What Is Your Hearts Desire

Why? Because he was just converted in the last year. And that's what happens. You get saved, and these psalms, they mean something to you. Because the lyrics are so weighty, so full of acknowledging truths about God. It just makes your hope in heaven, in Christ. Well, Romans 10, we're going to consider something Paul says in 10 and in chapter 9. But primarily, I want to consider Romans 10:1. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they be safe. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be safe. Paul is revealing to us what's going on in his heart. He's putting it out there. He's letting you know his heart's desires. He's letting you know the longings of his soul. Right here at this point, the heart obviously is not talking about the organ. Kind of right back to Jeff's 10 a.m. message if you were here. The heart is this place, the center of function of the soul and the spirit and the emotional life of a man. Where desires come forth, thoughts come forth in the heart. And he also expresses his heart's desire in chapter 9, verse 1. I'm speaking the truth in Christ. You see, he's giving a testimony here. I'm not lying. So some people might assume he would be lying with what he was just about to say. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Why? Why? I could wish, for I could wish, that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. In both of these verses, Paul reveals his heart. You know what? Here we are in a week of prayer and fasting. And here we were on Wednesday night. Many of you were bearing the desires of your heart publicly. Some of you prayed it, and some of you maybe didn't get to share anything. But you expressed, like Paul in a way, what's going on inside. What is the longing of your soul? You can see here for Paul, the big priority right here is none other than people's salvation. Right? It tops the list. And if you go look at 20 plus prayers that Paul made in the New Testament, those prayers were primarily for people who were already saved. And for their growth, that they might make it to the end, to final salvation. I mean, that's what Paul said in Philippians. Right? Why will I remain? It's far more necessary on your account. For your progress in the faith. I mean, Paul's all about people getting in the race and people getting into the race. That's how he prayed. He had the major thing that matters. Eternity. That was the thing before him. And I think we should really ask ourselves what goes on in our heart. What is your heart's desire? What's going on in the heart? We should definitely ask that during this week of prayer and fasting. Am I praying for the right matters? And then even when I'm praying for a certain matter, is my heart really in it or not? I mean, Paul here has to make a statement that I'm not lying. Meaning, you could make a statement that you're radically wanting to see certain people converted and it be a lie. And not really be real. But Paul here appeals to the Holy Spirit. That his conscience is clear in that statement. I think 1 John 5, it says, Whenever we ask anything according to His will, according to His will, He hears us. He hears us. Is what I'm asking according to God's will? Are my desires in sync with God's desires? Is that what's been happening in me this week as I'm praying? As I'm looking at what to call upon the Lord for? Not just this week, but our whole lives. So for the believer, this leads to the question, I mean, how well is your heart guarded? Right? How well your heart is guarded if out of it flows the things of life, like what you pray for, if the heart is unguarded, if sin creeps in, if hardness creeps in, it's going to affect your prayer life. Paul says, My heart's desire in Romans 10-1 and prayer to God. His desire goes hand in hand with what he's praying for. So, what he's asking of the Lord for. The guarded heart loves what God loves and takes pleasure in what is pleasing to Him, and then we pray accordingly. It even reminds you of Jesus' words in Matthew 12, Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Right? You know how you ask someone a question and they say something and later they say, well, I didn't really mean that. I mean, that's the verse you counter with. You tell them, no, you did mean it. Because the Bible says, Out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth spoke. You spoke something and now you realize it was not the right thing and so you're wanting to defend yourself and say, well, I didn't really mean that. What's your desire? Is it things that are trivial? Or is it things that are eternal? Eternal. Eternal. Paul had such an eternal perspective here in these passages. And so I hope that Paul's desires that you see here will challenge your own soul. It challenges me. Can I honestly say what Paul says in Romans 9? I can't. I mean, I could quote the verse. I don't have unceasing anguish. I don't have great sorrow in my heart. I don't feel that. I want that. But I can't say that's right there right now in my soul to the degree that I would want it. It's not. But I'm not content. We shouldn't be content. We shouldn't be content with what's going on in the heart. We should want to have greater and greater longings that are in sync with the living God. So I want to think about Romans 10. And the first thing I want to think about is this. Who is Paul talking about in both of these verses? Because that will help us more understand his burden. And then we're going to think of how this can be comparable to a certain people group in our own lives who we are praying for. So, who are these people? Romans 9. If you look at v. 3, he says, I wish I could be cut off from Christ. I could wish for who? The sake of my brothers. And lest you think that means brothers and sisters in Christ, he goes on to clarify, my kinsmen or relatives is how that could be worded according to the flesh. And he says, they are the Israelites. To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. And from their very race, according to the flesh, is Christ, who is God, over all, blessed forever. Amen. So, clearly right here, it's his relatives, his physical Jews. The physical Jews. A people who he is a part of. And I'm going to use the word relative. His relatives. Because I want you to think about your own relatives in your own life in your own people, so to speak. Because that's part of what Paul's burden is here. His kinsmen. And then you go over to chapter 10. If you look right above, he's continued in Romans 9, talking about how God's Word has not failed in His promises to Israel. And v. 10-1, same thing. My heart's desire and prayer to God for them. He's just mentioned in v. 31, Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not exceed in reaching that law. So think about the Jews. Think about the Jews. His people. His relatives. Now let's think, were these people like any other people on the earth? Are these people just kind of, you know, it's the random atheists that you meet on the college campus? No. These people were different than every people group in the world. Because as Paul said in Romans 9, from their very race came the Lord Jesus Christ. These people had the law. They had the covenants. They had the patriarchs. They had all the history. They had more light than anyone who had ever lived. Look, our kids have a lot of light. More than most people who walk on this earth. But here are these Jews. They had a lot of light. He just said in v. 10-2, he goes on to say, for I bear them witness. What about them? That they don't care about God? No, no, no. He says that they have a zeal for God. So Paul's relatives are zealous for God, but not according to knowledge. What do you mean, Paul? V. 3, they're ignorant of the righteousness of God. They're ignorant of how a man can be right with God, and they're seeking to establish their own righteousness, and they're not submitting to God's way. V. 4, because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Paul's saying that my relatives are trying to be saved by their own works. They're trying to be right with God by their works. I was just like that one time. I was trying to do that. They're zealous for God, but their knowledge of God is not according to the Word of God. And think about Paul's relatives. The Pharisees specifically. What were some of the things the Pharisees did? Their zeal affected what part of their lives? What's some of the parts? Say again. Yeah, they fasted twice a week. They prayed long prayers. They even did it publicly. It affected how they dressed. Yeah, they tithed. And get this, they didn't just tithe. They tithed the mint that grew in their gardens. They would go out to their garden and they would take the exact amount of mint plant and they would take that and they would tithe that. They were that specific. They made very, very radical vows. You know, someone says, well, someone's scared of making a real commitment. You know what? These guys, his relatives, they're ready to make the commitment. And they even traveled land and sea to evangelize others. They had a missionary zeal for what they believed in. They were even interested in church history. In Matthew 23, Jesus says they talked about the days of their fathers. So they knew church history. Their dress was changed. They had long prayers. They evangelized everywhere. They made vows. They tithed even down to the mint in their garden. They were zealous for God. And they were headed for hell. Incredible. Some people would be shocked to think that you could have all of those works and be going to hell. But friend, if you know the Gospel, you know instantly you can have mighty works. You can cast out demons. You can speak in tongues. You can prophesy according to Jesus' words in Matthew 7 and not know Christ and end up in hell. The Jews, they were saturated with truth. But his relatives, they had a problem. They misinterpreted the Bible. That was a big problem of theirs. They thought certain things in the Old Testament meant something that they really didn't, and they missed seeing the fulfillment that the shadow was pointing to. They misinterpreted the Bible. They were a people who were stumbling over Christ. Look at his words there in v. 32 of chapter 9. He's talking about his relatives, the kinsmen, the Jews. He said they didn't pursue this righteousness by faith, but they pursued it as if they could get it based on works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. They would hear Christ being preached from Paul. They would hear about the Lord Jesus, and it just didn't make sense to them. It was foolish to them because they were perishing. And they'd trip over Christ. They'd trip over the truth to their damnation. They were unwilling to submit to God's way. If you're going to make it to God, if you're going to make it to heaven, by keeping the law, you've got to start without sin. You've got to never sin. You've got to live perfectly righteous, and there's only one Man who's done that, the perfect Lord Jesus Christ. And to get to heaven, you need His righteousness, and you get that by faith. Romans 4-5, To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for that righteousness. You trust Christ? He takes His grade of 100. He puts it on your papers. You're right before God based on that imputed righteousness. Romans 5-19, it says, through one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. What's it say next? Through one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. That's our hope. Christ. And think of this, Paul's relatives even, they sought to extinguish the very light of the world who came among their own people who was from their own people. They were spearheading this effort to put the light out. They wanted Him dead. They wanted Christ dead. So these are Paul's relatives. And these people hated Paul. Paul's relatives hated him. 2 Corinthians 11, Paul says, five times I received at the hands of the Jews forty lashes, less one. So 39 lashes. Five times. They took his clothes off, tied him up to a pillar, and took that scourge that has three big metal hooks on it, most of them did, and the first third of those they would do on the front of the body. And then they'd turn him around and on his back, the rest of the lashings would fall upon Paul. That happened five times. Five times. He received at least, according to that, 195. 195 of those lashings. And if the scourge they used had three hooks like was common historically, that meant Paul had 585 scars on his body from those pieces of metal ripping across his flesh. Front and back of his body. Jesus said this would happen. That you would be subjected to the synagogue's discipline. Matthew 10:17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues. There you go. Paul probably found great comfort in that text. You're there getting flogged, and you're remembering Jesus said this would happen. Yeah, Jesus said this is going to happen. Not just once, Paul. Five times. That's hard to imagine. If they had an actual video of that happening, and we put that on the screen this morning, I can imagine we'd be in tears and agony. And an absolute encouragement to see Paul sustain that and not deny Christ. And get this, historians say that while they would be scourging you, they would be quoting to him. An attendant would be standing there quoting from Deuteronomy and repeating two verses again and again and again. Listen to these two verses. Deuteronomy 28:58 So there he's getting beaten. And they're saying, If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, sickness grievous and lasting. So they'd be quoting that. They'd say again and again and again. Now it's interesting, they're quoting to Paul saying that your afflictions will be severe and lasting. Well, what's actually true of Paul? What did John just say in the Lord's Supper? What did Paul say about his afflictions? Light and momentary compared to an eternal weight of glory. So Paul's there hearing something from the Old Testament about severe affliction and no doubt he's thinking about, well, this is light and momentary compared to that eternal weight of glory that's waiting for me. And then get this, Paul in Galatians, what does he do? He actually quotes that exact same text to tell the Jews for not keeping the law perfectly, they're under a curse. Because they haven't kept it perfectly. They didn't begin without sin and they didn't end without sin. And so Paul quotes that verse to them in Galatians 3 to tell them you're actually cursed. Incredible. So this might in some aspects, especially the non-violent aspects, sound like some of your own relatives. Religious. Dedicated. Zealous. But when you ask them, why are you going to heaven? It's interesting. How do they answer? I'm a good person. I go to church. Or even if someone told me recently, well, I'm going to heaven because I said the prayer to trust Christ. And then I have to clarify with them, wait, are you saying you're going to heaven because you did a prayer? Or are you saying you're going to heaven because Christ died as your substitute? There's a big difference. A lot of people are looking to a prayer they did ten years ago and thinking, that's why I'm saved. I prayed. That's a cursed thing to trust in. I'm going to heaven not because I prayed, but because Christ died for me. That's my hope. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Jesus even said, Matthew 10:36, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Oh, Paul found that out fast. You get converted, and the Jews, they want you dead. They're lashing you. They're beating you. Do we know if any were specifically immediate family or not? No, but he used to be one of them. He used to be zealous for them. And now here they are. They're enemy. So that's some about Paul's relatives. These are the people who Paul... Think of this. His enemies. And these are the people Paul says, I could wish to be cut off from Christ that they might be saved. Do you love your enemies like that? These are the people who Paul is saying, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, my enemies, people exposed to so much truth, is that they might be saved. Paul's praying for them. He doesn't want them to go to hell. He doesn't want them to perish. Now, next question. Okay, that's his relatives, but why does Paul feel the need to declare his heart's desires in these two places? Why would you even need to say that? Is it not obvious that you love the Jews? No, no, no. He needs to affirm his love to his relatives. Look what he just said in Romans 9:6. Look what he's even defending there. But it is not as though the Word of God has failed. If you're a Jew and you're seeing all these Gentiles being saved, and you're seeing Paul preaching Christ, no doubt many of the Jews are looking at Paul and thinking you're calling God a liar. Because we're the people. See, they're misinterpreting the Bible. And so Paul here, he's got to reaffirm, I don't hate you guys. And I'm not actually calling God a liar. I'm actually rightly interpreting the truth of His Word. Here, Paul is going out to the Gentiles. He's not separating from the Gentiles. Here, as we heard last week, Paul is now preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy. Now imagine you do such a reversal, right? You're going this day preaching this, and then the next day you're preaching the opposite. People are going to think, do you hate us? Do you hate this people? Paul's the one who said in Philippians 3:8, he counted all of his Jewishness as rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus. Man, if you're a Jew and you hear Paul say when I was born and all these things, it's dumb. It's rubbish compared to knowing Christ. It's pretty offensive. It's pretty offensive. Does he hate his people? No. But people taking a stand for the truth tend to get accused of hate. Look, you go tell a homosexual your homosexuality is sin, what's the automatic response? Oh, you hate homosexuals. No, not at all. The reason they're even telling the homosexual that is because they love them. And they love them more than other people who aren't going to have the guts to tell them the truth. Same thing. I've seen it in marriages. The spouse gets saved and there's such a radical change through regeneration that the spouse is now saying, what, do you hate me? You're going to church. You're making that more important. Look, did Jesus say you must hate your father and mother, your wife and children? You cannot be My disciple? He did. So in a sense, that spouse should see such a change in you where they think you hate them. At the same time, they should see you loving them as Christ loved the church because that's what the husband is commanded to do. The spouse should actually say, no, I don't hate you. I'm not against you. I actually am now loving you for the first time in a real, genuine way according to God's standards. So again, the Jews are seeking to kill Paul. As one said, it's like Paul is running from them trying to kill him and he's looking over his shoulder and he's saying, I'm praying God would save you. I mean, that's incredible. And he's not just saying this because it's the right thing to do. He testifies to the Holy Spirit that he's actually arrived at this point in his life as a Christian where he can genuinely have any type of desire similar to the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ where he can know that true love is to lay your life down for a friend. And Paul has that grip. If I could, if this was possible, though it is not, I wish they could be saved with this degree of love and longing in my heart. And he says, my heart's desire for them. My heart's desire. The literal, it renders it this way. The pleasure indeed of my heart. What's the pleasure of your heart? What do you take pleasure in? Paul's telling us what he takes pleasure in. I have pleasure if my enemies who hate me, who had so much truth or self-righteously trying to save themselves, I would have so much pleasure in seeing them converted. That's amazing. And the intensity of this desire that Paul has. And what we take pleasure in is what you love. And love is the driving force behind Paul's actions, right? That's the driving force. The thing is, the heart is complex. The heart of man is complex. The soul of a man. Let's just think about the heart. As you think about your own heart, in the very beginning, talking about those who are lost, what does it say about their hearts in Genesis 6? Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Incredible. Every thought was evil. We can say things in our heart, in our soul. Romans 10:6, he says, but the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart. You say things in your heart. You're at a prayer meeting and you're speaking to yourself. There's meditations in your soul, in your spirit, in your emotion. What are you saying to yourself? What's going on? We imagine things in the heart. 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, Jesus can discern your heart. The disciples, they were arguing about who's going to be the greatest, and Jesus had the discernment to know the reasonings of their heart and perceive exactly what they were thinking and that their motive was wrong. God knows our heart. The Pharisee was trying to justify himself before God based on his works. And Luke and Jesus says there, God knows your hearts. God tests our heart. Listen to this. 2 Timothy 2:22 With those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Were we calling upon the Lord on Wednesday night with a pure heart? Were you? If you prayed. Why does He even say we should come to the prayer meeting and call upon the Lord with a pure heart? That implies the opposite, which is what? You could call upon the Lord with a heart that is not pure. Even in the Sunday school or in the reading, Jeff pointed out, what did it say happened to Ananias and Sapphira? Satan filled their heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. I mean, just like that, something can happen and your heart gets filled with something that is not according to God. It's not according to His lawnings. It's sin itself. One day, our heart's motives will be revealed. 1 Corinthians 14:25 The secrets of our heart, they're going to be disclosed. God works in our heart. Paul talks about the Thessalonians. We are to purify our hearts. James 4:8 Purify your hearts. You're double-minded. Isn't that interesting? You're praying for something. You're thinking about something. But there's this double-mindedness. There's a lack of faith, a lack of trust in the Lord. And he's saying there, purify the heart. Renew the heart and the mind with the truth of the Word of God to think correctly, to be in line with what is honoring to God. He says later in James 5, we can fatten our heart. He says you've lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You've fattened your hearts from the day of slaughter. Is my heart getting fat through self? Is the sensitivity getting eroded because of self? Of grieving the Spirit? Of different things? The Lord searches the heart. Revelation 2 I am He who searches the mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. And does the Bible ever say that we should ask God to search our hearts? Now, where does it say that? Now, Psalm 139. Search me, O God. Know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. Know my thoughts. With all these complexities of the heart, with the ability for the heart to be filled, to speak from the heart, for the heart to be fattened, God knowing the heart, for the heart to have like the disciples had, some pride come in with what you're asking for, is not according to God's will about who's going to be the greatest. With all of that complexity, here we have Paul saying something and he fully really means it to the max extent. And it's incredible. Like, think of this. You and I could actually get to the point to say something like Paul and it'd be genuinely real. That's amazing. To have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. And to have a clear conscience when we make that statement. And the people he makes this statement for are his enemies, those who beat him, those who he has the 500 plus scars on his body. Paul does not wish his enemies just to go to hell. He's not writing them off. He doesn't secretly delight in them perishing. He has a missionary zeal for them. It's incredible. Okay, what is the foundation for right desires? We're thinking about the heart. We're thinking about what you long for and desire. And you're seeing Paul testify about what's going on in his heart. What's the first foundation that's required in order for someone to have desires like this? Yeah, born again. Right? If you're not born again, if you're still dead in your trespasses and sins, you have to be regenerated. Romans 6:17 says, But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which was committed unto you. Right? So there is a heart now that is obedient to the things of God. Before we're saved, what type of heart do we have? Where does it talk about the unconverted person's heart? Okay, heart of stone? Yeah, desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 A verse often misquoted to be that of the Christian's heart, but it's actually referring to the lost. Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Right? You're lost. You're in darkness. You cannot understand. Acts 15 says we've cleansed our hearts by faith. Luke 8:15 says, Hold fast the Word in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. Hebrews 10:16 The Lord will put His laws in your heart. He will write them on your minds. And then He gives us the Spirit. Romans 8:26 says the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses so that we pray. So the regenerated person is weak. We don't know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit is interceding for us with groanings too deep for words. It's amazing what happens. When God saves you, you've got desires you did not have before. You're new. And you've got desires for people who are lost and a burden for them in a way you never had it before. You couldn't comprehend it before. It didn't mean everything to you. Heaven and hell was not that big of a deal. The second foundation for right desires apart from being born again, us who are born again, we need to have a clear conscience. We need to have a clear conscience. Paul says, my conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit. He's showing us, he's making a statement where that judge within sight of himself is not condemning him and accusing him when he's saying it and saying, oh, you're not being genuine, Paul. The conscience is affirming. Say it. That's right. God's gotten you to that point. And Paul says it genuinely. And this is a radical statement. Who's someone in the Bible who made a radical statement and clearly did not mean it? Peter. What did Peter say? I will never deny you. Who doesn't want a devoted follower like that who says I'll never leave you nor forsake you? Peter said I'll never deny you. And what did Peter do? He denied Christ three times. People can make radical statements and it really not be of God. And so if I'm walking with Christ, my conscience is clear. It's not seared. There's a sensitivity to the Lord. The Lord could get me to a point where there is that type of burden for the lost and it's actually genuine. It's not just me quoting Paul. It's actually real in my heart, real in my soul. Now let's consider the extent and depth of Paul's desire. What extent does he go to for his desire for his enemies and relatives and his family to be converted? What is that extent? Romans 9, For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers. Now that can mean one of three things. There's three primary interpretations of what Paul means there. Number one, which I don't think is it, is they're saying he was willing to suffer the utmost misery in order for them to be saved. Meaning he's willing to greatly suffer for them to be saved. Get martyred if he has to. The second view is Paul is speaking of the past. If you read the verse in the literal, it could kind of make it sound like he's saying in the past, he wished he could be accursed from Christ, meaning he hated Christ and he's just like them. But, if you look at it, you look at the Word, you study it, and you look at how that word accursed is used, some people will take the word accursed and they'll downplay it. But Craig was right months ago to point out in Galatians 1 it's the same word. When Paul wishes that those people who preach a false gospel will be accursed, he's not talking about them being put out of the church. He's talking about damnation. And the same thing here. And he doesn't just say cut off and suffer much, he says cut off from Christ. Cut off from Christ. Paul is wishing for something that is impossible, but there's a desire in his heart that he could go to hell in their place. And what was the very thing he just contemplated prior to this statement? What did he just think about in Romans 8 at the end of Romans 8? Look at these words here. Verse 38, For I am sure neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to cut us off, to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul has just had a contemplation of the love of God that nothing can separate him from the love of God. Not death. Not anything. And here all of a sudden, after meditating and contemplating on the love of God and thinking about the Jews who of all people should be experiencing the love of God, and yet they are not because they're trying to save themselves by their own works, Paul says, I could wish to go to hell in their place. Because they're going to miss out on the love of God there. In hell, all you experience, the attribute of God is His wrath. There is no love of God in hell. There's the perfect love which will manifest itself in wrath, one might say. But it's His wrath. It's His righteous indignation. Paul's willing to be damned for them. And people say, well, I object. Theologically, how could he wish for that? Look, the statement is genuine, but it is an impossibility for it to happen. What do we find out later in Romans 9? Who's ultimately in charge about whether you face destruction or mercy? God. God is in charge. He says in v. 16, so then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. V. 18, so then He has mercy on whomever He wills and He hardens whomever He wills. So Paul fully acknowledges the sovereignty of God in salvation. And then there is no trading your soul for another. Right? Psalm 49:7 even hints at this. Truly no man can ransom another. There's only one man who can ransom you from eternal damnation in the lake of fire. And that one man, again, he started without sin, born under the law, born of a woman. He perfectly kept the law. It's not that Jesus just never sinned. You don't just need a record with no sin to go to heaven. You need someone to perfectly love and perfectly obey the law, and that's what Christ did. And through His obedience, you can be made right with God. Not your works. Not your feelings. Not as someone told me on Wednesday night, I'm growing in my maturity with the Lord. I need more maturity. Your maturity is not going to save you. It's not going to qualify you to be redeemed by God. You've got to trust that His Son shed His blood on that cross for you, His enemy. And Paul's desire is not unique here in Romans 9. Others have had such a desire in Scripture. One place that it seems there's a similar desire is in Moses in Exodus 32. Moses had returned to the Lord and the Lord said, alas, this people has sinned. A great sin. Israel back then, and here Israel's still like that when Paul's writing Romans 9. It just breaks your heart. The blindness of the Jew. But now, if you will forgive their sins, but if not, Moses says, please blot me out of your book that you've written. It's like there's something in Moses. He's thinking, Lord, even though I didn't change the grasp, blot me out. What's happening with them is hard. And the Lord says to Moses, whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out of My book. Not you, Moses. You've not sinned. God is just. You can't damn the Christian. You can't exchange your life for that of another. It's impossible. So, Paul, and then all Christians. I referred to this earlier. John 15 and 13. No one has greater love than this that someone would lay down his life for his friends. And friends, we cannot lay our life down for those who are lost through dying in their place and trading ourselves for them in hell. But we can lay down our life by overcoming fear, by praying for them, by fasting for them, by doing as Paul says in Romans 10 and taking the Gospel to them. Verse 17, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. So I'm praying that they would be saved. I'm preaching to them that they would be saved. And God can have mercy on whomever He wills. So how do you maintain this desire? I mean, we're seeing some of Paul's heart. I want that. I want to have these verses be an utmost reality in my life. How do you maintain this desire? Well, here's where I want to put it to you. Paul says this in v. 9-2. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Okay? And that's part of what's leading him to pray as he does. So here's the question. How do you maintain anguish in your heart? Because if you have unceasing anguish like Paul, what's going to happen? The overflow of that is the anguish. It's kind of like with fasting. There's just such a burden for something, it's just automatic to not eat food. You don't even desire food. It doesn't matter if the greatest steak in the city was put on that plate. You have a burden greater than that. So how do you maintain anguish? Well, what really made Paul feel that anguish? You know what it was? He saw people who should know the truth better than anyone tripping over Christ. I mean, look, as a parent, your kid starts to walk, and you let them walk, and then they keep tripping and they fall down. And one time, they even fall down and they break their nose. And there's blood. Imagine being a parent and you stand there and you can do nothing to stop that. They're tripping. They're stumbling. They're missing Christ. Well, imagine if that child of yours was actually tripping and going towards a cliff to eternal damnation. And you're watching this happen, and you know what? That created anguish in Paul. Of all people, your daughter has the light. People who've left have the light. If anyone should be saved, it should be those people who went out from us because they had the Bible. They had the promises. They had somewhat of a biblical balance in the church between legalism and lawlessness. They had truth. They had the Gospel. They had regeneration. They had justification. If anyone should be saved, it should be them. And you're out there seeing them trip and trip and miss Christ. And not just that they're atheists, but they're actually religious. Look, most of the people who leave us, they're not out there being religious. They're out there living in their sin and they could care less. For Paul, these people, they're trying to clean themselves up. And so if you maintain an anguish, I would put forward there would be a desire to pray in a certain way. Because Paul has unceasing anguish and this is part of what it leads to. Another thing to think about, how do you maintain a desire like that? Well, what's your life look like? What did Paul's life look like? What did Paul's life look like? Philippians 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as a loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things. I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. Acts 20:24 I do not account my life of any value. My life is not precious to myself. If only I may complete the course, the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus Christ to testify to the Gospel. Paul said in view of the resurrection, I always take pains to have a clear conscience before God and man. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:4 he didn't know of anything against himself. That doesn't mean he was acquitted. It will be the Lord who will judge him and disclose the motives of his heart. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2 what did he say there? 1 Corinthians 2:2 For I have determined what? To know nothing among you except for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If we can enter in all the more of those realities to this man who loved Christ, who is the chief of sinners, who is saved by the grace of Christ, and this man was suffering, wouldn't that make it a lot easier if we had the same sufferings as him to all the more have pity and all the more have love? And that is one of the negatives of all the comfort that we have. And who knows, maybe that's going to change in the next few years. And you know what someone says to that? They say to all those verses about Paul, they say that's impossible. And what would your response be? What would you say? That's impossible. That's Paul. That's Paul. What do you say? I can't hear you. No, not with God all things are possible. No, not there. Is it right for us to look at the standard of Paul's life and want to imitate it? Yeah. Paul says, he says, I urge you then be imitators of me. 1 Corinthians 4:16 It's interesting, Paul doesn't say, hey brother, would you consider imitating me? I mean, consider it. You know, you could imitate that guy. He urges them. Imitate me. Follow in my example as I follow in the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the type of man Paul was. So if this isn't real in your life, which again, I don't feel like it's real in mine. I mean, I look at Romans 9. I totally enter into Romans 10:1. But that reality of anguish he expresses in Romans 9:1-3, I can't say I testify before my conscience today that that's the feeling in my soul. Yet that desire is not something by which we should say it is impossible. Remember, we have a Bible that speaks about a man who prayed and it did not rain. And what does it say in that chapter in James? He was a man like us. Well, what's the point of saying he was a man like us? To encourage you that you could pray like him. He's not out there and extraordinary and unattainable to walk in that similar way. So may God search our heart and reveal to us any areas that our desires are not according to His will. May God break us of anything that is fattening the heart with self-indulgence that is keeping us from having such a reality and a love for enemies. Enemies. For those who are exposed to the truth. Okay, next. Paul says this here. He says, my heart's desire and we've looked at for them. Now let's think about the phrase, my prayer to God. My prayer to God. Does it surprise you that Paul says this? What did he just get done dealing with in Romans 9? That God chooses whomever He wills. After speaking like that, what's the thing Paul does? He prays. Which clearly shows us that Paul's balanced view of the sovereignty of God is not that we should not be praying. Prayer is a means. Just as Romans 10 shows us preaching is a means by which God has ordained to accomplish His purposes. God's designed it like that. And that word, my prayer to God, is the word petition. Petition. And I was thinking about petitions. Right? There's a lot of petitions in our world right now. I think there's a website, change.org. You go on there and what do you see? People petitioning. You know, you get to a petition. If it has three people who've signed it, how much do you think that petition is going to be heard? Three people. Probably won't. If you go to one that has two million people, wow, that might actually make it through. Now Paul's actually sharing here what his petition is to God. Is there a biblical reality that when many are praying and petitioning for the same thing, that that could actually affect God hearing and answering them? If there is, what verse? Where's that at? Matthew 18, 17? Paraphrase it? Okay, yeah, two or three in my name. Okay, that's part of it. I think it's 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1. You must also help us by prayer, by signing the petition, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through what? The prayers of many. Right? We had different of you giving out a petition. Zeke gave out a petition on Wednesday night. Have you signed his petition? Right? Milena had a petition for her father, Jesus. Have you signed that? And you know what? It's not a petition. It could be a bad illustration. Because a petition you sign once, right? You sign once and your name is on it. No, no, no. This is something we're signing all the time. We're bringing our remembrance back. We're knocking Luke 18 says. So at our last prayer meeting, many of you were saying, join me in signing this petition and prayer to God. Here's another thing that strikes me here. Paul says, my prayer to God for them. Paul's not praying for an individual. He's praying for a group. And I appreciate that. Because there's times I'll say, Lord, my heart's desire for them. And it might be all the children in the church. And we should pray specifically. But Paul's putting out this desire. It's not overly advanced. Right? My prayer to God for them. You could pray for a whole people group just like that, that God would save among that group of people. Think, Paul's prayer life, his prayers don't come across very Puritan and they don't come across very advanced. What was very advanced in his life? His character. His character. It's much better to have a man who simply can pray in faith the words, Oh God, would You save them? Than someone who prays for 20 minutes in eloquent language and they're not walking with the Lord. So character is the bigger thing. We even find that in 1 Peter 3, right? If I don't live in an understanding way with my wife, my prayers are hindered. Going to people who have marriage problems and sin and they go to bed without resolving something, you don't want to ask them for prayer. God's not going to hear them. You want to tell them to repent. Psalm 66 says if I cherish sin in my heart, God won't hear my prayer. God won't hear my prayer. So Paul prays for a group, not an individual. And Paul is praying. Again, he's praying what he desires. My heart's desire and prayer. We should pray what we desire. But we should ask, are my desires in sync with God? John 15, 7, If you abide in Me, My words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish, whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. Think, God desires people to be saved. 1 Timothy 2. This is good. It's pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all, I would say, classes of people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God wants people to be saved. And so praying for God to save those people is going right along with the desires that God has. If there's any prayer request, not to say there isn't a point, as someone mentioned to me recently, where you lose a burden to pray for someone. But in general, we should stir our hearts to pray for people, even those who are the most hopeless. Or at least it appears to be the most hopeless, like the Apostle Paul was prior to him getting converted. Was anyone praying for Solitarsis to be saved? Look, even if no one was, God's able to pluck someone out whether anyone was praying for them or not. But the Lord gives us reason to believe if we pray, God hears us. His prayer is to God, the Father. Remember, you're praying a Father who has adopted you through the sacrifice of His only Son. And what did Paul just get done saying in Romans 8:32? If He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how much more will He also not graciously with Him give us all things? And I would say in that all things, you can't dismiss the reality that there can be things you're desiring in prayer and you're bringing before God and that's included. Paul prays to God, the potter. He just got done talking about a potter who will do whatever he wants. He'll make a vessel of mercy. He'll make a vessel of destruction. He just got done talking about God and then Paul says, my heart's desire in prayer is to God. It's to the potter. He's praying to the potter to make a vessel of mercy out of these Jewish people. His relatives, his family members, his kinsmen according to the flesh. And you know what his prayer indicates? His prayer is to God, which indicates who does the saving ultimately. God. You pray to the One who can get the job done. You call upon the One who can deal with the task. And the One who can deal with the task of taking someone who's dead in their sins and breathing life into them, it's the living God. He's the One we want to be praying to, we want to be going to. Yes, be preaching, as he says in v. 17. They need to hear. Salvation is of the Lord. Paul ultimately is praying that they would believe. Okay, let's think of this last phrase here. For them that they may be saved. What's he not praying? What's he not praying here? He's not praying for good health. What else is he not praying for? Success. Smart. Say again? Yeah, prosperity. I mean, he is praying for prosperity if you look at it right. Eternal prosperity. What is the profit of man? If he gained the whole world and forfeited his soul, what can a man get in exchange for his soul? But think of this. Who's he praying for to be saved? Self-righteous relatives. You know what that says? Self-righteous relatives can be saved. They can actually be converted. The people you might lose hope on because they've been exposed to so much that they're misinterpreting it. You could think it seems impossible that God would open their eyes. And Paul's saying, no, it's not. Because the potter, he can take the self-righteous or the atheists and he can save and have mercy on either one of them. His arm is not short that it cannot save. His ear is not deaf that it cannot hear. So the self-righteous can be saved. That's very encouraging to me and to Jeff and others who are constantly dealing with people who when you're talking to them through emails or they visit the church and they're always talking about their works and what they're doing and their feelings and how they're trying to qualify themselves before God, it gives me hope that that self-righteous person trying to be saved based on works of the law, their eyes actually could be opened. Where after seven years of emailing them, they could finally say, I finally have rested in Christ. And that has happened. There have been people who have been self-righteous for almost a decade. And may God save people who are self-righteous for six decades. Like Papa was. Saved at 72. 72. Or Dan Pinnamon. His dad was staying with him, Dominique, and he saw a book on hell on the shelf. He took it off. And he thought, you know, he's a nice Catholic. He thought he's good with God. He started reading that book on hell. And he realized he was going to hell. And he asked his son what could he do to be saved. And God saved him. The Lord is more than able. People being saved was a priority to Paul. I'm so thankful that that is a priority to us too. If we ever departed from that, that would be a sad day where we could say our heart's desires are in no way like Paul's. And they're in no way like Christ's. Right? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 33, he said, I try to please everyone in everything I do. Why? Not seeking my own advantage. Why, Paul? What was your goal? What were you doing? Why did you do what you do but that of many that they may be saved? That's what Paul wanted. He wanted people to be saved. Saved. What's that mean? I know I've already kind of tried to preach the Gospel like three times throughout this message, but what does it mean to be saved? Saved from what? The wrath of God. Romans 5 and 9. Be saved by Him from the wrath of God. That's man's problem. Man's great problem. There's a holy, just, perfect, pure God who John 3:36 says, if you believe in the Son, you have life. If you do not obey the Son, you do not have life. But that wrath of God, it remains on you. The sinner is walking around with wrath over their head that at any moment could burst forth through their death and be cast upon them in hell for all of eternity. There is no sleep day or night. There is complete gnashing of teeth. In hell, it says, your smoke will ascend forever in the presence of the Lamb. In the presence of the One who has this righteous... there's anger, indignation. So he's praying they'd be saved. That means initial salvation. These people are not yet saved. He's not talking about final salvation. Ultimately, they need to be saved and be being saved and make it to the end. Saved. To be forgiven of sin's penalty. Right? That's the legal aspect. Your debt is paid. What's the other aspect? To be saved from what? The power of sin. Through regeneration. Being given a new nature and a new heart. And then what happens in the end? In glorification, you're saved from the presence of sin. That's the good news of the Gospel. Saved from the power of sin. Saved from the legal debt of your sin. And saved from the presence of sin at glorification. How do they obtain this salvation? What do they need to do? He says right there in 10.3, they're ignorant of the righteousness of God. They don't understand really how to be right with God. They're seeking to establish their own. And then Paul says this, they do not submit. They don't submit to God's righteousness. As he said in v. 32, they didn't pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. It's like stop trying to save yourself. These three statements mean so much to me. John 19:30 What does Jesus say there? It is what? Finished? What does He say in the parable of the wedding feast? Everything is what? Ready? And what does He say in Revelation 22:17? The Spirit and the bride say, come, if anyone desires the water of life, come and drink the water of life. That is what? Without price. You see, salvation, it's ready. It's finished. It's without price. What must I do to be saved? Stop doing and believe Christ has done it all. That He finished the work. And that's repentance. You're changing your mind about trying to earn your salvation by your own works. Yeah, you want to be saved from your sin. You don't want to live in sin any longer. Look to Christ. He says here in v. 10, For with the heart one believes, and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses, and is saved. You could be saved today. If you're lost here, you could be saved today. And you don't wait around for the potter to do something. You obey the command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You entrust your soul to Christ, that He will pay the penalty, that He will change you. Stop trying to change yourself to qualify yourself for God to then look and say, oh, I'll save you now because you improved yourself enough in order to be qualified to be saved. No, that's blasphemy. That's exactly what the self-righteous Jews were doing. They need to stop trying to ascend and descend. They just need to be right where they're at and believe on Christ. And again, we see here, zeal for God is not equal to salvation. It's not. So in closing, should we all long in such a way for the Jews to be saved and move to Israel? Is that the point here? No, it's not. Should we evangelize the Jews? Yes. And according to Romans 11, it seems some are being saved now and maybe one day. Depending on your take, there's going to be a lot of Jews converted. No matter how you interpret that, we pray, pray. Paul was praying here. Even as he wrote chapters 9, 10, and 11, that the Jews would be saved. So what is it comparable for you and I? As I'm thinking about this, there's something very specific on my heart that I would replace those words, for them, in Romans 10:1, and that I would replace in Romans 9, the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. I would interject another statement. It's people who are related to us. It's people, because we're in America, who probably have a Bible. It's people who most likely are trying to save themselves based on the teaching of the Catholic Church or many evangelical churches even have a more subtle form of teaching you to be saved by your works. And it's people who are sitting back at 10 a.m. in that back room hearing Bobby and other people tell them the truth. It's our children. I asked someone, how can we be praying for you? His top thing on his list was that his kids would be saved. Look, when it's all been said and done, if I die tomorrow, if I die the next day, I want my kids to know Christ. What tops the list? That's it. I want them to be saved from the wrath of Almighty God and have the love of Jesus Christ. I mean, can we even say that about... Paul's saying this about his enemies. Can I say I'm not lying in my conscience that the love of God in Romans 8 about not being separated, it's so real. And what I'm about to say in Romans 9, there's such a sadness here that I feel, even though as I defend God, the Word has not failed. Can I say I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish I myself were accursed and cut off and damned and thrown to hell if possible for the sake of my children, because they have all this truth and yet they have not turned to Christ. And what a burden. What a burden. You know, I read an article that said a parent's main desires for their kids are, and it's not a Christian article, they want them to be safe and they want them to be successful. And I'd actually say amen. I want my kids to be safe from the wrath of Almighty God. And I want my kids to be successfully honoring the One who made them and is their Creator. And here the question is for us parents. Do the priorities in your life indicate that their salvation is what you take greatest pleasure in? Do you have family devotions? I'm not saying an hour-long thing. Do you sit down, even for ten minutes, at least four days a week, and open the Word of God and share something to your children from the Bible? If you don't do that, your kids are not going to look at you and say, well, my parents are really concerned for my soul. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. One of the greatest evidences that I have a love for my children is I'm going to sit down and I'm going to talk to them about the Bible. It's not just they're going to hear it from the pulpit or there in the back room. We've got 24 hours in a day. Our kids could die on any day. Why not? Why not make time? We're going to sit down here. We're going to look through the Book of Proverbs. We're going to go through Romans 6. We're going to think about this. We're going to spend ten minutes. We're going to pray for a missionary. I don't know what your house looks like, but could your kids say... What if your kids heard this and thought, really, my parents' main wanting for me is that I would be saved? I haven't really got that picture. I'm not trying to beat us up. But look, there's a reality. Our kids are going to die one day. Look, our brother Victor is gone. Richard was the last member who died in our church many years earlier. One day, we're all going to be older and we've got all these children and people are going to die. What's going to happen to them? What's going to happen to you if you're one of the lost children? Look, I can tell you, my heart's desire for you is you would be saved. My greatest excitement isn't that you got a hundred on the test and you can share that with me. Though that's good, do good in school. The greatest desire is that you would say, I've seen how wicked and vile and corrupt I am. I've seen the wickedness of even trying to save myself by my own works. And God showed me that I'm headed to hell. And I cried out that Christ would forgive me of my sin and save me from this penalty and power. I do things on the computer my family does not know about. I cuss when I play online games. I look at filth and it bothers my conscience. But I try to push it under the rug and I'm tired of that. I want to be saved from sin. Sin is miserable. Sin is a hard task, Master. Then we should ask this, what if God does not save my children? I've got four and one on the way. Do I have a promise that all five of my children are going to be converted? Look, there's different verses in the Old Testament about offspring being saved. We should lay ahold of those promises. And there's a right way to interpret them. And we should be praying. But Romans 9 tells me this, if one of my kids isn't saved, guess what? God is just. And when all of Job's children died in one moment, were all of Job's children converted? I doubt it because look at Job's wife. She said, curse God and die. And what did Job say? Blessed be the name of the Lord who gives and takes away. And Job did not have Romans 9. He didn't have that in his theology. We have that. God is just. I say that because that's reality for some. I want to see every kid in this church saved. And we should pray that. We should pray. My heart desires they would be saved from the wrath of God. Another closing thought. Having deep sorrow plague you is not unbiblical. And one way to look at it, Paul says, I have unceasing anguish and great sorrow in my heart. Unceasing? Is this the same man who said rejoice always? Is this the same one who said give thanks in all circumstances? Is there some contradiction happening here with Paul? No, no, there's not. His anguish is not sinful. His anguish and sorrow is a God-wrought burden for people who are stumbling over Christ and blind and headed to hell. As Jesus said, the blind cannot lead the blind. Paul's watching a bunch of blind people walk off a cliff. And anguish grips his heart for them as they whip him and scourge his back and rip his flesh off. What is the sorrow over? We should pray without ceasing. We can give thanks in all circumstances. But there should be an underlining anguish as we look at our lost relatives who are without Christ, especially those who are religious and trying to save themselves. There should be a sense of pity and compassion and of prayer that God would save them. Another question, is your heart right towards your enemies? Enemies! If it's not right towards your enemies, what about other people? Is your heart right towards your relatives? Family members? If Paul had such an attitude toward those who would rip the flesh off his back and scourge him five times, how much more? As 1 Peter 3:1 says, should a saved wife seek to win her lost husband with pure conduct, keeping her mouth shut, and win him without a word? If Paul can do that for his lost relatives who are trying to kill him, how much more should we be able to love those who are not even trying to kill us? They're not scourging our back. Paul has no grudge against the Jews. He prays for them. So is the desire... in closing here, we looked at Paul's heart. We looked at the desire. We saw these two passages, the anguish, his heart's desire for them to be saved. Can you say the desire and the pleasure and the longing of your heart is for people to be saved? That that's the thing at the top of the list. If not, what is? What is more important than the eternal soul of a person? And we just need God to help us maintain that. And as we walk with Christ, as we pray and fast, as we actually pray for people, as we look at different names on a list and we pray for those children, as we see the hardness of some children, you just go out back sometimes and you hear the way kids treat other kids. And you think, God, save them. The way kids talk, you just think, Lord, where are they going to end up? If they're like this now, what's going to happen when they're 20? And here, think of this. Am I saying the only thing we should be praying for is salvation? No. Paul prays for Christians all the time in different ways, but think of this. There's a connection. When we're praying about who to send to the mission field, that has a connection with salvation, right? We want to send the right people over to the field who are qualified to preach in such a way where people get converted. So that actually is praying for salvation. When Jesus spent all night in prayer to decide who He was going to choose, that dealt with salvation too. Who were His disciples going to be? That mattered. So, do you believe God answers prayer? David the king rejoiced in Psalm 21, and he said, You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. We have a God who will give you your heart's desire if your heart's desire is in line with God's desire. And it's very clear God desires that people be saved from His wrath. He so much desires it that He loved the world that He sent His only Son and slaughtered Him on a cross under His righteous indignation in order that His enemies might have a way. One would scarcely die for his friend. I mean, think of Romans 5, right? Would you die for a wicked man? I mean, even a good man, one would scarcely die. God shows His love for us in that Christ died for sinners. Am I where Paul was right now? I'm not. That's the honest truth. But that's not... I don't want it to be an excuse. I want to have a greater reality and a burden. Okay, well, I'm going to pray, and then we're going to sing the hymn for our children we are pleading. Let's pray. Father, I pray, Lord, forgive us the times there has been fatness around our hearts. Lord, deliver us from any hardness. Lord, deliver us from anything that is clenching Your Spirit in our lives. Lord, anything that's keeping back the anguish. Lord, give us a greater eternal perspective. Father, we don't want to have a bunch of funerals of lost kids who are in hell and then that be what bring us to have a burden to pray for our children. Lord, that's not what we're wanting as a church. Lord, as much of an impact as that could have, that's not what we desire, Lord. We desire to see our children saved. And Lord, You desire to save people. Lord, this is in line with Your desire. Lord, our prayer, our heart's longing and pleasure is that our kids would be saved. Lord, that our relatives would be saved. Lord, You've put us here in this country with so much false truth, so much unbiblical things being said, and yet, Lord, there's hope here. The self-righteous person can be saved. Lord, their eyes can be opened. So God, we pray to You, our Father who sent Your Son and God the potter. You can create. You own, not can. You're the only one. Lord, we look to You to have mercy upon people. Lord, You delight in having mercy upon people. And so, Lord, we're asking, I'm praying, Lord, save not someone, save many people. Lord, open people's eyes to see the blessed glory and the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please, Lord. Please, Lord. We're petitioning. Lord, it seems the world can be more worried about politics. Lord, we're not here worried about politics. Lord, I'm somewhat oblivious to some of what's going on in the world. But Lord, I do know what I'm concerned about and it's petitioning You to save sinners from hell. Lord, that's the concern. Lord, whether the country falls, Lord, it doesn't matter. We want to see people saved. And Lord, we want to see our kinsmen saved. We want to see our relatives saved. Lord, I want to see You do a work in our brother's mother, Michelle. Lord, in our sister's father, Jesus. Lord, in many of the other names that were prayed. Lord, I want to see You do a work. I want to see You saved. Lord, nothing else matters in the end. Please, Lord, we do pray for Vinny Sigler, for Victor's parents. God have mercy. Lord, I pray, Lord, that his parents, that You would open their eyes and save them. Please, Lord, his dad is sick physically. Please, Lord, don't let him die in his sin. Lord, You can open his eyes. Please, Lord, have mercy. In Jesus' name, Amen.