In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about a man who reached out for help because his wife claimed to be a prophetess and had a vision of going to heaven and skydiving with Jesus. The preacher warns against becoming too introspective and self-focused in our spiritual experiences. He emphasizes the importance of taking the message of Jesus to the marketplace and being like a nurse to the sick and a father to children. The preacher also encourages the congregation to become troublemakers for God, stirring up the city with the power of the Holy Spirit, just like Paul and his companions did in Philippi.

Lord Jesus, we pray over any one spirit who came in here tonight out of curiosity or just to mock because we've had so many say we're going to come in and demonstrate, we're going to mock you. But Lord, we take your authority on every spirit in the name of Jesus that the word of the Lord will go forth unhindered and let anyone here that's unlike you, Jesus, know that there's love for them here tonight. That their love but their spirit will not be allowed to overtake any spirit of the living God here tonight. Let the word go forth with your power and your authority and your unction. I need Jesus, I need your Holy Spirit. I believe you put this word in my heart. Give me the heart of a shepherd tonight. We believe you put a shepherd's heart in every one of the pastors here in this church. Five men of God who came to New York City with a pastor's heart. We didn't come to beat the sheep, we came to lead. We came like a nurse to the sick and the affected as a father to children. So give me love, Lord, as I preach it tonight. But give your authority and your power and your might. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen. David, just give me a little bit more in this monitor, if you will, please. Thank you. That's fine. I'm going to say it again. We need more troublemakers in Times Square Church. You heard me right. We need a whole army of troublemakers to become so full of the Holy Ghost, they'll stir and shake New York City. We need to trouble all the wicked institutions in New York. We need to challenge established dentists. We need to trouble all the leaders, the mayor, the city council, neighborhood leaderships, in other words. All the troublemakers move in the Holy Spirit, moving in righteousness, proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the King. And stirring the whole city. Now, the Scriptural Paulans were the biggest troublemakers. They went around stirring up cities. The Bible says these men, along with Timothy and Barnabas and other great apostolic preachers of the New Testament, the Bible said they risked their very lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. They risked their lives. They put their bodies and their spirits and put it on the line of Jesus. They held nothing back. These men did walk before God. The Bible says when the Holy Ghost told them not to speak a word in Asia, they obeyed the Holy Spirit. They didn't do it. When they were told to go to India, but the Spirit ripped them. And when they tried to go to Bithynia, the Spirit said, don't go. So the Spirit said, go to Troas. They obeyed. The Spirit said it. They obeyed. Paul gets ready to go to Macedonia. So immediately he sets out to fly to the chief city, Macedonia. I'm going to Acts, the 16th chapter, because I'm going to be preaching from the book of Acts tonight. Boy, if you're going to talk about trouble, you've got to go to the book of Acts. It's a book of trouble for a lot, for entire cities. We're full of the Holy Ghost. Do you remember, let's go down to Philippi. And God begins to multiply. And the fortune teller there followed him everywhere. Paul followed Paul and Silas everywhere they went and said, these men are the servants of the multi-god, which came to show us the way of salvation. To have a demon-possessed person around, a fortune teller said, hey, listen to these men. They came to bring revival to our city. They came to preach the true God. And Paul was not going to take a commercial from the devil. God doesn't need a commercial from the devil. In fact, God won't let the devil glorify his name. He causes the wrath of men to praise him at times, but the devil cannot praise the name of Jesus. He will not take it from the devil or any of his cohorts. But Paul put up with long enough when he turned and he rebuked her in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. That's what he said to the spirit that was in her, a spirit of fortune telling, a spirit of divination. I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And suddenly this woman, who was a tourist attraction, I mean, people came from everywhere to hear the wisdom of this woman. She was what we would call today a channeler. She was channeling to the spirit of the devil and people came from everywhere. And she raised a lot of money for the mafia at that time. I mean, the whole city was shaken by it because this woman is now full of Jesus. She's no longer by the devil. And you see, Paul upset the status quo of the whole city. He had challenged the devil, for the devil had been having his way for years. Can you imagine for years that city sits there quiet? And nobody's there to disturb it. And here come two lowly holy ghost preachers in town preaching holiness. And it's not very long until the whole city is stirred up. These men, look at 16 verse, well, let's read from verse 16. It came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters much money by her fortune-telling. The same followed Paul and us and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High. She did this for many days. But Paul was grieved and he turned and said to the spirit, I command you to depart. When her masters saw, verse 19, that the hope of their profit or their gain was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rollers and brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city. Troublemakers. And they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran or tore off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them and cast them into prison, they charged the jailer to keep them there safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made defeat fast in the stocks. Do you know that night those religious leaders, those backslidden religious leaders, those profit-makers and those demon-possessed men, those city officials, the mayor, all the city council, who had beat Paul and Silas and put them in jail, they go to bed that night thinking, We sure did it to them. That's the last we're ever going to hear of those vagabond troublemakers. We really shut them up. What kind of a God do they serve? He gave in so easy. Can you imagine the Christians too at Philippi seeing them locked in jail, saying, Where's the power of the Lord? And it had to shock those baby converts. It had to shock them that the magistrates seemed to have that much power, and the magistrates go to sleep thinking this was too easy. But boy, what a commotion the next day. The sergeants of arms went out early in the morning, started knocking on the doors, the door of the mayor, the city council members, all the religious leaders. And you know what they were saying? Quick, get down to City Hall. We've got a problem, a big problem. And so they gather all the city magistrates together, and it goes something like this. A what? An earthquake? The doors all sprung open, all of the chains came off, and they never ran, and the jailer is now one of them? You see, the Lord's having his time. The devil had his day, but you always just say, Wait and see. One of my favorite expressions goes, We'll see. We will see. Hallelujah. You know the first thing you're not going to say when we get to heaven? Oh, so that's how it is. That wasn't all. If that was it, that would have been bad enough, but listen to the mayor. What do you mean? They won't get out of town. They're what? They're Romans? And by the time they heard that they were Romans, panic struck that city council, because Paul was a free-born Roman, so was Silas, and a Roman cannot beat a Roman by law. By penalty of death. If they pressed the charges in Rome, and I mean there's trouble, and they said, Well, get them out. Sergeant says, They're not leaving until you come down and apologize and escort them out of town. You say that's not in the Bible. Well, look at it. It's there. Verse 24, Who having received the charge, thrust them into court. Verse 25, And at midnight Paul and Silas, they were really worried about the power of the devil, weren't they? They were really crushed. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang. Praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were saken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing all the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, Do yourself no harm. We're all here yet. You know the rest of the story, but look down at verse 35. And when it was day, the magistrate sent the sergeant saying, Let those men go. He said, Send them down there quickly. Get them out of town. Before they press charges on us. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates are sent to let you go. Now therefore, depart and go in peace. But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans. They've cast us into this jail. And now they're going to just thrust us out privately? Paul said, No way. No barely, but let them calm themselves and fix us out. Tell them to come down here. And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. And they came and besought them. They apologized and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city. Where'd they go? Instead they went to the house of Lydia. And when they'd seen their brethren, they comforted them and departed. Paul and Silas, they came down, all the magistrates, city council, they come and say, Please, would you just leave quietly? And Paul says, We'll leave in our time. We're going to stop first and visit all the saints at the house of Lydia. And when we're done with our prayer meeting, we'll go. Can you imagine what that prayer meeting was like? When Paul and Silas said, It was midnight, we were singing, that place shook. I believe the jailer must have gone with them because he's a new convert now. I just love it. I'll read it again this afternoon. And they came and begged them and brought them out. See, they weren't flaunting the spiritual authority Jesus gave them, but they were ambassadors of the King who has might and glory and power. These men had mocked Jesus Christ and His power. Paul and Silas wanted that little riverside group of believers, that little prayer group, that house group, to say, See, brother, sister, the devil can rage. The powers that be may threaten you, but God in the final analysis has all the power. God will stand by you if you take your stand for Christ. Friends, this church preaches a lot on prayer. We're all praying. I know all these behind me are all praying men. We believe in the effects of fervent prayer of a righteous person. But you know, just going and praying alone is not enough. Praying with two or three is not enough. Praying corporately with a whole group on Tuesday or Friday night, that's not enough. Going to large prayer meetings, that in itself will not shake up cities. Now, Elijah has been used by the Scripture as an example of what prayer is all about. He was a man of light passions, the Bible said, and he prayed and the heavens were shut. He prayed again and the heavens were opened. But it was not Elijah's prayer alone that changed things. That was the word of the Lord that came to him through time sudden with God. He could stand before Ahab and say, I come to you because I have stood before God before whom I stand. That means, I've been sudden with God. But it was not just his prayer time that shook the kingdom of Ahab and enraged Jezebel. No, he came out of his prayer chamber in the wilderness and he stood against the whole kingdom of Ahab and he said, I want you to gather every prophet of Baal, meet me up at Mount Carmel. And they brought their hundreds of false prophets and they built their altar. And this prophet of God, Elijah, says, pray to your God. The God who answers by fire is the God of Israel. We're going to see who has power. We're going to see who has the might and the majesty. And so the prophets of Baal all day long are cutting themselves. It's a sadomasochistic masochist kind of scene where they have swords, they're cutting themselves, they're bleeding, they're throwing themselves on the altar. And I want you to know, Elijah wasn't a very sweet, gentlemanly person at this moment because these were mocking the Holy God. This was idolatry. The nation was given to idolatry. There were 7,000 believers who were silent, were not taking a stand. Nothing was being done. No one had challenged Jezebel. She had turned all of Israel to idols, the idolatry of Baal. And the sacrificing of little children. And you know Ahab was so bothered by this man, he called him the troubler of Israel. I'm preaching tonight about troublemakers. He was not a troublemaker. In fact, Elijah looked at Ahab and said, I'm not the one that's troubling Israel. You are the troubler of Israel. You're the one that's causing trouble. You know what happens up on that mountaintop? The Bible says they leaped upon their altars and Elijah mocked them. He derided them. Now the churches of late in New York City and the United States have cowered before the devil. They've cowered before the principalities and powers of drugs and alcohol and pornography and every other principality of Satan. The church has seemed powerless. But my Bible said the righteous are as bold as a lion. And the reason there's been a cowardice against the things of this world, against drug abuse, against alcoholism, against all of these things that are happening in the wicked city of New York, is because there had not been a spirit of righteousness that would bring forth the boldness of Jesus Christ. You say, well, Jesus was meek. He never did open his mouth when he was taken to be crucified. Well folks, that was only because the hour of darkness had come, the Bible said. And that was the time he was to be given into the hands of the enemy. But he was not a meek, smiling, Colgate-grin Jesus when he took the whip and went into the temple and drove out the money changers. He was not a meek, Colgate-smiling man of heaven when he looked against the Pharisees and called them snakes and vipers. When he looked at all the blindness of the Pharisees and said, they're blind, they're headed for the ditch, leave them alone. He was not a meek, lowly Jesus when he called them the sons of the devil. He said, your father is the devil. New York City churches are full of silent, gentlemanly diplomats. We've got diplomats in the pulpit, doesn't want to shake anybody's... They don't want to make waves, just everything quiet. Nobody wants to make trouble, so the devil's kingdom goes unchallenged. We've got more silent, mousy Christians in New York probably than any place in the face of the earth. I had a businessman call me on Friday and he said, Mr. Wilkinson, I want to make you a bet. And I told the people Friday and he said, I want to make you a bet. Because we were outside his building demonstrating against the abortion chamber on the third floor. And he said, I want to make you a bet, just between you and I, reverend. And he's a fine man, and I still consider him a friend. He said, I want to make you a bet. He said, you people don't change anything. He said, you are absolutely powerless, nothing is going to change. You're wasting your time. And I just thought, I know where that came from. I know who's saying that. That's not him saying that. That's an outright challenge to God's power. That's a challenge to Jesus Christ himself. He said, you'll get a little publicity out of it, but nothing's going to change. You can't shut anything down. You're absolutely powerless in this league. In other words, this city. And you can detect the mocking of Satan. There's almost a dare now. What the devil's trying to say, you people who talk about being filled with Jesus are spiritual wimps. You won't last long here. You're going to give up when the opposition comes, and you'll run back to your safe walls of your safe churches. I'm going to tell you what one of the men said. I'll tell you later. He said, hey, look, because we're out here demonstrating right next door. He said, you don't know what you're up against. He said, you don't know who you're fooling with. No, see, he doesn't know who he's fooling with. There's no mafia on the face of the earth that can touch the power I'm going to tell you about here tonight. I'm not railing against the devil. I'm trying to wake up Christians here in the Times Square church to believe in the power of Christ and His resurrection. This is not a cheerleader. I'm not trying to enrage your heart and stir up your spiritual blood. I believe God has a principle for us tonight. I'm trying to establish something. I'm going to talk to you about how the apostolic church of Jesus Christ in the first church age challenged the powers of darkness. And it's the same areas that we need to challenge. First of all, Paul and Silas challenged a dead, corrupt religious church system. I want you to go to Acts 17. In fact, about Monday or Tuesday, the Lord just clearly spoke to my heart. Your message is in Acts 17. And I read it five or six times. I couldn't find it. The Lord said, stay with it. It's there. And boy, He showed it to me. Paul and Silas, Acts 17, verse 1. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, or his custom, went in unto them. Now, I want you to, I don't know what it says in your Bible, but King James says, went in unto them. Three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. Opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. Look this way, if you will, please. This synagogue at Thessalonica, and by the way, even today, someone claims that there, recently, that there were probably 30 synagogues still in that area. But the synagogue at Thessalonica, in Paul's time, had probably conducted quiet meetings for years. They just sat there, nothing changed. And if you went there, it looked like a rather spiritual experience. They taught the Scriptures there. Outwardly, they kept the law, and they appeared holy. They appeared meek, mellow, quiet men, who had a measure of hunger for God. But you see, in come these two holiness preachers again, Paul and Silas. Now, they had already stirred Philippi, and now they moved to Thessalonica. And Paul has a habit. He goes right in among them. He goes right to the seat of it. He doesn't hide, he doesn't go in and say, well, go and pray for them. I'm going into the den. Now, Paul knew that everywhere he went in a synagogue, there were some devout people. In every church that's dead, you'll find some devout people. Now, if they're going to stay devout, they're going to get out eventually. If they're going to stay true, God's going to show them the way, and He's going to lead them out. He's going to send a Paul with the true word. And in just three weeks, preaching on the kingship of Jesus, Paul turned that synagogue inside out, and the whole area of Thessalonica upside down. Paul knew from experience that there would be some of these devout. Look at verse 4. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took to themselves certain lewd or wicked fellows, men of a baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they had found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren into the rulers of the city, crying, These men have turned the world upside down, and they've come here to our town. Uh-uh-uh. Listen. I know what Paul preached to those men. I know what Paul said, because in writing to the Thessalonians later, he said, We were shamefully entreated, as you know at Philippi, yet we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. Boy, you talk about an understatement. Much contention, that means, in your New American Standards, it says, with much opposition. He said, We came and we were just preaching a resurrected Jesus who has power and authority. And he said, There was contention. Where was the contention? The whole religious system of Thessalonica got mad at Paul and Silas. Why were they so enraged? So much so that men who sat there for years, Meek and Nello, they're assaulting the house of Jason. And they're making false accusations. The whole town, they said, has turned upside down. What is this? It wasn't that Paul and Silas were flaunting. They were not sticking their fingers in the face of anybody. They were not confronting people or daring them to believe. I read to you also from Thessalonians. You don't have to turn it, but listen to what Paul says, describing how they conducted themselves when they were in Thessalonica. He said, Our preaching, brethren, was not of deceit to you, not of uncleanness, not of guile. We don't speak like that. Not as pleasing to men, but to God, which tries our hearts. And not at any time did we use flattering words. We never used a cloak of covetousness. God's our witness. But we were gentle among you. He's talking about those visits to the synagogue. He's talking about the ministry he had at Thessalonica, because it was a very short ministry. We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. We were willing to have imparted to you, not just the gospel alone, but also our very souls, because you were dear unto us. Now listen to me, folks. What was it? What was it that enrages religious people? We're not talking now about street people. We're not talking about mafia people. We're talking about church people. And why are they so enraged? Why are they so angry? These are not the same kind of people at Philippi, who were trying to make money out of demon-possessed women. This was the house of God. This was the synagogue. This was the church. And why are they so enraged? The same kind of anger they got at Philippi. What's going on here? Here's the source. Look at verse 17, verse 7. And Jason hath received, and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there's another king. One Jesus. There's the source of the enragement. These men are saying there's another king. There's a man named Jesus who's over all. And I want to tell you something. The kind of kingship of Jesus that Paul preached in that synagogue for three weeks is not the same kind of preaching of the lordship of Christ we hear in the pulpits today. Not at all. You see, today about all you get is a cheerleader who says, give me a J, give me an E, give me an S. Yay, Jesus! You can talk all you want about the lordship of Jesus, but until it gets that pack of cigarettes out of your pocket, until it gets a hold of that pornography, until it gets... Oh, let me preach. Until it gets a hold of that spirit of adultery that's in you, until it gets that rebellion out of you and that stubbornness, you don't even begin to comprehend what we're preaching about the lordship of Jesus. Paul, when he preached the kingship of Christ, he was saying, you laid down your idols. You give up the places of sin. Paul preached self-denial. He preached suffering for the glory of Christ, even to martyrdom. He said you will no longer follow men or teachers or doctrines of man. You're not going to be led around by merchandisers who make merchandise out of you. That's what Bob preached about this morning. He said you're going to live a life of holiness, separation from the very appearance of evil. You'll have no fellowship with evil, with wicked men. You'll have no fellowship whatsoever. He preached separation, holiness, righteousness as the lordship and kingship of Jesus. He just didn't get up there and say, Christ is Lord. I hear so many people say, well, in our church, we hear holiness preaching. Our preacher preaches nothing but the lordship of Jesus. If that's so, why is it when some preachers come into town and a church is started and people start really living the kingship of Jesus and the demands of the gospel are really laid down on the people and they begin to respond, why do people get mad? Why do they rage? Why? A preacher's wife asked me recently, she said, Brother Dave, do you realize that Times Square Church has upset every charismatic church in New York? Now, folks, listen to me. I don't know that to be a fact. Now, if it were because there was arrogance from this pulpit, that's one thing. If we were having people go out of Times Square Church and say this is the only church preaching a true gospel in New York, then we're in error. And you should never do that if you make this your church home. You don't go out and say this is the only church. God, help us if that's the case. God, help us if that's the case. No, I know it to be a fact that there are some very precious men of God and women of God in this city that are preaching Jesus and holiness and righteousness. But on the other hand, now, there's always two sides to the coin, isn't there? You say, well, I came out of a dead church. I came out of a dry church. I came out of a church that I know is not preaching righteousness. And I've met people here in New York City that come to us after the service and they're so in love with their church and so in love with their pastor and they come, they're invited by a friend and they'll come up to us and say, well, we enjoyed the service. And this is not a commercial for Times Square Church. I mean that with everything that's in me. And I don't mean it in any kind of arrogance. There's a Bible principle here and I want you to catch it and catch it good. Because some of you wonder how far you should go in trying to pull people out of what you came from. Come on now. Do you have a right to go, do you have a right to do something about those who are in deception just like you were? And you know if you don't speak to them they may die and go to hell. They may live in deception. You see, people come and say, I hear holiness preaching. Folks, I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear just words. I want to see the unction, the anointing of the Holy Spirit and I want to see altars filled with people that are having their lives changed. And they are not under the dominion of a man. They're not under the dominion of a woman. They're not under the dominion of false doctrines. They're under the lordship and kingship of Jesus Christ. Do you have a right? I told you to remember those words that Paul, Paul went in among them. He said in 17.2, and Paul as his custom was, went in unto them. You go in unto them with tapes, telephone calls, letters. Now folks, if you don't do it humbly, you don't do it with a holier-than-thou attitude, if you don't have a broken heart, as Paul said, I came to you tenderly as a nurse. You don't lord it over people. You don't have a holier-than-thou attitude. You have a broken heart. He said, we would have given you our very lives because you were dear to us. That's what should break your heart. That those of your friends still in deception, it should break your heart. You should weep over them. You should play with them. You don't beg them, and say, hey, just come out of that. But you present the truth to the Lord Jesus Christ in every way you can. They have to see a change in you. They have to see such a Christ in you that they can't be turned by because that's the greatest testimony of all the kind of life that you show before them. These men, the Scripture says, 17.16, these who have turned the world upside down have come here also. Well, whose world's upside down? Whose world's upside down? It's this little religious circle where nobody took the kingship of Christ seriously. They're the only ones upset. I can assure you, folks, the moment the Word of God takes root in your heart, the moment you really begin to come under the kingship of Christ and live it, you are not living like you used to. You are not indulging like you used to. There's a change, and everybody knows it. That, folks, is when you're going to shake up people. You're going to get more people angry at you than any time in your life. It's such a reproof to dead compromising preachers and churches when the people start walking in holiness. Hallelujah. And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night. That's Acts 17.10. Well, it looks again like the devil's winning the battle. They're sneaking out of town in the middle of the night. Can you imagine the next Sabbath after Paul and Silas are gone? That Sabbath, everything's quieted down now. They're back to their tradition and their doctrines. And they said, boy, it didn't take much to get those holiness preachers out of town, did it? And they thought they'd won the day. I don't even know what the Christians of Thessalonica thought at that time, but it must not have hurt them. And I'll tell you what, the reason I believe God wanted Paul and Silas out of town, He wouldn't even let the devil touch them. They got them out of town because the whole city was upside down. But Paul and Silas, in just three or four short weeks, had so turned them away from themselves to Jesus, they had so focused them, not on the personality of Paul or Silas, they had so rooted them in looking to Jesus as the author and finisher of their faith, that out of Thessalonica came the greatest church, and in fact, Paul called the church of Thessalonica the joy of his heart. In fact, it was a testimony to all of Asia, the strength and the faith of the church of Thessalonica. Paul and Silas moved out of town, leaving a Holy Ghost church. The devil couldn't touch. Proved by leaps and bounds. Hallelujah. Well, secondly, Paul and Silas stirred things up in the marketplace. Now, folks, I believe God is challenging the church in New York City. I believe God's going to raise up little fires all over this city. He's going to do it in New Jersey, He's going to do it in Long Island. I've had pastors in Long Island recently, this past week, just with tears and hunger, said, Brother Wilkinson, we heard about the prayer meetings downtown, so we're beginning to pray, we're beginning to seek God. And there's a turning toward the Lord. And, you know, some of them are doing it just so they won't lose people. Well, that's fine. I don't care how it's done. That's great. Hallelujah. Folks, if you're getting fed in your church, you're not going to want to come here. If you're already getting a Holy Ghost gospel, you can come and visit all you want. But we're looking for the hungry people. We're looking for the outcasts. We're looking for those who don't fit anywhere else. And we sure have them here. Would you look at chapter 17, verse 16? So Paul, he goes off by himself in the middle of the night. He goes off to Athens. He goes off to Athens, and he's waiting for Timothy and Silas to come. And I want you to look at verse 16. We're getting to read, Now when Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers, the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? Have you ever been called a babbling troublemaker? Paul sure was. And some, he seemeth to be setting forth a strange God because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. What did he preach to them? Jesus and the resurrection. Now, listen to me. Look this way. If there's any one place that Christians are more silent about their Christ than any other place, it's on the job. It's in the marketplace where they work. Look, I know people that come to Times Square Church and I say it with love, I pray with tenderness. There are some of you come here and loudly proclaim your devotion to Jesus. You raise your hands and you talk about how intensely you love Jesus. And then why is it when you get to the job you never ever say anything about His name? You are absolutely quiet because you fear rejection. You may fear losing your job. There are many like Peter who on the job says, I don't know the man. At least by their silence, I don't know the man. Why is it? Why is it that we don't challenge New York City and the marketplace on your job? Do you know something that if we could send out this place seats I think 1,250 people, if we could send out that many people on jobs throughout New York, New Jersey, Long Island, it wouldn't take long, if everyone took their stand for Christ, it wouldn't take long to trouble the city. We need troublemakers on the job. That's my point here. See, you know why Christians don't witness for Christ on the job? It's because their hearts are not sturdy in them like Paul's was. Because all around them there are people given to idolatry. You say, well Paul's a preacher. He was called to that work. No, the Bible said they were all ambassadors for Jesus Christ. The Athenians were exactly like the people you work with. They're the same kind of people in Athens. The Bible said they spent... Tell me if this doesn't describe the people you work with. Now, think of Joe right next to you, or Marian, whoever it is, think of that boss of yours, think of all the ladies gossiping, and all the men gossiping. Alright, let me read it to you. Why don't you look at verse 21? For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing. Verse 22, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, I perceive that all things are too superstitious. Does that describe the people you work with? They're into astrology. They're into all kinds of superstition. How many rabbit feet do you have around you? How many little things do people do around you? They won't listen to the Jesus that you talk about if you do. But they'll talk about their sign. Now, I want to get very, very serious with you. Now, I want you to listen closely. In fact, before I talk about this, I want you to go to Isaiah 47, because you must get this, and the Holy Spirit put this in my heart just about an hour before the service. I just wrote as fast as I could, and the Holy Spirit made it so clear that you and I have to see this. Just go to 47th chapter of Isaiah and leave it on. I'm going to talk about Reagan and Nancy. Now, hold it. Just... Now, folks, if you don't take it serious, you're going to miss something here. Because the judgment on this nation, if there's never been judgment on it before, there is now. There is now. Before I take you, don't even try to find it. Just listen to Obadiah. If you're walking this down, you go home tonight and just look at Obadiah. It's one chapter in verse 4. Don't turn to it, but I'll just read it to you. Though you set your nest among the stars, in other words, you take your life support from the stars, hence will I bring you down. And I can tell you right now the authority of the Scripture that this presidency is going to go out in shame. Now, please. The evangelical religious right has been telling the whole world that we had a born-again Christian president. We've told the whole world, including the Russians and everything else, that in God we trust. That this nation gets its information, it gets its direction and guidance from Almighty God. Isn't that what we've been telling the world? Isn't that the idea we gave the Russians, we gave everybody else? We put it on our coins. In God we trust. I have heard it. I've heard it over and over again for the past five or six years that we had a man finally in the White House. Now, listen. I pray for the president. You and I have to pray for him every day. You need to pray for him more than ever now. And I mean really diligently pray for the leaders of this country. But I want you to hear what God says about it. We've got a lot of people laughing about it. It is not a laughing matter. It's a slap in the face of God and the whole world now. We have made the whole world mock. I saw this a few hours ago and it struck my heart like a knife. God has suddenly uncovered the nakedness of the White House. He's just pulled the covers off. And He's exposed what's in the heart. Do you understand now? Begin to understand why there's a Contra problem, an Iran problem, a Mies problem. It's the beginning of a can of worms that you're going to see open that you can't even believe. What you heard under Nixon is nothing. Isaiah 47, verse 3. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. I read it in the New American Standard. It's not as powerful as it is in King James. So just listen. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered. Yea, thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man. I'm going to tell you what God said, and I'm going to deal with you as God now. You're not talking to a man like yourself. You're talking to God now. As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is the name of the Holy One of Israel. I want you to go down to verse 7. Do you know that there's a statue right out here in the harbor? It's called the Lady. In fact, that's what we call it. All the books, history calls it the Lady in the Harbor. King James says, And thou saidest, I shall be a lady forever. So that thou didst not lay these things to the heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, Thou that art given to pleasures that dwell carelessly, that sayest in thy heart, I am and none else beside me, I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children. In other words, no harm can come to us. But these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day. The loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries. And I want you to know that horoscopes and stargazing is sorcery in the sight of God. It's enchantment. And for the great abundance of thy enchantments, for thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, thou hast said, None seeth me. See, this was hidden, wasn't it? Thy wisdom and thy knowledge has perverted you. You've been on the telephone calling channelers. These channelers come out of hell, they're demon spirits. God says, Your wisdom and your knowledge, where you've been getting it, has perverted you. And thou hast said in thine heart, I am and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee, thou shalt not know from whence it rises, and mischief shall fall upon you. This is the end of... Thou be able to put it off, and desolation will come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Verse 13, Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from these things that are going to come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them, and they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame. There shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee, with whom thou hast labored, even the merchants, now that's Wall Street, even the merchants, from thy youth. They shall wonder every one to his own place, none shall save them. Look at me, folks. You hear it good, and you hear it prophetically, and I believe we're hearing it loud and clear. God says, There is coming such trouble. There is coming such a devastation, and such judgment. He said, Go to your astrologer. Go to your stargazer. Go to your prognosticator, who gives you your daily chart. See if they can chart you out of what I'm sending. See if they can save you. And God says they can't even save themselves. We are under judgment, folks. I know a lot of people don't like preaching like this. But I'm telling you, the Spirit of the Lord, and I'll tell you this, that's the same Spirit that's on your job. Do you know the big thing in Wall Street right now? It's called crystal power. Crystal power. They're spending thousands of dollars. One man recently paid $25,000 for a piece of crystal, a jagged piece of crystal, and he has it in his office in Wall Street to get vibrations of knowledge. That's the biggest thing in Wall Street now. Intelligent men, Harvard graduates, sit in front of a dumb little piece of glass, saying, Speak to me. Speak to me. It's idolatry. Our country's turned to idolatry. I was walking past Tiffany's the other day, and there in the window was a big piece of crystal. Thousands of dollars. Some dummy going to buy it. And he's going to sit there thinking everything that comes is some vibration from another world. You know where the world is from, don't you? Doesn't look like those vibrations have been working very well lately. I wonder if those crystals ever told him he was going to go down 508 points last October. Others are into yoga, meditation, the occult. You know that people won't do anything until they check their horoscope? And they call you crazy. And do you know, Paul, listen to me. The Athenians were under, there was a twin deception, a twin gospel, not a gospel, but a twin doctrine of devils. The Epicureans are named here in the Stoics. Now, there's nothing changed from that time to this. The Epicureans did not believe there was any life after death. When you die, that's it. That was the teaching. And they said happiness is acknowledged by deep meditation. Folks, this meditation business is not new. That's the Epicureans. And the joy of life, they said, was found in fellowship alone. In other words, your friends. All that there is in life is your friends. All over New York City, that's what they talk about, friends. Every Friday and Saturday, you get together with your friends. And that doctrine led to sensuality, gluttony, and exotic pleasure seeking. It's the same thing today. They had another doctrine that was ruling at the same time in Athens. The Stoics. They had a religion of human reasoning. Their religion was nature. Getting close to nature. And they said there's one common mind, there's one common spirit, and when you get to nature, you're one with nature, then you're one with one another. There's nothing new. It's called New Age now. It's the New Age Gospel. They had it then. And folks, it's doing today what it did then. It led to suicides everywhere in Athens. It led to many suicides. The Stoics often killed themselves, took their lives, because it was a hopeless doctrine. But you see, the Athenians, this doctrine of hopelessness, caused this bloodthirsty foolishness of gladiators killing Christians and killing others. They would sit there, they were lusted for blood. And that's where those doctrines, they talk about nature, loving nature, and it ends up in bloodthirstiness. It ends up in killing 25 million babies in this country. And here's one of the world's most modern, advanced, intellectual... It was a university city. One of the great cities of its time, palatial. It was busy, it was powerful, but it was godless. And I believe Paul went to the marketplace because he was a tentmaker, and he's waiting for Silas and Timothy to come, and he goes down to the property to check on canvas. He's a tentmaker. I'm sure he's looking at the latest needles and the threads. And he looks around, he sees the idolatry. He sees this palatial city. And the Bible said his heart stirred in him. His heart was moved. And folks, he had no master plan for that city. He had no strategy. He had no plan of evangelism. All he could do was cry. We don't have a plan of evangelism for New York. We don't have a strategy. What God is looking for on the job are men and women, Christians, who come to Times Square Church, whatever church it is. You get your heart so broken. You look at the idolatry of New York City. You look at the godly. You look at the hell. You look at the devil taking over this city. And your heart breaks. And your heart is stirred. And it's that stirring in your heart that drives you. Paul looked at that city and said, nobody's challenging. And I'm telling you, it was worse than New York because there was no church there. There's a church here. There are many churches here in New York. There were no church. There were no Christians. He was alone. And his heart stirred in him. And Paul said, if I don't challenge the devil here, these people are going to die and go to hell. And when you go to the job, that's what God has to put in your heart. If I don't tell them, they're going to die and go to hell. I'm going to stand before a holy God. I'm going to have to answer for whether or not I've even tried. Now, Paul had visited many cities. He'd seen it all. He'd seen the drunkenness at Corinth. He'd seen the homosexual spirit that ruled Rome. He'd seen the spiritual darkness of Jerusalem. But I want to tell you, he never let his heart get hard. Never once did Paul's heart get hard. His spirit was stirred in him. Have you never stood here in Times Square and just cried? I stood recently on 68th and Broadway. About 11 o'clock at night, I went out to get a newspaper. And I looked at that bustling, hustling crowd, and I said, Lord, there are not a handful of believers in the whole group up here. They're going to hell. And I just stood there weeping. My heart was moved within me. Listen, I see the beggars. I see the poverty too. Sometimes I can't handle it anymore. I go down to the end of 41st and they're trying to clean the windshield and everything. You can't help everybody. You try to help as many as you can. You try to reach out. But folks, it starts putting calluses on the heart if you're not careful, so that when you get to the job, your heart is hard. Because of beggars. Because of poverty. Because of sin. And so many people grabbing at you. This is a city that wears people down. But you have to be careful you don't go to the job with those calluses, pound upon calluses, and you can't see the idolatry of those you work with. You can't see the heartbreak, and your heart doesn't weep anymore. Have we become so used to the darkness, so burned out with the crime and the filth, that we can no longer cry about those we work with? And I'll tell you something else. Paul wasn't put off by the immensity of the problem either. He was not overwhelmed by what Satan did to this city, because Paul knew he had a secret weapon. He had the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. One man against the whole city. One man. Glory be to God. He stands in the marketplace, as Scripture says. Hallelujah. I've got to get back to Acts 17. Please folks, I've only been 40 minutes. Give me 10 more minutes. Acts 17. I'm going to borrow Bob's phrase. Are you with me? I'll tell you where I'm going. It didn't matter to Paul they called him a babbler. You know what babbler means? A sponger. Loafer. Somebody who's trying to impose their ideas on someone else. Have you ever heard that? Don't infringe on my rights. Don't make me try to be like you believe. They may not say it to your face, but they'll call it behind you. He's a babbler. He's a troublemaker. Boy, we get that outside that murder chamber up there, and we walk around, and there are people walking around with signs saying they kill babies here. And boy, they come out with rage. Absolute rage. One man on roller skates, he did. He called them babblers, all right. But that didn't matter to Paul. He had a message. He said, I serve a Christ who is greater than everything that the devil has done to this city. I have a resurrection spirit in me of Jesus Christ. And Paul stood in that marketplace. You know, I hear people say, all you have to do on the job is live your life before them. No, that's not enough. The Bible says very clearly that once one must lift up his voice. Paul said, how shall they hear without a preacher? And you're a preacher if you know it or not. You don't have to have a little card. The day you got saved, God called you to preach. Preach Jesus Christ. But you see, everybody in this church should have a Philip ministry. A Philip ministry. I want you to go to Acts 8. Real quick, I want to show you where you're supposed to be. You're not supposed to be sitting here just on Thursday night soaking in the Word and then Friday night or Tuesday night and just soaking it, soaking it, soaking it. You can hear so much gospel, your ears can get dull. If you're not spending it, you'll get fat and lazy. Look at verse 5, 8th chapter, verse 5. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Now look this way. Do you know who Philip is? He's not one of those early apostles. He waited on tables and they were persecuted and chased out. He's a layman. He's a man who works just like you do on the job. But he was so full of the Holy Ghost when they chased him out of Jerusalem. He goes down. Look at this. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and he preached Christ unto them. And the people of one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. This is not Paul the apostle. Now this is Philip the layman. He's the marketplace preacher. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them, and many were taken with palsies, and those who were lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city. Listen. Please, look this way. We might as well shut this church down. We might as well quit praying. Shut all the churches down. We'll not impact this city ever until God by His Spirit does something in every Christian, everyone that works with his hands, his mind, everyone that has a job, anyone related with people in the marketplace. We will never impact this city until you realize that once you've been saved and filled with the Spirit of the living God, you've been endued with power from on high, and you're to go out and lay hands on the sick. You're to go out and pray that devils will be cast out, and you're to be an evangelist on the job. You've been called to a Philip ministry. Everyone in this church is called to a Philip ministry if you're walking in Christ's righteousness. Now, don't try to cast the devil out if you've got sin in your life. They'll leap all over you and tear you apart. Do you know there are people on the job, all around you, that if you could just know it, they're hurting? There are so many that are ready. There are so many. This man we prayed for, just walking, he was outside here, and just came in here for prayer and gave his heart to Jesus. Friday night, a man in this bar next door, service was over, and he came, and he was at the altar, and he was crying. I don't know if he's here tonight or not. He said, I was a Vietnam pilot. And he said, I was in that bar, and I came out, and I met one of your men, and I just had to come in. He said, the Holy Ghost gave me a kick and sent me in here. And he was backstage with Wally and I, just weeping, grabbing ahold of us, saying, Please, Jesus, save me! Crying out to God. That man had been sitting over there drinking, and if you had gone into that bar and looked at him, you'd say, that man doesn't want God. The man was broken. He was weeping. He was hungry. The whole city is full of hungry people. Hurting people. Walking the streets, and you can't tell by looking at them. They may look hard, but if you just stop for a moment. If you were just able to, just like Billy, one of the leaders of this bar next door, that becomes a transvestite bar after 10 o'clock, Friday, Saturday night. The man was about to go in, and he just stood in front of him, and said, Brother, I don't mean to offend you, but I just want to say something to you. You don't have to go the way Jesus loves you. You see the man's head bow, and he turns around and goes off. And he got the hook in his jaw. There was somebody who cared enough. Listen friends, I'm sick and tired of all the smiling, cute Christians, saying cute things. No. You don't have to go out and smile at any sinner. Now, I'm talking about those who are full of the devil coming against you. I'm not talking about the average hungry person out there. But I want to tell you something. Right now, if you're on the front lines of war, you don't have a grin on your face. And this is that kind of battle. And we don't have to stand up in front of those who are going to mock the name of Jesus Christ, and who don't want Him, and turn their back on Him, and you don't have to let them walk over you. You don't fight back, but you just stand there with that solemn word of the Lord in your heart, and say, Brother, Jesus loves you, and we're not moving. And they'll turn and walk away. We have had such a palsied, weak testimony for Jesus. Every moony on the street smiling. Every moony on the street's got a little badge with a smile on it, saying, Smile! I don't want to smile, and I want to cry over this city. I want my heart stirred. I'm not saying you don't smile. Do you understand what I mean? We're no better off than everyone else if you go and just walk out there, kind of weakly, mousy, and pat every sinner on the back, and say, Jesus loves you. Why don't you ask God to give you desertment? Why don't you have that authority of saying, In Jesus' name, God knows your sin. He loves you, but He knows your sin, and He wants to save you from it. Let God give you that spiritual authority. I'm going to wrap it up in just a minute. If we're not going to obey the Lord's command to go out and preach the gospel to every creature, we're going to become introspective. We'll become obsessed with our own problems, and that's what's happening all over America now. It happened to the whole denomination of the Plymouth Brethren. In fact, some of these pastors enjoy those Plymouth Brethren writers with me. It was Darby, it was McIntosh, it's Raven, it's J.P. Stoney, great men of God. They started about 150 years ago in a town called Plymouth, England, and they were street preachers. They went out in the marketplace, and they preached Jesus. They held street rallies. They had a passing for souls. And God so blessed them, the Plymouth Brethren became a strong revival movement in England, and God shook England. The Plymouth Brethren were so on fire for God, the Holy Spirit revealed something to Darby and Stoney and Raven and all these great men. They became great writers, and their books are still very well read. But you know what happened? They had a revelation of a glorified man in heaven, the glorified Jesus. And they became so enraptured with the picture of the glorified Jesus, they sat in their churches to study and study and study. And they became so detailed in their descriptions of this heavenly man, that there are volumes and volumes and volumes written. I've got 15 volumes by one man. 15 volumes. All on the headship of Jesus. But friends, they became so involved in studying Christ, that they forgot to go out and witness to His name. They lost that burden, till finally they became introspective, and the whole Plymouth Brethren movement split into two groups called the Open Brethren and the Closed Brethren. And in the Closed Brethren, you can't even go to their churches without an invitation. And that's where it comes to. I had some of their leaders recently from England, elderly men, one in his 80s, came to my house, and they said, Brother Dave, you're right, we lost that vision for our souls. And you read the writings, and they're elitist. They talk so much about Jesus. Now, it's not one or the other, it's both. It's having that deep truth. It's having the power of the gospel of holiness. But at the same time, it is having that zeal, and that burden for dying lost souls. It's not one or the other, it's both. Otherwise we become introspective, and our ears become dull. I'm going to close now. But you know the last words of Jesus before he left this earth? All power is given unto me. Go ye therefore into all the world, and preach the gospel. What did it say? All power is given unto me. Where's the power? It's with our blessed Lord. I want to repeat it again. The gentleman next door, we're praying that God, not shut down the restaurant, but the Friday and Saturday night Obsession Bar, which is a transvestite bar. We just don't believe that God's going to allow the devil to operate it right here next door to the house of God. And evidently the owner said, I'm quoting, you people, this is what was brought to me, you people are in real trouble. You don't know what you're into. You don't know who you're dealing with. You know what the Bible says? We may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what men shall do unto me. Here's what the Scripture says, that your eyes should be opened to know the exceeding greatness of his power, to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought out in Christ, for he's far above all power, speaking of our Christ, he's far above all power, all principalities, that's the city council, that's the mayor, that's Washington D.C., all power, all might, all dominion, and every name that is named, hey, you can name any figure you want to, name any man with power and authority, I don't care if he's from the Mafia or where he's from, name anyone with authority. The Bible says name any name you can name, there's no name greater than his name. Not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet. All things are under his feet. My brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Before I close, this is what the Holy Spirit has impressed upon me that I had to say to you before I close tonight. The message of the Holy Spirit is be strong versus the devil. And you're not the one who's supposed to run, he's the one who flees, the Bible says. And he will flee from you. I tell you now, I'm not standing here reading against the devil. I'm telling you right now that God wants to put a backbone in this church. He wants to put a backbone in every Christian in this place. That this battle is the Lord's. It's not our battle, it's his battle. And we're not just out to try to... Folks, the last thing this church wants or needs is to be in any kind of headline. I've had all that I ever want. I don't want to see this church in the headlines. I want to see it on its knees. We're not here just to fight abortion for abortion's sake. We're not reading against anybody over there. There's a spiritual warfare. There has to be a challenge against the powers of hell. But I'm speaking in your own life. The devil's come and make some of you afraid. You're afraid of that lust that has a hold of you. You're afraid of that besetting sin because it's come back on you. There's a fear in many of you that the devil's going to overpower you and in spite of all the truth that you've heard, in spite of all the tears that you've shed, that the enemy somehow is going to trample you down and take dominion and power over you. Be strong, the scripture says. Resist the devil and he'll free from you. The scripture says, with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though a host, David said, though a host be encamped against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war rise up against me, in time of trouble, he will hide me in his pavilion. He shall set me up upon a rock. What is that rock? In time of war. You've got a war raging in your heart. I know the Lord's put this on my heart before I close. The devil's trying to trouble your heart, many of you. The shepherds of this church, all of us, the one thing that our hearts tremble about and shake and we just lay before God on it, is that Christ be formed in you. That the whole city will recognize people that walk in His righteousness. Not under any man's doctrine or authority or dominion, but under the kingship of Jesus Christ as Lord. But we're all so troubled so much by some of you come to this altar, some of you've been down here 20 times. I saw it again this morning. Can I talk to you as a friend? As a brother in Christ? When are you going to quit just looking at your own problem and your own trouble and looking in and in and in? And when are you going to claim the forgiving power of Jesus? And when are you going to finally repent and say, Jesus, that's it. And rise up in authority in the name of Jesus and say, I'm going to witness for Christ. I want to go out and get involved in someone else's problems. Get your eyes off your own problems now. Every time you come down here, you're thinking of yourself. Some people say, oh God, send the Holy Ghost. For what? It's to endure us with power to go out and witness for Him. Not just to deal with their own problems. It's to give out to others. Listen, this past week it's been worse than ever. I've received, I did this morning, in every service, almost every service, some that are visiting. Not many from this church, thank God, but many visiting. They give me stacks of material. These are visions, prophecies, that they've received while they've been spending hours and hours in prayer. And I open it up and I look at it, the letter will read, this has come after four years of seeking God. Hold it, hold it, brother. Brother, hold it, hold it, hold it. The Holy Spirit will not interrupt. Alright, brother. Brother, we believe in the power of the Holy Spirit here. We believe in tongues. The Holy Spirit does not interrupt a man in the middle of his message. He does not interrupt when I'm in, I'm moving in the Holy Spirit. Now, I believe this is a man of God, but that's just a lack of wisdom. I'm not putting you down, dear brother, but if you have the Holy Spirit, you have a teachable spirit. Now, I want to go on. There's a point here that cannot be missed. It cannot be missed. Listen, there are people everywhere now praying and seeking the face of God. And I know that. But you know, when I read all this material, it's coming to me, it's an ocean. And it's, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. And my heart bleeds, and I say, Oh God, if there's that much time to sit and reprove one another, and reprove ourselves, and reprove the church, and that has to come, and God has as many as watchmen and shepherds to do that. But my heart bleeds for precious people. Do you know that the greatest cure for not going off on some deep end, the greatest cure of staying in the middle of God's will, and keeping the Holy Spirit, and not getting into false doctrine, is to go out and give yourself to the needs of others. And if you have that time, and I say it to you in love, I'm not condemning anyone in this church, many of you have been going through this struggle. If you have that time to hear so much from God, say, Lord Jesus, let me lay this aside for a while. Let me go into my neighborhood. Let me go to my block. Let me go to the job. And let me begin to give out Jesus. Let me have my heart stirred. Folks, what I'm hearing is so shocking. I had a man contact me this past week, and he said, Brother Wilkinson, please help me. Call my wife. My wife tells me, in fact, she's in there praying for hours, but she's wanting to leave me, because she's heard from some people, she's a prophetess, and she's just been telling people, and this is the truth, she's telling people that she had a vision. She died and went to heaven, and when she got to heaven, she spent a lot of time just dancing with Jesus, and then Jesus took her skydiving. Now, I'm not trying to be funny. I'm telling you, that's where it ends up. That's where it ends up. When you take it in, and take it in, and taking in, and it can start as God, it can start as the Holy Spirit trying to stir our hearts, and then we become introspective, we spend it all on ourselves, and we don't get out in the marketplace and preach Jesus. And that ends up in fanaticism. Hallelujah. Now, tonight, at this altar, God's going to break chains. God's going to break that spirit. God will break that spirit that is upon people now that are centered on themselves, and I said kindly, if you've been to this altar before, and you feel that you just have to come tonight, that's fine. But I'm asking you now, I'm asking you tonight, to start looking out to others. You know what we need? We need you to get so strong, and get your face straightened out, that you can help us pray for others. That you can come up here, and you're not coming up here for your own need now, you're coming up here to lay hands on somebody else, and take their burden and their need upon them, upon yourself. Is God talking to you? Every head bowed, please. Holy Spirit, I thank You tonight for Your clear Word. Holy Spirit, there's no power, there's no authority, that can hinder Your work or Your move, or the Word from finding its mark in our hearts. And I ask You to come forth now, Jesus, and bring people to this altar tonight, who have been under the fear of Satan, or the power of a lust, or a habit, or something, Lord, that's bringing fear and bondage to their lives. And Lord Jesus, set them free tonight. Let no one walk out of this place under bondage, but to be set free, in the name of the Lord Jesus. While your heads are bowed, I want to say it very quickly, but right to the point. If you believe that Jesus can set you free tonight, that all power is resident in our Christ, we'd like to lay hands on you tonight. We'd like to pray that God would bring forth the spirit of deliverance, deal with the flesh, and bring you forth to a place where God can start using you. Now, if you've been coming up here and say, Brother, I want to be delivered from all the calls. Now, I'm not being facetious. Delivered in that I don't need to go up there every time, but I go up there now because the Lord has finished the work in my heart, and brought me to a place of faith. If there's sin in your life, you have a problem, you have a habit, there's something binding you, you say, Brother, we won't ask you what it is, we just want Jesus to set you free. Do you want to be that witness on the job? Do you want to have that spiritual authority that Philip had, to pray for the sick, to cast out devils, and to believe God, to save your family and your friends, and work on your job? If you need that kind of anointing, I invite you to come. Up in the balcony, go down to the steps, and you there in the main floor, just come and stand here now. We're going to ask God to absolutely deliver tonight, and set you free. Magnify His name. This is the conclusion of the tape.