In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about a man who becomes jealous and angry when he sees others prospering financially while he struggles. The man declares that it is his turn to be prosperous and believes that it is his right according to the Bible. However, the preacher warns that God does not accept the man's ministry or worship because he has dealt treacherously with his wife. The preacher emphasizes the importance of repentance and encourages those who feel convicted to come forward for prayer and seek Christ-likeness in their lives.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However, written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, New York, 10019. I want to speak to you this morning on the subject called to be Christlike. Called to be Christlike. Lord Jesus, I need your help this morning in a very special way. I ask you, Holy Spirit, to speak into me and through me and into the hearts of those who've gathered this morning. Those in the annex and the overflow rooms and those here in this auditorium, in front of me and behind me, wherever the voice may be heard. And Lord, let us hear what the Spirit has to say. Lord, make this message a part of my life. Let this be something, Lord, that I live. Something, Lord, that is not just a preached sermon. Not something that is just preached to others, but that I myself may live it. That it'll be life to me. It'll be the way I live and the way I think and the way I act. In Jesus' name, amen. A dear sister in the Lord talked to me recently. She said, I'm in a Bible class learning what my purpose in life is. She said, we have a whole group and we're all anxious to find our purpose in life. I was listening to the radio the other day and there was an offer by a pastor how to find your gifts. And he offers a questionnaire. He said, if you write in, I'll give you a free questionnaire. It's a large questionnaire. And he said, on the basis of that, we will evaluate what your gifts are and tell you how to find your place in the body of Christ. Now, I'm not knocking that. I'm sure there's a lot of good to that. A lot of good things are said and done on behalf of finding spiritual gifts. I had a letter this week from the pastor and his wife. And she said, we've become so discouraged and frustrated looking for ways to fulfill the call and purpose of God in our lives. We felt like giving up at times. So many hindrances. There are so many hindrances to find our proper purpose and place in life. Now, may I tell you, I believe in spiritual gifts. I believe in special callings. But I am convinced at this time in my life that there is only one purpose in life. There's one eternal core purpose out of which all other gifts and purposes spring forth. There is one purpose that you've been called to that I've been called to. And if this is not your core purpose, all the other goals and ambitions and desires and gifts are in vain. That one eternal purpose is that you bear fruit. The Scripture brings it out very clearly in John 15, 16. You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. And I've ordained you that you should go and bear forth fruit. I've chosen you. I've called you. That's your calling. That's your choosing. That you go and bear forth fruit. Then the question arises, what is that fruit? If I'm to bear fruit, some think it's soul winning. Others have other explanations, but I see only one in the Scripture. And that fruit is to be Christlike. To bear much fruit is to become more and more like Jesus. That more fruit is the more likeness of Christ that is shown forth in our activities, in our lifestyle, in our relationships to others. Bearing fruit is bearing the reflection of Jesus Christ. If I'm not Christlike, if that is not being shown in me visibly, noticeably, by those I live with, by those I associate with, if I am not exuding more and more of the likeness and the presence of Jesus in my life, I have missed, no matter what I accomplish, no matter what I do, I have missed my eternal purpose on this earth. My purpose as a pastor is to become more like Christ in my living and in my preaching. Become Christlike. That is your goal. That is your life. To become absolutely Christlike. God's purpose cannot be fulfilled by anything I do for Christ. I repeat it. God's eternal purpose in my life cannot be measured by anything I do. I don't care if I cast out devils. I don't care if I heal the sick. I don't care what I do in His name. It's not what I do, it's what I'm becoming. It's what I am becoming in Christ that is a measure of my fulfilling His eternal purpose in my life. The disciples took Jesus to the temple, and they were so impressed by the buildings, the multiplicity of the buildings and the crowds and all the religious activity. And they said, look, Jesus. They thought it was such a godly work, such a wonderful accomplishment. Look at these magnificent buildings. They were very impressed. And Jesus put a cold blanket on it all, and He turned to them and said, it's all coming down. He said, you're looking at the Roman temple. They were impressed by all the religious activity just as we are today. We're impressed with impressive buildings, huge edifices. We're impressed by the multitudes coming and going and by the way people worship and the uniqueness of their worship. And the Lord is saying, get your eyes off the buildings. Get your eyes off the religious activity, the pomp and the ceremony, because you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. You have your eyes on the wrong temple. Don't you know that you are the temple of the Holy Ghost? Don't worry. Don't fret about what's happening in that temple. And because, you see, it had become a den of thieves. Jesus said, that does not represent who I am. It's a den of thieves. They're money changing. There are prophets in there and there are priests and there are others in there all out for themselves. They even abused their parents. This does not represent who Christ is. You are the temple through which Christ is manifested. Get your own house in order. Get your house. Are you going to be a temple out of which Christ is represented to the whole world? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? We are called to judge righteous judgment. We're called to denounce in the house of God everything that is unlike Christ. We're to do it with love and to do it with tears. We're to expose that which is false, false doctrines, false teachers. I will never give up my God-given right and anointing to expose what is clearly of the devil. We're called to reprove and expose that which is evil. And we do it because we're shepherds and we're to save the sheep. We're to guard the sheep from that which is false. But judgment begins in the house of God. This is the house of God. Judgment must begin here. I must judge myself before I have any right to judge anything that calls itself the church. I have to look into my own heart and I have to judge this temple because judgment begins in this house. Jesus said, Every branch of me that beareth not fruit he takes away. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And men gather them and cast them into the fire. And what Jesus is saying, Anything that is not a reflection of me, everything that does not exalt me, everything that does not produce in the hearer the likeness of Christ, I'm going to do away with it. I'm going to cast it out. And men are going to see the falseness of it and burn it. In other words, they're just not going to have anything to do with it. They're just going to gather it up and cast it aside. And it's all going to wither and it's all going to die. He makes it very, very clear. You see, if you had been at the temple in the time of Christ, and if you'd walked into that church, that synagogue in Jerusalem, you would have been flabbergasted. You would have been sorely grieved, as the Lord calls it. You'd have been sorely grieved at what you saw. You would see money changers in the temple, and you would see priests pocketing money at the side, according to the tradition of the Hebrews at the time. You would have seen nothing but avarice and greed. There was nothing of Christ. There was nothing truly religious about it. It was all flesh. Every man was out for himself. And Jesus called it a den of thieves. Can you imagine? Now, if Jesus calls it a den of thieves, they were thieves. And you would have said, how can this happen to the church? There's no hope. Folks, not to worry. Not to worry, because Jesus came in with His cord and with His whip, and He drove it out. He said, this is my house of prayer, and He drove it all out. And in one day, He changed everything. And we serve the same Christ. The Lord told me to go to sleep and quit worrying about His church. He knows how to take care of it. Everything that's false, every false prophet, everything that's unlike Christ, He in His time and His way is going to drive it out. It can happen overnight. It can happen through suddenly something happening. Folks, when the tsunami hit, I'll tell you there were a lot of preachers changing their message, at least temporarily. They were not preaching their success and money message. One preacher I heard interviewed on the radio, he said, my theme is money comes, money comes, money comes. Tsunamis come. I don't want you to laugh about that, but God's speaking, and He knows how to speak clearly. He knows how to deal with the economy. He knows how to take away their money. And everything that's unlike Christ, everything that's false, we don't have to grieve about it. We can preach as God anoints us with love and brokenness. But, folks, God says to me, He says to every pastor, He says to all of us, the church of Jesus Christ, you are the temple. Make sure that no avarice or covetousness is in your heart. Make sure there's nothing of the world that's creeping into your own heart. And we know that all things, Paul said in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. He said everything should be working out for good to them that love God and who know and walk according to their purpose. If your purpose is to be Christlike in all things, it's Christlike in every crisis. It's Christlike in everything that happens in our life. And he said all things work together for good. If that be so, why is there such distress in the church and especially in the ministry today? Same thing happened in Guatemala that I've seen all over the world. Our set-up team has just come back from Australia and New Zealand this past week in the same report because I asked our advanced team, asked the pastors what the burden is, asked them what the needs are, so we can pray about it. And everywhere they're sent and everywhere we go, pastors are quitting the ministry, giving up, saying they're weary, they're worn. There is such distress. There is such pressure of all kind. And you find it in the church of Jesus Christ. You find so much. Go to a bookstore and see where all the books are talking about now, how to survive, how to get through your loneliness. This is written to Christians, not to sinners, but Christians, and the distress. And then this comes up against what I read from the Apostle Paul, all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. Something's missing. We've got it wrong. Something's missing in my life and in your life. I'm not preaching down at you. I'm preaching to myself there's something wrong. It doesn't mean we don't grieve at times. I preached a message from this pulpit that tore my guts apart and it was a call to anguish. But I also mentioned at the close of that, after there's a call to anguish, there's a time when they said, now put away your anguish and begin to rejoice in the Lord. We sorrow and yet there's a gladness. There has to be this confidence that no matter what I'm going through, everything is going to work out for good. There's good coming out of this. I don't know what it is, but there's good that's going to come out of this and I have to settle and enter into the rest. Folks, I will not let any devil in hell, I'll not let any person on this earth rob me of my rest in Jesus Christ. That rest that God has impregnated in my soul. My soul is at rest. And God wants our soul to be at rest. That nothing, not the tsunamis, not the earthquakes, not the financial disaster that hangs over this and every nation, but we walk through this Christian walk with an absolute rest that my God has everything under control and I'll let nobody rob me of my peace. Are you living in the rest? He said it's for every one of us. Available to all of us. We are called to one purpose, one primary focus, to become fruitful in the likeness of Christ. You and I are not called to be a success. Some of us are called to be ordinary. A few amen, honest people. We have put such pressure on our children to be doctors and lawyers and princes and presidents. We have put such pressure on ourselves to keep up with the competitive spirit that is in this world today. There are so few. I had a pastor years ago right here in New York City. Restaurant was just five or six blocks from here. He was 45 or so years of age. And I was 28, 29 years of age. He said, Brother David, I'm 45. And he said, if you don't make it by the time you're 50. Now, this is a well-known evangelist. He said, if you don't make it by the time you're 50, you'll never make it. And I've got five years to make it, and I'm going on national television, and I'm going to make it. The truth is, he was never heard of again. God put him on a shelf. There was a man that attended this church. He no longer attends. But I was in the car with him, and I was driving down along the west side, and he saw a yacht with a helicopter on it. And he said, my blood boils when I see so many and even Christians being so prospered. And I have so many financial needs, it makes me angry, and I am going to make it no matter what it costs. He said, it's my turn. It's in the Bible, and it's my turn. At last I heard from him the law was looking for him. That's the truth. And everywhere I go, I hear people say, I've got to make it. I hear young pastors say, I'm going to build a mega church. And I hear Christians with all their dreams and all of their searching and looking for gifts so that they can offer God as if they're trying to win favor from the Lord by doing some great thing. I have a message I dug up. I preached 15 years ago how to be ordinary, how to be satisfied in Jesus, how to make him everything in your life so that you don't need the applause of man. You don't need to produce something. You don't have to write something. You don't have to do something, but you lean on him, and the greatest thing that you're getting from God is revelation of who Christ is. Romans 8, 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. I believe in predestination in this way. We are all predestinated to come into our eternal purpose and to be like Christ, that he may be the firstborn among many brethren, that he was so given to his Father, and that was everything to him. I do nothing, I say nothing except what I see and do for my Father, and that he said that he may be the firstborn of many brethren, that all of us who come into Christ would come in the same pattern, the same direction, all gathered up in this core interest. I'm here for my Father. I'm here for Christ. Question, do you want to bear much fruit? I ask the Lord, Lord, how do I do that? And here's what the Holy Spirit said to me so clearly. It all depends on how you treat people. It all depends. He didn't say anything about how you treat God. He knows that I'm clear on that. It all depends. Do you want to be Christ-like? It all depends on how you deal with people. Has the Father loved me, so I've loved you, so you continue in my love. You continue doing what I've been doing. I say this, and I want you to listen very closely, this has to begin in my home. It has to do with how I treat my wife. Wife, how you treat your husband. I'm going to tell you that this is something that comes to the very heart of our Christian walk. Now, I'll get to the singles. In Malachi 2, chapter 13, you've covered the altar of the Lord with tears and with weeping and crying because he no longer regards your offering. He no longer accepts it with favor from your hand. God says, I don't accept anything you do on my behalf anymore. Now, there's no way to get around that. You have to face it if you're going to be Christ-like. God says, how you deal with those closest to you has to do with your bearing fruit in the matter of becoming Christ-like. How I deal with my wife. The Lord says, I no longer accept your ministry. Teacher, choir member, pastor, whoever it is. The Lord says, there's a controversy. I can't accept anything. I can't accept your praise. I can't accept your worship. There's absolutely nothing on the face of the earth you can do on my behalf or in my name that I can receive anymore. And it says in verse 4, and for what reason? Why is this? Because the Lord has witnessed what you have done. You have dealt treacherously with your wife. Take heed. Now, listen closely. I have pastored in this church for 17 years and given the privilege to be a founder. And it's become a mega church with the blessing of God known and heard around the world, especially now with the pastor's message that's going all over the world. And I thank God for that. I've had the joy of helping to establish a Bible school. I've had the joy and the privilege of being part of raising up a teen child's ministry of drug addicts, alcoholics with 500 centers around the world. Now I've written some 20 books. Now I've had honors heaped on me all over the world. But let me tell you, if my wife can't stand before you and say that David is a loving husband and I see Jesus in him, if my wife can't say to you and the world, to heaven and hell, that this man is what he preaches, if she has to go around with a secret hurt in her, that she can't even voice that there's something wrong with this man, he's not what he preaches, he's a phony, if she can't look me and look you and everyone in the face of the earth and say, this man is becoming more tender to me, this man cares for every hurt, this man, and I'm not boasting. This has to do with your Christian walk and my Christian walk. We can witness all we want to. We can go out on the streets and pass out tracks. We can boast and sing and shout and talk in tongues and dance around the aisles. But what does your husband, what does your wife have to say about you? What kind of life have you been living in your home? And if my wife can't say that, and I say that before my wife, if she can't say that, then everything I've told you about having the joy of helping establish this church, Teen Challenge, every book I've written, all the honors that were heaped upon me, all of that is in vain. It means nothing. I've become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. It's how you are treating and dealing with those in your home. I had a husband and wife come to me weeping. They were middle aged or past middle age. And he was saying, Brother Dave, I have committed adultery against my wife. And this man was so broken he could hardly stand up. His wife had her arm around him. And he wept so bad. And he said, I have mistreated my wife, and I have dealt treacherously with my wife, and I don't even know how to say I'm sorry. I'm so grief stricken. It was a one time thing, and I am so stricken. And that man was so repentant. And I remember the words of that wife. She said, Brother David, that's the kind of man he is. He's a man of God, and I know his repentance is genuine, and God forgives. And she said, our marriage is going to be stronger through this. Do you see where there's true repentance? There may have been failure in your life, and it's not just adultery or fornication. It can be that bitterness. It can be that lack of compassion and building of walls. Anything that's unlike Christ is treacherous. Anything that is not right about the nature of Christ is treachery. And you see, the Lord said, I'll restore to you all the crank or worm has eaten. I'll restore that to you if there's true repentance. But let me tell you, folks, let me tell you what the summit of all testing is. This is the summit of human will. This is the summit of understanding the covenant relationship we have with Christ. It all comes down to this thing. This is the real summit. If you get it wrong here, you get it wrong all through your life. This is the summit. How are you becoming in your home? What's it like now in your relationship? Is it more and more like Jesus? Or are you allowing the bitterness to grow? Are you allowing the little things? Folks, I learned a secret. I've said it from this pulpit. It may not mean much to you, but it changed my life years ago when one day in a disagreement, and I said, I'm not going to give in on this. The Lord said, David, from now on, you give up all your rights to be right. You give up every right to be right. You take it to Jesus Christ. And folks, 95% of the things that husbands and wives have disagreements about and even end up in divorce are not worth talking about. They're simple, stupid things. My wife is in the same condition. She's given up her right to be right. She doesn't have to be right anymore. That terrible lie, love is never having to say I'm sorry, is a lie from the pits of hell. Learning how to say I'm sorry and giving up your rights is the secret of understanding the walk of Christ. I want to tell you it's not easy. Paul, the apostle, said it's not a sin to marry, but if you marry, there's going to be trouble. That is in your Bible, 1 Corinthians. I didn't make that up, believe me. There's no other test important in this life, no other test so strong, because it's a school you never graduate from. And just when you think you have it all right, the enemy will come in like a flood. But you have this deep core principle in you, my purpose here is to be like Christ to my wife, to my family, to my neighbors, and on the job, my calling is to be Christlike. I don't have to be successful, I don't have to be successful, I don't have to be somebody. Otherwise, everything is aborted, everything is invalid. Secondly, this Christlikeness also has to do with how I treat others outside my family. To be Christlike is to acknowledge Jesus in others. To be Christlike is to acknowledge Jesus in others. Everywhere I go, and this is the truth, and those who work with me know it's the truth, every time I meet a man who I know is with Christ, so given to the heart of Christ, I go to that person, and it's not flattery, but it's a witness of the Holy Spirit. And I'll put my hand on his shoulder and point a finger right on his chest and say, Brother, I see Jesus in you. When's the last time you've done that? You don't do that to everybody, but when you see a man or woman of God, just a matter of putting a hand on their shoulder or taking it by the hand, and folks, I can still, today, their faces run across my vision right now. Every one of those I remember, men of Christ, seeing Christ in others, seeing Christ in your wife, seeing Christ in your husband, and reminding of that. The greatest thing you can say to anybody that walks with God is, I see Jesus in you. I would rather hear that than say you're a good preacher. I would rather hear that than hear anything in my life, I see Jesus in you. There's so much I want to say on this, but I'm going to have to move on now. I've been told that I have to love my enemies. I've been told I have to love those who abuse me, despise me. I've been told I'm to love those who can't love me back, but especially to love my enemies and to do good to them. I'm not only to love them, but I'm to increase in my love for them. How do I love the Muslim who spit on my face two blocks from here? Spit on my face and cursed. How do I love the gays marching on Fifth Avenue with the signs saying, Jesus is gay? How do I love those folks? I don't even know how to love the body of Christ. Because I'm telling you now, it's absolutely, humanly impossible to love in human flesh. You cannot love the love of Christ and be like Christ by any human ability. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. No other way can I love. And God has ways. He said, you know the Holy Ghost. You know Him. And when He comes, He will lead you into all truth. He will lead you into the way Jesus loved. You see, the Christ in me is neither blind or deaf. He can see and He can hear. And He knows how. And if I can get the Holy Ghost by asking, He's given to everyone who asks, then I can ask the Holy Ghost, where is the Holy Ghost? He's not out in the universe. He's right here in His temple. And I get up every morning and I say, Holy Ghost, You are right here in my temple. Now teach me how to love. Teach me how to be Christ-like. And I'll tell you, there'll be whisper after whisper of the Holy Spirit. Can I give you just two simple practical things that He's told me just this past week? He reminded me to write a letter to a member of my family that I haven't contacted probably in five years. And just say, I'm thinking about you and is there anything I can do to help you? And I was encouraged to write a thank you letter to all my grandchildren for serving Jesus. And folks, it's not complicated things. He'll come to you with the little things. He'll come to you with the small things. And you learn to love through those little things until finally when somebody slaps you or spit on your face, you'll say, God bless you, God love you. Now this is just plain meat and potatoes. But that the love wherewith you have loved me, Jesus said, be in them and I in them. Lastly, it's been un-Christ-like that's caused the division in the church of Jesus Christ. It's un-Christ-likeness that has robbed the church of its power and influence in every nation on earth. There was a church in apostolic time that shook nations and caused leaders to tremble. But now the church has lost its influence and its power in the world and it's mocked, it's ridiculed, and it's really left in the eyes of the Lord nothing but a weak institution without authority. And now as we travel from nation to nation, everywhere we go, every nation, there's division. Denominationally, there's division, racial discrimination. I get weary of being informed when I get into a nation or come to a city for a conference, Brother Dave, make sure you don't allow the gypsies. And there are 10,000 Christian gypsies in one. They have great camp meetings and they steal things and they fill my mind with things about the gypsies. And then every country, well, they're such and such, they're such and such. And there's such disrespect. Now all of these denominations, thank God something's happening everywhere we go. Denominations are all coming together to help support our meetings there. And they're all 15, 20, sometimes 30 different groups and denominations and God's breaking down that. But you see, for years it's been all of these denominations, everyone claiming to be of Christ, everyone claiming to be preaching a pure doctrine, and yet they can't sit down together at a table. There is absolute lack of Christ-likeness and Christian compassion everywhere we go. And there's another division now that's creeping up, and I'm going to handle this very, very quickly. My time is almost up. Zechariah 4.10, Who hath despised the day of small things? There's a division between the big and the small, the big churches, the mega churches. A man is unusually blessed somehow and his numbers grow and he suddenly ends up with this huge mega church and then their conferences are held and books are written telling how. And then pastors gather at conferences and people gather, congregations gather, and they're being told in essence this is what is being implied. If you read my book, if you do church like I do church, you will be as successful as I am. I'm not putting down mega churches. I'm not putting down anybody's book or anybody's way. There are many godly men among these. But I see such discouragement, and it's in this church, it's in every church where people say, I'm not doing anything significant for God. I'm not being used by God. I feel such sorrow for so many pastors that have pastored 15, 20 years with small congregations. And they're in situations where there's atheism all around them and no desire for God, and they're in a very hard situation. I would like to attend a conference, honestly, I would like to attend a conference for two or three days where nobody speaks but pastors of small churches. And I don't want to hear how they were able to build some great edifice. I don't want to hear about the budgets. I want to hear what God's saying to them. I want to hear what's on their heart. I want to hear what God is speaking about Jesus and the revelation of Christ in their lives. And I say that to this congregation before I close. I don't want to stand before people and tell them how much I know, how many times we witness to one another or we talk down to one another in the church of Jesus Christ and we let everybody know what we know. And most of it we don't know, we're just talking the talk. You see, if I'm going to have Christ-likeness, then I'm going to have eyes to see and ears to hear. I don't think you can be like Christ unless you have his eyes, unless he looks through your eyes and he hears through your ears, because he is not blind, he is not deaf. And if I'm to be Christ-like, I may not, I honestly, I'm at the place, I don't care if anyone ever hears my name again. I don't care if I ever speak to another conference. I've made up my mind with God if the rest of my life were spent nursing Gwen, I would enjoy and rejoice in the Lord. If that were my calling, that's what I would do. I've said that publicly around the world, and Gwen knows it. But if I'm going to be Christ-like, I've got to have eyes to see the needs of others. And I have to have ears to hear those around me that have burdens and needs. And I've got to come to the house of God praying, show me. If I'm going to be a man of Christ, then I've got to hear the cry of the child in the ghetto who has no father. I've got to look around and ask God to give me a special love for widows and the fatherless. I've got to hear the cry of the homosex. I can't mock him anymore, I can't say anything about him to his face, I can hate his sin. But God, if I'm going to be Christ-like, let me hear him cry in the middle of the night when he's drunk, trying to kill his pain with alcohol. Let me hear his cry. Lord, take away our pomposity. Take away our pride. Take away that thing that happened to Elijah up on Mount Horeb. God said, what are you doing here? Oh God, I'm the only one who got it right. Oh, but God told him of a hundred others that were hidden in a cave. He knew it. He had 7,000 more that never bowed their knee to bow to Baal. But here's a man so down because he figures he has it right. And according to Paul in Romans, he indicted, the Scripture says, he interceded against Israel because he said they have defamed the name of the Lord. They've torn down his temple. And here's a man, God bless his heart, thinking he's got it right. God, don't ever let time curse say we have it right. Everybody else has it wrong. No, we're just one part of the body of Jesus Christ. Would to God that Elijah would have sent his servant to find those 7,000 and march with him again to Jezreel against Jezebel. And found out the fellowship and the love of 7,000 men who were broken in spirit and godly men that he knew nothing about. You may think that you're one of those nobodies. But in God's eyes, the somebodies in his sight are those who are set in with him. Their only cry is, oh God, on my job, wherever I'm at, please make me look more like Christ. I want to be like Jesus. Will you stand? There's a song we sing, to be like Jesus, to be all I ask to be like him. It's so wonderful to have all the stress lifted from you. Listen closely. You can leave here without having any stress whatsoever left on your body and your mind and soul and spirit. You can strip everything that bothers you away from your life. You can walk out of here absolutely free with the gladness of God in your heart. When you say, I only have one purpose, just to be like Jesus. You don't have to prove anything anymore or do anything. And they're not re-preaching my sermon. But that's the end of strife and stress. And that's when you enter in the rest that God has for his people. Now some of you are standing here saying, President Dave, it's my desire, but lately there have been some things happening in my life, in my home, in my job. I have not shown that Christlikeness. If you need repentance. Now if you're here this morning, up in the balcony, here in the Manitore, and if you're in the annex and you feel the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart, you'd like to step out for prayer. Would you just move ahead between the screens so you're not blocking the view? And here in the Manitore, I'm opening the front of this church we call altar area. And if there's something in this message this morning that just shook you to the core of your soul, say, Pastor David, I don't measure up to that. That's not been my one core purpose and I want it to be. If you've been running from God, if you're not really serving the Lord, if you don't know Christ, you come with these that are coming. Those that have come forward, we're going to pray with you now and believe the Lord. Will you please not leave this church trying to make promises and say, boy, I'm going to live like Jesus. You won't last an hour. But will you pray with me that the Holy Spirit, that still small voice, to show you the ways of God, the ways of Christ, and that He who knows the will of God, He who has come to sanctify us, He who has come to teach us the ways of Christ. I was praying like this the other day and the Holy Spirit said something that blessed me. He said, David, the greatest, this is the Holy Spirit speaking, the greatest thrill I get is showing Jesus to you. I said, well, if you're thrilled by that, let's do it. I want to thrill you real good. I'm hungry, show me like Jesus. Lord Jesus, we hunger and thirst not to just talk about our intimacy with you, but to show it, that it works its way practically into our life in the very smallest things, the little things, the things that people see and take notice of. Lord, I know that's the desire of the leadership of this church. God, may Times Square Church be a humble church. May we in honor prefer other churches and other pastors, ministers, and people. Help us, Lord, to take the low place, the humble place, and only you can do that, Holy Spirit. Forgive us, Lord, of trying to please you in our own strength. And forgive us of trying to read so many chapters and think that our fasting, our praying merits something, Lord. You do reward these things. These things bring heaven down to earth. But, oh God, they don't merit your favor. Lord, our favor, your favor to us is through our faith. Faith in your word. You've promised now that you will send the Holy Ghost. You will fill us, this temple, and you will lead us and you will guide us. Pray this prayer with me. Lord Jesus, thank you for the Holy Spirit who abides in me. Thank you that you made me the temple of God. Now fill this temple. Holy Spirit, I ask you to come now, guide me, lead me, and show me how to live Christ. Let me pray, Lord. Make this real to the whole congregation, to everyone who hears me in the annex, wherever it's at. And we can start now, as soon as we dismiss this service, in our handshake, in our greetings. Lord, there would not be some hurried thing, I've got to get out of here. It can't be something hurried, but that whispered prayer, God, perhaps today you'll let me see a need. Let me hear a need. God, give us eyes to see and ears to hear in the body of Christ, in Jesus' name. Amen. This is the conclusion of the message.