Shane Idleman emphasizes the essential characteristics of a prayer warrior, clarifying that being a prayer warrior is not about loudness or lengthy prayers, but rather about striving for purity, praying according to God's will, and demonstrating desire, intensity, perseverance, and compassion. He highlights the importance of having clean hands and a pure heart, as well as the need for reconciliation in prayer. Idleman encourages believers to engage in persistent prayer, emphasizing that true prayer comes from a place of deep compassion and commitment to God's will, ultimately leading to a powerful prayer life that can impact others and the world.

Hope is yours to take. Peace is found in grace. Five marks of a prayer warrior. Now, you've heard that term before, correct? Prayer warrior and oh yeah, yeah, they're a prayer warrior. They're a prayer warrior. We kind of use that term loosely and sometimes we use it correctly. But to talk about a prayer warrior, I think we need to first mention what a prayer warrior is not. At least, it doesn't mean that this person has these characteristics. They are not necessarily loud. You ever think that loud is where God is at? And boy, he's a prayer warrior. He's loud. Not necessarily. Boisterous, you know, and talks spiritual. O thou heavenly Father. Great creator of, you know, the King James language. And it's not that. It's also not long-winded. And now, prayers can go long. But sometimes we define these things as just long-winded and loud and the right language. And we kind of think that, you know, maybe that's a prayer warrior. That's my goal. And really, prayer is going to come through these things right here. And it's going to, I think, really help you as we get into when these weeks are over, real life. Because when real life gets here, that's when the rubber is really going to meet the road. When we have the certain things happening in our country. And I'm convinced the only thing that's going to get us through is prayer and being anchored to God's word. And I mean, if you took to heart what Kevin said, there's a lot of truth in that with humility and owning it. And the point I really got to with forgiveness is reconciliation. Because we can say, okay, I forgive you, but there's not a reconciliation. There's not a, you know, okay, I made the decision to forgive you. But, and really, forgiveness is reconciling. It goes together. But number one, five marks of a prayer warrior. If you want to just be infused with the power of God, really change your life in this area. Number one, they strive for pure hearts and clean hands. Isaiah 59.2, I think we have it up there. But your wrongdoings have caused a separation, meaning a barrier. There's a wall between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. Now, people might say, well, Shane, that was true for the children of Israel in Isaiah's time. And okay, context. I'm a context guy. I love context. I don't like just grabbing things. What's the context? Well, that principle, though, is very true. When there's a besetting sin, when there's things that, and that's what was so important when we talked about, if you're just skipping around the issues that really need to be dealt with, and you're not dealing with them, you're not dealing with the besetting sin and the wrong attitudes and, and things like that. And they can really hinder your prayer life. And I've talked to so many people, I've been guilty of this myself. You know, I'm just passionate. No, you're angry. Or I'm just this and no, I'm controlling. Unless you own those things, and really repent and what what are what are the husbands I hate to break it to you, but your your prayers will be hindered if you're not treating your wives correctly. If you hold anything against someone you want to wire my prayers not being answered. Jesus actually said go and deal with that. Leave your leave your gift at the altar during their worship services in the temple, they would actually bring part of that was bringing their their their offering, or their tithe. And that's where a lot of churches get the concept of passing the plate and things like that. But he would say, don't even go do that. Go and be reconciled. Get your heart right first. So really striving for pure hearts and clean hands. And it comes from the verse, I don't want to just, you know, throw up so many verses, but that talks about who may ascend into the heel of the Lord or stand in this holy place, he who has clean hands and a pure heart is not lifted up his soul to an idol. And what happens when holiness is sought again, and not not legalism, not being rigid. And, you know, this kind of stuff, it's, but it's a desire. Out of a Christian should come a desire for holiness, and wanting that and searching that. And then I've noticed from that holiness, here comes the filling of the Holy Spirit. Here comes that deep and abiding prayer life. Here comes that passion here, I might spend an hour on my knees weeping, listening to worship and praying, because God give me clean hands and a pure heart. Lord, I want to repent of my sin. And I want that line of communication to be open again, first step number one. And I think that this is why some people are hitting that block, that they're hitting that prayer block, because there's some things that they're not dealing with. And it's one thing if you don't know it. But it's something else when we know that God is convicting us about something and we say nope. Nope. You ever been there? Just me. Oh, very few. Okay, I hope. No, I know. I'm being sarcastic, right? Of course. And so, but that opens up, that opens up that line of communication. So a strong prayer warrior, and I know my mom was we had other people here at this church, and we still do right now. Without a shadow of doubt, this is a mark of their of their heart. It's a it's a pure heart. It's a clean hands and, and there's a desire for holiness. And then number two, this is vitally important. They pray according to their own will. Oh, I misread that one too. They pray according to God's will. James four, three, you ask, and you do not receive, because you ask a miss. In other words, you're missing it by your prayers, that you may spend it on your pleasures. And if we examine our prayer life, and we say, Lord, why is this not happening? And even looking back over my own life, it was Lord, give me this better job. And there's nothing wrong with a better job. But give but then give me this and I want more of this. And it's really not about people anymore. It's about me. It's really not about what God wants to do. It's about what I want. And, and I don't know, have you ever prayed those prayers where go get them God prayers? Okay, good. The go get them God prayers. Lord, you go get them. You take care. And my heart's not right. Because Lord, what is your will? Go get them in the right way. Bring them to you and bring them to repentance. And so even this last couple weeks has been really last 10 days, I guess, or how many days? I don't even know how many days were 12 days surrendering my agenda. To really get into deep prayer, you have to you have to surrender your agenda and surrender the agenda of your family or your kid. I mean, just because we come in with agendas. And basically, it's like saying, God, here's what I'm doing now bless it. Versus finding out what God is doing in our own hearts. And I think when we can get that heart is right through pure hearts and clean hands, and then we say, Lord, what is your will? And then once you begin to get his will through scripture, even through your own personal life, praying for your spouses, your kids, the church, those in need, you begin to you begin to be energized, because those prayers are powerful. And, and the Holy Spirit is interceding on our behalf. And, and you can really feel the weight of your prayers. And you see, people come to know the Lord. Many have come to know the Lord these last this last week and a half. It's been amazing to see that too. And then number three, marks of a prayer warrior, they are marked by desire and intensity. Now you can't that you've heard me say this, you can't work it up. Do you remember in high school, those pep rallies? Do they still have those? Were they still called pep rallies? I don't know. You know, it was Yeah, it was, you know, you're working it up, and you're getting the crowd ready. And you got a football game tonight. And, and sometimes we handle a church like that. You know, if we could just get a loud worship team or well known worship team, and we could can we get some smoke, Mr. things here and smoke coming up and, and the ambience and that's the wrong type of intensity. But a true prayer warrior prayer is their desire and their intensity. Luke 11, 9, 10, ask and it will be given to you seek and you'll find knock and the door will be opened to you have permission tonight to bother God. It's okay to bother God. He actually Jesus gives an illustration of going to your friend's house in the middle of the night. If you just knock once, he's not gonna open the door. But if you keep persisting, he will get up out of the bed and get you what you need. And then Jesus ties it in with praying to God, ask, ask and you will receive seeking your refine, refine knock and the door will be open to you. They are marked by five prayer more warriors have this mark of of desire and intensity. There's a hunger there's a there's a do you know what we have desire and intensity for other things. But to have that for for prayer, and no, you can't just okay, let me turn on that switch. It's got to be worked up. It's got to be fueled. You read books on prayer, you go to church more often you put on worship, you look at positive news instead of negative news. And you begin to fill your mind with things that edify you in the men's study or the women's study or the other studies and and your iron sharpens iron in there. Now there's desire is welling up inside of you and it's intense, there's an intensity, it's targeted. And then number four, they are marked by perseverance. A true prayer warrior will have perseverance, even in the midst of adversity, even in the midst of challenges, because they know they used to call it praying through. Have you I don't know if you've heard that a while and we haven't used that language in quite a while. But in old church history, you know, 5060 years ago, 100 years ago, the books I read, it's like we pray through we were we were there until God answer. Can you imagine saying, I'm not getting up Lord until you answer. Now he might not answer physically, but there's a confirmation in your spirit. There's a confirmation within you. This is God has heard my prayers. And if there is God in heaven, that situation will will be dealt with. There's something about pressing in and pressing through and holding on and laboring and traveling and this this this this this energy all towards prayer. They mark by perseverance. Ephesians 618 with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit. Now this is interesting. Because, you know, I've get the questions people email Well, how can I pray all day, Shane? I've got to work. Of course, but it's the spirit of prayer. Do you know, we can walk around, you know, with an attitude, we can walk around angry and arrogant and condescending. And it's who we are. It's our aura, or whatever you call that or that ambience of your spirit, whatever this this this emotion and but but this is a spirit of prayer throughout the day. So challenges come up, you pray and in traffic, you're praying and at work, and it's just it's hard to explain, because it's part of who you are. It's you've already saturated the atmosphere of your prayer life with prayer at church. And you probably can experience those who've been coming to this regularly. There's a there's a new dynamic of prayer that takes place throughout the week throughout the day, you're you're finding yourself praying more in and looking to God. So basically, it's it's a mark of who you are, inside, because our mind can go other places, media, not good places. Anybody ever dwelt on just things that are happening in your life? You know, bitterness, just somebody, somebody makes you upset, and you're you're dwelling on that all day. And that could really, really alter our prayer life. So he says, just pray in the spirit. And with this in view, be on alert with all perseverance. Now, I don't think it's an accident there, that he's throwing in the word alert, because you have to be alert in your prayer life, because things will happen to knock you off course, I am convinced that the number one weapon the enemy uses is discouragement. And it comes in many forms, we could list a whole bunch right now. But discouragement things aren't working out the way we thought they would work out. Somebody's not treating me the way I thought they would treat me. And I'm discouraged that happens that happen in church, Shane. Yes. I do to people they do to me, right, you can become discouraged, and the enemy will will be on alert in these areas, he looks for opportune times and, and the day isn't going like I planned. I don't know how many, many times me and my wife talk about this. But we'll talk like this day. This day is not going like I and so we are alert, we know, okay, things are not going to go my way. I've got but I've got to and that's why it says with all perseverance, see, perseverance pushes through perseverance continues regardless of setbacks. And like what Kevin had to get through to get through that type of training, there is nothing more important than perseverance. In my opinion, because you're going to quit if you listen to the voices up, you're going to your body's not going to be able to take that type of training, unless it's just perseverance. I've got to finish this, I've got to prove it to myself. And the same thing with prayer, be on be on alert with all perseverance and petition of all for all the saints. In other words, we're actually supposed to pray for others. How many of our prayer lives are focused on me, myself and I, and it can really drain you because there's a lack there. There's a there's a there's a lack of desire. There's not too much intensity, because you're just you're not designed to just pray for you and you and you it's good though you need to pray for you and your wife and different situations that ultimately petition for all the saints. So be encouraged the power of perseverance. Many times I pray when I don't feel like it. I pray in spite of how I feel sometimes. Sometimes I don't want to come to this altar. But that's why I do. Because I'm saying come on feelings. You're coming with me. I'm not coming with you. I'm going to persevere in prayer. And within sometimes 510 15 minutes, the heavens are rent open and my heart is ripped open and begin to focus on what is what the prayer for a nation or for this church or for unity and and you begin to really just maybe an hour ago by half hour ago by because you're you fought your feelings and God begin to honor that perseverance. See the thing we forget about perseverance is the whole word means you're not gonna like what you're doing. But you do it anyway. If you like it's called fun if it's not perseverance. And that it's a mark of the Christian faith throughout all the scriptural throughout all the scriptural text. I mean, there's different words they would use he God told Moses be of good courage. Keep keep going forward. Same thing Joshua. Now my servant Moses is dead. Be of good courage. Move forward. Keep going forward. Keep persevering. Keep trusting in me because we bottom line, I'm not going to rehash this, but I did last week, I think is perseverance and faith and trust go hand in hand. I'm moving forward because I trust God. I don't see the results. I don't feel the results. As a matter of fact, I don't like my current circumstance, but I'm not going to be a baby and backtrack. I'm going to persevere despite how I feel and it's trust and faith and God and God honors that. Oh, that's faith that pleases me. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And then this is a no brainer for sure. Number five, they are marked prayer warriors. Once you deal with sin, once you pray according to God's will, once there's that desire intensity, once you decide to persevere, no matter what come to the prayer meetings, we actually have prayer meetings now at 6am every Sunday morning, 6am to 630 every single Sunday morning right next door in this multipurpose room. And we were praying for the service. We're praying for different means out there. And you can tell people they're spiritually hungry are here. Because now do they feel like it initially? Nope. But once they get here, the story changes, they they persevere and without perseverance, you will not see God move. Because without perseverance, you don't go deep, you don't get intense, you don't camp out there for a while, you don't pull down heaven, you don't rent the heavens, you don't let God work in your heart without perseverance. And then finally, they are marked by compassion and commitment. They are marked a prayer warrior is with you will not be a true prayer warrior, or somebody known for prayer or prayers to get heard by God without compassion. They are marked by compassion and commitment to do what they've been called to do by God, Jeremiah 23, nine, my heart within me is broken. Because of the prophets, all my bones shake. I'm like a drunken man and like a man who wine has overcome because of the Lord and because of because of his holy words. And if you go through and and read more of this with Jeremiah, his heart, he's he's lamenting and he had a compassion for the people, you find me a prophet in the Old Testament, even those in the New Testament prayed without compassion, you will not find one. Because it was out of that deep wellspring of their heart that that compassion and we have to pray I would encourage you tonight to pray God break my heart for the things that break yours. If your prayer life is stagnant. If you have no prayer life, if prayer seems dead, or formal or indifferent, it's because God has not broken your heart. It's okay to shed some tears during prayer. It's okay to really focus now you can't work it up. And but it's God, God help me, I pray God, I don't want to my will self will doesn't want you but Lord, you override my will, give me a broken heart would go deep inside of me begin to cut out the things that are that are that are just just stopping this powerful prayer life. And as Kevin mentioned, pride is a biggie. It's a big deal that we don't like to deal with. It's interesting prideful people don't like to deal with pride. Because it's pride that stops us from dealing with pride. We can't and it blocks this this it actually does not lead to compassion. Have you noticed that prideful hearts are not compassionate. That's why they're mean to their spouses. They're mean to their kids. They're mean to others their tone. Why it's all from pride, pride, compassion, learned odds. And so I know we mentioned this a lot. But when we close this evening, I would encourage some of you in the balcony. If you feel led to come down here and come to this altar. And just just say, Lord, break me. Break me. I want that prayer life. I need to be broken by God Almighty. And it's stepping out in faith. I remember my breaking process 20 years ago, I remembered I fought it. Because as we know, when we need to be broken, we just don't want to. That's the struggle teenagers have a lot. You know, I know what they're saying, but I don't want to go. I don't want to be part of that. I don't want to. And Christians can do that, too. And pride is keeping us. But there should be. That's why Jeremiah was called the weeping prophet. Isaiah wept and Moses wept over the people. David wept. And what about the Apostle Paul? And see, it's a compassion. But you it's hard to explain because you can't. It's not like a verb in the New Testament where we say, OK, be holy, be filled with the Spirit, do these things, don't do this, be quick to listen, so to speak. You know, you can't say just be compassionate. Because it's not natural. It has to be supernatural. To actually be compassionate and show love is not natural. It doesn't come naturally. It comes supernaturally by saying, God, break my heart for the things that break yours. And I've shared this before, but there's so many new people, I might as well share it again. When I first just became, you know, there's a process of breaking and it's hard to, you know, we fight it and sometimes we reverse, we go forward. A lot of the brokenness that started was when I was humbled, you know, 20 some years ago. And through the humility of certain situations and being humbled, I was at 24 Hour Fitness, I've told a lot of you, and I'd worked my way up and was a district manager over many fitness facilities and good money and board meetings in Irvine and Suit and Tie. And as I became, came back to the Lord, God said, OK, now it's time to humble you. But often you don't humble yourself. So through a series of events, I was one of the top district managers, numbers, I was a numbers guy to produce like three, four hundred thousand dollars a month. And I was rated on that same store growth, projected budgets, all that stuff. You know, 6%, 8%, I'd shoot for 12%. The board of directors is happy. OK, good. I'm happy. But I had to keep beating myself every month. It got to a point now, now I'm back to the Lord. I'm like, oh, let's not work these guys seven days a week. Let's give them some time off. Let's not, let's not pressure people. You know, my whole, I'm changing. So guess what changes? The numbers drop big time because, you know, salesmen, right? You're pushing and you're pushing products and supplements and nutrition. And what are the numbers? What are your numbers? Pushing the numbers out. You can't take a vacation. You need to hit your numbers. And so my whole heart changed and numbers dropped. And then I got demoted to one gym. And now I'm working one underneath the people that used to, I used to be equal with or they would be under me. It was part of that humbling process, humbling process. Then I decided to leave there and God, there's no other work out there. And my brother said, I'll pay you a hundred dollars a day and you can come work for me in construction. And so now I'm the older brother. Yeah. But to his credit, probably one of the best people I've ever worked with. It was, it was a good time. I miss those times, but humbling, humbling. You're selling everything. I'm moving back home with my mom. I ran into people around town. So Shane, what are you doing now? I just, you live with your mom? I remember when I first met Morgan and met her dad, he was in the Marines. And, and sorry, Kevin, I mean, he, but he said, he's like, well, yeah, you know, he's, I live with my mom, you know, he's like, oh, okay. We need plans for the future. And I'm like, boy, oh boy, I don't know what God has in the future, but it was just a complete breaking in order to build back up. You often have, so just, just the broken and humbled. And it was just embarrassing, I guess, is that a better, that's a good word, embarrassing and humbled and going from this to this. And then through that process too, and then even getting married, that's humbling. Because you're single. I'm a single Christian. I think, man, I'm so humble. I got this, this, Morgan's going to love me. And then, you know, kind of like Kevin, type A alpha male, marries a butterfly. So, you know, rhinoceros and butterflies and, and, and I shared, I think it's in one of my books and articles, many, gosh, I don't even know what 2000, I don't know what year it was, 2007 or eight. I read, you know, she left her journal out and said, I married a man who will not allow me to fulfill my dreams. And I'm not going to let him do this to the kids. Like I thought everything was fine. And so I was so mad. I drove for a couple hours and came home and I was just like, what is this? And she began to share and God just began to break me. And I was controlling, not in the, you know, I just, you know, you're the guy you want to save money here. And, you know, let's just be honest. Sometimes women have ideas that don't pan out and you know, right. So, well, I want to, I want to do, I want to do makeup. I want to do this. I want to do this. I want to do scrapbooking. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. Let's, let's just focus. It's to save money. So, so that kind of controlling, but not in a, you know, it was just like, no, it's, it's, we're saving money and I'm the saver. She's a spender. So that was interesting. But reading those words, you know, that was, that was, that was, that was a turning point for sure. Cause I'm like, okay, what does that look like? How can I help you guys fulfill your dreams? And what do you want to do? And so being more encouraging and in sports, cause I used to say, you know, that's stupid. We're not going to do that. Instead of, oh, okay. Why do you want, let's try it. You know, and you learn the tone, things like that. You don't control things. And then also very hard time, 2005, I think it was, I was five years back to the Lord and, you know, knowledge puffs up a lot of times when I preach people say, oh, that really hit my heart, right? Cause it hit mine first and I had to live this stuff. And so I'm reading the word I'm buying books on systematic theology and studying pneumatology and reading the Puritans and, and eschatology. And I've got my views on the rapture. Now I can break down Calvinism and the five points of two up. And, oh man, I can tell you about church history and how it started, how the Roman got the Roman authority in the Roman empire, empire married the Catholic church and became the Roman Catholic church and the corruption and different things that happened. And, and I just had all this knowledge whether or not live in the way there should be living. And my mom said, Shane, your family doesn't want to be around you anymore. So you can be a Christian and be arrogant, be careful. And it's ready to sneak right up into me any day of the week. That's why remaining humble, remaining, opening the altar, keeping a heart open before God. And that's why I don't take a lot of positions as hard as I used to, because I could beat people up. I can make them feel stupid. That's not, that's not good. And then the final thing for our nation, God gave me a desire for our nation, revival and how the nation, how far we've drifted from the truth. And I was just looking for that, Lord, I need to be more compassionate because this is during the, you know, kind of hard season, being, being harsh. And, and I went to, it was a California renewal project in 2008. I think Mike Huckabee was speaking and some Newt Gingrich. And I was just invited to this by Jim Garlow, I think, I think. But anyways, 2008, I'm just, I'm in construction. I don't know how I got invited to this, but God knows, right? You're sitting among all these David Barton and wall builders and all these guys back then. And, and for some reason, I've never had anything hit me this deeply. So every time I remember that, because you know, something just sears your memory. I've never really knew or saw pictures of a partial birth abortion. And they decided to talk about it for an hour. And I'm watching it. And all I remember is the abortion I conceded to 20 some years ago, 28, 29 years ago. Not that was it six weeks. So it wasn't the same thing. But all these memories come back. Now I'm a Christian, I want to do the right thing. And I'm watching this and just, it just hit me, I went back to my room and never really, you know, cried yourself to sleep. That I can relate to that just in the pillow and crying, Oh, God, help us. And, and that just waking up that moment that morning with just a fire. And I that's, I think that's kind of the turning point of the fire and God and Lord, give me that compassion. And now my heart breaks for the sins of our nation and my, my heart breaks for these different things. And, and without that compassion and commitment, I think we just go through the motions. That's why many prayers are cold and calloused and just formal. I've been in dead prayer meetings. Most of them are, and I've been in live prayer meetings and it's night and day, complete difference. I remember when we started the Sunday morning thing, my, it was me, Phil de la Tova and Jack Rose. And it was right next door in the prayer room. And we would be all three on our face at six in the morning with worship on and just literally God would be break and just, we'd get up and you could see, you know, we're, and it wasn't, you can't work that up. You can't fake it. And that, that, but that, that breaking and that breaking and that breaking and that breaking. And it's just that heart prayer comes from the deep reserves of the heart that has compassion and let, and you would, you would see if somebody walked by the hallway, they would probably think it was a little strange because Jack's ran Phil and I'm going, Lord, God, help us. God, help us. We need you. We're tired of this. And I'm just, God, please, we've got to hear from you. And it's just your call. God, you're, you're, you're so desperate because it's, it's the compassion. You feel the pain of what's going on. You, you, there's a, there's a, there's a deep hurt in your, in your heart that, that could only be healed by God. It's a pain-filled process. Let me tell you, real prayer is a pain-filled process. And I don't mean to say that I suggest all prayer meetings. Okay, Shane said, we need to be crying and we need to be, you know, loud and we need to be this and you actually, that's fake. And I don't like that. I've been in plenty of that. I'm like, you might as well just not have a prayer meeting, but there, and if it is kind of dull, say, Lord, spark it. God, spark it. God, spark it. I remember the New Hebrides Revival. I believe it was, it started. They're in a prayer meeting. It was a little dead, you know, and the deacons, elders, one deacon got up though, and he said, he said, oh God, give me clean hands and a pure heart. I truly desire it. And tears would begin to stream. I want, I got to have clean hands and a pure heart. And the spirit of God came upon that place and it lasted until midnight. And they traced some of that early revival to those things where people confess, God, I, my heart's not right. Give me clean hands and a pure heart. God, my heart is hard as a stone. I don't feel anything. I want to feel the power and presence of your Holy Spirit. God, I need to be broken and ripped apart by your word and by the Holy Spirit because you have to begin to weep for the people you pray for. That's how you really, really see results. Weep for the people you pray for. Those trapped in sexual sin. You weep for those. You weep for those on the broad road of destruction. It has to come from you spending time with God and God breaking your heart. That's why I love Leonard Ravenhill when he used to say, Jesus would weep before he whipped. He came into Jerusalem and cried over the city. He saw, oh, they're going to reject me. I see, I can see in the future they're going to reject me. And in AD 70, the Roman General Titus is going to come in and conquer the city and kill a million Jews. Women, their children will be thrown against the walls. I see that all because they're rejecting me. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. If I could just gather you as a mother would gather her children or her chicks, what do they call those? Chickens who gather their hens. If I could just gather you like that and I could pull you to me. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You rejected the prophets and the compassion of Christ. And you see, you've got to have that to truly be, have your prayers heard by God. It's really a call to anguish, isn't it? Prayer is a call to anguish. Who can not pray? Who can not look at the news and really pray? My goodness, they're calling good evil and evil good. They're saying perversion is the right thing and holiness is the wrong thing. And they're degrading our children. The sexual abuse, you've got people thinking they can switch genders and then go into the girl's bathroom and then do all these things and they can, that perversion is just increasing them. There's a call to anguish. There's a travail. When women give birth, it's travail. That is prayer. That's why I'm so exhausted on Sunday. And maybe if you've really prayed for people, it's tiring because there's something, you're praying from the depths of your being. Something is like, God, help these people. We come against demonic influences. We come against these addictions. Oh God, and you can feel there's a battle. There's a struggle. Lord, give me a heart for this person. Give me a word for them. Give me something. And you're battling with the spiritual realm because the enemy's planting fiery darts saying, this guy's out of his mind. You just need to leave. Don't come back to this church. But you're saying, thus say the living God. No demonic opposition will fight you right now. And there's a spiritual battle. It's travail. When Zion travails, sons and daughters are born. There's a travailing that takes place. And when God's in it, it can happen quick. It's actually interesting. The verse, a lot of, you know, when Zion travails, sons and daughters are born, it's really not about a long travailing process. It's when God rebuilds a nation like that. When God does something like that, but there's a travailing that takes place. There's a anguish. There's a heartache. It's difficult. There's distress. And it's always perplexed me that when parents who have prodigals, why isn't prayer a mark of their daily life? Why aren't they at this altar praying and fasting? I'll never forget. I keep using the same examples, but it's all I have right now. In Lancaster, this lady, it was bad. Her daughter was caught up, I think it was in heroin or something. And I said, ma'am, you've got to get into praying and fasting. It was almost something along the lines of, I'm just, I'm too busy. I work 50 hours. That just broke my heart. Because how bad do you want it? How bad do you want to see freedom in her life? Because sometimes we have to intercede on behalf of those who are not looking to God. We have to travail. There has to be anguish. That's why prayer is exhausting. There was the cry of the prophets in this area of compassion. Isaiah said, he will be very gracious to us at the sound of our cry. There we go. He will be very gracious to us at the sound of our cry. Jeremiah said, return to God, backsliding Israel, and he will return to you. Hosea, they did not cry out to me with all their heart. So you tell me there isn't a consistent theme here of crying out to God and Joel, turn to me with all your heart, rend your hearts, not your garments, blow the trumpet in Zion, call the sacred assembly, and begin to call on the name of the Lord, and he shall set you free. There's always a cry. There's always a plea. There's always a desperation. This nation is not going to turn back from the brink of destruction with just the everyday Christian, just sitting around doing little quick prayers on their way to work. There's going to be travailing and anguish and pulling down heaven and going into spiritual battle. There is one bonus point. We can call on the ultimate prayer warrior. Did you know that Jesus intercedes on our behalf? You know how many times I said, Lord, I need a little help. Hebrews 7.25, he always lives to intercede, to make intercession for us. The Spirit helps in our weakness. The Spirit helps in our weakness. Psalm 50.15, this should be for some of you this evening, call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you. Hard situation at work, any of you, if you're coming back to the Lord or you're walking with the Lord, the enemy doesn't like that. He will tempt you to go back to the old lifestyle, to the old way, to the old attitudes and calling on, Lord, call upon me in the day of trouble. Lord, my kids are in trouble. My grandkids are in trouble or get them before they're in trouble. I believe you can put a guard and a shelf, not that they'll live perfectly, but you can begin to secure them and save them at an early age by calling down heaven now. Psalm 51.17, my sacrifice, oh God, is a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. God, you will not despise. In other words, he will not turn it away. If we come to God with a broken heart saying, God, I'm completely broken, I'm completely dependent upon you and I'm just humbling myself before you, God will not despise that. So I love that song we sang before I came up, shout Jesus from the mountains. I was listening on YouTube, getting ready for this all week and that's what I've been hitting rewind on. I don't know about you, but there's certain songs where, you know, I think there's a feature where you actually just keep hitting rewind and rewind. And there's a part in the song, I don't remember her name. She's singing and it kind of just, okay, I think the song's over. And then it just gets, you know, she just starts, it's that crescendo. It's that calling upon the name, Lord, shout Jesus from the mountains, shout Jesus in the streets, shout Jesus over darkness, over every enemy, shout Jesus over your family. Speak that holy name. And there is power in the name of Jesus. When we say that, we, sometimes we say it, we, you know, we'll even clap and I clap and, but we don't realize that when you, when you gravitate towards that name, when you call, see, I believe God always says, call upon me, call upon me. So when you call and say, Jesus, I'm in trouble. Jesus, my kids are in trouble. Jesus, my family needs you. I will publicly declare right now. Jesus, this nation needs you. Jesus, this state needs you. We're not going to go down the toilet and do nothing. God, we're going to fight on our knees. This is how I fight my battles, fight my battles on my knees. Jesus, we need you over our families. We need you to conquer the darkness. We know it's not going to be utopia or a fun place on earth, but we're not here, Lord, just about ourselves. We want to pull down heaven. We want to call on the only name that saves. We know that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There's no second guessing that there's no backup plan.