In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the love, mercy, and grace of God. He encourages the congregation to rejoice in the Lord and to repent of their sins. The preacher explains that true intimacy with Jesus can only be achieved when one fully believes in His love and surrenders their life to Him. However, he warns against abusing God's grace and using it as an excuse to sin. The sermon also references the parable of the prodigal son to illustrate the depth of God's grace and the importance of knowing His heart.

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 WORLDCHALLENGE PO BOX 260 LINDALE, TEXAS 75771 or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. ...test of an upright man, the protest of an upright man. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the Living Word. I thank you for the truth that sets men free. Lord, I pray for the anointing of the Holy Spirit this morning that my mind be quickened by the power of the Spirit of the Living God. And I pray, Lord, that the Word of the Lord grip our hearts, dig deep into us, O God, and help us to understand the ways of the Lord. O Holy Spirit, we're wholly dependent upon you. We acknowledge you in this house. There is no church without the manifest presence of Jesus. We thank you for manifesting your presence. And now, Lord, we make room for the Word of the Lord. We love your Word. We honor it. Now, help us to live by it, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. I received a letter this week from a man who probably would boast that he's a very upright man. And he said, Dear Mr. Wilkerson, what's happened to you? You used to preach so powerfully against sin. You were a real hellfire preacher. But you've gone soft on sin lately. Your message on Jubilee provided people with a license to sin. You are offering comfort to compromises instead of conviction. Brother Dave, get back to preaching holiness. I don't sin. No one has to sin. There's no sin in me. And he went on with a lot of bitterness about the hardness lately of my preaching. On the first place, the man's proud and bitter attitude to sin. And secondly, the Bible said if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. For God said all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But there is one thing I fear probably more than anything else in preaching. And that is that I never condemn the righteous and I never comfort the wicked. In fact, I tremble at this verse. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just both are an abomination to the Lord. A true man of God, if he's going to preach the gospel, has to show the people their iniquities. He has to name sin as it is. He has to point it out. He has to show people the difference between the holy and the profane. And by God's grace, I believe he's helped me to do that over the years since I've been preaching. But I'm a fraud. I'm a total fraud if I don't bring forth to the congregation the wonderful mercies and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I would be a fraud. In Luke 15, if you'll turn there, please, and leave your Bible open on your lap. I'll go in and out of this chapter with you and talk about the protest of an upright man. You see, here's another protest by a man who boasted that he was upright. Now, we're going to talk about the prodigal son. Now, prodigal simply means wasteful and reckless. Here's a reckless young man. Now, folks, in the story of the prodigal son, the father of this story is our Father. It's God Himself. And if that be true, then these two sons represent two kinds of Christians, two different camps of those who follow Christ in two different manners. Now, the first misuses the grace of God, and the second misunderstands the grace of God. Equally are sinful. To misuse and despise the grace of God and not to understand and appreciate it and deny it to others is equally a sin. The younger son comes to his father and he asks for his inheritance, the earnest of his inheritance. Now, what he got from his father did not diminish the wealth of his father. He got just a portion of his wealth. In fact, both sons had a portion divided unto them. Now, this story has no meaning whatsoever to the church of Jesus Christ unless we understand that the riches these young men receive are the riches of the glory of God in Christ Jesus, His grace, His mercy, His compassion. Otherwise, this story has no meaning. It's just a story of a runaway kid and perhaps a little bit a story of how the father offers such free grace. But if it's to apply to me and apply to the church of Jesus Christ, we've got to understand when this young man or these young men say the young man goes and the younger son says give me what is coming to me, I want my blessings. This represents a kind of Christian that we see in the church today who is always claiming his rights. I want everything more that you have for me. He glories in a message of mercy and grace and he endows himself, he fills his mind with every scripture there is about the grace of God. He loves to hear the story of the shepherd who goes out and finds the lost sheep and the lost coin because it relates so well to him and gives him such comfort and he builds his, for a lack of a better term, his stash of grace. He gathers together all that he can get. Lord, I want everything you have coming to me. Now, that's good, that's fine. We are to receive the message of grace. This young man has gone to the heavenly father. He's a type of a Christian that says Lord, I want everything you have for me. A lot of these people want heaven now. They want every material, physical blessing that they believe they have a right to. This is what happens. This young man, I believe, is a type of a Christian who really intends, this young man really never intended to run away at first. In fact, it was quite a while before he left. He stayed a while at his father's house, no doubt wanting to invest it and work hand in hand with his father, be intimate with him and have his father be very, very proud of his achievements. But you see, he really didn't want a long-standing relationship with his father. He didn't want intimacy. There was something in him of worldliness and pleasure and it began to attract him. And he gathers up all his blessings and he heads off to a far country. Now, this may shock you, but I really believe this younger son represents a whole camp of people in the church of Jesus Christ I call the Bless Me Club. All they are wanting are the blessings of the Heavenly Father, but they don't want the intimacy and the price of intimacy. They really don't want to walk with God. They don't really want to hear anything about sacrifice and the cost of going all the way with the Lord. You know, you find this same kind of follower in Deuteronomy 32. God had blessed Israel mightily with increase in the fields. He made them suck honey out of the rock, oil out of a flinty stone. He blessed them with butter and milk and sheep and flocks of cattle, wheat and houses and lands and vineyards. But Jezreel, or Israel, grew fat and kicked. Then he forsook God, which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation, getting all the blessings and then taking off. This boy, not many days later, took his portion, took his journey into a far country and wasted his substance with riotous living. There's a New Testament scripture that defines what this boy did in terms that we understand. These are clouds, Jude said, without water, blown about by the wind, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. Getting all the messages of grace, all the scriptures of grace, all the teachings of grace and saying, I am secure now. I know I'm saved. I know I have a merciful, loving father. I know that he's going to find me. He's the shepherd who goes for the lost sheep. If I'm not lost, he's coming after me. And they have this conceptual thing of an easy grace. The prodigal son sits in this church this morning. He may be right next to you. The prodigal daughter. Now, please don't look to the right or the left or behind you. Could be the seat in which you're sitting. Could be in a choir. This is the son or the daughter who, according to Ephesians 1, 11, is received in inheritance. And like the prodigal son, they give the father thanks for making them partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light. Thank you, Lord, for this inheritance of grace and mercy and all these blessings you've given to me. They've received what the Bible calls the earnest of their inheritance. They've been blessed with all heavenly blessings in high places. They've been supplied abundantly with the truth of grace and mercy. And what happens in this church as you sit here week after week and you have given to you message after message of the mercy of God, your glory in it. Isn't it wonderful the Lord loves me? Isn't it wonderful he so freely forgives us when we fall and when we fail? We have preached that with power. We've preached that with tears. We've preached mercy. We've preached grace. We've preached his loving kindness. We've preached justification, mortification, sanctification. We've preached all these doctrines. And they all center on the grace of God through Jesus Christ. But what happens after having heaped up this inheritance? This son gets his blessing. He stays a while, and then he heads off to satisfy some lust in his heart, a wonder lust, a lust, a spirit of worldliness. I'm convinced that there are many Christians who cannot handle the message of grace and the blessings of grace. They can't handle it. It burns a hole in their flesh. This young man had this wealth, and it's burning a hole in his pocket, and he heads out to the world. And there are some people, Paul makes it clear, that cannot. They do despite to the grace of God. They cannot handle it. It appears to them to be a license to sin. That's why he said, should we sin that grace may abound? He said, oh, God forbid that this message should burn a hole in your flesh, and that you should go out and do despite to this mercy and grace message. They head off now as this prodigal son to some forbidden place. It could be somebody sitting here this morning. You go out and begin to waste your grace on life as living. Your lust can carry you to the bed of a fornicator, can carry you deeper into homosexuality, lesbianism, can take you back somewhere to a pusher, and you stick a needle in your vein again, and you start coke. It can be gambling. It can be almost anything. And then after you have visited the bed of the prostitute or the fornicator, you go back to your room to use a little stash of grace. They say, oh, there's plenty of it. I've got enough. I can handle it. And this young man leaves. He says, I can handle it. I don't intend to go out into the world. I don't intend to do anything. And if I do fall, I have all, I've got this stash behind me. I've got an all-sufficient grace. And so this young man goes to the bed of the harlot. He goes out in parties, and he goes back, and he keeps spending and spending his grace. Now, I know you haven't heard it preached like this before in the prodigal son, but this is how God showed it to me. Look at that son of God running around with an ungodly crowd, doing wicked things, running from God, following desperate into deeper and deeper sin until everything is gone, is depleted. There are Christians today that are perverting and squandering the grace of God. Titus 2, 11, 12, for the grace that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. That is what God intends the message of grace to produce. Holiness, godliness, righteousness, a holy fear of the Lord. That's what grace God intended to produce in our lives. But you see, the moment we try to cover up sin by appealing to grace, we do despite to that message. Let me say it again. The moment we try to cover up sin by appealing to the grace of God, in other words, I know I've sinned. And rather than to be heartfelt repentance, rather than giving it up, rather than asking the Holy Ghost to give you the power to overcome, and trusting the Holy Spirit to do the work in you, I know that I've failed and I'm not quite ready to give it up, but I know that if Jesus comes tonight, I'm ready because I'm truly saved and I have the grace of God in my life. And thank God, I don't care how far down I get, He's going to find me, because I heard the preacher say that, that He never gives up. He won't give up on me. And so having this little stash of grace, having this message of grace, they go out and do despite. Rather than to use it to turn to godliness and holiness and righteousness, they go out into the world. And we have people in this church sitting here now that come week after week doing despite to the grace of God, because you've heard it and you've taken comfort when I've preached it, when Brother Carter's preached it, you have taken such comfort from it, you've been able to convince yourself that you can go out and live like the world, live like the devil, and still have grace cover you, without repentance, without turning from your sin. I'm telling you that's impossible. I'm telling you that's not scripture. I'm telling you you're on dangerous ground. Keep in mind, his father still had all that he needed. His father was not depleted of all his wealth. I don't care how a man wastes his grace. I don't care how he squanders grace. It does not deplete God's grace. It's not that God doesn't have all the grace that we need, no matter how down we get in sin. But there has to be a time when you come to your senses as this young man did. Because the time is going to come when you're going to wind up alone and in a spiritual famine where the spirit of God is no longer moving on you, you have no spiritual life, you don't hear a word that's being preached, because there's a hardness setting in now because of your sin. And this is exactly what happens when the young prodigal winds up in a pigsty, starving. And I've seen that spiritual starvation. I've seen people who once had such marvelous testimony of grace and mercy, and now they're just skeletons, spiritual skeletons. They have no spiritual life left in them whatsoever. Verses 17 and 18, chapter... Let's see, what chapter did I give you? Luke 15? Yes, okay, I want you to go to verses 17 and 18 with me, please. Let's start at verse 14. And when he'd spent all their rows of mighty famine in the land, and he began to be in want. Boy, that's the man who has squandered his supply of grace. Now, that's a perverted supply of grace. That is not the true grace of God. It's what he's turned the grace of God into, lasciviousness. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bred enough in despair, and I perish with hunger. I will rise and go to my father, and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. Now, look at me, please. I have used the statement that repentance is simply turning around and going the other direction, but I must apologize that it's only half the truth. It's not only a matter of repenting to God, turning around and going back to him, but it's going back with this confession, God, I've made a mess of my life. I can't handle it. This young man thought he could handle it. He thought that he could take a maze of this world, and he could take the grace of God and mix it. And it won't work. You have to come to the Lord when you have sinned, and you can't get victory over your sin, and you wind up in a pigsty somewhere. You have got to come to the Holy Ghost. You've got to come to the cross of Jesus Christ. You've got to say, Oh, Lord, I have messed up. I am not in control. I can't handle my life. I can't govern anything because I have ended up in a mess. And that's what repentance is. It's turning around from the world and going back to the Heavenly Father and saying, Lord, I can't govern my life anymore. I submit to your government. I will be your servant. That means I will be under your governorship. You will govern my life. You will tell me what to do and how to do it. I'm tired of making a mess of my life. Repentance is just that. I give up trying to run my life. I can't do it. And not a person in here that has the skill and the wisdom to run your life. You're running into the ditch all the time. Oh, hallelujah. That's what walking in the Spirit is, simply giving over control of your life and the government to the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. When he says, I can't handle it. I'm no match for my lust. That's when God begins to do a very, very special work of restoration. Verse 20 to 24. Verse 19, I'm no more worthy to be called the son. Make me as one of the hired servants. Put me under your government. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The son said unto him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight. I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servant, bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, let us eat and be merry. For my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Hallelujah. When he was yet a far off, his father falls upon him, kisses his neck, and he kills the fatted calf. Of course, you know, there's that picture of them in the father's house, fully restored, not as a servant but as a son, now under the governorship of his father, willing to submit. Now he's interested in intimacy. He's interested. He has lost all interest in the world and the things of this world, and he's ready now to settle at the father's feet and to do as he's commanded. And they have a party. I mean, it's a merry, wonderful time, feasting around the lamb. Now, you know who the lamb is, don't you, that we eat of and partake of? That's Christ. That's Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful scene, total restoration, wonderful scene. It's a feast. But there's an upright man looking in the window who's protesting the whole affair. He's looking in the window, and he's angry, and he's growing angrier by the moment because he's upright. For many years, he's never transgressed any commandment. He's served his father with absolute diligence. He's upright according to the law. He's scrupulously clean, and he looks in that window. Now, what the eldest son saw when he looked in the window was one of the greatest expressions of God's grace ever shown mankind, absolute glorious picture of grace, that a man can repent no matter how low he gets and simply give up the government of his own life and come to the heavenly Father. And the heavenly Father doesn't ask a question. He doesn't lecture him. He embraces him, puts a new robe on his back, brings him into the feast. That's reconciliation. That's the heart of God. This elder brother didn't know the heart of God, served Him with sweat, served Him with all kinds of human effort, and didn't even know the Father, didn't know His heart. And he looks in the window, and he protests. He's angry. He's saying, in essence, I have no part of this cheap grace, easy grace. This man lives like the devil. He squanders everything. He's brought shame on the family, wicked, vile sinner, and he walks home like a hero. I don't see his tears. Maybe he'll fall next week and go back again. Have you ever heard it in the church? I just heard it in the letter I read to you. No, Lucas, you're preaching cheap grace. You're telling sinners they just repent, and suddenly everything is okay. God wipes out the past, and they're in the favor and blessing of God, and suddenly at the feast, yes, yes. That's exactly what the Bible says, because there has been true repentance and humility and brokenness. Now, see, the younger son misused grace, but this man misunderstands grace. He didn't know the heart of the father. He could not accept unconditional love from the father simply because he was born his son. He was trying to prove or earn the love and favor of his father. He's saying, Father, what he's saying, I don't feel love. I don't feel like feasting. I don't feel very happy. I'm under a burden because I have worked so hard to please you, and you have never shown me this kind of love. The legalist has a very difficult time in putting away the flesh. My flesh rebels every time I have to put it aside because I want to perform for God. I want to be able to sit back and say, I earned this. I worked for this peace. I have really prayed and fasted and done everything to get the victory, and I have worked and worked until I finally made it. And then I have to push that whole thing aside because it's a stench in God's nostrils because I'm trying to earn favor and I'm trying to come into his presence and be accepted on my own merits and my own works. And it doesn't. That is absolutely what God calls filthy rags. Your flesh will protest. It will cry out with everything in its spirit. It will cry out against this matter of whole dependence on the Lord, of trusting in his mercy and grace and coming in simple childlike repentance and then believing the Lord to wipe the slate clean, then trusting him to give you the power and the wisdom and the authority to live an overcoming holy life through the power of the Holy Ghost. Now, I picture the younger son seeing his older son looking at the window, frowning at him. And in my own thinking, I believe I know the heart of that young man because it's the heart of repentance. Through repentance, we'd say, brother, I don't know why you're frowning because really you should be in my place. You don't know how much I admire you for your discipline and your faithfulness to the Father. You never went out and sinned like I did. You have the better testimony because you've been faithful. And here's the young brother looking in, said, I wish I could have fellowship with you. I know I don't deserve this. You know, I'm sure this young man had to endure years of pain with this elder brother protesting his deliverance and his restoration, saying, you didn't pay the price that I paid. I don't want anything to do with your easy grace. I don't want anything to do with that message. I'm going the way of holiness. I'm going the way of separation. And folks, some of the meanest people in the world, and I know some of the most judgmental, bitter, hard people are those who say, I want nothing to do with that kind of message. The acceptance of a people to come right out of sin, out of drugs and alcohol, and suddenly be transformed into the favor of God. Where are their years of sacrifice? I had a pastor once from Russia who'd spent a number of years in jail. Came to the United States. In fact, he visited his church once. And he frowned all through the service. And after the service, I asked him, I said, Pastor, what's wrong? He said, I don't understand how you people have a right to clap and be happy. They've not been to prison. They haven't paid the price. He said, the only way to come to that kind of victory is through suffering. Human suffering. That is not Scripture. You come through the unmerited grace of God. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. God forbid that anybody that's fallen into sin, into adultery and fornication, or homosexuality, whatever it is, from this church, and they fall into sin, and you know about it, you hear about it, and then you see them come and repent. God forbid that you should back away and say, no, no, no, I don't have anything to do with that. It's too cheap. It was too quick. Give them a year or two. Give them three years. Let's test to make sure she's going to make it. No, no, no, no. That's the protest of the elder. The protest of the upright man. But that uprightness, folks, is human uprightness and a very stench in the nostrils of God. Let me tell you the point of this whole story. Grace is freely bestowed on those who have died to self-worth and self-effort. Even the father testifies, I rejoice for this. My son was dead. Now he's alive. He was lost and now he's found. He was dead to his own efforts, dead to trying to ever please his father and his own. He knows now he can never do it. He knows that he has to depend wholly on the love and the grace of his father. But you see, the elder never had a sense of his lostness. No, until you until you understand how lost you are, how hopeless it is to try to bridge the gap. There's a gap. There's a gulf between us and God. You can't bridge it and your works. You can't bridge it and promises. You can't bridge it by any kind of self-effort. Oh, yes, you'll work for God. You'll you'll strive in the spirit. Yes, there's sacrifice involved. But it's only after you've been secured and know your acceptance in the in the love of the father through nothing but the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ. Nothing else. No other plea. The cross alone bridge the gulf. You can get to God only through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. You can't jump that gulf. You can't get over it. But this elder brother never had a sense of his lostness. Listen to him. I've been faithful. I've served you. I've done this. I've done that. There's no sense of being lost. In fact, he said, I thank God I'm like anybody else. He's a Pharisee. Oh, folks, you can come to church and stick up your nose and look at some drug addicts and others around you. And those that come deep and said, well, bless God, I never had to do. I've never been in that. I've never touched anything iniquity. Well, your pride is worse than the worst drug. Take heed when you think you stand. Lest you fall. God, make this church a church that doesn't judge, that we preach and believe reconciliation. We preach and believe reconciliation. Hallelujah. I'm not going to preach anymore. I want us to stand. Many of you that are visiting here may be on my mailing list and receive these messages. Close to 800,000 people receive those now. And Gwen's here. And I verify that she spends days all day reading letters. Until late last night, we were reading letters that come from all over the world. And if I had to line up my preaching to what I hear, I wouldn't know what to preach. Because half the people here say you're too soft. And over here, others say you're too hard. And there's such a confusion about the grace and mercy of God. My next message is entitled, What's going to happen to the church when preachers quit preaching against sin? I'm going to show you what's going to happen and what is happening. But I want you to know with everything in my heart, you cannot know Jesus in his fullness. You cannot come into the glory of intimacy with him until you're fully convinced that he loves you. And that once you repent of your sins with everything in your heart and you go to him and turn over your life to him to be governed by the Holy Spirit. It's that simple. He rushes in with all the grace and mercy that you will ever need. But you've also got you must know, you must know if you don't know anything, that you can't take that wonderful message out and go and abuse it and sin. And they come back and say, everything's all right. It's not because it displeases him. It's a despite to his love and his mercy and his grace. That the Holy Spirit's here this morning. And if you have if you've been squandering your grace, if you've done despite to the grace of God, you said, Brother Wolfson, I testify that I'm saved. I testify. But you see, there are so many doctors going around now that that are excusing sin, really excusing sin. I didn't excuse him this morning, but I told you there's a way out. And I know God wants to do something special in many hearts. Some of you that walked in here today for the first time, God's dealing with you because something's been happening. You've been drifting. You're not where you once were. And I'm speaking prophetically now, speaking under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, mightily hearing from his heart. And some of you walked into this church. You were warmed by what you felt. You were drawn a little closer to the Lord. But you're really not where you should be. Something in this world has your heart. I don't know if it's television and some of this filth that you might be watching. I don't know if it's just materialism. I don't know what it is that's getting your heart and joy. But you are not in all honesty where you were with the Lord. And you are not seeking his faith. You're not praying. You're not reading your word. You're not into his word. You are not really living in that intimacy. Oh, you're still an upright person. But you don't have that wonderful drawing wooing spirit of the Holy Ghost drawing in the secret closet. You are not showing that grace of God. But little by little, there's a deterioration in your spirit and your walk with the Lord. And that's what this message is all about. And I want you as the spirit of God moves. Now, I want you to get out of your seat and make an honest confession. Nobody will put a mic under your face and say something stupid or foolish to you. You come because the spirit of God draws you. This is life and death in this church. We're not here to entertain anybody. This is the word of the living God. And if your heart has grown a little colder, you've been drifting. You say, Brother Dave, I'm not where I should be with the Lord at all. Up in the balcony, go to the stairs on either side and come down any aisle. Downstairs, the lower rotunda on television, you come up the stairs and come down the aisle. If you're under here, wherever you see a video wall. Come on. Backstage, wherever you are, come right now and make a confession before the Lord. Lord, I've come. I want to put my life under your government. I want to be under the control of the Holy Ghost. I can't handle it myself. Get out of your seat and come humble yourself before the Lord. Now, if you will, please. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. And if you're willing to commit, oh God, I don't want to squander your grace. I don't want to misuse your grace. Follow these that are coming. If you're not saved, if you don't know the Lord, come with these that are coming right now. Amen. A number have responded, but I still have the tugging of the Holy Ghost in my heart. And it's not just for this church, but I feel strongly it has to do with those who are visiting here this morning. You had a divine appointment. The Holy Spirit brought you here today specifically to awaken your heart, to bring you back to your first love, so that you walk out of here saying, oh God, thank you. Thank you for putting a knife in my conscience. And I'll tell you why. To me, honestly, for some of you, it's life and death. I don't believe in begging people. It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. We're going to sing it one more time because I still feel it up in the balcony and all over this house. The conviction of the Holy Ghost saying today, come on back, repent, make it right. Come back to your first love and I'll give you true grace. I'll give you honest Holy Ghost mercy, the mercy of Jesus Christ. We sing it again wherever you're at. Get into the aisle if you can. Destruction before we pray. There has to be, if you came forward honestly, there has to be a cry in your heart right now. And it's a prayer, it's a cry that says, oh God, I've messed up and I keep messing up and I keep excusing myself. Either accusing or excusing myself. And the Lord says, no, no excuses now, because I have all that you need. I have all the resources you need to live an overcoming life. If you will honestly confess before him and open up your heart. Now, look at me, please. I promise you on the authority of this word that if you humble yourself before him and repent of your self-centeredness and of trying to do it in your own strength and just come to him like a child right now, the Holy Spirit will come forth in you as never before with life giving strength. He will empower you. The Lord will cleanse you. There has to be an honest confession. Now, I want you to follow this prayer with me. This prayer in itself will do it unless your heart is in it, unless you're mixing it with faith. But if there's faith in your heart and you mean it this morning, the best you know how you come to him. He said, I'll no wise cast you out. No wise. I know there are people don't believe in altar calls. They don't believe that. But I believe that when the Holy Ghost convicts you, he expects you to respond. And we I have seen thousands and thousands come to an altar call. They've been living for God for years. I responded to all the call years ago and for over 60 years now, I've been serving the Lord. So don't tell me all the calls don't work. I know they work. It worked for Nikki Cruz. It worked for gang members. It's worked for almost everybody that's on this stage. So let them say what they want about an altar call. You're here in a process. The Holy Ghost approves. I want you to pray this prayer with me now. Holy Spirit, I acknowledge before you that I've messed up my own life by my own decisions. I've sinned against you, Lord, and I come to repent. I repent of my coldness and my lukewarmness and my drifting. I don't want to drift anymore. Now, lift up your hands. Bible said it would mean everyone of the audience and pray this prayer with me. Jesus, I come now. I return to you to my love for you. I need you, Jesus. I acknowledge my helplessness. I give you my heart. Cleanse me. Purge me of all iniquity. Here I am, Jesus. I place myself under the government and the rulership of the Holy Ghost. Jesus, be the Lord of my life. I thank you now for your mercy and your grace and your wonderful love and your tenderness to me. And I thank you for it. And I give you praise. Now, in your own words, I want you to just thank him right now for his grace and his mercy and his love. Lord, I give you thanks. You are merciful, Lord. You are loving. You are kind. Now, Lord, we take your authority of relying spirit of Satan, all principalities and powers of darkness that would come to try to rob and to steal the word of the Lord. God, let the word fall in good soil this morning and let it take root and bring forth much fruit. I thank you, Jesus, for the work of the Holy Spirit. God, this word and this message and this service will not last, will not take root unless by faith now, Lord, we lay hold of it and say, Holy Spirit, I believe you now. I trust you to see me through. Glory be to God. Wonderful, Jesus. We give you thanks, Lord. We give you praise. Hallelujah. Lord, I'm so glad that you love me. I'm so glad you love this people. So glad I can represent you as a God of love and mercy and everlasting grace. Hallelujah. Amen. Turn around, say again, five people, just say grace to you, grace to you, mercy to you, grace and mercy of God to you right now. Praise. Amen. Rejoice in the Lord now. If there's repentance, there should be rejoicing in your heart. Let us rejoice. This is the conclusion of the tape.