In this sermon, the speaker discusses the power of prayer and its impact on preaching. He shares the example of Jonathan Edwards, who delivered a powerful sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Before preaching, Edwards and a group of believers spent the entire night in prayer, seeking God's intervention. Edwards himself fasted and prayed for three days, asking God to bring revival to New England. When he finally delivered the sermon, conviction fell upon the audience, leading to a great revival and awakening. The speaker emphasizes the importance of earnest prayer by the people of God in preparing for impactful preaching.

Shall we begin our service this evening by turning together to number 12. All hail the power of Jesus' name, let angels prostrate fall. Number 12, singing together if you will please. Be complete if we didn't serve him faithfully. 574. 574, am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb. We're going to sing all four stanzas and if you can turn and listen at the same time, I'll explain how we'll do that. First stanza, everyone singing on the parts as usual. Second stanza, gentlemen would you sing the second stanza, ladies would you sing the third, everyone on the melody on that four stanza, and then following that the gospel choir will be coming to minister to us. All four stanzas together, 574, standing to sing please. We thank these young folks for their ministry to us this evening. Let's turn to our memory verses in the book of Genesis, chapter 8, 22, verse 22, and chapter 9, verse 13. As usual we will say the reference, the verses, and repeat the reference. Genesis 8, 22, and 9, 13. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 8, 22, and 9, 13. We thank you for being in the service tonight, appreciate everyone's presence, and if you're visiting we say welcome to you, and we'd like to know that you've been here. We'd ask you to take a visitor's card out of the book rack in the pew before you, fill that card out, and then put it in the offering plate when it comes by you in just a few minutes. Every year we like to have a dedication of our deacon board, and so I'm going to ask the deacons to come forward now, those that are serving on the present deacon board, and line up across the front here. You just go ahead and come, and while you're coming I'd like to mention again about the baby bottles. This is for the Piedmont Women's Center. These are crisis pregnancy centers. Many of you got the bottles this morning. If you didn't, we still have some left tonight. If we don't have enough for everybody, we'll get some more. One to a family. Don't take it unless you plan to use it. Last year we had a lot of folks take the bottles and never brought them back, so don't take it unless you will use it, but we hope you will, and we'll bring these back on the 6th of May, and all the money in here will go toward the work of the Piedmont Women's Center. So these will be at the doors as you go out after the service for as long as they last. I'm sure not all of our deacons are able to be here tonight. Back in days when I was smarter, I would introduce each one of them, but I'm not that smart anymore, so I'm not going to try to do it. But let me see. Where's our chairman? The chairman isn't even here. Okay. The whole thing is falling apart. Let me just say something. I think he told me he wasn't going to be here, by the way. And Dick Stratton was elected our chairman, and the deacon board organizes itself, and Dick Stratton was our chairman for this year, but since the Strattons are going to be moving to Florida, he has resigned from the board, and we've asked Paul Wickensheimer, who was our chairman last year, to serve again this year during this time of transition in the pastoral position. So Paul is our chairman. He will serve for the remaining part of this year. He is also the chairman of the missions committee. We have six standing committees, and each one of these committees has a chairman and a secretary and a number of members. So Paul will play a dual role this year as chairman of the deacon board and the chairman of the missions committee. Randy Murr is our vice chairman, and he will move up next year to be the chairman of the board. That's the way the operation works. The chairman serves for one year, and there's also a vice chairman selected, and he becomes the chairman the next year. Rob Loach is our secretary this year, and he takes all the notes. That's a very difficult job, but it's a very important job because we need to have these notes all on file. I say we have six committees, and I try to remember the chairman of the six committees here. John Peary is the chairman of our buildings and grounds committee. These are the folks that are responsible for our new building, getting it built and for our whole physical plant. Nelson Neal is the chairman of our finance committee. Is he awake? Move out a little bit so I know who you are. He just didn't hear me. Ross Phoenix is the chairman of our music and education committee. As I mentioned, Paul Wickensheimer is chairman of our missions committee. And let's see, we have, oh, yes, Warren Lennon is chairman of our membership committee. He's unable to be here tonight, and Gary Guthrie is the chairman of our school committee. So we're grateful for these men and the leadership that they provide. Many of them are also group leaders, congregational group leaders, have small groups. And we have some other folks that are not deacons but also serve as group leaders. Now, we have a number of new men on the board this year, and we'd also like to have an ordination for them back in the Book of Acts where they chose the ones that we consider to be the first deacons. They laid their hands on these men and formally ordained them to the position of deacon. This year we have Paul Sopp way over at the end as a new deacon. We have Houston McCall as a new deacon. We have Fenton Angel. We have Steve Sturm. We have Ken Ilg. We have David Johns. And Roy, were you on last year? All right, Roy Houlihan and Matt Pinozzi. So these are new deacons serving on the board this year. And some of these have been ordained already as deacons in other churches, so they don't need to be ordained a second time. But for those who have not been ordained, I'm going to ask them to kneel just where they are and have the ones that have been ordained to gather around them and lay hands on them. If you'll do that now, we'll have a prayer of dedication for the entire deacon board and then for these new men that are serving this year. Let's pray together. Father, we thank Thee for the opportunity to serve. And we thank Thee for these men who are willing to give of themselves, their time, their means, their abilities, in order to serve in places of leadership here in Hampton Park Baptist Church. Lord, we know good leadership is essential to the ongoing blessing of a congregation. And so I come this evening to dedicate these folks publicly before the congregation unto Thee for their service this year. I pray that You will bless them in what they are doing and that You will enable them to be a blessing. I would ask, Father, that they would be faithful, first of all faithful to Thee, and then faithful to this ministry, faithful to their wives and their families, faithful in everything that they do. Lord, I just thank You that You have given them this privilege of serving You through this church. Lord, I pray for these new men that are just now becoming deacons, who have not served in this capacity before. We dedicate them unto Thee in this new task of ministry that they are now engaged in, and I would pray for them that, Lord, they too would be blessed and be a blessing to the congregation of Hampton Park Baptist Church. Following the example provided by the early church when they chose the men in Acts chapter 6 to be deacons, we lay hands on these men and formally ordain them to the deacon ministry of Hampton Park Baptist Church. For Christ's sake, amen. Thank you so much. I hope you get to know these men as you have opportunity to see them in various capacities. Pray for them. We have the deacons listed from time to time, and I hope you pray for these men and the various responsibilities that they have. The Lord has just been with us in such a wonderful way over the years as far as the business of the church is concerned. I know many pastors that would rather be out of town on the night of a deacon's meeting, and many of them choose to do that. But I've never wanted to be away, you know, just determined I was going to be away when the deacons met. We have good fellowship, good camaraderie. It doesn't mean we see everything eye to eye, but we work well together, and I just think that's a tremendous, tremendous blessing from God that we have that kind of cooperation, that kind of fellowship on our board of deacons. So pray for these men as God brings them to your mind. The tickets are available now for the Mother-Daughter event coming up in just a few weeks in May. I encourage the ladies to purchase these tickets. More information about this in the bulletin. I'll explain this tonight as well. Because Dick Stratton will no longer be on the board, we are short one deacon, and so the deacons are recommending that Steve Kaminsky, who was next in line when we elected deacons last fall, he was next in line. In other words, he was just below the ones that got elected. So he's going to be brought before the congregation at our business meeting a week from Wednesday night to be approved to take Dick's place on the deacon board. I want to thank Dick for his ministry, and we're going to miss the Strattons as they go from us, and we wish them well. Other announcements in the bulletin that I hope you'll give attention to. By the way, the tapes from the Reach Out to Catholics seminar are available. Some of you have picked them up. Some of you have not. And if you'll go by the ministry center and go by the tape desk, you can pick up those tapes tonight, and they'd like to get all of those on their way as soon as possible. If you can do that this evening, please do it. I want to pray again for Doris Holmes and her son, Chris. Chris's wife, Nancy Holmes, passed away yesterday at St. Francis Hospital. She was very seriously ill for about a week. And pray for Chris during this time. They did not have any children, but pray that the Lord will be with him and draw him unto himself. Cindy Summer will be having chemotherapy this Thursday. Joan Godwin had a heart catheterization last Thursday. Everything was fine, and she's out of the hospital, able to be here. Bill Jackson, who had bypass surgery, is now at home. He's making good progress, and let's continue to pray for him as he recovers. We're asked to pray for Margie Arnold's brother, John Brown, who has lung cancer. Remember him. Also remember the son of the Bruce Browns, who has lung cancer, has been in the hospital, and is now at home. A number of our Power Company people will be going on a week-long trip starting tomorrow. They'll be going by bus up to Pennsylvania and then back by way of Williamsburg, Virginia. Pray for them as they go, that they'll have a safe trip, and they'll all enjoy good health and have a good time together. Ushers, would you please come and be ready to receive our offering this evening? Appreciate what you are giving in your support of the ministry here at Hampton Park. Pastor Cruz will come and lead us in our prayer. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, how thankful we are that we enjoy health, that we can gather together tonight to worship you in music and through your preaching of your word. We pray, Lord, that we would take this opportunity to encourage one another to do right, to do those things that are pleasing to you. We thank you again for these men who have willingly placed themselves in a position of responsibility in response to your leadership in their lives. May we be careful, Lord, to respect those that you put in authority over us. May we respond to them, and may we encourage them. May we be reminded again that each one of us is a spiritual leader wherever we are, that we set the tone, we set the pace, that we are to reveal Christ, whether it be in our home, whether it be in our workplace, whether it be in a restaurant. Lord, help us not to wait for someone else to take the lead in spiritual matters. Help us to reflect the strength of our personal bond with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We think of these needs that have been mentioned. We think particularly of Doris Holmes and her family with the death of her daughter-in-law. Lord, we think of her son, Chris, as certainly this is a difficult time. And this is also a time, Lord, where you might be able to draw men and women closer to yourself. It's a time of searching. And we just pray, Lord, that there would be a testimony that this, what would seem to be a tragic time in the lives of these folks, would indeed be a blessed time because they can give praise to you for what you are going to do in their lives. We think of the others that have been mentioned who are going through different tests, who have come through different procedures. We pray your blessing upon them. We pray, Lord, that they are fully trusting that you are in control of their lives, that even though they may have setbacks for a while, they know that victory is theirs in Christ. We do pray, Lord, that we would have a real sense that even though things may not go the way we plan them to go, that you are never surprised. May we walk faith by faith, day by day. May we trust you to lead us where you want us to go. And may we desire to raise up a testimony for thy sake. We think now of this time of offering. We thank you, Lord, for having it as a part of worship that we can give back to you again a portion of what you have given to us. We thank you for all you have given to this church family, this wonderful campus, and all these buildings. We think of this building that is near completion. We pray, Lord, that the remaining funds would come in in a timely fashion, the project would be completed, and that we would have your direction to use it wisely to again have a wonderful, powerful impact on this community for you. So we pray, Lord, that you would bless our time together and be honored by it. In Jesus' name, amen. ♪ So our prayer as we work in the music program week after week, and I know the choir feels this way as well as all of those who provide specials for us, that your heart would be blessed by what we offer to the Lord in praise to him. I do want to say a special word of thank you to Becca Grove and Ashley Burr for their beautiful offertory this evening, to the choir, and for Andrea Steffolf for her assistance on the oboe with us. In just a moment, we're going to sing together, and then the men's chorus will be coming to sing. Following that, Pastor Yerrick will be preaching to us this evening. Take your hymnal this time, please, and let's turn to 396. 396, we're going to sing just the first stanza and the chorus. So you do your best as you sing together. Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me. 396, stand, please, to sing with us. Thank these men for their ministry to us this evening. Turn to the book of Habakkuk, one of those hard-to-find books in the Old Testament. In the second verse of Habakkuk 3, we have a prayer for revival. It's identified as a prayer in verse 1. This is the prayer. O Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make known. In wrath remember mercy. Mostly, if not all, genuine spiritual awakenings, which we know as revival, have been born in prayer, in earnest prayer by the people of God. One notable example is that which occurred under Jonathan Edwards as he preached his never-to-be-forgotten sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. We're told that he read the message from a manuscript, read it word for word, and he wasn't a very good reader. He held the manuscript up in front of his face, so close to his face that all people could see was the back of the manuscript. They couldn't see his face at all. He droned on and on. But people in the church were moved almost beyond control. One man jumped from his seat, rushed down the aisle and cried aloud, Mr. Edwards, have mercy on us. Others caught hold of the back of the pews because they felt like they were slipping into the pit of hell. Still others thought that the judgment day had dawned upon them. It was a powerful message. It brought a great revival. It was the beginning of a great awakening. But the secret of that sermon's power is often overlooked. A group of believers in that church, eager for God to do a work in their midst, met on the evening before the sermon and spent that whole night in prayer before God. They never went home. They never went to bed. They prayed all night for God to do something. Edwards himself, we are told, did not sleep for three nights or eat for three nights or three days, but was on his knees continually crying out, God, give me New England. God, give me New England. And when he made his way into the pulpit, it's said that he looked as if he had been gazing straight into the face of God. Conviction fell upon his audience before he ever began to speak. He probably could have said anything that day, and conviction still would have come upon the people. It was the power of God. Similar accounts of revival praying can be told in connection with other outbreaks of the Holy Spirit's power. You read about revivals of days gone by. Usually you can find that there was a group praying or there was an individual praying or maybe a couple of people praying. But they were doing revival praying, asking God to really move upon His people. And if we're ever going to see great revival in our day, I don't think we can expect it to come from anything less than the fervent prayers of the people of God. It'll be born in prayer. This evening I'd like to share with you some characteristics of revival praying. These are not in any particular order, but I trust that God might use these to challenge us in praying for revival. First of all, revival praying is one accord praying, such as the disciples and the other believers were participating in between the time of the Lord's ascension into heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. We read twice, we'll not turn there, but we read twice in Acts 1.14 and Acts 2.1 that they were gathered together with one accord or they were praying in one accord. Now that doesn't mean that they were in tremendous agreement or total agreement on everything, but as far as desiring the Holy Spirit to come, as far as desiring for God to move upon them, they were united in that. So it's hard to get any size group of people together today and have total agreement on everything. But we can be in agreement on the matter of a need for revival and of a desire for revival and of calling upon God for revival. If we don't all have a common goal there and we don't have a common desire there, then it's going to be a hindrance to our praying. Now it's true that discord can be brought into one accord through prayer. We know sometimes that we've maybe met with someone to pray and we had a difference. I mean there was something that we disagreed on. But as we prayed together and as we sought the heart of God and the mind of God, we saw that that difference melted and we became of one accord. So revival praying is praying that is done in one accord, those praying, desiring revival, praying for revival, believing that God will send it. Secondly, revival praying is prolonged praying, such as Hannah did when she asked God for a son back in 1 Samuel chapter 1. We get the idea there that Hannah prayed over a long period of time for God to open her womb and give her a son. It wasn't just a frivolous little prayer that she prayed one time. We do have the account of her praying in the temple and her lips were moving. She wasn't saying anything and Eli the priest thought she was drunk. But she told him she wasn't. She was a woman with a bitter spirit. But she had gone up to the temple many years with her husband and with his other wife. And I'm sure that as she went each year, there was a time of prayer. So it wasn't something that God gave her right away. God didn't give her a son immediately. But she was willing to pray and pray and pray some more until such time God promised that in the course of life she would have a son. And God gave her Samuel. And we know the story of Samuel. Pastor Conley has been talking about Samuel in our morning messages for a few weeks. So revival praying is prolonged praying. And revival praying is specific confession praying such as Daniel did. I'd have you turn to Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. Looking at verse 4. Daniel 9 verse 4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said O Lord the great and dreadful God keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments. We have sinned, have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers and to all the people of the land. We see that Daniel is specifically confessing wrongdoing on the part of his people. And he includes himself in that. We have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. And again, revival praying is going to include confession of sin. Have you checked your own praying recently? Have you checked your own prayers? I know they're given to God. They're given over to God. But have you listened in a sense to your own prayers? Do you find any confession? Or as you come to God would it seem to indicate that there's no sin at all that needs to be repented of? We know there is. We know there's barely a day goes by that we do not fall short of the glory of God either by doing things that we know we shouldn't do or by leaving undone things that we ought to do. Those sins of omission we tend to overlook and say, oh, they're not that important, but they are in the sight of God. We need to be confessing our shortcomings. We need to be confessing our sins unto God. And as His people gathered together to pray and they were confessing their sins, that God began to move in their midst. Revival praying is brokenhearted praying. Hearts that are really broken over sin. I think as we look at Daniel's prayer here again in Daniel 9, we see a broken heart there on the part of this prophet Daniel. And we need to have hearts that are broken by the consciousness of our own sins and of our own weaknesses and by the consciousness and the awareness of the sins of our nation and maybe the sins of our community, even the sins of our church, things wherein we're falling short of the glory of God. Jeremiah prayed this way. He said in Jeremiah, it's recorded in the 13th chapter and the 17th verse, and again we'll not turn there, but he said, My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears. I mean, you can't read that without seeing a broken heart. A heart that was crushed over sin. My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride. Talking about the pride of the nation. And mine eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears. Revival praying is bold praying, such as Abraham did when he interceded for Sodom before God in Genesis 18. Now maybe as we read over that, we don't see a great deal of boldness in the way he prayed what he prayed, asking God to spare the city first of all for 50 and 40 until he finally got down to 10. But I see boldness there in the fact that he kept on asking God to reduce the number. I mean, he was before a holy God, a righteous God. And yet he would pray first of all for that number, and then he would come down to another number. And that took great boldness on the part of Abraham to continue to beseech God to spare the city of Sodom. And we've often said, why didn't he go beyond? Why didn't he ask God to go to five? Why did he stop with 10? If God had given him that number, wouldn't God have gone down at least another five? We don't know. Perhaps he wasn't led to pray for any more, for a lesser number. It could be that he believed that there were at least 10 righteous people in Sodom because he knew Lot was there, and he knew Lot's wife was there, and he knew that Lot's two daughters were still at home, and he knew that Lot had other sons and daughters that were married, and surely out of that great family there would be at least 10 of them that were walking in the ways of God. And maybe Abraham didn't see any need to go below 10. We don't know. But I'm just saying that Abraham displayed great boldness in his praying as he asked God for 50 and 45 and on down to the number of 10. And we read in Hebrews 4.16, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. Now, we can't come flippantly to God and say, well, God is just going to accept my prayers. Whatever I say, whatever my attitude is in coming, God isn't going to do that. But we can come boldly because we have a tremendous intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we come through Him. And that makes it possible for us to come unafraid to the throne of God and asking God to give us the desires of our heart. And revival praying is bold praying before the throne of God. Revival praying is self-debasing praying such as Isaiah prayed in Isaiah 6. Turn there with me a minute. Isaiah 6. This was in the year that King Uzziah died. It's a very familiar portion of Scripture. Isaiah 6, chapter 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With twain He covered His face, and with twain He covered His feet. With twain He did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone. He didn't see Himself as a holy man. He didn't see Himself as a great person before God. He saw Himself really as nothing. And in view of the vision He had of God, as He beheld that vision, and He beheld those seraphims, He could only cry out, woe is me. We've got to come to that point where we know we're in deep trouble if God doesn't do a work in our world today. God doesn't do a work in our country. God doesn't do a work in us. We can only cry out not about how righteous we are, not about how good we are, not about how wonderful it is for God to have us as His children, not to commend God for using us as His servants, but for seeing ourselves for what we are. Absolutely unprofitable. When we've done our best, when we've done all these things, we are still unprofitable servants. The publican prayed this way. Remember the publican? The Pharisee went up to the temple to pray and Jesus told about them in Luke 18. And the Pharisee said, Lord, I'm glad I'm not as other men are, even as this publican. But what did the publican do? He cried out and said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. That was self-debasing praying. The Pharisee was building himself up. He was commending himself unto God. God, aren't you pleased with me? I'm not like other people are. I'm really not even like this publican. But the publican wouldn't even lift up his head. He said, God be merciful. Self-debasing prayer. Revival praying is God awareness praying. And we go back to Isaiah chapter 6. And Isaiah was very much aware of the presence of God. He saw Him high and lifted up. Do you sense the presence of God? Do you sense that you're in the presence of God when you pray? I mean, there is a very real sense in which we're coming as we come to God through Jesus Christ. We're coming to the throne room of the whole universe. The power center. Of everything that is. For there is the one who made all things. There is the one who held all things together. And when you and I pray here, how amazing it is. That our prayers ascend to the throne of God and they go in to the very presence of God. We need to see ourselves not as praying to ourselves. Not as praying to one another. Not as praying to any human person. But lifting up our hearts. Lifting up our voices unto God. God awareness. Revival praying is relentless prayer. Provided by the example of the man who went to his friend at midnight and asked him for some bread. You might turn there to Luke chapter 11. Luke 11. Jesus told this. Looking at verse 5. Luke 11, 5. He said unto them, which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine in his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity. That word only appears once in the Bible. Because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many, that is as many loaves as he needed. What is importunity? It is being relentless. Not giving up. Not quitting. Not turning back. Not ceasing what we're doing. And one of our problems in praying is that we get concerned about someone or we get concerned about something and we say, boy, I'm going to pray about this. I'm not going to let this fade from my mind. I'm not going to let it escape from my heart. I'm going to pray for this regularly. And maybe we wake up a week or two later and that request has moved away from us and some other request has come in to take its place. And as we read about the accounts of revival, people prayed relentlessly. They prayed and they just would not give up. They just were determined that God was going to answer their prayers and God was going to do a work. Also, Luke, we have the account of the poor widow who went to the unjust judge and she kept asking him for a request. And he said, lest by her continual coming she weary me, I'm going to ask or I'm going to grant her what she asks for. And that's what God wants is a continual coming to Him with a desire in our heart for God to open up the windows of heaven and to shower us with tremendous spiritual blessings in reviving our own hearts, reviving our church, reviving our nation. So revival praying is relentless praying. Just keeping on. Not stopping. Not quitting. How many things have we prayed about? And we didn't get an answer. And maybe if we had just prayed a little longer or maybe in some cases we had prayed a while longer, God would have sent that answer to us. I've told you the story before and I know you've heard it many times of the man who was digging in a mine for diamonds. And he spent much time there. He spent much money digging into that mine. And finally he gave up. I suppose he was out of patience. He was out of money. He was out of strength. He abandoned the mine and went home. Somebody else came along a short time later. Dug just a little further. Just a foot or so further. Ran into a rich vein of diamonds. If he had just been relentless, he would have had the treasure. But he gave up and somebody else had it. Got it. So we dare not give up. We must keep praying. Revival praying is pleading praying. Just really pleading with God. All these things fit in together and maybe there's not a lot of difference in some of them, but each one has a little different aspect. Job in the 16th chapter in verse 21, he said, Oh, that one might plead for a man with God. That's really what revival praying is. That we plead with God for men, for the souls of men, for Christians. That their hearts would be stirred and Christians would get their hearts and their lives right with God. We're living in a time when even in our in our best churches, there are so many couples that are not enjoying one another and not having a good marriage. And they need revived. They need, first of all, a revival before God and they need a revival in their relationship with one another. And all of us, all of us could be blessed by a closer walk with our mates and with our families and a closer walk with God. So revival praying is pleading praying. And then revival praying is fasting praying as we find throughout the Bible. And Jesus said, when we fast, that's to be a secret thing. That's not something we broadcast. I'm on a fast. I know some people do that and I'm not saying they're losing all of their reward. Maybe they're doing it to encourage others, inviting others to join with them. But we find a lot about fasting in the Bible. And when Jesus cast out a demon, a demon out of a person, the disciples said, well, why couldn't we do that? We ordered that demon to come out. He didn't pay attention to us. He's still there. Why couldn't we cast the demon out? He said, because this kind comes forth only by prayer and fasting. And there are a lot of things that are only going to come forth by prayer and by fasting. It has to be what God lays in each of our hearts individually. What God would have us to do in the matter. But I don't think fasting is something that we necessarily do by planning for it all the time. We may do that. But fasting comes because we get so wrought up in praying, we get so wrought up in calling upon God that food isn't important to us. Sleep isn't important to us. That was the case with Jonathan Edwards. I don't believe he planned to spend three days not sleeping and three days not eating. But he had such a burden for that message and for the people of New England that he forgot about eating. It wasn't important to him. If we just start out to say, well, I'm going to go three days. I'm going to do that. And that's not really in our hearts. We're going to have a hard time doing it. We say, well, I'm going to sleep for three nights. I'm going to pray. But it has to be more than just saying it, setting out and doing it. We've got to have our hearts so burdened and so heavy. We've got to be so determined, so desirous of seeing God do something that food and sleep will become secondary to us. Then revival praying is intense praying as we find in James 5.16, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So here we have just some qualities that I believe are essential for revival praying. One accord praying. Prolonged praying. Specific confession in our praying. Brokenhearted praying. Bold praying. Self-debasing praying. God-awareness praying. Relentless praying. Pleading praying. Fasting and praying. And intense praying. Now the question is, will we ever pray like this? Will we ever really do genuine revival praying? We can. If others have done it before us, we can do it. It isn't impossible. It's not a matter of whether it can be done or not. It's a matter of our will. It's a matter of our heart's desire. Whether we so long for God to do a work in our midst that we're willing to pray like this. So I'm just going to leave this with us tonight to think on, to examine our own hearts before God. I think if we would take Jonathan Edwards' cry, he said, God, give me New England. And if we made our prayer, Lord, give us Greenville. Not just for our church, but to give Greenville to the Bible-believing churches that we'd really see a revival in this community. We have so many wonderful things here, but we have a lot of sin. We have a lot of terrible things that are going on. We need revival in Greenville. So when we make that our prayers, Lord, give us Greenville. Pray that. I think of Pastor Conley preparing to come here to be our pastor. He's not the same as I am. I'm not the same as he is. But you know, if we spent our time really praying that God would fill that man with the power of the Holy Spirit, and God would use that man to shake his church, not through him, but through the power of God, there are just so many possibilities out there. There's so much potential blessing. And I'd encourage us to do that. For the other pastoral staff too, but especially for him, that God would set him on fire. Who was it said, pray that God will set the pastor on fire and people will come to watch him burn. So we don't want a literal fire, but we'd like to have that spiritual fire. God, Lord, give us Greenville. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would challenge us tonight in this matter of revival praying. We can't plan revival. We can't pay for it in dollars and cents. We can't work it up ourselves. But Lord, we believe it can be prayed down. Help us to be willing, to be used of thee, to be prayer warriors in this matter of revival praying. Lord, just put within our hearts a real longing for revival to come to Greenville. Lord, give us Greenville. I pray that you might use Pastor Conley and you might use the other men in the pastoral staff, especially for Pastor Conley. Lord, you might really fill him with your power and use him in a very particular way as your servant in this place. We don't know all that awaits out there for us in the way of blessing. We do know there are trials and there are tribulations and there may be great persecutions, but they will pale in comparison to real revival when it comes. Lord, it's not impossible. It's not impossible to pray like these people prayed that we learned about tonight. So I just ask that you'll burden our hearts for it. In Christ's name, amen. We have a lot of opportunities for praying here at Hampton Park. We have our regular prayer meeting on Wednesday night and we're always thrilled at the number of people who come to pray on Wednesday evening. We also have the prayer meeting on Wednesday morning. Far fewer there. But those two times of praying every Wednesday in your schedule, I encourage you to do so. It's an opportunity to serve God as an intercessor. Every one of us can serve God on Wednesday night as we come here and pray for those needs that are presented to us. So let's not see it as a burden, but an opportunity for actually serving God. We have other prayer groups, some of them large, some of them small. We can print some of those from time to time. You could start a prayer group of your own in your home. Maybe just invite two or three other people to come in. And we're going to be talking more about that as far as prayer groups in the neighborhood are concerned. Gene Gergenis has given us some ideas on that. But we have tremendous opportunities to pray. May God help us to do revival praying. We're going to close tonight with number 358. 358, My Heart's Prayer. We'll sing all the stanzas of this and that will be dismissed. 358. Let's stand together. I do not find a home to be