In this sermon, the preacher begins by reading from Proverbs 1:29-32, emphasizing the consequences of rejecting knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He then discusses the current state of sin in the country and attributes it to the watering down of the gospel message. The preacher uses the story of Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, as an illustration of the destructive power of complacency. He urges the congregation to learn from the Old Testament and avoid complacency, emphasizing the importance of being in a church that preaches a righteous and pure gospel.

And I'm here to, right now, to back up Pastor Carter and the burden God sent him. God really sent him here to this church. And Pastor Carter, I go on vacation with great peace and rest in my heart. I'm not going to worry about you or this church for one minute. I put it all in the hands of the Lord. Amen. I talked to you this morning about the complacency of fools. The complacency of fools. We go to Proverbs, the first chapter, please. Proverbs, the first chapter. I want you to go, start with me in verse 29. All our friends in the annex, God bless you. I'm looking you right in the eye when I preach today. Amen. Some of you in this, I don't know, we've got these great big screens over these huge screens and they get a, they can see my eyes better than you can over there. God bless you. Proverbs, first chapter, verse, beginning to read verse 29. For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore, they shall eat of the fruit of their own ways and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Now look at verse 32, a much better translation from the original Greek in verse 32 reads, the turning away of the naive shall slay them and the complacency of fools shall destroy them. The complacency of fools shall destroy them. Shall we pray? Lord, I thank you for the Holy Spirit that's been so evident in this house. Holy spirit, thank you for your manifestation in our presence for making Jesus so real. Holy spirit for just coming and out quickening our physical mortal bodies with the power and unction that only you can give. Now Lord, we turn to the word because we love your word. We honor it. Lord, we pray that you will speak to us. If you're to reprove us, reprove us. Instruct us, instruct us. Correct us, then correct us. Whatever we need, do the word. Whatever we receive. But I pray for a special anointing on that which you have imparted to me for this day. Lord, you knew who would be in this service. You planted everyone in the seat in which they're sitting right now. It's not by chance. Lord, you have arranged this. So help us to receive from the hand of God what he's delivered. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. The complacency of fools shall destroy them. I want to talk to you about this word complacency. It means self-satisfaction, smugness, disinterest. And in the context of Proverbs here in chapter 1, the writer's saying he's a fool who will not hear reproof and instead turns it aside, casts it aside. He's a fool who doesn't want to be corrected by the word of God. He's a fool, the writer's trying to say, that has God stretching out his hand, whether it's reproof, correction, instruction, or righteousness, and we just ignore it. Not allow it to dig into our hearts and change us, to dig at the sin that God's trying to get at so he can bring fellowship and communion into our hearts with himself. And he said a man or woman who sits under the ministry and hears the word of God and becomes complacent and smug, ignores it and casts it aside, that man is a fool who's destroying himself. The complacency of fools will destroy them. I recall a number of years ago, even in this church when we first came into this building, a young man met me backstage and he was very apparently gay and he said, I'm looking for, and he named the young man, he said, is he here? And I sent somebody upstairs in the choir room. He said, he's in your choir. So I sent somebody up and said, no, he's not here. And then, then he looked at me, he said, Reverend, would you tell him to meet me tonight down at such and such place? I thought it was a restaurant. I said, I'll tell him. And someone overheard and he said, you know, that's one of the most notorious gay bars in New York. And so I sent word to the young man and I said, tell him Pastor Dave wants to meet with him. But he never came back. But I found out that the young man had been singing for a year in the choir and had been going down almost every night in these gay bars. And I thought of all the messages in that year that I had preached, messages of love, reproof, correction. I dealt with homosexuality. It's a sin. We love the homosexual, but we hate his sin. And we, he sat there all the time, a manning, praising the Lord, singing and moving with the choir. And the whole time the man was living in homosexuality, blatant homosexuality so much so that he allowed, he insisted or told his friend to just come and meet him here at the church. And they would walk down to the bar. In fact, the young man was probably one of the most promiscuous I found out later in the gay bars, absolutely promiscuous. And he had gays invited to come to hear him and watch him in the choir. The complacency of fools shall destroy them. I brought me to the point of thinking about how many there are in this church right now. They've been coming here months or even a few years. And you have heard the reproof. You've heard righteous, holy preaching, the pure word of the Lord has come forward. And it has done one of two things. It has produced Christ in you. It's conformed you to the image of Jesus. You've trembled at the word. You've rejoiced in the words. You've allowed it to go into the innermost of your being and literally change your character. There's been a radical change in your life because the word of God's been received. Or it has hardened your heart so much so that you can sit here. It doesn't matter who preaches. It doesn't matter how anointed. It doesn't matter how clear the word comes. You sit there smug. It goes over your head. It doesn't do anything for you. And it's, in fact, hardening your heart. And it's absolutely destroying you. He that being often reproved hardened his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and die without remedy. Proverbs 6.25, reproofs of instructions are the way of life. The way to spiritual life is through godly reproof. That's what the Scripture says. You should never be afraid to go to church where the pastor reproves and corrects. That's for the glory of God. And that's through our Christian character to bring us into communion with the Lord. 2 Timothy 3.16, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfected, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And one of those things that happens is you're either being perfected into the image of Christ or you're hardening your heart. Now, God never makes this, just throws out a statement, leaves it hanging in the air, so to speak. He always explains Himself. Now, He's made this powerful statement, profound, the complacency of fools shall destroy them. Now, He goes on to explain how this complacency destroys an individual. In fact, He instructs us, He's given us a mandate to go into the Old Testament and find those examples of these truths that He's laid before us. Here's the Scripture, here's the mandate, for whatsoever things were written aforetime in the Old Testament, whatever's been written in the Old Testament were written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Go to the Old Testament and find the pattern, find the illustrations of the Bible truth. I'm going to take you into the Old Testament now and give you the illustrated sermon, the explanation of how complacency destroys a fool. A fool becomes, a fool is, a complacency causes a fool-heartedness that brings destruction. I'm going to go to, why don't you go with me to 2 Kings, the fifth chapter, 2 Kings, the fifth chapter. I'm going to talk about the prophet Elijah's servant, Gehazi, the man who clearly illustrates what God is trying to say to us this morning. 2 Kings, the fifth chapter, and I'd like you to just leave your Bible open on your lap and then look this way. Once you find this, leave it open and let me, let me give you the background of this story. It's a very familiar Bible story. This is a captain of the Syrian host that's a leper, a very famous man, a man of courage. He's won many battles, but the man is diseased with leprosy. Leprosy now deforms the body. It begins to eat away at one organ after another. A finger can fall, a hand can fall off, eyes, loose hair, and this, this white blot smooths throughout the whole body. This man had leprosy. And it so happened in his home there was a Hebrew slave that had been taken into captivity and was a maid to Naaman's wife. And, and this, this man tried everything, went everywhere looking for a cure and couldn't find it. And the maid said to Naaman's wife one day, she said, I know where he can be healed. I know of a prophet. I know a man of God in my home country, the name of Elijah. He can heal it. He's got the word of God and he's got the power of God. She told Naaman about it and he goes to the king and the king loads Naaman down with donkeys loaded with 6,000 pieces of silver and talents of gold and ten war robes, loaded on donkeys and says, go to the king of Israel and find out where the cure is. And of course, you know the story. He went to the king and the king was horrified. He said, what do you, I can't heal anybody. And Naaman said, I was told there was somebody here that could heal me. So Elisha hears about it and says, don't send him away. There's somebody that can heal him. There's a God in Israel. Send him to me. They send him down to Elisha's place and Elisha, of course, Naaman is horrified that the prophet wouldn't come out and wave his hand and cure him. The prophet wouldn't even come out of the house. He told his servant Gehazi, just tell him to go dip seven times in Jordan, wash himself there, submerge himself seven times, he'll be healed. And of course, Naaman got mad because he was too proud to dip in a Hebrew river. He said, why can't I go and baptize myself in one of my own rivers? And he says, no, you're going down in the Jordan. He goes down seven times reluctantly, comes up healed. And of course, you know the story. He tries to, he offers a great reward. He says, he says to Gehazi's servant, tell him that I want him to take these gifts, please. They're just 10 wardrobes and silver and 6,000 pieces of gold. And can you look at the big eyes of Gehazi. Gehazi, he looks at all of that loot. And Elisha says, tell him I don't want anything. As the Lord liveth, so help me. I will not take anything from you. And the Bible says Naaman insisted, but the prophet insisted even more. And so Naaman gets on his chariot and heads out. And you know the story that that same day, a few hours later, Gehazi couldn't stand to see all of that wealth leave with that Gentile dog. So he runs after him and Naaman sees him coming and jumps off the chariot. And this, Gehazi has concocted a whopper of a lie. He said, a strange thing happened. Just after you left, two young poor sons of the prophets came visiting Elisha. And he sent me to you, wondered if you could give maybe a talent of silver and two of those wardrobes, changes of clothes for these prophets. It's not for Elijah, it's for these dear poor prophets. Naaman said, of course. He said, here, take two talents. Now folks, a talent that he's talking about bags of silver. There was enough in those two bags to buy everything that Gehazi had in his dream. It could buy him a, uh, orchards. It could buy him a spread for cattle and a house and servants and maids, everything he dreamed about. It's going to take it. So of course he loads it down. The servants help him carry it to a hiding place. He hides it and then he comes in, probably through the back kitchen door, face to face with Elisha. Of course, he says, where have you been? He said, I've been nowhere. Of course, you know the story. He said, well, I went with you in my spirit. I saw everything. And of course, you know the story. God said to Naaman, to Gehazi, Elisha said, the leprosy of Naaman is now upon you. You'll be a leper the rest of your days and all your descendants will be lepers. Now this, in a nutshell, that's, that's the story of Gehazi. As the Lord liveth, Elijah, Elisha said, for whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it, but he refused it. Now let me show you the complacency of fools that brings destruction. Gehazi is a, was a chosen vessel. Elisha would not make a move, not do anything without prayer. He was probably chosen out of the school of prophets. I know there's one school that Elisha was involved with that had fifty prophets, fifty young prophets in training, and so no doubt he was chosen from the school of the prophets. And this is the man that God said to Elisha, choose him. And God had a reason. No doubt God saw something that he could use. Now in, in Bible days, in, in, in this set, set time, God chose servants that would not only serve the prophet that could be trained to take his place when he was taken. Remember Samuel served Eli and then became the prophet to Israel. Remember David served Saul and then he became king. Remember Elisha himself was the servant to Elijah. Now God saw something and Gehazi, in fact his name means man of vision. So there was something in this man that God saw good. There were probably, there were character flaws, but God said I want to deal with him so I'm going to put him under a true gospel. I'm going to put him in a place where there is righteousness and holiness and a pure word, a prophetic word. I'm going to put him under that kind of ministry. There had to be something in this man. Now this is not just a wild notion of mine that, that God wanted Gehazi to be trained perhaps to take Elisha's place because when the Shunammite woman's son died and she came running to him and said I, I've lost my son, he's dead. The prophet Elijah took his symbol of authority, his staff, and gave it to Gehazi, said you run there now and you place it on his face. He'll be healed. I think he was testing the young man. He was giving him some of his authority. He was, he was, I see that very clearly in him. I don't think that this is just a wild notion of mine. God had a plan for this man. We can only imagine what it must have been like to sit under the preaching of Elisha. Every word anointed. His simplest words were his phrases bursting with power and unction. Even King Jehoshaphat said of Elisha the word of the Lord is with this man. This man was full of the word of God, righteous, pure, holy word that came forth from his lips. Gehazi was there when Jehoshaphat and Jehoram, two mighty kings, came knocking at his door wanting direction, wanting a word from God. He was there when Elisha called for a minstrel and they began to play the instruments and the Holy Ghost seized upon him and words came out of his mouth, right out of the throne of God, instructions, prophetic word that came out. He was there when a widow of a prophet came and said I'm about to lose my two sons. I can't pay my debt and they're going to take them to pay that debt. And Elisha said what do you have? She said I have just a little pot of oil left. He said borrow every pot you can find. Borrow every vessel and just start pouring into those vessels. She poured and poured filled every vessel. He said now sell it and pay off your debt and keep your sons. He was there. He saw this man raise the dead. Gehazi was one of the most privileged servants in all of Israel to be hearing such an anointed, clear gospel, to sit under such a prophetic word, to see such miracles, to see the secrets of God that bring his favor upon a life. He was there. He saw it all. And so it is today. I believe it's one of the most precious things that God can do for a man or woman in this generation, to put them in a church under righteous, pure, righteous gospel. Now let me tell you something. You may think that you just came here by accident. You that have come here and made this your church. I say it to the choir, to the orchestra, to everybody here, that you say the Times Square Church is where I was, this is my church. You say well I just heard about it or somebody told me about it or I just walked in here and I liked it and I stayed. No, no, no, no, no, no. It didn't happen that way. God brought you here by the Holy Ghost for a purpose. He saw something in you. He saw something in you He can use as His servant. He's trying to get at something in you and He called you purposely and set you here. I'm not saying that we have the purest gospel in America. I'm not saying that we have it all and we know it all. Not at all. I've stood in this pulpit and had to go home and say Lord, I made a theological blunder this morning. And I've had to go back and sometimes I've had to look at it again. We are just human beings and we make mistakes. We stumble sometimes and we fall over our words and it's not the most homiletically correct preaching you can hear but I'll tell you what it is. It's an anointed word of God that comes out of the lips of godly, holy men and the fire of the Lord is in this pulpit and the word of the Lord that comes forth is pure and righteous before the Lord. Now God sent you here for a reason. He put you under that kind of ministry. Now for those who don't want God, have no heart for Him, God will just let them alone. God will let them just drift to one church after another where they play games and they'll just be fed candy cotton and they'll never grow. But God sent you here to bring you to growth. He sent you here to get everything out of your heart that's unlike Jesus. And I'm telling you right now, one or two things are going to happen. You're going to respond to the word, tremble at it and let it change your life or you're going to harden your heart before the Lord. There's a responsibility that goes with sitting under a gospel. This man, Gaza, had a responsibility that the Holy Spirit would place him in one of the godliest environments in Israel. He placed him under a man that breathed holiness. And there's a responsibility in that to allow that word, that environment, that atmosphere of the Holy Spirit to bring the fear of God, to produce righteousness, to cause us to honor and love that word and grow by it. God's put you here because He has a ministry, He has a work for you to do. And He's trying to remove by the precious word of God anything contrary to the likeness of Jesus. Secondly, when a servant of God becomes complacent to the word of the Lord, when the truth that you hear is disobeyed or ignored, it opens up your spirit to all manner of sin, it leads to the loss of the fear of God, and it finally ends in hardness of heart. Now I'm not going to repeat that in fullness, but I'm just going to say what I'm trying to say. If you do not hear the word and honor it, it's going to cause complacency and smugness in your heart, and you're going to lose the fear of God, and you're going to destroy yourself. That's exactly what I'm saying. Something had Gehazi's heart. He had a spirit of covetousness. This, his very name is called Man of Vision. He had a dream. This dream was, well, I'm a servant now, but I've got big plans for my life. Oh, there's nothing wrong with that in itself, but you see, he said he wanted this big spread. He wanted olive gardens. He wanted cattle. He wanted sheep. He wanted servants. He wanted maids. He's going to get rich and take it easy. He wants to hit it big. He's got this covetous drive in him, and that's the very thing that God was trying to get to, and I can assure you the Holy Ghost dealt with this man. There's no way you could be ministering to this prophet Elijah day after day and week after week without this man who could read his mind by the Holy Ghost, not dealing with it and reminding him. Do you remember that pot of oil? Remember how God can supply every need? You don't have to worry about getting rich. You don't have to connive and scheme to get money and do things that are unlike God's Spirit, unlike a righteous man. You don't have to do any of that. You've seen how God can provide, and I believe God dealt with it. I believe that at least one, two, or three times a smiting word came was so powerful, so strong, He knew that this is for me. He's getting right to the issue. How many times have you been in this church or another church where the Spirit of God is moving, and you know that the word that came was so sharp, so smiting, so convicting, you knew it was exactly hitting your mark. It was laying the finger on your sin or your failure. The word of the Lord came as though God Himself came down and took over the servant, and everything He said was delivered to you. You ever been there? All right, what do you do about it? You either say, Lord, melt me. I hear you, Lord. Change me. Heal me. Deliver me. He's patient. He's loving. He'll stick with you. All He wants out of you is that to say, Lord, I'll travel it to her. I received the word. Or you cast it aside, shake it off, and go your way. And that's when complacency and smugness sits in until finally it wouldn't matter if there was an incarnated angel or somebody incarnated from a prophet that came and stood here as the life of Himself. You wouldn't hear Him going in one ear and out the other. Here's a man who sees a great miracle. He sees a leper healed right in front of his eyes. He sees the conversion of a heathen, and all he can see, he can't see any. Here's a miracle, doesn't touch him. Here's a conversion, incredible conversion, doesn't move him. None of these things have moved him. Absolutely untouched by it all. He grew hard in the middle of a manifestation of the power of God. He grew hard in the middle of a manifestation of the presence of God. Folks, what a horrible thought that you could sit in a church like this when the Holy Ghost comes and manifests Himself in such magnificence, in such power, in such presence, and you sit there in your sin, unmoved, untouched. His heart grew hard in the middle of the manifestation. The Lord's doing exactly what I'm telling you. We're talking about He's doing it right now through my message. He's coming with a smiting word because of His great love for you. Now this highly favored servant became so hardened in this place of revelation, all restraint is suddenly gone, and the sin of every color now moves in to possess his life. He can sin at will without any guilt, any fear, any condemnation whatsoever. He can't rejoice in the healing of the leper. He can't rejoice in the miracles. He sees nothing but ten beautiful wardrobes, bags of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold. Now look at me, listen to me. He's still in God's house. He's still a servant of the Lord. He's in the presence of a spiritual giant, and all he can see is his covetous lust. He's lusting in the presence of a spiritual giant. His heart is just bursting with lust because he sees Naaman and the donkeys pulling away. Here goes my ranch. There goes my future. I want to set up so that if I'm fired, I can ride out any storm. That's why many people are going for the big bucks. That's why they're investing everything, borrowing money and throwing it after internet stalks. He sees that group walking away, and he can't handle it. He just kind of slides away nonchalantly, and I suppose just a few hours after Naaman gets down the road, here he runs. Everything is broken loose in him now. There are no restraints, none at all. Folks, I've seen Christians that have come to that point where there are no more restraints. The Holy Ghost sees that they're set on their sins, have totally rejected the word. Nothing will move them. God says, all right, I give you over to it. Then all the restraints, there's nothing to restrain you. There's no conviction, and just run, and he runs after Naaman. And here are the two wardrobes, and it was such a bundle of loot. Two servants had to help him carry it, and he goes to the hill, and he hides it. He'd already planned it. He had a little hiding place, and he hides it, and then he comes back nonchalantly. He heads right back to his ministry, not once thinking it disqualified him. Amazing how people can be workers in a church, and hold on to their lust, hold on to their sins, indulge their sins, come and hear Holy Ghost preaching, and go about doing whatever they do. It could be choir, it could be usher, it could be Sunday school teacher, and not for a moment think that what they did, as wicked and evil in the sight of God, disqualifies them at all. Right back, he goes right back as though nothing happened. Just going right back to my job. The church is full with that kind of deception all over the country and around the world. Many have lost their fear of God. They've cast aside all conviction. They indulge their sins. Then they run right back to their ministry, never once thinking they've been disqualified. Number three, wherever the word is preached in power and purity, it always produces intensification, both good and bad. And I want you to listen closely. It produces intensification. It moves to full growth quickly. In Hebrews, the sixth chapter, verses 7-8, we read, there's an account there, and it says that the earth that drinks in the rain brings forth herbs and vegetation, which is useful and a blessing from God. But the same rain also waters the thorns and thistles, which are worthless and end up being burned. In other words, the rain produces two harvests, one good and one bad. Follow me closely, please, because this is something you and I must understand in the Spirit. The rain is the pure word of God. It's preaching that comes from the heart of God. It's this word anointed by the Holy Ghost. That's the rain. The scripture says, He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. Isaiah 55, 10, 11 absolutely proves it. For as the rain cometh down and waters the earth, making it bring forth and bud, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall prosper in the thing that I send it to do. It prospers in two ways. It prospers in producing righteousness in those who hear it and tremble at it and accept it. But it also, it intensifies love, it intensifies worship, it intensifies the love for Christ. There's a constant intensification of likeness to Christ. The word delivered always intensifies everything it touches. But it also intensifies that which is wrong in us. Bringing it to a quick harvest. The rain that falls and brings forth wonderful fruits and harvests is the same rain that waters and brings to fruition all of the tares. Jesus said, I'll not touch them, let them both grow. They both grow. He said, Jesus himself made this, this statement, your father, he maketh the sun to shine on the evil and the good, sending rain on the just and on the unjust. What does the sun and the rain do? It intensifies growth. Now, I want to tell you something. It's raining in this house right now. It's raining here. The word of the Lord is coming down upon us. You've said under that rain many times in the Bible, God says it's going to prosper. It's going to prosper in you. It's going to bring marvelous fruit. If you will open your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to give you an understanding and you take it seriously, then I tell you on the authority of God's word is going to prosper in many of you in another way. It's going to prosper. It's going to it's going to push you further along in the harvest. It's going to lay hold of your unsurrendered desires and your unsurrendered dreams. He's going to water them. The word will water them. It's going to bring you to a time of harvest quickly. It intensifies it touches. It's not that God's word is not righteous. It's not that God would kept any man. It's not that anything evil in the word of God knows that God looks in the heart and he sees that you have totally rejected it. You will not receive it. And so that rain that comes down is going to absolutely intensify the evil. It's going to it's just going to grow until, in fact, the highest point of intensification is the point of judgment. In other words, when the right food is fully ripe, the judgment is no harvest. The harvest comes to the point of full intensification. There were two servants that heard this man said under this rain. One was Gahazin, then the other was a little insignificant maid that was taken as a slave in captivity. And of course, that was the the maid that was serving Gahazin, the name of his wife. And this little girl must have heard Elisha. It might have been just one little shower of the word that she got from this man. Maybe she heard it secondhand, but the words that she saw and heard made an impact on her for life. So much so that she had no other dream but Jehovah God. And this was the one that God used because the word of the Lord found a place in her heart. Gahazin heard the same word and it watered his lust, intensified what was in his heart and intoxicated him. Jesus said, your father makes the sun to shine. The evil and the good sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Let me illustrate. America's been called a Christian nation, hasn't it? And here in America, we've had the word of God preached freely, without any change, on a bondage for years, since America was founded, been able to preach the gospel freely as I preach it here this morning. A godly remnant has heard this word. A godly remnant in America is growing, being purged, hungering and thirsting after God. They go to the house of God prepared, saying, Lord, whatever you say, I hear it, I will do it, I'll obey your word. And there are multitudes today, and I believe the vast majority in Times Square Church sitting behind me, around me and hearing me. Those that come to this church have been changed drastically, changed by the word of God. You come with your Bible in hand, you read it, you love it. The priest's word, the red word, however it comes to you, you have allowed that rain to bring forth fruit in your life. Your husband sees it, your wife, your children, others see it. You're changing. God's been blessing you, because you've been sitting under the rain. But there are others here in the United States, and some perhaps in this church. You've not allowed him to sanctify your dreams and your ambitions. The Lord has taken second place to your dream. You've allowed some evil thing to lay hold of your heart. You're not hating it now, you're not going to God for deliverance, you're not allowing the word to dig into it. But why is America becoming so overrun now with immorality? Why is everything spinning out of control? The bloodshed, mocking its sin. Eighty percent of our people say it doesn't matter anymore how wicked Washington is. It doesn't matter as long as we have prosperity. What a horrible thing has happened to our country. Why is sin so in bloom? Why is it bursting forth? There's been more happen the last three or four years than the last fifty years. It's critical mass. Why? Because the rain, the very preaching of the gospel from holy, godly pulpits that's gone through, the whole airwaves have been filled. There's been a message that's gone out, and it is watered and watered until it is growing. The tares are growing, and the harvest is about to happen. Gahaza experienced an intensification of prosperity all of a sudden. Prosperity intensified. He comes waltzing down the hill. He's got it made. He really has it. Doesn't matter now if he gets fired. Doesn't matter if a storm comes. I've got enough to ride out any storm. I'm safe. Hmm. You know what you hear all over the country? You know what the president said in his State of the Union message, if anybody listened? Could have been better. Everything's fine. We're going to have, we are going to have money to spend billions on any pet project you have. They're gonna be billions and billions of dollars spent. Don't believe it, folks. Don't believe it. I'm not mocking the president, but finally, and here's my final point, there comes a payday. There's always a payday. A time when every hidden thing is brought out into the light and exposed and judgment pronounced. The Bible says, the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make known the counsels of the heart. All the motives of the heart. Look at this man waltzing into the kitchen. He's ready to put the water down and wash the prophet's feet. The prophet's standing eye to eye with those piercing eyes. And he says, Gaza, where have you been? What have you done? He says, I've done nothing. I've gone nowhere. And this prophet looks him in the eye. He said, didn't my spirit go with you? He said, wasn't I there when, and he begins to describe, wasn't I there when Naaman got down out of the chariot and came and talked to you? Wasn't I there when I saw him give you two wardrobes and I saw him give you two bags of silver? Wasn't I there when you walked up the hill and I saw you hide it? Wasn't I there? I was there all along. I saw it. And I'm sure he preached the mess to this man. He said, how is it that you could have sat all this time under my preaching and see the, hear the prophetic word and all of this? And it's changed. It hasn't changed you. You become wicked and vile in my presence. And he turns, the scripture says, and he said, the leprosy therefore of Naaman shall come to you and your descendants forever. And he went out from his presence, a leper as white as snow. In my mind, I see the Lord saying to the president of the United States, sir, where have you been? Oh, I've just come from the rose garden and strolling. This is strolling nothing. The Lord said, didn't my spirit go with you? Didn't I see you sit at a desk at the rose garden? And I saw all of those abortion group around you. And didn't I see you take a pen in hand and sign the death warrant of millions of babies. You say you've just been walking. No, sir. I saw you hand the pen to the leader of the abortion movement. And I looked into your heart and I saw how smug and satisfied you were that you had done this to please this crowd. I pronounce you a leper the rest of your life. Pastor, where have you been? Nowhere. Lord, just up in my study, meditating. The Lord said, wasn't my spirit there with you? Didn't I see you turn on your computer and didn't I see you surfing and didn't I see you turn on pornography and you sat there for two hours? No, sir, you were not meditating. You were drinking, eating filth out of the devil's garbage can. Beware my servant, lest the devil himself who produced it possess you. Lest this leprosy come upon you the rest of your life and your seed, your children, your family, and all be destroyed because the complacency of fools will destroy them. Wherever you come from, teenager, where you been? I just been walking my sweetheart, talking and dreaming. The Holy Spirit said, didn't I walk with you? Wasn't I there? Wasn't I there when I saw you in bed of fornication with your sweetheart? And wasn't I there when you told all the lies to cover it up to your parents? Beware, beware, lest the leprosy that has destroyed all of your friends around you leap upon you and you be the same and destroy and ruin your life. Husband, where you been? Nowhere, just at the job. Another day, another dollar. Just making a living for my family. Just another day. Lord says, wasn't I there? Wasn't my spirit with you today? I saw you flirt with your co-worker. I see how you light up when she comes in the room and you a married man. Sir, I was there when you took those supplies and you didn't pay for them. You put them in your car and those supplies are piling up in your room. I was there. I saw it. Where have you been? What have you done? Don't tell me nothing. Lest the complacency of a fool destroy you. Jesus warned, for there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed. Nothing hidden that shall not be known. He knows every little thing you've stolen. He knows every lie you told. He knows all the flirtations. He knows all the lies and the schemes. He knows all of the covetousness. He knows it all. He knows it all. Where have you been? Where have you come from? How about you, young man? Where have you been? I was at Times Square Church Sunday night, but this is Monday. Where have you been? Well, I went straight home. Holy Spirit said, was I not there when you went home? Didn't I hear you pick up the telephone and you called a young man who is a homosexual? And I've been trying to deliver you from your homosexuality and you went home and you picked up the phone and you talked to this man for an hour and that old homosexual lust was aroused in you. Where have you come from? What have you done? You tell me nothing. Nowhere. You just went home. No, you called him and you've made plans to meet him tonight. Beware, lest the leprosy on him leap upon you and you spend the rest of your life in ruin and destruction. For there's nothing hidden, nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nothing hidden that shall not be known. Folks, I've got good news before I close. This man, Gehazi, could not be healed. This man had no opportunity to repent. But now because of the cross of Jesus and the blood of Jesus Christ, he heals lepers. Ten lepers came to Jesus and cried out, Master, have mercy on us. And I'm telling you, if you've got any of these leprosies upon you, if you've been complacent, you can come to the cross of Jesus Christ. We live in a day of mercy and grace. You can find that if you'll simply cry out to God, Lord, I've not been heeding your word. I've not been taking it serious. I've been letting it pass through me and over me. God, send a Holy Ghost and convict me. Send the Holy Ghost and deal with me. When I sit from now on in church, Lord, let me prepare my heart to hear it and let it go deep in me. Let it dig into my sin. Put your fear in my heart, O God. The Lord will heal you. The Lord will deliver you because there's deliverance for lepers because of the cross of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. You don't have to leave this house a leper. You don't have to leave this house bound by your sins. You can be delivered by the grace and the mercy of Almighty God through Jesus Christ. Will you stand? If you could honestly tell me in this church now, while you stand, that as far as you know, the best you know your heart, you can say, Pastor David, I tremble at the word and I love and honor his word. Will you raise your hand, please? Just let me see. Wave it at me. I tremble at the word. I love the word. The word of God is my life. I believe the majority of you are really telling the truth. God has really done a work through his word in your heart and you love it. You don't come and judge messages. You don't say, well, that was a five or that was a ten. And you don't compare preachers. We don't compare ourselves with one another. We compare ourselves with Jesus. And so you come not to hear a man, but you come to hear the word of the Lord. And I think that's what has made this church strong. But you're here, some of you, and this is life and death. There has to be a change in heart. Folks, the reason God smites us with his word, reproves us and comes just digging and digging like a knife. The word of the Lord is a sword. It's a hammer, the Bible says, to hammer to pieces all the opposition so they can mold you and make you into his own image. And that's all because of love. I've always believed the greatest act of love that God can give you is to give you a word that smite everything in you that's unlike him, to bring you into beautiful fellowship so there's nothing, there's no stumbling block, nothing hinder the flow back and forth of the love and communion with Jesus. If you're here this morning, say, Pastor David, this message was for me. You're taking this to heart. You're taking it to heart. God's been dealing with you. God's been speaking to you. I would hope that there's nobody here with a hard heart. But if you have to say, Pastor David, my heart's not been tender as it should be. I feel like I'm just drifting, getting further and further away from what I want to be or what I was. I'm going the wrong way. If you're backslidden, cold in heart, or you don't know Jesus, I want you to step out of your seat and I want you to follow the many that are going to be coming down these aisles. Up in the balcony, you go to the stairs on either side and in the annex, you go to the hallway right behind you and the ushers will show you the door to get in here. You walk down the stairs and come down the aisles and meet me right here and I'll pray with you. We'll believe the Lord to deliver you. Now, please don't come unless God's dealing with you. Don't come unless the Spirit of the Lord is speaking clearly to you. There may be something that has your heart and say, Pastor David, I don't want anything to have my heart but Jesus. I don't want any covetousness. I don't want to be lusting after anything. I want, I want nothing but a heart that has truth in the inner parts. I want truth in my heart. In the balcony, go to the stairs on either side, here in the main auditorium, come and in the annexes, just follow the direction of the ushers and they'll bring you here. They'll lead you here. God bless you. Those that are coming, just lead them down this aisle. You can still come while I'm talking. You that have come forward right now, I've always believed that before God can do anything in our hearts of lasting value, we have to be convinced of His love for us. To understand He loves you, that God's not mad at you. The only people who get the wrath of God are those who have totally thumbed their nose at God, totally rejected everything. It's not the struggling person that's fighting against some besetting sin and hates it and reaching out to God. He's reaching out to you in great love and compassion right now. He's asking you just don't hide anything from Him. Don't try to hide it. Be honest with me. Let's be honest with God. Will you pray this prayer with me right now, right out of the bottom of your heart, the depths of your heart. Jesus, I can't hide anything from you. You've been there all along. You've seen it all. You've heard it all. So I want to be honest with you, Lord. I acknowledge my sin. I acknowledge my rebellion. I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me and give me your Holy Spirit to empower me to fight my sin and to resist it in the power of God. I need you, Lord. I'm coming home for a fresh touch. Put fire in my soul. Help me now to hear your word, to obey your word and to tremble at your word as it may produce life in me. Now let me pray for you. Father, I don't know what's happening here at this altar. I don't know because I can't read minds. But you know, Holy Spirit, you see the cravings, the yearnings, the brokenness. You've seen and heard every battle and every thought. Oh, Holy Ghost, come with comfort now. Jesus, come with cleansing power. Oh, precious blood of Jesus, wipe the slate clean. Blot out every transgression, everything, oh, Jesus, that we have done that would grieve you. Holy Spirit, we come to the grace of Christ. We come to the throne of God where there's mercy and grace in time of need. Lord, I ask you to now let the cleansing blood of Jesus flow over every person that's come. Let them now just cast themselves into your arms and say, thank you for loving me, Jesus. Thank you for coming with a word that would quicken my soul and touch me and convict me. Now, Lord, deliver me from the enemy. Deliver me from the snares of Satan. Set my soul free. We bind the chains of darkness, the powers of evil in Jesus' name, that Christ may be glorified in every life here now. Look at me, please. Yours now is a step of faith where you go out and say, I believe what God said. We confess our sins. He's faithful just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the Bible said you to ask for the Holy Ghost and they who ask shall receive the Holy Ghost. And the Bible said through the power of the Holy Ghost, you'll be sanctified, made right in the sight of God, not in your own power, not by making promises, but by trusting the Holy Ghost. The best advice I can give you is that you can have good Holy Ghost preaching any time you want it. You just open up the book. You should be devouring the book of Psalms. You should be reading the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and then go into Paul's epistles and read every day. Read this word and say, Lord, I'm not going to just glance. So if you have to spend if all you did was read four or five verses that made an impact on you, stayed there and asked the Holy Ghost to make it real to you. That's that's better than reading five, six chapters and just skipping over it. Let the word I'll stay sometimes for four hours and hours on one verse until I it's part of my life. Convicts me, changes me the word. Metamorphosis, I think, is what they call it, where you have changed. Yes. I've been asked to remind our visitors in the annex, if you go to room two or four and here in the balcony, the main floor, if you'll come down on the balcony through exit eight and nine into the ancillary building, we have a free book for you and a free sermon tape and some refreshments and a good host of New Yorkers. I'd love to talk to you about the city, about the church, about anything you want to talk about. You'll find great fellowship. And why don't you come and have some refreshment with our team, our hospitality teams, eight and nine here in room two or four, room two or four in the annex. Would you turn around right now and bless by shaking hands and a good God bless you. At least twelve people, please count them. Don't leave. Don't cheat, please. Don't cheat. Amen. God bless you. Go with your peace.