This sermon delves into the reasons behind the challenges faced by individuals, families, churches, and nations, emphasizing the consequences of sin and the need for repentance and prayer. It highlights the importance of seeking God's intervention, acknowledging personal and collective iniquities, and surrendering all to God for His name's sake.

Let me ask you to take the Bibles and open up to the book of Jeremiah chapter 13. Jeremiah chapter 13, I want to give you three passages of scripture this morning, it's 13, 14, and 16, that we'll be looking at. Why do these things happen? We've been watching the conversation, a lot of Christians' minds and hearts, why things are happening the way that they are, and we've no doubt examined these things pretty thoroughly, I think, from the scriptures, as we've gone through some of these passages, and of course, as I said, as we close out October now, and elections come up next week, next month, first part of next month, of course everybody keeps looking at the political system is going to fix all this. Isn't that great to know that after the elections in November, is that everything's going to be okay? Y'all have confidence in that? Most that come to the place is that, as I think it was either Tozer or Ravenhill that said it, is that the White House is not going to fix this nation, but the church house will. And if God's people do what God's people are supposed to be doing, then things can be made right. You'll be hearing that some of these prayer groups and gatherings that are going on is that they've got their priorities straight. Out in Missouri, where the racial tension was going on, and the shootings were happening, and you saw the protests and all that was happening, there was two individuals from Missouri Baptist Convention that were out there with me, and they were sharing how they're going to go in and orchestrate and continue corporate prayer meetings with different groups and that. And of course, one guy that was there, he was like, he said, you come to prayer. He said, how would you do that? I said, well, that's easy. I said, go find your praying groups that are already there in this area. I said, bring them together. Let them know that you're coming together to pray. I said, put before them exactly why you're praying. I said, but know why all the racial tension is there. I said, at the root of all the evil that we see happening, I don't care whether it's the legislation. I don't care whether it's drugs. I don't care whether it's the issues that we face in the headlines. Do you all see that 15-year-old boy out there in Washington? Almost within six hours after the school shootings, they already started trying to psychoanalysis him why he did what he did. That makes me more mad than I can bite my nails in two when I see that. Oh, he's been bullied. Oh, he broke up with me. Any of you all never had your heart broke? Would you please stand if you've never had your heart broke? I've had my heart broke. I never took a gun and went and shot people. Had a fight with a football team. That's why he did what he did. I've been in fights. They didn't call me the brawling Baptist in high school for no reason at all. But I didn't go take a gun and go shoot people. It's a different age of evil that's being orchestrated. You all have probably seen it in the headlines. Did you see where the 10-year-old stabbed the 19-year-old and killed her? Did you see where the 6-year-old shot and killed stepbrother or sister? I forget which one it was. It's the children that are now being used. When Jesus was born and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who were the most of those that were demon-possessed? It was not the adults. This my son has been demon-possessed for years, and it takes him and throws him into the fire and tries to drown him in Mark 9. It was children that was being used, wasn't it? Isn't it amazing that we're seeing the same thing happen? Of all the things in the legislation, all the things in the judicial which we've talked about, the accusations and the lawsuits and all that from Houston to the two other churches of now, I think in Illinois or Indiana, that the federal charges were brought against them because they would not perform same-sex marriage. And so the federal charges were brought against the churches and the pastor. And so it's not just Houston. And as we've said and I've told you, it's going to be a floodgate of legislation and all these actions. It's just going to be a matter of where the line is drawn and the sand on that. It is needful for us that we not get consumed with all the fears and the frustrations of that, that we remember where our one true target is. We are not wrestling against flesh and blood in this battle, although that's what's being used. It is that we are wrestling against spiritual darkness that is orchestrating and coming against the church unlike we have ever known in this nation before. But we're going for it, the church is. And I want to give you these passages of Scripture. As I was coming through my Bible readings, and again I, on Sunday nights and on the broadcast, was going through the sins that God pointed out to the children of Judah and Jerusalem, the 250 sins that are mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, why he was doing this, and he was very specific in that. And so that was back in the spring earlier this year, and now as I've come through the second time with this, these passages joked out at me of why, answering the question of why our nation is where it's at, why our families are where they're at, why the church is where it's at. And I feel very much led that in these three passages of Scripture that we must come to answer this for this morning. So the first Scripture that I want to read in chapter 13, I want to start with verse 22, and I'm going to read to the end of this chapter, verse 27, and on into chapter 14, down verses 1 through 9. So read with me as I begin in verse 22 of chapter 13. And if thou say in your heart, Wherefore do these things come upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels are made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil. And therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is thy law, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the Lord, because, there is one of these announcing of their iniquity, thou hast forgotten it, and you have trusted in falsehood. Therefore will I discover your skirts upon your face, that your shame may appear. I have seen thy adulteries, and thy names, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thy abomination on the hills and the fields. Woe unto you, O Jerusalem, what thou not be made clean. When shall it once be, chapter 14, the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dirt? Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish. They are blocked unto the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters. They came to the pits, and they found no water. They returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed, and they were confounded, and they covered their heads. Because the ground was chapped, for there was no rain on the earth, the plowmen, they were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and they forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild ashes did stand in the high places. They snuffed up at the wind like dragons. Their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake. For our backslidings are many. We have sinned against you. Let us pray. Blessed Father, we ask of you now that you instruct us and that you lead us. Father, we look unto you for the answers of this day, the uncertainties of our future for tomorrow. Yet, Lord, we know that all things are held in your most capable hands. The need for us this day, Lord, is that one we would confess. Father, we would be ashamed, we would be broken, that, Lord, we would appeal unto you for your name's sake, deliver your church, for your name's sake, revive your church, that we may hold forth the name of Jesus, Lord, faithfully, in holiness and righteousness, that we may be the people that you want us to be. Lord, it is that when this evil and these sins continue to mount, and even come against us, Father, we know that you have made us overcomers through the blood of the Lamb. Lord, we give praise to you. There is no name that is more worthy to be praised. There is no name that is as dear and as precious to your people as that name which is above all names, the name of our Lord, Jesus. Where they take it in vain in this evil world, we speak it with reverence, we speak it with holiness, we speak it with profoundness. For it is the name that saved me out of hell. It is the name that saved me from my sins. It is the name that is dearest to us. And I pronounce these things in your blessed name, the name that we will honor and reverence this day, the name of Jesus. Amen. I'll give you one other passage of Scripture here in a moment, over in chapter 16 that I've made reference to, but I want to deal with this passage first that we just read. In chapter 13, verse 22, the question is asked and put before us with this, where do these things come upon us? You know, that's a question that we've got people in the church and we've got people out of the church that are asking, why does this happen? Why has ISIS risen up? And again, they want to point fingers and blame politicians and, you know, blame this one and blame that one. But in this, we have the answer from God. We have God answering this. The prophet Jeremiah gave forth the word, Thus saith the Lord. And all again, you know, to kind of examine and look at the horizon to say, is there a prophet coming? Is there going to be one more Elijah that comes and shakes this foundation of the earth? But again, can we examine that for a moment? We just started looking at Elijah down in the young adult class downstairs in 1 Kings 17. Elijah shows up, and he's pretty much the only voice of the Lord back upon the land, and he didn't speak to the children of Judah. He spoke to Ahab and Jezebel. He spoke to the children of Israel. What do we know about the children of Israel? They did evil in the sight of the Lord in all their ways. They had no intention of turning them back. Can the Ethiopian change its skin color? Can the leper drop their spots? And he says, but if you being evil can stop doing evil and start doing good, then I can make the Ethiopian change his skin color and I can make the leper drop his spots. But he said, that's not the natural course of events. An Ethiopian stays the same color until the day they die, doesn't it? A leper is born with spots and it dies with spots. They stay true to their nature. Men are born to do evil. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And he said, that's why these people do what they're doing. That's why a 10-year-old can kill a 90-year-old. That's why a 15-year-old boy can blow him with a gun. That's why we see the evil happening in our day and age. Oh, there's an awful verse. There's an awful verse and I probably won't give you today, but just so that you have a reference to it. God says, when I devised evil devices against you. Man, I read that and I was just like, no, don't do that. You know what it is? It's that there is an evil that has come on our horizon within just the last couple of years that you and I have been fighting. And again, as I've said, this ain't about signing petitions. This ain't about picketing signs. This isn't about all the other orchestrating humanistic events that they want to try to say, we can change this. We can't change nothing. But there is a God who sits in the heavens and can. He's able to make lost men safe. And He is able to make the wrongs right. And He's able to make mountains to be lowered so that they're straight paths. And He's able to make the crooked ways to be straight. And He's able to change the hearts and the minds of men. And if you're saying to Him this morning, you can say, I put a hard game into that because you was once lost on your way to hell, and God saved you, and now you're on your way to heaven. But it isn't because you decided one morning to say, I think I'm going to do good today. Read the last part of that. You may also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Evil men do evil deeds. And that's what we're seeing today in the headlines, aren't we? Evil men doing evil deeds. God in His mercy. And for age differences in this room here this morning, I'll start back in the 1950s, clear up to the 2000s. For 50 years, God had His hand of protection on this nation. We didn't hear about what we hear about today in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s, did we? What I'm telling you is that in 1990, for whatever reason, around that central piece, that there was a change that happened in this nation that has gone from second year to fourth year real quick over the last 20, 30 years. And now we're seeing and hearing things that are just mesmerizing to us. And I'll tell you the next warning thing that comes to us is when we become used to hearing about it. That's the callousness of our mind when we become, we don't get shell-shocked anymore. We just go on with it as it's always been and say, Oh, well, there it is again. Oh, well, there's another school shooting. Oh, well. I don't think so. I think for those of you that have been praying, remember back in July in the prayer meeting, the corporate prayer meeting we had, there were people praying in July for the school year. And I heard it in July, and I heard it in August, and I heard it in September. They can't say that I heard it in October. If you've been praying for it, congratulations. But I think after three months, people grow weary, they grow distracted, and they lose their priorities. That's the reason the prayer of the book keeps these evils in front of us to say, No more murder-suicides, no more school shootings, no more work-related shootings, no more military-based shootings. Lord, stop the evil of this day. Elizabeth's over there at CVS, and a guy comes in and takes a duffel bag and starts stuffing liquor bottles and everything in it. Police come up to arrest him. First time, first day in there, and everybody's happy smiles, and everybody's, oh, nice to have you here, broken, and everything goes fine, no problem. You don't think about praying for the robber that comes in and holds you at gunpoint. And neither do we say that when we have safe in our homes where the door is locked and the window is locked and the burglar alarm is on. What happens after the fact? After you've been robbed, after you've been accosted, after you've had assault and battery, now you've got to pray, because it's been brought to your mind again, to be remembered that evil men do evil deeds. Why is this happening unto us? God answers it. For the greatness of thy iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels are made bare. For the greatness of thy iniquity. If our sins are so great, and I don't think that I need to stand here and prove that to anybody this morning, do I? I mean, deed honest, if you think, is that we're okay? If you think, oh, well, it's not too bad, well, you know, it'll work itself out. And there are people that think like that, but that's because they don't know the Bible. I don't think you can read the Bible and not know sins. Are you convicted? You go through a week and you're convicted? You know, I'm not praying for nothing. You know, I missed a couple days of my Bible. I feel so ashamed. Did you read it? Did you hear how many times as I read through that passage that they were ashamed? That they blushed? Do you know God's people don't know how to blush anymore? We have forgotten what it is to have a broken and a contrite heart. And if it's not for our own sins, at least it would be for the sins of our families. I would think is that the reaction of our children and our grandchildren, the reaction of our brothers and our sisters would break our hearts. Stop justifying them. Quit justifying evil, wicked people. If they ain't doing the deeds of godliness, then they're doing the deeds of hell. You are either one or the other. Well, you know, they're trying. I don't care if they're trying or not. I've been there where I'm trying and that don't get nothing done. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And if they're not keeping His commandments, then there is a love relationship that needs to be called into question between you and the Lord God, and between your loved ones and the Lord God. If they're not faithful, well then they're unfaithful. And that needs to be confessed. If they're not reading their Bible, then they're not studying to show themselves approved. If they're not praying, then they're the sin of prayerlessness. If you haven't shared the gospel with anybody, then you're negligent of professing and confessing the Lord Jesus unto those that are near you left and right. There are sins that mount in the midst of our own lives, and are we ashamed about it or do we become content with it? That doesn't even begin to touch the sins of our nation. It's grievous to know what's going on in Hampshire County behind closed doors. It's grievous to know what's going on in Monroe County behind closed doors and on the streets. Do we blush or are we ashamed? Oh God, how far we have departed from You. Do you realize that all the prayers of the Bible and all the prayers of the saints that have gone in 2,000 years of history has been that there was somebody's heart that was broke over sin? Didn't God's heart break on Calvary? Didn't Jesus' heart break? Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing and they didn't know that they was doing it. They didn't know that they was killing the Son of God. They didn't care. That was the worst part. They was filled with apathy, but they didn't care. I can find people today that have apathetic hearts. Now you go to the doctor and he says you have an arrhythmia problem. Well, we can fix that with a pacemaker. Hey, you've got some blocked arteries. We can fix that. They can fix most heart problems. Now, how do you fix the heart of a person who doesn't care? What do they have to face that finally breaks them to say, I sinned against the Lord God? I've been raised in church. I've been raised in Sunday school. And to part away from it and embrace it and not blush, not bow their head in shame and say, how can I do this great wickedness when he points the finger and says, you personally as an individual have brought this great iniquity on your own self. Why is this happening to me? Because of your sin. Now I know we get into the place where Jesus said as they passed by, the man was blind over to the side and the disciples said, Lord, you did sin. This man or his parents? Remember the response of Jesus there? He said, me. This blindness is not because of sin. It's so that the works of God might be glorified unto the Father. And you and I are living in a day and age that rationally, I don't think anybody as I've seen here sitting this morning is without excuse. You've heard the truth and you know the truth. It's now in your life what you do with the truth. But you and I have loved ones. You and I know the people that's in this community near and far, roundabouts, neighbors, co-workers, schoolmates, and those kind of things. They are in ignorance. They do not know the things of this Bible. They don't know the word of God and they don't know the God of the world. Because when you ask them direct questions, they cannot answer you. What is the specific sin of your heart right now? I guarantee you for about 50% of you sitting here this morning, there is over the book of Hebrews, it says there is a sin that does so easily beset you. And if I was to ask you what is the number one sin that you wrestle with in your heart in your life, and I was to begin right here with Mr. Parks and work my way around this congregation this morning with Tom, most of you would be able to say, this is the sin that I've wrestled with. I've wrestled with pride. I've wrestled with money. I've wrestled with lust. I've wrestled with selfishness. I've wrestled with sin of this nature or sin of that. You can specifically tell me what sin it is that haunts you and bothers you. But if I go out there into that dark world and ask them, they don't know. I can go into some churches where the gospel has not been preached and say what sin is assaulting and accosting you this morning? What sin has done these things to you? And they look at me like a belly goat eating fire. They just don't know. They don't care either. Well, I might have some sin in my life, but it ain't too bad. Which sin is not too bad? What sin sends men to hell? The great sins or the little sins? Which sends them to hell? Oh, Tom, sweetheart. And how can they justify a little sin in their life? None of us can. Was it your great sin that drove nails in his hands and his feet? Or was it your little sins that crucified him there? And how can any Christian lift the cross and not say, my sin, my transgression, my iniquities put him there? How could I ever think that that little word doesn't matter? How could I ever think that that television show is not offensive? How could I ever think that me doing that on my time isn't wrong? How could I ever think that by coming to the house of the Lord faithfully does everything matter to me? It all matters. Thy iniquities have done this. And then he talks in chapter 14 where he goes through the first verses there and he talks about the drought, the famine. Isn't it amazing that our nation that has gone, that you and I did this just a couple years ago where there was a great famine, a great drought in our area that we finally called Kaiser over there. I got the pastors to come together to say, why do we got to wait until we're on our last drop of water before we finally come together and pray? We had seen Texas. We had seen Oklahoma that they had over two and a half, almost three years of drought. We've watched California in the last two years dry up. I'm always amazed they just found six bodies in the bottom of the Oklahoma Lake that had dried up. Missing people reports that from the 1960s and the 1970s are being found. Some lake over in Texas found a police officer's badge and gun at the bottom of one lake that was linked to some crime or something. What does that tell us? I think that goes along with that verse, be sure your sin will find you out. How else would they find it unless it dried up? And they're finding all kinds of things. And none of it's good. There's a drought. But you and I know Amos, the scripture in Amos, there shall come a famine and a drought, but not of food and water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. Verses one through six go through this where he says, there is a great drought, there is a great problem, and there is no grass. Verse seven, we come, though your iniquities testify against us, do thou for thy name's sake. This is one of the great prayers for revival. There's not one thing that you and I can offer at this altar this morning, to say, Lord, do it for our apostasy and baptism. You know, we Baptists are okay. Lord, you know, we work just like this with you, Lord. We're people of the book. Lord, do it for the Baptist's sake. You think God would say to that? I don't need one of them. I don't need to deal with that. Lord, do it because we're Americans. We're the most blessed nation. We've done more for the kingdom than any other nation that's ever been born. Lord, do it because we're Americans. I hear, Lord, do it because we're West Virginians. You Marylandites, transposed Marylandites, you'll have to repent later, but, you know. Lord, do it because we're West Virginians. And all the folks, I'm going to say about a quarter of you all, you've been Hampshire Countians from the day you were born until this day. Lord, do it because we're Hampshire Countians. You know, we're not as bad, we're not as bad as them counties down there around Charleston, or, you know, down there around Marksburg and those areas. You know, we're better than them because we're more civilized and more decent. None of those things stand the test, do they? Lord, do it for your namesake. That's what God's people need to pray. Don't do it because we're so righteous. Do it because you're righteous. Do it for your namesake, Lord. Prayer to God. Lord, I don't have anything to bring to you. All my righteousness is as filthy rags. All my goodness is contaminated. And all my choices, Lord, have another selfish end or a meaningless. Lord, do it because you're God. And that is the most genuine prayer that there is. All the prayers of revival that I've been going through on the broadcast point back to this one issue, this one reason. God sent revival because you promised it. You sent it. And it's all about the scriptures and what God has said in there. I want to get to chapter 16 now. My time is eroding away on this. Chapter 16. I want to read verses 10 through 12. And I'm closing here. And it shall come to pass that thou shalt show this people all these words, and that they shall say unto you, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? For what is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, sayeth the Lord, and you have walked after other gods, you have served them, you have worshipped them, and you have forsaken me, and you have not kept my law. You have done worse than your fathers. For behold, you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me. Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither ye nor your fathers, and there shall you serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you faith. What can we do if God doesn't show us faith? What can we do if God doesn't meet us this morning? He just goes down through this where he says, All these things that have been pronounced against you is because of your sin, and again, I have to be responsible for my generation. I have been on this earth for 46 years. I am responsible. You cannot point the finger and say that it was them. It was Washington. It was those atheists. That man with the little hair, that crazy woman did it all. It was the silence of the church that did it. It was the deadness in the church that did it. It was the prayerlessness in the pews that did it. It was the silence in the pulpits that did it. It's me, because I'm a member of the church. I'm a bride of Christ. I am a born-again, love-bought, name-written-in-the-lands book of life, etched on the palms of the Father's hands, saved by Christ. I'm a part of it. And my convictions about what I see, what I hear, and what I know of these evils that have been pronounced against this nation, from homosexuality becoming now legal, drugs, marijuana, Colorado, Washington, Florida, are going to pass it down there, and every other state is going to follow suit because there's $250 million profit for the budgets that they want to get their sticky fingers on. They don't care who it destroys. They don't care what cults in the family and in society. They just want the money. They did the same thing in 1933 when they said about the whiskey and the liquor business. Well, since we can't stop them, we might as well charge them. That's why in 1933 they overturned prohibition and they legalized alcohol. You tell me how much damage Budweiser has done and Coors and all the rest of them have done in the homes and in the lives of our society. How many souls are in hell because they couldn't put the bottle down? How many families have been destroyed with physical abuse and emotional abuse and verbal abuse because the dad goes to work, goes to the bar, gets drunk, and then comes home and takes it out on his wife and his kids. Some of you all sit here with scars because of that kind of lifestyle. I'm not ignorant. It's been in my generation. I've seen the damage. You know how I do it. I say this and I'm on recording now so I can't know what else to say about it. Sometimes I wish God wouldn't have told me because I can't stand the wait. I know why these things are happening. I've read the book too many times. God gave me a discerning heart in the affairs of this life. You know, I saw the first cases back in March of Ebola in West Africa. And on the broadcast, you can go back in April when I started announcing we need to pray for West Africa and the Ebola virus. I don't know anybody in West Africa. I've never been to West Africa. What do I care? I care just like I lived here. Boy, isn't this a freak show now in New York City and Dallas and everywhere else that this Ebola thing has hit. They didn't care when I was over there. Boy, they care now. You've heard me say it for years. Why does it always have to take to land in our backyard before we finally set up and take notice? I wish I could be that heart that counts, but I can't. I see where we're going. I try to tell people where we're going. I preach to you where we're going. The iniquities that have been spelled out in front of us. Why are these things happening to us? Because you have forsaken me. You have abducted me, and you have worshipped the idols of your heart. You and I have watched loved ones. We've watched other church members do that very same thing. How often has it been said, they once sat in these pews. So much has been said, they once used to come into any church, but they have forsaken the Lord. Our nation has forsaken the Lord. We all grew up singing that old patriotic hymn, My country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. On thee. Who's thee? It's the Lord God, isn't it? Well, my golly, if you tried to sing that today, somebody would bring a lawsuit against you, wouldn't they? We put out here on the front row, in God we trust, and there'd be some religious group, some organization that would come bring a lawsuit against us. That's offensive to them. I carry my old beat Bible around. I'm surprised somebody hasn't put something in. You can't bring that in here. Because it's offensive to them. And it is that for every legislation, and every judicial act, and every individual act, in your home, in your heart, in your loved ones, and in our community, it is an act against the Lord God that must be confessed, and it must be repented, and it must be put away. For the healing of our nation, how do you even begin to change the innocent death of 60 little babies? How do you turn back these laws that one federal judge said, this is the law of the land now, don't care what any of y'all say. How do you go to your families when they'll say, but everybody else is doing this. Everybody else is going to do it too. How do you change the hearts and the lives of America? How does the Ethiopian change his skin color? How does the Lutheran draw the swans? How did you get born again? God's grace and mercy family can do it too. There's all that old happy-go-lucky family that used to sing to somebody, and somebody prayed for them. See, I know of all the things that I've seen, a house of prayer is where God's people are supposed to be. Calling upon the Lord. It's said, these revivalists that was up there, when I would ask them, they'd say, tell me about your prayer ministry. Tell me what your church does. You know, because I like drawing examples and illustrations and that kind of thing. And most of them said, well, we know we ought to. We've got to work on that. We've got to get busy with that. Yeah, I'd say so. You'd better get busy with that, because guess what? The doors are closing. The day is over. We don't have time on our side. That's the reason every church service is a precious moment now, isn't it? Every time we come together, it's another divine invitation for God to meet. Woe to the ones that come in here with no intention of meeting God. Woe to those that come in here out of their own selfish desires without ever worshiping God. God comes to meet us. The two or three are gathered together in my name. There I am. No one should walk out these doors without God. To change us, to empower us, to encourage us, to fan the flames within us that we might go forth and say, I'm walking out of this church service because I know what that Scripture has said this morning. I know it will be true. Even though to Jeremiah and the children of Judah, I know it's just as true today in 2014 as the close of October. God's called me to make a difference and to make a change about it in my own heart, in my family, in my church, in my community, and even in my nation. I drove back mainly because I was a cheapskate Thursday night. I left South Bend. I paid an enormous amount of toll to go across the toll road at I-80 up across the things there. And I said, my God. I said, I'm not going to give an ounce of gold for what I had to pay for those toll fees going across there. I said, I am not going back that same way. And I made up my mind. I said, I'm intentionally going to go down to the center of Ohio, around Columbus, Ohio, because that's where the Southern Baptist Convention is next year. And Ronnie Floyd has put that as a prayer target on everything that he has put out. Pray for next year's convention in Columbus. Pray for Columbus. They have a huge impact right now. Pray for Columbus. So I drove down 33th, right down on the northeast side of Dayton, and right down to Columbus. And I went right around Columbus. And the whole time I was going around Columbus, I was looking at the buildings. I was looking at the lights. I was looking at the people. And I was crying out to God, Lord, would you meet these churches that are here? Would you meet your people? Lord, when Ronnie Floyd and the rest of the Southern Baptists get here next year, would you meet them? And Lord, would you do a little work in Columbus? Then when I got on the other side of Columbus, I texted, I emailed Ronnie, and I said, I just drove around I-270, to Interstate 70, and I said, I prayed for Columbus and you for next year. And he went back and he said, so much appreciate that. Keep on praying. Keep on. I did. Prayer can change things. I don't think some of you have forgotten that. You know the reality of that. Prayer changes things. For those of you that aren't praying, you're not seeking God. You're not ashamed. You're not convicted. What's it going to take? What's it going to take before you find that you're worthy? And you just say, no more. I know why these things are happening to me. My sins. The iniquity of my family is so great. The iniquity of my nation is so great that I refuse to be a part of it anymore. Lord, I repent. From this day forward, Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my all. I'm no longer mine. I'm living free. I surrender all. That's every individual's purpose. And if I support you as a group, Lord, here we are. For your name's sake, Lord, lead us. For your name's sake. Not because they need the Lord so bad. They do, but for your name's sake, Lord, lead us. Oh, if every church would pray that prayer this morning. You and I would walk out of here saying, I am resolved. No longer to linger. I will hasten to you. Here we are. Lead us. Can't do much else but lay it in your heart now to say what we do is what you've heard. Let's pray. Blessed Father, I ask you tonight on the blessedness of your word, which is truth, reveal truth of days gone by. Reveal truth for us today and that which has not been revealed yet for the future. Lord, your Holy Spirit works in all. Lord, it is even now, you know, the very thoughts and the intents of the heart of each man, woman, child sitting here. Lord, may your Holy Spirit draw forth that we would follow, follow after you, Lord, with all that we are. No more half-heartedness. No more lukewarmness. No more unfaithfulness. No more sinfulness. Father, we confess that we would repent of all sins that you bring to our minds even this morning. Now, Father, we would renew our vows to you, our covenant, for you are a God-keeping covenant. Lord, it is that you await on us. Oh, Father, may hearts and souls respond this morning to say no more. At Calvary, burdens are lifted at Calvary. Father, we just ask now that within every soul that is here this morning, not only praying for ourselves, but praying one for another. Praying, Father, for those that aren't here. Praying for the future of our nation. We've seen an evil week, Lord. The headlines have horrified us. What will this week bring? Even now, Father, we seek your face, that, Lord, you would intervene. You would hear for your very name's sake the prayers of your children, and that you would respond with hope, with righteousness, with promise of your presence. Lead us now, even now, Lord, as we pronounce the benediction, Lord, going with you and not against you. Going for you, Lord, in all causes that you bring to our minds and our hearts to be an obedient people. Bless now the individual. Bless the family. Bless the church, Lord, for your name's sake. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.