This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing WORLDCHALLENGE PO
BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903
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to friends.
God is good, isn't he?
Most of you know that I have been
preaching, and I've written a book about America's
last call on the brink of a financial
holocaust.
And I've had so many people, even ministers,
write and say, I couldn't read it in
one sitting.
I had to read a couple chapters, three
chapters, four chapters, five, and close the book
and pray because it scared me.
I want you to know something.
I am what is called a depression baby.
Not that I was born depressed, but I
was born in the middle of the depression
of the 1930s.
Massive unemployment, the nation was in a terrible
financial crisis, and I was born in the
middle of that.
And as you can see, I survived.
I'm here, I'm in the ministry today, and
my parents had no problem having a baby
in the middle of the depression because they
had confidence in God.
They had trust in Him.
They never moved in fear.
They heard these reports.
Yes, they went two or three days sometimes
without a good meal, but God always provided.
Someone always knocked on the door.
There was a bushel of apples.
There was something God always provided miraculously for
the whole body of Christ during that time.
And He'll do the same.
But I agree with the Puritan writers who
said, any messenger or watchman who delivers the
warnings and threats of God must also deliver
his promises to keep the righteous when the
storm comes.
I believe that with all of my heart.
So I'm now in the middle of another
book on how God is going to keep
His saints during the coming storm.
I want to speak to you along that
line this morning.
Protection in the coming storm.
Heavenly Father, I'm so glad that we're on
the rock.
I'm so glad that we don't have to
fear as God's people anything that comes upon
this earth.
Lord, I pray that You lift up our
spirits today.
We pray that You move mightily upon us.
I take Your authority over every prince of
power and power of darkness.
Anything, O Lord, that would try to hinder
the flow of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, give me freedom to preach this word
as You gave it to me.
Let everyone who hears it be encouraged by
the living word of God that gives hope
and strength in hard times.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Our God is a loving, tender-hearted, long
-suffering, slow to anger God.
And judging nations and sending storms on society
is not His good work.
It's a hard work.
He calls it His strange work.
God said, As I live, sayeth the Lord
God, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that the wicked should
turn from their evil ways and live.
So turn ye, why will you die?
That's always been God's message.
That's His heart.
God says, I don't take any pleasure in
doing this.
I get no pleasure whatsoever.
I'm doing this in hopes that people will
turn.
I've tried everything possible.
I've done everything.
I've sent pestilences.
I've allowed all kinds of physical warnings.
I have warned secularly.
I've warned spiritually.
I've sent prophets, and people don't want to
hear.
So God says, I'm going to let this
storm lash the land, lash the nation, hoping
against hope that the wicked will turn from
their wicked ways.
Turn, and His cry is, Why will you
die?
Why will you suffer when there is such
a provision made for you that you don't
have to?
Now, I can't find anywhere in my Bible,
I can't find a single instance of God
judging a people or sending a storm upon
a nation without first warning.
And along with the warning, He's always made
provision a place of safety for anyone who
would honor His word and believe His prophets
and watchmen.
In fact, don't turn there now, but Exodus
9.
This was when Moses stood before Pharaoh and
said, God is going to judge the land.
And God told Moses, in fact, Moses is
a prophet.
His own words said, God will raise up
a prophet to you in the last days,
like unto me.
He acknowledged himself as a prophet.
So Moses was a prophet, and he stood
before Pharaoh and all of the government leaders
of Egypt and all the people, the couriers,
carried this warning all through the land.
I don't know if it happened a week
or two weeks after he announced it, but
there had to be time for the whole
nation to hear it.
There was a warning went out that God
was going to send a grievous hailstorm such
as the nation had never witnessed.
I will cause it to rain, God said,
a very grievous hail such as has not
been in all of Egypt's history.
When God says the storm is going to
be grievous, you can better believe it will
be.
He said it's going to be something that
has never been experienced before.
And this was a manifestation of God's grace,
of mercy.
He could have just said it because of
the sin and idolatry and hardness of heart.
But in spite of their hardness of heart
and idolatry and rejection of his word, he
said, I will make a provision for you.
I will make it possible that you don't
have to lose your cattle, you don't have
to lose your servants, you don't have to
lose your children, your family.
They're safe.
The scripture says, God said, gather your cattle,
all your animals, all your servants, your children,
who flee into your houses, get under a
roof.
In other words, take cover.
And those who feared the Lord, scripture says,
made his servants and his cattle to flee
into the houses.
And he that regarded not the word of
the Lord left his servants and his cattle
out in the fields.
And the hell smoked all that was in
the fields, both man and beast.
All they had to do was honor the
word of God.
All they had to believe was the word
of the prophets and the watchmen, that the
storm was coming.
Now, folks, God doesn't send prophets on wild
goose chases.
He doesn't send watchmen to stand on the
wall and warn and then let their words
fall to the ground.
God said, I'm going to send a storm,
and he sent a storm.
He sent a raging storm.
And this nation is getting the same kind
of warning that Moses gave to Egypt.
A grievous storm is coming, an incredible storm
such as the nation has never seen.
It means it's beyond the depression of 1930s.
It's something that's never been seen before that
changes the American lifestyle forever, that it'll never
be the same again.
Now, folks, these things are coming, and God
doesn't give these warnings.
As I told you, we're getting close to
a million people on the mailing list, and
I asked last month, I said, if you
believe what I'm saying and God's saying something
to you, would you write to me?
And, folks, I'll tell you, in just one
week, we got 40,000 letters in one
week, two weeks ago.
And my wife and I are reading these
letters, and almost without fail, praying Christians from
all over this country saying, Brother David, the
Lord's saying the same thing to us.
Get ready for a storm.
Get ready.
Everyone, there has not been one single word
of dissent because every praying pastor, evangelist, praying
people from all over the United States and
from other countries are saying, in fact, they're
saying we're on the web to other nations,
and we're hearing the same thing, praying people
and prophets and watchmen from all over the
world.
They're saying America's about to go into a
storm, just like our country from Indonesia, Asia,
Japan, Russia, and all around the world, because
there's a shaking going in the world now,
already underway.
This nation is going to face a storm
such as it's never seen.
Now, I want to prove to you from
the Scriptures that once again, in our time,
God has made provision for your safety and
mine, for your children and everything that involves
your life.
There is a place of safety.
Now, for the mockers and the scoffers and
those who do not want to heed the
word of God, there's no hope.
They are going to suffer.
Believe me, they're going to suffer.
And the Lord sent thunder and hail, and
the fire ran along upon the ground, so
there was fire mingled with hail, very grievous,
just as God said it would be, such
as there never was like in all the
land of Egypt since it had become a
nation.
There had never been of all of the
sufferings.
Now, those who laughed at the prophet Moses
and those who paid no heed to the
warnings, those who didn't flee to their house,
when they saw the first sign, they fled
to their house, they gathered their cattle, even,
into their houses, into barns, into shelters.
They gathered them into the house.
And the hail came, and the thunder and
the lightning, and fire ran along the ground,
consumed everything in sight, the trees and the
ground and fence posts.
Everything was destroyed.
There was a desolation such as the nation
had ever seen.
But those who heard the word of the
prophets and watchmen, those who heard the sound
and obeyed and honored the word of God,
they fled to their houses, and they were
safe.
While everybody around them had lost everything, they
came after the storm was over, they came
out, still in possession of their cattle, still
in possession of their servants, still the whole
family safe under that roof.
I want to show you from the Scripture
that God has made us the very same
promises.
Those who hardened their hearts were given over
to what I call, what is known as
a judicial blindness.
It's a judgment upon those who hardened their
hearts, who mocked the word of God.
I told in one of the previous services
of a senator, I told a friend of
mine, he's a U.S. senator, and my
friend who just read my book, and he
told the senator about it, he said, well,
I believe that.
And my friend asked him, well, what about
Congress right now?
What about the Y2K problem?
Y2K, Y stands for year 2000.
The year 2000, January 1st, all mainline computers
in the United States shut down.
They can't compute beyond the year 1999, and
when it turns to 2000, it's going to
wipe out all kinds of records.
They tell you don't fly because there are
no government agencies, not the FAA, none that
are compliant with all of their computers.
Isn't it amazing a nation who boasted made
its idol out of technology is going to
be flattened by technology problems?
Our idol is coming down, our golden idol.
Maybe you haven't heard of the Y2K problem.
I'm not going to get into that and
scare the life out of you.
They even contemplate that here at New Year's
Eve, when they have their celebration, they expect
3 million people here in Times Square.
Our street right outside here is going to
be blocked up.
There will be people here that can't even
see.
The whole place is going to be filled.
But because the electric companies are not compliant,
the grids could shut down and the whole
city could go dark.
I don't want to be anywhere near it.
I'm going to be in my house.
I'm going to tell you what kind of
house it is in just a moment.
But you know, Congress sits there.
I'm telling you now, and I believe I
have every word of the Lord to back
me up.
The President of the United States, all the
senators, all the congressmen, all our politicians have
been judicially blinded by God, except for a
few believers who believe the word of God
and fear the word of the Lord because
this senator said to my friend, he said,
they have no idea what's going on in
the world.
They have no sense of fear.
They have no sense that anything can happen
to this nation.
Congress, the President and Executive Branch is not
prepared for any disaster.
The United States, a group of psychologists just
did a national study, a psychological study revealed
that majority of Americans have what they call
psychological denial, that the majority of Americans are
unwilling to believe that any loss or financial
disaster could ever happen to this nation.
The majority, they even have a term for
it now, psychological denial, having to do with
their wealth and with the things that are
coming.
Isaiah the prophet spoke of a people just
like that, just before God sent judgment, a
people with pride, insolence, self-confidence, a people
who had no more fear of God, a
people who jettisoned the belief in hell, that
there was no accounting, that you don't have
to stand before God.
There's no judgment day, no hell, and no
fear of God in the land.
The people convinced themselves in Isaiah's time that
they had accumulated enough money, they had enough
resources, and they were smart enough, they had
enough agreements and covenants with other nations to
protect them, and they had hiding places, the
scripture said, they had hiding places that they
were going to hide when the storm came.
Isaiah had a shocking message for these.
He said, wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, you scornful, because you've said we have
a covenant of death.
In other words, we have no more fear
of death, no fear of meeting God or
having to give an account of our lives.
And with hell, we've made an agreement.
We've agreed there's no hell.
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through the
land, it shall not come near to us,
for we have made lies our refuge, and
under falsehood we have made hiding places for
ourselves.
It's amazing.
It's just like today.
Have you been listening to this conglomeration, this
huge merger, $48 billion merger of AT&T
and telecommunications, the largest merger in the history
of the world, $48 billion to have one
of the largest telecom giants in the whole
world.
But you know what shocked me?
I couldn't believe it.
The New York Times, one of the executives
of this new merger said, our whole plan
is that we become so big we can't
fall.
He said, we've reached the point we cannot
fall.
It's in all your papers.
Look at all the bank mergers now.
People are wondering why.
And another bank, a huge bank here, along
with Chase Manhattan, same thing, executive says, we
are now too big to fail.
What's the Bible say?
When pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit
before a fall.
We're too big.
That's what many people think about America.
We're too rich.
We're too big.
Our armies are too mighty.
We can't fall.
I hear that everywhere I go.
You hear it from politicians.
You hear it.
Doesn't matter whether Japan falls.
Doesn't matter whether Russia falls.
Let all of Asia go.
We're too strong.
No fear of God in the land anymore.
No fear of hell.
No fear of having to stand before God
and answer for all the manipulation.
Everywhere you go, people say, I've got mine.
I've got it made.
I have a nice place to hide.
I've got a mountain retreat.
When the cities are burning, I'm going to
be living like a king somewhere in Colorado.
I'll be in Montana.
I'll be up in Vermont.
I'll be hidden away.
I've got a place.
I've got a hiding place.
I've got all the money in the bank
I need.
I'll ride out any storm.
Isaiah said, and the hell shall sweep away
all your refuge of lives.
And the water shall flow into your hiding
places.
And your covenant with death shall be canceled.
Your agreement with hell shall not stand up.
And when the overflowing storm comes and passes
through, then you shall be trodden down by
it.
God said there's not going to be a
hiding place anywhere for the unbeliever.
There'll be no hiding places for the proud
and the arrogant who Mark marched.
We've got a quarter million people marching today
in gay pride.
Up our streets in Fifth Avenue.
Heading it will be two men who've adopted
two babies, two children, and have been legally
married in New Jersey last month.
Leading the parade.
We have no argument with homosexuals.
We say their lifestyle is a sin.
That it's a grief to God.
We love the homosexuals.
We preach grace to them.
And we preach that they can be delivered
from the sin.
But when they march down the street on
Fifth Avenue and say, Jesus is gay.
When they have signs, Christ get out of
our face.
And all the angels of heaven blush.
You can know the storm is at the
door.
The Bible states very clearly that when the
storm hits, multitudes will flee to what they
believe is a place of safety.
They'll say, it shall not come near us.
We have hid ourselves.
We are invincible.
Isaiah warned from the time it goes forth.
That's when the storm begins.
It shall take you from morning by morning.
Shall it pass over you?
It shall be vexation simply to understand what
it means.
What he's saying, it's going to be sheer
terror to just understand.
It's finally going to dawn on you.
He's saying to all the rich who have
mocked and ridiculed and to all those who
have just taken and taken.
Who have been absolutely full of greed.
You know that I was listening to the
radio yesterday and there were some experts on
the radio warning America.
And he said, stop this insanity.
He said, you're borrowing money on your houses
to play the stock market.
He said, you're gambling.
He said, it's insanity.
They were almost screaming.
I heard one expert almost scream.
He said, this is stupidity.
You're going to lose your home.
You're going to lose it all because of
your greed.
And one of these days, folks, when the
storm comes, he said, there's going to be
such bad news.
Morning, night, and noon.
And finally it's going to dawn on you
that it's going to be sheer terror just
to realize what is happening.
It's too late for you.
It's going to be sheer terror.
The prophet Isaiah, then in the middle of
all of this, delivered a message of hope.
I want you to go to Isaiah 28
and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Isaiah, the 28th chapter.
Amen.
Are you about ready for some good news?
Now, if you'll notice in verse 15, there
you have what the wicked are saying.
We have a covenant with death and with
hell.
We are in agreement.
The overflowing scourge of pastorate will not come
to us.
And God, the prophet, the prophet is stopped
by the Holy Spirit right in the middle
of it and says, no, wait a minute.
You're looking for a hiding place.
You say you have your hiding place.
You've got your money in the bank and
you're all ready.
But he said, I'm telling you, it's all
coming down.
It's a false security.
Your rock is going to fail.
It's going to be slithered into pieces.
And the storm is going to overrule you
and trod you down.
But then he stops as if to say,
wait a minute.
I can't go another step till I tell
the saints what I'm going to do for
them.
I'm just going to stop.
The prophet is stopped by the Holy Ghost
right in the middle of this message of
judgment.
And look at verse 16.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, this
is for Zion.
How many are in Zion here today?
We are in the new Jerusalem.
We are children of Zion.
This is for you.
It's for me.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I
lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation.
He that believeth shall not make haste.
And then the Hebrew says, will not ever
be disturbed.
If you're on the rock, you cannot be
disturbed no matter what the news may be.
I'll tell you, folks, I don't trust Social
Security because that's not a sure foundation.
They're telling us that could blow.
I don't trust the IRS.
That can go.
I don't believe in retirement funds.
Now, thank God for them.
I have retirement funds, but those could fail.
That's not a tried stone.
I don't trust U.S. government bonds, not
T-bills.
That is not a precious stone.
That's not a tested, tried stone.
It's going to be tested, believe me.
We don't even know if it's going to
stand.
We don't even know if our government will
survive what is coming.
We'd have no way of knowing because there
could be, we may be so close to
the coming of the Lord that this be
the storm that brings such chaos to the
whole world that out of that chaos comes
the beast and the Antichrist and the mark
of the beast.
We may be right on the brink of
the coming of the Lord.
I believe we are.
I believe Jesus is right there.
Folks, as a Christian, you can't believe in
technology.
You can't believe in education or science or
medicine or the armed forces of the United
States.
Apostle Paul said, our rock is Christ.
Our rock is Christ.
The Lord is my rock, David said, my
fortress and my deliverer.
David said, for in the time of trouble,
he's going to hide me in his pavilion.
That's his house.
In the secret of his tabernacle, shall he
hide me?
He's going to set me upon a rock.
Psalm 31, 2.
God be my strong rock and a house
of defense to save me in time of
trouble.
David here speaks about a house of defense.
I told you when I started this message
that God provided a defense against the storm.
Flee to your house, flee to your house.
David said, Psalm 31, 2, be my strong
rock and my house of defense to save
me.
He's talking about trouble, the storm.
Be a house, be a place of refuge.
Flee to the house.
Now, this house, where is it?
It's not out there somewhere.
It's not in Montana or Wyoming or Vermont.
It's sure not in Texas.
I'm not nothing against Texas.
My offices are there.
My son lives there, so I'm nothing against
Texas.
I'm just telling you, it's not anywhere you
can run and hide to physically.
You can't get there.
You can't get there by train or plane
or bus.
You can't get there by car.
You get there on your knees.
Isaiah, turn back to 26.
Isaiah 26.
I'll tell you what, that whole chapter of
26 is about God punishing the world in
time of trouble.
Look at verse 20.
What's the word of the Lord?
Verse 20.
Isaiah 26, verse 20.
Come, my people, enter into thy chambers and
shut the doors above thee.
Hide thyself, as it were, for a little
while until the indignation of the storm be
overpassed.
For behold, the Lord cometh out of his
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth
for their iniquity.
The earth also shall discover her blood.
The Lord said, I'm going to judge for
the shedding of innocent blood.
The innocent blood shall no more cover her
slain.
Folks, the time has come that all the
innocent blood that's fallen into the ground has
cried out, and God has heard the cry.
He's heard the cry.
And now comes the judgment.
He said, now, children, come on now.
I told you there's a place.
He says, I want you to come now
and hide yourself in thy chambers.
And in the Hebrews, in your inner rooms,
go into your inner rooms.
Now, that doesn't sound like Matthew six, six.
But now, when you pray into your closet
and in Greek, it's in a room, the
same meaning.
And when that was shut the door, pray
to the father, which is in secret.
My father would see it in secret.
So he wore the opening.
Now, this is both the New Testament and
Old Testament truth.
When you're in trouble, when you face hopeless
situation and everything is against you, it even
looks like you're staring death in the face.
You enter into your inner room and you
shut the door and you pray to the
father in secret.
This is exactly what the prophet Elijah did
when he faced the dead son of a
woman.
He went in, therefore, and shut the door
upon the boat and prayed unto the Lord.
This prophet knew what you and I need
to learn.
That the only way to a storm, the
only thing to hopeless situations and trials is
to shut the door and get a hold
of God.
Get to know his ways, get to trust
him and build up your faith in him
through his word and through prayer.
There is a place of safety and that
is your secret closet.
That is a place of prayer.
I listen to my barber sitting here.
My secretary been with us over 25 years.
Her mother's 90, 90, 91.
And my wife and I were down there
a few months, not too many weeks ago.
And we visited her.
She's dry.
She began to tell us how the Lord
saw her and her husband pastoring and children,
how the Lord kept them through the depression
and her face.
Disagreeable.
She said, but it was one miracle after
another.
It was glorious.
The fellowship, the anointing of the Holy Ghost.
We were not afraid.
This is the end of side one.
She said, when we had a need, we
just pray.
And God would send people to the door
with groceries.
God would help my husband to find things.
He said it was a miracle how God
provided.
But we were on our knees.
We were shut in with God.
Everybody prayed.
God's going to keep a praying people.
Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.
In other words.
Be careful, folks.
I have people ask me, well, if this
is all going to happen, young couples say,
I'm afraid to have a baby.
I don't want to say what about I
had somebody call me recent California, young couple,
friends of ours.
They said we were scared to death.
We wanted to buy a house and we
have the money, the down payment.
And now we're scared.
I said, look, get on your face.
Get along with God.
The same God who speaks and leads me
is going to speak and lead you.
You don't need to run to somebody.
You run your secret closet.
That's your place of safety.
Go to God and pray and seek his
face.
So don't go by fear.
Best advice.
I'm not going to give any economic advice
to anybody.
But the best advice I can do is
say this.
You can be safe if you don't go
in debt.
Stay out of debt.
Doesn't mean you work and walk in fear,
but some things you think you need, you
may not need.
Now, when you go into the secret closet,
you shut the door.
Be careful how you pray.
There's a kind of praying that God will
accept from sinners, but he won't accept it
from his children.
In fact, there's a kind of praying that
truly displeases the Lord.
I'm reading to you from Psalms 80, verse
four.
How long will you be angry against the
prayer of thy people?
God was angry at the prayers that went
up, voiced in the 80th chapter of Psalm.
And if you read the chapter, you hear
them talk about, Lord, you've given us tears,
strife.
You've uprooted us.
You've broken down our hedges.
I see nothing but devouring fire.
I feel nothing but your rebuke.
And God was displeased with the despondent people
coming to him with a defeated attitude.
Did you hear me?
God does not want us to come into
his presence sniveling.
He doesn't want us to come into his
presence with a defeatist attitude as beggars.
In so many ways, they were saying, Lord,
we're in terrible times.
We're desolated.
We're cast down.
We've been rebuked and we do nothing but
suffer.
We see nothing but suffering ahead.
Lord, where's your smile?
We want your smile back.
We've lived for years with your smile.
Now we seem to see nothing but your
frown.
And God was, the scripture says, was angry
against the prayer of the people.
God really spoke this clear to me.
Let me share a confession, confession time.
I had been praying for probably two weeks.
Going to the Lord with what I thought
was humility and brokenness and tears and crying
and weeping.
And my prayer went something like this.
In fact, I was going to him baffled
and bewildered about some of the things he's
doing in my life and how he was,
I thought, withholding the kind of revelation that
I so hungered and thirsted for.
And I would pray something like this.
Lord, I don't feel like I'm growing in
knowledge like I ought to.
My spiritual eyes seem so dim and my
ears seem so dull and my heart seems
so thick.
And I've been listening to tapes people, young
preachers have been sending to me from all
over.
And I was listening to a little country
preacher from Alabama.
I mean, pure country.
And this kid preached revelation and I fell
on my knees and said, God, even the
country kid from Alabama is passing me up.
Lord, I hear such revelation now and I've
been telling you all these years.
Lord, is there secret sin or something?
Lord, I know nothing in my life that
could hinder.
Why am I not getting the revelation that
I want?
And I said, God, please.
And I would weep and cry in his
presence.
And I felt I said, Lord, I feel
so inadequate and spiritually ignorant and I'm so
far behind in knowing your ways.
And I just went on and on.
And suddenly the Holy Ghost stopped me and
said I was on my face in the
in the room and weeping and crying.
And I said, Get up there.
Stand up.
And I don't hear audible voice, but that's
still a small voice that, you know, is
God.
And God clearly kind of said, David, quit
whimpering in my presence.
And he said, I want to show you
what you're doing.
I want to show you how displeasing what
you're doing is to me.
And Christian, I want you to hear this
because I have the mind of God.
And this is where many of us have
failed God.
Because if you're going to go to prayer
in the days ahead and say, I'm going
to trust you to keep me, my family.
I'm going to trust you to put a
roof over my head and food on my
table.
Then you'd better come in faith.
You better come remembering all that he's done
for you in the past.
And here's I wrote down.
I wrote down what the Lord told me.
He said, David, you're praying like this brings
me no pleasure.
You're totally forgetting all that I've done for
you in the past years.
You don't realize it.
But when you tell me that your eyes
are dim, your eyes are your ears are
dull.
Your heart seems thick.
You're not expressing to humility.
You're discrediting all my good work of my
past in you.
You're saying that I ignored all your prayers,
that the Holy Spirit in you stood by
and never anointed the word that was in
you and through you and that you heard.
You're saying to me that all the words
that you heard and preach went right through
you without changing you by the Holy Ghost.
You're saying that in the face of all
of your sincere crying, all of your hungering
and thirsting, all of your readiness to obey
me and hear the word.
You're saying, in essence, that it has left
you a stunted, ignorant, blind, stupid, spiritual idiot.
God said, I won't accept it.
You're not honoring what I've already done in
you.
You're discrediting the work that I've done in
you.
God says, I will not have it if
you don't realize what I've done in you.
I have changed you from glory to glory.
My word has been in your mouth.
Thousands have been saved and converted, and you're
discrediting it.
Don't sit here sniveling anymore.
He said it lovingly but firmly.
He said, you come to me with thanksgiving
for all I've done in your life.
Some of you are hearing me now.
You say, oh God, everybody's passing me by.
I'm not learning.
I'm ignorant.
I'm inadequate.
Stop it.
Stop it right here now.
You don't know it, but God's been changing
you.
You're not a drug addict anymore.
You're not an alcoholic.
You've been saved by the blood.
You're growing in Christ.
Give him praise.
How must the Lord feel when we come
to him begging to meet and supply all
our future needs, when we don't thank him
for all the storms he's brought us through
and the victories we've already won?
So if you're going to be kept in
this coming storm, come with thanksgiving.
Say, God, you've kept me all the years.
If you could deliver me from my sins,
you can deliver my table.
Hallelujah.
I tell you what, if God can pay
your sin bill, he can pay your electric
bill.
Can I bring it closer home?
Another confession.
Somebody told me I shouldn't do this, but
I think preachers who stand and act like
they're supermen are foolish.
We're all flesh and blood.
Years ago, when I was in my 20s,
I pastored a little town in Pennsylvania, Phillipsburg,
and God began to bless the church.
It's way up on the hill, just a
little town, but hundreds would come in.
I went on television way back when I
was in my 20s, about 26 years old.
I weighed 115 pounds, skin and bone, but
all fire.
I was on fire for God, and I
went on television.
Oral Roberts and I was the only other
one on television way back then.
I was only on one station.
I'm sorry, on three stations.
And in those days, I had the church
all lighted, and it was a country choir,
about 40 people.
And do you know who the choir leader
was?
Me.
I know almost nothing about music.
Hardly anybody could sing in that choir.
My wife is not an accomplished pianist, but
she did her best at the piano.
She'll acknowledge that.
She really tried hard.
And in those days, they didn't have the
video.
You filmed it in 16 millimeter, and then
you transferred it to tape.
This is out of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
And so we did that for a couple
years, and that church preserved a lot of
those films.
I didn't preserve any because I don't know
why, but the church preserved it.
Twenty-five years later, my wife and I
went to a homecoming, and they had a
surprise for us.
They were going to show some of those
old tapes.
And they got the screen up, and my
wife and I were sitting there, and they
had rounded up most of the people that
were still living who were in that choir.
And they were all there, even though some
of them had moved on.
They were all there.
And as soon as that came on, and
I opened that.
I had bad—my eyes were worse then than
they are now.
And I was reading my script.
I started to laugh hysterically.
And I was looking at the people and
said, Look at those hairdos!
Look at those hairdos!
The choir started to sing, and I'm up
there making these crazy sounds.
Look.
I almost fell off the chair.
I said, Oh, how silly!
Stupid!
Then the choir started singing, and I was
hysterical.
And there's Gwen playing the piano.
And suddenly, I was the only one laughing.
My wife wasn't laughing.
I said, Uh-oh.
And Gwen turned to me and said, David,
it's not funny.
She said, You're laughing at my hairdo and
at my piano playing?
But I want you to know, I was
blessed with that.
And I have good memories of that.
And you're laughing at people.
And we have one of those precious memories.
Those people tried.
They loved God.
And to them, they're being blessed.
There were tears in their eyes because they
were remembering the blessing of God.
She said, David, you're mocking your own preaching.
You're discrediting everything God did for you.
You're discrediting it.
And I'll tell you, I wanted to crawl
out of that room.
Halfway during my preaching, just after I'd stopped
laughing, the film broke.
Now, I think they did it purposely.
But honestly, I felt the guy did it
because he was so grieved that the film
broke and they couldn't fix it.
And I'll tell you, I didn't know what
to say.
But I still remember it.
You see, I was discrediting.
In fact, I remember now when she told
me that, I remember that sermon that I
was laughing at.
It was about the two mites, the widow's
two mites.
And I remember the anointing I had.
It was a powerful anointing.
That message had reached thousands.
Yes, I was skinny.
My ears stuck out in the hairdo.
But I was mocking a fresh anointing that
I had years ago.
And folks, I'd put down the work of
God.
And boy, if you don't remember anything else,
this is what I'm telling you.
Here's the scripture says, Just take heed to
thyself and keep your soul diligent unless you
forget the things which thine eyes have seen,
unless they depart from your heart all the
days of your life.
Don't discredit what I've done.
Don't forget the victories in the past.
Be careful how you pray.
You come to me with faith and thanksgiving.
I've seen you through the past.
I'm going to see you through the future.
I'm going to see you no matter what
happens.
I tell you, folks, if the government of
the United States falls, if there's martial law
declared, if the cities are aflame, I tell
you now that as God's children on the
rock, you and I have nothing to fear
but fear itself.
You have nothing to fear.
If you just do this, I'm going to
close.
Just think of where you're sitting right now.
You're sitting in Times Square Church, but this
church is on a planet called Earth, and
this planet Earth is spinning on its axis
around and round on nothing.
It's in space, hanging on nothing, and that
axis doesn't move.
If it moved just a fraction, this whole
world would be in weather chaos.
It would destroy this Earth.
Can you imagine?
You go out on the beach where there's
starry night, and you look at the Milky
Way, and you look at all the stars,
and remember that Jesus on the same kind
of a night looked at the same Milky
Way.
He saw the same stars in their space.
They didn't move.
They're still there, moving in their orbits.
God has planned it all, and a God
who can keep all of the solar system
in its orbit moving, who numbers every hair
on our head, don't accuse Him of ever
not thinking about you, no matter how bad
the storm gets.
Hallelujah.
God is on the throne.
Let's stand, please.
God is on the throne.
God has everything under control.
Hallelujah.
Cast out your fear, saints.
Do you hear me?
In the annex, wherever you're at, cast out
that fear, because fear has torment.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, You have made provision in the
coming storm to protect Your children.
We run to the inner room.
We run into the house, to the inner
chamber, and we shut the door, and we
pray to our Father.
He said, Come and hide yourself on the
rock until the storm passes over.
Lord, this storm will pass over.
It will.
It will pass over.
And, Lord, we don't know when You're coming,
but we're not looking to escape.
We're looking just to be able to stand
on a rock no matter what happens.
Lord, there are people saying that we're going
to be raptured out of all of this,
but there may be a time of suffering.
We may go through some great suffering before
this is all over.
Lord, we're not trying to live high and
then say, God, just take us out so
we never have to suffer.
Lord, we thank You that in our suffering
You become more precious than in our good
times.
Hallelujah.
You're going to see Your people through.
Wonderful Jesus.
Lord, I'm asking You to comfort the hearts
of Your children.
Lord, I'm asking You to give me a
whole series of messages that we can bring
to the nation of hope and steadfastness in
the Lord in trying, shaking times.
Lord, these things are right at the door,
but we thank You there's someone else at
the door.
That's Jesus knocking saying, Just open and I'll
come in.
Hallelujah.
You said our rock is not like their
rock.
Their rock is going to collapse, but our
rock is not going to collapse.
It's going to stand the test.
A tried stone, a tested stone, a precious
stone is our Jesus.
Would you just raise your hands and love
Him for a moment right now?
Just love Him, love Him.
Would you hold steady for just a moment
while we sing a chorus?
I'm waiting on the Lord for just a
moment for a word.
I have a word for you in just
a moment, but let's just sing together in
His presence.
Upstairs here in the annex, let me talk
to you for just a moment because I'm
positive I have the mind of the Holy
Spirit now about the invitation I'm to give
to you.
I'm not going to talk to you about
fear because you can take that to the
Lord and get along with God and deal
with that.
I'm talking to those that God has dealt
with by His Spirit time and time again.
He's dealt with you saying, The time has
come for you to get serious about me.
It's time to lay down everything in your
life that hinders your communion with Jesus.
And some of you are not in close
communion with the Lord.
You can't come honestly and boldly into the
presence of the Lord because you're condemned by
something that's laid hold of your life.
I'm speaking in the Spirit now.
There's some of you that need to walk
down this aisle now and come here.
Nobody needs to know why you come.
But God's been dealing, the Holy Spirit's been
dealing with you.
And before you go into this judicial blindness,
we could pardon your heart.
I want you to get out of your
seat.
Those that are in the annex, just go
to the exit.
Go to the back, down the hall.
And ushers will show you how to get
into this building and come right down any
aisle and come and meet me right here.
You can meet me right here at the
front.
In the balcony, go to the stairs on
either side.
There are visitors here.
There are others that are here that have
been here before, but God's dealing with you.
He's saying, Don't you dare walk out the
way you came.
You get some things settled with God now.
You get it settled because the Holy Spirit's
really dealing with you.
He's been dealing with you for a while.
Some of you have been running from God.
Some of you just lost the anointing.
You've lost something in God.
Your heart's grown cold toward the Lord.
You're not on fire.
You sat here in the service and you
felt the presence of the Lord, but now
God's saying, Come on home.
Come on back to your first love.
So if you will just get out of
your seat right now and move like these
that are coming right now.
Join these that are coming.
No one else except those the Holy Spirit's
really dealing with.
Move in close, please, and make room for
those that are coming.
God's going to meet you.
God's going to do a miracle in your
life today.
You can walk out of this church absolutely
transformed by the grace of God.
Amen.
As they sing it again, come.
Even back there into the rotunda, you can
stop right where you're at.
That's fine as long as you can hear
us right now.
Listen, it doesn't take our Lord long when
your heart is open.
How ready, how quickly he moves in because
his heart is after you.
What a loving God we serve and how
anxious he is to bring you back into
his arms.
And all you have to do is open
up your heart.
He said, I'm knocking.
If you just open, I will come in.
I'll sup with you.
I'll commune with you.
I'll speak to you.
Listen, here's the place I want you to
make.
I told you that there's a place of
safety.
That is any place that you know that's
between you and God where you go and
you hide yourself.
It could be in your room.
Folks, it can be on the subway where
you just buy your head and close yourself
in.
That becomes that inner room anywhere.
But it's a pledge that you make that
place of safety.
He says, flee to the house, flee to
the house.
The Lord says, just get along with me.
Flee to me.
Run to me.
Get along with me.
Bring every problem.
Bring every fear.
Bring everything to me.
If you need direction, trust me that I'll
give you the word.
Keep waiting until the word comes.
Be willing to do even that which is
contrary to what you desire.
Because often God will speak contrary to your
own desires just because he has something better.
And he knows that if he fills the
desire of your heart, it'll destroy you.
And you've got to trust God that he's
going to do right by you.
He's going to do what is right.
Hallelujah.
Some of you are in a storm right
now.
You're going through trial in your life or
your home.
And the Lord wants you to trust him
through it right now.
He says, come to me right now.
Come and just trust me with this.
Put it on me and not on you.
Put it on me.
Just roll it off on me this morning
right now.
I want you to pray this with me.
Now, look at me, please, for just a
minute.
This prayer that I'm going to lead you
in has no value whatsoever unless it represents
what you're saying in your heart.
If you can say it truthfully, then let
it come out.
Because the mouth, out of the innermost being,
your mouth speaks, the Bible says, the innermost
being.
It is down deep inside.
Let it come out right now.
Let this be your prayer.
The Bible said the eyes of the Lord
on the righteous and his ears open, open
to their prayer.
Do you believe he's open to your prayer?
Do you believe that what you pray is
going to be heard directly right now?
It's not going to fall to the ground.
It's going to go directly to the ear
of God.
And God, so we know if he hears
us, we have the petition that we ask
of him, that God's going to answer.
Pray this with me.
Jesus, I come to you with all my
fears and all my sins and all my
failures.
But I'm not going to focus anymore on
my failures.
I'm going to focus on what you're doing
in me, how you're changing me.
And I'm going to give you thanks for
this service, for the word I've heard, and
how it's changing me right now.
And Lord, all the things you've done for
me, help me now to totally get my
eyes off what I am not and what
you are in me right now.
You're changing me, Lord, and I stop to
give you thanks.
I bless your name because I'm not the
same.
You're doing a good work in me.
Cleanse me, Jesus.
Sanctify me and put a confidence in me
that you'll see me through.
The Lord Jesus, the same yesterday, today and
forever.
Now raise your hands and just thank him
right now, Lord.
I give you thanks.
Let's sing this song.
The Lord is my strength.
This is the conclusion of the tape.