This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing WORLDCHALLENGE P
.O. BOX 260 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.
The message tonight, when God lays his hand
on you, when God lays his hand on
you, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray for a miracle tonight.
I pray for all the young people, all
the boys, all the girls, all the teenagers
in this place, that you would speak to
them, Holy Ghost.
And when they leave this church tonight, they
will never be the same.
And I pray, Lord, for the young people,
the young married couples, the singles.
I pray for the adults, for every one
of us here.
God, you had a reason for laying this
message on my heart.
You spoke it to me, and you said,
preach it, and I will bless it, and
I will anoint it tonight.
It's a simple message.
But God, when you lay your hand on
somebody, what a wonder it is.
What an incredible thing to have God come
down, put his hand on us, and change
us so that we're never the same.
Put your hand on young people tonight.
Put your hand on people all through this
congregation.
Lord, stretch out your hand.
Touch them.
Let the fire of your hand burn.
Let the fire of your hand mark them
for life, that they'll never be the same.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
There's nothing greater for a boy, a girl,
a teenager, young person, adult.
There's nothing greater on earth, as far as
I'm concerned, than to have the hand of
God placed upon you.
To have the hand of God touch you.
The touch of his hand changes your life
forever.
You can never after that be the same.
I've shared with this congregation a few times,
I think of, that I remember the time
and the place.
I remember all the circumstances when Jesus laid
his hand on me when I was eight
years old.
In fact, I went back just a year
or so ago, back to that spot.
After all these years, I remember that spot.
And it's how I went back recently, last
year, and I knelt right at that spot.
And I began to break again, just as
I did when I was eight years old.
An evangelist said, come and give your life.
And there's something in me rose up and
said, God, I want to give my life.
And I was only eight years old.
And it was at the Living Waters Campground,
Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania.
And I walked down.
There was nothing but a dirt floor, sawdust
and straw on the floor.
And nobody recognized who I was.
I was just a skinny little kid.
I had big horn-rimmed glasses that had
those, looked like bottoms of Coke bottles.
I mean, that thick.
Your eyes look like little bug eyes when
you look at them from the other side.
I was so skinny.
They mocked me in school.
They made fun of me.
Nobody would have known that skinny little horn
-rimmed glass kid with big ears.
Now, you don't know how big my ears
are.
I haven't covered.
I've learned to comb my hair, so you
can't tell.
And I'm about to stick it back and
show you.
Nobody that night would have known that little
scared boy who was at times confused, thought
nobody could see him, that there was nothing.
Really just felt awkward, very awkward.
Because they'd made so much fun of me
in school.
And to walk down, nobody noticed me kneeling
there.
But the Holy Ghost did.
Jesus heard my cry.
And I lifted my hands and said, Jesus,
I'm eight years old, but I want you
to use my life.
I want to preach like my dad preaches
and like my granddad preaches.
And I want to be a minister.
I want you to touch me.
And as soon as I prayed that, the
Spirit of God came on me and filled
me with the Holy Ghost mightily.
And I began to speak another language of
heaven.
And I fell over.
I remember by the power of the Holy
Ghost.
And I was just laying in the sawdust
and straw.
And a gray-haired man, Daddy Chase.
He was the superintendent of the Assemblies of
God in Pennsylvania District.
And he came up and laid hands on
me.
I still remember getting up from that white
-haired man.
And he prophesied over me and said, God,
use this young man.
You heard his cry.
And use him.
He prophesied over me.
Now, I got up that.
I thought it was at least an hour
and a half or two hours that I
laid there.
I don't know.
But I know that that night, Jesus touched
me.
Jesus put his hand on me.
I remember.
Now, that didn't turn me into a saint.
I didn't get up and was changed in
any way.
I still had the little David Wilkerson temper
I always had.
I remember the next day going out and
playing football with my brother Jerry on the
campground.
And nobody would have thought.
I didn't think anything great about it.
I didn't say, well, hey, something changed my
life last night.
I'm going to be a preacher.
But I knew something had happened at all
that I'd been touched.
And it would be for life.
God made this little mind of mine to
understand that.
And I have understood that all through my
life.
I have from that time on.
Yes, I had problems.
I had problems in school.
I barely made it through school.
My grades were terrible.
And no problem confessing.
There's no teacher going to catch up with
me now.
I got no penalty to pay.
I can tell you.
I barely got through school.
And my last year, I don't even know
how they kept me at school.
I skipped half my senior year playing hooky.
Now, I'm trying to just tell you that
I wasn't a saint.
But I remember when I was 10, 12,
15 years of age, every time I'd go
to the house of God, there was something
pulling, tugging at my heart.
And I never forgot the time that he
touched me.
And there was something rising up.
And I knew that I always loved the
Lord.
There was a heart for God.
And when I was about 15 years old,
I remember getting alone when other kids were
praying.
And I would go in my room and
pray and seek God.
The spirit of the Lord would come upon
me.
I do know that I would read my
Bible.
I would go in the book of Psalms.
I loved to read about the kings and
kings and Deuteron or other chronicles.
And I still love reading through the kings
and chronicles and those stories of David and
Samson.
And those intrigued me.
And I would preach my little sermons when
I was 17 years old.
So God opened the door so I could
begin to preach.
But I am here in this pulpit tonight
because the Lord put his hand on me.
Jesus touched me when I was eight years
old.
And that's why I'm here.
And every day of my life now, ever
since I've been in New York, for example,
there's not a day goes by when I'm
in prayer that the Lord keeps whispering, the
Holy Spirit keeps saying, David, I have my
hand on you.
My hand is on you.
Every problem I've faced in this church in
the past 9, 10 years since we've been
here, anytime there's been difficulty or anything else,
this is what God has always told me.
I go to him with every trouble, everything.
And he'd say, David, I've got my hand
on you.
You walk enveloped in my hand.
My hand is upon you.
My hand.
I feel his hand on me right now.
The hand of God, the hand of Jesus
was placed on my heart.
You're sitting here tonight.
You say, I don't know if that's ever
happened to me.
David could say very clearly.
He said, you have enclosed me behind and
before.
And you've laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
That's Psalms 139 verses 5 and 6.
David knew something had happened.
I don't know where it happened.
It's probably happened out when he was watching
sheep.
He's out there and he's just a boy.
And God began to open his heart and
draw him.
And make him know that he was going
to be different.
Not that he was going to be some
great personality or anything like this.
But he was going to be different and
that he had a heart for God.
That the hand of the Lord would be
put upon him.
And he said, you have closed me in.
You've beset me before and behind.
And what David's saying, somewhere in my past.
And he may have remembered.
He may not.
But he said, you closed me into yourself.
You put your spirit around me.
And you surrounded me.
So that I was shut up with you,
God.
And when you shut me into yourself.
You put your hand on me.
And he said, the thought of that is
too much for me.
And I stand here and I think of
the hand of God upon me.
The souls he's allowed me to reach.
The drug addicts, they're big ones.
To the Lord around the world.
I don't boast in my flesh.
But I thank God for one day.
A skinny scared little boy walks down an
aisle.
And I just cried, Jesus touch me.
Put your hand upon me.
He heard that cry.
And he'll hear your cry tonight if you
pray it.
Because he's no respecter of persons.
Now I have four children.
God touched all their lives.
All sharing in the ministry.
Now I've got 11 grandchildren.
And I want every one of those grandsons
that are here tonight.
Know that there's not a day your grandpa
doesn't pray for you.
And I pray God make a preacher out
of every one of you.
Little Ashley and David and Brandon.
I say little, they're big guys now.
But I mean when they were little.
I used to make them preach.
I mean from three or four years old.
They'd open a songbook and preach out of
a songbook.
And we would be there and we would
sing and clap.
And even let them take an offering.
And I want you to know your grandpa
knew what he was doing.
Now that whole time I was saying, Jesus
put your hand on him.
Like you put it on me.
I remember the day that Ashley's father, my
son Gary.
Was with me in a crusade.
He didn't go too many times.
But I was down in Asbury College.
And I preached that night.
And hundreds of college kids came to the
Lord.
And I'm standing there and I'm looking down.
And there's a little boy.
And I think there's a little kid down
there with all those college students.
And in front he's crying.
He's had his hands up.
It was Gary.
And that night Jesus put his hand on
him.
He was about my age.
Hallelujah.
And maybe tonight it will happen again.
I'm not preaching just to my grandsons.
I'm preaching to you.
I don't care who you are in this
building tonight.
There comes a time when the heart gets
so hungry for Jesus.
There's such a cry inside.
Oh Jesus, I don't want my life to
be wasted.
I want you to take my life in
your hands and use it.
And the Lord always hears that cry.
And his hand comes forward.
And he touches one here.
He touches another here.
I'm not talking about getting saved.
I'm not talking about just, you know, surrendering
your heart to the Lord.
I'm talking about one who's already surrendered.
And somebody that says, oh Jesus, I want
a heart for you.
I want my life to count.
I want you to use me.
And out of that hunger and out of
that thirst comes the hand of Jesus.
Lays it on the head.
The life is never the same.
Hallelujah.
In Psalms 139, David tells us what life
is like for anybody who Jesus has touched.
I want you to go to Psalm 139,
if you will, please.
Psalm 139.
I'm going to give you seven ways that
David shows us that you can know that
God's hand has been touched upon you.
You can know it.
Psalm 139.
Let me hear the leaves, Russell.
Psalm 139.
Now look at me, please, before we go
any further.
I'm not here tonight to just yell and
scream like I usually do.
I make a lot of noise in this
pulpit sometimes.
But I have a mission from the Lord
tonight.
Because the cry of my heart for a
long time has been, oh God, raise up
out of this congregation young men and women
to be missionaries and pastors and evangelists.
Send them out in the harvest.
Get a hold of drug addicts and those
who the devil would say their lives have
been wasted.
Take these lives.
Oh God, raise up people that will have
the hand of the Lord placed upon them.
And say, Lord, take it as a sacrifice
now.
And that's the mission that God's called me
on tonight.
You see, Pastor, I don't think I can
remember any time like that in my past
life.
I don't remember.
But you see, there could have been a
time that you've forgotten about when you were
younger.
Someplace in the back, way in the back
in your past, before you knew anything about
it, was there some little cry when you
were five or six years old even?
There was a little cry and a hunger.
Oh Jesus, touch me.
Jesus, I want to know you.
Could it be a grandma, grandpa, a mother,
a father, an uncle or aunt, somebody that
came into your house, came to your apartment,
and you didn't know it and you were
just a little child, and they laid hands
upon you and said, Jesus, touch this child.
Could it be one of these that we
dedicate to the Lord and we anoint him
with oil and say, Jesus, set them apart.
And many times I pray for children, we
dedicate God, put your hand on them, touch
them, change their lives, use them.
I don't know whether you can look back
in your life and say, I had a
time like that.
It could have been later in life.
It could have been five years ago, ten
years ago.
I don't care how, what your age is,
but there was a time.
If God touched you, there was a time.
There's some way that God will make you
know by his Holy Spirit.
Yes, brother Dave, I sit here tonight and
I know that I had a touch from
the Lord.
I really had a touch from the hand
of God.
There are many of you can say that
who are listening to me right now.
But if you don't know, you say, I
would like to know whether or not the
Lord has touched me in a special way.
Now, folks, he's no respecter of persons.
And I'm not trying to build a certain
group of people up as being something special.
But there is something unique about what I'm
talking about when the Lord, I don't know
how he chooses.
I know he doesn't choose on beauty.
I know he doesn't choose on strength, human
strength.
I don't think he chooses just on intelligence
alone, because I'm a good example of all
of that that he didn't choose because of.
Now he can use all of these things.
I don't know why he would choose you
any more than I know why he chose
me.
But I want you to go with me
into the 139th Psalm, and I'm going to
give you seven ways to know whether or
not God's hand has touched you.
The hand of Jesus has been stretched out
and touched you.
And if Jesus has touched, if these seven
things are at work in your life, mark
it down, you'll never get away from it.
I don't care if you backslide.
I don't care if you try to give
yourself to the devil.
I don't care what you do.
You're not going to get away from this.
So you might as well surrender tonight.
It's the hand of Jesus.
All right, seven ways, and the Holy Ghost
gave me this, and it's all right here
in the 139th Psalm.
All right, number one way to know whether
Jesus has put his hand upon you to
set you apart, to use you.
Number one, there will be times you will
feel very, very close to God.
You will feel a drawing, a pulling toward
him.
Listen to it.
It's right here in the first verse that
I read to you.
Let's start verse one.
O Lord, thou hast searched me and known
me.
Thou knowest my down, sitting, my uprising.
Thou understandeth my thought afar off.
You compass my path, my lying down, and
you're acquainted with all my ways.
There's not a word in my tongue, but
O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and
you've laid your hand upon me.
And look at me, please.
Is there something in you?
And I want you to listen very, very
closely to what I'm saying, because the Holy
Spirit just put it on my heart.
Do you find yourself losing interest in what
other people are doing?
You look at the people that are doing
stupid, foolish things.
Young person, let me ask you.
Do you sometimes feel like you're out of
place?
Do you feel like you don't fit?
You look around you and say, that's stupid.
I don't want to do that.
Everybody's all excited about it.
Everybody's having fun doing this, and you're over
here saying, that's stupid.
That's not right.
Everybody tries to get you to be involved
in something that's evil and wicked.
There's something in you that draws back, and
you feel condemned.
You feel convicted.
There's a conviction to the Holy Spirit.
It's because the Lord's building a wall around
you, because he wants to touch you.
He wants to use you.
He's put his hand on you, so whatever
he touches, he protects.
He's putting a wall around you, and you're
different.
You somehow know.
It's not because you think you're great.
Sometimes you think very, very insignificant of yourself,
but there's something that keeps pulling you.
I've had that ever since I was eight
years old.
Something keeps drawing me back to Jesus, even
through confusion.
Even when I had doubts and fears, there
was always something pulling at me.
It was the Lord calling me, pulling me,
saying, David, come to me.
Come to me.
Every time I go to church, every time
I hear a missionary, I feel the pull,
the tug.
It's the tug of the Holy Ghost.
Do you feel that tug?
When you sit in a Holy Ghost meeting,
do you feel that pull toward the Lord?
When you're walking these streets, and you see
everybody around you, laying on the streets and
drunk and high, and there's something in you
that says, Jesus, I may not be where
I'm at, but I thank you.
I'm not on the streets.
I thank you.
For what you've done for me.
There is something in your heart that is
drawn to the Lord.
You can't explain.
Others around you, many of them won't have
that drawing.
Oh, occasionally they will, but there's a constant
drawing in your heart toward the Lord.
He said, He surrounded me.
What it means is God has you cornered.
I mean, God says, hey, I have a
purpose for your life.
You're not going to waste your life like
everybody around you.
I'm talking about those sinner friends around you
and others.
You're not going to waste your life.
You're not going to be comfortable with that.
I'm going to make you feel out of
place here.
You're going to feel out of place in
school.
You're going to feel out of place.
Folks, I felt out of place all through
my school years.
I felt out of place.
Now, that doesn't mean you can't be active
in school.
But you know, when God touches you, nothing
works but Him.
You're a part.
You're here and you're doing what everybody else
does.
You're a part of it, but you're still
not a part of it.
There's something there that draws you apart.
Hallelujah.
You've beset me behind and before.
There'll be times you'd understand why you feel
like you feel.
There'll be times you wonder if even God
is with you.
But then that passes and there's always that
drawing.
But oh Jesus, I still love you.
There's something there.
You don't understand the things of God yet.
You may have some deep problems inside your
heart.
But there's something in you.
You care for people.
You see, the one who has the hand
of Jesus placed on him, he puts a
caring concern for people.
You know, I can tell the young people.
I can tell boy or girl or teenager
has the hand of Jesus on them.
While everybody else around them, all their friends
are laughing at ugly people and fat people
and skinny people like I was.
And people with marks on their face and
people that are crippled and deformed and everybody
around them is making fun.
This one goes up and makes a friend.
And that one makes a friend.
There's something there where everybody is making fun
of things.
And you see it as different.
You have a heart almost like there's a
crying inside when you see people hurting.
Because the Lord's giving you a caring heart.
When he touches you, he gives you concern
and care about other people.
That's what he did for me.
That's when I came to New York years
ago when I saw the picture of seven
boys indicted for murder.
I wept over those boys.
And I said, Jesus, you know, here in
New York City, they're saying, give them the
electric chair.
And people were saying, even Christians in the
church said they ought to lock them up
for life and throw the key away.
But there was a young preacher down in
Texas that was weeping over this.
Oh, Jesus, has anyone ever talked to them
about you?
Has anybody ever talked to him about their
soul?
And I felt grief.
And it was that weeping.
I wept all the way to New York
City.
I got kicked out of that murder trial.
And I wept.
I wept all through this city.
And I've wept for drug addicts and alcoholics.
And that's why today there are teen challenge
centers all over the world.
Because years ago, the Lord said, I'm going
to surround you.
And I'm going to give you a caring
heart.
And I'm going to draw you to myself.
Do you have a caring heart?
And do you know?
God lets you know that.
Brother Dave, I know.
Maybe I don't care like I should.
But I know when people around me are
making fun, I don't make fun.
I'm not a part of that.
Okay, number one.
I've got to hurry on here.
Number two, you can never get away from
the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Wherever you go, there he is.
You can't get away from the Holy Ghost.
Jonah heard the voice of the Lord.
God put his hand on Jonah.
And Jonah tried to run.
Now, almost everyone who has the hand of
God, many, many try to run from it.
I tried to run from the hand of
Jesus.
You can't run from it.
Jonah winds up in the belly of well.
And God takes him down to the very
gates of hell.
He goes down into the depths.
And Jonah thought that he had failed God
and that God could never save him again.
But he couldn't get away.
He said, in the belly of the well,
I cried out and the Lord heard me
again.
This is a wonderful thing.
When the Lord puts his hand upon you,
you can never get away from the still
small voice.
You can't get away from the voice of
the Holy Spirit because he keeps speaking to
you.
Jeremiah said, how can any hide himself in
a secret place that I shall not see
him?
Do I not fill heaven and earth, saith
the Lord?
Listen to me, please.
When I was preparing this message, the Holy
Spirit told me to stop right here.
Because there were going to be people in
this church tonight hearing me.
This simple, simple message.
The Lord told me there are going to
be a few adults here.
And there may be some teenagers as well,
young people.
But God made it clear that there are
some of you having a Jonah experience right
now.
You are trying to run from the Lord.
I believe there may be four or five
ministers here.
You just have had it.
You are ready to say that's it.
That's it.
I know that as sure as I stand
here.
I'm speaking into the spirit, into the heart,
as someone on a balcony here on the
main floor, wherever you're at.
You say, I've had it.
I can't take it anymore.
I'm going my own way.
But let me inform you, please.
You can do that.
You can go your own way if God
hadn't put his hand on you.
Jonah could have stayed in Tarsus.
The Lord would have let him go and
wouldn't even take him through the belly of
the well.
If God had laid his hand on him.
But see, when the Lord has his hand
on you, you can't run.
The Holy Ghost will hound you until he
brings you back.
There's nothing worse than the hound of heaven.
And the Holy Ghost will hound you.
Do you ever hear of Holy Ghost miserables?
You get out of the will of God,
you see what happens.
If you think you're down now, if you
think it's hard now, just wait.
Because the Lord's not about to let you
go.
I've known of ministers who've walked out on
their ministries.
And they thought, well, I'm just going to
get a job.
I'm not going to preach anymore.
I've had it.
Better to sell insurance.
Better to do something.
These are all honorable careers.
But you see, when God calls you, and
when God says, I'm going to make you
a fisher of men, he's not going to
let you sell insurance or anything else.
He's going to get you back into the
boat fishing.
And I'm going to tell you, whoever you
are in this service now, God told me
to tell you that he has his hand
on you.
And if he put his hand on you,
you can't get away.
You try anything you want, it's not going
to work.
You say, Brother Wilkerson, I know people that
have been running for years.
But the story hasn't been told yet.
God still, the Holy Ghost will speak and
speak till the last breath.
Number three, even if you try to make
your bed in hell, his hand will still
uphold you.
Look at verse 8.
Verse 8, if I ascend up into heaven,
thou art there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me,
thy right hand shall hold me.
This is the end of side one.
You may say, please,
when it says, if I make my bed
in hell, it means here's somebody that's in
rebellion.
Listen closer.
Somebody's in rebellion says, look, I can't take
this anymore.
I don't see the hand of God on
my life.
I don't I just don't want this anymore.
And there's a spirit of rebellion rises up.
It says, I'm going my own way.
And really what it means in the original
Hebrews, I give myself over to the devil.
I just give myself.
I'm going to give myself into hell.
I'm going to lay down in my sin.
And the psalmist David is, the psalmist here
is saying, if even if I say that's
enough and I give up and I try
to make my bed in hell, even there,
your hand will hold me.
The hand that touched you will hold you.
He said, Brother Wilkerson, you're trying to say
that I can never backslide.
I'm not saying that.
I'm saying that God knows why some people
give up.
He knows the despair.
He knows people come to the end of
the rope.
He knows that they come to their wit's
end.
And he knows we make stupid mistakes.
But when the Lord puts his hand on
you, he's not going to let you go.
He will go with you into your deepest
despair.
He'll go into your deepest sin.
And he'll go and say, I'm not letting
go.
I'll put my hand on you.
I am not letting go.
How many have left Timothy house?
Brother, remember how many have walked out, went
out and said that's enough.
And they go out for a night, a
week and all hell breaks loose.
And suddenly they find themselves in a room
with their Bible again.
And they're looking in and the Lord said,
I'll cleanse your blood.
And something rises up and to get on
the phone says, can I come back?
What is it?
It's the hand of God.
You tried to make your bed in hell.
And God says, I have my hand on
you.
Hallelujah.
Devil tried to destroy my son.
Gary came home one day as a senior
in high school, said, threw himself in the
bed.
He said, dad, there's no God.
There's no God.
The devil tried literally destroy him.
The devil wanted to make his bed in
hell.
The devil wanted that boy to say, go
out and be like the rest.
Go out and give yourself to the devil.
Just go out and give yourself.
And I was so shocked.
And yet the Lord didn't let me show
it on my face.
And I couldn't reason with me because sometimes
when you go through this testing of your
faith as a young person, no dad, no
mom, nobody can help you.
You're all alone with Jesus.
But the Lord, if you have a heart
for him, he'll bring you through that.
If you just say, Lord, I don't understand.
Help me understand.
He'll give you the understanding.
And all I could do was pray for
three months.
My son went through that, but I know
one thing.
The hand of God was on him and
I didn't have to worry.
I prayed for him, but I knew God
was going to hold him through it.
Some of you going through the test of
your life and God's hand is on you.
And my Bible says, even though you make
your bed in hell, I'm going to hold
you.
Even the devil tries to destroy you.
I'm going to bring you out.
Glory to God.
Let that be hope for you here tonight.
Okay, let's see.
Let's go to number.
What was that number?
Let's go to number four.
By the way, God's hand is a restraining
hand.
He sure is.
I'll tell you what.
I have experienced God's restraining power.
His hand keeping me from doing stupid, dumb
things, from doing sinful things.
All my life, I felt God pulling me
back and says, all right, others can do
it.
You can't do it.
I've got my hand on you.
You can't go that way.
And God pulled me back.
Have you ever felt God's restraining hand?
It's on you.
He pulls you back from the brink.
He keeps pulling on you.
Thank God for that.
He lets you go so far.
You won't go any further.
You notice that?
That's because his hand is on you.
It's restraining you.
Thank God for that.
Number four.
When God keeps breaking through your darkness with
light.
Verses 11, 12.
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover
me, even the night shall be light unto
me.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but
the night shines as the day.
The darkness and the light are both alike
to thee.
All right.
Look at me, please.
This is so important.
David said, thou art my lamp, O Lord.
The Lord will lighten my darkness.
In verse six, thou hast laid in Psalms
88.
I don't, I'm not going to read it.
If you go to Psalms 88 tonight before
you go to bed, you'll hear one of
the most mournful, pitiful chapters and books in
all the Bible.
Absolute.
Oh God, you have forgotten me.
You've laid me in chains.
I'm in prison.
I'm like a forgotten man and all the
confusion and the hurt and the pain.
David knew what that was all about.
Darkness.
And in Psalms 88, the writer says, you
left me in darkness.
And then the Hebrew says, you left me
in darknesses.
Plural, not just one darkness, but darkness.
And you have left me in a pit.
And the writer says, Lord, there's darkness, but
the darkness hideth not from the light.
And here's the difference.
When the Lord has his hand on you,
there may be times that you go through
darkness.
Not just one darkness, but many darknesses.
But Jesus always comes through with his light.
He always gives you peace and rest.
And you begin to see the face of
Jesus in your trouble.
I visited not too long ago.
I told you about a young lady in
Yonkers Hospital.
She's been there for months.
She used to come to this church.
She used to be in a wheelchair here.
And I went to the hospital and I
heard a tragic story.
You talk about darkness.
Here's a young woman that had suffered at
the hands of doctors being misdiagnosed, mistreated.
And those mistreatments and miscalculations, she had one
serious problem after another in the hospital for
months.
And a few months ago, a sore broke
out.
I think it was on her leg.
And she went to the hospital.
I don't know if gangrene had set in.
I don't remember all the details of it.
But she was being suddenly rushed into the
operating room.
And she thought they were just going to
cut around the sore.
When she woke up, was in her room,
she reached out.
She could feel pain.
And she reached out to feel where the
sore had been.
There was no leg.
They took her leg.
Evidently, I suppose her mother had signed the
papers.
I don't know.
I didn't get all the details.
But she said, Pastor Dave, I woke up
without a leg.
And I thought, oh, I don't know how
I'm going to be able to minister to
her.
She wound up ministering to me.
She began to smile.
She said, you know, this was awful.
This has been tragic.
But she said, I love him.
He's been precious to me.
And he's been real to me.
You see, the hand of the Lord had
been placed on her.
And you can always tell it when the
darkness comes, when the trials come, and when
the confusion comes.
Because this person is the hand of God.
They don't run around complaining and murmuring.
Oh, there'll be a shock.
There'll be something to come out and say,
God, why at first?
But then the heart begins to settle down
and Jesus begins to come.
And they remember the touch of God.
And this young lady, she just began to
worship the Lord because all her darkness could
not hide the light.
Hallelujah.
Do you have that in you in any
measure at all?
Are you able in your darkness to still
worship him?
Are you still able to praise the Lord
and the light breaks through?
That's one of the evidences of the hand
of God upon your life.
Number five, let me give you number five.
If you have a growing knowledge in you
that your birth was not in vain, but
God had a plan for your life, even
when you're in your mother's womb, even in
your mother's womb, verses 13 to 18.
For thou has possessed my reins.
Thou has covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise thee for I'm fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Marvelous are thy works that my soul knows
right well.
My substance was not hid from thee when
I was made in secret, curiously wrought in
the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eye did see my substance, yet being
unperfect in thy book.
All my members were written, which in continual
fashion, when as yet there was none of
them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,
O God.
How great is the sum of them.
If I should count them, they're more in
number than I, than the sand.
When I wake, I'm still with thee.
Look at me, please.
David said, Lord, I know something.
I know that you called me when I
was in my mother's womb.
I know, and folks, listen, young people, listen
to me good now.
I know this is serious.
I stand here and I have the mind
of the Holy Spirit.
If Jesus has touched you, you're going to
know it.
The Holy Spirit's going to know it by
showing you somewhere along the line.
He's going to start showing you.
My life has a purpose to it.
God is not going to let me waste
my life.
I wasn't born.
My mother didn't bring me into this world
just to end up as a wasted drug
addict or an alcoholic or a bum.
I wasn't born for that.
I was born for God's eternal purpose for
my life.
And even before I was born, God named
me in the womb.
My dad and mom may have given me
a name, but the Lord has a name
for me also that he chose.
And even when I was being formed in
my mother's womb, the Lord put his hand
upon me.
The Lord didn't put his hand on me
just when I was down there.
He put his hand on me when I
was in the womb.
In fact, before I was born, he had
thoughts, good thoughts toward me.
He said, I've got a plan for David.
I've got a plan.
And there are many of you sitting here
right now.
The Lord had a plan for you, even
in your mother's womb.
I don't care if your mother was a
drunkard.
God could have put his hand upon you.
There's a sense.
It's not just, I don't call it a
sense of destiny.
I have known all my life.
I never felt special.
I never felt great.
I've had a hard time all my life
of feeling inferior.
And that's not been it.
But I have known, I know it when
I pray.
I know it when I preach.
I know it everywhere I go.
I know it when the enemy comes against
me.
I know it every waking hour that when
I was a baby in my mother's womb,
Jesus put his hand on me.
God, it, you could be like Ernie Shaver.
Jesus could have called, Jesus didn't call him
10 years ago.
Jesus called him before he was born and
put his hand upon him.
He had to go through so much trial
and testing before he came into the realization,
but the Lord had his hand all the
way, even though he made his bed in
hell.
And so many of you right now, it
took a long time, but God had his
hand on you.
He has his hand on you tonight.
Hallelujah.
There'll be a voice in you that keeps
saying you're here for a purpose.
You're here for a reason.
God says, I'm going to show it to
you.
I'm going to use you.
Hallelujah.
Number six, when you grieve, are you ready
for this?
When you grieve the way sinners treat the
Lord and when you feel hurt over the
sinfulness of wicked people, that's in verse 19
and 22.
Look at it.
Surely thou will slay the wicked.
Oh God depart from me.
Oh, bloody man.
They speak against the wickedly.
Oh God, thy enemies take thy name in
vain.
Do not.
I hate them.
Oh Lord that hate thee am not.
I grieve with those that rise up against
thee.
I hate them with a perfect hatred.
I count them my enemies.
Now that doesn't mean you hate people, but
you hate their sin.
Young young people.
I'm going to ask teenagers here.
You heard last week about the two teenage
lovers who gave birth to a baby in
a motel.
And the autopsy shows that the baby evidently
was beaten on the head and killed.
How do you feel about that?
Do you have a cry inside?
Do you cry about that?
Is there a cry?
You see, the amazing thing is that if
they had waited just, uh, or if they
had just called an abortion doctor 10 minutes
before, and he'd have brought his suction machine
in and poked a hole, turned the baby
around and poked a hole in the brain
and sucked the brain out.
It would have been a legal death.
It would have been legal.
Maybe 15 minutes apart.
I don't justify what those kids did, but
there has to be a grief in your
heart where we have a society that has
robbed children of their fear of death, robbed
children, their value of life so that these
things can be done.
You see, young person, are you here tonight?
And when you see all the wicked things
are being done against the name of Jesus,
does it grieve you?
When you hear your friend's curse, you have
a grief in your sight.
Is there a sadness?
They're taking the Lord's name in vain.
If you had the touch of God on
you, you hate sin.
You hate it.
You can't go to a movie like I
preached this morning.
You can't go to a movie where the
name of Jesus is cursed.
You can't sit and watch a VCR movie
where the name of Jesus Christ is taken
in vain because there's a cry in your
heart and you'll turn it off immediately because
you have a grief in your heart.
You grieve the way they treat your Savior.
You grieve about it.
Hallelujah.
It was just like, I have to tell
you this, when Gary was just about eight
years old or so, my wife doesn't want
me to tell him, I don't know, but
she was supposed to be back from the
hairdresser.
I had to leave for Newark Airport and
she wasn't there.
And I had to just, I bundled Gary
up.
We rushed to the Newark Airport.
I didn't know what to do.
So he didn't have clothes or anything, clothes
on his back.
And so I took him with me to
Minneapolis.
I got to Minneapolis and called.
She was in panic.
And so the stewardess overheard me and she
said, Reverend, she said, look, I'm going right
back in a flight.
He's such a sweet kid.
He said, she said, I'll put him in
first class.
I'll watch over him.
Have your wife come and meet him.
So I said, fine.
He gets on the airplane and that gal
sits beside and lights up a cigarette.
And he starts preaching at her.
He said, Jesus doesn't like that.
Jesus doesn't like that.
But that sounds, it sounds childish.
But folks, there was something in the heart
already.
You see, there was something there.
I have to finish.
The last, the last one, number six.
No, number seven.
Wow.
Number seven.
All right.
This is, this is so important now before
we close.
Verse 23 and 24.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there be any wicked way in
me and lead me to the way everlasting.
If you have the hand of Jesus on
you, you don't want anything in your life
that's evil or wicked.
You don't want anything that would grieve the
Lord in your life.
You know, some prayer card was handed to
me.
I'm going to close in just a minute.
This is evidently from a teenager says, is
it a sin to listen to music?
Like I'm listening to rap songs without explicit
lyrics.
Will I go to hell?
That's what it says.
Will I go to hell?
Last Sunday, I had three young teenagers, girls
back here.
And they said, brother Dave, we're listening to
rap music.
Is this wrong?
You know, when you start asking, the Holy
Ghost has convicted you if you have to
ask.
The young person didn't put in a just
an initial and I don't want to embarrass
you or anything else, but I want to
tell you something.
It all depends on whether you want the
hand of God on you.
All depends if you want God to use
your life.
Now, if you want to be like everybody
else, I don't think your mom and dad
can tell you the kind of music you
should listen to.
Because you see, they said college is a
place where young rebels go to get even
with their parents to give themselves over to
the devil, just get even with their parents.
They don't want anybody to tell them, listen,
no preacher can tell you your dad and
mom can't tell you, but I'll tell you
who will tell you.
That's the Holy Spirit.
And I'll tell you what the Bible says
here, those that have the hand of Jesus
upon them, they're not afraid to be searched.
They're not, they don't hold on to it.
Says, well, I don't care what anybody says.
I don't care what the Bible says.
I don't care what anybody says.
This is my music.
It's my thing.
I'll do it.
Whether it's music, whatever it may be, that's
evil or sinful.
If you have the hand of Jesus on
you, you back away and say, Jesus, turn
the light on.
Show me.
And Lord, if this is wrong, you show
me, I'll lay it down because I want
your hand on me.
I want you to use me.
I want my life to count.
That makes all the difference in the world.
I ask you, you don't have to all,
all seven of these things at work in
your life.
But I wonder how many of these things
are at work in your life.
If you can sit here tonight and say,
Pastor David, I know what you said tonight.
These things are in my life.
This grief of sin, all you're talking about
my willingness to lay anything down.
That's unlike Jesus.
All of these things that work in my
life or many of these things that work
in my life.
Listen, don't go the hard way.
Come the right way.
Say, Jesus, I'm going to surrender to your
hand right now.
I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit in
the next 10 minutes to speak to everybody
in this building, 21 years of age and
under in a special way.
If you've not yet had the hand of
Jesus on you.
And there's something in you says, Brother David,
I want the hand of Jesus on me.
I want Jesus to touch me in this
meeting tonight.
Let's make it 25 and under.
Let's make it those who are single only.
First, and I'll get to the rest of
you.
I'm going to pray.
I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to
go all through balcony and the main floor.
I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to
go all through this church.
I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to
put his hand to find everyone that's reaching
out.
If you say, Brother David, I want Jesus
to touch my life tonight.
I want you to get up out of
your seat and come down here and let
me pray for you right now.
Because where you're coming to right now is
the touch of his hand.
You're coming for the touch of his hand
all through this place.
Heavenly Father, find every young person, 25 and
under.
Find every one of them, Lord, that you're
desiring right now that you want to touch.
Lord, bring them down to this altar and
let them stand here and say, Jesus, tonight
I want to give my whole life to
you.
I want everything to be given to you,
Jesus.
Touch me.
Jesus, put your hand on me.
Touch me, Jesus.
From the balcony, just go down the stairs
on either side.
The main floor, just come on down.
Help me, please.
Every one of you up here right now.
Folks, I told the choir before we started,
there's going to be a little different service
tonight.
It's a much different altar call, too.
I wish all of you out there can
see what the choir and I and the
musicians see here.
So many young people.
So many ready to give their lives and
everything to the Lord.
How old are you, son?
22.
Mm-hmm.
There's a hunger.
There's a reaching, isn't there, in your heart?
Great reaching toward the Lord.
I feel drawn to that.
Some others all over here.
The Lord just, in a meeting like this,
only eternity is going to tell.
How many are going to look back to
this service tonight?
The simplest, probably one of the simplest sermons
I've ever preached.
And you're going to look back to this
night.
You're going to look back to this night.
Honey, you will.
Yes.
How old are you?
16.
Will you give me your hand?
Lord, you're giving a tender, broken spirit to
her.
You've already touched her.
Now, Lord, let her know it.
God, let her follow through with you now.
Let nothing hinder the call of God.
Nothing, in Jesus' name.
Hallelujah.
Wonderful.
Congregation, pray with me right now.
I'm going to pray that God come down
right now and touch these lives.
Come on now, everybody that loves the Lord.
Every parent and everyone else, let's pray.
Father, I pray for these right now that
are standing at this altar area.
Lord, go deep by your Holy Spirit.
Go deep into their hearts.
Go deep, Lord.
Let nothing be missed.
Holy Spirit, come.
Jesus, you're walking among us.
Will you walk among these in front of
me?
And put your arm around them and touch
them.
Touch them so that they'll never be the
same.
Never be the same.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Jesus.
I want everybody came forward.
Raise your hands.
Raise both hands to heaven.
Just raise them up.
Now, I want you to pray this prayer
with me.
This will be something that you're reaching out
to the Lord for.
Pray this from the innermost part of your
being.
Jesus.
Louder, please.
Jesus, I reach out to you from the
depths of my heart and I cry to
you.
I want my life to count.
I want you to use me.
Touch me, Jesus.
Put your hand upon me.
Call me.
Touch me.
Forgive me.
Cleanse me.
Give me power from on high.
Help me to pray and seek your face
and to know your will for my life.
Now, let me pray for you while you
have your hands raised.
Holy Spirit, I ask you.
You let there be a cry come forth
from the innermost being.
A cry from these.
Lord, you're beginning a work in their hearts
right now.
The only eternity we're going to tell that
this is the night Jesus came.
Touch the heart.
Touch the spark of life.
You said this is your night.
Separate yourself from the world.
Come out from among them.
Be separate and clean.
Give me your heart.
Give me your music.
Give me your life.
Give me your talents.
Give me everything.
Give it to me and I'll use you.
I'll change you.
Amen.
Now, will you just keep your hands raised
and thank Jesus right now?
Thank him in your own words.
Just give him thanks.
I thank you, Jesus.
I give you praise.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the tape.