In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the power of God that comes upon believers. He describes how when people are touched by God, they speak a vision of their future that only God has given them. The preacher highlights that when others see this transformation, they are moved in their hearts. He also mentions that the religious crowd may be stunned by a church that fully embraces the power of God. The sermon concludes with a reminder to ask God for the Holy Spirit, as He is willing to give it to those who ask.

Praise God. Bless the Lord. Psalm 23, please, if you'll turn there, in the Old Testament. I'm going to speak a message this morning entitled, The Table and the Cross. The Table and the Cross. Let's pray together. Father, God Almighty, the Holy Spirit, we need you. We need you to live. We need you to go forward. We need you to survive. No amount of human strength will get through the next days. Ahead of us, Lord God Almighty, we need a supernatural empowerment. I'm asking you, Lord, to touch this church in a way like we've never known. I'm asking God for my life and every life of every person who can hear my voice today, that God, you fill us with the very express person of the Holy Spirit. God, you have to come and empower us. You have to do a marvelous work that's so far beyond any amount of bravado that we can ever come up with. Father, thank you, Lord, for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be able to speak this word today. Thank you, God Almighty, for the enablement to hear it. And Lord, we say today, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We receive the word of God and we ask you, Lord, to accomplish that which you've sent your word to do. Father, help us. Help me, Lord God, to speak clearly. And I thank you for this in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 23, one verse, verse five, the table and the cross. David the psalmist says, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Now, everybody that I know, myself included, loves the concept of this table, of God's fellowship and provision. This table that David spoke about, that God prepares for you and for me, even though we might be facing, as David did, horrific opposition from every side. As Paul the apostle said, fighting from without and fears from within. But in the midst of all of it, God prepares a table. And David said, at that table, my head is anointed with oil. There's an anointing given to my life. My thoughts are brought into proper order. That's why the anointing touches the head first, I believe that. Because in Ezekiel, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a people, the very first thing that God promises, I'm going to give you a new mind, a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit. And when we are separated as it is unto God, God brings our thoughts into order. And we begin to walk in fellowship with God in a way that God has prescribed that fellowship to be. And my cup runs over. When we're in right relationship with God, you and I will have everything we need to get through this life. The water, it speaks about this, this incredible provision of God's life will just be, will overflow in us. We'll not be able to contain it. We'll be compelled virtually to be an extension of the hands of God and the love of God in our generation. We see this table as a place of anointing and empowerment. And at this table, we're given incredible strength that's not available to those who live outside of intimate fellowship with God. If you are here today and you are playing church, you're robbing yourself because playing church is never going to get you through what you and I are going to have to face in our generation. The Bible speaks very expressly, very clearly about the time that we're living in today. It's going to be a time when only the spirit of God is going to be able to take you through and take me through. All the boasting, all of the images of what we think we are, are going to come crashing to the earth. Everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken, that only that which cannot be shaken might remain. And the only thing I know that cannot be shaken is Jesus Christ himself. The only one in me that cannot be shaken is the power of the Holy Spirit. It's only God that will give you and I the power to be and to do everything that God has called us to be in our generation. You and I quite often reason and we say, if I can just get to this table that David speaks about, everything will be all right. We say that if I could, I will fulfill everything that I think my life should accomplish because God is now with me. If I can just get to the table, if I can just spend a little bit of time there, that all the war will go on all around me, but I will somehow be sheltered from it all. A thousand will fall on this side, ten thousand on this side. Now those are great, great promises. Thank God. But you've got to understand that doesn't happen at the table. That happens in the war. That happens in the battle. That happens on the field. These things happen. But we begin to think sometimes, if I just memorize enough scripture, as good as that is, and I certainly advocate that we should memorize all the scripture we can, that everything that I think my life should accomplish will happen because God's now with me. But we forget, the Lord said in Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8 and 9, my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth's, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Now David attended this table by faith. David didn't have the understanding that you and I have today. Didn't have the full picture. And he had to attend to this table that he spoke about in Psalm 23 by faith, but the disciples of Jesus in John chapter 13 attended it by sight. David had a fellowship of faith, but they had a fellowship of sight. Now there's a measure of faith obviously in it, but they had God at the table. They had a physical form of God. In the Son of God, Jesus Christ was sitting at this table. And now you want you to picture with me for a moment John, the disciple. In John chapter 13, you don't have to turn there, in verse 23, the Bible says that at this table, the last supper, he leaned on the chest of Jesus. And John is finding the rest he'd always longed for. And perhaps he's thinking in his heart, I'll always be the closest to him. He has let me in where nobody else is at this moment, and I'm never going to leave this place. I'm going to be safe here. It's going to be always comfortable here. And the table does represent that. The table represents a place of comfort, a place of intimacy with God, a place where we can virtually hear his heart beating. We start to understand why he came to the earth and where this journey is beginning to lead him and those that belong to him. Peter's at this table, and Peter at this time is feeling very anointed and very strong. After all, as far as he'd been told, he now had the keys to heaven in his possession. Matthew 16, 19, Jesus said, I'll give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So Peter's got this promise. And as far as he doesn't see the keys, but he believes he has them. And it causes him to make boasts as it is of things that he's unable to perform in his own strength. It causes him to say, Lord, though everybody else denies you, I will not. I'm prepared to lay my life down for you. I'm prepared to go all the way as it is with you. And folks, you and I need to be very careful of boasting because everything in us that is not yet conformed to the image of Christ will fail. Everything that we have embraced that is not truth will falter. And Peter had a measure of truth, but his truth was deficient. It wasn't fully formed at God yet. And John perhaps thought I'll never leave this place. It's always going to be like this for the rest of my life. And Peter thought, yeah, I've got strength, but he, that he didn't have. Now, when Jesus began to speak clearly of the terrible trials that were just ahead, I want you to imagine in this place, the shock that would have hit the minds and hearts of those that are enjoying this moment of intimate fellowship. What do you mean, betrayal? What do you mean given into the hands of sinners? What are you talking about that you're going to be mocked and put to death and seemingly triumphed over? The incredible shock. Aren't you God? Aren't you the one who's able to, according to, as we understand the scriptures, didn't you form heaven and the earth by the words of your mouth? Aren't you able to speak a word? We've seen it in the dead rise. Aren't you able to calm the seas? We've watched this and all of a sudden you're talking about trial and accusation and beating and scourging and crucifixion. You're talking about a dark night ahead and the shock that must have hit that table. And it's a shock. It's going to be a shock to this generation, folks, who are not ready for the days we're about to face. So many have been at the table. So many have been in fellowship. The fellowship is not complete. The understanding is not full yet. You see, it's at the table where the image of ourselves working with and for God often is very different from what really lies before us. It's the product of our fallen nature. You remember when Satan came to Adam and Eve, he said, no, listen, if you partake of what I'm willing to, of what God says you shouldn't touch, you'll have the knowledge of good and evil. You'll know what is right. You'll know what is wrong. You'll know what paths are good. What you'll have a knowledge apart from what God has spoken to you. And this knowledge of this fallen nature can cause us to, in our minds, create an image of ourselves at the table. But it might not be an image that conforms to truth. We might feel that we are something that we're not yet. We might make boasts that we're not able to fulfill. We might make promises we'll never keep. We might feel a security that's going to be shaken to the very core of our being in the days ahead. Just like the Tower of Babel, man's imagination of what he will do and what he can do must go before he can become one in heart truly with God. Men were building this tower in the Old Testament and God came down and said, listen, we've got to destroy this because if we allow it to continue, there'll be no restraint in man's imagination of what he thinks he's capable of doing. And that's what the fallen nature produces. The fallen nature produces a wrong image. The fallen nature goes in the wrong direction. The fallen nature just runs away with its own imagination and it's not necessarily based on truth. So God says, I've got to bring it down before that which is everlasting can come to the fore. I've got to bring down that which is carnal before that which is spiritual might be manifested. I have to destroy what is old before what is new can be brought in. That's why if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, old things are passed away. They have to pass away. They have to go. They have to be carried out. They have to be thrown into the river as it is. It's happened so many times in the Old Testament when people moved to a false sense of worship. These things had to be literally ground to powder and thrown in the river. How many times do we see that in the Old Testament before the true worship of God can begin to happen in the temple again? Ezekiel chapter 14 and verse 7 tells us that a man who sets up an idol in his heart, even an image of himself separates himself from God. Folks, it's so important that I begin to realize and you begin to realize that all we have comes from Christ. All we are comes from Christ. The only journey that will survive from here to the time we die or Christ comes and takes us home is the journey he has prescribed for us. The only strength that will endure is the strength of God inside of us. There's nothing I can bring to God that's going to make this journey. There's nothing of myself. There's no boast I can make. Folks, I'm telling you. I was in this pulpit last Sunday morning and I said something. The Holy Spirit convicted me right on the spot. I remember saying it. He said, I'm not going to be climbing out of a bomb shelter with a can of beans. I'm going to walk among the people. And immediately the Holy Spirit said, oh yes, you think so? You think you have that strength? You don't know what you could do when faced or confronted with fear that this generation has never known. None of us. And so I drew back and said, God, forgive me. No boasts by God's grace have come out of this mouth anymore. The strength I have is given me by God. We are all cowards at nature, folks, all of us. You're a coward and I'm a coward. And the sooner we can admit it, the better off we're going to be. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. When hardship faces the church, some under the cover of doing what is right in their own minds will abandon the journey to preserve themselves. Think about John 13, verse 27, when Jesus dipped the bread in the juice and offers it to Judas. Now this is an offering of the fellowship of his suffering. And Judas looks at this and says, listen, I didn't, I didn't come to the table for this. I have, I have, I have an agenda. I have a mission I feel I need to accomplish. Now the Bible says he was a zealot. So he had, he had formed some very deep opinions of who God should be and how he fits into that plan. He probably saw himself ruling and wealthy and numerous such things. Now, when suffering comes and when, when God starts speaking about days of hardship and trial and he reaches across the table to him, what a moment of intimacy that is going to torment that man in hell forever. Can you imagine having, being, you imagine that image in his mind in hell, where there's a darkness so thick that can be felt where he's gnashing his teeth day and night, where there's, there's a hopelessness that is ever increasing, no way ever out. And he, he has this image of Jesus reaching across the table saying, I'm offering you a chance to walk with me. I didn't come to just give everyone an instant kingdom and to make everybody rich overnight. And that everybody rule and reign instantaneously. No, there's a path that has to be walked before that. There's, there's a time of trial. There are seasons. Yes, there are some Christians throughout history of just kind of popped into the kingdom and waved their hand, had a great old time and went to heaven. Thank God for them. But that's not the general path that everyone has to follow. And it's certainly not the path that God has laid before us in this generation. So Judas takes this, but he has no intention of ever sharing any of the sufferings of Christ. Forget this talk about a cross. And so he heads out and says, well, if you won't make me rich, I'll make myself rich in your name and goes into the temple where other false and fraudulent religion reigns and trades the savior for 30 pieces of silver. Acts chapter 27, the shipmen were deeming it when Paul was in the storm that they were coming near to some country. And the Bible tells us that Paul had the word from God. And Paul said, no, listen, the ship is going down. But if you will listen to the words of my mouth, the God's given me, you will all be safe. You'll make it to shore. Now, it didn't mean they'd be saved. What it meant is that they would be physically spared and given an opportunity, I believe, to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there were certain people on that ship that took it upon themselves to pretend like they were doing something that was to the benefit of everyone. And they were making their way to get into the lifeboats. And realistically, they said, well, we're going to throw some anchors at the front of the ship. We got four out the back, but we're still swinging from side to side. So we're going to throw some out the front of the ship and we're going to try to help stabilize the situation. But realistically, they were planning on getting in the boats and saving their own skin. And Paul said, no, if these don't abide, then you can't be saved. If you don't abide in the reality of Jesus Christ, I'm warning you today. If you don't abide in the truth of the scripture, if you don't abide in the power of God, you're not going to make it. And I say it with a loving heart, but I say it to you as a shepherd. I say it to you from a heart that cares more that you make it to the other side than you like me today. I care about you making it. And I know all the pastors of this church feel the same way. We're going to go into a very, very rough journey, folks. And you have got to abide in Christ and Christ has got to abide in you. He's got to become everything to you. And you can't abandon the ship in the midst of the storm. You've got to stay with the plan of God. You've got to stay with the word of God. You've got to, you've got, Paul said to those that were on the ship, he said, take some meat now. Folks, that's the word of God for us today. Take some meat. You can't live on Pablum out of the scriptures. You can't just live on every verse that makes your heart happy. You've got to take some meat. There is suffering. There are seasons of trial and suffering in the Christian life. There are times when you and I have to go through the valley of the shadow of death. Take some meat, folks. Get into the Bible. Read everything through this Bible plan that was presented to you today. Read it, embrace it, and don't spit out the hard parts. Read the whole thing. Take in some meat. Paul said, you're going to need strength for this journey, just as you and I are going to need strength. And other people are responding to the initial fears of their situation, can't find the strength to make what they know to be right choices. The Bible tells us that the disciples agreed with Peter. When Peter said, I'm going all the way, the disciples said, we're all going. Now the Lord had just told them, you're all going to flee. Now they could either agree with God or agree with Peter, and they chose to agree with Peter. And they said, no, we're all going to stay with you. And he said, no, you're all going to run. But they had this initial bravado in their hearts, but the fear that came into their hearts and their situation, they couldn't find the strength to do what they knew to be right, and they all fled. And it must have seemed like the scenario in the Old Testament in second Kings chapter 25, when the armies of Babylon came in and destroyed Jerusalem and broke apart all of the holy vessels into pieces, the lavers, the basins, all of the pillars and all of the gold, all of these things that had been brought in and designed by the Holy Spirit. And all of a sudden Babylon comes in, smashes them to pieces, and starts carrying them out. Can you imagine how the people must have felt as they watched all their former victories, their hopes, their promises that they'd made to God, their visions of themselves standing with the plan of God to its completion, all captivated and carried out, all gone to Babylon, as if this world had the last say. Because Babylon represents a system, a world system that lives in rebellion to God. And here comes Babylon and just seemingly carries it all out and takes it away. And the hopelessness of the moment, because the scripture says it was only the poor of the land that were left to be vinedressers. People without influence and without authority and without an army, without degrees, without influence are left and everything seems to be gone. And you and I can find ourselves from season to season in a place like that, where everything we thought we were, every promise we made to God, all of the beauty that we thought was within us, seems to be just drained out of us. Triumphed over by a power that would have us believe that it's greater than the power of God. But you see, the world doesn't get the last word. Think about John for a moment, when he said, I told him I loved him, but I ran. John with this intimacy, but yet it's not perfectly formed intimacy. And he flees in the season of most difficulty, in the garden of Gethsemane. Think about Peter who said, I so bravely boasted, I swung my sword. I said I was going to go all the way. I swung my sword one time and cut off one ear. Then I denied ever knowing him, brought a curse and an oath upon myself. Isaiah chapter one, verse five, aptly describes the best efforts that men in themselves can make. Isaiah says the whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. That's the reality of it. Deal with it. Apart from Christ in you, that's what you are. I don't care how many degrees you have. I don't care what corporation you run. I don't care how many people are under your authority. Apart from Christ in you, your whole head is sick and your heart is faint. It's only Christ in you that will give you hope and strength and courage to face the future. It's only God's word that will get you through the flood and through the fire. Praise be to God. Because when we get to the other side of this folks, there's not going to be anybody holding up 10 steps to getting through what we're going to face. There's going to be just two hands raised and say, God alone could have ever done this. Only God could have done this. Now let's go back for a moment to when Babylon carried everything out of the temple and just a few poor people are left. And those that are brought into captivity are seemingly completely triumphed over. Even their word was given to them, just build and plant where you are. But there's a season. You see, God said, no, my church can never be kept in captivity. It cannot be triumphed over. The keys really are given into the hands of those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing of the earth that can take away the testimony of God because God himself is the testimony. This earth can't triumph over God. And if God through the Holy Spirit is inside of me, then I can't be triumphed over. I can be shaken, but I can't be triumphed over. Praise be to God. And after a season of discipline, which God's people have needed from time and again throughout history after a season where God says, I tried to get through, you wouldn't listen. And so I had to allow all your strength to be drained away. Everything you thought was your security was broken to pieces and carried out and taken seemingly into a foreign place. And that's where many are going to find themselves in the coming days, seemingly triumphed over all the promises smashed to pieces, everything gone. I'm talking about not God's promises to you, but your promises to God, all smashed to pieces, everything carried out. But all of a sudden, a decree God had said before the captivity even started, he spoke through Isaiah. I'm going to have a servant. He's going to rise up. His name is Cyrus. And Cyrus is going to issue a decree. And through that decree, my people are going to be able to go back home and out of the ruins of what they thought they were and of a religion they thought they had. They're going to rebuild the temple and the glory of that temple is going to be greater than the glory of the former. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. You can see the 50,000 that went out under Israel, that first march back, getting there. And many of the people, when they looked at the rubble and they looked at the ruin and they looked at the fallen promises, they looked at all the mess that they had made. There would be so many who would be in their hearts saying, this looks nothing like what I remember. The prophet Haggai speaks about, he says, when the people came back and there were people there who had remembered the temple as they saw it in its former glory. And they were looking at the building of this second temple. And they said, this is, this is pitiful. You see folks, when your image of yourself dies, when what you thought you were going to be dies, and when God calls you back to begin to build now, according to the way God has designed it to be built, you start building something and say, you can be tempted to say, this looks nothing like what I thought my life was supposed to be. I thought I was going to be a brilliant evangelist. I thought I was going to travel the world. I thought I was going to lay hands on the sick and everybody's going to recover. I thought I was going to prophesy and people are going to bend their knee by the thousands. And here I am rebuilding. I can barely get beyond the rubble of what I thought I was. And folks, I see a day coming when much of what the church in America has been building is going to come to rubble. There'd be almost nothing left of it. It's just going to dissolve. It's going to be carried out and the people are going to realize they're poor. But my hope and your hope today is that God calls the poor of this world who are rich in faith. God calls the nobodies and the nothings of society. Things that are not to bring to not things that are. Praise me to God. I want to be the first one there to say, Lord, I'm nothing. I have nothing. Lord, all I will ever have has got to come from your hand. And the Lord says, now I've set a path before you and it may not be anywhere near as glamorous as you thought it was going to be. But on that path, I'm going to walk with you. The supernatural life of God is going to be in you and you're going to live and walk through this life as a wonderment to many. You're going to build a temple and this temple is going to be greater. Now, folks, they would have looked at this temple and thought this is impossible. They would have looked in the scriptures and said there was gold in this other temple and there were lavers and there were basins and the glory had come down. And they would look in the Old Testament scripture and say, this is impossible. We're just building with rubbish. And the Lord says, no, you're not building with rubbish. You're building it now the way I want it to be built. And this latter temple is going to have a greater glory because God himself and the human body is going to come into it. This is the temple that they rebuilt, that Jesus Christ came into. Praise be to God. He doesn't come into the religious system that is far from his heart. He doesn't come and inhabit the proud. He doesn't come into places where we have fallen to the thinking that we have in ourselves the resources to bring him to a lost world. We don't. We don't. All we have is an empty shell of a temple and a cry in our heart that says, God Almighty, manifest your glory one more time in this temple. Come into this human body. Come into it in the fullness of your glory and glorify your name. God Almighty, glorify your name in this temple. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. The glory of the latter temple. God said through the prophet, Hick, I would be greater than the former. And we are the last temple of the Holy Ghost. We are the latter temple folks. This is the last dwelling place of God on the earth. You and me, praise God. So I hold to the promise. I hold to it with everything that's in my heart, that the glory of this latter temple will be greater than the former. Jesus said, behold, Luke 24, 49, I send you the promise of my father, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. He said, wait, tarry. You can't do this by yourself. Put down all the books to tell you how to do it. You can't do it by yourself. You're not going to get through by yourself. You're not going to make it by yourself. You're not going to glorify God by yourself. God has to come. If ever there was a moment that you should be praying as I am, Lord, bring my thoughts, my heart, my life in complete alignment to what is your will for me. And Lord God come in the power of the Holy Spirit and glorify the name of Jesus Christ through my life. I've been praying lately, Holy Spirit, you have to come. You have to indwell the temple for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ. You have to. Moses cried out. He said, God, if all we have our messages about you, if all we have is an angel, if all we have our messengers, if all we have our theories, then what makes us any different from the other people in the earth? He said, what differentiates us from all the other religious theories in the world is that God, you yourself are with us. You are walking with us. Your life is called to bring the name of Jesus Christ to reputation in your family, in your apartment building, on your block, in your city, in your state, in your workplace. You are called to bring the name of Jesus Christ to reputation. You are called to be of another spirit. You are called to be someone lifted and carried by the glory of God. People are supposed to look into our lives and say, I don't know what it is I'm seeing. I don't know what it is I'm hearing, but whatever it is, I want it. What do you think happened on the day of Pentecost when 120 God grip people stepped into the marketplace and religion bent its knee, 3000 people bent their knee to God that day because they saw God grip people. The glory of the Lord was in the temple. If you feel like a failure today, thank God. It's all I can say. Thank God. Praise God. Hallelujah. If ever there was a time to cry out for the Holy Spirit, it's now beloved. It's now. You need the Holy Spirit to get through these days. I find myself constantly crying out now, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, you've got to come. Holy Spirit, you've got to fill me. As I was praying on the platform this morning, the Lord said, I walked away from an entire religious system. And he said, I turned around and looked at it. And I said, you'll not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. As much as you try to do this in your own strength, he said, you'll not see me. You'll not even know who I am. If you and I could say, blessed is he. Now, he who comes in the name of the Lord is the Holy Spirit, folks, and the word of God. If you and I could say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Oh, God. Oh, God, I bless the day you gave me this book. God, I bless the day you gave me the Holy Spirit. God, I bless the day you began to change my life. I bless the day you taught me how to be a father. I bless the day you taught me how to be a husband. I bless the day, God, you began to speak to me about a future that you had laid out for my feet. I bless the day you gave me the courage to begin to walk with you. I bless the day, God, that I've lived to see hell overthrown. I've lived to see your name glorified. But now I bless the day that is ahead of me, the day I've not seen yet. I bless it, God, because you've called me into it and you're in it. Oh, God, I bless you, God, for coming into my life. God, forgive me for ever walking a step without you, forever thinking I can do anything that you haven't called me to do, forever setting my hand to one foot with the plow, thinking somehow in human energy and effort that your kingdom can ever be brought into completion in the hearts of men in the city I'm living in. God Almighty, I bless your name. I bless you, Holy Spirit. God, I praise you. God, I bless your holy name. Oh, Holy Spirit. Oh, Holy Spirit, you've got to come now. You've got to come, Lord. You've got to come, oh God. Only you can fill these broken vessels. Only you can give us the power to stand in the coming day. Only you, God. Only you, Holy Spirit, can glorify the name of Jesus Christ in us and through us. My God, only you can give us the power to stand in the fires that we're going to have to face. Only you, God, can put a song in our mouth, oh God, when there's no bread in our cupboard. Lord, only you can do this, Lord. No one else can do it. So we say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. Come into this church. Come, oh God Almighty, come. I ask you to fill us, God, from the top of our head to the soles of our feet. Lord, all we can do is cry and the rest is up to you, Lord. I don't know what else to do but cry out to you, Lord. You've got to fill us, Holy Spirit. You've got to, Lord. You've got to fill every man and woman in this church. You've got to fill our young people, God. You've got to fill our high schools. You've got to fill our children, Lord. You've got to come, Holy Spirit. You've got to come, Lord. We acknowledge our need of you, Lord. We acknowledge that we can't build this temple in our own strength and God forgive us for ever trying, Lord. We acknowledge you, Lord. We will make no boasts in our flesh, oh God. Our boasts will be of you, Lord. Everything we have comes from your hand, God Almighty. God Almighty. Stand to your feet. Stand to your feet and call out to God. Stand to your feet and raise your voice to the Lord. Call out to him and ask him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you've got to come. You've got to fill us. You've got to make us and take us, God, in the pathway you have for this church, Lord. Fill us, Spirit of Almighty God. We're not here to play religious games. Lord, we're not here just to sit at the table and deny the cross. Lord, there is a cross. We're called to take it. We're called to walk in it, Lord. We're not going to duck away from suffering. God Almighty, come and give us the power to do this, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father. Thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We're going to worship. We're just going to go to worship. I want to give an altar call, annex. You stand between the screens or just stand in your seat wherever. Same thing in the sanctuary. If you feel to come to this altar, you make your way here. If that's significant to you, you make your way here. But folks, it really doesn't matter. If you feel you need to do that, do that. But the real issue is that think about now the weakest area of your life. Think about where things need to change and call out now to the Holy Spirit. You call out, folks, take this tape and make sure you get a copy. Keep it in your house. And in six months from now, it's going to mean a whole lot more to you than it might this morning. You're going to see what God is doing and you're going to need it. Please do this. But today, I can't cry out for you. I can't do it for you. It's this is an issue between you and God. You can't just stay at the table all your life. The table is a nice place, but you can't stay there. There was a cross after the table. There's a season where we are called to be given for other people. That's the work of God in us. I'll not be able to do it. Neither will you without the Holy Spirit. That's why the Holy Spirit was sent. Praise be to God. Would you just lift your heart to God today? If you need a special touch of the Lord, if you're in a place where it means something, if you feel you just need to take that extra step of faith to say, God, may my life never be the same. If you have the courage to just get up from the table and say, by the grace of God within me, I'm going to finish this race. And if it means hardship, it means hardship. But I'm going to finish it. I'm going to go all the way with God, but not in my strength. Remember when they were trying to rebuild, they ran into such difficulty. But the word of the Lord came to them through the prophet. And he said, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. You'll finish this temple by the spirit. This is how we will get through. If it means something to you, you can make your way to this altar. But folks, lift your voice to God. If ever you have in your lifetime, lift your voice to God. If you haven't been baptized in the Holy Spirit, just ask him. Just ask him. There's nothing more difficult than that. Say, God, you've got to fill me with your spirit so that I can make it through, so that I can step away from besetting sin, so that I can get out of the living halfway for God and halfway in another place. Let's do this. Let's worship the Lord together. ♪ Desire and I long to worship Thee ♪ ♪ You alone are my strength, my shield ♪ ♪ Through You alone may my spirit be light ♪ ♪ Desire and I long to worship Thee ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, at the mention of Your name ♪ ♪ Every knee would bow and tongue proclaim ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, You are Savior, You are Lord, and You are God ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, at the mention of Your name ♪ ♪ Every knee would bow and tongue proclaim ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, You are Savior, You are Lord, and You are God ♪ ♪ To sing His word, it sounds like music in my ear ♪ ♪ The sweetest thing on earth ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, at the mention of Your name ♪ ♪ Every knee would bow and tongue proclaim ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, You are Savior, You are Lord, and You are God ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, at the mention of Your name ♪ ♪ Every knee would bow and tongue proclaim ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, You are Savior, You are Lord, and You are God ♪ ♪ Yes, You are, Jesus, we draw near to You ♪ ♪ Blessed angel, blessed Jesus, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ How I love You, how I lift high my voice with Your praise ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, I implore Thee ♪ ♪ Blessed angel, blessed Jesus, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ How I love You, how I lift high my voice with Your praise ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, I implore Thee ♪ ♪ Love my heart, bless my lips, speak Your sacred praise ♪ ♪ I am persuaded, Lord, to love You ♪ ♪ I have been changed to bless Your name ♪ ♪ I am constrained by this great gospel ♪ ♪ Forever to worship You, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ How I love You, how I lift high my voice with Your praise ♪ ♪ Holy Spirit, I implore Thee ♪ ♪ Love my heart, bless my lips, speak Your sacred praise ♪ ♪ I am persuaded, Lord, to love You ♪ ♪ I have been changed to bless Your name ♪ ♪ I am constrained by this great gospel ♪ ♪ Forever to worship You, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ How I love You, how I lift high my voice with Your praise ♪ ♪ I am constrained by this great gospel ♪ ♪ Forever to worship You, precious Jesus ♪ ♪ Jesus, we've been changed to bless Your name ♪ ♪ I am constrained by this great gospel ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Jesus, all that we have is in You, God ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, thank You, Jesus ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, bless You, bless You ♪ ♪ Bless Your name, bless Your name, bless You, Jesus ♪ ♪ To You, Jesus, to You, to You, to You ♪ ♪ There is none like You, no, no, bless You, bless You ♪ ♪ No one else can touch my heart like You do, oh, we do ♪ ♪ I will search for all eternity long and find no one ♪ ♪ Like You, Jesus, there is none like You ♪ ♪ No one else can touch my heart like You do ♪ ♪ I will search for all eternity long and find no one ♪ ♪ Like You, Jesus, there is none like You ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, holy and anointed Lord ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ Holy, holy and Jesus, bless You, bless You, Jesus ♪ ♪ All hail the power of Jesus' name ♪ ♪ Let angels prostrate fall, let angels prostrate fall ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ So glad we can trust in You, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ♪ ♪ We can trust in You, oh God, our strength, our provider ♪ ♪ We can trust in You, help our unbelief, Jesus, help our unbelief, oh God, so Jesus, oh God ♪ Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Praise God. Now, the instructions that Jesus gave to his early church was, it's never changed throughout 2,000 years, Terry, wait until you be clothed upon or endued with power from on high. That was the instruction of God. And one of the evidences that you have truly been touched by God is when these people stepped into the public square, as it was, they were speaking a vision that only God had given them of their futures. The Bible says they were speaking the wonderful anticipated outworkings of the power of God that was now upon them. Every man's image and woman's image of themselves had died, and they had now the image of God was alive. And when people saw that, they were moved in their heart. That's the song I now know that David spoke about, that people see it and fear it, because it's God. God has gripped the temple. God has come into the temple. Praise God. You know, typically what we would do on a Sunday morning is I lead you in a prayer, we clap our hands, we make a friend, everybody leaves. Not today. The Lord told me to tell you, Terry, now if you know that your heart is God-gripped, if you know that your strength is in Christ, if you know that the path laid before you is the one that God has for your life, then by all means, go. But if you don't know, if you've never really had that assurance that God is in control of your life, Terry, there will be elders here, the only thing I ask is that there's no prophesying, you don't give a word to anybody, nobody prays for anybody. Just every person alone, each man, each woman, Terry. Now, if you can't do that here, I understand that, but when you go home, Terry, and through the week, Terry, just sit in your room, sit in your living room. Don't fill the room with words. Just sit there. And let this cry from your heart come to God, say, Lord, you've got to fill me with the Holy Spirit. I can't, I'm not going to get through this life, I'm not going to be able to walk with assurance and joy and divine purpose until you have completely gripped my heart. And don't let this thing become a sorrow to you, it shouldn't be a sorrow. When they burst out of that room, they were filled with life. There was light and joy and hope, and the religious crowd were stunned by it. As much as they had once been stunned by the thought of the cross, now the religious crowd were stunned by a church who had embraced the fullness of God. Praise God. Father, I thank you, Lord, for this congregation. I thank you, God Almighty. Now, Jesus, you said that we're to ask for bread. You said, if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Now, Lord, we stand on that. As our hearts are in line with your heart, as we're willing to be given to your purposes in the earth, you will empower us. Your Word says you will. Those of us who have been filled with the Holy Spirit, you will give us a greater measure. And I thank you for it, God. I see it in your Word. I see it in Acts chapter 4, where you touched the church again, and you shook everywhere where they stood and filled them one more time. Thank you for this, God, with all my heart. God Almighty, all I can do is lift my heart to you. All I can do is lift this church to you, Lord, and ask you to come. I ask you to come, Lord. I ask you to come, Holy Spirit. And Lord, you set the agenda. You set the future, Lord. You set our meeting times. You set everything, God. We just put it all into your hands, and you are a God of divine order. We don't fear your coming, Lord. God Almighty, God Almighty, God Almighty, fill every heart, every home. Ask it in Jesus' mighty name. Now, we understand today if you have to go home, there's no judgment on you if you have to leave. Please don't feel obligated. But if you want to stay, if you want to sit where you are, if you want to spend time just alone with God, if you want to pray, then go ahead and pray. We're meeting again officially here at 3 o'clock. Many of you may still be here at 3 o'clock, but we'll be meeting at 3 o'clock. We'll see you then. God bless you.