God Has Not Passed You By — David Wilkerson

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God Has Not Passed You By

My message this morning, God has not passed you by. God has not passed you by. I'll be speaking mostly from 1 Samuel, the first four chapters of 1 Samuel. You can keep your Bible open there and check me just to see if I'm telling you what is written in this word.

Lord, we thank you for bringing us through 2005 with assurance of your faithfulness and your blessing. God, you have been faithful. You have not failed us in one promise. Your word has proven to be true.

You have blessed us. You've blessed us as a nation. You've blessed us as a church. You've blessed us as individuals, and we return to give you thanks. And we face the future without fear. We face it with anticipation.

Lord, that you're going to do something supernatural. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your faithfulness. Now bring us to your word. Open our hearts. Let me speak your mind. In Christ's name I pray.

Amen. I want to take you back to one of the darkest days in the history of Israel. It's one of the most incredible funerals ever mentioned in the Bible. Thousands in attendance. Thousands of widows mourning.

Israel has just been defeated in the battle of Philistines, and 30 ,000 Israel soldiers are dead on the battlefield. Some may not even yet be buried. And in the middle of this, there's a woman standing, an unnamed widow, standing in front of three caskets.

Not only is she mourning, she's held up, in fact, by two handmaidens. And she's pregnant, near time to give birth to a child. And she stands as a dead woman. There's no life in her. She's already spiritually, mentally dead because of her pain.

And she stands in front of three caskets. In one casket is her stepfather, 98-year-old Eli, the priest. He had just had word that the battle, that Israel was defeated, and the ark was taken. He was a fat man, the Bible says, 98, a man living in apathy, living on filet mignon.

In other words, the best of the meats brought to him by his ungodly sons. And he falls over, breaks his neck, and he dies. And he's in one casket. And there's another casket where her brother-in-law lies dead.

His name is Hophni. He was an adulterous priest. He's the one who brought shame upon Shiloh, the church that Eli pastored. The church, the center of worship for Israel. But she's standing over one particular casket in which her husband lies dead.

His name is Phinehas. This woman has pain. She has streams of pain coming through her mind. First of all, the Bible gives us a clue that she had a measure of a heart for God and mourned over the ark being taken.

So the ark representing the presence of God. There was something in her heart that says she's thinking the enemy has won. In other words, the devil is winning the battle. The presence of the Lord has gone from us.

She stands there, and can you imagine the number of widows that are pouring into Shiloh now? I don't know how many thousands who'd lost their husbands. There are wounded men there, no doubt, that are still bleeding from the battle.

The ark is gone, representing the presence of God, or God with us. And she's convinced that God has forsaken her. She's totally inconsolable. And she stands in this utter, utter pain. She has seen the downfall of the church.

She's seen the apostasy. Can you imagine the pain of this woman, a priest's wife? The Bible doesn't give us her name. Can you imagine, though, the report she's had of her husband committing adultery and fornication, right in the house of God, seducing those who helped minister, those who were in the temple, the females?

And she has these reports, and she sees the backsliding of the church. She sees all of these incredible things happening in the church, where the people of God no longer honor the sacrifices. They hate to come to church.

They hate to come to the place of worship. So many fully strange things happening in the house of God. She'd lived with a prophet's warning. An unnamed prophet had come to the house of Eli and had said boldly to him, I mean, all the children of your house shall die young.

Thy sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall die both of them in one day. Now, if you're a wife, how would you like to live with that hanging over your head? Your husband is going to die. In one day, your two sons are going to die.

And everyone that's left of your house remaining is going to have to beg for bread. And she's pregnant. And she's thinking of, well, then what hope is there for my child? Imagine the pain at the gravesite.

Here's a corrupted, idolatrous ministry, a church and ministry that's going cold and apathetic. The Bible says that they were out for themselves. The Bible describes the apostasy, the intolerance for sin.

And she's carrying this triple grief, the grief of the backslidden church. She's carrying the grief of the apathy of the nation. And she's carrying the personal pain of the death of her husband. Those pains, you see, when you come to this place of intolerable pain that can't be described, something happened to this woman.

She just gave up the fight. She heard that the ark was taken, and she simply gives up the fight. She tossed her faith aside. To her thinking now is the enemy has triumphed over the church. There's nothing to look forward to now.

And the Bible makes it clear that she collapsed. And she gave birth in that collapse. And she gave birth to a son. And the Scripture says when she heard the ark of God was taken and her husband was dead, the woman who stood by her said, fear not, you've just given birth to a son.

They tried to bring hope. They actually were saying, in essence, be of cheer. A new day is beginning. Something new is happening. There's a new birth. In the midst of all this death, in the midst of all of this sin and tolerance for sin, there's something happening.

There's something new. There's something fresh coming. But she was inconsolable. She wouldn't look at the child. She turned aside and said, his name is Ichabod. She wouldn't touch him. She wouldn't look at him.

She turned aside. I don't want to see him. Just call him Ichabod, which means the glory of the Lord has departed. And with that, she died. I believe she died of absolute hopelessness. Paul tells us in the New Testament that these stories in the Old Testament were told to us for our own learning, for our example.

Cultural Decline and the Church's Pain

And to date, we face these same three streams of pain. We see a church that is in turmoil. I just came from Dallas, Texas, and there was an account in a newspaper. You know, there's such foolishness in the house of God today, such utter foolishness that it's almost incomprehensible.

There are wrestling match churches now. There are eight of them now established. And instead of a pulpit, instead of a choir or anything else, they have a wrestling ring. And the men, they had a picture of it and a story.

The wrestlers, these are professional wrestlers who claim they have Christ as Lord. And they're banging each other over the head with chairs and the fake blood and everything else. And then after, they give a little testimony about Jesus.

They say it's a new thing. And I was driving down the road and I saw a cowboy church last week. And absolute tolerance for sin. There's no mention of the cross. There's no mention of hell. There's no mention of heaven except here on earth.

And you see, it causes pain to the heart of the lover of Christ. And you see all these things happening and you wonder. I get letters from all over the world and e-mails and they say, Dave, what is happening?

Who's going to stop it? When is God going to move? When is God going to do something about this? And then when you look at our society, you feel the pain because every day there's another attack. There is another emission out of hell.

First, they take the prayer out of our schools. Then they take the commandments out of our courthouses. And now there is a number of states that's already passed. And now this is concerning Congress, Senate and Congress.

No longer can a chaplain, and this is in the works right now, no longer can a chaplain use the invocation of Jesus Christ in prayer. And you see this degradation. You see this attack against Christ and Christianity.

And you see the filth of our society, not only the gospel of greed. And this was the problem and this was the pain of this unnamed widow. It was the greed, the greed of her husband, the greed of the ministry, the greed of the church, the greed of the high priest.

Greedy men out to get their own on the backs of the poor and the widows. You're here if you love the Lord. You feel that pain. You feel that agony and say, God, where does it end? Incredible movie. I mean, an incredible thought.

I just read the paper and it hit this week. There's a new movie out featuring homosexual cowboys. And they say that it has a possibility of winning seven Oscar nominations. It's being advertised as the greatest breakthrough movie in American history.

Glorifies homosexuality. And they say this is going to change the mindset of the United States of America. Bringing new tolerance, which means tolerance for. Homosexuality. In your face, homosexuality.

You see and hear these things happening and the cry all over the world among the house of in the house of God, those who are righteous and those who love the Lord and say, oh, God, what's going to happen?

You see that. And then there is the personal pain we'll be talking about. Also, the very personal pain and the sorrow and the suffering that we go through as Christians. Christians are being mocked on television.

They're being mocked in courts to be a Christian. You're made out to be a fanatic. You're made out to be stupid, to put it bluntly. You're stupid if you believe in Jesus Christ. You're stupid if you believe in prayer.

You're stupid now because you see, there's an attack. This is attack on Christ himself. It's not attacked on any religious system. It's attacked on Christ. And who he is and everything we've stood for and everything we believed and everything has been the foundation of the blessing of God on this nation.

She sees all of this. And she despairs. Folks, I want to tell you that we are not to despair what we see coming on the world. We can pray. We can be greed, but we're not to despair. This woman gives up.

She says, there's no hope. It's all over. And she gives up in total despair. God has forsaken. He's forsaken his church. He's forsaken the nation. And he's forsaken me. And she dies in that horrible sense of hopelessness.

Judgment on Greed and the Mercy Seat

Now, let me take you back to the church of Shiloh, the church of Eli, the church of greed. The Bible makes it very clearly that he judges self interest churches. He judges those who give themselves over to greed, who live in greed and preach about greed.

God deals with it. He will endure it so long. But listen to what the scripture says. He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent or the church which he placed among them. He abandoned it. And I want to tell you now, folks, what I see in here, when I was at a place where they had television just recently on screen, and I was watching some religious programs at a religious channel on that thing.

And I was watching some of the most popular religious programs. And every one was about prosperity. There was very little Bible, a little mention of Jesus at the end. And it was self-centered. It was nothing but greed and prosperity.

And God wants to make you rich. Let me tell you the problem and the thing that this widow of Phinehas missed. She missed the fact that that ark that was taken had a mercy seat. It was crowned with a mercy seat.

The mercy seat represents the presence of Jesus Christ, the reality of Christ, the blood of Christ, because the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. And let me tell you what happened to the Philistines when they took the mercy seat.

They took the ark and the mercy seat with it. See, God's a God of mercy, the Bible says. His mercy endures forever. He's merciful for the sinner. He's merciful toward the United States. He's merciful toward the church, even though it's dead right now, but there comes a time.

Now, see, you can take the ark and you can ridicule the law. You can ridicule the commandments and you can do all of that. But when you touch the mercy seat, judgment comes immediately. And when they took the mercy seat into the house of Dagon, their God, and they began to mock and they began to ridicule and said, we have taken dominion now over this so-called gospel of God.

And when they began to mock and ridicule and deprecate the mercy of God, his mercy is everlasting, his mercy is enduring. But there comes a time because Jesus Christ is the mercy seat. Now, they can curse the name of God.

They can throw away the commandments. They can do all of these things. But when they turn aside and mock the mercy of God, the grace of God, and this Christ who is his mercy seat, and mock the blood of Jesus Christ, you know that judgment is at the door.

And God touched, and he touched so clearly, and calamities came that they couldn't say it was chance. The Bible says, they said, the hand of God is against us because they touched the mercy seat. The very next day, Dagon is laying on the ground, his head cut off and his arms cut off, and he's laying on the ground.

The mercy seat became the rod of judgment. And that's where we're at in the United States right now. God, we should have been judged long ago in this country if we had what we deserve because how we've allowed the courts to shake their fist at God.

If we stand now and watch powerful forces trying to force gay marriage upon our society, we see all of these forces at work. Folks, don't worry about it. God has everything under control. God has a plan.

God knows what he's doing. But friends, we've got to know that you mess with the mercy seat, you mock the mercy of God. God has loved this country. He still loves this country. He is blessed. He's prospered.

He's poured blessings on this country, beyond any nation, on the face of the earth, hoping and trusting that the goodness of God would lead us to repentance. And even now, he's still blessing. He's still prospering.

It could be 206, one of the most prosperous years of all. But he does that as the last resort in his patience. But the heart of my message is that if you allow these things to roil in your mind, if you don't see the big picture, if you don't see God just standing by saying, I'm patiently waiting, the patience of God, the mercy of God, and that God's going to take care of these things one of these days.

And it'll come suddenly. And go ahead. Let them try. Let them try to mock. Let them try all they want. But they've touched the mercy seat. Now, here's what the widow missed. And it was right under her eyes.

It was right there in her house. You see, she missed the new thing that God was doing. Raising up out of the ruins of a church of greed. He was raising a new work up. He was doing something supernatural.

He was speaking. The glory of the Lord was right in her house by the name of Samuel. He lived in the house of Eli. She grew up with this. She saw what was happening. But somehow she missed the work of God.

She missed the supernatural thing that God was doing. And I want you to hear this from my heart. God's been speaking to me. Get your eyes. Get your eyes off of what they're trying. All of these forces of iniquity.

Don't focus on that. Pray about it. Yes, there is grief. You can weep about it. You can stand in prayer and believe God to change things. And even in the church of Jesus Christ. Don't despair. Don't give up hope.

Because there's a Samuel company God has already have in position. And the Bible says the Samuel company are those who have heard from God. Know the voice of God. Understand his ways. There was something right beside her.

Samuel had to have been at that funeral. And there is the glory of God. He was going to bring back the ark. Folks, I still believe. I believe this with all my heart. Though there's one stream. Wicked men are going to grow worse and worse.

Evil is going to be absolute crisis. We're going to see and hear things that will cause our ears to tingle according to the scripture. But God has had a people and I meet them all over the world. I meet this Samuel company.

They see. They know what's coming. The Lord has told them. They didn't have to have a prophet come to them. They didn't even have to have a watchman tell them. They're in prayer and they know what God has said.

Judgment is at the door. They know that. But they know something else also. And they are not talking doomsday. They are not living doomsday fears. Because they have rejoicing in their heart. They know that God by his spirit is going to raise up a people in the last days.

He's going to have a people who trust him. He's going to have a holy people. Righteous and not touched by the things of this world. Not given to the filthy theaters. Not given to the filthy movies. But touching God.

Seeking God. Interceding and fasting and praying. And there's a Samuel company. It's in this church. It's on this pulpit. There's a Samuel company. God is raising up. Right in the midst of the ruin of Ichabod.

Glory be to God. This Samuel company is not going to concede that the world is winning. I will never concede that the homosexual community is winning the battle for our society. I will not concede one moment.

Neither can anybody in this Samuel company. We cannot concede. No matter what it looks like, God is still winning the battle. He's in full control. Everything is going to come out according to his plan and will.

Personal Pain and the Temptation to Despair

Now I want to speak. But this is a short time. About personal pain. It's either the pain of the church, pain of the nation. But now I'm talking about personal pain. There are some of you here in this building this morning that know something of the pain of this widow.

It could be the pain of the loss of a loved one. It can be the physical pain. It could be a mental pain because of the trial. Some have been have such incredible personal suffering and pain that nobody anymore can understand.

They can't explain it to you and they don't want to listen anymore. And you have to take it to God. Pain of a disease. I'm talking about a pain and suffering so overwhelming. Not only test your faith, it shakes the foundation of your faith.

I talked to a pastor this past week living in such pain. He falls on the floor in agony. Doctors can't describe it. They can't. They don't know what it is. Goes from doctor to doctor. Doesn't know what it is, but the pain is overwhelming.

He can't stand hardly and just breaks out in cold sweats. But you see, this wife of Phinehas made a tragic, fatal mistake. In her pain, in her suffering, she said, God doesn't hear my prayers. God has forsaken me.

God's passed me by. And see, the enemy will come to you when you're down and when physically you don't feel like praying. You are so overwhelmed by what you're going through and the battle and the struggle, that when you do pick up the Bible, it doesn't register.

The words just seem to run together. And then the enemy comes at those times when you can't pray. When you just sit there and say, God, I'm just empty. And the enemy comes at those times. That's what the advice of the devil was when David was on the run from his son, Absalom.

The advice of his advisor was, let's wait till he's tired and weary and then we'll attack him. And he comes when you're down and weary and in living and enduring this pain. And you'd be shocked this morning if we could gather up all the corporate pain that's here and just put it into one picture.

Some of you could not handle it, you would pass out. It would be so overwhelming. And you'd be surprised among us who's carrying the heaviest kinds of pains you never hear about. And nobody talks about it and nobody could understand it if you did tell them.

And some of you have carried pain for years. But you see, that's when the enemy comes in. When you're on a cross and says, God has forsaken you. And then the question arises, Lord, have you passed me by?

Have you blessed others and you walk right by me? And you see, the devil will come at that time and the heavens will seem like brass. You can't get through. And then he'll throw guilt and condemnation.

You haven't prayed like you should. You haven't been faithful to the word of God. Here you go now weeks. And then the scripture will come. It's saying with Joseph, the word of God tried him and the word of God will try you.

Because you'll hear that scripture that says, you have neglected me days without end. God said, and the devil will hammer you with those scriptures. When all the time Jesus is there feeling your pain and standing beside you saying, I know what you're going through.

I feel your pain. He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities, the Bible says. And I know there are a number of you here. Listen to me in the annex or wherever you may be. And you are in a kind of situation that nobody can console you.

But the Holy Spirit. Now, the burden of every true pastor, the burden of every man of God who truly loves the Lord. And if he doesn't have this heart, he doesn't belong in the ministry. And it's something that I bear and I know all these pastors bear before they come to this pulpit.

And it's the burden of all the pains and the hurts that that we know exist in the people. And if we're two shepherds and we're touched by every lamb. The challenge and the burden is, Lord, give me a word.

What can I say? What message? What scripture? Where, Lord? And you pray and you see God and say, Lord, give me something that will put a smile and a song on the lip of the suffering. And God, give me something that will cancel the doubts and the fears.

God, give me a message. You see, men of God don't come to the message just to preach sermons and just to fulfill their time and take a paycheck. Men of God shut themselves in with the Lord and they come and stand before the flock.

In pain themselves and suffering. Some kinds of pain and suffering that you couldn't even begin to comprehend. That go deep into the spiritual world to the hounding of the mind. The testing of faith. That takes you to the brink of hell and gives you a glance into hell and say, you'll never make it.

You don't have what it takes. And there's that spiritual pain, mental pain, physical pain, heart pain. And we pray, oh, God, give me a word. I pray to God I could have some great message. I could stand here and give you three or four ways.

I can give you a whole line of scriptures and that would change it. And yes, the word does have an impact, but it has to be received by faith. So in prayer about this message with this, I'm going to close.

I prayed, oh, God, what do I do this morning? Because I am feeling as all these pastors do. We've been talking about it never before since we've been here. A part of this church that we see so much pain and suffering is in this past year.

You have never endured more than you're going through now. Many of you now, if you're not going through this, God bless you. Rejoice in the Lord. Call us next week. But here's what God tells me. It's been so simple and it just keeps this.

This is what he's been saying to me in my times of pain and suffering. Go to the word. Stay on the word. There's no other way but to cling to his promises. It's that simple. There's no other way. All the talk, all the doctors, everything else.

Thank God for doctors. Thank God for all of this. But it comes down to believing what God said and just going into this word and say, Lord, I don't want just another sermon. I want you to talk to me through this word.

Standing on God's Promises

And I'm going to close by doing just that. I'm going to the word with you. The scripture says in Hebrews 13, 5, in case the devil's telling you God has passed you by and God's not heard your cry. For he has said, I will never leave you.

I will never forsake you. Hebrews 13, 5. Go to Psalms with me, please. Quickly, Psalms, a ninth chapter. We're going to go to the word and we want you to stand on that before we close the message. Psalms of your Bible.

Psalms, the ninth chapter. Start verse nine through 10. The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of what? And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou, Lord.

Say it has not forsaken them that seek thee. Go to Psalm 37 to the right. The 37th Psalm, folks. How many times does God have to tell us? Just go to my word. Psalms 37, starting verse 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighted in his way.

You're here this morning because God led you here. The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I've been young and now I'm old.

Yet, I don't want to tell you something. I'm older than David when he said that. And I can tell you he's telling the truth. I've been young and now I'm old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.

God's Promise Not to Forget His People

One more, please. Go to Isaiah 15. Keep going right. Isaiah 49, please. Let me hear the wrestling. Isaiah 49. I think I said 15. Isaiah 49. I'll wait until you get there. Verses 14. Will you stand for the reading of this, please?

Chapter 49, verses 14 through 16. 49. Is that what I said? I am old and I'm gray. I've never seen the Lord fail me. Verses 14 through 16. But Zion said the Lord has forsaken me and my Lord's forgotten me.

Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. What? Yet will I not forget thee. I've graven you upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continued before me.

Thy children shall make haste and destroyers and they that waste shall go forth of thee. He said they may forget, but I will not forsake you. I will not forsake you. Folks, I'm sorry. I want you to be seated just a moment.

The Church's Call to Care for the Suffering

I received a letter in the mail from a mother in a little town of 700 people in Montana. Well, let me read some of her letter. I've asked permission. I called her and asked permission to read this. It says, thank you for taking time to read this.

I've been involved in your ministry since 1970. I volunteered a teen challenge in the past. I've been fed by your ministry. There's a picture of her daughter, 15-year-old Raquel. And she said the girl on the picture is 16.

I'm sorry. She's 16, homeschooled. She's a joy to be around. But she has a physical degeneration of her muscles, ligaments and joints. She's in extreme pain 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I lost my son to suicide in 1997 due to the same pain.

He was 22 when he left after nine years of suffering. He took his life. He couldn't handle the pain. My daughter's condition started a year ago. She was a ballerina, in fact, she was a prima ballerina at the time, last year.

She's much in pain. In fact, this precious girl won the poet of the year. And she was supposed to go for the reward and didn't have money for travel expenses. So she missed it. And now she also is in tolerable pain.

And let me just read a little bit of it here. Raquel, 16 years old. She's mentioned in Who's Who. She's a wonderful poet. She's been published. She was looking forward to coming to Juilliard School here in New York.

But her dreams had been shattered this summer. She was stricken with the same disease that tormented her brother. Doctors said her pain on a scale of 1 to 10 is 14. And that the amount of painkiller to be effective would destroy her kidneys.

So she can't take pain medicine. She's elected not to take the pain medicine. We homeschool her. She loves the Lord. Her desire, she had wanted to come to New York to Times Square Church. And she wanted to see the Empire State Building.

And I think it was also the Christmas tree. So we flew them out. And they're here this morning. Just hold still. Just hold still for just a moment. Her mother and daughter almost lost faith because nobody cared.

They asked for churches to help her get to her award ceremony in Nevada. And they just couldn't raise money. It appeared. And her son, I think, said he couldn't believe that the church cared. But when we called the admissions department of this church, they got in action.

Met them at the airport Friday night. And took them yesterday, I think, to the Empire State Building. Did you go to Rockefeller Plaza? I asked them. We asked them to come so that we could pray. That's what this church is about.

That's what Christ is all about, caring. Mama, stand, if you will, please. And Rachel, will you stand? Just turn around so the people can pray for you. Just turn around. Let's stand and pray for her right now.

Let's believe the Lord. Lord, you have not given up on Rachel. You have not given up on her. You have not forsaken her. And you know the pain that she bears and her pain of her mother. And, Lord, we're asking now as a church body.

Folks, will you pray with me right now? Lord, I'm asking. I believe that God can change things. I believe, Lord, that you can touch her. You can heal her. Lord, you can cause her to walk again. You can cause her, Lord, to have faith renewed.

Come now, Lord Jesus, and lay hold of us. Lord, we're not just preaching theory. We're not preaching theology. We are being surprised by the Holy Ghost right now that God is in control and God has arranged a miracle, and I pray for this miracle to happen, a change, a miraculous change in Christ's name.

Amen. Remain standing, if you will, please. Mom and Rachel, honey, we love you. We'll see you back. God bless you, dear. You're loved. And we're going to be praying for you so much.

Because of this, I will know for the rest of my life that God truly loves me. Thank you.

Rachel, come on. Can you walk over here? Did you see the Empire State? Yes, I did.

Well, I saw Rockefeller Center, and I went to Saks Fifth Avenue and had dinner with a lovely young man named Tim. He took us around New York City, showed us a very nice time over here.

You are loved, and you have thousands of people now praying for you. You're going to see some changes in your life. God bless you, honey. Would you take him backstage? Thank you, missions department. Pastor Carter, this missions department is incredible.

They get so excited about helping people, and we thank you so much. Will you bow your heads? Lord, will you please come in a special way for a few moments again in this special service and bring a healing touch to those, Lord, who have had this terrible thought infused in their mind by the enemy.

Responding to Christ in Faith and Hope

God has passed you by. And they're overwhelmed by a trial, overwhelmed by something they're going through. My Lord and God, come now with comfort by your spirit. God, let this be turned into a healing service right now.

Lord, turn it into a healing service. If you're here this morning, and I don't know how to describe this, but if this message was meant for you, if something that was said just goes deep in your heart, it's moved something deep inside of you, something unexplainable.

Could be about your own personal pain. I want you to come for healing. I want you to come to have your faith renewed. If you don't know Christ, or if you've turned away or backslidden, will you come and join these people and surrender and say, Jesus, I come to you because you're the only way, you're the only hope.

Get out of your seat and come, and we'll pray for you. Up in the balcony, go to the stairs on either side. And those that are in the annex, I'm going to let you come down also. I think today there may be room for you.

Just ask the ushers to show you the way down into the manotorium, even if you have to stand in an aisle, and we'll pray and come. Please don't come unless the spirit is moving and you say, God is speaking to me this morning.

I've got to have hope. I have to have hope. I need my faith renewed. Whatever it may be that you're experiencing, come and listen. You are all that we want and all that we need. Come now and touch every heart that has come here in hope and faith.

Paul’s Assurance in Affliction

I want to give you folks a scripture. I want you to listen to this, please, from 2 Corinthians 4, 8, and 9. We are troubled, Paul said, on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but we're not in despair.