The Dash - Exodus 32 32 - Sins against the Holy Ghost

Take your Bibles and open up to Exodus chapter 32. One of the passages of scripture that has always spoken to me and the opportunity that I get tonight to present it, to preach it in relationship to what's going on, in relationship to our world and some of the things that I've already shared with you in regards to the events that we just heard about today and that we're and will continue to keep a watchful eye on that. And so, again, the call for a solemn assembly is, again, is that we understand that in this present day, besides the remedial judgments that we've seen for years now, decades now, besides the epidemics that are upon our nation right now, and again, if you haven't followed along with those things, remedial judgments are judgments and warnings that God sends and God allows for them to be upon a nation, a people. And that could be a nation as far as government or that could be his own people. And so he sends those things that they might be awakened, stirred, is to say, wait a minute, this isn't normal. And to realize is that they have fallen away from God and he's calling them to come back. Now, Leviticus is a clear measure of this. Leviticus chapter 26, there is a warning over and over and over in that chapter that says, and if you refuse to hear, listen, and obey, then God says the next judgment will be seven times worse. And so we've seen a ramping up of these judgments, these remedial judgments that have come upon our nation. And I don't have time to go into all those right now, but they have now reached epidemic proportions, which again is the mass population of which we see. We went from the coronavirus being in the remote city of Wuhan in China to a couple hundred to a couple thousand to now a global pandemic where all the nations are involved. And so the escalation has been so quick in a matter of weeks and months that we see this escalation. And so again, the remedial judgments start off in severity, but as they increase because of the refusal of God's people to understand what's going on, they increase, they multiply. And that's the reason we've gone from isolated incidents to epidemic. And so this is what we're dealing with tonight. And the question is to say that if this is evil, and again, Isaiah tells us when evil comes in like a flood, it says God raises up a standard against it. And that's you, brother. That's why you're interested in a call for a solemn assembly. That's why so many of you are writing, saying, I'm weeping and I'm crying. My heart's broken for our nation. My heart's broken for the church, for the bride. This isn't what God intended. And so you understand this. And God is moving us at a time like this for his purpose, for his will. And that's what we want to understand tonight. But this is the one thing that is the most important. It is key to what we're dealing with this evening. And why? Why is this happening? And what is the response of the church that is absolutely necessary for these days? And so I find is that again, the account of the word of God, that again, it is very consistent that even though the Old Testament is directed to the old covenant of the law with Moses and the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which again, a lot of times the church dissects it and says, well, that's not relevant. I'm sure that you've heard of preachers that have cut out the Old Testament, thrown it away and saying that has nothing to do with us. But the whole word of God is from Genesis to Revelation is connected. And it is God's masterful plan of him relating and speaking to us out of it. And so over in the book of Exodus chapter 32, we have this scenario that unfolds, which is key to the scenario that we are currently in tonight. And I think it to be the crucial key, the crux of the matter, so to say, is that again, when Christ died, and as we celebrated just a couple of weeks ago, Christ died, Christ resurrected on Easter, and he came to his disciples and he gave them a command over Luke 24. He said, go into Jerusalem and wait. Wait until you be endued with power from on high. And we have that glorious picture of John chapter 20, that when Jesus appeared to those that were there in that room of the disciples there, and it says, and he breathed on them. And he said, receive the Holy Ghost. And then you go over to Acts chapter one, chapter two, the first church, the hundred and hundred and twenty went into the upper room. And there they stayed for 10 days doing exactly what Christ had commanded them. Now, Christ would have been glorified in the first part of Acts chapter one. And he says, now go into Jerusalem and wait. And they waited 10 days and they were waiting. They did not know from what it was just obedience to the Lord. And on the 10th day, it was that the Holy Spirit came in as a rushing mighty wind and sat upon their heads with the clothes of fire and consumed in spirit, those that were in that room. And again, they spoke in tongues that every man heard the gospel. Peter stands and preaches in the power and authority of the word of God. And 3000 people are saved within a matter of minutes. Now, that is where we're at today. The endowment and the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit. That again, because of where we're at, what we've done is that again, we have committed these sins against God's Holy Spirit that are limiting us as the church today. We can pray all we want. You can go witness to 5000 people and not one person gets saved. You can say 5000 prayers and not one of them be answered. And we see a limitation with this mighty power of the gospel, mighty power of prayer. And we see the limitation in today. And someone has to ask the question, why? God is the same, the same venues, preaching of the word. Peter preached 3000 saved. They pray. People were raised from the dead. People were made whole. What's different? It's not on God's part. And so we've got to understand where it comes back on us. And Brother Doug Strenor in his closing remarks was addressing that. And I come back to that. We have to answer the question, what's wrong with us, the church? And so in Exodus chapter 32, let me read this text. And let's go ahead. And in chapter 32, again, Moses is up on the mount. God has called him up there to receive the 10 commandments. And so verse 9, chapter 32 of Exodus. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people. And he said, behold, it is a stiff neck people. Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hard against them, that I may consume them. Imagine hearing God speak this to you about your family, about our nation. I'm going to consume them in a moment. And I will make of you a great nation. Moses besought the Lord as God. And he said, Lord, why does your wrath wax hot against your own people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? There's that great power. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, where mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains, to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath and repent of this evil against your own people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, thy servants to whom you swear by your own self. And you said unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven. And all this land that I have spoken of, will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Now Moses turns and he went down from the mountain. The two tables of the testimony were in his hand. Tables were written on both their sides. The one on the other side where they've written. And the tables were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God. Graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. And he said, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery. Neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome. But it is the noise of them that do sin, I hear. And it came to pass as soon as he came down to the camp that he saw the calf. The dancing, Moses' anger waxed hot. Cast the two tables out of his hands and he break them before the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, strawed it upon the water, and he made the children of Israel to drink of it. And Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people unto you that you have brought so great a sin upon you? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, make us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we have not, we will not what has become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me. I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto their own shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate to the camp and he said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me as all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man who swore by side, go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, slay every man, his brother, every man, his companion, and every man, his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell the people that day about 3000 men. Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord. Every, even every man upon his son, on his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing for this day. Verse 30 is the key to this. So on the morrow, and it came to pass, but on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, you have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord. Perventure, I shall make an atonement for your sins. And Moses returned to the Lord. And he said, all this people have sinned a great sin and they have made them gods of gold. Verse 32, the dash. And yet now, if thou will forgive their sin, dash. An incomplete sentence stopped in the middle of this petition that Moses is speaking. And he says, but if not, blot me, I pray you out of that book which thou has written. And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore now go, lead the people into the place of which I have spoken unto you. For behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day that when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron had made. And the Lord plagued the people. Anytime that you hear these preachers today, teachers today that said, the Lord doesn't ever plague anybody. You know that it's from what I preached this morning. They don't know the word of God. And they don't know the God of the word. It is clear in scripture that God is the instrument here that says, because of their sin, I'm going to judge them and bring this to their attention. Now it is in the verse 32, it is from 30 to 33 here is that I wanna center in for this evening for our prayer time of which we'll conclude with. And so it is, is that we read here that Moses turns to the people after he had dealt with the judgment of them after he came down, because it says that Moses anger waxed hot. And again, you say, well, Moses sin. There is a difference between fleshly anger and there's a holy anger. And then you read that and trace that throughout all the scriptures with that. And again, you could say it in church history as well, but there is a holy zeal that rises up within us that we are very zealous and jealous for the things of God. When someone takes our Lord's name in vain and there's that anger that wells up within us, not to destroy them, but to correct them. You don't speak his name irreverently. You don't take his name in vain. And again, how much more so when you see the church do this. So there's this thing that when you see God's ways being distorted, God's ways being compromised with, when you see his church. And again, as we were talking about North Korea, when we see brothers and sisters being assaulted and attacked in Nigeria and these other places that they're being persecuted and their blood is being shed, there's an anger that rises up and we cry out, Lord, defend your people, protect them, deliver them, shield them. You are the Lord of hosts. Send your heavenly host to go safeguard them from the hands of the enemy. And so again, we see this. And so Moses, as he comes down and God had told him the people of sin against me. And when he comes down and he sees it, he responds by saying to the Levites, since you need to ask the question, who's on the Lord's side? He said, now go through and slay those that are guilty of this. And 3,000 people died of that. And he turns to the people the next morning after the people have been shamed and they go back to their tents that night. Now again, they have faced 3,000 people being shed right in front of them. They know that they have offended God by this point. They don't know what the consequences of that might be. It might be worse than that. And it is Moses as he turns and he says, you have sinned a great sin. And then he goes up to the mountain. He returns before God and he says to God, they have sinned a great sin. Twice is this mention of this, three times in the chapter, but twice in this dialogue, once to the people, you've sinned a great sin. And then once before God, they have sinned a great sin. And in the midst of this in verse 32, this is a verse that has always captivated me. And I don't remember, again, I started as I shared this morning. I started reading my Bible through when I was 15 years old. And read it through. But I don't know how many years after I started reading it through every year. I had that 365 day thing where I was reading it through. I don't remember how long it was. I had to be well up into my twenties, if not close to 30. That finally coming through, I noticed this verse that stopped me and I never saw it before. Don't you love that when God reveals something in the word of God that you never saw before. And you feel like again, is that you've reached utopia or something like that is to say, wow, what an illumination here and enlightenment with this. But I never know in all the Bible, correct me by email, whatever, if there is another one. I do not know of any other verse in the Bible that is incomplete like this one. Other verses have a period. They have a semicolon. They have punctuation at the end. But there is no verse in the Bible that I'm aware of. And again, the cause of this one, where Moses in his statement, speaking to God, oh, they have sinned a great sin. And then the statement that he makes here with this, where he says, and yet now if that will forgive them, pardon them. And it just stops in midstream. And you know what it is. It's not that he lost his train of thought. It's not like he lost his speech. He breaks down. This is a man of brokenness. Remember just earlier, when he was in the visitation of God, earlier in this chapter, God says, I've seen this people and I'm going to consume them. And Moses interceded for them and protected them and delivered them. They don't know exactly what he did at this point. It's not clear that it was revealed to them, but he is before God and he realizes what God is ready and willing to do. He's ready to consume them in a moment. How is it that any one of us could not look at the nations, could not look at our nation, could not look at the state of the church and not be moved with a plea from God, with this dash, where we in mid petition, mid supplication, mid intercession, stop and plead with God saying, Oh God, forgive us, pardon us because we know you're ready in a moment to consume us. And we're being consumed. 70,000 drug overdose deaths last year, 50,000 suicides to 60,000. 50 to 60,000 homicides on the streets. Coronavirus has matched that within 30 days. And so here we are with tens of thousands of those that are dying. We're in a society of death. We see the Baltimore, we see New Orleans, we see St. Louis, we see Chicago, we see all these places that every night they are riddled with homicides on the streets. Homes that are being attacked by stray bullets. We see life being vanquished and people being rushed out of this world into eternity. And we know, we know the certainty, they are not ready. They live lives in the abominations that we're confessing. They have denied the Holy Spirit. They have said, make us false gods and let us worship them. They have fallen down to worship the God of money and the God of entertainment and the God of ease and the God of humanism and the God of self. And they have replaced God and even in the church, we have forsaken God. And it is the most urgent hour of our history in 2020 that you and I are allowed to be a participant, to be allowed to be alive tonight, to be a part of such a time as this, that God would revive us and God would bring us back from where we're at. Oh God, pardon us, forgive us. And we break down in mid sentence with the dash where there is tears and there is weeping and there is wailing. And we go to Joel chapter two, where he says, let the priests, let the priests fall down at the altar. Let them fall down for all night prayer meetings. Weep and mourn and wail for the condition that you see the nation. But as we have seen, that's not happening. There is no fear of the Lord still in the United States. When you try to explain to people what God is doing and why God is doing it in the church and out of the church, their response is the same. It is a callousness. It is a hard heartedness. It is having ears to hear, but they won't hear it. You say, well, then how do you break through this? There are loved ones that many of you have conversed with year after year, after year, month after month, week after week, pleading with God in your closet, pleading for their salvation, begging God in the same verse, Exodus 32, 32. And you broke down in your, in your closet. You broke down in mid sentence with the plea and the petition of your heart. Oh God, save my son, save my daughter, because if they, anything happens to them, I'll never see them again. That is the most urgent, fervent prayer that could possibly be made in this hour that we're living today. It is not, it is not a drive-by prayer. It is not a casual prayer. And I have, I have some disdain for those ones that treat it so, so much. Because I believe that this hour that we're living today is requiring of the church today that we respond brightly before God, as he has instructed us to do. Sackcloth, fasting, tears, mourning all day. This is the reason of when you said, why 12 hours today? Because again, the church is not, the church in North America is not used to proactive, protracted times of prayer and preaching. We want as quick as we can, where again, we've seen the setup and the makeup. You can have a band get up and musicians get up and the people singing and they can sing 50 minutes and they're done because they've been entertained. They've been satisfied. They've been in church. They've sang the Lord's songs and they just want the preacher to get up and preach 10, 15 minutes and dismiss them. When it is the proclamation of the word caused them to know me. Again, what I preached this morning, the reason we don't know God is because of the preaching of the word is absent from most pulpits, a lot of pulpits. Prayer is absent from a lot of churches and this plea that we're at, oh God, we're coming before you tonight on behalf of our nation. We're coming on behalf of the state of the church tonight, pleading with you, have mercy on us, oh God. I know at the moment, and again, this is the urgency of this. What if we fail? He said, well, what are you expecting out of these two days, Dan? What do you want from us in this? I want to prevail. You see, it is not just good enough to pray prayers. You must pray to prevail. And the only way that you prevail is what brother Doug preached this afternoon when Leonard Ravenhill said it. He said, God does not hear prayers. God does not hear and answer prayers, just common prayers. He hears and answers desperate prayers. We're not desperate, as brother Doug Small preached this morning. There is a majority of the church that is more interested in the NFL draft tonight than they are on the souls of the conditions of the United States of America and the population of the world. There are more people interested in their series on Netflix than they are about the things of God. And they're not on this map where they have heard the voice of God and seen the hand of God that he is consuming us the dash is absent. Now, if you are in a church and you're in a prayer group and you are one yourself, God bless that you understand this dash. But I'm telling you, it ought to be become the foremost priority of our life to get back because there has never been a time where we not needed God more. And you could say, well, what about World War I, World War II, the other experiences that we've talked about, 9-11, Hurricane Katrina and all these. We've needed God. But you see in those moments, you know, again, for the last 21 years, this is how the church has responded. This is how prayer ministries, this is how church leaders have responded. I've watched this and I've thought about this and contemplated. Watch what happens after every calamity. Watch what happens after every school shooting, after every mass shooting. Las Vegas, when the gunman gunned down record number. Orlando, Los Angeles, Dallas, all these places. Look at Sandy Hook. Look at Columbine. Look at these places where there was tragedy and much evil that was done. Was there any of this address? All these people have sinned a great sin. There's no mention of sin. There's no mention of abomination. There's no mention of our, as the church, our failure for this culture in this society today. It's about the mental stability of this person, or was they on drugs, or was they abused when they was at their house in their home? And again, the church has forgotten what God said about these issues. That's the reason under the absence of the dash, there's no brokenness. But you see, when you understand that when you sin against God as a nation and as the church, there are consequences. Woe unto us throughout the Bible is a study where we come to where God says, and if you don't repent, how about Ephesians chapter two, where he says to the church of Ephesus, if you don't repent, I'm going to come and remove your candlestick. Is there any pastor? Is there any laborer? Is there any layman? Is there any prayer ministry out there tonight that is concerned that God might be getting ready to remove the candlestick of the North American church? This might be our last hurrah. This might be our last moment to beseech God. Oh, God, pardon us. Don't remove us from the book. Now you say, well, I'm not worried about losing my salvation. Well, that's wonderful. But I'm telling you is that when you look at the state, the estate of the church today, there is something drastically missing from what we're reading about in the book of Acts. You want to know what it is? It's the Holy Ghost. It's the presence of the Holy Spirit that brings conviction, that brings remembrance, that brings edification, that brings us into the place that we need to be to hear from God. And again, the burden of this, the weight of this, what can the church do without the power of the Holy Spirit? Why can't we stand up aside from the mockery of Kenneth Hagin and that display that he put on? Where is God still not the same as the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts chapter two? Did Jesus not say, and you shall do the works that I do in greater works than these? Those are all still true. It's not God. It's us. We have sinned a great sin. We have provoked him to anger. Yes, the Supreme Court has legalized abortion. Yes, the Supreme Court has legalized homosexuality. Yes, they've overturned prohibition. Yes, we've done all these things and abominations before God and caused our society to fall. But the church, the church remains silent on its sins. We have sinned a great sin. Daniel chapter nine, Ezra chapter nine, Nehemiah chapter nine, the great prayers of confession. We have sinned against you, O God, and your Holy Spirit is now limited. He is now, and again, there are seven things in the scriptures, and we're going to pray these in our time of prayer tonight. But it's that you are aware that there are seven warnings in the Bible about the Holy Spirit that we are never to do as God's people. Now, it's one thing for the heathen. The heathen can commit the unpardonable sin and never be born again. We understand that, that, that sin. But to the church, the warnings are given. And you have these that are marked throughout scripture. You have, you have the one again, which is most familiar in Ephesians, where, where he tells us that, where he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. You have first Thessalonians that tells us don't quench the Holy Spirit. You have Acts chapter seven, where Stephen was preaching and he saw the hardness of their ears and the hearts and those that was defiant against him. And he says, you do always resist the Holy Spirit. We've seen those that resist him. You see the other ones in the book of Psalm, where David writes and he says, do not limit the Holy One. You go to Acts chapter three. Now, again, this is more so for Christ. But again, Peter and John preaching here and they declare that they said, you have denied the Holy One, the just one. And again, we could do the same thing, deny the operation of the Holy Spirit and in the disobedience. Never in Isaiah chapter 63 is one that I just found and added to this because I've prayed these and taught these for a number of years. But this is one that I just came across in Isaiah 63, where he says, you are rebellious, rebelling against the Holy Spirit. And you always do vex, but a hard, hard word, vex the Holy Spirit. When I came across that because I was over there doing my one of the blogs that I do, I'm in Isaiah and I just came through that. And I remember I was just captivated with that, vexing the Holy Spirit. You know, where we walk into church services. And again, when we get back to this, as Brother Doug Small this morning gave us that instruction of getting the church back to prayer meetings before we start church back up. And being ever so sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Now, again, I've seen in church services the same as I'm sure that you have when Satan enters in and causes distractions and disruptions and we grieve and quench the Holy Spirit away from us. It only takes a small thing. You know, on this live stream, it could be a buffering thing or a tech issue, or it could be someone pops up for an email or like on your Facebook and you got to go check it out and you operate yourself and leave from the presence of the preaching of the word and the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit to go check on something that's so frugal and so vain and so empty. And yet that captivates us in our mind. That's when God's saying, but what about me? Oh, this people want to send a great sin. When you hear preachers step into the pulpit and they just dissect the word of God horribly to make their own doctrine, that which is presentable. All of those people have sinned a great sin. When we lessen the standard of God by compromising with sin. While we say it's OK for these evils that are being done today because God loves everybody and God doesn't want anybody to go to hell and he's going to save everybody and they have this false presentation of the gospel. All of those people have sinned a great sin. And here we are in the greatest hour of our need for our nation, for the world and for the church. To be desperate, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I always put that in the book of Luke there where he tells us that he says, if you being me, I'm a father. If you being me as a father know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask for it? We heard Brother Tom this afternoon talk about the passion and the prayer for Billy Graham and for his life and ministry of Tom's in the world and the nations that he's been with these crusades and the work that God has called him to do of revival. Do we not realize is that revival never comes until the fullness of the Holy Spirit comes? When Brother Doug was talking about Duncan Campbell and the Hebrides and again is that there was no revival happening till the Holy Spirit came down. And that means is that he's not breathing for people are walking on eggshells because they're scared. They're fearing the fear of the Lord is present and they're worried about their conditions and they're worried about what's coming. And again, as it's been said is that calamity causes people to consider this and that's a tragedy because every calamity that we've had in the United States in the last 21 years is always followed by these words from church and prayer leaders. Pray for them. Somewhere along the line I got sick of that. Somewhere between 2010, 2015 I just got sick to death is that after every tragedy that's all I heard from church leaders was well, let's just pray for them because I realized is that prayer prevailing in prayer gives us the potential to stop it before it happens. And so Columbine was a shock moment for our society for our nation. We've never seen anything like this. We never heard anything like this. And as the years came after that and we saw more and more school shootings and it became every month and almost every week wondering who's school was next. Where's this gonna happen at? I began to take on and my prayer partners with me we began to pray is that again day in and day out praying stop the school shootings because I was tired of praying for them after the tragedy after the death. And I'm telling you it is a prayer of the dash that does that. It is the broken hearted that says I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I am tired and sick of seeing the evil increase when I know that there is a God in heaven who hears our prayers and can answer them and he can do anything. And you begin to pray prevailing prayers over this evil that's in this world. Hope gives us authority with this of tearing down strongholds. You know attacking the enemy taking the battle to him. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. I'm not wrestling against this group or that group. My battle is beyond that. The one who's behind all of this. Principalities and the powers and the rulers of the darkness of the air. And I take that power that fight to him but I cannot go in my own strength because I am a failure. In the Holy Spirit there is victory. And it is the endowment of the Holy Spirit that we need to pray for the remnant and for his bride once again. And when that comes because every revival calls us out. I talked about Jonathan Edwards last night in the Great Awakening of the sermon that he preached who centers in the hands of an angry God. I mentioned the Chinese revival. And again I talked about John's song how he used to go into and all how the established church always fights against revival against the Holy Spirit. And again there's no judgment passed on it. There's no words towards them saying oh these people have sinned a great sin. They are Pharisees. They are wolves in sheep's clothing that fight against the Holy Spirit and they are in danger of God removing them. You go through history and look at this. You have John Wesley who was a part of the Church of England. And again when on that special December the 31st watch night when he and George Whitfield and Charles and others that were gathered there and the Holy Spirit came down and changed and impacted their life. And of course George Whitfield came across and was a part of our Great Awakening preaching in the streets and the highways and the byways up and down the mid-Atlantic coast. John Wesley went back into the Church of England and was preaching the gospel and the sanctification and the justification of the truth of the reform that needed to take place in the Church of England. What did they do? They kicked him to the curb and they refused to let him preach from the pulpits anymore. What did he do? He listened to George Whitfield and said well don't go to the pulpit. He said go to the fields. He said the people will come. The Holy Spirit will draw them. And the great Methodist faith denomination was birthed out of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on John and Charles Wesley. Here comes William Booth, General William Booth from the Salvation Army in the 1800s almost 100 years later. And he's preaching in the Methodist Church. That was birthed from those that had rejected in the Church of England. And now he's preaching in the pulpits of the Methodist Church and the Methodist Church is rejecting his message of the gospel. And so he's kicked to the curb and his wife turns to him and says what will we do? He says we'll go to those that need us the most. And so the Salvation Army was birthed with the power and the revival of the Holy Spirit. On and on and on. I could go through history and point this out that nothing happens in the church until the church gets to a brokenness of the dash and realize we have sinned a great sin and we are desperately in need of the Holy Spirit to come and fill us, to cleanse us, to get back on track, to get our priorities straight. You know what I see for most Christians today and here and I've heard this for years is that again, I saw and I don't understand this exactly. I follow these mass movements of things going on. Nick Hall in the Pulse Movement and again on Good Friday they had scores of people turned in to hear the gospel and many speakers were on that and many musicians and all of that. And that's all, that's again God's kingdom, God's work to be done the way that God sees fit. But he instituted for this year, the year of the Bible. Now think about this for a moment. Why would God's people need to be given a year of the year of the Bible? Could it not be that we've been neglecting the Bible for all these years? We know that we have. There have been countless ones that I have come to and talked to over the years. There are creatures that I have talked to and they've been in the ministry for a long time. And when I asked them, have you ever read the Bible? And the answer is no. Back when Brother Greg Gordon and I teamed up in the early 2000s and he did the revival conference that was down there in Atlanta and that he asked me to kind of help with the prayer times for that. And there was a lady that had kind of started following me after that. And since the time I've kind of lost touch with her. But she was in Jerusalem and she was, follows my prayer emails, my daily emails that I'd send out and encouragement, study to show yourself good, being the word, know the word, memorize the word, speak the word, pray the word, all the things of the word. And she started going around to the Protestant pastors in Jerusalem. And she said, and I could not find more that had read their Bible through all the way. That shocked me. Now that was 2008, 2010. That was over 10 years ago. But that explains why you have to have a year of the Bible for the Christian church is because the word of God is neglected. Oh, you've sinned a great sin. If you dare call yourself a Christian and you have been living with Christ as being saved and you don't have a daily time in the word of God, you know, the instruction study to show yourself approved, you know, the value of daily drawing from his promises and his truths. I even got lost people that are coming up to me right now saying because of our circumstances in a world lost people who are saying I'm reading my Bible good. And I'm encouraged by that. But God bless you. Read it. But again. You have eyes to see, but you can't see. You have ears to hear, but you can't hear. You have a mind to understand, but you can't understand until when? Until the Holy Spirit opens all up. Great need today is for the Holy Spirit to come. You don't preach the gospel. You're a preacher. You don't preach the gospel in your own intelligence, in your own style and format. You're preaching the power of the Holy Spirit. You don't pray in your secret closet, the way that grandma taught you to pray. You do what the book of Jude and James tells us. You pray in the Holy Ghost. You get in tune with the power of the Spirit and you hear him and you know him and you listen to him. You obey him. But the command is the teaching that is there is this, is that you have rebelled against the Holy Spirit and you have vexed him. What can the church do without the presence of the Holy Spirit? Is there no victory over drugs? Is there no victory over abortion? Is there no victory over alcoholism? Is there no victory over the atheist and the agnostic? Why didn't they put Madeline Murray O'Hara down back in 63 when she tried to do that? Why didn't they put her down in the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit? Why didn't we stop Roe versus Wade? And I'll tell you, it's the same reason we didn't stop homosexuality back in the 2000s. It's because when the circuit court overruled Proposition 8 out in California, they voted, the voters voted that they wanted the Constitution of California to read and the benefits and all that. They wanted Proposition 8. That voice, that it was marriage was between one man and one woman. And when the circuit court of three judges, three or five judges, I forget what it was now. When they stepped in, whatever year that was, 2009, 10, they stepped in and they overturned the votes. I sent out to the Southern Baptist Executive Committee. I sent out to every prayer ministry that I knew, every prayer partner that I had. And I said, this is going to go to the Supreme Court. And then who knows, who knows if the Supreme Court overturned for legalized Roe versus Wade, who's to say, oh, that will never happen. I'm telling you, that'll never happen. I remember back in the 90s, I went down to Washington DC to see Senator Byrd. I'm in West Virginia. And I went down to see Senator Robert Byrd, who was a professing Christian, knew his Bible, sat in his office. And he swore to me that the protection of DOMA, Defense of the Marriage Act in West Virginia would never be removed. Well, it was removed. I took his word because he told me, that'll never happen. And I did not take it that Proposition 8, I knew it would go to the Supreme Court. And I'm scared to death what the Supreme Court would do because I know their track record throughout history. And I besought church leaders against call for a solemn assembly. Let the spiritual leaders come. Don't pray after the fact, pray before. And I wrote up and for 11 months, sent things out, begging and pleading. And it was the week of the oral arguments in the Supreme Court in March, that there went out an email saying, now be sure that you pray about this a week before. That's not prevailing prayer. And that's when I came into the inner closet and I had the dash. Oh God, we have sinned a great sin. And I remember the day. I remember the day as I watched with a lot of other of you, Christians. But the ruling came out in that June. And they said, homosexuality is now the law of the land. All of those people have sinned a great sin. Because not only now have we legalized abortion and made it okay to kill the innocent. Now it's okay to be perverse. Now, here we are from 2012 to present 2013, now to two, seven years later. And here we are and we're fighting transgenderism and we're fighting the LGBT and there's no victories and there's no overcoming and the drugs are swallowing us and suicide is swallowing us and school shootings and everything else that we're facing today. And now we have a pandemic upon us. If there was ever a time for the church to be broken, it's tonight. And you say, well, what about September when we have a solemn assembly? Six months time, I might be gone and all the speakers that are participating in this might be gone. You viewers that are watching this that are giving a hearty amen and supporting this, you might be gone in six months. You can't answer for what's gonna come in six months or next year. What we have is today. We know the scripture in salvation where he says, in Hebrews, he says, behold, today is the day of salvation. Now is the acceptable time and we as the church need to understand that. We don't know what the month of May may hold, but this much bothers me and causes fear in me. Is that because the coronavirus and the death rate that's happening in the United States today has not broken the church, has not made us desperate as again, let's just get back to normal. You've heard that phrase over and over throughout today. Let's just get back to what we were used to, making money, enjoying our possessions, having our ease and entertainment. And we forgot the Laodicean church. You are increased of goods and have need of nothing. And because you are lukewarm, I would that you were colder heart. I would that you was on fire or cold as ice, but you're not, you're lukewarm. You're just content and just content never ever praise the dash. They never understand eternity. They never understand the consequences of sin. They have no understanding is that God tonight, that tonight your soul is required. The king of Babylon in Daniel chapter five, it says this night, your soul is required of you and his knees not together. And it's too late for your loved one, my loved one, for the sake of our nation, what's coming in the next month, because this hasn't worked because this hasn't shaken us, because this hasn't stirred us to the place of desperation and broken us. Well, then guess what happens? God says, well, then I will do something that will get your attention. And again, you only have to look at the 10 plagues in Egypt to realize is that they kept getting ratcheted up. And here we are losing people by the thousands. And it's still not enough. It's still not enough that, again, we can't shut the abortion mills down. We can't go back to the blue laws and set the Lord's day, a day of rest. We can't go back to putting evil and the crime down. We can't go back as the church goes. So goes the nation. And if the church doesn't have the Holy Spirit, then what in the world is the world gonna have to bring them to conviction and conversion? The absolute necessity for tonight is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And so our prayer time tonight, as we begin this, it is to get along with God. And it is to come before him and to recognize who he is. It is to come before him with the weight of the world on our shoulders. Again, God whispers to Moses as he's up on the mount. And he says, this people have sinned against me. Go down and deal with this. 3000 people died that night. The next morning, Moses got up and he addresses the people and he says, you have sinned a great sin. Your family, souls are in jeopardy. Your cities and communities are in jeopardy. Our future is in jeopardy. We are dying now faster than we are repopulating as a nation. And that means is that we are on the road now to extinction. You read that phrase? There are scriptures where he says, and I will remove you from the earth. That's what's happening. You know, a lot of times people ask that in second coming theology and doctrine where people are pre-millennial and post-millennial and all millennial. And they're trying to figure all this stuff out. And they said, how come the United States is not in the scriptures? Did you ever think it's because maybe God has removed us? Because we didn't get it. And we was just content to go on and happy, satisfied. And we never reached the point of Exodus 32, 32. Oh God, these people have sinned a great sin. Pardon us. Forgive us. There's no addressing of the sin. It's just a compromise with it. Preachers who preach on the blessings of God and the promises of God and everybody going to heaven. And they never mentioned hell. And they never mentioned sin. They never mentioned judgment. Those who've stood out and they've said, this isn't of God. This is never going to never be an issue for us. We don't have to worry. This will all pass over. God might grab our attention tonight. And again, he's not done. You can look at the seven areas of judgment that God brings on a nation. And we've touched some of them, but we haven't got to all of them. This is a plague, disease. But what about the natural disasters? Again, we've had earthquakes. We've had these shakings. What about the natural disasters of the wildfires that was in California two years ago? What about the severe drought that was going on? And again, prevailing in prayer. I've watched, I've seen Texas dry up back a number of years ago in the early 2010 to 2012 era. Just horrible what was going on in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas. Well, just no rain for days. California, no rain. And so it did here in West Virginia. We had gone practically a whole summer, week after week and months without rain. And I have a creek that's right across the road here from me, and that's the water source. And I watched it dry up. And I finally went to some local pastors and I said, are we going to wait till we're completely out of water? Again, after the fact to say, let's pray. And they agreed with me. They called for a prayer meeting, a solemn assembly. And almost all the churches were represented in this surrounding area and they came. And I dressed with worship and the confession and the pleading for rain, just as I have set this one up. And I went down through, I had the section of confession and I went down through from A to Z, all the sins that needed to be confessed in our society, in our homes, in our own hearts, in our church, specific sins. And after every sin, I would give them time to pray and ask for God's forgiveness and to make a vow. I'm going to repent of this. I'm never going back to it. And I can remember Christians sitting in the parking lot testifying later to us is that weeping. I have been in the church for 50 years and I've never seen anything like that. I've been in the church for decades and I've never heard sin spelled out like that. Always was left with the question, well, then what have you heard? But you know what happened within 24 hours after that prayer meeting concluded? Rain came. We didn't have to say, pray for rain after we water sources were dried up. We prevailed with God. God in his mercy, God in his long suffer. So, so unworthy of all that. But he comes even on a night like this to you that are with me and speaks to his body, his bride one more time. Long suffering, grace, mercy, loving kindness. Come unto me. Come unto me. The church with one unified voice should rise up from pastors, to leaders, to prayer ministries, rise up and to say, oh God, we have sinned a great sin. Please God, pardon us. And the dash or the choked up and the heart is broke. You cry, lift up a cry to God because there's no answers nowhere else, nowhere else. It's just at the throne of grace. That's the only place that you and I have to come, Hebrews chapter four, verse 16. Let us come bold unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy to find and to help in this time of need. The absolute necessity is for the church who has grieved the Holy Spirit, quenched the Holy Spirit, resisted the Holy Spirit, vexed the Holy Spirit, denied the Holy Spirit, rebelled against the Holy Spirit. It is time to confess that. It is time to put these things away from us for anything. You said, well, I don't know that I've ever been guilty of that, Dan. Well, what about the times when you're laying in bed or you're laying on the couch in the recliner and you're watching your favorite show and you feel that touch on your shoulder and God's saying, I need your attention. Something needs to be prayed about. And you know that it's the Holy Spirit. You're not ignorant. You know, and you have the audacity to say to God, can you wait till after this is over? Can I catch you later on? Can I pencil you in tomorrow when you knew that he was speaking to you for right now? Let me share this and then I wanna go over to prayer. It was a number of years ago. And again, learning. This is all a learning thing in prayer. We all know, none of us in this prayer, seeking God, revival, none of us has all the answers. But we just wait before the one who does. And I can remember, and I've shared this over the last couple of months more repetitively because again, I didn't understand at the time, but a number of years ago, I was at one of my boys football games on a Friday night. And I'm at a strange stadium that I've never been to before. And I'm sitting there by myself in pre-warmups. My wife's off, she's talking to someone else. And I'm sitting there with my cup of coffee and I'm sitting there by myself. And all of a sudden, like someone poured hot water over me, cleared down and it was just an eerie feeling. And I looked around, just not knowing what was happening to me. But physically, I'd been touched by something. And I was like, what is that? And immediately, my mind processing is like, oh, something happened to one of the kids or something's not right. And it was at that time of one of the mass shootings that took place that night. And I didn't realize it, but I realized it later is that God was stirring me to pray for the evil that was getting ready to happen. He was forewarning about what was coming. And I didn't, I was like Samuel when I was running to Eli. I didn't know. And that happened several times over the next several months. And I have those documented in my prayer notebook until I finally started to get it. And that I realized is that when that hit me, something's not right. I realized it was the Holy Spirit beckoning for me to pray the Father's heart against the evil that was getting ready to happen. Many times I reached out to a dozen or so prayer partners and I said, it's happening again. And we would pray and God in his mercy would answer. But at first I didn't realize that there was so much tragedy and so much death that was happening. And you said, well, what about this coronavirus last year? Last year, at the close of the year from mid summer when we started doing the concerts of prayer, we joined the seven churches down in Austin, Texas that Brother Kyle Bowman and Trey Kenton and seven other churches. They prayed 160 hours straight. Seven churches, each church took a 24 hour setting and they prayed around the clock. And then at the end of their 24 hours, they would pass it off to the next church. And I loved that. Protracted prayer meeting. Long prayer meetings where you accomplish something. Prevail. Don't stop praying until you prevail. That's what I like. And I wrote Kyle and I wrote Trey and I said, hey, I'm gonna do that up here. I'm gonna do it with my churches. And we're not gonna do 168 hours. I cut it in half. I would do 80 hours and I got prayer partners and everybody took an hour. You know, just the blessed hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that I mentioned this morning. And we prayed that whole week. It was the last week of September going into the first week of October. And I was so moved by that. But even then there was a sense and through October and November, you could read my prayer emails. As I said, something's not right. Something's coming in 2020. Not able to put my finger. I thought we were gonna go to war. I thought we was gonna have war with Iran at that time. And I didn't specify that, but in my mind, you know, looking at the areas of economy, plague, war, death, and trying to figure it out and it wasn't clear. And at the last week, last days, we prayed for 100 straight hours coming into January 1st of this year. And it was evident during that prayer time, something's on the horizon, getting ready to come. And little did we know where we'd be here on April the 25th, 2020. God's given us warnings. He's given us revelation, seven seals, seven vows, seven trumpets. He's revealed to us what's coming. And we know that this whole world is coming apart. We know the end times are coming. That's the reason of us for this moment. That we not wait till final collapse to finally get desperate and burdened and say, maybe we better pray. Maybe we better pray when we know that this night is all we've got and we're gonna make the most of it. Would you right now in your prayer, I'm gonna close here these moments now with this, is that again, we begin with recognizing the Trinity. God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit. I know we pray our Father, which art in heaven. I know that many times we pray. I hear a lot of times people pray to Jesus, dear Jesus, and they make their petitions and their statements to him. But I don't remember the last time I ever heard anybody talk to the Holy Spirit in a prayer meeting. I often wonder if that grieves him. Holy Spirit, we need you. Souls do not become convicted and converted without the full power of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Unless we are endued with power from on high by the Holy Spirit, we can't do missions. We can't do crusades. We can't do evangelism. Your loved ones will never be born again unless the Holy Spirit says so. Jesus breathed on his disciples and he said, receive the Holy Spirit. And again, for the church today, receive the Holy Spirit. Oh, Father, pardon our iniquities, pardon our sins, forgive us, oh God. And if you don't, fadash, because of how desperate that we are that we need you. You said that your words go out and they never return until you void, Father. But oh God, let your word go out in power of the Spirit, Lord, upon every ear. Upon those that hear the message tomorrow that they desperately need to know that the Holy Spirit is real. The power of the Holy Spirit to guide us, to speak to us as the church. So we know what direction we're supposed to go and that we obey that and not be guilty of these seven sins against the Holy Spirit. That again, it's not committed by the lost. It's not committed by the heathen. It's by the church. You've grieved him. You've quenched him, limited, resisted him, denied him, vexed him. Oh, Holy Spirit, forgive me. Holy Spirit, forgive us. We have sinned a great sin. Restore your church to the power. That again is that we pray. We pray so as to prevail and that we know that greater is he that is in us than he that's in this world. And we are walking evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit in our life by the words that we say and the lives that we live. Do you ever wonder why when we pray for the addicts is that there are so, now there is victims and there are answer prayers and there is salvation. Praise God for all of that. But why do we have an epidemic of drug overdoses and drug addictions and alcohol addictions? Yeah, if the presence of the Holy Spirit comes in fullness, do you realize? And again, I go back to the Hebrides. Do you hear, did you hear Duncan Campbell's testimony on that? Have you ever listened to that? Every tavern and bar shut and it never opened again. Every alcoholic husband and father sobered up and never went back to the drink. Do you know what that would look like in the United States that every drug addict and every alcoholic, every porn addict, every adulterer and fornicator and liar, their lives would be radically changed and all there would be is testimonies. Look what the Holy One did in me. Oh God, may there be great power and great testimonies for the glory of your great name. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask for it? Would you ask right now? Would you ask it again, praying one for another, my brothers and sisters that are online right now, may we be filled with the Holy Spirit. May we be vessels of honor and filled with your Lord to the purpose of your kingdom. Now, if there's sin in your life, if there is grueling, reigning sin there that ought not be there, things that you're struggling with, here's the victim of the Holy Spirit that overcomes. There is a confession that needs to take place personally, yes, and the Holy Spirit brings those things to our mind. Put that away from me so that I might be emptied of self to be filled with thee. Fill me up, Lord. And again, it comes down to this one, this passion that we need here tonight. And I want to ask you, and again, my time's evaporating away from me, but there are a couple of verses in the scriptures that I want to ask of you that you would pray for this Sunday. And the first one is, in Psalm 34, and I'm going to have to take time here to open my Bible to that, Psalm 34, verse 18, Psalm 51, the great prayer of confession of David. But in Psalm 34, this is a key to what we're praying for here tonight. And I don't want to misquote it. That's the reason I got to look it up. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. And he saves such as be of a contrite spirit. The broken and the contrite. The great necessity and the great need for us tonight to have a brokenness and a contrition over our sins, which only comes for the power of the Holy Spirit. Over in the book of Isaiah, chapter 57, verse 15, another directive, not for the lost, but for the saved. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and the holy place with him also. That is, I dwell with him that is of a contrite and a broken spirit to revive, revive. Brother Tom preached that this afternoon. Revive, bring back from its sleepy state. Bring back from its dead state. Revive the heart of the contrite ones and of the humble. And there's another one in Never in Isaiah 66, chapter 66 of Isaiah, verse two. For all those things have my hand made and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look even to him that is of a poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. God, I don't see much fear of the Lord out there today. I see fear of the plague, of the coronavirus. I see fear of losing their bank accounts. I see fear of other things, but I do not see the fear of the Lord in the church or out of the church. Oh, God, restore us back to where we're pleasing in your sight. In you, I am well pleased. Let that voice be spoken to the church tonight. That again, our hearts, our souls, our spirits, our minds are broken. And the only thing that we can do is fall and as Moses did in Exodus 32, 32, where the sentence just is never finished, the dash. I pray that your secret closet tonight is filled with that. I pray that your church meeting tomorrow is filled with that. I pray for the rest of our gatherings, for the solemn assembly, a call for a solemn assembly where they're supposed to be weeping and mourning. They're supposed to be that anguish that's within us because all these people have sinned a great sin. We have sinned a great sin. There has never been a more desperate hour for the presence of God to come upon us and to be with us. How desperate are we this night with what we're seeing going on and that we know the hand of God has gone out against us and not for us. But it only takes a remnant to prevail with him. And he is able to hear us and to say, I see you and I go back to 2 Chronicles 16, 9. The eyes of the Lord and his ears are attentive. And he goes through the entire world looking for those whose hearts are perfect towards him. You know the perfect heart? Broken and contracted. Here am I with God. I have not wept. I've not been broken as much as I should have for the things of your kingdom, of your bride. For he that fears, trembles at the word of the Lord. You have these preachers and these scoundrels out there dismissing the word of God. There's no fear there. We gotta get back to that. In this place, oh God, bring us back to where we need to be. It is just that desperate cry of where we're at tonight as a nation and at the state of the church. I used to listen to those on prayer meetings and they would pray this prayer. They would make this statement. They would say, Lord, you do whatever it takes. And I don't hear them praying that prayer no more. I hear them praying, get us out of this. Because maybe God's answering their first prayer. I would never pray that prayer. That prayer scares me to death. Do whatever it takes. Don't you know who God is? Don't you know what God does? Don't ever, ever do that. You pray the will of God for the glory of God. And it begins with the people of God. Here are we tonight, glory Lord. We have done much against your Holy Spirit. And we gotta get back to you, God. Make sure, oh God, that there is no sins in the flesh, no sins of self, no false items that robs us of our time, that grieves or quenches, resists or limits or vexes your Holy Spirit. Fell us, oh God, from the top of our head to the sole of our feet that it emanates from us when we go out here in our very void. So I remember Charles Finney did that. He looked at a woman, looked at her, never said a word, just looked at her and she fell under conviction because the Holy Spirit was so heavy there. There's the place that we gotta get in the society, filled with the Holy Spirit. And as David said in Psalm 23, my cup runneth over. Oh God, make us broken and contrite. Let us fall in alignment with your word. I pray for ministries. I pray for missionaries across another seas what they're facing in these remote areas where there are more hardship for these lockdowns without food, without access. Freedoms are restricted. Religious freedoms are there. Lord, I pray for North Korea tonight. What you may be, again, you're moving pieces for the blood that has been spilt in that land for your martyrs, for your children. And maybe you're getting ready to cast your glorious light in that area. Lord, I pray for the days ahead for what the rest of April holds for us. I pray for the next month of May, Father. But again, that your church, the leadership, hears the call. Gather my people together. Assemble. Seek my face. Call upon me. I never hardly quote 2 Chronicles 7-14. Because everybody wants God to do his three parts of 2 Chronicles 7-14, forgive us, heal our land, and restore us. But they don't wanna do the first four parts. Humble, pray, seek my face, turn from my wicked ways. They don't wanna do that. That's the reason I always say is that Isaiah is probably more appropriate for us, where he says, the Lord's ear is not deaf that he cannot hear. His hand is not short that it cannot say, verse two, but your iniquities and your transgressions have separated you from him. We've offended the Holy Spirit. Our sins and our iniquities. And we've gotta get rid of them and make things right so that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit to be a voice in this world that's asking the questions, what's going on? Why is this happening? What are we supposed to do? In the church, call for a solemn assembly and gather my children together. Cleanse yourselves. Get your hearts right. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted more. Let your laughter be turned to weeping and your joy to sorrow. He's given us instruction what we're supposed to do. Do you know the word of God? Our opportunity tonight is to respond to that challenge and that call that God has given to us found here in Exodus 32, 32, where Moses stands as an intercession for the people of God, the children of Israel, the nation. And we stand as intercessors tonight for the two paths, for the United States of America and the nations of the world and for the church, the bride of Christ. Oh God, these people have sinned a great sin. Pardon our sins. May God hear us and God answer us, not for ourselves and not for their sakes, but for the glory of his name. Worthy is the lamb that was slain for us. Let's close in prayer right now. Bless the Father, mighty God. I thank you for this time tonight. I thank you for these passages of scripture. They stir the soul. Oh God, quicken us in your Holy Spirit. Make us ever so sensitive to our thoughts, our gestures, our deeds, what we're doing, what we're not doing. Oh, how we need you, Lord. Never to operate your church, your church without the presence of the Holy Spirit, that we defile it, turn it into a shame and a mockery of which it is tonight by many in this world, a laughingstock to hell. But oh God, it's your bride. And you have always been jealous. Give us brokenness and contrition that is pleasing in your sight. Holy Spirit, return to us, we pray in fullness. Fill us to our cup on the third. Oh God, this night, hear our cries. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Glorify thy name in all the earth. Begin with this remnant that has the mind and the heart, oh Lord, to please you, to be right with you. They have a burden, they're broken, they're upset, Father. They've seen us in the church and in our nation in the headlines for years. They've lifted cries, but there's been no prevailing. There's no victory. Give us victory. Meet us again, oh Lord, in your long suffering and your goodness. Restore us, oh Lord, to the people that we're supposed to be. Give our priorities in line. And forgive us, oh God, for the great sins that we've sinned as a nation and as your people. Forgive me, forgive these of our sins that we've sinned against you, oh God. We need you this night. Honor, honor the prayers. But above all, honor the tears of those who are weeping even now for the sins of the nation, the sins of their family, the sins of the church, and the sins of their own heart. Be moved, oh Father, in this time and place tonight because we need you. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.