This sermon emphasizes the comforting truth that God knows and understands our deepest struggles and pains. It encourages listeners to trust in God's care and presence, especially in times of affliction and uncertainty. The message highlights the importance of holding onto God's promises and seeking His strength and peace in all circumstances.

As founding pastor, I want you to know that God knows, and that's the name of my message. God knows. I'm not going to preach at you. Will you let me talk? I just want to talk. I want you to go to Psalm 139, if you will, please. God knows. Now folks, I was not scheduled to speak, but I went about Wednesday this week. Gwen is nearly bed fast now. She's fighting the battle of her life, and I request prayer for her so much, and I hadn't planned to be here. But Wednesday or Thursday, it was the Holy Spirit came upon me and said, you must go Sunday morning, and you must preach what I tell you to share. Your heart is going to be my heart, and this is not a prophetic message. This is a message of hope, and I said, I will, but you have to give me strength, and he did. He gave me strength, and this is the word that he's given to me. God knows. Psalm 139, if you will, please. I'm reading from the King James. Oh Lord, thou hast searched me, and what? Known me. You know my down-sitting, my uprising. You understand my thoughts afar off. You compass me, and you surround me, my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with all my ways. There's not a word in my tongue, but oh Lord, you know it all together. You have beset me behind, and before you've laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high. I can't attain to it. Where shall I go from your spirit? Whither shall I flee from your presence? That's as far as I want to read. He knows. Heavenly Father, will you please come and comfort the heart of those who have lived with foreboding fears of the future. Come now for those who've walked into this church. And they came with a heavy heart, some in pain, some in confusion. And Lord, I don't know who they are. There's no way I could know they were here, but you're going to speak to their hearts. They're going to know, because when you speak, it sounds as if somebody told on us. And when you speak, and when your Holy Spirit comes, there's something that touches the heart that can't be shaken off. So I come humbly before you as a voice, a voice only. And will you speak your mind and your mercy to us, I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now, messages go out on websites, go out around the world. And this morning, I want to speak to those who are in affliction. I want to speak to those who are being tested and tried. I want to speak to those who are caretakers for their parents or someone else. And you know the struggle, and you have to watch and see the pain and deterioration of a loved one, or someone has passed away, you're deeply in sorrow and grief. You may have just been laid off. You may be unemployed, or you may be, you've lost your house, or you're thinking that you may lose your house. And the finances seem to get just worse. I'm here to tell you God knows. I said, I'm here to tell you God knows all about it. You know, people come up to you and they say, how are you doing? How are you? And I'm thinking, do you really want to know? Because you see, it's just a common courtesy, even we Christians who walk with Jesus, and people who love people, they ask. It's almost a common courtesy. Hey, how are you doing? But you see, people are so burdened down with their own, and if you really start and say, well, let me tell you, I'm about to go in the hospital, or you know, my credit card bills, or so and so on, and you start talking about the problems with children and everything else, and they don't get it. It's a common courtesy. My son, Greg, you know, I've requested prayer for the last four years. Wonderful, preacher, man of God, for four years, back operations that were not successful, and all kinds of operations and procedures in four years with such horrible pain that medications hardly touched it. That precious young man has gone through such fires, and yet I still see him growing in Christ. And he called me last week and said, Dad, I went to the pain doctor as usual. I go every month. And while I was waiting to see the pain doctor, waiting in the waiting room, I started a conversation with a little lady. She was all crippled. She had knee replacements. She had a neck surgery that didn't work, and it was in great pain, and he just listened. And she went in to see the pain doctor, and when she came out, Greg was still sitting there. And he said, Dad, she came over to me and said, would you mind doing me a favor? I just broke my wrist, and someone started my car to get me here. But would you please come in the parking lot and start my car? Of course, Greg did. He went down, opened the door for her, and started her engine. And she leaned over and said, you have no way of knowing what this means to me. And he touched her shoulder and said, I know. I know. And then she started weeping. And a few days later, Greg was hurting so bad, and during, he said, Dad, I've never experienced such pain in three hours of sleep and everything. And I just looked up and cried and said, oh God. And God said, whispered to him, I know. I know all about it. Remember, I had a son. Tim Delina, who comes to preach this church from Detroit, his mother, Sonia, has been one of my wife's dear friends for years. She's 86 years old now and crippled with back problems. And she goes to the same pain doctor as Greg. And yesterday, Sonia called Gwen. And all I could hear, yes, Sonia, I know. Because Gwen is in severe back pain and been through 28 operations. And I could hear Sonia saying, Gwenny, I know. I know what you're going through. You see, when I want to talk to somebody going on in pain, and I want a word of encouragement, I don't want some whippersnapper coming up to me and quoting scriptures. Now, I'm not putting that down. No, God knows my heart. I don't want somebody to come and say, well, I'm going to lay hands on you, cast the devil out of you. I want somebody that's in the fire. I want to hear from somebody that knows, somebody that feels, and somebody that's been there. Do you understand what I'm saying? I know what it's like. I know pain. I try to keep myself out of this. But my daughter, Bonnie, is going into a male clinic with major problems. I don't even know. They're trying to find out. But agonizes in pain. My son, Gwen, and my own battles. And I know what it's like to sit on the edge of the bed and grieve over my children and their sufferings. And I'm not trying to be self-centered on this, but I'm trying to reach into the heart of some of you that know what I'm talking about. Have you ever sat on the edge of your bed and dangle your feet and just cry? And say, God, I hurt. I'm hurting bad. And then to hear Jesus say, I know and I care and I'm with you. Oh, the healing power of those words. The great mercy of our precious living Savior. A few years ago when we would go down to Florida to vacation during the winter time, I remember going into restaurants and watching the elderly people sitting in the restaurant. Six here, ten here. They're all together. And you listen to the conversation, everybody talking about doctors and operations. I said, Lord, I don't want to ever do that when I'm... I don't ever want to talk like that. And here I am talking like that. But I would notice if somebody, for example, at that table they would be talking about and somebody says, well, I've got such horrible back pain. I'm coming to believe almost everybody has a back problem. But when somebody really felt it and said, well, I'm really going through it. Somebody at that table has the same ailment. And you could see them get together and talk and everybody would leave and they would stay. And they're entering in. There's compassion. There's something there that they know. Listen, we have a heavenly Father who knows suffering. His own Son at the cross. All the pain and the agony that our blessed Lord and Savior has touched, even with the feelings of our infirmities. Many no longer believe that God cares and is doing anything about their situation. They say, where is God in all of this? After all my years, even Christians right now are questioning whether or not God is answering their prayer or not, whether God is concerned about their trial. This is all of the United States. We hear from people from all over the world now and such suffering and such pain and such agony and things. Now some of you young people sitting here, you say I don't relate to this at all. Well, time has a way. I don't wish that on you, but I'm telling you in your own way, you know pain. You know the foreboding and fears of the future. You know these things. So I'm not talking over your head. The tragedy is when the suffering goes on and things seem to get worse and your cry doesn't seem to be heard. There's a tenderness and it's sweeping the nation and the church. There's a seething bitterness toward God. I have to, this is the heart of why I'm here right now. The Lord spoke lovingly to my heart to warn. You see these questions, these thoughts that are put in the mind, where is God and why does he allow this to go on? And where is there not some evidence now that he is hearing my cry and just somebody said if I could just get some sleep. And when the problem goes on and the answer doesn't seem to come and you seem to be at the absolute end of yourself. There are only two options. You either turn to the Lord and rest in his word. You do that or you charge God with fatherly negligence. You give in to this fear. You give in to these thoughts of you know, why after being faithful, why after reading my bible and doing everything right? Why am I now suffering? Why am I going through this? You know often the first question is what did I do? But it's not, that's not what the question is. Because everything in the past is under the blood of Jesus Christ. It's all gone and forgotten and the devil can't charge us against us anymore. Dire afflictions begin to come. Do you have a choice? Lord was speaking to me about Israel. The nation Israel. He chose a people, the smallest nation, the weakest of people. And he said I chose you because I want you to be a testimony to the whole heathen world. I'm going to take you into a desert and there's going to be hardships. And I'm going to take you to a place. We call it Canaan land or the promised land. And he says I'm going to give you promises. I'm going to, the only way I can reach the world is to have a people who are going to be a testimony. That you don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He said I'm going to give you a land of milk and honey. Well folks he had, Abraham had milk and honey. He had thousands of cattle. God had a vision. He had a plan. This was a people who would be tested until they got it. Until they could become a testimony and come into a place in God. A place of faith that could not be shaken. A place of faith where no matter what they had, they would go to the word of God and they would live and they'd be sustained. In every nation, everyone around because they were called to be a teaching people. And God says the issue, the issue is not just bread. Am I going to have enough to eat? Will there be enough for my family? That was never the issue in the wilderness. That's not the issue now. God took care of those people. He fed and clothed them even though they were in unbelief. He took care of them. In 40 years, not one starved. Not one of them went homeless. In 40 years, God provided. God's going to take care of you. God's going to have food on your table. He's going to, he's going to protect you. Now there'd be changes. Big changes. Yes. He wings us from the world and he allows us to go through till he finds the people that come out. And you can't do this in your flesh. It has to be a work of the Holy Spirit where every day you say, God, I can't make it unless your spirit who lives in me begins to give me power and strength. God made me a promise. If I'd come and speak to you today, he would give me the strength. And he's doing that right now. There's a, there's a vision before you now, right? Look at this thin man now and then think of the prayer and think of the strength that he's trying to bring to you right now. I lived on a promise. I'm living on a promise. He's bringing us to a place and finding a people who'll be a testimony to the world that is stronger than all the evangelism, stronger than anything else because here's a people not just preaching it. They are living it. Anti-Islamic can look at him and say, I know what he's going through, but he's not murmuring. He's not complaining. Greg said, Dad, I get confused when I hear people murmuring about the weather. And all I want is a nice sleep. The murmuring, the complaining, you know, you see God, God wants a people. This is the promised rest and Hebrews said that that people, I'm still looking for them. He said that promise has never been claimed. There remains yet a rest for the people of God. And oh, I cry in my heart and I pray and say, oh God, you brought me, I'm 78 now and you brought me all these years and you've been faithful. You brought Gwen through 28 operations. You've brought my family through. You've been good and that's my cry now. God, you have been good. You know all about it. You know everything about me. You know my weaknesses. You know my trouble. But oh God, you are answering prayer. You're answering now. You'd be surprised how many prayers have been answered and you're not aware of them. You see, God knows what's in our hearts. He knows everything. That's what the scripture says. There were some Pharisees that came to Jesus to hear him and the Bible says they belittled him or they ridiculed him. And Jesus turned to these covetous Pharisees and he said, you justify yourselves before men, but God knows your heart. You want to be highly esteemed among men, but that's an abomination in the sight of God. Before I close my thoughts, I want to speak to those sitting here now who don't know Christ as Lord and Savior. I don't know who brought you, who invited you, or why you came, but God knows and he knows our hearts. And he looked at the hearts of these Pharisees, he said, you justify yourself. You have a reason why you're bitter. And I would say to you, that's a very dangerous place to be and you say, well, you don't know the circumstances. If you only knew what I've been through, if you only knew how I've been hurt, if you only knew how many times I prayed, like a man who wrote to me who was so powerful in the word for a season. His wife was dying and he prayed and he announced his whole town, God was going to heal her. And she died and he got bitter. And I called him on the phone. I couldn't move him. I couldn't touch him. Because you see, once you let bitterness toward people, or you allow this little seething thought in your mind, God, you feel me? If you're not careful, that bitterness can shrivel you up and you will harden your heart. And folks, the hardest people in the world, the most difficult people to reach with the gospel of Christ, are those who started with the seed of bitterness. And I'm not speaking from notes right now. There are people that are sitting here listening to me now. And I'm just the voice from the throne of God, a weak vessel, bringing you a message from the heart of God. And I'm speaking to some who've been to this church for a long time. And you're facing something now beyond guard, beyond guard, against the voice of the enemy that's coming to you now and throwing thoughts of fear and unbelief. I've been talking to some college kids the past few weeks. And there's such, such, they say, I don't even know if God's there anymore. I don't even believe he cares. I heard one young man say, you know, sometimes you feel just like anything at all, because you don't sense God, you don't feel God. Now, I'll tell you what. I can't defend God. I can't explain to those who want to know why God allows suffering. Why does God allow children, you see children say, where is God? Where is God in my case? Where is God in my situation? I can't answer all those questions. You can't come to God on those terms. Because one day he'll explain it all. He'll tell us about the mad dictators. He'll tell us about all those who heard the gospel and were just living a light shell of life and never did let the word change their hearts and became bitter and then in that bitterness became terrorizing. God will explain all that one day. I can't tell you what I don't know, but I can tell you what I do know. I do know back in Psalm 139, the Lord has searched me and known me. You know my down sitting, my uprising. I know that God has forgiven my sins. I know that I'm cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. I know that he's promised to keep me from falling and present me faultless before the throne of God. I believe what he said that God will supply all my needs according to the mercy of God. I know that I know that God is real. I know that he still heals and that he answers prayer. I know that he can he can meet you in your sadness. He can meet you in your sorrow. I know that. God knows the way that I take and when he's tried me, I'm going to come forth as gold and I believe I believe with all that is in me that we must be a people, a testimony. If not here, it has to be somewhere. I will live not by bread alone, not focused on my material needs, not living in this constant fear, but going humbly to the throne of Christ and say, Jesus, your word is eternal. There have been generations that have proved you faithful. This book is full of the sufferings and the deliverances and the glories of almighty God. You compass my path, my lying down, you're acquainted with all my ways. There's not a word in my tongue, but oh Lord, you know, you know it all together. You've set me behind and before you've laid your hand upon me. Verse seven, where shall I go from the spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, you're there. If I take the wings of the morning, the parts of the sea, even there your hand shall find me. Your right hand shall hold me. If I say surely darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light unto me. Oh, yes, there'll be darkness, but the light still shines and he says I'll come through the darkness. I will come through the darkness and I will lead you and guide you as long as you're on the face of this earth. Will you stand? In closing, before we worship for another season, I want to give you an invitation. Those in the balcony here and those in the overflow rooms, wherever you may be, the sound of my voice. I'm a voice, just a voice, but that voice is backed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he's speaking to those who've grown weary of the battle. You're so tired, you're weary of the battle, you say, but I just feel like giving up. No, God says hold still. Can you just say God knows? God cares? God is with me? Now, do you believe that or are those just words? If you're cold in your spirit or you're backslidden or you're here and you're facing a life and death issue, this is not a time to justify why you don't serve Christ like the Pharisees did. No more excuses, no more reasons why you will not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Lord and give him your heart. If you're turning away from Christ, you chose the wrong hour, you chose the wrong time. Time is getting short. You're going to stand before God whether you believe it or not. I don't want to take a chance. I go in hospitals and I see people that are full of hate and bitterness and I know that within a few hours they're going to stand before the throne of God and I tremble. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm trying to tell you that God in his mercy came and sent a man to this pulpit this morning at this time in this place to save you and to do something supernatural in your life. Now, usually we invite people to just come and stand up here and pray and then we pray. I'm not going to do that this morning. This morning I feel that the Holy Spirit to just say that if your heart has grown cold or lukewarm, if you don't know Christ, I just want you to bow your heads and I want you to say this. Let everyone bow your heads just a moment in reverence before the Lord. For those that are cold, those that have been drifting and those who have been, your faith has been so shaken, there's no hard word coming to you. Just this sweet offer of the Holy Spirit. God says, I hear a cry and if you'll just voice that not out loud, but in your heart and you can think this prayer and God will answer. Just in your heart and mind, Jesus, I'm hurting and I need help. And Jesus, I want to trust you with my future. I want to trust you that you hear my cry and I want to say yes to you that you are the Lord and you are God and I surrender to you and Holy Spirit hold me and heal me. And for those who have been coming to this church and you've known God for a long time, will you let God give you a word now? Let me tell you something. Our God is a promising God. These are promises and he makes promises and I want you to lay hold of one scripture before we worship. I have one that I hold on to for dear life. He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on the Lord. That's my promise and I lay hold of it and I'm going to have just a moment of silence and I want you to lay hold of a promise, one that he's given to you, but I want you to lay hold of it for what's ahead. I want you to lay hold of it and then I'm going to pray for you. What is that promise? I'll never leave you, never forsake you. Lay hold of a promise right now. Are you unemployed? Lay hold of a promise and keep getting one every day. Would you look this way now? I'm not promoting anything, but every day now I have a daily devotional site where I send out scriptures and hope. I don't even know how you get on the site, so I'm not advertising that. But I know that we're hearing from all over the world from people who lost everything. And God is meeting the needs. God is answering prayer and the testimonies are absolutely thrilling and you're going to be that testimony. You're going to be that testimony for Christ. If you're hurting so bad, you say I have to have, I can't leave out here till I I have special prayer for my need. Especially if you're going through a life and death struggle. If you feel that need, this area is open for you to come down here and we will sing and we will pray and as we're worshiping the Lord the great healer is here to heal you, to touch you. And if you've been backslidden, you know the way back. Just walking down here won't do it. But if you walk and humble yourself before the Lord, he said I won't turn away from a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Come as we have the music. Now you'll be free to leave at any time you want to, but those of you who love to worship, stay with us and worship and those who feel the need to come even from the annex from the overflow rooms, there'll probably be room you can even stand there if you want to be here. Lord, thank you for speaking to our hearts. We give you thanks. We give you praise and we will live by every word. I don't do this, but I want you God help me say it. To live not on bread alone, but on every word proceeding from the mouth of God. Now raise your hand and thank God for his keeping power, his blessing. When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my life now has taught me to say It is well It is well With my soul It is well With my soul It is well It is well With my soul It is well With my soul With my soul It is well It is well With my soul