This morning, if you'd be kind enough to
turn to Psalm 133, please, in the Old
Testament.
I'm going to speak on the last day
return to the power of unity.
The last day return to the power of
unity.
Let's pray together.
Father, I just thank you, Lord.
With all my heart, God, I praise you
for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for sovereign and supernatural strength that
you give to us as your people.
Not only for me to speak this word
this morning, but for all of us to
be able to hear it.
We ask you this morning, Lord, for hearing
ears.
For all the way through the book of
Revelation, you said to the church, He who
has ears to hear, let him hear what
the Spirit speaks unto the churches.
Now, God, I stand here this morning as
a vessel.
But if you don't animate these words, if
you don't animate this physical body, our gathering
is in vain.
God Almighty, the hour is late.
We need to hear your voice.
I'm asking you for an unction from heaven.
I'm asking God for a strength that can't
come from anywhere but from you.
I'm asking for wisdom that so supersedes everything
of the natural mind.
The ability to express what's on your heart.
Give us the grace to hear.
We ask this in Jesus mighty name.
Amen.
I suppose Pastor Neal spoke with you.
He told me he did this morning about
beginning December 14th.
We'll be on the radio 13 times a
week.
1010 winds calling the city to prayer.
So I would really encourage you to encourage
people in your neighborhood, in the workplace.
Give them one of those business cards that's
been printed.
If you're visiting from another church, encourage your
pastor.
If he or she doesn't already have one,
to start a prayer meeting in your church.
If you have a home gathering that's under
some authority and recognized as a valid prayer
meeting, you can contact NYCPrayer.org and register
that prayer meeting.
It's really time to pray, folks.
If ever we turn to prayer, it's now.
It's time to pray.
Psalm 133.
Let's begin there.
Verse 1.
Psalm of King David.
Behold how good and how pleasant it is
for brethren to dwell together in unity.
It's like the precious ointment upon the head
that ran down the beard.
Even Aaron's beard that went down to the
skirts of his garments.
As the dew of Hermon and as the
dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even
life forevermore.
Now in this particular psalm, you see at
the beginning, brethren dwelling together in unity.
When that unity is God-based, when that
unity is unity as the Word of God
describes it, then the end result of that
unity is a command of the blessing of
God's life.
Now God's life in the home, God's life
in our personal lives, God's life everywhere we
go.
And as a church and as a church
age, if we're dwelling together in unity, the
Lord says that He commands a blessing.
And that blessing is life.
And if ever there was a time in
history where the church of Jesus Christ needs
to be in a proper focus of unity,
then the blessing of life must flow now
from the house of God.
If this city is going to be touched,
folks, it's going to come from the house
of God.
It's not just going to sovereignly.
Now God can't do that.
But not only judgment but blessing starts in
the house of the Lord.
If God is going to bless this city,
He's going to begin first doing something in
this house.
I fully believe in my heart that He's
doing it right now.
Now we're living in a generation where there
is a lot of talk about unity and
there will be an increasing talk about unity
in the coming days.
People will, according to Jesus and Matthew, people
will for fear begin to gravitate to familiar.
They'll begin to bunch together in groups.
It will all be about survival as men
see survival.
There'll be a focus on unity.
Nations will decide that they need to get
together in unity.
Governments will get together in unity.
There'll be a talk of unity at every
possible level in society.
But I remind you today that there's only
one unity when everything else is finally shaken
and gone that's still going to stand at
the end.
That which is unified in Jesus Christ.
There's no other unity that's going to get
through as wonderful as it may be.
Unity's true power is not found in just
getting together for a common purpose.
Unity that is outside of God can have
a display of strength, but it will still
fall short of what God has designed an
intended unity to be.
Take for example, in Numbers chapter 13 we
have 10 spies.
Now there are 12 were sent in to
the promised land.
They were to search out this land.
The Lord had given a word about what
the land was like, about the fruit in
the land, about the milk and honey, about
the pasture, about all of the provision, the
wonderfulness of the land.
So Moses sent 12 spies in to check
this land out.
Now 10 of those spies returned not in
unity with God, but rather in unity with
each other.
Every one of these according to Numbers 13
.2 had leadership ability.
They weren't ordinary men.
They were people with skill.
They had been singled out in the ranks
of the so many that had come out
of captivity and were on this journey into
the promised land.
And yet they went into this place even
with the leadership qualities that set them apart
from ordinary men.
Now I'm sure that they considered themselves cautious
and reasoned men.
They correctly assessed the land and evaluated the
strength of their enemies.
They looked and said, yes, the land is
everything that God said it is.
But in that land there are forces that
will oppose us that are stronger than we
are.
And the land is so vast that it
seems to swallow up its inhabitants.
And so here they are, reasoned men, cautious
men, all of them leaders, going into this
land, but they end up coming out in
unity with one another, but not in unity
with God.
They correctly assessed the land.
They evaluate the strength of their enemies.
And most likely on the way home they
got together to discuss alternate strategies and the
severity of the problems that were ahead.
And folks, by the time they got back
to the camp, they were united in one
thing only, unbelief.
United in we choose to embrace what we
see with our natural eye and what we
reason with our natural mind.
We choose to embrace it above what God
has spoken.
And folks, even in the church, we can
get together in this generation or any other.
And we can begin to employ strategies.
We can begin to communicate with one another.
We can have conferences.
We can talk about how we're going to
bless the city or bless a nation.
We can get together with strategies.
But the moment we've left the word of
God and the power of the supernatural, we
are united in unbelief.
Now they didn't consider.
I know they didn't consider themselves men of
unbelief.
I know they came back and they said,
No, we're just reasoning.
We're just calculating.
We have an alternate plan.
They would have considered it suicide just to
go in.
A ragtag army as it was with probably
a little more than just makeshift weaponry going
in against what they saw to be the
giants of the land.
They said, Well, we can't do this this
way.
There's got to be an alternate strategy to
do these things.
We've got to find a way.
You see, in our generation, we don't believe
the Holy Spirit is strong enough to bring
people into the house of God anymore.
We don't believe that conviction of sin still
will do what conviction of sin has always
done.
We don't fully believe that men and women
need an encounter with the Holy God where
they confess their sin, confess their need of
God, put away an old way of living
and call out to God for not only
redemption but the power to live a new
life in this generation.
Now, we don't believe these things anymore, so
we become so smart, so full of strategies,
and we become united in our generation in
unbelief, just like the ten spies did, although
they would be very loath to call it
that themselves.
The end result of this kind of unity
is death in the wilderness.
When hard times come, when difficult times come,
there's no power to survive there, folks.
You've got to have a supernatural walk with
God to get through this generation.
You've got to be in right relationship with
Jesus Christ.
You've got to be walking in unity with
God and subsequently with those who are gods
in this generation to be able to make
it through.
Scripture tells us that all of the world
one day is going to be united in
a downward course, united in its desire to
cast away everything that represents God.
Verse 1 of Psalm 2, I believe it
is, says, Why did the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord
and against His anointed, saying, Let us break
their bands asunder, and cast their cords away
from us.
In other words, without their influence, we'll be
free to do what we want to do.
Now, don't even try to tell me that's
not happening in our generation.
Where society as a whole is becoming...
You notice what's happening in America lately.
Society is fragmented on many levels, but the
one thing that everybody seems to be united
around is let's get the name of Jesus
Christ out of our society.
Let's get rid of the word of God
and these boundaries that tell us that men
can't marry men and women can't marry women
and we shouldn't be killing our children in
the womb for convenience sake and all the
rest of these things.
Let's get their bands away from us.
Let's call them extreme.
Let's call them radical.
Let's call these people unloving.
Let's invent names for them.
Let's be unified in this one thing that
we're going to get rid of the name
of Christ in our generation.
Verse 4 says, He that sits in the
heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have
them in derision.
Their end result will be defeat and perplexing
confusion.
Folks, it's tragic when you see a nation
turn from God, that knew God, that became
what it became because of God.
Then you watch these same people turning away
from the very Christ that made the nation
a premier nation of all nations perhaps all
throughout history.
It's a tragedy in our day, folks.
It's not just a variance of opinion.
It's a tragedy.
A spiritual and a physical tragedy that you
and I are living through at this moment.
Isaiah warns about the day when people are
united in self-seeking.
In chapter 5 and verse 8 he says,
Woe to them that join house to house,
that lay field to field, till there be
no place that they may be placed alone
in the midst of the earth.
Isaiah warned about this kind of unity.
A unity based on my gain and your
loss.
My advancement at your expense.
And he says in verse 9, Of a
truth many houses shall be desolate, even great
and fair and without inhabitant.
A self-seeking society is going to end
up empty.
That's what Isaiah said.
And he said the finest homes in that
country.
Of course that was Israel at that time.
He said, I see the finest homes in
the country empty and without inhabitant.
Nobody can afford to live in them anymore.
Nobody has the income to maintain them.
I see fine, fine homes that have been
built by a society that turned inward and
began to focus on itself.
And Isaiah said, I see them empty in
the days ahead.
In the church of Jesus Christ, Paul also
warns.
He warned the Corinthians.
He warned them about self-seeking.
He warned this church age of that generation
about getting together in unity.
But the unity was short of the glory
of God.
It was short of Psalm 133.
They were coming together in church and they
were grouping around the familiar.
I can just see it now in that
temple.
The rich are in one corner and the
politically active are in another corner.
And certain cultures are in this corner.
Other cultures are in that corner.
They're all feasting.
They're bringing together their food.
They're having a wonderful time.
But the poor, the homeless, the single mothers,
the disaffected in society have no fellowship.
They're being pushed to the sides of the
temple as it is.
And Paul said, because of this, because you
fail to discern what it means to be
part of the body of Jesus Christ.
Paul was saying there's a unity that is
found in the body that's not found anywhere
else in the world.
Do you realize that today?
That we are in a place where God
says, I want to unleash a power that's
not known anywhere in the world.
It cannot be found in the world.
It is only found in my church.
It's the power of the life and the
virtue and the anointing of almighty God through
the Holy Spirit.
And the people who are walking together in
unity as the scripture says, unity is to
be.
And Paul says, no, you fragmented even in
the house of God.
And you have preferences.
And you are marginalizing certain people in the
church.
And because of this, he said, many are
weak and sickly among you and many sleep.
Remember Isaiah said, a self-seeking nation ends
up with empty houses.
A self-seeking church ends up with empty
houses, folks.
That's what's happening in our generation.
Churches on every second corner throughout America and
most are half empty in our generation.
There's a reason for this.
Think of Rehoboam.
In 1 Kings chapter 12, the son of
Solomon who inherited the kingdom of God as
it was in that generation.
And instead of embracing history, he had men
and women who walked with Solomon, his father,
before him.
Trying to give him advice and trying to
give him counsel, but he was not willing
to listen.
And folks, we're living in a generation of
young ministry that have just cast off history.
Taken the book of Acts and literally thrown
it out the window.
No, we know better.
We know how to get people in the
house of God.
We know how to do this.
And they branched together as it is.
They banded together in a unity that was
impulsive.
They thought they knew better in their time
than what history was willing to teach.
And they counseled this young man, Rehoboam, to
speak a certain way to the people.
A way that history was telling him you
shouldn't speak.
This is not where God's focus and power
is.
They told Rehoboam to become firm with the
people.
But the older were counseling him.
Listen, the power of God is found in
servanthood.
If you will serve these people, if you
will speak kind words to these people.
The older people told this Rehoboam that these
people will come and they'll be in the
house of God.
And they will serve this kingdom forever.
But he rejected that testimony.
And folks, when we reject the testimony of
history and think we're smarter than God, we're
in trouble.
When we reject the way the church has
always known the glory of God and the
power of God.
I'd say with all my heart today it's
time to turn away from the boardrooms and
go back to the prayer room again.
It's time to just eradicate the ideas of
men and go back to what God had
to say about things.
I'd rather die on this side of faith
than sit around a table of human reasoning
trying to figure out how to advance a
kingdom we can't even see with our natural
eye.
Let alone understand with our natural mind.
Rehoboam with all of the reasoning and those
around him with their human reasonings ended up
dividing the kingdom of God.
He brought a weak testimony into the nation
and among the nations.
In fighting came into the family of God
and they began to worship the works of
men's hands.
You remember Jeroboam who took ten of the
tribes of Israel set up calves in the
northern kingdom at both ends in Bethel and
Dan.
And the people began to worship cows instead
of the living God.
We can be united in an ungoverned religious
zeal.
Think of David the king when he decided
again to bring the ark which is prayer.
It's a complete type of prayer.
The ark represented the history of God.
The faithfulness of God.
The word of God.
The life of God.
The commandments of God were in that ark.
Mena which is supernatural bread from heaven had
been in that ark.
Aaron's rod that budded which was an evidence
that God says I'll take what is dead
and bring it back to life was in
that ark.
The whole testimony of God was in that
ark.
And in the days of Saul it had
been a kingdom that was governed by the
natural mind of man.
And the fear of men's hearts.
They were united but their unity produced nothing
but failure.
And so in the day of David, David
said we've got to bring the ark back
into Jerusalem again.
In other words we've got to seek God
again.
We've got to bring God back in to
the center of everything.
That was what was in David's heart.
And so he got the people together and
he counseled with those around him and they
said good idea.
Let's make a new cart.
And let's do it this way.
Let's bring the ark even though the word
of God clearly described how God comes back
into the midst of his people.
They were still stuck in unity in the
reasonings of men's minds.
And so they got this parade together.
And the scripture says they played with all
their might.
I mean they were hitting those instruments.
They were clanging those cymbals.
They were playing their harps.
They were dancing before God.
They were doing it with all their might.
They were singing.
They had psalteries and timbrels and cymbals and
trumpets.
And in the midst of it all God
kills a young man who has the audacity
to reach out his hand and try to
stabilize what represented the presence of God.
God help us in our generation if we
think we have to stabilize the presence of
God.
Or somehow make excuses for God.
Or somehow present him to society as so
weak that we have to figure out how
to prop him up and make him more
palatable to people in this generation.
God help us.
God in his mercy has to kill this
whole parade.
He has to put an end to it.
And let me tell you he is going
to put an end to it in this
generation.
By grace we experience the death of all
that has no possibility of producing life.
It's by grace he stopped the parade.
It's not by anger it's by grace.
God knew that it was an honest thought
in the hearts of David and those around
him.
But they were not doing it.
David later said according to the order of
God.
God had given instruction.
This is how I am to be honored
as I come in among my people.
And you've got to get back David to
the word of God.
That's what he was telling him.
You've got to do this the way it's
been prescribed in scripture.
Thank God that by grace again we're going
to discover the power of walking in unity
with God.
God wants to walk among us.
Did you know that?
He wants to display his power.
There's a longing in the heart of God
in this generation to come back into his
church.
Your life and mine.
Into the assemblies that gather in his name
in this city and in other places.
There's a longing in the heart of God
to come back into his house with power.
He longs for it more than you and
I can understand.
If I feel one yearning in his heart
in this generation.
It's that he might come and walk among
the candlesticks again.
That he might walk together with us as
we make the choice to walk with him
in unity.
Unity is a gathering together in agreement with
the word and the will of God.
Believers walking in unity with the purposes of
Christ.
Find Jesus himself and all that this represents
drawing close to them.
Matthew 18 20 says, Where two or three
are gathered together in my name.
There I am in the midst of them.
I remember my wife Teresa and I in
the early years of ministry.
We had no training.
We had no budget.
We had nothing.
We're living in an area that was roughly
40 square miles.
Without a visible testimony of Christ that we
were aware of.
And perhaps there hadn't been a testimony for
as many as 100 years.
In that area.
And we began to get together with another
man who's a bus driver.
And the three of us got together on
Tuesday night.
Each of us took a quarter of our
living room and we began to pray.
That's all we knew how to do.
No money, no budget, no training, no nothing.
But a great, great, great big God.
And every Tuesday night we gathered together and
we prayed.
And folks we prayed because we couldn't do
anything else but pray.
We read the scriptures.
We knew that God's kingdom moves by the
power of prayer.
And we began to say, oh God make
a way in the darkness.
Oh God push back the religious darkness.
Oh God don't let these people go to
hell without a testimony of Christ in this
area.
Oh God for the glory of your name
and for the souls of man.
God begin to do what only you can
do.
And I remember one night God came into
that room.
I don't know how to explain it.
Other than to say that the three of
us.
A joy overtook us.
I don't know how to explain the joy
that overtook us.
You wanted to dance.
You wanted to cry.
You wanted to laugh.
You wanted to shout.
And it was all three of us at
the same time.
From different areas of the room.
The Lord had come.
And in our hearts we knew he had
said done.
I'm going to do what you've asked me
to do.
I'm going to do the thing you've spoken
to me about.
To make a long story short.
Within seven years.
There were two churches established.
A Christian school.
A food bank feeding 237 families.
A missions program whose budget outstripped our operating
budgets of our church.
When you're sending motorcycles and bicycles and instruments
for pastors and books into South America.
This little church put the gospel of Mark
in the entire Russian school system.
Grades six and seven.
Took up an offering.
Folks, God did so far beyond what we
could even think or ask.
We left seven years later for New York
City.
Leaving behind over $700,000.
And that's a lot of money in a
little country community.
In real estate.
All paid for.
No debt.
We had no budget.
We had no money when we were praying.
We're sitting people outside of the church on
mild days to be able to hear the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
People were driving from 100 miles to hear
the gospel of Christ.
And it all came because of prayer.
There was no boardroom.
There was no strategy.
There was no how are we going to
do this.
We simply prayed.
And when God said do this, we did
it.
We walked in the way that God said
to walk in.
I remember we prayed and said, Lord, how
do we reach this community?
How do we break in to these years
of religious stronghold?
And we prayed.
You know, God sends answers that you don't
anticipate.
I remember a pastor who had come to
help with the French.
French speaking people began to sit in an
English church and cry.
There were 17 people that were sitting in
the congregation.
They didn't speak English.
And I wasn't being translated into French.
But the presence of God was so powerful.
They would sit and just cry.
And one man told me, he said, I
don't know how it happened, but we knew
what you were saying.
We just knew what you were speaking.
A pastor came to help with this work.
And we were praying, God, help us to
reach the community.
How do we reach the community?
One day we had bought a school bus
for our kids.
And one day he came back to the
house with the school bus, and it was
full of grapefruit.
The whole bus from beginning to end.
And I remember looking and saying, what are
we going to do with this?
First of all, why did you come home
with a busload of grapefruit?
And he said, well, I was at a
food bank in a major city.
And they had this huge shipment of grapefruit
come in.
And they didn't know what to do with
it.
They had so much it was going to
spoil.
So they said, do you need something?
And he said, sure.
So they filled the bus.
So we got a short bus, but it's
full of grapefruit.
And I said, well, we got to do
something with this grapefruit.
I guess let's find people who need it.
And so we found a poor family.
And you know one thing, the poor know
the poor.
And so we went to the first door.
We knocked.
He said, look, we got a busload of
grapefruit.
Do you need some?
And they said, sure.
So we bring a box in.
And do you know anybody else?
And they would send us to another house
and another house.
We had no idea that this is how
God was answering our prayer.
We were just getting rid of the grapefruit,
but it was actually the road in to
the community.
It finally dawned on us, oh, feed the
poor.
Help families that don't have.
All of a sudden we're in contact with
all these poor families in the area that
needed help.
And that was God answering our prayer.
I thank God for it.
His ways are not our ways, folks.
Like you tell me what committee is going
to come up with that.
I'm just so thankful I wasn't sitting at
a table of our modern day strategists.
Well, if we go to a, what would
it take for you to come to church?
A box of grapefruit?
Where two or three are gathered in my
name, there I am.
And when Christ comes into a situation, the
supernatural comes with him.
I want to challenge you with everything in
my heart.
Just break out of the box in this
generation.
Begin to pray, Lord, help me.
Guide me.
Lead me.
Let my life make a difference.
Walk with me.
And if you can find somebody to pray
with.
Where two or more.
Now I know Christ in me is two.
So that's good enough.
It's a majority.
But if you can find somebody to pray
with you that has a heart of faith.
You begin to walk together.
Jesus said, when you pray, I'm going to
come, I'm going to be right there with
you.
I'm going to speak to your heart.
And you just begin to obey me.
And the supernatural begins to happen in your
life.
Joshua and Caleb, just think for a moment.
The other two spies that came back and
said, no, let's go.
We can't take this land.
Their defenses departed from them.
Joshua and Caleb said, they're bread for us.
But you see, these were spiritual men.
And they were seen with spiritual eyes.
Natural men couldn't see this.
As a matter of fact, they were so
angered, they wanted to kill these two men.
For wanting to walk in faith.
But Joshua and Caleb, although they suffered because
of this decision the people made.
God came and walked with them through the
wilderness.
Through 40 years of wilderness.
Through defeat, despair, death.
And brought them to victory.
Hallelujah.
Praise be to God.
Think of those in the upper room.
Taken from fear and inadequacy.
And brought into a place by God's presence
alone of love and empowerment.
A place where they could not do what
God was calling them to do.
So they just went and did what they
were told to do.
They went into an upper room.
Now that upper room could be anywhere in
your house.
But they went into that upper room and
said, oh God.
You promised to give us power.
You said that when your power came upon
us.
You would make us living witnesses in our
generation.
In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost
parts of the earth.
The scripture says, as they were praying, the
Holy Spirit came.
And God began to walk with these people.
And out of inadequacy and out of fear
and out of failure.
Came people into the marketplace.
Folks that changed the whole known world that
we live in today.
120 people.
Just think what could happen with 8,000
people in this church.
Began to seek God in New York City.
Acts chapter 4.
Peter and John taken in and threatened for
walking in the power of God.
They prayed and they said, why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine vain things.
Why do they feel they can cast off
the restraining hand of God.
As long as there are people who are
willing to walk in unity with Christ.
I really don't care what the newspapers say.
I don't care what anti-God radicals say
in this generation.
As long as there are people walking in
unity with Christ.
The presence of God cannot be pushed out
of any society or out of any borders.
When they prayed, the scripture says the place
was shaken.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit
again.
And they spoke the word of God with
boldness.
And I want to suggest that we need
to pray like that again.
I want to suggest that we come into
the prayer closet and say, Oh God, consider
the threatenings Lord of this generation against the
testimony of Christ.
And for the sake of the children, for
the sake of our families.
For the sake of those who in their
ignorance are fighting against their own salvation.
God Almighty, for the sake of your holy
name.
For the sake of the cross, for the
sake of the heart of God.
Shake this place where I am Lord.
Shake me God if I'm complacent.
Shake me if I'm embracing something that's eroding
your strength.
But shake me my God.
Give me the power to speak your word
with boldness in this and every other generation.
Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas in prison
for the testimony of Christ.
The scripture says they prayed and they sang
praises.
Thanks be to God.
They walked in unity with God.
They were in agreement with God and with
each other.
That fighting for the souls of men may
not be easy, but it is always worth
it.
Hallelujah.
Blessed be God.
It may not be easy, but it's always
worth it to fight for the souls of
men.
Because when you're fighting for the souls of
men, you and I are walking on the
side of God.
When we're about the Lord's business, the Lord
is with us in that business.
Praise be to God.
Paul the apostle is living proof that unity
with God is mightier than the most powerful
army on earth.
Paul was seemingly captivated, chained to Roman soldiers,
in the midst of a system that was
bent on conquering the known world with all
of its strategies of world conquest and control
and all of its armies and all of
its methodology and all of its supposed learning
and all of its weaponry.
And I want to remind you that it's
gone today.
And what was more powerful is one man
walking in unity with God.
One man with a pen in his hand
in a prison was more powerful than the
whole Roman Empire.
There's power in walking in unity with God.
The Roman army, the Roman system is gone.
The Caesars who thought they were God, gone.
The conquering sword of Rome, gone.
The magnificent buildings, ruins today that people go
to visit, nothing left.
The arenas where they supposedly thought they were
making sport and conquering Christians, gone.
Everything gone.
But that which was written from the hand
of a man in unity with Christ still
stands.
If you can see this, if you can
understand this, if you can get this.
A man who is simply walking in unity
with Christ.
He's living for the purpose of Christ, for
the honor of God and for the souls
of men.
He's walking through this world and casting off
its accolades, not afraid of its threatenings, not
afraid to suffer.
Walking in the footsteps of his master.
God puts a pen in that man's hand.
And what he wrote still stands.
We still read it today.
And it will still stand when every kingdom,
every dictator, every potentate, everything is gone.
It will still stand.
It will have endured the test of time.
There's such power in walking with unity, in
unity with God.
I want you to turn to the last
book of the Old Testament please now with
me.
We're going to conclude here in the book
of Malachi chapter 3.
I want to talk about what it really
means to be one in heart with Christ.
What does the Bible say about this?
Malachi chapter 3 beginning at verse 15.
Now Malachi is writing about our day.
And he says, Then
they that feared the Lord spoke often one
to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it.
And a book of remembrance was written before
him for them that feared the Lord and
thought upon his name.
This shall be mine, saith the Lord of
hosts, in that day when I make up
my jewels, and I will spare them as
a man spares his own son that serves
him.
And then you shall return and discern between
the righteous and the wicked, between him that
serves God and him that serves him not.
Now the scripture says, They that feared the
Lord in verse 16 spoke often one to
another.
Now we're talking about unity.
And Malachi is talking about a last day
regathering of unity again.
And it was a people who feared the
Lord and thought upon his name.
And it's just not all of a sudden
they're just thinking about the name of Jesus.
But they're thinking about what does the name
of Jesus mean?
What was the ministry of Jesus?
Why did Jesus leave a church in the
earth?
What does the Bible say about that church?
And if I am part of that church,
what does the Bible say about my life?
How am I supposed to be representing Jesus
Christ among the people of the nations in
my generation?
I don't care what men say.
I don't care what anybody says.
What does the Bible say about the church
of Jesus Christ?
I'm going back to the book again.
Like David went back to the book to
bring the ark back into Jerusalem.
I want to walk with God.
I want the power of Christ on my
life.
Folks, I'm not personally willing to settle for
any religiousness in my heart.
I want the power of God in my
life.
And the power of God is evidenced by
the compassion of Christ that is placed there
for my fellow man.
By the ability that God gives to lead
people out of darkness and into the marvelous
light of Christ.
The ability to represent Him in my generation.
To stand out among the self-seeking, those
that are unified but for the wrong reasons.
Even in the name of God.
I want to know what it means to
honor the name of Jesus Christ.
Folks, if ever there was an hour where
the church needs to get back to the
Bible, it's now.
Folks, there's been too many opinions about too
many things for too long.
It's time to get back in the word
of God.
Read it.
Read it simply.
Start in Matthew and read it through to
Revelation and go back to Matthew and read
it through again.
And then go back to Matthew and read
it again.
And open it up and say, Holy Spirit,
speak to me.
I want to know what it means to
be a disciple of Jesus.
I want to understand what I'm called to
do.
How my life is to be an evidence
of Christ in my generation.
Now here's the promise of God.
Chapter 4, verse 1.
Behold, the day comes that shall burn as
an oven.
All the proud, all that do wickedly shall
be stubble.
The day comes that shall burn them up,
says the Lord of hosts, and it shall
leave them neither root or branch.
There's a day coming, folks.
And it's coming really soon.
It's coming quickly in our generation.
It's a day which will expose the powerlessness
of all that is not in unity with
God will be exposed to be bankrupt.
It will have no root.
It will have no branch.
It will have nothing.
There'll be no fruit in it, no ability
to stand.
It will flee as quickly as those without
God will flee.
But to you that fear my name, verse
2, shall the son of righteousness arise with
healing in his wings, and you shall go
forth and grow up as calves of the
stall.
In other words, as they grow weaker, you
will grow stronger.
This is a promise of God in this
generation.
God says, I will give you strength, and
as everything around you is collapsing, you'll be
getting stronger.
As the self-seeking are getting weaker, you'll
be getting stronger.
As they are running in fear, you'll be
standing in faith.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Lamb of God.
Verse 3 says, and you shall tread down
the wicked.
There'll be ashes under the soles of your
feet in the day that I shall do
this, saith the Lord of hosts.
And what that says to me is that
their ruin will not be yours.
You will be given the power to overcome
all that would take away the strength and
hope of ordinary people, because you choose to
walk in unity with God and with one
another.
Now, the title of my message was about
coming back, or last day returning to the
power of unity.
So the question is, how do I get
to this place?
Well, I'm going to just give it to
you the way I know, I believe the
way God has guided me from the point
where I gave my life to Christ to
this day.
Number one, get into right relationship with God.
Put away known sin and practices which His
word tells you to stop doing.
Forget about the power of God if you're
a thief, a liar, arrogant, fornicator, forget about
the power of God.
It's not for you.
The Lord is not going to come, you'll
be religious, and you'll have a pretense of
unity, but you won't stand in the day
of adversity.
If you want the strength that God speaks
about that comes from unity, this unity in
Psalm 133 that blesses not only you but
your home, and puts a covering, it speaks
of a covering that comes on your house,
and blesses everything, everywhere you walk, the blessing
of God travels with you.
Put away known sin, put away practices which
His word tells you to stop doing.
It's that simple.
When I first got saved, nobody told me
that you couldn't drink anymore alcohol.
I never heard a sermon on it, so
I didn't know.
But I loved God with all my heart.
I remember, now I'm a brand new Christian,
I don't want you to think I was
20 years in the Lord doing this, I
was a brand new Christian, and I was
coming home from a night shift, and I
would always stop at this restaurant and have
bacon and eggs in the morning.
Actually ham and eggs, it was really, really
good.
That's why I would stop at this restaurant.
And so I was sitting there, ordered ham
and eggs, it's about 7 o'clock in
the morning, I'm still in uniform, I drive
home in uniform, ordered a pint of beer,
and I'm sitting at my table, please don't
collectively gasp, I mean, I was not born
in a manger, I'm singing, so I'm sitting
there reading my Bible.
I've got my Bible open, bacon, eggs, toast,
ham, and beer.
And I love God with all my heart.
I'm a brand new Christian, I've been saved
maybe a couple of months, a month or
two, never heard a sermon on this, and
I was reading the New Testament, I was
reading about where the angel came to Zacharias
and to Elizabeth and said, you're going to
have a son, and he's going to be
a mighty man of God, I'm paraphrasing, but
this is essentially what it said, and it
said that wine will never touch his lips.
And I remember looking at it, and I
said, oh my goodness, I want to be
a man that God can use.
And if that is the evidence of a
man of God, if you made that a
condition for John the Baptist, then that's good
enough for me.
So I just took my hand, I pushed
it away, and that's 33 years ago.
Never touched any of that.
Now today in the church we have people
that just, they have conferences on alcohol.
They try to prove that the wine in
John 3, or whatever chapter it was, is
wine.
But they're missing the whole point.
If you and I want the righteousness, if
we want our lives to be of some
effect, we have to put away practices which
the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart, that
we need to stop.
There are certain things that, when you get
into the word, God will speak to you
from the word, and he'll tell you, put
this away.
Stop doing that.
You might be going to a certain website,
and you are just on the edge of
being trapped into something, and the Holy Spirit
says, now put that away.
Don't go there.
I had an opportunity when I came to
New York City.
Somebody told me, they said, if you have
any savings, and I did because I just
sold a house in Canada, they said, put
it in a certain stock.
And they said, this stock is, and the
person had the knowledge that was telling me
this, this stock is going to explode in
value.
It was at the beginning of the high
-tech boom, and it did.
I think it went, it was phenomenal.
And I went home, and the Lord said,
don't do it.
He said, you'll be looking at the stock
every day.
It'll begin to grip your mind, and it
will take the word out of your mouth
that I want to give to you.
Don't do it.
Don't put your trust there.
And so my friend made a lot of
money that did this, and I didn't make
anything, but I thank God.
I'm a richer man today for just obeying
God in this.
There are certain things that God will tell
you to do that he will not tell
somebody else to do.
You just have to be sensitive.
If your heart is for Christ, I'm trying
to make this as practical as I can
today so that everyone can understand it.
If you want to walk and return to
the power of unity with God, get into
serious Bible reading and prayer.
Now folks, if you're not serious about the
word, first of all, if you're not in
the Bible, you don't know how to pray.
You don't know what to pray, because your
mind is really not focused on the things
of God.
Would you want to fly in an airplane
with a captain who said, you know, I've
taken a bluffer's guide to flying an airplane
course.
I think you and I might just get
off.
If he said, well, I want you to
sit back, enjoy the flight.
Over the course of the last 12 years,
I've spent five minutes a day studying how
to work this thing and get it off
the ground.
And yet we think we can live the
Christian life like that and wonder why nothing's
happening, why our prayers seem to, whatever little
they are, seem to hit the ceiling.
We have no influence in our society.
If you are in unity with Christ, you
have to be serious about Bible reading and
prayer.
There's no getting around that.
When God reveals his heart for others, embrace
it.
It was hard for me in the beginning.
I know I'm preaching a little longer this
morning.
Can you bear with it today?
It's hard for me.
Many of you know the story.
I really desperately wanted to serve God, ended
up traveling to a halfway house for the
spiritual birthday of a man who used to
be an affiliate of the equivalent in Canada
of the Hell's Angels here in the United
States.
I hated these guys.
I really did.
I'm not even overstating.
I hated them because of some experiences I'd
had and the things I had seen.
I couldn't believe that God could save one
of these men.
To me, I couldn't fathom it.
Just the vileness and the evil that goes
on to become a chapter member of one
of these organizations.
I just could not believe that forgiveness could
be offered or if even it was, there
could be anything come out of this life.
I remember going there and meeting face-to
-face with a man that I could have
killed and he could have killed me a
short time before and just seeing the same
spirit of God that had come on me
had come on him and the absolute transformation
in that man's life.
I remember how it shocked me.
It stunned me.
I've shared with you before, this man who
was a Hell's Angel affiliate ended up a
cake decorator in a bake shop making roses
and stuff on cakes and stuff like that.
Only God, only God, only God could do
this.
Hallelujah.
But I had a choice to make.
Was I willing to embrace others as God
was?
Half the reason why Israel could not understand
the Messiah walking in their midst is because
they wouldn't embrace the Samaritans.
They wouldn't embrace the lepers.
They wouldn't embrace the prostitutes.
They wouldn't embrace the poor.
They were unwilling to embrace the heart of
God.
Subsequently, even though they were unified in common
purpose, that common purpose unfortunately ended up being
united around the hatred of God and the
things that he does because of people.
When he calls you to reach out to
someone in his name, do it.
Obey God.
Do it.
As strange as it may seem, as foolish
as the moment may appear, reach out to
someone when he calls you.
You'll never know the supernatural if you can't
trust him to break those barriers.
And sometimes you're going to end up looking
foolish.
Sometimes you're going to feel foolish.
I was sitting on a train heading home
to New Jersey one time.
And for whatever reason, the seats were facing
each other on the train.
And so our knees are about a foot
apart from the person across from me.
It's rather uncomfortable.
So I had the daily post or whatever
paper, and I was just reading this trying
to ignore everybody around me.
The Holy Spirit said to me, Tell the
lady sitting across from you everything is going
to be okay.
Now I really, really said, No, I'm not
doing it.
I'm not telling.
I'm sorry.
You tell her.
And because she's in her 30s.
At that time I was about 50.
There's a man beside me, another man beside
her, and you know exactly what they're going
to think, and I know what they're thinking.
So I just opened my paper.
I'm not doing this.
So I tried to keep reading some story,
and the conviction got stronger.
And the Holy Spirit said, Tell her everything
is going to be okay.
So finally I put down the paper.
I said, How am I going to do
this?
Because I know these two guys are going
to be listening.
So I put the paper down and said,
Excuse me, young lady.
And she looked at me and I said,
I'm a pastor.
Hopefully I thought that might give me some
legitimacy.
Now how do you say this?
God talks to me, and so I just
said, Listen, I feel the Lord telling me
to tell you that everything is going to
be okay.
And at this point I can see these
two guys, their eyebrows are kind of...
And she bursts out crying.
I mean, bursts out crying.
It's as if the tears just flew off
her face.
She starts crying.
She's sitting there.
And when she could finally compose herself, she
said, I've got cancer.
And I'm going in for a mastectomy, I
believe it is tomorrow.
I've got two or three, I forget, little
kids at home and my husband.
And I've been sitting there saying, God, you've
got to tell me if everything is going
to be okay.
You've got to tell me.
Another time I was coming home from Starbucks,
coming back to the church from Starbucks across
the street, and a young man was begging
on the corner with a cup in his
hand.
And the Holy Spirit came on me and
said, go talk to him.
Pretty rough looking kid.
And I walked up to him and I
put my finger right in his face.
I said, what are you doing here?
And the person who was with me was
almost like, woo.
This kid looked a little bit rough.
And I said, what are you doing here?
And he looked at me again.
I said, you know, you have a Christian
mother.
You come from a Christian home.
And I said, you've got a lot of
prayer offered up for your life.
And I said, here you are, a beggar
in the street, when just around the corner
tonight, it was Tuesday at 7 o'clock,
you're the son of a king.
And the tears started coming down his face.
I said, I'm right, aren't I?
You've got a Christian mother.
And he said, yeah, I do.
I said, get to church tonight.
He said, I will.
I'll be there tonight.
When God says reach out, do it.
When he tells you to reach out, do
it.
The Holy Spirit knows what people are thinking.
The Holy Spirit knows what that obstinate person...
Can I tell you another story?
After church on a Tuesday night, Pastor Claude
and Yuka, who used to play the piano
here, we went over to a restaurant down
on 8th.
And we're sitting in the restaurant.
And at a table were about four men
and a woman, that I think was a
call girl.
And they were so vile that the owner
of the restaurant was embarrassed.
Their conversation was just so, it was vile.
And we were sitting there wondering what to
do.
The owner of the restaurant came up and
said, would you like me to move you
to another place?
Because he couldn't do anything to quiet these...
And their conversation was really, really inappropriate at
any level, anywhere, anytime.
And I had a stirring come into my
heart.
And I said, no, just wait a minute.
Just wait a minute.
So I got up and I went over
to their table.
I said, hi, how are you all doing
tonight?
And they just kind of looked at me.
And I said, you know, we have a
service on Sunday, around the corner, Sunday at
10 o'clock, 3 o'clock and 6
o'clock.
And I see you're all visiting.
I thought they were from Alabama, but it
turns out they're from England.
And I said, I'd like you to come.
And they said, well, why are you doing
this?
And I said, well, I recognize the accent.
You know, the Lord did that.
And I said, you know, I figure you're
from the south.
And everybody from the south goes to church.
So I thought you'd like to go to
church while you're in town.
And they said, we're from England.
And I said, well, you're still welcome to
come to church on Sunday.
And then this one guy starts absolutely cursing
at me.
I don't even want to repeat the words,
but who are you and where do you
get the audacity?
I'm changing his words, okay, so.
To stand here and invite us to church.
And what would cause you to get out
of your seat and come here?
I thought at this moment, I was very
thankful Pastor Claude was here, because he's really
got it.
And so I said, I'm here because the
Holy Spirit stirred my heart and told me
that somebody here at this table needs to
know if there's a heaven or a hell.
And suddenly it got very, very quiet.
And the most vocal, violent man of the
whole group starts to cry.
And he looks at me and said, my
God, it's me.
I gotta know.
He said, is there a heaven?
And if there is, how do you get
there?
And he starts crying.
I'm talking about snotty nose crying in a
restaurant.
And everybody, all of a sudden the party's
over at that table.
The language all changes.
Everybody leaves.
He starts to cry.
He invites me to sit down and I
get to present the gospel of Christ to
all of these people.
You and I can't be afraid of people.
The Bible says a perfect love casts out
fear.
We've got to walk in this unity with
God and loving the souls of men.
Enough to risk the rejection.
Enough to risk the, you know, it may
not always work out that way.
There may be circumstances where it might be
just time to sit down or things are
going to start to hurt.
Find others who want the same walk with
God that you do.
And pray and sing with them.
And by God's grace, make them friends and
family for life.
That's one of the great blessings of this
church, I believe with all my heart.
Is that in this church body, you can
find people who want to walk with God
just the way you do.
You can pray and sing.
You can find a prayer meeting.
And you can make friends in this church
that will be your friends for life.
You shouldn't be lonely in this body.
You can find a friend.
If you want to know how, get involved
in ministry.
There are 32 or more ongoing ministries to
the poor, the homeless and the addicted and
the marginalized in society in this church.
You can go on a missions trip.
There are dozens of countries that we go
to constantly.
There you'll find friends.
There you'll find somebody that sticks closer than
a brother.
And most of these will be for life.
And lastly and mostly, live for the honor
of God and for the souls of men.
Make it your choice.
And then if you do, Psalm 133 will
be the testimony of your life.
The Lord told me last night to give
an altar call today.
And here's the altar call.
I'm in.
No more excuses.
You've heard the word.
And that's the altar call today.
In the annex you can stand between the
screens.
For every man, woman and young person that
just says, I'm in.
I'm in.
Count me in.
Mighty God, I'm in.
I'm in for the long haul.
I'm in for the real relationship with God.
I'm in for the honor of God and
for the souls of men.
And I promise you that Psalm 133 will
be the testimony of your life.
God will bless you.
And this dew of heaven will come upon
you.
And everywhere you go, there will be a
command of life.
I thank God that as a young Christian,
he gave me the courage to make the
right decisions.
And I'm challenging you today, young and old,
make the right decisions today.
I'm in.
And that's going to mean some changes in
some lifestyles today.
It's going to mean an alternating of some
value systems.
It's going to mean a willingness to be
vulnerable to people.
But it's really where the power of God
is found.
As we stand, if the Holy Spirit is
drawing you, you want to make that decision.
Even if you're in a struggle, you still
come.
Make your way to this altar.
We're going to pray and believe God with
all of our hearts.
Just do that now.
On the balcony, you can go to either
exit.
Make your way down.
A last day return to the power of
unity.
I believe missionaries will be born at this
altar today.
Evangelists, teachers, pastors.
Godly witnesses of Christ in this generation.
You are the salt in the streets of
this city, folks.
There's no other way.
There's no other testimony.
No other way it's going to be done.
It's through you and through me.
Let's take a moment to worship.
Then we'll pray together.
Well, I don't know what to do from
here but to say amen.
That's it.
I'm in personally for the long haul.
With God first and with you second.
We're in it together.
But we have to be a people of
truth.
We have to walk in truth.
And this has to be a sincere walk
with God.
And he will come and walk with us.
Now, Lord, I just thank you, God, for
this congregation.
I thank you for those that have responded.
This is an issue of the heart, Lord.
There's no words that we can be coached
in.
This is an issue of every man, every
woman's heart.
But, God, we are here before you.
And just like Hannah was, we say, Lord,
whatever you give to us and birth within
us, we will bring it back to you
for your glory.
God, we will let it be used for
your glory.
Come walk with us, Lord Jesus Christ, in
this city, in this generation, at this time.
This time where darkness is so prevalent at
every turn.
But people are so despairing they're willing to
hear now.
There's a season, there's an open time when
people's hearts can hear.
Would you give us the courage to love
them?
Would you give us the ability to walk
in truth?
Would you take away from us compromise that's
robbing us of strength?
Would you give us a love one for
another?
As your scripture says that we are, you
pray, Jesus.
Father, I pray that they may be one
as you and I are one.
Lord, you knew the power of God operated
in unity.
And, Lord, make us one with one another
and with you, Lord.
Let us move as a body into this
city, O God, and truly be the salt
of God in the streets of New York.
I pray, Lord, call this city to prayer.
Oh, my God, call this city to prayer,
Lord.
Oh, Jesus, before the day of judgment comes,
let mercy triumph, O God.
Let mercy triumph in hundreds and hundreds of
thousands of lives.
Let mercy triumph, O God.
Father, we thank you, Lord.
We thank you, God.
I thank you so much for this church,
God.
Oh, Lord, this truly is a treasure in
your hand.
Oh, God, give us the strength that only
you can give.
Guide us, Lord, into the coming days.
We thank you for it, Lord.
With all our hearts, we say thank you.
Now, you've got to thank him for the
strength because he's going to give you the
strength.
He's going to give you the power.
Hallelujah.