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,
PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or calling
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to friends.
Let's go to Psalm 139, please, in the
Old Testament.
Lead me in the way everlasting.
Let's pray together.
Almighty God, Lord, I thank you for your
strength and your power.
Lord, I rest in your strength this morning.
I rest in the anointing of God that
you place upon those that you call to
proclaim your kingdom.
I thank you, Lord, that it's not my
wisdom but yours.
God, it's got nothing to do with me.
It's got everything to do with you.
I ask you for the grace now to
disappear and to rest in your promises and
to trust in the power of God that
you will impart to every heart, to every
life that places its confidence in you.
Let your kingdom advance.
Let the kingdom of darkness suffer great violence
in this house today.
Lord, I thank you, God, for what you
have already determined in your heart to accomplish
even before we open the Scriptures today.
Before the world was created, you had something
in your mind for this day.
Lord, we thank you, God, that we are
now here.
We have arrived at this point in history,
and your purposes will be fulfilled.
For you never send your word out without
an intended purpose in your heart.
Lord, God, let your purposes be accomplished in
this house, in us.
We pray as you taught us to pray.
We say, thy kingdom come, thy will be
done in us here on earth as it
is in heaven.
Lord, we yield our hearts.
We yield our lives.
We ask, Lord, that this word that we're
to hear today would find a dwelling place
in each of our hearts and bring us
to resurrection life in Jesus Christ.
Lord, we acknowledge your power and your grace.
We ask you, almighty God, to set up
your throne in every area of our life,
O God, where you determined to conquer this
day.
We thank you for this, believing with all
our hearts in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Psalm of David, Psalm 139, the last two
verses of Psalm 139.
David says, search me, O God, and know
my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
And see if there be any wicked way
in me.
And lead me in the way everlasting.
That's incredible verses of scripture.
I was going to call this message initially
the cry of a righteous man.
These are two verses of scripture that are
quoted more often than many others.
And I believe that they're verses of scripture
that prove that David was indeed a man
after God's own heart.
Now, the Lord himself gave David that testimony
in Acts chapter 13, verse 22.
He says, he raised up unto them David
to be their king, to whom also he
gave testimony and said, I have found David
the son of Jesse, a man after my
own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.
Now, beloved, David's cry to be free from
his own thoughts and his own ways.
Now, the word thoughts in the original text
is meditation.
And the word for way means the course
or the way of life.
Now, this cry stemmed from an understanding that
that which came from his own being, I
mean, that part of him that is devoid
in a sense of the life of God,
was of such little worth that it could
lead to nowhere but destruction.
David knew this.
And I believe that every righteous man and
woman of God also has this inner knowledge.
The thoughts of my own heart, if I
give these place, if they begin to be
the course, if I'm meditating on my own
thoughts and not the thoughts of God, they
will initially become the ways that I begin
to walk in.
Did you know that today?
If you and I refuse to yield our
thought life to that which God has determined
and speaks in his word that he will
freely give us, he said through the prophet
Ezekiel, I will give you a new mind.
I'll give you a new heart.
When we yield to God, God says, I
promise to come into your life.
I promise to reestablish your heart and to
reestablish your thoughts.
And ultimately, I will give you a new
course of direction for your life, which is
the course that I have purposed for your
life.
And in addition to the new course, I
will come in power and I will give
you the ability to walk on that course
that I have put in your heart in
the first place.
That's why we say here from this pulpit
continuously at Times Square Church, beloved, it is
all of God and none of us.
It is all of Jesus Christ.
It is all grace and not of works,
lest any man should boast.
This is an absolute gift of God, not
just our salvation, but the ability to walk
in that salvation is as much a gift
as was the covering of our sins by
the blood of Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah.
I thank God with all my heart that
God doesn't save me and then just leave
me to walk this Christian walk in my
own strength.
For if that were the case, you know,
and I know there would be no hope
for any of us to arrive ever at
that place that God has destined us to
be through his son.
David prayed, in other words, Let not that
upon which I have set my own mind
find a resting place in my heart and
lead me away from the life that God
has destined for me.
Let not my own thoughts guide me.
That was David's cry when he said, Search
me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me, know my thoughts, and see if
there be any wicked way in me and
lead me in the way everlasting.
Now, it's interesting, and we'll get there eventually
to note that David considered thoughts that find
a lodging place in his heart, even if
they may be logistical thoughts, or they might
even seem to be good thoughts.
Remember the time that he numbered the army.
It seemed like a harmless thing to do.
They had won all kinds of victories.
He just wanted to know how many men
were in his army throughout the kingdom.
But it was an evil thought, and that
thought caused God to have to move his
hand against Israel.
And, you know, a plague came, and many,
many wonderful soldiers died because of the plague
that came upon Israel because of a wayward
thought that found a resting place.
The wayward thought really was that David was
beginning to focus on his own strength and
was turning away from the true strength, which
is the strength of God.
Now, we ask ourselves the question, really, isn't
it true that for a man to forsake
what he holds close, something better must come
along, which gives him both the courage and
the desire to release those other things?
Truly, if you had $100 in your pocket,
and I was to ask you to give
it to me, you might hesitate unless I
held out a $1,000 bill to you
and said, OK, give me the $100, and
I'll give you $1,000.
Then all of a sudden you have a
motivation to release that, which you once held
dear.
You held it in your pocket.
You weren't going to part with it until
something better came along.
Now, put a marker in Psalm 139 and
go with me to Matthew, please, chapter 13
in the New Testament, if you will.
Remember that principle.
Something better has to come along before we
are willing to let go of what we
already hold.
In other words, when we're talking in the
context of our thought life, something better must
come along, some better thoughts than our own,
something more valuable, something that can lead us
to a better place, something that can purchase
for us as it is a better inheritance.
Again, Matthew, chapter 13, verse 44.
Jesus says again, the kingdom of heaven is
like unto treasure, which hid in a field,
which when a man has found, he hides,
and for joy thereof goes and sells all
that he has and buys that field.
Now, Jesus is saying, in other words, the
man whose possession is heaven has said in
his heart, I have found a place so
wonderful that I must have it, no matter
what the personal cost, even if it means
changing occupation, changing location, whatever the situation warrants,
I must have this kingdom.
If you are a child of God, if
you've been purchased by the blood of Jesus
Christ, if indeed the Holy Spirit has come
into your life, there is a cry, the
scripture says, of Abba Father.
There's a cry that God places in your
heart, and that cry bears witness that you
are a child of God.
Now, beloved, with that cry comes another desire.
The scripture says, if any man is in
Christ, he becomes a new creation, a new
creature.
There is a newness that comes into his
life.
That newness is not the old man trying
to change himself from the outside in, but
the newness is the presence of God coming
into his life, giving him a new mind
and a new heart, and absolutely new desires
that, beloved, don't make any sense at all
to those who are outside of the kingdom
of God.
It doesn't make any sense, if you're a
lawyer here today, to your colleagues, to see
you leaving your profession, if that's what God
asks of you, and heading off to Africa
to feed starving people, or whatever the situation
is, or to teach in a school of
the Bible.
It makes no sense to people who are
outside the kingdom of God.
And the only real motivating factor that can
cause you and I to leave what we
hold dear is that we have, in our
hearts, come to an understanding that we have
found something better.
And we walked out into a field, as
it is, you picture a man, Jesus is
saying he's just going about his daily business,
and he's on a journey, he's looking for
something.
Walks into a field and finds an incredible
treasure in this field.
Now this man might have another occupation, he
might be an accountant, he might be a
doctor, he might be a street worker in
that particular town, but for the joy, Jesus
said in his heart, of what he has
found in that field, he goes back and
sells everything he has.
He has a willingness to let it all
go, that he might now possess that field,
that he might go to that place which
he knows there is a greater treasure.
Beloved, there's no greater treasure in the universe
than yielding your life to the purposes of
Almighty God.
No greater treasure than to just allow Him
to lead and to follow Him wherever He
leads us and wherever He wants us to
go.
And again in verse 45, He says again,
The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had
found one pearl of great price, he went
and sold all that he had and bought
it.
Now, this same man considered even one pearl.
Now, I take that in this context that
I'm speaking of today to be one article
of truth that issues from the heart of
God.
We come into the kingdom of God with
many ideas.
We come into the kingdom of God with
the idea that an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth is still
the standard for today.
We come into the kingdom of God with
some false ideas about prosperity and what that
is all about.
We come into the kingdom of God with
wrong ideas about who is really in control
of our lives once we yield our lives
to Jesus Christ.
But this same man considers these pearls that
God gives to him worth forsaking.
He found a pearl and Jesus said he
felt that that pearl was worth forsaking all
that he had to possess it.
And many here today, you've received title to
the kingdom of heaven and the evidence of
that is your willingness to forsake your thoughts
and your ways to possess those of God.
This is the evidence.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
Coming to an altar here when you hear
a message is not just a religious thing
that you do because you attend Times Square
Church.
In some cases it might be.
But in the majority of cases, it's an
evidence that the kingdom of God has come
within you.
And really what is it that you're doing
when you get up out of your seat
and you come to this altar whether it's
a physical act or whether it's just something
that you do in your heart whether it's
something you agree with.
You come to the house of God and
God sets before you a pearl.
A pearl of great price.
And in your heart because the kingdom of
God is now in you.
Jesus said the kingdom of God is like
this.
He's not giving an absolute illustration but it's
a typology.
And every time you come to the house
of God and God begins to speak a
truth that is contrary to a belief that
you're holding in your heart.
Do you understand?
You're coming into the house of God and
God's word is proving you and reproving you.
You're standing in the light of Almighty God
and God begins to speak about something from
His word.
And as you're sitting here you say, Oh
God, I didn't know that I'm holding in
my heart something contrary to the truth that
is being presented to me.
The evidence that you belong to the kingdom
of God is that you're willing to forsake
that.
You're willing to throw that thing to the
ground where it belongs and run into the
presence of God and obtain that pearl of
great price.
If you are a child of God you
consider every line in this Bible a pearl
of great price.
Every word that comes from the mouth of
God.
There's an understanding in your heart that we
no longer live by bread alone but we
live by every word that comes from the
mouth of God.
Hallelujah!
I tell you when I got saved and
I used to take my police car and
I remember praying for rainy days because I
worked radar when I first got saved.
And I used to pray for rainy days
because our radar was old fashioned.
It didn't work in the rain.
And so I used to ask God let
it rain today so I can park behind
some warehouse somewhere and I'd open my Bible
and I'd get into it.
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and I'd have to
get on a cloth oftentimes and wipe my
face because I had found what I'd been
looking for all my life.
Every line was like a wave of glory.
Every word was truth.
It was renewing my heart, renewing my mind.
I had found a pearl of great price
and God was leading me by His grace
to a place where I'd be willing to
forsake it all.
All of the old thoughts, all of the
old learning, all of the old knowledge, all
of the old ways that I might possess
this which comes from the mind of God.
For, beloved, that's where life is.
That's where strength is.
That's where hope is.
That's where the newness of life is that
God speaks about when we are willing to
forsake the old and to lay hold of
the new.
That's why Paul says put off the old
man with all of his thoughts and all
of his deeds and put on the new
man.
Oh, hallelujah.
Put on the new man by the grace
of Almighty God, by the power of God.
Be clothed with this new man that is
created in the image of Jesus Christ.
That's why, for example, bitterness and unforgiveness I
have often found is one of the most
besetting sins in the Christian church.
But Paul says in Ephesians 31, 32, Let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice and be ye kind to
one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
If you and I are truly children of
God, we will consider this truth a pearl,
a pearl that we take and we're willing
to forsake and sell off every other truth,
every other thought.
We're willing to put it away from us
and lay hold of this pearl of truth.
They say, my God, by the grace that
you've given me in Jesus Christ, by the
power you've given me of the Holy Spirit,
by the direction you've given me in the
Word of God, God, I'm believing that you're
going to enable me to lay down all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking, all malice put away from my
heart and, Lord Jesus, you are kind, God,
you are kind to me because of Jesus
Christ and you now are going to let
that life that you have infused and joined
together with my life and you're going to
teach me how to be kind and tenderhearted
even as you have been kind and tenderhearted
to me.
Hallelujah.
I have found a pearl of great price
and I'm willing to sell off everything I
have that I may possess that pearl and
that pearl may be the very source of
the treasure of my heart and my life.
Now, listen, there's a cry in the heart
of God.
If you go back with me to Isaiah,
please.
You go to Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter 55.
Listen to the cry in the heart of
God for his children.
Isaiah 55 verse 5.
This is what God desires to do for
you and for me.
Verse 5 says, Behold, thou shalt call a
nation that thou knowest not and nations that
knew not thee shall run unto thee because
of the Lord thy God and for the
Holy One.
God says there are people that didn't know
me but they're going to hear my voice
and when they hear my voice they're going
to come running to me.
That's the evidence of conversion, beloved.
There is no other evidence.
That's the initial evidence.
I don't care what anybody says.
It's not necessarily other things.
The initial evidence is not necessarily going to
church.
Anybody can do it.
Any devil can go to church.
But the evidence of a conversion is that
when God speaks, you run.
When God speaks, you get up.
When God speaks, you acknowledge that your position,
if it's apart from the position of God's
truth, is worthless.
It is futile.
These are thoughts that emanate from the human
heart and can only lead to destruction.
There's a cry in your heart like it
was in the cry of David.
It said, God, put away from me all
of these wicked thoughts and these wicked ways
and lead me in the way of life
everlasting.
Verse 6 is, Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found and call upon him
while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord and he will have mercy
upon him for and to our God for
he will abundantly pardon.
God says, I will abundantly forgive you.
I will release you from your transgressions.
But there has to be something in your
heart.
There has to be a cry that says,
God, I don't want to live in unrighteousness
anymore.
Not even in my mind.
I'm not willing to play a religious game.
I'm not willing to be among those that
come into the house of God and put
on nice clothes and carry a big Bible
but carry death in their hearts.
Hidden from everyone but God.
God, I want truth in my life.
I want truth and I want it to
set me free.
God, I want to honor you.
I want to live for you.
And wherever you call me to go, that's
where I'm going to go.
You see, the journey is not necessarily to
Africa.
The journey first is into the word of
God.
The journey first is into areas that we
don't have the power to go but by
the grace of almighty God.
For my thoughts, he says, are not your
thoughts.
Neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Now the Lord says, let this be established
once and for all.
We are not meeting on level ground here.
I'm not calling on people to bring their
ideas into the kingdom of God.
God says, I'm not interested in your ideas.
You can't even see my kingdom, let alone
know how to build it.
God says, I have had the blueprints of
this kingdom from before you were even born.
I had the blueprints.
I know how it works.
I'm the Alpha and the Omega.
I was here in the beginning.
I'll be here when it's all over.
You are here.
You stand by grace for a season.
You are a simple puff of smoke that
exists for a moment and then that is
gone forever.
God says, my ways, my thoughts will establish
my kingdom in your heart.
Hallelujah.
Now God determines his intent in verse 10.
For as the rain comes down and the
snow from heaven and returns not there again,
but waters the earth and makes it bring
forth in bud that it may give seed
to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goeth forth
out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but
shall accomplish that which I please and it
shall prosper in the thing whereunto I send
it.
Now God says, I send the rain and
the rain comes down and it waters the
earth and I don't take it back again.
I send it by grace and it stays
and it does its job.
And God says, if you will cry out
to me and acknowledge my ways are higher
than your ways and my thoughts higher than
your thoughts, I will send my word into
your heart.
I will send it into your life and
fruit will begin to emanate from your life
and change will begin to come.
Things that can only happen by the hand
of God will begin to come into your
life.
God says, Now, here's what the end of
your life will be.
Verse 12 says, You shall go out with
joy.
You shall go out.
I think the mark of a true Christian
is that moment that God calls you home
and you know that there's no ambulance going
to arrive in time to save you.
That you can go out with joy.
I think of that dear saint of God,
Ira Stanfield, who's written a lot of the
hymns that we sing here, oft times in
the church.
He washed my eyes with tears is one
of his hymns.
He's written beautiful, beautiful songs that we sing
today.
He had a heart attack just, I think
it was in 1988 and he knew he
was going home to be with the Lord.
He laid down on the couch, his wife
gathered with him, his daughter with him and
he worshipped God as he passed out of
this world and into eternity.
What a wonderful sign of a life that
has been yielded to the Lord where God
has done a wonderful work.
He wrote songs that came out of a...
He had a hard life, folks.
It wasn't an easy life.
In the early part of his years, he
was young in ministry and his wife backslid
and just ended up getting killed.
It was a terrible, terrible time in his
life and out of those experiences, he wrote
beautiful hymns that we even continue to sing
today in the house of the Lord.
But he was led, you shall go out
with joy.
It has a dual application, obviously.
You're going to go out of places of
death and you're going to go out with
joy because you know the power of God
is in your life.
The power of God will keep you and
when it comes time to breathe your last
breath, you're going to go out of this
world with joy because you've already exchanged your
citizenship from this world into another kingdom.
Hallelujah.
And be led forth with peace.
God says, you'll not only go out with
joy, but I'm going to lead you with
peace.
Mark the end.
The Scripture says of the perfect man, the
end of that man is peace.
God says, mark the man.
Mark the woman that I have done a
work in.
Mark the person that has opened their heart
and yielded to my word and to the
power of my Spirit.
Mark the person who has entered into my
rest.
The end of that man is peace.
Irrespective of what comes against them, their heart
is fixed.
They trust in God.
They're not afraid of evil tidings.
They're established on a rock.
Their way is set.
There is a firmness in their voice, even
in affliction, even in times of trial and
difficulty that come to everybody.
They are not moved by it.
There is a peace, an inward peace in
their heart that enables them to say with
truth and veracity, God is in control of
everything in my life.
Hallelujah.
The mountains and the hills shall break forth
before you into singing.
I see that as all the difficult places.
God says, if you'll open your heart to
my word and to my ways, all those
places that once before seemed an impossibility to
you, all of a sudden you're going to
walk right through the midst of them and
they have to part ways and they're going
to worship just along with you.
You're going to have a song as you
go through these difficult times.
I'm going to take you through and all
the trees of the field shall clap their
hands.
Verse 13 says, instead of the thorn shall
come up the fir tree and instead of
the briar shall come up the myrtle tree
and it shall be to the Lord for
a name, for an everlasting sign that shall
not be cut off.
God says now, instead of bearing thorns, you're
going to bear fruit.
Instead of bramble, there's going to be beautiful
fruit that appears upon you, not just for
your sake, but for the sake of those
that are around you.
And also too, he says, God says, I'm
going to do something in your life that
will be an everlasting sign that will not
be there be no end to what I'm
going to do in your life.
Hallelujah.
Now, David, the psalmist, had an intimate personal
knowledge of verse 9, which says as far
as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
Now, let's go back to Psalm 139 again.
I want to show you why David ends
that psalm with a cry.
Why does David say, search me, oh God,
and know my heart and try me and
know my thoughts and see if there be
any wicked way in me and lead me
in the way everlasting.
It's almost like a signature cry at the
end of a marvelous psalm, Psalm 139.
Now, David had a revelation in this psalm,
which you and I would be well to
share in today.
David says, listen to what David, listen to
the knowledge that David has of God.
It's an incredible thing when we see it.
Verse 1, he says, Oh Lord, thou hast
searched me and known me.
Folks, settle the issue today.
God knows everything about you.
Everything.
He has a dossier in heaven.
The scripture says, he knows all the hairs
on your head.
He knows how many there are.
He knows how many are fake and how
many are real here today.
Every hair on your head is counted.
He knows it.
Settle it.
He knows everything that's inside of you.
Nothing is hidden from God.
God's eyes are an incredible x-ray machine
that literally looks through everything right to the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
That's what the scripture says.
He knows everything about you.
David said in verse 2, Thou knowest my
down sitting and my up rising.
Thou understand my thought afar off.
David said, you know what I'm doing when
I'm sitting down.
You know what I'm doing when I'm getting
up.
And you know my thoughts.
If you look in other translations, it says,
you know my thoughts even before I think
them.
You know what they are.
Even before I think a thought.
That's why the scripture says, God can do
exceeding above and beyond all that we even
ask or think.
God knows our need before we even become
aware of it.
God is aware of it.
He's already moving his hand and often times
when we agree with him in prayer, we're
just simply agreeing with what he's already determined
to do in our lives from even before
the foundation of the world.
Listen to what David says in verse 3,
Thou compass my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
It's settled.
David says, no matter where I go, that's
where you are.
Not only are you there, but you surround
me everywhere I go any time of the
day.
You are even when I lie down, you're
there.
You know what I'm thinking.
You know what I'm doing.
And you are acquainted.
In other words, you are absolutely familiar with
all of my ways.
For there is not a word, verse 4,
in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou
knowest it altogether.
God, even before I speak, you have such
an intimate knowledge of my heart.
You know what it is I'm going to
say.
Talk about the, we use a big word
called omniscience of God.
It means God knows everything.
He knows everything.
There's nothing that God doesn't know.
And David had that revelation.
He says, you are so there that, now
listen, verse 5, he says, you beset me
behind and before and laid your hand upon
me.
He says, you're not only before me, you're
behind me and you're above me and you're
underneath me and you're all around me.
That's an incredible thing.
And David says, you've laid your hand upon
me, not to hurt me.
No, it's not a hand of judgment.
It's a hand of mercy.
David is saying, God, even though you know
me, still you touch me.
Still you bless me.
Still you put your hand on me.
Even though you know me.
Talk about grace.
Oh, beloved, we can't hide a single thing
from God and how foolish to ever think
we could.
But in spite of all of our weaknesses
and all of our struggles and all of
the trials we go through, God still, even
though He knows everything, places His hand upon
us.
Hallelujah.
For good and not for evil.
Such knowledge, verse 6, he says, is too
wonderful for me.
It is high and I cannot attain to
it.
David is looking at his own heart and
no doubt as most do, like the Apostle
Paul said, O wretched man that I am,
seeing all his shortcomings and all his failings,
says, My God, how is it that you
still want to be around me?
How is it, O God, that you still
want to touch me?
You're acquainted with me.
You know everything about me, but yet still
your hand of goodness is on me.
Your love surrounds me.
O God, I don't understand it.
It's so high, the depth of your love.
It's so broad.
It's so wide.
It's so deep.
I can't attain to it.
My mind is too small.
I don't understand it, O God.
But it is a marvelous thing.
It's a wonderful thing that you love me
so much.
Hallelujah.
Then David says in verse 7, Whither shall
I go from thy spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Now there's...
David said, How can I get away from
you?
Or in other words, you can look at
it this way.
He said, God, you have been so good
to me.
You have been so good to me.
How could I ever...
Why would I ever want to get away
from you?
Why would I want to flee from you?
And even if I did, where am I
going to go?
How am I going to get away from
the God that created the universe?
If I send up into heaven, David says,
you're there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold,
the heart there.
And David is saying in the highs and
in the lows, you never fail me.
When I've had a wonderful day and I'm
on the mountaintop, you're there.
But when it seems like I've made my
bed in hell, when I go home at
night and it's been the worst day of
my life, you are still there.
You are still with me.
Oh, I love it.
Don't you love it?
You are still there.
Still there.
You're not a fickle puff of smoke that
flees every time I say a wrong thing
or have a...
Some people have that impression of God, you
know.
Every time you do some wrong thing, oh,
there he goes.
The Holy Spirit is grieved.
He's gone.
So we get on our knees and pray
a dozen prayers.
He's back.
We have a bad thought.
We think a wrong thing.
Oh, he's gone again.
Oh, how foolish.
How ignorant of the ways of God.
David said, even if I make my bed
in hell, you are there.
If I've had the worst day of my
life, you are a friend that sticks closer
than a brother.
Hallelujah.
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the
sea, even there shall thy hand lead me
and thy right hand shall hold me.
David is saying, even when I feel like
I am far away from you.
And you are still holding me up because
it has nothing to do with how I
feel.
You have made a commitment to me that
goes beyond my understanding.
And I feel sometimes you're a million miles
away, but that's just my feeling.
It has no basis in reality.
You are still here.
You are still with me.
Hallelujah.
How close is God?
Well, the Bible says he's close enough to
hold him up with his right hand.
That's how close he is.
If I say, verse 11, surely the darkness
shall cover me.
Even the night shall be light about me.
David is saying, if in my heart I'm
trying to flee from God even, or if
I get to the place where darkness is
so surrounding me that I feel like I'm
going to get swallowed of my enemies.
He said, but you are there with me
and darkness is nothing to you.
Darkness is just like light to you, almighty
God.
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, verse
12, but the night shineth as the day
and the darkness and the light are both
alike to me.
Verse 13.
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 and that my soul
knoweth right well.
My substance was not hid from thee when
I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance yet being
unperfect.
And in thy book all my members were
written, which in continuous were fashioned when as
yet there was none of them.
Now this is an incredible passage of scripture.
And folks, I want you to know something.
You are not an accident.
Even if the devil would have you to
think so, the Bible declares that you were
in God's mind and in his book even
before you began to be formed in your
mother's womb.
Before you began to be formed, the Bible
says there was a book and all your
members, that means every part of you was
written down.
There was something in the mind of God.
He was thinking about you even before you
were formed in your mother's womb.
God was thinking about you.
Hallelujah.
That is an incredible thing.
David says, you knew who I was.
You knew what I was going to be.
You knew what my heart was going to
be like.
And even before I was in my mother's
womb, you knew who I was and what
I was going to be.
That's an incredible thing when you think of
it.
How precious.
Verse 17.
He says, are thy thoughts unto me?
That word unto can be translated towards me,
O God.
And how great is the sum of them.
If I could count them, they are more
in number than the sand.
When I awake, I am still with thee.
David is saying in verse 17, Mighty God.
Mighty God, who compasses me above and beneath.
Who walks with me through good times and
bad times.
Mighty God, who knows me intimately and yet
still loves me.
Mighty God, who keeps his hand upon me
in spite of my frailties and my weaknesses.
Mighty God, who is equated with all my
ways.
So equated that you knew me even before
I was formed in my mother's womb.
You knew me.
Mighty God, you have thoughts.
You have precious thoughts to me, O God.
There are so many of these thoughts.
He says, how great is the sum of
them.
Did you know that today, beloved?
That before you were formed in your mother's
womb, God was thinking about you.
And he had thoughts for you.
He had a plan.
He had a destiny for your life.
Even before you were formed.
Don't let the devil tell you there is
no purpose for you here on this earth.
Don't let people bind you by telling you
things that bring limitations into your life and
your service to God.
God said, I had thoughts towards you from
before you were even formed in your mother's
womb.
Hallelujah.
David says, if I could count them, they're
more in number than the sand.
Think of this for a moment.
All the thoughts that God has towards you,
they're more than the sand on the seashore.
And when I awake, he says, I am
still with thee.
The translation of that verse, let me just
read it to you from the Living Bible.
Here's what it says.
How precious is it, Lord, to realize that
you are thinking about me constantly?
I can't even count how many times a
day your thoughts turn towards me.
And when I wake up in the morning,
you are still thinking of me.
That's what David was saying.
You are still thinking of me even when
I sleep.
You never stop thinking about me.
You have thoughts in your heart concerning my
life.
Did you know that today?
You have to understand that or you can't
trade in what you have for the kingdom
of God.
God has thoughts that he's been thinking about
your life.
Even when you're sleeping, God doesn't stop thinking
about you.
He declares, he makes a declaration of his
thoughts in Jeremiah 29, 11.
He said, for I know the thoughts that
I think towards you, says the Lord.
Thoughts of peace and not of evil to
give you an expected end.
God says, I have thoughts for your life.
And my thoughts, if you will allow them
to be planted within your life, will create
my ways.
And my thoughts and my ways will bring
you to the end in a sense that
I have destined for your life.
God says, I have a destiny for you.
And if you will allow my thoughts and
allow my ways to be entrenched in your
heart, they will ultimately just simply carry you
to that destiny.
You will become all that I have intended
you to be.
Hallelujah.
Now, David goes into something that seems to
be almost a divergence in this psalm, but
it really isn't.
He says, surely, verse 19, thou will slay
the wicked, O God.
Depart from me, therefore, you bloody men.
For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine
enemies take thy name in vain.
Do not I hate them, O Lord, that
hate thee?
And am I not grieved with those that
rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies.
Now, David is saying in this particular passage,
when he says, depart from me, you bloody
men, he's saying basically the ignorant and the
foolish and the life-robbing, the soul-damning
thoughts of those who don't know God.
I don't want them to be any part
of my life.
I don't want the ways of the natural
man.
I don't want the advice of man.
I don't want the counsel of man.
I don't want the thoughts of man.
I don't want the plans of man.
I don't want anything to do with man.
And he begins to categorize them.
He says, surely, basically saying in verse 19,
the thoughts of the wicked will slay themselves
because they fail to yield to you.
So they're patterning the path of their own
destruction, those that choose to dwell in wickedness.
And then he says, depart from me, therefore,
you bloody men, those that are guilty in
a sense of the blood of Jesus Christ.
We could say in this generation, those that
trample underfoot the mercy of the Son of
God and the grace of the Son of
God.
David says, depart from me.
I want no part of this.
For they speak against thee wickedly.
Now, there are, you know, a person may
not feel that they're speaking wickedly against God.
But folks, I want to tell you something.
When we are giving counsel that is contrary
to the Word of God, that is, the
Bible would clearly declare that as wicked speaking
against the Word of God.
When we are counseling somebody to do something
that God says is wrong or God says
will not lead to righteousness.
Depart from me, he says, and thine enemies
take thy name in vain.
In other words, they take your name and
they make it a worthless thing.
It doesn't mean cursing God.
It can have that context, I suppose.
But taking the name of the Lord thy
God in vain is taking upon yourself the
name of Jesus Christ and making it a
reproach to the people that live around you.
That's what taking his name in vain really
is all about.
Saying I belong to Jesus, but your actions,
the conversation, thought process, direction of life, says
everything else and makes a reproach of his
name.
It's like a woman taking on a man's
name in marriage and then continuing on with
her other lovers.
She has taken his name in vain.
She's not cleaving to him.
She truly hasn't become one with him.
She's not bringing honor to her husband.
She's a reproach to her husband and she's
a reproach to the vow and the name
that has been placed upon her.
And that's what David says.
David is saying, God, I don't want to
be part of those that come into your
house and take your name and say, Jehovah
God, we belong to God.
Or in our case in the New Testament,
Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior.
But yet their actions, their thoughts, the meditations
of their heart, the directions of their feet
prove that they have taken your name in
vain.
They've taken it for nothing upon themselves.
Their lives bring nothing but reproach to the
testimony of Jesus Christ.
Oh, he says, do not I hate them.
He's not talking about the people necessarily here.
He's talking about the thoughts.
He's talking about the very essence of the
falseness of their lives.
I hate it, God.
Am I not grieved with those that rise
up against thee?
He says, I hate it with a perfect
hatred and I count them mine enemies.
Then he goes on to say, search me,
O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see
if there's any wicked way in me and
lead me in the way everlasting.
That's why there's that cry in the heart
of David.
He says, God, I'm not interested in playing
a game.
I know who you are.
I know what you want to do in
my life.
Oh, God, let not the ways of the
wicked be found in me.
Let them not be established in me.
Mighty God, let me not walk this way
that brings reproach to your name.
Oh, Jesus, let your ways be my ways.
Let your thoughts be my thoughts.
You promise nothing but good for my life.
But, oh, God, I don't want this in
my life.
I don't want these ways.
I don't want these thoughts in my life
or in my heart.
Now, go with me quickly.
We'll close in Luke chapter 14.
Luke chapter 14.
That's why David cries, search me, O God.
Search me, O God.
Don't let this be found in me.
Know my thoughts.
Try me.
Know my heart.
See if there be any wicked way in
me.
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Luke chapter 14, beginning at verse 26.
Jesus said, If any man come to me
and hate not his father and his mother
and wife and children and brethren and sisters,
yea, in his own life also he cannot
be my disciple.
Now, until we understand the context of what
we're speaking about today, then this seems to
be a strange verse.
God, you're telling me to love everybody.
You're telling me to love my enemies even.
And now here you say that he's not
talking about hating people.
What Jesus is saying, If any man come
to me and does not hate the ways
of, that's the context of this particular passage
of Scripture.
And is not willing to distance himself from
the thoughts that have been entrenched in him.
The reasoning patterns, the ways of selfishness and
self-indulgence, all these other things that are
found in the lives of those who don't
know God.
That's why Christ goes on to say in
other passages of Scripture, A man's enemies will
end up being those of his own house.
Because the man has come to Christ, the
woman has come to Christ and says, God,
I am separating myself by the grace of
God from the ways of the ungodly.
I'm separating myself from the reasoning of the
ungodly.
And God, I'm going to begin to walk
with you, and I'm going to begin to
walk in your kingdom, and you're going to
do in my life everything that you said
you're going to do.
But folks, I want to tell you something.
Many of you have found this out.
You go home with the greatest news that
you've ever been given in all of eternity.
Mom, dad, brothers, sisters, I'm saved.
I found Jesus as my Savior.
He's the Son of God.
He came, He died on a cross to
give us life.
I yielded my life to Him and God
came into my life, and I feel different
and God is changing me and I'm so
excited.
And they just sit there and look at
you.
And not just all times and indifference, but
a rage begins to come up in the
heart.
How dare you?
I raised you to be a good religious
person.
How dare you forsake the business of your
father?
How dare you cast off the counsel of
your mother?
How dare you?
What's wrong with going to a bar with
your brother?
He needs help right now.
No, Jesus said, no, there's a difference.
There's a difference.
A man comes to me and he says,
I want no more counsel of the ungodly.
As much as I love, as Jesus says,
I'm to love everyone.
I hate those things that are contrary to
the Word of God that are found in
the hearts of even those that can be
closest to us.
And whosoever does not bear his cross and
come after me cannot be my disciple.
Then he goes on, he says, for which
of you intending to build a tower sits
not down first and counts the cost, whether
we have sufficient to finish it.
Blessed happily after he has laid the foundation
and is not able to finish it, all
that behold it begin to mock him, saying
this man began to build it and was
not able to finish.
Jesus was saying, count the cost.
If you attempt to build a Christian life
and you want to hang on to your
own thoughts and infuse them into what really
can only come from my hand, you're not
going to be able to finish the work.
You're going to start up with a great
boast of where you're going.
You're going to talk about the journey and
talk about the trip.
And people will sit there and listen to
you.
But if you will not forsake your ways
and forsake your thoughts, my kingdom cannot come
in power.
And the end result of your life is
all of those that you testified to about
the presence of God, the saving power of
God will mock you.
They will mock you because you began to
build and because you would not release that
which you once had and lay hold of
that which I want to give you.
You could not finish what you began to
build because it can't be built with your
thoughts and your ideas.
And he goes on again, he says, what
king going to make war against another king?
Sits not down first and consults whether he
be able with 10,000 to meet him
that comes against him with 20,000.
Or else, while the other is yet a
great way off, he sends ambassadors and desires
conditions of peace.
That's the second stage of the Christian life
who doesn't yield to God.
And Christ goes on and says, He's not
talking about material goods, folks, here.
He's talking about that which we possess.
That's what we trusted in.
That which we thought would give us life
and give us hope.
The value systems that we bring into the
kingdom of God that are contrary to the
word of God.
He's talking about the person who comes in
and thinks it still can be self-will,
can still build the kingdom of God.
Self-thought, self-indulgence and all that goes
with the flesh and the natural man.
He said, whoever he be of you that
forsake is not all that he has.
He cannot.
He's not simply barring the door and saying,
no, unless you forsake everything, you can't follow
me.
The legalists love that.
They'll take that and they'll preach that and
condemn the whole audience with it.
That's not what he's saying.
He's just making a declaration of the impossibility.
He's not shutting the door to anybody.
He says, unless this kingdom, you cannot come.
You cannot come.
You cannot walk in it.
Basically, it's like a traffic cop saying, if
you decide today to drive on the left
side of the road, you cannot make it
home.
It's as simple as that.
Christ saying there's a way that seems right
unto a man, but the ends thereof are
the ways of death.
You cannot make it home if you go
your own way.
There's a prescribed way.
There are thoughts that I have.
There are plans that I have.
There are ways that I want to take
you.
And if you don't go that way, you
cannot.
It's a simple statement of truth.
You cannot be my disciple.
There's no chance.
There's no hope.
There's no power.
The end result, verse 31, he says, if
you sit down and consult with yourself as
it is or consult with God, and God
begins to say, you don't have what it
takes to come against what will come against
you as a Christian.
You don't have what it takes to get
through this life.
You need something greater than yourself.
Or else, he says, if you don't let
it go, while the other king is yet
a great way off, you will send ambassadors
of peace and desire conditions of peace.
In other words, he says, if you don't
trust me, if you don't lean to me
and trust me, he said, you will make
peace with your sin.
Some will end up a mockery, and others
will make peace with their sin.
But there's a third type of person, like
the psalmist David, a man after God's heart
that will say, Search me, God.
Search me, Lord.
Try me.
Know my thoughts and my ways, and see
if there be any wicked way in me.
Folks, sometimes we think the ways that we're
walking are pretty good.
But God searches us.
And when he searches us, we begin to
find out it's not as pretty as we
thought it was.
We begin to find out that our plans
are not his plans, and our thoughts are
not his thoughts.
And sometimes our ways are not his ways.
But David's cry was, Lead me in the
way of life everlasting.
Mighty God, there's just something about the man
or woman that says, God, I don't have
the sense to even get through life, let
alone the Christian life.
But Lord Jesus, I'm putting my hand in
your hand, and I'm trusting, Lord, that you're
going to lead me through this life.
As I have a yielded heart, as I
don't harden myself to the word of God,
when I come to the house of God,
or I open my Bible to have personal
devotions, I'm not trying to deflect truth away
from my life, but I'm embracing truth.
And I'm saying to that truth, Search me.
Search me.
There's a willingness in me to lay down
my old value system, my old way of
thinking, that all things in me might become
new, and that you may lead me on
that path to bearing fruit, to going out
with joy, being led forth with peace.
All the things around me that once caused
opposition, now breaking forth into singing.
There's a cry in the righteous man or
woman of God that says, Let me not
be held by sin.
Let it not hold my heart.
Let it not hold my mind any longer.
Let me not be captivated by darkness.
And folks, the longer you let darkness rule,
the more the chance is that you will
make peace with it.
It will begin to reason with you, and
over a period of time, you will have
so hardened your heart, that you're calling evil
good and good evil.
Folks, it happens.
The prophet Isaiah warned about it.
I've met Christians like that, who have an
evil heart, and they call it good, because
they justify it.
There are racists, you know, in the kingdom
of God, who think they're going into heaven,
but they're sadly mistaken.
Any man who says he hates his brother,
and says he loves God, this creator says
is a liar.
Let it be established once and for all,
is a liar, and the truth of God
is not in him.
There's no way getting around that truth, folks.
I'm telling you, you try all you want,
you can't get around it.
You can't fool God.
Remember, David says he knows everything.
He knows everything in the heart.
There's nothing about us that God doesn't know.
You see the danger of courting with these
thoughts, the danger of not yielding them to
the truth of Almighty God.
I would be a false shepherd, were I
to stand here and not warn you, some
of you in this house today, that the
kingdom of heaven is not yours, if you
are regarding some of these things in your
heart, and you have hardened yourself to the
word of God, the kingdom of heaven is
not yours.
The scripture says clearly, if you do not
forgive your brother his trespasses, neither will your
heavenly father forgive yours.
Tell me, how will you get around that
when you stand before God someday?
How will you circumvent that truth, which is
as sure as the law of gravity?
As sure as if you jump off the
top of the Empire State Building, you're going
to be a mess when you hit the
bottom.
As surely as that's going to happen, God
says, I will not, your heavenly father will
not forgive, if you don't forgive.
There is no getting around it.
But the righteous man of God says, Oh
God, don't let me be held by sin
any longer.
Don't let me be substituting my ways for
your ways, and my thoughts for your thoughts.
The heavens are higher than the earth, and
your ways are so much higher than mine.
Oh God, let me not live below your
destiny for my life.
God has a destiny.
He's been thinking about you from before eternity.
Don't live below it, folks.
Don't live below it.
That's about the easiest way.
Oh yeah, you can live below it and
get into heaven.
But it's sad.
I guess that's the only way I can
say it.
It's sad.
Because God's desire is to establish you and
I as a testimony of His grace and
glory in the earth.
His desire is to establish us as a
light set upon a hill, that people who
live in darkness can actually see it.
And say, the Lord, He is God.
The Lord, He is God.
Because of the power of God in your
life.
Just like in Elijah's day.
Not because you can sing songs and have
a certain profession, but the evidence is there.
The kingdom has come.
The kingdom of God is there and it
is really moving in your life.
And people see it and they have to
come to a declaration.
That's why David said, God put a new
song and people will see it and fear
and will trust in the Lord.
The cry of the righteous man is, Lord,
let not ignorance of the ways of God
abide in me.
Let me never say God doesn't care.
Let me never say God doesn't see.
Let me never say God has no plan
that includes me.
Let me never say He doesn't hold the
keys to my freedom and to my life,
because He does.
He holds the keys to everything.
Hallelujah.
David said, search me, oh God.
If I could attribute one thing to the
Christian growth that I've known, let me be
very clear, I've not arrived by any stretch.
I've got a long way to go.
I could say like Paul, I've not attained,
but I do press on to the mark
of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus.
But if I can attain one thing to
the places that God has been able to
captivate and establish Himself in my life, it's
that cry.
Just a few years into my walk with
God, that cry came into my heart.
Search me, oh God.
I want your ways, I don't want my
ways.
And it's not always easy.
Some of those ways are hard to let
go of.
They're deep in us.
They're deep.
They've entrenched themselves into our hearts.
Even sometimes self-perspectives about who we are
and what we will accomplish or achieve in
our lives.
God says, I need to take it all
away.
You need to yield it all.
The bad things as well as some even
the good things that you think are in
your life.
I need to get it all out of
the way so that my kingdom can come
and be established in your life.
But I have to say today, it was
that cry that began to make the difference.
And I want to just issue an appeal
today for many who are here.
If you will let God, He will break
the chains of sin.
He will break old fears and bondages.
I don't know why the Holy Spirit has
had me really hammer home bitterness and unforgiveness.
Perhaps that's what God sees today.
He doesn't see the way man sees.
He looks at the heart, the scripture says.
And perhaps He's just seen a lot of
people here today who have not been willing
to forgive those that have wronged them.
You can't grow with unforgiveness in your heart.
You'll still be saying the same old stuff
20 years from now.
You will not have grown one inch in
the grace of Almighty God.
David says, I know your thoughts.
Do you know his thoughts today?
Do you understand how much God loves you?
The plan he has for your life and
the education he has.
Do you know it today?
He has an incredible plan for your life.
Things that he wants to do.
But there has to be that willingness to
lay aside and to put away the old
ways of thinking.
And let all things be made new.
And God says, if you'll just open your
heart.
Not only will I give you the new
thoughts, I will give you the power to
walk in them.
God says, I will do it all.
Just give me your heart.
Just give me that cry for me to
search your heart.
Father, I thank you that you've enabled me
today to deliver your heart.
To your beloved bride.
Your beloved church.
That you love Lord Jesus with all your
heart.
God, I'm asking today that you give us
the heart of a righteous man.
Give us the cry that you put upon
David.
You said he was a man after your
own heart.
I pray that that would be that which
is written in heaven about us.
Lord, that we would be a people that
have a search and a cry for truth
and for righteousness.
I want to ask today, just before we
stand.
I'm going to give an altar call for
all those who are having difficulty laying down
besetting attitudes of heart.
Besetting attitudes lead to besetting sin.
I know that.
If you come to lay down the sin
and you don't get to the attitude that
the rotten fruit will just grow all over
again.
The besetting attitude.
Now, I know the Holy Spirit.
I could name a dozen things.
But the Holy Spirit is speaking to hearts
here today.
Attitudes of unforgiveness.
Envy and greed.
There's other things like that.
Ambition.
Fear.
These things, God says, if you lay them
down, I'll give you new thoughts, a new
mind, a new heart.
I will establish you in my ways and
I will lead you in the way of
life everlasting.
Let's stand together as we sing a worship
chorus in the balcony.
You can make your way down here.
Just go to either exit, main sanctuary, slip
out of wherever you are.
Now, make your way to the altar.
We're going to pray together right now and
believe God.
Let's believe him for freedom today.
Now, how many can say today, Pastor Carter,
I would love to have this new life.
But I'm not even saved.
The good news for you today is that
Jesus Christ came to this earth.
The Son of God became, God became a
man.
And he walked through this world.
And he became familiar as he already was
with all of our struggles and failings and
sufferings.
And then he took them all to a
cross and took them all upon himself.
That's how much he loves us.
Then he called us to himself and he
said, come follow me, but not in our
strength.
He said, I'll give you the strength.
The Holy Ghost will come to you and
give you the power and you shall be
a witness to me.
But you can't know that strength and that
power until your sins are forgiven.
You have to acknowledge that you're a sinner
and acknowledge that God came in his mercy
and became a man and took your place
on a cross.
And open your heart to him and allow
him to come in and to be your
Lord and Savior.
That is the greatest decision you will ever
make, my friend, in your life.
There'll never be a greater decision than that.
There's no business, there's no travel, there's no
family thing.
There's nothing you'll ever make that will top
this one you're about to make today.
This is the decision that determines your eternity.
And not just what you become on the
earth, but where you spend eternity.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son that whoever believes in him
should not die.
That means in their sin or not be
cast away from God, but should have everlasting
life.
God said, I love you.
I love you.
I had plans for you from before you
were formed in your mother's womb.
I have loved you with an everlasting love,
enough that I would die for you.
All God asks is that would you live
for me?
Would you give me your life?
Would you give me your heart?
Would you let my kingdom as it is
come into your life?
Would you let my truth now be your
guide?
Would you let my Holy Spirit be the
power that leads you?
Would you let your lips start speaking that
which is eternal and everlasting and put away
that which comes from the heart of man?
Will you open your heart today and receive
me?
That's what the Lord would say to you
today from his word.
Would you open your heart and receive me
as your Lord and your Savior?
God says, I will change you.
I will change you.
I will make you into another man, another
person.
I will change you.
I will take the old things away.
It's not about you.
It's about me.
It's what I've determined to do in your
life.
And you will become that which I destined
you to be from before even the foundation
of the world.
I had a plan for your life.
And if that's you today, I'm going to
ask unashamedly, men, women, young people that are
in this sanctuary, unashamedly to raise your hand
with me right now, your right hand, and
say, I'm a sinner.
I'm coming to God.
I'm tired of living in sin.
I want to be saved.
Raise it up nice and high.
Nice and high.
All over.
I'm coming to God.
Up in the balcony.
You may not be here.
It doesn't matter.
Raise your hand up in the back.
Go ahead.
Don't be ashamed.
He's not ashamed of you.
Raise your hand up.
So I'm giving my life to Jesus.
Hallelujah.
Nothing blesses my heart more than to see
young men here, young ladies coming to God,
giving their lives to Christ.
There's no greater thing in the kingdom than
young people that are yielding and saying, God,
thank you, Lord, for delivering me from a
life of futile pursuits.
And now you're bringing me and those that
are older coming to the Lord.
God loves you.
Thank God that you're here.
Thank God it's not over.
God still has a plan for your life
and still wants to do something through your
life.
My father-in-law got saved at 60.
I think it was about 60 years of
age.
He's 82 now.
And you would be amazed at the fruit
that God has borne through this man's life
since he was 60 years of age.
The number of churches and Christians that have
been encouraged and established and God has used
them powerfully.
I want to encourage you.
My mother-in-law, too, the very same
thing.
God has used this couple.
I love them with all my heart because
they yielded their lives to God and became
a living testimony laid in life of what
God can do.
If you were at a video and you
could see it, you'd be amazed.
God has been so good to them.
Hallelujah.
I'm going to pray for the benefit of
all those that are coming into the kingdom
of God today.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
I thank you, Jesus, that you came to
this earth and took all my sins upon
yourself and took them to a cross and
suffered the punishment, the separation from God that
I deserve for all the wrong things that
I have done.
I thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for
me.
This day I open my heart.
I say, Jesus, come into my life.
Be my Lord and my Savior.
This is the conclusion of the message.