In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of Peter in Acts 10, starting at verse 9. Peter goes up to pray and becomes hungry, but while waiting for food, he falls into a trance and sees a vision of a sheet descending from heaven. The sheet contains all kinds of animals, including those considered unclean by Jewish law. A voice tells Peter to kill and eat, but Peter refuses, stating that he has never eaten anything common or unclean. The voice then tells Peter that God has declared these animals clean, and this message is repeated three times. The preacher emphasizes the importance of not labeling people as common or unclean based on societal judgments, and instead, recognizing that God has cleansed and sanctified people from all nations and backgrounds.

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