A Call To Return To God

Who among us is worthy to discuss these high things that we're talking about today? Lord, being reconciled to you as a people. Lord, living for you wholly. Lord, in praying, seated with you in heavenly places, interceding with you for the people of the earth. Lord, we pray today that you'll help everybody that listens. We pray for the speaker after me and farther on. Lord, I pray that people will go back and get to see the whole thing and listen to all the other speakers that have spoken. Lord, I know each one's different. Each one has a different emphasis. And Lord, it'll make a difference for everybody's life that tunes in to listen. Father, thank you for this medium, Lord, that Dan's been able to use and to bring people from all over the country, really, to come together. And Lord, I want to thank you for the fact that most of us have been connected in some way over the years and related to the call to Solemn Assembly that we've so longed to see come to pass in our nation, Lord, because our nation is desperate today. So lead us, we pray today in the name of Jesus. Amen. As Dan said, my name is Pierre Bynum, and I want to introduce to you my wife, Christina. What we're going to do today is I'm going to minister the Word, and then we're going to pray together. And so that you'll get my prayers and her prayers, and they'll be mixed up. And you're able to pray and be more in the spirit of prayer with us when we do that, I think, than just sitting and listening to one person preach. And we want to start out by reading a prayer that I wrote way back in 2009, when the Family Research Council launched a website called The Call to Fall. And we called on people, pastors all over the nation to lead their churches in a many solemn assembly, essentially. And the idea really, for me, in my heart, was to get the idea of solemn assembly out to many, many pastors. And we very, very quickly did get a whole crowd together. But again, it was just a many solemn assembly. And my experience in talking to different pastors has been that it was exactly that, a many solemn assembly. A solemn assembly is something that really takes time to plan for, time to be prepared for as individuals, every participant. And then it's executed at a particular time. It's really a season. And then with a culmination of a day or a week of gathering together. And as Dan knows, and he's mentioned in talking about the speakers that were going to be coming, I'm involved with something called The Return, which is being led by a team of really, really fine men from across the country, and leaders that have been involved in the body of Christ for many years and have made a dent in the church, who recognize that we are at a desperate time, that it is the desperate time. And God has brought together what looks like it's going to be a genuine national and international solemn assembly. I just want to give you a little bit of information there, an international, because as we got the word out on planning a solemn assembly for America, other nations wanted to join in. And we've actually had, from just one nation alone, more people say, we want to be a part of this solemn assembly and have dedicated thousands and thousands of churches to be a part of that solemn assembly on September the 26th of this year, September the 26th. And it's just come together in an amazing way, because it's God's time. Our nation is in deep, deep trouble. And Christine and I are going to read a prayer that I wrote back in 2009, when we just launched this call to fall, which again, is a preliminary picture of the solemn assembly and intended for local churches to do a, basically a one Sunday morning solemn assembly, or at each of their different services, if they have more than one service. And millions of people have participated in that over the years, but and some of them are doing it. I've got one church that calls me all the time. They do a call to fall every single Sunday. And so let's pray this prayer, honey. And this is a written prayer. But again, it's a prayer from the heart. It was written, written years ago. And today, it is every bit as applicable as it was in 2009. So why don't you go ahead and start. Heavenly Father, Lord, you are good. Your steadfast love endures forever, and your faithfulness to all generations. From Psalm 100. We come on bended knee to acknowledge our utter dependence upon you, our creator, God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are God of the Old and New Testament. Your covenant of love with us who believe is sealed by the blood of your son. Your promise to bless us if we believe, honor and obey you, and to judge us if we do not continues in force. Lord, today we unite with fellow Christians across America, from many denominations and backgrounds. Falling on our knees before you, asking you to help us humble ourselves, not only today, but every day. Hear our prayers, forgive our sins, and heal our land. We have been proud and arrogant as individuals, families, churches, and a nation. You have singularly blessed us, but we have taken your blessings for granted. You are worthy of our love and devotion. Instead, we have forgotten you and ignored your word. We have not esteemed you as almighty God, nor have we honored, served, and obeyed you as you ought, as we ought, and as you ought to be obeyed. Few of us walk in pure devotion to you, worshiping wholeheartedly, praying without ceasing, daily feeding upon your word. Too few of us have given ourselves enthusiastically to do your will and word, and labor diligently to finish your work. Rather, we have forsaken you, the spring of living water, and imbibed the stagnant waters of our own modern culture. You call us to be light, to live holy lives, to walk in Christian love, and carry the gospel of Christ to the nations. Instead, we have withheld the grace of your gospel from our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, allowing far too many to face a Christless eternity. You command us to bring up our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, yet our youth are abandoning the faith in unprecedented numbers, while we ignore your command to preach the gospel. Those who serve false gods zealously proselytize, trapping millions in eternal darkness and confusion. We've been complacent, apathetic, lazy, disobedient, and unfaithful to your call. Yes, you charge us to be salt in our culture, to preserve truth and all that is godly and pure, yet we have allowed the rot of godless media and entertainment to fill our homes. Instead of permeating our culture with biblical, vital truth, instead of filling our homes, churches, schools, businesses, halls of government, and thus our nation with eternal truth and reality, we have allowed them to be infected by lies and spiritual darkness. Instead of changing the world, the world has changed us. We seem now impotent. Having failed to be the salt of the earth, we are fast becoming good for nothing, except to be cast out and prodded under the feet of men. All these have scriptures attached. I've not given each of them, but you're familiar with them. Lord, the living faith of our forefathers, their love and devotion to their children, and their commitment to future generations compelled them to sacrifice their lives for us, yet we have become the me generation. We elect leaders not for their righteousness, but their promise to give us benefits. Absorbed with our own lives and material possessions, we have lost sight of all that's important, God and family, our neighbors, our fellow countrymen, and the people beyond the seas whom you love and for whom you gave your son. Now, our nation is under judgment. Natural disasters pummel our cities and countryside. We face war on two fronts. Rogue nations hate us, and international terrorists have penetrated our borders. Economic collapse cripples entire regions. Millions are out of work. Preachers and politicians are put on display for their acts of corruption and immorality. Our leaders mortgage their children's future to build political monuments to themselves. Our jails and prisons are filled to overflowing. Our children are enslaved by unthinkable sins, sex, drugs, and alcohol. Abortion and sexual immorality have become protected rights, and legislators, judges, and governors impose homosexual marriage upon their citizens. Our schools teach that marriage between a man and a woman is morally equivalent. A man and a man is morally equivalent to a holy matrimony between a man and a woman. Evil is called good, and good is called evil. The curses you warned would come to disobedient people have all come upon us. Unless you, Lord, intervene and bring revival to the church, awakening to the nation, and spiritual reformation to our culture, our once God-blessed nation will go the way of ancient Carthage, Greece, and Rome. Persecution will surely become our lot. Lord, we cry out to you today. Hear our cry. Help us to seek your face. Show us your face. Help us to turn from our wicked ways. Lord, heal our land. Show us mercy. Forgive us our sins and cleanse us. Revive your churches. Set your pulpits aflame with righteousness. Purge compromise from our pews and cause your word to go forth to every city and town in America. Make your people salt and light again. Raise up godly leaders in your church and state, and grant that we might lead quiet and peaceable lives in godliness and honesty. Help us to return wholly to you, and you, Lord, return to us. We pray in the name of Jesus, knowing that your word declares, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Indeed, we are at a critical time. Everybody knows that. Those that do not know the Lord know that. It's really, it's an incredible time to reach people for Jesus Christ, if we will. But the appeal to this time of prayer, this time of sharing is prevailing prayer. And that's what I want to talk about. If I can, and you've already heard some other people talk about it, so this may be quite repetitive. I'm sure it is. I've heard a couple of them. So let me just share. I'm going to share four things. Number one, in order to have prevailing prayer, you have to pray. Number two, I want to talk about intercessory prayer, which is something that we all need to be a part of. God did not call us to pray just for us to say, gimme, gimme, gimme. Lord, please give me this. Please help me with that. Please this, this, that, and the other. Although God is eager to help us in all things. He's eager to provide for us. He's eager to meet our needs. And there's nothing wrong with praying for those things. But when our prayer life consists predominantly of asking God to give for us, we're missing the mark altogether. God intended prayer to be a part of our toolbox and our weapon box as spiritual warriors. Again, our toolbox and our weapon box for spiritual warriors. And in addition to that, it's intended to be our lifeline to Jesus Christ. It's our communication with God. It's our relationship with him. So prayer is not an option. It's not something for prayer warriors. It's for every Christian, number one. And every Christian is called by God to be a prayer warrior. There may be some that are more than others, even in the world. We've got some dedicated soldiers, and then we have some people that are businessmen, and we have farmers, and we have all the different kinds of people that God has, and we have different emphases. And, you know, God is a great, great businessman. He knows you've got to have all kinds of different employees in order to get your work done. But God's called us to his work. He's given us a great commission. And he's also elaborated in the scripture what that commission is. We have to be salt and light. Now, I have broken that down, and many others have. I'm following many others before me that have said that the salt is essentially, the light is preaching the gospel, living the gospel. It's being a light in the world. As Ronald Reagan rightly quoted one of our founding fathers from Massachusetts, that we are called to be a light on a hill, a city on a hill, a light to the world, a city on the hill. And that's what each one of us is to be in our sphere. That's what the church as a body is to be to everybody that sees it. And, you know, in our country, we have ceased to be that city on a hill. And our nation, as hoped for by many of our founders, is a mixed bag in terms of being a city of a hill. But I'll tell you this, there's still lots of people across the world that love us and thank us and appreciate us for our ministry to them through our missionaries that have gone out over the years. And they don't know how bad we are. I met a student who came from Africa and enrolled in one of our colleges. And when he got to America, he was shocked. He was shocked. Everything he had had a vision of America, of what he'd read in the books and what he'd seen in some of the missionary, sacrificial missionaries. And when he got here, he was just shocked. And when I talked to him on the bus, we were on a bus together. I encouraged him to stay and to finish his work and to use this opportunity to let people know exactly what he'd shared with me. Because our lost fellow countrymen have no idea how far we've gone. Many do, but most do not. And that's why they're in the fix that they're in, why we're in the fix that we're in. We've not been salt, the scripture says. Jesus told us that the salt, and we read it in the prayer, in the first prayer, is a preservative. It's a preservative, is one thing. And we have got to be salt to our country. God intended us to be salt and light to such a degree that we influenced the whole country, that we influence every aspect of our country. We talked about the seven mountains of culture, all of the different influential spheres, the influencers. And God wants the church to be an influence that's greater than all of them. He wants his gospel and his message to be influencing every single one of those spheres in a dynamic way. But we have shrunk back and hidden from the culture rather than being an influence to the culture. So first of all, we've got to pray. We've got to learn how to pray. Every Christian is called to pray. And I want to go to where most of us know this, and it won't take me long to go through it. I just want you to all go to the scripture in Matthew 6, where Jesus taught us to pray. And I want to give you a new perspective to it, not much. But in Matthew 6, Jesus taught us how to pray. The disciples came to us and said, teach us to pray. And he says, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And I want you to take note of this. The first thing he did was to focus on the Father, to focus on God. That's the purpose of all prayer. And you'll see that every kind of prayer starts out with focusing on God. If it doesn't focus on God, what are you doing? And the Lord calls us to worship. Worship is our primary duty as children of God, is to worship the Lord and to magnify the Lord. And so we should all have that in our prayer lives. And there are some people who are more and more vital worshipers than others. And some people are a little staid and reserved, but we've all got to come out of our shrinking violet mode and learn how to worship the Lord and to lift him up. And when we lift him up, we're lifted up. When we lift him up, we're strengthened. We're lifted up in our hearts. We're able to see with him and we're able to pray right. If we don't worship, if we don't worship and exalt him and give him the glory, do his name, we miss it. And we are not able to pray effectively. So there are stories, and I heard Dan Beiser the other night sharing about Jehoshaphat giving the solemn assembly when he was, when the whole nation was under the threat of a horde of mixed armies coming against them and destroying them. And they had every capacity to destroy them. And the Lord moved on Jehoshaphat to call for a solemn assembly, called right there in this urgent moment. We're in an urgent moment today, folks, to call a solemn assembly. And they all came together and they bowed their knees before the Lord and they cried out to him and they repented of their sins and they called on the Lord for help and for salvation. And then the Lord directed Jehoshaphat to send the singers out before him, the leaders of the church, and to go out and to sing and to praise the Lord. And you know what happened? Quite amazing. The armies began to fight against each other and destroyed themselves. And they were able to chase after them and finish them off. And it was an amazing, amazing story. But the Lord wants us to worship first of all, and then to cry out to him for the needs that we face and for the needs that he calls us to pray for. So that's our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, your will be done. This is key number two. God has not called us again to focus on ourselves and to ask him for all these things, although he wants us to do that. He wants us to be involved in the work of his kingdom and advancing his kingdom. That's what our prayer lives are for. And if you have not advanced to that place where you are busy crying out to God for his purposes to be accomplished, for his will to be done, and for his goals that are laid out plainly in the lives and very specific declarations to us and requirements of us that he gives us, calling us to pray for particular things. And I'm going to talk about one a little bit later, but there are many things as you read through the scripture that we're called to pray for. Obviously, we're called to pray for our own relationship with the Lord. We're supposed to pray for our families. We should pray for every one of our families regularly. We should pray for our church, our pastor, our leaders, our rank and file people, the people who just came in the door, that they will be established in Christ. We need to pray for those that we're discipling, and we should also be looking to disciple and to help people come into the kingdom and be nurtured and like babies come into strength as young people and then grow into mature Christians. And we need also to pray for our communities, and we need to pray for our nation. And we'll look at that a little bit later. Our nation is in, it's in what I would call, it's basically on life support. I hate to say that, but it's on life support morally and spiritually. I heard Dan say this yesterday also, the Baptist churches have been declining, the Baptist church has been the, as a denomination, probably the most conservative or one of the most conservative of denominations. It's the largest denomination by far, Protestant denomination. And it has been bleeding people for several years now. Each year is a new, shocking surprise, the number of people who bless the church, but that's not just the Baptist church. It's all of them. We're not doing our job. And God is not blessing us as a church, the way that he wants to bless us. And he's calling us to attention. And not only is he calling us to attention through that, he's calling us through all these other warnings that we see in scripture. And, but right now we're at on life support. And if we do not revive immediately, we're going to be in a level of judgment that is going to be hard for us to, hard for us to handle, very hard for us to handle. But we'll talk about that more later. So let me talk about Ancestry of Prayer. Ancestry of Prayer, you all know the story of Abraham. Abraham learned about God's plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. The angels actually came to him and revealed them. And he began to cry out to God. He began to intercede. His nephew Lot was there and his family was there. And he began to intercede for his nephew and to intercede for whatever righteous people were left in that city. And he asked God, are you going to destroy the righteous with the wicked? And he negotiated with God and got him down to 10 people. Are you going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? And for the sake of 10 people, will you save it for their sakes? And the Lord lifted away and he would have done it. He would have done it if we had 10. We've got a good number of people in America that love the Lord. I'm praying and hoping that God will do a miraculous work in our country by truly moving his God-fearing people to seek his face the way that they need to. And he commands us to in times like these, and we'll have mercy on our country. But he was an intercessor. We all know the story of of Moses. Moses in Exodus 32, God told him to come on up to the mountain and to, he went up to the mountain and the Lord told him, and he told the Lord, these people are rebellious people. These are rebellious people that I'm dealing with. And the Lord told him, stand back. Let me start over with you and make a new nation. And he said, no, no, no, no, Lord, what would the people say? What would the nation say? They'd say that you began a job and you couldn't complete it, that you weren't able to save your people. And so God went ahead and gave him the stones with the words, with the finger of God on them, with the 10 commandments. He carried them down and lo and behold, what was down there, the people had gone and not only into rebellion, but they'd gone into idolatry and lasciviousness and just in a matter of days. And he went back to the Lord and the Lord said, and he said to the Lord, the Lord said, I'm going to kill them. I'm going to take them. This is it. And Moses said, no, no, Lord, you can't do that. Please blot my name out of the book of life before you do that. And the Lord says, I'm going to, I'm going to forego destroying them, but I will hold each one of them accountable in due time, but I'm not going to blot your name out of the book of life. But you see the point there was, this was another intercessory prayer, but it was a, it was with, with a skin in the game. This is what you would call that skin in the game. He was prepared to give his life. That was a picture of Jesus who ultimately did get his life in order to save a bunch of rebellious people, which includes you and me. God is so merciful. He's merciful beyond belief, beyond it's, it's, I mean, those of us who know him, love him and have seen his mercy still are awed by the, the, the love and mercy that he's willing to show people. And that's what he wants in us. And I wanted to just say this here, a couple of things that are prerequisite to, to being a effective intercessor. And this is an attitude that we need to go into the psalm assembly with. We must have love that never fails in the body of Christ and unity that God might command his blessing and that we might pray in one accord. Love never fails. It covers a multitude of sins and identifies us as his, as the world might know. Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. Intercession is one standing between the enemy and the people battling on their behalf to God who bears, who hears. That's the attitude we have to right now. We see lost men tearing up our streets, murdering people. These are the worst of the worst. They're for no reason. Some of them are being paid by, paid by terror, terror mongers in order to do what they're doing. And we see other bad people, but you know what God wants, God loves every man in the world. And he loves even these people that are misbehaving so badly. And he wants us to have love for everybody, love for the lost, love for the ones that are destroying themselves with alcohol and drugs and, and bad living. And he wants us to go not only in a spirit of pleading for his forgiveness for us, the body of Christ, but also pleading on behalf of the lost around us. We're going in a solemn assembly and we want to correct our attitudes toward everybody. Now, there are many, I just want to mention that, what I just said, we're, we're all aware of Black Lives Matter issue that's going on right now. And one of the things that we also have to have is a heart of repentance toward people, not just, not just toward the Lord, but toward people. And we've been very, very close to a number of our Black brothers and sisters who are very mature in Christ. And they have told us, Pierre, we have a wound, we have a wound that must be healed. And what these people are doing is not right. It's not right. And they need to be dealt with appropriately. There needs to be law and order in our land. But we do have, this is a sign, and again, they're not, they're not stirring up themselves in this. There are outside forces that are using people that have been wounded over the years to, to tear apart our country. I mean, this is a planned event being perpetrated by outside forces, wealthy, anti-Christian, anti-American leaders that are actually making money off of our country and making billions of dollars off of our country, and then using it to destroy our country. It's a very, very sad thing. But there are Black people who are still wounded because of we have done to them, what our forefathers did to them. And we need to be sensitive by the power of the Holy Spirit to their needs. And I don't want to say that we need to tolerate misbehavior or illegal behavior, but we need to be sympathetic and empathetic towards these people. It's going to take time. You know, they, we, our founders decided to go on with establishing the nation despite the fact that they could not come to an agreement over slavery. It was clear that there could not have been a nation if they had refused to continue to tolerate slavery for a time. But they laid out principles. The principles were that all men are created equal. And they foresaw a day when they would be able to, through the abolition movement that was already well underway. And the majority of our founders were not slaveholders, by the way. Many of them were openly, open advocates of ending slavery. But they believed that it would be done. They believed it would be peacefully. They prayed to God that it wouldn't, that it would never come to what it came to. And of course, the Civil War became the worst war in our history. It became, we killed, more people were killed during the Civil War than up until very recently. All the rest of the men killed in all the wars that we've ever fought. So we have, God has spilled his blood for us. And our men over the years have spilled their blood for us, for us to maintain freedom. And that freedom is very, very precious. And freedom of religion, the freedom for us to have liberty and not only in our minds, but to live out our faith. These are things that are being assaulted right now in a very, very active way. There are politicians that are openly anti-religious freedom. And we need miracles from God, or we're not going to have the kind of liberty that we've had. And the nations of the world will suffer because the United States has lost its religious freedom. They're all looking to us, by the way. They're begging God to please help us. They're praying for our country. And probably more than Americans are praying for their country. But thank God there is an intercessory prayer movement. And so let me just say a little bit about intercessory prayer more. All of us need to learn how to pray. And the only way you do that is by praying. But there's another way that we learn how to pray and another way that we can multiply our prayer effectiveness. We're talking about prevailing prayer. The scripture makes it clear in Matthew 18. It says, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. You all know that scripture. But there's a movement in our land right now that I believe has held us from already undergoing the final judgment for our nation. And that is an intercessory prayer movement. People coming together. Many, many churches, debtor and doornails, I'm just speaking real plainly here. Debtor and doornails have had two or three or four or five living souls, born again living souls in their churches that have not gone to sleep with the majority of the Christian community. And have come together and are crying out to God saying, God, please revive your church. Awaken your church in Jesus' name. And they're coming together and they're praying. And there is a body of believers across the nation that are awesome, powerful, powerful force. And I believe have stood in the way from the enemy having his way with us and stood in the way just like Abraham did and like Abraham tried to do anyway. And like Moses did in preventing the entire bunch of us being suffering. I heard Dan Beiser yesterday talk about what could happen to us. And I'll tell you, it was very, very real. We've got very serious enemies in this world, not only within, but without. China is on the rise. And for years, we have been sitting ducks for what they call a pulse bomb, a bomb that is readily available to many of our enemies, our international enemies, that could be easily exploded anywhere in the United States that would completely knock out the electric grid. Now, look what happens in, for instance, Louisiana right now, where many people have lost their electricity. What would we do without electricity? Well, these bombs are created, they're available for use, and they could be used by anybody and completely wipe out our electric grid across the country. And what I heard Dan saying is, what would we do if we didn't have electricity in our country? We wouldn't know what to do. We don't know. Most of our people are not farmers. They wouldn't know the first thing about what to do. Our grocery stores would run out of food very quickly. The whole system would break down. Folks, we need the Lord. We need the Lord. So intercessory prayer is very, very critically important because God is in the midst of us when we pray together. And Christina, my wife, who's going to be praying today, is my prayer partner. I've got lots of prayer partners, but this is my prayer partner. She and I, our love, we've been married 46 years. We love each other, but we're able to feed each other in prayer and to grow in the Lord in a mighty, mighty way. And when we meet together with other people in sincere prayer and intercessory prayer, loving the Lord and doing his work through prayer, we grow and we learn from one another. And I'm just going to tell a little story here. My pastor, who is my wife and I, when we first came to the church where we're at now, joined our prayer group. And we've been involved outside the church in prayer for many, many years. And he joined our prayer group and he testified that he learned just an amazing thing. It was amazing to him to see the prayer and to hear the prayers that came forth out of the group. And he prayed and has now got our church praying like crazy. And it's really, really a blessing. But we learn from prayer by hearing other people pray and by entering into the spirit of prayer. And God promises to hear us and to be with us when we join together to pray. How critical this is at this time. And we have prayers that we've got to ask and that are a matter of life and death for God to hear and to answer. So third, I want to talk about, well, I'm going to skip because I don't know if I'm going to have time. I'm going to skip to Solemn Assembly. Dan has been a provocateur of the cause of Solemn Assembly for many years. I have as well. We both have acquaintance with a brother by the name of Richard Owen Roberts, who was the guy who brought the call to Solemn Assembly to the current nation. It was something that's really been a truth, a biblical truth that's been lost for years and years and years. It was primarily laid out to the Jews. It was part of the law. And they were to have Solemn Assemblies regularly. Now we have something that's akin to a Solemn Assembly and having the Lord's Supper together, where is a time for us to examine ourselves, to repent of our sins, and then to go forward and to take the cup of the Lord and the bread representing his body. And it's a time for us to forgive everybody that we have held any grudge toward. And it's a time for us to ask forgiveness of anybody that we have harmed. And God calls us to do both those things. He says, if somebody's got an offense against you, or you've offended somebody, don't leave your gift at the altar and go and get healed. This is something God's called all of us to do. And how much our world needs reconciliation today, how much. And you know, the scripture says that we're to pray for all men. Let me go back to the third point. And this is focused here. First Timothy chapter two, verses one and following, calls us to pray, to intercede, to give all kinds of prayer for all men. And then it goes on and specifically names kings and those who are in authority. And we are at a time where we're in the United States, where we have the great blessing, not just of praying for kings, whatever king may be our lot, but to select the leaders of our country. Everybody, all the way from the top leader, from the president, down to the dog catcher. We have a role in that. Actually, we are the leaders. We're a nation of, by, and for the people. And I want to say something here, that too many of God's people have somehow fallen into a unbiblical concept of the politics that are necessary to run our nation, being something that a Christian should not be involved in. That's something we should not pray about. You know what? God's called us to pray for everything, but how ridiculous that we would not pray very, very plainly and directly for the things that are going to determine the future of our lives and determine the future of all of our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, as well as all of our countrymen. Our founding fathers called us a nation under God, because our Declaration of Independence is a document written under God that magnifies God, calls God our supreme judge, and appeals to him for the rectitude of every one of their actions. And our constitution as well was written so that we would have righteousness and justice. The scripture says that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. It says that when the righteous rule, the people rejoice, but when the wicked bear rule, the people mourn. God intended for us to pray for good government. And in our country, we get that good government by voting for people and advancing people that are going to practice policies that are going to be good for the body of Christ, good for the family, and good for the people in general. And we are in deep, deep trouble, because in large, because the Church of Jesus Christ has not been involved to do its job of citizenship, its unique role as salt and light to practice citizenship in this country. So we're in deep, deep trouble. And much of it is due to that fact. We sat back when they took prayer out of our schools, when God says that I want you to pray without ceasing. And he says, I want men everywhere to pray without wrath and doubting. God calls us to pray as our primary activity. On top of the Word of God, we are to pray in keeping with the Word of God. In fact, there's no better way to learn how to pray than to read the Word of God and pray, read the Word of God and pray the Word. Praying the Word is doing God's business. It's a part of the whole. But now we're in that place, that deep, deep place because of, and we've got an election coming up here. And I think it's every Christian's responsibility and to be praying for this election. And that the men and women who are best equipped and best committed to employing truth and putting the policies in place that are righteous and that protect religious liberty, that advance life, that in other words, no abortion, no Christian should vote for a person who advocates for abortion or who promises to make sure that everybody has a, not only a right to, but the money they need to get an abortion. Lord, these things are just evil. And you've made it very, very clear throughout scripture. So we have a big, big job in the next few months of praying. But before any election, God's people should humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways. And that's what the Solemn Assembly is all about. That's coming up on September the 26th. Franklin Graham has declared that he's going to call for a march and he's going to march right down through the middle of the Solemn Assembly. Solemn Assembly is going to be, take place on the National Mall. And it's also going to be aired across the United States and around the world. And as I mentioned earlier, thousands of people have inquired from other nations and numerous nations that are going to be officially a part of the Solemn Assembly and participating with us on that day. God, thank God. Thank God. I'm going to ask you to pray. Thank you, Lord. Father, we thank you for the privilege, Lord Jesus, of coming before you, Lord, being those two or more that are gathered, Lord, with all of our brethren who look to you alone, Lord, because you alone are able to hear the cries of your people, Father. Lord, we pray that you would make us that people that would stand in the gap, Father, that would bring your glory, that would seek your kingdom and pray, Father, that you would bring it to pass, Lord Jesus. Father, we pray that you would enlarge our hearts and open our eyes. Father, we pray that we would have ears that hear you more perfectly, Lord, and hearts that love people the way you do. Father, even as Pierre mentioned, Lord, we look at our nation and the havoc that we see around us. And Lord, we just pray that as your people and your body, Father, Lord, that has the answers, the words of life. Father Peter said, who else could we go to? You have the words of life. Father, we say and thank you for these words of life. And we pray, Lord, that your love would well up in us, Father, your people, that you would make us one, Lord, and bring us to unity, Father, as you speak of in Psalm 133, where you can command the blessing, Father. We need you. We need the love of God that distinguishes us as your people, as believers, to well up in us, Father, Lord, towards one another, that there would be a love that covers a multitude of sins, Lord. Father, that we might pour out your love on a dying and thirsty world that needs you, Lord God. Please adjust our hearts. Please bring your people together, Lord, into a place of unity. And Father, into a depth of your love, Lord Jesus, Father, that causes the world to notice. And Father, in the midst of this havoc, Lord, and Lord, the darkness that we see, Father, we pray, Lord, that your body would rise up because you alone are the answer, Lord Jesus. You alone can fill us what we have lacked, Lord Jesus. Father, in this nation, in us as your people, Lord, Father, enlarge our hearts and move in a mighty way, Lord, that there would be a healing of the breaches, Father, and Lord, a love that's shed abroad in our hearts, Lord, that embraces others, Lord, that others might know you and the power of your resurrection, Lord. We thank you, Father, for all that you're doing. And we cry out, have mercy, Lord Jesus. Forgive us, Lord, for the things that have divided us and the lack of love where we have not embraced one another in the way that you embrace us, Lord Jesus. Father, have mercy, Lord. Lord, come to your people, come to us, and adjust our hearts to be like you, in Jesus' name. Yes, Lord. Let me see if I can find that list of sounds. Now, let me talk a little bit more about solemn assembly and then we'll pray a final prayer. The solemn assemblies, we read about in the book of Joel, which is the most prominent of them. There are several solemn assemblies that were conducted at urgent times throughout the history of Judea, the Jewish people. And there have been solemn assemblies in our country. Notably, the first national day of prayer, which was before the nation was established, but it was called to the 13 states, was right after the first shots were fired in the Revolutionary War in 1775. The Continental Congress called for a day of prayer, called on pastors everywhere to open their churches and to bring their people in and to cry out to God for what was a very, very small, very, very ill-equipped nation, which was at war with the strongest, most powerful nation on the earth. But the men felt that God had called them to, and that God was helping them to establish a nation independent of Great Britain. And they did, and they did. And the people prayed, cried out to God, and God enabled that little nation, which is America, to stand up over a period of years to Great Britain and defeat them. And then the Lord gave them tremendous wisdom, unbelievable wisdom to establish a nation on principles that were in keeping with his word, and that had been the standard for freedom across the world. You'll remember China, the people in China at Tiananmen Square held copies of the Declaration of Independence all over the world. They were Christians, by the way, Chinese Christians. But now we need a solemn assembly where people really understand what they're doing, where they rend their hearts and not their garments, where they wring out the sins. And if anybody says they don't have any sin, they're a liar, and they do not know the truth, according to 1 John. We're to wring our hearts out. And then in addition to wring our hearts, and what's that mean? Most of us are living lives, if we're committed Christians, we've been Christians for a number of years to have some level of sanctification in our lives. We know that we're not perfect, but we're not doing any major overt sins that we know of. But everybody has got sin in their life. And sometimes there's people that are really living for the Lord have got to let the Lord wring their hearts out and show them their sins. Again, I've heard Dan Beiser talk about pride. We've got so much pride over so many different things. There's very, very few Christians that do not have some problem with pride. But I want to pray a closing prayer. And Christina, you can add to it if you want to. Father, I know that the other people that are involved in the leadership of the solemn assembly in Washington, they're called the return, which we've called just for the sake of making it easy for people. And we want to get as many people there as possible. And Lord, we've got, you've amazingly provided finances, you've provided the television stations that have said they'll cover it from nine in the morning till 9pm at night. Lord, you've been very much in this. And Lord, we praise you for that. Lord, there are still many, many problems, Lord, that have got to be resolved. But Lord, you've been mightily, mightily with us. And Lord, we just pray, Lord, that this will be a national solemn assembly, or a true national solemn assembly. Lord God, that you will include people who are leaders in government and civil government, as well as those that are the pastors of our churches and the leaders of our denominations. Lord, that people will come representing the body of Christ. Lord, we pray that people will participate in cities across America, those that can't come to Washington, DC. And we're talking about just a little over, just a month away, we're not even talking about a month away, we're talking about just weeks away. Lord, we pray that it will be a place, a place and a time where you're not only will your people gather, but that you will gather, that you will hear the appeals of your people, or that you'll hear their pleas from their heart. Lord, save us and save our nation. Lord, intervene and restore life to us. And I want to, right now in the middle of this prayer, I want to read the scripture that we all know from Acts chapter three, Acts chapter three, we all know what happened on the day of Pentecost, but in Acts chapter three, the Lord talks about something else. In verse 19, he says, I'm going to read it before then, verse 17. Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance as did your leaders, but this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets saying that his Christ would suffer. Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord and that he may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. That scripture, that repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. That word refreshing, the Greek word that is translated in many translations, refreshing, actually means revival. It actually means giving breath, where there has been no breath, where it's raising somebody from the dead. That's what we need in America. We need to be raised from the dead. And so, Lord, I want to pray, God, that you will give us a time of refreshing. Lord, this may not be the perfect and complete solemn assembly that would be ideal, the perfect solemn assembly. But Lord, it's an effort towards solemn assembly and to be obedient to your word and your method. And Lord, we pray, Lord God, that there will be a sufficient number as Abraham prayed. Lord, will you bring your judgment upon all your faithful ones, as well as the unbelievers. Lord, we pray for the unbelievers as well, Lord God, because Lord, we would be there too if it were not for your amazing grace. So Father, we pray in the name of Jesus. Lord, help us to intercede. Help us between now and then to stand in the gap for our nation, to stand in the gap for the lost, stand for the utterly wicked. Lord, to those that are just like the simple people that don't know their left hand from the right, like the people in Nineveh. Lord God, hear our prayers. And Lord, help us to be true prayer warriors between now and then and continue afterwards, Lord, and continue in the work of the Lord, Lord, until we've seen all, we've seen your glory across the earth as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Brother Dan, are you there? Brother Dan, are you there? I've still got some time, right? Yes, you've got a half hour, 45 minutes. Very good. Thank you. I'm going to share a little bit about the role of Christians in civil government. Most of our problems that we're facing today are not just because of sin and the camp, not just the lack of leadership in the civil government. Our founding fathers, most of whom were Christian, many were not. But let me just say this, because Christians had been such good salt and such good light in that era, even the lost people held to a acknowledgement of the morals of the Bible and Christianity. You may all remember Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the Bible, took out all the miracles in the Bible and put the Bible back together, pieced it back together again, and affirmed Jesus as being the most wonderful moral teacher in history, which of course he was, but he was the son of God. And he died on the cross for us and rose again from the dead. And all of our founding fathers, George Washington, John Adams, acknowledged that morality without morality and religion, our republic could not survive. And that's where we're at today. We are watching because of the lack of morality and religion, our republic is coming apart at the seams. We now are divided into segments, into camps of people that include a large percentage of people who want to overturn our freedom, overturn our religious freedoms, and to turn us into a socialist nation, which if we look at history, we see that every socialist nation has essentially been an atheist nation. And ultimately, if they didn't start out as an atheist nation, they became an atheist nation with time and were destructive to the family and destructive to the economy, they were destructive to everything good. We've seen the whole USSR, the whole Soviet Union, fall apart and ultimately fail. And we've watched right here in our own hemisphere, we've watched the nation there in Venezuela, we watched Venezuela in a matter of a few short years, change from being the most wealthy nation other than the United States and the Western Hemisphere, with more resources and the capacity to multiply dollars like you've never seen in your life, to turn into a completely destroyed nation where the people don't even have food or medicine in just a matter of years because of the foolish atheistic system that they have built. And God ordained government, civil government. We read it clearly in Romans chapter 13. And he not only that, he ordained government to bear the sword and Lord to punish the wicked and to reward the righteous. And we've got to have good government. We've got to have leaders that are going to adhere to the word of God and they're going to adhere to the constitutional principles that are laid down as the law of our land. And it's Christians' job to do everything they can to make sure that happens. Another thing too, one of the seven spheres of influence in our country, the seven spheres or the seven mountains is education. We now have in our public schools, our children being taught in most schools across America, not every school, there's some that have resisted and not done it, but many local school districts, like outside of Washington, DC, the leader was the Fairfax County School District, which happens to be the largest single school district in the United States. And they embraced wholly, wholesale, the whole LGBT agenda. And they're teaching the children from child, from small childhood, that they may not be the gender that they were born with. They may be, and acceptably so. They're not urging them not to be. In fact, 18 states have laws that make it against the law for parents to take their children to a counselor to try to help that child come out of their fixation with the idea that they're the opposite sex of what they are, which they've picked up somewhere. We're living in a world of insanity. And the only thing that can set us back in order is what has always been the foundation stone for life. And that is the word of God and the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have got to, by the grace of God, do everything we can between now and this election to make sure that we elect people who are going to uphold the church of Jesus Christ, that are going to uphold the truths, the principles. We've got to fight against anybody and everybody. Why would anybody say that we ought not to do that? But they do. I have gone into prayer meetings and had people tell me, Pierre, please don't say anything about politics. Why not? Does the word of God not reach into politics? Does the influence of the gospel somehow, does politics have a private room where it can stay by itself and do whatever it wants and impose it upon us and us not do anything about it? No. God's people are called of God to influence every sphere. When righteousness rules, the people rejoice. Nobody can make it righteous in this nation except for God and his servants, his people. So Lord, I want to pray, Lord, for the upcoming election. Lord God, that you will, and how many thousands and thousands of people are up for office, I'm not sure exactly. But I know that there are tools for your people to find out who are the best and what their policies are, what their plans are, and Lord, to vote for right. And I pray that there will not be a single person within the hearing of my voice here today, or among their friends and relatives, the people with whom they have influence, who will not be involved in making sure that we elect the best possible people that are possible. And that they will be people that are in compliance with your moral standards in terms of all of their plans. Lord, I pray that there's so many that stand out like a sore thumb as being so antagonistic toward your plans that it should be easy for anybody to vote if they'll just take a little bit of time to find out what people think. Lord, there are so many different voters' guides available and so forth, so many websites that they can go to. And just in case there's nobody knows where to go, let me give you one. Our organization that I serve, Family Research Council, which is a self-conscious and devoted Christian organization intended to influence public policy in Washington, D.C., for Christ and for the Word of God, has a website. We have two sections. We've got a 501c3 section, which is educational, biblical education and social education. And then we have what we call FRC Action, which has a whole array of tools that you can find. And that place is frcaction.org, frcaction.org, frcaction.org. And there you'll find a scorecard for every member of Congress, how they voted in different ways, all parties. You'll find a voter guide. We're linked to a voter guide that a number of different evangelical Christian organizations identify with and use. And it's very, very good. And you'll find lots and lots of information and material that will help you. So if this is just brand new to you, and you've been one of those many Christians who've said, I listen, I'm a Christian. I don't get involved in politics. And many even that say, I don't vote. There are even denominations that don't vote intentionally. We've got to take the land. We've got to take the land. It's the only hope. It's like when Great Britain began to come upon us, and the people of America rose up and stood up and declared independence. We've got to take the land and stand up against efforts to make us dependent on principles and on a government that is anti-Christian. That might seem extreme, but it's not. Believe me, it's not. Help us, Lord. That's all I can say. Honey, come and pray with us. Thank you, Father. Lord Jesus, we need you as a nation, Father. Lord, we pray that as your people, we might be truly the salt and the light. And Father, that our saltiness, Father, would just spread forth your light, your love, your principles, not only to those around us, but Father, to impact every area. Lord, all of these mountains of influence, Father. Lord, how we need you. Your word promises when the righteous rule, Father, the people rejoice. But when the wicked hold off us, Father, the people mourn, Lord. And how we need you, Father, how your precepts bring us life. And we need your precepts, Lord, your principles, your ways, Father, to bring the blessing of God upon us as a nation, Lord. Help your people, Father, help each of us, Lord, to study, to show ourself approved in every way, Lord. Father, help us to make godly and wise decisions, Father. Lord, as we look to this upcoming election, their nation is, Father, teetering, Lord, towards judgment so quickly, Father, as we have rejected you as a nation in so many ways. Father, we pray that you would have mercy, Father, that we would repent and, Father, seek you. Father, we pray that we would be diligent in praying and crying out to you in every way for this nation, Father, that we would turn and that you might bless us again as we return to the foundations which were upon you, Lord, that you were able to bless, Father, do a mighty work within us. Help us to be faithful and diligent, Lord, that all those in this land might reap, Father, the blessings that come from those who serve in these capacities that know you and love you, Lord. We thank you, Father. Have mercy, we pray. Father, I want to pray for the people, Lord. You say in 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2, you say that we are to pray for all men, and that meaning all men, meaning all people. And, Lord, we just pray for the nations of the earth, Lord God, that are so desperately in need of freedom, and there's so many of them, Lord God, in which Christians are persecuted, severely persecuted. Lord, the Chinese people just in the past, I can't remember the exact number of months, but have taken down 900 crosses from churches. They are abusing the people, they're arresting pastors. Lord, in Nigeria, they're killing people, burning whole churches full of people. Lord, all over the world, Lord, people are under persecution. Lord, our country does not know how to accept persecution. And, Lord, it's not your best decision, it's not your best choice for us to degrade ourselves to the place of where persecution of that style takes place, Lord, in this free land. And, Lord, if it does, it'll be because we have failed to be what we need to be. And, Lord, I do ask you to forgive us as a people for having stepped aside and looked away, Lord, from what has been happening, Lord, and the preparation for constraining the church and restraining the church and keeping God's people from being who you've called us to be. But, Lord, I pray, Lord God, that we will have a rebirth of freedom here because of the vitality, the revitalization of the church, Lord God, that I pray that this solemn assembly will make a difference, not only in the culture of our people, Lord, and the vitality of our churches, but, Lord, that it will contribute to a change in our government, godly change in our government. Lord, I think that you've given us a little extra time, but, Lord, that time is running out now very quick, and I pray, Lord God, that all the hopes and dreams, Lord, of those who have organized the solemn assembly, who've been students of the call to solemn assembly that Brother Richard Owen Roberts introduced years ago to the Baptists and that the Church of God took up and others have taken up and little independent solemn assemblies have taken part all over the country. Now, Lord God, that you will make this a true national solemn assembly. How we need unity, how we need unity in our nation, but how can we have unity if the church itself is not united, if we're all divided and we can't do anything together. Lord, please make this a time of gathering together for the people of God in a united time of prayer out of the desperation of our hearts, Lord God, our desperation for you, for you. It's you we need, Lord, and America will never be what it needs to be apart from you. So, God, move upon us, move upon us. Lord, gather people from all over the country. Lord, enable them to be encouraged to break free of their fears of COVID and of being in a group. Lord, let them bring their masks and whatever they need to do, let them social distance, but Lord, I pray that we'll have a good body of people, Lord, all over that national mall. Pray, Lord, that you will protect, Lord, the people from any kind of those that would try to take advantage, Lord, evil workers, evildoers that would do like they did after the Republican convention the other night to come upon the people as they exited the White House, they attacked them physically, including one of our U.S. senators. Lord, I pray that they will be found, that justice will be done in those situations, but Lord, I pray that your hand of protection will be uniquely upon those that come to humble themselves before you on September the 26th. And Lord, I pray that too that the people that intend to go, Lord, will be humbling themselves in the meantime, Lord, that this will be a month of solemn assembly before us. Lord, I read in the Old Testament details of various solemn assemblies, like the one in Nehemiah, for instance, it was for a period of time, it was not for a day, there would be a final culminating day, but Lord, it was several days of seeking your face, and they included even the time of celebration at a certain point in time. And Lord, I pray that our solemn assembly will end any time of celebration because of the sense of the presence of God, the sense that you've heard our prayers, that you've heard our pleas, and that you've heard our voice, and Lord, that you've answered. God have mercy upon us, we pray, in Jesus' name.