Participants:
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR002007S
|
00:02 I'm John Carter in Moscow.
00:04 In Havana, Cuba. 00:07 Now in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. 00:10 I'm John Carter in Petra. 00:13 Right here in Communist China. 00:16 Reporting from India. 00:18 Hi, I'm John Carter in the Solomon Islands. 00:21 I'm John Carter in Soweto. 00:24 From El Salvador. 00:26 I'm John Carter in Sydney, Australia. 00:30 Now here's John Carter with today's message. 00:37 Hello friend, I'm John Carter, all by myself alone. 00:41 In this big studio, no people, no camera people, 00:46 by myself alone with a little tiny crew 00:48 upstairs led by my son, David. 00:51 And we're bringing you this message 00:53 because it's so important. 00:55 Now, have you ever felt 00:58 really, really anxious? 01:02 Have you ever felt... 01:04 I just don't know what the future holds for me, 01:06 I don't know if I'm even going to live. 01:10 There's a lot of fear out there today in America 01:15 because tens of thousands of people, 01:18 our brothers and our sisters have died. 01:22 And then we've got all these doctors and nurses 01:25 and essential workers 01:29 who are putting their lives on the line. 01:32 And before we start today, 01:33 we're going to have a prayer for you 01:36 and we're going to have a prayer for all 01:37 those suffering from COVID-19. 01:40 And we're going to have a prayer for the doctors 01:43 and the nurses and the essential workers. 01:46 Let's pray together. 01:48 Our Father in heaven, 01:49 we thank You today for Your great grace. 01:52 We thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ 01:54 through whom everything is possible. 01:58 We pray today in the precious 02:00 mighty name of Jesus for the doctors, 02:03 and the nurses, and the essential workers 02:07 who are putting their lives on the line today 02:10 as they battle this demon from hell called COVID-19. 02:15 Bless them today and preserve them. 02:18 And we pray that you will bring to our hearts 02:20 today a message of hope and courage and peace 02:24 that we shall know that in God 02:26 we shall not be afraid but we shall overcome. 02:31 And we pray this prayer in Jesus' mighty name. 02:36 Amen and amen. 02:39 Well, my friend, God bless you and welcome to the program. 02:42 Today, I'm going to talk about 02:45 our hiding place. 02:48 I've had a gun stuck in my back. 02:53 Have you? 02:55 It could be a rather scary experience, 02:58 seemed to be a million miles from home 03:00 walking down a jungle pathway in Africa 03:04 with a gun stuck in my back. 03:08 I'm going to tell you how I found a hiding place 03:10 because today I'm going to talk about 03:12 the hiding place that God has for you 03:15 and that God has for me 03:16 and God has for all of us if we will only accept it. 03:21 I've also spent a rather, 03:23 I call it a scary night 03:27 up on the Golan Heights. 03:29 That's about the most dangerous place in the world, 03:31 it's between Syria and Israel 03:33 and I was stuck there one night. 03:37 But I found a hiding place, 03:38 I'm gonna talk to you about the hiding place today 03:41 because there is a hiding place 03:43 where we can run and get away from our fears. 03:46 Life is full of situations that are full of fear 03:51 and uncertainty but the main thing, 03:54 my friend, is not what is going on outside of us 03:57 but what is going on inside of us. 04:00 And I want to tell you today how you can have peace, 04:03 and hope, and security, 04:05 and how you can find a hiding place. 04:08 COVID-19, it's not good, it's not good. 04:12 Hundreds of thousands around the world have died. 04:16 In America nobody expected this would happen in America 04:21 with tens and tens of thousands of people have died. 04:26 I'm living right on the very edge 04:28 of the great city of Los Angeles 04:31 where many, many people have died, 04:33 but it is nothing compared with the great city of New York 04:38 where thousands and thousands 04:40 and thousands of people have died, 04:42 I say pray please for the city of New York. 04:47 Anxiety is at a very high level. 04:50 Now, I can't even get out of my house, 04:52 not even to have a haircut. 04:56 Folks say to me 04:57 when you're gonna get a haircut? 04:59 I guess, I'm gonna get a haircut 05:00 when the government allows me to go 05:01 and get my haircut. 05:03 You say, well, why doesn't Beverley cut your hair? 05:05 Well, Beverley doesn't want to try to do that 05:07 and I think she might do okay, 05:09 but I think I'll go to the haircutter just, 05:12 just the same. 05:13 Anxiety is at a very high level, you know it. 05:17 Monday, April 20 this year, 05:21 2020, oil prices fell to minus 05:25 almost 37 dollars, minus 37. 05:28 Unparalleled in the history of oil. 05:33 Now they have somewhat rebounded, 05:36 but nobody knows what is going to happen. 05:39 This was scary for some. 05:42 Now I've been predicting an economic earthquake. 05:45 If you watched some of my videos 05:47 you'll see where I talk about 05:49 the coming world financial collapse. 05:52 I believe it is going to happen but I want to tell you 05:55 when it comes, 05:56 we are going to have a hiding place. 06:01 I didn't believe in sensationalism, 06:04 but I do believe in the prophecies of the Bible 06:07 and the Bible tells me it's going to get worse 06:10 before it gets better, 06:12 but it's going to get much better 06:15 when Jesus comes, that's the good news. 06:18 Now as you know 06:19 I don't believe in Darwinian theories. 06:21 The Darwinian theory of evolution 06:24 that says everything gets better 06:26 and better and better, 06:29 that seems to be a failed philosophy, 06:32 don't you think? 06:33 Things are not getting better. 06:35 The Bible says things are going to get worse 06:38 before they get better. 06:40 And they're going to get better 06:43 not because of the vices of Darwinian theorists 06:47 and so forth, they're going to get better 06:49 when God comes, when Christ returns. 06:53 I believe that Christ is coming. 06:56 My theme text, here it is, Psalms 32:7. 07:02 I'm going to take my Bible, 07:04 the New King James Version 07:07 and I'm going to turn to Psalm 32:7, 07:13 and here it is, brother and sister. 07:17 "You are my hiding place." 07:19 God is my hiding place. 07:21 "You preserve me from trouble, 07:23 you shall surround me with songs of deliverance." 07:26 God is my hiding place. 07:30 Now, there's another text I want to read to you. 07:32 I'm going to turn over now to Psalm 119. 07:37 I think it is Psalm, 07:39 where it is, where you're hiding? 07:41 Psalm 119:114. 07:46 This is a pretty long Psalm. 07:48 Goodness me, Psalm 119:114, 07:54 "You are my hiding place 07:57 and my shield." 08:00 I've got a shield. 08:02 "I hope in Your word." 08:04 When everything falls apart, God is our hiding place. 08:08 Now there is a terrific text 08:10 I want to read to you 08:11 and I'm going to turn to Isaiah 32:1, 2. 08:15 "Look, a righteous king is coming," that's Christ. 08:20 "Honest princes will rule under him." 08:23 Here it is, listen to this. 08:25 "He will shelter Israel from the storm and the wind." 08:30 He's a shelter, 08:32 "He will refresh her as a river in the desert." 08:37 He's going to give us sustenance in the desert. 08:41 "He's going to refresh her as a river in the desert 08:44 and as the cool shadow of a large rock in a hot 08:49 and a weary land." 08:51 When it is hot, 08:53 He is going to be our cooling shade, 08:58 He is going to be our hiding place. 09:02 I want you to know this, brother, sister, 09:04 you can have a hiding place today even when 09:08 COVID-19 is ravaging the world 09:11 and hundreds of thousands of people are dying 09:14 and when the stock exchange 09:16 is collapsing and oil is tumbling 09:19 and hundreds. 09:21 millions, millions here in America, 09:23 30 million people have lost their jobs. 09:26 I want to say to you today, there's good news for you, 09:29 God is our hiding place. 09:34 And my hiding place, my friend, is found, listen to this, 09:37 wait for it, my hiding place is found 09:40 not in the words of the politicians, 09:45 they need our prayers, sure. 09:48 But my hiding place is not found 09:49 in the words of the politicians. 09:51 Are you listening to me today? 09:53 My hiding place is found 09:55 in the precious promises of God. 09:59 Now I want to read a text to you, 2 Peter 1:4. 10:04 2 Peter, "By which have been 10:10 given to us exceedingly," 10:13 that's big, that's expansive. 10:16 "Exceedingly great, 10:19 exceedingly great and precious promises, 10:22 that through these you may be partakers 10:25 of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption 10:29 that is in the world through lust." 10:31 The Bible tells me that we have 10:34 great and precious promises. 10:38 And when things are filled with fear and anxiety, 10:44 we can go to these great 10:47 and precious promises 10:49 and we can have our hiding place. 10:52 I'm here today by myself, 10:54 all by myself alone in our television studio, 10:58 no camera people 10:59 but God is with us and I'm here to tell you, 11:02 we can have a hiding place. 11:04 I'm going to tell you some stories. 11:08 Didn't get these out of a book. 11:11 On the whole, these are things that I know are true 11:14 because they happen to me. 11:17 These are events 11:19 that powerfully influence my life. 11:22 I'm going to take you back a few years. 11:26 I got to take you back to the days 11:28 when I was a boy student 11:30 at Avondale College in Australia. 11:35 I can think it was wintertime, 11:37 it was, Avondale can get pretty cold. 11:41 It was cold, most of us were suffering from the flu, 11:47 we were feeling fatigued, 11:49 were feeling sick and then we had the accountant 11:53 who was continually after us 11:55 because we were behind on our fees, 3fs, 11:59 flu, fatigue, and fees. 12:03 I don't know which one was the worst, 12:05 but I do know this, one night feeling very low 12:10 I went out on the Avondale campus 12:14 and I looked up into the stars. 12:18 I looked up into the face of God. 12:23 Do you know how many stars there are, brother? 12:27 Well, back there in those days there were a lot of stars, 12:31 we knew of, but nothing like today. 12:37 We knew that they were, there was the Milky Way system, 12:41 but as for other galaxies we didn't know much about it. 12:45 We now know today besides the Milky Way system 12:48 of which we are a tiny part, 12:51 there are 2 trillion galaxies in the cosmos. 12:56 They're the ones that 12:58 we can actually see with telescopes. 13:01 That's 2,000 billion, can you comprehend that 13:06 in each, each galaxy is composed of at least 13:09 a hundred billion blazing suns. 13:12 If you like mathematics, 13:14 you can try to work it out 13:16 and find out how many suns, 13:18 stars there are in the universe. 13:21 You can't say the words, a huge, huge number. 13:27 And there's something else, 13:28 astronomers, now you got to listen hard to get this one, 13:32 not too many people know this, 13:34 I'm just gonna share this with you in confidence. 13:38 You ready for this? 13:39 Most of the universe, 13:41 99.5 plus percent of the universe 13:46 is made up of dark matter or dark energy, 13:49 that stuff that we don't know what it is. 13:54 And you can't see it, 13:55 you can't look at it with a telescope. 13:58 So the stuff that we can actually see out 14:00 there all of these vast, vast galaxies, 14:05 that's the stuff we can see 14:08 and it's less than half percent, 14:10 less than half of 1% of the whole of the universe. 14:15 Did you get this? 14:17 Have I lost you? 14:20 People say, "Well, if we get bigger telescopes," 14:22 now you won't gonna see it 14:24 because it's made up of stuff that cannot be seen. 14:27 And nobody to this point in time, 14:29 nobody knows what it is. 14:31 But what we can say 14:33 all of these trillions of galaxies 14:39 that's less than half of 1% 14:42 of what the universe is composed of, 14:44 how big is God. 14:46 I didn't know this 14:47 when I was a student at Avondale College, 14:49 but when I looked up into the stars, 14:53 I said to myself, "How big God is? 14:57 What a big God He is. 14:59 How mighty He is. 15:00 And if God is such a big God, 15:02 then surely He can take care of this poor, 15:06 skinny student who's got the flu and fatigue 15:11 and he's got problems with his fees." 15:14 I want to turn over here 15:16 to the Book of Isaiah Chapter 40. 15:17 Now, I want you folks listen to this text 15:20 because this tells me that you and I have a hiding place. 15:24 Isaiah 40:26, it says, 15:28 Isaiah 40:26, you ready? 15:31 "Lift up your eyes on high, 15:33 and see who created these things, 15:36 who brings out their hosts by number 15:38 He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might 15:42 and the strength of His power, not one is missing." 15:44 The Bible says, "Look up to the heavens, 15:46 look up to God, look up to the stars." 15:49 Verse 29, "He gives power to the weak. 15:53 And to those who have no might He increases strength." 15:56 You feeling down today? 15:58 He wants to give you, He wants to give you strength. 16:00 "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, 16:03 and the young men shall utterly fall, 16:05 but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." 16:10 Are you listening? 16:11 "They shall mount up with wings like eagles, 16:15 they shall run and not be weary, 16:18 they shall walk and not faint." 16:19 That's my hiding place. 16:21 The God who made the stars. 16:24 This great God Who made the stars, 16:26 the Bible tells me became a man, 16:29 His name is Jesus Christ, 16:31 He died for our sins on the cross, 16:34 He's coming again, He wants to live in you 16:38 and He wants you to live in Him 16:40 and He wants to be your rock. 16:45 He wants to be your river, He wants to be your shelter, 16:50 from the tempest He wants to be your hiding place. 16:56 It is the truth. Here is the next story. 17:00 I was in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 17:03 been holding a campaign in this tremendous building. 17:07 It's a huge place, 17:08 it's about 40,000-50,000, had it packed, 17:11 but I got sick when I was there. 17:14 Don't often get sick, but I got sick. 17:16 So they rushed me into hospital. 17:19 That's not a fun experience to be rushed 17:22 to a Russian hospital in a Russian ambulance. 17:27 But they rushed me off, you know, 17:29 we had these tremendous meetings, 17:31 we saw thousands of people come to God but I got a sick, 17:34 so I'm rushed off to the hospital. 17:35 Then the night comes when I get terribly sick. 17:40 The doctor is incapacitated, you know why? 17:44 Here he could not help at all. 17:47 I was there by myself alone, didn't even have a nurse. 17:50 My blood pressure 17:51 was dropping in a dangerous way. 17:54 I was able to take my blood pressure. 17:58 Nobody was there. 18:00 And I thought to myself, what's going to happen 18:02 but I tell you something, 18:05 I started to repeat to myself Psalm 23, 18:09 "Even though I walk through 18:10 the valley of the shadow of death, 18:12 I will fear no evil." 18:16 It became my hiding place. 18:19 I could jump inside the text 18:21 and I was safe and I was secure. 18:24 I want to say to you even with the economy in shambles 18:28 and COVID-19 taking 18:30 hundreds of thousands of lives around the world, 18:33 I want you to know, I will not fear 18:36 because the Lord is my shepherd, 18:39 I shall not want anything. 18:43 I have wonderful neighbors where we live in Thousand Oaks, 18:47 which is right on the edge 18:48 of the great city of Los Angeles. 18:51 Great neighbor, wonderful neighbor, 18:54 Dr. Roy, professor at 18:57 Pepperdine University, Dr. Roy. 19:02 And I was talking to him, he came to see me. 19:07 And I said, I've missed you, he said, here I was away, 19:11 he said, you've been away but he said, 19:13 I had open-heart surgery, 19:16 I was operated on in a hospital in this area, 19:19 I won't tell you the hospital 19:21 'cause this could be very scary. 19:25 This is what he told me, this is the truth in my home. 19:30 He said, "The anesthetic never worked, 19:32 it put me into a state where I could not move, 19:36 I could not speak, I could not cry, 19:39 I could not blink my eyelids 19:42 but I was fully conscious 19:45 and I could feel the doctor cutting." 19:47 I said you were dreaming. 19:49 No, no, he said, it went on for hours. 19:53 This sometimes happens, you know, 19:55 the anesthetic doesn't work, 19:57 doesn't take away the sense of pain. 19:59 I said, "What did you do?" 20:00 He said, "I quoted Psalm 23, I kept saying it, 20:05 the Lord is my shepherd, 20:07 even though I walk through 20:09 the valley of the shadow of death, 20:10 I will fear no evil." 20:11 My friend, I can't think of a situation 20:15 much worse than to be on a operating table 20:20 with your heart opened up and the doctors, 20:23 he said, I could hear the doctors talking 20:26 and laughing, discussing their plans 20:31 and I could feel the knife cutting me but he said, 20:33 I hung on to Psalm 23 and I had peace. 20:39 I want to tell you this. 20:42 If Psalm 23 works under those circumstances, 20:45 it'll work under any circumstance. 20:47 Even though I walk through 20:49 the valley of the shadow of death, 20:51 I believe that God's presence 20:53 is all we need to weather the storm of uncertainty, 20:57 I believe in Jesus, I believe His promises, 21:01 I believe He's our refuge. 21:04 Now let me say a few words to all who are feeling lost 21:07 and afraid 'cause I know that 21:11 there are lots of people out there today 21:12 who are feeling very lost 21:14 and they're feeling very, very afraid. 21:19 I want to talk to those people today 21:20 who are feeling lost and afraid. 21:22 I want to tell you a story from 21:24 the great country of Ukraine. 21:28 I was there 21:29 when it was wintertime in Ukraine. 21:33 And it was, it was bitterly cold. 21:36 I've been to Russia and Ukraine about 50 times. 21:40 And so, I checked-in 21:42 at this hotel out on the edge of this city 21:45 where I was staying, the city of Dnipropetrovsk. 21:49 And because I like to exercise every day, 21:52 I felt before I'm gonna go to sleep 21:54 I'm gonna go for walking, 21:55 so about 9 o'clock at night I went walking, 21:58 I felt quite confident 21:59 because I knew the city relatively well. 22:01 But as I walked, the snow became blindy, 22:05 it just snowed and snowed 22:07 and snowed and snowed, 22:09 and after walking for an hour I was having great times, 22:11 I'm walking here in the snow and I'm enjoying this. 22:15 And after about an hour or so of this 22:17 I decided that I would turn around 22:19 and I would go back. 22:20 So I turned around and I start going back. 22:24 But then you know what happens? 22:27 Well, I can't find my way back, I'm lost, I'm totally lost. 22:32 I go down this street, 22:34 it's a dead-end, I come back, I go down this street, 22:36 I go here, it's completely black, 22:39 there are no people, you know, it's dark, 22:42 it's snowing heavily, 22:44 there's no light and I'm lost. 22:48 And the time is getting going by 22:50 and I'm starting to get cold 22:55 but I recalled my hiding place, 22:59 Psalm 91:9-11, 23:05 Psalm 91:1-11, 23:09 "Because you've made the Lord 23:11 who is my refuge, even the Most High, 23:14 your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, 23:18 nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, 23:21 for He shall give His angels charge over you, 23:24 to keep you in all your ways." 23:26 My mother taught me that 23:28 as a little boy growing up in Brisbane, 23:30 Queensland, Australia. 23:32 God is going to send His angels 23:34 and His angels are going to watch over you 23:38 and you'll have a hiding place. 23:42 So I said to myself, I'm lost but I'm not lost, 23:47 I'm not alone, I have peace, 23:50 God is going to take care of me, 23:51 His angels are with me now. 23:54 His angels are still taking care 23:56 of people today. 23:58 I want you to know this. 24:01 I prayed earnestly, 24:02 God helped me to get out of this, 24:03 helped me to get back to the hotel 24:05 'cause I'm starting to freeze. 24:06 And soon I stumbled upon the gate of a park. 24:10 I've been to that park many, many times, 24:12 I recognized the gate. 24:14 And once I got to the gate, 24:15 I knew that I could get safely back to the hotel. 24:19 So, I got to the gate and then I said, 24:23 I'm okay, I'm safe. 24:28 And soon as I ran through the snow, 24:31 I can see the lights of the hotel 24:33 and I was back into the hotel, 24:34 nobody knew where I had been. 24:38 I ran up the stairs, 24:40 opened up my room, it's nice and warm. 24:43 I got into bed, I said, thank You, God, 24:47 thank You, God, 24:49 You are a totally reliable trustworthy God, 24:54 You have been my hiding place. 24:57 And when I was lost, You brought me back safely. 25:01 Listen to me, you may be feeling lost now 25:06 because of the chaos of the situation, 25:08 because of the insecurities of the situation, 25:10 because so many people are dying, 25:12 I want you to know, God is our hiding place 25:17 and we can go to Him, 25:19 we can put our faith in Him 25:22 and we can know that even though 25:24 we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 25:27 we will fear no evil, 25:29 we will know that God 25:31 is totally reliable and dependable, 25:34 we will know that God is our hiding place, 25:39 I invite you today to come to God 25:42 and find in Christ a place of security, 25:46 your own personal hiding place. 25:50 My friend, I'm going to be back in just a few moments, 25:54 I've got some amazing stories to tell you 25:57 as we talk about the great pandemic, 26:00 but as we talk about deliverance 26:03 for the child of God. 26:05 Stay with us, I'll be back soon. 26:20 This is a Carter Report update on the Coronavirus. 26:23 Events around the globe 26:24 are being postponed and canceled. 26:26 We do not know how long our lives 26:28 will be disrupted 26:29 but this we do know, the virus will be stopped. 26:32 Health officials have asked all of us to use caution 26:35 when traveling, wash your hands 26:37 and avoid crowds as much as possible. 26:39 The John Carter gospel program in Manila 26:42 will take place in the near future, 26:44 until then may we all take refuge in the Holy Spirit 26:47 and know that God's grace 26:49 will guide us through this unsettling time. 26:52 Let us pray for a quick recovery for those 26:55 and their families touched by the virus. 26:58 As we continue to provide you 26:59 with new Carter Report programs 27:02 know that the Lord is watching over us. 27:05 We appreciate you, our Carter Report family, 27:08 this is indeed a time when your financial 27:11 and prayerful support will help us 27:13 reach those who perhaps for the first time 27:16 are turning to God for comfort. 27:21 In the series, This I Believe, Pastor Carter reveals 27:25 the heart and soul of the Carter Report. 27:28 I believe in Jesus Christ. 27:32 I believe in the Ten Commandments. 27:38 I believe in the true gospel. 27:43 I believe in the last days. 27:48 I believe in the America 27:51 that believes in God. 27:55 I believe in heaven. 27:59 I believe in evangelism. 28:05 This I believe. 28:08 The 7 DVD series, This I Believe can be yours 28:11 with a gift of $75 US or a $105 Australian. 28:16 Please write to us at the address on the screen 28:18 or visit our website at cartereport.org. 28:24 For a copy of today's program, 28:26 please contact us at 28:27 P. O. Box 1900, Thousand Oaks, 28:30 California 91358. 28:34 Or in Australia contact us at 28:37 P.O. Box 861, Terrigal, 28:40 New South Wales 2260. 28:43 This program is made possible through the generous support 28:46 of viewers like you. 28:48 We thank you for your continued support. 28:51 May God richly bless you. |
Revised 2020-05-21