This sermon focuses on the deep sorrow of those who remain unconvinced by the Word of God, emphasizing the importance of fully embracing God's promises and living a life that manifests His truth to others. The speaker challenges the audience to believe for 10 people in their lifetime to be won to Christ, highlighting the impact such a commitment can have in averting judgment and bringing transformation to society.

Praise God. I want to talk to you this morning about the deep sorrow of the unconvinced. The deep sorrow of the unconvinced. Matthew chapter 13, please, if you go there in your Bibles. Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Lord, you are the only one that can make these words live. Otherwise, it's only just an accumulation of knowledge without power. But if we have an open heart, you make these words live in us, and we become a living testimony of the power and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God, I pray, give me the ability, Lord, to convey these words. Give our hearts the ability to hear them. Transform us, God, by the power of Christ within us into everything that you have destined each one of us to be, for your glory and for your honor in this moment in history in which we're living. Lord, I cast my whole being into your hands. Everything I have, everything I've ever had, everything I ever will have has come from you. I recognize that, and I'm deeply thankful. I ask you for the anointing that one more time I may stand and represent you and see your kingdom advance in the hearts of those that you died to save and call your own. Jesus Christ, let the depth of your love for us open our hearts to what you would speak. I thank you for it with everything in me. I pray, God, that this be a day that heaven can record was a great day for the kingdom of God. I pray that because of these words, the destinies of people will be changed. Evil will be stopped in its tracks, and instead, good will begin to blossom. You're the God who makes the desert blossom. And so, Lord, we ask you that through our lives, you take barren, fruitless places and change them for the glory of God, for the kingdom of our Christ, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name. The deep sorrow of the unconvinced. Matthew chapter 13, beginning at verse 18. Hear ye, therefore, the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and understands it not, then comes the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. He that received seed into stony places, the same as he that hears the word and anon, or immediately with joy, receives it. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by, he is offended. In other words, he walks away. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that hears the word and understands it, which also bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. Now it's of the utmost importance for every person here in the light of the hour in which we are now standing to determine how we have received and handled the word of God. When you look at this parable, there are four types of heart, Jesus said, into which the word of God is sown. Now you and I, if we're honest, we can ask that question and God will answer it and say, Lord, how have I received your word? Has your word really found a lodging place in me? Is it producing the life of Christ? Is there a testimony being manifested in me of your power and your glory and your glory alone? Are people asking me for a reason for the hope that is within me, especially in the hopeless moments of time in which we are living? Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 2, he said, we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Now Paul is acknowledging in this letter that he's writing to the Corinthians believers that it's possible to dishonestly walk with God. You know, there are some people who simply, they love the truth, but they also love untruth as well. They're mixed, they're stuck between two opinions and they're halting and because they're not given to fully embracing one or the other, their lives and their testimony becomes such a confusing thing to people. Others that walk in craftiness. The parable, for example, of the Jericho road man who was laying down and beaten and left for dead on the road and yet you see Jesus speaks about a Pharisee that passes by when he sees, even though it's clearly revealed in scripture that if we will stop in Isaiah 58 and we will minister to human need that God will answer our prayers and that his glory will become our portion and we will actually become, according to the word of God, people who restore paths to dwell in and who repair the breach that is in the wall that has allowed the enemy to come into our society. It would be clearly revealed to the Pharisee, clearly revealed to the Levite, but both chose somehow to handle the word of God with a craftiness and that's the problem with the human heart. We have the capability of taking something that is clear and muddling it and as long as we're studying it we have an excuse for not obeying it. Remember the lawyer that came to Jesus with a profound question, who is my neighbor? Now Jesus had just told him the two great commandments are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and the second is like it, that you love your neighbor as yourself. Then the scripture says but he being willing to justify himself because he really didn't love his neighbor asked the question, who is my neighbor? Profound isn't it? Who is my neighbor? You see I'm studying this and if I, in his heart it's a disguise that's coming to Jesus saying now I'm studying this and God you can count on me when I figure out who my neighbor is boy I'm in. I'm going to be there and I'll love them and I'm just not sure who my neighbor is at the moment so but when I figure it out you can count me in. That's craftiness, that's twisting, that's trying to remold something that's very clearly stated and make it say in our own hearts what it really doesn't say. The human heart is crafty and deceptive above all things or handling the word of God deceitfully. Those are people who simply don't want to obey and just twist the scriptures to fit their own agenda or their own image of what their life should be in God but Paul says we don't, we don't deal dishonestly with God or deceitfully or we don't handle the word of God with craftiness but we allow the truth to be manifested in us. We allow God's promises to become a reality. We allow God through his spoken word and the inner power of his Holy Spirit to take us and make us into what he wants us to be for a testimony to this generation that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead. He does sit at the right hand of all power. He does fill his church and as we behold him we are changed from image to image in glory to glory even as by the Spirit of God and as our lives are changed into what we could never hope to make them in our own understanding or strength we are technically cast upon the consciousness of a society that lives outside of God. They look at us as believers and say I don't know what they have but I wouldn't mind tasting some of that. By manifestation of the truth, by allowing the truth, not twisting it, not putting it away, not pretending we're obeying it by studying but by manifesting the truth, by letting God's truth become a reality, by acknowledging what we are without God but looking in the word of God and saying well I this is what I am today but God says that this is what I will be and so I choose to believe that and I call out for the strength that God promises to give that my life might be transformed, that my own family might say what happened to our father, what happened to my husband, what what happened to my brother, what happened to my sister? How did they so radically change into another person than the person that we've known them to be? You know sometimes I inwardly grieve on Sunday night. We have an open heaven here now. I tell you if you'll bring friends out here that don't know God, many if not most of them will find Christ as Savior. We're probably having somewhere between 25 and 50 people a week make those first-time professions for Jesus Christ but when you thank God for that but sometimes there's a sorrow comes into my heart. I look at the altar, the full front and sometimes partway down the aisles and I see the weeping people but I have to realize that in some cases people are here because they're moved. There's something going on here. They don't fully get it and they've come down but they don't really understand what they're coming to. They're coming to some kind of a generic God who died for them but they haven't really comprehended the Word of God and I know that if they just walk out of these doors the devil is going to be there and he's going to take the seed of truth right out of their heart and that's why you'll see us here pleading with people. Please go downstairs. Please give the counselors here your name so that we can get you into a new believers class either in this church or in one maybe in your neighborhood and that's why we plead because we know that that a quarter maybe of these people are going to walk out and it's going to be gone before they it's just going to have been a nice experience like a Broadway show may I say that they've come in they've been moved by the production but it's never going to transform their lives. Then you have others that receive the Word of God and they would they receive it with joy and they come down and they're just so filled with joy because they they believe that through Christ their sins will be forgiven which is true they'll have a transformed life which is true as well but they don't fully realize that they're going to suffer rejection it's going to be difficult Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub or the son of the devil may I say it that way how much more are they going to call those his household and so they they come and but they come not for the full reason they come just for the good things it's yeah heaven is a good thing and when they leave they start sharing their faith to find out they're being persecuted in the marketplace laughed at in the home rejected by their friends ridiculed in their colleges and because of it they basically said I didn't sign up for this I led a man to Christ one time who was dying he was dying he was only given a short time to live and his I just simply led him to Christ and God healed him I didn't pray for healing he didn't pray for it I didn't pray for God healed him miraculously miraculously healed a dying man and he's he had a new lease on life his disease was gone even his doctor said you've had a miracle this disease you have had does not reverse itself not only has it reversed itself it's completely gone I mean he was ecstatic his he was only in his 30s his life now was before him he wasn't going to die was going to live he now had Christ at the core of his life he went home so excited his wife was so grieved that he had now isn't it amazing she's about to lose him God heals him now because he's become a Christian she cries every day and then she eventually tells him if you don't give up this new religion I'm going to leave you isn't it amazing and so he gives up his relationship with God receiving the word with joy receiving the power that can come with that initial touch of God and yet making a wrong choice and being offended in a sense it's the type of person who says I didn't sign up for this I signed up for abundant life I signed up for heaven I didn't sign up for tribulation it's like a soldier this is a memorial day weekend who you know signs up for the military and then as the landing craft is landing in some foreign field goes to the general says hey wait a minute I didn't sign up for this I signed up for the uniform and the shiny boots and marching and parades and saluting one another I didn't anticipate going into battle having people actually shoot at me there's others verse 22 who lay claim and actually hold association with the promises of God but are so intermixed with the thinking of this failing society that he or she is unable to lead anyone from it to safety in verse 22 it says of Matthew 13 he that receives seed among thorns is he that hears the word really does hear it really really does get it really understands what I'm talking about this morning I will have heaven I will have an abundant life but there are also will be trials there'll be valleys there'll be there'll be difficult seasons here's it but the cares of this world the the lure may I say of this world I want heaven but I I wouldn't mind a little bit of what this world has as well and the deceitfulness of riches the the the sense that if I if I get to this level on the the employment ladder if I achieve this amount of money in my lifetime if I get this kind of house or live in this kind of a country these things come in and they choke the word and it becomes unfruitful in other words there's no manifestation of God from these people to the conscience of those that are perishing around them they may rightfully claim association with the family of God but how sad it is for the sake of others that the wonderment of divine life is not visible in them the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 3 17 and 18 where the spirit of the Lord is there's liberty that means generosity that's what that word actually means where God's spirit is there's this incredible generosity that comes into your life and mine from the heart and hand of God this willingness of God to to literally live inside of us and change us from the inside out it's amazing when I think about it God in his perfection God in his power God who created the universe God who knows everything about me and about you is willing to come and take up residence inside this fallen body and change me from the inside out and he does it with incredible generosity as I turn to him in my poverty his the riches of his victory becomes mine as I turned him in my weakness he gives me his strength as I turned him in my confusion he gives me clear thinking I turned him with my bankrupt heart only to find he replaces it with the heart of the one who went to a cross for humanity I've become a new creation in Christ Jesus the old things in my life pass away behold all things become new Paul says all of us with an open face beholding as in a mirror or glass the glory of the Lord looking at the glory of God looking at this victory beholding this incredible wonderment of God are changed into that same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord that is an incredible thing but the testimony to be seen must be fully embraced this testimony of glory is not given to the the half-hearted this testimony is given to those like you and I who just say God if this is true then give me the whole package or give me nothing I want it all I don't want one foot on the dock and one in the boat because that never ends up well the scripture says the kingdom of heaven Jesus said is like a merchant man seeking goodly pearls but when he had found one pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had and bought it in other words he gave up that which was formerly set aside for his future that which represented his security his ambitions his dreams he sold it because he found something else of greater value I think personally the deepest sorrow of the unconvinced will come when we finally realize the great good that our lives could have been accomplished I'm talking about those who really are associated with God they really do know God but they've never made the full break they've never embraced the pearl in its totality they they've wanted heaven they've wanted freedom they've wanted life but they've been so intermingled with the cares of this world they've so not left this falling value system that they fail to realize how much good could have happened they may be counted righteous in the sight of God but little if anything of what they have represented of the testimony of God will survive the judgment of God listen to the words of Paul to the Corinthian church again in first Corinthians chapter 3 verses 13 to 15 Paul said every man's work shall be made manifest in other words it will be clearly revealed for the day will declare it there is a day coming folks when everything I've done and you've done are good is going to be put on the altar of truth and the fire of God the purity of God is going to touch it and it will be revealed by fire and the fire will try every man's work of what sort it is if any man's work abide which is built thereupon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he will suffer loss but he himself shall be saved so as by fire I don't know about you but I don't want my works to burn I'm not doing this for reward heaven is good enough for me I don't care if the streets are dust or gold it makes no difference it's heaven I don't care if if I'm standing in proximity to the throne or I'm holding the door for people heading in that direction I really don't care it's heaven that's good enough for me but I don't want the things that God calls me to do to be burned when I stand before him one day simply because I want his name to be honored on the earth I want his kingdom to come I want his will to be done on the earth as it is in heaven I want people to know the Christ who loved them so much that he went to a cross and in spite of the mockery said father forgive them they don't know what they do that is why I do what I do there's no other reason I'm not doing it for reward I don't care give my rewards to somebody else but just don't let what I'm called to do burn when the fire of God's purity touches it Peter these words used to perplex my mind in 2nd Peter chapter 2 verses 6 to 8 the day when God sent judgment finally on a wicked society called Sodom and Gomorrah and it says turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow making them an example to those that after should live ungodly in other words there's a day of justice and judgment coming rightly so to all who live upon this earth and then verse 7 is amazing and delivered just lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds it used to perplex me just lot lot who had no literal he had no influence in his society had no influence even among his own family and even after being delivered by the hand of angels goes into a cave and has an ancestral relationship with his daughters whether or not he was aware of it that's what transpired yet the bible calls him just justified by God a righteous man vexed he could rightly claim relationship with Abraham the father of faith and promise he did begin that journey he did leave that place that Abraham was called to leave he walked as you and I leave the place of sin we leave the place of our past we leave former associations and lifestyles and we begin to walk with God and I can see lot and he's walking with Abraham and Abraham's talking about this place of promise this promise of God that he was going to be blessed so powerfully that through him all the families of the earth were going to be blessed and lot was there and lot could hear it just like you and I can read the scripture and we can see the promises of God as we walk with Jesus Christ the author and finisher of our salvation but he's the type of a person he could never rise beyond what his own heart desired he could never look beyond what his own eyes could see he he lived midway between vexation and desire he was vexed by what went on around him in the in the society of Sodom and Gomorrah but he still desired what the city had to offer him he still would sit in the gate of commerce every day that's where he met the angels he was still a man who's given to transactions and there was there was I'm sure he could present a valid argument there's there were things to see no doubt in the city there were probably nice fountains and vineyards and gardens and they probably had some form of retirement system that he he longed for I don't know what it was he was a just man he was I'm trying to get a point across he's justified he has believed and the Bible declares him righteous yet he's a man with no influence because he can't make the break in his heart to fully embrace these promises he's heard about and to to to be a manifestation of these promises he he's so intermixed in the city that he he can't stand in the marketplace and say I want to talk to you about another place I want to talk to you about another world I want to talk to you about another time I want to talk to you about what God told me he's able to do I want to share with you what God's doing in my life I'm beginning to embrace these promises and by God's grace I am changing from image to image and glory to glory all he was was vexed and a lot of people they're just vexed they're just vexed all they can do is is oh shut off the news isn't it bad what's happening to our families isn't it tragic what's going on in their schools and isn't it awful what's happening in our society all ours vexed vexed and righteous but not manifesting Christ to any man's conscience anywhere they go the limit of his vision led him to believe most likely that his life could not make a difference in the rapidly degenerating society all around he saw that society degenerating he saw the gangs of the immoral in the streets he knew what that society was becoming and he probably thought wow it's just it's cascading downhill so fast what can my life do what kind of a difference could I make I might as well just buy and sell and marry and give in marriage until the day that Abraham spoke about comes upon all of us but how heartbreaking it must have been for this man to finally get to the throne of God and finally realized now folks this is so pivotal to what God's given me to speak to finally realize that if he had just convinced 10 people to turn from sin to a relationship with God the city would have been spared he didn't have to win the city he needed to win 10 people for Abraham had been negotiating with God he had been interceding through Sodom and God himself said to Abraham I will not destroy it if 10 righteous are found in it not just 10 people who had who would have a mental assent to truth no 10 righteous 10 people who would be given to the ways of God 10 people that maybe lot could bring into his house and have a bible study with them 10 people that he could relate the promises to 10 people that he could say if if you follow me as I follow Christ as Paul said to the church you're going to know the glory of God you're going to know the strength of God you're going to know the power of God you're not going to perish with this city or society all he had to do was win 10 people you see that's what my title is the deep sorrow of the unconvinced he was never convinced that he should make the break and fully live for God and what sorrow yes heaven is heaven thank God for that but there's a moment of sorrow I believe when he stand at the throne of God and realized oh God you see because some of his family perished folks in that fire his sons-in-law wouldn't follow him and that would follow suit that some of his children died in that destruction and to finally realize oh God for 10 people's sake you would have spared the city and then 10 could have become a hundred and a hundred could have become a thousand and a thousand could have become ten thousand the city was approaching its final moment of mercy and so too is our society when the degraded value system of that society came to the door and demanded access to the messengers of God that was the final moment for that city and you and I are living at a similar time those who were given to licentiousness and immorality unspeakable immorality came to the door and began to bang on the door the messengers of God were inside and they said we demand access to the messengers of God you will become partakers of our lifestyle and of our agenda and if you don't do it voluntarily we will do it by force that is the flash point of God's judgment on any society and if God doesn't judge America when we get to this point he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah folks you and I've got to realize how dangerous this moment in history is right now we are not far from that moment I already can hear the footsteps are already in our streets the parades are already happening and very shortly the immoral agenda of this hour will be knocking on the door of the house of God demanding that we bend our knee to its agenda it won't be long that what I'm telling you this morning is going to be illegal in America God forbid and God help us we have an opportunity to make a difference folks this is not a casual moment this is not a casual message 10 can make a difference 10 it only required 10 all I had to do was win 10 people to the knowledge of God to an abandonment to the ways of God and my question to you today is in your lifetime in your lifetime can you believe for 10 people it's entirely possible but it requires a separation unto God it requires a supernatural manifestation of his life and his promises within us 10 people can make a difference 10 people it's an amazing thought 10 people and you think of all the heartache even in his own home the sorrow the devastation that would have been stopped just I don't know for how long for a year 10 years for a generation I really don't know could have been there had been one time an awakening in Nineveh who's to say there couldn't have been an awakening in Sodom but all it required is the man who knew the promises of God to win 10 people and history scriptural history proves that God said for 10 righteous people's sake I will not destroy it you think of all if you want 10 people to God in your lifetime think of of all the destruction of families and all the things that will happen to those families of those 10 people that will be stopped in its track think of the numbers of the 10 maybe that will become missionaries think of the possibility that some will become great preachers of the gospel think of those that will go into the marketplace and stand for Christ if you and I are able to disciple them and what it really means to walk with God think of the disaster that can be avoided if you and I can win 10 in our lifetime we are living in a society where people don't read anymore this is a completely visual society now it's a society of young people and young adults that live by pictures and folks you and I are the only image of the invisible God that they're going to see now in this generation you claim to be a follower of Christ you better believe the eyes of young people in your neighborhood are on you the eyes of your own children on your home are on you the eyes of those in the marketplace are on you the eyes of those in your workplace are on you because you are the only bible they're going to read now Paul says we don't deceitfully we don't we don't dishonestly we don't craftily handle the word of God but we call out to God to manifest the truth that he speaks to us in his promises and thus commending God through us to the consciousness of the people around us that they look at us and say whoever that person's God is must be God this is what God is asking of us in this generation the footsteps are in our streets folks we've got to do this now we have to stand up now we have to say God I'm going with you get my heart out of this place get my heart and my affections away now I'm not suggesting you don't work for a living I'm not suggesting you don't be a good employee or the best at what you're called to do in a secular world you do the best you can but that is not your security that is not your joy that is not your life your life is hidden in Christ you live for God with everything you've got stand for God with everything you've got speak for God with everything you've got and let the glory of the Lord let that glory that God says I'm willing to give you become your testimony you won't have to look for opportunities to tell people people will ask you for a reason now for the joy that is in you why do you sing in the middle of the day why do you find it so easy to work for this insane boss that is over us why why why the questions will start to come why do you sing in the hallway in our neighborhood when you come home we know you're short of groceries just like the rest of us why do you have such a song you've allowed the truth of God to be manifest through you to the consciousness of the people around you you can set it honestly as a life goal to say in the years that remain to me Lord let me bring 10 home let me bring 10 to you 10 righteous 10 not just 10 that just simply bow their heads and agree with me theologically but 10 walk with God 10 that I walk with 10 that I encourage in the scriptures 10 that I call on the my cell phone or I contact on the internet 10 that I invite into my house and we pray and read the word of God together 10 that I gather with and let's believe God that we can move these mountains in our neighborhoods and see the kingdom of God just 10 in my lifetime can you believe for 10 can you believe for 10 can you believe for 10 can you believe for 10 can you believe for 10 sometimes with the bar seemingly is set so high that we feel like lot might have felt just overwhelmed the need is too great the darkness is too profound the debauchery is too entrenched and God would have spared the city for 10 and so I'm choosing to believe in my life that outside of the pulpit outside of where I preach outside of where I travel outside of the tapes that I too can win 10 to Christ bring 10 home to God 10 people that will walk with God who knows but that God will spare the city who knows but that we will have a moment a reflective moment in our society for men and women to consider their ways before that final day of judgment does come because the Bible is not avoidable the Bible speaks about it it's coming on the whole world but who knows that that God will give a moment of mercy a moment of reflection a moment where the doors of his house open again and he begins to meet with people it all begins with you and I making the choice to say I'm going to give my all yes I'll be a good employee I'll be a good citizen I will act honorably among men but my value system is in heaven now and I want to take with me what can be taken I'm going to take 10 people with me and I'm going to believe for the destruction that would have come into their homes and families to be changed the judgment that they were under to be brought to a place of forgiveness I'm going to believe God for 10 and that's the altar call the Lord has given me this morning is for people who are willing to you will not lead 10 if you won't make the break but if you make the break and your value system is different than that of this world folks you shouldn't count it I did though when I was young I didn't know any better but I led 52 people to Christ in the first couple of years first few years of my salvation I wasn't a preacher I just loved God with all my heart people saw it and they would ask for a reason for why do you why are you the way you are and you shouldn't count but I did and I know I led 52 people to Christ I don't know if they'll walk with God forever but the odds are that one in four did and I did it without being a preacher I did it without knowing any of the Old Testament I did it because I love God and I made the break from the things of this world and began to love God with all my heart I want to challenge you with everything in me believe for 10 let that be the cry of your heart from this day forward I'm going to believe God for 10 people and keep that thought in your mind God you would have spared Sodom if Lot would have won 10 you would have spared it and you would even have spared Lot's family that died in the fire Lot's wife would have been spared for another season you would have spared them if he had just had the foresight to win 10 people to the kingdom of God and father I thank you with all my heart today for the simplicity of living for God and the wonderful wonderful fruit for God's honor that it will bear into the kingdom of Christ God give us the grace Jesus Christ not to be people who just come to church to be entertained Lord but realize that there is a war for the souls of men and much and great good can happen if we will cast our lot into serving the Christ who went to a cross and letting his life his resurrection life be manifested through us for the sake of others give us the grace to turn away from living a selfish life give us the grace to live for others father I thank you for this with all my heart in Jesus name the altar call is very simple today here in the main sanctuary in the education annex in north Jersey as well and those that are listening online at home and other churches as well I'm going to believe God for 10 people in my lifetime if that's you as we stand just please come meet with me here we're going to pray step between the screens in the annex if you will and north Jersey I'm going to believe God for 10 people 10 souls through my life join those that are coming please as we worship then we'll pray together you know I was I was just thinking mathematically while we're singing from what the scripture reveals you know the Lord said for 10 righteous I'll spare the city well lot had six of those right in his own home he his wife his two daughters and his two sons-in-law and if he could have just at least had an influence and drawn them into a relationship with God that would be six of the 10 right there it's not as far reaching 10 is not as far reaching as you think it is it may look like oh God how am I going to do this you know you maybe not even want anybody to Christ yet in your in your walk with God no God's able to make you he'll put him before you I'll tell you you you make the decision to live for Christ and the people will be there you don't have to search them out they'll be there the uh be an insurance salesman be a delivery guy at your door be somebody you meet on the street yeah I'm telling you it will just be there and be right before you and all you have to do is speak and as you speak there'll be a manifestation of your confidence in God your life in God will be manifested to that person's conscience and they will know that God is real so don't make this into a labor this is as easy as breathing if you walk with God you you mark my words in this you watch how this will unfold through your life it becomes natural that trees bear fruit you don't have to you don't ever see an apple tree straining to bear apples it just bears apples because of what it is you walk with God and you watch the fruit will come a father I thank you God for these men and women young people at this altar today those in their hearts who are at this altar in the balcony in the main sanctuary who just say God I I want to do this I want to live a righteous life I want to be an influence for good Lord so we just bring our five loaves and three fishes two fishes to you just our bag lunch of a life sometimes that's the way I feel God and just bring it to you and say multiply this thing and feed the people around me Lord it's only you that can give it life it's only you that can multiply but you promised to do that if I bring to you what I have you'll multiply it and people will be fed and they'll be fed miraculously and they will know it and so Jesus Christ we're asking for the sake of New York City for the sake of whatever town or village we might represent here today for our five boroughs in Manhattan God Almighty be pleased be merciful Lord to the people in this city be merciful to the churches and Jesus Christ give us a season now where we can honor you in our streets our workplaces our homes God where we can see a window of mercy come to us thank you for this Lord thank you God for receiving us for not rejecting us for not looking down on our littleness and saying I can't use you that's simply not who you are you take the little thing we bring to you and you multiply it and so we're believing for that today we're not going out of here heavy we're going out rejoicing that we're going to walk with God and God's kingdom is going to advance the judgment of sin will be averted in people's lives in their homes their families in our neighborhoods we believe that we're going to stand by faith and believe it and if unbelief stands in front of us we're going to say to this mountain be thou removed and be cast into the midst of the sea you have no place here you have no right here you cannot say to me that God will not use me for Satan you are a liar and you are the father of lies God says he will use anybody that says here I am use me and so I thank you God in my undone in my smallness you can glorify your life Jesus Christ turned back darkness turned back the flood of evil in this society we're living in God do it miraculously and sovereignly so powerfully that nobody could take the glory it was your whole church got involved in this battle was everybody young and old rich and poor every race every language every culture we all got into this together and you pushed darkness back from our door and for one moment in time again the glory of the Lord became our portion Jesus above all else we ask you to glorify your name glorify your name in this generation father we thank you for it and let our testimony be only God could have done this in my life only God could have given me this only God could have used me only God could have changed me let the testimony be all about you and not about us father we thank you we praise you for this oh God in the mighty unmatchable name of Jesus let this be a season in the history of New York City like none other God Almighty we ask you to occupy the churches we ask you God to occupy our neighborhoods our homes our boroughs our apartment buildings we ask you to come in like a flood God we sang about it today like a rushing mighty stream God come come Lord sweep away the refuge of lies sweep away God Almighty everything that is bringing people into captivity and bondage and release this city into the glory of the Lord for a season of mercy we thank you for it we praise you for it we give you glory for it in the mighty name of Jesus hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you Lord thank you God thank you Jesus thank you Lord thank you mighty God victory victory victory is ours victory is ours glory to God hallelujah hallelujah thank you Lord thank you God thank you God thank you God glory to the name of Jesus glory glory glory history has proven time and again that all God needs to do something is nothing you and I can say well if that's the case then I qualify here's nothing for you to use oh God use it for your glory and make something beautiful happen in this world hallelujah let's give him a shout of glory one time hallelujah hallelujah thank you Lord thank you mighty God one more time give him a shot of victory in this house glory to God glory to God glory to God glory to God