In this sermon, the preacher discusses the principle of the death of a promise. He explains that when God intends to fulfill a promise or bring about a special blessing, He first puts a sentence of death on that promise and all the ways it could be fulfilled. The preacher uses examples from the Bible, such as Abraham and the children of Israel, to illustrate this principle. He emphasizes the importance of not losing hope and trusting in God's timing and faithfulness to fulfill His promises.

This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. He's been blessing me with a, you know, he teaches us his ways. It's a wonderful thing to know his ways, and we're all learning that. But he's been blessing me with some truths and some teachings. The Holy Ghost has been teaching me, and I had no intention of preaching it because I thought it was just for me. But then I felt like that, those lepers that came upon all that good stuff and said, you can't keep it to yourself. So I think I'm going to share it tonight. The death of a promise. The death of a promise. And I hope that some of you will understand the ways of the Lord better tonight, that you'll leave here deeply, greatly encouraged by the truth of the Word. Would you go to Romans, the fourth chapter, please? Romans four. I'm going to read one verse, and then we'll get right into the Word of God. Romans, the fourth chapter. Verse 19, please. Speaking of Abraham, verse 19, Romans 4, 19. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. Being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead, we're talking about the death of a promise, now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, I thank you for truth that sets free. You said you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Lord, you have put something in my heart that has freed my spirit, truly freed my spirit, concerning many, many things in my life and what you've said to me, and I pray, God, that you will cause that freedom to spread through this congregation tonight. Lord, I ask you to sanctify me wholly before the throne, through the blood of Jesus. Lord, let me speak as a pure vessel, honest and righteous before you, not my own righteousness, but your righteousness. And, oh, God, I pray that the word you put in this shepherd's heart tonight will be of a blessing and encouragement to those who have heard a promise from you, have not seen it fulfilled yet. Oh, God, speak clearly. Lord, help it to come. Lord, you've just made it a part of my life, and you've blessed me with it. Now bless the people with it, I pray, in Jesus' name, amen. The death of a promise. I want to share with you a Bible principle tonight that I hope will help you better understand why God has not yet answered your special prayer, or He's not giving you the promise that He made to you at one time, a very special promise. Let me ask you a question. Did God make you a promise? Now, I'm not talking about the general promises in the book. All those who walk righteously before God, all those who know Him as Lord and Savior, He speaks to. He gives promises. He talks about the future. He'll lay out before you His precious word. It's all through the Scripture. It's not wrong, folks. It's not wrong to desire something special that can make you more fulfilled and more efficient in the work of God in your home life, in your family life. It is not wicked, it is not unscriptural to desire good things, especially having to do with the work of God. A blessing or work, has God spoken to you about a blessing that He's going to bring? Did He talk to you about a special work that He has for you? Did He speak to you about the salvation of your family or friend? What was that special word that came to you way back somewhere and you knew it was God? He caused you to hope on that word. He caused it to be a part of your very life. You know that you know that you know that God made you a promise. Now, the Bible says, Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. And in Proverbs 10, 24, the fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him, but the desire of the righteous shall be granted. The desire of the righteous shall be granted. Proverbs, or David boasted, Thou hast given me my heart's desire, and hast not withheld, you have not withheld the request of my lips. You gave me what I asked for, David said. The Bible says the desire of the righteous is only good. But Proverbs 13, 12 says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it's a tree of life. Now, folks, many of you are at this place called deferred hope. God spoke to you. He gave you a promise, and it has been delayed, and it has been delayed, and now you're at the place where you've almost given up hope. You've become discouraged, and the question arises, Oh God, did I hear you right? I thought I heard from you. I know you made me a very special promise. You spoke clearly to my heart. You caused me to hope on the word that I received, but I see no sign of it happening. I see no evidence of happening. This brings me to the point, to the heart of my message. Listen closely, because this is a biblical principle. You'll find it all through the book. Now, listen closely, and if you hear this in the Spirit, it'll change your life. It'll bring an understanding to you about the ways of the Lord. The Holy Spirit sent this to me, just been working it for about two weeks into my very being, and all the blessed hope that is given to me. Listen clearly. It's an inevitable principle of God. When God intends to fulfill His promise by bringing back, bringing about a special blessing or a special promise to you, when God's about to fulfill it, when He fully intends to bring it to pass, He first puts a sentence of death on that promise, and not only a sentence of death on the promise, but a sentence of death on all the ways and means by which that promise could be fulfilled. He brings total death to it. And until you understand that principle, you'll live in turmoil the rest of your life. You cannot begin to understand the ways of God whatsoever unless you understand this divine principle. God will allow it to appear that your promise is absolutely dead, and every possible way of its being fulfilled cannot be implemented. It's absolutely impossible. Now, God has revealed this principle all through the Scripture. You show me any saint of God in this book who has given a great promise, and I'll show you God rolling death in on it before you've fulfilled it, and make it seem absolutely impossible that that promise could ever be resurrected. Now, I want you to follow me very closely. Now, let's consider, first of all, Abraham. That great, marvelous promise God gave to him, we're all very much aware of it. It's Genesis 12.2. Don't turn there, but listen to it. I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and I'll make thy name great. Now, this is a great promise that he's going to have a son, that he's going to have children, and that means he's going to have offspring. He's 75 at the time. He is very capable. His sources have not dried up. This man is capable of bearing children because he gave birth to an Ishmael. We know that. His wife is 10 years younger. She's 65, and her womb was not shut. Now, this sounds like a very doable promise. It's within means. It's possible because he was still able to bear. He was not dead. She was not dead. It's very doable. It's a wonderful promise, and it's a wonderful thing when God makes us a promise, because we set about to just wait in faith and say, it's going to happen any time. Praise God, I have a promise. Praise God. And I believe that Sarah and Abraham looked excitedly every year for that child to come. He was waiting for the word when his wife would come in and say, guess what, honey? I'm pregnant. And it didn't happen, and a year goes by, and two years go by, and three years go by, and the years go by. Oh, God. And finally it comes to a place where Abraham is saying to God, you know, the years roll by, and he says, oh, God, I know this is the way he's thinking because I know human nature. He's saying, you'd better hurry up or it's going to be too late. This thing's going to die, and it's not going to matter. Lord, where is the promise? And what does God do? He rolls death in it. He puts a sentence of death on that promise. Abraham's now 99 years. He's 100 years old, and his wife is 90. And the Lord comes back to him and says, you're going to have a child. He says, too late, Lord. That's what he says at first in his mind. Now we know that he recovered in his faith. But you see, God rolled death in on the promise, and he rolled death in all the ways and means by which that promise is to be fulfilled, because the ways and the means was a womb that was alive, and the womb is dead. So not only the promise is dead, but all the possibilities of making it happen die. God rolls in death. God put the sentence of death in the promise and all the means and ways by which it could happen. And to the human mind, God waited too long. To the human mind, it was too late. It's all over. Oh, but beloved, God was not late. God was right on time, and he's never one minute late on his promises. He knows exactly when to fulfill it, but he'll never fulfill it until death is rolled in on it, and we'll understand why before the message is over. Consider Joseph with me, if you will, please. And I've been going all through the Scripture watching this and seeing it and being blessed by it. What a great and very special promise is given to this man. The Bible said his sheaf should be higher than all the other sheaves. Of all the sheaves of his brethren, they shall all bow down to thine. The sun and the moon will bow down before you, your father and your mother. And folks, this was literally fulfilled before his eyes when his eleven brothers come and bow down their face before him, trying to get grain for their family. And the time when Jacob and his mother come and bow before him, the whole thing was fulfilled to the letter. But before it was fulfilled, what did God do? He rolled death. He sentenced the promise to death and all the possibilities of ever being fulfilled. He is sold as a slave into Egypt. He is imprisoned. He is forgotten. He knows nobody. He doesn't know the language. He gives up all hope of ever seeing his family again. He marries one of the... he's given by Pharaoh an Egyptian wife. He has Egyptian-born children. And finally, the vision is dead. The vision is gone. There's no hope. I don't think that... the Bible said until the word was... until his promise came, the word of the Lord tried him. But it came to the place where I believe that Joseph did not understand it all and absolutely laid the vision, laid the burden or the promise aside. Until one day, one of his co-workers come to him and say, there are eleven Hebrew men that have come a long distance and they are wanting to buy grain. And something picks up in Joseph's mind and he perks up and he goes out and he suddenly realizes after a short conversation that these are his brothers and they're all kneeling before him. And suddenly the lights go on. The promise! The promise! He's not dead. God sent me here to save them. He sends for his mother and father and they come bowing before him and Joseph later reveals, he said, this was the working of God. God sent me here to save a posterity. The promise was at work all the time, but first God sentenced it to death and every possible means by which it could be fulfilled. Hallelujah. One day, unexpectedly, suddenly it happens. Consider the incredible promise made to David. Remember, Saul is bypassed now. He's lost the anointing in the kingdom and Samuel is told, go anoint David. He takes David aside and he takes a crucible and pours it over his head, prophesies over him. And knowing that, I believe he took him aside and told him all about the work of God. The spirit of God comes on that young man. What an incredible promise to give a young man just out of his teens that he's going to be the king of Israel. What a promise. I'm going to be king of Israel. I don't know what that did. God must have trusted him. He was a humble young man. But what does God do with that promise? He sentenced it to death and every conceivable way that it could be fulfilled. You find David next hiding in caves. You see Saul chasing him like a hunted animal. He is chased. He is reproached. He is mocked. He is ridiculed. He's persecuted. He loses touch with his family. He loses touch with all those who knew. He loses respect of his nation and people and he's hiding in a cave. He's running for his life. And if you caught David in Ziglag, he's lost his family. He's lost everything. His house is burning. He stands there, his co-workers wanting to stone him. And you go up to him and say, David, what about that promise? Promise? Do I look like a king? I can't even handle a bunch of rebels. How can I handle a kingdom? Do I look like a king? Where's my palace? My house is burned. Everything is gone. David in his despair. We say foolish things when we think the promises have failed. We say stupid and foolish things. David said, my haste. I said, all men are liars. He's talking about Samuel. Samuel told me I'm going to be king. Look at me. All men are liars. Hmm. You go up and ask him, what promise? King of Israel? I'm a fugitive. I'm not a king. It's dead. It's gone. It's hopeless. There's no possible way. All the possible ways that it could be fulfilled are gone. But did God make a mistake? Was the promise dead? Did God keep His word to David? Did David ever sit on the king's throne? Hallelujah. But first, death was rolled in to make it appear dead so that God would be all the more glorified when it happens. How about Job? Hmm. What a holy righteous man he is. But, you know, this man is very comfortable. He's raising his family in the fear of God. He's highly esteemed and prosperous. And suddenly, God rolls in death on everything. And he's on the ash heap now. Everything seems to be gone. He's lost blessing, a sentence of death upon all of his comforts, everything he possessed. And to the human mind, Job's a dead man. Everywhere you look, it's death. No possible way for him to recover. But God made him a promise. The Scripture says, And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, so the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, even in his children and everything he had. God kept His word to this holy man. Hallelujah. The promise was fulfilled doubly. I want you, I'm going to show you something I saw in Revelation. I want you to go 11th chapter of Revelation. I want to show you something. How God first rolls in death. He puts the promise. He sentenced the promise to death. Revelation 11, 11. Revelation 11, 11. This is about the two witnesses. Will you go to verse 11 with me? And after three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God entered into them. And they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them which saw them. Verse 12, And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither, and they ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beheld them. Now the two great witnesses there, and they bring fear to the whole earth. They have witnessed, and the whole earth fears them. These are two witnesses, powerful witnesses. But before they bring this message that shakes the whole earth, before they are ascended into glory, look what happens to them. Look at verse 7, And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended out of the bottom pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. Their dead bodies shall lie on the streets of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, which also our Lord, where our Lord was crucified. And they of the people, and kindreds, and tongues, and nations shall see their dead bodies. Three days and a half shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in the grace. Now folks, look at this, please. God sentenced death of this witness, of these witnesses, but out of the grave, out of death, He brings these witnesses that shake the entire globe. It comes out of death. There's resurrection. Folks, that's what redemption means. The word redemption means brought out of death. This is how God works all the time. He brings joy out of sorrow. He redeems peace out of conflict. He redeems beauty out of ashes. He redeems health out of disease. He redeems liberty out of captivity, assurance out of doubt, and unbelief. And this is the way we can enter, as Paul said, that we may know Him, the fellowship of His suffering, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering. This is how we do it. He sentenced the death, and then out of that death, He brings resurrection. We become a partaker of His resurrection power. We realize that only resurrection power can do it, and we've gone through the suffering of the death. We've seen every possibility. We've suffered through the death of all the possibilities of it happening, and now suddenly we are sharing in the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering. Hallelujah. Now, God takes us the way of death that we may learn to trust Him alone. The Scripture says, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead. That is why God sentences it to death, that we may not trust in any human resources. We will not trust in man's ways. We will not trust in any human flesh, but we are cast completely on trusting the Lord. There's a very unique Scripture that the Lord brought to my attention this afternoon, 1 Timothy 5.5. Don't turn it, but listen to it. She that is a widow and desolate trusteth in the Lord, trusteth in God. That word desolate there means devastated, lonely, feeling rejected and deserted and hopeless. And what the Bible says, when you, this person is brought down, losing the comfort and hope, and is suffering rejection and loneliness at the end of himself, and death is rolled in, then they trust in God. That's the purpose of it, to cast you wholeheartedly onto faith and reliance on the Lord, giving up on all human ability, all human resources. It said that no man can learn to swim if he can touch bottom. As long as you can touch bottom and trust in the bottom, you'll never swim. You have to get out into the deeper waters before you cast yourself and commit yourself to either sink or swim. And that's what's happening to many of us. We always touch in bottom. We want something to fall back on. We're afraid to swim out into faith and believe his promises. God's going to take the bottom out. He takes the bottom out, that we're cast completely into his care. The prophet Habakkuk was absolutely stunned. The Lord had given him a revelation of a revival. He said, I want to bless and I want to revive. And if you read the last chapter of Habakkuk, you find him absolutely stunned in fear because of what he's seeing. In the vision that he sees, God is taking away everything, and there's pestilence and affliction, and the mountains are trembling, and the sun and the moon are standing still, and the seasons are being changed, and there's trampling of the nations and devouring of the poor. In the middle of it, he cries out. He said, when I heard it, my belly trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself that I might rest in the day of trouble. Here's death on his promise, absolute death, everything opposite to what he heard and believed. He said, he thought revival's coming. He's preaching revival instead of affliction and pestilence. But suddenly he stands up in faith because God is showing him something. The prophet stands up in the middle of all this. He says, I'm not going to look on the circumstance. I'm not going to look at what I see with my eyes. I know what God said. And then he says this, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the vines shall fail. The field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herb in the stall. Nevertheless, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places. He could say, praise God, I've heard a word from the Lord. I don't care what it says. I don't care how dark it is. Revival's coming. Though all he could see was death. Now, why does God give us a special promise, then put a sentence of death upon it? We're given a promise, and we expect it to shortly come to pass, and then it's delayed and delayed until finally we say, Lord, why did you ever speak it in the first place? Why did you cause me to hope on it? The reason he gives us the promise that he wants to give us an anchor or a cable to hold the ship when the storms come. He knows you're going to go into a storm. He says, I'm, I know you're going to be tested in your faith. Everybody that loves Jesus, everybody headed for heaven is going to be tested. You're going through a storm. You may not be in one now. Wait till tomorrow. It's coming. You storm, the testing is going to come! Everybody! And the Lord says, I know what you're going to face. I know you're going to face rejection. I know you're going to face misunderstanding. I know that people are going to turn you, even family will turn on you. I know you're going to go through doubt and fear. The boat's going to shake, but I give you an anchor. God gives us a promise that he intends to be an anchor of hope to hold us through every single storm we go through. It's a cable. It's an, it's an anchor. Instead of resting on the promise, when the storm hits, when times get dark and it seems hopeless and all means of fulfillment seem to be gone, that's when we speak these harsh things, like David did. Is his mercy completely gone? Does his promise fail forevermore? Is God never going to fulfill his promise? It's a promise to anchor your faith, to hold you steady in your faith. I'm going to ask you another question. A question again. Did you receive a very special promise from the Lord in your life? Now, this promise, I'm talking about something personal. I'm talking about something, a desire of your heart. And does it look like it's dead? Does it look desolate as far as any means or ways by which God can do it? Are things getting worse instead of better? God is in the process of fulfilling the promise, but before he fulfills it, he has to sentence it to death. Now, do you understand that principle now? How many are getting it? How many understand that principle, that God must first put the sentence of death in it? Now, how can you know? Listen closely. How can you know? How can you be sure that God is going to resurrect and raise your promise and bring it to pass? There are ways you can absolutely be positive that the promise you've heard. Now, folks, there are promises that people hear in their head that are not from God. There are promises that are just absolutely from the devil. I had a young minister years ago tell me that God told him, he was 30 some years old, and he was a very known young evangelist, and he lived near me, and he said, God told me I'm going to live to see all my grandchildren. The only problem was that he had a bitter spirit, and he had a bitter spirit on him when he heard the promise. He hadn't been talking to me in four months. In fact, he said, I don't think I'll ever talk to you again, Brother Dave. He was so angry at me. He was angry at everybody. He had an angry spirit, and when he got in a pulpit, the anger would come out. If I named everybody, he wouldn't know his name. He died in a plane crash shortly after. Just died. The promise never did come to pass. Folks, if you're living in sin, if you're living in bitterness, if God told you to obey him certain things, and you're not doing it, don't wait for that promise to come past. Get into obedience. Obey God. Folks, the promise I'm talking about comes to those who truly know his heart, and you're walking with him. Now, I know there are some people locked into a hopeless marriage, and they come to church, and they hear a voice. He's going to die. You're going to get a younger man. Now, folks, I believe God can say anything to heart that has to do with future, and he's faithful to those who walk before him. I'm talking about those who walk in foolishness, and their own desires take on a voice. Their own desires have never been yielded, have not been submitted to the Lord, and that person has not said, thy will be done and not mine. Folks, the only ones that can believe God's promise are those who say, not my will, Lord, but thine. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over and hear the promise of God, but let me tell you how you can know that God's going to resurrect your promise from the death. Now, folks, it's really not dead. It's sleeping. Remember, they said, she's dead, and the Lord said, no, she's sleeping. The promise looks dead, but it's only sleeping. How can you tell God's going to raise it up? Oh, hallelujah. This blesses me now. Here's the good part. Everybody ready? You can be persuaded that the promise is going to be fulfilled, absolutely fulfilled, by the frequent visitation of the promise to your soul, by God having it keep knocking on the door. You can't get rid of it. God keeps sending it back, reminding you, until finally it's there. You live with it, the promise, until finally it becomes a issue. I know it. I know it, because God keeps sending the Holy Ghost back to my heart, knocking on the door, reminding me of the promise. He speaks it over and over again. Hallelujah. I found a wonderful promise today. It just blew my mind today. I was studying on Moses, looking at Moses, how God rolled in death, and his last sermon, his last message to Israel, he said this in his very powerful, amazing words. He said, the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush be with you. The goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush be with you. I said, what's that mean? The Lord said, this is the promise. This is where he got his promise. He was in the burning bush when God said, I'm going to send you, and you're going to be a deliverer of Israel out of bondage. God spoke to him there, and folks, to his dying day, he's finally saying to Israel, he said, I want God to bless you with a promise that will keep you like I was kept. I had the burning bush before me all the days of my life. God fulfilled it, the burning bush. That's where I got my promise. I never came back. God brought it back to me every day. He visited me every day. Every time I had a problem, every time there were doubts and fears, He took me back to the burning bush. He took me back to the promise. You'll know it because God will keep my spirit knocking on the door, reminding you of what He said. You tell me God made you a promise, your family, your son, your daughter, your husband, wife, your mother, father going to be saved? Well, I'll tell you, if God gave you that word, He'll never let it go by. He will bring it back no matter how dark it gets, no matter how hard they may get, the promise will keep coming and coming at you. Glory to God. Secondly, you can be persuaded the promise is going to be fulfilled by the little interim miracles and mercies of God that have to do the same manner as the answer itself. Let me give you an example. David has a promise and he's being chased and the promise looks helpless, but God shows him these little mercies all along that show him that God is with him and the promise is going to be fulfilled because he goes this way on the mountain, here comes Saul the other way on the top of the mountain, and they don't even meet. One day David goes into a cave and he's sleeping way back deep in the cave and he hears a noise and his men come running back and said, guess what? Saul and his group have come and they're asleep in the front in the mouth of the cave. God has sent deliverance, an interim blessing, first fruits of the promise. He always gives you the first fruits. He gives you a taste of what he's going to do to keep you encouraged in your faith. Now, here's the test for David. Is he going to take matters in his own hands and make the promise come true? God said, I'm going to be king. Here it is. He's laying right in my lap. Is David going to take the matter in his own hands? Is he going to use the flesh to fulfill the promises of God? No, because God allowed this to happen because he knew David's heart. He knew David wouldn't touch him, but what he's trying to say to David, David, look, look how weak the enemy is. Look how weak the devil is. Look how any moment at any time I could make it happen. I want you know David went out of that cave rejoicing. He knew it's going to happen. It's going to happen. I could have killed him, but God's going to kill him in his time and his way. I don't have to touch it. God's going to fulfill his promise because he got his interim blessing. He got the first fruits of the promise. Hallelujah. Some of you getting first fruits of the promise, right? Just little miracles, little things God is doing that assures you that the promise is coming. Hallelujah. Now, finally, just before the fulfillment of the promise, there'll come the darkest hour of all. I've always said the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. The worst storm will break on you just prior to the coming of the promise. Now, let me read this to you from Acts 7, 17. Don't turn there. But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till another king arose which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly with our kindred and evil and treated our fathers so that they cast out their young children to the end that they might not live. Now, look what it says. It's time for the promise given to Abraham to be fulfilled. The time has come. God said this is it. And the children of Israel at that time began to just, the population began to explode. There were many children and young men growing up. And I know, I know in my heart and I feel it in the spirit that the priest and the princess of Israel at that time saying just a few more years, give us 10 years when all these children are young men. We have got an army. We have outstripped them in population. God's promised us deliverance. It's those who believed the word of God and knew the covenant promise of Abraham were saying this is going to be our deliverance. We're going to have army of young men and we will make our own weapons secretly and we will overpower the Egyptians. We'll take over Egypt. And God rules in death. Remember, all the firstborn die. That army they're trusting in is gone. All the ways and means by which their minds conjured that God can do it. All of the human resources are gone because that army is now in the grave. But there is something happens the moment we read that a pharaoh arose who didn't know Joseph at the same time these amazing words are spoken and which time in which time Moses was born. It says pharaoh came a new pharaoh came in which time Moses was born. Now get the picture please. Here are the children of Israel in before their burning ovens and here's a man before the burning bush. God is bringing everything dovetailing it all together. How could they know when they are losing hope? How can they know when they've given up all hope of deliverance that right now God's working on this man. God's training a deliverer and at the exact time the exact day the exact hour God is going to answer and bring forth the promise. The scripture makes it clear and it came to pass at the end of 430 years even this self same day it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. If if Moses had come one week earlier they would not have all wanted to leave because God had to make him so miserable they'd run out of the land. He had to send a man to make it miserable. He had to wean them away from Egypt and what's happening right now before God fulfills the promise he has to wean us from all confidence in the flesh all confidence in everything else until finally we say oh God you are my only hope sink or swim live or die I believe your word I believe your word. One last promise before I close hallelujah I know this to be true I can say it with Joshua not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord our God spoke concerning you all are come to pass unto you and not one thing has failed thereof. Joshua says there failed nothing of any good thing which the Lord has spoken unto the house of Israel all came to pass all came to pass. I stand here and tell you now that I don't know of one thing in my life that he promised me that he hasn't fulfilled every promise he's made me has come to pass now he he has checked out my promises he made me jettison some that I knew were the flesh but every one that was born of the spirit of God has been fulfilled. I close with an example we've been negotiated for over a year and a half for this space uh above B steak charlie three floors up there 63,000 square feet we need desperately and folks God made me a promise when I was standing right on the corner God said I'm going to give all three floors to this church all three floors and faith rose in my heart so I went after it I went to the owner and started negotiating and we negotiated negotiated it looked like we'd have it and it would fall it would just it would come apart we had four or five deals that just collapsed and finally I gave up it says no use I just laid it down and walked away and the Lord said let it die let it die and it died and then the Lord spoke to my heart I said but I made you a promise David all three floors and no matter what you see no matter what you hear about them leasing any of the floors you're not going to get one floor or two floors you're going to get three floors you're going to get it all but you wait until the owner calls you and the day he calls you you'll know that it's time it's the promise being fulfilled I waited and waited for months I'd go in the office every day and and I'd say any calls any calls for me as soon as I walked in calls calls one day I walked in and uh just about a month ago I said Minerva any calls oh yeah there's one here's been here a day or so a day or so it was the man this is what I've been waiting for I got on the phone I said I've been waiting for you I said you may not understand this but God told me you'd call and you're ready to do business he said was only one problem we've already leased the top floor I says no good God told us we get all three it looked dead again but two days later a call the people who had signed the lease withdrew and God has fulfilled the promise he sentenced it to death and all possible means of it ever happening and then resurrected it he does that that he gets greater glory he does that so that we learn to trust him if and God said if you'll trust me with that you can trust me with everything I'm teaching you how to trust me and he's going to give us all kinds of opportunities to learn to trust him he'll roll in death on so many things until we learn to trust him and when we learn to trust him oh hallelujah that's when the promises come will you believe God tonight that he's going to fulfill the promise are you experiencing tonight the darkest part of the whole experience now it's this is the most hopeless it's been the darkest it's been rejoice because you're closer than you've ever been hallelujah let's stand let's stand well I said this is for me is it for anybody else hallelujah what wonderful ways of the Lord how faithful he is he wants to assure you tonight he knows right where you're at how many believe God's not sleeping on the job no he's not I want to believe he knows right where you're at how many he knows everything about you hasn't he heard the very very thoughts your mind let alone the cry of your heart hallelujah there's a sister in this church I believe God's going to hear her cry she's been asking God for an apartment because she has six children and she lives in with her mother in one room with six children I know God's going to answer that problem but she told me this past week she said it's getting so hard it's getting so difficult six children in one room it's just unbearable in fact I'm going to stop Lord right now I'm asking you to give that I'll bring that sister's promise to pass bring that promise to pass Lord it looks hopeless but you're going to raise it from the grave hallelujah thank you Jesus Lord be to God oh look at me some of you're going through a living hell oh but you have a hope don't give up that hope don't give up the promise hold on hold on hallelujah don't look at the circumstances don't look at the impossibilities God's able nothing is impossible nothing is impossible with our God if you have been staggered and you lost faith you lost hope get out of your seat and come right here now and ask God to forgive you and ask him to restore your faith and confidence in his promise amen amen if your back's slender cold or something in the message touched your heart I want you to come right now especially if it has to do with unsaved loved ones it has to do with with uh a promise God made for your future whatever it may be come now and let the spirit of the Lord encourage you I'm going to ask you to give your promise over to death just give it over and say Lord I put it in your hands I put it in your hands I'm not going to look at circumstance I'm going to tell you how to do it for example someone's been given a promise that you're going to have a year of victory God's going to deliver you from all your temptation the lust the battle the struggle that you've been in God's going to bring you victory and peace this year you have that promise God made you a wonderful promise of freedom and instead what did you get the past few weeks or since that promise came probably more furious temptations you have more battles and struggles than you've ever had and then it looks like everything you promised him and everything you feel promised from him goes into death it looks hopeless all folks you hold on God's word cannot fail he's going to bring you to a victory hallelujah so don't worry don't fret when this death comes in and everything looks impossible looks hopeless that's the time to surrender and say Lord I'm going to trust you through this folks look at me too the only hope we have is faith the only way is faith to fully trust him that's what it says of Moses he didn't consider his body now dead or his wife's womb did he didn't consider it but he held on by faith he didn't consider the situation didn't consider his feelings didn't consider the ways and means didn't consider anything he saw he said God said it that's it I'm going to believe him I'm going to rest until it happens I'm going to rest until it happens he wasn't too old there was time God is going to come he's going to deliver you I want everybody that came forward to believe God's going to answer your prayer and deliver you and and and fulfill the promise in his time in his way and if you want to believe God for that I want you to raise both hands to the Lord both hands and I want you to pray this prayer with me Jesus by faith I give every promise that you've given to me over to death Lord it may appear dead and all hope may die but your promise is true and I'm going to hold on to you and I'm just going to love you and I'm going to believe you and I'm going to put everything in your hands and in your time and in your way I will see before my eyes fulfilled completed every promise you've made me cleanse me now Jesus prepare my heart to trust you and believe you I trust you Lord I'm not going to be afraid anymore it'll be your timing not my timing your way not my way thank you Jesus just give him thanks Lord I thank you hallelujah glory be to God glory be to Jesus hallelujah glory to God can we sing Lord I believe all things are possible Lord I believe you know that Lord I this is the conclusion of the tape