David Wilkerson Sermon: Lessons We Have Never Learned (Transcript)

You sin as Israel did, and I will deal with you as Israel did. The Roman Empire, the Grecian Empire, the Macedonian Empire, all of these empires, I will deal with you as I dealt with history.

Now, in keeping with the commandment of Moses, I want you to go back with me to a generation. I want you, and a generation is considered anywhere from 50 to 70 years. Let’s go back into what was called the roaring 20s, the 1920s. It was called the decade of decadence.

Now, I want you to listen. I have studied history. I’ve studied the word of God, and I’ve gone back to the history of the United States. I came to you prepared this morning. I did what Moses demanded me to do, go back in history. I want you to take about 10, 15 minutes with me, and I want to remind you of what happened in the United States of America. We have over 103 nationalities in this church. Some of you are newly here in America. You don’t know the history of America.

I want to give you a little history lesson, and I want you to listen closely, and then I’m going to tie it in spiritually to what I believe God is saying to us today. In the roaring 20s, God sent a great depression at the close of that time. Those roaring 20s came to a sudden halt.

He was trying to give us a warning. I call it a likewise warning. Remember, he said, “When the tower fell on them, he said, if you don’t repent, it’s going to be likewise.” He said, “When the Galileans were destroyed by fire, likewise you.” He was giving little warnings. He was telling them, “I’m going to burn Israel with fire, and the towers are going to fall, all the towers.” He was giving a little sample, and he said, “Likewise.” This was a likewise judgment. He was trying to tell us what was going to come later. He was just giving us a warning in the 20s.

Now, up to 1920, 1919, America changed from a religious, well-mannered society into a drunken, selfish, ill-mannered, sex-obsessed country. There were two main contributing factors. The invention of the radio. There was no radio until the 20s, and no closed automobiles, only Model Ts, up high, no roof, convertibles, and no tops. 1920 came the enclosed car, and usually only the rich had it. But when the closed car came, newspapers called them brothels on wheels.

There was a sexual revolution broke out in the 1920s, a revolution of manners and morals. In 1920, remember, women’s suffrage that gave women the vote, and up to the time, up to 1920, women were the keepers of morality of the United States. But an alarming thing happened, and many of the people of that day, secular people, the writers of the New York Times, for example, tied it to the shortening of the hems of the skirts of the women of the day, because up to 1919, the long dresses were to the very ground.

Now, I want you to listen to this. An alarm-fashioned writer in “The New York Times” in 1920 explained, or complained, he said, “The American women are now lifting their skirts beyond any modest limitation.” And one writer said, “If they’re nine inches off the ground today, there’s going to come a day that America will become so immoral that it may reach the kneecap.”

Now, folks, that sounds a little funny to you, and it sounds legalistic, but what would our fathers say if they saw the miniskirts and saw the bikinis and the nakedness and the dress of today? Talk about immorality.

These were not preachers. These were unconverted men in the press. They had the flappers of the day that introduced the short skirts and short-sleeved dresses for the first time, and then suddenly women began to smoke. They had never smoked before this time in public, and even what they called the nice ladies began to smoke.

And there were preachers who thought they were in with the times, and they encouraged the parents and said, “There’s nothing to worry about the kids that are having sexual experimentation in their closed automobiles, and there’s nothing wrong with essential dancing,” because dancing became very, very sensual in 1921 and 1922. The theaters became sensual for their time. The society became obsessed with sex. It was the first time cocktails were introduced.

Women, for the first time, were not only smoking, but they ended up by the 1923 and 1924, going to the bars, putting their feet up to the rail just like men, and getting as drunk as the men being carried out to their cars. Victorian morality was mocked. Women began to chew snuff. Everywhere men were carrying hip flasks of whiskey. And the liberal preachers were saying, “Don’t worry, the drinking of gin, the smoking, the intimate dancing in public, it’s not going to lead to deeper immorality.”

But folks, that was the beginning. The United States of America became ill-mannered. Up to 1920, it was unthinkable to use the name of God in public, curse the name of God. Unthinkable. It was unthinkable to get a divorce, because in 1919, only 8.8 percent, well, only out of 100, 8.8 divorces. In 1925, out of 100 divorces, 12.4. In 1929, one out of six marriages ended in divorce, because the sexual immorality revolution in the United States broke up the homes, mocking Victorian principles.

Young people would get in their cars and travel everywhere for the dances and never report and stay out all night. The standards and the codes of marriage began to break. Chastity, faithfulness became outdated. And so America in the 1920s was called the wild, roaring, prosperous nation. The roaring 20s.

And from 1923 to 1929, seven years. Now folks, we have had that same seven years of prosperity here, but seven years of unending bull market. It was said it would never end. The stocks of the railroads, the railroads were busting with prosperity. Automobile industry, tens of millions of automobiles being produced. Radio, Montgomery Road, Woolworth, General Electric, numerous other companies, their stocks escalated out of sight.

Herbert Hoover was elected president in 1928, and President Coolidge had ruled over those seven years of prosperity. And when Herbert Hoover was elected president of the United States in 1928, in his inaugural address he said this, “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than before in all the history of the land. The poor house is vanishing. We are now in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.”

Six months later, the Depression. The stock markets smashed all records when Hoover became president. It seemed everybody was playing the market. The shoeshine man in the corner, the maids, bus drivers, housewives, butlers, ministers in cities and small towns all over America. And on the trolley cars coming home from work, five out of six people they said would get the paper and turn to the stock report.

Every little town all over the nation had a brokerage house. Everybody, millions, were investing in the stock market. It was like our present-day lotto games. There were stories of people getting rich overnight.

The two golden idols, they said, of the 1920s was sports and the stock market. These were the two idols. Of course, you had Babe Ruth being idolized at the time. Every rule of logic was broken, and people were reasoning.

Here’s the reasoning according to history. They said, “Because people had been warning of a crash coming. Every crash of the past years has been followed by a recovery, so there’s no reason to sell your stock. Just hang on to it, ride it out. It can only go up.” There were only a few prophetic voices crying out.

On October the 7th, 1929, the Standard Trade and Security Service warned that the stock market was going to crash. This was on October the 7th. A few businessmen said the same thing. A few creatures stood up here in New York City in their pulpits and warned a crash was coming, that God was going to judge America for its sins. Freudian philosophy swept the land. Religion was being mocked.

Remember what I said from this pulpit? “Whenever Zion is attacked, God judges.” But all the experts said, “Be bullish on America.” Even the front pages of the New York Times. Prosperity is here to stay. Invest. Spend.

Let me read you what one of the famous writers said just before the crash. He said, “America now, free from poverty and toil, new science, new prosperity, roads swarming with millions of new automobiles, airplanes darkening the skies, lines of high-tension wires carrying from hilltop to hilltop, power to give new life to a thousand new labor-saving machines and devices, skyscrapers with thrusting above once little villages, vast cities arising now, great geometric masses of stone and concrete and roaring with perfectly mechanized traffic, smartly dressed men and women are spending, spending, spending with the money from the stock market. Spending, spending, spending.”

September the 3rd, 1929, the market began to shake, and everybody in America knew something was happening and something was wrong. Margin buyers were fleeing the markets, but again the soothsayers raised their loud voices to try to calm the panic.

The Harvard Economic Society said, “This is just a readjustment. It’s just a market correction. This is not the beginning of a depression.” Professor Fisher said, “Within a few months the market’s going to be higher than ever.”

The President echoed what almost everybody in the financial markets believed. He said, “America’s industry situation is absolutely sound.” Doesn’t this sound familiar? This is what President Clinton said yesterday in his radio remarks. Very words, “America’s industrial situation is absolutely sound, our factories are humming, business is healthy, the economy is in good condition, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with us, no underlying business or credit structure is in danger, it’s a good time to buy stock.”

When newspaper had these headlines on October 16th, 1929, “American business is now too big and diversified, the country’s too rich to be influenced by the stock market fluctuations. Too big, too powerful.”

But on Thursday, October 24th, 1929, the market collapsed. Fear and panic struck by noontime here in New York. The stocks kept falling and there were no bargain hunters, there were no investment buyers, no big operators looking to buy back their own stock. All across America, thousands swarmed to their local brokerage houses, screaming, lining up in despair, trying to sell at any price. But by noon there were no more buyers, the exchange system could not cope with the fight for selling, the party was over within eight hours.

Suicides all over America that day. President Hoover got on the radio and he said, “There’s no reason to panic, the fundamental business of the country is sound and on a prosperous basis.” But it was too late. The communication systems of America were jammed, there were only sellers and no buyers anywhere.

A little boy walked in and he bought a major stock for one dollar. Panic hit all the foreign markets around the world. Across the world people were so stunned and shocked they couldn’t speak, that the great nation of America had fallen. The paper profits vanished overnight in every city and village in the nation, families were cast into poverty, having lost their paper wealth, the Depression had begun.

Here’s what one writer said after the crash. He said, and this I believe was in the New York Times, “There’s hardly a man or woman in the country whose attitude toward life has not been affected in some degree by this sudden brutal shattering of our hope.”

With the market in shambles, prosperity is fading, Americans now find themselves living in an altered world. Everything has changed. Day by day now the newspaper is going to be printing grim reports of suicide. And folks, it started on that day and lasted over ten years.

Now who brought down the American stock market and the stock markets of the whole world? Who shook America to its core overnight and turned prosperity into poverty? Who brought on this Depression? The same God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for its sins? The same God who judged Israel and brought the army of Titus in because of its idolatry and sin? The same God who’s been warning this nation for years by men who stand broken hearted? The same God.

America is modern babbling, and listen to what God has to say about modern babbling. “You have said, ‘I shall be a lady forever.’ So you did not make these things to your heart. You didn’t remember the latter end of it.” He said, “I judged you back then to war. You forgot all about it. I’m a proud lady. I’ll never fall. Now you’re given over to pleasure. You drop carelessly, and you say in your heart, ‘I am, and there’s none like me.’ Therefore, shall evil come upon thee. Thou shall not even know where it comes from. Mischief shall fall upon thee. Thou shall not be able to put it off or shake it off. Desolation shall come upon thee which you shall not even know of.” That is found in Isaiah 47: 7 to 11.

We have chosen to ignore the history, the lessons of history of Egypt, of Israel, of Jerusalem, of Sodom, of Babylon, the Roman Empire, all the empires that have fallen. We have forgotten and ignored the lesson God is teaching us. Sin is a reproach to any nation who God says, “When you mock Me, when you put Me out of your society, you make it politically correct to obliterate My very name from your society. You have mocked history.”

God is saying to this nation, “Don’t ever forget what I did to your nation years ago, a generation ago, how your country provoked Me to wrath and I had given you the power to get wealth so that you could be a great missionary nation.”

We were a great missionary nation for a while. Has this nation learned anything from the past? Have our government leaders considered God’s past judgment upon wicked nations? Are they even thinking about it? Is the President of the United States like Josiah? Josiah was told by a scribe that they had found the book with the history of God dealing with Israel.

The scripture says, “Josiah, and it came to pass, when the king heard the words about the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.” They read the history of God dealing with Israel in the past, how when they sinned God judged, and he looked at his nation, and he was shocked, and he began to tear his outer garment and put sackcloth on.

Josiah was alarmed, and he said to his confidants, “If this is true, if this is how God has judged past generations, we’re in danger. God’s wrath is already kindled against us. Go ye,” he said, “inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that is found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that’s kindled against us because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

Josiah did this as Moses commanded. He looked back, and he studied history, and he heard about it, and he said, “We are in danger. We are worse than our fathers. If God judged them then, He has to judge us now.” Do you know of any world leader? Do you know of anyone in Congress or any world leaders? We stand on the brink of a worldwide judgment.

Do you know anybody that’s considering the past, looking to the book of God as Josiah did? Is there any leader with the boldness to say we sin worse than Sodom? We’re far more wicked than our forefathers? For that matter, can you name any preachers who have gone into the book and studied the patterns of judgment? How many are there?

Listen to me. I don’t take lightly these words of the prophet Ezekiel. I believe that every preacher is a watchman. I believe that every minister of the gospel is to be called to be a watchman to his people. If the watchman sees the sword come, and he blows not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

And you know what that’s saying to me? Any minister of the gospel who loves God, who prays, who believes this word, and he’s not digging in, he’s not seeking God, and he doesn’t look at the history, he’s not doing as Moses commanded, look back! And he doesn’t stand and warn his people. And they are caught unawares in their apathy and in their sins. God said, “Every single one of them I will require at their hand. When they stand before Me in judgment, their blood will be on their hands.”

And I don’t take that lightly. I’ll scream it if I have to. That’s why you hear it from these ministers. Now there’s another lesson we’ve not learned from the past. We have not learned how to fully trust the Lord in perilous times, because we’ve not been tested. Or we’ve had the little test, death, sickness, some financial problems. Most of us get mad at God when He doesn’t heal a headache. We’ve not learned the consequences of unbelief.

David said, our fathers trusted in Thee. They trusted and God did deliver them. They cried to You, they were delivered. They trusted in You and they were not confounded. David himself was one of those fathers that we remember who fully trusted God. But he said there was a time in his life when hard times came. His eye almost fainted. But then he regained his faith. He said, ‘then I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.’

And if you read Psalm 91, you will hear David’s confession of faith, no matter what came to his life. And you know, I wonder sometimes if we Christians fully believe the Word of God. We’ll go into the Scripture. We read of the incredible acts of deliverance in the Old Testament. For years you and I have been hearing, we’ve been reading, we’ve been taught about the opening of the Red Sea, water out of a rock, manna falling from heaven, birds falling from heaven, food stored by Joseph to save Israel from extinction, fiery furnace, lion’s den, David, Goliath, on and on and on.

But evidently we’ve not been able to apply it to our own hearts, to chase the panic from our own spirits. Because you can spend a lifetime seeing miracle after miracle of deliverance. You can say, ‘I have a history with God. I’ve seen Him deliver me here and here and here.’ And then suddenly meet a crisis and fail God just as Israel did. Here we say, ‘our fathers trusted in Thee and they were delivered.’

But then you keep reading. In Psalm 78, you read the history of Israel. You find that finally they came to the hardest part of their test and they failed God. Literally failed Him.

Here’s where they finally arrived in unbelief. Yes, He smote the rock, the waters gushed out, streams overflowed. But can He give us bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people? God heard their murmuring. He saw their unbelief and it angered Him. Because He had delivered them time and time again. Because they believed not in God and trusted not in His salvation, God sent judgment. Because they believed not in God and trusted not in His salvation.

In my spirit, I hear the Holy Ghost literally screaming, ‘Remember, consider, study the Word, learn the terrible consequences of unbelief and not trusting the Lord.’ Folks, it doesn’t matter how dark the days may get. Gross darkness is going to cover this earth. It doesn’t matter. Folks, it doesn’t matter. If you wake up every morning and pray in your daily food supply, and that’s where we are going to be driven finally. It doesn’t matter at all.

God says, ‘I have given you examples. I have given you a whole testament. I have shown you My power. If you look back, first of all, learn the lesson about the judgment, but also learn about the provision that I make in those hard times for My people.” He said, ‘if you don’t, you’ll end up just like Israel, consumed in vanity and years of trouble and grief.’

Folks, we are very close to the time, probably, most likely, that the world goes into a chaotic condition where they will be crying for a powerful world leader to bring them out of the chaos and bring order. We’re close to that kingdom called Antichrist. Very, very close.

Folks, things are moving so fast now that nobody can keep up with it. I brought the New York Times last night, and I said in the living room, my message is prepared, and I’ve been prayed up, and I said, ‘I’m just going to take a look through this,’ and, folks, it was so mind-boggling. I turned again. I said, ‘this is unbelievable.’

I picked up The Fortune magazine, talked about the collapse of the pig market. New York, the Times, everywhere. Nobody knows what’s happening, and everybody says, ‘it’s going so fast. You can’t keep up with it.’ Folks, I take my role as a watchman very, very seriously. As I told you, I intend to have no blood on my hands. I’m faithfully warned of the judgment that’s coming.

Folks, it’s not a fun message. My bowels boil. I don’t rejoice when I see these things coming. I don’t turn to my wife and say, ‘I told them so.’ Do you know, in the last six weeks, the market has lost $2 trillion worth of worth? $2 trillion in the last six weeks. I don’t rejoice.

My wife is here to vouch. “Oh, honey, I hope it doesn’t happen now. God help us.” For many months, I’ve been searching the Scriptures. I’ve wept and pleaded with the Lord in my secret closet of prayer for a message of hope and encouragement for God’s people, especially here in New York City, in Times Square Church, especially I think of all the little children.

Folks, of all the joys of pastoring this church, because I was an evangelist, but of the many joys, one of the great joys is to see the little children. I meet them on the street, and there’s Pastor Dave, and they’ll come up with great big eyes and grab my hat and want to give me a high five or shake my hands. What a thrill that is.

But then I think, oh, God, these are the children that are going to face the hard times. We have people who love You. We’ve got a multitude living in the city. They can’t flee out into the country. They can’t buy some five acres and have a cow in their own well and a garden and everything else like everybody’s trying to do today, or so many are trying to do.

And I have walked and prayed. I’ve been in my closet. I have sought the Lord. I went through the whole. I went through Psalms, and I marked. You can see it here, four stars on every, wherever there’s a promise of God’s provision, I’ve got four stars there, and it’s all through. I went through Deuteronomy. I went through Nehemiah and Ezra, and I went through the Scripture, and wherever there’s a promise, because I’m going to prove many of those promises in my book, but they’re all encouraging, but it’s, oh, God.

I want you to say something special to my heart because I’m going to tell you the truth. When I see these things come in my flesh, I get scared to death. It’s frightening. And if you think otherwise, you’re not telling the truth. In my flesh, I don’t want to see this happen. In my flesh, when I get up and preach like this, I’m thinking of the choir behind me thinking, well, what about my job? What am I going to do to survive?

First of all, not everybody’s going to lose their jobs. That’s not the issue right here and now. And I said, God — there’s only one hope. Where do you go? That’s why the apostles said “To whom shall we go, for You have the words of eternal life.”

You have the word. It has to be a word that is born by the Holy Ghost in your heart. And in prayer last week, the reason I’m preaching this message, the Holy Spirit came upon me. He said, “David, I’m going to give you one scripture that will anchor your soul to every hard time so that the people are going to be driven to the word, study the word.” There are many people that are just going to have something at the tip of their tongue. There’s going to have to be an anointed word from God.

God said, “I’m going to give you one scripture. If you’ll commit your life to it, you can ride out any storm. No matter what happens, I’ll keep My word. If you will believe what I’m going to tell you.”

I got excited. “Lord, where is it? One verse? One scripture to see me through the darkest depression, to unemployment, to shortages, to deprivation? One verse? Yes.” And I sat and waited. The Lord very calmly said, “Just go to your study. I’m going to show you where to go.” And I went into my study.

And He led me to this verse. Hallelujah. Very simple. “Your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask.” Now, let me expand on that for just a moment, please. In Luke 12, Jesus Himself enumerates those things. The 12th chapter, verses 22 and 28. He’s talking about things that you eat, things that you drink, and things that you wear.

Jesus said, “Give no thought for your life, what you shall eat, neither for the body what you shall put on. If God so clothed the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more shall He clothe you, O you of little faith?” And clothe you, that means shelter.” He said, “Now stop and think about it.”

And He said, “You see the grass in the yard that comes up today and is gone tomorrow? It’s cut and you collect it and you throw it and burn it.” And He said, ‘I’ve brought the greenness to it. I’ve brought the life in it. I’ve cared for it as long as it was there. Do you think for a moment that I don’t know what you need? That I’ll not clothe and feed?”

He feeds that grass from the ground, from the elements. He waters it. Even though it lasts for a day. He said, “I took care of it.” Jesus said, “All these things do the nations of the world seek after. But for you, your Heavenly Father, verse 30, your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things.” These things He already enumerated. Food, water, and shelter.

Now listen to me please. Here’s what the Holy Ghost said to me. “David, I’m aware of every desire and dream and wish. But I promised only to meet what I know to be the need.” My Father knoweth what things you have need of. There’s a scripture that says, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Well, let me reason with you. If God Almighty knows before you ask everything you need, He knows every can that’s in your closet. Every can of soup. Every bag of beans. He knows every ounce of water. He knows everything you have in your closet. He knows all about your rent, about your need to have a shelter over your head. He cares for your children more than you care for your children.

Israel said, “What about our children? They’re going to die in the wilderness.” He said, “No, because if you are going to die in the wilderness, your children are going to be saved.” Folks, don’t worry about your children. Those are His children. They’re under His wings.

Now, when He says, “Take no thought,” He’s not saying, “Don’t prepare.” In the original Greek, it says, “Don’t despair over it. Don’t focus on it. Don’t let it distract you. You put your trust in Me, and as you put your trust in Me, I’ll tell you what to do.”

Now, if God knows everything, everything I need, if He knew that and did nothing about it, He’s not God. He could not be God. Will you let that sink in? If God did not, I couldn’t do that as a father. How much less dare we accuse our Heavenly Father of knowing exactly what we need and to not fulfilling that need. Glory be to God. Hallelujah.

Jesus said, “Fear not, little flock. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” All these things shall… You know what that word in Greek added means? To proceed further than promised. He said, “I’m going to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask or think.” He’s not going to answer all your dreams and wishes and prayers for this and that. He knows all you need is enough to eat. All we need is enough to drink of water and milk for our children.

All we need is a roof over our head. God said those are the things. He enumerated them. He said, “I’m going to meet that.” There are going to be so many bitter people because God is not answering their prayers to keep their millions safe. Then they’re going to have the money to take that Bahama vacation. There are going to be a lot of people who’ve never known suffering. A whole generation that’s never known suffering.

They’re going to think God’s failed them. All along they may be eating just scarce food just like they do in Indonesia, but they are living. Folks, the Lord said, “Seek Me first. Go to the house of God and enjoy the fellowship. I’m going to feed you, I’m going to clothe you, take care of you.” Hallelujah.

You know what Daniel said? “The Lord knoweth what’s in the darkness and the light dwells in Him.” He knows how dark it’s going to get. But He said in that darkness, if you just seek Me, you’re going to have light. Remember when darkness fell in all of Egypt but there was light in Goshen where the children of God were? You know what that light is? It’s simple childlike trust in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ our Lord and our God to supply every need.

I think He has enough. Don’t you? I think God’s big enough, don’t you? Hallelujah. May I remind you what I said last week? Martin Luther said, “Lord, now that You’ve forgiven my sins, do with me what You please.” What could be greater than having my sins forgiven? If God can forgive my sins, He can surely take care of this body. If God can give me eternal life, if God can build me a mansion in glory, He can take care of me in New York City. Let’s stand.

Now folks, I’m not going to stand here and say, “Repeat after me.” The Lord knows what things you’ll have needed before you ask. This is not kindergarten. But I’ll tell you one thing, I’m praying the Holy Ghost burn that into your brain. Burn it into your soul. I don’t know what you’re going to hang on to. I’m hanging on to the whole word, but God has given me a ray of light. He’s given me a word.

He’s given me something in my soul that’s going to keep me through darkness, through all the human fears that come against me. I’m just going to remind God, “You said, you know, you know, you know, you know. Everything that I need, even before I ask. Hallelujah. Praise you, Jesus.”

Heavenly Father, I’m asking You to come to this church and bring glorious peace and rest in the Holy Ghost. If you’ll drive out all fear. Lord, there’s going to be human fear. Lord, the next three months here in America is going to be the most ominous, dangerous time in the history of this nation and the world. Lord, we may see things that we could not imagine could ever happen to this nation.

But remember what Jesus said, “I told you these things before they came to pass. So that when they came to pass, you would believe.” You would believe My keeping power. You would trust Me and just put your life in My hands and rest. Because Lord, even the unemployed who lose their jobs are going to find a place of refuge. You’re going to take care of them just like you take care of a little baby. You’re taking them in Your arms and you’re going to walk them through all of this.

Lord Jesus, You’re going to feed, You’re going to house, You’re going to clothe Your people. And we’re going to have camp meetings. We’re going to rejoice in You and we’re going to win souls. And we’re not going to hide, Lord, we’re going to be evangelists. Every one of us are going to be evangelists to Your glory. Hallelujah.

Now folks, on my way to church this morning, I met a young man who’s here. He said, “Don’t worry, nobody knows who you are.” But he said, “Brother Dave, I’ve been coming to church for a long time here. But he said, ‘I’ve got a spirit of fear on me. Terrible spirit of fear.'” He was right on the street, laid hands on him, prayed for him, and God removed that. And God made me a promise that the fear that he had would never happen. And I can say to that young man, “That fear that you have, it will never happen. You’re as safe as you can ever be, and it’ll never happen.”

And if you’re here this morning in the annex, and in the rooms watching on the Videotrons and main auditorium here, we have never ever tried to pack the all of it, so to speak. But if you’re here this morning with not just fear, but a spirit of fear that you can’t shake, now it could be because there’s been a compromise in your life. This is not a time to be mixed up in immorality. This is not a time to be unfaithful to your husband or wife. This is not a time to be fooling with pornography or foolishness.

This is a time to get right with God. This is a time, He said, “Seek Me first now. You start seeking Me now. The party’s over now, get serious about Me.” And if you’ve been drifting, you’re not where you should be with Christ. You may be here and you’re not even right with God. You’re not ready to meet Jesus. Those that have a spirit of fear first, but if you’re one of those that I’ve mentioned, once you get right out of your seat, up in the annexes, go to the lobby, the back lobby.

Joshua will show you where the door is into this auditorium. You come right down the aisle, stairs and down the aisle, and meet me here. We’ll pray with you. We’re going to come against that spirit of fear. And here in the main auditorium also, and up in the balcony, go to the stairs on either side and come down any aisle. No one will beg you to come because the Holy Spirit draws you. Say, “Brother David, I have a spirit of fear on me.” And there are others that say, “I have compromise in my life.”

Nobody needs to know who you are or why you’re coming. You come only as the Spirit draws you. We’re going to pray a prayer of faith, and we’re going to have you pray with us, and we’re going to believe God that you walk out of here with assurance, absolute assurance in the presence of God. Amen.

As it came forward, let me give you the word. Listen closely, too, please. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. Lord, You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people. You’ve covered all their sins. You’ve taken away all Thy wrath. Thou hast turned Thyself away from the fierceness of Thy anger. Will Thou not revive us again that we may rejoice in You? Show us mercy, O Lord. Give us Thy salvation.”

I will now hear what the Lord will speak. He will speak peace to His people and to His saints, but let them not return again to their folly. He wants to speak peace to your soul. Look at me, please. You cannot just be passive. God, just come down and do it. You have to take the word that’s a sword, and you have to fight off your spirit of fear.

My praying with you right now will put to chase, I believe, will put to chase any demonic oppression of your mind and spirit. I believe that. But then, remember the scripture says that those evil spirits that leave, they come back and they find the house empty, swept and garnished, and it comes back with seven spiritual more. It’s because there was no resistance. You take the sword of the word now. If you’ll just stand in that one word. “My God knows what I have need of.”

He knows I need the Holy Ghost to strengthen me. He knows that I need the power of God to fight my sin and my lust. I need the power of the Holy Spirit, and I need His word in me, so I’m going to discipline myself. There’s a discipline. I have to do that. Hours and hours alone. God didn’t just say, “Well, I have a job.” Yes, but you can spend an hour any day of the week, any day, an hour before the Lord, building up your spirit, building up your heart, so that you can resist.

“Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You, O Lord.” And every time I feel that human fear trying to come in, immediately I run to the word of God. I run to this. I just devour the book of Psalms. Run to the 91st Psalm. Run to the 23rd Psalm. Run to all your favorite Psalms. Underline it, write it, and just get accustomed to it. And every time the enemy comes in trying to say, “Oh, you’re going to lose everything. You’re going to lose your job. You’re going to be in poverty. You’re going to wind up in the streets.” Say, devil you’re a liar. And go to the word of God.

Go to the word of God. My dad and mom lived through the Great Depression in the 20s. My grandparents and folks. I used to sit and listen to them. It was like listening to a new chapter in the book of Acts. How God took care of everything? How God supplied? God made people’s gardens bring triple harvests. God did things that nobody could ever believe that they were told. It was miracle after miracle, and the same miracle-working God is our God. Hallelujah.

You know what I’ve always reasoned to my own heart? God said, “I’ve not given you the spirit of fear.” I said, “Well, Lord, if You didn’t give it to me, I don’t have to put up with it.” I don’t have to put up with it. In Jesus’ name, I take authority over this now.

I want everybody that came forward now, bow your head before the Lord, agree with me right now that this spirit of fear will go. Father, in Jesus’ name, we take Your authority over every spirit of fear, every spirit of chaos and confusion, in Jesus’ name. God, clear our minds that we may learn to trust You as a child.

Your heavenly Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask. Fill us with that truth. Let it just crowd out everything that would come in, Lord, to crush our confidence in You. Oh, what a mighty God we serve. I come against that demonic spirit that comes to harass that spirit of fear. You must go now in Jesus’ name and depart from everyone in this house that is trusting our heavenly Father.

Now for you that have been apathetic and you that have been running from the Lord and you that have been living in sin, I want you to pray this prayer with me. In fact, you might just want to pray this, everyone that came forward, “Jesus,” right out loud, “Jesus, I come to You to open up my life and my heart. I want to surrender to You all my sins, my doubts, my fears, my unbelief, all my complaining and my murmuring. I want to please You, Lord. You said I can’t do it except I give You faith.”

For without faith, it’s impossible to please God. They that come to Him must believe that He is and He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Lord, I know You reward me by meeting every need as I draw nigh to You and seek first Your kingdom and Your righteousness. Now forgive me, Lord, and awaken my spirit, my faith. I receive my forgiveness. I receive Your love. Now, Jesus, embrace me. Remind me of how much You love me.

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