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 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.
Lord, I need a quickening of my body
and my spirit and my mind that the
word that you have pressed in my heart
will be delivered and received and bear fruit
for your honor and glory.
Hallelujah.
Lord, we've gathered here to hear you.
Holy Spirit, I call on you now to
give us hearing ears.
I call on you to touch my body
and give me strength.
Lord, it's been a long journey.
It's been a heavy burden, but Lord, you
have been there to lift that.
And Lord, there are many now need to
just lean on you.
We pray, Lord, as we talk about trusting
you this afternoon that you will teach us
to trust.
Lord, we want to trust you, but we
don't know how.
We're so prone to doubt and unbelief.
God, forgive us and touch us and give
us strength, Lord, so that we can not
only make it through, but we can be
overcomers in these last days, overcomers in the
power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit,
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
My question, my message is in the form
of a question.
Do you really trust God?
Now, I got some good amens there, but
let's look at it for just a minute.
We preach a lot about trusting God, and
we've heard numerous messages about trusting God right
from this pulpit.
I know I've preached a lot about trusting
God, and we all want to trust Him.
We all say, you know, when God meets
us and delivers us, we say, I am
really going to trust God the rest of
my life.
Have you ever said that as I have,
Lord?
I'll never doubt you again.
God, you've been so good.
I prayed and you undertook, and now, Lord,
don't ever let me doubt you again until
the next crisis, until the next hard place,
when it looks like God is not hearing
and He's not answering our prayer on our
time schedule, and that's when the panic becomes,
sets in again.
And if I ask you, do you trust
God?
Most of you have either whispered or said
amen to that.
The Holy Spirit questioned to me, and He
said, first of all, do you really believe
that I'm able to do everything that I
promised you to do?
Am I able to do it?
And then, do you believe that as God,
I am faithful to do what I promised
you to do?
And finally, if you believe that I'm able
and that I'm faithful to keep my word,
do you believe that I'm willing to do
what I am able and faithful to do?
And of course, we say, yes, yes, yes,
we believe all of that, but then the
Holy Ghost begins to search us out, and
then we look at the telltale signs of
doubt that creeps in, and I want to
talk about that for just a minute, because
God has always been looking for a people
who will trust Him.
God's had, yes, He's had a problem getting
people to pray, but He's had a bigger
problem getting them to trust.
He has people that willingly go to church
and work and work and work for Him,
but to find people that He can point
to and say, there is one that really
trusts me at all times, no matter what
happens, here's an example of one who really
believes and trusts in me.
Now, let me list you a few of
the dealings of the Holy Spirit in my
heart about this matter of trusting God.
Folks, I'm like you.
I want to trust God more than anything
in my life.
I want to be an example.
It's not just so I can walk around
and say, hey, there goes a man of
faith.
I get sick and tired of people talking
about certain evangelists.
Boy, there's a man of power and great
faith.
Folks, if there is a man of power
and great faith, you don't have to, he
doesn't have to talk about, he doesn't advertise
himself that way.
It'll just have an effect quietly on people
all around him, and same with you.
It'll have an effect on people, but there
are some telltale signs that we're really not
trusting God with all of our heart.
Now, as a matter of fact, I'm just
going to have a heart-to-heart talk
with you now.
It's not that I don't have energy.
I've got energy, and you know I can
scream, but I want to talk to you
right out of my heart.
First of all, if you and I really
have trust in God, it's going to show
on our countenance.
It's going to show on our face.
My face is not just the front of
my head.
It's a testimony, and really the only way
people can read us is, the Bible says,
out of the abundance of the heart your
mouth speaks.
It can be the curl of your mouth.
The one that's up is a smile, the
one that's down is a frown.
I honestly believe that many of us are
getting a lot of wrinkles because we don't
have trust in God.
Now, that's not the only reason.
I've got a lot of reasons why mine
are coming.
It has to do with age, but the
question was put to me by the Holy
Spirit.
If you really trust me, David, if you
really believe that I'm God with all the
ability and faithfulness and willingness, why sometimes you
go around so cast down?
Why do you look like your God is
dead?
Do you go on the job and you
say, I know I trust God, but what
about the way you walk around your family?
Sister, wives, what's it like when you get
up in the morning?
What do you know?
I'm that was the wrong question.
Let me, how do I put it?
I'm in a hole.
Help me.
Do your, does your husband or your wife,
when you get up, have to put up
with the scowl and a frown and a
depressed spirit of murmuring and complaining?
Because you see, if you really had trust
in God, you would believe that there's no
problem in your life, he can't work out
that no matter what the weight is on
you, no matter what your family problem is,
before you went to bed, you committed it
to the Lord.
When you got up in the morning, you
didn't pick it up because he said you
to cast all your care upon him and
leave it there.
You heard me tell, I think I've told
it two or three times.
I was walking down 51st street and I
had a weight of problems on my head
and I was downcast and a girl sitting
there at stoned high.
She, oh look, it can't be that bad,
mister.
She's a junkie.
I smiled quick, I'll tell you.
Now, David loved the Lord with all of
his heart.
Here's a man of God who preached and
sang and taught more about trusting God than
any man in the scriptures.
Listen to his testimony.
He said, my soul trusteth in thee.
Yea, in the shadow of thy wings, I
will make my refuge until all my calamities
be passed.
He said, in all my calamities, I'll just
trust God.
And then he says, oh thou my God,
save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
Now, David faced insurmountable troubles.
You remember the trouble he had when all
of his men turned against him at zig
lag and lost everything.
And he encouraged himself to the Lord and
trusted in God.
And time after time after time in front
of a lion, in front of a bear,
in front of the Philistines and everywhere he
goes, he's casting his care and he's trusting
on God.
But a time came when David was overwhelmed
with a sinking feeling.
Something came over David.
And I don't know what the problem was
and I don't know what the circumstances were,
but something happened in David that caused him
to be cast down in his countenance and
in his spirit.
He asked, why are you cast down on
my soul?
Why have you been disquieted in me?
And he repeats it two times in Psalm
42, 11 and 43, 5.
You say, well, maybe it's because that's the
time he had an affair with Bathsheba.
Maybe there's sin in his life.
But if you read the first part of
chapter 42, where he mentioned his soul cast
down, here's how it begins.
As the deer paneth after the waterbrook, so
paneth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, the living God.
My tears have been my meat night and
day.
I pour out my soul in me.
I went with them to the house of
God with the voice of joy and praise.
That's not a backslidden man.
That's not a man living in sin.
He's seeking God.
He's panting after the Lord.
He's thirsting for God.
He's got tears night and day, pouring out
his soul in intercession.
And he's going to the house of God
rejoicing with joy and praise and thanksgiving.
And yet in the midst of all that,
he wakes up one day and he can't
explain it.
I can't put my finger.
I am down and I can't get out.
Why?
He didn't know why.
He couldn't explain it.
Here he is on one side praising.
He's righteous.
He's walking with God.
But he is down.
There's some kind of, something has grabbed a
hold of his spirit and he can't explain
it.
He said, Oh my God, my soul is
cast down.
Why?
Why have I been cast down?
Have you ever been in a position where
you can't explain?
You get up one day and there it
is.
And you cannot put your finger on it.
It may be a combination of things that
you've been able to overcome.
You push them aside or you thought you'd
committed them to the Lord and you wake
up one day and it just accumulates.
And suddenly you wake up one day and
as David, you say, my soul is disquieted.
I am disturbed is what he's saying.
I am disturbed and I can't tell you
why.
I love God.
I pray.
I seek the Lord.
And you say, well, that shouldn't happen to
a praying, believing Christian, but it does.
It's happened to me.
It'll happen to you.
If it didn't happen already, wait, it's coming.
In spite of the spiritual hunger, there was
a despair.
He said, why do I go mourning because
of oppression?
Why am I mourning?
There's this sense of mourning about him.
And he said, deep in the same chapter,
he says, deep is calling to deep at
the noise of thy water spouts.
All thy waves and billows are gone over
me.
Now he's beginning to understand.
He said, there's something deep going on inside
of me.
God's trying to do something in me.
I thought I really had this thing of
trust figured out.
I've written about it.
I sang about it.
I've taught about it.
But he said, now God's putting me to
a deep test deep inside.
He's deep is calling to deep that deep
work of the Holy Spirit's going down deep
into my innermost to try to bring me
to a place that I've not been yet
regarding trust and faith in God.
He said, and what's happened?
God has allowed his waves and his billows
to roll over him.
These are called thy waves.
They're not David's.
They're not the devil's.
He said, thy billows and thy waves, you've
allowed to come over me.
And now the waves are hitting him of
trouble and discouragement.
And it could be anything.
With you and I, it could be finances.
It can be children.
It can be marriage.
It can be so many things.
The billows begin to roll over us.
And in the process, deep is calling to
deep.
God is reaching down into the innermost saying,
you have not yet learned to trust me.
You said you did.
You thought you did, but you've not yet
learned that in all things, I am God
almighty.
And I am allowing these waves to hit
you.
I'm going to bring you to a place
where you have to call out on me.
And I'm going to bring you to a
place in such depth.
I'm going to bring fire and I'm going
to be floods.
And I'm doing it because I'm preparing you.
I'm training you to trust me so that
you can come to a place that no
matter what happens, because the Bible said, evil
men will wax worse and worse.
Bible said the floods of iniquity are coming.
The Bible predicts that devil's going to send
a flood of iniquity against the body of
Jesus Christ.
And he has got to have a people
who have learned to trust him in everything.
And he said, I'm going to let waves
come.
These waves won't sink you.
These waves won't drown you.
You're not going to get hurt by this
fire, but you're going to learn in this
to trust me with everything in you.
You're going to come to a place where
you give up totally trying to figure things
out.
You give up totally trying to understand in
the flesh how to overcome.
You're going to lean on me.
You're going to give surrender to my will.
Hallelujah.
See, God's not interested in you just getting
your next victory.
He's interested in you becoming surrendered to his
will period.
He wants us surrendered.
He'll just keep them coming until we reach
surrender.
Once you surrender and resign to his perfect
will, that's when the calm begins.
That's when the waters are stilled by his
voice.
There was something deep inside his question.
You know, the Puritans said troubles come in
battalions.
Do you ever notice troubles never come one
at a time?
How many know that?
Oh, come on now.
If you got trouble, you don't have one
trouble.
I'll bet you could list a dozen troubles
to me.
If you got one, you got a dozen.
They come in battalions.
They learned that hundreds of years ago.
Anybody can tell you that.
David said, I will say unto God, my
rock, why hast thou forgotten me?
In other words, what's going on?
But you see, God's calling him to a
place beyond all his doubts.
He still has doubts, or he wouldn't be
asking why.
And God is dealing with David in this
now.
And it's showing on his countenance now.
He used to sing.
He used to praise the Lord.
He had a beautiful countenance, the scripture said.
But he's got an impatient heart now.
He's become impatient with God.
It was not just David's enemies that said,
where is thy God?
They were taunting David.
Where's your God?
But that's the same thing was going on
in David's heart.
God, where are you?
It was not just his enemies.
It's David saying that.
God, where are you?
I have prayed.
I've sought you.
I don't see the answer to my prayer.
Now, every Christian listening to me now in
this place knows what it's like to intercede
and pray.
And you have given him what you thought
was ultimate faith that you're capable of, even
though it's just childlike faith.
You've prayed, and it hasn't happened.
Frankly, you did not get your answer.
And you're saying, why, God?
Why have you not answered me?
Why do I go mourning all the day?
David says in the same chapter, hope thou
in God, hope in God.
In the original Hebrew, it reads, wait patiently
on God, for I shall yet give him
thanks.
Wait patiently on God.
God's getting, the reason he's going down deep,
he's getting now to the real issue.
You know what the real issue is?
A spirit of impatience.
He's a little peeved at God for not
working on his time schedule.
David's got the idea, Lord, it's too late.
It's past time.
He came to the end of his faith.
Folks, you can't come to the end of
your faith, and then it's not faith.
But we are an impatient people, especially Americans.
And I don't care what country you come
from, you live here in America one year,
you're going to catch it.
Go to McDonald's.
If they're five minutes late, I saw a
man the other day, he couldn't wait.
I was over at McDonald's on 9th, and
he was waiting there, and the girl was
doing something.
He said, oh, forget it, and walked out.
It's not enough that he's going to have
fast food, he's going to have it now,
fast food.
I think this instant everything has gotten into
our walk with God.
I believe in Holy Ghost timing.
I believe there's a time when God says,
I will answer you in my time, in
my way, and not one hour, one minute
before, whether you understand it, whether you like
it or not, I am not going to
do it until everything is right.
Cry and pray and scream all you want.
God says, I know when, and if you'll
resign to my when, I'll do it in
my way, in my time, and when I
do it, I'll do it suddenly.
Suddenly it'll be there.
David had it out with his soul, as
if to say to his heart, now settle
down, soul.
You're impatient, you're upset, you're fretting, you're angry,
you're accusing the Lord of not being concerned,
because you have impatience in you.
Things have not turned out the way you
prayed, and it got to you.
And folks, sometimes it just gets to you,
and that's what, that's where some of you
are right now.
David's saying, but soul, you're going to hope
in God.
You're going to remember all of God's faithfulness
in your past.
You remember that God has always brought you
through every trouble and every trial.
He that delivered you in the past will
deliver you now.
David said, I shall praise Him who is
the health of my countenance, who is the
good look on my face, what it really
means.
It's the happiness that is expressed on my
countenance.
It's the rest and the peace.
I've got to acknowledge to you, I don't
always have that.
I have to work at that.
I really have to work at that.
There's a tendency to get up in the
morning to think of all the things you
have to do, and all the birds on
your back, and start picking them up and
put them on your back.
And then by the time you get to
the bathroom and look in the mirror, you
have to say, who's that?
I'm not talking about the hair everywhere, and
the beard, and all of the stuff they
put on their faces.
I'm talking about a spirit that comes on
us that affects our countenance, that sadness, that
droopiness.
I shall praise Him who is the health
of my countenance.
Joel prophesied of a time when there would
be great fear and gloom that would cover
the whole earth.
He said, the people shall be much pain,
and their faces shall gather darkness.
There's going to be a darkness on their
face.
Listen, you people that are from outside New
York, have you looked at the faces around
here?
Have you seen?
Have you walked down Broadway and seen?
How many smiles have you seen?
God help us if people stand right outside
of Times Square Church and don't see.
I don't want to see people come away
from this church the way they come out
of these theaters.
I walked by a theater that was dismissing
the other night, and people were coming.
I didn't understand that.
That was nothing.
They spent 75 bucks a piece for nothing,
and they're coming out, long faces, lighting up
their cigarettes.
There's not a smile anywhere.
Their faces are darkened, the Scripture says, and
our faces all around you are going to
get darker and darker.
That means more gloom and more doom, the
sadness such you've never seen.
You see it on their faces.
I was in a restaurant last week, and
I saw a young couple, and the whole
time they're just like they're about to break,
like they're about to cry, the burden of
the world upon them.
Jeremiah warned Jude and Israel of a day
of great trembling and fear and not of
peace, and all the faces shall become pale.
It's pale.
The blood rushes out from them because there's
no hope, no hope.
But folks, God wants to change our countenance.
I honestly believe that people who really trust
God have better health than anybody else, because
I believe unbelief affects your body.
Now, I'm not trying to, I'm not suggesting
that everything that you go through is a
result of unbelief.
Sometimes it has to do with the way
we eat.
It has to do with our lifestyle.
It has to do with so many other
things, sometimes testings of the Lord.
But I tell you that the Bible says
right now, he is the health, health of
my countenance.
It's not just that he puts a smile
on my face, but if he, if my
soul is at rest, my stomach is not
putting out this acid.
If my soul is at rest, my nerves
are not shaky.
If I believe God and I've put all
my burdens on him and I really trust
the Lord, there's a calm that comes.
There's a peace that passes all understanding.
That's got to affect your health.
For years, I had colitis.
That's a Latin word, means collide.
A problem, you hit a problem and it
breaks out in your body.
Some people get headaches.
It just affects the body.
And with a combination of nutrition and confidence
and rest in the Lord, I told the
Lord last year, I can't go like this.
I'm not going to do it anymore.
You have to bring me to that rest.
Now that rest that's promised in Hebrews is
simply a resignation to the will of God
and committing yourselves wholeheartedly to the will of
God, sink or swim, live or die.
I'm the Lord's and I'm going to put
my life in his hands.
Whatever, if I have, if I lose everything
and have to live in a tent, if
I have to live in a gift on
the street, I will trust him.
I'm not going to let these things get
to me.
He is the health of my countenance.
He said, I will never leave you, nor
forsake you.
I'll go with you to the end.
So no matter what we go through, he
said, I'm with you.
And as long as he's with us, that
should bring us the confidence that we need.
By the way, folks, trusting in God is
not an option.
I used to think, well, if I don't
trust God, I'm the only one that suffers.
I may lose the blessing, but that's not
so.
The Bible says it's a curse and it
deeply offends God.
It offends the Lord.
People, we think that drugs and alcohol and
homosexuality and all these things offend the Lord.
I'm telling you, those were not the things
that kept Israel out of the promised land.
It was unbelief.
This is the sin that grieves God more
than any other sin.
Of course, all these other sins are a
result of unbelief.
They stem from unbelief that causes pride in
flesh.
I want you to go with me to
Jeremiah, 17th chapter, 17th chapter of Jeremiah.
By the way, you know what the Bible
says?
You have need of patience after you've done
the will of the Father, that you might
receive the promise.
You have need of patience.
If you've got an impatient spirit, take it
to the Lord and ask him to forgive
you and give you a waiting heart on
him.
Hallelujah.
All right, I want you to go to
Jeremiah 17.
Let's start verse 5.
You have King James.
Just follow me.
Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his
arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in
the desert, and shall not see when good
cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in
the wilderness, in a salt land, and not
inhabit it.
Look this way, folks.
This is the curse of all who will
not trust fully in God and lean on
the arm of flesh.
That means your own flesh or the flesh
of somebody else.
Rather than taking it to God and resigning
to his perfect will and believing that he's
going to answer your prayer, it's running off
trying to make it work, trying to manipulate,
make telephone calls.
I mean just go at it trying to
make it work.
This happens in relationships when somebody's praying for
a mate sometimes and God seems to have
been delaying the answer.
So what do some do?
They manipulate.
They go and trust the flesh.
And what you get is a fleshly mate.
You don't get a spiritual mate.
You get what you went after.
You get flesh because flesh creates flesh.
And you won't wait on God.
You won't wait for his time.
You say, well, I'm getting older.
I've got to move.
I've got to do something about it.
Nobody will want me.
I'm not trying to be facetious.
I'm telling you that there's a curse that
goes with trying to take matters in your
own hands.
There's a curse.
You know what that curse is?
The perpetual dryness.
You're like a heath in the desert.
That's just a sprig that's got thorns on
it.
There's no leaves.
There's no fruit.
There's nothing of beauty.
It's just there in a dry wilderness.
It's a dryness.
It's an emptiness.
There's no fruit.
Listen again.
Cursed is the man the trusted man makes
flesh his arm whose heart departed from the
Lord.
Depart, always in the scripture when you depart
from the Lord is departing from faith.
They've departed from faith in him.
This person shall be like the heath or
the shrub in the desert and shall not
see when good cometh.
This person will never have their prayer answered.
They'll never see the good that they desire.
The very thing that they think will bring
some peace or satisfaction.
There'll be no good that that comes out
of it.
And even the good things like the rain
from heaven, all it does is give growth
to the thorns.
It gives growth to that which is fruitless
and empty.
In other words, the emptiness grows.
The fruitlessness becomes unbearable in a desert dry
place.
Folks, I don't want to be in a
desert.
I don't want to live my Christian life
dry and empty without fruit.
But that's what unbelief brings.
Verse 7, blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord and whose hope the Lord
is for he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters that spreadeth out her
roots.
The Lord said, I'm going to plant you.
You're not even going to depend on the
rain.
You're going to have living water.
You're going to go down deep where the
water is always there.
You don't have to wait for the rain.
This is the end of side one.
People, you even sing it, send the rain,
send the rain, Lord, because a lot of
people are dry and they need rain.
But those that are planted by the Holy
Ghost, those who believe God explicitly are taking
root down into the eternal river of the
Holy Spirit's life and power and rivers.
He said, you will always be green.
You always be fruitful.
That spreadeth out her roots by the river
shall not see when heat cometh, but her
leaf shall be green and shall not be
careful in the year of drought.
Neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Folks, I want to bear fruit to the
day I die.
I want to be a green tree with
life.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
There's a story in the 30th chapter of
Isaiah.
And in the 30th chapter of Isaiah, Israel
has a problem.
They've got an army coming against them.
Assyrians coming against them.
Listen to me.
There is nothing more dangerous than sharp minds
making plans without God.
Nothing more dangerous.
They call it strategizing, networking.
Let me tell you again, there's nothing more
dangerous than men and women of God with
sharp minds making their own plans without trusting
God, without consulting with the Holy Ghost, without
being led by God.
I've heard ministers stand in the pulpit and
preach, look, God gave us a good mind,
use it.
Yes, use it.
But only after consulting the Holy Ghost and
after getting directions from Him and not leaning
on the arm of the flesh.
I talked to a brother who was pastor
of a great church.
And one of his friends told me, he
said, you know, he could do this without
the Holy Ghost.
He's so bright.
He could be CEO of a big corporation.
This guy's a brain.
He does this on his brain.
In the 30th chapter, they're princes rather than
seek the face of God.
They've got a delegation.
They've got an ambassadorship going down to Haines
in Egypt.
And they're loaded down with donkeys and camels
full of gold and silver and precious jewels
to bribe the Egyptian army to come and
fight for them.
Now, had they been walking in faith, they
would have known that just a few could
put 10,000 to chase, that God would
fight their battles.
They had believed God in the past, but
now they're going to do this in their
own strength.
God spoke, woe to the rebellious children, declares
the Lord.
Verse one, who execute a plan, but not
my plan.
They make an alliance, but not of my
spirit.
Who proceed, verse two, to go down to
Egypt without consulting me.
And when God's saying, you don't trust me
anymore, you're doing it your own way.
You don't seek me for direction.
Verse 15, the scripture says, in quietness, in
trust is your strength, but you are not
willing.
In quietness and trust is your strength.
How many see that in verse 15?
If you really believe God, you're going to
have a quietness of spirit.
You're not going to be uptight.
You're going to be relaxed.
You're saying God's got everything under control.
God's taking care of this.
You may not see it, but you say
God's taking care of it.
This ought to, this ought to be the
talk of Christians.
God's taking care of it.
My God has everything under control.
My God's doing it His way, His time.
I rest in it.
I'm not going to lose sleep over it.
They went down to Egypt, tried to bribe
Pharaoh's army, but they were rejected.
They came home in shame.
Now the prophet Isaiah is crying aloud to
them, now go home and rest in God.
Turn back to Him, be calm and quiet
and trust in Him and you'll be delivered.
When they came to the end of themselves,
now, in essence, it was said, now you
trusted me, wait on me.
The Egyptians are men.
They're not God.
Their horses are flesh, not spirit.
But when I stretched out my hand, they
shall all fall together.
The Lord of hosts shall come down to
fight for Mount Zion.
Then shall the Assyrians fall, not with the
sword of man, but the sword of the
Lord.
Hallelujah.
Not the sword of man, but the sword
of the Lord.
The scripture is absolutely full of story after
story of men, even like Asa.
Asa was a man who did right in
the sight of God.
He was a man of faith.
And one time, Zerah, the Ethiopian king, came
against him with a million man army.
He had 300 iron chariots.
And Asa was outnumbered three to one.
And his army looks at that massive army
that is filling the valleys, coming at him.
And he trusted God.
He didn't gather them together and say, look,
you all have bright minds.
You're all military leaders.
Anybody got a plan?
If they were American Christians, you know what
they'd do?
Yeah, we got a plan.
We'll call it BAM, be to Assyrians millions,
be to Assyrian millions.
They'd have some catchy title to it.
They'd be strategizing and trying to figure it
all out.
And they'd lose the battle.
But look what Asa did.
And Asa cried to the Lord is God
and said, Lord, it's nothing with thee to
help, whether with many or with them that
have no power.
Help us, oh Lord, our God, for we
rest on you.
And in your name, do we go against
this multitude.
Oh Lord, you are our God.
Let not man prevail against thee.
So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa
and the Ethiopians fled.
They were overthrown that they could never recover
themselves.
No strategy, no planning of the flesh, the
calling on the name of the Lord in
faith and confidence in him.
Now I know that there are people, and
I'm going to close right now, there are,
this is the reason the Lord put this
message on my heart this afternoon, is there's
some of you really going through a period
right now where you're just a little impatient.
You can't understand how you can go much
longer either in your finances.
You can't go much longer the way things
are in your home.
You don't know how you're going to be
able to hold out because your spirit's troubled.
You're really going through it.
All through the service, I was sitting over
here thinking about this altar call now, what
I was supposed to, I want you to
stand if you will, please.
I'd like you to look this way for
a moment.
I dearly love this congregation, everyone.
And I feel his burden for you this
afternoon.
What is that prayer that you've been praying,
that miracle that's needed in your life, a
deliverance that has to come, something God promised
you and you still don't see it.
And because you haven't seen it, there's just
something deep down inside that's saying, Lord, why
and when?
And your faith is beginning to waver.
Now, he's not mad at you, but you
see, it's not that God curses you because
of unbelief, but unbelief brings its own curse
of dryness and fruitlessness and emptiness.
Lord says, I don't want that for you.
I want you to take root.
I want to plant you.
And I want you to bear fruit and
I want you to have life.
I want you to enjoy me.
Folks, God wants you to enjoy.
Some of you don't even enjoy life at
all.
You don't even know what it's like.
You haven't enjoyed the Lord really since you've
known him.
You walk through life so sad, so down,
so weary.
The Lord wants to lift that load.
And the only way he can do it
is if you resign to him and say,
Lord, I will trust you.
I'm not going to try to figure this
out, but Lord, you've got to bring a
rest to me.
I said that one time in my life,
I said, God, I can't serve you this
way.
I can't serve you with a dryness in
me.
I can't serve you feeling down all the
time.
I can't, I, Lord, I want peace.
I want joy.
And I want to, I want to enjoy
you.
I remember one time in my life praying,
Jesus, I can't walk with you unless I
enjoy you.
I want to enjoy you.
I want the peace that you offer me.
I don't want it to be just a
sermon I preach.
I want to experience it.
Lord, I want to enjoy you.
You can't enjoy the Lord if you're impatient
with him.
You can't enjoy him if you're asking why.
He understands it, but he wants you to
come to a place where he said, Lord,
I'm going to take a step of faith.
And I'm going to ask you to just
take everything that I have on my back
now, and I'm going to roll it on
you.
You've heard that before, but you have to
take an actual step of faith and say,
Lord, I commit everything that's in my life
to you now.
And I want you to bring a joy.
And from this day on, I'm asking you
to help me to enjoy my walk with
you so that there'll be a smile on
my face.
There'll be a rest in me.
I won't be uptight.
God wants to take that uptightness out of
you.
He wants you to relax in him.
He said, in quietness and peace, he'll be
your strength.
Quietness and trust, he'll be your strength.
Quietness, because you trust him, going to be
a strength to you.
You want to enjoy him?
Now, folks, I know what I'm talking about.
Some of you have not really enjoyed him
like he wants to be enjoyed.
He wants you to enjoy him.
I'm a father.
I have four children, 11 grandchildren.
Nothing pleases me more when they get joy
out of my presence.
I get joy when I know that they
love to be with me, that I'm not
some dictator.
I'm not grouchy grandpa.
I told you the only of all the
visions I've heard about of heaven, people had
visions of heaven.
The only one I really enjoyed and truly
believed was the little boy who said, I
went to heaven and Jesus played ball with
me.
I believe that more than all the golden
dreams.
Yes, I do believe in the gold.
I believe in all that.
But I believe that I have a Jesus
who delights in me and he wants me
to delight in him and to be at
rest with him and be at peace, not
be uptight.
If that's you, if I've explained you, come
on down.
Come on, bring it to Jesus right up
in the balcony, the main floor.
Say, I'm not leaving this altar until I
lay this thing down.
I can't live like this.
I'm not going to live like this.
Jesus, I want to enjoy you.
I want to trust you.
I want to lay all my unbelief down
and say, God, I commit it to you
now.
I am not going to live like this.
What's your word for the people come forward?
And I, Lord told me to go to
86th Psalm.
And here's what I read when I turned
here.
Bow down your ear, O Lord, and hear
me for I'm poor and needy.
Preserve my soul for I am holy.
O thou, my God, save thy servant that
trusteth in thee.
Be merciful to me, O Lord.
I cry to you every day.
Rejoice my soul, O Lord.
I lift up my soul to you for
thou, Lord, are good.
You're ready to forgive.
You're plenteous in mercy unto all them that
call upon you.
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer.
Listen to the voice of my supplication.
In the day of my trouble, I will
call upon you for you will answer me.
You will answer me.
Now, look at me, please.
You've got to take a step of faith.
Faith alone is going to, that's the only
deliverance you can have out of any of
the things that I was talking about today.
That I know the majority of you here
just love the Lord with all your heart.
You say, I can't live with this burden
on me anymore.
But that's a self-imposed burden.
It's not the burden of the Lord.
It's your own burden.
Lay it down by faith.
Say, Lord, I'm not going to take it
anymore.
I'm going to enjoy you.
You will enjoy him once you know that
he loves you and he has cleansed you.
That when you ask forgiveness and you pray
and cry to him, he hears and delivers.
Is there anybody here would doubt that he
forgives you and cleanses you if you ask
him?
You accept that cleansing.
You accept that forgiveness.
You accept it now in Jesus name and
say, Lord, I know you delight in me.
Help me to delight in you now.
I delight my soul in the Lord.
Then David said, he is my delight, my
delight.
Will you pray this prayer with me?
Everybody came forward.
Jesus, I have a heavy burden on me,
a burden I can't understand.
I don't know what it's about, but I
bring it to you, Lord.
I don't want to carry that anymore.
I've confessed my sins to you now.
Lord, there's nothing between us because of your
blood.
You've forgiven me and by faith you've cleansed
me.
Now, Lord Jesus, come by your Holy Spirit
and lift this burden from me.
Forgive my unbelief.
Forgive my fear.
Oh God, this fear that is in me
is of my own doing.
It's the fear of man.
Fear of failure.
Fear that I'm not pleasing you.
Fear that I'm not doing right.
And it's a burden of the flesh, but
it's not your burden.
So I reject this burden.
I cast it aside.
I lay it down at your feet.
Now lift it from me.
Oh Jesus, give me your joy.
I want to enjoy you, Lord.
I want your joy in my heart.
Let me say with David, rejoice my heart,
oh Lord, for I will praise you.
Now lift your hands and just praise him
right now, Lord.
I praise you.
I worship you.
I give you praise, oh Lord.
You will deliver your people.
Now, something else I want.
I want the whole church to begin to
thank God that the prayer you've been praying
is being shipped to you.
It's on the way.
His time and his way, he will ship
it to you.
Hallelujah.
Lord, I give you thanks.
You are going to answer.
You will not fail your people.
That answer may not come in the form
that you thought it should come, but in
the form that it comes, it'll be better
than what you asked for.
It'll be just what you need.
Thank you, Jesus.
Hallelujah.