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
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How to keep and maintain the blessing and
favor of God.
In the process of preaching this this morning,
we'll show you how people lose the blessing
and favor of God.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your holy
word.
I thank you for the Holy Spirit, O
God, that enables us to understand your word.
And I pray, Lord, that you sanctify me
first and then hear us to hear and
receive the word that you've laid on our
hearts.
Lord, we come and take authority in Jesus'
name over all principalities and powers of darkness.
Anything that would hinder the light from going
forth, let the light penetrate the darkness.
O God, enlighten us.
Let nothing hinder what you want us to
hear this morning.
God, open our ears and our eyes and
our understanding to hear from the spirit of
the living God.
In Jesus' name, amen.
One of the most difficult things in Christianity
is to keep and maintain the blessing and
favor of God.
Because you see, there's a tendency in all
of us, once God blesses us, prospers us,
and we are living high in the spirit,
and in every way, everywhere we turn, we
see the blessing of God, there's a tendency
to become ungrateful, ingratitude sets in, and we
become slovenly and lazy about the things of
God, and then we lose it all.
Great revivals have suddenly burst on the scene,
not only here in the United States, but
around the world.
Thousands of people get saved.
There's a tremendous moving of the Holy Spirit.
God raises up leaders who have a touch
of God, and they burn brightly.
The Welsh Revival is an example of it.
Great movings of the Holy Spirit, a whole
nation, in fact, the whole world was touched
by that revival, and probably Azusa Street came
out of that great revival.
These great revivals have come, and it looks
so good, and for a season, God blessed
and prospered spiritually in every other way, but
then suddenly wrath set in, and it began
to wane and died out.
In fact, one of the leaders of the
Welsh Revival, Leonard Ravenhill, the great prophet of
God who died not too long ago, told
me in his last years, in fact, he
would see him in his last years out
in the green and bowling, smoking a pipe,
and the fire was gone.
Many, many revivals, many, many leaders, I know
some, I see their pictures, their faces in
my mind, they're mighty used of God, and
then in the last days, they just sat
down and just whimpered away into eternity.
One denomination after another has seen the blessing
of God raised up by the Holy Spirit
to hold a standard of holiness and righteousness,
leaders that were totally given to the heart
of God.
They would have conferences when they first started
where people just came to pray and hear
the convicting, smiting word of God, and God
would bless them.
They would have missions programs.
They sent missionaries all over the world, and
today, I honestly can't name you a single
denomination that I would believe that has held
to its first beginnings.
There's something that happens.
The anointing is lost, and then it becomes
an institution, and it goes on its own
momentum, and it finally becomes just another denomination,
another institution.
The same thing has happened to colleges and
Bible schools all over the world, but here
in the United States, do you know that
Yale, Princeton, Harvard, all of these schools were
started by preachers?
They were started as Bible colleges and seminaries
to hold up the standard to fight the
invasion of atheism and unbelief that was coming,
and to hold up the word of God?
And do you know most of these institutions
today are nothing but hotbeds of atheism?
They are turned away from their foundations.
I have books written by the founder of
Columbia University.
You ought to read some of the sermons
that the founders, they founded that right here
in New York City.
Columbia University was founded as a seminary to
train preachers.
It's far, far from that now.
What happened?
They lost the anointing.
They lost the favor and the blessing of
God.
They lost it.
Churches have lost it.
Revivals have lost it.
Institutions have lost it.
Bible colleges, seminaries, colleges have lost it.
Denominations have lost it.
Churches have lost it.
Moses, in his last dying message to God's
people, gave a solemn warning about the danger
of losing God's blessing and favor.
In fact, Moses, I tell you what, go
with me to Deuteronomy 32 and leave it
open on your lap because we'll be referring
to that quite a bit this morning.
The 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy.
When you get it, turn this way, please,
and look me in the eye because I
want to look you eye to eye.
Balcony, those behind me, not excused, God has
eyes behind His head.
Moses is speaking prophetically in this chapter.
He's saying to Israel, he said, look, I'm
going to give you a message and I'm
going to give it, verse 2 says, my
doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech
shall distill as the dew, as a small
rain upon tender herbs and as the showers
upon the grass.
He said, I'm going to give you a
message that is so vital.
This is the heart of God.
This is a dying man.
He's going to be taken to Mount Horeb
and the Lord's going to take him home
and bury him.
And this is his last word to his
people.
And he said, I'm going to give you
this message gently.
It's just going to be like gentle rain
on herbs.
I don't want to wound you, and yet
you've got to know.
He said, I'm going to deliver this in
tenderness.
I pray God help me deliver it in
tenderness, just as Moses intended it.
I pray that the sweetness, he said, this
will distill like dew.
He said, I want it to be a
pure word.
I want it to be a simple, direct
word, but you have to hear, you have
to know the principle I'm talking about.
He's looking prophetically.
He's a seer, he's a prophet, because he
acknowledged that.
He said, there'll be a prophet raised up
on latter days like unto me.
He acknowledged his prophetic office.
He's a seer, he's a prophet, and he's
looking into the future.
He's looking down the road of Israel, and
he said, God's going to bless you.
He's going to prosper you.
He said, God's going to bring you into
a good land flowing with milk and honey.
He's going to give you good houses that
you didn't build.
He's going to give you wells that you
didn't dig.
He's going to give you olive gardens.
He's going to give you vineyards that you
didn't plant.
He's going to bless you so incredibly that
I have not seen, ears not heard the
good things he has in store for you.
He said, I'm going to bless you in
the city.
I'm going to bless you in the country.
I'll bless your coming.
I'm going to bless your going.
What an incredible history he's laying out ahead
of these people.
What a future he's laying out before these
people.
He's saying, look, God is going to shower
you.
He's going to open the windows of heaven.
He's going to bless you.
Now, he's explaining the heart of God.
God has always wanted to bless his people.
God's never wanted to withhold or withdraw.
God is a giving God.
He's a loving God.
Why would he have all these resources?
He can't spend it on himself.
He has all these resources to give to
his people.
And he wants to give to you spiritual
life.
He wants you to increase.
He said, you're going to be blessed in
the country, in the city.
Your streets will be filled with children singing
and playing.
You're going to have wonderful marriages.
There's going to be singing and dancing with
joy.
He paints this picture all through the book
of Deuteronomy.
You hear the prophetic word of the Lord,
and he summarizes it here in this chapter.
God is going to bless his people.
You're going to be mightily blessed.
In fact, he said, you're going to be
riding high, being watched over by the Father
like an eagle watches over her brood.
You're going to suck honey out of the
rock.
You're going to live on rich food, butter,
honey, milk, good meat, and best wine.
Those represent spiritual things in the New Testament.
You know what the honey is out of
the rock.
You know what the wine is of the
Spirit.
Moses begins this message by saying, Give ear
and hear, O Israel, even though I speak
like rain upon the dender herb.
Verse 15, after speaking about, look at verse
13, He made him ride on the high
places of the earth, that he might eat
the increase of the fields.
He made him to suck honey out of
the rock and oil out of the finty
rock, butter of kind, milk of sheep, fat
of lambs, rams of the breed of Bashan,
goats with the fat of kidneys and wheat.
That is, drink the pure blood of the
great.
But, folks, I hear a message in what
I'm about to tell you that shakes my
soul.
All this week, it's just been shattering my
spirit.
He's going to speak to us this morning.
He's spoken to me.
He's going to speak to this church.
God put this burden of starting a church
here in Times Square in my heart over
11, 12 years ago.
It was birthed in the spirit, it was
birthed in months of prayer and intercession before
Holy God.
And if God's going to speak, He would
speak through me, because it was something He
birthed in my heart.
Now, here, please, ask God to give you
ears to hear in the Spirit, because what
He is about to say to us has
everything to do with the future of this
church, everything, and the future of your spiritual
life and mine, all of us.
But Jeshurun, listen to it, verse 15, But
Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.
But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.
Jeshurun means righteous one, righteous Israel.
And what Moses is saying, at the very
peak of your blessing, when you're on the
increase on all sides, when God is opening
the windows of heaven, you're going to kick.
A righteous people are going to rise up
and take it all for granted.
You're going to kick.
And what that word means in Hebrew, you're
going to trample and despise the very blessing
and favor of God that's been so freely
given you.
There's not a stronger word in all of
the Scripture.
In Deuteronomy 6, 11 to 19, He said,
I will bring you into the land I
promised your fathers, to houses full of all
good things.
Not only houses, but houses that were furnished,
full of good things, wells digged, vineyards and
olive trees.
When thou shalt have eaten, you are full.
Then beware, lest thou forget the Lord.
Thou should do that which is right and
good in the sight of the Lord, that
it might be well with you, and all
thine enemies cast out before thee.
He said, when I have blessed you, when
you come to the peak of the anointing
and the blessing and the fullness of God,
beware, watch out at that point.
Beware, lest you take it for granted.
He said, at that point, determine, make up
your mind to do that's right and holy
before me.
He said, so that I can continue your
blessing, that I can continue these riches upon
you, the spiritual, physical blessing of God.
He said, be careful, be warned.
That's the danger point.
That I may cast out your enemies, and
that it might be well with you.
Would you turn back to Deuteronomy 8, please?
The 8th chapter of Deuteronomy.
Quickly turn left, back to the 8th chapter
of Deuteronomy.
Let's begin to read verse 7.
For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into
a good land, a land of brooks of
water, fountains and depths that spring out of
valleys and hills, a land of wheat and
barley and vines and fig trees, pomegranates, oil,
olive oil, honey, a land wherein thou shalt
eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack
anything in it, a land whose stones are
iron and out of whose hills thou mayest
dig brass.
When thou hast eaten and are full, then
thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for
the good land which He has given thee.
Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy
God, in not keeping His commandments and His
judgments and His statutes, which I command thee
this day.
Lest when thou hast eaten and are full,
and hast built goodly houses and dwelt therein,
and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply,
thy silver and thy golds multiply, and all
that thou hast is multiplied, then thine heart
be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord
thy God, which brought thee forth out of
the land of Egypt from the house of
Bondage.
Again, He warns them.
He's been warning them all through the book
of Deuteronomy.
And now at His last days, He said,
Here's what's going to happen to you.
Here's what's going to happen.
The height of your blessings, you are going
to kick.
Thou art waxen fat.
Thou art grown thick.
Thou art covered with fatness.
Then He forsook God which made Him, and
lightly steamed the rock of His salvation.
Israel ignored all these warnings.
There wasn't an Israelite that could believe what
Moses is saying.
They're hearing about the increase that's coming, and
you know, these people have suffered.
These people have been through hard times.
They've been through a wilderness.
They have not known prosperity, and suddenly they're
hearing this.
And most of those Israelites, I'm sure, are
saying, Hey, wait a minute, Moses.
You give me a good house, fully furnished.
You give me a vineyard.
You give me sheep and cattle, and you
let my children play freely on the streets,
and I tell you, I'll never turn against
Him.
You bless me like that, and I'll thank
God the rest of my life.
There's not an Israelite that believed he was
capable of having all the blessings and anointings
of God, and then at the peak of
that, turn aside, take it for granted, and
lose it all, and anger the heart of
God.
At the peak of the blessing, Moses said,
You will wax fat.
You'll grow thick.
You'll be covered with fatness.
Wax fat, covered with fatness, in Hebrew means
turn to the flesh.
He said, You will turn to the flesh.
He said, You will stop thanking me for
the blessing.
You will take it for granted.
Pride will come up in your heart.
You will no longer be praising me.
There'll be no longer rejoicing in the camp.
He said, A coldness will set in, and
you're going to turn to the flesh to
get your pleasure, your spiritual, physical pleasure.
You're going to turn to the flesh.
You're going to turn to fleshly things, and
I see a whole church of Jesus Christ
doing that.
Right now, turning to the flesh, because they
took the blessings of God for granted.
They did not come into the house of
God worshiping and thanking Him for the fullness
and the goodness of God's blessing, and they
began to take everything for granted.
They came into the house of God, dead
and dry, and they waxed fat.
They turned to the flesh.
He said, You're going to turn to the
flesh to try to satisfy you.
You say, Well, what does that have to
do with me, Pastor Wilkinson?
What does that have to do with Times
Square Church?
This is a powerful warning that we too
could lose the blessing and favor of God
if we take for granted what He's doing
now.
I thank God for what He's doing here.
I thank God that we are at a
peak of blessing.
He has blessed us with new wine from
heaven.
We've been drinking the wine.
Folks, He's given us a goodly house.
He has dug wells, and we're drinking from
that pure water, pure, fresh revelation from heaven.
The altars are filled.
Our children sing and play before the Lord.
We've been giving these blessings.
There's not a person in this building that
hadn't been blessed in some measure by the
hand of God if you were walking with
Jesus.
Moses reminded them, he said, The Lord found
you in a desert land, in a waste
and howling wilderness.
He led you about.
He instructed you.
He kept you as the apple of His
eye.
He kept you.
I'm going to ask you, where did He
find you?
Come on, saints.
Where did He find you?
He found you in a waste, howling desert.
You were in a desert.
Some of you were sitting in dead churches.
That wasn't an ounce of life, and you
sat there, and you were dying.
And suddenly, He brings you, and He sets
you in a place where your soul is
growing fat in the Word of God.
He gave you rich food.
He gave you butter and milk and honey.
He fed you.
He said, Remember where you've come from.
I found you.
In fact, if you go back to the
root of this, He said, I found you
as an abandoned baby.
He said, You were insulted.
You were covered with blood, and I washed
you, and I took you to Myself.
I trained you.
I bought you.
You're Mine.
I found you.
He said, Don't forget where you came from.
Don't forget what you were.
Here at Times Square Church, God has poured
out His power and His blessing.
He's prospered on all sides.
And you see, we are right now at
this prophetic point that Moses is warning about.
We are there.
Thank God for what He's doing.
Thank God for His blessing, but we're at
the danger point.
If God is blessing you, if you're being
blessed in your finances, if you're being blessed
in your home, in your marriage, can you
sit here and say, I'm blessed?
I am blessed.
The Lord found me and saved me and
cleansed me.
Now, you may not have all your bills
paid, but you have a place to sleep.
You have a roof over your head.
You have clothes on your back.
And some of you may not believe it,
but we're at that point.
God wants to keep on blessing.
He wants to do new things that we've
never seen or heard.
But there's a danger because this church, as
well as all of those in history of
loss, that this church could lose the anointing
and the blessing of God.
And every one of us could lose it
because already there's some warning signs.
I see the same warning sign Moses saw
in Israel.
And the first and foremost being is this,
what I've been talking about, a loss of
gratitude, a lessening of the thanksgiving of the
heart, taking the blessing of God for granted,
lightly esteeming His word and His many blessings.
28th chapter.
Turn to 28th chapter with me, please, if
you will.
Verse 47, beginning to read.
Deuteronomy 28, verse 47.
Because thou servest not the Lord thy God
with joyfulness and with gladness of heart.
Why?
For the abundance of all things.
He said, I blessed you.
I gave you an abundance of spiritual blessings.
I've blessed you on all sides because you
serve not the Lord thy God with joyfulness,
with gladness of heart, for the abundance of
all things.
Therefore, shalt thou serve thine enemy, saith the
Lord.
The Lord shall send against thee in hunger
and in thirst and in nakedness and in
want of all things.
He shall put a yoke of iron upon
the neck until he hath destroyed thee.
Look at me, please.
God says, you don't want, you will no
longer thank me.
You're not showing gratitude.
You're not living in a spirit of thankfulness
daily.
Folks, every waking hour, when you get up
in the morning, the first thing you ought
to do is say, Thank you, Jesus, for
another day.
Thank you, Jesus, that I don't have to
take a drink this morning.
I don't have to smoke pot.
I don't have to stick a needle in
my vein.
Thank you, Lord, that I can walk to
the bathroom.
I can walk to the kitchen.
Thank you for my job.
But most of all, God, thank you for
Jesus abiding in my heart.
The spiritual application is clear.
If you will not come into my presence
and serve me with joyfulness and gladness of
heart for all the blessings I've poured upon
you, you will be given over to hunger
and thirst, and you will have a shortage
and a lack of all things.
And that's why so many people all over
America...
See, God is warning...
Let me start here first.
God's warning Israel.
You've become ungrateful.
You're taking my blessings for granted.
You've come to me trampling upon my favor.
You've come to my house without joy, without
gladness.
Your praises, your worship have become lip service
only.
You don't appreciate truly what I've done for
you.
So I will take away those blessings.
Instead of rich food, I'll send you famine.
Instead of wine, there will be thirst.
Instead of abundance, you will lack all things.
Now, folks, God is the same God in
the New Testament that He is in the
Old Testament.
He's just as merciful.
You can't divide the old and the new.
There's no division.
We're not under law.
I know that.
But God is just as merciful under the
law and in the Old Testament as He
is.
He didn't suddenly get new mercies.
His mercies were new every day in the
Old Testament.
God means what He says.
There's a spiritual application.
You take my blessings for granted.
All right, I will withdraw them, and you're
going to enter a spiritual famine.
And some of you have been in that
famine.
You know what hunger and thirst is that's
not been satisfied.
I see people coming to God's house.
If I have a Sunday off, I'll go
to church and whatever, sitting there and just
sneak in, because I just want to hear
their choir.
I want to see how they do things.
I want to feel the presence of the
Lord.
I want to see if there's anything I
can learn.
Folks, you go to some, especially Pentecostal churches
anymore.
I've got to wonder if I haven't slipped
in an Episcopalian meeting.
I'm not putting down Episcopalians, but the form
of worship in Episcopalian churches is high church.
Everybody is...
I'm not saying that...
Well, no, let me say it like the
Bible says.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
I can't change that.
Every time I try to be nice, I
get away from the Scripture.
But you look at people all around you.
I sat in a church last month when
I had a Sunday off, and I looked
around and I saw people just standing there,
dead, dry, empty.
The musicians trying to pump something up.
And I'm looking around me, and there's nothing.
I look at the faces.
I'm saying, this is church.
Are you saved or not?
Where is the thanksgiving?
Where is the joy?
Where is the rejoicing for all the good
things?
I look out in the parking lot, and
there are the most beautiful cars you've ever
seen.
Children dressed in the finest of clothes.
They're standing there.
You know, I know a Christian sister.
She can't sit through a whole sermon without
falling asleep.
No, she's not in this church, so don't
look around.
But I know for a fact, because I've
been in their home, she can sit there
for three and four hours without blinking an
eye watching television.
Well, I'm just now beginning.
So, let's go to Nehemiah.
Nehemiah, please.
The ninth chapter of Nehemiah.
Will you begin with me in verse 24,
please?
Let's start with verse 23.
Their children also multiplied thou as the stars
of heaven and broughtest them into the land
concerning which thou hast promised to their fathers
that they should go in and to possess
it.
So the children went in and possessed the
land and thou subduest before them the inhabitants
of the land the Canaanites and gavest them
unto their hands with their kings and the
people of the land that they might do
with them as they would.
And they took strong cities and a fat
land and possessed houses full of goods.
You know what Nehemiah is saying?
Everything Moses prophesied is coming to pass.
We have seen his prophecies fulfilled.
We took strong cities.
We came into a fat land.
We possessed houses full of all goods, wells,
dig, vineyards and olive yards and fruit trees
in abundance so that it ate and were
filled and became fat and delighted themselves in
thy great goodness.
You see that?
They delighted themselves.
This is the end of side one.
He said for a season after the blessings
of God came, we delighted ourselves in the
Lord.
But it didn't last.
For a while they delighted themselves.
Nevertheless, they were disobedient, rebelled against thee and
cast the law behind their backs and slew
the prophets who testified against them to turn
them to thee and they wrought great provocation.
Therefore thou delivers them into the hand of
their enemies.
I'm not going to go any further on
that, but folks, look at this please.
They did eat.
They were filled, became fat or prosperous and
delighted themselves in the great goodness, in thy
great goodness.
Now, beloved, when you go home or sometime
this week, if you want your heart broken,
read Nehemiah the ninth chapter.
That's the most concise history of the blessing
and favor of God and how to lose
it.
It is one of the most convicting of
all chapters in the Bible.
When you read, you read it over and
over again, it says, and it's shocking, He
fed and blessed them.
He protected, He guided them.
He met every need, but they refused to
obey in their heart and their necks.
They rebelled.
Then you read, but they confessed.
Then He blessed them and prospered them again.
God subdued all their enemies.
Nevertheless, they became disobedient and rebelled again.
After they had rest, they did again do
evil before the Lord.
Time and again did He deliver them and
prosper them, yet they still withdrew their shoulder
and would not listen.
They withdrew their shoulder.
Folks, this is the warning, that when God
blesses and we're at the peak of that,
beware lest you withdraw the shoulder.
And you know, when it talks about Jeshurun
kicking, it's a picture of an ox in
a field.
In fact, this is the Hebrew picture of
an ox in the field, eating the best
pasture, wonderful well water, fed to the full,
rains coming in season.
This ox is growing fat in the field,
and its owner comes to put on the
yoke because it's time to go to the
field and work.
And the ox kicks, and it resists the
yoke.
It doesn't want to do its work.
Folks, the work that we've been called to
is to reach the lost for Jesus.
We've been called to do our work, to
pray and seek the face of God without
delay, without interruption.
We're to continuously pray and seek the face
of God and to witness to the world.
But you see, you can sit in God's
house like that fat ox, and you can
kick and say, no, no, no, I'm not
going to leave this.
You know, it happened in London, England years
ago when Spurgeon was preaching.
And that's where the term sermon tasters came
from because members of parliament, in their wonderful
gilded carriages, there were no cars in those
days, and you would see them lined up
in front of Spurgeon's tabernacle at 10 o
'clock in the morning to hear Spurgeon, the
great preacher.
And then at 2 o'clock you could
go across town and hear Parker.
You could go across town and hear another
great, a bishop that was on fire for
God, a powerful preacher.
And so they spent the whole Sabbath tasting
sermons without a bit of it having an
effect on them.
Now, they were not soul winners, the sermon
tasters.
They came in their furs and their nice
coats, and they came to sit, and it
was like, entertain me.
Because preachers in those days were like, they
considered them like actors, and that was the
only entertainment around for something.
And they wanted to be entertained.
And you can come to God's house and
grow fat and kick against the work that
God has called us to do.
Folks, if we're not witnessing for Jesus, if
we're not doing His work, we're just fat
oxen sitting getting fat.
And eventually we will turn to the flesh,
because we will turn away from the word
that convicts.
They've moved me to jealousy with that which
is not of God.
In Israel, I have to stop for just
a minute.
I have to say something.
Do you know, if everybody that calls Times
Square Church their home would come into this
house with the thankfulness that He deserves, if
we came into this house and no one
having to be prodded, no one just standing,
but our hands lifted, and out of every
vessel flowing a river of thanksgiving.
Folks, there would be such power.
God would be so glorified, He would come
down and receive the sacrifice.
Oh yes, we've had wonderful times.
Last Sunday night this whole choir was jumping
under the power of God.
And there's wonderful power and presence of the
Lord here today, but we've seen nothing compared
to what He wants to do.
We have not yet seen the gratitude and
the thankfulness that God wants out of this
body.
This should be such a place where we
come together every time there's an opportunity between
songs, between choruses, that our hands are raised
before God, and we're not like empty vessels,
but there's something flowing out of us.
We are thanking Him.
He said, because you didn't serve me with
joy and gladness.
I'm not talking about pumping something up.
I'm not talking about sheer noise.
I'm talking about a people that are sanctified
and thankful and never lose that thankfulness.
And I'm going to tell you, you have
to fight for that.
You have to hold on to it.
You can lose it.
I've been praying, Oh God, I want to
bring my body under subjection.
I want to bring all my thoughts into
captivity and obedience of Jesus, because you can
come into God's house and let your thoughts
wander all over the world and disappoint the
Holy Ghost.
The Lord said, Watch how you come into
my presence.
Be careful how you come to worship me.
He said, you're going to turn to new
gods, verse 17, new gods that have come
newly up.
He said, in the latter days, he said,
there's going to be something attracts you that
your fathers knew nothing about.
There are going to be new kinds of
gods.
And you're going to turn to these attractions.
And let me tell you, that's what is
happening today.
This is why so many churches are dead,
because of the new gods that are taking
so much of the time.
And the mind, the thoughts and the sights
and the sounds that come from these new
gods.
Television being the number one.
My grandfather didn't even know what it was.
When I was a boy, yeah, that's true,
when I was a boy, they had no
television.
You know something, I've just looked around here
and I've seen at least two or three
people almost half asleep already.
That's exactly what I'm talking about.
But you see, these new gods, don't tell
me it isn't a god.
Why do you eat in front of it?
That's what they do with idols, they eat
in front of them.
Don't tell me it isn't a god when
it takes up three and four hours of
time.
Don't tell me it isn't a god when
the devil feeds it with all the filth
and the slop out of hell.
And here's why some people cannot come into
the house of God and rejoice because they've
spent three and four hours a night and
they have just saturated their minds with these
ungodly sights and sounds out of television.
They sat for hours in front of this
little god and then they come to the
house of God with their minds polluted, with
their minds filled of all of these things
and they're thinking about all of these sights
and sounds and folks, you can't drive them
out of your mind and you come with
this spirit upon you and this depression that's
upon you and then come into the holy
presence of God.
He said, you're going to turn to new
gods, newly come up.
I didn't expect it to get this quiet.
It's the distractions that we allow in our
life, the distractions on all sides.
This city is the most distracting city in
the United States.
Distractions on all sides and folks, you have
to say with Paul, I bring it all
under subjection to the obedience of Jesus.
I'm going to bring my body under.
I'm not giving in to these things.
I'm not going to go off on a...
I'm not going to chase a rabbit here
and preach on television.
I've just mentioned one of the new gods.
There's all kinds of new gods now that
are rising up, distracting God's people from worship
and praise and thanksgiving.
Folks, we're no different today.
We can lose the blessing and the anointing
and favor of God if we allow any
ingratitude, any deadness to set into our hearts
concerning the good things that God has done
for us.
Moses said, for the Lord's portion is his
people.
Jacob...
Look at verse 9.
Verse 9, please.
That's back in Deuteronomy.
Go back to Deuteronomy, please.
Deuteronomy 32, verse 9.
Now I want you to look at this.
For the Lord's portion is his people.
Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
Jacob is the people of God.
He said, that's what I get.
That's my inheritance.
That is what belongs to me.
Now look at me, please.
I'm going to be closing in just a
few moments.
God is saying, through Moses, he said, in
Moses' room, now look, you're a chosen people
and you're all that God has on this
earth.
This is my portion.
You are my portion.
You're the only thing that I have to
bring forth praise to my name on this
earth.
He said, my people.
That's my inheritance.
You get the land.
You get all of this, but my portion,
my part, my thing, that which belongs to
me is you.
Folks, do you understand that the church of
Jesus Christ is his only portion on this
earth?
What is there out there that brings any
glory and honor to his name?
What is there outside the doors of his
house, outside of this temple of the Holy
Ghost, outside of his blood-washed people?
He said, you are my portion.
And folks, think.
If his portion does not come into his
presence with gratitude and with thanksgiving, if his
portion will not live with that gladness and
show him gratitude, if his own portion won't,
what does he have?
How many places in New York City?
Just a few today.
Yeah, there are many, many churches, but there
are only a few where God looks down
and says, this is my people.
This is my portion.
Over here in Brooklyn is a portion.
Over here in Queens is a portion.
Here in Times Square is a portion.
Here in Harlem is a portion.
Spanish Harlem here in Brooklyn, in the Bronx.
I have a portion here.
And he puts together, this is my portion.
Look, there are 15 million, 17 million people
in the greater New York area, but I've
got just a few thousand, and that's my
portion.
That's my blessing.
Beloved, think of it.
That portion is so small compared to the
masses who are lost.
And little by little, that portion is being
whittled away by deadness and dryness, unthankfulness.
And all this week, I've been walking and
his friends said, oh God, I would rather
die.
I don't ever want to come to that
place because I know I'm your portion.
I know that this church is a part
of the portion, your portion.
Jacob is my lot.
That's what is given to me.
That's my portion.
Oh God, don't let this portion here in
Times Square rob him of any of his
praise, his honor, and his glory.
May we never be unthankful here in his
goodness.
There are some of you here today, right
now, already, there are some signs.
You can come into God's house and you
don't enter in.
You don't praise him.
You don't lift, you don't seek God.
The Bible said, I would never lift holy
hands in his presence.
But you don't praise him.
You say, well, I'm just one of those
reserved kinds.
I'm a quiet, reserved person.
Well, I'll tell you what, for all you
reserved, quiet people, go to Psalm 68, please.
Psalm 68.
Let's begin at verse 3.
But let the righteous be glad.
Let them rejoice before God.
Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.
Sing unto God.
Sing praises to his name.
Extol him that writheth upon the heavens by
his name, y'all.
And rejoice before him.
Turn to Psalm 71, please.
Begin at verse 20.
71, verse 20.
Thou which hast showed me great and sore
troubles, shalt quicken me again, shalt bring me
up from the depths of the earth.
Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me
on every side.
I will also praise thee with a psaltery,
even thy truth, O my God.
Unto thee will I sing with a harp,
O thou holy one in Israel.
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing
unto thee my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness
all the day long, for they are confounded,
for they are brought to shame that seek
my hurt.
Turn to Psalm 98, and this will nail
it down.
Psalm 98.
First six verses.
Psalm 98.
Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song.
Let's stand together.
Let's just stand.
If you have a King James, would you
read with me the first six verses out
loud?
And all of you quiet, reserved people, I'm
going to take away your excuse for now
until eternity.
And from now on, I want you in
the house of God every time there's a
chance to open your mouth.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Let's read together.
Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song.
For he hath done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm hath
gotten him the victory.
The Lord hath made known his salvation.
His righteousness hath he openly showed in the
sight of the heathen.
He hath remembered his mercy and his truth
toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all
the earth.
Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing
praise.
Sing unto the Lord with a harp, with
a harp and the voice of his soul,
with trumpets and sound of cornets.
Make a joyful noise before the Lord the
King.
Hallelujah.
Glory, glory to your name.
Hallelujah.
We rejoice in you, Lord, our salvation, our
God and our King.
Lord, we rejoice with gladness for all that
you've done in this house.
We come to rejoice before you, O Lord.
We not lose the anointing.
We not lose the increase.
We glorify you, Holy God.
We glorify you today.
We magnify your holy name.
You're worthy of our honor.
You're worthy of our praise.
We give you thanks.
We give you glory and honor, Lord.
Come, we praise you.
Come, God.
Send fire on our worship.
Send fire on our praise to you, Lord.
We glorify you.
We magnify your holy name.
You are worthy.
You're worthy of honor.
Worthy is the name of the Lord.
We come with thanksgiving and praise.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
Thank you for your goodness.
Thank you for this church.
Thank you for your blessings, Lord.
We'll not take it for granted, Lord.
We'll not take it for granted, Lord Jesus.
We will not take it for granted, O
Lord.
Jesus.
We love you.
We worship you.
We give you thanks.
We give you praise.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Worthy is the lamb.
Hallelujah.
Glory to God.
Glory to Jesus.
I'm calling for those this morning who've lost
the joy of the Lord.
You've lost it.
You don't have joy.
You came to church this morning without the
joy.
You've lost the joy of the Lord.
I'm going to finish this message this afternoon.
My message this afternoon is don't slander your
heavenly Father.
Don't slander your heavenly Father.
That's part two of this message.
How to maintain and keep the blessing and
favor of God.
But I'm talking to those in the balcony,
on the main floor, all around me.
If you've lost the joy of the Lord.
If you're backslidden.
If you're not walking with Jesus.
If the fire has gone out.
I want you to get out of your
seat and come here.
There's going to be firefall upon you here
at this altar this morning.
The fire of the Lord will touch you.
And resurrect you.
Up in the balcony.
Go to the stairs on either side.
You can come down any aisle.
Right now, wherever you're at.
All over this building.
Worthy is the Lamb.
Do you know that?
Worthy is the Lamb.
I want us to sing that He's worthy.
He's worthy.
And as we sing, Worthy is the Lamb.
And folks, after we get to the altar,
we're going to have a time.
We're going to have about ten minutes of
just praising and rejoicing in the Lord.
All of you have come forward.
It doesn't take God long when your heart's
ready.
He's ready.
He said, I'm more willing to give than
you are to receive.
He said, confess.
Run to the cross.
Run to Jesus for cleansing.
Come by faith now.
And say, Jesus, take away everything that blocks
the flow of your blessing.
Everything that's blocked the spirit of rejoicing.
I lay my sin.
I lay my bitterness.
I lay everything down at this altar now,
Lord Jesus.
Come, cleanse me.
I believe you'll do that and restore the
joy of the Lord to my heart.
Pray this prayer with me, please.
Now, the prayer itself won't save you.
But if you have faith, if you believe
what you are saying from your heart, out
of the abundance of your heart, your mouth
will speak.
If this can come out of the abundance
of your heart, God will answer.
Pray this with me.
Jesus, forgive me and cleanse me of all
my iniquities.
I turn to you with all my heart.
I want the joy of the Lord restored
to me.
I want the gladness of God.
I want to be able to praise and
worship.
I open my heart to you now, Jesus.
Thank you that your word is true.
I've confessed my sins.
The blood cleanses me.
I am made righteous through Christ.
There's now no condemnation for I'm in Christ
Jesus.
I turn now to you, Lord, to receive
a spirit of worship, a spirit of praise,
a spirit of thanksgiving.
Now, I want you to raise both hands
and just thank him right now.
I want you to thank him.
I thank you, Jesus.
I thank you, Lord.
Glory be to God.
Glory be to Jesus.
It doesn't take God long.
Just open your heart right now.
Hallelujah.
Beloved, look at me for just a minute.
I'm so glad Jesus set me free.
This is the conclusion of the tape.