In this sermon, the speaker expresses his disappointment with the current state of Christianity in America, noting the prevalence of ego, competition, and materialism. He criticizes the commercialization of the gospel and the focus on raising money for extravagant projects. The speaker warns of impending difficult times and emphasizes the importance of knowing and being in union with Jesus Christ. He concludes by stating that God's intention is for every believer to become a true expression of who Jesus is, so that the world can see Christ in them and be drawn to Him.

My message tonight, God's intention for this midnight hour, God's intention, oh King Jesus we love you, be exalted oh Lord, oh we adore your name, Jesus touch us with fire, touch us with yourself, we've sung be glorified now Lord do it, God burn the word into our hearts, my King Lord Jesus, be exalted tonight, we love you, amen. God's intention for this midnight hour, do you remember the hippies and the flower children, an entire generation of searching, restless, hungry young people, do you remember when they massed in Woodstock and in huge rock concerts all over America, and the pervading questions of the time were who am I, why am I here, what's the purpose at all, and when no one could answer them intelligently many of them dropped out, but you see they were asking questions that God's children should have been asking themselves, these were questions the Holy Spirit was trying to bring to us, but we were so busy, so occupied with ourselves, and with health and wealth, we didn't even hear what the Spirit was saying, so we had to take the question to the hippies and they dropped us because we weren't even in tune. I believe the Holy Spirit of God's been trying desperately for 20 years to get a message into the church. They heard because they were hungry, but now it's time for the church of Jesus Christ to listen to the Holy Spirit. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the church. Here are the questions the Spirit has to get through to you and me tonight. Why are you here? What is God's intention for you in this crisis hour? Do you really know what God expects of you in these last times? What is God's one great final purpose for our lives? What is His purpose? And how sad today that so few men and women of God can answer that question. There's only a remnant left today who understand God's purpose for His children in the last days. A majority of ministers today are sounding a trumpet that's making uncertain sounds. And the uncertainty in the pulpit has spread a cloud of uncertainty in the congregation. And multitudes of Christians who profess to be serving a mighty God still live in bondage and despair. There's absolute ruin in some churches today. Everywhere you look there is ruin and you know it. There's an emphasis on certain doctrinal issues by evangelists and teachers and it only adds to confusion. And many hungry people today are asking, who is right? Just what is God's purpose for today? What is the Lord's intention for me and for His church? Is it miracles? Is it casting out demons? Discipleship? Church growth? We hear so much that it's confusing. What is God's intention? What's His real purpose for the last hour? And I believe that God has had but one great intention for His people ever since the cross. It will not change. It has not changed. There has been but one purpose from the beginning. There will be but one purpose until Christ returns. God's intention has to do with understanding the mystery of the gospel that was first revealed to the Apostle Paul. And it's a mystery no longer according to the Apostle. Paul said, by revelation, God made known to me the mystery which in other ages was not made known under the sons of men as it is now revealed by the Spirit. He has come to make known to all men what is the fellowship of the mystery. Now the mystery revealed, and this is what you've got to understand. We've got to understand it before we go any further. The mystery that has been revealed through Paul and to the church of all ages. Christ's body is still here on earth. Christ's body is still here on earth. The head is in heaven which is Christ, but the rest of His body is right here on earth. We who love Jesus and serve Him represent His visible parts, that which men can see of Christ on earth. For we are members of His body, of the expression of His bones. And He is the head of the body, the church. Now God's full intention for this last hour can be summed up in one sentence. Listen to it. Since we are Christ's body on earth, God's intention is that every member become a true expression of who Jesus is. That you, that I, that everyone that calls themself by His name become a true holy expression of who Christ is on this earth. Now God intends that we express a complete full Christ so that any sinner on the face of the earth can look at you and can look at me and see Christ as surely as He were walking on the flesh on this earth, in the flesh. The world, the sinner has to be able to look at you and see the same fullness, the same intention of pleasing God as they saw in Christ as He walked in the flesh. Because we are His flesh and His bones. We are the visible body of Christ on earth. The mystery unfolded is that Christ's body is still visible here on earth, and it's you and it's me. We are to appropriate so much of Him, of His glory, His completeness, the world will see in us the hope, the answers to all their needs, and if you and I cannot live out Christ, we have no right to preach Him. If we are not a true expression of who He is, we have no right to talk of Him. It's not enough either to just know Christ. We've got to be a full expression of who He is. You have got to look at everything in your life. I've got to look at everything in my life, in this light. Does this represent, this what I'm doing, this what I am, does this represent who Christ is? Is this what I want the sinner to see and know of Him? Would Christ in His physical body walk into an X-rated theater? Would He linger around a pornography counter? Would Christ abuse His body in any way? Would He indulge in adultery and fornication or drinking? Would He cheat? Would He tell dirty stories? Would He lie? Would He live a lie and then attempt to preach the truth? Would He try to spread the light when there was a pocket of darkness in His own life? Would He tell others not to commit adultery and then in secret do it Himself? You see, we've got to keep before our eyes this one great intention of God that His body would always reflect who Christ is. Now, if you set your heart tonight on becoming a true expression to the world of who Jesus is, you're going to stir the very wrath of hell. You can build all the colleges you want. You can raise up orphanages and retreats and build churches all to God's glory, quote unquote. You can go out and evangelize and you can give your body to be burned at the stake, because you see, the devil will not trouble a miracle worker or a moralist, but Satan will not leave you alone once you set your heart on truly expressing the holiness and the righteousness of Jesus Christ to the world and showing the world by your life who He is. You see, when you discover God's intention and you begin to know who you are, His body, and when you get into the center of that purpose, when you know you're called to be as He was on the earth, you're going to be the direct target of everything in hell. Would you build an orphanage over in Africa? Would you go to the Amazon to preach the gospel? Would you go to the American slums and give your body to human need? Would you go to college campuses in Iran and preach for Christ and sell out to God? That's very commendable, that's fine, but it's not God's first intention for you in this last day. Because if you are not a true expression of who Jesus is, everything you do is human, it's works and it'll burn at the judgment. Because the Scripture said in the last days many will come saying, Lord, Lord, did we not cast out devils? Did we not heal the sick? Did we not do many things in your name? And you'll say, depart from me, you workman, I never knew you. And conversely, you never knew me. And when Peter stood before Christ and said, I don't know the man, he wasn't lying. He spent three years with him and never knew him. Who is the one who has vision? We talk about a man or woman having vision, a man of God who has vision. Is that the one who builds a great church, who has the big budget, who speaks to the largest TV crowds? No, the one with vision is the one who reflects the glory of Christ. Who's had a vision, eternal vision of who He is in Christ, sitting in heavenly places, and who is able to reflect the glory of Jesus. Because God will not sponsor anything that does not reflect Christ. Whatever is born out of relationship to Jesus is the only thing, the only thing that He sponsors is that which comes out of the mind of Christ. And I don't see much in America today that is a true expression of who Jesus is. There's so much of ego, bragging, competition, struggle for recognition. But so little of Jesus Christ. I switch on the television set and I watch the Christian gospel programming and my heart grows sick. The pitiful appeals for money, the spectacular expensive sets, the endless small talk. And I cry, and I say, oh God, is this the best expression to the world we can give of who Jesus is? Raising money for a choo-choo train. The time is not far off when things are going to start unraveling and coming apart. The daily news will become terribly frightening. The economy will yet go into complete disarray. You watch the end of this year and see what happens. The nations of this world are going to tremble with fear. We're about to enter the most ominous times in history and everything the scripture says it can be shaken is going to be shaken. And what's going to count then? When everything around you is crumbling, you're going to see men of God stand in the midst of their projects and weep and howl. Massive building programs are going to sit idle. Cobwebs and bats will fill the temples. And the monuments of self-achievement are going to haunt the people who built them. Those who chased after health and wealth and prosperity are going to be empty and desolate because they have no inner strength to face the horrors that are falling. They have no history with God. Those who took the things of God so lightly who never broke away from the world in its spirit, those who are unwilling to forsake the old world in their old ways, they're going to have nothing to see them through the final days. There's only going to be one thing that matters then. Do I know Jesus Christ intimately? Am I an expression of Him in this dark hour? Will I be one of the few who will witness to this crazy world that Christ is above it all? Will I be His shining light when it gets dark and cold? Now, if there's something in your heart that responds to this call to be an expression of Him, and you're yearning to be that expression, there are two things that you've got to understand tonight. One part is Christ and one part is yours and mine. I want to discuss them with you. First of all, this is His part. We cannot be an expression of Christ until we're convinced that everything is clear between God and us. You've got to once and for all understand what Christ did at the cross. And this generation lacks the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ and its victory. The entire charismatic movement in the upper room has overshadowed the cross. We've developed a Christless Pentecost without a theology of the cross and its victory. We don't even know that God's heart was satisfied by what Jesus did, by what He did. Because at the cross, Jesus Christ forever took away the thing that offended God's eye about me. He once and for all satisfied the heart of God, and if God is satisfied with me, I'm going to be satisfied. He took away that which was in the eye of God, giving us a right from that day on to be in His presence and to be accepted before God. There is not a single thing that stands between the child of God and the Father. Not one thing now that stands between. You don't dare go another step tonight until you fully understand the efficacy of the cross of Jesus Christ's blood, that you and I are fully pardoned. God does not have to be appeased. He's been fully appeased, if that's the word you want to use. He's been fully satisfied. The cross, get it? The cross has cleared us before the eyes of God. We are clear! You may forget that, but God doesn't. The veil was torn that allowed us entrance. It was God saying, you are now accepted. Come boldly to my throne. You are now mine and the Beloved. You are checkered in the Beloved. You and I can't even pay for our sins because we don't even know the extent of the offense. We didn't know what the offense was. We don't even know how we grieve God. How can you pay for an offense you don't even know the extent of? Jesus Christ knew the extent of the distance between us and the cross and God. And He closed the distance. He brought us to the heart of God. And you don't know anything about the heart of God until you look at the prodigal son. And you see it not as a story of a sinner coming back, but it's the story of the joy of the heart of God, of those who come to Him. Before He even comes, He's there rejoicing. He brings Him into the house and puts a ring on His finger and a robe on His back. And He accepts Him and He has a feast. That story is the rejoicing of the heart of God. It's a reflection of what is in the heart of God. The love for His children. The love for those that are under the blood of Jesus Christ. We have lacked the knowledge of the security that we have under the blood. This is one issue that's got to be settled once and for all. You cannot allow a cloud between you and the Father. But you say, David, my heart condemns me. I still sin. I've done things I believe have grieved the Holy Spirit. I'm unworthy. There are times the heavens seem brass. But the Bible said if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. All you have to do is repudiate your sin, to hate it, confess it. You've got to believe that in Him forgiveness of sins is preached. Do you preach that and then not believe it for yourself? That in Him forgiveness of sins is preached. Hallelujah. Here's where most Christians fail, especially young people. They live with unnecessary fear and bondage because they don't understand the glory and the victory of the cross. They are clear in God's eyes, but they don't know it. God is completely satisfied, totally satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And the way has been cleared into God's presence. There's nothing blocking access now except our fears and our lack of knowledge. And won't it be a shame that so many of us stand before God, and we had so much that was offered and we didn't enter in because of our lack of knowledge? We couldn't believe it was so glorious, it was so beautiful, that God said, I will not impute your sins against you, the forgiven, they're under the blood, and it was too good to believe. And we lived under constant fear and condemnation, getting saved and resaved and filled and refilled, and never understanding the glory of the cross, that God has been satisfied. Hallelujah. When the veil was rent in two, it was not just that God allowed us to come in, but God could go out. He goes out immediately to a sinner called Saul. The veil was rent not to just let us in, but to let the love of God flow, and he goes to Saul immediately and says, Saul, Saul, come home. Hallelujah. How incredible. We offend God, we create this distance between us and him, and yet he is so anxious to clear us in his own eyes, he sends his own son, provides his own sacrifice to clear the way back, he judges sin, the offense is removed, and now God says, their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. You can't face the world entirely in that glory, until you have that peace and the glory of sins forgiven, that God is not trying to impute sins to you now, he is trying to reconcile you to himself. He didn't have to be reconciled, he was never not reconciled to the world. He has always been reconciled to the world, but now he was out to have us reconciled to him. He himself removed the distance. Hallelujah. What is there in us that attracted the grace of Jesus Christ? Was there some marvelous grace in us? Was there some beauty or goodness or strength? Was there some kind of potential in us that attracted the grace of God through Christ? No. It's misery that attracts grace. It's need that attracts grace. You find that all through the New Testament, that our greatest attraction to God is that we are poor, helpless creatures in need. What attracted Jesus to the Syrophoenician woman? What attracted him to the blind and to the infirm and the widows and the fatherless? What they all had in common was helplessness. What is it that attracts the grace of God in me and in you tonight? It's our helpless condition exemplified by the palsied man. And they came unto Jesus bringing one sick of the palsy. And take a good look at that man because he represents the helplessness of this generation, the helplessness of you and me having not one iota of strength or power. This palsied man can't even bring himself to Christ. You look at him trembling and weak and helpless. He's a prisoner to his bed. That's you and me before we understand this concept of deliverance through the cross. Jesus stands before this helpless man that's let down through the roof to him. And he didn't even mention his physical condition. First the Lord was going to clear him before God's eyes. He would clear him before he heals him. When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. You have to be accepted before you're delivered. Accepted before you're healed. And you have to know that you're accepted before you step out. Lord, what a beautiful picture of the love of God in Jesus Christ. He's a helpless man. He's too overwhelmed by his infirmities to even whimper. He can't even muster a confession. He has nothing to offer Christ. He's too weak. You see, the Scripture said it's not of works, lest any man should boast, but we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. It's not something that you and I have done. It's something that he is doing. Hallelujah. We are his workmanship. The Pharisees with all their good works and their boasting never did attract the grace of God. It was J. B. Stoney who said, the more parade, the less death. The more parade. Look at the ministries in America today and judge it that way. The more show, the more parade, the less death. But see how the weakness of man attracts his sympathy and his grace. You show me a person, you show me a child of God struggling with some hated, besetting sin, someone who's crushed beneath a load of guilt and despair, hating the sin but feeling helpless and weak. Now I'll show you one who is the object of the abundant grace of Jesus Christ. Because where sin abounds, grace is much more bound. Are you struggling? Oh, you are an object of his grace. It's our helplessness, our need that attracts grace. Hallelujah. Satan will come against you in this struggle. He'll suggest to you that God is mad at you, that you have no right into God's presence. He'll throw Old Testament concepts at you that have no right to be even thought of under the blood. He'll say that wrath and judgment is at the door. And I want you to know those are lies. All lies. All you have to do is look up to the Lamb of God and in your utter helplessness you hear these comforting words, Son, Daughter, thy sins be forgiven thee. Hallelujah. Then you stand by faith on the finished work of the cross from that moment on. Let me show you something now. Through faith in Jesus Christ, your sins are under the blood. You live on the other side of the veil. You're succeeded with Christ in heavenly places. You're accepted into beloved. You are one with Christ and the Father. God's wrath against your sin has been satisfied. You've been given an inheritance. You are now more than a conqueror. You are now living and moving in the Spirit. There's a bloodline between you and Satan. Your accused has been cast down and put to open shame. You are filled with the fullness of Christ. You have a power in you to meet everything having to do with life and godliness. You are the apple of his eye and the hollow of his hands, purged from your iniquity, renewed in your mind. You are reconciled, justified, sanctified, made ready as a bride, translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. You are made an heir of all things in Christ Jesus. You are no longer under condemnation because there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Christ abides in you. He reveals himself to you. And no height, no depth, no principality, no power, not man, not angels, not things on earth, not things in heaven can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. You are feeding on Christ the man from heaven. You're living in Zion in God's presence. He is your friend. He's your priest. He's your advocate. He's your Lord. He's your guide. What more do you want? And do you believe those things are true? Do you believe he said it? Do you believe that God made these promises to we can help us creatures such as we? Do you believe this treasures in earthen vessels? Are you forgiven? Are you clear in the sight of God? Have you accepted your acceptance? Do you believe while you're sitting here right now that you're fully accepted in the sight of God and nothing stands between you and him and that you have an open heaven and you can pray for a spirit of revelation and knowledge in the things of Christ? Yes. You can become a true expression of who Jesus is only as you take your place at the right hand of the Father, truly accepted, all the hindrances removed, not by you, not by anything you can do, not by promises you make, not by what you feel, but what Christ has done. There's a four-letter word the church has never understood. It's called done, D-O-N-E. Do you know that you can love Jesus and still be miserable because you don't know you're accepted? The most miserable people I meet in America, those who truly love the Lord with all their heart, but they've never entered into their acceptance before Christ. They've never entered into the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ. I don't want to be just forgiven. I want to be free. Hallelujah. Secondly, and this is your part and mine, he's done his part. It's done. It's finished. We accepted in his sight. And oh, that's the blessedness that David was talking about of the man who knows that God is no longer imputing sins against him. Oh, hallelujah. Here's your part. To become a true expression of Christ, you must take up your bed and walk. That's our part. The palsied man was forgiven and cleared in God's eye, but he was still a prisoner. He was relieved of all of his sins, but he was still impotent. He knew Christ as relief, but he didn't know him as resource. Now, come on now. This is where the majority of the church of Jesus Christ is, and this is where the entire charismatic movement seems to be right now. They know Christ as relief. My sins are forgiven. They're under the blood, but they've never known his resource. They've never been able to take up the bed and walk. It's not enough to be a forgiven cripple or a relieved prisoner. There's something you've got to do. Jesus said, is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and take up thy bed and walk? But ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. I send to thee, the sick of the palsy, arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house. In other words, go home and practice it in your home first. Go to your house. That man gets up out of that bed, but he did not get up out of that bed in his own strength. Christ imparted a supernatural strength to him, because without Christ we can do nothing. We know it is the power of the Holy Spirit. And Christ was actually saying to this man, and he says it to you and me, I'm going to make you an example of my power over sin. You're going to become strongest where you were weakest. The thing that made you a prisoner, you will pick up and carry. You will overcome the very thing that held you down. You'll become strongest at your weakest point. A spiritual cripple who has a controversy at the center, who still has a cloud between him and God, who still lives with secret sin, cannot be a full expression of who Christ is. Now, every one of us in this room tonight knows what our weakness is. Please turn the tape over for the remaining part of this message. You know what the weakness is by the way God deals with you and by what convicts you. We know where we're most vulnerable, and Satan will come to you and suggest that one day that weakness will overcome you and cast you down and you'll lose everything. But that's not so. By his glorious power, God can make us strongest at our weakest point. That's what the Scripture means by his strength being made perfect in our weakness. The man that was told to steal no more was made strong in that weakest point because God said, I'm not going to make him not steal anymore. I'm going to give him a job so that he can become a giver. I'm going to take this taker and I'm going to make him a giver. He's going to become strongest at his weakest point. He once stole and now he's going to work and he's going to give. God will take you at your weakest point to show his glory to the whole world. He'll make you strongest at that point and that should be your desire and your faith in God's power to accomplish that in your life. You say, I want to be an expression of Christ, but there's something hindering you now. You know it. The Spirit's convicted you will be setting sin a weakness, an intricate controversy that's still unresolved. But that hindrance you know must go. The prison doors have been opened. You've been forgiven, but you can't stay in that bed. You can't go about as a cripple. You've been in that bed long enough. You've been palsied by sin long enough. What in the world will the Lord do to get us out of that dominion of sin? How does he get us out of bed? He said he will give us over to overcome. And we talk about this power being something mysterious, but it's really not. Now listen closely, please. Let me try to explain as I see it. You and I are grafted as a vine into Christ. Isn't that correct? As a branch into this vine who is Jesus Christ. The very same power that enabled him to fulfill the will of God on earth is the very same power that enables us. The very same Spirit that quickened him and raised him is not another Spirit that comes on us. It's the self, same Spirit. Couldn't you imagine the Holy Spirit going into that tomb and shaking, trembling that body and bringing life? That's the same Spirit that raises and quickens us. The same place that Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father is where you and I are seated. Scripture says, no man has seen God and lived. And Isaiah said, when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. But that's the night Isaiah died. The message is see God and die. And when you really see him, you'll die to this world. You'll become detached. And the more attached you become to Jesus Christ, the less attached you are to this world. You become detached to material things when you become totally attached to the throne. How do we get, how do we know our sins are forgiven? You stand here tonight and you say, we believe the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed him of all sins. How do you know that? It's by faith. You take that by faith. And when you take it by faith, there's a witness and you go your way with peace of mind. How do you know you have power? It is not by some outward expression. This is by faith and faith alone. You've got to believe that what God said is true, that when the Spirit of God came on you, he gave you power over all the forces of hell. Here's one preacher who will never ever accept the fact that a Christian can be possessed of a demon. How in the world can you live beyond the veil and a demon cross the veil? How can you be in the hall of his hand and a demon sit in the hall of his hand? How can you be seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and have a devil sitting behind you? How can the devil cross a bloodline? No! No! No! No! No! In a thousand years, no! No! No, no, no. Don't ever let that come to you. Oh, I reject that in the name of the Lord. There is no scripture for that in the Bible. There's no scripture. I have the anointing on this, the blood of Jesus Christ. Satan cometh, Jesus, that has nothing in me. Unless you can say that, look the world in the eye, never be afraid of the devil again in your life. And you're not to be focused on your sins anymore. You're to be focused on the right hand of the Father, where you're seated in Jesus Christ. Not focused on sins, but the cross and the victory won there. Hallelujah. This palsied man gets up and walks and carries his bed, and that's a type of the believer who's in mastery over his sin. And what an expression of Christ this man was. What hope he gave to all the sick and the affirmed and those who were burdened by sin. Didn't he give hope to everybody that saw that palsied man work, carry his bed, walk? Isn't that what God's after today? He's not seeking for anything else but overcomers. Now listen, I'm convinced that the Lord Jesus is looking for people who'll be such an expression of himself that they can show an evil generation how Christ completely delivers from the dominion of sin. That sinners could see Christians who live above the lust and pleasure of this world. They could see men who love their wives and they're faithful. Wives who don't cheat, but they're good mothers and keepers at home. Young people and students who practice purity and separation from everything that defiles. Let me tell you how I feel. We've had enough colleges named after famous evangelists. We've had enough fastest growing churches in the world. We've had enough busy Christians doing exploits. We've had enough gospel radio and television, because if radio and television were ever going to do it, we've had 50 years to do it. And with all that, the less people knowing Christ and serving in fullness than any other generation. We've had enough of crusades and concerts and outreaches. We've had enough about abortion and moralism. We've had more than enough of plans and projects and programs and seminars and books and records and tapes, magazines and newsletters. But we don't have enough Christians who truly express who the Lord is. There are very few that sinners can point to and say, there goes a Christian who really expresses to me who Jesus is. If I ever come to Christ, that's the kind I want to be. There goes one who has nothing to sell, nothing to promote, nothing to prove but Christ. Risen and glorified. There stands a man, there stands a woman who shines with the beauty and simplicity of Jesus Christ as Lord. There's one who has reality. There's something in him and her I can't deny. That's Christ. And shouldn't that be the call of your life and mine? If that's God's intention, shouldn't that be ours? That we would represent Christ in His fullness and completeness. And when I stand before the judgment seat of Christ, I'm going to be judged on one criterion alone. David, how did you express me to the world? What did your life say to the world about who Christ was? Did you show forth Christ through defilement and compromise and shamefulness? Could the sinner see an overcoming Christ in you? Or did you show them nothing of the fullness, the joy and the victory of Christ the Lord? You're going to be judged on how you've represented Him, what kind of an expression you've been of Jesus Christ the Lord. That's awesome. You're going to stand before the Lord and brag how many souls you've won? I got 200 souls last year. You're going to stand before Him, pastor, and tell Him that you built one of the biggest churches in America? You're going to tell Him how many stations you're on? And I'm not putting that down. You're going to tell Him what kind of crusade you started? What kind of moral victories you've won? How many people you've preached to? You see, God doesn't care so much about what you've done, but what you've become. That's the greatest thing the Lord's ever shown me. He's not interested in my winning all the world for Him, but winning all of me for Him. Has there ever been a day when there have been more works, more projects, more programs, and so few living in union with Christ as today? Before I close tonight, I want to list to you, for you, some of the things that have helped you become the full expression of Jesus Christ. I'm going to list about 11. Don't write them down, please, because I want your good ear and I want your... I'll write this way. I'm going to go too fast for you to write. First of all, listen close and give me your good ear now. Christ's shed blood washes you completely before the eyes of a holy God. Do you believe that? Christ's blood washes you completely before the eyes of a holy God. Number two, everything that could rise up against you and condemn you has been removed. Do you believe that? What's it been removed by? The sacrifice of Jesus. Third, God has never lost His satisfaction in what Christ did, and He's never going to lose His satisfaction in me because I'm in Him. Do you believe that? Do you think God can ever be dissatisfied with what Christ has done? Then how can He ever be dissatisfied with me because I'm in Him? Fourth, through His cross, Christ has removed everything that stood between me and Him, and nothing can ever separate me again. Nothing will ever separate us from the love of God. Do you believe that? Here it is. Number five, His divine power has given to you... He's given you His divine power more surely than He gave it to the man with the palsy. He gave His power. Christ's power was given to the man with the palsy. He's given that to you if by faith you would accept it. Six, God has seen your weakness, your helplessness, and He says to you, I'm going to snap it, I'm going to crush it, I'm going to overpower it, I'm going to do everything necessary to put away and make you superior to one thing that crippled you, the bed you laid in you're going to carry. And I've got what I call a cookie jar theology. What does the parent do when the little child keeps stealing the cookies and gets spanked and spanked, the little child still climbs up? What does the parent do? He puts the cookie jar out of reach. Simple as that. There comes a time, you say, I can't handle my sin more, and you love Him, your heart goes out to Him, the Lord says, I'm going to take it, I'm going to crush it, I'm going to put the cookie jar out of reach, I'm going to take that thing out of your life completely, I'm going to put it a million miles away, and I'm going to make you strong at this point, right here and now. Not that you'll still be struggling for the cookies, I'm going to move the cookie jar, when I move the cookie jar, I'm going to take the desire for cookies away from you. God's going to make us stronger at that point. Hallelujah. Well, you still here? Number seven, His strength is going to be applied where you are the weakest, you'll become strong at that point. Number eight, Christ's one great desire for you is that He Himself will shine through you, making you a beautiful expression to the whole world of who He is. God will not support anything that is not an expression of Him anymore. Number nine, we must live now totally dependent on Christ. Do you remember the good Samaritan? What did he do? He put the wounded man on his own beast, and that's the hardest thing God has to do, get us off our legs onto the beast. We like the old wine poured in, but we want to walk our own way to the end. Get it? He put him on his own beast. You're going to walk on his back. He's going to carry you. You're not going to walk on your own legs, and the most important thing God ever taught me, to get me on my own legs. Number ten, there's only one choice, you and I have, but not two. And that choice is communion above service. There was a time I got all my delight out of service. Now I get it out of communion. And the man who delights in service will work and work until he gets burned out, and God will create a crisis in his life or allow one to be created that information won't get him out of. He has to have revelation. God and His love. The young man who preached last night brought that out so clearly. He does it in so many lives. Sometimes after 20, 30 years, some of you are having it done to you right now. Do you remember what I said? There's only one choice, not two. There's only one. There's no alternative. It's communion. And communion is simply a common mind with the Lord, a common mind with the Lord, that you are seated in heavenly places, and it's there that you get the mind of Christ, and you come down to this world, and you ministers coming from a heavenly place. You come as a heavenly man or a heavenly woman, detached from this world, totally in the mind of Christ so that what you do God can support. The Bible said if Mary chose the better part, that would mean that there were two parts, better and best. No, the Bible says Mary had chosen the good part. There's only one. That's the good. That's the communion. No other way. There were no two. It doesn't say she chose the better part. She chose the good part, the only part. Communion. Number 11, and here's the most important. If we are His bride, and He's coming back soon, shouldn't the greatest object of our lives be affection? Are you in the bride? Is the bridegroom coming back? Then what should be our object? Power alone, or should it be love? Affection. Affection. If you love me, you'll obey me. I want to close with a personal word. I don't like to do this often, but I want to show you something about His presence. I'll tell you something. I started preaching when I was 14. And about three years ago, God shut me down. Really shut me down. And it's almost shameful that a man, after 25 years of preaching, has to say to you, you know, I really didn't know Him like I should. I hadn't seen Him, the right hand of the Father. I wasn't holding the head as I should. I didn't know I was the body, part of the body. I didn't know the responsibility I had to be an expression of Christ. I thought if I just stayed busy and worked for Him, witnessed, that was it. The service comes out of communion. The service comes out of knowing Him. That way there's no sweat. Because in the Holy of Holies, the priest couldn't wear anything that caused sweat. And the Lord will not allow sweat in His presence. And God had to shut me down to wipe all the sweat off my brow. And about a year ago, I started having the Holy Spirit lift me out of myself into the heavenlies. On one occasion, for five hours, a little prayer house, just shut in with God. He took me out in the Spirit in a stream of worship. And I was racing through the universe, past the cosmos and the stars, and I turned to see the earth and it was just a speck in space. And I could feel the emptiness and the coldness because I was racing toward the judgment seat. And the Bible said on the judgment day there'll be no place to stand. And I had no place to stand. And that's going to be the most awesome thing that you have no ground to stand on except what you know of Him and the intimacy you have with Him. You'd better know Him when you go. When that door opens, you're not to be afraid of the judgment seat of Christ. That's the moment of glory when He puts His arms around you. Over a lifetime, I've heard preachers so condemn me about the judgment seat of Christ. Oh, no, no, when you're under the blood and intimate with Him, shouldn't that be the time if you know Him that you walk in and He puts His arms around you saying, well done, good and faithful servant. The only works that are going to burn, we're all going to have some works that burn. And that was trying to be righteous through our own works. That's all He's talking about. But that's a time of rejoicing. When I was racing past the stars and the earth was just a speck in space, and I thought, oh God, everything that I hold dear is on that speck and soon it's going to vanish. It's just a speck in space. All my ministry, all that I've done over the years, my family, everything I've held dear, every material thing that's there, and suddenly it was vanishing. It was all going to be gone. And I'm going to be standing before Jesus. And you'd better know Him. You'd better be in union with Him because there's nothing left. Nothing. My heart began to rejoice. And I began to scream, Oh God, I have nothing. I've done nothing. Oh, thank God I know You. Oh, if I hadn't known Him, there would have been an emptiness in my heart. And suddenly I was detached, split free from the world, and in His presence. And then a few months ago, I was in Dallas preaching. I'd just finished, and I'd just raised my hands, and there was a beautiful spirit of worship. And I remember just saying, Glory, honor, and praise. Glory, and honor, and praise. Glory, and honor, and praise. And suddenly I was caught in a stream. Because you see, praise is an eternal stream. And when you worship and pray in the Spirit, you're caught in the same stream. You're in that stream of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Peter and Paul and the apostles and the early church on the day of Pentecost. It's one endless stream. It's one circle of praise. And you're caught up in that circle. You're one. There's only one hallelujah. Last through eternity. You're caught in that one great hallelujah of praise. And I was swept away in the stream and I felt my body just leaving the earth. And I felt myself going closer and closer and suddenly I saw a light break through and I passed out. I just went out. I don't know how long I was out. Maybe 20 minutes or so. I was in the presence of Jesus Christ. Most awesome thing I've ever experienced in my life. You know, I've heard people say, will we know each other in heaven? That's a mute question. It doesn't mean a thing because you won't want to know anybody else. You won't want to see streets of gold. You won't want to see mansions. You won't even want to talk to Peter or Paul because in His presence is fullness, joy, and pleasures forevermore. And Christ was so all-encompassing. He was so glorious. He so filled the heart with ecstasy. I didn't want to see family. I wasn't thinking of wife or unsaved loved ones. My father who passed on, Christ was everything. He filled my mind. And you know, when you get to heaven, it's not an even, static kind of ecstasy. It's an ever-expanded consciousness because when I got there into His presence, I didn't see His face but the light. I became luminous. His light went right through me. His light went through me. I became one with that light. I was in the very presence of the light of the universe. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. No fear. And the glory and the ecstasy got higher and higher and higher. And do you understand that all through eternity it's not static, it's not level, but the glory of Christ and the revelation of who He is is ever-expanding? He's going to expand our consciousness and all through eternity we're going to learn more and more of His glory and His grace and we're going to get more glory as the eons go by. Hallelujah! The ecstasy and the glory of being in His presence. Nothing else mattered. Christ was all in it all! And if you see that, you're in heaven long before you go there. And if you don't have heaven in you now, you can forget it. The saints used to call a little glory to go to glory in. I'm in heaven now. I'm in heavenly place in Christ Jesus by faith. I'm seated at the right hand of the Father. Hallelujah! And the words I administer you now, they're a life. They're a life because they're His words from Christ Himself because He said He is all glory. He is all honor. He is all praise. And when you are there, nothing else matters. Shouldn't that be the way it is now? Shouldn't He be all supreme? Shouldn't He be the center of our attraction? Shouldn't our hearts be going out to Him? Come! Shouldn't we hear the cry of the bride? Come! Come! Come! The bride and the Spirit say, Come! Shouldn't our hearts be going out to Him? Shouldn't we be like Peter jumping out of the boat wanting to be with Him? Shouldn't we be like Mary whose heart couldn't be consoled until she had her heart satisfied that He was alive? If you really love Him, your heart's not going to be satisfied until you know Him in His fullness. Hallelujah! You know, I've got to say this before I close. If you're His bride, Christ has to be able to say to you, There's my friend. There's my friend. That's my bride. There's my affection. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. The Scripture says, He's the husband. We're the bride. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her. I'm going to ask you that. Does He safely trust in you? Can He safely trust you that you're an expression of who He is now in your ministry and what you're doing? Or is the flesh still in control? I don't know where He's taken me yet, but I don't want anything to do anymore with the secular, ecclesiastical world. I don't want anything to do with it anymore. I want to see the new man risen. I want to be in that man. God only sees one man. The church is one man, and that's Christ. And we in Him. And I'm hungry. And I told the Lord recently, if you think Jacob wrestled, you haven't seen anything yet. And the one thing we're not giving Him is time. How sad to preach in some of the biggest churches in America and have a pastor tell you he hasn't prayed in one year. To see men building buildings and body counts and ego tripping, and it sounds like we don't even know Him anymore. We don't know Him. And we're so blind. So blind. My people have ears, but they don't hear. They have eyes, but they don't see in their hearts. You know, there were some things that Jesus said even to the disciples, there's some things I'd like to show you, but you can't accept it. You can't understand. You can't comprehend. And I think it would be a shame that we'd stand before God and He'd say there's some things I wanted to show you, but you weren't ready. I don't want that. I don't even want power. I want His love. And I want Him. If I never see Him do another thing, if He never answers another prayer, I don't care. I know He does the miraculous, and I believe we need that. Oh, yes, I do. And I believe He'll answer prayer, but that's not why I love Him. I love Him because I've seen Him, and I've tasted of Him. I just buried my business manager, 33 years old, cancer of the liver. And the last two weeks before he died, I was with him every day, and all we did was talk about the glory when Christ was revealing Himself, and that young man at 33 saw more of Jesus than any evangelist I know in America. And he had preachers come on in and say, where's your faith? You know, where's the sin in your life and all that garbage? And he said to me, David, if God heals me now, I'll be disappointed because I've touched the glory and I want to go to it. And when you've seen the glory, the world doesn't hold attraction anymore. And if you don't have what Paul right now had, a desire to be with Him rather than be here, your number one desire should be with Him. You know, there's an old cliche. So heavenly, you know earthly good. Well, there's no such thing. The man who said that was backslidden. There's no such thing as being so heavenly, you know earthly good. There is such a thing as being so earthly, you know heavenly good. No, no, no. I wonder tonight how many of you have hunger. You sit here tonight. Do you feel what I feel? Lord, I've known You all these years, but I really haven't known You like I want to. Lord, I've been right on the edge, but I know there's more. I'm not satisfied. Lord, the world can go this way, but I'm going to Your heart. Let them have the buildings. Let them have the projects. I'm going to You. I want Your heart. I want a revelation. I want to know You. Hallelujah. Does your heart burn? Before I'm finished, I'm going to ask you to do one thing. The Holy Spirit, lay this on my heart. I want everybody that is under the blood of Christ to enter into the joy of acceptance, to fully accept your acceptance before Him, to come into the blessedness of sins forgiven, that you not focus on your sins now, but on the heavenly man in Christ Jesus. I want you to enter into that now. Some of you lack the victory of that. You haven't been an expression of the acceptance and the glory of the cross. God wants that tonight. God wants you to enter into the glory of your acceptance, that you're totally accepted in the Beloved. It's in Christ. There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge beneath that flow, lose all their guilt and stain. The guilt and the stain is gone. We're in a heavenly place in Christ Jesus. The fountain's filled with blood. Accept your forgiveness. Enter into the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is your strength. If you really believe that you have no guilt and stain and that you're clear before God right now, you would rejoice like you've never rejoiced. There'd be a joy in your heart. I'm under the blood. I'm accepted in the Beloved. Hallelujah. Lord, I'm accepted by You, cleansed by Your blood. Hallelujah. Nothing between my Lord and my Savior. Under the blood of Jesus. Under the blood. Accepted in the Beloved. Rejoicing in His Beloved. Rejoicing, rejoicing. Rejoicing in You, Lord. Rejoicing in You, Lord. Hallelujah. For I have not given You the spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind. I have come not to condemn the world, but the world through Me might be saved. Have I not promised to pour on You the oil of gladness and the joy of forgiveness? Stand on the glory of His name. Stand on His finished work. No devil, no power on heaven or earth can separate You from His love. Know, my heart, saith the Lord, know, my heart, that You are beloved in Him. You are accepted in Him. So rise to that joy. Rise to that faith in Him. Be not condemned, but rejoice in His love. Rejoice in His love. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.