In this sermon, the preacher shares his personal struggle with temptation and feeling different from other Christians. He explains how he was rescued by the Word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit. The sermon focuses on understanding temptations and lays the foundation key for overcoming them. The preacher emphasizes that fear of God alone is not enough to prevent rebellion, as seen in the story of the Israelites in the wilderness. Instead, he highlights the tender mercies of God, who surprises us with love and grace despite our rebellion.

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. This is the second in a series on understanding your temptations. Last Sunday night, or last Sunday, I spoke on I Will Fear No Evil. And you said, Pastor, why are you dealing in three services now on those who are bound by sin and those who are facing temptations? Let me tell you why. This city above every city has myriads of temptations and trials. And you people from other parts of the country, you may have a very difficult city too, but if you've been in this city even for a couple of days and walk the streets, you see what we're up against in this city, everywhere you turn. But there's something I see in the body of Christ all over the United States and around the world. When people are tempted and they fall into sin, they have a tendency just to give up and quit on the Lord. And God is trying in this church to establish a people who will not be thrown by the difficulties. I had a young man come to me this afternoon after I had preached this morning on understanding the temptations, and he said, Well, I have so many temptations, I thought I was so evil that the Lord couldn't rescue me. And I was about to give up. I thought, I really am different than the other Christians, and I just can't seem to get victory over some of these things. And I was about to give up and he said, I was rescued this morning by the word of the Lord and by the Holy Spirit. And that's why God brings forth these words. Now, this is the second I preached this morning on understanding your temptations. And I'm going to give you the second part of that, and I'm entitling it Laying Hold of the Tender Mercies of God. Laying Hold of the Tender Mercies of God. And I'm going to give you really the foundation key. We'll go over some of these other points that we talked about. If you remember in my message, I Will Fear No Evil, the example from Timothy House and the young ladies from Sarah House, those delivered from life-controlling habits and sins, what did we tell you? The first step to victory over sin was I will fear no evil. Not to be afraid that the sin is too embedded or too strong, but with the help of the Holy Ghost, you can defeat the enemy. Not to be afraid, David said, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. How many remember that? Do you remember that? All right. Then we said, secondly, that when you're bound by a besetting sin, that you cannot deliver yourself. Self-will, self-power does not give you total healing. You may be able to subdue it. You may keep it under wraps, so to speak, for a while, but it will explode again. It will come out again. And that it has to be the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who sanctifies us. We are made right by faith, justified in the eyes of God. Then the Holy Ghost is sent and infused in us, and He has the power over all the power of the enemy. Remember that now. And then thirdly, we told you that He delivers from sin little by little. There's not usually one great deliverance. And we told you the reason God took the children of Israel into the promised land little by little so they'd not be devoured by beasts. And we took the beasts to be, remember, an arrogant spirit, a judgmental spirit, because I've got sudden deliverance and you haven't. And it's a lack of compassion. It causes a hardness in many people. And the Lord says, I'll not let you be devoured by pride and arrogance. I'm going to take you in little by little so you learn to trust me daily. We came to that. Then this morning, we added something else. We told you that every temptation that comes to you, God has a purpose in it. He allows it. No demon, no power of the enemy can touch us without the permission of the Lord Himself. We have a wall of fire around us, and Jesus is the glory therein. And the only way the devil can get to us is if the Lord lets the wall down, as He did with Job. The devil, remember, said you've got a wall around him. Put the wall down, let me at him. And remember, we preached this morning what Jesus said to Simon. Simon, the devil has asked for permission to sift you as wheat. And we say that was an invitation to get up out in an open field on a one-to-one combat. Temptation is a one-to-one combat. The devil trying to sift you so that he can say, look, there's nothing of value. It's all chaff. They have no faith, and all temptation is a battle for your faith. Then we told you this morning, remember, you never listen to the lies of the devil. In fact, whatever the devil tells you, you believe the opposite, the very opposite of that. If the devil says you're not going to make it, you know you're going to make it because he's a liar. If the devil says there's no hope, you know you've got a lot of hope. If he says you're going down, you know you're going up. You believe just the opposite of what the devil tells you. Do you understand that now? All right, having laid that foundation, let's go on now, laying hold of the tender mercies of the Lord. I want to bring to your attention now the most important of all secrets of how to overcome sin and temptation, how to endure temptation. Now, remember we told you what Jesus, what the Scripture says, Lord, so there's no temptation taking you but such as common to all men, that God will with the temptation make a way of escape. He didn't stop there. He didn't say you're suddenly going to be out of it. That you may be able to bear it, and in the Greek that means you may be able to hold up under the pressure of it. And so many of you are still battling a mind battle. Anybody here that's been on drugs, alcohol, gambling, any habit whatsoever, lust. It can be covetousness, greed, pride, whatever it is. Sometimes those things hold on. You have a heart that's in love with Jesus. You want to serve Him with all your heart, but you're still battling this mind habit. As anyone who's been on drugs, as any one of these fellows in the front rows been delivered from drugs and alcohol and other things, and they'll tell you that the mind habit is the real habit, that which is in the mind. And that's where the Holy Ghost works most powerfully. Hallelujah. Now, complete deliverance from the power of sin depends on understanding and laying hold of the tender mercies of God. And until you know and understand and lay hold and take into your heart the knowledge of the tender mercy of God for you, all of these other principles won't work. This has to be the foundation upon which you build your faith. You have to be totally convinced, absolutely convinced by hearing the word of God and putting it deep into your heart that I am totally loved by a Savior who's full of tender mercy and grace to my heart. Hallelujah. Believe it or not, there are multitudes in the Church of Jesus Christ today who are literally scared to death of the word grace. They are fearful of any mention of loving mercy or grace. Now, there are two main reasons for that. First of all, there are some who have been raised in a legalistic atmosphere. That's all they've known. It's been absolute legalism from the time they first got saved. And they have attended a church where they were afraid to preach grace because they were afraid it would produce compromise. They were afraid that it would literally lead to sin. Now, folks, there are many churches today where there is no preaching against sin whatsoever. Absolutely no preaching against sin. The people in the congregation will praise the Lord. They smoke, they drink, they carouse. I'll never forget the height of the charismatic movement, especially in California. And we had Team Challenge. Boys would come to my crusades out there. And I took them once to a charismatic convention. And all these, one of the charismatics who's been speaking in tongues and praising the Lord, are out there with their beer and their alcohol and they're all drinking. And my guys come running in and say, what's going on out there? We've been delivered that stuff and they're just doing it. My guys were absolutely shocked and appalled. And they said, well, Dave, you preach deliverance from that stuff, don't you? What kind of an example is this? And by the way, some of you dear parents that are lecturing your kids about smoking pot, do you drink? And it's like the two women I heard about sitting in the kitchen and they are smoking cigarettes and they have a glass of wine. And they're talking about all the teenagers on their block that are blowing pot. And one lady said, it is awful that these kids are smoking that pot stuff. It's not the grace I'm talking about. Not the grace that gives license to sin. And there's some people literally have been in churches where they heard so much grace preaching and they have seen the looseness of the congregation and they have seen that it has almost created the license for sin. In many cases it has because there's not been the preaching of true grace. Others have read Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for example. His message on cheap grace shook the church body. I read that and I said, oh God, never let me preach cheap grace. You could attend this church if you've been here a number of years. A number of years ago, right on this stage here at Times Square Church, I preached a hard message, a very hard message against sin. And there was very little, if I remember, very little grace or mercy in it. When I stepped back here about 10 feet and I collapsed. And folks, I laid here for 45 minutes and nobody left. I thought everybody had left. I was out of it for a while. I was literally paralyzed by the Holy Spirit. And here's what paralyzed me. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abominations of the Lord. I said, oh God, am I guilty of condemning the just? Was I too hard? And then God began to show me the line that I dare not cross. I cannot under any circumstance justify the wicked. I can't stand here and preach any kind of a message that will make people comfortable in their sins. And then I can't cross over here and condemn the righteous and make them feel guilty by taking something that should be grace and hope and taking away their hope. And the fear of God, the righteous fear of God came on me. And folks, from that day to this, I've always been aware when I stand in the pulpit not to cross that line. And I don't want to cross it today. You can hear whatever you want to hear out of this message. If your heart is bent on sin, it's just like those who heard Paul the Apostle preach. Some of them thought that he was excusing sin. He said, God forbid. Well, see what's in your heart will determine how you hear my message today. And I learned powerfully that I cannot preach a false or cheap grace. Now, in Proverbs 3, 7, we read, Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Let me give you some of these very quickly. Proverbs 8, 13, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Proverbs 16, 6, By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. I heard a sister say, I am kept clean by the fear of God. She said, I fear hell. I fear losing my salvation. I fear I might miss heaven. She said, you better believe it's the fear of God that holds me from my sins. She said, every day I get up, that fear turns in me. I live every waking hour with this fear hanging over my head. I dare not fail God. I must please God. And she said, I am kept by fear. The only problem is that woman never has known in 20 years one day of joy. She's never known peace. She's never known the rest. In fact, by her own confession, she said, Sir, I have never really known the love of God. I know nothing about His compassion and love. She's lived for 20 years under this burden. She's heard somebody say, and she's misread these scriptures, the fear of the Lord is the way to conquer sin. And folks, there was a time I preached so hard, you'd have thought you're at Mount Sinai. You could hear the thunder. I took people to Mount Sinai, and I left them there many times. Now, I don't take it back because my heart was right, and God used every one of those messages. God used them powerfully. Lives were changed because my heart was sincere and I was open for God. And I always went to the pulpit on the anointing and anointing of the Holy Spirit. But at Mount Sinai, the people saw the lightning. They heard the roaring thunder, the piercing sound of God's supernal trumpet. They saw the mountain on fire. They saw the smoke ascending to heaven. And the Bible says they feared greatly. You talk about fear. There was a fear on them that, folks, within 40 days, that fear was gone. Within 40 days, they're dancing around a golden calf saying, Where is this man? They didn't even call him by his name. They turned to idolatry, ready to go back to Egypt. The fear of God did not keep them from their iniquity, did not keep them from rebellion. Not the kind of fear that most people talk about and think about. It's called servile fear. Servile fear means the character of a slave who obeys only by fear of judgment. Only the fear of hell. Only the fear of exposure. Let me tell you something, folks. Exposure, by the way, to sin never heals anybody. Never. I've known some well-known pastors in this country who've been exposed for sin, and for a while it worked, and then a year later they were right back at their same old sin because exposure never heals anything. Now, there are people who are convinced the only way they can stay away from habituating sin, the only way they can get rid of seductive temptation, for example, is to have this servile fear of God. If I don't do this, or if I go another step this way, I'm going to be damned, I'm going to lose my soul, and God's going to get mad at me and throw me into an everlasting fire. And I want you to know, folks, that that kind of fear will not long keep you from your iniquities. It will not give you victory over temptations. Remember God opening in Israel, or rather in the wilderness? We've got Dathan and Abiram rise up against Moses in total rebellion. The earth opens and swallows both families, all the children, all the belongings. Two hundred and fifty princes, those who are considered the most godly and respected in the camps, rose up also in rebellion. Fireballs from heaven came down and consumed them. Literally, the people ran in fear. Fear covered the camp. If you're going to tell me that that kind of fear is the fear of God, where people run in panic and they have a dread of a holy God only, then I'm going to tell you it doesn't work. Because the very next day, these people came. The fear did nothing to them. In fact, they came in their rebellion and said to Moses, You have murdered the godliest people. You've killed all the holy people of Israel. That kind of servile fear did no good whatsoever. Remember, what about Israel standing before Samuel demanding a king? Samuel said, You asked for a king when the Lord was your king. And your wickedness is great what you have done in asking for a king. These people had committed a terrible sin. God told Samuel, They didn't turn against you, Samuel. They turned against me. And God was angry, the scripture says. God was angry with these people. And it was wheat harvest. And Samuel prayed. And folks, a storm broke out in Israel and Judah at that time, during harvest time. The thunder literally shook the earth. The lightning was the most frightening they had ever seen. It was a supernatural storm that anything they could have conceived, the wheat harvest, evidently is destroyed. And the people trembled. They turned to Moses and said, Pray for us. They were full of the fear, the servile fear of God. But it didn't change anything. They still wanted Saul. And the next day they started marching to Saul's orders. That kind of fear did not keep them from iniquity. It did not save them from their sins. There's a proper righteous fear of God. And this proper righteous fear of God is the kind that keeps men and women from their iniquities. Folks, I remember when I was a young preacher. And like every young preacher, trying to find my place. And going through all kinds of, I'm not talking about moral temptations, but temptations to go this way or compromise with what I believe God was calling me to do. And not accept the call of God to New York, for example. Some of these things that came against me as a young person. And I would get up and preach messages. The only way to get victory over sin is to have such a fear of God in you, a dread of God. The only problem was, what I was preaching wasn't working for me. It wasn't working at all until I had to get deadly honest with God. Lord, there's something wrong with my concept of the fear of God. And let me tell you now, and listen closely. You cannot have a righteous, true fear and reverence of God until you have a full revelation of His tender mercies. You have to first know that He loves you. Remember the Lord distributing talents to His servants? The one He gave ten, another five, another He gave one. Remember the one who got the one talent? He said, I knew you, master, but you're a hard man. So I was afraid. And what did that fear do? Did that make Him productive? Did that make Him a good servant, a filthful servant? No, it paralyzed Him. It paralyzed Him. He doesn't even have the grace to invest, to put it there where it could just gain interest, whether He went out and tried to make something of it or not. Fear absolutely paralyzed the servant. And I'm telling you, my Bible says, fear has torment. And that is not the kind of fear God wants His children to walk under, where you're just afraid. It's like God is the sort of, what was it, do you call it? Anyhow, the sword that hangs over the head, and that any moment it's going to fall, make your first wrong move, and God's going to get you. And folks, we have Christians living under that kind of terror. I mean, they've never entered into the peace of knowing the tender mercies of Jesus Christ for them. They've never walked in the security of that love. Many of you sitting here right now, listen, in the balcony and all around this auditorium, you that are standing in the back, all over this place, many of you have never known the tender mercies of the Lord, and having not known them, you don't know how to claim them, you don't know how to appropriate them into your life. And that's what I want to bring to you by God's grace here today. The true fear of God comes out of knowing and experiencing the tender mercies of the Lord. When you fully understand His tender mercy toward you, your greatest fear will be that you become ungrateful, and that you would do disgrace to that love. For example, a woman confessed about having an affair. She said she was seduced into an affair with a man. She said, I didn't want it. I don't know how it happened. I have a husband who adores me, treats me like a queen. We get along fine. And she said, I don't, I can't begin to tell how this happened. I cheated on my husband. I was seduced and I gave in, and she said, I was so condemned, I went to my husband, I told him all about it, and he forgave me. He's that kind of a man. And she said, let me tell you what I've been through. What I've been through every day waking up and looking at the grief in his eyes. He's totally forgiven me, but the grief. And she said, I live in constant fear that I have so sinned against your love that I could lose it. The most precious thing I've ever had, this man has done nothing against me, never hurt me, done everything and forgiven me, and I sinned against that love. And she said, the fear that I have now, and I live with it constantly, is that I have so grieved him that somewhere down along the line I'm going to lose that love. The one thing that means more to me than anything. Now, folks, you don't have to ever fear losing the love of God. But this is what I'm talking about. The real fear of God is that I am so loved, He has done so much, He has opened His arms, He's forgiven me in everything that I've done, I've confessed my sins, He's forgiven me, He's wiped it clean, He's never held it against me, is that you could ever bring disgrace upon that kind of tender mercy and love for you. That's where the fear is. The fear that I would not be grateful for that love, that I would not live according to that love. Not the fear of losing it, but you say, I don't want to grieve Him who is my most intimate friend. I don't want to grieve Him who loves me and gave His life for me. I don't want to hurt Him. I don't want to grieve Him. Those who are really righteous before God, those who walk in true holiness, that's their one concern in life. I love Him so and I don't want to ever grieve that love. I don't ever want to cheat on that love. I don't want to be seduced away from Him. Because He's never hurt me, He's done me nothing but good. Hallelujah. You beginning to understand that? That's not servile fear. That's the true fear of God, by which men are delivered from their sins. Now, let me teach you something about God's tender mercies, alright? Go to Psalm 21 with me, if you will please. We're going to go through some psalms here to show you something of the tender mercies of the Lord. Psalm 21. Do you have it? Alright, first three verses. I'm reading from King James. Now, if you have anything but the King James, it may not read like we're going to read. That's why I recommend, if you want to hear, if you come to hear me preach, bring your King James Bible with you, okay? Do you know, I read in a paper yesterday in the New York Times, there are now 400, listen to me, 400 different interpretations of the Bible now. And you know what they titled it? It's all about addition to the Bible. You know what they entitled it? Babble of tongues. Babble. That drives me right back to this book. King James. Having said that, let's go to it. The King shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. Thou has given him his heart's desire, and is not withholding the request of his lips. Shabbat. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. Thou settest a cloud of pure gold on his head. Now, look at verse three. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. That has nothing to do with our English word to hinder or stop. This is a new word. I want you to understand. We're going to learn something now. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. Now, I want you to go to Psalm 59. Verse 9 and 10. Because of his strength will I wait upon thee, for God is my defense. For the God of my mercy shall what? Prevent me. God shall let me see my desire upon my enemies. There's the word again, prevent. Now, I want you to go with me to Psalm 79. Psalm 79, verse 8. Do you have it? Oh, remember not against us formal iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily what? Prevent us, for we are brought very low. Now, follow me closely, please. The word prevent here, the Lord has prevented me with his blessings. He's prevented me with his tender mercies. What that means in Hebrew, you'll find it also the same meaning in the references to this. In fact, you'll find a number of references to this preventing mercy of God. Preventing tender mercies of God. That word prevent means to anticipate and to perceive action. In other words, it's not just that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, but he's a rewarder of those who have fulfilled no conditions also, who have done nothing to merit it. In other words, he perceives, he anticipates, and he blesses you before you ever do anything good or righteous. Just because he loves. He prevents. In other words, he anticipates. He moves in before you fulfill any kind of obligation. You remember, for example, the two conditions of salvation. What? Repentance and faith. Isn't that correct? Repentance and faith. Again, you'll hear David say, I said I will turn from my transgressions and the Lord heard me and forgave me. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. God had already forgiven him. God prevented. In other words, God anticipated it and God moved in before the conditions were met. He moves in. He has such grace. He has such love for his people. He surprises us. These are what I call Holy Ghost surprisals of love. About how to get out of our besetting sins. He says, Oh God, how do I do that? Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent me. God anticipate my victory. Anticipate that I love you. And move in now and give me the mercies. Because in the Hebrew it says, because I'm totally exhausted. I'm exhausted. Lord, I'm exhausted trying to figure this thing out. I'm exhausted trying to do it on myself. God, come and give me grace and mercy. Love me out of this. Hallelujah. The preventing tender mercies of the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You go back all the way to the beginning, back to Adam. When Adam sinned and mankind sinned in Adam. It was not Adam who went after the Lord for a savior. It was God himself who came down and said, Your heel is going to break the serpent's head. That meant the Messiah will come. It was a preventing grace and mercy of the Lord. God offered to a man who was in the belly of rebellion. Hadn't yet repented. Hadn't turned to the Lord. And God came in that rebellion and says, I'm going to send you a savior. That's preventing grace. That's preventing love and mercy. Zacchaeus climbs up in a tree into the crowd. He's just another multitude of people trying to stretch their neck to get a vision. Just one glimpse of the Savior. And Zacchaeus is not crying out. He's not yet said, half my goods will I give to the poor. He's made no move whatsoever. He's just standing there as a curious man. And suddenly the preventing mercy of Jesus says, Zacchaeus come down. I have to be at your house today. That was a preventing grace of God. The repentance came after the grace. It came after the preventing mercies of the Lord. Paul, Saul was a blasphemer. He was a murderer. In fact, by his own confession, I was a blasphemer. And I was a persecutor. But I've sent mercy. When did he get mercy from the Lord? When did he get the revelation of who Jesus was? Was he on his knees at the time repenting? No, he was on horseback, ready to enslave and murder God's people. What happened? A surprise. A surprise of grace and mercy and loving kindness. The Lord knocks him off his horse. Grace. The Lord shines so bright before him, he's blinded. Grace. Mercy. The preventing mercy. The anticipating mercy. God knew he was going to take this man. God anticipated it. Hallelujah. What about the lost sheep? That lost sheep didn't go out there and groan and cry. There's no evidence that that lost sheep tried his way back to the shepherd. The story is that the shepherd went out after the lost sheep, took it in his arms and brought him back. It was the preventing love and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ that anticipates, that acts before there was any action. That acts before your confession. It also acts even in your disobedience. What was Paul but a disobedient man? Remember Moses? He's called to God and God says, Moses, I want you to go and deliver my people out of Egypt. He said, well, go find somebody else. I don't know how to talk. And the Bible said that God was angry with Moses. Now, what he really deserved, what you and I often deserved, that was outright rebellion. God was angry. There's no chiding from the Lord. There's no rebuke from heaven. Aaron's walking toward Moses and God's preventing grace. He says, wait a minute, there's your brother, Aaron. He talks good. You talk to him, he'll talk to Pharaoh. God said, it's not complicated. I'm going to love you out of this mess. How many times you and I deserved a real spanking? You and I deserve to be torn apart because of our rebellion? And rather than spank you, rather than to correct you, rather than judge you, he surprises you by embracing you and doing something wonderful for you and you stand back. I don't deserve that. Of course you don't. You never will. One of us do. How many times has he surprised you? I'm surprised every day. Lord, how did you do that? Why did you do that? I don't deserve it, Lord. The Lord says, I know you don't. It's my mercy. It's my love for you. I'm trying to show you something the Lord says. Hallelujah. It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer. And while they're yet speaking, I will hear. Hallelujah. Now the whole point of this message is this. If our God loves us so much that he delights in surprising us with his tender mercies, how much more is he going to love you and see you through when you're in the thick of a battle? If he takes the time, can you imagine? God who runs the whole universe stops and says, I'm going to take Billy down here. And he's having a hard time. But I'm just going to bless him. He doesn't have much faith right now. I'm going to do something nice for him. I'm going to bless him. I'm going to save his wife and family. He hasn't been praying for his wife and family. He's discouraged. And the Lord comes down and he does something beautiful. He does something marvelous. That's the preventing love of God. The preventing mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. When David committed adultery, he's under the shame and sorrow of it all. You know what he did? He didn't go and pout. Folks, there comes a time, yes, we're to repent of our sins and we're to be sorry. There has to be a godly sorrow. But folks, if you continue to mourn for sin that's already forgiven, that is blasphemy before a holy God. That's to say, I asked him to forgive me and I told people, I believe he forgave me, but I'm still in mourning. You're mourning over what? Sins that are already sprinkled? Already cleansed? That's a disgrace on the Lord's power to forgive and cleanse. Believe it when you go to the sprinkling of the blood. Believe that you're justified. Don't allow the devil to put those lies in your mind. Hallelujah. Stand on it. David appealed to the loving mercies of God. He's been exposed by Nathan now, and David immediately appeals to the tender mercies of God. He said, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Where is the blotting out of the transgressions? According to his tender mercies. Get that in your mind. That'll stand against all the onslaughts of the devil. By his tender mercies, my sins will be blotted out. I appeal to the mercy of God. And folks, when you're in the worst battle, you're in the worst struggle, the devil's trying to tell you you're going to fall and that you're filthy, you're not going to make it, run to the mercies of God. Appeal to the tender mercies of God. According to your tender mercies, O God, deliver me. Hallelujah. David, oh, by the way, you know, I read a statement by a sailor. He said in fair weather, sailors turn to their oars and their sails. But when the storm hits, he turns to his anchor. He turns to his anchor. Because when you're in a storm, you have to anchor that boat so you won't be tossed against the rocks. Folks, when everything's fine, you depend on your oars. Your oars are going to work your way out of this. Oh, but God allow a storm where nothing but an anchor is going to hold you. And that anchor is the tender mercies of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm anchored in his mercy. Hallelujah. David fully trusted in God's love and mercy toward him, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who clowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. David said the Lord is gracious. He's full of compassion. He's slow to anger, of great mercy. The Lord is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works. You know what Jesus said? Not one sparrow shall fall to the ground without your father. It doesn't say without your father knowing it, but without your father. In other words, he's right there. And a sparrow falls, and the Bible said, you are worth more value than many sparrows. You know what Jesus is saying? Look, I've told you that my tender mercies are over all my works. That includes nature. That includes plants. That includes animals. Do you know that Jesus loves animals? That he cares? He feeds all these animals. They're in his care. I don't care. Look at the straggliest dog you ever saw. God said that he cares. And not a sparrow falls to the ground without him. If you believe that, how in the world can you conceive that he would leave you when you fall to the ground? He said, no, I love you. My tender mercies are over all my works. You're the handiwork. My work and my tender mercies are over all my work. I'm going to close in just a moment. But I want to tell you about a man I knew in Texas. He was a friend of mine. He's what you call a perfectionist. Anybody know what that means? I mean struggle and struggle to do everything perfect and right. This man drove himself. He'd been driving himself for years. He was in his mid-40s when I met him. Absolute perfectionist. His wife told me, said, David, the reason he's a perfectionist is that he could never please his father. Never once when he grew up did his father ever tell him he did anything right. He was always told that's wrong, stupid, you don't know how to do anything right. And he grew up with this idea that he had to please his father. And his father never did compliment him. And this man lived under, in fact, it caused such depression. He was, I think, was taking lithium. I don't know what other drugs he was taking. Deep, deep depression. And one of his other friends brought him to me once. He was thinking of suicide. I counseled and counseled that poor man. I tried everything, but he had this drive in him. It had to be just perfect. Driven. He took a shotgun, went into the bedroom and pulled the trigger and killed himself. And I've never forgotten it. Never forgotten that drive he had to please his father. And, you know, we have a lot of Christian perfectionists. They have the idea they can never please their heavenly father. They are living under constant condemnation and guilt and fear, struggling. Somehow, I've got to please my father. If I don't do right, and we're always trying to get it right, get it right, get it right. We're doing it in our own strength and doing it in our own power. You know how that grieves the heavenly father? Because he's not that kind of a heavenly father. Our heavenly father, my Bible said he's pleased with his children. He delights in his children. And you can't do it right anyhow. You come through that which Jesus did right before the father. You stand before the father totally accepted in Christ and his work on the cross. Hallelujah. So quit trying in your own strength. And come to him today before you leave this church building. And come to him and say, Father, I appeal to the tender mercies of my Lord and my God. I accept your love today. And whatever I'm going through, Lord, I know you're going through it with me. And, Lord, I anticipate your blessings. You're going to love me out of every mess the devil tries to bring into my life. Every bit of confusion, every bit of hurt. Lord, I want to be held by your love. I want to tell you this now. Look me in the eye. God's not mad at anybody here today. He's not mad at you. He's your father. He's your Lord. Don't tell me he didn't love you when he died for you and died for me and gave his life. And, folks, that's been the greatest blessing in my life. The day the Lord brought me into the promised land. He got me out of my wilderness of fear and anxiety and depression and everything else. He brought me out when he brought me in to the knowledge of his tender, loving kindness and mercy. He said to his loving kindness, there's no end. And he loves you. I don't care what you're going through. Jesus is loving you. He's, in fact, never loved you more than he does now in your struggle. Oh, when my children are suffering or my grandchildren, I am there and oh how my heart goes out. I will do anything humanly possible within my power to ease that pain and to help them advise in this thinking. And if we who are earthly know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more our heavenly father. So, once and for all, eject out of your mind, put out of your mind once and for all that God is angry with you. And turn to him in love and repentance and say, oh, Jesus, forgive me for doubting you. Forgive me for thinking you're a hard man. Forgive me for my trying to be perfect before you in my own righteousness and strength. And turn to him now and accept his everlasting love. Will you stand? Hallelujah. If you believe Jesus loves you on the spot where you are, whatever you're going through, raise both hands. Now just thank him while you have your hands up. Just thank him. Lord, thank you, Jesus, for your everlasting love. Thank you for your tender mercies to my soul. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. They're everlasting. Now, heavenly father, there are people hearing me now, people that are hearing me now, your people, people who love you. But, Lord, they're in despair and they're hurting because the enemy is trying to persuade them that they can't get back to your love, so that you're angry with them. And, Lord, despair and discouragement has set in. Oh, God, deliver them from that today. And, Lord, some of them are already running from you because they feel that they have sinned too grievously against you and that it's not possible to be forgiven. Oh, Lord, nothing is impossible with you. There's nothing that cannot be forgiven. You will forgive, Lord, the hardest of hearts. You'll forgive, Lord, those who turn to you in simple childlike repentance. If you're here in the building, you say, Pastor David, I have been that one that's been struggling to please the father, and I've never felt like I could please him as I should. Folks, that's spiritual suicide. Ask God to deliver from you today. Get out of your seat and come here now, and let's pray for deliverance right now. That's a bondage. God wants to deliver you from that bondage. Give me your hand. God's going to do something miraculous for you. Jesus, the devil's trying to kill this man. Jesus, I'm asking you to transform him. He becomes a man of God beginning today. Lord, you've seen this man, and he's wanted you. There's something happened to him when he was a child. Lord Jesus, you're going to wipe that away, and you're going to give him power and strength and make him a man of God. Thank you, Jesus. God bless you, son. God bless you. Hallelujah. Wonderful Jesus. Wonderful Savior. Why did you come up? Did you come up here to say, Jesus, when I walk out of this building, I'm not going to be the same person that came in this building. I'm going to believe that you're going to see me through. I'm going to trust in your love and your mercy. I will repent. I will turn to the Lord. Listen, the most important thing you can give is what I told this young man who told me this afternoon he felt like giving up. The one thing God wants more than anything else besides your faith is precious time, quality time with him. If you just keep clinging to Jesus and keep running back to him and going to him and talking to him, I mean, learn to talk to him. You talk to your friends. You talk to others. You can talk to Jesus. Friend to friend. He's your friend. Talk to him as a friend. Go to him and say, Lord, I'm having a problem. Now you hold me. I know you love me, and I'm going to trust that love right now. See me through. Show me what to do. Show me how to do it. God will talk to you. Jesus will talk to you. He'll become very close to you if you'll draw close. He said, you draw nigh to me, I'll draw nigh to you. Hallelujah. You know why you're down here now? That's that preventing love of Jesus. You haven't even prayed yet, have you, and yet the Lord's loving you. He's here right now convicting you. The Holy Ghost is here upon you now. You haven't even said a word yet. Now let's go to that wonderful preventing love of Jesus and believe him now to give us a wonderful presence of his grace and love. Would you pray this prayer with me right now? And if you need it from your heart, it'll be the beginning of something very, very lasting and real. Pray this with me loud and clear. Jesus, I have nothing to offer you but my unbelief, my failure, and my sins. But I want Jesus to trust you. I want to give you my heart. I want you to help me, Jesus, to believe in you, to see me through every hard time, every temptation. Oh, Lord Jesus, help me to remember when I'm being tempted and when I fall that you still love me. You're merciful. You have pity for me. And you're going to see me through. I confess I need you. I confess my sins. Come, Lord Jesus, with your great love. Let me know you love me. Let me feel your love. And help me to love others as you've loved me. Now, I'm going to pray for you. Heavenly Father, I heard what these have said as they stand before your holy presence. But, oh, Lord Jesus, I'm asking that the Holy Spirit come now to finish the work you said you would complete, the work that you have begun. Complete it, Lord, now by a revelation of who Jesus is. Lord, let this message be lost. Don't let this be seed planted on shallow ground. Let this be seed planted in good soil. Prepare the soil. Let it be heard. Oh, God, remind them next week, tomorrow even, even before this day is over, when the enemy comes in with lies, when there are all kinds of temptations thrown at us from the pits of hell, that we will remember that we are loved and that God, our Lord, is going to stand with us. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the tape.