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, PO
Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 903
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I was in Denver, Colorado in meetings when
this happened.
We got up Tuesday morning packing our suitcases,
Gwen and I, and suddenly the news came,
of course the Denver airport was shut down,
so we got in a car and drove
three days to get here, and Pastor Carter,
Pastor Neil Rhodes and his staff, their staff
have been supernatural of the Lord to minister
to those in need, and we're very, very
grateful.
This church is grateful.
I'm grateful and continue to pray for them.
This morning, I have to preach probably one
of the most difficult messages the Lord's ever
asked me to deliver.
I'm not a prophet.
I've said that over and over again.
I'm one of many, many watchmen, and I
tremble at what I have to say, but
we have to hear His Word.
My message this morning, the towers have fallen,
but we've missed the message.
We have missed the message.
Lord, You have to help me.
Lord, You have to come upon me, and
You have to speak.
We have got to hear from heaven.
We can't hear from men, not even from
me, or any other watchman.
We pray, Lord, not our words, but the
words that come from the throne, and from
Your holy book.
Now, Lord, monitor every word, and let every
word come with mercy, and let it come
with grace.
Lord, how we've wept, and how we've prayed,
and how we've grieved, but oh Lord, there's
a message that You're trying to deliver to
this nation and the world, and we dare
not miss it.
God help us.
Lord, I just plead with You.
Let me not speak one word of my
flesh.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the Twin Towers of
New York City were destroyed.
Five days later, right outside the door, you
can still see the smoke pouring out of
the ruins.
It's reaching out over.
I looked out my window, because when I
prepared this message in my study, I overlooked
the whole scene in the smoke this morning,
drifting over the Statue of Liberty and all
over New Jersey.
I stood there last night, weeping and begging
God for mercy, mercy for the grieving families
of lost loved ones, mercy for those still
digging in the ruins, retrieving bodies and mostly
body parts, mercy on the workers, the police,
the firemen, the volunteers, who openly weep at
the indescribable destruction.
Times Square Church was given a site at
Ground Zero, and Pastor Carter tells me that
the tents were put there.
This church was the closest to Ground Zero
and to the disaster, and that workers working
24 hours a day around the clock and
still working, feeding and ministering and being there
in this time of horror.
But you see, Times Square Church was warned
a calamity was coming.
We are now in the seventh week of
the visitation of the Holy Spirit, and if
you have been coming to this church, you
know that even weeks before that, the Holy
Spirit moved on the pastoral staff here to
cancel everything.
We canceled Missions Conference, we canceled the youth
conventions, we canceled every speaker, we canceled everything
to come and call this body to prayer.
And we started with two weeks of prayer,
and those weeks of meetings continue.
This week again, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,
and stopping when God says stop.
But something indescribable has been happening in this
church in this past seven weeks.
Every service, as you witnessed today, a holy
hush, a silence from the throne has come
to this auditorium, and there was one night
we sat for one hour in total silence,
and nobody could move.
I remember putting my hands on my knees
to stop them from trembling because of the
awesome presence of God.
And as the pastors began to pray, and
you remember if you've been here, you've seen
the pastors weeping and wailing.
I've seen Pastor Neil laying here, crying out
to God, we were repenting, we were repenting,
we were crying out to God.
And then the Holy Spirit spoke clearly that
it was happening because a tragedy was coming,
a calamity was coming to the city and
to the nation, and we didn't know what
it was.
Suddenly a calamity struck the nation, and especially
here in New York City.
One network anchorman said this, and I quote
him, he said, just think of it.
Our two symbols of power and prosperity have
been smitten in one hour.
He didn't know he was quoting from Revelation
18.10. Alas, alas, that great city, Babylon,
that mighty city, for in one hour that
judgment has come.
One of the priest officers from this church
who's working at this site spoke to the
pastors with us on Friday night, and he
said his fellow officers who knows he's a
Christian are asking, what's this all about?
Priest officers and firemen are sitting down and
just weeping and crying like children, and others
are being asked now, where is God in
all of this?
Where is God?
There's a lady from this church who moved
to California.
She was active in this church.
I know her by name.
She's been gone about two years.
She attends a church in California.
She called this week, yesterday I believe it
was, to a sister in this church who
called me and said, please tell the pastors
of the church to keep on warning and
preparing the people because I sat under ministers
who warned, I was prepared and ready, and
everybody in the church that I attend now
is losing it.
Everyone is weeping, and they are going to
the pastors saying, why didn't you warn us?
Why didn't you prepare us?
She said, please don't stop warning.
Now, to understand where God is in this
calamity, you've got to absolutely believe in this
book.
You have to put every faith you have,
everything in what God says in His book.
Not experts, not those who are called the
talking heads on television or radio.
No, what God's Word says.
And if you're ready to hear that, we'll
begin to understand where God is in all
of this.
I can assure you God wasn't taken by
surprise.
I can assure you that every thought of
man is known by the heavenly Father.
He reads every thought.
Every ruler, every despot, every terrorist God knows
when he sits down, he rises, he knows
where they're at, and very soon they're going
to be in hell because God deals with
them.
He knows every thought.
Nothing on the face of the earth is
done without His knowledge, without His permission, and
even sometimes by His doing.
Years ago, in 1973, God gave me a
prophetic word called the vision, and I distributed
it in a book.
And when the Lord gave me that vision,
it was so frightful I begged with God,
please, I can't deliver this word without some
hope.
You've got to give me some hope.
I feel hopeless what I see coming, and
if you want me to say it, you
have to give me something.
And the Lord did, and it was five
words.
God has everything under control.
And having received that word, it was the
only way I could release the message.
And I say again, today, God has everything
under control.
Now if you're a praying Bible believer, you
know instinctively in your heart that God is
trying to speak to this nation and the
world through this.
God is trying to send us a message.
Theologians and pastors all over the country, even
around the world, are saying to their congregations,
God had nothing to do with these calamities.
God would not allow such a thing to
happen.
And because of that thinking, and because of
that preaching, we are quickly losing the message
and missing what God is trying to say.
We're missing it.
Beloved, we need a word from heaven.
I've wept in grief just as others have,
but deep within, I've experienced this week a
deeper grief than just those who have been
lost in this catastrophe.
I'm going to show you how God weeps.
I'll show you how God grieves over it.
And I'll show you how God has no
pleasure in the death of anybody.
It's the grief that if we miss the
message that He's trying to proclaim to us,
we turn a deaf ear to what God
is loudly proclaiming much worse is in store
for us.
And I found the word of God in
Isaiah.
I won't give it to you now, but
we'll go into it in just a moment.
The prophet Isaiah spoke directly to what is
happening today, right now.
He spoke clearly to this experience.
And if anyone here objects to my using
an Old Testament story as an example of
God's work today, then you need to be
reminded of what Paul the Apostle said.
Now all these things, in other words, everything
that happened in the Old Testament, happened unto
them for examples.
And they are written for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the world are come.
Isaiah went through a similar experience in his
nation.
So similar that it's frightening.
And yet, we get from it the truth
of how God moves in times like this.
For nearly 250 years God patiently dealt with
Israel.
Patiently wooing and sending light afflictions they were
called at first.
Light afflictions trying to woo Him back into
His blessing and into His favor and into
His love.
They were called to humble themselves before the
almighty hand of God.
All the prophets came to them speaking the
same word.
Humble yourself.
Turn from your wickedness.
Turn from your wicked ways.
But the scripture said instead they served idols.
Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against
Judah by all the prophets and by the
seers saying, turn ye from your evil ways.
Keep my commandments and my statutes.
They would not hearken, but they hardened their
necks.
This chosen nation, this so blessed nation of
God, a nation called to repentance.
Instead they began to mock their prophets.
And they began to follow vanity.
They became vain.
They left all the commandments of the Lord
their God.
They sold themselves to do evil inside of
the Lord.
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel.
God sent wake up calls to Israel.
One of the first was the Assyrian evasion
of two provinces, Zebulun and Naphtali.
Only the coast were touched.
In two places.
This was the first wake up call God
gave to Israel.
Suddenly Israel lost its sense of security.
It had never happened in this measure before.
But it was limited damage.
The heartland wasn't touched.
It was limited to two places.
But in it God was speaking to Israel.
And Israel missed the message.
Israel was given a second wake up call
and this one was very damaging.
Very severe.
The Bible makes it clear.
Isaiah makes it very clear and I'll show
it to you in just a minute where
it's located.
That the enemies of Israel, they were called
the enemies of Israel, Syria and the Philistines
combined their forces and suddenly attacked Israel.
The attack is said to have come from
before and behind.
From the east and from the west.
And now we come to the heart of
what I want to talk to you about.
Where was God in this sudden invasion of
his chosen land of Israel?
Now I'm going to go to the word
and I want to show you from the
prophet Isaiah.
The ninth chapter of Isaiah if you will
please.
I want you to look at verse 8
with me please.
In the midst of all of this turmoil
and chastening by the hand of God.
Verse 8 The Lord sent a word into
Jacob and it lighted upon Israel.
Look at me please.
Never in the history of mankind has God
ever left his people clueless during a time
of disaster.
Never.
He's never left us clueless.
He's never left us trying to figure it
out on our own.
He's always given an understanding.
God spoke to his people in time of
calamity.
And even now while I stand here.
God is raising up prophetic messages today in
pulpits all across America and around the world
that are preaching just what I'm preaching to
you this morning.
I received a call from a pastor, a
friend of mine from the west last night.
He said Pastor Dave I have to deliver
a message tomorrow to my people and I'm
scared to death.
Because it's so against what everybody seems to
be telling people today.
And I'm scared to death and I want
to run it by you.
And when he ran it by me I
said well my friend that's what I'm preaching
tomorrow.
And all over the country because these men
have heard from God and they weep and
they grieve.
They repent.
But still they know they have to proclaim
what God's word says and to bring the
message home to our hearts.
I'm going to give you a word that
I don't think, I really don't want to
hear in my flesh and most of you
don't want to hear.
It's going to sound heartless to some and
cruel and untimely and unkindness in a time
of grieving.
But if we don't hear it, if we
don't face it the nation is doomed.
Absolutely doomed.
Therefore the Lord, look at verse 11 Isaiah
9 verse 11 Therefore the Lord shall set
up the adversaries who have risen against him
and join his enemies together.
Verse 13 For the people turneth not unto
him that smiteth them, neither they seek the
Lord of hosts.
The Lord himself set up the adversaries.
The people did not turn unto him that
smiteth.
Now let me tell you that God uses,
God for Israel during Isaiah's time used the
enemies of Israel as a rod to chase
and warn them to repent.
God had to use it as a last
resort to bring them back into his heart.
To bring back the blessing and to destroy
their enemies.
And to put up walls of protection.
You read Isaiah 5 he said because of
the sin God let the walls down.
God let the walls down.
God used Assyria let me read it to
you, as a rod to correct Israel Oh
Assyria the rod of mine anger and the
staff in their hand is my indignation.
The weapons in their hand are my indignation.
I will send him against the hypocritical nation
and against the people of my wrath will
I give him a charge to take the
spoil to take the prey and tread them
down like the mire of the streets.
Isaiah 10 verses 5 and 6 it's the
next chapter verses 5 and 6 you'll see
it.
He said I'm going to take an evil
nation and I'm going to use it as
a rod as a last resort to bring
my people to repentance and to my heart
that I may make provisions and provide for
it and protect it that they turn their
backs upon me.
Now folks let me tell you God is
going to do it.
As soon as he was finished with Israel
or with Assyria he destroyed it.
Now let me tell you what's going to
happen to the terrorists.
Please go look at chapter 10 Isaiah 10
verses 12 through 15.
Wherefore it shall come to pass when the
Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount
Zion and upon Jerusalem I will punish the
fruit of the stout heart of the king
of Assyria.
Now verse 8 says Assyria is his rod.
Assyria has already attacked.
Assyria has done its work against the nation
and now God says now I'm going to
deal.
I will punish the fruit of the stout
heart of the king of Assyria and the
glory of his high looks for he saith
by the strength of my hand I've done
it and by my wisdom for I am
prudent and I've removed the bounds of the
people and I have robbed their treasures and
I've put down the inhabitants like a valiant
man.
My hand hath found as a nest the
riches of the people and as one gather
eggs like are left and I've gathered all
the earth there shall none that move their
wing or open their mouth or peep but
shall the axe boast itself against him that
he would therewith or shall the saw magnify
itself against him that shaketh it as if
the rod should shake itself against them that
lift it up or as if the staff
should lift itself up as if it were
no wood.
For God is saying yes now you've lifted
yourself to pride and now I'm going to
destroy you and I can assure you that
it won't be long until everyone are in
hell.
God is going to do it.
God himself is going to deal in some
miraculous way.
He will deal with all these adversaries and
the terrorists.
You can mark it down.
God will deal with this.
God will deal with it.
Suddenly as the Assyrians come and God in
his love is chasing Israel.
Suddenly the buildings are collapsing.
The Bible says in verse 10 the bricks
are falling down.
Look at it.
Verse 10 chapter 9 and the bricks are
falling down.
The sycamores are cut down.
In fact the forests were on fire.
Buildings were on fire.
Israel was in flames.
But I ask you a question.
Now listen to me closely please.
Did Israel repent?
Was there any national acknowledgement that God was
warning?
Did any of those who were rulers see
God in the calamity?
No, because it's very clear from the Scripture
the initial fear gave way to a flood
tide of national pride.
Look at verse 8 and 9.
And all the people shall know, even Ephraim
and the inhabitants of Samaria.
And see this is the heartland.
That say in the pride and stoutness.
The word stoutness there in Hebrew is a
sense of greatness.
In their pride and a sense of greatness
of heart.
And they are saying the bricks are falling
down, but we will build with hewn stones.
The sycamores are cut down, but we will
change them into cedars.
Here's what they were saying by their actions.
And listen closely please.
These calamities are just fate.
Unfortunate disaster that can't be explained.
Oh, but we are a great people.
We're a mighty nation unbending.
We are proud people.
Let the world know we will build it
up bigger and better.
Where there were bricks, we will rebuild with
impregnable stone.
Where there was cheap construction destroyed, sycamores, we'll
build with better materials.
We'll build with cedar.
We are a blessed nation proud and powerful.
We will come through this trouble better than
ever.
But you see, no one was asking, is
God saying something to us?
Is God trying to speak to us?
Does this sound familiar?
God himself sent a covert chastisement on Israel
to wake them up and to bring them
back to himself to protect them.
But they don't even once acknowledge his working
in it.
They don't heed the message.
But they use this disastrous occasion to defy
the very thought that such a proud great
nation could ever be humbled or chastened by
God.
Now, folks, I thank God for a moral
president.
We prayed for him before this happened.
We were praying.
Remember, we were pleading and interceding, God, give
wisdom to this president.
God, something is about to happen.
Give him wisdom.
We have prayed and interceded for him.
Thank God for the Christians in high places.
Thank God that at least temporarily there's a
turning to prayer around the nation, around the
world.
Do you remember the Gulf War?
Do you remember how packed all the churches
were in New York?
Do you remember a whole three days of
prayer?
And the next week, New York City came
apart with parties.
Do you remember it?
The whole nation called to prayer.
Thank God President Bush Senior spent the night
with Billy Graham on his knees.
And that's probably why we were successful in
that occasion.
Thank God for people that are sober and
beginning to rethink their lifestyle.
And we're to pray for our leaders.
And thank God we live in a land
of freedom.
But still we're missing the message.
We have moments of silence.
And we call that repentance.
We see politicians in the steps of the
government buildings singing God bless America.
And we call that turning back to God.
We applaud the NFL for calling for a
moment's silence at halftime.
And we call that a spiritual experience.
Is that all that's going to come out
of it?
One moment of silence and back to the
painted faces, back to chugging beer and streaming
for their favorite team.
Back to sitting in front of the television
laughing with Leno.
This morning I turned on the radio to
see what was happening.
And they were replaying the senators and congressmen
on the congressional building steps.
And they were singing God bless America.
Stand beside us.
Lead us.
Guide us.
And I wept and cried.
I could hardly stand it.
Because God was saying David don't you understand
there's only a handful that believe that these
are the same men that have ruled me
out of their society.
They're trying to remove my name from their
school books.
They have aborted babies.
And now they're singing God stand beside us.
What hypocrisy.
These politicians pontificating about God now.
The very ones that are protecting abortion rights.
Now see when a nation's under divine correction,
it'll do one of two things.
It'll humble itself as did Nineveh.
Or it will give God lip service and
then turn to its own strength and power
to rise above the correction.
The cry is rising now.
We have the strength and the power and
the might, the ability, the resolve to endure
any disaster.
Because we're a proud and great nation.
Now thank God for patriotism.
Thank God for the American flag.
I thank God for the temporary national unity
and folks that's what it is it's temporary.
I thank God for the incredible heroic efforts
and sacrifices we've witnessed.
The world wonders at the fortitude and love
of the New Yorkers in this time.
And the Americans in general in Washington D
.C. and everywhere.
But folks we face now the same danger
of missing God's message as did Israel.
We're at the same crossroads now that Isaiah
spoke of.
If you and I lived in Jerusalem and
Judah in the time of this prophet I
have a sense that many of us would
have walked out on him.
We wouldn't have listened.
We wouldn't have heeded it because the nation
refused to believe Jerusalem their favorite city or
their nation of Judah could be brought low.
And here comes Isaiah preaching while all the
false prophets were preaching peace.
He said, shall not God as he has
done to Samaria and her idols so do
to Jerusalem and her idols?
He said what makes you think you're exempt
Jerusalem?
Don't you know that I have just destroyed
nations all around you for their idolatry?
The same idolatry you are practicing?
And he comes now with this message, shall
not God as he has done to Samaria
and her idols do also to Jerusalem and
her idols?
What makes you think your nation is exempt?
All across America now we hear of prayer
and remembrance meetings.
Prayer and remembrance.
Now folks we've got to remember those who
died.
That's scriptural.
That's honorable.
Thank God for what's happening.
But why do we find it so impossible
to call for prayer and repentance meetings?
Why is it remembrance and revenge?
Yes, God will take care of it.
There has to be, this has to be
dealt with for that 100%.
But where is the call for turning back
to God in America?
Where is the call?
Where is anyone hearing the message?
Let me give you the message.
God is trumpeting.
Time is running out.
I've sent you prophets and watchmen.
You've been warned over and again.
I prospered you above all nations.
I endured your worship of gold and silver.
I endured your shameless sensuality.
I endured your mockery, your continuous shedding of
innocent blood and murdering of babies.
I've endured your tireless efforts to eradicate my
name even from your history books.
And now I've stricken in hopes of saving
you, that you repent and turn from your
wicked ways so that I can heal your
land and I will destroy your enemies.
Now folks, show me where that's not scriptural.
Prove to me from God's word that he
will not judge America as he's judged Sodom,
Rome, Greece, and now Russia.
I've just returned from Russia a few months
ago.
And walking through St. Petersburg and Moscow, shocked
at total depression.
Average wage, $50 a month.
Nothing but broken down infrastructures everywhere.
Men laying on the streets, drunk on cheap
vodka.
Drug addicts now.
Everywhere.
Such devastation.
I broke down in front of ministers and
wept and wailed in ice arena and hockey
arena in Moscow because they tried to outrule
God out of their society.
They went down the same road we're going
down.
And God said it's enough.
And Russia is under severe judgment.
It's turned it into a third world nation.
Here's the message from the prophet Ezekiel.
Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby
you've transgressed.
Make you a new heart, a new spirit.
For why would you die, O house of
Israel?
Why have no pleasure in the death of
him that dieth?
Sayeth the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves and
live?
Folks, God knows the pain and sorrow of
the death of the innocent.
Who could be more innocent than his own
son?
Who is more innocent?
And God laid the world of sins, the
sins of the whole world on the back
of his own son and let wicked man
kill him.
Shall you tell me that he's not a
feeling God?
That he doesn't feel pain?
He said, I take no pleasure in this.
And I'll tell you why God bottles tears,
because they're his own tears he's retrieving.
He weeps through those who are his beloved
children.
Every tear you shed as a believer in
Jesus, a lover of Christ, those are the
tears of God.
Jesus is still man and he weeps, and
he weeps through his children.
It's the only evidence he can give.
And I tell you now, Jesus has been
weeping.
God pities he weeps, but his justice and
his righteousness force him to restrain his pity
and carry out righteous judgments as a last
resort.
His justice demands His justice demands that he
lay these sins on his son and that
an innocent son of God would die.
Oh yes, so many innocent people have died.
Not that there was personal judgment on them,
many righteous died.
God's trying to save a nation.
Now what's going to happen if this nation
misses the message and we don't turn holy
back to the Lord because the window of
opportunity is very short now?
What's going to happen if abortion continues and
we end up killing born babies for research
purposes?
If we continue rubbing the precious name of
Jesus out of our American history?
That's what they're trying to do now.
All the school books are being rewritten, the
majority of school books are being written, removing
God's name from American history.
Now, what happens if we rebuild bigger and
better only to enrich ourselves even more?
And all the talk that I hear now
is that somebody's going to build the towers
bigger and better than ever.
What's going to happen if we don't trust
God now instead of trusting our armed might?
Let me answer that question not out of
my own heart, not out of speculation, but
the Word of God.
Isaiah clearly tells us what follows, rejection of
his call to repentance and a turning to
pride and boasting of greatness.
Look at verse 18, chapter 9.
The Bible says they'll be devouring flowers, mounting
to the heavens, darkness over the land, national
disunity, a stricken economy, every man out for
himself to survive.
Now, listen to this scripture, for wickedness burneth
as the fire.
It shall devour the briars and thorns and
shall kindle in the thickets of the forest.
They shall mount up like the lifting up
of smoke, the whole land.
Next through the wrath of the Lord of
hosts is the land darkened.
It will be darkened by smoke of fires.
And the people shall be as the fuel
of the fire.
No man shall spare his brother.
It will be every man for himself.
He shall snatch on the right hand and
be hungry.
God's going to touch the economy.
They shall eat on the left hand.
He shall eat on the left hand and
they shall not be satisfied.
They shall eat every man the flesh of
his own arm.
That means he's going to protect his little
world and God help you if you try
to get near the flesh of his own
arm.
Let me read to you a message, just
a note, a message I delivered from this
pulpit.
It was September 7, 1992.
It's entitled A Prophetic Warning to New York
City.
Some of you were here perhaps at that
time, 1992.
And let me read this.
This was from this pulpit.
Right now I believe God is speaking a
warning to New York City and I wrestled
with this severe word as I prepared this
message and I prayed, Lord, is this really
going to happen?
Again and again I heard this still small
voice preach it and warn the people.
Those who want the truth will receive it.
Dear Saint, this warning is not meant to
scare you.
It's meant only for you to take to
the Lord and pray.
This is what I believe the Lord has
shown me.
Thirty days of chastisement will fall on New
York City such as the world has never
seen.
God's going to let down the walls.
Unimaginable violence looting.
A thousand fires will be burning at the
same time throughout the city and its boroughs.
Times Square will be ablaze and the flames
that ascend into heaven will be seen for
miles.
Fire trucks will not be able to handle
it all.
Trains and buses will be shut down.
Billions of dollars will be lost.
Broadway shows will stop completely.
It will cause businesses to flee the city
in an unstoppable hemorrhage.
The violence will be ferocious.
It will shock the whole world.
Our streets will be lined not with just
National Guard but the militia.
Los Angeles fires will be confined, or Los
Angeles fires were confined to a few sections
of the city, but New York will be
ablaze in its boroughs.
Such things are expected in third world countries
but not in a civilized nation like the
United States.
Yet in not too long a time afterward,
New York City will go bankrupt, the city's
queen city cast into the dirt, a city
of poverty.
When will all this happen, you ask?
All I can say is I believe I
will be here when it happens.
When it happens, no matter where we are,
in our apartment on the job, God's people
are not to panic or fear.
And I've been asked so many calls in
our Texas office.
Brother Dave, the websites covering this all of
the United States, is this what you saw?
And my answer is no, it's not.
Not at all.
Because what I see is far more.
Far more severe.
The heartland won't be spared.
Because you see, if we turn away from
God now, if we don't have voices rising,
then this is what happened to Israel.
The whole nation came under economic collapse.
I don't like to hear this.
Folks, we didn't want to hear it then.
And it's happened.
And now we weep.
You say, well, can any of this be
avoided?
Absolutely yes.
Yes.
If this president proves to be a Josiah,
a man who sought the Lord with all
his heart, according to God's pattern or the
tracts of the Holy Spirit, we may be
given a reprieve for as long as we
have a godly man who not turns to
the right or to the left, but completely
trembles at the Word of God.
Turn to 2 Kings, and I'll give you
that hope, if you will, see 2 Kings.
And if you want to know what to
pray about, folks, this is it.
Pray that God will cause President Bush to
tremble at the Word of God, that he
will stay on his knees and not be
turned aside by advisers.
Chapter 22.
No clapping, please, in this message.
I'm going to be completed in just a
moment.
2 Kings, verse chapter 22.
If you will, please.
Now, Josiah has just read the Word of
the Lord.
They've read it to him.
And there are prophecies of judgment upon the
nation because of sin.
And he sends representatives to hold to the
prophetess.
And she gives this message and sends it
to Josiah.
And this is the message.
This is the message I believe God wants
to send to a Christian president.
And listen to it.
And she said to them, Thus saith the
Lord of Israel, Tell the man that sent
you.
Tell President Bush, for example.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring
evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants
thereof, even all the words of the book
which the king of Judah hath read.
Because they have forsaken me and have burned
incense to other gods, that they might provoke
me to anger with all the works of
their hands.
Therefore, my wrath shall be kindled against this
place, and shall not be quenched.
But to the king or to the president
which sent you to inquire of the Lord,
thus shall you say to him.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as
touching the words which you have heard, Because
thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled
thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what
I spake against this place, and against the
inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation
and a curse.
Thou hast rent thy clothes, and you have
wept before me, and I have heard thee,
saith the Lord.
Behold, therefore, and here's our hope.
Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy
fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy
grave in peace, and that I shall not
see all the evil which I will bring
upon this place.
And brought the king word again.
God said, as long as you're in power,
as long as you weep before me, as
long as you don't turn the right or
the left, as long as you tremble at
my word, you will not see what is
coming.
It will not come under your rule.
It will not come in your time.
My prayer is that we would pray that
desperately and even this morning before we close
this service, to call this church to pray
that God give us, that God give the
spirit of Josiah in the White House.
Our Attorney General Ashcroft is a Pentecostal believer
full of the Holy Spirit.
There are prayer meetings every day in the
White House.
We need to plead with God that the
spirit of Josiah, the same spirit that rested
on him, folks, not that we should be
afraid of what is coming, but to give
us some time to evangelize because there seems
to be a visitation of the Holy Spirit
that is running in parallel with these judgments.
There seems to be God speaking all over
the land.
Churches in Dallas, churches in Denver are being
packed with people.
And this was happening even before prayer meetings
were called.
And these are the Christians, these are the
believers that are coming together.
There's a temporary pull and call among those
who are not believers.
But folks, this is a hope.
And here's what the Prophet Zechariah said, Thus
saith the Lord of Hosts, Turn ye unto
me, saith the Lord, and I will turn
to you.
I will turn to you.
The most profound word of all with this,
I'm going to close.
Go to Jeremiah the 18th chapter please.
And with this I close.
Could you stand with me while we read
this?
Jeremiah 18 verses
15 through 20.
No, I'm sorry.
Chapter 18 verses 5 through 10.
Starting verse 5.
Then the word of the Lord came to
me.
See, the Lord sends his word, saying, O
house of Israel, cannot I do with you
as this potter, saith the Lord?
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's
hand, so are you in my hand, O
house of Israel.
At what instance I shall speak concerning a
nation, concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, pull
down, and destroy it, if that nation against
whom I pronounced, turn from their evil?
What does it say?
I will repent of the evil that I
thought to do unto them.
And at what instant I shall speak concerning
a nation, concerning a kingdom built into a
planet, if it do evil in my sight,
that if it obey not my voice, and
if we miss the message, then I will
repent of the good wherewith I said I
would benefit them.
And God said, if you'll just turn.
I can't, we can't reach the world from
this pulpit.
But see, with this I'm closing.
Yes, I pray that the nation repent.
But my most intense prayer is for my
own heart.
Lord, let me be wholly turned to you.
Let me have a repentant heart.
And let me judge my sins that I
not be judged before the throne.
I'm not looking at somebody else.
Folks, you can't find anywhere in this particular
thing where God blamed sinners.
He didn't blame homosexuals.
He didn't blame those.
He said it's because of your pride and
your cry of greatness.
Because in your troubled times and in your
grief, you didn't turn to me with all
your heart.
You didn't come against your sins.
But you turned to your own strength and
you turned because you were wounded in pride.
Your pride rose up.
God says, if you will turn to me
with all your heart, I'll repent for what
I had in plan for you.
You can't repent for the rest of New
York.
We can repent for ourselves.
And our repentance this morning can rise to
high heaven and touch the throne of God.
Folks, listen to me please.
We want to remember in prayer our President,
President Bush, when he was a candidate, one
of his first speeches was given at one
of our Teen Sound Center in Lubbock.
We have a copy of it.
And he said, I was alcoholic and Jesus
saved me not only from alcoholism but from
sin.
And I've given my heart to Jesus Christ.
Now folks, we're to pray for our leaders
even if they were evil.
How much more for those that have been
placed in power in such a strategic time.
Would everybody in this building, please, we're going
to pray for the President first and then,
you may not agree with this in politics,
but folks, you're a Christian, forget politics right
now and let's lay hold of God.
I want to lead you in this prayer
and I want everyone in this house, everyone
in the annex and all the overflow rooms.
Folks, there are thousands here in all of
our various auditoriums and I know right now
that God will hear our cry.
Would you lift your voice?
I don't want to be the only one
praying.
Father, you pray yourself, Lord.
I pray that you come now in a
special way and sweep over this congregation.
Lord, we tremble not at the disaster.
We tremble at the Word of God.
We tremble, oh God.
We want to hear your message.
We want to hear your voice in this.
This nation must repent.
God, this nation must turn back to you.
We have such little time left.
God, I pray that you give President Bush
mercy, grace, wisdom.
Oh God, continue to drive him to his
knees.
Josiah had a tender heart.
Give him a tender heart toward you.
God, don't let the counselors lead him to
the right or to the left.
Let him get his counsel from you, Lord.
That still small voice.
God, we weep for our nation, but oh
God, we feel your tears.
We have your tears, Lord, for the innocent.
We have your tears for those who have
died.
Your tears over having to judge for sin.
Oh God, in Jesus' name, we repent before
you.
I repent.
We all repent of our sins before you,
Lord.
We have neglected you.
We have taken the things of God lightly.
We have not been diligent, Lord.
We've wasted our time in front of TV
sets.
Lord, we have turned aside in boredom.
We've neglected you days without number.
My God, forgive us in our churches.
Forgive our pastors.
Forgive me.
Forgive all of us, oh Lord, for not
warning the people, for not being in touch
and hearing and knowing the voice of God,
not hearing the prophetic word of the Lord.
Oh God, have mercy on this nation.
Have mercy, oh God, have mercy.
My Lord, have mercy upon us.
God, we pray for the Christians in leadership.
We pray for Ashcroft.
We pray for the Attorney General, Lord.
They have mocked him.
They've ridiculed him.
Now, Lord, give them a voice in the
land.
Give them a voice in the land, we
pray.
God, touch him.
Put your arms around him and direct him
and guide him.
Oh God, you want to have mercy on
this nation.
You want us to turn to you so
that you can bring back your favor and
blessing and protection.
Oh God, in Jesus' name, spare your people.
Protect your people in these hard times.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the holy name of Jesus.
Blessed the holy name of Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
God, you have everything under control.
You know what you're doing.
You know what's happening.
Lord Jesus, you'll hold your church.
You'll hold your people.
And you have purpose to protect your people
in these last days.
You will protect, oh God, and you will
give us your mind and your will.
We will hear a word from heaven.
We will know it's from you and from
your throne.
We will receive it with joy and gladness
and pain and sorrow.
Hallelujah.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now, as we close, I want to bring
this down very personal.
See, it doesn't matter much whether you're angered
by what you heard this morning.
The real issue is this.
Are you right with God?
Are you right with Him?
That's what this is all about.
You can stand in this church and say,
oh yeah, I agree with you, Pastor.
I'd like to see America repent and turn
from its wicked ways.
But how about you?
You're a part of it.
It should begin right here, shouldn't it?
It should begin right here.
Our staff, ask those in room 206.
Now, if you're in room 206 and you
want to give your heart to Jesus, if
you want to get right with God, if
your back's slid and your heart's grown cold
and God's been speaking to you, it's time
to wake up.
I've had parents call me and our officers
call me and parents and even pastors are
calling their unsaved children in the Midwest.
Some of the calls are incredible.
Some of their children are on drugs and
so forth and their parents are calling them
up and saying, you better get right.
God is speaking.
This is God talking to you.
And God's message is heard loud and clear
here now and His loving message has come
because I want you to come into the
ark.
He's prepared an ark of safety.
That's Jesus.
Jesus is the ark of safety in these
last days.
He says, come in the ark before the
flood strikes.
And that's not just a message of fear,
that's a message of hope.
Anyone in room 206, the Holy Ghost is
speaking to you.
I address you first.
These days are life and death days and
I'm going to give you a sales pitch
and I'm going to try to scare you.
But I'm telling you now, I look you
right in the eye and tell you God
by His Spirit is speaking to everybody in
this land and He's speaking to you.
He'll not bypass you because He loves you.
And the time to make it right, the
time to come home, come home, come back
to His love is now.
Don't resist the Holy Spirit to not be
a better time.
You say, well I don't want to come
when I'm afraid.
Folks, it's not fear.
But the Bible says the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
If you have the fear of God and
you say this is God at work and
that's the kind of fear you have, that's
a righteous fear.
Now you move on that.
Upstairs and downstairs.
Pastor Carter, you sang that song, Come Home,
that old-fashioned song.
Could you sing that, lead us in that
again, Come Home?
I wondered far, some of you wondered far
away from Him.
Today's the day for you to come back.
Now, just get out of your seat, wherever
you are, add up in the balcony here
and in the rotunda and go.
As the Spirit told you, feel that pull
and tug, that's the Holy Spirit.
No one's going to bet you come because
the Spirit is dealing with you.
Hallelujah.
I have wandered far away from God.
Now I'm coming home.
The paths of sin too long I have
trod.
Lord, I'm coming home.
Coming home.
Never more to roam.
Open wide thine arms of love.
Lord, I'm coming home.
I'm coming home.
Coming home.
Never more to roam.
Open wide thine arms of love.
Lord, I'm coming home.
Hallelujah.
Lord, thank you for the moving of your
Holy Spirit.
We pray that everyone in this house, even
when we dismiss, when they walk out, Lord,
touch them and say, go back.
Go back.
Let this be the day that the account
is settled with the Lord.
Let this be the hour.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.