Calling Out To God & Crying Out To God - Lanny Lewis

I know some of yous I apologize for not knowing all of yous because I'm a first service person.

I like the hymns but I enjoyed the praise music today very much. Why am I here? I found out I'm a rogue elder.

I was never ordained so that's going to be taken care of next week. I've been on the board several times but I guess I wasn't officially ordained so Pastor Joe wants to take care of that.

Why isn't Ben here? Why isn't Chuck here or John here? I wake up in the middle of the night a lot. Our throats are all over and a lot of times it's an hour and I wake up and shake an arm and get some feeling back in it.

Another hour later it's the other arm and I shake that one and it gets better. But while I wake up in the middle of the night usually God puts someone on my heart to pray for. Some need.

But a month ago I told Ben as I told him at the elder meeting I woke up in the middle of the night and the words calling out to God came to me. I thought well that's strange you want me to call out to you? That was followed by weeping before the Lord.

I was like I don't understand this Lord. I woke up in the morning and started reading Judges. I knew that the people of Israel cried out to him. Read all 21 chapters and that didn't really hit me.

I said okay we'll just table that and then the elder meeting and pastor said he was going to be away. He looked at me and said well you preached the 23rd?

And I knew why God woke me up in the middle of the night. And normally I would have said no how about Ben how about John? But I said yes I will. He said I can't wait to hear that I said I can't either.

Because all I got is two phrases. So I'm glad to be here. I pray that in humility I will be able to address God's words today. I do have a problem. I'm a weeper.

We'll get to that later but God made me a weeper. And I pray that I can get through this without totally weeping every minute of the time.

Okay let's have a word of prayer. Father we always thank you for opportunities to share your word. And Father we learn so much ourselves before we even share it to someone else.

And I thank you for sharing your word to me this week. And I pray that I can share the word to the brothers and sisters here today.

That they might leave here enlightened and better understanding who you are and how we should come to approach you. I pray this in humility in Jesus precious name. Amen.

We'll be looking at four phrases that God gave me. Calling out to God. God calling out to us. Crying out to God. And weeping before God. Those four things.

We'll be looking at Old Testament and New Testament references. Some of the things that I have learned surprise me and it may surprise you also.

There are correct and incorrect ways for every one of these situations.

The first one I'd like to look at is calling out to God taken from Psalm 17 6.

If we look at the chapter before this Psalm 16 we look at David anticipating a problem coming his way.

And so he approaches God first asking God to examine him. Examine me he says. Watch my steps. I am a man of integrity.

I want you to test me and prove me and look inside of my very heart and see what I am inside. So he was preparing his heart to approach God and to call out to God.

And when they say in 17 6 he says I call on you oh God for you will answer me. Give ear to me and answer my prayer.

Listen to the opening of this as he said I just mentioned to you. Probe my heart and examine me at night. Though you test me you will find nothing. My steps have held to your paths.

So my first point is when we approach God we need to approach him with integrity. We need to be accountable to God.

You hear a lot of people in the street saying oh God. Oh gosh. They have no idea what they're saying in those words.

They are approaching the very throne room of God and calling on the creator when they mention his name.

And we as Christians certainly should be careful when we mention God's name how we do it.

We need to be accountable to him and make sure before we approach him we make sure that we are right with him.

Why we say we take communion. If there's anything is not right with you and God settle it now.

Before you approach the Lord's table the same thing as we call out to God we should make sure that we are accountable and we are of the almost integrity even approach him.

We look at Psalm 18 the second point I'd like to make the second way we should call out to God.

This song reflects David's attitude after God has delivered him from this potential fear he was concerned about.

This could be delivering from his enemies it could be delivering him from Saul. He says God is my rock my fortress my shield my stronghold the horn of my salvation.

When we call on God we should remember what he has done for us.

Not forget the past. He's helped us in the past he was help us in the future.

We should approach him when we call on him with adoration and thanksgiving.

We don't always do that.

In my younger time when I was 20 years old I call out to God and he answered prayers.

Seemed like every time I call out to me he answered prayer.

I was 21 we were getting married I needed a job.

72 was a bad year they said oh 30 40 recruiters will come down to college you'll get a job easy.

Nobody came the economy was bad we had the gas lines and I prayed to God.

Not properly but I prayed then I said Father I'm going to get married in December I need a job.

I got the job.

There was 130 applications for that position and God gave it to me.

But three years later that job went sour.

So did I thank him for what he had done in the past? No.

I said get me out of here fix this. It's a lousy job we're starving.

I need another job get me the Mack trucks get me the Bethlehem steel get me somewhere else fix it.

In three years I'd already forgotten what he had done for me.

I learned a lesson.

Be thankful for what he's given you and the next time you approach him be thankful before you even ask him for anything.

And that's what David was doing here.

He was coming before him with adoration and praise thanking God for what he had done.

Psalm 88 9 is a third point I'd like to make.

I learned a lot about this Psalm.

I probably read it many times but when I got to the commentary and look this one up.

This is shocking. It's really shocking this Psalm.

Psalm 88 9 I called to you O Lord day and night I spread my hands out before you.

This Psalm was written by Herman the Ezraite he a very wise man.

It's one of the saddest Psalms in the Bible.

I picture this man coming before God prostrate before him just pleading for God's help.

But what did he call out for God for?

It states that he called on the Lord with his hands spread out day and night and he said I don't want to die.

He didn't ask for healing.

It said from his youth he had suffered some kind of affliction.

But he didn't ask God for a healing.

He asked God to spare his life so he could praise God one more day.

Can you imagine?

Someone's been afflicted to the point of death every day of his life.

But he asked God to spare him one more day so he can praise God.

We probably would ask for a healing.

At least give me one day Lord that I don't have a sore shoulder.

One day that I don't have a hip that hurts.

No.

He was at the point of death but he said spare me so that one more day I can wake up and say thank you Lord.

Thank you Lord.

So I looked at this as a three proper ways that we should call out to God.

We should call out to God with integrity and accountability.

We should call out to God with thanksgiving and praise.

And we should thank God with a humble heart.

Realizing who we're talking to.

I'm not just talking to anybody.

For a while there, remember, everybody would say God's my buddy.

God's my friend.

But he's not my buddy.

He's not like somebody I know I work with.

He's the sovereign creator of the entire universe.

And he calls me his child.

That's special.

Sheila Walls used to have a song, God created me for the simple pleasure of knowing me.

Can you imagine that?

He wanted to know who Lanny Lewis was.

He created me for that reason.

He wanted to know me.

So when I call out to him, I want to call out to him because I know who I'm calling out to.

That creator who wants to know me.

And I'm calling out to him because why?

I want to know him too.

I want to know him a way that perhaps I've never known him.

The second phrase I said was God calling out to us.

Why would God call out to us?

You all know this story taken from 1 Samuel 3.3 where God calls Samuel.

It says the lamp of the Lord had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord.

Where the Ark of the Covenant was.

Then the Lord called Samuel.

Samuel, he answered, here I am.

You called me.

But Eli said, I did not call you.

Go back and lie down.

Verse 6.

And the Lord called again.

Verse 8.

The Lord called the third time.

And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am.

You called me.

And then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.

So Eli told Samuel, go and lay down and if he calls you, speak.

Say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

Very interesting as you look at the commentary on this chapter.

It says that Samuel had been trained in all the litigal ministry at Shiloh.

He had also undergone training in the things of the Lord.

But he had not yet been trained to the addressing of God.

Of God's calling.

He had a lot of knowledge in the book of the law.

He had all the litigal training.

But he had not yet experienced God calling him.

So all the head knowledge, I don't care how many times I read this Bible through.

It's worthless.

Unless I know that the Holy Spirit has called me to open it up, read it, and learn from it.

That's what Jesus said.

I don't leave you alone.

I send the Holy Spirit who will teach you all things that I want you to hear.

And so Samuel was called by God.

But he was called to an intimate relationship with God.

God wanted Samuel to know who God was.

Because he had a work for him.

He was called for a work.

I was called at age 18 to be a Sunday school teacher.

I said no.

I didn't hear the call of God.

I repented.

I told the superintendent I would go back and I would do that.

I would teach that class.

At age 18, God called me to be a student at a Sunday school.

And from that first calling, I realized this time I don't question God.

I say yes.

I didn't know a lot about the Bible.

I didn't know how to pray as I should.

I didn't want to be responsible for a hundred people and their welfare and teaching them.

But I knew after that first call, that the second time he calls, I couldn't say no.

So all the head knowledge isn't good.

Unless you know to recognize God when he calls you.

The second scripture I'd like to read is Mark 3.13.

Jesus went up to the hills and called those he wanted.

And they came to him and he appointed twelve, designating them as apostles.

John 15.15 goes one step further.

I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know what his master's business is.

But I have called you friends.

For everything I have learned from my father, I have made known to you.

That's why God calls us.

He wants us to teach us all about the Father.

He wants us to know God in a very intimate and real way.

So when he calls us, we need to listen and say, Lord, what do you want?

I'm open. My ears are here.

And believe me, after that first time you understand that God's calling you,

you will be able to say yes that second and third time.

And lastly, why does he call us?

He calls us because he wants to protect us.

That's still small voices, Atlanta, you shouldn't be here.

You shouldn't be doing this.

That's not godly.

We need to learn to listen to that call and walk away before tragedy awaits us

in a position that we probably can't get out of anymore.

John 10.1-4 says, I tell you the truth.

The man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber.

The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep.

The watchman opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

When I was teaching this in junior church one time,

I was amazed that said that a shepherd might have 50 to 150 sheep under his control.

And when he calls them, there might be 600 sheep, they're other shepherds.

His 150 come out and the others stay there because they know his voice.

He has a close, intimate walk with them.

That's something to think about.

600 sheep and they know his voice and only his 100 go with him and the rest just stay there.

God has saved me a lot from things that could have hurt me because he said, you don't want to be here.

This isn't good.

From some simple little things to some big things.

Because I've learned to listen to his call at a young age and I'm so thankful.

So thankful.

So he calls us for service.

He calls us to himself.

He calls us to teach us.

And he calls us to keep us safe from the things that could harm us.

We have two more to go.

Crying out to God.

As I was thinking of this, that's a progression.

We call on God, he calls on us.

The next is one step further, you know.

But I was interested to find that there are wrong and right ways to call out to God.

There are 198 references in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance about calling out to God.

No, I didn't read all 198.

But I read a few of them.

The first right way to call out to God is what God has given me and I'm thankful for it.

A heartfelt cry to God.

I apologize many times when I talk because when my heart is broken to think of God, I can't help it.

I just can't help it.

That's the right way to call out to God.

Your heart is so broken that you call to him.

Your Savior, your Lord, your Master, your everything.

Some people, and we'll get into that weeping, some people call out to God with their hands raised.

I can't because I can't get them up any higher.

That's as far as they go.

I see Pastor Joe, he sways back and forth.

And I know he's with the Lord when he's doing that singing.

And he made me a weeper.

I can't help it.

But sometimes it's just one word.

It's mercy, it's grace, it's just me thinking of his love.

But I do when I come before him and cry out to him, I try to come with that attitude of a heart.

He's not the last resort for me.

I don't try everything else and then go to him to cry.

I cry out first to him because I know that's where the real answer is going to be.

We'll look at the wrong motives first and then we'll get into some of the better motives.

The first point is Exodus 14, 15.

The Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me?

Tell the Israelites to move out.

In other words, God had already given him the answer.

He had already taken him out of Egypt.

He took him to the Red Sea.

He's ready to deliver them.

And they're crying out to him.

Why?

The answer is right before you.

Here it is.

I'm going to part the Red Sea and you're going to go through.

They were crying out for the wrong motive.

They were crying out for the motive that I had when I needed a job.

Fix this.

I'm up against this.

Fix it.

Do something for me.

You're God.

I'm your child.

Fix this.

You think they would have known better, right?

They saw all the miracles in Egypt.

They saw all that God had done for them.

But right here, they were crying out to him for the wrong motive.

They're crying out because he was God.

He was our Savior.

He was our Lord.

He had delivered them before.

They were just saying, fix this mess that we're in.

Look where you got us now.

And then we come to judges.

There were 12 judges.

We remember Samson.

We remember Deborah.

We remember Gideon.

But there was 12 in total.

And as I read the book of judges, I thought, well, these people are doing the right thing.

They're calling out for God.

They're struggling.

But if you read the commentary on the judges, the real reason these people called out was because they were in a fix and they wanted somebody to fix it.

They were oppressed by the Moabites or oppressed by the Philistines or oppressed by somebody else.

And they cried out to God and said, fix this.

There was no repented heart.

There was no heartfelt cry that, Lord, we've sinned and we want to be repented before you.

We know that for a fact because they were in peace with a judge for maybe 20 years.

The judge died.

They went right back to apostasy, started to worship idols again, started to have intermarriage with pagan nations.

They go in oppression for another 20 years with another foe or enemy.

They cry out to God again.

Fix it.

Wrong.

There was no repented heart.

I made a mistake, Lord.

I shouldn't have done this.

I'm sorry.

I have a repented heart.

Please help me not to do this again.

We will be faithful to you now.

No, that wasn't their cry.

Get us out of this mess we're in.

We need help.

The wrong way to cry out to God.

So years of oppression, years of peace with God, but right back to the same thing.

Are we any better?

No.

Sometimes we're the same.

We all know the book of Jonah.

We all know the story of Jonah and the whale, but I saw an interesting thing here.

In Jonah 1 5, it says the captain had the wrong, I wrote here that the captain has the wrong impression of crying out.

He goes to all those on board.

He says, cry out.

Maybe one of your gods will help us.

We've tried everything else.

Hey, you call out for your guy.

Hey, you call out for your God.

Wrong motive.

Zachariah chapter seven.

The people were not showing mercy and justice to those that have need.

They were self conceded.

They were questioning the ruler about fast and feast.

They weren't concerned about anything else as God had commanded them.

It said, God said their hearts were as hard as Flint, and he would not listen to the law or the words of the Lord Almighty sent by his spirit.

So in verse 13, he said, when I cried, they did not listen.

So when they cry, I will not listen either.

Their heart was not in it.

Their heart was like Flint.

They did not cry out to God with a heart that was broken.

What is your will for us, Lord?

They were concerned about feast and fasting and not what God had commanded them to do.

And there it is, the key again.

Their heart was not in it.

They didn't have that heartfelt cry to God.

Mark five, seven.

Even the demons cry out.

What do you want us?

What do you want to do with us, Jesus?

Our time is not up yet.

So even the demons can cry out to God.

What about the disciples?

Surely they've been with Jesus for three years.

They got it, right?

They got it right.

Mark four, thirty eight.

Some were seasoned fishermen.

They knew about the seal of Galilee.

Jesus is sleeping in the boat and a big swell comes over the boat.

And did they say, Master?

No, they said, Don't you care if we drowned?

Fix this.

The disciples who were with Jesus for three years.

By then they should have been intimate and close with him.

But they simply just cried out, Fix this.

We're about to perish.

Don't you care?

The book of Chronicles.

We're going to look at some of the accounts, the right and proper way to cry out to God.

Chronicles is a historical book and a genealogical book.

Chronicles five, eighteen to twenty one.

Deals with the Rubenites, the family of Ruben, the tribe of Ruben.

It says the Rubenites warred against the Hagorites and also their allies.

That's verse nineteen.

In verse twenty, it says, God handed the Hagorites and their allies over to them

because they cried out to him during the battle.

And he answered them because he cried out in trust.

One of the proper ways to cry out to God is our trust in him.

He said, I have answered you because you trust me.

You have not leaned on your own understanding, but you trust me.

We have in Luke eighteen, thirty five to forty two.

We have the blind beggar that receives his sight.

It says, as Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.

When he heard the crowd going by, he asked, what is happening?

And they told Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.

And it says, he cried, son of David, have mercy on me.

The Lord says, what do you want? He said, I want to see you.

And Jesus said to him, receive your sight. Your faith has made you whole.

Trust and faith and God will answer to the main reason God answers us

when we trust in him and we cry out to him.

Let me see, I have two more here. Let's see.

Uh oh, I think I'm still there. OK.

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He took Peter, James and John along with him and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

He said, stay here and keep watch.

Going a little further, he fell to the ground and prayed that if the hour was possible,

I would pass from him. Not my will, but your will.

Christ cried out to the Father, not my will, but your will.

Lord, I've got this problem. I don't know how to solve it.

I come to you. I cry out to you.

Fix it if it's your will. If not, help me through this.

Help me through this.

Even Jesus cried out to the Father in a proper way.

And it was the Father's will to be with him through it, but he had to go through it.

He wasn't relieved from the problem or the stress he was facing.

It says in Luke 22 what type of stress was he going through at the time?

He was so much in anguish that it was like drops of blood falling to the ground from his forehead.

But it's actually a medical condition where you're under so much stress

that the blood vessels in your forehead burst.

And it is like drops of blood coming down before you.

In that much stress, knowing that he was going to have upon him the weight of sin of the entire world,

he said, your will, Father, not mine.

We have to think sometimes before we call out to God and cry out to him.

So his plan for us calling out to him in the right way is submission, obedience, trust, his will.

Not what we want, but what he wants.

I always loved this verse.

Since the fall of man, creation has been crying out to God.

They want to be restored too.

And when Jesus was walking the crowd, he said, Master, rebuke your disciples.

They cry out to you.

And what did he say?

If they don't cry out, even the very rocks will cry out to me because the rocks know who I am.

Maybe you don't know as far as I am, but the rocks know I am God.

I am the I Am.

So don't tell them to be quiet.

I love when my people cry out to me and worship me.

And lastly, weeping before God.

I take a deep breath.

I was 15 years old in a small church in Slatedale, an evangelical brother church.

And there were three men that I loved to hear.

John Schleiger, Stuart Pauls, and Norbert Merkel.

And they were all weepers.

They were weepers.

Most of them, every time before they started doing, they'd say, I apologize, but I know the Lord's going to touch me today and I just can't help it.

And they'd get out there, hang in there, wipe their eyes, and then they'd start preaching.

They were all elders and teachers in a real sense with the heart of God.

And one time or another, each of these were the superintendent of Sunday School.

And as I mentioned, at 18, John came to me and he said, I'm going to nominate you as superintendent.

I said, no, you're not.

I'm not ready.

I don't even have the books in the Bible, John.

And you know what the answer was?

I've watched you.

And you're a weeper.

He said, you're a weeper.

I've watched your heart.

And when I wept up front, you wept with me.

I wasn't ready.

I didn't know anything about running a Sunday School.

But he said, it's time for me to step down.

I'm getting old and I just don't have it anymore.

But I see in you a potential.

And I said, I hope God sees a potential because I don't see it.

Be what you are.

Be what God calls you to be.

I weep.

I'm sorry.

Some people praise and raise their hands up.

Be that.

Some people sway back and forth.

You saw the picture up here.

Some people dance and jump up and down.

If God's made you that way, be that way.

Don't try to change yourself.

I used to try to change.

I used to say, Lord, when I teach this class today, I don't want any tears coming out.

There wouldn't have been a message.

It would have been me, not God.

So whatever he makes you, if he makes you a greeter, greet it to the best of your ability.

If he puts you back there in the signboard, be the best you can be.

That's what God has called you to do as he calls Samuel.

Samuel, I want you to be a prophet.

I want you to be a greeter.

I want you to pray for people.

I want you to visit people.

Listen to his call and be faithful to the call that he calls you for.

And don't try to be something else because you'll fail every time.

I once did a youth retreat and I brought in one of my Weeping White Pines.

Somewhere in nature they found a pine that wasn't straight up and it went kind of crooked.

And so they grafted on the understock.

And this thing was weeping all over and I asked the teenagers, I said, what's wrong with that?

And they said, everything. It doesn't look like a pine tree. You ought to throw it away.

And I said to the teenagers, that's a very expensive plant.

That's more expensive than when it's straight.

They said, why?

I said, because that's the way it is.

You can't change it.

You can stake it up and it'll go up another five feet and begin to weep.

You can stake it up again.

In the National Arboretum in Boston, I think, they had one 40 feet up in the air.

They kept getting a high lift and staking it higher and higher.

And every time it went past the stake, it started weeping again.

That's what it was, a weeper.

So if God made you a praiser, praise him.

If he made you a rocker, rock him.

If he made you a dancer, dance for him.

Whatever he's made you, he's made you that particular reason, an individual.

What does it say? God cares for us as an individual.

He doesn't just blanket, okay, no.

That one's going to be a weeper.

That one's going to be a prayer.

That one's going to be a visitor.

That one's going to be a greeter.

It takes a lot of people to run this church.

A lot of people.

Remember the Haney's.

Haney's job was what?

Doing the mousetraps downstairs.

When there was mice, they called Haney.

And he went down and set mousetraps.

Very dignified job.

God thought it was.

That's what he was called for, to do the mousetraps.

Did that for years.

He'll get rewarded in heaven for being the mouse catcher.

And he is no less or more important than me.

Everybody has a job to do.

Weeping comes from a broken heart.

In 2 Chronicles, think of this.

34, 1-7, Josiah at age 8 became the king of Israel.

At age 8.

And it's said he had a heart like his grandfather Hezekiah.

A heart for God.

At age 16, he began to remove all the astral poles

and all the foreign god idols.

At age 16.

At age 26, he said the temple needs to be refurbished.

And he commanded them to refurbish the temple.

And as he refurbished the temple, they found the book of the law.

And when it was read, his heart was broken.

And in biblical times, he tore his clothes in utter disgust and depravity

that they had not followed the commandments of God.

They go to the prophetess and ask, what can we do?

She tells them, and the key verse here is verse 27.

Judgment will come because they have disobeyed the law.

And they have not followed my ways and my commandments.

But she says, Josiah, because your heart was broken.

And you humbled yourself.

And you tore your clothes.

And you wept in my presence.

Destruction will not come until you are taken home to your fathers.

I will spare destruction on the people because of you, because you wept.

I think I have two more things here and then we'll close.

Nehemiah, chapter 8, 1 through 12.

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

It's a long thing. Read that when you go home.

It got to the point again the book of the law was found and Ezra was reading from the book of the law

and it says that they read in chapter, in verse 9, that people began to weep.

And she listened to the words of the law.

Very interesting here because they were weeping and weeping and weeping

because they knew they had disobeyed God.

They had a heart that was repentive.

And then something interesting happens.

Nehemiah, the governor, Ezra, the priest and the scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them,

this day is sacred to the Lord. Do not mourn or weep. Stop weeping.

Seems kind of contrary.

They're weeping and weeping realizing they need a repentive heart and they say stop.

Why?

Because now God knows your heart.

Now be glad. Be glad.

Now you know what God expects of you.

Now you know what God wants from you.

Don't weep anymore now.

Now you can go fulfill what God wants you to be.

What God wants you to be in him.

And they're commanded not to weep anymore.

All of chapter 9 is the Israelites confessing their sin.

On and on they confess their sin.

And in chapter 10 they get really serious.

And they take an oath.

And all of them swear by it.

We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to foreign nations anymore or our sons.

We will not buy or sell in the Sabbath.

We will cancel all debts in the seventh year as you commanded.

We will bring the first fruits to the house of the Lord.

And on and on it goes.

Because they had a heart broken.

It was time to stop weeping.

Time to get on the business.

God is so good to us.

We have so many reasons to be thankful, prayerful, praise him and glorify his name.

I have so much to learn yet.

I've just scratched the surface of this.

My aunt was 85 years old.

She was a missionary in Ohio.

And when she retired and came home, she would call us on a Sunday night and say,

Come on over.

You'll never guess what I found.

I found a diamond that I hadn't seen before.

And we'd go over and we'd discuss it.

And she said, Did you ever see this in this book?

She said, I just found that.

She's still at a heart for God.

Even though she wasn't a missionary anymore, to still find out what God wanted her to do

and to learn more and more about him.

Wow.

Do I get up in the morning and sometimes run out and not read my Bible?

Yes, I do.

I'm sorry.

Do I pray as much as I should?

Yes.

There's times I don't pray like I should.

But that's when he breaks my heart again.

He says, Lanny, you're not what you should be.

How about you come back to me?

How about you come back to me and get back in your word?

Coming back on the elder board was one of the best things that could happen to me.

Because now I've got to get back in this word more than I was before.

Because I've got to be right with God.

In order to pray for you.

And if I'm not right with God, I can't pray for you.

I can't have a burden for you.

So I have to have a burden first for me.

And then I can share the burden with you.

That's what it's all about.

I hope that as God has touched me this week

and given me a better understanding of how to call him, to cry to him, and weep for him.

Because I've learned a lot this week.

An awful lot.

Let's pray.

Father, you are so kind to us.

You are so good to us.

We forget about you sometimes.

And oh, we're so sorry.

We get so caught up in the things of life, which we shouldn't.

And you call us back to you.

We're so thankful that you do that for us.

Help us to be better at what you want us to be.

And have that intimate relationship with you for all of eternity.

We give you praise, glory, and honor for all that you will teach us.

And all that you have taught me this week.

I pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.