know He's come to you, if
in your heart you say, oh, Jesus, draw
nigh to me, and I'll draw nigh to
you, I tell you, He'll raise you beyond
any life you've ever known before, and your
life will become a living testimony of His
calling and His keeping power.
He will touch you.
In a moment of time, He'll say, arise.
Arise.
And you're brought back not to where you
were before, better than where you were before.
Amazing.
The amazing grace of God.
It's never too late.
You could be 90 years old in this
sanctuary today, and you have forsaken the call
of God on your life.
You may have two years left to live,
but it's never too late.
All it requires is the cry of heart
that says, Jesus, I want You.
God, I want You with all of my
heart.
I want to leave this house today with
Your presence in my life.
I want to leave knowing that You're not
only my Savior, You're my Lord.
I want to walk away from this house
knowing that the gift and calling You've planted
within me is alive.
God, I want to know it.
And I'm going to leave every other pursuit
in the parking lot, every other dream, every
other ambition.
Let it all be damned, and let me
be alive to Jesus Christ and His will
for my life.
Back in chapter 39, he said to the
man who was healed in the garden, he
said, go to your house and tell everybody.
Publish it throughout the whole city.
But to this girl's parents, verse 56, you
see, verse 55 says, her spirit came into
her when Christ spoke, and she arose, and
He said, give her meat.
You see, if you could hear this Word
today, then you're ready for meat.
You're ready for the Word of God that
will give you life.
You're going to need meat.
You're going to need something beyond just the
milk of God's Word to be able to
obey God.
But her parents were astonished in verse 56,
and He charged them that they should tell
nobody.
Don't tell anybody.
To the man in the garden, He says,
tell everybody.
And when the genuine miracle happens where people
are hungry from, He says, don't tell anyone.
In other words, I don't want any second
-hand testimonies.
Everyone is going to see it for themselves.
Let everybody experience it for themselves because I
am here, I'm working among the people, and
the power that you have seen and experienced
is available for everyone.
It's not just for one man in the
garden sometime in the past.
It's now for everybody.
No need to say anything to anybody.
They're going to see in your life every
moment, every day, that you are kept and
led by the compassion and the power of
God.
There will be no words necessary.
There will be an evidence of divine life
in you.
An absolute evidence of God's life.
An evidence of God's power.
And as you walk through this world, there's
a savor of Christ that follows you.
People's heads will turn.
They will watch you walk by not because
you look good.
There's something of God in your life.
They will look upon you and see in
you divine life.
They will hear it in your voice.
They will see it in your eyes.
It will be evident in your song.
There will be something about you that the
world, every man, has to stop and take
notice that the power of God has come
into your life.
No words are necessary.
The question that we have to ask ourselves
is an age-old one.
You remember when Moses was on the mountain
and he came down and the people had
built a calf and were all dancing around
it.
It's the tendency of fallen men.
It's always been that way.
Moses drew a line as it is and
he said, Who is on the Lord's side?
And the issue that we have to ask
ourselves today is which side of the lake
are you on?
Which side of the stream of God?
Which side of divine life that's in this
sanctuary today?
This word has been opened and a river
of life, the Bible tells us in Revelation,
is flowing to anyone who wants to hear
from the throne of God.
But the question we have to ask is
which side are we on?
Are we on the side of the empty
testimony meeting?
The ones who say, Tell me about God
but don't tell me what God requires of
me.
Don't bring anything to me that costs me.
I don't want this knowledge of God.
Just tell me what God has done in
somebody else's life.
Tell me what He's doing on the other
side of the lake but don't let it
come close to me.
Which side are you on?
Which side of the water, that stream of
divine life and mercy?
The Scripture says on the opposite side to
the garden of the Gadarenes, the people received
Him gladly.
They received Him as Savior, Lord, Provider, Healer
and the Giver of life.
They received Him as the one who has
a better way, who knows what we need.
I didn't plan it this way but it's
interesting that the Holy Spirit gave me this
message the week before we go into a
missions conference.
Because there's going to be choices to be
made.
Do we want to gather here at Times
Square Churches to hear about those who are
sacrificing their lives for the cause of Christ
and applaud them and give them $20 and
walk out and take all our pigs and
pack them up and head home?
See, the issue is which side of the
water are we going to live on?
Jesus, help us.
Help us as a church.
Help us as individual Christians to hear you.
This is so important today.
Because I do believe with all my heart
that it will determine your future and mine.
How we respond to the simple call of
God.
And I know today there are people hearing
my voice who can say, Jesus, I want
to be on the side that received you.
I want you to be my Savior and
my Lord.
I want to trust you for provision, for
health, for life.
I want to trust that everything that you
call me to be, you will enable me
to be.
And everywhere you ask me to go, you
will give me the power to go there.
The heart, the compassion, everything I need will
come from you.
Jesus, I do yield my life to you.
I ask for the grace to put away
things that I am embracing that are causing
me to be open to another gospel.
That are causing my heart.
You see, if you can't discern the prosperity
gospel, there's something wrong in your heart.
There's a division in your heart.
If you can't discern that these men are
not just off track, they're sent by the
devil.
If you don't know it, if you don't
realize the gospel they're preaching is leading those
who are hearing it into destruction.
It sounds so good, so appeals to the
flesh, but it's a gospel for the self
-consumed.
It's a devil's gospel.
And if you can't hear it, this is
a very strong indication that something is wrong
in your heart.
That you're caught between two decisions.
I love this man Jesus, but I just
love my herds and flocks as well.
All my plans and schemes and everything that
I've looked to for comfort and am looking
to for my future.
And I'm not willing to let it go
because the cost is too great.
Better to say it outright than to live
in religious deception.
Better just to say I'm not willing to
pay the price.
So I'm going to follow those that tell
me that it's God's will that I be
always happy and healthy and rich.
I'm making the choice to follow another gospel.
It's virtually better to say it honestly.
I know today that the Holy Spirit is
speaking very strongly to some hearts.
I know He's spoken to mine through this
word.
And there are some things that we need
to lay down to make Jesus Lord.
Some plans, dreams, some things that we've been
doing everything in our power to cram these
things into the kingdom of God but there's
such a troubling with it.
It never works.
You can't bring these things in.
We come just with our hearts.
We don't bring any plans to God and
ask for His blessing.
We come to get His plan.
His ways are not our ways.
His thoughts are not our thoughts.
We acknowledge it.
We come to Him and say, God, lead
me.
Use me for Your glory.
Make me a follower, a true follower.
Build my life on the true foundation of
God.
May I not be one who reads these
stories but chooses an easy path.
If you give me an easy path, then
that's wonderful.
But then let it be God's choice.
Let it not be ours.
Let it be His.
If the Holy Spirit today is speaking to
you, and I know He is, and you
can say, Pastor, from this day forward, I
want Jesus to be my Lord.
My Lord.
The One who governs my life.
And there's a few pigs in the parking
lot I'm going to have to put away.
There's a few dreams and plans.
Just a few things that need to go.
And by God's grace, they're going to go.
Because I've decided to follow Jesus.
If that's in your heart today, and you
know the Lord has been wooing us and
speaking to us this whole service, you know
it.
You know it deep in your heart.
I'm going to ask you to unashamedly, as
we stand, slip out of your seat and
make your way to this altar, and we're
going to pray together.
For those that have come to this altar,
you know, the Holy Spirit really gave me
a word for you today.
The gift and calling that's in your life
is not dead.
It's only sleeping.
But you've heard the Word of God today,
and you're responding in your heart.
I'm assuming that you're here because you're saying,
Jesus, I want you to be the Lord
of my life from this day forward.
Guide me.
Lead me.
This is not a program.
We don't call you to an altar and
then just give you a program and say,
now here's what you have to do.
The issue is obeying Him.
The issue is hearing His voice now, getting
into the Word of God and say, Lord,
give me meat.
Give me not just that which soothes me,
but that which challenges me, calls me into
the depths of your life and your power.
This will be a pivotal moment for many
because you'll be able to mark on your
calendar the day your life began to change
in God.
And some of you will end up in
places that only the Holy Spirit could take
you to.
When Jesus returned, the people gladly received Him,
for they were waiting for Him.
Gladly.
That's the issue of heart.
Christ must never be viewed as an imposition
on our freedom.
But He is life.
And the key is when our hearts open,
say, God, this is good that you're calling
me away from these things.
This is good that you're calling me to
live for you and to serve you.
This is good.
I gladly receive you.
I gladly open my heart to you.
I want you to come to my house.
I want you to go home with me.
I want, Lord, only you.
I don't want to share the house with
you and any other ambition.
I want you in my house today.
And, Lord, I'm going to throng you for
the rest of my life.
Wherever you are, whenever I open this book,
I'm going to press in.
God, you better be prepared because I'm coming.
I'm coming.
I'm going to press through the crowd.
Whatever issues in my life, I'm going to
touch you.
And I'm going to believe you for freedom
and healing and wholeness.
God, I believe now that you're going to
work into my life something so powerful that
I'll not even need words to preach the
gospel anymore.
People are going to see it.
I don't have to tell anybody about it.
They're going to see it.
Your life is going to be in there.
Pray with me.
Lord Jesus, I gladly receive you.
I ask you to come into my heart
and come into my house.
I ask you to guide me, lead me,
use my life for your glory.
I ask you for the power to press
in and know your heart and know your
plan.
I ask you for the courage to yield
to what you call me to be and
to do.
I ask, O God, and I believe that
you will meet every need that I have
in my life, in the ministry, as I
follow you.
I will want for nothing.
You will be my provision.
I don't have to make provision.
You will show me how.
You will lead me.
You will guide me.
I believe that you're calling me today and
the ministry that you planted in me is
not dead.
It's very much alive because I can hear
your voice.
Thank you, Jesus.
Very, very, very much alive.
Alive.
Alive in God.
Hallelujah.
I don't have to leave here today telling
anybody anything that God has done.
Let them ask when they see it.
Let them ask.
They're going to see it because I have
a visible Christ in my life.
A visible Savior.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.