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I want to speak to you tonight on
the subject preserved for a purpose.
Preserved.
Have you been preserved?
Let me tell you what that means.
Heavenly Father, thank you.
Lord, we've had your word come to us
in a marvelous way today, throughout this day,
this morning, this afternoon.
And now we come to your word again.
We love your word.
Your word is life to us, Father.
And I come to you now acknowledging that
I need a touch from you, I need
quickened by the Holy Ghost.
Lord, I know that I'm made righteous through
the blood.
I am righteous in Christ.
And I ask you that you cleanse my
mind and my heart and let it flow
out of the innermost.
Lord, touch me.
Let the words bring life tonight.
Bring the little that I have and multiply
it to this people.
And when they leave, they will know they
have heard a word from the Lord.
Help us to understand what you're saying.
Add words to what you've given me and
let me preach to myself as I preach
to this audience.
Now cleanse me, sanctify me, and let every
word bear fruit tonight, I pray in Jesus'
name.
Preserved for a purpose.
David prayed, preserve me, O God, for indeed
do I put all my trust.
When he said preserve me, that word in
Hebrew is a very meaningful word.
It means, O Lord, put heads around me,
heads of thorns.
Guard me, watch over me, all my comings
and all my goings.
Every step that I take, watch me, guard
me, and put a wall around me.
That's what it means to be preserved by
God.
Bible says everywhere David went, he was blessed,
prospered, and preserved by the Lord.
Turn to Psalm 121 and you get a
better picture of it.
Psalm 121, David speaking again in this chapter.
Psalm 121, let's read the whole chapter, all
eight verses.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the
hills from whence cometh my help.
Where's it come from?
The hill of God.
My help cometh from the Lord which made
heaven and earth.
He will not suffer or allow thy foot
to be moved.
He that keep thee will not slumber.
You know he's not asleep.
Let the terrorists be where they are.
God knows where they're at and he's not
asleep.
He'll take care of you.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber
nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper.
The Lord is thy shade upon thy right
hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day
nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall what?
Preserve thee from all evil.
What's that word?
It's the same Hebrew word.
God says the Lord shall put a wall
of thorns about you.
He'll guard you, protect you in your comings
and your goings.
That's on the bus.
That's the subway.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil.
He shall preserve thy soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out, thy
coming in from this time forth even forevermore.
Now you understand that means he's going to
preserve you.
He's going to put a wall around you,
a wall of thorns, going to guard you,
going to keep his eye on you.
As you go to church, as you go
home tonight, and go to job tomorrow, and
every day God says I'm going with you
and you're coming, going.
When you get up and when you go
to sleep, I'm going to guard you.
I am going to preserve you.
Glory be to God.
In all your ways, Lord preserve thy going
out, thy coming in from this day forth
and how long.
Now that should cover your 70 years of
promised life.
Hallelujah.
I want you to know our God covers
every base.
When he says I'm going to preserve you,
I'm going to keep you.
What about those fears here in New York
that are so rampant?
The fear of anthrax, and smallpox, and germ
warfare, and my how the press is really,
they're making a fortune right now on this.
But you know it's created a fear, but
that dare not come into the house of
God and the heart of a believer.
You should never fear.
I don't have a gas mask and I
don't intend to buy a gas mask.
I've got a better mask than anything that
any man can produce.
I want you to turn Psalm 140 here
because the Lord even covers these secret attacks.
Yes he does.
Psalm 140.
I want you to, I'm going to go
the first 13 verses if you don't mind.
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man.
I don't remember his name.
All the terrorists.
Preserve me.
There it is again.
Preserve me.
Put a wall around me.
Guard me.
Keep me.
My coming and going from the violent man.
They imagine mischief in their heart.
Continue.
They are gathered together for war.
They've sharpened their tongue like a serpent.
Adder's poison is under their lips.
See that's, that's the germ warfare.
Poison is under their lips.
Keep me, O Lord, from the hand of
the wicked.
Preserve me from the violent man who have
proposed to overthrow my goings.
The proud have hit a snare for me
in cords and spread a net by the
wayside.
They've set jinns or traps for me.
I said unto the Lord, thou art my
God.
Hear the voice of my supplication, O Lord.
O God, the Lord, the strength of my
salvation, thou has covered my head in the
day of battle.
Now that's my gas mask.
Thou has covered my head.
The one they have in New York covers
your face.
This covers the whole head and the whole
body.
Hallelujah.
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the
wicked.
Further not their wicked desires, lest they exalt
themselves, you know, dance around saying we have
won.
As for the head of those that compass
me about, let the mischief of their own
lips cover them.
Let burning coals fall upon them.
Let them be cast into the fire, into
deep pits, that they rise not again.
Let not an evil speaker be established in
the earth.
Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow
him.
I know that the Lord will maintain the
cause of the afflicted and the right of
the poor.
Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy
name.
The upright shall dwell in thy presence.
Glory be to God.
That covers all secret warfare.
That covers every act of violence that man
can conceive.
God says, I've covered every base.
I've covered every area, so rest in me.
Hallelujah.
In case you still don't get it, go
to Psalm 37.
I don't get it.
Well, if you don't get this, Psalm 37,
start verse 23 with me, if you will,
please.
Verse 23, the steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth
in his way.
Though he fall, this is Psalm 37, though
he fall, he shall not be utterly cast
down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his
hand.
I've been young.
I was young, yes.
And now I'm 70.
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread?
He is ever merciful and lendeth, and his
seed is blessed.
Depart from evil and do good, and dwell
forevermore.
For the Lord loveth judgment, forsaketh not his
saints.
They are what?
Preserved forever.
But the seed of the wicked shall be
cut off.
Look at verse 33.
The Lord will not leave him in his
hand, nor condemn him when he's judged.
Wait on the Lord and keep his way,
and he shall exalt thee to inherit the
land.
When the wicked are cut off, thou shall
see it.
I've seen the wicked in great power, and
spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed away.
That's what's going to happen to Ben Loddit.
He's going to pass away.
Lo, he was not.
I sought him.
I couldn't found him.
Looked all over Afghanistan and Pakistan and couldn't
find him.
Mark the perfect man in the upright, for
the end of that man is peace.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together.
The end of the wicked shall be cut
off.
But the salvation of the righteous is the
Lord.
He is their strength in time of trouble.
And the Lord shall help them and deliver
them.
He shall deliver them from the wicked and
save them, because they trust in him.
Hallelujah.
Did you get it?
Job called God the preserver of man.
He called him a preserver.
Now, none of us here are going to
argue with that, because you have found him
to be that.
And in the seventh chapter, don't turn, but
in Deuteronomy seventh chapter, Moses said, the Lord
commanded us to do all these statues.
The Lord commanded us to fear our God
for our good always, that he might preserve
us alive as it is this day, that
he may preserve us.
He said, God gave you all these commandments
for one reason.
He wants to put a guard around.
He wants to preserve you.
But for what purpose?
Why would God say that?
I want to preserve you, but there has
to be a purpose when God saves the
people and preserves them.
Why would God take them through the wilderness?
They go through the Red Sea, a great
trial.
Now, first of all, in Egypt, 10 plagues
they lived through.
Can you imagine what they're telling their grandkids
of the 10 miraculous deliverances in the land
of Egypt?
And then they go into the wilderness, they
cross the Red Sea, a mighty deliverance that
we still preach and talk about.
Amazing even today, with all of the inventions
and all of the great achievements of man,
to think of the Red Sea just opening
and people walking over and then closing on
an entire army and destroying it.
Amazing work of God.
But why did God preserve them through the
plagues and through the wilderness with locusts and
snakes?
And he provided water and he provided food.
Why?
So that when they grow old, they just
have a testimony of how God kept me
sheltered and blessed me.
And so they can die fat and happy?
No, no, no, no.
There has to be a reason for all
of this.
There has to be a reason God preserved
Israel and preserved the people in the past.
Moses said he brought us out not to
give you a testimony that God supplied all
my needs so that you can sit around
a campfire and tell your grandkids all these
stories of the past miracles and how God
delivered you from crisis after crisis, how God
healed you, how you were sick bitten by
snakes and you looked at a cross with
a brazen serpent and you were healed.
Those are wonderful stories.
Those are wonderful miracles to tell your children
and your grandchildren and God said tell them.
But that's not the limit.
That's not why God delivered them.
That's not why God preserved them.
Not just to sit around a fire and
talk about how I was blessed.
God has met all my needs.
I lived through a depression.
I've heard people say, wonderful, my parents lived
through depression.
The last depression in the 1930s and what
it was like hearing stories of going three
and four days without food and someone knocking
on the door and bringing food.
Those are wonderful stories and yet God preserved
three-year-old David and the rest of
the kids and mom and dad for a
purpose.
Not so we can stand here and tell
stories about the past.
God saved them and delivered them, preserved them,
put a wall around them.
He said God brought us out.
He brought us out that he might bring
us in to give us the land which
he swore to our fathers.
God said I brought you out and I
preserved you so I can take you someplace.
So I can accomplish something with your lives.
So that all of these trials and all
these tests and everything I took you through
has a meaning to it.
Some of you sit here maybe in your
60s and your 70s and you have gone
through one incredible trip.
I believe everyone that's a Christian here over
60 years of age could write a book.
Some of you over 30 could write a
book.
Some of you in your 20s could write
a book.
What you have been through in the way
of loneliness and tests and trials.
How many times you've been at death's door.
How many of your family have you buried
or children.
What incredible tests and trials have you endured.
We just released a book, my publishing company
just released a book Triumph Through Tragedy.
Testimonies after testimonies sent to us from all
over the world.
Christians who have been through things like a
man looks out the door as his two
daughters are crossing the road and sees a
police car hit them and kill them.
And the whole book is, I'm going to
try to sell that book, I don't get
any money out of it, but the whole
thing is testimony after testimony of people who've
been through excruciating trials.
Think of what you've been through.
I look at some of you gray-haired
folks, now I can say because I have
gray hair, so I'm not mocking you.
I think gray hair is a glory.
I have to clarify that.
The Bible said gray hair is a glory
to a righteous man.
My wife prefers color.
That was stupid.
What you've been through, but you look now
over your life and you see all of
those things, what does it mean?
Why did he preserve you?
Why, look at the choir here, why aren't
you, and they can say that to why
aren't you in a mental institution right now?
And why aren't you in a drug rehab
program?
The kind of kids I've worked with in
people all my life.
Why aren't you out on the street like
we see somebody here out of your senses
and barely alive?
Why are you sitting here tonight in this
house, saved, peace with God, and looking back
over your life?
And you look back at what he's done.
What's it all about?
Just so that you can sit in this
church now and say, God's been good to
me.
I have a testimony.
Wonderful.
God brought you out.
He delivered you.
That's a wonderful thing.
But folks, there has to be some purpose
to it.
God said through Isaiah about the coming Christ.
In fact, go to Isaiah 49.
I just want to show you something before
we go any further.
Isaiah 49, what Isaiah said of Christ.
You know that even Jesus had to be
preserved by the father for a purpose.
Isaiah 49.
This is the Holy Spirit speaking through Isaiah.
Thus saith the Lord, verse eight.
Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time
have I heard thee, in a day of
salvation have I helped thee, and I'll preserve
thee.
That's the father talking to his son, Jesus.
I'll preserve thee and give thee for a
covenant of the people to establish the earth
to cause to inherit the desolate heritage.
Now look at me, please.
Here's the father saying to his own son,
and Jesus is our example.
He said, you go, you take on manhood,
you take on flesh.
And he said, I'll be your help and
I'll preserve you.
I'll put a wall around you.
I'll guard you.
I'll keep you in your coming and goings.
He said he did nothing without hearing what
his father had to say and do.
He was completely under the governance of the
Spirit of Almighty God and under his father.
Now why did God say I'm going to
preserve you?
For what purpose?
What purpose?
Verse nine.
That thou mayest say to the prisoners, go
forth.
To them that are in darkness, show yourself.
They shall feed in the ways and their
pastor shall be in all high places.
They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall
the heat nor sun smite them.
You see, there's a purpose to God.
The father says, I'm going to preserve you
because I have a plan for you.
I have a plan.
This was a plan that was instigated before
the world was created.
This was an eternal covenant between the father
and his son.
He said, if you go, I'll preserve you.
You're going to go as a man.
You're going to live and think as a
man.
But I'm going to preserve you and I'm
going to keep you.
You remember how they tried to kill him?
They took him up to a hillside, tried
to throw him over a cliff and God
came on the scene and God delivered him.
The father delivered him.
Angels came, ministered to him.
They couldn't kill him.
The Lord was keeping his promise, a covenant
promise.
I will keep you.
But why?
That you may deliver the prisoners and set
them free and show yourself.
You will feed those who are hungry and
those who are thirsty.
You'll be a life.
You'll be a savior of mankind.
There was a divine purpose in God's preserving
his own son.
Now in the Bible, Joseph is the most
notable example of a man preserved for a
purpose.
You remember how his brother sold him into
slavery?
This man had a dream.
This man had a word from God that
was going to be mightily used.
And he winds up in irons, the scripture
says.
And you, you know this story.
He goes to Potiphar's house and he winds
up in jail.
This man is, for years he suffers and
he is now, I want to talk to
you about the time that his brothers came
to Egypt and Joseph is now ruler of
all the land.
And there's a famine and his brothers come
and they stand before him.
And this is the time that, that he
reveals himself to his brothers, that he's Joseph.
And the scripture says, he wept aloud and
Joseph said unto his brethren, I'm Joseph.
Come near to me.
I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into
Egypt.
He wept aloud.
He was revealing himself.
And listen to these words.
He said, now therefore, be not grieved nor
angry with yourselves that you sold me hither.
For God did send me before you to
preserve life.
God was preparing me to save you.
I was being prepared.
I had to go through this.
Joseph at this time is now made peace
with his past.
He knows now he said, I can look
over the whole journey and I know God
was in it.
I know everything I suffered, every lonely moment,
every pain, everything I went through.
I can tell you now it was worth
it.
God was in it.
I stand here at 70 years of age
and I look over the suffering and the
pain and the terror.
Our home plagued for years with cancer after
cancer after cancer.
And I know what it is to stand
before multitudes and be the loneliest man in
the building because of the enemy terrorizing my
mind and soul.
And I look back over all the years
of suffering and I look back now and
as I wouldn't be here now preaching a
salvation ministry to you because all these years
I see God's hand in it.
I can look back as Joseph did and
said God was in it.
God sent me.
The devil meant it for evil, but God
turned it to good.
God preserved a man to save a remnant.
And this is how God works.
That's the point of my message tonight.
God raises up a Joseph company.
He takes them through years of trouble and
trials and tribulations.
He tests them and proves them as no
other people are proved.
He delivers them from satanic snares, even from
the attack of adultery and fornication of all
kinds.
Delivers them from drugs and from alcohol.
Many of them are facing doubts and fears
and even tested by God's word.
You see, Joseph when he was going through
all this, he knew he was a righteous
man and he had a heart for God.
He knew where his heart was.
He knew who he was and the Lord
is God.
And he couldn't understand the sufferings.
And some of you going through it now,
you don't understand it because you say all
I had was a heart for God.
All I want is to do his will.
All I want to do is please the
Lord.
And you don't understand what you're going through.
And some of you are going through a
literal hell.
You can hide it from others and you're
not trying to hide it, but nobody inquires
about it.
Nobody knows where you stand right now.
They don't know how you cry yourself to
sleep.
They don't know it at all.
They don't know the loneliness and the pain
and the hurt in you.
God does, but people don't.
And even if you told them, they'll say,
well, that's too bad, but they wouldn't feel
it.
They wouldn't understand it.
He sent a man before them, even Joseph,
who was sold for a servant, whose feet
they hurt with fetters.
He was laid in iron until the time
his word came.
The word of the Lord tried him.
That was his greatest test.
Lord, this is against everything I read, everything
I know of your word.
This doesn't match because you know my heart.
And you remember when he was in prison
and the butler's being restored and Joseph is
interpreting his dreams and he says to the
butler as the butler leaves the prison, he
said, please remember me, show me some kindness,
get me out of here, this prison.
I've done nothing that should put me in
this dungeon.
And folks, if you've not known this cry
of Joseph, you've never really understood the workings
and the movings of God's spirit.
He's in a terrible condition now because the
word of the Lord is trying him.
It's not that he's in prison, it's not
that he's in pain, it's not that he's
rejected by his brothers.
It's, Lord, I don't understand this because the
word told me that I would be blessed,
I would be honored, I would be useful,
my life would count.
It's not counting now.
I'm wasted.
All my talents, everything is wasted.
I don't amount to anything here.
And he cries out to this man, please
remember me to Pharaoh.
I didn't do anything to deserve this.
And that's the cry of many of us,
Lord, I didn't deserve this.
You know my heart, all I wanted was
you.
I've been fasting, I've been praying.
This is not according to your word.
I thank God he has a Joseph company
today in the land and in the face
of the earth.
Men and women touched by God, you know
that you have a call of God.
There's something God's been burning in your heart.
You say, I want God to use my
life.
I'm not seeking fame or fortune, but I
have a burning in me.
And at this place that I am now
in my life, I don't see anything happening.
Because you see, until God sets the time,
sometimes you're left in irons and you're in
fetters.
God preserved Joseph for a purpose.
Listen to it.
God sent me before you, he said, to
preserve you a posterity in the earth, to
save your lives by a great deliverance.
So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God.
Do you understand that?
God sent you on this journey.
God's been with you through it all.
God's allowed these things in your life because
he's doing something.
He's preparing you for something.
So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God and he has made
me a father to Pharaoh, Lord of all
his house and a ruler throughout all the
land of Egypt.
Now, what's the lesson for you and me?
How does it relate to us?
You see, God has preserved you right now.
You sit here, some of you may not
be in the best of health, but you're
alive and well, and you love Jesus.
You're sitting here, hearing the word of the
Lord.
I'm asking you to look back from the
day that Christ saved you.
Look back now and just for a moment,
think of the journey you've been on.
I really believe that if we had time,
we had each of you here tonight, even
in the annex, and you took just five
minutes and told just the highlights of the
suffering and the trials that you've been through.
I don't think I could handle it.
I might be able to listen 25 or
30 of you, and then it collapsed me
and most of us, we couldn't handle it.
But God brought you out, he preserved you,
and here you are.
Doesn't mean that you won't face it again,
but you can say with me right now,
you can look back over everything you've been
through and say, God has been utterly faithful.
God has been faithful to me.
God has delivered me.
I told the audience this morning, while I
was praying, I said, terrorism facing terrorism.
Man, I've been fighting the devil himself.
These are the children of the devil.
These are the henchmen of the devil.
What can they do if we've been fighting
the devil and getting victory?
We've got victory over the devil himself.
What can any terrorist do to us?
Some of you know what it's like to
do hand-to-hand combat with the devil,
on your knees before the Lord, and God
brought you faithfully through it all.
But why did he keep you from falling?
When you look around and see so many
people you know that are fallen, they're gone,
they're desperate, their families are broken, their lives
are broken, they're hopeless, many of them are
dead and gone, many of them died and
went to hell.
And here you sit, delivered and free, your
mind on the Lord.
Why did he do it?
He preserved you because he has a purpose
for your life.
You say, well, I'm in my later years,
that can't apply to me.
Oh, yes, it does.
It applies to every one of us in
this building.
Once you take an honest look at where
we are in society right now, especially here
in the United States, what do you see
when you hear the reports and see what's
happening in the land?
You know what I see?
I see the words of Jesus being fulfilled
right before my eyes.
Men's hearts failing them for fear and for
looking after the things which are coming on
the earth for the powers of heaven shall
be shaken.
That's what I see.
I see upon the earth what Jesus said,
distress of nations with perplexity, confusion.
That's what I see.
And Paul, for when they shall say peace
and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them.
In other words, here are people living so
secure, feeling secure, living in security, saying, we
have peace, we have security.
Suddenly, the security is taken.
A sudden destruction takes away the peace and
the security.
And he said, Jesus said, they shall not
escape.
They shall not escape.
And now we know what Paul's talking about.
We know what Jesus was talking about because
we've lived to see those days.
I never thought I'd live to see this
day.
You know, it's one thing to talk about
the coming of the Lord and all the
things, all the signs that are going to
come in the last day.
One thing to preach it.
And in your mind, you're thinking it's way
out there somewhere.
I'll be dead and gone when all this,
you know, preach, but I'll be out of
here.
Oh, but it's awesome to live.
You hate to see it, but you know,
there's something inside the heart that says he's
coming.
It's near because you see it and you
feel it.
When I was a boy, my dad would
visit people way out in the country.
It was a country parish and people live
20, 30 miles out in the country.
But near our town was a little town
up on a hill that had lights.
And we were kids and we would drive
for miles and, but there was suddenly we'd
come over and then you see those, the
hills, the lights, and you felt like you
were coming home.
You're almost home.
And there was a feeling, our hearts would
just leap in the kids.
Dad said, they're the lights.
And we say, we're almost home.
Well, I see the lights.
I see Jesus is over the hill.
I see the light coming and there's something
in my heart just leaps.
All these things, he said, you see them
happen, look up and rejoice because your redemption
draws nigh.
It's drawing very, very nigh.
But that brings me to this.
If that's happening, then Lord, what is all
of this suffering about?
What are all these trials you brought me
through?
So that I alone can just stand before
you and say, thank you, Jesus.
And I will thank you, all these things
that you brought me through.
But what impact does that have on the
world around me?
What impact does that have on the earth?
Did I live just to be able to
say I was self-preserved?
Paul said that we're preserved in spirit, soul,
and body.
And then he goes on in second Thessalonians
the first chapter, listen closely, he goes on
to say that we may fulfill the work
of faith with power.
That we may fulfill the work of faith
with power.
What he's saying, all this time God's prepared
you for a crisis time.
It's going to come on the earth.
Men's hearts will be failing them for fear.
And Paul the apostle said, when they say
peace and safety, then sudden destruction, that's all
in Paul's mind.
And now Paul says that he's preserved you
for this time, that you may fulfill the
work of faith with power.
Not just faith to deliver you from sickness
and family problems and poverty or any of
these things.
He'll do all that.
That's his nature.
He's a father.
But he says that you might fulfill the
work of faith with power.
Not silent faith, not quiet faith, but a
faith that proclaims.
See Joseph had that.
Joseph could stand before them and say, I
have gone through this to become a savior
to you.
I have what you need.
I went through all this for a purpose
and it's not going to be wasted.
God put his hand on me and he
took me through all kinds of fire and
through floods for a reason, because you would
need me.
To preserve you, God has preserved me.
And now in this world that we're in,
when everybody around us is going hell to
skeleton, everybody's scared to death.
There's fear on all side.
God brought you through a lifetime of scares.
He brought you through a lifetime of demon
powers.
And he did it for a reason that
you would be able in this last day
to have a faith with power, to stand
up on the job and say, I have
what you need.
Now folks, we all know that the Lord
says that we've been given power that we
can become witnesses.
I shouldn't have to stand here tonight and
say that's what this is all about.
Go out and witness, go out and witness.
Let me tell you something.
I don't want to face my last days
looking over my life and see what was
that all about.
What was that about?
All that I went through.
I want to stand before Jesus with something
to show for it.
I want to be able to bring sheaves
to him.
Now I hear from some people on our
mailing list who write me letters and they
keep saying God has me hidden and I'm
being preserved for a great work.
And most times they want to be revealed
to the world as prophets and evangelists.
And I hear so many people, God has
called me to, to win the multitudes and
win nations to the Lord and world leaders.
And they won't even talk to the neighbors.
They won't talk to anybody on the job,
but see God's preserving me.
God is hiding me.
And one day he's going to release me
to the world.
God's not going to release you out of
the house until you have the burden for
those, your family and those around you.
That's where it begins.
And they live frustrated lives waiting for this
revelation, the revealing of their ministry.
Boy, I'll tell you what, there's nobody's more
frustrated than somebody that's not called to preach
who thinks they are.
Folks, when the nation is reeling and when
there's sorrow on all sides, the Lord's not
looking to raise up another evangelist to win
the multitudes.
He's not looking for a TV star.
He's not looking for any stars.
He's looking for those hidden individuals, this Joseph
company that he has been working on for
years and years and years for times just
like this.
That one by one can go to neighbors
and go to family.
God's not looking for some big thing.
He's looking for every one of us just
to obey the urgings of the Holy Spirit
and what he would call us to do.
Now, folks, I've labored at this and I'm
going to close in just a minute.
I labored at how I could come to
you and tell you what your purpose is.
In other words, you're preserved.
Now, I think it pretty well covered the
fact that we know we're preserved, but how
do I convey to you that you have
a purpose?
What is that purpose?
I've told you that we're to have a
faith with power to it and with stamina
and with the zeal of God and with
great faith with power.
But I want to tell you something from
my heart.
You know what the Holy Spirit settled on
for me?
All ministry of any kind, one-on-one
or two-by-two if he expands it,
all ministry has to come out of communion
with the Lord.
All.
If you are not praying about what God
would have you do, if you're not praying
about saying, God, I want you to use
my life in some way, I don't want
to stand before the throne without knowing that
I have been used in some way.
Now, God may tell you, you may be
a woman who knows how to bake.
I'm not being facetious.
You know how to bake pies.
I asked the Lord if you shouldn't bake
one for your mailman.
I mean, why are we looking at some
great things when we won't even do the
little things before God?
Gwen's sitting here and my goodness, the path
that she's been through.
She saw somebody being willed into an operating
room recently.
We were there and said, oh, does that
bring back memories?
Terrible memories.
I get sick in my stomach just thinking
of all the times of those weeding back
and forth and with daughters into the thing.
But what she's been through is incredible.
And she came to the place where she
said, and I don't feel like I'm being
used.
And see, the clue for me is look
back at what you've been through.
The clue to what God may want you
to do is the battles he brought you
through.
Look at your struggles.
What did you struggle with?
What did God give you victory over?
That's the clue.
God will use you in the area that
you were battling.
So she got the idea from the Holy
Ghost.
So she's praying to all these women that
have cancer.
Just write them a little note of love
and encouragement.
And she writes many, many letters.
She sits down and all these women that
have cancer all over the country and on
the world write to her.
And then we get these incredible letters back.
You put faith in my heart.
And she's not known nobody.
You wouldn't have known unless I told you.
Not going to write a book about it.
She just quietly in her own way does
that.
But you see, she went all through that
so that she can now minister to others.
She was preserved for a ministry, for a
purpose.
Some of you God has used and you
don't know why.
And he wants to use everyone in this
house in some way.
But that won't come unless you get on
your face before God.
And folks, I remember this.
With this, I close.
I was in Pennsylvania, a little town.
You know this story.
Many of you read it in the cross,
in Switzerland perhaps.
But I remember getting so hungry.
I said, God, I want you.
I wasn't praying for a ministry.
I just got hungry for God.
And I spent a whole year just praying.
I pastored a little church in Pennsylvania.
But I have a Bible you could never
buy from me for any money.
Marked from cover to cover.
Because in that year, I got hungry for
the word.
I began to read it voraciously.
And I would weep before the Lord, just
love him, seek his face.
And one day I said, well, what's this
all about?
I'd sit up on a hill and look
out.
I said, Lord, there's a whole world over
those hills.
God, why are you drawing me to you
like this?
I became a changed man.
The spirit of God would come upon me
because I was shut in with the Lord.
And out of that year, one day, sitting,
well, the day before that, or prior to
that, a week prior to that, trying to
get up in church.
I just collapsed and wept and cried and
wailed before God.
And I didn't know what it was about.
Rolling under the seats.
We had pews.
Rolling under a pew and just, God, what
is it about?
Go home and don't know anything.
Never been to New York.
Never.
Wouldn't even want to be in New York.
Last place in the world I'd want to
be.
Our town had 1,800 people.
I went home that week and said, Lord,
I don't understand what this is about.
And then I go into my little study
in Open Life Magazine.
There's a face of seven boys indicted for
murder and said, this is what it's about.
Go to New York and witness to those
boys.
That's all I had.
One step.
And you know where it ended.
Right here.
Very few going to be called to a
worldwide ministry, but he's calling you.
I don't care how old or young you
are.
He's calling you.
There ought to be something in your heart
tonight that says, God, I want all of
these things that you took me through to
benefit somebody.
I want to be used.
If you seek his face, he'll tell you.
He'll put a name.
He'll give you direction.
I can't do it.
There's not one cure-all that covers everybody.
God works differently with all of us, but
God has something for you.
I want you to stand.
No clapping, please.
Between the services, between the three o'clock
and this service, I was in the pastor's
room praying and Holy Spirit spoke to my
heart.
And here's the invitation I give to the
annex upstairs and downstairs.
Here's what the Lord spoke to my heart.
There would be people here tonight and I
listened closely because this is from the Holy
Spirit.
There'd be people here tonight feel like you
just don't, you feel just a wasted feeling.
And some of you are living in sin
now, and you have, you knew the Lord,
but you have wasted days, hours, and years.
And Lord wants to restore those wasted years.
And I want to tell you there's some
of you here feel totally inadequate, totally unfit
to be used of God.
You know that God's had his hand.
And I want to tell you, there's some
people here that are drifting from the Lord.
Some of you have backslidden, some of you
don't even know the Lord, yet you know
God's hands on you.
You know that God's been keeping you.
You should have been dead.
You should have been out somewhere, gone, completely
skipped out of your mind by now.
But God, for some reason, brought you here.
And here you stand tonight in your right
mind, and here's God speaking directly to you
tonight.
We don't beg anybody to come to Jesus
or anything else like that.
But in the annex, you can just go
into room 206 and just get on your
knees and cry out to God right now,
so Lord, I want my life to count.
Lord, all these things I've been through, I
don't want my life wasted.
Some of you young people here tonight, this
is the time.
Don't waste your life.
Say, God, I want you to use me.
You start seeking God, and he'll open doors
for you, incredible doors, doors that you couldn't
even believe possible.
I just want these people that are coming
through, you can come even while I'm talking.
No one will beg you, no one will
plead.
I'm going to ask you to stand.
So many are going to be coming.
Would you stand, please, to make room?
There are going to be a whole lot
of people coming.
Up in the balcony, just go to the
stairs on either side.
And in the annex, you get room to
206 and just get on your knees there,
and the Lord will meet you there.
You that are coming right now, come determined
right now.
Lord Jesus, I'm going to pray now that
you put it in my heart to seek
you as I've never sought you before.
If there's sin in your life, come and
lay it down, if you will, please.
Some of you just say, Brother David, I've
wasted too much time now.
I want God to touch me.
I need God to use me.
I don't want to waste any more time.
I don't want to waste my life.
Upstairs, downstairs, wherever you may be.
Now, folks, please don't leave the auditorium yet.
Respect what God's doing here.
Holy Spirit, come and minister to them right
now.
And I want everybody that came forward just
to cry out from your heart, from deep
inside, say, Jesus, touch me tonight.
Lord, touch them.
I see your hand.
You're working and moving upon them, and I
pray, Holy Spirit, that this not be lost,
that this moment take hold of the heart.
Don't let it be lost when they walk
out the door.
Lord, put it in our hearts.
I pray for those, Lord, 60 and over,
and some 65, 70, and even in their
80s, Lord, who feel, well, I've put in
my time.
I just want peace, and I just want
to be left alone.
God, help us to realize that those who've
had this experience with you, young people need
to hear from them.
Somebody needs to hear.
Somebody needs to learn from the lessons that
they have learned.
Let them cry out in their heart, God,
is there still a place for me?
Is there something I can do?
Lord, if they'll seek your face, you'll direct
them, you'll tell them.
Lord, there are things they can do without
even leaving the house.
They can turn off the television, and they
can go to a room and pray for
somebody, for sons and daughters and grandchildren.
Lord, there are works and ministries that have
to be accomplished on the experience.
It has to be a result of work
that you've done in our hearts over the
years.
God, don't let all of this valuable ministry
be lost to this generation.
Lord, there are not many mothers and fathers
of Zion left.
God, raise up tonight mothers and fathers who
will say, I will cry out to God.
I will ask him to use me in
some little way, that my life not be
wasted.
God, for those that are here that have
been feeling waste, Lord Jesus, let them know
tonight your loving grace and forgiveness.
How willing you are right now, Lord, to
touch their life and lead them in a
new direction.
Lord, I pray that you send the lonely
to the lonely.
You send the hurting to those who are
hurting.
My God, what you're doing, you have a
purpose, you have a reason, so that we
can say, yes, Jesus, you're going to see
me through this, and I'm not going to
fight it.
I'm going to rest in you, Lord, because
you are doing a work in me for
a purpose.
Thank you, Jesus.
Confess your sin, open up your heart to
him right now, and let him meet you.
God, do that now.
I want everybody to take just two minutes,
three minutes right now in the presence of
the Lord.
I want you to talk to him.
I want you to talk to him right
now.
Lord, I want a total purpose in my
life.
I want to know the purpose that you
have for me.
Whatever small way it is, Lord, I want
my life to count.
Father, we lift a whole audience to you
now in the annex and the balcony and
here in the main auditorium, in this first
floor, and I pray, Holy Spirit, that you
speak clearly now.
Oh, God, don't let us miss any of
the word that we've heard this morning, this
afternoon, or this evening.
God, take the word and produce life.
Lay hold of our hearts.
Would you lift your hands and say, touch
me, Jesus, tonight.
Just touch me, Lord.
Touch me.
Give me a new heart for you.
Give me a new longing.
Give me a touch, Lord.
Oh, everyone, Lord, touch everyone in this house.
Don't let anybody leave tonight without sensing your
love, your arms around them saying, I need
you.
I want you.
I can use you, Lord Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Not some great thing, Lord, some little thing
that we can do for your honor and
your glory.
Thank you, Jesus, for your preserving, keeping power.
Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness to us.
Touch us now before we leave this auditorium
tonight.
Touch us, Lord Jesus.
Touch us in a very special way.
Oh, how I love Jesus.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your faithfulness and
your minister to us in our time of
need.
Now, before we dismiss the service, God's put
something in my heart that I'd like you
to do, if you will, please, with people.
How many are here tonight for the first
time?
Would you raise your hand, please?
And in the annex even?
Yes, a lot of people, upstairs, downstairs.
I would like, you see, you can be
from New York and you can be from
Manhattan and not nobody from Brooklyn or Bronx.
You know, some of you people have been
coming to church a long time and you
don't know very many people.
Come on now, because you sit in the
same place, same seat, and boy, let any
usher try to get you out of that
and everything breaks loose and you lose your
sanctification.
I had a couple visiting from the Midwest
that were here this morning, and she said,
I feel like I've been in heaven to
see all of the colors and the people
and the nationalities.
She said, I feel like this is what
heaven's going to be like.
I was so blessed with that.
I was totally blessed with that.
Now, here's what I'd like you to do.
This church is a testimony to this city.
It's not that any of our pastors can
preach to the whole city and get on
television and preach to the whole city.
That wouldn't be the testimony.
The testimony is that from all different nationalities,
we are one in Christ, but that love
has to be genuine.
And more and more, as we see this
city divided, I think this last political mayor's
race is going to help divide this city
in a terrible way.
Many things that are coming, this church has
to be a testimony and other churches like
it has to be a testimony to the
love of God and how he brings people
together through his grace and his love.
I want, please don't just zip out of
here tonight.
I want you to stay five minutes and
I want you to honestly, you know, it's
not a joke where you say, would you
shake hands for 10 or 12 people?
I want you to mix.
If you're from out of city, would you
just say where you're from or ask somebody,
where are you from?
This is the conclusion of the message.