What Does the Church Need

Let me just ask everybody to pray right now, pray for me. Last night I came to the pulpit not really certain what I was going to say. I told my wife, afterwards I said as a young preacher I probably would have been traumatized going to the pulpit not really knowing what I'm going to preach. And I'm coming to the pulpit again tonight. The thing is, I have a sense of what I want to say to you. I have a burden in coming here. But I don't have notes on everything that I want to say. Brethren, I know that several times today the term distraction was used. But I'm really hoping that you will not go away from the conference when it's done thinking that was a conference on distraction. There's another D word. It's the one that I quoted to you last night from that Elliot quote. Oh God make us dangerous. That's the D word right there. I desire that something in this conference, and I've heard two messages already today. When we think of revival, when we think of taking up this armor. Oh God make us dangerous. God bring revival in our day. I'm hoping that you'll leave this conference not satisfied. That we'll go out of here. My great desire is that a conference like this could be used in some way to help compel and propel the people of God in this part of the United States. In each of your churches, I've talked to people. You come from all sorts of different places. Largely this is not a group just representing one church. You're from all over the place. I hear of these little churches that are starting out here on Long Island. The young pastors, guys full of zeal over in Manhattan. Things happening, guys coming from Connecticut and from Pennsylvania. Do we want that revival that we heard about today? Are there things that we can do? You know in many ways, we were at dinner tonight. We were talking about men upon whom God has put His hand. There are some things, there are many things about this Christian life. Where do you get a Whitfield from? We heard about Bill McLeod, Keith McLeod. Where do men like this come from? Where do men like Martin Lloyd Jones come from? Charles Spurgeon. Yes, God has to raise up certain men. He puts His hand on them. We recognize that there are things about revival that are beyond our control. We can't just go decide we're going to have a prayer meeting in Manhattan and all of a sudden tens of thousands of people are swept into the kingdom. We can't just make that happen. But I don't want to get away from what we talked about last night. Are there things that we can be doing that are attached to promises in Scripture? In other words, are there conditional promises in Scripture that we'll be like a watered garden? Or that God will be the glory of God, will be our rear guard? Are there promises like that? Promises where when we have prayer meetings, God's going to show up and say, Here I am. You see, this is the thing that I want us to go away with. I don't want us to get away from those realities that we looked at last night. Judgment Day. And I want to take it on from there. I was hungry and you fed me. I don't want to leave that behind. Brethren, because the question is this. What are we going to do? Where are we headed? Where are our churches headed? What is the direction? You young pastors, and a whole number of young pastors, where are we leading people? We have to want something more than just refined theology. Where are we going? Let me ask you, where do you want to be? What do we want our churches to look like? Are there churches that we'd like to send out missionaries to impact China? Do you think it's possible for a church, small churches of 15 or 80 people, to even begin to think about these things? This realm of starting ministries where we just start taking people in. We come up with crazy, outlandish ideas about how we're going to propagate the gospel. Ministries that just let our minds run wild. Ministries of compassion. Are we going to do those things? Are those the things that are going to occupy? Brethren, I would ask you this. What does your church need to simply canvas your own neighborhoods, so that they know that you're there? Maybe some of your churches are doing that. I don't know what all is happening where you are. But do we want to have our church meet in a community, and we live there, and we maybe move away at some point, we relocate or we die, and the people where we lived never knew we were there? Don't let that happen. We need plans for how we... Look, you know this. We're going to die. Why are we left here right now? The church is left here right now, and our Lord Jesus Christ specifically gave us a commission. And we need to remember what that commission is. That commission is to take this word of life. It is to seek to be the ones who take this message out. Brethren, we need plans. We need schemers. We need people in the church that are coming up with crazy ideas. And we need to try and launch out. What do you need to do that? What kind of people do you need? What kind of vision do you need? What kind of encouragement do you need? What is it that you need? What kind of money do you need? What is it that you believe that you need to make these things happen? That's what I want to talk about tonight. What do we need? What do you need? Maybe you say, I just need a pastor with a vision like that. Okay, maybe that's what you need. Maybe you say, I need more boldness myself. Okay, maybe that's what you need. Maybe you say we need more money. Maybe you say, Yes, we need some evangelistic people. Yes, we need those things. What is it that we need? What should we be thinking about? What should the direction look like? You know, not every church has the same function. Not every church has the same niche. Not every church is going to be raised up by God to do exactly the same thing. But what is it? How are the churches, those that hold to the doctrines of grace, how are these churches going to explode with life? And maybe some of you are. Maybe your churches are. I don't know everything that's happening. But I greatly desire to see life in this part of the country. I greatly desire to see the churches here stirred. I greatly desire to see that reality that I was trying to emphasize last night. If the Lord Jesus Christ is interested in who we're feeding, who we're clothing, who we're giving drink to, who we're visiting, then we should be concerned about that. Brethren, are your churches focused? I mean, are you making concerted efforts to get the gospel into prisons? Or to get the gospel into another country? Has your church kind of singled out country where you'd like to send a missionary? Or you'd like to start visiting? Or a missionary that you already know is over there? And you don't just put a picture up on the board and maybe send $50 each month. But you actually get to know this guy. And you hear the reports. And maybe you send some people over there. And when he's in the States, you have him come there and you have him share that burden. Or how about planting churches in other places? Even if you're relatively small, you know of a place in the United States where you don't hear of any good church. It's like, we're going to send a church over. Talking to a young guy today. He already planted a church. And now he's thinking about going somewhere else. We ought to be thinking like that. We ought to be thinking out of the box. We ought to be encouraging that. Brethren, we shouldn't just be thinking about being sacrificial with our money. We should be thinking about being sacrificial with our time. And sacrificial with our best men and women. Where can we send them? What are the needs out there? Brethren, I want to emphasize to you. We live in a perishing world. And this is what I want to hit on. What do we need? Now let's go back to that text that we looked at last night. I want you to open up to Revelation 12. And as we're opening there, I want us to pray. Revelation 12. This will just be a starting point for us. Father, I pray that as we are, many of us in this place, the people of God and bought with the blood of Your Son. Lord, You've designed this crazy thing called preaching. Preaching Your Word to be a means for bringing light to our feet. A means for building up Your people. For convicting, encouraging, instructing. Lord, I want to preach the Word tonight. And I want to say what You've said in Your Word. And I pray that it would be helpful. Lord, we so desire a refreshing in this time. I pray in Christ's name, Amen. Amen. Brethren, Revelation 12. We were talking about this woman. I want to go down to verse 14. This woman. And last night I was talking about this woman being a picture of the people of God. And you can trace this lineage. This lineage from whom the Christ comes. And you see that Satan, he's after this woman. He's trying to devour this child. He's trying to wipe out this race of this godly line. He's going after this son that comes forth. And he pursues this woman. In fact, maybe we go to verse 11. They conquered Him by the blood of the Lamb. This dragon who's pursuing this woman by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives, even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But you see the thing about this woman is that she's helped. You find that she's helped all through here. The woman was given two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for time and times and half a time. Now listen to this. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. Let me ask you this. What comes out of the mouth of Satan? What comes out? A flood. He's the father of what? You see, when he speaks, he seeks to murder by his lies. A flood. You see the woman? The woman is us. We're the offspring of the woman. He pursues her, and he pursues her with a flood from his mouth. These lies come at us. Now, you know, we can think, oh, the doctrinal errors that we're confronted with out there in the world. Yes, that's a form in which this flood comes. But oh, remember his first lie. You know what his first lie was? Do you know what the flood looks so much like? As God said, don't you know the kind of God you have? This is the kind of God that doesn't really care about you. In fact, He's holding out on you. Oh, He knows on the day that you eat of this thing, things will get really good. He's withholding. God's not for you. God is against you. Lies. Brethren, do you know what I'm concerned about? Not that we not fall for the devil's lies. God isn't for us. God really isn't how He says He is in Scripture. How does God say He is in Scripture? Do you know what He does? He sends His Son into this world, and He says, you know what He says concerning prayer. I want to go back to prayer, because this has to do with the Father of lights, from whom every good and perfect gift comes. This has to do with the God who offers us so much. You know, they wanted to learn to pray. They saw Jesus. He was a man of prayer. You've got to believe the disciples knew about prayer. They prayed. They said, Lord, teach us how to pray. Teach us to pray. And He said this. He said, I'll teach you to pray. He didn't say that's a ridiculous thing to be taught how to pray. He said, I'll tell you how to pray. Use persistence. Use importunity. Be like the man that goes to his friend at night, and he's looking for something. Be like that guy. And He says this. You're the kind of God that if you ask, you'll receive. If you seek, you know what it says. If you knock, and you know what happens sometimes? The devil comes along. You're too small. You're too uneducated. Your church is too weak. Your church doesn't have enough funds. Your church, look what you're up against. You're just a few people in the midst of multitudes who are in the dark. I mean, you guys are the liberals over here. The northeast, we look at you guys from Texas, and it's like, don't take our guns away. You guys have people that, look, people are lost holding their guns in Texas, but we can look, and this world can be daunting. We're up against this? I mean, we couldn't start an orphanage. That's impossible! The government forbids it. It's against the law. We could never reach orphans. Starting a home for widows? I mean, trying to do something crazy. Something out of the box. Start a soup kitchen. Try to reach people. I mean, thinking big. Thinking out of the box. You see, the devil's right there constantly. His flood of lies. It's not just Arminianism trying to get in. It's not things like that. It's his constant, God isn't who you think He is. And God isn't really there to help. And God really isn't going to give you everything you ask for. God really isn't like that. Brethren, who is it throughout the centuries who started hospitals? You have hospitals here, like we do in Texas, that have Methodist in the name, and have Baptist in the name, and have Lutheran in the name. Where'd those things come from? Somebody got the crazy idea, we're going to start a hospital. Can you do that? Can you send an entourage to India? You say, no, India's a closed country. Oh no, we have a church of ten people. We could never do anything in North Korea. Listen, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. You know, that's not a bad thing, to be taught how to pray. In fact, if God would just use me tonight to help all of us, including myself, learn a little something about prayer. Brethren, I plead with our own people at home, let it never be that certain things did not happen because we didn't ask. Not when God says you don't have because you haven't asked. Not when Scripture says if you ask, those who ask will receive. When you have texts like that, John Newton, we heard about John Newton today. He wrote that song, large petitions with thee bring. Right? Thou art coming to a king. What's the song? Come my soul, thy suit prepare. You ever think about that? Think about the king you're coming to. One who delights to set himself forth in Scripture as the God of the impossible. Brethren, I just want somebody here to think with me outside the box. What cannot we do if God helps us? And listen, if God is saying through His Son on judgment day, the things that He is primarily going to be concerned with is did you go out and take food to the hungry? Did you do that? how can we do that? Let's do that. You know, it's much like Peter. It's a matter of faith. We ask, Lord, help us to do this. And then you step out. I mean, church pray. Pray, fast. What do you need? What is it that you want to do? What's the vision? You know, we ought to talk to people in our churches. What's the vision? What do people have burdens for? We should never despise that. I remember as a young believer, I had a burden for missions. And I went to my pastor in the first church I was a member of. And I said, Pastor, I have a burden for missions. And you know what he told me? There's a little Sovereign Grace church up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He told me, not going to happen. In other words, he didn't just say maybe someday. He just, not going to happen. It was at that time I began to pray, Lord, take me to a church that holds to the doctrines of grace as Baptistic and Evangelistic. And the Lord did. And He opened that door. And you know what I have found? I have found that those burdens that God put on my heart in those early days, I have prayed about. And God has opened those doors. One after another, after another, after another. And I never want people in our church to despise the burdens that God has given. What are the burdens that you have? What do you want to do? What is it that God has been impressing the churches here to do? And I would ask you this, what do you need to do it? Are you asking? Are you bringing petitions before the Lord that sometimes just seem ridiculous? Do you know, it has always been the people in this world that have turned the world upside down, that have had a vision to do something when it seemed absolutely impossible and they stepped out. You know, we have hindsight to look at men like William Carey or Hudson Taylor. And we look at it from this vantage point and we say, wow, you know, that was incredible. These guys are the father of modern missions and they launched out and all these things were done. Well, that wasn't the case. If you go back and you start reading about their lives when they first went out, people were seeking discouragement. This is hopeless. We see no prospects that William Carey's going to do anything over there in India. I mean, he's going in there to such darkness. What in the world? Brethren, what do you need? What do you need? Dangerous Christianity. You know what dangerous Christianity is? It's not people that are great and strong. Dangerous Christianity, that kind Jim Elliot prayed for, is when people, they recognize God is able and God calls us to do these things and we're going to step out. No matter how dark Long Island is or New York is, there are opportunities. You know what it took for that second grade? We heard about in the 1850's. Do you know what it took? It took somebody who was willing to go and start a prayer meeting downtown. It took somebody that was willing to do that. We need people that are willing to do that. Listen, better to try and for some reason we failed than never try at all. But you know what I have found? I have found that when you step out of that boat trusting the Lord, you find the water holds you miraculously. Like every single time. That's what I found. Brethren, our church was very little, very tiny. We moved to the east side of San Antonio. We looked out through that dark window on the front door of that building we were in and the prostitutes are walking back and forth and the crack addicts are down here selling their dope to each other and crystal meth and crack. And what are we going to do? Well, you know what we did at first? We just said, we're going to invite these people in for lunch. We'll give them free food. We'll invite them in here and we'll preach the Gospel to them. Oh, we had demonized people. We had people bringing their bottles in. We had people wipe poop all over the wall. And the kids, they'd find them playing with hypodermic needles and used condoms on the ground. Yeah, I'm being graphic, but this is where we were and this is what we were up against. And I mean, women's body parts falling out in the lunch line and it's like, where have we come? But God brought these people in and we start sharing the Gospel with them. And I tell you, we tapped a hornet's nest of the demonic and all manner of things were happening. But God was working in the midst of it. And God was with us. And we were praying. I mean, here we are. We didn't know any better. I remember calling a pastor at that time. Sam Patron. He was a pastor over in Denver. I said, Brother, I don't know what I'm doing. He said, Brother, we're way ahead of all those other guys. What do you mean? He said, Because we don't know what we're doing. And I didn't. I didn't know what we're doing. What are we doing? I mean, our kids are playing with hypodermic needles back here. This is not good. But things were happening and God's opening doors. And we're talking about how to send a team over to India. The thing is like crazy. But you know what? God... Our prayer meetings, everybody was there. And we're asking God for these big things. And you know what we saw? Within the course of time, God began to open these doors one after another. And I'll tell you this, no matter how hard, you remember, you've got to put on the right goggles here. You've got to see behind the scenes. We have a spiritual battle going on. We heard about it this morning. There's a spiritual battle. The devils are real. The demons are real. But I just have you remember this, no matter how much the opposition, no matter how outwardly all these pawns of Satan that live all around us, no matter how daunting that may seem, do you remember what was said through the Apostle Paul to that church at Rome concerning Satan and where his head would be compared to their feet before too long? Where? Do you remember what it says? There is that Roman letter is being wrapped up. You have that reality that they would soon crush Satan under their feet. You say wait, that was a promise that was given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Exactly. He's with us. He's our head. We're His body. He says He's going to be with us to the end of the age. He's here with us. And He's bidding us do these crazy things. Brethren, don't be content to have the library on your shelves of people who did crazy things. It's going to be those here in this part of the country who are going to launch out. Who are going to say, no, it's not crazy to go over to just a handful of old Pentecostals over here up in Manhattan and start a church after we just started one in South Manhattan. That's not crazy. I mean, provided it be God's will. We do want to ask Him. We do want to pray. We do want to be asking Him, Lord, guide our steps here. What do we need? What are we going to need to pull this off? You know, it's not surprising that we have churches in places like this. Any more surprising than it was. You remember where the church at Pergamon was? Anybody remember? Where Satan's throne was. Where Satan dwells. You know, sometimes we look at the opposition and we think of the devil and we think of how daunting he is and principalities and powers and these wicked forces. Cosmic powers. But I'll tell you this, God is in the business of taking a church and planting it right where Satan's throne is. There you go, Satan. I'm going to put a group of my people right on your doorstep. That's what He does. And He doesn't do it so that we sit in here and all be safe and protected. What do we need? Brethren, I ask you that. What do we need? The reality is we have an enemy that we've been promised in Scripture is going to flee from us. What do we need? And I keep asking that because we are bidden to ask. In fact, at last year's fellowship conference in Denton, I dealt with a passage out of John 14. Brethren, do you realize this? Everybody who believes, not just the apostles, everybody who believes, we are promised that the works that Jesus did, we will do, and greater works than these, we will do. And you better just wrestle with that. And you better let your prayer meetings reflect that reality. Do you want to do greater works than Jesus Christ did? Well, I don't know what that means. Okay, well it means something pretty spectacular. It means something pretty great. I'm not saying you're going to raise more dead, but you have to wrestle with His words. And He didn't just say my apostles are going to do that. He said, if you believe. We need to face the world like this. We have a devil who we're promised if we resist him, he's going to flee from us. Whose head will be under our heel. We've got this ability by the might of God Himself. But what do we need to do it? I just ask you, what does your church need? What do you personally need to do this? To launch out in this endeavor? This really does have to do with prayer. I mean, you think about Scripture. Why do we pray? We can hit on aspects of intercession. We can hit on aspects of worship. Undoubtedly, we can hit on aspects of confessing sin. But isn't it interesting? When the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. Where did He go with it? You know where He went with it? A man standing at a door trying to get bread at midnight. And He immediately launches into asking, seeking, and knocking. Because you know one of the essential aspects of prayer is that it is going to God to get the things we need. That's how Jesus taught His disciples. And we need to ask, what do we need? We need to be praying. If there's anything that's obvious in Scripture, you ever notice that? When Paul's dealing with every one of the churches, he's constantly telling them constantly be in prayer. Jesus Himself said, men are always to pray and not faint. Why? Because there is a fainting aspect that comes with it. Maintaining this kind of prayer life where we are going to God and we are expecting and we are asking for great things and we're bringing large petitions because He is a great King. And so we're not just coming with these tiny little things. Yes, we can bring the small things. But what do you need? What do you need to turn this part of the country upside down? I mean look, if you think about it, we have some of the best churches in this part of the country represented here. That's no stretch. Is it? I don't believe that. I believe that we have true people of God here in true churches. And so what do we need? What do we need to do what God has called us to do? We talked about this aspect to that end. The end of praying for all things. To that end, keep alert. There needs to be an alertness. We need to be praying for the things. We need to be alert to what we really need to fight this battle. We need to be alert to the things that we should be expecting from God. But what happens? Brethren, you know what happens. You know why we need to be told not to faint? Just like we need to be told not to be weary in well-doing? Because we become weary in well-doing. We become faint in prayer. The reality is that Satan is right there and he's ready. He's ready to try to convince us with his lies. God is sovereign. You don't need to be praying like this. God is going to do what God is going to do. God is going to bring revival. Oh, this is such a favorite among those who hold the Calvinistic doctrine. God is sovereign. God is going to do what God is going to do. And you guys can just relax. And that's not how Jesus taught us to pray. God didn't say, My Father is sovereign. Therefore, there's no need to be importune at the door. He never said that. He never taught that. We are taught that we don't have because we don't ask. Brethren, we really do need to stay alert and we need to have that wartime mentality. We need to recognize what we're faced with. We need to recognize that souls are perishing. We need to recognize that the time is indeed short. It's not just Satan's time that's short. Our time is short. It's very short. You know, we don't get to live here very long. Like I recognize, where am I at? Do you know, if I live as long as my father lived, I have that many years left. If I live as long as my dad, I'm at the end. What have we done? Our time is passing by. And I hope you're not satisfied to simply have a book on the shelf to tell you about the mighty works of God and the ways that people have turned the world upside down in the past. I hope you're not satisfied with that. And if you're not satisfied with that, then what I want to encourage you to do is be constant in prayer and go ask God for the things that you most need. What do you need? I think we need to be taught to pray. Maybe let's talk about that for a second. I find this. I'm interested in looking at how the saints in Scripture pray. In fact, what I want to do is I want to just dissect. I think this can be very helpful. To study the prayers of the Scriptures. You know, Mack told me one time about I think somebody encouraged you to pray through all the Psalms. That can be very valuable. Very instructive. Let's look at two prayers of Moses. And one of the reasons I want you to look at these is because Moses got what he was asking for. Now look, if there's anything we ought to want, what our Lord is encouraging us when He taught His disciples is how to go to the door and get what you want. Jesus did not look real favorably on the idea of praying and not having what you ask for. Or not receiving what you seek. Or not having doors open to you when you're knocking. You recognize what Jesus is doing. Jesus is instructing His disciples how to pray, how to ask in His name everywhere where He teaches about prayer. The expectation is that if we come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, He constantly is saying, I will do it. My Father will do it. Ask and you'll have. This is how He taught us to pray. The idea of praying and not getting what we pray for is foreign. Now look, I know we can ask amiss. But if you just look at the way Jesus taught us to pray, everywhere it is assumed He is teaching us how to pray to get what we pray for. And so, maybe we'll just take a little bit of instruction tonight. We'll dissect a couple of Moses' prayers. The two I want us to look at. One is found in Exodus 32. And the other one is found in Numbers 14 if you want to put your finger in both places. But we're going to look at Exodus 32 first. Brethren, the question of the hour is this. What do you need? I'll tell you what, it excites me when I hear among you that you want to do things. I am really encouraged when there's a bunch of young pastors. Young crazy guys. I find that often times it takes young people to be crazy. The older we get, we get more cautious. Exodus 32, verse 7. Remember this. Moses is praying. The Lord said to Moses, go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They've made for themselves a golden calf, have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I've seen this people. Behold, it's stiff-necked people. Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you. But Moses implored. Now here's the thing, Moses gets an answer. You know what happens. God does not write off Israel. God does not create a nation out of Moses. That doesn't happen. He gets what he asks for here. So that's key. Because what this is, is an approach to God asking for a big thing. I mean, God is heated. God is angry. God is threatening to wipe out this people. And Moses approaches God in a way that he gets what he came for. Listen to it. Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people? Now, if you didn't catch this, this is key. God says to Moses, Moses, your people, who you brought out of Egypt, and Moses comes back and says, your people, Lord. That is such a good place for us to start. Do you remember how it was with Israel when they were in Egypt? God made a difference between them. And you know what? Moses argues that way in a certain place when he's arguing with the Lord. He's making a case. This is really what I want to talk about. How do we pray and make a case before the Lord? And there's a place where Moses says, Lord, you're the God who makes a distinction between your people. How's it going to be known that these are your people unless you make a distinction between them? Listen, when I'm living my life and God says I'll never leave you or forsake you, and there's a man over here who does not know God, should we expect there to be a distinction? Should you expect help in your life and answers to prayer? He has no access to God. Through Christ in one's spirit, we read about boldness and access with confidence. He is the way. No one comes unto the Father except through Him. Brethren, a lot of us in here have what the masses out there don't have. We have access. You come into the prayer meetings. Lord, we're your people. Please. We're the people who you've bought with the blood of your Son. I mean, if you wouldn't spare Him for us, Lord, we're wanting to do what you've asked us to do. You told us to clothe the naked. There are people out here who are naked without the righteousness of Christ to cover them. We want to go out and seek to clothe them. Or maybe it is poor down in Nicaragua. Maybe they're actually our orphans. We support a missionary and his wife who work over in Asia. She's constantly... She owns a four-wheel drive truck now to go up in those mountains and take those children down that are being harvested for organs. Sold to Chinese men where there are many more men than women. So they sell them as wives or they sell them for their organs. She's trying to rescue these. Could you go over into the mountains of China, the mountains of Thailand, the mountains of Myanmar, and rescue children who are being sold? We've got a team over in Nepal right now. They're seeking to rescue girls being sold into the sex trade that goes down into India. We started on the east side of San Antonio with ten people. I'm not saying that to our credit. I'm saying this because we could say, Lord, we may be small. We may be pathetic. We may be weak. And at that time, we did not have lawyers and doctors. We had four breadwinners in the church when we first started. How are we going to get to Nepal? How are you going to? Are you even thinking that way? Lord, we're your people and you've told us to go to the nations. Who? He didn't just say that to the church down the block. And remember, He's saying this to His people. He's not just saying this to the apostles. If He was just saying it to the apostles, He would not have said, I am with you to the end of the age. No, no. That means He's with us to the end of the age to accomplish the evangelization of the world and to hasten the day of His coming. How are you going to? What do you need? As you're coming before the Lord with your needs, how are you going to plead with Him? You know, there's a lot of people that just say, Lord, bless this. Lord, bless that. Lord, bless the other thing. That isn't the way Moses prayed. He starts by saying, Lord, they're your people. That's powerful with the Lord. You bought us. You redeemed us. We're years. What do you need? I ask you this. Wherever you are, do you need a building? Look, buildings aren't just carnal. To have a place for God's people to meet, a place that's visible where people in the neighborhood can see where you are, that doesn't have to be carnal. What do you need? Do you need more boldness? Do you need more money? I mean, what do you need? How are you going to make a case? Do you want a church that's feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, bringing the stranger in? I'll tell you what you don't want to do. You don't want to simply gather in your prayer meetings, and brethren, if you gather in your prayer meetings, and you know, Brother Joe back there, he wants to tell you about Aunt Matilda's sore knee. Could we pray about that? Could we pray about so-and-so who's got cancer and so-and-so? Look, I'm not saying the churches can't pray about that, but when you've got people perishing out in the world, and when you've got a world of darkness, and when you live in the northeast where there is so much darkness, this is not the Bible Belt. This is where the Gospel is hated especially. Coming into prayer meetings and simply praying about everybody's aches and pains, somebody needs to stand up and say, Stop! We are the people of God. We are the people to whom the commission has been given. We are the people who have been told to go feed the hungry. We are the people who Christ said, Follow Me. And if you're following Him, and you watch the way He walked, how did He walk? He went to the masses, and He proclaimed the truth. And He went to the masses, and He fed them, and He healed them. And maybe we don't have the supernatural ability to heal and raise the dead like He did, but you know, we can pray for the miraculous out there, but we can do what we can do. And what we can do is pray, and what we can do is clothe people, and what we can do is use our money to feed people, and what we can do is use our money to take the Gospel to people who don't have it. We can follow Him in these things. We proclaim it, and we mix our proclamation with compassion. That's what He did. He didn't just sit with the disciples forever and always and simply speak to them about systematic theology. They broke loose. He sent them out two by two. In three short years, He was gone. And they went out to the nations. And the churches were expected to follow suit. I'll tell you what you don't want to do. You don't want to come into prayer meetings and just pray, bless this and bless that. You want to come with your arguments. Why should God give you what you want? And one of the ways, why should God give Moses what he wants? He knows. Lord, they're Your people. And that's a powerful argument. And that ought to be an argument for us. Brethren, think about the different ways that people pray. Just think. If you're involved in the prayer meetings, you get sometimes just careless, lackadaisical approaches. You get people that rush in. They just pray flippantly. They pray what comes off their heads. Sometimes you hear people pray and you're not even certain they have a burden for that. It's like they're in front of the church and they recognize they're praying in front of other people, but they don't really live their lives like they have a burden for that thing that they pray for. When they come into the prayer meeting, you wonder do they even pray for that? People are very quick. There's not a whole lot of thought. There's not a whole lot of order and argument in why they should have this. It doesn't sound like there's much of a passion behind it. People with no passion. People just kind of lackadaisically, flippantly, and then prayer meeting's over, let's rush out. No expectation. People pray for things and it's not like they're keeping their eyes open. Okay, when's God going to bring this? It's just kind of pray for this. Okay, let's go, let's eat. Amen. Let's get out of here. Let's go home and eat. No expectation. We just run off. It's the way a lot of people are. And then, you know this too. Sometimes you're in the prayer meeting and the laundry list approach. Somebody prays for everything they have wanted, ever wanted, might want. It's just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. One thing after another. Really, no reasons given, offered up. And a lot of times it's just bless this, bless that, bless that, bless that. Bless the other thing. Or the excessive use of God's name approach. You ever heard the people that they pray and it's like they use God's name more than they ever ask for anything or really pray anything. If somebody talked to you and put your name in the sentence as much as some people put the name of God in their prayers, you would think it acts absolutely ridiculous. God knows what His name is. Now if we need to use that name sometimes to remind ourselves of who He is, that can be, you know, and there in Acts 4, it only took one sovereign Lord. That's enough. We recognize. And the place shook. We get that kind of thing. Or we get the unnatural approach. And a lot of times this happens in reform movement. You get the guy that stands up. And suddenly an unnatural tone comes out of him. You know Brother Bob. He doesn't talk that way. But when he prays, Oh God! And it's like, What? I mean that just speaks more of hypocrisy than anything else. Brethren, you know one thing? It was A.T. I heard A.T. Pearson from one of you guys today. Pearson was a guy who preached Spurgeon's funeral. But he got to go to England one time and he got to hear Spurgeon preach before he died. And he also got to hear Mueller pray. And you know the thing that struck him about Mueller? His prayers were so childlike. We don't have to put on any posturing in front of the Lord. Lord, we're weak. I mean if we were to recount all our sins from this week, Lord we know that it can't be on our merits. But you know you can present your case like we were talking about last night from Isaiah 58. You can say, Lord, we have tried to feed the hungry and take strangers in. We have sought to do that Lord. We've sought to send our men out. Our men and women. We've tried to take the gospel to the college campuses. We've tried to be soul winners. We've tried to support foreign missions. Lord, you know we have. We'd be lying if we said, and you've said in your Word that if we pour ourselves out for the hungry, we'll cry and you'll say, here I am. But we need your help. We don't have the greatest names. We don't have the greatest talent in the church. We don't have the greatest amount of money. Lord, you've bid us to do these things. It just seems impossible for us to ever start a home for homeless women. It seems impossible for us to set up. Remember Pastor Shee? He was ordained by Hudson Taylor. Saved in those days. He had a home for drug addicts. God used him mightily. Can you do that? What do we need? We don't come in and just pray. Or these endless ifs. If it be your will. Look, I know we have to be subject to the Lord. But ifs. Constantly ifs. Brethren, we need to ask for some things. Be bold. Come forth. No ifs. God, it is Your will that these folks in these churches reach with the compassion of God and with the truth of God's message in these neighborhoods on Long Island, in New York, across these eastern states. It's God's will for you to show the compassion of Christ. It's God's will. You don't have to put a bunch of ifs in there. I know we pray resigned. Listen to Mueller. In my younger years, I had a good many ifs. But those are all gone. I know that the Lord has the means at His command to answer all my prayers if I come believing, asking in the name of Christ. Or we get the roundabout approach. You know what that is? I mean, Moses might have prayed, Oh Lord, I would like to come into Your presence and ask You to consider showing certain favor and blessing. You remember how it was with Abraham? Oh, that Ishmael might live before You. Right to the point. There's the name. He said it. Lord, this is Your people. No beating around the bush. This is Your people. Moses' arguments. And you know what he says? He brings up the past here. He doesn't just say, Lord, why does Your wrath burn against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt? Or he doesn't just say Your people. He says Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, listen to David in one of the Psalms. Hide not Your face from me. Turn not Your servant away in anger. Oh, You who have been my help. See, this isn't just quick mumbling something. He's laying his case. They're Your people. Not only are they Your people, You've helped them in the past. You hear how David's praying? Lord, if You've helped me up till now. Lord, I remember when I was dead in my sins and You befriended me. I remember where I was. Telling Sister Linda here, driving here this morning. Do you know where I was? I was a year out of college. And I was doing so much meth and so much coke that as an engineer I could barely function until Wednesday or Thursday of the week. I remember literally going into the stall at work and just putting my head against the wall because of the pain in my head from the amount of drugs I did over the weekend. I was a weekend warrior. I lived for the social life. I had a big group of friends and we partied hard. And I was in this life and it was swallowing me up. And I was going deeper and deeper and deeper. I had no idea that true Christianity was even real. I didn't know any true Christians. This thing was oblivious to me. I lived in a realm where there was no reality. I was nominal Catholic. I thought it's something I need to probably get right one day. If I was in the midst of that, and God came and He rescued me, and He rescued me with the precious blood of His Son, has He done that for me in the past? I mean, hear what He's saying. They're your people. And you rescued them out of Egypt. Are you going to abandon them now? Are you just going to forsake them now? Isn't it much to say, Lord, You've helped me thus far. This is what David's saying. Why would You do this if You intend to leave me now? Why have You brought me through so many dangers and toils and snares? I mean, have You shown me such things? Been so kind to me in the past, only to forsake me now? Lord, have You brought me to this place to put me to shame? Is that what it is, Lord? I mean, You told us if we go to that door and we knock, You're going to open up. You've told us to go to the nations. You've told us to be a light in this world. And You've told us You wouldn't forsake us. And You've given us the promise that we'll even do greater works than Christ did. And You told us to pray in His name. And You told us You'd give us these things. And now after all that You've said, are You going to put us to shame? I'll tell you this, Scripture says there in one of those early Psalms, I think it's Psalm 3, He's the lifter of our head. Do you know if you have to walk around like a Christian hanging your head all the time because you ask the Lord to help you do things that are absolutely impossible unless He comes? Isn't that what we want? Do we want to be in churches that can simply be explained by our abilities? I don't want to be in a church like that. You know what kind of church I want to be in? The kind that people look at and they just scratch their head and they say, you know what, there's no explanation for that except God Almighty is with that people. Don't you want that? I want that. You should want that. As we're seeking to reach this part of the country. God, help us. You saved us. Have You brought us to this hour only to abandon us? Only to leave us to our own self, our own strength, our own devices? To only have our systematic theologies and sit and study them perpetually among ourselves? No. Lord, we're going to step out. We're going to step out of this boat. We're going to go out there on those waters. And Lord, we don't know if those waters are going to hold us or not, but we trust Your promises. We trust Your promises are going to hold us. And we're going to go out there. Brethren, do this. In your churches, do this. Trust this God. Oh God, our help in ages past. He's helped our fathers in ages past. But don't be content to read the books. I remember one of the names that I did not mention this morning, but my brother did, George Whitefield. I remember as a young believer, Craig Musselman and me. We were brand new Christians, those early years. I'd be on his floor. He'd be up there in his lazy boy or whatever kind of chair that was. We'd have our Bibles open. We'd have Dalamore's Whitefield open. I'd say, Craig, where is this? Where is this? I came across a message by Paul Washer one time. He said as a young believer, he wanted to tear the book of Acts out of his Bible. When I heard him say that, it so resonated with me. That's how I felt. It's like, Lord, have You given us this to mock us? There's one thing to find it in Whitefield's biography. It's another thing when it's in Scripture. It's like this is Scripture. The Spirit of God wrote these accounts. Why? To mock us? They had prayer meetings and the place shook. I mean, whether it's physical shaking or spirit. Is that there just to mock us? Lord, men who turned the world upside down on that day, is it just lore to be read about? Lord, help us. Help your churches today. What do we need? What do we need? I hope somebody says, we need some ladies. Like Peggy and Catherine Smith. That was their last name, right? They're in the Hebrides. Some ladies who are going to lay hold of the Lord. Concerning revival. We need what Matt preached about today. We need the help of the Spirit of God. We need God to do things. Brethren, there are things we need to do. And we step out and we do them in faith. After we've prayed and we've come. You plead the past. That's what Moses did. And then you know what Moses said? Exodus 32.12 Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent, did He bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? I'm just going to jump over to Numbers 14 for a second. You don't have to turn there, but listen to this. There Moses said to the Lord, this is another account when God is threatening to destroy the people and make a great nation out of Moses. There he says, the Egyptians will hear of it. For you brought up this people in your might from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land, they have heard, that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people. For you, O Lord, are seen face to face, your cloud stands over them, and you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people as one man, the nations who have heard your fame will say it is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that He swore to give to them, that He has killed them in the wilderness. I'll tell you what God says. God says, My name will be great among the nations. The Egyptians are not going to have a word to speak. But do you know what's true about the Egyptians? They're watching. And they'll say, That's powerful. Lord, we may not be big in number, but we're your people, and you've helped us up till now. You've saved us in days past. But not just do we plead that we're your people and plead the past. Plead what the Egyptians will say. You know what? Some of us have Egyptians for brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers, and grandparents and co-workers, and fellow students and neighbors. And they're watching. And they know you're a Christian. The Egyptians will say, Lord, we're your people. And the peoples around us are watching. Don't be silent. Don't let the heavens be brass. When we're praying for these things, Lord, if we step out and we fail, if we step out to walk on the water and we sink, the Egyptians are watching. And we've said we trust You. You the living God. We come to a great King. Don't let us step out there and then fall on our face. The Egyptians will say, it's because your God isn't real. Or your God doesn't care. Or your God isn't with you. I mean, brethren, if you need a building, say you're meeting in a home, you're meeting someplace, you need a building. Lord, the Egyptians have buildings. The God of the Jehovah's Witnesses gives them their kingdom halls. The God of the Mormons gives them their tabernacles. We're your real people. The God of the Catholics gives them all buildings. They have great properties around here. Lord, we're not looking for anything with curb, appeal, or fancy. Just a place where your people can gather that's public, where we can be seen in the neighborhood, where the people can come and pray and come hear the Word of God together. Lord, the Egyptians are watching. Don't let them say, what's the God of those people? And then you have God's promises. Remember, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. This is what Moses says. Remember, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and all the land that I have promised, I will give to your offspring. Brethren, we should give the Lord no rest when we seek something that He's promised to give. Isn't this what it says in Scripture? Do as you have spoken. Let me ask you this. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, do you believe that God is more willing to give you the Holy Spirit if you ask? Do you really believe that those who believe will do the works that Christ did and greater works? These are promises. That greater work than Christ, I have to believe, has to do with just the geography and the extent of the spread of the Gospel. We have a promise. We have promises that if we step out that door to take the Gospel, He's not going to leave us. He's not going to abandon us. All the silver and the gold is His and He tells us to go. He tells us to feed the hungry. What do we need? See, what I'm getting at in all this is what do we need? Don't be afraid to ask Him. I'll tell you, we went to the Lord, we asked Him for young people. We saw sister churches. Oh, they've got a bunch of young people. Lord, give us young people. And the Lord brought a whole bunch of young people. It was like a revival happened. Lord, give us African Americans. God brought us African Americans. Why? Because the Lord, that's how heaven is. Every tribe and tongue. We've got all these ethnicities mixed together that are going to be there before the throne. We want that here. And the Lord brought that. We said, Lord, give us converted homosexuals. And the Lord brought that. Lord, have we not been told? Pray to the Lord of the harvest. We need laborers. Lord, we need laborers. The fields are white for harvest. Anybody ever look around and see that the fields are white for harvest here? What do we need? We need gifts. And you know what? If some are more gifted than others, some maybe are more evangelistic and they go out the doors, we need people back at home that can support that. People that are sacrificial. What do you need? I mean, maybe you need more money. So, maybe you need more of a sacrificial spirit. Maybe you need better jobs. Maybe you need more people in the church. I don't know what you need. But ask the Lord. Take it to Him. Importunity. Lay your case. Lord, the Egyptians are watching. Lord, you've helped us in time past. Lord, you've given us promises. Lord, you've given us a commission. Lay your case out there. Spurgeon did that old sermon called Order and Argument in Prayer coming right out of Job where he said he would order his argument, make his case before God. That's what we want to do. We want to come before Him. We want to bang on that door. Bang on that door. Bang on that door. Lord, please, grant us these things that we need. You've promised to plead God's character. I mean, Moses did that. Please, pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your steadfast love. Listen, what do you think happens if we pray and the result is unimpressive? It's average? I mean, what's that? What does that say about the God we have? We have prayer meetings. We're fervent. We go. We're pleading. We're seeking to strive to live righteous lives. The effectual, fervent prayers of a righteous man avail much. We're asking. Lord, we're asking. We're making a case. We're pleading. We're pleading His character. I mean, listen, He sent His Son into this world to seek and to save sinners. If He would do that and send His Son here and then have Him nailed to a cross to pay the debt for them, then can we expect that He's going to use us to go out and find them, find the wandering sheep, give us the means to do it, to take the compassion? Listen, Jesus Christ, He went everywhere proclaiming the Gospel and He showed compassion. He fed people. If you look, to demonstrate His almighty power, He could have leapt buildings with a single bound. He didn't do that. Wherever He went, kindness. He walks up. He raises the dead son of a widow. I mean, that's the kind He was. He turns water into wine. That's the kind of God that we have. If you will, you can make me clean. Be clean. He fed the people. He had sympathy for them. He saw them. They were like wandering sheep. His heart went out to them. If there's one thing that's true, if you look around at reformed circles in our country, a lot of reformed people do not have warm hearts. Maybe that's what we need to ask for. Lord, soften our hearts. Help us to be able to look at the lost and weep. Feel like we could wish ourselves a cursed and cut off from Christ like Paul did. To even feel that way. That's our Women's Grace House. I would find myself driving down New Braunfels Avenue by these prostitutes. I thought, somebody's got to take the gospel to these ladies. I mean, do you see the people? Sometimes we need that. God, give us eyes. Just give us eyes to see. Because we can become... I've got to preach four messages this weekend out there on Long Island. I can be driving around San Antonio. I'm thinking, well, right after that, I have to preach at home. And then I have all these messages. I can preach in Utah. And then I have all these messages. I can preach in Manchester. You can get all absorbed. We're living our life. My wife's got eczema. We think it's the dog. I can be thinking, should we get rid of the dog? You know, you've got all these thoughts going through your mind. You get so absorbed. It's like, I've been painting the hood on my Yukon because it looked so ugly. It got baked by the Texas sun. I'm looking up there and I see this blemish. I'm thinking about that. And you're driving by people. People, they're just driving by. It's just like an ocean of people. They're just flowing past you. And you're not even noticing. We're just absorbed. Oh, we've got a Bible study tonight. Just absorbed. Yeah, we're studying Grudem or we're studying whoever it is. Berkhoff. And we just get lost. We're in this world. And Jesus didn't do that. Lord, give us eyes like Yours. Give us a heart like Yours. Whatever it is. Brethren, be specific. Be real. Don't ask for every possible thing. Say what you mean. Don't play. And I'll tell you this, you're never going to be dangerous to the enemy when it comes to what you're asking for if you're not praying. Brethren, our prayer meetings need to be full. We cannot have empty prayer meetings and think we're going to turn the world upside down. We can't have empty prayer meetings and think that we're going to send missionaries out to the ends of the earth. We simply can't have that. We can't believe that our hearts are going to be softened. It's when we come into the presence of God and we come corporately and we gather together and there's a unity and we find that we're stirring up one another as we pray and we lay these arguments out and you hear brother so-and-so and he's pleading for why we should take the Gospel to India or we should try to go to South America or why we should try to do this crazy thing. And Lord, we need people in the churches that have tears and who are pleading, Lord, give us people like Jim Elliot who are going to step in God and make us dangerous. Don't let us fall. Don't let us be these armchair quarterbacks who simply are cynical and find fault. Listen, if you do anything in this world, people are going to find fault with you. But we need to be people ready to launch out. There's a throne of grace. Go. We are promised mercy, grace, help. We are promised that. Grace. We need grace. We can't come in our own merits here. Yes, we can confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive. And we have this advocate. But we need to bust in there to this throne of grace. Lord, what do you need? What do you need? You know what you need. What do you need in your family? You say, I need God to save my children. Yes, my oldest daughter. I cannot change her heart. I need God to save her. I can't do that. That's what I need. I can't heal my wife. I need the Lord to do that. I can't provide for all the things that need to be provided for. I can't. But I can desperately pray. There are places in the world that are not reached. There are dark places. There are people that are needy. I cannot restore Trevor Johnson's health to put him back on the foreign mission field. Paul Snyder. I can't fix what's broke there. Just recently, we had a situation down in Ecuador. The guy, he's not even a pastor. He's just the guy that has most tried to shepherd the people as best he could. About 80 people down there in Manta, Ecuador. He's in the military. He's getting stationed in Washington, D.C. for a year. I was getting ready to have to say to the church down there, we have oversight over these brethren. Brethren, I don't have a response. I don't have an answer. If I knew Spanish, I probably would have volunteered myself. And God provided. God provided very quickly. I didn't have an answer. We don't have answers to so many things. We don't know. Brethren, our Heavenly Father does not regard eloquence. He does not regard fine speech. But I'll tell you this, He does regard the name of His Son. And you use that name. I'll tell you, a wife can use the name of her husband. Use that name. He bought us with His blood. He's the one that's commissioned us. Pray that way. Brethren, study to pray. Learn to pray like they prayed in Scripture. Learning to pray is not wrong. The Lord teaches us to pray. And you say, well, that's crazy. That's just foolish. No. He said, I'll teach you to pray. Let Moses teach us to pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray for prayer. Pray to be helped to pray. Think about what you're praying for. Think about what you need in your lives. Men ought always to pray and not faint. Brethren, this isn't a sprint. You know this. This life is for as many years as God gives us. And it can be a long distance deal. And we can get tired. And we can get wore out. But you've got to pray. Lord, send Your Spirit. You know why those people began to gather and pray? Because God's Spirit did something. God made them want to pray. God made them need to pray. God, give us what we need in our churches. Stir us up so that we need to pray. Stir us up so that we're desperate. Stir us up so that we're dangerous. Stir us up so that we ask for the things in prayer that are going to arm us to defeat the enemy and squash His head under our feet. Don't just let it be the Romans. Let it be us that stomp on His head. That defeat Him. Give us what we need. Don't play with prayer. Don't just let people in the prayer meetings drone on and on and put everybody to sleep. We need people to pray for what they really have a burden for. Pray for the things that they're impassioned for. Let there be fervency. Let there be brevity. But let there be prayer. Let us be dangerous in prayer. Let us be like Eliot called for. Dangerous. Forcible knocks on that door. God, open up to us, please. We're the people redeemed by Your Son. Open to us. And I'll tell you what, we have a God that is in the business. He promises. You knock, I'm going to open. And you keep knocking until He opens. What do you need? Ask Him for it. Brethren, ask Him. And give Him no rest. Keep asking. Don't just wear out in a day. Don't just go away with no expectancy. I mean, you come back into the next prayer meeting and you ask Him for the same thing again. You bring even more cases. You keep your eyes open as you're reading Scripture. Strike these notes over and over. God is not slow to give. But I'll tell you what, He would have us pray like this. Why? Because I'll tell you, this is a tremendous amount for our own faith. You begin to think of all the reasons why God ought to answer. You begin to number the different promises that God has given. You begin to think about His character. God knows what we need before we ask. All of this kind of asking and knocking is not for His sake. It's mainly for our sake. Because it really has us thinking about who God is and what His promises are. And why we should have what we're asking for. Give the reason. Give God reasons. Brethren, I ask you, what do you need? What do you need? We need hearts first that are just on fire. We need a desperation. We need something in our souls that is able to look out the doors and say, Lord, give us souls or we die. We need a hunger for souls. We need to have a compassion. We need to see the loss. Not as just these blurry blobs driving by us on the road. But there goes an eternal soul that likely within 50 years will be in hell's fire. They just went by me. I know the truth. I'm just going to go home and go to sleep and live on with my life. Brethren, look around. Look around at Costco. Look around at the supermarket. Look around at the restaurant. Look around. What do we need? And ask, Lord, please, please save our children. Lord, please raise up labors. Please give us souls. I don't want to be in a church that grows because some other church got smaller. Lord, crush the serpent's head under our heels. Take away his goods and add them to the church. Grow us on conversions. Lord, we need missionaries. Lord, we need people who are sacrificial and who work to give to those that are in need. Lord, we need evangelists. Lord, we need revival. We need Your Spirit. Lord, help us. We need help to make this preaching powerful so that people are stirred and convicted. Lord, we need help. We need help to walk holy lives. Lord, we need help to not have a bunch of young men who are watching internet pornography. They can't even hardly think about starting an orphanage and reaching out to widows because they can't hardly get their act together. Lord, Lord, give us what we need. How are the prayer meetings going to break out in Manhattan again? How are men like Whitfield going to wander the land again unless You give us such times once more? Lord, Lord, we need You to come. We're Your people. You bought us with the blood of Jesus Christ. We don't want dead churches. We don't want sleeping churches. We don't want churches that play at Christianity and play at prayer meetings. Lord, breathe a fresh spirit of life through Your churches. Help us. Help these people, Lord. Lord, our time is short. Don't delay. One of the things we need, we need You to arise quickly. Speedily. That's how they prayed in Psalm 102. Speedily. Lord, we need some things fast. We need help now. Lord, if You wait until tomorrow, we may not be here any longer. Please, Father, give us. Give us what we need. Give us what we lack. If we need trials, if we need like Whitfield prayed for the thorn in our nest, give it to us. Lord, give us what we need. Don't leave us. Don't forsake us. Don't abandon us. Don't leave us to hang our heads. The Egyptians are watching. And we're the people of God Almighty. We're the people of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're Your people. We're Your people at this time. And You saved us and You know us. Lord, by much fruit we're going to prove to be the disciples of the Lord. Some hundredfold. Some sixtyfold. Some thirtyfold. Let that be a reality, Lord. Give us the fruitfulness. Awaken that in us. If it be sleeping. Amen.