- Jim and Carol Cymbala for the last, I think about eight, nine, 10 years. They're dear, dear friends of ours. Jim and Carol pastor in Brooklyn
at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. How many years have you been there? - 21.
- 21 years. So much integrity within the city. We were there for a
celebration that they had at Radio City Music Hall, three nights and they filled the place, they did with their choir and their ministry. The city loves these people because of the wonderful
work they're doing. You know about mission work,
these people are doing it. They love the Lord with
all their hearts plus, Jim is a big basketball
fan, so it can't be all bad for a dear, old guy coming from Indiana, we have a good time discussing basketball. Jim you're with friends and
we love you, speak to us. - Thank you. (audience clapping) It's a real joy to be here
at the Praise Gathering and I wanna talk for a few
moments about something so vital and yet it's so simple. It's so familiar to us
that that's the danger. I want our session this
morning to be something that will make a difference
in our lives rather than just some kind of talk with
more information about God. I pray that by His grace, we can have fresh communion with God. To approach that subject, I
wanna give you one of the most strange and stunning pictures of Jesus found anywhere in the Bible. Of all the portraits
you've ever seen painted, there is no portrait found
in the Bible stranger, we see Christ on the cross. We know Christ as the Good Shepherd. We know Christ walking on the water. We see Christ sitting at the
well with a woman in Samaria but in your wildest dreams,
can you ever picture this? And have you ever wondered
why God would put this in the Bible not just once but twice? "And so they came to
Jerusalem and Jesus went "into the temple and began to drive out "those who bought and sold in the temple. "And he overturned the
tables of the money changers, "and the seats of those who sold doves "and he would not allow anyone "to carry wares through the temple. "And then he taught them
saying, 'Is it not written "my house shall be called
the house of prayer "for all nations but you have
made it a den of thieves?' "And the scribes and the
chief priests heard it and saw "how they might destroy
him, for they feared him "because all the people were
astonished at his teaching "and when evening had come,
he went out of the city." Now the Bible has many
pictures of Jesus Christ and to me, none is stranger. The Lamb of God, the one who
came to take away the sins of the world, the gentle loving Jesus, who has the Good Shepherd,
puts the lamb on his shoulders and brings it home and yet,
in this portion of Scripture, we see Jesus physically emoting in a way that is really hard for us to picture. That he would actually take
tables and overturn them and throw money on the ground. That he's somehow all by
himself with no armed helpers, the disciples were passive in this, that he would stop people from
carrying their merchandise and just by a word of authority,
he said, "Get out of here "with that, you can't bring
that through the court." And that he would go to the people who sold the oxen and
the sheep and the doves for the poor people and he would say, "Out, get your business out of here." I mean, it's an amazing
picture of Jesus Christ. The loving Jesus that we know,
we think that for him anybody to be that irate and physical must mean they're not in the spirit
but this is Jesus Christ. And what's strange about this
is this is not the first time this has happened, I read from Mark. When the Bible tells us in
John, the second chapter, that in Jesus's first visit to the temple, after he began his public ministry when he was about 30 years old,
he did the same exact thing. In fact, the Bible tells us there that he made, are you ready? A whip out of cords and used a cord, these cords and this whip to
actually physically thrash them out of the temple. Now it's three years, two
years later from there and now He's getting ready to face Calvary and He comes back to the temple
and He cleanses it again. Why would God put something
so stunning in the Bible? That He would go into
the holy temple of God and get so physical and so irate and said, "You've made it a house of merchandise. "You've made it a den of
thieves, get out of here. "Is it not written my father's house "shall be called a house of prayer?" Now, what's odd about all
of this is that the people who were in there belong there. The people who were selling the animals had to be near the temple
precincts because there was no way to offer the sacrifices
prescribed in Leviticus, in the books of Moses,
unless somebody could have those animals available for you. You couldn't be carting
these animals from your home or all through the streets of Jerusalem. So those people belong there but they had put a gouging
uplift on the price. They were making money hand
over, fist taking advantage of the fact that they were
the ones who could assist and they were hiking the prices up so that people were
getting taken advantage of. And the money changers, you
had to pay the temple tax if you were a good Jew
and you couldn't use Greek or Roman money, you had to
actually use the special coins that were minted in Jerusalem itself. So those money changers were
there to take your money from wherever you came
from, Macedonia or whatever and you changed your money
so that you could make the proper donation but
they were once again, tacking on big-time profit. And the people carrying stuff
through the temple actually, the writers of that time
tell us that instead of going around the temple, they
said, let's take a shortcut and they went through the
court of the Gentiles, right through the temple,
carting their stuff, making the house of God a
shortcut to big-time money. And Jesus with his whip made of cords and Jesus somehow physically
with just His presence and His authority just
thrashes them out of there and kicks them all out. Before I get to my main
point, it does remind us that all of us who are
involved in singing in choirs and preaching the gospel
and pastoring churches and gospel singing whatever the style is and you who are Sunday school
teachers because I know there's a lot of influence
in this room right now, you're gonna go back, a
lot of you are leaders in the place where you came from. Boy, does that challenge
us to remember that it's not if you're doing God's work,
it's how you do God's work. For the Bible tells us
that one day Jim Cymbala is gonna stand at the judgment
seat of Christ and God's gonna ask me why I pastored
the Brooklyn Tabernacle and with what spirit? You see, these people were in the temple but they didn't have the
spirit of the temple. They were supposed to be there
to assist people to worship and to come into God's
presence and they were there but they were out of sync
with the whole purpose that God had for the place
called the house of the Lord. I mean, they were doing
it, they were doing the job but they were making big-time
money and they were greedy, and they had brought a secular
spirit into a sacred place. They were businessmen,
they were crass businessmen coming into something that God said, "My house shall be called
a house of prayer." You made it a den of thieves. You're getting over on
the people, out with you. Awesome thought. And in a day when gospel
music and gospel preaching and gospel work can become
so mechanical or oriented toward me, myself and I, it
reminds all of us today here at the Praise Gathering that as we go back to our separate duties that we have to do God's
work with God's Spirit. We have to do God's work and
approach it with God's heart because one day, it doesn't
matter if your friends approve of you, it doesn't
matter how many albums you sell or how popular Jim Cymbala
is or if he writes a book. One day, the Bible says, I'm
gonna stand in front of the one whose eyes are like fire
and I can't get over on him. All of you that sing in that choir, it's not just if you're on your note, it's why you're on your note. It's the spirit that you're doing it. Am I doing it for the glory of God? Do I really care about those
people in New York City? I mean, am I preaching
just to put on a show and get through another service or does my heart really
radiate with God's love? And am I saying the things
that He wants me to say with the spirit, He
wants me to say them in? Why are you teaching
that Christian ed class, that Sunday school class? Why are you singing in that choir? Why do you serve? The Bible says that when
Jesus went into the temple, He reminded them, this is not your house, this is my Father's house and my Father's house has
to be run my Father's way. And when you touch something
sacred in a secular way, I'm gonna kick you all out of here. And even though He's not
walking through churches today and kicking people out,
there is gonna come that day when Paul says, we'll all stand at the judgment seat of Christ and we're gonna have to
give a review to the Lord. And we will be reviewed
on why we did what we did and how we did it but that's
not my main point this morning but that's a well-taken
point for all of us. Not only on the crass
business side of money because it's so easy to make gospel work just another way to make a living. That's what these people were doing. They weren't interested in people getting in contact with God, they were making a living out of it. But as we do God's work,
we must not rob the glory that is only due to Him, whatever
we do and whatever we say, the Lord wants to remind us through this, that all the glory and all the honor must go to Jesus Christ. But the thing that really provoked Jesus into this angry tirade was this. He said, "You men don't even understand "about my Father's house. "You've given your
opinion about the temple "but the temple doesn't belong to you. "My Father's house shall
be called a house of prayer "and you've made it a den of thieves." This is a first principle of religions. So listen closely. Jesus said, "My Father's house "shall be called a house of prayer." The atmosphere of my Father's house is supposed to be prayer. The atmosphere around
the things of my Father must be that aroma of people
opening their heart and coming to my Father in worship and in
petition and in supplication. And instead of keeping
that atmosphere and aiming at that atmosphere and
understanding my Father's purpose, you've made it a place
just to make a buck. So out with you. My house shall be called
a house of prayer. The thing that's supposed to
distinguish Christian churches and Christian people
and Christian gatherings is the aroma and the atmosphere of prayer. You might say, well, Pastor
Cymbala or brother Jim, that's not our style, we come
from a different tradition. It doesn't matter what your tradition is or what my tradition is,
it's His Father's house and His Father says, "In my house, "it shall be a house of
prayer and supplication." Now, we know that that
temple is unlike any church. The Brooklyn Tabernacle, the
building that I pastor in is not a sacred building. Your church building is
not a sacred building. There are no sacred buildings
like the temple, we know that. That temple that sat there in Jerusalem, which now, the mosque of
Omar sits on that land was the only place that God said, the brazen altar could be put and the animal sacrifices could be given. It was the only geographical
spot in the world where the holy place and
the Holy of Holies could be. So what I'm not trying to say
today is that in our churches, there's some counterpart to
the temple, we know that. In fact, the Bible says, we're
the temple of the Holy Spirit but what I wanna say to
you is that God's work from the very beginning
is not like you and I often imagine it. God's word, God's house,
the Christian religion is always supposed to
have the aroma of prayer. Preaching yes but not
my house shall be called the house of preaching. Music yes but my house shall not be called the house of music. My house shall be called
the house of prayer. They were choirs but it was
called the house of prayer. There was the reading of the word but my house shall be
called a house of prayer. So the Bible tells us that
when Jesus Christ died and resurrected and went back to heaven and he began his church,
which the gates of hell shall not prevail against,
he kept the same line running through the
formation of the church, which was in his Father's house. Have you ever noticed
that the Christian church was not born while someone was preaching but while people were praying? Have you ever noticed
that in the second chapter of the book of Acts when
the church was born, they were doing nothing but
just waiting on God and praying? And they were just sitting
there and as they were praying and worshiping and waiting
and having heart communion with God and God's shaping
them and cleaning them out and building faith into
them and doing those heart operations that only
the Holy Spirit could do, the church was born, the
Spirit was poured out. My house shall be called
a house of prayer. In the fourth chapter,
Peter and John are arrested and they're slapped around and threatened, don't you preach anymore in that name? And what do they do? They don't go and protest. They don't go to the Supreme Court. They don't try to get
some political leverage. They go back to a prayer meeting. They go back and say, "Behold the threat. "Oh God, look how they're
threatening us but oh God, "we lift our voices together to you. "Oh God, behold their threats "and give your servants boldness "that we might preach
in the name of Jesus." And the place where they
prayed again was shaken, and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness. My house shall be called
a house of prayer. They had this instinct
when in trouble, pray. When intimidated, pray. When challenged, pray. When persecuted, pray. When you're in trouble, pray. In fact this thing called
prayer, whatever it is, is so unique, it's not
like what we're used to, we talk about pray, we say prayers, a lot of them are mental prayers. This thing called praying is so deep that when the Apostle Paul got converted and he was first Saul of Tarsus, this violent persecutor of the church. Jesus went to Ananias and
the Lord appeared to Ananias in Damascus and said, "Go
to this man, this Jew, "this church persecutor
named Saul of Tarsus "and pray for him," and Ananias said, I know about this man, this man
is trouble with a capital T. And Jesus said, "As if this was proof "that everything had changed. "No Ananias, you can go,
for behold, he prays." He prays, you can go now
because he's in that room, blind somewhere waiting
for you because he actually for the first time in his religious life is offering a true prayer
and because he's praying, you can go and not be afraid. It was as if that was
the sign whether somebody was the real deal with God. Behold, he prays. And that same Apostle Paul
when he writes to Timothy and he wants to encourage
him how to do God's work. He says this, first of all
then, I want supplications. First of all, in your church
Timothy, first of all, before anything else,
supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgiving
to be made for all men. That's first of all, it doesn't matter what your tradition is or what
American Christianity says. The Word of God says, first of all then, I want supplications because
we gotta remember, Timothy, my house shall be called
a house of prayer. Later on in the same chapter, he says and then remember
Timothy, I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands
without wrath or doubting and I want them to pray. That's the sign of a Christian Church. Paul says, men, pray with holy hands without wrath or doubting. In fact, the book of Revelation
says that when the four and 20 elders fall at the feet of Jesus, they have these golden bowls and you know what's in the bowls? This incense that is
so fragrant to Christ. It's the prayers of the saints. I mean, what must prayer be the God that He keeps it in bowls in heaven? Just imagine when you and I
kneel or stand or pray seated and we really open our heart to God, somehow those things are kept. They're so precious to God. My house shall be called a house of prayer and we have in the day that we live in a lot of revisionism going on. But it's not coming from Washington, it's coming from the church. We're revising what are churches today. The Bible says and they
continued the early church, they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship and
then the breaking of bread and in prayers. Now, we've revised that and
said, if you can get people for one hour on Sunday
morning in the building, that's the church, that's not the church. We can use every device we
want to get people for one hour and keep it early and keep
it moving and keep it going because people have important
things to do that day. That's not the story of
the Christian church. That might be the story of
my church or your church but that's not the church Jesus built. And the history of revivals
down through the ages have told us that whenever
things have grown crass and commercial and secular and hard and worldly, God sends a revival and what's always the sign of the revival? Behold, they pray, the
church begins to pray. Moody goes somewhere in
England and they begin to pray. Finney goes to upstate New
York and they begin to pray. The Great Awakening happens in America and they begin to pray,
who was the fancy preacher? Nobody, they prayed. Where was the great music? Oh, they made great songs but
that wasn't the great thing about it, it was they prayed. Prayer preceded it, prayer kept it going and the minute prayer ended,
the Spirit of God lifted and we got back into one
of those tougher times for the Church of Jesus Christ. You folks, young people who
are going to these schools, let me tell you as someone
who went to college as a basketball player
on a full scholarship and traveled around the
country playing basketball, never had the privilege
of going to a school like you folks are going to. The greatest thing anybody can learn in this building is how to pray. How to call on God so that God
intervenes in the situation. They continued steadfast
in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking
of bread and in prayers and that's the church and I
talked to well-known ministers. I talked to men, if I
mentioned their names, a lot of you would know
a lot of their names and they tell me privately off the record, hey, listen, I know that I'm
dazzling them with my books and my sermons but brother
Jim, something's wrong because except for
Sunday morning, one hour, I can't get a soul into the church. If I called a prayer meeting, not 1/10 of the congregation would come. They'll pay $20 for a
concert but Jesus can't draw. They'll pay all kinds of money
to hear somebody do something and that's wonderful, I'm
all for that but doesn't it awaken us that if the
prayer meeting was called, that nobody would come,
when God said my house shall be called a house of prayer? My house shall be called a house of prayer and you represent all kinds of cities and just ask yourself that
question in the city you live in, what church do you know
takes a prominent night with all the leadership there and says, if prayer is so great and
his house shall be called a house of prayer and we
have all these promises. Ask, you shall receive. Seek, you shall find. Knock, it shall be open
and all of those promises, call unto me and I will answer you. You would think the
Christian church would say, timeout, we're gonna pray because God said when we pray, He'll intervene. The truth of the matter is in
the city, I live in, New York and the same is for Chicago
and Philly and all of that who are we kidding? More people are turning
to crack than to Christ. There are more people trying crack than are getting baptized in
water, that's the real deal. And preaching is not gonna do it alone and teaching is not gonna do it alone. My house shall be called
a house of prayer. That's what brings God's power
and grace into a situation. The proof of that is in the last 40 years, there's been more books
written about marriages than in all the preceding
2,000 years of church history. More books in the last
40 years on marriages, go to any pastor in America and ask him if there aren't more problems
per 100 marriages today than at any time and
we have the most books. We got all the how tos but what we're missing
is the grace of God. My house shall be called
a house of prayer. A couple that prays
together stays together. A church that prays
together stays together. There'll be difficult moments,
I'm not being simplistic but God's Word is true, call
upon me and I will answer you. I'll show you things
you can't even imagine. Just give me a chance. There's more books on child rearing, quality time with your
children, add nausea. Talk to any pastor, there's
more problem with children, young people in the church
per 100 young people than at any time previous. It's not because we're lacking knowledge. It's not because we're lacking how to and all of that has its
place but brother, sister, when the rubber meets the
road, we need the power of God. We need the grace of God
and listen to the promise as I come to a close. Therefore, let us come boldly
to the throne of grace, so that we might receive grace and mercy to help us in our time of need. It doesn't say therefore
let us come to the sermon. We in America have made
the sermon the centerpiece. God never intended the
sermon to be the centerpiece. The preacher if he does his
job is supposed to get people to come to the throne of grace, why? Because it's at the throne of grace that God gives grace and mercy. If a gospel singer really does his job and every gospel singer, listen to me, you're gonna answer up one day because God's gonna say to
you, did you bring people to where the action was
at the throne of grace? If you just entertained them,
if you just tickled them and gave them a little warm, fuzzy moment, woe unto you because
at the throne of grace, I could have changed their life. Pastor Cymbala, did you bring
the people and dazzle them with your footwork and try to be clever or did you make Jesus wonderful so that they could come
to the throne of grace? Therefore, let us come boldly
to the throne of grace. That's why Jesus ascended to
the right hand of the Father so that he could make a way
so that me with my problems could go and receive grace
and mercy to help me. I'm coming apart here. It's an awesome thing,
just an awesome thought that we've created a
religion kind of of our own and sometimes his house shall
be called a house of prayer. In a lot of churches and a lot of services you have a everything but prayer. You have talks, readings, talent, choir and my wife conducts a choir,
I'm all for those things but you get what I'm driving at? If it doesn't end up with
somebody touching God and praying, who are we kidding? We need the Lord. For someone who's so
ill prepared as myself for the ministry, it seems
to me that God has chosen, among other things to
make my wife and I example of those foolish things
that confound the wise. My wife writes music and directs the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir and she neither reads nor writes music. She's never been trained. She doesn't know what she's
doing, she just does it. (congregation laughing) I've never been to a
seminary or a Bible school and I ended up with 15 or 18,
20 people in New York City on a street that was so depressing. Our church was so depressing, I didn't wanna go and I was in charge. (congregation laughing) Drugs everywhere in our city. Totally different culture there
especially my wife grew up and I, as a ballplayer had been around and then I realized, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna live in this Christian fantasy about what God once did and
then what God's gonna do one day but then your life goes by and you never see God do anything? You can let your life pass
by with that kind of talk. Remember, the worst epitaph
on anybody's tombstone will be this, you had not
because you asked not. Someone says, well brother
Jim, you understand, Jim, that you don't get everything you ask for, it has to be according to God's will. I understand all of that but we can't use little theological dodges
to get away from the fact that a lot of people don't have things that God wants you to
have right now today. He wants you to have it right now today but over my life or possibly yours, He writes, you have not
because you asked not. I wanna do it for you but God has chosen prayer
to be the one conductor, listen, the one conductor, the one channel for all of God's blessings,
the channel is prayer. In other words, God has
this table set for us and he sees Jay and Amy and he
knows exactly what they need to raise that child and
he has the table spread with every kind of wisdom
and grace and strength that they could possibly need but he says, the only way you can get it
is to pull up to the table and taste and see that the
Lord is good and pulling up to the table is called prayer. In other words, God doesn't tell us pray because I want my people to pray. He says, pray because I have
all kinds of things for you and when you ask, you shall receive. In other words, it's not legalism. It's not, get in there and start praying. It's, I need the, oh, I need the. Every hour I need the, God,
you see what I'm facing? Help me, Lord and as we pray, He's faithful to His word and supplies. Well, my wife and I began
to learn a little bit about this conductor and
this channel called prayer and we began to see
people's lives get changed. And I began to preach and not
being trained and studying on my own and building a library
which has grown quite large and trying to stay a student
but at the very beginning, it was rough. Sermons I preached at the beginning, it's tough when you fall
asleep during your own sermons. (congregation laughing) Not just the people falling
asleep, it's when you doze off. But you know, I found this that God, when you become a Christian and
because of what I just said, how He blesses people through prayer, He's gonna make you a woman of prayer. He's gonna make you, sir, a man of prayer and you try to run, he'll chase you but he will make us people of prayer. He knows how to order our lives
and get to get our attention and say, do you realize
how much you need me now? Oh, no, Lord, I can handle this on my own and God says, alright, fine. When you hit the stone wall the 32nd time, remember that you need me. But notice he's not
making me a man of prayer so He can say, see, I got him praying. It's a father saying, I have all of this and you live with such scarcity. Please come unto me, all you that labor. Pray, talk, spend time,
why are you so rushful? You're running for what? Working with what? There's nothing in Jim
Cymbala to work with you. Everything that you need, I have. So when are we gonna talk? So I began to learn and we began
to stress our Tuesday night prayer meeting as the bram of our church and this past Tuesday night
between 12 and 1500 people gathered like every Tuesday
night and since of course, those days we've had like
14 other churches begin, all stressing that prayer
meeting night because we found if you can beat the devil
on the prayer meeting night, you'll beat them on every other level. (congregation clapping) And that's the way it is
in our personal lives. If you can beat the enemy in prayer, you can beat them on every
level, you will read the word. There's grace flowing through your life. You have an appetite
for the things of God. So from me standing in front of two people on a Tuesday night, I used to do that. First offering, I took
on a Sunday was $85, tithes and offerings and I
had a daughter named Chrissy, who was about a year old. My wife took a second
job, I took a second job but the people began to pray. But in closing, let me just tell you some of the last lessons I've learned about this wonderful truth
because I'm not trying to preach down to anyone, I'm preaching to myself
as I'm talking to you. About eight or nine years ago, my daughter who is here
today, she got away from us. She got away from not only
us, she got away from God. She got away from our house
and my wife and I went through a two and a half year long nightmare that I don't wanna go into. But I promised God as I was
getting at the end of it, that as He brought me through it, that wherever I got a
chance, I promised God no matter how hard it would
be, as He's my witness today. No matter how hard it would be, I would tell people what God
does and answer to prayer. You know what the feeling is not to know where your daughter is, when
she grew up as a model child? I have two other children. Chrissy's now 25, I have a
daughter, 21 and a boy, 18 but at that time, Chrissy was about 17, 18 and it was, I'm talking nightmare. I'm talking about getting in
my car and leaving my house to go to the church in the inner city, where I'm gonna face
10 new people who visit who are HIV positive and a battered woman and no need family units and
everything discombobulated and I don't wanna be the focus. I'm supposed to be there,
Carol and I to minister to them but I'm crying from the minute
I leave my door to the church and saying God, my heart is
broken, my nerves are shut. I've screamed, begged, pleaded,
tried to use money, reason, cried and she's getting worse,
she's not getting better. And how am I gonna minister? And we're starting other churches and renting Radio City Music
Hall and starting new churches in the city and going to South America and Carol's writing
songs and making albums. But nobody knows, very few people know that we're hanging by a
thread my friend, by a thread. And all the times I drove
and cried out to God coming in and saying,
God, please just get me through these three meetings. We have 11, 3:30 and 7:30 services each about two hours long
or more and I'm just saying, God, please just get me
through another Sunday and God would just lift me
and I would have the grace to get through and minister to people even though inside I was just shaking. And I learned that when
you pray, God comes. I learned that when you have
no logical way to stand, God somehow when you pray
gives you a fresh feet and a fresh foundation. We have a prayer band in our church. It's more important
ministry than the 240 voice Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. There's a prayer band that not only prays through each service,
about 20 of them pray through each service on
Sunday while I'm preaching and ministering, they're in
a room locked away praying but now they pray for several years now from two in the afternoon
till six in the morning. In the church, there's people praying, every seven days a week, two in the afternoon
till six in the morning. If any of you have some need, you can just mail it to our church, somebody will pray for
it, three in the morning. It's an amazing thing,
how God honors that. Well, they begin to pray for
me and as God is my witness, I would sense myself at night sometimes or shaving in the morning,
I would feel God's grace just come underneath me
and begin to steady me and hold my emotions and I
hadn't even been thinking about God and I would say, "Lord, what is this that's
just come into my life?" Somebody's praying for you. Somebody's praying for you. Those people would be praying
for me, God bless them. Then my wife got ill, had
to have a hysterectomy and the hormonal imbalance
that she ended up with, my daughter's out of the house. The other two children,
I'm doing the best I can and now my wife is not talking
just about leaving New York, which she wanted to because
the enemy had told her, fine, start your churches and
influence people for Christ but I'm gonna have all your children. I've got one and I'm
coming for the other two. And my wife believed it and told me, "You can leave with me or
you can stay but I'm leaving "because he already has Chrissy "and I'm not losing my other
two kids, enough with this. "We can't do this." The atmosphere in the city, New York is a miserable place to be. I'm not there because I like it. I'm there because God put me there and then after the operation,
she's talking about she doesn't feel any
reason to live any longer. And I mean, what do you do? Your wife is flipping
out, you're preaching, you're doing all of these
things, I'm just telling you, oh, how wonderful it is to know
that at the throne of grace, no matter what's happening,
God can lift you and hold you. What a wonderful God. One November, after about
two years had passed, Chrissy was away, God and I
got totally alone in Florida and God spoke to me and said, I know you've been praying for Chrissy. The impressions I got were basically this, I don't wanna sound
mystical or sensational. I'm just gonna tell you from my heart. No more talking to Chrissy and no more talking to anyone else and no more money and no more
screaming and no more crying, drop it, let's make a covenant. You just tell me and I'll take care of it. And I told my wife, I'm
not gonna see my daughter until she's right and
that's my first child. My wife kept in touch
with her, months went by. Christmas, sad Christmas. Who wants presents when
your daughter is away? On a February night in the prayer meeting, my house shall be called
a house of prayer. We were all praying and calling
on God and waiting on God. Nobody in charge, no choir,
no speaker, who needs it? You have Jesus. It's amazing how wonderful He is and someone sent a note
up to me, a young lady who's sensitive to the Lord and she sent a note up through
an usher and the note said, "I feel deeply impressed
that we should stop "the prayer meeting and
pray for your daughter." People were praying all around
me, I looked at the note and said, God is this really you? I don't wanna be the center of attraction. People have their own needs
but I felt impressed it was. I stopped the prayer
meeting after a little while and everybody gathered together
in that room, in that church and held hands, over 1,000
people probably that night. And I called one of my
associate pastors in the front and he began to pray
and all I can tell you, and I don't know what your theology is and it really doesn't matter. I'm just gonna tell you what happened. You know, what Paul said,
I travail like a mother giving birth to Christ be formed on you. Well, I told the people my
daughter thinks up is down and down is up and she
thinks light is dark and dark is light and unless
God visits her and intervenes, my daughter is out there. And someone wants me to stop the meeting, so you could pray. My associate is gonna
come, he's gonna pray and suddenly it turned into a labor room. You ever hear women when
they're having labor? It's not pleasant but it
has some great results. (congregation laughing) And they began to pray,
I was overwhelmed by it. As God is my witness, I
was overwhelmed by it. I mean, they began to pray as if they went to the throne of grace like and now Satan, you will give up that girl. Jay, if you would just come, let's sing Pass Me Not, O
Gentle Savior and they prayed. I came home, my wife
wasn't there that night and over a cup of coffee at night, I told her, "Carol, it's over." She said, "What's over?" I said, "It's over. "If there's a God in heaven, "what I just experienced
tonight, it is over, finito. "It's over." Just about a day later, I was shaving and my wife burst into the bathroom and said, "Chrissy is here." I said, "Chrissy, I hadn't
seen her in four months." Chrissy and you better go down. I went down the steps and in
the wiping off the shave cream and on the kitchen floor was
my daughter on her knees. And then I walked in the kitchen, she grabbed at my pants,
like she pulled it. She was weeping and she said, "Daddy, I've sinned against God. "I've sinned against myself. "I've sinned against you and mommy. "Daddy, forgive me for
being rebellious, et cetera. "Daddy, daddy, it's different "but daddy who was praying for me? "Who was praying Tuesday night for me." "What Chrissy?" "What happened?" And she drew up to me and she said, "In the middle of the
night, God woke me up "and He showed me that I
was heading toward a chasm "and it had no bottom but
daddy, even as He showed me that "and showed me how awful I
was, He put his arms around me "and He showed me that He loved me "and He had a plan for my life "and daddy, I've made it right with God." And I could tell by her face
she was my daughter again, the one I had raised. Very soon God opened the door
and for the next four years, she directed the music
program at a Bible school. She married a man of God. They're both in the ministry today and God reminded me once again, my house shall be called a house of prayer because when you call I will answer. And the hard cases that
some of you are facing, I wanna tell you now, it won't
come from another seminar. Seminars have their limits,
all they can do is be an arrow that gets you to the throne of grace. But when you get there, watch out because God can do exceedingly
beyond what we ask a thing. I'm not being emotional,
I'm not being simplistic but we have too many technicians
now invading the church that are into methodology, the
answer is not in methodology. The answer is in the
power of the Holy Spirit. The answer is in the grace of God. (congregation clapping) Could you just close your eyes right now? They've given me permission
and I thank Bill and Gloria for this and Randy and
the folks who work here. ♪ Pass me not O gentle Savior ♪ Sing it with me ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While on others Thou art calling ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ ♪ Savior Savior ♪ ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While on others Thou art calling ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ While every eye is closed,
I wonder before we sing that song again and the lights are dim because the last thing we
need is any kind of spectacle or any sense of embarrassment for anyone. I have a feeling that there's
more than one mom or dad that could all too empathize
with what Carol and I went through and you
have a son or a daughter who's out there even some
of them are in church, but you know they're out there. When you consecrated and
dedicated them to God, this is not the end result
that you knew God had in mind. There may be totally away
from God and your house even or maybe you could just sense
this like a hardness, a crass. They're just going through
the motions and the tenderness that you know they're gonna need in life. Tenderness to God is not there. Instead of worrying or just
praying and crying about it, I'm gonna ask as we sing that song again, for every mom and dad or
every grandma or granddad, who has a grandchild,
that is a burden to you. You love them and they've
been reasoned with, they've been talked to,
they know the word of God. Now it's up to God, it's up to God, the Holy Spirit to get them. We're not God, we can just bring it to God or maybe you're a husband
or a wife and your spouse is not with you today
and is not with the Lord, serving the Lord and yet
you got married in Christ and now there's trouble in the house. Listen, those are the
real battles of life. This stuff in Haiti and this
stuff in the Persian Gulf, that's child's play compared
to the real battles of life. I'm gonna ask every
mom or dad, grandparent or husband or wife who identifies with anything I've just said, would you stand right
now wherever you are, and by standing, you're saying,
I'm bringing that situation to the throne of grace,
I'm not embarrassed. Just stand, that's it, don't be ashamed. ♪ Pass me not O gentle Savior ♪ Sing with me please. ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While on others Thou art calling ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ Just close your eyes,
everyone sing it, everyone. ♪ Savior Savior ♪ ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While on others Thou art calling ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ Father God, we come to you this morning. We sense your presence here. I've done my best to honor your word, God. We're not the ones who invented prayer. You're the one who called us to your side to the throne of grace and
Lord, for these moms and dads who are weeping some of them over that son or that daughter, we understand, God. For those grandparents who are
concerned about a grandchild or that marriage that's falling apart, God, we need your Grace. We need your mercy, oh, Lord. We need the Holy Spirit to
come and even as you've changed my daughter and countless other people who have been prayed for over
the decades and centuries, as Christians have called upon you, God, we ask you to do it again, oh, Lord. We're coming to the throne of grace, we don't have the strength to
do it, our money won't do it. We're not smart enough to do it. We can't finesse it, we
need an outright invasion of the Holy Spirit into
that person's life. Wake them up in the middle
of the night, oh, Lord. While they're driving in a car, let them feel the glory of the Lord. While they're taking a shower,
reminding them of verses that were taught to them
when they were children. But God, we're not gonna
hand them over to the enemy. We're gonna fight the good fight of faith. We're gonna pray and
we're gonna keep praying and after we pray, we're gonna pray again. We won't let you go,
Lord unless you bless us. Unless you touch these
situations by your grace. And Lord, I pray that there'll
be a new aroma and fragrance of prayer in all of
our lives as we go back to our several homes. Oh, God let prayer
meetings begin in churches. Let prayer meetings begin
in family altars and homes. Let people see God all of us afresh that when we call upon you,
you're faithful to answer us. Stop us from being so rushed
and so busy and we're learning and never coming really to
the knowledge of the truth. Work on our hearts and not
just our heads, oh God. Make us men and women who
live at the throne of grace, tasting and saying how good you are. While every eye is still closed, I just wanna sing it one more time and if someone is standing
next to you or near you, just look up briefly,
put your hand right now on their arm or their shoulder, they need your encouragement. We all understand what they're feeling. Would you sing it with me? ♪ Pass me not O gentle Savior ♪ ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While on others Thou art calling ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ Let's all stand and sing. ♪ Savior Savior ♪ ♪ Hear my humble cry ♪ ♪ While on others Thou art calling ♪ ♪ Do not pass me by ♪ Based on the verses I've
read, how many of you believe that God has heard our prayers today? Could you lift up your hands? Let's put our hands
together and just give God-- (congregation clapping) - Hi, I'm Bill Gaither and
I can't tell you the joy that Gloria and I have
had in this very room, sitting in heavenly places with some of the greatest
people on this earth. Moments of wonderful fellowship, beautiful times of praise and worship, joy, laughter and tears and
to try to capture it somehow on film so that you can
enjoy it there in your home. Many of you who have asked are
there other videos available? Well, there are, just
call this toll-free number for more information. ♪ Well now this train is
bound for glory this train ♪ - Sing it ♪ This train is bound
for glory this train ♪ - Y'all heard the sound now, come on.
