This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or
calling 903-963-8626.
None of these messages are copyrighted, and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
Thank you for your prayers.
In our recent trip, we'll be talking more
about it in the course of the message.
My subject this morning, don't judge your spiritual
condition by your feelings.
Don't judge your spiritual condition by feelings.
Now, folks, if you get a hold of
this this morning, the devil can't lie to
you anymore.
About your position in Christ.
If we can only learn who we are
in Christ, our position, not our condition, but
our position.
If we can understand that, the devil can't
sway you by feelings anymore.
Go to 1 Thessalonians, please.
1 Thessalonians, the fourth chapter.
Fourth chapter, verse one.
Gonna read just one verse.
1 Thessalonians, fourth chapter, chapter four, verse one.
Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort
you by the Lord Jesus, that as you
have received of us how you ought to
walk and to please God, so ye would
abound more and more.
Read it again.
Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, exhort you
by the Lord Jesus, that as you have
received of us how you ought to walk
and to please God, so you would abound
more and more.
Now, Father, take this word and multiply it,
increase it, and cause us, Lord, to lay
hold by the help of the Holy Ghost
this morning, the truth that will deliver us
from this everlasting terror of our feelings being
up and down, hot and cold.
Oh, God, we want to understand by the
word of the Lord, the power of the
Holy Spirit, the steadfastness that you want us
to have in Christ and in the word,
so that in the days ahead when the
world is spinning out of control and everything
is out of kilter, we will be steadfast,
immovable, and we will not be listening to
the lies of the devil, will not be
swayed and tossed by winds and waves of
doctrine, but we will be steadfast, immovable, and
ever increasing in the grace of God.
Anoint me to preach this word, I pray.
Amen.
Now, Paul, in this verse, is saying to
the Thessalonians, you can't say you haven't been
well taught.
He said, I and others have taught you
well.
We've shown you how to walk and how
to please God, and therefore we're asking that
you abound in that.
Now, the word abound means to increase.
Paul is saying, if you, and I would
say this to everyone in this congregation, if
you've been sitting under a pure gospel, if
you've been hearing the word being taught from
consecrated vessels, and the word is strong, it's
pure, it's life changing, you should be increasing
in faith, in the knowledge of God, you
should be increasing in the love of the
truth, in love of the brother, in the
knowledge of God, in the love of God.
You should be increasing, there should be an
abounding.
He said, you've been well taught, so we're
saying you need to abound.
You need to increase in the knowledge.
You have a foundation, we taught you, now
there should be an increase in you.
Paul spoke of abounding or increasing in utterance,
in knowledge, in love, for the ministry, in
prayer, in the ministry to the saints, and
in giving.
He said you should be giving more of
yourself, of your money, of your time, your
talents.
There should be changes happening in you.
You should be growing in grace and in
the knowledge of God.
Christians who have been fed the word of
God are, according to scripture, expected to grow.
Would you turn with me to Ephesians?
Turn left, please, to Ephesians, the fourth chapter.
Ephesians, the fourth chapter.
And begin with me in verse 11.
Now, wait till the rustling of the leaves
stop.
By the way, if you're new in Times
Square Church, you notice that everybody brings their
Bible.
I noticed at ministers' conferences there were very
few Bibles.
I said, you need to come to Times
Square Church and learn to bring your Bible.
Bring your Bible if you're just starting here
at Times Square Church so you will be
able to follow us.
Verse 11, beginning to read, He gave some
apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for
the edifying of the body of Christ, till
we all come into unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure,
the stature, the fullness of Christ.
In other words, do you understand what he's
saying?
All of these preachers and pastors and prophets,
evangelists and teachers, all of this word that
you've been receiving, it's that you come into
the unity of the faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God to be a
mature person, measuring up to the stature, the
fullness of Christ, not obeyed anymore, but growing.
Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro, carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of
man and cunning craftiness whereby the lion wait
to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love, you may
grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ.
That you may grow up in Christ in
all of your ways.
Jesus said, didn't he?
I am come that you might have life
and have it more abundantly.
In other words, an increase, a constant increase
in your life, of all these things we're
talking about.
Jesus commended the church at Piraeus Tower, remember?
He said, you're increasing, and here's how he
stated it.
I know thy works and thy charity, and
the last to be more than the first.
He said, you are more intense now.
You are growing more than when you first
started.
God, Jesus himself, commends them.
He compliments.
He said, I see something in you.
You have more of love of God.
You have more of the things of God
in you.
You are more intense, more on fire for
God than you were at the first.
How are you growing?
What is happening in your own life?
That is my question.
Proverbs 4.18 says, the path of the
just is as a shining light that shineth
more and more until that perfect day.
It's shining more and more.
Is the word opening to you more and
more?
Do you have the love of God growing
in you, the knowledge of God?
Is there an ever-increasing walk with God
of faith, of giving and serving?
We see there is no place in the
Scripture allowed for sloth, for laziness, for stunted
growth.
Job said, the righteous shall hold on to
his way, and he that hath clean hands
shall grow stronger and stronger.
He that is clean before the Lord will
grow stronger and stronger.
Now, I ask this question again of the
congregation, all of you hearing me.
Are you growing in the Lord?
Has your growth been stunted so that there
has been no growth this past year or
this past month?
My question again is, how do you know?
How do you measure your growth?
How do you know that you're further along
the road than you were last year?
How do you compare now to the time
when you first came to Christ?
Tragically, many, many Christians judge their spiritual growth
by how they feel.
They judge it completely on feelings, and this
is where Satan can totally deceive and seduce
you.
This has been a life-changing word that
God's been speaking into my heart for a
number of months, but I'm just now laying
hold of it, and I want you to
see it.
And I pray God help me to show
it to you this morning.
Most of us claim we walk by faith
and not by feelings, but in all practical
truth, when it comes down to the real
issues, we do live primarily and judge our
spirituality by our feelings and not by faith.
We say we walk by faith, but we
get down and discouraged because we are judging
who we are, what we are in God,
and we're judging our growth in Christ by
how we feel and our feelings.
I'm talking about Christians who doubt that they
are growing spiritually.
People who read the word, they pray, they
go to church, and deep in their heart,
they love the Lord.
But as one told me recently, he said,
I just don't see much progress in myself.
I should be so much stronger in the
Lord.
I should be more heartbroken.
I used to weep and pray, but I
don't retain much of what I hear from
the pulpit and what I'm taught, and I
really feel I'm studded in my spiritual growth.
A lot of us feel that way.
We judge ourselves, and we hear so many
sermons.
We hear so much of the word, and
we retain.
We feel like we retain so little of
it that it has not caused the growth
that we believe it should have created in
us or caused.
Let me give you a few insights on
this matter of spiritual growth and how to
judge it properly.
I'm not going to yell at you.
I'm not going to scream at you.
I'm going to be a teacher this morning,
hopefully, if you believe that, that I'm not
going to yell or get excited.
You've never been here before.
First of all, I believe you could be
growing in grace and not know it and
not being able to discern it.
For example, don't turn up in classes 219.
Paul speaks of the body being a body
of Christ being nourished in every joint and
fiber of the being from the head, the
nourishment.
Now, I want you to know the head
is Christ, and he never sleeps.
And I want you to know right now
that he is life.
He is emanating life.
Christ is always emanating the life that is
in him.
If it's not giving, if it's not nourishing,
it's not life.
Life produces life.
Jesus Christ, if you're abiding in Christ, you
have a life flow in you.
I'm going to tell you something right now.
If you have Christ in you, you're abiding
in Christ, and you're trusting in him, and
you love him with all your heart, you're
growing even when you're sleeping.
You may wake up in the morning, and
I don't care how you feel.
I don't care how blue you feel or
green or yellow or any other color.
It doesn't matter because there is a life
force in you.
When you are picked up out of the
kingdom of darkness, you are planted in Christ,
the Bible said.
You're translated, and you're planted like a tree,
and you take roots.
What do roots do?
They draw.
They suck life out of that good soil.
You've been planted in good soil.
You've been planted and rooted in Christ.
It's impossible to be rooted in Christ without
drawing life because he's the one who puts
the life in you.
He's the one who, in other words, infuses
you with that life power.
He is an emanating life, always giving, always
flowing.
And he said, he shall be in you
to the Holy Spirit.
What?
A river of living water springing up.
You don't pump it up.
It springs up.
It comes because you're in Christ.
It's a natural life flow.
Christ is also manna, the Bible says.
Why didn't Israel suffer all of the plagues
of Egypt?
Why is it that in the wilderness they
went for 40 years, and all around the
people were dying of plagues, the Canaanites, Philistines
are dying, diseases that they knew nothing about.
Why is it that they weren't dying left
and right?
God said, I'll not put on you the
diseases of Egypt.
Why?
Because manna was angels' food.
It had every nutrient to build up the
immune system.
They had nutrients, natural nutrients flowing.
Now, they may have gotten tired of manna
burgers and manna for breakfast and all kinds
of, what a cookbook that would have been.
The manna cookbook, trying to spice it up.
But I will tell you, they didn't know
it, but there were nutrients in there.
And they, you can't see it.
You can't feel it.
There are no signs of those nutrients at
work.
I take barley green in the morning.
I take 10 or 12 different kinds of
nutrient vitamins every day.
And that's why I look so good, and
that's why I feel so good.
Gwen's going to lecture me at lunchtime, I
know.
I don't see those nutrients at work in
me, but something is happening in my body
and my immune system.
Thank God, and I give God the glory.
I haven't had a colon since I've been
doing that, and I enjoy good health and
strength in the Lord.
But the Lord told me to take these
nutrients, and that's what happened when you're planted
in Christ.
You can't see it, but you're growing in
this special way that God is building up
your immune system against sin.
He's building up your immune system against the
disease of sin and all these things, and
you don't see it.
But I'll tell you what, why is it
that right now, you're not thinking of X
-rated movies?
Why is it now that when you're out
walking the streets here in New York, you're
not thinking like anybody else is thinking?
Why is it that they're thinking, it's Thursday,
and they're thinking, tomorrow night, party time!
And you're walking there, tomorrow night, prayer meeting!
Saturday night, they're thinking about all of the
vile things they're talking about getting drunk.
They call that a good time.
They vomit half the night after, and then
they go to work and say, I got
a headache, and that was a good time.
And you're walking the streets Saturday and said,
three services!
Why?
Because he's been, while you've been sleeping, while
you've been getting these messages, he's been building
up your immune system.
And you don't think like the world, you
don't talk, you're growing!
You may not feel like it, you may
get up and say, I feel backslidden.
I feel backslidden half the time.
I don't believe a word of it, but
the devil will try to tell me, you're
not preaching like you used to preach, you're
not as fiery as you used to be,
you don't cry like you used to cry,
but I bleed better than I've ever believed.
I don't have to go around worrying anymore
about whether I'm retaining anything.
Because you see, he's a constant flow.
There's something fresh and new every day.
I may have forgotten what Pastor Carter preached
two weeks ago, but I know he's going
to be here this afternoon.
I'm going to get another fresh word, another
revelation.
I don't have to worry about what I'm
retaining.
Because when you're walking in Jesus, you start
from the ankles and the knees, and then
you're finally swimming.
Don't worry about it, folks.
You're going to be swimming one of these
days.
You don't have to worry and let the
devil tell you, well, why don't I retain
everything I hear?
You didn't retain everything you heard in school
either.
You didn't retain hardly any of what you
learned in school.
Why is it that you grieve over sin
now?
Why is it so difficult?
Why is it that when you even sin
and when you fail, you are grieved as
you've never been grieved before?
Because you don't know it, but you're growing.
You don't sense it, but you're growing.
Hallelujah.
Look up when you go out at night.
Now, you can't do it in New York
with all these lights.
But you can see the moon.
You can see the sun.
Occasionally here in New York, you see stars.
Not the walking kind on the streets.
I'm talking about the ones up there.
But you ever notice, you look up, they
look like they're fixed.
They're not moving.
There's no sign of movement.
But I want you to know they are
racing hundreds and hundreds of miles an hour,
racing through the heavens.
They're set in their orbits and they are
moving constantly.
And so it is with those that are
planted in Jesus Christ.
Those that be planted in the house of
the Lord shall flourish in the courts of
our God.
Now, that's a covenant promise.
When you are in Christ and you're simply
believing his word and you say, he's my
Lord and he's my God.
He has made you a promise that you
are going to flourish.
That word flourish means bloom like a bud
bursting with life.
You shall flourish.
You're going to bloom.
You're going to burst out with life.
And you shall be bearing fruit, even in
your old age.
Some of you were there ought to say
amen to that.
Whether you see it or not, whether you
feel it or not.
God has made a covenant promise to everyone
that's in Christ Jesus.
You are rooted.
There is life flowing in you.
Whether you feel it or not, whether you
sense it or not, whether you discern it
or not.
There is life flow in you.
You are changing.
And he said, you will flourish in the
house of the Lord.
You will have life bursting out.
And you don't know until one of your
children or one of your friends are in
trouble.
And suddenly they call upon you and you
go to their house.
And when you thought you had not learned
anything and you thought you were spiritually dry.
Out flows a river of comfort and compassion.
Things that you have learned when you need
it, it's there.
Come on now, right or wrong?
I noticed Gwen in Indianapolis the other night,
the ministers conference.
I called all the ladies forward, pastors.
I felt such grief among many in need
of healing.
And Gwen hadn't been feeling too good that
day.
And I know she wasn't feeling very spiritual.
Because the way she was talking to me.
Number two, strike number two.
What I'm saying, when she went to service,
I'm sure she was not feeling physically.
I know she wasn't feeling well.
But I noticed, I looked down and she
was ministering to a pastor's wife.
The pastor's wife was just weeping and broken.
She was ministering.
Life was flowing out of her.
No matter how she felt, it was there.
There had been nourishment over the weeks and
the months here in this congregation and walking
with God.
And when, you know, if you were to
ask her, how do you feel?
I don't feel very saved.
I don't feel like I'm growing.
But folks, there was life flowing out.
And that woman's life was transformed.
It was there.
Glory to God.
And secondly, we falsely judge our spiritual growth
because of the repetition and sense of boredom
that's common to all men.
The repetition of life, the things that we
do over and over again that sometimes become
boring to us.
It's common to all men.
We get this feeling, let me say it
like this.
I must not be growing or increasing in
grace because I'm doing the same thing I've
always done.
I've been praying.
I've been doing that before.
Nothing has changed.
I read my Bible.
I go to church.
I sing in the choir or I'm an
usher.
But every Sunday I get up.
I do the same thing.
And I hear the word in every service.
I search my heart.
But I've always done that.
I've filled my capacity.
I do what I'm supposed to do in
the church.
But I don't feel like I'm doing anything
special for the Lord.
I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything special
for the Lord.
There's no variety.
That's a lie from the devil.
This can get you into more condemnation and
it can rob you of the grace of
God.
And this is something you've got to understand.
When you go to the job, for example,
you get up and it's kind of boring
and repetitious.
You usually get up the same hour.
You eat the same kind of food every
day.
You know, there are thousands of restaurants in
New York.
I end up right down here where I've
been.
I eat there every day.
I don't even have to have the menu.
I am so stuck.
I'm so monotonous about eating.
I eat the same thing.
Chicken, palo castelli in Spanish, and veal marsala.
I walk in and as soon as I
walk into the restaurant, I know.
I don't even have to order.
I am bored.
I am stuck.
It's repetitious.
You're the same way.
You take the subway the same way.
You see the same people.
You stop at Starbucks.
You drink the same kind of coffee.
And you go over and over and it
gets repetitious, doesn't it?
Same thing every day.
You sit in the same place in the
choir.
Most of you sit in the same place
here.
Same boring thing.
No husband, no wife.
I'm not trying to be facetious, but folks,
most of our lives, most people have jobs
and life is rather boring.
It's repetitious.
I dare you to get up tomorrow and
try to do everything different.
Don't shower.
Do everything different.
That's not going to change anything.
You're going to go back the next day
the same way you were before.
So let me talk to you about what
it means to grow in grace along these
lines.
It's not in doing other things or greater
things or more spectacular things.
It's not in doing a great variety of
things.
True growth in grace is doing the same
thing over and over again and doing it
better each time with more heart assurance and
more love for Jesus.
Now, when I was in first grade learning
to write, all I did for the first
two months was draw circles and lines.
Come on now, you don't remember?
When you were learning?
Now, this is English.
I don't know about the hundred other languages
that are represented here.
But in English, you drew big circles and
you drew lines like this.
And then you did capital letters.
Great big A, took the whole page.
A, another page.
B and C.
And then it took a long time to
put sentences, words together and then sentences together.
And folks, that's assumed.
Even though you're using the same letters and
you're doing the same thing, you're writing.
Now you compact it in and it becomes
easier.
The words become smaller.
You make sentences.
It's doing the same thing.
It's same repetition.
But you're learning and you're something is being
accomplished.
And eventually somebody might write a book or
a novel.
But you're learning.
Grace is learning to please God and grow
where you're planted.
And not allow the devil to put a
spirit of boredom on you.
Or saying, I'm not doing anything special for
God.
To every usher, to every teacher, to everybody
listening to me.
The most important thing in the sight of
God is that when you are planted in
a place and you're taking root.
That you do it as unto the Lord.
No matter how sick you are, no matter
how weary you are.
And the devil tells you, you're not accomplishing
anything.
Folks, I came home from a conference preaching
to hundreds and hundreds of preachers.
And on my way home, I'm not doing
anything for God.
The feeling of, I'm still not reaching out
and accomplishing what I really want to accomplish.
That's in all of us.
Folks, set all of your accomplishments and all
your desires to do something for God.
Focus in on learning to love Jesus from
your heart more than ever before.
That's what he's looking for.
I do this because I love him.
I'm planted here.
I don't judge my spiritual growth by any
feelings of repetition or boredom.
I don't do that.
Do you understand that?
Glory be to God.
You can be growing in grace, yet feel
that you're not increasing because you think you've
lost your fire and intensity.
Because you feel you've lost something that you
had when you were first saved.
When I was first saved, someone says, I
was a total fire for the Lord.
I had such freedom, such great joy.
I wept.
I was so tender.
I was easily moved.
My heart was always broken.
When I prayed back then, I seemed to
be so intense and on fire and so
strong.
I testified to everybody.
I felt so alive.
But now I feel my heart is lukewarm
or cold.
There's a deadness compared to my early years.
It's harder to move me now.
I don't weep much anymore.
I don't believe I have that simple tenderness
I once had.
I'm going to tell you now, and I
want you to listen closely.
For all of those weary-hearted people who
think that way and judge their spiritual condition
by comparison to the time you were first
saved.
When you get first saved, that's a sudden,
spectacular thing.
It's a wonderful experience.
There is brokenness.
There is weepingness.
Now, God must love tears because he bottles
them.
That's a good sign.
That's a wonderful thing to have.
But it's not an ability.
It's not something that you can conjure.
It's something of the work of the Holy
Spirit that usually comes.
These exciting emotional experiences, I compare it to
a child learning to walk.
Now, I've gone through this with four children
and 11 grandchildren.
It's a wonderful experience to see the baby
take its first steps and especially to walk
across the room.
There is such excitement in that room, and
that little baby is the center of attention.
Come on, baby, you can do it.
And so you pick him up and stand,
and he wobbles, and you hold your hand.
I've done this over and over again.
This is the end of side one.
Come on, come on, come on.
Come on.
You can do it.
And so he takes two or three steps,
and everybody claps, and he falls, and you
go pick him up.
Here we go again.
He takes four steps.
Everybody's clapping.
Everybody's cheering.
All the other kids are in there saying,
good boy, good girl.
And finally, here that little child comes right
across the room, smiling and giggling, laughing because
he made it.
A wonderful emotional experience.
And then mom gets on the phone, calls
mom, dad, grandma, grandpa.
Hey, Bonnie just took her first walk across
the room.
She's walking now all through the house.
Two days later, that little girl is in
the kitchen, tearing every pot and pan out
of every place.
There's no excitement anymore.
She's not the center of attention.
It's not an emotional experience now.
It's time for discipline.
You see, the Bible said you're not to
stay a child.
There's one thing of learning to walk rightly
before the Lord.
You've got to be taught that that little
child has to be taught you don't go
out in the street and just walk across
the street.
You don't walk into a fire.
And you see, a lot of people judge
themselves.
Well, I had such there was such excitement
every time.
Yeah, every the Lord had to give you
special attention because you were baby.
You didn't know how to walk.
And every time you feel you to pick
you up.
Now, three days later, get up.
You put yourself up when you walk because
you're walking by faith now.
You're looking around for somebody to pick you
up.
There's nobody there to pick you up.
You've got to stand on the word.
Now you've got to stand and walk by
faith.
You're not a baby anymore.
Yes, it is possible to lose first love.
The Bible said to grow lukewarm, slothful, careless.
There are many Christians in that awful state.
But Satan has done a lot of damage
to Christians by making them believe that they're
not as good.
They're not as faithful.
They're not as righteous as they once were
before that they have lost something in the
Lord.
But you see, all of these scriptures in
the Bible that warn against lukewarmness and sloth
and carelessness and losing first love.
All of those scriptures have nothing to do
with those who are fully planted in Christ
and walking by faith.
Those scriptures don't apply to you because the
very fact that you're concerned about it is
proof that you're growing.
You wouldn't be you wouldn't be thinking that
you would be sitting in pride and thinking
everything is all right.
But you see, you are concerned about it.
You're thinking about it.
You're praying about it.
You said, oh, God, I don't want to
lose that first love.
You're concerned about that.
But that very concern is evidence of growth.
Is anybody understanding what I'm saying here?
The very fact that you are concerned about
falling back is.
And you examine your heart about growing in
gracious evidence.
But it's a terrible sin to doubt God's
love for you and get down on yourself
because your feelings tell you that you're not
what you used to be.
I hope you're not what you used to
be.
Paul, the apostle, said, forgetting those things which
are behind me, reaching forth unto those things
which are before.
Forget what you once were.
I want to tell you something and get
this and get it good, please.
Your position in Christ has nothing to do
with tears.
With mourning.
It has nothing to do with something you
did in your past life of works because
you're not saved by your works.
You're not saved by feeling intense.
You're not you're not saved by by zeal,
ambition.
None of those things save you.
You are saved by faith in the covenant
promises of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is not by works least any man
should boast.
And you can look back on all the
past good things you've done and say, I
felt so good when I was doing that.
I had a preacher.
I know the minister who said he was
so happy.
He said, I've gotten back to where I
was when I was a young man.
Man, I used to preach with fire and
I prayed and I am back into the
word and getting red hot messages from the
Lord.
And he's telling me all these things he
was doing didn't last very long.
Because you see, a lot of people live
on on renewals.
They'll go for 30 days red hot.
New touch from God and new anointing.
And God, there are renewals.
There are fresh anointings.
But, folks, that's not what you live on.
You live on a constant faith in the
covenant promises of God.
I'm shakable.
No, no matter how you feel, no matter
how many lies the devil tells you or
anything else, you know that God's going to
keep his word to you.
He said, I'll keep you from falling and
present you faultless before his glory with exceeding
great joy.
And you lay hold of all of these
promises.
I will cause you to walk in my
ways.
You lay hold of those promises of God.
It doesn't matter how you feel or what
you have done in the past, because right
now you are walking in faith and standing
on the word of God.
Forgetting those things that are behind me.
Boy, I'm so glad I can forget some
of those things that are behind me.
He said, I forget the past and I
move on now.
Don't let your past hold you.
Don't let your feelings of what you once
were try.
Don't judge your present conditions by what you
once were and try to measure if you
are as red hot or as cheerful, as
prayerful as you once once were.
You look on to what God has promised
to make you.
If you'll stand on his promises, whereby we
are given are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises that by these you might
partakers of divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world.
Now, there did you hear what I just
said?
How do we how do we get his
divine nature in us?
By appropriating the covenant promises were by given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, whereby
we become partakers of the divine nature and
learning how to escape the corruption that's in
the world through the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Hallelujah.
Now, I've got to move on quickly.
Oh, my.
There are many evidence of spiritual growth, but
I'm going to give just a few, please.
How can you tell if you're growing?
Evidence number one, when you find yourself in
a crisis or temptation, you quickly run to
the Lord for answers and comfort.
The surest sign, one of the sure signs
that you're growing is that when you get
in trouble and difficulties come or crisis, you
don't get on the telephone.
You don't call somebody.
You don't sit around talking about it.
You run to Jesus.
You go immediately to the Lord.
You have learned that you have a place
to go.
Those that are growing in the Lord tell
it all to Jesus first before you tell
it to anybody else.
You know, there are some people that are
professional complainers in the church.
They are pros.
They wouldn't have anything else to live for
if they didn't have a trouble to talk
about.
Now, folks, there are a lot of people
that are really, truly suffering.
We received yesterday in the mail, a lady
from this church, I mean, and a daughter
with a lump on her breast.
Another son-in-law that just died, a
child with AIDS, and the husband just diagnosed
with bone cancer.
A whole letter full of these.
And there is a lot of grief.
There's a lot of pain.
And this sister said, but we have found
God's grace sufficient.
She was just asking for prayer.
That's a different story.
But there are some people you meet.
Every time you meet them, there's another problem.
They live.
I mean, it just gets incredible.
Every time, you know, just as soon.
Have you heard?
I don't know what I'm going to do.
I can't take it anymore.
So help me if anything else happens.
It's just over my head.
Just when I thought you want to say,
where's your God?
You don't have a God.
You hear every time they just pour out
one crisis after another.
And they're really not big crises.
And you know they haven't been to the
Lord.
That's why they're coming to you.
You know, you just want to scream lovingly.
You have no resource.
You don't know where to go.
Have you been to your niece?
Have you been to the secret closet?
That is the sign of growth.
You take everything to God.
Your family, your children, your grandchildren, your job,
your career, everything.
You take it to Jesus.
And if you don't have any other place
to go, it's because you have not really
focused on where you should be.
Run to Jesus immediately.
Hallelujah.
Here's another sign.
You're growing spiritually when you depend less and
less on outward signs, physical evidence, and inner
voices.
This is a sign of maturity in Christ
when you no longer challenge the Lord to
produce or prove himself to you with visible
evidence or some kind of a sweet, still
voice.
You know, God does speak.
He said, my sheep know my voice.
They hear when I call.
Yes, I do believe that he speaks.
But he speaks to us.
The Bible said these last days through his
son.
The scripture says God, who at other times,
at various times and in different ways, spoke
in time past under the fathers by prophets.
Now he has in these last days spoken
to us by his son.
Now, those words are recorded here in this
book.
And then the Bible says and promises the
Holy Ghost will come and he the Holy
Ghost will teach you all things and bring
to your remembrance whatsoever I've said unto you.
He said he's already spoken.
Here it is.
This is the spoken word of God.
And when you depend on inner voices or
you have to have God give you signs.
Now, see, that's all right.
Under the Old Testament, you can ask for
a fleece in the Old Testament, you know,
like Gideon did.
But, see, we're in the New Testament.
We don't need the fleece now.
We have the Son of God who is
speaking clearly.
And we have the Holy Ghost abiding in
us, bringing that word to life.
Now, we open ourselves to incredible seduction when
we listen to those little voices without having
gone first to Jesus, having searched his word
and allowed the Holy Ghost to speak to
us through his word.
May I illustrate it?
I just came back and I'm not going
to preach too much longer.
I just came back from two ministries conferences,
Detroit and Indianapolis.
And I told Gwen all the way up.
I said, I don't know whether God wants
me to preach to preachers or not.
I said, I love preaching at Times Square
Church and that's enough.
I don't like to travel.
And if God wants me to do that,
he's going to have to give me a
sign.
He's going to have to give me evidence
so clear.
And I don't know what I was looking
for.
But I challenged the Lord.
I said, you have to prove to me,
Lord, if I see evidence that you're blessing
what I preach, then I'll go anywhere in
the world.
I'll even fly in airplanes.
How else do you get to Europe?
I mean, but I went to Detroit and
God did bless.
The word was preached on prayer and I
saw preachers come and fling themselves on the
floor and cry out to God.
But that wasn't enough.
So I went to Indianapolis and all afternoon.
In fact, I went out with an associate
couple to shop while I prayed.
And in the afternoon, I poured more honey.
I said, I said, Lord, I'm tell you,
I challenged the Lord.
So help me.
And I was weeping.
I was crying and praying and walk in
the room.
I said, Lord, you have to give me
evidence tonight.
I'm not going to do this.
This is going to be my last.
I am not going to go out preaching
unless I know I'm being effective and unless
I know the word is piercing and getting
in the hearts.
Now, who do you think heard that prayer
beside the Lord?
Because you think the devil wants any preacher
to preach to preachers and stir them up
and get them on fire for God.
So the sweetest voice I've ever heard tonight,
David, you're going to see the greatest evidence
you've ever seen in your whole lifetime.
It'll be so clear.
It'll be so overwhelming that you'll know it.
You don't have to do anything.
You just stand there and I'm going to
just sweep over that house and give you
evidence on every side.
I call you to God.
Wonderful.
That's what I've been praying for.
And I went with that voice.
Now, folks, God was there.
The Lord anointed me to preach.
There was a true anointing.
I felt the prayers of a lot of
people.
And God was there.
And God was moving.
But when I was done, I just closed
my Bible.
And I what I did, I bobbed my
head, said, Now, Lord, it's your turn.
Do it.
I'm going to stand here.
Did you do it?
Nothing happened.
People wonder what's going on.
I said, folks, please, I'm just waiting on
the Holy Ghost.
I don't know whether I expected fire or
whether I wanted to see everybody laying on
the floor.
The Holy Ghost is coming to sweep everybody.
I don't know what I was looking for.
But I had this sweet voice.
I said, I'm going to show you something.
And nothing happened.
So I thought, well, I'm going to have
to do something.
So I didn't know what to do.
But I said, let's just everybody raise our
hands and love Jesus.
And let's just praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Wonderful spirit.
Quiet, gentle spirit of the Lord.
And I saw some pastors.
I just said, I won't let anything.
I said, I want all the pastors.
I get up and come and just stand
here and I want to pray for you.
And I want you to take hands and
pray for one another.
A sweet spirit.
People were God was healing and touching.
A sweet, gentle spirit was there.
And it lasted quite a long time.
But there was no lightning.
There was no thunder.
There was no evidence.
A supernatural type of evidence.
It was so quiet.
Just an ordinary, beautiful work of the Holy
Spirit.
And before I asked them to raise their
hands, I got peeved at God.
I really, inside, I was peeved.
I said, Lord, this is a big thing
with me.
I don't plan.
I'm staying here as a pastor.
But occasionally I'm going to be going up
preaching to preachers.
I just have to tell you this, because
this is the way a lot of you,
many of us are.
And how dangerous and how seductive it is
to listen to still, small voices.
And I went home.
And I went back to the apartment.
And I was downcast.
The next morning, in the elevator, a woman's
there.
She's just glowing.
Her life had been changed.
Pastor's wife.
And then the testimonies of how lives were
being changed.
And I began to see what the enemy
was trying to do.
Because, you see, the enemy was trying to
stop me.
The enemy was trying to say, that's it.
God spoke to you.
He didn't meet your requirements.
He didn't give you the evidence.
Take that as a sign you don't go
out anymore.
That's it.
And, folks, that's why I'm preaching this message
this morning.
God dealt with me all week.
Ever since, he said, no.
You opened yourself.
Because you're challenging me.
I already told you to go into all
the world and preach the gospel.
I opened a door for you.
And I gave you the message.
All you had to do was deliver it
and leave everything in the hands of God.
Just leave it.
Don't look for evidence.
Don't look for signs.
You just obey me.
You do what you're commanded to do from
the word of God.
And that's it.
Are you waiting for a voice?
Are you waiting for a sign?
Are you going to get on the bus
or train to go to a meeting where
you can see signs that you challenge God?
And you want some prophet to lay hands
on you and speak a word into your
heart?
And you're not going to pray and seek
the Lord and get into his word and
get it right here?
Folks, you are mature when you don't have
to challenge God anymore.
You don't have to have God prove anything
to you anymore.
You don't have to have a still, small
voice in you anymore.
You believe that he's going to see you
through no matter what.
Because you're in his hands.
There's more I wanted to say, but I
want to close in just for a moment
here.
I have to mention this before I close
because of the Middle East crisis.
I don't like to preach more than 45
minutes, but I'm going to go over a
few minutes today.
Still with me?
All right.
Here's where we're going to be tested.
And here's where only mature Christians are going
to be able to survive and to grow
as God wants us to grow.
This has to be that we never allow
the headlines to inflame our passions or prejudices.
Only a mature Christian, only one who's growing,
can see the headlines and listen to news
reports.
When you see Palestinians dropping stones from the
top of the wailing wall on Jews that
are praying at the wailing wall.
And when you see Israelis shooting and killing
2,000 Palestinians.
All the passions.
Here's the Serbs moving into Kosovo and killing
hundreds and even thousands.
And now Kosovo retaliating, doing the same thing.
And all over the world, you see these
racial, ethnic uprisings.
And now we have it here in New
York.
The Palestinians have been marching.
The Israelis have been marching.
And folks, there have been threats now all
over Asia.
The Muslims are threatening Christians and Jews.
If you look at New York Times today,
it's incredible what is happening.
The Time magazine, it's today, in fact, this
week's issue.
The Jews, it says, are convinced that the
35 acres where the mosque is located belongs
to Israel.
And that God has prophesied, this is an
October 16th issue, titled, A Bloody Mountain.
The Bloody Mountain, referring to the Temple Mount
in Jerusalem.
The Palestinians call it the Noble Sanctuary.
It's holy ground to the Jews and to
the Arabs.
And there is the golden dome of the
rock, that golden dome of the mosque.
Jesus called it the abomination of desolation, standing
where it ought not.
Standing where the Temple of Solomon was built.
The Jews are convinced now, and I'm reading,
the Old Testament prophesies that the Third Temple
will be rebuilt on the very spot that
the mosque now stands.
Time magazine reports that the young mullahs and
rabbis say God told them it's going to
be retaken only by blood.
Rabbi Hayim Richman's researchers have recreated all the
priestly garments, the tools that will be needed
for the Third Temple.
They've also produced a silver mizrach to collect
the blood from sacrificial animals.
They have produced a million dollar menorah, golden
candlestick.
Rabbi Richman points to the dome of the
rock and says the Temple will be built
right here and nowhere else.
In another account, the final plans already in
place for the building of the Third Temple,
fears of militant Orthodox Jews digging through underground
tunnels that Solomon had built to blow up
the mosque.
Folks, one of these days, don't be surprised
if you turn on the radio, you hear
the news, there's been a great explosion in
Jerusalem because the Palestinians are about to announce
Jerusalem as their capital.
There may be a temporary peace, there may
be a truce, but Bible predicts there's going
to be a war in Israel.
It's clear as anything in the Bible.
The Bible does talk about the rebuilding of
a temple and it's going to rebuild, it's
going to be rebuilt right there.
And if there's a war, if you notice,
the Palestinians were here with rocks and the
Israelis were there with helicopters and machine guns
and so forth.
And there's no question that Israel would win
the war.
But what do I do as a Christian?
What is our position now?
We're going to have racial tension here in
New York City and in the United States
between blacks and whites, Arabs and Jews and
all the ethnic groups.
The Bible said that this is going to
happen.
What is the attitude?
Jesus said, love your enemies.
Pray for those who misuse you.
He said, if your enemy hunger, feed him.
Are you and I going to be able
to keep our prejudice from being inflamed by
the headlines and the news reports?
Are you going to be able to say,
oh God, keep that out of my heart?
Would you be willing, if you're a Jew
and you're a Christian, would you be willing
to go into a Palestinian camp where they
set up an army field hospital and minister
and nurse soldiers who were shooting Israelis?
If you were in the medical profession, could
you do that?
Could you go there and pray, Lord, save
him, minister to him?
Could you have that kind of spirit that
was in Christ, that he said even to
those who crucified him, Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do.
We have got to look at the world.
Everyone, black, white, no matter what color, what
race, they are lost and without Christ.
And Jesus died for the whole world.
And you can know whether you're growing in
grace.
You can know if you're becoming mature in
Christ.
When you can look at all of this
and hear all of these things, then you
can rise up against every passion that tries
to rise up.
Every bit of prejudice and say, in Jesus'
name, I reject this.
I take Christ's authority over this.
I will love all mankind.
I will preach against, I'll preach against adultery,
but I'll love the adulterer.
I'll preach against homosexuality.
I'll love even the militant homosexuals and even
murderers and rapists.
Because you understand in prisons all over America
and around the world now, those who have
murdered and maimed and raped have been saved
and baptized with the Holy Ghost and are
serving Jesus.
Because somebody loved them in spite of their
sin.
And God, help us.
I am not a mature preacher if I
allow anything to come in.
I'm not a mature Christian if I allow
any racial prejudice in my heart or anger.
I have to keep it up.
The same thing goes for Republicans and Democrats.
I'm not joking about it.
You can get so riled up about Hillary
or Lazio or whoever.
You can't do it.
You keep that out of your mind.
When you go into the voting booth, you
say, Lord, why don't you just bow your
head and pray for both of them?
Both presidential candidates.
Why don't you pray?
Just pray.
The only way I can keep prejudice out
is to pray for people.
Pray for those.
If you can love those that others hate,
you're growing.
You're becoming mature.
Mature in Jesus Christ.
Will you stand, please?
Heavenly Father, we don't want to live by
our feelings.
We don't want to judge ourselves by our
feelings or our spiritual condition anymore.
Let this word take root.
Let the word take root in the hearts
of the people that are gathered in this
house today.
We love you, Jesus.
We've been planted in good soil.
And that life is flowing.
Help us, Lord, to get our eyes off
our feelings.
Help us to reject our feelings.
And simply rest in what God has said
he will do.
And that is doing because we are rooted
in him.
We are planted in him.
The Bible says that we shall take on
wings as eagles.
We'll run and not be weary.
We'll walk and not faint.
That's your promise.
And I stand on that, God, no matter
how I feel.
You said, I'm going to mount up as
wings, as eagles.
I'm going to run and not be weary.
Walk and not faint.
Thank you, Jesus.
That's one promise that will take us right
to glory.
We thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.