Gary Wilkerson emphasizes the need for ministers and believers to receive ministry themselves, drawing parallels between the struggles of biblical figures like Moses, Elijah, and Jonah, and the modern-day challenges faced by Christians. He highlights the parable of the Good Samaritan, suggesting that Jesus is the true Samaritan who comes to heal and restore those who are broken and weary. Wilkerson encourages listeners to recognize their own wounds and to allow Jesus to minister to them, reminding them that they are not alone in their struggles. The sermon ultimately conveys a message of hope, healing, and the importance of loving Jesus, who is always present to help in times of need.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website, however written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timesquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York 10019. Praise God, it's good to be back with you here at Times Square Church. My name is Gary Wilkerson. I'm a recovering Pharisee. And glad to be in your midst. Let's go to the Word of God tonight. First, let's pray. Jesus, you're good and you speak and we give thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Numbers chapter 11, if you would please. I want to go to three quick verses. If you have grew up in the church, grown up in the church, you might have at one point been a part of those Bible races, the first one to find all the verses in the scriptures. They throw out 10 verses and when you get all 10 done, you win stupid prizes like a sticker of Moses or something like that to put on your refrigerator. But the competition was worth it, so you'd race through the scripture. We're going to race through a few verses tonight. And it might shock you what we're going to read. It's going to be a little bit unusual to you. The first is in Numbers chapter 11. And just take a moment to go to Numbers chapter 11. We live in a society that highly values positive thinking. People who are always on top of the world, always cheerful, joyful, particularly people that can articulate their joy well to help other people become always feeling good. And some even go to the extent of writing a book about it. It'll become a bestseller, how to always be happy, how to be the best at everything you ever attempted to do, and wear a smile on your face while you're doing it. These things sell really well and draw crowds. And you would think that that would be something that would be fairly common in the great leaders of scripture. In most cases, it is. These were men who had great faith. Some of the men I'm about to read about tonight were found in Hebrews chapter 11. Don't turn there, but it's called the Hall of Faith. People who had tremendous faith and and the scripture writer records their deeds of great valor and faith. But sometimes ministers need ministering too. Some of you ministers here in the church, when I say ministers, I'm not talking about clergy in the platform. I'm talking about the priesthood of all believers. Everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ and is saved is automatically signed up. It's like you click the computer and you're automatically enrolled in the program. You become a minister. And sometimes you who are here tonight, that minister quite regularly, you give your life away to others, need ministry to yourself. And if you don't get that ministry yourself, you tend to fade, to fall back, to withdraw, to get discouraged, get despondent, and even worse. Numbers chapter 11 verse 15, Moses says to God, if this is how you're going to treat me, put me to death right now. First Kings, let's look at another mighty man of God. First Kings chapter 19 and verse 4. First Kings chapter 19 and verse 4. Another minister, here's a man who's giving his life away to others. First Kings chapter 19 verse 4, the latter part of verse 4. It's kind of in the middle, so you might have to read ahead a little bit and read these words. I have had enough Lord, he said, take my life. That's Elijah speaking. And he has given his life away. He's ministered and now he is on the verge of being suicidal. Jonah chapter 4, the hardest one to find of all. I knew it was hard to find, so I took my little thing out beforehand and put it right in Jonah, so you can think I'm really smart and know exactly where Jonah is. Jonah's probably the most succinct of all of them. He only had four chapters to tell his whole story in, so he gets right to the point. Jonah chapter 4 verse 3, take my life away. There's three great men of God, three men who were very successful. Jonah, even though he had some trepidation about doing so, he went into a city and just walking through, the first few minutes of walking through the city, the city begins to repent. Hundreds of thousands of people saved. Such a great revival, the Bible says even the livestock were saved. I mean that's pretty amazing. Just a real turnaround in the city. The city's totally changed. And of course we know of Elijah, he goes up against the worst false prophets who demonized lives and he totally defeats them through God's power, just through sheer faith. And we know of Moses, how he led the people of Israel out of Egypt and had his confidence placed so wholly on the Lord that he was able to do things like see the Red Sea part and all the great miracles as they were coming up out of Egypt. And yet all three of these men at one point in their life put it real clear, didn't they? Kill me, take my life away, just let me die. If this is how you're going to treat me, just let me die. A woman in the 1500s who was going through a severe trial in her life, she had served the Lord with all her heart. She even, she came into this amazing revelation, her name was Saint Teresa of Avelia. She came into a revelation of Jesus in the midst of a time where the church was so off and the church was so into tradition and into false teaching. It's amazing that she could grasp the heart of Christ and she got to know Jesus. And because of this, the church persecuted her and hid her away in a dark, damp, wet tower, a dungeon. And in that dungeon, she writes these words, Jesus, if this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few. She was discouraged. She was downcast at this point in her life. And you see this. Now these aren't stories that sell well in the Christian bookstores. If I entitled this sermon tonight, Do You Feel Like Dying? It probably wouldn't go well over the sales of the tapes in the back of the church. Because people don't really want to even entertain the thought of the struggles that they go through in life and the difficulty. And what to do when you get to this place, even as a Christian, even as a minister, even as someone who has faith, who has had success in their life in obeying God and seeing the victory of God transpire into true, genuine moves of God in their life and in their society? And what to do when you get to that place where it just seems gone? You just seem weary and beaten and broken and distraught and discouraged to the point of just saying, I don't know if my life is even worth living anymore. I don't feel strong. I don't feel the presence of the Lord. I don't feel alive in worship. The Word of God doesn't seem to speak to me anymore. Why so downcast, O my soul, is the way King David put it. Hold that thought right now for what we're thinking of. Just ministers who need ministry. People of God who love and serve Him, who now are in a place of trouble in their own life and need some source of rescue. Think about that just for a moment. We're going to switch gears and I know you're going to think he's preaching two different sermons and maybe I am, but at the end we'll try to intertwine the two of them into something that looks like one sermon, okay? Does that make sense to you? So go with me to Luke chapter 10 if you would. The story, we call it the Good Samaritan, the parable of the Good Samaritan. I don't think if I understand this right they ever actually, Jesus ever uses the word good alongside the Samaritan, but it's an attachment we've given to it to help us find out where it is and what it means. But it's in Luke chapter 10 and if you understand the story, it starts off in verse 25 and it speaks of a particular occasion where an expert in the law comes to test Jesus and says, teacher what must I do to inherit life? And Jesus asked this man, he says, what was written in the law? I've taught to you here before, I don't know if you remember or were here, but I went in great detail about these experts in the law, how they had studied 15,000 pages of Talmudic-type teachings, Midrash and other different types of Hebrew scholarly writings written by the rabbis. 15,000 pages, a million and a half words that these young men almost memorized. They knew so much about the law and so when they asked a question about the law to Jesus, Jesus responds back, well what is written in the law? Jesus understanding that this man probably could say not only what scripture says, not only what Torah says, but also what some of these ancient writings from the rabbis or even the current writings of the rabbis would say. So he'd have all this theology, he'd have all this head knowledge about the law. So Jesus asks him, tell me what's written in the law? And not only what is written in the law, not only what is the document, the Torah, but tell me what it means to you. In other words, he says, how do you read it? How do you understand the Torah, the first five books of Moses? How do you understand when we begin to wrap our mind around this question of what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now that question, what must I do to inherit eternal life, has become sort of a word that has a lot of religion based around it. They didn't understand at that point the same thing we might understand today, like what must I do to be born again, or how do I become a Christian? There weren't, you understand, there weren't Christians at this time. So this guy's not asking, how do I switch from being a Jew to being a Christian? They didn't have that history have unfolded yet. So what he's doing is trying to interpret what all of this past of Judaism has meant to them, and he comes up with a quite an incredibly good answer. He says to him in verse 27, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied, do this and you will live. And here's really where the conversation, the core of this conversation is getting at, is how do I come alive? I don't think he was just talking about how do I live a really long life and maybe make it through the millennial kingdom, through the rapture, after the rapture, through this and up into that. I don't think he had all that kind of understanding. He was just saying, I have a lot of intelligence, I have a lot of intellect, I have a lot of knowledge, but I don't feel very alive. What can I do to come alive in my heart? I'm feeling like just life is worthless, meaningless, without the gumption that I need. How do I really come alive? How do I make sense of my life? How do I get something beyond just going through the motions of waking up in the morning, just dreading having to go through the same routine of another day all over again, the pressures, the pain, the problems. And maybe he was feeling like some of these Old Testament prophets we've just read from, just let me bring an end to it. Let's just go to heaven. And have it done away with. But God, you know this has something for you here on earth. He wouldn't have put you here on earth unless he had a plan for your life. He had a calling on you. If not, my recommendation has always been this as a pastor, when somebody gets saved, if God doesn't have a plan and a purpose for their life subsequent to their salvation, except to go to heaven one day and just kind of hold on, like you ever heard those testimonies, I just hope I hold on until Jesus comes. If that's the case, my recommendation is when we have the baptismal service, they get saved, just hold them under and just say, you know, see you in heaven, sister, brother. If nothing else, you'd know who the real saints are. They'd be like, okay, I volunteer for the baptism. It wouldn't do great for church growth, but there's a reason we don't hold you under. There's a reason you come up alive. That's what he's asking. That's what this man I believe is asking. How do I come up alive? I'm dead in my religion and I'm not alive. Jesus, show me. Let's talk about real life. And he answers and says, love God and love your neighbor. Jesus says, you've done good. Do this. And in reply, the man, he wants to justify himself. So he says, who is my neighbor? Have you read this passage before? Are you familiar with this parable of the Good Samaritan? You know what happens next. It says there was a man, he was going down to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of some robbers. They stripped off all his clothes. They beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And then, you know, a priest comes by and he passes by him without stopping to help. A Levite, another religious leader from the tribe of Levi, he comes by and he passes as well. Leaves this man half dead, bloodied on the street, robbed, stripped, just broke into pieces. Just passes by and leaves him. The third man is the Samaritan, a different religion, not a Jew, from a different part of the country, not sort of acceptable, so to speak. And he stops and helps, presumably, this Jewish man who has been robbed and beaten, because he was coming from Jerusalem, I assume he's a Jew. So a non-religious person, so to speak, helps a religious person. And we see then the third man, the Samaritan, he comes along. Not only does he help him, but he picks him up and he puts him on his own donkey and he takes him, he bandages his wounds, he pours oil over him. And I guess if I were just that man lying on the street and having seen religious leaders pass me by, I think I'd just feel really good. Wow, somebody finally has stopped to help me. I mean, I've not been in that kind of trouble before. I have been, I was in Germany and I was traveling with a music team and I was driving the truck with the sound equipment and it was about 3 a.m. in the morning and the tire went flat and I tried to jack up the tire with the tire jack and put the spare on and it was too heavy. So here I am, 3 in the morning, I can't do anything and this man in a truck drives by and he comes out and he says, like, you know, sprechen Sie Deutsch? And I said, and I learned that sense, what that means, like, I didn't even know what that meant at the point. I had no idea. And he got out and he had a truck type jack and was able to, and I felt so, you know, how good do you feel when you get help? Oh man, I can get on with my life now. I'm not going to be stuck in Germany for the rest of my life. I didn't necessarily want to do that, not that Germany's not a lovely place. I love Germany. So he's laying there and he's bloody and bruised and and there's somebody helping him now and he feels the oil on his skin and this begins to sort of soothe it and he feels the bandage going around and it begins to make him feel a little bit safer, like, okay, I'm getting some help and this guy seems to know what he's doing. He's bandaging me the correct way and now he's, he's picking me up and, and he's, he's telling me, he's assuring me, I'm going to take you to a place where you can get refuge and rest and you can rest there for a few days and, and you've been robbed of all your money. Don't worry about a thing. I can cover it all. I can pay for all your expenses. Man, you're just feeling so good. Now you're in the inn and he lays you down on the bed and he says, I'll be back to check on you. Wow, that is a really good Samaritan. Maybe we should call him the great Samaritan, you know, or the really nice Samaritan or the exceptional Samaritan. They're really something out of the ordinary. Now when we read this story, how many times have you read this and, and our assumption as we read this, as Jesus is teaching, he's trying to teach us to become good Samaritans, right? He's trying to take people who are selfish and careless and say, I want you to learn how to be a good neighbor and help people in need. Now obviously he is saying that Jesus lived this lifestyle of the Samaritan, so he would obviously want us to be living that same kind of lifestyle, right? But I think there's something else that Jesus is after as he teaches this. Jesus's parables have these amazing layers to them. You see something on the surface, you read it again, you see something else, you read it a third time, you go, wow, I've never even noticed that before. I have taught from this parable probably 15, 20 times in my life, never taught it the way I'm teaching it tonight because Lord showed me some little new nugget to it that just almost like a diamond, have a little bit of a different turn and a little bit of a different facet, and it brings something new to me. And hopefully to you as well tonight, if I can make it make sense to you as well, that Jesus was after something was, Jesus was after something here. He was wanting something to be accomplished in this conversation. And I think he was after something a little bit more than just trying to make people become a little bit more compassionate or a little bit nicer to their neighbors. You see, being a good Samaritan, as I read this story, it's the easiest job in this whole parable. If I were going to pick one person, I wouldn't want to be the stuffy old religious guys who pass by. And I certainly wouldn't want to be, you know, when you ask the question, who is my neighbor? You preach this in most places, and you know, it doesn't mean as much, but you preach it in New York here, and you talk about, well, my neighbor is the robbers, you know? I know exactly who my neighbor is. If I see that guy out in the hallway, when I go, I just go back in and wait till he's gone, you know? In New York, this parable takes on different meaning than a lot of cities. So, I think it's easy to be the Samaritan. The Samaritan is cool, you know? He's got, he's got a, he's got, I don't know if he has a white horse to kind of romanticize the picture, you know? He's, or at least a white donkey, if nothing else, you know? And he's, and he's got the latest model saddle, you know? He just, it's an ice saddle, you know? It's a, those little digital things with directions on it. And, you know, he's having a good time, and he's on his saddle, and he's going, oh, there's a guy in trouble. He says, you know what? My life is so good. I am so blessed. I've got more money in my pocket than I could probably ever spend. So, it won't take me but a few minutes to, and I'm halfway intelligent. I went to school. I learned a little bit of medicine. I have, I don't know why he had medical supplies in his traveling with him, but maybe he was a physician, probably educated. So, he has a lot going for him, doesn't he? And he has compassion. He's a good man. He'll stop and help somebody. He's kind of like the Bono of our day, you know? He's cool, and he can, you know, maybe he even wore the sunglasses and just, you know, wanted to really be a good man who really cares about the world. And maybe, you know, he might even be the kind of guy that was, like, concerned about global warming and dolphins and people who, he might have had a bumper sticker on the back of his saddle, you know, like, save the, you know, Samaritans who serve or something like that. I don't know. He's kind of a likable character, isn't he? And he is good. He's really good. So, so we read on that level, and yes, Jesus is, as I said earlier, he is encouraging charity of heart, compassion, giving of our life away, not being so self-centered that everything is for us. But I think there's something else to this parable that Jesus is getting after that as well. Because towards the end of it, he begins to describe this Samaritan, and he begins to give some hints that maybe, if we look at this story, we always, I always kind of tend to think of myself as the Samaritan, don't you? You know, I always look, every story I read in the Bible, I'm almost always the good guy in the Bible. And so I was reading this, I'm kind of like the Samaritan, and I stop, and I help the poor, and I go to Africa probably three, four times a year, and I give a portion of my income to needy, and I adopt children and have pictures on the refrigerator, and I don't have any bumper stickers, but I'm willing to. It's just, you know, I kind of feel like I'm somewhat the good Samaritan. But as I read this, it's, Jesus begins to give hints that it's not us he's talking about there. It's not good Christians who are doing good deeds. It's, he seems to me, maybe he's talking about himself. Here's a man with complete and utter resources. Here's a man who has power and ability to heal. Here's a man who can take someone who's down, broken, near dead, and restore them to life. Here's a man who even says, when he takes him to the inn, he uses this phrase, and it's a phrase that Jesus used almost exclusively of himself in his teachings, even in parables, or even as he spoke clearly about his own ministry. He's going to go away, and after I return. What was he talking about? He's going to go away, he's going to send the comforter, and then he will come again. Even in this parable, in verse 35, he says, look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for all the extra expenses you may have had. Part of the inclination I get here is Jesus is saying, look at me. I'm the one who can help you. I am the Samaritan. Now, if we look at it that way, instead of being us the Samaritan, we look at it, Jesus the Samaritan, where does that leave us? Jesus asks this expert the question, which of these three do you think was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robber? Who was the neighbor? Was the neighbor the poor man who was beaten and broken? Who was the neighbor? No, he says, who was the neighbor to the man who was robbed? And we know it wasn't the robbers, and we know it wasn't the Levite or the priest, so we know the neighbor was who? It was the Samaritan. Okay, so if it was the Samaritan, now, are you following me? Is it going to make sense? I hope. If not, I've wasted a whole lot of your time. Let's go back to the reason this conversation exists, the reason Jesus told this parable, because this expert in law brought up this point about, when I love God, I know who God is. I know how to love God because I know who He is. My question is, how do I love my neighbor? I don't know who my neighbor is. Jesus says, which of these three was the neighbor? The Samaritan was the neighbor, so Jesus was saying, love the Samaritan. And almost every time I've read this parable, I've always kind of thought Jesus was trying to teach me to love the poor person, the broken person, the down and out, the outcast, the one who's been abused and hurt. And I saw something different in here. If Jesus is the Samaritan, at least in one way of looking at the parable, or in one layer of the parable, Jesus is the Samaritan, then maybe I'm, and maybe you are the broken one, the one who has been hurt, the one who has been robbed. Has anybody ever told you that you have somebody who's opposed to you and he has come to kill, steal, and destroy? Have you ever noticed that there's someone who's opposed to you and wants to get you so down and out, so half dead that you would say to yourself, just knock the rest half of it off. Just finish me off. I'm half dead. Why don't you just conclude the job, God? Just take me out. Take my life away. We have an adversary. We heard about that so clearly this morning. There's this battle going on in our life, and the battle gets to a place, again, as you heard this morning if you were here, the battle gets to a place where it seems like there's no one there to help you. No counselor can be there. The Levite passed. The priest passed. And I think you're in a place where if it was just a good person coming by, it wouldn't be enough. So Jesus, I believe this with all my heart is saying here, when you're broken, and when you're wounded, and when you have been giving your life away, and you have been pouring out to others, when you're a minister and now you are finding yourself in a place of weakness or hardship, that Jesus says, don't despair. Don't give up. Don't listen to those voices that say, just take my life. Just end it all. It's meaningless. It's worthless. It's all for naught. Respond to my coming to you. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming, and he has these wonderful provisions. But to understand this story correctly, it's hard because we want to be the good Samaritan, and we don't want to see ourselves as the one in need. It's a better place to be the Samaritan because you feel control, and things are kind of good, and you have resources, and things available to you. It's nice to paint yourself in that picture. It's difficult to see yourself and admit to yourself and say, I have needs. I have wounds. There's something hurting in me. Some people come to the crash of saying, I give up, I surrender, take my life away, because they're not dealing along the way with some of the smaller disruptions, discouragements, things that might cause your heart to be downcast. Christians sometimes think, oh, I'm having a bad thought or having a difficult time, so I better wipe it under the carpet. I better not think about it. I better not talk about it to somebody else. Do you know there are Christians here that believe in fate? Do you know there are Christians here in this room tonight that believe in mysticism, that believe in, I can't even think of the word, like if you rub a rabbit's foot, what's that called? Superstition, thank you. There's Christians that believe in superstition. There are people that feel like, I've heard people talk about this. They say, well, I feel like there's, you know, I felt a lump on my side, but I didn't want to say anything to anybody because I was afraid if I said it out loud, then I'd get it. Or if the devil heard me say that, if the devil heard me say that, then he would know that, oh, I forgot about that, yeah, let's give him that. So they won't say anything, like they won't tell anybody else their struggles. Or if they're not superstitious, there's a pride that says, I can't confess my faults to somebody else. I can't confess my struggle in particular areas that seem to be casting me down. And so therefore, I'm kind of repressing all these things, trying to put them under and not think about them. When God is saying, I'm right here, Jesus is saying, I am right here, I have for you the bandages of your wounds, do not hide your wounds from me. I have the oil. What a beautiful picture of the Samaritan. He has oil to pour over you for healing. And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit has for you here tonight. Oil to pour over the brokenness of the heart, cleansing for the mind, bandages for the wounds. But not only that, he takes you away from the place. He takes you from the situation you're in and he puts you in a safe place. And again, we heard this morning, yes, there will still be struggles, there'll still be hardship, you don't escape this world and all the trials and tribulations that are in it. But he does bring you into a refuge. Just as this Samaritan brings this broken man, he puts him in an inn. And that, I want to, if you've not traveled before, can I tell you, an inn is much more comfortable than lying beside the road. That's a free comment there to you for traveling. Attempt to get an inn if you are traveling somewhere. Because sleeping on the side of the road, not that I've done it very often, it's not a very comfortable thing. So this guy is, thank you Samaritan for putting me in this place. And not only that, you cover the cost of it all. You have paid for every penny of it. You have covered every single one of my needs. So as we get to the conclusion here, here's what we're saying. Allow Jesus to minister to you in your time of need. Face the situation that you're in and open your heart to Him and say, God, I am wounded and I'm weary and I'm tired. Some of you in this room here tonight could even identify with the words you heard from Moses and Elijah and Jonah, just take my life. I'm so weary, I'm so wounded, so broken, so passed by by so many others who have not taken a moment to care for me. And Jesus is saying, even if they had stopped, they're not sufficient. The Levite and the priest didn't have what I have for you. Matter of fact, it was a good thing they did pass by you because they didn't have the bandages and they didn't have the oil and they probably didn't have the donkey to take you to the inn and they didn't have the money to come back and the time to come. So Jesus is saying, I have everything you need. And so we close with this. The parable starts by this conversation. The guy wants to know who's my neighbor and Jesus is, at least in one way, saying the Samaritan is your neighbor. And if you put the two and two together, Jesus is saying, then love the neighbor, love the Samaritan, love the one who can love you, love the one who can change your life, love the one who has the power to heal you, love him. I think the story of the good Samaritan is a love story. I don't think it's a social action story. I don't think it's a missionary story. I think at the core of it, it's a love story saying, Jesus saying, I love you in your wounds and in your brokenness and I love you in your moment of most vulnerability. And secondly, I love you so much. I have resources to provide everything you'll ever need to get you back up and on the way. And thirdly, I love you so much that I want to do all this so that you'll love me. And Jesus is saying, I want to be the neighbor. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus is saying, I want to be your neighbor. I want to be the one right next to you. I want to be the one when there's a tear in your eye to wipe it away. I want to be the one when you're confused to start speaking to you the questions because it comes to the point, as you heard this morning, there are times where there's just no man, no woman out there that can help you. And Jesus is saying, but I am a good neighbor. I am a good neighbor. I don't play my music too loud at night and I keep my front porch clean. He is a good neighbor. He loves you. And there are some here tonight that are in a season of brokenness and wounds and you have been hurt by others. And Jesus is saying, allow me to be a Samaritan to you tonight. Would you stand with me if you would, please? And I want to continue to paint this picture of this parable tonight, even if you would almost like continuing the parable here at the front of this church as what we call it here in this church, an altar call. And you can almost see this story coming to life in your own life when you're in this building and you're hurt and you're wounded and you're broken and you don't have the resources to provide for yourself the healing. And Jesus is in this building tonight to pick you up and to bring you. Maybe we could even picture the altar tonight as being somewhat of an inn. And I like that picture because sometimes we come to the altar and we think, okay, he's going to touch me and there's going to be electricity coming through my bones and all of a sudden I won't feel sad anymore. And then if you walk out the door and you still feel a little sad, you feel like it didn't work, does that ever happen? Sometimes that happens. I like this picture of the invitation to come and receive prayer as being a place of an inn where Jesus says, why don't you spend a few days with me? Why don't you let the healing take place? Why don't you let me cover the wounds and the bandage and pour out the oil and I'll come and I'll keep checking on you. And we'll see the progress. Don't you like that picture? I love it. And if you are here tonight and you've been hurt and wounded and you feel like you've been bypassed by a lot of people and you're just not getting the help in your life, that's what this invitation is for tonight. In the balcony, in the front, come down even now as I'm speaking and we're going to pray for a miracle here tonight that Jesus, the Samaritan, will pick you up, bring you to this inn and bring healing to you. Come now. We're going to pray for you to believe God to do a wonderful thing. I think there's some in the annex. You're welcome to come out the annex. The ushers will direct you and you come down to the front. If you need this prayer, come on ahead. You need this prayer, this miracle saying, Jesus, pick me up from my place of trouble. We're going to just sing a song now, minister to the Lord. Come from anywhere as you want and receive what Jesus, the Samaritan, the great Samaritan has for you tonight. I just want to pray for you now. If you feel comfortable doing so, just lift your hands to Jesus and just tell him, Jesus, I'm here tonight to be ministered to you. Father, we come before you and we thank you for your son, Christ Jesus, who died on the cross for us, rose again on the third day and now lives to ever make intercession for us. Lord, the intercession you do has power behind it. It has the power to lift us up. There are ministers in this place. There are people at this altar who have given their lives for others, who have been pouring out to others, who have been sharing their heart with others, who have been There are Sunday school teachers here. There are people who are ushers. There are leaders of different ministries. There are those who have been involved in missions and children's work, those who witness on the streets, those who live a powerful testimony of Christ on their jobs and are finding themselves at this place. Although having ministered often, now in a place of just needing ministry themselves, of needing the oil once again freshly poured upon them, we ask you, in simple faith, to do that tonight. Pour your oil on them. Would you say that with me? Jesus, pour the oil on me. Jesus, heal the woundedness of my heart. Take me to the end. Thank you, Jesus. Now, Father, I thank you just in that simple cry. You have more than heard us because you have gone just beyond even the words and deep down into the heart and in the places of the deepest part of our heart, you've heard our cry. And we thank you tonight, Jesus, that you have taken us to this place. You have picked us up and you're healing the wounds. And Lord, there are times, as we said, and it bears repeating, ministers, even strong Christians need ministry. And sometimes we don't want to put ourselves in that place because we like to see ourselves as strong enough to always give. But Lord, help us to be dependent on you and say, God, I'm not strong enough in myself and I need you now to come. Lord, I believe there are many that are not at this altar here tonight, but they're listening. Others might listen in the future to this message. And as they listen, Lord, there are many ministers who, and I'm not speaking just full-time clergy, people of God who serve you, who are weary and worn out and feel beaten up. And I ask you, God, just send your Holy Spirit, God, that refreshing oil down upon them, God, that they might be refreshed. Now, in the name of Jesus, we just claim, Lord, our victory in you. We believe that you don't preach a message like this without the accompanying power to accomplish it. So there are bandages going on. There is oil being poured out. There are people being picked up off the side of the street and put into a place where they can be healed and restored to be those who can, like Jesus, give away much that they have, much has been received and much can be given. Thank you now, Jesus. We give you praise for this in Jesus' precious name. Can you take a moment to thank him? Thank you, Jesus. Bless you, Jesus. Bless you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. He's your victor. He's your victor. There's an old book called Christus Victor. And it's one of my favorite books because it just talks about there is power and there's victory in Christ. Do you know that's where your victory lies? And some of us think our victory lies in something or someone outside of Christ. And Christ will send somebody to us at times. But the power is not in them. The power is in Christ through them. But tonight when God has invited, catch this, tonight when God has asked you if you want to do it, you can cut out the middleman, okay? And he's saying, come right to me if you want and I'll be your Samaritan. Isn't that good news? You feel that? You believe that? Amen. Thank you. Do you have anything?