Psalm 17, please, if you will.
Psalm 17.
I have a message the Lord's put on
my heart called, Facing a Moment of Bitter
Division.
Facing a Moment of Bitter Division.
And Father, I thank you God with all
my heart.
I thank you for your presence here.
I thank you for the strength that you
give to us as we make the choice
to live for you.
I thank you for the calling that you've
placed on all of us to be a
city set upon a hill that cannot be
hidden.
You told us that we are the light
of the world.
And so Lord, we've been asking you to
remove from us anything that hinders the brightness
of that testimony.
God Almighty, give me the grace to speak
this today, overshadow my frailty, help me to
hide behind the cross.
And Lord Jesus Christ, speak to every heart,
speak to my heart, to the hearts of
your people.
This is a perilous and dark moment in
history, but Lord, you promise to have a
testimony that is burning bright and alive and
giving glory to your name.
So God, we thank you for this with
all of our heart in Jesus name.
Psalm 17, beginning at verse one, it's a
Psalm of King David.
Hear a just cause, O Lord.
Attend to my cry.
Give ear to my prayer, which is not
from deceitful lips.
Let my vindication come from your presence.
Let your eyes look on the things that
are upright.
You've tested my heart.
You have visited me in the night.
You have tried me and found nothing.
I have purposed that my mouth shall not
transgress.
Concerning the works of men, by the word
of your lips, I have kept away from
the paths of the destroyer.
Uphold my steps in your paths that my
footsteps may not slip.
I have called upon you, for you will
hear me, O God.
Incline your ear to me and hear my
speech.
Show your marvelous loving kindness by your right
hand.
O you who save those who trust in
you from those who rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of your eye.
Hide me under the shadow of your wings
from the wicked who oppress me and from
my deadly enemies who surround me.
They have closed up their fat hearts.
With their mouths, they speak proudly.
They have now surrounded us in our steps.
They have set their eyes crunching down to
the earth as a lion is eager to
tear his prey and as a young lion
lurking in secret places.
Arise, O Lord.
Confront him.
Cast him down.
Deliver my life from the wicked with your
sword.
With your hand from men, O Lord, from
men of this world who have their portion
in this life and whose belly you fill
with your hidden treasure.
They are satisfied with children and leave the
rest of their possession to their babes.
As for me, I will see your face
in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied when I awake in
your likeness."
A phenomenal psalm from King David.
There's no historical account of what were the
circumstances actually when he wrote this, but most
who study it tend to agree that it's
most likely at the point in the kingdom
of Israel where Saul has completely backslidden.
He's a totally secular leader now, even turning
to spiritism.
He's leading the nation away from God.
Then you have King David who bears in
himself the touch of heaven.
He is the anointed of God to lead
that nation at that particular time.
There's a battle raging now in this society
between the two.
It would appear that Saul has the upper
hand and his armies.
It would also look in the natural like
David is on the losing end of this
struggle that's going on, this moment of bitter
division.
David is concerned because all around him is
such wicked speech.
It's everywhere.
It's permeating the air.
Speech about vengeance, thoughts about murder, all kinds
of things are going on at that particular
time.
No shortage of it.
Even the distressed in debt and discontent that
came to him when he was hidden away
from King Saul and his army, even they
were advocating harm to the leader of Israel
at that time.
David begins to cry out and says, God,
would you protect me?
Would you protect me and keep me from
the paths of the destroyer?
I have purposed that my mouth shall not
transgress.
God, I want my speech to be clean.
I want the words that I say to
be right in your sight.
David goes on and says, you've examined me
every night and found nothing.
In other words, before I go to bed
at night, I trust God's Holy Spirit to
do an inventory of my life that day.
Have my words been seasoned with grace?
Have they produced healing?
Have they created thirst for God?
Have I spoken truth?
Have I stayed away from the pathway of
the one who comes to steal, kill, and
destroy?
God, your touch is on me.
I'm asking you to protect me.
Proverbs 18, 21 says, death and life are
in the power of the tongue and those
who love it will eat its fruit.
In other words, we can't escape the power
of our own words.
Sometimes people think that they can be free
to speak whatever they want and there will
be no consequence to it.
But don't forget, the Bible says, be not
deceived.
Whatever a man sows, he's going to reap.
Whatever you're sowing as you go through your
day, you're going to reap that in your
own life.
You're going to reap it.
God will not be mocked.
That's what the scripture begins with.
Whatever you sow, you're going to reap.
And some will reap it now, here in
time, and others will reap it in eternity.
Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew chapter
12.
Just let me read it to you.
Verses 35 to 37.
A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart brings forth good things, and
an evil man out of the evil treasure
brings forth evil things.
But I say to you that for every
idle word that men may speak, they will
give an account of it in the day
of judgment.
Every word is recorded.
Did you know that?
You will stand before God one day and
give an account, give an account of all
your speech in public, in private, when you
thought no one was listening.
For by your words you will be justified,
and by your words you will be condemned.
Proverbs 22 11.
This is a beautiful verse that I love.
I wrote it out one time when I
was a young pastor in Canada and put
it on my desk.
He who loves purity of heart and has
grace on his lips, the king will be
his friend.
I love that particular proverb, 22 11.
Unity with God and friendship with the godly
had always been the source of David's strength.
He loved righteousness.
He hated wickedness.
He stood on the side of truth, and
because of it, he had known an empowerment
of the spirit of God, and he knew
that God had called him to something deeper
than what people around him were discussing and
trying to get into his spirit.
He says, you've tasted my heart.
You visited me in the night.
You tried me and found nothing.
I have purposed that my mouth shall not
transgress.
God, I want my speech to be right.
That has to be the cry of every
true believer in Christ in this generation in
particular, because there's such evil abounding in people's
speech.
Now, you and I must not be partakers
of it.
We have to ask God for the grace.
Lord God almighty, help me to represent your
kingdom, a kingdom of forgiveness, a kingdom of
reconciliation, a kingdom of salvation.
God, that's my mission on the earth.
Do not let my mouth represent any other
kingdom.
David said, concerning the works of men, by
the word of your lips, I have kept
from the pass of the destroyer.
I have loved your word.
I hear what you're speaking to me, and
it's by the things that you have spoken
to my heart.
I have not gone down the path that
this society seems to have no power to
resist.
Uphold my steps in your path, that my
footsteps may not slip.
God almighty, help me.
Has to be the cry of every believer
in Christ now.
Oh God, help me.
God help me.
I don't even want the spirit of the
news agencies getting into my spirit.
Oh God, help me.
God help your people.
God help your church.
Lord Jesus Christ, don't let that wicked spirit
get a hold of us.
Oh God, may we not be found as
part of it in this generation.
All around, David were unjust accusations.
Murmuring was in the air.
Talk of vengeance was abounding.
It was everywhere.
Brother was divided against brother, family against family,
and former friend against friend.
The social climate was like quicksand, and David
knew that to venture into it without divine
protection was to be swallowed up by it.
I can't tell you how many times I've
stood in this pulpit in the last 10
years, warning you that a day of such
bitter division was coming to this nation, that
if you were not grounded in the word
of God, if your value system was not
God's value system, you would have no power
to stand against it.
Like a river, it would sweep you along
in its channel to places you never thought
you were going to be capable of going.
Jesus himself warned about the spirit that would
be in this world in the last day
in Matthew 24, verses 10 and 12.
Many will be offended and will betray one
another and hate one another.
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of
many will grow cold.
The love of truth will grow cold.
The love of the work of God will
grow cold.
The love of humanity will grow cold.
And sad to say, even the love that
we are supposed to have for one another
in the body of Christ will also begin
to grow cold in some people's hearts.
What a tragedy that will be because our
strength, the glory of God, the testimony of
God is found in unity.
When brethren dwell together in unity, it's like
the oil that was poured upon the head
of Aaron, the priest down to the skirts
of his garment.
In other words, the power of God, that
ability to be set apart for God, the
ability to stand and see the power of
God emanate from your life comes when you
and I are walking in unity with God
and with one another as the body of
Jesus Christ.
Like the dew upon the mountains when the
sun hits the snow on the highest peak
of a mountain and it begins to melt
and supplies moisture to everything around its base.
When you and I are walking together in
unity as the body of Jesus Christ, as
the body of Christ on the earth, when
we're walking together in unity, there's a river
of life that flows from us.
And it gives drink to those that are
thirsty in our streets and in our homes
and in our society.
Just as Joseph's father, Israel gave him a
coat of many colors.
So to God, the father gave his son,
Jesus, a body.
I believe that Joseph's coat was a type
of Christ in his church.
God gave his son, Jesus, a church of
many colors.
Thank God for that coat of many colors.
Revelation chapter seven and verse nine tells us
that one day, a great multitude, which no
one could number of all nations, tribes, people,
and tongues are standing before the throne together,
worshiping God, crying out among the created beings
of heaven.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
hosts.
Heaven and earth are filled with his glory.
And just as Joseph did, Jesus had to
suffer betrayal.
He was sold out for coins.
He was falsely accused and shut up and
forgotten.
Joseph shut up and forgotten in prison and
Jesus Christ shut up and forgotten in a
tomb with a stone rolled in front of
it.
But thank God he did it all for
us.
Everything that Christ went through was that we
may be forgiven and we may find ourselves
in a place where all we need to
glorify his name is given to us, especially
in moments like this.
Oh, thank God.
I hope you feel in your heart what
I'm feeling in my heart.
We could conceivably be entering into the finest
hour for the church of Jesus Christ, the
true church of Jesus Christ, the blood washed
church of Jesus Christ, the genuine brothers and
sisters in Christ in the church of Jesus
Christ.
Praise God.
In the gospel of John chapter 17, Jesus
prayed a prayer for you and I.
He was speaking to his father.
He says, but now I come to you
and these things I speak in the world
that they may have my joy fulfilled in
themselves.
I've given them your word and the world
has hated them because they are not of
the world, just as I am not of
the world.
I do not pray that you should take
them out of the world, but that you
should keep them from the evil one.
They are not of this world, just as
I am not of this world.
Sanctify them by your truth, set them apart,
make them different.
Oh God, your word is truth and you
have sent me into the world.
I've also have sent them into the world
and for their sakes, I sanctify myself that
they also may be sanctified by the truth.
In other words, Christ is saying, father, for
their sakes, I set myself apart to suffer
what needs to be suffered.
That also they may have the power to
be set apart in an ungodly time to
do and to fulfill the full calling of
their mission while they live in this world.
I do not pray for these alone, but
also for those who will believe in me
through their word.
Here's the prayer that they all may be
one as you father are in me and
I, and you, that they may also be
one in us, that the world may believe
that you sent me and the glory, which
you gave me, I've given them that they
may be one, just as we are one,
I in them, you in me, that they
may be made perfect in one and that
the world may know that you've sent me
and has loved them as you have loved
me.
We are living in a moment in history
where we're watching scripture fulfilled right before our
eyes.
It is truly amazing.
If you are a student of, especially of
that, which is prophetic, you see the armies
of the world are lining up just as
the Bible said they would.
Everything is unfolding just as Christ said it
was going to unfold.
But this last day, this last day is
going to be marked by bitter divisions, especially
along ethnic and racial lines.
It will be all throughout the world.
There'll be this sudden flood of hatred one
for another.
People will gravitate to that, which is culturally,
socially, linguistically, and racially familiar and start to
shake their fist at everyone else.
What a glorious opportunity God has given us
as the body of Jesus Christ, especially here
in New York city, where 104 different nations
are gathered together to praise God for that.
We are on a prayer meeting on Tuesday
night now in 179 nations throughout the world
where people from around the world are coming
in online and they're looking at you and
they're looking at me and they begin to
realize as Jesus prayed, only God could be
doing this.
Only God could be bringing these people together.
Only God could be giving them the power
to love one another.
Statisticians say it can't be done.
You can't bring together this many people and
have them walk together in unity and in
love.
That's what the statisticians, the church statisticians say.
Well, let them say what they want to
say.
My Bible says we can become one as
Christ and the father of one.
Thank God.
Now David finds himself surrounded by a society
bent on wickedness, bent on division, bent on
evil speaking.
And he prays and says, keep me as
the apple of your eye, hide me under
the shadow of your wings from the wicked
who oppress me.
And from my deadly enemies who surround me,
your deadly enemies are everything.
Every voice around you that will try to
take you out of that fellowship that God
has prescribed his church to be, that will
try to sow bitterness and division in your
heart.
I want to make a statement this morning,
and I want you to hear me on
this.
If there's anybody in this church listening to
my voice and you are promoting division between
culture to culture, language to language, social status
to social status, or race to race, this
is not the church for you.
You do not belong in this church.
And so I strongly advise you to get
up and get out.
If you're not willing to repent, because if
you don't, we're going to help you find
the exit door in this house.
You will not sow division here.
Praise be to God.
This is the church of Jesus Christ.
This is the body of Christ.
This is the code of many colors that
God gave to his son.
What an awesome thing it is to be
part of the testimony of God on the
earth in this generation.
And whether or not you fully understand it,
God has opened the door, the window to
this church, to many nations now throughout the
world who are coming in and beginning to
understand unity is possible.
Genuine biblical love is possible.
We can get along with each other in
Christ.
Hallelujah to the lamb of God.
David says arise, oh Lord, and confront him
and cast him down.
Deliver my life from the wicked with your
sword.
In other words, with your word, God, deliver
me from those who would try to sow
something in me that you don't want into
my life.
God deliver me from my own heart that
wants to hold onto and harbor past injustices
and speak about it every day.
God deliver my heart.
Deliver me with your word, oh God.
That's got to be the cry of every
saint of God.
We are a city being set upon a
hill and the testimony of God will not,
cannot, must not be hidden in this generation.
We have an opportunity to show this fragmented,
bitter, divided, ever vengeful society.
There is a way to life.
There is a way to freedom.
There is a way to hope.
There is a way to a future and
it's found in Jesus Christ, the son of
God who died to forgive us our sins.
David says, as for me, I will see
your face in righteousness.
I will be satisfied when I awaken your
likeness.
I love the original King James.
He basically says, I'll be satisfied when I
wake up with your likeness.
I will be satisfied, oh God, to have
your heart, your character formed in me.
I will be satisfied to turn away from
my thoughts and my ways and my own
darkened heart that would want to cause me
to go in the wrong direction.
I will be satisfied to be an ambassador
of a kingdom of forgiveness.
I will be satisfied to do the will
of God and not my own will.
I will be satisfied to have the touch
of God upon my life.
Every morning when I get up to say,
oh God, thank you for one more day
to speak good things.
One more day to talk about grace.
One more day to encourage people to forgive
one another and not to be part of
that sewer that is causing people to hate
and to blame in our society today.
By the grace of God, we will represent
the one who went to a cross that
all men, women, and children may be forgiven.
Let the ungodly pursue what they will, but
I choose to worship you in truth.
I will not make excuses for wrong thinking.
This word is going to be that which
governs my heart, my life, and my mind.
I will not be a part of any
division in the house of God or the
nation.
I will not be a partaker of it.
Praise be to God.
Thank God.
I will wake up each day with the
reflection of who you are on my countenance.
I will fight against no one, but I
will fight for everybody.
That heaven might be their home and my
eternal home as well.
Protect me, oh God, from being swallowed up
by the evil and divisive speech of our
day.
It's not going to get any better, folks.
It's going to get worse.
I think it could get to the point
where our cities become difficult to govern.
Such vilification.
And we're moving rapidly to a place where
people will be unstable.
And those who will be made unstable by
wrong thinking will think they can do violence
even in the name of God.
It's such a tragedy.
Help me to live for the benefit of
all people and to even love those who
have caused me pain.
That is the church of Jesus Christ.
That is the coat of many colors.
That is the testimony.
That is the reason why we sing the
way we do and have the joy that
we have.
We will not ever allow division to come
into this church.
Proverbs says an angry countenance turns away a
backbiting tongue.
So you have my permission to put on
your angry countenance when anybody tries to divide
you from anybody else.
You just tell them, you just get away
from me right now.
Just stop speaking and get away from me.
You're not taking away the blessing of God
from my life.
You are not drawing me into division.
You're not drawing me into your hatred.
You're not drawing me into your racism, whatever
it is.
I'm not going there.
I'm not going with you.
You go if you want, but I'm not
going with you.
Praise be to God.
Let me never divide the body of Christ.
Now, if David had to pray this prayer,
David, the sweet Psalmist who killed a lion
and a bear and Goliath, David, who had
the oil of God poured on his head
from the prophet Samuel, David, who knew he
was called to rule and reign.
If David had to pray for that protection,
how much more do you and I have
to pray?
How much more do we not have to
just assume that we will do things that
are right and forget that we have a
capability of moving in a direction that is
wrong?
That's why I encourage everybody listening to the
sound of my voice.
You must read your Bible now.
The word of God is the lamp for
your feet and the light for your path.
The word of God is where the promises
of God are that will help you to
become the man or woman that God has
designed you to be.
The word of God, according to David and
others, it will keep you from the paths
of the destroyer, the one who comes to
steal, kill, and destroy.
You'll be kept from that path by staying
in the word of God.
Folks, as much as we love you, as
much as the pastors of this church dig
as deep as we can in the word
of God for your sake, we can't do
it all.
You have to get in there yourself.
You've got to open this book in the
morning and say, God, help me.
Help me to be like you.
Help me to understand your word.
It's not volume.
It's the quality of what you do read
that you understand.
Help me to meditate on your word.
Let it establish my thoughts.
Let my heart, my ways be established in
your word.
God, help me not to forget that I
am an ambassador of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Don't let me be found drawn down that
river of the ungodly who want to divide
and accuse and vilify and name-call.
Don't let me go there.
And then at the end of the day,
as David said, you say to visit me
in the night, oh God, and try me
and prove my heart.
How has my speech been today?
Have I spoken well of other people?
Has my speech caused anyone to be thirsty
for the kingdom of God?
Have I healed wounds as I traveled through
the day?
Or have I just gone with the multitude
as they head down this pathway of bitterness
and division?
David had to pray.
He said, God, you have to help me.
You've got to give me the strength.
He said, uphold my steps in your paths
that my footsteps may not slip for he
knew the frailty of his own heart.
And you and I need to know it
as well.
If we get out of the word of
God, if we start losing communion with God,
the next thing you know, we're in the
lunch room and we're just saying the same,
spewing the same filth as everyone else around
us, drawn down that river of destruction, and
we're not making a difference for God.
If David had to pray it, then you
and I have to pray it as well.
Lord, protect me from being swallowed up by
the evil and divisive speech of our day.
Protect me, oh God.
Protect me because I will answer for my
words.
You will too.
I'll answer for my words.
You see, I thank God there's a lot
going on in the country today that can
divide, but I thank God there's more going
on in the word of God that can
bring us together.
God has given us an opportunity to be
a testimony like none other.
Oh, thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus.
I don't know what happened in that cave,
but I know that as they met with
King David and these men who were discontent
and distressed, when they met with God, they
came out of their mighty, and many of
them got to dance with David behind the
ark as the presence of God was once
again ushered into Jerusalem.
They went in weak and they came out
strong.
They went in defeated and they came out
warriors for a righteous cause, for a good
cause, and they knew that God was with
them.
Help me to live for the benefit of
others, oh God.
Don't let me be selfish.
Help me, Lord.
Help me to understand the pain others may
be experiencing and help me to be a
vessel that can bring healing into their hearts.
Don't let me be found among the dividers.
God, help me to love people who have
hurt me because that's what you did, Jesus.
Father, forgive them, you said.
You were beaten beyond human recognition.
The pain was immeasurable.
It was going through your body, the nails
in your wrists and in your feet, crown
of thorns on your head, and all that
came out of your mouth was, Father, forgive
them.
They don't know what they do.
God, would you help me?
Would you help me to lay down the
wrong, if I have the wrong sword in
my hand, would you help me to lay
it down?
Would you help me to be kind?
Would you help me to love, especially in
your church and among your people?
Because you said that would be irrefutable evidence
that Christ came and died for the lost,
that there would be a love among the
people of God that this world cannot reproduce.
Even in its best efforts, it can only
be born by the spirit of God.
And that's what God will do.
I'd like to give an altar call this
morning for every person here and those that
are online at home.
And you know, you know, your speech has
not been what it should be.
But like King David, you have the courage
and the humility to say, God, would you
help me?
Would you help me to speak right?
Do you help me to think right?
Would you help me to esteem your body?
Do you help me to love your people?
Remember Paul said in the book of Corinthians
that many people in the church are weak
and sickly.
And some have even spiritually fallen asleep because
they don't understand.
They haven't discerned correctly what it means to
be part of the body of Jesus Christ.
They've come in, they want salvation, but yet
they've held on to forms of division in
their midst.
And it's putting them to sleep spiritually because
this kingdom is all about love and forgiveness.
That's what it's all about.
So God, would you help us to speak
right?
Now, father, I thank you that you have
given me your heart today.
I thank you for the ability to speak
this word.
I thank you God, with all my heart,
Lord, for you are speaking to us as
a church for you have opened the window
of this church to many, many people throughout
the world.
It is a very unique place where you
brought together people from over a hundred nations
as a testimony of who you are and
what you can do when people turn to
you.
And so God, we ask you Lord to
protect us.
We ask you to hold us, keep us
from the paths of the destroyer, help us
to be satisfied, to be like you.
We don't need to be like anybody in
the world, but to be like you every
morning, when we awake, help us to have
open hearts, to let you examine our speech
at the end of the day and give
us a truly humble heart.
God, I ask you Lord for a literal
explosion of love in this church.
30 years ago, you had pastor David Wilkerson
write the words on the marquee of this
church, the church that love is building.
I thank you God that was as prophetic
as anything that's ever been spoken in this
pulpit.
This is a church that love is building.
So we ask you Lord to extricate all
hate from this building.
God, we thank you starting with our lips,
our mouths, our report in Jesus name.
We're going to stand in just a moment.
And if you want to just come forward
and say, God protect me.
I feel like David, I feel surrounded.
I'm surrounded in the workplace.
I feel surrounded in society.
I feel there's just such evil speech is
getting into my spirit and I don't want
this to govern my life.
And as we stand, if God's speaking to
you, just come and join those that are
already on their way to the front of
this altar.
Let's stand balcony, go to either exit, main
sanctuary, just slip out.
We're going to worship for just a little
while in the annex.
You can step between the screens, the same
in North Jersey and people online.
You can stand right up in your living
room, wherever you are.
And we're going to pray together for a
love and a unity that only God, only
God could give to his church.
Praise God.
Father God, in Jesus name, Lord, the love
that you speak about in your word is
only attainable by your Holy spirit and by
the promises that you give to us Lord
for left to ourselves, we will bitterly divide
as a society around us is doing, but
God, there is a unity that you speak
of and a love.
You said, father, they might be one as
you and I are one God almighty God.
There's, there's not even a paper thin division
between you.
And so Lord, we ask God that that
same spirit come upon us as a people
Lord.
And as this world divides along racial, ethnic
lines, linguistic lines, and cultural lines, that we
would be found coming together as your body
throughout the world Lord, that we would truly
love one another God, no matter what our
language or what country we're in Lord, that
we would love one another the way that
you have called us to love that the
world may know the world may know that
Jesus Christ was sent to pay the price
for sin and to break the bondage of
evil.
God, we thank you Lord for what you
are doing in our midst.
We yield to it.
Oh God, we do surrender all.
We surrender our grievances.
We surrender our wayward tongues.
Lord, we surrender our spiritual laziness.
God, we surrender it all and ask you
to be God in us and God to
us.
And God through us Lord, be our strength,
be our life, be our breath, be everything
that we are and have and ever will
be God almighty.
We ask you Lord, that you would forge
a deeper bond of love and unity in
this church than we've ever known before.
Father, we thank you Lord.
We thank you.
Maybe we'd be able to say the enemy
has nothing in us.
He has no access to us.
He has no place here.
Father, we thank you that this is a
church that love is building.
Your church is being built by the love
of Christ all over the world.
God, Lord, we thank you for it.
Help us to be a true testimony.
Oh God, to those who are looking in
wondering, is it possible?
Is it possible?
Can people love one another?
Can they walk together in harmony?
Can they be at peace?
Can they truly forgive?
God, let this church be a testimony to
this generation of who you are.
Oh God almighty.
We just thank you for where you're taking
us Lord and for what you're speaking to
each of our hearts.
As David said, we will be satisfied every
day when we get up to know that
your countenance is upon us and your heart
is beating within us Lord.
We are your body.
This coat of many colors that you've given
to your son.
God almighty, we are that body.
Father, we thank you and praise you for
it in the mighty name of Jesus.
Hallelujah.