Thy People Shall Be Willing In The Day Of Thy Power

You know, it's so good to see friends that you haven't seen in 30 years, 35 years. Some have come tonight and their presence here is a testimony to the Lord Jesus of His faithfulness but also to the power of one time when we respond to Him honestly and truly to make an everlasting change in our life. I've heard several say at Cherokee Village. I think that's the place it was called that they remember the moment and the time when they said yes to what the Holy Spirit said to them. And so that's what I'm prefacing tonight with that just to say that when we do that, when we preface, when we say yes to Him in a moment when He speaks then there's life change involved. He'll change you. And so tonight really is the kind of truth we're covering tonight is truly life changing if we will let the Lord have His way. I'm very excited about what we're covering tonight. I think it's one of the keys for men and women and teenagers especially when they see these kind of things to lay hold of. It'll make all the difference. Now I get to pray as well so let's bow for prayer. Father we thank you. We say tonight be thou our vision like Connor sang about to give us a holy and pure and God-given passion, a zeal that burns on the bones to follow you fully and follow hard after you. When you say to us seek my face may our hearts respond the Lord thy face we will seek. And we pray that you'll give us a vision from heaven like Paul walked in all the days of his ministry, a heavenly vision, a glorious holy passion and a sacrificial and willing obedience. And we thank you for that in the name of Jesus in advance, amen. Well I want to read what is really one of the most oft repeated verses in the Old Testament. It's well it is the most quoted verse in the New Testament. Our Lord used it several times and I just want to read it because it gives you a tone of where we're going. Martin Luther called it the glory psalm and it's the crown of the psalms that's what he called it because it's used and it's so in the Hebrew so expressive. Listen to Psalm 110 I just want to read the first couple of verses and you'll recognize this because it's quoted 26 times exactly parts of it in the New Testament, 12 of them are in Hebrews. The only book in the New Testament that tells us what Jesus is really doing now, his high priesthood praying for you and me tonight, ever living to pray. And it actually refers in this psalm to a name of God that we seldom call him, the rod of God. That's one of the names of Jesus and listen to Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, two different words for Lord in the Hebrew and Jesus quoted this and he asked the Pharisees who is David talking about and they couldn't answer. So the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make your enemies thy footstool. Now that's used all over the place in the New Testament I mean from Peter to you name it right on through. And so the Lord will send the rod of thy strength, capital R, the rod of thy strength out of Zion. And then it's a prayer, rule thou in the midst of your enemies as the rod of God is sent from Zion, that's where the throne of the Lamb is in Hebrews chapter 12. Then God will establish His power and it says in verse 3, thy people shall be willing and the Hebrew says thy people shall be willing sacrifices in the day of your power. See the day of the power of God started when Jesus He referred to it in that day, in that day, in that day, three times in John's Gospel He was talking about the day, He was speaking beyond the throne, beyond the cross to when He took the throne of the universe and that is when He was given the name above every name. The disciples never called Jesus, Jesus they called Him Master, they called Him Lord and the name Jesus became precious and holy and above every other name when He went in after His ascension into heaven and on the day of Pentecost in those ten days in there He was crowned Lord of all and sat down like this says right here and was crowned Lord of all. And He sent then the promise of the Father. They had been anticipating all the Old Testament and longing for your people will be willing in the day of your power. There will be, there was a man I knew from the Sudan and he was, he would introduce himself, my name is Naji Kunaji, I'm from Sudan, I'm black and he was, he said I'm so black I'm purple. He was, he was just and he said thy people shall be willing in the day of your power. It was just awesome. I love to hear him say it. I don't know why I said that but I just remember that Sudanese man saying your people will be willing in the day of your power. In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, from the resurrection morning, you have the dew of your youth, that's everlasting vigor and life. The Lord has sworn, see if you recognize this, and He will never change His mind, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, raised from the dead, ascended and disappeared into a cloud and what happened on the other side of that cloud when He was put down as the King of the universe, the King of eternity, the Lord of the throne room, the High Priest of God, that's what we need to see and understand. With all authority in heaven and on earth given to Him and the rod in this right here stands for His strength and everything that is His authority. Now I want to go back then from there and take it back and trace it because you see it's the picture that in the scriptures like you look in the tabernacle, you look in the feasts, you look in the offerings, you look in the priesthood, you look in the wilderness journeys and you start understanding it's a flannel graph, it's a picture book that God has made for His children that leads you, a picture is worth often a thousand words especially when God makes the picture. And like I think of my grandkids you know I can read them from a book that makes sense to me but they yawn and they're bored but you show them a picture book and suddenly they begin to take extreme interest and they understand you see and the Old Testament is used this way and once you have something that you didn't understand you know what we often say, we see, I see, I see, in other words we can see and understand what we haven't seen most of what we remember and most of the professional memory experts say they associate it with pictures. That's why most of you when you think of Moses you think of Cecil B. DeMille's Moses, Charlton Heston on Sinai, I said get that out of my mind Lord, He's not like that, He's different. But see that's like a heavenly vision, when Paul saw Jesus it etched into his spiritual retina and when we see Him as He is it changes us forever. So we say to people you ever say, do you get the picture? Or do you see it? And that's what God wants us to see, He wants us to understand what we're talking about tonight and it's the pictures that He wants to show us about prayer especially. So with that now I want you to consider back in the book of Exodus when the children of Israel were in Egypt and they were in bondage and when God wanted to free the people He chose a man, that's what He always does, or a woman like a Deborah or a Moses and He came and because people are God's method not better methods being His method. He uses people and they may incorporate different methodology but it's always when God wants to do a new thing He always does it the same old way. He might use a methodology that's different but He does it in a way that takes your breath away when you finally see beyond the outside part of it and begin to understand what's really going on. So you see I think back to Moses in Egypt and God gave His word to Moses and He gave, remember when He gave Moses that rod? Someone graciously caught me a bamboo rod from back then, Moses' rod was, I don't think it was bamboo, but remember Aaron's rod? Aaron's rod, what was it a picture of? Remember when all the leaders of the tribes put down their rod in the presence of God overnight and that next morning before the ark and Aaron's rod had budded and blossomed and fruited. It was an almond rod and it's a picture of the resurrection but you see God gave a picture of Aaron being the anointed ever-living priest and Moses' rod was different. He threw down a snake and it became his rod. He took it back up and it's a picture, ask your kids what the rod's supposed to mean. It's a picture of delegated authority. I've given you the rod to teach your children the ways of God and train up a child in the way. He should go and when he's old he won't depart from it. He who spares the rod hates his child, that's what the scriptures say, now that's tough. Today they'll throw you in jail up in some places if you spank your children but this rod is a picture of spiritual authority and so God says to Moses, I want you to be a picture of my authority. I want you to hold this rod up as the plagues came over like the waters and the waters became blood in the Nile River. That's God's authority released through Moses and so he put it in, he stretched out his rod and over and over God established his word and showed his authority through that. So you see that when they finally come through the Red Sea he holds up the rod over the Red Sea and the Red Sea splits. You see all this taking place and Moses has, I'm sorry I've been banging this thing and stuff is coming out all up here. I said what is that, it looked like, anyway y'all forgive me I'm sorry I'll clean it up later. Oh boy. So this represents the rod of thy strength, it's an everlasting picture, the rod of God as the strength of God and like the rod of Ahasuerus that Esther came and he put out the golden scepter and accepted her and you see in Hebrews 1 he set forth a scepter of righteousness as the scepter, the rod of your kingdom forever and ever. So it really stands for delegated authority. And so you know the story how they came through the Red Sea and they came to Sinai after they came out but as soon as they came out, look at Exodus 17, this is where we're going to dive off of tonight. In Exodus 17 the people of God are out of Egypt, they've seen God destroy their enemies in the Red Sea, they're out and they've been just amazed and they begin to get thirsty, they begin to long for the ease of life they had and the people begin to chide with Moses or to kind of complain and if any pastor's here he'll know what I mean by that, wherefore this is what you've brought us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst, they blame the preacher for everything. And so Moses went and cried to the Lord and said, what can I do with these people? They're ready to stone me. And the Lord says to Moses, go before the people and take with you of the elders of Israel and your rod with which you smote the river as they came over and take in your hand and go. And so I will stand, God is speaking to Moses, I will stand in your presence there upon that rock in Horeb. Now you don't see Jesus standing there, this is God speaking to Moses, I will stand there. You can't see me, but you're going to smite that rock and in the New Testament it says that rock was Christ in this picture and out of the smitten rock with the rod comes the water that sufficiently keeps the people, behold I will stand before you on the rock in Horeb and you will smite the rock and there will come out water that the people may drink and Moses did this in the sight of all the elders of Israel. And so he called the name of that place Massah and Meribah because of the complaining of the children of Israel because they tested the Lord saying is the Lord really among us or is He not? So that rod established in their mind the authority of God through the leadership and it was through the river that was smitten and through the Red Sea that was parted and now through the smitten rock. But as soon as we said this morning even the people of God began to make spiritual progress or look like they are going forward the enemy comes in often like a flood and that's what happened here again. Those same group that we studied this morning in Judges but this is earlier. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. Now the Amalekites always in the Scripture stand for fleshly opposition and that which resists the people of God. You'll see them always and they are always fighting. And so Moses says to Joshua, choose you out men and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow. I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So here is a valley down here and all the people of God have got to fight in a battle and it says here verse 10, Joshua did as Moses said to him and fought with Amalek and so Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So the people of God are going to address the fleshly foes with the edge of the sword. What a picture. Down in the lower regions of the earth but going up to the top into the heavenly regions would be Moses and Aaron and Hur. Now if you have ever been on a mountain and you are looking down you can see everything but people looking up can't often see you just sitting up there in that little one perch you are in. They don't know you are there as much but you have a tremendous view and amazingly like if you go to Chattanooga and stand on that mountain you can hear everything coming up in the city. They are just speaking and you can hear them talking. I don't know how it gets up the mountain. But from that place you really have a perspective that is seeing the end from the beginning and everything else. So Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill and Moses said, God said, take the rod with you. Now all three of these guys are over 80 years old. I remember, since this is basketball season, you can think back to when we were playing basketball. I grew up in Chapel Hill that is why I was a little interested last night. Some of you ladies don't have a clue what I am talking about. But they would often when we would play basketball punish us if we weren't really on top of it and they would say, OK, just stand there and hold your arms out like this. And we would stand there for, it was no big deal, stand there. But you try standing there for 10 minutes holding your arms out like that. After about 8 minutes you are whining, oh, it is so hard. Because you just can't hardly make it beyond 10 or 12 minutes. And that is a young man. And so here are three 80 year olds up on the top of the mountain and Moses has this rod in his hands. And it says here, verse 11, it came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. So get this picture. Here is a whole bunch of newly freed slaves just brought out of bondage of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb. And there they are in a totally new existence and they are being accosted by the foes that are against them that are perpetually in the Word of God picturing the fleshly foes that come against them. And God says there is a practical level that this battle is fought on with the edge of the sword and you do this but the leadership is going to go up to the top of the mountain in the upper regions and we are going to take this rod with us that God says represents His authority. It is one of the names later of Jesus. They didn't know that then. But they are going to hold it up. And when they are looking down at the battle and Moses is holding up that rod, when he holds up the rod God's power will prevail and they will overcome in this battle. But when you let down the rod the Amalekites will begin to win. And that is what it says. It came to pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed. And that sounds like just one hand doesn't it? Keep reading. Verse 12. Moses' hands, plural, were heavy and so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. So here he is like this and they take a stone and his legs go like this and he kind of rests his backside on it and so you can see he is kind of like this. He is holding up the rod with his knees bent. You know about the angle that Jesus' were on the cross. You can imagine, you understand, you have seen plenty of pictures of that. So they took a stone and put it under him and Aaron and Hur held up his hands. One on one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steadied until they were going down to the sun. So here is Moses up there and he is holding up his hands and when this rod is held up Israel prevails. He is holding a position in the heavenly realm and on this side is Aaron and he is holding up his hand on this side and they are like this and on the other side is Hur. Look up what the names mean, it will bless you. And he is holding up his hands on this side and as they are holding up his hands as long as they held on and kept holding that before God, God would have them overcome. So in this battle and people had no idea what was going on in the heavenly realm. They did not have a clue. They did not know that Moses and Aaron and Hur were up there that when I swing this sword it is backed by the power of God held up there before. And it says, and Joshua laid low or disconfitted Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. So you see, who did God want to win this battle? I am asking, who did he want to win? It is not hard. I mean, what? That is right. Thank you for your participation tonight Brother Sparks, I am glad to see that you are here and I hope you guys will follow his example if I ask you questions. So God's people in an earthly conflict with fleshly foes with the edge of the sword. You see the picture here? But see what you got to see is at the sun going down like up there on that, right there. You see that cross up there with the word of God behind it? What a perfect illustration tonight for Moses holding up that, it is a piece of wood between the two arms with the bent knees and this Moses is looking up to God and he is praying and he is looking down to make it intelligent at the people as he prays and he is involved in this whole thing. And Aaron and Hur are there supporting him you see in this battle. So you see the success or failure of the battle in the valley depends upon, get this, the heavenlies. See if Moses doesn't hold up his hands the enemy overcomes, but if he holds it up then the people of God begin to lay low Amalek. So the effectiveness on the edge of the sword depends upon the uplifted rod. Can you see that? I mean do you see it? The picture? The picture is what you got to see. It is the picture and the upper regions of the battle. And that is what you got to see tonight. The upper regions of the battle that we are in here. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and against the rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness and heavenly places. And the Lord says I have given you authority and I have given you my word and the rod and you hold this in your hand and so we need to understand from that. You see now, look, when you are holding up there the people down in the valley can't see you. What are you doing standing up there? What is this? It is reminding Father God. He doesn't need reminding. But we have the privilege of reminding Him where Moses is standing there and as long as he holds the picture then based on that rod of God, the strength of God, the cross. Imagine, can you imagine what you see if you see that middle figure with that in the perfect shape of a cross and two figures on either side. It is a perfect silhouette of three crosses on the top of a hill. And on that basis held before the mind of God He gives by grace the victory, you see, but Moses must hold up his hands in prayer. They are reminding Father God of something. Reminding Him. It is the same thing that you have got to remind Him of. It is the cross. It is the cross where we first see the light, you see. And you see here is the thing about Father God. He has two-way memory. He doesn't just remember looking back. He remembers looking forward and He, this is all based, He knows the end from the beginning. We only have one-way memory. We look back and that is all we can see. We don't know the future but God knows it all and He on the basis of the cross looking forward gives that authority and Moses and Aaron and Hur are watching. That is the word. They are watchmen. They are watchmen. They are standing on like a wall or on the high places. They are in the heavenly realm and three 80-year-old people affecting the ground level conflict. That is what we can do with missions. Older people are never older. They may be wiser and they can affect, cheer up Gary, I am not Gary, you are Roy. I have known Roy for 40 years and I call him Gary, can you believe that? I am sorry. But you might just say it is standing in the gap between heaven and earth. Thy will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven. Make it so. What a vivid picture. And so let me ask you this, who decides the outcome of the battle at the bottom of the hill? Is it God or is it Moses? It is a trick question. You can't answer it. You know God's will but you can't answer it because there is such an integration of what God has planned in this picture and it is an awesome factor but here you see that prayer is a greater factor in this battle than armies. Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots but we will remember the name of our God, the name of Jesus, the authority of God who was given the name above every other name you see and this was written for our learning that the great bridge between what we know is God's will and what we experience of it is always prayer. He sends the supply of the Spirit through prayer. He has chosen this way for a small group of people or one man even like Nehemiah or Daniel or all the way through to stand in the gap and God is always looking for people to stand in the gap and take the place before him between heaven and earth. So here we see then friends one of the great secrets that a lot of people don't see of God's action on earth. My question to you again is do you see it? Because once you see it you can hardly unsee it. You can hardly unsee it but you can enter into it. You see here is the way Wesley put it when he considered something like this. He says God has chosen in his sovereignty to mysteriously wrap up his predetermined purposes in the believing prayers of the church. Let me say that again. God has chosen in his sovereignty to mysteriously wrap up the work on earth in purposes in the believing prayers of his people. You can call it the royal law of prayer. God does nothing on earth but in answer to believing prayer. That was Moody who said that. Behind every work of God somewhere there's a kneeling form. People that took the time to listen and say this is what God is saying and they hear God say go into your closet and you hold the cross before the heavenly father. You remind him of this. So God often deliberately will not bring to pass his will without the agreement and believing cooperation of his children. Let me say that again. He often won't do what he wants to do without the believing cooperation of the saints at Evangel Church say that will be done. You have not because you ask not because God's chosen way is that he would send this to earth on the wings of believing prayer. He desires the co-laboring with his dear children, fellowship in the things of his heart. He wants you to be a part of what's going on in the valley and you're tied to it with your heart and you're tied to him with your heart and you see who he is and you take your place and it's not easy. It's hard to hold up your hands and you get tired and you might not feel like doing it but you see why don't people pray? Well I just don't feel like it. Well why do you have to feel like it? Because that's the way we make our choices in our society. We always do what we feel like doing and not much else really beside it. So you could say that for us the high places of the field in evangelism is the upper region that you enter into drawn near to the throne of grace. The word in the Greek means to keep coming up like the Hebrew Aliyah in the Old Testament they would come up to Jerusalem Aliyah, Aliyah. It's the real thing of which the Muslim Hajj is just a weak picture. They go over there and they walk around that big square. We go up and we fall at the throne of the Lamb. We come up to the throne of grace and we fall before Him. So you see this truth so clearly brought out again in the grant. It's easy to read right over it in scripture but you know the verses in Ezekiel beginning in about chapter 36 God begins to say I will, I will. He's promising to His people who are far away from Him at that time. Later He says I will turn you, I will multiply you, I will multiply, I will settle you. And this very famous passage when He says over in, He says to them I've sent you to these nations and you've misrepresented me. You've profaned my name. They're getting the wrong impression about who God is just like the nunners in America that you read about are getting the wrong impression of who Jesus is from the church. They don't see who our Lord really is because He might not have total access to our behavior and our thoughts and the way we do things and we smell like, look like, feel like and act like the world in so many cases. We're not of the world even in the same way that He's not if we're born again. But we have to almost, I can't go there it just takes me too long and I get too upset. But He says to them, He says I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to sanctify my great name. Not for your sake but for my name's sake I'm going to sanctify and here's how I will do it. I will sanctify my name to them when I'm sanctified in you. I'm going to do this. In Ezekiel 36 He says that and He says, He says I will sanctify my great name when I'm sanctified in you before their eyes. That's verse 23. And I will take you out from among the nations and I'll bring you into your own land. Twenty-five times He says I will, I will, I will. I'm going to sprinkle you with water. I'm going to put a new heart within you. I'll put my spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in my ways. I will be your God. I will save you. It's just over and over. Isaiah says once God says I will do something nobody can stop it. That's sovereign will of God. It's like when you read the promise in the scriptures and He says I'm going to do this and it's His will. However, after all of these things, the I wills in that chapter 36 and you should read it later. At the end of all of them He says this in verse 37. This is the key, 36, 37. He says, Thus says the Lord God, I will yet for all of this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. All these things I've just told you I will do, I will do, I will do. I will do it, but Israel's got to pray about it. You've got to inquire of me. Like David it says over and over in the Psalms he inquired of the Lord. You read about Saul. It says in the days of Saul there was no inquiry before the ark of God. Saul was head and shoulders physically above others, but he was a prayerless man basically and God rejected him as the leader of the people of God. So inquire, remind me, come before me. The word inquire means to come and remind God and ask Him how to plug the word into your life. God will never do without prayer what He's promised to do in answer to prayer. Now His goodness and mercy falls on the just and the unjust. I mean they get rained on, God blesses. But the real things of God that we're talking about here to affect your church and your city and your state and this nation and the world, they only come through real prayer. Somebody somewhere is in the heavenly realm and they're holding the cross before the Heavenly Father and the Father on that basis is choosing to act. One day it will all be because of the Lamb of God and His precious blood and we'll see it. Even those vials in heaven that it says that He keeps our prayers in His bottle and they're in golden vials which are the prayers of the saints in Revelation 5 and you see that He has a book that He writes in, the prayers, and He keeps all those things. He writes them in His book and you see them integrated into the judgments on the earth in the book of Revelation. He pours out the vial, the golden vials of the other side of answered prayer. It's what I believe they are. I wouldn't say that's unbreakable theology but I believe that our prayers outlive us and God keeps them in heaven in His vials. What a precious thing it is, you see, that He does this thing, heart agreement in the name of Jesus. He says, remind me, put me in remembrance. So now you remember Daniel. I'm going to Daniel and I'm skipping to Daniel now in Daniel chapter 9. You see in Daniel chapter 9, this is the same year, Daniel is not in chronological order, so in Daniel 9 you see it's the same year, it's earlier that year the devil tried to kill Daniel by getting him thrown into the lion's den. Often the devil will try to discourage you and get rid of you before something great is about to happen. He knows what, he doesn't know the future but he knows kind of the way things work and so you see he's manipulated by man and God keeps Daniel alive in that very same year of Darius, Darius, some people say Darius, I think it may be Darius or Darius, it doesn't matter, God knows who he is. But in the year of his reign, the first one, I Daniel understood by the books, he was reading Jeremiah, the number of the years where the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and he says to him he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So see he calculated when he was taken there in 605 BC and he was probably about 87 or bigger than that, I don't know how long he was, he was taken as a teenager we think, and he calculated the number of years that he had been in Babylon and it was right at 70. And he had to be reading in Jeremiah 25 or 29 because that's the only place that it really says those 70 year figures there. So he was reading the Bible, the book of Jeremiah, and God said the time's almost up for me to take you out of here. And instead of going out and having a prayed, we're leaving, Jesus kind of prayed, we're leaving, he says what he did was, I set my face toward the Lord to seek my prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and I prayed to the Lord my God and made my confession and said, oh Lord you're dreadful, you're awesome, and you keep covenant. You see him interceding and he confesses and he stands in that place holding the cross you might say before God. He understood what was going on as he had prayed toward Jerusalem all those years and so you see he says back in Chronicles, he says look when you're in captivity and you remember what's going on and you open the window toward this land, this city, this temple, and you begin to confess your sin and you begin to stand before me on the beauty of my grace, I will hear from heaven. We hear it repeated later, if my people which are called by my name. It's all in that chapter 6 before chapter 7. And God says at the end of 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 15 where he says after the 714 that we all can quote, we sing it and we have people singing it and calligraphy it, we just don't do it. But you see him saying as for this my eyes are always open, my ears are always listening, my heart is always toward the prayer that is made in this place. See even the babes agree with that. They cry out and say you need to take this seriously. So you should, if you're taking notes, write down Jeremiah 25. You know that verse that says I know the thoughts that I have toward you, thoughts of good and not of evil to bring you to an end. And we just leave it there. We don't realize that they're in captivity and God says look at the time these things are over you will seek me with all your heart and when you seek me with all your heart you'll find me because I want to be found by you. I want you to find me. But I have a God of, I'm a God of method, thus saith the Lord, I'm a God of method it says in Isaiah, or I do it this way and I'm not going to break it for anyone and you know what it is and you've got to do it that way and spending time with God is his priority to learn the word of God and to walk in the will of God and we get before him and we say Lord remember your word, remember your word and the angel comes to Daniel as he's there after all those days and he says Daniel from the first day that you begin to get before God and humble yourself and make your heart tender your prayers were heard. There's been a delay because of the prince of the power of the air says the archangel to him but I'm coming to fight him and then the Lord says you're a man highly beloved of God. There might be a delay it may not be right away as we said last night but you see from the first day that you begin to humble yourself and really seek his face and say I'm listening with all my heart your prayers are heard. That's the cross in our life that's what he's saying. So Daniel did more in his seasons of prayer in a short like month period than he did in 50 plus years as prime minister let me tell you could put the apostle Paul in the White House and it wouldn't help this country. So quit trying to think that there's a president that can do it or somebody else because that's not what's going to change it may change some things like the speed of the wind or something like that or how much you pay for gas I don't know but only prayer can change this nation and bring her back to what three times before she's been saved from what would look like certain destruction. Well God is always looking for channels he's looking for people here tonight the eyes of the Lord are always looking in every place seeking who he might choose a Gideon a David in the sheepfold or whoever else that will heed his word and really be a person after his heart. See what do you really want with your life when you get on your deathbed if you have that luxury of knowing it's your moment when you look back at your years you ask these great saints like Alfred Monod over in this great the Billy Graham of France of the last century and all these ones you read their last words there's a great book called Last Words of Saints and Sinners it's a powerful book but it takes to what people said on their deathbed they sure do change a lot we talked about that just a moment how people sure get a different perspective when they begin to see eternity closing in on them. All the pride is called to the tip of God's holy word and blade and so God is always looking for channels and you see in Ezekiel's day and you can write I hope you're writing these chapters down but in chapter 22 of Ezekiel God speaks to Ezekiel and he says look I've looked at the prophets and there's a conspiracy in the midst of the prophets they've got all these weird things going on and then he says you're a land that's not cleansed or you haven't been rained upon yet in indignation your prophets are like ravenous kind of wolves a lot of them and your priests have violated my law they've profaned my name your princes in the midst of you are like wolves eating prey so the prophets the priests and the politicians and her prophets have daubed the wall that keeps you with untested mortar and it's going to break and the people of the land use oppression so there's a bunch of Ps there prophets, priests they're polluted all of them and he says and I sought for a man among them. I'm looking for a man or a woman that should take up the hedge and stand in the gap before me in my presence for the land so that I would not destroy it because he taketh no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked three times he says it in this book I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that they would hear and turn but I found no man to stand in the gap and because I couldn't one is a search but then comes a sob he says I found no man and therefore I've poured out my indignation upon them and I've consumed them with the fire of my wrath because holiness must be answered by mercy that's bought with real intercession on the cross or in destruction which will come in a powerful way and obvious in that day and so God comes and he says I'm looking for a levy to hold back the wrath I'm looking for a wall I'm looking for a man to be a rope that you can pull and the bell rings at the throne of God I'm looking for a man who will be the rod to lift up the rod you see God's eyes are always looking so here's what I'm saying this must change your life when you see this you might not write a book about it you might not have it on the internet but you have the joy of maybe maybe you won't see it but I tell you if we believe asking is one thing believing God is another and God wants us to be able to believe him I brought a bunch of illustrations tonight to show how pastors in Atlanta a couple of us been really praying together and we've seen hurricanes like I'll just give you one but we saw it four times we're sitting here praying for things and we saw when hurricane Michael was coming in toward North Carolina I don't know if you know about that but it was a category five and it was coming in it was on a Thursday morning and we were praying together as pastors at the Noonday Baptist Association and there was these preachers there and we just talked about Mark chapter 11 when it says if you say to this mountain be thou removed and cast into the sea and you don't doubt what you're saying but you believe that what you're saying will come to pass this mountain will go into the sea of course he was talking about God's wanting the mountain to go in but he was talking about believing God and so we got down to pray we heard this about Michael and it's really weird I'm just telling you really but we begin to see things I could see like on the TV when you see this picture on the weather channel this big white white mass swirling with a black dot like it's the eye and you see it kind of moving on this blue thing which is the ocean you can see that on the weather channel they take it from a satellite or something and several of us saw that and it was bearing in toward North Carolina they said it would be the worst disaster on the east coast in over several hundred years they felt and it would destroy the outer banks category five it would flood it would be devastation they couldn't even talk about it so we were down praying and several of us begin to say in the name of Jesus we speak to the eye of this hurricane and we say diminish diminish and this diminish diminish diminish in Jesus and diminish diminish and we just prayed we prayed and after some time of praying we stopped praying but we prayed that and spoke it will be diminished well that was going to come in that afternoon somehow I forgot about it and went home that afternoon and the next morning I turned on the TV I said I better check on that hurricane and I turned it on and that monikum of virtue Shepard Smith you've heard of him I'm sure that broadcaster he was there he was looking out like this and he said ladies and gentlemen this morning I'd like to report I've been doing hurricanes for over two decades and I've seen something that I've not seen before ever he said this hurricane Michael was coming in at category five and it was bearing in upon this coastal thing and all of a sudden it kind of went to the south and it he said it diminished he used the word I remember I went to my knees right there in front of the TV the only time I've ever been on my knees before TV except when I heard a couple presidents speak you know but I was blown away and this happened again one was another word deflect another was word dissipate we saw four hurricanes over the next couple of years and after a while we caught on and the Lord said hurricanes are a piece of cake for me I want you to do the same thing with churches and with different things and things that are hurting people I want you to learn to declare what's the will of God in prayer in the heavenly places holding forth the word of light with the scripture of the cross behind you and remind me of what my word says every generation rides on the wings of those who pray and some of us are living on yesterday's prayers and momentum of the generations before and the past great revivals are you with me so far I don't want to leave you behind because we're getting into the practical aspect of this right here so how can we ever be the same when we see these truths how can we and the question is will it will you let it change your life will you or will you just say that was a very interesting message well it's not for that reason that we're here tonight God is calling for us to become those people he's looking for a man I wrote down several things I mean in Isaiah it says he looked and he saw no man and in Ezekiel there was no man in Jeremiah there was no man he's looking for but in three times it says at least three specifically in Isaiah beginning in chapter 59 I think but it says and I sought for a man among them who would stand before me for the land but I found none and the Lord was amazed that he found no intercessor can you imagine God being amazed I mean I started thinking about that how can God be amazed I guess he's amazed in that sense when he sees such things given to us and promised to us and us not taking them seriously like it says in New Testament Jesus marveled he marveled at the words of this only a couple of times he marveled he marveled at a centurion who believed God who was not a Jew but he believed God and he said this I've not found faith like this in God's people what's a Roman with he marveled at his faith and another time in his hometown it says Capernaum and he marveled at what their unbelief so I think we can affect the emotion of God I don't it's mysterious I know it is I mean we don't surprise him but he gives us the privilege of saying yes to him now don't get me wrong and don't misunderstand what I'm saying we can't make God do what he doesn't want to do you can try to name it and claim it and grab it and all the stuff like that but you can't do that but I'm saying we can't make him do what he doesn't want to do but we can get this hinder him from doing what he does want to do through unbelief and lack of obedience do you see that you have not because you ask not well he giveth you richly all things to enjoy in the Lord Jesus but every promise of God is yes in him and amen in him to the glory of God by us it says by us but you have not because you ask not so heaven desires to do in your family in my children in my 20 grandchildren he desires to do but he's waiting for someone to say thy will be done and for me on the basis of that old rugged cross and the resurrection and when Jesus took the throne of the universe and became the rod of his strength and is sitting down expecting to bruise Satan under your feet and mine until he bruise like Romans 15 20 or 16 20 bruise Satan under your feet he must reign until all things are put under his feet we see all things not yet under but they will be under at the right moment but God puts him under the feet of the church as we dare to trust him you see and so listen to this verse in Isaiah 43 when he says in Isaiah 43 he says verse 22 well in verse 21 this people I've formed for myself they shall show forth my praise that's quoted in first Peter directly right from there into first Peter but you it says verse 22 of Isaiah 43 you have not called upon me oh Jacob you've been tired of me it's been too demanding to call upon me you haven't done it you haven't brought me and he talks about offerings the smallest even not the big expensive offerings but you haven't given me the least things I have not I haven't caused you to serve me by making offerings he says you but I even I am the one who blots out verse 25 your transgression for mine own sake and I will not remember your sins so he says to them put me in remembrance let us plead together the high priest would say from eternity to you and me let's plead together he's ever living to pray for the church he prayed in John 17 for his church and you want to see how Jesus prays read John 17 the high priestly prayer of Jesus put me in remembrance says the Lord declare so that you can be justified and then he goes even further in chapter 45 of Isaiah verse 11 thus says the Lord the Holy One of Israel and his maker ask me about things to come concerning my children my sons and concerning get this concerning the works of my hands command ye me command ye me people try to translate that out of there because they don't understand it you'll read some of the perversions not versions but perversions that change that but it actually says God says you tell me what to do he's waiting for his people to search the scriptures and find out the will of God and say Lord this is what you said we want to remind you of this because your goodness and mercy and dear forever and your cross has purchased this and you've given this to us and we're claiming it right now in the name of Jesus and we're not going to give you any rest until you do it you say that sounds kind of presumptuous not giving God any rest listen you learn and I learn and I want to learn this I'm not up here like a pro trust me I want to learn how to cooperate with God in his practical administration of the universe he wants you to do that he wants you to be practically involved with him in that not telling God what to do what we want him to do but reminding him that we know what he wants to do and we say now do it that's what he's waiting for that's what he's waiting for and let your will be done why would he say pray let thy will be done it's exactly what we're talking about here let your will be done let your glory come so this is why all the great moves of God in history have followed believing prayer you look at anything from Shantung to Wales to Hebrides there's a lot of them most Christians in America have never studied what happens when God really takes the field but if you'll look at that and see it'll begin to mess you up because you wonder why we're not having it despite all our talk nobody spent more money on evangelism and everything else America has spent more money on evangelism and programs and everything you can not even count in the last 50 years that all of history combined that the church has spent but yet we have the highest crime rate per capita people are afraid to send their kids over here to school we have I mean I won't rehearse all that but I mean you in the last in the last 50 years there's never been a nation on a quicker downhill slide than our nation never Rome lasted 1200 years ours is 250 at max right now and we won't go much longer if we don't tell him what he wants us to tell him in prayer prayer is his bridge and he wants to bless but he waits for the church to say thy will be done Lord we want to stand before you not not to try to prevent what we just think is bad but to let your will be done we want to be the bridge across which you send your promise that's why he says in Jeremiah 33 verse 3 call upon me and I will answer you and I will show you the great and the mighty things which you've never known you call upon me you think you know a lot about me you call upon me and I'm gonna I'm gonna shock you I'm gonna surprise you with goodness and the goodness of God will lead to a deeper repentance prove me in this we talk about tithing prove me there with he says prove this get with others who dare to believe and we'll pay the price and I'll prove it to you and make it real now the practical part okay here we go here we go the church together like Aaron and her with Moses from the authority of God is meant to lay hold of and if two of you agree on earth as touching anything that you ask then you have a symphony the word is symphonia your heart agreement you agree on God's will and I'll do it you say well why aren't we seeing it well it's the problem about unity and the problem about vision the problem about passion it's not just prayer it's a right kind of prayer it's clean prayer that come in like the priests in the tabernacle had to wash before they ever came in to serve God at the golden altar of prayer or God would strike them dead so prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance said Luther it's laying hold of his willingness so the church is his body to express his mind that's what your body does it expresses your mind it doesn't just go crazy we call that all kinds of physical problems if it's just like I mean I'm not trying to that would be spastic or something but it's meant to express the mind and his the body is his divine enforcement agency it does what we say must be done so we stand together with one heart and one mind and you got to know God intimately to do the first chapter of Ephesians talks about the church knowing resurrection power and walking with power over all the power of the enemy and in him showing himself through his body the church now here we go throughout history and throughout the Bible we see God raising up people who do share his heart and they they do keep their eyes on him and they listen to him they meditate in his word and the spirit gives them a sense of his will and they they call on him now in the Old Testament we call these people who saw something it says in Samuel that the prophets were first called what were they called seers s-e-e-r-s before they were ever called prophets speakers bubbling forth the word they'd seen something in Jeremiah he says woe to the prophets who act like they're preaching my word but they've seen nothing they're preaching a counsel of their own heart and they're causing my people to be solidified in error they are saying to you you won't have a problem if you go against the will of God but if they had been my prophets and if they'd stood in my presence and if they'd heard my word they would have turned my people from their transgressions see repentance when was the last time you heard a message in the church on repentance for believers well maybe you have a church that does that but I haven't heard it very much that's why I haven't been too happy lately I told my wife I'm not really that happy I see a lot of churches and it's hard to sit around saying praise the Lord about everything when you see such what's not happening and then you see what is happening and you see what will happen from the scriptures if we don't change that we are not the exception America is not the premier nation every nation that forgets God God will let them be moved away and it's a terrible thing righteousness exalts the nation but sin is a reproach for any people so consciously disentangled from the world is that you 300 times in the Bible it talks about watching watching looking seeing only 295 prayers mentioned but they're often used together by Jesus watch and pray what's he saying is he saying pray and pray is watching just kind of something that's the same thing as pray you ever thought about that what does he mean when he says watch well watchmen in the Old Testament there's a picture of them God gives pictures very clear in fact he says in Isaiah this is the scripture that I'm really going to leave you with tonight in Isaiah 62 there's plenty before it but in Isaiah 62 he says in the first verse he talks about how God is watching and how God is looking and how God is praying but in chapter 6 excuse me in verse 6 of chapter 62 of Isaiah God says I have set watchmen upon your walls Oh Jerusalem which will never hold their peace day or night and he says you that make mention of the Lord keep not silence but the word in the Hebrew when it says make mention really is and probably says it in your margin who are the Lord's remembrances you who are the Lord's remembrances don't keep quiet I've put you on the wall and I've put you there for the city of Jerusalem and it says give God no rest until he establishes on until he makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth the Lord has sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength that's psalm 110 right there the rod of God I'll send forth the rod with a rod of iron he will he will come in and move so here's what watchmen did there were a lot of different kinds of watchmen there's a there's one place of watch called migdale eater that at Christmas you might have heard about where the shepherds watched over their flocks by night in this and they would birth babies in that stall and that's probably where Mary really had Jesus and migdale eater Micah talks about it that's another day another study it'll it'll blow your mind it'll blow your mind you'll fall down your face and worship but there was also watchmen set on city walls and now you would have a city at night and it put watchmen up on the walls and they would spend all night awake while others slept they were awake and they would look where the horizon meets the sky what a picture heaven on earth and they would look for a light or they look for some movement at night or some flash and this would signal something bad or good happening and then pay attention be sober and be vigilant you don't get drunk up on the wall if you were a king of a city what kind of watchman would you want on your wall person that demanded this and that after so many hours it'd be a person who you could trust and who would listen and they would say this ten o'clock and all is well the little girl in her be able to go hmm because you the watchmen are on the walls and they're looking and they're keeping track they also put watchmen at the gates the place where business was done they'd go in and out they also put watchmen in the vineyards where people would come and steal the fruit and harvest and they they would watch over flocks by night there watchman was a and they had phases of it they kept vigilant in fact it's not a secret thing that you you read in Samuel and Kings how like this is Jehu I know him he runs they would sit and they could tell who is what they were skilled they knew like this is I know that man I know the way he runs he's a he's a runner with news they were skilled there were guards in the tower Migdal that word means tower Migdal Mary Migdalene Mary of the tower that's what her name means it's like a prayer tower she's a watchwoman Mary Migdalene she was meant to be that and so they would announce the true state of things I remember I gave this one time I don't know I was talking about this kind of thing in Germany and one of the army bases I used to go over there and teach a lot to the chapels and there was a sniper that was in there several snipers they came and I felt really scared but after the session one of them came he said this is so interesting about watching you know you have to really learn to watch they'll put us out on a hill at night you see him you know with bushes and they're crawling up and they they three days and they they wear diapers and they don't you know they they're just very still and they know exactly what they're doing and they get up there and they says what they do when they train us they put us on a hill and the night and they have us look we're scoping that other range over there and he says during the night someone will come and put like a tin can nailed to a tree about 50 feet up or something on one tree on a whole mountain range and we have to learn when the Sun comes up to see what's changed on that hill during the night you have to learn to watch before you can shoot I said wow that is really good you have to learn what to look for and what to see now in the Old Testament watch you see it's kind of confusing there were there were six times a day they would change there were watches of four hours follow this the Old Testament had four watches that was the Jewish watch but in the New Testament it uses Roman watches and those were three hours so you see there's eight times the watches change today but they knew what it was in fact they would tell time by that it came in the third watch or he was walking on the sea and this watch or something I had an African say to me one time he said all you Americans you have watches but you ever never have any time you know but they knew at the third watch or the fourth watch what time it was now then I won't talk anymore about that because I just want to save time for this last thing Jesus Jesus said this so clearly I won't really go into a lot of it but he says in Matthew 24 Luke 21 and in Mark 13 and Luke 12 he's talking about watching listen in Matthew he says he's and these are the chapters that the Olivet discourse that tell about the coming of the Lord so it's the end times Matthew 24 42 watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord comes but know this that if the good men of the house had known in what watch what time the thief would come he would have watched and he would not have allowed his house to be broken up be ye also there ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man is coming so he says blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing in other words watching watch therefore and pray because you don't know when the day or the hour when he comes he repeats that blessed is the one when he comes he finds so doing a little later in that same book he says Terry and watch with me I said watch and pray the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak could you not watch with me for one hour oh lack of watching lack of being attentive and sober and vigilant and alert leaves you vulnerable but then you go to mark 13 he says the same I mean this is not something he repeats just lightly he says in mark 13 of that day in that hour knows no man not the angels which are in heaven mark 13 32 take heed watch pray for you know not when the time is for the Son of Man's like a man taking a far journey and he left his house and gave authority to my belief and to Roy he gave authority to his servants and to every man his work and he commanded the porter the doorkeeper to watch what she therefore for you don't know when the master of the house is coming and then he says he might come and find you sleeping and then he says these words and what I say to you I say to all watch well that's mark but now Luke says in a different way they he talked about it a lot apparently blessed are those servants who when the Lord comes Luke 12 37 he finds watching I'm telling you he'll gird himself and sit down to supper and will come forth and serve them and if he comes in the second watch of the third watch and he finds them watching blessed are those his servants know this if they had known what hour he'd come they would have watched and Peter then asked and Lord do you speak this parable to us or even to all and the Lord says blessed is the servant whom his Lord when he comes will find watching so maybe you haven't known about this I tell you but when you like I said when you see it you can't unsee it it's just it's gotta get a hold of you I won't read any more of that but I will say that vigilance and his looking he wants us to be sober and be vigilant and to really pay attention he says in Revelation 16 15 behold I come as a thief blessed is he that watches and keeps his priestly garments when a priest went to sleep in the temple they had people that would walk by what they do is they actually did this it was not supposed to sleep the priest would guard the temple and if he was asleep they'd come by and they'd set their clothes on fire they really did this you can read about it and they is great disgrace because you were sleeping it's like those virgins in Matthew 25 right after the Olivet Discourse there were ten of them and there were we always talk about the foolish virgins who let the oil go out all of them had oil at first but some of them let them go out but when the Lord came the ones who didn't have that's what we always talk about they were foolish and the ones who did let their lives but here's the thing they were all asleep they're all asleep even the ones who had oil so blessed is the one when he comes he finds watching living in the definitive moment of the Holy Spirit alert to the moves in the invisible so let me just go and I'm going to give you a few things Adam was put in the garden as a watchman he put him there to keep the garden and to watch it it's the same word that the that the cherubim were put there to guard the tree of life after Adam sin here they watched it was the same word for Adam he was watching it to keep the garden unto those who look for him will he appear without sin unto salvation the second time it was to the shepherds in the fields who were keeping watch by night that the announcement came unto you is born this day in the city of David they were watching and God was saying to them in Luke 2 they were keeping watch and that's who he appeared to is it interesting that after he was taken to Jerusalem after he was just born that Mary brought him to the temple and there was Simeon an old man who was there who was watching for the consolation of Israel and Anna an old lady that might have been a hundred and some years old and she they instantly both of them recognized the Lord Jesus and began to preach the gospel about him all over Jerusalem because you see watching people seem to know what's going on it was to Mary Magdalene Mary Migdalene she was chosen to be the first herald of the resurrection the first woman at the Mary of the tower and she bore witness to the resurrected Christ it was to Habakkuk as he says in chapter 2 he went up to the watchtower and there when he was alone with God the Lord came to him and gave him a vision and a word you know what the word was the just shall live by faith that word came to him in the watchtower and that word was later quoted in Hebrews and in James and another place Romans and that was the word that Martin Luther heard later and it led him to Christ that was the word that Wesley heard and led him to Christ all back to the watchtower how big a thing can come when you really listen to an eternal word and write it down you see they were watching and waiting in the upper room when it says in Corinthians as a prove yourself as a minister of the gospel it says in watchings often that's one of the list about when it talks about what you do but it did that was one of the proofs of being a genuine menace minister quicky like man watch it says in Corinthians it says watching in prayer with all perseverance and Ephesians continue in prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving and Colossians it's I mustn't go on but first Peter chapter 4 I'll say this first Peter chapter 4 verse 7 be sober and watch for the purpose of prayer because the end of all things is at hand that's what Peter said in first Peter 4 7 wonder what he'd say today so can you see things that aren't right around you and God's let you see it and he showed you his word can you enter into this tonight this is what I'm this is I mean I know it's yeah it's about it's about right we're okay but are you willing to get on the walls are you willing to go into the watchtower you want to lose being so when he says in Ephesians it says being sleepless agrosio being sleepless unto prayer I had a man said to me the other night he's an elder one of the big churches in Atlanta he's a great man of God but he came to a prayer meeting and the Lord showed him how much bigger prayer really was that he had seen and he held up this prayer list that it's so much bigger than this and he told me a couple nights later at a church prayer meeting he said he said I'm so grateful for our prayer meeting he said he said God for the first time several times this week has waked me at 330 in the morning precisely and I've gotten down beside my bed and I've been praying I said how you like it he says he was just blown away he's just blown away so I just want to encourage you to not a physical rod but lift up the name of Jesus I will say I'm reluctant to tell this illustration but it's very close to home but one of our relatives was in a terrible situation and it was burdening my heart so much and I'd get up at night and I think I said this in like get down by the bed and pray and the light came through my slats just and I made it look like there's a piece of wood on the floor and I was praying for this person with specificity and I was being very clear and I just felt like I was just saying the same thing over and over again and I looked at it looked like a piece of wood laying there and so I felt like the Spirit of God said to me pick up the rod and I reached down like this in a physical motion by myself I was watching so I wasn't trying to impress anybody but I picked it up and I it wasn't a rod there but I held up my hands like with the rod like this and I felt like based on what this says that the Lord said to me now you tell me what you want and the Spirit of God the fear of God you have to be careful in a moment like that it can't be your will be done in heaven it's got to be God's will done on earth and I began to declare and decree I said I decree in Jesus name what we've been wanting to see happen it hadn't happened but I decree in Jesus name this shall be done in the name like to that storm like to that hurricane and lo and behold when I got up and I put down the rod got back in bed within a week well the next day I got a phone call saying you'll never believe what happened and I got I was just I was going around oh you know I was just so fired up because it was just such an obvious glorious answer to prayer and so after about a week things begin to revert back and I went back I said Lord what happened he says you let down the rod hold it up before me stand in the gap stand in the breach and stand for these people get on the wall and get on the hill of Calvary who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord who will stand in his holy place he that has clean hands and a pure heart and hadn't lifted up his soul to vanity are sworn deceitfully with his lips this is the one that will receive the blessing of the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation well this will only happen if you say yes to him on a simple yes you come to the altar and you say I do you may not feel like you did but you did and you come to the Lord you say I do I choose this we were talking today said you know you may have all this knowledge about the gospel but you come to him and the first thing you do that's really life-giving is pray and ask the Lord to you receive him and everything changes everything changes you get married and up to now you hadn't had any children but you have a honeymoon and you get pregnant on the honeymoon and everything changes and a night like this we can come here and you can say yes Lord and you know what he'll do he'll work a change it's bigger than anything you could ever decide to try to see if it works you can you can have a bigger thing than a than a physical blessing and you instead of instead of you getting on the devil's ground and trying to fight your way off you get the devil on God's ground and you'll find out he'll slink away pretty quick leave us alone what have you come to torment us before the time so God has chosen in his sovereignty not to act in a lot of life situations because we haven't asked and if we have asked we've asked amiss sometimes for our own benefit and if we have done that we we haven't asked rightly and appropriately based on the promises of the Word of God but he says put me to the test and prove me and call upon me God I'm looking for men and women who will take me seriously and when I say to you seek my face like this will say thy face will I seek what is it that brings you pain well that's one thing what is it that brings God pain that's what we got to discover and seek to be part of that situation to stand with him in righteousness and hold forth the cross the Word of Life and to hold that position in prayer before father God and remind him of everything he's based and given to us of what Calvary's done now I'm gonna pray again now and I want you maybe maybe you are here tonight and this has made sense to you you didn't take a whole lot of people for this to have tremendous power but what would happen if each person in here said yes Lord what could happen in your family what could happen in your church what could happen in Memphis I'm telling you there's some places in this town I wouldn't get out of my car at night Atlanta is even worse it wasn't like that when we moved there things are you can feel it you know it's closing in people say what's wrong there's a sense of omen badness around but we got to break it and we can only break it as we know what's really going on from God's perspective get up on the hill get into heavenly places take your place with the Lord Jesus and stand on the ground of Calvary the everlasting place of victory and live in his holiest of all like Hebrews said live there and declare to reign in life by Christ Jesus you've met us kings and priests on the earth and will reign in life what he says not just to get your will done not to get my will done in heaven but to God's will done on earth it may not be nice and pretty and fun but we got a long time coming up to rejoice forever and ever well so I'm gonna pray and then I'm just go wait a minute and if maybe maybe you may not want to but maybe you have to surrender to this publicly just to pray maybe you have to just say something maybe you just have to declare something but it doesn't have to be long but there needs to be a response in your heart and you know it if you're if you're that one you say I don't want to do it but you know you have to so father in Jesus name I pray that you will graciously and lovingly show us the power of heart agreement together not only as we learn to be watchmen according to your scripture but also to watch for one another you say pastors watch over your souls and so walk rightly so they won't be sad when they have to give an account oh how many things we watch over our children we watch over all kinds of things teach us to be watchmen and then to pray to see things as you see them and to understand and to pray and remind you of what you want to be reminded of thy will your word holy is your name that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and thank you for all your blessing to us so Lord bring forth heart surrender in this moment it doesn't have to have words I know but give people the privilege of owning these things publicly as they pray together and we agree for them as they do this in Jesus name if you're here and that's something in your hearts got to be said in the presence of God just quietly just speak it out and we'll rejoice with you but lay hold of it this is not a time to let fear reign it's easy obey what he's saying to your heart well if you don't do it here you may find you have to do it in church Sunday because you gotta you gotta share what God sent to you and own it just another moment Lord we thank you for your amazing grace tonight and that your long-suffering with your children you give us room to learn even sometimes the hard way we cry out to you for our nation and for our young children throughout this land and that you will raise up in your church voices who speak the Word of God and who live the Word of God and who love the Word of God and who teach the Word of God and and are able to share together in the Word of God and that you will give us a heartful prayer and and really making a difference beyond our own circles in the world that the world would know you and honor you not the whole world but the ones that you've called to yourself and they've been putting off teaches how to win souls in prayer teaches how to be yours and we thank you tonight Lord I pray you if if someone here tonight needed to say something and they didn't I'm praying you'll lovingly keep them awake for a while tonight and let them deal with you alone and thank you that you don't force us but tonight we can go home and get on our face and we can take up your rod and hold it to you with Thanksgiving and remind you of Calvary and all that it means and we can apply it to our families and to our churches and we can claim the full blessing of Pentecost and the full blessing of your coming in our lives so we we bow before you and I ask you Lord to seal this word the put any part that I've said that hadn't been you cause people to forget it and not be harmed or distracted but the part that is of you I pray that you will make it rumble around and move and make room inside so that we can be a people that bring you pleasure and honor and glory and tell the truth about you in spirit soul and body with our testimony we pray this in Jesus name never in Jesus name amen well thank you for being such amazing listeners you say well it's I know it's hard to keep up I cover a lot of ground but I went last night to all kinds of places just talking tonight we went through scripture so I hope you wrote the chapters down if you didn't you can see me and I'll give you my email you can email me and I'll take the time to give them to you if you promise you'll read them and study them because God is looking for us to encourage one another Mike