In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the urgency of bringing people to God, regardless of their background or status. He emphasizes that God is reaching out to save even the most undeserving individuals. The preacher also highlights the need for Christians to be actively involved in spreading the message of Christ, multiplying themselves by bringing forth more vital Christians. He challenges the traditional methods of evangelism and encourages believers to seek God's guidance for effective strategies. The sermon concludes with the reminder that God is preparing a bride, and when the bride is ready, the spirit and the bride will invite others to come to Christ.

It's good to be here with you folks tonight, and for a day or so. I trust the Lord will, as has already been prayed and expressed, that the Lord will make known the desire of his own heart for his people in this hour. No thought of coming to go over any heavy doctrines, or anything like that, and I felt when I began to go out ministering a little, to search my own heart and mind as to why the Lord would send me out. I can stay at home and write and send out writings, perhaps with greater coverage than going around and meeting with various congregations. But I realized that in coming to a people, the Lord has a different thought in mind. And so Paul said he desired very much to go to Rome, that he might be able to impart some spiritual blessing to them. Then he went on to say, that is, that I with you might be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith, both of you and me. So he could have written to Rome, and he did. He wrote a letter to Rome, but he wanted to be there in order to impart something. So I feel that if it's the Lord's will to send his people around in ministry, not just to give them certain areas, refresh them in certain areas of knowledge, but somehow by your presence there to be able to impart something to God's people. And I pray it will be so in the few days that I'm here. Somehow there might be a ministration of Christ, a ministration of the living Christ. How we need that ministration of Christ in our midst. There's a lot of knowledge. There's a lot of, I think, real understanding in the Church about how we need that ministration of Christ to go forth in this day and hour. I also thought while John was saying, you know, that we don't want to come with preconceived ideas as to what we're expecting, because truly we might be disappointed. And I often thought of the people who came to hear John. John the Baptist didn't travel around in ministry. He went out in the wilderness and lived there in the wilderness. And the people came to him. What a tremendous anointing must have been on that ministry that here a man, a very crude man, dressed in camel's hair and with a leather girdle about his loins and feeding upon locusts and wild honey, almost like a wild man out there in the desert. Yet the people came to him from all over to hear a word from the Lord. Somehow God had put an anointing on him that drew the people. It wasn't an anointing of miracles or of healing or of any outward expression of power. It wasn't that kind of an anointing. But it is an anointing that helped people recognize, this man has the word of the Lord and I must go to him. I need counsel. I need help. I need a word from the Lord. And so they would come to him from all parts of Judea. Even the rulers would come to him. Soldiers would come to him. They wanted a word from the Lord. And so they would come and stand before John and say, What should I do, John? And John would say to the soldiers, Do violence to no man. Be content with your wages. Goodbye. And here this man might have traveled miles and miles to get a word from the prophet of God. And the prophet says, Well, just be content with your wages. Away you go. And I wonder if there was sort of a disappointment there. I wonder how that would go over today. A word like that from the prophet of God. But you see, what was God saying? He was giving the people of God just a little insight as to the nature of the kingdom that was coming. For his message was, Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he was giving all men an opportunity to prepare their hearts. The kingdom was at hand. And so a little word like that, that seemed to be so insignificant, what's that got to do with the coming forth of the kingdom of God very much? Because as then and as in all ages and as today, there's that covetousness in the hearts of people. And God must deal with that before there's any coming into the kingdom of God. He must deal with that covetous spirit in men. And so be content with your wages. But you see, I need more. Well, the word of the Lord is be content with it, with such things as you have. And the whole fabric of our society is falling to pieces because of covetousness. We're never satisfied, never satisfied. So that covetousness, God has to strike at the root of that. It's a very simple word that John had to give to the people. Very simple. Nevertheless, if they would embrace that word as the word of the Lord, when the king did come, then their hearts would be ready because the kingdom is going to strike deeply at that carnal heart of man and that desire to attain, to receive, to heap up treasure, to become a mount of something in the earth. The king was going to smite at that. And so the king did come, and he did deal with that. And of course, those whose hearts were prepared received him and saw him and embraced him, but so many did not. And we know it is so today. The king is coming, we know, but we have perhaps a certain fixation in our minds as to what to expect when the king comes and God wants to prepare the hearts of his people as truly as he did in the days of his first coming. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And except we repent, we will not see him. But if our hearts are in that repentant attitude, in other words, we're willing to be changed, and that's what repentance really means, to change, change our hearts, our attitudes, our motives, change our minds concerning God and come to that place where we're willing to be changed by the Lord. And I trust that as I grow these days, I pray and trust that God will send me to a people who want to be changed. Do you want to be changed or do you want to be blessed? Well, maybe you say both. And maybe that's all right. But if you only have a choice, what do you want to do, be blessed or be changed? So God, put in the hearts of your people that desire to be changed because God wants to change us. He wants to change our whole way of thinking, our whole way of our whole attitudes, our whole matter of life. He wants to change us for the simple reason that by nature we don't think the way God thinks. By nature, our thoughts are contrary to God's thoughts. Our ways are contrary to God's ways by nature. My ways are not your ways, saith the Lord, nor are your thoughts my thoughts. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts. That's what God says. As the heavens are above the earth, He says that's how differently I look on things. That's how different my ways are from your ways and my thoughts from your thoughts. How absolutely necessary then that in this day and hour if we recognize that, that we'll approach our God with reverence and say, Lord, I know I don't think as You think. I don't see things the way You see it. My ways are not as Your ways, but Lord, I want to be changed. Reveal Your heart to me. Make Yourself known that we might know what You desire. What is Your desire for me? We have many desires. We present them when we come to the Lord in prayer meetings or in other meetings. We've got so many things we need. We need this, Lord. And that's well and good, but God help us to come to that place where we know the desire of His heart, where we know the desire of God's heart. And if the desire of God's heart is implanted in our hearts by the anointing and by His Holy Spirit with an impact of His presence in our lives, if we know this is what God desires, then if our hearts are open, we'll begin to desire what God desires. And our desires will sort of fade away and we'll begin to desire what God desires. God has a great desire for His people. God is very jealous over His people, very jealous for them, because God created man in the beginning that he might have one with whom he could have fellowship and companionship, one in whom he might dwell, one with whom he might walk. Because man lost that image and fell into sin, God never forsook the purpose for which He created man in the beginning. He never forsook that dream that He had for man, a man in His image. God's never forsaken that. And if we could just sense and know what God is really after, then everything else that He might give us or everything else that He might tell us, we would recognize it's all leading up to that one divine ultimate. Instead of that, God will do a certain thing, reveal Himself in a certain way, bless us with certain blessings and gifts and manifestations and use us perhaps to do a certain work for Him. And if we don't realize what God is really after, then our hearts are set upon that blessing, that gift, that ministry, that work that He called us to do. Our hearts are set upon that and we fail to come into God's ultimate desire. But if we see what He's really after and then He gives us certain blessings and takes them away, then it doesn't matter. If He gives us a certain ministry and then asks you to go lay it down, it doesn't matter. If He calls you to go in a certain direction and you go in that direction for a year or two and suddenly everything goes to pieces, it doesn't matter. Because you know that that wasn't the ultimate desire of God's heart. That was just something that He wanted you to do by way of helping you, training you, disciplining you, teaching you something, showing you somewhat of His ways in your life. But as long as we can know that God has a certain ultimate desire that He will not forsake, then we're prepared to say, the Lord killeth, the Lord maketh alive, the Lord bringeth down to the grave and He bringeth up again. He lifteth up the poor out of the downhill and causes them to sit with princes. He abases the pride and causes them to come down, lifts up the valleys and brings down the high mountains. For truly this is that day as truly as it was in the days of John the Baptist when God is making ready the way of the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. So the word of the Lord is really preparation. Prepare your hearts. That's the word of the Lord. And of course, only as we're prepared to go God's way are we able to receive that discipline and that necessary admonition that we need along the way. Someone asked me one time, would you consider to be the greatest need of the church? And without having meditated on that previously, I immediately replied, the greatest need of God's people is that they recognize their need. The greatest need is that we recognize our need for the simple reason that God has everything that we need to conform us to the image of Christ. God has every ability, every divine enablement for his people to bring us into that image of Christ for which his heart longs to have in his people. He has everything available for that. Every provision has been made for that, that we might be conformed to the image of his Son. Every provision has been made for that divine ultimate intention that God has in mind. But if we don't believe it, if we don't recognize our need for it, if we don't believe that God wants to do that, then we're in a position where we cannot receive. And God has made great appeals to his church. I'm thinking of the book of Revelation and the letters to the seven churches where God appeals strongly to his people in all these different churches which I believe relates not only to the seven churches of the day in which John wrote, but to seven periods of church history as well as to the complete church in the earth today. Seven being the number of completion. And so coming to the end time, I believe all those letters are applicable and all those sins and all those evils that were present there in those various churches. They're in the world today. They're still there. And so they're all applicable to us. And if we truly recognize that the Laodicean church is the church of the end time, then let's just stop and consider if this is the Laodicean age, what is God saying to his people in this Laodicean age? I think all Christendom pretty well, at least all evangelicals, the whole charismatic movement, believes that this is end time. It's harvest time. We've come to the end. And yet I don't know of any of them that will say, well, yes, we're that Laodicean church. We're Laodicean. I've never seen a church yet, the first church, the first assembly of the Laodiceans, the first church of Laodiceans. I don't see that. Because we like to feel that though we're living in that end time, it's not us. It's everybody else. But everybody has the same notion that nowhere do you find anybody recognizing as a church that we're that kind of a people that Jesus saw. He says you're neither cold nor hot. I would that you were either cold or hot, but because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. Isn't that exactly the state that the church is in today? Saying we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. We've got everything. We've got the gifts of the Spirit. We've got ministry. We've got TV programs, radio programs, building programs. We've just got everything. We've got lots of money. We've got lots of support. We're sending out missionaries. And you can go on and on and just look up your Saturday night newspaper to see the boosting of the Laodicean churches in your own locality. What great things we have. And God looks down. Jesus looks down and says, you don't know it. But you're wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, you're blind, you're naked. He says you don't know it. Yet thou knowest not. We're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. But He doesn't leave us there. He wants us to know that, that we might receive the remedy. The greatest need of this Laodicean church is to come to a place where they'll truly recognize, Lord, we thought we were rich, but we're poor. We thought we were righteous, but we're stripped of raiment. We thought we could see. We have all kinds of understanding. We thought we could understand You, Lord, but we don't. We're blind. I was reading an article by A.W. Tozier, who has gone on to be with the Lord, but as you all know, it's a very deep insight into the things of God. And he pointed out that there's never been an age in the history of the church when there was so much valid knowledge circulating amongst God's people. Books, understanding of God's purposes, teaching, people gathering for teaching sessions, Bible studies and tapes. There's never been a day when there's been so much diffusion of Christian knowledge in the church. Never in the history of mankind has there been such a day. And yet he says, this church age in which we're now living will probably go down in history as the most corrupt of all the church ages. So he says, if it's just knowledge, if it's just understanding, if it's just teaching, if it's just an understanding of what God is doing in the church, this church would be the most spiritual of any of the churches in church history. But as it is, he says, he almost predicted it'll go down as the most carnal, most defeated church in all our history. So then what is it? He asks the question. And he answered it. Basically the answer I've already given you. Lack of vision. People don't see. People don't see God, what God wants. He says, it isn't that people are deliberately trying to bring in all kinds of deception, deliberately trying to bring in error. They're trying to do that which is right. Most of, say, let's assume, most of God's people are trying to do that which is right, but not seeing, not having the proper vision, we end up the situation that we're in. With a veil over the minds of people so that we don't see as God wants us to see. Now, there's no calamity if we don't see. There's no calamity if we're poor. There's no calamity if we're blind. There's no calamity if we're naked of God's righteousness, if we know it. But if we don't know it, we're not going to reach out and seek God that we might appropriate it. God had every provision for the church of Laodicea. There was nothing lacking. God was not displeased with Laodicea because they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Did you think He was? God wasn't displeased with them because they were in that condition, but because in that condition they said we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. The Jews said to Jesus, are we blind then? Jesus said if you just confess you were blind, then you'd see. But you say we see and therefore your sin remains. The problem you see is not our condition, but that in our condition we refuse to accept God's estimate of how we appear in His sight. And I know it doesn't sound good to suggest that God looks down upon us and sees us as miserable and poor and blind and naked when we know that He has righteousness for us, when we know that we're justified by faith, when we know we're washed in the blood. But I'm not talking about those judicial aspects of the work of redemption. We know we stand complete in Him and in His righteousness and we're justified. But God also wants us to know that though we be justified and though we be redeemed and though we be accepted in the beloved, He wants a people who will come forth in that righteousness, clothed upon with that righteousness, walking clothed upon with His glory. Not enough that He just saves us in His judicial declarations as a people who are justified before God, but that we actually appropriate His righteousness and put on those beautiful garments and be adorned with the beautiful garments of His righteousness because God is coming for that kind of a church. Coming for that kind of a church. So I started to mention the desire of God's heart for His people. And I want to read a verse or two from Isaiah 62. Just one scripture or maybe there will be others that express God's desire for His people. Because if we've come to end time and if we know that in end time there's not only the reaping of the harvest, we know that's end time truth. The harvest must be reaped. If we're referring to the bride of Christ, then we know the bride of Christ must be adorned with beautiful garments. If we're referring to the body of Christ, then we know the body of Christ must come into that place where every member is fitly joined and knit together, going up into all things, into Christ who is the head. And I know there are many who will say, well, this is the body here and this is the bride and this is the sons of God. This is God's garden and this is God's bride. They've got different people for each category. I'm not going into that, but I'll just say this, that I believe that God gives us many different illustrations of the same truth. Many different illustrations. And so there's a sense in which we are the bride of Christ, a sense in which we are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, a sense in which we are the temple of God, another sense in which we are the garden of God, another sense in which we are the wheat field. So God uses many, many different illustrations by way of causing us to understand God's ultimate desire in us. If it's for a bride, then he wants a bride that's prepared, adorned, beautified, cleansed, purged, all the drosseth, prepared to meet the bridegroom. If it's the wheat field, then God is looking for the full corn in the ear. He's looking for the day of harvest when that wheat will come forth, like the seed that was planted. If it's the army of God we're talking about, then in the day of harvest, God must have an army, strong and powerful, clothed upon with the whole armor for the evil day. Don't forget that God has everything the Church of Christ needs for the evil day. Every piece of armament that we need, God has provided for the evil day. I don't know why. To me it's not a matter of a doctrinal issue, this matter of whether the Lord takes us or not. It's not a doctrinal issue. God has provided His people with the whole armor for the evil day. He's given us everything we need to meet Satan and everything Satan can bring forth in this earth and to overcome with the whole armor of God. So it's not a doctrinal issue. It's a case of God has given us everything we need to trample Satan under our feet. For the Bible says that God of peace is going to bruise Satan under your feet shortly and then people want to get away from the battle. God's going to have a triumphant people, a triumphant army. They're going to be totally victorious and He's going to have a harvest that's precious, a harvest that's come to fullness. And so He's waiting for that harvest. James says He's waiting for it. The husbandman is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. It's had long patience for it till it received the early and the latter rain. I know He could go out in springtime. He could have come in the first century if God's intention was such. He could have brought the harvest to conclusion then, but inasmuch as it was springtime and God had designed that it would be a couple of thousand years later that the harvest would come. He didn't reap the harvest in the early centuries. The harvest must come to fullness. Now for you and I to say when that fullness is going to be, we must always be anticipating the coming of the Lord, waiting for Him. No matter if we wait 2,000 years. We must always be waiting and God doesn't see fit to give us a little insight and say, well, Abraham, 3,000, 4,000 years down the line and I'll reveal myself and I'll come in great power and glory with my people. He doesn't tell Abraham that because it's in waiting, in expecting, in hoping, in anticipating that God is able to work that sense of preparedness in our lives. And so Abraham in his day, how long ago was it? Between 3,000 and 4,000 years was looking for the same thing you and I are looking for. Looking for the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He was looking for the city and that city is about to be revealed. I don't know how long but God's saints through the ages have looked for the city. They've looked for the fullness of the harvest. They've looked some at least through the church age have anticipated that day when that body of Christ would come into this fullness in Christ and into union one with the other. That it might be the body of Christ in the earth. I was reading a book on history not too long ago. About 300 years ago there was a people who said that before the coming of the Lord this body of Christ would come together in the unity of the Spirit. They thought it would be in their day. It didn't. But they were anticipating it in their day and rightly so. But the fact remains that God's not going to cut short His purposes. Because you and I say that God's purpose has failed and God can't do it. Yeah, it would have been nice if this had happened. When God sends forth His word into the earth concerning anything God says I leave that word there. I will not take it back until it has accomplished the desire of my heart. I won't take it back. I will not take it back. That encouraged me. Some time ago when that seemed to come to me with revelation that you see some glorious thing that God has declared and we say if God's people had only done this and that and so forth we wouldn't be in the mess we're in. It's too bad it didn't work. But thank God for the day when I realized that if it hasn't been fulfilled, if it has failed, if we realize that the full intention of what God said is not visible anywhere, then it remains in the earth. That word remains in the earth. God says I won't take it back. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven watereth the earth and it may cause the things that are sown in it to spring forth and bud and it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void. But it shall accomplish the thing which I purpose. It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it forth. How do I know it's going to do that? Because God says I will not take it back. It won't return to me void. It will do the thing that I intended. So God has declared many things about the history of his people. Sometimes just a promise that seemed to have been so obscured in the maze of religiosity and religious ordinances and so forth. It's almost obscured there. God's people lost sight of it. Completely lost sight of it until God by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament would dig it out. Dig it out and here is the truth that was declared way back in the book of Genesis as most truths are in their seed form. They're declared in the book of Genesis. The apostle by the Holy Spirit would be inspired to lift it out there and bring it forth into the New Testament. Say, God declared this way back there in the book of Genesis. This is for us Paul says. So he mentions Melchizedek. An obscure passage in Genesis where Abraham when he'd gone out to battle and the kings came back in victory and divided the spoil and Abraham went to Melchizedek who was king of Salem, priest of the Most High God and gave him the tithes of all. A little obscure passage there that only once again in the Old Testament was Melchizedek mentioned. Only once again. Again by the spirit of prophecy. Again by the spirit of prophecy. When David declared, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand till all enemies are under your feet. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. The Lord has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Mentioned twice in the Old Testament. Completely obscured in the theology of God's people, of the learned theologians and the doctors of the law completely lost sight of. Carried on for hundreds of years with the old priesthood which God had determined would only be for a season. At the time would come when there would be a new priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. And by the Holy Spirit, Paul picks it up by the Holy Spirit and shows how that Jesus has come to be the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He had two scriptures for it in the Old Testament. Perhaps five or six thousand others that related to the Levitical priesthood. But it didn't matter. Two witnesses is all God needs. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Those two witnesses. The Apostle Paul literally overthrew the whole Levitical system of the Old Testament. In one sudden stroke of the Spirit God says the time will come when there will be a new priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Ruling at God's right hand. No longer fooling around with goats and sheep and oxen over there in old Jerusalem. In a temple God did away with it once for all. God's building a temple not made with hands. Christ is the high priest of that temple. We are to be co-priests with Him. All these different aspects of truth come to fullness. And so these few verses I want to emphasize tonight about God's concern for His people. See, it's God's concern because God's jealous for His name. We sometimes think, God, you've got to do it because of the need. And God is concerned about the needs of people. But God is always concerned first and foremost for the glory of His name. And God's priest always knew that. And so when Israel had sinned so miserably and failed God, Moses and Joshua, they knew that God was concerned about His name. So they wouldn't say, Lord, forgive them because after all, you know, they're a weak people and they're carnal and they need Your grace. But Lord, what are You going to do for Your name? Aren't You concerned about Your name, God? What are You going to do about Your name? Your name is being dragged down. Let that be the prayer and let that be the basis on which God's intercessors in this hour come before the Lord as we desire Him to rise up on behalf of His church. God's concerned about His name and all we have to do is remind God, God, Your name is blasphemed amongst the nations as never before in the history of mankind. God's name is dragged down in the muck, in the dirt. I mean, you'd wonder why God would permit His name to be so blasphemed as it is today. Not only out there in the world we can understand that. In the church of Jesus Christ, God's name is blasphemed with all the abominations that have come into the temple. God, aren't You concerned about Your name? God's church is a very simple institution. God's church is just composed of a people who are born again by His Spirit and filled with the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. That's all God's church is. We've covered it up with so much tradition and so much programming. We say that's the church and God says, no, you're the church. Oh yeah, everybody says we know that. But then they talk about building a church. Then they build it and dedicate it to the glory of God. God says, you're the church. Oh yeah, I know that. But, you know, this is, we're building this for the glory of God. Nearly church was just a people who come to know the Lord and were washed in His blood and filled with the Spirit and walked in the Spirit and they were the church. My burden is, and I believe it's the burden of the Holy Spirit, that in this day and hour God will raise up a people who are the church of Christ. Not just a people who go to church, a people who are the church. Out there in the job, at school. You're the church out there. Instead of that, here's our church, come on into our church. Come and join our church. Come to our church and listen to our pastor. You're the church of the living God and God's going to insist on it in this day and hour. That His people give Him such lordship in their lives that instead of building churches and going to church, they become the church of the living God in the earth. I did a little calculating one time and I mention it once in a while because, you know, we say, I know, but you know, the great need for missionaries and the great need for sending out books and tracts and evangelists in order to reach the world. There's far more sinners in the world today than there were 50 years ago when I was a young man. Far more. I don't know what the proportion is. There's far more heathen in the world today than there ever was. And so what does the church say? Double our efforts. Bring in more money. Send out more preachers. Send out more tracts, more books. And what the church really needs is a working of the real life of God in His people. So that the early church were told that the Lord added to the church daily such as should be said. And that went on so that within a few weeks there was 8,000 or at least in the church. And then it goes on to say, And the word of the Lord grew in. Multiply. Now when it comes to multiplication, you're getting to something that's very tremendous. Addition is a slow process. But multiplication, when that happens, I mean the work is done in a very short time. I have an atlas at home, a National Geographic atlas, and I briefly calculated how many towns, villages, and cities there were in the world. And in this atlas, there was at least 150,000 villages, cities, towns in the world. So I took my calculator. First I figured this out before using different numbers. But I just wanted to see just with this principle of life functioning as people, how long would it take to reach the world? So I said, Let's start with one Christian in every locality. I don't mean just one Christian, but one Christian who is filled with the life of God. God wants us all to be, but you know, there's a couple of million people here in Atlanta and maybe, what, a quarter million Christians? Take one vital Christian in this city, one vital Christian in New York, one vital Christian in every little village and town throughout the earth. I'm just mentioning this by way of giving an example of the principle by which a people walking in the life of Christ can multiply. But we say, Oh, that's too difficult. And so we want man's way. TV! Get a big TV program. Let them reach the multitudes. One vital Christian in every town, village in the world with the life of Christ multiplying themselves twofold that you as a Christian are responsible for bringing forth two more vital Christians and then each of those, because of the greatness of this life in them, being enabled to bring forth two more, and let that process of multiplication go on. In less than two weeks, the whole world has come to Christ. In less than two weeks, without radio, without TV, without tracks, without books, without any programming, but a people just reproducing themselves and not one of those Christians would have to win more than two others. You go to your office and figure that out. Oh, you say, I know that sounds good, but it doesn't work. No, it doesn't work. Because we're not prepared to sit down and say, God, our methods don't work. What do you say about it? What's your way? I'm not saying God's going to save the whole world that way. I'm saying God's principle is multiplication. The people who are manifesting the life of Christ just reproduce themselves in the earth. And that's why God gathered a bunch of people there in Jerusalem for a few years. And they lived there in communal power and blessing, great community there in Jerusalem and blessed them abundantly and brought in souls. But God says, my plan is the world. So he scattered them. He scattered the early church. Everywhere they went, churches sprang up. It was waiting. The Christian reproduces himself because of the life of Christ that's in him. For 300 years, they didn't have such a thing as a church building. But they had the Lord Jesus Christ. He consumed them. They lived and moved and walked in resurrection life. So that within 300 years, it took 300 years then to permeate the empire with the gospel of Christ. Half of them reportedly were one to Christ. But I'm just talking about that principle of life that God has to function in his people. God has a great work for his church to do. And so he's getting his people ready. And I'm not saying how many are going to be saved or how many are not. I'm just pointing out the principle of life functioning in God's way, with God's anointing, with God's power, with God's life. We don't need any of man's machinery. You don't need one TV program or one radio program. You don't need books and tracts or anything else if there's a people of God that are living in the resurrection life of Jesus. And I write books. And I'm not saying that you're not supposed to do that. I'm saying that God's ultimate desire is not that. God's ultimate desire for his people is the people that go forth in the life of Jesus. The sooner we recognize that we fall short of that, the sooner will God be able to do something about it. As long as we say, oh, all of a sudden, he's so great, let's get some more evangelists, let's get some more teachers, let's get some more TV, try and get the gospel out. Not to say God isn't using it, but let's learn God's way. What's God's way? He doesn't think the way you and I think. Thoughts are different. Thoughts are higher. God says, Father, I just pray for these whom thou hast given me. And not for these only, but for those also which shall believe on me through their word. So Jesus prayed for you and I that night before the cross, or whenever it was. He prayed for those people who would believe on Christ because of the word of the early church, that they may be one. As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they may be one in us and that the world might believe that thou hast sent me. And as love them as thou hast loved me. He prayed for that and his prayer is going to be answered. His prayer is going to be answered. I want to emphasize this everywhere I go. Jesus didn't pray that his people would be one, period. Every kind of unity that you and I try to promote and bring into being that is not according to the prayer of Jesus. Jesus is not going to bring in division, frustration. He's going to divide. He's going to cut asunder. He's going to bring it to naught. He didn't pray that they all might be one. He prayed that they might be one. As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they may be one in us. Only as God finds a people in union with the Son of God, with that same kind of union that Jesus had with the Father, only then is the prayer of Jesus answered. They might be one with me. I am one with you. That's so different than getting together 80,000, 100,000 people in some big stadium and having a great, big charismatic convention. Everybody keep your religion. Everybody stay in your old denominational order. Everybody go on and support your old church that's dead and devoid of the glory. But come together in a great charismatic meeting and rejoice in unity. God's against it. Smash it. He's going to have a people walking in vital union with Jesus. So the prophet Isaiah said, For Zion's sake, will I not hold my peace? And I remember quoting this one time and saying Isaiah said this and suddenly I remembered. Yes, Isaiah said it. But Isaiah had the burden of the Lord on him. So it's the Holy Spirit that said it. It's God that said it. Because the burden of the Lord rested upon him. These prophets that God raised up in times past, they weren't just a mouthpiece for God. They were people who shared the very burden of God's heart. That's why when they spoke, they could speak with the glory of the God who spoke through them because they shared the same burden that God shared. It wasn't just a mouthpiece for God. What do you want me to say, Lord? Okay, I'll say it. But the burden of the Lord rested upon them. I used to wonder at that. The burden of Haggai. The burden of Zephaniah. The burden of Amos. The burden? The burden. It was a weight. When you and I become true watchmen in Israel, God will touch us with the touch of his own heart. We'll feel as God feels. We'll desire as God desires. We'll have the burden that God has because the burden of the Lord is laid upon us. It's my great desire that the little bit of ministry I do in some of these places as I go out, not that you'll just get some new thought or some new concept of end time events, but that the burden of the Lord, Jesus, will begin to rest upon you. And that God will make it heavy. He'll make that burden heavy upon you so that as a true watchman in Israel, you'll cry unto God that he does something about this burden. Prayer and intercession is almost a thing of the past in the church. I mean true prayer and intercession. And I realize it's not something we can manufacture. We can't somehow get down and say I'm going to intercede. I know that. But as the burden of the Lord begins to grip your heart, you realize this is God's burden. This weighs heavy upon God. And you touch the heart of God and the same burden that rests on God's heart will rest on yours. You begin to cry out, Lord, do that which you have declared. Do that which you have said. Do that which you desire. So you're sharing God's heart in the matter. You say, well, if God declared it, it'll happen. I know it'll happen. But it's going to happen through a people upon whom he lays the same burden that's on his heart. That we might be co-workers together with him, laborers together with him. I used to wonder at that. Why would God send forth a prophetic word? Thus saith the Lord. And then require that that one who prayed in that manner should get down and pray and seek God till it happened. Until I realized God in sending forth that word was declaring the intention of his heart, the intention of his mind. But then at the same time he was doing that, that vessel whom he had found faithful to put that word in, God lays his burden upon their heart because they've touched his heart. God's prophets touch God's heart. It's not enough that they stand up and declare the word of the Lord. God's going to do this. And that's wonderful. You get all the people shouting. When someone stands up and says the Lord, God's going to do this and this and this and this, and it's wonderful. And God will do it if he's declared it. But when the time comes for him to do it there's a people who hear what God said. They're touching the heart of God and the same burden that's on God's heart comes in our heart. And we cry, God, you've got to do it. Do it, Lord. The weight of it is upon my shoulders. You've got to do it, Lord. So as God lays the burden of his word upon you, nurture that and cherish it. Get away in your secret closet and let intercessions of the Holy Spirit pour through you that God will do that which he has declared. Because until those intercessions come, that which God has declared will not come to birth. You know very well that the time comes and that child must come forth because there's been conception and growth and that child must come forth. But if it's going to come forth in life, it's going to come forth in travail. It wasn't the travail that brought the child forth exactly. It was the divine operation of God in that womb of that mother. But because the time had come it took travail to bring it to being. Isaiah said on one occasion, O Lord, he said, Thy name is brought into reproach. We are reproached and rebuked and a blasphemy on the earth for the children to come to the birth and there's not enough to bring forth. It seems to be the way it is. It's the time when God's Son should be coming forth, manifesting the life and the glory of Jesus, but that doesn't seem to be strength to bring forth because the church is anemic. The church is sick. The church hasn't become filled with that vibrant life of Christ and yet we sense that God wants to bring forth something for this end time and this time of great calamity. A calamity as great as came in the days of Noah, as great as came in the days of Sodom. It's at the door and somehow God's people were not being alerted, were not being pressed upon with the weight of it. God raised up a people who will sense the desire of your heart for your people in this hour that these things do not overtake us. It's the thief in the night. I know the Bible says he cometh as a thief in the night, but he also says, I think it's to the Thessalonians, but ye are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. God wants the people who will not be of the darkness so that the thief comes in the night and they're not aware of it. He wants the people clothed upon with the armor of light. We're saying the day is at hand. The time is at hand. The day of the Lord is near. Jesus stands at the door because we're expecting and anticipating we welcome him. As many as look for him to them should appear the second time without sin unto salvation. It wasn't just Isaiah that had this burden. The Spirit of God laid it on him. It's the Spirit of God says, For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. Until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. All evangelical Christendom says, Well, it'd be wonderful somehow if the salvation of God could go to the ends of the earth. And they're multiplying their efforts to do it. And perhaps they can be commended for their desire to see it happen. God wants his people to know that his way is so different than their way. With a people filled with the life of Christ and walking in the power of his resurrection, life can reproduce themselves in the earth in a matter of two weeks, if God should so will it and decree it, that principle of life. So we want that life, but when we read the way into that life, we shrink back. It's the way of the cross. It's the way of walking in total obedience. It's the way of reproach. It's the way of always bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus. The life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. That life to be manifest in our mortality, and that's what I'm talking about. I've never taught that God wants the people who enter into immortality to go about in the earth preaching the gospel. But now in our mortality, in our mortality, while we are yet in a body that's subject to sin, subject to the curse, subject to pain, subject to sickness. I say in a body that's subject to that, a mortal body. God would reveal and manifest the resurrection life of Jesus. Always bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus. The life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Because the way seems so grievous and so difficult, we shrink from it. I know perhaps many of you are saying, well then what shall I do that I might enter into this resurrection life, that I might share his sufferings? What shall I do? Perhaps it would take a while to really go into that. Lord willing maybe we will, but just briefly. We've got to be so committed to the will of God. Nothing else matters but the will of God. That we don't move here or there or enter into this program or that program or take upon ourselves this kind of ministry or that just because we feel there's a need and it's something we've got to do, but as we're led of the Lord, following his will, we're prepared to do whatever he says. In other words, already the Romans said, if we will present our bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable in his sight, we just present ourselves wholly acceptable in his sight. Then he said we'll be able to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And so God has placed within our reach the means whereby we can in the fulfillment of our obedience to him begin to manifest in mortal flesh the resurrection life of Jesus. Provided we don't stop along the way. Provided we don't just do the will of God when it's something that's plausible, something that's acceptable, something that we like doing something that seems to be fruitful in our own lives. Something that gives us a certain sense of satisfaction. For when like Jesus we're prepared to do the will of God even unto death, even the death of the cross. And when God raises up this nucleus in the earth, this holy remnant, this people who hear what God is saying, and upon whom God is able to lay the burden of his own heart, it's going to come forth in this end time of people. I don't know how small. It's going to come forth that holy remnant who are going to walk in the obedience of Christ even unto death. Because of that they're going to know and experience the resurrection life of Jesus resting upon them. God the Holy Spirit says, I will not rest until this happens. God says, I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof is the lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness and all things thy glory. And thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate. But thou shalt be called Teseba in thy land Beulah. Teseba meaning the Lord delighteth in thee and Beulah meaning Mary. Thou shalt be called Teseba in thy land Beulah for the Lord delighteth in thee and thy land shall be Mary. So just briefly here in closing, I mentioned that there's the body, there's the garden, there's the army of the Lord, there's the temple of God, but here's the bride of Christ that God is after. Here's the holy bride. God's going to have a holy bride for his son. As truly as Abraham sent Eliezer off to find a bride for Isaac, so God has sent forth the Holy Spirit into the earth to find a loving bride for the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to find this bride for Christ. And he's going to be faithful in the task that has been committed to him. He's going to be faithful. And because he's faithful, it doesn't mean that we do not have any responsibility. Because the stipulation was that as God led him in the right way and he found this one, the stipulation was that she'd be willing to come. She would be willing. Oh, there's many other things that we could go into there. But Eliezer said, perhaps this lady might not be willing. Well, then Abraham says, you're free from this oath I lay upon you. But God will give you mercy. And so we say, well, what you say is good, that God might have this glorious triumphant army, this body that's vitally knit together, this temple that's full of his glory, this bride that's clean, purged from all sin, cleansed and made holy. Sounds good, but I don't know if there's time. That responsibility has been laid upon the Holy Spirit to do it. God sent the Holy Spirit into the earth the same as he sent Jesus with a commission. A commission. Among other things, it was to prepare a bride for the Lord Jesus. And so he's in the earth to do that. Now going into the other things, he's here to prepare a bride for the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in the book of Revelation that the bride, somewhere down there in God's purposes, has made herself ready so we know it's going to happen. Not a case of, well, you know, if this and that. It's going to happen. But it's going to happen through the ministration of God's servants, God's ministry in the earth. And go forth by the Holy Spirit to prepare this kind of a people. I believe that every one of us has the burden of God's heart rests upon us. We'll be a part of that ministration to prepare this people for the coming of the Lord. It's very night ahead. We're going to see a bride that's prepared and ready. A bride that's clean and pure and holy by the washing of water by the Word. So it's not just some sudden translation that brings you into this cleansing. But by the washing of the water of the Word, this wife of the Lamb is going to be cleansed and purged and made ready for His appearing. That's all we read in the last book of the Revelation. The time will come when the bride is going to share in the invitation to all men who are thirsty. But first, he must make his bride ready. An evangelist friend of mine way up north there, and he had a great evangelistic burden years ago, and God blessed him, gave him a lot of souls, and he built two or three churches. Then the disillusionment set in, a lot of division. He sort of laid it all aside, feeling somehow he'd been a failure. I guess for 20, 25 years, he did very little in the Lord's work. But just recently, he got all fired up again. The Lord reminded him of the vision that he had. But he told him, he says, you've been trying to bring in souls but first of all, I want a bride. I'm preparing a bride. And then when the bride is ready, the Spirit and the bride will say, Come. The Spirit and the bride will say, Come. And so, many people are saying, Come. Evangelists are saying, Come. But when the bride is ready, and the Spirit and the bride in union with Christ are saying, Come, there'll be a voice that will penetrate the hearts of men. And we'll see the harvest that God is after. It's going to be a great harvest. Far be it for me to predict how great, because I know that in the desolation that's coming, there's going to be a lot of desolation in the earth. I know all that. That's the other side of the coin. I don't get into that too much because generally I'm ministering to small congregations of people who have come out of the system and are desiring and seeking God. But that is true. There's going to be great devastation in the earth, great trouble, great calamities. But in the midst of it all, God's going to have a glorious church, a triumphant church, a church clothed upon with the whole armor of God, a church that'll be able to face anything that the God of this world can bring against us. Jesus said, I will build my church. Gates of hell shall not prevail against me. He's not going to prevail against God's people because God has given us the armor that we need, the armor that we need to go forth in this day of battle into total and glorious victory. God says, I'm not going to rest till this happens. I'm not going to rest till my people go forth in this brightness and this salvation I can't rest till it happens, God says. And so what does he do because of that? He raises up watchmen and sets them on the wall. We won't go into how God makes a watchman tonight, but when God makes a watchman, that watchman has the same burden God's got, the same burden. And so God is raising up watchmen, I believe, in the midst of his church today sets them on the wall and he declares that because they have the burden of his heart, they won't rest until God establishes and until God makes Jerusalem a place in the earth. I have set watchmen on thy walls with Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day or night. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep no silence and give God no rest till he establishes, until he makes Jerusalem a place in the earth. Now once again, I want to emphasize, God's going to do what he said, but until he finds these watchmen who share his burden and who cry unto God day and night, and give God no rest, we will not see the righteousness of God going forth as brightness and as salvation wherever the Lamb did lay. We won't see it until that day. You say, then we're holding it up? Not really. Because when God begins to make a watchman, those who would obey him and follow him and accept the burden of his heart, and they don't accept it, God will go to somebody that will. That's probably one of the most frightening aspects of truth in the Bible. That when God's people fail, when God's people who are in line for the fulfillment of the promises fail, God does not change his mind. He goes to a people that are not worthy. And in a moment of time, he makes them to be worthy to go in and embrace the promises that his people should have embraced and failed. It's a frightening thing, but it happens over and over again. So that when Jesus came on the scene, he was a people to whom God had given these tremendous promises all through the Old Testament. The Abrahamic covenant was given to God's people, natural Israel. When Jesus came on the scene, he therefore ministered to the house of Israel, confirmed the promises that were made unto the fathers. They rejected him. God didn't delay his plan, as some of your theologians will say. They rejected their king so God delayed his plan for 2,000 years? No. He went right ahead with his plan. Went right ahead with it. Well, what about the people? God just turned to Gentiles and made living stones out of Gentiles, made Israelites out of Gentiles, made them to be the seed of Abraham by faith, and fulfilled in them the promises that Israel should have had fulfilled in themselves. God didn't change his plan. He went right ahead with the people that were not a people and made them to be a people. And we have to know these things, because having grown up in a church structure and a charismatic structure with much of the blessing of God, much of his favor, his gifts manifested, an abundance of the word going forth, there's inclined to be a certain tendency that we're God's people and we're sailing right on into Zion. And that's God's intention. If we do not come to that place of absolute and total commitment to Christ, God can so easily bypass us and pick up people who know nothing about any kind of religion, transform them by his grace and bring them in and move them right into the fulfillment of God's promises. In fact, we have indications in the Bible that things like this is going to happen. That when the wedding feast is prepared and all the guests are invited, because we have the notion, well, I'm saved and so I'm ready. I'm washing the blood, I'm ready. The call goes forth, oh, forget about all that. When Jesus comes, I'll just go with him without any, without my will being involved. Somehow he'll just take me and I'll be there at the marriage supper of the Lamb. If you teach that God just takes you, just kidnaps you as it were, it's supposed to be good doctrine, but when the teaching comes along that God wants the people who, like the five wise virgins, arise when they hear the trumpet sound and trim their lamps and replenish them with oil and go up into the darkness of the night to meet the bridegroom, that's considered heresy. That's what God requires. People who consciously, with their lamps lit and burning, tread forth into the darkness of the night to meet the bridegroom. If God just did it, no problem. If God just raptured the children of Israel at the Red Sea and planted them in Canaan, no problem. But because God desired to lead them, to show them his ways, to discipline them, to make of them a holy people before they went in, they couldn't take it. One of the saddest things in scripture is that when the time comes for God to fulfill his purposes so often, the people who are in line with the fulfillment of the promises excuse themselves and God is forced to go to another people. So the cry went out, the feast is ready, the marriage supper is prepared, the oxen are killed, and all those who were invited come to the wedding feast now. And they said, well, it's, I'm too busy. I married a wife, I can't come. I bought a yoke of oxen, I've got to go try them. I bought a piece of land, I've got to go and have a look at it. Not thinking that they were going to miss out, but they had other more important things to do. And the king was angry and said, go out into the highways and byways and bring in anybody you can find, good or bad. I don't care how good they might be, I don't care how bad they are, bring them in. Why? Because the time has come and I'm not going to delay things anymore. There will be no delay. Bring them in. God's doing that. Reaching out and bringing in the good for nothings who know nothing about religion, nothing about all the teachings of the church. Saving them. And within two or three weeks they see more of what God's doing in the earth than people who have sat in the pew for 30, 40 years. God's doing a quick work in the earth. These are solemn things, but God shake us and arouse us. And oh, it's midnight hour and God says arise, trim your lamps. Go forth into the darkness of the night with your lamps burning to meet the bridegroom. As many as look for him shall he appear the second time without sin and dissalvation. May the Lord cause His word to begin to penetrate our hearts in this day and hour. I think we've become so used to it. We've heard sermons and teachings and messages, prophetic utterances for so long. We thank the Lord for all that He's saying and doing and what He's going to do. But the time is at hand when God says I want you to be the one upon whom this word lights until it becomes a burden on your heart. Because that's my burden. I want you to have the same burden. Crying to me day and night until God makes Jerusalem a prayer in the earth. May God bless His word to you. My salvation. It's not me getting saved anymore. God, excuse me, isn't that what Paul said? I am crucified and it is no longer I who am living. That's what he means. God, who has become His salvation? Christ has become His salvation. Not Christ gave Paul salvation. Christ has become Paul's salvation. That's the Feast of Tabernacles. It's a very real experience. It's just like talking in tongues. And you have to make that transition by faith from being a Pentecostal self-centered, spirit-filled person to becoming a God-centered person in which the throne of God is within. Therefore, no, I've skipped over it, He is my strength. Now, this is an interesting transition for us. When we become new Christians we're quite strong. We're quite strong and we can do things. We can comport ourselves pretty well and do things about the way we like them. And there comes a time, especially in ministry, you know, we get to where we can cut a swath. I mean, we can do things. And we've got all the answers. How many know we have all the answers? Yeah? About 20 years ago, I had many answers I don't have today. You go back 30 years and I was preaching that no one ever had to backslide if he would just serve the Lord and quit bellyaching and do God's will. That was 30 years ago and I knew that was true. I knew that all the older saints that complained about their dark periods and everything, it was just because they were half backslid. If they would serve the Lord, this is a bunch of nonsense. God hasn't called us to live in the valley but on the mountaintop. I knew that 30, 35 years ago. I was as sure of that as could be. Yeah? But when I went in and shook myself and said hallelujah, I expected something to happen. And sometimes it did. But God has ways of confounding the mighty. I remember one time we were standing on the precipice that they call Niagara Falls and Mark was a little boy and I was as nervous as a cat on a stove. I mean, I'm telling you, I was nervous looking down there. Mark wasn't nervous because he's about five years old but I was nervous. And looking down at that cascade of water and the foam coming up and he was holding my hand. No way. I grabbed his wrist like that and I got my hand out of his and I mean I put my hand over his hand. And that transition to where we're holding God's hand to where God shakes our grip loose and he holds our hand is a very real thing. And I mean some of us have got such a grip on God, you know he has to shh. Shh. And I mean we have to get, I remember old Brother Fullerton and he, Brother Fullerton had such a grip on God, here he's dying of tuberculosis and he's over in a hospital at Tempe some years ago and here he is in an oxygen tent and he raises up in the oxygen tent and he says, I preached healing. I believed in healing. People have been healed. And here he is dying of tuberculosis. Been prayed for by Smith Wigglesworth. Smith Wigglesworth knocked him flat one day, hammered him on the chest and God said to him, if you'd have waited for me I would have healed you and I wouldn't have hurt you. I mean the man was about 65 at the time. Skinny as a bean pole, emaciated, been healed under the ministry of Sister McPherson many years prior to that time and here he is dying. His whole testimony shot. All the churches he started in Arizona and everything, they're going to hear about the fact that Elmarie Fullerton died of tuberculosis. And here he went and he raised up and he falls back and he says, oh God I give up. The spirit of the Lord spoke to him and said that's what I've been waiting for. God raised him up and then he came in preaching the rest of God and Joel's army and a few other wonderful things to us upstarts in Bible school. The Lord had become his strength. Let's stand. Lord we just praise you Lord as you turn us away from our self-centered, self-seeking give me this and give me that. Oh hallelujah Lord. We know you have a wonderful sense of humor. Lord we know also that it's time for us to move on now from the Pentecostal blessing as wonderful and glorious as that has been Lord into a deeper place where it is no longer anointed flesh but is the springs of God within our personality. Lord such a transition for the sons of Adam to lay down our God-given right to be individuals but Lord we know if we save our life we're going to lose it and it's only as we lose it in you that we can save it. So Lord we choose this morning to let go as Brother Fullerton did. Say I give up. It's over my head and just lose our self-centeredness and our self-contained little strength and wisdom and enter into the rest of God Almighty. Oh Father have mercy on us who are dust when it's dry and mud when it's wet and yet Lord we parade around like we were seraphim or something. Lord God help us to recognize that you've called us to be in your image. Heirs of salvation but first we must learn humility and Lord it's so hard for us. So we pray for each one of us Lord that we'll hear the word of right that that elective process will be working within us bring us now into the true army of the Lord and delivering us Lord from the religious fanaticism or whatever it is the antichrist cleavage that is upon us where we are seeking to aggrandize man by using the gifts of Christ. Lord we don't want that. We don't want our own Adamic psychic nature in operation. We want the real stuff. We want the real thing Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We want the real thing. We want the real thing. So we thank you Lord you've led us this far through this treacherous, dangerous path of life and Lord we just believe you're going to take us right on in Jesus to the fullness of the mark of salvation until we meet Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. While every head is bowed and everyone is in prayer we're getting ready for the communion and I'm going to ask the elders to go now. But while every head is bowed and you're here this morning and you have a need in your life to just let go and let God go in a greater way. You can feel the issue. You can feel the issue and you know that God is calling for you to relinquish that that you're trying to claim. God wants you not to claim it but to relinquish it to Him in the hopes that He'll give it back if it's worthy and He will if it's worthy because we know whom we have believed and are persuaded that He will keep those things which we have committed to Him against that day. If you're here and you're trying to claim something and hang on to something and you're banging your head against the wall and you know God is saying let it go, relinquish it, lose your life and find it in Me. Won't you come this morning and in this church we take communion at the altar and the elders will serve you at the altar and you can just lay it out before the Lord. Let this be a fulcrum, a turning point, a pivoting point to make this transition from self-ruled religion to the indwelling of the Most High God. Hallelujah! From self-ruled Pentecost, gifts ruled by man to the... and they are subject to us but we are to be subject to God. And if you're here this morning and you need to make that voluntary relinquishing of that which you're trying to clutch and this especially is addressed to religious people because we do clutch the things of God. But Jesus made Himself of no reputation and counted the being equal with God not a thing to be clutched, not a thing to be grasped. And if you're here this morning and you've been grasping, grasping, that's a penalty that God pays for inviting us into His presence as it will become grasping as Satan did, not content to be a covering cherub. He said, I'll be like the Most High. I'll take my place in the sides of the north. That's the risk He runs on, inviting us to His throne that we'll misunderstand. If you're here this morning and you feel a need to relinquish that clutching and just be content to just be where God wants you to be, we invite you to come and receive the communion. It's this temptation that's pitched, that Satan pitches toward the spiritually zealous. It's this clutching, this clutching of the high things of God. It's pitched toward the spiritually zealous, the spiritually ambitious. And God doesn't want us bound by that thing because it's very, very dangerous. And it impacts and infringes on God's glory. And He will not give His glory to another. If you feel that this morning, you can come if you want to and take communion and the elders will serve you here. And you just say, Lord, today I want this to be a pivotal day for me in my journey from Pentecost to Tabernacles to relinquish voluntarily that which I'm clutching, that which I'm clutching. I want God to be my salvation. God Himself. And then I'll rest just like a child in the bosom of its mother. I'll rest in God's bosom. And what He does for me is sufficient for me. Then that's where the rest is. God rests. And then we rest. We enter into His rest. Alright, those who are still in the pews may be seated then. And I'll ask Paul and the ushers to come. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. Shall we hold the bread before the Lord? And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take ye it. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Lord, we know that it has taken six thousand years to bring the church to the understanding of your intention to dwell in us and to make a church which is a bride and not just a servant, but which is the dwelling place of God and to do so voluntarily. We thank you, Lord, for every person who faithfully has borne witness through the years and has suffered so much to bring us to this place. Lord, help us today to take advantage of the vast expenditure of time and money and people and energy and the blood, sweat, and tears and the agony of the travail, Lord, to bring the sons of Adam to the place where we would relinquish our God-given rights back to you, Father, that you could reign in our hearts and be the only true God, the only true God in all the sons of God. Thank you, Lord, for that understanding. And we pray that we will serve our generation by the will of God and not in any way be distracted by anything at all. And grant, Lord, that this shall be unto us that we realize as we take your precious flesh, Lord, that it is becoming the building of the temple of God in us. Shall we partake together? After the same manner also he took the cup. Shall we hold the cup? When he had sup, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Lord, we know that you said you would not drink of this fruit of the vine until you drank it with us in your kingdom. And Lord, we know that kingdom now is at hand and you are preparing to enter into your people. Jesus, grant this morning as we covenant with you, Lord, that we do so not in a vain show, but rather in the wonderful hope and anticipation that you will enter into your church in these days and we will know you, Lord, because you will be dwelling within us and then shall come from heaven also so that you are both in us and with us and we with and in you. Grant that this be so as we covenant with you this morning. Shall we partake together? Ask the people in the pews then, if you will, to stand. Those of the altar may pray just as long as they wish. It takes a while to get that old man to say that total, final, eternal, irrevocable yes to the hound of heaven. All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. Iliya l'vah, mele l'vah, s'iliya. Thou art worthy, O Lord, Thou art worthy, O Lord. O Thou art worthy beyond all worthiness, O Lord. Thou art worthy beyond all worthiness, O Lord. Thou art worthy beyond all worthiness, O Lord. Iliya l'vah, mele l'vah, s'iliya. Iliya l'vah, mele l'vah, s'iliya. Thou art worthy, O Lord, Thou art worthy, O Lord. Worthy, worthy art Thou, Jesus. O Thou art glorious in Thy holiness, O Lord. Thou art worthy to be praised. Worthy to be praised.