 Everybody glad to be in the house of the Lord this morning. Come on, it's good, amen. Turn with me or turn on your Bibles. If it's a mobile device, turn it on. If it's a physical Bible, turn two. First Timothy chapter two. And if you didn't bring a Bible, right now just fake it. Just act like you got one, opening it up, flipping the pages there or turning on your phone. Don't check the scores. It's not important. But turn with me to First Timothy chapter two. This morning, this is part eight of our series entitled The Fall and all, or the fall, hello. You can tell who got like two hours of sleep last night. The battle and all fall long, we've been looking at the subject of spiritual warfare. The battle that every believer is engaged in and almost every weekend I've started by saying this, the Christian life is not like a battle. The Christian life is a battle. Thank you. And also to remind us that our battle or our warfare is not being waged against people. It's not flesh and blood. This is not a conventional warfare. This people are not the enemy. People are not the object of our warfare. This isn't a political thing. This isn't a physical flesh and blood thing. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter six that we do not war against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers and spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. All around us, every single day and in every environment, unseen to the naked eye there is a battle that is being waged between heaven and hell, between God and Satan and his demonic forces, God who is the ultimate great I am and his angels. And we know who wins the battle. You've heard it said before. I've read the end of the book and I know who wins. Anybody in this place know who wins? Okay, but in the battle right now we're still engaged in the battle on a daily basis. We're not fighting for victory. We're fighting from victory but there are still battles to be waged. And so what does that spiritual battle look like? What is the armor that God has given to us next week? We're gonna talk about the armor of God. This morning though, I wanna pick up where we left off over the last couple of weeks and talking about the subject of prayer because there's no greater task. There's no greater tool, weapon, environment that God has given to the believer that we need to understand more than we need to understand prayer. And in fact, it's probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of our faith. Knowing how to pray, when to pray and not all prayer is equal because almost everybody around the globe it doesn't matter the religious background that they come from has a concept of prayer. All prayer is not equal. When people say prayer changes things certain kinds of prayers change certain things. Jesus taught us to pray in a very specific way. He taught us when you pray, pray in my name. How many know there's power in the name of Jesus? It's not just praying to some deity in the sky that's kind of universal. We're talking about the son of the living God in the name of him who went to the cross, died in our place, rose from the dead, defeated death, hell in the grave. The one who is the son of the creator of heavens and earth who was and is and forevermore will be who has no beginning of days and no end of days who's everywhere all at the same time knows everything that there is to know and is all powerful. We're talking about that God. We're talking about praying in that name and there's power in that kind of prayer. About 50% of the room believes that the other 50% is waiting to be convinced and that's all right. So this morning I want to talk to you about a specific area of prayer called intercessory prayer, intercessory prayer. Big word, what does it mean? I've entitled the message standing in the gap, standing in the gap. Look with me here at 1 Timothy chapter two, beginning in verse number one. It says, first of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions that we might lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of our God and Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm telling you the truth, I'm not lying, a teacher to the Gentiles in faith and in truth. So Paul's writing this epistle, this letter, to believers that are living in a city called Ephesus. It's written to Timothy. Timothy is a young mentee of Paul that Paul has placed in the city of Ephesus which is a pagan, Gentile, worshiper of all kinds of Greek gods and goddesses city. It's probably the second largest city in Asia Minor and he takes this young man, Timothy, and he says, I started a church there, I want you to pastor it. And then Paul left and started other churches. He writes this letter to Timothy to instruct him on what should be the priorities of the way that we conduct ourselves as light that is dwelling and living in the midst of a darkness, a spiritual darkness. In other words, a spiritual battle. It actually is the same church that Paul writes Ephesians to where he talks about spiritual warfare. And there's probably not another city on the face of the earth at that time that was experiencing the level of spiritual warfare that Ephesus was. If you don't know anything about Ephesus, look it up, it's really interesting. Ephesus is in modern day Turkey which is all over the news right now. And Ephesus was a city that was called the caretaker of the goddess Artemis. Artemis or Diana was this massive rock that fell out of the sky, probably an asteroid that at some point in the past people moved and they built an idol around it and a massive temple that in its day was known as one of the eight wonders of the world. I mean, people came from all over the world to worship Artemis in her temple. She was a goddess of fertility. She was a goddess of victory and war. There was a whole cult, hundreds of prostitutes that dwell in the temple. So when you go into the temple, the way that you worshiped Artemis was by hiring a temple prostitute, doing the thing with the prostitute as an act of worship. And then there were bathhouses right next to the temple. So everybody in the city, the marketplace, the economy, business people, you did all of your business dealings in the temple to a demonic power. There was a library. It was the second largest library in the world. Largest was in Clement of Alexandria which is on the north coast of Africa. The second largest library in the known world was in the city of Ephesus. And it was so large and it was known specifically for one kind of literature. They had magic books, black magic, incantations that dated all the way back to the Tower of Babel. Manuscripts that they kept there. So people who were into the occult, people who were into dark magic and incantations, witchcraft, very spiritual, very religious people from all over the known world, they traveled to Ephesus to go to the library and to study. And there were all kinds of schools and things that took place. This is the city that Paul comes to and he preaches the gospel and there's a massive revival that takes place. You can read about it in the book of Acts. So much so that they almost stoned and almost killed Paul there because people were so freaked out by it. Mobs screamed for three hours protesting the church by saying, great is Artemis, great is Artemis, great is Artemis. Now that's not unusual to see protests when people are upset about things, but when the protest doesn't stop for three hours screaming, how many know you're pretty committed? Three hours they did this. And the reason why they were upset is because people were getting saved and it was disrupting the economy. It was disrupting politics. It was disrupting the religious atmosphere. And so people who dwelt there who were experiencing and encountering Jesus were bringing all of their magic books out and throwing them in a pile, recognizing these are demonic and we're burning them. Something to the value of over $50 million worth of books were burned in bomb fires. This is what's going on in Ephesus. And so Paul starts this church. Rick Renner who's a mentor of mine who studied this church extensively said that the city probably had 350 to 400,000 people in it. And within five years, the church had grown to 100,000 people. That's a massive church. And he takes this young guy Timothy and he puts them right in the middle of it and he says, you pastor it. How'd you like to have that job? Trying to disciple these people who came out of paganism and bondage and sexual immorality and all kinds of background. But they found Jesus and they found forgiveness and they found redemption and now they've created this community called the church. People who don't like large churches don't read the Bible because the Bible's full of large churches. Day one on the church of Pentecost, the church grew from zero to 3,000 people. How many know that's a pretty good Sunday? God's on the move all over the place. And now he writes this letter to Timothy and he's giving them instructions. First and second Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral epistles. And epistles are letters. Epistles are not wives of the apostles. Epistles, that was a joke, you should laugh. Okay, epistles are letters. Paul's writing this letter and it's interesting knowing all that background to see how Paul starts the letter. Chapter two, after all of chapter one, which is greeting, he starts off with this. He says, first of all, in other words, this is the priority. First of all, as matter of first concern, that's how it literally should be translated. As matter of first concern, here's Paul writing to his young pastor. He says, I urge, I compel, I demand that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all men or all people. And then he goes on and he says for kings and leaders and those who are in high positions, I want supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving to be made for all these people so that you can live a peaceful and quiet life as the people of God. And so that you remind yourself of why you are the people of God. How it was that God found you when you were broken, when you were in sin, when you were opaquen, when you were lost. And the reason that you are saved now and made into the people of God is because God desires that none should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And that there's only one mediator. There's only one God. There's only one mediator between God and man and it's Jesus Christ. And he was the perfect testimony given at the right time. And so I want you in light of all that, I want you first of all, your priority is I want you to be a people who pray. It's like, wait a second God, there's a lot of work to do. I'm too busy to pray. No, Paul says no. Matter of first concern is that you be people of prayer. And then he lists off these four kinds of prayer. He says, number one, I want supplications to be made. What is a supplication? A supplication is another way of saying asking. How many know that when we pray, we ask God for things. We say God, meet my needs. Give me this day my daily bread. How many know that prayer? Lord, it's not talking about literal physical bread, at least most of the time, at least in our condition in America, we've got bread, we've got wonder bread, triple rye bread, Ezekiel bread, buns, croutons, and we got it all. It's not really a matter of us getting bread. We're saying Lord, meet our needs. That's supplication. And he says, I want you to pray and ask God to meet your needs and meet the needs of other people. Okay, that's number one. Second thing is he says, I want supplications and prayers. What's the prayers piece? Well, that seems to be a pretty general statement. If all of them are prayer, intercession, supplications, and thanksgiving, why use the word prayer? It's because this particular word prayer in the Greek language means prayer meetings, prayer gatherings. Yes, it's good that you pray by yourself. You need to do that daily on the regular. Meet with God in the secret place. But we also need to pray together. Leonard Ravenhill, who is a great revivalist, said far too many pastors measure the success of their church by the number of people who show up on Sundays. But the true test of the health of a church is how many show up for prayer meetings. Come on, somebody. You know, the devil's happy if you'll do almost anything except pray. But prayer meetings scare him. Because we look at prayer meetings oftentimes and we might think, oh, prayer meetings kind of boring or not that many people show up for a prayer meeting. But I wanna remind you of what Jesus said. Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them. Do you know a prayer meeting of two people is infinitely powerful. You wanna know why? It's not because you're there, it's because he's there. Where there's two of us coming in. Why do you need two for there to be agreement? It's like we cheer each other on. We pray, you might walk into a prayer meeting and say, there's three people here. We do prayer meetings all the time here. We have three prayer meetings on Monday. We have two prayer meetings on Wednesdays and then we've got one on Tuesday. We've got prayer meetings all the time. And pretty soon we're gonna be having multiple prayer meetings a day down in our downtown prayer center which we're fired up about ready to launch this winter. And we're planning on having prayer meetings morning, noon, and night. And there might be times where you walk into and go, there's only four people here. This isn't gonna change anything. Ha! Cause four people plus Jesus is greater than the all of the hordes and armies of hell combined. We need to pray together. That's why Paul says prayer groups, supplications. I want you to ask prayer groups, get together and pray for one another. Because when you're down, somebody else is up. Somebody else's prayer becomes a prophecy for you that you tag on to, we worship together. And I mean, you just mess with the devil so much every time you do stuff like that. You come to a prayer meeting. You are declaring war on the enemy and his agenda for your life, on your city, your family. It's just a big old mess for the devil. Third thing is he says intercessions. Intercessions. Intercession is a word that maybe you've heard before but we don't always understand what it means. And you guys are, by the way, you're getting a different message than last service. So in the middle of worship, the Lord's like, yeah, I want you to actually preach this. So I'm like, well, Lord, I don't have notes for that. And he's like, well, I do, so you're okay. So I told them back in the sound booth, I'm going in a different direction. I have no idea where I'm going, just flow. It's kind of like jazz, just improvise, here we go. So the rest of you just follow along, okay? Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 22. Ezekiel chapter 22, when you show up, heaven shows up. When you stand up, heaven stands up. I love those words. Because that's what happens when God's people pray. Ezekiel chapter 22, it says in verse number 29, the people of the land have practiced extortion, committed robbery, they will press the poor and the needy and to have extorted from the sojourner or from the immigrant without justice. Verse number 30, it says, and I, this is God, sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breach or stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it but I have found none. Ezekiel is a prophet that God raised up and here's what God is saying in there. He's like, look, I've looked on the earth and I've looked in the land and I've seen all kinds of injustice. I've seen all kinds of brokenness. I've seen all kinds of darkness. I've seen all kinds of evil that has manifested itself and I scanned looking for one who would build back up the wall that's been torn down and would stand in the gap. Everybody say stand in the gap. Who would stand in the gap but unfortunately I could not find any. What was God looking for in Ezekiel's day? He was looking for an intercessor because the word intercede or intercession, intercessor means to stand in the gap on behalf of somebody else who needs our prayer. Paul says I want supplications, check. Prayers or prayer meetings, check. The last thing he ends with is I want thanksgiving for all people but what's this word intercession? Sometimes we miss out on the calling that each of us have and the invitation that God gives to each and every one of us to be intercessors. In other words, to stand in the gap for those who right now are in the place of injustice, who are in the place of vulnerability, who are in the place of spiritual blindness, who've been wounded. Their walk with God has been injured. They've been blinded as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians where he says that the God of this age, the devil has actually blinded the eyes of the unbelievers so that they can't see the glory, the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus and actually believe and come to faith. The devil actually is blinding them. They're in a position called the gap. We've got those who are broken and those who are filled with pride and those who've been influenced by the philosophies of men and have succumbed to the imprisonment of intellectualism because they're looking for a God that they can figure out. They're looking for a God that makes sense. They're looking for a God that checks all their boxes. Oh, beware if you ever find yourself worshiping a God who agrees with you 100% of the time. Because it might be that you're worshiping a projection of yourself. But we live in a world that wants God to look like us. We want God to agree with us. We want God to make sense. I don't wanna worship a God I can figure out. If I can figure out God that means he's less sophisticated than a piece of Ikea furniture. Cause I can't figure that out. It's like little tools. How does this all go together? Why are there 15 extra pieces? If I can figure God out, then he's not big enough. But all of these are the trappings that we find in the gap. And we live in a world where people are stuck in the gap. If you've ever been to the UK, we don't live in a culture or society that necessarily understands this phrase. Mind the gap. Because if you've ever been to some place where there's a subway system, you'll see signs everywhere. It says mind the gap, mind the gap, mind the gap. In other words, pay attention. Cause the gap is the place of vulnerability. It's the place where you can be in danger. It's where you can get hurt by the train, the electric rails. It's where you can lose your balance where you can fall in the gap. Mind the gap. The gap is a physical reality of vulnerability. The gap is also a spiritual place that so many people find themselves in. Do you know if today you're saved, you're in a relationship with God, if Jesus is your Lord, the only reason that you are is because there came a moment where God took on human flesh, entered into humanity, and went to the cross to intercede for you. He stepped into our gap and he rescued us. We were about ready to fall into the chasm and didn't even know it. Headlong off the end of it and Jesus came and rescued us and pulled us out. That's a perfect picture of intercession. Intercession means to get into the gap and to appeal to one powerful on the behalf of another. And when Paul says, I want intercessions to be made for all people, kings who are in authority, leaders. What he's really inviting us into is he's inviting us into a partnership with God, who is the ultimate intercessor. Listen to the words of Oswald Chambers. He said, Jesus Christ carries on intercession for us in heaven. He's our great intercessor. The Holy Spirit carries on intercession in us on the earth. And we, the saints of God, have to carry on intercession for all men. Jesus is an intercessor. The Holy Spirit is an intercessor. He gets into the gap with us. He stands in the gap and just like Ezekiel says, God's looking for somebody who will stand in the gap, somebody who will pray, somebody who will pray for other people no matter what situation circumstances that they are in right now. We pray through the lens of the Spirit. God, move in their life. Move on their behalf. And we partner with God so that God can ultimately get what he wants. You see, that's what the partnership is about. It's partnering with God in the place of prayer so that God gets what he desires most. Let me give you the definition of Christian maturity. You know you're growing up as a Christian where your prayer life ceases to be only about you getting what you want and your heart begins to change and you begin to pray, God, I wanna help you get what you want. What does God want? Well, number one, he wants all of our heart, but then he wants us as his children to partner with him and standing in the gap on behalf of those that he loves. And do you know the simplest Bible verse that we all learn in churches, John 3.16, right? For God so loved America that he gave his only begotten Son. Whosoever should pledge allegiance to the flag will not perish but have everlasting life. Is that the gospel? No, God so loved. Now, does he love America? Absolutely. Praise God. Hallelujah. Red, white, and blue. But do you know what? Every nation is his favorite. He loves them all. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Every single one of them. You know, while we live here, the things that are going on around the world, people who are experiencing injustice, breaks God's heart. The Kurds who are being slaughtered right now in the Middle East, it breaks God's heart. That's not a political statement, that's an eternal statement. The fact that there are people in other nations that do not have exposure to the gospel of Jesus Christ because the enemy has blinded them or they live under governments that do not allow that or they're under demonic influence, they are not the enemy, they're the ones that Jesus died for. In our country right now, to think that there are millions of unborn infants that have not even been able to take their first breath because they've been offered on the altar of convenience. That breaks God's heart. The fact that if the color of your skin is darker than the majority, that you have a different system of justice in our country, breaks God's heart. Those are not political statements, they're just realities that we live in and God sees those injustices. God sees the injustice in other countries, he sees it right here, he sees it in our homes, he sees the broken sadness, he sees the hurt, he sees the woundedness, he also sees our pride and our arrogance in his face, which is equally in injustice. And you know what he says to you and I to do? First of all, of first importance, before you do anything else, church, I want you to post all over Facebook about why you're right and everybody else is wrong. Of first importance, that's what I want you to do. A priority is I want you to jump on Twitter and I want you to get into a debate with somebody and just really tag them and just run them up the flagpole, make them look stupid. That'll show them we're Christians by our Twitter. Now I'm not saying anybody in this room does that or any of us on this platform are tempted to do that, but that's not what Jesus calls us to. He says I looked for somebody who would stand in the gap, get in the fight on our knees and pray and lift up those that my son Jesus went to the cross to win back to me. I'm not looking for somebody to be right in an argument. I'm looking for somebody to appeal to me on their knees to move heaven and earth. God, move in this person's life. God, pull off the blinders off of their eyes so that they can see how good you are. Lord, strip down the veneer and the layers of veneer of intellectualism and humanism and fleshly desires that are keeping them from you. God, I'm not gonna relent until I get justice because let me tell you what justice is. It's not a social justice, it's heavenly justice. The truest justice is when God gets what he deserves and the Lamb of God who is slain receives the rewards for which he suffered. That's true justice. That's what God wants us to intercede. That's why God wants us to intercede. He wants us to be people of prayer. Our first reaction is prayer. Let me ask a question this morning because I'm already meddling. What would happen if the time that we took to engage on social media on issues was secondary and we spent that time actually interceding and praying? First, would the world be different? No, the world would be the same. It really doesn't matter. My prayer doesn't matter. Then in actuality, by making that statement, we're living like practical atheists. We're saying it really doesn't matter. But if we really believe that God's looking for intercessors, if we really believe that God's as good as we say is, if we really believe that he hears the cries of the saints that, like Jesus said, don't stop praying, don't get tired praying, that if we pray that heaven would hear, hear us from heaven. If we really believe that, man, our first reaction should be to be people of prayer. What if we trained ourselves and became discipled to the degree that we said our first reaction is when we see something that's wrong, when we see or we encounter people in our life that are far away from Jesus, that maybe haven't heard the gospel or have even rejected the gospel or even mock and ridicule the gospel or mock and ridicule you for your belief in the gospel. What if our first reaction was to actually pray for them? Could that change anything? What did Jesus say? You've heard it said. How many know Jesus loved to meddle? So I'm in good company. Jesus said, you've heard it said, love your neighbor, hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your neighbor, but love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. Pray for them. Love your enemies. What's the greatest way that you can love your enemies? Pray for them. Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon, great preacher of the 1800s. He said, earnest intercession will be sure to bring love with it. I do not believe you can hate a man for whom you habitually pray. If you dislike any brother Christian, pray for him doubly, not only for his sake, but for yours only or yours also, that you may be cured of prejudice and saved from all unkind feelings. So the more you dislike somebody, the more you should pray for them. Think about that. When we intercede for others, you know what the Bible says happens to us? Our heart begins to change. You know, we all need heart change. None of us have it all together. Do you know why God through the Holy Spirit by the pen of Paul wrote, I want supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving for all men. Do you know why he wrote that? How do you give thanksgiving for people that are your enemies, that are different from you, that disagree with you, that are outside of the faith community? How in the world can I give thanks for people who even persecute me and use me wrong? It's because if we choose to intercede for them, what we're asking is, God, would you show me your heart for that person? Because what I'm seeing is all surface. Remember, we don't fight against flesh and blood. And when people react to us, when people hate us, when people mock us, or when people are indifferent towards us, because the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. Or when people have hurt us and injured us, or people, listen, when we come to realize there's people on this planet we will never meet, and we could probably go live our whole lives and their life is never going to matter to us because it doesn't intersect with our lives. If we could ever get to the point where we say, God, I'm gonna pray for them, not because there's something I get out of it, but I wanna pray because there's something that you get out of it, would you change my heart? Would you show me a glimpse of how you see them, beyond their voice, beyond their appearance, beyond their attitude? God, would you show me? If we take that to prayer, God will begin to show you how he sees them. He sees straight through the core of them, the same way he sees through the core of us. He sees not how they are, but how he always purposed them to be. If you need to see how God sees people, it's real simple. Look at the cross. Cross says it all. You know what? I don't feel like I'm worth very much. I don't feel like I have any value. I've been told all my life, I don't really matter. You're never gonna succeed. I've been told without words that I don't have much worth or value because everybody who loved me has turned their back on me, betrayed me, or left me. If that's you, all you gotta do is look at the cross. And God says, I love you this much. Look at your enemies. Say, how much do you love them, God? God says, look at the cross. When Jesus could have retaliated, how many of you know what feels good sometimes to retaliate? Let me just be honest, we're in church. Can't lie. Raise your hand if you've just, man, I just wanna retaliate. The zinger, the cut them off, the, you know, whatever. It feels good, right? But when Jesus had an opportunity to retaliate against us, and he would have been perfectly right to do so, you know what Jesus does? He says, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do. What if we were to say that to God? Help me to realize how they don't know what they're doing. Help me to see them like you see them. Help me to see them through the lens of the cross. And then, once my heart is moved, I'm praying for them. God have your way in their life. God move in their life. God change situations in their life. Whatever lies they believe from the enemy. Lord, would you dispel that? Your prayers are effective. The greatest tactic of the enemy is to get you convinced that you don't make a difference and your prayers don't make a difference. But your prayers are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. Your prayers, the fervent effectual prayer of a righteous person, it avails much. You've got the ability to change climate, circumstances, people's lives, all because you pray. Today, if I could just pull the slider back and show you the spiritual realm, you would see angels, you'd see demons, you'd see God seated high on the throne and you would see the devil scheming and deceiving and striving and stirring things up and planning this thought and trying to divide this person and get them to hate because we can turn on each other and destroy each other and we can win the battle and lose the war. But we would also see that when saints of God hit their knees and we cry out, God give us justice. God move miraculously. God shift things in our city. God win those that you went to the cross for. Use us God. Even those who we don't necessarily like God, we know that you love them, change my heart. I'll tell you what, atmospheres begin to shift and change. Jesus said it like this, and I'm gonna, this will be the last scripture that I use and I'm just gonna turn there because I didn't even write it down, but it's Luke 18. In Luke 18, Jesus said in verse number one, he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and to not lose heart. He said in a certain place there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, she's blowing my phone up, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? The whole parable was to say, look, here's a wicked judge who's an atheist and responding to a woman who is the lowest in society. A widow had no money, she had no family, she had no position, she had no power. But yet a judge ruled in her favor because of her persistence and her belief, her faith, that if I appeal continually, I will see justice happen. What if the people of God got over the idea that I don't have any spiritual juice, nobody's paying attention to me, God listens to other people, what if you show yourself the way God sees you and you're like a widow, you just kept coming and saying, God move my city, God shift my generation, God move in my family, God save my friend, do something in our church. You begin to pray like that. I'll tell you what it says, he will give justice speedily. I believe so many of the issues of justice in our culture of injustice are the result of God's people not praying. And the answer and the solution will be when God's people hit their knees in prayer as intercessors and we bombard the throne of heaven with the prayers of the saints. Let me close this morning, share with you this story, it's personal. When I was very young, I encountered the Lord in a very profound way and entered into a relationship with Jesus and my dad, my biological father did not like that. He had grown up in a Christian home, he had run away when he was 15 years old, got wrapped up in a lot of vices and made a decision in his heart that he was very antagonistic towards Christianity, towards the faith. So much so that when I was 17 years old and I was like raging on fire, almost on the verge of being obnoxious. And I showed up at his house with a big old Bible and he says, you're not bringing that book in my house. Bibles don't go in my house. So you can come in or you can leave, but the Bible doesn't come in. He would argue with my grandparents, bait them, argue them, mock them, ridicule them. He got caught up in all kinds of new age spiritism. He was very successful in the counseling world. He was teaching at seminars for new age and all kinds of stuff. Anything that wasn't Christianity, that's what he was wrapped up in. And as a young person, I began to pray for my dad. God saved my dad. My grandparents prayed for 30 plus years or longer for him to come home to the Lord. My great grandmother, who was a godly saint, prayed for my dad. And I can't tell you how many years that went on, but there were days where I did not feel like anything was moving. In fact, there were times when it got worse. And I'll never forget, it was 1996, it was a year Jane and I planted Radiant Church. It was about this time of the year. I got a phone call on a Sunday afternoon from my dad. And I was always kind of guarded with my dad. He knew who I was, he knew what I believed, but we just kind of didn't go there. And he said, well, what did you do today, son? I said, we had church. And he said, well, I went to church too. And I'm like, yeah, what kind of church is that? Like, did you worship a peanut butter sandwich and talk about your inner reincarnated cow or something? He always had some crazy spirit animal thing going on. And I'm like, okay, what church did you go to? He says, well, I went to Mount Zion, Lorenko Verubius' church. And I said, really? I said, so, well, what did you think? And he said, well, so I've been running for so long, son. And he said, I went to church this morning and I got Christianed. Said, I walked down to the front. I've been running so long trying to hold God off, stiff arm God. And it was my pride and it was my arrogance. He said, but today I just surrendered and I invited Jesus to be the Lord of my life. You know, my dad went home to be with the Lord about five years ago. But before he died, he was an amazing grandfather. He went to Bible school, graduated Bible school, went to ministry counselor's school, was a counselor in his church. And one of my greatest, greatest joys in life is watching my dad all those years in the front row with his hands up, worshiping God, tears streaming down his face. He had been reconciled to the Father. And you know, even in my weak prayers, even in the times I didn't think that it mattered, all those prayers somehow added all up together and partnered with God who loved him and brought about salvation in his life. It's a testimony. And you know, I know this, I know that right now he's doing the very same thing in the throne room of heaven. What we think doesn't matter actually changes eternity. Your prayers matter. Your prayers touch the heart of God. Your prayers change things. God's looking, who will stand in the gap? God's looking for us to be a people that will stand in the gap. Would you stand up with me? This morning, before we go, I want to answer the question. Who will stand in the gap? Who will rebuild the wall? I want you right now, if you would, would you just close your eyes, make space between you and the Lord? Here's what I know that the Holy Spirit is gonna do this morning. He has people on his heart that are close to you, that are in proximity to you, that live in your sphere, in your workplace, in your school, in your household, your friend's circle, your acquaintances, people that Jesus died for, that he wants to use you to pray into the kingdom, that have needs that he wants you to lift up and pray for them. God's willing to move when we move. And right now, if you're here and you say, Lord, I don't necessarily know how, but I'm saying yes, I will pray for those who are on your heart. If that's the cry of your heart this morning, I just want you to raise your hand all over the room. You're saying, I'll say yes, I want to stand in the gap. In the midst of the battle for souls and lives of people, I'll stand in the gap, I'll pray. Okay, put your hand down. Now, here's what I want you to do. Don't look around, this is just you and the Lord. I want you to ask the Lord, Lord, this morning, would you show me a face or a name of someone that's on your heart? Show me who you want me to intercede for. It might be more than one. It might be a group of people. It might be a region, a city, an environment. It might be an individual, a face, a name. It might be somebody that you are close to. It might be somebody that you don't know, but just ask him, Lord, show me who this next week you want me to intercede for. Who's on your heart that you're pursuing, that you want me to partner with you and your heart to see brought into the kingdom of God? Now, what I want you to do, so I want you to open your eyes. And if you had a name, a face, or a specific person that you know, God just dropped into your heart. I want you to raise your hand. Look at that. Guys, I think the wall's about to get built back up, and I think the gap's about ready to be filled. God's about to move in people's lives. With our hands up, Lord, we say, we're here to stand in the gap. We're here to be a people of prayer. We're here to rebuild the walls. God, would you move our hearts so that our heart sees people the way that you see them? That, Lord, we're able to pray in sync and in unity with your heart for those that your son shed his precious blood to redeem. Lord, we can't save anybody. Only you can do that. But we're called to pray. And 100% of the prayers that we don't pray don't get answered. We make a decision, we're gonna pray. We're gonna pray like it matters. We're gonna pray like you hear. We're gonna pray like angels move. We're gonna pray like the gates of hell shake and shutter. And we're gonna pray that every lie of the enemy is dispelled, the blinders are pulled back, and the light of the glory and the beauty and the power of Jesus Christ penetrates the walls that have been built so that people can see you, know you, and have a relationship with you, Jesus. We're gonna be a people of prayer. We will stand in the gap in this battle. You are our shield and our glorious God, worthy of all our praise. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.