This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing WorldChallenge, P
.O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas, 75771, or calling
903-963-8626.
You are welcome to make additional cassettes of
this message for free distribution to friends.
However, for all other forms of reproduction or
electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.
I want to speak to you this morning
on the subject, drawing nigh to God.
Drawing nigh to God.
I want you to go to Isaiah, the
first chapter, the first chapter of Isaiah.
And if you've been coming to church, Times
Square Church, a short while, maybe you've only
been here a few weeks, would you please
remember that you must bring your Bible.
That's a part of our worship.
And we want you to prove what we
say is true by checking us in the
word of the Lord.
First chapter of Isaiah, please, and if you
don't have your Bible, if you're visiting, peek
over to your neighbor's Bible, if you will,
please.
First chapter of Isaiah, beginning of verse 10.
This is Isaiah speaking in the word of
the Lord.
Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers
of Sodom.
Give ear unto the law of our God,
ye people of Gomorrah.
To what purpose is the multitude of your
sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord?
I am full of the burnt offerings of
rams and the fad of fed beast.
I delight not in the blood of bullocks
or of lambs or he goats.
When you come to appear before me, who
has required this at your hand to tread
my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations, incenses, abomination unto
me.
Your new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of
assemblies, I cannot away with its iniquity, even
the solemn meeting.
Your new moons, your appointed feasts, my soul
hates.
There are trouble unto me, I'm weary to
bear them.
And when you spread forth your hands, I'll
hide my eyes from you.
When you make your prayers, I will not
hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
Heavenly Father, we're talking this morning about this
wonderful privilege of drawing nigh to you.
And I ask your Holy Spirit to open
our eyes and our understanding.
God, as I speak, let words flow out
of my heart from your throne room.
Sanctify this vessel in a way that there's
nothing that would hinder this flow.
Lord, I don't know who's here.
I don't know why you prepared this particular
message, but you have a reason for all
that you say and do to us.
And we ask you to sanctify our hearing,
give us ears to hear and eyes to
see, and hearts that are broken and melted,
that you can mold us and shape us
into the image of Christ.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Isaiah's day, it must have been quite a
sight in Isaiah's day to go to the
high feast days and see this incredible sight
of people coming from all over Israel to
the high holy days.
Three times a year they were supposed to
come to Jerusalem.
And in this process, they called it coming
to the face of God, coming to meet
God.
It must have been quite a scene.
You would, at the house of the Lord,
lined up outside the outer court.
You would have seen wealthy princes with their
servants holding a very expensive ram by the
neck or collar with a rope.
You would see people of all ages and
all different standards of living with their bullocks
and their rams and their sheep and their
goats.
You would have seen people standing in that
line with caged pigeons because they were poor,
that's all they could afford.
And it must have been something, the braying
of the animals and the animal noises and
the people checking their lamb with others and
examining them and comparing all of the sacrifices
that are coming.
It must have been a sight, quite a
sound, the noises and the chatter.
People bringing their sacrifices to the altar.
Then came the high priest examining the animals
to see if they were worthy.
And then, of course, came the bleeding, the
slaying and the bleeding of the animals.
And then the high priest would take the
blood of their sacrifice, of the animals, and
he would spray some of it with his
hand on the ground.
He would take some of the blood.
He would spray it on the instruments in
the tabernacle.
Some of the blood was poured out at
the foot of the altar.
Others were smeared on.
He took some blood in his hands and
smeared it on the horns of the altar.
It was quite a religious thing that was
happening.
In fact, the most religious thing you could
do as a Jew was to go to
Jerusalem to meet the face of God.
This is what it was called.
You come to meet the face of God.
You're drawing nigh to God.
And this was something that if you had
asked anybody in that line waiting to sacrifice,
what are you here for?
He said, I'm here to meet the face
of God.
I'm here to draw near to God.
I came from Bethlehem.
I came from Dan.
I came from Beersheba.
And I'm here with my sacrifice.
I'm coming to meet the face of God.
That's exactly what they would tell you, drawing
nigh to God.
Now, Isaiah the prophet had witnessed this scene
for many, many years.
He was a prophet through four kings.
One of the most wicked was Ahab.
King Uzziah, remember, died in shame.
He died as a leper.
He tried to come into the temple of
God and sacrifice as a priest himself.
And he turned into a leper.
And then Ahaz followed him, his son, in
a very wicked generation.
The priest became corrupted.
The whole nation was backslidden.
They offered their children as human sacrifices to
that belly god in the Valley of Hinnom.
And Isaiah for decades had seen this bloody
scene of sacrificing.
All the people, they could live as they
pleased.
They came in half-heartedly.
They came in.
Their minds were elsewhere.
This was just by something they had done
by rote for many, many years.
Come three times a year, bring their sacrifice,
and go home saying, I met the face
of God.
I did what's required from me.
Went back to their idolatry and their adultery,
their fornication, their lying, their cheating of widows.
They went back to their old lifestyle of
corruption.
But they thought they're religious as long as
they went and met the face of God
three times a year with their sacrifice.
At one point in time, and it would
have happened either at the end of Isaiah's
reign or perhaps under Ahab.
I would suggest it was under Ahab when
Israel and Judah were at their worst.
They were totally backslidden, full of sin and
corruption.
And once again, they bring their sacrifice to
the altar.
And God, this time, said it's enough.
And he sent the prophet Isaiah to the
temple.
And he stood outside that temple.
And he began to cry out God's word
to these people who were lined up.
There were the princes and the rulers lined
up with their sacrifices and the pigeons.
And what a sound it was.
And everybody, this was a religious celebration.
This was a religious thing.
It was all religion.
There was no spirituality to it whatsoever.
And in verses 10 and 11, this is
the message God told them to preach.
Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers
of Sodom.
And give ear to the law of our
God, ye people of Gomorrah.
Now, he's talking about people coming to meet
God and to have fellowship with him.
Hear those that are coming to meet the
face of God.
He said, you're all of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sodom is in your heart.
You, many of you have sexual addictions.
And many of you are living in sin.
You come here not even wanting to be
redeemed.
You don't want to be cleansed.
You know nothing about the blood that you
see shed, what it represents to you.
You don't know anything of the freedom.
You're coming haphazardly into the kingdom of, into
the house of God.
To what purpose is the multitude of your
sacrifices unto me, say the Lord?
I am full of your burnt offerings of
rams and fat and fed beasts.
And I delight not in the blood of
bullocks and lambs and he-goats.
When you come to appear before me, who's
required this at your hand to tread my
courts?
He said, whatever, where did you get this
idea that you could live like the devil?
Whatever gave you this idea that then you
can come into my house You see, the
sacrifice represents praise.
Bring a sacrifice of praise to the Lord.
Incense represents prayer.
And on that altar, incense was poured so
that you could hear, you could smell that
odor, that of incense all over Jerusalem.
Filled and wafted through the air.
And God said, it's a stench in my
nostrils.
He said, I don't want to see this
blood sacrifice anymore because your heart's not in
it.
Your heart's not in it.
He said, you come in haphazardly.
He said, where did you get the idea
you could come in, make your sacrifice, and
then just tramp around my court nonchalant like
a tourist?
To tramp or tread the court is to
trample.
They trample because they came in.
If you had looked at them, they would
look religious.
It looked fine.
But there was sin in their lives and
they come in.
And the picture of it is people coming
today into the house of God, habitually bound
by sin, have no heart for God, don't
even want to be delivered, but still go
through the religious traditions.
There are Pentecostal traditions coming into the house
of God, raising their hands and praising the
Lord.
When all along it said, he that hath
clean hands and a pure heart alone shall
ascend the holy hill of God.
And God says, I will not accept this
kind of sacrifice.
And I wonder how much of the praise,
we talk about this generation being such a
generation of praise.
We have praise conferences, we have worship conferences,
and I wonder how much of it God
is receiving.
Or rather he should send prophets and say,
listen, I can't receive this kind, you can't
draw nigh to me unless you want to
be cleansed, unless you want the Holy Ghost
to mortify your sins, unless your mind and
your heart is in it.
How many of us today, and I say
it lovingly, how many of us came into
this church today with your mind set on
the Lord as you worshiped and as you
praised him?
Was your mind somewhere else this morning?
Was it on your car?
Was it on your house?
Was it on shopping?
Was it on your marriage?
Was it on your children?
Was it on problems?
Did your mind wander?
Did you come in and trample his courts
this morning?
Did you tread on his courts?
And God says, what makes you think you
can do that?
How dare you come into my presence?
And he's saying this through the prophet.
How dare you?
Listen to it again when you come to
appear before me.
Who is required or who allowed you to
think this way that you could tread my
courts, that you could just come any way
you please?
You say, well, God ought to be pleased
that I'm here.
As far as God's concerned, you are not
here.
You're wherever your mind is.
It's very important.
God spoke this to me years ago.
It's very, very important when you come into
his presence to keep focused on who he
is and why you're there.
To be focused on him.
If your mind wanders, get up and go
out, but don't just start treading around his
court.
Just don't go walking around his courts nonchalantly,
yawning and just looking around.
Go out and do your thing and come
back when you're at your best.
Because God says, I want your very, very
best.
Amen?
Wherefore, the Lord said, for as much as
this people draw near to me with their
mouth and with their lips they honor me,
but they have removed their heart far from
me and their fear toward me is taught
by the precept of men.
And they seek to hide their counsel from
the Lord and their works are done in
the dark.
He said, you know, the night before they
do these things in the dark when nobody
sees and then they come into my house
without cleansing, they walk right into my presence
and their heart isn't even with me.
Jesus took these words of Isaiah, this passage
I just read to you, and applied them
to his generation.
Listen to what Jesus said to the Pharisees
and scribes.
You hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesied of you.
The very prophecy I read to you this
morning.
Well did Isaiah's prophesier say of you, this
people draw nigh unto me with their mouth
and they honor me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me.
And Jesus saying, Isaiah was talking about you.
He wasn't talking about his people alone.
He said, this is a new prophecy.
He's talking about you.
We could do the same thing.
We can take what Jesus said today and
we could say to any hypocritical person who
believes they can come into the house of
God and just say, I went to God's
house.
I saw his face.
I drew near to God.
I spent two hours at Times Square Church
and I worshiped with the people.
How did you come here?
Did you come with deeds done in darkness
that you didn't come to him for cleansing?
You didn't come here for power over sin.
You came here to ease your conscience, to
do a religious thing.
And God said, I won't accept that.
I won't have it.
Now, we all know the scriptures about drawing
near to God.
Let me give you some of them.
Let us come boldly to the throne of
grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace and help in the time of need.
Let's come boldly.
Here's another verse.
In whom we have boldness and access with
confidence by the faith of him.
Let us draw nigh with a true heart
and full assurance of faith.
A true heart is with nothing hidden.
With nothing hidden.
Come with a true heart.
Come with nothing hidden.
You want to come and have God expose
everything that's in your life and say, God,
here it is.
I'm not hiding anything.
I come to meet you.
Now, Lord, expose it and then give me
the power to deal with it.
And he's promised to do just that.
Recently, I was praying over James 4a.
You know this.
It's very familiar.
Draw nigh unto God and he'll what?
He'll draw nigh unto you.
And I've been praying that.
I pray that every day.
But recently, the Holy Spirit was urging me
to press in on that.
And I would walk up and down in
my prayer room saying, oh, God, draw nearer
to me than you've ever drawn.
I want to know you more than I've
ever known you before.
There was such a hunger to reaching out.
God, what's it take to get closer to
you?
What's the cost?
Let me know.
I want more than anything else to seek
you.
I want you to draw nearer to me
than you've ever been before.
I've talked about knowing you, but I really
don't know you like I want to.
Lord, I want to get closer to you.
Now, how many have prayed that prayer?
Have you prayed that?
Lord, I want to get closer.
I've got a hunger in my heart because
if you really are walking in the Holy
Spirit, that's His work.
He's going to keep drawing you.
He'll keep urging you to get deeper in
the Lord, get closer to Him, more intimate.
That'll be there until Jesus comes.
You'll never be satisfied in that direction because
it's always upward and onward into the depths
of Christ till finally you have waters to
swim in.
And that urge is there.
And I kept praying that.
And it suddenly dawned on me the question,
how do I draw near to Him?
What's involved in drawing near to Him?
I keep saying that.
I keep praying, what is that about?
And I said, Lord, tell me what I
have to do.
Tell me what the process is by which
I can get very close to you and
likewise, I can have you because you promised
that if I get close to you and
draw nearer to you, you'll draw nearer to
me.
And I want that.
And I began to plead with the Lord,
show me.
I kept seeking God, what do you mean?
What's required?
Have you ever figured that out?
You say, well, it's more prayer, more intense
prayer, more time alone with God, get into
His word more.
Yes, that's all a part of it.
That didn't answer, that didn't.
I knew there was more to it than
that.
I've done all of that and I still
don't feel near.
I don't feel as close to Him as
I want to feel and I know I'm
not as close as I want to be.
Lord answered me with a question.
Why do you want to draw near me?
What's your motive?
Why do you want me to come near
you?
What's your motive?
Because God's interested in motives if you see
here their motive was wrong and God says,
I'll not accept it.
That's why I gave you this background this
morning.
My first thought was, well, Lord, that ought
to be obvious.
I want to draw near to you because
that's what Christians do.
That's what this Christian walk's all about.
Draw me nearer.
Oh, boy, what a song.
Brother Carter, where are you?
I was
bleeding inside.
We've all prayed that.
God, I want to be closer than I've
ever been to you.
Draw me nearer and the Lord said, why?
I know your heart and your motive.
You want more of me but do you
really know what your motive is?
I know what it is but do you
know what it is?
Have you ever prayed this prayer and then
you feel this drawing nigh to the Lord?
Let me talk about some of the motives
we have in drawing nigh to the Lord.
One of the most subtle motives of all
is competitive holiness, competitive holiness.
Let me tell you what that's all about.
Now, we should all be holy.
We should all desire to be more holy.
We should pray about being more holy but
I'm talking about a competitive holiness and it's
something like this.
It's a subtle desire to be a little
bit holier than the most holy person you
know in your circle.
I'm going to touch some nerves in just
a minute here.
Now, I'm not talking about this evil desire
to be holier than thou like the Pharisees
had.
That's not it, is it?
These are sincere people like you and me.
We want to get close to God.
Genuine Holy Ghost hunger in us to get
closer and closer to the Lord.
This is a righteous person who's convinced that
some brother or sister has passed them by
in holiness.
I'm just beginning.
Nothing is said outright and you dare not
even think it but it's so subtle it's
down deep inside.
It's just a slight peeve at God.
A little grievance that goes something like this.
Lord, I've sought your face diligently.
I have prayed with faith.
I've fasted.
I've been faithful.
I live victoriously.
I'm obedient to your word.
I have no other desire in the world
but to get to know you better.
I've drawn near to you.
So why doesn't anybody think of me as
holy?
Why does everybody look at sister so-and
-so and all they say is she is
so close to Jesus?
Lord, with all of my praying and all
my seeking your face, why doesn't anybody even
consider me holy or righteous?
I'm just an ordinary Joe.
I'm just an ordinary person and everybody tells
me about brother so-and-so.
Well, when you're around him, you feel God.
Around them, you see Jesus.
They are so righteous.
No guile in them.
And Lord, here I am.
I'm running as fast as I can to
meet you.
I'm doing everything right.
And nobody knows anything about my righteousness.
We don't say it.
We don't even want to think it, but
it's down inside.
What's wrong with me?
Why you bypass me, Lord?
I want to be holy.
Why?
I want to draw closer to Jesus.
Why?
What's your motive?
Think of King Saul.
I tell you, you've got to be an
awful, humble, mighty man to put up with
what Saul put up with.
Coming home from the battle, he's victorious and
he's riding his white horse in and all
the women are coming up, pounding their tamarins
and dancing and singing.
Saul has slain his thousands and he smiles.
David's in the horse behind him.
And they look right past Saul.
Yeah, Saul has slain his thousands.
Turns right on David.
But David, 10,000.
Lord, he's holier than I am.
Now, I tell you, folks, I don't know.
I think now at my age, I can
handle it.
When I was a young preacher, I don't
think I could handle this.
When you have to stand by and you
hear somebody behind you being praised to high
heaven, and you're being ignored or bypassed.
Let me tell you why I believe Saul
lost it.
Saul lost it, not because of the praises
heaped on David, but it's what Saul saw
in David's life, his pursuit of God.
And he felt that he can't compete with
that pursuit.
He can't keep up with him.
I'm sure Saul tried.
He tried and tried.
Because you see, God had anointed him with
the Holy Ghost.
God had called him and God had even
told him the plan of God was to
make him a sure house and establish him
forever.
God had a plan for Saul.
Saul could have repented as David did.
He could have said, don't take your Holy
Spirit from me.
David could have said, I don't understand this,
Lord.
You're going to have to deal with me.
There were things that could have been done.
But you see, Saul's comparing himself with David.
He sees David growing in the Lord.
And now he feels that God has shortchanged
him.
Somehow God loves David more than him.
And this becomes a competitive holiness.
It becomes a competitive pursuit of holiness.
And Saul, I believe, when he lost it,
he looked at David and thought, David's so
far ahead.
David is so loved.
And I've tried so hard and missed it.
I'll never catch up to David.
I'll never be like David.
I'll never have the blessing on my family
like he has on his family.
My children won't be blessed like his children
are being blessed.
His work and ministry, I won't be blessed.
God has somehow, God's mad at me.
God's left me behind.
I've been shortchanged.
Why try?
And Saul gives up and opens himself to
demonic oppression.
And when you compare yourself with others, you're
going to be disappointed all the time.
I wish a prophet could have gone to
Saul and foretold the story of David.
And here's Saul feeling so left out.
Here's Saul feeling that he does not compare
to David's holiness and it gets worse every
passing day.
And the competition is so heavy for him.
And I wish somebody could have gone to
him because you see, you can look at
the holiest person you know and know nothing
about them.
You don't know their battles.
You don't know their struggles.
You may be far holier than they are
in the sight of God.
But you see, I wish somebody could have
told him, said, I'm a prophet and God
sent me.
I want to tell you about this man
that you are competing with.
I want to, this man that you measure
yourself by.
You feel so defeated.
You can't measure up to him.
I want to tell you something about that
man.
Yes, he loves God, but I want to
tell you about his success.
But I want to tell you about his
failure.
This man that you are holding up so
high this man that you're measuring yourself, you're
not to look at man because he's just
a man.
He's going to cheat.
He's going to commit adultery.
And he's going to murder a man and
call blood.
And then he's going to disgrace God in
Israel.
He's going to number the people.
And 70,000 of his men are going
to die because of his sin.
And this is the man you're measuring yourself
by.
Folks, every time in my life that I've
seen God, I know I've been associated with
some of the most holy men.
Now, thank God that I know many of
them.
I've never measured myself by them.
And they died and went into eternity with
honor and the joy of the Lord and
holy before and righteous before the Lord.
But every time I have measured myself by
another man or woman that appeared to be
so holy, I have been utterly disappointed.
I could name two or three right now
that I would go home and tell my
wife, I said, man, I wish I could
be that righteous.
Man, I wish I could be like him.
I'll never measure up to that.
I can't preach like that.
He gets revelations I've never seen.
Instead of just thanking God that he made
me different.
He made you different.
He loves you just the way you are.
God made you.
You have your place.
And every time those very men disappointed me,
fell left and right.
Some of them that I held so high
esteem turned on me and literally murdered me
by things they said and did.
And then I say, God, I wasted all
that time, all that energy trying to be
like them.
Folks, get your eyes off people.
You can't go into the presence of God
trying to ask God to make you holy
so that you can rise above somebody else.
No, it's really not a matter of, it's
not pride that I'm talking about.
There's something there that says, I don't want
anybody to pass me.
I used to say, I don't want anybody
to pray.
There's only 24 hours a day.
I don't want anybody to pray more than
I can pray.
I don't want anybody to believe any more
than I can believe.
I want to be as righteous as any
man by faith.
And when I die, I want them to
write on my tombstone, he was a man
of God.
Yeah.
Folks, that sounds righteous.
But if our motive isn't right, it can
be the worst kind of stinking pride in
the face of God.
No, forget everybody else.
Let them go their way.
You spend your own time.
I'm going to the Lord just to worship
him.
I want to get to know him.
He'll give me the measure of knowledge that's
good for me.
He knows how much I can stand.
He has a place for me.
I'm not in competition with anybody.
I can assure you, there is no preacher
on this pulpit in competition with another.
We're not in competition with one another.
God blesses, when God blesses me, pastors, associates,
they just thank God.
And when they get up here, I'm like
a father with sons saying, thank God, when
I see the results and see what God
is doing.
Honestly, before the Lord, God's put that in
our heart where there's no competitive holiness and
we all are drawing nigh unto the Lord.
Our measure of what he's promised us.
Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord.
Secondly, we miss the purpose of drawing near
to God if we do all the talking
and no listening when we get there.
We want to leave his presence edified and
we want to empty our souls so that
all our burdens, we leave them.
Bring your burdens to the Lord and leave
them there.
Yes, that's all scriptural.
We want to shower him with praises, but
we go into his course and we talk
and talk and talk.
That's not fellowship unless you give him the
privilege and the honor to unburden his heart
to you.
Unless you allow him to speak to your
heart.
He's wanting to give you direction.
He wants to give you answers to things
that are plaguing your heart.
He wants to speak his mind to you.
How many of us go into the house
of prayer, go into the secret closet and
you can spend hours worshiping him and praying.
You come out feeling great.
It's invigorating.
It's marvelous.
It's healing.
Folks, you're just treading the court if you
don't give him time.
If you will not listen to him because
it's been the scriptural pattern all through the
Bible that God's purpose in having you draw
nigh to him is that he can draw
nigh to you, to govern you, to speak
to you, to answer every question you have,
every one of them.
To tell you how to get out of
a financial fix, how to overcome sin and
the steps that you need to take to
break the chains and bondage of sin.
He wants to speak to you about your
marriage.
He wants to speak to you about your
ministry.
He wants to speak to you about all
of these things.
But we don't tarry in his presence until
he speaks.
We run in with our praises.
We run in and make our petitions known.
Thank you, Jesus.
I believe you.
Out we go.
Back to our own interest.
Elijah said, as the Lord liveth before whom
I stand.
Stand there is a word that means tarry
or wait.
And the prophet Elijah is saying, as the
Lord lives before whom I tarry and upon
whom I wait.
And then you find him speaking a word
of direction.
He's waiting before God as a prophet and
he speaks these words.
There shall not be dew or rain these
years but according to my word.
Now how does a man stand before a
whole nation and says, according to my word,
my word alone.
There's not going to be rain or dew
for three years.
There's going to be a famine.
There's going to be a drought.
According to my word.
How can you stand before God?
And he's saying that.
He said, as the Lord liveth before whom
I have been waiting on.
And he said, I heard a voice.
All that he said was what God told
him to say in the secret closet of
prayer.
You find him saying the same thing later
when the drought was to end and Ahab's
out to kill him and Ahab with his
army is searching the whole nation to find
him.
He says, I get him, I'm going to
kill him.
The moment I see him, he's a dead
man.
Then suddenly, this man who's been waiting on
the Lord was told by the Lord, I
want you to go.
His chariot's going to come down this road.
I want you to go down this road
and stand there and stop him.
Ahab comes down with his army and Ahab
said, there he is.
And Ahab doesn't give him a chance to
speak.
Ahab, or rather Elijah said, as the Lord
of hosts liveth before whom I stand.
In other words, I've been in the presence
of God.
I've drawn near to the Lord and I
have the word.
And he said, I want you to meet
me on Mount Carmel.
I want you to go into the city,
round up all the false prophets of Baal
and I want you to bring them up
on the mount.
Get all of Israel and bring it.
And he said, yes, sir.
Every demon and devil in hell will have
to tremble at a man or woman who
is truly heard from God.
Truly been in the Lord's presence and he
comes out and he speaks the word with
authority.
How about Elisha, his young preacher, trainee?
Remember, Jehoram and Jehoshaphat, two kings come to
see him because they're about to make war
and they want a word of direction from
God.
Here's Elisha, as the Lord of hosts liveth,
same words, before whom I stand.
Elisha said, I've learned that I don't do
anything until I go into his presence and
I hear his voice.
And he said to Jehoshaphat and Jehoram, get
me a minstrel.
In other words, get me a stringed instrument
band and bring them.
And as they're playing, he's waiting on the
Lord.
I don't know if it took all day.
It could have taken all night and the
next day and he's waiting on the Lord.
He's not saying a word.
He's just waiting on the Lord.
And then suddenly the word of the Lord
comes.
Thus saith the Lord.
Clear direction comes at 2 Kings 3.14.
Clearest word you ever had about digging ditches,
everything, the whole plan God had laid out
while he was waiting on the Lord.
The same thing in the New Testament, the
same pattern.
You see it witnessed with Peter.
He goes up on the housetop to pray.
Around noontime.
And three times while he's praying, see the
Lord puts him in a trance.
He's already had his time of worship and
praise.
He has prayed.
He has honored the Lord.
And now the Lord says, I want to
speak.
Probably the only way you can get talking
to Peter to be still is to put
him in a trance.
God put him in a trance to keep
him quiet.
And three times the Lord, the Bible said,
the Lord said, the Lord said, the Lord
said.
Three times he spoke.
And then he woke up.
And then the Holy Ghost comes to him.
You see, he's waited on the Lord.
He has the word.
And now the Holy Ghost said, Peter, go
downstairs.
In just a few moments, three men are
going to knock on the door.
Now that's pretty clear.
That's clear direction.
Three men are going to knock on the
door.
They're going to ask you to go with
them.
Clear direction.
Same with Paul the Apostle.
He goes down to Antioch where some wonderful
men of God are waiting on the Lord,
the Bible said.
They are praying and fasting and waiting on
the Lord.
Then the next thing he said, and the
Holy Ghost said, separate Saul and Barnabas for
the work that I've called them to do.
It was the word that came out of
that.
Folks, that's what, why do you want the
Lord to draw nigh to you?
First of all, to govern you.
You say, Lord, I want to be totally
submissive to you.
I want your mind.
I want your presence in my life.
But I want you to speak to me
because there's no other place to go.
Folks, where do you go today in such
a complicated age?
When you have problems, when you have to
have answers to questions you can't get from
any psychologist.
You can't get from any expert.
You can't get from Abby.
You can't get from anybody.
You can go to counselors and there's going
to come an end to that.
The Lord says, I want you totally dependent
on me.
You come into my presence.
You worship me.
Yes, you draw nigh to me, but I
will draw nigh to you if you stay.
And that's what happened.
When we come into the courts of the
Lord, people come in, make their petitions.
They pray and offer their incense.
And then they walk around a little bit
and they walk out.
And the Lord, I believe this with all
my heart.
When he said, come into my courts with
praise, he waits until all the tourists are
gone.
He waits till all the treaders have left
and gone their way.
And he waits for those who say, I'm
not leaving this court until I have a
word.
I am desperate to hear from God.
And I'm not leaving his presence.
And I believe the Lord waits for that
holy remnant that wants to know him and
does not know him, but know his voice
so clearly.
And you can't know it until you spend
time waiting.
Quietly, patiently with faith, absolute faith.
Because he said without faith, you can't please
him.
Come in, praise all you want.
Worship all you want.
Ask him all you want.
But without faith, you can't please him.
Can't accept the sacrifice without faith.
And he waits till all the treaders are
gone out of his court.
Then he says, draw near to me now.
Let me come near to you.
And he says, now tell me.
When I'm preparing a message and I hit
a brick wall, you know, you know what
that is?
You're getting a message.
You're halfway through and suddenly everything stops.
Inspiration's gone.
And you struggle.
You go to your reference books.
You pray and say, God, what happened?
I'm not getting anything.
Boy, how many times?
Pastor Carter explains it headbanging.
And you put your head on the desk
at this bank.
So God, where do I go from here?
I'm a blank, writer's block, preacher's block.
I can't get through.
You know what the Lord's taught me?
I used to say, Lord, what's wrong with
me?
Are you mad at me?
Have I done something to offend you, Holy
Ghost?
Are you not speaking to me because you're
trying to say something and I'm not hearing
you?
Lord, everybody else is getting revelation.
Where's mine?
I'd look at my notes and say, look,
there's nothing here.
I can't preach.
There are times I thought, I'm just going
to get up there and just talk.
I'd never do that, but I'm kind of
threatening the Lord.
I'd say, Lord, you don't want to see
or hear that.
But you know what the Lord taught me?
Whenever I reach a place, I can't go
any further.
I close my Bible, I put down my
pen, close all my reference books, everything else,
turn out the light, and I go sit
in the chair, my favorite chair.
And I worship and I wait.
I said, Lord, 14 years I've been preaching
this pulpit, never once have you failed me.
And I build up my faith.
Lord, you've always given me a word.
There's been something that's touched me and I
was able to get up and let it
flow out of my heart.
Lord, you're going to do it again in
your faith.
I'll wait.
Sometimes you have to wait an hour or
two hours.
Sometimes you wait overnight.
No, you're not up all night.
I'm not going to fool you and try
to make you think I'm so holy I
stay up all night praying.
There are a few times I've done that,
but that's when everybody else was around and
I didn't want to leave before they did.
If you're going to do it, let them
ask in faith, nothing wavering, for let not
that man think he received anything of the
Lord if you doubt and you waver.
Don't think you're going to get anything from
God if you waver.
So I sit there and I wait.
And you know, I was so surprised when
I opened my Bible and I read something
in the scripture about drawing nigh to God
in Isaiah 50.
Will you turn to Isaiah 50, please?
Just turn right to chapter 50.
I'm going to close in just a minute.
You see, some people wait 15 minutes and
they'll look at the clock and say, Lord,
I've been here 15 minutes.
You haven't said a word.
This doesn't work.
No, patiently, as long as it takes.
Isaiah 50, verses 4 to 7.
The Lord God hath given me the tongue
of the learned.
This is speaking of Christ, that I should
know how to speak a word in season
to him that's weary.
He wakeneth morning by morning.
He wakeneth my ear to hear as the
learned.
The Lord God hath opened my ear and
I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
I gave my back to the smiters, my
cheeks to them that plucked off their hair.
I hid not my face from shame and
spitting.
For the Lord God will help me.
That's the faith.
Therefore, shall not be confounded.
Therefore, I've set my face like a flint.
I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Look at me, please.
That's Jesus.
They're speaking of Christ.
The Lord is saying every day He wakes
up my ear.
He gives me a sensitive ear.
And if He didn't speak to you last
night and you waited on Him, if you
believe God with all your heart, He'll wake
you up with the word.
You'll get up and the word will be
there.
He'll wake up your ear.
He said, Jesus, every morning He speaks.
He wakes up my ear.
He makes me sensitive to the voice of
the Holy Spirit.
He'll do that.
That's a step of faith that we've got
to take and believe that with all of
our heart.
For the Lord God will help me.
Therefore, I shall not be confounded.
He'll not leave you in confusion.
And He will never put you to shame.
In that verse, in verse 7.
Finally, my last thought.
I found another scripture that says it's possible
not only to draw nigh to Him but
to live in the court.
Draw nigh to me.
To live in the court.
Would you turn now to Psalm 65.
There's one verse I want to give you
and then we close.
Psalm 65, verse
4.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and
causest to approach unto thee that he may
dwell in thy courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of
thy house even of thy holy temple.
Look at me, please.
The Lord said, if you will come by
faith, draw nigh to me.
And if you will believe my word now.
And here's how I'm going to close this.
And I want you to listen closely now.
Look at me, please.
Well, you don't have to look.
Look past me if you want, but give
me your ear.
If you've been feeling a pull.
If you...
I can't explain to you how strong that
pull is in my heart this past year.
But if you feel that pulling to draw
nigh to the Lord as never before.
You have a hunger and a thirst and
you're not satisfied with what you have so
far and you know there's so much more.
That is God choosing you, causing you.
He said, I will cause you to draw
near to me.
I'll cause you.
It'll not be a struggle to you now.
Folks, if you have that, rejoice in it.
That's the Lord fulfilling this very prophecy out
of Isaiah.
He said, how blessed you are.
He said, I am causing you.
I read it again.
Blessed the man whom thou choosest.
He's chosen you because he put that hunger.
He put that thirst in you.
Now I'm gonna tell you, there are many,
many Christians, even in this building right now,
they're satisfied with just going to church and
a little bit of a couple of scriptures
and a little devotion a day.
That's all they want and they're happy with
it and they'll probably be saved if their
heart's sincere.
But there are others.
The Lord said, no, I'm gonna put a
hunger in you.
I'm gonna put a thirst in you.
Like you have never known and this is
the way you know that I put my
hand on you and I've chosen you and
I'm causing you to draw nigh to me
because I've got something for you in the
way of a walk with me that so
few have known.
I'm gonna lead you and guide you in
the words that you speak.
But folks, you will never again have to
say, oh God, when Moses waited on you,
you put a glow on his face.
Oh God, there was an aura about him.
I wanna be so close to you, Jesus,
that you put some kind of an aura
on my countenance so that I can walk
the streets and anybody who sees me will
fall under conviction and get saved.
No, no, no, no.
See, that's the kind of motive I sing
that's evil and it's wrong.
I'm gonna tell you, if you really get
the touch of God and the sign of
God, he'll make you more natural than you've
ever been before.
He'll make you smile.
You'll be able to laugh.
I was in a restaurant recently.
Some people from Ohio were visiting and they'd
been reading my mail for so long and
they think I'm a prophet and I'm not.
And I was in a restaurant and I
was laughing with my kids.
Said, he's laughing?
They were mortified.
A prophet's supposed to walk around sober.
I'm no prophet.
I like to laugh and enjoy life and
the closer you get to Jesus, the more
natural you'll be.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
God wants to take all the sweat out
of this thing.
He wants to take all of the burden
out of seeking him.
He wants to take the burden out of
counting the hours of how much time I've
read the Bible or how many scriptures.
Get away from all of that.
I just love Jesus and I go to
him because I love him with all of
my heart.
Hallelujah.
Let's stand.
We don't want any phony religion in Times
Square Church.
Hallelujah.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Hallelujah.
There's one word the Holy Spirit gives me
and it's confusion.
I'm going to get an invitation for those
up in the balcony main floor and in
the annex.
You came to church this morning with confusion
in your life, been confused about things that
have happened in your life, things that are
going on in your life and there's been
some tremendous confusion.
Hurt.
And the Lord's made it clear to me
that he wants to clear up that confusion.
That confusion often is caused by neglecting drawing
near to the Lord, neglecting his call to
you.
He keeps calling and says, you'll come to
my presence.
I'm going to satisfy and he said, I'll
not leave you in confusion.
You'll not be confounded.
That's the scripture I gave you at the
last point here.
You won't be confounded.
You won't be ashamed, but there's some confusion
and the Lord wants to heal that.
I'm going to ask you, and even in
the annex, we usually don't do this on
Sunday morning because of the crowd, but I'm
going to ask you even in the annex
to go out to the lobby.
If this is you, if God's speaking to
you, you came this morning and there was
confusion mounting in your life and in your
mind.
God wants to heal you.
Now, if you're not right with God, if
you're backslidden, you don't really, you have drifted
away from the Lord, you really don't know
Jesus in a personal way, I want you
to come.
Go back in the annex.
Just go to the lobby.
Ushers, will you please put a couple of
the, show them how to get down here
and walk down this aisle.
Come and meet me with those from the
auditorium that will be coming.
In the balcony, you go to the stairs
on the other side and come down any
aisle, but if that is you, now I
know the Holy Spirit put that in my
heart.
If that's you, I want you to come.
I want you to move very close to
make room for all of these that are
coming.
And if you have drifted away from the
Lord, this is the time to get it
right.
And this is the time to have all
that confusion removed from your heart and from
your life, once and for all.
Now, listen very closely.
Whenever you're in a hard place, whenever you're
in a situation where you can't figure things
out and where there's confusion, the Holy Spirit's
always spoke in my heart.
Always focus on Jesus.
The Holy Spirit, when you come to the
Father, He's going to have you focus on
Jesus.
The Holy Spirit came to focus on Jesus,
to bring us to Christ.
So whenever there's a problem, whenever there's confusion,
just bring Jesus on the scene.
In your heart and in your mind, focus
on Jesus.
Begin to worship Jesus.
Begin to love Jesus.
Begin to praise Jesus.
Begin to talk to Jesus heart to heart.
And always, when you bring Jesus to the
forefront, the devil has to flee.
You bring Jesus to the forefront.
And by faith, that praises the Heavenly Father.
And that's the ground upon which the Holy
Ghost can work.
That you're willing to have the Holy Spirit
magnify Christ in your life.
That this is all about Jesus.
See, it's not really about you and me.
It's about Him having provided everything we need
and our coming to receive it by faith.
Look at me, please.
Is there anything God can't do in your
life?
Is there any problem you have that's bigger
than His ability to solve it?
You've got to deal with that now.
There's nothing that I face, there's no confusion
in my life that He can't straighten out.
If I will get alone with Him, spend
time and let Him speak to my heart,
He'll give you direction.
Folks, every conference I've had with these people
on this building, so help me, they think
I'm some kind of a brain.
Where did you get all of this knowledge
about real estate?
Folks, I'm a country hick.
I don't know anything, but when I pray
and wait on the Lord, last Tuesday when
I prayed and sought the Lord, the Holy
Spirit was waiting on me and said, this
next meeting, the most important, don't say anything.
Keep your mouth shut.
And just let me do it.
And I went there and I told the
attorney, I said, you're going to have to
do the talking.
I told the attorney, I said, I'm going
to convince you.
Our attorneys are Jewish, they're wonderful people.
I said, we're going to convince you God
answers prayer.
And I said, I'm going to shut my
mouth.
And I shut my mouth.
And God just began to, it's incredible what
I saw.
And you see, He removes all the confusion
because you're letting Him take control.
Let Him speak to your heart and your
mind.
Come by faith, come with repentance.
He'll not let you down.
Would you pray this prayer with me every
one that came forward?
Pray it out of your heart.
Pray it from the depths of your heart.
Jesus, I can't handle anything.
I don't have any answers anymore.
And times I'm overwhelmed.
There's confusion, things I don't understand.
But you do understand.
I've heard, Lord, even this morning, that if
I came to you, draw near to you
with a true heart, I worship you.
And I praise you.
And I make my petition known.
And then if I just wait in faith,
patiently, believing God to speak, asking Him to
speak, that He will.
He'll not leave me in shame.
I'll not be confounded.
And He'll draw near to me.
And you will hear a word behind you
saying, this is the way.
You will hear a word.
Amen.
That's what He said.
You'll hear a word behind you saying, this
is the way.
Walk in it.
Pray this with me too.
Lord, I come to you for forgiveness of
all sins for every drifting, for every backsliding
that I've had.
And I confess it to you.
I give it to you, Jesus.
And I believe you that you're my Lord.
And I surrender to your Lordship.
Govern me, lead me, guide me.
I surrender in Jesus' name.
I'll give Him thanks now.
I'll give Him thanks.
Lord, I give you thanks.
I give you praise.
I give you thanks, Lord.
And I give you praise.
Hallelujah.
And in closing the service this morning, I
want you as a church, if Times Square
Church is your home especially, and we even
invite those who are visitors here to join
us in prayer, the time to pray now
is more than ever.
I can tell you now, the enemy's not
going to just walk away.
He's going to do everything in his power
to resurrect this and try to make it
happen.
So we need to pray.
I want you to join me.
I'm intending to pray more than ever.
Lord, put a wall around us now.
Don't let the enemy have one inch.
The devil, the enemy, I'm not saying that
any of these people are demon-possessed or
anything else.
I'm just talking about a plan.
See, God uses things for His glory.
And the enemy has ways to use human
nature, to use ordinary people to do his
bidding unaware of what they're doing.
And so I'm not calling anybody names or
suggesting any of these people are demonic or
anything else, not at all.
They're very good people.
It's just that the enemy uses this.
And I know the plan was to try
to shut this church down for a few
weeks and more than that, to disrupt the
Holy Ghost worship.
So will you join me in prayer, please?
I beseech you, I beg you, in the
next two weeks, pray with us.
God, now let there be no loopholes.
Let there be nothing done legally.
Send warring angels.
Do what you have to do, Lord, nail
this down.
Folks, we know nothing can be done now
without our signature, and I can assure you
we won't.
But I don't know whether legal, they talked
about dropping the gauntlet.
In other words, we're not going to give
up.
I can't conceive of any way they can
do it, but that's all in God's hands.
I worship and praise Him for what He's
done to this point.
I thank God.
I have confidence in my heart that nothing
ever can be built on top of this
church.
Nothing at any time ever.
I have that faith.
Praise the Lord.
This is the conclusion of the message.