Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
father we're praying god that you will be merciful lord even in the midst of your judgments even in the midst of your wrath even on what we know is coming to america lord we pray that you will remember mercy and that you will revive your work in the midst of those years lord we ask you to help us understand what it means to deserve wrath and to get mercy lord we pray that today in jesus name amen amen hallelujah needless to say the lord changed my message last night so shall we all turn to habakkuk chapter 3. not too often you hear preachers say turn to habakkuk and i've heard it pronounced two different ways habakkuk not quite sure small book in the old testament but it's got a powerful message that i think we need to understand because it's about to happen to america and those of you that have been in church here know especially in the last year or so that the lord has been speaking and confirming to me and to many others that judgment is coming to america god's wrath is coming to the united states now here's the good news even in the midst of god's wrath and judgments if you cry out for mercy and the people of god cry out for mercy even in the midst of that god can show his mercy to people and in unusual and and powerful ways and that's why i'm going to share this this morning because it needs to be our prayer and i'm going to show you where in the bible that when times of judgment were coming or they were there that god instructed his people to cry out and pray for mercy i'm going to give you a brief definition of what mercy is this morning before we go any further but mercy is really what a lot of people call grace grace is not great people call grace unmerited favor but that's really not the definition of grace it's really the definition of mercy mercy is undeserved unmerited compassion and favor
and forgiveness from god when we deserve his judgment and wrath can anybody say mercy is good there's not a soul living there's not a christian living i don't care how godly and how anointed and how holy a christian may be living their lives they still need mercy you know why because none of us do it perfect and the moment you start thinking that you don't need mercy as a christian you have moved into pride and that is america's problem and that is the church's problem because you know what we have in america right now in the american church is we have all these people thinking that because of god's grace because of jesus dying on the cross and because they simply believe in him that they are okay that everything's okay and basically it's exactly what jesus said was the attitude of the lukewarm church we're re rich and increased with goods we're blessed and we have need of nothing and they didn't know and jesus told them he said you don't even know and this is where america is and this is why god's gonna have to allow america to suffer some judgments in wrath because americans will not wake up and see that you know what we have been blessed but the blessing is now turning into a curse prosperity and peace and freedom now have led us to laziness and sin and unrighteousness and compromise and a false sense of security and so god in his mercy actually let me say this and i've said it before i'm going to say it again but actually god's judgments even when he pours out his wrath and his judgments and even his discipline on christians even when he pours out that on on his people it is still mercy because it is it is even sent to wake us up it is set to shake us out of our apathy lethargy out of our lukewarmness out of our compromise and i believe that this morning when i was praying god was showing me something that even in his wrath in his in his fierce anger and i will say that plainly in his fierce anger toward americans and the american church for its compromise and sin and lukewarmness and false teachings and all the crazy stuff that's going on in the american church even in his wrath for in america over abortion over pornography over over all of our our our worship of
money and worship of of of of you know entertainment idols in all of that god still looks upon this nation with great love and great compassion and a great desire to see us return to him he doesn't want to bring the wrath and the destruction and the pain that's going to come he doesn't want to but we have left him no alternative this is what people don't know god's wrath and judgment that is his last that's his last thing he has to get our attention if we won't listen in a time of peace and prosperity and blessing he will send wrath and judgment and correction and sometimes it is severe and i marvel there are people out there and i see them on facebook facebook's driving me crazy right now i think i'm going to take a break because there's so many insane people who call themselves christians insane and they have really got a concept i even read some stuff last night i'm like they've got a concept that somehow god is not a god of judgment anymore in the new testament and i'm sitting here thinking have you read the book of revelation have you read the book of second peter have you read the book of second thessalonians have you read the book of matthew maybe the gospel and i'm sitting here going he's not a god of wrath you know a lot of people talk about jesus prophesied in luke 19 he prophesied in luke 19 that jerusalem would be completely destroyed the temple would be torn down because they rejected him now guess what that judgment and he said it in matthew 22 because he gave a parable talking about it and he said that the lord would be angry and send forth his armies to burn up their city [Music] well that happened in 70 a.d 70 a.d was new testament time right and god said i sent titus see we don't like to think about god like that he said i sent titus to destroy jerusalem and the temple and to burn up the city and to kill a million jews and to scatter them to the four winds for 1878 years where they were persecuted even in the countries where they were scattered to six million jews in europe were killed in world war ii we forget now listen to me closely we have this dichotomy with god as much as he is a god of mercy and love
he is a god of judgment and wrath it's hard at times for us to reconcile those two but let me say this here is the scripture it's plain and simple and this is this is the good news of the gospel that god is rich in mercy to those who turn to him and ask to those who humble themselves and say i have sinned i have grieved you i have disobeyed you i have disappointed you god i have hurt you i've heard other people to to those who will say god have mercy on me a sinner jesus forgive me i want to change i want you and i want to do it your way [Music] the bible is clear god is abundant in mercy he will forgive every sin he will wash it away the bible says and throw it in the sea of forgetfulness and remember it no more and make you a son or daughter of god with a ring and a robe and put you in right standing with him it's amazing that's what the blood of jesus on the cross and his resurrection bought and paid for us the opportunity the possibility to even though we deserve wrath to get mercy amen that's good news but guess what not everyone does that not everyone humbles themselves not everyone repents not everyone returns to him humbly and says forgive me lord [Music] i'm gonna let go of the sin and follow you not everyone does that so there's many christians in the world right now who refuse to repent return to the lord and there's many nations that are just god hating nations hello let me say this you go back you go back to the to the time of of abraham and we're going to get to habakkuk and forgot but we go back to the time of abraham and it's something that god said to abraham when he put him in that deep sleep and he told him he said he said your your people are going to be slaves 400 years and then i'm going to bring them out with a mighty arm but what did he tell him he said because the iniquity the iniquity of the amorites are not yet full every nation every nation that's ever been on the face of the earth every nation has what uh what the bible calls a cup of iniquity everybody know what iniquity is
sin injustice when the cup of iniquity gets full the wrath of god is poured out on that nation it's the way it is and he and you have to remember god didn't even spare his own nation israel and that sets the stage for this right here the book of habakkuk all right this is when god was about to judge his own people the nation of israel with nebuchadnezzar in the babylonian invasion and he shows habakkuk what what he's going to do and that's what he does he shows prophets ahead of time what he's going to do here's a good verse for everybody to learn in here amos 3 7 says this the lord will do nothing but he reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets god reveals what he's going to do before he does it and that's what he did with the backup he told him the babylonians are going to come and they're going you know they weren't known as nice people you know the united states we're an awesome military and we have had some isolated incidents of soldier here there perpetrating some atrocities or some war crimes and things of that nature but we're not known for that but folks there there are armies out there they don't care they'll kill men women children they'll rape pillage they don't care and that was the the babylonians they were ruthless brutal people and in the first part of the book habakkuk is kind of arguing with the lord why do you let why are you going to let the wicked come in and punish those that are more righteous than he is but see the problem was is that god requires more out of his people am i right in there a verse somewhere in the gospels it says to whom much is given much is required all right but habakkuk 3 this is what we're going to get to this is what after he has this discussion with the lord this is his prayer to god and this should be our prayer you should pray this every day verse one says the prayer of habakkuk the prophet upon signath o lord i have heard thy speech and was afraid see he heard god telling him that judgment and wrath was coming on even the people of god he said i've heard your speech and i was afraid how many of you have been afraid at some
of the stuff i've preached in here and talked about the end times because if it's okay to be honest raise your hand how many of you have been afraid it's bothered you it's okay me too and you see the prophet said lord i heard what you said i was afraid oh lord here's the prayer oh lord revive your work in the midst of the years this is one of the famous revival prayers lord revive your work revive sin revival revive your work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known and he's talking about in the years of judgment and then he says this in wrath remember mercy in the midst of your wrath remember mercy in the midst of the years of judgment and wrath god revive your work sin revival show forth yourself strong in your mercy in your power to save people to heal people to deliver people lord revive your work even in the midst of those years that should be our prayer listen i believe even if the russians attack us even if the chinese attack us even if they launch all their missiles that every single missile will be either stopped or allowed to go forth where it's going by the hand of god he will still have his way and this is why it is so important for us to pray you know there was a church not too long ago i read the article and this is just to show you how god's hand works even in the midst of persecution even in the midst of judgment even in the midst of of of horrible things but but in um i can't remember if it was kenya or somewhere over there or pakistan but anyway there was a church there and i think it was kenya anyway there was a church there full of people i mean a big church several hundred people they had guards out front armed guards and some muslims attacked the guards on a sunday morning killed the guards took their guns took two hand grenades pulled the pins and threw two hand grenades into the church full of people and then started shooting here's here's what's amazing one of the hand grenades didn't go off the other one went off and only injured one person and i think only in a in a church of several hundred people i think only a few died now did god allow that did god do it no god didn't do it the devil sends people like that to persecute and murder but god allowed it because god didn't promise us that he would protect us from all persecution but see he had his way see what i mean
two grenades in a church full of people it should have killed dozens and dozens of people and opening fire with an ak-47 should have killed a bunch of people and that's what i'm getting at that's why your prayers are so important that's why your prayers are so powerful that's why you need to pray for people people that are stubborn people that aren't listening and for this country because even though god is going to judge this nation even though i believe it is coming and is coming soon you mark my words it is coming soon i believe that god is going to revive his work in the midst of those years matter of fact i believe we're going to see some of the greatest moving of the holy spirit we've ever seen in our in our personal lives we're going to see god save people that we're not listening we're going to see the power of the holy spirit touch people that have been stubborn and rebellious and deceived and and just just indulging their sin in their life we're going to see some people come out of that because the judgments of god and the wrath of god is going to start to wake them up and god's mercy they're going to cry out for mercy they're finally their pride is going to be brought down and only the humble can cry out for mercy i was so moved this morning almost to tears in prayer because i'm going to be honest with you when you have a prophetic call on your life and you see the things that i see sometimes you can get very depressed and discouraged and and almost dismissive it's like i'm sick lord they don't listen you know nobody's listening everybody's deceived everybody wants to play church they want to say i'm covered by grace and living sin they want to all these crazy stuff and i'm like what's the use you know like all these facebook nuts what's the point and then the lord just reminds me this morning he's like no no son pray for mercy let me tell you what praying for mercy if enough people pray for mercy and the more people that pray for mercy over our nation the less severe the judgments will be they still will come but i believe i believe and listen this i believe while there's only let me say this this i know i'm people listen to these messages and people we talk to people all over the world but for america let me let me say this i believe why we're spoken about i mean
here we are one of the most the most wealthy one of the most powerful nations on the face of the earth and yet we're only mentioned a little hint here or there in the bible and there's volumes of stuff in the bible about iran who is persia elam which is iran all these things about iran all these things about oman and jordan and names all these countries right but little is spoken about what would be one of the most powerful and influential countries the most christian country on the face of the earth at the time jesus or near the time jesus would return why do you think so little was spoken about us because i think god didn't predetermine anything for us it's kind of like it's going to be as bad or not as bad as you allow it to be what i'm getting at is for the united states of america i don't think god didn't write the final the final thing in stone some nations are totally destroyed a matter of fact i found a prophecy in ezekiel i didn't even know about like we're going to see egypt we're going to see egypt completely destroyed there's a prophecy in ezekiel 29 that says egypt will be so destroyed that a man will not be able to walk through egypt for 40 years that's never happened before sounds kind of like some type of nuclear fallout problem doesn't it i couldn't figure it out for a long time why egypt wasn't mentioned in in the gog magog war in ezekiel then i found i mean in ezekiel 38 but then i found him in ezekiel 29 all these things these very specific prophecies are about to happen damascus will soon be destroyed but the united states big fat question mark now if you all think that i'm the only one that's prophesied or believed god showed him about the destruction and judgment coming to america i'm not david wilkerson preached it for years before he passed away many others have seen uh just to let you know i mean i've got some people that are friends of mine on facebook that are very godly people very praying people very prophetic people that i've never met in person and they've shared with me some things in private but one one day last week or the week before anyway
i had three different people three different people that i know were godly christians tell me of dreams where the missiles they saw the missiles coming in and hitting the united states and listen to this two of them were it was four of them two of them were charismatics one is the presbyterian one's baptist [Music] and i had a dream of it when i was 16 years old [Music] so god's revealing some things to to to prophetic people and to just to people who are going to listen god will have his way and never think for a minute that your prayers are not important there are people who there are people who don't believe i mean i i'm in awe there's people that think that this is a long way off oh you're just one of them crazy doomsday preachers really well we'll just see about that won't we i just posted an article the other day where the the man who uh been one of the chief leaders of the israeli government for many many years he was basically the head of their cia and their intelligence agency their nuclear power agency meeting their nuclear weapons he's uh anyway he said that the next 50 days will be the most the most serious days in israel's history since the 73 war and the 73 war they nearly lost and they were almost wiped out the next 50 days so anyway let's read this again in wrath oh lord verse 2 i have heard your speech and was afraid oh lord revive your work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy now i want to i want you to turn back to the book of joel and show you that god basically repeats the same thing through the prophet joel are you there yet joel chapter two and go to verse one we know that this is uh you know many times the bible is a
two-fold prophetic thing and sometimes even the prophecies the prophecies one prophecy will be have two prophecies in it basically meaning it would apply to something that was happening then or about to happen in that time but then there are hints there's little addendums within it that show it's also going to happen again in years to come we know that this is about the last days here or the time we're living in because this is what he said look at verse two verse one in chapter two he says blow you the trumpet in zion sound an alarm in my holy mountain let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the lord cometh for it is nigh at hand and the day of the lord always is a reference to the end time judgment he said it was be a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness as the morning spread upon the mountains a great people and a strong there have not been ever the like neither shall there be any more after it even to the years of many generations a fire will devour before them and i believe these this is speaking of the many armies of the world and the antichrist that will come together in the wars that are coming he says he said a flame will burn and the land will be like a garden of eden in front of them and behind them a desolate wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them so he's telling us the wars that are coming will affect the entire world he says the appearance of them is as the appearance of horses as the horses they shall run like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains they shall leap like the noise of a flame of fire they shall devour the stubble as a strong people set in battle array before their face of the people shall be much pained all faces shall gather blackness and then he just goes on and on to talk about this he look at verse 10 he talks about the earth shall quake this is the prophecy of earthquakes in the end i mean just the other day in california in a 24-hour period there were 800 earthquakes it's never happened before he said the earth shall quake before them and the heavens shall tremble and the sun and the moon shall be dark and the stars shall withdraw their shining so this is again a reference to matthew 24 and the second coming of jesus but look at what he says in verse 12 he says therefore also now saith the lord turn ye to me with all of your heart with fasting with weeping with mourning and rend your heart and not your garments and turn to the lord your god for he is gracious and merciful you hear that turn to the lord your god for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil or get him to turn away from some of this evil that is determined do you see that he says who knows who knows if he will return and repent or change his mind about some things and leave a blessing behind him even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the lord your god he says blow you the trumpet and zion
sanctify it fast call a solemn assembly gather the people together and i want you to skip look at verse 17. he says let the priests and the ministers of the lord weep between the porch and the altar and let them say this spare thy people o lord give not thy heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the people where is their god then if we will do this he says then the lord will be jealous for his land in pity his people yea the lord will answer and say unto his people behold i will send you corn and wine and oil and you will be satisfied and i will make you no more reproach among the healing but i'll remove far off from you the northern army now i'm not going to keep reading this you can read it for yourselves the whole thing later on but the point is even though there's a decree of judgment even though there is a decree from the lord through the prophets that there is wrath and judgment coming he says get on your face get to the lord turn to him with all your heart with fasting with weeping with mourning cry out and say spare your people lord have mercy upon your people lord have mercy upon this nation lord we know that your judgment wrath is coming on the entire world really lord have mercy upon us spare your people listen the lord we could be listen to me we could get invaded by the chinese we could get invaded by the chinese they could have a full invasion plant through california in different places they could have a full invasion forest plan but god even in the bible we see that sometimes that israel was surrounded by armies and it looks like they were going to be wiped out and then god would do something in their land or cause an army to come against their land and the whole army would depart from israel you hear what i'm saying god is able to move armies in he's able to move armies out amen he's able to knock down a nuclear missile he's able to let it through you hear me he's able to to have our authorities catch the terrorists or he's able to let the terrorists succeed you see what i'm saying but i believe the key factor in all of this is not what the devil wants to do but what god's people will pray and ask god to do you hear me we can change we can change things through prayer we can change things through repentance we can change things through crying out to god for mercy for ourselves for our families it doesn't come let me say this it doesn't come from ignoring
the fact that god is angry over sin and unrighteousness we have to acknowledge the truth and that he is not somehow being mean or unfair to judge the world for its wickedness and even to judge the church world for its wickedness here's what's said everything the world's doing is in the church all the pornography that the world's into christians are into all the abortions being had by women out in the world women in the church are having nancy knew that from working with the pregnancy resource center wouldn't believe how many christian women go have an abortion now the homosexuals they're not just on bourbon street they're playing the piano and singing in the choirs and we won't even talk about adultery and fornication see we got no room and let me just say this this is why church folks christians everyone listening to this church folks everywhere we got no room to point at them do the unsaved need to deal with their sin and ask jesus into their lives and and need to deal with it yes they do and we got to talk to them about it but let me say this and and i've got this this vile wretched sinner who i've become friends with on facebook i mean he likes to mock preachers but he likes me you know why he likes me for the reason a lot of christians don't like me he likes me because i'm willing to say what's wrong with the church and what's wrong with christianity he likes me because he he's he goes you know this is a christian who doesn't have his head stuck in the sand about his own people and so he's listening to me you see we can't we can't deal with them unless we show them we're willing to deal with our own people amen you know he goes off about the way benny hen is fundraising on tv thousand dollar seed for this anointing and all that junk you know what i tell him i said you're right it's horrible talked about another guy leroy jenkins he was going off on him and how he's you know fundraising you know prostituting the anointing of god and i was like i agree with you
horrible wretched he's like wow i got a pastor agrees with me he told me so man i'm gonna check your stuff out it's just being honest you know hey i get defriended on facebook by more christians than i do unsafe people ain't that right happened yesterday they love me one minute and hate me the next you know but people will listen you know and here's what's interesting just to give you an example this guy said this to me he said he said me and you he how did he put it he said man he said man you were like polar opposites you know he's like he's like he's like you know you're like the good side i'm the evil side and i said you know what god gave me wisdom what to tell him because you know what i said he just came to me immediately i said no brother i said we're all evil i said the only difference between me and you is i have jesus inside of me to help me not let the evil that's in there run crazy and do whatever that's the only difference between me and you he didn't say a word back did he no argument because you know what that showed him i don't think i'm better than you bud if i didn't have jesus i'd be just like you and even having jesus sometimes i want to be like him the flesh does not want to live for jesus but i don't care you know the flesh doesn't want any part of it so we got some people to share the gospel with amen and i i want to say i need your prayers a lot there's a lot of spiritual warfare going on and i know i've said for a few weeks i've been praying about it and thinking okay am i going this week but i've been about going to the campus but i've been just trying to pray it out and know god's timing but i know it's time now so need your prayers lots going on lots going on beyond i mean even within our little church there's a lot of things going on i know there's struggles going on in in different ones i know what you're struggling with i know some of you need to talk to me and you won't but you know that's up to y'all but i do know when you're struggling with something
i do know when you're discouraged and depressed i know when you're offended with me or my wife i know when you're offended with either somebody else and i pray for you all the time um so we still got a lot of business to take care of in here but i do know this i do know that for y'all to hang in here through all the stuff we've been through i believe we got a good foundation now and i believe we can start reaching some people amen just like all those people showed up for prayer wednesday night freaked me out you know and god touched them too every single one of them told me so afterwards how the presence of god touched them at prayer wednesday night so what i'm getting at is let's keep praying be people of prayer this this is one of the things give yourself time in prayer to pray for every to pray for your church family to pray for the people around you that are lost or backslidden to pray for your nation to pray for mercy i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna end with this one verse here second peter chapter two it's a verse that our brother paul here quoted in a presbyterian church and nearly got thrown out one verse shattered their entire theological foundation but here's the verse in the context he's talking about the end time judgment of god and then in the middle of all that in second peter 3 verse 9 he says this the lord is not slack concerning his promise of judgment not slack said he is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but he is long-suffering to us we're not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance but the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heaven shall pass away with the great noise and the elements shall melt with the fervent heat and the earth and also the works that are therein shall be burned up seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming day of god wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with the fervent heat so in the context of of of
the apostle peter talking about the judgment and wrath of god that's going to be poured out on the in the day of the lord in the in the end days he says the lord is not willing that any should perish it is not his will it is not his desire and i'm gonna tell you i believe one of the reasons that he's given us so long i mean think really when did things turn bad in america real bad in the 1960s drug sex and rock and roll free love everything that happened that's when america went down the tooth matter of fact one of the prophecies that i heard from from kenneth hagin back then was that the lord said to him america is receiving its last call in the 1960s and i think the prophecy was 1950. think about that but the lord is long-suffering merciful so everybody say this with me before we close i think we're going to sing this song again here but everybody say this with me god is a god of love and mercy he's also a god of judgment and wrath my prayers make a difference let's stand hallelujah