The title and subject of this
message should grab your attention. Lunacy, prayer and fasting. I didn't make that up. That's
the subject in front of us, the story in front of us. Lunacy,
prayer and fasting. Let's look at verse fourteen. And when they were come to the
multitude, the Lord and the disciples, remember, had been up on the
mountain, came back down where the people were, there came to
the Lord a certain man kneeling down to him, fell down on his
knees and said, Lord, have mercy on my son. For he is lunatic
and sore vexed, for oft times he falleth into the fire, and
oft into the water." Now, this man was certainly a
sincere man, wasn't he? He came and fell down on his
knees before the Lord Jesus Christ. Imploring him, begging him to
help his son, who was a lunatic, fell down on his knees. And I
asked myself, and we should ask ourselves, when's the last time
we really fell prostrate before the Lord and cried out like this
man did for our child or someone else's child or whoever? Now, this man was very sincere,
wasn't he? He had a desperate need. And he came to Christ. Verse 15 says that he cried unto
the Lord, said unto the Lord, Lord, have mercy on my son. And
that should be our constant cry unto the Lord for our children. And by our children, I don't
mean my child or our own, but we all, all these children are
our children. Some in here who've never born
physical children yet are spiritual fathers and mothers in this congregation
and they're all our children. We have a great concern for them.
We've seen them grow up here and our constant cry should be, Lord have mercy on
them. Have mercy on them. They're not
sweet little darlings like we Like we think. And if the Lord
doesn't have mercy on our children, the world will get a hold of
them, and they'll be gone. Both literally and spiritually. They'll be gone. It's a good
prayer, isn't it? Lord, have mercy on my son. Lord, have mercy on our children,
our sons and daughters. And he said he's a lunatic. Lunatic. Now this word lunatic means moon
struck. That's what it means you know
the word lunar. Lunar. For the word lunar moon and tick
word struck moon struck that is affected by. With some sort
of temporary insanity. Moon struck now this. This is
not a fable here. This is in the scripture. I wouldn't
believe it if it weren't written, would you? What effect? Now this
will be not only edifying, but interesting. What effect does
the moon have upon this earth? Go with me to Genesis chapter
one, and you'll see something of this. Genesis chapter one,
and it's also written in Psalm 104, but we'll just look at Genesis
one. And this is what God said in
the very beginning, this is the way God. Ordered things when
he set up. The sun, the moon and the stars,
verse fourteen, God said, Let there be lights in the firmament
of the heaven to divide the day from the night that is sun and
moon, different lights. And let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days and years so the moon actually does
according to God's laws of nature. There are laws of nature which
God set up that remain in force don't they? Laws of nature which
God Almighty set up. You have to believe God did it.
You sure can't believe evolution just came up with let the ocean
come this far and no further. All you know for thousands of
years just right there on no part of the evolution that's
that's absurd it's absurd and the moon actually has an influence
over the seasons and the signs and so for the old country folks
that used to plant things by the side of the moon they weren't
just being superstitious they were actually paying attention
to what God's Word said the old sailors used to do they didn't
have Global navigation systems what they have how would a sailor
know how to cross the sea. Isn't it a miraculous that the
North Star just stays right there it's a burning like the sun you
know doesn't move if it moved the sun moved six inches closer
to the earth we'd all die. Only a fool has said no God right. But in Psalm 104, David says,
and you don't have to turn, but David says, thou hast appointed
the moon for season. We also know it has something
to do with the tides that come and go. Amazing, isn't it? But
apparently, according to scripture, there's a moon-influenced insanity,
a temporary insanity when the moon comes out, especially a
full moon, a new moon. And I'm not trying to be clever
at all. That's what this is talking about Romans chapter one over
there Romans chapter one. The fact is and you know this.
That most of the madness and that's what sin is against God
is madness. It's temporary insanity and the
sin what men and women and young people do. They do against God
defying God. They call it death defying and
this and that and the other, that what they're doing is shaking
their fists, Tammy, in God's face, I dare you to kill me. Aren't they? That's madness.
Isn't that madness? That's insanity. And most of
this goes on under the cover of darkness. Why is that? Well, folks literally turn into
beasts and howl as if it were at the moon. I know. They literally turn into
animals. And we've said this before, unless
someone is indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God, then they are
influenced by something and someone. And the fact is, if they don't
have the mind of Christ, God gives them over to these influences. So that's what this is talking
about. God giving someone over to these either natural influence,
worldly influences and so on and so forth, demons, devils
and so forth. Romans chapter one is a summary, a conclusion
of all sin and the reason for it. Verse eighteen, Romans one
eighteen, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. God is angry with the
wicked every day. Young people, God Almighty, no
one is getting away with anything. God sees it all, and God's going
to deal with every bit of it. There's a scripture in Ecclesiastes
that says, because God, I'm going to paraphrase it for you, because
God does not punish something immediately, then people think
they got away with it and they keep on doing it. It's not so. You see, God doesn't operate
according to man's time, but his own time. And nobody is getting
away with anything. And nobody's doing anything he
does not say. And it says the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of man all this these calamities that are taking place. And they're
more frequent than ever. Scientists can't figure out why
hurricanes are on the increase. Read Romans one. Read Romans 1. That's why the
wrath of God is clearly revealed from it. It's the wrath of God. And I see this thing coming to
a close, don't you? If you've got your eyes open,
you do. If you have your spiritual eyes open. This is the only thing
that will open your eyes. Well, read on down here in verse 21
or verse 18. It says they hold the truth in
unrighteousness. Nearly every American has a Bible. Most of them are perversions
of the scripture. They've long done away with the
King James, the original English Bible we had. It was closest
to the original Word of God. Long since done away with that,
taken away all the offense out of it. But nevertheless, they've
had copies. They actually hold the truth.
Yet they continue to do and reject it you remember why did I read
that over there and second from. For many reasons the one being
the people when those posts went out. People. And mocked it unbelievably. Everyone of the people are dead
and one day. I know now. Verse twenty one. When they glorified new God they
glorified him not as God neither were thankful. Came vain in their
imagination that is they just imagine all sorts of things about
God not themselves they actually thought they they did that they
got something on their own. Actually became proud of things
themselves you know we are born with the men call it genes certain
genes you can't change and you're going to be exactly like you
are every hair on your head is number you have a whole lot of
it or not much of it. How can someone be proud of that. That they had nothing to do with
us and we don't see how. I was talking about the Henry
and his. Roberta's. Brother I think. Was there a bird brother. Silver
hair the another brother no no anyway some relation to either
Henry or Berta stand there talking. And there was Henry's son and
every one of them on both sides had thick full heads of hair. Roberta's brother laying there
in that thick full head of white hair everyone. And I asked him
about it, and they said, yeah, we don't think that anybody can
bawl on either side of the family. Well, who determined that? And
why did I say all that? Well, because everything is determined
by the Lord. But men and women imagine all
sorts of vain things. They get puffed up thinking,
boy, aren't I something? But you have nothing to do with
it. That's why God hates pride. That's
why he hates pride. Somebody born a mongoloid. Somebody born a super intelligent
human being. Why? God. So, read on. It says, their foolish heart
was darkened, verse 22, professing themselves to be wise. Are you
reading with me? Verse 22. Professed themselves
to be wise. Everybody thinks they're so smart,
don't they? That they became fools. We got a society that's
most educated ever, don't we, Ronald? A bunch of educated fools. Hath not God. Don't you see how
foolish God has made the wisdom of this world, don't you? Modern
man is the most foolish. This is the most foolish society
ever in the history of the human race. I mean, really, no technology
is greater. Religion is the reason. The whole
problem is right here. Yeah, go on. Says, let me hurry. Verse 24 says, so God gave them
up. Gave them over. Gave them over
to uncleanness, to the lust, whatever they, if it felt good,
do it. He let them, let them have it. Let them have it. People
say I was born that way. You sure were. You sure were. You better hope God brings you
out of it. It means He's given you over. You can't blame God.
Read on, it says, verse 26, verse 25, change the truth of God into
a lie, worship and serve the creature, that is, man, Mother
Earth. You hearing me, young people?
You're not going to hear this in school, but you'll hear it
here. You'll hear it from God's Word.
Mother Earth, there is no such thing. No such thing. It's God, our Heavenly Father,
who created this earth. The people worship the earth,
worship man more than the Creator. How foolish can you get? Who
is blessed forever. Our blessed, blessed, blessed
benefactor who does all these things for us, though we don't
know it. Amen. Somebody say, Amen. For this
cause, God gave them over. See that? He's influent. God
gave them over. I'm going to make you howl at
the moon, you wise man. You think you're something? I'm
going to turn you into a werewolf. That's what God said. I'll show
you. Remember Nebuchadnezzar? You remember Nebuchadnezzar?
Who thought he was something? Look at what all I've done, God
said. I'll show you. And he became, literally became
a beast, Kelly. His fingernails grew out. His
hair grew long. And he was out in the wet, all
over in the grass, eating grass. Insanity. God gave him hope. God gave him hope. And I could
go on and on, couldn't I? Verse 28, they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge. We've got a lot of knowledge
but God's not in it. They don't have time, don't like
to believe in a God, do they? So God gave them over, and this
is the word reprobate, means a mind void of judgment, don't
have a lick of sense. And so go back to the text. This lunacy is truth. It's truth. It's like the tides
or influence and so forth, so on and so forth. God said, I'm
going to make you, I'm going to leave you over to these influences. And there's something, listen
to me, this is a, I'll never forget when I first read this
over in Genesis four, there's a key verse over there to explain
many things. He said to Esau, the Lord, not
Esau, but Abel, Cain. He said this to Cain. God said
this to Cain. You remember the story of Cain
and Abel. Abel, they were both taught by
God to bring the blood, weren't they? God plainly taught that. Adam and Eve, and they taught
it to their children. And you and I know that all religions
are either one or the other, Cain or Abel. Works or blood,
great. God said to Cain, after Cain
brought his works and so forth, proud of what he'd done, surely
God's not able just brought what God provided, the blood. But
Cain brought this and Cain got mad at God because God didn't
accept his good works. And God said this to Cain, now
listen very carefully, God said, if you do well, won't you be
accepted? Now what was he talking about? He was talking about bringing
the blood. God is well pleased with those in Christ. All our
works are in Christ, aren't they? God is pleased with us in Christ.
It's the only way. Under the blood. That's the only
way he's pleased with our works, is under the blood. All right?
And this is a good work, to believe Christ. This is the work of God,
if you believe Christ. He said to Cain, if you do well,
won't you be accepted? You'll be accepted in the blood.
You bring the blood, you'll be accepted. Everything you do will
be accepted. You'll be well pleased with God
in the blood. But if not, listen to this, this is a secret. If not, sin lieth at your door. In other words, you're going
to fall for everything. Does that make sense? If you don't believe and trust
Christ and come to Him, as Christ said, deny thyself, follow me,
You'll follow anything anybody you'll fall for everything. And
in that so. In that so. You know we want people to believe
this we believe this is the God I know it is I don't just believe
it I know it is. I absolutely know it is. It's this word, plain, very plain
to him to understand. And you look around for somebody
to believe that God is actually God, that Christ is actually
Christ, the sovereign Lord, that man actually needs saving. And
you can't find them. You can't find them. But you
find all sorts of nonsense, don't you, Barbara? You find people
believing everything, anything. It doesn't matter how wild it
is, there's somebody who believes it. That's why I say they're
building so many of these buildings. Right down the road here is a
little place erecting a new building. And I've been in those places.
Some of you went with me. They don't believe nothing. We
went to one of those places and the pastor didn't even have a
Bible with him. If you believe everything, anything,
that comes from Genesis 4. God said so. If you don't have
the mind of Christ, if you don't trust Christ, if you don't believe
Christ, if you don't come to me through Christ and Christ
only, I'm going to give you over to everything. You're going to
be subject to and under the influence of anything and everything. I'm
going to show you what a fool you are. I've got to go on. I've got to get through this. Does that make sense? So God gives people over to other
influences. And now let me say this before
I move on. Even believers can be given over
for a while if they're under the influence of anything or
anyone other than God's Word. We've seen it happen. We're going
to see it happen again. God doesn't have mercy on us. If God Almighty does not divinely,
spiritually, supernaturally, powerfully influence us and stop
us, we're going to turn. Scripture talks about, in the
last days, a great falling away first before Christ. Falling
away. That means people who were in the way fall away. And that comes from not heeding
God's plain word and warning. Did you not read with me how
He said to They didn't. They didn't cease to warn the
people. And that's what Paul, the last thing that Paul said
to the Ephesian elders before he left them, was said, I cease
not to warn you night and day with tears. But God Almighty teaches us in
his word things like sobriety. That just doesn't mean about
alcohol. That means anything. We can get intoxicated by everything
and anything and people. People get intoxicated with other
people with grandchildren children a job and this and so forth and
get positively drunk till they can't think straight. Don't be
that way. Take it for what it is. Scriptures tells us about moderation.
I'm talking about being under the influence. Of things. Scriptures tells us about moderation
in all things. Food, drink, so on and so forth. If not, God may try us on that
and give us over to it. We do not need him he might give
us over these things and will suffer the natural process. Now this young man this young
boy he was about thirteen to sixteen years old we believe.
This man's son is called a child no one was called a man until
he reached thirty years old and scripture but child generally. The baby was up to about six
years old, five years old, and then a child was there on. This
one was a little older, we believe, teenager. Teenager. And his father said he's sore
vexed. He's lunatic. He's influenced. He's sore vexed by this lunacy. Now, I ask you young people,
Joseph and Lauren, Davis, Elizabeth, Dylan, I see it in, Hannah, Jerry. No, the young, young people.
Do not your friends and others at times act like just plum idiots. I know, I was a teenager once. It's the only explanation for
some of the insane behavior you see going on, not only in young
people, mostly young people, but older people. I mean, just
temporarily insane, especially boys. The more of them you get
together, the wilder and crazier they try to act. Impress one
another. You let a girl come around and they really act like
a blooming idiot. It's funny, so to speak. But
it's not funny unless the Lord, if the Lord doesn't bring them
out, they'll grow up to be old, blooming idiots. And here it says, the man said,
this lunacy gets my son and cast him off times in the fire and
in the water. Now, literally, John Gill thought
it was some kind of epileptic fit. But anyway, this, for sake
of illustration, This boy was actually endangering himself.
He put himself in actual literal physical danger of either burning
up or drowning. Now I know from experience that
that's the way it is with most young people. Literally physically
endanger themselves. They try to warn them and they
resent it. But you know this is true of adults and even adult
believers. Adult believers at times, scriptures
talks about if we take fire into our bosom, we'll get burned. Burn with lust. That doesn't
just have to be sexual lust. It can be a desire for anything
until it just consumes you like fire. And the scriptures talks
about those that nearly drowned themselves in foolish and hurtful
love. So adult believers can do it,
can have this happen to them. Just be drowning in these things,
if the Lord doesn't pull us out. Well, verse 16, the man said,
I brought him to thy disciples. The man's talking to the Lord,
and he said, I brought him to thy disciples, and they could
not cure him. But he did bring him to those disciples, which
was a good thing. If you had Peter and James and
John around here, would you go see them? Would you? Many times these disciples did
help people. They really did help people,
didn't they? The Lord gave them that ability. Has the Lord given anybody else
any ability? Yes, he has. Not the same. Ephesians four talks about Ephesians
four mentions pastors and teachers in the same breath as the apostles
and prophet. Though they don't have the same
ability yet. Here's what somebody said. There
are sad fact that there are few good men worth consulting. Sad. Yet. There are few. And few consult
the good men that there are. Ezekiel. Ezekiel, would you like
to have a pastor like Ezekiel? They said to Ezekiel, the Lord
said of Ezekiel, they said, The people are talking about you
saying you're a fine man, you have a good voice and play well
on an instrument, but they're not listening to you. Ezekiel. I think, boy, if I had Ezekiel
as a pastor, I'd sure listen to him. I do have an Ezekiel
for a pastor. I do. And I'm listening to him. And I'm consulting him. So much more as I see the day
approaching. This is not personal, this is
biblical. This is biblical. There's a precedent all the way
through the Old Testament, precedent for everything that we have gone
through and will go through and the church is going through right
now. A plain, clear, biblical precedent. And like the children of Israel,
we better have our eyes wide open. And, you know, if we do not avail
ourselves and our children, you do, you're here, you're here. I think about this, the preaching
of the word, you know, God has chosen by this foolishness called
what the world calls foolishness. And what we take for granted,
we do, we take it for granted. If you get, I take my wife's
cooking for granted. There are men who, if they sat
down to one meal in our house, would think, This is the greatest food. I've
never had anything like this. Honestly. There are men whose
wives never cook anything for them. Most of them are above
the Mason-Dixon line. But I take it for granted. I
take it for granted. And we do the same thing with
what we hear and what we're doing here. We do. It's human nature.
Can't help it. It's the way it is. It doesn't
excuse it. It explains it, though. Human
nature. but. At least qualifications with
it yet but not. And this is what God has chosen
to use. And this is what God uses both
time and I sat down with both very worried and one that we
were down there and from the scriptures tried to think of
one single example one single example in the New Testament
of someone that was saved apart from hearing the priest were
one. You know I'd always thought well
you could be saved by reading the word. In one single person. That's what God's Word says it
please God but this is how. Our children. Our spouses our
parents whoever it is it's going to be saved. My ability but somehow
this is what God uses and we've discussed it before why God uses
it. If you or I had been saved apart
from the preaching of the word we would never need it would
we never need it again if we found out something up on a mountainside
reading for ourselves we would be our own pastor from there
on. We'd be smarter than everybody else and so on and so forth.
And on and on we go with that and have. But God has chosen
this what the world calls foolishness what we take for granted. And
I thought to myself if I had a lunatic in my house. You know he was under my influence
I had him right here this is the only place that he or she
is going to be delivered from that this is it. Or if I knew a lunatic my family
ever. I thought about women with unsaved
spouses I believe on Sunday morning I turn up W.Y.T. at eight o'clock
just as loud as I can turn. Honestly. Honestly. There is no other hope. There is no other hope. Is this message important? I
wish the whole church were here, but it's not. It's not. These tapes, what about me? What
about me? I need this. Or I'll be subject
to this world. I'll get under the influence
of these things. I'll take a fit of madness and insanity. I do
it all the time. I turned on a CD by my pastor
just today. It had an amazing effect on me. It really did. Other things have
an effect on me, an adverse effect on me. Don't they? You see what
I'm trying to say? I often wonder what's the sense
in making these tapes now. I do. I often wonder what's the
sense. They've got thousands upon thousands of them. Honestly, this is not for posterity. It's not. I know from experience. It's
not for posterity because people will forget that I ever existed. They won't amount to nothing.
Men like Spurgeon and so forth are some of the greatest. Nobody
even knows their name. Don't care. Who's it for? Us. Us. Our children. Right now, in our generation.
People we know. Grab a handful of them, put them
in. If you don't feel like talking to them, hand them a paper. It's all this is what God use
that's what I'm trying to say this is what God you preach.
Only. You know don't you from experience
you talk to people be blue in the face. They won't come. This is the gospel is our God
on salvation he said our Lord said to this. Man and to the
disciples verse seventeen old faithless and perverse generation. Who is he talking to? Everybody.
Peter, James, John, Thomas, all of them. Faithless. He's talking to me, talking to
that old faithless. Faithless. Faithless means someone
without real heartfelt belief, confidence in God and his word. Who was it you and I were talking
Sammy about how that. People implicitly trust doctors
and. Scientists and educators so just
implicitly trust them with everything. It's only one person that you
can really trust you know that I mean only one person. Someone and our Lord said, oh,
faithful, someone who really believes God, God's word. Acts
upon it, I was going to have you turn to Second Chronicles.
We have time. You want to turn to Second Chronicles
16. Look at this. This is real good. Second Chronicles 16. You need to look at it. We need
to look at it. Second Chronicles 16 story of a. Fellow named Asa. My briefly
mentioned to you recently. But I was king one time I was
surrounded a couple chapters back he was surrounded by one
million Ethiopian soldiers. One million army of one million
came out and he had two hundred and eighty thousand. He called on God, wept, called,
cried, pleaded, begged God to enter, and God slew them all. But here in chapter 16, he made
a bribe. Somebody else was after him,
and he made a bribe with the king of Assyria. He didn't even
consult God, but called on this king of Syria and said, I'll
give you such and such money if you'll come help us out. Now
look at what God said through a seer, through a prophet, verse
7. At that time, Hanani, the seer, came to Ace, the king of
Judah, and said unto him, The cause thou hast relied on, the
king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord thy God. Therefore,
the host of the king of Assyria is escaped out of our hand. They
were going to be from that day on, they were going to hound
them. They were going to be enemies to them. They made a bargain
with the enemy. And he went on to say, Were not
the Ethiopians a huge host, many chariots? Yet because you relied
on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand? The eyes of
the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself
strong. In the half of them whose heart
is perfect toward him that is those who really trust and believe
him is he's he's showing himself strong man or woman that are
really believe God God will act. Well always forgot sick look
at this. I forgot sick verse eleven. Verse twelve, Asa in
the thirty-ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet
until his disease was exceeding great, yet in his disease he
sought not to the Lord, but to the physician. That's a case in point isn't
it? Hezekiah, if you want to read
that story. Sometime, Isaiah 38, 2 Chronicles,
Hezekiah, the Lord said, you're going to die. And he turned his
face to the wall and cried and prayed for days. The Lord heard
him and gave him 15 years. But, and, Isaiah used the poultice and
put it on him. He used both. The means, he turned to God first. I've often wondered, I thought,
I hope, I wish, I say this to all of us, if we ever hear that
dreaded news, you have cancer or something like that, what
would you do? Many have heard it, and some
of us will hear it again. If we lived long enough, what
would you do? I hope, the first thing we'd
do, Let's go off somewhere by ourselves
and cry unto God. I will be done. And not just run to the doctor. Faithless generation. Faithless. He said in our text,
he said, And perverse means out of the way, means turn the wrong
way, means going the wrong direction, wrong companions, wrong advice,
wrong, going backward, wrong, wrong, just going the wrong way,
turning to the wrong help. And so that's what perverse means,
perverse. Perverted means something that's
just absolutely opposite of the way it all is. Oh, faithless
and perverse, turn, turn, turn. He said, if you have faith as
a grain of mustard seed, you shall stay under this mountain.
Or move hence to yonder plain, and it shall remove, and nothing
shall be impossible unto you. I don't fully understand that
at all. I really don't. And, you know, what we were just
talking about, there have been many, you and I know, well, some,
anyway, that you and I know, who have, the Lord has seen fit
to make them fatally ill. Who you know we know that we've
turned under the Lord and begged everyone his. Will to heal them
to bring them through that. And I blame him one another certainly
not congratulating somebody for. Or. Whether how they call it
somebody. Survivor. Act like they congratulate
people. Not doing that at all. But we're
just saying what God says, and don't trust the arm of the flesh.
Though God uses means, he doesn't have to, and that's not what
we should consult first. In any case, there's not only
one expert. And the Lord said, How long shall
I be with you? And I ask that for this church's
sake. How long Lord shall you be with
us? That's a good question. If a church loses its first love
and becomes lukewarm, God will remove their candlestick. He says, bring him to me. Bring him to me. How do you bring someone to Christ?
Especially someone you have really no control over. And that's why it goes on to
say, they said to him, Lord, why couldn't we cast him out?
Verse 19. Verse 21, he said, this kind goeth not out but by
prayer. and fasting. This influence,
this thing that someone's overcome with, whoever it may be, be it
our children or ourselves. Prayer and fasting. Prayer and
fasting, by who? The Lord said this kind only
comes out by prayer and fasting, by who? Who prays? Well that child is not going
to do it. Is he? He's a lunatic. Who's going to have to do it? His disciples? Yes. They better
be praying or they're sinning against the Lord like Samuel
said. They better be praying for the child. Maybe that was
part of the problem. Well it was the problem wasn't
it? He said it only comes out by prayer and fasting. And I
didn't hear one of you call on me. You must have been thinking
you're something. Rare. Old Joe you remember old
Joe praying for his children. Remember that he said could be
Patrick he said could be they they're not even giving you a
thought I'm going to pray on their behalf. Or would you hear
me on their behalf. And fasting what is fasting.
It's exactly what you think it is. It's a willful active putting
away or doing away or avoiding or doing away with the nine sale
of something that we just can't do without. For the purpose of asking God
to heal us or heal somebody. It's a self denial it's a sincere
active fervent it's a it's not it's not pleasant it's not. For the purpose of seeking God's
will and God's faith. And prayer prayer is calling
on God because he said without me you can do nothing you can't
you can't even fast we can't be. We can't overcome anything
we can't everything will overcome us if we don't call him I say
this to all of us in conclusion. About any and every problem.
that we have personally our children our families or whatever is church
and all that we got to call on God we got to start calling on
God in our homes and prayer and personally private whatever it
may be pray the Lord doesn't give us over you men need men here we need
you we need you at least 15 more years You can't do without you. I don't
want to do without you. Women. The men of the heart of
the church. And ask the Lord. Have mercy
on us. Deliver us. Deliver us. Deliver this church. Prayer. Calling on God. Calling on God. Our Lord prayed always. Why? You ever thought about that?
He fasted quite often. Why? Why did he need to? He was a man. He lived by faith.
He lived by faith. He really did. As our representative. Perfect faith. And our example. If our Lord prayed always, how much more do I need to? And that, you know, that Lord
is true. Everything he says, he cannot
lie. And he said, it's your father's good pleasure
to give unto you. Ask, ask. You have not because
you ask not. Ask, ask, ask, ask. Pray without
ceasing. All right. I hope that was a
help to you. Warning. We need warnings as
well as Comfort them. Get a lot of comfort. Don't we? We need warning, and rebuke,
and reproof, and correction, and instruction in righteousness.
That's what the Lord gave his disciples, right there, and us,
too. We need it, that the man and
woman of God might be truly perfect, perfectly perfect, with all good
work, needing nothing. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for your
word. Without it, we would be in total darkness. We ask your
forgiveness for the darkness that we still walk in. We don't
walk according to thy light. Forgive us, Lord. Bring these
things to remembrance to us. Remind us, keep us, Lord, keep
us in remembrance of these things. May we be like the clean animals
in the ark, chewing the cud, Lord. Bring these things back
up. Bring them back to mind. May we act upon them. May we
not be faithless, but believing. Let us not be hearers only, but
doers of thy word. Lord, save us from this untoward
generation. Save our children. Lord, cause
them to bear the yoke in their youth even now before the world
has too great an influence over them. And us, Lord, keep us as
you prayed to your Father from the world, not take us from it,
but keep us from it. Lord, deliver us from these things
that get a hold of us, this insanity. Give us the mind of Christ, we
pray, for His honor and glory, the glory of Your Word. Make
it so. Amen. you