In this sermon, the preacher describes a vision he had of people standing on the edge of a precipice, symbolizing their fear and despair. He emphasizes the importance of repentance and confession of sin, comparing it to the preaching of John the Baptist. The preacher shares a personal story of a family friend losing a child to brain cancer and reflects on his own lack of empathy in that situation. He concludes by stating that although the reasons for suffering may not be clear, God is faithful and will provide grace and mercy to those who trust in Him.

This message 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, Lindell, Texas, 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply. I'm going to speak to you tonight on a baptism of fire. Yeah. Go to Matthew 3, please. Christmas is coming fast, isn't it? We probably should have started announcing it even tonight. Christmas Eve is on Monday night. Tuesday is Christmas. We usually have Tuesday night service. We're going to move Tuesday night to Monday night. There will be no service Tuesday night on Christmas Day. But Christmas Eve, there will be service here in time of fellowship and up in the annex, time of fellowship and food and just getting to know one another and look forward to that. We'll announce that right through to Christmas. Matthew 3, beginning at verse 7, a baptism of fire. For when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, speaking of John, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, it was warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Bring forth, therefore, fruits and meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children of Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and passed into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with, say it with me, and with fire. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I'm asking you to speak from heaven to my heart and to the congregation and all who hear this message, that it come at a right time, that it come at a moment when a word from heaven is needed. Lord, this message be heard down the line, weeks and months from now. And, O God, let it bring life and hope and blessing and faith to those, O Lord, who are suffering and in deep despair. Help us to understand your ways and the patterns of the Lord. Lord, you have set patterns so that we could know what is coming. O Holy Ghost, take charge of me, my mouth, my lips, my thoughts and sanctify me and let this word come from your very heart, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. John speaks of two baptisms in the verse I read to you. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. There are two baptisms. And though there are two baptisms, if you receive one, it is inevitable you're going to receive the other. I'm going to tell you now, if you are baptized with the Holy Ghost, if He baptized you and has baptized you with the Holy Ghost, or has baptized you, you inevitably, somewhere along the line, are going to be baptized with fire. All my life I've heard people pray, God, send the Holy Ghost, give me the Holy Ghost. Now, that's scriptural, and He gives the Holy Ghost to those who ask. I don't remember hearing anybody praying for the baptism of fire. Have you prayed for the baptism of fire? The baptism of fire is not what we think it is. Very few understand that I've never preached on it before. It's not a pleasant experience. It's a place the Holy Ghost takes you to try you, test you and purge you. It's a furnace, in fact, this baptism of fire. You see, we want the Holy Ghost, but we want mostly the gifts that He gives. We want the good gifts, you know, the healing, the tongues, the prophesying, the miracles. We want all of that, but we don't want the baptism of fire, especially if we understand what it is. We are so absolutely ignorant of this baptism. I've heard Christians brag on certain evangelists and pastors, and they say, oh, you've got to come and hear my pastor, you've got to come and hear this evangelist. He preaches with Holy Ghost fire. He's full of the Holy Ghost and fire. What they're talking about, in fact, one lady said, he shouts down the fire. Well, you can't shout down this fire. It has nothing to do with human intensity, human zeal. You know, somebody says, oh, he's fiery. He may be fiery. He may be intense. But has he been baptized with fire? That's an entirely different thing. In Matthew 3.10, John tells us what that baptism with fire is, what it means. Let's begin at verse 10. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree. Here comes a multitude to be baptized by John from Judea, from Jerusalem, and from all the region thereabout to the Jordan. The scripture says, confessing their sins. Multitudes repented and confessed at the preaching of John the Baptist. They came from everywhere. And what a scene that must have been. What a glorious scene of confession. Can you imagine multitudes confessing all at one time? And the sounds that came up, confessions of repentance, many probably on their knees, some on their faces. Even the king is there in his chariot. My goodness, what a sight it must have been when John the Baptist preached repentance. And John leads them into repentance. He leads them into confession of sin. Then he tells them there's another step to take. There's another work of God. Now, I'm going to take you down in the waters. I'm going to baptize you. But first he's going to lay the axe to the root. He's going to lay the axe to that sin that you confessed of all your sins. But there is in all of us a besetting sin in you. There is. Now, I don't like to hear preachers say, you, you, you. Because, you see, when I read in Daniel the cry of this righteous man, Daniel, he confessed his sins and he said, we, we, we. And I'm going to tell you it's we. Don't think for a minute that preachers spend all their days just praying and reading their Bibles. Preachers have their battles, too. And you have pastors in this bullpen, all of them who have been open and vulnerable and speaking of their own weaknesses and how God has brought them through victories and battles. We'll do it again tonight. He said there's another work. He said when you, in other words, when you leave this place of confession and when you have repented, God's desire for you is that he makes you a tree of righteousness and that you bear fruit and you don't have a root of deception in you or a besetting sin that can spot that fruit and ruin it and destroy it. He said there has to be an axe laid to the root sin. That one besetting sin that keeps coming up. Don't leave this place of Holy Ghost conviction until God lays the root to your, the axe to your root sin, he's saying. Now you've confessed your sins. Yes, you, you, you have opened your heart and you have believed and you've turned him. You want him with all your heart. But now, if you're going to go down and you want to, this, this is a symbol of you're going to die. You're going to die. But now let the Holy Ghost deal all the way down and find that one root sin. And now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. How many of you found the truth that you came to the Lord and you confessed all your sins, but you found out there was still a battle with something in your life? You still have a deeply rooted sin. You see, a tree has many roots, but he's talking about that one root that hasn't been plucked up, has not been cut off, its life has not been cut off. You see, in, in, in most of us, in, in most Christians, there's only one thing that keeps them back from the fullness of the blessing of God, from absolute peace, from rest in the Holy Ghost, from being able to look a prophet in the eye, to look any man or woman in the eye, to look God in the eye, look the Holy Ghost in the eye and know that everything is settled with the Lord. It's usually one thing that robs us of covenant blessings. Deep-rooted sin in a believer poisons all the fruit. The vine, the vineyard owner comes and he inspects the fruit and he finds one piece of fruit with a spot on it and then he finds that it's spread to every one of them, and though there's fruit there, it's of no value and it's fruitless, so to speak, because it's been poisoned by a root. In John 3, 10, I believe he speaks of two kinds of cuttings. When you cut down a tree, you don't cut it at the root, you cut it and leave a stump. You cut it on the trunk. We have a little farm in New Jersey and we had to have a huge tree removed recently because it could have fallen on the house and we had to call a specialist. He didn't go down. Those roots were probably 20 feet around and thousands of roots in that because they're peaking up over ground here and coming up the ground over here and he cut it about a foot from the ground and he left the stump. And my wife said, cut it a little deeper and make it into a chair. So we made it into a chair. Why? I don't know. But he didn't cut the root. You see, he's talking to the Pharisees about trees that are cut down. The Bible, in many places, calls men as trees. And the Pharisees refused to repent. They refused to allow God to deal with their roots in a pride. And what John the Baptist is saying, you're going to be cut down and cast into a fire. But there's another cutting and that's of a root. This is not the casting away of the whole tree. This is the ax being laid to the root. The ax being laid to the root sin to save the tree. And I tell you, God is patient with trees. Jesus, remember, said when the vineyard owner said he wanted to cut it down because the tree wasn't bearing fruit. What did the master say? Give it a couple more years, dung it and water it because God loves the tree that bears fruit. Very, very patient is our Lord. If you say yes to the Holy Spirit, he's going to bring you under the power of the new covenant. He's going to come to you with a loving response and he's going to say to you, do you really want this cut? Do you want me to put the ax to the root of this? I'm asking you, do you want this done? Do you want this accomplished in your life? Do you want total freedom? Do you want to bear fruit? Are you tired of the deception? Are you tired that everything is spotted with this one thing that holds you back? Do you want victory? Do you want freedom? And if you say yes, you'll say right now, look to me. You tried and tried to cut it. You wanted to cut it off. You tried and you failed. It's still there. It doesn't work. Now, just look at me and look what's in my hand. I have the ax. That is what the new covenant is all about. That is the covenant. God says, I will give you the power to fulfill every word I've asked of you, everything I've asked of you. I will supply the power. I have the ax in my hand. And he lays the ax to the root. For once you see that, when you know that all that God wants of you is to be willing, you say, well, wait a minute, Brother David. I've heard this many times. I've heard it from good people who love Jesus with all their heart and say, well, look, I've got something in my life. Sometimes this has to do with adultery. Sometimes with fornication. Sometimes with some other many, many other things. I don't want to get into mentioning, but let's say, well, I really want the Lord, but I have to tell you honestly, I still like what I'm doing. I guess I don't have enough fear of God in me. It must be that I have an awful, vile streak in me, but I have to tell you all honestly, I don't have it in me to ask God to deal with it. Well, the covenant has made provision for that, if you really love Jesus. Now, listen to me very closely. I'm talking about pet sin. I'm talking about that root. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And if you tell me I don't have the fear of God, a covenant promise has been given to you in Jeremiah 32, 38 and 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. You say, how do I get that? If you don't have what you believe is the will, you don't have the want to, and you believe you don't have the fear of God, if you will go to God honestly and say, God, and get along with the Lord, say, this thing has a hold of me, it's holding me back, it's grieving the Holy Spirit, I know that, but it has such a hold on me, I don't have the desire that I think I need, and I want in me, will you put the will in me for you to cut it? And then take this covenant promise, God, go to the Lord and say, Lord, I don't have your fear, the fear of God is not in me. If you'll go to him with this covenant promise, God says, I'm not going to turn away from you in this struggle, I'm not going to let you battle alone, but I'm asking you now to beseech me, I'm asking you to come to me with an honest heart, if you'll do that, I'll not turn away from you to do you good, and I will empower you, I will put my fear in your heart, you just wait upon me, and it will come, it won't come with a blast, but you'll wake up one day, and you'll find that the fear is there, and you'll be so sick of this sin, because the Holy Ghost is at work in you. You'll say, God, take it, let this guy die of desire towards you, and know that this grieves you. Now, after the axe is laid to the root, one would think that this operation of the Holy Spirit would be that one thing that is an all-time settling work of grace. That's it, Lord. Never again. You see, now you have the victory, the axe has been laid to the root, now you're free to come to church, there's a freedom on the job, there's a freedom everywhere, you're set free of the besetting sin, and oh, what a joy, what a freedom! God has done it! The only problem with that is that when we win this kind of victory through the power of the Holy Spirit and covenant, the flesh rises up. This flesh is sneaky, and it's evil, without the sanctifying power of grace, and it'll come and say, your flesh will say, God owes you one now. God, now you really have to reward me. No more of those dark, lonely nights. No more of that struggle, hand-to-hand, crap up with the devil. No more of that cloud hanging over my head, God, I've had it. No more battle! I'm tired of the war. It's all over. Lord, I got the victory. You brought me through. Folks, that's wonderful. What a joyous time it is when the Holy Spirit, the axe is laid to the root, and what a wonderful joy, but folks, it's not a reward for obedience. Let me tell you what happens next. There's a pattern in the Scripture. Alright, you've confessed me. Here's the pattern. Confession and repentance for sin, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, water baptism, then the axe is laid to root sin, then the baptism of the Holy Ghost, then you're ready for the baptism of fire. That's the testimony of most of us. I confessed and I repented. I surrendered my heart fully to the Lord. I've been baptized in the water. I've trusted the Holy Spirit to uproot all my sins. He delivered me, set me free, filled me with the Holy Ghost. And if you haven't been there, you're going there. You're going into the fire. Jesus is baptized in water and immediately he goes into the wilderness for his baptism of fire. Not to be purged, but because he made covenant with his Father that he would go into every battle scene that we would face, he would go as a pattern, a pattern man, because he would be touched with the feelings of all our infirmities. There's no place you can go, nothing tempting. You know where you've been that Jesus hasn't been there. He's been there. He went into the wilderness for his baptism of fire led by the Holy Spirit. Now, God does not create the fire. He allows. Jesus led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Now, the Greek meaning of baptism means whelm, whelm, where we get the word overwhelmed, but whelm. And that word means to submerge, to plunge down under. The baptism of fire is a submerging where you're taken into a testing, you're taken into a trial. You're taken deep into it. It's above you, it's around you, it's all around you. You are baptized. You are under it. You're taken down. You're buried in the test of your life. Now, God help us to understand this pattern. If you don't understand it, when it comes, you're going to think some strange thing has happened to you. And it's not strange at all because it's a biblical pattern. You see it with Paul the Apostle. The Scripture, this is when he was named Saul and he was marvelously, miraculously saved. He confesses his sin. He believes on the Lord and he lays hands on him. He's filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately, straight away, the Bible said he preached Christ. And he increased more and more in strength and confounded the Jews. He's a preacher of the Gospel immediately. But no sooner does he name the name of Jesus and he goes into his baptism of fire. And the Jews he preached to, the Scripture says, sought to kill him. And the Lord had told Saul and He showed him, He said, I will show you how great things you must suffer for my name's sake. And the word he used here in Greek is much, long, many, whenever, whenever. And what he's really saying, yes, my beloved spirit-filled child, you're going to suffer much, long, many, whenever, wherever, wherever you go. There's going to be suffering at times. There's going to be much suffering. And Paul endured this all his life. Now, there's many times when he was free from this kind of fire, this baptism, but this is not a one-time thing. I was speaking to Benny tonight to end your baptism of fire. And Satan will try to flood your mind with questions. How can a spirit-filled believer, one who's just so given to God, so hungry for God, how can God let them go through this kind of thing? I know only one way to face the enemy when he comes and asks questions why. And that is to remember that Jesus is the baptizer. He's the one who baptized it with the Holy Spirit, and He's the one who baptized it with fire. And when I know it comes from His hand, I can rest. Because it's on His hand. He's the baptizer. God baptizes His godliest, most precious saints with fire. He takes them through and down into fiery trials to make something out of them. Hebrews 1-7, who maketh His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire. The word ministers there has nothing to do with angels. It means in Greek, people. His people. He makes His people ministers a flame of fire. Now, folks, when you're first taken into this fiery trial, and you are in this and you feel like you're going to be consumed in this fiery trial, and you're being baptized with this fire, nobody's going to go into this saying, It's okay, Lord. I know You're making something out of me. I know what Paul said, that we're to go through it to comfort us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. None of us, when we're in the fire, say, Lord, it's alright. I can take it. Because I know You're producing something in me. No, no, no. We never think that way. I don't. I'm so busy praying for deliverance. When in the fire, you hear the comforters coming, and they'll quote Scripture, and whether we be afflicted, they'll say, it's for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer, or whether we be comforted, it's for the consolation and salvation. In other words, I'm suffering now for others. Now, that's true. That's biblical. But you see, right now, you're overwhelmed with pain, and you're choking with tears. You're not understanding God's loving hand in it. You don't want to hear anybody preaching at you. I've been there, and I know it. Here's a godly wife. She just lost her husband, who was such a man of God, a praying man, and he's gone. And he was only in his forties. And here's a husband. And this is true. Someone told me, you hear him crying. It's been over two years, and he's still crying, still weeping at night, just looking at her picture. Godly woman. He's not accusing God, but, you know, he's borne a lot of grief and pain. And here's a husband and wife so overtaken with grief, they've just buried a child. And there's pain. And what do I say to people who are in their baptism of fire? What do I say? Do I say, don't cry? He's making you a comforter of others? Didn't the Lord tell you it's given unto you in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake? Do our mindest hurting parents, if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together? Do I sit down with them when they've just come from a funeral and say, don't cry, you've got a crown waiting? Do I say, stand tall and be brave, because glory awaits you. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed to us. Folks, I know what I'm talking about. Years ago, some family friends lost a six-year-old boy to brain cancer. And two weeks before he died, I was driving here in New York, and the Lord spoke to me and said, David, I'm taking him. He's going to be taken. And I knew it in my heart. And when the child was taken, I was a young evangelist without much wisdom. And I went to them, went to their house. They are absolutely dumbfounded and broken. It wasn't the time for me to preach at them. But I remember it. And folks, it was years before they ever forgave me. I said, why are you crying? Don't you know he's with the Lord? Don't you know he's got a new body right now? No, your Bible says you weep with those who weep. I should have been on my face weeping with them. But I'm preaching at them. You see, all these wonderful Scriptures and time will make sense. In time, as the Holy Spirit has time to show you that He had a plan all along, and He begins to show you that if He didn't do it this way, there would have been a disaster down the line somewhere, or there was something that you don't see that you didn't know. And He has to do it this way, and it's the only way. But He's so patient, and He's so loving, and He's so kind. He waits until you're ready to hear. So go ahead and cry. Go ahead and weep. And don't think He's going to leave you in this time. Some of you are suffering a fire baptism of another kind. You see, you've never heard a doctor say to you, it's cancer. You're not grieving over a lost loved one. That's not the problem. You see, your fiery trial is in your mind. Mind harassment. And over the years, I've seen the most saintly, godly people go through this baptism of fire, mental anguish, even prophets. And I'll tell you, every great man, every prophet I've known, truly prophets, I've had conversations with them. And they'd unburden their hearts, and often they'd ask me to pray. And I was the one who needed prayer, but they would say they would pray for me. Because I'm going through the battle of my life, I'm being bombarded with thoughts I never thought I could think. I am being harassed in my mind. I seek God and I've given my life. I don't have any desire for the world. There's never been a senseless bend in my nature, but I'm being evil thoughts, blasphemous thoughts, sensuous thoughts, thoughts that I never thought possible. Then the devil comes and says, what kind of a man of God are you? How could you think these kind of thoughts? Now, there are numbers of you listening to me now. You're going through this baptism of fire. And I'm going to tell you, sometimes flabbering thoughts are more dangerous than sensuous thoughts. Those thoughts that come along and say, well, you've really done such a good job, or you're this or that, and those flabbering thoughts that create pride are just as dangerous. Can spirit-filled people wholly given to God be harassed by thoughts from hell? Yes. Yes. Absolutely. But you see, the way the devil works, he comes, he'll try to inject these thoughts. And folks, the Bible makes it very, very clear that we're to be tempted. And folks, when you look at that word, it means evil solicitation. Evil solicitation. Now, many times we suffer these realms because we're drawn away by our own lust, the Scripture says. And we go into the fires of chastening. But I want to tell you, even when he chastens us, he's made it very clear that he will not leave us nor forsake us. He's a faithful father. He will not leave you even though you brought this on yourself. If you turn him with all your heart, he will not forsake and he will not leave you. For I will be merciful, and folks, all of the covenant promises are founded on this one single promise. And if you get this, you begin to understand the covenant. It's this. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. That is God's desire. To have you free of any besetting sin and to give you an understanding of these attacks from the enemy that come to our minds. Peter had a word for those who are going through mental anguish and temptations of the mind. He said, though in heaviness for time through manifold temptations. And the word used here is enticement. Evil solicitation. But then he says, in all, we are kept by the power of God. We are kept by the power of God. Folks, I'm not going to preach long. I'm going to bring this to a close. I never intended this to be a long message. Just wanted to come and unburden my heart. I want to give you a thought from the Holy Spirit. When the enemy comes to bombard your mind, he puts thoughts there that are not your thoughts. Any thought that centers, any thought that is evil, it's from the enemy. It's from the enemy. But I'll tell you, if you just start praising the Lord, rather than allow the devil to lie to you and say, well, you're no good. You've got an evil streak in you. And nobody thinks these kind of thoughts but you. You're different. You've not been sanctified. I'm telling you, sanctified people get the attack. And immediately, immediately say, no devil, I don't receive this. This is not of my mind. This is not of the mind of Christ. And just begin, in your mind, quietly to worship. And the devil will flee from you. And say, in Jesus' name, I take these thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. That's the obedience of the cross. Let me tell you in closing just how, what happens when I'm in a baptism of fire. Simply put, I don't call anybody on the phone. I don't even go to my wife. I don't go to any human being. I go to the throne of grace. He said, you come, when I go to the throne of grace, I remind the Lord, You're the one who told me to come. I'm here at your invitation. And you told me to come with confidence and boldness. Now Lord, You know all about my struggles. You know what I'm going through. And I come to the throne of grace. And I'm not asking for anything more than grace to endure this. I'm asking you to give me grace. And I've told God, all I ask of my family, whatever you're going to take my family through, whatever you take me through, I'm going to come to you. I'm just going to ask you for grace to endure. I know that your loving Father, you'll do what is right. I pray for healing. I pray for deliverance. We heard it well this afternoon. I'll never say it again. Sometimes the Lord says, as his sister Teresa said, I give you myself. And that is grace. It's grace. All through the cancers of our family, coming to this door so many times, I've found that if I just go to Him in quiet confidence and say, God, Jesus gave me access to your throne. You told me to come through that access. And I'm going to hold you to your word right now that you said your grace is sufficient. And I'm going to look you in the eye, everyone listening, the balcony, annex, and here in the main auditorium. And you may not know it, but there's a screen behind us they're looking at. Up. The best I know how to look you face to face and tell you many of you are going to go through it and many of you are in it now. Don't scream. Don't wrestle. Don't ask why. Wait and cry. Then they get along with Him and say, Jesus, please just give me grace. Give me mercy. And love me through this. I don't know why and I don't understand. And maybe someday you'll tell me. But He's been faithful. He knows what He's doing. And some of you are going to hear this by tape. And I'm telling you, God knew what He was doing. He does. He's going to be faithful to you. I've proved Him faithful. Folks, this is not a sermon. I wasn't going to preach this unless yesterday the Lord changed it. He changed my mind. He said, if it's for me, so be it. But somehow I believe it's for you as well. Have you found Him faithful? Have you found His grace sufficient for everything you've gone through? Will He not take you through everything that's coming? So you don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be afraid. But you can rest now and say, Jesus, thank you. You've been faithful. You've been good. Hallelujah. We stand. Folks, can I tell you what I saw last night? I've seen it all day today in the Spirit. I saw, and it had to do with this service tonight. I saw many people on a precipice, on the edge. And down beneath was an ocean of swirling black water of despair, fear. And I saw many that are here tonight standing at the edge. It was not that you had spiritual suicide in mind to jump into that, but you had a fear that you would either be pushed or you would fall into that water of absolute despair and hopelessness. I saw it so clear, and before I got up to preach, I saw it again. And that's where many of you are here tonight. You're on the edge. Whether it's mental, physical, I don't know. But fire is fire. And sometimes mental fire is the hottest of all. It's the most incredible kind of baptism. But what He said is true. He is making something out of you. And that's suffering. If you just come to Him now, whether you come to the altar or whether you do it at home, wherever you're at, and say, Jesus, I'm on the brink. And you know that. But I know you love me. Bear me up in your arms now. Give me confidence in you. Just let me rest in your love. Just call on Him. He'll be there. He's faithful. I don't have some deep theological thing, and I'm not going to preach that to you. I'm just going to tell you. He loves you. He cares. If you reach out to Him tonight, you can walk out of here tonight with a healing. I want to pray with you. And in the annex, I want you, if God's speaking to you, if this message is for you, and you say, Brother Dave, I've got to have a healing in my mind. Maybe you've been slipping away from the Lord. Maybe you're in despair tonight. Father, I ask you to let your love be manifested tonight in a special way. Lord, you've delivered this to some people tonight who need it for now, who are going through something now. You've delivered it for people who are going to face something very soon or in the near future. And they're going to need this word. Lord, let it not be robbed from them. Don't let the devil snatch it from them. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. While they're singing, the Holy Spirit's moving on your heart. Come and join us for prayer. I'm not going to give you another sermon, another message. Just one word. He said that this trial, this test of faith, this fiery trial, which is coming to try you, is to produce gold. Your faith comes forth as pure gold. And he wants you to come out of this as an encourager of others. You may not see it and be ready to hear that, but that's exactly it. And if you'll keep that in mind, he's doing something. And usually the godliest, those who are most God-hungry, are those who go through the deepest trials. God saw your hunger. And this is the only way he can produce testimonies of his power in a time of tribulation that's coming. He has to have people who've been through it, been through the fire, because the fire's going to come and try the whole world. But he has to have witnesses. He has to have those who've sort of been there and have proved him faithful. And you'll come out of this as an encourager of others. May I say something? I was deeply affected by the message this morning about reaching out to others. And I'm going to pray for just a moment, but have you even tried to, for example, to go to an usher and say, thank God for you, thank God for... I see them standing sometimes for the whole message on the sides and up here, I see ushers standing. Have you ever been to one of those? Have you ever been to a pastor after one of the messages, Pastor, I was deeply moved by what I heard in you encouraging. You're not flattering him. Because most of us go home and beat ourselves up anyhow and say I didn't do any good. Not looking for flattery. But I'm talking about when you talk about reaching out to the world, if you're not reaching out first to your brother and sister, what hope is there reaching out there? And God's been talking to me. I've passed choir members without saying, hey, thank you. God bless you for your sacrifice. And I haven't... You know what? I'm learning, Pastor Carter, like you said, you're learning today to stop anyone on the street and pray. I've been praying up and down the streets now for people. I ask right away, if I meet Christians from this church, you want me to pray with you? I pray on the streets anywhere now. Because God's saying you have to reach out to the body first. Have you ever gone over here to the deaf ministry? How many of you have ever hugged these ladies that are there? I just involved in ministering to the deaf. Have you ever hugged them and said, thank God for you. Thank God for the sacrifice. The security people. And just your brother and sister sitting next to you. Have you ever asked, how many times have you asked when you take somebody, hey, you don't even know, can I pray for you about anything? And just stop there, let the people go by and just stop and pray? And the point is that sometimes that brings some people through they're in the midst of the fire. And you're there, you've already learned to be an encourager. And I'm hoping to pray that any of the fires that we endure, that I endure, my family endures, we would come out of it as encouragers to the body of Jesus Christ and to others. How many of you are ready to take that ministry? That's the flaming fire. He said, I'll make my ministers a flame of fire. Encouragement and witness. Everybody, careful, raise your hands. Just lift up your hands. Right now. Father, we lift our hands now to say, here we are. We're ready. Ready to receive your grace. And ready to receive your love. Would you, in your own way, in your own words, pray right out for the grace of God telling, Lord, right now I need grace. I want everybody in this house that needs grace to pray for it. Right now. I can't give it to you. I want you to pray. I need grace. We all need grace. Come on, everyone in this house and in the annex, just lift up your hands. Say, Lord, I'm in need of grace and mercy. I come to your throne right now. You said if I come, you'll give me grace sufficient. You'll give me all I need to stand in my trial. You'll give me everything I need. Lord Jesus, I thank you. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. Lord, you're going to be faithful to this body. You're going to be faithful to everyone who came forward. I ask you, Lord, right now, in the midst of the fire. Oh, God, let Jesus be seen in the midst of our fire. Let Christ be seen in this. Let it be known that He is the baptizer. We are baptized in fire by the hand of Jesus. And, Lord, your hand will not leave us in the fire. You'll go with us in the fire. You'll come out with us with a new revelation and a new ministry to others. In Jesus' name we pray. Would you just thank Him right now for His grace. I give you thanks, Lord, for grace. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you for grace. This is the conclusion of the message.