In this sermon, the preacher begins by praising and glorifying God, asking for His presence and power to be manifested in the city. The preacher emphasizes the importance of lifting up the name of Jesus and giving Him praise and honor. The sermon then focuses on the significance of Jesus' resurrection, highlighting that it is a sign of His triumph over sin and darkness. The preacher encourages the congregation to turn to God, receive His joy, and find strength in Him, offering salvation and transformation through faith in Jesus Christ.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York, 10019. If you'll go in your Bible's place to the Old Testament, the book of Exodus chapter 27, I'm going to speak to you this morning about oil beaten for the light. Oil beaten for the light. Doesn't sound like much of a New Year's message, but it is, really. Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart, that you have chosen to abide in this house. Lord, you have transformed thousands of people here. There's been a constant testimony of your presence. And as we leave 2006 and go into 2007, I ask you, Lord, with all my heart, that you go with us in full measure. Go with us with the weightiness of our Christ and that the glory of the Lord be always our portion. God, help us to honor you, to reverence you. Help us to deal honestly with truth and to allow your grace to abound within us, bringing us into the measure of the stature of the life of Christ. I pray, God, in this house that no one ever say no to you, that when you call us, we go. What you give us to do, we will do. I ask for grateful hearts for this incredible invitation to walk with a holy God. I ask, Lord, that there always be a reverence in this house. Oh, Jesus, thank you for the anointing that you've always put in this pulpit. No matter who stands here, you multiply the little that we are and you begin to feed many who've come and are searching for truth. I ask, Lord, that you continue to multiply your truth in us and through us, expand our hearts and our minds, because it is you, Lord, who makes us much more than we are. God, help us to hear, help us to speak, help us to honor you. I pray that everyone who ever stands in this pulpit, the motivation of our heart be that your name, Jesus, be honored. Your name be lifted up. Your name be remembered. Your truth be embraced and your will be done. God, help us now. Help me to deliver this. Help me to speak it in a manner, Lord, that truly honors your name. Help us to hear it. I ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Exodus chapter 27, verses 20 and 21. And thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring thee pure oil olive, beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. In the tabernacle of the congregation, without or outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel. Now, in these chapters, the Lord's giving to Moses by instruction, the procedure which must be followed in order that his presence would remain among the people. Now, in verses 20 and 21, there was a priesthood. Aaron and his sons, they were to stand before, outside it is, of the presence of the Lord. Remember that there was a veil that separated the actual physical presence of God from the people. And the only evidence, as it is, to the people that God was there would be the testimony of the priesthood. The priesthood were to stand outside the veil and there was to be a light. And this was a light that burned in conjunction, for lack of a better word, with man. It was a type, in a sense, of one day that God who, Paul says, dwells in unapproachable light, would come and through the power of the Holy Ghost would indwell human vessels. And he would work with man and working with man would present a testimony to a people who live outside the veil. That, in reality, God is and that God is alive, that God is ever-present and God is a help in times of need for whosoever will turn to him. And this was a type of something that was coming. The people of Israel would be familiar with Aaron and his sons going in day by day. They would be maintaining, as it is, this testimony, this light that dwelled outside of the veil. Now, it was always to burn before the testimony of God. It was never to be put out. And the Scripture says it was to be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel. It was never to go out. And actually, in the original text, if I might tear it apart for you just a little bit, in verse 20, it says, pure oil olive beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn always. And when you tear this apart in the Hebrew text, the word lamp means it's a place of instruction, or it speaks of the continuance of a lineage. The word burn means to bring up, to offer, to travel from a lower to a higher elevation. And the word always means continuously, without interruption, and it carries the connotation of God caring for his people and God's people continuously offering back praise to him. Let me paraphrase this for you. God said, I want a testimony outside of the veil. It's a testimony that works in conjunction with human vessels, a priesthood, as it is, that I will call into proximity with myself. And this priesthood, working with this lamp, or this flame as it is, that represents something of my heart, my presence, will be an instruction to the people. The people will look and they will always see those who dwell in my presence being taken from one elevation to another. That's why Paul says those who are in Christ are continuously being transformed from image to image and glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. If you are a genuine Christian today, your family, your husband, your wife, people in your workplace and in the apartment where you live, if they're around you for any amount of time, they should see this presence of Christ within you changing you. They should see this constant transformation. You're not perfect, of course, but you're becoming more like Christ every day. You have more long-suffering. You're kinder than you used to be. You're more generous than you were a year ago. There's something of God and the people who live outside of God's life look and they see this light of God working in conjunction with human vessels. And the issue really is the testimony. They look and they say, surely God must be alive. I see this person who claims to know God through Jesus Christ changing, constantly moving into a different kind of a person, a more appealing person, a person who seems to be more God-like. If I were to try to figure in my mind, now speaking figuratively, of a person who's outside of the kingdom of God, this person is attractive. There's something about this person that is drawing me to God and to the life of God. And the lamp was to burn always. And it carries the connotation of a continuous burning, no interruption. It speaks about God caring for His people and God's people continuously offering back praise to Him. These priests, as it is, of whom we are in our generation, a kingdom of kings and priests, as Revelation calls us, are to be outside, as it is, a clear display to the people of our generation that God cares for us. And no matter what we have to go through, He's carrying us. And His presence is sufficient to sustain us. His promises are true. He does not fail. He does not forsake His children. Yes, we go through hardship like others do. But the hardship does not overwhelm us. And we are constantly offering back praise to God for the good things that He is doing in our lives. Oh, folks, the people in your work environment have to go through the same things you do. They have children that rebel. They have bills that they sometimes don't know how they're going to pay them. The difference is that you have a God within you that says, I will be your supply, you will go through this, and you will lift your hands to me and praise me. People who live outside of my actual life and presence, the only evidence they will ever have that I am alive is the light of my light burning within you. And this constant relationship where you have access without restriction to my life and to my provision within you. This is a witness. Aaron and his sons were to be a witness. You and I are to be a witness. That's what the Scripture says. When the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, it was for the purpose that we would be witnesses. All of the fact that Jesus Christ is alive and sits at the right hand of all power. He rose from the dead and we would be witnesses throughout all the world, starting where we live and expanding out from the borders that we have around ourselves to wherever it is that God would take us. We see this in the New Testament. The Bible speaks of a man who was a witness. His name was John the Baptist in John one six to nine. He said there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. Oh, folks, what other reason is there for us to be here now? What other reason? What a foolish world we live in today. The airways are filled with stupidity. And you look around and you see people pursuing things that we know are going to perish. We wonder, God, what are we here for? Oh, there's no other reason than to be a witness of the light. This is all a transient environment that we live in. This is one day going to be all swept away. There's another kingdom coming. It's an eternal kingdom. It's a new heavens. It's a new earth. We are here to be witnesses of the reality that God is alive. He has a people. He sustains those that call out to him. He saves them to the uttermost. It says of John, he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light, that that was the true light which lights every man that comes into the world. There is a light that lights every man, of course, and we know this to be Jesus Christ. Now, God told Moses that this particular light that we read about in Exodus chapter 27, in order to be acceptable to God, it had to have a certain oil as its fuel source. And this oil had to be prepared in a specific way. There are many people who claim to have light, but their fuel source is questionable of the light that is within them. In verse 20, we speak about this. It had to be pure oil from the olive, and it had to be beaten for the light. It had to be beaten in a specific manner, or it could not become the power source. In other words, God says, no, there's no substitutionary oil for this light. This is a specific kind of oil. Now, we know that in all these things that God was leading us to Christ. All through the scripture, we find this beaten oil that he was speaking about. Even in the Old Testament, in 1 Kings 19, verse 12, when Elijah had collapsed from exhaustion, really, and he was in a cave, and the Lord came to him in the way that Elijah was familiar, with an earthquake and a wind and fire, this was his perception of God, and these were the manifestations of God that Elijah was familiar with. But all of a sudden, he comes as a small, still voice. And when you look at it in the Hebrew, the word small means crushed, bruised, broken. He comes, and everything is leading to Christ. He comes in a manifestation that Elijah is not familiar with, that God was going to become a man, that God had the power to destroy all creation. He could do it with a thought, he didn't even have to speak a word. But yet, in spite of the power that he has, and in spite of the right of his own righteousness to destroy what he had created and remake it, he chose, freely, to become a small, still, crushed voice. To become a man, speaking into a generation that, because of their religiousness, would reject him. Ultimately, would trample him underfoot and crucify him. Isaiah 53.5 says, He was wounded, that means broken or defiled, for our transgressions. He was bruised, that means cast down, broken, crushed, humbled, and afflicted for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace, the punishment, in other words, that we needed to bear, each of us, to be brought back to peace with God, which, of course, was impossible, we couldn't have borne it, was upon Him, and with His stripes, we are healed. Christ, Himself, said in Matthew 5.17, Don't think that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy them, I came to fulfill them. Now, in the Old Testament, this beaten oil had to be gathered from olive trees. There had to be olive oil, and it had to be gathered in a certain way. Now, keep in mind, everything is leading to Christ, in the Scriptures, everything. There's no wonder, then, in Matthew 26.30, at the Last Supper, it says, And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. You see, He was found among olive trees. Everything was pointing to Him in the Old Testament. The olives had to be gathered, initially, by hand. People who went in to get this oil, in the days of Aaron, they would go in and they would, as much as possible, you could reach or gather, would be gathered by hand. In Matthew 26.50, it says, And they came, and they laid hands on Jesus, and they took Him. Matthew 26.67 said, They did spit in His face, and they buffeted Him. And others smote Him with the palms of their hands. You had to reach and shake the branches, in other words, to get this olive off of the branches. And secondarily, the olives that you couldn't reach by hand, you were allowed, under the law, to take a stick. And you were allowed to reach the taller branches and hit them with a stick. And it says in Matthew 27.30, The soldiers, they spit upon Him, they took a reed, and they smote Him on the head with it. We see everything pointing to Jesus Christ. And lastly, these olives were to be crushed and rolled upon by a great stone. Now, there was an olive oil that was made by the trampling of human feet, and in some measure, of course, it does apply. But this particular oil, in the Old Testament, was not to be prepared this way. It was to be rolled upon by a great stone. And in Mark 15.46, the Scripture says, They laid Him in a sepulcher, a grave, which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a great stone unto the door of the sepulcher. Amazing. Oh, folks, I love the Scriptures because if you see things the way God intended it to be, from Genesis to Revelation, it's all about Jesus Christ. He's telling one story through the whole book, and everything points to Him. But out of this whole process came an oil which would cause a light to continuously burn to the testimony and honor of God. Now, you and I know on the third day, God, by the power of the Holy Ghost, raised Jesus Christ from the dead. A living sign to all men everywhere and for all time, that He had triumphed over the powers of sin and hell and darkness. There's no reason today for you to be sitting in a prison. There's no reason for you to be nursing old wounds. There's no reason for you to be sitting here in spiritual blindness. Jesus Christ has come. He has made a way. The oil of His life through the Holy Spirit is free to all who call out to Him in sincerity and truth. God says, Not only will I save you, but I will make you into a new creation. I will set you on a new course. I will give you a new mind. I will give you a new heart. I will give you a new spirit. You will be born a second time of the Spirit, as if you had never lived before. You'll be given a brand new lease on life, folks. Why in Heaven's name would you ever choose to live an old way of living? Would you ever hold to death? Would you ever gravitate and grab to a corpse when God has promised life through His Son, Jesus Christ? John 1-9, speaking of Jesus, said, He was the true light, which lights every man that comes into the world. And the word in the Greek for light means it has never been kindled and it can never be extinguished. No man caused this light to burn. It always did burn. And no man can put it out. It always will be. And He says, I'm willing to give this to you. I'm willing to be that light within you that can never be extinguished. I have within my heart not a concept about God, not a theory about God, not some religious experience with God. I have the living God living within me. I have this light in my heart that can never be extinguished. Now, Jesus said in Matthew 10-24, the disciple is not above his master and the servant is not above his Lord. Now, He spoke this to you and I in the context of persecution. There are things that He had to go through. And as His body on this side of eternity, there are things that you and I will have to go through. As a matter of fact, some of you are going through it right now. Go in the New Testament, please, with me to the book of 2 Corinthians 1-8. And this is a passage of Scripture where the apostle Paul is really, I think, speaking an example of this particular Scripture, that the disciple is not above his master, the servant is not above his Lord. We live in a generation of drive-through Christianity. And people are gravitating in measure at least to messages that say, well, you just received Christ and you're just going to be happy forever. And you're going to have no more problems. You have no more bills to pay. You'll be fabulously wealthy, incredibly honored. You'll have power over the lives of men, etc., etc., etc., and other such things that are not in the Scriptures. And 2 Corinthians 1-8, here's the apostle Paul. Now, you have to understand, this is the man that God used to write much of the New Testament. I would not, for we would not, brethren, verse 8, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia. Now, I want you to think of the olives for a moment and what Christ had to go through. We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired of life. Paul said, listen, I don't want you to be ignorant of this. But we ran into a situation that we had no strength to endure. We got to the point where we thought we were going to die. The battle was so intense, it was so fierce, that came to us. But he goes on, he says, but we had the sense of death in ourselves. In other words, Paul says, I knew, and the people with me knew, that we could not get through this on our own. This was not something where natural ability was going to get us to the other side. There's no reasoning our way out of this. This was a spiritual battle. The forces we were facing are spiritual voices who are pitted as it is against the Christ in us. That we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead. We, Paul, had this attitude of heart, I am until God says I'm not. I will go until God says no more. I am the servant of the Lord. And I'm prepared to die. I'm prepared to go to Jerusalem. I'm not going to be turned back by even well-meaning Christians. I'm going to go, and I'm going to do what God's called me to do, trusting that His name will be honored in me. And Paul says in verse 10, He delivered us from so great a death, and He does deliver, and whom we trust that He will yet deliver us. Paul said, I have been pressed out of measure, but I have a power source in me that cannot be put out. The devil can't put it out. Men can't put it out. Circumstance can't put it out. My life can't be cut short. I'm on a prescribed journey, and I'm going to finish this journey. I'm going to finish it in my God. Hallelujah. Teresa and I were sharing together the other day, just in a matter of sharing from the Scriptures in the morning, and we said, let's finish this journey right. Let's not have regrets at the end. Let's not get to the end and look back and say, if only. If only. If only. If only I had done this. If only I hadn't done that. Let's get to the end and look back like Paul and say, I have run. I have finished. I have fought. There is a crown of righteousness laid up for me, Paul said. Now, Paul was mercilessly beaten most of his converted life. I don't know how that fits in a lot of modern theology, but that's exactly what happened to him. Stoned, shipwrecked, betrayed, falsely accused. It was his life. It never went away. I do believe in measure. At least it was the thorn that he asked God, please, do you mind, God? It would be nice to preach somewhere that people don't try to kill me at the end of my sermon. Almost all of his converted life, Paul was mercilessly beaten, but the light in him kept getting brighter. The light couldn't be put out because he kept turning to God. And he said, I've got a sense of death in myself. I don't have to figure this out. I just give myself to God daily and daily. He sustains me and daily carries me and brings me into this power source of his own life that has lived within me. Joseph, think of Joseph in the Old Testament. He was beaten by his family. He was beaten by friends. He was beaten by circumstance. But yet the whole time, the provision that was about to flow from his hand was getting closer day after day. Folks, I'm telling you, some of the greatest servants of God that will ever live in our generation are being beaten right now. By religious people, by family, by circumstance, by life. You're finding yourself in one of the darkest places you've ever been in your life. And you've been crying out and saying, God Almighty, what is going on in my life? I thought this was supposed to be a happy time in Christ. And yet here I feel like I'm being rolled upon by a great stone. I feel like my face is being slapped at every turn. I feel like I'm being gripped by the hands of ungodly men all around me. Lord Jesus, what is happening in my life? Think about Moses. He was beaten by failure. He's beaten by regret. He was beaten by the heat of the day. For 40 years he was beaten in the wilderness. Yet the whole time his spiritual authority was coming to him that would cause hell to tremble. You might be in a place today where you're being beaten for the light. But I tell you the light that is within you cannot be overcome. It is a light that was never kindled by man and it cannot be put out by man. If you have Christ within you, you have an eternal, you are living in the power of an endless life. Yes, yes, yes. You and I have to share, as Paul said, in the fellowship of his sufferings. If they've hated Christ, they're going to hate those who represent Christ. Don't think this generation is going to tolerate those who truly live for God and truly stand up in the marketplace with the testimony of Christ. You will endure everything that Christ had to endure and everyone before you. It is most likely possible that where you are is exactly where God wants you to be at this time in your life. You are in the very center of God's will. The devil will come to you and say, what kind of a Christian are you? Everybody hates you. Everybody's talking about you. Your family don't even want to be around you. You are right in the center of God's will. You are being pressed out beyond measure that the life, when you stand one day, there will be no life but the life of Christ left in you. It may be that yours is the only testimony that will truly burn for God in this place that you are right now. It just may be. You see, you are the one who dwells as men see it. You and I know we don't dwell outside the veil. But the only evidence of the reality of God is you. We're living in a generation when most people, at least in New York, are not going to read a Bible anymore. The only evidence that God is alive is you, daily, coming in with this beaten oil and offering up praises to the God who never fails you and determining in your heart that this light is going to burn no matter what happens in this world. This light is going to burn. I'm not giving up on the testimony that I have of my trust in God. No matter how dark it gets. No matter how difficult it gets. God will not fail me. I will stand in the marketplace and I will, by God's grace, glorify him with everything that God has given me. My life will be a lamp. Remember in the Hebrew, it means an instruction. It means the continuance of a lineage. People will be able to look and say, the book of Acts has not died. God's power has not diminished. There are still a people who walk with God. My life will burn. Being taken up, it means from one elevation to another. Changing by the grace of God. Brought into this power of an endless life that burns within me. And it will be always. It means without interruption. I choose to continuously offer back praise to God in spite of what goes on in my life in this generation. Now if you're being beaten for the light, you're in good company. Jeremiah was beaten for the light. Daniel was beaten for the light. The Hebrew boys were beaten for the light. Paul was beaten for the light. Every apostle was beaten for the light. John Wesley was beaten for the light. The religious establishment in his day, he was a man who brought much of the church of his time, and where he lived back again into true relationship with God. And the existing church shunned him. And he had to preach out in a field. He preached to crowds of almost 20,000 people. George Whitefield, who was a contemporary of his, also was beaten for the light. And I could list name after name after name after name of people who have truly been used to honor Christ, who have been beaten for the light of God. I often wonder sometimes, is there any really escaping it? Especially in a lukewarm generation. I don't think there is any escaping it. But all these men and women, just as Christ had one thing in common. The cry of their heart was, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. God, I am yours. I'm not going to be a nondescript testimony in my generation. I'm not going to present to a darkened generation an argument about God. I'm going to present to them a living experience. Let them stand back and mock if they want, but they will not be able to deny the reality of the living Christ burning within me. They will not be able to deny it. Let them mock. Let them scoff. Let them slap. Let them spit. Let them shake their heads, as they did to the Christ who died on Calvary. But by God's grace within me, I will stand in this generation. I will commend my spirit into the hands of my Father. I will give my all to God, trusting that He is the one who will burn through me. I want to challenge you as a church today, as your pastor, I want to challenge you to not limit God. I want to challenge you to let Jesus Christ be Jesus Christ within you. I want to challenge you to not use God to your objectives, but allow God to use you for His purpose. I want to challenge you to seek Him this year with all your heart. And no matter where He leads, to follow Him. If He leads out of something that's dear to your heart, then thank God for it, because it would only take away the testimony He wants to plant within you. I want to challenge you to go before the testimony of God's faithfulness, as Aaron and his sons did, and declare Him to be faithful to this generation, in spite of the fact that everyone around you seems to think you're going through disaster. But you choose to lift your hands to God. You choose to declare Him to be faithful. You are among those who follow Christ when the whole of society is wagging its head and saying, Oh, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. And laughing Him and mocking Him, He looks to heaven and says, Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit. You cannot fail me, God. You will not fail me. You have given promises to me. And by these promises, I will rise from the dead. By these promises, I will have a church. By these promises, I will sit in victory for all of eternity. By these promises, I commend my spirit, O God, into Your hands. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Let this be the cry of this church in 2007. God spoke to Pastor David when He called him to found this church, and the Holy Spirit spoke to him that this would be ascending church. And I'm not talking about short-term missions trips. I'm talking about people who would find God here, and the Holy Spirit would be able to speak to them. There would be people who have come here for the good life from Islamic countries, and they would choose willfully to return to be a testimony for Jesus Christ. From all over the world, there's over 100 nations in this sanctuary represented this morning. And many who are here today, you can go back where nobody else can go. And God just may call you to do that. I'm not trying to lay a burden on you. What I'm suggesting to you is that you open your heart to the Holy Spirit and say, Lord, what would you have of my life? You begin to burn right where you are, in the workplace, in the environment. Oh, they will soon get rid of you if you burn brightly for Jesus Christ in some place. You don't have to worry about leaving where you are. They will gladly help you out the door. They'll make your choice a whole lot easier. Then you come back the next Sunday and say, OK, that's over with now. Lord, where will you have me to go? The greatest thing you can ever pray is into your hands, Father. I commend my spirit. I don't know when it happened in my life. I can't speak for the other pastors here. But I do know at some point as a young Christian, it happened. And I said, Lord, you have me. And wherever you want to take me, take me. I prefer to die there than to live 60 more years to myself. Take me wherever you want me to go. Oh, please, let that be the cry of this church. We live in such a time of such self-focused and selfish Christianity that has a very dubious fuel source. It uses the name of Jesus, but I doubt that his life is involved in it. Let that not ever be the testimony of this house. I challenge you. Now, I want to give an altar call today. Firstly, for those that are being really beaten up bad. It's a good thing. Whether you know it or not, it's a good thing. I know what this is all about. And there's more coming. The only thing the devil could do is drive you to the power source. That's all he can do. I just would like to pray for those who are really going through it. That the joy of the Lord become your strength. The joy of just knowing that you have Christ within you. And that God's purpose is going to be fulfilled in your life. I'd like to pray for you today. And then for those who want to make a decision today. And say, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. Lord, I truly, I truly yield my future to you. I truly give you the rights to my life. And now the Lord will not take that and bring you under condemnation. There will be a gentle and a very peaceable leading. And you will know when it's gone. You don't have to sweat it. You don't have to go home and try to figure it out today. You just simply start walking with him. And it will unfold before you. Not necessarily overnight. It may take a while. But it will unfold. And there's no greater life to live. That's my altar call for Times Square Church. And the last message I'll preach in 2006 as we move into 2007. Oh, Father, into thy hands. I commend this church. The Lord, I'm only a steward here for a season. I commend this body of believers into your hands. And I ask you, Holy Spirit, to guide us. Lead us into the future. Help us to honor your name. Truly may we be a priesthood who stands in the marketplace in our generation. And declares to a people who live outside of God that you are and that you are alive. I pray that we be a people of grateful hearts. Trusting. Moving beyond circumstance. Moving beyond the issues of the day. Into a deep and abiding heartfelt trust in our God. I ask you, Lord, that there be an open door in this house for people to begin to respond and to go. And do what you've asked us to do. I yield to it, Lord. I bend my knee to it. I ask you, Jesus, to be Lord of this church. Help us today, O God, to understand that all things work together for good. Because we love you and we are called according to your purpose. Give grace today to those who need grace. I ask it in Jesus' name. As we stand, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart, would you join me at the altar, please, in the balcony? You can go to either exit. In the annex, if you could just stand between the screens, if you will. We're going to pray. I'm going to pray for you that the joy of the Lord become your strength. Hallelujah. Just make way, please, for those that are coming. If you're backslidden, come home to God. Get out of your seat and come. He will receive you. You don't have to do this in your own strength. You don't have to walk it in your own strength. He's given you promises. You have to believe him. He'll open your eyes to truth. If you're lost in your sin, you're welcome to come to Christ. Receive him as your Savior. Let him save you today. Let him wash your sin away. He'll make you a new person, a new creation in him. Hallelujah. Over 2,000 years ago, God became a man. And for 33 years, he walked this earth. And there was a significance to that, actually, because when Israel went in to conquer the promised land, they defeated 33 kings before the land was subdued. Everything, everything, everything points to Jesus Christ. He died at the age of 33, and he died to pay the price for the wrong things that you have done. Sin is when you set your own judgment above the will of God and the word of God. That's what the Bible describes as sin. And because of sin, the Scripture says you are cast out and cannot dwell in the presence of a holy God for eternity. But God was not willing to lose you because he loves you. He says God so loved the world. That's you. He became a man. And he went to a cross, and he allowed himself, God Almighty, to be kicked and spit on and hit with a stick, taken with men's hands, whipped and crucified for you. He did it for you. And he did it because he loves you. He did not do it because he had some judicial thing to fulfill. He did it out of a passion for you. He says all I ask of you is that you acknowledge that you're a sinner. That I've taken your place, and you invite me to come into your heart, your life, to be your Savior. And he says I will come. I will come. I will sit down with you, and I will give you strength. And I will promise you that when you die, that you will have a place in heaven with me forever. If you are a sinner and you want to receive Christ as your Savior at this moment, would you just simply raise your hand? That's all I'm going to ask you to do, wherever you are. Raise it high. All through the sanctuary, at the altar, up in the balcony. God bless you everywhere. In the annex, I can't see your hands, but God can. Just raise your hand nice and high. Raise it high. There's many more. God bless you all over. Coming to Christ today. Thanks be to God. You see, folks, these people are coming to Christ because they've been in a place where there is a testimony. If there was no testimony, they would not be surrendering their lives to Christ today. And you are in great measure part of that testimony, so don't be discouraged today. Your praise is to God. The Lord has inhabited the praises of his people today, and we see quite a number coming to Christ now. Now, for those who raised your hand, I'm going to lead you in a prayer. It's not a formula to come to Christ. It's an issue of the heart. This is just a way to help you to understand what you're doing at this very moment. Now, if you clearly understand this, the Lord will receive you. Your sins will be washed away. The Bible says that God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, that's the oil, the fire we talked about, will come to you. And you will have a witness in your own heart that you are a child of God. You'll have a new cry. God says, Abba, Father, will come to you. You will know. You will instinctively know that you are a child of God. And it will cause you to move in another direction, the direction of God's will for your life. Now, let's pray, please, all together. Lord Jesus. I am a sinner. Thank you, Jesus, that you love me so much that you are willing to become a man and pay a terrible price on a cross for all the wrong things that I have done. I'm sorry for my sin, and I'm sorry that it's because of my sin that you had to be crucified. Today I open my heart, and I ask you, Jesus, to come into my life, be my Lord, and be my Savior. I give my life to you in entirety. I give you the rights to my future. I ask you to guide me, lead me. And may my life be lived in such a manner that honor and glory will be brought to your name. I am no longer my own. You paid a price for me. So I freely yield my life to you. From this day forward, Jesus Christ, Son of God, you are my Lord. Guide me and lead me in your precious name. Amen. Hallelujah. Now, Father, I just pray for these who are at the altar. You say the joy of the Lord is our strength. But, Lord, it's your joy before it's ours. It was your delight to save us. It's your delight to meet us. It's your delight to cleanse us. It's your delight to heal us. It's your joy that is our strength. God, thank you. Thank you, Lord, for the knowledge that these are loved. That we are loved. That you will guide us through the valley of the shadow of death. We will look back one day and say, surely, goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. Lord, we will rejoice when this is over. Like Paul, we'll say, I have run. I have fought. I have finished. God, thank you. There are things that are going to be written through the hands of those at this altar. There's provision that you're going to release to this generation. There's a spiritual authority you're going to place on many. Beginning in our own homes and beyond our homes to our neighborhoods and our communities and our city and our world. Oh, God, thank you. Thank you, Lord, that your ways are not our ways. Your ways are higher than our ways. Oh, Jesus, we give you praise and glory. Thank you, Lord, that everything is exactly as it should be. Our lives are completely on schedule. The enemy is not triumphing over us. Jesus, thank you. God, we give you praise. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. I praise you, Lord, that as we move into 2007, we're not turning back. We're not slowing down. We're not allowing the testimony of Christ to be diminished. Lord, we're going to go forward. We're going to conquer. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, God Almighty. As a city, as a congregation and individually, we ask you to come and do exploits. Oh, God, show yourself strong, Jesus. Show your glory to this generation. Show it through every life at this altar and in this house, oh, God. Show New York the reality that you are still alive. You are still God. You sit at the right hand of all authority and all power. Let the city see you, oh, God. Oh, God, send 8,000 people out of this house today into this city. Let there be an infusion of God's glory into every borough of this city. Jesus, let your name be spoken. Let your name be glorified. Let your name be lifted up. Hallelujah, Lamb of God. We give you praise and honor and glory. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. You've not failed us. You'll never fail us, Lord. Hallelujah, Lamb of God. We give you praise. We give you honor. We give you glory. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. We will not be triumphed over. You will not be triumphed over. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the message.