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The Lord Has Promised to Deliver You
David Wilkerson

David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker begins by reading verses from Psalm 34 that emphasize the theme of deliverance. He then prays for an anointing and discusses how God deals with violence and sin, emphasizing the coming judgment day. The speaker then shifts to the importance of the word "if" in 2 Peter, highlighting the significance of God's people in relation to deliverance. He shares a personal experience of trying to talk to boys in court about Christ and being escorted out, expressing his belief in the power of Christ to bring deliverance. The sermon concludes with the speaker introducing the subject of the Lord's promise to deliver his people and expressing his love for Psalm 34.
Sermon Transcription
This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. I want to speak to you this morning on a subject the Lord has promised to deliver you. The Lord has promised to deliver you. Would you please go to Psalm 34. Of all the 150 Psalms in the book of Psalms, chapter 34 is my absolute favorite. I've been in a habit of carrying it around in my pocket on a card typed out and in every nation pulling that out and reading it. Psalm 34, I want to read just a few verses there. Let's go to verse 4, Psalm 34. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Verse 7. The angel of the Lord encamped around about them that fear him and delivered them. Verse 17. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and out of all trouble. You didn't finish it. Verse 19. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers out of them all. I would say this chapter is about deliverance, wouldn't you? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence in this house this morning. We thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the goodness of God to this church and to those who have been faithful to you. Now, Lord, we need an anointing. We need to hear clearly from you. We come under the anointing and unction of the Holy Spirit because we have no strength of our own. We come totally dependent on you to speak to our hearts, minister to us and strengthen us for the battles ahead. And we honor you. We honor your word and give you glory. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. David had been anointed King of Israel in a secret confrontation or anointing by Samuel. Samuel poured oil over his head and said, You're now appointed by God as King of Israel. But there was a long trip. There were many battles before we'd ever come to the throne. In the 21st chapter, Samuel finds David running from Saul. Saul had declared and vowed he was going to kill him. And now you see David running hastily or at least walking hastily over the hills and dusty roads and through the valleys. He said, I have to get away from the jurisdiction of this man. He's going to kill me. And you see an anointed man, a godly man, a man after God's own heart. And he's running for his life. He said, I have to get out of here. He's moving, of course, in the flesh. And the clearest, he said, I've got to get out of the jurisdiction. So the clearest border is in Philistia, and the nearest city is Gath under King Achish. He crosses the border or is in the border, and evidently the guards lay hold of him. Border guards lay hold of David. David is hoping he can get by not being recognized and maybe just as a tourist on his way to Gath for a shopping spree or whatever it may be or to get a sword sharpened. And he listens to these men. And they're conversing now. They're looking at David and David overhears the conversation. Isn't this that famous David that they sing about on the streets? In Jerusalem, David is slain of ten thousands. And weren't those our people? Are they not Philistines that he killed? That looks like Goliath's sword. And David knew he was in trouble. He heard something about him being taken to Gath, the king, to Achish, king of Gath. And David panics. David knows that he's going to be accused of being a terrorist. He knows that he's going to be beaten then. He knows he'll be dragged all through the Philistine cities and made a spectacle. And he fears for his life. Suddenly, David pretends to be a madman. Suddenly, he goes into contortions. His face is contorted. A spittle comes down his beard. And he's spouting nonsense and senseless phrases and wiggling and striking at them. And in that particular climate and time, they would not go near a mad person or someone of insanity because they believed demons would jump upon them. And these men said, we'd better take him to the king. And they take him into the palace of King Achish. And Achish watches David. What a scene it must be. Here's a man of God, been anointed king. And he's in panic. And he's putting on a scene. He's scratching on the doors, making the scratching sound, screaming, probably wallowing on the floor and just babbling senselessly. And Achish pulled back. He said, why would you bring a madman in my presence? I don't know if he's afraid of the demons too. But he said, get him out of here. David is escorted to the border. And he's told, never again come back. Get out of here. David escapes to the cave Adulam. And it's in probably in the cave or not long after his freedom out of that terrible situation that he pens this chapter, the 34th chapter of Psalms. He's talking about how God had delivered him. He's recalling the whole episode, how God had set him free. Now, I don't believe the Holy Spirit. I don't believe the Lord told him to act the fool because the Bible says God's not given a spirit of fear, but love and power and a sound mind. That's not a sound mind. And so so David is actually moving in fear. He's moving in the flesh. But he pens this incredible chapter. These words, I sought the Lord. He heard me. He delivered me. The aims of the Lord. He said, I cried to the Lord. When did he cry? Well, because this is he's he's playing the fool. You know that he's not praying audibly. He has to be screaming inside. There has to be a silent prayer going on. David said, I cried to the Lord. I made my petition known. And you read this. You hear he said this poor man cried. The Lord heard him and saved him out of this trouble. Sometimes the loudest cry is inaudible. I've known what it's like. And many of you know what it's like to be so overwhelmed in situations and circumstances. You're so overwhelmed. You can't pray. You can't speak out. I've known what it is to be in circumstances that I didn't understand so far beyond me. Such pain. I would just sit in my study and sit in a chair and say, God, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. I don't even feel like praying. But, oh, God, help. Just help. Have you ever been there? Have you been there where you say, God, I don't know how to answer you. I don't know what this is all about. I can't explain it. I'm in pain. I'm overwhelmed. And here is David having to acknowledge, Lord, what's going on with me? I'm playing a fool. He knows. He's conscious of what he's doing. Why am I doing this? What's happening to me? And he's crying out inaudibly his loud voice. I honestly believe that some of the loudest prayers I've prayed, the most important prayers I've prayed, the most heart-reaching to God's heart have been in total silence, where it's just been a word, help. And I'm telling you now, whatever you're in, no matter what you're going through, and you don't feel like praying, you see the problem is often we just clam up. We just close in on ourselves and say, God doesn't care. God would not have allowed this in my life if I were right. There's something going wrong and I don't understand. So we clam up or we go eat or we watch television and try to just try to ease our conscience and try to break through human efforts. But God sometimes comes in. So and I know he comes in. He hears the most quiet, the most. You see, we think it's not feeling. We think if we're not crying out, if we're not screaming at God, he doesn't hear. God hears every whimper. God hears every every inaudible voice that cries out. And that's why David said, my heart cried out to him. There is a heart cry. I shot the Lord and I cried. This poor man cried in 1958 as a skinny. I was one hundred and seventeen pounds when I first came to New York. Somebody said, when he turns around, you think he's raptured. One man said, if he drinks Kool-Aid, he looks like a thermometer. I was mocked and ridiculed. I was naive. And I came to New York City because I felt the Holy Spirit spoke to me to come. I'd seen a picture of seven boys indicted for murder. And I came here weeping and broken hearted and just a country preacher. And I went to the trial. And this story has been told many, many times. But there's a point I'm trying to make. And I, I felt I went to a Friday session and I knew at the end of the session they would be dismissed. Those boys would go into a side cell and wait to be taken back to prison. And once that happened, I would never be seen. The Lord spoke my heart, tried to talk to them about Christ to see if they they need help. They need Christ. I went to the sitting in the court and suddenly something came on me. I took my Bible and I heard there was an impulse, a spirit of the Lord. At least that's what I believed. And I still believe. And I get up and I approach the judge's bench. His name was Davidson. I said, Judge Davidson, would you give me a moment with these boys, please? The police jumped up and I was unceremoniously escorted and dragged out of that courtroom. And I'm thinking, oh, God, what happened? God, everything's spinning out of control. And I'm taken out in front of the lobby of that courtroom and flashbulbs flashing. And so my dad's going to see that. My dad's assistant superintendent of the Assembly of God in the state. And my people are going to think I'm crazy. And I'm crying inside. God, what's happening to me? What's going wrong? I thought you told me. I had someone sent me a picture from the Daily News. And I don't know why I had a bow tie on. And the silliest looking country coat, salt and pepper, almost white. And I'm looking at that. And I said, I was the most stupid, naive person. I look at that bow tie. I never wore a bow tie. But at that courtroom, I wore a bow tie as if I were going to some function. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him. I remember that cry. I remember that I couldn't pray out loud in front of the people. They thought I was crazy anyhow. Can you imagine what they thought if I'm suddenly on my knees praying or crying out? Oh, God, help me, deliver me. I don't know what happened. There was something inside, and God heard that cry. And he honored it to this very day. David said he comes out of it, and he's writing this story. He said, I will boast of my Lord. First verse, I will bless the Lord at all times and praise Him continually in my mouth. Second verse, my soul shall make a boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. And he's saying to you, and he's saying to me, I'm going to boast on how God delivered me even though I was in foolishness. Even though I made a foolish move. Even this was not truly how. See, God could have delivered him in any way. God could have blinded those guides, and David could have escaped. He could have stricken Achish. There are any ways that he could have done it. David said, I took it in my own hands. I walked in the flesh, and still I'm going to boast on the Lord because I cried out. I prayed. I took it to the Lord. God heard me, and God delivered me. The lesson is God hears and responds to the faintest cry of his people. Let me give you another scene that has to do with deliverance of God's people. You don't need to turn there. But in 2 Peter, we read of the flood, and we read of the fire falling on Sodom and Gomorrah. And picture this scene. What do you see when you think of the flood? Have you ever tried to vividly picture that scene? The water rising in 40 days and 40 nights of rain, and it's rising, and it rises in the people's homes. And those who know how to swim are people getting a piece of furniture or a piece of wood, anything to hold on to, climbing trees until it's over their heads. And finally, a scene of bodies floating everywhere. When you think of Sodom and Gomorrah, what is the picture you see? Is it just vengeance? You see the sulfuric fumes suffocating people by the thousands, and they're screaming and suffocating and falling in fire and brimstone. Yes, you see, the Bible does say that these things happened. The Scripture said he spared not the old world. He brought down the flood on the world. He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, making them examples unto them that afterwards should live ungodly. But you see, this scene has nothing to do with God's people. It has nothing to do with me at all. It has nothing to do with overcoming Christians. That's the sign. That is an example. God says, I want you to know that I deal with violence. I deal with rampant sin. There is a wrath of God upon the wicked who refuse 120 years of preaching. Upon those who have turned themselves over to sin, there will be a judgment day. But, folks, what do you see? What are you supposed to see? Because that whole episode begins with the greatest if in the Bible. Let me just, do you want to go there, if you will, please? 2 Peter, and let me show it to you, because it has everything to do with God's people. If you get to Hebrews, you're getting close. 2 Peter, verse 4. For if God, now I want you to focus on if, please. We're talking about deliverance. If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world and in godliness. And, in other words, if, and if, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overflow, making them an example unto those who after which live ungodly, and delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy of the conversation of the world. For that goodness man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul. Alright, listen to me before we read the next verse. Here's what God is saying to his people. If I, in the midst of a flood, when the whole world is being, known earth at the time, is being destroyed, and I'm taking vengeance on violence, yet I focus on one man and his family. It's right there. It says, and he spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness. Then he goes on, he said, If in the wrath of God, everything around you is coming down in fire and brimstone, come back to if, if that happens, then you go down to verse 9, Then the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust of the day of judgment to be punished. The Lord knoweth how to deliver. God says, I'm just giving you two of the greatest examples mankind could ever know. If I have compassion on one righteous man and his family, and I save Noah, if I can save Noah when the world is falling apart, if I can save Lot and his daughters and send an angel and drag them out, do I not know how to deliver you? Do I not know how to come and save you? What he's saying, if the whole city around you begins to crumble, if everything goes wrong, if you will trust me, And the lesson is this. God will go to any extreme. God will do whatever it takes to do to deliver his people from their battles and from their temptations. God will do what it takes. Do you see it? How about an amen then? What a wonderful thought that he would care for me. You see, it took the opening of the Red Sea to deliver God's people. It took water out of a rock. These are miracles. When you look at how God, all through the Bible, it took a miracle to save them from hunger. Water or bread falls from the skies. And it took an ark for the saving of Noah. So don't doubt that God doesn't know a way. God knows. He knoweth how. And you see, what that really means, God knows how to deliver. That simply means he already has plans. God never sits on his plans. God never has a plan and says, well, one day at one time I'll set this in order. Because God has a plan. He knows. I don't care what you're going through. And I don't care what I'm going through. Before I ever go into it, he had a plan. He had a plan. He has a way. And he's not going to do it the way you figured it out last night in bed. He's not going to figure it out in all the options that you've offered him. He would not accept one of your offers with any flesh in it. He said, no, no, no, no, that's not my way. That's your way. My ways are above your ways. My thoughts are above your thoughts. You can't conceive it. God knoweth how to deliver. And let me take you to Jeremiah 29. You don't have to turn to Jeremiah, the 29th verse. This is confirmed by Jeremiah. He said, before you cry, before you call, I will answer. Do you believe that God has the foreknowledge that he can anticipate every foolish move you and I make? He can he can foresee all of our doubts and our fears. But you see, he said, David said, I cried out to the Lord. I went to the Lord. I prayed. I sought the Lord. What are you doing in your crisis? Are you pouting or are you just saying, well, I'm not going to question God, but I sure do question myself. Because in questioning yourself, you're still questioning God. What do you do in Jeremiah? Israel's in captivity in Babylon. And it's the greatest trial they've ever been through. And God had told him, he said, after 70 years, I'm going to visit you and I'm going to deliver you. For my thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. And in Hebrew, the expected end, I'm going to give you that which you long for. God said, my thoughts are not evil towards you, but I am thinking good thoughts towards you. I'm going to tell you something. And I believe this all my heart. You can never be delivered from your temptation. You cannot be delivered from any crisis that you're in. You cannot be delivered until you fully are convinced that God means what he says. I am thinking good thoughts about you. I'm not mad at you. I'm thinking good thoughts and not evil thoughts. And if he's thinking good thoughts, his thoughts actually are creating something. His thoughts are creative. And if he's thinking it, he's in the process of doing it. And as I've told you a hundred times, the hardest part of faith is the last half hour. And then you say, oh, I wish I had believed. I wish. And then you doubt because you doubted. He says, then you shall call upon me. This is still in Jeremiah, 29 chapter. Then you shall call upon me and you shall go and pray to me and I will hearken to you. I'll listen to you. He said, I'm making you the promise. I'm telling you that I'm not mad at you. I'm thinking good thoughts about you. And I want you to believe that. And I want that to promote you. I want that to provoke you to go into the prayer room and pray in faith. Then you'll call upon me. Then you'll pray. Then I'll hearken to you. I've got good thoughts about you. I have a plan. Now go and pray about it. And the reason he wants you to pray is to get ready. To get ready to receive the glory of those thoughts that he's been thinking. You know, when I was studying this matter of deliverance, the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to me. Go to Hezekiah and study his life. And so this past week I've been studying the life of Hezekiah. Let me tell you what God says about the Bible says about him. He's a godly, godly king of Judah. And the Bible says he did that was right in the sight of God. He pulled down idols. He outlawed idol worship. The Bible said he claved to the Lord. He never departed from the Lord. The Lord was with him wherever he went and in all that he did. The Bible says he called a backslidden nation to God. He was a man of prayer. A man of worship. He preached holiness and separation from the world. He greatly feared the Lord. He was blessed and favored by God. He was prospered in all of his ways. And to cap it all off, the Scripture says Hezekiah worked that which was good and right and truthful before the Lord his God. And every work that he began in the service of the Lord and in the law and his commandments to seek his God, he did it with all his heart and he prospered. Do you understand what God is saying? Here's a man, in fact the Bible calls him the greatest king. It said there was no one like him before, no one like him, and one who had so set his heart on God. Do the righteous suffer? Does the devil aim his greatest weapons, his most powerful, intense weapons against those such as I've described to you now? Those who pray, those who worship, those who are called. The Scripture says the very next chapter after, I just read you these words, no one sought him more with all his heart and soul and mind. He sought God with everything he is. And the next verse, it says, then after all these things, it says, after all these things and the establishment thereof. In other words, everything that he's done is now established. He's established ministry after ministry after ministry. He's done these great things for God. And after all these things, the Scriptures, then came Sennacherib, who represents the devil himself and his Assyrian army, which represents all the principalities and powers of darkness. After these things and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came, entered into Judah and camped against the fence cities and thought to take it all for himself. That's the devil's whole plan. He comes to the righteous. He comes, and many of you don't know that that's why the enemies come against you, because the devil is trying to do just as he did to Hezekiah. Throw these terrible lies into your head. Throw them over the wall at you. That protective wall, throwing them over the wall. Your God is not with you. God has failed you. You're going down. I've taken down greater men than you. Hezekiah was told by Sennacherib. He said, and you're going down next. God sent me. The devil said, God sent me. God told me to tell you this. And then all these little voices begin to pop in your head. You're a failure. There's something wrong, or you wouldn't be suffering. You wouldn't be sick. You wouldn't be going through what you are. There's something wrong with you. There's something wrong. You're under discipline. This man was not under discipline. This man was righteous. This man was holy. This man sought God with all of his heart. Then came Sennacherib. Then came Sennacherib to take it to himself. And Sennacherib has to sit and listen to reports as 46 of his cities are destroyed and taken down. And Sennacherib begins to lay siege on Jerusalem. Word comes to him that 209,000 of the Judaites had been captured. He finds out that many of his troops are deserting to Sennacherib. He finds that those he trusted most, who thought they were righteous and that he had built such a revival, and now he discovers that they're turning, running out of the city gates, turning themselves over, and beginning even to fight in Sennacherib's army. And those reports are all still available in the annals of Sennacherib, still in possession of historians today, his whole story, how he came with battering rams, how he set up all kinds of tricks and dug under walls and stopped the water flows, and all the attacks coming against Israel. And can you imagine Hezekiah going through this? And for a while he wavered in his faith. He wavered. Sennacherib demanded huge amounts of gold and silver, asked for his daughters to go into his harem according to Sennacherib's report, and demanded all of these things. And at first a letter was sent to Lachish where the king had set up a temporary ivory throne. And he sends him a letter and says, all that you ask I will do, because he felt helpless, there was nothing to do, and said, I'm going to take the easy way. Isaiah the prophet came to him and said, no. There were two attacks by Sennacherib. He backed away for a while, but then he comes back, and that's the trick of the enemy. He'll attack you, and if there is not a stand of faith, if you do not stand up against him in faith and prayer and go into the house of God, if you don't hear the prophets, if you don't hear the word that comes, the prophetic word to strengthen you, and you begin to just ease off, you just back up and say, I don't want to fight this anymore, and you get nervous, you get afraid, and you're scared, and the enemy is winning the battle. And when he sees that weakness, you see, the whole battle is against our faith. That's what it's all about. He's going after it. He doesn't want the gold. He doesn't want the silver. He doesn't really want those women in his harem. He's got more women that he can handle in his harem. He wants to be able to bring this man's faith, because this is the only man, the only king that stood against him, and it was this faith in God, and what the devil is after. The test you're going through is a test of faith. Will you believe God in the hardest of times? Will you believe God no matter what's happening to your body, no matter what has happened to your family, no matter what has happened around you, and you're going to take a stand. And now, through the advice and prayers of Isaiah, he goes into the temple of God. He goes into the house of God, and this time he gets another letter from Sennacherib, and he lays it before the Lord. And the Lord says to Isaiah, tell Hezekiah to send you back another letter, and tell him, O King Sennacherib, not this time. I'm not the one going down. You're the one that's going down. My God said he's going to deliver me. Did you ever get a letter from the devil? You see, he goes to the Lord, and he prays, and this is the prayer he prayed, Lord, this day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy, for the children are come to the birth, and there's no strength to bring forth. Oh, how many times God's people, how we come to that place, we say this is a day of trouble and shame and rebuke. I don't have the strength. And Hezekiah goes to the house of God, and he said, Lord, I have no strength left. I don't know what to do. And he turns it all into the hands of the Lord. And Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, the Lord has heard you. He said God's going to move and deliver you. You see, folks, we have better promises than Hezekiah had. We have a cross where Jesus took all of our pain, and He made a way. And the Bible said the deliverer shall come out of Zion. And that's what He has called all through the Old Testament. He's called the deliverer. And at the cross of Jesus Christ, He made a way. We have these better promises, who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and the Father. And it's through the blood of Jesus Christ. Hezekiah could not stand on the blood of Jesus Christ. He stood simply on a promise. We stand not only on a promise, but we stand on the blood of Jesus Christ, that we have the victory over sin, over temptation, and that God in every battle, He said, many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them out of them all. And it came to pass that night, and with this I'm going to close. It came to pass that night, the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers, and they arose in the morning, and behold, they were all dead. Now, I read a theologian's account of this, and he said, well, really, there was no angel of the Lord that night. There was a festation of one hundred and eighty-five thousand mice who had bubonic plague and bit them. Well, that's a bigger miracle than I'm talking about. All I know that the enemy was dead, the enemy was gone, and of course, Sennacherib goes home and he's killed by his son. He's killed in his own temple. Oh, folks, one day soon, if you will seek his face and trust him, you're going to wake up to a miracle. You're going to wake up. That night, that night, I honestly believe the Lord said to tell you this, many of you that are in the hardest place you've ever been, you're on the brink of a miracle. You are not going down. You're going to wake up one morning, and you're going to get one report after another. God has done this, God has done this, God has done this, and he's lifted the load. Will you stand and give him an offering of praise? Stand and give him an offering of praise. Lord, thank you. You're going to deliver me from the temptation that's hounding me. You're going to deliver me, Lord, from my financial fears. You're going to deliver me, O Lord, from my marital problems. You're going to deliver me, Lord, because you're faithful, God, and you have delivered all through the Bible, and you're no respecter of persons, so I'm going to lay it out to you, Jesus. Deliver me. Please raise your hands and give him thanks. Lord, we give you thanks for your faithfulness, your goodness, and your mercy. You're a loving heavenly Father. You're thinking good thoughts for your people today. You're thinking good thoughts, not thoughts of evil, not thoughts of judgment. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Do you have the hope? I said, do you have the hope? Amen. Lord be to Jesus. I'd like to make a simple invitation, very quickly, to those in the balcony here and even in the annex. You may be a visitor, or maybe you've been coming a number of times, or you may have been coming many times to this church. We don't ask people to join this church. We ask them to come and give themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And if you're here this morning, you walked in here, and you have not really been walking tightly, closely with Jesus. And until you have that communion, until you have that, you don't know the power that's available to you. And it leaves you lonely. It leaves you sick. It leaves you depressed. And I'm inviting you to step out, up in the balcony. Go to the stairs on either side. And in the annex, you can just turn around and go to the lobby. The way you came in, there'll be some ushers there to show you how to get down the stairs here. And you can walk down the aisle and come here. And here in the auditorium, just come. I want to pray for you that the Lord work. Now, if I ask all those who had burdens to come, if you tell me you don't have any burdens, well, forget it. I won't get into that. But I'm concerned just for those this morning. Bishop Pastor David, I really have drifted from the Lord, or I don't have the relationship with Jesus that I need and that I want. I can't fight this alone anymore. The Holy Spirit's here to help you, to be your comforter. And if you don't understand Jesus, the Holy Spirit will come and help you to understand what it's all about. But he wants you to confess your need. He said, if you just come to me, I won't cast you out. While the orchestra choir is singing something, just step out of your seat. In the annex, I invite you, just turn and go back. Bring your purse and your belongings with you and come and you'll be ministered to in prayer. We're not asking you to do anything silly. I don't ask you to say anything. I'm not asking you to join anything. We're asking you to come in your need to Jesus, who's your only strength and hope. Follow these that are coming. God bless you. Come now. You can come even while I'm talking. Just a quick word. The devil is not a mind reader. He cannot read your mind, but he can infuse and instill thoughts into your mind. Principles and powers of demons can whisper to the mind and plant these terrible seeds of fear, thoughts of hopelessness and thoughts of despair and discouragement. And most of all, the lies that come, that everything bad in your life is all because you're just a bad person. For those who have a hungry heart, for those who really want Jesus and they really want change. The Lord said, take captive of those thoughts. Will you do that right now? Capture those thoughts. Say no. Say no to them right now and cast them out and say, no, I will not believe this. I will not believe these lies. Those that are sick and afflicted sometimes and are told they have a disease. The first thing the devil says, you're dying. It's all over. You lie to about your future, your past, your present. You try to bring up everything in your past, all your failures. I guess the reason the church so likes the story, loves the story of David is because in his failures and foolishness, he had a repentant heart and always turned to the Lord. And that relates to us. So we take those fears and doubts right now and say, Jesus, we say right now, Jesus, I give you my fears. I give you all the lies. Erase them. Give me strength not to accept them or believe them. And when they come to take authority and push them aside. Now, pray this with me. Jesus, the Bible says you have good thoughts, healing thoughts, saving thoughts toward me. Not evil thoughts, but thoughts for good. And I thank you for how you're thinking of me. Forgive me, Jesus, of my doubts, my unbelief. I give my sins, my foolishness. Everything is unlike you. I give it to you. I repent of it. And I trust you now that your goodness and your love for me is something that I believe that I can feel and I can take home with me. Now, let me pray. Heavenly Father, these these prayers from the heart you've heard. Just as I preached, even the silent prayer is heard. Holy Spirit, come and heal so many that are hurting. Lord, even those who didn't step out. There's no Jesus. I'm hurting so bad. Holy Spirit, you're the comforter. We come now. There's comfort. That's what this church is about. It is now, therefore, no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. None. Come, Lord, and lift every load. Let everybody in the sound of my voice walk out of here with hope and say, yes, Jesus. You were good. You're merciful, ready to forgive, wanting to heal. If we would just open up our hearts and receive it. Would you just lift up one hand at least or two hands and say, Lord, I receive right now. I receive the goodness of God toward me. I receive forgiveness. I receive healing in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. This is the conclusion of the message.
The Lord Has Promised to Deliver You
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David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.