This recording is provided by Times Square Church
in New York City.
You're welcome to make additional copies for free
distribution to friends.
All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is
a violation of copyright and other applicable laws.
This recording cannot be posted on any website.
However, written permission to link to the Times
Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing
info at timessquarechurch.org.
Other recordings are available by calling 1-800
-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square
Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New
York, 10019.
I want to speak to you about Christ's
call to repentance.
I'm going to read to you a scripture
from Luke, the 13th chapter, verses 1 through
5.
Luke 13.
If you don't have your Bible, just listen
to the story.
There were present at that time some that
told Jesus of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate
had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Do you
suppose that the Galileans were sinners above all
the Galileans because they suffered so many things?
I tell you no, except you repent, ye
shall all likewise perish.
For those 18 upon whom the Tyre of
Siloam fell and slew them, do you think
they were sinners above all men that dwell
in Jerusalem?
I tell you no, but except you repent,
ye shall all likewise perish.
Now, Jesus, make this message simple.
Help me to make it simple and understandable.
And Holy Spirit, come and make these words
real to me while I speak them and
to every hearer in this place.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
I warned our mailing list with thousands of
people received our mail, our messages, and I
warned them that probably 60 days would be
as long as we would truly remember the
tsunami, that these things happen so frequently.
Nature appears to be out of control.
At least that's what many are saying.
And so quickly we forget.
But it's been a time to weep this
past year.
The floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, incredible weather
changes, and all the media, television, radio, newspapers,
magazines.
And if you have watched these scenes, if
you've seen the newspapers and magazines and heard
of them, you had to weep when little
children are swept away, when loved ones are
torn from their very arms.
And when you see all of these tragedies
that are happening, even now in Florida, the
damage done by those hurricanes has not been
wholly repaired, and there's still whole areas that
are blotted out, that are blotched.
And one newspaper said, someone's tinkering with nature.
Somebody, somewhere.
And one newspaper reporter, and this was a
minor headline, it says, is something happening now
that has to do with God?
In other words, does God have anything to
do with what's happening in the world today,
all of these drastic weather changes?
Is God involved?
And the question is being asked even by
secularists and even by atheists.
Some atheists have come to the conclusion this
is something beyond human nature or natural disaster,
because this tsunami was called the world's worst
natural disaster, the world's worst, or one of
the worst.
And we don't know what's going to happen
next, but there's a cry in our hearts.
You know, when 9-11 hit this city,
we were down there.
This church was one of the first to
go.
We had a tent, if you recall, right
down there, the first church that was called
by the mayor's office.
We were down there.
Our workers worked with the situation down there.
This church, we gave over half a million
dollars to the police and to the firemen's
association.
This church wept, and we prayed for the
people.
And you see what Jesus is saying in
this Galilee?
He said, do you think the Galileans were
worse?
You see, the Galileans were people, a Jewish
group who were worshiping the Lord, and they
were sacrificing their animals.
They were actually in an act of worship.
And Pilate and his army came in and
slew quite a group of these Galileans while
they're worshiping, and they mixed their own blood
with the sacrifices.
And they came to Jesus in this story
that I just read to you, and they
said, Lord, were those Galileans unusual sinners?
Is that why they died like that?
In other words, the tsunami, the earthquake, 9
-11, all these things, all of those people
who died, were they sinners?
Were they being judged?
Were you doing this to them?
One Muslim cleric from the Mideast said, this
was our God, this was Allah, and I'm
quoting him almost word for word, remembering what
he said.
He said, these Muslims who died in this
were special sinners that our God had to
erase, had to remove.
Jesus, perceiving their question where they were going
with it, are these more sinners?
Were they more wicked, and is that why
they were destroyed and died in the fashion
they died?
And Jesus said, well, what about the Tower
of Siloam?
There was a pole called the Pole of
Siloam where crippled people and people who couldn't
walk would get into the water when it
was stirring.
The first one in, we were told, were
healed.
And near that was a tower.
And we don't know, the Bible doesn't say
how it fell, but it fell.
Our towers fell, but I don't know how
this tower fell.
And 18 people were killed, and that was
fresh, it had evidently just happened, and it
was very fresh in the minds of the
people.
And Jesus said, well, what about the people
who were killed during the fall of the
Tower of Siloam?
Do you think that they were special sinners?
Do you think that's why they died?
And Jesus said, no.
He said, beware.
He said, don't think that way.
He said, think about yourself.
He says, lest you repent, lest you repent.
God said, you deal with yourself.
I remember what it was like to go
down there in the midst of that fire
and that smoke and see people walk around
in a daze, especially those who were hauling
out the dead and the wounded.
And I stood there weeping and said, oh,
God, my God, you have to be saying
something.
This can't just be something of nature.
We don't think that they were sinners.
Some of the godliest people in this city
died in 9-11 here.
You see, God didn't do it, but God
allowed it.
He could have stopped it at any point.
But you see, in all of these national
calamities, the calamity that happened, some people say,
well, isn't God in control?
Especially to Job, God tried to make this
clear.
He said, where were you when I laid
the foundations of the world?
He said, don't you understand that I have
reserves?
I have places where I store the rain.
I have places where I hold the frost
and the snow and the ice.
He said, who do you think put the
fear of grasshoppers in a horse?
He goes over and over and he says,
who do you think is in control?
He said, everything is in control of my
word.
I speak the word and everything that is
done on the face of this earth I
know about.
And God can stop or God has a
reason for all of these things that happen.
And God is speaking through them.
God is speaking.
Now, I have heard people say after I
heard ministers preach this from pulpits, heard them
on the radio.
I've read their reports.
And so many thousands of ministers in America
said at 9-11 God wasn't saying anything.
Right after that, I preached a message from
this pulpit.
The towers have fallen and we've missed the
message.
We have missed the message.
All across this country, people went to church.
And even in this city.
And I told this church of a church
in the south that deacons came to me.
The elders flew to New York and met
me in the back room and said, we
were weeping.
We were saying, is God speaking?
Pastor, we want to know.
In some churches they were getting up, interrupting
the pastor because he wasn't even referring to
it.
One man was preaching on morals and talking
about sex and a Christian.
And they were getting up and said, Pastor,
hold it.
We want to know.
Is this God speaking?
Is this just a happenstance?
Is this just nature?
Or is God saying something to us?
Is he causing us to wake up?
Is he causing us to look at ourselves?
What is the reason?
And they said, we had no answer.
And so six months after 9-11, fewer
people going to church than before 9-11
here in New York City.
Is God saying something to us through these
things?
Yes.
But he's speaking not only to the world,
but he's speaking to the church of Jesus
Christ.
He's speaking to us.
Don't sit smugly.
Don't think for a moment that those who
died in Sri Lanka and in Indonesia and
all of those countries.
Now, of course, there was wickedness.
Some people look at what happened, and that's
what prompted this Muslim cleric.
He was talking about all of the stealing
of children.
He was talking about pedophiles that were coming
from all over the world to those areas
and talking about hotels and whole companies that
were set up to cater to pedophiles.
And they were stealing little orphan children and
using them for the pleasure of these men.
And they said, God had to wipe that
out.
In Sodom, the Bible says that God caused
fire to fall from heaven.
But you see, he also said that when
the flood came, he sent rain for 40
days.
God said, I sent that.
He said, I destroyed all living things.
A wrathful God, a mad God who just
does it at his pleasure?
No, no, no, no.
A merciful God.
God says he waited for 120 years during
the preaching of Noah.
120 years, God put up with mockery.
For 120 years, God put up with rejection.
With one call of a man who walked
the streets and the word spread everywhere that
God is speaking.
Judgment is coming.
I was in the hospital with my wife
last night, and they had a television.
I was watching Billy Graham.
This was one of his last.
He's coming here in July for his last
crusade.
Never heard such a powerful message.
He said, judgment's coming.
You better get ready.
You better repent.
He's talking not just to the sinner, but
to the Christian as well, to all of
us.
The long suffering of God waited in the
days of Noah while the ark was being
prepared.
God waited.
Folks, what does God have to do to
wake up a people?
What has to come next?
What other weapon does God have in his
arsenal?
How can he get the attention of men?
There has to come finally, as it did
to Egypt, when the children of Israel, God
said, let my people go.
And time and time again, nine times he
spoke through natural disasters.
And the tenth time, God said, that's enough.
I'm going to move in a way now
that everybody's going to know this is not
nature, this is God speaking.
And that's when the death angel came to
Egypt.
And that's when Pharaoh let the people go,
because all of Egypt said, this is God
now.
This is not nature.
I don't know what is coming, but I
know that we are not to judge.
We're not to judge any of this that's
in the hand of God.
One thing we are to do, and that's
to look at ourselves as Christians, as believers.
Now, let me tell you, I don't think
that anybody came here this morning expecting to
repent, any Christian.
If somebody's been coming to Times Square for
any period of time, you came to worship
this morning.
You came to praise.
You didn't come to hear Pastor Dave say
you need to repent.
I believe you.
I believe that you came because you say,
I'm not living in any open sin.
I am not drinking.
I'm not carousing.
I'm not into any of that.
I am secure in Christ.
Yes, I stand before you totally secure in
Jesus Christ.
I repented when I gave my heart to
Jesus.
And so did you.
You repented totally of your sins and said,
Lord, take all your past sins you laid
before the Lord.
You said, Jesus, there's a godly fear in
me that you have placed.
And Christ came into your heart.
And when Christ, he said, if you're of
Christ, the spirit dwells in you.
And if the spirit of God doesn't dwell
in you, you're not of Christ.
So the Holy Spirit was sent into your
heart, not only to help cover the blood
alone covers your past sins, but the Holy
Spirit is given to you for your present
and future sins where you're going to produce
character.
Now, there is one sin that we are
all guilty of, that we all who Christians,
all of us are going to have to
repent of.
And we're going to have to live in
that state of repentance.
The Bible says godly sorrow works repentance.
That word root word in Greek is an
occupation.
In other words, there's a pledge made when
you give your heart, when there's godly sorrow,
you come to Jesus Christ.
You're not just saying a little prayer, Jesus,
forgive me.
I'm sorry for my sins.
I believe on you, Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm saved.
Well, if you have faith, yes.
But that's not the end of the story.
That's just the beginning, because you see, the
heart is abundantly wicked and the Lord saves
you.
He secures you.
He can seat you in a heavenly place.
And then he says, I'm sending the Holy
Ghost to work on your character.
I'm sending the Holy Ghost.
You don't have to worry about going to
hell now.
You don't have to worry about that.
There are things in your life that need
to change.
And there are things in my life that
need to change.
And that's where living in repentance comes in.
Let me show you the heart of repentance,
the very heart of repentance.
And God was dealing with me strongly last
night on this, just pouring it into my
soul for my own learning.
You tell me, yes, you did repent.
But God says, I have given you the
Holy Spirit.
Now, listen, I have preached from this Pope
the last two Sundays about the calling that
is all of ours, that we bear fruit
only when we desire to be like Christ
and we live Christlike.
But, you see, there comes a time when
you have to pray this.
If you truly want to go on with
the Lord, and if you don't, you're going
to grow cold.
You're not going to read your Bible.
You're not going to pray.
And you're going to drift away.
But there has to be not just a
prayer, but a cry in your heart that
says, Holy Spirit, I want you to show
me everything in my life that's unlike Christ.
I want you to show me.
That's the cry of my heart.
I'm praying, Lord, I want to be more
like Christ.
I want to finish out my days, not
as some.
I don't think I was mean.
But there were things around me that I
didn't know about myself that others knew, but
I was blind to.
Now, you fit that whether you want to
commit it or not.
Everybody listening to me right now, there are
things about you you don't know.
Your wife knows.
Your husband knows.
Your children knows.
Those at your job surely know.
You see, I want to be like Jesus,
but how can I be like Jesus unless
I know who he is and what he's
like?
And I can't fully know who he is
and who he's like and how I can
be like him unless the Holy Spirit exposes
to my own heart those things.
Now, he doesn't go around looking for sin.
He doesn't go around trying to expose.
God's not into the business of exposing sin.
He exposes to your own heart.
The only sin he exposes when after it's
been revealed to you and you don't want
to do anything about it, you harden your
heart.
And then he says, I have to expose
it.
The only way possible now may be able
to save you.
But you see, I want to be like
Jesus.
So the Holy Spirit has to tell me
how to be like Jesus.
He has to expose my innermost being.
He has to expose it to me.
That will never happen until you...
You don't even receive the Holy Spirit until
you ask.
He said the Holy Spirit is given to
every man who asks.
Now, why do you want the Holy Spirit?
Why do you think he abides?
This body becomes, when you give your heart
to Christ, this body becomes the temple of
the Holy Ghost.
He becomes our advocate with Christ.
Christ is at the right hand of God
pleading.
He is our advocate.
He's our lawyer.
But you see, in my heart, the Holy
Spirit comes to be Christ's advocate to make
me like himself so that I can live
a fulfilled life.
So that I can have a taste of
heaven and live in some heaven here and
not hell.
And that's why he says to those that
he was talking to religious people when they
asked him this question.
See, they were looking at everybody else.
Are they sinners?
Is God dealing?
Is God judging with these people that are
dying on the left and on the right?
And the Lord said to his own disciples...
I read that to all of those church
people, the synagogue people, and the religious scribes
and Pharisees, Sadducees.
He said no.
And he didn't even give them an explanation
about why they died.
He just said, I want you to stop
looking and look at your own heart.
Have you done that recently?
You see, the big sin is pride.
Pride.
Now, folks, let me tell you the only
measure of pride.
Pride can't be measured on any relationship with
anybody in the world.
It has nothing to do with how you
relate to the world.
It doesn't have anything to do with that.
Pride has only to do with your relationship
to Jesus Christ.
See, the world is given to pride.
That Luciferian pride is the sinner is a
proud man.
Because, you see, pride is self-dependence.
Humility is whole, total dependence on Jesus Christ.
Wholly dependent on Christ.
In every area of the life, dependent on
the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of
Christ.
And he's at work.
You see, it comes down, it works like
this.
I want to be like Jesus.
I don't want to live like I did.
And I know that changes have to be
made.
I want my wife.
I want my husband.
I want those I work with to know
there's a difference in me.
I'm not what I was last year, and
I'm changing.
Every day I'm changing.
And the Holy Spirit will come to you,
and I'm going to show you where the
pride is.
You say, well, pride is arrogance.
Well, what is arrogance but saying I don't
need Christ?
I can atone for my own sins.
I can work out my own salvation.
That's arrogance.
That's pride, yes.
But in the Christian who's saved and secure
and even seated with Christ in the heavenly
place, there's something the Holy Spirit is trying
to get at.
And if you think you know it all
in just five years, ten years, no.
You see, the moment you give your heart
to Jesus, that's when the joy of the
Lord should begin.
And you have to know that the Lord
is with you and the Holy Ghost is
here living in his temple.
The Holy Ghost is not out somewhere in
the cosmos.
The Holy Ghost is right there in your
heart.
He's right here in this place.
The presence of the Lord is here, yes,
through the Holy Spirit.
But I'm 74, coming on 74, and I
want you to know I'm still learning my
lessons, still yearning, hungering to be more like
Christ.
And I want to change.
Here's how it works sometimes.
And here is the definition of pride as
the Lord's been showing it to me.
The Lord speaks to my heart.
Maybe somebody says something to me that shocks
me about myself.
It happened not too long ago where somebody
said something that really hit me.
And it wasn't said in any anger or
anything, but the essence of what was said
to me is you're a proud man.
There's something that you've said that you sound
to me like you're boasting.
I got on the elevator and I wept.
I said, oh, God, I don't want that
in my life.
I didn't see it.
The Holy Spirit used this person to show
me, and I said, Holy Spirit, I accept
that.
Now, here's where pride comes in.
It's, well, thank you, Lord.
Maybe your wife knows that you quarrel too
much.
You raise your voice at your wife.
Maybe you're looking at your wife and say,
I mistreated my wife.
Or the husband is here or the wife
is here and say, I've been too quick
-tempered with my husband.
I've been on his back.
Now, things are getting very, very quiet.
And suddenly you realize that you're quick.
You see things that are hurtful.
And you say, God, I see it.
OK.
Starting right now, I'm changing.
Starting right now, I'm going to be sweet.
Starting right now, I'm going to be different.
And so the first two or three days,
you're sweet.
There is a bit of a difference.
It's all on the surface.
But it's all pride.
Because you see, it's a spirit of deep
independence.
I can do it myself.
I can do this.
Humility is simple.
I can't do anything without Christ, without the
power of the Holy Spirit at work in
my life.
And the Holy Spirit is waiting for me
to let Him work.
And He wants me to ask for a
revelation of what's in my heart.
When's the last time you asked Him, Holy
Spirit, show me everything in my life that's
unlike Christ?
You see, Jesus said to His disciples, there's
some things I can't tell you right now
because you're not ready.
He had to wait until the Holy Spirit
came.
And when the Holy Spirit came, He showed
Him.
And that's why these men were so broken.
And that's why they grew so much.
They were secure.
They were saved.
But God was working on them.
Because godly sorrow works.
That's an occupation.
That's a pledge that you make.
I'm going all the way with Jesus.
It's not having to do with your salvation.
It's having to do with how you become
a witness, how you become Christlike.
And the only sermon they're going to hear
on the job is what they see in
you of the Christlife.
Does that make sense?
You see, we say we wound the heart
of Jesus.
When He sees how you carry your burden,
He sees you go all through the day
wounded.
He sees the things that you bear.
He sees you going on week after week
or month after month afraid of man and
always trying to be accepted.
See, that's in me.
That's been a part of my life.
I've always felt I didn't measure up to
certain pastors and I don't have the education
and I'm not like the others.
And see, when you don't feel like you're
accepted, you go out of your way to
try to please people.
And the fear of man steps in.
Now, thank God He's delivered me from most
of that.
I hope this afternoon He shows me otherwise
again.
We live with self-loathing.
We live with fear and depression, anxiety, stress.
And we have all the keys, we have
everything we know locked here in our heart.
All the power that we need to overcome.
But you see, it's not just asking the
Lord.
The power of the Holy Spirit is there.
And the Lord is wounded when you go
on and on.
And God says, wait a minute.
Jesus says, you're wounding me.
You hurt my heart because I died for
this.
I gave my life and I sent the
Holy Spirit.
He abides in you and you don't take
advantage of that.
You don't call upon Him.
In James, the first chapter, it says, if
any man lacks wisdom, this is wisdom is
Christ Himself.
Wisdom equals Christ.
The mind of Christ, that's wisdom.
And when you pray for wisdom, He said,
let a man ask without wavering.
No wavering whatsoever.
No doubt that when I ask God to
give me strength, He'll give me strength.
When I ask God to relieve this pressure
that's on me, He will relieve it.
In the hospital the other day, I was
so tired.
And I was just the point where I
said, God, I can't go another step.
I'm so tired.
If you don't give me strength, I'm going
to collapse right here.
I just physically weary.
And here's the only way it's going to
work.
When you stop suddenly in the middle of
your problem, in the middle of your financial
problem, in the middle of your fear, in
the middle of everything that's going on in
your life, you stop, say, God, I'm wholly
dependent on you.
I can't do this.
That's humility.
That's what God's been after all along.
Trust me.
I have given you the Holy Spirit.
We talk about the Holy Spirit.
We talk about being baptized in the Holy
Ghost.
We talk about speaking with tongues and all
of the gifts of the Spirit.
But when you come down to where the
rubber meets the road, it's simply this.
Do you trust the Holy Ghost that He
will do what He's promised to do?
That He'll be there.
Strength will come.
And I'll tell you, strength flooded my soul.
It gave me strength.
And within the hour, I felt better than
I did in the morning when I woke
up.
He's going to do that for Pastor Carter,
even while we have prayed, because he knows
the secret on how to ask.
But we ask and then we drop it.
We ask and then we don't rest in
faith.
And I said, Lord, I don't want to
wound your heart anymore.
I said this last week, and I want
to repeat it before I close.
The greatest cheer that you can bring to
the Holy Spirit, and He is a person.
He's spirit, but He's person.
The Holy Spirit feels, He touches, He breathes,
and He's a spirit.
But the Lord revealed to me the one
thing that makes glad the heart, the very
being and essence of the Holy Spirit, as
that we hunger for Jesus and His likeness.
And when that happens, when He sees your
heart and your mindset, I want to be
like Christ.
I don't want to be mean-spirited.
I don't want to be a gossiper.
I don't want grudges in my heart.
You see, these things block the blessing and
the moving of God in our lives.
I'm going to tell you, He's not mad
at you.
He's not mad at you.
He wants to give you every power that's
available in His majesty, this moment, to say,
I love you, and I know what you're
going through, but please, use me, use me.
Open your heart.
The Lord wants to do a healing work
in many here this morning.
He brought you here for a reason.
I don't know who you are, where you're
from, or you may be from another country,
but the Lord brought you to this church
this morning.
He set you in this seat because He
wanted to get a message through to you,
no matter how you failed Him in the
past, no matter how you feel about yourself.
That doesn't matter.
And humility has nothing to do with going
around saying, well, I'm just nobody.
I'm nothing.
I'm clean.
That's not humility.
It's not even humility to say, I'm bowed
before the cross.
You see, once you're bowed before the cross,
you don't stay there.
You have to ascend into the heavens and
to be with Christ.
You're no longer just groveling.
There's some people grovel at the cross, at
the foot of the cross, and they sing
about and talk about, well, I'm at the
foot of the cross.
You've got to move on to ascension with
Christ.
My simple faith said, Jesus, I trust you
with every problem, every fear, everything in my
life.
I'm going to depend on you.
And when you do, rest comes, total, complete
rest.
Folks, I'm going to close with this.
This is not hard to do.
You say, well, I've tried it.
It's not hard.
It just says, open your heart and let
me take over.
Give me control, complete control of your life.
I don't do anything anymore.
I don't go anywhere without permission.
I'm under the rulership.
Christ is enthroned in my heart, and that
means he's in control, that I've given up
the reins.
I've placed my wife, my children, my grandchildren,
everybody in his hands.
I've placed ministry in his hands.
I'm not called anymore to ministry.
I'm not called to this church specifically or
to evangelism.
I'm not called to anything but Jesus and
his heart and his likeness.
And then if I do, ministry will come.
All of these things will pour out of
the Christlikeness that is in us.
Will you stand, please?
Now, people, I've just given you
a heart-to-heart talk this morning from
my heart.
I know one thing, the Holy Spirit is
present.
I know something else.
I know something about you and everyone that's
in the balcony and everyone that's in the
annex.
I know something about you because it's in
me, it's in all of us.
Every one of us needs the Holy Spirit.
Every one of us needs to deal with
this this morning.
And I ask you the question, have you
been to the Holy Ghost yet and said,
Lord, have I been acting independently of you?
Have I just been taking things in my
own hand, trying to make something happen?
That's pride.
Don't try to make something happen.
You'll mess it up.
You pray.
And every breathing moment, you don't have to
go to some place and just cry.
You don't have to go some place and
just get on your knees.
Just pray without ceasing.
Drive in your car, wherever it is, talk
to Him.
Talk to the Holy Spirit.
If He's here, God help us if He's
not going to talk.
God help us as Christians if He won't
give us guidance.
God help us if He won't come with
strength that He's promised.
Then God would be a liar and everything
would fade.
Everything would be impossible.
There would be no sense to life itself.
That's what faith has to come to the
conclusion.
If I can't hear from God, if I
can't get my guidance when I trust Him,
then there's nothing to this life.
But He's there.
He's spoken to you.
And He wants to heal your hurt.
He wants to assure you that He knows
where you're at.
He knows what you're going through.
And in His time and His way, you
see, He's not just testing you.
You've already gone through the test.
This is for somebody now who's speaking prophetically.
God's not trying to get at anything but
your confidence and trust in Him.
And He's waiting for you to give up.
He's waiting for you to say, I surrender.
I'm not going to fight this anymore.
Live or die, I'm going to trust you,
Jesus.
Live or die, I'm going to trust you,
Jesus.
I pray for everyone in this congregation.
I pray for the choir, the orchestra, and
the pastors and elders, and for all who
hear my voice.
Lord, we're all in the same condition.
We're in need of you.
Lord, we still battle.
We battle areas in our life that we
weren't ready to see or hear about.
But now you're taking us deeper.
And you want to produce this likeness of
Christ so that there's a quiet confidence and
people see and they can feel and they
can know this man, this woman is not
going to fail.
This man, this woman is not going to
turn their back on Christ.
They're not going to backslide.
They're not going to go back to their
old ways because now there's a hunger planted
by the Holy Ghost.
There's something in this heart that says, I
want to change.
It doesn't say, I will change.
I want to change.
And, God, you're the only one that can
change me because it's impossible otherwise.
God, that's the desperation we call for in
this service this morning.
In your precious holy name, amen.
Now, Lord, send your spirit and heal into
the annex, into the overflow rooms and here
in the house.
Bring us sweet confidence and rest where the
heart says, yes, Lord, I don't have to
do anything.
I don't have to make any promises.
I just have to trust and rest in
your faithfulness.
Will you do that right now in the
quiet moment here?
Will you just turn it all over to
the Lord?
Turn it all over to the Lord.
You say, oh, but, Dave, I'm so afraid.
No, don't be afraid.
God says, I'm with you and I'm speaking
to you.
And if your heart says, I hear you,
Lord, I will trust you.
When you walk out here today, you'll see
God move in ways that you never thought
possible before.
Now, some of you that have come forward
were at the end of your rope.
You went as far as you could go
in your human strength.
But in a way, that's a good place
to be, because then you know you have
no place to turn but to him.
But do it.
If you're here for the first time, maybe,
or you've never received Christ as the Lord
of your life, I'll lead you in a
prayer.
That prayer in itself won't save you.
But if your heart is open to the
Holy Spirit, and if you'll ask him as
we pray to come into your heart, he
will start a work in you of changing
your life.
How many that came forward?
Ask this maybe in the whole auditorium for
everybody.
How many acknowledge you admit you need to
change?
Raise your hand.
Just keep it there.
Pray this prayer with me.
Lord Jesus, I want you to change me.
I want to be more Christ-like day
by day.
I want your Spirit.
So I ask, Holy Spirit, come now.
Fill my life, my heart.
Live in me.
Do the work in me.
Give me godly sorrow, but show me my
heart as I pray.
And Jesus, by your Holy Spirit, give me
power and give me strength to resist the
enemy and the temptations and the fears.
Now let me pray for you.
Father, you see these hands that are raised
in the annex and all over the place.
We acknowledge before you, without you, we can't
take a step.
Without you, we're going to fall flat on
our face.
Without you, temptation would overwhelm us.
Without you, we couldn't stand another day because
of the things that we face.
Lord, financial problems that are overwhelming, it looks
hopeless, and marriage problems, physical problems, so big,
so overwhelming, we don't know what to do.
But Lord, we do know now what to
do.
We turn to you, Holy Spirit.
Purge us, sanctify us, and bring us to
the heart of Jesus, and bring us into
the throne room of Christ, seated at the
right hand of the Father.
Thank you for the cross that brought us
now into the heavens, and we rejoice now
for the victory of the cross and the
victory in our hearts.
Holy Spirit, we're going to rest on you
now.
Will you pray these words with me, please?
Holy Spirit, I want to trust you, but
I don't even have the faith to trust
you.
So even that you have to give to
me.
Give me faith.
Jesus, forgive my unbelief.
Put faith in my heart now.
Will you thank him for doing it right
now?
Just thank him.
This is the conclusion of the message.