In this sermon, the preacher discusses the current state of prosperity in America, with the stock market at an all-time high and unemployment at a 28-year low. However, he also acknowledges that big corporations are laying off thousands of employees. The preacher feels burdened by the responsibility of delivering a prophetic word to his congregation, but after a four-year hiatus, he feels the fire burning again and believes this is the first of a series of prophetic messages about the last call to America. He encourages his listeners not to be drawn in and seduced by worldly things, but to have hope and faith because they are different from those in the world, and God will make known that difference in the days to come.

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 WORLDCHALLENGE PO 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. I've never claimed to be a prophet, but what I give you this morning I would call scriptural prophecy by going into the scripture and understanding God's ways and His methods. Now, folks, we don't like to get bad news. In fact, for a season, the Lord lifted the prophetic word from me because I got a little angry. Not at God, but at people. I got weary of being called a doomsday preacher and weary of some well-known teachers and others who mocked and ridiculed the message. But most of all, it just seemed people didn't want to hear it anymore. It just turned it off. When I would give scriptural prophecy, even people would walk out. And I said, Lord, I'm tired of it. I really don't want to carry this burden anymore. So the Lord said, all right. Evidently, and for about four years, He didn't allow me to give a prophetic word. Recently, in my study of the word, the fire began to burn again. And this is the first, I believe, of a series of prophetic messages this next year about the last call to America. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. Lord, if we stay in your word, we're always safe. We have our parameters, Lord, so we don't have to dream dreams, though I believe you do cause your servants to dream dreams. We don't have to see visions, though I believe there are visions you give. We don't have to hear voices. We are on good ground because we're in the word of the Lord. And Lord, as we study your word, you make these things come alive. And I pray, Heavenly Father, this morning that you speak clearly to this congregation. Speak to this nation, O God. Help us, Lord, in these very times, the most prosperous times in our history, to sit up and take note. Now let your people not be carried away. Holy Spirit, anoint me. Sanctify this vessel that I may speak the honorable word of the Lord in truth and power. Lord, without your unction, these are just words. So come and anoint these words. Let fire burn in our souls. Wake us up as your children, O Lord, that we not sleep in these times. Lord, surely you're coming soon. The time is fast approaching, Lord. The clouds hang heavy overhead. In this time when all men cry peace and safety and men are looking for material things, O God, let us walk by a different beach. Let us not be drawn in and seduced by these things, O God. Awaken us this morning. Speak to our hearts. Let not fear grip our hearts, but hope and faith, because we are different, the Bible says, than those that are in the world, and you'll make known that difference in the days to come. So help me now, Father, in Jesus' name. It's a Sunday, January 4th, 1998. I stand in this pulpit now. The stock market is at an all-time high. Unemployment is at a 28-year low. America at this hour is enjoying unprecedented prosperity. A headline in USA Today on Friday read, Americans are rolling into the future with economic confidence unmatched in 30 years. Most Americans say they face the future with high expectations. Even though big corporations are laying off thousands, including Eastman, Kodak, RGA, Nabisco, RGR, Boeing, and Hasbro, still Americans are bullish about the future. According to the IRS, there are now over 87,000 millionaires in the United States. America has become the envy of the world as it soaks in over $200 billion of imports, luxuries imported from all over the world, $200 billion a year being soaked up by Americans living in luxury. Yet there are pockets of poverty. Numbers are still unemployed and others unemployed, others barely able to make it. But as a whole, the United States is rolling on in great prosperity, unprecedented in history. The United States has become an island of prosperity in a world that is racing toward economic ruin. You look about today and you see the country going full steam ahead, gaining prosperity, wealth, materialism. And you look at this prosperity and you have to, as a Christian, ask yourself, how, God, can you keep on blessing abundant prosperity such as it is upon a wicked nation? How can you continue to bless and prosper a nation like America? Now, folks, I love America. I love this nation. I'm not putting it down. But we've got to understand what the Holy Ghost is saying today by His Word. I want you to hear it. This nation is on a course to rid God out of its very soul. The very memory of God, there's an attempt to erase it from the very memory of the society. Our court system is doing all in its power and jurisdiction to outlaw the very mention of His name, to do away with even the symbols of God, the crosses that are hung around the neck, the religious plaques on the walls, manger scenes, Bible reading in schools and prayer. There is an attempt by our Supreme Court and legislatures to absolutely, in the name of political correctness, to remove the very essence of God from our society. There's a move now to remove from our coins the phrase, in God we trust, and that is gaining popularity, and I believe it's going to happen within the next ten years of the Lord's area. This nation is still killing millions of its unborn babies, still sucking out the brains of fully developed babies in the third trimester. It's been an ocean of blood shed by a nation that unashamedly kills its babies and saves its whales. We have nurses here in New York City who assist in abortions and abortion clinics who, after washing their bloody hands, go right out in the street and demonstrate to save the mink. Now in America, from New York to California, from the borders of Canada to Mexico, over 100 million television sets, more than 100,000 theaters. Pornography is satiating the minds of the population. Few movies now can make it without an R rating. Even Disney and family films are allowing the beginnings of pornography and cursing the name of Christ. I dare you to find even a family movie now that does not curse the name of our Christ and our God. Buddha is not mocked and ridiculed. Allah is never mentioned in a cursing tone. But all over the world on our television sets and in our movies and our videos, the name of Jesus Christ is mocked and ridiculed and dragged down into the gutter of the mud and filth of this generation. No other nation on earth has so blatantly cursed our God and our Christ. The violence of our nation has far surpassed Sodom and Gomorrah. There are temporary lulls in our crime rate. The crime rate goes down for seasons. But already this year, just in the last two days, seven homicides here in New York City. And it seems to be crawling back up. Because they don't give God any glory. They don't give God any credit whatsoever. It's the police department. It's the court system. And though thousands have been praying and believing God, they give no credit to God whatsoever. Even the smallest towns in America are outraged and incredulous now because of the awful violence, the killings, senseless murders and killings. Every town, village and hamlet in this country. This nation has become a locked nation. We're shut into our homes, afraid to walk our streets at night. Just a few of the signs of moral decay and ruin all Americans now recognize and fear. The most hardened liberal writers and liberal politicians are crying out as one did on the radio yesterday. America's gone mad. This nation is in a moral shambles. We're racing toward anarchy. I listened to that. He's not a preacher. He's a hardened liberal. He had given up hope. He said, we've passed hope. And in light of this immorality and all this official enmity toward God, bloodshed, violence, wickedness, I ask again, why is God prospering and blessing America? We slap his face. He pours out more prosperity. We race toward hell and indecency and wickedness. And he showers us with goodness. Why? Folks, this has baffled me. I've not been able to understand God. Why, in the face of our hatred towards you, try to remove you from our society and our murder and our violence and our killing of our babies and our senseless bloodshed, and now murdering our elderly and assisted suicides. Oh, God, why is there unprecedented prosperity? Why is the stock market going out of sight? I hope to prove to you that America is right now getting its final call prior to judgment. America stands now on the brink of an economic social collapse. I've seen no vision. I've dreamed no dream. I've heard no voice. But according to the word of God that I have studied, I hope to prove to you today that we're on the brink of a collapse. Now, this is how Daniel understood that Jerusalem would once again be inhabited by the Jews and they would return to Judah. Because he was reading the scriptures, reading, in fact, Jeremiah 25, 12. And he came upon this. I, Daniel, understood by the books of the years specified by the words of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolation of Jerusalem. And he looked at that. He said the 70 years are up. This is the time. And all of his, the prophecies that followed were based on this revelation he received from the word of God. It was not a dream. It was not a vision, though he had dreams and visions. This prophecy came from studying God's ways, God's word to former prophets. In the same way, we can go to God's word, hear what the prophets say, and understand the mind of God, and see the flashpoints of judgment that when a nation sins as nations have in the past and God has moved, he will move again in the same way, according to his own promise. Now, let me share with you why I believe God is blessing this immoral nation. America's present prosperity is God's last mercy call before chastening. It's a mercy call. All through the scripture you will discover this pattern. When nations turn from God, first he sends prophets, he sends warnings, then he will often smite with violent storms, selective floods, drastic weather changes, and when that is not heeded, then he will turn around and give one last mercy call. He will flood the society with prosperity. I want you to go with me, please, to Romans 2, 2nd chapter of Romans. You'll see this mercy call outlined, beginning in verse 2. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judges them that do such things? And doest the same that thou shouldst escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God, prosperity, leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render unto every man according to his deeds. O brother, every nation, every person, there is a reckoning day coming. And he said, during this time of blessing, while I bless you, I mean this, God says, that it would lead you to repentance. You know you deserve judgment. You can look around and you see that it's unmerited blessing, it's unmerited prosperity. And God says, I allow this, I cause it, that it may show you your unworthiness, show you my goodness and my great mercy, that it bring you to your knees and humble you. But he said, in the process, if it does not, you are treasuring up wrath. And every day goes back, every time the stock market climbs higher, every time people put another thousand dollars in the bank, every time the prosperity grows, the bloom gets bigger, but the walls get thinner. But more than that, it's treasuring up wrath against this day that I speak of. Our present blessings are meant to lead us to repentance. God has a day set, a day of wrath. I bring now to your attention some evidences of that which I'm speaking about now. I want you to consider the days of Noah, and I want to show you the pattern, how God prospers and blesses a people just before he judges. The days of Noah. God determined to destroy that wicked society because of its awful violence and wickedness, its pursuit of pleasure and its growing wickedness. At first, God sends a prophet, a prophet Noah, a preacher of righteousness. God, in his great mercy, gave that society 120 years of great prosperity. There was a booming prosperity that lasted right up to the day of the flood. The Bible says in the days of Noah, they ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, they bought, they sold, they built, they planted. There was a cloud of destruction that was gathering overhead, and yet they gave themselves to sensuality. Business was booming. They were trading, they were feasting, they had great harvests. There's no unemployment. Fullness of bread, proud people strutting in the latest fashions, great building projects everywhere, fine homes, but no time for the prophet, no time for warnings of coming judgment. They thought only good times ahead, and the Bible said they knew not until the flood came. But God did not bring them to unemployment or poverty before it happened. They were blessed right up to the time of judgment. A mercy call, prosperity call. One bright, sunny day, just a few clouds in the sky perhaps. Noah and his family get up, just like any other day. But God says, now, on this day, go to the ark. God shuts them in, and in the cities and in the towns of Noah's day, there's going to be another day to make another killing. A day to feast, a day to plan weddings and marriages, and just have a good time, good days ahead, not knowing. They knew not. Nobody was listening. Nobody cared. But to keep up the good days rolling on, the good times rolling on. Consider the days of Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah and surrounding towns were enjoying the greatest prosperity of all time, a booming economy. They were buying and selling and planting and building and eating and drinking. Ezekiel said of them in Ezekiel 16, 49 and 50, the sin of Sodom was fullness, fullness of food or bread, too much idleness, disregard for the poor and the needy in their midst, pride and sensuality. There's no evidence that Sodom had any hard times before the disaster fell that day. There's no sign of unemployment. There's plenty of leisure time. There's fullness of bread. But you see, they were cutting off the poor, disregard for the poor in their midst. I believe Sodom is a picture of the United States right now. The fullness of bread, full employment, but a disregard now building up for the poor. I know there should be welfare reform, but folks, what is about to happen in this nation is the very thing happened in Sodom according to Ezekiel. They began to soak up the riches, live in their luxury at the same time, moving one move after another to cut off the poor and the needy in their midst. And all the prophets of Mike and Amos cried out against this very sin of soaking up the luxuries while pushing aside the poor. And we're doing just that right now. Our welfare reform is moving from welfare reform to a sin against God. They got one last mercy call. And overnight, the good times ended, calamity struck in broad daylight. Within 24 hours, that society collapsed. What about the days of Josiah? Josiah was a righteous king who had just come to power. He became a student of the scriptures at a young age. He's about 18 years of age when the word of the Lord grabbed his heart and he began to see a pattern. He began to read of the judgments of God that fell on all of his forefathers because they had reached the point of wickedness and disregard for his name and idolatry. And he looked at his own nation, he said, that's where we're at. He said, the wrath of God is stored up against us. And in panic and terror, he sends his emissaries to the prophet, Hilda, and said, according to what I read in the scripture, we're in danger. The wrath of God is about to fall on this nation. Hilda sent back a word, said, God has determined judgment against this nation because of the sins of your father Manasseh. And he will not change his mind. But because you see this and because you've humbled yourself, you will not see it in your time. And so God gave a reprieve of 20 some years to the time of Josiah. And in that 20 years, he did everything with his power to wipe out sodomy and homosexuality. He destroyed the idol temples. He brought back the Passover and restored the temple of God. But all through those years, the prophet Jeremiah said for 23 years he cried out. He said, you don't listen, you're not hearing. The revival looks so great, it looked like the greatest revival in history, but it was shallow because the people were not with it. They were given to the prosperity of the time because God began to prosper the nation. Great building projects. God just poured out his blessing, even though he said, I will not change my mind. Judgment is set for a very day and hour, but I'll give a reprieve. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he read his clothes. According to the books, great was the wrath of God that is aroused against us. Folks, that's all I've done. I've gone to the book and I've been aroused because I know that at this point in history of past nations and societies, God has moved at the very point of the greatest prosperity of all time. Josiah died at the age of 39. 20 years of great prosperity, no shortages, no massive unemployment, no calamities. And it was all God at work. God pouring on the good times just before he judged that society. Listen to the scripture. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of great wrath with which his anger was aroused against Judah. And God said, I will cast off the city of Jerusalem. I will remove Judah from my sight because they provoked me. Is anybody within the sound of my voice can tell me honestly that America is not provoked? God, Jeremiah, the prophet who prophesied in the times of Josiah. Scripture says from the 13th year of Josiah to this day, and that's toward the end. Over 18 years later, he says, 23 years in which the word of the Lord has come to me. I've spoken to you, but you have not listened. The Lord says, you have not listened to me. Therefore, I will take away the mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and bride, the sound of millstone. That's business. God says, I'll stop the sound of the millstone. Business will come to a halt in the light of the lamp. That's prosperity. The whole land shall be desolated. Now, let me give you one of the most convincing evidences of all in the Scripture. It's founded. Don't turn up. It's found in the 44th chapter of Jeremiah. And folks, this is the one evidence that so aroused my spirit that made me get on my face and search the word of God and brought me to this message. In the 44th chapter of Jeremiah, the Jews, the remnant of the Jews, had gone down to Egypt. Now, this is after God had dealt. Judgment had come upon Israel and Judah. Jerusalem is in ruins and shambles, and a remnant escaped to Egypt. Jeremiah is addressing this remnant in Egypt. Jeremiah reminds me that you've seen all the calamity that I brought on Jerusalem and Judah. This day, they are a desolation because of their wickedness. He said, I want you to look back now. Look back. Look at the devastation. Look at the destruction, the economic ruin. Look at the calamities that have happened because of wickedness. He said, you're in Egypt. But God says, I will find you in Egypt, and I will consume you even there. And I'll tell you why. Listen to their answer. The people stood up against Jeremiah and said, Jeremiah, as this word that you speak to us, we will not listen. We will do as we please. We will burn incense to the queen of heaven. We will pour out drink offerings to her. For when we sacrificed to her, when we worshiped to her in Israel, then we had plenty of food. We were well off. We saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven, we have lacked everything and have been consumed. Listen to it. Listen to their own admission. We were worshiping the queen of heaven. We were sacrificing to idols. They acknowledged their wickedness and their idolatry, yet we were prospered. We had it good. We saw no trouble. Greatest evidence possible. Jeremiah says, are you blind? Don't you understand it was that idolatry that brought you down to God and mercy? God in His grace gave you one last call. By your own admission, you were blessed and prospered while you were in idolatry. While you were offering sacrifices to the queen of heaven. When you should have been wiped out and you should have been destroyed. God was merciful to you. That prosperity, that blessing was your last call. Now look what's happened. When we reject God's mercy call, then an hour comes when he says that it's enough. The Bible also predicts there's going to be a downfall of a society called Babylon. Now, many theologians are still trying to identify Babylon. Some say that's the city that Saddam is building now in Iraq, where the original Babylon is situated. Folks, that's not the Babylon of Revelation. The Puritans and some of the early preachers, when the Catholic Church was involved in the massacre of so many multitudes of Christians, Protestants, they said that that was Rome. It's not Rome. Folks, I don't know who Babylon is and where it's at. When you read the 18th chapter of Revelation, it sounds like America to me. It sounds awful, like the merchants of the world have grown rich. It talks of all of her luxuries and how all the world's merchants grew rich. And it speaks of a time when ships are coming into her coast, from all coasts they're coming. And something happens because overnight that whole system of prosperity falls so that they can't even get to port. There's a rage all through the land. Something has happened. Suddenly it's all over and the merchants are on their ships. They can't get to port and they're weeping because their source of economic power has gone. They can't trade anymore. It's all over because Babylon has fallen. But just before it falls, I don't have time to go and read the 18th chapter of Revelation and look at the buying, the selling, look at all the prosperity. And then suddenly in one hour, it's all over. One hour. Now, let me get to a very important truth. American Christians have a hard time believing that this nation will be brought down. We've convinced ourselves that we're immune because we have in our midst so many praying Christians. We turn in great hope to 2 Chronicles 7.14, and we quote this all across the land now. Every intercessor knows it. Every prayer warrior, every praying Christian knows this. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I'll forgive their sin and heal their land. I thank God for that promise. This is the end of side one. But tell me, where is there evidence that this nation has repented, humbled itself? Where are any of our national leaders? You know what one writer said? We're willing to have scoundrels as our leaders as long as they give us prosperity. Doesn't matter whether they're a doctor. Doesn't matter how much sin or iniquity in their life as long as they keep the good times rolling. One of our presidents had a theme. It's the economy, stupid. It's prosperity. The only thing that matters. But you see, we hang everything on this one verse without reading the rest of the scriptures. Now, I want you to follow me closely. First of all, it's not happening. Furthermore, the prophet Ezekiel had this same promise, this very same scripture. Daniel had this same scripture. He looks at a nation that is in bondage and turmoil. He had this promise, the same promise you and I quote. He could quote it. It was in his scripture. God came to Ezekiel the prophet and said, There comes a time when a people sins so persistently and grieve God so much, a line is crossed, judgment is determined, and no amount of prayer will change it. Let me read it to you. Ezekiel 14, 12. When a land sins against me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out my hand against it. I will cut off its supply of bread. That's its prosperity. I'll cut it off. I'll cut off its economy. I'll send famine on it. And even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would but deliver themselves by their righteousness. Folks, that's in your Bible too. God said there are nations that cross the line. And then 2 Chronicles 7, 14 no longer applies because it's crossed the line. We forget Jeremiah 14, 16. Therefore, I will do unto this house which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I've done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I've cast out all your brethren and the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore, pray not for them. Don't lift up your cry nor prayer for them. Neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear you. Don't make any more intercession because the line is crossed. It happened to Shiloh. It happened in Jerusalem of Judah. It happened time and time again through the Scriptures. And, folks, there comes a time when America crosses a line and God says, that's enough for the bloodshed. That's enough for the violence. That's enough for pushing me out of your society. That's enough. God says, make all the intercession you please. I'll not hear any more. Now, God's not speaking then to a wicked nation. He's speaking to his own children, to a backslidden people. How much more will he say it to a violent, backslidden nation? Listen to me. South Korea is one of the most evangelized of all Asian nations. The largest evangelical churches in the world. In South Korea, one church has over 500,000 members. Many churches with 25,000 members. They have prayer mountains. It's the most interceding nation on the face of the earth. People from America go to pray on prayer mountain in Korea. And look what's happened to Korea in the past few weeks. The 11th largest economy in the world. Booming, shiny new factories that had been built. Shipping cars and goods all over the world, especially here in the United States. The economy was booming. Bankers from all over the world raced to pour money in to that nation. And that nation boasted it would come to be a challenge to Japan and its economy. Overnight, the won nearly collapses. Overnight, Korea has industries, factories bankrupt. Now Korea faces millions of unemployed people. In fact, if the International Monetary Fund doesn't bail it out with 30 billion dollars, it will collapse as a nation. Its government is about to go. All those praying people. That was the theme of Korea. Prayer warriors, my people call by my name. Review the land. Did they cross that line? Because in North Korea, millions are starving to death. Did they cross that line because of some political ambition? And that millions of North Koreans starve to death? He said, because of Sodom, they disregarded the poor and the needy. God said, go back. Look what I did to Shiloh. Go look what I'm doing to Korea. Look what's happened now to all of the Asian nations. Look at the economies collapsing. Asian nations may recover for a season. There may be a stall. There may be a reprieve. But folks, there is a warning. There is a warning in the air. Now, in light of what I'm saying to you, and probably the heaviest part of this comes this afternoon, in light of all of this, how should we as Christians respond? How should we act? If these things be true, how do we act, react? I'm going to mention just a few things in this message, and I'll continue this afternoon of how we're to behave and react to these messages. Jude prophesied of a coming destruction. He talked of God's avenging wrath upon wickedness on the nations, that he gave directions to the saints of God for such times. Jude had some powerful warnings of a righteous God coming to deal with unrighteousness among a wicked people. But then to the saints of God he gave these directions, the twentieth verse of Jude. But you, beloved, building yourself up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude says, all right, I've given you the bad news. I told you what's coming. Now let me tell you how you behave and how you react as a believer. And he gives us these three things. He said, first of all, build up your faith. You're going to need it because the just, the time is coming, the just shall live by faith. It is now, but you're really going to need faith. And faith is nothing more than trusting in the faithfulness of God's word, his revealed word, that his promises are true. Folks, that's why we cry so loudly from this pulpit to get into the book, to get established in the word of God, to get his promises because you're going to live one day on his promises of his faithfulness. Folks, all the words of people are failing now. The words of the politicians cannot be trusted. They failed us. You can't trust the promises of politicians. You can't trust the word of some of the most respected men in the nation today. The only word that is unfailing is the word of God. There's no other hope. Those who are steeped in the word of God, who know of God's keeping promises, they have applied them to their heart. They've hidden them in their hearts. They know the keeping power of God, his promises to keep his children in the hardest of times. And God says, I'm going to have a people in the hardest of times who are going to shine forth with a faith before all men. They're going to live by their faith. Abraham, the believer's example of faith, grounded his faith on this promise. God said to Abraham, don't be afraid. Abraham, I'm your shield. I'm your exceeding great reward. And he lived his life on that promise. God said, leave your land and go. And he's sending him out into a wilderness. He probably could pack a month's supply of water and food. But he had to cast himself completely on the mercy of God. He was going to go through enemy tribes and enemy territory. He was going to go through the hardest of difficulties. He couldn't even imagine before he set out what he would go through and what he would face. But he said, I'm going to live on a promise. God said, I'm not to be afraid. He's going to be my shield. He's going to be my great reward. And that great reward for you and I is this promise of eternal mercy. We are saved by grace, and nothing can keep us from our eternal home. Folks, we as American Christians have gotten lazy. We have been satiated with our luxuries. And many don't even want Jesus to come because it's going to disrupt some good times. You don't even hear the cry from many pulpits anymore. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Very little preaching on the coming of the Lord, the return of Jesus Christ. He said, pray in the Holy Ghost. You know what the Scripture says? Paul said, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. He put in the context, praying also with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. That's putting on the armor. In other words, Paul says, you're praying in the Holy Ghost and supplication. That doesn't mean you're just praying in tongues. It means that there's an intensity. You're asking the Holy Ghost to come down upon you. To reveal the word and the promises of God in his keeping power. And you're praying in the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes with groanings it can't even be uttered. It's allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through you so that you're praying the very mind of Christ. He said, pray in the Holy Ghost. In 1850s here in New York City, economic depression struck. New York City had less than a half million population at the time. But many, many hundreds and hundreds were thrown out of work overnight. And a prayer meeting was called, I believe it was near Chamber Street down here, not far from where I preach right now. And hundreds of unemployed men who'd never prayed in months, never prayed in years, began to pray and call on God. Oh, that was fervent prayer, but they were unemployed. There was disaster. Those days there were no safety nets. There was no unemployment compensation. You were out of jobs. That's it. And these desperate men cried out to God. But folks, I'm saying, pray now. Pray in the good times. Pray now. Begin to seek the face of God. Jude says, build up your faith. Begin to pray. Get a prayer life. Get shut in with God. And you'll never be afraid. Then he said, keep yourself in the love of God, looking for his mercy. Don't allow Satan to rob you of the assurance that God truly loves you, that he's going to see you through. Folks, listen to me, please. If what I say is true, there will be massive unemployment. There are going to be hard times come on this nation. I don't know when. It could happen overnight. I'm going to tell this afternoon about and remind you how I stood in this pulpit the day before the stock market crashed ten years ago. Told you to meet me down at Wall Street if you want to see history made. And I saw the terror. I heard the men say, there goes my condo, there goes my yacht. And I saw terror. I saw traders coming out of the stock market floor, wiping the sweat. I heard someone crying. So what's going on? What's happening? And it's going to happen. And I look at all the church. I don't want to hear words like this. I don't want to think of mess. I don't want to think of hard times. I don't want to think of having to pray diligently just to pay the facilities to keep this church open. Things like that that could happen. And I'm not trying to scare anybody. But I'm telling you now, the thing that gave me hope and the thing that lifted my spirit as I thought about it all this past week, while God was dealing with me on these things and arousing my spirit, I thought of almost three million Jews heading out to a wilderness with maybe a two, three day supply of food and water. What kind of panic there must have been as they looked in that vast wilderness. They know that there's no cattle. There's no grass. There's no water. There's nothing but sand. There's no shelter from the beating heat. And yet Almighty God said, I'll lead you through the wilderness. And our God supplied. He supplied. Their shoes didn't wear out. If God has to do it again, he can do it again. You won't be running to Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue, but you'll be clothed. You may not be running to restaurants and eating filet mignon, but God said you'll never beg for food. We serve the same God. Hallelujah. We serve a God who delights. And I'm going to show you this afternoon for those that are here. And if you're not here, you can get the tape. I'm going to show you how when hard times come, God delights in showing the world the difference between his people and the wicked. Days of judgment become God's greatest opportunity to show the world how he loves those who love him. Hallelujah. So it becomes a good word. Hard, yes, but with hope for God's people. I beg you, don't be afraid. I'm not afraid. You say, oh, you're 66 years old, man. Your time is short. My goodness, I'm only 30. Brother Dave, don't scare me. I wish you knew how hard it is to deliver this kind of word. Because the enemy comes and said, you send it out to your people, your mailing list, and you live by the gifts of all these people, and they'll get scared and just cut you off. Well, if everybody cuts it off, nevertheless, it has to go forth. And I said, Lord, I'll obey you on that. This is the conclusion of the tape.