In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of trust in God as the highest form of affection. He warns against serving the spirit of fear and worry, which he considers to be a form of idolatry. The preacher highlights how it provokes God to jealousy when we turn to the flesh or rely on man instead of depending solely on God. He also references the story of Moses and the Israelites, reminding the audience of the great miracles and provisions God had shown them throughout their journey. The sermon encourages believers to fear God, hope in His mercy, and seek Him in times of trouble.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. The jealousy of God. The jealousy of God. I want you to turn to Exodus 34. The 34th chapter of Exodus. Let me read two verses. Exodus 34, let's go to verse 5 and 6. Exodus 34, verse 5 and 6. Children under the third and the fourth generation. Then skip over to verse 10, if you will, please. Verse 10. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people, I do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation, and all the people among those who will see the work. It's a terrible thing that I will do with thee. A mighty, terrible thing. A powerful thing of deliverance that God will do. I want you to keep those verses in mind and keep Exodus 34 open in your lap while we pray. Spirit of the living God, come. I speak against every force of hell. I speak against every demon, every lying spirit that would try to come into this building and rob us of the victory that Jesus has given to us. And I stand here, Lord, redeemed. I stand blood-sprinkled. And I stand, Lord, ready to minister your word. Give me clean hands and a pure heart. And give me the anointing, Lord, that it run down my head, over my voice, over my lips. Everything that I say and do in this pulpit tonight to glorify your name. Let the Spirit of the Lord come forth. The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Give life. Poor life. And in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. I just read to you a great revelation of who God is. His character is revealed by God to Moses. Moses said, I am merciful. I'm kind. I'm gracious. I'm long-suffering. Abundant in goodness and truth. And then he goes on in verse 10. I read to you also that he revealed to Moses that he was a deliverer. I will put your enemies to chase. I am merciful. I'm kind. I'm good. I'm full of loving kindness and mercy. And I'm also your deliverer. See, folks, God is not changed in the revelation of who He is. How many know that God said, I never change? God never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. We have the same revelation that Moses had of the love of God, the mercy of God, the delivering power of our Lord. In fact, in the New Testament it's amplified. It is opened by the Holy Spirit and by Christ Himself who told us of the tender loving mercies of the Father. He has revealed to us the heart of God. God revealed His love in Christ Jesus to us. And also we have learned from our preaching, from our pulpits all over the United States and around the world about a loving, kind, heavenly Father. Now, folks, that's the heart of the gospel. The heart of the gospel is the love of God for His children. Now, folks, we have preached the love of God. We have ministered the love of Jesus Christ from this pulpit. We have talked to you about His delivering power. But, folks, that's where many people want to encamp. They want to go no further in the revelation of who God is. Now, if I tell you now, and I want that implanted in you, in your mind, we will not represent who God is. God is a God of love. He's everything He said here. He proclaimed Himself the Lord God merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, ready always to forgive. Now, that is the heart of the gospel, the love of the Father for the lost, the love of the Father for His children, and that He is our keeper, He's our shade, He's our rock, He's our safe tower, He's all of that. But, folks, He's more. In this same chapter, He reveals Himself in even a deeper way. And it's a way that most people in the body of Christ today don't want to hear. They want to encamp around this revelation that God is love. God is my deliverer. Period. That's it. And we hear almost nothing anymore but the preaching of the love of God in the church of Jesus Christ today. It seems to be the only message, that Jesus is healer, that Jesus delivers you from sin. That's truth. That is the heart of the gospel. But there's more to the revelation of who God is. I want the full revelation of who God is. And I want to walk in that full revelation. He is our deliverer. He has done marvels for us, such as has not been done in all the earth. We can say that. I wholeheartedly agree. In fact, that revelation, that revelation of the love of God and His delivering power brought Moses down to his face before God. The scripture says in Moses, this is after this revelation of who God is, Moses made haste and bowed his head to the earth and worshipped. It made him a worshipper. And when you see the love of God, you will worship. You will worship a Father who sent His own Son so full of love for His church. But folks, there is more to the revelation. And it's in the same chapter. Go to verse 14, if you will, please. Exodus 34, verse 14. For thou shall worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is what? Jealous. Is a jealous God. Exodus 20, verse 5. I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. Look at me, please. He is love. He is mercy. He is gracious. He is tender. He is kind. He is forgiving. He is a deliverer. And He is also jealous. That is the fullest revelation. God is everything He said in His revelation. But this is the same chapter, to the same man, and it's the same revelation of the church of Jesus Christ today. Now, listen to me, please. Jealousy is always associated with love. It's associated with love. The Lord is the divine lover. He has eyes only for His spotless bride. Do you know that the Lord is captivated by His church? He is so in love with His people. The bride of Jesus Christ is the apple of His eye. He purchased it with His own blood and His own life. And He is dedicated to that bride. He loves her with a passion. He's passionately in love with His bride. And He's passionately jealous over her. To be jealous means to be intolerant of any unfaithfulness in love. Intolerant. In other words, God will not put up with any cheating. He will not put up with any other love creeping into your life. He will not allow His bride to have eyes for others. No roving eyes. He said, I have eyes for you. You have eyes only for Me. He's envious and He gets angry if His beloved allows any other lover, any other interest to enter in, to rob or to cause that bride to lose interest in Him. He's very jealous over that special love. And God is vigilant in maintaining and guarding that love. Oh, I tell you right now, the Lord is guarding by the Holy Ghost. He's guarding that love that you have for Him and that He has for us. God demands exclusive devotion to Himself. He demands it. It's not that He requests it, He demands it. He's a jealous lover. He said, love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. For if any man loved the world, you don't love me, is what He's saying. The love of the Father is not in you. The world creeping in. Something else creeping in that has your time, has your thinking, has your attention, rather than Him. The Bible said, as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Now, God's been a faithful lover to you. The Lord's been a faithful lover. And not one of you can say God ever cheated on you. That God ever let you down. That this God who loves you so much has never provided for you. He has been absolutely, utterly faithful. Psalms 89.1, don't turn there. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. Thy faithfulness thou shall establish in the very heavens. He's established it forever. God said to Israel, I'll be merciful to you. I'll be gracious to you. I'll be long-suffering to you. I'll deliver you from all your enemies. But I will not deliver those who are guilty. He said, I will no way, however, clear the guilty. I will visit their iniquities upon them and upon their children. Now, who are these guilty ones? That God says, I'll cut you off. I'm merciful to those who love me. I'm merciful to those who walk in repentance. I'm merciful to those who are devoted to me and have eyes only for me. But I will not excuse the guilty ones. In fact, I will cut them off. I'll visit their iniquities upon them and their children. And their children's children to the fourth generation. Now, what does he mean, I'll not excuse, I'll not put up with the guilty? Guilty of what? What is the guilty he's speaking of here? In fact, it's a guilt that's so evil, it so disturbs God, that his jealousy smokes. That means it's fiery, it's just powerful, full of anger, full of wrath. A jealousy that smokes against the guilty. Who are these? The guilty are those that are guilty of the sin of alienation, of affection. Alienation of affection. Now, usually when there's a divorce, that's the term most of them use. We've been alienated and we've been separated in affection where we don't love each other anymore. Israel had found a new love, a new heart interest. Actually, Israel got bored with God. They got bored. Eyes for the idols. They looked at the idols of all the people. You see, they wanted something to feel and something to touch. They didn't want this invisible God. They wanted a God they could touch. In every instance in the Bible where jealousy of God is mentioned, it's always tied to idolatry. Let me show it to you. I'll go over it with you very quickly. In fact, God hammers at it all through the Old Testament. Not once or twice, but time and time and time again, where the Bible talks about the jealousy of God. It has to do with idolatry, with cheating on God, with the church. Israel in the Old Testament is a type of the church. And the church in the desert became a whore. It became a whore. It went whoring after other gods and idols and left their true love, Jehovah God, and Zion became a prostitute. It's exactly what the prophets say. Deuteronomy 4, 23, 24. Don't listen. Don't listen. Don't read. Don't turn there. But listen. Take heed, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord and make you a graven image, which the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire. He's even a jealous God. You see, it's tied there with idolatry. Deuteronomy 5, 7 to 9. Thou shall have no other gods before me. Thou shall not make thee any graven image. Thou shall not bow down unto them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. Deuteronomy 6, 4, 14, 15. Ye shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are around about you. For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you. Joshua 24, 19. If you forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt. And he'll consume you because he is a jealous God. It's always tied to idolatry. Now, here is irrefutable proof that God's jealousy is tied to worship. It's tied to unfaithfulness in those who refuse to love him and trust him. In other words, it's those who come to church and worship him and praise him and act like they're in love with him. But they really are not trusting him. They're not truly loving him when they're out of his presence. There's something else that is entered in that hinders the true worship. They're not worshiping in spirit and in truth. You can worship God in spirit here, caught up in the spirit of this meeting. But when you walk in truth, it has to do with walking out the word of God on your job and in your house and in your home. It's worshiping in spirit and in truth, walking out the truth. And you can't worship him just here in the house of God. Now, Moses, before he died, preached a very powerful sermon to the Israelites. He said, in essence, you've seen the Lord's great things that he's done when he delivered you out of Egypt. When your eyes have seen the great miracles he performed. For 40 years, God's been faithful to you. Your clothes didn't wear out. Your shoes didn't even wear. Can you imagine, 40 years and their shoes never wore out? Their clothes didn't get tattered. That wasn't a wrinkle. I mean, not a wrinkle, but there wasn't a tear. They didn't wear their clothes. God made their clothes to wear for 40 years. Now, that doesn't mean their clothes grew with them like their feet grew, or their shoes grew with their feet. It means that they changed, you know, they swapped. But they were always good shoes. They weren't swapping sandals that had holes in them. God miraculously kept them. He said, you've seen all that. God gave you bread. He gave you water out of a rock. Your enemies cowered before you. You saw what idolatry did to Egypt. How it devastated their country. You saw how the idols of the heathen nations around you have done them no good. You've defeated them and their idols. You've seen how wicked the world is all around you, the nations. Then He said, beware lest there be any among you who turns away from loving and worshipping Jehovah to serve these gods of other nations. And then they say, I have peace of mind, though I walk in the imagination of my own heart. The Lord will not spare such a person. His jealousy shall smoke against that man. And all the curses written in this book shall lie upon him. And the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. He said, the time's going to come. There'll be people worshipping me. Just in word, but not in deed. And it's not going to be a true worship. The worship's going to be abominable. And my church is going to be defiled. And people are going to say, well, I'm not guilty. I have peace in my heart. Even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own mind and my own imagination. It's a false peace that was going to come down upon the church. And He was prophesying this. But God said, I'll not put up with it. I will smoke in my jealousy against that kind of thing. The Bible says Israel provoked God to jealousy with strange gods. With abominations they provoked Him to anger. Alright. What about the bride of Christ? What about the church of Jesus Christ? The body of Christ in the world today? Are we provoking our Lord to jealousy? Now, I want you to think about this. Are we provoking Him to jealousy? And I prayed about that. I said, Lord, I don't want to misrepresent You. I don't want to make You too easy. I don't want to make You too hard. I want the full revelation of who You are. And folks, that's the prayer of every pastor in this church. We stand before You. That we show You the fullness. And I prayed about this. And the Lord began to show me some of the idols that have entered into our own hearts and lives. And how we are provoking our Lord and Savior to jealousy today. I want to mention just a few of these things. The first idol that I want to mention is the idol of self-help. The idol of self-help. This is the new gospel in America today. The self-help gospel. The abomination of the self-help gospel has infiltrated and corrupted the whole body, the whole church of Christ in America and the world today. Nowadays, when somebody gets in trouble or crisis, they run to the nearest bookstore rather than the secret closet of prayer. To get a self-help book. A how-to book from some expert. I would just guess that 90% of all the books in Christian bookstores today have to do with self-help. How to. Incredible. How to conquer loneliness. Victory over guilt. How to cope with poor marriages. How to win over fear. How to cope with stress. How to find the right mate. How to lose weight the Bible way. There's three books down here on Christian fashions now. Gospel aerobics. Folks, it sounds funny, but that junk is creeping right into the church. You know what it is? It's a mixture of psychobabble and a few scriptures thrown in to validate it to the body of Christ. Folks, you mix a little bit of Freud and a little bit of Jesus and you've got the biggest abomination the church has ever had. Freud was a sex maniac. We've got preachers who are pop psychologists. And what the message is, Jesus isn't enough. You need a little bit of the world's wisdom mixed in with it so that you can cope. That you can make it. Folks, it's junk, it's garbage. Don't buy those books. These cold nights would help your fireplace to burn a few of them. Folks, that stuff doesn't work. It doesn't work at all. You know, the world tries to self-help and then the church comes along and borrows and just puts Christian words and a few scriptures and mixes it all up and all it is is pop psychology. It's psychobabble. Did you know, I was reading in the paper yesterday how the Californians are trying to cope with the earthquake. They have all the psychiatrists and analysts trying to help them. And you know what they've come up with? These are the self-help and people are going to pay $150 an hour to learn this stuff. And you know what it is? One psychologist, a woman, was traumatized by the earthquake and so he suggested she sleeps fully clothed with a hard hat and boots. Steel-toed boots. $150 to learn that. One psychologist has recommended people go to Arizona for a weekend, get a couple nights sleep. So they're flying off to Arizona. Another psychologist says pack your trunk of your car with all your prized possessions that you can squeeze into it. All the bottles of water and food and flashlights and medical supplies and be ready to run. $150 for that. One man said, he was told everywhere he goes and he's under tension, count to 100. And the man's going around counting to 100 and he said every time he gets a cab, a taxi, he pays the taxi driver $5 to count with him. And there's a, can you imagine these guys going down the road, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, going to 100. And the guy, $5, he said these are the 5 bucks I've ever made. And count down and look back, this guy's crazy. Paid $150 to learn to count to 100 to ease his tension. Self-help. One actor, famous actor, his analyst, he went to the analyst to try to get some self-help for his little boy who was so traumatized, he was crying all the time because they've had 3,500 aftershocks. 3,500. And now they've got mudslides and rain and winds. They had a twister the other day, went right through Irvine. And $150 for this. He was told to go home and tell his boy every time he felt afraid to say, I can't believe it. Go away, big boom, go away. $150, isn't that brilliant? Brilliant. Go away, big boom, go. Now we all know what to do if there's an earthquake in New York. Go away, big boom, go. By the way, incidentally, I don't know if you know it, this last earthquake in January, they hit the epicenter of the earthquake was in what they call Video Sodom. It's in Chatsworth, Northridge, and Canoga Park, the heart of America's porno industry. Seventy porno companies were grinding out there, 1,400 porno movies every year. The biggest producer was VCA, and it was totally demolished. All of its movie equipment and the masters were completely destroyed. And the other 70 porno companies reported floods, buckled floors, caved walls, smashed duplicators. Cameras were ruined, and all their films were ruined. You say, do you believe God's trying to say something to us? No, he's screaming at us. Beloved, listen to me. It provokes God to jealousy when we turn to the flesh in time of need, in time of trouble. God said, I found you, I rescued you, I told you I have all that you need for every trouble and every trial, and you're to depend only on me. You're not to rely on man. You're not to rely on flesh. I am your lover. I am your provider. Don't turn to man. Don't turn to this world. The Bible said, He delights not in the strength of the horse. He taketh no pleasure in the legs or the power of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear Him and those that hope in His mercy. The Bible says, When they in their trouble did turn to the Lord God of Israel and sought Him, He was found of them. Scripture says, For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion, He shall set me upon a rock. Psalms 37, 39, The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in time of trouble. When you look to anyone but the Lord for answers, you're provoking God to jealousy. My Bible says, The prophets, in fact, announced that when He comes, He's going to be counselor. Counselor. And the reason many in the church today are running around trying to get a piece of advice, going to someone to counsel them all the time, running from counselor to counselor to counselor. I have people back here who want to see me, and I know they've been to you, Brother Dietrich, and I know they've been to you, Bill, they've been to Brother Don, and some have been to me, go to Brother Don, and they just go from one person to another trying to find, I don't know what they're looking for. And those who keep running, I do believe that there's a place for little baby Christians to have counseling. But there comes a time to grow up. There comes a time where you get along with God, and you learn His voice, and you learn to get your mind set on Him. He's not hiding. He said He's the counselor. He will counsel you. He'll tell you what to do, where to go, and when to do it. If you've been saved more than a year, you ought to be able to hear and know His voice. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. He knows how. He knows exactly how to get you out. I am the Lord, and that's my name, and my glory I'll not give to another. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What the Lord's saying, come on along with me. The reason God just doesn't just instantly give you the word that you want. He wants a little bit of loving. He wants communion. And that's why some people say, well, I prayed and I didn't hear anything. Yeah, because you went into His presence with your mind preoccupied. How would you like somebody claimed to love you, and keeps looking out the window and yawning, and hardly pays any attention to you. Said, oh, I love you, but they're looking around at everybody and everything. No, when you go into His presence, He says, get quiet with me. I want to communion with you. I want to love you, and I want to feel your love. And when there's sweet communion, God will speak. He will speak, but He waits for the communion. He waits for that intercourse. He waits for that time where we are loving Him, and He is loving us. Hallelujah. The idolatry of self-help. Let me talk to you secondly about the idolatry of fretting. The foolishness of man perverts his way, and his heart begins to fret against the Lord. Now, that word fret means to be eaten up with something. Do you ever have, that guy's eaten up, something's eating him. You ever heard that? Something's eating at him. Something's eating at me. I can look at somebody right now, something's eating at you. You can see it written all over some people's faces. I was walking down the street the other day, and there was a woman who I knew was out of her mind, stoned on drugs. She was sitting on a stoop, and I'm walking, you know, my mind was on a message or something. She looked at me, and I guess I must have had a frown. She said, hey mister, can't be that bad. She didn't know that this is, that hanged dog look is my natural look. But I felt rebuked. A drug addict telling me it can't be that bad. I put on a false smile all the way home. This word fretting means to worry and to peeve. Get peeved because things aren't happening the way you think they should happen, not happening as quick as you think they should be happening. We get peeved at God, and we begin to fret. And the scripture says, and their heart frets against the Lord. Do you know something? Trust is the highest form of affection. Trust. If you say you love somebody, you're going to trust them. If the trust isn't there, there's no basis for true love. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. Trust is the highest form of affection. How many understand that? How many believe that? If you say you're going to love God, you're going to fully trust Him. That's a high and holy kind of worship. You may not see it with the natural eye, but I want you to see something in the spiritual eye tonight. It is an evil idolatry to serve the spirit of fear and worry, to bow down to this idol of fretting and worrying. That's the worst kind of idolatry. And oh, how the jealousy of God begins to smoke when He sees His children sitting around fretting as if God has died, or God suddenly has become bankrupt. You know, the Lord must look at some of them and say, what in the world is going on? What do they think has happened to me and my resources? What do they think about my faithfulness, about my holiness, the worry that we carry and the fret that we carry? The church today is full of worry, full of stress and full of anxiety. And it's because the church doesn't even know what it means, the word consecration. There are some of you tonight who don't even know what the word consecration means. To be wholly consecrated to the will and the purpose of God. To have no will of your own. The Bible makes it very clear. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God. That means I have no will. My purpose has to line up with His eternal purpose. That I am going to trust Him with everything I am and all that I have. Now, David understood this term consecration. Oh, we sing it, there's an old time song we used to sing when I was a kid. I guess they still sing it. Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power divine. Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord. You see, there has to be a consecration of our bodies, of our minds and everything we have where we go to Him and say, Lord, I am totally going to commit my life into Your hands. And this is what must cause the jealousy of God to stir. We move Him to jealousy when we are afraid. We're afraid to go all the way in faith. We're afraid to commit, totally resign and commit ourselves to the will of God. Remember when David was dethroned by his son Absalom? Absalom had already defiled his concubines on the rooftop before all of Jerusalem. And David's now hiding out in the wilderness. And David said, if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me back again. But if He says this, I have no delight in Him. Behold, here I am. Let Him do to me as seems good to Him. You know what he said? God, I don't like my condition. I've been chased and I'm in this terrible predicament. If it's your will to bring me back and put me on the throne, that's fine. But if you see something in me that's not yet been worked out, if you don't think it's right for me, then you do with me what you please. Here I am. I submit to you. Now folks, that's consecration. That's consecration when you say, I really don't care about my career. I don't care about my future. I don't care about anything but to give my life wholly into His hands. And to fully trust Him. That is worship. That is the highest form of worship. To trust your life. To trust your will into His care. And then the Bible said, if you do, there's a full reward. A full reward. Remember what Boaz said to Ruth? He said, a full reward shall be given to thee of God, of the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to trust. You've trusted yourself under His wings. And God says, I'm going to give you a full reward. Hallelujah. A full reward. We serve the idol of fret and worry simply because we're not yet fully persuaded that He's going to keep us. We're not fully persuaded that He's involved in our lives. Commit the keeping of your soul to Him, and well-doing is unto a faithful Creator. Commit your way unto the Lord, trust in Him, He shall bring it to pass. And being fully persuaded that what He has promised, He is able to perform. What He's promised, He is able to perform. Do you sit here tonight worried? Are you eaten up by some kind of anxiousness about someone or something in your home or your life? I want to tell you something. If you persist in that, you say, well, I'm only human, Pastor. Yes, I am worried, I am concerned. That's an abomination before the Lord. That causes Him to be very, very jealous because He has everything we need. He knows what's going on. In fact, right now, while you're blind to what He's doing, He is working here, He's working there. He's working in every area of your life. He's working things out His way in His time. He wants you just to sit back in His arms and let Him love you. And you love Him in return and let Him do the work. Now, folks, I want to get to the nitty gritty of this. I said, God, and I saw it and I said, Lord, there's something I'm not seeing here yet about your jealousy. I don't want to ever take away from your love for your people. And I don't want to put people under a guilt trip and bring condemnation. I said, I want you by your Holy Spirit, Lord, to open this so that we can all understand it. So that nobody in Times Square Church, not any pastor, not even a choir, nobody that attends this church will ever provoke the Lord to jealousy. That He will always, He will always rejoice over us. He will just be delighted by the praise and the worship from every one of us in this house. And I want to say it in love, but here's what the Holy Spirit began. I cried out to God and just opened my heart and my mind. And the Holy Spirit began to speak so very clearly. Let me share with you in closing what I believe is the heart of this. God's jealousy has to do with His honor. It has to do with His honor. When God closed up the Red Sea, He waited until Pharaoh and all his army and all his chariots got into the middle of that dry ground and then He just dropped the sea upon them. He had a reason for that. He said, I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon his host. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I've gotten me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. God said, I'm going to be honored. And what God is saying in this, He said, look, I want my people to know that when I deliver them, I deliver. And the devil can't take away that deliverance. My honor to the whole world before the wicked, before the heathen, is that my people are going to trust that when I deliver them, they are delivered. And the world can see that the devil cannot come back and take them back into the world. That when I draw the line, that's it. That is my honor, that my deliverance is eternal, it's final, the devil can't cross the line. He said, I'm going to get me honor. That's the devil coming, trying to take away the testimony of my power. The devil is trying to destroy my deliverance. He said, now I'm going to bury them all in the sea, and I'm going to get honor before all the heathen. All of the Egyptians are going to know. The whole world is going to know. My people are going to know. I'm going to honor myself right now by making my deliverance final. Glory be to God. The greatest testimony is that from Timothy House, Hannah House, all the ministries, everyone that's been saved from sin, God draws a line, puts a wall around them, and says, my honor is that I keep you from the wicked one. I keep you by my power. David said, Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honor dwelleth. He said, in other words, the house of God should be a place where God is truly honored. The church is a place that protects his honor. Oh, Lord, thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. And the Bible said in Jeremiah 33, 9, that we as the church are to him a name, a joy, a praise, and an honor before all the nations, an honor before all the wicked, before all the heathen. I want to talk about this for just a moment before I close. We have a people today, in fact we have a church today, that is dishonoring the Lord before the eyes of the whole world. We've dishonored him by walking in fear. We dishonor him by complaining in front of the wicked. We dishonor him by making God seem powerless. It's a dishonor to his name. When on the job, you murmur and complain, boast that you have Christ in your heart, that he's all-sufficient, and you try to get them to come to your all-sufficient Christ, and they hear you murmur, they hear you complain, they see you down in the dumps, they see you walking in despair, you're dishonoring his name. And that brings the jealousy of God, brings forth the jealousy of God. It has to do with honoring his name. You say, and this is from Malachi, you say, the Lord be magnified. In other words, you praise me, God be praised, God be magnified. Now a son honors his father, and the servant honors his master. If then I be your father, where's my honor? Where's my fear? And God said, the problem is, this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they do honor me, but they've removed their heart far from me. Folks, the way we honor God is not just because we can go around saying, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't use drugs, I'm faithful, I don't commit fornication, I don't do this, I don't do that. No, that's fine, that's a part of it. But the real honor that we give God in the church of Jesus Christ is that there's no mixture in us. It's not half the world and half consecration. It's that we're fully consecrated, and that everybody around you can say, they take note that you've been with Jesus, you have been with the Lord, you're his. And that your testimony is not just words, but it's deeds. That when sorrow, or tribulation, or tragedy strikes in your home, you don't come apart. You don't fall apart. You don't go to your ungodly friends and unburden your bosom about how hard things are. You go to the secret closet, and you unbosom your heart to Jesus, so that when you face the wicked out there, you can come with the peace and the calm and the quiet. And you can stand in front of the whole world and say, I want you to serve Jesus because I've proved he lives. I've proved in my life and in my body. What are you like on the job? What are you like every day in front of your co-workers, in front of everybody around you? What kind of testimony, how much honor are you giving to his name? Do you honor him? Do they see the joy of the Lord that's supposed to be your strength? Do you gossip? Do you just tell a little itsy-bitsy dirty joke? There's no such thing as an itsy-bitsy dirty joke. It's a big abominable joke. There should be nothing coming out of your lips, but that which is in the heart, because what's in your heart will come out, your mouth will come out, your lips. If you've been spending time with Jesus, it's just natural. You don't have to be on guard on the job. You shouldn't have to be setting up your guard all the time. It should be natural. It flows out of a relationship of being in love with Jesus. Hallelujah. Is Jesus enough for you? Have you proven that, that Jesus is enough, that He's all sufficient? He is all things for all times at any time? Now unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God, let there be honor and glory forever and ever. Hallelujah. Let there be glory. Let there be honor to His holy name. Lest we provoke Him to jealousy. Hallelujah. I don't know about you, and with this I'm finished. You see, when you get a certain age, you don't look back. You're looking for home. You're heading home. Folks, I'm heading home. Now I'm not, I don't have some foreboding that I'm going to die. I'd like to live to be, well, whatever. But He said, tomorrow I'm ready. And I want to be able to say with Paul, I fought a good fight. Hallelujah. We try to keep hype out of this church and bring you a straight, simple gospel. And a cry of my heart is that in Times Square Church, there would be a body of people, a body of Christ, so much in communion with Him. You know, I feel in my own heart that I make God jealous more than any other way in my own personal life when He sees me spending so much time on something else other than Him. Now that doesn't mean that God sits there just wanting to consume every moment of your time. He knows that you have a family. He knows you have a job. He knows that you need sleep. He knows you need a little recreation. He needs vacations. All those things. He's a loving Father. He's not coming down on you, and He's not trying to make you some kind of a fanatic. I tell you, it must make Him terribly jealous when we neglect Him day after day, week after week, and we can talk to our friends, we can talk to everybody else, we give time to everything. I think I grieve Him more about my time than anything else, and that's probably where most of us are. And we need to pray, Oh God, let me give you precious time. Let me prove to you I love you. I love you because I want to be in your presence. If you don't want to pray, if you don't want to be in His presence, you really don't love Him. No matter what you say, no matter how you sing, if you love Him, you want to be alone with Him. People who are in love want to be alone with each other. They don't want anybody around. They get... Oh, if we could just get away! I didn't want to talk to you! That's what it's like. Lord, I want to talk to you. That's the way it is with me. I can be with the crowd, and I hear Jesus calling me, and I know He's at the door. If you're engaged, young lady, and He's outside the door, and you're a group of people, you know His step, even. You can hear Him, and you sense His presence. Say, He's out there. And you can be talking and eating, and suddenly your heart's outside with Him. And everything you say, you just get nervous. You're trying to find an excuse to get away. I want to get out there with my Beloved. And that's the way it should be. I want to get away with Him. It shouldn't be, Oh, I have to pray. I have to go to be with the Lord. That's the way it is for many Christians. Oh, no, no, no. God bring us to this place of such divine love with Him. I want to be with you, Jesus. I want to be with you. Will you stand, please? Hallelujah. Exactly what to say. If you have left your first love, or your first love for Jesus has grown cold, and you can't honestly say as you stand here, I am wholly, totally in love with Jesus. I love to be with Him. If there's something straining your love, I want you to get out of the balcony, go to either exit or stairs, and come down the aisles. Anyone here in the main auditorium? I'll tell you what, if something's happened between you and the Lord, your heart's grown cold to Him. Because prayer to you is a burden. If prayer is a burden to you, something's terribly wrong. If it's a burden to get into this book, something's terribly wrong. Make it right with God. If you're backslidden, you're not right with God, come with these who are coming to renew their first love for Jesus and let Him fill you with His love tonight. Wherever you're at, up in the balcony, there are a number of people moving. God bless you. We're not trying to fill up this altar, but this is the time. This is the time right now to have Him stir that love, stir up that gift that's in you, and bring you back to that first love so that you can serve Him with joy, serve Him with peace and victory in your heart. These have come forward first, and pray with them. Then I'm going to ask, I'm going to pray to the Lord, give everybody in this church a facelift. I mean a facelift. That God would put a smile on your face that comes from a settled peace and a full assurance that God's with you, that God's forgiven you, that God's going to provide for you, God's going to walk with you, God's going to meet every need. That should change our complexion. Give us a facelift. Hallelujah. So that you can go on the job with a different face, a different face to give to the whole world. You that are up here right now, I want you to raise your hand to the Lord. Just lift up your hand to the Lord and pray with me right now. Jesus, I stand before you now to humble myself. I need your touch. Oh, Jesus, I don't want my heart to grow cold. Draw me to yourself. I love you, Jesus, and that's why I'm standing here. I know you love me. Draw me closer to you, Jesus. Cleanse me from all sin. Sanctify me. Give me your love. Jesus, help me to love you. Teach me how to love you. Forgive every sin. Blot out every iniquity. And help me, Jesus, to run after you. Now I want you to keep your hands raised while I pray for you. Lord Jesus, I can't do this. Only the Holy Spirit can do it. I want you to dig deep into every heart. I want you to show everyone that's standing here what has to be done. Lord, if there's been coldness, let them confess that coldness. If they have gone their own way, doing their own thing and neglected you, Lord, let them truly repent of that right now. If they're holding on to a pet sin, let them lay it down. Jesus, whatever has to be done, you will tell them what to do. Begin to speak to them. Let them know and learn your voice. You said, my sheep know my voice. They hear when I call. Teach us to hear your voice, Lord, that we won't have to listen to another voice. You'll be there, and it will always be right, because we love you with all of our hearts. Would you just raise your hands completely and just tell them you love them in your own words. Lord, I love you. Tell them you love them. I worship you, Lord, and I love you with all my heart. I love you, Jesus. Fill me with your love. Draw me, Lord, and I'll run after you. Draw me, and I will run after you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We will run after you, Jesus. Now, Lord, I smite every spirit of fear and all the worry and all the fretting. Take it away, Jesus. We turn to you for help. There's no other place to go. To whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of eternal life. No other place to go but you. Now, look at me, please. You can put your hands down. I want everybody that's standing here to pledge to your heart right now, every one of you, that from now on, you don't pick up the telephone. You don't go to somebody else. You don't pick up a book or a tape. When you need help, when you're in a crisis, you go to your room, you bow down, and you talk to Jesus. You go to the Lord from now on. How many pledge that to your heart? Lord, help me go to you. Let me go to you, Jesus. Amen. This is the conclusion of the tape.