In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of living in vital reality with God in a home. He uses the analogy of a willow tree planted by a watercourse to illustrate the abundant growth and prosperity that comes from being connected to God. The speaker shares a story of a young boy who, through the prayers of his devoted mother, experiences a powerful conversion and becomes a testimony for God. The speaker also addresses the question of how to encourage children to engage in spiritual disciplines like fasting and prayer, emphasizing the importance of making it a voluntary choice rather than imposing laws.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, Efropie, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Okay, in this second session here today, we're going to be more on the inspirational side of child training, challenge, revival, along these lines. I want to speak this second session on three mysterious influences in a home. Remember the scripture that we've read already this week, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. If I understand that verse properly, that means the God of heaven needs to be very actively involved in the building of my household. That's what we're talking about in this second message. Areas of child training that are the most powerful and the most exciting of them all. I use the word mysterious because this is what it means. Beyond human power to explain or understand. Three mysterious influences which are beyond human power to explain or understand. May I say it is inferring the supernatural. We need three supernatural influences in our homes. God, in his own mysterious ways, prevails upon our sons and our daughters to prepare for himself a holy generation. That's what we would like to look at this evening. The first one is the powerful atmosphere of the spirit of God. Turning with me to Isaiah 44, verse three through five. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. Now in this text, brothers and sisters, we all know that God is not speaking about water like the water that I have up here in this glass. As God says, I will pour water on him who is thirsty. He's speaking about another kind of water. It's the water of his precious spirit. It's the water that flows from the fountain of living waters. Hallelujah. That's what God is speaking about here. But God says there's a condition here. He will pour the water of his spirit upon those who are thirsty. And that is the condition that God gives. Now we live in America. We hardly understand what it means to be thirsty. You know, my throat gets a little dry and I get me a little sip of water. I can do that all day if I want to. We don't know what it is to be thirsty. But when I make trips to Africa, I know what it is to be thirsty. There are times over there when you might go three hours and not get to have a drink of water. Man, when you get to the water, you are thirsty. I believe that's what God is talking about when God says, I will pour water on him that is thirsty. He's not saying, I'll pour water on him who wants a drink. You know, like, we want a drink. We go into the kitchen, turn on the faucet and drink the water and we're done. No, that's not what God is saying here. God is saying, you get thirsty for my spirit. You start longing and hungering. Your heart starts saying, as the heart painted after the water of soul, painted my soul after thee, O God. And God says, I will pour water upon him who is thirsty. That's a promise that God gives. And he also says, I will pour water upon the dry ground. But God goes one step further than that. He also says that he will pour water upon our children. Joshua, you want to come and help me now, buddy? We're going to just illustrate here this evening what God means when he says, I will pour water upon him who is thirsty and I will pour my spirit out upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. Now, when we come to God and our cup is empty, we hold it up to God and we cry out to God that God would fill our cup full of the Holy Ghost. When we do that, something happens. When God begins to fill our cup, all of a sudden, that cup is going to get to the place where it's full. When the cup gets full, guess what happens? The water just keeps on flowing and somebody else gets baptized right along with you. You can sit down, Josh. God bless you, my son. May God do that to you, young man, someday. Not water, but the Holy Ghost all over you, boy. That is the picture that God is illustrating right here. Listen, dear parents, God wants to pour out his spirit upon our seed. But God cannot pour his spirit upon our seed until he pours his spirit upon us. We are the vessels that God uses to put the spirit upon our children. Now, in my house, I have that verse up there. I look at it every day. I think about it every day. And I think, there it is, God. That is my part of the condition. I must be thirsty for thee, O God. And God promises if I'm thirsty, he's going to fill me with the Holy Ghost. And bless God, when he fills me with the Holy Ghost, my family's going to get all wet, too. That is one of those mysterious influences. I mean, you have helped to raise your children, brothers and sisters. You have helped. What are we speaking about here? It is God's plan that the children grow up in the atmosphere of the spirit in our homes. When parents live in vital reality in their homes, the blessing falls upon their children also. The presence of God is God present and active in my home. The presence of God is God present and active in my home. That ought to be the greatest cry of our hearts. I think about Hudson Taylor. When I think about this illustration, you know, what an example he is. There was his dad walking with God in the home, and he was just a little fella. And you know how it is with children. They're so open. They're so innocent. They're just wide open to anything. That can be a great blessing, but that can be a great curse upon them. If you're full of all kinds of bitterness and anger and other things like that, then all those things go into the children when they're little. But if you're full of the Holy Ghost when they're like that, then guess what goes into those children? Well, Hudson Taylor was just a little fella, jumping around in his living room, in his kitchen, in his house. And he had a daddy who had a burden for China, and he prayed anointed prayers in his household every day. And little Hudson was running around there, and mercy drops were falling all over that little fella. Day after day after day, the mercy drops were falling on that little boy. And one day, he got down on his knees in his closet and said, God, I'll go! And he went. Oh, did he go. All because a papa had the Holy Ghost upon him in his household. Oh, my dear parents, do you have any idea what God would do with your children? How God would pick your children up and use them to do damage against Satan's kingdom if we would just learn to live in vital reality with God in our homes. Verse 4 is a lovely picture of the results of what happens when they live like that. They shall spring up like willows by the watercourse. Glory! What a picture! What does a willow tree grow like that is planted by a watercourse? I mean, look, there are other trees around, sure, planted in other places, sure. They're going to grow, no problem. They're going to get some leaves on them, yes, they will. They might even have a little fruit, no problem. But that tree that's planted by the watercourse, that thing is going to prosper so much more than that other tree that's stuck out there somewhere. And he, every now and then, gets a little water, you know. Remember, we talked about every now and then devotions last night. Every now and then, he gets a little drink of water. Sure, he's going to grow. Sure, he's going to turn out all right. But that one that's planted by the watercourse, bless God, that thing is going to be a beautiful tree, and it's going to grow and prosper, and it's going to have lots of green leaves all over it, and fruit to bear, and people are going to eat that fruit and be blessed. That's God's will for our children. They shall spring up like willows by the watercourse. Dear father and mother, you are the watercourse. How much water is running down the river? You are the watercourse. When a child is planted in a household where mom and dad are free and clear with God and each other, and the Holy Ghost is upon them, it creates an atmosphere in that home. There's a mysterious influence that takes place in the hearts and lives of those children all through the day. The Spirit of God is there brooding over them, speaking to them, a little prompting here, a word here, an inspiration, a new thought to them. All those things are taking place coming out of mom and dad, because mom and dad are living in vital reality. It's the will of God, I tell you. It is the will of God. Just consider what God goes on to say. Probably the most precious thing, the thing that thrills our hearts more than anything. He says, not only will they be like trees planted by the watercourse, but they shall rise up and say, I am the Lord! Amen! And that makes every parent sing, doesn't it? When those children rise up and say, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, there does something inside the heart of every parent that sings that. We had weekend meetings around here last August, and there was a few of the young people here in the congregation that got born again during those meetings. You should have seen the look on their moms and dads when they came through the doors there, all lit up and full of joy, having made their choice for God. Those parents were so excited, they wept tears of joy. How do you make this thing happen? You get thirsty, brothers and sisters. You get thirsty. You begin to look to God. You begin to seek the Lord, that God would anoint you day by day by day. Remember what Ephesians 5, verse 18 says, brothers. Be filled with the Spirit. Can we come to grips with that verse? God is not going to let us go. He's not going to let us go. You know, the Greek tense of that verse is awesome. Basically what God is saying is this, be being continually filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. That's what that verse means. God says to every one of us parents, I want your children to rise up and serve Me. I'm God. There is no other God beside Me. I'm worthy. Be being continually filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit and I shall take your children and do things with them that you never dreamed of, God says. And He will. He will. Let's go on to the second influence. The power of an enthusiastic example. Psalm 112 The power of an enthusiastic example. Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth. The generation of the upright man and woman shall be blessed, God says. Here we have a man. He loves God. He loves God with all of his heart. He's excited about God. He loves God's Word. He delights in God's Word. He obeys God's Word. He fears God. He reverences God. He lives for God. He serves God. Here he is. Just like we described last evening. He's a Psalm 1 kind of man. His delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law does he meditate day and night. And guess what? He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth its fruit in its season. His leaf also shall not wither. And guess what, brothers and sisters? Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. He delights in the Word and he obeys it. He's a fanatic. It is not a have-to thing with him. It's a get-to. I get to. Amen? I remember the day that I came home on a Saturday evening after having studied all day on Saturday, preparing to preach on Sunday morning, and I was so excited. And I mean, I love to preach. And I was excited. I knew what I was going to preach in the morning. And I walked into the house on Saturday evening to sit down like we often do on Saturday evening and just kind of close out the day and visit and all that. And Esther was just a little girl, maybe five years old. And she came up to me and said, Papa, do you have to preach tomorrow? She said. And of course, I was so excited to get to preach tomorrow. I said, no, Esther, I don't have to preach tomorrow. I get to preach tomorrow. It is the greatest privilege that I could ever have. I get to serve God. I don't have to come to church. I get to go to church. This is the kind of guy we're talking about. It's into the get-to realm. He loves it! He loves it! You got him? Well, children live in this guy's house. I mean, children live with this stuff. And the effect is a bit mysterious. They are moved to follow this man by an unseen hand upon their life. His enthusiasm is contagious. I mean, it's that way with all of us. It's not just with the father and his children. When you find somebody who is excited about God, you get excited. Their enthusiasm is contagious, and you get a hold of it, and pretty soon you'll shout right on with them. Well, that's the kind of guy this guy was. Children live in his house. And these children are affected by this man. I think that God works in mysterious ways behind the scenes, but I do think that God also works through our very lives. And this is a verse that shows that. These children live with this guy. They are influenced by him. They see his joy. They sense his enthusiasm. They watch his excitement day by day. They see him get excited about things that they know are a sacrifice and a burden, but they still see him excited and full of joy. And that has an influence. A mysterious influence. It does things inside of the hearts of the children. They don't even understand what's going on. But little by little, that mysterious hand is moving them into the realm where they shall rise up and follow the faith of their father and their mother. And that's God's way. That's how God works. Brothers and sisters, our children will love what we love. They will get excited about what we get excited about. That is just a fact. They will. If we, like that fellow last night, who wanted his boy to be a baseball player, rise up with enthusiasm and excitement about that which we love, our children will come running along after us. That's just the way it works. The children in our house love the garden. Can anybody tell me why? I love the garden. I mean, I love it! I don't get to do very much of it. Someday, if I ever retire, I'll enjoy doing it. But I love the garden! And guess what? The children do too. That's just the way it is. That's just the way it is. They love to go witnessing. Anybody figure out why? I think about William and Catherine Booth. We mentioned them the other evening. They were like this guy right here. Both of them. So full of enthusiasm. So excited about God. So excited about God's work. And they had eight children that lived in the same house with those two nuts. Those children, they sensed. They saw. They heard the joy, the enthusiasm of their father and their mother. They would sit at home and wait for Dad to come home at night. You know, when they were younger, they weren't allowed out on the streets. It was dangerous out there. So they had to wait for Dad to get home. And Dad would come home. Maybe he'd come home nine o'clock after a whole evening out there, witnessing and winning souls and preaching and all that stuff. And they'd sit around and listen to him. And Dad would tell war stories. Amen? He would tell war stories. And you should have seen what happened earlier. And then this guy and, you know, one of the other soldiers got hit with a brick tonight. Really, Papa? Yeah. Somebody else got hit with a rotten tomato. And all the children would sit on the edge of their seat and listen to all the stories that their Papa told them about all the things that God did that night. Guess what those children were longing to do? Oh, I can't wait until I get to go along with Papa. I mean, imagine that. They were longing for the day when they could stand in ranks with the rest of the soldiers in the Salvation Army and they look forward to the day when a rotten tomato would hit them. How do you get a child to look forward to a rotten tomato? Hmm? You get excited about rotten tomatoes. Amen? You get excited about rotten tomatoes. And bless God, they'll be looking on and saying, I want to get hit with a rotten tomato. When can I go along, Papa? Please let me go, pretty please. And yea, someday they will get hit with a rotten tomato. And they might get hit with a rock someday too. But the power of the enthusiasm of this father and mother captivated all eight of those children whom we gave their whole heritage already. We don't need to go back to that. But he and she were examples of this right here. The children longed to go along. Sometimes people come up to me and they ask me this question. Brother Denny, how do you get the children to fast, to pray, to get up early and have devotions and all that other stuff you talk about? Do you require that? Do you have laws in your house? You will fast this day. You will get up at this time. You will do this. You will do that. That's the way it is in our house. And I tell them, no, no, no, no, no. I wouldn't make laws out of things like that. This is a voluntary thing. Well, how do you get them to do that? Well, you just love it with all your heart. You get excited about it yourself. You live it out day by day. You come down in the morning time, sit down at the breakfast table, all full and running over with all that God did in your heart in your quiet time this morning. And soon they'll be saying, could I get up a little bit earlier, Papa? That's how it works. You sit down at the table on a Monday morning, turn the plate upside down and say, I'm not going to eat today. I've got some burdens. I want to seek God. And you do that. Then on Tuesday morning you show back up there at the table. So excited about all the things that God is doing inside of your heart and the things that God showed you in the Word this morning and the prayer that God answered when you prayed and fasted for so-and-so. And pretty soon they'll walk up to the table and turn their plate over too and say, I'm not eating today. Thank you. That's how it works. In fact, this is my experience. You have to slow them down. They want to do more than what they can do when they're little. Can I fast for five days? No, you little six-year-old. You cannot fast for five days. Let's try two. Okay? Okay. How do you get them to do that? You love it. That's what you do. You get excited about it. That's how you do it. These are things we thoroughly enjoy. We get to do them. So they want to do them too. The word enthusiasm is a very interesting word. See, somebody might listen to this and say, well, okay, so what do you do? Just whoop yourself all up? There's people all over the United States today. They've got all kinds of stuff. The power of a positive mind. And so-and-so is an enthusiast and they get him to go and speak at all these places because he gets excited. Hey, yeah, you can generate yourself in the flesh. You can. But we're not talking about that. You need more than a fleshly generated excitement to transfer the things that I'm talking to you about. So how do you do that? Where do you get this enthusiasm? Well, the word enthusiasm, in the Greek, it's enthusiasmos. That's the Greek word for enthusiasm. And the literal interpretation is God-incitedness. That's where you get it. God-incitedness will take care of the enthusiastic example in your home. That's what God is talking to us about. That's what Paul's testimony. He said, There's a God inside of me and I can't help myself. That's what God wants. It's not something you whoop up, work up, emotionalize. No. You walk with God, dear parents. Here we are again. Right back to the same old thing again. You walk with God. As you walk with God, God's Spirit will stir inside of your heart, make His commandments a joy to you, make them a get-to, not a have-to. Your children will look on at all of that and say, That's what I want. Listen, parents, there's a lot of flashing lights out there these days to tempt our children into the world. And they look on, they look at all those flashing lights, and you know, they're pretty. They are. They are. The world really does it upright. And the children look at all that and they think, Hmm, Dad said that's bad. But it doesn't look bad. It seems so nice to me. Listen, dear parents, there's going to come a day when they're going to have to make a decision which way they're going to go. Amen? With some children, they look at a dead mom and dad who are going through the motions of devotions and they're going through the rituals of religion week in and week out, and there's no get-to, there's no spring in their step, there's no joy about serving God at all, and they look at that and then they look at those lights and in their heart, they're no dummy, they look at that and say, It looks to me like that's a whole lot more exciting than this. I think I'll take that. But, oh, dear parents, when we, by the grace of God, can rise up and in fact, from the depths of our heart, truly enjoy the Lord and serve Him, our children will also notice that. And I know what they will do. God promises what they will do. They will look at those shining lights out at the world and they will look at your life which is being consumed by a living God and they will say, I want my father and my mother's God. I believe it. Really? Really? These are basic principles of discipleship, aren't they? Love it. Live it. Teach it. And they'll follow you. That's it. Basic principles of discipleship. Parents, what kind of children do you want? What do you want them to do? I'm telling you how you can have anything you want that's in this book. What do you want them to do? What kind of children do you want them to be? Be it! Be it! With all your heart, with joy, with zeal of the Holy Ghost and they will rise up and do it. You want them to be a soul winner? You go for it. You get in there. You taste the beauty, the joy, the excitement of leading a soul to Jesus Christ and come home and tell the story to the children. And I tell you what, they'll be on the edge of their seat and longing for the opportunity when they can go do the same thing. What do you want, my dear parents? This book is the limit. It's the limit. What do you want? You want your child to be an intercessor that rises up in the middle of the night and prays fervently for two or three hours and goes back to bed? Here it is. You want them to raise up a godly family someday with zeal and joy? Here it is. Whatever you want, you can have. Let's go on to the third point. The third mysterious influence in the life of our children is prevailing intercessory prayer. Lamentations 2, verse 19. Hear these words. Arise. Cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watches, pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward Him for the life of thy young children that feed for hunger in the top of every street. Awesome word. Such a word of admonition that God gives to us as parents to intercede for our children. This could be the most powerful mysterious influence of the three of them. Prayer. Powerful, prevailing prayer moves the hand of God to move upon my family. Do you believe that? God does that in mighty ways. Jackie and I, we pray for the children. We pray for them in the morning. We pray for them in our personal devotions. We pray for them at mealtime sometimes. We pray for them at devotions. We pray for them when we put them to bed. We pray for them a lot. You know, gather the children together. Lord, bless the children. Bless David. Bless Joshua. God, watch over their lives. We pray those kind of prayers all the time. But I don't believe we're talking about those kind of prayers in this verse. And that's not what I mean when I'm making my point here this evening. I'm talking about a different kind of praying than that. I'm talking about the kind of praying that you do occasionally if you know what it is to be in the presence of the living God of heaven. You know you are before the throne of God. You're there and you know it and you get a hold of God for your children and you cry out, you pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord for your children. Intercessory prayers. Fervent prayers. Prayers that nobody else hears. Prayers in the middle of the night when nobody's around to hear the deep groanings that come upon your heart for your children. We're talking about intercessory prayers, brothers and sisters. They have a powerful influence on the lives of our children. But I'm afraid not very many parents do very much of that kind of praying. I'm glad for all the little prayers you pray, but I believe that God wants to work in our hearts in such a way that we will find ourselves getting up in the middle of the night and pouring out our heart for our children! Breaking our heart! Getting a hold of the horns of the altar and not let go till we know we have a blessing for this child. I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, our children, there are times when they need those kind of prayers. There are times when they need their dad to pray them through something that they're not getting through on their own. There are times when the enemy is so chasing them that they can't see straight, and they need a dad or a mom who will get a hold of the horns of the altar and not let go until God comes through. You know what? Most parents only pray prayers like this when everything starts falling apart. But I believe He wants us to rise up with a vision and get enough of the Holy Ghost burning inside of us that we'll get up in the middle of the night and pray for Him like this in the good times! How sweet it is to be alone with God and to be able to bring your children up before His throne and know without a shadow of a doubt that God is taking and receiving these children as I give them up to Him. And God is going to take care of them and answer my prayer. There must be times when you are caught up in the Spirit. Like John. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. I don't know how many of you ever saw that picture in some of the Christian bookstores where the father is kneeling down and the little boy is laying in his bed sleeping and he's got his little teddy bear there in his arm, you know, dad's down there on his knees next to the bed. How many of you ever seen that picture? Yeah. If you look real close, you'll see in the window behind that dad there's a white angel with his hands up like this and there's a black angel with his hands up like this trying to get through and the dad's there on his knees and the white angel is moving according to the intercessory prayers of the dad and the black angel has to go! In Jesus' name! He has to go! That's the kind of prayers we're talking about. I think of the illustration of James Stewart's mother. James Stewart was a Scottish preacher. They called him the boy preacher. But he was out preaching on the street corners when he was 14 years old. And they called him the boy preacher. I mean, he put a sign, you know, these embarrassing things. He put these little banners, hung it down over him and he was out on the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. I mean, he was out there every evening preaching like a house on fire at 14 years old. Well, let's look behind the scenes a little bit, amen? That boy, James Stewart, he didn't have a daddy. I don't know why he didn't have a daddy. I don't know if his daddy died or what, but he didn't have a daddy. He didn't have the guidance that he should have had. He got involved in sports and he was good at playing kickball, you know, soccer. That's what they like to do over there. That's their idol. And he was good at this and he could kick that ball and he was heading for the professionals as fast as he could go. I mean, the scouts were watching him when he was 14 years old, saying, keep your eye on that boy. He's going to be one of the best in the whole of our country. And there he was, kicking that ball around, making a fool out of himself, spending his whole life bumping his ball around, you know, like that. But he had a mama. And this mama knew how to pray. And she knew, because she gave that boy to God when he was born, she knew that God had something more for that boy than kicking a ball around the field. She would rise up in the middle of the night and pour out her heart like water before the face of the Lord for that boy. Night after night she would pray and intercede and weep and cry until one night she broke through the clouds. And she got a witness from the Lord. That's called praying through, by the way. She got a witness from the Lord. I'm going to save your son. You can quit praying. It's all done. She just sat there in her rocking chair. Two nights later, right in the middle of a soccer game, he got so under conviction, he could hardly kick the ball or see to kick the ball. And he said, God, please, just let me finish the game and I'll get right with You. And he finished kicking the ball around the field. And when he got done, he fell on his knees down at the end of the field and wept his heart and soul out to God. And he got right with God. Hallelujah! Got born again. Boy, he was so excited. Glory! Heaven came down. The glory of God filled his soul. He went running home to his mom, you know. Burst through the door. Mom! Mom! Guess what? I got born again! Here's Mom in her rocking chair. I know, my son, God told me two days ago that you were going to get born again. Now, my boy, please go change your clothes. You're going to give your testimony at a meeting tonight. Now, go along now. Go along. I already made the arrangements. Okay, Mom, okay! That's intercessory prayer. That lady knew how to pray. She got ahold of the horns of the altar and she didn't let go until she got through. Listen, you don't pray lay-me-down-to-sleep prayers when you pray those kind of prayers. You weep. You cry. You travail. You lose your voice. But you get through. That's what we're talking about. Hot prayers. Intercessory prayers that can touch our children and our children's children and our children's children's children. Amen? I mean, listen, I believe that I can pray prayers that God will store up in a vial in heaven and dump out on my generation long after I'm gone. I mean, I'm going to chase my great-grandchildren long after I'm gone. My prayers are going to chase after them. That's the kind of prayers we're talking about. Andrew Murray prayed like that. And Andrew Murray believed in praying for the generations that are going to come forth from him and his children and his children's children. And guess what? You can track it down even today. Generations of Murrays that came forth from Andrew Murray are serving God today. Many generations later, they're still serving God. His name is still a revered name in South Africa. And so are those servants who came forth from that man's loins and that man's prayers. I mean, what an awesome story Keith Daniels told about when he was a young man, a traveling preacher, unmarried. And he and Andrew Murray shared a room together, serving God together. One of Andrew Murray's descendants. Still named Andrew. This is Brother Keith's testimony. He said that fella would get underneath his cover. He would sit down in the middle of his bed and get underneath his cover. And an awesome presence of a worshipful spirit of the living God would fill the whole room. Well, that sounds just like Andrew Murray. Yeah, it is Andrew Murray. He's still around. Though he be dead, yet he still speaks. Though he be dead, his prayers are still chasing after his great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, I don't think we have any idea what powerful things God could do with our children if we would just get in the place of prayer. And may I say this in closing. Think about all three of these. The influence of a godly life. The atmosphere of the Spirit of God in my home. And these kind of prayers. Can you do them on your own? Can you work that up? Can you put on a show and try to make that happen? No way. God is after our hearts, fathers and mothers. God is after our hearts. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes. It's invitation time tonight, dear fathers and mothers. We're not giving invitations every evening, but the nature of this message is such that I think it's good that we give you an opportunity to respond. God is not just calling you to go home and have family devotions. He is after your heart. He knows if He doesn't get your heart, those family devotions won't have much effect. God wants your heart. So we're going to sing a song of invitation after we pray. And just give you an opportunity to do business with God. God has been doing many things in your hearts. All the different sessions we're having. Look, you can load yourself down to where you don't know what to do if you don't begin to respond, open up, clean up, clear up, confess up, and yield up your heart and your life to God. You will be miserable. And all of these words that I am saying will just fall on you like a heavy load of discouragement. You must get the heart clear and clean. So that's the invitation this evening. Let's bow for prayer first. God our Father, we plead with You in Jesus' name again that You would send forth Your Spirit upon the hearts of Your people, Lord. I pray for those who are wrestling that are struggling, God. I pray that You would settle down upon their hearts this very moment. I pray that You'll send conviction upon them, God. And I pray that You'll speak words of faith to their hearts that if they will move, You will move and meet their need. God, I commit the invitation and every heart into Your care. And I pray in Jesus Christ's name for these things. Amen. 228. Shall we sing? You come. Sing it out. Sing it with all your hearts.