I keep praying and you keep proving.
Don't you have all you need?
Hey, sing that again.
Finding, you keep giving and keep on providing.
I have all I need.
You are all I need.
I keep praying and you're moving.
You keep proving.
I have all I need.
You are all that I need.
I have all I need.
He's all that I need.
That's pretty good right there.
There's honey in the rock.
I don't need to worry.
Sing that again.
Sing that one again.
In the rock, purpose in your plan.
Healing in the blood.
Healing in his hand.
He's seen up the honey in the rock.
Well, glory.
Give him the best praise you brought with you today.
Somebody ought to be screaming out loud to the top of your voice.
I great hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
There's honey in the rock, purpose in the plan.
Healing in his hand.
I'm talking to Jesus.
Well, glory.
Go ahead and grab your Bible.
I've given you plenty ample opportunity to enter in through your praise.
Now I'm going to try to preach you in.
I'm hoping you go just a little further in the Word and you went and you praised
because you've kindly quenched on him this morning.
What's that mean?
That means you didn't do what you ought to do.
There's power in his blood.
Healing in his hand.
There's proven.
There's keeping.
There's providing.
He's done all that for you.
There's honey in the rock.
Right?
What rock?
The rock of ages that cleft my soul.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 12.
Romans 12.
My, my, my.
We've sort of just almost went on in this morning.
Hallelujah.
Good to see some of you that's been out and sick and had some, a lot of stuff
going on.
Good to see you back in the house.
Good to see you.
Amen.
Good to see you.
This stuff, sometimes it gets a hold.
It just don't want to let go.
Then if there's multiple members in the house, seems like it's got to go through
everybody in back before kind of get rid of it.
Romans chapter 12.
Verse one, you know it.
When you hear it, you'll know it.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.
It's not unreasonable.
It's not way out there that you do these things.
Right?
And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your
mind.
You got to get your head in the game.
Hello?
Matter of fact, what you and I are in is not a game.
It's a warfare, matter of fact.
You've got to get your head in the warfare.
Amen.
Renewing your mind that it may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God.
For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to
think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly,
clear minded, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Now, this is going to be at times this morning, this may be a little bit of a
bumpy road.
Might be a little bumpy.
Now, I'll tell you what we're pretty, here's our title.
Go ahead and throw that up, Brother Hunter.
Advancing Beyond the Limits of Complacency.
Oh, yeah.
Ooh.
Mm.
Prime example of the limit that we placed on our worship this morning.
I wish Brother Scott was here.
He does one of those t-t-ting, you know, when I hit one of them little humorous
sarcastic notes, t-t-boom.
That's what that was.
Advancing Beyond the Limits of Complacency.
Father, I love you and I thank you.
I pray your help today.
I know you're here.
What a wonderful visitation of your anointing that's in this room already
today.
Lord, we ask that for every heart and every mind and every ear that is
acceptable today to receive, I pray we receive from you.
And that you stir our heart and you stir our minds.
And that we move forward in our faith in you.
Move our church forward in our faith in you.
Corporately, together, we as the body and we as a whole move us, Lord, that we
may advance and be quick to give you the praise for it.
In Christ's name and the church said, ask your neighbor, are you complacent?
Every now and then, as a pastor, I kind of get pastoral.
Normally, about 85% of the time, I'm what probably is described as an
evangelistic pastor.
Then there's that 15% that's scattered out through 52 weeks of the year where
we get right down to business.
I think the apostle Paul was a lot like that.
He was an evangelist, but when he got down to business, he'd write them and
say, look, don't make me come down there.
He would say things like, you better be glad I'm sending a letter not there in
person, you know, because I line you up, Father.
That's pastoral.
We have to be instructive.
Amen?
The idea with what we're looking to in this year's theme, advancing beyond
limits, is totally meant, solely meant to cause us to progress forward in our
faith in 2025.
That we be more in love with Jesus and more reflective of him at the end of the
year than we are right now.
Today, the first Sunday of the third month of 2025, I don't know about you,
but it's causing my head to spin.
We are already in March.
It was just January the other day, right?
Here we are.
It's March.
The reality of what we're looking at and what we've been discussing and what the
Spirit of the Lord is bringing to the forefront of our mind, the reality of
putting behind labels, I'm not who I used to be.
You're not who you were.
You're not who God called you from.
We are new creatures in Christ.
Amen?
And to take those labels off and not allow the world to label us and to pin
something on us that we are not, but you are who God has called you to be.
You need to tell yourself that every morning.
I am victorious in Christ.
I am the victor.
Why?
Because greater is he that's in me than he that's in this world.
Take a deep breath, brush your teeth, and ease out the door and have a great
day in Christ.
Amen?
Because that's who you are.
That's who we are now, recreated in the image of Christ.
So we're putting off the labels and putting those things behind us and
endeavoring to understand how God desires growth in our relationships, in
our marriages, how God is endeavoring to grow us and to advance beyond the
limits of wherever we are and what parameters we've put around that we can
actually in our relationships grow closer to each other as we grow closer to
Christ.
Amen?
And that our marriages are reflective as Christ who loved the church and
gave himself for it.
Amen?
That we love each other in that regard.
As well as the crushing before the pressing positions us for progress in our
faith.
I have to trust God more off the press.
Amen?
I have to trust God more every time.
I feel as though I've been crushed by the world and by things and crisis and
situations and issues of life that may come and the enemy that may come
against me.
I feel as though the very life breath is being crushed out of me.
But when I come to myself, amen, I have a greater and a deeper trust in God
because he sustained me through the crushing.
And I know that he's going to sustain me through the pressing and that by
being pressed relationships can grow in depth and we progress in our faith
daily.
It's all about progressing in our faith.
And when we think about it, faith suggests a reach that is above ourselves.
It is man in his limited state reaching out, reaching up, and reaching
beyond.
Amen.
That's what faith is.
We'd hear the writer record it now.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not
seen.
It's you and I in our limited physical state.
But yet faith takes us beyond the limits of our flesh and enters us into
the realm of the spirit.
Hallelujah.
Whereby we can believe and trust God for the things that we are unable to
accomplish in our flesh knowing that he is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or that we think.
It's mankind.
It's humanity reaching toward heaven.
Beyond his reach.
It's you and I seeing into the word and the promises of God by faith knowing
that God is able and we see above all that we can see.
It's knowing that by his grace that equips us and enables us day by day.
It's by the inward working of the power of the Holy Ghost that causes me to go
beyond the limits of my distrust in society but put my trust in God and to
know that God is my Savior and to know that there is honey in the rock and to
know that there's purpose in his plan and to know that there's power in his
blood and that there's healing in his hand.
It's by faith that I accept these things that see beyond my seeing and
understanding for what I see is temporal and that which I cannot see is in God
and God alone that he is able to sustain, that he is able to equip, that he is
able to cause you and I to overcome.
It's a progression forward.
Well, hallelujah.
A danger that exists to the Christian and to this process and this progression
in our faith is the danger of complacency.
Complacency.
A feeling of quiet pleasure or security.
Often while unaware of some potential danger, satisfied and feeling you do not
need to try harder.
The danger for complacency to creep into a church body causes that church body to
become lethargic in praise, in worship, in prayer, and the spiritual disciplines
that cause a church to be endued with power from on high.
The danger of complacency is that we grow comfortable with the status quo.
The danger with complacency means we abort the plan of God for our lives because
God never called you and I to be comfortable.
Hallelujah.
Comfort's coming when we reach heaven.
We are called as good soldiers engaged in warfare against all that is set against
us.
The heater, the air one just kicked on.
We are engaged fully in spiritual warfare and become totally aware of everything
that the enemy is attempting to do around us and that we are engaged in opposition
and resistance to what the enemy is doing against us.
And if we have grown complacent, if we've grown satisfied, if we are unaware of the
dangers and the ills that are around us, then we do not engage in the warfare that
the Christian must engage in in order to obtain the victory in their life and in
the church in which they are attending in that body.
Can I tell you today, I am codependent upon your prayer, not fully dependent, but
I'm codependent upon your prayers for me as you are codependent upon my prayers for
you and that we pray one for another.
There is a new institution of prayer that God is stirring up at the Hope Wheel
Church of God.
Just the other night, Thursday night, our retired ministers and widows gathered for
our monthly or bimonthly fellowship stirred by our leader, Brother Ron Wood, in a time
of prayer that we have a renewed emphasis on prayer, that we engage heaven one more
time.
He went through the group and assigned different prayers and each one had to come up
with a prayer.
They had to write out a prayer.
And for you and I, what we're going to do from this Sunday until Easter, each Sunday
we're going to close out with one of those persons reading their prayer and a copy of
it's going to be made out and laid out for you in the four-year.
I want you to pick one up if you're going to pray it.
By the way, prayer, I just done a little quick little Google search today on the old
Interweb and it said the average Christian prays five minutes a day.
Well, I'm about to improve your prayer time by half.
It'll take you two and a half minutes to read the prayer that Brother Strickland led to
us over our country and this nation.
Just by the events of this past week, if you're not mindful, get your head out of the sand
and to know that our country needs prayer, that our leaders need prayer, and we must
engage in prayer.
So there is a renewed emphasis on prayer.
I warned you about this a few weeks ago that we're coming down to the point that we are
about to engage the enemy so that we may break the limits and the threshold into the
goodness of what God has for the Hopewell Church of God.
And I'm here to tell you today that we are going to have to enter in by prayer.
Some things goeth but not but by prayer and fasting.
We're going to have to push our plates away.
We're going to have to bow our knees and lift our eyes toward the hills from which
cometh our help because our help comes from the Lord.
I know that there are legions of darkness set against some of you.
And my God, it's time that we are the instruments of light, engage in prayer.
We bend our knees and we make war against the enemy.
We must open our eyes and hearts so that we recognize the danger and avoid the pitfall
of complacency.
Brother Jimmy Talley in one of the chapters in the book that the overseer had them write
concerning the vision for the state makes this statement.
Advancing effectively requires us to confront and transcend the obstacles of apathy,
complacency, and ritualized religion.
What does all that mean?
That means you've got to stir your heart.
Apathy is where there's a lack of care, a lack of love, and a lack of concern.
Well, my apathy's being stirred to the depths of my soul because passion is beginning to rise.
Compassion is beginning to stir.
And my love for lost humanity, those bound and afflicted by the darkness of this world,
is causing me to rise up.
And my hackles are standing up on the back of my neck and I'm getting mad at the enemy
every other week.
You've got sickness over you.
You've got this over you.
You've got that coming against you.
And as your shepherd, I just want to take my staff and beat the wolves away for you.
So there's a stirring in my soul over the congregation that's been given under my care
that my apathy is stirred to passion and prayer.
And let me tell you something, when I get to praying, mountains begin to shake and things
begin to move because God hears the prayer of the righteous.
Hallelujah.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Elijah prayed and it didn't rain for three and a half years.
Then he prayed and the cloud come.
And the cloud, I'm looking for the cloud to come and an outpouring to show up.
Get ready.
There's not going to be much room for the status quo.
There's going to start to be an uncomfortable feeling.
Because the more intense his presence become, the more uncomfortable the lukewarm will be.
So I would probably use today as a solemn warning to stir yourself.
To shake yourself.
I take this as a solemn warning as if you don't know Christ and the free pardon of your sin
and you've repented, I suggest that you start getting ready to do so because you're on my hit list.
Honey, I'm going to pray that you get so uncomfortable that you can't stay in here.
You can't hear this preaching if you're just going to be complacent and you're just going to sit through
this status quo moment if you're just going to be content to hear good preaching.
Hope it's good. Whoever's doing it, I hope it's good.
Good preaching and good worship and good singing and leave here unmoved, unchallenged and unstirred.
Not on my watch anymore.
I'm praying the Holy Ghost meets you in your home, convicts you of your sin, and calls you to bow your knee.
Pastor, I thought you said you love me.
I do and do not desire to see you burn for eternity in a devil's hell and torment where there is nothing
but gnashing of teeth and the worm dieth not.
I would rather see you stroll with me one afternoon down the streets of that river of life and take the fruit
on the tree of life, hallelujah, than to know that you burn in a devil's hell.
Stop your sin!
That goes for all age brackets.
Hello?
Told you it's going to be a little rocky and a little bumpy this morning.
Our pothole number one. Maybe we can avoid the other six.
Apathy.
It's a disease in the church today.
Yeah.
It's spirit draining.
It drains the life force out of a church.
Apathy.
What's apathy look like? Well, boys all pretty today.
I think I'll just sleep in.
I just don't think I'll go today.
Well, I do have a little bit of a headache, but it's because I slept past my coffee time, and I know it's caffeine,
but I think I just won't go today.
It's even worse when you plan it on Friday.
Yeah. Yeah, you done made up your mind Friday you ain't coming.
You don't know you lazy hides staying at the house.
Well, what are you going to do when the trumpet sounds and you piled up at the house at Bed Springs Church of God?
Huh?
Do you think the trumpet's going to reach you?
Huh?
At Couch Cushion Church of God?
You think you, I mean, come on.
Look, I know we get tired, but you're going to be tired on Monday, and you're going to get up and go do the same thing.
Why not at least come get some strength for Monday?
And then by Tuesday you're going to be like, oh, the devil just won't wear it left seated.
He just won't leave me alone.
They're this at work, and they're that at work, and yada, yada, yada.
If you'd have been in the house of the Lord Sunday, you would have heard your pastor tell you stir up your apathetic spirit in prayer and in fasting
and get in the Word of God so that you'd be able to confront, and you're not apathetic, but you have compassion.
You have decency, unconcern, satisfied with where I am.
What was that other one?
Religious one?
Ritualized religion.
You know, that's one of the reasons that we don't practice a lot of the rituals of the church.
I don't do that a lot, because I'm not going to give anybody an excuse over the ritual,
because what tends to happen is, well, here's the stuff, just going to put it like this.
We ain't got enough of the spirit to keep it from becoming a ritual,
and I don't tell you something, that five minutes a day, I doubt if we get that, really.
I mean, that's giving us a break, I think.
That much prayer.
We'll get to where we set into the ritual, and the ritual takes the place of our passion.
Taking the wafer and the cup takes the place of the body and the blood.
And we lose the love for the body and his blood that was spilled for us,
because we drunk the cup and ate the wafer.
So many other things that we get caught up with in our religion.
Religion's not all necessarily wrong or bad, it's just that it becomes the central focus.
James said, pure and undefiled religion is this, that you visit the fatherless and the widow.
There's nothing wrong with that. It's needed.
The fatherless and the widows need comfort. They need assistance.
But that's not solely where we are. We're in relationship.
And if we're not careful, complacency takes over, status quo sets in,
and we don't even move through quid pro quo anymore.
Where, Lord, I'll do this for you if you do this for me.
Bargaining in prayer never gets us anywhere. He's already quod the pro.
There's no quid to it.
He's already given bankrupt heaven for you and I.
Don't you think that deserves a little bit more than our complacency?
Don't you think that deserves a little bit more than our apathy?
Don't you think coming into the house of God knowing he sent his only begotten son
for your and my sorry and wretched sin drenched hides,
and he let him be nailed to a cross on Calvary's old hill,
pierced his side and hands and feet and brow,
for you and I to grow to a state of...
No, I don't really think so.
I don't.
He's already realigned the status.
All those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So how are we to avoid the pitfall?
All that was introduction.
How are we to avoid the pitfall of complacency,
let alone apathy, let alone ritualized religion?
Just going through the perfunctory motion, that's what that is.
And the routine that we set for our lives,
and we get up and we go through our Sunday routine.
Well, I'm here to interrupt the Sunday routine.
I'm here to throw it into the wind because it's not routine that we desire.
It's not routine that we need in our life.
It's the power of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. That's what we need in our life so that we are enabled by that
on tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
and Saturday that we come back in here next Sunday,
not apathetic, not complacent, but invigorated
because of His grace is visited with us every day of the week.
Why? Because we have communed with Him in prayer.
We avoid the pitfall of complacency by prayer, praying.
I'm trying to check the time here.
I don't want to keep you too long today.
I'm all right, but I ain't going to keep you too long
because you won't hear what I'm saying.
You're going to check out here in a little while,
if you didn't check out at sin.
I can't believe He told me to stop sinning.
Well, believe it. Just go ahead and believe it.
I'll tell you again, quit sinning.
Stop your cussing.
Stop all that garbage that you're involved with.
Stop your gossiping.
Stop your tail-baring.
If you're adulterating, stop it.
If you fornicate, quit.
If you're drinking, smoking dope, taking drugs, get over it.
If you're in an alternative lifestyle, repent from it.
I'm trying to make sure I was thinking that I cover all of our sin bases.
If you're being a hypocrite, come on, hypocrite.
Come on, repent and be genuine.
Say, you got the hypocrites, you got the alcoholics,
you got the drug addicts, you got the smokers.
Dippers, you dippers, quit.
I'm going down my sin list.
You know some of the hard stuff goes down better with the honey
from the rock, doesn't it?
Well, I don't know if it's a sin or not.
Well, if you don't know, then it probably is, so stop.
That's my best Joe Lowstein for you today.
You never hear of this at Joel's Place.
Unless Victoria preaches it.
Whew, about lost it.
I can't wait until Brian's been doing this for 30 years.
Oh, I won't be around to see it, but 30 years,
I'll be 108 and that ain't going to happen.
I don't know, there are those getting Social Security checks
at 120, so I might make it.
Get back on track here.
We avoid the pitfall of complacency by prayer.
Jesus said 18 in one of Luke's Gospel,
men ought always to pray and not to faint.
That not faint means to lose heart.
It means not to quit early, not to give up
because it doesn't look like the situations are changing.
Keep on praying.
Prayer is the protein to our faith.
Hey, come on now.
Prayer strengthens our faith.
Something to know about prayer is you never change God's mind
when you pray.
Your prayer conditions your will to accept His will.
Hello.
And on occasion, His will is, you got to know this,
God is even different than a woman.
You know, it's been said that a woman has
and reserves the right to change her mind, right?
God's even above that.
And He can be reminded of things and He altered the course.
He delayed the event.
Hezekiah the king was sick and about to die
and was on his deathbed.
Isaiah the prophet comes into the palace
and he goes into the king's shaver and he tells him,
get your heart in order for you going to die, boy.
Make sure you got everything right with God.
And he turns and begins to exit the palace
and before he could get off the property,
Hezekiah the king rolls over on his bed
and puts his face toward the wall
and he begins to pray and to seek and to entreat his God.
And in that prayer, he reminds God of his faithfulness.
He reminded God of his goodness over his life
and God saw fit to allow him 15 more years.
He didn't let him live forever.
He just extended his time on the face of this earth
when he probably would have been better off to go
as the Lord was taking him for all that transpired after that
because it was kind of miserable for Hezekiah
because he lost his way.
But God, amen, and here's how he said,
I need a sign, God, how's this going to happen?
Well, I want the sun down to go backwards.
I want the sun to reverse its course.
And I'm here to tell you today the only reason
that a sun will reverse its course
or earth will reverse its course on its axis
is because of God who created it
and had been reminded of his faithfulness.
Oh, my God, of how good he is.
And in that prayer, God answered it in 15 years
as Hezekiah's life was extended.
It's not that we change God's mind when we pray,
but when our will gets aligned with the will of God,
then God may do anything on my and your behalf
because he reserves the right.
He is not a man that he should lie.
Hallelujah!
But he is holy and he's true.
And his character, his honesty and love,
and he'll do, he'll move heaven and earth for you
because he loves you.
Yeah!
1 Timothy 2, verse 1 reads this.
I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers,
intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
for kings and for all that are in authority
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life
in all godliness and honesty.
Jesus said men ought always to pray.
Paul furthers again and says,
therefore now, here's what's supposed to happen.
You pray with supplication,
and we can go on down again and look at Ephesians 6, 18.
Prayer promotes and equips for ministry and opportunity.
Ephesians 6, 18, praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the spirit and watching therein too
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
and for me that utterance may be given unto me
that I may open my mouth boldly to make known
the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador
in ponds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Prayer opens up opportunities for you and I to witness
and you and I to minister.
You can add a minute to your prayer,
I'll have us up to 10 minutes before it's over.
You can add one minute to prayer by saying,
Lord, open a doorway for me today.
Present me somebody that needs you
that I may just tell them you love them.
You don't have to go through the ABCs of the gospel.
You don't have to break down the mysteries of the Trinity.
You just have to say Jesus loves you,
this I know for my Bible tells me so.
He loves me and here's what he's done for me
and he is no respecter of person and he'll do it for you.
I'll put you on my prayer list
and if you need a ride to church Sunday,
I'll come by and pick you up and you can come and go with me.
That's all you need to do.
Prayer opens up doorways for you are able to do ministry.
Paul said pray one for another, pray for all the saints,
but most of all I want you to pray
that I have an opportunity to open my mouth
and share the mystery of the gospel.
Hallelujah!
Just pray that I've got somebody to preach the gospel to.
You see, you can't have that attitude
and be stooped up in apathy.
You will not have that attitude
and be caught up in complacency.
You will not have that attitude
and be overwhelmed and statured by ritualism of religion.
You've got that because you've got the heart of Jesus.
You want to see people have the experience that you're having
and you're going to pray that they do.
Prayer opens up our understanding.
Brother Ken's favorite verse 33 and 3
when he's doing mechanic and a riposte.
Call to me and I will answer you and show you
great and mighty things
which you do not know.
Hallelujah!
God says if you don't understand it and you don't know it,
if you'll come and pray and talk to me about it,
I'll show you some stuff that'll blow your mind.
I'll show you how to stitch it.
I'll show you how to clip it.
I'll show you how to hit it with a hammer.
I'll show you how.
I'll show you, I'll tell you because my thoughts
are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways,
but they are so much further above.
But if you'll call on me, I won't be selfish.
If you'll pray to me, then I will answer.
You pray in the day of trouble and he'll show up.
Amen.
You pray in darkness and he'll illuminate and be the light.
You pray!
Jeremiah says call the Lord through him.
He says call on me and I'll answer you.
The author of the Hebrews said in chapter 4, verse 16,
let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in a time of need.
If you practice in sinners out there,
you go to him in prayer, you approach his throne
and you ask for his mercy.
Hello?
God have mercy.
Isn't that what they say in the death chamber
when they get ready to throw the switch or hit the plunger?
May God have mercy on your soul.
That's the only way we get mercy is that God has it.
Because you live in a merciless world.
Hello?
Driven by the prince and the power of darkness and of the air,
there's no mercy in this world,
but there's an abundance of mercy when you approach God's throne
and you come approaching in your hour of need.
And he's not going to kick you out
because when you humbly bow from a contrite heart and spirit
and you confess your sin,
oh God have mercy on me, I'm a sinner,
I've got a problem with this, I've got a problem with that,
I can't get over this, and I need mercy and I need your grace
because I'm at my point in hour of need
and you have given an open invitation for me,
so therefore here I bow myself.
I think the hardest converts are the hypocrites
because we think we got it right anyway.
We need more mercy than just a flat out plain old sinner
that knows he's a sinner.
Isn't that what Jesus said?
When you go down to pray,
don't be like them fellas that just get right there on the corner.
I don't know if you've ever seen a video of the prayer room
that's outside the western wall.
They still go in there.
They've got their phylactery on their arm
and they've got that rope all around,
they've got that prow shawl over their head
and as loud as they can get in Hebrew,
them old boys are rocking.
Doing this right here.
She said don't be like them boys,
be like that sinner that just got down there.
The hypocrite comes up and says Lord,
I'm glad I'm not like this guy standing beside me.
And he carries on in his prayer.
Jesus said don't be like that.
Be like the guy that he was talking about,
Lord I'm a sinner.
That's how we pray.
Positions of prayer, standing on your knees in meditation
as you move about in your closet with the door closed behind you
are positions of prayer.
How many of you pray like I do?
It's kind of a conscious on and off prayer all day.
I'm not just talking about just stopping everything you're doing
and just getting down.
Where you're like hello, tell him we're almost done.
Tell him we're almost done.
Tell him he's alone today but he's almost done.
Those are great times when we can get down at the altar.
Hello?
Wonderful times.
They're great times when we can enter into our prayer closet
and shut everything and everybody out.
Those are wonderful times of prayer.
But I dare say for the majority of us your time is so scheduled.
You have to pray a lot like I do.
Why are you walking across the yard?
When you're not doing something you might cut a finger off with,
you're praying, mind constantly on God.
That's how we don't sin against God because our mind's constantly on God
and pleasing God and you're continually in prayer.
I see different objects, I see different things and it causes me to pray.
It reminds me of God, God looking over me, God looking down on me,
God providing for me, God proving for me, all that stuff we sung about this morning.
It reminds me of that so I'll enter into a season of meditation and praise.
On my mind I'm concentrated on God, just thanking him for his goodness,
thanking him for his mercy.
There's other times I'm walking across the yard begging God for his forgiveness
because I've just got frustrated, I've just got aggravated,
and I lost my temper and I lost my cool and I snapped at Sister Kathy
and it wasn't really her fault, it was my fault and what I was doing.
It happens too much.
Constant, men ought always to pray.
And then we value those times when we can get down to business.
We value those moments when we can get on our knees and pray.
Prayer aligns our will with God's will.
It causes us to be mindful of his word.
Prayer, faith, and the word of God opens the avenue that it may result in the miraculous.
The miraculous, you know what a miracle is, right?
Miracle, that which is caused by the direct intervention of supernatural power.
The direct intervention of supernatural power.
That's a miracle.
And God performs them every single day.
Every single day, some of you, many of you are recipients of divine intervention in supernatural ways.
Every single day it baffles the mind of the carnal.
It causes them to scratch their head.
One x-ray shows a tumor.
The next x-ray says it's gone.
Hello, amen.
Before the prayer, there's a fever.
After the prayer, there's a cool.
Hallelujah.
It doesn't have to open up a red sea to be constituted as a miracle.
It simply has to be divine intervention into your life.
When the supernatural comes in and transforms the realm of the natural to the will of the supernatural,
that is a miracle.
And the miraculous happens because we are in prayer.
And we are mindful of the divine's interaction into our life.
When the spirit breaks in, when the power of God breaks through the portal of what we know is time and space
and enters into the realm of where we are and in our being, and he alters the events of our life,
in that very moment, the supernatural prayer, faith, the Word of God,
those three alone will keep you out of the pitfall.
Those three alone will keep your mind state on end.
Is that what our text says?
I thought that was it.
You get over to it, the air blew it over.
Romans 12, right?
Is that where we're at?
Verse 1.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies,
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Some of those things that we were talking about earlier, it's just reasonable service not to do that,
that we present our bodies as sacrifices, holy.
And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you might prove what is that good and acceptable and the perfect will of God.
Prayer aligns us for that.
Stand with me, I'm quitting.
Y'all fold around, let me go past 12.
Again.
Prayer.
Between now and Easter, we're going to elevate our level in prayer.
I would simply ask that you at least double your time in daily prayer.
If you're not doing anything, give me a minute and you've done it.
Let's elevate the intensity of our prayers so that we may know what is the mind
and the will of God for hope will.
By show of hands, how many of you have family that need Jesus?
Okay, there's you two more minutes.
By show of hands, how many of you have circumstances, issues, or crisis
that you need a divine interruption in?
Stick them up.
There's you two more minutes.
By show of hands, how many of you got more money than you know what to do with?
I was going to say see me.
There's you another couple minutes.
But let me just give you a little pastoral instruction before you pray that one.
If you're not tithing on what you got, don't ask God for more.
Unless you're tithing and giving on what he's already doing for you.
And by the way, if you're struggling and not tithing, I challenge you to try tithing
and watch the struggle begin to dissipate.
And then he may trust you with some more.
So there's a couple more minutes.
I've got you up to about 12 minutes of prayer right now.
Just by stating the obvious.
By show of hands, how many of you want to grow closer to the Lord?
Okay, there's you another five minutes.
So we got you close to 20 minutes and I'm going to stop right there.
We need to pray.
We've got to pray.
God's moving.
He's moving in our midst.
I get testimony all the time of what God's doing, how God's working, how he's making a way.
Washing machines go down, somebody brings me a nearly brand new one and hooks it up.
Testimonies like my car had 300 plus thousand and the Lord helped me to trade for one
150,000 and I don't owe a thing because God helped me.
That's just a couple and they go on and on and on.
Oh, we got a picture of a check in the mail the other day for $9.
They're still coming in.
We need God.
I want you to come and join me in this altar.
Brother Duane's getting ready.
He's going to close us out in a moment with this prayer for our nation.
There's going to be a copy of it.
Y'all come.
That's what it means by come down here and join me at the front.
It means get out your seat and come on.
Sorry, I didn't illustrate more.
But before Brother Duane closes us in this prayer for our nation, I want us to just pray together.
Just a few minutes, a minute or two.
We can get two of your 20 right here.
Man.
I'm just looking at you.
Yeah.
Here.
Yeah.
Thank you, Lord.
Just take a minute.
Just like the Lord.
Thank the Lord.
Lord, we thank you this morning.
You have the answers.
Thank you, Holy Ghost.
Let's pray together.
Father, we come to you.
Thank you for your word today.
Thank you for your interruption into our gathering today.
Thank you for speaking this reminder to us to let us know that you have the answer.
Lord, as we begin to pour our hearts out to you right now, Father, I would pray over us all that we have a cultivated desire to communicate in prayer with you.
In this, Lord, I pray over the body today and your awareness of prayer to be in conversation and communion with you in prayer.
And we set our mind on you that we align our bodies to be that holy sacrifice, which is reasonable in our service that we put aside and lay aside the weight and the sin that does so easily be set us.
And that we begin to engage in prayer that creates opportunity for the miraculous.
Lord, that we pray as Daniel when he was commanded not to pray, but yet went as before three times a day and said his face towards you.
And he prayed.
And that we continue that prayer as we feel as though we're caught in the den with the lions.
Because of that previous prayer.
And even though we seem denial may be the fact.
Yet, but delayed by the enemy.
But the answer will arrive because you reminded us this morning that you have the answer.
Your instruction for me is to call out to you.
Oh, God, you know our needs, you know, our physical needs, you know that we need a touch of healing.
We need divine intervention in our situation and in our crisis.
Lord, you know that we need healing.
So I call on you, Lord, to be healer.
To be healer.
You said call, so I'm calling out.
I'm claiming your word in my prayer by his stripes.
We are healed.
Oh, come on now.
Just go ahead.
You tell him you call.
I'm calling for me and Sister Kathy right now.
You lift your voice.
I'm calling out because we need a healing in our life.
We need a healing in body, mind, spirit today.
We need a healing.
We need a restoration.
We need a restoring is what we need.
So I'm calling on the Lord.
Do you trust in God?
Call out to him.
Tell him what you need.
Tell him what your crisis is.
Tell him what your dilemma is.
Call that son, daughter, grandchild, family, friend,
neighbor that's lost and dying and the devil's got them in the
clutches and the chains of sin and destroying their very life.
Call out their name right now.
Holy Ghost, we ask that you go to their heart and begin to deal
with the sinner.
Deal with the backslider.
Deal with them, Holy Ghost.
Convict them of their sin.
Save my sons and save my daughters.
Save my grandchildren, Lord.
I'm calling on you, Lord.
Lord, you give me the invitation to come boldly so boldly I've
entered in today.
Boldly I'm coming standing right before you.
And as I stand I humbly bow at your throne asking, oh God, save
to the uttermost.
Save my brothers, Lord.
Save them, Lord, in their sin.
Save them from their selves, oh God.
I saw the Lord.
Seek him out this morning.
Pray.
Tell him what it is you need.
Talk to the Lord.
You're at the throne this morning.
You're at his throne today.
Healing.
How many need healing?
I need a healing in my body today.
I need a healing.
I seek you for healing today.
You said ask.
Your stripes, your blood, lay down on your feet.
Your blood laid out for us.
Your giving of your grace.
Hallelujah.
You give your life for my body.
Yours was broken that ours may be healed in Jesus' name.
In Jesus' name.
Call on him.
If you're tormented in your mind every day, if the devil just
wreaks havoc in your mind every day, you call on the Lord.
He'll provide for you a peace that passes all understanding.
He said in this world you shall have tribulation but be of good
cheer for I have overcome the world and my peace give I unto
you not as the world giveth but my peace give I unto you that
your joy may be full.
Hallelujah.
Through the course of your day tomorrow concentrate on him.
If you're working a high risk dangerous job keep your mind
focused and pray when you go on break.
Pray when you go on lunch.
Slip out to the car for lunch.
Take your sammich out to the car.
Eat your sammich and talk to the Lord.
You can eat between bites.
You can pray in between.
We do it all the time.
We sit down with each other for supper.
We're chewing and we're talking.
The Lord's okay with that.
He knows you got 30 minutes for lunch.
Say, Lord, bless my sammich.
Pardon me while I chew and talk at the same time.
But I'm calling on you today.
I'm talking to you at lunch, Lord.
My Savior, he's one.
He will never fail.
You want to pray down there?
You will never fail.
He will never fail.
You got to trust in him though.
Amen.
Listen to this prayer.
There's a copy of it out on the table.
Get one per family.
Take it with you.
And at some point every day this week, read it.
I want you to read this prayer.
And by the end of the week, it's going to become, you won't have
to focus so much on the words, but you're going to be able to
pray it because this is a prayer for our nation.
And then next Sunday we'll have another one.
And the author of that prayer is going to come up and they're
going to, St. Francis of Jackie, she don't want to come up here.
She's going to have to pray from the floor.
But we're going to lead out with that prayer.
We're going to close with these prayers.
And then you take it home and pray it weekly.
And if you want to add to your prayer time, you keep your
little file of them.
You know what I'm saying?
And you re-pray the first one.
And then you pray the second one.
And by the end of it, you're going to be doing seven prayers
by Easter.
That'll get you past that five minutes, I guarantee you.
Praise the Lord.
Like the pastors already said, if there was ever a time in our
history of our nation that we need to be praying for our
nation, now is the time.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, we begin this prayer with thanksgiving for the
great country and the church you've allowed us to be a part of.
I confess that this country has wandered far from you.
Satan has deceived many and we need you now more than I can
ever remember.
I pray that your favor would rest upon our country and that we
would once again embrace the Christian principles that made
this country great.
We know that the leaders that you have placed over us are
flawed human beings.
We also know that they serve by your grace.
Today we ask for you to lay your hand on each of our current
leaders.
I pray that you would touch our president and all of our elected
officials.
Open their eyes to the needs of the people.
Remind them that they are commissioned to serve and give
them wisdom, courage, and strength.
Guide their thoughts, direct their decisions, and let your
will be done in our world.
I also pray for our church.
You've placed us in a world, but you've called us to be separate
from it.
Open our eyes to the desperate needs all around us and let us
clearly see the fields that are white already unto the harvest.
Give us one more time a passion to win the lost at any cost.
Open our eyes to the power of prayer and draw us into a deeper
relationship with you.
Inspire us to live in such a way that everyone around us will see
you.
Send a new fire to our churches that will change our communities
for you.
Annoy our spiritual leaders with a supernatural touch.
Give them vision beyond human ability, courage to stand against
Satan for us, and wisdom direct from the throne of God.
Help them to see where you're going so that they may lead us
closer to you.
And finally, Lord, I open our eyes to their needs.
Help us to come alongside them and hold up their hands so that
we may all fight the good fight for you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.