This sermon emphasizes the need for believers to be vessels of God's love and compassion, especially towards a generation that is lost and hurting. It highlights the importance of being empowered by the Holy Spirit to reach out to those in despair, to break the cycle of death and sorrow, and to demonstrate the love of Christ through actions and words. The speaker calls for a revival of souls, a reviving of the church, and a readiness to be part of God's victorious army in bringing hope and healing to a broken world.

It was incredible to be here on Friday night and to see hundreds, hundreds of young people giving their lives to Jesus Christ, which threw me into a bit of a dilemma because I heard the report of last week that the altar call was into the, in this part of the sanctuary, was into the lobby of young people coming to Christ. And on the Friday night that I was here, it was a good, it was right across the front of the good portion of both aisles and a lot of weeping young people wanting to turn from their lifestyle, wanting the new life that Christ offers. And so I thought, well, we're fasting Sunday, Monday, Tuesday for a breakthrough in the youth of New York City. It's just, shouldn't the Lord wait until we're done our fasting? I feel like a man giving a seminar. I was telling some of the pastors on how to lock the barn door after the horse is gone this morning. And we're, we're fasting for a breakthrough among the youth of this city. And, but I had a message already and I had a passage of scripture prepared and the Lord said, and I thought, well, is this the right message? And the Lord said, it is, you just have to look deeper. And so I spent the good part of yesterday reading the same scripture over and over and over, studying it, looking at it, contemplating on it, going into the Greek and Hebrew of many of the words and, or the Greek rather than not the Hebrew in Luke. And then suddenly the pool cleared and I saw something that God was speaking to us, something that we need to fast and pray about because the harvest of young people is coming, has already started. We're living at a time when young people are hungry. They've been lied to, they've been abused, they've been abandoned. There's an emptiness in the heart and they're coming here. We had to turn people away at 7.20. We had to close the doors because of potential fire code violation. Every possible room was filled in this house. My neighbor, who's a young man, 29, and his girlfriend got here about 7.20 and were turned away. And they're coming again next week. I thank God for, there's a hunger. I don't think I've ever quite seen it like this. There's an emptiness. There's a fear of foreboding of the future. There's a deep sense of lostness on this generation. Now, we're talking about a generation of young people who have no moorings in God whatsoever. They don't understand right and wrong in some cases. They don't know proper etiquette even in the house of God. Man, put it that way. I had a young man at the altar here one time, about 25 years old, raised in Brooklyn, as he told me, weeping and crying, giving his life to Jesus Christ. He beckoned to me and I knelt down there. And he said to me, I'm an actor in the pornographic film industry. He said, is that sin? And I said, yes, it is. And he said, if I leave it, he said, I make a lot of money. He said, if I leave it, I'm going to lose a lot of money. And I said, yes, you will. And he looked at me and said, if that's what Jesus wants me to do, then that's what I'm going to do. And he put his head down and kept on crying. But it did something in me. It helped me to understand who we're preaching to now. We have raised a generation without God in America. Many people are not aware of that. Many people my age are not aware of it because everybody had some measure of exposure to the word of God, whether it's in nominal churches, whatever it was, there was at least a measure of it. Now we have raised a generation that have no knowledge of the things of God. They don't even know what the name of Jesus really means. Other than they've heard it, his name mocked and cursed. Beyond that, they don't know anything about the story. We're starting right from the beginning. In New Believers class now, we have to answer questions like, why is there a God? Why does it need to be a God? Do dogs go to heaven? That's when we get that in almost every New Believers class because people are very close to their dogs in New York City and they're very concerned about it. We just tell them that in Isaiah, it says the lion will lay down with the lamb. And Jude, it says that the redeemed are coming back on horses. So there's obviously some kind of animals there. So we leave that in the hands of the Lord. I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 7. I want to talk to you this morning about helping sorrow return to a lovely place. Helping sorrow return to a lovely place. Luke chapter 7. And Father, I thank you with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. I wouldn't want to try to live this Christian life in my own strength. I don't want to be led by my own reasonings. I don't want my own ideas. It's all of no value to your kingdom. I love you, Jesus. And I thank you for your Holy Spirit. I thank you, Lord, that time and again you choose to overshadow my frailty. And you give me strength that I don't have and words that are not my own. And thoughts that I haven't ever meditated on. You are so gracious. You are so good. And I'm asking you, Lord, to give me grace to speak this today. Give us grace as a church to hear it. I ask it in Jesus' name. Luke 7 beginning at verse 11. Helping sorrow return to a lovely place. And it came to pass, this is about Jesus now and those following him, the day after that he went into a city called Nain. And many of his disciples went with him, and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the byre, that means the casket, and they that bear him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up and began to speak, and he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all, and they glorified God, saying that a great prophet has risen up among us, and that God has visited his people. And this rumor of him, or this report rather, went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the region about. Now this story begins in a city, a small town called Nain. The name means pleasant or lovely. It was called that, I guess, in its inception. Whoever founded it, whoever was the first in, the first part of that society, saw reason to say this is a pleasant place, this is a lovely place. And I can think of many places in our generation that started that way as pleasant, lovely places. But it turned sorrowful or unlovely because of a death and despair that had come to it. In this story, a single mother in this pleasant, formerly pleasant and lovely place had lost her child, and many others were in some measure sharing her experience and her sorrow. I can't help but think of the numbers of mothers in this city that cry at night for their children. The numbers of children who have lost hope live in our streets, lied to and abandoned and abused. If you come to this church Sunday night and hear the testimonies, you will realize how widespread the abuse of children is in our society today. It was a scene of two societies meeting each other. Now one group of people were traveling with Jesus, because it begins by saying many of his disciples went with him and much people. So you have a crowd following Jesus, and another crowd following a widow with her dead son, both going in different directions. One crowd is coming into a lovely place, which is in effect what we are doing in Christ. We are following Christ, and for those who know him as Lord and Savior, and are in his word trusting his Holy Spirit for the power to live a new and victorious life that he promises, we are headed to a pleasant place. We're headed to a lovely place that God provides. An abundant life, Jesus said on the earth, an eternal life in heaven with God. Yet those without Jesus, not traveling with him, are leaving a pleasant place, or what they thought was, and they're moving to a place of loneliness or sorrow and permanent loss. It's a type of two societies meeting each other in the journey, which from time to time happens. It wasn't a chance meeting. I feel that an omniscient all-knowing God planned this meeting to be this way. It would be a lesson to us of how the followers of Jesus how we should journey towards, and how you and I should interact with a failing city, and this is a failing society we're living in now. We are watching the erosion of everything, and I say everything, that the Bible declares to be godly, and good, and holy, and just, offering a future, and making, in a sense, our cities lovely places. We're watching the erosion of this, and the destruction of it, and it's producing much sorrow. Jesus saw this mother, this single mother, coming out of the city carrying her dead son, and many, many people were with her who probably could empathize because it wasn't just an isolated case. Many of them had gone through, or were going through, or were afraid of going through the same thing. Many people were losing their children, most likely, as in our time, and Jesus was moved with compassion, and he began to speak to her about something she couldn't do in her own strength. Technically, he spoke prophetically to her, and he said, weep not. Now how do you tell, how do you tell a mother who's carrying out her dead son not to weep? It doesn't make sense unless there's something, it has to have a future context to it. There's something of power in it. It's, it's not enough for you and I, for example, to tell people to be happy without giving them a reason. It's got to be more to just platitudes, and the age of speaking platitudes is over. The age of quick fix, the age of God bless you, be warmed and filled has come to an end. It's going to have to be something deeper, come from the church of Jesus Christ in our time. She was a widow. Is it possible? I'm only speaking in the realm of perhaps, but perhaps she and her son were victims of abandonment by her husband and by his father, and that certainly is the predicament of our generation. In our young people's meetings here in this church, I'm feeling on solid ground to say at least 70 percent, some say it's more, of the young people in this church don't have fathers. In any event, it seems that no one was standing in the role of a father to this young man. Doesn't mention anybody. Doesn't talk about any, anybody having arisen up and taking that place. He may have died because of a lack of guidance, a lack of love, a lack of reassurance that, that has to come from the voice and the hand of a father. I'm realizing that more maybe it's just because I'm, I'm pushing 60 now, but I'm starting to realize that there's something God put in the heart, in the voice and the hand of a father and a mother, but I'm talking about a father at this moment. He had a mother. He didn't have a father. There's something men of this church for God's sake and for Christ's sake, rise up to this hour. You and I can't sit on the sidelines anymore with hundreds of young people coming into this house who have no fathers. They've never had anybody say, I'm proud of you son. I believe in you. I believe there's a future for you. I know you've failed, but it's all right. We have all failed. The father's voice is needed in this generation. Perhaps this young boy lost hope, became confused. Perhaps he took his own life. We don't know for sure. We just know that many people in this city were moved to sorrow when the hope of his life ended. Now I've said it before, but Jesus wouldn't tell her to be, to cease to be sorrowful without a reason. He was about to do something that would break the cycle of death. And I feel in our society that God in his mercy is about to do the same. But many people following Jesus must have wondered, what part do we play in this? What part do we, the crowd following Jesus, the crowd in a sense that are coming in when others are going out, and we do intersect. We intersect. We intersect every day. We intersect every week. We intersect in every street corner. Yes, we try to hide in our buildings. That has been the tragedy of the church. But there is a time when the church comes out into the public, starts to follow Christ, and does intersect with a fallen society. And so the question is, what do we do? What is God requiring of us? I know he's able to raise the dead, but do I have a part to play in this? In verse 14, it said, He came and touched the funeral procession, and it stopped in its tracks. And that's the cry of my heart. That's what I'm praying for today, tomorrow, and Tuesday. It's what I pray constantly. Stop the parade of death. Jesus, you're the only one that can stop it. It's too powerful now. It's like a tsunami. It's too entrenched. There's too much against truth now. You're the only one who can stop it. We've lost our voice. We're like the people that stood on the mountaintop with Elijah. And it says, when Elijah said, If God be God, serve him, and they were strangely silent. Much, much, not all, not all, I'm not indicting all of Christianity, but much of God's church has lost its voice. There's no authority in this generation, in the voices of those who claim to stand and speak for the kingdom of God. And so the cry has to be, Lord, touch this procession and stop it in its tracks. Stop this parade of death, this leading of our youth to hopelessness, and addiction, and suicide, and despair, and violence, and anger, and immorality, and the lack of ability to commit to anything, to any relationship, this continuance in a sense of death. Only Jesus can stop it now. And the scripture says he touched it. They stood still, and he said, young man, I say to thee, arise. And I saw that Friday night in this house, the voice of God. It's bigger than just a production and the altar call that came at the end. It's God saying, and the word arise here means awaken, rise up from death to new life. Awaken to this new life. And many, many young people at this altar Friday were weeping. Some were heaving, weeping. They're sick of this sex. They're sick of the drugs. They're sick of the aimlessness. They're sick of the lies. They're sick of the betrayal in their homes. They're sick of being abandoned even in the house of God. And they want the life that, that's the irony of it all is they want the life that Jesus has for them. You wanted it, didn't you? Well, they're no different. They want it. They want this new life. And it says, and he that was dead, sat up and began to speak. And the word is incredible because it's in the, in the Greek, it's laleo. And it's the word that is used to describe the speech of God. It's the word found in Hebrews one verses one and two. It says, God at various times has spoken to us in various, in different ways through the prophets. But now he is speaking to us directly through his son. The word is laleo. It's that which comes from the mouth of God. And it technically means that this boy stood up. I don't know what he was speaking before he died. I don't know if he's a rebellious kid, hopeless kid, maybe lost heart. But when Jesus told him to get up immediately, he began to speak what was right. His words were in line. There was a, there was an empowerment to speak as God speaks immediately put into this, this young boy. And so that's God's part. I can't do that. I can't, I can't put new life in somebody. Neither can you. I mean, I can, I can lead him to the truth, but it's only God that can put new life into somebody who's dead. I, you can't do it. The church can't do it. None of us can do it. But then it says, and he being Jesus delivered him to his mother in verse 15. And the word delivered in the original text means to give something back to someone that is greatly modified by its connection. And that's where you and I come in. That's the part that you and I play. The scripture tells us in, for example, you don't need to turn there in Malachi chapter four, it talks about a day coming of fire, a day when judgment is going to come upon the whole world. It would appear from this last chapter of scripture. It talks about another people though, in the midst of that, that are going to rise with healing in their wings, treading down wickedness. And then at the end of the old Testament, the last two verses, the Lord says, behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Now that speaks of a specific time. Now, now of course it was fulfilled through John the Baptist, but many who study this text believe that it also speaks of another day before the return of Jesus Christ. I'm not here to debate that, but many do believe that. But the one thing that scripture does tell us is that the curse that wants to, there's a curse that wants to come upon the whole earth, a curse of darkness and blindness and death and aimlessness and sin that wants to steal our children. The scripture tells us that curse can be held back by a people whose hearts turn toward the children of their time. In other words, there's an anointing of God that will come that will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. And it will break at least in that season, the curse. And the question I started answering in my heart yesterday, or asking rather, is could this be the final key to the spiritual awakening that we've so long for in our time? Could it be that God is asking us saying, I'm willing to bring them in if your hearts are willing to turn towards them. If you're willing to come to me for the power that you're going to need to disciple a generation that have no knowledge of God. They're not churched. They don't know the church vocabulary. They don't dress like people in the church dress. They don't talk like we talk. It's going to take a great season for many. The change is going to be gradual, but by God's grace, it's going to come. When Jesus touched the casket of this young man, he gave us a clear example of how we must personally touch and be committed to stopping this parade of pain and sorrow and death in this generation. He touched it. Now he could have shouted from 100 yards away and this boy still would have been raised from the dead. It's the type of people like you and I, we will venture out of our walls. We will rent a platform. We will go out on the street and we'll kind of shout from a distance, arise, come back to life, but we're not willing to touch them. We're not willing to touch them. It speaks of commitment. It speaks to something more. Remember the scripture says Jesus was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. It speaks of drawing near to something. It speaks to me of not being afraid to put my arm around some young person and be committed to that young person, committed to seeing them walk with God, committed to being the father that that young person needs, that young life needs, committed to being the friend, committed to being the one who calls and says, make sure you come to the house of God. I'll meet you at the door and I'll make sure you get to the room that you're supposed to be in. It speaks to me of something more than just shouting at them on the street and expecting. Folks I'm telling you we've seen hundreds, I mean hundreds of kids come to Christ but they're not, they're so scared of this culture. I spoke with a young man yesterday who was saved here a few years ago and he said it was so foreign to me to come into this kind of an environment. It was like you guys live on another planet. I don't understand you. I didn't understand what you talk about. When you sang, when you said hallelujah, I thought you said holly new york. I didn't know you speak another language and you seem to be very concerned about dress and decorum and such like things and not realizing I'm brand new in here and I don't understand much of this kingdom. It takes more than just saying come on out Friday night and many of them won't. If you and I don't reach out they won't come back and it says that Jesus delivered this young man. Now it speaks of a contact that modified this young man. I can see Jesus in my mind lifting him up and embracing him just long enough to fill the ache in his heart and the emptiness in his life. Jesus did more than just speak. He touched him. He committed himself to him in the same way the youth of this generation must be embraced by the church. They must be encouraged. They must be loved. They must be taught. They must be nurtured. God forbid that you and I should miss a great harvest because we're so churched we've become irrelevant. God forbid. God forbid that we get to the place that all we can focus on is the language and the dress and we get all in a knot like the the man who got healed who was lame for years. Jesus said take up your mat and walk and the religious got all in a knot because he was carrying his mat on the sabbath. They missed the miracle for the mat folks. It's going to be it's going to be messy. I'm going to tell you right now it's going to be messy. They don't know when to speak and when not to. They don't some of them will try to prophesy. It's going to be awkward but I thank God. I'm a former shepherd. I'll tell you if there's no mess there's nobody in the barn. We say oh God anoint us with your Holy Spirit. Oh God give us your Holy Spirit. What do we want the Holy Spirit for? Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because that means for this reason. This is why the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to tell those that are blind in a sense that there is a way into the future, and to set free those that have been wounded. That's why the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. So if we're crying out God give us your Holy Spirit. The next question is well what for? Are you willing? Are you able? Is this is this church aid has been infamous for its selfishness. This whole generation has come into the house of God. What's in it for me today? How can I gain today? How can I grow today? What can I learn today? And there has to come a point of maturity where we put away childish things as the scripture says and realize that we are called into the work of God which is the saving of the lost. The bringing of the lost to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The scripture tells us in this one story that in this one act of kindness the name of Christ spread abroad and was brought to reputation. Says there came a fear upon all and they glorified God saying that a great prophet has risen up among us and that God has visited his people. And the report of him it says rumor King James but it means report went forth throughout all Judea and through all the region all about this one thing that he did. This one boy that he raised. This one widow that he encouraged. This one situation of death he brought back to life. This one kid he took in his arms and probably lifted him up and divinely in a sense touched and imparted the life that he had to this son and gave him back to his mother. This one act of kindness brought the name of Jesus into reputation. We will never bring the name of Jesus into reputation until we are willing to touch the dead in our society and embrace those that God brings back to life. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah. I don't know about you but I'm going. That's where I want to go. We we say in this church send me or send us everybody nobody else wants and God's going to answer that. You better be ready for it. How will I find the strength to do this? It's been the question of my heart and it ought to be the question of yours. How? How? We want to bring your name to reputation. We we want to see an awakening in our generation and this very well might be the key in New York City. When you see the depth of the conviction that's coming on these young people you won't doubt that it is. This is an unusual moment in the house of God. How do I find the strength? As I began to research this even more I found out that the city called Nain was in the valley of Jezreel which makes it quite significant actually because it was in the valley of Jezreel that the spirit of God came upon Elijah and he outran the chariot of Ahab and Ahab was a king whose reign filled the area with death and despair but the spirit of God came upon Elijah and he outran the chariot in the vicinity of the city of Nain. Remember we talked about I'll send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he'll turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to their fathers. How does it happen? It happens by the Holy Spirit coming upon you and coming upon me and empowering us to outrun the spirit of death, giving us an insight, giving us the strength that we need to touch the situation and to get to this these children before death does and to break the cycle of death and poverty and depression and loneliness and violence. Isn't it ironic that this church will probably end the way it began? It began with David Wilkerson coming into New York City and going to work with the gangs when no one else was willing to do it and I remember and it's well brought out in the movie because I know the story and of course we've talked at length over the years about it but when he sat with his wife Gwen and said these words, I believe this is much bigger than I am. We're moving into something of God that is much bigger and isn't it amazing that brother Dave today is looking from the balcony of heaven and seeing now the fulfillment of something much bigger than the way it began. This church is going to end the way it began. We're going to reach out to the unlovely. We're going to reach out to a generation. I was thinking on Friday night of how God took one life, Nicky Cruz and there's others as well, Sonny Argonzoni and others, but he has preached to an estimated 15 million people around the world. One countless young people to cry one life, one life and God now is willing to give us hundreds, hundreds. The one thing I know about these young people is when they're converted they will stand for the truth. They will stand. They're fearless in their neighborhoods and when they get saved they'll be fearless for Christ. I have no doubt in my heart about that. We are not going to run from this challenge. We're going to move towards it and be part of the miracle that God wants to do in New York City. You can't do it and neither can I without the Holy Spirit. I told the cast on Friday night, I spoke to them for a while, I said we're going to need a lot of help. I said you can't bring all these fish in and dump them on me. I'm going to be 60 in September. I really don't relate that well. I'm trying, by God's grace I will, but I don't fully get the culture sometimes and I tried to look cool Friday night. It was hopeless. Put on a black sweater. You're supposed to wear a black sweater I guess or I'm not comfortable with my shirt hanging out so I go with a sweater and I got a pair of khakis and of course I ironed them which I suppose you're not supposed to do. Then I put them on and when I put them on I stood in front of the mirror and the pants were about like this high off the top of my shoe and I thought well that's not going to work either. So I went through more dilemma getting ready for Friday night than I do for any Sunday here and it speaks to me of there's going to have to be a change. We're going to be stretched. We're going to have to trust for the strength to be what God's calling us to be. We're going to have to call out to the Holy Spirit to give us the strength and nobody should be outside. Nobody should say well no I've done my time. No sir, no ma'am. Nobody should be outside of this battle. God is bringing us to harvest and I don't know exactly how we're going to manage all of this but in my heart I feel we're going to start sending young people to feed New York churches that we know there's praying pastors there. We're going to it's going to take the whole church to in New York City to do what God's about to bring our way. It's called an awakening. Oh God I've lived my whole life to see this moment. I don't want to be sold short. I don't want to be standing back when it's a day of miracles. I need the Holy Spirit and so do you. We can't do this. We can't get outside of our box without him. We can't get outside of our way of thinking, talking, and doing and even our even our our own lines that we draw around about how far we will go with other people in other situations. Only the Holy Spirit can take us out of these places and give us the power to embrace a generation that desperately need to know that God loves them. It's one thing when I first got saved I knew that scripture said Jesus loves you. God so loved the world. I remember laying in bed one night crying weeping and my wife said what's wrong with you and I said I I read it but I don't get it. I don't feel it. I don't understand it because it was affection was not a huge part of my life and I really don't I don't get it. I know there's a love in here I'm not understanding. And I'd like to tell you that maybe the Lord just zapped me with a spiritual understanding and suddenly I just understood the love of God but that's not the way it happened. I actually met people that were a physical demonstration of the love of God. That's how I came to understand it. I met I met people in church that genuinely cared. I met I met an usher. I remember one time would seek me out to shake my hand and I met a a musician in one church who hugged me and would tell me he loved me and I would cringe. Honest goodness my skin would crawl and he would look at me and he'd say you can't tell me you love me can you and I said no I can't and he said that's okay God will show you and but it was through people. It was through people who just were willing to endure the prickliness of this ex-cop this cop at that time who just could not hug people. It was I just made my skin crawl. I hated being in a place where people were hugging each other just to me it was like I just couldn't do it and wouldn't do it and but God broke down that misunderstanding of of of his love through people. It was their words to me in the midst of my misunderstandings of him. It was their kindness. It was their touch. It was it was an arm around a shoulder. It was an older cop one time that when I lost heart and I just didn't I didn't understand the ways of God and I felt condemned because I I couldn't live up to what I thought I should be as a Christian and it was just the kindness of his words to me. We were working together at a Home Expo show actually and I just said I I just don't think I can do this and and it's just the way he spoke to me broke that that messenger of hell that was sent against me to destroy me. It was the kindness. It was the genuine affection in this man's heart for me that made the difference. So, I know what I'm talking about in that context. There are young people and others coming in here who have no clue about love and commitment unless God demonstrates it through you and I and we can't do it without the Holy Spirit and so that's my altar call this morning is simply Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit may I be this is for men and women. May I be the Elijah that the scripture speaks about. May I be the one in my generation whose heart is turned towards the children and because it's God ministering through me the heart of the children will be turned towards me and towards ultimately God. Make me that that vessel that can lead them through the wounds and the pain and remember the spirit of the Lord's upon me to heal those that have been bruised and to set free the captives and give sight to the blind. God let your spirit be upon me to help these young ones especially to get through the pain and the captivity and the blindness and to know that they're loved of God. Nicky Cruz is a good friend of mine and we were talking in Colorado a while back and he said it was it was it was the love the word Jesus loves you and the visible demonstration of that love through a human vessel that broke that broke the bondage of hell in my life and he said it still moves me today the way it always has when somebody looks at me and says Nicky I love you it still moves me that's how important it is preach all we want but if we don't love people it doesn't amount to very much. I'm going to ask you to stand in a moment Roxbury you're those that are at home watching on the internet and if you just want to be that vessel you've heard the word today and you get it and you just in your heart say I want to be that man that woman I want to be that person that is an extension of the love of God to a generation that so desperately need healing and it's not just in church but I want it to be all week everywhere I go and all that I do I want to be that person and if that's the cry of your heart I'm going to ask you to stand in a moment make your way to the front of this auditorium or between the screens in the annex and then we're going to take time to pray together and ask God for the presence of his Holy Spirit let's stand please. Hallelujah folks lift your voice to God today ask him to fill you with his spirit of fresh and anew today come on lift your voice he wants to hear your voice this morning father we come before you Lord with a heart so God open God with our hearts open to receive Lord from you today you promised in the last days you would pour out your spirit upon all flesh Lord we cry out to you for the latter rain today Lord the latter rain that brings in the harvest the latter rain oh God Lord we ask for the latter rain Holy Spirit come and fill us afresh to stay fill us afresh this day oh God we need you this morning we need you we cry out to you Lord you promised in your word for the sake for your namesake Lord as we heard for your namesake in Ezekiel 36 for your namesake Lord Lord that you would pour out your spirit that you'd send your spirit into our hearts Lord and you'd cause us to walk in your ways Lord and to keep your commandments Lord to do them God we call out to you and we ask Lord Holy Spirit come and fill us touch us afresh touch us anew give us your heart give us the heart of God this day we believe the report of the Lord we believe the word of God we believe oh God that your spirit is here right now ready to touch us ready to fill us God ready to equip us your word says you equip ministers as a flame of fire Lord you equip us as a flame of fire Lord you equip your ministers God you give us what we need we ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be an operation in our lives Lord like never before oh God to be able to discern Lord that which is of you Lord and that which isn't God an ability Lord to have a word in season a word of knowledge Lord a word that will demolish strongholds Lord a word that will set captives free God we ask for Lord a word of wisdom Lord we ask for the ability to stretch forth our hands to heal Lord to see healing flow from our hands we are your body Lord we are your body God animate us as your body Holy Spirit you came upon the head now come upon the body come upon us oh God that we might touch someone in this generation he might be used of you Lord to touch our neighbors Lord to touch those in our workplaces to touch those in our tenement buildings those in our communities that need to know that God is alive God we trust you today and we invite you fill these vessels fill us from the top of our heads to the soles of our feet animate us animate us God pray through us God you rose up early in the morning Lord and you got the heart of your father Lord and you went out through the day and you will let other spirit lead us by your spirit lead us Lord God Lord into dark places God where we can touch Lord Lord those that are captivated by sin God we think of how you came oh God and you you met that funeral procession God we ask you would use us to meet funeral processions around this city God where the devil has seemingly captivated Lord those around us we ask Lord as your people that you too will lead us and use us to meet funeral processions in this generation and to cause Lord the devil to have to stop in his tracks God and to give up his spoil to the glory of our God we pray that hundreds and even thousands of funeral processions Lord in our communities Lord in our workplaces God even in our own homes Lord would have to stop Lord because the light that is in us is greater than the darkness hallelujah help us to see men Lord not like trees walking Lord but to see everything clear help us to see people the way you see them Lord they are not hopeless we serve a God oh God who can go into the dark places Lord a God who can call Lazarus's out of their graves a God oh Lord who is alive and is still in the business of saving Lord we thank you for how you've touched our lives we know today that the same God who saved us and delivered us oh God is still able to rescue hallelujah we believe you for the miraculous now cause every mountain of unbelief to melt like wax in your presence this day Holy Spirit we avail ourselves to you we pray that you would quicken oh God our devotional times quicken our devotional times that we will leave with a word like Jeremiah shut up in our bones that we would not be able to stay quiet Lord let fire send fire into our bones let the word come alive we ask that Lord throughout a lot of times of prayer and fasting that you would pray through us God animate us God we just thank you and believe you Lord for the miraculous Lord you wouldn't speak to us the way you've spoken to us this morning if you haven't planned and destined to do something in our lives thank you that you will finish the good work you began and God thank you that we will see a revival of souls we will see a reviving of your church we will see your bride rise up like never before oh God Lord your church is not going out whimpering but you have a victorious church you have an army and we are part of that army thank you Lord that we will have our lamps trimmed and we will go out to meet the bridegroom hallelujah hallelujah God we give you the highest praise now fill us oh God with your spirit God we are open we are available and God we thank you in advance for what you're going to do in Jesus name and all God's people said give them the highest praise