This sermon emphasizes the importance of repentance and turning back to God, focusing on personal accountability and the need for individuals to examine their own hearts. It calls for a deep repentance, seeking forgiveness for neglecting God and His ways, and urges a return to a close relationship with Him. The message stresses the urgency of the times and the critical need for individuals to come back to God, highlighting the opportunity for a fresh start and reconciliation through Jesus Christ.

Zechariah said, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord, and I will turn to you. I will turn to you. The most profound word of all, with this I'm going to close. Go to Jeremiah the 18th chapter please. With this I close. Could you stand with me while we read this? Jeremiah 18, starting verse 5. Then the word of the Lord came to me. See, the Lord sends his word, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At what instance I shall speak concerning a nation, concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, pull down, and destroy it, if that nation against whom I pronounce, turn from their evil? What does it say? I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. At what instance I shall speak concerning a nation, concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it do evil in my sight, that if it obey not my voice, and if we miss the message, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. God said, if you'll just turn. I can't, we can't reach the world from this pulpit. Yes, I pray that the nation repent, but my most intense prayer is for my own heart. Lord, let me be wholly turned to you. Let me have a repentant heart, and let me judge my sins that I not be judged before the throne. I'm not looking at somebody else. Folks, you can't find anywhere in this particular thing where God blamed sinners, He didn't blame homosexuals, He didn't blame those. He said it's because of your pride and your cry of greatness, because in your troubled times, and in your grief, you didn't turn to me. With all your heart, you didn't come against your sins, but you turned to your own strength, and you turned because you were wounded in pride. Your pride rose up. God says, if you will turn to me with all your heart, I'll repent of what I had in plan for you. You can't repent for the rest of New York, we can repent for ourselves, and our repentance this morning can rise to high heaven and touch the throne of God. Folks, listen to me please. We want to remember in prayer our President. President Bush, when he was a candidate, one of his first speeches was given at one of our Teen Psalm Center in Lubbock. We have a copy of it, and he said, I was alcoholic, and Jesus saved me, not only from alcoholism, but from sin. I've given my heart to Jesus Christ. Folks, we're to pray for our leaders, even if they were evil. How much more for those that have been placed in power at such a strategic time? Would everybody in this building, please, we're going to pray for the President first, and then, you may not agree with this in politics, but folks, this is, if you're a Christian, forget politics right now, and let's lay hold of God. I want to lead you in this prayer, and I want everyone in this house, everyone in the annex, and all the overflow rooms. Folks, there are thousands here in all of our various auditoriums, and I know, I know right now, that God will hear our cry. Would you lift your voice? I don't want to be the only one praying. Father, no, you pray yourself, Lord. I pray that you come now, in a special way, and sweep over this congregation. Lord, we tremble not at the disaster. We tremble at the Word of God. We tremble, oh God. We want to hear your message. We want to hear your voice in this. This nation must repent. God, this nation must turn back to you, and we have such little time left. God, I pray that you give President Bush mercy, grace, wisdom. Oh God, continue to drive him to his knees. Josiah had a tender heart. Give him a tender heart toward you. God, don't let the counselors lead him to the right or to the left. Let him get his counsel from you, Lord. That's still small voice. God, we weep for our nation, but oh God, we feel your tears. We have your tears, Lord, for the innocent. We have your tears for those who've died. Your tears over having to judge for sin. Oh God, in Jesus' name, we repent before you. I repent. We all repent of our sins before you, Lord. We have neglected you. We have taken the things of God lightly. We have not been diligent, Lord. We've wasted our time in front of TV sets. Lord, we have turned aside in boredom. We've neglected you days without number. My God, forgive us in our churches. Forgive our pastors. Forgive me. Forgive all of us, oh Lord, for not warning the people, for not being in touch and hearing and knowing the voice of God, not hearing the prophetic word of the Lord. Oh God, have mercy on this nation. Have mercy, oh God, have mercy. My Lord, have mercy upon us. God, we pray for the Christians in leadership. We pray for Ashcroft. We pray for the Attorney General, Lord. They have mocked him. They've ridiculed him. Now, Lord, give him a voice in the land. Give him a voice in the land, we pray. God, touch him. Put your arms around him and direct him and guide him. Oh God, you want to have mercy on this nation. You want us to turn to you so that you can bring back your favor and blessing and protection. Oh God, in Jesus' name, spare your people. Protect your people in these hard times. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the holy name of Jesus. Bless the holy name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. God, you have everything under control. You know what you're doing. You know what's happening. Lord Jesus, you'll hold your church, you'll hold your people, and you have purpose to protect your people in these last days. You will protect, oh God, and you will give us your mind and your will. We will hear a word from heaven. We will know it's from you and from your throne. We will receive it with joy, gladness and pain and sorrow. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now, I want to bring this down. It's very personal. It doesn't matter much whether you're angered by what you heard this morning. The real issue is this. Are you right with God? Are you right with him? That's what this is all about. You can stand in this church and say, oh yeah, I agree with you, Pastor. I'd like to see America repent and turn from its wicked ways. But how about you? You're a part of it. It should begin right here, shouldn't it? It should begin right here. Have our staff ask those in room 206. Now, if you're in room 206 and you want to give your heart to Jesus, if you want to get right with God, if you're backslidden, your heart's grown cold and God's been speaking to you, it's time to wake up. I've had parents call me and our officers call me and parents and even pastors are calling their unsaved children in the Midwest. Some of the calls are incredible. Some of their children on drugs and so forth. And their parents are calling them up and saying, you better get right. God is speaking. This is God talking to you. And God's message is heard loud and clear here now. And his loving message has come because I want you to come into the ark. He's prepared an ark of safety. That's Jesus. Jesus is the ark of safety in these last days. He says, come in the ark before the flood strikes. And that's not just a message of fear. That's a message of hope. Anyone in room 206, the Holy Ghost is speaking to you. I address you first. These days are life and death days. And I'm going to give you a sales pitch. And I'm going to try to scare you. But I'm telling you now, I look you right in the eye and tell you God by his Spirit is speaking to everybody in this land. And he's speaking to you. He'll not bypass you because he loves you. And the time to make it right, the time to come home, come home, come back to his love is now. Don't resist the Holy Spirit. Do not be a better time. You say, well, I don't want to come when I'm afraid. Folks, it's not fear. But the Bible said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you have the fear of God, then you'll say this is God at work. And that's the kind of fear you have. That's the righteous fear. Now you move on that. Pastor Carter, you sang that song, Come Home, that old-fashioned song. Could you sing that, lead us in that again, Come Home? I wondered far, some of you wondered far away from him. Today's the day for you to come back. Now, just get out of your seat, wherever you're at, up in the balcony here, in the rotunda, and go as the Spirit tells you. Feel that pull, the tug, that's the Holy Spirit. No one's going to beg you to come because the Spirit is dealing with you. Coming home, coming home, coming home. Never more to roam. Open wide thine arms above. Coming home, coming home, coming home. Never more to roam. Open wide thine arms above. Hallelujah. Lord, thank you for the moving of your Holy Spirit. We pray that everyone in this house, even when we dismiss, when they walk out, Lord, touch them and say, go back, go back. Let this be the day that the account is settled with the Lord. Let this be the hour. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.