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I felt that maybe I might go back

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to Isaiah 58 this morning.

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Isaiah 58.

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And I dealt some with this when I

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preached.

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James sent me something that he had discovered.

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And Isaiah 58.

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We've gathered here this morning to pray.

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And often throughout my Christian life, I think

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of God making these promises with regards to

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prayer.

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Let me find my text here.

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In Isaiah 58, verse 8, your light break

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forth like the dawn.

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Brethren, I want to emphasize this again.

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We pray, and I've heard this here in

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this prayer meeting, we pray for revival.

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I hear prayers for revival for self, revival

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for our churches, revival for our nation.

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And if you think about these promises, if

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we share our bread with the hungry, we

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bring the homeless poor into our house, when

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you see the naked to cover him, not

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hide yourself from your own flesh, then your

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light, your light, the light of our churches,

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the light of our self, we are to

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be the lights of the world.

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We are to be the salt of the

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earth.

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That light will break forth.

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God is making a promise here.

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This is the number one promise here.

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Your light will break forth.

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Righteousness shall go before you.

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Well, you have healing, speedily, glory of the

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Lord.

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He's going to be our rear guard.

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He's going to be with us.

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He's going to be our protector.

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And this promise, then you shall call.

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This has everything to do with our prayer

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meeting.

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It has everything to do with what we

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do right now.

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Then you shall call, and the Lord will

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answer.

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But you see the connection.

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You shall cry.

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He will say, here I am.

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Brethren, if there's anything we want, we want

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to pray and have this confidence that God

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is saying, here I am.

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Here I am.

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The blessings that go along with this.

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I want to tell you a story here,

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historically.

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James sent me this just this week here

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at the conference.

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You all know Andrew Fuller.

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You know the name?

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He had a group of these Baptists, little

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band of brothers.

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Cary and Fuller and Ryland and Sutcliffe and

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Pierce.

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And these guys came together.

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Very interestingly, we know that Cary went to

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the mission field.

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Fuller was the man who stayed in England

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and oversaw this thing.

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He was really at home.

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He was the backbone to the mission in

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India.

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Sarampore.

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Listen to this.

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The late Andrew Fuller of Kettering shared with

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a friend an important lesson from his ministry.

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There was a time when I made every

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effort to comfort my serious people.

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You know what he means by serious people?

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Particular Baptists, late 1700s.

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These guys were emerging from a deep hyper

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-Calvinism.

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And a lot of the people in their

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churches, you see this in the hyper-Calvinistic

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circles, struggles with assurance.

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When he says my serious people, he's talking

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about the people in these Calvinistic circles and

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in his church specifically who were just full

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of doubts.

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They were full of doubts all the time.

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This cloud hung over their heads.

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And he said, there was a time I

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made every effort to comfort these people, yet

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the more I tried, the more they complained

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of doubts and darkness.

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Wherever I went, I heard the same lament.

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So you see, it's in that band of

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churches, this circle of churches, not only in

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his own church wherever he went, but he's

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getting this.

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I heard this, ah, sir, I can find

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no comfort.

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I cannot claim the promises as my own.

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I'm obviously lacking assurance.

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I don't know if He loves me.

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I don't know if I'm in, if I'm

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out.

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Am I a Christian?

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Am I not a Christian?

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I don't...

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He says, I was bewildered.

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So here he's a pastor.

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He's wanting to help people.

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You come across people that lack assurance.

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You want to help.

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I had a conversation with a young lady

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yesterday, and she doesn't know if she's saved

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or not.

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Her parents are here at Providence, and you

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want to help.

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You want to just pull the person out

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of that.

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You want them to be grounded.

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You don't want them...

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And that's where he is.

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Bewildered and distressed.

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And that's how you feel when you're dealing

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with people that lack assurance.

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You're trying to give them comfort.

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You're pointing them to Christ.

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You're pointing them to the promises.

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He says, for all I had done that

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I could to console the mourners in Zion,

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yet they remained disheartened.

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I was at my wit's end.

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And you know what happened?

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Right at this time, that seed of thought

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began to sprout.

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We need to do something for the heathen

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in India.

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He says, God directed my attention to the

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plight of the heathen in India.

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So that was happening in Fuller's mind.

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That was happening in Cary's heart.

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These men were getting together.

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Of course, you know that Fuller wrote this

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treatise on the gospel worthy of all acceptation.

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And Cary took that and he ran with

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it.

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And if it's worthy of all acceptation, then

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we need to take it out there.

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This was not just in those two men.

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It was in this circle of churches and

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even among the people.

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And he says, I share this conviction with

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my congregation.

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He says they were moved to tears.

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And they were grieving over their indifference to

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the lost.

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They began talking about a Baptist mission.

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Women started collecting money for the spread of

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the gospel.

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We gathered to pray for the heathen to

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discuss what could be done for them.

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And then we acted on it.

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He says, as this unfolded, the complaints of

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struggles with assurance ceased.

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The sorrowful became cheerful.

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The despondent found peace.

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No one lamented a lack of comfort anymore.

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I no longer had to study how to

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comfort them.

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They were comforted in their work.

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And I too found comfort through them.

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They were drawn out of themselves.

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That was the secret.

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Brethren, there is so much truth to our

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prayers, and especially the prayers for revival.

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Brethren, a lot of times, the secret as

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he found is right here.

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And it goes on to develop then Isaiah

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58.

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He saw that connection.

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And the author here is bringing this example

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out because he's seen this connection.

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Brethren, as we pray for revival, I heard

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this after I spoke here.

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Some of the young people in my family

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said there was a group of young people

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that were strategizing.

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Okay, how do we go forward with this?

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Brethren, I really believe that this is the

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key for us to be in a place

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where we gather together in our prayer meetings

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and God says, Here I am.

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And brethren, remember, He promises healing.

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And undoubtedly, where we've got people that are

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wrestling with assurance, something needs to be fixed,

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wouldn't you say?

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And yet the healing is promised, connected right

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here.

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Brethren, I just want us to think about

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this.

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Sometimes the greatest success and key to our

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prayers and to revival is their selfishness.

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They were so self-consumed and so inwardly

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focused.

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Brethren, sometimes we just have to look out.

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Look beyond.

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Brethren, let's pray.

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Father, I want this.

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I want this.

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I want these promises.

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I want to live like this.

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I want to live pleasing to You.

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I see brothers and sisters here nodding.

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Lord, this is what we want.

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We want to be pleasing to You.

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We want to be the kind of people

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that when we gather together and we pray,

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oh, it is such a reality.

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You say, Here I am.

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Lord, that's what we want when we pray.

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Last thing we want is to just pray

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to the ceiling, pray to a brass sky.

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Lord, we so desire, have a great longing

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to just have a reality of our Christianity,

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a reality of Your presence, a reality of

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us just hearing those words of our Savior

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who said, Follow Me.

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Lord, we want to follow.

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And we pray for the grace to be

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able to put our feet into His footprints

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and follow on.

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And Lord, we know we're not where we

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ought to be.

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We're not where we should be.

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We haven't arrived yet.

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But oh, we pray for grace.

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Give us ears to hear.

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Lord, I want to turn in 60 this

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week.

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Whatever time I have left, I want to

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live this out.

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I want to pour myself out for the

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spiritually hungry and the physically hungry.

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We all feel it.

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We want our lives to matter.

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We want to live as we will have

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wished to have lived when we arrived there

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to look at You at that judgment bar.

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Lord, we want no regrets.

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We want to run well.

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We want to run fast.

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We want to run with grace.

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We want to run with speed.

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Lord, we want Your grace.

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We want to run with reality.

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We want to run knowing that You're close.

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We want to run with this healing, with

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our light just breaking forth like the noonday

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and being like a garden planted beside a

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river.

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And we want to rebuild the ancient ruins.

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And Lord, be a repairer of the breaches.

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Lord, we want these things.

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We want this reality.

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Father, we love the idea of a Christianity

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that just spills over with reality.

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Lord, come close.

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Draw near.

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Help our brother Stuart today as he preaches.

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Lord, we want a word from You.

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We want to hear from You.

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We want it to resonate.

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We want to be able to drive home

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today to all of our places with the

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Word of God fresh in our minds.

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And Lord, I pray that the brethren would

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be able to go forth from this place

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at the end having benefited, profited, having grown,

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having been blessed for having been here.

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And Lord, we pray that You would carry

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us on now into our lives, being better

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for having heard what we've heard and the

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fellowship that we've had.

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Lord, I thank You.

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The fellowship here has been so rich and

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the conversation so good.

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And Lord, we called it Fellowship Conference in

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the beginning because that's exactly what we desired

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would happen.

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And You've caused that to happen, it seems,

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year after year.

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We thank You for these 15 years of

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Your faithfulness to us in gathering people together

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and the preachers together.

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Lord, we thank You in Christ's name for

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just all Your...

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Lord, for our salvation, for the unspeakable gift

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of the Lord Jesus Christ who became poor

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for our sakes that we might become rich.

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We thank You in Christ's name, Amen.