In this sermon, the preacher begins by quoting Isaiah's prophecy about hypocrites who draw near to God with their mouths but have hearts far from Him. He emphasizes the importance of approaching God with carefulness, thoughtfulness, and affection, recognizing Him as a glorious king. The preacher highlights the tragedy of offering praise that is not connected to the heart, calling it one of the most tragic passages in Scripture. He urges the congregation to be mindful of any distractions or preoccupations that may hinder their worship and to seek the sanctification of the Holy Spirit in order to truly hear and receive God's word.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Start verse 7, Matthew 15, verse 7. Ye hypocrites, it's a good way to start a message. Keep in mind those aren't my words, they're his. Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah's prophesy have you saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. I consider this one of the most tragic passages in all the scripture. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, I want to talk to you, and not to this people first. I'm going to talk to you because I need you, because the Word without the Holy Spirit cannot produce life. It is the Holy Spirit, your Spirit, O God, that ignites the Word, that applies the Word, that opens the Word, that opens our minds and our hearts to receive it, and I pray, Lord, that you cleanse and sanctify me, that whatever comes forth from my lips will be sanctified and pure, and O God, sanctify this vessel of mine, and let the glory of the Lord be upon us as we minister. Give us ears to hear what the Spirit has to say. Lord, you are speaking in these last days. You are saying things to us. If we just open our eyes. Lord, we don't sermonize from this pulpit. We try to shut ourselves in with you and hear what you have to say, and then we stand here and deliver your mind and deliver your heart. So I pray, O God, that you deliver through me. Just let me be a vessel, a channel, and deliver your Word, O Jesus, through me. Sanctify me, holy. Let the Word of the Lord, let it be like an arrow to our heart. Cut us if you must, quicken us if you must. God, do what you must, but bring conviction by the Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Distractions in the holy place. I want to speak to you about mental distractions during prayer and worship. Mental distractions during prayer and worship, especially in the house of God. Now, Jesus here called them hypocrites who came into his presence, mouthing words of praise and speaking worship with their lips, but they had a preoccupied heart, preoccupied mind. He said, you give me your mouth, you give me your lips, but your heart is somewhere else. Your mind is elsewhere. Your mind is not with me. Now, your body is here this morning. We can count you. We can see you. You are sitting in this chair, and you came here, and your body is present in the house of God. But I wonder where your mind was. You were here, but where was your mind? Your mouth said, I praise you, Lord. Your lips sang his praises. But God wants to know where your mind was. Where were your thoughts taking you during worship and during praise? Did your heart take you off into some business matter that's been hounding your mind yesterday? You brought it with you into the house of God, and you sit here now, and you came in and out of worship. You worshiped in spurts, but that business came back, and you said, well, it's God's business. It's my work here for God at the church. It's my ministry. It's my mission field, whatever it may be. It was on your mind. It was preoccupying your spirit and your mind. You say, but my thoughts, Brother Wilkinson, were not evil. My thoughts are those that crowd in on me, and I came here with so much on my mind. And you say, after all, wasn't this a wonderful praise, or wasn't this a wonderful time of worship? The Lord manifested himself. But keep in mind, Jesus said, these were worshipers he's talking about in verse 7 and 8, and he calls these worshipers hypocrites. He said, the prophets spoke of you. See, these people were drawing nigh to him. This was a worship, corporate worship experience. They're drawing nigh unto him with their mouth. They are honoring him. They're not dishonoring him. They are honoring him with their lips. It's coming out. It sounds like great honor. It sounds like great worship. Listen to them, and you may have had your hands raised. You may have spoken or praised as loudly as anybody, and it may have even been forceful. But where was your mind? Where was your heart this morning when you're worshiping? Because it's absolutely hypocritical, worthless worship when we are distracted in thought and mind. Your body can be in the sanctuary, and your mind can be anywhere on the face of the earth. Now, we haven't even begun to understand, even in this church, how serious God takes this matter of worship, and how we are to draw nigh to him. How we are to draw near his holiness and his majesty. Folks, it's not a light thing to come into a holy church. Now, if you're just going to go to a church where people are playing games, if you're going to go to a church where the pastor just comes and prepares a little sermon, and he comes here, and he just wants to get the job over, and it's a one-hour little quickie service, yeah, no problem. The devil's not even there. He doesn't even attend those kind of meetings. They're not even concerned. It doesn't faze him. But if you're going to come to a church where people are set on worship, and where God has placed his hand, and there's an unction, and there's an anointing of the Holy Spirit, it's a most holy, it's a most dangerous thing to come into his presence lightly. I want to talk about that. Then Moses said unto Aaron, this is it that the Lord spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh unto me, and before all the people I will be glorified. He said, if you are going to come nigh to me, you're going to come nigh into my presence, you're going to come sanctified. You are going to sanctify yourself. I will be sanctified before all the people. And what he's saying, I will not be treated as an ordinary person. I'll not even be treated like your governor. I'll not be treated like your president. I will not be treated like any other man. You appear before my holiness, you will do it with carefulness, thoughtfulness, affection, because I am a glorious king. Ecclesiastes 5, 2, Be not rash with your mouth, nor hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven, you're upon the earth. And I'll tell you something, what a babble of praise. That pours out, that is not connected to the heart. What a river of hallelujahs. Multiplied songs that are offered from lips, mouth by Christians, whose minds are rambling like wild horses. God warns us against this hasty rash worship. He said, don't utter anything in my presence without your heart and your soul in it, otherwise you're taking my name in vain. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And the scripture says, he will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. And to come to God's house and worship without a heart and a mind in it and to allow your mind to worship is to take his name in vain. Now, in the Old Testament, the least flippancy in worship was severely judged and God quickly, on the spot, punished those who approached him carelessly. In Leviticus, the 10th chapter, don't turn there, but Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, come very nonchalantly in the presence of God. They have no awe, they have no respect, they're doing it by rote, and they think nothing of bringing strange fire into the holy place. They just do nothing. They've been so busy, they don't even take time. There's no reference. They rush into God's presence because they wanted to get back to God. Back to their fornication and the outside of the tabernacle. And the Scripture says, and they went out of fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. God said, I'm going to show every church age from now, I'm going to church, every child of mine is going to see how sanctified they must be when they come into my house, when they draw nigh unto me, into my presence. Uzzah was stricken dead when he took lightly the ark of God which represents the presence of the Lord. He took it very lightly to just nonchalantly reach out his hand and try to steady the ark. And he died on the spot because God is saying, anything having to do with my holy presence. You're going to be sanctified in the eyes of the people, in the hearts and the lives of people. Remember the Bethshemites when the Canaanites brought the ark back because so many people died in Canaan. They bring it back. And remember Bethshema is a Levitical town and these have a Levitical background. They know better. They should have had such an awe and respect. That ark, they should have gathered and they should have worshipped the Lord. But instead, there's a curiosity. We've heard all about it. What's it like inside? Someone dares go to the ark and pulls off the lid, the mercy seat and peeks in. And then they line up. 50,000 men line up. I don't know. They must have lined up for hours, maybe days to take a peek inside the ark. There was no reverence for the presence of God. That represents the presence of God. God slew 50,070 men on the spot until they finally said, Who can approach this holy God? Who can approach? That's exactly what God wanted. He wanted this awe. He wanted this holy fear in their heart so that they don't take it lightly. Folks, you can go into St. Peter's Cathedral here in New York City and you walk in there and there's a holy hush. You come into Times Square Church Sunday morning and everybody's babbling. Everybody's talking. I've tried over and over again. I say this lovingly. If you had some of you were in a Catholic church and you honored your Catholic church more than you do Times Square Church. I don't mind it after service, but I think when you come into God's holy place, you should come and prepare your heart. The Puritans spent all day Saturday preparing. It was such a holy thing to go to the church on Sunday. It was such a holy thing to go into the presence of God. They sanctified themselves. They purged themselves before God. They read their Bibles. They prayed, Oh God, don't let me walk into your house loosely on Sunday. There was a holy awe. Sinners walked in and they couldn't understand there was a hush. There was a holiness. This is not a playhouse. This is the only house of God. You say this is a day of grace. God doesn't kill people who are irreverent today in his presence. I'll tell you what, there's a different judgment and far worse. It's a spiritual judgment. Yes, God, there is a death. It's a spiritual death. Because the more and more you, the more irreverence that creeps into your heart, the less awe of God's presence that you see it exercised and practiced in your life, the more dead you become, the more irreverent you become until it doesn't matter anymore. You become absolutely dead until you can absolutely come into his presence with total irreverence. We think our thoughts are free beyond judgment. But I tell you that we forget that in God's eyes, our thoughts are just as audible as our words. Our thoughts are audible in the ears of God. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks in the heart. For the word of God is a discerner, a judge of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. All things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Now, folks, we're commanded to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, with all the heart and with all the soul. What man in this church would dare Sunday morning take his suit, socks and shoes and stuff it with straw, make a little straw face and put a hat on and bring that straw man in and set him in your seat. Put your straw man there stuffed in your suit and then you walk out and go watch television. You say that's silly, but you might as well do that if your heart is to come into God's house and sit there with your body because you're just a straw man. If your heart is not in it, if your mind is not here, if you allow your thoughts to go uncaptive, we're to bring every thought into captivity till the obedience of Jesus Christ. Every thought. And if you're going to just come here and sit, stuff straw in a suit and put it in your seat, because that's a little more honest, I think, than to come into God's house as a straw person with no mind. What kind of blasphemy would it have been if the servants of God and the priest would go into the holy place with their censer that was supposed to be filled with sweet smelling savor and they filled it with sulfur and brimstone and came into the holy place and that ugly sulfuric smell just filled the place. They would be running out. And folks, that's exactly what Christians do. They fill their censer with sulfur. Those are thoughts of those. Those are evil thoughts. Those are promiscuous thoughts. These are thoughts that are out of control. We bring him into the house of God. We let these thoughts just rumble and ramble through our minds and sit with our censer in God's house. And it's not the sweet smelling savor, it's sulfur. Now, we talk about grieving the Holy Spirit, but nothing grieves him more than careless, mindless worship. What a horrible sin to attempt to worship God with your mind captivated by the spirit of this world. Now, most churches in America today have Sunday morning service for one hour. I want to tell you, there are some churches now that, I guess it's because they're so full, they have three services on Sunday morning. 45 minute service, quickies, quickies, quickies. I don't even begin to know how the Holy Ghost would ever have time to move. And all over America right now, all over this city, there are one hour services. Folks, we just worship for an hour. We were just beginning. We don't give the Holy Ghost time. Oh, there are other Christians, they don't even want to get into the building. They want to stay in their car. So we've got drive-in churches now. They just roll their window down. And there are others who don't want to go to church. They don't even want to get in their car. They want to stay in bed and smiling Sam on television, going to soothe their nerves. Television church. They won't even get out of bed. How do these people stand before the judgment seat of Christ and answer this scripture, forsake not the assembling of yourself together with believers as the custom of some is? How do they look Jesus in the eye on the judgment day? We've got people come to this church once every three months and think they are blessing God. You've been here three months ago. How do you do? I'm not being facetious. And you tell me you love Jesus and you don't want to sit with God's people. I'm telling you right now, all over the United States, there are Christians who are gathering for what they call worship services. There are thousands... Right now while I'm preaching, there are thousands of choirs singing everywhere. Instruments are blaring. Thousands of soloists are singing their songs and millions of songbooks are being flipped and millions are singing hymns loudly and hundreds of thousands of hymns are being sung. But I'm telling you right now that much of it is not even getting above the ozone. So that didn't get above the roof of the church. It's falling flat on the ground because they are singing the songs and their minds are on the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco Giants or whoever they are. The wives are sitting there that roast if I don't get home by 12, 15. Those bills that are piling up and their minds are all over. He said, your lips are with me, your mouth, but your heart's not with me. God doesn't even honor it. It's wasted. Because there's a spiritual madness. Do you know what madness is in the natural? Madness is a mind that's in disarray, fluctuating thoughts, short interest spans, no consistent chain of thought. And that's what spiritual madness is. Roving thoughts, frenzied thoughts, minds that make incursions around the world, all the while singing God's praises and we're all over creation. That's spiritual madness in the sight of God. I dare you, if you were invited to the Oval Office of the President of the United States, I dare you to sit in front of the President and you sit in the chair there, you're chewing gum. And you're slouched down in your seat. And while he's talking, you're looking at the Oval Office. And you're looking at the pictures. And he's looking at you, and you're looking out the window. How long do you think you're going to sit there without him pushing a buzzer and say, get this character out of here? What's he doing? You say also what a weariness it is. You snuff at it. That means you take heavy breath and you sigh and you breathe. You try sighing in front of the President. Sayeth the Lord of Hosts, you brought that which was torn and lame and sick. Thus you brought me an offering. Should I accept this offering at your hand? Go offer it to your governor. See if he'll be pleased with it or accept your person. Go treat your governor like you treat me. Go treat some executive, some well-known person in your, human realm. Go treat them like you treat me in my house. See if they'll accept it. God does not accept lame brain, boring, weak, half-hearted worship. He doesn't accept it. If we don't worship with power, excitement and zeal with all our heart and all our mind in church, it's because we don't do it in private. Those who've learned to worship a poem and focus on Jesus, learn to come to the house of God. They don't need a preacher to pump them up. They don't need some kind of Holy Ghost fire to come and pump it up. They have their own fire. They bring it to the house of God. They're on fire when they come because that fire was ignited in the secret closet of prayer. Did you pray before you came this morning? Did you pray yesterday that God would help you bring a sacrifice of praise? The fruit of your lips. Did you pray that God would nail your mind to the cross? You know, our churches today are like airline companies. Frequent flyer mileage. Come every Sunday morning and we're gonna pile up your free points for a trip to glory. Double points for midweek and triple points for prayer meeting. That's not how it is, folks. Those who really know Jesus and love Him are no worshipers. They can't wait to get to the house of God. There doesn't have to be anybody up here tricking them. There doesn't have to be any concerts. There doesn't have to be any kind of hype to get people in the house of God. When people are where they should be with Jesus, they can't wait to get to the house of God. Nobody here is ever going to beg you to come into this house. Amen. I better smile. You think I'm angry. I'm not angry. Except at the devil. You know, this has to do with praying as well as worshiping. We so often go into his courts to pray and we approach the throne of grace and we become so distracted in the holy place. We find ourselves praying and really going to up and then suddenly you stop and realize your mind is somewhere else. You're praying, but your mind is not on what you're praying. We don't realize that distraction in praying is not really accepted by God. The moment your mind wanders, it's not... You know, when the soul leaves the body, it's just the carcass, isn't it? And when your mind leaves your prayer, it's a carcass. There's no life to it. It dies. Some people think God's going to bless them just because their body is in church. Well, I go to church. Well, God bless you. But if you left your mind somewhere else, forget it. It don't count. You can't get any credit just because you plant your body in the seat here. How many understand that? Let me talk to you about why we get distracted in worship and prayer. First of all, it's the failure to bring every thought into captivity and obedience of Jesus Christ. Now, folks, there's a natural tendency for our thoughts to wander and drift. It's a natural tendency. Often we can't sleep because of this tendency. I couldn't sleep the other night. I slept one hour, one night a week ago because I couldn't shut my mind down. I don't count sheep because I don't like sheep. It seems stupid to me to over and over again because you get to 10,000 and you're still not asleep. But I couldn't shut my mind down. One train of thought after another. I just about calm it down. Here comes another train of thought. Another train. Those trains were running all night long. And that's natural. And when you go to prayer, it's not always the devil. Sometimes these thoughts just crowd in on us. These are thoughts of business and family problems and difficulties. But, folks, you can't expect God to hear prayer that you don't even hear. Do you hear me? How do we expect God to answer prayer when we pray it and yet our mind is not in it? And we really haven't heard it in our inner man. We've prayed it, but it's not been prayed with an understanding and our mind not focused. I sat here Friday night, and one of the reasons God burned this in my soul, I was here Friday night in the prayer meeting and doing the song service. I was totally distracted while the worship was going on. My mind was on... that had to do with the finances of the church, had to do with space that we needed. These were all good things. These are all important things, but I was distracted and I kept fighting it off. And then during Brother Carter's preaching, while he's preaching, I'm thinking, Lord, I don't have my message for Sunday morning yet. And I was thinking about my message, and the Spirit of God convicted me. Said, David, where are you? I was convicted by the Holy Ghost. And that's why I'm preaching what I'm preaching this morning, because He's dealing with me. Now, if you want to get in on this dealing, fine. Do you remember when God was making covenant with Abraham? And Abraham cuts up those five animals and lays them before the Lord? The Bible said, and the fowls came down upon the carcasses and Abraham drove them away. Well, that's what happened. You sit in church, these fowls will come down and try to devour your sacrifice. They'll come down and try to interfere. You have to chase them away. Chase those birds away. Chase them. Do you find your mind wandering? Bring it right back into captivity, the obedience of Jesus Christ. Every time I go to prayer in my secret closet, within minutes, thoughts begin to run off in all direction. You can be praising the Lord, full of love for Jesus, and suddenly the flesh moves in, because the flesh is at war against the Spirit. It's not always the devil. Don't blame everything on the devil. Your flesh is in cahoots with the devil, and the flesh will always enter in. It's the flesh so many times. It is. You know what the flesh will tell you? You're too tired. Your eyes are closing. Your flesh will say, don't give the Lord a lazy offering. Wait till you feel better and then praise the Lord. You listen to those lies, you'll never praise the Lord. You'll never pray. You have to stand up. This is a warfare. The Spirit of God is greater, the Scripture says. You turn to the Holy Ghost, say, Holy Ghost, chase off these dirty birds. Chase off these fowl. Hallelujah. We've got to keep bringing Jesus right back into focus. Chase the fowl. Keep bringing Jesus right back into focus. Hallelujah. Secondly, there are satanic distractions. And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. I'm going to tell you, Satan's main work is to corrupt worship. His main work is to try to distract true worshipers. That's why I say he does not attend churches where there's no true worship. He comes where there is true, unadulterated, pure worship. Satan will always try to distract the minds and the bodies and the meetings themselves. Remember when James said, draw nigh unto God? He prefaces by saying, resist the devil. Because he presupposes that anyone who draws near to God is going to be attacked by the enemy. That's why he said, first resist the devil. Put up your resistance because he knows the moment you truly worship with all your mind, soul, strength and body, he's going to move in and try to distract you. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. When the Holy Ghost is moving in this church, when there's total unity and we are focused on him and the holy praises and the high praises of God and there is worship, the devil's almost always tried to do something. Two weeks ago in the service, there was a demonic sitting right in the front seat. And right at the peak of worship where God was moving great power and authority, just at that moment, there was a manifestation through this demonic. And the devil tried to distract the whole thing. Six of our men had to take him out and six men were bitten, some right to the bone. And we didn't know whether that man had AIDS. And just this past week, the first case of a man getting AIDS from a bite has been proven. We prayed because the man had not been tested. Thank God the test showed there was no AIDS. And these men, I think, but you see, the devil tried to just disrupt the whole meeting. Two weeks ago, when after Sunday afternoon service, a man walks in here and slouches down and gets up in the middle of the service, goes out and picks up a garbage can and throws it at the car window. Then walks back in calmly and sits down. The police had to come in here and take him out just to interrupt the meeting. And that will happen time and time again. The devil, there will, I have seen homeless people walk in here and slip, slouch down and fall asleep. And suddenly the Holy Ghost will move and the Lord is beginning to get praise and worship. He'll wake right up, start cursing. We've got to have people drag him out. You know that that's happened here many times. Happened one night here when there's two witches jump, try to jump up on stage. I want to tell you folks, we can expect that when God is moving, you can expect it. You can expect the devil to try to do anything, to try to disrupt, try to make the lights go out, to try to do anything. But he can't stop it. He can't hinder it. The devil himself will do everything in his power to distract your mind from worship and from prayer by shooting darts into your mind. In the midst of prayer and worship, he'll try to inject into your mind all kinds of unfinished business. He'll replay every problem, every family problem, everything that discourages you. He will replay every failure of the past week. If you've sinned, even though you've repented, he'll replay it and he'll say, you can't raise your hand. You can't praise the Lord because you're a failure. You're unworthy. You're no good. Others around you are living in victory. You're the only one that's not living in victory. You're the only one here that's failing God. You are a phony and the devil will try to lie to you and speak these words of death into your mind to keep you from praising the Lord and worshiping him. And I'm telling you now, that's why when you come in on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon, anytime this church is open, you come into this house and you raise your hands and say, oh Jesus, I'm not where I should be, but I love you. Cleanse me, sanctify me, put a hatred for sin in my life. Give me clean hands and a pure heart and don't let the devil touch my mind. Put a wall of fire around my mind and let me bring an offering, a sacrifice of praise, a focused, full-minded praise unto you. God will not let me sit in that seat anymore and let my mind wander doing any service. He won't let it, because now I know better. And he won't let you do it either, because he loves you, because he knows the power that that kind of worship releases in your spirit and in your mind. It makes you stronger than any lion, bigger than any giant, pulls down every wall and every stronghold, because you have become a worshiper, a true-hearted, single-minded worshiper. Hallelujah. Give me five minutes. Lastly, I want to talk about those who've gone beyond distraction to neglect. Let me read to you Jeremiah 2.32. Can a maid forget her ornaments or bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. Oh, does that frighten me. If I miss a day in prayer, for any kind of busyness, I quote that scripture 20 times that next day. You've forgotten me days without number. That drives me right back, because I say, God, I don't want to forget you. To me, this is frightening because of the context. Let me read the context. God's talking to his own people. He said, I planted you as a noble vine, a holy right seed. He said, you started right. You had my touch. You were once holiness unto the Lord, and I blessed you with plenty. You had a good heart, and I blessed you. I prospered you. But you have forsaken me. You really do not worship me now. You've forsaken the fountain of living waters. This is all in Jeremiah 2. You have backslidden. It's an evil thing and bitter that thou has forsaken the Lord thy God, and that thy fear, that my fear is not in thee anymore. You've become a degenerate plant. How can you say you're not polluted? Because you've turned your back on me. I smote your children, but it was all in vain. I corrected you, but it did no good. You are mine, yet you do not come to me, and you have forgotten me days without number. He's talking not to heathen. He's talking to his own people. They're no longer going to God's house. They're no longer worshipers. They're lazy about the things of God. They've forgotten all his past blessings, all his past judgments. They've neglected him days without number, doing their own pleasure. And then in verse 35, they say, I am innocent. I have not sinned. Oh, how when you neglect the things of God, how blind you become, and you don't even know it. That's why the laity see in church is going to stand before God. They're going to say, I'm rich. I'm increased with goods and have need of nothing. And it's all a big lie, because in actuality, they're naked, and they're blind, and they're poor. They're not rich. It's just a deception. And they're going to stand before the holy God naked, absolutely naked, not even know it. They're going to go to the throne of God with a little rejoicing in their heart and say, I'm saved. I'm saved. I'm telling you, many, many who think they're saved are going to hell. They are not saved. They're under a false deception. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Because you see, if you will not worship him with your mind, if you begin little by little, your neglect begins by just letting your mind, when you come to church and your body is there, you do it out of habit. You do it because you just think that's the thing to do. I ought to be in church. I'll say on the other hand, the man who doesn't go to church because he can't find one, and he's home, and he's a true worshiper, and he spends hours worshiping the Lord and seeking God, he's probably better off than those who come to church and don't worship with their mind. But neither case is right. How are you going to escape his flaming eyes at the judgment seat? You know, I meet so many people that are just dear people. They're wonderful people. They give anything for anybody. They'll do anything for anybody. They're just good people. They don't smoke. They don't drink. They don't curse. They're just nice people. It's a joy to be around them. They go to church on Sunday morning. They think back at a time they were saved some 20, 30 years ago. But they're not worshipers. They don't have a daily prayer life. They don't dig into the Word of God. They can go days without opening their Bible. They can go days without being shut into a secret closet, and yet they'll go to church for an hour. Do you know some churches have six o'clock morning services on Sunday for one hour, so that the whole rest of the day can be given over to recreation to those people? I'm telling you, the whole day of Sunday belongs to God. I was born and raised that way, and I'm still that way. I give Sunday to God with everything. I don't believe in playing games on Sunday. I believe in keeping the Sabbath holy. I still believe that with everything in my heart. I feel sorry for people who mock it. I'm going to close now, but let me test. I want you to test yourself. If you can't answer these four, I doubt you're going to be able to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and hear, Well done, good, faithful servant. First of all, are you coming boldly into the holiest by the blood of Jesus? Are you coming boldly into the holiest? Do you have a prayer life? Secondly, are you drawing nearer to God in full assurance of faith? This is from Hebrews. Are you drawing nigh with full assurance of faith? Thirdly, are you holding fast to Him without wavering? You're really holding fast unto the Lord. And fourth, are you assembling yourself together with other believers or have you forsaken the assembling of the saints? Those four things have to be in line according to Hebrews. Otherwise, the scripture says you have forsaken me. You have forsaken me. You have neglected me. You know what? I would have liked, I would have liked to, I wanted God to give me something at the end to make everybody happy and shout and rejoice. I just love that when people say, Oh, hallelujah, everybody's on their feet. And I go home thinking, boy, that was a good sermon because everybody's clapping, everybody's happy. But that's not my goal. God's trying to tell Times Square Church that this is a house of worship. That everybody, teenagers, dad, mother, choir, orchestra, everybody. We don't sit and just drink. We bring a sacrifice. And we don't let our minds wander. We show God build a wall of fire around my mind. Jesus, I'm going to be focused on you. I'm not going to come. You know, Sunday afternoon is the hardest service of all because people going out to eat. And it's a natural thing for that chicken to sit on your stomach. And just you sit there and it's hard. But folks, that shouldn't be. It doesn't matter what kind of food you have in your stomach. It doesn't matter what kind of week you had. It doesn't matter what happens outside this church. The moment you walk in that door and we're in a corporate body, we are one in Jesus Christ and he's the head and we're his body. We have one goal and one purpose. And that's to put aside all our feelings, all our weaknesses, everything to have to do with the flesh and say, Lord, I'm here to burn for you. I'm here as a living sacrifice for you. I give you my hands. I give you my voice. I give you my thoughts. Everything for you, Jesus. Consume me. Consume this sacrifice. I tell you, that's when the Holy Ghost comes. That's when he consumes. God inhabits those kind of praises. He doesn't inhabit the praises of half-hearted, weak-minded Christians whose minds run all over creation. Well, I think I've said it. I better stop before I get somebody angry. Oh, hallelujah. God, help us to focus on you, Jesus. It's all about you, Lord. It's all about worship. I want you to stand and just lift your hands. And focus your heart on him. Just tell him you love him right now. I want you to just lift your hands and I want you to love him. Say, Jesus, every thought, every thought into captivity. I love you, Jesus. You're the source of my strength. You're my power. You're my spirit. Nothing of this world to intrude into my time with you, Jesus. It's your time. This is your time, Lord. This is your body. We worship at your holiness. Oh, God, sanctify this church. Sanctify this people. Sanctify me. Sanctify the pastors and the choir and the musicians. Sanctify the teachers. Purge us and sanctify us to worship in spirit and in truth. Hallelujah. We bless the holy name of Jesus. We bless the holy name of Jesus. We glorify you, Lord. We magnify you. No other name. Of course, of course, now I'm going to open for certain people that I want to name. Not by name, but by battle, perhaps. You're standing here this morning, and here's what the Holy Spirit has had me share with you right now. You have lost ground with the Lord. That's the very phrase the Holy Ghost gave me. You've lost ground. The enemy has caused you to lose ground. You're not where you were. The fire is not burning as bright. There's been a spirit of lukewarmness creep into your spirit. It's not that you're against the Lord or turned your back on it, but there's just this lukewarmness. That fire is not burning. I want you to get out of your seat and come and follow these that are coming and stand here. We're going to believe Jesus to touch your life today. Others of you may be backslidden. You say, brother, I'm simply backslidden. Others of you say, I'm not right with Jesus Christ. I need Christ in my life. Don't come unless the spirit draws you. Now use the balcony. Go down to either side, down any stairs and down any aisle. We'll meet you here. We'll wait for you. You come as the spirit draws you. There are a number of you. God so desires to touch you. He wants you to become focused in him. He wants to do that for you this morning. Sing that again. If you feel the tug to pull the Holy Spirit, come and join these that are here. God will meet you here. Jesus. Out of your out of where you were and saying, Lord, I want to move into another position with you. I don't want to stay where I'm at. Stepping out doesn't save you. That doesn't save you. And just saying a sinner's prayer is not going to save you. No, it can't. If your heart is in it, there's total repentance and God's been dealing with by the Holy Ghost. You really delayed down your sin. That'll save you. Just saying a little prayer and I could lead you in a prayer, but that's not really going to touch your heart. God wants to hear what's in your heart. He wants to know why you stepped out. There was some reason you were convicted by the Holy Spirit. He spoke to you. Now, I want you just to talk to him in your own words. Everybody that came forward. And I want this whole audience to talk to the Lord right now. If you owe the Lord an apology, if you need to repent, say, Lord, that's been me. I've come to this church many times. And even this morning, I've allowed my mind to wander. But by God's grace, Lord, if you just help me, I'm aware of it now and I'll focus Jesus on you. I will not let and pray the Holy Ghost protect your mind to build that wall of fire around it. Hallelujah. He'll do that. Listen, if he can keep the ocean from overflowing the land and draws a line. If he can keep the sun from consuming the earth, then he draws a line. Surely he can draw a line in your head. Surely he can put a wall around you if he can put a wall around the oceans. He can do it for your mind and mine. Hallelujah. I want all of you that came forward. Just raise your hands to heaven. Look up to Jesus. The Bible said, I would never lift holy hands. Say, Lord, I surrender. Just tell him what's in your heart. Lord, I need your touch. Speak in your own words. God, here's why I'm here. I need you. Lord Jesus, I want to give my heart, my all to you. Speak out loud to him. Speak from your voice. That's called supplication, vocally. Lord, we supplicate you. We cry upon you, Lord, out unto you, Jesus, because we want our lives touched today. We want our lives changed by your living word. It's the word of God applied by the Holy Ghost that changes us. Change us by your holy word, Jesus, this morning. Sanctify us. Confess every sin. Lay down everything to Jesus right now. Lord, I'm here to sanctify myself before you. Let your word cleanse me. Hallelujah. Oh, precious blood of Jesus, come now. Convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Oh, God, and let us cry out to you because we need you. Lord, we can't be saved other than through repentance. So we repent, Lord. We repent of our sins. We repent of our laziness. We repent of our wandering minds. Oh, God, we repent before you and say, I'm sorry. Forgive me, Lord. Give me power of the Holy Ghost now to overcome. Oh, sanctify me through the spirit of the living God. We can't sanctify ourselves. It must be done by the spirit of God and the power of the word of God. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the tape.