Death of Compassion: David Wilkerson Sermon (Transcript)

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They were absolutely terrified and screaming, “What are we coming to? What is happening to America?”

A 16-year-old girl last week jumped off the elevated train in Brooklyn. Sixteen years old, and she jumped down and fell on a little boy. The little boy had just been given a toy his mother had bought. He was so excited, rushing home to play with his little toy. And she fell on the boy, and he’s in the hospital in a coma. She’s dead.

A mother last week took her little six-year-old girl into the bedroom, pulled a sweater over her head, went in the kitchen, got a butcher knife, came in and stabbed her to death. And she can give no explanation. Doesn’t seem to have any sorrow.

A distraught mother two days ago got stone drunk, got in the car, put her two little children in the car, and began to scream wildly down the road. And while she was driving, she ran into two children, killed them instantly, smashed into a divide, and killed herself and her two. Four children wiped out suddenly in a drunken stupor.

God’s Compassion

Now, I could go on and on. These are just news stories from the daily news in the New York Coast, here in New York in the past few months. And you could go on and on. There’s no end to it. And I will never believe, as long as I live, that our God is some benign spirit who is not moved and not concerned about what’s happening. And I feel in my heart it’s everything God can do to constrain Himself from moving in before the time to put an end to it all.

Because we know the Bible said His compassions fail not. Jesus was the embodiment of the compassion of God. He is the human form and the essence of God who came and was moved deeply by compassion. “For Thou, Lord, art a God full of compassion, and grace is longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.”

Understanding True Compassion

Now, most Christians, most of us would like to believe that we too are moved like Jesus was with compassion. I would like to think that about myself when I hear these stories, when I see what’s happening to our society, to be moved with compassion. You know, even the worldly, the ungodly, are moved by compassion.

I was driving my car recently, and I listened to some of the radio talk shows, and it’s incredible the calls that come in, and people trembling and weeping even, saying, “What’s happened to America? They ought to get all these crack mothers and lock them up.” And you should hear them say, “Our society’s gone crazy.” And the concern and the compassion.

And one of the radio commentators said, “America’s still full of compassion.” But folks, pity and sympathy is not compassion. That may be a part of it, those are ingredients of compassion, but that’s not what compassion is at all. Compassion is, very simply, it is pity and mercy for the hurting, accompanied by a desire to change things. It has to be accompanied by a desire to do something about it. And not just disclaim it, not to talk about it, and not to mourn about it, but saying, “God, what can I do about it?”

Jesus’s Example of Compassion

This is illustrated in the compassion of Jesus all through the New Testament. Jesus, remember one day, retired into the wilderness to pray, and the multitudes discovered his whereabouts, and so the Scripture says, “And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them.” They had brought, the Scripture said, their cripples, their lame, their blind, their dying. They brought the demon-possessed, they brought them to Jesus, and the Bible said he was moved with compassion toward them.

Now, if Jesus had our modern mindset, when that great multitude gathered around him, cripples and demoniacs sloughing at the mouth, children that were being dragged to him because they couldn’t walk. If Jesus had been hampered by our modern theology, he would have gathered his disciples together for a committee meeting, and he would have discussed how wicked Judean society had become, and he would have pointed out to his disciples, “I want you to come to me to the edge of this mountain, I want to show you what I’ve been teaching you, that the wages of sin are death.”

He could have said, “Now look at that demoniac over there, and I want you to see the wages, look what sin does. Gentlemen, keep this in mind, that’s what sin does.” He could have analyzed the problem, he would have talked about the sins that brought this society to the place where so many demoniacs were frothing and running around in the tombs and chained. He could have talked about the poverty, how it happened.

Modern vs. Biblical Compassion

He could have stood like so many sanctimonious people and said, he could have stilled the crowd and he stood there, maybe on an elevated stone or something. “So, ladies and gentlemen, look, I’m tired, I’m weary, I’ve worked hard, I’ve ministered to you, that I came here to pray. I came here to talk to my Father. I feel your pain, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I don’t have the strength now, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do. We will call a special prayer meeting, we will intercede, I’ll go to my Father for you, and I’ll pray about it.”

That’s modern theology. “I’ve worked too hard, I’m at the end of my rope, I’m stretched out, there’s not much I can do about it, I will pray.” Everybody’s willing to pray. No, Jesus had a consuming desire. It was not only being moved and stirred in his heart at what he saw, it’s not just his bowels turning in compassion. The scripture said he was moved with compassion toward them and he healed them. He was moved to action. He said, “I want to make a difference.”

You see it in Matthew 9. We hear it said of Jesus when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and they were scattered about like sheep having no shepherd. But see, with Jesus being moved with compassion means I’ve got to do something about it. And the scripture said then he went all about their cities and villages, teaching and preaching and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. This was not some vain theology. This was not some just getting along with the Father and saying, “Lord, God, send laborers into your harvest field.” Jesus went himself. Jesus laid their hands on the lepers and he got involved.

The Multitude at Jesus’s Feet

In Matthew 15, great multitudes again came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the crippled, and they cast them down at the feet of Jesus. They cast them down. I don’t think we can appreciate that scene like we ought. Can you imagine this scene? They have brought them from all surrounding towns and villages. Can you imagine that literally thousands of people, there are 5,000 in fact, in this crowd, and they have brought the fevered, they brought their elderly parents, they brought the diseased and the crippled, and they’re all cast at the feet of Jesus, each one trying to get a little spot closer.

And with every healing, they try to get somebody close. You see them picking up their child, moving in, pushing, the disciples trying to keep some order. And the Bible says they were healed and the Lord healed all of them, the scripture says. But then Jesus looked out upon the crowd, and they’ve been there three days, and they’re fainting, literally fainting. They’re passing out from hunger. And Jesus said, “I have compassion on this multitude. I will not send them away.”

The Heart of Compassion

Now, I could stop right there, and that would be the message on compassion. “I have compassion. I will not send them away.” Lest, fainting, lest they faint in the way. Now, here’s the heart and soul of the meaning of compassion according to the scripture. I have compassion. I will not send them away.

America’s Changing Heart

Now, let me stop right here and change course. America, as far as I’m concerned, is changing. This once caring compassionate nation is slowly but surely losing its heart, the compassion for the poor and the needy.

Right here in our harbor, there’s a Statue of Liberty, and at the base, there’s some writing that says, “Send us your poor and your needy. Our arms are open.” Not so anymore. State governors, all the way from the White House down to the state governors, to the counties and the cities, they are competing with one another to see who can cut the most off the welfare rolls, who can give out as few food stamps as possible.

The president just this past week talked about the many, many thousands that they have succeeded in getting off the welfare rolls now. Here in New York City, all of the food distribution centers are drying up. The food is no longer available. Our ministry’s been getting food for survival and some of these others, and you go in there now and they say there’s nothing left. Very little left because all the funds are drying up. All of the programs that we’re ministering to the needy, the funds are drying up. They’re not there anymore.

The Welfare Dilemma

Now, I don’t want to get tonight into a political… I don’t want to make a political statement about the rights and the wrongs of welfare. Yes, I know there’s a lot of cheating in the welfare system, and I’m not a politician. And I know that there needs to be some changes.

I’ve preached this before from this pulpit. I’ve seen some welfare. I have some men that have been thrown out of this church because they don’t want God and they’re mockers, and they come in here just to try to steal money from people. And I walked in my apartment and there’s a guy down there that calls me every kind of name, calls me phony, spits and everything else. And that guy gets $600 a month, and he’s healthy, healthier than I am. And I’ve got to tell you, it bothers me.

And if I wanted to get even with him when he’s cursing me, I’d just say, “Your $600 is in jeopardy.” I believe that every able-bodied man should work. The Bible says if you don’t work, you don’t eat. And we’ve got a lot of lazy people getting government money. There’s no question about that.

The Crisis of Compassion

But folks, what we’re doing now, we’re cutting off mothers, we’re cutting off food stamps from children. And what I don’t like, what bothers me is the mean-spiritedness behind it. There’s a meanness, there’s a hardness creeping into the American system. You hear it from politicians, you hear it everywhere, an absolute hardness sweeping the country. All the rhetoric is mean-spirited.

And I want to tell you something, God will not stand by and let the richest nation in the world put its mothers and children on the streets. And we’re only two years away from having hundreds of families on the streets in New York. I’m not talking about men. I’m talking about mothers and children on the streets.

When I’m done tonight, you’ll understand a little more what I’m talking about. But God will not allow us to spend billions of dollars to research the moon and space and take food stamps away from our kids.

I know the feelings of middle American hard workers all across the nation. They’re struggling to survive. There are people in the suburbs that have good jobs, but they’re being taxed to death. They don’t have money even to get their children vaccinated. And then they hear about people in the ghettos that are able to get free clinics. And one hardworking mother said recently, “I might as well go on welfare, at least my kids would get some medical attention.”

But don’t let that fool you, even that’s being changed. Even here on the streets of New York, many suburban middle American class people are going bankrupt. This economic pressure is growing all across the country. And I understand those pressures.

The Church’s Response to Hardship

But beloved, we as Christians dare not allow that hard coldness get into our spirits against the poor, against the needy, and against the hurting. The former governor is calling for legalized euthanasia now. The killing of the old and the infirm. He says America can no longer afford to waste its resources on the elderly. He said the best thing that they could do would be to die and save the resources for the young.

And I want to tell you something. It shocks me beyond comprehension that a man, Dr. Death, Dr. Kevorkian, who goes around helping people, it’s murder. It’s plain murder. And now he’s a hero. He’s being called a compassionate, loving man trying to get people out of their pain. But now they say you can do it even if you have emotional pain. Emotional pain. You have a nervous breakdown, you don’t want to face life, call Dr. Death.

Folks, we’re going to legalize. You can be sure America is going to legalize euthanasia. We’re going to cut off more and more food stamps to the poor. And more and more people are going to wind up on our streets, especially in our cities.

The Declining Spirit of Giving

But folks, what shocks me more than anything else is the spreading, the lack of compassion that’s spreading through the church of Jesus Christ. Many of God’s people are getting cold-hearted and uncaring. Denominations are saying that their mission’s money is dwindling. People are not giving commissions anymore.

Folks, I have almost 800,000 people on my mailing list. And a few months ago, I sent out a letter, just a little cover letter, expressing to the people. And I thought they would be so thankful. And I just said, “We want you to know that at least 10% or more of your money that you send us, every dollar you send to us, we tie it to missions, to orphanages, and to Latin American child care.”

And I just listed a group of the foreign missions that we were involved in helping, that they were helping. And I was so excited, I thought, and I didn’t do it to boost the finances. I was shocked at the number of letters I got. You know what they were saying?

“Dear Brother Dave, take me off your mailing list. I didn’t give you permission to spend any of my money on the foreign field. I want all my money here in America.” Others say, “I don’t want any of my money going to foreign missions. We will support your work in New York, but nowhere else, or else take us off your mailing list.”

I was shocked to tears. In fact, my next newsletter that goes out, I’m going to mention this in a nice way. I’m saying if you can’t handle this, the best thing to do is to drop off. I don’t care if it costs thousands and thousands of dollars. God will not endure that kind of attitude. Now thank God the majority of people were grateful.

The Challenge Before Times Square Church

Let’s talk about us. Let’s talk about Times Square Church and the staff here, and we as Times Square Church people. We minister in one of the neediest cities on the face of the earth, spiritually speaking, and very soon economically. A city with over two million people getting government money and many, many on welfare. A city flooded with drug addicts in the despair of homelessness.

I just read to you what it said about Jesus. And they cast down at the feet, at his feet, the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and the crippled. They cast down at his feet. And I see that beginning to happen now, and it’s going to happen more and more to the Church of Jesus Christ. Because the government has failed, every institution, everything in society has been failing. What is the last hope for mankind? It’s supposed to be the Church of Jesus Christ.

And more and more we’re going to have the poor and the lame and the maimed cast at our feet. They’re going to be cast right at our doorstep. And what do we do if we don’t have the compassion of Jesus Christ? Do we come in and we pray for that revival that’s supposed to be coming? Do we have all-night prayer meetings and then walk right by them and do nothing about it?

Personal Encounters with Need

Last Sunday night, I didn’t sleep from midnight till seven in the morning, and I didn’t sleep at all. I tried and I couldn’t because my bowels were in turmoil, my spiritual bowels. Because I couldn’t get out of my mind a mother backstage. I don’t know if she’s here tonight or not. But she had a five-day-old baby in one hand and a little boy in the other. Her husband lost a job and couldn’t find work, and evidently he just left. But she was living in an apartment with ten other people, sleeping on the floor. And they want her out because the baby’s crying. No money for milk, no place to go, no relatives, nothing. And I had some money and I gave her money in our health department. We started working with her. But that wasn’t it.

There was another woman. Her husband has left her. She’s on drugs and she’s in a pitiful situation. She has no skills. And she said, “Brother Dave, I’m just a week or two from being on the streets.” And then there were two other ladies. Their husbands are beating them, and they’re afraid for themselves and for their children. And they try to get in the safe house, and the safe houses have waiting lists.

So I lay down. And pity, yes. Sympathy, yes. But the whole night, something else was going on. “Lord, what do we do?” I said, “Lord, I’m 65 and I’m tired. You see? I’ve spent enough time with drug addicts, alcoholics, and everything else. Not another program.”

The Call to Action

But then you see the little five-year-old, five-day-old baby. And you say, we’re the Church of Jesus Christ. And we were just opening Timothy House, or rather, Isaiah House down here is being opened in just about two, three weeks. And we’re moving Timothy House down there. And suddenly, there it was. Well, you’re going to have 10 apartments. We’re moving Timothy House out. We’re going to have a house for abandoned, battered women and children.

Folks, I’m not boasting. I’m not boasting at all. Because I didn’t want to do anything like that. But you see, the Church of Jesus Christ is going to have the poor cast at their feet. And Jesus, I have compassion. I will not turn them away. I will not put them aside. He said, I’ll do something about it.

The Reality of Our Impact

Folks, we’re only going to be able to deal with maybe putting two mothers and their children in a single two-bedroom apartment. We may be able to take care of 18. If we kept them six months, maybe 36 women and maybe 50 to 100 children in a year. That’s just a drop in the bucket. But something has to be done. We’re talking about the meaning of compassion is not sympathy and pity in itself. It’s that, but it’s what can I do? Not just as a church, but as an individual, what do I do? God, what do you want me to do?

Rethinking Revival

Let me tell you about the kind of outpouring of the Holy Ghost I’d like to see in this church and in New York City. We spend a lot of time in prayer in this church. We’ve just concluded a 24-hour day, 30-day prayer chain, if you know. In January, we go back into a prayer mode and fasting. We’re adding fasting to it. And Brother Carter’s had this burden, and I share his burden on that. And we’re going to go into prayer and fasting. But exactly what are we praying about? What are we asking God to do?

I have a wonderful friend, the late Leonard Ravenhill, a great prophet of God. “Why Revival Tarries” and other books? He used to work for me and with me here in New York City. Great man of God, written many books. “Sodom had no Bible.” A prophet, true prophet. And he died in his late 70s, didn’t he? Brother Carter’s around 75 or 80, 85? And gray-haired, wonderful prophet.

But I’d sit for hours talking to Len. And he was talking for six years about a great revival coming. And he died not seeing that revival. He preached about it all his life. I was born and raised in Pentecost. That’s all I heard my father talk, my grandfather. This great revival that’s coming. It was always coming.

The False Hope of Passive Revival

You go to camp meetings, the evangelists talk about it. “There’s a revival coming. God’s going to sweep multitudes into the kingdom.” And basically, behind it is this idea. We won’t have to go out in the streets. We don’t have to get our hands dirty. We can just stay here and pray. And God, through prayer, is going to send this great revival.

Folks, I’ve been hearing about revival. I’m 65. I called to preach when I was eight years old. So that’s over 50 years of hearing about that revival down there somewhere. The definition of revival is the awakening or resurrection of that which threatens to become a corpse. But that’s not what the church is supposed to be. The church is not supposed to have to be resurrected from the dead. We shouldn’t have to be praying for revival.

In fact, as of tonight, God helped me. I jettisoned from my vocabulary the word revival. Now, don’t get shocked. Let me tell you what I’m talking about. I can prove it to you from the Scripture. And that’s exactly where we’re going to go.

The Cost of Waiting for Revival

While we’re talking about revival, and while we’re praying for revival in the past 10 years, one half of our teenagers now smoke pot. Over a third of our teenagers drink. Twelve-year-olds are indulging in sex. Fourteen-year-old girls are having babies. We’ve lost an entire generation of cynical, hard, disillusioned young people. We’ve lost that whole generation while we’ve been praying for revival.

The Growing Crisis

American cities are about to burst into flames. Our nation is satiated with sex and pleasure, the idolatry of sports. One of every two marriages now ends in divorce. The sobbing sounds of hungry, battered children now rise like thunder from our streets. Homosexuals are demanding rights for marriage. Desperate fathers are roaming the streets by the hundreds looking for jobs.

If you’re a black man, you can’t get a job in most cities now. They won’t even interview you if you don’t have any kind of skill. They won’t even interview you for a job. And you see all of this happening. We’re heading for a new century, the year 2000. And the church is going to face a crisis of human need unknown in all history.

We’re facing it. Now if you intended to come just shout here tonight, you’re going to miss it. God’s speaking to me and I want Him to speak to you. We’re going to have human need cast at our feet. It is indescribable. You’re going to have it in your neighborhood. You’re going to have it everywhere.

The Call for Real Miracles

I received a letter this past week from somebody who attends this church. The letter went like this: “Brother Dave’s Times Square Church is too stiff. We need healing lines. We need miracle meetings. We need more signs and wonders like Brother So-and-so on television.” He’s named Evangelist.

I’d like to answer that lovingly but publicly. Sister, let me tell you how you can help us create a great miracle. How you can produce a great sign and wonder to your whole neighborhood and to every sinner that knows you. This young lady that I talked about needs a place. She’s single. She’s willing to work. How about taking her into your extra bedroom? A miracle? Oh yes. A sign? A wonder? Oh yes. To every unbeliever says that’s what Christ is about. That’s what Christianity ought to be about.

The True Nature of Christian Life

If I read my Bible right, Christians should not have to be in a place where they have to be revived. The Bible says if you’re meeting human need, if you’re obeying the command of Jesus to be compassionate to the world, and you’re giving yourself to the needs of others, that you’re going to be a well-watered garden. Let me show that to you. Go to Isaiah 58.

You know it. Isaiah 58. Begin to read verse 5: “Is it such a fast that I’ve chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under it? Will thou not call this a fast, an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I’ve chosen? Loose the bands of wickedness? Undo the heavy burdens? Let the oppressed go free, that they may break every yoke?”

“Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that you cover them? Him, that thou not hide thyself in thy own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning. Thy house shall spring forth speedily. Thy righteousness shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.”

“Then shall thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the fingers, speaking vanity. And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day.” Now listen, verse 11: “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fast thy bones.”

The Promise of God’s Provision

“And thou shalt be like a well-watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And day that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt raise up the foundation of many generations. And thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.”

Questioning Modern Revival

Now look this way, please. I had a minister friend, acquaintance, who was trying to explain to me a tape that I saw of what was being called a great revival. And I saw the strangest manifestations ever seen in my life. Now folks, I’m born and raised in Pentecostal camp meetings, and I’ve seen almost everything.

The laughter that we see today is not new. Folks, I had holy laughter on me when I was 10 years old. Laughed for hours and then wept for hours. It was all because of conviction of the Holy Ghost. There’s nothing new to that. I’ve seen men jump and run over in old camp meetings down the tops of chairs and not miss a chair. I’ve seen things, but this, that I didn’t fit. There was something in my spirit that didn’t. It was just grinding inside.

He was trying to explain why the evangelist, there was a man laying there and he’s pumping him, saying, “Pump up old joy, pump up old joy.” And I said, “Explain that to me. Explain that to me.” Because here’s another man started to weep. He said, “No crying here, this is not prayer meeting, this is laughter time.” And I was so grieved, I said, “Explain that to me.”

He said, in essence, the explanation goes something like this: “Well, you see, the Christians have become so empty and so dry that God’s trying to bring back joy. They’ve lost their joy. They don’t get any good preaching anymore. And so the Lord had to come and wake up His church with joy.”

The Root of Spiritual Dryness

Let me ask you how they got that way. How did it come to the church? Because they didn’t deal with God’s word in Isaiah 58. No burden for missions. No burden for the people on the streets. No burden for the poor. But sit around and complain about how money is going here and money going there. Complain and talk about it. Walk right past the poor and the needy. Churches that have no outreaches, no outreach, no feeding program, nothing.

The Question of True Revival

Somebody asked one of our elders recently, “What’s going on at Times Square Church? Is some new teaching series? Is there any new kind of revival? What’s the new truth coming out?” He said, “Well, we’re opening Isaiah House and Timothy House is full and God’s Blessing Sarah House and our food truck.” One pastor said, “We’re not into that kind of stuff.”

You’ve got a hundred people sitting there for five years, rolling on the floor and having a great revival. God help us. What are we going to do? We’re going to pump these people up. Listen to me. First of all, where are the shepherds that are there feeding them? Where are those leading people into human needs so that when they come to church, they have a well-watered garden? There’s a spring springing up. Because the Lord said, “I’ll do that for you. I’ll do that for the church. I’ll do it for any parish church. I’ll do it for anybody.”

The Legacy of Compassionate Ministry

You know that the Moravians came to this city with the Dutch over almost 300 years. And they got interested. First of all, they had a church, but they reached out to the poor. The Moravians had that ministry to the poor. You know that all the churches are gone that were here, but the Moravians are still feeding the poor here in the city. They have one of the great feeding programs in New York. And the Moravian thing is still going after all these years.

You know that down at the Bowery, they’re still going after 150 years. Jerry McCauley after 160 years. And God’s meeting the need while all the churches of those days are gone. They’re the dust.

God’s Blessing on Compassion

Do you know why this church is debt free? This church paid $16 million for this theater without taking an offering or making an appeal. Folks, no clapping please. God has entrusted to this church millions of dollars. Because God showed us a long time ago where his heart was.

When you do that in your own life, when you start giving, when you start spending less for yourself and you begin to give to human need, you start taking people in. Here’s an elder, one of our elders. He’s got 11 people in his house. He picks up every stray he can find. I mean good strays, forgive me. I’m talking about homeless. He’s got some of them here. I’m not trying to call you strays. I’m sorry, I made a mistake on that. But needy people, hungry people, thirsty people, for God.

The Spirit of Compassion in Action

One of our brothers came back last night. He said, “Brother Dave, I saw a homeless young man.” He said, “Do you mind if I take him into my house?” Do I mind? He said, “If you think it’s okay for me to take him in and minister to him.” I said, “Oh yes.” If you will give your bread to the hungry, if you bring the poor that are cast out to your house, if you will cover the naked, if you will hide from the poor, you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the suffering soul, then the Lord shall guide you continually.

He’ll satisfy your soul. Thou shalt be like a water garden and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. You should never have to go anywhere. You shouldn’t have to travel by bus, plane, or anywhere. You shouldn’t have to travel any farther than your neighborhood to have the greatest kind of revival that you could ever imagine. You can be a well-watered garden where you don’t have to end up dry.

And what bothers me, are we going to get all these people resurrected? And what are you going to do with them then? Send them back and let them die again? No. The Lord says, go out and meet the needs around you.

A Call to Personal Action

You say, “Brother Lewis, I’d like to be compassionate. I want to help. What can I do? How can I make a change?” Let me tell you what I’m praying about. I don’t know. You see, one thing I do know, God answers prayer. And if there’s any prayer He’s going to answer, it’s this prayer. When you and I as Christians say, “Oh God, I see what’s happening, and the only Jesus this city is going to see is what they see through us.”

“Lord, there’s all kinds of human need around me. You’re going to have to direct me. You’re going to have to show me. I am ready. I’m willing with my pocketbook. I’m willing with my house. I’m willing with my time. Lord, show me.” And I tell you, He will.

Opportunities for Service

This church has so many ministries you can get involved in. All you have to do is call our church office. We’ll direct you to a ministry. You can get on the food truck. You can go down and help at the upper room with our feeding programs. There are all kinds of ministries, the hospital visitation, all kinds.

The Problem of Self-Focus

And if you’re – this is what bothers me. I’m going to close in just a few minutes. All I see today when I travel, what I hear from those who travel, and the little bit of traveling I’ve done, is the church is so introspective. Now, everybody’s into their own headaches and their problems, and elder preaching is how to cope with loneliness and fear. What’s happened to the church that we’re so introspective and everything now is spent on ourselves?

Are you lonely? Volunteer to go in the hospital and sit with somebody. You won’t be lonely before that night is over. God will take all your loneliness out of you. You need a friend? Pick somebody off the street and say, “We’re going to McDonald’s,” and just sit there, get them a hamburger and talk to them about Jesus. Hallelujah.

The Words of Jesus

“I was hungry, but you gave me no food.” Now, for those who don’t – you’re not comfortable in the Old Testament, let me make you comfortable in the New, or uncomfortable in the New. What is that close? “I was hungry, you gave me no food. I was thirsty, you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, you didn’t take me in. I was naked, you didn’t clothe me. I was sick, you didn’t visit me. I was in prison, you didn’t visit me. Verily I say unto you, as you did it not to one of these, to these you did it not unto me, these shall go into everlasting punishment.”

In 1 John 3, verse 17, “Whosoever hath this world’s good, sees his brother have a need, and shuts up his bowels in compassion, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

A Personal Commitment

I know one thing. I’m on my face. I heard Brother Carter say this same thing. I heard his cry this afternoon. “Oh God, how can I make a difference? Show me how.” I tell you, and I promise you this, the leadership of this church is praying as diligently as ever prayed on any matter in the history of this church. We’ve been praying, “God, show us how to meet the need of those that are cast at our feet.”

You don’t have to go out and look even. It comes. If you want it, folks, it comes to us. It comes to us. But would you reach out and ask God how you can make a difference? God wants every one of us to be a part of those 80,000 viewers out in the quarries, those stone quarries, where they were cutting the stones we heard about this afternoon.

A Call to Action

I want you to stand. May I ask you a question? A balcony in the main floor. I know most of you, when you hear what’s happening to our country, and you see the children and the neglect and the abuse, you see all these things that are happening to our land, and especially if you’re a New Yorker and what you see.

We have people come from all the United States, and they just shake their head. They’ll come backstage and they shake their head and say, “Oh, man, we see what you’re up against now.” They just shake their head. And one man said, “I just can’t wait to get out of here.” He said, “I’ve been here three days. He said, I don’t know how you do it.” Do you know how you do it? Through the power of the Holy Ghost, the power of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer for Compassionate Hearts

“Father, I want you to look at these hands tonight, balcony in this main floor right now, hands of your children, Lord, who want to make a difference. Lord, you’re going to have to. As they pray about it, as they’re diligent about it, as they’re honest with you about it, you’ll open doors that no man can shut. You’ll bring the human need right to their doorstep.”

“Jesus, you didn’t have to go. They came and cast it at your feet. And Lord, you’re going to cast these needs right at our feet. Let us be ready and willing to help in any way possible to a loving heart of Jesus. We don’t have it in ourselves, Lord, but you have it to give to us. You have all the compassion that we need.”

Personal Reflection

Before I close, before we close, I came to this city 35 years ago. Brother Crandall, I think, is probably 50 years ago. I don’t know how long ago. You heard him preach from the Spoken Times. He just walked these streets and wept. And I’ve wept a lot, too. And sometimes I feel like my heart, I’ve gotten a little used to it, and I would like to just gush out a river of tears.

Now, that would make me feel great. It would make me feel very compassionate. But you see, God doesn’t work on feelings. I would rather people do it, even if they did it without feelings, so that the needs were met. And if you go out and do it without feelings, when you do it, He’ll give you the feelings. But if you do it only on feelings, you do it once, you satisfy that emotion, then you’re gone, back to your old ways.

Looking Forward

So we need to be praying in January especially that everybody that attends this church will become a soul winner. Everybody here would be somebody who is willing to get involved in any way the Holy Ghost leads them, and even if you volunteer to teach these little children, we’ve got so many children that come to this church from ghetto areas, and they have no fathers, and so many, many troubled little children, and you can offer yourselves. We need dozens more of workers.

We need volunteers now to go to Mozambique. We need over a hundred volunteers to go short missions term to Russia. There’s all kinds of opportunities if you’re willing and open before the Lord to ask for that compassionate heart of Jesus.

I don’t worry about my tears anymore. I just say, “Lord, show me what to do. I’ll do it. Just talk to me. I’ll do it.” Hallelujah. And then, you know what happens? There’s such a joy that comes. There’s a joy that comes with it.

Closing Prayer

“Heavenly Father, we’ve seen the needs of Mozambique tonight. We’ve spent so many Sundays in this church worshiping, praising the Lord, and getting blessed. But Lord, I think You’re building a fire under us now. And when we start praying again in January, there’s going to be a different direction. We’re going to fast, but we’re going to add to that fast, Lord, all that You said in Isaiah 58.”

“Thank You, Lord, that Isaiah House is opening now. Thank You, Lord, that we’re going to have a place for women. And Lord, soon the farm opens up for the children. We thank You for all of these. But Lord, most of all, we thank You for Your giving Christ to us, giving Your own Son, and giving us hope. We love You, Jesus. Hallelujah.”

“Lord, send the poor to this church. Send the poorest to this church. Send the neediest to this church. And help us not to just wring our hands and say it’s too much. Let us do what we can with Your help, O God. Let Times Square Church be a loving church, an evangelistic church, a missions church, a giving church. Not just our money, but our time, and our very houses, and our very apartments. Everything, O God, to You. Hallelujah.”

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