In this sermon, the speaker expresses concern about the state of society and blames the church for not fulfilling its role in preaching the gospel and living for God. The speaker emphasizes the power of the pulpit and the Word of God, stating that it should be more influential than the media and the internet. The sermon also highlights God's promise to provide for His people and give them strength and a song of hope. However, the speaker warns that without a revival in the church, there is little hope for the future of the nation, as it is currently facing moral decay, family breakdown, and confusion in government.

This morning I'd like to speak to you from the book of Hosea in the Old Testament about a coming song of unrestrained joy. A coming song of unrestrained joy. Hosea chapter 2. Hallelujah. Father, I thank you, Lord God, with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. I thank you for the strength and the touch of your hand. I ask you, Lord, to bear witness to that which comes from your heart. You yourself, Jesus said, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that bears witness. And Lord, you have to come and bear witness to the words that you put on my heart and the words that are written in the text of this scripture so that the people will know that it's not spoken out of context. It's not something that's just out of the minds of men. This comes from the heart of God. Lord, bear witness to our hearts, and you must be the one who does that. I ask you for the strength to speak it, the clarity of thought to understand it and to convey it. I thank you for overshadowing my weakness. You always have all of my life, and you have made me into more than I am. And so I thank you for that strength, O God, with all my heart. Lord, let the word live in us today. Give us eyes to see. You said to the church of Laodicea that you would anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. Help us to see what can't be seen with the natural eye but can be seen with the eye of the Holy Spirit. Help us to see what's coming in the days ahead. Father, I ask this in Jesus' name. Hosea chapter 2, beginning at verse 5. Now, this story is a story of a prophet called Hosea who was married a wife, and she turned into a harlot, a prostitute, well, a very loose and immoral woman who ran after other lovers. And instead of divorcing her, God told Hosea to go after her. And it was a type, he told Hosea, of his relationship with his own people, Israel, at that time. Though they've gone away from me, though they've pursued other lovers, yet I will still go after them. But there's a certain time and a season when God chooses to go after those who belong to him. And I want to talk about that today because throughout history, peoples and nations have turned away from God and from walking with him in truth and in a living relationship. And in this text, we're going to see a pattern of how God deals with such a people. Beginning at verse 5. For their mother hath played the harlot, she that conceived them hath done shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up the way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. And she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now. For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Or actually in the original text is they made a false God, basically is what it says with it. Therefore, when I return and take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof, and I will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers and none shall deliver her out of my hand. I will also cause her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons and her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts. I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereupon she has said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels. And she went after her lovers and forgot me, says the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence and the Valley of Acre for a door of hope. And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. All through history, time and again, the scenario repeats itself. God draws the people to himself and blesses them immeasurably, gives them more intelligence than they naturally have, gives them more security than they could procure for themselves, gives them wealth and treasure, gives them favor. I have to believe with all my heart that God did this to the nation called America that you and I are part of today. Because in only a short season, bringing together people from all over the world, this country was able to do what other nations that people had come from were not able to do in many, many more years of being a people. There was a reason for this. It's not that the Christianity of this nation was perfect. It was far from it. There's shameful things in the past in this country, even by those who attended the house of God. But nevertheless, there was an acknowledgement of God and the ways of God and much of the law that was in this nation and the moral moorings, may I say so, came from the word of God. Whether or not it was fully embraced in a saving relationship by all who were involved in it, it still formed a moral compass, may I say so, for this country. But we've done exactly what other nations have done in the past. In our folly and our ignorance, we began to worship the blessing of God more than the God of the blessing. We even formed theologies around life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The culture of the nation became the doctrine of the church, as opposed to the doctrine of the church influencing the culture of the nation. Instead of the giving of oneself, coming to the house of God became about getting for oneself. Instead of focusing on the poor, the culture of God, the culture of the nation, rather, came into the house of the Lord. And it was all about me, myself, and I, my gain, my personality, my influence, my future. Technically speaking, we did exactly what the wife of Hosea did. We took the blessings of God and we made a out of the blessings and began to worship the creature more than the creator. Looking through history, we say, how does God deal with nations like this? And what is the future for such a nation? In Malachi chapter three, verses six and seven, here's what the Lord says. For I am the Lord, I change not. I don't change. You change, but I don't change. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. In other words, in the new living Testament, it says, I'm the Lord, I don't change. And this is the reason why I have not destroyed you. Why you're not completely destroyed. It's simply because I don't change. And in verse seven, you hear these words come from the heart of God, return to me and I will return to you. I am awestruck at times at the mercy of God, the humility of God, the incredible humility of a holy God. If he appeared, if his presence came in fullness into this sanctuary, we'd be all in our faces crying out for mercy. Everything that we'd ever done or are doing would be standing in as it is in this, this presence of God that cannot cohabitate with sin as it is. And we would realize how merciful God has been, how gracious he has been, how marvelous is his love, how limitless his patience with us as his people. We can understand how God does deal and is dealing with us today by looking at how he has dealt in the past with the people who once knew him. And we're looking in the book of Hosea at a pattern. It's a time I could, I could lead you to other passages of scripture that would show us the same thing. This is exactly how God deals with nations who knew him and are turning from him, who were set apart to be a testimony in the earth of his goodness and suddenly have made the wrong choice to walk away from him. And here's what it says in verse six, talks about God will allow the nation to spiral down into confusion. He says, therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. Isaiah the prophet in a similar moment of history said in chapter 59, verse 10, we grope for the wall like the blind. We grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noonday as in the night, we are in desolate places as dead men. In other words, we're trying to find our boundaries and our borders. And it seems like we can't find them anymore. We don't know what is right. And we don't know what is wrong. We don't know where evil starts and good stops. We have no idea anymore. And we're groping as a society for the walls, but we're like blind men at noon when it should be clearly visible to us. We've cast off what should be visible and we've removed the old landmarks as it is. And now we look for our borders. We look for our moorings as a society. We grasp in a sense for what is right and what is wrong. And we can't find it. And now we find ourselves as a society in a time of incredible confusion. Confusion is everywhere. Nobody seems to know what truth is because most everybody doesn't know what truth is. Verse seven talks about an exhaustion and she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but she shall not find them. Then shall she say, I'll go and return to my first husband for now. For then it was better with me than now. In other words, God in his mercy will let us run until there's nowhere left to go. He will let us pursue our own plans. He will let us try our own schemes to get out of trouble until it's obvious that none of our plans and none of our schemes are going to work. Acts 27 20. You remember the journey the apostle Paul was on. It says, and when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared. In other words, there's no hope. There's no dawn of a new and glorious day. And there's not even any of the signs in the universe that have proven themselves to be worthy of giving us a compass and a direction for the future. And when all of these things seem to be obscured and no small tempest lay upon us, it says all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. And God will let a people who thumb their noses at him, go to the place where there's no hope. A hopelessness comes into the heart, a sigh and a cry as came into the hearts of those on that ship in Acts chapter 27. When all hope was taken away, when all hope was taken away in the days of Moses, when the children of Israel were in Egypt, when all hope was taken away in the days of Gideon, when the enemies seemingly came in at will and just simply robbed the nation of anything they were trying to do that looked like the former provision of God. When all hope is gone, it's at that point when the people begin to cry and something comes into the heart that God will begin to move again. In verse 9, he says, he talks about the removal of provision and joy and his covering. In other words, there was a sense of wellbeing. Then I will return and take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine. In other words, I'll take away provision. Jobs will be lost, perhaps in the tens or hundreds of thousands. I'll take away joy, this abiding joy that was part of your society. He said, I'll remove it and will recover my wool and my flax that was given to cover her nakedness. In other words, there was a sense of wellbeing that came from me. There was a covering. No matter how you may have behaved, you somehow knew as a people that God was with you. He said, but I'm going to take all of that away now. Verse 10 talks about the public exposure of what we have really become. You see, in America, we had a sense of morality, a sense of we are, and you hear that, we are Americans. There's always a statement that follows this. We are virtuous. We do what is right. We are moral, but it's all a facade. It's all a farce. It was just empty words as we've gone farther and farther away from the truth of God. In verse 10, he says, I will publicly, I will discover her lewdness in the sight of all her lovers and none shall deliver her out of my hand. I will publicly expose you for what you really are, God says. I'll make it known. There'll be no more hiding behind songs. There'll be no more hiding behind God bless America. There'll be no more hiding behind a false sense of morality and a false sense of virtue. You have turned from truth. You are, and we're seeing it now. We're seeing it every level of this society. We're seeing the utter depravity, the inability to walk in truth, the inability to even speak truth anymore. Just as in Isaiah's day, the scripture says the truth has fallen into the streets and anybody who departs from this way of living makes himself a prey. Anybody who tries to speak truth is, has become a derision and a laughingstock in a society that's pursuing that which is not true. And we're now living at a moment when we're exposed to the whole world as a society that's as virtuous as we really are. In verse 11, he says, I will also cause all her mirth to cease her feast days, her new moons or Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts. In other words, all of the tradition that brought comfort will be gone, destroyed, taken away. I want you to think about Father's Day in America, Mother's Day. Years ago, perhaps a hundred years, I don't know how many years back, there would be families gathered around tables. There would be honor given. The father would in some measure be able to guide, lead and instruct his family. I want you to think about Christmas time now that is under the very assault of hell at every possible level in our society today and Thanksgiving. All these feasts now are times of sorrow. When I first came to Times Square church, we used to have to plow through all these holidays because people would sit here and weep and cry because of all the destruction that had already come into this society. Focus on the family. Tell us that 53 million babies have been aborted now in the United States of America. And we're adding over 1 million abortions to that now every year. We want to sin, but we don't want the inconvenience of our sin anymore. And so we're willing to murder our children in the womb for the sake of having sex, for the sake of not having any boundaries, no restraints. And all we see, it was just simple. All we have to do is kill our children and we can fornicate as a nation all we want. 53 million babies aborted in this nation. 82% of those who had abortions were unmarried. 50%, 50% of women who had abortions in this country were under the age of 25. The U.S. census in 2008 tells us that there were at that time and it's rapidly climbing 9.8 single, 9.8 million single mothers in the United States of America. The Christian Post tells us that 50% of all births to women under 30 were out of wedlock. In other words, 50% of the babies born in this country are to people who are not married. The U.S. Department of Health tells us that 15 million children live without a father in this nation and 5 million live without a mother. PolitiFact.com from a survey taken in 2012 tells us that the probability of divorce, for anybody who does get married, and I'm talking men and women getting married here now, anybody who does get married in this nation, the probability of divorce is 50%, as high as 50%. Now the Lord says, I will take away joy and comfort of tradition. It will be no security, no happiness to be found almost anywhere. Verse 12, he says, I'll destroy her vines and her fig trees. That means a provision for the future, future hope, future security, retirement plans, savings. I'll destroy it all. And she said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me and I'll make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall. In other words, I will obscure them. I'll make them unfindable. But it's in this place. It's when we get to this place, when there's nowhere else to go. When the prodigal son finally figured out he was living in a field with hogs, it's in this place. The scripture says he suddenly came to himself and there are moments in society. Thank God for these moments. There are moments when suddenly our ears become open to the word of God again. There are moments when all exterior comforts are gone. When everything we trusted in has taken away, we suddenly realize that God in his mercy has been trying to speak to us. He's been trying to draw us back to something that we have left behind to save us from our own destruction. We begin to realize that it's never too late to rebuild. It's never too late to reclaim. As David, when he sat down and he had lost his family and it seemed like he's lost his future and it seemed like he'd lost the promise of God and it seemed like he'd lost his ministry and everything, he sat down and encouraged himself in how faithful God had always been. And at that point, God began to speak to him and said, David, get up. You're on the wrong side of the battle. Get up and go and pursue what you've lost and I'll give it back to you again. We're talking about a song of unrestrained joy. Now David went from that moment of loss where he'd made some wrong calculations and mistakes in his journey with God to a moment as you can perceive it with me when the ark of God is going back into Jerusalem and David is dancing and David is singing. As we sang about it this morning, when you and I are truly standing before the throne of God, we're not fully sure what our response is going to be. But David danced unashamedly and with unbridled passion and unbridled joy because he knew that everything that had been given to him had come from the hand of God. There was no strategy. He knew he hadn't been faithful. He knew he had made some deep and grave mistakes along the way. He knew that he had ended, one day he had fought Goliath and later on in his life he's standing with the Philistine army, if you can believe it, about to fight the armies of Israel. What must have gone through his mind at that time? How did I get here? How did I end up on the wrong side of the battle? How did I get to this place? There had to be that inner cry that came into his heart because there was a moment where suddenly God turned the hearts of these enemy kings of Israel and they threw them out. And the greatest thing that can ever happen to you and I as the church of Jesus Christ is when the enemies of God finally spit us out of their mouths and no longer want us in their company. Now we take it as persecution. We don't fully understand it is not persecution. It is God getting a hold of his people again. So when your person next to you in your office looks you in the eye and says you're an idiot and I want no more to do with you, look him in the eye and say thank you so much for confirming that God wants me back again. Hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah. For if the world speaks well of us then we are in a condition to be pitied. Jesus said, woe unto the man that the world speaks well of. Woe unto you and I when we're sitting in an office and we're just one of the folks there and nobody sees us as any different than anybody else. That is not a good spiritual condition. Thank God when they separate us from their company. Thank God and it's the cry of my heart now. Therefore I will allure her into the wilderness. I will bring her into a place where she's alone. I'll bring her into a place where there's no comfort apart from God. There's nothing to look for. There's nothing in the present. There's nothing in the future. There's no comfort. I'll bring her to a place like I brought David. I looked on my left hand. I looked on my right hand and there was nobody there that cared for my soul. No, no, no. The mercy of God. The mercy of God is going to get a hold of his church. His people. God in mercy is going to get a hold of his church one more time. One more time for the glory of his name's sake. One more time. And I'll bring her into this place of emptiness and I'll speak comfortably to her there. In other words, I will speak as a friend. I will speak to you again as one who loves you and still cares and would speak to your heart. Amazing the humility of God that we can make such a mess of his name. We can make such a mess of his family. We can make such a mess of his work. And I'm not indicting the whole church, but I will include myself. I think as Daniel did, we have made a mess of the name of God in this generation. I really do. If we had done our job, if we had truly, truly preached the gospel in the pulpits of America, if we had lived for God, this wouldn't be happening to our nation today. With churches on every corner in America, it is inexcusable that this society is the way it is today. Yes, I know media is powerful. And yes, I know there are contrary arguments to truth that have come through the media and on the internet, but the internet and the media are not more powerful than the pulpit of God and the word of God. I'll give her her vineyards from thence verse 15 in the Valley of Acre for a door of hope. In other words, I'll speak to you about provision, the kind that your eyes have not seen for years. I'll give you what you need. Like Esther, when she went into the King, I'll give you what you need. You don't worry about it. And when you stand to give an answer, I'll put it in your mouth. What you need. I'll give you the strength that you need. I'll give you the vision you need. I'll give you the giftings of the Holy spirit. You need, I'll give you the power you need. I'll give you the strength you need. I'll give you the joy you need. I'll give you the song you need. I'll give you the provision you need. And I'll open up the Valley of Acre for a door of hope. In other words, I will speak clearly to you that I am willing to turn back my hand of judgment from you. And you will sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. He said, I'll talk to you about my willingness to put away your judgment and to bring you back to a place which you once knew where you sang with unrestrained joy because you knew you had been set free by the tender hand of a loving God. God says to his own people, Israel to the prophet Hosea. And it's a type, as I told you of how he deals with nations to those who can hear me. I'll bring you home and I'll do it sovereignly. And you say, well, how's he going to do it? He's going to raise up a voice, a ministry. There'll be the Paul's of our generation that have been relegated to the belly of the ship on this journey that will suddenly appear on the deck. Those voices that the society around us considers captive will suddenly be standing with a spiritual authority that only could come from God. The Moses ministry, those that have considered themselves failures who live in the past and said, well, I had a ministry, but that was years ago. Suddenly God will give them a word again and they will stand. They will not be the most likely of vessels, the failures, the imprisoned. God will raise up those that society considers powerless, both you and me. One more time, the Gideons and the Esther's of this generation and the Deborah's will be given a word from heaven and given the power to fight because we're not fighting against anything. We're fighting for the souls of men and for the glory of the name of Jesus Christ, the son of God, we fight for people, not against them. The ministry that God is about to raise will not boast to themselves. They will only speak about Jesus Christ. The whole message will be that God has sent me for you and he's for you. He's not against you. He wants to give you back everything. The moth and the kangaroo have eaten and taken from your life. He wants to put a song in your heart again. How will God do this? We say, the same way he's always done it. Like he did to the apostle Paul, there'll be a word come saying, there's lots of wood to go around. Yes, we're going to go through a storm and yes, everything familiar to us is going to fall apart, but the cross is still big enough. Everybody can lay hold of the cross of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We may go through a storm, but the cross still floats folks, the cross still floats. You can hold on to the cross of Jesus Christ. There is power, there's redemption, there's victory, there's vision, there's wisdom, the power to live a holy life, the power to stand in the midst of opposition, the power to be made into what we could never be made into in our own strength is in the cross of Jesus Christ. There's power. God will put authority in some of the older preachers in America again. Thank God, the Moses of our generation, that everyone else who took over said, oh, your day is past, your day is gone. I prophesy to you today that a lot of preachers are coming out of retirement in the coming years because they know God. The Lord God is about to put gray hair back in the pulpit of Jesus Christ again. Men who have walked with God will send the little executives back to the boardroom where they belong and put the men of God back in the pulpits. Men of God who stand with the authority of God, who stand not in their own strength, they don't stand in their own wisdom, they stand in the power of God through Jesus Christ. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. The young men that God raises up and the young women will not be bolsters and braggers. They will be the Gideons and the Deborahs of our generation. They will be men and women who know that without God they are nothing, they have nothing, they can do nothing, but they will know that in Jesus Christ all things are possible to him who believes. Listen to the words of the prophet Zephaniah. Zephaniah was sent to pronounce judgment on Judah and many believe that it was through the preaching of Zephaniah that Josiah, the final righteous king of Judah, before her captivity was raised up. And here are the final words. Oh, the whole book of Zephaniah deals with judgment and the reasons why, but at the end of this book it talks about this mercy of God, this mercy of God that he's willing to shower on those who will one day turn to him. He says, sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem, for the Lord has taken your judgments, he's cast out your enemy. The king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee and you shall not see evil anymore. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not, and to Zion, let not your hands be slack. The Lord your God in the midst of you is mighty. He will save, he will rejoice over you with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. I will gather those that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee. I will save her that is falling over or losing strength, I will gather her that was driven out, and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they've been put to shame. In other words, I'm going to gather a bride, I'm going to gather a people, and they're not the strong, they're not the mighty, they're not the influential, they're not the powerful, they're not the movers and shakers of society. No, no, no, no. Consider your calling, brethren, not many mighty, not many noble, not many of royalty, not many with natural wisdom, not many with natural strength. No, no, no. God has chosen the foolish things of this world and things that are nothing in themselves to bring to nothing everything that thinks it's everything of itself. Not many mighty, not many noble. At that time I'll bring you again, even in the time that I gather you, and I will make you a name and a praise among all the people of the earth. When I turn back your captivity before your eyes, says the Lord. Thank God for this day we're living, and thank God for the hopelessness of the moment. Thank God for the understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what he is willing to do for all who are willing to call upon him in sincerity and truth. There's a cry in the heart of many people today. Oh, Jesus, I want to sing with joy. I want to be free from all of the fears and the entrapments and the lies and the complicity with this world and everything that has put chains on my hands and robbed me of the presence of God. I see the folly of this generation. I see the foolishness of a church age that has adopted the same values as the falling society all around us. And God, I want no more of it. I want what you have for me. I want the path you would lead me on. I want what you have for my life. I want to be able to sing in the midst of all this calamity a song so powerful and so profound that like the song of David, the scripture says, many will see it and fear and turn to the Lord. I want the song of my heart to be so much deeper than just words that come out of my mouth. I want it to be something that's in my eyes, in my hands. It's in my footsteps as I walk down the street. It's every day with me as I walk into my apartment. I walk through my streets. I walk into corridors of my workplace or the places I would desire to work. Lord Jesus Christ, I want this song, the song that you promised that's coming soon. I want a song of joy that cannot be restrained. It can't be quiet and it can't be taken away by circumstance because it's not dependent on this world. This world doesn't give it to me and this world can't take it away from me. Speak to me, Lord Jesus. Draw me out of this wilderness and I will follow you. And that's the cry. That's what God said he was going to do for his people, that he was going to speak comfortably, show her provision, show her his willingness to walk as a friend and not as a judge, and give her a song like the first song she ever sang when she found Christ as her savior. Like the song that was once sung perhaps in these borders when people finally found freedom. People came from all over the world to be free from oppression. Most people that is. I do understand that the jaded past this nation has but many people came for freedom and by God's grace freedom became the portion of most. And there was a song that was sung in many hearts in many lives and we banded together as a multiplicity of peoples from all over the world. This great great experiment of God, this country that was to be the bastion of in one sense of what God can do among people who turn to him and consider his ways. And we turned and now we're stripped naked before the nations. And now we're a debtor and not a lender. Now our families are falling to pieces. Our government is confused. This is the hour we're living in. We're redefining, we're throwing the tackling overboard, we're redefining everything that was once held sacred is now being thrown overboard and things that we knew were evil are becoming the norm of the day. I've just been in Washington for a good part of this week, had a chance to speak with many leaders of various departments and ministries there and there is a consensus. Unless there is an awakening in the church of Jesus Christ at the grassroots level in America, there is little hope for our future. We're going to implode as a nation and as a people. There's little doubt that we'll be riding in our streets. We've raised a generation without God, without parents, and in many cases without hope. We've fed them with violence and pornography. It ought not to be a surprise that they will become what we've taught them to be. But as for me in my house, I'll tell you one thing for sure, I'm not giving up on this generation. I'm going to fight for them. I'm going to fight for these kids who have a right to know there is a God who loves them. I'm going to fight for our families. I'm going to fight for our homes. I'm going to fight for our government, the governments that God gives us. The scripture tells us he has allowed to be in authority over us. I'm going to fight for our government. I'm going to fight for the knowledge of God to come into men and women's hearts. I'm going to fight at every level of this society, every place that God sends me in the church. I'm going to open my voice and I'm going to fight for the glory of God and for the souls of men. There's no other reason to be alive now. There's no other reason to be on this earth but that you and I should rise up and begin to realize that God has given us an open heaven, a window, a time, an opportunity to turn back to him. And I don't know what kind of a difference it's going to make. I don't know if the ship is going to fully fall apart or not in the days ahead, but I do know that it's not about saving cities, it's about saving people. That's the ministry of Christ on the cross. And I want this song of unbridled joy in my life. The joy of the Lord is going to have to be our strength now. The joy of knowing that you and I are walking with God and that God is walking with us. The joy of being separated from that which is destroying others. The joy that heaven experiences when one soul comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. As we're going to learn on Wednesday, the joy of discipling somebody that does come to Christ. The joy, many of you are going to hold Bible studies in your neighborhoods. I'm prophesying to you now. I'm not speaking out of my own heart. I have something of the Holy Spirit. Many of you are going to have, people are going to be so afraid. You're going to be leading Bible studies. You need to know how to do that. You need to know how to mentor people and to disciple people. Some of you are going to be leading prayer meetings in your workplace. You never dreamed it would ever happen, but suddenly there are teachers here today. Your coworkers are going to come to you and they're going to say, look, it's just getting, it's getting too drastic. It's getting too violent. I need the strength that you've got. We're going to need this strength. Be ready. Be ready. There's an open window that God's about to give us as a people. I don't know how long it's going to last, but the whole church is going to have to be involved in this battle. The whole church. It's not a battle. It's a harvest. People are coming. Pastors are least expected. They've struggled and labored for years, seemingly in the midst of obscurity, but they've been faithful. Suddenly the churches are going to fill with people who want to know the truth. I want this song. That's got to be the cry of our hearts now. Speak to me. Take me out of everything that's robbing me of what you have for me. I want to sing as in the days of my youth. I don't want to finish less than I started. Do you remember when you first found Christ? Many here. Do you remember how happy you were? It was all you could do not to burst into song. My question to you is, do you think you have to forfeit that, or is it possible that he wants to give us that song again? I will sing unto the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider he's thrown into the sea. The Lord, my life, my strength, my song has now become my victory. My God is God, and I will praise him. I will exalt him. I will lift up his name everywhere I go. If that's the cry of your heart, we're going to worship for a moment. And when we stand, would you come and just join with me at the front of this auditorium and in the annex if you'd step between the screens in Roxbury as well this morning. And for those listening at home and for those listening even across Europe, I would ask you just to go to your knees and let's believe God for a new song of unrestrained joy that he is more than willing to put in our hearts. If that's the cry of your heart today, if you want to get out of what oppresses you and get into what God has for you, I'm going to ask as we stand that you just make your way to the front of this auditorium. Please, if you could stand on the balcony, go to either exit. And as we worship, just come and we'll pray together and we'll believe God. Hallelujah. Lord, here we are, and we're not mighty and we're not noble. Lord, we're not strong, but we are willing. And the scripture says that people will be willing in the day of your power. We are willing, Lord, to be led out of what we shouldn't be in and to be led to where your name will be glorified. And we ask you not just for ourselves, Lord, but for our brothers and sisters throughout the city, in every church of every name over the door. We ask you, Father, in Jesus' name, that you would use us, Lord, to bring a spiritual awakening to New York City, that you would give us a compassion for those that are lost. You give us wisdom to know how God to win the lost to you. Give us strength, Lord, to endure what we have to endure and faith to go through whatever door you open before us. Give us a love, Lord, that casts out all fear, the fear of men's evil glances and their disapproval. Give us a love that casts out the fear of these things and give us the power, Lord, to stand in this generation. And above everything, God, give us a joy that's contagious. I ask you, Lord, that we be as a people who came out of that upper room when the church was born. There had to be something of joy in them. They were speaking of the wonderful works of God. And Father, I thank you, Lord, that you will put in us, Lord, that song, that our voices will speak of the wondrous things that you have done, of who you have been to us and how you have guided us and how kind you have been to us. In spite of our failure, Lord, in spite of our flaws, Lord, you have looked beyond that and you've come to us and spoken to us as a friend and you've called us your own. Oh, let it be contagious, Lord. Let it be something that compels men and women to come into the kingdom of God. Father, God, in Jesus' name, I ask you, Lord, to flood the streets of New York City with your presence. Lord Jesus, speak to this city, Lord, speak to the people of this city. No matter where we are, speak to us and God, send them to your house and prepare your people for this day of harvest. Lord, I thank you for this. I pray, God, give us hearts to obey you from this day forward and give us ears to hear your voice. I thank you with everything in me, oh God. Lord Jesus Christ, save New York, save this city, oh God. You who went to a cross, I stand before you today and I ask you to save this city. And I thank you for it, oh God, and do it so sovereignly that your name, your name, Jesus, will be brought to reputation again. Do it so sovereignly that we will dance and sing in the streets of this city. Do it so sovereignly, Lord, that there truly will be dancing in the streets. The glory of the Lord will be our portion before the day of justice comes to this whole world. God Almighty, remember mercy and triumph over it. And Father, I thank you for this with all my heart. Make these men and women mighty at this altar, mighty in God, mighty, filled, oh God, with your Spirit, given giftings of the Holy Ghost that can't come from anywhere else but God, given words, thoughts, passions of the heart, leadings, directions, resources that can only come from God. Let it be so obvious it comes from you, Lord. You said that in the wilderness, I will speak to her and I will give her a provision she doesn't know anything of yet. Hallelujah. God Almighty. And that provision comes with a song. And so we thank you for it with all our hearts today. And we praise you and we bless you and we glorify you in the mighty name of Jesus.