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Okay, in this second session here today, we're
going to be more on the inspirational side
of child training, challenge, revival, along these lines.
I want to speak this second session on
three mysterious influences in a home.
Remember the scripture that we've read already this
week, except the Lord build the house, they
labor in vain that build it.
If I understand that verse properly, that means
the God of heaven needs to be very
actively involved in the building of my household.
That's what we're talking about in this second
message.
Areas of child training that are the most
powerful and the most exciting of them all.
I use the word mysterious because this is
what it means.
Beyond human power to explain or understand.
Three mysterious influences which are beyond human power
to explain or understand.
May I say it is inferring the supernatural.
We need three supernatural influences in our homes.
God, in his own mysterious ways, prevails upon
our sons and our daughters to prepare for
himself a holy generation.
That's what we would like to look at
this evening.
The first one is the powerful atmosphere of
the spirit of God.
Turning with me to Isaiah 44, verse three
through five.
I will pour water upon him that is
thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.
I will pour my spirit upon thy seed
and my blessing upon thine offspring.
And they shall spring up as among the
grass, as willows by the water courses.
One shall say, I am the Lord's and
another shall call himself by the name of
Jacob.
Now in this text, brothers and sisters, we
all know that God is not speaking about
water like the water that I have up
here in this glass.
As God says, I will pour water on
him who is thirsty.
He's speaking about another kind of water.
It's the water of his precious spirit.
It's the water that flows from the fountain
of living waters.
Hallelujah.
That's what God is speaking about here.
But God says there's a condition here.
He will pour the water of his spirit
upon those who are thirsty.
And that is the condition that God gives.
Now we live in America.
We hardly understand what it means to be
thirsty.
You know, my throat gets a little dry
and I get me a little sip of
water.
I can do that all day if I
want to.
We don't know what it is to be
thirsty.
But when I make trips to Africa, I
know what it is to be thirsty.
There are times over there when you might
go three hours and not get to have
a drink of water.
Man, when you get to the water, you
are thirsty.
I believe that's what God is talking about
when God says, I will pour water on
him that is thirsty.
He's not saying, I'll pour water on him
who wants a drink.
You know, like, we want a drink.
We go into the kitchen, turn on the
faucet and drink the water and we're done.
No, that's not what God is saying here.
God is saying, you get thirsty for my
spirit.
You start longing and hungering.
Your heart starts saying, as the heart painted
after the water of soul, painted my soul
after thee, O God.
And God says, I will pour water upon
him who is thirsty.
That's a promise that God gives.
And he also says, I will pour water
upon the dry ground.
But God goes one step further than that.
He also says that he will pour water
upon our children.
Joshua, you want to come and help me
now, buddy?
We're going to just illustrate here this evening
what God means when he says, I will
pour water upon him who is thirsty and
I will pour my spirit out upon thy
seed and my blessing upon thine offspring.
Now, when we come to God and our
cup is empty, we hold it up to
God and we cry out to God that
God would fill our cup full of the
Holy Ghost.
When we do that, something happens.
When God begins to fill our cup, all
of a sudden, that cup is going to
get to the place where it's full.
When the cup gets full, guess what happens?
The water just keeps on flowing and somebody
else gets baptized right along with you.
You can sit down, Josh.
God bless you, my son.
May God do that to you, young man,
someday.
Not water, but the Holy Ghost all over
you, boy.
That is the picture that God is illustrating
right here.
Listen, dear parents, God wants to pour out
his spirit upon our seed.
But God cannot pour his spirit upon our
seed until he pours his spirit upon us.
We are the vessels that God uses to
put the spirit upon our children.
Now, in my house, I have that verse
up there.
I look at it every day.
I think about it every day.
And I think, there it is, God.
That is my part of the condition.
I must be thirsty for thee, O God.
And God promises if I'm thirsty, he's going
to fill me with the Holy Ghost.
And bless God, when he fills me with
the Holy Ghost, my family's going to get
all wet, too.
That is one of those mysterious influences.
I mean, you have helped to raise your
children, brothers and sisters.
You have helped.
What are we speaking about here?
It is God's plan that the children grow
up in the atmosphere of the spirit in
our homes.
When parents live in vital reality in their
homes, the blessing falls upon their children also.
The presence of God is God present and
active in my home.
The presence of God is God present and
active in my home.
That ought to be the greatest cry of
our hearts.
I think about Hudson Taylor.
When I think about this illustration, you know,
what an example he is.
There was his dad walking with God in
the home, and he was just a little
fella.
And you know how it is with children.
They're so open.
They're so innocent.
They're just wide open to anything.
That can be a great blessing, but that
can be a great curse upon them.
If you're full of all kinds of bitterness
and anger and other things like that, then
all those things go into the children when
they're little.
But if you're full of the Holy Ghost
when they're like that, then guess what goes
into those children?
Well, Hudson Taylor was just a little fella,
jumping around in his living room, in his
kitchen, in his house.
And he had a daddy who had a
burden for China, and he prayed anointed prayers
in his household every day.
And little Hudson was running around there, and
mercy drops were falling all over that little
fella.
Day after day after day, the mercy drops
were falling on that little boy.
And one day, he got down on his
knees in his closet and said, God, I'll
go!
And he went.
Oh, did he go.
All because a papa had the Holy Ghost
upon him in his household.
Oh, my dear parents, do you have any
idea what God would do with your children?
How God would pick your children up and
use them to do damage against Satan's kingdom
if we would just learn to live in
vital reality with God in our homes.
Verse 4 is a lovely picture of the
results of what happens when they live like
that.
They shall spring up like willows by the
watercourse.
Glory!
What a picture!
What does a willow tree grow like that
is planted by a watercourse?
I mean, look, there are other trees around,
sure, planted in other places, sure.
They're going to grow, no problem.
They're going to get some leaves on them,
yes, they will.
They might even have a little fruit, no
problem.
But that tree that's planted by the watercourse,
that thing is going to prosper so much
more than that other tree that's stuck out
there somewhere.
And he, every now and then, gets a
little water, you know.
Remember, we talked about every now and then
devotions last night.
Every now and then, he gets a little
drink of water.
Sure, he's going to grow.
Sure, he's going to turn out all right.
But that one that's planted by the watercourse,
bless God, that thing is going to be
a beautiful tree, and it's going to grow
and prosper, and it's going to have lots
of green leaves all over it, and fruit
to bear, and people are going to eat
that fruit and be blessed.
That's God's will for our children.
They shall spring up like willows by the
watercourse.
Dear father and mother, you are the watercourse.
How much water is running down the river?
You are the watercourse.
When a child is planted in a household
where mom and dad are free and clear
with God and each other, and the Holy
Ghost is upon them, it creates an atmosphere
in that home.
There's a mysterious influence that takes place in
the hearts and lives of those children all
through the day.
The Spirit of God is there brooding over
them, speaking to them, a little prompting here,
a word here, an inspiration, a new thought
to them.
All those things are taking place coming out
of mom and dad, because mom and dad
are living in vital reality.
It's the will of God, I tell you.
It is the will of God.
Just consider what God goes on to say.
Probably the most precious thing, the thing that
thrills our hearts more than anything.
He says, not only will they be like
trees planted by the watercourse, but they shall
rise up and say, I am the Lord!
Amen!
And that makes every parent sing, doesn't it?
When those children rise up and say, I
am a disciple of Jesus Christ, there does
something inside the heart of every parent that
sings that.
We had weekend meetings around here last August,
and there was a few of the young
people here in the congregation that got born
again during those meetings.
You should have seen the look on their
moms and dads when they came through the
doors there, all lit up and full of
joy, having made their choice for God.
Those parents were so excited, they wept tears
of joy.
How do you make this thing happen?
You get thirsty, brothers and sisters.
You get thirsty.
You begin to look to God.
You begin to seek the Lord, that God
would anoint you day by day by day.
Remember what Ephesians 5, verse 18 says, brothers.
Be filled with the Spirit.
Can we come to grips with that verse?
God is not going to let us go.
He's not going to let us go.
You know, the Greek tense of that verse
is awesome.
Basically what God is saying is this, be
being continually filled and controlled by the Holy
Spirit.
That's what that verse means.
God says to every one of us parents,
I want your children to rise up and
serve Me.
I'm God.
There is no other God beside Me.
I'm worthy.
Be being continually filled and controlled by the
Holy Spirit and I shall take your children
and do things with them that you never
dreamed of, God says.
And He will.
He will.
Let's go on to the second influence.
The power of an enthusiastic example.
Psalm 112 The power of an enthusiastic example.
Praise ye the Lord.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord,
that delighteth greatly in His commandments.
His seed shall be mighty upon earth.
The generation of the upright man and woman
shall be blessed, God says.
Here we have a man.
He loves God.
He loves God with all of his heart.
He's excited about God.
He loves God's Word.
He delights in God's Word.
He obeys God's Word.
He fears God.
He reverences God.
He lives for God.
He serves God.
Here he is.
Just like we described last evening.
He's a Psalm 1 kind of man.
His delight is in the law of the
Lord and in His law does he meditate
day and night.
And guess what?
He shall be like a tree planted by
the rivers of water that bringeth forth its
fruit in its season.
His leaf also shall not wither.
And guess what, brothers and sisters?
Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
He delights in the Word and he obeys
it.
He's a fanatic.
It is not a have-to thing with
him.
It's a get-to.
I get to.
Amen?
I remember the day that I came home
on a Saturday evening after having studied all
day on Saturday, preparing to preach on Sunday
morning, and I was so excited.
And I mean, I love to preach.
And I was excited.
I knew what I was going to preach
in the morning.
And I walked into the house on Saturday
evening to sit down like we often do
on Saturday evening and just kind of close
out the day and visit and all that.
And Esther was just a little girl, maybe
five years old.
And she came up to me and said,
Papa, do you have to preach tomorrow?
She said.
And of course, I was so excited to
get to preach tomorrow.
I said, no, Esther, I don't have to
preach tomorrow.
I get to preach tomorrow.
It is the greatest privilege that I could
ever have.
I get to serve God.
I don't have to come to church.
I get to go to church.
This is the kind of guy we're talking
about.
It's into the get-to realm.
He loves it!
You got him?
Well, children live in this guy's house.
I mean, children live with this stuff.
And the effect is a bit mysterious.
They are moved to follow this man by
an unseen hand upon their life.
His enthusiasm is contagious.
I mean, it's that way with all of
us.
It's not just with the father and his
children.
When you find somebody who is excited about
God, you get excited.
Their enthusiasm is contagious, and you get a
hold of it, and pretty soon you'll shout
right on with them.
Well, that's the kind of guy this guy
was.
Children live in his house.
And these children are affected by this man.
I think that God works in mysterious ways
behind the scenes, but I do think that
God also works through our very lives.
And this is a verse that shows that.
These children live with this guy.
They are influenced by him.
They see his joy.
They sense his enthusiasm.
They watch his excitement day by day.
They see him get excited about things that
they know are a sacrifice and a burden,
but they still see him excited and full
of joy.
And that has an influence.
A mysterious influence.
It does things inside of the hearts of
the children.
They don't even understand what's going on.
But little by little, that mysterious hand is
moving them into the realm where they shall
rise up and follow the faith of their
father and their mother.
And that's God's way.
That's how God works.
Brothers and sisters, our children will love what
we love.
They will get excited about what we get
excited about.
That is just a fact.
They will.
If we, like that fellow last night, who
wanted his boy to be a baseball player,
rise up with enthusiasm and excitement about that
which we love, our children will come running
along after us.
That's just the way it works.
The children in our house love the garden.
Can anybody tell me why?
I love the garden.
I mean, I love it!
I don't get to do very much of
it.
Someday, if I ever retire, I'll enjoy doing
it.
But I love the garden!
And guess what?
The children do too.
That's just the way it is.
They love to go witnessing.
Anybody figure out why?
I think about William and Catherine Booth.
We mentioned them the other evening.
They were like this guy right here.
Both of them.
So full of enthusiasm.
So excited about God.
So excited about God's work.
And they had eight children that lived in
the same house with those two nuts.
Those children, they sensed.
They saw.
They heard the joy, the enthusiasm of their
father and their mother.
They would sit at home and wait for
Dad to come home at night.
You know, when they were younger, they weren't
allowed out on the streets.
It was dangerous out there.
So they had to wait for Dad to
get home.
And Dad would come home.
Maybe he'd come home nine o'clock after
a whole evening out there, witnessing and winning
souls and preaching and all that stuff.
And they'd sit around and listen to him.
And Dad would tell war stories.
Amen?
He would tell war stories.
And you should have seen what happened earlier.
And then this guy and, you know, one
of the other soldiers got hit with a
brick tonight.
Really, Papa?
Yeah.
Somebody else got hit with a rotten tomato.
And all the children would sit on the
edge of their seat and listen to all
the stories that their Papa told them about
all the things that God did that night.
Guess what those children were longing to do?
Oh, I can't wait until I get to
go along with Papa.
I mean, imagine that.
They were longing for the day when they
could stand in ranks with the rest of
the soldiers in the Salvation Army and they
look forward to the day when a rotten
tomato would hit them.
How do you get a child to look
forward to a rotten tomato?
Hmm?
You get excited about rotten tomatoes.
Amen?
You get excited about rotten tomatoes.
And bless God, they'll be looking on and
saying, I want to get hit with a
rotten tomato.
When can I go along, Papa?
Please let me go, pretty please.
And yea, someday they will get hit with
a rotten tomato.
And they might get hit with a rock
someday too.
But the power of the enthusiasm of this
father and mother captivated all eight of those
children whom we gave their whole heritage already.
We don't need to go back to that.
But he and she were examples of this
right here.
The children longed to go along.
Sometimes people come up to me and they
ask me this question.
Brother Denny, how do you get the children
to fast, to pray, to get up early
and have devotions and all that other stuff
you talk about?
Do you require that?
Do you have laws in your house?
You will fast this day.
You will get up at this time.
You will do this.
You will do that.
That's the way it is in our house.
And I tell them, no, no, no, no,
no.
I wouldn't make laws out of things like
that.
This is a voluntary thing.
Well, how do you get them to do
that?
Well, you just love it with all your
heart.
You get excited about it yourself.
You live it out day by day.
You come down in the morning time, sit
down at the breakfast table, all full and
running over with all that God did in
your heart in your quiet time this morning.
And soon they'll be saying, could I get
up a little bit earlier, Papa?
That's how it works.
You sit down at the table on a
Monday morning, turn the plate upside down and
say, I'm not going to eat today.
I've got some burdens.
I want to seek God.
And you do that.
Then on Tuesday morning you show back up
there at the table.
So excited about all the things that God
is doing inside of your heart and the
things that God showed you in the Word
this morning and the prayer that God answered
when you prayed and fasted for so-and
-so.
And pretty soon they'll walk up to the
table and turn their plate over too and
say, I'm not eating today.
Thank you.
That's how it works.
In fact, this is my experience.
You have to slow them down.
They want to do more than what they
can do when they're little.
Can I fast for five days?
No, you little six-year-old.
You cannot fast for five days.
Let's try two.
Okay?
Okay.
How do you get them to do that?
You love it.
That's what you do.
You get excited about it.
That's how you do it.
These are things we thoroughly enjoy.
We get to do them.
So they want to do them too.
The word enthusiasm is a very interesting word.
See, somebody might listen to this and say,
well, okay, so what do you do?
Just whoop yourself all up?
There's people all over the United States today.
They've got all kinds of stuff.
The power of a positive mind.
And so-and-so is an enthusiast and
they get him to go and speak at
all these places because he gets excited.
Hey, yeah, you can generate yourself in the
flesh.
You can.
But we're not talking about that.
You need more than a fleshly generated excitement
to transfer the things that I'm talking to
you about.
So how do you do that?
Where do you get this enthusiasm?
Well, the word enthusiasm, in the Greek, it's
enthusiasmos.
That's the Greek word for enthusiasm.
And the literal interpretation is God-incitedness.
That's where you get it.
God-incitedness will take care of the enthusiastic
example in your home.
That's what God is talking to us about.
That's what Paul's testimony.
He said, There's a God inside of me
and I can't help myself.
That's what God wants.
It's not something you whoop up, work up,
emotionalize.
No.
You walk with God, dear parents.
Here we are again.
Right back to the same old thing again.
You walk with God.
As you walk with God, God's Spirit will
stir inside of your heart, make His commandments
a joy to you, make them a get
-to, not a have-to.
Your children will look on at all of
that and say, That's what I want.
Listen, parents, there's a lot of flashing lights
out there these days to tempt our children
into the world.
And they look on, they look at all
those flashing lights, and you know, they're pretty.
They are.
The world really does it upright.
And the children look at all that and
they think, Hmm, Dad said that's bad.
But it doesn't look bad.
It seems so nice to me.
Listen, dear parents, there's going to come a
day when they're going to have to make
a decision which way they're going to go.
Amen?
With some children, they look at a dead
mom and dad who are going through the
motions of devotions and they're going through the
rituals of religion week in and week out,
and there's no get-to, there's no spring
in their step, there's no joy about serving
God at all, and they look at that
and then they look at those lights and
in their heart, they're no dummy, they look
at that and say, It looks to me
like that's a whole lot more exciting than
this.
I think I'll take that.
But, oh, dear parents, when we, by the
grace of God, can rise up and in
fact, from the depths of our heart, truly
enjoy the Lord and serve Him, our children
will also notice that.
And I know what they will do.
God promises what they will do.
They will look at those shining lights out
at the world and they will look at
your life which is being consumed by a
living God and they will say, I want
my father and my mother's God.
I believe it.
Really?
These are basic principles of discipleship, aren't they?
Love it.
Live it.
Teach it.
And they'll follow you.
That's it.
Basic principles of discipleship.
Parents, what kind of children do you want?
What do you want them to do?
I'm telling you how you can have anything
you want that's in this book.
What do you want them to do?
What kind of children do you want them
to be?
Be it!
With all your heart, with joy, with zeal
of the Holy Ghost and they will rise
up and do it.
You want them to be a soul winner?
You go for it.
You get in there.
You taste the beauty, the joy, the excitement
of leading a soul to Jesus Christ and
come home and tell the story to the
children.
And I tell you what, they'll be on
the edge of their seat and longing for
the opportunity when they can go do the
same thing.
What do you want, my dear parents?
This book is the limit.
It's the limit.
What do you want?
You want your child to be an intercessor
that rises up in the middle of the
night and prays fervently for two or three
hours and goes back to bed?
Here it is.
You want them to raise up a godly
family someday with zeal and joy?
Here it is.
Whatever you want, you can have.
Let's go on to the third point.
The third mysterious influence in the life of
our children is prevailing intercessory prayer.
Lamentations 2, verse 19.
Hear these words.
Arise.
Cry out in the night.
In the beginning of the watches, pour out
thine heart like water before the face of
the Lord.
Lift up thy hands toward Him for the
life of thy young children that feed for
hunger in the top of every street.
Awesome word.
Such a word of admonition that God gives
to us as parents to intercede for our
children.
This could be the most powerful mysterious influence
of the three of them.
Prayer.
Powerful, prevailing prayer moves the hand of God
to move upon my family.
Do you believe that?
God does that in mighty ways.
Jackie and I, we pray for the children.
We pray for them in the morning.
We pray for them in our personal devotions.
We pray for them at mealtime sometimes.
We pray for them at devotions.
We pray for them when we put them
to bed.
We pray for them a lot.
You know, gather the children together.
Lord, bless the children.
Bless David.
Bless Joshua.
God, watch over their lives.
We pray those kind of prayers all the
time.
But I don't believe we're talking about those
kind of prayers in this verse.
And that's not what I mean when I'm
making my point here this evening.
I'm talking about a different kind of praying
than that.
I'm talking about the kind of praying that
you do occasionally if you know what it
is to be in the presence of the
living God of heaven.
You know you are before the throne of
God.
You're there and you know it and you
get a hold of God for your children
and you cry out, you pour out your
heart like water before the face of the
Lord for your children.
Intercessory prayers.
Fervent prayers.
Prayers that nobody else hears.
Prayers in the middle of the night when
nobody's around to hear the deep groanings that
come upon your heart for your children.
We're talking about intercessory prayers, brothers and sisters.
They have a powerful influence on the lives
of our children.
But I'm afraid not very many parents do
very much of that kind of praying.
I'm glad for all the little prayers you
pray, but I believe that God wants to
work in our hearts in such a way
that we will find ourselves getting up in
the middle of the night and pouring out
our heart for our children!
Breaking our heart!
Getting a hold of the horns of the
altar and not let go till we know
we have a blessing for this child.
I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, our children,
there are times when they need those kind
of prayers.
There are times when they need their dad
to pray them through something that they're not
getting through on their own.
There are times when the enemy is so
chasing them that they can't see straight, and
they need a dad or a mom who
will get a hold of the horns of
the altar and not let go until God
comes through.
You know what?
Most parents only pray prayers like this when
everything starts falling apart.
But I believe He wants us to rise
up with a vision and get enough of
the Holy Ghost burning inside of us that
we'll get up in the middle of the
night and pray for Him like this in
the good times!
How sweet it is to be alone with
God and to be able to bring your
children up before His throne and know without
a shadow of a doubt that God is
taking and receiving these children as I give
them up to Him.
And God is going to take care of
them and answer my prayer.
There must be times when you are caught
up in the Spirit.
Like John.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day.
I don't know how many of you ever
saw that picture in some of the Christian
bookstores where the father is kneeling down and
the little boy is laying in his bed
sleeping and he's got his little teddy bear
there in his arm, you know, dad's down
there on his knees next to the bed.
How many of you ever seen that picture?
Yeah.
If you look real close, you'll see in
the window behind that dad there's a white
angel with his hands up like this and
there's a black angel with his hands up
like this trying to get through and the
dad's there on his knees and the white
angel is moving according to the intercessory prayers
of the dad and the black angel has
to go!
In Jesus' name!
He has to go!
That's the kind of prayers we're talking about.
I think of the illustration of James Stewart's
mother.
James Stewart was a Scottish preacher.
They called him the boy preacher.
But he was out preaching on the street
corners when he was 14 years old.
And they called him the boy preacher.
I mean, he put a sign, you know,
these embarrassing things.
He put these little banners, hung it down
over him and he was out on the
streets of Edinburgh, Scotland.
I mean, he was out there every evening
preaching like a house on fire at 14
years old.
Well, let's look behind the scenes a little
bit, amen?
That boy, James Stewart, he didn't have a
daddy.
I don't know why he didn't have a
daddy.
I don't know if his daddy died or
what, but he didn't have a daddy.
He didn't have the guidance that he should
have had.
He got involved in sports and he was
good at playing kickball, you know, soccer.
That's what they like to do over there.
That's their idol.
And he was good at this and he
could kick that ball and he was heading
for the professionals as fast as he could
go.
I mean, the scouts were watching him when
he was 14 years old, saying, keep your
eye on that boy.
He's going to be one of the best
in the whole of our country.
And there he was, kicking that ball around,
making a fool out of himself, spending his
whole life bumping his ball around, you know,
like that.
But he had a mama.
And this mama knew how to pray.
And she knew, because she gave that boy
to God when he was born, she knew
that God had something more for that boy
than kicking a ball around the field.
She would rise up in the middle of
the night and pour out her heart like
water before the face of the Lord for
that boy.
Night after night she would pray and intercede
and weep and cry until one night she
broke through the clouds.
And she got a witness from the Lord.
That's called praying through, by the way.
She got a witness from the Lord.
I'm going to save your son.
You can quit praying.
It's all done.
She just sat there in her rocking chair.
Two nights later, right in the middle of
a soccer game, he got so under conviction,
he could hardly kick the ball or see
to kick the ball.
And he said, God, please, just let me
finish the game and I'll get right with
You.
And he finished kicking the ball around the
field.
And when he got done, he fell on
his knees down at the end of the
field and wept his heart and soul out
to God.
And he got right with God.
Hallelujah!
Got born again.
Boy, he was so excited.
Glory!
Heaven came down.
The glory of God filled his soul.
He went running home to his mom, you
know.
Burst through the door.
Mom!
Guess what?
I got born again!
Here's Mom in her rocking chair.
I know, my son, God told me two
days ago that you were going to get
born again.
Now, my boy, please go change your clothes.
You're going to give your testimony at a
meeting tonight.
Now, go along now.
Go along.
I already made the arrangements.
Okay, Mom, okay!
That's intercessory prayer.
That lady knew how to pray.
She got ahold of the horns of the
altar and she didn't let go until she
got through.
Listen, you don't pray lay-me-down-to
-sleep prayers when you pray those kind of
prayers.
You weep.
You cry.
You travail.
You lose your voice.
But you get through.
That's what we're talking about.
Hot prayers.
Intercessory prayers that can touch our children and
our children's children and our children's children's children.
Amen?
I mean, listen, I believe that I can
pray prayers that God will store up in
a vial in heaven and dump out on
my generation long after I'm gone.
I mean, I'm going to chase my great
-grandchildren long after I'm gone.
My prayers are going to chase after them.
That's the kind of prayers we're talking about.
Andrew Murray prayed like that.
And Andrew Murray believed in praying for the
generations that are going to come forth from
him and his children and his children's children.
And guess what?
You can track it down even today.
Generations of Murrays that came forth from Andrew
Murray are serving God today.
Many generations later, they're still serving God.
His name is still a revered name in
South Africa.
And so are those servants who came forth
from that man's loins and that man's prayers.
I mean, what an awesome story Keith Daniels
told about when he was a young man,
a traveling preacher, unmarried.
And he and Andrew Murray shared a room
together, serving God together.
One of Andrew Murray's descendants.
Still named Andrew.
This is Brother Keith's testimony.
He said that fella would get underneath his
cover.
He would sit down in the middle of
his bed and get underneath his cover.
And an awesome presence of a worshipful spirit
of the living God would fill the whole
room.
Well, that sounds just like Andrew Murray.
Yeah, it is Andrew Murray.
He's still around.
Though he be dead, yet he still speaks.
Though he be dead, his prayers are still
chasing after his great-great-great-great-great
-grandchildren.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, I don't think
we have any idea what powerful things God
could do with our children if we would
just get in the place of prayer.
And may I say this in closing.
Think about all three of these.
The influence of a godly life.
The atmosphere of the Spirit of God in
my home.
And these kind of prayers.
Can you do them on your own?
Can you work that up?
Can you put on a show and try
to make that happen?
No way.
God is after our hearts, fathers and mothers.
God is after our hearts.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.
It's invitation time tonight, dear fathers and mothers.
We're not giving invitations every evening, but the
nature of this message is such that I
think it's good that we give you an
opportunity to respond.
God is not just calling you to go
home and have family devotions.
He is after your heart.
He knows if He doesn't get your heart,
those family devotions won't have much effect.
God wants your heart.
So we're going to sing a song of
invitation after we pray.
And just give you an opportunity to do
business with God.
God has been doing many things in your
hearts.
All the different sessions we're having.
Look, you can load yourself down to where
you don't know what to do if you
don't begin to respond, open up, clean up,
clear up, confess up, and yield up your
heart and your life to God.
You will be miserable.
And all of these words that I am
saying will just fall on you like a
heavy load of discouragement.
You must get the heart clear and clean.
So that's the invitation this evening.
Let's bow for prayer first.
God our Father, we plead with You in
Jesus' name again that You would send forth
Your Spirit upon the hearts of Your people,
Lord.
I pray for those who are wrestling that
are struggling, God.
I pray that You would settle down upon
their hearts this very moment.
I pray that You'll send conviction upon them,
God.
And I pray that You'll speak words of
faith to their hearts that if they will
move, You will move and meet their need.
God, I commit the invitation and every heart
into Your care.
And I pray in Jesus Christ's name for
these things.
Amen.
228.
Shall we sing?
You come.
Sing it out.
Sing it with all your hearts.