Prayer in a Surrounded City — Carter Conlon

I want to talk to you today from Psalm 55, a message called Prayer in a Surrounded City. Prayer in a Surrounded City, or I could call it praying when you feel the city is surrounded. Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart for the anointing of your Holy Spirit.

Thank you for your presence in this sanctuary. Thank you for your word, which is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Thank you, God, for the hope that you are planting in our hearts and what looks to be a hopeless time in the outward.

We bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, for your faithfulness to us. Thank you, Lord, that week after week you take us in our frailty, you put your Holy Spirit upon us, you override our weaknesses, you allow us to speak and to hear your word.

God, help us to grow in grace. Help us, help us, Holy Spirit, to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Give us the strength that we need to make a difference in our time.

I ask you today, Lord, to answer the questions in the hearts of those who have come into this house. They've come in online, they've come in in the physical, and they have deep questions. I pray God answer those questions.

Let every heart be satisfied. Lord Jesus, including yours, may you be able to say at the end of this day this has been a good day. Lord, we thank you for it. God, help me. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Psalm 55, Prayer in a Surrounded City, beginning at verse 16. This is a Psalm of David, the king of Israel. As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me, is verse 16 of Psalm 55. Evening and morning and at noon, I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice.

He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me. God will hear and afflict them, even he who abides of old. Have you ever felt surrounded? Have you ever felt like an overwhelming force has come against you and there's no way out that you can see, that it's just everywhere?

I don't know, I know that I speak for many today, that you're seeing the rapid degeneration of this society, and you are having to experience it every day. You're having to experience personal vilification because you want to live as a godly person.

You have to listen to insane arguments about the future, and there's just this seeming sense of that evil is prevailing, and what is good is being driven into obscurity. And you can get to the point where you don't see any hope for the future if you're not careful.

I want to take a look at the situations that David, a godly man, an anointed man, a called man, a man who was going to rule and reign one day, just like you are godly if you've turned to Christ and you're holy and you're called, and you will rule and reign with Christ for all eternity.

That's the promise to those who believe as far out as it might seem from where you're living today. That is a promise. You will rule and you will reign. You are just as called as David was in this psalm.

But look at the situation in Psalm 55, and remember that 1 Corinthians 10 in verse 13, Paul says these words, no temptation. Now that word in the original Greek also means testing. No temptation or testing has overtaken you but such as is common to man.

But God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but with the test or the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. It might be almost overwhelming where you are.

The battle in your mind, the battle outside, the battle on the subway, the battle with your kids. It just seemed like it never ends and something in your heart says, oh God, I'm not crazy about dying, but I wouldn't mind today.

Would you just take me out of here and take me home? Can we make this quick? Can we do this fast? But let's look at what the test that David had to endure and what you and I might be facing today. And the Bible says that we can learn from these things.

We see patterns and types of human behavior and the response of God in all the things that we study. In Psalm 55 verse one, David says, give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide yourself from my supplication.

Attend to me and hear me. I'm restless in my complaint and moan noisily because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for they bring down trouble upon me and in wrath they hate me.

And people just like David did, people today have to endure being hated because the touch of God is on you. Because the society around you is fighting against the revelation of who God is through his son, Jesus Christ.

They don't want anything to do with God and so they hate those who represent God. And David was facing this. You go into the workplace, your community, even in your own home sometime and just the way you value life when everyone else considers life just something to be discarded.

We've aborted 50 plus billion babies in this, million babies in this country and most of it for convenience sake. And you value life. You talk maybe in your workplace about the value of human life and you find yourself vilified.

You find yourself oppressed. You find your fellow employees angry, trying to set you up, hating you because you value life. You value children. You value marriage because you hold to the traditional biblical viewpoint that marriage is ordained of God between one man and one woman.

You hold to that viewpoint. And suddenly you find yourself in a place that if you hold that viewpoint. Folks, we're dealing with it in this country on a national level now where businesses won't do business in states that just hold to traditional views, traditional biblical view.

We've come to the point in society where you're not allowed an opinion anymore that's contrary to the golden statue that's been erected in our generation. And 1 Peter 4, 4, the apostle Peter says that they think it's strange that you don't run with them in the same flood of dissipation.

That means the same flood of abandoning that which is righteous and godly and because of it they speak evil of you. And again in Psalm 55 verses four to eight, David said, my heart is severely pained within me.

The terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me. A horror has overwhelmed me. So I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off and remain in the wilderness.

I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Some folks are so distressed at what the city and society is becoming that you're constantly dreaming of living somewhere else than where you are in some other place where you could just be alone.

David says, I don't care if it's the wilderness. I'd be happy there. Just get me a cabin in Montana somewhere in the mountains and I'll go down once a month and get my mail. I would just be so happy to finish life in a place where I could be at rest.

Thank God for the honesty of David. Thank God that he just didn't write down all his successes and all his victories. I thank God that I can read this and say, wow, he was a king and he ruled and reigned and God loved him and he was a man after God's heart, but he struggled just like we do.

He had the same battles and fearfulness, trembling. We know of the David that fought the lion and the bear, but there was also a David that trembled at some point in his life. A David that felt fear coming into his heart.

A David that felt the horror of life and all hell was around him. A David that wanted to escape, even though he was on a pathway ordained of God that was going to bring honor to God and the earth, he still wanted to escape just like you and I do.

You can't possibly live in this kind of a society and somehow escape all of these feelings unless you're very much part of that society and it's falling away. You ever stopped at one of these travel things and looked in the window and just thought, oh, if I could just afford to go to Tahiti and just stay there, if I could just develop a burden for it, maybe.

I mean, there's gotta be people on those beaches that need God somewhere out there on those islands. And I would be so happy there. I know pastors go through that. They just, you know, suddenly they just get a burden for anywhere, anywhere but where they are.

The world needs me. I gotta get out of here. And Psalm 55 in verse nine, again, it says, destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues for I've seen violence and strife in the city and day and night they go around about it on its walls.

Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. Destruction in its midst. Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets. And it's a season in society where you're becoming afraid of the violence and the deceit that seems to be waiting at every street corner.

Reports in the news of just random slashings in New York City for no apparent reason. Shootings on the increase in neighborhoods where you're not even sure you can walk down the street at night to go and get yourself a bag of chips without getting shot.

And there's a fearfulness, violence, and strife is getting a hold of our society. And there's such a crookedness in the streets. Everybody's got a scam and a shtick and you can't go a block without somebody wanting something.

And it's rarely ever anything honest. And then in verse 12, it gets even worse. David says, for it was not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide from him.

But it was you, a man my equal, my companion, my acquaintance, we took sweet counsel together and we walked into the house of God in the throng. And that's, in other words, it's another, it's a type of a person who says, I reached out for comfort to somebody even in the church.

I thought we shared the same values and that didn't go so well either. You've experienced it. If you've been around any amount of time, you know what I'm talking about. I've experienced it more than once.

I've reached out and trusted and been betrayed and wounded that I can handle it when it's somebody on the street that curses me out if I'm coming down here to preach on Tuesday or Sunday. But it's hard when it's somebody in the church, somebody that we walked into the house of God in company and we held hands on Tuesday night and we prayed and I thought we were on the same wavelength only to find out you just seem to be like the rest.

It's not that it's over, folks. Thank God for that. It's not over till God says it's over. You know, people that can be troubled even in the house of God and make bad decisions can change. And so we have to be merciful.

As the Bible says, we have to bear, believe, and hope and endure in the body of Jesus Christ. Somebody who does something that they shouldn't do can change their opinion and change their behavior. And so now David says in verse 16 where we started, ask for me, I will call upon God and the Lord will save me.

Evening and morning and noon I'll pray and cry aloud and you shall hear my voice. And I'm talking to the people today who your only refuge is prayer now. That's the only refuge you have is to get up in the morning and pray.

Stop at noon even if it's for 10 minutes and pray. Come out Tuesday night and you pray. You show up before service and you pray. And say, God, in all that I'm facing, in the people that hate me in the workplace, the distress even in my own home and family, the violence and deceit that seem to be on every street corner, the reaching out for comfort from other human beings that seemingly escapes my grasp, I can't find it.

You know, David, he said when he was in the cave fleeing Saul, he said, I looked on my right hand, I looked on my left for comfort and nobody was there for me. So he turned, the only thing he knew, his only refuge was prayer.

But the question is, what good will prayer do in a city where so much is against me? Where I'm dealing with such hatred, I'm dealing with such violence, such a society that seems to be literally hell-bent on its own destruction.

So if I come to pray, I get up to pray, I decide to pray, what good is it going to do me? I want you to turn with me in your Bibles in the Old Testament to the book of 2 Kings to wanna take a look at a type of what prayer in a surrounded city can do.

Because I want to encourage you as a body when we meet on Tuesday night to pray, for example, we're not just shouting into the wind and we're not just trying to somehow generate a good feeling in our own hearts.

Something really is happening. Something is happening in the spiritual realm when you and I pray. We may not see it immediately, but I'm telling you, we will live to see what God is about to do in our day if we will be a people of prayer.

As Jesus said, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Will He find a people who go in their distress and say, I'm asking you, God, to make a difference. I'm asking you to do something.

I'm not looking for personal comfort. I'm looking for your name to be glorified again in this generation. I'm looking for people who hate you today to learn to love you tomorrow. I'm looking for this evil direction this society has taken to be turned into something that is good, even if it's only for a season.

I am looking for unity and love in the body of Christ, of all denominations. I'm looking for the church to come together at the cross and to realize one more time that when we walk together in unity, God commands a blessing of life everywhere we go, everywhere we touch.

I'm looking for my eyes to be opened to realize that we don't live on the losing side of eternity. We are not powerless spectators as humanity parades itself into hell. We can stop this parade. We can make a difference in our generation.

In 2 Kings chapter six, the people of God, I'm not gonna go into the whole story, but let me just set the stage. The people of God are surrounded by an enemy army. And the enemy army has come in during the night.

They didn't even know it was coming in. They suspected it most likely, but they get up in the morning and they are literally, the city is surrounded. There really is little chance that they can meet this force for force, sword for sword, horse for horse, chariot for chariot.

There really is only one hope. And the one hope in that surrounded city is that there is somebody who knows how to pray. The one hope for New York City is that there are people still in this city who know how to pray.

People that we don't know that are in apartments in their boroughs, people meeting in other churches, people who meet in this church who are turning to God with all of our heart, believing that God can make a difference.

Chapter six of 2 Kings, it says, "'Therefore,' this is the foreign king, he said, he sent horses and chariots and a great army there. And they came by night and surrounded the city.". That's chapter six, verse 14.

And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, "'Alas, master, what shall we do?'. That's where we are today.

That's where many people are, even in the house of God. What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? Our nation is becoming dysfunctional at almost every conceivable level. Evil is becoming good. Good is becoming evil.

People are going into our schools and asking our little boys and girls if they're, what sex they identify with. I mean, it's insanity. What's going on in this society? God, what are we gonna do? And so he answered, "'Do not fear.

Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'. And Elisha," what? Prayed. Now you're gonna see all the prayers that are gonna get answered here. And said, "'Lord,' I pray, open his eyes that he may see.'.

Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.". This is the point when we begin to pray, God will open our eyes and we begin to see that we are fighting with heaven.

Heaven is with us. The power of God is with us. We have authority in the name of Jesus. We are not alone. We are not victims. We are not people who just have to sit there and watch evil triumph over everything that is good.

We can pray. God is with us. God is with us. God is with us. We sing that. God is with us. Pushing back the darkness, lighting up a testimony, a light that cannot be extinguished in this generation. We are not alone and we are not powerless.

So when the Syrians came down to him, verse 18, what happens now? Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, "'Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.'. And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.".

Now, here's how I see this applying to us. We can pray. God, break the stronghold of evil. Confound what has gotten a hold of their hearts and minds and break its power to lead them. We can pray for people in our neighborhoods.

We can pray for people in our homes. We can pray for people in our office, no matter how vile, no matter how much they're coming against us. We can pray and say, God, break the power of evil to lead them.

Break its power. Blind them to the direction they're going in. Make it so they can't find the door. Make it so there's no satisfaction in anything they do. Deepen their distress every day, God. Don't even let them be happy when they're sleeping, Lord.

Break the power of hell. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

My brother, my sister, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. When we pray, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, I'll hear from heaven. I'll forgive their sin and I'll heal their land.

That's the word of God to his people. Verse 19, it says, Elisha said to them, this is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me and I'll bring you to the man whom you seek. And he led them to Samaria.

In other words, he took them right into captivity and he made them aware that they had been taken captive. When we pray, God can make people aware around us that you are a slave to sin. You've been taken captive.

Your direction is not a good direction. Your end is not going to be a good end. There is something waiting for you at the end of your parade and it's not going to be good. The scripture says, hell has opened its mouth and all the pomp and though hand joined in hand, they will not remain unpunished.

Our prayer can do that. Our prayer can bring conviction on a society. I'm speaking at a much deeper level than just the person beside you that you work with. I'm talking about a society can be brought under the conviction of God.

That the direction they're going is not a good direction. That they actually have been taken captive by darkness itself. And that darkness is eternal. It doesn't end when life ends. It doesn't end when time is over.

It goes on forever. An ever deepening darkness, an ever deepening distance from God. Prayer. You see, no, there's no great awakening ever throughout history without the conviction of sin. Without the conviction or the understanding, oh God, I've been taken captive.

That's how you should pray for people you work with. That's how you should pray for people in your neighborhood. God, don't let them find peace in anything they do. Make their hearts aware that they have been taken captive.

This is what happened in a city that was surrounded when Elisha began to pray. And so it was when they'd come to Samaria, verse 20, that Elisha said, Lord, open their eyes that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes and they saw that they were inside Samaria.

In other words, they knew they were captive. Now when the king of Israel saw them, verse 21, he said to Elisha, my father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? In other words, it's that thing in your heart that if your coworker falls under conviction, it's that moment you've been waiting for.

You've been dreaming about it, you know. I'm gonna get mine. Man, you've laid them out 50 times in your imagination. You've practiced the words, you've dreamt it. And you wonder when you wake up, why can't I do that when I'm awake?

Why is it just when I'm sleeping that I can do that to them? And they're suddenly tender. They're suddenly aware. They're suddenly vulnerable. And then there's something in the hearts, I guess, of all people who've been abused, who've been hated, who've been slandered, who've suffered in the workplace because of them, that just wants our little pound of flesh before we tell them about Jesus.

We wanna remind them of all their sin. We wanna remind them of what an ugly spirit they have and what they've done and how many people they've hurt at that moment of vulnerability. That's why the king says, shall I kill them?

Shall I kill them? They've been taken captive by prayer. It was prayer that brought them into, it was prayer that blinded them. Prayer brought them into Samaria, where they're brought into a foreign city.

Really, the gates are closed. They're vulnerable. There's soldiers around. They have no hope. They've been taken captive by a praying man, took them captive. That's just, it's no deeper than that. And then the king says, well, should I kill them?

Should I kill them? Should I kill them all? But he answered and said, you will not kill them. Why would you kill those whom you've taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.

Prayer gives you the power. You see, even though people would have harmed you if they could, and maybe they did, but prayer gives you the power to treat your enemies with kindness, setting before them the willingness of God to forgive them and provide for them and sending them home to think about their ways.

That's what he said to do. Be kind to them. Feed them. Give them water to drink and send them home to their master. Send them home, realizing that how good these people have been to me in spite of how I've behaved and what I've done.

Send them home to their master. So he prepared a great feast for them. They eat and drank and he sent them away to their master. And the bands of the Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.

They were defeated by a praying man. Thank God. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And would be to God that we could lay hold of it again. Would be to God that you and I could realize that when we pray, God hears, when we pray, God answers.

That he hasn't given up on the city, that's why we're here. If he'd given up, we'd be gone. All of us would be gone. But he hasn't given up on the city. And thank God if he has put you in a tough place.

Thank God that he doesn't send us all to some island beach somewhere. Who would be here then? How would they know? How could they hear without a preacher? Who would be left to testify about the goodness of God?

So thank God if he's put you in a tough place. Instead of living in your mind like David did to get out, to fly off into the wilderness, to live in some other place. In other words, you just become a testimony of discontent.

Everything in your body, language, when you go to the office, when you walk through the streets of your neighborhood says, oh, I wish to God I was out of here. And as you walk by the people that are part of that neighborhood, they realize that really, you just wanna be out.

You don't really care. But what about the man or woman who walks through and is given to prayer and says, God, blind them to their objectives of evil and show them they've been taken captive. Give me an opportunity to set before them your goodness.

Suddenly, there's a witness. Suddenly, you start seeing their hearts begin to turn. Suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, suddenly. Heard a testimony when I was in Ireland a couple of years ago of a man who lived in a very, very violent town.

And he was a very, very violent young man, known for his violence, kicked out of everything, standing on the street corner every day. And one day, this man of God just got off a bus and walked by him and said, God bless you, son.

A violent town that probably most everybody would want, if I named it, you'd know it. Most everybody lives to get out of there because it's just violent. You can kick the door into people's houses. I've been told you can beat them up.

There's no charges, no investigation, no nothing. It's just a violent town. In the midst of this violent town is a godly man who gets off the bus, walks by this kid and says, God bless you, son. And the kid's standing there thinking, why would he say that to me?

Now, the man who was that kid is the one who told me the story. The next day, he gets off the bus and this kid's just there on the street corner doing what he does, a hatchet in his belt, the whole thing.

And he says, God bless you, son. Walks by him, doesn't say anything else. And the boy starts wondering, why is he doing that to me? Why is he saying, God bless you? And so he started waiting for him now every day to get off the bus.

He'd had no father that loved him. He'd had no structure in his family. It was all drugs, drinking and violence and abuse. And so he starts waiting for the man. The man goes by and says, God bless you, son.

Every day, God bless you, son, God bless you. You know, you wonder, did that man want to live in that neighborhood? A godly man, did he want to be there with kids that carry hatchets in their belt and fight every day on the streets?

Did he want to really live in that kind of a city? He made the choice. He made the choice to be a blessing. So finally, after about a week of this, he was waiting again on the corner. God bless you, son.

Then he started wondering, I wonder where this man lives? So he started following him. He'd go around the corner and follow down the end of the block, just trying to see where this man that says, God bless you, son, to me every day lives.

And then finally, one day he came by. I said, God bless you, son. He said, wait a minute, sir. Why do you say that to me every day? And then the man opened his mouth and said, because God loves you and I do too.

And you have great value to the kingdom of God. What he did get saved and became a great evangelist in the kingdom of God through one man that just said, God bless you, son, every day. And even though it's not reciprocated, it's not returned, you can walk in your office, you can walk down your street and you can say, God bless you.

And they just look at you like, yeah, right. Like they do in New York. Walk on the subway and you see somebody staring. You say, God bless you. I hope you have a nice day. And just speaking those words that plant seeds in people's hearts.

And then when they realize they have been taken captive as some will, then instead of that man just saying, you know, son, you've lived a rotten life and you walk around with an ax in your belt and all this vile stuff you've done.

All he said to him, he set before him food and water. After he'd been taken captive by the love of God that was in a man's heart, he set before him food and water and said, I tell you that because Jesus is the son of God and he loves you, he died for you and he longs for you to know him.

He set before him kindness. And so that's my altar call today. Very, very simple. Lord, would you help me to set kindness before the people that hate me? Would you help me to set a banquet of kindness before people that speak evil of me?

Before people that put fear in my heart? People on the streets that I'm afraid of when I go to work and I come home, could you just help me to set just a little banquet of kindness before them? Would you help me to be kind to people in the house of God that have hurt me?

Would you just put that law of kindness in my heart and teach me how to be a person of prayer in the surrounded city? We will make a difference, my brother, my sister, we will. By the grace of God, we will.

And we're gonna stand in a moment and if that's the cry of your heart, as it is in mine, God, put your kindness in me. It's all I'm asking for, just put your kindness in me. Yes, I'll pray prayers like a warrior.

I'll fight for their souls. I'll fight for what is right. But when they do bend, when they do become vulnerable, just help me to be kind and to show your goodness to them. Now, some of you are gonna get a chance to put it in practice this afternoon.

Some are gonna get a chance tomorrow. Some of you won't get more than a block from the church, you get a chance to practice it right away. But remember the old saying that all it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing.

It's all it takes. We've been given much more power than you realize. And so let's stand, we're gonna worship for a few moments and if that's your cry of your heart, Lord, put kindness in me in a surrounded city.

Just come, just come, join those that are gonna come in the balcony, go to either exit. And we're gonna pray, we're gonna believe God that he will actually answer that prayer. He will actually open your eyes.

He will actually give you the victory and put kindness in your heart. Just come, just step out of wherever you are, just come in Jesus' name.

You know, the Lord is calling us to arms. He's calling us to our position, to stand at our posts as soldiers, knowing that we not only can make a difference, but we will make a difference. That when we begin to call, God begins to come and he will move heaven and earth, folks, to answer our prayer.

He sets things in motion to answer our prayers. There's a prayer that Daniel prayed and you'll remember it where he prayed for the nation and he included himself in the prayer. And the Bible says that from the moment the angel came to him and said, from the moment you began to pray, God set things in motion to answer the prayer, folks.

And so you and I may not see the answer with our eyes immediately, but know that God is moving heaven and earth to answer your prayer, to heal you, to save your neighbors and your family members and your wayward husband and children, that God is moving heaven and earth on your behalf and mine.

Because when we pray and ask anything according to his will, if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petition. We have the petition. We have the petition. We have the answer, folks, that we ask of him.

So would you lift your hands in faith today? Lift your hands and hearts to him as a sign of surrender today, hallelujah. Father, we thank you, Jesus. Lord, that the spirit that raised you from the dead lives inside of us.

And God, that you have called us, oh Jesus. Lord, to acts of kindness and love and generosity to those that, Lord, would hurl insults at us and hatred towards us, those that would seek to hate on us. God, you've given us power to move in the opposite spirit, to move in the spirit of our savior.

Lord, to flood them with hearts and acts of love and kindness. God, thank you that there is a grace in us. Lord, there's a spirit in us that is greater than the spirit of this age. God, thank you, Lord, that you're gonna do through us, Lord, what we cannot do in our own strength and flesh.

God, simply because we ask you to, simply because we agree with you, we agree with the word of the Lord that we've heard today. God, in our hearts, we say yes, Jesus. Yes, to your call to arms. Yes, to the call to make a difference.

Yes, to the call of God. Lord, to move us, thank you that you not only, God, will make a difference, God, through us. God, but you will set the enemy to flight. God, so today in faith, Lord, we cry out to you and we say yes, O Lord.

Glorify your name through us. Draw us, Lord, draw us to the secret closet of prayer. Draw us, Lord God, to that place, Lord, where we will exercise our authority in the name of Jesus and watch you. Lord, move heaven and earth, O God.

Lord, to do what already is in your heart. God, give us ears, Lord. Lord, to hear what your spirit is saying in this hour. God, to pray for our neighbors, to pray for our loved ones, to pray for our schools, to pray for the hospitals, to pray for the prisons, to pray for our workplaces, to pray for our communities, to pray for our unsafe loved ones, God, to pray for our nation, to pray for this generation.

Lord, to see you do the impossible. God, we thank you. Thank you for this privilege. Thank you for the ring of authority, Lord, that you've given us. Lord, as you gave it to the, Lord, as you talked about it, giving it to the prodigal son, you've given us a ring of authority, Lord, to exercise your authority in this generation.

And we thank you for it. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for what you're gonna do. Thank you, O God, for the victory that's ours. Come on, folks, begin to thank him today. Thank you that your grace is enough, Lord.