This sermon emphasizes the importance of focusing on Jesus amidst the brokenness and chaos of the world. It highlights the need to see Jesus in every situation, to maintain faith and peace, and to avoid being entangled in political or divisive matters. The message encourages prayer for all people and finding identity, strength, and hope in Christ alone.

Turn with me. I want to speak to you about we see Jesus. We see Jesus. And I want you to go to Hebrews, the second chapter. Hebrews, the second chapter. Those of you who have your Bibles with you. Hebrews, second chapter, verses six and eight. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of Man that thou visitest him? You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not under him. But now we see not, yet all things put under him. Verse nine, But we see Jesus. I'm going to stop right there. Father, will you glorify your name through this message today? I have nothing to prove. We come to you only to understand your word that can take us through the difficult days that are here and coming. Now, Lord Jesus, speak clearly from your heart. I surrender everything I am and all that I have and all that I know into your hands. I've been with you, Jesus. Now you speak through me. In Christ's name, I pray. Amen. The Hebrew writer is picking up from the first chapter of Genesis, verses 24 through 28. Let them, mankind, in other words, rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds, the cattle, and over all the earth. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over all the sea and the birds of the sky and all that is created. And David, the psalmist, picks it up in Psalm 8. What is man that you thought of him? You made him rule over the works of your hands. You would put all things under his feet. God put everything having to do with life, agriculture, government, all those things having to do with created man, birds and beasts. Now, first of all, this is about Jesus who came in the form of mere man, took on himself the pains, the sorrow, the sufferings of mankind. And yes, he is. All things were created for him and by him. And that dominion will come. The kingdom of God is come. But in the meantime, he made man caretakers. God said he put it in his hands. And all that was, all that had to do with making a living and being. Scripture says, but we have not yet seen all things under authority. What do we see today rather than all things under the foot of man? Man has broken every covenant. We look at our situation today and there's not a there's not a thinking person in this country or on the face of the earth today that doesn't know or sense that everything is broken down. This society is broken down. There's a judicial judgment of God himself upon leaders around the world who see blindly. And you sit back amazed and say, can't they see? Don't they know? Don't they understand? We see the brokenness in the schools. We see it everywhere we turn. We see the breakdown of law and order. Now folks, this is this is an upbeat message. Don't get scared. Don't sit there saying, here it comes again. No, he says, the writer says, we don't see things in order. They're supposed to be divine order. And in the church of Jesus Christ, there is. But we see this fear. We see this breaking down. One of the national TV programs had a whole series on the broken government. What do we see? The writer is saying, what do we see? We see disorder. We see confusion. We see fear. Then in verse 9, yet we, the church of Jesus Christ, the body of Christ, we see Jesus. We don't have our eyes on the brokenness. We don't have our eyes on the confusion. We can't change the judicial blindness that God himself has allowed upon world leaders because they rejected the gospel of his son. No, we can't keep our eyes on that. If you keep your eyes on that, brother and sister, you're going to lose the rest. God said, there's a rest that remains for the children of God. And he says, beware, lest you haven't been given this promise, do not enter in. God has given the promise to his church of going through any situation, any trial, no matter how difficult it is, if we would keep our eyes focused on Jesus. Take, for example, in the scripture, the patterns. Saul is being stoned, and I'm sure he's enjoying his last breaths. And I am convinced that when we have our eyes focused on Jesus in our hardest of times, there will be some kind of manifestation. There will be, the Lord will appear in, in the spirit. He will give a word. There was always something of comfort, and he turns to the crowd in the very process of being stoned. No, he was not delivered. He died. But he said, I see Jesus sitting on the right hand of the Father because he had his eyes focused on the Lord. You have an example of John on the Isle of Patmos, isolated in a cold, stony place. Probably the only people he had to talk to would be a guard. And in his hardest moment, isolation, loneliness, the scriptures said Jesus appeared. When I saw him, I felt his feet. He laid his right hand upon me, saying, fear not, for I'm the first and the last. I'm he that lives and was dead. Behold, I live forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of hell and heaven. Nothing can touch you. John, take my hand. He, and I'm going to tell you something, folks. When you walk with Jesus, you keep your focus on Jesus. You're always going to hear the same two words. You're going to hear him say, don't be afraid. Oh, I have heard that so much lately. In the hardest times, David, Gwen, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. That's the message of the Holy Ghost to everyone within the sound of my voice right now. No matter what you're facing, no matter what has come into your life, suddenly or otherwise, Jesus is there. And I believe the secret of overcoming now is to see Jesus in everything that happens in our life. We've got to see Jesus in it. If we can't see Christ in it, we cannot overcome. Somewhere in this, Jesus is coming. The boat looks like it's going down, but Jesus is on his way. He's coming to you. Paul the Apostle is abandoned by his friends. He is in one of the most difficult times of his life. All men forsook me, Paul says, but the Lord stood by me and gave me strength. Do you believe God is with you? Do you believe Jesus is with you in this battle? Folks, I can't tell you what that's meant to me. I can't tell you how that has comforted me, because when the sudden news and the things that happened, not to panic, not to say, what can I do? What shall I do? But Jesus, you're here. Where are you? Speak. And always, it has never failed, he's always spoken a word that has brought peace. And he said, I'm your strength. Paul would allow nothing in the world to rob him of this message or his focus, that Jesus Christ was Lord and that Jesus Christ was in everything. He told the church, I've determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he would not get involved in the religious controversies of his day. He would not get involved. He's taken prisoner to Governor Felix. And the Jewish lawyers have planned a trap for Paul to get him off message. You see, his message was Christ is alive. Christ is the answer to the problems of the world. And his attorney and his leading attorneys accused him of being a fanatic, the leader of a fanatical sect that was turning the Jewish world against Rome. And the whole concept here, the devil behind this is to get Paul off the focus, get him so riled up in his spirit, get him so involved in some kind of a controversy, and take his spirit and get him angry. And Paul knew by the spirit that this was a trap. He says, I'm going to tell you, I am not insurrectionist. I am not a cultist, as they accused me. I want to tell you about Jesus. I want to tell you about riding into Damascus one day and how I was thrown off my horse and I saw Jesus. Paul would not be removed. He said, I will not be entangled. Paul told Timothy, don't be entangled in the affairs of this life. We are in a war. We are soldiers and you can't be taken away from your message and your message and from the centrality of Jesus Christ. And folks, there is a move in what is called religion today and in religious circles to get the church off of the sonship, the godness of Jesus Christ. There are messages now called the emerging church. Yes, the internet is rife with it. I'm not into it, but I hear young ministers who are getting involved. Paul the Apostle warned, he warned clearly, said we're in a war. We're soldiers. Do not get entangled in the affairs of this life or you cannot please Christ otherwise endure suffering. Paul said the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last days some will turn away from their faith. They'll follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars and their consciences are dead. Paul said there is going to come the preaching of another gospel and they're going to invent another Jesus. It's not the Jesus I preach to you. It's not the Christ that I know. There is creeping now into even some evangelical churches this new gospel of accommodation and tolerance. It's a Christ that they have invented in their own minds and these are educated people and it sounds good because it talks about, they say the real Jesus, a Jesus of compassion and love. Folks, I'll stand here and tell you now I've spent 50 years in compassion and love. This church has been a compassionate church. We've cared for the poor and the needy and we have taken care of orphans and widows and we spent millions of dollars and we won't back off anytime saying those who preach this old-fashioned Christ of Paul don't have a social conscience. No, I stand up against it and this church you can see trails of it all over the world. So I stand on a record. We stand on a record. But this new gospel of tolerance is, no, no, no, Jesus Christ is such a loving man now and he, it's the, it is the endorsement of homosexuality, marriages between men and women, and dialogue with Islam to find out how this Christ that we are introducing, this Christ that we believe in, we can have a common denominator. In other words, a Jesus that will fit any religion. No, folks, we serve Christ. We serve a Christ. There can be no giving in. We cannot be entangled in these. There's a new gospel now called the transference of wealth, the most damnable doctrine ever been created in hell, that God is going to give all the wealth of the nations now to individuals who have the faith. I've heard businessmen trying to tell me that this was the new thing. Christian. Paul says, no, don't get, let me read it, even if an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what I've preached to you, let him be accursed. Folks, I'm satisfied with the gospel that Paul preached. I'm satisfied with the Christ that he preached. Paul says, do not be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Jesus. Furthermore, Paul refused to get involved in the political battles of his day. Now, I'm not going to make a political statement that Pope here does not do that. No political statement. But you see, they tried to trap Paul into, to be, to make, to get in this, either the Jewish side or on the Roman side. But Paul would not be removed. Now, folks, here's the, here is the devil's major attack in these last days against the church of Jesus Christ. He's going to try to get us off message and try to get us entangled. There's such political anger. I don't care whether it's right or left. I don't care what handle you give to it. There is a bitterness. It is developing hatred until people, even Christians, are screaming at their TV sets, at the news. Folks, I know the Holy Spirit warned me. God told me to stand in this pulpit and lovingly warn and come to me strongly because I was in my car in Florida just working on this message and I hadn't got to this part. I wasn't even going to get involved. And I was listening to a news program and I got so angry. I said, oh my lord, how stupid, how blind. They're rushing right headlong into hell. I got so angry I almost had to pull the car off the side of the road. The Holy Spirit, you see what's happening? How do you maintain the rest? There's this rest that he has promised to his church. How do we do this? You see, there are issues that we have to care about. It doesn't say don't get involved. It says don't become entangled. Don't go to meetings and don't go to places where your anger is being stirred like a hot poker and the coals are getting hotter until it consumes you, until that's all you talk about. All you can talk about is not Jesus anymore. It's not your home life anymore. It's all about some politician you've learned to hate or some kind of movement you've become involved in. Folks, nothing, absolutely nothing in these days, you won't be able to face what is coming unless your soul is at rest in the peace with no anger, no bitterness, no rebellion in your heart. Can you just say thank you, Brother Dave, for saving my life the night before Paul had to go to Rome and he's going to have to stand before the highest authorities. And the Lord said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as you've testified of me in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness of me in Rome. Wherever we are, we pray for our government. We pray that there will not be any hatred, any bitterness in our hearts, and you are what you eat. Whatever you feed your soul on is going to manifest itself in this head. Now, I have something along this line in keeping with the message, we see Jesus. I want to talk now to just those in this audience that come here and you're on the brink of falling into a pit of despair. I'm talking to people who are overwhelmed by a situation, either in their own lives or in their family. It could be unemployment, it could be pain, sickness, maybe a crisis that's come to you and your family, and you've just come to the end of it. You say, well, that's not me. I thank God for that, but I don't think I'm talking just a few. I have a devotional blog, I guess they call it on the internet, reaches all over the world, and so we get hundreds and hundreds of emails. And folks, I have never heard of so much suffering in my 58 years of preaching, and it gets overwhelming at times. And so I'm not talking to just a few, and I'm not preaching a sermon. I'm going to talk to you about things the Holy Ghost is teaching me. And the Holy Ghost wants to teach you. I'm talking about a child of God that's gone through so much suffering. There's a phrase, and I don't know how to explain it better, hitting the wall. You've hit the wall. And you're just overwhelmed. You say to yourself, it's one battle too many. As you know, we were in Florida for a couple months. And Gwen, pardon the personal, to talk to you personally, but I know what I'm telling you is from the Lord. Gwen was feeling a lump in clavicle, and it was paining and throbbing. And so let's, we went to a clinic, and they did a sonogram, and they come back with a report and say there's a mass. And in Gwen's mind, mass, she's heard it so many times, there's always cancer. And I had no words. We somehow managed to get to the car, and I said, honey, I'm numb. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to pray. She said, dude, I can't handle this one. I've lost my fight. I just lost my fight. And there was such a numbness. No questions why. We were long past that. No anger at God. No, it's just, boy, I feel numb. And about a week into that, just, so I'm praying because I've been working on this message. At the time, I said, Jesus, where are you? I know you're there, but somehow give me a manifestation. Give me a word, just direction. We have no doctor. We don't know where to go. We don't know what to do. Just a word. Somebody called me. A man of God called me. He said, brother, the Holy Spirit has prompted me to call you and want you to go to Psalm 143. There's a word for you. It might as well have been Jesus sitting in my car. I mean, I knew in my heart. I said, why don't you go there, Psalm 143, and for let me have 10 minutes more and just show you what the Holy Spirit's saying to me. And I hope, I hope and pray it will bring some hope into your heart. Psalm 143. David in this psalm is fleeing. Most commentators believe he's fleeing from Absalom. Now, David's under a lot of guilt. He's running, he's hiding, he's tired. He's at the end of himself. And the enemy is lying to him and brought him under a spirit of fear, brought him under a lying spirits. They're coming to him because he said, he says in verse three, the enemy, that's the devil, has persecuted my soul. He smitten my life down to the ground. He's made me to dwell in darkness as those who've long been, have been long gone. And in the real Hebrew, in original Hebrew, the root word is, I feel like I'm barely alive. Now, those are strong words. The enemy has come against him because he thinks of his own sin and hears his son Absalom abusing his concubines. And all the things that David is thinking of his past and everything else is flooding into this man's soul. And he said, I am beyond strength. Verse four, my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart in me is desolate. What it's saying in the Hebrew, I feel like my heart is ceasing to beat. This is, I don't know if you've ever been to that place. I don't know if you're on the brink of going to that place. I don't know if you've ever been numb. Have you ever been numb that the news you hear and the things that happen, you're not mad at God, but there's a numbness. This is where David is. Oh Lord, verse seven, hear me speedily. My spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, lest I be like those that go down into the pit. He said, David's thinking, I've seen people come to Christ and I've seen them lose their faith. I've seen them go down into a pit and they chose that as an option that they can't get out. Now it's worse than ever. And he says, I'm like those who are about to go into a pit and I feel like I've been buried alive. And he speaks in the very, very words, hear my, hear me speedily, oh Lord. My spirit fails. Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those down into the pit. David said, I have to see you in this. Don't hide your face. I want to see you. Somehow, I need a manifestation. I need, don't hide from me. Verse eight, cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning. He's saying, Lord, tomorrow morning, I want to hear the word of your loving kindness. And I believe he's not speaking about just tomorrow. He's speaking about every tomorrow. That there has to be something of the word of God, of the loving kindness of my Father. Something from heaven that God loves me and concerned about me. I want to hear this. I want to hear it. For in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk. Give me direction. Lord, that's what I'm asking. I'm asking, he's asking, this is deliverance to him. An acknowledgment or a sense of the presence of God in the battle. And a word of direction. Oh Lord, deliver me from my enemies. And here is his challenge to God. Lord, I flee to you to hide me. And folks, the original that says, I will veil myself in you. Now, you think about it. You see, our faith now can't be based on emotion. Our faith that we're going to need now cannot be boast on just the testimonies of others who've been delivered. They can't, they can't be cliches. It can't be just a shout. We have to have a foundation for the faith that we're going to need. And that, this has to be laying hold of God's own claims of who he is. And here's what David is saying. Now God, I started out, this whole thing starts out right here. Oh, hear my prayer, Lord. Give, hear my supplication. In your faithfulness answer me. And in your righteousness. And here's a challenge. And I, when I saw this, it just bore witness to my soul. God, here's the basis upon which I come to you. Not what I've heard in the past about people, but here's what you told me you are. You said that you are faithful. That you are just. That you are holy. You cannot lie. You don't tell lies. And you can't be God if you aren't faithful. You said you're long-suffering. You said you're the God of peace. You said you're the God of my strength. Now I'm coming to you. I'm going to lift my hands to you. I'm going to believe what you said about yourself. And I am coming on the merits of nothing I have done, no righteousness of my own, but on the promise of God, what you told me. David said, David said, remember the word unto your servant which you have caused me to hope in. This is my comfort in my affliction. For you have now quickened me. How is he quickened? Lord God, I've lifted my hands to you. I have trusted you. I've claimed your promises. You are who you said you are. And from now on, from this day on, I'm going to veil myself in you. I'm going to cut myself off from all confidence in my flesh, or in people, or anyone else. I'm going to throw myself at your mercy, your grace, your power, your glory. And I'm veiling myself in Christ, shutting my eyes to angry politics, shutting my eyes to the foolish controversies of man. And folks, one last word in closing. It's, it's, you know, Isaiah 55. God says, the word that I've sent to you, I didn't send it out to be void. But the word I've given to you is you're going to accomplish the very thing I said it would. Will you come to God today? Will you come to him with your numbness? Will you come to him with everything that plagues your soul and the fears? And stand up against the lies of the devil. Stand up against those lies that come out of hell, that try to take you off your focus on Jesus. Will you stand? Did God answer, David? I said, did God answer, David? God didn't tell you a lie. He said, I'm going to be your strength. I'm going to be the source of your strength. And I'm going to give you the strength day by day. I'm going to see you through, no matter what you fear. I made you a promise. So folks, that's why we need to put aside, I very seldom anymore read a newspaper. I very seldom listen to the news. But I'll tell you, you can stay well-informed just staying in the book. You can stay well-informed. Lord, more than a shout, more than anything else today, what I want to see you accomplish is that we take you with your word, that we will not be shaken by the voices around us. God, you're faithful. Will you say it with me? Faithful. God, faithful, honest, just, holy, cannot lie. And that's why I believe. And that's who I believe. I'm going to take my place now with the pastors and just stand in the presence of the Lord and worship. However, if Pastor Carter has something further on his mind, but otherwise, if you don't know Christ, you came here, you really don't know Jesus as your Lord. You don't really have not opened your heart to the scriptural Christ. I invite you to take a stand, a bold stand, that is according to Scripture, that if you confess me open before men, I'll confess you before the Father and all the angels of heaven. If you'd like to confess Christ or if you've run from him, you've grown cold toward him, I invite you to come also and stand in the front and even in the aisles if necessary. We don't look for numbers in this church. We let the Holy Spirit do what he's saying. But this is the one thing the Lord pressed on my heart before I sit down, close, if you're here and you are on the verge of your faith being shaken. In other words, we all have that. But you say, brother, if I came here without hope, no more fight. But Paul said we're in a battle. He said keep up the fight. The Holy Ghost can give you back your fight, that you will fight for your faith. You can step out front and I'll step forward after a moment of time and pray for you. Pray the Lord will give you something that you can walk out of this, out of these spaces here in the auditoriums and go out in the street with renewed faith. Pastor Carter, do you have anything else? All right. The alders are open, the front is open. Let's worship the Lord. Thank you, Lord. I was just talking with Pastor David and just sharing with him all week this week the Lord has had a verse of scripture that I've been just focusing on, trying to fully understand. And it's from the book of Job. In the last chapter, verse 10, and it says, And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Now Job is a suffering man. And these people that showed up, all they did was condemn him. But God calls them his friends. And that's the part that really struck me. And the Lord was speaking to me. That's what we're talking about. Pastor David just asked me if I'd come up and just confirm the word that was heard this morning. All week, the Lord has been telling me, just step back from all of the political scene today, all the discussions, all the commentaries, all the religious nonsense, a lot of it, and find everything in Christ that you need. Everything is in Jesus. Everything. And stay out of the political divide, in particular, because God calls them your friends. No matter who's on what side or what their belief is, we're all on this journey trying to make it over to the other side. And you and I are not called to cultivate a camp full of enemies. You and I are not called to be part of the bitter division that Jesus warned is going to engulf the whole earth in the last days. It's going to be culture against culture, race against race. It's going to be country against country. And it's going to spread like a madness in the world until the church is taken out of the earth. Then it will just be worse than any human mind can even imagine. You and I need to be away from all of this. Our identity is in Jesus Christ. And Christ went to the cross for all people. Went to the cross for everybody, no matter what their persuasions are or what their views are on life or the future. Jesus Christ went to the cross. That's why God says, call them friends. Don't call them enemies. Call them friends and begin to pray. And one of the sure ways to get out of the torment of the enemy is to begin to pray for all people. And pray for them equally. Pray for their blessing. Pray for wisdom. Pray for guidance and direction. Just pray for all people. Pray that we, as a country, not spiral into hatred and division. Pray for your friends. Father, we come to this altar today, Lord, and we have heard a word from heaven that our full, complete, and total identity is in Jesus Christ. There is no other identity. There's no other sustaining power for the believer. There's no other future. Even this world itself, the scripture says, is going to be dissolved. And so trying to hold to some corner of it is just futile anyway. God, we ask you, Lord, that you give us your heart for all people. Give us the power to release and not to be caught in controversy. Not to be caught in argument. Not to be caught on one side or the other of a religious or political divide. We ask, Lord, that we would stand where Christ is. And like the Apostle Paul, be willing to go anywhere, to all people, to be able to share the goodness of God through Jesus Christ. Keep us of clean heart and clean spirit, God. Lord, keep our lips clean. God, when we speak of these things, let our conversation be temperate and measured, God. Let us not become part of the problem, but become part of what is the solution that God offers to all men through Christ. Father, we thank you, Lord, that just that simple instruction, that when we pray for all men, that if we are taken captive, it will be released. If we are struggling, you'll break those chains of struggling in us, O God. If our minds are tormented, you'll free us from the torment that's in our minds. Father, thank you for this word, God. Thank you for Pastor David. Thank you for the depth that you're giving this man of God. Lord, we praise you for this today, God. We thank you, Lord, that we have an example of a father in the faith who's not being shaken by the winds of adversity, but finding strength in Christ where all of our strength is going to have to be in the coming days. You've set an example before us, Lord. We're all going to have to go there. Time and circumstance are coming to all of us. Lord, the days are going to be difficult, but you've shown us, Lord, that you can give power to those who choose to put their confidence in you. And so, Lord, we will not cast away our confidence in these days, and we will walk according to truth. Father, thank you, Lord, for the release of freedom in this sanctuary today. Thank you for breaking bondages. Thank you for opening prison doors. Thank you, God Almighty. We praise you for this. We bless you. We bless you. We bless you in the mighty and holy name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Praise be to God. Isn't it an awesome thing to be able to leave this sanctuary today saying, all people are my friends? Everybody is my friend. Now, that's only possible in God, and it's possible because I am a friend of God. God is a friend of mine. Therefore, the Christ in me is able to make me a friend to all people. Blessed be to God. Blessed be the name of God. Hallelujah.