This sermon is a powerful call to come out of a place of disappointment and unfulfilled hopes, symbolized by 'Had-Hoped Street,' and return to the place of victory and power in Christ. It emphasizes the need to shift focus from self-centered living to being given for the benefit of others, leading to a genuine encounter with the living Christ and a transformation of purpose. The message highlights the importance of tarrying in prayer for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be effective witnesses in a darkened world.

And I want to share a message this morning that I spoke earlier this week at the Revival Services at our Bible School, Summit International School of Ministry. And I felt in my heart that it would be beneficial to people online and here in the sanctuary to hear this message as well. It's from Luke chapter 24, if you can go there, Luke chapter 24, if you have your Bible or tablet or whatever it is that you're using. And it's called Living on Had-Hoped Street, where the worship song is God Was, Living on Had-Hoped Street. Now, Father, God Almighty, I thank you for the anointing of your spirit. I thank you for your presence, Lord. I thank you for the joy that must first be in your heart before it can ever be experienced by us. I thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in this generation, even though there are many who can't see it yet. God, you are doing something more profound than we could even hope or ask for. Father, I just thank you, Lord, that you will speak to our hearts this day. You'll give people the opportunity, the chance to get up and get out of where you are not and to get to where you are. Lord, thank you, God, for the anointing of your spirit. Thank you for the strength that you give, God, every time we come to listen or every time I come to speak, Lord. It's your strength that constantly overrides our frailty. So Lord, speak to our hearts, even if we're fearful today, unbelieving or doubtful or confused. Speak to every heart. Speak to everyone who's living in the wrong place, especially now at this time when you're calling your people home. And Father, I thank you for it in Jesus' name. Luke chapter 24, beginning at verse 13. This is three days after Jesus Christ was crucified. Now, behold, two of them were traveling the same day, verse 13, to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. So this is a type, before I even start this, it's a type of travel. It's a type of the persons who are actually walking away from the place of victory. There was an incredible victory won in Jerusalem on the cross for them, but they didn't realize it. They didn't know it. They didn't fully understand it. Their viewpoint, perhaps up to that point of walking with Jesus Christ, was other than where truth was trying to lead them. Every person had an idea of what the kingdom of God was going to look like, what the victory that was being spoken about, how it was going to play out. And when it didn't go the way they thought it should go, then they were disappointed and they walked away from that place of victory and they were heading in the opposite direction. Verse 14, and they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were restrained so that they did not know him. And he said to them, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, are you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have not known these things which have happened there in these days? And he said to them, what things? Now that's an interesting question for he knew what had happened. They didn't know what had happened. He knew the power of hell had been broken. He knew that sin had been paid for. He knew that an entrance had been made into the kingdom of God, the forgiveness of God. He knew what happened. They didn't know what happened. So they said to him, the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty indeed in the word of God before all the people and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we were hoping in the original King James, it uses the words, but we had hoped that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes. And certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished us when they did not find his body. They came saying that they'd also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him, they did not see. Then he said to them, oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and enter into his glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone farther, but they constrained him saying, abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. And he went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass as he sat at the table with them, that he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road and while he opened the scriptures to us? I find that so interesting. You know, it's as if people disappeared at their dining table every day to these two guys. Wouldn't you think that might be Jesus when he handed you bread and just went poof and disappeared from your dining room table? Nevertheless, the human heart can get very confused. So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11. And those who were with them gathered together saying, the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And they told about the things that had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. As they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and suppose they had seen a spirit and he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet, but while they still did not believe for joy and marveled, he said to them, do you have any food here? So they gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me. And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. Then he said to them, thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. Living on Hadhope Street, can't think of the numbers of people listening today who will be listening to this message in the future online across the nation, be hearing it on the radio across the nation. You started out with such fervor and such fire for the kingdom of God and now you find yourself living on Hadhope Street. Now Hadhope is an easy street to find. There are thousands of people who live there and the neighborhood has open arms to welcome anybody who wants to go there. It intersects with the too late lane. Remember they said it's the third day. I guess we hung around for one day, two days. By the third day, nothing was happening and we figured, well, it's too late. Despair Drive and Bitterness Boulevard. To get there, just take the personal excuse expressway and get off anywhere you feel like. Hadhope Street is a very, very, very, very long street. Matter of fact, in America, it stretches from coast to coast. It's that long of a street. To begin your journey, all you have to do is just read, study the word of God, listen to its directions for your life and go in the opposite direction to where it's trying to lead you. Try to craft a Jesus in your own mind that is not the Jesus of the Bible. Try to make it say what it's not saying. Focus just on the promises and none of the conditions, only the blessings and none of the costs, and you will find Hadhope Street before you know it. Hadhope Street has churches on every corner. Every corner. Yes, verse 22 says, certain women of our company arrived at the tomb early and astonished us. When they did not find his body, they came saying they'd also seen visions of angels or messengers who said he was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see. People go to church on Hadhope Street every week where messengers tell them Jesus is alive, but nobody, not even the messenger can see him. It's really just a history lesson. There's no present reality of God. There's nothing that causes an explosion of faith in the heart. There's nothing that causes that burning in the heart as it is of passion for truth, of a sense of calling, a destiny that God has for their lives that causes men and women to get up from this place and go to where God is calling them to be. The churches on Hadhope Street are very, very big on revival. Matter of fact, preach us happy. Preacher is a common theme. How do I know? I used to travel that road. I was one of the young pastors who had a spark of life in my heart and because of it, because of the work that we were involved in, in our part of Canada was prospering. The doors to other churches began to open. They began to invite me in. I can't tell you how many times I was introduced this way. Tonight, the preacher is going to preach us happy. Well, it was a veiled threat because what they were really saying, introducing me, you don't preach us happy. You're not coming back here, son. Make us happy. I felt like somebody invited into the locker room of a baseball team. Their entire season, they'd had no hits. They had no errors they were aware of and there was nobody left on base calling me to say, make us feel good about ourselves. I remember going into churches. No youth are left. The youth are all gone. The facility is crystal clear and clean because there's nobody from the area that's struggling or suffering that's been invited in and they're sitting there dying, asking me, make us happy, preacher. Make us feel good about ourselves again. The obsession with feeling good is due to the fact that they're in reality very inwardly sad when they're not pretending to be happy. Jesus said to them in verse 17, what kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? There's nothing more difficult or heartbreaking than having to go to church on had hoped road and pretend that you have the victory and there's lots of people out there. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Your heart is breaking inside, but you have to be happy copy. When you go in, you have to play the game. You have to pretend like everybody else that you can see Jesus when nobody can see him in your midst deep inside, there's this ache that says, why did the Christian life turn out this way? How did we start so full and end up so empty? How did God's word become such a mystery? And the things that I did understand about it, I felt that God was asking something of me that I knew I couldn't give. It can be a really despairing place when you live and attend a church like that. But the good news is that if you find yourself today living in this place, Jesus has not abandoned you. Praise God. This brings such delight into my heart. I'm hearing something from him. He's going after his church. He's going after his people, no matter where we have found ourselves, no matter what kind of disillusionment has gotten a hold of our hearts. You know what I love about Jesus Christ? I love everything. But this fact, this one fact, he's now risen from the dead. It's the third day. He's got 11 disciples back in Jerusalem. He's got hundreds that are waiting to see him gathering around a promise. He leaves all of them and heads out on this seven-mile journey to get a hold of two guys. We don't even know their names. They're not really big in biblical history. But he leaves all of that and goes after them. Doesn't that bring gladness into your heart? Doesn't give hope to your heart that it's not just a numbers game with Jesus? It's about you. It's about people. It's about every person who ever trusted in him, even if their trust in him for a season was misguided. He will leave the 90 and 9 and go after the one that's wandering on the mountains. And he is going after those who have not fully understood some of the things of his kingdom in our time. He will walk with you and he'll talk with you again. But I'll tell you one thing he will not do. He will not validate your fruitfulness or fruitlessness, may I say, and he will not confirm your error. It's amazing. When he gets up close to them, he calls them, oh, foolish ones. In the original King James, he calls them fools. Oh, fools and slow of heart to believe. You know, if Jesus was standing in this pulpit today and he called and I was sitting down where you are and he looked at us and called us fools, can you handle that? For real. What if he did? What if he said, oh, foolish and slow of heart to believe all the things that have been spoken? Now in their case, it was about his death, his burial and his resurrection. But in our case, it's about the life that he has promised us in himself. It's about the calling. It's about the power to perform that calling. It's about this new song, this new heart, this new mind, this new joy. It's about the journey that God has prescribed for us. And what if we can't hear it? What if we have chosen not to hear it? What if it's been clearly spoken, but we've just sort of pushed it away and said, no, that can't be me. That has to be somebody else. In verse 28, the scripture says, they drew near to a village where they were going and he indicated that he would have gone farther. And the point really is that Jesus will not force himself on you. He will not. He'll draw near to you, but he will not force himself. He will indicate I've come to get you. And there may be even somebody listening this morning. Jesus has come to get you, but he won't force himself on you. He is not that kind of a savior. The decision you make is a personal one and it's a private one. In verse 29, it says, but they constrained him saying, abide with us for it's toward evening and the day is far spent. And he went in to stay with them. You see, you have to want him to abide at your present home, wherever that is. He's not offended if there's struggle in your home, he's not offended if there's confusion in your life. He's willing to abide. Revelation chapter three, verse 20, the scripture talks about a church that had kind of more or less settled in for less than what their true inheritance really was. And he said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man opens the door, I will come in. I will sit down and sup with him. And he would, in other words, I'll sit down at dinner. I'll sit down at the table. That's what he did with the men on the road to Emmaus. That's what he did when he appeared in the upper room to his own disciples. He sat down and ate with them just as he said he would. I will sit with you. I'll fellowship with you. I'm not offended by the struggle in your home. I'm not offended by the difficulty in your marriage. I'm not offended by the problems you're experiencing and walking in victory. I'm not offended by these things. I've come to get you. And you see, these men said they didn't know who it was they were talking to, but they constrained him. They said, stay with us because it's getting dark. The day is coming to an end and that's got to be the cry of this modern day church era we're living in. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus, come to my heart, to my home and abide with me because the day is getting dark and the hour of your return is drawing near. And I don't want to be living on had hoped street. I don't want to be going to had hoped church. I want to know you. I want to know again what your purpose is for my life. I want to understand things that I don't understand right now. I want to know I've gone through a season of heartache and they had, I've gone through a season of confusion and they had, I've gone through a season of people telling me that you're alive, but they don't see you and neither do I. And I'm tired of it. I want a living relationship with the living God. That's what I want now with all my heart. I want your presence in my home. I want your promises to explode inside of my heart. I want to have faith for the future. I want to know the reason why I'm still alive on the earth. I want to live to see my sons and daughters come back home and serve you as they should serve you. I constrained you. You see, without that, there really in many people's lives won't be a victory. There's got to be that desperation. And some people see it as a, an undesirable place. But in reality, that's where everyone needs to get to now. In this generation, we're now leaving, living in and leaving. Verse 30 and 31 says, it came to pass, he sat at the table with them. He took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. In other words, something happened at that moment where their spiritual eyes were opened. I can just see them. You see, there's no electricity there. They've got candlelight at the table and he's on the other side of the table and they're having a meal together. And he's, he's trying to speak to them and they're trying to hear it. I can just see them straining across the table saying, help us to understand. Why did something that started out in our view so victorious end up so horrific? Would you tell us what happened? What happened to you? You could feed the thousands. You could walk on water. You could raise the dead. You could give the blind sight. We know you had all power and all authority and yet you let them lead you away. Beat you to a point that we couldn't even recognize you. Then nail you to a cross. And you were seemingly powerless to do anything about it, at least in our sight. So help us to understand. The scripture says that he took the bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to them. And I was immediately reminded, reading that, where Paul says, this is what we've received from the Lord. That the night he was betrayed, he took bread and broke it and gave it to them and said, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And I happen to believe, I feel in my heart there was a spiritual understanding that happened to them at that moment. Oh, we now understand. You were broken for us. And you are inviting us to be broken for others. That I'm not, the Christian life is not just about me filling my cupboard, singing good songs, feeling happy about myself. The Christian life, my purpose on the earth, as we say in our Bible school at Summit, is to live for the benefit of others. And when that bread touched their hands, when the bread touched their hands, when we open the book and we finally say, God, this is not all about me. This is about others. You died for me. You gave your body for me. And you're asking me to allow my dreams, my plans, even my fears, whatever's necessary to be broken, that you might live out through this temple, which is now your Holy Spirit, this continuing plan of reaching out to the lost, the wounded, the hurting, the confused, and the dying in this world that we're now living in. God, I understand now. I understand the keys that I couldn't see before. Because, you see, most people who follow Jesus up to the point of the cross, it was really all just about themselves, arguing about who's going to be at the left hand of Christ, who's going to be at the right, arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God, wanting to have the power to make bread. All these things were part of their understanding. And yet when he died on a cross, they were left in a tailspin because it didn't fit their personal view. So they rose up that very hour. The scripture says they returned to Jerusalem and found, you see, they went back. It was the self-focus that led them to Had Hope Street. If you're only reading the Bible, folks, for what you can get out of it for yourself, Had Hope Street has your name on a door somewhere. Eventually, that's where you'll be led. And you'll be led there by the mercy of God because God himself will not allow a wrong focus or empty profession to prosper. Eventually, a sorrow will come into your heart. So they rose up, they returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 and those who were with them gathered together, saying, the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And they told him about the things that happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of bread. Now, as they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, Peace be to you. As they got their focus right, as they began to live their lives for the benefit of others, as they took that first step and began to speak about their encounter with the living Christ, he came into view. You see, folks, when we are given for people, we're not just at their door throwing a pamphlet in their face. We're not just arguing and trying to get our point across and dominate theirs. But when we walk across that hall or to that desk or on the other side of the table and we are in our hearts given completely for them, even in their confusion at this moment, Jesus comes into view again. Praise be to God. Oh, I love that thought with all my heart. That's been the cry of my heart for years as a Christian and especially as somebody who stands in a pulpit to represent Christ as best as I know how. You've heard me prayed for years in this pulpit. Jesus, help me to disappear that you may appear. Help me, God, to just be a voice and suddenly another voice overshadows it, that you appear, that people's hearts begin to burn within them, that hope comes out of hopelessness and clear vision out of misdirection, that, Lord, it would be you that would be seen. God Almighty, the absolute stupidity of preachers who drop to themselves. In verse 49, after eating with them again, he began to explain to them mysteries. He sat down, unoffended. Unoffended that Peter had cursed himself with an oath, saying, I don't know the man. Unoffended that John who ran out of the garden naked when he promised he would never forsake him. Unoffended by the failures of the people, he sat down, showing them again that he had been given for them and was calling them now to be given for others. And then he said at the end of his discussion, you're the witnesses of these things, and I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high. I'm going to give you the power, he said, to accomplish all that I have called you to do. You see, we can't fully know the power of God until we are released to the purpose of God. We can talk about it. We can pretend the power of God is in our midst, and we can go off on all kinds of tangents. But the power of God comes to those of us who determined that we are going to be given for the lost and dying of this generation, whatever that means and wherever it leads. Verse 33 says, they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem. They rose up that very hour and returned. Oh, God, help us. God, help us to get up and get home where we belong. God, help us to get up out of places we don't belong. God, help us to leave these places that just talk always week after week after week after week after week about a risen Christ that nobody sees. God, help us. It doesn't mean you have to physically leave where you are. You just simply constrain Him in your home. Open this Bible again. Read the book of John. Read it as it's written. I want to challenge and encourage people who are living on Had Hope Street to get up and move. God is. We heard it just before I got up to speak. God is. They rose up that very hour. And I can just see as they rise up from Had Hope Street and people say, hey, where are you going? And they say, I found a new home on Resurrection Road near Sunshine Crossing, Clearview Crescent, and Destiny Drive. And people say, what about all your stuff that you've accumulated here? Keep it or give it away. I'm not coming back. I don't need it anymore. You can come with me if you want, but I'm not going to stay here any longer. I'm not coming back to you. You're welcome to join me, but I'm getting up. I'm going back to the place of the cross. I'm going back to where the victory was won. I'm going back to where the power of God really is. I'm going back to where men and women are gathered together. They don't have it all together. They're not the best and the brightest that the kingdom of God has ever produced, but they've learned this one thing. They are staying in a place of prayer until the power of God comes upon them to be witnesses. They have a promise that they're going to be witnesses throughout the world. They're not looking to follow Jesus for what they can get for themselves. The hour is dark. The day is late. They are believing that God is going to give them power to be witnesses set upon a hill in a darkened time that cannot be hidden from this generation by the grace of Almighty God. I don't know about you this morning, but I see a lot of people coming home. Oh, praise God. The moving trucks are heading there now. They're coming home. By God's grace, they're coming home. God's people are coming home. Praise be to God. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Jesus. I hope that everybody here and within the sound of my voice is done with living on Had Hope Street, living in a place of having to pretend you're happy, pretending you're fulfilled, where the longer you live there, the sadder you become, the more questions and not answers come into your mind, the more you're sick and tired about hearing about this living Jesus that you haven't seen for years. Tired of it. You're getting up, and you're coming home. In Jerusalem is the cross. In Jerusalem is the tomb. In Jerusalem is the prayer meeting. In Jerusalem is the victory over sin and death. In Jerusalem is the promise of the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead, quickening our mortal bodies. In Jerusalem is the prayer meeting again. Praise God. That is, we simply obey God and tarry for the right reasons. Remember, they were tarrying to be given the power of God to be witnesses. Living witnesses of the living Christ. Christ in them. The hope of glory. Not you and I presenting Christ. Christ, Jesus, presenting himself through us. When you and I understand what our lives are to be, Jesus comes into view all over again. This generation doesn't need another Had Hope Church on Had Hope Street. This generation needs the living Christ again. By the grace of almighty God. Praise God. So, Father, I thank you, Lord, for this day. I thank you, God, for the hour is late. You are coming soon. You are promising oil to those of us who need it now. You are calling us into something deeper than perhaps most of us have ever known. You are calling us to be given to a generation that fight against their own salvation. Hate the God who redeemed them. But yet that early church made a difference among them. And many bent their knee to you, Jesus. God, help us to come home. Help us, Lord. Help us to come back. Help us to turn around and go back to Jerusalem. Even to the place where your people are. And say, the Lord has appeared to me. And he showed me something. And he spoke to my heart. And I understand the purpose of my life now. Oh, God, let it be. God, let it be. In Jesus' name. I'm going to give an altar call. Listen carefully to me. Everybody here, Main Sanctuary, Annex, over in North Jersey, and at home, we have over 500 home fellowships that are part of this church now. For everybody who's living in a place of had hoped. And you know, sometimes it can be, there's a lot of definitions of that boulevard or that street. I had hope once that God would use my life. I had hope that this or that would happen in my life. See, when you're living for Christ, had hoped is never your testimony. He is a present hope. He's a real hope. He's a living hope. And he can take nothing, nothing, and make something out of it. He can take the most barren place in your life and produce life that can only be attributed to him. So I choose not to live in the had hoped street. It's a choice that we have to make. We have to get up and come home together. I call to every church across America, as much as to this sanctuary today, get up and come home. Come home. The living Christ is willing to meet you. Let's lay down our regrets and our fears and struggles and even our self-loathing. Let's just lay it all down. Lay it all down. Say, Lord, if you want me, I'm yours. If you want to take me to a whole other place that I've not even seen before, then I yield to it. Take me there. If you want to give me things to glorify your name, if you want to glorify your name through me in a new way, then I ask you to do it, Lord. It's really just up to you. I am asking you to come in because the day is dark and the hour is short. Please, Jesus. Please, Jesus, open my eyes. Open my eyes and let me see you again. If that's the cry of your heart, I'm going to ask you to just get out of your seat in a moment. Go to either exit in the balcony or the main sanctuary and the annex as well. You can stand between the screens. Let this altar today, the front of the sanctuary, be your first step to coming home, your first step to just getting back, your first step to trusting God again, even though your early church experience might have been not very pleasant. I choose to trust God again. I choose. Can we sing that song? I choose to trust God again. Can we, please? Can we do that? Why not trust God again? That's what Leaving Head Hope Street is all about. I'm going to trust you, Lord. I'm going to give you my broken heart, my broken dreams, my feeling of confusion. I'm just going to give it all to you, God, and ask you to open my eyes. Just join this gentleman who's coming. Let's all stand. Just join those that are coming, and we'll meet here in just a moment and we'll pray. Just slip out of your seat in the balcony. Go to either exit, the main sanctuary, and we're going to pray. By God's grace, we're going to pray. Praise God. I just want to give thanks to the Lord for everybody who, in their heart, you may not physically be here, but in your heart, you've been able to respond to what you heard today. Because the thought of giving ourselves for the benefit of others is almost countercultural to what's been taught in much of the American Christianity in the last couple of decades. But it nevertheless is the truth. And if you open your heart to it and ask God to reveal it to you, he'll show it to you. And there's great joy in being finally released from our own viewpoint of what the Christian life should be, released from playing the game of happy to being happy. A whole new value system comes into your heart. And it really is interesting that we're dedicating babies this morning because that's what it's all about. It's about others. That's what dedicating children's about. We're taking... They can't take themselves. We're going to take them with us. We're going to live in a way that they'll be able to find Christ as their Savior. That's the cry of the church. May I live in the way that people around me can find Christ. May Jesus appear as I let him do what he does through my life. May people see him, not me or you, but him. May he appear in the room. I love the fact that God set this whole thing up. He went and got these two guys and brought them back, and they were the ones who announced his resurrection appearing. You understand? When you begin to see it, just ordinary people who are confused accepted the calling to be given as he was. And as they began to speak, he appeared. Oh, God. Oh, God, may that be our portion now. I do pray for my brothers and sisters, Lord, at this altar, and for all of us, my own heart included, Lord. God, that we would have the grace that it takes, Lord, to look outside of ourselves and to look to others. Lord, and it's so undesirable to the world, just as the cross was to the men of that generation. But, God, it's the power of God. Your word says the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to we who are saved, it is the power of God. And so, Lord, I thank you, God, for the courage, Lord, just to be given for people. As distasteful as that can be at times, Lord. Frustrating. But yet it's your work, Lord. It is your work, God. We are your church, your body on the earth. And so I ask for just a new anointing on every heart that's open to truth. Everyone who wants to get up and go home. Everyone who wants to shine as a light in this darkened time. Everyone who wants to walk with you so that you can appear as we speak. God, this is a mystery, but it isn't, once our hearts are open to your truth. And I thank you for it with all my heart. In Jesus' name.