Not Accepting Deliverance

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Me and your Bible tonight, tonight I want to, the title of my message is Not Accepting Deliverance, Not Accepting Deliverance. And turn with me to Hebrews, the 11th chapter.

And while you're turning there, I want to read to you just a scripture that's familiar to you from Luke chapter 4. When Jesus went into the, you can, as you're turning to Hebrews 11, just listen as I read this scripture from Luke 4, when Jesus went to his hometown, and he was invited to go into the synagogue, and ask him to do a reading from the scripture, and he chose Isaiah, and this is what he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering the sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. All right, we know that Jesus has come to preach deliverance to captives, to set the prisoner free, to release them.

Here is a contrast to this. The writer of Hebrews is talking about something else, people who would not accept a deliverance. It almost seems contradictory.

Verse 35, it says, Women, women receiving their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Note the words there that I read from the King James, and I use the words right out of the scripture for the title of my message, Not Accepting Deliverance. Now, the Bible, as you know, is full of accounts of deliverance.

The gospel, in fact, is the power of God unto salvation, which is deliverance from the powers of sin. The first and greatest picture in the scriptures that is given to us of deliverance is that of the sons of Jacob, which had grown to become the children of Israel, how they were delivered out of Egypt, that is popularly known as the Exodus. In the first chapter of Exodus, you don't need to turn there, but verses 13 and 14, it tells us of the prison-like conditions of Israel's life in Egypt.

This is what it says, And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, to serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter hard with bondage, in mortar, or the making of mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the fields, all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor, and that word rigor means harshly and with severity. They were prisoners. Go with me, if you will, to the third chapter of Exodus, if you'll go there, and there you will see the promise that was made to the slaves of Pharaoh, the children of Abraham, in this wonderful, wonderful promise.

In fact, three wonderful things that Moses gave, given to Moses when God appeared to him out of the midst of the burning bush, and God said to him three things. He said, I am, I have seen, and I have come down to visit you. Look at it there in verses six through eight.

He says, moreover, I said, I am the God of thy fathers, and the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. In verse seven he says, And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason, their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. Oh, I love those promises.

I love that word to the children of Israel, because it's a word to you and I tonight. He said, I am, I am the God. I have seen, I have surely seen your affliction, and I have come down to visit you.

This is a type of a deliverance that is available to all slaves and prisoners of sin even now. For example, some of you found an exit. You found an exodus, if you please, from homosexuality.

Some of you thought that there was never going to be a way out of that kind of sin, that kind of bondage and slavery. But one day you saw a door marked exit. Actually, it was a day, it was a door marked entrance.

It was a, it was a door under salvation and it became both an entrance and an exit from the bondage of homosexuality. And the Lord said to you, I am, I have seen your bondage and I am come down to visit you and to deliver you from that. Hallelujah.

And there are some of you that sit here tonight. God has marvelously delivered you. You know what that kind of, then you even know God is doing that and has been doing that in these days.

And then some of you know the, have known the hopeless bondage and the rigors of drug addiction. It made your life bitter in all manner of service to the demons of cocaine or heroin or alcohol. But one day the Lord said to you, I am the Lord God.

I am God and I have seen your addiction and I am come down to visit you and to lift you and to liberate you. And you sit here tonight, have free. You were a prisoner, but you're free tonight from that.

Some of you were in an intellectual bondage, a slave in spiritual darkness to the vain philosophies of this world. But the Lord marvelously revealed himself to you and he said, I am the God. I have seen the affliction of your spiritual emptiness and I am come down to deliver you out of it.

And you're free from that. Some of you were atheists. Some of you were agnostic.

Some of you were hooked to other kinds of ologies or philosophies. And from that very first Exodus to the very final exit and Exodus, when it tells us the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and he, and we shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord.

From that very first Exodus to the very final Exodus, our God is a God of deliverance. Romans 11, 26 and 27 says, there came out of Zion, the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob or, or the sons of Jacob for this is my covenant unto them. When I shall take away their sins.

But then when we go in, as we look through the pages of history, consider some of the other deliverances, Abraham was delivered from idolatry out of Ur of Chaldees, David was delivered from the evil presence and power called Goliath. And then as Hebrews 11 tells us, there was Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and Samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness and obtained promises. They stopped the mouths of lions.

They quenched the violence of fire. They escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong. They waxed valued in fight and turn to flight the enemies of the aliens.

And you see, all of these are incidences of deliverance brought about by the power of a living faith. And these men trusted God and God saw their affliction. He saw their faith and they were freed from their captivity.

And in the historical count of God's dealing with man over and over again, the evidence is overwhelming. God is able and willing if we believe him to deliver and set his people free and lead them out into a large and a good land, hallelujah. If there's anything that blesses me every time I come here, it's not just to preach a message, but it's to see at the altar call what God is doing and people are being set free.

Jesus told his gatherers in that synagogue in Nazareth that his promise was being, the promise was being fulfilled before their very eyes, that he had come to preach deliverance to the captives and they went out and he did that very thing in answer to faith. We see the maniac of Gadara raised, released from legions of demons, sitting in clothes and his right mind. What an exodus he had from the tombs and from bondage.

We see the withered hand that was restored, the blind see, a brother delivered from the grave and then there was that small company of his followers who were made glad because they need sin no more. You see Christ was and he is the great enemy of any and all afflictions and bondage and slavery and addiction. He came to preach deliverance to the captives and to bestow the gift of freedom which is at the very heart of his message.

Jesus said in John 8, 36, if the son therefore hath made you free, ye shall be free indeed. Here is a result of that mighty deliverance from sin. I read this today and I thought you'd be blessed by this.

It says we were shaft, now we are wheat. We were dross, now we are gold. We were ravens, now we are doves.

We were goats, now we are sheep. We were thorns, now we are grapes. We were thistles, now we are lilies.

We were strangers, now we are citizens. We were harvests, now we are virgins. Hell was our inheritance, now heaven is our possession.

We were children of wrath, but now we are sons of mercy. We were bond slaves to Satan, now we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. Hallelujah.

Deliverance, glory to God, out of one into another. But having said that, let me say that there is another side of the coin to deliverance. And it's interesting that Hebrews 11 gives us another kind of deliverance that is always offered to the people of God.

And oh, please listen to me carefully tonight as I talk about this. There is a kind of faith that must refuse another kind of deliverance. This is the idea conveyed in Hebrews 11, 35.

A kind of faith that is little talked about today. The kind that is seen and was seen in the early Christians who were tortured, stoned. They were sown in two because they refused to accept an offer of deliverance or release from captivity.

Now, the whole chapter of Hebrews, of course, is a song of faith. The kind of faith that is powerful to achieve. But there is also another effect of faith.

Not a faith that brings deliverance, but sometimes it's a faith when deliverance is offered, this other kind of faith refuses to receive that deliverance. You see, sometimes faith receives and sometimes faith has to refuse. There is a faith that subdues kingdoms, yes.

It wrought righteousness, yes. It obtained promises, yes. It stopped the mouths of lions.

We all like that kind of faith. I mean, you know, if you're going to choose the kind of faith you have, wouldn't it be the kind of faith that stops the mouths of lions? That's what we call an achieving, a receiving, an obtaining faith. But Hebrews 11, 35 and 36 has two important words in the midst of all of this description of great men of faith and the works of faith.

And note what those words are. I have them underlined in my Bible. It says, and others, verse 35, women received their dead raised to life again and were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.

And others, and with this, you see, the Hebrew writer introduces us to another effect of faith. It's a faith that endures and it is a tremendous witness and example by virtue of its courage to refuse a kind of offer of deliverance that will come along to you. You see, there is a form of deliverance that true and real faith rejects.

And these early heroes of the faith included this very select group of others who were tortured, who had trials of cruel mocking and scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. Why? Because they refused deliverance. Oh, the beauty of such a faith.

And I want you to see that tonight. The beauty of this faith. You see, there comes an hour when the strongest proof of faith is in its swift rejection of the easiest way out.

Let me say that again. There comes an hour, there comes a moment in your life when the strongest proof of your faith is in its rejection of the easiest way out of your difficulty. Now, these early martyrs to whom the Scriptures refer, when faced with trial and torment for their Christian faith, were always offered another kind of deliverance.

They only had to blaspheme the name of Christ by saying a word or two of cursing against the name of Christ. And all their torture and all their suffering would have been over. For example, a Roman centurion would write the name of Christ upon a wall.

And those who were being brought to trial because of their profession of faith, all they had to do was to go over to that wall and spit on it. And in so doing, indicate that they were renouncing the name of Christ and they would have been released. They would have been freed.

They would have been delivered from their tormentors. Or in other situations, all they had to do was to go, and they had a little box. And if they would reach into the box and there would be a little bit of grain there, or there would be a little bit of incense.

And all they had to do was to pick it up and without even saying one word, thrust that or lay that down before the beautiful statue of the God Diana. And that believer, that Christian, would have been given their freedom from torment. The trial and cruel mocking would have immediately been over and they would have been given their deliverance.

And the Hebrew writer here is talking about these kind of people when he's talking about their faith. They refuse deliverance. There is also an account given to us in the book of Maccabees, the second book of Maccabees.

There's a story of a Jewish mother who in one day saw seven of her sons tortured for their faith. And she encouraged them by her words to give a good confession on the basis that they would obtain a better resurrection. And when the youngest of the seven, the first six were tortured and were martyred, and then finally the seventh son, the youngest, came along and before he was tortured and martyred, he was given an offer by an oath and said, if you will recant your faith, I will promise you that I will make you a rich and a happy man.

And with a mother standing on, she encouraged him and says, no. She says, fear not by tormentors, take thy death that I may receive thee again in mercy with your brothers. But you see for these martyrs, there was always a choice, a choice between accepting or not accepting release.

On one hand was life, on the other hand was death. It was either torture in the grave or it was release. But you see, they showed their faith by refusing this ready-made, man-made deliverance.

They could have had it by a single word or a single action, but they refused because they decided that it was better to be faithful than to be free. Hallelujah. Better to be faithful than to be free.

They chose defiance of the enemy rather than deliverance from the enemy's hand. They would accept deliverance of no other sort because they had obtained a better promise. Hallelujah.

Of a resurrection and of a better life. Now I said all of that to say this, may God grant that this kind of courageous faith to his people today, a faith that refuses another kind of deliverance. You see, this same kind of faith is necessary today in the midst of our own trials and troubles and temptations.

Because we too, in a sense, we face in our own way, we might say the petty martyrdoms of everyday living. You see, there is a principle contained in this testimony of the early Christians who refused to accept release and deliverance from torment. A principle that applies to each of us in a variety of situations and testings.

You see, each of us has his own cross to carry. We have our very own tormentors. Now you may not be asked to die for your faith, but let me tell you something.

Every time the devil comes to tempt you, it is an attempt for you to deny your faith at that moment. And either say, I name the name of God and I stand on the principle of righteousness, or you turn your back upon him. That's the kind of torment that comes to you.

Anytime we face these trials, of course, Jesus is there to preach deliverance. There is a conquest over temptation. Psalms 37 10 says, The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of their troubles.

But always remember there are always other deliverances offered. There are other doors, other solutions, and the enemy is sure to offer you a release from your trouble and pain. And I think all of us are tempted frequently by these other deliverances and other doors and other answers to our need, even if we fail to recognize it, because many times they're so subtle, they are so deceptive, they're so hidden, so suddenly hidden and disguised that many times you don't even know it.

Listen to what Psalms 56 and 6 says, They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my soul. Psalms 35 and 7 says, For without cause they hid their net from me, without cause they dug a pit for my soul. Listen, my friend, always this net or pit, this other form of deliverance, this is a promise to release you from your pain, to release you from your trials and your testings of faith.

And I believe that some of you sit here tonight, maybe even unknowingly and unwittingly, have fallen into a trap of a false deliverance. Psalms 119, 85 says, The arrogant have dug pits for me. Men who are not in accord with the law.

And listen, let me tell you, everywhere you turn there are men who are not in accord with the law that are going to offer you a way out, another way of deliverance than God's way. I think of a young lady tonight, excuse me, I think of a young man tonight whose soul is miserable. He was delivered at one time from gross sin and immorality and iniquity, but in his old life he made money, not, there's an advertisement that says about making money the old-fashioned way.

He earned his money the new-fashioned way. He cheated. He was dishonest and made a lot of money, had a lot of good things, had a lot of material things, but the Lord saved him.

And he turned his back upon all of that. His values changed, his lifestyle changed. He was not prosperous, but he had peace.

And then he got married and he started to raise a family. And in the midst of his difficulty, in the midst of his struggles, one day there came along a tempting, glittering door of opportunity, a chance for a better job, a better position with a better pay and a lot more security. The only thing was that he had to close his eyes to certain things around him.

He had to ignore certain things and he had to violate his own conscience. Now, let me tell you something. We all know the temptation, that exact temptation, not in the exact sense, but similar.

And it's the false promise of a quick fix to our troubles. And many a man or woman accepts the lure of another deliverance, not from the hand of God, but from the hand of another. And all it takes sometimes, all it takes is for you to put your hand in that box, as it were, and take a little bit of grain and throw it down at the God of this world, God of Diana, a false God of false hope.

And there is that other door of deliverance. But you see, here's the rub. The moment that young man went through that door, marked Easy Street and Compromise, he no longer was accepting the torture of sacrifice and he accepted another kind of deliverance.

And at that moment, he left the company of true men of faith. He left the company that is talking about here in Hebrews 11th chapter. And one of these days, he's going to wake up and find that he's missed the best for the easiest way out.

You see, there's a principle that's contained in this message here tonight and this truth. And it's this, that faithfulness is better than happiness if happiness is sought in that which is false. Let me say it again.

Happiness, or excuse me, faithfulness is better than happiness if happiness is sought in that which is false. Let me give to you two Proverbs that should be familiar to you. One is Proverbs 17.1. It says, Better is a dry crust, a dry morsel, and tranquility therewith, than a house full of feastings with contention.

And here's another one. You'll like this even better. Some of you will.

It's Proverbs 21.9. It says, It is better to dwell in the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide house. Another translation says, It is better to live in the corner of an attic than with a crabby woman in a lovely house. Now, I wasn't expecting all the men to say amen.

That's not what I'm after. There's a principle taught in these two verses I've just read. You see, some things might appear to bring you happiness, such as a woman or a man, or a house full of feastings, but in fact, they bring contention and strife.

Not all deliverances are deliverances. Not all things that appear to bring us tranquility and peace and happiness live up to the promise. Tonight, I think of a young lady.

She's not in this church. I think of two young ladies. A young lady, she is single.

She's battling loneliness. A loneliness of singleness. It's a loneliness that might be called a social or romantic famine.

There's another young woman like her. She's a mother raising her son. She's a single parent, her spouse having left her for another woman.

In both cases, there comes along a promise of deliverance. Deliverance from boredom, from drudgery, from loneliness, from financial hardships, and all the rest that goes along with it. And that offer comes along in the form of Mr. Deliverance.

He's willing to release her from the torture of her singleness, or what she views as torture. He offers marriage, but listen, it is not an offer from someone whom God has led her to. And his commitment to the Lord is superficial and compromising.

And she does not know it, but what awaits her is a house full of feastings with contention and sorrow, and the male version of a crabby woman. Now listen, young lady or young man, and for all of us tonight, there lurks in every street and every path a different kind of deliverance. And with that so-called deliverance, or so-called happiness, or so-called chance of freedom, oh, what a cost it will extract from you.

It would be better to live on dry morsels, better to be tortured daily than to accept a deliverance like that. Psalms 142 is a picture of a soul at a dangerous point. It's David talking.

He said, When my spirit is overwhelmed within me, thou didst know my path. In the way where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see, for there is no one who regards me.

There is no escape for me. No one cares for my soul. But oh, how wrong David was to say this, and how wrong are we to say, there is no escape for me, so I'll accept the deliverance of another.

But my friend, this is where true faith comes in. Faithfulness is better than happiness when happiness is sought in that which is false. There is a faith and a trust that can see you through the hour of your testing, be it loneliness, be it financial hardship, be it whatever it is.

There is a faith and a faithfulness that is better than happiness, especially if the happiness is sought in a false deliverance. Psalms 142, 7, David ends up, he says, Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may give thanks to thy name. Thy righteousness will surround me, for thou wilt deal bountifully with me.

Hallelujah. Psalms 141, 9 and 10, it says, Keep me from snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evildoers. Let the wicked fall into their own nets while I pass by it safely.

Oh, hallelujah. Beware of the danger of going back to an old rusty anchor during times of your testing. It may be an old teaching.

It may be an old doctrine. It may be an old doctrine. When we seek deliverance because of a sense of failure.

You see, our faith is not only tested by worldly deliverances, it's also tested by and in the work of God. I know what it's like. Oh, do I know what it's like to face the discouragements and defeats of ministry and seek a deliverance and escape from it? Any preacher, anybody in the work of the Lord knows what that's like.

You see, there is a weariness that comes from well-doing and from reaching out to others. This weariness may be from physical exhaustion. It may be from spiritual dryness.

It may be from some disappointment. Or it may be discouragement from trying to help somebody yet seeing them continue to struggle and to fail or to fall. And this can bring a sense of failure on our own part.

Last Tuesday night, I believe it was, after our meeting, one of our workers in the back came to me and he asked me, he said, Pastor, he said, what do you do when you've prayed with somebody and you've offered them godly counsel and you shared with them and you know they're not hearing you? You just know they're not hearing. They're not receiving. It's just going in one ear and out the other.

And I looked at him and I said, welcome to the ministry. Welcome. Now you know what it's all about.

Now you know what we pastors go through. And some of those who we are called to try and help, they are irritating and interfering people that can wear you down sometimes. But let me tell you, there's a danger right here.

Weariness in well-doing and in ministry to others, especially when the results are not encouraging. This is the devil's invitation to step in and make you a tempting offer. Maybe you want to quit.

Sooner or later, there comes a day when you're tempted to give up, to take your armor off, to hang it up, and to just sit back and say, I'm just going to relax on my spiritual rocking chair. I ain't going to get involved anymore. Listen, no other organization on the face of the earth is charged with a high calling of which the church is summons.

And that is to confront men with Jesus Christ. And it ain't like selling pizza. And if God has called you to do a work for him, if you are in full-time ministry, if you're a pastor or you're a leader, or if you're a single mother raising a son or a daughter, or if you're parents that are raising your children, you're all called similarly.

And the Holy Spirit would warn you tonight, there is no release from that, even if it's torturous at times. Did you hear me? There's no release from it. Even if it's torturous.

Romans 11, 29 says, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. That's not only directed to the Pope, but that's directed to the congregation. First Corinthians 7, 20 says, let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called.

Let me tell you something, there's something worse, there's something that's far worse than the hardships of ministry or outreach or Christian service. And that's to miss God's will. The most dangerous thing you can do is step down from the call of God and seek a deliverance from it in some other field of endeavor.

And there are times when such a deliverance would be a treachery if you accepted it. And some of the unhappiest Christians that I know and I have seen are those who sought deliverance from the call of God upon their life. God has not called you to be successful, he's called you to be faithful.

And when you're faithful, you are successful, no matter what the external results may be, hallelujah. Our duty is to continue to serve, even though that service may be a torture. And the Hebrew writer believed to be Paul said of those early Christians, they were tortured not accepting deliverance, except the deliverance that God provides.

And I wanna tell you, he always comes through, glory to God, he always comes through. If we trust God, we will refuse any and all relief and stick it out. Listen, God has no pleasure in people or in ministers who are always handing in their resignation.

I mean, in your heart, either literally or figuratively or emotionally or down deep inside, you're always quitting. God has no pleasure in that. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Christ is the model, he refused false deliverance. The temptation of Christ in the wilderness was among other things, a lesson in not accepting another kind of deliverance in exchange for the victory of the cross. Listen to what it says, Matthew four eight, and again, the devil taketh him up into an exceedingly high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Let me tell you, there's a similar place, there's a similar mountain where the devil takes all of us. And there he shows us what we could have and how he would deliver us from our struggles if we would but compromise and fall down before him. Now, I don't know what the devil's been showing you lately, but maybe he's got you standing on the highest rise, highest tenement house in New York City, and he points you out, I don't mean literally, but spiritually, he says, look, and he points out and he points there, he points here, he points there, and he'd say, you know, you could have that.

That could be you, you could possess that, you could have that kingdom. All you have to do is compromise. All you have to do is, well, quit going to Times Square Church for one thing, quit listening to those holiness preachers.

And hey, the devil will even find you another church where you can have Jesus in the world, too, which of course will be a lie. All these kingdoms will I give thee, says the tempter, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Was that not an offer of a road to power in the throne, which he would have escaped the torture of the cross? But Jesus refused that kind of release or deliverance.

And that is why he is able, hallelujah, to deliver us. That's why he's able to free us, glory to God, because he didn't accept that way out. That's why he could stand and prophesy, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because I have come to preach deliverance to the captives.

Let me give you one last illustration. Remember when he was approaching the place of crucifixion of Golgotha? Matthew 27, 34, it says, and they gave or they offered him vinegar to drink mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

Now, if Jesus had had one taste of it, he'd have experienced a momentary deliverance or relief from his pain. And had he drunk it, his senses would have been numb, for gall was an opiate, it was a drug. But when he tasted it, he realized that it was mingled with a sedative, he would not drink it.

And he was tortured, not accepting any aid, not accepting any other kind of deliverance, but he went in order not to accept any other way out. And you see, when we experience the deliverance of Jesus, we need no other, because everywhere you turn, there's gonna be an offer of release from your freedom by all kinds of medicine men. If they gave him vinegar, if they gave him vinegar mixed with gall, huh, how much more are they gonna offer it to you? And everywhere you turn, you're gonna have that kind of an offer.

I mean, it may be literally for some of you, it's literally an offer of a drug. Literally, it's a bottle, it's a pill, it's a powder or something. And I don't know how you spell relief, but Jesus offers not relief, but deliverance, hallelujah.

When Jesus tasted their offer, he would not drink. Is that your testimony tonight? Are you refusing any and all offers? And some of you may be here tonight, you've got a little gall inside you. You've got a little gall.

I'm talking about having sought release and relief from some other source, from some other angle. But listen to what happens, let me close with it. Listen to what happens to those who would not accept a false deliverance, a false release.

And others were tortured not accepting deliverance, why? That they might obtain something better. It's called the resurrection. It's also called everlasting life.

It's also called heaven. It's also called life eternal. The point is this, there is deliverance and then there is deliverance.

There are deliverers and there is the deliverer. Psalms 97 and 10 says, ye that love the Lord hate evil. He preserveth the souls of his saints.

He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is shown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart. And you know, the beautiful thing about what I'm teaching here tonight is that every time you reject the tempter's release or relief or deliverance, every time you die to that sin, there is a glorious resurrection that takes place simultaneously and right along with it.

Every time you refuse something unholy, God gives you something better in its place, hallelujah. I have experienced that. I learned that as a young man.

I've tried to instill that in my children and said, listen, if you live a pure and holy life, yes, you sacrifice, you can't do. I remember I used to come out of high school and I used to see my friends go down one way. And there was a part of me that wanted to go down there with them, but I knew I couldn't.

I knew that I couldn't, that I walked the other way and I was alone many a time, but I knew that one day payday would come, hallelujah. And that God would honor me and God would give you something far. Every time you refuse a compromise of deliverance, God opens the windows of heaven to a greater deliverance.

Proverbs 10, six says, blessings are upon the head of the just. Proverbs 28, 10 says, a faithful man shall abound with blessings. Malachi 3, 10 tells us of the reward of the obedient.

He says, prove me now, prove me now. And then he tells us how, and it's not just talking about having your finances straightened out, it's talking about having your life straightened out. It's talking about being obedient and being holy.

And he said, prove me now, refuse every avenue that the devil gives you for relief or release and stand true. I don't care if you're under torment, if you be faithful, God will be faithful and here's the payoff. See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out you a blessing that ye shall not have room enough to receive it.

Hallelujah. I have a friend, I call him up every once in a while and I said, how are you doing? He said, oh, he said, if it gets any better, I don't know what I'm gonna do. He understands that principle, hallelujah.

First comes refusal, then comes reward. First you refuse the door to false deliverance and then he opens wide the windows of heaven unto you. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, let's stand together. Thank you Jesus.

Variety on a salad bar. And remember, you know, God told Israel, Bob mentioned his message Sunday morning for the day of Sunday night. He told them about this land that was flowing with milk and honey.

That was only symbolic of all of the blessings that God was bestowing upon them. And when you look at a salad bar, listen, oh my goodness, those green, I love green olives. I love radish.

Hey, that came from God's hand, my friend.