This sermon emphasizes the importance of considering Jesus in the new year, calling for a deep commitment to following God's pathway and seeking His strength. It challenges believers to lay aside weights and sins, run the race with patience, and focus on Jesus as the source of joy and victory. The message urges a return to a genuine, passionate relationship with Christ, free from cultural captivity and half-heartedness, and calls for a revival of faith and commitment in the church.

Happy New Year. Praise God. We're going to be starting the new year as a church with a 21-day season of prayer and fasting. We're going to join with Pastor Gary Wilkerson's church in Colorado Springs, Pastor Claude Hood's church in Montreal, Canada, and Summit International School of Ministry for a 21-day season of prayer and fasting. I don't want anybody to have a heart attack. I'm not asking you to fast for 21 days. It's a season of prayer and fasting, which means that you are free to choose how much or how little that you would like to fast. The issue really is not so much that it's the length of any fasting, it's simply that we're setting apart this time for the seeking of God. Now, you can fast a meal a day. You can fast two or three days if you want in a row. I don't really want anybody fasting for 21 days. I don't think, unless you are completely familiar with the physical side of this and you're medically up on it, I don't advise it. Never fast without liquids at any time. But we're going to have a season of prayer and fasting together beginning on January the 9th right through until January the 30th. It's 21 days. We're going to be meeting. There'll be no extra services for prayer and fasting, but we're going to turn the 3 o'clock service every Sunday into a prayer service, and Tuesday night will be a prayer service for the whole month of January. The services will be very much like the prayer services you've experienced here when we go into a three-day fast together. There'll be an open microphone, and many of them work. Those of you who would like to pray will have an opportunity to pray. We're going to be praying for New York City. We're going to pray for the five boroughs. There'll be a prayer board in the lobby, and you'll have an opportunity to sign up. There'll be 24-hour prayer going on. There'll be half-hour slots. You'll have an opportunity to sign up for a half-hour. It can be every day, every two days. When you set aside time to pray for a particular borough in the city. Now, I would encourage you to go online and find out all the information you can about the borough that you're praying for. Find out what the needs are, the demographic of it, what the concerns are that should be our concerns, and you can pray about these. On the opposite side of the prayer board will be an opportunity to find a prayer partner to walk through the area with and to pray together. Now, I don't want anybody standing on the street corner with your hands raised praying in tongues. Most everybody talks to themselves now out on the street, and it's an accepted thing now because quite often people have a Bluetooth or whatever is the new technology. I guess it's changed now, but nevertheless, they have some kind of a device that enables them to talk on the telephone as they're walking. And so what I would suggest you do is find a prayer partner. If you're praying for Queens, for example, pick a spot in Queens and just walk through it together as if you're talking to each other and pray. And let's truly believe God for New York City. We have to. We're at a time where we have to believe for New York City. I'm going to be on the radio on 1010 Winds 13 times a week encouraging the people of the city who'd like to pray with us to come out and be part of the meetings at three o'clock Sunday and Tuesday night. And so you may find a lot of people who are not familiar with Christ the way you are. Remember to be very kind. People may come in. They may bring prayer paraphernalia with them. They may not fully understand how we pray. Please don't be unkind about it. Remember they're being invited to this house to learn how to pray. So don't tell anybody to put their rosary away or anything like that. God give us wisdom in these things. People are going to come and they're going to pray the way that they know how. And we will do everything that God enables us to do to lead them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Thank God for this opportunity to pray. On the 17th of January we're going to be trying to interlink with Summit School, with Pastor Claude's church, with the Colorado church so we can all pray together on that particular Tuesday night. That'll be the 17th of January. The IT people tell me it's a possibility we can do that. So, for example, there'll be a 25-minute segment where the Colorado Springs Church will be leading us in prayer. It'll be on the screen. And then there'll be another segment where Summit will be leading us. And then we will have an opportunity to lead the prayer too as well. Just gives us a bigger picture that we're not in this alone. Now the other churches are not praying for New York City. They're praying for their cities and for their concerns. But we are going to gather to pray for New York City. Thank God. Now this book, The 180-Degree Christian, keeps selling out, which is a great problem. Thank God for that. The publishers only have 785 copies left. The first run has sold right out. So they're sending them to us. You know, we made a promise that you could buy it throughout the holidays, and we keep running out of them. So next Sunday morning there'll be another 785 copies for those who'd like to get one still of The 180-Degree Christian. We made them available for less than cost at $10, and so we'll keep that price until everyone here has had an opportunity to buy one. Now I know this morning there are 60 books that sold for $13. So if you want a $3 refund, just take your book to the book table at the end of the service today, and they'll give that to you. I've just sent a shockwave right through our book table people right now. I know that. If you don't go for your $3 refund, then that extra $3 will go into the missions fund for Hunger. Thank God. 2012, my message, a year to consider Jesus. 2012, a year to consider Jesus. Hebrews chapter 12, please, if you go there with me. Lord Jesus Christ, I don't have any strength except you give it to me. I have nothing to say unless you put your words in my heart. I have nothing to add to your kingdom, but simply a heart that wants to love you and serve you. I pray God that you would enable me to be a strength and a blessing to your church body here in New York City and at large. Help me, Jesus, to get out of the confines of my own frailty and to find your strength this year in a new way. God Almighty, I'm asking you to be merciful to New York City. I'm asking you, Lord Jesus Christ, for a season of great grace, unprecedented in history, something, Lord, that we know we can't do and no church program can make it happen. No personality can do this. This is way beyond any of us. It's something, Lord, that only you can do. All I can do is come to your throne with a heart of faith, asking you, Lord, to do what you came to the cross to do, to sweep the city with a wave of mercy and bring in hundreds of thousands, if not millions into your kingdom in this last hour of time. Help us to pray this month like we've never prayed before. Help us, Lord Jesus Christ, to have your heart for the city. Give us faith, and as we heard in communion time today, give us hope in your mercy. Lord, we thank you for this. God Almighty, would you open this word to every heart. I ask it in Jesus' name. Hebrews chapter 12, message title again is 2012, A Year to Consider Jesus. Wherefore, verse 1, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. A Year to Consider Jesus. Now, we're entering a season, beloved, where many of us are going to have to consider to what extent we are willing to embrace and follow the full pathway which God in Jesus Christ has laid out for us to follow. We're given a season to consider something. It's a short season. I do pray it lasts a whole year. But we are in a place now where the Lord is asking us to consider something of Him. Now, unfortunately, as in Revelation chapter 2, there was a church called Ephesus, and there were people there whose service to God consists more or less of living comfortably inside of the borders which society has attempted to place around the church and around itself. In other words, much of the testimony of Christ in our generation has been hemmed in, bordered, boxed in as it is by a society, by the scorn, by the boundaries that a society has set around the testimony of God. Much of the testimony of Christ in our time is somewhat accepted as long as it abides by the rules and doesn't shake the apple cart. It's sad to say we're living at a time when just a few people can tell us when we can and can't pray, what we can and can't do. Even though those who believe in God and in Jesus Christ, they believe in a heaven and a hell statistically are over 70% of the American population, yet still a handful of people have risen up and try to tell the society when you can pray publicly and when you can't, what you can display about God and what you can't. Borders, roundabout, the church of Jesus Christ that long ago fell asleep in this country and allowed walls to be built around it, and allowed people who are outside the kingdom of God to begin to dictate to the people of God what you can do and what you can't do, when you can do it and when you can't do it. Ephesus had a religiousness that was known for works and endurance and keeping doctrinal purity within its own ranks. You see the world has no problem with that as long as they'll snicker at us in the workplace, but we're generally tolerated as long as the general population is squeezing some good from this church and it doesn't make the sea of sinners around it uncomfortable in their behavior. American culture can tolerate religion as long as religion does not make it uncomfortable, as long as there's nothing in it of conviction, as long as it is not standing as a very definitive contrast to a society that is casting off as it is moral restraint at an unprecedented level. It's a religion according to Revelation 2.4 that has left its first love. The outside of the church world looks in and sees a relationship of mutual tolerance, that's all they see, we tolerate and serve God and He tolerates us and serves us. And that's what they see, that's how they perceive the church in many, many cases. It's like a marriage that has lost this inward spark of love and passion that once carried it, now staying together for mutual convenience and for the kids. There's nothing in it anymore, there's no love behind it, there's no passion behind it. You remember the first time you fell in love or the first days when you got married, God help anybody that had something negative to say about your wife or your husband. You weren't ashamed, maybe you married somebody that was maybe not the handsomest person in America as we know it today, but you didn't care. Your heart was filled with love. You're filled with a passion inside for this person. You're not ashamed to be seen in public. You're not ashamed to walk down the street arm in arm. You're not ashamed to say, this is my wife or this is my husband. This is the person that I've given my life to on this earth and I'm walking with. But like a marriage that stays together for mutual convenience and for the kids not realizing that it's become so unattractive to the kids that they'd rather live with somebody unmarried if this is what marriage is. And we look at much of what has been purported to be the testimony of Christ today and we see our children leaving the church in droves because it's so unattractive. I'd rather live outside of this if this is what a relationship with God looks like, if this is the passion it produces, if this is the character that evolves from it, I'd rather find something else. I'd rather find another partner. I'd rather live in some other manner. And frankly I don't blame them. Revelation 2.5 tells us this church lost its candlestick, lost its influence, lost that which was in its fabric that makes it attractive. A whole hearted love and embracing of the Lord Jesus Christ, of His work on the earth, walking with His heart unashamed of the testimony of God, fighting for those who in their ignorance are fighting against their own salvation, willing to walk with Christ, willing to endure the scorn, willing to walk through the misunderstandings of a misguided and falling society that is heading for hell in a handbasket, lost their candlestick. In our time much of professing Christianity has lost its influence. I want to read to you from the foreword to the 180 degree Christian that was written by Pastor Jim Simba, the senior pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle. For some years now believers in Jesus Christ have been forced to face a sad fact. Christianity is on a decline across America. Almost all surveys conducted by Christian pollsters reveal disturbing downward trends as they check the vital signs of Christian churches, the clergy and professing believers. Nationally average church attendance is decreasing as is volunteerism to serve others. Hundreds of pastors are leaving the ministry every month and few who begin as pastors make it to retirement still in the ministry. Several surveys now confirm what many have suspected. The lifestyles of men and women regularly attending evangelical churches are almost indistinguishable from non-believers as evidenced in their priorities and value judgments. Bible study is less and less part of the normal Christian life. Instead of the church evangelizing the world, the world and its influence have made deep inroads into Christ's church. In addition and not surprisingly some of the largest evangelical denominations have experienced negative growth over the past decade. In some places thankfully signs of God's grace abound. There are churches that are effectively spreading the gospel and growing numerically. There are many believers who are still clinging to the eternal truths of God's word and confessing Jesus Christ unashamedly. But any objective analysis of the big spiritual picture must result in some sobering conclusions. The Christian church faces radical challenges as problems as we move through the early decades of the twenty-first century. Much of what professes to be Christ has lost its influence, not only in America but in Canada, Australia, the UK, Europe, many parts of the world, especially in the Western world where for a great season we enjoyed freedom of religion but we played fast and loose with God. And we moved away from the simplicity of Christ and opened the gates wide to the value system of a fallen culture and allowed it to become the value system of the church. And in doing so we created theologies to justify our backslidden condition. But now we're being faced with a crisis of unprecedented proportion and most likely we might experience the beginnings of it before this year is finished. And I'm thankful that this is not the end of the story. We have a season the Bible tells us to consider our ways. Listen to what the prophet Haggai said to the people of God who were called to rebuild the testimony of Christ in their generation. Let me just read it to you. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, is it time for you O ye to dwell in your sealed houses and this house lies waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You've sown much and bring in little. You eat but have not enough. You think of the church in our time with all of the strategies, all of the new vogue presentations of Christ to supposedly fill the house of God only to see the whole work of God going to decline. You drink but are not filled with drink. You clothe you but there's none warm and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord. You look for much and lo it came to little and when you brought it home I did blow upon it. Why, says the Lord of hosts, because of my house that is waste and you run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew and the earth is stayed from her fruit. This is the Lord speaking through the prophet. He says you've settled in to a form of religiousness. Now I'm talking about the country as a whole now, not speaking just a Times Square Church. You develop strategies as it was to fill the house of God to more or less mask the spiritual bankruptcy that was encroaching upon you. But suddenly you find heaven closed and you boasted of this great harvest that was going to come in. But where is it, says the Lord. You had these little sporadic in gatherings but it seemed that I blew it away. There was no substance to it. There's such a poor retention factor of new conversions in the church of Jesus Christ. We've we've made conversion so easy now in the house of God. No repentance, no turning from sin, no giving of one's life fully to the the work and the cause of Jesus Christ. Just just pray this little two-line prayer with me and now your sins are forgiven and you're going to heaven. And we've opened the gates wider than the Scriptures have opened them. And we brought in what's supposed to be a harvest and now finding this harvest has no power to stand against the whole of that which society has thrown against it. There's no power in it to stand. It falls. People come in but we don't see warriors anymore. We we don't see those that are willing to stand in the face of the storm. Where are men of character now? I know there's a lot of people who claim to be Christian but where are the men of character? Everybody's a Christian now. Paul said don't tell me who you are by your words. Show me by the power of God that is in you. And Haggai says and I called for a drought upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the corn and upon the new wine and upon the oil and upon that which the ground brings forth and upon men and upon cattle and upon all the labor of their hands. I called the Lord said for a drought and that's where we are folks right now. The Lord has called for a drought. I make no apologies for saying it. The Lord has called for a drought in America to get our attention and to get the attention of his church and get the attention of his people and get the attention of a lust-laden society and and the people that are inundated with a preoccupation with themselves. The Lord called for a drought. It's the mercy of God that's going to send us into the storm that we're going into. It's it's judgment yes but mercy proceeds and triumphs over judgment. I've said it today today and I say it again better to go to heaven hungry than to hell full. Better to be brought into a place of understanding on need than to live like everything is fine only to find out that we've missed the whole purpose we missed the gateway to eternal life. We had a cultural Christianity but there was no reality in it. Hebrews 13 10 tells us that we have an altar we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which served the tabernacle. We have an altar those who have settled in for just a simple cultural Christianity a relationship with God that has no spark it has no passion it's all about just coming to church doing your time looking at your watch reading your Bible for 10 minutes every day vocally seeing you're a Christian whether or not you have the courage to love God in public or to stand with God and do the work of God there's an altar for that but it's an altar that has no power it has no lasting ability as no sustaining strength that is no revelation that is nothing but ideas out of men's minds. Hebrews 13 10 says we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who served the tabernacle in other words those whose whole relationship is just in washings and ordinances and laws and obligations as it is to stay together for the kid's sake there's no there's an altar it's so much deeper it's so much more satisfying than those who have settled into just ritual and labor for God's sake and for your soul's sake don't let it happen to you don't let it happen to you that's why Paul said to Timothy stir up the gift of God that is in you when you came to Christ the hand of God came on you and you were called to do something that only you can do you were given a responsibility of God you were given giftings of God to glorify Christ in the earth don't let it spiral down into just coming to church out of obligation a passionless relationship with God that bears no fruit in the earth nobody wants anything of it because they look at it and said it's I've already done despairing enough I don't need religion adding to it no it's an altar that lives outside of the praise and the scorn which have fallen world uses to put borders around us wherefore Jesus also verse 12 of Hebrews 13 that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate Jesus for the sake of saving us for the sake of enabling us to walk again with the Holy God traveled outside the borders of the religion that tried to confine him and would have accepted him had he played his game he could have risen to be one of the highest and in the whole echelon of it but he wouldn't play the game so they sent him out historians generally think through the dung gate the off scouring of the world that which is of no value that was just worthless they dragged him out the gate to the outside of the city let us verse 13 therefore go unto him without the camp bearing his reproach let us go where he is let us follow him for here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name we have a chance today to escape what has us surrounded we have a chance to come to a new place where our mouths are opened in constant Thanksgiving we have a chance as a church age I'm not speaking just a Times Square church I'm speaking to anybody who can listen now who's still his ears to hear we have a chance to escape this this cultural captivity that we find ourselves in we have a chance to live again we have a chance to come to an altar where the fire of God really is where the glory of God abounds with the giftings of God are multiplied where people are given abilities that can only come from the heart of God they're given strength that can't come from any amount of natural effort or natural thinking natural religion can't produce it it's a supernatural life we have an altar to go to that altar requires humility it requires an admission that my religion might fall short of the glory of God for my life it requires a bending of the knee it requires a contriteness of the heart it requires a death to ourselves it requires the ability to step outside of the gate and be willing to endure the scorn of a fallen world even though we are fighting for their souls let us go to him the scripture says let us go to him outside that's where this altar is found not bowing our heads any longer because somebody snickers at us in the workplace not refusing to stand to our feet and pray because somebody on a loudspeaker tells us we can't pray anymore no sir we have an altar we have an altar and it's called being given for the glory of God and for the souls of men there's a place that this church age is being called to fight in to bring people into true freedom now Hebrews chapter 12 where we began says it this way wherefore seeing we're encompassed about so great a cloud of witnesses and you go through the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and we see that threatenings fire flood trial personal inability all of these things nothing could stop these people they were given to the glory of God they were given for the purposes of God and you go all the way through this chapter and it is so conclusively proven that to the genuine believer in Christ there's nothing that can stop the plan of God ordained for your life from happening there's nothing except that you and I choose to live within the walls that somebody else puts around us live inside these confines cowered by snickering as it is cowered by the view of a fallen society that we might be narrow or misguided or foolish or weak I don't know but you but I don't care what people who don't know God think I couldn't care less what they think I'm fighting for them I'm fighting for their eternal soul so they let them laugh because Jesus said they're not going to treat me any different than they treated him let us lay aside every weight no weight can cross you there are people here today you're under a weight and the devil sends the weight to convince you that you must be focused on this weight you see this must be the focus of your whole life you must be just focused on the weight and you must live your life and your Christian life trying to get out from under the weight and trying to stay away from the weight but the scripture tells us clearly that no weight can crush us so we have to lay it aside we have to put it away and not let the focus of our own struggles be that which dominates our thinking when there's something higher that God is asking us to do and the sin which so easily besets us number two no sin can keep you no sin say with me no sin nothing no prison door no blindness no wounding of the heart no captivity Jesus said I came to give sight to the blind open the prison doors to those that are bound to heal those whose hearts have been wounded no sin no sin can keep you no power of sin can keep you no power of death can hold you you are free to get up and walk out of every grave and every captivity and every place of death glory to God and let us run with patience the race that is set before us no opposition no exhaustion no limitation nothing can stop this race that God has set before us I know in my heart I've determined one thing that like the Apostle Paul at the end of my days I want to be able to say I have run a good race I've fought my fight I've finished my course and there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness I don't want to get to the end of this life and say I wish I'd run the race I wish I'd run it God's way I wish I'd stayed between the lines oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no this is a wonderful race this is a glorious race this is a beautiful race its finish line is eternity its finish line is heaven its finish line is the throne of God no weight can crush you no sin can keep you no exhaustion can stop you looking unto Jesus verse 2 Hebrews 12 who for the joy that was set before him the joy of seeing you and I here today the joy of seeing you free the joy of having you back in living relationship with God again who for the joy it was all about you and it was all about me that was the focus of his joy that was the source of his strength that was the vision that was in his eyes that was the guts he had to go to the cross who for the joy that was set before him what have we set before us in this generation gold and cars and jobs position society and power no wonder there's no joy in the true church of Jesus Christ no wonder there's no joy in much of what professes to be Christianity our focus is wrong it's all about people it's about those who need to know a Savior who for the joy who for the joy of being here with us today walking the aisles of this church living inside of your life and mine who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despised the shame in other words he didn't give in to the scorn he didn't give in to the ridicule he didn't give in to all the accusation that came against him because he saw you he saw you that's why he didn't quit he saw you here he saw you if you can get that in your heart like I do have it in mind he saw us here today he saw us in eternity with him he saw us ruling and reigning with Christ forever he saw us in heaven he saw us restored to God he saw us brought back to him again who were created in the image of God and lost it through sin he saw it that was the joy that was set before him he saw it we've got to see New York like this again you won't tower if you have the eyes of Jesus you won't let your mouth be closed you won't stay in your seat if you see men and women the way Jesus sees them he endured the cross despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God he won he won a victory and that is the altar that you and I have if we're willing to join him outside of the city if you and I are willing to escape the boundaries to be put outside as it is of a people who really are fighting against their own salvation consider him verse 3 Hebrews 12 that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be weary and faint in your minds consider him a year of considering Jesus 2012 a year when you and I are going to consider how deep and how far are we going to go in this walk with God are we going to settle in and become a powerless voice like lot even meeting with angels could not bring his own family out of captivity because he was so intermixed with the ways of the city his value system was not much different than theirs that's why his sons-in-law didn't believe him he wasn't truly a man of God saved in a sense because somebody else interceded for him but would have perished if left to himself no I'd rather be like Noah he built an ark he endured the scorn the ridicule every day of people passing by and saying you foolish old man it hasn't rained here for a thousand years and here you are building a boat what a foolish and stupid thing to do but the Bible says in Peter that Noah was a preacher of righteousness he was standing and he was willing to endure the scorn that Hebrews says he prepared an ark he heard something from God and began to prepare a place and that man brought his family in with him he brought his whole family in folks your children don't want to see a half hearted response to Jesus Christ in you they don't want to see you raising your hands in the sanctuary and yelling at your wives at home sir they don't want to see it your religion will turn them away from God they want to see a change father they want to see whether or not they're out on the street and laughing at you the secretly inside they want to see a man who stands with God they want to see a mother who goes into the prayer closet it all starts in the home that we make a choice we consider Jesus and we make a choice because we understand the victory that has been won by others and by Christ can be ours so we make the choice to go to that altar that those who play games with God can't go to and we go there honestly and we go there on bended knee and we say God help me where I'm blind God help me where I'm captive God help me where I'm wounded God help me to be a father God help me to be a mother I didn't have any training I don't even know what a supposed to do but you are a father and you can help me and you can strengthen me we have an altar but we don't get there until we're willing to be unashamed of Jesus Christ in our generation starting in our own homes that we're not willing to play any religious games with God oh and there's strength there prophet Isaiah says in the last days in the midst of the fires they're going to be a people who have a voice a song of praise to God now that doesn't just happen these people have been to an altar they've been to a place they have considered Jesus with all of their heart and they said in their heart I am NOT willing to settle for anything less than the fullness of what he has for me I'm not willing to run this race any other way but the way God would have it to run me I'm not willing to be boxed in and confined by any voice but the voice of God nobody is going to tell me what I can or can't do consider him this may be one of the more sober messages I've ever been given but I feel the urgency of the moment and the hour that we're living in now some people will ridicule this and put it away but not for long because we're going to be in a storm of unprecedented proportion folks you have to get oil now you have to get strength now you have to get right now you have to choose like Joshua said choose whom you're going to serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord I want to give an altar call it's very simple all the way with Jesus all the way not half measure not falling short not a cheater's race not settling into a relationship of do's and don'ts and begrudging service to the house of God all the way all the way with Jesus if that's your heart today now some of you have made that decision so you can feel comfortable staying in your seat but for those who need to make it those who need to say 2012 I'm going to consider Jesus I'm going to consider his ways with all my heart I'm going to ask you as we stand to make your way to the front of the sanctuary we're going to pray together and we're going to believe God for strength would you do that now in the balcony go to either exit let's stand please in the annex if you could step between the screens we'd appreciate that we're going to worship for about 10 minutes Lord is drawing you just come husbands and wives I would encourage you to come together grandfathers mothers employees cowards really realistically if you're a coward just say so God already knows it so just come out and say Lord I'm a coward I can't open my mouth I can't testify please give me this strength just bend your knee at this altar give me the power to go outside of the walls of this knickering society and to stand for Jesus Christ just do that as we worship you one of the things you find in Hebrews chapter 11 is that the the person with the empty womb the person whose physical strength doesn't match the task and the promise weren't hindered by these things it's quite often the person who knows the need of God that can become the greatest blessing to the kingdom of God those who understand that what has to happen has to be supernatural now Lord Jesus Christ we stand before you today as your people we don't bring to you any great strength of our own we don't have a list of great accomplishments all we have are hearts that long to follow you and to believe you we have great hope in your mercy the father I thank you Lord that you will take us in our weakness and make us strong you'll give us the power to be lights set on a hill that cannot be hidden you'll give us strength of character to be salt in our streets healing and creating thirst and preserving you'll give us this well of living water that you promise that will spring up to those who are truly called by your name you'll give us compassion for all men even those that hate us you'll take us into this divine life of Christ this is an altar that the solely religious have no understanding of but you'll bring us there oh God I pray for this church I pray for Brooklyn Tabernacle I pray for Redeemer Presbyterian I lift up the Salvation Army the Baptist churches the Methodist churches oh God oh God bring us to that altar and do it quickly Lord help every struggling pastor this morning Lord in this city of every denomination God let it be supernatural some don't even know how to seek you anymore but you know how to seek them oh God Lord Jesus Christ you've got to breathe on these bones again you've got to raise us up on our feet an exceeding great army in this generation Lord you've got to give us back the power that was won for us at the cross God forgive us as a nation for what we've done with your name and what we've done with your house and what we've done with the testimony of your name God almighty forgive us and bring us home bring us home to you Lord bring us back to the altar of God where your strength is and your power is thank you Lord your whole house every church every minister can still hear your name oh God do something so beyond us so much bigger than we are that all we can do is stand in the street and clap our hands and dance and laugh and say look what the Lord has done turn our captivity so that even the heathen will have to say look what the Lord has done for his people do it in the city of God do it powerfully Lord do it powerfully and profoundly Lord Jesus Christ send revival to England don't let this nation go down in the dust I know it's deeply backslidden I know the society has faltered from what it once was but you're a God of mercy send revival be merciful Lord let a great revival start in Africa my God get a hold of the pastors in Africa let a great great touch of heaven come onto that continent strengthen the church in China give courage to the Christians in India oh God let there be a song of praise lifted to you in these last days a song of glory we ask you Father bring in a huge harvest so beyond us so beyond our understanding beyond the limitations of our minds bring in a harvest of God that would stagger us oh God a harvest of glory to your name hallelujah stun us astound us oh God leave us in a place of being able to do nothing but stand there and give glory to God Jesus strengthen my brothers and sisters give us the power to speak your name to be unashamed of you give us wisdom give us the ability to pray give us the wisdom that we need to win the lost give us hands of compassion give us a tender response even to those who hate us help us and strengthen us as a people my God I pray this be a year that will stun us spiritually we're not afraid of the famine we're not afraid of the evil reports we have heard a word from God and Father we thank you for this with all our hearts in Jesus mighty name hallelujah this is a happy new year thank God you have a song praise God let's just sing one more song together then turn to one another and wish each other a happy new year this is a happy new year that lasts by the way God bless you