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This morning, the great and final apostasy.
Apostasy means rejection of the truth once believed
and proclaimed.
The rejection of what you once believed and
you turn away from the truth and you
no longer believe it, you no longer proclaim
it.
That's called apostasy, the great and final apostasy.
And once you go to Second Thessalonians, please,
Second Thessalonians, the second chapter.
Let me give you a little time to
find that.
All right.
Chapter two of Second Thessalonians.
Let's start with verse one.
Now, we beseech you, brethren, by the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ and by our
gathering together unto him, that you be not
soon shaken in mind or troubled neither by
spirit nor by word nor by letter as
from us, as that the day of Christ
is at hand, that no man deceive you
by any means.
For that day shall not come, listen to
it now, except there come a falling away
first.
That's the apostasy and that man of sin
be revealed, the son of perdition.
Now, I want you to go to Ezekiel,
the 16th chapter, and I want you to
leave that chapter open on your lap.
If you don't have a Bible, maybe you
can look over somebody's shoulder.
And folks, be sure to share the scripture
with those around you.
Heavenly Father, I can't deliver this word without
your power and your anointing.
I have no power in my flesh.
I have no anointing of myself.
And, Lord, you have led me to this
chapter.
You have led me to this word.
And I can preach only what you impress
on my heart as being your mind for
the time.
Now, Lord, give us ears to hear what
the Spirit has to say.
Breathe upon me by your Spirit, O God.
Sanctify this vessel as a clean vessel through
which you can flow pure water that will
challenge us and change us in these troubled
times.
In Christ's name I pray, amen.
All week the Lord has been speaking to
me through Ezekiel, the 16th chapter.
In my prayer time, Lord, I want to
show you something about your times.
I want to show you conditions in my
church and what I plan to do about
it.
Now, folks, the first part of this message
may sound a little heavy, but there's a
wonderful word of mercy and grace at the
conclusion.
Please don't race through Ezekiel trying to find
where I'm going.
You have no idea where I'm going.
So just give me your good ear and
look this way, if you will, please, and
let's talk about the church of Jesus Christ
and where it's going.
When you read this chapter, as I was
reading it, I began to feel the grief
of God, a terrible, horrible sense of the
grief of God, of the church that has
forgotten its foundations, a church that's turned away
from its beginnings and begins to become a
harlot church.
In fact, this is an amazing thing.
God is speaking a dual prophecy.
This is a parable with dual application, first
to Israel and now to the church of
Jesus Christ in the last days.
Now, I want you to go into 16th
chapter and show you where God found Israel.
Chapter 16, verse 4, and ask for thy
nativity.
In other words, here's how you began.
Here is your birth.
In the day that you were born, your
navel was not cut, neither were you washed
in water to supple thee, thou wast not
salted at all, nor swaddled at all.
None eye pitied you to do any of
these unto you, to have compassion upon you,
but thou wast cast out in an open
field to the loathing of thy person in
the day that you were born.
And when I passed you, thee, and saw
you polluted in your own blood, I said
unto thee that was in blood, live.
Yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live.
He's talking about the beginnings of the church.
And in the New Testament, we find the
church of Jesus Christ beginning at Calvary.
And the wonderful thing that God did, he
said, I found you.
I found you in your blood.
I found you unclean.
And that's the testimony of many of you
here today.
God found you unclean.
He said, I clothed you in a robe
of righteousness.
I prospered you, and I blessed you.
And you see the tendency, he said, God's
people are bent on backsliding.
And there are many of you listening here
now that your heart has grown cold, perhaps,
or lukewarm.
And you forgot those first days.
You forgot the blessing of God when he
first called you and found you in your
sin.
And this is the church.
It was planted in New Testament power, in
the purity of Christ and the righteousness of
God.
He clothed this church, and he sent it
out around the world.
It took root in Jerusalem.
It took root in Israel.
And it grew to be a tree, and
it spread its branches.
Those branches are called now denominations or organizations
of the body of Christ.
And that body of Christ was birthed in
holiness, birthed in adherence to the word of
God, inerrant word of God.
This was preached with power and fire and
authority.
You see these denominations.
You can name the denominations that sprang out
of what was called the first church.
You can talk about Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians,
on and on, Pentecostals, Charismatics.
These are all branches that came out, sprang
out.
And when you read the histories of these
modern churches and these denominations, most of them,
almost without exception, were founded by holy men
of God that were on fire.
These men were praying men.
Many of them were stoned to death.
Many of them paid with their own lives.
I think of the Methodist Church.
I have nine volumes of John Wesley, the
founder of the Methodist Church.
He rode a horse.
And in his lifetime, he preached hundreds of
thousands of times.
He got up at 5 o'clock in
the morning and held street meetings for coal
miners at 6 o'clock in the morning,
riding horseback.
Here is a man that prayed for hours
a day and wept over England, Scotland, Wales,
Ireland.
And God shook England under this man's preaching,
a holiness preacher, a man of righteousness.
And you read the books.
I read the foundation of the Methodist Church.
And what you find for 50 years after
John Wesley is dead, you find great pastors.
The Methodists came to the United States, established
Bible schools and great churches.
They had circuit-riding pastors, preachers that rode
horseback all through Kentucky, Tennessee, all through the
Midwest when it was wild.
They tamed the Midwest.
They had revival meetings in open air.
They called them camp meetings, just a little
shelter in tents.
They came from miles around.
And I have pictures and pencil drawings of
those camp meetings where there was such conviction.
People fell and fainted under conviction.
Thousands would cry out for God, forgive my
sins.
God moved so mightily.
When you think of the founding of the
Pentecostal movements and the charismatic movement, you go
to Los Angeles to a little white clapboard
church on Azusa Street in the section of
Los Angeles.
And there's a black pastor by the name
of Seymour, and he has his head in
an old orange crate.
It was his favorite place.
He would lean over and put his head
in the orange crate.
Modern kids don't know what an orange crate
is.
It's just a box, a wooden box.
They packed oranges and shipped them in.
Just a few blacks and whites together praying
for America.
And the Holy Spirit came and fell upon
that little group.
People from Los Angeles came, and there was
such power and conviction in that little church.
And it began to grow and spread the
word that something was happening.
People were trembling under the Spirit of God.
There was a strange language people were speaking.
They called it tongues.
And God began to move in that little
church, and soon they were coming from other
states and finally from other countries.
And the stories of what happened in that
little chapel, the famous evangelist who preached to
thousands would come and fall on their knees
and repent of hidden, long hidden sins.
And the Pentecostal movement was born.
I have their life stories of men so
given to the heart of God, so full
of the fire of the Holy Spirit, righteous
men who would not bend to the idols
of their generation.
And out of that came the Assemblies of
God, the Church of God, all kinds of
Pentecostal movements and the charismatic movement was born
in that clapboard church.
God said, I found you in your need,
I found you in your blood, I found
you when your cord wasn't even cut.
I called you when you were poor and
lonely.
And out of that root, that original root,
came this great harvest.
Godly, righteous men.
Consider the Episcopalian church with me.
The Episcopalian church was born in Holy Ghost
fire.
Spread all over the world, became one of
the largest denominations in the whole world.
It's all over Africa, Europe.
It's sister church to the Church of England.
Great bishops, educated, godly, holy bishops.
And that's how the Episcopalian church was founded
here in America.
And the great revivals in the 1850s and
thereabouts in the mid-century, 1850, 1860, there
were revivals here in New York City.
And the Episcopalian church is right in the
middle of it.
You could go to any Episcopal church and
you would hear bishops and you would hear
priests that preached evangelical gospel, being born again,
the blood of Jesus, the cross, sacrifice, heaven,
hell.
And now look what happens.
They have forgotten their roots.
They have forgotten their beginnings.
And now we have an Episcopalian church, the
first organization to ordain a homosexual bishop.
And that church has gone so far from
their beginnings.
There's a woman bishop now who is the
head bishop who has adopted the gay agenda.
And just a few, this past month, a
ruling coming down from headquarters about the Trinity.
And every diocese has been given the right,
I'm trying to put it in words as
I read it in the paper the other
day, the right to define the Trinity as
they please.
In other words, God can be she now.
And you can define Jesus and the Holy
Spirit as you choose.
Do you understand what that means?
It means that we have no father.
And if we have no father, we have
no son.
It's an attack on the divinity of Jesus
Christ.
Then the greatest blasphemy in the face of
the earth is coming out of the Episcopalian
church.
And now those bishops and priests and churches
and lay people who said I've had enough,
the African Episcopal church is screaming out against
it, backsliding.
God sent Ezekiel to his people because they
had turned and apostatized.
And he says, oh, hear the word of
the Lord, oh ye harlot.
Hear the word of the Lord, harlot.
God's anger had been stirred.
He'd been provoked by a church that had
turned against its beginnings.
Think of Harvard and Yale universities, two of
the most ungodly colleges on the face of
the earth, the most apostate schools in the
world, as far as I'm concerned.
They were started as Bible schools by Holy
Ghost preachers.
Princeton was started by a pastor, powerful preacher.
Columbia here in New York was started by
a pastor.
And now an attack against the Trinity about
Christ no longer being the son of God,
but just a good man and maybe a
prophet.
God now is she.
God said you played the harlot.
You've forsaken the old paths.
You know, even in Christian colleges now, all
over the United States and seminaries, even in
evangelical circles, I've been reading the stories and
reports of the of the boards that are
still godly.
And they are fighting to keep the inroad
of apostasy invading their schools.
And it's almost impossible now.
It's a losing battle because professors are coming
into the school who have apostatized, who no
longer believe those truths, no longer talk about
the cross, no longer believe in the divinity
of Jesus Christ, no longer believe there is
a hell.
And they've justified every kind of sin, including
homosexuality, lesbianism, pick and choose morality.
And you see it all over the world
now.
England, the churches of England have apostatized.
There's a dirt, there's a darkness coming down
over that country, all over Europe.
Just a handful go to church.
When I was in England, my last trip
to England, they were closing Church of England
churches all over the country.
They had called they had desanctified is what
they call it.
Desanctify the church means they quit the church
and selling it.
And many of those churches have been sold
to as clubs, nightclubs.
And in two or three now, we went
into one that had been it's a small
cathedral in one of the towns in England.
And now it's an occult shop.
God said, you have corrupted yourselves more than
Sodom.
Sodom have not sinned as you have sinned.
Sodom, your sister was more righteous than you.
God tells us of the sins of Sodom.
Go to chapter 16, verse forty nine.
You have your Bible there.
Verse forty nine.
Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister
Sodom.
What's it say?
Say it.
Pride, fullness of bread, abundance of idleness was
in her and her daughters.
Neither did she strengthen the hand of the
poor.
But what is the number one sin named?
Pride.
You have heard of gay pride.
Now, listen closely to me.
I've been to the gay pride here in
New York City.
I've seen four hundred thousand marching up the
avenue.
Many of them nude.
Carrying signs.
Jesus was gay.
God was gay.
We're gay and in your face.
And the arrogance.
And the utter pride.
And over to my left, a small group
of Christians with a sign.
God loves gays.
He only hates sin.
And I saw a group break away from
the crowd and jump and harass and push.
Those Christians who wanted to do nothing but
offer love.
And I've seen the arrogance of that pride.
But this is what God is saying.
The pride of my apostate church is far
worse.
Sodom is not sinned like you have sinned.
They didn't have the light.
They didn't backslide from something.
That's they're doing what their father tells them
to do.
But you, you knew me.
I found you.
I saved you.
I called you.
I put righteous robes on you and I
sanctified you.
I used you.
I blessed you and spread you all over
the world and then you played the harlot.
And your pride in my sight.
This arrogance that you can stand and call
your heavenly father a woman.
The arrogance and the pride of taking away
the divinity of my son who died to
save you.
Arrogance.
Pride.
Would you God that Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist,
Pentecostal pastors begin to stand up and see
what's happening to the church that was once
called the church of Jesus Christ.
Backsliding.
Turning apostate.
Turning against the truths of their founding fathers.
But friends, there's something worse than that perverted
gospel.
And that's a diluted gospel.
A diluted gospel.
Watered down.
Half-truths.
This gospel says, just believe and get saved.
There's nothing of repentance.
Nothing of godly sorrow.
Nothing of turning from your sins.
Nothing about taking up your cross and following
the Lord.
But people who say a little prayer said,
you are fine, you are good.
Go with me to Isaiah 30.
30th chapter.
Turn left from Ezekiel.
Folks, my only safety is staying in the
word.
I'm not preaching out of my own heart.
The 30th chapter, starting at verse 8.
Now go, write it before them on a
table.
And note it in a book that it
may be for the time to come forever
and ever.
In other words, even for the last days.
Do you see it?
Can I ask you again, do you see
that?
That's for us.
That this is a rebellious people.
Lying children.
Children that will not hear the law of
the Lord.
Which say to the seers or prophets, see
not.
To the prophets, prophesy not unto us white
things.
Speak unto us, what?
Smooth things.
Prophesy deceits.
Get you out of the way.
Turn aside on the path.
Cause the holy one of Israel to cease
from before us.
Don't talk to us about holiness.
Or separation from the world.
We don't want to hear that folks.
People today don't want to hear anything they
call gloom and doom.
If it's not smooth, it's gloom and doom.
I've been called that for so long.
Like water off my back.
People are not wanting to be corrected or
convicted.
Ezekiel said in chapter 22.
They have put no difference between the holy
and the profane.
Neither have they showed the difference between what
is clean and unclean.
But they strengthened the hands of the wicked.
That he should not turn from his wicked
ways.
By promising them life.
Folks.
What's it going to be like?
And I've tried to imagine this.
What is it going to be like?
When we stand before the throne.
Every pastor, every evangelist.
When I stand there, everyone in this pulpit
stands there.
And everyone who's ever taken the gospel to
their lips.
And we stand before a holy Christ.
And the books are opened.
I can't.
I can't bear the thought.
That I would have preached for 20 years
here in New York City from this pulpit.
And that.
To keep the money flowing.
Or to keep the crowds coming.
And every seat filled.
That I should give a half gospel.
Or dilute it so I won't offend you.
There has not been one preacher.
That's in this pulpit.
None that we've allowed who visit.
Who have ever tried to spare.
Some of it has been strong.
Some of my preaching has been so strong.
I go home and say.
That was too hard.
And I've said.
Oh God.
Help me to preach grace and mercy.
And we've tried to do that.
But friends, I can tell you.
When I stand before God.
There's not going to be blood on my
hands.
There's no blood on these preachers hands.
And on our elders.
There's no blood on their hands.
Because we have proclaimed you the whole gospel
of Jesus Christ.
What is it going to be like?
When the storm comes.
The Bible says.
That gospel.
And I'm going to tell you something.
A diluted gospel is no gospel at all.
That's not the gospel.
Bible calls that.
The prophet calls it whitewash.
He calls it.
Untempered mortar.
It means.
You know where they build a wall.
With bricks.
They put concrete.
Mixed with sand.
But he said.
That's all painted sand.
And he said.
A storm is coming.
And God said.
I'm going to blow against those walls.
And folks.
Those walls may look big.
And they may look beautiful.
But the Bible said.
They're not going to stand.
When you face Armageddon.
When you're facing World War III.
When the nations are on fire.
When we have missiles being threatened over our
heads.
And we've got mad dictators with nuclear weapons.
When we're threatened with a dirty bomb.
When there's terror all over the world.
People are going to say.
Wait a minute.
I'm empty.
I don't know what's coming.
I don't know what's happening.
And they begin to reach out.
Folks.
What happens when Allah fails to deliver.
Like that happened in the tsunami in the
Far East.
In Indonesia.
Muslims were crying out.
Allah was supposed to save us.
And what happens when all the gods in
India fail to deliver in this hour a
storm.
What happens when Allah does no longer deliver.
They're going to be seeking an almighty God.
Someone who can satisfy the soul and meet
the hunger of the heart.
We don't have to rail against Allah or
Mohammed or Islam.
We don't have to rail against it.
Folks.
Time will tell.
Time is going to tell.
This is do or die time.
This is when the truth and the gospel
has to be heard and preached in its
absolute fullness.
And when the storm hits, the Lord said,
I'll blow against that wall and blow it
down.
And then, folks, how many multitudes have been
finding their false security behind that wall now
exposed.
And those who built those walls have to
stand back.
And the Bible said they have no word
from God.
There's no word from God.
He said, I didn't send them.
Folks, I'm not indicting anybody.
I'm not naming any names.
But this is the most abominable thing in
the eyes of our Lord today.
Such a cheap, cheap grace.
Cheap gospel.
Costless.
Unoffensive.
Let me tell you what they're going to
say.
This is what Paul said.
And when that day comes, they're going to
say, don't worry.
All things continue as they were from the
foundation of the world.
There have been wars and rumors of wars.
Israel has had many wars.
They for hundreds of years, they've had wars.
This will all blow over.
So just be at peace.
Just listen to our gospel.
But folks, things, Bibles, Paul said they are
willingly ignorant.
The Scripture rather says they're willingly ignorant of
the example of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And it's not like any other time.
Because any other time didn't have these nuclear
missiles.
They didn't have these terrorists threatening the whole
world.
They didn't have missiles that could travel 2
,000, 3,000 miles and bring destruction.
They didn't have it.
It's a different day.
This is not just God sending brimstone.
This is a whole world of madness now.
Now, the good part.
Take a deep breath.
Say, thank you, Jesus.
You see, the 16th chapter Ezekiel is about
is one of the greatest expressions of God's
mercy and grace ever revealed to the world.
In the midst of the fire, when all
of these vials of wrath are being outpoured
on the earth, two things are going to
happen, the Scripture says.
It says those that have been hardened are
going to blaspheme God.
And when you go to the book of
Revelation, it says when when the underjudgment, when
their men are being scorched with heat, the
Bible said they will blaspheme God and they
will not repent of their sins.
And they're going to be multitudes hardened to
what you see.
Their hearts are going to fail them for
fear.
And rather than turning to the Lord, they're
going to turn to their sins and go
wild and they're going to despise God and
they're going to blaspheme God.
But there's something else.
Something that just is God says, I'm going
to cause this apostasy to stop and trying
to get back to this verse here.
All right, here it is.
I want you to go to Ezekiel 16
again, verse 41.
And this is one of the verses that
concludes some of the warnings of the judgments
that are coming.
And verse 41, and they shall burn their
houses with fire and execute judgment upon the
site of many women.
Now, look at this and I will cause
thee to cease from playing the harlot.
And thou also shall give no higher anymore.
In other words, you're not going to be
giving yourself over to this apostasy anymore.
He says, I'm going to do something, folks.
This is a new covenant promise.
He said, I'm going to save you not
by your covenant, but by covenant.
And I'm going to go into something now
that you that I believe is what God
is speaking to this church and to the
true church of Jesus Christ.
In the midst of the most frightful times,
when the judgments are falling, God is going
to move, he said, in grace and mercy.
Folks, when I came through this, I was
so burdened down with what God was saying.
I got to verses 59 and 60.
First of all, I could hardly believe my
eyes here in the midst of this judgment.
He said, I'm going to cause you to
cease.
I'm going to do something supernatural.
I'm going to do this because of my
own namesake.
Not because you're good, not because not even
because of your prayers right now, even though
those prayers are effective, the Bible says.
He said, I'm going to cause in the
midst of all of this.
I'm going to cause the deterrence cease from
playing the harlot.
That harlotry is apostasy.
And God says they're going to be another
movement while many are blaspheming, hardening their hearts.
I'm going to find every backslider.
I'm going to find everyone that's ever known
my name.
I'm going to do something supernatural and I'm
going to remove the apostasy from their heart.
I'm going to give them a new heart.
I'm going to do something supernatural in my
church in the last day, just before the
close.
And I read, look at verse 59.
For thus saith the Lord God, I will
deal with thee as thou hast done, which
has despised the oath and breaking the covenant.
Nevertheless, you know what that means?
In spite of you rejecting me, in spite
of your apostasy, in spite of your perversions,
in spite of all of this.
Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee
in the days of your youth.
And I will establish under thee an everlasting
covenant.
You shall remember thy ways and you will
be ashamed.
That's forgiveness, that's repentance.
When thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder
and younger, I will give them unto thee
for daughters, but not by thy covenant.
God said, I'm going to redeem people out
of Sodom.
I'm going to, I will redeem Sodomites.
I will redeem people from every wicked way
on earth.
Folks, Jesus came to this earth in a
time like these.
He came when there was rank apostasy.
Nobody was praying, nobody was looking for him.
He came in a time of great need.
He came to a people who would turn
against him, who would crucify him.
But he came.
If you can imagine God coming to this
wicked world, to an apostate church with mercy
and grace, the greatest revelation since the cross.
The greatest manifestation of mercy and grace since
Calvary and the resurrection.
If you can imagine that, if you can
conceive it, remember how Jesus came the first
time.
Nobody in the heathen world, they were worshiping
false gods, Jupiter and Mars and all kinds
of gods.
There was total idolatry on the face of
the earth.
Jesus came on an act of mercy and
grace, not because anyone on earth deserved it.
But God says, I'm going to do this
for my name's sake.
I am not going to let India go
to hell.
I'm not going to let China go to
hell.
I'm not going to let all these Islam
nations go to hell until there's another manifestation
of my grace and mercy.
And the only way I can bring them
down, I tried to bring them through my
goodness, that the goodness of the Lord would
lead to repentance.
But they rejected my goodness.
They took all of my blessings and offered
them to their idols and gave them to
their sins.
And now when it's hopeless, I will judge.
Yes, fire is coming.
The storm is coming.
But in the middle of that storm, it's
going to be so obvious that God is
behind it.
No man can do it.
People are going to look around and say,
this is divine.
This is supernatural.
Man couldn't do this.
And men will be trembling.
And in that hour, every backslider has ever
known Jesus.
Everyone's been in this church.
Everyone has been in a Holy Ghost church.
They've known the fire of God.
They've known the word of God.
They have walked in the Holy Spirit, but
drifted away.
God said, I'm going to wake them up.
I'm going to bring them back to their
founding heart.
I've been telling you that this church one
day, when the fires come, will not be
able to hold.
You're going to have, I told you, you're
going to give up your seat.
You'll have to stand on the walls or
outside.
Because in that shaking and in that trembling,
people are going to remember their beginnings.
Hey, he found me once.
He can find me again.
This is his new covenant.
He said, I give you a new heart.
I will cause you to draw nigh.
You see God just picking us up by
the lap of the neck and saying, it's
time.
You can't play games anymore.
Now is the time.
And God will manifest.
I believe this with all my heart.
India is now the most populated nation in
the world.
I can't conceive that this will all come
to an end.
And multitudes left to their idol gods.
He's going to cause people to look at
their gods.
They have failed.
And look to Jesus whom they've pierced.
Israel, Israel is going to be visited.
Hallelujah.
Folks, don't worry about Israel.
God has everything under control.
For hundreds of years, they've been trying to
kill it.
Comes right back up.
Folks, don't worry about it.
Hallelujah.
I am so thrilled.
I got to look at that again.
And then I'm closing.
Will you stand up, please?
You still have your Bible?
Go to 16, verse 61 and 62 and
63.
Then you shall remember your ways and be
ashamed when you receive thy sisters.
Verse 62.
I will establish my covenant with you.
Thou shall know that I am the Lord.
Thou that thou mayest remember and be confounded.
Never open your mouth anymore against because of
your shame.
When I am pacified toward thee for all
that thou hast done, saith the Lord.
God's going to say to masses of people,
my heart has been pacified.
Here's my grace.
Here's my mercy.
And, folks, God is all about mercy.
It's grace.
All of God's judgments are redemptive.
They're meant to redeem people any way he
chooses.
Lord, thank you for the promise of your
word.
Thank you, Lord, that this is a day
of hope, not a despair for the church
of Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Lord, that pastors are going to
wake up all over the world.
There are going to be men who have
backslidden and come back to you.
There are going to be Episcopalian priests standing
in their pulpits proclaiming the cross of Jesus
Christ.
Lord, there's going to be a wave of
repentance around the world, in England, and all
over the world.
There's going to be a cry, raise up.
It will be the Holy Spirit crying in
the hearts, Abba, Father.
Because you alone will be able to satisfy.
You alone will have the truth that sets
men free.
We glorify your name in these promises.
Hallelujah.
Would you lift your hands and thank God
for his mercy and his grace in these
last days?
He has not forsaken his people.
He has not forsaken his church.
He has awakened us.
Thank you, Jesus.
With this, I'm finished.
I'm giving an invitation now.
I'm going to open this area in front
of the church we call the altar area.
It's just room to take your stand for
Christ.
And I was asking the Holy Spirit what
I should say, what this invitation should be.
And it's this.
I got it this morning from the Holy
Spirit.
The Lord said there are going to be
many that are weary and heavy laden.
I don't know what caused the burden you
carry in here this morning, but you came
burdened, weary, and heavy laden.
There's a load on your back.
It could be because of marriage.
It can be finances.
I don't know what it could be.
It could be a burden of sin that
you despise and can't seem to break through
to victory on.
Whatever it may be, you're down and heavy
burdened.
I invite you to get out of your
seat.
You're among friends.
They'll make way for you.
Up the stairs in the balcony.
Come down either side of the steps.
And I'm going to invite even those that
are in the overflow room.
If you want to just go to the
lobby, they'll give you direction to come down
here.
Even if you have to stand in the
lobby out here, you can hear me.
I invite you to come if you are
sin sick.
If you become lukewarm toward the Lord.
Listen to me, please.
I believe the Holy Spirit's here now waking
up people that have grown cold and different
or backslidden.
Those have become lukewarm.
You still love Jesus, but the fire is
gone.
The fire is absolutely gone.
And you know it.
God knows it.
The Holy Spirit is speaking in love to
you.
He's not threatening you.
He's throwing out his arms of mercy saying,
come, let me embrace you again.
If you've left your first love.
I'm not trying to make this broad and
fill up this place.
It's just that God doesn't want you to
leave.
If you don't know Jesus, you've never really
received him as the Lord of your life.
He's just a name to you.
It's something.
It's someone you say.
Well, someday before I die, I want to
receive him as Lord.
No, you never know.
This is your day.
This is your hour.
Now is accepted time of salvation.
The Bible says now all is open for
you to come wherever you're at.
How many of you came forward to say
the Holy Spirit drew me, the Holy Spirit
moved me to come.
Raise your hand, please.
All right.
You see that that is testifying that the
Holy Spirit is at work in you and
he knows what you need.
He knows why you came.
If you came to surrender your heart for
Christ, I don't need to put words in
your mouth.
And whatever reason you came from, there should
be something spontaneous in you just wants to
cry out and talk in your own words.
Right now, as we're just quietly in his
presence, will you just whisper to the Lord
your need right now?
If it's because you've grown cold, say, Holy
Spirit, draw me back to the Savior.
Draw me back to my first love.
If it's weariness because of a problem or
something in your life that's burned you down,
you say, Lord, you said if I cast
my burden on you, you take it.
Will you just by an act of faith
say, Lord, right now, standing here, I'm not
taking this out of the house.
I cast all my burdens and all my
cares and all my fears on you right
now by faith because you said you would
take them.
If you've grown cold and lukewarm toward the
Lord right now, that spark, he's breathing on
it now.
The Holy Spirit that drew you to come
forward is breathing on you now.
That spark come alive.
Just say, Jesus, in your heart, Lord, I
love you.
I need you.
Draw me and raise up, raise up my
faith, raise up hope in me.
Some of you have just about lost hope.
I'm going to pray for you right now.
And while I'm praying, you pray in your
own words to the Lord.
Come on.
You just nobody needs to hear you around.
You're just a soft voice.
Tell him why you came.
Tell him.
Tell him right now.
Lord, you hear the cry of your people.
We don't have to scream at you.
We don't have to beg and plead.
He said, I'm more willing to give than
you are to receive.
Lord, lift the heavy burdens.
Lift the heavy burdens.
Lord, by faith, we lay them on you
right now.
We can't carry them.
They're too much for us.
They bear us down.
Lord, for those that have marital problems and
those who have financial problems, those who are
burdened by something of the cares of this
life.
Oh, Holy Spirit, lift this load now.
Lift this load.
Let your sweet spirit come and whisper strength.
Lord, you said if we will wait on
you, and that's what we're doing.
We're just standing here waiting on you.
You said you would renew our strength.
That means we have some strength.
You said you were our strength.
Whatever strength is left, renew it.
Go on it.
Fire it up, Lord, in Jesus' name right
now while we stand in your presence.
Oh, mighty healer, heal those who need physical,
spiritual, mental healing.
Take away the depression and the fears and
the anxieties.
And, Lord, we come draw nigh unto you.
We're drawing nigh unto you in Jesus' name.
Now, would you all that have come forward
right now just in your own words out
loud begin to thank him.
Say thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Holy Spirit.
Thank you.
Let everybody thank God for his presence here.
This is the conclusion of the message.