Preparing The Heart To Pray (Video) — Shane Idleman

Awakening the Heart from Spiritual Slumber

Message this morning is on prayer, preparing the heart to pray. And I shared with the first service, that song we sang was so profound, and it is so profound, and maybe it just moved my heart. Sometimes it does that, it doesn't really touch other hearts.

But when we sing those lyrics, Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me, wake me from my slumber, from my sleep. What can happen in the lives of all Christians if we're not careful, is we can go from passion, and having a fire for God, and wanting to do things for God, into sleep mode.

Rock-a-bye, lullaby, go back to sleep, church. That's what the devil loves to do, go back to sleep. It's wonderful for a three-month-old, but it's terrible by the time we're in our 30s, to sleep when God has called us to awaken.

So I want to encourage you this morning to maybe think about that. Has the Spirit of the living God fallen afresh on you? Awaken you from your sleep? And we can often see that in worship. I know I mention this sometimes, but those who are awake, and want to worship God, and have a vibrant relationship, versus those who are bored to death.

The Spirit of the living God has not fallen upon them. Because when that happens, you're filled with God's Spirit. In the same way that Paul talks about being filled with alcohol, or being filled with God's Spirit.

Either one of those Spirits is controlling you. When you give over to alcohol, that Spirit is controlling you, and your speech is controlled. Your actions are influenced. What's controlling you, Paul says, but be filled with the Spirit of God.

So your speech is controlled by the Spirit of God. Your actions are controlled by the Spirit of God. And I would submit to you that most people walking within our churches in America are not filled with the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God has not fallen afresh on them. There's not a vibrant prayer life. There's not a heart of worship. And I'm hoping that we can help this morning. So the title is Preparing the Heart to Pray.

Testing Popular Religious Slogans Against Scripture

And as you know, we've been in a series, the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible doesn't say that. Do you ever come across scriptures, or you hear people quote scriptures, and you say, the Bible doesn't say that.

One that's been in the news lately is a doctor who actually performs abortions and thinks he's doing God a favor, and he uses the text of the Good Samaritan. As the Good Samaritan would go around doing good things, he uses that text to support his agenda.

And what we're seeing also in America is they'll use scriptures such as do not judge, and they want to pass every type of ungodly law under the banner of God is love. Isn't it interesting? They say God is love, but they forget that God is holy.

God is righteous. God is a judge, a just judge. And we can't look at certain attributes or certain scriptures. We look at the whole scripture of God. And when it comes on this area of prayer, I was gonna use this title, but I changed my mind back to this one.

Asking According to God's Will Rather Than Claiming Personal Desires

Ask and you will receive, sometimes. Because one of the scriptures that people take out of context is ask and you will receive. Come on, brother, just believe it and you will receive it. That's where the name and claim it comes from.

Just name it and claim it. Ask and you will receive. Oh, that Lamborghini, it's just months away. I can feel it. I'm just God, and we start to have a wrong view of God because it's not about what I want.

It's really about lining up your prayer life with the heart of God. What does God want? And then as God's heart lines up with your heart and you begin to pray, that prayer takes on power because now it's infused by the spirit of God because now you're praying according to God's will.

So yes, you can ask and you will receive, but there are conditions that often need to be met. So the pattern of history in the Bible is this. Before God moves in outward, visible power in the world, he also moves in inward purity in the hearts of his people.

To say it a different way, before God moves outwardly and brings revival, brings awakening, God changed my home. Do you ever pray that? Changed my work environment. Changed this. Changed that. Often, he's gonna change you first.

See, from that fire within, that's how the fire goes without. John Wesley said, you wanna see the pew burn? Set the pulpit on fire. And people will come to watch you burn. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing.

Burn with the Holy Spirit of God. We should talk about that more often. John the Baptist even said of Jesus, he will come and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. There should be a burning, a passion, a desire, an unction, anointing to do things for God.

But that only comes from the prayer closet. And actually, preaching really comes from the prayer closet. People picture people on computers preparing sermons or sitting in their study, writing down things.

It really is developed in the prayer closet where God loads the weapon and then the hammer is released and the bullet goes out because what was loaded in the prayer closet comes out in the sermon. At least it should in the lives of most pastors.

Personal Transformation Before Cultural and National Revival

So think about that. We're wanting God to move in our state. Do you know the numbers of how many people are moving, leaving California weekly? It's way up there. God, move in our state. And I want to remind people, oh, if it's coming, if it's happening in California, it's coming.

It's coming all across the United States. As California goes, so goes the nation. So you can't go run and hide somewhere. We have to stand up and fight and hold our ground. God, change our state, change our nation, change God, Lord, look at what's going on.

Is not the culture divide getting worse? Folks, we're talking about murdering children at nine months. Killing elderly people, those with Down syndrome. Anti-Israel statements that hate the Jewish nation.

Gay marriage is being promoted and pushed. And if you don't believe in it, you are a homophobe and a hater. It's actually, the opposite is true. And if you have our electronic bulletin, I was on Fox News Thursday, we shared it on there.

I have two minutes to answer thousands of questions. But my point was, people cannot shift on this issue. Morality doesn't shift. Morality stays solid. People shift, morality doesn't. It has nothing to do with a hater, it has to do with a lover.

We love people. Nobody's taking me up on this, but I wanna offer them a lie detector test. You say I'm a hater, let's take a lie detector test. I'll ask you questions, you ask me questions, you'll find out.

See, they smoke screen all of this. So if God is gonna move in our culture, if he's gonna move in our nation, if he's gonna move in your home and your community, he's gonna move in you first. But don't we want God to do things without us?

Lord, you change it. I just wanna stay comfortable. You deal with it. I just wanna stay here, comfortable Christianity. You won't find that concept taught in the Bible. Comfortable Christianity. Relaxed Christianity.

Lazy Christianity. You'll find lukewarm. Is it a good thing? Jesus said hot, be hot or cold. If you're lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. And it's just, this battle is really fought in the prayer closet.

Preparing the Heart Through Obedience

If you want to have a passion for God, prayer has got to become a priority. A priority. It's something we put on the calendar, something that is important to us. We must prepare the heart to pray. An athlete prepares, correct?

Look up what an Olympic athlete does before their Olympics. It's a crazy schedule. They prepare, they prepare for a medal that fades away and is gone. The farmer prepares. A student prepares at school.

Soldiers prepare. How much more should Christians prepare their heart? And for me, I agree with what Robert Murray McShaney said many years ago, that I spend most of my time praying, preparing to pray.

So do you, I'm sure. You spend most of your time preparing to pray. So what I'm borrowing here are some notes from Al Whittinghill. He's gonna speak next weekend. I think you have it as a handout. I grabbed some of the scriptures and I think it's a wonderful way to get our hearts ready for this.

So here's the keys, or here's keys to preparation. You need a willing mind, an open heart, and an obedient will. Are those not difficult? A willing mind, what's a willing mind say? Lord, I'm willing to do this.

An open heart, Lord, whatever you wanna do, and an obedient will. Now, I wish I could do the whole sermon on this topic of obedience, because there's power in simple obedience. I think the reason many prayers are not answered is because we're not obeying God in certain areas.

God says, do this. I say, nope, but I'm gonna keep praying. God says, do this. Nope, I'm gonna keep praying. Lord, why aren't you opening doors? Why isn't this happening? Why aren't you doing this? Go back to what I told you first, simple obedience.

Moses obeyed God. David obeyed. Elisha obeyed. Kings obeyed. Priests obeyed. Prophets obeyed. And God would move on their behalf. What happened when there was disobedience? God would not move. He said, is my ear not heavy that I cannot hear you?

Of course I can hear you. Is my hand not short that I cannot save you? But what, your sins, your iniquities have hid my eyes from you. So I cannot see you. I cannot turn to you and help you. Of course he could, but see, there's something called sin and disobedience that prevents many prayers from being answered.

We think God will still answer my prayers even though I'm not obeying him. And I know it's convicting, but it's meant to be because without this initial first step, it's hard to get prayers answered. It's hard to get into a deep abiding prayer life without obedience taking place.

Confidence in Prayer According to God's Will

1 John 5, and this is the confidence that we have in him. So where's your confidence at? In your friends, in social media, checkbook, retirement, all these things? No, it's this confidence we have in God that if we ask anything, anything, he hears us.

Did I forget something? Anything? Anything according to his will. See, what obedience does, obedience lines you up with God's will. When I obey him, I'm lined up with his will. So as I'm lined up with his will, now my prayers change from self-focus to other's focus.

Now it changes from what I want to what I need. So your prayer life lines up with obedience. Does that make sense? The more you obey him, the more you're filled with his spirit, the more your prayers will shift.

And then of course it goes on to say, we know that he hears us and whatever we ask, our petitions, our desires that he puts in our hearts, he yearns for us to lay hold of his promises and to fully trust him.

This is remarkable because God yearns for us to lay hold of his promises. Do you know what pleases God? Faith pleases God. The Bible says it's impossible to please God without faith. Faith lays hold of God's promises and believes in God.

Lord, your word says this. Your word says this, I trust you. Your word says this. It says that I will not leave you or forsake you. I know you won't. Your word says this. God, your word says you will hear me even if it's two in the morning crying out to you.

Lord, your word says this and you hold God to that. You hold his promises. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I'm the good shepherd. Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil because I hold you up with my hand.

I will put a table in the front of your enemies. I will give you comfort and joy even when your enemies mock you and laugh you and ridicule you. God, I'm holding you to those promises. That's trust. And what happens when doubt comes in?

Uh-oh. I'm doubting what God's going to do. I'm fearful, fear and anxious. That's why the Bible says that God has not even given you as a believer a spirit of fear. That's not of God. Fearing what's gonna happen.

Abiding in Christ and Transforming Prayer

What, what, what, what? I can't believe this. What am I gonna do, Lord? I can't bear this any longer. So trust him. John 15, seven. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

See, if I'm abiding in Christ, I'm not gonna ask for that Lamborghini. If I'm abiding in Christ and his word, I don't want the 8 ,000 square foot house in the hills. If I'm abiding in Christ, I don't want my enemies to die.

Right, there's prayers of some people. Lord, just kill that person. They've upset me. Just kill them, just take them. As you're abiding in Christ, that word abide means to live with and to stand with.

So he's saying when you stand with Christ, when you live with Christ, when the word of God is deep down penetrating your heart and you live on that word and you obey that word, your thoughts actually change.

You want God thoughts. Here's the interesting thing. You're gonna have world thoughts or you're gonna have God's thoughts depending on what you feed the most. You will think like the world if you're feeding your mind with the things of the world.

If you have the world's music, the world's entertainment, the world's news, the world's outlets, whatever it is is constantly feeding on the things of the world. That's where your thoughts are gonna be.

That's why you'll see many people that you'll find divorcing many times is because they were feeding their mind with the things of the world. And they think, oh, the grass is greener on this side of the fence.

That's what the world tells me. But guess what's on that other side of the fence? Destruction. Exactly right. The grass is not greener. It's greener wherever you feed it. Or water, I should say. You don't feed grass.

So you have this battle inside. So if you're abiding with Christ and the word of God is in your heart, living in your heart, and you're quoting scripture, and you're reminding yourself when you're tempted, hey, I know I'm tempted, but no temptation can overtake me.

Lord, this is all common to man. God, you're faithful. You're not gonna give me more than I can bear, and I'm gonna hold on to your promise, and I'm gonna seek you, and that word begins to penetrate your heart, and your prayer life changes.

Oh, God, would you save my children? God, strengthen my family. When the enemy comes in, when the devourer comes in, like a flood, you're going to lift up a standard against him. God, I'm trusting in you.

Your word is my weapon. Your word is my shield, and when the devil comes in and taunts with half truths, you know that, right? You know that the devil knows the scripture a lot better than we do. He'll come in with half a truth.

He told Eve, did God really say? And you begin to justify things, half the truth, but if you have the whole truth in your heart, your prayer life changes. You begin to pray for people, and you're not in a hurry.

If you find yourself saying, I don't know what to pray for, it's because you're filled with the world a lot more than the things of God, because we can talk about the world all day long. I know Christians, they'll say, Shane, I can't pray.

It's boring. I don't know what to pray for, but they can quote all the basketball stats you've ever even heard. Oh, did you hear this and this? I haven't even heard of these names. You know their batting average.

You know their earned run average. You know how many games they've missed. How do you know all this, and you have such an interest for this, and such a passion for these things? How do you have it? Because that's what you're filled with.

No wonder the word of God is boring. No wonder you have no prayer life, because God says feed on the word, and it's something that I've noticed about God's word. You know this is true too. The more you feed on it, the hungrier you become.

Any chocolate lovers in here? Okay, what happens if you just get a little piece? That's all you get. Oh, you just opened the lion's cage on that one, right? I want more. I want more. I want more. Same thing.

The more you get into God with worship, and prayer, and reading his word, the hungrier you become. The more you remove yourself from that, you'll begin to starve to death, spiritually speaking. It's funny, in one of the Old Testament, not really funny, but it's even relevant today.

One of the prophets said that God said a famine is coming. Not a famine of food or water, but of hearing of the word of God. See, that's a true famine. It's a true, we have elected officials, we have pastors all across our nation, but there's a famine.

They're not hearing from the word of God. They're hearing from their own ingenuity, and their own pride and arrogance, and think about this, like Al said, what possibilities, what a privilege, what a pressing need to simply obey God, abide in him, and watch your prayer life turn from boring to dynamic, turn from unanswered to answered, turn from irrelevant to very relevant, because when you're filled with the spirit of God, prayer is the priority.

It's the engine that pushes the vehicle down the street, that being your spiritual vehicle. It's what pushes you, it's your engine. Mark 11 talks about having faith in God. Do not doubt in your heart, and your prayers will be answered.

See, that is a biblical truth as well. If you have faith in God, and you do not doubt in your heart, your prayers will be answered. Now, it does come up, but Shane, how do I know to pray according to God's will?

Well, I figured this out the hard way. I'm gonna share it with you this morning. You ready for this? Pen and paper, you're gonna take this down. It's a long, long paragraph. No, it's actually very short.

Ask him. Ask him. Lord, is this your prayer? Is this your will? And what will begin to happen is that desire you had for it will begin to fade. The more you seek him, the more you ask for him, Lord, is this your will?

What you thought you needed or wanted, it's not even an issue anymore. But if there's something that's oppressing me, God keeps bringing it back, pray for this. Lord, is this your will? Because there's something now, like I told you I was praying about the radio stations a year ago, and I told you there's something I'm praying for, I can't tell you, and then I finally told you once it happened, there's something else I'm praying for that would be even bigger than that to help people.

And it's something I've been praying about. It's been logged in my Bible, it's in my journal, but I'm still praying. Lord, I don't know if this is your will, but the desire doesn't go away. It keeps kind of coming back, and coming back, and the scripture jumped out, just have faith, do not doubt in your heart, and your prayers will be answered.

But I still ask, God, is this your will? Is this your will? Show me, and God says, I love that heart. I will answer the prayers of that person. So if you don't know, ask. We see couples now, obviously, and you know people, dating, should we get married?

God, is this your will? Should we get married? Ask him, ask him. But start with what you do know. If there's not purity, living together, sleeping together, whatever it is, you gotta start there before God reveals his other will.

Get it right in the first place, build on the right foundation of purity and holiness. See, now the lifestyle's lining up with God's word. Now you can ask, because so many people, Lord, I don't know if this is your will, I don't know if this is your will.

Get out of sin and disobedience, then you can hear better. You ever buy those Goodyear plugs? I'm gonna get some when the baby's born. On Saturday nights, right, just, I can't hear anything. Nothing. But see, that's what sin does, hearing God's voice.

I can't hear anything. Lord, where are you? Would you take care of this issue? Then you can hear me. No. Would you still answer me? No. Take care of this issue? Now, let me not give you the wrong impression here.

God still hears us when we're in sin. Actually, one of the prayers of the Bible that God always hears is, God, save me a sinner. So if you don't know Christ, all you have to pray is, God, save me a sinner.

I repent of my sin. But as a believer, you can still, you're struggling, say, God, I want to hear you. This is a stronghold in my life. I can't break free of this. God, would you help me? Would you give me the strength?

Would you show me something? Show me what your will is. I've never seen God let you down. When has God ever let you down when you truly petitioned him and were sincere and asked him? We sing that song, God, you will never fail me.

You've never let me down. Though the enemy comes at me, though the enemy's taught me, God, you are standing like a rock. You will never let me down. Jesus actually said, if you hear my words and do them, you will be like a man who built his house on the rock.

And when the rains came, the floods came, and the storm beat upon that house, it did not fall. Why? Because the foundation, the footing, the grounding, the strength was in the rock. That's how powerful obeying God's word is.

Brokenness, Humility, Cleansing, and Faith in Revival

Every great revival or spiritual awakening in history has come and answered to sincere prayers from believers who have broken, humble, cleansed, and believing hearts. I wanna clarify this for a minute, but this is why this is so important.

Most of us see the handwriting on the wall with where the nation's going, unless you've been in a coma for 30 years. We see that apart from a national awakening where God is reviving his people, restoring morality and whole, and I'm not talking about a perfect government.

You're not gonna have them all singing worship songs in the Capitol, and I'm not naive. But there is a point where you get where the judgment hand of God must fall upon a disobedient nation, upon a disobedient people.

Apart from a national awakening where God revives his people, like he did in Welsh in the 1700s with people like Hal Griffiths, and Daniel Rollins, and Hal Harris, unless he awakens America like he did in the first great awakening with George Whitefield, and John Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards, or the second great awakening with Billy Sunday, and D .L. Moody, or the New Hebrides Islands off of Scotland, or God bringing, he's bringing awakening when things get to their bottom point.

Or in the nation of Israel, God brings a Josiah, and brings a revival and awakening, and you see God awakening his people. That's the only hope. I'm not counting on 2020. You get that when you get home.

Oh, such and such just wins in 2020. No. Only God can keep North Korea at bay, or China, or Russia. All hell is breaking loose, and apart from a national awakening of God reviving his people, the Titanic has been hit.

But there's great confidence in that because God brings revival at important points of history. He brings spiritual awakening where bars are closed down, where people are worshiping God in their neighborhoods, and God transforms entire communities, and that flows into other areas of national life.

So I have a heart for that. He's given me a heart for that. I know not everybody shares that, and that's okay. They can do what God's called them to do. I'll do what he's called me to do. So it has to come from believers who are broken, humbled, cleansed, and believe in their hearts.

So let me go through these quickly. So I use these words sometimes. Maybe you don't know what they mean. Broken, what is broken? It has to do with the heart. God says, I will look for a what? Haughty and arrogant heart, and then I'll answer their prayers.

God says, I look for a broken heart and a contrite spirit. So when God sees men and women on their faces at home, or on their faces at the altar, and crying out to God saying, God, I'm broken, I'm broken.

God, would you hear me? He says, is that the cry of a broken and contrite heart? I can't cast it away. I can't remove it from my sight. I hear it like a magnet to metal. I go to the broken and contrite heart, and I lift them up, and I restore them because that is a sweet smelling aroma and a sacrifice to me.

Thus saith the Lord. Where do the eyes of the Lord go through? They go across the whole earth. What? Looking for those whose hearts are loyal to him and broken before him and humble before him. I look for that broken heart.

David said, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And then we must have humility. Well, Shane, what's the difference? Oh, there's quite a difference. Brokenness is the heart, humility is the actions.

You've got so many people saying, I'm broken, I'm humble. No, you're not. You're arrogant. How do you know in your actions? Always being right. Not loving people. Isn't it amazing how unloving we can become?

Why is that funny? Oh, the baby said something, okay. Or some of you look, I'm like, that's not funny. We might have to close down the church service if that's, okay, that went from a very good high to a very, but isn't it true?

Let's be honest, unloving. When we are unloving, the Spirit of God cannot move through you because part of brokenness is loving and you feel the pain of others. You weep with others, you feel that brokenness like Jesus felt, oh, Jerusalem, my people, can you imagine the Messiah coming and his people rejecting him?

Oh, my people, Jerusalem, I wanted to gather you like a mother picks up her little children and holds them, but you were not willing. You stiff-necked and rebellious people. Yes, you have the letter of the law, but you don't have the Spirit of Christ in your heart.

Holiness Beyond Legalism and Licentiousness

Love, love with the Word of God is powerful. You have to have both through humility. And then you have to have a cleansed heart. What is cleansed? It's a topic we don't talk about too much in the church.

You're not gonna get a lot of popular sermons on this, but it's really important. It's called holiness. And as you know, the church likes to go to two extremes. So you have this extreme, which is, they call the holiness movement.

Women, no pants, no makeup. Let me check here. Better not be going to the movies. We cannot promote movies out there at the Cinemark. That's of the devil. You can't watch anything to do with television.

You just, just this holiness movement. But see, they had the right concept in that you wanna be modest. You wanna be careful with what you watch. But when you put a bunch of rules on it and don't explain the relational aspect, you just become a Pharisee.

So tell you, you can't go to the movies. And we tell our kids, you can't go, here's why. Here's what this is gonna do to you. They're still mad, but they hear why. Right, so you have holiness, this holiness movement.

It's all about rules. And then you have now what I think is happening a lot today where there's no holiness. Watch whatever we want, do whatever we want. I actually preached 15 years ago at a church, I won't name, at a mints event, and called people to holiness, and called people to being selective with their movie choices.

And a youth pastor, a youth pastor, came up to me and said, I can watch whatever I want as long as my heart is right. Oh, how do you manage that one? I can do whatever I want as long as my heart's right.

No, what you do affects your heart. Now, what happened? He was convicted. He was prideful, he was arrogant. Still see him on Facebook a little bit now and then. No secret that they're posting things I probably wouldn't post with their favorite beer, their champagne, the movie they watch, this and that.

Now, gonna do it? Wonderful, don't post it on Facebook if you're a leader in the church. And so you can see there's this drift because the heart is deceitful. If you're trusting your heart and your feelings, it will deceive you.

So he looks at a broken, humble heart and then also a holy heart. The Bible says, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? In other words, who may stand in the holy place of God and do God's work? He who has clean hands and a pure heart and who's not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor has he sworn deceitfully.

He's sworn deceitfully, nor has he hasn't lied and manipulated and he hasn't been this person who has dirty hands and is sinning. And God says, that's the person I want to ascend into my holy mountain.

He who has clean hands and a pure heart and has not lifted up his soul to idolatry. This is why this is so important. Holiness is really who you are. And A .W. Tozer, I think it was about 60 years ago, he was writing to pastors.

He said, who a pastor is all week is who he will be when he steps up to that pulpit. And I do encourage pastors. Now, a lot of pastors reach out to this church because of where the ministry's gone. I tell them, and they listen to the messages along these same lines, I tell them that who you are all week is gonna determine the power of your sermon.

Preaching, here's a secret, I'm gonna tell you a secret. You gotta put some notes together. But preaching is when God unloads the weapon that he loaded in the prayer closet. This is unloading what God has loaded in the prayer closet.

You hunters out there, you got your 12-gauge, this is a three-inch Magnum for duck hunting, you put that in there, that was loaded. That's the prayer closet. Now, how much more for parents? Or spouses?

Or those of you who work or have grandkids? How much, all of us, we need to load up in the prayer closet. See, the prayer closet is where you load up, you suit up, and you get ready and then you go out and you unload what God has put into you in the prayer closet.

That's where you pull down demonic influences, that's where you pull down strongholds over your children. Don't go and cuss at them and give them a sermon that they've heard 1 ,000 times, but you get in that prayer closet and you say, you know what, I'm not coming out of here for a few hours, I'm not even gonna eat breakfast because I'm gonna pull down strongholds.

God says, what, is that a broken and contrite heart? Has he humbled himself? Is he holy and filled with the spirit of God? If you ask, you will receive because now you're praying with boldness with the spirit of God speaking and praying through you.

That's how you prepare the heart to pray. Get your heart ready through holiness and being set apart. It's no secret if you've been coming here a while, and I've told you this many times, it's a good reminder, that the number one attribute given to God is not love.

That's all we hear everywhere, even all the news pundits. For moral issues, God is love, God is love, God is love, God is love, no. The attribute, if you study it more than any other attribute that stands way above them all is holiness.

Our God is a holy God. I demand and require holiness. The angels cry, holy, holy, holy is our God. Can you imagine angels? I see that scene, I love that scene in Isaiah where he says he saw the train of God's robe which filled the entire temple.

And the angels would sit there and cry out, holy, holy, holy is our God. And the temple would shake like this. The pillars of the temple would shake with that word, holy, holy, holy is our God. Why, because that's the power.

Yes, we need the love of God, but it's the holiness of God that comes in and uproots evil and conquers sin. It's when people are holy and set apart for God, God says, come out from among them, come out from among them and be loving.

Yes, but come out from among them and be holy. Because if you're loving without holiness, you are leading people astray. That's a big problem in our culture today. Well, we just love everybody. Just love them, love them, allow them to continue sinning.

Yeah, just love them as they're walking to hell, love them. Well, I don't want to say anything. I just want to love them. Now, there's a time and place for that. Don't leave here thinking, Jane just said, nail them with holiness.

Just don't even worry about love. Just wreck them with the power of God. No, you need both. Love without holiness, you're lukewarm. Holiness without love, you're a Pharisee. So you have to find that middle ground.

Repentance, the Cross, and Hope

How? Pray, pray. Because when you're filled with the spirit of God, you don't go and judge people. You love them. But you also call them to holiness. One of the things I was hoping they got to in the interview Thursday was the big thing that's out there now is the LGBT suicide rate is alarming.