This sermon is a powerful call to repentance and surrender to God, emphasizing the need for the church to turn away from cultural idols and return to a genuine relationship with God. The speaker draws parallels between the societal decline in the time of Hosea and the current state of the church, urging believers to seek forgiveness, embrace humility, and stand firm in the face of impending challenges. The message highlights the importance of genuine worship, repentance, and a deepening commitment to God's ways in the midst of a culture that promotes self-centeredness and compromise.

Praise God. If you'll turn please in the Old Testament to the book of Hosea. If you find Ezekiel, the next book is Daniel, next one is Hosea. I think Hosea is about eight or so books to the right of the book of Psalms. Hosea. Go to chapter 14. We'll start there and then we're going to go backwards from there. Father, I thank you God with all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I would never attempt to speak this, Holy Spirit, if you didn't come and animate me. I need you Lord to form your heart within me. I need to speak, God, the thoughts of your heart and I need to speak them with the intonations of your voice. Lord, I'm asking God for you to overshadow me. Grip my heart and my mind. Unlock the incredible truths and secrets of your word and let them be known as they're spoken in simplicity. Help us to understand the time we're living in. Deliver us, Lord, from childishness. Make us men and women of understanding. You said through the prophet Daniel that there would be an understanding in the last days that you would unlock, that you would give to your people. Lord, we want to know where we live and we want to know what lies ahead. I thank you for this in Jesus' mighty name. I've entitled this, A Message for America and its Cultural Religion. You know, beloved, we're going to be in the streets of New York at Times Square on September 20th. There seems to be a recognition in many people throughout the world that this is a momentous time, although many people may not fully understand why. Hundreds of churches coming together, other countries, entire congregations, many, I think there's as many as 76 now, are going to be gathering together. They're going to be screening this event live. They're going to be praying with us. But you and I need to pray with an understanding. A lot of prayer events in the past are just simply, they're gatherings and prayer is a good thing and I'm not ever downplaying that. But this is not a carnival. This is not a gathering together to shout into the air and wave a few flags and walk away saying God has changed the world. No, this is much deeper than that. This is a call of the Holy Spirit gathering his people to a specific location, outside perhaps because there's no other venue where we would all get together. Over 300 churches are anticipated to be in attendance in Times Square in two weeks. For the specific purpose of coming to God and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, praying this simple prayer, Lord forgive us. But forgive us for what is the question. What have we done as a nation that is causing God to gather us into a specific central location, beaming it out to over 80 colleges, high schools, youth groups, churches, various states and various countries? What have we done that the Lord would say, I want you to pray this way. Lord forgive us. If we don't understand this, we're going to just go out with a generic Lord forgive us for whatever. And we're not going to walk away having found something that God wants to give us as a people, wants to do something very profound in you and in me. And I do believe in all those that are praying, but we need to have a right perspective. We need to understand some things. I want to ask you in Christ's name to bear with me through this message. The Lord wouldn't let me write this down. I tried a few times to write it down. And the more I tried to write it down, the harder it became. And he said, no, you've been fasting. You've been praying. You've been seeking. I want to speak now. I want to speak to my church. I want to speak to my people. Let's start in Hosea, please chapter 14. Now, in order to understand this book of scripture, we have to understand who Hosea was. He was a prophet, son of God to the northern kingdom, which was the numerically larger number of people after the kingdom of Israel split under the leadership of Rehoboam in the northern kingdom, started on a progression of continual spiritual declension until eventually it was swallowed by Assyria, dissipated among the nations and realistically ceased to exist. And Hosea is a man who's, he was a man who he had a wife that was not faithful. And because of this, he understood the heart of God. He understood where this nation was going. And God sent this man to plead for them to turn back again. And the one voice that a society and spiritual declension will not listen to repeatedly is the voice of the prophet. You see it all the way through scriptures. When God sends the voice of the prophet, they technically, usually we'll put them in a dungeon. We'll mock the prophet of God. We'll send them away into another place. We'll push that voice completely away. One of the Kings in the Old Testament tore up the words of Jeremiah and threw them in the fire. There's something about a society that has come to a flashpoint of judgment. Really, that's what it is. When society has hit that point, when we've crossed the line, when we've gone beyond the warnings of God, where we can't hear anymore, and I'm talking now collectively as a society, we can't hear anymore, the voice of the prophet will still be there because God will be faithful to warn. But sad to say, most of the nation will no longer be able to hear. I fear in my heart that in this society we've come to this point. We're long past it. The voice of the prophet is a mocked voice now. Not maybe entertained for a little while, several years, maybe a decade or two back, but no longer listened to. Just considered another railer on the street corner with another viewpoint of the country and of God and of the future. How it must break the heart of the Lord when people that he loved, when people that he gathered from all over the world, people who longed for freedom, when they came and they were given in a certain land, as in Hosea's day, they were brought out of captivity and they were brought by the power of God into a nation. And in that nation they were given freedom to worship. They were warned in that nation that you must turn away from the gods of the people who have previously occupied these places. Because if you don't, if you don't make a clear break from them, you're going to find you're going to eventually go in that direction. And the gods of the nation are going to so interweave themselves with the worship of the Lord Jehovah, as it was in the Old Testament, that eventually it'll no longer be discernible that it really is God. There'll be such a mixture in it. And that mixture will produce a powerlessness and a blindness and a mysterious inner blindness that even though the clouds of judgment may be right on the horizon, the people will be still talking about wonderful days ahead. In the house of God, they'll be talking about increased and never ending prosperity, not aware. Think about Belshazzar for a moment, took the holy things of God and partied with them in Babylon. And Daniel stood before Belshazzar. And he said, Belshazzar, you knew, you knew the history. You knew that God judges, even in your own house, he said, your own father came under judgment because he played with the holy things of God. He said, Belshazzar, you should have known. You've taken the holy things of the temple and you've made a party out of it. And you've sat there and you've drank to the gods of gold and silver and stone and wood, things made with men's hands. And Daniel stood there and said, now Belshazzar, the Lord has numbered your kingdom and he's finished it. It's over. But such a blindness was upon that particular generation, that even though the word of God was pronouncing the end of this kingdom, that seemingly had ruled the world for many, many years. And even though there's a pronouncement that it's over, Belshazzar commands them and says, come to Daniel, put fine robes on him, put a gold chain around his neck and make him third ruler in the kingdom. The spiritual blindness, I don't know if there's an evidence or indication of greater ignorance than that. When people are standing in the presence of the living and the holy God and unaware of the precarious situation that they're in. The Lord wants us going into the street with understanding. We have to know the hour that we're in. We're not children that are just looking for a good time. We have to understand this is a perilous moment. We have to know that as Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24, that people will be preoccupied in the last days, just prior to the coming of Christ with buying and selling and marrying and giving in marriage. It will, it will, it will so grip a society. They won't be aware of what's happening. They won't be aware when danger is right at the door. And especially if God himself even has set his hand to bring about a correction, they'll not be aware of it. Chapter 14 verse one of Hosea, O Israel, return unto the Lord, thy God, for thou has fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say to him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. And so will we render the calves or that means the praises of our lips. Asher will not save us. We will not ride upon horses. Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. You are our gods for in thee the fatherless find mercy. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? I've heard him and observed him. I'm like a green fir tree from me as thy fruit found who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them for the ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein. In other words, Hosea is saying there'll be a very clear word. There'll be a very clear revelation of God and those that are just, those that God can't speak to, those that can approach unto the Lord and say, God, I'm not here to have you fit into my agenda. I'm not here to use you as a vehicle to become what is in my heart to be, but God, I'm here for the sole purpose of yielding my life to you and to say, God, forgive me for everything I've embraced, for everywhere I go, for everything I do that is not representing you among men in this generation. I yield to you, Lord. I yield to your purposes. And the scripture tells us very clearly that those who choose to walk this way will return. They will revive. They will grow. There will be a sweet savor of Christ flowing through them in these last hours of time. They will cast away their idols. They will come to Christ and they will find him to be a green tree abounding in fruit. The glory of the Lord will be the portion of his people in this last hour of time. I know it with all my heart. I know it as surely as I stand here, the glory of the Lord, and it will not be circumstance dependent. It won't really matter if a thousand are falling at this side and 10,000 on that side. It won't really matter if the trumpet is blowing and all kinds of alarms are being raised in the nation. No, God will have a people. Their eyes will be fixed on the ways and the works of God. Their hearts will be gripped by the passion and the power of God. Their steps will be ordered in the work of God. Their hands will be about the tenderness of God. Their voices will be directing those that are terrified to where the power and the provision of God is found. Oh yes, oh yes, my friend, God will have a people in the earth. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. He will have a people in the earth. We ought not to be afraid to say, Lord, help us, cause us to return to you. Forgive us, Lord, where we've failed you. Forgive us, God, for where in our hearts we have embraced the ways of a fallen society. God Almighty, forgive us. I'm going to be among the chiefest of those there crying out to the Lord, saying, God, forgive me. Lord, for the things I see, for the things I don't see, for what I know, for what I don't know. I am part of the church of Jesus Christ. I'm part of this testimony that you wanted established in the earth in this generation. And God Almighty, I'm asking you to get out of my heart everything, Lord, that has stood in the way of your life. Everything, God, that hinders the expression of your heart to this human vessel, to this generation. Everything, God, that renders the testimony of your resurrection powerless coming out of this human vessel. God, please, Lord, take these things out of my life. God, give me the courage of Daniel to open my window and face, Lord, face God, the failings of your people, and face, God, what we've done. And face who we've become. And unashamedly turn to you, Lord, and say, God, I'm coming to you today because you're a God of mercy. Lord, when you established the temple, you wrote a song about yourself. And that song said, praise the Lord for he is good and his mercy endures forever. So, Lord, I'm coming to your mercy today. I'm coming, God, believing, Lord, that you are the God who can restore. You're the God who can heal. Lord, you're the God who will have a testimony in spite of what happens to the nations. Now, go to chapter 13, please. Hosea is speaking about what happened to the testimony of Israel. Why was God going to judge his own people? Why would God bring a people out of bondage and into a nation, call it by his name, and then judge it, and literally let it be overwhelmed by its enemies, intermingled and dispersed among the peoples of the world? What could be the reason why this kind of a thing could happen to God's own house and his own people? When Ephraim—that's Israel, that's another chapter 13, verse 1—when Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel. But when he offended in Baal, he died. When my people honored me, when there was conviction in my house, I believe there—America has not had a perfect religion. All you have to do is look back in history a hundred years, and you can see the glaring inconsistencies. But there has been an underlying seeking of God. There have been times in society where there have been great moves of God, when people could be confronted, when they could be turned back, when the voice of God could be lifted in his house, and there was a trembling. There was an awe. There was a reverence of God. There was a sense of God's holiness. Men had enough sense to know that God's ways were right and men's ways were wrong. And there was a time in this country when I'm sure you would walk in the house of the Lord, and if you were living in willful sin, you would tremble. You would tremble. Preachers preach. Now they may not have always had it right. They may have been a little heavy on the legal side, or they may have focused a little too much on certain things, but there was a trembling. There was a time in this country when you walked in the house of God, and you knew if you were living in sin, you were going to be confronted. There was a time when sinners were not comfortable in the presence of God. There was a trembling. There was a word. There was a time when old-fashioned preachers left the plow. They didn't have much education, but they went in the prayer closet, and God touched them, and they stood in pulpits. And when they stood in pulpits, the glory of God came. They didn't. They massacred the king's English half the time, and they didn't even know how to pronounce things in the Bible, but they knew who God was, and they knew who men were, and they could speak into the heart. There were seasons and times when tent meetings throughout this country, the sawdust meetings, when people would come in, and the glory of the Lord would be so in these places that people would fall on their knees and fall on their faces before a holy God. They would repent of their sins, because there was a reverence. There was an awe of a holy God. In spite of the mixture that is always part of every society, there was still a reverence for God in much of his house. When Ephraim spoke trembling, exalted himself. When there was this awe, when there was this reverence of God, the church, the testimony of the church was held in esteem in the nation. But when he offended in Baal, now Baal was the Canaanite God of the surrounding territories. Baal is the God that people without God worship. Baal is the God of provision. He's the God who sends crops into the field. He's the God who fills your cupboard, and as long as the cupboard was full, then people would could worship Baal. When we worshiped God, there was a trembling in his house. But folks, America has made a tragic mistake. The worship of Baal has come into the house of the Lord. The God of prosperity has become the God that much of the church of this age, which is a culture, that part of the country that's without God to worship prosperity. And as long as the church stood as a contrast to this, not to say that God's people should be poor, but the prosperity that God gives should have a proper focus in the alleviation of the suffering of the poor, in the relieving the oppressed, and using the resources of God to bring the kingdom of God to those who have no helper. But it all changed, and suddenly it became about us. It became about individual people. And when this came into the house of the Lord, the testimony of God died. Died, folks. The testimony of God is almost dead in this country. Just because 50,000 people attend some church somewhere, does not mean that God is even there any longer. If there is no conviction of sin, if there is no burden to let go of the things of this world and to walk with the Holy God, I'm telling you the Holy Spirit is not there. I don't care how many people attend. I don't care how fancy it is. I don't care how much money it has. God is not there when there's no conviction of sin. When sinners come in and they're not challenged to turn from all of the pursuits of the natural life and heart, the Lord has left the place. And now he says they sin more and more, verse two, and have made them molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding. All the work of craftsmen. And they say that, let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. In other words, now it's all the work of craftsmen. Have you noticed much of American religion today is always crafting some new image of God. Always crafting, always fastening, always looking for some new thing because they've really abandoned the cross. And they say to the people constantly, they're not called men of God. They're not holy men of God. They're not, they're not separated men of God. They're not men who challenge the people of their behavior and their lifestyle. No, they just fashion these constant images that are palatable to the masses. And they say, come now, worship this, the brand new image of God. And let's call him Jesus. Let's worship him. Never confronts your sin. Doesn't require holiness of you. Doesn't require that you take up your cross and follow him. We'll prosper. You will give you a great destiny. We'll make you into an important person and et cetera, et cetera. Verse three says, therefore, shall they be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passes away and the chap that's driven with the whirlwind out of the floor and as the smoke out of the chimney. When difficulty comes and folks, we're heading into some incredibly stormy waters. People will run to them because they promised the drink of God as it is, but the clouds will have passed away. They promise weight or weightiness, but adversity will drive them out of the house of God. They promised the fire of God, but they're just no more than smoke coming out of a chimney driven by the wind and will be dissipated. I see much of what calls itself the church of Jesus Christ in this country will be soon driven to the wind by adversity. He said in verse four, yet I'm the Lord, your God from the land of Egypt. You shall know no God but me for there's no savior beside me. I knew you in the wilderness in the land of great drought. How it must break the heart of God. How it must break his heart. All the people that came to this country. So many were persecuted. A lot of people were persecuted in their own lands because of they wanted to believe in God and walk with God. And he says, I saw you in the wilderness in the place of great drought and I brought you here. And verse six says, according to their pastor, they were filled and their heart was exalted and they forgotten me. I brought you to this place where you were free to pursue life and liberty and happiness. You were free to worship me and I blessed you here, but you forgot me. What a tragedy to be living in such a time. What a heartbreak. Therefore I'll be unto them as a lion and as a leopard by the way, I'll observe them. I'll meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps and will rend the call of their heart. And there will I devour them like a lion and the wild beast shall tear them. Oh, Israel, you've destroyed yourself, but in me is your help. The Lord says outcome to you like a bear that has lost her greatest treasure. The Lord doesn't judge because there's any delight in his heart, but he looks down and he sees what was supposed to be his heritage and says, I can't let this go on any longer. I can't let this forest that calls itself the temple of God go on any longer. I can't let these people, I can't let them any longer pursue this path that is going to lead them into hell. Folks, just shortly, just a few weeks ago in a major city in this country, there was a huge meeting of Christian leaders gathered together and in this, enough to almost fill a stadium. And in this particular gathering, I'm not aware of one born again, Bible believing speaker that spoke to these pastors. I got a letter from a pastor that was there and he said, my heart was broken. My heart was pounding. And he said, Oh my God, does anybody around me see what's happening to us here? We, we put men in the pulpit that are headed for hell and that we're putting them up as role models of success in the Christian church because they have power and influence and authority. Try to tell me that the Canaanite culture is not in the house of God in our generation. Try to tell me that we've not fallen to the idols of this, of this society that where people just lust after power. They lust after recognition and fame and money and don't care what it takes to get there. As pastors sit there, mesmerized, listening to unsaved men, teach them the principles of success in the kingdom of God. Men who are headed for hell are teaching the church folks. You destroyed yourself. He said, Israel, but I was there to help you all along. I will be your King verse 10. Where is any other that may save you in all your cities and your judges of whom you said, give us, give me a King and a Prince. I gave you a King in my anger and I took him away in my wrath. The iniquity of a frame is bound up. His sin is hid. In other words, it's gotten so deep now that no reasoning will take it out. The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He's an unwise son. He should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. Another translation says it this way. He's so entrenched in his way of doing things that even though I bring upon him the pains of labor, he will not come forth into new birth. So stubborn, so set on his view of God, his legitimate right as he sees it to this pursuit of himself. So stubborn that though I cause pain, though I clearly speak, though the heavens, though the earth, though everything around begins to shake, he will not come forth because he has so entrenched himself in stubbornness against the ways of God. Verse 14, I'll ransom them from the power of the grave. I'll redeem them from death. Oh, death, I'll be thy plagues. Oh, grave, I'd be thy destruction. Now, this is not really a good translation in the King James because what it really says when you read other translations, I would have ransomed them from the power of the grave. I would have redeemed them from death. I would have stayed your plagues. I would have destroyed the grave, but now repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come. The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry. His fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. Samaria shall become desolate for she has rebelled against her God, and they shall fall by the sword. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. Unthinkable to the people of that generation. And they'd be sitting there like you're sitting here today saying, who is this man that he dares speak to us this way? Who is this man that he speaks such words when we are at the zenith of prosperity, which they were when Hosea began to prophesy, that we have formed political alliances that are guaranteeing us security in the future. We seemingly have it all together. We've got a plan to get out of every situation we find ourselves in. Who is this man now to stand here and tell us that such calamity is coming into our society? Folks, he said your children are going to be overcome, and the women with child shall be ripped up. And if that doesn't speak about abortion and selfishness so gripping a nation that a river of blood now is flowing. Don't think for a second God doesn't see this. Don't try to tell me that women with children are not being ripped up by the thousands now every day. And don't tell me that there's not an accounting for this. There's no delight in the heart of God in judging a place that was precious to his heart. When we stand before the Lord on September the 20th, Hosea said, O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you've fallen by your iniquity. Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say to him, take away all iniquity. You and I have to stand before the Lord. And folks, it's now not about necessarily saving a nation. Now it's about the church. It's the testimony of the church is at stake now. And that testimony is in a body. It's that testimony is in your life and it's in my life. And you and I've got to stand there. And really the tenure of the prayer meeting will be set by this congregation. Whether you understand that or not, the tenure of it will be set by this congregation. And you and I have to stand there and say, O God almighty, take away all iniquity. We must not stand in smugness. We must not stand thinking we've achieved everything or that we know it all. We don't. We don't. Are the sick being healed when you lay hands on them? Is every devil fleeing now when you open your mouth? Are we not sore to the glory of God as well? Is it not a thing or some things in you and in me that might be hindering the power of God? We've got to go before the Lord and say, God, take away iniquity. Lord, where I've embraced something, where I have a view of myself that's not in line with the kingdom of heaven, where I have pursuits, God, that are bringing weakness, where I've something hidden under my tent that is bringing weakness into the camp of Israel. God almighty, take away iniquity. Forgive me, Lord. Forgive me, God, because I should be standing. And when I stand, people's knees should be bending. The glory of God should be in my life. And that's you too, not just me, all of us corporately in this city. The glory of the Lord should be flowing through his church again. Take away iniquity and receive us graciously. God, help me to understand grace. Help me to understand that I can come. Like the prodigal son, I can come. Even if I'm far away, I can come, God. I can come into your presence. I'm invited to your throne. You told me to knock. You told me to seek. You told me to ask. I am invited. I'm here by legitimate right through the blood of Jesus Christ. Oh God, take me to that place of grace. Take me to that place where I'm changing into the image and the glory of God is being revealed and released in my soul and through my life. And oh God, there I will praise you. There I will lift up my voice. There, God, in spite of what's going on in the left or the right hand of me, oh God, I will give praise to you. The Lord says, I'm looking for this. When I gather my people to pray, I'm looking for this. It's not all about the land, folks. It's about you and it's about me now. It's about the testimony of the church of Jesus Christ. Verse three says, Asher will not save us. In other words, no political process, no plans of man, nothing, nothing, nothing of this world or this society will save us. We will not ride upon horses. In other words, we're giving up our own plans. We're not going to walk in pride. We're coming humbly before you, God. Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. You are our gods. For in thee, the fatherless find mercy. God, I've needed your mercy. And Lord, as you touch me with mercy, I now understand that I am called in this world to be an ambassador of this mercy to others. I'm called, Lord, to pick up that that nobody else wants. I'm called, O God. I'm called, Father. Remember the prophet Malachi said in the last days, God will come through the prophet Elijah or that that anointing, that Elijah type anointing, and turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children again and the children to their fathers. Lord, I'm not called to live this life for myself. I'm not called to be self-consumed. I'm not called just to seek out some comfortable place in this world and ride out the storm until I get to heaven. I'm called to go to the fatherless. Folks, children should not suffer in this world. It's not right that children suffer. Folks, it isn't right. And you and I've got to do everything in our power to make a difference. We, I thank God, we're now feeding 4,500 children every day as a congregation. But that's only the beginning of what God wants to do. In thee, the fatherless find mercy. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. As you and I, the body of Christ, begin to reach out to the oppressed and the afflicted and the addicted and those that have no helper, as we look away from ourselves and begin to look to what the work of God in the earth really is. He says, I'll heal their backsliding. That's God's part. My part is to come and say, God, forgive me. God's part is says, I'll heal their backsliding. I will love them freely and my anger will be turned away from him. I'll be as the dew to Israel and he will grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. The Lord says, the beauty of Christ will be upon you. Your roots will go down deep. And in spite of whatever storm comes to this nation, you will be able to stand as the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. His branches will spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine and the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. The Lord says, I'll put the scent of my presence upon you. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Folks, you understand today it's about the church now. It's about the church now. It's about the testimony of Christ. All else may fail, but the testimony of Christ cannot be shaken. Only that which cannot be shaken, the scripture says is going to remain. Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? I've heard him. I've observed him. I'm like a green fir tree. For me is thy fruit found. No more, no more living apart from God. No more embracing my own homemade concept of God. I'm going to follow the Christ of the scriptures. I'm going to allow him to speak to my heart, and I'm going to enter into his work in the earth. He says to this bride, I'm like a green fir tree, and for me is thy fruit found. Who is wise? And he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them. Those who know God are going to make a choice and say, Lord, take away all iniquity. And God, take my life. Make me solid in the knowledge of Christ. And in this last hour of time, use me for your glory. May I be the father that's embracing those that are trying to come home. May I be the voice of encouragement that so many in this generation have never heard. May I learn to live outside of myself and in the love and the life of my savior, Jesus Christ. Help me to make the break from the cultural religion of America. Help me, God, to understand that I'm not called to use you for myself. I'm called, oh God, to be poured out for you for the sake of others. The ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them. But transgressors will fall there. Those who try to press into God, and I don't care how long they pray, it makes no difference if they put a million in the street. You could put 30 million people in the street. But if we're not willing to walk in the ways of God, David the psalmist said it this way, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. It'll just be a lot of noise out in public, but the Lord will not hear it. But if you and I are willing to walk in the ways of God, there's a great harvest to be won now. I'm not, I'm not suggesting that our prayer will save the nation, folks, but I am telling you that there's a great harvest, a wonderful harvest for God, an incredible opportunity to stand strong in a dark hour, an invitation to be partakers of a life that cannot be shaken and of a heart that is nothing of this world, to represent God and to walk with God in perhaps what will be one of the darkest hours of human history. The invitation is open. The Lord says, come to me and pray this way, and if you do, I will come to you, love you freely, give you strength, plant you deep, and there will be those who come and dwell under the shadow of my life that will be lived in and through yours. Now, Father, I thank you, God. You have enabled me to speak this, and I have delivered your heart. Lord, as a church and as a pastor in this church, I'm asking you, Father, take away iniquity in any area of my heart that I have offended you. I'm asking you, Lord, that you draw me to the throne of grace and give me the courage to put it away, where I have fallen short of what you've called me to be, where I'm selfish, where I have not allowed you to do what you want to do with me. If I've held to something that you want to take away, forgive me. I'm asking God Almighty that when we stand in the street, that you could come, that you could say, this is my people, that as the prodigal son, you could run down the road and meet us and embrace us, that prayer meetings could be birthed all through the city, the pastors could be encouraged, that life could come, that you break the bands of this culture of religion in America. Break it, God, off of your house, and let there be a testimony of truth in this last hour of time. Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart. Lord Jesus Christ, we are prepared now to come before you. We thank you for it in your precious name. Amen. We're going to worship for a little while, and as we do, here's my altar call. Please hear me in this. Everyone living in willful sin, everyone living in compromise, every person who can honestly say here today, I've only got half a heart to serve God. I'm willing to entertain the thought of God as long as it fits within my agenda, but I've never entertained going farther than what would make me comfortable. If you are willing, if you are willing to say, oh God, deliver me from this iniquity, forgive me, Lord. Why should the last day church finish different than the first day? Why should the early church be called to go out public and lay their lives on the line, and we be a different, we be different in our generation. For those that are just willing, I'm going to the street on September the 20th with a cry in my heart, God Almighty, forgive me, forgive your people. If you're willing to see 2 Chronicles 7, 14 is not just a fanciful scripture we quote in a prayer meeting. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land. It starts with you, it starts with me. I will not be in the street with arrogance in my heart. If you're willing to join and be that kind of a person and come with that kind of prayer, then I invite you to this altar. Everyone who's got racism in their heart, you'd better put it away now. If you don't, that's going to swallow you in the days ahead. You're going to be defenseless against the onslaught of darkness. You've got to put it away, and I know you've got all your list of grievances, but so does God against you, and he put yours away, so now you put your list of grievances away. Let's stand in the annex. You can stand between the screens of the main sanctuary. The Holy Spirit's speaking to you. Please just come as we worship. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. We need you. We need you, God. We need you. We repent. Oh God. We hear you calling. We hear you calling. We hear you, God. God, we cast all our cares on you, every concern. Oh God, everything that has gripped our hearts, everything that has held us to this point, that has held back your glory from lowering our lives, from flowing freely through us to this generation, to our families, to our neighbors, to our co-workers. Deliver us from carnality. Deliver us from worldliness. Deliver us from the intoxications of this age. We cry out to you, oh God. We cry out to you. God, we thank you for your mercy. Thank you that your mercies are new every morning. Today we extend, oh God, our hearts, Lord, our faith to you, Lord, and we embrace your invitation, God, to go deeper, to go further, to come up higher. God, thank you that you will finish the work you began in us. God, we're believing you for our families. We're believing you for this generation. We're believing you, Lord, for our neighbors, for our co-workers, for our employers. We're believing you for those that, Lord, travel with us, that commute with us, those that we see every day, oh God. Lord, in the buses, in the subways, on the train platforms, oh God, flow through us now. Flow through us. Draw us after you that we might run together. You said, how can two walk together unless they agree? We agree with you, God. We agree with you, Lord. We agree, oh God. Continue to break our hearts, Lord. God, that we would see the devastation around us, that we would willfully give our lives, lay down our rights, that you might be glorified. Be glorified, oh God. Be glorified in our homes. Be glorified in the lives of our children. Don't let them go to hell, oh God, because of our shortcomings, our failings. God, thank you, Jesus. You won't let that happen, oh God. We turn now, God. We turn. We turn. We turn to you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Be glorified. Be glorified. You must increase, God. We must decrease. You come. You come. Come and glorify your name in us. Come and glorify your name in our marriages, oh God. Glorify your name in our conversations. Let our lives praise you. Open your word to us. We would behold wondrous things. We want to be found sitting at your feet like Mary. Deliver us from being cumbered about, oh God, with much to do with nothing. Give us the treasures of heaven. Because, Jesus, we want more of you, God. More of you. God, we thank you now. We thank you now. We thank you now. We thank you. We begin to thank you. Begin to bless you, for faithful is he that calls you and he will do it. Father, thank you, Lord, for God for comforting us today. You tell us that when we turn to you that you will cause our roots to go down deep, Lord, you'll cause the fruit of your life in us to abound. You'll give us the strength to stand when others are not standing any longer. You'll deliver us, God, from everything that would take away our strength. Lord, that's the only reason you bring this kind of a word to us, Lord. You love us. You want us to stand in the coming days. Lord, thank you, God, that you're willing to take us by the hand. You're willing to guide us through, Lord, these storms. And as Paul the Apostle, we will stand and give glory to your name no matter what comes our way, God. We will glorify your name. I thank you for supernatural strength that you give to your church, Lord, your beloved, your bride, God. Those that are yours are supernaturally empowered to stand in the midst of any darkened day. We thank you, God. I thank you, Lord, for the honesty in this sanctuary today, for men and women who are willing to come before your throne and say, Oh, God, forgive us, Lord. God be our strength. God, help us to follow your ways. Lord, you say, I'll come to you. I will come to you. I will give you that strength. Father, we thank you for this and we praise you. This is a good day, God. We give you praise for it. We give you glory for it in Jesus' mighty name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.