In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing God's presence in our lives. He encourages believers to not despise small beginnings, as it is evidence that God is with them. The preacher highlights the supernatural love that develops in marriages when Christ is at the center. He also emphasizes the need to heed God's voice and walk in His strength, as it leads to a life filled with extraordinary works and victory over enemies. The sermon references scriptures such as Zechariah 4:6, Psalm 81:13-16, and Numbers 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, P.O. Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply. Father, I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. God, I'm thanking you that you will take this word, and you have predetermined in your heart to do a work here among your people. And Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart, that your anointing is an abiding anointing. And the evidence of the anointing is freedom from captivity of sin and expectancy that the kingdom of God has come and the work of Christ has begun and will be brought to completion in each of our hearts. Lord, I thank you, God, for what you're going to do today. I stand against every weapon of the devil, every work of darkness that tries to crush the people of God and keep in captivity the creation of God. And Father, I thank you today that through the simple preaching of your word, Holy Spirit, you're going to come and do this marvelous work of God. You will enlighten men's minds. You will set people free from the captivity of darkness. You will heal those that have been wounded in their heart. God, you'll open the ears of those who've been spiritually deaf and the eyes of those who've never seen or understood the risen Christ. God, I thank you with all my heart. I praise you. I yield myself to you, Lord, and I ask you to use this frail vessel for your glory. I stand back behind the cross and say, Jesus, let your name be the only name that is ever mentioned in this house. Father, thank you. God, I praise you from the depths of my heart. Jesus, that you are lifted up here. We give you the praise and all the glory in your mighty name. Psalm 9, the expectancy of the righteous, beginning at verse 1. I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most high. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou hast maintained my right and my cause. Thou saddest in the throne, judging right. Thou hast rebuked the heathen. Thou hast destroyed the wicked. And thou hast put out their name forever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. And thou hast destroyed cities. Their memorial is perished with them. Now, this particular psalm is written by David, the king of Israel, and most probably at the height of that period in his life when he was ascending as king of all of Israel and after his numerous and seemingly unstoppable military victories. In other words, David had known incredible victories, but it was only the beginning in the sense of what God wanted to accomplish through his life. And with an eye of faith to the future, David goes in this particular psalm to a place where only those who know God are able to go. If you've known him, if you're here today and you are righteous, now, I want to define righteous. Now, righteous means that you have trusted in Jesus Christ. You've acknowledged that you are a sinner. You have trusted in the fact that God became a man, died on a cross 2,000 years ago, and paid the price for all of your sin. You've placed your confidence in him. You've understood that God poured out the wrath that you deserved upon his own son. And you have trusted in this sacrifice for your salvation. God says, if you have trusted in my son, I declare you to be righteous. In other words, the slate is cleaned. All of the sins that you have committed against me, God says, I've placed them upon my son. And the list of sins that is against you that would not only damn you in a sense, but doom you for all of eternity are gone. You are now free to enter into a new and living relationship with God Almighty himself, where he comes into your life and by the power of the Holy Spirit begins to lift you now out of the condition that came upon all of mankind because of the sin that we are born with, that we inherited as it is because of the sin of Adam and Eve, our first parents in the Garden of Eden. Now, if you are righteous, there should be an expectancy in your heart. Yes, you may only have known a few victories. You may even be struggling here today. But there is something of God that he plants within you. If you have been justified, if you can honestly say, based on the Bible, there are two things that have to happen in your heart to know that you're righteous. Number one, you have the scriptural knowledge. You've looked in the Bible and said, this is who Jesus is. This is what he did for me. This is what he asked me to do. And I've done that. I've confessed my sin. I have trusted him for my salvation. I have opened my heart and I have invited him in to be my Lord and Savior. Now, that's your scriptural basis for righteousness. But it follows there's a duality with it. The second evidence is God says the moment I have received you, the Holy Spirit, who is God, will come and live within you and the spirit within you will bear witness that you are a child of God. There will be an inner cry, Abba, Father. There will be an inner awareness that God, something has changed in my life. I'm no longer the same man or woman that I used to be. Oh, yes, I might still be struggling. I might still have enemies on every side. David still did at the beginning of his reign. But there's an expectancy in me now. I now have God who created the universe living within me. Oh, beloved, if the church could just get a hold of this, not by textual knowledge, but by experience, if you and I could fully realize that the God of the universe, if we have trusted in Christ, is now living within us. And because of that, there ought to be an expectation. And by expectation, I mean we're living in a state of expectancy because God Almighty has decreed that He is going to do something through our lives that we could never do in our own strength. Only God could do it. There's an expectancy of the righteous. And David has this expectancy in this particular psalm that he's writing. He is still in battles. He's still fighting enemies that are around him. He still has a long way to go before he gets to the end of his reign and the end of his life. But he has begun to experience victories and he has this inner knowledge in him that God is with him. You might be the most struggling Christian in this place today, but if you have been accepted by God, if you are righteous through Christ, you have an inner knowledge. I don't have to tell you about it. You already have it. There's this spark in you that just tells you. It's this voice of God that says, I have something very special for your life that I'm going to do. I'm going to raise you. I'm going to fight against your enemies and establish the testimony of my life. Interwoven as it is in and through your life. And David says, I will praise thee, O God. Now, everything that David says in Psalm 9 is in the future. He's going somewhere. And he knows because God is with him, he's going there. He says, I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most high. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. Amazing. That should be your testimony if you have been cleansed from your sin in this house here today. You should have that testimony. I will praise you, O God. Yes, I might be in a storm. Yes, I might be in a battle. Oh, yes, my enemies might be on every side. But, almighty God, I will praise you. I will show forth the marvelous works that you have determined to do from within my life. I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing praise, and my enemies will fall. My enemies that are coming against me on every side, O God, they will fall. I have this expectancy in my heart. David says they're going to fall because of one thing. They're not going to fall because I have more Bible knowledge than my enemies. They're not going to fall, although that's a good thing, and you should have more Bible knowledge than your enemies. But he says they're going to fall, in verse 3, because of your presence. It's amazing. It's because you are with me. Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, who died and said in his final moments, It is finished. Who broke the chains of sin off of all humanity. Who canceled the legal right of the devil to own the creation of God. Because of Jesus Christ in me and around me and through me. Because he sits on the throne at the right hand of all power and also lives within my own heart. Because of the presence of God, my enemies will fall. They will fall. They cannot stand against what God has determined to do within me. Paul says in the book of Romans, chapter 8, I'll just read it to you. In Romans, chapter 8 and verse 29, Paul says it this way. He said, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Paul is saying God knew that when you came to him, that he had a purpose for you. He foreknew that when you came to him, he had already destined that through the life of his Son within you, you were going to be brought to a place that he had determined your life to go to. And he says in verse 30, Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. The moment you turn towards Christ, the Scripture says God called you. Isn't that amazing? With an audible voice, he called your name. And says, I have a purpose for you. I have a plan for your life. You didn't just find God. God has never been lost. God revealed himself to you. You were lost. And God in his mercy came and revealed himself to you. You didn't just decide one day to start thinking about God. You didn't just decide to come to church today because it's Easter and because your family forced you to come into this place. You are here today because God is drawing you here. God is drawing you. God, if you can hear it today, he's calling your name. He's calling you by name. The Holy Spirit is whispering your name. He's telling you he loves you. He's telling you he came to the earth 2,000 years ago and paid the price for your sin. He called you to a holy calling. And he goes on to say, and then he called them. He also justified. So many people never respond to the call because they look at themselves and say, well, listen, God, do you really understand who it is you're calling? Do you know the things that I have done? Oh, yes. God knows the things you've done. He knew you were going to do them before you even formed the intent to do them. He knows even more than you can think or understand. But in spite of it all, he says, I'm not calling you because you are anything more than special to me. You are the very center. You're the apple of my eye. You are the very delight of my heart. I created you for fellowship, and I know you've failed and you've fallen, but I've called you. And because you're responding to the call, I've come and died for your sin and I'm justifying you. Then he called. He says he also justified. That means he paid the price. He satisfied his own wrath that should be yours because of the sin you've done and committed against God. He poured that wrath upon his own son. An innocent man paid the price for your sin and for mine. Isn't it amazing? The love of God. That's why when people who have rejected the love of God one day finally stand before his throne, there will be no excuses. There will be nothing to say. All of a sudden, their minds will be open. Every man and woman ever born will understand how much God had loved them, how often he had reached out to them. And sad to say, perhaps some have even attended this church, will be there one day realizing that the Holy Spirit had been reaching out to them, calling their name, wanting to cleanse them of their sin. But they had hardened their hearts to the word of God. They formed their own nonsensical notion about who God is and how God works and what God does. And unfortunately, it falls short of the glory of God. And he says those he called, he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. And the word for glorified means he gave them the power to be brought to a glorious place, to a place of honor, to the place, God says, where I destined you to go. I called you and then I justified you means I paid the price for your sin. And now I've given you the power to be brought to the place where I have determined your life is to go. It's amazing when you begin to really understand it. And then Paul goes on to say, then what shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Paul says, if you see it, can you understand it? That God is so for us. He has so determined to take you and I to a certain place in Him where our lives will glorify Him. And he said, if God is so for us, then who can be against us? Oh, beloved, this is the one scripture I learned as a new Christian that delivered me, as it is from a nine year captivity of darkness. It was in my life, a fear that was overwhelming my sense of identity. Even I was being swallowed by this fear that was on me. I read this one scripture. If God be for us, who can be against us? God is for you today. He's not against you. And the devil would try to have you convinced that, oh, you're such a failure. You're so weak. You're so powerless. You've lived such a lie. You live such a lousy life as it is that why would God even want you? But the scripture says God is for you. He's not against you. If God didn't want you, He wouldn't have come to the earth 2,000 years ago and died on a cross to pay the price for your sins. If God didn't want you, He wouldn't be anointing me today to preach this word to you. He wouldn't be crying out at you. He wouldn't be reaching out to you if He didn't want you. He wants you no matter where you come from, no matter what you've done, no matter what kind of sin and bondage might be in your life, no matter how unclean you feel. He wants you. He's always wanted you. You were created for fellowship with God, not just in time, but through all of eternity. You were born to rule and reign with Jesus Christ for all of eternity, not just to come to church and be made to feel good by some songs once in a while, but this is to be a day-to-day experience in God, the glory, the strength of God in your life. Paul says, He that did not even spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him that's with Christ also freely give us all things? Amazing. Paul says, If God wouldn't withhold His Son, why should we even think that He would withhold anything from us who are His children, who have responded to the call of His voice? Think of David for a minute as a boy, and you wonder, where did this type of faith start? This faith that David says, I'm going to praise God. I'm going to show forth His works. I'm going to be glad in Him. I'm going to seek praise. My enemies will fall at His presence. You see, it all started when he had a few sheep out in the wilderness. It started when David said, Lord, I'm just going to guard that which you've entrusted to me. It's not very much. And that's the way it starts in the Christian life, you know. You start out and you don't have much, but you have God. It's kind of a paradox. You have everything, but are just not really fully aware of it yet. You have God living within you, but He has to start by, if He gave you the whole package in the beginning, you'd be overwhelmed. Many of you here today, if He took you from where you're living right now and stood you before a million people and said, tell them about me, you'd just absolutely cave in, and that'd be the end of your life. It'd be all over at that particular point. He doesn't do it that way. It's the same way you build a building. You lay a foundation. You put one brick at a time on it. You build it slowly. And anything that is built right is not done in haste. And He gives you a few things, a little knowledge of Him. You begin to grow in that grace and in that knowledge. And as you are secure in that knowledge, then He begins to add to that knowledge of who He is. David started out with just a few sheep in the wilderness. He was entrusted with these sheep. And he took that charge seriously. The truths that God gives you, the ministry that He will hand to you, take it seriously. Begin to fulfill that ministry with these few sheep. And the devil tried to take that life that God was giving him right in the beginning. He sent a lion into that flock. He sent a bear into that flock. But David said, no, devil, you're not getting what God has entrusted into my hand. It's only a few things, but you're not getting it. And, you know, I was thinking of this particular concept when I was reading some of the church ministry reports this week. And in the New Believers class that we have here at Times Square Church, now here are the praise reports of people who have been handed a few things and are just starting out a brand new walk with God. One student asked the Lord to give her time to study the Bible. And she knows that the New Believers class is an answer to that prayer and is an example of his faithfulness. She was just saying, God, help me to study. I'm brand new and I don't know all the truths of God. And so she was led into the New Believers class and says, now, God, this is the first thing you've handed to me. This is the sense of awareness. Another person said the Lord is answering my prayer by granting me a greater sense of the Holy Spirit's presence and more love for my wife. Now, isn't that amazing? This is where this is starting for this particular man, his awareness that God is with him. He's a brand new Christian and he says, God is giving me more love for my wife. Now, folks, that's supernatural. Because in the natural, in the world, it starts on a pinnacle. You know, it starts with the songs and the vows, the kisses and the bridesmaid and the roses and the whole thing. You all know it just goes downhill from there. In the natural, that's the pinnacle. The only way you can ever hope to achieve it again is watch it on video, if you're lucky enough to have a video. But the marriage just goes down the tube in most cases from there, especially in our generation. But in Christ, there's a love that begins to develop that has nothing to do with the natural eye. It has nothing to do with the natural man. It is supernatural. It's something of God where the two are intertwined as Christ is with his church and the two begin to become one. And this new believer is beginning to understand that, hey, God is real because I came home the other day and maybe he's only saved for a month and I'm starting to love my wife in a way I've never loved her before. I thought my marriage was over. I thought it was finished. But there seems to be this love that is now coming from within me that I know is not me because I had no power to do this before. You see, he's being handed something of God. It's only a small beginning. Another woman in the class asked the Lord for direction in her life and she has been drawn into God's Word and been comforted. She said, God, help me, guide me. And the Holy Spirit just drew her into the Bible and she's finding her source of comfort in the Word of God. Another new Christian has been given an awareness of God's divine favor in the workplace. Here's a person that's going to work and has been struggling along in the job as it is and all of a sudden, I don't know the concept of divine favor that they have, but it could be that their thinking is getting more clear. That happens when you come to Christ. Your thinking clears up. And there is this inner voice as it is, this inner witness. It's not an audible voice, but there's an inner sense. You can read about it in Psalm 112. It says the man who's righteous and fears God, God guides him. He allows him to conduct his affairs with discretion. He gives him sense in his day-to-day activity. And this man is becoming aware in the workplace that, hey, I have God's favor on me. I seem to know what to do. And when you have God's favor, the people around you will begin to notice that too as well, especially those who are interested in true productivity. Another person says the Lord has caused me to depend on him more and has given me a grateful heart for all he's doing in my daily life. Now, that's evidence of God's presence, a grateful heart. You know, from all these years of grumbling and complaining and finally coming to Christ, and then all of a sudden this gratefulness comes into the heart. It's evidence of the fact that Jesus Christ is alive. Another new believer's prayer has been answered by giving her the grace to be loving and compassionate as her character is being tested at work. And, of course, that will come into everybody's life who loves God. It says I'm being tested, but I'm finding in my life a new grace and a new character, an ability to stay calm, an ability not to answer back in like kind, an ability perhaps which is evidenced by a compassion for those who are still living in spiritual ignorance and in darkness. And it's amazing. These are just small beginnings. These are just few sheep like David had a few sheep out in the wilderness. But if you are wise, you will protect these. Never let them slip through your fingers. Say, God, build on this now. Build on it. Help me to understand how you work and let these things that you've begun to do in my life, let them be on the increase within me. Zechariah was a prophet raised up in the Old Testament. The people began to be discouraged. They'd come back out of captivity. They were rebuilding the place of worship. And they got discouraged because of the opposition. And they looked upon what they were building, and it seemed so small. And it would seem so insignificant to them. And then God raised up a prophet. In Zechariah, I'll read to you from the New Living Testament. He said, Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. Do not despise these small beginnings in your life if you're a brand-new Christian today. You may be fighting on seven fronts and have victory on one, but do not despise the small beginning. It is evidence that God is in your life. It is evidence that you're not going to fall with those who live around you in society without God. You are going to make it through to the end. He said, It's not by force nor by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty. Now, we know that it's not by power, it's not by might. But it's by my spirit, says the Lord. And then he goes on to speak to the man who's in charge of this building, and he says, Nothing, not even a mighty mountain will stand in your way. And every obstacle that comes before you, it will even flatten out before you. He says, I've commissioned you to build something, and I am the source of your life and strength in building it. And you will be there when the first stone of the building is set, and you will be there when the building is finished. And everyone around you will stand there and look upon this building that has been built by the hand of God through human vessels, and they will shout grace, grace to it. In other words, they will say, God bless it, God bless it. It could not have happened but by the power of God. Oh, beloved, you see, that's the destiny that God has for you. Your life, when you come to Christ, it starts out small. It begins to build an awareness of his presence into your life. You don't have to do this through human effort, you know. You see, God is in you. And he says, Now I'm just, I'm going to help you get rid of human effort, because human effort got you into the mess that you're in, and it's not going to get you out of the mess. I'm going to help you to understand that my nature is now in you, and I've given you promises. And it's by embracing these promises that I will teach you that you will begin to know my new life within you. It's amazing when you begin to see it. It's not by your might. It's not by your power. It's by my spirit within you. I will begin to guide you. I'll begin to lead you. I'll begin to make you into the person that I've destined you to be. And when you get to the end, you're going to look back, and everyone who knew you is going to shout grace, almighty grace, the goodness of God, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Is that what you want today? Do you want it? It's within your grasp if you're a Christian. It's not some pie-in-the-sky theology. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the power of God that is given to those who believe in Christ. Now we go on from here, and David says again in Psalm 9, he says, I will show forth all thy marvelous works. In other words, everything that you have destined to do through my life, God, is going to happen. I'm not going to settle for mediocrity. I'm not going to be overrun by my own frailties. I'm not going to let these evil voices that try to tell me I'm going to amount to nothing triumph over me. I'm not going to give in to the frailties of my own heart. If my own heart condemns me, the Scripture says God is greater than my heart. He's greater than my own frailty. He's greater than every voice of the devil. He's greater than every power of evil that will try to stop the testimony of Christ from being formed in your life. The devil will fight against you with every lie he's got in his arsenal, because he knows that God is destined to make something in you of himself that will cause people. It will cause your children. It will cause your grandchildren. It will cause the people in your workplace, in your community, to stand up and shout grace. This can only be the goodness of God. There's no other way this could have happened in his life. They will see it. They will shout. They say, this is not the father I knew. This is not the husband I knew. This is not the sister or brother that I knew. When I see what has happened, it could only be the power of God. It could only be the glory of God. Religion will just cause you to begin to attempt to change in your own strength. And it's fruitless. It's powerless. But the New Testament provides all the power of God that you will ever need in the Holy Spirit to make you into the person that God has destined you to be. Take you where God has destined you to go and make you what God has destined to make you into. Open your mind and open your eyes and your heart and your thoughts and take you so far beyond human limitation that people will stand in awe. They will stand in awe. They will have to acknowledge that God is alive. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You and I are his only testimony. We're beyond the days now of fire falling out of heaven on stone altars. It's over now. We're now in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, the fire of God, the same fire that came on Elijah's altar, now falls upon people who have turned to Christ. That fire is the power of the Holy Ghost. And we are now the testimony of Christ to our generation. There is no other testimony. We are the testimony. You and me. He's not established any other presence of fire to our generation, but what he does in us and what we allow him to become through us. David says, I will show forth. I will. I will, David says. I will show forth all your marvelous works. David said, I've touched your glory. I've understood your power. I've seen you triumph over enemies that were stronger than I am. I've watched as I've run down into the valley and faced a giant that was causing the whole armies of Israel to tremble. I've seen you direct a little stone into that giant's forehead. I've seen what you can do through faith. And, oh God, I've determined in my heart. That's what made David a man after God's heart. He said, I've determined in my heart to show forth all the marvelous works that you've determined to do through me. I don't want to fall back in five percent of what you've called my life to be. That's what made him a man after God's heart. And the word show forth in the original text means to mark up a score. In other words, David's saying, the score is going to be complete. Hallelujah. To recount. To celebrate. It also means to polish. And when I was looking at it, I think, now that's strange. I can understand marking up a score because we can think of athletics, for example, where Paul says, I'm more than a conqueror. And we can put that into some kind of context that we can understand. To recount means when it's all over, David says, and my life is looked at, it will be recounted that all the works that God wanted to do through me, he did. To celebrate, I understand that, too, as well. David says, when it's all over, there's going to be a celebration. There already is in my heart, and there is going to be a celebration. Hallelujah. Oh, just think of being able to put your feet up in your bed on the last day of your life and give glory to God. And thank God for how good he has been. And not die with a heart full of regret. And you don't have to, even if you're 80 years old here today, you don't have to die with a heart full of regret. God Almighty can give back that which the moth and canker worm have eaten. He's God. He can do anything he wants to do in your life. You don't have to die full of regret. You have the Christ of this universe willing to come in and dwell you, change you, and give you the authority and the influence, perhaps, that you've lost or lacked. And I can understand the celebration at the end of a man's life when everything is rolled up together. But to polish, and I was really meditating on this, I said, to polish. I mean, I understand polishing. I have to do that at Christmas time. My wife brings out all the silver stuff that's everywhere. And it's usually not silver anymore. So I'm in charge of polishing it. And I understand that. Until, it seems strange, until I went into the scriptures in the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon says it this way. He says, who is a wise man? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? Now, the word thing, it means, understands what the word of the Lord has already done. Solomon says, who is wise? And who understands what God has already done? And then he goes on and says, a man's wisdom makes his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. In other words, he will be polished. His face will change. The tarnished look on his face that sin brings, and unbelief and doubt. I'd like to take you on a tour of Times Square today, and look at all the tarnished faces out there today. Walking the street and looking for happiness, can't find it, bowing under the weight of sin, little or no hope for the future. And God says, when I come into your heart, and when you begin to understand what I've already done. Not what I'm going to do, but I've done it. You're just entering into it. It's already done. It's finished. I did it on Calvary. I've sent the power of the Holy Ghost. There are now no limitations. There are now no enemies can stand against you. There's nothing can stop the plan of what I want to do in your life. If you can understand this, your face will change. I can always mark a person who comes into the house of God, who has confidence in God. There's something about the way they walk. There's something about the way they look. There's something about the way they shake your hand. They're polished. The hand of God has come on them and just wiped off the tarnish of fear and unbelief. And they might be going through financial difficulty. They might be in the storm of their life. Their kids might be living for the devil. But they're walking in, and there's a polish of God on them. There's no limitation in their heart to what God can do. They're polished by the hand of God. It's amazing. And they walk in like David, and they say, I will praise you. I will glorify you. I will show forth all your marvelous works. My family will live for you. My grandchildren will live for you. I will celebrate at the end of my life. I will put my feet up into the bed and say, God has been good to me. God has been good to me. Hallelujah. His face shall be changed. Paul says in Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this very thing. You see, Paul had a polished face. Paul is a man who could rise up in the midst of the storm and say, be of good cheer. I've heard from God, and God's got a plan for my life. And this storm, and this breaking up ship, and even the snake on the other side can't stop it. I'm confident, Paul said, of this thing that he which has begun a good work, and you will perform it. Or that means finish it until the day of Jesus Christ. David says in Psalm 1, he said, I will show forth all your marvelous works. And the marvelous works are those works which are described as separate, extraordinary, wonderful, and miraculous. David says, I'm not going to be limited. I'm going to let you, mighty God, do what you want to do with my life. My enemies, in verse 3, he says, will turn back. They will fall and perish at your presence. They will have no power over me. They'll have no power over my life. In the book of Numbers, the children of Israel were coming around the bend, as it were, on their journey. And they were beginning to head towards that destiny that God had for them. And there are always voices that will try to stop you from realizing, as it is, the glory and the power of God that he wants to reveal in your life. And there was a king that occupied the land they were moving into. And he called for a spiritist, really, what he was. You can't call him a godly man. He was a man who had some kind of a spiritual power, as they saw it in that generation. And the king called for this false prophet, really. His name was Balaam. And he said, I want you to come and curse these people. And you see, that's what the devil will always try to do to you. Curse you. He'll curse you in the morning. He'll curse you in the afternoon. He'll point his finger at you constantly. Look at the wrong thing you did. Look at the way you acted. Look at where you were just looking. Look at what you just said. He'll curse you in the workplace. And everywhere you go, his voice will be there to curse and condemn you. And I think that Balak the king thought this was going to be a non-issue. These people had failed. They had built a golden calf and worshipped a calf at the Mount of Sinai. They had been involved in rebellion. Even 250 of the men of renown under Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had gotten into this huge rebellion. And God had consumed them with his own presence. They had grumbled and complained. They had complained against the food God was giving them. And their own leader now, Moses, has failed. He's just been told that he's not going to be able to bring the people into the promised land. And so here's a pile of failures, really, coming around the corner. It should be no problem to curse them. It's almost as if they'd cursed themselves. And God intervenes and speaks to this prophet, this false prophet. And he says, you're not to speak anything but what I tell you. And this man, because of the encounter he had with God, had a deep-set fear of God, I believe, get into his heart. And he determined, I'm not going to curse. He even tells this foreign king, I'm only going to say what God tells me to say. And so the foreign king takes him to the top of a mountain and says, curse them from here. And Balaam looks. And he says an incredible thing in Numbers 23, 21. I'll just read it to you for time's sake. He says, He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, and neither has he seen perverseness or crookedness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. I can just see Balak standing there in absolute unbelief. What do you mean no inequity? What do you mean you don't see any fault? You don't see sin, you don't see wrong? It's amazing when you begin to see it. He says, I hear the shout of a king. I hear a king in their midst. And what was the shout? I think the shout is very clear among other things. It was the shout that caused the centurion to say, surely this is the Son of God. It's that shout when Christ said on Calvary, it is finished. The weapon of the devil is over. The cursing of the devil's voice, the legal right of darkness is over. It's finished. And he says, this is God speaking to Balaam. He says, I don't see iniquity. This is a weak people. This is a failed leadership. These people have failed God in the natural, in every respect. But God Almighty says, I don't see iniquity in them. He says, God has brought them out of Egypt, and He has, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. You see, the unicorn was a type of, it's used figuratively in the Old Testament for an animal, a battering ram type animal that cannot be stopped, that has unstoppable power. And it's amazing. He says, I see these people having been brought out of darkness by God, and they have unstoppable power now. You see, the devil never wants you to know that. He will always want you to focus on your failure. He doesn't want you to know that the unstoppable power of God is on you now, that God is not looking at your failure if you're an honest Christian. If you're righteous, if you've trusted in Christ for your salvation, God has accepted you. You may have had the worst week of your life, but it's not changed your standing in the sight of God. It's amazing when you begin to see it. He says, surely there is no enchantment against Jacob. In other words, there is no curse that can be conjured up out of hell that has any power over the people of God. Neither is there any definition against Israel. And according to this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, look what God has done. He says, very soon it's going to be said, look what God has done. You see, God was speaking to this man right to our generation and beyond our generation. You see, the Holy Spirit saw Times Square Church in the year 2004. He saw you sitting here, a child of God, for those who are righteous in Christ, saying, look what God has done. He saw the end of your life. Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion and lift himself up as a young lion and not lay down until he eats of the prey. In other words, the people of God are going to rise up with this incredible strength of God in them. And they're not going to rest until they're satisfied. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I wish you could understand this, everybody here. They're going to rise up. This is prophetic about our generation, about the church of Jesus Christ. They're going to rise up and they're going to be strong in the strength of God within them. And they're not going to rest until they've been satisfied, until the end of the day, the end of their life. They say, God, you've been good to me. God, you have done everything you promised. And now on God's part, Balaam says he will pour out water out of his buckets. And his seed shall be in many waters. And his king shall be higher than every kingdom. And his kingdom shall be exalted. God says, I will pour out an abundant supply to my people. And their kingdom will be higher than any kingdom in this world. He shall eat up nations, his enemies, and shall break their bones and pierce them through with his arrows. He couched and he laid down as a lion and as a great lion. And who shall stir him up? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God says, I have determined to be the strength of my people. And who dares to challenge me? Who dares to challenge what I have determined to do? You see, that's why in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, the Scripture says, Every voice that rises against you, you have the right to condemn it. Because your righteousness is of God and it's not something of yourself. It's amazing. Again, David says, and we're going to finish this off in Psalm 9. In verse 4, David says, You have maintained my right and my cause, thou saddest in the throne, judging right. The New Living Testament says, God, you have judged in my favor. The enemy has come against me, but you've condemned him and you've justified me. You've said that he's not going to prosper against me, but you've said that my life is going to be taken to a foreseeable end. Verse 6, he says, O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. Thou has destroyed cities and the memorial is perished with them. In the New Living Testament, it says, my enemies have met their doom. Their cities are in perpetual ruins. And even the memory of their uprooted cities is lost. God says, I'm going to come against every strong city in your life. Every encampment of the devil, I'm going to come against it. And they're going to meet their doom. They're going to be left in ruins. And even the memory of them is going to be taken away. Now, it begins here in this Christian life, but it reaches its finalization. We read in the book of Revelation when he says there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. He says, former things are passed away and I will make all things new. Isaiah, speaking of that day in chapter 51, tells us that even sorrow and mourning are going to flee away. One day, you and I are going to be in heaven. And the memory of pain is going to be gone. There'll be no more sighing, there'll be no more sorrow. But in this life, God says, I begin the work. I begin this tearing down. I begin to take away these strong cities. I begin to scatter them into ruins. I begin to give you beauty for ashes. I give you the oil of joy for mourning. I give you the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that sin and the devil and your life circumstances put upon you. I make all things new. I begin to take away that which has stood against you and oppressed you and tried to drown you in all kinds of destruction and sin. I take it away from you and I make all things new. David says, oh, I will praise you, oh God. I will show forth your marvelous works. I will be glad. I will sing to your name. My enemies will fall at your presence. They will fall. If you are here today and you are a Christian, you can have the assurance that your enemies are going to fall if you are in Christ. There's no stronghold. There's no weapon formed against you that can prosper now against you. All God says I require of you is to believe me. That's all I require. I don't want your effort. You don't have to put your hand to this. Yes, you just get up and walk. But I'll give you the strength. All I require of you is to believe me. I don't require anything else of you. I will be your strength. I'll be your life. I'll be your light. I'll be your song. I'll be your hope. I'll be your guide. I'll be your healer. I'll be your deliverer. I'll be the one who gives you spiritual sight. I'll touch your past. I'll assure your present. I'll give you a hope for tomorrow. I'll be everything and all to you if you will just believe me. Hallelujah. Lastly in Psalm 81. I just want to read it to you. Psalm 81. David says these words. The psalmist rather. He says these words. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me. Psalm 81 verse 13. And Israel had walked in my ways. I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him but their time should have endured forever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied you. The cry of God. He said oh that my people had hearkened to me. Oh that they had begun to walk in the strength that I would have given them. I would have fed them with the finest food. Spiritual food that this world can offer. Or that can be found rather in this world. And I would have given them honey. I would have made even the hard places sweet. I would have given them life. Out of difficulty. I would have fed them with strength. I would have enlightened their eyes. I would have made them a people who have to be reckoned with. In the midst of a very darkened and confused generation. The testimony that you have at the end of your life depends on how you respond to what God speaks today. If you live as a skeptic you will die as a skeptic. Still trying to invent formulas in your mind about the meaning of life but yet your life is over. And you've not found the meaning. You live as a doubter you die as a doubter. You live in unbelief you die in unbelief. You live in sin you die in sin. And you're separated from God for eternity. You live for Christ. And Christ lives for you. He comes with all the power of heaven. All the power of every promise that God has ever made to you. He comes and lives within you. He raises you the Bible says. And as you simply behold Him He changes you into His very image. The image of God. The very nature of God begins to be formed in you. It doesn't happen overnight. It's line by line, step by step, little by little. But He does it. It creates in your heart this insatiable hunger for God. It says oh God don't stop now. Don't let me settle in now. I want to show forth all your marvelous works. Everything that you've desired to do in my life oh God. I want that to be the testimony of my life. Oh yes I've still got enemies and so do you. But they will fall because of the presence of God. And when I die I put my feet into my bed and say God you've been good. Not just to me but to my house. And you've been good not just to my house but to my future house. You've been good to me. You've been good to me oh God. Hallelujah. There is an expectancy in the hearts of the righteous. If you are not righteous today, I invite you with everything in my heart to admit that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. I invite you to lay down your pride. I invite you to put away false reasonings. There is a God. He did create you. He is coming back to rule and reign. He did die for your sin. He does call you to Himself. He will forgive you of all the wrong things that you have done. If you are not righteous then you don't have an expectancy do you? Do you? You don't. If you're not righteous today you don't have an expectancy. You expect to go home and have a good dinner. But because there's unrighteousness in you it will usually end up in an argument or bad feelings. Your expectancies will let you down. But the expectancy of God will never fail you. But it requires of you a humility. It requires that in your heart you say, God I have sinned against you. I live in sin. I am a sinner. And my sin caused you to be hung on a cross and beaten and bruised beyond human recognition. It was my sin that put you there. Not the Jews. Not the Romans. It was me. My sin. The sin of all humanity put you on that cross. But you went there willingly because you loved me. You wanted fellowship with me. And today, God, I'm finally dying to my pride. And I'm going to get up and confess that I need a Savior. I need a Savior. I need to be saved. My father gave his life to Christ in the last conscious hour of his life. And I told my mother recently, I was visiting her. And I told my mother, I said, It's the first time I had ever seen my father in all of my life at rest. The struggling, the striving that was always so much part of his life left him. And for the last conscious hour of his life, I put him in bed and stroked his hair and held his hand. We talked about heaven. We talked about eternity. He told me he was no longer afraid. It's amazing. His expectancy was very short. It was only an hour. But his expectancy was there. And God gave him the peace that he desires to give to every man. After 81 years of fighting against the knowledge of God, to have one hour of peace at the end. Oh, beloved. Oh, beloved. For those who don't know Christ, if I could, I'd love to come and just spend time with every one of you if I could. Because this is about eternity. And it's about the real God, Jesus Christ. Today, the Lord asks you to humble yourself and acknowledge that you need a Savior. I beg you, I beg you in Christ's name to do this today. And for every other Christian who's here today, who are righteous, you are righteous and you know you are. But your expectancy has been taken away because you buy the lies of the devil. And you're living in a battle. And you will always live in a battle. It's not going to go away because you're a Christian. It may even intensify. But God says, I give you the knowledge of who I am. And I want to put a new song in you. I want to give you this testimony of what you expect me to do. And the Lord says, I will not fail you. I won't fail you. I will be there for you. I feel bold enough today to say, prove this thing then. Prove it if you don't trust it. When I came to Christ in 1978, I had been witness to for about two months. I fought against it until I read the Bible myself. I pulled over on the side of the road and I said, Jesus, if this is true. I wasn't sure, but I said, if it is, I want you as my Lord and my Savior. And he took me. It was no great prayer of faith, but he took me right there. The next morning, I woke up and I was different. I can't tell you how I knew, but I knew that something had changed. I felt different inside. I felt a spark. It's like a gas stove that's been off almost all its existence. And it's not a big flame, but there's a pilot light that's gone on in there. I just felt the presence of God. I don't know how to describe it. I felt different. I had this hunger for God and for truth that had never been part of my life before. We're going to stand in a moment. And as we do, I'm going to invite those who want to receive Christ to come to this altar. I'm going to invite you to do this publicly, because Christ died for you publicly. I'm going to invite you to publicly receive him as Lord and Savior. Education annex, you can move up forward between the screens. And any other room that happens to be occupied, if you just perhaps just stand where you are, and we'll pray with you momentarily. And every Christian, especially Easter, because, you know, the resurrection is about a dead man living. Did you know that? And that's the hope of the church. It's about us who are dead, living, dead in sin, living again by the power of God. That's the hope of the church of Jesus Christ. I want to invite those who've lost the expectancy of God to also come. And we're going to pray together. Now, would you stand? The Holy Spirit is drawing you in the balcony. You can go to either exit. Make your way here in the main sanctuary. Just slip out. Make your way here. Please do it right away, unashamedly. God, I'm tired of singing the song of this world. I'm tired of these songs that don't satisfy. I'm tired of testimonies of failure. I'm tired of failing every day. I'm tired of my enemies triumphing over me and lying to me, and I'm buying their lies. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of sin. I'm tired of the weight of sin. I want it off me. I want to live for God. I'm tired of defying the living God. I want to be saved today. Would you come? Today, I'm just going to ask you to outrightly, if you can say in this house, I am a sinner, that includes those in the annex and other rooms, and I need a Savior. You may not have responded to this altar call, and I understand that. God understands it because sometimes it's difficult to step out. You're unsure of the environment. But you have nothing to fear today. Never ask to join anything here at Times Square Church. This is about eternity. It's about God's love for you and your response to that love. But if you can say, Pastor, I am a sinner. I live in sin, and I need to be saved. And today, I want to give my life to Jesus Christ. I understand that God will forgive my sin, and He has destined something for my life. I've fallen short of that glory, but God's willing to forgive me, and He's willing to change me and make me into the person that He has destined me to be. If that's in your heart today, and that's what you want, I'm going to lead you in a prayer. And if you pray this sincerely, you can know that your sins are forgiven today, and you can begin to walk on this path of new life in Christ. I want everybody unashamedly in this house who would say with me, Pastor, I want to give my life to Jesus Christ. I want my sin forgiven. I want to become a Christian. Would you raise your hand right now? Very high. Everywhere. Balcony. Go ahead. Keep it up. Raise it high. Balcony. Education annex. All over. Raise your hand. Hold it high. Hallelujah. Your lives will never be the same. You'll never be the same again. You're starting a brand new life. The Bible calls it being born again. As if you'd never sinned. Born again by the Spirit of God this time. What a wonderful day. Father, we're going to pray now. Simple prayer. And then if you really mean this in your heart, if you really mean it, God will receive you. Let's pray together for those that are coming to Christ today. There are many, many all over the sanctuary, and I believe in the annex too as well, in the overflow rooms who are coming to Christ. And you pray it too. If you didn't have the courage to come to the altar, and you didn't have the courage to raise your hand, but in your heart you're saying, Oh, God, I want this. I know this is true. I just know it. I know in my knower that this is true. You pray too. You ask Jesus to come into your life, and He will hear you. He'll receive you. It's not about form. It's not about tradition. It's all about heart. It's about what's inside of you, responding to Him. Pray with me, please, today. Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Jesus, I thank you that you so loved me, that you died on a cross and paid the price for all the wrong things that I have done. I am sorry for my sin, and I don't want to live in sin anymore. I ask you now, Jesus, to come into my life and be my Lord and my Savior. I believe that you have received me because I have asked you. Lord, for the first time ever, I'm going to say I love you. I love you, Jesus. And I hear you now saying to me, I love you, my child. I love you. I hear you speaking my name. Oh God, thank you for saving me from the penalty of my sin, for cleansing me and giving me new hope and a new life that is your life, which you give to me. I believe, Jesus, you are the Son of God. You were crucified for my sin and raised from the dead by the power of God as living proof that my trust today in you is not in vain. As Christ was raised from the power of death, so too I will be raised from the power of sin and the power of my own flesh and given new life by the Spirit of Almighty God. Oh Jesus, I believe that at this moment heaven is rejoicing because I am saved. I am saved. I am saved. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Saved. Say it. I'm saved. I'm saved. You have right to rejoice. You have right to celebrate. I'm saved from the power of sin. Hallelujah. Now for the others. I pray. Now, let's pray together for everybody else at the altar. There's a guy celebrating already because so many have come to Christ. Lord Jesus, you are my strength, my hope, my redeemer, my life, my righteousness. I expect that your life has become mine and that you will do everything in me that you have promised me. I will praise you. I will show forth all your marvelous works. I will be glad. I will rejoice in you and you alone. I will sing praises for the wonderful things that you have done and will do in my life. And I believe that nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing can stop what you have destined to do in my life. You are God and if you be for me, nobody, nobody, nobody can stand against me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the message.