Coins

I have a word from God, and it really just unfolded to my heart in a deeper way as I was sitting here during the worship. You know, sometimes you have a message, but you're not quite sure what the punch part of the message is. Well, he spoke it to my heart, and I'll hopefully get there not too distantly into this message. What a privilege it is to live for God. And a privilege to, yes, I wish I really was everything people say I am. I'm so glad my wife is often here to hear these introductions, because she needs to know what kind of a man I am. And so if I can get that on a CD after the service, I'd appreciate that. I'm going to play that regularly when you get after me about my clothes and stuff like that at home. Listen, we're all sinners saved by grace. There are no big people, there are no little people in the body of Christ. There's just the body of Christ. There's nobody more important in the sight of God than anybody else. We're all equally saved, equally loved, equally redeemed, equally received, equally spoken about at the right hand of God. The bigness or smallness of what God accomplishes through us is just our perspective on the earth, but it's not God's. You're going to be surprised when we get to heaven. We'll spend about a thousand years hearing names called that we've never heard. You know, and everybody in the front row is going to sweat, so don't sit there, okay? Sit in the back. That's where the fun is anyway, so sit in the back. I'll meet you there. Less embarrassing when your name hasn't been called for a thousand years, and the words are going to be given, and there'll be names called that nobody's ever heard before, and it turns out it was the guy that cleaned the church maybe, or the lady that brought a cup of cold water to the pastor every Sunday, the person that cared about their neighbors and made biscuits for them, and such like, and things that we don't necessarily esteem in the body of Christ, but God does. And once we get there, everything that is first is going to be last, and everything that is last is going to be first. And so it gives me a secret delight in my heart, because God is just, and he's fair. And there's nobody in the body of Christ that God considers insignificant. There's no ministry that is too small. There's no ministry that's so big that it impresses God. There's none of that, absolutely none of that. It's all mercy. We stand by mercy. We live by mercy. We walk by mercy, and we finish by mercy. It's all grace. And if we do get such a thing as a crown when we get to the throne, we'll all be throwing them in unison at the feet of Jesus, because when we finally see him and understand the infinite distance that we are from him, the total otherness that we are, we will recognize once and for all that our redemption was such mercy, such an unfathomable mercy that God saved us. I'm going to believe God tonight that I'm getting older. I get tired a little more easy than I used to, but in the Bible, the best wine is drawn out at the end. And that's my, I was praying that in my seat, I said, God, draw out of this vessel, draw out the best wine. Now it has to be de-alcoholized for your sake tonight, but the best wine has to come out. And I'm believing that. Father, I thank you, God, for, thank you for the, one more time, the privilege of standing before your people and speaking on your behalf. Lord, the incredible mercy that you would choose any of us, any of us to speak for you. God, it, it, it leaves me stunned sometimes inside, God, when I recognize my infinite distance from you, but yet in my limited knowledge of who you are, you would ask me to stand and speak on your behalf. God, it's so humbling to think that you would do such a thing, but Lord, you chose to indwell us as your vessels on the earth. You chose to make your glory known through a people such as us, the weak and the marginalized and the nobodies, the nothings of this world. God, so every man, every woman, every child in this world might know that there is hope in Christ. Not because we're something they could never aspire to be, but we're exactly the same as they are. And yet you redeemed us and you're transforming us from the inside out and you're giving us things that we could never possess and taking us where we could never go and making us into what we could never be. Thank you for such great mercy, oh God. I am awestruck at your mercy more and more every day, God. I'm awestruck at how merciful you really are. Tonight, grant to me the privilege of one more time, just speaking from your word. Help me not to do any violence to the text of scripture. I pray God that you would open every heart that we might be able to hear and in hearing that we would grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, thank you, praise you, bless you in Jesus' name. I want to talk to you tonight about coins, coins, Acts chapter three, beginning at verse one. Now, Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame, now we know he was lame for 40 years, the scripture tells us as we go forward in this chapter, a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered the temple. You know, it's so tragic in a sense. It's a type, it's a picture of something. This temple, I'm going to talk about it in just a moment. This temple that was given by the spirit to King David and David passed it on to his son Solomon. Solomon built this temple and it was into this temple that the glory of God came down so powerfully that even the priests themselves could not stand to minister in this place. It's a temple into which prayer was uttered and there was a cry and a call in the heart of God himself to answer the prayers of those who were being defeated by their enemies, those who were strangers and they heard of the glory of God. I remember when Solomon dedicated the temple in second Chronicles, he just said, God, if people come into this temple and they are, they've heard of your glory, hear them as they look towards this temple and answer their prayer. If we go out against our enemies and our enemies triumph over us, but yet we look back at this temple. It was always looking back to the temple and if we look back at this temple, then God hear our cry and give us the victory that we seek. If we're taken captive because of our own foolishness into a foreign place and in that foreign place, we look back towards this city and we look back towards this temple that your hands have built. Oh God, hear us from this place. So there was a significant bearing in looking back towards the temple, looking back even, even Daniel when he prayed and opened his window, he opened it towards Jerusalem because he understood this concept of God saying, my presence is here and if you will look back to the temple where my presence is, then I will hear your prayer. Even goes on to say, I'll forgive your sin and I'll heal your land. When he appeared later that evening to Solomon at night and he told him, he said, my eyes and my heart will always be in this temple. And if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin and I will heal their land. And so now at this beautiful temple, it's a gate called beautiful and this, this, it's a type. Now the people are bringing this lame man for years. He's 40 years old. I don't know how many years they've been, they've been laying him there. And with all the promises of God, the restorations, the healing, the vindication, the freedom, the everything that God promised would happen. If we look towards this temple, this man now as a type of, of maybe people in a society that's under the siege of all kinds of things that have come against them is now outside this temple and all he's looking, expecting his coins from this temple as the people go into pray and they come out that maybe they'll put 50 cents in his pocket or in his hand or his cup or whatever he's got. They don't expect the miracles anymore. He doesn't expect ever to walk again. Doesn't expect that the things that were promised in the days when the temple was dedicated in the days when Solomon built the scaffold and lifted his voice up to God, he doesn't expect any more anything to happen. I think of our generation, I think of our cities in our society and what did the people expect from the church now? Do they expect healing from the church? You know, most people just expect there's going to be a few coins garnered in our meetings and we're going to go out and, and it's a good thing to put some coins in a poor man's cup. I'm not downgrading that. But the church is meant for so much more than that. This house of prayer is meant for more than that. There's supposed to be healing flowing from the temple of God. There's supposed to be restoration, there's supposed to be victory. Jesus himself told us the spirit of God was upon him for the sake of the poor, for the sake of those who were blind so they might see, for the sake of those who had no strength to go forward that they might find and receive the strength from God, for the sake of those who are in prison, that they might be set free from their imprisonments, whether it's physical or mental or addictional, whatever it is going on in their life, they might be set free. The temple of God is supposed to be a place of miracles when people look towards the temple of God. That was the promise of that generation. But over time, people let it slip, as we all do, they let it slip through their fingers. The understanding of the purpose of the temple, the understanding of the presence of God in the temple, the understanding of the heart of God, the plan of God, the reason why he gave the pattern of that temple and built that temple in the first place, the reason why he chose to dwell in that temple. He wanted to be God to the people, the addicted, the afflicted, the oppressed, the marginalized, the nobodies, the nothings of society, those that were captured and taken into a foreign place, the stranger who heard of the glory of God, the man or woman whose marriage is on the rocks could come in. People could come and inquire and expect miracles in the temple. And in 2 Chronicles chapter 6, the scripture tells us when he appeared to Solomon at night, he said to Solomon, I've chosen and sanctified or set apart or made this house holy that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. In other words, I will be in this temple. When people look towards the temple, they will be looking at where I dwell. And my heart will, I will see their pain. I will understand their hurt. My heart will be there. My eyes will be there. And of course, the inference is my power will be there because it was in the same moment in appearing to Solomon that he said, if they will turn, I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. And now he said, my eyes are open and my ears are listening for the prayer that will be made in this place. If we fully understood the power of prayer, you see, you don't understand the power of prayer until we understand the heart of God, until we know why he went to a cross, until we understand what it means that God so loved the world and until the words that he spoke, whatever you ask in prayer, believing you shall receive, become a reality to our hearts. We don't understand what prayer is because quite often we've lost touch with the heart of God. I don't know what happened to this Old Testament temple. I guess they got caught in their religious practice, their exercises, maybe the gold and the glitter. Maybe they just got bored. You know, when people get blessed and nations get blessed, they have a tendency to forget God. And I think we may have done that in our own nation as well as they did in their time. And now come two men, been a long time since anybody has seen a miracle in that temple. This man's been laid there, I think, for years on end, don't you? I think he's been there for years. And he's been looking at the temple and maybe he knew the scripture. Maybe people were quoting to him. You know, it says in the Bible that if you look towards this temple, that God will hear you. If you inquire, God will answer you. If you've been taken captive, God will free you. If you're weak, God will strengthen you. It is written. It was promised. Solomon was in the temple that was originally built on this foundation and he lifted his voice and God's presence came down, confirming what he had inquired of the Lord for. And I think he knew this. And so he's sitting and he's staring at the gate, this gate called Beautiful, thinking in his heart, isn't there a promise of beauty for my ashes? Isn't there a promise of healing for my life? Isn't God have a future for me? And so day after day, he's just seeing the people come out and nobody's got anything for him, but maybe 50 cents to put in the cup, just coins. That's all they've got. There's no power in that place anymore. But one day it all changes. Two men come to pray. These men have been with Jesus. These men have been in an upper room. These men have experienced the incoming indwelling of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. These men have been given abilities that only God can give. I believe these men have a new heart and a new mind and a new spirit as we know that to be true because we know the transformation in Peter could not be attributed to anything but the Spirit of God. From bravado to cowardice, to denial, to cursing, to standing, boldly proclaiming, preaching a sermon. I'm convinced he didn't have the ability to preach. Going up to the temple to pray, because the temple, the physical building still had some significance. But outside the temple, there's a representation of that society of that time, just a man standing. He's sitting there. He's got no strength. He's got no power. I wonder how many days he stared at the door, how many days wondering, what ever happened to this place? Wasn't the glory of God here once? Wasn't there promises of freedom here? Didn't God tell us that if we looked towards this temple, we would be brought back home, given strength, delivered, and all of these such things, did he say would forgive us and heal us? And here I am looking, and all that keeps coming out of this temple is people with coins in their hands to put in my cup. You know, it's a sad thing when the people no longer look to the house of God for healing. When they no longer look to the house of God and expect anything more than maybe a few coins. And coins are a good thing. I'm not downplaying that. We do have to feed the poor, and we ought to do good missions works and such like that. But there's got to be more in the house of God than this. There's got to be more in the temple of God. This is where it gets interesting. Peter and John are coming up to the temple to pray. And he looks at them and asks for what he's become familiar with from the people of God as he saw it. Did you have 50 cents? You got a dollar in New York, it'll be a dollar or five to put into my cup. Can you buy me a hamburger for lunch? I got to pay my rent. I can't work. Can you help me? And you know, the interesting thing is he's asking them as they go in, because generally as they come out, you see, it's easy to talk when you come out of church and pretend you don't see the poor man. It happens all the time. But when you go in, you're generally alone and there's only one or two and you're not talking yet. So it's easier to see the poor man. And Peter fixing his eyes on him with John said, look at us. I love that. I saw that. I saw something. Peter was saying, look at the temple. Look towards the temple. This is just a building. We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. God dwells in us now. Look at the temple. The promises of God are still yea and amen to you. Look at the temple. Look towards the temple. And Peter said, silver and gold, I do not have. Now I don't think Peter and John were broke. I honestly don't think that. Here's what I, here's how I interpret this, because obviously they've got money to buy bread and food and such like. Peter's saying, I have something more to give you than what you think you need right now. You think you need silver and gold. That's not what I'm going to give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And the scripture says he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. It's time now. We are the temple of the living God. It's time now. It's time for people to look back to the church of Jesus Christ. It's time that people were able to look at you and I, in whom dwells the spirit of God. And we can say to them, as Peter said, look upon us. The living Christ dwells within our lives. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, whether they can understand that or not. Look at us. Look towards where the power of God is. Look towards where the strength of God is. And I love the fact that they didn't just speak. They reached down, took his hand and pulled him up. And then they walked into the temple with him. And the scripture says he was leaping, standing, walking, talking, praising God. And he's hanging on to Peter and John. This guy has never walked before. It'd be like being on stilts for the first time. He'd be wobbly. And so he's hanging on to them. He's kicking his feet out and he's shouting. When people get healed, they don't understand. You know, everybody's in the temple. Suddenly this guy is shouting. This guy is singing. This guy is praising in the temple. And folks, Peter and John get themselves in trouble at this time because it's interesting. The powers that be have no problem with the church as long as we're powerless, as long as nothing is happening, as long as we're just coming out the door with a few coins to put in a poor man's cup. Everybody is okay with that. But when the power of God starts to manifest again, when the power of God is released one more time, oh yes, we're going to find out there's a real devil. We're going to find out there are really people in leadership that are going to get threatened by it. But in my heart, I'm saying, bring it on now. Bring it on. Let the church be the church. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. It's time to lay hands on the sick. It's time to cast out devils. It's time to believe again. We are the temple of the living God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I love it. I love the picture. Now, there's a couple of things in this. Now we want to, we want to touch people with a 10-foot pole. We want to put a white glove on a pole and say, God bless you, brother. God bless you, my sister. But they didn't do that. They picked him up. I don't know how clean the guy is. I don't know if he's able to take a bath every day. I don't know what he smells like, but they picked him up, and they let him put his arms around their necks probably, and he's kind of hanging on them and dancing and everything. And the thing is, as the church of Jesus Christ, it's one thing to pray, but we got to let people hang on to us for a little while until they can walk. It's one thing to tell somebody about Jesus, but we can't just leave them to try to walk on their own. This guy had never walked on his own before. We have to get to the point where we're willing to let people hang on to us. In other words, they can call us every day and ask the same questions over and over again. We bring them to church with us. We invite them to a Bible study, and they may do everything wrong. They may come to church and embarrass us. They may shout when you're not supposed to shout. They may yell out hallelujah in the midst of a solemn moment, and I don't know what they're going to do. But I would rather that than just a powerless prayer meeting and 50 cents to put in somebody's cup. I don't know about you. I'd rather have the power of God. I'd rather do God's work, God's way. I'd rather have the lame man hanging on to me and singing and shouting in the church. We have to ask God now for the courage to go to people who are lame around us and say, listen, I have what you need. I have the presence of God in my life. I have access to the throne of God. I can pray, and God is going to answer your prayer. Look at me. Look at me. In the name of Jesus, stand up and walk. In the name of Jesus, get out of that prison of drugs. In the name of Jesus, God is going to heal your marriage. Come with me to church. Come with me and shout and dance in the house of God. Come with me to the house of God, and then miracles start happening. And when miracles start happening, the people have controlled everybody by religion and government leaders that have controlled everybody by coercion, now all of a sudden are very, very, very threatened by this. And they call these guys in into an interrogation because a lame man got healed. Isn't that amazing? How did you do this? By what name did you do this, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? And Peter says, if we're being judged today for a good deed done to a helpless man, and by what means he's been made well, let it be known to you and all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man stands before you whole. So they took a, they communed and they said, what are we going to do? It's a notable miracle, and it's threatening our power. Do you understand if the church starts operating in the power of God again, we are going to become a threat to this society that wants to infuse every kinds of evil upon this generation and purport it to be good. Do you understand? We're not going to do this without opposition. There's going to be opposition when we start to operate again in the power of God as the temple of the living God. And so they said in verse 17 of Acts 4, so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them that from now on they speak to no man in this name. I know what this feels like. One time years and years ago, I was brought into the office of my supervisor in the police department. I was a very, very vocal Christian, very vocal. I was leading guys to the Lord on the police department and they were getting filled with the Holy Spirit. And you know, new Christians can lose a little bit of their common sense and they're running around praying for people and giving them tracts and it all came back to me. And so I was called in and I was told, my supervisor was so mad. He was redder than a tomato. I mean, he was spitting across the desk, he was so mad. This is not an evangelistic association. This is a police department. You have to stop speaking this name of Jesus. Can you mention that? You've got to stop speaking about God and there's going to be consequences if you don't stop. And after he finished yelling at me, he looked at me and says, now what do you have to say about that? I looked at him and I said, you need God in your life. And he said to me, why do you say that? I said, because in the book of Proverbs, it says a man without any control over his own spirit is like a city that's broken down without walls. And I said, you, sir, have no control over your spirit. You can't even speak civilly to me about this. Suddenly he went quiet. Then he started telling me about his marriage that's broken down, his problem with alcohol. And he and his wife ended up going to church, a free Methodist church. Thank God we need, we need, Peter said, listen, we have to speak what we know. We have to talk. We're not going to draw back. We're not going to become cowards. We know the truth. We know who God is. We know what God has done. We know what God can do. And so Peter and John verse 19 answered and said to them, whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we've seen and heard. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them because of the people. For they all glorified God for what had been done. The man was over 40 years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed. And being let go, they went to a prayer meeting. Hallelujah. Oh, I love it. The trouble started at a prayer meeting. Hallelujah. Forgive me for laughing, but the joy of the Lord is my strength, you know. And they go back to a prayer meeting. They got in trouble at a prayer meeting. And after being threatened, they go to another prayer meeting. And they told their friends all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that at this prayer meeting, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. Now, let's just set the record straight as to who we're praying to. You are God. You made heaven. You made earth. You made the sea and everything in it. Everything was made by you. Everything consists by you. You hold all things in the palm of your hand. You were there before everything was made. You'll be here after it's all gone. You are God. This is who we're praying to tonight. Who by the mouth of your servant David has said, why did the nations rage and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. Now, does that not speak of our generation? Kings of the earth are gathering now. And the rulers are gathering together. And their gathering together is against the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's keep it simple. All the laws that are being enacted, all the threats that are going out, all of the debauchery that's being paraded in our streets as if it's some kind of virtue is all against the Lordship of Jesus Christ. For truly they said against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod, Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. In other words, they're all gathering together. All of their rulership, all of the social norms that they've infused into their society are being threatened now by the power of God. They've gathered together against the power of God and against the church of Jesus Christ, but they can only do as much as you have permitted them to do. You've already determined. In other words, you're God. You created all things. They're gathering together. You're in total control. They knew who they were praying to. Now this is where it gets interesting. Now, Lord, look at their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Here's what they're saying. Give us more of what got us into trouble in the first place. Stretch out your hand. God, we are the temple and you promised that when people looked towards the temple, you would heal them. You would restore them. You would give them strength. You would deliver them from their enemies. We know your promise, but we now understand that we are the temple. That was a physical type of what was about to happen in the earth. We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. God, don't let your church become a non-entity in this society. Don't let your church become some kind of a club that doesn't have to be reckoned with. Don't let us become something that's not a threat to this evil order of this particular day that we're now living in. God Almighty, we ask you, stretch your hand out and begin to heal. That needs to be your prayer. That needs to be my prayer now. God, give me boldness. Give us boldness to speak your word by stretching your hand out and beginning to heal broken marriages, heal diseased minds, heal people who can't walk in their own strength, heal people who don't see a way forward, heal people who are stricken with addictions and poverties and all kinds of bondage. Deliver those that are oppressed by the devil. Oh God, stretch your hand out and begin to heal. I don't know about you, but I'm not comfortable with coins anymore. I don't want to walk out of a prayer meeting with 50 cents to put in a man's cup. I want to be able to reach down and say, in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. We're not going to be able to make a difference in this generation by argument or by coins or by powerless prayer. We're going to make a difference by becoming the temple of the living God. We're going to be able to make a difference by God himself stretching out his hand through our lives. Yes, through your life. Not just mine. Not just the people shouting into the microphones. The whole church, everybody, a soft prayer, a loud prayer, a long prayer, a short prayer. It doesn't matter as long as the power of God is in it. He said to Solomon, my heart and my eyes will always be in this temple. So here's my question to you, being the temple of the Holy Ghost, is the heart of God in you? Are the eyes of God? Do you see the people struggling around you? Is God's heart in you? Is there something rising up that says, enough of this, enough of this poverty when God promises provision, enough of this weakness when God promises strength, enough of our families being destroyed in this nation, enough of our children being indoctrinated into godlessness, enough of this. Stretch out your hand and begin to heal. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Stretch out your hand. Have the courage. When people say in the workplace, keep it simple. My marriage is a wreck. Come here, let me pray for you and come bring your wife, bring your husband, come to our house for dinner tomorrow night or next week and we'll open the Bible together. I'll help you walk this through and then you can come to church with me if you want and when God starts working in your life, I'll take you to a church where you can shout. I'll take you to TSC Summit Campus Church. You can shout there. You can dance there. You can yell hallelujah during the offering if you want there. You can start shouting before the church service even starts and you can stay an hour after it's over. You can run the aisles. You can praise God there. I'll take you where you can shout. I'll help you to walk. You can walk with me and I'll walk with you. Oh God, send revival. I don't like it when people say we're a Holy Ghost hospital. If you want to lay there and lick your wounds, you go ahead. I am a soldier in the army of God. I'm not in a hospital. We're called to fight for truth. We're called to fight for those who have nobody to fight for them. I'm convinced that expression was just an excuse for powerlessness. Oh, we're just going to lay down, lick all our wounds for the next 50 years, sit in groups and talk about our moms and dads and how deficient they were. Oh God, Kate, don't you ever join a group like that. I'll pull you out if I ever find you. It's all or nothing. Folks, we're playing for all the marbles now. It's all or nothing. It's all or nothing. We win the battle now or you're not going to even want to be living in this country 10 years from now. My prayer is God, give me trouble for the right reason. Start to heal, start to raise up those that have no helper. Send a spiritual awakening, disrupt this entire godless order all around us. Let there be dancing and praising in the house of God. Let people begin to know it. Let it be noise abroad. Let them come from near and far. Let it be told to people there's healing going on in the house of God. May we not have to advertise anything anymore. Folks, a good fire, you don't have to advertise it. You know that. You don't have to advertise. People will come from everywhere. They'll see the light and they'll come. They'll hear the report and they'll show up. Let my Solomon, he said, my eyes, my heart, it hit me like a ton of bricks. He said, I'm going to be in that temple. That's the physical temple of the Old Testament. And my eyes will be there. I'll be looking for people. My heart will be there. And when they look towards me at this temple and they call out, I'll heal them. I'll bring them home from however far they got taken captive, I'll bring them home. And I'll do more than that. I'll bring healing into their society. I'll bring healing into their nation. I'll do way more than people even ask or think. My eyes and my heart will be there. That's why Peter said, look at us. God, when I saw it, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Look at us. Look at the temple. Look towards where God is. Praise God. Father, I pray that we would be the church in this last generation. Not an Old Testament church, but a New Testament church. We've been delivered from singing songs and chanting chants and giving coins. God, we're asking in Jesus' name that you would begin to stretch forth your hand through us and heal and give us a boldness to speak your word because you are healing through us. We're not willing to settle for less. We're not willing to settle for religion or powerlessness or just endless, go nowhere prayer meetings. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, I offer my life to you and I don't care what it costs. I don't care. I want your heart. I want your eyes. I ask you to stretch your hand out through this frail, old vessel and begin to heal. Heal this sin-sick society, God. Heal the lame. Heal the blind, the oppressed. People have been looking towards your temple and they've lost heart. They don't expect anything big. They just expect a few cents. God, do a work that only you can do now. Father, thank you. God, thank you. Here's my altar call tonight. We want revival, but does it mean we want to just feel good about where we are or do we want to go somewhere we need to be? Revival, a lot of people say revival, well, I just want to be happy where I am and go home and watch football. No, that's not revival. Revival is moving from where I am to where God's calling me to be. Out of fear and into faith, out of cowardice into compassion. It's compassion that drives cowardice. Out of the perfect love drives out fear. If I love the people around me, I'm not going to be afraid to reach out and pray for them. If I care more about them than I do about preserving my own comfort, then I'd be willing to go through what these men all had to go through and women, they had to go through. They went to jail and most of them lost their lives eventually, but for the sake of us, of others. I don't feel it's appropriate that I should be less than that in this generation because we're a generation in desperate need of God. Oh, let this, Father, let this generation look to the church again. People don't consider the church even worth attending anymore. Let them look to the church. God, I pray for every church, every denomination. Lord, just send your fire. It's really that simple, God. Just stir, stir the ashes, stir the embers, God. So many churches were built with people that were on fire for you and they just died somewhere along the line and all there are left is coins. There's no power. Jesus, I'm concerned about your name. I'm concerned about you. I'm concerned about your honor. I'm concerned about your work. I'm concerned about your heart, how it must break your heart. God, to see so many lame people looking and finding nothing but coins. Father, glorify thyself. You said to your son, I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again. So Lord, I'm standing on that promise again tonight. You have given us spiritual awakenings in this nation before and we're asking you to give us another one again. We are a desperate people, Lord. So we pray to you tonight and we expect the place where we are gathered to be shaken. We expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we expect, God, that you will stretch your hand out through us and begin to heal. I think of all the kids in our schools and streets, God, that are just crying out for somebody to tell them what truth is. Jesus, you hear the cries, you hear the sighs, you know. I was looking at the highway the other day, Lord, I just, I was thinking of all the people driving by that are crying out behind the wheels of their cars. Oh God, can you help me? Can you help my marriage? Can you help my son? Can you help my daughter? God, I could hear it. Let me hear it just for a moment. Looks just like vehicles, but there's people in them and you hear every cry. So would you stretch your hand out again? Would you give us the courage, Lord, to lay hands on the sick and believe that you're going to touch them? Would you give us the compassion to let them hang on to us for as long as they need to until they can walk? God, God, oh God. Father, thank you. I want to give an altar call tonight and it's really simple. Jesus, give me your eyes and give me your heart. And stretch your hand out through my life and begin to heal. Let's stand together. If that's you, would you come and we're going to pray. We're just going to pray. We're going to pray. Hallelujah.