Praise the Lord. He knows just what we need, doesn't he? Amen. Even when we don't think we need it or realize we need it, he gives us exactly what we need. Take your Bibles tonight from Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36 tonight. And a message I think that is timely for our nation. Also, I think a good reminder to all of us here tonight. Ezekiel chapter 36 was a prophecy that God gave to Ezekiel. Now the time period here, this is when Israel is still in Babylon and in captivity. And they had come to that place due to their idolatry and their rejection of the things of God. But now we see in Ezekiel chapter 20 or Ezekiel chapter 36 and 37 we see that God gives a prophecy to Ezekiel concerning what God was the work that God was going to do in the nation of Israel. And I think this is a good illustration perhaps of what is going on in America. I pray this is the case. We need to pray for revival to come to America. But I think this is also a good reminder, you know, there are people that we know that have maybe resisted getting saved, maybe their family members, maybe their friends, people that we know, that they are hard-hearted toward the things of God. It seems that their hearts, they're made of stone, they reject and they reject and they reject. And you know, we can become discouraged and give up on people. We can become discouraged and give up on someone getting saved. We can get discouraged and give up that that person can come back to God. We've many times maybe get discouraged with our nation. Is our nation ever going to come back to God? Is our nation ever going to do right? in the eyes of God again. Well, Israel is a great illustration that they had gone so far. They had been God's chosen people. They had been given the promised land. God had given them everything that they needed, had brought them out of Egypt, had brought them into the promised land, and they began to follow other gods we see the Old Testament as a cycle of Israel getting right with God then going apostate then getting right with God and going apostate getting right with God and going back to idols over and over and over again until God said that I am going to put you into captivity and we see that they were put into Babylonian and Persian captivity and this finally came to a place here we see in Ezekiel chapter 36 that God is promising that He is going to do a reviving work in the hearts of the people of Israel. And this is a great illustration of what God does to a person who gets saved and also does to a person who has revival in their heart and in their life. He takes that which is stone cold and stone And he gives us a new heart in a message entitled changing a heart of stone. Let's stand at a respect for the ring of the word of God. We're going to read verses 25 to 27 of Ezekiel 36 changing a heart of stone. In verse number 25, then will I sprinkle clean water upon you. And ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I'll put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing. Heavenly Father, I pray that tonight, O Lord, that we be reminded that you are our only hope We thank you, dear Lord, for the salvation you have given freely. And Lord, perhaps we have someone on our heart tonight that seems to be stony and have a heart of stone towards your word and towards your commands and towards your message of salvation even. Lord, I pray that tonight that we would not give up hope, but that we would see the work that you can do in a heart to see how you can do the miraculous work of changing a stony heart into a tender heart that only you can do and I pray that tonight we pray for our nation we pray for the hearts of people as we've been talking about the heart all day today and Lord I pray that you would change the hearts of people all over our nation for Lord that is where the trouble lies is in our heart spiritual trouble that plagues our nation and we pray dear Lord that many would be saved that people would seek you dear Lord and that revival would break out and Lord and even among your people that we have any wicked ways among us, dear Lord, that we would put them away, that we would turn away from them. Every time we see revival mentioned, dear Lord, on a national scale, it began with the Christians putting away their sin. And Lord, I pray that we would be willing to do that. Oh, Lord, we have seen a great working of yourself this year, and we pray that you would continue to work. And we pray that tonight, dear Lord, that you would change hearts and give us hope that only you can change a heart of stone. We pray your blessing in Jesus' name. You may be seated. Changing a heart of stone. Now, in these verses here, we're going to get three truths that I think will be very important for us to see. In that, we begin in verse number 25. Now, I encourage you, in your own time, read all of chapter 36. It's very interesting. Then chapter 37 is the vision of the dry bones, in that God breathed flesh into a valley full of dry bones that were dead. They came to life and God did a reviving work and God is the only one that can change the heart of someone. We can try all we want we can try and convince and control and do all that we can and God may use us in that but in the end it is only the Spirit of God that can change the heart of any Person that is why whenever we're burdened for someone that has that stony heart prayer is the greatest weapon It's not our nagging. It's not our conjoling. It's not our rebuking It is prayer that will change the heart of a person and so what how does God do this? Well first we see number one In verse number 25, we see God, we see the cleaning of the heart, cleaning of the heart. Verse number 25, then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. It's very well documented in the Bible that there is a connection between sin and having a hard heart. Also hard heartedness or stiff neck, we're going to look at a lot of these verses tonight. Sin will always bring a hardening of ourselves toward God sin is always going to put distance between You and God and when we were lost our hearts were turned away from God because of our sin Let's begin and look at Psalm 95 in verse number 8 We're going to go through several verses here in the Psalms and Proverbs in a couple in the New Testament Psalm 95 verse number 8 Sin, we maybe wonder why, how can someone have a heart so cold? How can someone have such a stony heart that they would murder their own child? How can we have people that have such stony and cold hearts that they would kill one another? We have stony hearts that they would injure one another because of sin. The answer Psalm 95 verse number 8 hard not your heart is in the provocation as in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your father's tempted me proved me and saw my work 40 years long was I agreed with this generation and said it is a people that do err in their heart and they have not known my ways Unto whom I swear in my wrath. They should not enter into my rest What happened to the children of Israel they rejected what God had given to them They wanted to go God wanted them to go into the land flowing with milk and honey the promised land but they hardened their heart against God that God had not provided what they needed and he judged them as Hard in their heart as in the provocation they provoked God Because of their stubbornness and because of their sinful hearts Proverbs 28 and verse number 14 Proverbs 28 and verse number 14. I Happy is the man that feareth always but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief You know, we can be know the commands of God. We can know what God wants us to do we can We can be have though even have the Holy Spirit a Christian and know what God would have us do but then we harden our heart and do and go the way that we Desire go the way of our lust lest the eyes less the flesh and the pride of life And when we do that, when many people call it putting up walls or shutting their heart off, they have hardened their heart towards God and the things of God, and they turn and go their own way. That's what this lost world does. They harden themselves against God. You know, I don't know if you ever talked to somebody out witnessing, but they're just really hard people. They have a hard heart. They aren't interested in the things of God. They are not interested in hearing about the Bible. They're not interested in hearing about salvation. They're the type. I said, well, I'm sure you're going to tell me that I'm on my way to hell. I probably am, and I'm looking forward to going there. people many times it's because of sin in their life and the sins they've been involved with and we think there is no Way that we can reach this person. There's no way it is Impossible. It's impossible with man. But with God all things are possible man We looked at the other week the maniac of Gadara that man was so possessed with devils And he had had his life so ruined and so broken. But guess what? God shone through and delivered that man from those demons. And God can deliver any person, if they are willing, from their stony heart. Remember, God doesn't force himself on us. But I want us to look at something here in Ezekiel 36. Turn back over there. Ezekiel 36, in verse number 25. then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and he shall be clean from all your filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues and you shall keep my judgments and do them So what's going on here is that the Spirit of God is working in hearts, and that this was not something that they did on their own, that they didn't say, okay, we're going to decide to follow God now, now God's going to come back. What's going on? God had a moving in the hearts of softening their hearts. We call it the moving of the Holy Spirit, that God begins to work on hearts that this person is stoning remember Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost I understand we seek for revival but God seeks for lost people and there's testimony after testimony after testimony that people said you know what I was hardened and said in my ways and I wasn't looking for God but God found me man God's still searching for people. God's still seeking after people, and God is still softening the stony heart, and he does that through cleansing. Look at Proverbs 29 and verse number 1, just over a couple of pages. Proverbs 29, verse number 1. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Romans chapter 2, verse number 5 is another verse that we see about the hardening of the heart, turning away from God, Will always bring sin and more destruction more death Romans 2 5 says but after thy hardness and impenitent impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God Hebrews chapter 3 verse number 13 this but exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you by you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and that's exactly what sin does it makes our hearts stone-cold But a heart that is hardened through sin God can cleanse There's not a single sin that God cannot cleanse God can cleanse any sin the only sin he can't forgive us a sin of bondage Not willing to put your faith and trust in Christ Revelation 7 14 said and I said unto him sir thou knowest and he said to me there These are they which came out of great tribulation have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb Isaiah 118 look over there Isaiah chapter 1 verse number 18 I promise we're not going to be jumping around as much here for the rest of the message But I want us to see an important truth that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. So he's talking about the cleansing of the pure water. It's the cleansing of Christ. It's the cleansing of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 1 in verse number 18 says this, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Praise the Lord. Our sins are forgiven. Our sins are cleansed. And what happens when We decide that we want the cleansing power of Jesus the cleansing blood of the Lamb Whether it be for a lost person or the cleansing blood is still good for every Christian That if we are if we but if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness first John's written to Christians And that's an important truth that whether our heart is hard due to straying away from God or because you never knew God, it doesn't matter. Christ's blood is able to cleanse and to make your heart clean, no matter how much sin is there. That's a precious truth. Amen. Oh, so many people say, oh, God wouldn't want me. I've done too many bad things. I've done this and I've done that. I've murdered. I've killed. I've committed immorality. I've done all these things. And God would not never would never want me. You're wrong. That's a lie of the devil. that keeps so many people in bondage. God wouldn't love me. God doesn't want me. I'm not good enough. That's right, you're not. That's why you need him, and he wants to save you from yourself. It's exactly why we need that. So first, we see the cleaning of the heart. Second, what do we see? Look back at Ezekiel, Ezekiel 36. Verse number 26. A new heart also will I give you. So what happens with the cleansing? He gives us a brand new heart. He just doesn't change the old one. He gives us a brand new heart. In the New Testament, it's called the old man and the new man. The old nature that is sin that Christ takes away. Now, we understand the old man can come back up and we can decide to live that way and walk in that way, but that's not the way of the walking in the spirit, which is the new man, the new spiritual man. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. When salvation takes place, a miracle heart transplant happens. God takes our stone-cold heart filled with sin, and He takes it away, and He gives us a heart of flesh. God takes our heart and completely changes it. He doesn't just reform it, He transforms it. Look at Colossians 3, verses 9 and 10. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. God doesn't reform what He has to work with. He completely takes it and changes it. Transform. He takes that stony, cold heart, and He puts a heart that He intends for every person to have, for He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And guess what? Even as Christians, we can let our heart get cold. We can let our heart get cold with sin or with indifference or with apathy. Guess what? When we come to God, he takes that away and he gives us a new heart. He restores that heart. Colossians 3 verses number 9 and 10. Why not one to another seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man Which is renewed and knowledge after the image of him that created him. That's Jesus Christ We're to be conformed into the image of his son You know what when someone really gets saved when they are the hardened with sin. Guess what when they get saved? They're a totally different person. You know what things they used to say and things they used to do They don't do them anymore things that they used to be involved with and things they desire. They don't desire him anymore The way they used to talk totally changes. There was Pastor Harvey, many years ago when he was up in New York, he had a guy that was a dairy farmer and he got saved and he had terrible language and cursed and everything. He was a dairy farmer. And so he said he came the next couple of weeks and he said, Pastor Harvey, I'm having trouble getting my cows to obey me because I stopped cursing and all they know is curse words. They won't listen to me because they don't know they all they know is the curse words that you say. But I'm not I'm different. I don't want to curse like that anymore. And so so pray for me as I retrain my cows. Amen. Isn't that kind of change that we want to see today? And that kind of change, you know, unfortunately is becoming more and more rare to see that kind of change take place in someone's life. It can still happen, but unfortunately we can't. And by the way, if you softball the gospel, you're not going to see that kind of stuff happen. If you say, well, you can keep your sin, just believe in Jesus and you're going to go to heaven. Guess what? That's softball in the gospel. If you are understanding that we should not want to keep our sin, repentance is essential in salvation, realizing that what our sin is and where it's taking us, and rejecting that sin and calling upon Jesus Christ. That's what repentance is, is calling upon Christ and asking for forgiveness, changing your mind about your sin. If there's not a change of mind about your sin, then there can't be salvation. Why do you need it if your sin's okay? If your sin's fine, your sin's not taking you to hell and your sin's okay, why do you need salvation through Jesus Christ? You know, some people have that little bit of doubt in their mind, well, I'll just pray a prayer. You know what, I'll get some fire insurance and make sure, because what if this is all real and I'm wrong? I'll just pray to make sure I cover all the bases. By the way, it doesn't work that way. We don't pray just to cover our bases. Either you believe that he is or you don't. Either you believe he died for you or you don't. Either you believe you're on your way to hell because of your sin or you don't. There's no halfway middle ground And guess what? When we come to Christ, when that conviction comes upon us, we want that change. We want that heart taken away. We want that sin removed from us. We want the new heart that God promises. And He will change your heart. Don't give up on that person that's hard and seems cold as stone. You know, we give up on people too easily, unfortunately. You know, people get so overcome with sin, and they're cold, and they're rejecting. They might even reject you. And they say, well, I guess that's that. I guess we can't do anything about it. Maybe it's a family member. Maybe it's just a stranger you met on the road. Guess what? Are you going to pray for that person? Maybe you'll never know if they get saved or not. Maybe you don't even know their name. Are you going to pray for them that they get saved, that their heart is going to be changed? Only God can do it. We get so discouraged in our soul-winning efforts. because we aren't seeing anybody change. Hold on a second, are we trusting in ourselves to change people or are we trusting Christ? Only Christ can change a heart. Only Christ can change a life. And I think many times in our soul winning, we need to let God do the work and we need to get out of the way. We just need to be faithful and let God do the work and he will. That brings us to something, an interesting thing happens. So God cleanses and changes the heart of a person And then he does something, we see here, look back at Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse number 27, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. So then we see the cleansing of the heart, the changing of the heart, now we see the consecrating of the heart. Consecrating, now consecrate means to be set apart for a special use. Sanctified, you can also say it that way. But it consecrated. to keep our lives pure before God. So this was God's desire for Israel, that He was going to cleanse them from their sin. And through this, you know something very interesting, that Israel that we have in recorded history never went into idolatry again. They never went into it between now and the time of Christ. They never went into idolatry. Now, they began to believe salvation was of themselves. In a way, you could argue that they more worshiped their pride in themselves and their good works, but they never turned to the pagan idols again. God had effectively cured them of idolatry in that sense anyway. They never went back into idolatry. Why? Because He wanted them to have a consecrated heart. He cleansed it, He changed it, He consecrated it, He set it aside for special use. And by the way, He does that to every single person who trusts Christ. He cleanses, He changes, and He That's why holy living is so important because God has given us, has consecrated our lives and our hearts and we ought to walk in newness of life and walk in the statutes of God. And as we said here, to keep my statutes, walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. that you're going to do what's right. Because your heart's different. Remember, everything in our life, what we do, what we say, what we desire, comes from our heart. That's why the Bible says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Because if you have a heart that's wrong, your actions are going to be wrong, your words are going to be wrong, what you think is going to be wrong. Everything's going to be wrong if our heart is not consecrated to God. And that's why we need to be careful. We need to set up boundaries. We call them standards. We call them the frameworks, the commandments and statutes of God, a framework for life so that our heart is not tempted to be drawn away into this world. Oh, the devil does a great job of trying to make things look alluring, make things look like it's fun. Remember we talked about the deceitfulness of sin? Oh, sin's deceitful. Sin is very, very deceitful, and a lot of soldiers could tell you that here in Florida, Texas. Sin is very, very deceitful. It has been sad to see sin destroy life after life after life, despite our best efforts, despite, you know, it's very interesting, when someone gets set in their way they're going, and they're going into the drinking, and they're going into the immorality, they're going into the bad friends, and you can talk with them, and conjole them, and you pray for them, and you show them what the Bible says, and they say, you know what, I see all of that, but what you're saying is going to happen isn't going to happen to me. It's not going to happen to me. You know what, I'll just dabble in it and I'll be fine. Never, never once seen that happen. I'll just dabble a little bit and I'll be fine. I've never seen anybody be fine. Pastor Harvey has never seen anybody be fine. A lot of you, I've never seen people be fine when they do that. It always ends in the same place. Heartbreak, despair, and destruction. That's exactly where the devil wants us. A broken life, a broken testimony. Can God still forgive and cleanse? Absolutely he can. But guess what? We didn't need to go down that road. It didn't need to go down that road. It didn't need to go down this direction, because if we had kept our heart consecrated to God, we wouldn't have been allured by those things. That's why it's so important to say in the Word of God on a daily basis, to stay in the book, just have an open relationship and a prayer life with God, because when we get our hearts set, guess what? When we wake up in the morning, none of us, not a single person here wakes up with their heart in the right place in the morning. I pray that you do. Maybe you're one of those perfect people that do. But most people, if you're a simple person, like anybody, if you're like me, and I'm sure a lot of you are, maybe none of you are, I don't know, maybe this is just to me, but I wake up in the morning, and you know what? We can be tempted to have a bad attitude about the day. I'm upset that I have to get up this morning. I'm upset. When your child wakes you up at 2.30 in the morning needing a bottle, you know what? I wish I could just sleep. You know what? We can get in the flesh, man. We can really get upset about things. But you realize, and you go down the hall, you're ready to get upset. You know what? And the Lord begins to speak to you. Remember, I gave you this child. He said, yes, Lord, I pray for them. And you get right between the kitchen and the bedroom getting the bottle, right? And we have to understand that we need to keep, it's a work many times to keep our heart right with God. It's work, not because necessarily what's going on in the world, but because of how deceitful and twisted our sin nature is. And that we must have a relationship with God, because if you don't, your heart is deceitful, it's going to let you know, hey, I'm right with God. Right? I'm right, like Saul did. Hey, I have obeyed, completely obeyed the command of God. Samuel, I've done exactly what you wanted me to do. And then Samuel says, why do I hear the bleeding of sheep and the lowing of oxen? Why do I hear that? If you obeyed and did what God told you to do specifically to wipe out everyone and everything and not to keep anything because it's an abomination to me. But yet you did. But he twisted it around in his heart and his mind. Hey, this is OK. Oh, you know what? If we let our heart, our hearts are desperately wicked. Who can know them? They're deceitful. And we just trust, we follow our heart. You know what? That's what the world says. Follow your heart. Just follow it wherever. I followed my heart. If you follow your heart, it's going to lead you to a place you ought not be, real quick. It's going to. Followed my heart. You know, isn't that what they do? These guys, you know, they follow their heart into the arms of another man. Guess what? That's not God. You know, ladies, you know, I followed my heart into the arms of another woman. Guess what? That's not God. I followed my heart and I realized and I aborted my baby. That's not God. And so many Christians say, I followed my heart. Guess what? God can speak to our heart, and God can burn our heart. Yes. But following just your heart and not throwing the Holy Spirit aside, throwing prayer aside, throwing godly counsel aside, throwing the Bible aside, you're going to end up in a bad place. You're going to end up out of the will of God. You're going to end up in a place where you wish you were not. But when God cleanses and changes, he consecrates our heart. Set aside for the master's use. And this is how someone can go from the enemy of God to the friend of God, by taking the stony heart that is overcome with sin and placing a new heart in us. A heart that hears the voice of God and responds to God. Amen? That's the heart we all should desire. I want a heart that's sensitive to things of God. The sin in the world will deaden that sensitivity. It will make you calloused, stony, and cold. We need a heart that hears the voice of God. Turn to 2 Timothy 2, 21. Two more passages of Scripture and I'm done tonight. 2 Timothy 2, verse number 21. Don't ever give up on anyone. Don't ever give up on people. God can change hearts in miraculous ways. And it's always when we least expect it. You know, maybe there are times, to be honest, that we've given up hope or we thought, well, I know God can do it, but I just don't see it. and then God does a miraculous work. 2 Timothy 2. You know, by the way, God does miracles many times in spite of our faith, and not because of our faith, in spite of what we think. 2 Timothy 2.21 says, God doesn't change a heart and change a life just to sit him on the shelf and say, I just wanted to let you know that I just saved you just to sit here and do nothing for me. Some people believe that. They say, well, God saved him and that's great, but he'll never be able to use him. Guess what? God saves us and sets us apart so he can use us in a way that glorifies him. Every Christian has a particular use and purpose. Proverbs 23, verse number 26. Proverbs 23, 26, my son, give me thine heart and let thine eyes observe my ways. We ought to have our heart given totally to God, wholly given to God, wholly sold out to God, so that whatever he speaks and says, we do. I'll go wherever, I'll do whatever. You know what God asks us to do first? Obey his word, to live the way he would have us live, to live and to follow his statutes and to do them. If you look at all through the Old Testament, the story of Israel, all God wanted them to do was obey. That's it. He was giving them their land. He was giving them everything. All He wanted them to do was to worship Him in spirit and in truth and obey the outline of life and the commands that He gave them to live as God intended them to live. That's all He asked. But that was too much for them. Well, God isn't doing enough for us. He's not fulfilling our needs like He needs to be, so we're gonna go find other gods. I pray that we never do that as a Christian, that, well, is God doing enough for us? The question is, are we doing enough for God, amen? He's done so much just in saving us that if that's all He did, that would be more than we could ever repay, and He would be more than worthy to serve all the rest of our days if it was just the salvation of our soul, but He gives us so much more. He gives us the person of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to guide and to direct and to open up His word. And He gives us a life to live for Him. He gives us an opportunity to serve Him in a special job and a special position so that He can be glorified. He gives us grace and mercy and provides so many riches and glorious things that we could never fully comprehend in our lifetime. And I think, I don't know if we're ever going to be able Fully comprehend we ask God. What did you do for me? I pray that we ask that in the right kind of way I think we will we get to heaven will be perfect. Amen Finally, you're not going to be perfect down here By the way, only when you get to heaven you get that glorified body and we're going to come Lord Can you show me what how you? Guided my life and you look from the cradle to the grave all that God did for us I don't think we're going to be able to fully comprehend it all You know, we think that God's working in our life is so simple. There is so much, probably most of it we will never see or understand. How God used people. You know, we all can point to people in our life. As you know, God brought that person into my life at just the right time. That's just one instance. There are many thousands or hundreds of thousands of small, teeny, tiny things that we don't see that God put in place for you. to bring you to himself, to have you turn to salvation. Ultimately, yes, do we have the decision whether we're gonna reject or accept? Absolutely. But he loves us so, and he doesn't do that just for us, but he does that for every person. Oh, we can't turn a blind eye to the working of God in our life. He can change a heart of stone to make that heart a living, breathing, have spiritual life, and tuned to hear His voice and to do His work. And so today, maybe are you finding your heart going cold tonight? So, well, my heart isn't as tender towards the things of God. My heart isn't as close to God as it once was. You can get that right tonight and get back to that place. By the way, it's not a process. It's coming back to Him and that forgiveness. He can bring that back to you. Maybe you've had that heart of stone. Maybe you rejected God. Maybe you need to be saved tonight. I don't know. But will you come and let God take that stony heart away? Only he can do it. Self-help won't do it. Only the powerful, miraculous God that we love and we serve, only he can change a heart of stone. He's willing to do it. He wants to. It's a promise he gives. He wants to do that. But only if you will let him. Will you let him tonight? Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening. that you work miracles. Lord, I think of my life and how hard I was and so stubborn and Lord, you had mercy that I didn't deserve. Many of us could say the same thing that we were hardened against the things of God and then you began to speak to us to soften our hearts and then when we came to you changed our hearts completely. I pray that tonight, dear Lord, If our hearts are hard and stony, that we would come to you and you would change it. To give us that heart that's tuned to you, to give us that heart that desires you. Perhaps, dear Lord, we've given up on someone. Maybe someone that's lost and needs you, we've given up. They're so wicked and vile and hard against you, dear Lord, that We're tended to give up so they'll never get saved. They'll never trust Christ. Oh Lord, that we would never cease to pray and that we would never cease to try. Pray that you encourage us in that area so we'll be easy to get discouraged. Maybe there's someone who's saved that we know of that isn't doing right or walking right with you, but Lord, that we ask you to soften their heart and they turn that heart back to you. Oh Lord, that we would never give up on anyone. that we would trust you to work miracles. Even if it's 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years down the road, Lord, we know that you answer prayer and that we would never give up until it is eternally too late. And Lord, we pray that those here today, maybe some listening, I don't know hearts. I don't know what's going on. I don't know who's listening right now to this message. Maybe it's someone listening many hours or days or years later, and they think, well, it's too late for me. It's never too late to come to Christ. Don't wait until it is eternally too late until you can't don't have the opportunity to turn back anymore. I pray that tonight, dear Lord, you would speak to hearts.