This 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, World Challenge,
P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or
calling 903-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted, and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
We reverence your word here in this house.
Lord, we worship you, we praise you, we
offer our gifts to you, but then we
come to the divine, healing, life-giving word
of God.
Lord, open my eyes, my ears, my understanding,
my voice, and Lord, open the ears and
understanding of this people today.
We sanctify you through the word of the
living God in our hearts.
Lord, open it to me, anoint me, let
the spirit of the living God be upon
me now as we go into your word
and learn about you.
Bring victory to many that need victory today.
In Christ's name I pray.
Amen.
Learning how to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Praise God.
Now, don't turn there, but in 1 Samuel,
there's a most interesting account of two men
of God who faced the worst crisis in
their life in two different ways.
And these are the two different ways that
you and I, when we're in our crisis,
react to our problems and our difficulties.
Both of these men were chosen by God,
and when they came to this, probably the
worst crisis in their lifetime, completely overwhelmed, it's
interesting to see how these two men reacted.
I'm talking about Saul and King Saul and
David.
Now, every one of us at times face
crises, hard, difficult crises.
And there comes a time when despair tries
to take over, just overwhelms you.
It doesn't seem like there's any way out.
It seems like you've come to wit's end,
and you just don't know what to do,
and there's nobody there to give you a
word, there's nobody to encourage you.
Man fails, there's nothing inside, resources perhaps, and
you just feel like the heavens are brass,
and you have a tendency or a temptation
to just resign to despair.
King Saul, we're going to talk about him
first.
King Saul found it absolutely impossible to encourage
himself in his worst crisis.
He had nothing in him to self-encourage
himself, as David did.
He had put himself beyond all possibility of
being encouraged and finding comfort from any source,
not from man, not from God, not from
himself.
His life is so full of lessons, and
when I've been studying the life of Saul
this past week, I was absolutely amazed at
how this man cut himself off from any
possibility of being encouraged.
There was no source anywhere.
He placed himself beyond the possibility of being
encouraged.
Beloved, what would you do without a word
from the Lord?
What would you do without the Holy Ghost
comforting you?
What would you do without that kind word
that comes from the voice of the Holy
Spirit, even through people, when your heart is
open, and when you're living fully in the
life of Jesus Christ?
This man had none of that.
He cut himself off completely.
Now, don't turn to it, but in 1
Samuel, the 20th chapter, we find Saul facing
a confederated army of Philistines, and they're coming
against him with chariots and a huge cavalry
of men on horseback and a huge infantry.
These are a number of confederated warlords, and
they're marching toward Israel.
And Saul's scouts bring him these frightful reports
of this massive army that's coming.
And the Bible says they gathered their armies
together.
And when Saul saw the host of the
Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly
trembled in him.
Now, this man who stands now looking from
the mountaintop at this huge, massive army coming
at him, this is the same man who
was anointed by God, chosen by God, touched
by the Holy Spirit, counseled by a great
prophet.
And yet this man who once chased the
Philistines, had been fearless chasing them, he'd never
feared.
He was a mighty warrior.
But now this man stands on that mountaintop
trembling, frightened, doesn't know where to go.
He's confused.
Something has happened to this man.
He's trembling in great fear, the Bible says.
He's confused.
He has no purpose.
He has no direction in his life now.
Now, what turned this mighty warrior into a
coward?
What made him cower before his enemies?
Saul, listen to me please, Saul had allowed
a seed of envy, anger, jealousy to take
root in his heart against David, a man
of God.
My message today, I'm going to attempt to
prove to you beyond any shadow of a
doubt that if you allow in your life
a single seed of bitterness toward anybody, anyone
in the workplace, anyone in the ministry, in
your family, if you have envy in your
heart or jealousy of any kind, and it
creates anger, I want to show you that
it's going to lead to a spirit of
murder.
And I'm going to tell you then that
you cut yourself off from all possibility of
ever being comforted.
Because the moment you allow the seed of
envy to enter your heart, the Holy Ghost
departs.
Absolutely departs, and I'm going to prove that
to you.
The Bible says, the women of Israel began
to sing this song, Saul has slain his
thousands, but David his ten thousands.
And Saul was very angry when he heard
it.
And he said, they've given credit to David
for ten thousands, but to me only thousands.
What more can he have but my kingdom?
And Saul envied David from that day on
forward.
He allowed envy, jealousy, anger, bitterness to take
root in his heart, and it began to
obsess him and consume his life.
Absolutely consumed him.
The Bible said in verse 9, listen to
this please, in verse 9 chapter 28, And
Saul envied David from that time on.
Now that's verse 9, and the next very
verse, verse 10, says this, And the next
morning an evil spirit came upon Saul.
He became demon possessed.
The night before, he allows a spirit of
envy to take root.
Anger, jealousy.
The next day, an evil spirit possesses him.
And oh, what happens to this man, his
downward spiral.
Because the very next day, while David comes
in to play his harps, Saul has a
javelin in his hand.
And verse 11 says, and he cast the
javelin and he swore, I will kill David
and smite him to the wall.
There's a spirit of revenge now.
There's a murderous spirit.
Anyone who holds a grudge against someone else.
I'm thinking about your boss on your job.
I'm thinking of a co-worker.
I'm thinking of somebody in your family.
I'm thinking of a male friend or female
friend.
Somebody that hurt you, wounded you, said something
about you.
And you allowed a spirit of envy.
Or another brother or sister is advanced in
Christ and growing in the Lord.
And you're still stagnant.
And you see that growth.
You see the blessing of God.
And you become jealous over the blessing of
God in somebody else's life.
And that seed is planted.
It begins to grow in you.
Folks, I've heard from heaven on this message.
And I want to hear because God by
His truth is going to set you free
and save your life from damnation and hell.
You've got to hear this in the spirit.
If that is not cast out, it's going
to become an evil obsession.
And you open the door to satanic possession.
The Bible says where envy and strife is,
there's confusion in every evil way.
You open yourself up to every evil thing
out of the pits of hell.
Now what happened to Saul as a result
of this envy and bitterness in his heart.
This jealousy.
What happened to him will happen to every
Christian who allows the same thing in their
life.
Now those who become obsessed with envy or
jealousy or bitterness, revenge or grudge.
They begin to infect everybody in their circle.
Their family, their friends.
It's a poison that affects everything around them.
Because they are so eaten with it now.
That's all you hear night and day coming
from their mouth.
Because what's in the heart is going to
come out the mouth.
You hear all about every bit of gossip.
Every little tidbit.
How I was misjudged.
How I was mistreated.
How he did this to me or she
did that to me.
And we go back about our rejections.
And that's all you hear.
The kids hear it.
The friends hear it.
Until they get sick and tired of it.
You don't want to be around them anymore.
They are obsessed with it.
That's all they talk about.
Because the bitterness is in their heart.
Grudge.
Envy.
Jealousy.
It affects everything.
And when you have that in you, you
begin to mistrust everybody.
You begin to think that everybody is against
you.
You see it in the life of Saul.
He becomes mistrustful for everybody.
He thinks everybody.
Not only David is against him.
But now his son Jonathan is against him.
Here's a godly young man that loved his
father.
He'd made a covenant with David.
But that's because he's his peer.
His own age.
And he was a friend with him.
But he loved his father.
In fact, he died with his father in
a battlefield.
But listen to Saul speaking to his own
son Jonathan.
Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, his
son.
And he said unto him, thou son of
a perverse, rebellious woman.
Now, we have a curse word for that
today.
He was cursing his son.
He said, do you think I don't know
that you've chosen David above me?
His own son.
I know you, you perverse man of a
unmarried woman.
He said, you've turned against me.
You've turned to David.
Why don't you go with David?
And what he really said in the next
verse.
If you really loved him, you'd bring him
to me.
Let me kill him.
You'd let me put a javelin through his
belly because he's after your kingdom.
You're going to inherit my throne.
He's after your throne.
Jealousy, rage now is taken over.
Spirit of murder.
You say that couldn't happen to me.
Oh, yes, it is.
It's a spirit of murder because the Bible
said he that hates his brother is a
murderer.
And cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
Same spirit.
He turns against his own daughter Michal.
He turns to Michal and said, Michal, brother.
He said, Michal, you've conspired against me.
He said, why hast thou deceived me so?
You sent away my enemy.
Remember, she was protecting David and let him
escape from her father.
And he said, you've deceived me.
Can you imagine this?
She's just saving her husband's life and he
calls it deception.
He turns to his own captain Abner.
He turns to all of his bodyguards.
And listen to what he says.
He's saying, you're all against me.
Listen to it.
You have all conspired against me.
There is none of you that feel sorry
for me.
Listen to your pastor.
Listen to me.
This is life and death.
I'm not preaching a sermon to our friends
down in the lower rotunda, to the balcony
behind me, wherever you are.
I'm not preaching a sermon.
I came from the throne of God and
I'm telling you, if you sit in this
house this morning, and I sit with fear
and trembling and yet love, if you have
a single root of bitterness, a single thought
of revenge, a single grudge, any envy, any
jealousy toward husband or wife, God help the
man who lives with the wife who is
jealous.
God help the wife who lives with the
husband who is jealous.
The Bible said, who can stand against jealousy?
Who can stand against envy?
There's no defense against it.
But oh, it will destroy you.
It will consume you.
It will bring a spirit of murder.
And today we murder through slander and gossip.
We will slander until we bring down our
enemies.
We will talk about them.
We will talk about it night and day.
And here Saul wakes up every morning.
He has to put aside the business of
the kingdom because the first thing he's got
on his mind is David and getting even.
He lays down at night and he's conspiring
in his bed.
I've been mistreated.
Nobody's for me.
Everybody's against me.
Do you know people like that?
Nobody feels sorry for me.
Nobody understands me.
Oh, God help us to deal with this
in the light of the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
And ask the Holy Spirit to pluck that
out of our hearts.
He now starts his downward spiral because he's
a consumed man.
He's got this spirit of murder on him.
Folks, we have all seen the awful destruction
of sin.
Those that have been bound by vicious habits
like drugs and alcohol, perverted sex, gambling and
so forth, who in this building, who comes
to church walking through these streets of New
York, you've seen it and I've seen it.
You've seen these poor creatures, lunatics, walking these
streets who've blown their mind on drugs, just
blathering nonsense.
You've seen the hollow-eyed women, the prostitutes,
who are still trying to work a trick
and then turn around the corner and you
see them vomiting.
They're so sick, physically beaten, just wrecks of
humanity.
You've seen the skeletal men walking these streets,
victims of AIDS.
And you've seen them looking for one more
empty hour of pleasure and your heart goes
out and say, Oh, the wages of sin.
Yes, that's an ugly sight.
Those are horrible pictures that we've all seen.
But let me tell you, there's nothing worse.
There's nothing worse than seeing a Christian going
downhill.
Somebody who had been anointed and chosen by
God.
Somebody knew Him.
Somebody had been touched by the Holy Spirit.
And to have this seed in them and
to watch them go downhill, to watch how
they begin to come apart and how they
become obsessed.
Listen to their language.
There's no more worries.
There's no more joy.
There's gloom.
There's doom.
There's nothing there of the Spirit of Christ
anymore.
Absolute bitterness pours out of the innermost being.
You see, when you have this Spirit upon
you, you close the door to any possibility
of encouragement of any kind.
It curses the very life out of you.
It's a curse.
Saul's obsession with bitterness had reduced him now
to a man who had no place to
turn for comfort.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the
Lord answered him not.
Neither by dreams, nor Urim, nor by the
prophets.
He tried to pray and he couldn't pray.
He couldn't turn to a priest, he'd kill
them all.
This is the same man, the Bible says,
the Lord had departed from.
In 1 Samuel 18, 12, the Lord departed
from Saul.
The Bible said when the evil spirit came
upon Saul, he prophesied in the midst of
his house.
If you look at the original Hebrew, it
says he bellowed like a madman all through
his house.
It wasn't some spiritual prophecy.
The evil spirit was on him now.
And this man, through the night, didn't sleep.
Even his servants were alarmed.
They said, there's an evil spirit in the
house.
And this man doesn't sleep.
He goes through all the rooms in his
palace, in his home, and he bellows.
I'll kill him!
He bellows and he screams his rage.
That's what it comes to, folks.
Till it eats and consumes your very being.
Brings madness.
And Saul's on his own now.
And I'm going to tell you, when you
go this path, you're on your own.
Where are you going to turn?
Where is Saul going to turn to now?
He can't go to the priest, he killed
them.
He can't go to the prophet.
Samuel knows that he's been rejected by God.
He can't go to Abner, his captain, because
he doesn't trust him.
He can't go to his bodyguard.
He can't go to his son Jonathan.
He can't go to his daughter Michelle.
Where is he going to go?
He has no place to go.
He can't go to God.
He can't pray.
He can't go to the Holy Ghost.
Where do you go?
Where do you go when you keep this
sin in you?
Where do you go when you can't pray,
when you can't talk to the Holy Ghost?
The preacher can't help you.
I can't help you because you've been given
over to your sin.
Nobody that knows Jesus and who's a good
Holy Ghost counselor has got a word for
you because your ear is shut and your
heart is hard.
There's only one way out of that.
And that is to acknowledge your sin and
cry out as you've never cried in your
lifetime.
God, I have this sin in my life.
Pluck it out by its roots.
So where does the man go?
Remember, he's not a heathen.
He's chosen.
He was anointed a prophet.
He was under the guidance of a prophet
in his first years.
Had won many great victories.
And now he's going downhill and downhill so
fast.
Where do you go?
You go to a witch.
This is the same man who had put
away, the Scripture said, those that had familiar
spirits and the wizards of the land.
He'd killed most of them, but now he's
saying, go out and find me one.
Surely there's one I didn't kill.
Listen to the Scripture.
Then said Saul to his servants, go seek
me out a woman that has a familiar
spirit, that I may go to her and
inquire of her.
He turns to his servants and says, God
doesn't talk to me anymore.
Samuel doesn't talk to me.
I have nobody to talk to.
You have nothing to say to me.
Go find me somebody in the occult.
He said, Brother David, I would never do
that.
I would never, no matter how bitter I
am, no matter what kind of grudge I
have, I would never go see a witch.
I would never turn to the occult.
Oh no, no, no, don't think for one
moment that you can't wind up in some
little room with some unkept woman with straggly
hair and stick your palm out and try
to get a word from God.
I've known preachers that have gone to seances
and gone to these places because they didn't
hear from God, they weren't praying anymore, and
they went to somebody in the occult.
If you don't, listen to me now.
This week's magazine, Life magazine, this week, front
page, the lead article, Astrology, the lead article
says, Why so many of us now believe
that the stars reflect the soul?
And that the whole article is about astrology,
the rise of astrology.
And here's what the article says.
Astrology has experienced its biggest boom in 400
years.
20 years ago, there were an estimated 1
,000 professional astrologers in the United States.
Today, there are over 5,000.
20 million books on astrology now sell each
year in the United States because now it's
becoming, we have come to a time of
reckoning with destiny.
Can you imagine that?
We have come to a time of reckoning
with destiny.
But listen further.
Soothsayers of all sorts are having a field
day.
And this astrology has its roots all the
way back to Babylon.
Astrology is now becoming the therapy for millions.
Those who are trying to handle anger and
envy and frustration are turning to astrologers for
their answers.
How many of you pick up the newspaper
and go to the horoscope?
You say, I'm just curious.
I just want to see what my day
says.
No, no, no, no, no.
That's dabbling with the occult.
I've got to go on.
Worse than going to which you say, I
would never go to which, I would never
go to the occult.
You know what happens?
There's something even worse than that that happens
to these who carry this spirit in them.
It's that they begin to hear voices and
they mistake those voices which are the voices
of demon powers.
They mistake those voices, those sweet, small, still
voices as the voice of God.
And they're being misled so that they believe
a lie to be the truth.
They can tell what they have heard.
I heard God speak.
Listen, you have envy, jealousy.
You don't hear God speak.
He does not speak to you in that
film.
Other than to repent, come and I'll restore
you.
He's not mad at you, but he will
stand by.
You don't hear from God.
You hear your own desires.
You hear from hell.
You hear from the devil.
You say that's too strong, Brother Dave.
That's Bible.
That's Scripture.
I'll back it up.
I'll back my very ministry on this because
I see it so clearly in God's Word.
And they hear these voices and they'll do
some of the strangest, sinful, wicked things and
say, well, God told me.
I heard a still, small voice saying it's
alright.
It's alright.
Like a pastor, a well-known pastor who
was in a motel with a woman.
He said it was alright because we pray
together and we fast together and we get
revelations together and trying to justify the sin.
A voice.
It was not God.
God does not send a married man into
a motel room with another woman.
This man ends up committing suicide.
Now, I know he was wounded by the
arrow, but the arrow didn't kill him.
The Bible said he was just wounded.
Therefore, Saul took a sword and fell on
it.
Killed himself.
His sons had already died.
His three sons were laying dead on the
battlefield and he's wounded and he's laying on
the edge of the battle and leaps on
his own sword.
But the night before he dies, he's consorting
with the witch and supposedly Samuel appears.
I want to tell you, the apparition, the
Samuel that appeared was not the real Samuel.
Because there are no wits in the world
that can bring Samuel out of the bosom
of my Heavenly Father.
It was an apparition.
It was the devil faking the voice of
Samuel.
Why?
Because the devil's a murderer and the one
mission the devil had in mind for Saul
was to kill him.
He's a murderer, the Bible says.
And he's out to kill you with envy
and strife and bitterness.
He wants to damn your soul and kill
you.
He wants you to die in a rage.
Like the man who was in the paper,
last five years, he's lived in revenge because
his brother who was a police officer was
murdered on the streets and the man only
got, I think, ten years or so.
And the man's been living in rage and
he died recently in his last words, I
hope Johnny rots in hell.
He was full of rage and bitterness and
he'd eaten enough for five years, that's all
they heard.
I know a sister, a Christian sister who
got so mad at God for taking a
loved one some twenty years ago.
For twenty years she's lived in a rage
and bitterness and that's all you hear night
and day.
She's one of the meanest persons you ever
saw.
And I have been in the rooms when
people die full of bitterness.
I've been there.
You can feel the evil spirits.
You feel the gloom, you feel the doom,
you feel the despair.
And you see them going out into eternity
in a rage.
I have walked out of rooms where people
were dying like that because I did not
want to be in that room and even
family and friends would walk out.
They didn't want to be in a room.
It is spiritual suicide.
You're killing yourself.
God has promised me today He's going to
deliver a lot of people.
Not only in this service, but everyone who
sees this tape and everyone who hears the
audio, many, many people are going to be
delivered.
I pray the fear of the Holy God
grip your heart.
By the fear of the Lord men depart
from evil.
But now let me give you the other
side.
Talk about David.
Now David reacted to his worst crisis in
a very different way.
Hallelujah.
His story follows immediately in 1 Samuel.
Immediately, well, Saul was consorting with a witch.
David's on his way with 600 of his
men to Ziklag.
Now, that was his home base.
He'd been chased by Saul.
Remember, he'd run off two years before to
King Achish and he had joined the Philistines.
And the Philistines were preparing to go against
Saul.
This is the army that saw Saul coming
at him.
And David's in the hinder part of this
great army and he says, I'm going with
you, Achish, to the battle.
And the warlord said, no.
In the heat of the battle, he might
turn on us.
So David and his 600 men are rejected.
The warlord said, David, you and your army
get out.
Go.
Wherever you want to go, go, but you're
not with us.
This is the end of Samuel.
Ziklag.
And when they get there, they see us
get near.
It took about, it's a three-day journey.
And when they got there, tired and weary,
all they could see was the smoking embers
of a ruined city.
It was gone.
Their town was burnt.
All of their family members, all their cattle,
everything was gone.
There's nothing left.
And David is now standing in the middle
of these ruins.
An amazing thing happens here.
This motley army of his that he had
led and guided and fed and marvelously prayed
over.
These are men who had been in debt.
These are family members included.
Brothers and relatives.
Many of them that were discouraged under Saul
and many that were fleeing from their debts.
And they found a safe haven with David.
And now David's standing there, and he looks
at all of his family members and his
army, and they're picking up stones, and they're
in a rage because they're full of grief.
And David was greatly distressed, for the people
spake of stoning him because the soul of
the people was grieving.
And they're angry at David, no doubt, because
they said, David, why didn't you leave a
few hundred of us back, at least a
hundred and fifty, two hundred, to protect our
family?
Why?
You took us three days back, and now
we were rejected as it was?
Now look what's happened.
They have stones in their hands.
They're ready to kill David.
Now, in the flesh, when you look at
this scene, David has every right, every reason
in human flesh, in the way of human
thinking, has every reason to despair, every reason
to question God, because he stands here remembering
that he'd been anointed by Samuel.
He still feels the oil running down over
his head.
He remembers the word of Samuel the prophet,
God has chosen you to be the king
in Saul's place.
And now that sounds to him like mockery.
It sounds like a hoax to him, because
here he is.
Israel's turned him down.
Saul's turned him down.
And now, not only has Saul turned him
down, but the very heathen themselves don't want
him.
Of all people, the Philistines, these ungodly heathen
warlords say, David, get out.
Not only that, his family is gone.
He has no family left.
He doesn't know whether they're dead or alive.
He has no possessions, no home.
He has nothing.
He stands there empty.
And not only that, but he gets worse.
This is the same man that remembers having
risked his life to save the city of
Keilah.
And he learns that those people, after he'd
risked his life, and he moves into the
city, that they'd sent, in the midnight hours,
they'd sent word to Saul, we've got David,
come and get him.
He was being betrayed by those to whom
he'd risked his very life.
And now, his own family, his own army
is ready to stone him.
The Bible said David was greatly distressed.
We talk about our crisis, folks.
I'm giving you a crisis here.
We're seeing a real crisis.
No man has suffered much like that other
than our Savior.
He could stand there talking about how he
was misjudged and how he was slandered, mistreated.
He could have talked about all the things
he did for these people.
But he stands there and listens to what
the Bible says.
But David encouraged himself in the Lord.
David encouraged himself in the Lord.
David looks at his situation, he looks around,
and he sees ready to stone.
And so what could he do?
He says, Lord, I resign.
He lifted his hands and began to praise
the Lord.
He said, Lord, you're the one who's going
to have to preserve me.
No way out of this, Lord.
It's all yours.
Live or die, I'm going to trust you
right now.
And he began to encourage himself in the
Lord.
Now, folks, how does a man do that
in the face of a battle?
Because many of you say, Pastor Dave, I'm
going through a crisis in my life.
Where do you get that inner strength?
He encouraged himself in the Lord.
He was not a superman.
He was a man of light passions.
Oh yes, he was.
He had so much in his life that
was unlike the Lord.
Oh, but there was something about David in
a time of crisis.
He reached out to the Lord.
There was nothing in himself.
It was the Spirit of God in him.
It was his communion with the Heavenly Father
that now was bearing forth fruit.
Folks, it pays to be shut in with
God.
It pays to have communion with the Lord.
It pays to know Him.
Because in a crisis, you can depend on
Him.
You go to your Heavenly Father because He's
not a stranger to you.
You see, if you harbor envy in you,
the first thing that suffers is your prayer
life.
People who have envy, jealousy, hate, and revenge,
and these things like this, they don't pray.
They can't pray.
And when they don't pray, they lose fellowship
with the Lord.
And so when the hard times come, there's
nothing to draw on.
You can't encourage yourself in the Lord.
David...
Now, I said, Lord, how did he do
it?
And folks, I found.
I found it.
And it's so wonderful.
The 16th Psalm.
Turn.
Get your Bibles out.
Psalm 16.
Because here is the secret to learning how
to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Amen.
Put your seat belts on.
How many want to learn to encourage yourself
in your hard times in the Lord?
Raise your hand.
Wave it at me right now.
Yes.
Praise God.
Now, here's the truth that sets you free.
Here's the good part.
Now, by the way, you know that David
recovered everything, didn't he?
Not only did he recover all, he recovered
more than he lost.
He recovered so much, he was giving it
away to everybody.
He had an overflow.
Hallelujah.
Now, if you look, if you have a
King James, it says in the front of
the chapter, the miktam of David.
You know what that means?
The golden psalm, one that's to be committed
to memory.
You're to commit this to memory.
Now, I have a hard time with that
because I have such a poor memory.
But I read it.
I'm going to read this every day of
my life, God helping me.
That's what it means.
It's a golden psalm.
It's the secret.
Now, many theologians believe David wrote this while
he was in the wilderness.
I believe clearly that this was written during
this time.
Look at the first thing that David says.
Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do
I put my trust.
And in the original Hebrew, it reads, guard
me, O Lord.
In other words, guard me from these stones.
Guard me from my enemies.
Guard me from all of this, for I
have taken shelter in Thee.
I have put my life in Your hands.
Hallelujah.
David had said, The Lord, O Lord, You
are my hiding place.
You will preserve me from all trouble.
You will compass me about with songs of
deliverance.
Look at me, folks.
David is saying, I didn't turn to the
Lord as a last resort.
I turned to the Lord as a first
resort.
I didn't try to call somebody.
I didn't try to call a prophet.
I didn't try to call somebody.
I turned to the Lord.
Folks, get off the telephone.
Get into the secret closet.
Get along with God.
He's the only one who can preserve you.
Go into the shelter from the storm.
Hallelujah.
Verse 2, O my soul, thou hast said
unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my
goodness extended not to Thee, but to the
saints that are in the earth, and to
the excellent in whom is all my delight.
Now listen to me.
Let me interpret that for you.
Look this way, please.
What he's saying, Lord, my charitable works were
not done for Thee, but for the saints
who are upon the earth, for them who
are excellent in whom is all Your delight.
You know what David's saying?
Lord, I can forgive all of them.
I can forgive everybody.
I don't have to hold a grudge against
anybody because everything...
He could have said, Well, wait a minute.
I risked my life for Keilah, and they
turned on me?
I played the harp for Saul.
I fought his battles, and he turned on
me?
He could look at all of these things.
He said, Even the heathen warlords turned on
me?
All the good things I've done for people,
and I get no respect?
I get no thanks?
Have you ever helped so many people, and
nobody said thanks?
Oh, yes.
I could write a book on that.
But David said, Wait a minute.
I didn't do this to merit something with
you, Lord.
I didn't do this to get to heaven.
I did it because it's the right thing
to do, and that's all.
I don't have to expect any thanks.
I can forgive everybody because I wasn't doing
it to get to heaven by it.
Folks, you don't...
All of those things that you do, you're
supposed to do them because you're a servant
of Jesus Christ.
You're supposed to love your brother and do
good to all mankind, not to get to
heaven.
We get to heaven by the mercy of
Jesus Christ and the grace of God.
All of our good works are filthy rags.
He said, Lord, it's all filthy rags anyhow.
I did it just because it's the right
thing to do, so I forgive everybody.
Oh, hallelujah.
Can you forgive?
Told you it's good.
You know what he says in the next
verse?
He said...
And the reason he said, I can forgive
because their sorrows are going to be multiplied.
They're going to...
God keeps books.
Lord, I'm not going to add to their
sorrow.
And he says...
What he's saying, he said, I don't want
to even mention their idolatry on my lips.
He said that in the verse.
He said, I don't want to get involved
in this kind of living.
I don't want to get involved in this
mess.
I don't want to get involved with talking
to people that have bitterness in their heart.
I don't want to be a part of
it.
Folks, you listen to bitterness, it's going to
get into you.
It's going to poison you.
Do you ever hear of secondhand smoke?
Secondhand gossip will kill you just as sure
as straight gossip.
Next.
The Lord is the portion of my inheritance
of my cup.
Thou maintainest my lot.
Oh, this is wonderful what David's saying.
He's standing there with none.
He said, Lord, after all, I haven't lost
anything because I haven't lost you.
My house is gone.
Everything's gone.
But Lord, my life is not based on
things.
You're my life.
You're my inheritance.
Lord, I can have it all.
Just give me you.
You're my lot in life.
You're my inheritance.
Hallelujah.
A couple weeks ago, a spirit of despair
tried to get a hold of me and
to bring me down into despair and feeling
blue.
And I stopped him and I said, Wait
a minute.
Lord, it doesn't matter if everything I have
is lost.
Nobody on the face of this earth, in
heaven or hell, can take away my Jesus
out of my heart.
This is not the real world, folks.
You see this building?
It's a mirage.
It's made up of atoms and those atoms
are going to burst one day and they're
all going to be gone.
This pulpit's not real.
It's heavy, but it's not real.
The real world is in eternity in Jesus
Christ.
This is not the real world.
David said, Not one single thought of envy,
not one thought of bitterness, not a thought
of anger, nothing to rob my fellowship with
my Lord.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to God.
That's the one reason I don't allow any
bitterness or anger or wrath in my soul.
Jealous.
I don't allow it in the name of
Jesus.
I pray the Holy Ghost give me power
every time it tries to rise up because
I know it will rob me of my
fellowship with the Master.
Then he goes on and he says, The
lines have fallen, verse 6, The lines have
fallen unto me in pleasant places, yet I
have a goodly heritage.
He's saying, Lord, you gave Israel possession of
the land.
But he said, I've got a new Jerusalem.
I'm going home.
Folks, when you look at the last five
verses from 7 to 11, let's read them
out loud and then I'll explain it.
No, it's self-explanatory.
I'll tell you what.
Why don't you stand?
If you have King James, we're going to
start reading verse 7 to the end.
It's four chapters, four verses.
You're going to see how David says because
he blesses and trusts the Lord, God's going
to give him counsel.
He's going to talk about the rains that
struck him the night season.
That means his inner man.
I'm going to show you too.
He says, I'm not going to hell.
I'm going to heaven.
Okay, verse 7.
Let's start reading.
I will bless the Lord who hath given
me counsel.
My rains also struck me in the night
seasons.
I've set the Lord always before me because
he is at my right hand.
I shall not be moved.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory
rejoiceth.
My flesh shall also rest in hope.
Thou will not leave my soul in hell,
neither will thou suffer thy Holy One to
see corruption.
Thou will show me the path of life.
In thy presence is fullness of joy, and
at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
Hallelujah.
You see, that's the reward of those who
work with the Holy Ghost to pluck all
these things out of their life.
Guidance.
Pleasure and joy forevermore.
In the night season, God's speaking to you
in your bed, telling you how much He
loves you.
Speaking words of direction and counsel.
The inner man being strengthened with my truth
in the inner man.
And then the Lord's giving you this wonderful
promise.
You'll never be cast into outer darkness.
You're mine.
Oh, the glory and the joy and the
victory of those who cast aside by faith
in Jesus' name.
Every root.
Every shumblance.
Envy.
Anger.
Wrath.
Jealousy.
Probably the most dangerous position you can be
in with this, I close.
Let everybody hear me clearly.
If you hadn't heard clearly in your spirit
yet what I've said, hear this.
If you're blinded, as you stand in God's
presence now, you're blinded.
You stand there and say, I don't have
anything like that.
And yet you're covering something.
That blindness is probably the most dangerous condition
you can be in.
A veil over your eyes.
And the only way to break through that
veil, the only way to break through that
blindness, is to say, oh God, send the
Holy Ghost.
Search my heart.
Lord, is there something in me that is
there and I'm covering and I'm hiding?
Is there somebody that I have been envying?
Someone I've been jealous over?
Is there someone, Lord, I've been angry at?
What about husbands and wives who just don't
forgive one another?
That anger that keeps building and building until
it destroys your relationship.
I can't make anything happen here this morning.
I could work you up into some kind
of an emotional high.
Some of you might call me emotionally, but
it can't work that way.
It has to be the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit dealing with our hearts.
The Holy Spirit himself.
I'm going to open these altars.
No one's going to ask you what it's
about.
But if you're up in a balcony, you
go to the stairs on either side and
come down any aisle, those that are here.
If you say, Pastor David, this message was
sent from heaven to my soul and I'll
not walk out of this building with this
thing in me, this gripped me, laid hold
of my heart and I want to be
delivered.
If you want deliverance, God's going to deliver
you.
He's going to deliver you.
The Bible says you're going to confess it
first.
He said confess it openly.
Confess it before the Lord.
Get out of your seat and come right
now.
If you're backslidden, if you're not right with
God, come and join these that are coming.
If you don't know the Lord, if you
strayed from the Lord, you follow these that
are coming right now.
Folks, don't hide from the Holy Spirit.
Be honest with Him.
Look at the people being honest right now.
Follow these.
You're among many, many people that are coming.
Up in the balcony, move.
Wherever you're at.
I don't care if it's in the choir.
I don't care if it's anywhere.
All of us.
Let the Holy Ghost deal with you.
Heavenly Father, deal with us in love.
Holy Spirit, you're trying to bring victory.
You're trying to bring back the prayer life.
You're trying to bring back, Lord, a relationship
of communion with the Heavenly Father and with
Jesus.
Lord, these things break the communion.
God, you're going to break these chains and
set people free.
Amen.
Please move in closer.
Move in tight to make room for those
that are coming, if you will, please.
Amen.
Some of you are going to have to
make up your mind through the help of
the Holy Spirit right now where you stand
here to make something right with somebody.
Is it a mother-in-law?
Is it a husband?
Is it a wife?
Is it a child?
I heard of a mother recently, a well
-known mother.
She's nationally known.
Hasn't talked to her son in over a
year.
I don't know how she...
She's a Christian.
I don't expect...
I don't understand how she ever expects to
get to heaven.
I don't understand that at all.
While you're here now, whoever that person is,
that object of your envy, that object of
that bitterness, that grudge that's there, I don't
care who wronged you.
I don't care what they did.
You can't hold to it.
You have to acknowledge here right now it's
sin.
I will not put up with it.
I'm not going to hold it anymore.
There has to be something in you right
now that says it ends today, right now.
It ends.
It's over.
I can't carry this and walk with Jesus.
I can't do it.
Now, the Lord's here to deliver you.
The Lord's here to set you free.
And the reason he wants you to be
free because he wants you back in fellowship.
It's not that he's angry at you.
He's angry at that sin.
And he gets angry at it because he
knows what it does to you.
It makes you hide from him.
It robs you of your prayer life.
It robs you of communion.
It robs you of peace.
Because there's no peace to people that have
this in their heart.
You say, well, I just can't do that.
You don't know the situation, Brother Dave.
You don't know.
I don't have to know.
There are no conditions on heaven, in heaven
or earth or in hell.
There's no condition whatsoever that you can hold
on to envy, bitterness, or grudge, or hate,
or anger.
You can't hold it.
It has to go.
If you're ready to let it go, God's
ready to come now and rush in by
the power of the Holy Ghost and deliver
you and give you power to do what
he asks you to do.
He doesn't send you on a trip without
giving you the endowment and the power to
do it.
He's faithful.
Look at me, please.
I know in my heart some of you
could have been destroyed because this thing opens
up so many other sins that you would
have gone off in some awful, wicked direction.
This would have consumed you.
And the Lord said, No.
And his love brought you a message.
Now God wants to deliver you.
There may be some in the audience you
didn't come forward but you know in your
heart this message is for you.
I want everyone, raise your hands to the
Lord that came forward.
Everyone that came forward, raise your hands to
the Lord.
The Bible says, I would men everywhere lift
holy hands.
We're holy through the righteousness of Jesus only.
Pray this from the gut, from inside, deep
inside.
Jesus, I come to you now to confess
this thing in my soul.
I hate it.
I want to be free of it.
And I bring it to you, Jesus, to
humble myself.
I admit that what I've done and what
I've thought is a sin.
It's a sin before you, God.
And I admit it and I repent of
it.
I ask you, God, to send the Holy
Spirit and give me power over it.
Break this chain that binds my soul.
Forgive me and help me, Lord, to make
it right.
Keep your hands raised while I pray.
I come now in Jesus' name against every
spirit of envy.
I come against spirit of bitterness, anger, hate,
wrath, revenge, jealousy.
These chains from hell, God, sever them.
Cut them.
I speak the word of faith in Jesus'
name because these are the works of the
flesh.
These are the works of the devil.
And they have no right, no dominion, for
sin shall not have dominion over God's people.
Lord, break these chains.
Hallelujah.
Now, I want you by faith to reach
out and thank God that he's going to
do what he said he would do.
Just thank him, Lord.
I believe you're going to do what you
said you'd do.
You're going to deliver me.
You're going to set me free.
You will set me free.
Hallelujah.
You will deliver me and you will set
me free.
Thank you, Jesus.
Now, I'm going to pray another prayer.
I'm going to ask God to put right
in front of your face, the Bible said,
the stumbling block of iniquity they had right
in front of their face.
That's a stumbling block of iniquity.
And that has to be removed.
Your prayer in itself won't remove it.
You have to do that now and God
will give you the power to go to
that person, make it right.
Husband, wife, child, co-worker, whoever it may
be, pastor, evangelist, whoever it may be, you
go to that person and you make it
right.
All, I'll tell you, the burden will roll
off of you.
You will rejoice again.
Don't you want your freedom back?
Don't you want to be free?
Such a wonderful thing, just to be free.
The Lord wants you to be free now.
So, I'm going to ask God to put
that face right in front of you right
now, that person's face.
You'll know who it is because the Holy
Ghost is going to raise it up right
now because I'm going to pray it to
pass.
I have that kind of faith.
Bow your heads, please.
Father, in Jesus' name, I'm asking you to
cause the Holy Ghost to raise up the
face of that one, or it may be
another, or two, there may be a number,
but I want you to lift up those
faces right in front of every eye, face
to face now in this service.
Here's the woman, here's the man, here's the
child, here's the person, husband, wife, mother-in
-law, whoever it may be, there's the face.
Raise it up, right now.
And that's the face, that's the person we
have to go to.
Lord, even if it's a call, a letter,
a note, and Lord, it's right now to
pluck out all the bitterness, all the envy,
all the jealousy, everything, through the power of
the Holy Ghost, cover it with the blood,
pluck it out now, in Jesus' name I
pray.
Amen.
Now, hallelujah.
How many are ready to obey the Lord,
obey the Holy Ghost, as He tells you
what to do?
This is the conclusion of the tape.