A life of prayerfulness

Matthew chapter seven.

Matthew chapter seven.

The first six verses I'm gonna deal with next week.

Next week, the message is what kind of judge are you?

What kind of judge?

Do you judge people?

Yes, sir, I do.

Thank you.

Oh my soul we I better give an invitation before we get started this morning.

Amen.

I like it.

That's honesty, boy.

That's freedom.

Amen.

I love it.

I love it.

But we all are judges.

And what did Jesus say in Matthew 7?

Judge not that you be not judged.

And I was talking to a gentleman this morning.

He said, but you know, he talks about righteous judgment.

Yes, that's true.

And righteous judgment belongs to God and the Lord.

There's only one judge.

But now he did say that we could be fruit inspectors.

You shall know them, Jesus said, by the fruits that they bear.

So it's going, you don't want to miss next week.

It's going to be awesome.

And then we're going to start our new series because we've been waiting to get in the building.

Investing in eternity.

But I've been preaching all around about investing.

Actually, the Sermon on the Mount is the investment to heaven.

It really is.

So I've been warming us up and getting us ready and laying the foundation through these messages out of Matthew 6 and 7.

Because we'll go to the Beatitudes, and boy, will it be a blessing as we look at how we invest in eternity.

But today we're going to be looking at Matthew 7, verses 7 through 11.

Matthew 7:7–11

And read with me.

Ask and it shall be given to you.

Seek and you shall find.

Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake, a serpent?

If you then, being evil, in other words, if you're a lost person, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him?

The NLT says it this way.

And I love this.

So if you, sinful people, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts to those who ask him?

So today, such teaching right here is plainly designed to drive any of us, sensitive or thoughtful person, to God's throne.

In fact, I love Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16.

Hebrews 4:16

It says, Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we might receive mercy in time of need.

How many of us need mercy in time of need?

Hello.

Amen.

Do we not?

Oh, every day.

That's why it says in Lamentations 3.22, His mercies are new every morning.

Great is our faithfulness.

Oh, what a blessing.

So this passage before us, the passage is one of the most comforting treatments of the subject of prayer in all scripture.

Three aspects this morning we're going to look at.

Does everyone have an outline?

You ready?

Here we go.

It's going to be good.

Here we go.

Number one, the intensity in prayer.

Look at what he says in verse 7 again.

Ask, and it will be given to you.

Seek and you shall find knock, and it will be open to you.

Now, these words also occur in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verses 9 through 13.

Luke 11:9–13

And in each case, the emphasis is on persistency and intensity of prayer.

In other words, you've got to be persistent and you've got to come with a purpose.

Can I get an amen?

It's intense.

I mean, it's it's it's unbelievable to see how God, should I say, instructs us.

And notice the very words right here in verse 7.

Ask, seek, and knock suggest a progression of intensity.

You start out asking, then you seek, and then bless God, you just start knocking.

In other words, you're not gonna let go till God answers.

Can I get an amen?

I knock my mic.

That's intensity.

Well, I think the clip broke.

Hang on.

All right, Benji.

Thank God we got we do have a new mic going over there, right?

I hate when I can't use my hands.

All right.

Here we go.

Testing?

All right.

Where was I?

Bam! No.

But we see the progression here of praying.

And that's what we want to look at this morning.

In fact, the New Testament gives us clear instructions as how we are to approach the Lord and to approach, hey, the throne of heaven in our prayers.

In fact, Jesus put it this way in Matthew 21, verse uh what, 22, chapter 21, verse 22 says, Whatsoever you ask in prayer, now watch, believing, you shall receive.

That's pretty simple, isn't it?

Isn't it?

Paul put it this way be careful for nothing.

But in everything, by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.

Amen.

Philippians 4, 6.

It's so important.

It's so simple.

So how do we come into his presence?

First of all, our acceptance in prayer is coming in the Savior's name.

Can I get an Amen?

In fact, listen to what Jesus said in John 14, verse 14.

John 14:14

If you ask anything in my name, I love that, I will do it.

Hello?

Did you get that?

If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Wow.

The name stands for all that the Lord Jesus represents in his mediation for his children, which is his ministry.

One God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 2, uh, verse 5.

So we see right here, and I love it, that the mention of the name of Jesus reverently and believingly is to have access to the throne of God.

I was reading and studying as I do every week, and I'm always just looking at maybe a good illustration.

Usually the two best illustrations for a preacher are personal or uh biblical.

But sometimes you can find a good illustration that works.

And I thought, man, this is so simple but so powerful.

This gentleman was taking his children to a fair.

You remember when you used to go to the fairs?

And and where I grew up in a little South Georgia town called Sylvester.

Sylvester.

I mean, you the fair was as much about livestock as it was rides.

Amen?

And so they'd have the number one pig.

They'd have the number one calf.

I mean, it was all about and about uh, you know, uh, they'd have uh oh, they'd have all kinds of pies and uh they would have fresh vegetables, but we kids didn't care for that.

What what do we care for?

The rides.

So this gentleman knew that they didn't care about all the other stuff, so he bought a big, big roll of tickets.

And you know you gotta have a ticket to get on the ride.

So sure enough, here they go.

They're going to all the rides, and the kids will hold out the little hands to get their ticket to get on the ride.

And so they're riding, and all of a sudden they get to this one ride, and his children get their tickets to get on, and all of a sudden there's another little boy standing there holding his hand out.

Sounds good to me.

You see some man giving tickets, you know.

The kids hold the hands out, and I'll get in line and hold my hand out too.

I want to ride.

And sure enough, the the dad looked at him and kind of drew the tickets back because he said, Now, wait a minute, who is this boy?

And about that time, his son named Stephen said, Dad, it's okay.

He's with me.

I told him you would give him a ticket.

Sure enough, his dad gave him a ticket.

Why?

Because of Stephen's name.

My friends, listen.

God gives to you and me things because of Jesus' name.

In his name.

Amen.

We come to him in his name.

And wow powerful that is.

So we see our acceptance in prayer, but then look at our our authority in prayer is based on the promise of God.

We have the promises of God.

Listen to what he says in John 15, verse 7.

John 15:7

If ye abide in me, my words abide in you, you shall ask what it will, and it shall be given unto you.

Man, do you hear that?

That's a promise from God.

And the Bible says in 1 Kings 8:56, there has not failed one good promise of God.

1 Kings 8:56

Man, that's awesome.

So we see the importance here.

In fact, I want you to look at this and I want you to see this.

First of all, we see that the intensity of prayer is the art of requesting in prayer, but secondly, it is the art of researching in prayer.

Notice what he said.

Seek and you will find.

Now, seek, I think about, I'm a I've been in higher education all my life, and I used to hate to do papers.

Unless it was a topic I liked.

Okay?

Now, if it was a topic I like, whoo, I could research.

Like what I do every week.

You know what I do every week prepared, preparing a sermon to preach to you?

I research.

That's what I do.

I take the passage of scripture, I take the word studies, I take uh commentaries after I've done my own word studies and done my own insight.

I start reading some of the other uh insights to that same passage from other godly people that I trust.

So I'm researching, I'm researching constantly.

And why do we research?

And I thought that this is what he means when he says, seek you and you will find.

Seeking is a deeper level of praying than asking.

In fact, what we see here, other times we may, hey, and I really believe that some things are clear to us and we have merely to ask for them.

I mean, we don't, we know a need, we know, and we don't have any problem asking.

But there's sometimes that there's doubt and there's uh indecisiveness, we don't know.

We we we're confused sometimes, we don't know what to do, how to do it, so now we've got to seek.

Does that make sense, church?

Now we gotta deep, hey, dig deeper.

In fact, I wrote this down.

Seeking is a deeper level of praying than asking, and here's why.

And here it is.

In asking, we are more concerned with things.

Hello, Lord, I need this.

Lord, this, this, this, this.

But now, what's this?

But in seeking, we are occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

In other words, we're not asking, we're fellowshipping, we're getting in.

Hey, hey, we're opening the door and going in sitting down saying, Lord, I'm confused.

I need help.

Lord, I'm in trouble.

God, you gotta help me.

Give me some discernment, give me some direction, give me some serenity, give me some peace.

God, give me some direction.

Amen.

Now that's seeking.

Big difference.

Hey, Paul talks about this seeking, the Lord's will in Romans 8, 26, 27.

Listen to this.

The Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses when we don't understand, when we are confused, when we don't know which way to turn or which way to go.

Listen to what he says.

For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.

You ever been there?

You know you need something, but you don't know what you need.

Hello, ever been there?

Hey, I need something, Lord.

I mean, I'm just here.

I feel like I'm wandering in the wilderness.

But yet I don't know what I'm wandering from or don't know where I need to go.

Help me, Lord.

And that's what he's talking about.

I mean, Paul knew that.

Helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we all, but the Spirit, now watch this, himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Now he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

See, now watch this.

It's not enough just to have a proof text into God's presence.

I wrote this down for me.

But the prayer must understand what God's will is through the scriptures, and so that's why we have to dig and seek and get into the word of God and let God talk to us, teach us, but show us.

We talk to him in prayer, he talks to us through the word.

Amen?

And that's why John put it this way if any man will do God's will, he shall know.

Now, watch this.

This is powerful.

Of his doctrine, of his teachings, John 7, 17.

Is that not good, church?

So we see right here, we see that this requires much searching and seeking, but we can be encouraged, and here's why.

Look at verse 7 again.

Seek and ye shall find.

Say that with me, church.

Seek again, seek.

God will always give you an answer.

Can I get an amen?

God will always give you an answer.

Now, sometimes He may not give it as quick as you want it.

You with me?

You know, I'm a very patient person.

You didn't let me finish what I was gonna say.

I'm a I'm a very patient person if God will answer within 24 hours.

Amen.

Anybody there with me?

Amen.

Oh my goodness.

Amen.

Oh, Paul and I've learned to be patient over the with this building and Benji.

I can't I've I can't help but remember when Benji said I I'm gonna help Paul, da da da.

And Benji was so excited about, man, we're gonna get this thing done, we're gonna get it done in three months.

I said, Yeah, okay.

I'm go, Bench, go.

Six months later, he's saying the same thing.

And then finally, we realize, okay, we just gonna have to be patient.

If anything God has taught us in this is patience.

Amen.

Amen.

Don't tell everybody that.

Oh my goodness, that's two years.

Hey, hey, it's felt like 40.

We've been around that sucker.

But what what God is trying to teach us here is is hey, we gotta be fervent.

We've gotta be, I'm talking about we gotta dig, we gotta not just ask, but we gotta seek.

Amen?

Which also brings us to the art, the third thing, the art of resisting in prayer.

Uh-oh.

Now watch verse 7 again.

I had never seen this before till I was going back, taking this verse apart, word for word.

Are you ready?

I forgot that I did you get them all three?

Let me go back and make sure because I I forgot to give you the first one.

The art of requesting in prayer.

Number two, the art of researching in prayer.

And then the third thing is the art of resisting in prayer.

Now, the word knock, I'd never seen this before.

I'd always seen it in the form of fervency and intensity and just going after it.

But there's something I didn't realize.

He says, watch.

Knock, and it will be what?

Come on, help me.

It'll be what?

So I thought to myself for a minute, uh-oh.

That means that there's a door between me and God.

In fact, I even went to Revelation 3.20, and God showed me this.

He says, and it's written to Christians, Behold, I stand at the door knock.

If any man opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.

So now, guess what I saw?

There is a barrier between me and God that I've got to remove when I am in that deep seeking for God.

Oh, you don't see it when you're asking.

But it's there when you're not hearing.

And the reason is here, there's some resistance between me and you and God.

And then I started saying, Well, what would that what is that resistance?

Well, God answered it.

He always does with his word, as he always does.

If somebody tells you something and he can't show you in the book, don't listen.

But now watch.

The first resistance.

There's the resistance, I call it selfish resistance.

Ooh.

Now, what does that mean, preacher?

What does that mean?

Selfish resistance.

All right, listen to what Jesus said.

Watch, he's talking to the disciples.

Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation, said the master.

When the disciples were falling victim to selfish indulgence and slothfulness in Matthew 26, 41.

Remember, he said, Watch and pray with me.

What'd they do?

They went to sleep.

They couldn't watch for an hour.

They went to sleep.

They didn't see that urgency.

They didn't understand that urgency.

They didn't understand that intensity.

I mean, Jesus is that in the most trying time, right before he's going to the cross, and he's asking them to pray for with them, and they go to sleep.

Wow.

Listen to what James says.

Are you ready for this?

James reminds us of this selfishness.

You know.

What he said?

Selfishness can close the doors of heaven.

In fact, that's one of those doors that we have to, hey, remove is this selfishness.

Listen to what he said.

He says, You ask and you do not receive because you ask amiss, that ye may spend it on your pleasure.

Wow.

There's that, hey, hindrance.

There's that, hey, that door's closed because of our selfishness.

In other words, we're trying to get God to do what we want Him to do instead of asking God to do what He wants to do.

Can we all say O me?

Are we all guilty?

But God, trust me, that's a good idea.

You would like that, wouldn't you?

I mean, this would benefit you, wouldn't it?

Oh man, I've used every excuse in the book.

And you have too.

So we see right here.

God looks for intercessors who will knock and hey, knock and go on knocking until those barriers of selfish resistance are gone.

Number two, sinful resistance.

Know what else blocks that, clock keeps that door closed?

Sin.

Sin in your life and sin in my life.

Notice what he says in Psalm 66, 18.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me.

Wow.

Did you hear that?

Psalm 66.18.

Listen to Isaiah 59, too.

Your iniquities have separated you from your God.

Whoa.

And your sins, oh man, is this not awesome.

Well, it's convicting.

Your sins have hid his face from you and me.

Such sin may be directly against God or it may be against a fellow brother, too.

You know what?

You know why a lot of our prayers aren't answered?

I'm going to really get, this is going to hurt.

Because it's hurting me.

You got aught with somebody, and you're too proud.

I am.

I'm too proud.

I'm too selfish to make it right.

Bless you, Lord.

And I wonder why God's not doing anything in my life.

I'm wondering why God's not answering my prayers.

Hello?

You okay?

No, I'm not okay.

That's convicting.

We're all guilty of that.

The hardest thing for you and me as a Christian is when you have all with your brother to do Matthew 18, which says, and this is going to be next week too about judgment, you go and you go to him alone.

You don't get on the phone and well, you don't get on Facebook and tell everybody.

Oh, pray for me.

I got a problem.

Or you know you need to pray for him.

Well, instead of next time somebody tells you you need to pray for somebody, can I, you, can I help you?

Let me let me tell you what you need to do.

Hey, when somebody else asks you, you need to pray for Pastor Danny.

Don't you dare say, why?

That's what they're hoping you're gonna say.

Then they can tell you everything bad they've been wanting to tell you about me.

Can I say something to you?

I'm a right and no good sinner.

You don't need to know it.

I'm already guilty.

Okay?

So don't say why.

Just turn around and say, yes, let's pray right now.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for Pastor Danny.

I don't know what's going on, but God cleanse him, bless him, set him back on the right track.

Hello?

You okay?

Don't gossip about me.

Pray for me.

I need help.

Yeah, but no, there are no buts.

The moment you do that, you have cut your, you have closed the door on you entering into God's presence with your prayers.

I have closed the door, hey, on me entering into the intimate fellowship where I gotta have God's power and purpose and protection and all that he is, I need him.

You with me?

Can we all say, Oh me?

Whoa, that's good.

And then the third thing.

And I'm telling you, this is rich, folks.

This is deep.

You want deep, you're you're you're in it.

Selfish resistance.

Number two, sinful resistance.

And number three, satanic resistance.

Oh, listen to what Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6.12.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've got news for you.

Satan is an, hey, he's an organized, armed army of demons that attack you and want to destroy you and want to keep the door closed so that you can't get to God.

And if he can keep you in sin, he can keep you critical, he can keep you in all these things, he can keep you selfish, you can pray all day and all night, and then it's not going to get further than the roof.

Hello?

You okay out there?

That's good stuff.

I don't know about you, but I'm my shoes, my toes are bleeding.

Yeah, it is.

Well said, honey.

Now you wonder why it's so hard to get people to pray.

We'll call a prayer meeting and we're gonna we've been now we've had some good turnouts the last couple of Wednesdays.

We've had about uh eight people here on Wednesday to pray.

And I know a lot of you working on, but we're gonna get back uh quarterly at least.

We need to we need to go back on Sunday night once a once a quarter at least, maybe once a month.

I don't know.

We need to pray and ask God to tell us.

Well, we meet together, meet together about 5:30 and just pray for an hour or longer.

Hello?

You know, it's amazing.

You'll hey, now we do something else.

We'll have a 150 people show up.

You call for a prayer meeting, you may have 20.

And you wonder why.

Now you know why.

It's hard.

There's resistance.

Satan can't stand you opening that door and going into the running spell.

Going into that door, opening this door and entering into the presence of an awesome real God.

Because when you come out, you come out spirit-filled with the power of God all over your life.

And when you ask, he moves.

Yes.

Are you with me, church?

Woo! Glory.

I want that, church.

I want that.

I was begging him this morning, God, let me have that.

Let me have that.

That brings me to the we could stop right there.

That's that's a message within itself.

But number two.

The faithfulness in prayer.

The fidelity.

That's the word fidelity.

I used it because I looked it up and I thought, ooh, what does that mean?

Faithfulness to a cause, to a person, to a belief.

Now listen.

Demonstrated by continual loyal service.

Man, that's that's loaded, folks.

The faithfulness in prayer.

Everyone, listen to what he says.

There it is in verse 8.

Everyone who asks receives.

And the Greek construction there means keep on asking and it will be given to you.

Keep on seeking, you will find.

Keep on knocking, and it will be open to you.

But there again, that knocking, we've been just taught, we got to remove the resistance.

This means that prayer is not an exercise which lasts for a moment or a function for a special occasion.

On the contrary, it is a habit of life which never ceases.

Can I get an amen?

Woo! Folks, now I know you and I can't just be going around praying all the time with our lips and all.

I understand that.

But let me tell you what we can do.

We can go all day long with a sense of being in his presence and an attitude of his presence and an attitude of talking with the Holy Spirit in every decision we make.

Lord's really been teaching me how to do that.

I somebody and I say, Lord, do I need to do this?

You'll be amazed.

He doesn't say audibly, but he does say, yep.

Or he'll say, if there's a check, nope.

Don't you do it.

I've had a bad record on asking the Lord, and if he doesn't say anything, I do it anyway.

Woo! That's bad.

I've learned the hard way.

And I every once in a while still do it.

Hey, listen.

Listen.

If God, you're walking and have an intimacy with the Lord Jesus, you ask him, you'll have that peace.

No peace, no move.

Come on.

No, say that with me, church.

No peace, no move.

Amen?

Is that not good?

The peace of God that passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Amen?

So we see that.

And here we see a lot.

And I mean it's powerful.

Two things under this point.

One, we must be constant in the activity of prayer.

Are you ready?

This is my favorite verse, and it relates to our church.

That's why we got to get back to breaking bread together.

Continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

Acts 2.42.

The New Testament church.

What do you see here?

It's clear that prayer times referred to here were planned and, hey, for the most part, special occasions for cooperative prayer.

The church was constantly fellowshipping together and praying together, folks.

Secondly, we must be constant in the attitude of prayer.

Pray without ceasing.

That's what I just talked about.

Being, hey, hey, pray without ceasing.

Right there.

In other words, in a constant awareness of his presence.

Paul's prayer was so natural and so continual.

Hey, with him that he couldn't help, but when he was writing 13 books of the New Testament, he couldn't help but write about his praying all the time.

It was so natural for him.

It was like eating for him.

And he fasted and prayed all the time.

Well, intensity in prayer, fidelity, faithfulness in prayer, and then the last thing expectancy in prayer.

Look at verse 9 through 11.

Or what man is there among you if his son asks for bread and he gives him a stone?

Or how much will your father who is in heaven give good things to those that ask him?

Here are the words that we see the master is describing.

Hey, the fatherhood and faithfulness of God.

Oh, he is.

In fact, I want you to see the first thing, the fatherhood of God.

If you then being evil, know how much, hey, how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give you?

You know what he's talking about here?

I think one of the most comforting tenets of the Christian faith is the doctrine of fatherhood.

Do you realize God is our daddy?

God is our father.

Can I get an amen?

Is that not awesome?

Daddy, say it with me.

My daddy.

He's my daddy.

They used to be, who's your daddy?

Next time somebody says, Who's your daddy?

Say, God Almighty! Amen.

Y'all think I'm crazy, don't you?

But is that not true?

The faithfulness, the fatherhood of God.

Listen to what John said.

Oh, I love this.

John affirms this when he declares, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

And then listen to what else he says there.

He says, Who believed in his name?

Then he ends it in verse 13, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Paul states the same thing when he writes, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3.26.

Can I get an amen?

Is that not awesome?

I love Psalms 84.11.

You know what it says?

No good thing will he withhold for them that walks uprightly.

No good thing will he withhold from them when that door is open, and you have direct access into an awesome presence of a God that we love and know.

Woohoo! No good thing.

Say that with me.

No good thing.

And then the second thing: the faithfulness of God.

What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone, or who asks for a fish will give him a snake.

How wonderful to know that God never makes a mistake.

Luke's version in Luke 11, 13, listen, the good things there, he says, are the blessings of the Spirit Himself in all his fullness.

You know what he's saying?

God so knows you because he's your Father, he knows me, that he knows what's best for us, he knows what we need, but even more than that, he knows what will satisfy us more than anything else.

Is that not good, folks?

So why in the world do we want to keep the door closed with our selfishness and with our sinfulness and allow Satan to defeat us?

May God enable us through this teaching to cultivate intensity in prayer, faithfulness in prayer, and expectancy in prayer.

Yes, let us ask things of a great God.

Do you know what he's saying here?

Watch this.

Listen to me.

Let me tell you what he's saying.

You believe we serve an awesome, real, powerful God.

So he's saying, why in the world aren't we asking God for great things?

Huh?

Let me tell you why.

We're in the asking state.

That's the average Christian.

We're in the asking state.

I'm convinced of that now.

God's just giving me this enlightenment.

Me too.

We don't have any problem asking.

We call that praying, and it is the first step of the progression.

But see, we never get further than that asking.

We may start the seeking.

Watch this.

But when we start the seeking, it gets hard.

Now listen, boy, this is this is coming right from the book and the Holy Spirit.

It gets hard.

And let me tell you what else it does.

It gets revealing.

It starts opening in that heart.

And we start seeing all the ugliness and the ungodliness.

The selfishness.

And we don't even realize it's that subtleness of Satan blinding our eyes so that we'll keep the door closed.

Because when you confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins.

And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Right then and there.

And restores that vertical relationship to an awesome Almighty God.

Which means now we come into His presence and we dine with Him.

And when you start dining with the Lord, you won't settle for that stinking stuff.

You won't settle for the fleshly life.

You'll want the spirit-filled life.

And you won't take no for an answer.

You say, Well, what have I got to do?

You've got to pay a price.

Doesn't come easy.

It's free, but it's not easy.

Because you have to deny the sinful flesh.

And I wish we could say we could eradicate that thing once and for all, but we can't.

It's a Paul says I die daily.

It's a daily battle.

Amen.

But guess what?

We can win it.

Because he's here.

All we gotta do.

Hey.

What?

Forgive.

Ask God to forgive our selfishness, our sinfulness.

And then put the Word of God in our hearts so that that subtle, masterful, powerful, organized Satan and army can't keep our door closed to an awesome mighty God.

Every head bowed.