Rise Up, O LORD!

So this morning we're in week six of our sermon series called Stand in the Gap. For those of you who are visiting with us, it's a series that we've felt God calling us to do as pastors here because we realize that there are many places in Scripture that are filled with commands for God's people to intervene, to defend, to rescue the afflicted. And so it's our conviction as a church that we should be engaged, as all of God's people should, in the fight for the orphan. Now, who is the orphan today? What is an orphan? An orphan is one without a father. The unborn are orphans today because their mothers and fathers, their fathers particularly, have said, you don't belong to me. I don't recognize your existence.

I refuse to acknowledge you. I'm abandoning you. And there are 60 million abandonments that have happened in America today since Roe v. Wade. And it's not stopped. It continues. The bloodshed continues. Abortion continues to be legal. Pastor Flip Benham, a pastor, once said these words about the ending of abortion. He says this. This is the pastor who, He's the head of Operation Save America, which is actually the ministry that is helping us host this rally. He's also, you guys remember Roe v. Wade, right? Roe v. Wade is the decision. Everybody knows it. Now, Roe, Jane Roe, that's actually not her real name. Roe was not her last name. But Jane Roe, for those of you who didn't know, she became a believer. Later, she repented and believed. And Flip Benham, was the man who baptized her. And here's what he said about abortion and the ending of it in America. He said this, Abortion will end in America when the church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will end, and not one second sooner. Abortion will end in America when the church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will end, and not one second sooner. What does it look like for the church today to make up her mind?

that child sacrifice and the shedding of innocent blood needs to stop. Well, it looks like many things. It looks like showing up at the place where the death is happening. Many of us are called to show up. It looks like speaking the truth about abortion, standing on the word of God rather than the word of man. It looks like calling on our governing authorities to stop regulating murder. through unjust laws, though they might appear like they're for the life of the baby. For some of us, it looks like adopting children who were rescued from death. For all of us, it looks like proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is what Dave talked about last week. He talked about the primary weapon that God uses in the ending of this awful evil is the gospel.

It is going to the place where it happens, at the very least, and proclaiming God's yes and God's no. Saying, you're a mother. Children are a blessing from the Lord. God's yes. Don't murder your child. That would be a horrible, terrible sin. God's no. Jesus died to forgive murderers. Come and have life. All of these things are true and good, but this assumes, all of this assumes something very important. That God's people want it to end. That God's people want abortion to end. And so I ask you, brothers and sisters, do you want abortion to end? No wonder no one's down at the mill. Do you want abortion to end? Does God know that? Do you call out to God for him to rescue and save your pre-born neighbors?

from being led away to the place of slaughter each week. Do any of us know where it's happening? How many of us here can say with confidence that we regularly pray for God to end it, end the bloodshed? And I mean really pray. I mean seek God intensely. How many of us can do that? Can any of us stand? Can I stand and say that I have with... Confidence and a clean conscience that I labor in prayer, seeking God that he would remove the evil. Well, we need to know this, brothers and sisters. God will not remove the oppression without hearing that it's needed. The removal is needed. God will remove the oppression from our land when we cry out to God for it to end. God delivers those who cry out to him for help.

You think of the Israelites, right? How were the Israelites delivered out of slavery, the bondage of Egypt? They were there for many, many years. How many years? 400 years. Bondage and slavery. Exodus 3, 9 and 10 says, Exodus chapter 3, verses 9 and 10 says this. This is God speaking to Moses at the burning bush. He says this, Now behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to me. Furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. Therefore, come now and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. What's going on? Well, there's three things going on. Number one, the oppressed cried out to God for deliverance because they were the ones in bondage. They were the victims.

Number two, God heard their cry. And number three, God acted. He said, let me find a man who I will use to end this. If we as the people of God want to see babies saved from death, then prayer must be at the center of our fight. You follow? And this morning, we'll seek God's help in understanding that because abortion in our nation, it will end. One day it will end, but it will end because of prayer. It will end when the cry of God's people demands that it ends, and therefore we must be a praying people. And there is no better place for us to learn the nature and role of prayer in this battle to rescue the pre-born from death than in the book of Psalms. The Psalms are the prayer book for God's people. Have you noticed the songs that we sung today? They're all the Psalms.

You know, the song that we're going to sing at the end, our closing hymn, is a psalm. They're the prayer book of God's people. And moreover, the psalms are filled with prayer after prayer after prayer for God to save the innocent and the oppressed. It's just all over the place. You can't get away from it. It's like, you know, you try to, it's like, the Lord is my shepherd and you shall not want. And it's like, all of a sudden it's, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Wait a minute. I have enemies. We must understand the crucial nature and role of prayer if we're to win this battle to rescue the pre-born from death. And we have to believe that we can win it because God says the gates of hell will not prevail. He says go and preach the gospel to all the nations. Not just individuals, but nations. The whole earth. Disciple the nations. But prayer is at the center of God's deliverance.

So let's stand now and hear God speak to us from His Word. This is the Word of God, and it is eternally true. Psalm 10. Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord. The wicked and the haughtiness of his countenance does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high, out of his sight. As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, I will not be moved. Throughout all generations, I will not be in adversity. His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression.

Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. He sits in the lurking places of the villages. In the hiding places, he kills the innocent. His eyes watch stealthily for the unfortunate. He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair. He lurks to catch the afflicted. He catches the afflicted when he draws them into his net. When he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, and the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. He says to himself, God has forgotten. He has hidden his face. He will never see it. Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, you will not require it. You have seen it, for behold, You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to you. You have been the helper of the orphan. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. Nations have perished from his land. O Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear.

to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. Now this psalm is a psalm written of King David. Many of the psalms are written. King David is writing in a time where Israel is being afflicted by God's enemies. There are times in the history of God's people under the Old Covenant, when things were going well and they were at peace, and there were times when they had crisis and affliction, and they were at war, and the enemies were surrounding them, and there were threats. And moreover, there were temptations for God's people to follow the evil practices of the pagan nations, because we all know, if you can't beat them, join them. And David begins this psalm, With a lament. He begins the psalm with a lament. Now what is a lament? A lament is an honest and intense expression of grief and sorrow over a particular situation. It's to communicate the feeling of hopelessness and sadness, disappointment, discouragement. We've all been there. We've all lamented. Right?

Many times the lament is to others. It's not to God. But here David is lamenting to God. And this is what David does here. David cries out to God over the bloodshed and evil in the land. And the very first word that comes out of his mouth is, why? The first word, why? Scripture gives you permission to ask God why. Isn't that encouraging? You can ask God why if you want to know why. But David cries out. He says, why? Why, God? Why is this happening? Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? David is overwhelmed with fear and doubt and discouragement. He feels that God has withdrawn his presence and his favor towards the people of God. He feels as though he's completely and utterly abandoned him.

and the nation. And so he cries out. He says, why? Why, God? He describes it by God being far away, distant. I can't even see you, Lord. Why are you so far off? You think of times in your life where you've sat in your bed or you've been alone or you've been in a period of your life where you feel like there's just, I don't know what to do. And you're so overwhelmed and you're so pulled down with stress and anxiety. And you just go, God, I feel like you're far away. It seems like you're hiding from me because when I look for you, I can't find you. And this is what David does. He says why. He complains to the Lord. But then he goes on. David then continues on to describe to the Lord what it is.

That's bothering him. What it is that's overcome him with grief. He describes to the Lord the sin in the land and the evil of the wicked and the shedding of innocent blood. That happened in the ancient world. Look at verse 3. 3 to 11, he describes what happens. He's describing what it is, the sin and the evil that's so great. He says, for the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. And the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord. The wicked are doing fine. They don't seem bothered at all by what they're doing. You move on. The wicked in the haughtiness of his countenance does not seek him. All of his thoughts are, there is no God. The wicked don't know. They act as if you're not there. They don't see you either, God. His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high out of his sights. As far...

As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, I will not be removed throughout all generations. I will not be an adversity. How long has Roe v. Wade been around? Generations? Are we at the generation point now? It moves on and on. Mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression. Verse 8. Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. And here's one of the biggest things to note. In the hiding places, he kills the innocent. Normally, a hiding place where murder would happen would be a back alley. Where is the hiding place today? It's Planned Parenthood. It's the abortion mill. Now, it's not hidden. The place isn't hidden. What is hidden? The death is hidden. The death is hidden. Do you realize that 60 million children made in the image of God, have been slaughtered. And you guys have not seen any of it. I've not seen any of it. We've never witnessed it. He lurks in the hiding places. You realize how frustrating it would be to be David, to call out to God. Do you think David had tried things to relieve the situation? He's king, right?

And yet still there are enemies and God's people and there's all this evil. And still it continues. And David's going, why God? I've tried everything and yet the wicked are still doing fine. The innocent are still afflicted. The oppressor is still oppressing the victim. And then we arrive at verse 12. And here, David prays on behalf of the afflicted for God to intervene. David's had enough. And David says this, he says, Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. David is a man of prayer. Do you guys see that? There's 150 Psalms, most of which he had his hand in, but he's a man of prayer. And so we must be also. We must be men and women of prayer. We must be men and women of prayer.

And there are two aspects to prayer that are essential in God intervening to save the lives of the pre-born. As we enter into this battle and engage this battle of ending the bloodshed of the innocent, the first is this, intercession, and the second is imprecation. Intercession and imprecation. These are two weapons in the arsenal of prayer. That God has given that we must understand and we must use as we do this work. Now what is intercession? Well, it's clear from Scripture that God delivers those who cry out to Him for help. Amen? He does. But the pre-born have no voice. And so the word intercession means to take the place of. To take the place of.

You see, the unborn child that's in his mother's womb, who's on his way to the death camp to have his whole body pulled apart, doesn't know the danger that he's in. But we do, right? We know the danger. He doesn't know what's about to be done to him. But we know. Intercession is this. Intercession is us in prayer responding to the murder that's imminent. Being committed against that pre-born child or about to be as though it were happening to us. It is us putting ourselves in the place, in their place, knowing what we know. And us being the victim, about to be torn to pieces, and we cry out to God saying, help! You think if you were in that position, if you were in that position, and you were about...

To be killed. And there's nothing you can do about it. There's nothing. You've tried everything. There's nothing you can do. You are going to die. And you say, help God. Save me. Save me, God. You know, some of us have a better understanding of this. And it connects with us. It connects with our hearts when it's a child that we can see. Some of us have seen. news stories of children who were saved and they almost died, right? And your heart goes out to them and you connect and you go, oh my word, what a terrible thing. What an awful thing. Some of us, it's children who have not and there's tragedy. And you think something like Sandy Hook, right? Where someone goes in with a gun and they just shoot children in a school.

And we think that's awful. And we'll spend a week, some of us even, just feeling sick to our stomach about it. But we don't feel that and we don't see that with our pre-born neighbors because they don't have the dignity of being honored. Their death isn't honored. Their death isn't noticed. Their death isn't recognized. The death is hidden. Intercession means to take the place of. Scripture, we see this in Hebrews, right? Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. He always lives to make intercession for us, it says. Jesus isn't praying for himself. He doesn't need prayer. Not now. He's at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus is interceding for us. Jesus is taking our place. He knows our needs and he intercedes. He represents us.

It's as if he's in our shoes and he says, Father, that's our work. That's our work for the unborn. It's to see where they're at. To see the death that's imminent. To see what's actually about to happen. And to go, this is me. This is me. They don't have a voice, God. They can't cry out to you. But I can and I will. And this is what David does. He's interceding on behalf of the afflicted in Israel. He's interceding for them. And he starts out, he says, why God, why are you letting this happen? Now David, David ends in faith, praise God. But David is a man of action. Does anybody question that David is not a man of action? And yet David recognizes that He's hit a limit. This is what David does. He intercedes. He represents. He puts himself in the place of those who are being slaughtered, of the afflicted. And it's what we must do. We will not pray as we ought until we first make intercession, take the place of the unborn. So in this battle, as you pray, as you give yourself to prayer, if you want to know,

When it comes to the unborn, if you want to know where to start, start with intercession. The Psalms are filled with intercession. Just pray the Psalms. You cannot get through any Psalm hardly without David mentioning something about someone being afflicted, someone's in danger of death, either himself or the poor or the needy or the orphan or the widow. And he says, Lord, where are you at? We need you. Help. Intercession is where we begin. We take the place of, we put ourselves in their place and we ask for help. We ask God to help. Intercession leads to God's intervention. The church must lift up her voice. Here's the first point. The church must lift up her voice to God on behalf of the pre-born. The church must be the one to do this. No one else ain't going to do it.

The world's not going to do it. The church must intercede. We must be their voice. We're the ones that say, let my people go. We say it to our enemies. We say it to God. We must make intercession. We must be their voice. Number two. So the first is intercession. Intercession. It's a call of every one of us. Number two, the church must call on God to deliver the oppressed and to destroy their oppressors. The church must call on God to deliver the oppressed and to destroy their oppressors. This is called imprecation or imprecatory prayers. Now, I can see all your faces right now. The first one you're happy with. The second one, not so much, right? If we're all honest. Okay, we're going to work on this. We like the first, but not the second. We like the first because the first is calling on God to save. We don't like the second because it's calling on God to eliminate, to destroy. We've got a problem, guys. What's verse 12 say? Arise, O Lord.

Oh God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Okay, save them, God. Arise and save them. Here's the problem, brothers and sisters. The wicked are not going to let God save them. Apart from the work of His Holy Spirit, the wicked are set against God. All their thoughts are, there is no God. What are you talking about? There's no God. He doesn't see. He's far away. He doesn't notice. Have you tried to plead with someone and say, please don't do this, please, please, please? And they say anyways, no. An imprecation is a call on God to judge the wicked. And I want you to realize that call of God to judge the wicked is in no way in opposition to the call on God to save the wicked. You'll see that at the end. Okay? So stick with me.

The Psalms are filled with calls on God to judge the wicked. They're filled with them. Do you realize that what you have been singing the last two songs are imprecations? Do you realize that you have been calling on God to judge the wicked? You've been doing it. You don't realize it. The evil scoff and make their pledge. Their throats an open grave. There is no truth within their hearts. It's falsehood that they crave. Take their tongues and prideful hearts. Crush them without warning. Soon will fall the dark, dark night, but after dawn's the morning. You just sang an imprecation. We all did. And we just sang scripture is all we did. Paraphrased. But we just sang an imprecation. Psalm 6. Depart from me, my enemy.

God's terrible and strong. He's rising up to shame you. That's not a good thing. We just sang scripture, Psalm 6. And if we were to make psalms, you know why the psalms aren't sung today? It's because you cannot sing almost any psalm without encountering God's judgment on the wicked. You can't do it. It's just like, you can't do it. Psalm 139, listen to this. If you have your Bibles, turn to Psalm 139. I want you to see this. I wish I had words on the screen. Psalm 139, listen to this. Some of us know this. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue. Behold, Lord, you know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high. I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night. Even the darkness is not darkness to you. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you. What's he saying? So far what he's saying is, There ain't no getting away from you, God. You see everything. You know everything. Your eyes pierce through everything. I can't go anywhere to flee from your presence. You're there. You know every thought. You know every deed. For you, and this is the classic part. This is the psalm that speaks of God's authorship over the womb. For you formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb.

I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious are your thoughts, O Lord, to me. How vast is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. And that is the Psalm 139 that we know. That's the Psalm 139 we know. God is the author of life. It's beautiful. He knows everything about us. And yet, there is much more to the Psalm. Oh, that you would slay the wicked.

O God, depart from me. Therefore, men of bloodshed, for they speak against you wickedly and your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the way. everlasting. That's Psalm 139. And we could go on and on and on for hours from Psalm 1 to Psalm 23 to Psalm 106 to Psalm 109, on and on and on. And you cannot escape the fact that God is a God of justice. Is he a God of love? Yes, amen. But he is a God of justice. And what that means is Justice is always carried out in the face of evil. You cannot, God will bless one and curse the other. And so you can either ask God to bless evil or you can ask God to do away and curse evil. And evil is not a theory. Evil has evildoers. That's the entire book of the Psalms. Are we willing to pray what David prayed? Or should we just skip over that? David...

Lest we think that this is an Old Testament thing and in the New Testament, God doesn't judge. I say, you have not read your New Testament, brothers and sisters. You do not know the God of the New Testament. Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit when a man comes to him and acts and starts accusing him and saying, you're making a whole ruckus of this. You're preaching the gospel. It's stirring the whole place up. People are getting saved. You're messing up our way of life here. It says that Paul, being filled with the Holy Spirit, turns to him and says, may you be blind because you are trying to prohibit the work of God. He curses him. The magician, Simon the magician, comes and says, I want this special power that you have. I really want to be great. And you guys are like superstars. You're apostles. And so I want what you have. Give it to me. Peter says, may your silver and gold.

perish with you because you tried to gain this apart from the Holy Spirit, the work of God. You're a selfish man. How dare you abuse the power of the Holy Spirit for your sordid gain? It was a Benny Hinn wannabe, and he just said, may you go to hell for thinking that. Ananias and Sapphira, they lie. It says they lie to God and the Holy Spirit. Peter says, you've not lied to men, but you've lied to God. What happens? He calls down God's judgment, and Ananias and Sapphira die. That's what it means to be slain in the Spirit. And we could go on and on and on. When we pray, thy kingdom come. May your kingdom come. Your will be done. We're praying not just for God to make things right. We're also acknowledging...

The method and the way that God will make things right, which is that he will come, he will come back, and he will take his saints with him, and he will destroy all of his enemies. When you pray the Lord's Prayer, you're praying for God to judge the wicked. Why is it necessary that, why is imprecation a part of this? Well, because abortion still continues, brothers and sisters. It's still there. It's still there. And there comes a point. where the church of Jesus Christ, we've done what we can do. We've preached. We're doing things. We're trying. We're trying to elect the right people. We're going through everything and throwing the kitchen sink at it. And there's nothing left to do other than to cry out to God to say, Lord, we've had enough. Please do something right now. I'm about to die. If it means taking them out, take them out. But deliver the afflicted, Lord. Wrap up here soon.

A couple final things. I want to point out to you here that David tempers himself when he prays this imprecation. I want you to see that. Psalm 139. What does he say after he gets through and he says, Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God. He says, Search me, God. Know my thoughts. Try me. See if there's anything in me that's wicked. See if I have a false motivation. He tempers himself because imprecation is a... Brothers and sisters, that is a serious realm to enter. You don't just pray it because someone hurt your feelings, okay? This is not a personal vendetta against people who make our life difficult. It's about the glory of God, and it is about the protection of the innocent when there's nothing else that can be done. This cannot be a personal weapon because people get upset at us. It's about the glory of God.

and the vindication of the afflicted. And so we must pray that God would judge the wicked and protect the innocent. Now, here's the thing. God will either judge the wicked one of two ways. Stay with me. Either he will judge them by pouring out his wrath on their heads in this life and the next, or he will judge the wicked through His Son as a substitute. You with me now? When we pray that God would judge the wicked, we pray it in Jesus' name, recognizing that God is the one who determines how He judges them. And He will either judge them by taking them out, or He will judge them by pouring out that wrath on the head of Jesus Christ and delivering them along with.

The afflicted. Number three, God's people take comfort in God's judgment of the wicked. David comforts himself in this present situation of evil by reminding himself of God's past judgment of the wicked. Verse 16, go to that. Look at this. This is David comforting himself. He says this, the Lord is king forever and ever. Nations have perished from his land. David praises and gives glory to God for destroying evil nations that sought to overcome and oppress the afflicted. It is the most positive statement in the entire psalm. You see that? There's this little glimmer of hope. It's like here he's saying, oh, this awful stuff. And then he's asking God to do something. He's asking God, take him out if you need to take him out, Lord. The Lord is king forever and ever. And I know he's king because I've seen him work. I've seen him.

He's wiped out nations. This is David's statement of praise and hope. God will answer my prayer to destroy evildoers or kill the innocent. How do I know this? Because he has done it in the past with entire nations. He has worked in the past. The judgment of God is what strengthens David's faith in God. Brothers and sisters, we must love the justice of God. In Psalm 73, David says, I almost gave up hope because the wicked is very similar to this psalm. Read Psalm 73. You'll be shocked. He says, I almost gave up hope. I was almost ready to give up because everything seems to go well with the wicked, and here I am trying to obey God, and I'm sick, and I have no money, and I have all these problems, and people continue to die. I almost gave up until I came into the sanctuary of God, until I came here, until I came in the worship of God's people.

And you know what he says? Then I perceived their end. Surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment. They are utterly swept away by sudden tears. He came into the worship of God, the service. And he said, oh, okay, I get it now. I just sang Psalm 5. I just sang Psalm 6. I just heard. that he's coming again in the Apostles' Creed. I just heard it from the preaching. Things are going to be made right. Brothers and sisters, we will never love the justice of God until we put ourselves in the place of the afflicted. Until you put yourself in the place of the pre-born and you become the victim. You become the one who is about ready to get torn apart into pieces and you can't do anything about it. You will not love the justice of God. You will not ask God.

to destroy the wicked or stop them or whatever it takes. Because all it is is it's theoretical. There's nothing. There's no reason to. You'll not love the justice of God. The justice of God, the judgment of God is the thing that magnifies his mercy. We have no love for the justice of God today. Why? Because we're an unjust people. You and I, not just the world. The church. We are an unjust people. Look honestly in your heart. Do you see the injustice that's there? Towards your wife? Towards your kids? Towards the elders of this church? Towards struggling believers? Towards your parents? Do you see that? It's there. Our hearts are cruel and unjust. This is not a time to thump our chest. This is a time to repent.

And then we'll take up the cause of the afflicted because God hears the cry of the afflicted. And we must be the voice of the afflicted for the afflicted. And we pray that God would hear the cries of the afflicted, that God would act. In precatory prayer is the people of God seeing the bloodshed of the innocent and the injustice and the celebration of the murdering of precious children in the womb that goes on and on and 60 million children that are slaughtered. And with nothing being done and God's people rising up and saying, enough, enough. Rise up, O Lord. Destroy the wicked. Be done with them. Rescue and save those. God, you're a God who is a covenant God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. You're a generational God.

And there are generations being completely wiped out, God. You promised to save those and rescue those. We plead with you now as your church to do this. Brothers and sisters, when are we going to decide enough is enough? That attitude of enough should be reflected in how we plead with God to deal with the wicked. Because mark my words, if you were in their place, you would pray for God to take that guy's arm off so that he can't kill you. How dare we? Question the judgment of God and what he says in his word about the judgment of the wicked simply because we have a better idea of fairness than God. God doesn't need you to tell him what fair is. He needs you to seek him for help and be a voice for these who don't have a voice. And he'll hear and he will deliver. He will act. Many of us here were men of action. And that's good. Praise God. Men of action don't pray. I promise.

Because it just feels like we're passive. It feels passive. God humbles us by teaching us to depend on him. No amount of acting, not even the preaching of the gospel, without God acting, it's ineffective. You must seek God's help. Prayer works. Final. Prayer works. It works. Just read the Bible. It works. You know, before that baby was saved, you know what we did? We strategized and we're like, okay, how do we say it all right? How do we do everything? How do we do this? We go to the abortion mill. There's 20 cars in the parking lot, 15 women walking in, getting ready to kill their own baby. And here I am looking at my notes. All right, how do I say it right? You know, okay. All right, do we have the right signs? Are we?

You know, is it gory enough? Is it nice enough? I mean, how do we find this balance? I mean, what do we do? No, no. We got there, and we prayed. We prayed, God, please, please deliver these women. Deliver these children. Father, without your help, this is pointless. Please, God. We prayed for 15 minutes, and God did it. He acted. And he didn't act because any one of us was special. He acted because he does it for his glory. And now there's a baby saved. Why? Because the church cried out and he listened. Amen? Let's pray.