(Audio Sermon) Fearfulness in the Presence of the Lord

Would you go with me to Psalms 53 please. Psalm 53, 53rd Psalm. I'm going to read one verse that's going to be the foundation of my message tonight. Psalms 53, 53 verse 5. There were they in great fear where no fear was. Now before I pray and before I preach, just let me give you background here. The scripture is saying here they were in great fear, though they had no cause to be afraid. No cause whatsoever. No reason to be afraid, yet they were afraid. And this refers, according to Bible scholars, to the time that the army surrounded Jerusalem and Hezekiah and his people were praying and seeking God. The army, huge army had surrounded them. They were in great fear, but there was no cause because an angel was standing by ready to slay the whole army. And if you read the story, you'll find it very, very clear that that's what God did. And the Lord said they wasted their fears. There was no reason to be afraid. The angel had already been commissioned and overnight he went out and slew 185,000 of them. The battle was all over. They never even lifted a finger. They never were in danger, but they were in great fear. Trembling and in horror and no need whatsoever. And that's my message. Fearfulness in the presence of the Lord. Fearfulness in the presence of the Lord. Heavenly Father, you're trying to achieve something in our hearts tonight. In my heart, in the heart of everyone that loves you in this house tonight, Holy Spirit, help me to be your channel. Help me to be just a vessel that you can convey this message to our hearts and we receive it. Now we're open. Help me, Lord, to make it clear. Make it clear to me first and then to everybody in this house so that we can rejoice in hearing it and then practice it through the power of the Holy Ghost. Now, Holy Ghost, I need you. I acknowledge it. I've been praying. I've been seeking your face and this is the word you gave me, so I freely give it in Jesus' name. But I honestly say to you, Lord, I need the Holy Ghost as never before come mightily. Amen. In the eighth chapter of Matthew, there's a story about Jesus getting in a boat with his disciples and leaving Capernaum. He's crossing the sea and in the middle of the sea a storm comes up and the Scripture says, Behold, there rose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he, Jesus, was asleep. And his disciples came to him and awake him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he said unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds in the sea, and there was a great call. Well, listen to me, please. There is no, none of these are just stories told to entertain us. Every episode is a teaching episode. We're to learn by these. Now, it's just not just picking it up and saying, quite an interesting story. There was a storm in the sea and all this thing. We are taught, the Scripture says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in the righteousness. Now, if there's a lesson in this, what is it? What is the lesson we're going to learn from this? Jesus going in the storm, every, it looks like the boat is going down and they say, We're going to die. We're going down. They're prepared to die. And Jesus says, Why are ye faithful, O ye of little faith? And he, of course, you know the story. He speaks to the wind and the wave and there's a great call. All right, what is the lesson? I've approached this story from many, many different ways. I must have preached this three or four dozen times and have come to it from many, many angles, but I'm going to come to it tonight as the leading of the Holy Spirit in a very special way. And I want you to hear because, first of all, the Lord dealt with me about this. And I want him to deal tenderly with you tonight about the sin that I have just talked to you about. I don't know if you even picked it up. Here's the lesson. Fearfulness in the heart of a Christian is sin enough, but fearfulness in the very presence of the Lord is an abominable sin. It's one thing if Jesus had been on the shore. It'd be another thing if he'd been on a far journey. Maybe you could have understood this a bit, the fear, the common fear on that boat. But folks, Jesus was the first one in that boat. He got in the boat, and he says, get in with me and go across the sea. So he was there first. Now, remember, this is God. God was on shore, on board. Jesus was God in the flesh. It's an amazing thing as this story unfolds. Here he is in the hinder part of the ship, and he's sleeping. And if they had truly believed that he was God, there is no way this story could unfold like it's unfolding now. This is God creator who created the sea, who created the wind, who is master of everything, and God is in that boat. How would you like to have God in your car tonight? I mean a person. You know, you get in a van with ten of these guys and say, who's the man in the back? God. Now folks, get that in mind. It was God in the boat. Almighty creator God was in the boat, in person, because this was God come down in human flesh. And he's in the boat. He's not lost any of his creative power. That creative power is still there, everything. This is God in flesh. God is in the boat, who's commander, who made them, who made everything around them. And what do you think of these men waking God up? And he says, you know, what they're really saying, can you imagine if that were today the headlines? Shipwreck. God and eleven disciples go down during a missionary trip. God sinks. Think of it. Think of the ridiculousness of this. I got to thinking of that. If they had really believed that he was God. Remember when he speaks to the wind and the wave and they said, what kind of man is this? He's a Superman. He just speaks, what kind of a man is this? See, they seem just like themselves. They've not yet committed themselves to his Godhead. They've not committed himself to the supernaturalness of this God that they serve. He's just a man. He's a teacher. They've heard him teach. He can do miracles, but he's still a man. They did not commit themselves to him as their almighty God. And there are multitudes of Christians today. Oh, he's a good teacher. They love to hear about him. They talk about the historical Jesus. And in essence, and in their language and in their talk, they say he is God. We worship him as God. If they had really believed that he was God, you know what they would have done? They would have said, what a man is this? They would start getting up in a boat and shout and say, what a mighty God we serve. Angels bow before him, heaven and earth obey him. Jesus was dumbfounded. He was incredulous. He's, I know, he's saying, I'm God. And they're telling me we're going down. You know what they would say, we perish. And you know what that means in Greek? It's all over. We're dead. We're as good as dead is what it means in Greek. We're as good as dead. They wake up God. God, we're going down. You see, isn't that stupid? After all the miracles they'd seen, after all the deliverances they'd been through and everything else, they're telling God to go on down. Isn't that the way you tell him? After all his blessings and all the way he's met you, and then another crisis comes and there's water coming in the boat and the storm and the wind and everything else. That's it. Going down. This is it. This is the big one. I know, you know, but this is something else. This is something weird. It's all over. I can't pay my bills. I'm going down. Everything's gone. God, we're going down. That's exactly what you're saying. If you're his child, you're bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, you're going down, he's going down. In your mind? What a scene. We call upon God, we testify that we fully trust him, that he's our Lord, and yet in our next storm, we accuse him of being asleep. We try to wake him up, we scream at him. Well, I'll tell you, I don't do it anymore, but I used to scream at God. I remember, I told you once, I got, I thought, God, you haven't answered me on this, and I got a pillow and threw it across the room and said, God, where are you? He's done the same thing, so, right? God, what do you want, blood? Let's grieve the Lord. He was grieved. He says, why are you fearful? Why do you fear where there's no fear, where there's no cause? When we're fearful in his presence, we're saying, in essence, he's just a man. He's just like us. I really don't know him as God. He's not been God to me. Folks, God help me, I don't ever again want to distrust his faithfulness or his ability, his willingness, his power to do what is right and to give me the patience to wait until he gets it done, or to give me the grace to endure, but I don't want to have fearfulness in his presence. Now, we in the church have not taken seriously the abominableness of this, the sinfulness of this sin, of being fearful in our trials, when these things come upon us. See, we're so focused on the sins of the flesh, our lust and gambling and drinking and pornography and adultery and fornication, and we're so focused on these things, we forget the things that really grieve the heart of God. It's not that God endures these sins. It's not that God overlooks the sins of America. But folks, for example, I was, this past week when I was preparing this message, I really got upset, I got disturbed in my spirit about the sins of America and how fast we're degenerating, how fast we're spinning out of control, especially when you turn on the radio and you hear of a father who has AIDS, who injects his six-year-old son with this AIDS virus from his own veins, and the boy's got full-blown AIDS and is going to die. His son. And then I heard, there was an article and also in the newspaper and the radio about Mr. Howard Stern, who I've never heard him on the radio, but said he's a vile person. His book's called Body Parts and it's all of, nothing but trash. And they're going to give him a syndicated television program now on regular network, and he made a statement in essence that said America's gone so far down, they've reached my point, and I'm the man to take them all the way down. Nothing but nudity. Nothing but trash. The number one television show, they said, is a guy named Springer. I've never seen it, but nothing but fighting, and if you're laughing, you've seen it. I listened to another report about a new kind of fighting in Romania, and in Africa, and it's coming to cable television in America. A fight to the death. I may have mentioned this message before, but the report says that in Romania, there's no whole bars, you can do anything, there's no gloves and kick and scratch and pull and pound, and they were yelling, kill, kill, and the man was killed, and they booted him when they carried him off on stretcher. And they're training eight and ten year old African orphans in this kind of fight to the kill. Now here in America, they get them until they're just unconscious and carry them off unconscious, but we're going to have Americans, just like in the Roman amphitheaters, just before the fall of Rome, where they're crying for blood, where thumbs down, then kill, and killing to cry. It was a mad, blood thirsty, mad crowd, and folks, we've reached that point of degradation in America, and I got so down, and I stood up once, I heard the last report, and I stood up and said, God, that's enough! I said, we're like Rome before Rome fell, and I cried out, oh God, how much of this do you put up with? And yet, no matter how wicked this nation gets, it's nothing new, because men are just doing what sinful men do. They're obeying their father, the devil. They know no better, and it's not going to get any better, it's going to get worse, but it's been this way from the beginning. You remember there was a society that got so vile and wicked, God said that's enough, and he sent a flood and destroyed the whole society. You heard about Sodom and Gomorrah, and how the Lord says that's enough, and he wiped it out. But I can take you into history, and I can show you that what I'm preaching tonight, what Pastor Carter preached this morning, this afternoon, and my book that's coming out, America's Last Call, there's nothing in my book, and nothing I've ever written, any of my prophetic books, it comes anywhere near John Flavor, who wrote this, that I'm going to read to you 300 years ago. And I can take you back 500 years ago, and give you messages that are so intense, and so powerful, beyond anything I've ever preached or heard. This is John Flavor, great old Buryton preacher from the 16th century, 17th century, 340 some years ago, an Englishman. And John Flavor said, oh England, England, what pride, luxury, lasciviousness, and listen, see if this sounds like America, licentiousness, wantonness, drunkenness, cruelty, injustice, oppression, fornicators, adulterers, liars, falsehood, hypocrisy, bribery, atheism, horrid blasphemies, impiety, and now it's rampant all over the nation. Oh England, England, how are the Lord's Sabbath profaned, ordinances despised, scriptures are rejected, the spirit is resisted and derided, the righteous are reviled, wickedness is countenanced, Christ, many thousands of times a day is cursed over and again, crucified afresh. Oh England, England, were our forefathers alive, how sadly would they brush to see such a horrid degenerate generation as to be found in the midst of thee, England, now. How has our forefathers' hospitality been converted into riot, luxury, frugality has turned into pride, simplicity into subtlety, sincerity has turned into hypocrisy, charity has become cruelty, chastity into chambering and wantonness, sobriety has turned into drunkenness. There's no more plain dealing, everybody is cheating, their works of compassion have become works of oppression, and their love to the people of God into enmity against the people of God. Oh Christian, go to your closet, every Christian run to your closet and weep, weep with Jeremiah bitterly for all these great abominations in the land, whereby God is now dishonored openly, oh weep for the sins, secret sins, who openly glory in their sins, and it should be their greatest shame it has become their glory. Brush in secret for them that are past all brushing, they don't know how to brush anymore, for who knows that the whole land may fare better, may fare better for the sake of the few who would mourn in secret over the sins of England. Listen to this, but however it goes with this nation, those who mourn in secret for the abomination of our times can be confident when these sweeping judgments come upon the land, the Lord will hide them in a secret chamber by his providence. He will set a mark of deliverance on the foreheads of those who mourn in secret for the crying sins of England. 300 years ago, and I can take you in my library and show it to you, 400 years ago, 500 years ago, children rising up against parents, juvenile delinquency, 300, 400, 500 years ago, preached it stronger, stronger than we preach it from this pulpit. You know the scripture says very clearly, were they ashamed when they committed abomination? Nay, they were not ashamed, neither could they blush anymore. We've lost our blush, but folks, I'm telling you, it's nothing new. I got a letter this week from a sister, a Christian sister on a mailing list, she said, Brother David, please bring a message about deception. Not the obvious deception that most Christians are aware of in the cults and the technology sins like internet and theater and so forth. She said, I'm talking about the deception of all deceptions, the gradual desensitizing of American Christians to the wickedness in this world now. She said, for example, I'm not shocked anymore by nudity on television or in the movies. I'm not shocked by the scandals in the government. I've seen death repeated on the 6 o'clock news without being shocked anymore. I'm no longer saddened by it. It's only when I get back in the presence of Jesus and his purity that I see how far away I've gotten. I'm no longer sensitive to sin, about sin. I'm a Christian, but I know that I'm being slowly deceived to spiritual death. Please speak out strongly about this because I don't think I'm the only person under this deception. I believe it's happening all through the church. We're being desensitized to sin. I agree with this lady. We're all in danger of being desensitized like Lot who vexed his soul in seeing what was happening to Sodom day after day. I agree that we should be vexed and grieve for the sins and afflictions of Joseph according to Amos 6. In fact, I was reading the life story last week of the great Scottish preacher, William Burns. William Burns was called to preach when he was just a young man. When he was 17 years old, they lived in a small town in Scotland. One day his mother took William into Glasgow, the big city, to do some shopping. While she was shopping, she got distracted and separated from William. So she tried to backtrack her steps to find him. As she was backtracking to where she began, hoping to find him because she'd never been in the city, never seen so many people. She heard a loud sobbing in the back alley. She looked and there was William, just sobbing his heart out. She went to him and said, William, are you ill? Are you sick? He said, no, mother, no, mother. He said, it's the sound of so many Christless feet clodding their way to hell. He became a great missionary to China. He gave his life for people, but he never stopped weeping over souls and grieving over the sin in the land. This man wept over the sin everywhere he went. And my point is this. I grieve over sin. I've been in this city. I told you about when I lived in Staten Island years ago, 35 years ago, when I came to this city to start Teen Challenge. Worked with drug addicts. And coming out of Staten Island ferry boat, just looking over Brooklyn and the metropolitan area, just weep and cry. Before this church was started right over here, three blocks, I would weep. I would go down into the Times Square area and just stand there and weep and cry. And I still do. I stand in my apartment. I look over the city and I weep and cry over the generation and all the sins of the city and the nation. I don't ever want to quit that. We're not boasting in that. But you see, these things break our heart. Those are not the kinds of sins. Those are not the major sins that break the heart of God. The heart of God is always wrapped up in his people, in his church, in his bride. Of all the nations of the earth, the multitudes of nations, heathen nations, God's whole eternal purpose is wrapped up in just an insignificant small body of people called the Jew. Israel. The things that grieve the heart of God was not the idolatry of the masses of heathen. Well, God judges that. Their cup of iniquity gets full and God sends judgment. Those things anger God. But there's another thing called the grief of God. Now, God's not going to send you to hell for this. He's not going to damn you for it. But if you have a love for Jesus, if he is everything to you, the last thing you want to do is grieve his heart. I'm talking now about how God looks at sin. He looks down at the world and his whole eternal purpose is wrapped up in this small little group, his body, his bride. You see, God is interested. You know, you and I are called to grieve over the afflictions of Joseph. We're called to this ministry, yes. But when you get along with God and you get to know his heart, you begin to seek him with everything that's in you. You begin to cry, God, I don't want to ever in my life cause you to be hurt. I don't ever want to grieve you, Lord. I want to live, not just to escape hell. I have a love in my heart that you have planted there supernaturally. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Father. I love you, Holy Ghost. And I don't want to live in any way that I would cause you grief or that I put a tear in the heart in the eye of God. Then you begin to see how abominable this sin is. To have a God, an almighty God creator, who says, I want to be God to you. Then I want you to be a son or daughter to me. And he has made us all these glorious promises that we would live without fear, the scripture says, all our days. The awful sinfulness of being fearful in the very presence of the living God, who has made all of these great and precious promises to us. This is the number one sin that God marks himself that says it could keep some out of heaven. I want you to go with me and see it. Just turn to Revelation 21 for a moment, please, quickly. Revelation 21. You're still with me, I hope? How does God see sin? Some of you guys have been on drugs. You say, hey, hey, hey, drugs. Well, you've got a mug and steel, and then it destroys your health and everything else. How about adultery? What about murder? What would you say is the number one sin? That's one of them. I've been preaching about it. Fearfulness. Look at verse 8. Verse 7 first. He that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But to what? And look at the unbelieving. Abominable, murderers, warmongers, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, have their part in the lake which is burned with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. But what's first? Fearful. Fearfulness in the very presence of Almighty God. Now, look this way, if you will, please. The Holy Spirit convicted me deeply in the preparation of this message. He was dealing with me first of all, and I couldn't preach it to you until he dealt with me. And I asked him to give me the antidote. How do I get rid of it, Lord, when suddenly this comes upon me? How do I get rid of this fearfulness so that I can exercise my faith? But two things the Holy Spirit gave me. Now, there's nothing deep about this message. Very, very simple. It's not a long message. So I want you to hang on these words now and follow me closely. Number one, if you want to live without fearfulness in the presence of the Lord, you've got to deal, if you want to deal with this fear, the first thing you have to do is acknowledge how wicked it is. How sinful it is. Don't take it lightly. Don't take it lightly. Now, we've got a loving father, a heavenly father. Now, this is a sin. It's not so much that it angers him, but he grieves him because of his children. Now, if my children show fear and don't believe that I'm going to be a father to them, I'm not going to disown them over that, but it's going to grieve my heart. I'm talking about his grief. I don't see too many Christians really getting serious about the things of God today. Let me consider the woman, the dear sister who wrote me the letter. She said, I'm not moved anymore. I'm not shocked by nudity on television or in the movies. And my question is, how serious are you on this matter if you're going? How serious are you? You write to me, and I say this lovingly, you write to me and say I'm being desensitized. But what in the world are you doing watching any movie on television that has nudity? Folks, let me tell you something. You're not serious about the things of God. You're not serious about living above this world. You're not serious about not being carried away with the flood. And you'll be carried away with the flood if you keep dangling and flirting with the devil. What are you doing on the internet surfing around and flirting with the devil anyhow? Come on now. If you're going to say I'm serious about God, what are you doing, sister, watching those filthy soap operas? I don't even know what that means. I know what a soap opera is, but I have not seen any of that. Years and years ago, I might have turned and just, while I was fleeting, many, many years ago, but I never watched them, never hooked on them, and yet we've got Christian women and some men, thousands of college students in their dorms hooked on this garbage, bed hopping, prostitution, murder, incredible filth. And then you say, I'm being desensitized. Of course you are. You're going down. What in the world would any Christian husband or wife, why would you, if you're serious about God and his work at all, if you're serious about walking with the Lord and staying clean in a filthy age, what in the world are you bringing those filthy tapes into your house? And listen, like one preacher said, well, even from the pulpit, in so many words, well, if you're an adult and you're well balanced, that will only enhance your marriage. Christian counselors are telling that to many couples today. Get some pornography and enhance your marriage. You're not serious about God. You're not serious about the things of God. You're not serious about walking with him. A young man who wrote to me two weeks ago, he said, Dear Brother Dave, I'm shocked, because for the first time, he was 19 years old, I believe, and he said, I'm having homosexual tendencies now, and I'm shocked, and I'm scared, and I'm feeling so sorry for this boy while I'm reading the letter. He said, I'm shocked. I've never expected this. I've never liked this. I've never had these thoughts. Now I have these thoughts. I think I'm becoming gay. But then at the bottom paragraph, he said, Please pray for me, because I can't give up my pornography. He said, I can't do it. I can't give it up. A pastor's wife wrote to me. She couldn't understand why her husband's preaching became so dead. The church was dying, people leaving, and he was changing right before her eyes, and she found in his office a whole stash of pornography. In anger, she went and threw it in the dumpster. He said, Thank you, honey. Thank you. He goes out the next day and gets it, jumps in the dumpster and gets it, brings it back into his home, into his study. Oh, sure, he's being desensitized to sin. Not only that, destroyed. Satiated mind, spirit, and body. In Judges, the seventh chapter, remember God called Gideon to go against the Midianites. The Midianites had, for about 17 years or longer, had Israel under its thumb. They were stealing everything and absolutely destroying the land and held them in bondage and servitude. And God says, Gideon, go against them. So he calls an army, a huge army, together. And God says, There are too many, because if I give you deliverance now, with all this army, they'll take the credit because of their numbers. They won't give me the glory. He said, Tell everybody that's fearful. He said, There are too many. They'll boast they got the victory because of their great numbers. Go to the men and tell them, Go show those fearful and afraid, let them go home. 22,000 men immediately sigh a sigh of relief. Die, Gideon, and they're gone. God said, I'm not going to let that spirit infect my army. There's 10,000 left, and God says, There's still too many, Gideon. He said, Send them down to the river bank. And he said, I'll tell you what. Everyone who just kneels and laps the water like a dog does, just laps it up with a tongue. Now, 9,700 men run down to quench their thirst. I mean, they just fall on their face and suck it in. But the 300 men knew there was a war. They knew that the Midianites were up hanging behind the bushes and everywhere, weapons and ready to pounce on them. And they knelt by that water, looking, watching, and lapping the water. They just wanted to satisfy the thirst so they could go on. But they were there because they were serious about this war. They were serious men. God said, I'm not going to have any cowards. I'm going to have serious men in my army. And, folks, God wound up with 300 men. And I'll tell you what, I got to think of this. This had to be some meeting when he told them his strategy, his plan. These men had to have faith. Here's a huge army, Captain. He said, We're coming at them three ways. A hundred here, a hundred here, and a hundred over here. He said, I'll tell you what. Here's how we're going to do it. He said, I'm going to give you all a pitcher, and I'm going to put some oil in that, and I'm going to give you all a ram's horn. He said, Here's what you're going to do. When I give the signal, when you see my light go on, and I'm going to strike a fire, and I'm going to light my fire in that horn. And when I give you the signal, I want you, and he said, We're going to sneak up close. You know, I used to picture them up in the mountains and just running down. They wouldn't run anywhere. They stood still about six. He said, You're going to stand still? And they said, Well, where are our swords? There are no swords. You got any spears? No, no spears. We're going to fight with trumpets? Pitchers? We're going to bang them over the head? Huh? No, he said, I'll tell you what. What you're going to do, and my signal, you're going to light. There's going to be light coming here, here, here, and you're going to blow the trumpet. Then as soon as you blow the trumpet, and then half of you, this part of you, half of you scream, I come against you with the sword of the Lord and of Gideon! Because God had put fear of Gideon in the whole army. Can you imagine 300 men looking at each other? What faith they had to have. God said, You take the foolish things of the world and confound the wise. Hallelujah. Don't try to figure out how God's going to win your battle for you. Don't try to figure it out, because if he told you, you'd laugh. You'd tell him, No way! No way! He chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Can you imagine 300 men screaming? Just screaming and yelling. Just standing there screaming and showing the light, and blowing the horns. It must have been some racket, and the Holy Ghost must have amplified that 10 million times, so that it sounded like an army of a million coming at him, because they all ran and left everything, and a great victory was won. You know what the Bible said? Be sober, or serious, be on guard, because your adversary, the devil, is a wrong line. Walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. God's been telling me this past year, especially for a whole year now, He said, I want you to be more serious about my things, about my eternal purpose, my plan for your life, than you've ever been since you've known me. You have got to take it more serious. Everybody says, I'm so intense. The Lord said, no, I want you to be more serious. You're going to seek my face more than you've ever sought me, because I'm going to woo you, and call you, because if you really believe what I'm telling you to preach, you're going to be serious about it. Brother Carter spoke this morning about some Christians who are just a joke. They're a joke. They don't seek the face of God. That brings me to point number two, before I close. If you're really serious about walking in his presence without fear, you're going to get serious about prayer. You are going to get serious about prayer. I want you to go to Psalm 55 quickly, please. Psalm 55. First eight verses. It's gotten so quiet in here just now. Are you still up there? Psalm 55, first eight verses. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My heart is sore pain within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, O, that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. Now, most Bible scholars believe this is the time Absalom rebelled against his father. He's thinking now he's going to have to run into the wilderness. Wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. Then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. And when you go on to read verse 13, It was thou, a man, my equal, my guide, and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company. He's talking about Ahithophel, his advisor when he was king. And now he's turned and he's with Absalom, his son, as his advisor. And David is feeling betrayed. He's in the worst crisis in his life. Absolute worst crisis in his life. Verse 5, Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. Now look at me, please. Here's a man of God who said, I delight to be in the presence of the Lord. Here's a man who said the very presence of the Lord is an absolute delight. He said the upright shall dwell in his presence. He said, I found joy, fullness of joy in his presence. So here's a man who knows how to come into God's presence. He lived in the presence of God, but he's in another crisis. There have been many in his life, but now he's in a major crisis. Everything seems to be going wrong. And his heart is fearful. Everything, the betrayal, his own son, his best friend, everything is turned against David. And he said, there's a horror in me. There's a terrible panic in me. He's worried about the future, just like some of you sitting here right now. You have a terror. There's a panic in you because of the fear of the future. You hear prophetic messages, such as coming from this pulpit. And there's a tendency, the flesh gets in, well, how am I going to pay my bills? What about my children? What about my job? And what about all these things? And a million things pile up in your mind. Have you been betrayed by anybody on the job or in your family? Do you know what it's like to be abused and accused? Are you tonight here listening to me and going through a struggle and nobody knows it and you're pretty good, you've learned how to hide it? Are you in a temptation that's overwhelming you now? It's terrorized you and you feel like you're going down? And you're fearful about it. You love the presence of the Lord. You've been here in His presence tonight worshiping. We've been in the presence of the Lord. But were you in His presence tonight with this dread, this fearfulness in your heart that somehow you're not going to make it, you're going down, you're going to fail God? How many lies have the devil put in you just this past week? Maybe you failed the Lord, maybe you slipped, you took a fall. You said, that's it, God can't have anything to do with me now. After all, I've sinned against the light and how can God forgive me now? I knew better. Well, if you use what I'm telling you now as an excuse to go out and sin, then you don't even know the Lord. But how did David, David said, I've got this in my heart and I want to go into His presence, but I don't want to carry this. I don't want to go into my Father's presence carrying this. So what does he do? He goes to prayer. He goes to the heart of God. He goes to seek the Lord. Verse 16, as for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and He shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many with me. God shall hear and afflict them, even he that abides in the world, because they have no change, therefore they fear not God. Now look at me, please. If you study the life of David, with this I'm going to close. You study the life of David, you'll find all he did when he was in the presence of the Lord was to unbosom himself. The Puritans called unbosom. In other words, take what's in your bosom, what's in your heart, what's bothering you, and you take it and you lay it down to him. He said, when I get up in the morning, I talk to God. Lord, there's a fearfulness in my heart and I don't want to live in your presence. I don't want to bring it to you like this. I want to serve you in peace and joy. You go to God and you plead with him. Oh, God, I don't want to live with fear. God said I've not given you the spirit of fear. Folks, you're hearing it now from Pastor Carter too strongly. You're hearing it from the pastor here. Pastor Dave, about what's coming, and it is coming, folks, and it's going to be the disaster of all disasters. It's going to be beyond anything we could describe. But God is preparing us right now. Listen, if right now in some of the battles that you go through, and you're living in fearfulness now, what are you going to do in the swelling of Jordan? The Lord is letting you be tested now with your finances, perhaps, and letting you be tested in some of your struggles right now to build a strong foundation of faith. He's trying to build us all up right now so that when the hard time, when the Jordan swells over and the flood comes, we'll be prepared. God is preparing a people now. Folks, not just in this church, but all over the United States and around the world. We've got the Eurodollar now. We've got the United Europe, just as God predicted in the last days, just before the end comes, there's going to be United Europe. And that's going to be the force that comes down against Israel. Believe me. And these things are all splitting out of control. Everything's coming together now. We're living in that day that that generation that shall not pass, that all these things be fulfilled. But God said, you know, when the Lord said when he comes, will he find faith? I honestly believe that some of the things that I'm going through in my life this past year, the Lord's tested me to see if I'm going to be faithful and trust him and not doubt him, not question him, and not say, where are you, and try to wake him up. He said, Lord, you're in this boat with me. Folks, God said, I am going to see you through. And, folks, every man of God that I know, I study the Puritans. I love the Puritan writers. I've got almost every Puritan writer there is, and John Owens being one of my favorites. And every one of these men, every one of them preached and prophesied that those who hold their faith and those who weep for the sins of the land and those who will not grieve their Heavenly Father with unbelief and doubt, God says, every one of them preached, God will put a mark on you and keep you through the storm. I believe that. I believe it with all my heart. I don't know how he's going to do it. It's up to him. But he's going to keep you. Folks, get a hold of faith. Get a hold of your trust. Say, God is faithful. And go to sleep. You heard the story about the man was trying to go to sleep. He'd been worrying for three hours. It was 3 o'clock in the morning. He said, Lord, what am I going to do? He said, go to bed and let me worry the rest of the night. Go to sleep. We stand. Can I ask you a question? Do you really believe that you're serious about the things of God? I'm not going to have a show of hands. But how many of you, don't raise your hand. How many of you, after all the preaching you've heard about spending time with God every day, I mean praying, seeking God, building up your faith, getting ready. Do you do that? Do you have time for everything else? Can I assure you, as long as I'm in this pulpit, and I can assure you as long as Pastor Carter is in this pulpit, we're not going to let up on you. Because God's not letting up on us. He's telling us to pray. Folks, I'm going to tell you, your pastors are setting an example. We're shutting with God. We seek his face. I know how I pour my heart out to him. I know what Pastor Carter brings here. He couldn't bring it unless he was on his knees seeking God. You say, well, you're a pastor. That's your job. No, no, no, no, folks. This is the call of God to every one of us. Now, one of these days, this is going to break through to you. One of these days, you're going to get the message. And I hope you don't have to wait until you suddenly turn on the news, and you hear the stock market's gone down 3,000 points. You say, oh, there's the signal. I better get on my knees. No, no, no, no. Get on your knees now. Get on your face now before God. If there's any fear in your heart tonight, you're in his presence. You're bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. And I skipped out of the meeting for 15 minutes, and I went back in the room just to talk to God. I said, Lord, exactly what is the heart? What are you trying to accomplish in this tonight? He said, I want my people to know how grieved I am by their fearfulness in my presence, how grieved I am over it in my life and in the life of this body. If you have grieved him, just ask him right now for cleansing. Ask him to forgive you and say, Lord, by your grace, give me the mercy. I want to trust you no matter what happens. I want to put my wife, my husband, my children in your hands. I want to put them all in your hands. I'm not going to worry about the future. I'm not going to worry about the economy. I'm not going to worry about my job. Jesus, I'm just going to seek you. He said, you seek my kingdom first. You seek me with all your heart. I'll take care of all these things around you. I don't beg God anymore about my children, my grandchildren. I pray for them, but I don't beg God. I spend most of my time now just loving him and worshipping him, laying it before the Lord and saying, Lord, you said if I just seek you, you'll take care. Folks, he takes care of this church. People can't believe it. I have ministers all over the country that write to me and call me and go to meetings. They say, tell us about the organization. How many meetings do you have? I said, we have one meeting a week with our staff, pastors, and we pray. I said, well, what are your organizational charts and all that? How many charts do you have? How many employees and how do you do all this? I said, I don't know. I said, we pray. We meet and just pray. Then we look at each other, how is God doing all this? That's marvelous. People know their jobs. It's not haphazard. But the Lord gives divine order, and he'll bring that into your life. But we have faith that God has done this. We trust in the Holy Ghost. We trust in God's promises. Hallelujah. God will do the same for you. Lord Jesus, forgive our unbelief. Forgive our fear, our fear of losing our children, our fear of failure, our fear that some old sickness will come back on us. Oh, God, so many fears in your presence. And they are sin. They're an abomination. Oh, God, we grieved you over that. I've grieved you and I've repented, oh, God. And I ask that this whole body, from the choir, the orchestra, all over, on the balcony, everybody in this house tonight, leave with a repentant heart and say, God helping me, I will not be afraid in the presence of God anymore. I will not be afraid. I will not let fearfulness grip my heart. Now, if you're here tonight and you have a, listen to me, this is different. This is a spirit of fear that you have not been able to shake. We're going to take authority over it and bind it in Jesus' name. I want you to get out of your seat. Now, if you're not right with God, you're backslidden, you're not where you should be, I want you to get out. If the spirit's drawing you, come and let us pray for you. Balcony, go up the stairs on either side and come down any aisle. But if you've got a spirit of fear, there's a fear that's gripped your heart, you don't want it, and you want to be delivered, get out of your seat, come. I'll pray for you. We're going to take authority in Jesus' name over the spirit of fear. God said, I'm not giving you the spirit of fear. And when that spirit goes, all the other fears go with it. The spirit has to be bound. We're going to believe the Lord for that right now. It's the Word that sets you free. It's the Word that is supplied by the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm going to read you a couple of verses to sum up everything I'm saying. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this I'll be confident. One thing I desire of the Lord, seek after, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. Here, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me. When you said, seek ye my face, I've been telling you, if you're serious you're going to seek his face. My heart said, I'll seek thee, thy face, Lord, I'll seek. Hide not thy face from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Lead me not, nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. Deliver me not over into the will of my enemies. I had fainted, and this I had believed. Wait on the Lord now. Be of good courage. He shall strengthen thy heart. Yea, I say to you, wait on the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. I will not fear. God said, when the storm comes, I'm going to hide you. I'm going to set you on a rock. And you know what that is? That's faith in Jesus Christ, the keeper of your soul. Now, I called for those who believed you have a spirit of fear on you. You wake up in the morning, it's there. Through the day it just keeps coming and hounding your mind. Now, according to the scripture, our weapons are not carnal, but mighty through God and pulling down strongholds. That's a stronghold that's based on a demonic lie. Doesn't mean you're demon possessed, but it means that Satan somehow has implanted in your mind this spirit of the seed of doubt and fear. And the Lord wants to pluck that out of your heart right now. He's given us that authority. I believe this with everything in me. He's given us this authority. It's His. He binds. We don't bind, He binds. We take His authority over every spirit, every lie of the enemy. I'm going to ask God for everyone who came forward. Notice even the audience up in the balcony here on the main floor. Many of you right now who have been battling fear. I'm going to ask God to let you walk out of this church tonight with your mind unshackled from fear. Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, we come against now the spirit of fear that has gripped so many hearts in this building tonight. Lord, I don't know where that, we know that the fear comes from the enemy. We know that He tries to infuse these fears into our spirit and into our mind to rob us of our faith in God, our faith in Jesus. So Lord, I'm asking you to come by your Holy Ghost and take authority in Jesus' name of every principality and power of darkness, every single fear in this house. Smite it, O God, and take it. Remove it. Pluck it out by the roots. Pluck it now for our weapons are mighty through God. This weapon of prayer and faith right now shall accomplish its purpose. Now, right now, in Jesus' name, I take a step of faith and say, thank you, Lord. I am going to walk out of here free. I'm going to walk out of this place free. This is the conclusion of the message.