In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the incredible love and care that God has for His children. He reminds the audience that if God willingly sacrificed His Son for their sins, He will surely listen to their prayers and provide for their needs. The preacher uses the example of earthly fathers who readily embrace and help their children in times of trouble, highlighting how much more God, as their heavenly Father, will do for them. He encourages the audience to call out to God in times of desperation, citing Jeremiah 33:3 as a promise that God will answer and reveal great and mighty things. The sermon challenges the notion of prayer becoming a mere cliche and urges the audience to pray earnestly and passionately.

Jeremiah, the thirty third chapter, the message that God is simply laid on my heart for this morning, I've entitled it when the call to pray becomes more than just a cliche, when the call to pray becomes more than just a cliche, what is a cliche? Webster's Dictionary defines a cliche as an expression or idea that has become trite. It's something that you just say, but you don't really mean something that has kind of become worn out by constant use. It's no longer fresh. It's lost its meaning when the call to pray becomes more than just a cliche. Jeremiah, chapter thirty three, we're just going to read three verses, the first three verses. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the maker thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it, the Lord is his name. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Call unto me and I will answer thee, God says, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. All of us have heard that little phrase, let's pray. Or I'm going to be praying for you, that phrase can be. The ultimate answer to every problem that we're facing, it can be the very turning point in our lives, let us pray if we mean what we say, if we really mean that we're going to call out and draw near to God, God promises, if you draw near to me, I will draw near to you. But that little phrase, let's pray, can also become nothing more than a cliche. It can become something that we just say. All of us probably have experienced this when some perhaps you're going through a trial or of some kind and someone comes up to you and says, I'll be praying for you or you're in my thoughts and prayers. And they may mean well, but, you know, they didn't really mean what they just said that they're not really going to pray for me. Oftentimes, it's just used as an expression, as a cliche, on the other hand, somebody can say to you, I'm going to be praying for you. And somehow, you know, they meant that they meant that from their heart. They meant when they said, I'm going to be praying for you, they're going to go shut themselves in with God and really pray for you. And you know that something's going to happen when that person prays. So let's pray can just become an empty cliche or it can become the most important, critical, most effective thing you and I could ever do. Do you look at prayer as something that's just sort of a last resort type of thing is just something we do, something you do before a meal, something you do when you don't know what else to do? Or do you look at prayer as your very lifeline, as the very thing that connects you to God that you look at prayer as the very breath in your body, as the very blood that flows through your veins in that without prayer, without communion with God, without getting in touch with God, I'm going to die. That's when we look at prayer rightly, not as some empty cliche, but as but as our very lifeline to God. Now, as you and I can see in verse one of Jeremiah, chapter 33 here, notice that Jeremiah was shut up in prison. He was being held in a prison. Verse one. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the court of prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord. What I want you to see is that it was a very critical hour in Jeremiah's day and in his life. Jeremiah was a prophet called by God, and he came with a message of repentance, a message of coming judgment. And no one wanted to hear what Jeremiah said, what he had to preach. Most people don't want to hear from a prophet. They would rather hear a message that tickles their ears and makes them feel good about themselves and leaves with a good, good feeling. But that's not the message that Jeremiah the prophet had. He had a message of repentance. It was a message for the people of God to turn from sin and to get right with God. It was a message of coming judgment because they wouldn't get right with God. It was a very desperate and critical hour. Judgment was coming. Jeremiah had already heard from the Lord. He knew that war was just on the horizon. He knew that it would be very soon that Israel and Judah would come under the judgment of God, that Jerusalem would be leveled. The whole city would be destroyed. And he has this message to proclaim to the people, turn to God, repent and God will have mercy upon you. But no one wants to hear what he has to say. He is rejected everywhere he goes. And finally, they throw him in prison. So here he is in a dark prison and it's a critical hour. Nobody wants to hear what he has to say. He shut up in this prison. What does Jeremiah need? I'll tell you what he doesn't need. He doesn't need some fancy little religious cliche. Folks, you and I both know when you're hurting, when you're in trouble, when you're in a prison of some sort, when you're going through sorrow and suffering, when you're going when you're at a very critical, desperate hour, the last thing you need is some fancy little cliche. It's not a cliche that's going to get you through. What you need is a word from the living God. I think somebody perhaps came here this morning with that, with that in their heart. God, you must speak to me. I'm at a time in my life. I don't need a canned sermon. I don't need some some ideas of man. And I sure don't need some cliche. I need a word from you. I need you to speak to me, God. Jeremiah needed a word from the Lord. He's in prison. It's a desperate hour, a time of deep distress. He needed a word from the Lord and a word from the Lord he did receive. While in prison, and what was that word to Jeremiah? God gave him one word. Not a cliche, but a command, he said to Jeremiah in verse three, call unto me. And I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Folks, when you, you mean, let's, let's, let's look at this. Can I tell you, can I tell you when the call to pray becomes more than just a cliche? It's when you're in a time of desperation. When all the fluff is gone and you've finally gotten hit rock bottom and you're getting real with God. In a moment of desperation, the call to pray becomes more than just something we say. More than just some cheap little cliche. Thus saith the Lord, Jeremiah, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. God had one word for Jeremiah, pray, pray, Jeremiah. Now, if you were in prison, what would you do with that word? I put myself in that place and I thought if I was in prison, I think I would be more wanting God to say, here's how you get out of here. Or let me give you some instructions. Let me tell you how long you'll be in here. Let me tell you what's, what's going to happen. Let me give you the big picture. But God hardly ever does that. He gave him one word, one call, one command. Jeremiah, right now in prison, right now when you don't know what to do, right now in this desperate hour, when maybe you're even questioning why you're in this place. Lord, why did you even allow me to be put in this prison? Why am I in this mess? I'm trying to serve you. What do you have to say to me when no one wants to hear what you give me to preach? When no one wants to repent? When judgment is on the horizon? God says, I have one message, pray. One message, pray. You may be in a prison this morning. Not a physical prison, obviously, but some kind of prison that you, it seems that all hope is gone. You know no way out. What's God's message to you? Pray. When you're hurting, when you're suffering, times of sorrow, what's his message to you? Pray. What about when your children have gone astray and they're not serving the Lord, when your children are not yet saved? What is God's message to you? Pray. When people all around us, sinners all around us are dying and falling into an everlasting hell, what is God's message to us? Pray. Pray for them. What is God's message when Jesus is coming? His return is so very soon. What is his message? Pray. Call upon me. One word, there's not often that I can say thus saith the Lord, perhaps, but this morning I can tell you thus saith the Lord. Call upon me and I will answer thee. God Almighty has a word specifically for you and I this morning. Call unto me and I will answer thee. It is a promise. It is a command. Pray. One message, pray. And it's important for us to understand that this little word call in verse three, when he says call unto me, it's the Hebrew word kara. And it means to call out with a loud voice or to cry out to God. Now, is that really important? I mean, after all, Brother Brian, can't we just pray from our heart and and can't we just pray silently? Well, sure, there's a time to pray silently and sure, God hears those prayers, but this is not the kind of prayer that he's talking about here. The kind of prayer that God is talking about here is prayer that comes from the heart. Yes, but it is comes also from the voice prayer that calls out with a loud voice. You see, much of our praying today can become no more than just mental prayers. Well, I'm thinking about prayer, so therefore I've prayed today. I've prayed, but I'm just praying under my breath silently. This kind of prayer that God is talking about is prayer that comes out loud. It's praying out loud. When last did you cry out loud to God in desperation? God, help me, God, come. Save our generation, open the blind eyes, unlock the deaf ears, God, hear my cry. I am so convinced and so persuaded that there are things that you and I will face in life. Well, we will not experience the breakthrough, we will not experience the answer until we cry out to God from our hearts. Yes, but also from our voice. Scripture after scripture, I want to read you some scriptures that I just copied down where this word, this Hebrew word is used, this word that means call out or cry out with a loud voice. Listen to David in the Psalms, Psalm three, verse four. He said, I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of his holy hill. Not, I cried unto the Lord silently, I cried to the Lord with my voice and he heard me. Psalm 27, seven here, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me. Psalm 61, verse two, from the end of the earth, that is, when I am at the end of my rope, when I am at my wits end from the end of the earth, will I cry? Will I cry out loud unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Psalm 66, 17, I cried unto him with my mouth and he was extolled with my tongue. Psalm 69, verse three, I am weary of my crying, my throat is dried, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. Why was his throat dry? Because he's praying fervently out loud. Is it that important that we pray out loud? It is that important when God says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things that you do not know. He's saying, call unto me out loud, cry out to me. He says in verse in Psalm 119, verse 145, I cried with my whole heart. Hear me, O Lord. Isaiah 58, one cry aloud, spare not lift up thy voice. Jonah said in Jonah two, two, when he was in the belly of the well, he said, I cried, I called unto the Lord by reason of mine infliction unto the Lord. And he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I and heardest my voice. I can tell you, brothers and sisters, that there have been times in my own life when I was facing something that I could not get the victory. There was no breakthrough. There was no answer. And it was not until I went out in the country where nobody could hear me. Maybe you can shut yourself up in a vehicle. Maybe you can, who knows, go somewhere into an empty house where no one can hear me and you can let it loose. You can cry out, I remember at times out on the ranch crying out upon a mountain, oh, God, I hunger for you. God, I need you to come at this moment. Did you know God will never, ever close his ears to such a desperate prayer? He will not turn away the broken and the contrite heart. And I simply say to you, when's the last time if you're facing something, if you're at a desperate hour, when's the last time you let it go? You poured out your heart like water before the Lord and you called upon the Lord out loud with your voice. You called unto him. God has given us a promise here. Verse three of chapter 33, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which you do not know. There's a time to cry out loud. When does prayer, the call to pray, become more than a cliche when you're in a moment of desperation? The problem is most of us probably are too dignified to pray like that. You don't have to just let it go, Brother Brian, you don't have to pray out loud, you don't have to yell. Why? Are we too dignified? You know, I've seen videos of prayer meetings in China, videos of prayer meetings in Uganda, and these men and women are crying out to God with their voice out loud in desperation because they know they need God. And oftentimes God has to break us. He has to bring us to a place of desperation to get us to a place of rock bottom where we'll really learn how to pray. You want to learn how to pray, get desperate for God, call upon him with your whole heart, cry out to him with your voice. That's when prayer becomes more than just a cliche, more than something that we talk about in a trite manner. But it's also when prayer is prayed from the heart. When we pray, when prayer becomes more than a cliche, when we pray prayer from the heart, I will forever be grateful to my mom for this one thing for sure. Even as a young boy, she taught me to pray and in teaching me to pray, she would say, when you pray, pray from your heart. When you pray, be sure you pray from the heart. That sounds simple, but that's stuck in my mind and heart. It's useless to pray prayers that don't come from the heart. Praying prayers that don't come from your heart go no higher than your head. Prayer that comes from the heart touches the heart of God. You see, brothers and sisters, it's not a matter of saying, well, I wish I had the right words or I wish I could, you know, I have a problem putting words together. Forget all of that. Come to God as a little child, pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. That's what it means to call unto him. He's not impressed with words, he's impressed with a broken heart, a heart that hungers for him, a heart that cries out to him. Jeremiah was such a man who prayed from the heart. Turn to two. Well, let's look at a few scriptures, turn to the left to chapter twenty nine. And first, let's see what God says about this. Praying from the heart, he says in Jeremiah, chapter twenty nine, beginning in verse eleven. He says, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me? There's that same word, Kara. Then you shall you call upon me and you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you and ye shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with what? All your heart, all your heart. God saying when you cry, when you call upon me, when you pray, pray from your heart, seek me with all of your heart. And Jeremiah did so turn to the right, to the book of Lamentations, Lamentations in chapter three. This is after judgment finally came. To Jerusalem, the city was destroyed, God's people were taken into Babylonian captivity. And look at what Jeremiah says, he says in chapter three, look at verse forty eight. He says, mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Tears have often been called liquid prayers. God sees your tears. Verse forty nine, mine eye trickles down and sees it not without any intermission till the Lord look down and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. You know why Jeremiah could pray from his heart? Because his eyes affected his heart. What he saw with his eyes affected his heart. When last have our eyes affected our heart? When last have you seen someone without Christ lost? They're going to perish without Christ. When last have you seen them in your eyes affected your heart? If it doesn't affect our heart, brothers and sisters, the first thing we need to pray is God, give me your eyes to see others. Give me your eyes to see. Give me your heart, Lord. Help me to see what you see. Jeremiah's eyes affected his heart. That's why he was moved to pray from his heart. Look in chapter two, he says in verse eleven. Of lamentations, chapter two. Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. Jeremiah said, when I see what's going on around me and the destruction of all the daughters of this city, it makes me weep and what I see affects my heart. Now, how did he pray? Look at chapter two, verse 18. He says their heart cried unto the Lord, Oh, wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself no rest. Let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches, pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street. Jeremiah was pouring out his heart in prayer, praying from his heart, pouring out his heart like water before the face of the Lord, because his eyes affected his heart. What he saw, his observation moved him to intercession. So, God, give us give us your eyes to see what you see. And God knows when we're praying empty little religious cliches. And they're no more coming from the heart. God knows when we're praying empty cliches and our mind is just wandering around. And he also takes note of when we're praying from the heart and we're praying prayers. We really mean what we say. We're crying out. We're pouring out our heart like water before the Lord. And we're praying hot, fervent, faith filled prayer. And that's the prayer that moves the heart of God, a prayer that comes from the heart. But to come from the heart, it's prayer. It how do we pray prayers? What moves us to that place of praying in faith? Taking God at his word, folks, we have to make personal what God is saying. The reason sometimes the reason that our prayers are dry and cold and our faith is weak is because we really don't believe this book that his promises are for us. Let me ask you, my brother and sister, when you read Jeremiah thirty three three and you read thus saith the Lord, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. That is a glorious promise. But have you made that promise personal? Have you read that and said that's for me? Or do you say, well, no, that's for that's for Jeremiah. God was talking to Jeremiah. Therefore, it doesn't apply to me, folks. That's not the truth. God was talking to Jeremiah. But why? Because Jeremiah belonged to God. Jeremiah was a child of God. And if you were a child of God, if you were saved, then you were as much a child of God as Jeremiah was a child of God. And God's promise to Jeremiah in this book is the same promise for you. That if you call upon the Lord, he will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know, if you believe that promise and you make that promise personal, we will pray in a whole different way, a whole other way. Knowing God, you have promised me. I have a promise from you. The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians chapter one, verse 20, that all the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen for the believer. Yes. And amen. That means every promise in the book that is in if I am in Christ, every promise in the book is for me. Every promise is yes, and it is amen. Amen means so be it. So when God says call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things that you do not know, he's talking to me. Have you made his word personal? Have you taken it personal to say that is for me? You're hearing a promise, you're hearing a thus saith the Lord promise this morning, grab it with both hands, grab it by faith and say that is for me. You see, all prayer is based upon a relationship, a relationship between God, the father, and you and I, his child. And the Bible tells us in Romans chapter eight, if God so freely, if he so willingly gave us his son, Jesus Christ, will he not also freely give us all things? In other words, when it came to giving his only begotten son to die on a cross for my sins, to die in my place, and God doesn't didn't hesitate, but gave his only son to be sacrificed for me. If he did that, how dare could I ever accuse him of not caring about me now? How dare could I ever accuse him of not being willing to to hear my cry, my prayer? He gave his son for me. How much more will he hear my prayer? You see, Linda preached it really in the children's message. If you and I, who are imperfect fathers, will see our children in trouble and they cry, we open our arms and say, come run to me, run to daddy, and we lift them up and we embrace them. If you and I will do that for our children, how much more will your heavenly father embrace you as his child when you call out to him in a time of desperation? He says, I will answer the I will show the great and mighty things which you do not know. Draw near to God. He will draw near to you. We have not received a spirit of of fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby we can cry Abba, Father, Papa, Daddy, help me, Lord, and God will embrace his child. Prayer is based upon a relationship. A father to his child, and therefore I can come to him boldly, I can come to him with confidence, not because of who I am in and of myself, I'm nothing without Christ. But because I've been adopted into his family, I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Therefore, we can come boldly to his throne of grace in our time of need and call upon him. Do you believe that? Not only must his promises be made personal, but they must be believed when God says, call upon me and I will answer you. He's calling you to prayer. We must believe, we must believe his promise, believe his word. I remember years ago I heard a testimony of a pastor. That really touched my heart, this man was preaching, he was pastoring a church and he became very ill. And he was eventually diagnosed with a certain disease and his body was failing him. And he was he got to the point he could not do the work of the ministry. So the church asked him to leave so they could call another pastor. He was heartbroke and he left. He was nowhere to preach. He he didn't know how he was going to support his family. And I'll never forget his words. He said suddenly at that desperate hour, I needed a God who was bigger than the one I had preached from the pulpit. You see, he was preaching cliches. He was preaching things that he read, but he didn't really believe. He read them, but he didn't really mean them. He said them, but he didn't really mean them. But at that moment of desperation, he said, I came to a place of discovering who the real God of the Bible, the real Jesus is. And his promises came alive. I found the God who was bigger than the one that I was proclaiming. And that's when he met with me. Folks, have you taken his word and made it personal? Secondly, have you have you believed his promise that his promises for you? Because if you call unto the Lord. Without faith, then we have no no right to expect to be answered. We must believe his promise, come before God in faith, turn to James chapter one and look at this verse with me. James chapter one and verse six, James chapter one, verse six says, But let him ask in faith nothing wavering for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. If he asked and does not believe he's a double minded man, unstable in all of his ways. We cannot come to God in prayer without faith. According to your faith, be it unto you. It's taking the promise and believing this promise is for me taking God at his word. Years and years ago, it was the custom in certain villages at Christmastime for the poor to take a bowl that the man of the house would take a bowl and he would go to a rich man's house at Christmastime, knock on the door. And the rule was that the rich man would fill the bowl of the poor man. And so all the poor people would go with their bowl, just one bowl, and they would go to the rich, knock on the door and the rich would fill the bowl to the top. Now, there was some poor men that had faith in the generosity of the rich men and they would bring a big bowl and the rich man would fill the big bowl all the way to the top. There were other poor men who didn't believe really in the generosity of the rich men. And so they just brought a little small bowl and they also got their bowl filled to the top, but in proportion of the bowl, each one received a full bowl. But according to the size of the bowl that they brought, let me ask you, when you and I come to God in prayer, do we bring big bowl faith or little bowl faith? Do we come expecting God for great and mighty things that we do not know? That's what he says here. Great expectations, because we know he's a great God. Or do we come with a little bitty faith that thinks, well, God, could you just spare just a just a little bit? Folks, God is not miserly. He's generous. He's generous. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He loves you with an everlasting love. And by faith, we can come to him with a big bowl. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it, God says. You know how many times on Sunday morning I come to this pulpit before Sunday morning, early Sunday morning, thinking, God, I am so inadequate. I have nothing to say unless you fill my mouth. And so many times I hear the Lord say, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. And he has never I cried out this to him yesterday. God, you have never failed me one time. If I've ever failed, it was because of me. Never him. God is faithful to his promises. Will you come to him believing that this promise is for you? You say, but I'm in a prison. Jeremiah was in a prison. I'm in a dark time. Jeremiah was in a dark time. It's a desperate hour. Jeremiah was living in a desperate hour. And what did God say? One word. This is the most important, the most critical thing you can do right now, most effective thing, Jeremiah, not 10 things, one thing. Pray. Pray, pray, call unto me, I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which you do not know. Can I encourage you, brothers and sisters, as we close? That if you're facing a situation that is absolutely looks to be hopeless. That appears to be humanly impossible. Then you're the greatest candidate here for the grace and power of almighty God, because that's the greatest opportunity for God to demonstrate his power and greatest glory when you're facing something that is humanly impossible. God does his greatest miracles in the face of human impossibilities. It was impossible for Abraham and Sarah to have a child. She's 99 years old, yet God made it happen. It was impossible for Moses to cross the Red Sea, they would drown. Yet God parted it and made it happen. It was impossible to feed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish. Jesus made it happen. He performs the miraculous in the face of human impossibilities, according to your faith, be it unto you. That's the question. Are you desperate for God? If you're not desperate for God, he's probably going to have to bring you to a place of desperation. Are you desperate for God? Have you made his promise personal? Read his word in such a way that's for me. I remember being a young Christian and having this verse, God spoke it to my heart and I went to this, my pastor, I said he was a young guy out of seminary and he said, well, actually, Brian, that's I hate to burst your bubble, but that's that's referring to Israel. I said, no, it may be, but it's for me. God spoke it to me and I would not let go of that. That's the way we need to read the word of God. Yes, it was for Israel. But are you in Christ? Then you've been grafted in. And that promise for them is for you. All the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen. So hang on to it, believe it, make it personal and believe it. Now, here's how I want to close. I believe God is wanting us to close this way. I've prayed about this this morning. God says in Hebrews chapter four, his word says, let us come boldly to the throne of grace. Boldly to his throne of grace, where we may obtain great grace and mercy in our time of need. Are you in a time of need this morning? If you are in a time of need this morning, you don't need empty counsel. You don't need cliches. You need a word from the living God, and that word is so clear this morning. Call unto him. With a desperate heart full of faith, and he says, I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know. There's so many things God wants to show us, but we're not in a position to be able to hear him. But. Yet, if you come before him humbly and desperate with faith, you are in a position. To hear him, so my invitation, my appeal to you is whatever you're facing, will you take God's word to heart right now? Folks, it does no good if we hear a message, we say good sermon, goodbye. It's hearing the word of God and saying, OK, now what are you saying, Lord? What are you saying to me? Very clear this morning, call unto me, call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you do not know. Is there something you're facing in your life today? Here's the answer. Call unto God. And there is even more strength. When you and I come together in unity and pray, sometimes it's hard to pray alone, but when the body of Christ comes together to pray, God comes, God works. The breakthrough comes. If you say, well, there's nothing really personally that I'm facing in my life. Have you heard this call week after week after week at the prayer conference that there are lost sinners who are perishing? Who's going to pray for them if you don't? Has God put anybody upon your heart? If there's someone upon your heart who is without Christ, would you take a moment today at the end of our service? When we come boldly to the throne of grace, would you pray for that soul? Pray for that soul to be saved. I'm going to come before God today, believing that if I call upon him, he's going to hear me and show us great and mighty things that we don't know. God is master at surprising us. And I believe with all of my heart, he's doing something very special in Barnsdall, something beyond what we can comprehend. These churches coming together every Sunday night, every Wednesday night to pray for the lost, God is doing something. And I commend you for being at those services, so many of you who are coming hungry to learn to pray, hungry to pray, passionate for the lost to be saved. And we're hearing the word of God taught, aren't we? They've been powerful messages. Let's don't stop, let's don't let the call to pray just become some cliché, let's take it to heart and apply it to our lives, will you stand? And as you stand, Rhonda, I wonder if you could just let that song play again. And when that song's finished playing, if you could go in, Bob, and just lead us in piano. But I just want to block this time aside to draw near to the heart of God. I want to invite you, brother and sister, take him at his word. Is God speaking to your heart? Come, praise the Lord, come with a broken heart, come in desperation, come in faith and let's seek him together in prayer. The altar is open. I invite you to come. The altar is for the for the righteous, folks, as well as it's those who are coming to the cross. Don't be afraid of the altar. Come with a broken heart. Hallelujah. Jesus, Jesus, meet with us, Lord. Thank you for your promises, God. Thank you, Lord, Holy Spirit. Come on, Jesus. Thank you, mighty God. Blessed be your name, Jesus. God, we need you, we need you, Jesus, we need you, Lord, Jesus, blessed be your name, Lord. Folks, just pour out your heart before him like water, like water before the Lord. Call upon him, call upon him with all of your heart. Pray through. Glorify you, Lord, worship you, Jesus, free to dwell, open the blind eyes, Lord, unstop the deaf ears. Jesus, Jesus, Father, we cry out to you today, Lord, this morning. My God, you know us through and through, you know your children, you know them by name. You know the very number of hairs upon our head. Oh, Lord, Lord, you see us. Nothing is hidden before your eyes. And I thank you that you love us. So, God, in spite of ourselves, we come before you, Lord, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, by the blood of Christ. In no other way, we come before you as your children, we come crying, Abba, we thank you, Father, that you have called us, you have invited us to come to you, you have commanded us to call unto you. Thank you, Lord, for the invitation, the most amazing privilege that we have on earth to draw near to you, Father, to have conversation with the Most High God, communion with Almighty God. Thank you for hearing our cry right now in Barnsdall, Oklahoma. Though you are God of heaven and earth, heaven is your throne, earth is your footstool. King of kings, Lord of lords, and yet you incline your ear to hear our cry. You look down upon us even this morning. You see us, oh God. We thank you for that. We thank you, Lord, that we can draw near to you. Thank you that you are not just a God who is a far off, who doesn't care. You love us through and through. My God, I ask you to make us desperate for you. I ask you to give us a hungry heart for you, oh God. I ask you, Lord God, if there be any stumbling block, any hindrance in our lives that is keeping us from breaking through and having intimacy and oneness with you, God, walking in freedom. Lord, break that, break that stumbling block. Remove it in the name of Jesus, we pray. Open the prison doors, oh Lord. Set your people free. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You bled and died for us and are risen again that we also may walk in newness of life, risen, resurrected life. Thank you, Jesus. While the thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy, you have come that we might have life and life more abundantly. Father, I come before you in the name of Jesus for children who have gone astray. Right now, Father, children and grandchildren who have turned their hearts away from you, who are living in sin and rebellion. Almighty God, we call upon you. You said we call upon you. You answer us, oh God. We know that if we ask anything according to your will, we will have what we ask for. We will receive the answer. And Father, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus, begin to remove the blinders from their eyes wherever they are, even at this moment. Oh, Lord, remove the blinders from their eyes. Remove the hardness from their heart. Oh, God, bring conviction of sin, of righteousness, of coming judgment. Make your presence so real to them. Oh, God, I pray, Father, for conviction or that they cannot go forward, backward to the right or the left without sensing your holy presence. Father, I pray, Lord God, that as you bring them unto yourself, Jesus, give them an encounter with you. Let them see you with arms open wide. Bring them to a place of godly sorrow that leads to repentance, that leads to salvation. God, save the lost, save our children. Lord, the world is coming to swallow them up. The devil has come to destroy. But you are greater than the enemy. You are greater than the world. God, come save them. Oh, God, give them an appetite for you. Give them a hunger and thirst to know you, a hunger and thirst for your word. God, there are grandchildren on the hearts of some here today. I pray, Father, that you would pull them up from the pit, that you would deliver them and set them free. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God. We pray for families, Lord, that have been busted apart, that are being destroyed. Lord, would you come and work a miracle? You're a God of hope and restoration. You can make a way where there seems to be no way. Come, Lord, come in your mighty power, oh God. Come and heal and restore marriages. Come and heal and restore broken homes for the glory of your name. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, would you please, those of us, there are many here today, Lord, who have vowed before you. And our desire is that you would begin to break our hearts. That you would begin to give us your heart for people, for the lost, for the perishing, oh God. Cause us to see what you see. Touch our eyes, give us eyes to see, Lord. Give us eyes to see them as if they were our children. Oh, Lord, give us boldness, boldness to go after them, boldness, Lord, to share your love. To speak your truth, to point others to you. God, we pray for the man, the Chinese man who was here this morning and left, who heard the gospel. We pray for him right now, Father, that you would break through the language barrier. Share everything else, and by the power of your Holy Spirit, reveal yourself to this man and save his soul. Set his heart on fire for you. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, forgive us for uttering cold, empty prayers in the past. Forgive me, Lord. Forgive me for going through the motions or just using stupid little clichés. God, we forsake all of those. Help us to get real with you and to walk in right relationship and realness with you. Thank you, mighty God. Thank you for hearing our prayer. Thank you for hearing our cries. Thank you that you are able and willing to do exceeding, abundantly above what we could ask or think. According to your power that worketh within us. Thank you, Father. We praise you. We bless your name. Folks, can you just give him praise? Just give him praise and thanks and honor and glory from your heart. Glory to you, Jesus. We love you, Lamb of God. We thank you for your goodness. Thank you, Jesus. Your goodness leads us to repentance, Lord. Thank you for your mercy that endures forever. Thank you for being so patient with us. Thank you for the salvations that we've seen recently, O God. Thank you for the captives that have been set free. Thank you for the work you've done, Lord, the work that you're going to complete. We thank you from our hearts. We bless your great name, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pray you go out rejoicing, giving God thanks and praise for who he is. Glory to his name. Amen.