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 Lindell, 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.
I hope that you will open your heart
to the truth of God's word.
Remember that even in Ezekiel's day, God took
him to a valley, and when those bones
that he saw were raised up and stood,
there was still no life until the breath
of God came into them.
Brethren, you can come to the house of
God, and you can sing and shout, but
until you open your heart to the word
of God, you have no life.
The word of God is the breath, the
wind of God, as it is for you
to me that will cause his kingdom to
come within your life, will set you on
a rock and establish your goings, as the
scripture says, and give you a new song,
a testimony.
That testimony, I believe, is, among other things,
that you'll be able to stand with authority
and say, nothing can stop what God is
doing in my life.
You can stand against every lying spirit, every
devil of hell, every circumstance that comes your
way and say nothing, absolutely nothing can stop
what God is doing.
He's building something into my life.
It's his kingdom.
It's his power.
It's all about him.
I thank God for that with all of
my heart.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for the anointing
of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit, I thank you, God, for
the knowledge that I have nothing.
I am no one.
It's all by your strength and by your
might.
God, everything I have, you've given to me.
Everything I've become has been because of your
power.
What I'll be tomorrow, it's the result of
how I choose to yield to your inner
working in my life.
It's all about you, Jesus.
It's all about your power.
It's all about your kingdom.
I have no other testimony, but the testimony
of your name.
Lord, you say that if you don't build
the house, then those that labor, labor in
vain.
God, I'm asking today, Lord, that you would
come.
There's not be a house of empty labor.
These words would not fall to the floor,
but God, they would find a lodging place
in the hearts of your people.
Lord, that your kingdom would advance in the
kingdom of darkness and suffer great violence in
this house today.
Oh God, Lord, as truth is received in
the heart, as Lord, the feeble are given
strength.
Those that are weary, Lord, are quick and
enlivened by the power of almighty God.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
It is indeed a lamp for our feet
and a light for our path.
We love your word here in this house.
Oh God, Lord, we thank you, God.
You are the living word.
We invite you to live in us.
God, raise us up.
Make us a testimony of praise in this
city.
Oh God, of what you and you alone
can do.
We give you all the praise, the honor
and all the glory.
Yours is the only kingdom, the only power,
both now and forever.
We believe it with all of our hearts.
In Jesus name, Nehemiah.
If you'll go there in the Old Testament,
please.
Nehemiah.
Might as well go right to the index
for many that are new Christians here to
make it easier for you to find that
book.
Nehemiah chapter two.
Now nothing can stop what God is building.
I'll begin at verse seventeen and I'll be
reading through to verse twenty in Nehemiah chapter
two.
If you attend Times Square Church, you need
your Bible.
If you intend on coming here, make sure
you always have your Bible with you because
we are a Bible believing and Bible preaching
church.
Verse seventeen, chapter two.
Then said I unto them, Do you see
the distress that we are in?
How Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof
are burned with fire.
Come, and let us build up the wall
of Jerusalem, that we be no more a
reproach.
Then I told them of the head of
my God, which was good upon me, as
also the King's words that he had spoken
unto me.
And they said, Let us rise up and
build.
So they strengthened their hands for this good
work.
But when Sanballat the Horonite and Thobai the
servant, the Ammonite and Yeshim the Arabian heard
it, they laughed us to scorn and despised
us and said, What is this thing that
you do?
Will you rebel against the King?
Then answered I them and said unto them,
The God of heaven, he will prosper us.
Therefore, we his servants will arise and build.
But you have no portion, no right, nor
memorial in Jerusalem.
Now in this particular portion of the scripture
in chapter two, we are opting in and
it's near the beginning of a work which
God had called a man named Nehemiah to
do on his behalf.
Now Nehemiah was a faithful servant of God.
He was a cupbearer to a king in
a foreign nation that had once enslaved the
people of God, but subsequently through the providence
of God had released them and allowed them
to begin to go home.
Nehemiah had not been born in Jerusalem, but
still he had a heart for the things
of God and for his people.
But he was a faithful man.
And folks, if you want to ever be
used of God, you and I have to
be found faithful in that which God has
already given us to do.
Don't look to anything bigger.
Don't look to anything more.
If as of yet, you're not found faithful
in the things that God has entrusted you
with.
Now I want to just go through a
little bit of history just as a basis
of helping us to understand what's going on
here.
Now the scene is after the exiled Jews
had begun to return to Israel.
There were three returns after their 70 year
captivity in Babylon in the year 538 BC.
The first group returned under the leadership of
a man, a governor called Zerubbabel.
And by 515, after much opposition, they succeeded
in rebuilding the temple.
And you know, the books, the old Testament
prophetic books of Haggai and Zachariah are two
prophets that God raised up when they faced
discouragement to give them a word to tell
them, continue to build in spite of the
opposition.
You know, that's the word that God will
always send to his church, continue to build
in spite of the opposition, in spite of
what comes against you, in spite of what
the enemy throws your way.
God's word is all you need a faith
in the word of God.
Remember Zachariah in chapter four and verse six,
he spoke these words to those that were
laboring.
He said, not by might, not by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord of
hosts.
He was essentially saying, you have laid the
foundation.
You will put the capstone on this work
and you will cry grace to the whole
thing.
Once it's over, you will shout grace to
it.
Thanks be to God.
Those that truly know the Lord, allow God
to come into their lives and begin to
do a work.
And when it's all over, it's not look
what I did.
It's grace.
You shout grace.
You shout it from the mountaintop.
You shout it when you get up in
the morning and you shout it when you
go to bed at night, all of Jesus
and none of me.
Thanks be to God.
Later on in the year 458 BC, a
second group of those that were returning are
led by a priest called Ezra.
They came back and Ezra came and taught
them how to rededicate their lives to the
purposes of God.
The temple had been built.
There were some victories that had been won,
but nevertheless, the people were in somewhat of
an apostate condition.
You know, the book of Ezra, how you
open the word and and did God did
a marvelous work among the people.
Now, finally, in the year 14 years later,
in year 444, this man called Nehemiah, I'd
heard a report and the report that came
to him is in chapter one, verses two
and three.
He says that Hanani, one of my brethren
came, he and certain men of Judah.
And I asked them concerning the Jews that
had escaped, which were left of the captivity
and concerning Jerusalem.
And they said unto me, the remnant that
are left of the captivity there in the
province are in great affliction and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down
and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
Now, this report that came to Nehemiah was
basically saying that the work, the work of
God was still incomplete.
The people are still unprotected from their enemies.
The wall, in a sense, symbolizes several things,
but one of which, and certainly not the
least, is that that's the wall of God's
parameter, the wall of God's protection for those
that are his and those that are within
that wall, having the assurance that they are
protected from all of the enemies that without
that distinction are free to walk in and
out and to bring accusation against the people
of God.
Now, the people are still unprotected from their
enemies and are being afflicted and reproached.
Now, the word in the original text for
reproach is sherifah, and here's what it means.
There's a finger being pointed at them.
They are being blamed.
They're being taunted and they're being mocked.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
The work of Christ is not yet complete
in your life.
If the enemy still has access to you,
if he can still come in and taunt
you and blame you and reproach you and
mock the work of God that is going
on in your life, there's still an incompleteness
about what God wants to do in your
life.
And so he will send his word, and
his word will build a wall round about
you.
His word will establish you, as the scripture
says, as a praise in the earth.
Now, Nehemiah was sent by God, in effect,
to bring God's work towards his people to
completion.
The prophet Zechariah in chapter 2 and verse
5 states that the intent of God in
bringing his people back is this.
He says, For I, saith the Lord, will
be unto her a wall of fire round
about, and will be the glory in the
midst of her.
Now, the glory is the kavod, which means
the majesty, the abundance, and the wealth.
God says, This is what I'm going to
do.
I'm going to build a wall around about
you.
This is a word to every believer who's
here today.
God says, If you're hungry for me, yes,
you might be in the temple.
You might have a heart that wants me.
But if you are still open to the
taunting and to the opposition of all your
enemies, if you are still crawling around under
constant condemnation, God says, I'm going to come
to you.
If you will open your heart to what
I'm speaking, and I will build a wall
around about you, I will protect you from
your enemies, and I will be a source
of wealth and abundance and majesty right in
the middle of your heart and in your
life.
I will give you a testimony of praise
in the earth.
I will establish you, not by your works,
not by your power, but by the indwelling
work of my spirit.
When you open your heart to my word,
I will become a wall of fire around
about you.
You know what a wall of fire means?
It's impenetrable.
No chariot, no power of hell and darkness,
nothing of the evil one can penetrate that
wall and touch the heart of a child
of God who knows who they are in
Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
This is the intent of God.
This is what God wants to do.
Put a marker near my, go to chapter
Isaiah, please with me.
Go ahead to Isaiah chapter 62.
God says in his word what his intent
is for his people.
Verse one, he said, for Zion's sake, will
I not hold my peace?
And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest
until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth.
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness and
all kings thy glory.
And thou shalt be called by a new
name, which the mouth of the Lord shall
name.
God says, I'm going to do such a
work in you that I'm going to give
you such a new nature that you will
actually be called by another name.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
Those that have known Christ, if you've been
growing in the grace of God, you ever
take time to look back at some of
those old pictures in the family album and
take a look at your countenance and look
at your face.
If you have been in the Lord at
any amount of time, you look back at
those things and say, whoever that was is
dead.
There is now a new name written down
in glory.
There's a new name.
Hallelujah.
Thou shalt also be a crown of glory
in the hand of the Lord and a
royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
God says, I'm I am going to do
something in you that will bring honor to
my name, not to you, not to a
church, not to an organization, but to me.
I'm going to bring honor to my name
because I'm going to do something in you
and a royal diadem.
In other words, there's going to be a
power.
I'm going to display my power in you.
It's a diadem that was held in the
hand of God that symbolized, to some degree,
the power of God.
Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken.
Neither shall thy land anymore be termed desolate,
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah and thy
land Beulah for the Lord delighteth in thee
and thy land shall be married.
For as a young man marrieth a virgin,
so shall thy sons marry thee.
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
I have set watchmen upon thy walls of
Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day
nor night.
Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep
not silence and give him no rest until
he established, until he makes Jerusalem a praise
in the earth.
God says, call out to me.
Give me no rest until I establish you.
My church is a praise in the earth.
Give no rest to me.
Now, Nehemiah endured much opposition to this call
to have the city of God rebuilt and
established, the wall of God around about his
city rebuilt and established.
And folks, if anyone tries to tell you
that there's no trouble on the road to
becoming Christ-like, it's most probable that they
themselves have never begun the journey.
I'll tell you that for a fact.
Anybody that gets up and tells you, you
come to Christ and it's all peaches and
cream all the way through, well, they themselves
have never left the starting gate.
You different forms of opposition in his attempt
to rebuild the wall and redefine as it
is those that are inside and those that
are outside of that wall.
Yet I only want to speak of three,
which I believe are common to all that
would desire a full life with Christ.
If you are here today and in your
heart, you're saying pastor, I want to be
all that Jesus has called me to be.
I want to be everything.
I want to open my heart and let
him do everything that he wants to do.
You're going to find that you're going to
begin to fight fears within like Paul, the
apostle did fighting without, there's going to be
everything of hell and even things you didn't
think about are going to come against that
work in your life.
The very first thing that Nehemiah encountered is
the very first thing that you and I
encountered when we first set our faces to
having God do all that he wants to
do within our lives.
You find that in Nehemiah chapter two and
verse 19, a spirit of mockery will come
against you.
Mockery.
When Sanballat and the Hornites will buy on
the servant, et cetera, et cetera, they heard
it.
They laughed us to scorn and despised us
and said, what is this thing that you
do?
Will you rebel against the king?
In other words, you, you know what it's
like those that have walked with God in
the amount of time and you have an
honest heart to grow in the grace of
Christ.
You hear these voices that come against you,
things that have controlled your life for years,
things that have tormented your mind, thought patterns
that have come into you, things that have
become part of your character because they were
spoken into your life as you were growing
things such as you're stupid or you'll never
amount to anything.
Others may, but you may not.
All these things that have come against you
and some of them have even formed a
rulership as it is in your life.
They rule your thinking.
They rule your path.
They caused you to do the things that
you did.
They caused some to put drugs in their
arm to look for relief.
They caused others to seek relief in a
more relationships.
They caused others to do other types of
things.
And now, as you set your heart to
live for God, these same voices, these former
kings, these ones that have, in a sense,
ruled among the ruins will come and say
how foolish to think you can stand against
the authority that has been established here in
your life.
Will you defy his power to rule?
Do you think you can stand?
Will you rebel against the king?
Do you think you can usurp those of
us here who preside over these ruins and
have dominion over your life?
Do you think so?
You know, there will immediately be a challenge
to the work of God.
The moment you set your heart to become
Christ-like, set your watch by it, there
will be a challenge from everything of hell
against what you are desiring God to do
in your life.
Now, these are arrogant statements from those who
had occupied and ruled among what they were
quite content to be ruins.
There was all kinds of rubble strewn about.
The wall was down.
Mocking spirits, mocking people could come in and
out.
They could point the finger at the people
of God.
They could tell them, yes, maybe you're building
something, but it'll never be the way it
used to be.
They will accuse them of all types of
things.
And as this man, Nehemiah, comes onto the
scene, they opposed him with arrogance in their
heart.
Their statements were arrogant, but they disguised well
-founded fears within.
There was a fear that was in these
mocking spirits that caused them to mock in
the first place.
I want to tell you something this morning.
You set your heart to seek Christ and
to seek the fullness of Christ, you will
come up against opposition.
But the reason you're coming up against opposition
is because these spirits will and thoughts and
patterns, whatever they are, they know that the
moment you set your heart to seek God,
their days are numbered.
There is an arrogance which covers a fear
for in chapter two and verse 10, says,
when Sanballat the Horonite and Zubiah the servant,
the Ammonite heard of it, it grieved them
exceedingly.
For there was come a man to seek
the welfare of the children of Israel.
They were grieved in their hearts.
They were afraid because a man had come
to seek the welfare of the children of
God.
And I want to tell you something today.
A terror hits hell when anyone sets his
heart towards being all that God has called
him to be.
When a weakest child, when the weakest son,
the weakest daughter of God, whoever set foot
in the house of God says, God, I
am nothing.
My life is a ruin, but I set
my heart to let you do whatever you
want to do in my life and make
me whatever you want to make me.
The moment hell hears that, there's a terror,
a shock of terror that goes through hell
itself.
The devil himself knows and every demon of
hell knows that Jesus Christ came to seek
the welfare of everyone who had turned to
Almighty God through his shed blood.
The devil knows that he was triumphed over
on Calvary.
The blood of Christ releases even from the
grave those that had gone on to be
with the Lord before Christ died.
The devil and all his hordes know the
power of God.
Matthew chapter 8, verse 29.
You see Jesus coming into a place of
tombs.
It was called the Jurgisenes.
There were two persons possessed with devils in
that particular place running around, tormented, the scripture
says, day and night.
And when Jesus came on the scene, they
cried out something very unusual.
They said, what have we to do?
What have you to do with us?
What are we to do with you, thou
son of God?
We know who you are.
And then they said something.
They said, are you come here to torment
us before the time?
Have you come to torment?
There was something in that statement.
They knew that they had been triumphed over
by Christ.
They knew the presence of the son of
God meant the end of their reign.
Have you come to torment us before?
Or will you let us run roughshod through
this life or through these lives?
Will you let us continue to dominate these
lives?
And as Jesus stood and just looked upon
them, they knew their time to depart had
come.
And you know the rest of the story.
They besought him.
They said, well, if we have to go,
send us into the herd of pigs over
there and let us drown them in the
sea.
Hallelujah.
Nehemiah chapter 4, again, verses 2 and 3.
The mockery continues.
And he spake before his brethren and the
army of Samaria and said, what do these
feeble Jews?
Will they fortify themselves?
Will they sacrifice?
Will they make an end in a day?
Will they revive the stones out of the
heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
Now, Tobiah the Ammonite was by him.
And he said, even that which they build,
if a fox goes up, he shall even
break down their stone wall.
Mockery.
Mockery coming against the work of God.
Lying spirits saying that even if a fox,
it'll only take a little thing that comes
against this thing that God is building in
your life and it will come crashing down.
It's a feeble wall and it will not
stand.
Go with me to Luke chapter 13, please,
in the New Testament.
Luke chapter 13.
Even a fox.
You ever heard that?
Have you ever had that spoken into your
life by some voice coming from somewhere?
All it's going to take is just a
little thing.
It won't stand.
It won't last.
It's too good to be true.
It's not as strong as you think it
is.
All I have to do is send a
fox against it.
It's going to fall.
You're going to go running right back to
your old lifestyle once again.
Luke 13, 31.
The devil brought the same accusation, in a
sense, against Jesus Christ.
He says, the same day there came certain
of the Pharisees saying unto him, get thee
out and depart hence, for Herod will kill
thee.
In other words, they're trying to make him
believe that Herod has power over him.
And he said unto them, go ye and
tell that fox, behold, I cast out devils
and I do cures today and tomorrow and
the third day I shall be perfected.
Go tell him.
Behold, I cast out devils.
I do cures today and tomorrow.
The word for do is epilatio, which is
what it means.
I finish.
I complete.
I perfect.
I bring to an end or goal.
I accomplish what I set out to do.
He was saying, I am casting out devils.
Tell him I'm casting out devils.
Tell him the devil has no power over
me.
Tell him the devil has no power over
what I'm doing.
I cast him out.
I cast him out at will.
I do cures.
I do things that are impossible.
I'm doing them today.
I will continue to do them tomorrow.
I will bring them to completion.
I will perfect them.
I will bring them to an end goal.
I will fully accomplish what I've set out
to do.
And the third day he said, I shall
be perfected the third day.
In other words, the word for shall be
perfected is tele idol, which means I will
have reached my prescribed goal.
The living Bible says it this way.
Jesus said, go tell that fox that I
will keep on casting out demons and doing
miracles of healing today and tomorrow.
And the third day I will reach my
destination.
Hallelujah.
Go tell that fox that I am building
something that nothing can triumph over.
And this is what God is saying to
you and I today.
Tell every fox that comes against your life
that tries to tell you it has power
over you, that tries to tell you it
can kill you, that tries to tell you
it can destroy the work that God's doing
in your life.
Tell that fox, tell every fox that what
I am building cannot be stopped.
Tell them, tell every fox that what I'm
doing cannot be triumphed over.
It has been written and all who place
their trust in my word will reach that
place where I am going.
And I have destined them to be the
third day.
I am going to perfect that which I
have destined to do.
I have come to seek the good of
a people that will turn to me.
Hallelujah.
Nehemiah, again in chapter four, verse four, did
what you and I need to do.
He began to pray and he prayed a
certain type of prayer.
He said, Here, O our God, for we
are despised and turn their reproach upon their
own head and give them for a prey
in the land of captivity.
Nehemiah prays that all mockers would be brought
into captivity.
Remember, the Bible tells us the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to
God, to the pulling down of strongholds, casting
down, casting down every imagination, every high thought
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Jesus Christ.
Captivity is captive.
That's what the scripture says.
When Jesus Christ wrote from the dead, he
took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men,
gave power unto men, gave his presence unto
men, put an enduring seed in the lives
of those who turn to him, a seed
that cannot be triumphed over.
It cannot be blown away because it takes
root.
It goes down deep and out of it
comes a tree and there's life and there's
fruit and there's lodging available in the work
that God does in the lives of his
children.
Hallelujah.
Send the markers to flight.
Let God build around you that wall.
You have to know who you are in
Jesus Christ.
That's why the understanding of the covenant is
the New Testament covenant is so important.
If you don't understand it, you need to
get Pastor David's book on the new covenant
unveiled.
I obviously don't have time to go through
all of that today.
For those who know the New Testament covenant,
you now know who you are in Jesus
Christ.
You understand the provision of God for your
salvation.
You understand the fullness of your righteousness is
all by the work that he has done.
It's been made complete through Jesus Christ.
It's not of ourselves.
It's all of him.
You understand that the Holy Spirit comes into
your life to lift your state as it
is in line with your standing.
Your standing is absolutely accepted with God through
Jesus Christ.
Absolutely entire, absolutely complete.
You could have had the worst day of
your absolute Christian life.
You could have not read your Bible and
feel totally condemned.
You could have really lost it at work.
You could have lost it at home.
You could have lost it on the freeway
on the way to church.
You could have lost it with the ushers
coming in to find your seat.
It's been the worst day of your life.
But I want to tell you something.
It's not by works of righteousness that we
have done.
It's according to his mercy that he has
saved us.
You need to know if you are a
genuine child of God, if you have a
heart to live for God, the whole time
you've had a bad day, Jesus has been
standing before the throne of God presenting you,
presenting your name, speaking your name before the
father and the father who doesn't deal with
you directly, but only through his son.
There's one God.
There's one mediator between God and man, the
man Christ Jesus.
Jesus stands before his father speaking your name
and God the father looks at his son
and says, I received that brother.
I received that that sister as the righteousness
of almighty God because of Jesus Christ and
God the father.
Jesus now sends the Holy Spirit to come
into our lives to sanctify us, which is
which means lift our standing.
This is a constant work of God to
lift our our state as it is rather.
I said that wrongly to lift our state
in line with what our standing already is
in Christ before the throne of God.
Sanctification is an ongoing work.
You'll never we'll never arrive.
That's why the apostle Paul says I've not
arrived, but I press on to the mark
of the high calling.
He's not talking about salvation.
That was settled.
That was secure.
He knew that.
But he's talking about going on to letting
God begin to build in me what he
wants in my life, giving him giving me
an understanding.
What is that wall?
The wall is the understanding of who we
are in Jesus Christ, what Christ did for
us on Calvary, who we become when the
wall is up.
The enemy can't come in and point his
finger at us anymore.
Hallelujah.
Paul said it this way.
If God before us, then who can be
against us?
If God can be for us, who can
stand against us?
Jesus himself said their righteousness is of me.
It is all mine.
This is our righteousness.
It's got nothing to do with our works.
It's got everything to do with our faith
in Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah.
Thanks be to God for his mercy.
Thanks be to God for his grace.
It gives us the liberty to grow.
We don't have to have the finger of
the devil pointed at us every time we
make a mistake.
Hallelujah.
Cast the markers away.
Cast them away.
Get into this book and know it inside
out.
Know who you are in Christ.
Ask the Holy Ghost to make it a
reality to you and cast away every voice.
Condemn every tongue that rises against you in
judgment.
Every tongue that rises to condemn you, you
condemn that tongue.
This is the heritage of the servants of
the Lord.
Now the second battle, Genesis 3, 1 says
the serpent was more subtle than any beast
in the field.
Nehemiah chapter 6 tells us that the second
battle that we would have to face is
a battle of subtlety.
Chapter 6, verse 1, it says, Now it
came to pass when Sanballat and Tobiah and
Yeshim the Arabian and the rest of our
enemies heard that I had builded the wall
and that there was no breach left therein,
though at the time I had not set
up the doors upon the gates that Sanballat
and Yeshim sent unto me, saying, Come, let
us meet together in some one of the
villages in the plain of Ono.
But they thought to do me mischief.
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I'm
doing a great work so that I cannot
come down.
And why should the work cease while I
leave it and come down to you?
Yet they sent unto me four times after
this sort, and I answered them after the
same manner.
Now Ono was near the border of Samaria.
It was Sanballat's home turf.
I guess if I can make a type,
it's the devil's home turf.
A day's journey from the work of Jerusalem
that was going on.
Now we ask ourselves the question, why a
day's journey?
Why does the devil want to get us
a day's journey away from the calling of
God, the work of God?
Now it represents many things, but I want
to speak about two of those things that
a day's journey may represent.
Number one, it's to cause you to embark
on a path of pursuing the lusts of
your own heart.
The enemy will always come and try to
sow discontent in your heart.
If you are seeking God, he will come
to you and say, well, the work that
God is doing in your life is so
wonderful that you shouldn't be here.
You should be in another place.
Come over to the plain of Ono, and
let's talk about it.
I've been there, folks.
I know what the plain of Ono was
all about.
This is the end of side one.
The work that God's called you to do,
and you've moved a day's journey away from
it, and all of a sudden, I remember
standing on a platform one time.
It's too long a story to go into,
but I had a man come to my
door.
I was seeking God with all of my
heart, and this man came to my door
and told me that I needed him.
That should have been a warning in my
heart, which I didn't heed.
I was young.
And he said, I need you.
He said, you need me.
He said, the message God's putting in your
heart needs to go throughout the whole country.
And he said, I'm the man to do
that.
Now, that should have been a warning.
That was Sanballat coming to my door and
saying, I want to draw you.
I was in the closet of prayer, seeking
God, and the enemy was wanting to draw
me out and send me into a battle
that I was not prepared to face.
And I remember letting him do and setting
up an incorporation and all of these things.
It took a long time to get out
of renting an auditorium, and I remember that
first night when the curtain went up, I
had this sickening feeling in my heart.
It was, oh no, I'm in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
And I knew it right from that very
moment, I was in the wrong place.
A day's journey away from the call of
God, discontent with what God has already provided
and what God has already promised.
You can be an usher.
You can be growing in leaps and bounds
in the knowledge of God, and somebody will
come to you and begin to sow that
in your heart and get you away from
the calling of God, get you out of
where you're growing in the grace and knowledge
of Jesus Christ, and try to move you
somewhere where you're going away from just a
humble, submissive heart to the work of God,
to a place of self-ambition and following
the desires of your own heart.
There is no growth.
That is a zero growth place, folks.
I'll tell you right now, the easiest way
to get out of that is just repent
of it.
If it's in your heart, repent of it
and go back to where you left off,
the pathway of God.
Now, Numbers 1131, you remember the story.
Please don't turn there.
I just shared with you the children of
Israel were being led by God through the
wilderness into a place of promise, and they
began to murmur against the Lord because they
got tired of the food that God was
giving them.
They got tired of the daily sustenance of
this manna that the Lord was giving, and
they began to ask for quail.
And you know the scripture, the Lord sent
them quail, and Numbers 1131 says that there
were so many birds that were sent into
the camp that it took a day's journey
on either side of the camp to gather
the quail.
Now, there's a symbolism to that because this
is what it represents is exactly what was
going on in Nehemiah's life, an attempt to
draw them away, an attempt to draw away
a day's journey, in a sense, from the
very heart of God.
Proverbs 106 and verse 15 tells us that
they waited not for the counsel of the
Lord, but lusted exceedingly in their heart.
And the Bible says he gave them their
request, but sent leanness into their soul.
Folks, if you have a leanness in your
soul, it's very possible that you're a day's
journey away from the work of God.
Also, the enemy knows that leaving the pathway
of God for your life will only bring
you into despair.
In 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 4, we
know the story of Elijah, but the Bible
says that he took a day's journey into
the wilderness, and at that place, a day's
journey away from where he had once known
victory, he lost heart and wanted to die.
And don't think for a moment the devil
doesn't know that.
That if he can get you a day's
journey away from the work of God, the
call of God, there will be, if he
can get you walking in self-ambition, if
he can get you away from that cry
of your heart that says, Father, not my
will, but thine be done.
If he can move you away from being
content just to be who you are and
where you are and growing in the grace
and knowledge of God, if he can draw
you out into the lust of your own
heart and bring you a day's journey away
from that which is really the only true
work of God.
In a sense, if he can take you
out from behind the wall that God is
building around your life, he can lead you
into a wilderness place where you will lose
heart and eventually want to die.
And I believe some of you are here
today.
That's exactly where you are.
But I want to remind you of one
thing that the devil would not want you
to know today, that it's only a day's
journey to get back.
It only took a day's journey to get
away and it's only a day's journey to
get back.
And all you have to do is get
up or wherever you are and say enough
of this, enough of the self-consumption, enough
of these vain plans and empty plans for
my life and all this ambition about greatness
and what I'm going to be and what
I'm going to do for God.
It's all amounting to nothing.
Enough of this.
I'm getting up and going back to that
place where I knew the blessing of God,
where God's blessing was upon my life.
It's a pathway of humility, just getting up
and acknowledging, God, I have walked away from
you.
I have left what you wanted to do
in my life.
I'm outside of the wall that you wanted
to build around me.
My God, how foolish of me.
I'm just getting up and I'm going back.
Nehemiah, again, chapter six.
If you'll go there with me, you're already
there, I believe this would be the last
battle.
Satan will try to instill in you the
fear of personal harm or loss.
If you persist in the work before you,
the enemy will come and he will say,
if you, if you keep on this path,
it's going to cost you big time.
Nehemiah chapter six, verse 10.
Afterward, I came to the house of Shemiah,
the son of Deliah, the son of Methodebel,
who was shut up.
And he said, let us meet together in
the house of God within the temple.
Let us shut the doors of the temple
for they will come to slay thee.
Yea, in the night will they come to
slay thee.
And I said, should such a man as
I flee and who was there that being
as I am would go into the temple
to save his life, I will not go
in.
And lo, I perceived that God had not
sent him, but that he pronounced this prophecy
against me for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired
him.
Therefore, was he hired that I should be
afraid and do so in sin that they
might have matter for an evil report and
that they might reproach me.
My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat
according to these, their works and on the
prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets
that would have put me in fear.
So the wall was finished in the twenty
and fifth day of the month, Elal in
fifty and two days.
And it came to pass that when all
our enemies heard thereof and all the heathen
that were about us saw these things, that
they were much cast down in their own
eyes for they perceived that this work was
wrought of our God.
They were cast down.
The last thing they attempted to do to
Nehemiah is to instill a fear in his
heart that if that if Nehemiah, if I
can, if I can liken it to what
you and I may be going through today,
the enemy will come and say, look, this
has been great and you've allowed God to
do a wonderful work in your life.
But if you let this thing continue, you're
going to wind up on the mission field.
And you know, that's going to cost you
big time if you go there.
If you let this thing continue, you know,
God's going to ask for your bank account.
You're going to have to give up your
car, your home.
It's going to cost you big time.
You're going to end up preaching on the
street and get you might even get harmed
by people like the apostle Paul did out
there.
And he's going to try to convince you
that the fall of God, that you will
suffer a loss.
But folks, that's a lie, because the only
loss, the only eternal loss this we may
lose some things here on this earth, but
these things on this earth are not eternal.
That's what the devil doesn't want you to
know.
They're all temporal.
They're all going to be dissolved.
The apostle Peter says they're going to burn.
They're all going to pass away.
That which can be lost is that which
is eternal.
That which can be lost on in this
world is only temporary.
Remember, James said, where our lives are just
a vapor.
They appear for a season like a smoke,
and then all of a sudden they vanish
and are gone away.
It's only that which is eternal that we
are ought to be in fear, in a
sense, if there is such a thing of
losing the loss, the eternal loss that will
be suffered is to the kingdom of hell
and darkness itself.
And the devil knows that if you press
through and you're one of those that says,
I will not stop until God does such
a work in my life that he establishes
himself through me as a praise in the
earth.
I will not stop until God's word has
totally surrounded me until I know who I
am in Jesus Christ.
I will not stop until the mocking spirits
without and within are all brought into subjection
to the obedience of Jesus Christ.
I will not stop until the Holy Spirit
has dominion in this life, dominion in this
heart, and it becomes the delight of my
life to do the will of God and
not my own will.
I will not stop.
I will not stop for that which can
be lost, only lost is eternal.
These things on this earth can pass away.
Remember what Jesus said to his disciples in
Luke 21, 18, he was telling them, he
said, not a hair of your head is
going to perish.
That's incredible thing.
Some people were going to get their heads
cut off that he was speaking to.
Some are going to be run through at
the sword.
Others were going to die.
Violent death.
Peter was going to be, as history tells
us, crucified upside down.
But he said, not a hair of your
head will perish.
You see, he was not speaking about this
physical kingdom, not speaking about his physical clothes,
his physical body, physical safety, not speaking about
the here and now.
Jesus was saying, I'm doing a work.
I am building something.
And it's not temporal.
It's not temporary.
It's eternal.
It's not a physical kingdom.
It's a spiritual kingdom.
And if you'll open your heart to my
work, not a hair of it will be
lost.
Nothing, nothing.
The devil can't touch what I'm doing in
your life.
Hallelujah.
It's an eternal work.
Yes, you may suffer.
Christians do suffer here on this side of
eternity.
Yes, some may even die.
But God says there's a day coming.
I'm going to blow a trumpet and not
even death can have dominion over you.
Not a hair, not a hair on your
head is going to be lost.
Not a hair.
Hallelujah.
I'm going to raise you up in fullness.
You're going to be complete.
You're going to be whole.
You're going to be entire.
The work I am doing cannot be triumphed
over.
Nothing can stop what I am building in
the lives of my people.
Hallelujah.
John saw it, the apostle John.
If you'll turn with me to Revelation, I'm
going to close with this today.
In Revelation chapter 21, John saw what God
was doing.
He saw it coming.
And folks, you have to be able to
see it.
Otherwise, your whole concentration is on the here
and now.
And that's where the heart gets to be
open to the lies of the evil one.
When all we can see is now, all
we can think about is present comforts.
And we lose sight of what God is
doing.
We lose sight of the fact that he's
casting out devils.
He's doing healings.
He's doing cures.
And the third day, there's going to be
a work brought to perfection.
We lose sight of that.
And we become prey to all the lies
of darkness to stop the work of God
in our lives.
John 21, John says, he carried me away
in the spirit to a great and high
mountain and showed me that great city, the
holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
Folks, if you trust Christ, you're going to
be there.
Do you know that John's speaking about a
place that you're going to be?
That's an incredible thought.
When you think about it, we're going to
be there.
You might be my neighbor.
Who knows?
And I might be your neighbor.
I don't.
I will know as I'm known.
You will know as you are known.
Pastor David says that there'll be no need
for introductions.
I will know you.
You will know me.
There'll be no lies.
There'll be no sign.
There'll be no sorrow.
There'll be no bad memories.
There'll be no wounded hearts.
There'll be nothing.
There'll be an absolute entire work done by
almighty God himself.
Those who trusted him, those who walked with
him here on this earth, he has brought
to completion everything he promised he did.
Hallelujah.
Now, verse 11 says, having the glory of
God and her light was like unto a
stone, most precious, even a Jasper stone clear
as crystal and verse 12 had a wall.
What was it that he sent me to
do to rebuild the wall?
What is it that God wants to do
to rebuild the wall of who he is
round about our lives?
Great and high had 12 gates and the
gates, 12 angels and the names written thereon,
which are the names of the 12 tribes
of the children of Israel on the three
on the east, three gates on the north,
three gates on the south, three gates and
on the west, three gates and the wall
of the city had 12 foundations.
And in them, the names of the 12
apostles of the land go to verse 21
and the 12 gates were 12 pearls.
Every several gate was of one pearl in
the street of the city was pure gold
as it were transparent glass.
And I saw no temple there in for
the Lord God almighty and the lamb or
the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the
sun, neither of the moon to shine in
it for the glory of God did lighten
it.
And the lamb is the light thereof.
Now, folks, this is coming, but this is
the type of what God wants to do
in the spiritual realm.
In all of his children here today, God
says, I want to build you.
I want to build you on a solid
foundation.
I want to put a wall round about
you.
I want your heart to open to my
word and I will establish a glory of
my presence within you.
And you will be a light to those
around you.
You will be set upon a hill.
You will not be able to be hidden
from your generation.
And the nations of them which are saved
shall walk in the light of it.
And the kings of the earth shall bring
their glory and honor into it.
And the gates of it shall not be
shut at all by day for there shall
be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honor
of the nations into it.
There shall in no wise enter into it.
Anything that defileth, neither whatsoever work at the
abomination or make it the lie, but they
which are written in the Lamb's book of
life.
Now, chapter 22, verse three, there shall be
no more curse, but the throne of God
and of the Lamb shall be in it
and his servants shall serve him and they
shall see his face and his name shall
be in their foreheads.
There shall be no night there and they
need no candle, neither light of the sun
for the Lord.
God gives them life and they shall reign
forever and ever.
They shall reign.
This is what God is doing.
This is where God is building.
This is where God is taking you and
I to.
Is it not worth it to yield our
lives to him?
Is it not worth it to begin to
let him build into our lives whatever he
wants to build?
Is it not worth it to walk the
pathway that God has ordained for each of
our lives?
Is it not worth it to let him
put within us and still in such a
faith that we have the power within us
as it is to cast away all every
mocking spirit that comes against the work and
the word of God?
Is it not worth it to yield our
lives to him as a living sacrifice, counting
no cost on this side of eternity too
great for the kingdom of God to not
only advance in us, but to advance into
this darkened society that Christ came and gave
his life for?
Is it not worth it to live for
God?
Hallelujah.
There are some here today that I know
that you are tormented.
You bought the lie that God's work in
you will never be completed.
You bought it.
The devil brought it and you bought it.
And you're sitting here now believing it.
There were certain cities in the New Testament,
the Bible says that Jesus could do no
mighty work there because of their unbelief.
There are certain people that God just simply
can't work in because they bought the lie
that God is unable to complete the work
that he's begun in their lives.
Folks, it's a lie.
This morning, ask God for a heart of
faith to believe for what he has promised
to do.
Ask him for a heart of faith.
If you don't have it, just admit it.
He already knows it anyway.
It's only you that's in darkness.
Just admit that you don't believe him and
ask him, God, give me a like the
man came with a demon possessed child.
And he said, Jesus said, if you can
believe all things are possible.
And he cried out and said, Lord, I
believe.
Help thou mine unbelief.
I believe as much as I can.
But God, there's a limitation to my own
faith.
You've got to come and help me.
You've got to take me over the line
and give me a heart to believe for
the impossible.
Bring into captivity all thoughts that are sent
to mock the word of God.
You need faith to do this.
You need to know the word of God
to do this.
You have to have in your heart what
the thoughts of God towards the attacks of
the enemy that will come against you.
You cannot live the Christian life on emotions,
folks.
You have to have the word of God.
You have to be breathed upon.
It has to be enlivened by the Holy
Ghost.
There's no other weaponry to stand against the
assault of darkness against your life.
You have to know his word, but first
you have to have faith.
There's no point if you didn't believe my
if I was a man capable of making
promises and fulfilling all of them, which I'm
not.
There is no point to me making any
promises to you if you don't believe me.
There's no point to me telling you in
the front row that after the service today,
I'll meet your lunch if you don't believe
I have the resources to do it.
And many people come to church and read
the Bible and sit in services and get
greatly touched emotionally.
But in their heart, they really don't believe
that that the one speaking to them actually
has the resources to finish the work that
he started.
The apostle Paul says, I am persuaded.
I know he said whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep
that which I've entrusted unto him against that
day.
Paul's saying, I know whom I have believed.
I know who he is, and I'm persuaded
that he can keep me.
He can change me.
He can mold me.
He can build me.
He can give me power.
He can give me courage.
He can do all things and everything he
wants to do as I continue to yield
my life to him and walk the path
that he has for me.
I know who he is, and I know
what he can do.
The Bible says that we are to be
careful lest any of us allow an evil
heart of unbelief to get ahold of us
and end up like the children of Israel,
standing right on the shores of promise and
unable to go in because we do not
judge him faithful who promised to keep us
and change us.
There are people here this morning that you
can honestly say, I believe that you've been
diverted.
You are a day's journey from God's calling
on your life.
You've walked away.
Selfish ambition has drawn you away from the
place that God once had you, and you're
empty.
You're dry.
You're like Elijah.
There's a despair that's gotten a hold of
your heart.
Something inside.
You'd even rather die than go on.
I've been talking to some people in the
last couple of weeks who have come to
this place, men that I knew that are
good, solid Christian men, but have come to
the place in their life where they said,
in a sense, I'm only paraphrasing for them,
but I'd rather be dead than live this
kind of a Christianity.
A day's journey away from that place where
God was once speaking to you and God
was once touching you.
It's not far to get up and come
back.
The gateway is called humility.
The gateway is called God.
I have a need.
I have left off.
I lost the joy that I once had,
the faith that was brewing in my heart,
the desire to live through God.
Something happened to it.
I feel like I'm a day's journey away
from what you want to do in my
life.
It's just a matter of getting up and
coming back.
And others, you're just simply afraid you bought
the lie that some kind of pain awaits
you.
I'll tell you, folks, there's not a pain
that awaits you.
Yes, there's momentary trials.
But what did Paul say?
The sufferings of this life are not worthy
to be compared with the glory that's going
to be revealed in us.
Speaking about Jesus, the scripture says, who, for
the joy that was set before him, endured
the cross, despising the shame is now set
down at the right hand of God.
The joy of being the center of that
new city one day, the joy of knowing
you and I, an intimate fellowship for not
only time, but for all of eternity, the
joy of coming into our lives and the
power of the Holy Ghost and finishing the
work that he had begun, who for that
joy, bringing up a people as it is,
who have been born again by the spirit
of God, transforming them and showing his power
once again in the earth, showing this entire
world that with God, all things are possible.
People would lay hold of him by faith
and trust him and believe and begin to
change who for that joy endured the cross
and despised the shame.
Yes, I'm not going to lie to you
today, as some preachers try to do and
tell you that that the Christian life is
just all rosy and happy.
No, there can be some very hard times.
Death can knock at your door like anybody
else's door.
Hardship can come to your house like anybody
else's.
But I'll tell you today, God will give
you a strength that will cause the people
around about you in the world to stand
back in awe and say, how could this
person have this testimony?
How could this person be this strong?
There's no other God can deliver.
David himself said it in Psalm 40.
He has established my feet, established my goings.
He's given me a song that people shall
see and fear and shall trust in the
Lord.
He has put a new song in my
heart.
You don't have to be afraid of the
future.
You don't have to be afraid.
God has promised to give you courage and
faith if you will acknowledge your need of
him.
God said, I'm going to keep you.
I'm going to seal you in my father's
hand, and nobody's taking you out of that
hand.
I'm doing something in your life.
I am building something in you.
It's eternal.
It can't be taken away.
Yes, you may have some sorrow.
You may have some sighing on this side
of eternity, but there is a day coming.
I'm going to wipe away every tear.
There's going to be no more sorrow.
There's going to be no more sighing, no
more pain.
Former things are all gone.
Not a hair, not a hair, not a
hair, not a hair.
Hallelujah.
Would you please stand with me here in
the main sanctuary in the education annex?
If the Holy Spirit is speaking to your
heart this morning, I'm going to ask you
to slip out wherever you are, especially if
you're among those who are tormented in your
mind by the powers of darkness.
I'm going to pray a prayer of deliverance
for you today and ask God to put
faith once again in your heart.
Would you slip out wherever you are?
All those that are tormented by the enemy,
those that are backslidden means you've been diverted
from the call of God.
You've been turned away through subtlety from the
work that God has for your life.
And today you say, I want what God
has for me.
I'm tired of being a day's journey away
from the center of the heart of God
for my life.
I'm tired of the enemy wrecking my home
and my marriage.
I'm tired of him sowing discontent in my
heart on the job and everywhere else.
I'm tired of it.
I'm getting up and I'm going back.
I'm going back to that place where I
knew the blessing of God.
And again, those who are afraid, you don't
have to be afraid of the future folks.
You don't have to be afraid to open
your door to your community.
God will look after you.
God's doing an eternal work in your life.
If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you
today, if you're backslidden, if you need to
come back to God, if you're lost today
and you want Jesus Christ as your savior,
as we sing a worship course, I'm going
to ask you to slip out of your
seat.
Please move in very closely here today.
Give room for everybody in the education that
you can stand between the two screens.
And our pastor Neil will be there very
shortly and be leading you in a prayer.
How many good say this morning, Pastor Carter,
I'd love to, I'd love to come back.
I'd love to do all the things you're
talking about, but I've never even dealt within
the wall of God's love and God's protection.
I'm a sinner.
I'm not saved.
I've never pretended really to be saved, but
I find myself here today convinced of my
sin and my need of God.
And I'm tired of living the way I'm
living.
If that's you today, you need to know
that Jesus Christ was God come down in
the flesh.
He died on a cross to pay the
penalty for all of your sins.
Now your sins are those things that you
do that violate the laws of God.
You don't have to tell one lie to
be a liar for the rest of your
life until that sin is forgiven.
You don't have to steal one thing to
be a thief for the rest of your
life.
You are branded a thief literally in the
sight of God until the blood of Christ
comes and washes that sin away.
And the Bible says that sin separates us
from God, not only here, but forever.
But God was not willing that any should
die.
And so they became a man.
He sent his son and paid the price
for your sin.
And if you will believe that he died
for you, open your heart to him as
your savior.
And as your Lord, if you will confess
him with your mouth, the Bible says that
you will be saved.
Bible says there's actually a pin in heaven
waiting to write your name in a book
that we read about called the Lamb's Book
of Life.
Those that have been redeemed, those that have
been saved by the shed blood of Jesus
Christ, the son of God, on a cross
2,000 years ago.
Unashamedly, I ask you this morning to join
with me.
If that's you, you may not be at
this altar.
You can be in the education annex, the
balcony, the main sanctuary.
But I'm going to ask you unashamedly because
Jesus unashamedly died for you.
He died high on a hill.
He died exposed to ridicule and shame that
he may take all your shame upon himself.
And he's waiting now to confess your name
before his father.
This is an instantaneous thing.
The Bible says when you receive Christ, the
spirit of God comes and begins to live
in you and you are born again.
You are you.
You are made into a new person.
You're given a brand new birth.
It's as if you have never sinned before.
It's as if you've never done a wrong
thing.
Old things, the scripture says, are passed away.
Old things are all taken away.
The sacrifice of Christ blots out your sin
and you're given a brand new start, a
brand new life.
It seems almost too good to be true,
doesn't it?
But it is true.
You'll be the father that you've always longed
to be, the friend that you never could
be.
God will break in the power of the
Holy Ghost habits and addictions and mental struggles
and torments.
He will take care of all these things
as you yield your life to him and
you will have a testimony of the power
of God.
Like we do here, many of us in
this church stand before you to say the
words we speak to you are truth.
God will do everything he said he will
do.
Angels in heaven are waiting to rejoice over
even one sinner that comes to God in
this house this morning.
There's a silence, there's a stillness perhaps before
the throne of God this very moment as
all heaven waits for you to make that
most important decision you will ever make in
your life to receive Jesus Christ as your
Lord and Savior.
If that's you today, sir, madam, student, young
person, whoever you are, would you join with
me unashamedly and raise your hand and raise
it up nice and high all through the
sanctuary and hold it up high all over.
Go ahead, up in the balcony, education act.
Raise your hand, those that want to receive
Christ unashamedly.
Come into Christ.
Hallelujah.
Decision, sir, you'll ever make.
You'll never make a decision greater than the
one that you're making right now and all
through the balcony too as well.
Education act.
There'll never be a decision in life that's
greater than the one you're making today.
You are giving the rights to your life
to Jesus Christ to save you and to
be your Lord from this day forward.
God's going to do a marvelous work if
you'll yield your heart to it and establish
you and give you a testimony that will
actually cause people to think that you're another
person because you really will be by the
Spirit of God.
Let's all pray together for the sake of
those that are coming into the kingdom of
God today.
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
Jesus, thank you that you came to save
me from the penalty of my sin, which
is eternal separation from almighty God.
I'm sorry for my sin.
I don't want to live in sin anymore.
I ask you, Jesus, this very moment to
come into my life to be my Lord
and my Savior.
I open my heart to you.
I believe that you are the Son of
God.
I believe that your death on the cross
paid the price for my sin.
I believe that your being raised from the
dead on the third day is evidence that
as I trust in you, I too will
be raised from spiritual death and given a
new life, given new strength, given a new
hope and a destiny of eternity in heaven
with almighty God.
I believe, Jesus, that you are the Son
of God.
I confess you with my mouth.
Therefore, by the authority of the Word of
God, this very moment, this very month, in
this very church, at this very time, I
believe I am saved.
I am saved.
Hallelujah.
Saved, saved, saved, saved, saved.
This is the conclusion of the message.