Why Sit We Here Til We Die

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 P.O. Box 260, Lindale, TX 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. We hear till we die. Shall we bow in prayer? Our Father, we thank you tonight for how you have moved already in our midst in this service.

Our hearts were warmed and were blessed by the testimonies of the outpouring of your spirit among teen-challenged young men and young ladies. Lord, do it again here tonight. Hallelujah.

You have been doing it, but Lord do it in a new and a fresh way. And if there's someone here tonight that's in a decaying situation, Lord, let faith rise in the heart tonight that they will come to you like these lepers and taste and see that the Lord is good and mighty. Hallelujah.

Bless your word we pray in Jesus name. Amen. We are living in a period of history similar to the days of Elisha.

There is famine in the land. Throughout the Old Testament, Old Testament days, famine or famines were the visible outward evidence of an inward drought and decay because of an apostasy in the land. You see, famine was God's judgment upon the people because of their idolatry, because of their backsliding, and because they had only the forms of godliness.

Only the forms of godliness were left, and they were denying the power that produces that godliness. And so famine was God's way of getting to a man's soul through his stomach. If the people of God were not going to bear the fruits of righteousness, God sent drought and he set famine in the land by closing up the heavens, and the result was there was no fruit growing on the trees, there was no wheat growing in the fields, and there was no bread on the table.

Jeremiah prophesied, chapter 44 verse 13, he said, so I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem with the sword and with the famine and with pestilence. And over and over again in Jeremiah it uses the word that I'm going to judge you, I'm going to send sword and famine, sword and famine, over and over again. Now the sword represents the nations who came as enemies against Israel that made war against them as part of God's judgment.

Therefore God's judgment was from without the sword and from within being the famine. Now there is a spiritual famine in the land today and in America. I think you know that.

There is not one segment or level of society, be it political, be it economic, be it social, be it spiritual, not one segment of our society today that is not experiencing a famine in the land. The economic famine is very obvious. All you have to do is read your newspapers every day, read the financial page and some of you know by experience because you've lost your job recently or you've had to change jobs because of the economic famine that we have entered into.

America is also suffering a political famine, an absence of leadership in the land. The Democratic candidates are called the dwarfs. The Republicans grope for a strong leader to look to.

There is a political famine in the land. There is not leadership. We're groping for leadership in the land today.

Psalms 1 says this, just listen to it, How blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of a wicked. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season. And I see today our government, our business, and our civic leaders are like dying plants by cesspools which do not yield its fruit in its season and the leaf withers and whatsoever America does is not prospering.

I see our once mighty space program like a tree or a plant that keeps withering and dying. Do you know that since the Challenger disaster in 1986 that our space program, we have not been able to put one one of them up into that and you know what some companies had to do? They had to go to China because China was able to put one up in the meantime. And right now there's some 40 of these waiting to find a launching pad waiting to be able to be put up into the heavens.

And I see these as dying leaves that whatever we've tried to set up into the heavens fizzles and does not prosper. Now my friend, is God trying to tell the nation something? I think he is. I think he's trying to tell us it's time to send our prayers of repentance into heaven.

And so from the White House to God's house, there is a famine in the land. And we will not prosper until first of all it begins in the house of God until we get the man in the pulpit and the man in the pew right. Our solution is not to vote the right man into the White House.

We've got to get the right man and woman in the pulpit and the pew whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night because God said that is a man who prospers. He and whatever he does, whatever that man does, he prospers. God always calls the church and the ministry to account first before the rest of the nation.

How often we quote 2nd Chronicles 6 24 and 25, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, shall confess my name and pray and make supplication before me in heaven, then I will hear in heaven and forgive the sin of thy people. And how many times I've seen that taken to apply to the nation or to the government, to the White House. David received an invitation from a pastor, one of the leading, a pastor of one of the largest churches in America, asking if he would be on the committee.

To rally together people to go to Washington and to have a call, and call the nation to repentance. And David wrote back and he said, no, I won't do it until first of all we gather the church and the pastors together and call pastors to repentance. And what, what Chronicles says, first of all, this is misquoted.

It's applied to the nation. It's applied to the sinner and God applied it to the church. He said, if thy people, Israel, will humble themselves and and call upon me and ask forgiveness for their sin, then I will hear from heaven.

And so confession must begin in the church and particularly in the pulpit. And if there's any one primary reason for famine today in all segments of our society is because there is an absence of the Word of God in the pulpit. Now we receive a lot of prophecies at our office.

Some of them are off the wall. Most of them are in the wastebasket. Some of them are just little cute little exhortations.

But I received one and I want to share just a little bit of it with you because you can judge it for yourself. It blessed me. It fits in with what I'm talking about tonight.

It says 1988 will be a year when the line of demarcation between true worshipers and religious adherents will become obvious to the spiritually discerning. I will not move in services where flesh is being glorified. So those who desire to see me must learn how to enter into my holy of holies.

Those who walk behind a veil will have discernment and will exhibit my true power and nature. Those who don't will have to manufacture signs and wonders to keep the religious crowd pleased. There will be great theatrics and those who refuse to die to carnal lifestyles will quickly lose their discernment.

They will not know my presence and to cover up their lack they will resort to more and more manipulation or manipulative means to orchestrate the move of the spirit. They will welcome seducing spirits and will sell their souls for increasing fame and power. Look to see many congregations mushroom with false converts who want to feast in the daytime.

But my true church will be persecuted and will begin to do great exploits for me. Many will not endure sound doctrine and will heap up to themselves teachers to satisfy their humanistic philosophies. Be prepared to stand against any and all adversaries.

I will very quickly form my army and will send my laborers where I will. True servants of mine will not be deceived by the show and will go where I go and labor for me in my vineyard. I will confirm their faithfulness with many true conversions and with many real signs and wonders.

So 1988 will be a year of advancement and a year of separation. This is why I am asking you to prepare now for what is soon to come. 1988 the bubble burst.

Millions will be seduced and millions will be prepared for true moves of my spirit. I will move only where the sacrifice is pure, the hearts of my labors undivided, and where I am truly glorified. Praise the Lord.

You see when there's no clear word from the Lord, then gimmicks and flesh is needed. And these gimmicks and these schemes and plans and strategies are the equivalent to what I call frozen food. You know what frozen food is? I have to eat it sometimes, you know.

I don't like to, but I have, you know what frozen food is? It's something that's cooked somewhere else. It's shipped to a supermarket where we go in and we buy it when we're in a hurry and we don't have a good fresh meal to eat. We keep it from starving.

We eat it to keep from starving. And we have many ministries today who are running off or sending off for frozen food. Trying to bring in some new exotic dish into the pulpit to feed the people and get the church to grow numerically.

And everybody likes a new dish for a while, but soon it wears off. And this kind of spiritual food is cooked in a microwave pulpit and served up to people who are longing for a fresh original home-cooked truth that comes out of a prayer closet and a man who studies the Word of God and whose delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law does he meditate day and night.

Hallelujah. And I want to tell you tonight, I'm bringing you fresh bread. Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord. Now, note some men who decided to do something about the famine they were experiencing. 2 Kings 7-3, now there were four leprous men.

They were desperately hungry. Starving men who decided it was about time to make a move. Why sit we here till we die, they said.

Now, asking that question changed their lives and saved their lives. They decided to make a move in faith. Now, you see some people have only themselves to blame for their hunger and their lack.

They sit till they die. They get accustomed to a dying situation. And I've seen people who will hold on and will hold on and will hold on and I can never understand it.

They go to church. Who likes to go to a funeral every Sunday? And if it's not a funeral, it's a three-ring circus. One of the sisters that's in our church, and I share this testimony and I ask her permission to share it.

She said, you know, before she's known us and known our family for many years and knew that we were coming to Times Square and she began to pray about whether she should join us or not. And she's been here from day one, but before we came she prayed about it. And I appreciate it.

We have people who come and say, look, I've been coming, but I'm praying that God will direct me. And so she did because she had been in her church for many, many years, faithful her to her church. And as she was contemplating this decision, she started to read this.

And she came to these four leprous men and God spoke to her and said to her heart, why sit you here till you die? And she said, amen. And she said, that does it. I've made my decision.

Now we've said this before. We're not trying to steal sheep away from other churches. If you have a good church and you're being fed there and you're coming here to a visit occasionally, we're not trying to pressure you to join you.

We don't have any membership. We have a membership of the spirit and if the spirit directs you a piece of paper is not going to hold you. But let me say on the other hand, if you're dying or if you're like some people, if you're on a life support system, I'm talking about people who get along with Christian television or radio or they go here or go somewhere.

You're on a life support system. Then you ought to be like these lepers and it's about time for you to ask the question. Why sit me? Why sit here till I die? Why am I dying when there is food to be had? Hallelujah.

Now note these lepers. Look at verse three. These four leprous men were at the entrance of the gate.

You know what they were? These were the men who represent a kind of church that I call, I call it the church on the wrong side of the wall. Let me explain it to you. These lepers, as you know, leprosy was a contagious disease and the lepers were quarantined from all the other rest of the population and they had to go out into camps.

They had to go outside the city and what some of them would do is they'd go immediately outside the city walls and they would build little houses along the wall. And in fact the back of their house would be literally the wall. And they were, these were also called houses of the unfortunate.

So on one side of the wall were people who were free, who were clean, who were physically healthy, and immediately on the other side were these unclean lepers suffering from what was a terrible incurable loathsome disease, which biblically is a type of sin. Therefore these four men are a picture of what I call a people or a church on the wrong side of the wall. And these are the people who are on the wrong side of truth.

They're very close to the center of the city wherein lies the temple of the Lord and the presence of God. But in reality many are like the four lepers. They really are on the wrong side of the truth living in spiritual famine and they do not know it.

And it's one thing to know you're in a situation where there's no pure word, but it's worse to be a member of the first church on the wrong side of the wall. Now the lepers living in these houses of the unfortunate could only live by begging in which occasionally some caring soul would come in and out of the city gate and would give them a bit of food. Or occasionally somebody would throw something up over the wall.

And that's how they sustained themselves. And let me tell you my friend in this city and across America today, there are spiritual houses, there are churches of the unfortunate filled with spiritual lepers. Now I'm not saying this again to build up the Times Square church or to put down all churches.

But the truth must be told. If you're a member of a church on the wrong side of the wall, if you belong to one of those, the houses of one of the unfortunate ones, be warned that leprosy breaks out wherever there is no delight in the law of the Lord. I've had people tell me that they beg spiritual meals wherever they can get it.

And we've had letters from people who have said, I cannot find one church in my town that gives me a pure word. And I used to didn't believe that until I investigated and I found out that that was literally true. And they said to me every church in this town is on the wrong side of the truth, on the wrong side of the wall.

And so we get calls and we get letters and people say, would you throw me a little bit of food over the wall? Or like these lepers, as someone's coming out of the town, they say, you got a word for me? Did you hear a message? You got some truth? You got a tape for me? You got a message for me? Throw me a little bit of food over the wall. Please send me a word because I'm starving. I'm in famine.

Now another danger of being a people on the wrong side of the wall is that you lose your discernment and can fall into doctrinal and scriptural error. Flip over a few pages to 2nd Kings chapter 4 because there were some Bible students who got themselves into a mess of poisonous trouble. Chapter 4, 2nd Kings 4, verse 38 says, when Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land.

As the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets. Then one went out into the field to gather herbs and he found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds and came and sliced them into the pot of stew for they did not know what they were. And so they poured it out for the men to eat and it came about as they were eating the stew that they cried out and said, oh man of God, there is death in the pot and they were unable to eat it.

Now listen to me, in times of spiritual famine, there are plenty of wild vines full of wild gourds, which if you eat them are dangerous to your spiritual health and they can kill you. Now these sons of the prophets, these bible students were better skilled in the word than they were in gathering herbs. And they put a meal together that if they had eaten the whole pot of stew probably would have killed them.

But they were fortunate to take only a few bites. And they looked at each other and they said there's something wrong with this message. There's something wrong with this pot of stew.

There's something wrong with this truth that I'm hearing. And what happened is when these students or this student was looking for life, he almost found death. You see nature grows poison as well as food and death lies very near to life.

Not only in the natural but in the spiritual realm. And think of it, could it be possible that these sons of the prophets went out to gather food upon which to live but came back with poison? And you know it's a shocking thing for a Christian to wake up one day and realize I am a partaker of poisonous doctrine. I'm eating off of a wild vine full of wild gourds and they are in my spiritual system.

And I hear questions like how could God allow this? How could I be so deceived? Well, you see these students had the right motive, but they had the wrong message. And when there's famine in the land, the devil has wild gourds for you my friend. And you gotta be discerning.

These sons of the prophets were deceived by appearance. Listen my friend, not everything that looks good and sounds good goes down good. Not everything that looks good and sounds good and goes down is good once it gets down into your system.

It might make you happy, but does it make you holy? It might make you fall down under some kind of power, but does it make you stand straight when you get back up? I went and I was preaching. I was thinking of it tonight when the day was talking about falling into the power. I went to this meeting where it became very evident that the thing there was to fall under power.

And I went up to this, the first father that came to me, he said, would you pray for me? And I reached up to pray for him. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't wanting him or expecting him to be slain under the spirit. I just wanted to pray for him.

And I reached out my hand and before I could reach my hand up, he fell down. Now there wasn't any power and he just fell down. He was more interested in falling under some kind of power than being under that same power so that he could walk in righteousness.

And my friend, be careful like these sons of the prophet. Be careful. Things are not often as they seem.

And the most dangerous error is that which bears a superficial resemblance of great truth. And that's why we need, according to Hebrews 4.14, our senses exercise discern both good and evil. Because for every true vine there exists some wild ones.

There are many gourds that seem to nourish and satisfy at first, but eventually are revealed to be what they really are, poisonous imitations. And you see the devil goes about looking for those who he may devour. And you know who he looks for especially? He looks for hungry people.

He looks for hungry people in order to plant a wild gourd on your pathway. You know, I think I gave this illustration before it bears repeating. I was in a call with a young man one time and he began to ask me about prophecy.

Bible prophecy. And I could see that he was very, very heavy into prophecy. And he asked me what I thought about certain things and I said, well, you know, that's all right, but you better be careful.

Because if the devil can't get you to backslide, he'll get you to front slide. And he looked at me quickly and he said, would you please explain that term to me? He said, I've never heard that before in my life, front sliding. And I looked at him and I thought to myself, this is going to be interesting because I never heard the term before in my life either.

And I asked the Holy Spirit for a quick interpretation. And I said to him, if the devil can't get you to go back in the world, you know, and I didn't know it at the time. He had been an ex-hippie.

He'd been into drugs and all that. And I didn't know that. And I said, if the devil's looking at you and if he can't get you to go back into the world, he'll do the next best thing.

He'll take you into some truth or he'll take you into some air or he'll get your nose into something and push you so deeply down into it that you've lost sight of the full counsel of the Lord. And that's what it means to front slide. He said, that's very interesting.

And he kept thinking about that and thinking about that. And when I went to the church, he was taking me to his church to preach. And after I shared with his pastor what I had said to him, he said, Oh, brother Don, he said, you don't know.

He laughed. He said, this fella is certainly front sliding an awful long way. You see the best intentions, good intentions can lead to sad mistakes.

Good intentions and sincerity must never be a substitute for the truth. And poisonous principles are just as deadly in their influence. If you arrive in them, arrive at them in ignorance, as if when they are adopted with full knowledge of their deadly character.

You see, some people grow into things with their eyes wide open. Others do it innocently, but the results are the same. For they did not know, the scripture says, they did not know what was in that pot.

The fact that they did not know it or were ignorant or were sincere or whatever did not alter the fact that there was death in the pot. And note that they were unable to eat thereof. You see, it's important to discern the fact that if one part of the stew is bad, it makes the whole pot bad.

One poisonous ingredient has destroyed or had destroyed the value of a whole. And one vital error planted with some other wholesome truths can create a mixture and a blend that taints and destroys and poisons the whole, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. And how many people I've said, yes, but there's so much good there.

Yeah, I agree that there's air there, but there's so much good there. My friend, tell that to the sons of the prophets. Or sometimes we talk about some Christian or some Christian leader who has fallen or has gone into error and people say, yes, but that person did so much good.

Tell that to the sons of the prophet, my friend. Be careful, there can be death in the pot. Death in the pot.

Now you ask, how can I tell whether I'm on the wrong side of the wall or if I'm partaking of a pot that is full of death? And for that matter, how do I know if not at Times Square Church? There's death in the pot. That's a pretty good question. Look at 2 Kings 4. Elisha came along and said, now bring me meal.

Bring me the pure word of the Lord. And he threw it into the pot and he said, pour it out for the people that they may eat. Then there was no harm in the pot.

Now, let me take, let me give you one test of doctrine. One test of doctrine is the testimony of its fruitful works of righteousness in your own life. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, 2 Corinthians 3, and this is only one reference I could go.

This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. And I don't, I'm not going to take the time to go into a lot of them, but here is one that Paul writes.

And he says, for 2 Corinthians chapter 3, he said, are we beginning to commend ourselves again? In other words, am I trying to build myself up before you? Am I trying to give a commercial? Or do we need as some letters of commendation to you or from you? He said, no, you are our letter written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifest that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the human heart. And such confidence we have through Christ towards God. Also Ephesians 2.10, another verse, it says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

One more scripture, 1 Corinthians 9.2 says, if to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. Now, one test of whether a message is right is this, does it produce righteousness in my life? Is it creating something new in my life? Is it working? Is it producing a change in my life that is manifested in my home, in my marriage, on my job or wherever I go? And my friend, if it's doing that, then that's the seal. That's the sign that there's life in it.

Hallelujah. Jesus followed this principle. Turn with me to Luke chapter eight.

Again and again, Jesus followed this principle. Luke chapter eight is a story, the testimony of a man who had a very severe life controlling problem. In fact, he had legions that controlled him.

This is the story in the eighth chapter, the story of the demonic of Gadara. Out of Jesus, Jesus cast the spirit out of him. And verse 38, it says, but the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging him that he might accompany him.

But Jesus did something that he did frequently to people that experienced a great miracle. And he sent him away saying, return to your house and describe, or I like the King James, and show what great things God has done for you. And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city, what great things Jesus had done for him.

Now, I see this story. I enjoy this story because I see a picture of many of the converts that I've worked with, who gets marvelously saved, marvelously delivered. And immediately like this man, he said, Jesus, let me go with you on crusade.

And I'll give my testimony, how you delivered me from all these demons. And he said, my goodness, when they hear my story, they'll just come by the thousands. And I can just see him today.

If he lived today, he'd be young convert right away. He'd be out getting his testimony, giving his testimony. I was personally delivered by Jesus Christ.

But no, Jesus would not let him do that. He said, if this is for real, if your life has been changed, if something has happened to you, then return to your house and live it out and manifest works of righteousness, because that will be the proof, the true proof of your healing, not just what you say with your lips. Go to Luke chapter 17.

Luke chapter 17, verse 12. It says, and he entered a certain village. There were 10 members of the church on the wrong side of the wall.

That he met, who stood at a distance, met him. And they raised their voices saying, Jesus master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourself to the priest.

He went about that as they were going, they were cleansed. Now, one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorified God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face as at his feet saying, giving thanks to him.

And he was a Samaritan. Now, let me tell you something. God is gonna build this church on Samaritans.

God is gonna build his church on men just like this. And he fell on his face at his feet in repentance and in submission and in surrender. And he was a Samaritan.

And Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed? But the nine, where are they? Was no one found who would turn back and give glory to God except this foreigner? You know something? If we would turn this church into a miracle healing revival center and announce that every night we're going to have emphasis on great miracles and healing, and there's nothing wrong with that because we believe in that. We believe in divine healing. We believe in signs and wonders.

We believe in deliverance. It has been happening in our church. But if we turn this entire church format into that kind of a thing, believe me, this place would be filled service after service.

But you see what would happen after we would stop it and we would go back and do what we're doing right now and preaching you the work. You know what we would be saying? You know what you would be doing? You would be looking around and you would be saying, where are the nine? Where are all of those people that had a healing? Where are all those people that had a deliverance? And you know where they would be. And why was it that these other men did not come back? Because they came and they got what they wanted.

But this man got more than just a healing. He wanted a relationship with Jesus Christ. And he came back and he fell down on his knees and worshiped him.

And that's why I say we're gonna build our church on Samaritans just like this who wanna bow down before the Lord, hallelujah. Now in the midst of it, we'll have signs and wonders and we'll have deliverance, but you can't build a church on that. You gotta build it on the pure word of God and that will produce something in your life, hallelujah.

Go with me to Mark the first chapter, the story of another leper. This was a principle that Jesus followed with lepers. Mark the first chapter, verse 41.

And moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand and touched him. And he said to him, I am willing to be cleansed. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

And he sternly warned him and immediately sent him away. And he said to him, see that you say nothing to anybody, but you go first, show yourself to the priest and offer for the cleansing what Moses commanded for a testimony to them. Excuse me.

You see, the law was that the priest declared one to be a leper in the first place when it reached a certain contagious level, he declared him to be a leper and to go into confinement. Therefore, when he was healed, he had to go back to the priest because the priest served kind of like as a health official and the priest would look him over and say, look pretty good to me. And the priest would verify his healing and in contemporary terms would give him a certificate of health.

But in those days, he would just put the word out and said, he's healthy. He can go back, but he had to go back and show himself to the priest. Now, let me tell you, my friend, this is what God wants to do here.

If the message is working in your life, if the message of righteousness, if the pure word of God is working in your life, then you know who's gonna be the first one to testify, the priest that you go to and he's gonna declare whether you are clean or not. And you know who the priest is? The Bible says we're all kings and priests unto God. And so in my life, my wife was a priest to me and I'm a priest to her.

My wife declares whether I'm a righteous man or not and I declare whether she's a righteous woman. My children declare whether they have a righteous father or not. And in turn, I declare as well.

And one another, you see, as our works of righteousness are produced in us, other people will see something is working and they're gonna declare whether you have a testimony or whether you are a testimony. You know, you can have a testimony, that's something you say. But if you are a testimony, that is something that you are, that you walk in and the Lord says immediately, if this is working, go home and make it work.

Go home and we've heard the testimony of some here, a husband was coming, a wife wasn't and said, I wasn't sure whether I should come or not, but I saw the change in my husband's life. Well, praise the God. She was a priest who declared him clean, hallelujah.

And that's what God wants to do in your life. And that's one of the ways and one of the tests as to whether there is life in the pot or whether there is death in the pot. Now, let me close with this.

What happened to the four members of the church on the wrong side of the wall? Go back with me to 2 Kings chapter seven again. 2 Kings chapter seven, what did they do? They said, the first thing they had to do is, well, look at verse four. You can see that there was kind of a debate going on among them.

As to should we do this or shouldn't we? And finally, they decided that they had nothing to lose. And finally, they said, let us go. In verse five, and there rose a twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians.

Now, please listen to me carefully. The first thing they had to overcome was the fear of going over into the enemy camp. And so often the thing that holds people back from getting out of a dying situation is the fear that they're doing something wrong if they try to do something about the fam that they're in.

As if they're gonna go over into the enemy camp. And what strongholds we allow to keep us back from doing something about our spiritual health. We will let friendships, we will let soul ties, we will let denominational ties, we will let many things hold us back if for no other reason I've seen people worship the building that they were in.

I don't know if you remember when Dad took over a church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a beautiful, beautiful old oval church. And it wasn't big enough. And he wanted to tear it down and build a new one.

And the people said, you can't do that. One of them said, I got saved right here. Another said, I got the whole baptism of the Holy Spirit right here.

Another said, I got healed right over here. You're not gonna destroy our altar. And the church wasn't big enough and we needed a new building.

And I'll never forget this as long as we live. My dad was preaching one day about going into the promised land and going on into the Lord and crossing the Jordan in the promised land. And he said, friends, the thing that's holding us back is this building.

He said, I cursed it in the name of Jesus. I cursed the whole thing. And he said, and God is moving.

If you don't get on it, you're gonna die. I'll bury you in the next year. There's a brand new church sitting there now.

There's a brand new church sitting there right now. These people were worshiping that building, worshiping the building. The ties that we have.

Listen to my friend, the word of God must always be held above natural ties or emotional ties to a situation that is causing you to die spiritually. And the first victory these lepers experienced was a question they asked, why sit we here till we die? And they took the step of faith as a result of asking that question. Hallelujah.

And what happened next? And unbeknown to the lepers, a new move of God was taking place outside their unfortunate situation. Look at verse six. I don't know what was going on.

I can just see Steve back there somewhere leading the course. I see, I hear the sound of the army of the Lord because here's where it came from. And the Lord caused the army of the Syrians to hear a sound of chariots and a sound of horses, even the sound of a great army.

So they said to one another, behold, the kings of Israel have hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. And you know what happened? God moved supernaturally and he cleaned out the enemy of Israel, leaving behind everything these lepers needed to satisfy their hunger. And listen, my friend, there is a new move of God going on today.

And the army of the Lord is separating the goats from the sheep. He's getting rid of the enemies in the camp. He's dealing with unrighteousness.

And I hear the sound of the army of the Lord. Hallelujah. And look at verse eight.

Do you know something? And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the city, they entered one tent and ate and drank and carried from their silver and gold and clothes and went and hid them and returned and entered another tent. But do you know something? The lepers were eating the food that was in the Syrian camp, the enemy camp, that really was the food that originally belonged to Israel. In other words, the food really belonged to the lepers and belonged to anybody who was hungry.

And once God got rid of the enemies in the camp, he could get rid of those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Then the truly spiritually hungry can enjoy what rightfully belongs to them. And my friend, this is a picture of the Lord coming in in a mighty move and he's clearing out the house of the Lord today so that a pure word can come forth so that you, if you're on the wrong side of the wall, you can go in and taste and see that the Lord is good, hallelujah.

But you got to ask the right questions. Why sit we here until we die? Are you dying tonight? Move on, move on, move on in the Lord. Shall we bow in prayer? This is the conclusion of the tape.