I want to just say thank you and
God bless you for those who came out
to pray tonight.
I know this is a snowy night with
freezing rain and we have all of the
advice even that people have been told not
to go out, not to drive, but here
you are.
You're just so faithful I can't get over
it sometimes, you know, that you come out
to pray.
And I thank God for that with all
my heart.
It means you understand the depth of the
fight that we're in now for this present
culture that we're living in.
This little section called thoughts on faith and
prayer, I have only a small thought, but
it's ironic that I woke up with it
this morning.
God gave me this thought before I even
heard of the weather report.
And I want to call it a lion
in a pit on a snowy day.
Now, in First Chronicles chapter 11, verse 10
says, it speaks about mighty men.
I'm sure there were mighty women involved in
this too as well.
People that went into a cave with David,
the king, the soon to be king, when
he was being pursued in a society that
seemed to be against the anointing of God.
And the scripture says that these people went
into that place where David was, and they
were distressed.
They were in debt and they were discontent.
Now, a lot of people come to church
like that.
They come to church even to a meeting
like this, because you are distressed.
You feel like all hell is against you.
You are discontent and you're in debt.
There's no doubt.
If you live in New York, you're probably
in debt.
There's not much doubt about that.
Credit card debt is mounting.
The rent needs to be paid.
And sometimes just in desperation, I'm just going
to where God is.
I don't care if I got to walk
through rain and sleet and snow.
And I don't care if the subway shuts
down, I can't get home.
I'm going to the house of God.
That's exactly the way this people were feeling.
We're going where the anointing is.
And we don't care if the whole of
society is pursuing us.
We don't care if a madman is out
to kill King David.
We're just going, we know the anointing, the
spirit of God is on this man and
in this place.
So that's where we're going.
The scripture tells us that it's never the
mighty that God chooses or the noble or
the Royal.
Once in a while, one might sneak in,
but generally speaking, it's the people who are
weak and they're nothings.
They're nobodies.
They have no resume, but they know that
without God, they have nothing and they are
nothing.
And they come to where God is.
And with the little bit of resource that
they have, they say, would you take my
life and would you give it meaning?
And would you use me for something a
little more than just hobbling about day to
day, worried about my own situation, my own
circumstance, my own family, my own life, my
own future.
There's something more to life than this.
And so these ordinary people went in where
there was an extraordinary anointing of God.
And I don't know what happened in that
cave.
I don't know.
I know that when I get to heaven,
if there's a video section, there's a certain
ones that I want to watch.
Number one, I want to see the cross.
Number two, I want to see the day
of Pentecost.
Number three, I want to see this cave
where David was.
And I want to listen to the audio.
What went on in that cave?
I know they went in distressed and dead
and discontent.
They were wanting vengeance.
Remember, they tried to get David to kill
King Saul when the Lord brought him into
the cave.
But they came out of that cave as
mad as hornets.
And they came out of there filled with
fire for the glory of God, for the
honor and for the souls of men.
Something transpired in these people in that place.
There was a shift.
The old value system, as the scripture says,
if anyone is in Christ, he or she
becomes a new creation.
The old things pass away.
Behold, all things become new.
Something happened to that old way of thinking.
In that cave, was it because of the
worship of King David?
Was it because of the God focus of
the words that they heard?
Was there a willingness in their heart to
let go of what had never satisfied and
to grab hold of what could never fail?
I don't know what fully happened in that
cave, but I do know that history records,
they came out determined to honor God, determined
to fight against darkness and determined that there
would be a new king in town.
Praise be to God.
I hope that's in your heart tonight.
I hope it's in your heart to fight
for the honor of God.
I hope it's in your heart to fight
for those who have no voice to fight
for themselves.
I hope it's in your heart to live
outside of the concerns of your own life,
in your own death, in your own trials.
And to say, God, there's a bigger reason
to live than just for these things, because
these things have never satisfied me.
I sought them, but they left me high
and dry.
And so I'm willing tonight to exchange them
in this old pursuit, in this old way
of living for something that's much bigger than
what I thought would bring me happiness in
the past.
And they strengthened themselves, the scripture tells us.
And they came out of that cave and
they were the ones that God used to
bring a new leadership to the nation at
that time.
God always has a church.
He always has a testimony.
He always has a people who rise up
out of mediocrity and become mighty.
And I hope with all my heart, that's
in your heart tonight.
I hope after all the time you spend
in this church, you finally learned that God
can take me in my weakness and make
me strong.
He can take me in my confusion and
give me clarity of thought.
He can open every prison door and set
me free.
He can take me in my weakness and
make me mighty in his word and with
the giftings of his spirit and in the
victory that he won for me on the
cross.
He can take me out of my self
-focus and give me the ability to live
for the sake of others.
And he can take me out of my
cowardice and put a love in me that
gives me courage and causes me to fight.
And the scripture goes through, this whole chapter
goes through all of the exploits of all
of these men of God, the phenomenal things
they did.
I hope it stirs something in your heart
tonight.
I hope it stirs up because it stirs
mine.
I've had the privilege of seeing God do
many things throughout the world for several years,
but I'm just longing for more.
I feel like Caleb now I'm getting older.
Give me the mountain now.
Give me the giants.
Oh God, Lord, that which only you can
do.
I know a lot of the elders here
feel the same way in this church.
We're getting older, but we're not giving up
the fight yet by God's grace.
We're not giving up the fight.
And there's a lot of people that talks
about the victories they won and how they
took mountains.
They took hills, they took valleys, but there's
one particular man that has always intrigued me.
Verse 22 says, but I, the son of
Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man from
Kabziel, who had done many deeds.
He killed two lion-like heroes of Moab.
Now here's the line.
He also went down and killed a lion
in the midst of a pit on a
snowy day.
Now there's a lot in that one sentence.
Number one, it was a lion.
Now you got to know what you're doing
to fight a lion.
You got to know that God is with
you.
The lion is in a pit and it's
a snowy day.
Now, first of all, the lion is a
devourer and he knew that.
First of all, you got to know who
you're fighting.
You got to know your enemy.
The devil walks about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour.
There's got to be something in your heart
that as this man walked by, he looked
down, this lion is in this pit and
he just knew he was a devourer.
And I don't know what get in his
heart, but he said, this thing is not
going to devour anybody on my watch.
I'm not letting them come out of there.
I'm not letting them devour another child.
I'm not letting them take another family.
I'm not letting them destroy another life.
The spirit of God is on me.
I'm not going to cower.
I'm going after this lion.
Now the lion's already in a pit.
A lot of people would say, well, just
leave him there.
He's already in a pit.
Just leave him there.
But the scripture doesn't tell us who that
lion already had in that pit with him.
I mean, there's a few details we're going
to see when we get to heaven.
The lion was in a pit and it
was a snowy day like today, which means
it's slippery down there.
And tells me something about this man, that
he was more concerned about protecting those that
this lion would devour than he was concerned
about his own safety and security.
And there's a point in life where we've
got to get more concerned about others than
we are about ourselves.
There's a point in life where we have
to be willing to risk whatever God asks
us to for the sake of somebody that
will not have the strength that we have.
For the sake of a child that might
fall down in there thinking that's just a
pretty kitty that he can pet not knowing
that he's going to be devoured.
For the sake of a family that will
have no defense.
The willingness to risk it all.
You see, we've been a church age in
America that have largely lived for self and
for comfort.
We've not known the pain of other societies.
For example, I remember back in the late
eighties when the authorities in Vietnam came and
took all the children of the pastors away
because they felt they were being falsely taught
and they took them into government indoctrination schools
and the pastors had to flee for their
lives into the jungle.
I had a friend who was involved in
feeding many of those pastors in that place
until the times and seasons passed away and
people who went into that jungle to feed
these pastors had to risk their lives to
do it because it was a penalty of
death to even help them.
You see, we've not had to go through
that yet.
We've lived in relative ease and we've been
able to open the scriptures and more or
less focus on ourselves, our lives, our grandeur,
our self image, our homes, our colleges, our
kids, our families.
We've even cultivated our own doctrines that really
focus largely just on me, myself and I.
But things are changing.
It's a snowy day now in America and
there's a lion in the pit.
And God is looking for men and women
who fully understand what the fight is that
we're facing today and are willing to give
themselves, as the Bible says in Romans chapter
12, as a living sacrifice for the kingdom
of God, which the scripture says is our
reasonable service.
It's not unreasonable.
There's a lot of things that I would
like to do with my life.
If I've got 15 more years to live,
I'd be 80 if I survived 15 more
years.
A lot of things that I would like
to do, but that's not what matters is
what God asks me to do that now
matters.
And so tonight we represent the one who
went to a cross, gave his life, endured
a beating and ridicule to the shedding of
the last drop of water and blood even
in his own heart so that you and
I could be here tonight.
We were in a pit and we were
being devoured.
And so the son of God came and
he fought that fight on that cross so
that we could be free.
And he said, now, as my father has
sent me, now I send you.
Now we're not able to die on a
cross for the sins of the world, because
obviously we're not the son of God, but
we're called to bring people out of darkness
and into the light of Christ.
We're called to fight for those who have
no voice to fight for themselves, called to
fight for the children of this generation who
are being indoctrinated in perversion in our schools.
We're called to fight for those in our
high schools are being told there is no
God and threatened if they even dare to
pray.
We're called to fight for our students who
are being radicalized against both God and country
in our colleges.
We're called to fight for the unborn who
are being slaughtered even to the point of
coming out of the womb now.
It's not a day to be living for
self.
It's a day to fight a lion in
a pit on a snowy day.
I don't want this man in the scripture
to be the only great man of God
who dared do such a thing.
I don't know what my battle is, and
I don't know what yours is going to
be, but I know I can't walk by
this devour any longer.
I know that I have to do what
God calls me to do.
Now I've been given a national voice.
I'm on radio.
So please pray for me.
Today, I went out on radio here in
New York city, calling this late term abortion
bill murder on 10, 10 wins.
It is what it is.
And whatever price we have to pay, we
pay, but we can't walk by and do
nothing any longer by the grace of God.
I have confidence in you.
I feel, I feel like David tonight, giving
a speech to these guys and girls before
they left that I have confidence in you
that you will trust in the spirit of
God and knowing he can make you a
thousand times more than you are.
I have confidence in you that you will
not back away from any roaring voice.
You'll not back away from any prison door.
I've confidence in you that because of you,
a new King will sit upon the throne
and glory will be brought to God because
of you.
There'll be dancing in the streets again and
rejoicing.
I have confidence in you that because of
you, families will be saved from the devourer.
I have confidence that because of you, the
power of drugs will be destroyed in your
neighborhood.
I have confidence in you that you will
lay hold of the power of God.
And you will believe God with all of
your heart, that God is well able to
take me in my nothingness and become everything
through me.
God is able to give me strength that
I don't have courage.
That is not my own wisdom.
That is not in me apart from him.
God is able.
And for the sake of God, for the
honor of the name of Christ, for the
glory of the almighty God who created this
universe for the sake of the one who
died on the cross for me and loves
all of humanity.
I will not walk by one more line.
Praise be to God.
I have confidence in you.
I believe God for you.
If I didn't, I'd go somewhere else and
speak to some other people, but the Lord
planted me here for your sake.
I have confidence in you that you will
rise up.
You will speak.
You will be a voice.
You will pray.
You will take spiritual authority in your communities.
You will believe that you have power to
tread on serpents and scorpions and over all
the power of the devil and nothing shall
by any means hurt you.
You will believe that you have authority to
speak to this mountain and commanded to be
moved into the sea and it shall obey
you.
You will believe you will go into that
place where the anointing is and say, I'm
not coming out until God, you are everything
to me and through me.
Hallelujah.
Oh, folks, we got some mountains.
We've got some mountains now, but we've got
some mountain movers in this house tonight.
We've got some people that are going to
take authority.
I'm telling you, you might not be the
strongest person in the sanctuary.
Maybe you're 89 years old.
You're a grandmother, a great grandmother, but I'm
telling you, you can go in your prayer
closet and hell will shake when you start
to pray.
You can break the power of evil.
You can break that dominant darkness that wants
to destroy the children in your neighborhood.
You have power in the name of Jesus.
Praise be to God.
We're not going to lie down and lick
our wounds any longer as the church of
Jesus Christ.
We are going to rise in this last
generation and be a voice to be reckoned
with in our society by the grace of
almighty God.
Let the lions roar.
Let the giant shout all they want to.
We are the church of the living God.
Hallelujah.
Glory to the name of Jesus.
Glory, glory, glory to the name of Jesus.
Glory.
You start to pray and you watch what
God will do.
Start to pray.
If you're a teacher, when you go into
your school in the morning, take time to
pray and watch what God will do.
If you're a hospital worker, take time to
pray and watch what God will do.
If you have a broom in your hand,
take time to pray and watch what God
will do.
Watch what God will do through your life.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, mighty God.
Hallelujah.
We have all the power that we need
to be everything that God's called us to
be.
Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ.
I have lived this, all of my Christian
life.
We have all the power to be everything
God has called us to be.
And there's a point where you pass through
the veil of unbelief and you believe it.
There's a point where you say, enough living
on the side of mediocrity.
I'm going to believe this.
And as Paul said, if it costs me
my freedom, that somebody else might be free,
then so be it.
So be it.
I'm not going to live to preserve myself
by the grace of God and by the
strength of God, because none of us could
do this in our own strength.
And that's what the cross is all about.