This sermon emphasizes the importance of bowing our heads in worship and surrendering to God's plan, especially in dark and challenging times. It calls for setting apart our homes for God, opening our hearts to others on the journey, centering our fellowship around Christ, and praying with faith. The message encourages stepping out in faith, preparing for a miraculous journey with God, and being a testimony of His reality in a perishing world.

I want to share with you a message this morning that's been on my heart all summer. It's the only message that's been on my heart all summer, and it has a title. It's from 2 Timothy chapter 3. They bowed their heads and worshipped. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Now Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart. I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I thank you, Lord, for your strength and your power and your mercy. Oh God, you are so merciful to us. You're so good to us, Lord. You're so willing to walk with us in spite of our frailties and our failings, our struggles and our weaknesses, those that we know and those that we don't, yet you still walk with us and you call us friends. I ask you for an anointing today, oh God, that will cause every person's heart to begin to burn with faith. I ask you, Lord Jesus Christ, to put a divine touch upon this word you've put on my heart, and bear witness, Lord, to that which comes from your word. Father, I thank you for this, and I praise you for it, God, with all my heart, in Jesus' mighty name. 2 Timothy chapter 3, beginning at verse 1, and they bowed their heads and worshipped. I'm reading from the New King James Version of the Bible. But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janice and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith. But they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. Now let me begin this message today by saying that I believe that we have now entered into this chapter which so clearly defines our day. You and I are there. We are potentially the final generation before Christ returns to rule and reign upon this earth. I can't say that for a certainty. No man, no person can. But the Bible does say that we are not children of darkness, that that day should overtake us as a thief. There has to be something in the hearts of those of us who belong to God that begins to cry out, behold the bridegroom, go ye out to meet him. There's something in my heart that's longing for Christ more than I ever have in my entire lifetime. There's a groan inside of me as I look out and I see the news and I watch the disintegration of our world as it has been. I see the destruction of our own society right before my own eyes and there's a groaning continuously now in my heart. Oh Jesus, come. Oh Jesus, come. Oh Jesus, come. Come first with mercy. Come first, oh God, and help our youth in our streets. Come first, oh God, to our colleges and our schools and our homes and our families. Oh God, come to this nation and breathe upon us one more time, not for the saving of a society, for the saving of people. For this country may never look the same again a few years from now, but that doesn't matter as long as the people in it have had an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For Christ did not die to save sandcastles and societies and things that men have built. He died to save the lost and to bring them home to the Father again. Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 24 described the final moments just before his return. He said there would be an increase of misleading spiritual voices and surely we've had no shortage of that, especially in America in the last two decades. There'd be an increase of wars and threats of war. Now we see war breaking out and folks, you and I have to realize that these days were spoken about. They're starting to be fulfilled right before our eyes now. He said there would be food shortages, threatening diseases, natural disasters would be on the increase. There would be a marked increase also of hatred towards the followers, the true followers of Jesus Christ. As I stand here and speak to you this morning, radical Islam in many parts of the world is on the rise with unspeakable force and cruelty with the intent of destroying every society that doesn't look like itself. A new and fearsome disease called Ebola is presently uncontained in Africa, causing the World Health Organizations to give us the highest level warnings of the present or future possibility of a global pandemic of either this or a similar type disease. In our own nation of America, we're so culturally, socially, and politically divided that we are witnessing the fulfillment of what Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 25. He said every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. As I speak this morning, lawlessness has broken out in some of our city streets and will continue to do so in the days ahead. And as a society perhaps most tragically evolved, just like they did in the storm that Paul wrote about in the book of Acts chapter 27, we are throwing overboard the only thing that could bring true healing, hope, and direction for the future. We are as a nation throwing out the lordship of Jesus Christ and the word of God. It breaks my heart, and it should break your heart, breaks my heart to see young men and women in our streets devoid of hope and a future given to grievances and lusts and unable to contain them. When they could be told there is a God, they could be brought into a living relationship with God. What a tragedy as a nation. What a travesty to have known the ways of God and so lightly esteemed it, and to throw it overboard. The reason today that you and I are experiencing the kind of worship that we are with 104 nations represented in this church alone is because of the lordship of Jesus Christ and the word of God. Thank God. It's amazing. We will look as a society everywhere and in every place for solutions to these unsolvable dilemmas that have come upon us in our generation. We look everywhere but to the place where men are required to bend their knee before a holy God, because of the arrogance of the human heart. For you see, if we acknowledge that there is a God, then that means we're no longer God in ourselves. That means we can't create the rules. We have to bend to the one who did create the rules, and knows right from wrong, and knows where life is, and light is, and health and healing. You see, men want to retain their forms of behavior, but yet still want to have an assurance of well-being. And so we look in every corner of the nation for hope and help, which seems to elude us more so every day. And the question that came to my heart this summer is, what is the church to do? What are we to do in these days that we're living in? I've only scratched the surface. I could lay before you statistics that would break your heart of where we are as a nation, how we are we are literally in a downward spiral on almost every barometer. What's happening to this country is tragic. It has repeated itself in the past. Other societies have fallen the way we are falling, yet we seem to be somewhat isolated from history. We don't want to look at history. We don't want to consider our ways. But there was a season in the scripture where the people of God found themselves at first for a season. They had been intermingled with that society, and they had been accepted, just as the church of Jesus Christ was largely accepted in America for probably a few decades. It was popular at one point to be a Christian. Everybody was born again, whether or not they were, they were born again. Born-again athletes, born-again actors, born-again financiers, everybody was becoming born again. It was popular at one time. It was popular for the children of Israel to be in Egypt. They had a history there. They were accepted there. They prospered there. Joseph had been a wonderful leader, and he had been acknowledged by the people. And so just as Billy Graham, at one point in the past in this country, was acknowledged as a man of God and a great spiritual leader. We've had very, very much of a similar journey in some measure. But yet a time arose when it was no longer popular for the people of God to be intermingled with those who didn't know the true and the living God. And as God had done in the past and still does today, he caused a stirring in that society to resent and to reject the people of God. You see, because you and I are not meant to be intermixed with the fallen value system of this society. We're not meant to be found where they are on Friday night. We're not meant to be reading what they're reading. We're not meant to be watching what they're watching. We are people called to be separate unto God. We are a priesthood unto the Lord. And so God, from time to time throughout history, to get a hold of his own people, will cause the society at large to reject his people, to push out, to marginalize, to try to cause us to believe that we are actually less than we are, to push the name of Christ out of our schools and our colleges, out of the workplace, out of the marketplace, out of everywhere in society. But as I've often said from this pulpit, you can't push somebody who's everywhere out of anywhere. In the midst of all of this, the people began to cry and sigh. And I don't know about you, but I've found that in my heart. There's a heaviness. Now it's not a man-made heaviness. It's a God-breathed heaviness. It's a desire for Christ. It's a desire to see his righteousness once again. It's a desire for all that God has called you and I to be. It's a desire for my inheritance. It's a desire that all the cords of everything that occupies our mind, our time, and our thinking, that all these things be broken. And suddenly out of nowhere one day, Moses and Aaron appear in Egypt. They are the most unlikely vessels to bring about any sort of freedom from the type of bondage and captivity they found themselves in. Yet that's who God uses. It's people like you and me. The nobodies, the nothings of society. Those that are not strong in themselves. Those who know they need a savior. Those who know they can't take another step without the power of God. Those who don't have a litany of successes to hang on their wall, but they do have a heart for God, and God can speak to you. And when God speaks to you, you can be moved forward into whatever it is that he's called you to do, that the glory might be of him and not of ourselves. What I've found throughout my life is God never calls me where I'm strong. He calls me where I'm weak. Calls me to do what I'm not capable of doing, and to go where I can't travel, and to speak words that I could never formulate in my own thinking that only can come from the word of God. And they gathered together the elders of the children of Israel, and Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs and the sight to the people. And so the people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, that he had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. When the people heard that God had a prepared place for each of them in a specific plan to get them there, even though they couldn't naturally see it, they accepted it and believed it. You see, God has a plan for you. Yes, he has a plan for Times Square Church, and it's wonderful that you're part of this local congregation, but God has a plan for you. He has a specific plan tailored just for you, and it's a plan that you can't do on your own, because if you could do it, you'd be telling everybody else how to do it as well. No, it's a plan that's found in the heart of God. It's a plan that God begins to breathe inside of you, and sometimes it's so preposterous you try to just simply push it away. How can this be, Gideon said, for I, my father's tribe is the least in Israel, and my father is the least in his tribe, and I am the least in my father's house, and my father has a grove to an idol in the backyard. Are you sure you've called me? Are you sure I'm the one that you want to use to bring about deliverance and sustenance and feeding for my people, and to deliver them from the oppression of an opposing force that's devouring everything that they're working to achieve and attain? No, God has a plan for you, and there's a point in your life, and there's a point in my life where the whisperings of God become a deeper reality than what I see in the mirror, and what other people have spoken over my life, and what I think about myself, even if my own heart condemns me, God is still greater than my heart. The scripture says God was calling a people into freedom where there were going to be a glorious testimony in the earth of who he is. They were living in a society that was increasingly moving towards judgment. The judgments were going to be horrific. People were going to die. Cattle were going to be left dead in the field. Crops were going to be diminished. The economy of Egypt was about to be destroyed. But in the midst of it all, God began to call a people. He began to call them to himself. He began to speak to them about a place that he was going to take them to, a place that they'd never seen with their natural eye, and a place that looking to their own resources they could never hope to achieve it or attain it. There was no way they could get to this place. They didn't even have a map. They had no way of knowing where this place was. The only thing is that God began to speak to their hearts that in spite of their position that they found themselves at the bottom, literally beneath the bottom of a society, ridiculed and mocked and made to serve in hard labor. Many had lost heart. They didn't see a hope. They didn't see a future. But suddenly the whispering of God came to their heart and said, I am taking you to a place, and in this place is filled with promise, and everything I've ever promised you that I was going to give you is going to be yours there. This freedom would not come without opposition. You look at the book of Timothy. It says just as Janus and Jambres resisted Moses, there will always be spiritual voices that resist the simplicity of this truth, people of corrupt minds. And the corruption is that they're offering counterfeit power, counterfeit promise, yet resisting the call of God to a full abandonment and an embracing of the unknown. Everything in the false teacher is about what you can see, touch, taste, and feel now. It's all about that which the society around you and I is already pursuing. And now they bring spirituality in it and intermix the people of God with that which is about to pass away. And that's why Paul says their foolishness is going to become known just as those who resisted Moses. Now how was their foolishness made known? Well it's simple. It was exposed by the collapsing of the very things which they promised would be fulfillment. All the voices that have been raised in this country for the last 30 years that have promised fulfillment in social advancement, more wealth, all of these other things. When all this begins to collapse, when the American dream turns into the American nightmare, then suddenly the folly, their folly will be exposed. And I thank God for it with all my heart. What is the church to do? What are you to do? What am I to do in the days in which we are facing? Firstly, as it was in Moses day, it's as simple today. Number one, set apart your homes unto God. That's what Moses told the people to do. Set apart your home, your apartment, your flat, the backseat of your car, wherever you're living. Set it apart for God. That means everything that doesn't belong there, get it out of there. Set it apart for God. Never mind that unsaved boyfriend that keeps showing up telling you one day he's going to change. Get him out of there, get him out of there. Set apart your home for God. What you do in your home, how you live in your home, what you focus on in your home, set it apart for God. That's number one. Let your house be a sanctuary, a place that you come back to at the end of the day. Whatever it is that you come back to, let it become a sanctuary. And if you're living in a place with unsaved family members, then find a room and make that your home and make that your sanctuary. But shut away and get alone with God in that place and sanctify it unto the Lord. Secondly, Moses told him to open your heart and your home to those who want to go with you on this journey. He told him, he says, you're to take a lamb and you're to prepare a meal and open your heart and your home to those whose houses are too small, those who don't have the resources. Open your heart, open your home to those who want to go with you. That's why I thank God in this church that we're starting home fellowships and new believers are going to be taught and trained on Tuesday evening in the homes of believers in this church. I thank God for that with all my heart. I do with everything in me. Thirdly, he said, center your fellowship around the lamb. They were to take a lamb without blemish, without spot, obviously a type of Christ. And that was to be the focus of their fellowship. Let your fellowship be centered around the word of God. I love speaking with the pastors of this church. Quite often we call each other, we'll talk because I love opening the word of God. I love talking the word of God. Pastor William and I, one day we went downtown to do something together in the morning and we ended up back here. We have a little efficiency unit in the back and we were sitting there, I think it was about two o'clock in the afternoon. We started discussing the things of scripture. Finally, we realized it was eight o'clock in the evening. Went in and scratched the surface of where we were going in the word of God. Let your fellowship be centered around the lamb, around the victory. Start speaking whatever is pure, whatever is good, whatever is lovely. Paul said, if there'd be any virtue, if there'd be any praise, if there'd be any good report, think on these things. I want you wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. But center your fellowship around the lamb and pray with people of faith. Don't pray with people who have no faith. It's like when you listen to them pray, it's like they pull the plug on your spiritual bathtub and drain the life out of you. Pray with men and women of faith. Find two or three friends that you can get together with or call on the telephone. You can conference call now with freeconferencecall.com. You can get a number. You can call each other. You can pray, but pray in faith, pray in faith, pray in faith. We know people are committing suicide, but we know God says He will make a way through the flood. He'll make a way through the fire. The more you read this book, the more faith will start to stir in your heart. And even though, as the people of Israel, you don't see the way forward, suddenly the promises of God become more real than your circumstance, become more real than what you have to face every day. That becomes unreality and reality becomes the promises in the word of God. This is where I'm going. This is what my life is going to be. And lastly, prepare yourself to take a journey. Get shoes on your feet. Guard your lines. In other words, be prepared to move with God. Pack as much as you need because you and I are going on a journey like none we've ever gone on before. It's a journey of faith. It's a journey of glory. It's a journey of wonderment. It's a journey where old things become new. Impossibility becomes possible. It's a journey where prison doors open and we are set free. It's a journey where blinded eyes are given sight. It's a journey where wounded hearts are healed. It's a journey where all captivity becomes captivated by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Oh, we're about to take a journey. You and I, we're going to take a journey. This world is going into a dark place, but it is God, I reminded you, that separated the light from the darkness and said, it is good. We have no fellowship with darkness. We don't belong in the darkness. But I want to tell you one other thing. When it gets dark out there and it's getting very, very dark, very, very quickly, that's when the light begins to shine. That's when the city set on a hill begins to be seen. Glory to the name of Jesus. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God. Jesus said in Matthew 24, with all these things that are going to be breaking out in the world, he said, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, not just the verbal preaching of the gospel. We've had that. No, there's a testimony. It's a witness. It's God taking us somewhere that only God could take us to. It's a witness that God is taking his people into something of himself that's not available to those who walk in human effort and by human reasoning. Think about it for a moment in Acts chapter 2. The society had just crucified Christ. People were in no mood. They had basically pushed them out of their borders as they saw it. But yet 120 people went into an upper room and just as they did in the book of Exodus, they heard something from God and they bowed their head and worshiped. Then at a certain moment, those promises became such a burning reality in each of their hearts that they could do nothing less than burst out of that room and into the marketplace, not caring about their own safety, not concerned about the snickers, not concerned. There were mockers out there said they were all drunk. They knew they were going to face mockery in that society, but they didn't care about these things. They were now moving in something of God that's not available to those who refuse to bend their knee to Christ. They walked out into the marketplace. Those still surrounded by confusion and hostility of a perishing society. They had been taken to such a remarkable place in God that 3,000, 3,000 people bent their knee that day and asked if they could join them on the journey. What must we do to find the strength and confidence that you now have? The society around them was in difficulty. The Roman empire was at liberty to do whatever brutality to people that they wanted to. They believed that their social order was superior and they had the right to impose it on other nations. The might of Rome, the mighty hand of man as it was, seeing themselves as conquerors and dominators of all societies and all people and all men everywhere, believing in a certain philosophy and suddenly in the midst of it all, 120 ordinary people like you and I, having received the whispers of God into the heart, stepped into the marketplace to the natural eye, not much of a threat to the kingdoms of this earth, but oh I remind you in the book of James that the scripture says the devils believe and tremble. They've seen this before. They've seen it before what happens when one person here, a Hannah at an altar lays hold of God and believes the promises of God. They've seen what can come from that kind of a life. They've seen Samuel come on the scene and strike the fear of God into an entire nation. Oh they know they've seen it before. They've seen 120 people come out of an upper room filled with the passion of God, filled with the promises of God, filled with the power of God. They've seen it. They've seen what it can do. Oh glory to God. 120 people standing in the marketplace empowered, sovereignly empowered by the Holy Spirit of God, taken as it is into a place of promise that's not attainable. It wasn't a physical place they were taken into. It was now a spiritual place for the nation of Israel in Egypt. It was a physical place of promise, but for you and I now it is the promise given to us of the fullness of God through the victory of Christ on the cross 2,000 years ago. There's a life that is available to you and I. The miraculous is now ours. God says I set a journey before you. It's going to be indisputable and undeniable. I was preaching one time in Canada I remember and an old hockey coach I had came to hear me preach. I had a bad temper back then when I played hockey and I was known for fighting a 50-50 fighter. I'd win one, I'd lose one kind of thing, but he came to hear me preach and at the end of the sermon he was at the back door and he said if I hadn't seen it he said I never would have believed it. He said but now I've seen it and I believe. It's truly amazing. God will take us on a journey, a journey of his making for you and for me. The key is will you bow your head and worship? See most people can bow their heads in worship when what's before them is possible in the natural, but what if what God is speaking is impossible except for him? Will you still bow your head in worship? Can you worship God today? Can you can you bow your head and say Lord take me, Lord God make me, I've never preached a sermon in my life but if you want to preach through me you go right ahead. If that's what you're whispering to me I'll bow my head in worship. Be amazed what God would do in this room if we would simply come to that point of saying we recognize our weakness, we recognize our lack of resource, we recognize individually and as a church body nationally we recognize that what we have done and what we've become is insufficient to meet the task of the day, but God we hear you calling us into something. There will be a witness in all the earth of the reality of who you are, that you are the living Christ. You did defeat sin and death and you do sit at the right hand of God. You are the head and we are your body. Therefore we're a supernatural people not a natural people. We are taken by the spirit of God from image to image and glory to glory. We are to live as a testimony of the reality of God in the earth. So God whenever you speak to my heart I will bow my head and I will worship you and I will open the doors of my house and make it a sanctified place and I will open my heart to the stranger who wants to come with me when they come knocking on my door and I will fellowship around the lamb the promises of God in the victory of the cross. I will find people of faith to fellowship with and oh God my feet will be shod with the shoes that are prepared me to take the gospel of peace to a perishing world. I will carry that staff of faith in my hand and when I'm walking on this journey and behind me are my enemies pursuing and before me is impossibility I will lift up the cross of Christ and I will go through in the power of God. I will know the victory that God has for my life. I will not be left behind in Egypt. I'm going to the promised land in Christ. I'm going to walk there with my brothers. I'm going to walk there with my sisters and we're going to sing the songs of Zion and we're going to have a testimony of glory. The darker it gets in this nation the brighter it's going to be in the church of Jesus Christ. Trust me on this one the day is soon approaching when people will be asking you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Why do you smile? Why do you laugh? Have you not read the news? You look at them say have you not read the word of God? Thank God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you Jesus for living in victory. We're about to undertake a marvelous journey and I do believe you already know it. I heard it in the singing this morning. You know what I'm talking about. There's a stirring in your heart. It's deeper than you can put into words. There's there's a faith that arises even if it's only momentary when you're in the presence of God worshiping with fellow believers but there's something in your heart that's stirring and God himself so longs to whisper. So longs to speak about where he wants to take you and what he's willing to do through your life. We are called as a people to astound this generation not to argue with them. Now it's good you can you can do surveys and you you can contact your members of parliament. You can do all this stuff but we're not called just to that. That's the lowest currency may I call it that in the kingdom of God. We're called to something much higher than that. We're called to be a living testimony of the reality of God. I don't know about you this morning but I want everything that God has for me. I want this full journey. When I first gave my life to Jesus Christ in 1978, I remember saying to my wife then Pastor Teresa, if this is real what I've opened my heart to I want the whole thing and if it's not I don't want any of it and I still hold that testimony today. God if this is fully real for me I want the whole journey for my life. I don't want to rest on past victories and past successes. I don't want to rest. I don't want to go home and just put up my feet on my couch and say what a journey this has been. I want to do it right to the end. I want to finish like Paul where he's at the end of his life he said I have run. I have fought. I have finished. It's been a good journey. It's been a good course. Now he knew he's going to lose his head at that point but nevertheless he was living in another place. I thank God for that. I wrote a little poem at the end of this message. It's only four lines but it says though our enemies follow an impossibility lies before yet we will raise the cross of Jesus and go through to heaven's shore. Thank God. This morning my question is when we ask the question what is the church to do we're to do the same as we've always done. This can be the hour of the greatest victory of the church of Jesus Christ in this country if you can hear this but it requires a people who will bow their heads in worship when God speaks of the impossible to their heart. When God speaks to them of that which they could never accomplish in their own strength. He talks about taking them on a journey that they don't even know the way. Talks about giving them an inheritance that they can't see with the natural eye but the Lord says if you'll bow your head and worship me I'll give you all of this and make you a light and a testimony in a very very dark time. I thank God for this with all my heart. I guess the question that comes to my heart this morning is what has God been speaking to you. Personally I'll be going out on the radio September the 8th with a half-hour radio special on 9-11 and it's going to be followed on the 15th starting on the 15th of September it's 121 devotionals calling the nation back to God and back to prayer again. They're very strong messages they're going to go out on up to 3,000 radio stations across the country starting September of next year it's going to be a half-hour radio program a week calling the nation back to God. See I don't know where it's all going to lead the only thing I can tell you is I'm going to follow and I'm going to bow my head and worship my constant prayer now is I you know God I can't do this you know that I can't do it and God says yeah I know you can't do it but if but I'm willing I'll just walk through the door you have to provide everything else. I can't do this I don't have the capacity to do it I don't have the skill level to do it I'm not a polished radio speaker they tried to train me it was hopeless. So finally I sent word to this conglomerate and I said to them look it's three o'clock in the morning your house is on fire how would you like me to tell you that? I said I I tried being personable I tried conversation I tried everything they tried to get me to do I tried it and it's hopeless. So I said it is what it is take it or leave it and they they took it and we're going to go out across the nation because I have to be who God has made me do you understand and and that's that's got to be your testimony you have to be who God has made you and follow through the doorways he sets before your life and don't count yourself out by age or ability or race or education get rid of all that it doesn't matter anything to God nothing all he longs for is a willing heart just somebody somebody that says Lord take me the full journey wherever that journey is going to take me and if it does Paul said if it takes me to jail as long as I'm glorifying God on this journey that's what really matters. Can you bow your head in worship? I want to challenge you this morning see we're all on this journey and what God's called me to do is no greater than what he's called you to do it might be more visible but it's no greater the rewards we get when we stand at the throne of God one day are for faithfulness in what we've been called to do not the volume of what we've done you could do less in the public eye than I do but get a greater reward than I do at the throne of God because you may have done it with a fuller heart than I have you see the ground is completely level there are no big people no little people in the body of Christ thank God for that thank God oh I challenge you with all my heart you see the hour is dark and the need is great and people are dying in our streets literally and it's time now for the church to be the church and there is no program there's no plan there is no survey there's nothing coming from headquarters that's ever going to accomplish any of this you you get your instruction from God and the Holy Spirit breathes it to your heart and you bow your head and you worship and begin to move towards God has spoken the miraculous begins to happen doors begin to open possibility becomes possible I have honestly lived life and I've done things throughout my life that are impossible for me to do and actually is it makes it an incredible journey and that's what the Christian life should be if it's boring something is wrong it should be an incredible journey you should be seeing new mercies every day you should be walking in the giftings of the spirit of God there should be these words of knowledge and wisdom coming from your mouth you should be finding new courage every day God is an ongoing act of God and we are his representatives on the earth I challenge you with all my heart to bow your head and your heart and worship and say Lord what you're speaking to my heart that's what my life is going to be and where you're calling me by your grace that's where I'm going to go what you're asking me to do by your life within me it shall be done I will be that man I will be that woman I will be that person that you're calling me to be I will do what you're asking me to do and all you do is take one little step at a time just one step at a time you don't start from point A and go right to the end in a day you take the first step and then your next week you take the second step and next year you take the third step in the year after you take the fourth step God does not drive you he doesn't drive me he leads us he trains us he teaches us but it is time my friend it is time my brother my sister we must be the church of Jesus Christ now I want to give an altar call this morning here in the main sanctuary in the annex and in the North Jersey campus and for those that are listening at home if you're really just at the point in your life saying God what you speak to my heart I will worship you and trust you though I don't understand how it's going to happen though I don't see the way this journey is going to go I will I will oh God by the grace you give me I will follow you if that's the cry of your heart we're going to worship for about 10 minutes or so and I'm going to ask you just to slip out of your seat and come and we're going to pray just a prayer of dedication together this morning God bless you would you please stand balcony you can go to either the main sanctuary to slip out come and meet me here we'll pray together praise God thank you Jesus Lord Jesus Christ we are your testimony on the earth we are your body and you are a miraculous victorious supernatural God and so we yield our bodies Lord to the purpose that you have for each of us we ask you to lead us and guide us we bend our knee we bow our hearts before you Lord and ask you to take us and make us and do with us what you will Lord not our will but yours be done let your kingdom come keep us from the temptation of governing our own lives and charting our own course trying to establish our own comforts lead us away from this oh God and deliver us from the power of evil father I thank you Lord God and I pray Lord Jesus Christ that your voice would call this nation back to righteousness that your voice would reach out as one shouting across the waters in a storm to show people the way to safety oh God almighty God almighty God almighty let the anger in our streets be turned to praise oh Jesus Jesus Jesus oh Jesus we want to thank you Lord for showing us as a nation how bankrupt we really are how powerless we really are how confused we have become but oh God we thank you Lord that your word says that if those who are called by your name will humble themselves and pray and begin to seek your face and to turn from that which offends you my God you promised that you would hear that you would raise us up and answer our prayer and you'll bring healing into our nation God bring healing into our homes and into our neighborhoods we ask you Lord for a move of your Holy Spirit in New York City unprecedented throughout history we ask you God to grab the attention of this perishing world one last time and show the people who you are and what you can do when the people genuinely call out to you we choose today Lord to bend our knee to your plan we choose to walk in the power that you give us and in the calling you set before us we don't have to understand it we just have to follow it Father I thank you God for the giftings the callings that are here at this altar today thank you Lord Jesus Christ for what you will accomplish as we simply listen to your voice and begin to move forward in your strength oh God thank you that you've not left this nation without a testimony thank you for the privilege of being the light of God set upon a hill in a darkened season thank you God thank you for leaving us in our neighborhoods and our homes and in the workplaces where we find ourselves thank you for these things God for truly you love all people that's why you leave us there give us the power to shine give us the power of God to be ambassadors as they were on the day of Pentecost give us the power of God to speak in a way that people look at us and say how do I get to speak like that where can I learn to speak words like that oh Jesus son of God put faith in our hearts like we've never had before in our lifetime lead us oh great Christ lead us into these darkened days ahead of us and let your name be glorified as the waters pile up on the left and on the right and we walk through the pages of your book oh God as if on dry land thank you God almighty thank you God almighty for the multitudes that will come into your kingdom thank you God for opening the doorway to salvation thank you Lord Jesus Christ for not leaving our children starving in our streets for spiritual truth thank you God thank you God for your mercy even on the unthankful and the unholy you'll be merciful we bless you for it almighty God oh Jesus let songs of praise erupt in this city such as have never been heard ever in history in every church every corner every park bench every building let songs of praise come up to the glorious one father I thank you and I praise you for this and I bless you in Jesus mighty name amen amen hallelujah oh thank God it's good to be home this is home it's good to be home we have a victory song we're gonna we're gonna I don't know how it's gonna come out I trust Greg every Sunday but we're gonna sing something that produces a shout of faith in our heart now before we go then we'll go God bless you remember three o'clock this afternoon six o'clock this evening evangelism thank you it's good to see you too God bless you bless you