I am looking for a people that wants to get beyond the games and the gimmicks. I am looking for a people who want the truth.  I want to reach out to the multitudes of people that practically  live at hope's end. Paul got on that ship; he was bound and determined by the power of the Word of God, not by fetters and chains perhaps, but by divine ordination to stand before Caesar. It was his destiny. Two hundred and seventy-six souls on that ship were getting ready to learn how a prophet can get down to hope's end and know that his God will meet him there. God meets us at hope's end.

When you have exhausted all of your knowledge of what to do, used up all your wisdom and do not know which way to turn, and you feel so weak because for months you have not felt God's touch, then you are at hope's end. You get depressed and even when you are not depressed, you get depressed trying to figure out why you are not. There are people that are in the habit of being depressed. You do not feel good unless you are depressed. You cannot feel up unless you are down. If you will just hang around this Jesus man and let me preach to you, I will get you out of those blues. I will body slam the devil that is giving you such a hard time. When I get him on the ground I will hold him and put my foot on his neck until you get on top of him and give him a good working over.

I am going to be teaching and preaching to you about spirits.  God has helped me to overcome these spirits. I believe that the Holy Ghost is going to get in your heart. The Spirit is going to arise within you and you are going to realize that you do not have to worry about being defeated any more because you are going to learn..."Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." (John 4:4)

Paul, and all of those that were on that ship, hit the worst storm that they had ever experienced in their lives. And, just like us Pentecostal preachers, here comes Paul to the people in the ship saying, in essence, "Didn't I tell you so?" The centurion went to the captain of the ship and said, "Do you think we ought to stay here or go?" and he said, "I'm the captain of the ship and we are going." They listened to the captain of the ship over the man of God. Some of you come to our services and I give you everything God gives me in the Word and the anointing, but you go out and listen to everyone and forget what you have been trained and taught. You start hanging around with the people I call "half-in and half-outers". Then, before you realize what is happening, they are dragging you down by telling you what a great church they have and how they start at seven and are home by eight-thirty. They are trying to sink your ship!

Today people need to understand one thing. They need to know that they are in a world that is filled with troubles where drugs and alcohol flow like rivers. They are in a world in which men and women are losing their grip on life and losing all hope to the point that they have decided that suicide is the only way out. Lounges are going up all around. The other day I saw a place that used to be a Pentecostal church and now it is a hell-hole and a beer joint. Why are these things happening? Because we need some people with the anointing of God that will stand up to the captains of the ships and say, "You can go on. I've got to ride this boat, but I perceive that there are some storms getting ready to come." And I want to say to the areas around these mountains and to the United States of America that it may look real good for a lot of people, but there are some storms coming and it is going to take more than a handshake from a preacher to stand what is coming upon this pathetic world.

I do not know about you, but I do not care if they make fun of us and say, "They go to church two and three times a week" and "I don't believe you have to do that." But it makes a difference when you get down to the crunch and the storm is heavy upon you, and the winds are beating all around your vessel. When the storms are raging and you do not know which way to go. It makes a difference when the whole community around you is falling apart and there you sit like Paul did. When the situation looks hopeless and you fear that you will perish it is wonderful to look around and there He stands. His name is Jesus and He says,"...I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5) "...And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20)

It makes a difference when He steps into the situation of hopelessness. When your hope is gone it means everything to hear Him say, "Be of good cheer, my child, this storm is not going to destroy you, because I am with you and I am on your side and I'm not going to allow you to go under because I promised you I would not forsake you."

Do you know that millions live at hope's end? They get up in the morning with no hope and they go to bed with no hope. And Satan does not want you to learn about God's ways. He does not want you to learn about God's reminders. He wants to keep you living down at the brink of no hope; but at the point where it looks like there is no return, a dead end street, this point at hope's end is where God, many times, meets His children.

May I also tell you that at this place God, many times, finds His children and He looks at them with a drawing, magnetic spiritual message and says, "Are you tired of chasing rainbows? Are you tired of going in circles? Are you tired of getting up on Sundays sick from alcohol? Are you tired of crashing with your blood on fire with drugs? Are you tired of your nose bleeding from cocaine? Are you tired of always being depressed and hearing the voice of Satan tell you what a loser you are?" Yes, here at the point where many would think there is no return, at the point of hope's end, God can meet you in the greatest way that you have ever been visited and He can bring you out. When others say you cannot make it He will deliver you. His name is Jesus.

Paul was in such a severe storm that they began to lighten the ship by throwing everything overboard. They were right down in the heart of that storm which was so bad that they had not seen the sun shine in days. They had not seen the
appearance of the stars in days. Then see a great man called Paul who had been spoken to by the Lord begin to talk to the Lord about this tragic situation. And he writes and tells us that "all hope that we should be saved was then taken away." (Acts 27:20) He is telling you and me and a billion others, perhaps, that when you get to the place that it looks like it is over, whether it is financially, spiritually, physically, or some problem in the family, and it looks like you have gone beyond the borders and are at a dead end street with no where else to go having exhausted all sources of help albeit through bankers, lawyers, or doctors and the end seems imminent with devastation and destruction on its heels, Paul is telling us that it pays to know this Galilean. Paul is instructing us that in his tragic situation he turned around and there He was.