Brian Long expresses a deep burden for the state of America, emphasizing the need for revival and repentance among the church and the nation. He reflects on the blessings America has received from God and warns of impending judgment if the nation does not turn back to Him. Long calls for a collective awakening, urging believers to seek God's face and remember the nation's godly foundations. He highlights the importance of prayer and humility in seeking God's mercy and healing for the land. Ultimately, he encourages the church to rise up in faith and action, believing in God's promise to restore and revive.

This morning, I'd like you to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32, and I must say that while there is such joy in my heart as I look upon the Lord Jesus and look upon you at the very same time, my heart is so burdened this morning. I've been burdened throughout the week and throughout the night. I've been so burdened for the condition of our nation. And it's not because I'm watching the news or anything like that. God has given me a word just personally to shut that off for a season and just to seek his face. And, you know, we've been praying at our prayer meetings that God would begin to break our hearts with the things that are breaking his heart. And my heart is so broken. For this nation, because we have been so blessed beyond measure by God, but judgment is coming and there's already an expression of that judgment here, but it's nothing compared to what is to come if we don't have revival. The good news is, is that God is a merciful God. And the burden that he's put upon my heart to share with you this morning is that we as a church must get right with God, and I know many of us have and many of us are seeking his face. But we as a church must call upon the Lord for revival and on behalf of this nation, unlike we ever have before. The hour is so very critical, folks, I hope you understand that the hour for this nation, the United States of America is so critical, I'm trembling as I'm just sharing this. Please pray for me as we go through this this morning, God wants to give us a word and there will be a word of hope at the end, but we must look at the days in which we're living. Oh, America, what will be your destiny? Oh, America, what will be your destiny? Father, God. Help me, Lord, it's a vulnerable place to be, God, when I. I don't even know how this message is going to really come out, but I know, God, that you have spoken to my heart, God, I know we are living in a very critical hour, we have been blessed beyond measure in this nation, oh, God, as we've enjoyed nothing but the blessings of God for so many years. God, I think about these little children that were gathered up here this morning and how if we do not have revival, Lord. They're not going to enjoy the same freedoms that we do, God, would you please open our ears. To hear your voice this morning. Would you please speak to our hearts? And would you please help us to rise as a church, oh, Lord. To take hold of your promises. Your covenant promises, oh, God, to believe you, Lord, for another great awakening, for another revival. Speak to us this morning, I pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Oh, America, what will be your destiny? Deuteronomy chapter thirty two. Beginning in verse twenty eight. This is written by the spirit of God through Moses, his servant, it's called the song of Moses, and in it he says in verse twenty eight, for they are a nation void of counsel. Oh, neither is there any understanding in them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. Oh, that they would consider their latter end, that we would know our destiny. Oh, America, what will be your destiny? President Woodrow Wilson said a nation which does not remember what it was yesterday does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about. Karl Marx, who was the father of communism, said at least one thing that was true in his lifetime. He said, take away the heritage of a people and they are easily persuaded. Psalm 11, verse three says, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do if the foundations be destroyed? What can the righteous do? Look at verse seven of this thirty second chapter of Deuteronomy. He says, remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations, ask thy father and he will show thee thy elders and they will tell thee when the Most High divided the nations, their inheritance. When he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. God's saying, I want you to remember how I've moved in the past. I want you to remember how I've blessed you in the past. And I want you to remember he's speaking to Israel here. I want you to remember the destiny that I have for you, Israel, the purposes that I have for you in the future. And folks, God is wanting us to do the same in this nation. Remember where we came from. It is so important to know where we came from so we can know where we are going so we can understand the destiny that God has for us as a nation, as a church in this great land. What is the foundation of America, America's foundation? I'm just going to give you a little history lesson this morning, regardless of what so many history books say today that have been rewritten, that are full of lies. What is the true history of America, its foundations? It all begins with a Spanish monk named Ramon Lowe, who, while preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Muslims on the African continent more than 600 years ago, was severely beaten and left for dead. Two Italian men had compassion on him and put him on a ship back to his home in Spain. He didn't make it back home, but as he lay dying on the ship while it was crossing the Mediterranean, Ramon Lowe spoke these prophetic words as he breathed his last. With all the strength he had left in his body, he pointed westward over the horizon and he said. Beyond this sea, which washes this continent, we know lies another continent we've never seen, whose natives are ignorant of Christ, send men there and he died. Those words were heard by one of the young men who cared for Ramon Lowe in his dying hours on that ship. His name was Stefano Colombo or Stephen Columbus. Stephen Columbus was a direct ancestor of Christopher Columbus, who would also grow up hearing those prophetic words of Ramon Lowe. Send men there, send men there. Christopher Columbus believed God had specifically chosen him to travel beyond the seas as a missionary to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. When God spoke to him from Isaiah chapter forty nine, listen to the two verses that God spoke to Christopher Columbus before he came and founded this land. Listen to me, it says, you islands here, this you distant nations. Before I was born, the Lord called me from my birth. He has made mention of my name. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Do you realize that? No other nation on the face of this globe has sent out missionaries like this nation has and funding for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be spread over all the earth. We have been so blessed in this nation. Christopher Columbus had that that understanding in his heart that God had a destiny for this land. When he found this continent in fourteen ninety two, he proclaimed its destiny like he did every island he discovered by planting a large wooden cross and praying to God that this land would belong not to any country, but to God. America would be a nation with a God given destiny as a nation set apart by God for a special mission. Then in sixteen oh seven, the Jamestown settlers arrived at Cape Henry, Virginia. They too immediately planted a cross and claimed the land for Christ. And that very day, Reverend Robert Hunt called a prayer meeting and urged the people to pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ would go forth to all nations from these shores. A few years later came the pilgrims who also considered themselves missionaries in sixteen eighteen, the pilgrims were a people in England who wanted to separate themselves from the Church of England in their day because the Church of England had become so corrupt and they separated themselves from the church. Well, because of that, they endured extreme persecution in England until finally in sixteen eighteen, the king issued a decree that they could no longer stay in England. So these pilgrims decided that they would leave the English shores and head for a new land. They all got on one ship called the Mayflower and they sailed off in the month of August, beginning a long, hard three month journey. These pilgrims endured seasickness, storms, incredible trials on this ship, but they had a purpose. They were going to a new land where they would seek God and proclaim his gospel. When they landed, they actually arrived, they landed 100 miles off course, but through prayer, they decided that that's where God wanted them to land. And if you read the Mayflower Compact, you see in that that it's very clear that their understanding that they knew they had a purpose to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in this land. After the pilgrims came, the Puritans came also from England and the Puritans were were people who they didn't want to separate themselves from the Church of England, but they wanted to change it from within. Well, they were not able to do that. So they also endured persecution and were eventually kicked out. So they come to this land and one Puritan leader, John Winthrop, wrote these words. He said, We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us. We shall be made a story and a byword through the whole world. Well, God bless these Puritans as they came here to seek him, God's blessing was upon them and they began to multiply. And just like always happens when the people of God are blessed by God and they're experiencing an abundant harvest, it's easy to get your eyes off of God and start drifting away. Well, that happened. And then in the mid 1700s, God raised up preachers like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and John Wesley. Jonathan Edwards was a man who in his day became so concerned about the condition, the ineffectiveness of the church and the God, the way people were drifting away from God in New England. And I don't know if you know the story of Jonathan Edwards, but Jonathan Edwards, he had a great mind, but he was not a he was a very dry preacher. He had a lot of content, but most of his messages he would just read with a monotone voice. Jonathan Edwards became so burdened by the ineffectiveness of the church that he began to seek the face of God. And it came this time when he went three days without eating anything with a broken heart, seeking God. For three days, he didn't eat for three nights, he did not sleep. And during that time, God gave him this message called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It was based out of Deuteronomy, chapter thirty two, verse thirty five. This was his text to me, belong with vengeance and recompense, their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things that shall come upon them make them haste. Jonathan Edwards took this sermon that he had written out word for word, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He held it close to his face and he began to read word for word what he had written in a monotone voice. He preached for a long time, but the spirit of God came upon those people and those people had such an awareness of eternity. Their hearts were gripped with this fear of sliding into hell. Somehow they had this revelation that God was just hanging them over the fires of hell by one thin thread of grace and sinners began to cry out for mercy. One pastor, one minister came up to Jonathan Edwards as he's reading this sermon and started pulling on his coat saying, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Edwards, is there mercy for me? Is there mercy for me? Others were hanging on to their pews. One guy was hanging on to one of the pillars in the church for fear of slipping into hell. God came, he came in revival. Hundreds were saved and revival began to spread. This was the very beginning of the first great awakening that came to this land. Hundreds of towns would just turn entirely to God. And then after Jonathan Edwards came George Whitfield, George Whitfield was a preacher in England. There was a woman in New England that had a dream about this man in her dream. She saw this man preaching the gospel in England and she began to inquire and she she had others send for this man, George Whitfield, to come to the New England colonies to preach the gospel. And when he did. You know what he preached judgment, he preached repentance, but they said he preached this message with such a broken heart and such a heart for the love for the people that the people's hearts would just melt and thousands and thousands and thousands were swept into the kingdom of God. This great awakening was so great that it was stated by someone that just before the American Revolution, ninety nine point eight percent of the colonists claimed to be born again Christians. God came in revival. He swept through the land. There's so much history here and I can't put it all together. But the main thing I want you to see is that this nation was founded upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. God raised up godly leaders. He gave us godly presidents who feared God. Listen to just some of their quotes. George Washington said it is impossible to rightly govern the world without God in the Bible. Andrew Jackson, who was the seventh president pointing to the Bible, said that book, sir, is the rock upon which our republic rests. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the US, which was one of the greatest this nation has ever known, said these words. He said it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions and humble sorrow and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. Can you imagine a president saying that today? How about this one, Thomas Jefferson? Who said God, who gave us life, gave us liberty and can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God, that they are not to be violated, but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever. Could you imagine a president of this nation saying those words today, calling the people to prayer? The whole nation sees this economy falling apart. And yet have you yet to hear a national leader rise up and say, people, we've got to call upon God. God is the one doing this. God is shaking our economy so he will get our attention. We have sinned against God. I've never heard that yet, and it scares me because as long as a nation keeps her back turned on God, the judgment will become more and more severe. You see the pattern throughout scripture. God would touch the land, you would see storms, you would see drought, you would experience plagues, and then he would touch the economy and shake the economy and people will begin to be affected when you touch their own pocketbook. Finally, they're affected. They're not so concerned that God's name is being dishonored in the land, but when their pockets are empty and their bank accounts are crashing, then they get a little bit concerned. But here's the scary thing. If America does not repent and turn to God, and I'm talking about the church in America, if we do not repent and turn back to God, the judgment becomes more severe. It goes from the economy now to God handing us over to enemies. And there is scripture to back that up, handing us over to enemies who hate this nation and being ruled under oppression. Do you think that can't happen in this land? I tell you, my friends, our our our protection. Is not in our military power as much as I appreciate that if God removes his hand, this nation will go down like every other nation in the past, we need God, we need God. That's what happened to Israel here, if you notice, in Deuteronomy chapter 32, they had been blessed by God so much. But it says in verse 15, but Jeshurun or another that's another name for Israel waxed fat and kicked their waxen fat, their grown thick, their covered with fatness. Then he forsook God, which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. He's saying they became so blessed. They just waxed fat. They had all they wanted to eat. And that's the way we've become in America. We waste more than most nations have to eat all month. We waste more in a week than they have in a month. We've been given so much. I had the privilege this week of hearing a testimony from a pastor in Romania. Who was serving God there under communism, and he and his wife were giving these moving testimonies about how they would be beaten for the cause of Christ and and just persecuted and how they would just they just fix their eyes on Jesus. And he kept them by his grace through that time of persecution. It was amazing testimony. But at the end of the testimony, one of the men who was in the crowd when it came time for questions, he asked this man, he said, now that you've come to America. And experience all the abundance and the freedom and the blessings here. What have you found? Is it just is about the same being a Christian here as it was in Romania, and you know what this man said? He said it's harder to be a Christian in America than it was in Romania under communism. I was in a conference one time in Colorado when a man from Romania stood up and he and he was in tears and he said how since he had come to America and all the blessings, he says his heart has grown cold toward God and he began to drift away and he was pounding the pulpit and he said, oh, that I were back in Romania under communism. The blessings of God, this pastor in Romania who who had an incredible testimony, an amazing man of God came to America and he said, you want me to be absolutely honest with you? He said, I'll tell you my number one struggle since I've come to America. Everybody listened to this man of God, he said, it's pornography, my jaw dropped, I just heard this man given an amazing testimony and how he was threatened for dead. They were going to cut his head off and he's just lifted in the presence of God, singing praises to God, bringing multitudes to Christ. He said, when I came to America. And all this freedom and blessings and all these pictures everywhere I go, everywhere, he said, that's my greatest struggle. This man was honest, but he was saying there's two types of thorns that can choke us out that Jesus spoke of. One is the worries of this life. The other is the riches of this life. Here's the danger of being in America. We sit down to a full table, we go to the cafe, we get we know nothing but the blessings of God. And if we're not careful, it's so easy for us to take our eyes off of the God who provides for us and just wax fat, thinking that we acquire all of this stuff on our own, that it somehow comes from our own hand. It's so important, folks, that we don't lose sight of God who has blessed us and in blessing us remain dependent upon him. They wax fat, verse 16, they provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations, provoked they him to anger. Have we done that in this nation? You better believe we have. We have provoked God to jealousy through every kind of idol you can imagine. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up with your father, which whom your fathers feared not of the rock that beget thee, thou art unmindful and has forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be, for they are a very forward generation, children in whom there is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with the foolish, foolish nation. God's warning of judgment. Listen to this poem written by Judge Roy Moore. Judge Roy Moore from Alabama was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom for you. He was stripped of his judgment, his judgeship. He writes this poem, America, the beautiful America, the beautiful or so you used to be. Land of the pilgrims pride, I'm glad they'll never see babies piled in dumpsters, abortion on demand. Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand. Our children wander aimlessly poisoned by cocaine, choosing to indulge their lust when God has said abstain from sea to shining sea. Our nation turns away from the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray. We've kept God in our temples. How callous we have grown when earth is but his footstool and heaven is his throne. We voted in a government that's rotting at the core, appointing godless judges who throw reason out the door too soft to place a killer in a well-deserved tomb, but brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb. You think that God's not angry that our land's a moral slum? How much longer will he wait before his judgment comes? How are we to face our God from whom we cannot hide? What then is left for us to do but stem this evil tide? If we who are his children will humbly turn and pray, seek his holy face and mend our evil ways and forgive us, then God will hear from heaven and forgive us of our sins. He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within. But America, the beautiful, if you don't, then you will see a sad but holy God withdraw his hand from thee. How can we escape the judgment of God when we lead the whole world in the slaughter of the unborn, in pornography, in all kinds of filth, in teen pregnancy, in divorce. In sin that runs rampant in this nation, how will we escape the judgment of God? When God's word says, be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever man sows that shall he also reap, he says in Psalms, all the nations that the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. How will we escape the judgment of God? What will be the destiny of this nation? Folks, our children are going to possess what we fight for. We have people fighting, we have soldiers fighting in Iraq right now for our freedom. Praise God for that. But even beyond that, there's a greater battle going on in the spirit, and if the church does not rise up and fight that battle on her knees in prayer, then our children and the next generation is not going to enjoy the freedom that we do today. Where is our hope? Turn with me, if you will, to Jeremiah, chapter 18. Jeremiah, chapter 18, God called Jeremiah to go down to the potter's house. And if you remember as he was watching the potter mold the clay on the potter's wheel, the vessel of clay was marred in the hand of the potter. And so the potter remade it into another vessel. And after that, God said in verse seven, at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it. If that nation against whom I pronounce turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant, if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now, therefore, go to speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. Return ye now everyone from his evil way and make your ways and your doings good. God, in his mercy, as I've been reading the Old Testament for the last several weeks and just spending time in prayer, I see this throughout the scriptures, throughout the Old Testament, the nation of Israel turning their back on God. But God, in his love, going after them like a husband in Hosea, he likens it to being married to a prostitute, his wife being a prostitute. And yet he goes after her. He pursues her, calling her to come back to him. He loves us so much. And in his love, he's warning judgment is coming. Judgment is coming to this land. He's warning through his preachers. He's warning through the things that we see is warning it through the economy. God, in his mercy, is saying, Church, wake up, come back to me. But if you do not come back to me, then judgment is sure to come. Now, he warned the people of Israel here. But notice how they responded in verse 12. They said there is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart. There's two things here that that kept them from experiencing the forgiveness and redemption and revival of God. Number one, they said there's no hope. They had no faith. And there are people in the church like that today that says, well, this nation is just not what she once was, nor will she ever be. And so they've given up. No faith. Isn't it interesting that Jesus said when he comes back, will he find faith on the earth? I believe there's there's surely a remnant here that will trust God for another mighty move of God, for another revival that will say not like they said there is no hope, but that will say there is hope because we have a merciful God. They also said, though, we will walk after our own devices and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart. There will be people who even in the midst of judgment, when when when the economy is shut down, when we go through depression, when we go through hard times and yet they still will not turn to God. They still are living for themselves, and God says in verse 13, therefore, thus said the Lord, asking now among the heathen who hath heard such things, the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, which cometh from the rock of the field, or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient past to walk in paths in a way not cast up. And then God talks about after that sending judgment, he's saying, how can you who's ever heard of such a thing that a people will forsake the one who provides for them, who loves them so much that a people will forsake their God? But he says, my people have. I go to Second Chronicles, chapter seven, Second Chronicles, chapter seven. One thing that encourages me so much is is just seeing how God has moved in the past. And how in times past when God was just about to send incredible judgment and the people of God called upon him for mercy and they repented, God withheld his judgment. God's given us this promise in Second Chronicles, chapter seven, verse 13. He says, if I shut up heaven, that there be no rain or if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. That is our only hope. French philosopher in 1830 named Alexis de Tocqueville said, I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors, in her fertile fields and boundless forest, in her rich mines and vast world commerce, in her public school systems and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her Democratic Congress and in the matchless constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits of flame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. There was a time in 1857 when. God came, probably came in revival, the greatest revival this nation probably has ever known in 1857. It all started in a prayer meeting in the Fulton Street Dutch Reform Church in Manhattan, New York City, just between the two towers that came down was this church. In one last attempt to keep the church doors from closing in Manhattan, there were at this time, the churches were at this time almost empty. To keep them from closing completely. The elders called for a man by the name of Jeremiah C. Lamphere. Jeremiah Lamphere, who'd been saved under Charles, Charles Finney's ministry, 49 year old man, began to go door to door throughout New York City, inviting the people to come to church. He had little success. No one wanted to come. Then one day, God impressed upon his heart that was so deeply broken and burdened that he should begin a prayer meeting. And Jeremiah Lamphere invited the businessmen of New York City and Manhattan to meet once a week and pray for God to come back and and to send revival. So they began meeting for prayer. The first Wednesday they met, only five other businessmen showed up to pray with him. They prayed for God to come and revival throughout their lunch break. Then they decided that they would meet again the next week. That week, 20 people arrived to pray for revival. The next week, 40 came. One week later, on October 14th, 1857, while these men were praying and they were praying this way, they were praying, God, do anything, do whatever it takes to bring this nation back to you. But do anything, God, send revival. October 14th, 1857, while they were praying, God shook this nation to the core. The government announced at that moment that the worst financial crash in history up to that point had commenced. While they were praying. Within days, the banks had closed their doors and this nation was shaken. Within days, millions lost their jobs. People were broken, despairing. The next Wednesday for this prayer meeting, 3000 men gathered in and around the church to pray and to cry out to God to have mercy on America. Within six months, 10000 men every day now were praying across Manhattan, mostly through the day. Ten thousand every day in their offices, buildings and in the streets and in the parks. One of the first of those six was a young 21 year old Philadelphian. He went home and started the same kind of prayer meeting in his church. Forty men attended the first prayer meeting. Within four months, one hundred and fifty thousand people had started to pray for revival in Philadelphia, for God to come and have mercy upon America. It's estimated by some that 50000 people were converted every week across America for the next few years. Find one nation on the face of this earth that God came and visited in revival like that. Do we see how how blessed we are? I heard Greg Frizzell say one time that comparing our nation today with with the nation in 1857 when God sent this prayer revival. He said if that were to happen today in the same proportion of population, he said 25, it would mean that twenty five to thirty five million Americans would be born again and come into the church within three to five years. Twenty five to thirty five million Americans. And folks, I know this is this is different than the way that I usually preach. But it's the only way I knew to do it this morning. My heart has been so broken, so burdened. And I just wanted to share with you a little bit of history where we've come from, where we are headed and to share with you as simply as I know how. If we don't wake up, church, this nation is done for. But if we will wake up and take God at his word, if we will take that promise in Second Chronicles 714 and humble ourselves and pray, turn from our wicked ways and seek his face, God will hear from heaven. He will forgive our sin and he will heal our land. What is encouraging me is the remnant of God's people that he's raising up all over the world right now, just small groups that are getting right with God. They're getting right in their relationships with one another. They're getting out of debt. They're starting to learn to live simply. They're giving into missions and they're praying. Above all, they're praying. What does God honor like he honors prayer? This is what touches the heart of God when his people become dependent upon him. It's exciting to see that God is speaking to people. I think of of Elliot, Elliot, I think of you just sharing this week how you can't get enough of the word of God. You were sharing with me, spending time with God morning and night. I think of a young girl that cut my wife's hair this week in Skytube. And in her, her, her shop, she has written on her mirror, do you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior? She was sharing with my wife how this last week God had given her a dream. About Capernaum, and she didn't know what it meant, so she woke up and she began to search the scriptures about what the scriptures had to say about this word Capernaum. And you know what the message she got over and over and over was one word, repent, she said, I was so moved by that, I stood up before my church to share what God had said that he's calling us to repent. This girl who never speaks, you know, just shaking, she had to say this word, God gave her that word, I think of what Brother Mike has shared in his Sunday school class, how God continues to give the same message over and over again, repent, repent, repent. It's very simple. God is calling us, if you're not right with God, to get right with God, to come to the cross, turn from our sins, to be washed in the blood and to begin to pray like we've never prayed before. And I believe if if the church wakes up and lays hold of God like that, with his promises in prayer, God will hear from heaven. He will have mercy upon us. I wonder if we could close today just coming to this altar in prayer. I had about. I wondered if I should do that in the very beginning, my heart was so burdened, I felt like just not even preaching, just coming up here and having us all start start to pray. But can we all stand? And and if we could have just some music playing, I'm going to ask those of you who will join with me. Who are willing to come before God in faith and number one, ask the Lord God to revive your own heart, if it's not that God would meet with you, first of all, and then from that, if we could just enter into to crying out to God. On behalf of our nation. Brother Mark, I'm going to ask you if you'll come lead us as those that want to come to the altar will come, if you'll lead us in prayer, if you'll just come to the pulpit and we're going to join our hearts in crying out to God for Lord God, most high king of every king. Lord of every lord father, we kneel before you today, we kneel our hearts, we bow our heads before you today, God. We recognize you as our God. We recognize you, God, as the only hope for our nation, our only hope for this world, God. Father, we adore you. You are sovereign. We praise you, most high God. We praise you for your mercy and we praise you, God, for the way you established our land. We praise you, God, for bringing men and women of God to our country and to claim this land for Jesus Christ in the name of Jesus Christ. And God, now we look at our condition. Lord, we see judgment abounds, Lord, to us, Lord, and all the world. And oh, how we need you now, father, how we need you, father. We humble ourselves before you this morning and we ask you, God, to relent. We ask you to have mercy upon us. God, we offer up our minds, our hearts, our souls to you, God. Father, we know that we have sinned against you, God, we have chased after the things of the world. God, we have made everything a priority in our life before you, God, and we ask you forgive us this morning. Lord, have mercy on us, God. Father, we we pledge to you to repent, to turn the other direction, God, to begin to make you the highest priority in our lives, Lord, to begin to read your word more and more, to hunger and thirst after you, God, to get on our knees, Lord, and seek you in prayer and make your relationship our most intimate, father, and our most prioritized relationship in all of our lives. God, how we need you, father, move in this place right now, move in our city. God, we need you in Barnsdall. God, we need you in our church body. Father, we need you in our school and Barnstall. God, we need you in our community all around this area. Father, we need you in this area of the state and we need you in our entire state. God, start a great awakening and a revival right here in Oklahoma. Start right here, God, and start with me, father. How I have failed you, Lord. How I have sinned against you, God, over and over and over again. God, have mercy on my soul. Forgive me, Lord. God, come and meet with us. Draw us near to you, Lord. Remind us of who you are, God, that you created the heavens and the earth. Father, that you placed us here, God, that you are sovereign over all the universe. God, remind us of those things. Father, have mercy on us. God, you are our only hope. Lord, your word says clearly, clearly that if we will humble ourselves and if we will pray and if we will seek your face, God, and turn from our wicked ways, then you will hear from heaven. You will forgive our sin and you will heal our land. God, we call on you to do that today, Lord, and we pledge to you, God, we will begin to walk with you. We will begin to make you the priority of our lives. God, we will turn away from idols. We will turn away from the gods of this world and seek after you, Lord. God, break our hearts over our sin. God, our hearts over the things that break your heart and help us love the things that you love. We pray this in the precious name of our Savior. And by your grace today, we will make our Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to continue this time. I want to share with you, if you need to to exit, please do so quietly. But we're going to leave this prayer time open ended. You can exit as you need to go. Those that want to stay and continue to pray, we're going to do that right now. Father, God, I don't understand, Lord, and I've been in these places before where I don't understand why, God, that my heart is so burdened today. So broken, God, that it's almost as if I can't even speak. I don't know if it's something, Lord, that is coming, Lord, even in this week or or what it is. But God, I know that you are a merciful God. And Lord, we cry out to you today as a church to have mercy upon this land, this nation of ours. Oh, God, we know, Father, even for these children that we see, God, that you love them even more than we could. And Father, for your name's sake, Lord, and for this future generation, I pray, God, that you would have mercy upon us once again. Lord, even if it means shaking the economy, Lord, to where it all crashes, if that's what it takes, God, then in your mercy, I ask you to do that. I ask you to do whatever it takes to cause your people, those who are called by your name, to return to you with all their hearts, to rend their hearts and not their garments, to seek your face once again. Lord, I pray for your church, Lord Jesus, of which I'm a part of. God, we have sinned against you. We have run after other loves, other affections, other gods. Please have mercy upon us, oh, Lord. We've dishonored you, Lord Jesus. We've become complacent in many ways, Lord, in a sleep. I pray, God, that you would awaken us to that first love, Lord Jesus, that we would love you once again with a first love kind of love, that our eyes would be open once again, Lord, to your love for us and how nothing else compares. Everything else pales in comparison to being loved by you, Lord Jesus, to belonging to you. I pray for each one of my brothers and sisters and myself here today, God, that we would be made right with you. Lord, if there is anything in our hearts, in our lives that is hindering intimate fellowship with you, God, bring us to that place of repentance, of confession of sin. Lord, I pray that you would wash us again. I pray for relationships, Lord, that need to be made right between husbands and wives, between children and their parents, between brothers and sisters in Christ, God, that you would do that sovereign work of your grace and reconcile, bring us into a place of reconciliation and unity. Lord God, we need you. We need you so desperately, oh Lord. God, on behalf of our nation, we pray, God, for mercy. We ask you to forgive us for shedding the innocent blood of so many unborn babies. Oh, God, how their blood must cry out from the ground. Lord, we know we're deserving of your judgment. Yet at the same time, we believe that you have you've made covenant promises, Lord, with your people, and we believe that you have a destiny and a purpose for this nation, the United States of America, God, I pray that as you send revival to your church, Lord, it was spread throughout the land like wildfire and you would give us godly leaders in government once again. God, I pray that you would just come even into the White House, oh Lord, and transform lives. I pray that you would expose greed and lies and sin of every kind, Lord, and you would bring us as a nation back to righteousness and truth and justice. God, bring us back to you. It's you that we need. It's you that we desire. It's you that we hunger for. Lord God, I pray that even in the hard times that lay ahead, that as your people, we would draw close together. Lord, we would love one another and help share one another's burdens. And we would trust you as our faithful father, Lord. When everything that can be shaken is shaken around us, we would put all our full trust and confidence and hope in you as our sole provider. Thank you, Father, that you have everything under control. Our trust is in you. We love you, Lord. We need you.