This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
PO Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771 or calling
903-963-8626.
You are welcome to make additional cassettes of
this message for free distribution to friends.
However, for all other forms of reproduction or
electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.
I'm glad that I'm saved.
It's such a perilous time, thinking of shutting
this city down.
But I'll tell you what, we're going to
believe God.
No one should believe with me right now
that God's going to send, they say they're
negotiating around the clock.
I'm asking you to believe an angel's going
to attend that meeting and put the fear
of God in all of them and settle
that because we're the ones that get hurt,
you know, your paychecks are involved, and also
getting to church, getting to the house of
God.
There's Brooklyn Tabernacle, there are churches all over
here in New York City, many churches that
have a good gospel and worship and praise,
and the devil would like to shut that
down.
But I have a feeling in my heart,
a Holy Ghost feeling, that this angel of
the Lord is going to interfere.
Go to Acts 10, please, Acts 10.
Call no man common or unclean.
Verse, chapter, Acts chapter 10, starting at verse
9.
Did you find it?
Acts 10, in the middle of the verse
9, Peter went up upon the housetop to
pray about the sixth hour.
And he became very hungry and would have
eaten, but while they were, while they made
ready, he fell into a trance and saw
heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto
him as it had been a great sheet
knit at the four corners and let down
to the earth, wherein were all men are
four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts,
and creeping things and fowls of the air.
There came a voice to him, Rise, Peter,
kill and eat.
And Peter said, Not so.
Imagine him saying no to the Lord.
Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten
anything that is common or unclean.
And the voice spake unto him again the
second time, But God's clans call that not
common.
This was done thrice, and the vessel was
received up again into heaven.
This was done thrice, or three times, and
the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Let's pray.
Lord, speak to me through this and speak
to everyone in this house, everyone who's gathered
this morning by the Holy Ghost.
Lord, I yield my body as a vessel
to you.
I yield it completely to you as I've
done this week and now as I stand
in the pulpit.
And I acknowledge that I need you, Holy
Spirit, to make these words life.
Other words, they just fall to the ground.
Lord, let them be life.
Let them change us.
Let them heal our hearts.
Let them do something in us, O God,
that draws us nigh to you.
And many of us need our thinking molded
and changed in the way we think.
Lord, I want my thinking changed this morning
through what I preach in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now in this chapter, a Gentile army official
by the name of Cornelius, a man who
had a heart for God, devout, praying, the
Scripture says, always to God, had a vision.
And in this vision, he's given the detailed
instructions on how to reach a man called
Peter in Joppa, living or residing temporarily in
the house of Simon the Tanner.
And while these servants of Cornelius are on
their way to find Peter, it's noontime and
he's hungry and the meal is not yet
prepared.
So he goes on the rooftop, these flat
rooftops of the time, and he begins to
pray.
And this man is going to be shocked
and shaken.
He's never been shocked or shaken in his
life.
He is in for an incredible change in
his thinking and in his preaching and his
manner of life and how he manifests Christ
to the world.
Now, here's a powerful man of faith.
This man that's going up to this rooftop
is a man of faith.
Here's a man who's raised the dead.
Here's a man who's been in prison and
because God is so powerfully with them, the
prison shakes.
Here's a man whose very shadow people fall
under and they're healed.
This man amazed the religious leaders of the
time because of his spiritual authority and knowledge
of Jesus Christ.
This is a godly, holy man.
But in one area of his life, he's
misrepresenting who Christ is.
In one area of his life, he has
circumcised Christ in such a way that he
is not being properly defined to the world.
Everything you say and everything I say, everything
we do as believers is a definition to
the world of Christ.
We're defining Christ, who he is.
They can only read our lives.
They don't read their Bibles.
They don't have Bibles.
They read us.
We are living epistles and so we're always,
everything we say and do, we're defining to
the world who Christ is.
And Peter, a holy godly man, is misrepresenting
who Christ is.
This man up to this point, when he
goes up to that housetop to pray, is
making Jesus a divider of people.
He's making Jesus Christ by the way he
lives and thinks.
He is making Christ a respecter of persons.
I wouldn't dare that he, I suggest that
you call him a racist, but there was
a racial intonation in the part of Peter
as he goes up this rooftop to pray.
You know, you can be a praying man
or praying woman.
You can have the touch of God.
You can do miracles.
You can have such a devotion to Christ,
but in one area of your life, you
can totally misrepresent who Jesus is.
And I've been dealing with my heart on
this, you know, and hopefully pray that God
open your heart and your eyes to what
he's saying.
You see, here's a man who's a sticker
to the law.
Under the law, there were walls that were
erected, but Jesus came at the cross and
tore down all those walls.
And Peter had torn down most of the
walls in the church of Jerusalem, those of
the circumcision especially.
Still, though they had torn down many walls,
there was one wall separating them from the
rest of the world and humanity.
The man who goes up to that rooftop
to pray is not the same man who
comes down.
He was a sticker for the Old Testament
law, and here are his very words.
When he gets to the house of Cornelius,
he says to the Gentiles, you know how
that it is an unlawful thing for a
man that's a Jew to keep company or
to come unto one of another nation.
He says, I'm not even allowed as a
Jew to come into your house.
But God has showed me that I should
not call any man common or unclean.
Now, of course, that was the law, but
Jesus came to do away with the law.
Jesus himself ate with sinners and Gentiles.
He ministered to the Samaritan woman.
He tried to show them that the walls
are all coming down.
And the scripture makes it very clear that
God takes this man on the rooftop and
revolutionizes his thinking.
And I pray God take us to that
rooftop if necessary and change the way we
think, especially about what God is doing in
the world today.
Excuse me, my voice.
Peter on the rooftop, he holds a sheet,
a great sheet, white sheet, knitted on the
four ends, and it's being lowered.
The Bible talks about the heavens being opened,
and this is coming out of heaven.
So this was in heaven.
This was with Christ seated at the right
hand of the Father.
And it's coming down.
And this Jewish stickler to the law sees
this sheet coming down, and it's filled with
animals that are crawling, snakes and lizards and
unclean beasts, according to the law.
All of these beasts, four-footed beasts of
the earth and wild beasts and creeping things
and fowls of the air.
And a voice came, rise, Peter, kill and
eat.
He's hungry.
And God says, you want to eat?
Go take one of these unclean beasts and
kill it and eat it.
Now, this represents fellowship all through the Bible,
especially under the covenant meal.
Always you will find that when they eat,
it has to do with fellowship.
And he's talking about fellowship.
And Peter said, not so, Lord.
I have never eaten anything as common or
unclean.
And in his mind, he's saying, but Lord,
what about Leviticus 11, 41 to 43?
Every creeping thing upon earth shall be an
abomination.
It shall not be eaten.
You shall not make yourself abominable with any
creeping thing.
You will make yourselves unclean if you eat
it and you will be defiled.
And Peter's saying, I'm on good scriptural ground.
Thank you.
I'm on good scriptural ground.
I can't eat it, Lord.
It goes up to heaven and then down
comes the sheet again with all these.
And the Lord says, eat it, Peter.
Fellowship with the unclean.
Because I've sanctified, I've cleaned it.
And don't you, anything I've cleansed and sanctified,
don't you dare call unclean or common.
Now, the Greek common means unworthy of fellowship.
So lewd or so untouchable, unworthy of my
fellowship or my association.
He said, don't disassociate with what I'm trying
to tell you.
I have changed and I have cleaned and
cleansed.
He said, rise and eat, rise and have
fellowship, in other words.
And he did it three times.
Peter didn't understand it because when he come
down, he doubted in himself what this vision
should mean.
And while he's trying to figure it out,
Peter is told that there are three men
that are at the door and he goes
to the door and there are three dogs
because the Jews, the unconverted Jews called the
Gentiles dogs.
There's three Gentiles.
And Peter doesn't even invite them in because
you see, he's still under the law.
He still has this idea that these men
are unclean because they're uncircumcised.
He still, and he listens outside the door
and they give them this amazing story and
it must have shaken Peter to the core
of his soul.
Our leader, our boss is named Cornelius and
he's out of vision.
He's a praying man.
He's a godly man.
A Gentile godly praying man.
It must have shaken and Simon was there.
I'm sure there were six other men, at
least Jewish men from the circumcision from Jerusalem.
They're in the house because they accompanied Peter.
These men are listening to this and it
had to be a shocking moment.
They're hearing about a Gentile Italian, an army
leader of all things.
They're an army that opposed and persecuted the
Jew.
And they're saying this man had a vision
and an angel appeared to him and can
you look at these men?
Look and an angel appeared to a Gentile.
He's a praying man and God led him.
He led these men and they're listening to
this and suddenly the light goes on for
Peter and Peter is hearing the Holy Ghost
saying don't look at these men because he's
talking about a mindset.
He knew Peter wouldn't call them a dog.
He knew that Peter wouldn't call them unclean.
That is stinking in his mind.
You cannot separate yourself from fellowship and then
suddenly the Bible says then.
I believe because the light went on, the
vision was all about it because I believe
that God literally gave him a picture.
He flattened the world so to speak.
He just flattened the world into a sheet.
The four corners of the earth, north, east,
south and west and there all the beasts
representing every former drug addict, alcoholic, prostitute, every
nation, every kindred and every tongue.
The Lord says I have a people all
over the world that I have cleansed, I've
sanctified Jew, Gentile, black, white.
You can't call them unclean.
You can't have a mindset that circumscribes Jesus
in your little box.
Your Jesus is too small.
Then called he in and lodged them.
Well, God bless you Peter.
Isn't that marvelous condescending of you?
What a great moment it must have been.
Lord, look what I'm doing.
I'm bringing in a Gentile.
I must have asked Simon if it's okay
because it was Simon's house.
Man comes down from this roof and God
is saying you can no longer separate yourself
from those who are different than you.
These who have been cleansed.
Peter, do you remember where they came from?
They came down out of heaven.
How could you call them unclean and common?
Now six Jewish brethren accompanied Peter down to
the house of Cornelius.
I can only imagine the disbelief and the
doctrinal discussion going on as these men go
down there saying what are we going to
do if they want to meet?
It's got to have to be an outdoor
meeting and if they ask us to eat,
we can't eat because we've got to go
back to Jerusalem and answer to all the
brethren and all the bishops.
We have to answer to them.
They're going to ask us if we fellowshiped
and if we ate with them.
They have this doctrinal discussion going on.
I'm sure Christ is a Jew.
Christ came to save the Jew.
He's a Jewish Savior.
Up to this time it was unthinkable that
Christ would ever save a Gentile.
Even though they had heard Paul the Apostle
say Christ lives in me.
Not I but Christ lives in me.
And all this talk about the Gentiles possibly
receiving Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit.
Up to this time unthinkable to these men.
They're not circumcised.
How can they get the Holy Ghost without
circumcision?
How can Jesus come to an uncircumcised people?
The Bible says it's impossible.
I don't care one or two Muslims.
I don't care what they do.
I don't care if they talk in tongues.
I don't care if they claim they're saved.
The Bible says they have to be circumcised.
Boy how we have divided ourselves into little
bodies and we have boxed Jesus and circumscribed
him into our little imprints.
For Peter the matter was settled.
It said he went down doubting nothing.
You know later when he's retelling this story,
you know that the Holy Ghost interrupted Peter's
preaching.
He preached five minutes probably.
And the Holy Ghost interrupted and the Spirit
of God comes down baptizes everybody.
They're all talking in tongues in the Spirit
and they're being slain in the Spirit of
God.
And the Holy Ghost comes down and these
Jewish men are aghast.
Their chins are hanging.
The Bible said they were astonished.
And when you look at the Greek word
it says they were they were fabergasted beyond
belief.
How can this happen?
I don't believe it.
They're Gentiles.
They're Italian.
They're Romans.
There the circumcision said you know it's amazing
he had to go back to Jerusalem and
defend what he did.
They called him on the carpet.
Peter in his defense said the Spirit made
me go with them.
Nothing doubting.
Moreover these six brethren accompanied me and and
we entered into their house.
I read that.
Peter's having to tell we actually went in
and I'm sure somebody but did you eat?
Did you eat with them?
Oh listen what the Scripture says.
They have the circumstances said you went in
to eat with uncircumcised men.
That's 11th chapter verse 3.
You've defiled yourself.
It's unscriptural.
Peter I'll tell you what these these men
who are saying all this are tongue-speaking
Holy Ghost filled men who the Scripture said
went these are the same men who went
to Phineas Cyrus and Antioch preaching the word
to none but the Jews only.
You see they had this mindset.
Everything outside of their circle outside of their
church organization everything was lewd everything was common
you couldn't associate with it.
In fact even you know when I negotiated
here in this city to find a church
negotiating on another theater before we got this
I was negotiating with the Lubavitcher Jewish gentleman
and he would never I reach out he
would never shake hands he pulled back.
And for some of them if I even
touched the garment they had to cleanse the
garment because it was defiled.
I defiled the garment.
You saw Pentecostals are not like that.
The evangelicals are not like that.
Well let's find out.
Peter said what was I to do?
As soon as I started preaching the Holy
Ghost fell on them as at the beginning.
What was I to do?
Stop God from doing his work?
He defended himself before these leaders in Jerusalem.
You see when Peter went down it was
settled for him.
It was a settled issue.
He knew God was going to do a
work with the Gentiles.
He was no longer calling others.
He was not thinking of others as unworthy
of his fellowship and that he had something
special now that Christ was his and his
alone and Jewish Savior alone.
Now he's enlarged his vision as Christ now
is expanding to the whole world.
He's the Savior of the whole world.
But God had to take six men to
go back so he could take the whole
denomination so to speak to take the whole
church Christian Pentecostal movement of the time into
the heart of Christ and where they would
come out of their shell and come out
of this narrowness that they were in.
See what does that have to do with
us today Pastor Dave?
What does that have to do with me?
What does that have to do with Times
Square Church or as evangelicals what does that
have to do with us?
You see this is what the heart of
it is.
Everything I'm going to repeat everything I say
and everything I preach and the way I
live and the way I act I am
always defining who Christ is.
Just like Peter upon the rooftop, just like
the circumcision believers in Jerusalem.
We have mostly misdefined, we have not properly
defined who Christ is to the world by
our actions.
By the way we shut ourselves in.
We make Christ appear to be divisive in
respect to persons.
I can't think of a single denomination, not
a single denomination that hasn't been divided time
and time again.
I don't know how many hundreds of Baptists,
there are different kinds of Baptists worldwide.
I mean you look at the world book
of church and denominations.
There are page after page after page of
Baptist denominations and even more Pentecostals.
Every conceivable kind and they have split and
split and split.
You see the world looks at this and
they see all of this division and they
see all of these various religions that are
supposed to be evangelical and Pentecostal especially and
folks what I've seen overseas in my travels
the last three years has been shocking and
shameful.
I'm thinking of a country we went to
and the Bishop of the Assemblies of God
of that country would not associate with our
meetings even though he'd read my book, Cross
and Switchblade, because our conferences included Methodists and
Baptists and Lutherans and other Pentecostal organizations because
in that country there were five or six
major Pentecostal denominations and when I sent Bettina
there he wouldn't even invite her in, he
wouldn't even have lunch with her and sit
down and talk because I'd send a message
to him.
He says I can't do it, I don't
care, the essence was I don't care how
righteous Brother Dave is, he's coming here to
our country and he's associating with these men
and other denominations and we just don't believe
in hand clapping and there's going to be
hand clapping in your meetings and we're not
going to have it.
What the dear man is saying is the
very thing that Christ was appalled about and
what the Holy Ghost is dealing with Peter
about, you can't call what I have cleansed
common, in other words unworthy of fellowship.
You can't shut yourself away when God by
His Spirit arranges something beautiful and folks other
denominations gathered, we had a wonderful time and
the good part of it is the majority
of his people even though he put out
word, he forbade all his ministers, hundreds of
ministers not to attend our conference, the majority
of them were there because you see they
had had their eyes opened and God blessed
in a wonderful way.
I remember in another country, it was so
shocking, it was the first time in the
history of that nation that all these denominations
cooperated together.
They had never done it in the history
of the nation.
The Lord just, everywhere we go, it happened
in Nigeria when Pastor Carter was there and
it's happening all over the world.
I just got a call from Bettina who
goes ahead and sets these up for us
last night from Brazil.
We're going to Brazil, Lord willing, in June
or July.
And in Rio de Janeiro and in Sao
Paulo, just the word went out that we
were coming and 800 pastors came just for
the set up meeting from various denominations and
they were shocked at who was there at
the meeting.
Never in the history of Brazil has it
been done before and they said even before
the meeting happened God has done a great
thing here because the walls are coming down
and men who never even talked to one
another, never called, never had any desire are
now hugging.
And the Lord bringing walls down.
We were in one country and I was
so shocked because you see there are Pentecostals,
if you don't wear, if the women don't
wear a head covering, you have to have
a white cover or a scarf or a
hat.
And if you don't have your head covered,
you're not walking in the light.
And here in other Pentecostals, they don't believe
in clapping hands.
If you clap your hands, that's a disorder.
And then you have the charismatics who leap
and jump and clap and rejoice.
So you got all these different Pentecostals, charismatics,
the originals and the pre-originals.
I can't keep up with them all.
And everyone, they all have bishops.
And the first, it's quite a thing because
three nights were there.
One night we have to have music for
charismatics.
We have to have another group for this
group.
They all want their music group to be
there at least one night so that their
kind can be on stage.
First night, charismatics with all of their colorful,
you know, they had red and white and
flags.
And the emcee that night is a bishop
of the Pentecostal movement.
He doesn't believe in clapping.
And it's sinful to ever have a flag.
And he opens the meeting, introduces this group,
and he stands back.
And they start singing and praising God.
These were young people, just happy in the
Lord.
And he froze.
I mean, the frown on his face.
And he didn't move the whole time.
He just stood there frozen, frown on his
face.
And I turned and I said, we're in
trouble.
God came down in that meeting.
God moved mightily.
And after the service, I go back and
he's standing there.
And he shocked me.
He said, look at me.
And I said, this meeting was an abomination
to God.
He said, I'm taking 200 of my pastors
out of here and we're gone.
I said, brother, did you see what God
did tonight?
I looked and I said, you know me.
You know my walk.
You know that God's on me.
How do you say that?
How can you say such a thing?
I don't care.
We don't believe in clapping hands.
This was abomination in the eyes of God.
And I was so flabbergasted three pastors came
and rescued me.
Honestly, because I was almost in tears.
I couldn't believe that a bishop, leader of
a Pentecostal movement, could be so shaken because
this didn't fit his box.
Didn't fit his imprint of Christ.
And so, I go back.
I said, I'm shaken by this.
I can't believe it.
Now, one pastor left the meeting and he
didn't go either.
And when I left that city, he was
at the airport.
He said, brother Dave, we're going to have
to change the way we think.
And he was just open.
He said, we've got to change the way
we think.
You see, in these countries, it's not a
matter of race.
It's not a racial issue.
Because if I go to Germany, they're all
Germans.
I go Italy, they're all Italians.
It's not a matter of black, white.
It's not a matter of different ethnic groups.
It's not a racial thing.
Folks, this goes beyond race.
It's not just the racial issue we're talking
about.
The real issue is the limiting of the
Holy One of Israel.
It's limiting Jesus Christ.
It's the limitation in our thinking, how we
think of people and how we think of
the world.
In Psalm 78, 41, Israel tempted God and
limited the Holy One of Israel.
And in the Hebrew, it's grieving God by
scratching out an imprint.
In other words, drawing a line, scratching out
or making an imprint, making a circle and
say, everything within this circle is sanctified.
Jesus is in this circle.
And folks, this is what the Pentecostal movement
did for years.
We have the Holy Ghost.
We called our churches full gospel churches.
Well, that's an insult to everybody else that
they have half a gospel.
We have the full gospel.
And also, I grew up hearing of them
preaching these four dead Lutherans.
And God help those dead, dry Catholics that
are in those dead cathedrals.
They don't have the Holy Ghost and we
have the Holy Ghost.
We have it.
It's all ours.
And then a book came out.
They speak with tongues and the cross and
switchblade came out.
A double-barreled shotgun from heaven.
And suddenly, I was at a Lutheran convention
in Minnesota and Minneapolis and the Holy Ghost
came down in a Lutheran convention.
And people started speaking in tongues and the
glory of God came down.
And I'm shocked and I'm saying, these are
Lutherans.
And then suddenly, the Catholic Church had a
charismatic movement and I was being invited to
minister to priests.
I went to Poland under the communist and
a crusade.
And while I'm there, the Holy Ghost fell
upon Jesuit priests.
And I'm invited to a meeting and there
are all of these Catholic priests and they're
crying and they're weeping.
Talk to us about the Holy Ghost.
Talk to us more about Jesus.
They didn't ask about Mary, they asked about
Jesus.
And ministers contended with me.
What about Mariology?
I said, I don't know about Mariology.
All I know that there are hungry people
in the Catholic Church.
There are grandmothers and grandfathers and I'm not
going to call them common or unclean because
God has a people.
God has a people in all of them.
And God helped Times Square Church if we
ever think we haven't.
That we are the church in New York
City.
I want to tell you something.
You can go to Brooklyn Tabernacle and the
Holy Ghost is in every meeting you walk
into.
You can go to other churches in this
city and you'll find the Holy Ghost moving
in little churches, small churches.
God is there moving in a wonderful way.
I got to move on.
Let me speak to you for a moment
about your family.
And your children, your family, your immediate family.
Those you don't believe who are making progress
toward Christ.
Those who seem unmovable or they disappoint you
in what you see are considered to be
apathy.
So what we do, we have our own
imprint.
We've drawn a certain circle and we have
this concept of what we believe is progress
in the Lord.
And so we judge our children.
We judge other Christians.
We judge family by what we don't see
and what we don't perceive to be movement
toward Christ.
Because our concept is that if you don't
see them with their Bible open, because your
concept, and it's a biblical concept, that if
you're moving over to the Lord, you read
your Bible daily, you pray, and you come
completely away from the world.
And that's fine.
That's an imprint.
But folks, sometimes, and listen closely, sometimes we
limit Christ in such an incredible way.
We don't have the faith.
We look at our children, we look at
our others as apathetic because we don't see
the secret work of the Holy Spirit that's
being done in their heart.
We don't hear the cries at midnight when
they're saying, oh God, I don't understand, but
help me.
You don't understand the drawing of the Holy
Spirit.
They may be reading the Bible when nobody
knows.
They may only read one chapter.
They may read one verse, but it's a
seed that's been planted in their heart, and
God is at work in their life.
You can't see it.
There may not be any evidence of it.
But don't look upon them as lewd or
disfellowshipped with them in any way or condemn
them.
Believe that your Christ is big enough to
send the Holy Ghost and convict them and
change their life.
Don't circumscribe Christ and not include your child
inside that circle.
You put them out there because you say
I don't see any evidence.
You don't know.
They may be drawing closer to God than
even you are right now.
You say that's blasphemy.
No, it's not.
It's not blasphemy because years ago, a woman
by the name, a young little woman, Celeste
Horvath, a prostitute, a madame, the most notorious
madame in the history of New York City,
walked into Teen Challenge, Pentecostal background from the
Pentecostal church, a praying grandmother who told her
all through her young years that she would
be an evangelist.
She wound up bound by drugs and alcohol
and became a notorious madame here in New
York City.
There's a brother sitting in this church right
now that just gave me her book, and
I was reading it this past week, and
I remember her coming into the center.
She had a list of clients that were
the most famous people in the United States,
the most famous sports, politics, politicians, and her
brother wrote her a letter once said, you
have so shamed your family.
You're beyond redemption.
And her mother and father shamed, and everybody
looked at this Celeste as a shameful whore,
not knowing that every night she lived in
terror.
Every night she would pray, oh God, just
a little longer, I want you don't leave
me.
Even into her place where she brought the
clients, she bought an organ, and even while
all of these things were going on, sinful,
wicked things in the room, she's out there
in the middle playing an organ, amazing grace.
And nobody knew the battle in Celeste's heart.
It hit the newspapers.
She came into Teen Challenge Center.
We took her in.
Now, we had to let her go because
they imprisoned her.
She spent a year in prison, but while
in prison, she became a soul winner, and
she became the evangelist her grandmother said she
would.
She won many, many souls in prison to
Christ, women.
She came out of prison and became a
powerful street preacher right here in New York
City.
She preached powerfully.
Went out to Long Island and raised up
a church.
The church is still on fire for God.
Celeste came just a few years ago up
to our office here to visit with Gwen
and I.
She said, Celeste, it's been a long time.
She had cancer.
She was dying.
And suddenly, I was thinking about that when
the Lord was giving me this message, how
many people, even after she was saved, thought
she was unclean, didn't want to associate with
her.
They would pull away.
Pastors didn't want her to come to their
church.
But her book was just heartrending to hear
all this time that she's in this horrible
business.
God had never forsaken her.
The Lord was moving in her heart.
She cringed every time they said she was
hopeless.
She cringed every time they said that she
brought shame on herself and on her family.
And at times she thought of suicide.
But God stopped her from every attempt at
suicide.
Time and time again, the Holy Ghost came.
And then one day in her loneliest moment,
she just cried out, Jesus, help me.
The Spirit of God came on her.
And in an instant, she was changed.
But that work had been going on by
the Holy Ghost for 10 years.
Don't give up on your unsaved children.
Don't give up on your unsaved husband, your
unsaved wife.
You don't know what's going on in their
heart.
And I'll tell you something.
I'll tell you something.
When God is doing His greatest work, you're
going to see the least evidence.
Because my dad called that the cold bucket
conviction.
We used to have cold buckets in pot
-bellied stoves.
And he would tell the mothers that their
unsaved, drunken husband says, you'll know when the
Holy Ghost normally comes home and kicks the
cold bucket over.
And he gets mad at you.
He's under conviction.
Glory be to God.
I'm going to close with this.
You see, we're about to have war with
Iraq.
Now, Allah is the God of jihad.
Or Jesus is the God of peace.
Here's what I'm trying to say in my
weekly.
We can't look at the Muslim world now
as common and unclean.
Because God has a people in every Muslim
nation.
God has a people.
Now, we're not, we're talking about those sanctified.
And we're talking about those who turn to
Christ.
But we can't write off.
We can't draw a circle around them and
say, this is the people of God.
They're impossible.
Nothing can happen.
Because I've been reading some of the letters
coming from these Muslim countries where Times Square
Church has radio broadcasts now.
And I was reading a few of those
letters yesterday or on Thursday.
And it goes like this.
Islam can't get peace.
I've searched and searched for peace.
But I don't know any of my Islamic
friends who have any peace.
And when you came and you preached peace
in Christ, I gave my heart to Jesus.
And it's the first time I've ever had
peace in my life.
We serve, my friends, the Prince of Peace.
And that is what God is going to
use as His most powerful tool and His
weapon to pull down the stronghold.
Because Islam is going to become more and
more restless.
It's like a restless raging sea.
And in the midst of that, the Word
of the Lord is coming forth.
The Prince of Peace is coming.
And I believe God, before Jesus comes, is
going to have a great moving among the
Muslims, among the Islamics.
And I want my Christ to be big
enough.
I want to serve and believe in Christ
strong enough that no Muslim, no religion, nothing
can stop it.
It wasn't stopped in Russia.
God pulled down the Iron Curtain.
It isn't stopped in Nigeria.
It's not stopped in China.
It's not going to be stopped in New
York.
The Holy Ghost is breaking out all the
walls.
There are no walls, no curtains, no bamboo
curtain, no iron curtain, nothing.
And believe me, if He can bring communism
down, He can bring Jesus right into the
heart of Jihad country.
God can send a revival to the Palestinians.
And some of the worst leaders can become
evangelists.
I believe that just as sure as Mickey
Crews, a gang leader, became an evangelist, God's
still in the business.
Oh God, help us to knock down the
walls, all of our circles, and believe that
Jesus, our Christ, is going to bring everything
under His feet.
Glory be to God.
Lord, enlarge our vision.
Call no man common or unclean.
Will you stand, please?
Glory to God.
What a mighty Savior we have.
What a mighty Christ.
Hallelujah.
Lord, forgive us for our small thinking.
Lord, forgive us for circumscribing You in such
a small circle.
Oh God, help us to define Christ.
It's a Christ who can do the impossible,
who can save to the uttermost.
God, remove from our thinking any prejudice we
have against any religion.
Lord, You certainly have set Your own boundaries.
You've told us we're not to fellowship with
the works of wickedness and darkness.
But oh God, help us to think for
a moment of all of those in Russia,
China, and all the Muslim countries who've been
saved.
Lord, who are paying with their very blood
in Sudan.
Lord, all of those hundreds and hundreds of
believers whose children have been murdered before their
very eyes.
Oh mighty Christ.
Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, move in
Sudan right now.
God, stop the bloodshed there.
God, give us a world vision on anything
we've known that we can believe that in
this church we can have a mindset that
we believe Christ can do anything in any
nation, in any country.
And God can enlarge our borders.
And we can believe God to work in
homosexuals.
We can believe God to send an awakening
on Broadway and in Wall Street.
And Lord, let us not draw a circle
around this church and think the Holy Ghost
is only working here.
Holy Ghost, spread our minds, spread our thinking,
and spread our faith to every avenue and
every city and every street in this city,
in the boardrooms, oh God, of the richest,
and in the hideouts of the poorest, and
the most wicked, the prostitutes, the drug addicts,
the alcoholics.
God, save them by multitudes, we pray.
God, give us faith.
Hallelujah.
Glory be to Jesus.
Scripture makes it clear.
Lord said, if you draw near to me,
I'll draw near to you.
And it's the nearness of Jesus that is
our strength, because in Him is joy, peace,
and rest, and all of this that we
have preached about over the years.
Folks, I'm going to tell you something.
There is peace in Christ.
There is peace.
I know it because I have it.
You know it because you have it.
But you believe God right now.
It's the nearness.
See, most, many are drifting away toward materialism,
drifting away toward sinful pleasures.
But it's that nearness of Christ.
It's that hunger, Lord, I want to be
near you.
If you really love Him, if you love
somebody, you want to be near them, don't
you?
If you really love Jesus, you want to
be drawn nigh to Him, you draw nigh
right now.
And you know how you do that?
Just by opening up your heart.
And out of the heart, let your mouth
speak what is in there.
Out of the mouth, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks.
I've been speaking to you about what's in
my heart.
You speak what's in your heart now.
Would you just tell them you love them
right now?
Just forget my words and take just two
minutes right now.
Lord, tell them what's in your heart.
Lord, I love you and I want you
to draw near to me.
I'm going to draw nigh to you right
now.
I'm coming, Jesus.
I'm coming.
And exercise your faith right now.
Believe Him right now.
Lord, I'm drawing nigh to you.
Just tell them you love them.
And just worship Him.
Lord, I love you with all of my
heart.
I need you this morning.
You can lift your hands and just say,
Jesus, draw.
I'm drawing nigh to you.
Draw nigh to me right now.
I believe it.
I receive it.
I draw nigh to you right now.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
If you've been backslidden, if you don't know
Christ, there is no formula prayer.
All it is is asking Jesus, come.
Lord, here I am.
I'm ready.
Come, come.
I owe my heart to you right now.
Just say, come, Jesus.
Come and dwell in my heart.
Come and cleanse me.
Come, forgive me, Jesus.
If you've been backslidden, if you've been drifting
away from the Lord, forgive me, Lord.
I've been drifting.
Just be honest with Him right now.
Come on, talk to Him.
Talk to Jesus right now.
Speak it right out from your heart.
Speak to Jesus.
Lord, here I am.
I step forward this morning because I need
a touch from you.
I step forward because I want to go
all the way with you, Jesus, and I
don't want to be half-hearted.
I don't want to be lukewarm or cold.
I want to be hot for Christ.
Hallelujah.
Now, just lift up your hands and give
Him thanks.
Lord, I give you thanks.
I give you praise.
I worship you, Jesus.
I love you.
Hey, dear ones, listen to me.
There's only so...
A pastor in a meeting like this can
only bring you so far.
We bring you to the Word, but there
has to be something that is ignited by
the Holy Ghost in you.
While you stand where you're at right now,
where you're at in this building, something of
the Holy Ghost has to be ignited where
you say, Lord, I receive the truth and
I want the truth to set me free.
And you meditate.
So what the Scripture says, meditate night and
day on this precious Word.
Hallelujah.
And then let Him deal with you these
issues that have to be dealt with.
If there's sin in your life, let Him
deal with it.
I know for every speaker that comes to
this booklet, in a moment like this, this
is the most difficult time of all because
we don't know how.
We don't have the power to reach your
mind.
We don't know how to reach in.
We would like to just give you something
that would instantly change everything.
And it doesn't work that way.
We can invite you to pray.
We can pray for you.
But you have to make up your mind.
There has to be a mindset right now.
Lord Jesus, I receive from you right now
the touch that you promised me.
As I pray, we believe God for that
Father in Jesus' name, for the backslider, for
the indifferent, for those who have never really
surrendered all, we ask your Holy Spirit to
come and plant the seed in their heart.
And Lord, draw them nigh to you.
And as we draw nigh to you, draw
nigh unto us.
You said, I'll never leave you, I'll never
forsake you, I'll go with you to the
very end.
Give us that confidence.
Lord, take away all shame, all guilt, and
all condemnation.
The moment we trust you and your word,
we ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.