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Notice, Paul is praying,
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but he's not praying for himself.
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Brothers and sisters,
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how desperately, desperately we need
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men and women in the church like this.
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Paul is interceding.
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Interceding is what you call it
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when you bow your knees to God
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for the sake of others
and not for yourselves.
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How we need intercessors in the church!
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And I'm concerned!
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I'm concerned.
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When I got saved,
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honestly, I hungered to
have time with the Lord.
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The first three years
of my (Christian) life,
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I was able outside of work -
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and even times at work
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during breaks and lunch;
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I wasn't married -
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I was able to give my life to
communion with the Lord.
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And I moved down here to Texas,
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lived with John Sytsma -
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very business oriented family.
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And things were working at a pace
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that I just felt like -
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John was very much given to devotions
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in the morning,
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and before the family got together,
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and I like to walk in the evenings
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and be out in the field
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and away from the heat.
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And John's schedule and mine
were a little bit different.
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I remember just panting
after having that time back.
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And I recognized that I
needed to move separate
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so that I could get back
into my own schedule.
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And I longed for that.
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And I guess my sense was that,
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well, that's how it is
with all Christians.
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We don't live by bread alone,
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but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God.
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We want to abide in Christ
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and we love walking with Him
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and meeting with Him
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and there's things to confess
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and there's worship;
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and just getting to meditate before Him
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and praying and interceding
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for the sake of others.
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I just assumed that.
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And then I got married,
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and my wife basically lived that way
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day after day.
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I guess my assumption has largely been:
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Well, of course...
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that's how Christians live.
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I am, I don't know,
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I'm guess I'm kind of
baffled by the frequency
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at which I hear that people in this church
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have a real difficult time maintaining
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just a consistent intimacy with the Lord.
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And I guess my concern is this,
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I'm not sure what lies
behind this difficulty.
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Is it immaturity?
Is it worldliness?
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Is it busyness?
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Is it just that there's no hunger there?
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I know this:
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intercessors don't come
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from marginally spiritual people.
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Why?
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Because interceding requires love
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and a level of maturity
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and a lack of selfishness.
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Selfish people - their prayers
are all about themselves.
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Very little worship.
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Very little confession.
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But a lot of give me, give me, give me.
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Now, I know there are prayer
warriors in this church.
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I know there are.
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I know there are some of you -
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your walk is close to the Lord.
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I want there to be more.
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I want this to characterize
the church as a whole.
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Intercessors.
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We desperately, desperately need this.
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And if people can barely
manage to find their way
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into the secret place of prayer each day,
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I know this -
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you're not interceding for anybody.
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It's not happening.
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Where do intercessors come from?
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They come from people that live
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in the presence of God.
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You think about it.
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Paul - you can imagine
the guard walking by.
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The guards are talking to each other.
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"What's the guy doing in there?"
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"Every time we walk by
there, he's on his face."
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He wasn't idle.
He wasn't wasting his time.
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He wasn't wasting his time in prison.
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He was crying; he was bending his knee.
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He was pleading; he was crying out
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for the sake of others.
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You find in just about every
single one of his epistles,
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he cried out for people.
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He called upon them.
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Where do intercessors come from?
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People who don't live by bread alone.
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People who are desperate.
People who are abiding in the Lord.
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People who are talking to Him
and walking with Him.
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Where does it come from?
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That somebody says:
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"for this reason."
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I know them to be a Christian;
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for that reason, I'm on my knees for them.
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They're beloved of God.
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Something is released in my heart.
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I need to pray for them.
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I'm thinking about
other people all the time.
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I'm thinking about their needs.
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I'm thinking about them glorifying God.
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Where do intercessors come from?
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Intercessors - not
marginally spiritual people.
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You know, if we don't have intercession
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happening commonplace in your life -
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I'm not just talking about in the church -
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if intercession is not happening
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as a commonplace thing in your life,
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one of the great manifestations
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of sacrificial love is missing.
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And listen, that's important:
sacrificial love.
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You think about Judgment Day.
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Jesus talks about what you did for others.
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"I was in prison and you visited Me."
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You know, one of the ways
you can visit people in prison
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is by praying.
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The thing is as long as
you have life and breath,
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and you have consciousness,
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you can pray for people.
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We need it.
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We need this desperately.
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Where are the men and women -
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I know we've got some.
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I know.
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But oh God, help us to have more.
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Men and women who live
in the presence of God
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on bended knee whose voices
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are familiar to the Father;
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whose voices go up
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in familiarity to the Father
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on the behalf of others.
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I mean, you can imagine,
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God from God's perspective:
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"There's his voice again...
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and sure enough, he's asking for a job.
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He's asking for a wife.
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He's asking for a raise.
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He's asking..."
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Those who God hears his voice:
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"Lord, help so-and-so,
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Lord according to the riches of Your glory
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please strengthen that brother
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down there in Mexico.
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Please Lord, open that
door for that brother
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that's trying to get
from Costa Rica, Lord."
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How often is the Lord hearing that voice?
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"Lord, I'm not here to
pray for my own needs.
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You know I have them,
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but Lord, Brother Matt
needs Your help today.
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He needs Your help.
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Johannes. Lord, remember Johannes."
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Those who can't sit comfortably
reading the book
-
or fiddling with their phones
-
because they're feeling a burden
-
for Andy and Rebecca, or you heard -
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those of you that weren't
here on Wednesday,
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Trevor Johnson wrote, I think,
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one of the most powerful
missionary letters
-
that he's ever written.
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Men and women not constantly asking
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for their own needs.
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The church needs intercessors.
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We desperately need them.
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Why?
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Because God answers prayer.
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Listen, I'm telling you this.
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I know this for a fact.
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I'm so convinced.
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I've seen it over and over and over again.
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God answers prayer.
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And when people are praying for you,
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things happen in your life
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that would not happen if
they weren't praying for you.
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Mark it down.
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The elders in this church preach
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or perform or oversee better
-
when people are praying for them
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than when they're not praying for them.
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That is a reality.
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People live more holy lives.
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People live closer to God.
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People are more prayerful.
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People are more loving
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and charitable and kind
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and tender and forgiving
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when people are praying for one another
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than when they're not
praying for one another.
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That is a fact.
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I'll tell you, I was thinking about
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our brother coming here
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on a week from Wednesday
-
and sharing his needs.
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If I was on a foreign mission field,
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I would want to visit as
many churches as I could,
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and I would tell the people,
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"Look, I'm not here for your money.
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I'm just appealing, if there is one person
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or two people or three
people in this church
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that are prayer warriors
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and you have any burden for India,
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I plead with you: pray!"
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And if on Judgment Day it can be found
-
there were three people
in that church over there
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and there were two people
in that church over there
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and five in that church over there,
and they held that rope.
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Not because they were sending
me all their dollars all the time,
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but they prayed for me.
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They prayed for me all the time.
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Prayer meetings did not
go by in that church
-
they weren't praying for me,
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and oftentimes, every
single day of the week,
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they were holding me up.
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We need this.
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When we pray for one another,
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I'm telling you, we end up doing things
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that would not happen
-
if people weren't praying for us.
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This is the reality.
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Bending our knees to the Father
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on behalf of others.
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We are the priesthood, brethren.
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Have you never read that?
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That fire was not to go out on that altar.
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And if that was the symbol;
-
if that was the hyperbole;
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if that was the metaphor,
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we are the true priesthood.
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Don't let the fire go out.