Ralph Sexton emphasizes the importance of remembering God's faithfulness during times of crisis, such as a stock market crash. He warns against forgetting our roots and the God who delivered us from bondage, urging believers to turn to Him rather than relying on worldly solutions. Sexton reminds the congregation that God is still in control, and that salvation is a precious gift that should never be forgotten. He calls for a return to prayer and reliance on God's power, especially in times of uncertainty, and encourages the church to seek revival and restoration of faith. Ultimately, he reassures that God remains sovereign and loving, even amidst chaos.

Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse number 12. If you have your old Schofield Bible it's page 224. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 12. Then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. There's a danger in forgetting where you came from. Doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter if you're a businessman, doesn't matter if you're an executive young lady that's working her way up the corporate ladder, doesn't matter if you're some person that's been blessed in sports, it doesn't matter if you're a multi-millionaire, doesn't matter if you've been blessed in your community. There's a danger in forgetting where you came from. Verse 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shall swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are round about you. What are the gods, plural, little g, little o, little d, little s, what are the gods of America today? What are their gods? For the Lord thy God, capital G-O-D, is a jealous God among you. Lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. I want to talk to you for just a moment on what to do when the stock market fails. What to do when it loses 777 points in one day. What to do when the Secretary of the Treasurer, Mr. Paulson, goes into the Speaker of the House office and gets down on his knees in front of Nancy Pelosi. What happens when our government officials are so panicked that they're humbling themselves on their knees in front of other government officials? What are we supposed to do as people of faith? I submit to you tonight that God was great in ages past and God is good and God is great tonight. The stock market may not know what to do and government may not know what they're going to do or how they're going to fix it, but I've got news for you. Everything's running on time and everything's in order. Every star made its planetary circle today. The sun is in good shape. Mercury's in good shape. Mars is in good shape. Earth's in good shape. They're all spinning on their axes and God's still on the throne. Holy Spirit's still in business and Jesus Christ is still loving lost people. You have the comfort of who God is. We should never be so busy that we forget God and who He is and what He's done. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7. Now look at verse number 6. For thou art unholy people under the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. You say, well, Pastor Ralph, that's God talking about the chosen people, the nation of Israel. That's absolutely right. But you also have to remember that everything in this Bible is written for our learning. It's written for our instruction. There's a great typology here because now that you are redeemed, you are in the family of faith. You now belong to the Lord God Almighty. And what would He say about you? He's saying to you, to me, that we are a holy people. And above all the people on the face of the earth, He said we're very special in His heart. Why would He say that? Because His Son died for us. Look at verse 7. The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people. For ye were what? The fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because He would keep the oath which is sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of the Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God. Now, you've got to understand something, that Pharaoh was the type of the devil. And you've got to understand Egypt's the type of the world. And you've got to understand that we were in slavery. We were in servitude to the things of this world. And that's what's bothering America. They're howling tonight. People are smoking dope tonight. They're taking pills tonight. They're getting drunk tonight. They don't know how to handle it. And they're howling over the loss of their riches. And it affects righteous and it affects unrighteous. It affects everybody. But the difference is that God's people know that God's not going to abandon us in this time of stress or in this time of crisis. That God will take care of the church. Why? Because we are a chosen people in His love. He loved us. He cared for us. He gave His son to die for us. And Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. And when we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, we became a part of God's family. Now, what do I do when this world is melting down financially? What do I do when we cannot fix the peace situation? Well, there's three or four things you can write down tonight. God keeps saying, if I had time, Deuteronomy 11, 26, 27, and 28. He says, don't forget. Don't forget. Chapter 8, He says, don't forget. He's reminding us. And what are we doing tonight? What are we doing all across America? We're forgetting. We're turning to men for their solution. We're turning to men for their solution. What do you think would have happened if the Senate had opened with prayer this morning, and the Congress had opened with prayer, and Bush, when he walked down the sidewalk at 730, he said, you know what? I haven't slept all night. I got elected to represent the people and to honor God. And I've forgotten my roots and my heritage. And the Congress has. And I'm calling for a national day of prayer. And I want the Speaker of the House to take the first hour for us to pray for the wisdom of God. And let's beg the Senate to get on their knees to pray. Hey, it'd be a different result tonight. But when you get proud and boastful and say, hey, God, we'll whistle if we need you. We'll just call you in time of war. We'll call you like a lifeguard. I promise you, God can turn his back, look the other way and say, you fix it. I'll be waiting for the church. They're about to come home anyway. Ladies and gentlemen, when the church of the living God started substituting showtime religion for old time religion, we lost our heritage. And now it's rubbed off on our Congress, our Senate, our state representatives, our county commissioners, our city representatives. And we're working in the power of men, in the flesh of men, in the wisdom of men. And we've abandoned the principles of God and the things of God. And I have news for you. This is what happens when you leave God out of your life. There's a judgment on abandoning the things of God. And when we forget that and you say, well, then how do we repair the damage? Well, every elected official I met with today, everyone I talked to, I asked him, could I have a moment of prayer with him? I prayed with my state representatives today. I talked to, because I want them to know you don't answer to me, the voter, nearly as much as you answer to God. You've got power. And I looked him in the eye and I said, sir, I need to remind you about something. God sent for me to pray for you because you have authority over me. But when the judgment of God comes, you're going to be held accountable what you've done with your power, what you've done with your authority and what you've done with your influence. Have you done it to line your pockets and to make yourself look good and to feed your ego? Or have you crawled up under a towel grate and said, God, for the sake of the people, have mercy on us and let repentance begin among the leaders of the land. We've got to have revival church. We've got to see a move of God. And there's only one place for it to begin, at God's house, Brother Cecil, with God's people. That's the only place for it to begin. You say, well, how can it begin there? Why is God going to start judgment there? Because we've got the most light. To whom much is given, much, much shall be required. And that's where we are. Now, if we're going to go through these terrible times and crisis without having a nervous breakdown, then what we've got to do is we can't forget some special things. Number one, I don't want you to forget that God is the Creator and the Giver of life. With all their meetings and with all their committees and with all that was going on, on Wall Street, in Washington, in New York City, you need to go simply back to Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created. Genesis chapter 2, verse number 7, and the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. Every one of those business suits, every one of those talking heads on television, all of them with their egos and their agendas and playing political games with the welfare of the people of my nation, hey, they came out of the dust of this earth, and they're headed back to the dust of this earth, and they better know where they're going to spend eternity, and they better understand that there's a great accountability for how men and women handle the sacred trust of the people and the truth of God's Word. Genesis chapter 2 and 22 says, the rib which the Lord God hath taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto man. Hebrews 11, verse 3, through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Hey, those scientists just a few months ago stood in London, England, and they held up the genome, and they said, here is the DNA map of the human body. This contains every gene in the human body, every gene. And he said, we've now figured it out, we've now printed it, we've now mapped it. And Brother Bob, he held that big book up, and he said, we are just a few days from being God. I'm telling you, you wouldn't believe how vain men are. They think they've got the power to create. It reminds me of the story the old rabbi said about when there was a scientist during the Second World War. After the Second World War, he thought he was so smart, and he said that they could do creation and they could form stuff. And then he went before Jehovah God, and he said, we can match you now. We're just like you. We've got the power. We've got the knowledge. We're splitting atoms. We can do all these things. And he said, well, what do you want to do? And he said, well, I'm going to take a pile of dirt, and I'm going to create out of it just like you created man. And so God said, all right. And here he said, I'll bring up a pile of dirt. And he said, OK. And he said, well, I'm going to bring some dirt. And he said, and I'll match what you do. And he reached down to get the dirt, and God said, mm-mm, bring your own dirt. That's my dirt. There's a big difference. Even the carbons that we're using and the proteins and the amino acids are created by a holy God. The very cell structure, the very DNA, the very gene has the hand and the touch of God. And when men's hearts are failing them for fear and the markets are collapsing, you just remember how big God is. You just remember he's in charge. You just go visit your church nursery on Sunday and look down in those little cribs, all those little teeny hands and all those little chicken feet, and realize that every one of them is an act of a holy God where creation took place and where we can see the mystery and majesty of one cell meeting up with another cell. And you bleach your eyes two or three times and turn around. And all of a sudden we got a little baby coming out. It's been swimming around in water, breathing water. And in a matter of seconds, God does something mysterious. And that little thing that was living in water, underwater, breathing water, all of a sudden he goes, give me air. And he's alive in this world. I'm telling you, it's the hand of God and the miracle of God. And I need to know tonight that I've got a great God and a powerful God and a God with authority, a God with power, a God that can change, a God that can create. He's not intimidated by the capitals of this world. He's not intimidated by the men of this world. He is not intimidated by parliament, by Congress, by prime ministers or teams, because according to the inerrant, infallible, holy, inspired word of God that he gave to the church for this dying generation, he said, I am king of kings. I am Lord of Lords. And he's still king tonight. He's still Lord tonight. He's Lord of the mountain and he's Lord of the valley. He's Lord of the river and he's Lord of the creek. He's Lord of the eagle. He's Lord of the sparrow. He's Lord of the Cobra and he's Lord of the word. He's God almighty. He's in charge and he is king of kings and Lord of Lords. The problem is not with God. The problem's with us. It's an evil, wicked heart of unbelief that we're suffering with tonight. We've got a God of power and a God of authority, but we've forgotten him. We've forgotten that he is the creator. Number two, you ought to remember and not forget when the markets are crashing and the world is melting down, that I not forget that salvation is a gift of God. I could be in some bar tonight trying to drink my way through this depression. I could be shacked up in some illicit relationship, my body ravaged by the disease of sin. I could be locked up behind bars. Hey, having somebody pass food through some bars for me and telling me when to get up and when to lay down. Hey, I could be going over to visit my wife who'd be incarcerated instead of seeing my children serving God and my grandchildren serving God. I better never, ever, ever, ever forget that gift of God is salvation and life eternal. God saved me and God saved you. You can never forget the power of God in your salvation. Genesis 315 talked about that he would put enmity between thee and woman and between thy seed and her seed and it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. And God said he would place that enmity there. Man sinned and God saved. Man fell and God lifted him up. Man got disrobed and God went and made us some clothes. Oh, glory to God. He took care of his church and he saved us by his marvelous grace. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, it is what? A gift of God. Romans 8.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Can you explain to me why God came in that garage where you were working? Can you explain to me why God walked in the knitting mill where you were? Can you explain to me why God walked back in that section of Eastman Kodak where you were there working on your machine? Can you explain to me why God got in your car? Can you explain to me why God went in your back bedroom when you were trying to take a little nip and get away from old time conviction? Can you explain to me how you could sit in service after service, hold on to the back of the pew, squeeze that pew till your knuckles turned white and said go away and leave me alone? And he just kept on hugging you and kissing you and wouldn't go away. And you got so mad you'd try to drink a little more, try to cuss a little louder and he just said, I still love you anyway. Can you explain that to me? Can you explain that to me? I got under conviction. I remember sitting there and I thought if my daddy will just shut up and he'll just shut that mouth and quit talking about God and Jesus and all the Holy Ghost stuff, if I can just get outside and get in that 57 Chevrolet convertible, drop back top, let them baby moons spin on the back end of that thing, pop a little rubber, slide her down the road, turn Elvis on, light up a candle. Hey, all that stuff will blow out in the wind and go away. Found out God wasn't scared of candles. He wasn't scared of Elvis. He wasn't afraid to ride fast. He just stuck right in there and laid a hammer to me. Hey, I got saved by the grace of God. And so did you. God came to you. He invaded your darkness. He came to your hell. He came to your dungeon of sin. And when the stock markets were falling and the world's melting down, don't you forget where Jesus dug you out. You were down in the miry pit. You were lost and undone. You had no hope, but he just went in there looking for you. I know, I know he's in here. I know he's in here. And he reached down a little deeper. Then the stain is gone. Pulled you out, started wiping the mud off you. Gave you Holy Ghost mouth to mouth resuscitation. Cleaned out your ears so you could hear the gospel. Cleaned out your mouth so you could praise him. Took your hand off the liquor bottle. Took the marijuana out of your mouth and saved you by his marvelous grace. What kind of God do we have? Oh, we can't forget him. How am I going to be worried tonight, chew my nails off to my elbow? My daddy's a king. You say, where's all your treasure? He put it where you couldn't get to it. He hid it from the United States government. Lest I forget, he's the creator. Lest I forget, he's the God of salvation. Lest I forget that he's Jesus, perfect man and perfect God. John 1, 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. When's the last time you beheld his glory? When's the last time you got in the holy of holies, hung out with Jesus and God the Father, the sweet Holy Ghost? Came out of there drunk as a skunk on the sweet things of God. Didn't know what day of the week it was. Hey! Get intoxicated on his love. Look around and say, I can't take much more. Have you ever been in a prayer meeting and God gets so rich and good, after a while you start going, mmm, mmm. God, you don't have to lighten up. I just can't, my little old body can't take this. Woo! You're going to have to glorify me, take me home, or back up, because there's too much God in this room. Hey! We can't take the glory of God and the grace of God, but we've forgotten about it and it's been so long since we had those old-fashioned prayer meetings and travail times that we forgot our heritage. We forgot the things that God's given to the church and we've been intoxicated on world and its solutions and materialism. We checked CNBC and we checked Fox and CNN before we checked the inerrant, the very thing that God's given us in His Word and the very knowledge we have through the precious Word of God, because that Bible will not disappoint you. That Bible will not let you down. And God published it ahead of the New York Times when it rolls off the press in the morning. I'll get my Bible down and it'll make the Times look like old news, because it's written by the power of God and the authority of God. And it is not corrupted with a little man's ego and a little man's plan. It's God's precious Word for this generation. We need to understand Ephesians 3, 9, it says, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 9, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. Listen, you need to know that when Jesus moved in, God the Father moved in and God the Holy Ghost moved in. You need to be reminded when Jesus was wrapped up in the love of a virgin's womb, created by the sweet Holy Ghost of God with a great miracle that only God could do, that He would be the Father of Jesus Christ. Mary would be the tabernacle to house and shroud the Shekinah glory, that God loved me enough and He loved you enough, that He said the only way they'll get to come is for my darling son to walk off His throne, fold up His beautiful robe of righteousness, take off His crown of authority, invade an old mud ball of sin, squeeze down into this old sinful world, be born of a virgin's womb, created of God's own self, and then to have Him wrapped in the death clothes, the swaddling clothes, as a testimony that He was born to die. Can you even imagine that kind of love? Can you imagine what God did? One third of the angels looked at Lucifer and followed him in sin and they were cast out of heaven. And God looked at them and they're saying, oh, holy God, give us another chance. God, we're sorry. We didn't know Lucifer was lying to us. He deceived us. And those angels begging God to get back into the throne room, begging the fellowship with a holy God. And what did God do? He stepped over those fallen angels, never looked down, never looked back, and then got down on His knees for me, got down on His knees for you, and gave His only begotten Son that you would have life eternal. Charlie, I can't ever get over that, that God had loved me like that. What a rascal I was. What a rascal I am. And God loved me anyway. Hey, He loved me when I was unlovable. He loved me when I was lost. He loved me when I was saved. He loved me when I was ugly. He loved me when I was pretty. Hey, He just loves us. He's God Almighty. He loves His bride, and He loves His church, and He'll love us tonight if we won't forget Him in this crisis time. Shame on us for playing church on Sunday, going through a little commotion just to have a little motion so we're moving around and we need to be under the altar begging God, please, oh holy God, don't let us meet here today without Your power and without Your presence. God, we're a dying people in a dying land. We need the Holy Ghost to invade our presence. God set our preachers on fire. God set our deacons on fire. God anoint our teachers that they'll walk in the classroom and hot tears will roll off their cheeks as they take the Word of God and teach their classes. God put love back in the church. Put a burden back in the church. God put compassion back in the church. May we turn loose of this whole materialistic world and put our heart and affections on You. Oh, that God would touch us again. That we'd not play church when we've got this opportunity. What to do when the markets are melting? What to do when men's hearts are failing them for fear? And what did He say to do in times when you don't know what to do? Cast all of your what? Care upon Him. Why? Because He cares for me. Prio, you get ready to sing. One of the things that we've got to know is that God is coming.