In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the theme of freedom from fear and worry. He begins by discussing the prediction made by Jesus about unprecedented fear in the last days. He then highlights the intricate design of a hair, emphasizing its nerve connections and the constant process of reproduction. The preacher relates this to the power and care of God, encouraging the audience to trust in Him and not be afraid. He concludes by referencing Proverbs 3:24-26, which assures believers that God will be their confidence and protect them from harm.

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Well, we're going to go to Matthew 10 and leave our Bibles open there. We'll get back to Matthew 10. And I want you to go there though and keep your Bible open and get ready when we ask you to turn there. As soon as you have it open, just lay it on your lap, thank God for it and get back to me here. Give me your good eye and your good ear. Freedom from all fear and worry. Now Jesus predicted that in the last days there'd be unprecedented fear in the earth. His very words were these, Upon the earth there shall be distress of nations, perplexity, the sea and the waves will roar, men's hearts will fail them for fear, for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. Look at me, folks. If you think the message that goes out of Times Square Church is a strong message, you ought to hear what Jesus preached. Ours is rather tame compared to the strong words of Jesus. Jesus said nations shall rise against nations, kingdom against kingdom. Jesus said there'll be famines, pestilence, earthquakes, and all these things are just the beginning of sorrows. Men will betray one another, shall hate one another. That's a prediction of race wars that are coming. False prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. Iniquities shall increase. The love of many will grow cold. There shall be great tribulations such as never been, such as there never been or ever will be again. False Christs and prophets will arise. They'll show great signs and wonders. Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord will come. Beloved, listen to me please. There are so many things. Now Jesus said when you see the things that he enumerated coming to pass, look up and rejoice because redemption draws nigh. But there are so many things, especially in the American system, that perpetrates fear and it seems to come at us from all sides. Consider the fear today on every side about the possibility that the American and the world economy is going to collapse and out of it will come a new world system. In fact, 1992 is the year they have appointed for a united Europe. In fact, they have a magazine out now. I have a copy of one of these magazines. In fact, they are predicting that there will not only be a united Europe but there'll be a charismatic leader arise within that force. They're very words. I could quote it to you page in number. I meant to bring it with me tonight. But there is the possibility, a fearful possibility of a collapse of the world economy and out of it come this anti-Christ system. And there's nobody living with more fear today than Wall Street. Nobody living with more fear than the world bankers and the money manipulators of this earth because they know in their heart that the party is over. I think a lot of Americans especially live with a fear in them that the economy is going to collapse because you don't hear it from preachers as much as you hear it from economists. You hear it from everywhere. It's coming at us. The thing is going down. Well, of course, we had October 19th two years ago and then we had the 190 point drop a few months ago. And it all adds to the fear. You hear government leaders warning about it. And so we have Americans afraid of losing their jobs, afraid of losing their houses and cars and lands and possessions. And there's a very real fear that's in America today, especially America. What about the fear that has come upon the land because of the sudden calamities, the sudden changes in the world, the unpredictable weather? Boy, how fast things are changing. The last three years we've had more world calamities than any time since they have recorded world calamities. You think of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and the famines around the world and then the earthquakes. We're only hearing about a few of them. The earthquakes are just multiplying. The small earthquakes that don't make the headlines, they're multiplying all over the world. A newspaper columnist in the New York Times had an article and the title of it is God chastising us. Another article said, is God trying to get our attention in America? Another article said the gods are angry. The gods are angry. They get the idea God's knocking on the door. God's rapping on the knuckles. He's trying to talk. He's trying to say something. But these calamities that are coming, they suddenly... We were here in this church on a Tuesday night. We just closed when the word came that there had been a massive earthquake in San Francisco. And the next week, I was on the radio almost every day from radio stations, newspapers all over the United States because I had written some prophetic books. They wanted to know what I thought. Was it the judgment of God? And of course I said yes. And I thought God was very merciful because those that were at Candlestick Park waiting for the ball game or the park there in San Francisco, I mean, that could have been 50,000 killed. But God was merciful. He was knocking on the door. And it produced fear. There was fear all over. In fact, we got letters and telephone calls from all the ministries that have been working in San Francisco, mostly street workers, that for years have had a hard time. The Homosexual Committee wouldn't listen. After the earthquake, we had to send every bit of literature we could find from our office. Everybody wanted it. The doors were wide open. Our office was deluged and said, send us everything you can send. Every door is open right now. What about the Berlin Wall? Did you ever think you'd live to see the day that wall comes down? And you know a good old American enterprise, we're selling pieces of the wall. Hungary, Poland, last week the whole government, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia resigned. Just overnight they resigned. 500,000 Czechs out on the streets parading. Incredible. Gorbachev seems to be the biggest preacher of democracy on the face of the earth. Castro must be sinking in his boots. He's the only one left. Gorbachev is going to come knocking on his door and say, wake up. Incredible things that are happening now all over the world so fast. The government doesn't know what, and nobody in Washington knows what's happening. Nobody. Bush doesn't know what's happening. He knows less than anybody about what's happening. Australia's on the edge of bankruptcy. El Salvador is shaking. Mexico's on the brink of a social revolution. China is a giant that's awakening out of a thousand year slumber. And then we've got the Pentagon. You talk about a change. The Pentagon says they're going to cut the defense budget $180 billion over the next few years. Do you know that that sent shockwaves every contractor? Because defense is the biggest business in America. And when they said, we're going to cut it $180 billion, did you see the dollars? The worst thing that can happen for the defense industry is peace. All these businessmen said, oh no, peace. God help us, peace is coming. There goes our contracts and subcontracts. That's the American economy. Do I dare talk about some of the other things that produce fear in the American mind? The AIDS plague, the crack epidemic, the near collapse of our hospital system, out-of-control crime in our schools and subways and streets, the society has gone mad. It's a very fearful, terrible, worrisome thing. And it comes at us in the newspaper and radio all the time. You know, I never mentioned television. Do you know how quickly it's changing? Israel, first time in the history of... You know, you read this book, Israel, all through the Old Testament and all the hundreds and hundreds of years of history, first time now they have pornography on their newsstands. They have Penthouse and Playboy on their newsstands. And the pornography now is proliferating. And we used to send missionaries, now we send pornography. They're getting it from America. Boy, how fast the movies are changing. This year in January, in fact, they claim in one article that they'll have full nudity in the soap operas in the afternoon. Major television stations even are going X-rated. Europe already has X-rated in prime time on their national television. They have X-rated movies, not R, but X-rated. It's incredible. The Bible says, furthermore, in much wisdom there's much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Now, I quoted God, but most of you don't know what I... You didn't catch it. I'll read it again. In much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Let me tell you what I mean. There's something I don't want to know. I don't want to know that eggs can kill me. For years I've been eating eggs and bacon and just enjoying it ignorantly and blissfully. Now they're telling me that that thing can clog my arteries and give me a heart attack or give me salmonella poisoning. And now you look at an egg and you say, oh, no. Oh, no, I'm on to you now. All these years you've been trying to kill me. I didn't know it, but I increased my knowledge, and now I've got sorrow. I've been taking antacids, occasionally for, you know, when I get a gastric problem, and I've been taking antacids. And now, today's New York Times, antacids contain aluminum, and aluminum now has been isolated as one of the major causes of Alzheimer's disease. I didn't want to know that! I threw some of my stuff in the trash, antacids. I looked at my little container and I said, no more! I'm on to you now. I've got more knowledge. I've got grief, but I've got more knowledge. Just when I started cutting down my cholesterol, I read article after article that said, don't do that because you're cutting out your good cholesterol. There's good cholesterol, and there's bad cholesterol. Nobody knows how to tell you the difference, but watch out! I started eating oat bran muffins, and fruit and fiber, and now they tell me that it's not all it's hyped up to be, after all of those terrible breakfasts on oat bran. For years it's been said, sugar will kill you, go for the substitute. Now they tell us the substitute kills rats. Right or wrong? B causes cancer, because of a hormone additive. Chicken gives you salmonella poisoning. Fish has iodine in it. Apples are being sprayed with a poison, it can kill you. And all these years they've been saying, junk food is destroying the health of our kids, and now three or four major experts are coming out and saying that junk food is full of nutrients. I'm afraid to open the refrigerator. What do you get? It's like icy claws coming out. Additives, preservatives, cholesterol, chemical substitutes. Come on now, you can't eat anything anymore. There's nothing you eat now that isn't bad for you, according to some expert before it's all over. I don't want to know anymore, I don't want to know. If it's killing me, don't tell me. You know, I was thinking of all these things, and I took a walk this past week, out in a comfy road in New Jersey, and I was talking to the Lord. And I've seen so many things prophetically that are coming, and a fear had gripped my heart, not for myself, my family, but for the sleepiness of the church, and the fact that America is closing its eyes and its ears, and there was a sense of fear in me, and all these things, because nobody has any solution, nobody's going to solve the crack problem, it's just going to get worse. All of these things, they're going to accelerate. We're at the place now where the hospital system is collapsing, the jail system is collapsing, and we're reaching that terrible state right now, a critical mass where it just spins out of control. And boy, if you dwell on this, and keep thinking about that, it begins to get into your spirit. And I took a walk, and I said, Lord, I can't live with fear, and with all that's coming on the earth, you've got to do something for me. I read in this Bible all the promises of peace and rest in the Holy Ghost, and I want to be a shepherd that has such peace and calm, and in this troubled sea, I want my heart to be just a sea of glass. I want that confidence, that self-assurance. And I'd like to work with men that have that too, and I'd like to see a church in these last days, with all that is coming. Jesus warned us all these things were coming, that there would be a people in New York City, and there'd be a people that attend Times Square Church, that would have an absolute freedom from all fear and all worry. And I'll tell you what, I said, Lord, what's the answer? And God, by His Spirit, came upon me, and said, Matthew 10, and only two words you need to know to start this journey out of this bondage of fear and worry. And the Lord gave me two words. He said, the secret is sparrows and hair. Sparrows and hair. Go study sparrows and go study hair. I called the office. I said, I won't be in for a couple of days. I've got to go to the library to study sparrows and hair. I called my son-in-law. I said, get your book out. What do you have on hair? Can you imagine him thinking, are you getting bald, Dad, or something? I said, no, the Lord told me to study hair. What do you have on birds, on sparrows? And I've got the dictionaries, and I've got the world encyclopedia. I've got everything I can get my hands on, on sparrows and birds. All right, now go to Matthew 10, 28, and let's see what we're talking about. Let's begin to read, beginning verse 28, Matthew 10. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father? Another gospel says that are not five sparrows sold for two farthings. Here is two for a penny, and that's five for two cents. In other words, if you buy four, you get one free. You know what that's all about. Everybody knows that kind of a bargain. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. You see, look at the next verse, and you see why Jesus was trying to tell his disciples, his whole chapter is on getting his disciples out of this pit of fear and despair. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore. In other words, on the basis of what I tell you about sparrows and hair, fear ye not therefore. Ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Now, I'm going to come back to that later and show you that that has to do with sparrows and hair. The confession itself has to do with sparrows and hair. Look this way if you will, please. It sounds very simple, very elementary, but what Jesus is telling us here is very, very profound. And when I began to look at it and study what Jesus was saying, my heart began to leap. David could boast, God has delivered me from all my fears. All my fears. God delivered me. David said, I had all kinds of fears, but God delivered me from all my fears. And the way David got out of his fears, he got a vision of the greatness of God. Every time you hear David say, When I beheld the sun and the moon and the stars, what is man? Every time you hear David talking about, Why is my soul cast down? Why am I in such fear? Then suddenly you hear him say, The creator of heaven and earth came to me. I saw the creator of heaven and earth. And you find it over and over again, the creator of heaven and earth. David was a man after God's own heart for a very, very special reason. There's a scripture that I was reading this afternoon. Psalms 8, 3 and 4. When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, the sun, which thou hast put in place, what is man? David said, He counts the number of the stars. He called them all by their names. He looked out. You see, David, there was only one time David was on that rooftop looking out, lusting after a woman, Bathsheba. Most of the time he was on that roof, at the edge of his tent, looking up into the stars and contemplating the glory of God. And all he spoke again revealed the greatness of God and the works of his fingers creation. David had such a concept of this miracle working God that finally he said, What are my problems to him? What could it be that anything I face be too hard for this God who has hung all this in space? He saw the great universe. He saw all the creations of God. He dwelled on it every waking hour. You'll find David, I dare you to read the Psalms, looking at this in this light, every time David speaks of being in fear, despondency and downcast, you'll find him turning quickly to the majesty of God. You'll see that he comes back to that hope and that basis that he has. Now, let's get to spells first and I'm going to get to hair. I've got good word for bald people tonight. Wonderful word. I'm not going to say anything, Bob. I was tempted. They already have behind you. They have nothing to say after I tell you what the research says. I'm not going to act like some professor and give you a lot of data that's not necessary, but there's some of these things we've got to know because I really felt led of the Lord to look into this. Now, I've only looked into it in a very superficial way, but it's been enough to bring rejoice in my heart and begin to understand more what Jesus was saying. Of 9,000 species of birds on the earth, Jesus chose the lowly sparrow. Now, there are 35 species of sparrows or kinds of sparrows in the United States alone, 35 different kinds. The word sparrow in Jesus' time represented any small land bird. Many thousands of species. It was always the tiny little land bird. There are seed birds, but the land bird. Jesus didn't talk about the birds of paradise or the great plumage. He's talking about the sparrow. The sparrow is known for its music. Many sparrows have been known to have 22 different tunes. 22 different tunes. In fact, the names of the sparrows, song sparrows, vesper sparrows, lark sparrows, white-throated sparrows, the very name speaks of their musical ability. But you see, they made their nests in the ground. They made them in bushes. They made them in sand traps. The sparrows made near the ground. Most of them. There are only two species I can find that made them in the trees. And even those, only one in a high tree. They made their nests low. That's why the serpents came after them. But more than anything else, the Jew, of course, could not eat anything that died naturally. It had to be killed. It couldn't die. It was an unclean animal, an unclean bird they couldn't eat. So every one of these birds that were being sold in the Jerusalem marketplace had been trapped. There were snares, they called them, snares, fly traps. They would spring these traps on the ground near the bushes, and when a bird would come down, it was snared, and sometimes there would be five or six or more. If you've ever seen the migration of birds, and by the way, some of these birds, even some sparrow species, can migrate 3,000 to 4,000 miles. The bone structure of the sparrow, they're tiny bones, but they're strong. Birds, the sparrows, have anywhere from 1,300 to 2,600 feathers. And all of the American knowledge in computer science can't figure out how they fly. We can't copy it for our flight patterns. We still don't understand how God did it. How their wings are oiled. A little sparrow is one of the most complicated, beautiful creations anywhere. And you know, the Lord was saying something. We've got all kinds of ideas about, you know, does the Lord mean He falls down with the sparrow? But God is trying to show us what is behind all of this sparrow. What's behind it in creation itself. And I began to read about these migrating flocks that can go to even up to 4,000 miles. Jesus evidently had been teaching right at this time in the marketplace, and they would have these skewers, these sparrows on a skewer, on a stick. We call them kishkebobs. Is that what it's called? Siskebobs, kishkebobs, siskebobs. Forget it. It's on a stick. Two, if you wanted them, they would put them on the stick. Some of them five, two cents, two pennies. They were trapped. That's why the psalmist talks so much about He's delivered me from the snare of the enemy. It was that trap. It was that trap that would spring up and the birds would get in the net and get their feathers or their feet caught in it and couldn't fly away. And Jesus sees all of these. And He says, Not one of these had been trapped without my Father's knowledge. He knows everywhere they've been. He knows everyone that goes into that fly trap. He's counted every one of them. That's what the Lord's saying. I know every bird. I'm going to show you that Jesus Himself created the birds. Jesus Himself created this body. In fact, let me read it to you. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth. All things were created by Him and for Him, that He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. That's Jesus. He was with the Father before all was created. And He created all things that were created by Him and for Him. He created the birds. He created the sparrows. He created every hair on our heads. Now let's talk about hair. Every hair, He said, not a hair on your head shall perish, Luke 21, 18. But He said, the Father has counted every hair on your head. Now, according to my research, we all have between 100 and 150,000 hairs on our head. Some more, some less. You say, well, how can anyone bold be told that God's counted every hair when there's not a hair on his head? Well, that's not true. You can't see it, but there's a little follicle called vellus hair. And there are thousands and thousands on every bald head. You have to have a microscope that they're there. They're called vellus hairs. Every bald person has them. Now, you can go home and tell your wife, Brother Wilkinson said, I've got thousands of them. Unseen by the human eye. And God didn't put hair on this head for adornment. He sure didn't put it there to burn it and bleach it and ruin it like we do. Now, I'm not getting on to that. Hair is an insulation, both for summer and winter. It insulates the body. Very much so. He put the eyelids there for purpose to keep sweat from rolling into the eye and doing damage. You know the most intricate radar system on the face of the earth? There is none on any battleship. There's nothing on any space flight that has a radar system like your eyelashes. They warn your eyelids when dust or an insect comes to blink. It's a protection. It's an incredible inbuilt. In fact, you can cover those eyelashes with all that black goop and you still can't stop the radar from working. It's an incredible radar system that God has built in. God had a purpose. In fact, there are hairs in the nostrils that filter the air. There's hair in the ears that filter those things that should not go into the ear drums or to the ear canal. Armpit hair is for friction. If you didn't have it there, there would be sores all over your body. They're there for friction. God had a purpose in everything he's planned. It's an incredible thing. And can you imagine if... Sometimes I wondered when Jesus looked at his disciples and he saw their doubt, they kept saying, we know that you're the Son of God. I wonder sometimes if Jesus didn't get a little frustrated or frustrated that these are just words to you men. You don't understand I'm the Creator. You don't understand. You don't understand who I am. I wonder if Jesus wouldn't have loved to get those disciples down on the grass and say, now wait a minute. Peter, let me tell you something. Peter, you have 127,553 hairs on your head. You've got 162 in your right eyebrow, 165 in your left eyebrow. You have 163 hair follies in your nostrils, 360 in your left ear. You've got 319 in your right ear. Your beard is made up of 33,980 hair follicles. And they'd say, what? He said, I told you every hair in your head is numbered. Every hair. Now Jesus was not mocking. He was not making a joke. Every hair in your beard, every hair on your eyebrows, your eyelashes, your head, every hair He is counting. If you were to take a hair and magnify it five or six thousand times and guys cut it right in a minute, you would see. I saw the charts of incredible layer after layer and how this follicle goes down and drills. It's really dead flesh. And it forms a follicle, goes down and it digs to the blood until the blood can nourish it and it comes out. It's got all kinds of glands that minister to that hair. If you left your hair alone, in your lifetime it would grow 25 feet. 25 feet. It has its own amazing color factory. It produces a little growth, not a growth, but a color called melanin. Melanin causes the color. It's a little color factory right under the skin that produces the melanin that goes in it. It's the most amazing. A hair is a complicated mechanism. Take a little piece of hair. In fact, it's got nerves that can touch the top of your hair. Your brain gets the message. You can touch it. Your hair has feeling to it. It tells your brain that there's something touching your hair. It's got nerve members wrapped around it, incredible nerves. And the Lord is saying, you're immune. Jesus must have said, because you only knew what I'm talking about. If I could just show you that hair and the power behind it that while you eat and while you sleep it's reproducing. There's something going on there all the time. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. I could have just taken them on and told them about the heart, this amazing mechanism in here. There are 25 pounds of blood in the body and it reproduces and filters it ten times an hour. There are 250 pounds of blood that go through if you multiplied it ten times. An amazing fact. While you sleep, it's busy working. Who did that? Who did that? They say we evolved out of dust in a monkey. Which grandpa monkey created hair? Oh, what a marvelous... In fact, if you were really going to go into studying hair, you'd find about the cuticle, the medulla, the cortex, the papilla, the root sap, all the nerves. It's on and on and on. Just the tiny hair. No wonder David said, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My soul knoweth it well. That's why David could deal with his fear. He said, I know. You talk about miracles, you're looking at one right now. You are a miracle. You talk about signs and wonders, you are a sign. You are a wonder that I can raise my hands and I can shout. Why don't you go study the voice box? Another incredible instrument that God created. Oh, Jesus was trying to say something. He was teaching us how not to fear, but they just did not understand, did not comprehend it at all. David takes it a step further and David said, The most wonderful thing to me is that God's thinking about me and I can't even number His thoughts. Nobody can number His thoughts. If you tried to number the good thoughts that the Lord has toward me, they'd be more than the sands of the sea. Oh, I read this address to me. Many, O Lord, are Your wonderful works which You've done. There it is again. The wonderful works of God. Thy thoughts which are toward usward. They can't be reckoned up in order unto Thee. If I would declare and speak of them, in other words, if I tried to number them, they are more than could be numbered. Psalms 45, verse 5. Psalms 139, 17 and 18. How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they're more than the sands of the sea. Think of all the sand and all the beaches. God's been thinking about us. He thinks about you. In fact, Jeremiah 29, 11. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope in your last days. These are the last days to give you hope, He said. Let's get a hold of this tonight. Right now, our Heavenly Father, He's a Father, is thinking on us. Do you know He was thinking about you before you were born? When you were only a thought? He took a book and He numbered. He determined the color of your hair. You said, well, that comes from genes. But the genes come from the Creator. Your father's genes, your grandfather's, and your great-grandfather's genes, they're all created by this master Creator. And in the book, your parts were numbered. And the Lord began to think about you. You see, the name your parents gave you is not the name the Lord gave you. You'll get that name when you get to Heaven. It's on a white stone and only you and the Lord are going to know about it. It's an incredible name. It has to do with something that goes all the way back to creation when He formed you. When you were just a little cell and the Lord put His life in you, He was thinking about you. He knew your spiritual name. He knew all about you. He had a plan for your life. He was thinking about you when you were in the mother's womb. Before your parts were formed, the Scripture says, oh, you don't believe it? Go to Psalm 139. Look at it in black and white. Psalm 139. Oh, it's wonderful when you see it and you believe it. Psalm 139, verse 13, beginning to read. Psalm 139. For thou hast possessed my reins, you have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works that my soul knoweth white well. My substance was not hid from you when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. That means the lowest part of the womb. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect. In other words, before my body, members were even formed. And in thy book, all my members were written, which in contingency were fastened, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! Do you see that in your Bible? The Lord's thinking. David said, I was cast upon you from my mother's womb. You have been my God from my mother's belly. You took me out of the womb. You made me whole when I was on my mother's breast. Look at me. Right now while I stand here at Times Square Church preaching to you, and you sit here in this theater, our Lord is thinking about you. He's thinking about me. His thoughts are endless. His thoughts go on while we sleep. God is thinking on all of His children. We have no idea of the greatness and the majesty of God. How He could be thinking these grand, glorious thoughts of all of us. Fatherly thoughts. Glorious thoughts of peace and not of evil. He thinks of every tear that we shed. In fact, He counts the tears and bottles them. Psalm 56, 8. You have taken account of all my wonderings. Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? In other words, in your book you mean you record them. Every tear that we shed as children of God, He records them. Now, I don't know what that means. Put them in your bottle. I don't know, Bob, if you preach the message on that or not. I've not even looked at that yet. That might be something else to investigate. But I do know that He keeps every tear that we pray, that we cry in repentance or joy or sorrow. I know that He counts every one. He's counted the stars. He counts every sparrow. His thoughts are so majestic toward us, He counts every tear and preserves them and bottles them. He thinks when you lie down and go to bed, He's thinking of you when you wake up. Chapter 139. Look at verse 1. Verse 1. O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting, my uprising. You understand my thoughts afar off. You comfort my path, my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. For there's not a word in my tongue, but O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. You beset me behind and before and You laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's so high I can't attain it. I can't understand it. He numbers every hair. He counts every sparrow. He counts every tear. And there's not a word in my mouth that He doesn't take a record of. His thoughts are so majestic, it's beyond me they're like the sands of the sea. Brother, sister, all through the bow, it just goes on and on of God's detailed concern for every one of us. Listen to me please. Heaven, right now, is populated by a highly intelligent creation. Angels, seraphim, cherubim, the four and twenty elders, those majestic beasts that are called these creations of God that have eyes on all sides, the Lamb's spirits. I don't know what all is on the other side, but there are great intelligent spirits created by God. And they are witnesses to the faithfulness of the Lord. They hear every promise He's made to you. They're acquainted with His Word. They have registered everything that He has said. They are witnesses to the faithfulness of God. Listen to me now. I want to make a strong statement. If God fed one of us who trusts in Him fully, if He fed one of His promises to count every tear, to be so interested in us that He numbers every hair, if He fed one jot or tittle of this Word, all heaven would go in chaos. The heavens would explode with chaos because the created beings would have to say He cannot be trusted. He failed one of His children. If He failed one of us, if He failed just one of us, in one of His words, heaven would go in chaos because all of heaven would say He's not true. He didn't keep His Word. But the very fact that they praise Him night and day and cast their crowns before Him is our proof beyond anything else that we should need to know that they believe in His faithfulness. They see it. They behold His faithfulness. And that's why there are praises. God is faithful to His eternal Word. Hallelujah. He cannot change and will not change. He'll stay faithful to His Word forever. Now let's go back to Matthew 10. Look at the confession. Matthew 10.31 Now that therefore says that it's based on the previous verses. The previous truth that He's teaching. There's a continuity in it. This has been so misquoted and so misused and I was as guilty as anybody. Listen to it. Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven. Look this way please. For years in my citywide crusades I'd give the altar call and I would use that verse every time. Almost without fail. I'd say, the Bible says if you confess Me before men I'll confess you before the Father in heaven. But if you deny Me before men I'll deny you before the Father which is in heaven. And I used it strictly as a confession. Coming forward and say Jesus I've sinned. I repent. I give You my heart. Others of us who think confession has to do with going out and preaching on the street or passing out a track or getting on a subway or bus or train or plane and praying, Oh God open the door so I can witness to this individual. They need Jesus. I want to confess Christ to them. That's only a part of it. And we've taken it to be the whole. Whereas there have been multitudes of thousands who've made that confession and that confession didn't stick. It didn't stick at all. Because they didn't mean it. But it has to do with this very teaching that the Holy Spirit is trying to show us through the words of Jesus. I don't know whether you know it or not but every hour, every waking hour of your lifetime you are witnessing. You are confessing. You are testifying. You are confessing. You are witnessing to somebody. It's your family, your husband, your wife, your children. It can be your school teacher. It can be your co-laborer on the job. It can be your lawyer. It can be almost anybody. Your hairdresser, your barber. You are confessing whether you're saying one word about Jesus or not. You're confessing something about Christ. And I believe with all my heart this is the very heart of what Jesus is saying. We talk so much about wanting to be a witness for Jesus. The world is not looking for some greater doctrine proving the resurrection of Jesus. They're not looking for more arguments on evolution versus creation. I mean, there have been books and books and books written about the scriptural validity of creation and those who believe in a seven day creation or whatever. The world is not convinced. I mean, there are Christians who have spent a lifetime trying to be apologists for the gospel. And it hasn't affected anybody. Hardly anybody. There are very few affected by that. The world's not looking for a new argument. They're not looking for a more persuasive doctrine. What the world is looking for is a Christian. A Christian who does not cave in on a crisis. A Christian who is so convinced that God is with him or her, so convinced of the faithfulness and the majesty of God that they stand calm and peaceful and at rest no matter what the world or society or health or anything else throws at them. They are there steadfast in Christ. Do you know what you do when you complain? When you go to work and they know you've had a hard... something's happened in your life. You've gone through a difficult time. Or maybe they see the way you take your firing when you were fired from your job. You see, when you complain and when you murmur, you're saying, God failed me. And these people are saying, Hey, look, that fellow, that woman witnessed to me that I needed Jesus all these years, all these months. I need Jesus. Well, look what happens to him. Hard times come and his Jesus fails him. His Jesus isn't faithful to him. You know, the scripture says of Hannah, who was the mother of Samuel, that she poured her heart out to the Lord. In other words, she learned to pray. She learned to take her problems to the Lord. And the Bible said, And she went her way, her confidence no more sad. What does your prayer life do for you? Do you come away from the presence of the Lord still sad, still carrying the burden? Do those that you work with or those you hire or those who you minister to are helping you in some way in your life? What kind of a testimony are you about this Savior that you claim you believe every word He said? He's numbered your hair. He's counted every sparrow. And yet you don't believe He's interested in you, that somehow He's going to let you down. He won't let a sparrow down, but He'll let you down. He'll count your hair, but He won't count your problems. What kind of a testimony? What kind of a confession? And you know, the Lord says, That one who stands true. I heard Brother Simmons, a friend of mine, Pastor Simmons, I was telling him about this. He had just heard of a friend he's working with down in Washington, D.C. He'd been divorced five times. His life all messed up. He was so disgusted with Christianity. Hated the church. The man really got saved. And the thing that got a hold of him was a couple that had been ministering to him. And this couple he was watching, they were going through a hard time. He'd seen so many Christians collapse. He'd seen so many sad-faced Christians. So many belly-aching Christians. Come home from church and act like there was no God. Go around and witness to what Jesus could do. And then, never smile. Never have happiness. Never have joy in their life. They're always down. Always blue. This man had his stomach full of that. But he met this couple. And this couple were going through a terrible time. All kinds of calamities. And he was watching them. He said, I never saw people so steadfast. He said, they were so calm in this storm that hit them. And they were encouraging me. I was so moved by their problems and what they were going through. But they weren't complaining. There was a steadfast. They were like a rock. And that shook him up. He said, that's the kind of Lord I want. That's the kind of salvation I want. And he asked them to pray for him. That man got genuinely saved. And now he's working with Operation Rescue down in Washington D.C. right now. A real man of God. All the witnessing in the world couldn't touch him. It was that confession. You confess me before men. You confess what? You confess that I'm that kind of a savior. That I am so interested in every detail in your life. There's not a word. There's not a thought that I don't know about. All your hairs. And the birds. The Lord could have said to James, James, do you realize that there are 6 billion birds on the face of the earth right now? Do you know that last week 1,200,000 died? 970,000 were killed. Yesterday they sold 1,583 of them in a Jerusalem market. And James would be looking at it and saying, who is this man? Well, this is the man that spoke to the wind and said, Be called. This is the man who raised the dead. This is the same Savior. We don't serve another Savior. It's the same Lord that we serve. What kind of confession? What kind of confession? Like the disciples? Where are we going to get that kind of food? If we had 200 pennies worth, we couldn't buy enough to feed this multitude. And Jesus must have looked at them astounds. Don't they know who I am? And He looks at us. When we get together after a meeting, husband and wife, they get together and they talk about their problems as if there's no God. As if the Lord hasn't even heard them, doesn't even know where they're at. He knows you lost your job. He knows you need an apartment. He knows everything about your life. He knows your backslidden wife and your backslidden husband. He knows all about it. He knows all about it. He said, if you confess before me, I'll confess you before my Father. You know what He says? I'm going to go to my Father and say, look at that. Look at Him. Look at her. Isn't that wonderful? He trusts me. He believes. I've counted every hair on His head. He believes. I've created every sparrow. He believes that I'm interested in every detail of His life. Father, there's one who trusts. I'll confess your trust to my Father. I'll go to my Father and I'll tell Him all about it. Now, of course, He knows about it, but God wants to declare it. You know, my wife knows that my granddaughters and my grandsons are handsome and beautiful. But so many times I go to my wife and I'll behold little Tiffany. I'll beholding little... I'll... Now, don't laugh. He did a dumb thing. He named his daughter one of the hardest names and I can't... Alisa or Alissa. Alissa. I was holding Alissa the other day and I said, honey, isn't she beautiful? She knew it, but I was confirming it. That's what I'm saying. Father, look. Isn't he beautiful? Isn't she wonderful? Look at the trust. Oh, that blessed me just thinking about it. That we can walk through the storm. We can walk through everything that can come on this earth and be unshakable. Unshakable. Absolutely unshakable. Hallelujah. Now, before I close, the last thing I want to say. What the Lord is trying to say. You've got a great and mighty Savior and He's on your side. Ah, hallelujah. He's on your side. When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back. This I know because God's for me. Psalm 118, 6 and 7. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord has taken my part with those who help me. Glory to God. Now, I'll tell you what. God has given us a special psalm. It's antidote against fear. I want you to go, oh, I thank God for Psalm 124. Go to Psalm 124 and I'm going to close. Psalm 124 and then I'm going to get happy and praise the Lord. Psalm 124. I'm going to read the whole chapter. When you see it, you won't get scared. I'm reading to King James. If you have another version, Newmark Standard or whatever, just follow me, please. If it had not, by the way, please don't start unless you're going to believe it. Raise your hand if you promise the Lord you're going to believe what he says. Now, keep your hand there. Keep it up while we read it. Now, Lord, see it. I'm not being facetious. Lord, see it. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side. Whose side? Our side. Now may Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us. Then the waters had overwhelmed us. The stream had gone over our soul. The proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. The snare is broken. We are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I've got to give you two more verses because I believe God wants us to become bad news proof. Bad news proof. CBS proof. NBC proof. Radio. Listen to this. Psalm 112, 7 and 8. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings or bad news because his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid. Proverbs 3, 24 and 26. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the decimation of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord shall be your confidence and he shall keep your foot from being taken. When you lie down to sleep, your sleep shall be sweet. Hallelujah. Your sleep shall be sweet. Will you stand with me please? Whenever you feel fear come on your head, grab a hank of hair. Just put your hand up here and hold it. Say, Lord, you counted every one of them. Hallelujah. You know where I'm at. Don't be afraid of sudden fear. He said, I'm going to have a people. Not going to be afraid of evil tidings. He said, don't be afraid of the wicked, the desolation of the wicked when it comes. We're seeing the desolation of the wicked right now. We're seeing the judgments on the wicked. He said, when it comes, don't be afraid. God has everything under control for his children. Hallelujah. And I prayed about this invitation. Prayed diligently this afternoon. The Lord made it clear to my heart there'd be people here tonight in this service who are under the bondage of a spirit of fear. Now, not just an individual fear, because fear comes in groups. It comes in quantities. It comes in bunches. But there's a spirit of fear that has to be dealt with. This spirit of fear comes upon you. It just breaks out and you get afraid of everything. People, events. You're just afraid. There's fear on all sides. The spirit of fear surrounds you. I don't want you to come up here if you just have an individual fear, but I'm talking about a spirit of fear that's been upon you. The Lord made this clear to my heart, that he wanted to deliver those tonight in this auditorium that have a spirit of fear. God said, I have not given you the spirit of fear, but love and power and a sound mind. And that sound mind is a mind that is set on the majesty of God. Hallelujah. For the more I begin to see the majesty of this creator Lord that we serve, the more Solomon was stuck on the earth and his buildings and his gardens and all of his works. You hear Solomon say, the work of my hands, the work of my hands. And David kept saying, the work of his hands, the work of his hands, the work of his hands. If you get your eyes on the work of his hands, you begin to see. Why is it that I can believe he created the heaven and earth, and I can't believe him take care of me? Amazing. No, he cares. He's got us right. He said, casting all your care. David said, I wait only on the Lord. A lot of people wait on the Lord, but they don't wait only on the Lord. They wait on the Lord until they give him a deadline. If he doesn't meet it, then they go call somebody else. David said, I wait only on the Lord. Not enough to wait on the Lord. I wait only on the Lord. And tonight, I want you to wait only on the Lord for deliverance tonight. God's going to deliver. Maybe you're here for the first time. Maybe you've been running from the Lord. Your heart's backslidden or cold. Someone told you about the church, and you came with them tonight as a visitor. You may be a visitor. You may be someone who attends this church regularly. Whatever it may be, if you have a spirit of fear, I ask you to come and be delivered in the name of the Lord. Father, I thank you. Oh, I thank you for who you are. What a mighty God we serve. What a mighty God we serve. Hallelujah. Jesus, thank you for numbering every hair on my head. Thank you for numbering every bird and every star. Thank you for taking account of every tear that I've ever shed. Thank you for recording every word that I've said and every thought. Lord, we're going to have to stand on the judgment day and answer. But all those evil thoughts, all the things we've said that we shouldn't have said, the blood can wash it all clean. Hallelujah. And then, Lord, you can forget all the evil. You can forget the bad thoughts and the bad deeds. Hallelujah. Lord, deliver people from the spirit of fear. It's a spirit that has to be cast out. A spirit of fear. It's a lifestyle. Some are getting more and more afraid. That fear is there, Lord. You don't want us to be afraid. You said, come into my presence where there's fullness of joy. Come boldly to the throne of grace. You said, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Lord, take that fear and replace it with a spirit of joy. A joy in the Holy Ghost. While the choir is singing, I want you to come out of your seat. If the Spirit's talking to you, you say, Brother Wilks, that's me. I have a spirit of fear and I want to be delivered. Up in the balcony, come down either side and down any aisle. Here on the main floor, come down any aisle. The Lord bless you. Can you hear me all right? There has to be an act of faith on your part right now. Where are you standing? There has to be an absolute act of faith. Do you know you can change? How many believe you can change? Raise your hand right now. You believe you can change. How long do you think it's going to take you to change? Well, you have to start. There has to be a start. First of all, you have to acknowledge, Lord, I see my mistake. You've held the mirror up and I see my problem. I have not been the confession that I should be. And, Lord, I've had a spirit of fear upon me. I've been afraid. A lot of it's a fear of people or so many, many other things. We don't even need to name that fear. They're like ghosts. But I tell you, we can change. I know God's... I heard Pastor Don say the other day, he said, I'm not the man I was a year ago standing in this pulpit. We can all say that. I can say that. I'm not the man I was a year ago. I'm changing. Are you changing? We are changing. But I'll tell you, the greatest change, the leap, the very leap where you really change, is when God holds up the mirror and you see something about yourself. You say, that's enough. I want to change. And you take God at His word. Simply take Him at His word. Hallelujah. So, open my eyes to who you are. That you truly love me. You're my heavenly Father. And Lord, help me to take a stand before the whole world and let them know who you are. Hallelujah. You don't need to carry your Bible around. I carry my Bible many times. But I'm saying that alone. We should carry our Bibles. But that alone is not going to impress people near as much as they see something in you that's unshakable. They see something in your faith. That you really trust your Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Raise your hands to the Lord right now and say, Jesus, teach me to trust you. Teach me now. Let me learn my biggest lesson. How important it is to me. How important it is to you. Forgive me for being the wrong confession. Lord, give me a true confession of your power and your glory. Lord, cleanse me of all doubt, unbelief, and crust of fear in my life. Pluck it out. I give it to you by faith. This very moment. Let it be the beginning.