Isaiah 64, and I hope you'll open a Bible and take a look at the text. Really ask God, even as I begin giving these introductory comments, I hope that you'll take just a moment and ask God, Lord, speak to me. Just that simple prayer right now, Lord, speak to me. Isaiah 64, well, I'd like to sort of relocate us in terms of the context of this book and where it's been going where we are here. You know that the book is roughly divided into thirds in some ways, divided into half, but really the first third of the book is about judgment and condemnation because of human sin. The second book, half third of the book, is about God's great salvation. And His salvation is all wrapped up in one tremendous person, person of God himself in Jesus Christ, the servant of Jehovah, as he's called. He came to bring deliverance and freedom from sin and the judgment of God. And the third third of the book is really taken up with glorification. So condemnation, salvation, and glorification. God's glory manifest in Jesus Christ both now and in the age to come. And in this third section of the book, we have beheld the promises, the vision of the glorious future that God has for his people. That glorious future is seen in terms of our purification, the purification of the people of God under the new covenant. and our ultimate confirmation in absolute holiness at the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. Glory manifest in the in-gathering of all of the saints of God from all of the nations of the earth into the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, so that that great city spreads abroad to the right and to the left and populates all of the cities of the world. That's the glory that he saw. He foresaw a glory that was the submission of everything in heaven and earth and under the earth to Jesus Christ and to his people through the destruction of all of his enemies that rebelled yet against our Savior and the deliverance and the establishment of eternal righteousness and peace across the face of the earth And in the end, we'll see that he envisions a glory, such a glory that transforms even nature itself, even the physical world, I mean the earth and the sky and the plants and the animals and our bodies, and culminating in a new heavens and a new earth, which we'll see as this book comes to a conclusion. Now, that is the glory that God has promised but the million-dollar question is how will those glorious things ever come to pass in a world that is frankly pretty dark and even in our lives that are yet tainted as believers even tainted by the flesh become a reality? Can you imagine these things? How will they happen? The answer has been unfolded in the last three chapters, chapter 62, 63, and 64, and in one word, the answer is that these things will come about through what? Prayer, thank you. Absolutely. These things will come about through earnest, persistent prayer. That's the way they're going to happen. They will not happen automatically as if coming about apart from the use of means. They will come about through earnest, persistent prayer. That's the means that God's going to use to bring about all of the glory that you want and in your family, and in the world around you, and your nation, in the ends of the earth, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is gonna go forth and change the world through earnest, persistent prayer. And we saw that that means first of all, and most importantly of all, it'll come about through the intercession of Jesus Christ himself. who is at this very moment making his petition at the throne of heaven that God's purposes would be brought to pass. He says in this 62nd chapter, for Zion's sake, that is the sake of my people, I will not be silent. I will not keep silent until all of these things come to pass for them. It's gonna come about through the intercession of Christ himself, and secondly, it's gonna come about through the intercession of those whom he establishes as his watchmen, his servants in the world, who will further his own intercession in heaven His very own prayer. In fact, they say this. He says to them, take no rest and give God no rest until he brings about his purposes for your life, for this world. Our prayers are the echo, the extension, the prayers of Jesus Christ himself. That means, friends, do you understand this? That means that prayer is a great, co-mingling of the prayers of Christ and his people. And in the most spirit-wrought prayers, the prayers of God's people and the prayers of Christ are one, bringing about, assuredly, the purposes that God has ordained. Let us never think lightly of this grand thing that we are called to do, to make intercession before the throne of the Almighty God. We are an extension of the very prayers of our Savior. And by those prayers, God causes His purposes to come to pass. Samuel Prime, the pastor who wrote one of the accounts of the great prayer meeting revivals that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it was last week. He wrote this. Prayer is the hook that draws the boat to shore. That is the unchanging purposes of God for the world. But prayer we are and where God's purposes are to become one and in example one of the great examples of that kind of prayer is right here in our text and it begins in chapter 63 verse 15 this is the prayer of those watching Let's go to chapter 64, the end of the chapter. I'd just like to take time to read this prayer in its entirety again. We began it, we're looking at it last Lord's Day, and we'll just continue today, all right? So would you give your heart to this in your mind? Let's look at Isaiah chapter 63, and this prayer beginning in verse 15. Look down from heaven and see from your holy and beautiful heaven The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are held back from me. For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father. Our Redeemer from of old is your name. O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways? holy people held possession for a little while, but our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, and like those who are not called by your name. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. that the mountains might quake at your presence as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down and the mountains quaked at your presence from of old. No one has ever heard or perceived by the ear nor eye has seen a God besides you who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry and we sinned. In our sins we have been for a long time. and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, who rouses himself You make us melt in the hand of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, you are our father. We are the clay and you are our potter, and we are all the work of your hand. So be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not our iniquity forever. Behold, please look cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation, our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised you has been burned with fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself of these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent and afflict us so terribly? really plead with God for mercy and forgiveness and revival. And I pointed out last week that the dear saints of old who made these prayers to the Lord, recorded by Isaiah, were making their petitions before him in terms of pleading with him. Last Lord's Day, we'll just briefly remind you of the first two, verse 15 of 1st chapter 63 is the first one, where they plead with the Lord to look and see. Look, O Lord, look down at our miserable plight. Look at the situation in which we are going to find ourselves under your judgment. Of course, Isaiah here foresees the time when Jerusalem will be broken down and burned under the chastening hand of God. Look and see our miserable condition. You know, there are times when God's people find themselves in a kind of spiritually miserable condition like that. When their spirits are broken down and they are just made desolate under the chastening hand of God. When they come to kind of an end of themselves, and they say, oh God, be merciful. There are times when the church is like that. There have been seasons when the broader church of Christ in a particular place at a particular time has been cold and lifeless. ineffective in the world. And there have been times in the life of a nation and a people when they have fallen, that people, under the judgment, the mighty hand of God. And these humble nations that were once very proud thought that they would last 1,000 years. And now their footnotes in history So the Lord does put people, bring people into situations like this. And they pray, Lord, look, look, look and see, behold our woeful condition. Surely this would cause you to act on our behalf. And the ground or the basis of their hope that God would look down and see their condition and act to deliver them descriptions of the relationship that they have with Him. He is our Father. Surely a father will have compassion on his children. And He is our Redeemer. And surely the Redeemer will exercise His zeal and His jealousy over those whom He has bought. So Lord, look and act. And you know, we often are going to need to plead with God. in a need to remind the Lord, as it were, of who He is to you and who you are to Him. And to look down and see His own in that situation and plead with the Lord to forgive and to renew. They make a second plea, and that's in chapter 63, in verse 17, the middle of the verse, where they pray, O Lord, return. Return to us, restore to us the sense of your presence. And again, they ground this. They find a basis for this kind of hope and prayer that God would return to them in who they are. They remind him that they are his servants. And remember that we looked at chapter 65 and took note that there's a differentiation there, between the nation as a whole and God's servants. And so this is the prayer of the godly, believing remnant of Israel. And they say, Lord, look upon us, look upon our nation, and be merciful for the sake of those of us who are truly yours. to us. We are encouraged to intercede for the fact that God often shows mercy to the many for the sake of the few, that he often shows grace even upon the ungodly and unrighteous for the sake of those who are righteous in Christ. And so they plead that God would remember the nation for their sakes, and that he would remember and return for the sake of his own reputation. Remember your throne, they say. Remember your name. Let it never be said that you did not rule over these who are your people. And there is a great grace, do you know, in the fact that God is a jealous God? That he is zealous for his own name? There's a wonderful grace in that. that when he puts his name on you, that you are not lost. So hold on to that in your prayers. Remind him that his name is at stake. Plead with him to defend his cause and deliver you. This is the prayer that these people make. And then we've come now to this third plea of the prayer. It's the beginning of chapter 64, the first verse. Oh. that, oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. And that little exclamatory word at the beginning, the little, oh, I mean, that just sets the right tone for this, doesn't it? That, in other words, we're talking about the kind of prayer here where somebody has finally come to a place where they are in earnest about their prayers. They're not just mouthing words here. These are people who know they need God. And the prayers that cause God to come down from heaven are the prayers of those who feel their need for him, that get before him in earnest like that. And if you feel like you can't pray like that today, My advice and counsel to you would be to pray that you can pray like that, and pray until you can pray like that. These are people who say, oh, oh, come down. Run to the heavens and come down. It's as if God, in their view, is hidden. behind the veil of heaven, undetected, his works not manifest. And they're looking for God to sort of break through, as it were, the veil of heaven and display his mighty grace and saving power. We pray for an open, public, indisputable display of the presence and the power of the Lord, described here in terms of an earthquake and a fire, right? Public, indisputable manifestations that God is at work. That's what we pray for, we long for. Oh God, oh God, render the heavens like that again and come down. Ultimately, we pray for the skies to be rolled back as a scroll, and the trunk to resound, and the Lord to descend. Even so, it is well with our soul for the Lord Jesus Christ to return and make all wrongs right, and to avenge his enemies, and to bless those who have been waiting for him, to complete all of God's good work. We pray, oh God, come down. in a way that brings about the purposes of God. Their motive, verse 2, is that God's adversaries might see his works and tremble before him. Oh, that's what we pray for. We pray for such an open, indisputable work of God that even the enemies of God say, oh, barely there is a God in heaven. The fear of God, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of wisdom. It is a foolish thing. For so much of the world, walk just on this side of the veil of heaven and be entirely oblivious to the God who stands behind it. It is as if there are a million flaming chariots of fire and a whirlwind of God's fury and thunderous claps and flashes of lightnings as these Angels of God, strained forward, ready to unleash the vengeance of the Most High God, all of it hidden behind a thin veil, ready to be torn apart like so much tissue paper, making way for that storming swirl of cherubim to come. And the world is oblivious. And the prayer is, oh God, open up the heavens like that, that the peoples of the world might tremble, that they might see you for who you are, the Lord God of hosts, who will indeed come and avenge all evil in the world, who will bring every sin to account before the most holy and righteous judgment Oh, that the nations would see and tremble. And how can they be awakened to the reality that's just beyond that veil? How can they be able to see the might and the power and the wonder and the mercy of that God when it seems like they can't see past the nose and their face or the physical things around them. How can they possibly see that God hidden behind that veil? And the answer for them is the same as it was for that elitist servant who, when he got on his knees and said, oh Lord, open his eyes, he prayed. That's the way the veil is opened. That's the way God tears open the heavens and manifests himself. It's when God's people pray, oh God, redden the heavens, open their eyes, let them see, show yourself, manifest yourself. And when God's people are in earnest about it, oh, we must pray. And pray for fear, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning. And the remnant takes hope in the fact that God has done it before. Take note of verse 3, the way they pray there. When, you see that first word? They're recalling something now. When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down. And the mountains quaked at your presence. Remember now they're praying, O God, you come down. And now they're recalling a time when He has come down before. And that's what fuels their hope that it may be so again. He has displayed his great power before his might over all of the so-called gods of the Egyptians in plague after plague upon them and their gods. He brought down his mighty arm over the most powerful man in the land. He brought them through the middle of a sea on dry ground and sent the waves of that sea crashing down upon the heads of their enemies. And he brought them to a mountain that was filled with fire and smoke and trembled before the holiness of God. The mountain quaked itself at his holy presence and he caused the report of him to make the nation struggle. The Canaanites quake at the report of his mighty deeds and his mighty acts. He's done it before, they recall, right? And what stands out about what he had done before was that it was beyond anything that they ever expected. He did, quote, awesome things that we did not look for. And they go on in verse 4 and say, from of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear. No eye has seen a God besides you who You did it before. Save us again. We wait for you. We wait for you. You are the God who acts for those who wait for you. And they waited like that. These believing people, they prayed like this and they waited like this. You know how long? 700 years they prayed like that for God to act again and do a mighty work of grace like He had done in the Exodus. They prayed and they prayed and they prayed and guess what? God answered their prayer, but he did it in a way that was unexpected, that was even unperceived by those without eyes to see. And Paul writes about it in 1 Corinthians. In chapter one, verse 18, he says, for the word of the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ, where he died for the sins of his people, and capstone of righteous life on behalf of his people. The word of the cross is falling, he says, to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the, what? The power of God. He saw the power of God unleashed at the cross. They see it. They see the power of God on display. They saw another mountain quaking under the wrath of God. Mount Calvary. And Paul continues in chapter 2 and verse 8, none of the rulers of this age understood this mighty act of God. They didn't understand it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, and here's a quotation of our verse four here, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, but God has prepared for those who love Him, those who wait for Him. And he goes on in verse 14, and he says there, listen, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are He worked his mighty act in a way that caused those who were given eyes to see to be able to see his might and his power and his wrath and his salvation all manifest in an earth-shaking way. But so many, so many had no eyes to see, no spirit to comprehend, for these things are spiritually discerned. But do you know what happens when the spirit is poured out? People respond in the way that the Jews responded when the spirit was poured out at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and verse 36, Peter stood up and preached under the power of the Holy Spirit, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus who you crucified. And how did they respond? When they heard this, they were cut to the heart. Oh, if you're a Christian, you know what that feels like, when the word of God is coming and just cut you right to the heart, and you say, oh God, forgive me, and then you say, oh God, you're amazing. They were cut to the heart like that, right? Cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? That's what we're praying for. We're praying for such a mighty work of God. He rents the heavens, that he manifests himself, that he pours out his spirit, that he opens eyes to see what is beyond this fight, what's beyond this poor, short, little life, what's beyond just a mere, measly, stinky little pleasures that you can get when you're fighting against God, to see something beyond that. We're praying, we're praying for them to see something beyond that so that they respond just like this. Oh God, what shall we do? Lord, be merciful to us. So they pray. Lord, you've done it before. And he has. He has done it in the past. He did it at Pentecost. He did it in the spread of the gospel throughout Europe and Asia and Africa He did it during the time of the Reformation, and he did it in the Great Awakening under Edwards and Whitfield, and he did it through the prayer meeting revivals of the 1800s. He did it in countless other times and places and cities and villages, large and small, all across the world in places where no one will ever know except the animals of history that are kept in heaven, and God has paused in individual lives and in churches and in whole communities. He's done it. He has done it, hasn't he? You know, you might just encourage your heart by going back and reading the accounts of salvation and renewal and revival that God has brought into the world in the course of history. Just the ones that we know about. I mean, that's just the tip of the iceberg, and that'll keep you busy for a long, long time. Be encouraged. Listen, that's the way they pray, right? God, you've done it before. You've done it before. Come, do it again. Bring the nation's gifts, sanctify your church, and come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, bring all God's purposes, all this glorious future that Isaiah foresees for us, bring it to pass, oh Lord. Brothers and sisters, we must wait on God in persevering prayer. until he comes down like that in power and acts on our behalf. But there is a great problem, and that is our sin and God's anger. And Israel acknowledges in verse five, O Lord, you, God, you meet with him who joyfully works for righteousness. Those who remember you in your ways Oh, but where is the person who consistently does that? The great problem is, at the end of verse 5, behold you were angry and we sinned. In fact, they say, in our sins we have continued for a long time. Shall we be saved? And you know, I just have to pause there for a moment and say, I do wonder if by the mercy I've been in my sin for a long time. Is there a way for me to be saved? I will tell you, God answers prayers like this. Humble, repentant people who say, oh God, I am a sinner. There are no excuses. Oh God, be merciful. That's all I could ask is just have mercy on me. This is the prayer. They say, oh God, we have been in our sin a long time. And not only has their sin been longstanding, it's been all pervasive. Look at verse six. They say, we have all become like one who is unclean, like a leper, an outcast under the judgment of God. And all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. That's a reference to a piece of clothing that's been soiled by bottling discharge, unclean. And what is it that they're talking about? All our righteous deeds. Even those people that you look around and you consider them to be really upstanding people, humanly speaking, whose best acts are tainted by unbelief and independence and rebellion against God. and our sin is universal, they say. At the beginning of verse six, they say, at the beginning of the verse, we have all become unclean like that. At the end of the verse, they say, we all fade like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away. And verse seven, there is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you. I mean, if you want to talk about the kind of person who joyfully does righteousness in the way that God is really looking for, how many of us are like that? And they say, there's none of us. There's none righteous, no, not one. Paul quotes this very passage in Romans chapter three to prove universal human depravity. Listen, there's not a man or a woman or a boy or a girl who has not suppressed the truth at some time in their life, suppressed, suppressed the truth because they wanted to do their own thing. They were determined to go their own way. And these people freely confess, Lord, this is us. This is who we are. Can there yet be mercy still for me? And the reason that they are given over like this or that they're sinful to this degree is that verse seven, for you have hidden your face from us and you have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities, we inevitably sin and rebel against God whenever He hides His face, when He just lets us have our own way. And I've said it before, and I hope I'll say it again, that one of the prayers that you should pray most often is, oh God, please do not let me have my own way. That is, my flesh. Oh Lord, please keep me from going my own way. Apart from grace, our sin and depravity is universal. There's no hope for any of us. We are all, all of us, under the justice and the wrath of God for our sin. But though God was angry with Israel, the believing remnant pleaded with Him. A fourth plea. It's found in verses 8 and 9. They say, but now, O God, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are our potter. We are all the work of Your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord. And remember not iniquity forever. It's their prayer, right? Be not so terribly angry. Remember not our iniquity forever against us. The believers of Israel plead, oh God, chasten us, but in the midst of your chastening, please don't be angry with us beyond measure. Like Habakkuk prayed, oh God, in wrath, remember your mercy. David sang with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, for his anger is but for a moment, but his favor is for a lifetime. And he indeed found out that the Lord was such who chastened his children, but yet loved them. And again, this 130th Psalm, he prays, he, that is the Lord, will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever against those who are his people. Listen, when God sends really hard things into a person's life, and they're under the chastening of God, they're under the judging hand of God because of their sin and their rebellion against him, The proud and the hard-hearted say something like this. Well, if that's the way God is, I could never believe in a God like that, what he's done to me. But these people, those who are the Lord's people, they pray, oh God, oh God, your judgment on me is right, but please, please, oh God, be merciful to me. Don't let your anger, Go beyond measure. In wrath, remember your mercy. O Lord, be gracious. Remember not my iniquity forever. That's the way we pray. It's the way we pray when we are waiting, waiting long for God to revive. And their prayer here is, once again, grounded in who God is. Their hope is rooted finds its basis in who he is for them. You are our father, they remind him. You are our potter. We are the work of your hand, oh God. By which they acknowledge that they owe everything to God as a father, As a child is formed by his father, and a pot is formed by the potter, and the artifact is formed by the craftsman who makes it. This is not on their part to make an excuse for their sin, or in any way to blame it upon God, but to recognize God's sovereignty over them, and that they belong to Him. That they're His creation, and they take hope in that. They're His. He made them. And even a wayward son may come back home and say, oh father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. Have mercy, oh God. And even a spoiled clay vessel on the potter's wheel, Jeremiah 18, may be reshaped and refashioned into something useful to the master of the house and beautiful for his enjoyment and service. There's hope in this, oh God. You are our Father, our Potter, our Creator, oh God, remake us, have mercy on us. And then finally the prayer ends where it began. It kind of comes full circle, and a lot of the themes in this last petition are just bringing into play the themes that have been prayed throughout the whole prayer. The final plea, in fact, is the same as the very first plea back in verse 15. But in verse 9 they pray, O God, behold, please look, take notice again, they ask, of our situation. And they remind the Lord again, we are all your people. And that, we saw a couple of weeks ago, recalls a long-running conversation that took place between God and Pharaoh, and between God and Moses throughout the course of the book of Exodus. Pharaoh said, these people are mine. They are my slaves and my servants. But God said, no, they are my people. When they turned their back on him, God said to Moses, OK, these are your people. But Moses, in such a Christ-like spirit, interceded before the throne of heaven and said, O God, if I have found favor in your sight, then please consider my people to be your people. And the Lord turned his wrath away and showed favor and grace upon them. of the intercession and for the sake of God's favor toward His Son, our Savior, the Mediator, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. That's the only reason. But they say, oh Lord, look, look at the condition of those who are your people. They describe it, verse 10, Holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness. Jerusalem is a desolation, O Lord. Your holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, they foresee. And all of our pleasant places have become ruins. Our holy, beautiful house. You know, their earthly temple, the temple in Jerusalem, was supposed to be a visible, extension or reflection of God's heavenly temple. You're aware of that, right? The writer of Hebrews says that the earthly temple was a copy or a shadow of the heavenly things. And this is why the wording here at the end of the prayer echoes the wording way back at the beginning of the prayer, up in chapter 63, and verse 15, when they prayed, oh Lord, look down from heaven and sea, look down from your holy and beautiful habitation. That's where God dwells, and now they say, look at our holy and beautiful house. And it lies in ruins, it lies under the flame. Lord, look down and see, let it be on earth as it is in heaven. Let there not be a great disconnect. between the reality for your people and, or the shadows for your people and the reality in heaven. Your throne, they say, is being trampled underfoot by evil nations. It's as if someone were to go up to a painting of your beloved one and destroy it, mar it, you know, take the face and make it ugly somehow. They say, And they end by questioning the Lord in verse 12. Lord, will you restrain yourself at these things? Notice the language. Oh Lord, will you restrain yourself at these things? If you see, can you restrain yourself? Will you keep silent and afflict us so terribly? And so once again, as it was at the beginning of the prayer, it seems as if God is holding back, right? That was the language at the beginning of the prayer. Oh God, can you hold back your compassion from us? Now, they pray, oh God. Don't restrain yourself. Can you hold your tongue at what you see in front of you? It's as if they see a God who is eager to act, actually, on behalf of his people, and to turn his face once again to them and to speak comfort to them. If only they will humble themselves and seek his face and earnestly wait upon him. And you know, what if that is all that's holding back God, as it were, from showing His grace and forgiveness and favor to you? As if He were eager to save you, and to sanctify you, and to do what His purpose is about in your life. To love your unwillingness to humble yourself, and to pray, and to seek His face, ever being a reality for people. As if he is the father of the prodigal who is watching down the road and waiting for his child to finally get sick and tired of his sin and the consequences of his sin. And to come to his senses and to return and lay himself down before his father again. forgive, restore, revive, renew, do a mighty work again like he did in days of old. Oh God, waiting for his people to hold on to the throne of heaven, to lay hold of the horns of the altar and not to let go until he answers them, to give him no rest until he turns his face again to them and fulfills all of his good purposes. Thomas Watson said, The tree of the promise will not drop its fruit unless shaken by the hand of prayer. You say, well, God has promised. He has. But those promises will come to pass through means. And the hand that shakes the tree is the hand of prayer. Oh, may we shake the tree of heaven with our prayers until every fruit of grace is fully and finally ours. Amen. Now this is the part of the sermon service where we respond to the Lord. This is not a time merely to just fill up space in our service. This is an important time. for us to pray our response to God in light of what we've heard. And that's what I'm asking, inviting, urging you to do right now. That you would truly pray, and maybe for one or two, it's been a little while since you've prayed. Maybe it's been a while since you were able to pray with any kind of earnestness. And I hope that you will bow your head right now Be merciful to my family, to my church, to my people.