In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not trying to force others into salvation but instead praying for them and showing kindness and meekness. The speaker also highlights the significance of having a Christ-like spirit in the workplace, responding to mistreatment with kindness and not reacting in anger. The sermon then shifts to discussing the concept of chastening from the Lord and how it can be difficult to endure. The speaker encourages the congregation to be a source of encouragement and love to one another, especially during times of grief and failure. The sermon references verses from Hebrews and Psalms to support these teachings.

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, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, TX 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Tenth chapter, go to the tenth chapter of Jeremiah and just wait for me there. Lord, something is stirring in me, and I ask you, Holy Spirit, to bring it out, bring it in a way that's pleasing to you, bring glory to your name. Lord, I'm not preaching tonight, I'm just sharing my heart. I'm not, try not to even lift my voice, I want you to lift my spirit. And I want you to speak spirit to spirit to this congregation tonight. Lord, I love to just stand sometimes and unburden my heart, and I don't even know how deep this burden is, but it's been brewing for a long, long time. So I ask you to speak clearly. God, speak into our spirits, to know how to give correction and how to receive it. Oh, God, do your work tonight, touch me, anoint me, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Tenth chapter of Jeremiah, go to verse 23, I'm going to read verse 23 and 24. O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, that means with justice, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. Look at me, please. Here's a prophet, a righteous holy man, who is used by God to correct the whole house of Israel, to correct the wicked, to correct whole nations. And now he's under some kind of need of correction, and he's going through something. And he's saying, O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself, it's not in man that walketh to direct his own steps. It's that I cannot figure my way out of what I'm going through. O Lord, correct me, but do it with justice or judgment, not in anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. Now, folks, there's something there in the original Hebrew, unless you reduce me to nothing, unless you just reduce me down until I have nothing left, deal with me, but, O God, deal with me in mercy, deal with me in kindness. David had the same prayer. And I want you to go to Psalms 6. Please hold Jeremiah, 11th chapter, or 10th chapter open there, and go left again now to Psalm, the 6th chapter, 6th chapter of Psalms. I'm going to lead you to a number of scriptures, and just follow me, please, and then you'll see where we're going. The 6th chapter of Psalms, and I want you to go to verse 1. Let's read the whole chapter. The whole chapter is only about, there's 10 verses. O Lord, rebuke me or correct me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed, but thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. Save me for thy mercy's sake. For in death there is no remembrance of thee. In the grave, who shall give thee thanks? I am weary with my groaning. All the night make I my bed to swim. I water my cots with my tears. Folks, David's really going through a tremendous trial. He's going through something. We don't even understand it, but he weeps through the night, waters his cots with his tears. Verse 7, my eye is consumed because of grief. It waxes old because of mine enemies. Has anybody been there? You cry. You don't know why the tears flow and you cry. My tears have been my meat night and day. Deliver my soul, O God. I'm weak. My bones are vexed or I'm perplexed. I'm going through a problem. Verse 8, depart from me, all you workers of nickety. For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. Let all my enemies be ashamed and sore vexed. Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. Now, look at me, please. David's going through an incredible trial in this chapter. And if you read that, you can read yourself into it, some of you that are sitting here now. And I felt led of the Lord to bring this because I'd asked the Lord, what is going on in some of the people that are going to be in the service tonight? I want you to tell me so that I can minister to that need. The Lord showed it very clearly. It has to do with this very thing that you can't explain what you're going through, but it's a very painful experience that you're going through right now. And what you want more than anything else is not to be rebuked or corrected in a way that will reduce you to nothing that would say, that just beats me down. It reminds me of a letter I got a number of years ago from a sister, a dear sister in the Midwest. And she said, Brother Wilkinson, I've been going through a terrible, terrible trial. I've been going through so much hurt. She'd gone through a divorce and said just about the place coming out. And I got one of your messages and it was so hard. It just reduced me to tears. It just knocked me out. She said, I'm sorry, Pastor David, but I can't listen to your hard message that you've been giving lately. This has been about eight, ten years ago. And she said, I just can't hear that anymore because I'm so down. It just reduced me. It just knocked me out. It wiped me out. And that's what David said, Lord, deal with me, but don't wipe me out. That's what Jeremiah said. Correct me, but don't wipe me out in the process. Do it tenderly. Do it with mercy. Don't reduce me to nothing. And that's what David is saying here also. He said, Lord, I've been wasting away with grief. And a lot of times when you're down with grief, the worst thing that can happen is somebody come to you and try to, I've got a word from God for you. And they just, I mean, they just drive you into the ground. You feel worse than ever. You say, oh God, that's the last thing I needed. And when you're down and when you're hurting, what you really need is an encouraging, loving word in the arms of the Lord and His embrace. Even in a time of sinful failure, you know, sometimes we go into grief because we failed the Lord and sin brings all kinds of grief. Horrible grief. A sense of God having forsaken us. A sense of never being able to please God. A sense of being out of His favor. And even then, that's what David was going through. Turn to Psalm 38, if you will, please. Psalm 38. Let's begin verse 4. Psalm 38 verse 4. This is David speaking. For mine iniquities are gone over my head. There's a heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I'm bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease. There's no soundness in my flesh. I'm feeble, sore broken. I've roared by reason of the disquietus of my heart. For all my desires before Thee and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My heart panteth. My strength faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers, my friends stand aloof from my sore. My kinsmen stand afar off. Look at this. David said, my iniquities are too much for me. I have failed God. This man is paying a high price for failure. There is sin in his life. But I want you to look at verse 1. He knows God has to correct him. He has sinned against God. O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath. Neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. For Thine arrows stick fast in me. Thy hand presses me sore. There's no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger. Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. Look at me please. Here are two men of God. David, a man after God's own heart. Here's Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Both of these men. And I began to feel some of that cry of these men today as I was preparing the word. And these men of God are saying, oh God, if I feel you're angry at me and you're going to deal with me in anger, I'm a dead man. I can't handle it. I'm having enough trouble trying to handle my guilt and my fear, my depression, my grief. And if you come to me in hot displeasure and I feel your hot breath on my neck, it'll destroy me. As they're saying, I can't handle this. I can't handle it. Folks, I'll tell you my dilemma. I want you to go to Proverbs and I'll show it to you. Proverbs 17. Just keep it open to Proverbs 17 for a minute. Folks, I'm not going to be in a hurry. I want to get this off my heart. Proverbs 17. Just leave it there and I'll show you the verse a little later. Don't scan it and try to find it. How many were here? It was probably the first year we came in here. I preached a hard message one night and at the end I went back over here and I fell down. How many were in that meeting? I think I was down for about half an hour. I remember the spot right over here. I preached a hard message and a scripture came to me and I'll read it to you. Verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Now look at me, please. I stepped back and I was standing there and that hit me. He that condemneth the just is abomination to the Lord. And I said, Lord, did I cross that line? Did I rebuke or correct the righteous that didn't need to be corrected? And did I somehow justify the wicked? I knew I hadn't justified the wicked because I'd preached a hard message. But I stood there and said, Lord, did I make you appear before the people as an angry God? Did I make it appear to the saints of God, those who are really serving you, they're on fire for God, they love you with all their heart and they're going through hurt, they're going through trial, did I just reduce that congregation to nothing? Did I treat them as though they were the wicked and the scornful because the Bible said we're not to reprove the scornful. Don't reprove, don't correct any scorner. A scorner is a mocker. The homosexual out there who mocks, the alcoholic who mocks, those wicked out there who mock on the job, you're not to correct them, the scripture says. You're not to correct a scorner. You're not even to reprove them. You're to leave them alone. Leave them in the hands of God. You preach Christ to them, they're out in the street, you don't argue with them, you don't argue with a scorner. But you see, there's a line, there's a line. It's not just for preachers. I'm not just preaching about myself, about you. Every one of us here, because if you're going to be a soul one, if you're going to work with people, there's a line. And you have to be careful you don't cross that line. And the thing that hit me was the fear of God that I crossed the line. That I had somehow, that night, condemned the just. And by condemning the just, it had become abomination to the Lord. And the fear of God hit me and I fell under the fear of God. And I was out for about a half hour. And God was dealing with me and He said, David, never again, don't you ever stand and condemn the righteous. Don't condemn the righteous. You know, you can go to somebody and you feel that you, God, you feel something stirring in you. Somebody's done something wrong and you go to them and say, I have got a word of God, I've got a word of God for you. And I'll tell you what, if that's not the Holy Spirit and you don't minister in love and tenderness, you can reduce them to nothing and become an abomination to the Lord, an absolute abomination. In fact, you can have the right word, you can have the word from God and deliver it the wrong way and cause it to lose all of its power. And that which was right and honest that was delivered in the wrong tone of voice, delivered out of flesh, delivering a godly message in the flesh, destroys all the power of it and becomes an abomination. A week ago, I picked up a tape of mine that I preached in this church about, I think, the first six months. And I listened to the first 15 minutes. And I got uneasy. And I listened another 10 minutes and I started slouching down in my chair. And then I began to excuse myself. Well, I didn't, I wasn't a pastor, I was an evangelist. And the first two years while I was here, I had to learn to be a pastor and that's just an evangelist. But half hour into it, I had no more excuses. Because everything I said was right, it was good. It was right on. But the tone of my voice was wrong. There was an anger behind it. And I listened. I said, God, that's David Wilkerson. That's flesh. That anger in there is not your anger. And I got mad at myself. I got angry. I said, God, that could have been delivered. I could have said that in a way without anger. And I used to call that a holy zeal of God. There's still some people in this church that if I don't preach the way I did when I first came here with that bang, bang, bang, that I've lost the anointing. That's not so. He's not only trying to give me a tender heart. He's trying to give everybody in this congregation. He wants every pastor in this church to have that tenderness. You can't deliver the Word of God with any human zeal or human anger or flesh. If flesh touches it at any point, it poisons it. And I'll tell you what, I have had that fear of God in me ever since that I don't cross that line. And finally, thank God, at the last 15 minutes of that message, the mercy started coming in. I said, oh, thank you, Jesus. There was mercy. I said, you know, that whole one hour message could have been preached like the last half hour and it would have had an impact. Now, I'm not taking back anything I preached. Even though some of you might want to wish I did, I don't know. But I'm not taking back any. I believe I had an anointing. And yet, I think what God's trying to say to me, to the pastor of this church, to the staff, to anyone who's willing to hear it, if you're going to minister to people, you're going to deliver His Word. Now, I know the Scripture says in 1st, don't turn to it, but Titus 1.13, we're to rebuke sharply that they may be sound in the faith, sharply. Now, that means with conviction. It doesn't mean bang. It means rebuke sharp. It means rebuke with conviction. You really feel that it's right. It's something God said to you, but you don't do it with human anger. I know also in Titus 2.15, rebuke with all authority. In other words, don't rebuke until you're sure you have the mind of Christ. And when you have the mind of Christ, that is authority. And deliver it with authority. I listened to a 90-year-old preacher, 90 years old. He slept all through the worship, but when it was time to preach, he just kind of got up there. And I'll tell you, never raised his voice but like bullets. Bang, bang, oh, the word of God slew everything. It was slaying, convicting, because for all the years of that man's ministries, a famous preacher, written many, many books, a very godly Baptist pastor. And Brother Ravenhill and I were there in his meeting. And whenever I said, have you ever heard anything like that? That man didn't move. The man could hardly talk, but the word, the power was in the word. It's not in how loud I speak or how soft I speak. It's in the word. The word has the power. I want you to go to Proverbs 9. I told you, don't reprove a scorner. I want to give you some help about witnessing on the job or on the streets or wherever you go. I want you to see this. Chapter 9 of Proverbs, verse 7, beginning to read, He that reproved the scorner getteth to himself what? Shame. And he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, that's a scoffer, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to wise men and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. Please remember that when on the job you know someone who's an absolute scorner. He is just mocking God all the time. Don't try to rebuke him. Don't say you're wrong or God's going to judge you. You're going to end up in hell. Don't cast your pearls before a swine lest they turn and rend you. Preach Christ. You're safe in preaching Christ to everybody. Hallelujah. Now, let me tell you this. I believe in reproving. I believe that God's people, if they really love Jesus, love to be reproved. They love to be corrected. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens or corrects. It's a sign of His love. And when God moves on the hearts of pastors and teachers to correct the people, it's a sign, the greatest sign that He loves us. When I sit over there and Pastor Carter's preaching to Pastor Don and there's some correction coming forward, I open my heart and say, Lord, please don't ever let me despise correction. Don't ever let me despise it. And that God calls pastors. In fact, Jeremiah reproved the false shepherds because he said they overlook the deeds of the wicked. They overlook it. They wink at it. And there are many churches that have no reproof whatsoever. This is a reproving church. It will always be reproving. There'll be correction coming from this pulpit. Now, I'm talking about how you witness. I'm talking about on the job and among your friends and in your family. If you're unsaved husband or unsaved wife, unsaved children, you don't preach at them. You heard me tell the story of a mother came to me. She said, Bro, look, I've got a boy who's backslidden. And he comes in and he drinks, comes in all hours of the night and day. And he's just making a nervous wreck out of me. And I said, well, what do you do? She said, well, I just keep telling him he's got to go to church with me. He's got to go to church. And he gets mad. He said, I'll never go to church with you. And he said, you're my mother. And I expect you that I can stay here at this house. And she just would stay up at night. And every time he come in two or three o'clock in the morning, she'd be at the door where you've been and just staying on him. She said, what am I going to do? I said, I'll tell you what you're going to do. And I gave her directions. I said, you're going to turn him over to the Lord. And you're going to pray and you're going to get off his back. You're not going to reprove him anymore. You're not going to ask him any more questions. He came home the next night at two o'clock in the morning and expected his mother to be there. And she was in bed. She wasn't sleeping. She couldn't sleep, but she's pretending to be asleep. He banged and made noise trying to wake her up. He's so used to her being there. Next day, she gets up and comes down for breakfast. There's no lecture. There's no reproof, no correction. He said, come in at two o'clock. He said, good for you. Do you want eggs and bacon? Yeah. He was absolutely dumbfounded. He tried to start an argument with her. She wouldn't argue. He said, I'm going out tonight with the guys and I'm going to get stoned. She said, well, you know where the key is. Come in the next night and she's still not there. And he was a nervous wreck. Came down for breakfast the next day. He said, I'll tell you something else. Like it or not, I'm going to church with you. He said it in anger. Came to church and gave his heart to the Lord. She said, Brother Wilson, thank you so much. The moment he got off his back, everything was changed. Quit pushing. You're not God. You can't force anybody into salvation. Pray for them. Show kindness and meekness. But don't try to be correcting on their backs all the time. Hallelujah. And by the way, some of the best witnessing on the job is just having a Christlike spirit. When someone hits you on one cheek, turn the other cheek and show the kindness of the Lord. And don't blow up and don't curse. Don't be carrying any dirty books or magazines around with you. And have a smile. We'll talk about your face on Sunday night. Would you go to Hebrews, the 12th chapter? Hebrews 12. Let's start with verse 5. Hebrews 12, 5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou are rebuked of him or corrected of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And that word means correct. He corrects and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening or correction, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, wherefore, all are partakers. Then are you bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers in our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much more rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure. In other words, according to their own judgment. But for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Oh, I tell you what, it says your earthly fathers corrected you. You obeyed them. You were in subjection to them and they did it by their own judgment. Now, my father really believed in corporal punishment. He corrected with a rod. You've heard me tell my dad had a long strap. They used to sharpen razors with those straps hanging on a big nail going down the basement. And when I did wrong, my dad had, you know, he had what he called meetings. I met in his study and he never spanked me the same day. He waited till the next day so I wouldn't do it in anger. And I thought I'd gotten away with it. And he'd take me in the room and tell me what I'd done wrong. Did I realize I'd grieved the Lord? And he'd preach his sermon. Then he'd say, kneel over the bed. And he, I knew it wasn't to pray. He'd take that strap down my backsides. And he says, foolishness is bound in the heart. The child and the rod of correction will drive it far from him. And he spanked me good. I got a lot of spankings, a lot of correction. Quote scripture with every stroke. Spare the rod and damn the child. Folks, I know all those verses by heart all my life. I heard them since I was five years old. But I'm preaching. I'm serving the Lord. But let me tell you something. The hardest part of all came after the whipping. That's when my father put down his belt. I said, come here. And he wants to hug me. And I'll tell you how, you know how hard it is to walk from over here where you're trying to alleviate your pain. And you can't sit down. And he's got his arms open, says, come here, son. I want to love you. And to have him put his arms around me. And then he'd say something I never did understand. This hurt me worse than it hurt you. Have you ever said that? But I know that's exactly what Heavenly Father says. When he has to chasten us, it hurts him. He gets no joy out of the chastening. None at all. If I'm an earthly father, I get no joy. But it pains me to correct my children. Now, I don't have to do that anymore. They're grown. But when I corrected them, it hurt. It hurt bad. I didn't understand that until I became a father. And the Lord, when he corrects us, he does it with much pain. But he does it, the scripture says, only for our profit, only to profit us. Folks, unless you and I... I have to have that as a pastor. If I stand up just to try to get a sermon off my back or to vent my feelings on what I believe is the standard that God has set for a church or how I interpret the Word of God, and I just get up and vent myself, it's not going to bring any honor to his name and it's not going to be a profit to you. That's why you need to pray for your pastors all the time, that God will teach them and keep them from crossing that line that the wicked would never feel comfortable in this church. They would be convicted of their sins. And when they repent, that the righteous, having turned away from their sins and set their hearts on God, would be edified and encouraged and not spanked. God, help me never to spank God's people when they don't need it. May God help all of our pastors. Hear that. Hallelujah. Uh, one last, 1 Thessalonians 2. The end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. 1 Thessalonians. Once you go to the second chapter, we're going to read a few verses and then I'm finished. 1 Thessalonians, second chapter. Let's read, start at verse 7. Um, folks, uh, I know Pastor Carter and Pastor Dunn have the same feeling and heart that I do, that this would be their prayer. That we as pastors could have come to what Paul came to. Listen to it. Verse 7. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. Now that's something. That pastors can stand in the pulpit and say, I want to be like a nurse to you because you're dear. You're dear to our hearts. For we remember, brethren, our, for you remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you. We preached unto you the gospel of God. Ye are witnesses in God also, how wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe, as ye have, as you know, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children. Now, folks, if we stop and think this before we close, if we as human pastors, just flesh and blood, are to have this kind of spirit of Christ where you are ministered to in your time of need, when you're hurting and you're down and you say, pastor, I can't stand. I'm going to have to hear something of mercy. And folks, I think that's why God's just pouring such mercy in my heart. I've felt my need here in New York City. I've felt, you know, with Gwen's illnesses and all the cares and problems that come from so many sides and the need for mercy in my own heart. There have been times I've been so spiritually depressed that I've had to go to God and say, God, I know you're dealing with me for some reason, but oh, God, I've got to have your loving arms around me. I just don't want to hear anything that's going to make it any harder for me. I've had to go and beg him just to put his arms around me. I've known what it is to go to bed at night and say, Jesus, I don't feel like praying. I don't feel like reading your bio. Would you just put your arms around me and love me? And I'd feel his arms around me and he would put a calm in me and he'd make all wars to cease. And then the Lord would say, well, see, you're a pastor. And if you need that, how much more do the people need that? That are hurting, they're living in this wicked city. And I began to say, oh, God, give me the kind of heart like Paul says, we were like a nurse to you when we dealt with you as children, as a loving father, and we were merciful to you. Lord, as Jeremiah said, deal with me in justice. Yes, in your justice, but do it in mercy, lest I be reduced to nothing. Heavenly Father, give us that as we deal with one another, husbands and wives and children and those on the job and in the workplace. Hallelujah. God, make this a merciful church. Will you stand, please? Will you stand? Lord, make this a merciful church. Give us all your tender, loving mercies and kindnesses. Hallelujah. Praise you, Jesus. Well, I thought I was going to preach 20 minutes. It was half hour. I'm sorry, but get it off my heart. Praise the Lord. Would you pray for your pastors that the Lord would make them merciful servants, loving fathers of Zion, and that there would be love and respect for one another, that nobody in the choir goes to one another and say, I got a word for you. You bring a word to one another, let it be a word of encouragement. Let it be a word that edifies and lifts up. And you know what would be good? Let me tell you. I got a blessing. Let me tell you something, what I'm trying to say. This will sum it all up. I preached Sunday night. I think it was about hatred for sin. And it's intimated to me just slyly. You know, Billy Wilkinson, you preach so much mercy, and you're more, where's that fire? And so I was kind of defeated by that. I was feeling down about it. I said, oh God, am I losing your prophetic word that gets down deep into the hearts? And I carried it all week. I came home, went into the apartment, and turned on my answering machine. There were a bunch of calls in there. One of them was Pastor Carter. And he said, Brother Dave, I just want to encourage you on your message. I heard something of the heart of God. I heard the heart of the Lord. Well, that was a word from the Lord for me. Very encouraging. And I thank Pastor Carter publicly for that. Why can't we do that with the body? Why can't we go around encouraging people? Why does it always have to be, do this, do that? Why can't you just go to somebody and say, you know, I see you worship me. I see Jesus in you. When's the last time you went to somebody and said, I see Jesus in you? When's the last time you just took time to encourage somebody? When's the last time you encouraged a pastor or one of the workers? You see these guys walk on. When's the last time you went up to them and said, hey, you fellas really minister to us. A word of encouragement. People have children in the classes here, and those that have babies in a nursery. I go past that, and I listen to all those screaming babies. And I say, oh, God, I'm so glad I don't have to be in there. I don't know how they do it, Lord. When's the last time you've been in there and say, thank you? When's the last time you encouraged a saint in God? That's, I think that's what this is all about. Heavenly Father, give us a ministry of encouragement to the body of Christ. Lord, there's so much to tear us down outside. Make us one inside. Make us one inside. I want you to stop right now. I want you to go to 10 people and hug them and say, I love you in Jesus right now. Just stop. Don't leave. We are not dismissing. Just hug 10 people and say, I love you in Jesus. God bless you. I love you in the Lord. God bless you. Love you, guys. Hey, remain standing just a minute. Pastor Carter is going to come and lead us in a song and then dismiss us. So just hold on a while.