For his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is what? A rewarder of them that diligently seek him. That's my message. A rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the presence of Jesus tonight. Holy Spirit, thank you for coming to this meeting. Thank you for falling upon us and consuming the sacrifice of praise. Now, Lord, we thank you for the word this morning and what you did in our hearts. You're inspiring us to faith.

Lord, I believe tonight that you're emphasizing it once again in all of our hearts. We invite you, Holy Spirit, to move upon us. Lord, anoint me. Let the fire of God burn in my heart. Let the spirit and anointing of the Lord Jesus be upon us to preach it and to hear it.

Lord, we take your authority over anything that would hinder the word from going forth. We bind every opposition of Satan, and we pray for release of the word, release of the Holy Ghost, and freedom to preach what God has put in our hearts. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

One of the great tragedies of this generation, and I believe it's the grief of God's heart, is that so many Christians today are unhappy. Now they put on a front. They can come to church. They smile. They'll meet you. They'll hug you. They'll worship. But underneath it all, there's something that's very sad. There's a loneliness. There's an emptiness.

And many, many Christians throughout America today and around the world are putting on a false front. There's a lack of victory in many homes and churches and in many lives. And before God, it's an appalling situation. They run hot, they run cold, they run up, they run down. If they're married, their marriage is just like that. There is no steady growth.

They run hot, they run cold. If the Spirit's moving upon them, they talk to each other. If they're in one of their blue moods, they don't even talk to one another. We have people get out of their cars and the wife will slam the door and I know they've had a fight.

And they come right in here and they sweetly raise their hands and praise the Lord. And you come to find out they're not even talking to each other except when they scream at one another. And yet they say, well, that's the way marriages are. You can't expect to be happy all the time. You can't expect to have things right all the time. It can't be good all the time. Well, it shouldn't be bad all the time either, brother, sister.

But Paul warns of Christians who need to be recovered out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. That's 2 Timothy 2:26. To be recovered out of the snare of the devil. Who are taken captive by him at his will. Now, this perfectly describes many Christians, and some of them come to this church.

Satan moves in and out of their lives at his own will. They are not free. They don't have the spiritual authority to stop the devil from coming in and moving and playing upon their emotions. They would try to say, well, devil, I take authority over you, and the devil laughs because they don't have the authority in their life.

And I'm shocked at the number of Christians who never seem to come to victory. It's incredible that the devil can just move in and out as he pleases. The Bible said they've not been recovered out of the snare of Satan. They have been taken captive by him, by Satan, at his own will. They don't have control of their lives. They have no power or authority whatsoever to remove this deadly snare.

Paul said it's because they are opposing themselves. They oppose themselves. It's a very strong word in Greek. What he's saying, you won't do what must be done to be delivered from the snare of the devil. He said it's your own fault. You are your own worst enemy.

Now, that word to oppose, he said you oppose yourself. You have set yourself up to be trapped by the devil. You refuse God's way of deliverance and victory. You've opposed His way and you set up your own way, so consequently you're ensnared by the devil.

Now, we don't like to hear this. We don't like to even entertain the thought that the trouble in our lives may be because we're trapped by the devil. We don't like to believe that the trouble in our marriage, we don't like to believe that the emotional problems, we don't like to believe that these things that we struggle with time and time again are satanic in origin.

That we are being manipulated by the devil and we've been trapped and snared by the enemy. There are so many Christians who I don't believe are Christians at all. The Bible said they're captives. They are not free. They have no victory in Jesus Christ.

Satan can put fear on them, loneliness, distress, lust, any time he chooses. And most of the time you look at them, if they're up, they're up for a little time, but most of the time they're down. Under total manipulation of their will.

Is this what Jesus died for? To raise up a people who are under the power of the devil's will? Is this the testimony to the world? Give your heart to Jesus, but your will to the devil? That's not the testimony of the scripture.

Now, you can blame your unhappiness on your poor health. A lot of people blame their emotional trouble to poor health, and sometimes that's the case. But most of the time it's an excuse. You can blame it on a misunderstanding between you and your boss or an uncaring mate, a husband and wife.

Do you say, my husband doesn't understand me? You know, we've got a whole world going around looking for understanding. Nobody understands me. That's why men cheat on their wives. That's why wives cheat. My husband doesn't understand me. Nobody's looking for understanding. Rather than going to the master where the victory lies, they're trying to find someone who has the secret to their problem.

But you see, if you're sitting here tonight and you have to admit, Brother David, the devil's been playing on the strings of my emotion. I'm not getting better, I'm getting worse. I've got this poor self-image. My fear is rising in me. The joy I once had is dissipating. There's a sadness that's sitting inside of me.

That means one thing only, that you have become captive at His will. You are under the captivity of a satanic snare. I can't find anything else to explain that in the Word of God. Something very serious is wrong.

And I'm telling you tonight, by the Word of God, you need to ask God to recover you from this trap. Seek to be recovered. Because if you've been serving the Lord Jesus for more than two or three months, you should be growing. Your joy should be growing. Your victory should be mounting. You should be getting a hold of something in the Word of God.

You should not be coming to this church if you've been saved a year sitting under the teaching of God's Word and under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You should not be coming dragging in here trying to get some kind of a hope for victory in your heart. There should be something rising up in you now, a victory in faith in Jesus.

Your victory should start becoming sweet to you. There should be an assurance of His presence. You should be changing from glory to glory, from image to image, the Scripture said, into His own image.

Now what's the problem? I tell you, it's the grief of my heart, and I know it's the grief of these pastors, to see so many people that are hurting, and you know that you preach just what they need. You know that if they were to believe what you preach and took it to heart and practice, that they'd already be free.

And you see it go on week after week and month after month, and you say, oh God, what will it take? And then you realize that they're under a satanic snare and they're not willing to admit it. They're not acknowledging.

And what is the problem? Why are so many Christians captive and snared by the devil? First of all, so few of God's people are walking with the Lord. So few are walking with God. And I'll tell you why. Here's how you can tell it. Those who are walking with God are being translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

Those who are walking with the Lord are experiencing victory in their lives. Colossians 1:13 says, Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.

I don't know about you, I'm not waiting for my translation. I have been translated, I'm in the process of being translated. The first time Jesus saved me, He did a good enough job, He never had to do it again. He put something in me toward Him. He gave me a drawing in my heart toward Him.

And from the day I got saved, there's been a constant drawing. Now, yes, I've had some ups and downs. I've had a lot of battles. But through it all, I never once entertained the thought of doing anything but clinging to Him. No other thought, never thought of giving up.

The Greek word here for this being translated from the power of darkness into translating the kingdom of his dear son in Greek, here's what it really means. That Jesus personally came and accompanied us right out of the devil's hand. He personally carried us away from the devil's power and set us down in a heavenly place.

That's what it means to be translated out of the kingdom of darkness. That Jesus personally came and delivers us from the power of the devil. And he puts us in a heavenly place by faith in his own hand.

But God only translates those who walk close to him. Those who are captive by the devil have not been taken up and delivered yet out of the power and kingdom of darkness.

Now let's make a statement. I don't believe that anyone is truly saved until you set your heart to walk with God.

I'm going to say it again. I don't believe anyone is truly saved until they have set their heart to walk close to Jesus. To walk with the Lord. Translation out of the devil's power is only for those who have set themselves to be intimate with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now you can claim to be saved. You can claim that you love him. You can tell the words you belong to him. You can weep over him. You can read his word. But unless you walk every day with him, you're not going to be changed. You're going to fall deeper and deeper into satanic bondage.

And the reason we are bound in this last day is because we have neglected our walk with him. There's no other excuse. We've been neglecting.

Let me talk about a man who walked with God. His name was Enoch. I read the scripture to you this morning. Genesis 6:22 says, And Enoch walked with God.

Now, Enoch is a patterned man. In fact, his name means dedicated and also means initiator. In fact, it means an initiator of a new breed or new kind of person. He represents the last day Christian.

And I will tell you something significant about this man. His father Jared lived 962 years. His son Methuselah lived 969 years. The man who lived longer than any man on the face of the earth.

Now sandwiched between his father 962 years and his son 969 years is Enoch who lived 365 years. A year of years. Now 365 days in a year. And you know what that's a type of? It's a type of a man. Who every single day of his life, for 365 days out of the year, 365 years, he walked with God.

He's a type of a person who is given holy to a walk with the Lord. Enoch walked with God, the scripture says. He was an ordinary family man. And the reason I know that the Bible said he begat sons and daughters. Anyone who's got kids is an ordinary man.

He's got ordinary responsibilities. He's got to pay bills. He has to buy clothes for his children. In other words, you don't have to be a hermit to be holy. You don't have to hide out to be sold out.

We've got people all over America who claim to be prophets, and they're saying, you've got to go hide out in the wilderness. We've got prophets now saying, if you move to... In fact, there's one dear sister who's got about 100 acres in northern Florida, and she said, Jasmine's going to fall all over America except on these 100 acres.

But she's selling lots. There's somebody in the Midwest now that's saying, no, God's going to have an island of protection, the armies of Russia are going to come into America, and if you go up here in the hills, it's in the Midwest there, you're going to be safe.

And I tell you, we've got people running to the hills now. They're running to the hills. You know, people today, it's funny, almost everybody that gets a touch of God anymore seems to want to be a prophet. I had a letter from a lady once. She said, I believe you're a prophet. You need to wear a black coat and wear a long beard.

In other words, you're going to be a prophet, look the part. No black coat for this preacher and no three-foot beard. Now, if you've got one, I'm not going to condemn you for it. But Jesus said, when you fast, wash your face so that nobody can see that you're fasting.

Don't bring attention to yourself. We have people today saying to the Jews, you've got to move to Israel to avoid the calamity that's coming, the economic collapse that's coming to America. I want to say something from my heart right now.

The greatest testimony that the Lord can have in this last day is that somebody can walk down Broadway, an ordinary person with an ordinary job, and walk with God. Just like Enoch.

The testimony is not that you can go out some mountain place or you go out in some desert and walk with God. Anybody can go down to no drugs or no alcohol. You don't have to battle through the traffic. You don't have that case of bad nerves. It takes a lot of Holy Ghost grace to live in New York City.

And be an ordinary Christian with ordinary responsibilities.

Glory be to God. I'll tell you where I want to be when the economic collapse comes. I want to go right back to Wall Street where I was October 19, two years ago. I want to go right down there and be able to stand up and say, it don't matter.

I don't say, it don't matter. I've got something that keeps me where everything collapses right down Broadway, right in the middle of Wall Street. I'm telling you, if any could live today, I don't think you would have noticed him in a crowd.

Some people think if you're holy, you've got a certain look. Face, a certain walk, and all you say is, glory. I've been around them. I've had prophets walk into my office with their nose stuck up. Some in their bare feet to prove they were prophets.

I never saw such stinking pride in all my life. Christians in these last days that have responsibilities, that have to face every demon power in hell, that can stand up and say, I can walk with Jesus anywhere, anytime.

Glory to God. Boy, that's the testimony of Enoch. He proved that though he had sons and daughters and he had a wife, he had responsibilities, he could still walk with God.

Hallelujah. Praise his name.

Jesus said, go ye, not hide ye. Something else, Enoch. Something about Enoch that I like. Enoch saw the world as an ungodly place.

The more he walked with God, the more ungodly the world became to him. Now, he lived in a society just as wicked as ours. In fact, everything you hear from this man, he's a preacher of righteousness, and he said, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly.

I want to tell you something. Listen, by the way, because it's so dark in here, I'll read from Jude, the 14th chapter, 14th verse of Jude. Listen to this.

And Enoch, also the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Listen to the preaching of this man. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, to convict all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

You hear, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly. You know the two prophets in the Bible that were translated, Elijah and Enoch, you know what they had in common? They hated sin. They were preachers of righteousness. They cried out in their generations against sin.

And they were translated. But I want to tell you something. The way you get your hatred for the world is through your intimacy with the Lord.

The more you walk with Him, the more you talk with Him, the more you get to know Him, the more you develop His character, the more you hate what He hates and like what He likes, you become more and more like Him.

You don't have to have a preacher telling you how to hate sin or where to go and where to come in. I want to tell you something else. If you're in some kind of a career, I don't think we as pastors can tell you... We cannot tell you what to do in black and white.

We can't say do this or do that. I think it suffice to say that if you really love him and you're walking with him like Enoch did, you're going to come out of it just as Enoch did. You're going to see how ungodly this world is. You will hear their hard speeches against your father.

You'll be so intimate with the Lord that you cannot stand to see or hear them curse Him. You'll not be able to be around those. You'll be so intimate. You'll be so in love with Him that it'll grieve you that you can't stay there.

It's not because a preacher or a doctor told you to get out, but there's something of your heart so in love with Jesus. You cannot be around those who mock Him. You can't be around those... who have hard speeches against him.

Who manipulate people. He said you can't be around those kind. He that is a friend to the world is an enemy to God.

Here is the cleaned and formatted sermon transcription:

Of all, you can't enjoy anything on this earth. And you can't enjoy nature, for example. You can't enjoy friendship and fellowship. And many of these people, God bless their hearts, the legalist is so self-righteous. He's self-righteous because he feels that he suffered so much for Jesus. He deserves our applause. He deserves to be complimented because I'm doing so much. I'm working so hard to please the Lord.

Now, I don't put that down, but I'm going to tell you something. Jesus said himself, "Consider the lilies." Consider the lilies. In other words, there's a postcard. Go out in the fields and look at all of nature. God wants us to enjoy that. I enjoy going to a museum and looking at art. I enjoy that. There's nothing wrong with that.

But then you have the other people over on this side who can do almost anything. They seem so loving of Jesus and anything goes. They mix with the ungodly. They're not grieved by their association with the ungodly. But we're in the world, the Scripture says, but not of the world.

But if you walk with the Lord, really walking with Him, what's going to happen is that you're going to more and more realize that this world has rejected our Christ. And that he's been put aside, and there's something in you that's so in love with Jesus that you begin to withdraw from anything and everyone that would mock and crucify him.

And that has to develop in our hearts. The absolute effect of those who walk with God is a growing hatred for sin. I'll say it again. The absolute effect of an all-out walk with God is a growing hatred for sin. Not just a hatred for it, but a separation from it.

I'm telling you what, if you're at home with this world, if you're comfortable, if you can sit around ungodly people that mock and scoff and ridicule the name of your Savior, I'd question your love. No matter what you say, I question your love for Jesus. I question your being so comfortable around those who would mock the Savior that you love.

The Scripture says, "And Enoch, same verse, and Enoch walked with God." Listen to it now. Enoch went to and fro, up and down, arm in arm. It says arm in arm. Continuously conversing with the Father and growing in the process.

Up and down, to and fro, in and out, arm in arm, continually conversing, in constant communion, and in the process growing because of it. Are you teethered to Christ? Are you so drawn to Him that every time you let go of responsibility, you go right to Him?

You love him so much that even after a service like tonight, I'll tell you what, that's one of my precious times to go home after a meeting and just get alone in my room and shut the door and begin to worship him for what he's done. Thank him for his word and his spirit.

And to be drawn and say, Lord, even though you blessed me tonight, I want to just add a little more. I want more of you, Jesus. Is that happening to you? Is the word producing that in you? If it's not, you're not walking with him.

And Enoch was not. You see, Paul was not either. Paul died every day. He died to this world. Absolutely died to everything in this world. He had nothing to do with this world system.

Paul had the cares and responsibility of all the churches. But every day he got up, he said, "Oh Jesus, I'm holy yours." He said, I'm dying to everything in this world. I'll tell you what, the most blessed thing that God can do is to bring that kind of death to us.

Death to the world, death to your career, death to everything else. That doesn't mean you drop out of life. You may be busier than ever, but your heart is always, always being drawn back to Him.

Enoch was a man who is always changing. Now, believe it or not, everyone in this building is changing. You and I are changing. Now, the thing that scares me is that I know that there are people here tonight that are changing. And you're not changing in the right way.

You're decreasing. You're going back. There's a bitterness that's growing. There's a rebellion that's growing. There's fear that's growing. You're not becoming more and more like Jesus.

And I say it lovingly. You've got to face it here tonight. I want you to face it. Listen closely with all the love that God can give me.

We are all changing in one another. In one way or another. Do you know that if you walk with Jesus, you should be growing in grace? If you're married, you should become sweeter and more gentle. You should become more loving, more kind, rather than reverting.

And why is it that we don't? It's because the majority, listen, the majority of Christians do not pray. I don't know how many times I've preached that. I don't know how many times I've stood in pulpits, my heart absolutely breaking.

I've been in minister's meetings where I break the most because few preachers pray today. There are very few preachers who have a prayer life. They rush into the pulpit having had a little devotional time with Jesus. You'd be surprised how many preachers in America get up about 7 o'clock Sunday morning and try to get something, rush through it to be there 10 o'clock and get a message from God.

They don't spend their time alone with God, shut in with the Lord. They are not walking with God. They're not in communion with the Lord. And consequently, there's a degeneration. They are not growing in the Lord. They're not being built up in their faith.

I've often wondered, oh God, what's it going to take to get your people to fall so much in love with you that want to be with you? How can we say we love Him when we don't spend time with Him?

Now stop. Just stop everything. Stop everything with just a minute. Ask yourself that.

Listen, could it be that I'm not praying? I'm not talking about prayer meeting. I'm not talking about an all-night thing here either. I'm talking about a daily walk with the Lord. Like Enoch.

If you're not walking, shouldn't you ask yourself the question, do I really love him? Do I really love him after all I've said about him after all these years? Do I really love my Lord?

I see people that the Bible said you neglect me day after day. And how can people neglect someone they love? Your husband, your wife wouldn't put up with it.

And how do we say that we love him? You see, the reason the burden of the Lord comes on a pastor or shepherd to get the flock to pray is because that's the secret of victory.

The end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two.

So few are diligent in their daily devotions in this book. Do you know that you should be going through this book at least once, twice a year? Do you know that you should have by now?

If you've been saved one year, every page in this book should be marked. Every single page should be marked. Every scripture heading should have a little zero or a check mark that you've read it, and everything that Jesus has said to you should be marked.

How do you say that you love Him and you neglect Him? You're not walking with God, brother, sister. You're not walking with God.

And that's why so many are depressed and blue and lonely, because rather than run to Jesus, rather than walk with Him, they call up in some little position of defense. They get on the telephone and call a friend, or they sit and brood, or they grieve over it, always trying to find somebody.

Or they become... Those that the scripture talks about who take a shortcut. They take a shortcut.

And I'll be talking about that in just a minute. Enoch's walk with God produced a faith in him that pleased God.

Now, Hebrews 11, I'll read it again. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. It was not found because God had translated him.

For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God.

Now wouldn't you like to have that set of you before you died, before the Lord took you, there was a testimony that you pleased God?

Now what was it that pleased God about this man? What did he do that pleased God?

Before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. Now what?

Verse 5 and 6 cannot be separated. They must go together. He had this testimony that he pleased God, but without faith, it's impossible to please him.

Now we know that he had this kind of faith because he pleased God and you can't please him without faith.

So we know this about Enoch. Without faith it is impossible to please him.

Listen to me closely. All through the Bible, all through history, those who walked with God became men and women of faith.

And this is, Bob mentioned it this morning, and this is where I think we lovingly differ with what is called the faith message in America today.

I think this is probably where we differ the most.

I want you to listen very, very closely to it. We believe in faith, because without faith it's impossible to please Him.

Do you hear it? Without faith it's impossible to please Him.

But you see, I don't believe there are formulas of faith.

I don't believe that you can go to a seminar and get ten steps on what faith is and how to get it. It's been broken down to a formula, and it's made it all possible.

In other words, if you just get this formula right, if you just get these concepts right, you will get what you want from God.

And God doesn't even consider that faith.

Now, I'll tell you where faith comes from. The Bible says, yes, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

But who is the Word? Jesus is the Word.

Where do you get your faith?

It's by intimacy with Jesus. It's by walking with the Word.

It's not by memorizing Scripture verses. The letter in itself telleth.

It's the Spirit that gives life. It's the Spirit that you get walking intimately with Jesus Christ.

Where you're shut in with Him. Where He reveals your sins. Where the light is shining on you through the Holy Ghost.

And you lay down your sins and your iniquities. And you come out of that with the faith that is His, not yours.

It's His faith. He implants His own faith in His Father.

Not our faith. Our faith is worthless.

It's the faith of Jesus Christ himself.

It's the implantation of his own spirit and nature in us.

I get like him because I'm familiar with him. I'm spending time with him, and I'm reflecting who he is.

Where do you get faith?

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Where do you get it? Looking into the books. No. Looking into Jesus. Looking unto Jesus.

The beginner, the author, and the finisher of our faith. Hallelujah.

And you see, where we differ, it's this intimate walk with Jesus. You show me a people who are walking in love with Jesus, hating sin, becoming detached from this world, and getting to know the voice of the Lord, and I'll show you a church or a people that doesn't have to have preachers, tell them what faith is.

It'll be an automatic thing that springs up in their heart.

Be there. A whole church will be walking with faith.

It'll be a revelation that's come to your heart. Not to your head, but your heart.

Well, I think I've read everything that's written on faith.

And nothing of it's touched my heart.

Because it got so confusing, I thought, Lord, if faith is that hard, nobody's going to get it.

Faith is knowing Jesus. Knowing Him intimately.

Hallelujah. Glory to God.

Those who know Him best, trust Him most.

He said it again, those who know him best, trust him most.

The Bible says, by faith Enoch was translated. Boy, you know that's profound.

You get to thinking, well, God just said, well, it's time, Enoch. And sends a chair and gets him like he did Elijah.

No, it doesn't say that. It says, his faith translated him.

By faith, Enoch was translated.

Boy, that hit me.

It was overwhelming when the Holy Spirit began to speak what faith was doing in this man.

It was his faith took him right past death.

Right into the arms of Jesus.

When you think of what people are squandering, what their so-called faith, while they're squandering faith on houses and cars and lands,

And then you compare it with this man who stands and focuses all his faith on one thing,

Where he's saying, Oh God, I can't stand this veil between us.

We've been walking together and I'm so close to you and I can't stand this separation anymore.

God, I believe you can take me right to your heart.

I believe you can show me your face.

That's where our face should be.

And the revelation of Him translated more and more darkness.

And all, brothers, sisters, that daily transformation,

That's that daily translation. Away from darkness into the kingdom of light.

We're walking toward the sun.

And every step you take, it gets brighter and brighter.

Hallelujah.

If it's not getting brighter and brighter, then something's very, very wrong.

Where are the Enoch's today who would spend their faith believing to be translated out of darkness into his light?

Enoch had no Bible. He had no song book. He had no fellow members. He had no teacher, no indwelling Holy Spirit, no rent veil with access to a Holy of Holies.

But without any of those helps, without the prodding of a prophet, without the pleading of a teacher, without the hammering of a word,

Without a New Testament, without a special covenant of grace other than what had been revealed,

This man walks with God

The light grows brighter and brighter in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.

And then it kind of put us to shame that with our Bibles, all kinds of Bibles, and helps, and song books, and preachers, and prophets, and teachers, and all kinds of helps,

And when veil access to the Father, we still are backsliding.

It should rebuke us.

Here is the cleaned-up sermon transcription with proper punctuation, capitalization, and natural paragraphs:

This reward? He's a rewarder. I'll tell you what. I found something out. When I'm really walking with the Lord, with all my heart, and He's not first, He's everything, And I just, my life is centered on Him. Hallelujah.

You know what happens? The rewards are breaking out everywhere. In my children. Among my friends. The flock. Brother, sister, you're sitting here right now. It's not our faith alone. It's the faith of a body. But when you're walking in Him, the blessings of God, they're just a natural outflow. He knows our needs and He supplies those needs.

I mean, there's a blessing. It's a joy to be around people who walk with the Lord because there's no sweat, there's no strain. And they're not talking about good things. The good things just happen. They just happen. They're there. And we thank God for it. But, you know, whether they're there or not, live or die, we're the Lord's.

And we're on our way home. Abraham was a wealthy man, one of the wealthiest men that ever lived. But he said, I'm on my way. This world's not my home. I'm just a foreigner. I'm just an alien walking through. I'm looking for a city who's building a maker's God.

None of it had his heart. I could name a thousand rewards He's given to me. Four children serving the Lord. Four children in the ministry. Six grandchildren, grandsons. Two more on the way. One a daughter, I hope. Granddaughter. I don't know. But everywhere I look, I see His hand.

And the Lord says, David, all I'm asking is you walk with me. All I'm asking is you give me all your heart. Oh, brother, sister, it's so easy. What's God got to do? Knock us over the head? And say, look, look what's going on in your life. Look at all the sadness. Look at the emptiness. Look at what you're going through.

And then look at a brother next to you. What do they have that's different? Is it some key of faith? What they have learned and understood is that the Lord has consumed them. And when the Lord's consumed them, the Lord says, I pay. I reward those who diligently seek me. I reward them.

But he said, you've got to believe that I'm a reward. You've got to believe that's part of my nature. And folks, God really condemned. I got a spanking this week. I got one of the most spankings I've ever had. I cried and I wept and I doubled up on the floor.

God said to my heart, David, you really have a false humility. You're afraid. You're afraid to really believe that I'm a reward. You're afraid to believe that I'm a giving God. And I said, well, are you sure of that, Lord? Honest, I want the Lord to check it out.

Give me a little more. And he dug deeper. He said, yes, yes, yes. If you're going to walk in faith. You're going to preach faith. You have got to preach that those who walk diligently with me. Those who walk like Enoch walked.

And this was the theology of Enoch. Because we get it right from Enoch. These verses are together. Enoch was translated because he believed that God was a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And he finally got the greatest award of all to break through in the full revelation of his glory.

Oh, the Lord said, David. You've got to believe that I'm a reward. And I said, well, Lord, I began to go off to the Old Testament. Lord, is it land? Is it honey, wheat, and flour, and all the good things you gave to Israel?

And I don't find that in the New Testament. All I find in the New Testament is you put the Lord first, and all these things will be added to you. Seek Him first in His kingdom, all these things. No deep theology about it. It's a very simple walk with the Lord.

But the Lord showed me, and I'll close with this, but He showed me three rewards that you and I are going to receive from Him, and you've got to believe it with all your heart for it to happen. But here's what I believe.

If you're going to walk with the Lord, and you diligently seek Him with all your heart, the first thing He's going to give you is control. He's going to give you back control of your life. Oh, I heard that as though God came down in the room.

He said, David, look about you. So many people whose lives are out of control. They've lost control of their lives because they've neglected me. They're not walking with me. They talk about it, but they're not doing it. They're wasting their time. They're not setting their heart to seek me.

And because they're not seeking me, because they're neglecting me, day by day, more and more things spin out of control. The children go out of control. The home goes out of control. The job goes out of control. Everything around them is spinning out of control.

But the moment you go back, run back to Jesus, the moment you say, Lord, draw me, and you get back to him, walking with him, not of this world anymore. He gives you back control. Now you're not being manipulated by the devil. You're controlling your life.

You're speaking to the powers of Satan and saying, Jesus' name, no more. You can't cross the line. And the Bible said he frees from you. I'm telling you now, God wants you to get control of your life tonight.

Where you're not tossed by every wind and wave of doctrine. That you're not tossed by the feelings. Paul warns, and I told you to talk about silly women. I've got to get this in. It's in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. Now, I don't want a lot of amens from the men. I just want you to...

There's a tremendous truth here. 2 Timothy, 3rd chapter. 3rd chapter, 2 Timothy, verse... Let's start... For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truthbreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of praise and more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, from such turn away.

For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive. Silly women, now that's King James, silly women laden down with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now look at me please. We've got some of those creepers that come in here.

They creep in here. They creep into houses. That's the house of God. They creep into houses and they watch. We've got a few ministers that don't have churches, but they are so-called deliverance people. Now, I'm not putting deliverance down. We preach deliverance and we believe in deliverance. 1,000%. These altars are deliverance altars.

But you see, when people don't want to pay the price of walking with God, they don't want to pay the price of facing the Holy Ghost and the reproof of the Word of God. And they want a shortcut. If you want that shortcut, the devil is going to provide a creeper for you.

He's going to creep in. He's going to get his eyes on you and your wallet, your purse. Because they're after money all the time. And they're going to get a hold of you and they say, come to my meeting. We've got a little house meeting. We've got a little group.

And you're not going to get deliverance here, but we have deliverance. And they're going to take you by the spiritual nose and pull you by a wing. And they're going to put you down in a room and they're going to start delivering you. Because you see, you want a shortcut. You want some preacher with the word.

You want someone to lay hands on you and deliver you. You don't want to go to the cross and die. You don't want the word to purge you. So you're going to go find a creeper who's going to try to satisfy you and give you a shortcut to holiness. I'm not yelling at you.

He said they creep into houses and they lead captives, silly women, laden down with their sins. Oh, sister, do you know that almost every little deliverance group here in New York City, you'll find 20, 30, 40, 50 women. They're women. Almost every black church and everywhere else.

They're women. Silly women. Well, I'm telling you, I'm warning the creepers. You stay out of this house because we've got shepherds here who are watching the flock. God's going to expose that kind of thing here. You see them in the halls. You see them everywhere.

I've got a word for you. Brother sister in this church you better not go to anyone I'll tell you what and by the way anyone comes to you I've got a word for you you say well let's go to the pastor and check it out Or first say what is it about and you'd better say I'll tell you what I'd like to Let me tell you ask let me ask what it is first because I'm talking to God the Lord's talking to me and it's got to match what the Lord's saying to me.

And if you're going to go around and land hands on people in this church, and I say it lovingly, be careful. And by the way, if you're offended by that and you sense somebody's spirit is not right with God, and they're praying something silly, just very kindly say thank you, thank you, and walk away.

You don't put them down, you say very lovingly, this does not bear witness with me. I don't feel the witness of the Holy Spirit. Folks, some people, it's all they know how to do. They don't know how to say hello. They don't know how to say, how are you? They have to grab you.

And the Bible says, lay hands suddenly on no man. Am I too hard? All right. I'm not saying if you've got a true word from God, you deliver it. That's something different. We've got people in this church that do hear from God. That's something entirely different, but they're known.

They're known among us. We know their lives. That's an entirely different matter. And by the way, well, did I say enough? Yeah, I've said enough about the silly women. Do you know what we ought to do?

I saw this this afternoon. Do you know, rather than spending so much time trying to find relief for ourselves, shouldn't we be walking with Jesus and start comforting His heart? Do you want to see something you may have never seen? Could you go with me just quickly to Psalm 69.

Would you go to Psalm 69? Do you know that Jesus is still a man in glory? How many believe that? Do you know that He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities?

Do you know that I believe that Jesus still has the ability to cry and laugh and weep just like us? Do you know if he's touched with the feelings of our infirmity, if he's a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, he's still a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief? Don't you know that when he looks at his church and the condition of it that he's sad?

Don't you know it grieves his heart? People, where are the Enoch's? Now I believe this with all my heart, that when Enoch walked with God, he comforted wickedness.

And what he was saying, Father, I love you, but I do. Turn against you. But I'm here. Lord. Now look at verse 20. This is Jesus speaking. Reproach hath broken my heart. And I'm full of heaviness.

And I look for some to take pity. But there was none. And for comforters. But I found none. Oh, that was in my heart today. That's in my heart right now, Jesus. That here in Times Square, a city of millions of people who've mocked and ridiculed Jesus, a nation who puts out a film on the last temptation of Christ, the suspense in his nostrils.

That here in Times Square tonight, there are people that can comfort him and say, Jesus, we love you. We'll walk with you. The world may not. We'll walk with you. We'll spend time with you. And we'll comfort your heart.

I want to comfort the heart of Jesus. Hallelujah. You've got to mark that verse. Mark it and ask God to reveal it to you. The second reward God gives you, listen to him now, he gives you control. Secondly, he gives you pure light. Pure light.

With no shade of darkness whatsoever. He's come to give light to them that sit in darkness to give light and guidance to our feet. Jesus said, I'm the light of the world. He that walks with me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

He that walks with me shall not walk in darkness. Is there darkness in your heart? Look at me please. When you seek, the Lord deals with all your heart. You're going to get direction. You're going to get discernment. You will not walk in darkness.

I'm standing here before you right now, and I know every pastor can say the same thing. We don't walk in darkness. We do not walk in darkness. We don't know everything. But we don't have to know everything. We're walking in the light. He is the light.

And that means guidance. It means discernment. It means everything we need to know to deliver God the holy life in these last days. Everything that we need, He gives us. He shows us. He said you'll hear a voice behind you saying this is the way.

You're not going to hear that voice until you go where the voice is. You've got to get near it to hear it. Glory be to God. Whosoever believes in on me shall not live in darkness. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us to a kingdom of light. Hallelujah.

Do you know the worst kind of darkness there is? I'm going to close in just a moment. The worst kind of darkness there is not in the Ayatollah Khomeini and his hordes of Muslims that are lost without Christ.

It's not in the communist leaders in Russia. The worst darkness on the face of the earth is locked up in the hearts of Christians who are not walking the light they've received. And Jesus warns them.

He said, be careful that the light that's in you be not darkness. The Pharisees came to him one time, and Jesus said, there's a judgment on people. There's a judgment on people who will not walk in the light that they receive, and they pervert it.

And they wind up saying, I see, I know it. In fact, we have some people know more than the pastors. They'll tell you that. I've had people, in fact, we've had some say it right to our face in so many words. You don't have to tell me anything. I know it.

I know it. You know, we've got know-it-alls. Not many of them here. There are other churches here in town. But you can't tell them anything because they know it, see. He said, Take heed that the light which is in you be not darkness. In John 9, 39-41, For judgment I am come into the world, that they would see may be made blind.

And the Pharisees said, Are we blind? He said, You say we see, and you don't see, therefore your sin remains. In other words, you claim to know it, you claim to see it, and you haven't seen it.

And what you believe is to be light is nothing but darkness. And there's nothing worse, nothing more tragic, nothing more frightful than a Christian who believes they're walking in the light and they don't see, they don't see that the difficulty and the trouble they're in is caused by a perverted light.

That the light in them is not light at all, it's a darkness. And they won't stop to say, oh God, there's something wrong. They won't stop and say, Lord, look at me. We look at everybody else, but the Lord said, no, stop, stop.

Because there's a judgment on you if you believe that you're walking in the light when it's really darkness. Tell you, if you're walking in the light, He's going to help you find a way of escape. You're not going to live. Many other afflictions are righteous, but He said the Lord delivers them out of them all.

He's not going to keep you in that. Alright, one last thing. And this I do close. Hallelujah. He gives you control. He gives you pure light. And then finally, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. No weapon formed against you.

Now in Hebrew, that's found in Isaiah 54, 17. It means no plan, no instrument of destruction, no satanic artillery aimed at you shall push you or run over you. But I will... The word says wreck. I'll wreck it. God said, I'm going to take...

You know what happens? You see the devil aims his big guns at you. Because he sees you walk with the Lord. But you think you're going to aim that gun at the Lord himself? You think you're going to aim the artillery at Jesus?

You get close to the Lord, you're out of range of the devil. You are invincible in the presence of God. And I'll tell you what, the Bible said everything melts in his presence. And those big guns, you see those great big guns aimed at you? They melt like wax in the presence of the Lord.

They just... Lord said, I'll wreck every plan of the devil aimed at you. You walk with me and I'll take care of the devil. Every weapon formed against you, none of it shall prosper. Well, glory to God.

You know a Christian walks with Jesus doesn't have to fear anybody or anything. We're not to fear anything on the face of this earth. We're to walk fearless. There should not be any fear. He said, I've not given you the spirit of fear, but love and power and a sound mind. Glory to God.

Let's stand. Aren't you tired