In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of living a blameless life before God. He explains that true joy and blessings come from seeing others grow in their faith. The speaker encourages believers to stand firm in the Lord and not be swayed by worldly influences. He also highlights the power of living a holy and blameless life, stating that it is essential for effective evangelism. The sermon concludes with the reminder that God offers salvation and sanctification in the present moment, urging listeners to seize the opportunity to live a transformed life.

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, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. What's life? The power of a holy life. First Thessalonians, please. Turn to First Thessalonians, the second chapter. A powerful message this morning. It's life-changing. Then again this afternoon, our new pastor, Mike just brought forth a, Mike Lindquist brought a powerful message. And he said, turn to First Thessalonians. And I said, well, Bob preached half my message this morning. Now he's going to preach the other half. But I'm going to go to First Thessalonians, the second chapter. And I want to read just one verse to begin, but if you'll hold Thessalonians open, the first Thessalonians open, I'll be in that all evening tonight. Now, that sounds like I'm going to be here a long time. No, I just want to get something off my heart here tonight. Praise the Lord. I'm going to read the tenth verse to you, please. Follow me. Second chapter, the tenth verse. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. You are witnesses, and God also. Now, that's pretty powerful, calling God as your witness. How many can call tonight, how many of you can call God as your witness to your holiness, as to your unblameableness before men and God? Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, You have fed us today with the manna from heaven. And now, Lord, I have a very important assignment tonight. I have an assignment to bring forth Your heart for this time and this people for this night, and I pray for an unction, an anointing of the Holy Spirit. Lord, it can't be measured by the tone of my voice, the level of my voice. It can't be determined by any action on this pulpit. It has to be determined by the Holy Spirit that rests upon me. Take my words and anoint them with power, an unction from heaven. Lord, I don't have it in myself. Give me clean hands and a pure heart. Father, I stand before Your throne to be sanctified, to be absolutely made pure by the sprinkling of the blood. Lord, sanctify our ears to hear tonight. Let us hear what the Spirit has to say. Lord, we don't hear from men in this church. We hear from God. We hear from the Holy Spirit, but we only hear it, Lord, when our hearts are open. Now, Lord, come upon me. Let me speak as an oracle of God. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, Paul testified to the believers here in Thessalonica. He said, I and my co-workers live blameless lives before you and before God. And without flinching, he could boast, we behaved ourselves among you that believe. Our conduct was holy, it was pure, it was blameless. He said, God is my witnesses to my holy behavior. Not only God, but you saw my life. You saw that I walked holy and blamelessly before God. He was not a man pleaser. He says this in the second chapter. He was not a man pleaser at all. He could stand up before every living person. He could stand up before every demon out of hell. He could look the devil in the eye and he could boldly say, I live daily under the gaze of a holy God. I live my life daily as though God's holy eyes were upon me. I lived only to please God. And you're my witnesses to my blameless life. Now, Paul, it says, prayed day and night for God's children. He said that their faith may be, their faith may be perfected and that you would increase in love toward one another and toward all men. And then he goes on and says that you would be established unblameable in holiness before God at the coming of Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. That was his prayer night and day, that God's people to whom he ministered would come to this place, established unblameably, unblameable in holiness before God. Now, folks, if we have any desire in this church as pastors, it's that to conform us all, pastors included, to the image of Jesus Christ, that when we stand before the judgment, we can say we have done our best through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We have brought a people to Christ and presented them unblameable, holy, and just before God. That's the prayer of the desire. Otherwise, I want to quit and go dig a ditch. I don't want to stand and preach if I cannot bring a people, have a part in bringing a people into the image of Christ. Now, Paul the apostle understood where his power with God came from. He knew where his effectiveness with man came from. Paul was an effective preacher and he knew it. It was not the sound of his voice. It was not his education. It was not his speech. That was contemptible by his own admission. He knew, though, that he had power with God and he had an effect on men, and his gospel pierced the hearts of the hearers. And I want to show you Paul's description of a blameless life, and then I want to show you by the Holy Ghost how that releases a power. Now, folks, I could have approached this another way. I could have come to you and said, I want to show you what you lose when you have sin in your heart and when you're living a life that's corrupted or you're holding to a secret sin. I want to show you how dead you become and all the lifeless things I could have described. But God said, no, I want you to make them jealous of Paul's description of a blameless life. I want to have you show from a positive side how a release of power comes to those who are going to seek with everything in them a holy blameless life before God and before men. Now, Paul clearly describes what a blameless Christian is and what he's to live like. In 1 Thessalonians 2, 3, take a look with me, please. 1 Thessalonians 2, chapter verse 3, but for our exhortation, our message was not of deceit. Now, I'm reading from the King James. Look at me, please. Here is the blameless life, a man, a woman, a Christian, a believer without any deceit in the heart, without deceit. He was saying, I was not a fraud in your midst. I was not preaching one thing and living another. I was not an imposter leaving you to believe that I was a holy man and yet you could see something in my life that said elsewise, something else. I was not living a lie. I did not deceive you. My behavior was an open book. Paul said he had renounced the hidden things of dishonesty. He did not handle or preach the word of God deceitfully. He could say my message got right to the conscience of men. It convicted because I lived the truth that I preached. Paul warned the Corinthians that certain men had, were claiming to be apostles just like him. He said, they claim to be living the life that I live. They're going around saying, I'm an appointed apostle. I'm of God. But Paul answered, but such men are false prophets because they're deceitful workers transformed themselves into the apostles of Jesus Christ. And what he was saying, you can't fake a holy life. You can't fake it. You're going to get caught. He said, you can't hide it. Now, secondly, to be blameless, according to Paul, is to touch nothing unclean. For our exhortation was not of deceit nor of uncleanness. This has to do with sensuality and with lust. Paul says, not an unclean word came out of my mouth. My conversation was pure coming out of a clean heart. He said, I have brought my body, my thinking, my mind under control. Nothing is driving me. I'm not a driven man. I'm a free man. He was not secretly into sensuality. You, you show me a minister of the gospel or for that matter, any person sitting in this pew tonight in this theater who tells dirty jokes or even jokes that are off color, and I'll show you a Christian who's not had a heart that's cleansed because out of the abundance of a heart, the mouth speaks. I heard one time a man who was so powerful in the pulpit, well known all over the country, but in a restaurant that night, I heard one joke after another with sexual innuendos just pouring out, and I said, oh God, I can't listen to that man anymore because of what is coming out of his mouth. That is not a pure stream coming out of a pure, that's not coming out of a pure spring. There's something deep inside this terribly, terribly wrong, and if you're here at Times Square Church, and you're worshiping God with us, and you go to the job, and you have this, there's this stream of uncleanness coming out of you, if you even give an ear to those jokes, you don't have to have a big tongue. You have a big ear. All you have to do is pretend you're not listening, and you go, and you give it a laugh. You're giving credence to it. God said, I'll not have, but I'm going to have you have clean ears, and a clean heart, and a clean tongue, and everything that comes out of your mouth. Paul said, everything that came out of me was clean. It was pure. It was righteous. You show me a man with roving eyes, and I'll show you a man who doesn't have a clean heart. He said, thirdly, the blameless life is to be without guile, the same verse, and, or, nor in guile. The Christian without guile is one who, that means he's not clever, he's not crafty, and he's not a manipulator. It's sad, but true, that the church today is filled with manipulators in the pulpit, and in the pew. Manipulators who want their own way, not through the power of the Holy Ghost, not through the leading of the Holy Spirit, but through the cleverness of their minds. And there are a lot of people that are very clever. They are, they, they, their words that they use, they finally don't even know that they're manipulating. It's become a way of life. Paul said, I didn't manipulate you into the kingdom of God. I didn't try to use clever words. I didn't try to play on you. I didn't use psychology. I gave it to you straight, and it came out of a clean, pure heart. Paul never played word games. He never put on an endearing smile trying to win the approval of people. Can you imagine Paul going around just tugging people with a big smile, wanting to be loved and accepted? Not when he had that bony finger sticking out at him, saying, thou art the man. He said, I'm a gentle as a nurse, but then when the Spirit of God came in, in, he would rebuke sin with a thunder out of heaven. He said, I avoid the very appearance of evil. That's in chapter five, verse 22. He said, I was always mindful that God was watching, checking my motives, but at any time did we use flattering words, there was no covetousness, no greed, no seeking of recognition or personal glory from you or from anybody. He said, I don't care if anybody knows who I am or where I am or what I'm doing as long as God is pleased. He said, there was no covetousness in me. There was no greed. There was no desire, no need in me to be approved by man. I wasn't a man pleaser. Oh, folks, don't try to be a man pleaser. That'll just so confuse you. You're going to go in a circle. You're on a merry-go-round. You'll never please man. Just about you think you're pleased and there'll be something else come up and you find out you haven't pleased. Now, there are a lot of sinners that could meet these three standards right now, perhaps that have, but they have no power of God. There are a lot of good people left yet, no matter how wicked this generation is, there's still a lot of good people who don't manipulate, who have no sensuality in them, and they speak a good, clean language, and they can pretty well fit this description I've given you so far. The rich young ruler could probably comply with these standards that I've shown you right now, because he won the respect and love of Jesus because of his goodness. But there was something lacking. And folks, it's not enough to fulfill what I've told you right now. There's something else. And this marks the difference. And here it is. Paul said, if you're going to live a blameless life, it has to be based on this foundation and no other foundation, because all our own goodness is filthy rags. You could be sitting here tonight and say, well, Brother Wilks and I fulfill every one of those. I don't have sensuality in my life. I can say honestly that I am without guile. I am not an unclean person. And I don't, I'm not deceitful. I'm a good man. There were many in the Scripture that came to Jesus that could say that. But you see, what's it based on? Is it on your own works or your own goodness? No. You see, Paul said, all of these things in my life are based on one thing, rock solid in me. And if you don't have this, you can never be blameless before God and man. And this, if God is ever to bring me to this place that I want to be with Paul the apostle, this has to be my desire. Paul said in chapter one, verse 12, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in me. He was jealous for the glory of the name of Jesus. He said, I do these things because I would rather die than bring reproach on my master's name. I'm not here for my name. I don't care about my name. I want a good name to use for his glory because a good name is to be desired above all silver and gold. He said, but I have something that is rock solid in me, something that motivates me, something that keeps me from the devil and from sin and from corruption and deceit and sensuality. I am driven with this. Now, folks, I don't know how the fear of God translates to you. The fear of God for some people is just a craven fear, like a fear of a ghost or of a monster. But in Paul's life, the fear of God translated like this, I fear to bruise his lovely name. I fear standing before him one day and he could point out and open the books and say, at this point, at this point, you brought shame to my name. And it wasn't a fear of hell. It wasn't a fear of losing his soul. He had confidence in his father. He loved his heavenly father. He knew he was secure in Christ. But he said, I will not do anything. I would rather die than do anything to grieve the name of Jesus. Is that in you tonight? He said, I fear anything that would smear or bring shame to the name of the Lord. And this is what distinguishes the blameless walk, consuming desire to honor the name of Jesus before all men. Paul refused to do anything that would offend other believers also. He said, for we behaved ourselves orderly among you to make ourselves examples unto you to follow us. He said, if you're, I can stand and preach to you till I'm blue in the face. You wouldn't follow Christ. But he said, I and my coworkers lived and behaved orderly and wisely among you. We lived the life we preached. And so we set an example. And that's why you are following Christ because of our example. Now let's talk about how this holy blameless life releases great power with God and man. The first thing that happens when you set your mark to live blameless before God. Now, many of you are not there tonight, and I'll show you before I close what the Lord has shown me on how to come into this wonderful experience, because you see, you can go out and pass out tracks, but that, that tracks just a paper sword, unless it's backed up with the life. Now God can use it simply because someone who's, who's been prayed for or somebody who God has His hand on does it, but nine out of 10 or 99 out of a hundred times, it has no power. It must be thrown in a furnace because there's no life behind it. There's not a blameless life. There's no power behind it. All right, let's talk about this. The first of all, the blameless believer, first thing that happens when you come into this desire and you come into this and say, Lord, I'm laid down every sin. I laid down my iniquities. I laid down my sins. I lay it all down before you. You come into this, this great desire only to please His name. First thing that happens is you gain the favor of God, the favor of God. The bride, the Shulamite in the song of Solomon was consumed by love for her beloved. And she said, I was in his eyes as one highly favored. I was in my lover's eyes as one who's highly favored. Here is God's promise to you. If you come into a blameless, holy walk with Him, He said, if you'll keep my commandments and you hold fast to mercy and truth. Now you, you go for truth in the inner man. You write this upon the table of your heart. You will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Proverbs 3, 1 to 4. He said, you set your mark to walk blameless before me and you're going to walk in my favor. You're going to walk pleasing. Favor means pleasing unto God. Folks, the greatest joy that any Christian could have is to go through life knowing that you're pleasing to Him, that He's not having to hide His face, that He's not shedding a tear over you, that you bring no shame or reproach to His holy name and He's pleased. Not by our works, but by our, Paul uses the word striving to enter in. Paul said, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost. And in much assurance. And this favor of God includes this great miracle that your words are not wasted. They're not in vain. They don't fall to the ground. God, by His Spirit, comes and empowers everything you say and do. There are some people I know who live a loose, compromised life and their words are foam. Their words are froth. It's candy cotton. They're just words. They can flow out. There's no impact. But I've been around Christians who walk with God and holy. They don't have to say much, but what they say hits the home mark right in the heart. Paul said, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. He said, I knew that every word I preached found its mark. I knew I was convicting you because He had convicted me. I came to this pulpit tonight saying, God preached to me tonight through me. He's preaching to me through me tonight. I'm not just dumping something on you that he's not working deeply into my very soul. You should be able to tell it the way he's anointing it. The Holy Ghost empowers your words and great results follow. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word with joy in the Holy Ghost. Because he goes on to say, let me tell you why we had such an impact on you. Let me tell you why you listened. Let me tell you why my words didn't fall to the ground, though I don't speak with enticement. I don't speak cleverly and my speech is often despised. But why do people look at me and know that I'm effective? And he could boast on that in the Lord. He said in the next verse, in verse 7, he said, because we were examples to all who believe. We were examples. When you live before the Lord in righteousness, your witness is going to find its mark. They may turn away and look like they're not listening and it hasn't done anything, but it's been an arrow right to the heart. Because that is the power that is released when you walk before him in righteousness, that your words do not fall to the ground. I have sat in churches many times and listened to preachers who were clever. It sounded good. It was nice. It was fun, but it didn't touch my heart. I went away empty. Every word fell down in front of the pulpit. Somewhere you can check it out in that man's life. He could not say with Paul he was an example to all who believe. It was said of David, David therefore did as God commanded him and the fame of David went out all through the lands and the Lord brought the respect of him upon all nations. Let me read it again. David therefore did as God commanded him. He walked in the law and the commandments of his law. He did what was right before God and the fame of David went out into the lands and the Lord brought the respect of him upon all nations. David said, for thou, Lord, will bless the righteous man, and in the Hebrew it's blameless, for the Lord will bless the righteous or the blameless and with favor will you surround him as with a shield. David said, people wonder where, why I'm being so blessed. They wonder. Now David was tested. David was tried. The blameless person is not free from temptation or trial. No, they go through the many other afflictions of the righteous, the scripture says, but the Lord delivered them from them all because there's something there in the heart that says, oh God, it's not my righteousness, but I know you gave me a heart after yourself. You gave me a heart that yearns after you, and if I fail, if I'm tested, I'm tried, I know where to go. David said, if you want to know why I'm favored, I keep his word. I kept his commandments. I seek to be an example. Hallelujah. God delights. God simply delights in blessing before men and before himself. He favors. I've seen people with this favor in their life. You look at them and you say, there's something about them. There's a favor, there's a blessing of God, and it has nothing to with finances, though it may include finances. It has to do with an aura of peace and rest and assurance in the Lord. They're not worried. They're not fretting. That's a wonderful favor from God to have all of that lifted from your spirit. Hallelujah. God promises the blameless one divine favor and even high esteem among men. David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so his name was highly esteemed. First Samuel 18, 30. He said, this man behaved himself. This man walked in blamelessness before the people, so his name was highly esteemed. Also, the scripture says, in the fame of David went into all the lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all the nations. There's nothing more scary than a holy person. I'll get into that in just a little bit. You see, the man who protects the name of Jesus is going to have a good name given to him by God. If his whole life is set on keeping this name of Jesus, protecting it by what He says and by what He does, God's going to give him a good name. I've heard people say, well, I don't care about my name. I'm just a nobody, and I just don't care. I don't want to make a name for myself. That's not what I'm talking about. That sounds humble, but that's not according to scripture. God said this good name is to be desired above all silver and gold on the earth, because that's the coin that you use to spend for God's glory. That's how you affect men. That's how you impact people and nations, because there's something behind the message. You know, the favor and blessing of God poured out upon a holy life is a disturbing, repelling power. It's a disturbing, repelling power. The compromisers in the church and those who are indulging in secret sin, those who are disobedient to the Word, are totally, absolutely disturbed and repelled by the holy life. They're disturbed by it. Once you enter into this blameless walk with the Lord, and you start living above reproach, you live holy, justly, unblameably, as Paul is describing, you'll be feared and despised by those who have lost the favor in the anointing of God. You'll be feared and despised. I'm going to show that to you from the scripture. You see this disturbing, repelling power of the holy life illustrated. Don't turn there, but it's in 1 Samuel 18. And Saul, listen, Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him. Now, why was Saul afraid? Let me finish it. And because the Lord was with David and was departed from Saul, and David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. Wherefore, when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he's afraid of him. He's afraid of him. David's blameless behavior struck fear in the heart of Saul, and I'll tell you why. Saul's looking at a younger man, probably less articulate. Saul's head and shoulders over him. Saul was the one who was mighty blessed. The Spirit of God used to come upon him. He was a chosen man of God. He doesn't represent the world or a dead, idolatrous Canaanite. No, he represents the church that's compromised and lost the anointing of God, represents Christians who were once full of the Holy Ghost, baptized, on fire for God. And along comes a young man, a young man full of God, full of the Holy Ghost, pure in heart, and Saul's remembering what he had and what he lost. He said, I could have been like him. Everybody respected him. I heard one day it stung me, a well-known evangelist, it stung me so hard. He said, I just came from a conference of television and radio evangelists, and he said, we've got some of the biggest things going on in the world, and they didn't even get up and recognize us. He said, and he said, it's terrible. They didn't even recognize. He wanted that recognition. It just burned in him, and there was an anger inside, a terrible anger. And I remember how it stung me. I said, oh God, that man's headed for a fall, which happened. Wanting that recognition. See, David was getting it without wanting it or needing it. He was just living a clean life, and God was pouring it on. You see, the man who wants it very seldom gets it, because he won't pay the price. He won't pay the price. It's a costly thing. Sometimes it costs you everything in this world. And all Israel loved David, because he went in and out among them, and it means righteously, blamelessly. Therefore, Saul removed him from his presence. He didn't want to be around him. He said, well, Brother Wilkerson, wait a minute. I love the Lord, but I come to Times Square Church, and I'm not repelled by, people are not repelled by me. I have all these wonderful Christian friends around me, and nobody's afraid of me. Is it because I'm not living a blameless life? No, it's because you're sitting in a blameless church among blameless people, just like yourself. They're not going to be repelled by you. But go back to your dead church once. Go back to those that you once dabbled with, and don't boast anything, but sit down and eat with them. Just begin to talk about the Lord while they're talking about the New York Knicks. Go ahead while they're drinking their wine, and you say, no, thank you. Go ahead, but I just don't drink. This is the end of side one. We will now turn the tape over to side two. Latest television programs, and you look there with a stunned look, because you don't even have a television. You're just saying, you keep bringing the conversation back to Jesus, and they're telling jokes, and you're turning away. You don't have that silly, funny look, and you don't play their games, and you're sitting there telling the truth out of a heart that has truth in it. And they're going to start being repelled by you, and in their heart they're going to despise you. And then when they leave your presence, they're going to stick up their nose with that knowing look, and say, ha ha fanatics, boy have they gone off the deep end. They're going to despise you, because you convict them for what they were, and what they lost. Saul was so disturbed, so envious of David's closeness to God. That's what is envied, the closeness to God, the favor of God, the power to worship, the power to give, the power to love, without anything in return. As I said, there's nothing more scary than a holy person to a compromiser. The compromiser will call you legalistic, unbalanced, strange. They'll attempt to disgrace you. They'll try to destroy your name and your blameless walk before God. And Paul experienced all of this kind of rejection due to this blameless walk. He once said, all they which are in Asia have turned away from me. And in a prison letter to the Colossians, he named three people who comforted him, and he said, these only, naming three, these only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort to me. He said, everybody's leaving me. All he's doing is living a blameless life, and they're leaving him left and right. And in 2nd Timothy 4, 16, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. Are you willing to pay that price to have the favor of God in your life? And the more your life lines up with the Lord's will, the more you line up with His holiness, the more unbalanced you'll appear to the backslidden believer. Now I want you to know something. If you live a blameless life, the ungodly will esteem you highly. They'll say that's what Christianity ought to be. And the righteous ones in the church will say, I like to be around you. There's something comforting about you. They love to be in your presence. They'll hound you to death if they get near you, because they find something. They're looking for a word from God. They know you hear from God. And you're comforting. You're strengthening. That's a wonderful thing. That's a gift of God. But let me tell you where your worst opposition is going to come from. Who's going to be repelled by you the most? It's going to come from the church of Jesus Christ that is backslidden and compromised, and people who have a secret sin who don't want to give it up. Your holiness, just your holy walk, is the prophet's finger. And it says, you're the man, you're the woman, and you're not even opening your mouth. Because you know what they are? When you really walk that life, you see, with me, there have been times that I've really been close to Jesus, and I have my glasses on, and somebody said, don't look at his eyes. He can see right through you. The truth is, I can't see anything. That's why I've got these almost binoculars on my head. My vision's about 80 to 200 or something like that. You know what it was? They thought I knew, because they were convicted. It was their own sins condemning. It wasn't my eyes, it was their own sin crying out. You know, you can have a lot of Bible knowledge. You can pray a lot. You can be very good and kind and still not impact people, because there's a fly in the ointment, a besetting sin that's not been dealt with. But finally, I want to talk to you about the power of a proper focus. And this is what is released when you really set your heart on a blameless walk. When you lay down your besetting sins, when you're determined to behave in a manner that's pleasing to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit comes upon you with a jealousness for His name, there is a power the Holy Ghost releases in you, I call the proper focus. Paul's blameless life brought him into a spiritual focus, the kind that God wants for every one of us tonight. And I want you to listen from your spirit. In 1 Thessalonians 3.8, go to 1 Thessalonians 3.8, Paul makes a profound statement that stings me. It just drove like a javelin into my heart. One simple verse, it's 3 Thessalonians 3.8, a very simple statement, 1 Thessalonians 3.8, for now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. Now, we live. You know, Paul's saying, I get my life, I get my joy, everything that blesses me comes from seeing you grow in Christ. And you know what? Until God's been dealing with me on some issues deep with this book of Thessalonians, the Lord's been driving me into this book and digging me into it deep, and I would have said something like this, I get all my joy when I live in victory. I get all my joy and pleasure when I know I'm living in overcoming life. I get happy. That's not what Paul said. You see, Paul's already worked himself through it all. He's not going to live his life focused on sin. He's not living his life focused on some problem he's had. And like some people even in this church that have been here for the whole time we've been here, you're still focused on a besetting sin that should have been laid down long ago. You have no focus for the world, no focus for the church, or the eternal purposes of Jesus Christ, because you're consumed with one question, how do I get out of this? Your whole focus is on yourself, on your sin, a focus on fear, a focus on something inside that consumes you. And Paul the apostle said, no, that's not how I'm going to live. Listen to the language of this man. He said, he's boasting, he said, it's your faith. He's speaking to Thessalonians now. It's your faith that comforts me in all my distresses. Your faith that comforts me? He's not thinking about himself, he's in prison. He said, it's your faith that comforts me. I get my joy out of seeing you grow. How many sit in this church having settled the sin question and you're no longer coming to church saying, oh God, is this the night I'm going to get free? Am I going to hear a message that certainly unsackles my chains? Am I somehow going to victory tonight and not have to go out and fight this battle anymore? How many of you are able to sit in this church tonight and look around at somebody you've been testifying to, witnessing to, and you're rejoicing because you know and you see that victory is coming to their life. Your whole joy now, your whole focus now is not on yourself, but it's over here, it's over here, it's over here, it's focused on Cuba, it's focused on China, it's focused on the world now because he's released the power in you. He said, for what is our hope? What's our joy? What is my crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ? For you are my glory and joy. You are my glory and joy. Oh, that convicts me. That convicts me so much. Folks, don't you get tired? Aren't you tired of living day after day, week after week, month after month, trying to get victory, trying to get out of some trap? You see, here's why God wants to bring us into a blameless life. That's why. So a church doesn't sit here six years just trying to maintain, get and maintain victories in personal lives, so that we can all sit here pure and sinless before a holy God. We can clap our hands and sing and shout and get blessed because I'm free, free, free. The reason he wants us free is to give us a proper focus, like Paul the apostle, where we get our joy in seeing people coming to Christ. We get joy in seeing our family safe. And folks, you start lining up with God and what you say and testify to your family by your life will have power. It'll have impact. Always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in the will of God. He said, I'm laboring in prayer. I intercede. He's not interceding for himself. He's not interceding about victory. He's not interceding about his own needs. He said, night and day, I'm laboring for you that you be complete in the will of God. Hallelujah. You say, well, he was a preacher. No, that's for the body. That's for all of us, beloved. Paul can say, sin no longer has dominion over me. I've set aside every weight and every besetting sin. I've died to this world. I died daily to my flesh. He said, I don't spend all my time now groaning over my sin. I spend my time groaning over my brethren. I groan that Christ may come forth in his church. And folks, we're not going to, we're not going to ever accomplish in Times Square Church what the Holy Ghost wants to accomplish until our focus is turned away, until the victory comes, until we can say, sin does not have dominion over me. And you get that thing settled and you come to Jesus. You see, God does not intend to have you live the rest of your life fighting some perversion or fornication or adultery or addiction or secret sin. There are a lot of Christians here tonight that probably have victory in almost every area of your life, but one area or maybe two areas. And you spend your whole time. You thank God for the areas he's giving you victory, but you're still consumed, literally consumed. Folks, turn your eyes toward Jesus. Say, Lord, I'm going to turn my eyes and pray for others, even though I'm not where I want to be yet. I'm going to turn away from my sin. The victory is going to come when you'll be concerned about others. Start giving yourself to others. Start praying about others and reaching out to a world. You say, can God use me right now while I'm still struggling? Yes, if you'll quit struggling. Turn it over to the Lord and say, Lord, you know I want the victory. And I'll tell you something. If you cry, cry out. Brother Bob said it so clearly this morning, just cry, help Lord. He'll send his word and he'll heal you. It'll come when you're not expecting it sometime. The word of God will just come until finally you see that God says, well, I really don't want to strike you down. I really don't want to deal with you as a judge because I'm your father at this point. I'm your loving father and I want to deliver you You change your focus. You get focused on my heart, on my needs for the body of Jesus Christ. And I'll send my word to you and I'll heal you. Hallelujah. Now folks, a blameless life is possible or Paul wouldn't have said that he and his co-workers enjoyed it. God's no respective persons. And what God, when God says in his word with this, when God says he wants truth in the inward man, he's speaking about truth toward himself. He said, I don't want you, I want you to approach me with truth in your heart. I don't want you to hide anything from me. I want you, if you're going to be truthful in any area of your life, be truthful to me. If you're going to be truthful to me, I'll take care of all the men. I'll take care of everything out here, as long as you're pleasing me. And if you're being truthful with me, I'll take care of all the peripheral areas. You've got to face this, and I'm closing just a moment. You have to be honest before God. And here's the honesty that you're going to have to have. God, if I continue in my sinful way, I'm going to grow increasingly weak and powerless. I'll lose your favor. I'll not be pleasing in your sight. I could end up like Saul, dead inside, full of hate and envy. And I would finally go into eternity crying, God no longer hears me. He no longer speaks to me. I'm no longer a blessing to God or my family or to a lost world. I have no purpose left. You've got to get that honest before God. Lord, if I don't deal with this, if I'm not willing to lay this down and move on, I'll never get the focus that you want to give me. And I'll tell you, I believe I have the fear of God in me, but it's not a craven fear, because He's my loving Father. He loves me. He's born with me, with all the trials. And I've been a contemptuous child sometimes. I'm sure sometimes when He disciplined me and spanked me, it must have been with tears. But I'll tell you what really got a hold of my heart. Two verses. Behold, now is the day of salvation. God said, you can be free now. You don't have to wait. You know, when God told Israel to sanctify themselves, sometimes three days, sometimes one day, He said, you're going into battle tomorrow. Sanctify yourself. You don't have to wait a week, ten days or a year or a month to get sanctified before God. Set your heart and God will do it. Desire it with everything that's in you and God will accomplish the work in you. Behold, now is the day of salvation. He said, giving no offense in anything that the ministry never be blamed. He said, I don't want to give offense at anything that the ministry, the gospel of Jesus would never be an offense to anybody by what they see or hear from me. I'm going to ask you, are you going anywhere or doing anything or saying anything that brings reproach to the name of Jesus? I know there have been some men that sneak off to X-rated theaters that have confessed it here and they, before they go in, they want to see if any of the pastors are watching or happen to be walking down. You don't need to fear the pastor. You're answering to higher power. And that's what you and I have to deal with, that the ministry, not the pastor, not the church, not the name of Times Square Church, but the ministry of Jesus Christ be not blamed. In the final scripture, Paul said, I do my best to maintain always, always a blameless conscience, both before God and before men. He said, I don't ever want to go into the prayer closet with something on my conscience that's not settled. Hallelujah. Folks, I've preached a message to myself and I hear it. And the powerful thing is that I have to stand before God one day and answer for it. You pray for me, will you? And all the pastors that we can live what we preach. So we can stand up here and say, we were examples to you and that you followed that example before the Lord. I want you to stand in his presence, if you will, please. Now, folks, the Holy ghost is here. There's something happens when his word is at work. There's something profound that happens. You either lose it before the message, before the service is dismissed. You just let it flow through your head and it's gone or something else happens right here. Now you deal with it and say, Jesus, don't let me lose. Don't let me lose the power of this moment. Don't let me lose it now. Hallelujah. Heavenly father. I know that you're merciful and you're loving and you're kind and you're not speaking to us, Lord, as a judge tonight, but as a gentle Lord, you're reaching out with love and saying, I want you to live blameless because of the impact it's going to have for my glory. And it's going to release in you a joy like you've never known, but you're not coming at us sourly or negatively. You're coming to us with a wonderful positive voice that's saying, if you'll do this, then I'll release in you all that you ever need. You'll win your lost. You'll win your family. I'll do it. They're watching you. It may take some time, but they're watching and I'm releasing a power in and through you. Hallelujah. Now, while you're standing in the presence of the Lord, I don't know who is being touched by the word or by the spirit tonight, but if you're being touched, if God, by his spirits, touched you and you've been focused so much on something in you, you said, brother, I want God to use me. I want God to touch my life. I don't want to spend the rest of my time boggled down and bogged down in my own needs and my own hurts. I want a focus like Paul the apostle so that I can really get joy in seeing God do something for others. If he's speaking to you, get out of your seat. If you're backslidden also, if you're not where you should be with Jesus, come and follow these who are coming. Up in the balcony, go to any either side of the stairs and come down any aisle. We'll meet you right here. Hallelujah. God's speaking. Let him speak to your heart. If he's talked to you, there's something he put his finger on, there's something he's dealing with. Obey the Holy Spirit and come here and present your body as a living sacrifice. Say, Jesus, tonight, give me your focus. Take my focus off of myself and I want to transform it to you, Jesus. I want it changed. This is the conclusion of the tape.