In this sermon, the preacher begins by thanking God for his blessings and acknowledging Jesus and the Holy Ghost. He asks for forgiveness for forgetting what God has done and prays for open eyes and understanding. The preacher expresses a desire to remain humble and broken before God's word and asks for cleansing and surrender of sins and unbelief. He emphasizes the need to know God's heart and to live for Him, expressing a desire to weep with God and do things His way. The preacher concludes by discussing the importance of grieving over sin and compromise in the church, highlighting the need for genuine sorrow and repentance.

...message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing, World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Folks, there's a full gospel. It's not all joy, it's not all peace, it's not all happiness, it's not all victory. There comes a time when God has to show us His heart, and part of His heart is the grief He has against sin in His church among His own people. And I want to talk about sharing that grief tonight. See, things have already gotten very quiet. Lord, I would never be able to understand why You put me here tonight with this particular message I don't know. I had no way of knowing who's here. I don't know who's here. I don't know who walked in here tonight from another city or from this town, and Lord, I pray that You help me now to forget all of that and do what You told me to do. Lord, at this church we've learned to hear Your voice. We've learned to hear Your correction. We've learned to hear reproof. We've learned to hear about victory and joy and the overcoming life. All of these wonderful things, but O God, speak clearly to our hearts tonight. I ask that You sanctify me, that You speak clearly to my heart. Lord, let me be under the blood, the precious blood of the Lamb, so that the word I speak comes from the heart of God. Lord, I can't invent this kind of message. I can't bring this out of my own gut or my own feelings. Lord, this has to be born in Your heart, and I pray, Lord, that this church receive it tonight. Lord, it's not reproof. It's a word from God's heart, but Lord Jesus speak to us. If we need reproof, reprove us, because we love Your Word. We delight in Your Word, so help us. Sanctify me now. Give us ears that are sanctified to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, and we will rejoice in Your faithfulness tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. I'm convinced, convinced, totally convinced, the only way that a Christian and a believer can enjoy the fullness of joy, true joy, I mean the joy that comes from the heart of God, the only way you can know that is to have it on a foundation of understanding and knowing the grief of God's heart. Now, let me tell you, I can go to any church at any time, and I can hear wonderful singing. I can hear hand clapping, but there's a certain sound. There's not true joy. There's not true Holy Ghost joy, lasting joy, the kind that the Holy Ghost gives to a body, unless that congregation shares the heart of God in His grief. Out of that understanding His grief, knowing His grief, and entering into that grief comes the true joy and victory of the Holy Ghost. In the days of Noah, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the hearts of his heart was evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He'd made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the word there in Hebrews, it cut him, it hurt him, it pained him, it cut him to the heart. He saw the wickedness of man. It was the wickedness of man that grieved, and cut, and hurt, and bruised the heart of God. Isaiah said of Jesus Christ, He is a man of sorrows, and He's acquainted with grief. Oh yes, He was the spotless Son of God, but this man, Christ Jesus, wept. He understood the heart of His Father. He knew what godly grief was. Surely He has borne our griefs, and He has carried our sorrows. Isaiah 53, 4. Jesus Christ carried the grief of His Father. He entered into the very hurt and pain of His heavenly Father. If you go through the Old and New Testament, you'll find that men who really knew God, really knew His heart, they were really intimate with Him, understood what grief was all about. You find this in David in the Old Testament. Here's a man who really knew what true joy was. He rejoiced in Jehovah as few other men in all the Scripture, but he was born out of his great grief for the transgressions he saw in the Lord's people. Now David wasn't perfect, but he had a repentant heart, and through that repentance, through that intimacy with his heavenly Father, God shared his heart. And what he saw was not just through his eyes, he saw through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. Folks, you can't grieve over the sin that's in the church, or in the world, or in your own heart until you see it through the eyes of the Lord. You can't come to Jesus and just say, well, I want to be free from my sins so I can have joy, peace, and eternal life. You'll never get victory over sin until you see your sin in the eyes of God and the grief it causes His heart. You have to have His grief against sin, period. Not just against your failure, personal failure, but the whole body of sin. David said, I beheld the transgressors and I was grieved. He said, I was watching what's happening among God's people, and it grieved my heart because they were not keeping Your Word, Lord. They weren't abiding by Your Word. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? And am I not grieved with those who rise up against Thee? David learned to hate what God hated and to love what God loved. And what God detested, David said, I will detest. The prophet Amos cried out against those who are at ease in Zion. Now here's a man who knew what it was to grieve for sin. I want you to go to Amos, the sixth chapter with me, if you will, please, in the Old Testament. The prophet Amos. And for the new believers, if you get to Jonah, turn left a few chapters, a few books, and if you're in Joel, just keep turning right there. It's in the middle there. Amos, the sixth chapter. Beloved, I think this is probably the one message the church doesn't want to hear, but needs more than any other message on the face of the earth today. Because we're, folks, before, as soon as you get there, look this way, please. I know what the Holy Spirit's been saying to my heart, prophetically, that the Church of Jesus Christ is in a transition period right now. We're behind, we're between the Eli ministry of compromise and mixture, about to enter into the Samuel company ministry of those whose words never fall to the ground because they are in prayer and shut in with God. We're in a transition between a corrupt, adulterous ministry and church full of mixture. And we're right in that transition period. And in that transition period, the denominational church, the church body that has lost the touch of God, is going to be moved out of the picture. And God's going to bring in a whole new way of doing things before He comes. And everything in the Old Testament is a type and shadow of what He's going to do in the last days. And God began to open my eyes on that this past week, and even sitting here before I got up to preach, God began to speak to my heart about the transition, began to open my eyes to see why the devil would bring in a laugh and revival when God is calling for a revival of grief. Because the enemy knows that the transition is taking place. A transition is in place and every time that transition has happened, the devil has come in with a counterfeit. He's always moved in with something to try to hinder that work. Beloved, the call of the Holy Ghost today is grief over sin in the house of God. Anybody can grieve over the sins outside. Anybody can grieve over the murder rate, and the homosexuality, and the drug addiction, and the murder. And we can grieve over the little Megan girl that was killed. We can grieve over those that were killed in these explosions. That should be. We should all grieve over these things. But I'm talking about God's grief over His people, over His church. Read with me, just follow me, Amos 6, verse 6, verses. Woe to them that are eased in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel came. Skip to verse 3. Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seed of violence to come near, that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall, and chant to the sound of the violin, and invent to themselves instruments of music like David. They drink wine in bowls, and they anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Here's Amos looking at a society that's about to be destroyed. Judgment is about to come on the house of God. God's about to deal with His church, and all the leaders, all the religious leaders, and all of the people that called themselves by the name of Jehovah. Here they are in ivory couches, drinking out of their wine bowls, and singing, inventing new ways to entertain themselves. It was a mixture, an absolute mixture. He said, you ought to be grieving because judgment is at the door. You ought to be weeping at what you see around you. You're not weeping, you're not grieving. You're playing games, you're in entertainment, you've lost the touch of God, and he's screaming, he's crying here. He said, you're not grieved. You are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. The affliction of Joseph was the inroad of sin, and compromise, and mixture in the house of God. He said, I don't find anybody grieving. I don't find anybody. Everybody's laughing, everybody's playing, everybody's in entertainment. He said, why are you not grieving? Why are you not weeping? The word here for grief is sickened. Why are you not heart sick, he's saying. It's the Hebrew word. The sin and wrong of God's people is not sickening your heart. It doesn't disgust you anymore, because you become blinded by the good life. You have all these material things now, and you don't have your concern that you once had. The greatest detriment to the burden of Jesus Christ and the grief of God is our modern blessings. All the good things. Now folks, God wants to give them to us if he can trust them with us, and the truth is that he can't trust many of us with his me included. The more I have seen the blessing of God, the more material things that I am blessed with, the harder it gets to keep that burden. I have to stay on my knees like it did this past week, get along with God, and just walk and cry and scream. Oh God, break my heart. Don't let me get addicted to the easy life. Nehemiah was grieved because he understood something that nobody else understood. And folks, when you're set in with God, and you bear his heart, and you know his mind, you're going to understand things that few others understand. And God will reveal the hideousness of sin, what Paul called the exceeding sinfulness of sin. I want you to go to Nehemiah, turn left for new believers, all the way back past Saul. And just before you get to Job, Nestor, Nehemiah, I want you to go to the 13th chapter of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was grieved because he understood the evil that it infiltrated the house of God. Beloved, let me tell you something, look this way, I don't think, I don't, I don't think I understand, I don't think there are a handful of people on in this nation that understand the depths of corruption, the depths of sin that has crept in to the house of God, the mixture of entertainment, the mixture of the world, the inroads of divorce, adultery, fornication, homosexuality. I had a few dear black pastors tell me, some of their churches, they can't understand it, that homosexuals are taking over the whole music department, moving in, moving in on all sides, and the pastors are stepping by afraid to say anything about it or do anything about it. I don't think we begin to comprehend what has happened. Nehemiah saw what was happening. I want you to read with me the verse 9 chapter 13, verses of chapter 13 of Nehemiah. On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people, therein was found written that the Ammonite and the Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever. God said no mixture, no idolatry, nothing of this world, no Ammonite, no heathen, nothing of this world is to come and be mixed in my house. Number two, because they met not the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them that he should curse them, howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing. Now it came to pass when they had heard the law that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. You see when when you are really walking according to the Word of the Living God, you will not permit sin in your life or you will not allow it if you're a minister in the house of God. It came to pass when they heard the law they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude. God says no mixture in my house. Verse four, and before this Elias the priest having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God was allied with Tobiah and had prepared for him a great chamber where a fourth time they laid the meat offerings and frankincense and the vessels and the tithes of the corn, the new wine so forth. Verse six, but in all this time was I not in Jerusalem. Verse seven, and I came to Jerusalem and I understood the evil. Look at me now, look at those words, I understood the evil. Beloved, I want God to help me understand the evil that is in his house and I'll show you why in just a minute why it's important to understand. I understood the evil that Elias did for Tobiah in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God and it grieved me sore, it grieved me sore. Therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chambers, then I commanded they cleanse the chambers, then thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God to meet offering the frankincense. Now let me tell you the importance of what I've just read to you. Elias is the high priest and his name means unity through compromise. Anything goes, just keep the peace. Folks you can join some Pentecostal churches, Baptist churches, evangelical churches, any kind of person in your life you can join because the church that's not walking in the Holy Ghost accepts anybody. Anything goes. Unity through compromise and that's what the ecumenical movement has become. It's unity, everything's unity. Compromise doctrine, compromise anything just in the sake of love. It's called a love, I call it a love trap. Unity through compromise and this high priest who wanted unity through at any price through compromise brought into the house of God. First of all he took all of the wine and the oil out of this big room where it's being reserved and used for the purpose of the sanctified priest. He moves that all out. That represents the true Word of God and the true anointing of the Holy Ghost and he moved it out and he brings in, he brings in Tobiah whose name means prosperity, pleasure, good life. Can you figure it out? Can you see what's happening in American churches in the past 15 years where the prosperity message has come in? The church moved out the convicting preaching of the Word of God, moved out to prayer meetings and the waiting on the Lord and the preaching against sin and now it's sake of unity, compromise, in comes the gospel of prosperity and the good life. Come to Jesus and get rich. You know we preach the blessing of God here upon those who walk in humility but we've always said the blessing of God begins with the spiritual truth, the spiritual things, the spiritual riches in Christ Jesus. See this is, this was a new thing in God's past. There was a corrupt ministry now in league with paganism. The people began to yearn for prosperity and for the good life and all now they forget, they forget there's no more grief for sin. There's compromise and mixture in his house. Elisha the priest having the other side of the chamber of the house of God was allied with Tobiah. He was allied with him. He was in cahoots. They were joined together. Nehemiah understood this evil that was going on and it was all sponsored by a ministry that was soft on sin and I came to Jerusalem and I understood the evil that they did for Tobiah in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God and it grieved me sore. He said it tore my heart apart, the grief of God. He was not acting on some legalistic impulse. He was seeing through God's eyes and he's feeling God's eyes. God's looking down and he feels the grief of God. God's looking at his church and he sees such foolishness. He sees such wickedness. He sees his own servants serving now just for what they can get. There's no weeping. There's no brokenness. Everybody is light and frivolous and it sickens Nehemiah because Nehemiah had been shut in with God and he'd heard the heart of God and he shared his grief. Paul had that ministry. He looked over the backsliding of God's people and he warned for many are walking of whom I told you so often and I tell you now even with weeping that they have become the enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things. He's talking about the church and the word weeping here in grief is a loud sobbing, a piercing sobbing cry out of a broken heart, a piercing cry out of a broken heart. He said I tell you with my heart breaking I cry. Their God's at their bellies now. Their glory's in their shame. Their minds are on earthly things now. They don't seek me anymore like they used to. Nehemiah's just a vessel intimate with God. He comes forth with this and it wasn't a silent despair. A lot of people have silent despair. A lot of people are resigned. They sigh with that resignation. Oh God, isn't it awful. But so the Apostle Paul, he said I cried to the church. I screamed a piercing cry. The minister of grief was Samuel's ministry. Now folks, I'm going to tell you there is a minister of grief and God gives it to certain ones. I don't know how he chooses it's a wonderful calling but God has a minister. He's called the Samuel company and they're very rare. Oh to God that he allowed me to be a part of that company. Here's a young man called to that not his own grief or grief of humanity but the deep unfathomable grief of the heart of God. You see God was grieved over the backsliding in Shiloh. Here's an Eli ministry. Here's a man the Bible says a trembles for the ark of God. He trembles at the ark of God but he's trembling at tradition. It was just tradition because that ark had no, didn't have enough spiritual meaning to him to give him a voice against sin. He's got two sons are committing adultery, committing fornication right at the tabernacle gate. Two sons who represent a backslidden ministry who can't cry out against sin because of the wickedness of their own heart. A corrupt ministry and God is about to remove his hand from Shiloh. There's a transition about to take place. A new ministry is coming in after the heart of God. A righteous ministry is coming now from the heart of God and God's about to bypass this fat backslidden, easy on sin generation. He's about to move it away. Here's a man who trembles for the ark, goes out and fights God's battles but he has no power, he has no authority, he has no discernment whatsoever. God's about to do a new thing and he has no idea, no concept of it even happening. He doesn't even know what's about to take place. Totally blind to what God's saying and what God is doing. He only had a token hatred for sin. The Bible makes it very clear that, in fact, God sent to Eli an unnamed prophet and he said, you honor your sons above me to make yourself fat with the chiefest of all the offerings. You know the only thing that this man could say to his sons? He knew that his sons were committing fornication. He knew that they were sons of Belial. The Bible says they didn't know the Lord. Can you imagine this? They are ministering in the house of God. They are offering the sacrifices. In other words, they're standing in the pulpit and the Bible said they didn't even know the Lord, didn't even know Him. They were filthy and they were still ministering the things of God. They don't know the heart of God and, folks, God is going to do away with that ministry. But the Eli ministry that God's dealing with today, this soft on sin generation of ministers. Now, I'm not painting every minister with that, but I'm talking about the denominations today. Listen, this is all the protest this man could offer. Name my sons. It's no good report that I hear you make the Lord's people to transgression. Naughty, naughty. Too bad. You shouldn't do that. It's not nice. It's not nice. That's the candy-cotton preaching coming from many pulpits today. Folks, that's not nice. It doesn't look good. No anointing, no holy unction, no fear and dread of a holy God. And that's why we have a church today that's become sensual, worldly and self-serving, because they've made themselves fat with the chiefest of the offerings of Israel. You know why Eli couldn't reprove his sons? Because when the offering was brought to the door of the tabernacle and the animal was slain, a portion of that went into a seething pot, a big boiling pot, and there was the three-pronged hook, a long snickered three-pronged hook, and after it was soddened or cooked, boiled, the boiled meat would be brought out. Whatever came out on the three-pronged prong went into the priest, onto the priest's table that belonged to the priest. That was their portion. But you see, these young men didn't want sodden flesh. They didn't want boiled meat. They didn't want the bad cuts. What they were doing at the temple gate, they were cutting out the filet mignon. This is the truth. They cut out the filet mignon, and this was going right on to Eli's table, and that's how he got fat. He deals with his sons, no more filet mignon. You see, this is what happens when you get into it, when churches and ministries get into that trap, and they build magnificent buildings, and the budget goes higher and higher. Who would take a strong man of God to stand in the pulpit and point out to some big money giver in the church that just gave a million dollars, and he knows that that man's living in adultery, to point a finger to him, not in public, but go to him and say, John, you're living in sin. We can't endure that. I can't have you on my deacon board anymore. I don't care if you gave a million dollars. You're living in sin. I'm here to help you, but it can't go on. The ministry that's been soft on sin has lost its discernment. Here's a godly woman by the name of Hannah. She's weeping bitterly in the house of God at Silo, because you see, when a church dispensation is in transition, the new thing God's going to do is birthed in weeping. There's always a Hannah. There's a cry of a Hannah, and she is at the altar daily, crying out, because God's birthing a new movement. His birth in the womb of this crying, weeping woman, not some laughing saint. I tell you to your face, I abhor. I abhor this foolish laughing and mockery of a holy God that's about to bring something new to his church. It is going to be born out of the womb of a weeping church. Oh God, forgive us. She's in the spirit. Now Hannah, she's faking her heart. Only her lips moved. No silliness. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. You talk about losing discernment. Didn't even know that God was birthing some new work. How blind can we be? She's in the spirit, conversing with God under divine unction, and this man doesn't even know what's happening. He's standing on the threshold of a profound new work of God that's going to affect Israel's future. He's so out of touch with God, he thinks his flesh. Eli doesn't know it, but he's become so indulgent, so comfortable, so steeped in cold traditionalism. He doesn't have the slightest hint that God's about to do away with his ministry. He's out of touch with God. He has no fresh word to give the people. He's facing a people consumed with lust, addicted, that they've become agents of Satan and blind to the impending judgments are about to fall. Folks, when God's about to do something, there's a reflection of his heart. According to his eternal purposes, he brings forth a weeping, broken-hearted ministry, and then he brings out of that a ministry. He brings out ministers of the gospel that are going to be his true voice in a time of spiritual declension. This company is going to be made up of women who care for nothing of tradition. They're not going to promote denominational things. It's not going to come through any denomination, believe me. It is not going to come through any system at all. God had to go outside the system and find a Samuel outside of the denomination, outside of the church. He found this young, broken-hearted young man, and he hears from God. He's been shut in with the Lord, and God speaks. God told Samuel he's going to judge this old house, this old way. For I have told him I will judge his house forever. He's speaking now. God's speaking to Samuel about the Eli ministry. I've told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. He restrained them not. He was afraid to deal with sin. Folks, there's a day of judgment coming when every minister of the gospel goes to stand before the judgment seat and give an account. I know that more than anything else. I have to stand one day and give an account, not of my own life, but of my preaching. I've preached to you and Brother Carter's preaching this pulpit, the covenant. We've preached the priesthood of Christ. We've preached the security of those who walk in faith before God. We've talked about the blessedness of the blood. We've covered just about everything that can be covered in this pulpit, but I tell you now that we must not forget, never forget, God's grief against sin in his house and in our own lives, and that God raises up ministers of the gospel to remind us, and that's a sign of his faithfulness to anybody, any church body. That's faithfulness. I wouldn't want to go to a church where there wasn't a word that convicted me. I want to go to God's house and be convicted of everything in my life that's unlike Jesus Christ. I don't want to hear some preacher whisper sweet reassurances that God loves me. I know that, but I don't want somebody to tell me God loves me in my sin. I want to, God does love me in my sin, but I don't want him to tell me it's okay. I don't even want to intimate that. I want to have conviction of the Holy Spirit, then know how through the power of the Holy Ghost to find victory, hallelujah. We don't have that grief of God in our pulpits today. Now, the scripture says Samuel told, speak of Eli, Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. This is what the Holy Spirit did with me about the reason I didn't want to preach this tonight, and the Lord said, well, are you going to tell him everything? Will you tell him everything? Not just part of my gospel, but the whole gospel, and I said, yes, I will, because the message of the Samuel company is not a pleasant message sometimes. The Bible said Samuel feared to tell Eli the vision, and originally he trembled or he grieved because of what he'd seen and heard, because he's got to go to what represents the picture of godliness and dignity and righteousness. Here's an old man of God that's walked for years with God, and he knows that judgment is coming. He's got to stand up. He's got to protest, and folks, when the Samuel company comes, you will know that your church or this church is in transition and coming in. It's moving out of the Eli ministry into the Samuel ministry. You and I will know we're getting there when this protest against sin in your heart and against the church, in the church of Jesus Christ, becomes more than a sigh, but a loud protest, no matter what happens, no matter what the consequences of protest. The Lord said to Samuel, behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it shall tingle. He said, I'm going to do something that's going to make the people won't believe it. They're going to look at my house and say, why, why would God do that? Why would so many ministers be moved out of the way? Why would God be doing this to his church, to his people? They don't understand it. He said, it's going to cause their ears to tingle, but God says, I'm moving. I'm going to do what I promised to do in the last days, hallelujah, through the pouring out of the Holy Ghost. God is going to sanctify his church. He's going to sanctify his pulpit. And to the very end of his ministry, Samuel bore this grief of God over his people. Remember when Israel began to lust for a king, they wanted to be just like all the nations, and that's the reason we have what we have in our churches today, because we want to be just like the world, just like the world. And listen to Samuel. He falls on his knees. He's grieved. God shares his grief with him, and he's speaking for God now. Here's all of Israel gathered together. They're clamoring. They're not totally dependent on God anymore. And folks, that's what happens when sin enters the church. It takes away, robs it of its faith. The church no longer is intimate with Christ, no longer dependent wholly on God, dependent on the Holy Spirit, but running around with schemes and plans and dreams and networking and strategizing and committee meetings, trying in the flesh and sweat, trying to make it rather than depend on God, Almighty God. When Abraham was covenant, when God made covenant with Abraham, he didn't tell him what he's going to do. He just said, Abraham, I'm God Almighty. He didn't tell him what he was going to do. He just said, I'm God Almighty. That's all you need, to trust that I'm Almighty God. He said, well then what will my reward be seeing that I don't have a son? He said, I will be your reward. The church doesn't need anything else, but God Almighty on His throne. You don't need any more than that. Glory to God. Victory over sin, God Almighty. I am God Almighty. I'm your reward. I'm everything you need. You don't have to turn anywhere else, but now they're turning to a king. And the Lord said to Samuel, hearken to the voice of the people and all they send to thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Now therefore, hearken unto the voice, albeit yet, listen to this, protest solemnly unto them and show them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. He said, you've got to make a protest. Beloved, when the Samuel company is where it should be and coming into its fullness, you will hear that protest, solemn protest against the mixture, against the sin and the corruption and the individual speaking in the pulpit and in the pew. There'll be this protest. That's the mark of the Samuel company that comes forth weeping, comes forth to do, to bring Israel into a new realm of holiness and victory. It's going to come right in the midst of this clamor to be like the world, to have a king that we may be just as other nations. Now let me close with this. A call to grief is really a call to rejoicing. I started out by saying you can't know true joy until you know the heart of God and his grief. And those who sob over sin in the church are often called doomsayers and doomsdayers. I used to be called upon by the Lord to prophesy so much before I came to this church. And I got weary of hearing it everywhere, even among the assemblies of God and letters and calls from ministers. And they said, Dave Wilkinson never smiles. He's so negative. He's the big doomsday, morose, sad preacher. He's getting old before his time. Well, they don't know me. They don't know any preacher that's called to prophesy. They don't know that though you carry that burden, the grief of God, and I have to acknowledge I don't have it like I did. I'm praying diligently, God, don't let me get away from that. Don't let, don't let any blessing, don't let anything of this good life rob me of that brokenness and that grief of the heart of God against sin so that I can stand in the pulpit and I can preach it in love and authority and stand at the very gates of hell and say to those in Times Square Church, turn around. God knows where you're at. He loves you. Turn around, forsake your sin and get back. Pastor Carter and I've been called to set up church right at the gates of hell. We're right outside those gates. We've got the Word of God in our hands. We've been on our knees and we're going to stand here and tell you what's wrong and we're going to bless you, yes, but we're also going to tell you about the grief of God against sin. But when we truly repented, we come into that grief fully. Those who grieve with God are given by God as a gift the true joy of Jehovah, the joy of Jehovah. Hallelujah. Even in the most evil days, they know that God is going to honor them with his presence if they are willing to accept his grief. You'll know the presence of God like you've never known before and you can say with Habakkuk, though all else fails, my heart is going to rejoice in God alone. Let me read it to you. I'm reading it from Helen Sparrow's original Hebrew. Although the fig tree shall not fruit, neither shall be any provision on the vines. The produce of the olive shall fail. The fruits will not yield subsistence. The flocks shall be cut off from the field. Neither shall there be any herd in the stalls. Yet will I leap for joy in Jehovah. I'll exult in the God of my salvation because Jehovah has now become my strength. Will you stand please? Jehovah has become my strength. I will joy in the Lord even though I know his grief. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. Hmm. Now beloved, this is not the kind of message that will make you want to shout right now. I'll tell you when you'll shout. When God, when you say, I've heard a message tonight, and I don't want it to go in one ear and out the other. If you will go home tonight before you go to bed, and I'll do the same, don't forget it. And just get alone with the Lord and thank him for all his blessings. He delights in blessing you. There's no problem with that. But say, oh God, have my blessings, has a good life robbed me of your heart? Do I see things happening around me even in the church that don't bother me anymore, and it just rolls off my back? Am I unconcerned now? And all I want is to hear a good word from the Lord, from me, my family, and my friends. I just want the input of God speaking encouragement to me all the time. Yes, he does encourage. We preach a lot of encouragement from this Pope, and you've heard a lot of it today. But oh God, I don't want to be able to sin in my life without grieving over it. I want to feel your grief for it, and I want obey you, and I want victory over sin, not because the good feeling and the peace I get from it, but because I know it brings joy to your heart. And Lord, when I see what's happening to the church body today, you folks, if you and I are where we should be in intimacy with Jesus, it's impossible to be intimate with Jesus without sharing his grief. Impossible. You tell me you know the heart of Jesus, then you're going to grieve over the sin in the church. You're going to grieve. But folks, you should be in a place, every one of us, that we could go to any meeting anywhere on the face of the earth and deserve immediately the spirit of that meeting. You should be able to deserve whether the joy is genuine that comes from brokenness and weeping, or whether it's that hollow laughter that comes from not being willing to pay the price, being shut in with God, and seeking his face, and feeling his grief against sin. You should be able in this church to detect anyone who stands in this pulpit, whether they have the touch of God and they've come from a broken spirit and a contrite heart. That's one of the reasons Pastor Carter is one of my favorite preachers, because I hear the brokenness. The first time I was attracted to this ministry, God's given to Pastor Conlon, is because of a message when a cry becomes a prayer. I heard a cry. I heard a broken heart. I want that broken heart, and folks, we need that. We need that brokenness, and then when we have that, that's why I believe we have so many that have entered into that. That's why I believe there's such a genuine joy in this church. We have people come and sit here and say, I've never experienced, never seen such joy in all my life. Folks, that joy is birthed in the womb of a broken heart and a contrite spirit before God. Now, here's my invitation to you tonight. I got a little loud here, didn't I? I'm sorry, but you know, I don't look like it. If you're standing here now, up in the balcony on the main floor, for that matter, choir, anybody, you say, Pastor David, I don't, I don't have the grief. All I wanted was happiness. Folks, genuine happiness will not break forth in you. Genuine joy, the kind that can't be taken from you. It'll last till Jesus comes to see you through any kind of situation through this that I'm preaching about tonight. If you, if you, if you're like me, I've acknowledged before I preach this, I've been confessing all afternoon, oh God, I used to walk this city just weeping and crying and broken. You can't produce that, but you have to get diligent before God and go alone with Him and say, God, don't let me get away. Don't let the good life, don't let all your blessings, some of you guys from Timothy house, you're on the street, you were, you were messed up and everything else, and from Sarah house, and God begins to bless you and begin to do things, open your mind and give you health and strength and everything else. Thank God for all that. Give Him thanks, but say, oh God, give me a burden for those just like me out on the streets. Don't let me forget to grieve over those that are still bound by sin. Folks, that's, we're not going to be on the streets, we're not going to be soul witnesses, we're not going to be winning souls until we bear God's grief for the sin over the lost, and we will not pray for the church as we should, not just this church, but the whole church body until we grieve over the sin that we all know is there. I'm going to just open the altar because that's all I know to do tonight. If God spoke in your heart tonight and said, Brother Dave, I want God to break my heart, I want God to give me a true grief for sin, and then I want to know the true joy that comes from a totally repentant heart. If you've got a sin in your life, if you've got a habit that's still hanging on, it's just latched itself on you, so Brother Dave, I want to be free. Come and join these now. If you don't know Jesus, if you're not saved, if you're backslidden, come with these that are coming down the aisle right now. I know God wants to do a good work in your heart tonight. In your Holy Spirit now, you've not come to condemn us, you've come to stir us, to stir our hearts. Lord, for your church, for your people, for this church, for our own hearts, Lord, that there would be nothing in our lives unlike you, that we become more Christ-like in all our ways, but oh God, share your heart with us. I want everybody that wants to share the heart of Jesus. Look at me, all of you that came forward here right now, I'm not asking you to try to work something up, to try to force tears, or to try to force some kind of a feeling. There's nobody here calling you to act sad and put on a long face, but there has to be some cry inside, something deep inside your heart, down, down in the innermost of your being, that says, oh God, I don't want anything in this world to rob me of hearing your voice and knowing what you feel. I want to feel what you feel and speak what you speak, and I want to move with you, Lord. I want to be, I want to know, I want to be a vessel that can be used of God. You don't have to be some great evangelist. If you would just get alone, if you'd spend quality time, and those that are praying it, in your prayer time, why don't you just look up to the Lord and say, Lord Jesus, I want to know your heart. Show me, show me, give me, and I tell you, if you begin to pray for his church, just begin to pray for his church. Begin to pray for the church of Jesus Christ, and as you do, he will open your eyes and your understanding, and God will move on your heart, and the Holy Ghost is the one who does the melting. He's the one who does the breaking. You can't force it, but I do know it. I'm speaking just for myself. When I face the truth, and I'm convicted by that truth, I go to God. I say, I don't care what it takes. I'll put everything aside, Lord. I'm going to have this out with you. I don't want to get cold in my heart. I don't want to get backslidden in my heart. I don't want materialism to overtake my life. I don't want the things of this world, all the good things you've given to me, oh God, to make me comfortable and fat spiritually like Eli. I want to be a Samuel. I want to be hearing your voice. I want to come out of the womb of tears and brokenness. That's why every one of you standing here in this church tonight, because this church was born in the womb of brokenness and tears. For months and months, in a little secret closet, a green carpet stained with tears, and God wants to birth something new in your life, giving you a brokenness. Oh, what God can do with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. God, that's what we're talking about tonight. God, give me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Thank you for your blessings. God's not trying to condemn you of that, but say, oh God, don't let it rob me. Don't let it take away from me your heart. Lift up your hands. Pray it with me. Jesus, thank you for your blessings. Thank you for Christ. Father, thank you for Jesus and for sending the Holy Ghost. Now forgive me for forgetting what you have done. Open my eyes and my understanding. Don't let me get cold. Break my heart. Melt my spirit. Keep me humble and broken before your word. Cleanse me, Jesus. I give you everything in my heart. I give you my sins. I give you my unbelief. Lord, hold me. Embrace me. Talk to me. Show me your heart. I want to know who you are. I want to know what you feel. I don't want to live for myself. I want to live for you, Jesus. I want to weep with you. I don't want to rejoice with you. I want to do it your way, Lord. I want to thank you right now. Just give him thanks and give him praise. This is the conclusion of the tape.