How Then Should We Pray? The 2024 National Day of Prayer
May 2, 2024
Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guests: Evangelist Dave Kistler, Dr. Steve Harrelson, Dr. Isaac Crockett
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 5/2/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning this dialogue.
Sam Rohrer: On July, 2017, 75, the Continental Congress issued a proclamation recommending a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer that it’d be observed. Then in 1795, George Washington proclaimed a day of public Thanksgiving and prayer On May 9th, 1798, John Adams declared this day as a day of solemn, humility, fasting and prayer. Then on March 3rd, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed a Congressional resolution during the Civil War, which called for April 30th, 1863 as a day of fasting and prayer. Then in 1952 by a joint resolution of the US Congress signed in the law by President Harry Truman. The first Thursday of May of year was established as the National Day of Prayer. Well, today is the National Day of Prayer, the first Thursday of May and on this program today I and three stand in the Gap today, co-hosts that you know very well will answer several key questions about prayer, read some powerful prayers from the past, and will share five biblical requirements throughout the program for answered prayer, attempt to demonstrate important considerations of prayer and demonstrate how we should pray by each of us praying at some point during the program.
Sam Rohrer: So I invite you right now to sit down if you’re able and join with us in prayer for our nation, our people, our leaders, and for repentance before God of our leaders and our people. The title for today’s program is this, how then Should We Pray On today’s program, co-host and pastor Steve Harrelson will be joining me in just a moment for the entire hour. Co-host and evangelist Dr. Dave Kissler will be with us for the first two segments. Then Dr. Isaac Crockett will join Pastor Harrelson and me for the second half of today’s program. Dr. Jamie Mitchell and Gary Doll are both involved in other prayer events and so they will not be able to be with us. Alright Dave, so glad that you are here today. You are busy and I’m glad that you can be a part of this, but let’s get right into this because the original joint resolution by Congress establishing this National Day of Prayer did so asking people to turn to God in prayer in meditation and it seems like if the need was great in 1863, it sure is an emergency today according to the Barnett Group Dave, only 79% of American adults say they have prayed at least once in the last three months.
Sam Rohrer: Only 24% of them see any need to pray for our nation or government. The bulk praying for personal things of those 79% according to Survey who pray at least once every calendar quarter, less than 50% say that if they pray to God believe that Jesus Christ is God. So in essence, the overwhelming majority of the American people, including our leaders, think that if there’s any benefit in praying, it must be in the act of praying not to whom they direct their prayer or how they pray. So here we go. Dave, start us out. Could you lay out today by answering this key question when we pray, to whom should we pray and for what purpose should we be praying today?
Dave Kistler: Well Sam, great question and let me say it’s a delight and honor to be on with you and Steve and of course I’m going to miss Isaac a little later, but it’s an honor to be on with you. In Luke 11, the disciples ask Jesus point blank, Lord teach us to pray and what they meant by that was teach us how to pray. And Jesus said, well, when you pray, start with this, our father who aren’t in heaven. So in other words, we’re praying to God the Father, so the person to whom we pray is absolutely essential and I appreciate so much what you said. It’s not just the act of praying that is so important, it’s the one to whom we’re praying that is vitally important. Then if I could just cite two Chronicles chapter number six in chapter six beginning in verse 13, Solomon who was the son of the first king of Israel builds a basically nine by nine by about five foot tall platform, gets down on his knees and begins to pray and in his prayer he says this, he says, if thy people Israel be put to the worst before the enemy because they have sinned against thee and they shall return and confess thy name and pray and make supplication before the in this house, then hear thou from the heavens and forgive the sin of thy people Israel.
Dave Kistler: He goes on and says, if the heavens be shut up and there’s no rain because they have sinned against thee, yet if they pray toward this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou just afflict them, then hear from heaven and forgive their sin of thy servants and I could keep going on all the way through the rest of the chapter. Then we get over into that wonderful revival chapter. It’s sometimes called two Chronicles seven where God responds to Solomon and in verse 13 of chapter seven, God says, indeed, if I shut up the heavens and there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people which are called by my name shall, and here’s the first thing, God mentions humble themselves. So Sam, we need to be praying to God the father, but it starts with humility and confession of our sin.
Sam Rohrer: Perfect, perfect and ladies and gentlemen, not only does successful praying when you pray, I hope you expect to get some results, but it starts with praying to the God of heaven through Jesus Christ. The Bible gives us five requirements for answered prayer. The first one I’d like to share right now is this, we are to pray without ceasing. Paul the Apostle Paul ones five 17 says, pray without ceasing. My on that is this, what does that mean? Well, it means that we walk in a forever state of awareness of the presence of God in an attitude of humility and submission, recognizing that our needs, our strength for the day for living comes not from within ourselves but from the hand of Almighty God. It’s a state of continual dependence upon him and can I suggest that that’s not possible unless you have invited Jesus Christ into your life and the Holy Spirit is there. I’m just going to leave it at that. Pray without ceasing. Brother Steve, thank you for being here and I would just like you at this moment close this segment in prayer by bringing before the Lord anything that you’ve heard already discussed here in this segment,
Steve Harrelson: I’ll be glad to let’s all bow and pray together. Our father in heaven, we just want to approach your throne today with gratitude and with humility and yet with boldness because as we are here today interceding, we are imagining you seated upon your throne in the third heaven and we just want to fall down before you right now and intercede for our nation. Father, we know that our nation is a nation that you raised up and established as a nation whose God is the Lord and we just want to stop and confess our utter dependence upon you and realize that we are nothing without you and that without you America will fall. But yet Father in you, we live and we move and we have our being and we need you now more than we ever have. And we pray that you would strike fear in the hearts of those who rebel against you and that you would use us as instruments to help bring them to a state of repentance because Father, your glory is at stake and your glory means more than anything. Father, we want to commit these things to you and confess along with Abraham Kuper, that there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human experience over which Christ who is sovereign over overall does not cry mine or we love you and thank you for what you’ll do for us and for our nation. In Jesus name, amen.
Sam Rohrer: How then should we pray our special emphasis today here on standard and gap today on this 2024 National Day of Prayer. In the last segment, evangelist Dave Kissler shared that if we want our prayers for this nation or frankly any prayer to be answered, we must start with the prayer of confession of sin agreeing with God that we are sinners, we’ve been talking but we talk about it all the time, accepting God’s gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But Dave also emphasized that our prayers must be directed to the God of heaven, our father who art in heaven. And he didn’t say it but he was saying it. That means not to the God of government or praying to some God of our own making. To the contrary, the fact that less than one out of four people recent survey Shay who pray, feel any need to pray for our nation, which obviously at this juncture as we have this program undergoing increasing turmoil and lawlessness demonstrates just how far we’ve moved as a nation from our beginning foundations filled in a Judeo-Christian worldview and a recognized dependence on the mercies of God.
Sam Rohrer: Steve, you let us in prayer and he closed the last segment in prayer and I asked Dave and he answered the question of this, to whom should we pray and for what should we pray Now, could you just take just a couple minutes, just very briefly and address the question of why should we pray this is a national day of prayer. Why should we pray for our nation, our leaders, and for our people?
Steve Harrelson: Brother Sam, that’s an excellent question. I would say that first of all, we should pray because we are invited and commanded to pray by our Lord. In fact, the word of God says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The book of Colossians says, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving, Ephesians praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So we are invited and commanded to pray. But Brother Sam, one of my favorite reasons to pray is also for the sake of intimacy. We don’t come to God simply with a wishlist as if he were a genie in a bottle. We come to him because we want to be with him.
Steve Harrelson: In other words, we want to be with those that we love, not necessarily because we want something that they can do for us, but because we want that person and as persons who are made in the image of God, I believe that sometimes we forget that God has feelings, God wants to be wanted and he wants to spend time with us even much more than we want to spend time with him because he delights in us. Another reason that we should pray is because Jesus prayed. In fact, Jesus taught us how to pray. I love what he says over and over again. Jesus needed to hear from God. He needed to receive instruction from his father. He needed to know the father’s words and his will and his commands. Our Lord said this for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command what I should say and what I should speak.
Steve Harrelson: We pray because prayer is how we speak to God. God speaks to us through his precious word. He teaches us, he feeds us. We need to hear from him. But Brother Sam, we also need to pray the sake of other people through intercession James five 16, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. And I love what Paul said to Timothy, therefore I exhort first of all that all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving a thanks be made for all men, for kings, for all that are in authority. And finally, we need to pray because we need daily power. And if we want to be strong in the Lord, in the power of his might, we must spend time with God so that we can have that special anointing on our own lives.
Sam Rohrer: Thank you so much Steve. Dave, let’s go here at a time in our nation. We’re in great crisis. You’ve said it, I’ve said it. And there was another time of great crisis. President Lincoln issued a proclamation 1863 urging prayer by our entire nation then and citing reasons why it was so critical. Could I ask you now to read that short proclamation and after reading it, would you just move into prayer and you pray for our nation, pray for the things perhaps of greatest importance as highlighted by President Lincoln nearly 161 years ago,
Dave Kistler: Sam. I will. And boy, this is powerful ladies and I don’t know if you’ve ever read this, but listen to what Lincoln said, 1863 whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependences upon the overruling power of God to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the holy scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And in so much as we know that by his divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolate our land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people, we have been the recipients of the choices boundaries of heaven.
Dave Kistler: We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has grown, but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us. And we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all of these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own intoxicated with unbroken success. We have too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness and that is as powerful as anything anyone could say. And if I could say this, for the most part, across the length and breadth of our country and certainly in our positions of highest power, whether it be on the local level, state level, federal level, you’re not hearing anyone acknowledge that we’ve transgressed against God like this.
Dave Kistler: However, I do want to say this before I pray, Sam, a young congressman, just newly elected stop me, grabbed me by the arm just a few months ago and as he walked past me, he said, preacher, he said, if God doesn’t intervene, if God doesn’t have mercy, we’re done. And I grabbed his arm, I said, hang on just a second. I said, you know what? I’ve believed that for a long time, but when I hear a member of Congress acknowledge that that is beyond encouraging and we need a lot more of that certainly in our nation, let’s do this. Let’s just bow briefly and pray over some of these things. Father, I want to thank you that you’re the God of all the earth and Lord, as Lincoln acknowledged, you are that power. You are that person that has bestowed beneficent things upon this nation, rich blessings of which we really are not deserving.
Dave Kistler: And yet despite all of that, we have responded in arrogance. And Lord, we thought it’s our own resiliency, it’s our own entrepreneurial spirit. It’s our own ability that has acquired these things. And Lord, it is nothing of the sort. It’s all because of you and Lord, today we acknowledge that and pray you’d forgive us for our arrogance, our pride, our self-sufficiency, have mercy on us as a nation. Turn us God back to you and in humble repentance and confession, may we seek your face as your word implores in two Chronicles seven and Father, may you hear from heaven. May you forgive our individual and national sins and Lord, may you heal our land and we ask these things in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus. Amen.
Sam Rohrer: Amen. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not only told to pray without ceasing but the Bible also tells us in Psalm 66 and verse 18 that we must pray with a pure heart, with no unconfessed sin. Psalm 60 16 says this, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So how important is it for a pure heart, our verdict relationship with the Lord? If we carry unconfessed sin, bitterness, anger others and we don’t have that confessed, not only will God say he won’t even answer our prayer, he won’t even hear us. Steve, we have just a short amount of time. I’d like you if you could in the book of Ezra, Ezra chapter nine, Ezra has a prayer very similar to Lincoln’s. Would you pray that and just pray right up until the break?
Steve Harrelson: Absolutely. Let’s bow and pray praying Ezra’s prayer. Father, the word of God says and that the evening sacrifice, I rose from my fasting with my garment and my cloak torn and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, saying, oh my God, I’m ashamed and I blush to lift my faith up to you. My God. For our iniquities have risen higher than our heads and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens from the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt and for our iniquities, we our kings, our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering and to utter shame as it is today but now for a brief moment, favor has been shown by the Lord our God to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within this place that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery.
Steve Harrelson: For we were bond men, yet God has extended to us his steadfast love and now oh our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments which you commanded by your servants, the prophets and after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, oh Lord God of Israel, you are just, we are left a remnant that has escaped as it is today. Behold we are before you in our guilt for none can stand before you because of this.
Sam Rohrer: Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you sense the tone of both what Lincoln said, what Dave prayed and what brother Steve just prayed from Ezra a long time ago. We are in great need. Well if you’re just joining us today on this designated National Day of Prayer for America, I and our stand in the gap today, cohost team not involved in this hour, Jamie and Gary, they’re not with us, are with us today and we are dedicating this program entirely to prayer the requirements for answered prayer. In the last two segments, evangelists Dave Kisler joined Pastor Steve Harrelson and me and he’s now had to move on to other things but the balance of the program today joining Steve and I will be Dr. Isaac Crockett due to actual involvements in day prayer events. As I mentioned, we are not, Gary Doll and Jamie are not able to be with us, but we are praying for them.
Sam Rohrer: Thank God will bless where they are. But with that Isaac, it’s great to have you now for the balance of the program and in the Old Testament there are three recorded national prayers, ladies and gentlemen, made by what we would call today political leaders. Each prayer happens to be in the ninth chapter of the respective books. Ezra chapter nine has the prayer that Steve just closed in the last segment reading. Then there is Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah chapter nine and we won’t be reading that today. But then Daniel, a prophet and a politician also prayed a prayer for his nation of Israel and it’s so applicable to our need for America in 2024 and I hope that you sense that their prayers long ago are just about the same as what ours is today and it’s very similar to the proclamation from President Lincoln in 1863 that Dave read in the last segment. Isaac here, what I’d like you to do, if you could, would you read a portion of Daniel’s prayer from Daniel chapter nine and then you lead our listeners and ourselves to prayer for our nation, specifically focusing on the need for spiritual awakening and awareness of our sin as identified by Lincoln in 63 proclamation and the prayer of Ezra, which he did about 2,500 years ago.
Isaac Crockett: Alright, well this is Daniel chapter nine, and I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, oh Lord, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. We have sinned and committed iniquity and acted wickedly and rebelled. Turning aside from your commandments and rules we have not listened to your servants, the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land, to you, oh Lord belongs righteousness, but to us open shame because we have sinned against the Lord.
Isaac Crockett: We have sinned against the Lord, we have rebelled against thee and all this evil has come upon us, yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth, therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doth for we have not obeyed his voice. Oh Lord, here. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, harken and do delay not for thy own sake. Oh my God, let’s humble ourselves now and confess our sins to the Almighty God, almighty, eternal, powerful, and yet gracious, merciful, father, we your people of this nation and even on whose buildings and monies, it says in God we trust, we have lied, we have not trusted in you. We have put our trust in our own ways.
Isaac Crockett: We like sheep have gone astray and we have followed too much the desires of our hearts. We have followed too much the wisdom of this world and not the wisdom of above. We have not sought for your kingdom or for your righteousness and for that we have offended you and your holy laws. We have failed to do the things you have explicitly explained and told us to do in your word. And we have sought after the things you have told us to avoid, much like Adam and Eve in the garden going for the fruit that was forbidden. We have gone for everything it seems that has forbidden and we have turned this righteousness and justice upside down in so doing our Father, we pray for mercy. We pray that you would spare us, that you would spare all of those, the thousands and millions of Christians who today are confessing our faults and begging for mercy.
Isaac Crockett: We pray that you would spare us. Bless us and forgive us. We pray that you would restore those who come to you according to your promises that you have given us, that we can come boldly into your throne room, an awesome sovereign throne room, but it’s a throne of grace and so we come for that grace. So merciful, father, we pray now that through the power of Jesus Christ living in us, that through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we might live in a way that is godly and righteous in your sight, that we might walk carefully circumspectly not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time to the glory of your name, almighty God again, have mercy on us. Forgive our sins individually and nationally. Forgive our leaders that you have given us who are weak and have made so many errors and have made us weaker and strengthen all of us through Jesus Christ who know the truth, the life and the way through Jesus. I pray that our sins, though they are many, would be forgiven and blotted out white as snow. And I pray that you would strengthen us in the goodness that comes only through your word and through the power of the Holy Spirit unto you. Be all the glory for your kingdom’s sake and for your name. Oh Father, we love you. Amen.
Sam Rohrer: Thank you Isaac for leading our national audience to the Lord in prayer. Ladies and gentlemen, as you’ve heard Isaac pray and you’ve heard Steve pray and Dave pray and we will, three of us will be praying. Yet the balance of this program, isn’t it an amazing thing that God and his mercy has given all of us who are his children, the rare privilege of entering boldly into his presence in prayer. Sadly, most people consider prayer like Steve, you said a little while ago, going to the local smorgasboard where we can just pick off the shelf what we want to satisfy some immediate desire. But ladies and gentlemen, far too often we approach prayer before God the same way where we think approaching God in prayer is like approaching Santa Claus with some wishlist rather than approaching a holy God in humble worship, I’ve already shared the Bible has five clear requirements for answered prayer.
Sam Rohrer: If we want our prayers answered, we must remember these. I’ve shared two so far. First prayer requirement number one, pray without ceasing, meaning being a continual attitude of gratitude and dependence before God that knowing we cannot without him do anything. Second requirement we shared was we must pray with a pure heart and no unconfessed sin. Reason is otherwise if we hold sin in our heart, God said in Psalm 66 18, he will not even hear our prayers, but the Bible gives us another requirement for prayer. This is number three, this must pray in faith believing Matthew 2122 says this whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall receive. Then in James one verse six, James says, but when we pray for wisdom or for anything, let him ask In faith nothing wavering. So faith, believing we must believe that when we go to God and ask him that he actually will do it.
Sam Rohrer: And then there’s a fourth requirement and that is this, we must pray with a selfless God focused motive. So many times not doing this one will stop our prayers from even being answered in James again chapter four and verse three, James says this, ye ask and yet receive not why? Because you ask a mess wrong motive that you may consume it upon your own lusts. See you ladies and gentlemen. How many times we go thinking about ourselves selfish? Prayers are sinful prayers, sinful prayers are dangerous. Prayers encouraging the very judgment of God. Yet as we know from the barn and research I share at the beginning of the program, the great majority of all prayers being offered up by those who say they pray in this country are personal, selfish to consume it upon their own sinful lust. So on this day of prayer, may we begin to pray to God anew in accordance to biblical requirements, not for our sake or even for our nation’s sake, but for the glory of God.
Sam Rohrer: Steve, if you could here in the last little bit we have, I would like for you to again close this segment as we’re looking around this country, lawlessness is filling our streets, paid rioters are rising up in opposition to Israel and the Jewish people. Ultimately, they’re raising their fists against God. We know and God’s plan and Christian people truth itself, truth has fallen literally in the streets. And to me, Steve, it seems like God’s speaking and judgment, but very few seem to understand what’s happening is God is speaking to us. So pray as you feel led now for our spiritual condition in this country.
Steve Harrelson: Amen. Let’s pray. Master, you have said in your word that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Father, what we need today, we need Christians to be holy, to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, to be bold as a lion and willing to call out sin. But yet Father, we need to be loving, loving and uncompromising. We need to be different. We need to be informed and anointed and driven. And Father, we know that we live in a land of turmoil. And Lord, it’s disgusting at times, but we pray that in the midst of turmoil that you, the God of peace, would fill us with your peace. May you give us answers to a longing world that will be confounding and informative, but yet may we have compassion and winsomeness that is overpowering. Father, we pray that you would silence your enemies and that you would prevail and make it clear who your children are, by our words and our actions. Father, may our light be bright and may we be used to shine out the darkness in our nation. We love you and commit these things into your hands and for your glory. In Christ’s name,
Sam Rohrer: Amen. Amen. Steve, ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you are praying along with us today. Stay with us, we’ll be back for the conclusion. And Lord willing, as we’re able, all three of us here will be praying as we close the prayer, as we close today’s emphasis on prayer and this national day of prayer, we’ve presented thus far four prayer requirements as identified in scripture as necessary. If God is going to answer our prayer, first pray without ceasing. Secondly, we’ve identified pray with a pure heart and no unconfessed sin. Thirdly, pray in faith, believing. Fourth, pray with a selfless God focused motive. And then there’s number five, prayer requirement number five is this. We must pray for God’s will to be done according to the word of God and accurately reflected in Lincoln’s proclamation for prayer and fasting and mentioned throughout our program today in a number of ways, what are our greatest sins today in America?
Sam Rohrer: What are those sins for which we need to confess and forsake when we come before God in a confession of sins, which we’re told if we do that he will forgive us. There is the assumption and the understanding that we have to name our sin. If we’re not specific there, we’re not confessing. It’s not just, oh Lord, forgive me because sometimes I sin. Nope, that doesn’t work. It’s Lord, forgive me, I confess my sin, idolatry perhaps or of fevery, maybe I stole something or lying. We have to call it what God calls it. But here as we conclude this, lemme go back and just highlight from Lincoln’s proclamation because what he said there came right off the pages of scripture. These are seven things that I pulled out of his proclamation. One, he said, it is the duty of nations as well as of men personally to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow.
Sam Rohrer: James four, six says, supporting that statement, God gives grace to the humble, but he resists the proud. Then there’s many Old Testament passage. Deuteronomy eight is a great one where God says to Israel, after I’ve made you wealthy and blessed you mightily if you walk away and think that you did it yourself. That’s idolatry arising out of pride. God says, I’ll turn all blessings to judgment. The second one, that was second point in Lincoln’s proclamation, he says, we have forgotten God and that as we know that by his divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements. That is that same passage in Deuteronomy chapter eight and it’s also Deuteronomy chapter eight verse 15 where God says, if you cease to fear me and keep my commandments, I will turn all your blessings into judgments. And actually twice as many judgments as the blessings I gave, there was a third one and third point Lincoln said that we are presumptuous in our sins and need a national transformation of our entire people.
Sam Rohrer: It was nationwide. Now what that means is arrogant and defiant and proud. Proud in our sin, presumptuous in our sins, redefining God’s eternal, proclaiming good to be evil and evil good. Is that not what we have done and are doing as a nation? Answer is obviously yes. There was a fourth point that Lincoln cited a principle from scripture. He said this, we have been blessed by God, but we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. That is exactly from Deuteronomy chapter eight verses six to 20. A fifth point I found in there, he said this, we have become in intoxicated with unbroken success. Isn’t that something amazing? People we think in America we’re too great to fall. We think that we’re smarter than everybody else, intoxicated with unbroken success.
Sam Rohrer: It’s idolatry worshiping stuff and things. Number six, there was a six point he said, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace. Too proud to pray to the God that made us in America. We don’t even need God anymore. How do we know that? Well, it’s evident all around us. Matter of fact, we also know from Barna surveys that less than 4%, less than 4% of all Americans have a biblical worldview. And that starts with God made us. That’s incredible. And then a seventh point, he said at the end, we must pray for clemency and for forgiveness. Well, you don’t pray for clemency and forgiveness until you recognize that you have sinned these sins, all of which God has called out in his word. So may that be a focus for all of us, not just today, but beyond this day.
Sam Rohrer: What we’re going to do, since I have not yet prayed, I’m going to pray and then Steve, or actually Isaac, lemme come back to you. Why don’t you then pray after me and if it goes up to the end, just pray to the end and of time, then you can come after Steve. We’ll do it in that order. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to you that you have given us opportunity to come into your throne room, that you have told us how to pray. You have told us in your word the requirements for by which we must present ourselves when we pray or you will not hear us. And Lord, I would ask for those who are listening to this program, most all probably believers, Lord, the only ones who have an actual access with confidence to your throne room are believers. And yet, Lord, we are told that your people, us must lead the way to repentance.
Sam Rohrer: That judgment First must start in the house of God to I Lord. But I pray that those who are listening, those who acknowledge that you are the word, that you are the way, you are the truth, that you are the authority that we would begin like never before to live with an earnestness and a commitment and a motivation to holy living and obedience before you so that in fact you can bless us, may our light because of that shine bright and may we assault as salt in this world be a preserving element empowered by your Holy Spirit to do that which is clearly not being done across this country. We are desperate and in need of your intervention, oh Lord, before you, we put these things in Jesus’ name,
Isaac Crockett: Our sovereign, creator, and loving Father. We come now to again ask for grace, for forgiveness, for strength, for wisdom, for our nation, for our pastors, for our churches, for our parents, for individuals who claim the name of Christ. I pray that we will live in that name as Christ taught us to live, that we would love you with a true love, obeying your commandments, being salt and light, being children of light and not children of darkness in these dark days. And as we have been praying throughout this program for your glory and for your kingdom to come, for your forgiveness, for your help, and for your strength, we pray that in all of the requests, all of the petitions that have come from our hearts, that as you listen to these, Lord, you would remember that you have promised us that where two or three are gathered together, that the Lord Jesus Christ is in our midst.
Isaac Crockett: And today we think of the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, maybe even right now, joining in their hearts with us in prayer from this program, millions across this nation, praying, we pray, oh Lord, that you would answer these prayers, but that you would answer in the way that you see fit, that you would answer these petitions, that you would grant our desires in a way that brings you glory and brings us closer to a loving knowledge of Jesus Christ and brings us closer to a faithful life of living it out for your glory, for your church, for your kingdom to come and all these things. We pray this through the power of Jesus Christ, our redeemer and our king, through the strength of your Holy Spirit unto your glory, because we love you, Lord. You are so great. It’s in your name again, we pray. We love you. Amen.
Sam Rohrer: Amen. Amen. Isaac, Steve, thank you so much for being part, ladies and gentlemen. I pray that if you’ve been with us, this program that you would not forget this moment, but let us all with a renewed commitment, go forth in obedience for God’s word.
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