In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the love of Jesus for his bride, which is the purpose of the universe. He encourages the audience to invite Jesus into their lives and rise up to the top of the mountains with him. The preacher shares stories of individuals who have experienced transformation and redemption through their relationship with Jesus. He concludes by urging the audience to fully surrender their hearts to Jesus and to gaze upon him with love and devotion.

Now, Abraham was a ground zero man. Abraham could say this, I am but dust and ashes, and I've taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Do you know what kind of humility that is? We were in here today, we said, let's pray. We take it for granted. I'm dust and ashes, so are you. But the privilege of talking to the Creator, that's being at ground zero when you go into your prayer closet. And when you get to that place, Job got there, it took him a long time, but Job got there. But when you get to that place and you see who he is and who we are, I'm telling you, life comes, revelation comes, victory comes. It's in the prayer closet when there's none of me, but all of him. You know, Hannah, that great woman of God, she's a great, great character to study. I mean, she went up there to Shiloh and she wept and the priest thought she was drunk or something and she couldn't have children. And she believed God would give her children. And she cried out and the Lord gave her such revelation. Listen to me, ladies. Hannah, the name in Hebrew is grace, comes from the word hen, one of the words for grace. This lady was such a prayer warrior. God gave her a son, Shmuel Samuel, and restored the prophetic movement in Israel through one lady's prayers, that the nation started hearing from God again through a prophet because some lady prayed. I'm telling you, she was at ground zero and she was able to prophesy. She was able to say, I poured out my soul before the Lord. He lifts up the beggars out of the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory coming out of the ash heap, coming out of ground zero to inherit the throne of glory to rule and reign with Jesus, to sit with princes, you guys coming off drugs and alcohol. Listen, I could tell you story after story after story. I'll tell you one. A Russian Jew came to Haifa from the ends of Siberia. Joseph Stalin had sent hundreds of thousands of Jews to the ends of Siberia, hoping they'd all die and freeze to death. Somehow they survived in this town and built it up. It's the third generation now. This boy came from that town. His grandparents had been thrown out there by Stalin. He was a drug addict on the streets of Haifa. He was dying. We brought him in the house of victory. He got filled with the Holy Spirit. He got set on fire. He went through our discipleship training program. He got a great job and he fell in love with a young lady from a kind of upper middle class Swiss Christian family. This guy was living in the garbage. And he has this beautiful young lady. I had the privilege of marrying them not long ago. His parents flew all the way across Siberia and came to Israel. They're Jews. They didn't believe in God. They came to Israel. They came to the wedding. They had heard their son was a drug addict. And here's this handsome young man marrying this beautiful Swiss woman and all these Swiss Christians that were very kind of aristocratic compared to the rest of us. I'm not saying anything against Switzerland. I know the rich and I know the poor over there. Hallelujah. It was a wedding of all these. The ushers were all ex-drug addicts holding up the hupai. You put four poles and you have a covering. So I do the marriage, the wedding. And then he wanted to testify. And this is what he said. And his parents are sitting there. And he's speaking Hebrew. And they speak Russian. So he would go from Hebrew to Russian, Hebrew to Russian. And they're Jews. And he's a Jew. And so he said, I used to eat garbage from the garbage cans of Haifa. And now we're having this wonderful wedding banquet. And my mother and father are here. But more importantly, Jesus is here. And we're all invited to the wedding one day with Jesus as the bridegroom. He went on his honeymoon at a big hotel down on Haifa Beach right near where we do these outreaches tonight. A five-star hotel with his Swiss wife. I saw him shortly afterwards at a barbecue. And he said, you know what? I looked out the window. I'm in a five-star hotel. I mean, that guy had no hope of ever going in a five-star hotel. And he said, I looked out the window and I could see a place where I used to eat garbage. That boy got to ground zero. Hallelujah. And if we will get there to that place of deep brokenness and humility, praise the Lord. Elijah, when he called down the fire, Elijah was a ground zero man. Elijah sat at that brook alone with the Lord. Hallelujah. He was drinking from the Holy Spirit all day long. The bird was bringing him meat and bread, the bread of the meat and bread of the word. He was hearing from the Lord. The Lord says to him, go to Seraphat. Seraphat means refining. You want to go to the place of refining? It was Jezebel's hometown. She was looking for him to kill him. And he went, he got up and he went. Hallelujah. He was a ground zero man. You hear the word of the Lord and you obey and you go. That's the spirit of Elijah that turns the hearts of the fathers of the children, hearts of the children of the father. He became a father to a heathen boy. He's the forerunner of the one new man of Jew and Gentile. He raised that boy from the dead. He stretched himself out. Hallelujah. We need to be stretched out in intercession and brokenness for Ireland and for Israel. I'm telling you, God wants to send a revival here. I see it. I hear it. I heard it at the, at the men's breakfast. Hallelujah. But it's going to take people that say, I'll get to ground zero. I'll turn off the stupid television set. I'll turn off the internet. I'll turn off the iPod or whatever the latest pod is. I don't even know what Twitter or tweeter is. Get off all of that stuff and get on our knees in the prayer closet and hear the word of the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise God. When he called the fire down, Elijah, he had 12 stones around that altar. You come to our congregation up on the top of Mount Carmel. We've got 12 stones, right? Huge, big stone chopped out of the bedrock underneath the building. And the rock is Jesus. And we're the living stones. Amen. And we have a skylight for the fire to fall on the sacrifice. I said, Lord, please don't send actual fire. I don't want to build another building. Just the fire of your presence. Send the fire of your presence. The fire fell up there. The people fell on their faces. They were at ground zero. Can you imagine grandparents and children, boys, girls? I don't know whether he was probably the only, Ahab was probably the only one that didn't fall on his face. And they were screaming, Adonai, who Elohim? The Lord, he is God. It's not these false gods. It's not Baal. They were at ground zero. Everything had been burned ashes. They were at the place of ashes. What does all that represent? It represents the cross of Jesus Christ. There was an innocent animal that was killed there. There was blood. There was wood. There was water. It's the cross. In fact, Jesus told Elijah that at the transfiguration, I'm it's all about the Exodus, the departure I'm about to make in Jerusalem. It's all about the cross. They were at ground zero. Most of them didn't go on with the Lord. They had a great manifestation, had a great meaning and went back to business as usual. And there was Ahab, who should have been the leader, who had brought Jezebel and all the mixture into the church. He's calling on the name of Yahweh and he's calling on the name of Baal. One foot in each camp, mixture man. He's over there having his meal. You read it. Where is our ground zero, man? Where's Elijah? He's on the top of the mountain in a fetal position, like he's birthing a baby, praying in travail. And the guy's running back and forth saying, I don't see any rain. I don't see any rain. I pray seven times. Elijah had a word from the Lord, confront Ahab and I'll send the rain. If we will confront Ahab, the mixture, especially in men. I know Jezebel is a horror, but he brought her in. And I was so blessed to be over there with these men and pure worship and have Jay bring up a real word of God about raise up some godly men in Ireland. That's what we're trying to do in Israel. The men, women too. Hallelujah. I've used Han, I mean both of us. He was the one that was broken. He was the one that brought the rain. He was at ground zero. Isaiah, one of the greatest prophets. Before I was a believer and studied literature and all that stuff. I have a PhD, if that impresses you. It doesn't mean anything. A doctor of philosophy. Every philosophy you ever heard, I studied. I ran around in circles and was just confused. But even those people would say Isaiah, the greatest Hebrew poetry ever written. But they didn't believe what he said. Isaiah, the king got leprosy because of the terrible sin. Isaiah was broken. Yeah. Yeah. But Isaiah was broken. The prophet was broken. He sees, has this vision in the temple. He sees the Lord high and lifted up. This train of his light filled the temple and all the seraphim, the fiery angels flying back and forth. All they could say was, Kadoosh, Kadoosh, Kadoosh. He's holy, holy, holy. There was a sacrifice burning. It was filled with smoke. It's the cross. He's high and lifted up. He's the Messiah. And when Isaiah, who walked with the Lord, who knew the Lord, it was the prophet of Israel, saw that he went, I am undone. I am doomed. I am ruined. Because he saw who this Jesus is. Praise God. The Lord sent an angel. He came and burned his lips. I'm a man of unclean lips. I live in a people of, he was the prophet who had the word of God. But he was, that man was at ground zero, brother. When he burned his lips, it's not about his lips. It's about his heart. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. There was something in that great, was it attitude? Was it criticism? Was he mad because of what Josiah had? I don't know what it was. Had somebody offended him? But once he dealt with it and the Lord dealt with it, he said, anyone ready to go? Then he heard the voice of the Lord. We need to get to ground zero. That's where we hear the voice of the Lord. That's where transformation happens in us. And we can be a vessel used to reach other people. Hallelujah. Impurity is an outrage to the Holy Spirit. Let me say it again. I know the Lord took me out of, you don't want to know where he took me from. Impurity is an outrage to the Holy Spirit. And it's a lie from the pit that you can't have victory over garbage you're watching on the internet. It's a lie from the pit. Greater is he who's in me than he who's in the world. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I'm going to read from Ephesians chapter five, talking about ground zero. Paul was a ground zero man. Paul could say, I'm less than the least. How can you be less than the least? If she's the least, how can I be less than her? Paul was so broken in humility. John the Baptist could say he needs increase and I need to decrease. Jesus laid aside his reputation at ground zero, Gethsemane and the cross that we might have the life of Messiah flowing through our mortal bodies. Jesus is the quintessential perfect ground zero man who laid aside his glory and his reputation and came and made himself of no reputation. In Ephesians chapter five, verse 25, Christ loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word that he might present her to himself. Jesus died that he might sanctify you and me to present me to himself. Is this amazing love? He's done it all. He's the bridegroom. He's sanctifying the bride. So he will have a bride for himself. Have you ever looked at that in depth, what this is all about? He gave us everything that we might walk the victorious life now, that we might reign in life and be victorious, that the power of God could rest upon us and flow through us, that you could reach the people of Dublin and the people of Cork. He's doing it for his bride that he might present her to himself, a glorious church, no spot, no wrinkle, no stain, or any such thing that she should be holy and without blemish, no shame, blameless before the throne of God, clothed as the bride. Israel is coming to ground zero nationally. The Lord wants his church to go to ground zero to get clothed with that wedding garment, that we are ready for the wedding, and he's done everything for us if we will just appropriate it. He chose me. He chose you in him before the foundation of the world, that I should be holy and blameless before him in love. Carol, why don't you come? Let's turn to Song of Songs. We're going to finish there with Song of Solomon. Song of Songs, maybe your Bible says Song of Solomon. In Hebrew, the books are named by the first words in the book, and by the way, this whole thing is a prophetic song, and it's called Shir HaSharim, Song of Songs, because there's no other song like it. It's the Song of Songs. If you want to get deeper into a love relationship with Jesus as the bride, soak yourself in the Song of Songs. Just soak in it. In the Song of Songs, the bridegroom and the bride, the rabbis know that this is a prophetic picture for the Messiah coming for the chosen people. They know that. They've written it for years. You are already chosen. I chose you before the foundation of the world. You're called to be the Gentile bride, but the Jewish bride is starting to wake up. The Jewish bride still is getting some oil in her lamps and isn't still asleep. So the Jewish bride is starting to come in, and as Jews and Gentiles become a dwelling place for God and the Spirit, with both olive trees pouring the oil that they have into the church, the menorah, the seven-branch candlestick, and Jesus is walking around in the middle of the church. He's in here today. That puts the fear of God in me as the pastor of my church. When he comes to my church, what does he see? So Jesus is the bridegroom coming for his bride who has been prepared by him if you'll let himself prepare you. And in chapter two, verse eight, she says, this is the bride, the voice of my beloved, Dodi. My name is David. In Hebrew, it's David. This is the same root. My name means I'm beloved of God. When I got saved, people used to call me Dave. I said, I'm not Dave anymore. I'm David. In Hebrew, I'm David. In Arabic, I'm Daoud. It's all the same thing. But the voice, have you heard the voice of your beloved this morning before you came here at a place called ground zero where there's nothing there but you and Jesus? Behold, he comes. Have you ever seen him or experienced him leaping over the mountains? He's coming leaping to your house. That's how much he loves you. This is the bridegroom coming for his bride. That's what the purpose of the universe is, to prepare a bride for Jesus. He's skipping on the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle. Look at this. He's standing behind our wall. He's looking through your windows. He's looking through your windows. Open up your shades. Invite him in. Hallelujah. My beloved spoke. Have you heard him? He says, rise up. Don't stay where you are. Come on, let's go. Let's go to the top of the mountains. Let's go to victory. Let's go down in the valley. It's going to be difficult. Let's get out on that beach and tell those Jews and Arabs who Jesus is. Hallelujah. Go with your bridegroom. Be equipped by the power of him. In verse 16, my beloved is mine and I am his. That's the bottom line. That's it. Is he yours and are you his? My beloved, is he your beloved? Did you tell him you loved him today? Imagine if I said to her, Karen, I love you with 60% of my heart. Do you love him with all your heart? My beloved is mine and I am his and his banner, the chuppah of the weddings. We always pointed out his banner over us is love when you know the Messiah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Chapter four, verse nine. You have ravished my heart. Jesus says you have ravished, in Hebrew it means his heart starts beating faster. It's great poetry. You have ravished my heart, my sister. Then he says, my spouse. You've been spoken for. You're his bride. You've ravished my heart with all the works that you do, with all the Christian television you watch. You have ravished my heart with one look of your eye. Round zero. Jesus and you. Did you look at him today? He's altogether lovely. Hallelujah. This is where we need to get, brothers and sisters. Chapter eight, verse five. Who is this coming up out of the wilderness? You coming through a time. You in the wilderness, you in the valley of decision. Are you going through difficult circumstances? Who is this coming up out of the wilderness? She is leaning on her beloved. The word in Hebrew means she's engraved and attached and glued into him. Focus on Jesus. My sister, my spouse ravished my heart with one look of your eyes. You are all fair, my love. There's no spot in you. A garden enclosed, my sister, my spouse. A spring shut up, a fountain sealed, a well of living waters. Oh, you who were afflicted, tossed with tempest, not comforted. Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems. I will lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacle of rubies, your gates of crystal and all your walls of precious stones. Hallelujah. I will give you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. I will clothe you with garments of salvation and garments of praise and cover you with a robe of righteousness. Look with me from the tops of the mountains. Come away, my fair one, my love. Arise, my love, and come away. Come away with me. Come away with me. Come away with me. Come away with me, my beloved. Hallelujah. Your baker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. Although you were forsaken, you'll not be ashamed. You shall run and not fear in me. Hallelujah. You shall walk and not faint. Yes, I will go to wait upon the Lord. Shall renew my strength. So arise, Let's stand. Let's stand. Arise, Church of Iowa. Arise on eagles' wings. On eagles' wings. Arise. Arise, my love, and sing. So arise. So arise. Arise on eagles' wings. Arise. Arise.