In this sermon, the preacher discusses the attitude of those who have no knowledge of God or Christ. He mentions how society often values material possessions and the idea of "winning" by having the most toys. The preacher emphasizes the importance of Christians knowing and believing in the resurrection of Christ. He also highlights the significance of living a humble and righteous life, as our actions are being observed by others. The sermon encourages listeners to align their behavior with the truth of the Gospel.

I'm going to talk to you this morning about proving the resurrection, proving the resurrection. I want you to go to Colossians, the second chapter, please. Colossians 2, verse 12 and 13. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses. Remember this verse 12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead. Now, Father, we've got some important things to talk about this morning. We have a hungry people. Lord Jesus, all over the United States right now and around the world, people are talking about the resurrection and they're preaching about it and they're singing about it as we are. But, oh, Lord, I pray that in this church this morning, you speak clearly your mind to us. Lord, I pray for a miracle through the living word of God today, let it find its place in our hearts. In Jesus name, amen. Proving the resurrection. Give me a thought for a moment, how few people outside in the street know what this day is all about. Right now on Fifth Avenue, they're having the annual Easter parade. Every year down Fifth Avenue, Fifth Avenue, you know the song, down the Avenue, Fifth Avenue. And they're out there now parading up and down in all their finery, like peacocks. Thousands, up and down Fifth Avenue in their latest fashions. How many of them do you believe have one thought about the resurrection? How many of you believe, even think or know anything about the resurrection? Thousands and thousands of people, and while we're here, loving him and speaking about one of the greatest moments in the history of the church and mankind, there they are looking at clothes, Easter egg hunt up in Central Park today. Thousands of children, many of them dressed as bunnies, looking for the eggs and chocolate all over the mouth and chocolate bunnies. Tell me, how many of you believe that those children know anything about Jesus, about his death, his resurrection, and his ascension to glory? How many of those children know anything about it at all? They can tell you all about Santa Claus, they can tell you about the bunny, and they can tell you about all of their cartoon characters, and they can't tell you one word about Jesus Christ. Nothing about his resurrection. Folks, when I was a boy in Pennsylvania, and I'm not going to tell you how many years that was, but it wasn't that long in the history of the world, it wasn't that long. We had Bible reading every morning in school. Every morning the Bible was read. The last day before Easter, the teacher would read the resurrection story. Every child knew it. We had prayer every morning and saluting the American flag. We had prayer. Everybody prayed. In fact, when I was in junior high even, and that wasn't too far back, they prayed over the microphone. And it was an honor for a student to be chosen to go to the principal's office and read a scripture and pray. How far we have gone from that. Satan has done everything in his power to remove God from our schools, prayer, Bible reading, and to remove the mention of Christ completely from our society, even religious symbols. If you work in a federal prison or a state prison, if you work in any federal government, you are not supposed, and you will be caught on this if you wear a cross around your neck or the fist, any religious symbol, politically incorrect, out of the question. Well, the true reason Satan has masterminded this purge of Christ out of our society, especially out of our schools and our government, the forbidding of prayer and the outlawing of all religious symbols in the Bible, is meant to create a society that's totally ignorant of God and Christ, total ignorance. This is what the devil has always wanted. Why did the devil come out of hell with all of his army against our schools? Because he knew that if Christian teachers, even if all they did was pray, they would be praying about how glad they were Jesus saved them, so the kids would get to know that Jesus saved them from sin. The teacher would talk about, Jesus, I thank you that you're coming again, and there would have been a lot of doctrine prayed. And our kids, even if they ruled out the Bible, he wanted prayer up because there would be some knowledge of Christ instilled in our children. By the removal of every trace of the gospel from our society and enlisting in this battle godless politicians and liberals from all over the United States, Satan has succeeded in producing a generation with no knowledge of God, no knowledge whatsoever of Jesus Christ. Folks, I am shocked more than any time in my life to see how absolutely void, outside these doors, this whole society is about Jesus. New York City is totally ignorant of anything about Christ and his resurrection. No, Satan has succeeded in producing this generation. No, we don't have prayer in school anymore, but we've got violence, we've got mass murder, we've got kids running around with box cutters slashing each other, we've pushed the gospel out, we've done all of that, now we have an educational system that is known to be the poorest in the world. No, we don't have Bibles anymore, we don't have prayer, but we have got kids that are out of control, we have teachers being beaten. Now, why has this society suddenly gone mad? I mean, it is just spinning into a crisis of chaos. And what is the reason? Why such sudden violence, especially in our schools? Why are so many people just absolutely giving themselves over to lust and vile? Because there's no hope. They have absolutely been robbed of all hope. Paul said that even a Christian could be robbed of his hope. His life would be miserable if he didn't believe there was a resurrection. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we would be most miserable, Paul said. Even a Christian, if all you knew that Jesus died, he was crucified and he died and he wasn't raised again, that would have been the end. There would be no eternity, there would be no future city of God, there would be no eternal life. It is the resurrection that is our hope. The absolute resurrection of Jesus Christ. Folks, let me stop here for just a minute. I've just been talking to you about the void in our society, about the knowledge of the resurrection and the knowledge of Jesus, the knowledge of God. And look at what has happened in the past few years. I get the New York Daily News, one of the most liberal newspapers in the United States, absolutely liberal, politically. This past week, the New York Times wondered out loud, the front page wondered why there was no outrage about a new kiddie program that's coming out of Britain that is violent. In every episode they kill off one of the characters, and one of the characters is a pile of human waste that speaks absolute mockery of authority, violent language, and this is being brought right into our schools now, right into our homes. And the New York Times said in so many ways, where's the outrage? And one statement says there's no outrage because the parents are sitting laughing, I don't think it's great. In the same newspaper, it announced that New York City is about to open a sex museum. And in this sex museum in Lower East Side, they have restored an old brothel they found. They're going to have all kinds of erotic memorabilia from around the world, and one noted critic said, we have come to the place in our society now that America is ready for this. In the same newspaper, network television is preparing to introduce shock television. Full-fledged nudity, violent language, no-holds-barred, and now competition to see who can get to the screen with the worst shock, the worst filth, and the New York Times says, where's the outrage? There is none. And soon to come, an American pay TV out of Romania, a new kind of fisticuffs, no-holds-barred, no gloves, but it's a fight to the death. There's a picture of a man being carried away from a Romanian ring where the man was beaten to a pulp, and he's almost dead, and the crowd's screaming, kill him, kill him! And the man killed him with his fist. And they said, this is coming to America now. In fact, they've already had one of these fights in the United States and said, this is the new rage. It's a fight to the death. And all bloodthirsty crowds who killed all these babies, and a bloodthirsty society going to be raging, even on top of it, kill him, kill him! And now in Africa, in the same newspaper, a picture of 10 and 12 years old in the same thing by promoters, young, angry orphans who've been trained to kill in the ring. And folks, when the Roman society got to this place where they had coliseums all over their empire, and they had gladiators who would fight to the death, and the blood was flowing, then they threw the Christians to the lions, and God said enough and destroyed Rome, the whole empire. Don't tell me America's not ready for judgment. Know nothing of Christ. Know nothing of his resurrection. And now we've created this vacuum, and all the devils in hell are laughing, and moving in, all the bars are gone. Well, that's not my message. I'd better move on. Paul said, if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain. You're still in your sins. Folks, this is why we have the most miserable society in American history. In Thursday's issue of USA Today, there's a story of many, many high-paid executives from all the United States, and especially New York and Wall Street, that are giving up their high salaries, and they're crying for a simplified life because they're saying all the money and all the success has left us empty. And now they're going, they're moving into the country. They're trying to find a simple life. And they said it's a mass move now. People are giving up tremendous opportunities and everything, saying it's all in vain. I was in South Jersey this past week, and a businessman was driving me through an expensive area, huge million-dollar homes, and he said, Mr. Wilson, let me tell you something. Most of those homes don't have furniture, because they're young stockbrokers and others who are trying to live this big lifestyle, and they're so empty. And I have a friend who has a furniture warehouse, and he says on Easter, for Easter parties, they rent the furniture out and fill these places so they can have their parties, because they can't afford furniture in those mansions. And they rent the furniture, and the truck moves in Monday morning and takes it all away. All a facade. And one of these days, it all comes down. But there was no satisfaction, because this emptiness, this hopelessness, because they've been robbed of the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, absolutely robbed. This present generation knows nothing of hell. It knows nothing of heaven, nothing of saving faith in Christ, nothing of the cross, nothing of the resurrection. They know their sins are piling up against them. They know that their life is empty. But to them, there's no judgment day, there's no accounting. This is all you get. It's in life. So, Paul makes it very, very clear. Those who have this kind of attitude are beyond hope. They're beyond feeling, he said. Because this is all there is. Did you hear the new motto coming out of California for the filthy rich? He who dies with the most toys wins. Did you hear the advertisement of the auto show in Javits Center started yesterday? Do you know what the advertisement is all over New York? Did you see it? Did you hear it? We have the most toys at Javits Center. We win. That's the attitude, because that's what happens when you have no knowledge of God. No knowledge of Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection. Paul says, we as Christians know about the resurrection and believe in it and receive it by faith. Listen to it. You are also risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. Now, you sit here this morning and you rejoice in the resurrection because of faith. But where did you get that faith? You got that faith from your knowledge of God, from the knowledge of the word. You got it from preaching. You got it from reading this and the Holy Ghost confirmed the word to you. You read of the 500 witnesses to his resurrection. You learned of the prophecies of the Old Testament that were fulfilled right to the letter. You have this foundation upon which faith could be built by the power of the Holy Spirit. And you and I are in this church today rejoicing in a live Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because you have a knowledge of God. From childhood, many of you, the Holy Spirit apprehended you and the Holy Spirit revealed the word to you. But the word was given to you because faith comes by hearing the word of God. But let me tell you, you can't prove the resurrection to this Bible ignorant, this Christ ignorant generation, all the preaching in the world. You take a man from the street and bring him here this morning and let me give the most profound or simple message on the resurrection and he won't understand it. He wouldn't understand a word of it. Because, Paul said, because of blindness of their eyes. Because of blindness of their heart. You see, the devil knew what he was doing because he knows that when people are robbed of the knowledge of God, they become divorced from God. And then the Bible says that they turn completely and give themselves over to sin because of their hopelessness. How hopeless would you be this morning if you didn't have a heaven? How hopeless would you be if you didn't know you had a Christ who was going to raise you again with him and that you were going to spend eternity with him in his paradise? If all you had was what you have now, folks, life is miserable for most people in this world and all they have is misery. The only way I see to prove the resurrection to this blinded, wicked generation is by sight and not by faith. You and I receive it by faith, they cannot. Paul said they don't need a written epistle. The Bible says very clearly they could not understand what is written or preached. Paul said they're only going to understand the resurrection as you prove it by your behavior. We as Christians listen to the scripture. Ye are the epistle of Christ, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tablets of the heart. No, they don't have a Bible on your job. They don't have a Bible out on 5th Avenue or in Central Park. They don't have any preaching that they would listen to. This is foolishness to the carnal mind. But they do have something they can read. They read you and they read me. And this is the only epistle that can prove the resurrection of Jesus Christ to this last day. The only epistle. It's written in your heart. If you believe in Jesus and you are his child, you are a testimony that everything you say and do preaches to this world. The Bible, Paul said, read an epistle read of all men. They read you. Now how important is it to prove the resurrection of Christ to this present generation by our behavior? Simply because it's the last hope to reach anybody in this generation. It's the last hope. Passing out tracts without a life behind it is in vain. Preaching to your kids and not living the life at home is not going to work. A young man from this church approached me backstage and said, Pastor Dean, I can't serve the Lord. In so many words he said, I can't serve the Lord. He said, I'm like a vacuum. My dad goes to Times Square Church. He puts on a funny, sings and shouts and he talks righteously. And everybody around him thinks he's a godly man. I don't know who he's in the service this morning. He said, my dad's a phony. My dad hits my mom, beats her, talks trash, and watches dirty movies. When he comes to this church, he said, I don't want anything to do with that. I want nothing to do with that kind of religion. Paul said, having your conversation, which is in the original Greek behavior, having your behavior honest among the heathen or the Gentiles, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, they'll see it, glorify God in the day of visitation. This is from 1 Peter 2. When Peter goes on, he's talking to wives with unsaved husbands. He's saying, they may also without the word be won by your behavior, by the behavior of the wife or the conversation of the wife, while they behold, and in the Greek, inspect. I'll read it again. They may also without the word be won by the behavior of the wife, while the husband inspects your pure conversation or behavior coupled with fear. What he's saying, how do you expect to win your husband if you adorn yourself with fancy clothes and you want jewelry and you put him in debt? You're always harping about what you don't have. You're always talking about your neighbor, the wife, in the next apartment. They've just got a 65-inch screen. Can you imagine a 65-inch screen in a little apartment? They're all over the city, huge things in these little apartments. Peter's saying, you may not get them to church. They don't want to hear any preaching, but they're inspecting carefully everything you do. They see you humble before God. They see you with a meek, quiet spirit. The Bible says they can be won without the word. Won without the word, won to Christ. Well, the same thing goes to husbands. I remember a preacher's wife, Young Evans is one of the best known at that time. This is about 15 years ago. A mutual friend of theirs, a couple, asked me to get on a conference call with her because she had just filed for divorce from this Young Evangelist. And I asked her, I said, how can you even contemplate divorcing? She said, man, he wins so many souls to the Lord and he preaches with such fire and power. I said, it's amazing. Why would you even think of divorcing? She said, Pastor, you know that powerful preacher in the pulpit, that one that's so respected and considered such a godly man, a holy man? She said, that's not the man that comes home to me. She said, the man in the pulpit, I don't know. She said, that man is full of anger. He has a temper that blows up. He'll curse. She said, he goes out with young people and he plays ball with them and he doesn't like what they're doing. He'll curse those kids. She said, he's a mean man. He's a phony. She said, I can't handle it. That young man's now on his third wife. And there's still churches that open their pulpits to him. It's amazing. The Bible says the true believer is raised up together with Christ. God hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And if you tell that to the average man, you go to somebody at a job and say, I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. Then they're going to talk to you about your covetousness. We're talking about behavior. We're talking about proving the resurrection. You're not going to prove it by preaching at them. And then stealing pencils and paper. Well, I said I'd rather do it with just a couple of pencils and just paper. But you see, you said you're seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Folks, I made it simple like pencils because it goes much deeper than that. And I didn't want to embarrass some of you. I hope the Holy Ghost does. You can't steal in front of your coworkers and try to prove to them the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that you're living in resurrection life. Impossible. Any covetous behavior on our part makes the gospel a lie. A useless testimony. Paul said, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. If you're going to the epistle, he said, of Jesus Christ proving the resurrection, you dare not indulge in the covetousness that has this whole society in its grip. This whole society's gone mad for covetousness. I told you the other, last time I preached here, baseball player just turned $70 million down because he said he was embarrassed by the offer. He wants $100 million. And I told you, last time I preached here, all sports are going to go bankrupt soon, and I'm going to dance all over my apartment and shout hallelujah. Folks, I'm not playing to this crowd. I mean this with everything in me. This is a madness that has gripped our nation of covetousness. According to the dictionary, covetousness is an inordinate, greedy, excessive desire to get and to obtain. It's a possessive, unrestrained pursuit of property and goods at any cost. It's to wish for, to dream of, and wrongfully grasp for things of this world. See, if you're a grasping Christian and you go to the job and you're talking about the things that you have or don't have, you're talking about things you would do if you had the money, and God help you if you're paying the numbers in front of them. We're talking about proving the resurrection to the world. That's no sin to be blessed and have nice things. God loves to bless his people. God's not going to rebuke you for the kind of car you drive or the house you live in or the nice things God's given to you, but he said you better hold them lightly. He said you're not to go after these things. They're not to be the very center of your life. They're not to possess you, your thoughts and your thinking. And folks, what's in your heart, whatever rules your heart is going to rule your lips and your tongue, and you're going to speak that on the job wherever you are, and they're going to know, the people around that work around you, they know whether you're covetous or not. You had a young man stand in this pulpit once, and he admired a nice car I was driving, and I said, son, it's a piece of junk. And I meant it. He said, what? He said, boy, if I had that, my world would be complete. It's junk. Everything's going to burn. We're to hold lightly to these things. They're not to possess us. I believe the Holy Spirit talking to many of you wives in here, and I say it lovingly as a pastor to you. Here's what the Scripture says. If you're risen with Christ, set your affection on things that are above, where Christ sits on the throne. Affection on things above, not on things of this world. Hallelujah. On the job they see a quiet, resting spirit that is fully trusting in Jesus, thanking God for what you already have, thanking God for food, for your health, and for a roof over your head, and not grasping and reaching, and not jealous when one of your co-workers pulls up in a brand-new vehicle and he starts flaunting it in your face. You say, God bless you, brother. God bless you. I'm glad for you. Or you say, that's a Honda. I'm getting a Buick. Folks, I'm not being facetious. These little things that seem so little, they destroy our testimony of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. I had lunch with a very wealthy businessman from the Midwest, multimillionaire, and we were eating lunch, and he's a Christian man. In fact, he bought a church and he was co-pastor of this church. But none of his 200-some workers would ever go to his church. In fact, one of my former workers went to work with him, and there's total disrespect for this man, total disrespect, and I tried to figure the man out. I was sitting there thinking, what is the reason why not one of them will go to his church, not one of them will listen to him, and behind his back they mock him and laugh at him, that he's a phony in their eyes. And we're sitting at lunch and he said, I just fired a guy, been with me years. He said, I hire him, I fire him. I gave him an hour to get off my property. Here's a family man, cut him off, no pay, no benefits, and he's boasting to me. Every worker watched that man been with him for years and giving the best of his life and throw him off the property because he displeased him, and all of these people are watching and many of them crying for this man. And then this guy's going to come and say, Hey, come to church and hear me preach. He's a phony. People are reading your life and they're reading my life. I'm aware of that more and more, my children, my grandchildren. I told you once I had my little grandson, one of my little grandsons walking through the woods, just a little kid. I don't think he was more than two years old at the time or three, and I just spit on the ground. Right on my head, his grandson spit on me. And for the next week he'd go around, just spitting. And Gwen said, Where'd he get that? And I said, Well, I'll tell you, I was careful from that day on because I said, Boy, they're watching everything I do. Grandpa does it, it's okay. According to James, some Christian's behavior is a lie against the truth, a real lie. If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and do not lie against the truth. All right, we're talking about proving the resurrection here. James describes a condition that ought not to be in the house of God in any Christian life. He said, Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be. Does a fountain send forth at the same time, same place, sweet water and bitter? And then James makes this incredible statement. He said, This kind of duplicity or this double standard is not from above, but it's out of hell. It's deadly, he said. For where envying is, there's confusion in every evil work. Now that's a strong word coming from James. He said, If you have any ill will toward anybody, if you have something hidden in your heart against somebody, he said, the devil has gotten to your fountain and poisoned it. And you come to church and you praise the Lord, but then you go home and this envy, this jealousy, this bitterness comes out of you. Folks, I'm telling you now, if you harbor, I have been dealing on this and preaching and preaching about it from this pulpit, and I know God's been putting this on my heart, I'm telling you, you're not going to make it. Not only do you not have a testimony, in fact, I'm going to show you three dangers before I close you this morning. Three terrible dangers, three things that happen as a result of those who harbor what James is calling this devilish thing that out of the same heart come the praises of God and the worship and sweetness to some people. But for one person, one individual, some one person, there is this root of bitterness, this thing that is inside. Now, folks, hear me please. All over this auditorium, in the annex, the basement, wherever you're at, hear me. I'll look you in the eye. If you sit here this morning, don't put this off on somebody else. I'm asking you, do you have any ill will as you sit here this morning, can you think of one person anywhere that you have something against, that you can't forgive and you have bitterness toward? Let me tell you, if you're a husband or wife, where that's going to lead you. It's going to lead you to total disorder in your family and in your own life. Total chaos and disorder. For where envy and strife is, there's confusion and every evil work. There's confusion. Everything becomes confused. I've watched this over the years. I've watched even preachers who couldn't forgive members of the congregation who talked against them. I've known parishioners who've had it against pastors, they believe, who hurt them. I sit among parents with children. I sit children toward parents, husband toward wife, mothers against their mothers, grandparents, all walks of life, teenagers against their parents. And I see the chaos and I see the disorder everywhere you look in that family. There's chaos and it always comes down to somebody that's got bitterness in their heart. If you got that and you have children, you're going to lose your kids. You're going to lose your children. They're going to spin off and they're going to become absolutely disorderly and you have no control. They're following Hebrews 12, 14, 15. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any one fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled. This root of bitterness is going to trouble your spirit. You have no peace, you have no rest. It will absolutely affect your appearance. Do you understand that? It's going to affect your appearance. It's going to show on your face. The Bible makes it clear that in the next verse, that's what you hear about Esau selling his birthright. But what, if you keep in context, he's saying, you Christian are selling your birthright for this one morsel of bitterness that you hold on. It's a morsel you just chew and chew. You hold on to that morsel. He said it costs you your birthright. Secondly, you become a lying epistle, not a living epistle, denying the power of the resurrection. As a man thinketh in his heart, the Bible said so is he. Do you understand that if you hold bitterness, you forfeit your testimony to your family? You have no right to correct anybody. When your children do wrong, you have lost your right. You have lost your ability and your spiritual authority is gone because of the lie that's in your heart. And finally, and this is the most dangerous of all, that which is in your heart towards someone is really not towards someone, it's toward him. Do you remember when they murmured against Moses and they had bitterness in their heart toward the man and they were ready to stone him? They said, you brought us out here to kill us? And finally, Moses goes to the Lord and said, Lord, they're about to stone me. Do you know what the Lord said? Very clearly. Their murmurings are not against you, they're against me. Then he said, how long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? God's name wasn't even mentioned, it was all toward Moses. And God says, no, no, no. Every time they're bitter toward you, that's toward me. Do you remember when the children of Israel came to Samuel and said, give us a king? At that very time, if you really study Samuel, the book of Samuel, you'll understand that these people had grown bitter toward this man. They thought he was old and out of step. They wanted a king. And they crushed this man because he knew he had good years ahead of him. And they crushed his heart and he wept before the Lord. He prayed and he wept. And the Lord said, and the Bible said, and Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel, Samuel, they've not rejected you, they've rejected me because they don't want me to reign over them. And folks, this is the bottom line now. Anything you have against me or I would have against you is really not toward an individual. The Lord takes it personal. He said that bitterness is toward your father in heaven because you don't want him to rule over this area in your life. You don't want to yield this one thing to the Lord. If you're bitter toward your boss, boy, I hear so much of that. My boss is out to get me. Why don't you get out, why don't you go after him or her on your knees and say, I'm not going to let go of God until I move. You know the Holy Ghost moves the hearts of people? He moves them. He changes them. Folks, there was a man who was withstanding the progress of this church, not from this church, but he was withstanding. Every time I went into his office, first of all, he would put a roadblock. Couldn't even talk to the man. I went home and prayed first for salvation. I said, Lord, if he's not going to get saved, remove him. Last week, God removed him. I don't rejoice in that, but God says, I'm not going to let anything stand in the way of a praying child of mine. Hopefully he got a better job, but he's no longer that obstacle. Folks, your coworkers know your attitude towards your leadership, towards your bosses. I didn't know it was going to get so personal, but I believe the Holy Ghost is speaking in and through me right now. God wants you to be on the job totally aware that everybody around you, including your boss, is looking at your reaction, they're listening to your language, and God help you if there's any trash talk. Never again will they ever listen to anything you say. God help us to be that living epistle, pure, quiet, trusting, and restful before our fellow man. Hallelujah. I pray about that every day in my life. I want that meekness of Christ that they can see and that concern that you have for their needs. Don't go to the job and talk trash against your husband or against your wife, to any of your co-workers. Take it to God. Go to the secret closet and pray about it, because anytime you talk against your family or any loved one, to your friends, they know that your spirit is wrong. Folks, your center friends are pretty smart about these things. Don't even think about getting them to church right now, because I'm not about to do your job. There's more than you can come up here and do my job here. Your job is to preach on the job so that by the time they get here, they've been prepared and they're ready, because I've seen Jesus. I've seen the power of the resurrection. How many of you can honestly say that I believe that my co-workers, if they came to church, they were in a choir and they look up and said, there's my friend. I see Jesus in her. I see Jesus in him. They've been a real witness to Christ and His power. They're such a loving person. I don't see anything of covetousness of this world in them. How many of you can say that? How many here could have your friends on the job come and sit by you in church and watch you raise your hands and praise the Lord? I wonder how many would have such a warm heart saying this is what I want because my friend here, my co-worker, has really shown me the power of Christ. Not only did Jesus die for them, but I see Jesus gave them power to live over the power of sin. That's what I want. Power to live over my lusts and my habits. That's proving the resurrection. Otherwise, all of our talk about the resurrection is in vain. I struggled and struggled this week. Lord, what am I going to preach about the resurrection? And the Lord dealt with me about proving it to my family, to my children, my grandchildren, everybody who sees me, everybody who comes near me to be able to see the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in my life, that I'm a living epistle of the power of the resurrection. Period. Stand. Hallelujah. Folks, it's Easter. And Jesus is alive and well. But is He alive and well in you? So much so that He's living His life in and through you. Hallelujah. The Spirit has put one word in my heart for this invitation. The word is cleansing. I'm asking everybody listening to me right now, you have to acknowledge in your heart before the Holy Spirit, Pastor David, my heart's not clean. My hands are not clean. I need to be cleansed by the blood and the word of God. I'm going to ask the ushers over in the annex to stand in the hall to direct the people into this auditorium. I'm going to ask all of you that are in the annex rooms if you'll just go to the lobby, right outside the auditorium, go right to the lobby, and ushers will show you how to get through the stairs and come down here to the front and let us pray for you. And up in the balcony here, stairs on the other side and here in the main auditorium. I want you to get out of your seat. Don't come unless the Spirit moves you. You say, Pastor David, I have to admit... Now, nobody's going to ask you any questions. Nobody's going to say something personal to you. You come because the Spirit draws you. You say, Pastor David, I stand here this morning and I'm not ready to stand before a holy God this way. I need a cleansing. It doesn't mean that you're evil, but it means that you need to be cleansed. I want the Lord to cleanse me. I want to walk away from this church today clean. I want a clean heart, a clean mind, a clean spirit, clean hands. Please move in close for those that are coming. Move in very, very close, if you will, please. And over in the annex, just turn around, walk right into the hall, and ushers, if you will, direct them into the passageway to come down the stairs and down any aisle and meet me right here and we'll pray with you and we'll believe the Lord Jesus with this congregation to bring a cleansing to your heart. You can walk out here clean. If you don't know Jesus at all, come. Just walk. If you're a bachelor and you've been running from God, just get out of your seat wherever you're at and just come. Say, Lord, here I am. I want you to touch me. I don't want to leave this Easter resurrection service without my heart being what it should be before you, Jesus. I come to give everything. Now, folks, I just want to ask you to move in very close, please. Move in as close as you can because there'll be a lot of people coming and we want you to just wait patiently. Let's sing this again. We'll wait for you. We'll take a few moments while we sing. Hallelujah. All of you that have come forward now, this is the moment the Holy Spirit does His best work when your heart is open and when you're ready. Only the Lord knows the battle and the struggle that you're going through, but let's take it to Him right now. He said, If we confess our sins with our mouth and believe in our heart, we shall be saved. Many of you have done that. How many of you that are up here in the front and in the aisles, you've never come forward in this church before? Would you raise your hand, please? Raise your hand up high. You've never come forward in this church before? God bless you. All right. I want everybody, I want you to pray this prayer with me from your heart. Now, the prayer is not going to work. It's not going to mean anything unless it is your heart. It's coming from the depths of your heart. Out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth speaks. Prayer works. Prayer changes things. We're going to confess our sins. We're going to ask the Lord for cleansing, but then you've got to exercise your faith. You're going to say, I believe that when I pray, God's going to hear what I ask of Him. He's going to do what I ask of Him, and I'm going to accept it, and I'm going to rest in that. I'm going to walk out of here believing that He has heard me because my heart is open, my heart is repentant, and I want Him to cleanse me. Hallelujah. He promised to cleanse us from all our iniquities, to cleanse us from all our sins. Pray this. Just close your eyes so that you're not looking around at somebody else. Pray this prayer with me, please, from the depths of your heart. Dear Jesus, I come honestly to You to confess I need cleansing. Oh, Jesus, cleanse my heart and my hands and my mind, my body, and my spirit. I want to be clean before You. Forgive me, Jesus, for all the things I've done, for my behavior that's been unlike You. Forgive me, Lord. I want to be a testimony to the power of Jesus Christ. Oh, Jesus, put Your Holy Spirit in me and help me to live honestly and righteously before my fellow man. Help me, Lord Jesus, in my family to be a testimony to the power of Jesus to deliver and set free. Now, Jesus, the best I know how and from the depths of my heart, I ask Your forgiveness and I give You my faith. I believe Your Word and I receive through the blood of Jesus and the living Word of God cleansing of all my sins, all my past, in Jesus' name. I accept it. Now, will you thank God in Your own words? Just thank Him right out loud. Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Now, Lord, I pray for this entire congregation that You would do a very special work this day and it would be a special day of rejoicing in You because our hearts are right before You. Now, folks, look at me, please. The Bible says that if you really believed it, if you believe what He says, it produces joy in you. Every time I pray now, I've got to tell you this, every time I pray, the Holy Spirit comes and says, David, I've given you a heart to rejoice. I want you to be glad in me and rejoice. Let there be a gladness lay hold of your heart. Lay hold of gladness. Lay hold of joy. Lay hold of rejoicing spirit. And the devil hates that. That'll drive out all of your doubts and fears. A rejoicing spirit of gladness in the Lord.