Whatever Happened to Repentance Preaching — David Wilkerson

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Jesus Begins Preaching Repentance

I want you to turn to Matthew, the fourth chapter, if you will, please, fourth chapter of Matthew. My message today is whatever happened to repentance preaching? Now, this is a positive message. So just sit back and relax and let the Holy Ghost touch you.

Matthew, the fourth chapter, two verses, 16 and 17. The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up. And from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Lord, I come to this pulpit to humble myself. I come here, Lord, asking you to make me an oracle that you would give me from the Holy Spirit an anointing. Give me strength. Give me your presence. Lord, I speak what I believe is your mind for this time as I stand in this pulpit.

And I need you and I ask you, Lord, to cleanse and sanctify our ears and our hearts and sanctify my lips that what I preach will come out of your pure heart. In Jesus name, amen. Now, you can walk throughout the city.

The Disappearance of Repentance Preaching

You can take a tour and go Sunday to Sunday from church to church, cathedral to cathedral, to the poorest and the richest of churches. And you will rarely find a message now on repentance. You will not find it hardly anywhere in the United States.

Now, there are exceptions. There are some churches that are on fire. Some churches that know their word and do not compromise this message on repentance. But contemporary church has decided it's an offensive message.

An army of young pollsters have gone from city to city. An army of pollsters with a tablet in hand and asking people, what would you like to see in a church? What kind of music would you like to hear?

What kind of a message? And if we started a church here, what would induce you to come? First of all, the choices, contemporary music, rock and roll type music. More than anything, though, is the offensive preaching, things that offend those that come to church.

And of course, if you're living in sin and a man of God stands in the pulpit and he's anointed to the Holy Ghost and he's preaching about repenting of sins, you're going to be miserable. And yet the only way to be healed, the only way to know rejoicing is through repentance.

There's no other way to enter into the peace and rest of Christ and all of his promises until first the scripture says repent. Peter preached in the upper room. You have crucified Jesus, who is Lord and savior of all.

You've crucified him. And folks, what happened next would be appalling to some pastors and some churches. What happened next when he preached repentance. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts.

They said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? You see, there has to be a knowledge of sin. There has to be a sense of sin. That was the purpose of the law as a mirror to hold up this mirror before people and say, this is what the moral law says.

This is what God says. Now, there's a way out of that, but it's through repentance. There is joy. You can look at yourself and see what you are in your flesh. You inherited that from your father, Adam.

And God has a plan. He has a way to bring you out of that despair. But you have to acknowledge first the idea of sin. I'm going to talk about those who say all you need to preach is believe on Jesus and you're born again.

Repentance and the Jailer’s Conversion

And they take that from the story of the jailer who, when God came down and released all the chains and opened all the cell doors, the scripture says the man, the jailer, came in and asked, what must I do to be saved?

What must I do now? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved in your house. But you see, he was under conviction. The Holy Spirit had dealt with that man when he saw God's miracle power.

And I'm sure there was something said to Paul by Paul in his mate, because the scripture said he trembled and he fell on his face. There was something of a sense of sin in the all of God that brought him to repentance.

Godly Sorrow Produces Repentance

Godly sorrow, according to the apostle. This is Paul speaking to the Corinthians. Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation. And here was the evidence to him at that time, because you sorrowed after godly sorrow and that brought a carefulness in you.

And it brought an indignation against your own sin. Then it brought the fear of God upon you. That was the result of a man seeing his sins and turning because he saw the exceeding sinfulness because the word of God convicted.

Church Discipline and the Restoration of the Sinner

When Paul, the apostle, wrote to the Corinthian church, there's a there's a story there of a very strong message delivered by Paul, the apostle to the Corinthian church. It had to do with incest. And Paul heard that this was a problem in the church with a certain individual.

And he wrote a very strong word. And there was nothing done. They had overlooked the sin. And so Paul said Paul knew what would happen if the church didn't acknowledge sin and deal with it in the loving manner that Christ intended.

And Paul writes a stronger letter. And this time the Holy Spirit is allowed to deal with their heart and they repent. And you see the next sitting in the house of God mourning for their sin, mourning over the fact that they did not deal with this in a proper way.

And Paul, the apostle, says now when he knows that he sinned and when this message has been delivered and where there's conviction and godly sorrow. Now's the time to move in with healing and strength so that this man can be healed.

A Shepherd Must Not Appease the Flock

I was reading of a pastor of a very large church. Not too long ago. A mega church. He had been preaching for a number of years in his pulpit, a very easy message. Not to offend anybody. Never preaching repentance.

The word wasn't mentioned. But one night the Holy Spirit came on him. And he looked out over his congregation. And he said, there's something wrong. These people are not being nurtured. I'm not a true shepherd.

I am appeasing this flock. And he argued with the Lord. He dealt with it and struggled with it for a long period of time. But the Lord warned him. The Lord spoke to him. He said, if you're a shepherd, he said, the Lord warned him, forget the crowd.

And he knew he would lose most of the crowd. But he got up one Sunday and began to preach repentance. He really unburdened his heart tearfully to the people. I don't know exactly what he said. But in essence, it was, you know, God's moving on me.

Folks, we've got to deal with sin. We've got to deal with things in our life. You know, they're divorcing and all these things we have to do something about. We have to face a holy God one day. And he began to preach from his heart.

He ended up with 100 people out of thousands. But you see, there's a hunger today. There's a thirst in the land and around the world for reality. Because, you see, this easygoing gospel, this happy gospel, you can't have that happiness until you have true happiness.

You can't have peace unless you're wanting a false peace. Until you come to the cross, until you recognize your sins. God never harangues. He never beats you down about your sin. But he will face you.

He will provoke you. When the Lord, I remember before I came to New York 20 years ago, before this church was established. In my little prayer room above a garage. And God spoke clearly. He said, you're going to go into the devil's pit.

You're going into a war zone. He called me and I don't remember hard to come to New York and start a church in Times Square. The Lord said, I want to write in Times Square. But he said, you're going into a war zone and you're going to be taking captives from the devil.

But you can't cozy up to them because that's not love. You can look at our marquee out here and it says the church that love is building. But that's not a maudlin, weepy, huggy, non-confronting message.

Preaching Holiness in a Sinful Culture

That's not what we're talking about. The Lord told me, if you're going to preach the love of Christ, you're going to preach like a dying man to dying people. And you're going to be able to discern the sin and discern what's happening in the hearts of the people.

And you're going to show them the difference between the holy and the profane. And when you do that and you start taking captives from Times Square, from the theater crowd. I'm not putting the theater crowd down.

But when you come here, when we first came here, when I came here in with those who were helping me. 42nd Street was nothing but a 40, 41st Street where we started was called Junkie Alley because they're drug addicts up and down that street shooting right in front of the theater.

We came in here on 42nd Street. Walt Disney wasn't there. Those were porno shops and strip clubs. And it was hell on earth. There were drug pushers up and down the streets. They would see me stand around.

They thought I was a narcotic agent because there are so many of them. Not in uniform. I know that because pushers would sometimes believe that I was a narco agent myself would scatter. But God said, you're going to be in hell.

And you can't you can't appease it. You can't say we love you. We're going to love you into the kingdom of God. You see, this church still preaches repentance. It has come from every pastor that's in this on this platform and everyone connected with this church preach repentance with grace.

Repentance Reaches People in Bondage

But you see, that's how it started for the first couple of years. The Holy Spirit would come service after service. And we would say to those from Broadway and shows that were absolutely satanic and full of such innuendo and everything else.

And we said, look, you can't come here and say that you love Jesus and that you have a changed life when nothing has changed. And you see, it was that kind of preaching that picked up David Davis and his wife out of Broadway and sent them to Israel to start the church.

It was that kind of preaching when transvestites and others would come to this church from Broadway. They would come because it was slumming. In other words, going slumming tonight, go to Times Square Church and just have a lot of fun.

You know, in other words, come and mock. But we would see through the worship, we would see them looking around and we would see the spirit begin to tug at their hearts. And then in the preaching, you would see them bow their heads.

And folks, out of 10 in a group that came, I've told this before, a number of them were saved and married. And their lives absolutely changed by the power of the Holy Ghost. You see, this so-called love gospel today only reaches the flesh.

It can't get to the heart. It can't dig into sin so that there can be a cleansing. And if I'm a surgeon of the Holy Ghost, I'm not going to put a bandage on you when you've got cancer sticking out of a bone or on your flesh.

We're going to say, hey, we got to get in there. It has to be dealt with. And we do. I don't care if you like me, but I'm a good surgeon and I know what I'm doing and I'm going to get your cancer out.

Forgiveness Must Lead to Rest and Peace

Now, as much as I'm certain that the Holy Ghost is grieved by. The church rejection of the preaching repentance. I mean, when I speak about the church, it's many of the contemporary church and others that just such as the Episcopalians and others, whole denominations have gone so far and repentance is not even a word in their theological dictionary anymore.

But you see, as much as I believe the Holy Spirit is grieved at that, I believe the Holy Ghost is grieved as much or more by those. Who have been forgiven, who have repented and forgiven and have never, never entered into the joy and the rest and the peace offered through forgiveness.

They're still living under the old covenant. They're living under the law and that law says it brings them to affliction and they're tossed with the tempest and they're not comforted. Is it there's an unbelief that because there are still battles in the flesh that the Lord has abandoned or they're not really saved.

So they get saved, resaved, baptized, rebaptized, and they never do come into a full knowledge of the power of forgiveness. They have never had a revelation. They've testified that they're forgiven and yet they live with constant fear that they're not pleasing to God.

That God somehow when they fall is after them. And he says, clean up your act. You've had a lot of light. You sinned against light. Now come back when you're ready to really follow me. I had a pastor tell me he was having such a hard time believing that God can do anything with his life.

He said, I live in constant dread because of a sin in my past. And if you knew, brother Dave, you would understand where I'm at. I can't believe because those thoughts still battle my mind. And I'm going through this hell and I can't believe that I'm clean in the sight of God.

I believe in the theology of forgiveness and repentance, but I don't live in the peace of it. It's never entered into my heart. There are others that talk to me around the world about repenting and believing.

Yes, I have faith in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, but I'm flooded with thoughts. Thoughts that I know are out of hell. Thoughts that just bite me. It happens even in church. I'm in church and these thoughts will bombard my mind.

And there are people listening to me now here in this church and wherever this message will be heard. You fight a horrifying battle. There will be fears that come. There will be evil thoughts, maybe from the past.

Could be because of what your flesh has had to face. Just going through this secularized, sensualized life. And you're going through terrible thoughts of rejection, whatever they may be. You're not to fear those thoughts because the devil wants you to make you believe that after you've repented and after you've been forgiven, that there's something deep and dirty inside your heart that has not been cleansed, that has not been touched.

I'm telling you, when the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to the heart, it goes to the roots, it goes to the cells, it goes to every part of this living being. You're not to fear those because the devil played that trick on Jesus Christ himself in the wilderness, planting these thoughts, speaking these thoughts into his mind.

Oh, I tell you right now that God has deliverance for you. God has a good word if you're facing that battle here. Now, let me go back and tell you what repentance is. Repentance is to feel sorrow and remorse.

You can get this from your Webster dictionary. Repentance, to feel sorrow, remorse, regret for sin and to experience such contrition. So you want to change your life. You want to go, in other words, they've boiled it down to a simple statement.

Repentance is going, coming this way and you turn around and go the other way. But there is a godly sorrow that accompanies true repentance. I have a picture running through my mind this past week because I had just heard from a pastor, a friend of mine who came to visit me this past week for an hour or so from Europe.

And he had come from a meeting where a well-known American prosperity evangelist was preaching. And he got up and started preaching. This is a time to repent. This is time we start weeping for our sins.

The pastor was flabbergasted. He said, brother, this man is starting to preach repentance. In my mind, I picture in some of these meetings, if God can do this, he can do it supernaturally. Now, folks, I'm not setting myself up way up here and any other preacher down here.

God forbid. He's he's told me and been teaching me to take the lowest seat in the house. I'm not there, but I'm sure wanting to be. And I picture. Ten, 15 ,000 coming to hear the star preacher. And before he goes out on stage, the Holy Spirit meets him backstage in his dressing room.

Now, please, please don't try to put a mind, a person to this. I don't have any man in purpose in mind. The Holy Spirit comes to him just to do this faster. And he says, I want you to change your message.

I'm telling you now the judgment is at the door. The handwriting is on the wall. The whole world is shaking and you're amusing this people. And the Holy Spirit speaks to him. Ezekiel warned you and I warn you.

When you see sword coming in the land and you don't warn the people and they. In other words, they lose their soul because you said I'll require their blood at your hand. And God speaks that clear. He says, don't don't go out there and don't appease anymore.

Preach, repent, tell them that they've got to repent of their sins because there are thousands sitting in front of you that are in turmoil. They're having family problems, addiction to meds, medical addictions and all kinds of things that the enemy is thrusting at them.

And they've got to hear a message. You can't tell them to go out and feel good. And the Lord speaks. If he goes out, he just simply said, look, the Holy Spirit dealt with me. And I'm telling you that I have to change my message.

And he begins just from his heart, carefully to speak of repentance and the need to be driven to the cross. Let me tell you, two things would happen. Two thirds of the crowd would head for the exits because they came to be tickled in their ears.

The scripture said they'll heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And there'll be a third of the congregation remain. And some of them would just sit there dumbfounded. And you'll hear a few tears.

You'll hear somebody weeping then and around. And then as the spirit moves quietly, there'll be somebody stand up in that congregation to say, Pastor, what do we do? What do we do now? Because many who go to meetings have never been confronted by the Holy Ghost.

Do Not Choke the Spirit’s Conviction

And the Holy Spirit says this to man, this to the man. You can never again choke conviction. Folks, this is what burns in my soul that I or any preacher of the gospel could stand before a crowd of people.

People who know have to know the heart of God. People have to know what the Holy Spirit wants and what he's calling for. And when the spirit comes, the worst thing can be done is to choke that conviction.

We had a young singer here when we first started. She had just come from a megachurch. Folks, megachurch. Please, this is a megachurch. I'm not that's I'm not putting down. I'm saying it's a church of thousands.

And repentance had never been spoken in that church. And when she got this thing, the spirit of God came down on the audience. They began to weep. So she she didn't know anything about the church. So she she she just let the Holy Spirit move.

And she wouldn't get off. She sang another song. The spirit was moving. People get up, come in the front, kneeling down. She was feeling wonderful about what the work was done. That was Sunday. But on Monday, the pastor called a meeting and he said before his whole staff and he said, we will never again allow that in this church.

Choking conviction. Some of you think sometimes that the message that comes might be hard sounding to you. But I can assure you, every pastor, I know their hearts and I know my heart. There are times that I've walked off of this platform to say that's too hard.

I said that a few weeks ago when I preached about God not waking in faith. And I went home and for a week thought that was too hard until my own son called me. Greg had gone through it. You just listen to it.

And that message brought him to a crisis. Folks, when the Holy Spirit is speaking, we have to deal with this. But when when when you have repented. And this most of you now, I'm addressing those who are in Christ.

You've been forgiven, but you've never entered into the rest. There comes a time when the Lord says, oh, come unto me. All you that are weary and heavy laden, heavy laden by guilt, condemnation. Not really believing that when you said, I confess my sins and I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you you have allowed the Holy Ghost to come and stand by you. Because that's what the word comforter means. One who comes and stands by. In other words, with his strength, he will not do it without you, but he will do it with your cooperation.

But he he says, I will stand beside you. And you've done that. And yet you live week after week after week without the glad heart, without the sense of peace and rest. You don't have that sense that any moment Jesus could come that you are going with him.

But you have that sense. Well, I'm not ready. I want to go all the way through this. Now, once you go, I want to give you the good word. I want to talk about the power. The forgiveness. I want you to go to Song of Solomon, chapter two.

Christ’s Love for His Believing People

Time is getting away from me and I the heart of my message is in Song of Solomon. Just leave your Bible open there, if you will, please. Read with me verses. Let's start at verse 11. Second, that's the second chapter of the Song of Solomon.

Let's start with verse 11. For lo, the winter is past. The rain is gone over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing of birds has come. The voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

The fig tree is putting forth her green leaves. The vines with the tender grapes give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Oh, my dove. Thou art in the cluster of rock, in the secret places of the stars.

Stairs. Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice. For sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely or beautiful. Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines. For our vines have tender grapes.

My beloved is mine and I am his and he feedeth among the lilies. Now look at me, please. That may sound a little confusing to you. But most Bible scholars believe, as I do, that this is an allegory about Christ and his bride.

Christ and his overcoming church. The king represents King Jesus in this allegory. And the king has found this virgin. She's been chosen as a bride to be. She didn't choose him. He chose her. This Christ chose us.

We did not choose him. He chose us. And the king calls her into the banqueting house and puts a banner over here and said, this is my love. This is my love. And there's a mutual sharing of love and wonderful love coming out of the heart.

And it's being voiced. It's being spoken. That mutual love one for another. You see, you can be accepted in the beloved. You can be beautiful in the eyes of Jesus. You can hear his voice. You can be in his presence.

In other words, you can be one that the beautiful incense of her rising up to him. But there can be a problem. That's what I want to speak about. I want to get right into the heart of this. Oh, my dove, thou art in the cleft of the rock and the secret place of the stairs.

Bible says that she was a keeper not only of her own vineyard, but of vineyards. And she said, other vineyards I've kept mine. I have neglected. You see, she was loved. She was covered. And she there was no fault.

Her husband to be could see no fault. Even though he says he sends her word, he reminds her, if you look at this. In her own vineyard, foxes had become embedded. You see, we are the branches bearing the tender grapes.

But there were foxes in the vine. Those foxes can represent anything of the flesh of the devil that hinders fruitfulness. And this whole thing is about fruitfulness. Has nothing to do with eternal salvation.

It has to do with fruitfulness. And folks, that's where the joy of the Lord comes in its fullness. When we are fruitful in our lives, in the things of the spirit, in the fruits of the spirit, and we're becoming more and more Christlike.

The Little Foxes That Hinder Spiritual Fruitfulness

Folks, how did the foxes get in her vine, into her vineyard? First of all, she's not neglected. But it doesn't matter how they got in. They were attracted. The Bible says if you look at the 13th verse, the fig tree puts forth her green leaves, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell or give an aroma.

You see, foxes will never be attracted to a dead, withered vineyard where there are no grapes, there are no fruit. Those that are in the world are not going to suffer. They're not going to have any foxes in their vine.

Those foxes, and it's still true today, are attracted by the fragrance. You say, I've been under attack. I've got, I'm being harassed in my mind. Settle it once and for all. And I give this to you from the Holy Spirit.

The thing that attracts these foxes into your life is because you're beginning to grow in Jesus Christ. Because you are praying and there's a fragrance coming out of you. And the enemy can smell that.

He can sense that you're moving closer to the Lord. And the closer I get to Jesus, the more he reminds me of those things that would hinder my fruitfulness. She recognized that her tender grapes were being devoured.

And you see, he prefaces by saying, let me hear your voice for sweet is the sound of your voice and your presence to me is beautiful. She got foxes, but she's beautiful. She's got some problems in her life.

But this is what he says to her. He didn't say, you go kill those foxes and then come back and we'll continue our love because she can't fight those foxes on her own by her own strength or power. But he has promised when you know that scripture answers scripture, we know that when he points out anything in our life that would hinder fruitfulness.

He said, I'm going to send you one who knows how to deal with your foxes. I'm going to send the Holy Ghost. I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. He's going to stand by you. He'll give you direction. He'll tell you what to do, where to go and how to avoid this or that.

He will be there with that still small voice and he'll keep you by his power. I'm not going to try to name the foxes. You get into commentaries and Luther will say one thing. Calvin will say another. And all the commentators have their own ideas of what the foxes are.

They're anything flesh or the devil that hinders fruitfulness and growth in Christ. You see, that's what the devil is after. He's after that fruitfulness, that Christ like this. When you become and when you are receiving the wisdom of heaven.

Wisdom from Above Produces Christlike Fruit

For four months now, I've been praying about wisdom. From James, verse chapter, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth generously to all men and upbraideth not. Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

And my prayer every day has been faith. And then walking with the Lord one day, he said, keep reading. And then you go a couple of chapters into James and it says, this is wisdom from above. Patience.

Mercy. Easily entreated without hypocrisy. You see, this is called fruit was that in my life. I know I've seen those boxes, the need for more mercy and more gentleness. And I discovered it had to begin with my wife and then my family.

Before I had a right to take it beyond the borders of my own family. When had to begin to see in me a more gentle spirit and patience. And easily entreated, not just taking off and temper and all of these things.

Now, please don't say, brother, there's a temperamental man. Only one has the right to say that. I'm not what I haven't arrived, but I know I'm not where I was. I know he's dealing with these things. He's pointed out those foxes.

But I know that I can't do that on my own. I have to call on the Holy Spirit. I get up in the morning, Holy Spirit, I want patience today. I want all hypocrisy out of my life. I've got some foxes and I see them.

And the Lord says, yes, I know, but I still love you. And folks, I don't care how many foxes you've got in your vine. The Lord Jesus Christ has never aborted his love for you. He loves you now more than he's ever loved you before.

And he said, well, read it again. Let us take us the foxes. The little fox of the world, the vine for our vines are tender. He identifies with the battle. And when you look in the Hebrew, it's stronger.

It said, let us battle. Let us go after. In other words, come on. I've pointed out these things. I'm sure you in love. I love you so. And you love me. And there it is. The next verse, my beloved is mine and I'm his.

He feeds among the lilies. He says, no, come on. I'm going to lead you through this. I'm going to walk you through it. But you can't conquer the besetting sin. You can't fight the powers of hell today.

And that's first. It's established in your heart. I know he loves me. I know this is a love letter to me right here. I know I struggle. He loves you. Can you feel his love sweeping? I want to just open your heart and say, Lord, thank you.

I receive your love. We have a song.

Isn't there a song? I receive your love. Would you stand, folks?

They don't have to sing. They sing another if you're not acquainted with it. I don't know if you get the point or not, but the point is you come into this relationship through repentance. But you can't stay at forgiveness.

Moving from Forgiveness into the Rest of Christ

You've got to go beyond forgiveness. You have to move into the joy of the love of Christ for you and the peace and the rest that he offers. There's still a work under construction. None of you been fully built yet, nor have I.

But there's a crew on site. Hallelujah. Lord, I receive your love. Lord, for years I've battled this, that sense of something further out there in the realm of love that had not been discovered. Still allowing the fears, memories and the mourning for sin.

But never saying or fully trusting or believing the blood had wiped it clean. And that this is a covenant of love. The new covenant is a covenant of love, mercy and grace. He said, I will work in you those things that are pleasing to the Father.

I will work in you. You promised to do that. All we have to do is believe that and understand that we have a loving father. And we're not to fear the battle. But hold on by faith. Hallelujah. If you're here this morning, balcony and main floor.

You say, Pastor Dave, what you're saying this morning is for me. I don't even know how to express it. It's something that's so deep in my soul. So I'm not at rest. I don't have that at peace. And I want it today.

An Invitation to Repent and Receive Christ’s Love

If you don't know Christ, if you've drifted from him, you've walked away from him. You've never known repentance. You've never know what it is to confess your sins. You don't have to cry. You don't have to.

Nobody's going to say anything foolish to you. But upstairs, you go the stairs on either side, come down the stairs, down the aisle and up here at the front. We'll pray with you and believe God for a miracle.

And those of you here this morning. All I can say, if this message was meant by the Holy Spirit, it has touched your heart. And you say, personally, I want to take the next step. I want that peace. I will help you pray.

I believe God with you for that peace and that rest. You take that step in the Holy Spirit. You will believe his covenant promises.

We'll pray in the annex.

Prayer of Faith and Reception

Those standing before us on the screen. I want you to join those in the congregation here in the main auditorium. And I want us to lift our hands. All of you that came forward and everyone in the annex and everywhere.

I want you to lift your hands. Now, if you're visiting and that embarrasses you, you don't have to do that. You may want this. If you're a believer, just put your hand in front of you in the way of reception.

And let's honestly receive his love. Let's not just sing a song, but let it go deep into your heart. And let this story of love be your story now. In your struggle and whatever you face, because every day you get up, you face another battle.

Every day, the enemy is there to put some kind of just infuse into your flesh, into your mind, something that would be disturbing and just make you feel like giving up. The only answer to that is to assure yourself in the love of God, in the love of Christ.