In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not allowing bitterness, anger, or jealousy to rob one's fellowship with God. He shares how he prays for the Holy Spirit to give him power whenever these negative emotions try to rise up within him. The preacher then discusses the story of David and his reaction to a devastating crisis in which his town, Ziklag, was destroyed. Despite the loss and despair, David did not allow bitterness to consume him, unlike Saul who was filled with fear when facing a massive army. The sermon concludes with a call for people to be delivered from bitterness and to live in the fear of the Lord.

This is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing, World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. We reverence your word here in this house. Lord, we worship you, we praise you, we offer our gifts to you, but then we come to the divine, healing, life-giving word of God. Lord, open my eyes, my ears, my understanding, my voice, and Lord, open the ears and understanding of this people today. We sanctify you through the word of the living God in our hearts. Lord, open it to me, anoint me, let the spirit of the living God be upon me now as we go into your word and learn about you. Bring victory to many that need victory today. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Learning how to encourage yourself in the Lord. Praise God. Now, don't turn there, but in 1 Samuel, there's a most interesting account of two men of God who faced the worst crisis in their life in two different ways. And these are the two different ways that you and I, when we're in our crisis, react to our problems and our difficulties. Both of these men were chosen by God, and when they came to this, probably the worst crisis in their lifetime, completely overwhelmed, it's interesting to see how these two men reacted. I'm talking about Saul and King Saul and David. Now, every one of us at times face crises, hard, difficult crises. And there comes a time when despair tries to take over, just overwhelms you. It doesn't seem like there's any way out. It seems like you've come to wit's end, and you just don't know what to do, and there's nobody there to give you a word, there's nobody to encourage you. Man fails, there's nothing inside, resources perhaps, and you just feel like the heavens are brass, and you have a tendency or a temptation to just resign to despair. King Saul, we're going to talk about him first. King Saul found it absolutely impossible to encourage himself in his worst crisis. He had nothing in him to self-encourage himself, as David did. He had put himself beyond all possibility of being encouraged and finding comfort from any source, not from man, not from God, not from himself. His life is so full of lessons, and when I've been studying the life of Saul this past week, I was absolutely amazed at how this man cut himself off from any possibility of being encouraged. There was no source anywhere. He placed himself beyond the possibility of being encouraged. Beloved, what would you do without a word from the Lord? What would you do without the Holy Ghost comforting you? What would you do without that kind word that comes from the voice of the Holy Spirit, even through people, when your heart is open, and when you're living fully in the life of Jesus Christ? This man had none of that. He cut himself off completely. Now, don't turn to it, but in 1 Samuel, the 20th chapter, we find Saul facing a confederated army of Philistines, and they're coming against him with chariots and a huge cavalry of men on horseback and a huge infantry. These are a number of confederated warlords, and they're marching toward Israel. And Saul's scouts bring him these frightful reports of this massive army that's coming. And the Bible says they gathered their armies together. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled in him. Now, this man who stands now looking from the mountaintop at this huge, massive army coming at him, this is the same man who was anointed by God, chosen by God, touched by the Holy Spirit, counseled by a great prophet. And yet this man who once chased the Philistines, had been fearless chasing them, he'd never feared. He was a mighty warrior. But now this man stands on that mountaintop trembling, frightened, doesn't know where to go. He's confused. Something has happened to this man. He's trembling in great fear, the Bible says. He's confused. He has no purpose. He has no direction in his life now. Now, what turned this mighty warrior into a coward? What made him cower before his enemies? Saul, listen to me please, Saul had allowed a seed of envy, anger, jealousy to take root in his heart against David, a man of God. My message today, I'm going to attempt to prove to you beyond any shadow of a doubt that if you allow in your life a single seed of bitterness toward anybody, anyone in the workplace, anyone in the ministry, in your family, if you have envy in your heart or jealousy of any kind, and it creates anger, I want to show you that it's going to lead to a spirit of murder. And I'm going to tell you then that you cut yourself off from all possibility of ever being comforted. Because the moment you allow the seed of envy to enter your heart, the Holy Ghost departs. Absolutely departs, and I'm going to prove that to you. The Bible says, the women of Israel began to sing this song, Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands. And Saul was very angry when he heard it. And he said, they've given credit to David for ten thousands, but to me only thousands. What more can he have but my kingdom? And Saul envied David from that day on forward. He allowed envy, jealousy, anger, bitterness to take root in his heart, and it began to obsess him and consume his life. Absolutely consumed him. The Bible said in verse 9, listen to this please, in verse 9 chapter 28, And Saul envied David from that time on. Now that's verse 9, and the next very verse, verse 10, says this, And the next morning an evil spirit came upon Saul. He became demon possessed. The night before, he allows a spirit of envy to take root. Anger, jealousy. The next day, an evil spirit possesses him. And oh, what happens to this man, his downward spiral. Because the very next day, while David comes in to play his harps, Saul has a javelin in his hand. And verse 11 says, and he cast the javelin and he swore, I will kill David and smite him to the wall. There's a spirit of revenge now. There's a murderous spirit. Anyone who holds a grudge against someone else. I'm thinking about your boss on your job. I'm thinking of a co-worker. I'm thinking of somebody in your family. I'm thinking of a male friend or female friend. Somebody that hurt you, wounded you, said something about you. And you allowed a spirit of envy. Or another brother or sister is advanced in Christ and growing in the Lord. And you're still stagnant. And you see that growth. You see the blessing of God. And you become jealous over the blessing of God in somebody else's life. And that seed is planted. It begins to grow in you. Folks, I've heard from heaven on this message. And I want to hear because God by His truth is going to set you free and save your life from damnation and hell. You've got to hear this in the spirit. If that is not cast out, it's going to become an evil obsession. And you open the door to satanic possession. The Bible says where envy and strife is, there's confusion in every evil way. You open yourself up to every evil thing out of the pits of hell. Now what happened to Saul as a result of this envy and bitterness in his heart. This jealousy. What happened to him will happen to every Christian who allows the same thing in their life. Now those who become obsessed with envy or jealousy or bitterness, revenge or grudge. They begin to infect everybody in their circle. Their family, their friends. It's a poison that affects everything around them. Because they are so eaten with it now. That's all you hear night and day coming from their mouth. Because what's in the heart is going to come out the mouth. You hear all about every bit of gossip. Every little tidbit. How I was misjudged. How I was mistreated. How he did this to me or she did that to me. And we go back about our rejections. And that's all you hear. The kids hear it. The friends hear it. Until they get sick and tired of it. You don't want to be around them anymore. They are obsessed with it. That's all they talk about. Because the bitterness is in their heart. Grudge. Envy. Jealousy. It affects everything. And when you have that in you, you begin to mistrust everybody. You begin to think that everybody is against you. You see it in the life of Saul. He becomes mistrustful for everybody. He thinks everybody. Not only David is against him. But now his son Jonathan is against him. Here's a godly young man that loved his father. He'd made a covenant with David. But that's because he's his peer. His own age. And he was a friend with him. But he loved his father. In fact, he died with his father in a battlefield. But listen to Saul speaking to his own son Jonathan. Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, his son. And he said unto him, thou son of a perverse, rebellious woman. Now, we have a curse word for that today. He was cursing his son. He said, do you think I don't know that you've chosen David above me? His own son. I know you, you perverse man of a unmarried woman. He said, you've turned against me. You've turned to David. Why don't you go with David? And what he really said in the next verse. If you really loved him, you'd bring him to me. Let me kill him. You'd let me put a javelin through his belly because he's after your kingdom. You're going to inherit my throne. He's after your throne. Jealousy, rage now is taken over. Spirit of murder. You say that couldn't happen to me. Oh, yes, it is. It's a spirit of murder because the Bible said he that hates his brother is a murderer. And cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Same spirit. He turns against his own daughter Michal. He turns to Michal and said, Michal, brother. He said, Michal, you've conspired against me. He said, why hast thou deceived me so? You sent away my enemy. Remember, she was protecting David and let him escape from her father. And he said, you've deceived me. Can you imagine this? She's just saving her husband's life and he calls it deception. He turns to his own captain Abner. He turns to all of his bodyguards. And listen to what he says. He's saying, you're all against me. Listen to it. You have all conspired against me. There is none of you that feel sorry for me. Listen to your pastor. Listen to me. This is life and death. I'm not preaching a sermon to our friends down in the lower rotunda, to the balcony behind me, wherever you are. I'm not preaching a sermon. I came from the throne of God and I'm telling you, if you sit in this house this morning, and I sit with fear and trembling and yet love, if you have a single root of bitterness, a single thought of revenge, a single grudge, any envy, any jealousy toward husband or wife, God help the man who lives with the wife who is jealous. God help the wife who lives with the husband who is jealous. The Bible said, who can stand against jealousy? Who can stand against envy? There's no defense against it. But oh, it will destroy you. It will consume you. It will bring a spirit of murder. And today we murder through slander and gossip. We will slander until we bring down our enemies. We will talk about them. We will talk about it night and day. And here Saul wakes up every morning. He has to put aside the business of the kingdom because the first thing he's got on his mind is David and getting even. He lays down at night and he's conspiring in his bed. I've been mistreated. Nobody's for me. Everybody's against me. Do you know people like that? Nobody feels sorry for me. Nobody understands me. Oh, God help us to deal with this in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And ask the Holy Spirit to pluck that out of our hearts. He now starts his downward spiral because he's a consumed man. He's got this spirit of murder on him. Folks, we have all seen the awful destruction of sin. Those that have been bound by vicious habits like drugs and alcohol, perverted sex, gambling and so forth, who in this building, who comes to church walking through these streets of New York, you've seen it and I've seen it. You've seen these poor creatures, lunatics, walking these streets who've blown their mind on drugs, just blathering nonsense. You've seen the hollow-eyed women, the prostitutes, who are still trying to work a trick and then turn around the corner and you see them vomiting. They're so sick, physically beaten, just wrecks of humanity. You've seen the skeletal men walking these streets, victims of AIDS. And you've seen them looking for one more empty hour of pleasure and your heart goes out and say, Oh, the wages of sin. Yes, that's an ugly sight. Those are horrible pictures that we've all seen. But let me tell you, there's nothing worse. There's nothing worse than seeing a Christian going downhill. Somebody who had been anointed and chosen by God. Somebody knew Him. Somebody had been touched by the Holy Spirit. And to have this seed in them and to watch them go downhill, to watch how they begin to come apart and how they become obsessed. Listen to their language. There's no more worries. There's no more joy. There's gloom. There's doom. There's nothing there of the Spirit of Christ anymore. Absolute bitterness pours out of the innermost being. You see, when you have this Spirit upon you, you close the door to any possibility of encouragement of any kind. It curses the very life out of you. It's a curse. Saul's obsession with bitterness had reduced him now to a man who had no place to turn for comfort. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not. Neither by dreams, nor Urim, nor by the prophets. He tried to pray and he couldn't pray. He couldn't turn to a priest, he'd kill them all. This is the same man, the Bible says, the Lord had departed from. In 1 Samuel 18, 12, the Lord departed from Saul. The Bible said when the evil spirit came upon Saul, he prophesied in the midst of his house. If you look at the original Hebrew, it says he bellowed like a madman all through his house. It wasn't some spiritual prophecy. The evil spirit was on him now. And this man, through the night, didn't sleep. Even his servants were alarmed. They said, there's an evil spirit in the house. And this man doesn't sleep. He goes through all the rooms in his palace, in his home, and he bellows. I'll kill him! He bellows and he screams his rage. That's what it comes to, folks. Till it eats and consumes your very being. Brings madness. And Saul's on his own now. And I'm going to tell you, when you go this path, you're on your own. Where are you going to turn? Where is Saul going to turn to now? He can't go to the priest, he killed them. He can't go to the prophet. Samuel knows that he's been rejected by God. He can't go to Abner, his captain, because he doesn't trust him. He can't go to his bodyguard. He can't go to his son Jonathan. He can't go to his daughter Michelle. Where is he going to go? He has no place to go. He can't go to God. He can't pray. He can't go to the Holy Ghost. Where do you go? Where do you go when you keep this sin in you? Where do you go when you can't pray, when you can't talk to the Holy Ghost? The preacher can't help you. I can't help you because you've been given over to your sin. Nobody that knows Jesus and who's a good Holy Ghost counselor has got a word for you because your ear is shut and your heart is hard. There's only one way out of that. And that is to acknowledge your sin and cry out as you've never cried in your lifetime. God, I have this sin in my life. Pluck it out by its roots. So where does the man go? Remember, he's not a heathen. He's chosen. He was anointed a prophet. He was under the guidance of a prophet in his first years. Had won many great victories. And now he's going downhill and downhill so fast. Where do you go? You go to a witch. This is the same man who had put away, the Scripture said, those that had familiar spirits and the wizards of the land. He'd killed most of them, but now he's saying, go out and find me one. Surely there's one I didn't kill. Listen to the Scripture. Then said Saul to his servants, go seek me out a woman that has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her. He turns to his servants and says, God doesn't talk to me anymore. Samuel doesn't talk to me. I have nobody to talk to. You have nothing to say to me. Go find me somebody in the occult. Go find me somebody in the occult. He said, Brother David, I would never do that. I would never, no matter how bitter I am, no matter what kind of grudge I have, I would never go see a witch. I would never turn to the occult. Oh no, no, no, don't think for one moment that you can't wind up in some little room with some unkept woman with straggly hair and stick your palm out and try to get a word from God. I've known preachers that have gone to seances and gone to these places because they didn't hear from God, they weren't praying anymore, and they went to somebody in the occult. If you don't, listen to me now. This week's magazine, Life magazine, this week, front page, the lead article, Astrology, the lead article says, Why so many of us now believe that the stars reflect the soul? And that the whole article is about astrology, the rise of astrology. And here's what the article says. Astrology has experienced its biggest boom in 400 years. 20 years ago, there were an estimated 1,000 professional astrologers in the United States. Today, there are over 5,000. 20 million books on astrology now sell each year in the United States because now it's becoming, we have come to a time of reckoning with destiny. Can you imagine that? We have come to a time of reckoning with destiny. But listen further. Soothsayers of all sorts are having a field day. And this astrology has its roots all the way back to Babylon. Astrology is now becoming the therapy for millions. Those who are trying to handle anger and envy and frustration are turning to astrologers for their answers. How many of you pick up the newspaper and go to the horoscope? You say, I'm just curious. I just want to see what my day says. No, no, no, no, no. That's dabbling with the occult. I've got to go on. Worse than going to which you say, I would never go to which, I would never go to the occult. You know what happens? There's something even worse than that that happens to these who carry this spirit in them. It's that they begin to hear voices and they mistake those voices which are the voices of demon powers. They mistake those voices, those sweet, small, still voices as the voice of God. And they're being misled so that they believe a lie to be the truth. They can tell what they have heard. I heard God speak. Listen, you have envy, jealousy. You don't hear God speak. He does not speak to you in that film. Other than to repent, come and I'll restore you. He's not mad at you, but he will stand by. You don't hear from God. You hear your own desires. You hear from hell. You hear from the devil. You say that's too strong, Brother Dave. That's Bible. That's Scripture. I'll back it up. I'll back my very ministry on this because I see it so clearly in God's Word. And they hear these voices and they'll do some of the strangest, sinful, wicked things and say, well, God told me. I heard a still, small voice saying it's alright. It's alright. Like a pastor, a well-known pastor who was in a motel with a woman. He said it was alright because we pray together and we fast together and we get revelations together and trying to justify the sin. A voice. It was not God. God does not send a married man into a motel room with another woman. This man ends up committing suicide. Now, I know he was wounded by the arrow, but the arrow didn't kill him. The Bible said he was just wounded. Therefore, Saul took a sword and fell on it. Killed himself. His sons had already died. His three sons were laying dead on the battlefield and he's wounded and he's laying on the edge of the battle and leaps on his own sword. But the night before he dies, he's consorting with the witch and supposedly Samuel appears. I want to tell you, the apparition, the Samuel that appeared was not the real Samuel. Because there are no wits in the world that can bring Samuel out of the bosom of my Heavenly Father. It was an apparition. It was the devil faking the voice of Samuel. Why? Because the devil's a murderer and the one mission the devil had in mind for Saul was to kill him. He's a murderer, the Bible says. And he's out to kill you with envy and strife and bitterness. He wants to damn your soul and kill you. He wants you to die in a rage. Like the man who was in the paper, last five years, he's lived in revenge because his brother who was a police officer was murdered on the streets and the man only got, I think, ten years or so. And the man's been living in rage and he died recently in his last words, I hope Johnny rots in hell. He was full of rage and bitterness and he'd eaten enough for five years, that's all they heard. I know a sister, a Christian sister who got so mad at God for taking a loved one some twenty years ago. For twenty years she's lived in a rage and bitterness and that's all you hear night and day. She's one of the meanest persons you ever saw. And I have been in the rooms when people die full of bitterness. I've been there. You can feel the evil spirits. You feel the gloom, you feel the doom, you feel the despair. And you see them going out into eternity in a rage. I have walked out of rooms where people were dying like that because I did not want to be in that room and even family and friends would walk out. They didn't want to be in a room. It is spiritual suicide. You're killing yourself. God has promised me today He's going to deliver a lot of people. Not only in this service, but everyone who sees this tape and everyone who hears the audio, many, many people are going to be delivered. I pray the fear of the Holy God grip your heart. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. But now let me give you the other side. Talk about David. Now David reacted to his worst crisis in a very different way. Hallelujah. His story follows immediately in 1 Samuel. Immediately, well, Saul was consorting with a witch. David's on his way with 600 of his men to Ziklag. Now, that was his home base. He'd been chased by Saul. Remember, he'd run off two years before to King Achish and he had joined the Philistines. And the Philistines were preparing to go against Saul. This is the army that saw Saul coming at him. And David's in the hinder part of this great army and he says, I'm going with you, Achish, to the battle. And the warlord said, no. In the heat of the battle, he might turn on us. So David and his 600 men are rejected. The warlord said, David, you and your army get out. Go. Wherever you want to go, go, but you're not with us. This is the end of Samuel. Ziklag. And when they get there, they see us get near. It took about, it's a three-day journey. And when they got there, tired and weary, all they could see was the smoking embers of a ruined city. It was gone. Their town was burnt. All of their family members, all their cattle, everything was gone. There's nothing left. And David is now standing in the middle of these ruins. An amazing thing happens here. This motley army of his that he had led and guided and fed and marvelously prayed over. These are men who had been in debt. These are family members included. Brothers and relatives. Many of them that were discouraged under Saul and many that were fleeing from their debts. And they found a safe haven with David. And now David's standing there, and he looks at all of his family members and his army, and they're picking up stones, and they're in a rage because they're full of grief. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of the people was grieving. And they're angry at David, no doubt, because they said, David, why didn't you leave a few hundred of us back, at least a hundred and fifty, two hundred, to protect our family? Why? You took us three days back, and now we were rejected as it was? Now look what's happened. They have stones in their hands. They're ready to kill David. Now, in the flesh, when you look at this scene, David has every right, every reason in human flesh, in the way of human thinking, has every reason to despair, every reason to question God, because he stands here remembering that he'd been anointed by Samuel. He still feels the oil running down over his head. He remembers the word of Samuel the prophet, God has chosen you to be the king in Saul's place. And now that sounds to him like mockery. It sounds like a hoax to him, because here he is. Israel's turned him down. Saul's turned him down. And now, not only has Saul turned him down, but the very heathen themselves don't want him. Of all people, the Philistines, these ungodly heathen warlords say, David, get out. Not only that, his family is gone. He has no family left. He doesn't know whether they're dead or alive. He has no possessions, no home. He has nothing. He stands there empty. And not only that, but he gets worse. This is the same man that remembers having risked his life to save the city of Keilah. And he learns that those people, after he'd risked his life, and he moves into the city, that they'd sent, in the midnight hours, they'd sent word to Saul, we've got David, come and get him. He was being betrayed by those to whom he'd risked his very life. And now, his own family, his own army is ready to stone him. The Bible said David was greatly distressed. We talk about our crisis, folks. I'm giving you a crisis here. We're seeing a real crisis. No man has suffered much like that other than our Savior. He could stand there talking about how he was misjudged and how he was slandered, mistreated. He could have talked about all the things he did for these people. But he stands there and listens to what the Bible says. But David encouraged himself in the Lord. David encouraged himself in the Lord. David looks at his situation, he looks around, and he sees ready to stone. And so what could he do? He says, Lord, I resign. He lifted his hands and began to praise the Lord. He said, Lord, you're the one who's going to have to preserve me. No way out of this, Lord. It's all yours. Live or die, I'm going to trust you right now. And he began to encourage himself in the Lord. Now, folks, how does a man do that in the face of a battle? Because many of you say, Pastor Dave, I'm going through a crisis in my life. Where do you get that inner strength? He encouraged himself in the Lord. He was not a superman. He was a man of light passions. Oh yes, he was. He had so much in his life that was unlike the Lord. Oh, but there was something about David in a time of crisis. He reached out to the Lord. There was nothing in himself. It was the Spirit of God in him. It was his communion with the Heavenly Father that now was bearing forth fruit. Folks, it pays to be shut in with God. It pays to have communion with the Lord. It pays to know Him. Because in a crisis, you can depend on Him. You go to your Heavenly Father because He's not a stranger to you. You see, if you harbor envy in you, the first thing that suffers is your prayer life. People who have envy, jealousy, hate, and revenge, and these things like this, they don't pray. They can't pray. And when they don't pray, they lose fellowship with the Lord. And so when the hard times come, there's nothing to draw on. You can't encourage yourself in the Lord. David... Now, I said, Lord, how did he do it? And folks, I found. I found it. And it's so wonderful. The 16th Psalm. Turn. Get your Bibles out. Psalm 16. Because here is the secret to learning how to encourage yourself in the Lord. Amen. Put your seat belts on. How many want to learn to encourage yourself in your hard times in the Lord? Raise your hand. Wave it at me right now. Yes. Praise God. Now, here's the truth that sets you free. Here's the good part. Now, by the way, you know that David recovered everything, didn't he? Not only did he recover all, he recovered more than he lost. He recovered so much, he was giving it away to everybody. He had an overflow. Hallelujah. Now, if you look, if you have a King James, it says in the front of the chapter, the miktam of David. You know what that means? The golden psalm, one that's to be committed to memory. You're to commit this to memory. Now, I have a hard time with that because I have such a poor memory. But I read it. I'm going to read this every day of my life, God helping me. That's what it means. It's a golden psalm. It's the secret. Now, many theologians believe David wrote this while he was in the wilderness. I believe clearly that this was written during this time. Look at the first thing that David says. Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. And in the original Hebrew, it reads, guard me, O Lord. In other words, guard me from these stones. Guard me from my enemies. Guard me from all of this, for I have taken shelter in Thee. I have put my life in Your hands. Hallelujah. David had said, The Lord, O Lord, You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from all trouble. You will compass me about with songs of deliverance. Look at me, folks. David is saying, I didn't turn to the Lord as a last resort. I turned to the Lord as a first resort. I didn't try to call somebody. I didn't try to call a prophet. I didn't try to call somebody. I turned to the Lord. Folks, get off the telephone. Get into the secret closet. Get along with God. He's the only one who can preserve you. Go into the shelter from the storm. Hallelujah. Verse 2, O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extended not to Thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Now listen to me. Let me interpret that for you. Look this way, please. What he's saying, Lord, my charitable works were not done for Thee, but for the saints who are upon the earth, for them who are excellent in whom is all Your delight. You know what David's saying? Lord, I can forgive all of them. I can forgive everybody. I don't have to hold a grudge against anybody because everything... He could have said, Well, wait a minute. I risked my life for Keilah, and they turned on me? I played the harp for Saul. I fought his battles, and he turned on me? He could look at all of these things. He said, Even the heathen warlords turned on me? All the good things I've done for people, and I get no respect? I get no thanks? Have you ever helped so many people, and nobody said thanks? Oh, yes. I could write a book on that. But David said, Wait a minute. I didn't do this to merit something with you, Lord. I didn't do this to get to heaven. I did it because it's the right thing to do, and that's all. I don't have to expect any thanks. I can forgive everybody because I wasn't doing it to get to heaven by it. Folks, you don't... All of those things that you do, you're supposed to do them because you're a servant of Jesus Christ. You're supposed to love your brother and do good to all mankind, not to get to heaven. We get to heaven by the mercy of Jesus Christ and the grace of God. All of our good works are filthy rags. He said, Lord, it's all filthy rags anyhow. I did it just because it's the right thing to do, so I forgive everybody. Oh, hallelujah. Can you forgive? Told you it's good. You know what he says in the next verse? He said... And the reason he said, I can forgive because their sorrows are going to be multiplied. They're going to... God keeps books. Lord, I'm not going to add to their sorrow. And he says... What he's saying, he said, I don't want to even mention their idolatry on my lips. He said that in the verse. He said, I don't want to get involved in this kind of living. I don't want to get involved in this mess. I don't want to get involved with talking to people that have bitterness in their heart. I don't want to be a part of it. Folks, you listen to bitterness, it's going to get into you. It's going to poison you. Do you ever hear of secondhand smoke? Secondhand gossip will kill you just as sure as straight gossip. Next. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. Oh, this is wonderful what David's saying. He's standing there with none. He said, Lord, after all, I haven't lost anything because I haven't lost you. My house is gone. Everything's gone. But Lord, my life is not based on things. You're my life. You're my inheritance. Lord, I can have it all. Just give me you. You're my lot in life. You're my inheritance. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. A couple weeks ago, a spirit of despair tried to get a hold of me and to bring me down into despair and feeling blue. And I stopped him and I said, Wait a minute. Lord, it doesn't matter if everything I have is lost. Nobody on the face of this earth, in heaven or hell, can take away my Jesus out of my heart. This is not the real world, folks. You see this building? It's a mirage. It's made up of atoms and those atoms are going to burst one day and they're all going to be gone. This pulpit's not real. It's heavy, but it's not real. The real world is in eternity in Jesus Christ. This is not the real world. David said, Not one single thought of envy, not one thought of bitterness, not a thought of anger, nothing to rob my fellowship with my Lord. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. That's the one reason I don't allow any bitterness or anger or wrath in my soul. Jealous. I don't allow it in the name of Jesus. I pray the Holy Ghost give me power every time it tries to rise up because I know it will rob me of my fellowship with the Master. Then he goes on and he says, The lines have fallen, verse 6, The lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places, yet I have a goodly heritage. He's saying, Lord, you gave Israel possession of the land. But he said, I've got a new Jerusalem. I'm going home. Folks, when you look at the last five verses from 7 to 11, let's read them out loud and then I'll explain it. No, it's self-explanatory. I'll tell you what. Why don't you stand? If you have King James, we're going to start reading verse 7 to the end. It's four chapters, four verses. You're going to see how David says because he blesses and trusts the Lord, God's going to give him counsel. He's going to talk about the rains that struck him the night season. That means his inner man. I'm going to show you too. He says, I'm not going to hell. I'm going to heaven. Okay, verse 7. Let's start reading. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My rains also struck me in the night seasons. I've set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh shall also rest in hope. Thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither will thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou will show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. You see, that's the reward of those who work with the Holy Ghost to pluck all these things out of their life. Guidance. Pleasure and joy forevermore. In the night season, God's speaking to you in your bed, telling you how much He loves you. Speaking words of direction and counsel. The inner man being strengthened with my truth in the inner man. And then the Lord's giving you this wonderful promise. You'll never be cast into outer darkness. You're mine. Oh, the glory and the joy and the victory of those who cast aside by faith in Jesus' name. Every root. Every shumblance. Envy. Anger. Wrath. Jealousy. Probably the most dangerous position you can be in with this, I close. Let everybody hear me clearly. If you hadn't heard clearly in your spirit yet what I've said, hear this. If you're blinded, as you stand in God's presence now, you're blinded. You stand there and say, I don't have anything like that. And yet you're covering something. That blindness is probably the most dangerous condition you can be in. A veil over your eyes. And the only way to break through that veil, the only way to break through that blindness, is to say, oh God, send the Holy Ghost. Search my heart. Lord, is there something in me that is there and I'm covering and I'm hiding? Is there somebody that I have been envying? Someone I've been jealous over? Is there someone, Lord, I've been angry at? What about husbands and wives who just don't forgive one another? That anger that keeps building and building until it destroys your relationship. I can't make anything happen here this morning. I could work you up into some kind of an emotional high. Some of you might call me emotionally, but it can't work that way. It has to be the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dealing with our hearts. The Holy Spirit himself. I'm going to open these altars. No one's going to ask you what it's about. But if you're up in a balcony, you go to the stairs on either side and come down any aisle, those that are here. If you say, Pastor David, this message was sent from heaven to my soul and I'll not walk out of this building with this thing in me, this gripped me, laid hold of my heart and I want to be delivered. If you want deliverance, God's going to deliver you. He's going to deliver you. The Bible says you're going to confess it first. He said confess it openly. Confess it before the Lord. Get out of your seat and come right now. If you're backslidden, if you're not right with God, come and join these that are coming. If you don't know the Lord, if you strayed from the Lord, you follow these that are coming right now. Folks, don't hide from the Holy Spirit. Be honest with Him. Look at the people being honest right now. Follow these. You're among many, many people that are coming. Up in the balcony, move. Wherever you're at. I don't care if it's in the choir. I don't care if it's anywhere. All of us. Let the Holy Ghost deal with you. Heavenly Father, deal with us in love. Holy Spirit, you're trying to bring victory. You're trying to bring back the prayer life. You're trying to bring back, Lord, a relationship of communion with the Heavenly Father and with Jesus. Lord, these things break the communion. God, you're going to break these chains and set people free. Amen. Please move in closer. Move in tight to make room for those that are coming, if you will, please. Amen. Some of you are going to have to make up your mind through the help of the Holy Spirit right now where you stand here to make something right with somebody. Is it a mother-in-law? Is it a husband? Is it a wife? Is it a child? I heard of a mother recently, a well-known mother. She's nationally known. Hasn't talked to her son in over a year. I don't know how she... She's a Christian. I don't expect... I don't understand how she ever expects to get to heaven. I don't understand that at all. While you're here now, whoever that person is, that object of your envy, that object of that bitterness, that grudge that's there, I don't care who wronged you. I don't care what they did. You can't hold to it. You have to acknowledge here right now it's sin. I will not put up with it. I'm not going to hold it anymore. There has to be something in you right now that says it ends today, right now. It ends. It's over. I can't carry this and walk with Jesus. I can't do it. Now, the Lord's here to deliver you. The Lord's here to set you free. And the reason he wants you to be free because he wants you back in fellowship. It's not that he's angry at you. He's angry at that sin. And he gets angry at it because he knows what it does to you. It makes you hide from him. It robs you of your prayer life. It robs you of communion. It robs you of peace. Because there's no peace to people that have this in their heart. You say, well, I just can't do that. You don't know the situation, Brother Dave. You don't know. I don't have to know. There are no conditions on heaven, in heaven or earth or in hell. There's no condition whatsoever that you can hold on to envy, bitterness, or grudge, or hate, or anger. You can't hold it. It has to go. If you're ready to let it go, God's ready to come now and rush in by the power of the Holy Ghost and deliver you and give you power to do what he asks you to do. He doesn't send you on a trip without giving you the endowment and the power to do it. He's faithful. Look at me, please. I know in my heart some of you could have been destroyed because this thing opens up so many other sins that you would have gone off in some awful, wicked direction. This would have consumed you. And the Lord said, No. And his love brought you a message. Now God wants to deliver you. There may be some in the audience you didn't come forward but you know in your heart this message is for you. I want everyone, raise your hands to the Lord that came forward. Everyone that came forward, raise your hands to the Lord. The Bible says, I would men everywhere lift holy hands. We're holy through the righteousness of Jesus only. Pray this from the gut, from inside, deep inside. Jesus, I come to you now to confess this thing in my soul. I hate it. I want to be free of it. And I bring it to you, Jesus, to humble myself. I admit that what I've done and what I've thought is a sin. It's a sin before you, God. And I admit it and I repent of it. I ask you, God, to send the Holy Spirit and give me power over it. Break this chain that binds my soul. Forgive me and help me, Lord, to make it right. Keep your hands raised while I pray. I come now in Jesus' name against every spirit of envy. I come against spirit of bitterness, anger, hate, wrath, revenge, jealousy. These chains from hell, God, sever them. Cut them. I speak the word of faith in Jesus' name because these are the works of the flesh. These are the works of the devil. And they have no right, no dominion, for sin shall not have dominion over God's people. Lord, break these chains. Hallelujah. Now, I want you by faith to reach out and thank God that he's going to do what he said he would do. Just thank him, Lord. I believe you're going to do what you said you'd do. You're going to deliver me. You're going to set me free. You will set me free. Hallelujah. You will deliver me and you will set me free. Thank you, Jesus. Now, I'm going to pray another prayer. I'm going to ask God to put right in front of your face, the Bible said, the stumbling block of iniquity they had right in front of their face. That's a stumbling block of iniquity. And that has to be removed. Your prayer in itself won't remove it. You have to do that now and God will give you the power to go to that person, make it right. Husband, wife, child, co-worker, whoever it may be, pastor, evangelist, whoever it may be, you go to that person and you make it right. All, I'll tell you, the burden will roll off of you. You will rejoice again. Don't you want your freedom back? Don't you want to be free? Such a wonderful thing, just to be free. The Lord wants you to be free now. So, I'm going to ask God to put that face right in front of you right now, that person's face. You'll know who it is because the Holy Ghost is going to raise it up right now because I'm going to pray it to pass. I have that kind of faith. Bow your heads, please. Father, in Jesus' name, I'm asking you to cause the Holy Ghost to raise up the face of that one, or it may be another, or two, there may be a number, but I want you to lift up those faces right in front of every eye, face to face now in this service. Here's the woman, here's the man, here's the child, here's the person, husband, wife, mother-in-law, whoever it may be, there's the face. Raise it up, right now. And that's the face, that's the person we have to go to. Lord, even if it's a call, a letter, a note, and Lord, it's right now to pluck out all the bitterness, all the envy, all the jealousy, everything, through the power of the Holy Ghost, cover it with the blood, pluck it out now, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Now, hallelujah. How many are ready to obey the Lord, obey the Holy Ghost, as He tells you what to do? This is the conclusion of the tape.