Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners, welcome to this program of the R. G. Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for being with us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is certain to uplift you, especially if you're in a tight spot. In fact, that's the title of today's message: "The Tight Spots of a Christian."

So if you are in need of encouragement, you are in tune with the right station to hear a timely word: "The Tight Spots of a Christian."

R. G. Hardy: I'm a bit like Jacob. Oh, Jacob used anything he could to get out of a tight spot. Didn't he do it? Tricked his brother, starving to death, and stole his birthright. With his mother, conned his father to think he was somebody else. Put sheepskin, goatskin on. Put his brother's clothes on, smelled like his brother. Father was blind, said, "I can't see you, but I'm going to smell you." Said, "You talk like Jacob, but you feel like Esau." And his father blessed him and gave him everything. Bless God, I'd put goatskins on too to get everything, wouldn't you?

These folk don't believe that. And all of a sudden, he heard that Esau was going to kill him. Oh, he was in a tight spot! He knew his brother wasn't no fool boy. He ain't going to fool around. His brother was going to turn him every way but loose. He knew his brother was a wild man. And his brother said, "I won't kill him now while we're mourning, but as soon as we get our father in the sepulcher and get all the mourners out, I will kill him."

I'm going to kill him! How many say amen? Jacob knew he was in a tight spot. Do you know what he did? He left that blessing. He left all that things that his father gave him, and he ran! I said he ran! He left everything! He was in a tight spot; that man was going to kill him. That man wasn't going to do no talking. He said he couldn't tell that man, "I'm going to give you the blessing." The man said, "I'm going to kill you and have it anyhow." How many say amen? He ran! Didn't he do it?

And on his running in his tight spot, he ran into God. That's a good one to run into. How many say amen? He didn't have anything. That's when God finds us. If God wasn't going to help us, why does He wait until we ain't got nothing? When everybody's against us? Esau's going to kill us. And the only thing Jacob had, his whole sum and total of his belongings was a stone for his head. And while he had his head on that stone, God found him.

Jacob, see what that tight spot did? It caused heaven to open up. Until he got in that tight spot, he never did see heaven open up and see that golden staircase. Hallelujah! Until he got in that tight spot, he never did find the house of God. He never did do it! How many say amen? Hey mother, hey dad, don't feel so bad because your daughter or your son or your husband or your wife's in a tight spot. They're liable to find the house of God! How many say amen?

My God, he was running for his life with the few rags on his back. He didn't even have a big enough bundle to make a pillow. He said he had a stone as a pillow. And while he was laying there, God found him. How many say amen? Now if God didn't want to keep me and save me, why did He bother to find me? I never sought Him; you never sought Him. He found us. Like He said, "You haven't chosen Me, I've chosen you." He found me.

I remember when God found me. I was like Jacob. I didn't have a job. My clothes were full of cigarette burn holes, the one suit I had. How many say amen? I didn't have nothing. I might have had a few more rags than the stone, but actually, if the finance company would have come, I'd have had the stone. You see, Jacob substituted and traded the stone in for the Rock! How many say amen? And in his tight spot, God just opened the door and the gate of heaven and dropped down His elevator or escalator or golden staircase.

And the songwriters wrote the songs and the ballad singers sang, and "We're Climbing Jacob's Ladder." I like to climb it. Hey, but you ain't going to see the ladder to climb it until you get in a tight spot! How many say amen? You don't need God to come down and deliver you until you need deliverance. If you want to see the Lord, I hear people say, "Oh God, let me see You, let me see Your presence." As long as you're doing all right, you don't need Him.

So when you say, "Lord, I want to see You," He gets you in a tight spot and you start mumbling, "Hey God, what did You put me in this place for?" He said, "I want to come down and see you. I only come down when you're in a tight spot to deliver you." And old Jacob was laying on that pillow, resting from Esau. Esau was on his track. Esau was so close he could almost feel the breath down his neck. But he was so tired he thought, "Well, I'm going to have to rest or I'm going to die anyway, so I'm going to take a chance." He probably was praying, "Oh God, make Esau as tired as I am."

God found him. And God opened the gate and the door of heaven and dropped down that old ladder. And when Jacob rubbed his eyes, he saw angels ascending and descending. Say, what were they doing? They were bringing the blessings down, honey. How many say amen? Hallelujah! How many say amen? And he heard God! My God, he had to get in a tight spot before he could hear. Some of you people won't hear God. You're too blessed. Everything's going all right. You won't hear Him.

Some of your loved ones, they don't want to hear about Jesus. "Hey, come on to church." "No, I'm too blessed. I got too much of that green in my pocket. I'm going down, I'm going to have a ball, I ain't got no time for Jesus." Well, the Lord's going to make some time. Keep on praying. Hey, don't give up! Say, "God, make some time. Hallelujah! Take that green out of their pocket. Get them in a tight spot until they run and say, 'Mom, I'm in a tight spot. Can you get ahold of God?'"

God, get my loved ones and stick them in a tight spot! We need to pray, "God, put my loved one in a tight spot." Hallelujah! When I first got saved, I went to my loved ones and I testified, and I was crying, pouring my heart out, telling them about Jesus. I was so bad they all thought it was good I should get saved. They thought that was good for me because I was so bad. And I told them, "Well, if I was so bad and such a bad character and God made me so good, well look how much ahead you are of me, what He could do for you."

And one of my loved ones said to me, "Well, I'd get saved if I knew what I had to get saved from." And God said, "Son, pray that I show him what he needs to be saved from." You know a lot of your loved ones ain't going to get saved because they got too much money. They got too good of a job. They got too nice of a home. They got too much furniture and clothes. Too much time on their hands and too much money, and too much of what they think is pleasure.

And the devil's got them all busy with all of this luxury, all of this new-found money, and this new-found time, and they ain't got time for God. Honey, we need to pray for God to give them some time. We need to pray, "God, put them in a tight spot. Get them in a place until they realize what they need to be saved from." He knows what he needs to be saved from now. He knows it now! See, that's what God's about to do to America. They said, "God? Who needs God? We got all our money. We got all of our alcohol we want."

Man, we got pickled livers; we're a nation of pickled livers. How many say amen? We got pickled brains, we got smoked bodies, we're living in one big smokehouse. How many say amen? We ain't got time! We're out there, out there with acid. How many say amen? Acid is it! Acid is where God is! You ain't going to find God there. You're going to find trouble. I believe you're going to find your need for God there. And they said, "Who needs God? We got plenty of money."

Said, "We got good old welfare. Who needs God?" Said, "Man, I can ride down to get my welfare check in my Cadillac. Who needs God? Who needs a job? Who needs anything?" The pressure, He's already squeezing that. And that's what God said. Said, "We've committed two evils." Got it too easy. You know, when it's too easy, you forget God. You get soft. They ain't going to be able to rough it. They don't know what it will mean to endure hardness as a good soldier.

That's what's the matter with the church. They don't know what it means to endure hardness as a good soldier. They don't want to pray no more. They got too much money. They don't have to live by faith. They got too much money. They got too much clothes. How many say amen? They're starting on their second car and the furniture. America and the church has got to the same place here. They don't need God. How many say amen? We got our good job. We got plenty of money, we got that old paycheck coming in. We don't have to live by faith, we're living by the green.

We ain't going to let God do it; we're going to let George do it. They don't like me, Jesus. Some of them are praying that I don't have enough voice. How many say amen? And they forget God. Oh, it's so easy to backslide when you get to that place. You don't have to pray no more. Somebody was telling me about a conversation they heard. Her two sisters asked one woman, I won't call her sister, asked the other lady, "Do you know anybody in her church prays an hour?" The other one said, "Pray an hour?" And they laughed.

The other one says, "Do you believe it's a sin to pray an hour?" And the other one says, "Who in the world would pray for an hour? What do you want to do that for?" Maybe that's why they quit praying down here at Faith Tabernacle. It might be a sin to pray. I mean, they don't have to pray no more. Folks don't have to pray. They don't have to trust God. Back in the 30s they had to trust God. That soup was awful thin, them soup lines. How many say amen? We had revivals in the 30s and the early 40s. Sure we did.

That's how I got here. That's how you got here. You know how I got here? Somebody committed a sin and prayed an hour or so. You know one of the first places I got exposed to the gospel? Back in the 30s, they had helping-up missions. And food was hard to get. They had the breadlines, souplines, WPA, PWA—they don't know what I'm talking about. CCC. Remember the youth camps for the boys? CCC camps. That's the same principle these helping-up missions are working at.

When these smokehounds, as it were, fall so low and have no money and nothing to eat and nothing to drink, and they get in a tight spot, they'll go into the mission to get a loaf of bread and some soup. How many say amen? That's how I first heard the gospel. They used to have them helping-up missions, and me and some of the young fellows, we was only kids, eight, ten years old, went in there to get that glass of chocolate milk and loaf of bread, but I can still remember the song they used to sing, honey.

Do you want to hear it? "Bring them in, bring them in, bring them in from the fields." That ought to be our theme song down here at Faith Tabernacle. "Bring them in, bring them in, bring the wandering soul to Jesus." I believe that got down in my spirit. How many say amen? See, maybe that's why some of you having a tough spot. You got so prosperous, God blessed you so much. Give you good clothes. There's nothing wrong with that if you use it righteously.

You see, when God gives me a pair of new shoes or new clothes or some money, I don't forget Him. I thank Him that much more! I just get down and thank Him. I don't take the blessing and use it and consume it on my own lust and forget Him and lose my anointing and lose my blessing and wind up in a tight spot, and in that tight spot I call on God. God said, "I didn't lead you there." I believe God's going to bring America to a tight spot. I believe before some of your loved ones are going to call on Jesus or call on you to call on God for them, or listen to you testify or come into a church, they're going to have to be brought in a tight spot.

In fact, I'm praying! God's answering my prayer to my loved ones because when I poured my heart out and cried to them and told them about Jesus, and they flipped it away and said, "Well, what do I need to be saved from?" Then God said, "Son, begin to pray now that I will show them what they need to be saved from." And in 20 years of praying, God is answering my prayer, and they are beginning to see what they need to be saved from. Honey, we need to put our loved ones on the altar and say, "God, put them in a tight spot!"

Take away all that excess money. Take away all that idle time. Take it away, bring them down to their knees. I believe God in the prophecy said to America, "I'm going to bring you down to your knees." I think you better get ready, honey, for a recession in America. God said in the prophecy, "I'll take your silver and your gold away." You know it's already hard to get a job out there now. I'm glad I'm a saint, God'll take care of you. Why is God going to put them in a tight spot? Because He hates them? No, because honey, He wants them to find the door to the house of God.

Honey, America needs to be put in a tight spot so that she can one more time remember God that has made her mighty. Don't let God take away your money and your blessings to get you to pray. Pray and use your blessings to lift up Jesus! The backslider needs to be put in a tight spot so that they can remember one more time the God that delivered them. The cold and indifferent Christian needs to be put in a tight spot so she can remember how that God has brought her out and gave her the victory.

Saint that's lost your burden, that's lost your desire to praise and worship God and your burden for souls, you need to be brought in a tight spot before you backslide to the bottom and get lost and condemned with the world. Honey, tight spots are blessings in disguise. Tight spots are blessings in disguise! They're just stopping you on your pell-mell rush towards eternity and oblivion and destruction and the pitfall of Satan, and make you stop and look to the Rock that's higher than you. To make you remember that Jesus never fails, that God cannot fail.

That God is the same, and Jesus Christ is the same. If it's any changing, I've changed and you've changed, but God hasn't changed. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God still wants to save our loved ones. I said God still wants to save our loved ones! God still wants to bring a revival to Baltimore. God still wants to bring a revival to America. But the blessings, instead of making us more thankful and driving us closer to God, has caused us to drift away until we forgot our God, and we bless our blessings instead of the Blesser.

God's calling to my mind a prophecy that He made not too long ago, and He said, "All right, if you won't let Me bless you to get your attention, if you won't let Me control your mind and your thinking and use you because I lavish My gifts and My blessings on you, then I'm going to get your attention. If I have to tear down all the gifts, if I have to remove it all, I'm not going to let you get away." Don't let me get away, God. Don't let me fall in a trap. Don't let me be deceived. Don't let me lose my vision. Don't let me lose my burden.

Don't let me come to the end of my life and find out that I have deceived myself in thinking that gain is godliness, and I lost my burden and my vision. Put me in a tight spot, put me in a tight spot until I know that there is a God that sits on the circle of the earth. And I'll tell you why America's not saved, and I'll tell you why Baltimore doesn't have a revival, and I'll tell you why your loved ones are not saved is because we've lost our burden and we've lost our vision.

And all we can look in the mirror is and all we can see, because we have got so big and so enlarged as me, myself, and I, we are destroying people because the Bible said without a vision people perish. People are perishing. America's perishing because the church has lost its vision. How many say amen? There's no souls getting saved because the church has lost her travail and she has got so satiated and so filled with the joy and the blessings of God that they have become stale to them.

You know how we felt when we were in the tight spots and when we had the burden, when we had the load of the Lord? Oh, when we called on God, He moved and we rejoiced. We thanked Him because He moved. But now we just got tired. Ho-hum, we're going to come to church and we're going to shout again. We're going to dance ourselves silly again. Well, I'm tired of it too, children. I believe a good cry that produces an altar call, I believe a good travail would be a welcome change.

Thank God I'm shouting tonight! Somebody says, "That's a hard message." It ain't a hard message to me. Hallelujah! I got hopes God's going to get some children yet in Faith Tabernacle. I got hopes that God is going to do miracles yet in Faith Tabernacle. Somebody said, "Why Brother Hardy, I thought you shouted when they shout." No, God confirms the word. And all we were shouting about was God was giving us grace to try to keep us to the next service, until He could get us grown up enough until He could talk to our hearts and open our eyes and let us see that there is a world dying and there is not much to shout about.

Oh thank God, thank God He's on the mainline tonight. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, You're talking. I don't care if You lay it right on me, just talk to me tonight. Talk to me tonight, Jesus.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen, what an inspiring word of encouragement by God's servant Brother Hardy, "The Tight Spots of a Christian." The scripture says many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. Now the term afflictions does not refer to a sickness, but rather to a narrow confining place as though you are being squeezed, or as Apostle Paul described being pressed in the spirit and even pressed out of measure. In other words, a tight spot. Many are the tight spots of a Christian, but God has promised to deliver us out of every one.

First Corinthians 10:13 states, "There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but with the temptation will also make a way to escape that you may be able to endure." Child of God, your tight spot will not destroy you because God is faithful to bring you out. And James reminded us that we have the examples of the Old Testament saints who also suffered great afflictions, and they did so with patience. And Peter stated that the same afflictions, the very same tight spots, are accomplished in our brethren around the world.

We believe this message is one you might need to hear again, or you may know someone who is in a tight spot that you want to share it with. It can be ordered on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request offer 127 and mail to R. G. Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or go online to rghardy.org.

Friends, even if you do not wish to order, we want to hear from you and we need your financial support to continue on this station. But to receive "The Tight Spots of a Christian," request offer 127, mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.