Streams from the Rock

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. Psalm 78, I'm reading from the New American Standard. Let's pick it up at verse 12.

Psalm 78, verse 12, He wrought wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and He made the water stand up like a heap. Then He led them with a cloud by day and all the night with a light of fire.

He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. That's where I choose the title of my message tonight out of that 16th verse.

He brought forth streams also from the rock. I want to talk to you tonight about streams, streams from the rock. Turn to Exodus chapter 17 and leave your Bible open there and we'll look to the Lord in prayer.

As we begin tonight, you've heard about preachers who preach from Genesis to Revelation. I'm going to preach from Exodus to Revelation tonight. From Repidim to Patmos, that's where we're going to go tonight.

Streams from the rock. Praise the Lord. Let's look to the Lord in prayer.

Hallelujah. Lord, we thank You tonight. Our hearts are lifted in praise unto You.

Thank You again, Lord, for this precious time in worship and praise to You. And now we come before the Word. We come and open the Word.

Lord, we ask You to open the Word to our hearts. As we would ask the question tonight, Can God provide a table in the wilderness? Lord, we thank You that You can. And as we minister, Lord, tonight, we would come against anything that would bring resistance to the receiving of Your Word.

Lord, we come against doubt. We come against unbelief. We come against indifference.

We come against tiredness. We come against any demonic force that would be in operation. We come against everything that would come in opposition to You.

Lord, we raise up the standard against it. And we ask, Lord, that You would have Your way tonight. Lord, we are a people totally dependent upon You.

Help us never to forget that. Lord, thank You that You remind us of that over and over again. Lord, remind us tonight that when we're going through a hard place, that You provide streams for us out of the rock.

Bless Your Word, we pray tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. In Exodus chapter 17, the children of Israel are in a position that might be described as being between a rock and a hard place.

Have you ever been in such a place? Need I even ask? Exodus 17-1 begins and it says that all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed. It says in the New American Standard, it says they journeyed by stages. In other words, they went from one place to another place, one encampment to another encampment.

And it just uses the phrase here, they journeyed by stages. You know, I never get tired of studying and reading and preaching about these journeys. We are so much like Israel, unfortunately.

Their journey is a mirror of our own spiritual journey. 1 Corinthians 10-11 says, now these things which happen to our ancestors are illustrations of the ways in which God works. These are illustrations of the way God still works today in our lives.

And they are illustrations of how we also behave. And as Israel went from one encampment to another encampment, or stage by stage, in like manner, you and I go through one experience, one lesson, one stage right after another. And one of those stages, one of those steps, is that we cannot escape and it seems like we keep coming back to it again and again, is a stage that I call being between a rock and a hard place.

It is the place of testing, the place of trial, the place of trouble, of affliction, of temptation or tribulation. It's a hard place to be in, no matter who you are. And everybody has hard places or hard times, no matter if you are a spiritual senior citizen.

You know, God does not judge us by our, the age in the natural. You know, somebody was telling me recently, he said, well, I'm so young. I said, well, how old are you in the Lord? He said, well, I'm seven years old in the Lord.

And I said, well, that's a pretty good age. But whether you're a senior citizen spiritually or whether you're a spiritual babe or you're in between, hard places cannot be avoided. I was thinking they can't be avoided, they're like red lights.

How many of you are like the drivers who, when you see a light turn green or orange or from green to orange or green to red, you step on the gas instead of the brake? Now, I know one pastor on this platform that does that. And it's not either the other two gentlemen. But neither do I like to brake for spiritual stoplights or test or trials.

I like to rush right through them as fast as I possibly can. But you see, the Lord requires that we journey by stages. And one of the inevitable stages of our spiritual walk, or for some of you, you try to make it a spiritual dash, as the case might be.

But one of those stages is that we come to this place Israel did called Repidim. Now, Repidim means no support. It is a place of no support.

It also literally means the shrinking of the hands. Now, tonight, some of you may find yourself against your will and against your wishes, camped at Repidim. That's the stage that you're at.

Now, it may be brought about by a financial difficulty. It may be a lack of guidance in your life relative to important decisions you have to make. It may be a family problem.

It may be a relationship gone sour. It may be a job-related problem. It may be a physical testing.

The types of hard places that we go through are too numerous to even be able to mention. But I do know this, that if you're in a hard place, it's a place like Repidim. It's a place of dryness.

It's where there are many rocks and seemingly there is no water. And it's a place where you feel like you're getting no support. And maybe your hands are shrinking or there's the wringing of the hands.

And maybe your hands are raised up in despair rather than praise and worship. You know, there's two kinds of hands raised. Voluntary and involuntary.

And the involuntary is when someone comes along. An involuntary hand raising would be when somebody tries to stick you up. And maybe you feel like the enemy has come in to stick you up, as it were.

And you've thrown up your hands in despair. Now, some of you may not be at this stage. Maybe you're experiencing all green lights.

Well then, praise God. Go for it. Rejoice.

Put your engine on cruise control and enjoy it while you can. Because beware, Repidim may be right around the next corner. And if you're not going through a hard place, then encourage and bless somebody else.

The Bible says two are better than one. If the one shall fall, the other shall lift him up. And tonight, if you're the other, then look for a brother or sister who has fallen or gone through hard times.

And reach out to them. Lift them up by the Spirit of Christ. And in the Spirit of Christ.

But this message, however, is to those who find themselves personally in a hard place and in a hard time. Now, you need to know what not to do at Repidim and at a hard place. Israel is a picture, first of all, of what not to do.

Israel encamped at Repidim is an example of how not to act and react when you're between a rock and a hard place. Look at verse 1 again. You want to read the entire verse to know exactly the nature of Israel's hard place.

It says, Then the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Repidim. And here was their test, here was their hard place, and there was no water for the people to drink. You know, how quickly things change.

They had just come, it had not been long since they had seen a wall of water parted. And they had walked over on dry ground. And Repidim, you see, took place shortly after the horse and the rider had been hurled into the sea.

Also, at that time, the Lord had promised them, He gave them this wonderful promise, followed by a wonderful provision. It's in chapter 15, verse 26. And He said this, If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, I will put none of these diseases on you which I put on the Egyptians, for I, the Lord, am your healer.

Now you talk about support. That sounds like they got a lot of support. That does not sound like their hands were going to be shrinking.

But then the next verse talks about what happened shortly after this miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. They had experienced another time when there was no water and it was provided for them. But now they can't come in the 15th chapter and they find themselves at another stage, camped out at the Elam Holiday Inn.

Look at it. Elam Holiday Inn, chapter 15, verse 27. You can see it for yourself.

And then they came to Elam where there were 12 springs of water and 70 date palms and they camped there beside the waters. Now I don't know about you, but personally I like Elam a lot better than Repidim. And I'd like to stay at Elam as long as I can.

But chapter 16, verse 1 says, Then they set out from Elam, and they came to the wilderness of sin. And that's where they ran into a hard place and that's where they sinned. And instead of springs of water and delicious dates, they're in a place of no water, of no dates.

And Elam means mighty ones, by the way. There was no mighty ones, there was no support, their lips were parched, their hands are shrinking. How many of you know what it is to wake up in the morning at Elam, in the palm springs of the Middle East, and by the time you go to bed you're sleeping at Repidim? I've seen it happen, I've seen it happen to some of you.

Some of you told me, you've gone to work in the morning, on your job, and when you got there you find out you were fired. Your business was sold, it was closed, and your situation changed overnight. I know what it's like to be drinking of the spirit at Elam, and be eating the spiritual dates off of God's mighty palms, and then get a phone call, and suddenly everything changed.

And just like that I feel like I've gone from Elam to Repidim, and there's no support. Now there's three questions or complaints that are often registered when we go through this kind of situation, when we find ourselves at Repidim, and during a time of testing and trial and hard times. These are three questions and complaints that Israel made.

Look at verse 2. It says, Now the question and complaint I hear in this is, where? That's the very first question that we sometimes ask when we go into a hard time, where? Where is God? Where is my support? This actually was the second time they complained and asked this question in bitter tongues. In chapter 16, verse 2, it says, And I remember preaching another time on this, and I described how here's Moses standing in the midst of the camp, and all the leaders are standing out in front of their tent, and they're hollering out to Moses, Where's the beef? Where's the beef? Feed us! Where is our support? Where's the food? And now they're at it again, and this time they're banging their tin cups. Give us water! Give us water! Now I don't know if they carried a tin cup or not, but if they did, can't you just hear them banging it? Said, Moses, Moses, where? Where's the water? Give us water.

It's a mournful, bitter, pitiful sound. You see, the first reaction of spiritual babes in Christ, and that's what the children of Israel are pictured here. That's what they're a picture of.

The first reaction of spiritual babes, or those who never spiritually mature, is to always be complaining, where's the beef, or where's the water? Where is God? Where is my support? But you see, where is not the question is or should have been asking. But who? It was not where, but who? Sister Marianne, I am who I am. He had told them already.

The question is not where will our support come from, but who is our support? And it makes all the difference in the world how you go through a hard place when you know who's in charge, and whose side you're on, and whose side's on your side, or who's on your side. Israel forgot who they were, they forgot who had served, who had taken them to that stage of their journey. You can just go back to chapter 15 and listen how quickly they forgot.

Moses, chapter 1, chapter 15, verse 1, Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and said, I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted, the horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, he has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will extol him.

Verse 17 and 18, Thou will bring them and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, the place, the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thy dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever. They had forgotten how quickly they forgot who had saved them, and who had delivered them, and who was leading them.

But instead they were asking, where, where is my support going to come from? Another question often asked when we're in a hard place is why? Verse 2, And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? Now Moses asked why because the people were saying by their action, Why is God doing this to us? Why did he bring us all the way out of Egypt to kill us out here? Why is there no water? Why is he not supporting us? You know that it's a characteristic of a child to always be asking why. Have you ever noticed whenever you want your child to do the most simple, ordinary thing, the child will always want to say, Why do I have to do it? Eat your food. Why? Go to sleep.

Why? Stop hitting your sister. Why? And then they'll ask why to things that you would have to be, as a parent, you would have to be God-like to be able to answer them. But most kids, why has to do with, Why do I have to do this? Why do I have to do that? And you see, spiritual children also ask why an awful lot.

I'll prove that to you. Listen to Psalms 10.1. Why dost thou stand afar off, O Lord? Why dost thou hide thyself in times of trouble? Psalms 42.9. I will say to the Lord my rock, Why hast thou forsaken me, or forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Psalms 43.2. For thou art the God of my strength. Why hast thou rejected me? Now, having concluded that God was not supporting them, the next question and conclusion Israel came to is, What are we going to do? First, they said, Where? Where is God? Where is our support? Secondly, they said, Why? Why has God forsaken us? And then thirdly, they said, What are we going to do about this? And Moses, as it were, throws up his hands and he says the same thing.

He said, What shall I do with these people? And the reason for his question and his despair is that the sons of Israel got together and they said, What shall we do? God is not supporting us. He's not coming through for us. We have got to do something.

Now, they of course were helpless, but they did come up with an idea. And yet, I wonder what different ideas they came to, came in their mind before they finally chose the one. You know, I've occasionally, I've been around a group like that.

A group of grumblers and complainers and discontents and miserables. When they get together and ask, What should we do about this situation? We're not getting enough support. What are we going to do about it? And what terrible things people of fear and doubt come up with when they don't know where to turn to, when they're asking, Why has God rejected them? And when they're saying, What are we going to do? Some of the ideas are beyond me.

The sons of Israel did what most grumbling Christians do today. They found somebody else to blame. They finally took out their distress on Moses.

Verse 4 says, So Moses cried out to the Lord saying, A little more and they will stone me. Now, since they knew that they didn't have a strong enough arm for the stones to reach God, they decided to pick on the closest servant. And that's why I tell people a lot of times, Don't take it personal when you're under attack.

A lot of times it's just meant for God. And they can't reach God so they attack you. They made Moses the target of their anger and a move was on to stone him.

Listen to me, beware of what you say when you're in a hard place. Beware of what solutions you come up with. Beware of picking up stones to throw at the preacher or the pastor or the leader or brother or sister of Christ or the church or whoever or whatever.

Proverbs 26, 27 says, He who digs a pit will fall into it and he who rolls a stone, it'll come right back on him. You see, what Israel didn't realize, Listen, you don't need a stone when you got the rock. Now, we're going to come back to this in a moment and see what happened to it, but I want to go to another place.

Another hard place that I want to talk about tonight. It's in 2 Samuel, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 15. 2 Samuel chapter 15.

2 Samuel 15, pick it up at verse 13. It says, Then a messenger came to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. Now, very quickly, this refers to the rebellion that David's son led against him to take over the throne and take over his kingdom.

Verse 14, And David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Arise and let us flee, for none of us shall escape from Absalom. Go in haste, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down calamity on us and strike this city with the edge of the sword. Now, you talk about a hard place.

I would say having your own son chase you out of your own house and out of your position as king and ruler, that is some kind of hard place to go through. And David had to flee into hiding. Verse 23, look at it.

It says, While all the country was weeping with a loud voice, all the people passed over. The king also passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over towards the way of the wilderness. Think of it for a moment.

Get the picture. Here is David. Instead of being surrounded by the blessings of his home and the security befitting a king, he is thrust into a whole new different world, a wilderness of rock.

And needless to say, David was in a hard place. Verse 30 is a further description of the situation David was in. And David went up the ascent to the Mount of Olives and he wept as he went and his head was covered as he walked barefoot.

Then all the people who were with him, each covering his head, and they went up weeping as they went. Now, I don't know all that David was experiencing at this difficult time in his life, but one thing I do know, one of the hard things that he was facing was the sting of betrayal. He had been betrayed by his very own son.

You see, it's bad enough when everyone turns against you and plots behind your back to win the favor of your friends, but it's worse when your own flesh and blood, your own son is the betrayer. But in addition, David also finds out that one of his most trusted men, Ahitharaphrul, one of his most trusted men was among the conspirators against him. And I believe that that probably hurt David more than even Absalom's actions because I believe that David knew and had seen the seeds of rebellion in his son and he wasn't surprised.

But one of his own trusted men who was one of the wisest advisors that he had, this man was unfaithful and disloyal to David when David needed him the most. And listen to what David says about this. He said, Even my close friend in whom I trusted, he ate my bread, he has lifted up his heel against me.

Now, I believe that David could take the physical hardship of having to go back into the wilderness. He knew how to do that. Saul had chased him.

He had been like a common criminal. But the deeper hurt was to be double-crossed and betrayed by a friend. And tonight I believe there may sit in this meeting a King David.

You're in a very hard place, a place where you're licking the wounds of personal betrayal. The Lord has made me feel the pain tonight that perhaps you're a father here tonight. You're a mother here tonight.

And you have gone through or you are going through the pain of a betrayal by a son or a daughter. And while I was in prayer for this message and going over every point of the message, when I came to this point, the Holy Spirit just so deeply impressed upon me and I felt prompted to pray for somebody who is or who will listen to this message. And you can identify with this period in David's life because you have an Absalom who has betrayed you, your own flesh and blood.

And the Lord, as I prayed, the Lord made me feel a little bit of your pain. Now I thank God that I've never experienced in the inner circle of my own family. I've never experienced that.

Thank God for it. But as a leader, I've known what it feels like to have those who ate bread with you to lift up a heel against you. Perhaps it was not your own son or daughter who betrayed you.

It may have been a parent. It may have been a spouse. It may have been a close associate.

It may be a brother and sister in your family. It may be a brother and sister in the church. But I tell you, this too is a type of stage in our spiritual journey.

It can be a repidemic experience in which you feel let down by somebody you trusted and they left you with no support. Psalms 55, 12, and 14 says, If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were rising against me, I could hide from him.

But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with a throng at the house of God. This is the end of side one. The prophet Micah also spoke and he said a man's enemy sometimes can be that of his very own household.

Oh yes, that's a hard place to be in. That's where David was. But I want to tell you tonight that God can meet you at such a place as we'll see in just a moment.

You may feel betrayed. You may be feeling like you're in a hard place. It may be wilderness.

It may be rocks. But I want you to know that God can bring streams out of the rocks in your hard place. Hallelujah.

There's one more hard place I want to refer to. It's called Patmos. Turn to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. John on the island of Patmos.

What a blessing. What a blessing it is to see this. Revelation 1 chapter 9. I missed this so many times reading Revelation.

I forgot. I forgot where John was. John was in a hard place.

Revelation 1, 9 says, I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Christ was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Now here's another hard place we often have to experience. It's a place of loneliness It's a place of exile It's a place of persecution that comes, listen to me, it comes as a result of being faithful to the testimony of Jesus.

Excuse me. Some people have asked why do I sweat so much? I don't know. All I know I do are these lights, I guess.

They are. You pardon me for a moment. Now Patmos was both a physical and geographical location.

But even more than that, it is a spiritual place. Now geographically, Patmos was a small island off of the coast of Asia Minor. It was 10 miles long and 6 miles wide and it consisted of rocky volcanic hills.

And to say the least, it was lonely, it was desolate, it was bleak. And the Romans used that island as a Rikers Island for Christians. Not people who had done anything wrong except the fact that they're Christians.

It was a place of banishment and exile. And John was placed there during a period in which the churches were undergoing tremendous persecution. And there he writes his letters of encouragement and warning to those churches.

But let me tell you something, Patmos is a hard place that many of you and I have to experience. It's a place where we're cut off. We're often cut off from others, even the body of Christ.

Why? Because of the testimony, because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. I've been counseling a young minister week by week, sometimes several times a week by telephone. He is an associate pastor in some part of this country.

His pastor is a very close friend of his. They grew up together. And his friend, my friend, this young man, preaches a very good message, a very strong holiness message.

But his pastor and his friend keeps telling him, not directly, not directly, but subtly, and says, listen, you could go places. You could be something. Doors would open for you if you just would not preach the way you do.

And I listened to the young man because he is on the isle and the island of Patmos. And he's been cut off. Oh, not directly.

It's all very subtle. But yet he feels and he knows it's there. And he's being cut off because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

And listen to me. I believe that Patmos is where the remnant church is going to be in the last days. If you're going to be loyal to the Word of God, if you're not going to go for the hype gospel, if you're not going to go for the happy gospel of today, the compromising gospel, then get ready to be exiled to Patmos.

I know young men today have a call of God on their life, looking for places to preach, and they can't find them because there's so few, because of the message that God has placed upon their heart. Now, there's some people, you see, they can't handle this. They find it too hard to take their stand against their friends and family and others in the church who like a softer, less demanding gospel.

They prefer to be in Laodicea Church. They prefer to be lukewarm rather than paying the price that John talked about here of being a partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Christ Jesus. And so there are three hard places tonight that I've talked about.

There's a hard place where you think God is not there. God himself has forsaken me. There's another hard place where you feel betrayed.

And then there's the Patmos also where you feel cut off from even the body of Christ because of the testimony of the Lord. Ah, but let me tell you something. Let me share something with you.

Let me share with you what can happen, what happened at Patmos, what happened to David, what happened at Repidim. Go back with me to Exodus chapter 17. Exodus 17 verse 6, it says, Behold, the Lord speaks to Moses.

He says, Behold, I will stand before you there at the rock at Horeb. Now he doesn't say I'll stand before the congregation. He says, I won't do that.

I'll stand before you, Moses. I won't stand before them. I'll hear you.

I'll stand before you at the rock and you shall strike the rock and the water will come out of it that the people may drink. But I propose to you that this is a wonderful picture of the grace and mercy and longsuffering of the Lord. He never fails to come through for us at our hard places.

Your hard place is God's opportunity to bring forth streams from the rock. God can open fountains for our supply where and when we least expect them. Isaiah 43 20 says, Because I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people, you can be sure of one thing.

No matter how dry your desert, no matter how hard the place that you're in, the Lord is able to provide you support and sustain you in that place. You may be between a rock and a hard place, but remember we serve a God who can come down and split the rocks. Hallelujah.

He can split the rocks. Look at it in Psalms 40. You don't have to look.

I got it right here. Psalms 48 14 and 15. He split the rocks.

I like the new American standard. He split the rocks in the wilderness. He gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths.

He brought forth streams also from the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. And you know what that rock is. Christ is the rock that was smitten to provide us rivers of living water in our hard places.

1 Corinthians 10 4 says, And all did and did all drink of the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ.

Let me call your attention to don't turn there. Let me call your attention to John 7. I'll read a verse in a minute. You're very familiar with the verse.

In fact, let me tell you what it is. Jesus said, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. But you know, here's when Jesus said it.

This is John 7 verse 37. It says, Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried out saying, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. You see, Jesus did not come at the beginning of the feast.

He came at the end of the feast. And he came at a time, and the reason he did, he was saying something to them. He said, Look, you can have your religious festival.

You can have your time of religious observation. You can have this worship that you have. But still, you're not going to be satisfied.

They were still just like Israel at Rephidim. The feast of tabernacles did not satisfy their spiritual thirst. But Jesus came on the last day of the feast, and he said, You've tried everything else.

You've exhausted everything else. He said, He who believes in me, as the scripture says, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Hallelujah.

The point is this, Jesus wants to come to you on the last day, either of your tasteless feast, or at your famine, and at your hard place, and he wants to let you drink from the fountain of living water. Jesus is a rock in a weary land. He is the stream out of the rock that will supply you with rivers of living water.

Psalm 78, 19 says, They spake against God. They said, Can God provide a table in the wilderness? Oh, yes, he can. Hallelujah.

He says, Thou prepare it. Not only can he do that, he said, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Oh, I love that.

I love that. You know what that means to me? Not only does he prepare it here in the house of God, but when you go out of here, out into the world, out into the wilderness, he prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies so that you can drink. Hallelujah.

Behold, he struck the rock so that the rock gushed out and streams were overflowing. If your hard place tonight is like King David's, the Lord wants to be your stream out of the rock at a time of betrayal. Turn with me quickly, quickly to Psalm 63 and 1. Psalm 63 and 1. As I try to bring this to a close.

The chapter heading in my Bible, I don't know if you have a chapter heading in Psalm 63, but my heading says, A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. It is believed that this was the time of Absalom's betrayal and when his close friend turned against him. And listen to how David describes this period of his life.

Verse 1, he says, O God, thou art my God, I shall seek thee earnestly, my soul thirsts for thee, my flesh yearns for thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. See there it again, that was David's spiritual repidem, a hard place to be in. But you see, it didn't stay hard.

David found streams in the desert. He found streams in the rock. Here's why.

He said, my soul thirsts for thee, my flesh yearns for thee. And note the result. He said, thus I have beheld thee in the sanctuary to see thy power and thy glory because thy loving kindness is better than life.

My lips shall praise thee. David made a decision. He made an act of his will in the midst of his dryness where there is no water.

There was no human support. He said, all right God, you're my support. I'm depending on you.

Hallelujah. And finally, finally, Revelation one again. I want to close with this.

Oh, what did John experience in his hard place on the isle? What happened to John in this hard place of testing and trial? Oh, the wonderful revelation John was given. Though he was in isolation. He was on a rocky island.

It was no Hawaii. It was no St. Martin's Island. And yet, there on that isle, John drinks from the rock that comes out of the water in his hard place.

John one 10 says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. Now, can you imagine that? He's all alone. He's isolated.

It's the Lord's day. And John is not having a pity party. He's in the spirit.

Hallelujah. He didn't forget it was the Lord's day because he did not let his hard place turn him hard. He experienced streams of living water out of the rock.

He says, And I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet saying, write in a book what you see. And I turned, verse 12, to see the voice that was speaking to me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

And in the middle of the lampstand, one like a son of man. King James says, The son of man clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded about his breast with a golden girdle. And his hair, his head and hair were white like, white wool like snow.

And his eyes were like a flame of fire. And his feet were like burning bronze when it had been caused to glow in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters.

In his right hand, he had seven stars. And out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in its strength.

And when I saw him, and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as a dead man. Do you know that's what it means when we sing and they sing, Lord, I'm depending on you. That means that you don't ask where.

You don't ask why. You don't ask how. You don't ask what do I do now.

You fall down as a dead man. As a sign that you have nothing in you whatsoever. And I read that today and the Spirit of God so convicted me.

I went over my past, my ministry, in the times that I was in a hard place. And I was anything but a dead man. I rang my hands.

I made telephone calls. I wrote letters. I did everything I could.

I saw life because I was gonna get myself out of a hard place. I'd have been a lot better to be as a dead man. And John comes as a dead man and says, sure, there's no water.

There's no support. But when he was in that state, look what it says, verse 17, and when I saw him, I felt at his feet as a dead man. And he laid his right hand upon me.

He laid his hand and says, get up. Get up now, hallelujah. I saw, I saw your attitude.

I see you're a dead man. I see all the flesh is gone. Now, get up.

Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. Hallelujah.

And the living one. And I was dead and behold, you know, I was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and hate right there for the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things.

I want to tell you, my friend, the chapter's not over yet in your life. God's still going to write some things for you, hallelujah. And the things which will take place after these things, after your hard place, see what God wants to do.

And as for the mystery of the seven churches, he goes on and talks about the seven churches. Ah, my friend, the point is this. John found stream in the desert.

He found a stream out of the rock and that rock was Jesus. And he wants to come to your hard place tonight. He wants to come to your hard place and reveal himself to you that you might drink out of that fountain, hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Let's stand together.

So that they could have control of all the alms. You see, Caesar's picture or seal was on the coins. If the disciples had their way, their picture would have been on the coins.

Before Pentecost, the two important things to the disciples were position and power. Remember, they asked or they fought over what position