The Praying Church and the Destiny of a Nation - Leaders' Talks

Now, Jared is with us tonight.

He's going to be, what we're going to be doing is sort of this symphony of worship and prayer.

So it's going to be Jared and me kind of going back and forth.

You're going to be a part of prayer tonight.

And Jared is selling his stuff.

And Jared, he usually leads worship at churches of tens of thousands of people.

And so we're honored that he would come here.

So thank you, Jared.

We appreciate that so much.

And so he's got his stuff out there for sale: shirts, albums, all that.

And so buy stuff.

Like just clean him absolutely out of his stuff.

Because we're not paying him hardly anything to be here.

So would you guys bless him by buying tons of his stuff?

That'd be awesome.

Listen, I do want to share just a few words with us tonight before we go into a time of prayer.

If you have your Bibles, turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 7 again.

2 Chronicles 7 · chapter mention

If I had a title for tonight, this brief word, this encouraging word, kind of a devotional to us before we go into prayer, is that the praying church determines the destiny of a nation.

The praying church determines the destiny of a nation.

Here's my thesis tonight.

My thesis is this.

Listen up, and I think we'll have it on a PowerPoint.

A praying church determines the destiny of a nation.

A praying church walking in humility and boldness, and that almost seems like an oxymoron.

Walking in humility and boldness, listen to this, can move the heart of God to forgive and the hand of God to heal.

Let me say that again.

A praying church determines the destiny of a nation.

A praying church walking in humility and boldness can move the heart of God to forgive, the heart of God to forgive, and the hand of God to heal the land.

It's one of the most powerful promises in Scripture that we're going to look at.

It may be the most formulaic passage in all of the Bible about how much God believes in backing up churches that pray.

In 1959, South Korea was about 2% Christian.

But South Korea became a nation of prayer, and today it's 48% Christian.

That was, there was a timing of the Lord on the borders and the boundaries of South Korea.

All across Africa, there are revivals occurring with nations that have praying churches.

America once had a praying church.

We are not a praying church today, to the extent that we once were.

But let's look at this fantastic promise, this powerful word to us this evening.

2 Chronicles 7, let's go back to verse 13b.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, when I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people.

Church, God is the one who brings enemies.

He allows enemies and poverty and pestilence upon a nation.

Here's what I would call that.

Listen, I call it a spiritual alarm clock.

God brings a spiritual alarm clock upon a nation where he actually allows demons and satanic power to have the ability to infestiate, to take over a nation economically, spiritually, emotionally, and even mentally.

So the context is that for verse 14.

If my people, stop there, who's he speaking to?

What's the audience?

It's the people of God, it's the church.

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer made in this place, for now I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.

The people of God determine the direction of a nation.

Listen, not politics nor economics.

Politics and economics, as important as they are, do not determine the destiny of a nation.

They're the results of a nation that is seeking God.

And so a nation that's not seeking God will have pestilence.

A nation that is seeking God, there's blessing.

He's going to say that in just a moment.

God wants to pour out his heart upon a land to forgive and to pour out his hand upon the land to heal.

That's what he does.

So the kind of people and the kind of church that can determine the destiny of a nation are people who humble themselves before God, people of prayer, people who seek the face of God, and those who turn from their wicked ways.

A church that humbles itself, prays, seeks God's face, and walks in holiness determines the blessings of God upon a nation.

Do you believe that?

Do we believe that?

We do.

We believe that.

And so when I see what's happening in Baltimore, when I see what's happening in Detroit, when I see what's happening in Chicago, when I see what's happened in LA over the years, the last 25 years, I say, more than anything else, we need a praying church.

I remember years ago, Liz and I were working in Watts in South Central LA.

I was actually in Japan at that point as a missionary, and Liz was there, and she was, and the way it worked in those days in our mission, missionary training center was that you went into LA, into the Watts section of LA, and we were with, we lived with a black family, went to a black church, and we and everybody in our relationships was the black community.

We were working with gangbangers, we were working with um with uh struggling uh teens that were pregnant, out of wedlock, and it was a mess.

And we saw God move in a mighty way.

And Liz formed a group, she didn't know I was gonna share this.

This is a long time ago, uh, but it was a powerful time where she gathered a group together to pray for the government.

Was it for the mayor and for his council in LA?

All the officials.

Just all the officials.

And they took, they took all the names of all the officials in um in LA and began to pray, and they just began to cry out to God.

And during that summer, there was this huge work of the Spirit that began to reveal corruption within the government and began a work of God that uh that orchestrated the evacuation of those who were on evil intent and brought in a whole new administration.

And I believe, not I mean, it wasn't just her, but it was others that were praying.

God moves when we pray.

Let me give you three levels of strategy that I see in prayer, and we won't have time to cover it.

We're gonna cover it this summer, though, when we go into our series on war and the spiritual warfare that we're gonna do during the summer.

First is what we'll call strategic, strategic battlefield, second is air battlefield, and the third is ground.

So you got strategic warfare, air warfare, ground warfare.

Let me explain real quickly.

Uh, because this is this involves what we're gonna do today.

Um, first of all, um air, an air campaign is the idea that only through prayer and fasting can actually certain demonic darkness be driven back.

So remember the story?

The story where the disciples come, they can't cast out the demon.

Jesus shows up and he said, Why could we not cast it out?

He said, This does not come out, this kind does not come out except through prayer and fasting.

That's what I would call an air campaign.

So when we go into prayer here in a moment, and we're gonna take some different categories, we are, this is an air campaign.

In other words, you're got you you and I are not gonna even know, in some cases, what we're praying for or what we're praying against, but God's gonna take your prayers and he's gonna move back demonic forces, maybe even over our city, that we don't know about just because we pray.

Then there is, then there is strategic level assault, and that is strategies.

And Amy, Amy, you and um Amy's gonna be talking about politics and government.

Amy Lathan, she'll share about that.

And then um, is Scott, Scott, where's Scott?

Scott, you're gonna be talking about the military.

We're gonna pray for the military.

That's strategic.

Don, Hewlin, where are you at, Don?

Don, you're gonna talk about education.

That's strategic.

In other words, those are that's a strategic, we need strategies in those areas, right?

But then there's ground, and this is where most of us live, and that's just daily life.

I mean, that's just like in your houses.

I mean, dozens of us since we started the church 10 months ago or so, you've had demonic encounters.

We some of some of us have come to your houses, we've cast out demons, we've set you free.

Some of you are new to the Lord, you've got gotten saved.

That's ground level strategies, okay?

All of those are tied together.

They're all concentric and they all play a part in what God does.

So let me say it again.

A praying church determines the destiny of a nation.

A praying church, walking in humility and boldness, can move the heart of God to forgive and the hand of God to heal the land.

As for you, verse 17, if you walk before me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I've commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom as I covened with David, your father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man as ruler over Israel.

Verse 19.

But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot them from my land which I have given them, and this house which I have sanctified for my name.

Listen to this.

This is this is really, really sober.

This house which I have sanctified for my name, I will cast out of my sight and will make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.

In other words, even in God's passionate love for his church, if we choose not to pray, if we choose not to seek his face, he will lift his blessing off his people, and he will then lift his blessing off a nation.

We are teetering, folks.

We are teetering.

I was just talking to one of our retired colonels here after uh Victor this morning, and he had just uh heard a podcast, a military guy talking about all of the elements are there for World War III right now across our world.

It says if you study World War I and you study World War II, everything's forming together to form World War III.

I'm reading William Manchester's third volume, uh, The Last Lion on Winston Churchill, which is when he's prime minister, and I've covered about the first 500 pages, and it's 1939 to 1942, and I get goosebumps.

I get goosebumps right now when I'm talking about it, how similar what we're doing as a nation and what's happening in this case the Middle East, as to what was happening in Europe at that time.

Folks, buckle up.

If we do not battle in the spiritual heavenlies, our physical world is falling apart.

Now turn to Joel chapter 2, and I'll I'll uh close with this.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

Joel chapter 2 is uh Joel prophesies right after we believe.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

A lot a lot we don't know about Joel, but it appears that the locusts released by God across the land have just eaten through the crops of Israel.

And he gives this prophetic word.

Joel's most famous for his prophetic word that became the word that Peter gave at Pentecost when he talked about the coming in the latter days.

So Joel chapter 2, verses 12.

Joel 2:12

And everybody's like going, where's Joel?

If you are, then you know you're like me, you can't find it.

Just kind of keep flipping in the minor prophets.

It's like gonna be somewhere near the end of the Old Testament.

It's in there.

Now, therefore, says the Lord, this is verse 12 of chapter 2.

Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.

Verse 13.

So rend your heart, not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.

And he relents from doing harm.

Who knows?

I love that.

Who knows?

Even Joel, man of God, who knows?

Who knows?

If he will turn and relent.

Can you imagine God turning and relenting?

That's what the scriptures say.

He turns and relents.

In other words, I think sometimes, and I don't understand, I'm reformed theologically, but I mean, so I believe in the sovereignty of God hugely.

But I don't get a lot.

I'll tell you the mystery of it is it seems like in scripture God sometimes actually changes his mind.

It's like, I've had it with Israel, I'm done with them, and then he begins to move, and then someone stands in the gap and begins to pray, and then he goes, Oh, wait, okay, rethink this strategy.

Now, I don't think he ever was rethinking his strategy, but I think what we see in Scripture is the fact that God gives us so much power in the area of prayer to move the hand of God.

I mean, how many times I've been in families where the whole family's falling apart?

Some of you are those families right now, maybe.

I mean, your whole family's falling apart.

And I come in, I suddenly I get invited to come in and I go, Do you guys pray together?

No.

Do you guys have time in the world?

Well, not that much.

Do you guys go to church?

Well, not really.

I mean, we're kind of off and on it.

And I'm like, well, what why are you calling me?

I mean, let's all read Mad Magazine for the next three weeks and see if there's transformation in your family.

Seriously.

We've got the tools, gang.

Who knows?

If he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him.

That's what God wants to do.

A grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God.

And so he's saying, look, I will, I'll repent.

God repents.

God repents of the harm he wants to bring.

Remember, remember Abraham and Lot.

Just, you know, you know, he starts, you know, you got this many.

I don't remember what the numbers were.

Okay, it's like, you got 50 guys.

Okay, I won't judge.

Well, uh, 40, okay, 40.

Uh uh, 30, 20.

He's looking for churches.

He's looking for people who will who will cry out to him and ask him to intervene and he will show up.

Look at verse 13, gang.

I mean, that's the character of God.

He's gracious, he's merciful, he's slow to anger, great kindness, he relents from doing harm.

God does not want to harm us.

God would rather bless and restore than judge and punish.

God would rather bless and restore than judge and punish.

God longs to be gracious, merciful, and kind upon our homes, our families, and our nation and our city.

God longs to bless a nation.

God so longs to bless a people economically.

God wants to bless you guys economically.

He wants to bless you spiritually.

He wants to bless you emotionally.

He wants you to have healthy kids that can that can think well, that can determine right and wrong, and have godly character.

And he and that's what he wants to do.

That's what he's there to do.

He wants to bless your marriages, he wants to bless your families.

But there is these conditions.

And here it is again.

I'll just say it again.

A praying church determines the destiny of a nation.

A praying church walking in humility and boldness can move the heart of God to forgive and the hand of God to heal the land.

That's what we're here to do tonight.

So everybody, would you just remember something?

Everybody that's involved in boiler room prayer, would you stand first?

Everybody that's been involved in boiler room prayer.

Folks, these are the people that come every week and they pray in a room back here during the service.

We've been doing this now for how long, like five years?

Like five years, they've been doing this.

And so I think you just ought to bless them by your appreciation for that.

They're praying for these services that we have.

Now, all of you that are in boiler room prayer, there's gonna be a table in the lobby, and in that lobby are some books that we signed, and those are for you guys.

Okay, so there's books out there for you guys for your hard work and all that you do.

Men and women, everybody look at who's standing because I want to challenge you.

If you have a heart of intercession, a desire to be once every two months, it's once every two months.

You go back into a room, you'll miss the service, but you're gonna come in there and you're with a group and you guys are interceding for everybody who's attending.

If you have a heart for that, there's gonna be a table in the lobby, and just sign up and we'll put you in it.

It's just once every two months.

Okay, we have enough people that you only have to pray that way where you miss the service, but you're out there praying once every two months.

But we want to build that.

We want to build an even stronger team.

This comes from Charles Spurgeon.

Spurgeon had Boiler and Prayer in London in his day, and Liz and I were inspired many years ago to start this.

And so a lot of times these guys are incognito, you don't know about it, but I felt like tonight was a good night to let you know.

Now, all of you that received the email from me, everybody remain standing.

You received an email, you're on the leadership team of the road.

Would you stand?

Some of you got an email.

Great, good, good, good.

Okay, cool.

Now here's what I want to do.

I want you guys to spread out because with the boiler room, it's a lot of times it's couples.

So you guys break off from husbands and wives because there's enough of you.

And would you guys raise your hands that are standing?

And then I want to ask you all to go to one of these couples and we're gonna gather, make about five.

Let's do five or six people and we're gonna pray.

So everybody who's standing right now, raise your hand so we see you, spread out, and then would you guys that are sitting, even with some of your kids, you guys go to one of these people right now.

Would y'all do that real quick?

Excuse me.

Introduce yourself, introduce yourself to people right now.

Introduce your kids.

Great.

Paul, would you come on up?

Paul Stanley.

And uh Phyllis?

Phyllis, if you wanted to join, I didn't know if Phyllis, you were gonna join him, or it doesn't matter.

If you have a word too, Phyllis, you want to share?

Okay.

So Paul, you're right here.

Actually, I'm gonna have you come up so we can see you because everybody's standing.

Just take this off.

Okay, here's what we're gonna do, gang.

Paul is gonna lead us in in How to pray for the family in America.

We're going to start with the family in America.

And here's what he's going to do: he's going to share some thoughts, and then you guys take the couple things that he gives us, and then how you're led, just pray.

Just pray as a group right there for those things.

And then we're going to move from there to another subject.

But we're going to have Paul's going to lead us out first.

So go ahead, bro.

Okay.

Oh, by the way, do y'all know Paul?

Okay, everybody doesn't know Paul.

Okay, Paul, in my opinion, is one of the great overseers of our city.

He's been here for over 20 years.

He and his wife, Phyllis.

They've ministered to many, many uh leaders in this city.

He's former vice president of Navigators.

He's now the president, the interim president of GM, Greater Europe Mission, doing a great work there.

He's also an overseer for the road.

And so uh I just felt like Paul, you were the best guy to speak and lead us in the issues of the family.

Yeah.

Well, there's no question that families are on the ropes.

How many have just uh need of uh moving in your family right now, going through just a need God needs to work in this?

Just raise your hand.

And that's probably half of us.

And we would understand that.

As a matter of fact, some people say, well, if you don't have one, you'll get someone soon.

And why is that?

Satan is out to destroy the families.

Communities are built on families.

So dad's gone, he's not a bad guy, he's a wonderful guy, but he's gone all the time.

There's there's uh businesses or things that are demanding time, other things that are happening.

People are pulling away, and then you cry out and say, you know, I need help.

And here's the help, like you were saying so well, Steve.

Just so we need to pray.

And what I'm going to do is just pray, and I've got some areas that uh I believe that we really need to call out to God.

We need a miracle in some of our homes.

Would you say that's true?

Miracles.

How many believe in miracles?

Yes, miracle is something that cannot be explained in any logical way, and it has God behind it in our, and this is what we need.

We've got to have these miracles.

Miracles are just uh part of it.

And you as you watch the the Pharisees and some of the people around us, even in religious work, they don't have miracles or the miraculous in their way of thinking.

It's not in their worldview, and so they don't think of it, they don't pray, they don't cry out to God.

And so we'll have some of these areas that will really touch your heart, and uh this is very common uh needs that we have because what we know of just many people, many families that are struggling, and we have some struggles in our family and all different things and happening, and you would think we didn't when we started out with this family stuff, we thought, well, we knew God, we knew everything, we can do this, and but it's not so easy anymore, is it?

Here we go.

Father, you know the state and gen challenges of each family in this place.

No nothing hide hidden by from you.

You know our failures, our good efforts, our love efforts, but we all need your help.

Parents, our children, even grandparents.

I pray for your protection, the protection from the forces of evil, Father, defeat the evil one who is out to destroy our families.

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, and who has all power in heaven and earth.

All power in heaven and earth.

We need to call out.

Just as I say that right now, just call it, Lord, I need your power.

You have more power in the heavens and earth than Satan ever even thought of.

You have the power.

You have the power.

Call out to power right now.

Lord, we need you.

We need power.

We need to turn our kids around.

We need to turn our marriage around.

We need to do things, and it's going to take the power of God.

Father, fill us parents and our children with your spirit.

Give us grace and power from your spirit that will penetrate into our lives, that will give us new thoughts, new courage.

Give us everything that we need.

Help us to love one another as you have loved us.

Give us our sons and our daughters, a heart that seeks you and your ways.

Give the discernment, give them discernment, and help them.

Keep in step with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Lord, we pray that you'd give them the capacity and the strength to say no, no to temptations, no to the things that will pull them away from you.

No from hanging out with people that don't love God, and their focus of life is anything but God.

Lord, give them friends that move in a pack.

Pack of those who love Christ and are seeking to follow Him and are willing to say no, no to the temptations and yes to the Holy Spirit.

Father, help us, parents, to love our spouses and love our children as you loved us.

By this shall all one know that you are my disciples because you love one another as I have loved you.

Father, we ask for wisdom and grace and miracles in our families.

Lord, we just can't pray with little prayers.

It's getting tough.

Things are happening, and we don't believe it can happen to our kids because we thought we taught them well.

And then we have these wonderful kids as well.

Lord, we just need you.

We need the deep work of the Holy Spirit in us, in them.

And Lord, you are able to do more abundantly than all we can ask or think according to the power at work within us.

Give us, Lord Jesus, give us a long and strong lineage that will they will love and serve you through the generations.

And they will look back and see, Mom and Dad were there.

Mom and Dad taught me the scriptures.

Mom and Dad walk with me in the tough times.

Lord, I just pray.

Save our families.

We cry out, Lord, the one who has all the power on the earth.

Lord, save us in a mighty way.

The little things, the big things.

Give us the discernment to see what's going on in our lives of our family that we could quickly respond to.

Lord, we pray, save our families, make them honor and love God with all their heart.

We ask in the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.

So right now in your groups, would you guys take that prayer as a beginning prayer in this you're led by the Holy Spirit?

Just go right now and pray for the family.

And uh Don's gonna give us some things to pray about for education in our country.

There are about 60 million school-age kids in America, kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Um some of us have been there, some of us were there a while ago, some are not there yet.

But um those sixty million need our prayers.

Um I know God leads families differently.

Sometimes it's homeschool, other times it's a public school or a Christian school.

But um they're all kids that need uh prayer and help.

So do the teachers.

And if you're a homeschooling parent, I salute you, that's hard work.

If you're a classroom teacher, I salute you, that's hard work.

There are also administrators and school board members, and of course the students.

So I want us to pray for those of the four groups.

I've got to pray for teachers.

If it's not happening with the teachers, it's not happening, period.

Administrators are really key in all of that.

Uh uh, they oftentimes have uh a lot of that away in the school system or at a school itself.

A school board, they're making big decisions that affect children throughout the entire district, sometimes a state, and then there's the kids, the students who need to learn and grow and grow up to be godly citizens, those who love God and follow Him.

So, teachers, administrators, school board members, kids, let's go to prayer.

If you have kids in your group, would you guys lay hands on them?

If you don't have any kids in your group and you're just uh, you know, um older, then if you want to go over to another group, lay hands on those kids.

Let's make sure every young person in this room, 18 and below, has hands laid on their head right now or on their shoulder.

Father, in the name and the blood of Jesus, we believe that when we pray, it determines the destiny of a child's life.

That when we come and we release a blessing, there's something mysterious that happens.

You bless the children, the scriptures say.

And something really happened.

And so, God, as we pray right now, we're praying healing over brokenness in the lives of these little guys.

God, we pray for anointing.

We pray for spiritual gifts to be released into them.

We pray for talents to come forth that have maybe never been seen before.

That God, you would bring that, uh, you would rise that up within their hearts.

Some of these kids are gifted uh academically, some of them are gifted uh uh athletically, some of them are gifted to be counselors, gifted to be doctors and lawyers and engineers.

God, bring forth what you place sovereignly in their life before they were born for a destiny and a calling.

And we pray the blood of Jesus over every child in this room by the authority invested in us as priests of the Most High God, that Father, the blood of Jesus would protect them from the enemy, would protect them from demons, would protect them from satanic assaults, and that Father God, they who are wired for struggle, these kids are wired for struggle, that they would have warrior hearts.

We bless them with warrior hearts, that God, you would show us how to parent them, you would show us how to guide them and to love them and to bless them, and we do bless them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen and amen.

Now, guys, I want us to pray for the church right now.

I want us to pray for here's two things really simple.

I want to pray for fire on pastors.

Pastors who are on fire for Jesus, pastors who love to pray, who love Jesus, who will keep their hearts on fire.

They will be having regular times in the Word.

They'll have intimacy with the Father, they'll know the Lord, they'll they'll keep going after the Lord.

It's a it's a tough job.

Um, do I need to say anymore after my life over the last year?

It's a tough job, and you're gonna be assaulted as pastors.

We need to pray for the blood of Jesus over our pastors.

And then, secondly, we desperately need praying churches.

We need churches that are committed to prayer.

And I'm not talking about like it's it's part of their liturgy, I'm talking about it's part of the lordship of Christ because they're passionate about moving the heart of God to change the world.

So would you pray those two prayers?

Pray for passionate, powerful, fired-up pastors, and then if they're not, then get them out.

I mean, they're they're wasting our pulpits, okay?

Let's get them to leave.

They need to retire.

They need to go find another job, okay?

And leave room for some new pastors that come in and who want to light the pulpit on fire.

You can't have the pew on fire if the pulpit's not on fire.

Hello?

Right?

So we're pastors get together.

I get together sometimes, you know, and we talk all this stuff, and it's like, but dude, I wouldn't follow you to the water fountain.

I mean, you're like going, you're going nowhere.

And so we need pulpits on fire because we need pastors on fire, and when you have pastors on fire, you have pews on fire.

So that's first.

Second, we need churches on fire.

Okay?

So let's pray.

Go for it.

Whatever God lays on your heart, go for it.

All right, right where you're standing, wherever you're at, we're going to go into worship now.

So let's just just turn our hearts into worship.

Make this worship that Jared's leading us in your prayer.

Make it your prayer.

May it come forth from your heart.

May it come forth from the very core of who you are.

Worship Jesus.

You're the God of this.

You're the King of His Jesus.

You're the Lord of Jesus.

You're the Jesus.

You're the Jesus.

You're the Jesus.

You're the gods.

You're the king of the world.

Silently children is no light house.

There is no light.

Come in right now and start calling out these Christian things.

Areas of education, areas of government, areas of our churches.

Figure out the ultimate.

The ultimate ones.

And then after Denny, uh Scott, would you come up and be ready?

The military, and then uh Amy after that.

Denny.

Uh I've been asked to pray over work and over business.

And what God has put in my heart, and I want to remind you, I'm speciak specifically to men in this because we've lost a sense of purpose.

You know, so many of us go to work and work is painful toil.

That's part of the curse.

Work is not.

God created work before the fall.

Work was there to bring glory to God.

It was to take care of what God had given.

That was our assignment, to take care of God's purpose and God's design.

And that's what I'm calling, especially men back to.

Men need to discover the purpose and the design that God has put inside of them so that they can carry out what God wants done in this earth.

But work isn't just about creating income.

Work is just unto the Lord.

It is carrying out what God wants done.

So that's in our homes, it's in our workplaces.

It's not just jobs.

Proverbs uh 10-4 says, lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.

The other thing that's in my heart is for this generation, I'm talking to all the young people in this room.

You need to understand what it is to work.

A work ethic.

You know, your life isn't gonna be bettered by working at McDonald's and protesting for$15 an hour.

It's just not gonna work that way.

Simple economics tells you if it ever happened.

Government's not the answer.

If it ever happened, they aren't gonna have a dollar menu.

It's gonna double to a$2 menu and there's no net gain.

Work and diligence will promote you.

If you're working in the fast food industry right now and you're thinking you're making too little, we live in a nation that gives you an opportunity to figure out something else better to do.

And you need to seek God and figure out what that is.

You need to take personal responsibility for your life.

Not expect the government to do something for you, and God will bless you and promote you.

I hate to tell you this, I this is what I raise my kids with.

Life is not fair.

Nobody is gonna hand you anything.

Seems like our government's really trying right now, but life is not fair.

So the things I want to pray for, I want to pray that men have purpose and discover that.

I want to pray that the work ethic is not lost in this generation, but is stirred up in it.

And then there's one other area I want to address, and that's uh women.

You know, women, you've never had such an opportunity in any time in culture to make so many choices.

And I'm not here to tell you which ones are right or wrong.

But I do want to uphold one because it seems to be lost.

And I'm not, when I say this, I'm trying to be as careful as I can by not assigning guilt to any if you make any other choice.

But what bothers me is this one's being lost.

And that's if you're a young woman and you have in your heart that your greatest desire is just to be a wife and a mother.

That is a godly thing.

And that is some of the hardest work that anybody can do on this earth.

And so I I'm not telling you any other choice is what to make one way or the other, but if that's what's in your heart, I'm telling you that's a legitimate choice.

And our culture isn't giving you room to make that choice, but God is.

So I want to uphold those three areas when you when we go to pra.

Am I praying or we praying?

Because you guys have been standing a lot.

Why don't you just turn right where you are, a group of about four or five, and then uh take those to prayer right now?

You don't have to stand up this time.

But right now, right where you are, small group, pray for those things that you mentioned.

Take a moment right now.

Thanks.

And then uh Scott, would you come up here and be ready?

And uh Scott is a colonel um here.

No, you're a lieutenant colonel.

Lieutenant Colonel, um, upper colonel, um, working, and what I thought was cool cool about Scott is that he comes with um a degree in leadership and ethics and actually teaches the Air Force Academy.

So I know that uh many of you have have served or are serving in the military, and so you probably have have your own ideas of of what we need to pray for.

But as I was thinking about this, um God brought uh two main areas to mind.

Uh the first was to pray for the leadership of our military, um, that the believers in positions of leadership would be able to rely on the Holy Spirit and follow the guidance that they receive from the Holy Spirit uh that he would stir the hearts of non-believers in leadership positions in the military, that he would remove the scales from their eyes and allow them to see the power of God and also to protect uh our military leadership from uh and their decisions from the influence of political correctness and and all these other things and allow them to make the decisions that are that are based on the wisdom of God and and on his word.

And so the second area is for military families.

Um I just thought that we should be praying for um protection and for care for the families of those who are uh are um left here while military members are deployed.

Uh and I pray that um that God would uplift our the families of military members um as they uh go through the stresses of moving and the stresses of separation.

And then finally that he would just knit husbands and wives together as they deal with the challenges of uh being uprooted and having to start over through the process of moving with the military.

We've experienced that many times, and it's uh it's a challenge that um that we all face, and and I just pray that God would would work in that and uh and help us to to be able to get through that and to be stronger as a result of of his power.

Amen.

So let's just be in the same group.

Take those to the Lord.

Thanks, God.

Okay, uh Amy might know a little bit about politics after running for mayor.

And I like your advertisements that are on the radio right now for the other guy.

So uh, Amy, lead us in that.

Thank you.

Um praying for government, a very special thing.

I want to start with Matthew 10, verses 32 and 33.

Matthew 10:32

Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him, I will also confess before my father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, him, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven.

And ladies and gentlemen, I can assure you that in government positions, whether it is at the county level like I am, or at city levels, or school boards, or state, or federal levels, there is a strong effort to make sure that none of us ever talk about our faith.

That Christians are not allowed to be Christians as they serve in political office, that Christians are not allowed to share their faith and make decisions based on their faith.

This is happening more and more in this nation.

And I just ask that we will pray for people in government to be strong, to be bold, as Steve pointed out, to be bold and to be humble at the same time.

How much does that matter?

It matters tremendously, and that we would be able to uh stand up in elected office and stand up for the Christian values that we believe in as we make decisions that impact everyone's lives.

From the local level to the state level to the federal level, on our school board, in every level of elected office in government as we make decisions.

The world really does want these two things to be separate.

And how terrible for them to be separate, because ultimately, um, I don't know about you, but I believe that I am free in Christ.

I know I am free in Christ.

Every one of us is free in Christ.

The world wants to hold you down and change things for the way your family can express your Christianity and can live the way you can live at work and pray at work.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, we need to pray for our government.

We need to pray that there is boldness to uphold religious freedom, that there are policies which respect human liberty, that elected officials make policies which protect families and neighborhoods, that we recognize the sanctity of human life, that elected officials have humility, honesty, boldness to pray, morality, resistance to corruption, knowledge to leave, love of people and joy within their office, that elected officials are safe, that they recognize and protect freedom for everyone.

And today, if it's all right, I'd like to just call out the names of some people in elected office in our city and in our county.

And of course, we have a number of municipalities throughout our region I'd like us to pray for.

Ultimately, we will have a new mayor of Colorado Springs, and I'd like us to pray for that person.

Council members Merv Bennett, Jill Gabler, Helen Collins, Larry Bagley, Tom Strand, Don Knight, Bill Murray, Keith King, Andy Pico, all on Colorado Springs City Council.

And at the county, Sally Clark, Dennis Heisey, Peggy Littleton, Darrell Glenn, and myself, Amy Lathan.

I just pray that we would hold all these people up in prayer that they would be bold in their Christianity and their decision making.

Why don't we write now, Amy?

Um, I know you didn't know this, but uh, would all of you just extend your hands toward Amy and let's bless her because she really has taken a stand again and again and again with the county commissioners and her role there.

And um I've had the privilege many times to go and lead out in prayer uh before they go into their meetings, and that's because of Amy.

So, Father, in the name of the blood of Jesus, I want to just anoint, bless, strengthen, and pray the blood of Jesus over Amy Lathan right now and over Bob and the whole family.

God, would you protect, watch over, guide, give her discernment, give her insight, give her words of knowledge, give her words of prophetic insight that is beyond her abilities that would be supernaturally used by you to bless our city and to bless our government here.

God, watch over her marriage with Bob, watch over her family.

God, we pray the blood of Jesus over all of them in the Lathan family.

And God, we just believe that you've called her for this time at this moment to be a light on a hill there with the county commissioners and the other opportunities and doors that you might open for her.

So we bless her in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank you, Amy.

Okay, right now, quickly in your groups again, let's pray for the things that Amy gave us, and then we're going to go into worship.