In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of daily prayer and Bible reading. He warns the congregation about the impending hard times and chaos that will come to the city. The preacher urges the listeners to prioritize their spiritual growth and not neglect the Word of God. He emphasizes the need for a tender and loving heart that is open to receiving God's reproof and correction.

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 WORLDCHALLENGE P.O. BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. God, give me a heart of tenderness and of love that the word go forth, not in wrath, but in love. And I pray, Lord, that you change our hearts. Work a miracle in us today, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. What I'm about to say may shock some of you, but I believe it's the truth. I believe that the hardest hearts are not out there on the streets, but right here in the house of God. I'm going to say it again. The hardest hearts are not out in the street. The hardest hearts are not among the ungodly. The hardest hearts in the world happen in the house of God. When you think of hard-hearted people who you think about, you think about the gay march, 500,000 gays marching up Fifth Avenue last week with the big sign, Jesus is gay. And you say, surely those are the hard hearts. Those are hard and impossible to reach them. You think of hard hearts, you think of communism. You think of all of those communist nations, especially Cuba, just at our doorstep off the Florida coast. When communism came in, not only Cuba, but to Russia and other nations, they shut the churches, they began to persecute Christians, the churches became training centers for communism, and they boasted, we've done away with God, we've done away with religion, period. And we say, those communist leaders, those are hard hearts. Castro is a hard-hearted man. We think of the atheists then like Madeleine Mary O'Hara, who was instrumental in getting prayer out of our schools here in the United States. She was one of the most notorious atheists in the history of America. She's vanished, by the way, she's disappeared, along with about $2 million. But her son, who was raised in that, has been marvelously delivered and is in the ministry today. But when we think of hard hearts, we think, yes, Madeleine Mary O'Hara, the atheist, the communist, the hard-hearted militant gays, these are the hard hearts. I could go on and on describing all types of Christ rejecters and scoffers and mockers and blasphemers and God-haters, and yes, truly you could say among them are those who are hard-hearted. But if you want to discover the real hard heart that God most despises, the hardest heart that God cannot endure, it's that which is in the house of God, His own house among His own people. According to God's Word, the hardness of heart that is most despised by God has to do with hearing and rejecting the Word of God. He that being often reproved and hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. And the Hebrew word here is mapal, means without a possibility of a cure, without possibility of deliverance. Let me say it to you again. He that is often reproved, this has to be under the sound of the Gospel. He that is reproved by the Word of God, he that is reproved by corrective preaching by the Holy Ghost and hardens under that preaching, hardens under that message, does not obey it, does not work it through their body and their mind and their spirit, does not practice what is preached, and hardens under that shall be cut off without a cure, without a possibility of ever being cured. Now this is very serious, and I take this message so seriously this morning, I've prayed diligently, the Lord helped me minister it in love. Here's described a kind of hardness of heart that at some point becomes absolutely impossible to cure, and we've got to take it seriously because it's in the house of God. Now, think about the Communists, for example. That's an incurable kind of hardness because the moment the Iron Curtain fell, the Gospel went into Russia, thousands of Red Army troops accepted Christ immediately, school teachers, those who were supposed to have been atheists, top generals began to ask for Bibles and began to preach to their troops, top Communists, those that were in their secret police, have given their heart to the Lord and the Gospel spread. We see people going into China or Russia right now from our own church this morning. You see, that hardness was curable because they hadn't had the light, they were not hardened by the Gospel, they didn't sit under Gospel reproof. Same with the atheists. O'Hara's son was raised in an atheist home, trained as an atheist, but he had never heard the Gospel. When he heard it, he responded, his hardness was curable. And so it is with the gay marchers. We have many gays, now militant gays, that would curse Christ and stick their fist in His face when they heard the Gospel come under the reproof of the Holy Ghost melted. I remember being in Poland, even when the Communists were in control a number of years ago, it was the first time the Communists allowed us in Poland to have open meetings. Thousands of young people gathered, and I was told this was an atheist country, that the young people were hardened by Communism, they had no time for God. And yet I would preach a simple message, and some nights as many as a thousand teenagers would run to the altar, weeping and broken before God. Their hardness was curable because they had not sat under reproof, they had not hardened themselves by hearing so much of the Gospel. It was a curable hardness. Beloved, I've always believed that the hardest hearts are in the house of God, and not only in the house of God, but the hardest hearts in those churches were the most powerful Gospel, the purest Gospels being preached. Now, you've got to hear me this morning, because there are some of you, then the sound of my voice, you're starting down the path toward a hard heart. If I were to point my finger at you, now they're here, they're among us now, some of you have already hardened your heart, and others are in the process, you're on that downward spiral toward a hard heart. You've got to hear me in the Spirit. I know if I came here and said, and I knew it in my heart, and I saw something in your life, and I pointed to you and said, brother, sister, you're going to develop, you're heading down a road toward a hard heart. You would say, oh, no, no, brother, I love the Lord with all my heart, I can't accept that. But I want to, the Holy Ghost open this to you now, in just a few moments. Some of the hardest, incurable hearts in New York City attend Times Square Church, and honestly are sitting here, I say it kindly, are sitting here among us right now. They don't even know it, they would not believe it. Some of you have just begun to harden, you've taken the first step toward hardness. A hard heart is one that becomes set in its ways, getting harder to move, harder to stir, until finally be able to indulge in secret sin, and have a message. I honestly believe that God many times prepares messages, and He sends servants to a pulpit like this, and He ministers directly to one person, two persons, five or six. It will be for everybody, of course, a general message, but specifically, there'll be a sin name, God will come and bear down on it, because He's reaching for that black stone that's in the heart, He's trying to pluck out that sin that's hidden, that secret besetting sin. And finally, there can come a hardness that doesn't matter who preaches, doesn't matter how powerful, how anointed, it doesn't move, it doesn't stir, it doesn't change, and still be able to praise God, raise your hands and be one of us, and just love the preaching, and absolutely ignore it. You can get hard attending every single service in this church, hearing every message, you can get hard taking tapes home, and hearing it the second time, and only doubling your race toward hardness. You can get so hard that if Christ Himself came in human flesh and preached in this pulpit, you could not hear it. Now you say, Brother Dave, you're scaring me. I don't want to scare anybody, but there has to be an understanding, a spiritual understanding that anybody who sits under godly reproof in a Holy Ghost church, and folks, from this pulpit has gone message after message, not only myself, Pastor Carter, and all of those that God has sent, folks, there have come messages from this pulpit that were so gentle, it was like rain, just gentle rain falling, and yet it was reproof. There has been reproof come from this pulpit that sounded like rolling thunder till it shook us. I've stood in this pulpit at times and preached under an anointing that trembled and my knees would shake. Yes, I would get loud sometimes and raise my voice, but I would go home sometimes losing three to five pounds preaching one message, broken, over the body of Jesus Christ and pouring my heart out and knowing that many of them were going to get hard under because they heard it and did not receive it. Oh, beloved, this has not been a dead church. Better to go the deadest church on the face of the earth. If you're going to get hard, if you're going to backslide, if you're not going to heed the Word of God, go find the deadest church you can find so you won't be as judged severely as you would sitting in a Holy Ghost church where the Word of the Lord comes forth in power and unction and purity. When that Word comes forth and we do not allow it, when we become only hearers and not doers of the Word of God, we harden our hearts. Let me hold you to the plumb line, to the measure of the Word of God. Let's see whether or not you've taken the first step toward hardness. Now hear me. I'm not going to yell at you. Hopefully. I'm not going to shout. I've got to get this through to this body because one day I stand before the judgment seat and I have to answer. Believe me, I have to answer for what I preach to myself. Lest having preached to others, I myself become a castaway. I have to answer lest I rail on you and put a heavy burden on you and not lift a finger myself to do it. And I realize that. But this is so serious that some of us sitting here who consider yourself some of the most spiritual and some of the most loving, caring, dedicated, gentle, God-fearing, may be already taking the first few steps toward a hard heart. I'm going to lay the plumb line and measure you now. For example, how many times have you heard from this pulpit about the danger of neglecting daily prayer and Bible reading? I have stood in this pulpit at times with such tears. I have begged and pleaded because I have been prophesying about the hard times that are coming. We're going to have over 1,000 fires burning in this city. This city is going to turn into chaos. Few want to believe it because Walt Disney's moved in now and everything seems so fine. The crime rate is down. Folks, it's just the calm before the storm. And I've been telling you, you cannot make it in what is coming unless you daily are shut in with God, unless this is becoming the meat. You can watch television, can you, for an hour, and yet you can't open this for five minutes. You can read magazines, you can read newspapers, and you can't daily get into this book. You ignore it. You can do good deeds. You can go here, you can go there and bless people and give your heart. You say, I'm working my fingers to the bone for Jesus. Have you been in your secret closet on your face before God? Have you been into this word, getting life and preparing your heart and building yourself up for what is coming? That is the word of the Lord. That is the commandment of the Lord. It's not an option. It's something that God says, you can't make it without it. And you hear it and hear it. Are you doing it? If you are not doing it, you are taking the first step toward hardness of heart. Because if you can't hear that, the simplest message that is designed to heal you, help you, and sustain you in the times coming, if you won't hear the least, what will you hear? You won't hear anything. Because if you can't accept the baby steps, how are you going to cope when the Jordan overflows? If you can't take a baby step into the water, what do you do when the flood comes? So I'm telling you honestly, that if you're neglecting your life for prayer, you don't have time for God. You have time for everything else, but you don't have time for God. You are not into this book. You're headed toward a hard heart. Listen. Put the plumb line out again. How many times have you been warned of the awful consequences of hearing or telling gossip? How many scriptures have you heard? How many powerful warnings as though the Holy Ghost Himself were taking over the voice and just speaking warning scripture after scripture of how God, the curse of God comes on those who gossip, hear it or tell it? How many times have you been warned? We had men come from South Africa from a revival in Zululand and stood here and the Spirit of God came on them. They warned this body about gossip. You say, are you aware of some gossip? No, I'm not aware of any gossip. Nobody's come to me. Nobody told me anything. As far as I know, I hope everybody's clean of that, but I'm putting the measuring line, the plumb line. You've been warned and warned and warned. You can't pick up this Bible. You can't read the book of Proverbs without having the fear of God in you if you're a real man or woman of God. How can anybody gossip and then read, you sit and talk against your own brother? You talk against your own sister and God says, I will judge you. I will cut you off. I will destroy you. And how do you hear that? This past week, did you hear or tell something against your brother? Did you hear or tell something against the pastors? And what do you do? You just say, well, I just want information. I'd like to know. No, it's not a matter of knowing. It's because there's something in your heart. Folks, I'm standing. I feel like I'm standing in the brink of hell and people rushing toward it. I'm out there with my hands up this morning. Say, wait a minute. Back up. I'm trying to keep you from a hard heart. Do you still gossip in light of all the preaching, the teaching, the word? Do you still indulge in that? God help us. That is a race toward hardness of heart. Let's put out the plumb line a little deeper. What about the many warnings about hidden secret sin? I doubt there's a church in America that has taken a stronger stand against sin than this church from this pulpit. We have named sin. We've named it by its name. We've talked about homosexuality, lesbianism. We've talked about adultery, fornication. We've talked about all of these drugs and alcohol and all of those. But I'm talking about not only that, the secret sin of pride and indulgence of the flesh and all of the foolishness that the enemy would bring against us. What about that besetting thing, the thing that God's been dealing with in our hearts? And do you finally just say, well, I can't help it. Folks, we have not only preached against sin, we have preached powerfully about resurrection power. We've talked about how the Holy Ghost has been given to endure us with power. We've talked about the new covenant that God has given us where He will take your responsibility of putting a will in your heart to do right. He will take all the responsibility if you just want it. If you just hate your sin. If you just say, I'm sick of it. And we have stood in this pulpit. We've talked about justification, sanctification, mortification. I've looked over my notes. I've preached the full gospel. Every associate pastor and we have preached the full gospel. And yet, I hear of a young man who's got a girl pregnant, is active in the church. We still have people been sitting here for five years, still committing adultery, drinking, smoking. We've got some that work in this church occasionally. I've overheard them cursing. God's name. Taking Christ's name in vain. After hearing me preach for five years. That's a hard heart. That's a hard heart. Who dares sit under the reproof of God time and time again and not let it convict anymore? Do you know it's possible to love to hear preaching? Approve it? Congratulate the pastor? Evangelist? And grow incurably hard, even though loving to hear it. The scripture says they came to the powerful preaching of the prophet Ezekiel. The children of the people speak, saying, Come and hear what is the word of the Lord that cometh forth from the Lord. From Ezekiel. And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before you as thy people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they will show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo! Thou art unto them as a very lovely song. You know, like a popular singer putting on a performance. One that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument. For they hear your words, but they'll not do them. I've had men hug me and say, What a powerful word this morning, pastor. And I walk away, and the Holy Ghost said he didn't hear a word. I've had them say, Pastor, you are one powerful preacher. Then I hear next week, He did everything but kill his wife. Slapped her around. Hebrews 3, 7 and 8, Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. And all through Hebrews, If you hear his voice, don't harden. You see, the hardness has to do with hearing the voice. He equates hardness as a result of not hearing what you hear, even in your heart. My granddad had a philosophy. Make a matter glad, but nothing in between. You know what he meant? Rather to somebody get mad at you, and hear it, and obey it, than to be all glad about it, and not obey the word of the Lord. Now, I knew it was going to get very quiet this morning, but I didn't think it would get this quiet. Now, listen to me, please. I think of people who attend church regularly, good people, even workers in this church, kind-hearted, sacrificial, so gentle. But I've pondered the question. All this week, I've been pondering this question. God, how is it? How is it that people can hear, and hear, and hear, and not be changed, and not be affected by it, until finally, they just come to the house of God, and worship, and praise, and be a part of the body, and not be changed. Still indulging in their sins, and still gossiping, and still doing these things that God wants out. They're really not growing. Their lives are not being changed. The Lord showed me that it goes all the way back to the conversion. The Bible speaks of two kinds of conversion. There is a conversion that leads to healing, and there's a conversion that leads to hardness. You can be converted unto hardness, or you can be converted unto Christ, and for healing, and deliverance of all your sins, and everything that there is. In Isaiah, the sixth chapter, the Lord sends Isaiah to a people who were calling evil good, and good evil. See, they didn't want to give up a particular sin. There was something that had taken their heart, possessed it. If you've got something that's possessed you, and you don't want to let it go, you're not going to be able to hear the word of the Lord. And to these people, Isaiah was sent by God Himself, and He said, Go now, Isaiah, and turn this people here indeed. Tell this people, Hear indeed, but don't understand. See indeed, but perceive not. Make their hearts of this people fat, which means hard. Make their hearts hard, because they've already determined they will not listen. He said, God knows nothing. I say nothing. I do nothing. And the work of the Holy Spirit will never change them. So go now, and hurry their hardness, because perhaps there would be somewhere along the line that they would hear. Lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand, and convert, and be healed. That's the conversion toward healing. That means, Lord, I give everything to you. I hold nothing back. Children of God then had no willingness to lay down their besetting sins. Now, I thank God. I thank God for all those who've been truly saved. Thank God for those who came to the altar and said, Lord, I'm just not voting for Jesus. I'm giving my heart. I'm giving everything. I hold nothing back, Lord. I want to walk a clean life. I want clean hands and a pure heart. But there's another kind of conversion. If you're in the army, they call it foxhole religion. Foxhole conversion. Because about to go into a battle and face the bullets, and you find this particular kind in the 10th chapter of Exodus. Would you go with me, please, in your Bible to Exodus 10, very quickly, please. Exodus 10. Now, in Exodus 10, look at me, please. I'm going to talk about the kind of conversion toward hardness. This is exemplified in the life of Pharaoh. Pharaoh has already had seven reproofs from the Holy Ghost. Seven times Moses, the man of God, he's heard seven messages on reproof. He's saying, let my people go. And now here in the 10th chapter, the 10th chapter of Exodus, verse 2, or verse 3, and Moses and Aaron came in under Pharaoh. Now, this is the eighth time. And said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long will thou refuse to humble thyself before me? Let my people go that they may serve me. Now, look at me, please. The Bible says, And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Look at me, please. You say, well, then what chance did he have for the Lord to harden his heart? This was not a divine decree. That doesn't mean he was destined to hardness. Because if you go to verse 15, verse 15, a chapter, let's see, let me find it here. Chapter 8, verse 15. Chapter 8, verse 15. And when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, what does it say? He hardened his heart. Harken not unto them as the Lord had said. Now, look at me, please. Every time he's in trouble, he would say, just get me out of this. And when he got out of it, he went right back to it. Went back to his sin. Right back to his hardness. Just get me out of this mess. That's all he wanted. Now, look at me, please. Now comes the eighth plague. And that kind of plague that Egypt hated most, a plague of locust. Locust. Locust came and would invade the land. Moses said, he's going to invade your houses. Your houses will be full of locust. These locusts did come. They came in swarms and east wind blew them in. They began to devour every green thing. They debarked all the trees. There wasn't even a baby plant left. There wasn't a blade of grass left in Egypt. And folks, it got into their homes. And you could imagine, they didn't have windows. They had doors but no windows, just latticework. And into the latticework would come these. Can you imagine your floor? You wives, afraid of little dust. Can you imagine the floor crawling with locust? It's in your kneading cloth for the bread. It's in the milk. It's in your clothes. It's in the bed. It's in everything. Locust. And they even ate leather. They would eat cloth. They would eat everything. Devour. You hear the twirling of their wings and the chewing and the chomping. And what an awful judgment this was. The locust who came to ruin and destroy. This is the end of side one. Talks about an army. And folks, there's a song about the army of the Lord. A lot of people have gone into Joel 2 and said that's the army of the Lord. It's not the army of the Lord. That invading army that didn't break rank was executing the judgment of God. They were locust. They were palmer worms that came to do the judgment of God. The Bible says, the Lord shall utter His voice before His army. And then He describes in verse 11 what that army is. The locust. The canker worm. The palmer worm. The caterpillar. My great army which I sent among you that executeth My word. Execution. That is not a good army. So when you talk about Joel 2 being God's glorious army, you are totally mistaken. Those are the locust coming to ruin and destroy. Now listen to me please. Many of you have had the locust come. God does that to bring about His divine order. To perform His divine will. Sometimes the Lord will allow the locust to come. He will allow the locust to devour. Some of us, some of the guys from Timothy House and the girls from Sarah House and the drug programs and those. If you go down to our Isaiah House like yesterday, the dining room filled with street people. They've lost their families. They've lost their children. They've lost their jobs. They've lost their health. They've lost everything. The locust have eaten everything. How did you come to the Lord? Was it after the locust had eaten everything? When you were debilitated in health and you lost everything and you were down and out. That's wonderful because the Bible said when you come to its end, the Lord is there. He's there faithful. Many of you came to the Lord that way but you meant it with all of your heart. You said, Oh God, I see what sin has done. I've paid the wages of sin but I repent. I give you everything. And my Bible says then the Lord will restore everything the palmer worm has eaten. Everything the locust has eaten He will restore. In Nehemiah 9, 16, 17 it says, Our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and they listened not to thy commandments and refused to obey. Neither were they mindful of thy wonders but they hardened their necks. But verse 12, chapter 10, The Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand over the land of Egypt for the locust that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land even all that the hail hath left. Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night. And when it was morning the east wind brought the locust. The locust went up over the land of Egypt and rested in all the coast of Egypt. Very grievous were they before them. There was no such locust as they neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth so that the land was darkened. They did eat every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. There remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all the land of Egypt. Now listen to this. And Pharaoh Here is the conversion toward hardness. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste and said, I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Look at me please. That word, then. Then. Then Pharaoh called. Then Pharaoh repented. When? After the locust had done their work. After the locust had eaten everything. Then he calls on the name of the Lord. This sounds like a full confession. I've sinned against your God. I've sinned against you, Moses. It sounds wonderful. But here's the kind of repentance it is. I'm in trouble. I'm in a mess. I brought a mess down on my head. I'm in real trouble. Yeah, yeah, I've sinned. But hurry. Now listen to this. And he said, I've sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now, therefore, forgive me. I pray thee my sin only this once and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only. In other words, Yeah, I did wrong. I've sinned. I'm sorry. I've sinned against God. I've sinned against you. Now, hurry, pray. Get me out of here. I'm in trouble. I have to have relief. And there are, listen, if you come to Jesus that way only because you want off drugs, you want to break a habit, you see trouble. If I come to Jesus, maybe I'll prosper. I come to Jesus and maybe things will turn out. I'm in such trouble. I'm in a mess. Now, if you turn to him with all your heart, he will work miracles for you. He will do the impossible. But if you come to him just this way, and that's why some people are hardening their hearts can sit in Times Square Church because back when they got saved, they can tell you, ten years ago I got saved, five years ago, twenty years ago I knelt at an altar. Yes, they knelt at an altar to get themselves out of some kind of a crisis. They came to Jesus to get something. They have not grown an inch. They have not changed. And there is a danger in that of getting hard. How did you get saved? Think back. When you got saved, was it just to get out of, maybe to hold a marriage together? How many husbands come to Christ just so the wife won't leave him? And vice versa. How many parents come and plead, and the only time they pray, the only time they seek God when one of the kids is in the hospital dying. Lord, get me out the locust of eating everything. God, get me out of this. This man didn't mean it because as soon as the locust were done the next day, he hardened his heart again. It was a phony repentance. It was a phony conversion. It was only to get relief. You can't come to Jesus just to get relief. You come to Jesus because he is God. You come to Jesus because you want to give him your life. And then when you give him everything, you get your relief. Just like the preacher said when you pray for the Holy Ghost, you don't pray for tongues, you ask for the Holy Ghost and the tongues are right in him, right here. You get all those things. You seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Hmm. Hallelujah. Now let me give you a good part. If I don't, some of you are going to walk out here so down because you're still not hearing, Don't take the burden on yourself if you measure up to the plumb line. God's not going to put a burden on you that you can't bear. And I want to tell you something. I am totally convinced that God loves his people. God loves his people. And he will do everything in his power to keep you. He cares so much about you that he'll send a pastor heartbroken to the pulpit like he has this morning and dig deep into your soul only because he loves you. Only because he says I see something about to happen and most of us that are hearing this this morning have not taken the first step. But God's saying I'm putting up a guard now so you don't take that first step. You don't move in that direction. You say, well, Brother Wilkson, what if I've neglected the word, I've neglected prayer and I'm still bound by besetting sin. All you have to do is get a hold of the back of your neck, David said. Get a hold of the back of your neck and shake yourself and say, Awake! Enough! And if you will begin even this day, say, Oh God, draw me by the Holy Spirit. Call on the Holy Ghost. He has been sent to be your helper, to be your guide. And he hovers over you, not to judge you. The Lord's not your judge this morning. He is your mediator. He's your intercessor. And right now, while you sit here in this message, Jesus is interceding before the Lord and the Holy Ghost is waiting at the door saying if you'll just ask me, I'll come now and I'll supply all that you need to fulfill everything to keep your heart tender and broken before God. Nothing God wants more, nothing God can use greater than a broken and a contrite heart and a contrite spirit that keeps the heart open and says, Oh God, every word that I hear, help me now. Every time I pick up my Bible now and I read it, there was one verse that I stayed on for about a half an hour yesterday. I couldn't shake it. It was there. God was dealing with me. One verse, dealing with me and said, God, I'm not leaving you until you work it into me, until I am prepared to obey what I read here now. It was just the Word and the Holy Ghost speaking to me through the Word. Do you want Him to do that for you? He'll do that. Hallelujah. He'll bring glorious joy and victory into your life. God's not mad at anybody in this church this morning. He's not mad at you. But He's warning us. I take this for myself this morning. I take it. Because I know it doesn't matter how I start. I've seen young preachers start on fire for God and I've seen them burn out. There are pastors all over the country now that have retired. They're only 55, 60, 65 years old. They've retired. They're sitting out in some little farm somewhere watching a bunch of horses. And they've retired. They sit and watch television. There was a time they were so on fire. It's not a matter of how you start. It's how you end. It's how you end up. I had one of my sons say, Dad, God sure has used you. I said, hold on, son. I've got a long way to go yet. A long way to go. But I know one thing. I want to keep growing. I want God's Spirit to be able to deal with me. I want Him to be able to put His finger and say, Thou art the man and melt. And say, Yes, Lord, I'm the man. I want to be able to sit in any service and hear any preacher hear the Word of God and not shake it off. I want to show God, thank you for loving me enough to reprove me and love me enough to put a finger so I couldn't shake it. I've had young men come to me, young pastors who have fallen out of the ministry because of adultery and pornography and everything else. And say, Brother David, if I had only heard a message years ago that shook me. If I only heard a message that would have shaken me to the core of my soul, I could have been saved. I want you to stand. Do you believe the Word of God is a healing word? When there's true repentance, then joy automatically breaks out. When there's true repentance. You know what's happening now? And I thank God for it. We are all examining ourselves according to the light of the Word. Let a man examine himself. See if he's in the faith. As I pray, I want you to examine your heart before the Lord. If you've grown cold toward the Lord, if you're backslidden, if you don't know Jesus as Lord, if He's not taken full possession of your body, mind, soul, and spirit, and you've been holding back part of the price. When people held back part of the price in the New Testament, the day of Pentecost, they fell dead. Even under the day of mercy, God was trying to show us how serious it is to hold back part of the price. Up in the balcony here on the main floor, no one will push you. You come because the Spirit draws you. Wherever you're at in this building, and the Holy Spirit spoke to you this morning in this message. You said, I don't want my heart to get hard. I want a broken heart, a contrite spirit. I feel the wooing of the Holy Spirit. He's just calling. The Lord said, I love you so much. If you'll open your heart, I'll heal you this morning. Come to Jesus. Those that are backslidden, those who've run from the Lord, those who've given only half their heart, or there's been something in the world that has been robbing you of a close walk with Jesus, be faithful to the Holy Ghost. He's faithful to you. Don't resist the Holy Ghost. Obey Him. Step out now. And let's believe the Lord. Up in the balcony, go to the stairs on either side. Come down. Anyhow, downstairs, come up the stairs and down the meet, you're right here. Those in the lower rotunda, those beneath the stage, wherever you're at watching on television, will you please come as the Holy Spirit leads you. Please. Move in close. Make room for those that are coming. Please. He's here right now to heal, to warm your heart, to lift this burden that you've been carrying. Look at me, please. Some of you have been carrying a load that's crushing you. You're really crushed by a load, things you don't understand. Now, I'm talking in the Spirit now. I feel the Holy Spirit just ministering to you through my words. Now, listen closely. You've been carrying a load. You're broken. You feel nobody cares. You try so hard and you keep failing and failing all the time. And almost as if to say, what's the use in wanting to give up? The Lord knows that. He said, He's touched with the feelings of your infirmities. He's touched with that pain. He knows exactly what you're going through. He said, If you come to me, I'll know why He's cast you out. I'll not turn you down. Do you know the Lord loves His children even when they're disobedient? He doesn't drop you. And some of you have run from the Lord. Some of you never really did get saved. Some of you are getting saved today for the first time. But if you're going to come to Jesus and be converted, make sure it's with all your heart. Say, Lord, I want to lay my sin down. I want to lay my pride down. I want to lay everything down. If I've got a grudge against somebody, you've got a grudge against somebody, you have to lay that down. The Bible said, If you hold to a grudge and won't forgive somebody, he can't hear your prayer. So, I could lead you in a prayer and God won't hear it if you're holding to a grudge. I want you to begin right there, right now and pray, Jesus, I give you all my grudges and right now, before I ask your forgiveness, I forgive everyone who's ever hurt me or wounded me. I will lay down my grudge, my bitterness, I give it to you now. I forgive and now, Jesus, because I forgive you said you would forgive me. Forgive me, Jesus, for my silliness, my sinfulness, my pride. I lay it all down at your feet. I come to you, Jesus, to humble myself. I give you all my heart, everything in me. I hold nothing back. Now, raise both hands to the Lord. Raise both hands and pray this with me. Jesus, I give my whole heart, the best I know how. Now, send the Holy Ghost to help me, give me power to fight sin and to live overcoming for Jesus. Now, I want you in your words to praise Him and thank Him and give Him glory. This is the conclusion of the tape.