In this sermon, the preacher addresses the issue of trust and faith in difficult times. He emphasizes that despite all the teachings and preaching about faith, this generation is one of the most untrusting in history. The preacher uses examples of various crises, such as losing a job or receiving a cancer diagnosis, to illustrate the challenges faced by believers. He highlights the importance of trusting in God's plan even when faced with impossible situations. The sermon encourages listeners to have unwavering faith and to rely on God's guidance and provision.

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 WORLDCHALLENGE PO 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. We do welcome our guests. We pray the Lord speaks your heart. All through the service and now in the Word. I'll talk to you tonight about the consequences of not trusting God. The consequences of not trusting God. I want you to keep your Bible open to the 12th chapter of Genesis. Genesis, the 12th chapter. And leave it open on your lap, please. At Times Square Church from now on we'll not say if you have your Bibles because we know you have your Bibles. Chapter 12. Just leave it there because that's where I'm going to be preaching from tonight. The consequences of not trusting God. Lord, it's been a good day. It's been a wonderful day in your presence. I give you thanks. We give you thanks. Holy Spirit, now we come to the Word. How we love your Word. How we yearn for your Word to change us and to mold us into your image, Jesus. Lord, there's nothing, nothing that touches us more than your Word. Jesus, you are the Word. This is the living Christ. We glorify you, Lord. We magnify you tonight. And I acknowledge my need of your anointing. I can't preach this in my own strength or power. I give it to you, Lord. We take authority over every demon power, over prince of poverty, power of darkness. We pray, Lord, you give us a hearing ear and let this Word flow out of my heart as you caused it to flow into my heart. Sanctify this vessel, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Give me just a little more on the monitors, please. I'm going to make a statement that may offend some of you, but I believe it to be the truth. With all the talk today about faith and all the books and the tapes, the teaching and the preaching, I believe this is one of the most untrusting generations of all time. With all our training books, everything we have preached and taught about faith, we have had more written and taught about faith than any generation, but we are the most untrusting of all, I believe, in history. We talk faith, we preach it, we sing about it, and in good times that may be all right, that may suffice for a season, but when really hard times, we don't have often what it takes. Like the children of Israel, we cry, God, where are you? We come to church, we sing, God can make a way. I'm glad you sang it because it's in my message. But then we get in a hard time and say, well, Lord, where's the way? We start questioning, God, where am I? Where are you? And we fail when the real test of the difficult times comes upon us. The Bible says that just to live by faith. Now, that's not just for eternal salvation. That means your daily life. That means everything that you are and everything that you do in life, you are going to live by faith. And folks, there are times that are coming that are going to be so hard, so difficult, so calamitous, you're going to live by faith. You will not be able to afford doctors, you're going to live by faith. The time is coming that this Scripture will be more than just something we read and forget about it, the just or the righteous shall live by faith. Jude, speaking of those living in the last days, said this, Beloved, build up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. He said, it's time to build yourself up. You're in the last days. Build up your faith because you're going to need it in this hour. Oh, beloved, this is not a time for wavering faith, not at all. In Psalms 22, David said of our spiritual fathers, Our fathers trusted in thee, Lord. They trusted and you did deliver them. They cried unto thee and they were delivered. They trusted in you and they were not confounded. Our fathers lived by faith. Our fathers believed that you would keep your word. They were never confused and they were not confounded. God made a way for our fathers. And one of the fathers that David is speaking about was Father Abraham. The Bible says of Father Abraham, He staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also to perform. Now, God has set before us an example of a man, who the Bible says was not weak in faith. He never staggered the promises of God. Once he came into full faith. Now, he didn't come into full faith until he got his faith name, Abraham. He was called Abram up to the time his faith was being grounded and tested. I want to take you on a little trip with me tonight and talk a little bit about faith. We'd like to have this kind of faith that's described here, as belonging to Father Abraham. Not weak, not wavering, fully persuaded, all doubts that are conquered. But folks, that kind of faith does not come easy. That kind of faith comes only through failure. After failure. Test after test. And that's what my message is about tonight. 1 Peter 1.7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried by fire, may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Folks, our faith is going to go into the fire. We are about to go into the fire. I told you from this pulpit a few months ago, in fact, probably four or five weeks ago, when the stock market was way down, almost 15%, I said it's going to go back up again. There's going to be a phony rise. There's going to be a manipulated market. There's going to be a fool's market, and that's where we are, just as we talked about from this pulpit. But folks, watch out. We are headed for the fire, and it's going to come. But the Bible says, out of that are going to come a people with a tested, tried faith, that is going to be unshakable, unmovable, who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In the last time, God is going to reveal a body of people, a body of Christ that has an absolutely unshakable faith. They're going to live by faith, and they're an example of living by faith. Living without fear is going to be a testimony to the whole ungodly world. Tested faith, tried faith, coming forth as gold. Now, Abraham was a good and righteous man. Here's a man that takes a journey of faith. God calls him to a walk of faith. He started out with just a simple, trusting obedience in the Lord. The Lord came to him and said, and let me read to you from verse 1, chapter 12. Look at verse 1. Now, the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show you. Folks, look at me now. This is where faith begins. This is where the little germ of faith begins. A call to abandon oneself into the hands of God. The whole future, just total abandonment to the will of God. Faith has to begin there. This man is called to take a journey. Now, he doesn't know where he's going. He's not told about the hardships he's going to face on the way. He's not told what he's to expect when he gets there. He's told simply to get out of his comfort zone and take a leap of faith in the arms of his heavenly Father. And he says, I want you to just pick up everything. Now, this is a step of faith for this man because he's got children. He's got family. He's got relatives. He's got a cattle business. This man's got to pull up stakes. He's got to pull up everything. And he's going to go out to the unknown. He's going to go out and head 300 miles into a desert. Hot sun, snakes, wild animals. He had no idea where he's going. Now, folks, that's faith. That's where it begins. Where you take a leap into the arms of your heavenly Father. You look into the arms of Jesus. Jesus has made that call to all of us. He says that just so live by faith. That's the call Abram got. You take a leap of faith into the arms of the Lord and say, I commit my life. He says, come and follow me. Put your life in my hands is what he said to Abram. Abram, pick yourself up from your comfort zone. You've had it nice. Now, I'm going to ask you to go out into the unknown. Totally unknown. God told him, out of your loins will come a great nation. I'm going to bless you, Abram. I'm going to make you great. You're going to be a great blessing. Now, folks, you've got to understand the magnificence of what God was saying. The importance of this statement that he's just made to Abram. He said, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed by you. Now, folks, he's not talking about Abram himself, but his seed. He's talking about Christ. He's talking about Jesus. The whole world is going to be blessed by the seed that comes out of your very loins. This points to Jesus Christ. He's saying to Abram, I'm going to make you the father of a new race. A new kind of people that I've been looking for from the very beginning of creation. He's seen the sin and the debauchery and had to do away with the whole race other than Noah. Now, he says, I want a race that's going to walk by faith. I have to have a man who walks by faith. And I'm calling you to myself to abandon yourself to me. And, folks, he's laying a foundation for a new race of people who will walk blindly by faith. Because you see what is coming. He's going to have to believe. He's going to have to have faith. He's going to have to believe in the impossible. Because there's going to be a child born to a man who's no longer fertile into a womb that is already dead. And the seed is speaking about an immaculate conception, an absolute impossibility. He's talking about the coming people of God, the race that he's going to raise up named Israel. And God's talking about the impossible things are going to happen. There's going to be a Red Sea that opens and people walk on dry ground. He's talking about bread falling out of heaven, angels' food falling out of heaven. He's talking about water coming out of a rock. He's talking about impossible, humanly impossible things. A whole race who believes and sees the impossible. How can he be the father of a race believing God for the impossible unless he has that kind of faith? He went out... Now, here's the definition of faith as far as I'm concerned. Here's the definition of the beginning faith. Here's the seed of faith. And he went out not knowing whether he's going. He went out not knowing where he's going. I've been there. He's saying, Lord, I'm stepping out. He takes this step. He says, I am stepping out in faith now. I lay down all my own ideas of how I'm supposed to live. I'm not going to try to work out my own blessings. I'm not going to try to lead my family my own way. I'm not going to try to provide my own living by my own wits. Lord, I'm going to put everything in your hands. I'm going to go to fully trusting your leadership. Lord, you're calling every shot from now on. I lay it all down. You told me to pick up and just follow you. You said you'd lead me. You'd guide me every day. All right. He abandons himself into the hands of God. And he sets out on this journey. He's 75 years old. His wife is in her 60s. She's a beautiful woman in her 60s. Just like my wife. Score one for the preacher. Don't try to tell Abram that faith is easy. Don't go to him and say, explain faith to me, just like we do today. Explain faith to me, Abram. Give me your theology on faith. You see, that's our preoccupation today in the church. We dissect it. We analyze the word. We go to the Greek. We go to the Hebrew. We write books and we study it. Abram didn't have nothing to do with that. Abram simply said faith is simply trusting your life, your future fully into the hand and care of the heavenly Father. And obedience to a call to yield my life fully into his hands that just so lived by faith, he went out not knowing where he went. All right. You can check your map. America was about a 300-mile trip and it was a rough trip, no doubt. There were a few watering holes. There were hot sun beating upon him. And he finally gets to a wilderness, an abandoned, awful-looking wilderness called Canaan. And the Lord stops him. Now, what do you get when you set out to walk by faith? You say, I'm going to give everything into the hands of God. I'm not going to call the shots. I'm going to pray and trust God to lead me the rest of my life. I'm going to obey him. I'm going to love him. I'm going to be intimate with him. I'm going to get into his word. I'm going to seek him as never before. What does it get you? She's right. You know what he got? A famine. A severe famine. God says, Abram, this is the land that I have promised you. There are no trees now. Everything is withered. There's no water for the cattle. There's no pasture. There's nothing. And God said, it's all yours. Everywhere you put your foot, it's yours. And he's thinking, I don't want it. We know he's thinking that because of what he did next. He built an altar. And I can tell you, knowing human nature, you know what he did next. You know what he's praying. Lord, I don't understand this. I have walked in holiness before you. I have built an altar. I'm a worshiper. I'm intimate with you. He's called a friend of God. He has intimacy. He walks with God. He's in righteousness. He's in total obedience to the Lord. He's doing exactly what God tells him to do. And he winds up in a severe famine. And he's looking around, and he's saying to his wife, I must have heard the wrong voice. We can't eat here. There's nothing here. There's no food. We have children. Lot was with him and his family. He had servants. He had all this cattle, a range full of cattle. And he said, what are we going to do? The famine was grievous in the land, it says. Have you ever prayed that? You said, Lord, never in my life have I obeyed you more than I have now. I've been in your word. I've loved you. I've walked by faith the best I know how, and suddenly you're face to face with a crisis. And God says, I'm leading you and finding when you get to the place where the Lord just says stop, and then suddenly you are face to face with an absolutely impossible situation. There's trouble. There's a crisis right in front of you. And this man must be thinking, did I miss it somewhere? Did I get out of his will? Did I listen to the wrong voice? How can a dry, barren, unfulfilling place be a reward for obedience? After all I've desired after you, Lord, how could I end up in a famine? How many of you here tonight right now in this building, at this very place, you know that you love God with all your heart, and you've been faithful to him, and after all your fasting and all your praying and your devotion to the Lord, your cry for holiness, you're being led into a crisis. And it doesn't make sense. It seems contrary to everything you know about the Lord and his leading. Now let me give you a few examples of that. Here's someone that's been praying for a better paying job and believing God, and through prayer God opens it, and you get that better paying job, and you begin to thank him. Thank you, Lord. You've been so faithful. You are leading me. It does pay to pray and read the word. Look, God's given me this wonderful job. Two weeks later the company downsizes, and the last hired, first fired. And suddenly you're out without a job, face-to-face with a crisis. What about that telephone call that somebody gets from someone close to them in the family, and there's somebody hysterical on the other line and says, I don't know how to tell you, but I have cancer, inoperable cancer, and I've been given six months to live. And you say, wait a minute, that's my family, and I've been walking in covenant with God, and I've been praying, I've been fasting, I've been seeking the Lord, and now I'm led into this. Is this the reward for faithfulness? There's a young lady who prayed and prayed for God to bring somebody into her life, a spiritual man, because she wasn't lusting or anything else, but she had spent a lot of time being faithful to the Lord, and she knew God would answer, and she met a spiritual young man, and that young man seemed to be so right, and she felt good about it, and she thought this was the answer to her prayer. He just walks away one day and gives no explanation. He says, I don't care anymore. You can be holy, obedient, devoted, walking in faith, walking in the measure of faith God has given you, and be led by God right into the test of your life. He was led by God to this severe famine. It was God's leading. It wasn't the devil. All right? You ready for the next step? Whatever measure of faith Abram had up to this time, it still lacked a dimension. And many of us are lacking this dimension. God led him into a crisis that demanded an even bigger leap of faith. He had to take a leap of faith to leave everybody, everything, and make a decision to commit his life and his future and his direction in the hands of the Lord, to take directions from the Lord. And to totally yield his family, his future, and everything into the hands of God. And now God has brought him into a situation that demanded another leap of faith. God has brought Abram now to a place where he was going to bring Israel to the rim of the Red Sea, where it was humanly impossible to be delivered outside of a miracle. Abraham had been led into a place where his very life is now at stake, the life of his family, his children, all of those people with him. Nothing to eat, no way to survive. Do you remember what the devil said about Job? The devil said, skin for skin, all that a man has will he give for his life. But you put forth your hand now, you touch his bone and you touch his flesh, and he'll curse you to your face. And that's the same accusation the devil flings at God concerning every one of his children today. He said, oh yeah, God, your brother, your sister, that child of yours, they'll serve you until you touch their belly. You start putting them in a hard place. You bring a depression. You bring hard times. And when there's no food in the belly and they feel their hunger pains, they feel pain and they're in a hard time, and you allow some crisis to come into their life, they'll turn on you and curse your face, God. That's still the accusation from the pits of hell. Abram is brought to a place. He's either got to move into the miraculous and believe God for the impossible or take matters in his own hands. And folks, that's why God brings us to this point, to see whether you're going to absolutely believe him to be the miraculous God of the impossible or you're going to take matters into your own hands and do it your way in the flesh. Did Abram pass the test? No, he miserably, miserably failed. And Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn. He wasn't willing to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. He's not ready to take that leap of faith into believing that God can do the impossible. You know what David said about people in famine? He said, God delivers his people from death and he keeps them alive in famine. David said, now this is later, but see, this is the heart of God. David was revealing. It was always the heart of God. In the days of famine, they shall be satisfied or they shall be fed in the days of famine. In fact, a hundred years later, his own son Isaac is in another famine. And the Bible says there was a famine in the land and you'll find this Genesis 26 chapter. This is a hundred years later. This is his son, Isaac. There was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And the Lord appeared unto Isaac and said, do not go down to Egypt. God said to Isaac, if you'll just stay here, I'll feed you, I'll take care of you. And God did that. God fed him, God kept him through the famine. He learned to hold on by faith. But you see, Abraham, faith began to shake. You see, faith begins with a total abandon oneself into God's hands. But faith is never passive, but it's always active. There must be full confidence that God can and will do the absolute impossible. The impossible. Jesus said, with God, all things are possible. And in Luke 1, 37, for with God, nothing, nothing. Say it, folks, nothing shall be impossible. Nothing shall be impossible. Faith says God's enough. God's enough. See, the Lord here is making a man of faith. He's trying to make a man of faith. He's led this man into a hopeless crisis now. Hoping he'll just give up all human thinking and say, God, live or die, you sent me here. You have been leading me. I've been living by your word. I've been living honestly before you. Take over. Live or die, I'm the Lord's. That's what God wanted. God wanted totally, Lord, here I am. If I have to sit here and die, I'll die in your will. I'm not moving. I'm going to stand still and see the salvation of God. Folks, listen to me now. There's no greater peace on the face of the earth than to trust God for everything in everything. There's no greater peace than to have absolutely abandoned yourself to faith and God's power to do the impossible when you've given up control of everything in your life to him. Fear and doubt overwhelmed Abram, and now he's crying, Lord, get me out of this. Get me out of here. But you see, the truth is, faith is not meant to get you out of a hard place, but to change your heart in the hard place. It's not about changing your condition, it's about changing you and changing me. God most likely is not going to change any of our circumstances. Occasionally he does. But you see, if you are not changing it, if God just plucks you out of it, you have not learned to trust him. You've not learned the lesson at all. You've not really learned the grace of faith at all. You see, the Hebrew children met Jesus in the furnace. Daniel saw the grace of deliverance in the lion's den. If he'd have been suddenly pulled out, he'd have never known the miracle. He'd have never seen the miracle. He would have never had a faith built on knowing that God does the impossible. Jesus, remember, is in the back of the boat when the storm hit the disciples' boat? And in panic, they wake him up, said, Master, don't you care that we're about to drown? Jesus is fast asleep. The wind is blowing, howling, the waves, water coming into the boat, and Jesus is fast asleep. Probably a beatifical smile on his face. Jesus is awakened, and he stands up and says, Peace, the wind stops, the rain, everything. There's a calm. And they say, what kind of man is this? And they're marveling at this great miracle, but they missed the biggest miracle. They missed the greatest evidence of faith. They missed the real miracle. The miracle was the man asleep in the storm. There's the testimony of some soul resting in the hands of God. He's committed everything to the Lord. He knows God's made him a promise that he's going to be redeemed of the world. He knows the devil can't kill him. Folks, I'm telling you, the devil can't kill you. Since I've been in New York, my life's been threatened at least five times. And I walk this, occasionally, I used to look back once in a while. But I know the devil can't kill me unless God has some reason. God would have to have a reason for it. I can't think of one right now. Don't you offer me one either. You see, it's the person that's so absolutely yielded into the hands of the Father by faith, to the sleep of faith. My God can do the impossible. If I'm out of my job, if I'm out of job, my God knows that. He's going to take care of me. And being able to go to sleep at night and just rest. It's not the, Francis gets up and says, And everything's all right. Zap you out of your problem. No, no, no, no. It's the Christian that can come into the house of God, walks the streets and everywhere else for the total peace of God. My God can do the impossible. My God's a deliverer. God's going to keep me. Hallelujah. The miracle was the man sleeping in the storm. God wants us to be able to sleep. I mean, the peace of God rest through the coming storms, whatever crisis it may be. Hallelujah. Going down to Egypt is just saying, Lord, I'll take it from here. That's all it means. Lord. And you know what? You know, going down to Egypt means it's the flesh presuming that it's made a mistake, heard the wrong voice and go and straighten it out. I'm going to straighten it out. I missed God, so I've got to go back and make it right, and maybe I can hear better the next time. And that person usually doubts than everything God ever said to him. And Abram leaves the path of faith, and he gathers his brood together, and he says, we're getting out of here. We can't make it here. I don't know how I got sidetracked. I must have heard the wrong voice. Now, the good news is that faith, strong faith, comes often through failure. But I'll tell you, there are consequences when we leave the path of faith and we move into the flesh. Those who operate in the flesh are going to pay some pretty awful consequences. Let me go over just a few of them. First of all, when you leave the path of faith and don't just commit it all to the Lord, lay every burden on him and say, I'm not handling this, Lord, it's yours. I'm not going to try to step at night and figure it out. I'm not going to do anything, and it's yours. I'm going to pray and trust you. I know you're leading me. You take over. You get a call from somebody in the family and unloading problems on you. You just say, Lord, that's your problem. I'm going to seek you. I'm going to worship you. That's your problem. I'm not taking it. If you're going to keep taking all these problems on you, you're not going to be able to walk in faith. But you see, the number one consequence of leaving the path of faith and moving in the flesh is that you're going to have to start scheming and manipulating to survive. Abraham concocts a scheme for survival. He knows that these Egyptians are full of lust and that they had something of a lust toward fair women, fair-complected women. And he concocts a scheme. He said, Now look, you're a very beautiful woman. Boy, at 60, like I said, I'd like to know what kind of face cream she uses. I'm not trying to be facetious, but man, look at this story. She's in her 60s, and Abraham's telling his wife, These men are going to lust after you. They're going to go after you, and they're going to kill me, seeing me as your husband. So, if you don't mind, to save my life, I want you to tell a white lie. I want you to tell them we're a brother and sister. That way, I'll not be killed. Those who walk in flesh are very self-centered and very selfish, because they're not trusting in God. It's always me looking out for number one. And so, she must have had a great love for this man to do this. What a great love she must have had for Abraham, her husband. But you see, the man or the woman who trusts in God, believing the Lord for protection and for the impossible, doesn't need any human resources. They don't need to make excuses. They never have to manipulate. They don't have to have a personal agenda, because they're totally surrendered to the will and the purposes of God and leave the results to Him. But see, Abraham is not at this point yet. He'll get there eventually and become the father of faith, because faith is coming out of failure now. God's building something. So, if you've had your faith faltering and you've failed a lot, take heart. God's building something in you. David, remember, ran from Saul. Rather than stay in the land and trust God who'd already delivered him from a bear, a giant, a lion, and a whole host of enemy Philistines, God had already proven Himself and God had already told this man that God would be a shield to all those who trust in Him. He had written this already. And yet, he runs at the first threat from Saul. And he runs down to Gath. And the king of Gath finds out that David is in the camp. And he says, go get him. His soldiers, get him. And the word gets David, you're going to be killed. You're going to be assassinated because what you did to the giant. And David panics. He's now in enemy territory. He's running. He's in the flesh now. He's not trusting God with his life and his future. And now he's in the flesh. He's doing things his own way. Then he gets in a mess. He's manipulating now. He's got to do something he never thought he would ever do. He pretends he's insane. He starts babbling like a moron. Spittles running down his beard and he's clawing at everybody. A man of God. I can see his soldiers go, oh my. King of Israel. He's praying like a madman. Because you see, when you're not walking in faith, you have to pretend you're something you're not. And do things that you'd never do. You have to manipulate. You have to scheme. And David's manipulating. He's scheming. And they bring him to the king. And he's wallowing on the floor. He's spitting. He's acting like a crazy man. And the king of Israel says, get him out of here. What do I want to do with a madman? When we don't trust God and take matters into our own hands, we come just to the same place where we have to try to be something we're not. Jacob did the same thing with his mother, Rebecca. All his life he had to be taught by Rebecca what God told her when these two boys were still in her womb. That the elder would serve the younger. She had a promise that the birthright belonged to Jacob. And they waited for years and it didn't happen. And Rebecca gets nervous about it. She can't wait. She loses her faith. And so does Jacob. And so he tries to be somebody else. Pretends his own brother. He becomes a deceiver. You remember the story how the mother wrapped wool on his arms to mock, to say that he's his hairy brother. You see the manipulation and the scheming and being somebody you really aren't. And I would tell you, it took Jacob 20 years to get back on track to the faith walk. 20 years scheming till he came back to faith. Because you see, when you get in the flesh and get away from trusting God and obeying Him, His way, you're going to thwart the purposes of God and you're going to have to go into another test that is even worse. Another consequence of not fully trusting God is that we literally put other people's lives at risk. We mess up other people by our unbelief. Abram really put his wife's life at risk. Sure enough, the princess of Pharaoh Seir and get the word to Pharaoh. One of the historians said that Pharaoh had already sent a contingent of his army to another nation where he had found word that there was a beautiful woman and he had killed a whole lot of people just to get this woman. I don't know if Abraham was aware of that or not. But sure enough, word comes and she is taken because they ask, is this your wife? He said, no, this is my sister. Is he your husband? He said, no, this is my brother. A half truth. He just hid the truth, the full truth. We're used to that today from the White House on down. Human nature never changed, has it? And so she's taken away into Pharaoh's harem. You understand the risk that this man took? This man has been given a promise that out of his loins would come, really is the Redeemer, that all men should be blessed. And somehow, I believe, Abram knew that. Because about Jesus later said, Abram saw his day. He puts this woman at risk of becoming Pharaoh's wife, one of his wives, and giving birth to a heathen child. What a horrible risk that he put you. So many people are hurt when a husband or wife is not walking in faith, but walking according to their own mind and their own will, doing things their own way. It's the same with a man or woman who's trying to establish their own righteousness. Rather than receiving the righteousness of Christ by faith, trying to work, and in their efforts to try to be holy in their own strength, people are hurt everywhere. Their standards are imposed on everybody. Anyone else that's not living according to this standard, they're going to be walked over and choked and hurt and preached at. Do you know God plagued Pharaoh's harem and his house in such a way that he had to get to the bottom of it? Somehow, they must have gotten it out of Sarai. They must have gotten it out of Abram. Somehow, they got the word. It's because you have a woman of God, Jehovah God, and she's the cause of this. Abram is called on the carpet and said, Why didn't you tell us that this was your wife? And he commanded his soldiers to take this man and this woman to the border, and they were unceremoniously cast out of the land. And I want you to know that the testimony of this man was absolutely ruined. What kind of a God is this allows you to lie and put your wife at risk? Can you imagine what David did, how he put to risk the honor of God? How all of those in Gath are saying, What kind of God that takes his heroes and after he's finished with them, turns them over to madness? And folks, that's what happens when we walk in the flesh trying to achieve our own righteousness. What kind of a God is this that a man can talk about holiness and try so hard and be so mean? Nobody meaner than one who's trying to establish his own righteousness, his own way. Outwardly, every is fine, but inside, don't cross him, don't cross him. You'll find he got a temper. Or her, whatever it may be. You remember how Jacob manipulates and look at the hurt he causes. He is cast off, he's cut off from his dying father. His brother is driven to bitterness. And Rebecca is robbed for 20 years of the fellowship of both sons. She never lived to see her, she didn't see her grandchildren raised. She wasn't there with her grandchildren. Oh, she paid a price. We hurt so many people. There's so many, so much damage done when we get out of the will of God and when we're not walking in faith. And I've told you, and with this, I'm going to close. I told you that we learn faith through failure. I learned faith by making a fool out of myself. And sometimes God lets you make a fool out of yourself when you're walking in flesh. I should have got permission to tell this story. But by the time the tape gets there, I can get to my daughters and sweet talk them. Get excused. I've got two daughters, married well. Wonderful husbands. A number of years ago, before they were married, I told all my children when even they were late teens, I said, you don't ever have to try to scheme or manipulate to find your mate. I said, all you do is serve the Lord with all your heart, walk in obedience, trust the Lord, walk in his righteousness, and God will cause them to cross your path. They'll be there. Don't manipulate or you're going to get in trouble and you'll wind up marrying a bum. Those are my very words. One of my daughters, in her 20s, the first two or three years of her 20s, had a couple heartbreaks. Some young men that she thought were nice and didn't get along and she just had some heartbreaks. And she came to me once and said, tell me again, Dad, about this way, you know, just trust God and he'll cross your path. Tell me about that again. I said, honey, I believe it. I believe with all my heart that if you'll just trust God, don't take matters in your own hand, don't try to make anything happen. God will bring him. God's already got him. God's training him. Just hold on. And the next year or so, she met a young man, nice looking young fellow. And I'd see him walking, holding hands. And time went by and I said, honey, does he love you? She said, well, he makes me think he does. He tells me he's very fond of me. And I said, well, it's going awful slow. And here's a man walking by faith, righteous before in his righteousness, praying, seeking God, and preaching this strong message. And I'm just about to be led into my severe wilderness. I mean, famine. God's going to bring me to a test. So time went on and I thought to myself, it's going to be a heartbreak. This kid doesn't know how to make a commitment. He needs some help. In a few weeks, I had to leave for a crusade, some crusades in Europe. And I turned to my daughter. I said, honey, why don't you and your friend come along to Europe for 10 days while I'm preaching crusades? And just fellowship. He can sleep in my room and I'll get you and a friend in another room. I don't know if Gwen was there or not. But they agreed. Boy, he jumped at it. Who wouldn't jump to an all expense trip 10 days to. I'm sorry, I got to tell this. And all you people laugh and have done some stupid things just like I've done. A week before we left, I went out and bought an engagement ring. And on the way to Europe, I managed to put him on the seat next to me. And halfway over the Atlantic, I said, you know, I've seen you've been with my daughter for about six months. And you seem to be very close. And I know she likes you and Gwen and I like you. And here I do. I get absolutely in the flesh. I absolutely forgot faith. I abandoned faith completely. Now I'm walking in. I became a world class manipulator. This thing in my pocket in a jewel box. And I took it out and put it on my side. And I said, you know, I know you're student. You don't have much money. And I know you like my daughter. And I said, I know what's in your heart. And I pulled it out and I opened up, said, how do you like that? A full carrot. I got it cheap. He said, wow. He said, who's that for? He knew I was married. I said, I'll tell you what, we've got two days in London. Tell you what I want you to do. I want you to take my daughter down by Big Ben. The big clock. It's romantic. I'll give you money for a nice meal. Put it on her finger. He said, what? He looked at me with a funny look. I have no intention of marrying your daughter. He said, she's a wonderful girl. I have no intention. We're friends. I turned every color of the rainbow. And I looked at that stupid rock. I closed it, put it in my thing. You know, first thing I thought, you ungrateful, ungrateful. You're not worthy of my daughter anyhow. You talk about hurting somebody. I hurt my daughter when she heard about it. Who did I hurt her? I'll tell you what hurt just as bad for 10 days. Watching that boy eat $50 steaks. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed every moment. I'm sitting there thinking, you dummy, you dummy. I had gotten out of God's will. I got in flesh. You know, I could have messed up two lives. It was dangerous. We laugh about it. In a way, it's awful stupid and funny, but I learned a lesson. I'm not saying I won't have to learn it again, but I hope it's never that stupid. And sometimes God allows us to get into these messes that we say, look, I can't handle life. I can't handle these things. I can't manipulate. I can't do these things. Lord, I'm going to have to trust you. And he'll literally drive us into his arms that we would trust him and believe him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Are you trying to manipulate? Are you trying to make things happen? You're saying, God, I don't see your hand. It's too slow. I guess I've heard wrong. No, no, no, no. You haven't heard wrong. The just shall live by faith. Will you stand? This is the conclusion of the tape.