Jesus Love People Through Me

Incredible blessing of the Lord. I thank God for the privilege of pastoring a church of over 100 cultures, 100 nations, 105 actually at last count, and in the last year or two we're just seeing an absolute open altar for salvation. So many people coming to Christ, it's just amazing to be able to handle the volume.

Perhaps it's something that the Lord is extending his hand of mercy in New York City and in our generation and because of the difficulty we may be facing in the coming days. Please be in prayer for our city. This Occupy Wall Street situation that's happening now has the potential to escalate and we would appreciate very much if you remember us in your prayers.

I'm here today to talk about the topic, has the church lost the fear of the Lord? And in particular I was asked to speak on the subject of walking in the fear of the Lord. Before I even attempt this this evening, let's let's bow and pray together. Now Father, I thank you Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank you for the touch of your hand. I thank you for strength that can only come from you, for wisdom that comes from above, for the ability of God to speak to your people and to hear from you and to unlock your word and to make your word live within each of our hearts. Lord, we're not interested in just study.

We want to be changed from image to image and glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord as you promise us that we will be changed. Would you help us this evening? Lord, would you overpower me and would you cover my frailty? Would you enable me, oh God, to speak a word that's going to be life to this congregation this evening? Lord, I'm not interested in taking this journey just to have nothing happen this evening. Wherever you are, your kingdom must advance.

Wherever you are, Lord, something burns in the hearts of the hearers when it's true. Help me tonight, Lord Jesus Christ, help me. Be my strength.

I yield to you, Lord. I thank you, God, for what you will do this evening, for the hearts that will be encouraged. In Jesus' mighty name, amen.

Now, as the church lost the fear of the Lord, this is a topic of our discussion this evening, but I want to say before we begin this discussion that we must understand there's something in the fallen nature of each of us that absolutely delights in exacting justice on either named or unnamed persons whom we feel have failed and are deserving of judgment. You see that in John chapter 8 when the woman who was taken in adultery obviously had failed of the law of God, obviously had fallen far short of the standard of righteousness and holiness required of the people of God because she was of the family or the people of God at that time. And so gathered around her were people with stones in their hands wanting to do her harm.

It was in their spirit because this is the way they maintained their sense of righteousness. They could only maintain it in a sense by condemning everything around them that fell short of what they thought the standard of holiness should be. And in a similar manner, you and I must be aware of our own predisposition to beating the failed bride of Jesus Christ.

You know, it was a few years ago the Lord spoke to my heart just a simple story. And it's just, let's say for example, a man here or a woman here, you married a person with obvious deficiency. Maybe your husband was grossly deficient in social skills or work skills or just interpersonal communication and vice versa.

And every time you went out into the public or somebody was invited to your house, they criticized your wife or they criticized your husband. Let me ask you gentlemen that are here tonight, how long would you endure these people in your house? If you invited people into your house and all they did was criticize your wife. This was a few years ago the Lord spoke to my heart and said, Carter, be very, very careful how you speak about my bride.

Whether you like her or whether you don't, whether she's doing what you think she should do, whether she's standing in an absolute radiant glory with the intelligence of heaven or she is grossly deficient in her service to me. He said, this is still my bride. She stands or falls before me and not before you.

And so I caution you to be careful how you speak about my church. In the book of Proverbs it says that there are two things that are an abomination to the Lord. Both he who justifies the wicked and also the one who condemns the just.

We must be careful. What God has received, you and I don't have the right to call common or unclean any longer. We need to begin to walk in mercy.

We need to understand that Christ's love and the depth of his sacrifice goes a lot deeper than quite often you and I are willing to go. It is only in the last few years that the Lord Jesus Christ has put a profound love in my heart for his church and because of it he's enabled me to cross denominational lines, to preach conferences and conventions in other places with people of different beliefs which I don't consider essential to salvation. I'm not talking about belief systems that are on opposite sides of the bloodline of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, but I am talking about the various distinctives in the body of Jesus Christ that divide us.

The way we worship or don't worship, the way we think or don't think, the things we do or don't do and a lot of it is just childish. I was at a minister's conference recently and I said to the pastors in the conference, they said, you know, we we've allowed so much to divide us that from heaven's perspective is actually rather childish. We're like people on a platform in New York City waiting for the subway train to come in and we're all arguing about what time the train is going to come.

Some say it's going to be the pre rush hour train is going to come and others say no it's going to be mid rush hour and some others are going to say no it's going to be post rush hour and so we divide into three groups on the platform and the ridiculousness of it all is that when the train comes we're all getting on the same train and you and I need to think about these things that we've allowed to divide us. I said to the ministers in that conference, I said if you believe we have to go through the tribulation I have no problem with that whatsoever. You can have my truck and please feed my dog.

We can beat on the Church of Jesus Christ. I've been in conferences over the years where that's been the thematic problem of it and we can walk away feeling very self-satisfied and righteous. We've thrown our stones, we've condemned the church, we've passed down the weak, we've not enabled the struggling, we've come in and left without joy and we although feel very self-satisfied but we can leave completely unaware of our own condition and so based on our theme this evening I'd like us to focus on where the focus should be.

Have I lost the fear of the Lord? I'm going to preach to my own heart. You're welcome to join me tonight if you want to. I'm not going to speak about some generic church having lost the fear of God.

I'm going to talk about my own heart. Do I fear God? Now there are so many definitions of the fear of the Lord and you're going to probably hear them all in this conference. All the concordances have been out.

Everybody's looked up the words fear, feared, fearing, fearful, fears and pulled it all together and come up with various. It's like people trying to describe an elephant in a room with their eyes closed. Everybody's got a little part of this trying to describe the fear of the Lord and the gambit runs from this reverential awe of God which is in the scriptures.

This reverential awe that the disciples had when they saw him calm the storm and still the wind and the waves. The fear that must have been in the hearts of people when they saw Jesus call Lazarus out of the grave. The fear of just even the radiance of God that was exhibited in Luke for example as the angels simply appeared in the heavens reflecting the glory of God.

The fear of God's image and reflection that was evident through the children of Israel when they saw the reflection of God on the face of Moses and so there is truth to this reverential awe. It's a fear that that God is so other than we are. He's so able to do other than we're able to do.

He's so awesome. He's so powerful. It should leave you and I standing trembling as it is in the presence of a holy God.

Now consider this side of the fear of the Lord and now you can swing the pendulum all the way to the right where Paul says, therefore knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men and so the opposite side of this spectrum is somebody who just simply lives in fear and it's an unhealthy fear. It's an unholy fear of God and it's not an intended fear that God had. It's a fear in a sense that tells us with all of the access of the nature, the power, the life, the majesty of God that has been made available to you and I through the cross of Jesus Christ that we've been called into a work.

This continuation as it is of the redemptive work of Christ in the earth and yes there will be an accounting at the end of our lives that we will have to stand before a holy God and we will have to give an account of what we have done with this resource of God. What have you done with it? What have I done with it? And that's not debatable. We're going to stand one day before God and we are going to give an account of our lives.

What did you do with what I gave you? There are parables in Scripture that talk about this where there's this deposit of life that is given into each of us. It's not our life, it's his life. It's not our power, it's his power.

It's not our mind, it's the mind of Christ that's given to us. It's not our promises to God, it's God's promises to us that give us the strength to live the Christian life. And so one day we will give an account and so I'd need a week to preach the full spectrum of the fear of God in a manner that it could be fully understood and doesn't leave people walking on eggshells nor leave them nonchalant in the presence of a holy God.

Now I've given a basic definition for what I'd like to speak on this evening. It's my own definition about the fear of the Lord. Now considering both sides of this pendulum, the fear of the Lord in essence is lost when a people, any people, no longer believe that God means what he says.

That's when the fear of the Lord is lost. We don't believe that he's called us into his work, we don't believe that he's given us the resources to do it, and we don't believe there'll be an accounting for what we know and what we're given at the end of the journey. We simply don't believe it.

We don't believe for authority, we don't believe for power, we don't believe for change, we don't believe for a new heart. He said to the prophet Ezekiel, concerning his own people, he said, I'm going to give them a new heart, a new mind, and a new spirit. He said to the apostle Paul, if we are in Christ, the old things in us are passed away, behold all things have become new.

He says we are changed by the very presence of God within us from image to image and glory to glory. In the Greek that means we are made into somebody other than what we used to be. We are changing, our value system changes, our motive for living changes, our reason for walking through the earth changes, everything changes.

The old things are passed away and behold all things have become new. This Christian life is an awesome life. This Christian life is a life where, as the old hymn says, morning by morning new mercies I see.

Morning by morning when I get up, I should be excited about the things of God. I should be excited about what God plans to do in my life in the future. I should be living in anticipation that the rough edges of my character are being constantly refined.

As the apostle Paul says, no I'm not attained yet, that which I'm highly called of God to be, but I'm leaving behind those things that need to be left behind and I'm pressing forward to this goal that is before me. The Lord declares clearly that he will judge certain types of thinking and behavior, but the sinner as well as the religious man has the uncanny ability to put this day of the Lord's reckoning far out of his mind. Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 5 says, because they regard not the work of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them and not build them up.

Now this happens not just to the willful sinner, but remember the nation of Israel. In the wilderness, I believe it's in Psalm 78, they said, can God furnish a table in this wilderness? And they limited the Holy One of Israel. They didn't regard the work of his hands.

They didn't regard what he is able to do. There was really no fear of God in the heart. There was no awe.

There was no reverence. There was no standing as Isaiah did in the in the majestic presence of Almighty God. And coming to the realization that he was absolutely nothing.

His works were filthy rags in the sight of a holy God. He had nothing to say. He had nothing to offer.

All of his form of prophesying was worth nothing. All of his religious life was so sore to the glory of God. It wasn't worth presenting to God.

And yet in that condition, with that kind of fear of God in his heart, suddenly there's a revelation of mercy. Suddenly a heavenly being takes a coal from the altar and touches his lips and purges him and commissions him and gives him a revelation. Actually and Isaiah is probably the most complete revelation of the entire message of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.

He gives them a revelation of the Messiah, the work of the Messiah, the glory of God, the coming of Christ, the new heavens and the new earth. He gives it all to him because he stood in the fear of God. And on Isaiah's part, all he could do is let the angel touch him, like the prodigal son when he headed home.

And he had this mantra upon him about how he had sinned and how he'd fallen short and how he'd failed and how he's not worthy and how he should be made a servant. And he somehow thought that was wholly unacceptable. But his father didn't even acknowledge anything that came out of his mouth simply because he was walking now in the fear of what he had done.

He was covered and he was empowered and he was given shoes and he was brought into a place of joy. He was brought into the house and the Bible tells us there was music and dancing at that house. You see, the joy of understanding that his father had delighted in restoring him had become his strength.

In Luke chapter 7, we have a religious man and there was an incredible contrast brought before him of what the work of God really is as opposed to what this man's religion had made it into. Now this Pharisee invited Jesus into his house and as he sat at the table, I'm assuming that's what he was doing, in came a woman of a poor reputation. She fell at the feet of Jesus and she began to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair.

And Jesus began to speak to this man because this was the work of God. It was to be touched with the feelings and the infirmities of the struggling and the unclean and the nobodies and the nothings in our society and to not shun this work of God. This was the work of God.

It was the work of God in its purest form before this man who's ironically called to represent the work of God in the earth. That's who he was in his generation and actually the Pharisees in their origin considered themselves guardians of the purity of truth. But yet even in that guarding of the truth they had gone far away from it because there was no fear of God in their hearts.

Now think about it for a moment. He has a tangible visible display of the work of God. The God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

The God who became a man. The God who went to a cross. The God who endured the scorning, the ridicule, the beatings really of the religious actually.

It wasn't really the unsaved by our standard of thinking today. It was his own people that rejected him. And here this woman is at the feet of Jesus.

This is actually the work of God in a visible form being given to those who are supposed to be representing him in the earth. He turns to this religious man and he says you've since I've come into your house you've given me no water for my feet. In other words you have no compassion for the stranger in his journey.

Beware. Beware of any religion that has no compassion for the stranger. Beware of a religiousness that judges people by the color of their clothing, the length of their skirts, what they're wearing on their wrists or their ears.

Beware of this kind of thing that begins to judge and loses the heart of God. See he sat there as a judge. He said if this was a righteous man, a prophet, he would know what kind of a woman this is.

But Jesus was sitting at the table in his heart saying no if this man were of God he would know what kind of a man he is and what he has become. He has no heart for the work of God. He sits as a judge.

Everything has to conform to his standard. Nothing can be outside what he thinks holiness should be. He says to him you offered me no kiss.

In other words you have no demonstration of the love of God for those you would like to bring to himself through you. We must be careful. Folks you if you ever if you know I'm not trying to promote Times Square Church.

If you if you ever are in New York City I encourage you to come out on a Sunday night and just see what's coming out to the house of God. It's amazing. I mean we've got everything that you can think of.

I had Superman get saved one one night. I'm talking about in the Superman costume with the big S on the front and the cape and the boots and the and you know the beautiful thing about New York is he came to the altar he's crying like a baby and nobody's even looking at him. It's New York City.

You can be as crazy as a bedbug and you can survive out on the streets and have a wonderful life there. We have people coming in who don't they're not the music is very lively. It's very it's very African-American worship and it's very lively and the people come in and they some of them come out of they have no experience in the church.

They just come from nightclubs the night before and so they're doing this to the music and stuff and but then the testimonies are given the gospel is preached and we're seeing anything from 30 to 100 people now every Sunday night coming to Christ. Our New Believers classes are so full we can hardly handle it anymore. A couple of months ago we baptized 126 new believers on a Tuesday night.

Within two weeks there were 95 new believers in New Believers class. I thank God. You see it praise God for that.

We've had mafia people come to Christ. We've we've had Wall Street people. We have street people.

We have just absolutely everything coming to Jesus Christ and the one thing that the congregation in New York City has learned is that you and I have to be a demonstration of the love of God for those that he would bring to himself through us. There must be an acceptance not an acceptance of sin but an acceptance of the sinner an acceptance of people a love of all people who are at least trying to find their way through. Some do some don't.

We understand that and he said to this religious man again he said you you put no oil on my head. In other words there's no joy in you that could make the stranger's heart glad. Folks this is should be a joyful thing to know Christ.

It is for me anyway. There's joy in knowing Jesus. The Bible does say the joy of the Lord is our strength.

I thank God for that. I love being a Christian more than I love preaching the gospel. I thank God I've traveled most over most of the world now except for India and China and I'm going into India next year and I thank God for those opportunities.

I thank God for having seen thousands come to Jesus Christ. I thank God for having had the opportunity to live a wonderful life in Christ but I thank God most of all I've never lost the joy of the Lord in my own heart. I thank God that I can rejoice with a young Christian.

I can rejoice with the angels in heaven every time somebody comes to Christ. I had the privilege last Sunday night of seeing a man who has resisted God for years come to Christ. He stepped up on the platform we hugged each other and we just cried.

That's all we did. He cried and I cried. I was so happy to see him come home to God.

He was so happy to be home to God. Folks, I don't know. I never want to lose that.

As Trevor's saying tonight, that's where it started and that's where I want it to finish. I don't want to finish religious when I started out in love with Jesus Christ and the work of God. There has to be joy in the house of the Lord.

There's got to be joy in my life. If there's no joy in me, what is it in me that's going to bring you to Christ? There has to be something of life. Maybe it's different in Georgia but I live in New York City where the whole world comes looking for joy and satisfaction and life and the American dream as it is which has become somewhat of a nightmare in New York City.

Here they are coming to church. They're coming up by the hundreds and they're looking and saying, is there anything here? Is there anything in this place that would make me want to consider giving my life to Jesus Christ? In case you think these are just marginal conversions, you're wrong. We sent 500 short-term missionaries out last year and there's going to be somewhere in the vicinity of 600 throughout this year.

Most of them are young people and a lot of them are new converts who have been in New Believers class and Bible school for maybe one or two years. Thank God these are conversions folks. They're going into the nations.

They're going out. They're standing up in their schools. They're standing up in college classrooms.

They're standing up in their high schools for the truth and for the gospel of Jesus Christ and they're not standing just with an argument but the love of God in their hearts. Now Jesus says something else to this man. He says, basically intimated to him that he was not forgiven.

If he was forgiven, it was very, very little that he had been forgiven. He said whoever loves little has been forgiven little. Doesn't really know where he's come from.

Doesn't really know whose presence he's in. Has really no sense of what it really means to belong to the kingdom of God. These words should have stricken him to the core.

You imagine if Jesus Christ came in here tonight, looked you in the face and said you're not forgiven very much because you don't love very much. I don't know about you but I'd be stricken to the core. I'd be on my face on this platform.

I'd be hanging on to his feet like that harlot woman was. I'd be weeping tears and say Jesus have mercy on me. Touch my life.

I don't have the power to do this but you do and I stand in the fear of God. So Lord you touched my heart. You filled me with what I need.

You put within me the power. I remember that he said to the early church, you tarry until I come to you and I will enable you to stand and be witnesses of me, the one who went to a cross in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and through the other most parts of the world. No, he should have been stricken to the core but he wasn't for if he ever had it, his religion had driven the fear of the Lord far, far, far out of his heart.

James chapter 2 says these words and I'm for time's sake you just listen. I'll read it to you. James chapter 2 verses 19 and 20 says there believe us there's one God that do us well.

The devil's also believe in tremble but wilt thou know O vain man that faith without works is dead. Faith without works. Now folks I know that we're not saved by works so let's not get into that argument.

I know that. I know we're saved by faith that brought us into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I am saved by faith, by faith alone I stand.

When I stand at the throne of God on the day of judgment, I stand justified by faith in a finished work that was done for me. There's nothing I could add to it. There's nothing I could do.

It's complete in itself. Thank God for the thief on the cross for it proves to me that this faith will bring me into a living relationship with God for eternity. Faith that opened our hearts to the Word of God.

Faith that opened our hearts to the power of God and faith that opened our hearts to the work of God. Faith without works is dead. In other words, faith has to have an outworking.

Look can I say it simply? How do I dare say that Jesus Christ is in me if I have no heart for his work? What did he do? He came to the earth. Let me just read it to you from Luke chapter 4. Scriptures that you and I are familiar with. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for because, in other words, for this reason.

Because he's anointed me to preach to the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty or freed those that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

This is the reason the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He defined the ministry of God in the earth. Folks, I don't know.

In John 20, 21, when he appeared after he was raised from the dead, he came into that room where they were assembled and he said, as the Father has sent me, now I'm sending you. Now, in other words, we're not obviously going to redeem the world. The world was, in a sense, offered redemption on Calvary, but you and I are called to bring people to that redemption.

We're called to be a physical demonstration, as it is, of the heart of God that went to a cross. We're called to be representatives, not historians, representatives. There's a huge difference between somebody that knows about a man and somebody that knows a man.

It's amazing. You know, I mean, a lot of people can tell you a lot of things about Jesus Christ and they can tell you in the Hebrew and the Greek and languages that we've not even learned. They can tell you all these things about Jesus Christ, but they have no heart for the work of God, the work of God, fallen humanity.

I was a lost man. I was a police officer in Canada back in 1978 and a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman came to my door and this man was involved in the work of God and he came to tell me about Jesus Christ and for about two to three months he kept coming to my door every Wednesday, as belligerent as I was, as sarcastic as I was about the things he was telling me. You know what really won me to Christ? This man loved me and I knew it.

He loved my soul. It was not a notch on his belt. It wasn't a program to this man.

I was important to him in spite of what I did, in spite of how I lived, in spite of the things that I was doing that I didn't hide from him. I spoke it openly. He loved me and it was in the depth of that love that I was provoked to read the Gospel of John and reading the Gospel of John saw clearly the cross of Jesus Christ and his lawful and legitimate claim to my life.

How do we claim faith without the outworking of his life and ministry through us? How do we lay claim to faith, folks? Surely, if we claim faith and have no working of this faith, then we don't have any fear of God in us. We don't understand that we've been called into an incredible ministry. This world is dying.

This world is headed to an eternity in hell and all that that is for eternity and we have been called out of it. We've been called and given an assurance of eternal life through Jesus Christ and by the mercy of God invited into this work and promised that we would be given the heart. Remember, we talked about the fear of God on this side of awe and promised we'd be given the mind and promised we'd be given the spirit.

When is the last time that you and I prayed and said, oh Jesus, would you increase the depth of love in my heart for the lost? Would you help me, oh God Almighty, not to see any man, any woman, any child, any teenager as unworthy, unlovely? Would you, God Almighty, give me your eyes for all people in this world, starting with the least lovely of them all? I've had the privilege of preaching in a prison one time of sex offenders, something that unnaturally makes my skin crawl, but the Lord took me into a prison, a penitentiary with 700 sex offenders in the room and I was able to freely love them, freely tell them, yes, you have to pay the penalty for the crimes you've done. Yes, the crimes are heinous, but nevertheless, the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There's not one righteous, not even one, and to open the way of eternal life and to see many of these men step out, dozens of them step out, tears streaming down their faces, never believing there was ever a chance they could be redeemed or loved or useful or accepted and living in shame, never ever knowing.

Remember the Pharisee seeing this woman of ill reputation, most likely a sexual deviant, at the feet of Jesus Christ and saying, if he was righteous, he would know what kind of a woman this is. And Jesus, looking across the table, said, no, if you were righteous, you would know who it is that's sitting across the table from you. I've been in Muslim countries.

I've preached. I had the privilege several years ago of preaching to a Muslim town after the war in Kosovo, and this was a town, they lost their bridge in the war, and the mayor of the town basically stood on the shores with him, and he, I said, is there anything we can do for you? And he said, well, if you could, you could build us a bridge to our fields. We lost our, we lost our bridge in the war, and I said, I looked, the river was about twice the length of this, width of this sanctuary, and I said, I'll tell you what, I'll make you a deal.

I will build you a bridge across this river if you will let me come back and preach about Jesus Christ to your entire town. It was a town of 8,000 people for 30 minutes, and he looked at me in the eye, and it was just an absolute insane thing in a sense, and he reached out his hand, and we shook hands. On the strength of that handshake, we built a bridge, built a nice bridge, actually, a cement bridge across that river, and when it came time to dedicate it, he was true to his word, and he, only the men, of course, this was very, very radical Muslims, so the women are not allowed out of the yard, and they have to dress in black and stuff, and only the men were allowed to come, and most of them had fought in this war, so they're very hardened soldiers, and when I got there, I brought my own translator and dismissed their translator, and this sent a shockwave through this, more or less, this entourage from the mayor's office, and the whole time I spoke, the deputy mayor was hitting me on the side with his fist, trying to get me to stop.

He shook so bad, he shook the whole platform, he was so scared. The people in the audience were in an ethical dilemma, because they were religiously bound to kill me for what I was doing, but culturally bound to show me hospitality, because he had built them a bridge, and they were stuck between the two. I had been warned, you said, if you say God had a son, they'll kill you.

They considered that blasphemy, this is a pretty radical crowd, and they'll really lose you. You can't talk about sin, because they have no idea what sin is. If you say you've sinned, and you should make it right, they'll say, yeah, some guy looked over the fence at my wife last week, I should have killed him, I'll do that as soon as I go home, and they said, they don't understand it, you have to be really careful.

I had all these minefields, but in my heart, I loved these men. I stood up on the platform, and began to tell them, this was the opening line that the Lord gave me, I want to tell you today, where I get the power to say I love you. I want to tell you why we came to your town, and built you a bridge, and I talked about God building a bridge, by becoming a man, so that we could get to where we needed to go, that we were cut off from the love of God, and this love in my heart began to pour out for these men, rough-looking, with rifles, and missing teeth, and the whole gambit, just a really, really radical-looking crowd, and yet, as I began to speak, about 15 or 18 minutes in, the tears started to come, mostly men in their 30s.

Some of the older men began to heckle me, and when they began to heckle, the younger men, who far outnumbered them, began to clap their hands, and drown them out, and stop them, and when the hecklers had stopped, I carried on speaking, and then the tears started to come, and that evening, later that evening, in a Muslim village, 26 people stepped out of the crowd, and publicly gave their lives to Jesus Christ, which is a miracle. Now, you have to understand who's talking to you today. When I was a police officer, I was stone-cold.

I would go to an accident and see there'd be dead bodies on the pavement. I'd draw chalk lines around them, and just go and eat my lunch. I didn't care about anybody.

I didn't care about anything, but the Bible says, if anyone is in Christ, he becomes a new creation. His old ways begin to pass away, and all things become new. Now, I didn't love everybody overnight, but line by line, little by little, the work of God began coming into my heart.

I began to walk in the fear of God, understanding that this incredible resource of heaven was mine, and there wouldn't be an accounting at the end of my life for what I had done with it. How had I used it? I'm not in a legal relationship with God. I'm in a love relationship with God.

There's a whole lot of difference in this. I love him, and the fear of the Lord has simply produced a love in my heart for Jesus Christ, for the work of God in the earth. You can't help but love him when you walk in the fear of God, because you begin to see how other than we are, God is, how wonderful his work is, how deep and infinite his mercy is, how insurmountable his power is, how he's able to open any door he wants to open, and if we have the courage to go through, he begins to do the miraculous through my life and through yours.

You and I are not called to live a natural life. We're called to live a supernatural life in the kingdom of God. We're not called just simply to walk in the realm of human reasoning, always arguing with people that we really don't love, that we really don't have any passion for, that we really, we really, if we were God honest, don't care if they go to heaven or hell.

That's not what the Christian Church is supposed to be. We're supposed to have an embodiment of the passion of God that sent his son to a cross. Our hearts are to be no less than his was, because we say and believe that it's Christ in me that's the hope of glory.

We believe that. I believe that. Well, if Christ is in me, there has to be somewhat of an outworking of that passion that sent him to a cross, that compassion that allowed him to wash the feet of men who were about to fail him and one who was going to betray him, that compassion that set him on a seashore making fish and bread for those that were still in confusion even after his resurrection and appearing to them.

This is what has to be in my life. This is what has to be in your life. This generation will not be won by an argument.

It will not be won by fancy theology. It will not be won by any number of conferences we want to put on. This generation will be won by Christians, by followers of Jesus Christ who have laid hold of the resources of heaven and understood, oh God, I'm not going to get to your throne one day with my basket empty.

Isaiah, the prophet, was sent by the Lord to cry out against God's own people. As a matter of fact, in the beginning of chapter 58, the Lord says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people the transgression in the house of Jacob, their sins. In other words, Isaiah preached this passionately.

Lift your voice up. Don't let it be bland because if it's a bland message, they're not going to take it as serious. They won't understand my heart.

What kind of a people were they? Verse 2, it says, they seek me daily. So there are people who are in the Word of God, for sure, and church attendants. They delight to know my ways.

There were people who had opened this book and said, wow, this is great. This is awesome. This is true.

This is right. They were like a nation who did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They have all the outward trappings of being dedicated to the things of God.

They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They're going to prayer and they're saying, God, stop the abortion. God, help our situations of crime.

Lord Jesus Christ, do something powerful in our nation, and they take delight in approaching to God. By the standards of today, we'd give them the Church of the Year Award, but there was something wrong. They were fasting.

They were seeking. They were afflicting their soul, and there was a question in their heart, and they were saying, God, why haven't you come? We're asking all of these things. We're asking for justice and righteousness, and we're afflicting ourselves.

We're fasting, and it's like you don't care. Why don't you care? Why aren't you coming? Why isn't revival here? We're praying for revival. Where is revival? Why hasn't it come? In verse 5, he begins to answer them.

He said, is this not the fast that I've chosen? Verse 6, rather, he says, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke. Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry? When you see the poor that are cast out, and you bring the poor that are cast out to your house, even if you won't do it to your own home, you bring them to the church at least. When you see the naked, you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh, and actually in the original text it just says from humanity.

You simply are seeking but hiding at the same time. Seeking God but not entering into the work of God. Now this, folks, is not something that we collectively do.

It's something we individually do. Now look at the promise. Now this is the condition in a sense.

This is God saying, I will come if you do this. I will come if you reach out. I will come if you bring the poor.

If you let the poor come in. Folks in New York City, it's 19 years ago now, a homeless, there's a lot of homeless people come to our services, and a homeless man started attending the church because the maintenance guys would let him take a shower to clean his clothes on Sunday morning. So he would stand at the back, and we don't make them sit down, and this homeless man stood at the back, and he leaned on the rail.

He had been living in the streets and subways for three years, and he had a secret cry in his heart. He felt God calling him, but it was so hard because he was homeless, and he said, Lord, if you'll show me a righteous man, just show me somebody who's doing this God's way, I'll give you my life, and he came in, and he stood at the back of the church, and he heard David Wilkerson preach, and he said, the moment that man opened his mouth, I knew he believed what he was saying, and I knew he lived it, and I knew he loved me. He said, there was something in that man's voice that reached into the deepest part of my heart.

When an altar call was given, he came down to the front of the church. He's now my associate pastor, one of the most brilliant preachers you'll ever hear in your lifetime. He's going to leave me and everyone else in the dust eventually.

God's given him a word and a mind that is just absolutely incredible. When you see the poor, you don't see them. Remember in the book of Genesis, when Adam was in right relationship with God, God brought to him the animals and said, what do we call these things? And you know, I don't know what he called them back in those days, but we call them like a giraffe and a rhinoceros, and the scripture says whatever he called them, that's what they are still called, and Adam, of course, lost that relationship with God, but through Jesus Christ, you and I are back in that relationship where we have access to God, and when we see people on the street, the Lord will speak to us and say, what do you call that? And you and I are tempted to speak and think in our natural minds and say, I call that a homeless man.

He says, no Carter, look deeper, look deeper, look and see what I see, look and call them what I call them. See some things that are not visible to the natural eye. Don't walk just by what you see with your natural eye.

Walk by what the Holy Spirit begins to speak to your heart. Verse 8 of chapter 58, he's talking about not hiding from your own flesh. He says, then your light will break forth as the morning, and your health will spring forth speedily.

Your righteousness will go before you. In other words, there'll be a reputation in a sense, and the glory of the Lord will be your rearward, or that the glory of the Lord will surround you, carry you, pick you up, the weightiness of God, the power of God, that which brings glory to God. Then, he says, you will call, verse 9, and the Lord will answer.

You'll cry, and he'll say, here I am. If you take out of your midst the yoke, that means if you're focused on this relief of suffering that has come to humankind in the world because of sin, and the putting forth of the finger, that means blaming people, just simply gathering to blame. And they were fasting, and the Lord says, if you'll start reaching out, stop blaming, and stop speaking empty talk, speaking vanity, just empty talk about what we're going to do someday, and what's what it's going to be like one day when this great move of God comes, when folks, it's here now.

I don't know, but I live in revival. I'm not waiting for some some cosmic phenomenon. I live in revival today.

I'm seeing people come to Jesus Christ. If you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in obscurity, and your darkness will be as the noonday, and the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones, and you'll be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And they that be of thee shall build the old waste places, and thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, and the restorer of past to dwelling.

We simply just ask Jesus Christ. You know, it was so foreign to me the first time I began to hear these things. I don't know if it was a church I heard it in, or if I just heard it in my heart.

I began to read it. I began to see. I began to understand the work of God.

I began to want to reach out when it wasn't within me to reach out. And little by little, and line by line, my nature started to change. And isn't that what the scripture says? And I was given the ability to do things that I didn't have.

I had no ability to speak, or travel, or do anything. But the Bible does say clearly that these these awesome giftings of God to do these things that bring glory to him will be given to people who are willing to walk through the door. Now Matthew 25 and verse 31.

I want to finish with this scripture. These are the words of Jesus. When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.

And before him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divides his sheep from the goat. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, with the goats on the left.

Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come you blessed my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me meat.

I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me.

I was in prison, and you came unto me. And then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you've done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. When, the righteous say, you see it wasn't a program for these people, it was who they were.

What are you referring to? I wasn't involved in a program. Nobody else had to tell me to do these things, and what it was, it was a lifestyle. It was people with compassion, people who simply couldn't turn away from human need.

They had not found solace hiding in religion. They were not willing to just study about who their neighbor was. Remember when the lawyer came to Jesus, or the scribe, and asked him, what is the great commandment, love the Lord, love your neighbor as yourself? And then he responds with a ridiculous question, and who is my neighbor? Now the inference was, I'm studying this, you see, and when I figure it out, count me in, I'll be in.

As soon as I figure out who my neighbor is. Can you imagine one of your kids coming home and that, and saying today, you know, we're starting to figure out who our neighbor is. You take your kid down to school and find out who is the, who's the, the arranged person who's teaching in that classroom.

Should be fairly obvious who your neighbor is. But you see, studying it is, is a, is a pacifier that takes the fear of the Lord out of the heart. It makes us feel that studying something is the same as actually doing it, when it isn't.

And then shall he say to them on the left hand, depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger and you took me not in. Naked and you clothed me not. Sick and in prison and you visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him saying, Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you. And then shall he answer them saying, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you did it not to one of these, the least, you did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

These are red-letter words in my Bible. This is the word of Jesus. This is the mouth of Jesus talking about a day that's coming our way.

Now we started out talking about the fear of the Lord. We defined it as simply or the absence of the fear of God is simply not believing that Jesus means what he says. This real relationship with Christ produces a supernatural compassion.

It can't be drummed up in the flesh and it can't be faked. God himself has to give it. I can't tonight tell you stories that bring you to tears.

I can't share with you my experience other than to say it can be yours as well. I can't give it to you. I can't impart it to you.

It can't be programmed. It's God has to put it inside your heart. But as I read my Bible, Jesus, I was preaching in a minister's conference one time and some young ministers met me in the hallway and they said, oh pastor, how do we get to the places you've been talking about? How do we do the things that have been coming out of your mouth? How do we walk the pathway that we hear you challenging us to walk in? And I looked at them and I said, well here's what the Bible says.

Ask and it shall be given you. Seek you shall find. Knock it shall be open to you.

Everyone that asks receives. Everyone that seeks shall find. And to him who knocks it shall be opened.

Also he said, if you know how to give good gifts to your children in your condition, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Ask him. You see, you and I have to want this work. We have to want to make a difference in society.

We have to understand in the context of the fear of God that there's this incredible, awesome, trembling resource of God available to those who ask for it. And then finally one day we stand at the throne of God and give an account of what that awesome resource that was given to us through Calvary produced in our lives. Whether it produced a religion that was indifferent to human need or whether it allowed the heartbeat of Jesus to begin to beat within us for fallen humanity.

There's really no getting around this one because one day you and I are going to stand at the throne. And folks, I pastor a church of almost 10,000 people now. We have missions work.

We have a phenomenal missions budget. We have missions works in over 40 countries. We feed 4,400 children every day.

We have a team of 150 doctors, nurses, and dentists that have their own missions program. We send 500 missionaries out around the world. We support programs everywhere that are feeding the homeless, the addicted, the poor, the marginalized, the single mothers, and the disadvantaged of our society.

But when I stand before God, I will not answer for any of that. I will answer for what I have done as a Christian. I was hungry, he said, and you gave me food.

I was naked and you gave me clothing. It's not what I send people to do, it's what I do. It's who I am.

It's who Christ, I've allowed Christ to be formed in me. I've had presidential invitations into Africa to speak at conferences for reconciliation. One recently in Burundi where the Lord did a marvelous healing between the Hutu, the Tutsi, and the Afua tribes after the genocide in Rwanda.

And I remember, I've preached to crowds of half a million people standing. I've seen God come down and do it, something so sovereign, so supernatural, that only God could do this. But you want to know what the delight of my heart, one of my fondest memory in Burundi, is that we bought, we imported hundreds of goats from Tanzania.

And we brought them into these mountain villages of people who are called the Twa, who the only reason they survived the genocide is because people didn't consider them worth killing. And we, bringing goats and chickens to these people is like me tonight saying, after the service there are 10 SUVs out in the parking lot for everybody here. You can pick any 10 and take them home.

You can sell them. It's actually, it's more than that because it's a livelihood. We have to actually train them, not to kill the goats and kill the chickens, but to let them reproduce and etc, etc.

And the delight of my life, the delight of my heart, was carrying goats up a mountainside, and they really stink, to this, to one of the huts on the toughest part of the mountainside of a dear Christian lady who had prayed that God would do something for her people. She had prayed for years that the Lord would visit these people, and you had to be there to see what happened. The joy of the Lord broke out in this village.

Folks, people were dressed in rags. They were dressed in clothing that we wouldn't use to wipe our garage floors in this society. And they were dancing and praising, and they were singing in their language a song.

And the song was only God could do this. Only God could do this. We asked him to help us and help us come.

Only God could do this. And folks, the delight of my life was carrying. I was preaching at night.

The president was there. His whole cabinet was there. We're on national television, national radio.

Thousands and thousands of people are gathered. But the delight of my life and journey was carrying goats up the mountainside to this one lady who had prayed that God would come. And they put the goats inside their hut and keep them with them.

I had an elder in my church, and he was following me. Finally, after the third or so goat, he said to me, Pastor, I have to insist that you stop. He says, You're not going to have any strength left for the crusade.

And honestly, at that moment, I didn't care about this. I cared about that lady. I cared about God having answered her prayer.

I cared about going up the mountainside. And you know, incidentally, there was a man beside me from Texas. He's from an organization that drills wells in parts of the world where they don't have fresh water.

And he was carrying goats up with me. You know, it never occurred to me to ask him if he believed in predestination. Those things are only luxuries for people who are not doing the will of God.

All I knew is he was a Christian. And him and I were carrying goats up the same mountain to the same people, and we were sweating the same sweat, and we both stunk like, like if you've ever had a male goat in your yard, you don't know what I'm talking about. But they really, really stink.

But it was the sweetest stink I've ever had come on me in my entire life. Hallelujah. You know, I want to finish that.

I've only got six minutes left, but I want to finish this by telling a story. When I had a chance to address these people, the Trois. The Trois have no magazines.

They have no internet, no cell phones, no television, no radio, no newspaper, no nothing. They don't know anything about the rest of the world. Zero.

Nothing. They've been raised on this mountainside. They're kind of a short little people, and they, they are considered more or less the lepers of that part of Africa.

And so I got up and I had to address them, because it was very formal for them to thank me, and they, they had built this little straw kind of thing. And I get up and I said, I come from a place that's, that's very, very far away. And I said, there's, there's so many of us that live there.

I live on an island. Manhattan doesn't mean anything to them. I said, and there's so many people there that we have to build our houses one on top of another.

And the whole group went, ooh. And I said, to get to my house, I have to get in a box, and the box has a rope that goes up over a branch, and you know, there's something that pulls that rope, and it takes me up in the box to get to my house. And I told them, I am, I am on, I am the 47th house in my building.

And they went, ooh. And when the chief of the village got up to thank me and thank the group that had come with the truckload of goats and chickens, he said, we wouldn't want to have to live like you do, but if we had to, God would give us the strength to do it. Isn't it amazing? In so much that you've done it to one of these, the least, the least, the least.

Isn't it amazing that he didn't point to kings, governors, the influential, the rich, the powerful, it was the least. It was those really that had no helper unless God chose to help them. The least.

The depressed, the suicidal, the addicted, the marginalized, the single mom that just fights to drag her kids to church on Sunday and to feed them on Wednesday. The least. Where does it start? Somebody once asked me, I said, well, here's where it starts.

If you only have enough to make a peanut butter sandwich, cut it in half and take half across the hall to that mom who can't feed her kids. That's where it starts. It starts with just tenderness and acts of compassion and praying and asking God for a heart for his people.

There'll be a lot of religion one day stand at the throne of God. Only then to see in all of its study and all of its supposed dedication how utterly bankrupt it was at the heart of God. The least.

I tried to get out once in a while in Manhattan and just walk around and if I see somebody crying maybe just sit down and talk to them for a minute. Under compulsion to speak to no one but available to speak to everyone. Now some people will hear the words that I've spoken tonight not just in this place but where they're spoken maybe throughout the world and they were rejected outright and I know that and I expect that.

There are people have just settled into religiousness and they're content to beat the church and really just don't want to get involved in the work of God. There's nothing really I can do about that. Jesus had to face it and it ultimately crucified him.

No different in any other generation. Others will commit to studying these words. Might even get the tape from tonight and listen to it five, six, seven times.

Unfortunately thinking that study is an acceptable substitute for action. And there'll be some others that will just simply say Jesus loved people, all people through me. Jesus loved people.

Perfect love casts out fear. Isn't that what the word of God says? Because fear has torn me. I know I stand before God.

I don't have a tremor in my heart because I know I have let him love people through me. And that's the goal of my life until the day I die. It's not about pastoring bigger and bigger churches.

It's about loving people. It's been perhaps the greatest revelation in my life next to salvation. Is that God is love.

He loves people. He came because he loved people. He died because he loved people.

He has a church on the earth because he loves people. He called me to himself because he loves people. He empowers me because he loves people.

He changes me because he loves people. I don't want my city to go to hell when I'm still in it. I don't want high schoolers that have been raised without God as vile as the behavior might be to end up in eternity without Christ because I didn't tell them I loved them.

It's been the cry of my heart more now than ever before. I'm 58 years old. I've been in ministry full time since I was 33.

I have traveled most of the world now. I had the privilege of preaching the first ever outdoor crusade in Siberia and to the military. There's been so much that God has done.

But it's all come to this one thing. If I have faith to move mountains, if I prophesy, if I know mysteries and have not loved, I'm nothing. It's all been just a religious exercise that was devoid of the fear of God and the love of God.

My heart's cry is Jesus loved people. That's how I want to finish my life. That's what I want to be doing in the last days that I live on the earth.

That's how I want to feel about all people, good and the bad, because he sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. Those that agree with me and those who don't. I want to simply love them as God does.

For me, this is a great victory. A greater victory than all study combined. A greater victory than all ministry.

A greater victory than all accolades. Any book that I have or will write. Any greater victory than anything that anybody ever will say about me when I die.

I said to somebody recently, you know, when I die, I've seen a lot of great men die and there's been a long list of accomplishments at funerals and sometimes very few tears. I would rather the tears than forget the accomplishments. I'd rather the people in my church say, he loved me.

I came in and I was ragged. I was pierced from head to toe. I was, my hair was green.

I was a mess mentally, but he loved me. To me, that's what makes it all worthwhile. That's what will enable me to put my feet into my bed at the end of my life and shout it.

Shout of God's glory and victory. That I have won. I'll be able to say like Jesus that it's finished.

I finished, oh God, what you gave me to do. I represented you, the Christ who went to the cross. The one who said, Father, forgive them as they gambled for his clothing, spit in his face and mocked him, wagged their heads.

I represented you on the earth. This is the highest calling to the church of Jesus Christ. There's no higher calling that you and I will ever face.

There's no greater truth that we'll ever hear. If you're looking for a truth that will spark revival, you're hearing it tonight. There's nothing deeper, nothing more profound, nothing more grand, nothing in the Hebrew, Greek, nothing you can study, nothing anybody can say.

It will produce what you and I need apart from the love of God. And I've had a long way to go to get here because I started out way, way back. Cold and stone dead inside, but by God's grace, I'm experiencing the love of God.

I like ministry. It's interesting, but it's not my life. I love people.

There's a huge difference. I want to encourage you tonight to say simply these words, Jesus loved people, loved all people through me. You'll get a victory.

You'll come out gladdened. You'll have these things that the Pharisee didn't have. You'll have a kiss, water for people's feet, oil of joy, and forgiveness abounded.

It will all be part of your life and all be part of your experience. I'll see you at the finish line one day. I may never see any of you again, but I'll see you at the finish line and I do hope you have loved people.

I do hope you have represented Christ in your generation. I do hope, I do hope that you have trusted him for the power to be a living witness of Jesus Christ until he comes. This generation are not going to read your Bibles, folks.

Those days are over. They're going to read you and they're going to determine how God feels about them through you and through me. This is a visual generation now, so you can't fool them.

It's either true or it's not. It's real or it's phony. It represents God or it only talks about God.

They know the difference. God help us. You want to know the beauty of what I'm bringing to you tonight? This is all available to us.

I'm not talking about some pie in the sky thing. It's not. It's all available and it comes to the humble of heart and says, Lord, Jesus, do this in me.

And it should produce joy. It should make you glad. Faith makes the heart glad.

To say, God, I believe you. I believe you, Lord. I'm not going to walk away here.

I'm not going to walk away and look in the mirror and say, God can't do this. I'm going to believe God can do this. I'm going to believe it with all my heart tonight.

Father, I thank you, Lord, that you have given me what I asked for. I asked you for your heart tonight. I asked you to overshadow my frailty and you have.

I asked you to give me your thoughts and you did. Oh, Jesus, the Son of God, would you come to us this evening? Would you bless us with your life and your love? I want to give an altar call this evening. Now, an altar call, I don't know if you're familiar with that.

I don't really know what you do here. But an altar call, where I come from, is just a, it's a physical expression of an agreement with the truth you've heard. It's the first step.

There's nothing mystical about an altar call. It's, if you're uncomfortable with it, don't feel like you should respond to it. It doesn't mean you're deficient.

An altar call is me getting out of my seat and saying, God, I'm going to go with this. I want this love of God in my heart. And I'm taking the first step of simply just humbling myself and saying, Lord, I need this.

I want you to do this in my life. I want to finish this race God's way. And if this is you tonight, we're going to stand in a moment.

I'm going to ask you just to come and just join me here at the front of this auditorium. And we're going to pray together. And we're just simply going to believe God for a miracle.

It's that simple. We're going to believe him to do what only he can do. So let's stand.

And if this is you tonight, would you come and just join me? Brightly be our father's mercy from his lighthouse evermore. But to us he gives the keeping of the lights along the shore. Let the low lights be burning, send a gleam across the waves.

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save. Dark the night of sin has settled, loud the angry billows roar. Eager souls are waiting, watching for the lights along the shore.

Let the low lights be burning, send a gleam across the waves. Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother.

Some poor sailor tempest-tossed, trying now to reach the harbor. In the darkness may be lost. Let the low lights be burning, send a gleam across the waves.

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save. Let the low lights be burning, send a gleam across the waves. Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save.

Let the low lights be burning, send a gleam across the waves. Some poor fainting, struggling seaman you may rescue, you may save. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Oh, how he loves you and me. Oh, how he loves you and me. He gave his life, what more could he give? Oh, how he loves you.

Oh, how he loves me. He gave his life, what more could he give? Oh, how he loves you. Oh, how he loves me.

Oh, how he loves you and me. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross. Till my trophies at last I lay down.

I will cling to the old rugged cross. And exchange it someday for a crown. Oh, that old cross so despised by the world.

Has a wondrous attraction for me. For the dear lamb of God left his glory above. To bury it to dark Calvary.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross. Till my trophies at last I lay down. I will cling to the old rugged cross.

And exchange it someday for a crown. So I'll cherish the old rugged cross. Till my trophies at last I lay down.

I will cling to the old rugged cross. And exchange it someday for a crown. Hallelujah.

Lord Jesus Christ, we stand before you tonight as vessels, Lord, that are aware of our need. We're aware, Lord, that we fall short of the glory of what you would do for your namesake in the earth through us. But we don't stand here condemned.

We stand here secure in the love of the Savior who died for us. And God, so we simply open our hearts and we ask you, Jesus, to pour into us that measure of strength that you promised to give to those that belong to you. To truly represent you in our generation.

Pour into us, oh God, the love, the compassion, the touch, the willingness to go, God, the eyes, the hands that truly represent you. Feet that are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Oh, Jesus Christ, give us the eyes, oh God, to see men as you see them.

Help us not to see people as trees walking any longer. Oh, Lord God, if you have to take us out of town and touch our eyes twice, then do it, oh God. But give us sight, Lord.

We stand, oh God, in this last generation as the blind men on the side of the road. We say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. I want to receive my sight, oh God.

I want to understand my inheritance in Christ. I want to see the calling of God in my life. And I want to see a day when it is fulfilled in the strength of my Christ.

God almighty, thank you, Lord, for your willingness to endure us in our failings. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, that you cover us. As deficient as we are, you cover us because we're your bride, your beloved, Lord.

We're the one you died for. Oh, God, thank you for that mercy, Lord. Thank you that you didn't see us the way we are and were.

Lord, you saw us for what we were in the sight of God. Father, we thank you for this, Lord Jesus. Now give us that heart for our generation.

Don't let this country go to hell when we're still alive in it, oh God. Don't let our towns and our cities and our workplace and our schools and our homes, don't let people perish and sit across the table when they should be seeing Christ in us. My God, my God, we ask you for the strength that can only come from heaven.

We thank you for it, Lord. God, I praise you. I bless you that you've never sent me home empty.

Lord, you've never sent me home with a condescending glance, Lord. You've always opened the treasure of heaven. You've always met me in my needs.

You've always given me strength. You've always opened new doors. You've always given me opportunities to see the glory of God.

Father, I thank you for this, Lord. Jesus Christ, open the hearts of your people to know the depth of your love. Help us, God.

Help us, Lord Jesus Christ, to embrace the fullness of who you are to us. Lord, we thank you, God. Thank you, Father.

Oh, Jesus, I'm asking you tonight that people in this room could never be the same again, myself included. Lord, we can't go home and be the same. We ask you to get us off the treadmill of religious drudgery.

Get us off of this treadmill, Lord. God, get us walking in the highways, in the byways, Lord, where people are. Reaching out, oh God, ministering, Lord, trusting you for the supply every day that we have to go to our prayer closet because there'll be so many things happening.

So give us this day our daily bread. My God, thank you for this, Lord. Thank you for this gathering.

Thank you for these people, Lord. Thank you for the churches across this nation. Thank you, God.

We're asking you, Lord, to breathe life into every denomination. My God, Salvation Army, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist. Jesus, Son of God, Charismatic, Pentecostal.

Every church, Lord. Every church in America, God. We ask you to breathe life into your house again.

Breathe on us, Lord, as you showed Ezekiel in chapter 37. Whether or not we've died, you're still able to raise us from the dead. You're able to give us life.

You're able to cause us to stand and be an exceeding great army again in our generation. Oh God, this country needs your church. This country needs your Jesus.

This country needs your people. You've got to break us out of the box, Lord. You've got to take us into something deeper, fuller, farther than we've ever known.

Fill our hearts with faith, oh God. Fill our prayers with faith. Give our eyes vision.

Lord, help us to be like those who came out of the upper room. And the glory of God was in their soul. And they knew what you were going to do.

And they knew you were going to use them to do it. Oh Jesus, help us to look away from our frailty and our weakness and our shortcomings, Lord. My God, David said, if you marked iniquity, who could stand? But there is mercy with you that we may learn to fear you.

Hallelujah to the Lamb of God for his mercy. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, mighty God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. We bless your holy name.

Glory, glory, glory, glory to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

Lord, I thank you that you have answered our prayer. I believe tonight you never send the hungry heart away empty. Lord, help us to finish this generation the way the church started in the beginning.

In love with God and willing to be spent for people. Bring us to this, Lord. We heard it in song tonight.

Bring us back to that place, Lord. And I believe, Lord, it's as close as just agreeing with it. Lord, that's how close it is.

I thank you for it with all my heart. I pray tonight, Lord Jesus, that you bless my brothers and sisters. I pray that tonight there's been a towel and a basin taken out and washed their feet in this arduous journey that we're all on.

I pray that they've been encouraged, Lord. My God, don't let anybody leave this hallway heavy tonight because there's victory in Christ. There's life and there's joy and there's meaning and there's purpose and there's power and there's promise.

It's all in Jesus Christ. I thank you for this, God, with all my heart. Hallelujah.

You delight in taking that which is nothing and making something out of it. Hallelujah. This is my hope.

This is my strength. This is my song. Glory to the Lamb of God.

Glory to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, mighty God. We thank you. We praise you.

We bless you in Jesus' mighty name. Hallelujah. Now, we do something in New York that you may not do here, but in services like this, we just give God sometimes a shout of praise.

You think you can muster that up? Will you give him a shout of praise? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Hallelujah.