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 PO
BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903
-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
Again, this is my sixth message on what
is coming.
I'm pretty much coming near the end of
a book that I'm writing.
I finished a book and sent it across
the nation called America's Last Call on the
brink of a financial holocaust and the response
has been phenomenal.
People driven to their knees and seeking the
face of God, returning to their first love.
A follow-up book now called The Preservation
of Zion, God's Plan to Keep His People
in the Coming Depression.
I can only preach what I get from
God.
I don't invent these messages and I have
to obey Him.
He's made me a watchman, one of His
many, and when I pray and seek God
and I've spent many, many hours alone with
the Lord and what I give you, I
believe, came from the heart of God and
His throne.
In fact, what I preached this morning is
the heart of the book that I'm writing
and I've had many people say, well, Pastor
David, if you're going to warn people, if
you're going to warn the church, then why
don't you seek God for an answer how
to prepare for what is coming and that's
my message this morning, preparing for hard times.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the word
that you've implanted in my heart and I
pray the unction, the anointing of the Holy
Spirit.
Lord, I got this from your heart.
I didn't invent it, I didn't think it
up.
It came on my knees, it came through
seeking your face and I believe I have
your mind.
Lord, you're going to set a lot of
people's hearts free this morning.
You're going to deliver them from fear and
from bondage of those things that are coming.
Lord, you made it clear that we as
saints of God, we as Christians and believers,
when we see all of these perilous times
coming upon the earth, while men's hearts are
failing them for fear, we are to rejoice
and look up because our redemption draws nigh.
So, Lord, remove all fear.
Let the glory of the Lord be manifested
in this word we pray, in Jesus' name,
amen.
Now, friends, you may not want to hear
it.
You may not want to believe it.
You may put it out of mind, but
very, very hard and perilous times are just
ahead.
They're looming right in front of us now.
I'm amazed at the attitude of many in
America today, especially young married couples and especially
those who are investing their funds in markets,
in stock markets and currencies around the world.
One of them stated, in essence, the following.
He said, we've never known anything but prosperity
at our age.
We know only good times, growth, prosperity.
We simply can't believe that things are going
to fall apart.
We have rebounded after every other crisis.
We will rebound after every coming crisis.
We'll rise up no matter how bad things
look.
We refuse to think that hard times can
come.
We doubt we will go anywhere but up,
up in our income, up in our prosperity.
That's the thinking right now.
The market dropped last week 300 points, and
they were interviewing these young investors, and they
said, it's nothing.
It'll come back.
You see, for 10 years, these new investors
have known nothing but good times, nothing but
prosperity.
Same with our young people.
Our young people have lost their worth ethic.
They've had nothing but prosperity.
They want a $125 pair of sneakers.
They don't work for it.
They go and ask mom, and here's the
credit card.
Go get whatever you need.
Folks, that's all about to change.
Now, folks, here we have so many people
that are blinded to what is coming.
Let me give you an example.
Very few Americans understand the Y2K problem in
the United States.
In the year 2000, there could be a
catastrophe.
Bennett has been charged by the government to
look over the compliance of our computer systems
and our federal government and our army and
IRS and all that, and he said, it's
too late.
We don't comply.
There's going to be a catastrophe in the
year 2000, evidently, when the computers turn over.
They're not going to turn to 2000.
They're going to go back to 1900, and
they're going to wipe out much of that.
I talked to a young man yesterday.
I said, what do you know about the
Y2K?
He said, well, is that one of those
Nostradamus predictions?
I talked to businessmen.
I said, no, I've never heard about it,
and they have computers that may shut down,
and they're business leaders.
There's a blindness.
Folks, there's something coming that is so ominous
and so perilous, the very things that Jesus
said would come.
On the other hand, you have these who
are totally unconcerned.
Then on the other hand, you have a
growing number of Christians who believe the world's
heading for a violent storm and that the
country and the nation and the world is
on the brink of a crash, and they're
making preparations to survive this.
They're making all kinds of preparations.
Now, these are Christians, and many of them
are Christian investment advisors, and they put out
newsletters, and they're on the Internet, and they're
warning Christians to prepare, and basically their advice
is this.
If you're in the city, move.
Go to the country, buy yourself some acres,
acreage in an abandoned or isolated area, have
your own well dug, and put up a
barn or something and store a two, three
-year supply of food, and on and on
and on.
Now, these are Christians, and they are advising
this, and it's circulating now all over the
United States.
It's become a wave of preparation now.
An elderly lady wrote to us this past
week because her friends had been advising her
she'd better get prepared because they'd been getting
these advisory newsletters, and they were getting prepared
themselves, and she wrote to me the following.
Dear Pastor David, what can I do to
prepare for the hard times coming?
I'm 87 years, four months old with limited
funds.
Eighty-seven, four months old with limited funds.
She said it's impossible to do all the
things they're telling us to do to prepare
for.
I would dearly love to live in the
country and have my own well water.
I've been brought up on a farm, one
of 12 kids, and I know what it's
like to live without modern conveniences.
I have always kept on hand a good
supply of food anyhow, but I still put
all my trust in God, and I'm a
praying person.
But what shall I do to prepare?
Well, this message is for this dear lady
and for all other Christians who are in
a tizzy about how do I get ready
and prepare for Y2K or for the collapse
of the government or for the collapse of
the economy.
Folks, I believe these things are coming.
It may be worse than any of us
know, but let me give you God's mind
on this, all right?
The message I want to share with you
is how to prepare God's way, not man's
way, but God's way.
The way that I want to share with
you, you don't need any extra money.
You don't need to leave your apartment or
your house.
You don't have to move out of New
York City.
You need no private source of water.
You need no guns.
You don't have to stockpile anything because I'm
going to give you God's plan.
Now, I know that there are pastors all
over America today who don't utter a word
such as you're hearing this morning.
It's evidently because they don't see what is
coming or don't want to see it because
if they did see it and didn't warn,
the Bible said blood would be on their
hands.
So either they ignore it or they don't
want to stir up the congregation and especially
build a new building, and they have a
heavy mortgage, they're sure not going to preach
gloom and doom to their money people.
But you see, if you hear the sound
of the trumpet, the Bible says, and you
don't warn the people, the blood is on
your hands.
And I've heard the sound of the trumpet
and I can't do anything but make it
sound.
And I know there are some of you
here that have been listening to me the
past six weeks saying, I sure wish our
pastor would move on.
I don't mean out of the pulpit, but
out of this stream.
But if I know my heart and the
hours I spent with the Lord, I know
what I see coming.
And I know that I've been appointed to
be one of his many watchmen.
And I know how much time I've spent
seeking the Lord about what is coming, because
as pastors of this congregation, we're responsible.
This past week, I was out on a
country road in New Jersey.
The moon was shining bright and I had
a number of hours from twilight right on
up into hard darkness.
And I was seeking God about this congregation.
And what is the responsibility on us as
pastors to prepare a congregation for hard times?
Now, folks, I warned three or four years
before the Iraq war, I reckon war that
and I warned there would be 500 fires
burning in the Mideast.
Everybody winked.
If you remember, there were 503 fires set
by Saddam Hussein.
I've been able to see these things since
I was a child.
I was writing these things down when I
was a teenager, things that God would show
me.
He's never said that I was a prophet.
I've never believed that.
But as a watchman, and I see what's
coming.
I see I was walking and I was
in my mind seeing New York City aflame.
Over a thousand fires burning, riots, troops and
tanks on our streets, not only here, but
everywhere.
And folks, I had just heard that same
day, this past week, that our Secretary of
Defense has a special trained army, special unit,
to move into 120 cities now in case
of riots and difficulty and crisis.
120, they are trained, our troops are trained,
ready to move.
They're like super SWAT teams ready, even now
standing at alert.
And I began to see the grocery stores
being mobbed.
And New York only has a three-day
supply of food in reserve.
And mobs out of control, looting.
And I thought of all of our dear
people.
We have probably now 7,000 to 8
,000 people that worship here and call Times
Square Church their home.
And I'm saying, Lord, we have a people
that can't run to, we can't run out
of this city.
Some people just, many people live from paycheck
to paycheck, hardly able to pay their rent,
let alone have enough money to run to
Vermont or somewhere in Pennsylvania or Idaho or
Montana, wherever you are, and buy some land.
And then it's enough to get tokens for
the subway.
Lord, we've got people living in little one
-room apartments.
They can't store food.
Lord, how in the world, what do you
want me to tell these people?
Do you want us to stockpile food?
And, boy, God began to show me some
things.
He mildly, lovingly rebuked me.
He said, David, wait a minute.
You're looking at it from your point of
view and not mine.
And I want to show you it from
God's viewpoint.
But I became so overwhelmed by what I
saw coming, I grabbed a picket rail fence
beside the road, and I almost fell weeping
and broken before the Lord.
And I said, God, if you had me
warn people, now why won't you give me
a word that will take away once and
for all the fear and show us what
we're to do?
And God heard my cry, and he spoke
to my heart, and I'm going to share
that with you this morning.
Here's what God spoke to my heart.
First of all, and listen very closely, the
only trustworthy preparation for hard times is in
the heart and not for the body.
This is a spiritual matter more than it
is a bodily or physical concern.
It's a spiritual thing of the heart that
God is looking at first and primary of
all.
And let me tell you this.
Here's what I've heard clearly from the Lord.
Those who set their hearts to seek God
with everything in them, their heart, their mind,
their soul, their body, with all their strength.
Those who are saturating their hearts with the
word of God.
Those who are cleaning up their hearts by
faith in the work of the Holy Spirit.
Trusting in the sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ.
Growing passionately in love with Jesus.
You are better prepared for the coming storm.
You are safer.
You're more protected than those Christians who have
a year or two of supply of food
and live out in some remote area and
have all kinds of gear.
Everything saved up to ride out the hard
times.
You are safer if you're making preparations in
your heart than those who are half-hearted,
cold in Christ, and making all kinds of
physical preparations.
You are ready.
The children of Israel were told to stand
by to leave at any moment.
And folks, they were headed for hard times.
They were leaving from the security of Egypt.
And even though it was a furnace of
fire, a burden to them, and though they
were slaves and in bondage, they had everything
they needed to eat.
There were supplies.
And they were going to move into a
wilderness where there was no water.
There was no food.
There were no resources whatsoever.
And Moses said, stand by.
He didn't give them any instructions to stockpile,
to get wagons, build wagons, and load them
down with food to last a year or
so.
They were given the following instructions, and they
were all spiritual.
These were spiritual instructions.
The instructions were, get secured by the blood.
They were to kill a lamb and sprinkle
that blood on the doorpost.
And they were to trust in that blood
as long as that blood was applied and
sprinkled on the doorpost.
They were secure.
They were secure physically, not only spiritually, but
physically.
Their human bodies, their children, their families, their
dogs, their cats, everything was secure in that
house.
Folks, if you want to get ready for
what is coming, make sure you're under the
blood.
You're secured and you have your confidence in
the keeping, delivering power of the blood of
Jesus Christ.
Secondly, they were told to eat the lamb.
They were to feast.
That lamb is Jesus Christ, the type of
Christ.
That is his shed blood.
That is his body.
We eat and drink Christ.
What are you feasting on?
Are you building up your spiritual body, getting
spiritually strong for the wilderness experience to come?
Where there are no resources, human resources available?
Then you better be feasting on the word,
on the lamb.
This is the lamb.
This is the word.
This is Christ.
You better be feeding on it.
This is the food that you store up
right now.
You store up until you're so strong in
faith, nothing can shake you.
Store up the word of God, that word
of I hid in my heart, that I
might not sin against you.
And the sin he's talking about is unbelief.
All right, that's spiritual.
You get secured by the blood.
You eat the lamb.
What are you feasting on?
Don't tell me that God should give you
a plan of survival.
If you're sitting in front of a filthy
television program, or you're in a dirty movie
feasting on filth, or you're on the internet.
Our mail is swamped with letters from wives,
preacher's wives included, saying, I don't know what
to do with my husband.
One woman wrote, she said, I went into
the room and I saw my husband watching
child pornography.
She said, I divorced him immediately.
She said, a good man who's gone bad,
who's ruined, feasting his mind on filth.
Don't talk to me.
Don't talk to God about protection or getting
ready for what is coming.
Brother, sister, when it hits, you will run
in fear.
You will run in fear.
She said, you feast on the lamb.
And then he said, be ready to go.
In other words, don't be tied down to
this world.
Don't have your eyes focused.
Get your eyes on eternal things.
Get a new Jerusalem state of mind.
This is not my home.
I'm not living here.
I'm living here in my body, but my
spirit, my soul is with the Lord.
And my body and my soul, my mind
cries out, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
They had just enough dough in their kneading
troughs to last a day or two and
then it's gone.
The Lord said, you're going to trust me.
You're going to cast your future.
You're going to cast everything into my hands
and you're going to learn to trust me.
The cry of the scripture is still, when
I see the blood, I will pass over
you.
Judgment was on the land.
Awful judgments were falling upon a sinful, idolatrous
nation.
And yet there were a people secured because
they said, when I see the blood, the
judgment will not hit you.
I see the heart of grieved over the
poor spiritual condition of the bride.
God chose a bride for his son.
You didn't choose the Lord.
He chose you.
He said, you haven't chosen me.
I've chosen you.
I've called you and I've bought you with
a price.
You're not your own.
There's a blood-purchased bride in waiting for
the bridegroom.
This bride of Christ is the overcoming church.
It's the Holy Zion, the New Jerusalem coming
down out of heaven, which he purchased with
his own blood.
This bride is spoken for.
This bride is set apart.
She's agreed to be espoused to Christ, who
is the bridegroom.
Folks, you and I sitting in this congregation,
you are listening to me right now.
We, if you are under the blood, if
Christ is your passionate love, if you are
walking in the spirit, you are a part
of the bride company.
You're the bride.
Now, what should be the focus of the
bride?
No matter what conditions are, what is the
focus of the bride?
The focus of the bride is to get
ready for the wedding, to get ready to
go, ready to be with her beloved.
But sadly, many in the bridehood of Christ
have eyes for other lovers.
Many in this company have corrupted themselves.
Their garments are stained and soiled.
Ephesians 5.25. Even as Christ also loved
the church, gave himself for it, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself, a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that that should be holy and without blemish.
Holy and without blemish.
In Revelation 21.1 and 2, you read
of a holy people coming down out from
God, prepared as a bride.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride for her husband.
Now, folks, those that are seated with Christ
in heavenly places, every time you go into
the secret closet, every time you get alone
with the Lord, every time you open that
door and come out to meet the public
or your family or to do your business,
you're coming down out of God.
You're coming down out of heaven.
This is the New Jerusalem.
This is a holy people.
Hallelujah.
Overcoming spiritual children of God.
Beloved, let me tell you something.
There are a people in this world today.
It's a remnant.
It's a small people who have eyes for
no one but Jesus.
Their eyes are not on the things of
this world.
They're not coveting the things of this world.
They're not wrapped up in materialism.
There is a magnetic draw to their heart.
They are reaching out to the Lord.
Every time they get up in the morning,
every single day of the week, they say,
Lord, there's nothing here for me.
Thank you for my family.
Thank you for my job.
I thank you for everything you provided for
me.
But this is all going to burn.
My heart is not here.
My heart is with you, Lord.
They are not focusing on the things of
this world.
They're not trying to save their skin.
They're trying to adorn themselves as a bride.
To adorn in Greek is to make preparation
and to set things in order.
This bride is setting her heart in order.
She's making arrangements.
She is not looking to the things of
this world.
She's not afraid of anything because her heart
is drawing her to her beloved.
Folks, the bride is not preparing for a
storm.
She's not preparing to save their bodies.
They're making preparation to leave to a wedding
feast.
The bride is adorning herself, redding herself, purifying
herself.
Her heart is not here.
There's not a day.
There is not a day anymore.
And I must tell the Lord a thousand
times a day, Lord, there's nothing here.
I thank you for your touch on my
life.
I thank you for the people you've raised
up.
I thank you for my family, my children,
my grandchildren.
But, oh, God, this is not where my
heart is.
That should be the heart cry like Paul
the apostle.
I would rather go to be with the
Lord.
I remain here with you just because you
need me.
I have a question for you.
Are you making serious arrangements to prepare now,
not for a crisis, Y2K, not for the
smashing and the breaking down?
And I believe God's fist is coming down
on our stock markets and bond markets, no
question about it.
And very soon, the pastors who heard me
preach that in a couple cities now and
who walked out saying that's foolishness, after 300
points last week, they're thinking now.
I just got a call from one of
those conferences, the leaders of the conference that
I preach warning like this, and suddenly my
tapes warning of that in such demand they
can't keep up with them.
After the stock market went down 300 points.
Amazing.
Calls for, I want to hear it now.
Some want to hear it after it's too
late.
But it must be the grief of heaven,
it must be the grief of God's heart
to see so many of God's people so
serious about making sure they're earthly secure, that
they're secure, that they have food, they're making
all these plans, and it must be the
heart of God.
The grief of the heart of God that
so much is going in, so much thinking,
so much preparation trying to get things in
order to ride out a storm and absolutely
neglecting God, neglecting their prayer life, neglecting the
Word of God, not preparing their spiritual minds
and hearts.
It must be the grief of God saying
all that you could give me that kind
of intensity, all that you could make such
preparation for me and your heart.
I'm not against Christians storing food and prepare
for calamity.
It probably makes sense to have two or
three weeks or 30-day supply of food
around if you can, and if you don't
need it, you can always give it to
somebody who needs it.
But those who are preaching these kinds of
preparation, even though they're mostly believers and they
quote the Scripture, the Scripture they quote most,
and I'm not putting this down and I'm
saying it lovingly, they quote Proverbs 22, 3,
a prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth
himself, but the simple pass on and are
punished.
And that's repeated word for word in Proverbs
27, 12, and they say if God repeated
it twice, he must mean that you'd better
listen and act on it.
But you see, this very verse that is
quoted as a motivation to store food and
prepare physically for the coming storm proves my
point right now that a prudent man foreseeth
the evil and hideth himself.
And what does Isaiah say?
A man shall be the hiding place from
the wind and a covert from the storm
as rivers of water in a dry place
and as a shadow of a great rock
in a weary land.
If you're prudent, if you're wise, you'll get
under the blood, you'll come to Christ and
hide yourself and put your faith and confidence
there.
There are all kinds of people that have
put their eternal destiny in the hands of
the Lord, but they've not put their earthly
destiny in the hands of the Lord.
Your earthly destiny has to do with what
you eat, what you wear, the clothes on
your back, the house over your head, your
apartment, whatever it may be.
That is your earthly destiny.
And it's amazing that you can ask questions.
Do you really believe yourself?
Are you going to heaven when you die?
Are your sins under the blood and they'd
be offended?
Of course it is.
I have, by faith, given my eternal destiny
in the hands of the Lord.
By faith.
The whole thing is by faith.
Why, then, is it so hard for us
to put our earthly destiny, our future, where
our paycheck comes from, where our food comes
from, why can't we put our...
You know what?
Jesus healed a man.
They brought a palsied man to the Lord,
and Jesus healed him, and he got up
and walked away, and the scribes said to
themselves, He blasphemes.
You know what Jesus said?
What's easier for me to say, Your sins
are forgiven, or rise up and walk?
And the man was still in his bed.
He said, Your sins are forgiven.
And they said, He blasphemes.
And Jesus says, Rise up and walk.
This is the end of side one.
I'm God, which is easier for me?
Which is harder?
To keep this man, make him whole, and
keep him secure, and send him back to
his family as a whole man?
Or to forgive his sins?
Now, God's saying, Think, gentlemen.
I'm God, and if I can forgive sins,
and I can save your eternal soul, how
hard is it going to be for me
to take care of you?
You see, if all you're going to do
is prepare physically, you're in trouble.
You see, they say have a 30-day
supply of food, and some say a one
-year supply, some say two years.
What if this thing lasts 10 years, 12
years?
And I've listened to many sane economists saying
that we're going into either a major recession
or a depression.
It's going to be 12, 15 years long.
Now, if Jesus carries, where are you going
to get that kind of place to store
all that?
I had a gentleman tell me that about
20 years ago, he got scared to death,
and he bought a warehouse and filled it
with dried foods.
And he went in this past year to
check it out, and it was all rotted,
and it was all wormy, and it was
all gone.
I told you how years ago I was
going to prepare.
I went out and got a country place
and 50 head of Black Angus cattle and
built ponds and filled them with fish.
The cows got Bang's disease, had to sell
them all off.
And I told you it cost me more
to raise the fish than to go to
the store and buy it.
I had big gardens, and it was costing
me more to keep those gardens than to
get it in the local grocery store.
The Lord cured me.
I'm not against any of that, but I'm
saying if that's your main focus, then what
are you going to do?
Because we've got many people now saying, Jesus
is not coming until we go through three
and a half years of the tribulation, and
some say we're going to go through all
the tribulation for seven years.
How are you going to store for seven
years if that's what you believe?
Where does it end?
I'm telling you by the Spirit of God,
if you're preparing your heart, you're getting your
spiritual heart in order, you're making changes, you're
dealing with sin and lust, you're calling on
the Lord more and more with intensity, you're
trusting in His Word, and you're building up
your faith, you are ready for a depression,
you're ready for any privation, you're ready for
the earth to tremble, the mounds to be
cast in the midst of the sea, you're
ready for troubled waters, you're ready for floods
and fiery furnaces and lions' dens and persecution,
crop failure, drought, shortages, sickness, trial of all
kind.
Most of all, you're ready for the coming
of the Lord and for the wedding feast
of the Bridehood.
He said, Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things
shall be added unto you.
Now let's go on and I'll show you
a little more of the heart of God
on this.
I believe what I'm going to show you
now sums it all up.
God has made a covenant to keep and
protect those who stay passionately in love with
His Son.
I'm going to say it again.
God has made an everlasting covenant to keep
and protect those who stay passionately in love
with His Son.
If you believe God's Word, then you have
got to believe this covenant.
In fact, if you get a hold of
this truth, it's the secret to have all
fear cast out of your heart.
I don't care if the whole world shatters
apart.
This covenant was first made with Abraham in
Genesis 15.
One, Fear not, I am thy shield and
thy exceeding great reward.
Shield here is protector, hedge, and a wall
of security.
And what an amazing promise, what an amazing
covenant God made with Abraham.
Abraham, he's saying wherever you go, whatever nation
you're in, whatever crisis you face in life,
no matter what you face, never be afraid,
I am going to be all you need,
I'm going to be your wall of protection,
I am your shield, your exceeding great reward.
And that exceeding great reward in Hebrew is
salary, wages, compensation, benefits.
That's what it means.
I'm going to be your boss.
I'm going to be your paymaster.
Everything you get is going to come from
my hand.
Everything.
In other words, I'm going to protect you,
take care of you, all your physical needs,
all you have to do.
Abraham is walk before me righteously, put your
trust in me, and love me with all
your heart.
This covenant was made with Abraham's son also,
Isaac.
It was made with his son then, Jacob.
It was then made with Israel.
And finally, to the whole seed of Abraham.
Psalm 105.
The whole Psalm is about God's promise to
the seed of Abraham.
Now listen to me, please.
You've heard me say this before, and you've
got to get a hold of this truth.
Every blood-bought, blood-washed child of God,
everyone walking with Jesus Christ by faith, living
an overcoming life, you are the seed of
Abraham.
The natural Jew is not the seed of
Abraham.
Now if you're a Jew and you believe
in Jesus Christ, you are the seed of
Abraham.
There are no Jews, no Gentiles now.
There's only one Jew, and that's who is
a Jew by faith.
The Scripture makes it very, very clear.
Now listen to what the Bible says.
They which are the children of the flesh,
these are not the children of God, but
the children of the promise are counted for
the seed, the seed of Abraham.
That's Romans 9.8. Listen to this, please.
Know ye therefore that they which are of
faith, the same are the children or the
seed of Abraham.
Are you trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior?
Do you belong to Christ?
Are you His by faith?
Then you are the seed of Abraham.
You say, well, how important is it for
me to see that?
Why should I be so concerned about whether
or not I'm the seed of Abraham?
Because the promise that God made to be
a shield and a protector and a wall
was made to Abraham and to all his
seed.
If that be the truth, then if I
lay hold of this by faith, I'd get
the same power, I'd get the same deliverance,
I'd get everything that was promised to Abraham.
I'm a child of Abraham.
I'm the seed of Abraham.
God has made an everlasting covenant.
I will keep you.
You don't look at the storms.
You don't look at that.
You look at my covenant.
I've made a covenant with you.
I've swore an oath, and I cannot lie.
I will keep you by my grace and
power.
Forgive my screaming and my falling hair here.
I'm getting excited here.
But you see, God put a condition on
this covenant.
This covenant was given to a thousand generations,
and believe me, that covers us.
He hath remembered His covenant forever.
The word which He commanded to a thousand
generations, the same covenant He made with Abraham.
The same covenant He made with Abraham to
a thousand generations.
Hallelujah!
Psalm 165.10 He confirmed the same, speaking
of the covenant, to Israel for an everlasting
covenant, showing mercy unto thousands of them that
love Him and keep His commandments.
The condition is to stay in the love
of God in Jesus Christ.
This is the covenant condition.
This covenant is not for every Christian who
says, Lord, Lord.
Deuteronomy 10.12 And now, Israel, what does
the Lord thy God require of thee?
Or what are the conditions of this covenant?
But to fear the Lord thy God, to
walk in all His ways, and to love
Him, and to serve the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and with all thy
soul.
He said, here's what I require of you.
I want my fear in you, this awe,
this respect for your heavenly Father.
Yes, I have intimacy with Him, but, my
blessed Redeemer, You're also the One who created
the heavens and the earth.
You spoke everything into being, and I have
a holy, righteous awe and fear of You.
You're my friend.
You're my kinsman, Redeemer.
You're also Almighty God, Creator of heaven and
earth.
And that's what has been lacking in the
church, this great awe and respect for Him.
I want you to go to Deuteronomy 11,
please.
Deuteronomy 11 and show you this condition.
We're moving on quickly here, please.
I trust you're still with me.
Deuteronomy 11.
11th chapter.
Trusting God's Word to drive all fear out
of our minds.
Deuteronomy 11.
I haven't lost it, friends.
I'm still here.
Start verse 13.
Deuteronomy 11, verse 13.
It shall come to pass, if ye shall
hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command
you this day.
What?
Come on now.
To love the Lord your God and serve
Him with all your heart and with all
your soul.
And what's He going to do?
He's going to keep covenant.
I will give you the rain in your
land in His due season, the first rain,
the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in
thy corn, thy wine, and thy oil.
He said, you're going to eat.
Look at me, folks.
He said, you're going to eat.
You're not going to go hungry.
I will send grass in thy fields for
thy cattle that thou mayest eat and be
full.
Take heed yourselves that your heart be not
deceived and ye turn aside and serve other
gods and worship them.
Go to verse 22, if you will please.
For if ye shall diligently keep all these
commandments which I command you to do them.
To what?
To love the Lord your God, to walk
in all His ways, and to cleave unto
Him.
Then will the Lord drive out all those
nations before you, and ye shall possess greater
nations and mightier than yourselves.
Every place whereon the soles of your feet
shall tread shall be yours, from the wilderness
and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates,
even unto the upmost sea your coast be.
There shall no man be able to stand
before you.
See, you don't need a gun.
For the Lord your God shall lay the
fear of you and the dread of you
upon all the land that ye may tread
upon as He has said unto you, Behold,
I sent before you this day a blessing
and a curse.
Look at me, please, folks.
He said, you love me.
And you draw near to me.
You cleave to me.
You don't have to be afraid of anybody.
They're going to be afraid of you.
Not because you have a gun.
Not because you have a stash of ammunition.
But you're full of Christ and the power
of God.
And all you've got to do is smile
at Him.
I believe this with all my heart.
When I came to New York City, God
knew I was going to walk the streets
and have to work with prostitutes and everybody
else.
And boy, God said, David, if you just
draw near to Me, I'll put such a
dread of you that any prostitute or any
woman ever looks you on the street, the
fear of God will hit them.
And folks, God kept that word all these
years.
I love their souls, but I've had many
just get near and say, uh-oh.
They just back away.
Don't even say a word.
Uh-oh.
That's the hand of God.
I'll put the dread of you.
You get full of Jesus, they'll know you've
been with Christ.
They'll know you cleaved
to Me.
Go to 30th chapter, Deuteronomy.
You shall know the truth, and the truth
shall set you free.
Let's start in verse 6.
Deuteronomy 30, verse 6.
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine
heart and the heart of thy seed.
To what?
To love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul that
thou mayest what?
Live.
Glory be to God.
The Lord thy God will put all these
curses upon thine enemies and on them that
hate thee, which persecuted thee.
Thou shalt return and obey the voice of
the Lord and do all His commandments which
I command thee this day.
The Lord thy God will make thee plenteous
in every work of thine hand, in the
fruit of thy body, the fruit of thy
cattle, the fruit of thy land, for good
for the Lord will again rejoice over thee
for good as He rejoiced over thy fathers.
Glory be to God.
Verse 16.
In that I command thee this day to
what?
Love the Lord thy God to walk in
His ways and to keep His commandments and
His statutes and His judgments that thou mayest
live and multiply.
And look at this.
And the Lord thy God shall bless thee
in the land whether thou goest to possess
it.
And I'll bless you.
I don't care what's happening all around you.
I'll bless you with enough, a sufficiency.
I will bless you.
There's more.
Verse 19.
I call heaven and earth to record this
day against you that I have set before
you life and death, blessing and cursing.
Therefore choose life that both thou and thy
seed may live.
Thou mayest love the Lord thy God and
thou mayest obey His voice that thou mayest
cleave unto Him for He is thy life
and the length of thy days.
No, He's your security.
There it is.
He is your security.
Glory be to God.
Now, look this way please.
Deuteronomy 6.5 says, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, all
thy soul, and all thy might.
Look please.
What more does God have to say to
prove to us that if we will stay
passionately in love See, everything God has done
has been vested in His Son.
You stay in love with Jesus.
And do you know what it means to
be in love with Jesus?
First of all, He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, He it is that loveth
me.
But to keep those commandments, they have to
be done through loving submission.
Now, a wife, the Bible said, is to
submit herself to her husband.
That's what love is, Lord.
I give you my body.
Every time I go to prayer, Lord, I
submit to your will.
Everything.
I have no will of my own.
I give everything.
It's submitting.
It's going to Him, loving Him in submission,
saying, God, my body, my mind, everything, I'm
going to trust you.
You give me a voice.
Folks, I'm going to tell you now.
You say, what am I going to do
about the money that I've accumulated, my IRAs
or my retirement or the pension funds?
What do I do?
I'm going to tell you something.
You stay close to Jesus, you'll know His
mind.
He'll speak to you.
He'll tell you what to do.
If God tells you that you're to store
food or you have the money to go,
it's because He's trying to help you to
be a haven for everybody else.
And, folks, I'm going to tell you, God
told me in prayer that when this time
comes, every home is to be a haven.
Every home is a haven.
Every home is a place.
I don't care if I have to take
some other Christian into my family, if we
have to sleep on the floor in sleeping
bags, whatever it is, my home is a
haven.
We are getting hundreds of letters now from
people who are saying that.
Right now, the Holy Ghost is, I've never
seen anything like the Holy Spirit speaking to
thousands and thousands of Christians.
And they're not running, they're not afraid, they're
saying, I have been told by the Holy
Spirit to put away some things and put
away a little money that I've accumulated so
that I can help others that are less
fortunate than I am.
That is fine.
Every home a haven.
But now, let me give you the problem.
And here's where some of you have been
confused for a long time.
You read and hear about all these promises
we just read to you of God's keeping
power.
He's your shield, He's your protector, a wall
of fire around you.
Put your body, your earthly destiny, as well
as your eternal destiny in His hands and
God will take care of you.
But then you say, well, what about Hebrews
11?
36 to 40.
Go there, please.
Hebrews.
And I want to tell you something, folks.
Unless you deal with this, you'll never have
proper faith.
The scriptures I'm going to read to you
now have been just absolutely overlooked by many
because they're afraid to touch it.
Hebrews 11, verse 36, beginning to read.
And others had trial of cruel mockings.
We've just heard true faith.
They subdued kingdoms, they wrought righteousness, they obtained
promise, they stopped the mouth of lions, they
quenched the violence of fire, they escaped the
edge of the sword.
Out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies.
Women received their dead raised again.
But others were tortured, verse 35, not accepting
deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others had trial of cruel mockings, scourgings,
bonds, imprisonment, stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain with
a sword, wandered about in sheepskins, goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, torment, of whom the world was
not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and
dens and caves.
These all having obtained a good report through
faith received not to promise.
God having provided some better thing for us
that they without us should not be made
perfect.
Now folks, look at me please.
You look at that and you say, alright,
where was the covenant?
Where was the shield?
Where was the wall of protection?
Sawn and sundered, they were cut in two,
beheaded.
These were all in faith.
These were all passionately in love with Jesus.
And you say, that argues against everything you've
been preaching this morning, brother Dave.
And there are many whose faith has come
up against this wall and it's collapsed.
Folks, you've got to understand something that there
are going to be until Jesus comes, there's
going to be much more of this.
And I'm going to show it to you.
Go to Revelation 6-9.
There's going to be incredible suffering until Jesus
comes.
Revelation 6-9.
I'm beginning to read.
And when he had opened the fifth seal,
he saw unto the altar the souls of
them that were slain for the word of
God and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying,
How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost
thou not judge and avenge our blood on
them that dwell on the earth?
White robes were given to every one of
them, and it was said unto them that
they should rest for a little season until
their fellow servants also, their brethren, that should
be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Do you see what it's saying?
He's saying there's going to be many, many
others persecuted, sawn asunder, betrayed, just like this.
Folks, in Indonesia, I was given a report,
an official report, and I get reports from
the United Nations because we have people here
from the United Nations who supplied these reports
to me.
A report out of Indonesia.
All we heard in the news that there
were many Chinese, ethnic Chinese, that were killed
in the riots a few months ago.
And very few realized that most of them
were Christians.
Over 1,500 of them brutally murdered.
Their wives and their women were raped.
And it's still going on, persecution.
But at the same time, because of their
testimony, now listen closely, the Bible says they
were slain for the word and for their
testimony.
Listen closely.
What has happened in Indonesia in the past
three months, first of all, the Christians decided,
all the Christians, and they are opening, there's
such a revival now, such an outpouring of
the Holy Spirit in Indonesia, they're opening dozens
of churches every week now all over the
country.
Christians have bound together and decided to eat
one meal a day.
And they went to the new president, new
prime minister of Indonesia and told them what
they were doing.
You remember the news?
He asked the whole country to fast a
day a week.
That came from the meeting with the Christians.
And the Christians were told by the Holy
Spirit that God was judging Indonesia because the
Muslims, the Muslims had risen up against the
Christians and for the past two years have
been violently persecuting the church.
Remember my message, the controversy over Zion, that
God judges nations not just for the wickedness
but primarily because they touched his holy apple
of his eye?
Now, let's talk about this for just a
minute before I close.
Most of you don't have to worry about
that.
You can forget it and put it out
of mind.
It's not for you.
Because God has more volunteers than he can
handle right now of people that are closest
to his heart because, you see, these are
chosen people who have such a testimony of
intimacy with Christ.
They are so heaven-bound and so in
with Christ now they won't take anything to
give them a shortcut and a quick route
to heaven.
The Bible said they chose not to be
delivered, choosing a better resurrection.
And I want to tell you, God only
gives this gift of moderatum, he only gives
the gift that we're talking about in the
bottom part of Hebrews to a certain Paul
who was chosen to suffer as a testimony.
There are many, many, many Christians worried, well,
how can I believe?
Listen, everyone mentioned here were of the Gideon
army.
All of the fearful, the Lord says, you
go home.
They're still my children, but you go home.
This battle's not for you.
This is not for you.
Folks, God's not going to choose cowards for
this crown.
He's going to bypass you.
You say, oh, thank God, he's bypassing me.
Let me tell you something.
I've read Foxe's Book of Martyrs and I
keep reading about the martyrs and every martyr
story that I've read.
They all said when the hard times come
and I'm tested, I'm going to fall, I
don't have it in me.
But when the time came, God's Spirit came
on them, gave them the grace and the
mercy and the power.
I read of one dear pastor who was
in prison.
They were about to take him to the
fire and burn him at the stake.
And he left a note to his wife.
He'd been in prison for a year.
He said, this has been the garden of
Eden.
He said, this has been like a palace.
I have never known Jesus more than I've
known Him.
Jesus came into my cell every day and
because of His presence, He made it a
palace.
This is a chosen people.
This is a gift from God.
It's only for those.
That special holy remnant.
They've passed the mark.
They've already gone through.
They've really left the world.
They're here, but they're really not here.
They're with Christ.
And they have this testimony for the Word
of God and they'll not let it go.
They're like the Hebrew children said, we know
God is able, but if not, we trust
Him.
The promises of God.
And every one of these people who were
caught asunder and every one of these that
wandered in caves and dens hungry, every one
of them, if they could take voice right
now, would tell you, every promise is true.
God will supply, God will keep.
They would be the strongest to stand here
and tell you God is faithful to His
Word.
Hallelujah.
Folks, we're going to take a back seat
to all of these martyrs.
They're the ones who are going to be
around His throne closest to His heart.
But take heart, folks.
God still loves the faint-hearted like me
and like you.
He still loves the faint-hearted.
His covenant still stands.
And He'll give you all the grace you
need if it ever came to this.
It'll be the most blessed experience you ever
had.
You'll go out shouting the praises of God.
So there's no need to worry.
Hallelujah.
You should anticipate that.
We should look forward to it.
Paul said, live or die, I'm the Lord's
anyhow.
Let's stand.
I've preached a little longer than I like
to, but I wanted to finish this word
that the Lord has given to me.
Folks, look at me for a moment.
Hold steady.
We're not done.
Your dinner can wait.
Make sure this morning that you deal with
every bit of trepidation, every bit of fear.
I know the Lord has taken it completely
out of my heart.
I love this congregation as Pastor Carter and
all the other leaders of this church love
you dearly.
And I believe you love us too, equally.
We are concerned about you, but folks, we
have placed this congregation into these great, big,
strong hands of the Lord.
He said, commit your ways to the Lord
and He'll bring it to pass.
Commit it.
God doesn't want you...
Listen, folks.
Listen closely to your pastor now.
The news that's coming even before this year
has ended.
The news that's coming of violent terrorism.
You've seen just some of it this past
weekend as our embassies have been blown up
in Africa.
There are going to be some terrifying news,
awful news.
But there has to be something in you
so at peace with God, so at rest,
that nothing can shake you.
Let the news be what it is.
Let the shaking...
The shaking is coming.
But you see, when the shaking comes, take
comfort that my God's behind it all.
My God has everything under control.
God is doing this.
God has a purpose to it.
And folks, He's going to clean up His
church.
He's going to purge His bride.
I was sitting here while that wonderful explosion
of worship and praise broke out in this
meeting this morning.
And the Holy Spirit whispered to me, He
said, David, that's nothing compared to what it's
going to be after all of these things
begin to happen and the saints gather here.
He said, you won't be able, you won't
be able to contain the glory, the shouting,
and the worship and the praising of God.
What a time it's going to be.
This is the conclusion of the tape.