This sermon emphasizes the power of prayer and the importance of interceding for others, highlighting the need for believers to be co-laborers with God through prayer. It delves into the concept of intimacy with God and the impact of prayer in bringing about great moves of God. The speaker leads the congregation in praying for courage and boldness for those standing true to God's Word amidst challenging circumstances, and for mercy upon churches that have drifted from their spiritual roots.

All right, I'd like to ask you to please stand as we go to the Lord in prayer for this afternoon's session and the rest of this day and week. Continual prayer being offered up, and just for your information, that many, about 13 states I think I counted, not counting the other countries that have logged in online, have been writing, got one this morning and one in the break, and said, just wanted you to know we're praying for you, holding you up. Al Whittingill called right at 11 o'clock when I walked out and he said, wanted to know how things were going, we're praying for you, can't wait to be there. So the opportunity is upon us and we don't want to miss it. Joe, would you open us up in prayer please? Thank you. There is none as your word says, great and marvelous are your works, Lord, just and true are your ways, O King of the Universe. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and your all nations shall come and bow before you. That you are great and marvelous, that you are just and true. You are the way, the truth, and the life. O God, you are the Alpha and the Omega. You are our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. And God, we are so grateful to be your children. And we thank you that you are the greatest reality there ever was or ever will be. And that you have invited us to come into that relationship with you. Father, I want to thank you for Dan and all of the others on the committee. I want to thank you, Lord, for the integrity, Lord, of what is happening here. I want to thank you for the awesome people that you have sent us. I want to thank you, Lord, that as you had the first word, you're going to have the last word. And God, that you're not going to cause any who love and trust you to be disappointed at the last day. God, we understand that there are times that we don't understand. But Lord, we trust you. We trust you, O God, and we love you and praise you and worship you. Have your way today and tomorrow, in every section, with every person. God, transform our families. God, I pray for our families, that our husbands would love their wives, that Christ love the church, and that wives would honor and respect their husbands. As unto the Lord, that our children would obey their parents, for this is good and right. And I pray, Father, that we would go from strength to strength and from faith to faith and from glory to glory, because that's your plan, that we would be more like Jesus. Cover us, O God. And we do pray for our leaders, O God. I pray for Barack Obama. I pray, O God, that the load of this office and the problems of this office would get so heavy upon him that he will fall on his face and cry out to you, O God, help me. And Lord, we know that you would. We pray that you would raise up the Daniels in the Josephson Senate and the House, O God, and in the Supreme Court, and that they will not be moved. Lord, that they would have wisdom, that they would be sons of Ithaca, and discern the times and know what is good. And Lord, that they would not be manipulated, intimidated, or dominated, but, O God, that they would be led of your Spirit. Have your way today, O God, we pray. Amen. Amen. Please remain standing. And with that last phrase that he said in his prayer, have thy way, turn to page 294 in your hymn book. And that is the hymn, Have Thy Known Way, Lord, Have Thy Known Way. Is that prophetic or what, Joe? It's great. Thank you. Amen. You may be seated. That's not a song. That's a prayer. I love that song. So it is now, as a couple announcements, is that for most of you, it was here for our lunchtime. And there's food in the mornings that you can come and have time of fellowship if you're traveling in and you need to get here a little bit earlier before traffic or whatever. Upstairs in the dining hall, they have fruit and pastries and things like that for a morning session. The meals for lunchtime are being provided so that we can stay here, save on expense of eating out and things like that. Supper, you're on your own, though, sorry. I guess there might be some here that might say, hey, I'll take care of everybody, right? No hands on that, okay. But we had our fast yesterday. So to get back to eating and fellowship today, where there's still many that they fasted for the first time. And those that was fasting, that was eagerly seeking the Lord's face. And so as we read those scriptures about the solemn assembly, it was that we would be directed exactly as God was leading us to do because of all the things that need to be taken care of in our families and in the church and in our nation today. Blessed time of prayer this morning. I don't think that worship really, I didn't think that we was going to get out of worship, but it was a continual flow of that this morning and a couple of prayers of worship and adoration and then somebody break out into song. And it was a blessed time this morning in the fellowship of that. Really enjoyed that. Now it is that just because we have sessions like this morning that was good and great and the Spirit moves and works, that does not mean that's going to carry us all the way through. The intensity of the work that is upon broken before the throne is that it is seven days. And each day carries its own weight. And the end result is that God would manifest Himself to us in a way of revival that we're longing and seeking for in the church and an awakening in the land. So that's our end result. A lot of times people say, well, really, you know, people that don't have very sound prayer lives are like, how can you pray nine hours a day and those kind of things? There's much to be brought before the Lord. And so it's not like we're exhausting any of that that's before us with that. So I wanted to make you aware of a couple of those announcements and those things that will be happening. All right. I want to ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter three. About 62 times in the Bible is this word, these two words put together and used in different various places throughout the scripture. And that word is take heed. And I grew up reading the Bible. It challenged at a young age to read it through for the first time from Genesis to Revelation. And I began setting a discipline, setting a pattern that I would stay in the word of God and continue to read it. About that same time, God put Mrs. Faisenbaker in my life. I love to talk about Mrs. Faisenbaker. She was the 76 year old woman in the church that loved missions. And I mean, she loved missions. I don't care what it was, was that she had her hands in it and she wanted everybody else to have their hands in it. And I'll never forget her because about the age of 11 or 12 young, young teenager coming up. And of course, we went to vacation Bible school and vacation Bible school was for, you know, playing volleyball and making crafts and having good snacks. And, oh, yeah, we'd learn about the Bible and things like that. That was Bible school. Wasn't a Mrs. Faisenbaker. If she had you two hours, you was going to be there two hours to learn the Bible. There was none of this craft stuff. There was none of this recreation stuff. So you can imagine a bunch of 11 and 12 year old kids sitting there for two hours with Mrs. Faisenbaker. But she loved, she loved to do that. She was instrumental in my life because at the age of 15, walking through the dining hall at the church, she comes and she stops me. Only time she ever stopped me was when I was in trouble. So I just assumed that I had done something again. There weren't too many occasions. Don't look at me like that. So she stops me and she puts her hands on my shoulders. And she says, I wish I was young like you. She said, because if I was, she said, I'd memorize scripture. She says, when you get to be my age, she says, you can memorize, but it will not come as easy. And I can't do it very well now. That's all she said. Took her hands off my shoulders. Went on. That was a divine moment for me because that's when I began to put scriptures in, memorizing. I began to read that same year. And so now after all these years of reading and memorizing, I love that God never, as Joe said, God never disappoints. Still, reading through the Bible, he reveals things. He shows things. He demonstrates things. And I come to this part is that I love word studies in the Bible. I did the sins of the fathers last night. And 651 times that that's found in scripture. Take heed. 60-some times in the Bible. 10 times in one of my favorite books, Deuteronomy. But I use this one here in Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12, because it's where we're at with our prayer times and our prayer life today. He says in this, he says, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. Take heed. There's that strong, stern warning. You know, my my dad could speak a word to me and get my attention real quick. He'd give me that look as a, you know, as a pastor and the pastor's kid. He could be up here and he could look back there and give me that look with the eyebrows pulled down. And that was I was speaking to me. Take heed, boy. You know, I knew I knew what he was doing. I knew what he was saying. God is very instrumental in the same way of our life. What is it that is causing a lot of prayer lives to deteriorate? What is it that's causing the churches to decline away from prayer and seeking God's face? An evil heart of unbelief. And an awful thing is that we come to the Lord God Almighty, who is creator of heaven and earth and able to do magnificent things in our presence, in our sight. And yet somebody says, and I've heard this too many times. Now, Lord, if you're not too busy or Lord, I know that, you know, I'm asking a lot. An evil heart of unbelief. That's what has penetrated into God's own people. Well, they've taken their eyes off of him and it's not on him anymore. It's on an arm of flesh. And their hearts and their minds are not crying out for him to say, Lord, we've read of that which you have done in the past. And we know that you are the same yesterday, today and forever. And you're able to do it today. I still believe is that the promise that Jesus gave is to said the same things that I have done. So also shall you do and greater things because I'm going to my father. I believe that. Yet you ask of most Christians today is to say, how have you proved the Lord? How have you set your standard there is to say, Lord, I want you to do this. They back off. It is the evil heart of unbelief. Now, for you to come to a prayer conference on a Monday afternoon is unusual. For some of you that have taken vacation and time to be here, that's unusual. But in any of us, self-doubt, confusion can enter in to cause an evil heart of unbelief. All of us should pay attention to this warning. Take care. Devil can come in in many ways. Put a doubt, whisper a lie. And as quickly as you have confidence to say, I'm trusting and believing the Lord, as quickly as that happened, you can turn away. Within the last month, I've had to deal with a woman with mental illness, racking away at her, discouragement. She stayed with us for a week and tried to work with her during that time period. She would say, I know whom I have believed. I am persuaded. She'd quote as many verses as what I had. She knew the Bible. But yet, she could sit there for about 20 minutes. And as she let her mind go, it would quickly go to the lies of Satan. Oh, he doesn't love me. My sin's too great. An evil heart of unbelief came in within a matter of 20 minutes. And we would go back and we would look at the Scriptures. And we would pronounce these things. And we would cry out to the Lord. And she would weep and confess. And everything would be good. And 30 minutes on down the road, we'd be right back to where we was. A continual cycle. Over and over. And it is that this is the battle that's waging right now, I believe. Within most of the church and most hearts and lives. There is unbelief found among us. Because God has said. And it used to be that was enough. God has said. That's it. Now it's God has said but comma. And then it comes the excuse or the reasoning. Now he goes on with this last one. A heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. As many as you can come see, come forward to the Lord and say, I believe, I believe. As quickly as they come, they go back out. Something's not right. They did not take heed. They did not give place to the priority in the things of God. You and I, dear brothers and sisters, take heed. Satan doesn't want us to prevail in prayer. Maybe your flesh doesn't want to prevail in prayer. But God does. Let's take heed. At this time, we're going to watch a few more moments of the revival hymn. Tell me. But I know this from village and hamlet. The people came. Were you to ask some of them today, what was it that moved you? They couldn't tell you. Only that they were moved by a power that they could not explain. And the power was such as to give them to understand and see that they were all deserving sinners. And of course, the only place they could think of where they might find help was at the church. Now that is a fact that cannot be disputed. God was everywhere. And because of this awareness of God, the churches were crowded. Crowded. Through the day, right on through the night till five and six o'clock in the morning. In revival time does not exist. One of the mighty moments in the midst of this great and vicious age. And you know that the drinking house was closed that night. Never been opened since. The men who used to drink there and spend the evening there are now praying in our prayer meetings. It is because they entered into the fullness. It was because the people of Juice grasped that truth that we can say today, we know practically nothing of that sliding from that greatest moment of years ago. My dear people, did your good folk understand what revival means? Have you a conception of what it means to see God working? The God of miracles. Father and supernatural. Moving in the midst of man and hundreds swept into the kingdom. Oh, that we might see. That we might see. Powerful testimony, isn't it? Oh, that we might see it. I want to divert away here for a moment from what we're used to normally. Time, testimony and sharing of things that materialize and things that happen while we're together. And so what I'm going to do is that I'm going to ask for Tim to come and share his heart with us for a moment. And as he does, then we'll be led to a time of prayer. And then Greg has arrived, so he'll be coming to join us here in a moment. Tim, would you come and share your heart? Just in these past two days. Yesterday, I would say, was a very powerful time in God's presence. The two times that I came forward, as I came from the back forward, the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit got stronger the closer I drew near to what I would call the altar. And it was as if I was standing on holy ground. Now, I don't know if anyone else has sensed that already. I'm not saying warm, fuzzy feelings. I'm saying the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. When I sensed His Holy Spirit, it was one of those moments where there was awe, there was fear. You know, I wanted to be drawn to my knees, but I couldn't because I was shaking too much. But I don't know if any of you are in actual agreement here, in that sensing as you have come forward these last few days, as you've come up and you've prayed, Lord, and prayed to Him. This doesn't have to be our only altar. As I was talking with a few people, Dan, Gareth, Brian, we mentioned that instead we should ask the Lord to come and fill this place completely. That not just here would be the altar, but this whole room would be the altar. As I was sitting over there, my legs are still weak, because I just feel like the Lord is birthing something new. But as I was sitting there, something came very strongly to my mind. Joel 2, verse 17, I think we've read it before, but I just want to read it again. Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your inheritance a reproach. We are His inheritance, because He has bought us by the blood of Jesus Christ. And a byword among the nations, why should they say among the people, Where is their God? What I'm asking you to do right now is, if you truly agree, that you would agree with me to ask the Lord to come and fill this place, as He had done in ages past amongst His people Israel. So if you just bow your heads with me, and just join with me. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. Lord, your name is holy, and there is no one like you. Lord, we ask that this room, Lord, that this room would be filled with your Holy Spirit, with your power, with your passion. That you would break us, that you would mend us, that you would fill us, Lord. But Lord, I pray that we would truly know that we have met with you between porch and altar. Lord God, I pray that you would fill this place. And I ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen. I just felt glad to the Lord that we need to lay our hands upon Tim at this moment and pray for him. Will you join with us as we pray for Tim? Father, thank you for our brother Tim, thank you for the revelation to him of that word from Joel. Thank you for the way that he has led us even this afternoon, in this brief time, as he has challenged us to enter into your presence between the porch and the altar. Father, I lay my hands upon Tim, and I ask you to put your hand upon him in a very special anointing. That from this moment on, he might become a man who is a leader of men in the church. That you might minister through him, lead him in a path, Lord, that knows your anointing. That he might be a man of the future for the church here in America and in his hometown, in his home city. Lay your hand upon him in anointing, Father, I pray. Use him for your glory, as a heart has broken before you. As a man who desires your will in his life. You've broken him from many of the bondages of the past, Father, to free him into the life that you have for him. Direct his paths, use him as a leader of men, that he might be your mouthpiece to speak to us. To speak to many of the good things of God. Anoint him by your Spirit, Father, and use him for your glory. I ask you in Jesus' name. Tim came and shared his heart. And I want to be ever so sensitive, because things are not always as is. In a time of prayer like this, when we've been pouring ourselves out for days. And so I desire with all my heart that we be wise, discerning. And follow the leading of the Holy Spirit when God speaks to one. So I thank Tim for coming and sharing that with us and directing us. And our prayers will continue. Manifest his presence, completely. So it is, is that at this time I'm going to ask for Greg Frizzell, who has arrived. And bless the time to come now and to speak to us. To share his heart and to lead us in our prayer time for this afternoon. Come brother. Yes. Are we on? Okay. Give me a little more if you would. I've got a little voice damage. I need the help from that standpoint. Just got off an airplane. And excuse me for being a little casual. But I didn't want to travel in a suit today. And I didn't think you'd mind too bad. Folks, the reason I'm here is because of the hearts that you have. I'm not bragging on you. It's not about you. But you're part of that remnant. That is deepening. That is our hope. That the prayer movement, not can just get broader, but can finally deepen. And be truly empowered by the manifest presence of God. We can all say words. We all know how to say prayer words. And we all know how to do meetings. And the Old Testament, they certainly would fast. And they certainly would put on sackcloth and ashes. And they'd weep and all that stuff. But nothing much happened. And some of our churches, we can relate to that. But thank God there's hope. And there is something happening in God's remnant. And so this afternoon, we really want to just ask the Lord the question. Lord, how can the prayer movement now become a genuine return to you? In the biblical sense. The Holy Spirit sense. In which God can manifest His full glory. Not just mercy drops. And I know that's your heart. And the reason I'm here is, number one, I think God told me to come and just pray. That's what I love about this time. It's mostly we share the word, but it's a lot of prayer. Nobody's on platform. It's all on God. His face is the only one that needs to be seen. His voice is the only one that needs to be heard. So it is encouraging to see that something is happening in God's remnant. And I'm going to ask that we... I'm going to ask you to take your Bible, if you will, and turn to Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 12. There's a lot of excitement in a tiny remnant. But revivals, as you know, start from a tiny remnant. Never a great majority. It's not unusual for great awakenings to require like 15, 20 years of a small remnant praying. It's kind of unusual for one to go 40 years. And that's kind of where we are right now. There's been a prayer movement in America really about 40 years old. And that's real unusual to have a 40 year prayer movement and at the same time the worst collapse in history. So we're going to be seeing this afternoon to set our praying. What a prayer movement looks like. They're passing out some things that will be regarding the scriptures we're about to look at. We're going to be looking at what a prayer movement looks like that God's Spirit is really in. And the kind of prayer that brings revival. Hopefully, it would be good before we get into this scripture to just kind of again set a stage. And I know that you know this, but I want to stress this. You can probably tell me what's happened to baptisms in this country in the last 50 years. Now that's a long time. And if I were to ask you what's happened to the population of this country in the last 50 years, you know as well as I, it has more than doubled. So a lot of growth in population. And they're passing that out. So we almost have it. But in the middle of a double population, baptisms have been going like this for 50 straight years. Baptism especially ratios. Numbers among Baptists about the same down a little. But that means our ratios have gone like this in terms of power ratios. Now something else about that, we're also noticing that a lot more that we're actually baptizing, which the numbers are much fewer, six months later it can't be found. So evidently there's been an explosion of a lot of decisions that aren't conversions in our country. So that's, the Bible says we're to know the signs of the times. We're to discern where we really are. So in terms of power, something's really collapsed. We're not in a power decline. It really can only be called a collapse. That's why we're here praying. And God can turn it around. But now what's happened to programs and strategies and evangelism tools in the last 50 years? Have they gone down like this? No, our strategies and programs and innovative methods and new worship has all gone like this. It's gone through the roof. Now what's happened to Christian education? Pastors have seminary degrees now in the last 50 years. It's doubled and tripled. Oh, many even have doctorates now. So education, theological, gone through the roof. Program strategies, gone through the roof. Innovative worship, gone through the roof. But baptisms have gone like this. And morals and family strength have not gone like this. They've gone like this. We're in a collapse. Signs of judgment have gone like this. Based on the patterns of biblical judgment, folks, we are way down the scale. It could literally become cataclysmic in a heartbeat. We don't know God's timing. I don't claim to. Some may. But it's urgent. We know that. Now here's the amazing thing now. I don't believe this has ever happened. There may be a little argument with that, but it's certainly very unusual. I don't know of a time in history that there's been a 40-year prayer movement. You say, what do you mean, prayer movement? Well, more books have been written on prayer, revival, awakening, and repentance in the last 30 years than the 300 before that. Everybody's cat's writing a book on prayer. And that's good. We ought to have them. Prayer ministries, prayer strategies, prayer networks. And praise God, we'd be a lot worse off without them. No doubt we'd be a lot worse. But there's never in history, or very seldom, been a 40-year prayer movement. This much noise, this many books, this much emphasis. And baptisms go like this for 40 years. And morals go like this. And signs of judgment go like this. And we're now facing an age bomb. If there's any idea that, well, we're just going to kind of float along, folks, if we don't have a great awakening, I mean, we're far past mercy drops. If we don't have a historic, biblical, real thing, great awakening, we're going to have an enormous decline from where we even are now. We're about to hit an age bomb in this country. Now many precious saints that have built our churches, that are now paying the bills, that are doing the attending, that are doing the teaching, they're about to go and be with the Lord over the next 10, 15, 20 years. If next Sunday everybody in Baptist churches, or even Evangelical churches, period, everybody 60 and up was suddenly never again in any of our churches, you know what would happen. 40% of our churches would be instantly gone. There'd be another 40%. They wouldn't be, they'd still be there, they wouldn't be gone, but they'd be badly hurt in terms of money and giving. Now that's not going to happen next Sunday, but it is going to happen over the next 10, 15 years as people get sick and can't come or go and be with the Lord. So, folks, we're at an urgent, crucial moment. You know this. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. But it is vital that we ask the question, why have we had this massive prayer movement? It's astounding how many prayer networks are out there now. And praise God for them. That's the hope, and there's hope. But is there a turning point that yet needs to happen? Why have we prayed and prayed and prayed and solemn assemblyed and everything else? And it's been a very disturbing pattern that in this generation, solemn assemblies, the vast majority, have not produced revivals. I'm not saying we ought not to do them. We ought to do them. They're biblical. But something is stopping short of the true manifest power of God. And you know the Word of God says it's not about talk. We can all talk about revival and do conferences on it and write books on it. But it's about the power, the manifest presence, as Brother God talked about. So these pastors we're going to look at try to answer three questions that can get us praying and believing. And by the way, it's all the grace of God. It's not out of reach. It's not impossible. It's His power. It's His grace. So don't let any of this be discouraging. It's urgent. But God's not into beating us down but lifting us up. So there's a lot of hope. But we've got to get it. We've got to let God take us this one step deeper. We're going to look at a lot of Scripture. And obviously that's the only thing that matters is the Word of God. There's three questions we want to help set our praying. What does that really look like? What has to happen in the prayer movement for the break to finally come, the flood, the heavens to break open? What has to happen? Second, what is the type of prayer that God has biblically and historically used by His Spirit to really release His manifest presence? What does that kind of prayer movement look like? And third, what is the motive? It cannot be just, if we don't have revival, we're going to get judged more. We've already under judgment. But the economy is going to get worse. That better not be our main motive. It's got to be about the pure, passionate love of God and glory of His name and His kingdom and His pleasure. And so we're going to seek to answer those questions. Isaiah 112 is where we'll begin to look at the Holy Word of God. And I always try to pray before we read the Holy Word of God. And sometimes, Father, we do confess You are God. There's none other. You're all there is. Your name's the only name that matters. Jesus, Your kingdom's the only one that counts. Your name's the only one to be praised. And we understand, Lord, that we matter only because we matter to You and have been created in Your image. That, Lord, it is all about You, Your pleasure, Your glory, Your kingdom, Your name. Oh, God, we're so good at doing meetings. We can put on shows. We don't mean to. But, oh, Father, today, help us hear Your Word. Help us hear Your heart. Lord, help us to let You fill us with Your heart. Take us deeper. Father, guard us from the foolish pride of thinking we've just about arrived when maybe we really haven't yet. Oh, Father, save us from thinking we're beyond where we are. Your remnant is stirring. Oh, I thank You for these people, Lord. But, God, most of all, we cry out now through Your Holy Word, You'd take us deeper. Deeper surrender, deeper faith, deeper yielding to the fullness and power of Your Spirit. But, God, it may be of You and that You may get all the glory in the days and months ahead. Father, even if it takes great judgment to bring revival, oh, Father, we know we'd be far better off with Your judgment, Your chastisement than we are. Father, there's a special danger for us that come and pray to think, well, we're the spiritual ones. Oh, Father, banish from us any sense of pride or arrogance. Help us understand it's not about talking books, it's about the power. Oh, Father, it's about You, the reality, the life, not just word. Oh, Father, take us there, deeper than we are. Thank You for what You're doing. But, Lord, take us to another place. Amen. I was asked to do something I've never been asked to do. I was asked to speak at a worship leaders conference. I can sing about, well, I don't know what. I can't sing at all. Of course, it's not about singing. But, I said, Lord, what in the world do You want me to say to a bunch of worship leaders? So, as I prayed about it, God led me to two passages. Of course, it's really to prayer folks. It's not just worship leaders. It's the context of a 40-year prayer movement. All kinds of strategies, all kinds of prayers, all kinds of books, all kinds of meetings and conferences. But, here's what He said. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Well, that's a strange way to talk about a worship time and a prayer meeting. He said, you're trampling my courts. And they didn't know they were, in a sense. He said, bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. Well, that was their way of worship. Incense is an abomination to me. What would make God call worship and prayer and even preaching abomination? He said, the new moons and sabbaths and the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. That was their time of repentance, supposedly. He said, in verse 14, the new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. Those are strong words. He said, they're a trouble to me. The word littered in Hebrew means they're a burden. They're a weariness to me. I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, because your hands are full of blood. Well, what was going on here? Oh, they were praying. They were fasting, sackcloth, ashes, all that, going through supposed repentance, but kind of wasn't noticing the manifest presence of God wasn't really moving. There was a lack of total surrender. There was a general confession. There was a surface confession. And it was more about trying to get God's blessing and get Him to protect them from problems than it was really seeking His face out of pure burning love for Him. So there was a lack of depth. Could that be true of some of the prayer movement? And again, praise God, some of it is very genuine. And this is in no way trying to be negative about prayer, but we have to ask the question, when it's 40 years of this and things have absolutely collapsed and churches have collapsed, so there's some sense in which we're kind of here, at least as a society and many churches. Well, there was a lack of surrender. There was a lack of absolute seeking of God. If you will look in Ezekiel, chapter 33, and verse 30, it was a similar thing. And again, I want you to be filled with hope because it is all God's grace. It is all His mighty power. But He is doing something in that tiny remnant. I don't want to exaggerate. It is a tiny remnant, but there is a deepening and this is what He's trying to save us from. Ezekiel 30, verse 30, As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls. You're talking about the prophet here. And in the doors of the houses and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, please come and hear what the word is and they turned to whatever they were doing. So they come to you as people do and they sit before you as my people and they hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but with their hearts they pursue their own gain. There was a self-seeking element in their apparent prayer, apparent repentance, apparent desire for God. And again, you'll hear that today. If we don't have revival, if we don't pray, if we don't repent, if God doesn't send revival, we're going to get judged or the economy is going to get worse or we might get persecuted. Now we should pray against those things, but that cannot be the main motive. It's got to be the glory of God, the praise of God, the kingdom of God. It may take some of that to get us there. So their motive was about self-blessing more than God glory and God loving. So folks, it'll come out today to pray. He's taking us deeper. If you would, turn to Joel chapter 2 in verse 12 through 18. Joel chapter 2, 12 through 18. You're very familiar with this powerful passage, but oh how we need it. Now therefore says the Lord, turn to me a little bit on the run, right? No. Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. And we must cry out to God for the grace for the tears. We can't just work them up or fake them, but we must certainly want them and let him give them to us. Surrender your heart and not your garments. He's saying it's got to be a thorough repentance, a thorough surrender, not just saying we do. There's a major problem in many circles today. Folks will say, Lord, we repent. But you know, saying that doesn't get it done. Oh Lord, search our heart, oh Lord, search our heart. And we pause for 15 seconds. So there was an element that God was stressing. It had to be an absolute surrender, an absolute fervency, an absolute brokenness. But he says this beautiful promise. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful. Don't you hope in the mercy of God? Folks, it's so dark today and we are so, it's the real amazing thing. The real question is not are we under judgment, but how could we not be? And the amazing thing is we level the place, starting with many churches because judgment begins where? In Washington, right? Well, it's Washington's fault, isn't it? God says when there's this many churches in the land as in America, the condition has to be laid at our door. But God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, of great kindness. America is an example of that. It's astounding we're not leveled. And he relents from doing harm. Who knows? But there's an intensity and all out, a true fasting, not a show fasting, but a true fasting. Certainly would be things like TV and sports would be probably some of the biggest fasting that God is leading. And he is doing that, by the way. Praise God, there is that growing remnant. They've turned on, they don't have TVs or they flat turned them off for the most part. And things like sports, at least most of it's been laid on the altar. Now, there are a lot of folks that will say, well, I would never watch anything unclean for about three minutes. I watch History Channel. Nothing wrong with History Channel per se. You're watching the news some, but it's happening. God's remnant is coming back in balance. And it's a fasting that's of the heart, not just a physical thing, although the physical is certainly there. Look at, if you would, Amos chapter 5 and verse 21. Another amazing passage. Our gracious, mighty, holy God speaking to his people about their prayers, about their repentance, or at least apparent. And he says, I hate, I despise your feast days. I do not savor your sacred or solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. This is so strong. Take away from me the noise of your songs. He said, the word literally means, it's offensive to me. It grates on my nerves. It bothers his ears. For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But he says, let justice, and that means let holiness, or let obedience run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Something encouraging God's doing. I say many. I don't want to exaggerate. There's a small remnant that's realizing when we sing in our churches, brokenness is all I long for, but I don't have cleansing as a part of my quiet time. That's an offense to God. Holiness is all I long for, but I've got a three-minute quiet time on the run. It's completely disingenuous. It offends God. You know, Lord, I love you. You're all I long for, but I'm going to watch TV programs that are shady. God's doing a work in that remnant, but it certainly needs to explode. So we're singing these passages that God is never fooled, by appearances, even by so-called solemn assemblies, by a lot of fasting, even a lot of weeping. He's not fooled by that. It's all about the personal life, the reality of the heart, the worship in spirit and truth, and only He can produce that. So we're singing, then God wants a passionate kind of repentance, but we notice it is certainly of the heart, and that means it's got to be of the heart. We must certainly embrace deep repentance and all of that. But if we ever think, by doing this, Lord, we're going to impress you enough, you'll send revival. We're in trouble. It's slipped into an unconscious legalism. If you look with me in John chapter 14, verse 13 and 14, many of you can quote it. You don't even have to look. It's Jesus' powerful, humility and seeking of God, not just His blessings, but it's all based on the grace covenant of Jesus. It's all based on the name and blood of Jesus, never in any way thinking we can earn it or deserve it. And He said, ask anything, here's the key, in my name. It's all in the name. It's all in the blood. It's all in His righteousness. Even though we're, humanly speaking, far from perfect. He's counted righteous. It's so vital as we let God cleanse us, that we ever keep that in mind and we ever understand that it's all by His grace and by His Spirit and for His glory. Because it can slip into an unconscious legalism, an unconscious self-effort. We would not intend it, But the Father is offended by that. Galatians 3, 1, really verse 2, he asks the question, in fact, if you wouldn't mind turning to it. Obviously, in America, a huge problem is with passivity and laziness. But there can be a slight problem in sometimes a revival movement, getting unconsciously into we're going to somehow earn it. Or pray hard enough, long enough, and we've got to do that. But the attitude must be total dependence on his grace and spirit. Galatians 3, 2, this only I would learn from you, did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the spirit, you're now being made perfect by the flesh? Verse 5, therefore he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? So from beginning to end, the foundation is the grace, the spirit, the power, the endowment from on high of God. It's all about power. Again, I love 1 Corinthians 4, 20. He said the kingdom of heaven is not in word. And what that word literally meant was rhetoric, talk. They were doing a lot of talking. He said it's in power. And that is what we're desperately crying out to God for. A new baptism of his power, a new moving of his spirit, a new endowment from on high. That is the New Testament kind, the great awakening kind. I'm glad in a way there's different levels of faith. I'm glad there's different levels of endowment. I'm glad there's different levels of prayer. Gives me hope. I'm glad what we've seen is not all there is. Aren't you? I know you are. But there's hope. But we've got to let God take us there, kind of know how to get there. So as we see these passages, and of course James 5, 16 through 18 is another beautiful passage that in a way applies to revival and to the mighty moving of God's spirit. Confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. That's a big so that. That means if the deep humility, brokenness, getting honest with each other, and deep confession doesn't take place, neither does the healing. That hinders the power of God. That was talking about physical healing in that place. But the principle would certainly apply to a mighty move of God in our churches and our families. It is so tragic to see so many churches that have been praying for 30 years for revival and then still haven't seen it. 30 years for a move of God and baptisms are still absolutely horrific. The baptism levels today are just absolutely, historically speaking, absolutely horrific. And certainly the numbers that fall away is obviously not real conversions. So sad to see many families today where they've been begging and crying out, but the breakthroughs haven't come in their kids and grandkids. They're still not walking with God. So this passage talks about a deep cleansing that releases the power of God. And it gives you that beautiful illustration of Elijah praying and he had a word from God. The rain was going to come, and by the way, that's crucial, to pray for revival. We don't have to hope for it. God has to give us that faith that really releases his presence. It's not hope, so it's no so believing that he gives us by his Spirit. But Elijah was crying out to God and had that word, told the little servant, go look, what do you see? He said, not a thing. The sky is clear. We know what that feels like. And he bowed down, the picture literally got his face on the ground between his knees, prayed earnestly. The Bible talks about the effective fervent prayer, that means anointed, empowered, impassioned prayer. It isn't just words. So that's why we're crying out to God today for a breath of wind. I'm glad he can take weak people, tired people, sick people and give us a new wind and give us real tears and have more than just talking about things. And he's doing it in that little room. Elijah kept praying. There's a word, there's a beautiful picture of persistence in prayer and it got this timing set by God, not us. And there's hope in that too. Yeah, we had a 40-year prayer movement. That's serious that we hadn't seen a great awakening. But you know what? Also, it's also true in history that any time there was a movement this long, God usually did something in his time. So there's a lot of hope. It may come out of judgment, a lot of hope. But we have to persist. The prayers have to be, James says, effectual. That word literally means effective. Or some prayers more effective than others. Does it matter how you pray? Well any old prayer do. We don't see that in the Bible. You'll notice in the men God used to bring the mighty moves of God like Nehemiah and Daniel. Nehemiah chapter 1 and Daniel chapter 9. You'll see those powerful prayers. They had insight. Man, they were praying. They were praying. They were praying the heart of God. They were a large sin revival, man, they were praying the heart of God. And there was brokenness and humility, but it was claiming, it was that covenant. It was that faith that God could still do something. Their words mattered, because it wasn't their words. They were praying by the Spirit of God. So that we see that the Lord is deepening the prayer movement now, the little remnant of it anyway. The prayers sound different than they did three years ago. And that's hopeful. See it in Daniel. We see it in all of Paul's prayers. They were never general. They were always very specific, focused on very key things God wanted to do in the hearts of His people in the church and in the lost people. And that's the purpose of Jesus' prayers, very strategic. Not magic. There's not magic words, but it's very vital. The prayer movement is beginning to deepen. And that's what we're going to begin to shift our, in a moment, we're going to shift toward praying that God will deepen this. Will explode this in us, starting with us, even deeper. I want to just name five things, and if you want to jot these down fine, or you may not, but five things is pretty evident in Scripture and history that a true return to God will look like, not just a prayer movement, but a return to God. You know, there can be a difference between a prayer movement and a return to God. And so a genuine prayer movement that is a true Spirit-empowered return to God, it will certainly, number one, be based absolutely on the grace covenant in the name and blood of Jesus. There will be no idea that we can earn it or deserve it. Now again, we have to embrace deep repentance and deep examination, but in total dependence on His grace and His Spirit and His glory. God will share His glory with no man, program, book, or strategy. The second point is that it must be with a motivation that is utterly for the love, the glory, the pleasure, and the kingdom of God. Motivated solely for the love, the glory, the pleasure, and the kingdom of God. Basically, that's what the passage read. A lot of them talk about that, and many others will that we'll talk about later. The motivation, James 4, you know, it says we ask for our own pleasures, our own desires, we ask them as. You know what I mean? We can't pray for healing and pray for God to save us from persecution. That's okay. It just can't be the main thing. But the third thing, it must be with an utter brokenness, an utter humility before God and men. It must have a brokenness and humility that involves a lasting repentance. It's got to be specific repentance. For me to say, Lord, I repent of my sins, that's probably meaningless. It's got to get real specific. And it can't be about, Lord, at this solemn assembly, I'm going to repent of my sin. No, it's got to be Monday after the solemn assembly, I'm going to be different. The solemn assembly, of course, is vital and powerful and wonderful. But it has to get us to a specific, long-term commitment to concrete repentance at key points. Otherwise, it's not a genuine return to God. We see that in all the passages. Fourth, it must be spirit-guided. Is that four or five? Okay. I can't read my own writing. My wife can. Someone says she's got the gift of reading in tongues. My writing looks like, I don't know what tongues would look like, but my writing looks like that. A genuine return to God, a prayer movement that will produce revival, must be utterly spirit-guided, focused, and filled with real faith. It's so easy to get cowed down and get discouraged and reduce our expectations because of the darkness today. But the Lord says that we're to be a people, the gates of hell can't prevail against it. That's us being on the offensive, not defensive. So, it's going to be a move of God that's totally spirit-empowered, is focused, is specific, and is filled with a dynamic, powerful faith. And it is all about the grace covenant. That's the final thing. It just absolutely is the grace covenant. What we'd like to do for just a few moments is we try to ask God to help us pray for a deepening of the prayer movement and a deepening of the movement in the church. I want to read a covenant. One's been passed out to you. And I do want to say that this covenant is in no way some magic little thing, and you may or may not want to use anything like this, but as I've really begged God over the last few years, Lord, why have I led so many conferences and real revival didn't really come in those churches just to be flat, dead honest? And you know, those of us that work in writing books and leading conferences, and those of us that attend conferences, we have to be real careful not to ever think, not to ever settle for mercy drops or get proud about mercy drops when God wants to send a manifest flood and have to say, we're not there yet. Most of us aren't. But God, I really pray, Lord, why? What's happened? And there's been a lot of prayers circulated around, well, let's just all say this prayer, and that's great. We ought to do it. It's wonderful. But I've noticed that many of them, at least, and even some I've circulated, tend to be general. Tend to, well, let's just repent or let's just, God, we're returning to you, but just God, help me see that doesn't get it done. So I wrote this covenant. It's actually on the thing that was handed out to you. And again, you may not want to use this thing. You may want to just let God guide you to something of your own, but I want to read it to you. I believe this captures the Scriptures that have to take place in a genuine quiet times that will produce revival in a church. And folks, we've got to be weary in our churches of not seeing revival. Our quiet times, something needs to happen that God may move. But I want to read this. A covenant to seek God's face. Holy God, we humbly acknowledge our desperate need to return to you in full repentance and first love passion. With God, it's all about heart love, not just the intellect. First love passion. Please forgive us for rushed, shallow prayer times, for spiritual apathy, for compromise with the world. Forgive us for emphasizing, of course, denominations, we've had a problem with this at times. Forgive us for emphasizing programs, promotions, and strategies over fervent prayer, deep repentance, and great commission passion. We understand that judgment begins at the house of God, and that we are primarily responsible for the nation's current spiritual condition. Now, we probably couldn't say that if there were only a tiny handful of churches in America. But with a nation absolutely full of churches for centuries, that we're in this condition can only be laid at our door. So we have to, in brokenness, accept that and embrace that, especially those of us that are leaders. Lord, we further understand that our prayers and repentance must become deep, specific, and lasting, not brief and general. We can't just do meetings. We can't just have an event that doesn't get us to this next place. No longer will we merely say we repent. We know we must do more than give lip service to prayer, evangelism, and missions. By your grace, we covenant to embrace four concrete steps of obedience. And again, I could be wrong, and I'm sure there's more things than this, but I really believe that these four, at least, are going to be deeply involved in a genuine return to God. So the prayer movement has got to be a return to God in obedience. And again, repentance is obviously not just turning from sin. It's most definitely turning to God in loving, empowered obedience. That's what this tries to say. Four things. I don't believe there could be a true return to God or a true, serious prayer movement without these four things. Number one, to embrace a total life examination. And the word total there is important. When the Bible says, Search me, O God, that is a strong word in the Hebrew. That means go through every attitude, every motive, everything in my whole life. That I will embrace a total life examination for deep, lasting repentance. And lasting is key. Number two, to embrace a daily personal prayer times that are substantial and kingdom focused. I don't have to tell you this. In many meetings, the cleansing time will be a few seconds or a few minutes at best. And it tends to be very general because that's just not what he's talking about. We've really studied quiet time patterns in America and studied many of the models that are out. And praise God, some of them are okay. But many of them are very lacking in the cleansing and yielding part. Not legalism, not you've got to do it every day or God will get you. But most quiet time models today, of course you know the devotions. So many precious Americans, all they do is read those little devotions. And again, praise God, the devotions are fine. But they're never designed for us to stop with them. Most of them, maybe a few, but most of them are not designed at all to be all we need. So many Americans are stopping with those. And even many Americans, some of the studies we've done have shown even some that have an hour of quiet time, really pray 30, 40 minutes an hour a day. But the cleansing part, the yielding part is really lacking. It's really shallow. And of course in Jonathan Edwards and many of the great men of God of history, that was a huge part of what they did. Because they understand we're to be pressing toward the mark. In grace, but pressing. We're to be letting Him perfect us in holiness. Those words are a lifelong pattern. So there must be a commitment to change quiet times. To say, Lord, we're returning to you, but I'm not going to change my five-minute quiet time. It's just not real. Lord, we're returning to you, but we're going to try to do cleansing in 15 minutes. It's just not real. But praise God, it can get real. God's helping His people. Third, that we will consistently pray that, and again, there's not 12 exact prayers. Please don't, not that. But to pray that, I said 12, but obviously that's not a program. Twelve biblical prayers for revival and spiritual awakening. In other words, we're going to let God take us to the type of specific, Spirit-led, biblically-based prayers that God has used to bring the past great awakenings. Now, it's going to get beyond Lord's Sin Revival. We're going to start praying His heart with Him by His Spirit. But we have to embrace that. And with this little thing, there's prayers there you can use if you want to. There's Scripture prayers. They're based on Scripture. But in other words, with each one of these, there's a way people can actually do this. It's useless to tell people to do something if they really don't know how. They've never been taught and don't have any way to do it. They're not going to do it. So this thing has God with it. I'm not pushing this. You don't have to use this. But it's vital that we give them something they can change their quiet times with and that they can embrace personal cleansing for a solemn assembly that's very deep, but also a lifestyle in their quiet time. That's what this is about. And finally, to consistently pray and witness to specific lost people and to work, pray, and give sacrificially. And that's a huge blind spot in the American church. I don't know if any of you have read the book Radical by David Platt. If you have, let me see your hand. I really believe the brother has hit a blind spot. And this thing of not giving sacrificially, and that's the word, sacrificial, not just generously, not giving sacrificially to missions and evangelism and to hurting people, covetousness is eating us alive. Materialism is eating us alive in America. But this fourth commitment, we're going to let God take us to that place of sacrificial praying for missions and giving financially and going, and without these elements. If these elements are not in our events or whatever, or at least something like that, then it's very easy to have a little cleansing time. And we may be sincere, but if folks don't have a path to walk in, this is part of what revival is. They start walking in these paths. It's not a program, but there are principles. Finally, dear Savior, by your spirit and grace, we fully commit to pray and obey your heart desires as reflected in the specific covenant prayers. In cleansing guides, and what I mean is biblical thorough cleansing guides, and using evangelistic tools. And whether our nation first sees revival or increasing judgment, we hereby covenant to seek your face, revive the church, oh Lord, send sweeping global harvest, and glorify your holy name. And come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Just a sample, just a direction that captures. But here's what we're going to begin to focus our prayer toward this afternoon. I don't have to tell you in the church that's not what's happening. Most churches don't have prayer meetings, real prayer meetings. If they're there, they're not about souls, not about repentance, not about missions, not about the manifest presence of God being poured out, but more about most don't even have any kind of prayer meeting. We want to pray this afternoon. God can change that in our churches, and starting in our own church if there's a need. We want to pray that we will truly embrace, as God leads us, a passion for souls, a passion to pray for lost people, and to be about witnessing and missions and sacrificially giving. That's a strong word. And here's the good news this afternoon. There's a little remnant of folks. You're some of that remnant. I don't have any doubt many of you in this room, I'm about to describe you. I'm about to describe you. I believe I am. But we're seeing it more and more. There's a little group of pastors. There's a little group of lay people. Their personal quiet time has absolutely exploded. It's longer in most cases, not all cases, but here's what has exploded. It's now about the heart. Many of them were struggling doing it out of duty, and God was blessing some, but now the tears are beginning to flow. We can't work that up or fake it. But God, with the cleansing and yielding, trusting His grace, gets us there. And it's happening. And you see people now who really, you know, this talk about revival, it was more up here. It was all just facts, and spit them out like a computer. But it was not here. But it is now. And He's doing it. And this afternoon we want to cry out to God for hearts that are His heart, that He can give us tears again. And it's happening. There's that little group of churches. Their prayer meetings are different now. And they're about souls. They're about missions. They're about God's glory. They're about repentance. They're about unity. And it's happening. And the Spirit of God is beginning to move. And you know how Baptists are. And maybe you're not a Baptist. It doesn't matter. Evangelicals in general. We can program the fire out of anything. You know, we can... And there's a lot of churches that have embraced prayer meetings, but they're not the biblical, they've stopped short of the fire and the life in them. That's changing though. If there's going to be a great move of God in this country, the prayer movement must not just broaden. It must not just get more on the Internet, which that's great, and praise God. And by the way, some great things are happening here. What God's doing here with Brother Dan and many of you, these increasing prayer meetings, the increasing Internet, it's exciting. We want to pray this afternoon. It can deepen. And the fire can come. And the passion starting in us, starting here with me, with us. So I want to ask this question. In your church, are you involved in a prayer group or prayer meeting that is passionate about souls and revival and missions and the glory of God and repentance? If not, we won't pray about it this afternoon. And we want to pray that God will explode that movement around this country. That it will go beyond just, okay, we've checked the box, we have a prayer meeting now. We tend to do that. Okay, God has a prayer meeting, let's have one. But they're shallow. We want to pray that it can explode. In your own prayer time, is there a time pretty often of deep, deep, ever-increasing yielding and brokenness by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God? If not, then we'd pray this afternoon. Starting today, we're going to let God take us there. We're going to show up for practice. And is that pattern in your church? Is corporate repentance taking place at least some? Corporate repentance obviously is vital to any real move of God. But He wants us to be willing to go there. It's all His grace. Is that happening in your church? If not, that is a huge point of prayer this afternoon. But certainly, even if it is, that we'd pray that would explode around this country. That there would be sacrificial giving. That there would be missions, passion, and going that would explode in this place. Now here's the real good news. There is that little tiny remnant of churches. They're beginning to see the real thing. They're baptizing. It's not all about baptisms, by the way. Sometimes real revival will take them down before it takes them up. In fact, usually will. But certainly, any real move of God, eventually, certainly all the great awakenings produce huge explosions of conversions. It's beginning to happen. If it's not in your church yet today, we want to cry out to God that it can be. I know you're tired. We're tired of talking about it. Probably some of you are seeing it. We want to ask God to take us there today. Father, thank You there's hope. Thank You You have not lost Your power. You've not lost Your grace. Not lost Your mercy. Father, today help us hunger for the real thing as You define it, not as we have come to define it in America. Lord, help us hunger for a move of Your Spirit and Your presence that brings heart repentance, heart passion, heart love, heart faith. Oh God, that sets our eyes on fire again. And Father, help that start with us even today to commit to walk in those paths. But Father, help us today to cry out like Nehemiah did and Daniel did for our people. And Lord, for this nation, for the church to move to real return to You, for prayer to be revival producing, not just a program. Oh God, help us today. We know You do what You do by prayer. And God, we would never for one moment think that we can, by our praying, we can impress You. But Father, we do believe You said that if we agree together touching what we ask, that if we prayed according to Your will that You hear us, and that if You hear us, we know that we have the petition we've asked of You. Lord, that if we don't doubt, You'll move. But Father, we know we can't work that up or fake it. So Father, today, deliver us from all discouragement. Father, take us in these moments of prayer to cry out in a way that You can really send a move of Your presence that will be a turning point in Your time and way. Oh God, anoint this prayer time. Help us pray for ourselves, our churches, and our nation. Guide us, oh God. Empower us to seek Your face in a way that You can answer in Jesus' holy name. We pray for Your glory. Precious friends, I'm going to ask that we just turn to each other for a while around this room and just cry out to God for yourself, for your church, for this nation, for whatever God's put on your heart. It may be nothing I said, but it's something else. Let's spend some moments just crying out to God for a deepening movement, a deepening repentance, and a mighty outpouring of His presence. Let's do that for a few moments together as God's Spirit leads. We settle for nothing less than Your manifest presence. We hunger for You, God, not just Your blessing. Lord, for Your holiness, Your glory, Your praise to this gospel. The goblin people come among us, around us that they sent You. They come in our churches that they're brought face to face with Your holiness and Your glory. Lord, we know that it's not about our education or our ability to speak, but Lord, it is about Your power and Your grace to be released. God, that's what we're crying out for, for ourselves on a deeper level. Thank You for what You're doing. We know You want us to hunger and thirst to go deeper, not stop where we are. Lord, how we plead that Your church would hunger for Your presence and not settle for programs, not settle for activities, and realize the difference. God, we know that man cannot predict this. No book can predict it by itself. No movement, no strategy. Lord, thank You that they're there, that You're using people. But, oh, God, how we know that ultimately it's got to be just suddenly outpouring of Your Spirit. It's unexplainable. And, God, that's what we're crying out for in our own life in a deeper way. Lord, though we may have known Your fullness, help us understand there may be greater fullness. Lord, protect me, protect us from the arrogance of thinking that even if we've had the fullness, that that's all there is, that we could be more full. Lord, help us hunger with a hope. Take the church, God, to a new faith, a new militant, a new standard of life. Pull out Your Spirit, oh, God, please. Hear the prayers going up around this room. Use them to Your fullness. There's nothing else that matters but You. God, we understand we're not here of our own accord. We're not here to impress You. We praise You that You've drawn us here. We know our prayers and words are utterly worthless, even though they might be right, without Your Spirit, without Your grace, without Your sincerity. God, we know we're not even capable of real sincerity, real purity. Without that grace, without that Spirit, God, we'd have ulterior motives. But, Father, thank You that we're not apart from Your grace, that You are Jesus, You are our righteousness, You are our very life. We trust You to be that in us. And, Lord, we cry out that You won't leave us alone until You've so worked in us and so changed us and so broken us and so transformed us. And, Lord, You can freely flow. You can manifest Your presence. We won't touch the glory. We won't get in the way. We won't get ahead of You or behind You, Lord. Lord, thank You so much for this group of people. Thank You for what You've been doing here, for the prayer meetings You've been raising, for the lives You've been changing. God, thank You that there's hope. Lord, how we praise You that there can still be the suddenly moment when, as on the day of Pentecost, You came in power, when in the great awakenings, Lord, suddenly everything was different. No one was the same. Lord God, help us never settle for less than that. Lord God, help us let You work in us. Lord, be in us the will and doing of Your good pleasure until, Lord, You've done that. Lord, we know it's Your time and way. But, oh God, we trust You to deepen what You started in the praying in America, to deepen the prayer movement, to broaden it and deepen it. God, teach us to pray Your Spirit. Teach us to pray effectively. Teach us to truly pray Your heart. And, God, grant us a mountain-moving, revival-producing kind of faith. God, take us from hope so to know so by Your revelation. And, God, how we pray for the mercy that we'll begin to see mighty breakthroughs in churches. Lord, mighty breakthroughs in families, that kids and grandkids won't continue to walk away from You but will turn to You. And, Lord, in Your mercy that You shake this nation, even if it has to be by a great trial. But, Father, You get glory. Lord, guard any man, any book, any program. God, save us from getting in the way. Use us, oh God, but how we pray. So, Father, we believe we're praying in Your will. We believe we're praying by Your Spirit. We believe we're praying in Your direction. We believe these things are what You want to do. So, God, we thank You and trust You that You won't leave us alone, even if it means catastrophic breaking, until the flood has come in Your time and way. And, oh God, if You want to send the flood in India and not here, praise Your name. Lord, help us to simply be Yours in love, in adoration, worship, and fear. Lord, help us to fear You in the right way. Father, thank You for what You're doing. Thank You for answering these prayers. Thank You for hearing what's been prayed today. God, take us deeper. God, our every word, our every prayer that You get glory, You get praise, we ask it in faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're family here. And if you need to move, I know you will. If you need to slip out, I know you will. So, we do it quietly, reverently. If you finish praying, I don't have to tell you this. Be very quiet while others are praying. It's a holy time. You know that. For the next few moments as we again focus our heart towards seeking God's face. I love that Psalm. I know you do too. Psalm 27.8 When you said unto me, Seek my face, O God. I said, O God, thy face I will seek. We want to seek His face, not just His hand. And I'm going to be looking for a moment on page, on what was handed out to you. And folks, I don't believe in formulas, and I'm not trying to promote this as one. If it can be a guide or a help, great. We would most of all pray it would never become a rote something we read or just pray those words, but something maybe with the Scriptures and the words God gives you that it could become true revival praying. But we ask the question, what does 2 Chronicles 7, 14 prayer really sound like? What did they pray when the great awakenings did come? And I say they. It was a remnant. It was not the majority. I don't want to mislead or exaggerate. But some of the great leaders, when you read some of those prayers, they were praying the heart of God. They understood exactly what had to happen for God to move. And you know the Word of God says that we are colabors together with God. Now that means a lot of things. We usually think, well, that means going to the ends of the earth and witnessing evangelism. Certainly it does. But it certainly also means praying, letting Him pray through us and being colabors with Him by prayer. Great moves of God come by prayer, not just talk, not just study, not just a book about it. And I've written a lot of books, but I can tell you the book won't do it. It's the prayer. So I really prayerfully put together some intercession points. I simply want to briefly talk through them, mainly focusing on the Scripture. If I were to ask you the question, what does intimacy with God mean? Pretty good question. I certainly don't claim to have all the answers. I really, years ago in pastoring this church that was in a horrible situation, I was begging the Lord, Lord, how can I really know You more? How do You want me to grow? How do You want me to pray Your heart? And the Lord wants us to pray His heart. If you're going to be close to somebody, if you're really going to be intimate with someone, obviously two or three things have to happen, but certainly one of them, you'd have to really understand where they were thinking. You'd have to understand their thoughts, or at least some of them. You'd have to understand what their priorities were. You'd have to want to know what their priorities are. If you were to say to your wife, Honey, I really want to know you. I really want to love you. I really want to understand you. And let's talk for five minutes. She'd kind of laugh at you. That probably wouldn't get it done. So to be intimate with God, it's very vital that we let Him by His Word and Spirit take us to understand the primary priorities He's about right now in His kingdom work and in His heart and in His ultimate gain. And let Him by His Spirit pray those things through us. He does what He does by prayer. It's all Him, but He's ordained it that He's going to do it by prayer. And it's the type of prayers we see in the Bible that were specific and strategic, not magic prayers. I want to stress, this thing I'm about to look at is not a program. I don't want anybody to use it that way. I'm on page 39 actually on the handout you were given. By the way, this is part of a book called Praying for Revival, Elections, and Key Leaders. But believe me, it's not political. It's not about the White House. It is important to pray for leaders. We're commanded to. And to pray for elections, not in a political way, but in a God way. That's part of spiritual warfare in our day, a very vital part. But the main thing, of course, is revival. If revival happens, elections will take care of themselves, won't they, if real revival happens. But in really crying out to God, these are some things God brought me to, and I want to share them with you. And if they can help you, we'll pray through some of them as God's Spirit leads us. But the first one, I believe the foundation to our whole walk with God, but certainly to a move of God, is that we would plead for God's merciful grace on a nation and many churches that are under His righteous judgment. If somebody doesn't understand that today, that's odd. Very clear we're in a significant place of concern. But obviously, we have to be utterly aware it'll be all by His grace and all by His mercy, the blood and covenant of Jesus. That's it. We're different a little bit in the Old Testament in that way. Same principle, same truth, but we have a deeper understanding of Jesus. So that is absolutely vital. We have to understand that judgment does begin at the house of God. So to cry out for mercy is just crucial, and to recognize we're under His judgment at least to some degree. Second essential thing is to cry out for deep brokenness, godly fear, and humble repentance to sweep God's people. We can't work that up. We can't produce that. We can't fake that. You know, when you look at Isaiah 58 and all throughout the Old Testament, folks, they did a lot of things we never even thought about doing some of the things they did in terms of laying on the ground all night and putting on sackcloth and ashes and weeping and weeping and weeping and weeping and weeping. And he didn't hear a word they said because it wasn't totally from the heart. So if there's going to be a deep brokenness, there's an old saying, the guy that tells you how broken he is is probably not very broken. Now again, we need to testify to what God may be doing in our life. But the fellow says, I'll tell you one thing, I'm proud of anything. I'm proud of my humility. You know, you got a problem. But nonetheless, we have to be willing to embrace, to humble ourselves and to embrace that and to be willing to die to ourselves. And He's going to show us a lot of ways to do that. But we have to cry out to God that He would produce that in us, that it would become a movement, a flood, something real, tears. So that's part of praying for a great awakening is that God would send us a mighty, starting with us, a deeper brokenness, a deeper repentance. And He's doing it. And praise God He's doing it. Oh, there's a lot of hope, you know. The movement is deepening. And it is broadening. I don't want anything I'm sharing today to be discouraging because it has to deepen, but it is deepening. And there's books now like Repentance by Dr. Roberts. If you haven't read it, please read it. It is the desperate need of the hour. Never read anything like that on repentance. And his work on solemn assemblies. That's the kind we need. It's happening in a tiny little remnant. Third, we pray for an explosion of first love, passion. Of course, every one of these are full of Scripture references where they come from. Pray for an explosion of first love, passion for Jesus and a deep burden for lost humanity. With God, it is all about the heart. It is all about love. The first great commandment. Love the Lord your God with a logical doctrine of love. A doctrine is crucial. But love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. At the end, we can't work that up. But we can cry out to God that He was so moving us until it's even more real than it is. And that this passion for souls is obviously the second great commandment is they're tied together. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's it. That's what we're to cry out. Revival has to be based on a love and a passion for lost souls and obviously the glory of God. That's the main thing. Fourth, that we would cry out for a movement. And let me stop and say, I'm really seeing this. I'm sure you are too. I'm hearing people that say God has brought them to these things in their own prayer life. They're beginning to pray some of these things. And they may not sound exactly like this, but it's happening. The fourth one is to cry out for a movement of fervent personal and corporate prayer with Spirit-led fasting. Now again, we're good at programming. We're good at books. We're good at a lot of stuff, and those are good. But if there's going to be a deeper prayer movement, it's going to be a move of the Spirit. It's going to be God doing it. So we have to cry out that God would blow a wind on this thing. Because again, we can be so good at programming. We've got about 12 books now. Not me personally, but many folks have books out on corporate prayer meetings now. So praise God for that. But again, if not careful, we check the box. We've got one now, but it's in first gear. It's not the kind that bring great awakenings. So we want to cry out for a move of prayer that is truly God-focused and Spirit-empowered by His Spirit leading. Fifth, to plead for God's manifest presence. It is all about the manifest presence of God. Not something weird, but just His awesome holiness. There's a great suddenness about many of the mighty awakenings. There's an unexplainable moment when everything's different. They're all different. They're not all exactly the same. But you see that suddenness, and that way God gets all the glory. You can't say, well, oh, so-and-so did. So-and-so is all God. And so we want to cry out for His manifest presence. We would settle for nothing less. We don't want to settle for just doing prayer conferences. We don't want to settle for just doing solemn assemblies that don't end up in the manifest presence. Now again, we can't orchestrate that. But we want to cry out that God will send the real thing. That we would not get proud of mercy drops. You know, if we get proud of mercy drops, we'll probably never see a flood. If we start thinking we're beyond where we really are, God will resist that. Sixth, that we would cry out for a burning passion for evangelism, discipleship. That's huge. You know, the first word of the Great Commission is make what? Disciples. Not just get a name or baptize or get a notch on a belt. So we want to cry out for a move in our churches of true evangelism, of true conversions, not just decisions. A type of evangelism that has repentance in it. Not just say this little prayer. You want to be happy, don't you? Sealing a lot of people's deception. We want to pray that that will change. We want to pray that God's leaders, pastors, teachers, deacons, elders be filled with a holy boldness. Fervent prayer. Spiritual power. That means the endowment with power from on high. Baptism, fullness, whichever term you use. The main thing is that it's real. It's fire. That our men have that. Only God can produce that. We'd cry out that they'd be men of the Word, preaching the whole Word of God, not just part of it. We want to cry out that God will send a supernatural sweeping love and unity. Now I want you to understand these are not just nice things. These are really the things that happen in a great awakening. The early church was pretty full of these things. And again, awakening gets us there, but we have to ask Him to take us there and be willing to let Him take us there. To cry out for a sweeping unity and love to come to churches and denominations and families. We are a sea of broken relationships. There was a study, I don't think it was scientific, that showed that 25 to 30 percent of Baptist churches, and I'm picking on us a little bit, formed as a direct result of an angry split. But there was never a reconciliation service. And we're starting to do some of those. That's exciting. August 8th, we're going to do a big reconciliation. Two churches that publicly split coming back together in a powerful service August the 8th, Sunday night. And it's going to be public. They're going to apologize and have a Lord's Supper at the end of it. We're seeing that. Praise God for what He's doing. But that's got to become a flood. So many of our churches formed as an angry split. So many people in our churches now are there simply because they got mad at another church. And sometimes God leads us to move. But not mad. Not without bearing the anger. So we must pray that there will be a move of God that will bring that mighty wave of unity. Pray that there will be a bold, courageous faith and pure, selfless motives to fill God's people. That we wouldn't be beat down. That we wouldn't be discouraged. That we wouldn't be trying to defensively hang on. That's not what that passage means when it says the gates of hell won't prevail. It means that they're trying to hang on against us. So to pray for a mighty move of real faith and selfless motives that we're crying out to God for His Spirit to move so He get glory, people get saved. Not just to avoid problems. This is kind of different. We want to pray, verse 10, for churches to fully proclaim Christ's preeminence, Calvary's cross, and true new birth conversion. Many churches talk about God and hardly ever mention Jesus today. It's not about the cross. It's not about the preeminence of Jesus along with the Father. And so this has been a real trend. So we want to cry out that God would change that. There's a statistic that 70-80% of churches in America are either plateaued or declining. And the 20-30% that are actually growing for most studies show are only because they're in a highly exploding growing area. And about a half to two-thirds of those churches that are growing now in America really can't be called a New Testament church. They've so watered down what they do that there's little or no discipleship, little or no prayer, certainly no repentance. This thing about Christ being preeminent and Holy Spirit conversion and number 11 is going to be a part of any real move of God that we would cry out for an explosion of sound biblical doctrine and theology with full exaltation of God's glory and grace. So we want to cry out. A lot of churches say, We don't want to talk about doctrine here. People don't want to hear that. It doesn't make any difference what people want to hear, does it? If we're His church. So we're in a wave. Don't want to talk about doctrine. Don't want to talk about the glory of God, the power of God, who God really is. He's our buddy. He's our success coach, but not holy God. So we want to cry out for a mighty move of doctrine and theology of the glory of God, the holiness of God. And finally, that we would plead for God to rend the heavens. All these prayers come straight out of Scripture verses. You see them there. That's a beautiful phrase, rend the heavens, sweeping revival, and to transform the nations in spiritual awakening, revivals the church. Awakening will be the lost generally coming to Jesus. But that we wouldn't stop there, that we'd cry out for the swift return of Jesus. That we would not be so caught up in this world, even in our work, that we're not caught up in preparing the bride for the great supper, maybe very soon. That we're pleading that the Lord wants us to be looking for Him. We can get so busy in the work that we lose the intimacy. We can get so busy in the cause that we lose the hunger for the wedding. It's all about intimacy with Him. So there's a little group of believers. Their prayers sound, not this list, but these things. And they're of the Spirit and they're powerful. They've got words from God. You ought to hear these pastors. They're not just hoping God's going to send revival to the church. They've now got a word from God. Most revivals don't come by hoping for them, even praying for them. They come by believing for them. There's a difference. And they've got these words. Now do you have a word for America? That's a good question. That's a personal question, just between you and God. It's happening though. So am I describing your prayer life? I probably am with many of you. Probably many of you beyond this. But it's happening. So for the next few moments, I would encourage us just to cry out to God. Maybe you want to look at some of these things of God. Lead your prayer in these directions. Or cry out whatever's on your heart. But for the next few moments, let's claim that promise if we agree together touching what we ask. If we pray according to His will. And you know what? These things are His will. It's His time and His way. We may go through judgment first. But ultimately, these are the things He's about. Not just in revival, but period. If you notice these things. You know, we ought to understand this is the heart of God. This is not all of it. I would never try to... I know all the heart of God. I'd never think of saying such a thing. This is some of it clearly laid out in Scripture. We have a book that you can get if you wanted. It's got 21 things that are about the kingdom that are really on His heart. He's doing it. There's hope. We can pray these things by His Spirit, by His grace, in faith. Isn't it awesome? It really can happen, folks. Let's go to God for a few moments. From our own hearts, your own prayer life, maybe you need to let God adjust you in some of these. Or for your church, or for this nation. For the world, not just America. We must not just focus on America. We're not the world. A lot bigger than us. Oh, what God's doing in India and China right now, and parts of Africa and South America. Hope you've been... If you haven't been there, read about it. It's awesome. It's a real thing, folks. God's on the throne. Let's go to Him for a few moments. Let's cry out. Some of these things are whatever God puts on your heart. But let's pray that God would teach us to pray. And that we'd go beyond where we've been. Let's pray together. Jesus... You... God... Of the universe. Thou art a jealous God and Lord, You have all right and reason to be. That Lord we confess That You deserve all praise. All glory, all honor. All love, all surrender all the time. That it is all about You. That Jesus is all about your kingdom. God we praise you that you've brought us here. Lord we praise you that you've given us your Spirit to help us pray. Lord as you teach us to pray, your heart, to pray in your will by your grace and in faith. God we truly believe the things that you've led us to pray really are your will. And so God we're asking in absolute faith that you won't leave us alone God. That you won't let us go on as we are until you've so molded us and broken us and shaped us that you can send forth your mighty presence like a wave as you will. Father if it means greater breaking, it's your will. But Father we're believing you to so work in your church to bring, have mercy on us. And Lord to bring a brokenness and repentance and humility that is genuine. Lord to set us on fire with a passion and a love for you. Burn out every vestige of weariness and lukewarmness and distraction. We're asking God you do it across the land, not just for ourselves, but oh we're representing and crying out for your mercy upon your church in America and around the world. Lord God you'd raise up a mighty prayer movement that only you can explain, that you'd deepen it and set it on fire. God that it not be in our control, but yours. Our churches again become houses of prayer, our leaders men of prayer. God you'd set them on fire with the endowment from on high, full of the word of God, full of boldness, full of holiness, not programs. Father that you'd send a mighty wave of unity to sweep. We can't do it, but Lord thank you, you can. Lord we know all of this will come by your spirit, by your presence, but we're crying out. You told us to pray and we're doing that. Father we are indeed believing you to so move the eyes that weep for souls and for missions and for hurting people. God save us from a hardened heart. We're more about the mind than the heart. Father we're crying out that you'd purify our very motives, that it be all your glory, all your kingdom, all your pleasure, all your honor. Lord we're crying out that you'd so fill your church again with the preeminence of Jesus and the cross and new birth and repentance. Lord you'd fill us with your truth, that your churches would again preach the whole counsel of God and doctrine. Father we do cry out that you'd reign the heavens. Lord it'd be that suddenly time when you'd come in such a way that God, it'd be so obvious you alone did it, that it's your grace, your mercy, and you alone get praise, you alone get glory. You'd so revive the church and Lord you'd so awaken the lost. God in your mercy maybe we would pray you'd bring one last great harvest, one last great purifying of the bride God, even if it mean by blood, which it will, and Lord Jesus that you'd come quickly. Oh we love you Lord, we honor you, we exalt you, we praise you for what you're doing. Father thank you that in this place as we're gathered there's power here, that as we agree together you said there's weapons that are mighty through you to the tearing down, demolishing of strongholds. Lord help us really believe that in these moments of prayer. And God indeed we are praying for the prayer movement to explode and deepen and broaden and become a true return to you, not just a prayer movement. Father thank you for what you're doing. We have the confidence you'll keep it up, you'll increase it, and Lord no matter what it means, and some of us it may not tell them what it'll mean. We're not praying this lightly God, but we pray it by your grace, trusting you to be in us the will and doing. Lord thank you, praise you for our brothers and sisters in India that are being tortured and yet standing strong, and in China, and Lord in Iran, God thank you. How we forgive us for selfishness God when we've not wept for them, we've not prayed for them, we've focused on ourselves when where they are is more important in some ways. We cry out for them God, you'd fill them with your grace, you'd fill them with boldness, you'd fill them with love that they wouldn't hate their persecutors, and Lord you'd fill them with, you'd provide their needs miraculously even, and God that you'd protect them and guard them. Father grant us that same willingness to die, to lose everything, and even to rejoice in sufferings by your grace. So Father we're asking you to do this in us, believing it, claiming it, and in the church in America and the world, and you won't leave us alone Lord until you've done it. Thank you Lord that you've started this, we're here praying at your beckoning. So we praise you, we worship you, you're worth it, Lord there's nothing else but you. Our money, our health, nothing matters but you. Thank you. We ask these things, believing in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. As we wait in God's presence, it may be that there's a prayer on some of your hearts that you'd like to just voice corporately. It might be about yourself, it might be your family, it might be your church, it might be America, it might be just something that you feel led to voice. We are a body, we are brothers and sisters. We agree together, we've done it in small groups, we've done it corporately and now we want to continue it corporately. If there's a prayer on your heart, you feel led to voice, for any focus, we're all going to join you and pray with you. So please, please just let God guide you if you want to pray corporately for any issue. So far, it grieves my heart to see how far we've drifted from our roots, from our foundation that you so mightily anointed and blessed 150, 160 years ago. Oh God, I pray for the pastors of my denomination. I thank you for those men who are true to the original vision, who seek you, seek to honor you. But oh Father, for so many that have swallowed the normalcy of the subnormal Christian life and are preaching and presenting such to their people. Oh God, move in compassion and I pray have mercy upon the pastors of my denomination. The Father, once again, we might catch the vision, catch the flame that birthed this denomination. And Father, I also want to pray for the Anglican Church in my country of Canada, and particularly for my diocese that has got same-sex marriages. Father, I want to pray and thank you for those men who have been bold enough to step aside and say, no, I will not go that way. They've separated themselves. I pray for the men, Father, of the Anglican Network in Canada. I pray, Father, that you will raise up among the men a passion for holiness and for you. I thank you for their courage, the mighty cost that they have paid, Lord, in coming out of the Anglican Church, losing their pensions, their churches. Thank you for the congregations that have come out with them in faithfulness following you. Oh, Father God, I pray for an anointing and a blessing upon such men. And Father, for those men who have remained within the Anglican Church, whose hearts must grieve for what they see happening around them, I pray, Father, that you will grant to them such courage, such boldness, that their witness might be so evident in a church that is signing its own death knell, that, oh, Father God, you will make them a living testimony in the church. And Father, I take the opportunity to pray for the Episcopal Church in the like manner for here in America that has ordained homosexual bishops. Oh, Father God, I pray for those men in the Episcopal Church who are standing true to your word that you will anoint them these days with the mighty power from on high, that they might speak with integrity and with holy power, that you would, Father, have mercy upon the Episcopal Church of America. Have mercy upon our churches, Lord, that have drifted so far from the roots that you were birthed in, roots that you were glad to anoint with your Spirit. Have mercy upon us, Lord. Father, how we plead with you for mercy for Southern Baptists. Lord, save us from any arrogance, from any self-reliance, or dependence upon just strategies and programs that may have slipped into our hearts. Father, how we cry out that you'd save us from just doing an emphasis on solemn assemblies, but not doing them in a way that you would anoint, in a way that's thorough. God, we know that it even offends you, greatly offends you, if we do solemn assemblies that are not in earnest, that are not led by your Spirit and thorough and about a changed lifestyle rather than an event. God, we plead with you for Southern Baptists that this will become an even deeper movement. Father, the kinds of assemblies that Dr. Roberts has helped us to see, that Lord, they'll happen, they'll increase. God, save us from a denominational emphasis that stops short of the real thing. Father, I pray on behalf of churches that are struggling, and Father, I pray especially for churches that are struggling because they're full of men that are not men. Father, men that will not support their families, will not come to church. Father, men who will come to church, but will provide no spiritual leadership. They just do their duty, and they do their thing. Father, men that will not break open their Bibles during the week and leave their homes. Father, I know many churches struggle, and Lord, I mean this in no way to demean women, but Father, that women are doing so much in churches is a judgment against men. And Father, we stand so pridefully and say that there are certain things that shouldn't be done. God, the truth is that if it weren't for women, many things wouldn't be done. God, I pray, Lord, for renewal in the hearts of our men. It grieves my heart as a pastor to see so few. It grieves my heart to see a wife and children come, and no husband. It grieves my heart to hear the complaining of having to get up early on a Saturday morning, because they don't want to be with other men, and saying, well, why did you pick such a time? Because it doesn't impact your family, that's why. You're not even willing to sacrifice. God, I pray for men. Lord, the judgment of the church is on the backs of men. I pray, Lord, that you would raise them up. I pray for this church. I pray, Father, that the great need of this church, Lord, is men who would be men. And Lord, this isn't the only church. I'm certain that there are many in this room that could stand in this place and, Father, plea for such a thing on behalf of their own congregations. Regretfully, Father, maybe even their own households. Lord, I know that a lot of churches give a lot of emphasis to reaching children. I think maybe we ought to think about reaching men again. Help us. Father, I come to you in humility and ask as a congregant that you forgive us, Father, in robbing you in tithes and offerings, that, Father, we place you on a list, but in most cases it's at the bottom. Father, we know that you told the young rich man when he asked what it would take to get into the kingdom of heaven. You told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor. And he was unwilling to do that. Not because he was unwilling to give up, but because it was his one desire that money and wealth and the things that he had accumulated in his life was more important than you, Father. God, you don't want just to be on our list. You want to be our list. God, help us have that passion to put you at the top and make it the one thing, the only thing, the one passion in our life to sacrifice all, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, to remember the widows and the orphans, and to take our cross, to be self-sacrificing, to give it all to you, Father, because you're the one that gave it to us in the beginning. Lord, forgive us for not remembering that you are to be the one and only thing in our life. Help us, Father. We ask this in Jesus' name. Dear Lord, we come to you. Very grateful, Lord, that you alone are our God. You have provided us with your Holy Spirit, who is our teacher, our comforter, he who guides us into all truth. Oh, Lord, I come to you to lift up and pray, Father, for those people, those believers, Lord, who right now are without a church. Father, we, there are many of us who have had to leave a church, Lord, because the ungodly have crept in and they have taken over. We have tried to fight, Lord. We have tried to stand firm and stand fast and contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and they would have none of it. And when a man stands at the pulpit and puts down your word and says, you can basically tear half of it out and throw it away, it's only good for inspirational reading. Lord, that is the time we must go. There are many of us in this room, Lord. I thank you, Lord, that you have gifted us with one another. As we are seeking, Lord, we are seeking your face. We are seeking your word. And you provide us with places such as this, where we can come together with fellow believers, Father, and be encouraged, and we can be inspired, and we can be giving hope and encouragement, Lord, from you through your spirit. We thank you, Lord, that you do not leave us alone, that you will never leave us or forsake us, and that even when we feel sometimes we are alone physically, we are never alone. We are never alone spiritually, that you are always with us. You are always right there, that we can reach out and touch the hem of your rope and be healed. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that you are our God, and that you care so deeply for us. And Lord, as much as we desire revival and awakening and an outpouring of your spirit, Lord, I know in my heart you desire it even more. You desire to draw your people unto yourself. And as we heard today, a 40-year prayer movement. What came to my mind, Lord, what you showed me, was 40 years of wandering in the desert. Jesus was tempted 40 days and 40 nights. Oh, Lord, I pray, I pray that we are so close. We are so close, Lord, to your heart of hearts, to brokenness, to true obedience, to true intimacy with you, Lord God, that you will rend the heavens and pour out upon us. Oh, Lord, we pray that it will be so. Not because we want it, not because of anything we've done. As you cautioned your people before they entered the promised land, it is not because of anything we've done. It's not because of our righteousness. It is because of your righteousness. It is for your glory, Lord, and yours alone that we ask it. In Jesus' name, amen. Father, how we praise you. That you've said that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Oh, Father, guard us from so looking at the darkness that we forget the joy. That we don't see what you are doing. And that you are on the throne. We've read the last chapter, Lord. Lord, in the seeking, Lord, help us to have that great joy. Oh, thank you, Savior. The joy of Paul and Silas singing in prison. Lord Jesus, help us never lose the joy. Father God, the fruit of your spirit, love and joy, peace and patience and kindness and goodness. Lord, all the fruit, as I've been reminded in the last days by my precious friend, that we begin with the fruit of love and then the self-control is there, Lord. Like bookend of the fruit of your spirit, Lord, I just praise that you would fill us, Lord God, with the joy that our brother has just spoken of, Lord God, that only you can give. And yet, Lord, in our lives, we are sinners, Lord God. The self-control that can only come from you. Father God, we just ask this day, Lord God, that you would teach us as your people, Lord God. That you would work in and through us, Lord God. That we would be your light. Lord God, I just pray that you would give us greater understanding of the desires of your heart, Lord. And Lord, let us not forget what your word says. As you have heard cries today from our hearts, Lord God, for us, your people, your church. Let us be reminded, Lord God, that your word says, if my people, and that is us, Lord God. Lord God, you want us to turn from our wicked ways, Lord God. Show us our wicked ways, Lord God. Let us not be deceived, Lord God. It is easy to speak of the darkness of the world, Lord God. Lord, let us see the darkness of our own lives, Lord God. Let us be willing to recognize what you want to show us, Lord God. Let us be willing to turn, Lord God. So I just pray this day that you would begin with me, that you would begin with us, Lord God. And let us desire to see what you want to show us, Lord God. Let us give you time, Lord God, to reveal. And Lord, let us be willing to see with our eyes and hear from your heart, Lord God, to our hearts what you want to say. And Lord, what it means to really turn and turn to you and your ways and your will and your plan. Lord God, recognizing that you give power and strength, Lord God. Bright hope for tomorrow, Lord God. All the burdens of our hearts, Lord God, you have the answers. You have the power, Lord God. So Lord, I just pray this day that we be encouraged in you, Lord God. That we see, Lord God, that there are hopes in you and that there are ways, Lord God, that only you have, Lord God. So Father, we just praise your holy name. We thank you, Father God. We thank you for bringing us here, Lord God. We thank you for showing us, Lord God, a glimpse of what you desire. And Lord, we just ask that as we go to the different places that you take us, Lord God, that we would go in your power and in your way. Lord God, as our brother has prayed for men to be men, Lord God, I pray that women would be the women that you want us to be, Lord God. And that we would be the parents and the grandparents, Lord God, and the friends and the neighbors, Lord God, that you want us to be. Oh, Lord God, we are your people. We are your church. We are your bride. There is one church. It is your church, Lord God. Lord, let us seek your way. Give us passion to just desire you every day, Lord God. We just praise your holy name. And we thank you, Father. We thank you, Father. Lord, I know that you're a holy God. And there is none that is like you. You are God and God alone. And Lord, in recent days, you've just had my heart stop at the verse about despising your goodness and your forbearance and your long-suffering patience. Oh, Lord. And I ask forgiveness for what we have done to you. Lord, you are such a good God, constantly, daily, God, being good to us in so many ways that we just take for granted, Lord. That we don't even give a thought about, Lord. That we don't even thank you for, Lord. And yet you're so good to us, Lord. And I just ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness, Lord. For the ungratefulness, God, of your people, Lord, toward you. And God, of the people of this nation, Lord, that we don't even understand. For you are good to the just and the unjust alike. And God, to think about how forbearing you are, God. And how little we think about, Lord, how you forbear us. And forbear our sinfulness against you, God. And how patient you are with us and with man, God. Father, I just ask forgiveness for what we have done to your heart. And Lord, I just know we don't know you well enough. That, Lord, in the nation we have such a small view of you and who you are. That, Lord, we don't even know who it is that we're dealing with today. And God, what you speak about people that behave in the way that we do, Lord, toward you. And God, I ask you to forgive us for what we are doing and have done, God, to your name. And I just pray, Lord, that you would change us. Change us, Lord. Help us to return to you. To return to the God of the Scriptures. And, Lord, show yourself to be in the Word of God. That men would know you again as you are from the Word of God. And I pray, O Lord, that you would turn us to a seeking of you. A seeking God of the God of the Bible. A rediscovery God of the God of the Scriptures, Lord. That we would no longer behave, Lord, the way that we are behaving before you. And I just ask forgiveness for us, Lord. For what we have done, Lord, in despising you. And despising your goodness, God. Your mercy, Lord. Your forbearance with us. Your patience, God. How longsuffering you are. O God, I just ask forgiveness for what we've done to your name. And God, as I stand here, I just ask you to spare your people, Lord. Spare your people, Lord. I just pray that you would not give your inheritance over. Lord, to be a byword in the nations and to be a reproach. But I ask, God, that you would spare us, O God, I pray. And God, if you would not change the way we think about you. And you would not turn us again, Lord, and return us. Then don't let us go up from here. Don't let us continue to do to your name what we're doing to your name, O God. Lord, I just ask, God, that you would change us. For your own name, say, God, for your own glory. God, be good for your glory alone. God, indeed grant that your great name be our main concern. Not our comfort, not our needs, but your great glory in name. Lord, forgive us when we don't count it all joy when we fall into various trials. Teach us to praise your name, especially when it's painful. Take us deeper, O God.