In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not losing confidence in God. He reads from Hebrews 10:35, which encourages believers to have patience and trust in God's promises. The speaker shares a personal story of facing a financial debt and feeling disappointed that an angel did not come to help. However, he recounts how God showed compassion through a banker who offered a payment plan. The sermon concludes with the reminder that Jesus is the ultimate supplier of all our needs and that God chooses the weak and despised to confound the mighty.

This message is one of the Times Square pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Let's start reading at verse 35, Hebrews 10, 35. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence. I'll read it from King James, which has great recompensive reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by what? Faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back under perdition or destruction, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Look at verse 6 of chapter 11. Chapter 11, verse 6. But without faith it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Do you believe that? He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. I'm just going to have you go back to verse 33. No, verse 32. Verse 32 of chapter 10. 10, 32. But call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated, after you saw the light, you endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst you were made a gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while you became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that in yourself that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance. So cast that away there for your confidence. Are you hearing all right? We had problems with the hearing. Is it coming through all right? All right. Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you for the power of the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, I ask you to anoint me now. I pray not to this people. I pray to you, O Lord, right now. I pray that you come down and overrule and cast out of our midst every evil spirit, every lying spirit, everything of Satan. I ask you, Lord, to bind and cast down and cast out so that our hearts can hear. Lord, we don't want to hear just with ears. We want to hear with our hearts and the inner man. Holy Spirit, come upon me now with unction from heaven. Lord Jesus, we want to be encouraged by your Spirit and your Word tonight. We want something, Lord, to sink our hearts into and our spiritual teeth that will keep us not just this week but until Jesus comes. Lord, we love your Word and we thank you. Set us free to preach it. Set us free to hear it and to live it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Now, the verses I've just read to you are addressed to some of the most harassed, tried, and suffering Christians to have ever lived on this earth. In fact, I read to you some of the harassment they've gone through. These dear saints have been walking in the fear of God. They were repentant. They were expecting the coming of the Lord. And Christ was their high priest. And the Scripture said they had been walking in full assurance of faith. They were not backslidden. They were not cold-hearted. They were not living in sin. They were living a victorious life. They were walking, the Scripture said, steadfast in the Lord. They were holding fast to professing of their faith without wavering. There was a strong, unwavering faith in these people. They trusted in God, who is faithful, that promised. In fact, that was their testimony. God's faithful. He's promised. They encouraged one another. They went around encouraging one another. They took to heart the warnings of the apostles and the prophets. They knew that those who sinned woefully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, and if they fell away from the faith, they'd be devoured by the adversary. These people knew that very well. And right from the start, these beloved Hebrew Christians had come under terrible persecution. In fact, there are very few that have been persecuted as much in the Scripture as these that we're referring to right now, to which the Hebrew writer is addressing in this text that I gave to you. They were objects of ridicule, the writer says. They had borne reproach for the sake of Christ. They suffered all kinds of afflictions. All of their Christian friends were being afflicted just like them. And not only were they being persecuted and castigated and mocked and ridiculed, their property was being confiscated. They were losing their houses and their lands and their properties. And they were having to move in with other Christian friends. They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. I don't know if you and I have that kind of faith yet, that we could live in a society like in some communist countries and they'd come in and just confiscate your properties. Well, they're doing that with drug addicts right now. God help us if it ever happens to Christians. Now, they should do that with drug pushers. I'm convinced of that, but do we have that kind of faith? These Hebrew Christians had that kind of faith. And not only was their property being confiscated, their pastor was in jail. In fact, the writer says, you didn't condemn me for being in prison. He said very clearly that you had compassion of me in my bonds. I was in prison, the writer says, and you had compassion. All this was going on and you didn't say, well, what kind of faith is that, that our teacher, our pastor is in jail? What kind of testimony to the community that our pastor is in jail? What kind of testimony in the world, what kind of faith is this that causes our properties to be confiscated? We're the mocking, laughing stock of the whole world. What's going on here? All of these terrible hardships fell upon them right after they were illuminated. He said very clearly, I'll read it to you again. Call to remembrance. After you illuminated, you went into a great fight of affliction. That flies right into the face of the prosperity preaching today. You see, we have a gospel today that says, well, Christians are to really, if they have a certain quality or quantity of faith, breeze right through. That there should be no pain, there should be always victory at all times. You should never have any suffering. We are totally above all of these things. We need not suffer. You know, there are some people that I look at and I wonder if they have ever suffered. Everything seems to go so well with them. They look happy all the time. I look at them, I say, don't they have any problems? Have you seen people like that? You look at yourself, well, wait a minute, I'm fasting, I'm praying, I love the Lord, and all I'm getting are afflictions. I have trouble upon trouble upon trouble. Look at them. I know they're not walking any closer than I am, but look what, they're always happy. The bills are always paid. They drive a nice car, they live in a nice home. And I heard one Christian, he said, it makes me so mad that I see my brother over there, and he lives like a king, and I'm serving God and I can't even pay my bills. You say, well, what's wrong with me? Why is it that I have to endure difficulty since I came into the light? When I was lukewarm and cold, I had it better than this. When I was in the Catholic Church, just sitting there, worshiping something I didn't know anything about, I didn't have to go through all of this trial. Now I saw the light. I come to Jesus, give him all my heart, and the glory of the Lord fills me, and I get in trouble. After you were illuminated, you fought, got a fight, a great fight of affliction. Do you have a different kind of Bible than I do? Look at it. Hebrews 10, take a good look at it. Don't go any further with it until you stop. Right now, get into Hebrews 10, verse 32. After you were illuminated, after you... In other words, you opened up your whole life. You said, Lord, I've been living in apostasy. I've been living away from you. You came to Times Square Church, wherever you got fired up, and God said, that's enough. You gave him everything. You said, no more fooling around, Lord. Everything is yours. And you gave it to him, and brother, everything in hell is dumped on you. The answer to all of that is after you saw the light. After all of this... You see, Satan attacks you according to the measure of light that you embrace. Those people who are never under attack, they're not walking in the light. Listen to me now. They're no threat to the kingdom of the devil. You're a threat to the devil and all of his kingdom when you start embracing the light. You say, Jesus, I want everything you are and all that you have, Lord. I'm all yours. No hidden place in me. And when the devil sees you opening up your heart to the light, he sees you going to church with your Bible, and he sees the hunger. He actually sees the thirst in you by your actions. I'll tell you, once the light goes on in your heart, you attract every demon in hell. I mean, the light goes on, and it attracts just like bees to honey. The light gets the attention of the devil in everything he has. And then comes the great fight of afflictions. That's what produces soldiers. Hallelujah. When the enemy comes in like a flood, and all things seem to be coming apart, and prayers seem to be hindered, and heaven seems to be grass, afflictions on every side, then your heart will come along, and there'll be a whispering spirit come to you from the enemy, and it'll say something like this, You lack faith. If you had more faith, if you were closer to Jesus, if you weren't so evil, if you weren't so worthless, you wouldn't be going through this. You'd be happy like everybody else. You'd be always on top. You'd always have an abundance. You'd hear perfectly from God. You don't hear anything anymore. Everything you hear goes crazy. I'll tell you what. That's not so according to the Scripture. The Bible says, very clearly, the Hebrews, see, they had genuine faith. In fact, they were called holy brethren. He's addressing holy brethren. They had such faith that they took joyfully the sporting of their goods, and yet they're in the fight of their life. I don't know how the prosperity gospel can't deal with that. I don't think anything in the Bible can be clearer than that. This minister in this paper does not despise prosperity preachers as individuals. It's the gospel that we can't endure. That gospel that would say to Christians, Once you see the light and walk in the fullness of Jesus, you don't have to go through pain. Oh, no. That's when the test comes. And if you're going through the test, that means the devil's trying to douse the light. He's trying to blow the light. Get the lights out. Send everything against them. Get the lights out. Too much light. Attack. If you're under attack, you can be sure that it's because you're seeing the light. Your eyes are being opened. Satan's main objective is to get the light and shipwreck your faith. It can be a result of sin many, many times, but I'm beginning to see more and more Christians who are going on, walking in holiness, walking in the fear of the Lord, and under tremendous pressures in their life, not because of sin, but because of the hunger of their heart. The writer, though, of Hebrews detects a weariness creeping in. They have endured for so long, and he sees an impatience, an impatience creeping in to the house of God, and he comes to these people and he says, You have need of patience, verse 36, that after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise. Now, listen to me, please. The most effective weapon the devil has against God's people is to make them weary in their well-doing and bring upon them a spirit of impatience. To make us impatient. Oh, I'll tell you what, I'm about to touch a nerve. I'm about to touch a nerve in all of us. You see, the devil will goad you. He'll try to push you into a spirit and make you impatient with the slow pace of God's work in your life, or things that you prayed about that don't seem to be coming to pass. Almost as though God's forgotten. And it works like this. We pray to the Lord, Lord. You know I trust you. I've been faithful up to now. I never doubt your willingness or your ability to help me. But Lord, when? When? God, when? How long are you going to take? How many prayers do I have to, how many tears do I have to shed? Lord, you know I'm trying to walk in holy. You know my heart. When? Now, don't tell me you haven't been talking like that. Don't you lie to the Holy Ghost. You see, apparently the patience of these holy brethren weren't down and the fight was so hard that most of all it was dragging on seemingly with no end in sight. And this is what the devil tries to do. He tries to make us impatient with God. In fact, the devil, if you really want to know the truth, the devil will come to you and say, God's not there, he doesn't care, he's not here. I had a sister this past week meet me behind stage and she said, Brother Orson, you've got to pray for me. And she really loved the Lord. She's into the Word of God. But she said, I am being lied to. There's a lying spirit that won't let go. It's got a hold of me saying that this whole gospel thing's a lie. The whole thing about the cross. And I'll tell you, I don't care how close you walk with God, there'll come a time the devil will dump that on you. He'll try to come and say it's all a fable. There's nothing to it. It's all a lie. It's a pack of lies. Your prayers are not ever going to be answered. Everything, it's just a dream. It doesn't work. And she was living under that. A terrible attack. She couldn't shake it. Even reading the Word, we prayed with asking God to deliver. It is a satanic attack on the mind. Trying to ship back our faith and our confidence in the Lord Jesus. He's the accuser. He'll say to you, you'll never get a job. You're going to lose your home. You're going to pray and trust it's all going to be in vain because it's all a joke. Give up. You don't have the right formula. You don't know how to figure it out. Your faith is worthless. You're going to go through it and all at the end you're going to be humiliated and after all of this religious stuff the devil says and all this you've gone through, it's not going to work. What a thing to say to a people. You know, here comes the writer to the Hebrews and he says to a people, and I got to thinking about that this afternoon, if I had been there when this letter was delivered I'd say, who does he think he is? You have need of patience. You have need of patience. Well, wait a minute, I just lost my home. I've been the laughing stock. I'll hold on. I could jump in spawning in my goods. I have lived faithfully to the Lord and then you come and tell me I need patience? You see, the writer sensed that it was wearing thin. They were wearing out. Their confidence was being shaken. He would have never said, don't cast away your confidence unless he knew that these holy brethren, these who held out so long, prayed so hard, were beginning to be shaken. There was a wavering. And I know they hated, they despised it. But a thought from the devil had gripped their heart, no doubt. We're going down, we're sinking. Oh God, where is he? Why isn't, why does it go on and on and on? Some of you sitting here now, you don't understand what drags on. Well, once again, here I go. Same old thing. And I think if I had been there, I'd say, me, need patience? No, I need God to answer prayer. I lost everything. Man, I'm living with Christian friends. I endured it with great confidence. You see, Godly patience is a willingness to wait for God's Holy Ghost timing. I believe there's a Holy Ghost timing. I wrote an article once about the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. Just before the Lord answers. The most embarrassing moment of my life came because of my impatience. I lost confidence. It was my 50th birthday. And nobody, I thought, man, 50 years old, somebody on my staff ought to remember it. It was getting close. And nobody said a word. My wife didn't say a word. And I started pouting. And I'd go around the house, 50 years old, got a staff. I'm treating everybody well and nobody even thinking about my birthday. And I put on a pout. My wife said, honey, I'll buy you something. I said, that's not it. I said, my staff, they're not a thing. It's nothing. And tomorrow's my birthday. 50 years old. I don't tell you how long ago that was. Day comes to my birthday and, boy, I tell you, I felt nobody cares. And I was grouchy that day. About 1 o'clock or so, my wife calls me from the warehouse. We were in Texas at the time. Said, honey, we have an emergency at the warehouse. You've got to come up quick. And I jump in the car from the house and run over. And the door opens and there's 100 or so people. All the staff had banners. They'd been working on it for a month. A surprise birthday party. My 50th birthday party. I wanted to crawl in the hole. Because everybody knew I'd been pouting. And they knew this was coming. That's the way we are with the Lord. The Lord's been pouting something all along and here we are pouting. Are you going to be sorry when you walk in and he's got it all laid out? Get a little while and he that shall come will come and will not carry. Now, that's not just his second coming. This means he who's promised to come and meet you on schedule, he'll be there. He won't be late. There's no such thing as God being late. There's no such thing in the Bible. You know, my son Gary, Pastor Gary and his wife Kelly left yesterday for London. They called this afternoon. They're in London. And a few months ago when my little grandson Ashley, five years old, heard that they're going to London, he came in the living room and announced to his parents, You can go, but I'm not going. I will not leave my friends. I'm putting you on notice. Ashley Wilkerson stays in New York. Dad said, We'll see. You're going to London. And he came back a little bit later and he said, I don't think it's God's will for us to go to London. He said, I don't think we've prayed through on this. God wouldn't take me from all my friends. And Kelly said, his mother said, Ashley, have you prayed about it? He said, No. She said, Go to your room and pray. And he came back about 20 minutes later with his head down. And he's kind of a little pout on him. And she said, Did you pray? She said, Yes. And Kelly said, What did the Lord tell you? He said, Lord, tell me I didn't need to know if it was his will. I was supposed to go with daddy anywhere he goes. I didn't need to know. And I'll tell you something. There's a message in that. Sometimes we don't need to know some of the things we're trying to dig around. When God said, Why don't you answer? God said, Why don't you just trust me? Why don't you just go where your father goes? Why don't you just believe he's leading you? Hallelujah. I talked to him on the phone today. I said, How do you like London? He said, I'm here. You see, there's no such thing as God being late. Mary and Martha thought he was late when Lazarus died. They said, Lord, if you'd only been here, my brother would not have died. They said, Lord, you're too late. You missed the deadline. Can you imagine the hurt Jesus must have endured from his very best friends? In essence, Jesus turned to him and said, No, I'm not late. I'm the resurrection. The answer is me. I'm here. I am not late. You know, the household of Jairus thought he was late. Jesus was on his way and on the way the child died. And the household of Jairus came and said, Thy daughter is dead. Don't trouble the master any further. In other words, he's too late. He missed the deadline. It's all over. It's hopeless. And Jesus, can you imagine? On both these instances, there's nothing but despair all around him. All faith has been shipwrecked. There's no confidence left in any of the people. Mary and Martha had no confidence at all. They didn't even understand it being the resurrection of the life. They had tossed away all their confidence. And still, Jesus, in his love, he was going to glorify the Father. And I want to tell you something, something we forget. All it takes is one word from Jesus. One word. And every one of our problems can be solved. One word. That's all he has to do. He doesn't have to call down a thousand angels. He speaks the word. Rise, Lazarus, and he rises. Rise to the daughter of Jairus, and she is alive. One word is all it takes. And we seem to forget that. That God can change our situation with one word. Healing. Strength. Finances. All he has to do is say the word, and it's done. We seem to forget that our Heavenly Father just has to speak the word. Too late, there's no such thing. No. You see, comfort's been shattered on all sides, and yet Jesus reaches out in his love. Hallelujah. Why has the Lord not answered you yet? That prayer you've been praying about. That thing that you've been asking God to do on your behalf and your family. And why suffering now or again? And why does it look so hopeless? All I know, that in such a crisis, God's people will either grow in confidence, or they'll draw back and cast it all away. You're going to take the crisis that you're in, you're going to take it now, and you're either going to grow through it, or you're going to just cast it away and go down and down the ladder of despair, and draw back, the scripture says, to destruction. You're going to keep drawing back, and the Lord says, when you draw back, my heart gets no pleasure in you. There's no pleasure. When you don't understand what's happening, when you don't understand, you can't figure it out. And it seems like you have lost all hope. That's the time to just cast all your care upon him. That's the time not to try to figure it out. Don't stay up past the night trying to figure it out. The worst thing you can do is try to figure it out. Ask the Lord to just give you peace of mind, and cast all your care upon him, and go to bed. Look at verse 38 and 39, Hebrews 10 again. Now I would just to live by faith, but then a man draw back my soul, so I have no pleasure in him. But we're not of them that draw back under perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Hallelujah. Now let me tell you what I believe the Lord is after. Give me your good ear. I believe the Lord is determined to strip us of all confidence in man, and all confidence in ourselves, and our flesh. See, we put such confidence in people. How many times I've heard someone say, I'll tell you what, if he just put a word in for me, if I just had a contact, if I could just sell my house, if this brother would just pay what he owes me. You see, we spend a whole lot of time telling God how we can answer our prayer. We've got it all figured out. If this happens, and this happens, and this happens, everything's going to be fine. No, it won't. That doesn't solve it. Because it's always a heart problem. It's deeper than that. You see, the scriptures say, it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Trust you not in a friend puts you not confidence in a guy. Therefore, this is Micah 7, 5 and 7, therefore I will look unto the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. I'll tell you what, God's going to let you flounder until you quit looking for a contact. He's going to let you flounder until you quit looking to man, to left or right, to some person, or someone who's going to figure all this out. If only I could get a break, if only somebody put a word in for me. No, you're not going to trust in man and ever here accomplish in your life what God wants to accomplish by looking to any man. We look to pastors, we look to counselors, we look to guides, we look everywhere, but to have total confidence and dependence on Jesus alone. I'll tell you what, the Lord in His love will let us flounder. He'll keep testing us until we come to a place that we love people in Christ. We're part of the body. You can reach out in love. And God does use people to use His context, but you've got to let Him do it. You have to let Him do it His time and His way without any manipulation. If you're manipulating, you're trying to make it work. Especially if you're looking for a sweetheart. I don't know how many young ladies have come up and said, Would you please pray? Pastor, I need a husband. I'm a young man, I need a wife. And I get to thinking, all these men that we're praying for, wives of all these single women praying for husbands, you can do it. We're not in the mating business here. And I'll tell you what, you can get in big trouble trying to put people together without God's will. You can mess up their lives forever. I'm not going to do that. Well, better not say I won't do it anymore. I've done it too much. I'm going to try not to ever do that again. You see, we get in real trouble because we are so dependent. And the hardest thing is to break that dependency on other people. No, we've got to get our eyes completely and totally on our confidence and dependence on Him alone. God must wait until we lose confidence in all of our dreams, all of our schemes, and all of our ships coming in. How many millions of people in America are waiting for the lottery to hit? You know that nobody has won the lottery yet and endured it. It's messed up all of their lives. There's going to be the answer to everything. Now all of New Orleans is going to talk to them because everybody's jealous of it. And everybody's hounding them. They've got to go out and live in secret somewhere. And their whole lives are messed up. In fact, they have a counseling session now, a special counseling session for lottery winners. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. I practice to deal with the problems of winning the lottery. And we've got Christians playing that stupid thing. You know, every lottery ticket you bought, when you stand before Him, He's going to lay it out. He said, so you had confidence in me? You trusted me? Is that why you bought those things? I'm not going to say any more. You know, years ago, as a young pastor, in fact, this is over 30 years ago, the first time I came to New York City. The Lord had called me to come. And I couldn't come without settling some accounts. And I owed $1,000. I'd gotten involved in one of those projects I had dreamed up to help the poor. It wasn't God's. It was mine. That's why I wound up in debt. If you do it God's way, you shouldn't wind up in debt. And I wound up owing $1,000, which today would be like $10,000 or $15,000. Because that's 33, 32 years ago. And I had no way of paying that money. Not when I was getting, I think, $60 a week. I couldn't possibly pay that money. And it was due, and I couldn't move to New York. And I said, Lord, there's only one way. An angel. I'm going to walk down Main Street. And I started naming the streets. And I said, Lord, I want you to say, I read all the scriptures about angels. And I said, Lord, you did it. It's all through the New Testament. Angels, angels. You let them out of prison. I'm in a prison. I'll wind up in jail if you don't give me $1,000. I got in my car and I parked it down near Main Street. And I got out. And every man that came down there, I wanted the Lord to make him appear as a man. Because I'd seen in the scripture some kind of, is it a theophany or what do you call it? I don't know what you call an angel. Angel unaware. I started walking those streets for hours. Praying, oh God, where's the angel? Where's the angel? And every guy that walked by, I actually expected him to reach in his pocket and say, brother, God told me to give you this envelope. And I'd open it up. There'd be ten $100 bills in it. I walked and prayed and cried. Lord, where is he? I need $1,000. I can't go to New York until I get that $1,000. How can I trust you to win drug addicts to the Lord if I can't even pay a $1,000 debt? Now, don't laugh at me. Some of you have been looking for angels for so long. We don't look for ships. We've got an angel coming in. No angel. The deadline came. I had to go to the bank. And I prayed, oh Lord, what am I going to do? You didn't send an angel. Lord, I drove it. The bank was about 15 miles from the little town where I was pastoring. And what a dreaded moment. I thought, Lord, really, Lord, you failed me. No angel. What am I going to do now? And I just walked in the bank. And I must have looked like I was dying. I don't know, but God put compassion on that banker's heart. He said, pastor, could you pay $50 a month until it's paid off? I said, sure. I walked out a free man, $50 a month. And it was an overdue note. And I paid it off in a very short time. But there was no angel. See, God had a plan. All he had to do was speak the word and move on the heart of the banker, and my problem was solved. And I wanted to get off easier, you see. No, the Lord wanted me to pay back the debt. It was an honest debt, and I needed to pay it. Don't look for an angel if you're trying to get out of your bills that you have honestly incurred. God's not going to bail you out if you can do it on $50 a month. Well, that story was anti-climatic. God said they're waiting for the angel, and he never came. I'll tell you what did come was the answer. God's way. Hallelujah. You see, every time God's answered me, it's been kind of easy, natural. When it's all over, I said, Lord, I don't know how you did it. There was nothing supernatural about most of the answers I get. It's just that you wake up one day and look back, Lord, you did it. I don't know how you did it, but you did it. I remember John Sherrill, who wrote The Cross and Switchblade with me. And he wrote God Smuggler, and They Speak With Tongues, and a number of books. And he wrote one about his problem with alcoholism. He went to England to write a book, and he would go down supposedly to his little office in England, and instead he was going to the pub every day and drinking. He'd come home, and his wife would say, show me what you wrote today. He said, well, it's down in the office. He hadn't been writing in, he'd been drinking, and became an alcoholic. And he prayed and prayed and prayed, and he couldn't seem to get that. He wanted God to just come down and break it. And if you read his book, you'll find out that he woke up one day, realizing, hey, I haven't had a drink for a week. And he couldn't even remember how it happened or the day it happened. He looked back, he said, I don't want it anymore. And suddenly he looked back, I don't know how God did it, but it's gone. And we didn't know until a week later that the answer had already come, and the Lord was there, and it was not some big blasting thing. We're looking for spaceships when the Lord just wants us to have confidence in Him. Now, let's move on quickly, please. We've got to come to a place where there's no confidence in our own selves, in our own flesh. So often I've made the mistake we all make by saying, she needs more self-confidence, or he's got a poor self-image. That poor soul lacks confidence in herself or himself. I've said that so many times, and so what we do, we go about trying to be clever. We look for charisma. We try to flatter people into trying to build up their ego, and almost every other book that you read in the Christian bookstore now is how to build up the ego and how to build up the self-image. And it has the stench of flesh all over it. Paul the Apostle said, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. In fact, Paul the Apostle acknowledged that I'm not a clever preacher. I'm not clever. I'm not clever at anything, Paul. Makes it very clear if you read what he's saying. In fact, they said of his preaching that it was contemptible and his presence was base. In other words, Paul, you're boring. There were speakers that had the charisma. They were louder than me. I'm not boasting of any charisma. I don't have charisma, but I get loud. But you see, Paul said, he said, I'm not going to come to you in the flesh because he knew the Lord doesn't fight his battles with flesh. He doesn't bring strongholds down with charisma or cleverness. No, there's something far more powerful than that. In fact, Paul, the only thing he really boasted of was the spirit of gentleness that was so powerful that it gave a demonstration power of the Holy Ghost. He said, I may speak contemptible before you. My appearance may be contemptible. Paul must have been an ugly preacher. He must have been an ugly man. I don't know. It sounds like he was a skinny little Jew. But he said, I'm not going to come to you with a false confidence of boldness that is of the flesh. I'm not going to put anything on for you. For though we walk in the flesh, we don't war in the flesh. He said, I war on my knees. And when I stand up, I may sound base, I may sound boring, but I'm pulling down strongholds. I'm pulling down strongholds in the spirit of God. Oh, we've got too much cleverness in the church. Too much charisma. Everybody, we have a magazine called That Not Charisma. I'm not putting a magazine down, but that's a code word now, charisma. He's got charisma. It oozes out of him. I think the closer you get to Jesus as a preacher, the simpler our words get, the less clever they become, and the more to the heart, the more piercing they become. Hallelujah. Would you go to 1 Corinthians, please? I'm not going to be preaching much longer, but go to 1 Corinthians. And I want you to go to 1 Corinthians, the first chapter. Would you go there with me? I'm not hearing the leaves, Russell. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. We're going to start reading there. You know, some people like to go to a church where everybody is white and clean and rich, where everybody's in a profession, where everybody's clever. Well, let's see what the Scripture says. This describes Times Square Church right here. Verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world that confound the wise. Isn't this Times Square Church? Oh, come on, say amen. You're afraid to include yourself, weren't you? Confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world that confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Hallelujah. No flesh should glory in His presence. I'll tell you what, some of the best preaching I've ever heard has come from young men, less than 30 years old, just a loving, burning heart for Jesus. They were sometimes not theologically as precise as they should be, and they didn't have their English in order, and they stumbled over the words. They used words like ain't, can't, and all the other atrocities of the English language. And yet, I'll tell you what, I heard something from heaven. I heard a sound from heaven. Hallelujah. And then you can go to hear some great man of letters and theological training, and he gets up there, and it sounds so sweet, and it drops right down, and then he reaches you. It doesn't even get to you. It drops right in front of you. No, it's not in cleverness, not at all. That no flesh should glory in His presence. Hallelujah. Do you know there's a glorious promise in Hebrews? You don't have to turn there, but it says, We are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast or firm unto the end. How do we become partakers of Christ? Bob, this morning, passed about and talked about being entwined with Christ or in union with Jesus. He said that revelation comes to us as we hold firm our confidence unto the end. That no matter what happens, Lord, I'm going to believe you. I'm going to trust you. I will not cast away my confidence. Hallelujah. You know, there's a scripture, with this I'm going to close. There's a scripture that says, My God shall supply all your need according to the riches of God. But you see, we forget, by Christ Jesus. And we try to divide Jesus up, and we want the Lord to come answer this, answer this, answer this. The Lord says, I answer you. I meet your need. It doesn't say your needs, but your need. There's one need, and that's the fullness of Jesus. And he said, I answer because in Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything you need is in Jesus. So, when we go to pray, the Lord said, I give you Jesus. I give you my Son, and Him is the fullness of everything that you ever need. He is the supply. He is the answer. Folks, you don't need just an answer to a prayer. You need Jesus the supplier, for out of Him comes all things that we need. Before I close, could I give you just two or three things here, very quickly, about what you're going through right now. First of all, I want you to know, the pastors grieve over some of you. We just hurt with you, because you're so out of work, and your savings depleted. We had requests this morning, homeless people, no place to sleep. And more and more, these problems begin to mount, and we hear of the suffering and the pain. Some of you are going through deep, deep suffering in your home, in your life. And I got to praying and talking to Jesus about it this afternoon, and the Holy Spirit put this in my heart before I close to share this with you. Nothing clever or out of the ordinary. Just a few simple little thoughts the Holy Spirit gave me. First of all, our Heavenly Father knows all about your personal needs. He knows all about it. He said, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask Him. He knows. Isn't that wonderful to sit here, understanding that He knows all about your need? He knows, and in the Greek it means, it matters to Him. It matters to Him. Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. And that word careth means, it matters. You sit here in this meeting tonight, it matters to the Lord that you're unemployed. It matters to the Lord that you suffer. He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Our Heavenly Father looks down at this audience right now. He feels your pain. He feels your hurt. He's touched with every feeling of your infirmity. He has the power. He has the authority. You know He has everything that you need in Christ Jesus. And in His Holy Ghost timing, He's going to answer. He said, but hold fast to your confidence from to the end. Don't let it go. Trust me. Jesus said, hold on. Cast not away your confidence, because it has a great recompense of reward. In other words, in the Greek it means, it pays to hold on. It pays to believe. Hallelujah. It pays to hold on. And I have a word from the Holy Spirit for you tonight. Don't trust. Don't look for any man to get you out. Don't trust in your own self. And believe me, the last thing I want to say to you, and this came in prayer this afternoon, and even while I was sitting here during the worship time. Holy Spirit made it so clear, because I was being under attack of the very thing that I was to talk to you about. How the devil comes and lies. Oh, he's a liar. He's the father of lies. And for the last three hours before the service, I was under a terrible attack. The devil just implanted a terrible lie in my mind. And what he does, he plants a lie in your mind. And he'll try to plant it so deep that it finally becomes either an obsession, or a voice that becomes so loud, you're going to fall. That's not what I heard. That's not the word that came to me. But some of you get that. You're going to fall. Or the devil will come in with such a vile thought. He'll come in with something so wicked, so vile, and plant it in your mind to make you feel unworthy. And that your prayer is not going to be answered. Because if you were a holy person, how could you think such thoughts? And you don't even realize the devil planted it. You're hearing it from the enemy. He's the liar and the father of all lies. And that's the time for confidence. That's the time to sit back and say, Lord, I am not defiled by this because this is not my thought. I'm not going to play with it. I'm not flirting with it. I don't toy with it. But I'm not going to let the devil tell me I'm going to fall. I'm not going to let the devil lie to me that I'm going down because Jesus is with me. I had a pastor friend who told me that he'd been praying for his divorced daughter. And she'd been going through a battle. He said, Oh God, save her whatever the cost. Don't let my daughter go to hell. Whatever it takes, Jesus. He said, I have confidence that you're going to save her. And shortly thereafter, she was killed in an accident. But when he went to the funeral, he told me about this personally. He said, there was grief in my heart. Yes, but there was a sense. God was speaking to my heart. You've walked in covenant with me. I love you. I had to take her. The destruction of the flesh, but her soul may be saved. She was right. And she was at that time, she did not have the capacity to go on. There was something that was lacking in her. And for your sake, I have answered your prayer. Your daughter is in the arms of Jesus. Now, I want to tell you, did God shortchange that man? No. God answered his prayer. There's no greater thing than to die in Jesus. I don't care how it's done. There's no greater way. There's no greater. There's nothing greater. Paul said, to die in Christ is gain. It's gain. So, I don't care. Here's a note handed to me from a brother. Brother, please pray for increased self-esteem. My self-esteem is shattered. My self-image. But dear brother, tonight, I want you to know, this message is for you and it's for me. These are lies. They're lies right out of the pit of hell. Forget self-esteem. Just look to Jesus and say, Lord, you have everything under control. I'm going to rest in you. I'm not going to try to fight this. I resist this. I resist these thoughts in the name of Jesus. But I'm going to trust God. He's going to bring me through. God's not going to fail. Hallelujah. Let's stand. Let's stand, please. Now, I know that I've been lying to some of you here tonight. The devil's lying to you. Maybe the devil planted an old evil thought in your mind. You say, brother, I can't shake it off. I've tried everything and it just won't go. And then the devil comes and you say, see, it's in you. It's always been there. That's going to drag you down and destroy you. Well, if you purposely flirt with it, yes. But if you say, Jesus, I don't know where that lie came from, but from the devil in the pits of hell. It's not in my heart. You know, Jesus, I want you. You bring that to him. Say, Lord, I'm not going to cast away my confidence. I'm not going to let the devil try to rob me of my faith. I'm not going to draw back into a shell like I once was. He said, if you draw back, you give him no pleasure. I want to give Jesus pleasure. I want him to have pleasure in my life, in my faith. I want him to look at me and say, there's a child who really trusts me. I don't know why, but it says it blesses him. It gives him pleasure. I don't know the theology of it, but that's what it says, so I receive it. Lord, you get pleasure. You don't get any pleasure. I'm not going to draw back. I come to you right now in simple childlike faith. There's one of the simplest messages I've ever preached. Very, very simple. But I know God's trying to lift these lying spirits, these lies, and cast them out of your life so that you can say, Jesus, put that wall of fire out of my mind. Hallelujah. And I'm not going to let the devil condemn me tonight. I'm going to come by faith to you. Now, if you've got sin in your life, you need to come down here for cleansing. If you're backslidden, you need to come down and renew your first love. If you're not walking with Jesus, you need to come back. If you've been running, you need to stop running. But if there is something the Holy Spirit spoke to your heart and you need to get it right with the Lord, or you have an obsessive evil thought, it's obsessing you, and you want to be delivered, you don't have to tell us about it. We'll pray with you. Please don't come to this altar just to come up here. Please don't come just because you're in a habit of coming, coming only because the Spirit of the Lord is really dealing with you. Otherwise, you're just filling space. Please, don't come unless you feel the drawing of the Holy Spirit. Up in the balcony, you can take any stairs down and come down any aisle and join us right here. Lord, right now, help us to expose in our hearts the lying spirits of the devil. We don't have to be victims. Lord, we are standing on the authority of the Word of God tonight. We're on good ground. We're on solid ground. Lord, deliver your people tonight from the bondages. The bondages, Lord. We're going to have confidence and hold it firm until the end. If the Spirit of the Lord is drawing you to this altar, come on as they sing. Come and join us right here. Up in the balcony here on the main floor, come to the front. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. I am for you. I am for you. Give to me. Give to me. I am for you. I am for you. Give to me. Give to me. There will be one last invitation now. For those who are struggling in your mind. You're struggling with thoughts that are not your own. They've been injected. They've come at you from all sides. And you want victory in that area. You're under attack of that. And if you'd like us to stand with you, you come up here and we'll take that authority in Jesus' name and stand with you wherever you're at. The last invitation. Peace that has broken down every wall. The world has broken down every wall. Give us peace. Give us peace. The world has broken down every wall. I am for you. I am for you. Give us peace. Give us peace. You're going to come forward. Look this way for just a moment. I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit right now just to touch you. You came up here asking, didn't you, in faith? You said, Lord, I'm going to believe you to deliver me from every evil thought that the enemy tries to bind me with. And I'm going to cast all my care upon you because I know you love me. How many of you that are up here are convinced in your heart, you really deeply know that Jesus cares and loves you. He cares about you and loves you. Keep your hand raised there. Just keep your hand raised and say it with me right now. Jesus, you said you care for me. It matters to you what I'm going through. And I'm hurting and I need your help and I need your deliverance. I trust you. Purify me and cleanse me of all my thoughts that are unlike you, all my sins. I surrender to you with all my heart. I give you my confidence. I trust you. Thank you, Jesus, for caring for me. Put your arms around me, Jesus, and let me feel your love now. Let me feel your forgiveness. Now, will you just thank him for loving you? Put both hands and say, thank you, Jesus, for loving me. Tell him in your own words, Lord, I thank you for loving me and caring for me. Reach out and accept his love now. Jesus, I'm not running from you. I'm running to you. I'm running to you. I'm not running away from you, Jesus. I'm running to you. That has to count. I'm coming to you, Jesus. You said if I come to you, you'll not cast me out. You'll not cast me out. Now, Lord, we bind those lying spirits that would come to harass our minds. We bind them in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior and glory. We speak your word of faith and confidence right now that no weapon formed against us shall prosper. No weapon. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. That you will deliver your children. You will deliver your people in the name of the Lord. Glory to God. Thank him right now. Lord, just thank him. Let's raise our hands and thank him right now. Lord, thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, I thank you. I give you glory. I give you praise. Thanksgiving. You're the great physician. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the tape.