Pray While You Still Can

If I didn't care about you, I wouldn't preach this message this morning. I wouldn't fight for you, I would just let you come into church and I would talk about your self-image or something like that, get you shouting and clapping and send you out happy and maybe on your way to hell. But because I do care, because I want to see every one of your faces at the throne of God one day, every one of you, every one of you, without exception. Because I do care as a pastor, I will open the word of God and as Paul the Apostle once said to the early church, he said, I will not refrain from preaching to you the whole counsel of God, the whole message. It's an entire salvation and we need to hear the whole message. And so I want you to be able to hear this this morning in the context of coming from the heart of a pastor that cares. I simply care about you. You're free. You are free to disagree with me. You are free to reject everything I say. I will still carry that won't change. But one day you will never, I can, I had a picture in my mind this week as I was praying of people getting to the throne of God to find out they're on the wrong side of redemption, looking across at their pastor and say, you knew this and you didn't tell me about this. You let me continue in my behaviors, the things that I was doing. And you just kept telling me that heaven was my home and that self-image was my problem and such like things. You, you preached your little rhyming sermons to me. And I came to the house of God, you know, like Solomon wrote one time in book of Proverbs, I was in, in almost total destruction in the company of even God's people. Some people are not going to see that till they get to the throne of God, but I don't want you to be missing. This is not about numbers. It's not about packing out a house. It's not about building a resume or just being able to say we have this many or that many. It's about you, because I stand at the throne of God one day and I answer for you. I will answer for every one of you. There'll be a, there'll be a list of names. I fully believe that. And as, as, as the shepherd of this congregation and those who consider themselves part of this church online, I will have to answer for you. I will answer for where you are, for whether you are or aren't at the throne of God. Did, did I plead for you? If I was in a neighborhood, if I was your neighbor and I walked by your house in the middle of the night and it was on fire and I did nothing to warn you. And even worse than that, I didn't, I didn't do everything in my power to save you. And I just let you burn. I'm not really a good neighbor. I'm not your friend. I don't care about you. I don't care how many times I yelled, Hey Bob, Hey Joan over the fence. I really don't care about you. If I care about you, I'll go where you are and do everything in my power to get you. That's what Jesus did when he went to the cross, he came to where you and I were, where you and I are. And he went through that veil of separation. He didn't mince any words about the kingdom of God or about who he was and what he was doing and what our requirement was. He went right through and right to the cross because he loves us. And I thank God for that with all my heart. It's hard sometimes to hear truth because in every human heart, apart from the spirit of God, we are literally as human beings in some measure or another, we're at war with God inside. And the war is basically, we want, we want God to see things our way. We want him to accept our behaviors, our lifestyles, our ways of viewing eternity. We're basically knocking on the door and say, God, you will agree with me. You will agree that I'm righteous. You will agree with my lifestyle, my speech, everything I do. You will agree with it. See, we are in effect at war as human beings with God. And now we're going to see this on a, on an incredible scale. A lawlessness is breaking out in this world today. That is mind boggling and it's going to get worse. And you and I, the only insurance we have against it is that we come into the light and we walk in truth and we don't try to get God to agree with us. We agree with God. We walk into the light of this word and say, God, this is true. Let my own heart be a liar. Let everything that I have built up that would try to tell me that I'm righteous without you, let it be put away from my life. And so father, I thank you, Lord, for this day. I thank you, God. Lord, I will never stand at your throne, having been a shepherd to your people with my head down in shame. Lord, I thank you, God, that you've not only given me your word, but you've given me your heart to fight for your people, to fight for every life of every person in this sanctuary today and all those that are hearing this online. You're coming soon, Lord. You're coming soon. God, help us, help us to seek you while we still can. And I thank you for this in Jesus name. Psalm 32, please, if you'll turn there, Psalm 32. My message title is Pray While You Still Can. Pray While You Still Can. Beginning at verse one, Psalm 32, a Psalm of King David. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me and my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. For some that are here today, and you might be wondering, why have I been so heavy lately? It's because the hand of God is on you. The hand of God is drawing you. The hand of God is trying to speak something to your heart that you might have been resistant to receive. I acknowledge, verse five, my sin to you and my iniquity I've not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near him. In a time, in other words of confusion, in a time where contrary thought to biblical truth will become the normative order of the day. In a time when the enemy comes in like a flood, literally, the Bible promises that the spirit of God will raise up a stand. The spirit of God will give you the strength. The spirit of God will cause you to stand. The spirit of God in you will give you light in the midst of darkness, clarity in the midst of this baptism of confusion that seems to be touching the whole of the known world today. God will keep you. God will guide you. God will guard you. He will place inside your heart a song of joy that this world knows absolutely nothing about. He will open your eyes to see a future, something way ahead of you and way beyond this world. There'll be something in your heart that cannot be gotten by any amount of human effort in this world. In the flood of great waters, verse six, the second half, they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. God's speaking now in the first person. He says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near to you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous and shout for joy all you upright in heart. Shout for joy. It's what the word of God says. The end result of walking in truth is an inner joy that this world knows nothing about. A song that can't be written by a human hand, a vision that's not given by anything but the presence of God inside your heart, looking through you. When all hell is breaking out in this world, you're going to see something beyond all of that, something that's coming. And like the apostle Paul, you'll be able to say the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. God will speak to your heart, but he only speaks to a clean heart. He petitions a heart that's not set apart for him. He woos it. He draws it. He whispers as you're going down the street about certain attitudes and thoughts and behaviors and practices. But once the heart is captivated by truth, then he begins to speak into that heart. Oh, the glory of God's voice when it speaks into your heart, the voice that has the power to create a universe with his spoken word, the power in the speech of God to create and recreate in his image. Verses one and two of Psalm 32, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. In other words, blessed is the person who's not trying to hide his or her failed condition from God. Yes, though even being ashamed of it as Adam and Eve once were, they are willing as they were to step into the light, to step into the actual presence of God and to say, God, examine my heart. Examine my lifestyle. Examine my speech. Examine the deep and hidden things inside of me that want to masquerade as godliness. Remember David the king prayed that way. He said, Oh God, search my heart and know me. Try me and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the path of life everlasting. He didn't have the, you see, if we examine ourselves, we will always come out smelling like a rose. We will always justify that which God does not justify and we will call something that is deficient, we will call it whole. We will call eventually something that is evil, we will call it good. John 3 16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Now he goes further. He said, and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. In other words, in the presence of God, everything inside of us becomes exactly the way it really is. There's no hiding it anymore in God's presence. But he that does truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. In other words, in a true heart, in a converted heart, there is this inner cry. Oh God, lead me, guide me, change me. You said I would become a new creation in every area of my life. So Lord, don't let me hold to these old things and old ways and somehow try to squeeze them into the kingdom of God as if somehow you're willing to accept this when you're not. God, help me to come into the light knowing that you died to pay the price for my sin and you died to destroy its power over my life. So I don't have to live there any longer. I have a promise of new life. I have a promise of abundant life. I have a promise of eternal life. Paul the apostle said to the Galatian church, he said to them, don't be deceived. Do you not understand that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Now these are believers in Christ, but the Corinthian church brought a lot of behaviors with them into this supposed new fellowship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. And they had a hard time letting go. Don't forget in the temple of worship in the middle of Corinth, fornication was an act of worship. Do you understand that? It became hard for them to let go of these former practices and to come into this new place, this new life, this new redemption that had been offered them by God through his son, Jesus Christ. And Paul says, don't be deceived. In other words, don't let anybody teach you otherwise. Don't let your own heart convince you that there's no penalty for sin any longer. Don't go there. And then he starts listing a few things. He says, neither fornicators, that means people who are engaged in sexual intercourse outside of the bonds of marriage between one man and one woman, do not inherit the kingdom of God. Folks, do you understand that? You can try to push it away and you can, you can, you can try to say, well, God knows and God understands that I'm not married and God understands that I have physical needs, but God understands a whole lot more than you do. And when you get into the word of God, Paul says, don't be deceived. Fornicators do not inherit the kingdom of God. At some point there has to be a choice that is made. We either go God's way or continue fornicating, ending up at the throne of God one day, but you will never look at me and say, you didn't warn me. Never. Nor idolaters, people who have other gods, or they worship something else other than Jesus Christ. Nor adulterers, people who are having affairs outside of marriage. Starts with a little flirtation in the office and the next thing you know, it's in a motel somewhere. No kingdom of God for adulterers. You understand that? You're outside the kingdom of God. No matter how you might say, well, God understands my needs and God knows this, this partner of mine is not meeting my needs, et cetera, et cetera. Nor homosexuals, nor sodomites. So that's both lesbians and homosexuals, either one. Nor thieves, nor covetous. That's, we're talking about people who continue in these practices. I'm not talking about people who might be predisposed to be, have a certain attraction in their physical makeup to somebody of the same sex. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that God, even if that's the case, God will give you the power over that sin. It does not have the right to dominate your life anymore. Nor drunkards, nor revilers. People that just live throughout the day, just cursing everybody unlike themselves. Nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. People that just use other people for their own advantage. Their whole day is about using, how can I use this person? How can I use that person? How can I get something from this person? None of these people, Paul says, will inherit the kingdom of God. In the book of Galatians chapter six, he says, don't be deceived again. Whatever you sow, you're going to reap. You sow to the flesh, you reap destruction. You reap corruption. You sow to the spirit, you're going to reap life. If you try to bring that which God says is not acceptable to me into his kingdom, you will simply reap corruption. There's no eternal life in it, folks. You can't take what is wrong and make it right in the sight of God. Call it what you will, march in the streets from natal doomsday. It makes no difference. God says it's wrong. God says it's sin. It will never be right. You cannot make it right. Paul says, and such were some of you, but you're washed. In other words, it's not the water of this world that has formed your thinking. It's the water of God. It's God's holy word. It says water has washed you. You're washed. You're washed. Yeah, you might be struggling, but at least your thinking is right now. At least you know what direction you're supposed to be going and you're not taking that which is wrong and trying to justify it any longer. You're washed. You've come to this pure water. You've said, God, this is right. And everything unlike it inside of me is wrong. Now you're sanctified. That means set apart by God, justified in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and by the spirit of God. In other words, you're given the power to go on this new pathway. As Paul, the apostle once said, I'm not there yet. I'm not perfected yet. So I don't want anybody condemned who wants to walk with God, but I'm leaving behind that which needs to be left behind. And I'm moving towards that, which is the part of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I'm not going to make excuses for this any longer. I'm not going to just call it another oops. No more of that. It's like the man who comes out his door on a winter day and he keeps slipping on his walkway and falling on his back on the way to work. And his neighbor says to him, he says, well, why don't you put salt on your walkway? The man says, well, because I like a good slip every now and then. And that's a lot of people are like that in the body of Christ. So just like a good slip and I can come back in and say, well, Lord, thank you for forgiving me. You know, there's a point where you play that game with God and the Bible says you're given to a darkened mind. Do you understand that you can't play games with the Holy God? He doesn't, he doesn't play this game. Every time, every time you play this game with God, there's another layer of hardness that comes into the heart. And eventually you start calling evil good. You come in and you can't be brought under conviction anymore. You can't be brought into the place where your behavior is challenged because you've completely justified it. You've built your own fig leaf covering and you're coming in and singing praises to God, believing somehow that this is accepted with him until you get to his throne one day and realize that's not the case. You just allowed, you allowed your own heart to deceive yourself. And God, I pray that that's not anybody's portion that's listening to me today. Anybody here. Now I'm not suggesting that you have to be perfect, but you are moving in the direction of truth. And you, you, you can't fake that you either are or you aren't. You can't be almost pregnant. You understand you either are or you aren't. You either are moving towards truth and don't deceive yourself into thinking you are. If you aren't, you're either moving towards it, which means you're moving away from something, which means it's losing its hold in your life. It doesn't mean you won't struggle with it, but it's losing its hold. It's losing its right to dictate your direction and to dominate your mind and your thinking. Verse three of Psalm 32. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me and my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. You know, the scripture tells us that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. It's the goodness of God. And God says, lest you become content in a wrong way of thinking a wrong way of behaving. I'm going to put my hand on you and I'm going to take away your moisture. I'm going to take away your strength and day and night. I'm not going to let you go. That's why some of you can't sleep. I'm not going to let you go until you and I are finally in agreement with this, because the goodness of God leads us to repentance. Now, listen to what David says. Now, David had had a period in his life when he had done wrong. And I'm sure he tried to justify it. He'd arranged for the murder of a man. You understand? Because he'd had an affair with his wife. He arranged for his murder. And there was a season in his life where he tried to justify wrong. So he's writing out of experience. You have to understand this. He, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, the giant slayer had done something he probably in his lifetime never thought he would ever do. But God's hand came on him. And finally, a man of God called Nathan comes into his chamber where he was and tells him a story. And David's wrath is finally risen up against somebody that he thought, he didn't think it was himself, but Nathan was building a trap for him to fall into. And Nathan looks at him and says, you're the man, David. You're the man who did this thing. And there was an immediate response in the heart of King David. I've sinned against the Lord. Verse five, he says, I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I've not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. So if there's anybody here that thinks you can't be forgiven, the word of God proves you wrong. The word of God tells us, shows us this man had committed adultery. This man was a fornicator. This man had been an accessory to murder. And then on top of that, he was a liar. And then he tried to bring this whole thing into the kingdom of God. God put his hand on him and says, no, this is not going to be part of my kingdom until David confessed. And when David confessed, he says, you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Oh God, thank you. Verse six, he says, for this cause, everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. You know, there could come a time. It's really hard to pray in a time of panic, folks. We saw that in 9-11 here in New York City. There's a season where God can be found. There's a season where victory can be won. There's a season where newness of life can become your portion. And he says, surely in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near him. The Bible tells us in the book of Revelation chapter, I believe it's chapter 12. The scripture says that Satan was cast down to the earth with great wrath. And he sent a flood out of his mouth after the woman, which would be Israel and the church and the seed of the woman says, and the dragon was enraged with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. It says in verse 15 of Revelation 12, the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. This flood is false doctrine. This flood is wrong thinking. This flood is evil, masquerading itself as good. This flood is a threat against the church of Jesus Christ saying, you will bend your knee to us. You will comply to our standards. And if you don't, it's going to get very, very hot for you in the future. And the serpent sent a flood after the woman. But if we are a people walking in truth, the scripture says in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near him. You will not be swallowed by this. You'll not be taken down by the false theologies of this last hour and the threats that are going to accompany it. David says, you verse seven are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance, not just in church, but every day, all day, every morning, every night, there will be songs of God. I will be surrounded by songs of deliverance. That song that says, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. You have the right to condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. That song that says, if you're thirsty, come to me and drink and out of your inward parts will flow rivers of living water. There's this song that says, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of God forever. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. When threatenings are abounding everywhere, they're experiencing this in China today. Did you know that? You know, there's financial rewards now being offered to people who betray Christians. You know, the pastors are being put in re indoctrination camps by the thousands. This is happening now in our generation, in our world. And I don't know how far we are from this, even in our own country. God help us in the future. You will surround me with songs. You'll preserve me from trouble. I will instruct you, God says, and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Don't be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding. They must be harnessed with bitten bridle, or they will not. Don't be stubborn. Don't try to prove yourself right and God wrong. Many sorrows will be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Mercy, mercy. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous and shout for joy. All you who are upright in heart. Praise be to God. Prophet Isaiah says, when the fires start to break out in this world, there'll be a songs of praise that will start to come up from the earth to the righteous one. There will be a people in the midst of that time who have a song this world knows nothing about. They have a shout in their heart that cannot be taken away by affliction or by threat, or whether the whole society turns dark. There's something inside the heart of this people that cannot be taken from them. They have made a choice to walk in truth. They made a choice to do right. They made a choice that the Bible is the guide and the standard and the truth for Christian life, for all life. As a matter of fact, they made a choice to put away that which offends God, to put away that which Christ died, to give them victory. They made a choice to put it away. And because of it, they are now preserved. They're surrounded by God. They're instructed. They're guided by the spirit of God. Mercy surrounds them. And there's a shout of joy in their hearts, in the midst of all that's going to happen in this world. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory, glory, glory, glory. I hope one day when you get to the throne, I'm probably going to be there before some of you, at least anyway. When you get to the throne, I'll be standing there with my list. You'll be on the other side and you'll say, you told me, and I listened. You told me, and I went in the way of truth. You told me, and I kicked that lazy bum of a boyfriend out of my apartment. You told me, and I obeyed. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. I did what was right. I started giving instead of stealing. I started being kind instead of taking. I started speaking truth. My voice was seasoned with salt instead of criticizing everyone around me. By the grace of God, I stand at the throne of God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I'm shouting at you now so you can shout then. This is how people will pray in a time when God may be found. Don't put the day away. Don't say tomorrow, I'll deal with this. You don't know if you have a tomorrow. We don't know what the future of this city is going to be. We don't know which country has us in its targets, in its sights. We don't know. You don't know. All I can tell you is, today, if you could hear his voice, don't harden your heart, because the reward is great if you can hear. Please, please meet me at the throne. Please be there. Don't make a wrong choice in your life. Self-image doesn't separate from God. Sin does. Deal with it. Father, I thank you with all my heart, Lord, that I have delivered your heart today. You gave me this word, and I gave it to your people. As you once said to the prophet Ezekiel, their blood is not on my hands, but I pray instead that your blood would be applied to every one of their lives, that you would break every chain. You would destroy every stronghold. You'd bring people out of false reasonings and into life and light that can only be found in Jesus Christ. God, I thank you. I thank you with all my heart that people who respond today will be found at your throne on the right side of heaven. God, I thank you with everything in my heart today. Let this be a great day for your kingdom's sake, and I thank you for it. In Jesus' name. I want to give an altar call this morning, and it's real simple. I want to get right with God. You know what that means. You know where it will lead you, and I'm going to pray for you that God give you the strength. You know what you need to do. I don't think there's anybody here that doesn't understand where they need to begin. You start at the beginning. Some of the things that we're involved in are a little more pronounced than others, but you start where you need to start. Say, God, today I'm going to deal with this. Before the sun goes down, I'm going to deal with this today. I'm going to deal with it at this altar, and God, your promise is that you will surround me. You will protect me. You will guide me. You will plant your song inside my heart that no matter what comes into this world, I will stand with a shout of joy, and it will be an eternal shout. Today I'm going to deal with this. I'm going to start moving in the direction of where God wants me to go. Thank you, Lord. Thirty-one years ago, David Wilkerson was led to the Lord to found this church, and when he did so, the Lord told him there's two reasons. Warn the city of impending judgment. Warn that a day of judgment is coming to this city, and secondly, gather a remnant. In other words, gather out of the city as many people as can still hear the word of God. A remnant, I remember he defined it as something that looks like the original cloth, the original trucks, the original group of 120 failures that said, God, by your grace and by your spirit, I'm going to be a witness for you. I'm going to live for you. My life's going to go out into the marketplace, and I'm going to be a voice for you. I'm not going to be a mixed message. It's going to be all you, and Lord, you'll help me. You'll help me when I fail. You'll help me when I fall. You'll pick me up again, and I will always be changing. Image to image, glory to glory, day by day, I'll be changing. That's who you are. You are the remnant. Thirty-one years ago, God saw you and sent a man to this city to gather you, and that's what's happening today. You are the church. You are the remnant. In your frailty, in your weakness, in your struggles, your trials, and your confusion, by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God, you're going to become a person that will bring glory to God everywhere you go. I can see at the altar today, we have at least three people that are deaf who can hear the Word of God. They've come forward. That's what Jesus said, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. It's an inner ability to hear truth. God bless you. You'll never be the same again. You'll never be the same again. Walk with God. Walk with God. Walk with God. You'll never regret walking with God. Give Him your all. Go full. I'm going to ask you just to pray a simple prayer with me, and for the rest that are here, would you stretch your hands out towards these people who are here at the front? Lord Jesus Christ, just say these words with me. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me and for dying for me to break the power of sin and the penalty of sin in my life. Thank you for the promise of forgiveness, the promise of a new life, the promise of the power of your Spirit that I may live for you an honest example in my generation of who you are. And so today I confess my flaws to you. I'm not going to try to make wrong right. I'm trusting you, Lord, to forgive me, to cleanse me, and to give me the power that I need now to walk in newness of life. From this day forward, I belong to you, and I believe that you will instruct me, protect me, guard me, guide me, lead me, and you will give me a shout of joy in my heart all the way along in my journey. And when I get to the throne of God, I will be on the right side of redemption. In Jesus' name, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.