This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and experiencing His glory and presence. It shares personal experiences of encountering God's glory and the eternal perspective of focusing on Christ alone. The speaker encourages a deep devotion to Jesus and a detachment from worldly things, inviting individuals to seek a fresh touch from God and a renewed love for Him.

Listen to that array of speakers. I want you to know young people how fortunate you are to yours truly put aside, but all of these speakers that are listed and those that are coming, that's most unusual. You don't get that in many schools. That's most unusual. I'm very excited and hopeful about Nikki Cruz coming and also Dr. Leonard Ravenhill. My, those are tremendous. When Leonard Ravenhill gets here, this white-haired prophet, you'll pray like you've never prayed in your life. He'll get you to your knees. I can't hear that man preaching. I'm on my knees before he's done and I'm excited about the possibilities of his coming. Surprising how attached you can get to a group when you've only been here three times. We have an attachment to you so that we can pray for you and believe the Lord to minister to your heart and cause you to grow in the Holy Spirit. Are you loving him a little more today than you were last night? Hallelujah. You know, if you really love him, it's exciting just going to bed at night. It's exciting to get up in the morning because he's still there. And he grows more dear and more precious every day. And I thank him for that. I get, he's my life. He's my strength. He wants to be your life and your strength. And all he really wants out of you is your devotion and your total commitment loving him. Then he said, if you love me, you'll obey me. He wanted us to see such beautiful picture of grace. How that when we deserve nothing but wrath and judgment, he provided all this love and mercy. We would be so enamored by that, so in love with him because of what he's done at the cross, that we would love him. He would not have to whip us into submission, but we would lovingly come to him. And the prayer of my heart all my life has been, Lord, I don't want to come through harsh discipline. I don't want to come through spankings. I want to come willingly. I don't want to wait until you have to spank me. I don't want to wait until I have to have discipline. I want to come first. I have four children and one especially, one of my children, I spanked him maybe, I never had to spank him again because he would come to me and if he thought he had grieved me in any way, if I would just look at him with sadness in my face, he'd break down and weep. And there was such a love between us. He's pastors now, a black church in Detroit, and he still has that tenderness. And his own child, Ashley, is one year old and I see that same thing in that grandson, that devotion. And he introduced me once, my son, that same son, to a congregation of a few thousand people and he says, I want you to meet my best friend. I want you to meet a man who's taught me Christ. And I'll tell you, I broke down and I could hardly get into my message. And that's what the Lord wants of us. Some of you come from a home that may be broken and you don't see your father that way. You don't have that kind of relationship to him, but that's the kind of relationship he wants with you. He wants that love and devotion that there should not be chapel speakers and teachers having to bring you into submission, but willingly, out of a heart of love and absolute devotion to him. And when you come to the chapel, you should come to love him. Come to show your devotion and love to him. I'm so, this morning, overwhelmed at his love for me. Overwhelmed at his love for me. Because every time just coming here this morning and seeing all the people with sadness wake up, with terrible sadness in their heart, and to wake up with such peace and joy that passeth all understanding. I can't comprehend that. I keep, I've been saying all morning, Lord, why me? And why you? Why are you sitting here this morning, of all the people that are suffering in the world and living in turmoil and bound by drugs and alcohol and sexual fears, and here you sit this morning, chosen as a brand plucked out of the burning, God's hand on you. Don't ever stop rejoicing in that. Don't ever stop thanking him for that. Glory be to God. Well, I have a word for you. And I've struggled with the Lord for quite a bit last night, is what I should bring to you of a number of subjects. But the Lord kept bringing me back to this one. And I don't know why. There may be some here, may be the school that's here, young people, it could be students, I don't know, staff. This is the message the Lord wanted me to bring to you. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your keeper. I'm going to show you what it means, this profound thing of being kept by the power of God. Kept. You don't keep yourself. You've been trying to keep yourself, I want you to give up this morning, and by faith, learn what it means to be kept by the power of God through faith. Heavenly Father, keep us. Let us know you're keeping power this morning. Give us that touch, that divine touch of the word that brings life. Oh God, thank you this morning for your son Jesus. Thank you for the life that he is to us. Thank you Holy Spirit for revealing him to our hearts. Now minister your truth to us. Amen. Now there's a thrilling Old Testament story that illustrates what it means to be kept by the power of God. Now love the story. It's Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, declaring war on Israel. And he camps against Israel with a huge army, a massive army. And he meets with his war council daily, and he's planning a strategy against Israel. And the prophet Elisha keeps sending a note to the king of Israel saying, Ben-Hadad is going to be over here. Ben-Hadad's going to be here. Watch out. And so they had forewarning of all the plans of Ben-Hadad. Everywhere Ben-Hadad's army moved, Israel was prepared. And Ben-Hadad was furious. He called his servants together. They said, show me who the traitor is. Tell me who's revealing our plans to the king of Israel. And the servants said, it's not what you think my lord, O king. There is no traitor in your camp, or in your court. We are all true men. The man of God, Elisha he's referring to, the man of God, telleth the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber. Everything you think while you're going, you're laying on your bed, and this prophet's reading your mind. Well, Ben-Hadad in his anger dispatched a host of soldiers, chariots, and surrounded Dothan. He said, go to Dothan and bring him to me. This was his demand. So by night they surround Dothan. And the servant Elisha rises early, probably goes out to the well to get a bucket of water, and he looks up, and he's staring in the face of a furious army. I mean just surrounded. He runs in the house in terror. Alas, my master, what are we going to do? We are surrounded. With a twinkle in his eye. I see, if I want picture Elisha, I think of Leonard Ravenhill. White-haired prophet of God. And that gentle twinkle in his eye. He says, don't be afraid, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. You see, here's Ben-Hadad's army, and God's army had encircled Ben-Hadad's army in a wider circle. Elisha could say, I will not be afraid for 10,000 of people that have set themselves against me round about. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me in this, I will be confident. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many with me. Now this is my prayer. The Lord said to the young, Elisha said, Lord, open the young man's eyes. I want you as young people this morning to have your eyes opened. The prayer of Elisha is my prayer right now. Lord, I want you to open all of our eyes so we can see the mountains around about us, the spiritual hills filled with armies of the Lord encamped around about us to deliver us. Hallelujah. Now the Old Testament saints knew the Lord, Jehovah, in a way that we don't know him, and God wants us to know him, and I want you to get to know him as the Old Testament prophets like Elisha knew him. They knew him as the Lord of Hosts, H-O-S-T, the Lord of Hosts. Over 200 times in the Old Testament we find him referred to as the Lord of Hosts. David, it was said of David, David waxed greater and greater for the Lord of Hosts was with him. The Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Oh, Lord God of Hosts, who's a strong tower like unto thee or to thy faithfulness round about. And you go through the Old Testament, here's what you find. The Lord God of Hosts, hear our prayers. Lord God of Hosts, he is with us. Lord God of Hosts, you are the king of glory. Lord God of Hosts, you live and you will save us. What's it mean, Lord of Hosts? H-O-S-T-S all through the Old Testament. God begin to deal with me. I am the Lord of Hosts, and in the Hebrew it's Saba'ah. And that word Saba'ah in the Old Testament means an army ready and poised for battle. Soldiers, horses, and chariots ready to go to war at an appointed time. An army assembled and mustered waiting for instructions. See, Elisha knew him as Lord Saba'ah, the Lord who is coming to my assistance with an army ready for battle. Assembled and waiting for instructions. Hezekiah, at another time when Syria was surrounding Israel, he knew him as Lord Saba'ah. He knew him as the Lord of Hosts. He said he gathered his people together, and they too are surrounded. He said, Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid or dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for the multitudes that are with him. For there be more with us than there are with him. With him is the arm of the flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested on those words. Their fear was gone when they realized the Lord of Hosts was surrounding them. They rested on that vision. David said, The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, and the Lord is among them. David the psalmist said, And the Lord is thy keeper. Now that's the Old Testament. I'll take you to the New Testament and give you the promise that I want to bring to your attention now. Listen, this is probably one of the most important messages I've given you. If you've been moved by anything I've said, I want you to listen closely now. This has been a stabilizer in my life, and I want it to be a stabilizer in your life. First Peter 1 5. First Peter 1 5. We are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. This is a prophecy for this last day. Get a hold of this prophecy. It'll change your life. I repeat it again. We are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. All right, now that you've written it down, look at me. Look me right in the eye. Jesus, remember, in the 17th chapter of John, and by the way, the 17th chapter of John is one of the most powerful chapters in the Bible. If you were to strand me on an island and say, choose one chapter in the Bible, and that's all you can have, I'll take John 17. One of the greatest revelations of the heart of God. It explains the heart of Christ as probably no other chapter in the Bible. And remember, Christ is about to return to His Father to be glorified, and He's praying about His disciples. And here's what He says to His Father, John 17 12. While I was with them in the world, Father, I kept them in Thy name. Who kept them? I kept them in Thy name. Those Thou hast given to me, I have kept, and none of them is lost. Hey, listen to me. Those disciples were just as frail as you and I. They didn't keep themselves. In fact, as soon as the Lord was taken, they all forsook Him and fled. They all left Him. They had been kept by Christ Himself. He kept them while He was alive. And then He prayed a prayer about you and me. He said, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, He's speaking to you and me, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Lord, I'm praying about those that remain and all they're going to win. I want You, Lord, I want You Father, to keep them by Your power. You keep them. I want to show you what an incredible thing it is to be kept by the power of God through faith. Now, kept in English is rather weak. It means to retain possession of, to take into one's charge, and to provide the necessities. You know, your parents kept you. They provided. They loved you. They met your needs. Oh, but when you get into the Greek, and I'll tell you what, young people, get a strong concordance. If you're not studying Greek or Hebrew, just get a strong concordance and you have a word that puzzles you. If you're the Greek, look in the Hebrew and let it open up to you. You don't have to be a Greek or Hebrew scholar. Get your word books out and study these words. Now, let me show you just the glory of this one word. Now, you can't catch it in the English, but when you go to the Greek, you see a unbelievable picture of what it means to be kept, and it's ferrero, and it means to establish a military outpost, to guard it and hem it in and protect it with a garrison, to establish a fortress with a full military line, with a full military apparatus, to set up a sentinel to discern the enemy far in advance and protect it from all danger. My, you say, is that all in the Greek? It's all in the Greek. That's what it says. We are kept by the power of God. It means that God actually establishes you and me as a military outpost with a full army and full military apparatus. Incredible. It's not that the Lord Himself is a strong tower. The Lord is in us. He establishes us as a strong tower with a holy ghost sentinel that sees the devil coming from all directions. That's why I don't have any time for people trying to scare me about demons kind of coming in and possessing my life. Man, the first thing, they have to cross the bloodline. They have to, I've got a sentinel saying he's coming, and then I've got an army of horses and chads. How in the world does he get through the line? Jesus then prayed, keep them from the evil. Not only keep you, but keep you from the evil that's in the world. Boy, there's another word, pereros, and it means deliverance from the effect or influence of anything that's bad or evil, grievous, harmful, lewd, malicious, wicked. And it also means deliverance from Satan himself and all that's corrupted or diseased. Hey, look, he said we are kept by the power of God from evil. Put it together, it's almost unbelievable. Listen to it. We are God's military outposts protected by a full and equipped spiritual army including innumerable soldiers and horses and chariots in full battle array, completely informed of every enemy plan and device, and defended completely against Satan and all the evil powers of the age. Oh my goodness, why are we afraid then? Why should we ever be afraid again? When I saw this, I began to just rest in the power of God, rest in the glory of his promise. We are kept by faith. You've got to believe that what he said is true. He said that if you trust him, you are a military outpost, and you're equipped, you've got a Holy Ghost sentinel, and you are being kept by the armies of God greater than no one of the scriptures takes on such meaning. Greater is he that is in us. Well, who is it that's in us? The armies of God. David said, I'll look to the hills from whence cometh my salvation. Why did he look to the hills? That's where the armies were, the armies of God. Hallelujah. We don't keep ourselves from the power of the devil. Since when does a shepherd send the sheep to fight the lion? You know, we got, we got, we got sheep coming up to the shepherd and communicating to the shepherd somehow. You see that lion out there and those terrible eyes glaring at us? Since you're not doing anything about it, let me get him for you. And you know, first of all, he's the door, means he's laying across the door of the sheepfold. You've got to jump over him. Then you go out there and you're going to say, well, father, you're not going to get that lion, I'll get him for you. No, when the lion comes, the place of the sheep is under the feet of the shepherd. My shepherd knows how to fight the devil and all the powers of hell. That's not my job. My job is to trust my captain. Hallelujah. We should be less preaching about the devil, more preaching about the glory of the cross. Hallelujah. Young people don't go that way. You know, God showed me something. I hear so much talk about spiritual warfare and yet God keeps trying to tell me the battle's been won. That at the cross, we fight not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers of darkness. But that's only get to the cross and the vision of it. Once we have that, we have victory in Christ. I'm ascended with the Father, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. How can I be, how can I be at war? He causes all wars to cease. I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places and we've got to come to a place where we're in ascension life. Glory be to God. Lord ended my wars. He's keeping me by His power. He said there's a rest that remains for the children of God and if I'm at rest, I'm not at war. Oh, I warred. Would you believe I was in a spiritual war? It was only because I had God's deal on my sin. Once I laid it down, the war was over. A lot of the spiritual warfare is people holding on to their sins. Mm-hmm. Now when I got spiritual warfare, we had a couple here last night. I'm in here gritting their teeth and praising the Lord through their teeth gritting. I just keep saying, oh God let it, tell them let it go, let it go. Somebody or something they're holding on to and they're resisting the Holy Spirit. No wonder they're in war. But you see, how can I be in war when I've got an army surrounding me? And by the way, if I'm in war, I'm sitting there while he's fighting the battle. He says, it's not my battle after all. It's his battle. The battle is the Lord's. If anybody's at war, it's my God against the forces of heaven, of hell. Glory to God. He sent from above and He took me and He drew me out of waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy for they were too strong for me. How can I be at war when He's already delivered me? He took me out of those waters. Oh, bless your heart. I've entered into a place of perfect peace. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. You know, I used to be afraid when I hear preachers talk about the time we'll stand before the judgment seat. We're all, you see, it's appointed unto man once to die and after that to judgment. Now that's not just physical death. It's appointed unto man once to die at the cross and that's where the judgment was taking place. And that, that scripture means something to me now. It's appointed unto man once to die and one day I died and I accepted His judgment against sin. Hallelujah. And I came out free. Are you dead yet? You're supposed to be dead in Christ. You're supposed to have been crucified. You don't crucify yourself. See, if you could, if you could nail one hand, you couldn't nail the other. Could you? Are you people trying to crucify yourself? No, you don't crucify yourself. You say Christ was crucified for me and you identify with His crucifixion. Hallelujah. I'm dead because Jesus died. I'm raised with Christ by the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Him from the dead raised me from the dead. Hallelujah. I don't live a crucified life. I live a resurrected life. I was crucified but I live a resurrected life. Hallelujah. You don't live a crucified life. That's something that happened to you by faith. Hallelujah. People go around living a crucified life. No, you live a resurrected life. The Bible said if you were not raised from the dead, you'd still be in your sins. It was the resurrection that completed the work. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. But you know, I used to fear that day would stand before the judgment seat of Christ because it says there are going to be many whose works are burnt. But I'm going to tell you, we're all going to have works that burn. Every one of us. That had nothing to do with, well, have I built something for Christ out of a wrong motive or have I done something for the Lord with a wrong motive and is that going to burn? No, no, no, no, no. In fact, hay, wood and stubble, precious stone and gold, everything's going to melt because the precious stone represents the best of our good works. David said even the gold melts. The precious stones melt. There's nothing going to stand before Him on that day. You know what He's not going to let you and I go into paradise thinking we had anything to do with our salvation. So He's going to play before our eyes every human work, every human righteousness that we tried to achieve our salvation or add something to the cross. He's going to let it burn before your eyes so that when you go to paradise for eternity, you're going to know that it was Christ alone, the cross alone. You and I had nothing to do with our salvation. He did it all at the cross. Your works and mine are all going to burn. But that doesn't mean you're afraid. He said, no, I'm going to present you faultless before the throne with exceeding great joy. And if I'm supposed to come boldly to the throne of grace now, you think I'm going to come with fear then? Come on now. I'm told to come boldly to the throne of grace right now. And then I'm going to come timidly then? No, no, no, no. The same blood that shelters me now, shelters me then. Hallelujah. Glory to God. The first moment of fear in my heart, I'll say, the blood, the blood, the blood. Hallelujah. That's the shelter. We are kept from the enemy without as well as the enemy within. Now the enemy without is the suffering caused by all the manifest, manifold temptations and sudden tragedies that come into our lives. Peter said, wearing you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, might be found under praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The key words here are heaviness and fiery trial. Heaviness is lupio, meaning grief, sorrow, trouble. Fiery here in Greek suggests a lightning-like, sudden test or trial. The first time I preached this message, when God gave it to me, it was in Lubbock, Texas, and a pastor, Ron Walrow, had just been killed in an airplane crash, and there was grief in the audience. His dear wife Betty was sitting in the front row, and two teenage girls whose parents were in the crash and were not expected to live. And I can't tell you the relief that God brought to them when they saw that were even kept in times of lupio, which means grief, sorrow, trouble, and a fiery, lightning-like test. She gets a telephone call, your husband's dead, and flies back. She was on the east coast and flies back and said, it can't be. When I get home, he'll be there. She couldn't believe it until she saw the casket. And God ministered to her this. Weren't you greatly rejoiced? Though now for a season need be, and heaven is through manifold temptation. Fiery trial, tried by fire, might be found unto praise and glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Preachers who say that Christians don't suffer don't know God or their Bibles. They don't know God. Christ was sinless, perfectly sinless, yet he suffered, and he did it as an example for us. Listen to this, for even here, listen to this now, for even here unto ye are called, called, Christ, because Christ also suffered us for us, leaving us an example that you should follow. And he steps, who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. He was not suffering because of sin, but he suffered as an example. You don't hear that from a lot of public pulpits today. To this you are called. Follow his example in the path of suffering. We don't hear that much anymore. And I think the most blasphemous thing I've ever heard in the past two years was an evangelist on television who said that if Paul had the kind of faith that's been revealed now, he'd have never had to been shipwrecked. He'd have never had to go to jail. Oh, that's frightening. That frightens me. I consider that the worst kind of blasphemy in the face of what Jesus said, what Peter said, for here unto you are called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow. His steps through suffering. I remember just six weeks ago how the Lord did something supernatural in my life. My wife has had six operations for cancer, and about three months ago they diagnosed lupus. And she was in horrible pain, and they gave her a very dangerous drug prednisone. And prednisone has a way of scrambling your mind. And we were warned it would happen. She gained 40 pounds of water and then would sit around like a vegetable. And I'd say, Lord, it's not fair. Because after working all these years with drug addicts, my wife would become addicted to Demerol because of her pain. I'd wake up in the morning and see a wife sitting in the edge of her bed saying, honey, please, I need relief. She was hooked. And I said, God, that's not quite fair. But it was only then when I saw her pain that I ever entered into the pain of a drug addict. Preached to them all these years and never known their pain or their suffering. But now on top of that, lupus. And Gwen came to the place where she despaired of life. I'd come home and she said, David, I fought through six cancers. And my wife's a miracle woman. She has one breast. She has one kidney. She has half her bowel. She has no goiter. I can't tell you. She's just cut like a jigsaw. She has no womb or half a vagina. I could just go on and on and on. And it's just a miracle that she's alive. And she said, David, I can't fight it anymore. I've had it. And I came home one day and Gwen, because of the prednisone, didn't know what she was doing. And she had gone into the bedroom. And way back when she'd had cancer, a year before and couldn't sleep, they'd given her sleeping pills. And their thinking was, well, she's not going to live anyhow. Let her sleep. And there were 70 sleeping pills left in a bottle that I didn't know was there. And she found them and didn't know what she's doing. Swallowed all of them. This is six weeks ago. She went up and I found her on the floor. We rushed to the hospital. She almost died. And when she came to, she said, honey, I can't fight it anymore. I'm at the end. I can't fight the pain. I can't fight the agony. And I dismissed myself from the hospital. And I went to my motel about five blocks from the hospital. And I'm going to tell you what happens when you're down. I hadn't had time to read my Bible or pray for three weeks. I hadn't time to study. I hadn't even talked to the Lord. I was so empty. I was so dry. And this had come after a time of great revelation and God moving in my heart. Speaking revelation knowledge to my heart. And usually when you're down and you open the Bible, it falls open to Jeremiah or Isaiah or one of the prophets. And all you see is gloom and doom. Isn't that right? And all you can see, all I could see is the man coming dressed in white, his garments dripped in blood, taking vengeance against him. And my heart sank in that darkness. And I closed my Bible and put it aside. And I said, I remember I just lay there and said, no Lord, no judgment, no wrath today. I can't handle it. Love me. I'm going to lay right here in this bed and I want you to love me. I was in a sudden fiery trial and for an hour and a half, the Holy Spirit just came and loved me. God showed me how I was being kept, how Gwen was being kept. And then I remembered what someone said just the day before he make it all wars to cease. And I said, Lord, I trust you now. I trust your keeping power. I can't keep myself. I can't even figure it out. I'm not going to try to figure it out. I'm not going to analyze it. I can't find any sin in my life. I can't find sin in her life, but Lord heal her, heal my mind. And I tell you, I felt his love. I hadn't prayed. I hadn't studied, but I felt his love. Glory to God. When I get up out of my bed and I went in the hospital, pray with Gwen and she was sitting up with a smile on her face. And she says, David, I've been healed. And my wife got out of that hospital. She hadn't had a pain, had no medication since, and she'd been healed by the power of God. Hallelujah. Thank God for that. She's got the best health she's ever had in 25 years. First time in 25 years, no pain. She lost 40 pounds of water and the joy of the Lord flooding her heart. She's an absolute living miracle. No wonder I preach this kept by the power of God through faith. Hallelujah. Now it's the enemy within that causes us the most distress. David said, in my distress, I cried. I could stop and preach a whole sermon there. When you're distressed, that's the first thing you do. But you see, David looked inside his heart and he didn't like what he saw. Now remember, God's calling him a man of God after his own heart. That's God's description of him, not his own. That wasn't his family's description of him. That wasn't his nation's description of him. That was God's concept of David. And David was that same man all through this inner struggle. He looked inside his heart one day and he said, deliver my soul, Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. Now, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. He's talking about his own lying lips and his own deceitful tongue. And David looked inside his heart and he said, what shall be done unto you, O false tongue, sharp arrows of the mighty and coals of Jupiter? Woe is me, David cried out. Woe is me. What is God going to have to do to get through to me? He looked in his heart and he didn't like this inner battle he was going through. He said, my sins have overwhelmed me. They're over my head. I don't understand what's happening to me. You ever been there where your heart at one side, one area of your life, you're reaching out to God with such agony and such ecstasy and wanting him so much. But then another level of your heart, you're looking inside and say, oh God, what's to be done with this deceit that's in me, this lying tongue of mine? What's to be done? And David, his first impression is that God's going to have to judge me. God's going to have to bring me down. I can't serve him like this because I've got a controversy in my heart. But you see, he keeps us not only from those fiery trials outside, he keeps us from the inner battles as well. He delivers us from this agony of our soul. When you're saying, woe is me, I don't like what I see in me. He keeps us from the enemy within. Oh God, is your mercy and grace, David said, is it completely gone? Is there no hope for me? Am I hopeless? I've talked to ministers who've had a battle raging for years. They can't seem to end it. But David ended his struggle not by making God promises, not by going into some exercise of discipline. Discipline yourself, you're going to try to bring yourself under somehow. But David took another way. And it's the way the Holy Spirit would want you to see. David, in this vision of his inner failure, said, I will lift up my eyes. And it was when he lifted up his eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help, my help cometh from the Lord. He will not allow my foot to slip. He that keepeth me will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber and neither sleep, for the Lord is my keeper. And that delivered David. He found deliverance by getting his eyes off his sin. And to this mighty deliverer who said he never sleeps, he keeps me from myself. Hallelujah. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord, now I want to show you something. He saw something here and this blessed me. He said, the Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and forevermore. Now, going out is synonymous with our failures and our sorrows. We're always going out on the Lord, aren't we? We're going out into disobedience. We're going out and often sinning and failing the Lord. We're going out into fear and despair and depression. And he said, he will keep you in your goings out. I had a young person come to me and said, Bro. David, I can't believe that he's keeping me with what I've done. I went out last week and I did something terrible. I want to show you something. It doesn't do me any good when a preacher tells me it's not a sin to be tempted when I was already tempted and gave in. You see, if I've already given in to temptation, somebody comes in and says to me, it's not a sin to be tempted. I said, well, I passed that point. That didn't mean anything to me. I already gave in. That's as far as some preachers go. They'll say, well, it's not a sin to be tempted. You say, well, I passed that point long ago. I was not only tempted, I fell. Well, this young man said, I can't believe God kept me in my going out. I went out and failed. My going out took me to the ground. I said, yeah, I want to tell you how God kept you. Don't tell me He didn't keep you. I said, were you comfortable in it? He said, no, I was miserable. I said, did you feel the Lord breathing down your neck and saying, I still love you? He said, yeah. He said, there was something inside that said, this is not for you. He said, I was miserable. He said, don't tell me He didn't keep you. He kept you miserable. He kept you under conviction. He kept reminding you of His grace. He kept you under the spirit of His love. Don't tell me He didn't keep you. You know what I'm talking about, don't you? You can't sin comfortably, can you? And you still feel His grace and His love, don't you? And you don't understand that because you grieved Him and you said, well, why are you still loving me so much? Because He's keeping you and you're going out. You're not going to get away from Him. He's keeping you. That's why I'm here now. He's kept me through all my goings out. But you see, I need more grace for my coming in. See, I'm always coming into revelation now. I'm coming in and Paul was coming into revelation and God had a loud thorn in His flesh. Unless He'd be elevated through that. And that was the Lord keeping him in His coming in. And you can be in this school and suddenly God will be doing something. You'll have souls being saved. You'll be riding high. Oh, you'll be riding high. That's when the Lord needs to keep you more than you're going out. Every time God blesses me in a supernatural way, I go home and pray. Lord, keep me now. Keep me now. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. He said, I'll keep you and you're going out and you're coming in. He's got every base covered, doesn't He? Well, I'm going to give you now a warning before I close, okay? Word of caution. There's an amazing truth, an amazing truth. Lord, when God showed me this, oh, did it shake me to the bone, the marrow of my spiritual bone. When He was reviled, speaking of Christ, He reviled not again. And when He suffered, He threatened not. I'm going to talk about threatening God and we all do it. How unlike the Lord we are. When we are threatened and when we suffer, we try to defend ourselves. Tell you what, I spent five hours the other day with Oral Roberts. I've never heard the man say an evil word, an unkind word against anybody. And I said, Brother Roberts, I want that spirit that God gave you. He said, Brother Dave, when He called me to ministry, He gave me that. I've never threatened because I've seen the revenge of God. No man can handle that. Only God can handle that kind of revenge. I've never heard him speak an unkind word. I've never heard Jimmy Swaggart either to me ever put anybody down. That's why the blessing of the Lord are on these men. And I hope and pray this ministry never comes where it has to fight back. Never. And the worst thing any of you that are associated with Brother Swaggart and his wife and family, the worst thing you could do is try to fight the enemy on his behalf. Just hands off, hands off. We withdraw from those who mistreat us. We hope the Lord will get even with them. Well, we don't say it, but when they start suffering, let's take some of these reporters who fight this ministry. Isn't there something that said, Lord, get him down. We'd like to see him and then we'd go down and hug. I've got him. And we have a tendency when people hurt us say, I'll still love him, but I don't have to associate with him. But let me show you what we do to God. Every time we pray about something and it doesn't happen. Every time we have to wait and linger for that answer. We think God's not moving on our behalf. We threaten God. And I'll tell you how we threaten God. We pull back. We don't study. We don't pray. We don't read our Bibles. And that's a threat against God. It's, it's our way of saying, Lord, I don't see the evidence of you working in my life. It's really your way of saying it doesn't pay to pray. And Lord told me one day that I dare not entertain the slightest grudge in my heart or the thought that he's not keeping me by his power. And I see a lot of people drifting. I, I've seen people who have a besetting sin. They've prayed and fasted about it for years. And they say, well, I pray, I prayed, I fasted. I did everything that I know how humanly and scripturally to get the victory over this. And God wasn't there to deliver me. So they feel they have a right to indulge it. And they go out and indulge it as a threat to God saying, well, Lord, where were you? I prayed for deliverance. You didn't deliver me. And they feel that they have every right to go out and do it because I did everything I can. The deliverance didn't come. And that's a threat. And I see God's people all over the country threatening him right now. I see whole churches that are threatening God. They sit in the church board. They come to the house of God empty and dry. And that whole church is threatening God. And when he suffered, he threatened not. I talked to a young lady here last night, 17, 18 years old, said she feels like killing somebody all the time. And she's so mad at God because of a mess up in her home. And she's threatening God. Why or how? She didn't want to open her Bible. She wouldn't pray because he's not there anyhow. And she lives constantly threatening God. And that can happen to you right in the school year. You can come to the chapel. Maybe somebody came in here right now. And you've actually been threatening God and didn't know it. And you're threatening him by the way you're just drifting. You're drifting. You're not seeking his face. You're not digging into his word to get to know him, to study his nature. Why? Because you said it's not making any progress. There's no progress for me. He's not there. He's not meeting my need. And when he suffered, he threatened not. But he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. Hallelujah. Can I share with you just one last thing? This is probably the last thing I'll be able to share with you. I always want to show you something. The students in high school back there and here, I had an experience. I just want to share it with you. It has something to do with this message this morning. I've had two experiences where the Lord's allowed me to be in what I would consider the third heaven. Couldn't be anything else. But this past year, I was preaching at a convention in Dallas. Students, about a thousand students. And at the end of my message, I began to raise my hands. And I was just worshiping the Lord. I was saying, glory, honor, and praise. Glory, honor, and praise. And I got carried away in a stream of praise. And I want to tell you something. There's only one eternal stream of praise. It goes to the throne and back, round and round, all through eternity. It covers the earth, encircles the earth. It's been encircling the earth for ages, from the very beginning of time. And when you get caught up in the Holy Spirit, you begin to worship the Lord. You're caught in the same stream of praise of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, all the apostles, all the fathers and the forefathers. That same worship and praise. You're in that eternal stream of praise. And I got carried away in that stream. And I passed out. My wife thought at first I had a heart attack. And the director of the program got up. And then he sat down because he recognized the Holy Spirit. And the audience knew the Holy Spirit was doing something. And I got carried away. And I was going out into the cosmos. And I was leaving the earth. And the earth became smaller and smaller until it was just a speck in space. And as that little world began to vanish, I began to cry, Oh God, that's my whole world. That's everything I've ever held dear. And it was vanishing. It was a little pinpoint. It was about to die. And that would be gone. I had no place to stand. The Bible says on that day, there'll be no place to stand. There's no more heaven. There's no earth. The earth is gone. And one of these days, that's exactly what's going to happen. Everything, you know, all these little burdens you're talking about, sweetheart hurts, and boyfriend hurts, and girlfriend hurts, and all the aches and pains, and all the things. One of these days, it's all going to vanish. And you're going to look down. It's a pinpoint in blackness. It's going to just suddenly poof, and it's gone. And then you're racing toward the throne. And the only thing you have is Christ. And what you have with Him, the eternal values. I began to look at all my earthly values. They were gone. My ministry was gone. My family is gone. Everything I had was gone. The only thing I had now was a robe on of righteousness. And I was approaching throne. And by the time the picture of the earth was gone, that was all blackness now. The only thought was coming into His presence. I didn't see Him. But suddenly, I burst into the light. And I did not just reflect the light. I became infused light. I became a part of the light. I was just melded right into the light. And suddenly, the presence of Christ. And He was all-consuming. I wasn't thinking the streets of gold or mansions. I heard a man talk about his vision of heaven. He said he, in his vision of heaven, he saw mansions of gold, streets of gold, flowers of gold, trees of gold, roses of gold. How boring! Gold roses? Who wants a gold rose? He had gold on the brain. No, no, no, no, no. Folks, I didn't want to see my Father, who's dead and gone. He's a man of God, and He's gone for the past 25 years. I didn't want to see my Father. I didn't want to see my wife or my children. I didn't want to see Moses, Isaac, or Jacob. I wasn't trying to see a mansion. I wasn't trying to be a ruler or king or priest. Christ was all-consuming. All I wanted was Him. He was everything. There was no need for anybody. This idea where we know each other in heaven is a moot question. It doesn't mean anything. You won't want to know anybody else. You'll want to know only Him and His fullness. He's so all-consuming. He's everything. And I began to realize that in eternity in heaven, we're going to have an expanding consciousness, that we're going to be more and more, every moment of eternity, to see more of His glory, to be filled with more of His love, be expanded in our consciousness of grace and mercy. And in hell, there'll be an expanded consciousness, so that those who are in hell will expandingly, all through eternity, know what damnation is. They'll have an expanded consciousness of the lost grace and mercy of God. They'll have expanded consciousness of what they missed. And the torment of hell will expand and expand and expand all through eternity. It's not static. And our glory is not static. It's an ever-increasing glory. And I wanted nothing but Him. He kept drawing me closer and closer. And all it was is praise and glory and honor to Him. Praise and glory and honor to Him. And I realized, more than ever, that this whole creation matter, this whole world creation and everything revolves around Him. In Him is the fullness of the Godhead. He is the one who's come into the inheritance. And my father told me years ago, David, the answer to everything is staying close to Jesus. The answer to every problem in life is staying close to Jesus. And I tell you, in eternity, that's going to be the glory, the closeness to Him, the glory of Him, the radiance of Him. It's going to be Christ, Christ, Christ in His glory. And God will be pleased that you and I enter into His glory. Hallelujah. I didn't want to come back. And I knew, though, that if I went any closer, I'd never go back. And suddenly, I began to fade. When I came to and set up, there was almost an hour of prophetic utterances proclaiming the glory of His name. For an hour, people just, they didn't know what happened to me. My wife saw the glow on my face. It was half an hour before she could say a word to me. And I'll never be the same because I've tasted His glory. I've seen a little bit of what it's going to be like. I just buried my business manager, 33 years old. He was fine, healthy, like a son to me. Comes in one day and his hand's trembling. He'd lost some weight. I said, I got on the phone and called my doctor. I made him go right into the hospital that day. He called me back that afternoon and said, he's full of cancer. He's got just a few weeks to live. And that hurt. In the last three weeks, I spent every day with him. In the last three weeks, he was in the glory. He was translated. Sunday morning, when he'd used to be watching the Cowboys, say, what does that mean now? His little blue sports car, his little Porsche, he said, David, it's a pile of junk. His clothes, closet full of clothes, they're rags now. He looked at his wife and two little children. He said, David, you know I've loved them, don't you? But he said, the Lord weaned me away from them now. He's weaned me to himself. I'm married to Christ now. In the last two days, he was absolutely in the glory. He sat up in bed, no pain. He said, David, I wish I could have lived my life like this. This is where it's supposed to be. I could have been living like this, with my affections on things above and not on things in the world. I should have been attached to the throne. He said, the peace and the glory is beyond anything I could tell you. He said, David, live like this. Live in the glory. Live in the realm of his presence. Set your affections on things above. Don't let anything in this world tie you down anymore. And then his wife called me about 11 o'clock, said, come over quickly, David. He wants to say goodbye. He knew within the hour. He was sitting there with the Bible, and I told him about my vision and my visit. He said, David, I'm there. I'm already there. He smiled. He grabbed his stomach. His eyes rolled back, and he laid down. The ambulance was already there. They carried him away before he got to the hospital. He was glorified. And I miss him, because he's like a son. But I'm never going to live again the way I lived before. My ministry doesn't mean that to me anymore. It's not my ministry. He's coming. He's coming, and he's keeping me right now. Oh, hallelujah. Isn't it going to be glory? Is there anything you can't let go? Is there anything that's holding you down? I've got nothing holding me down. I could say right now, even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Everything I have is junk. Everything I have is garbage. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Savior. Let's just lift our hands and adore Him. Let's just love Him. We love you this morning, Jesus. We love you, Jesus. One of these days, we're coming. We're coming through. We're going to break into the glory of your precious life. We're going to see that light of lights. Hallelujah. We're going to live in glory. Hallelujah. We're going to see your glory. We're going to revel in your glory. But give us a taste of that inheritance now, Lord. Seal us with that inheritance. Give us a taste of the glory this morning. Let's just adore Him. Reach out from your heart. Lord, I love you. I worship you. The world means nothing to me. Lord, the world means nothing to me this morning. I give it all to you. Everybody stand, please, in His presence right now. Is there anybody here right now, high school students back there, anybody that's visiting the chapel? Do you hear any students? Is there any of you say, Brother Dick Wilkinson, I'm so cold inside. I've been drifting from the Lord, and I want His touch this morning. Get out of your seat and come over. Let me lay hands on you right now. The Lord will revive you. The Lord will revive your spirit right now. Any of you students back there, or visitors, or any of the college students, anyone saying, I need a touch from God this morning. Some of you high school students, you come in here. I know that some of you had some death in you. You've been drifting. You haven't been seeking the Lord with all your heart. You need to say, Lord, touch me. Set my heart on fire this morning. Lord, I need a new love for you. I need a new love for you, Jesus. You're allowed to come. They'll wait for you. They'll wait for you. Hey, honey, that's it, right here in the blue. God's going to do something for you this morning. Come on, get up here and say, Lord, I need a new touch from heaven. I need a new touch from you, Jesus. Set my heart on fire. The whole service will be worth having you down here, honey. God bless your heart. Blessed be your name. Blessed be your name, Jesus. Lord, detach me from the things of this world. Lord, give me a detachment from the things of this world. Glory be to Jesus. Glory be to Jesus. Give me about 50 of you. Come and lay hands, about two or three around every one of these. Just lay your hands on them now. The Lord will touch them with a special touch from heaven this morning. Lord, to give us a new devotion to you, a new devotion to you, Jesus. Hallelujah. A new devotion to you, Jesus. You there at the altar, lift your hands up. Lift your hands to him right now. Just love him. Say, Lord, touch me. I love you this morning. Touch me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Heavenly Father, we worship you. We give you praise and adoration today. Oh, Father, we worship you and praise your name. We praise you, Father. We give you praise and honor and glory. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Oh Holy Spirit do your work. Holy Spirit do your work. Mondalabos, Ondolobokini, Ondolalabos, Sondoronomosai, Ondalalabos, Ndibibibieke, Minister Lord of this student body, all of these visitors today, let your Holy Spirit plunge deep, penetrate deeply into our spirit. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, yes, Father. Yes, Father. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Let's sing the chorus, Search Me, O God. Search me, O God, and know