I know that modern religion has
Pentecostal, so-called holiness. Religion likes that word power. They use it a lot. And they are like Simon Magus. You remember the story of Simon
Magus who wanted the power of the Holy Spirit in order to do
miracles and so forth about the apostles. sternly rebuked him. I'm not sure if the Lord dealt
with him or not. But this scriptural that's taken,
that hymn's taken from Genesis 32, 28, when the Lord changed
Jacob's name to Israel. And He told him, because he wrestled
with the Lord. He said, I won't let you go until
you bless me. He said, but as a prince, thou
hast power with God and with men. That's prevailing. And this
is what we want. We want the Lord to hear us.
We're not praying to be heard. We're needing. And we want the Lord to use us
with men. No, we want people to be saved.
Lord, hear us, please. Like Daniel's prayer. Now, going
through the motions of prayer, Lord, grant that power. The gospel,
what's the power of that? I just told you, the gospel is
the power of God. Forward, speak, use the gospel
in salvation of ourselves and others. This is a vital message. Cautions for a vital message. Vital means pertaining to life. Like your vital sign, you take
your vital sign, take your pulse. This is vital. This is pertaining to life. The
believer's breath, heartbeat, what prayer he has. Calling on
the Lord. Calling on the Lord. Whoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The fact
of the matter is, if you call, He's given you life. Or you wouldn't
call. He's called you or you wouldn't
call. Calling on the Lord. We're calling on the Lord always,
and we're told here to do it without ceasing and continuing
prayer, because without Him we can do nothing. We don't want
to do anything without Him. Don't want to make a move. Don't
want to act. Don't want to react. Don't want
to speak. Paul goes on to say that we ought
to walk in wisdom, that we might redeem the time that our speech
might be with grace. No, we don't have to answer. We just don't know. We don't
have to ask the Lord. We don't have to ask the Lord
to help us, to walk around. That's what prayer is, calling
on the Lord. Prayer is calling. Prayer is
confessing. We just read Daniel's prayer.
Prayer is communing. It's just speaking to your Father. Prayer is petitioning. Asking. Prayer is praising. Thanking. Thanking. And everything. Now, it begins, chapter 4, with
masters. And really, you know, the translators
made the chapters divisions. That went with what we just studied. However, in the Lord's prophethood,
starts a new chapter. And it says in the last part
of line one, we have a master in heaven. Well, if he's our
master, then we take orders from him. So prayer is asking, what
would Lord? And Saul of Tarsus, when he first
met the Lord, the first thing he said, Lord, what will you
have me to do? He was a freewheeler before.
Now, he doesn't know what to do, where to go. And he asked
the Lord, what will that man do? So we have a master that
we call upon, that we serve, and we want to seek his will,
not our own. We're not our own. We're bought
with a price with the Lord's children. We're sons and servants,
and we take our orders from him, and therefore we call upon him
into everything. We're not free agents. We're
servants of our master. Prayer is, as I said, the breath
of life, a born-again child of God. You never really pray. You never really call until you're
born again. Most of you have heard this story,
but I don't get tired of it. When my daughter was born, And
a child is born spiritually like a child is born physically by
the seed. The Father's seed is sown. And
that seed is conceived in the womb. And in the heart of man,
the Word of God, through the preaching of the Gospel, is conceived
in the heart of a dead sinner. My daughter was born She came
out of that womb, out of darkness, into light. Born of water and blood. Out of Christ's sight. Christ
crucified. Alright? She came out. And all
I was concerned about, I didn't care if she was a female, if
it was a male or a female, but I just want to know she's alive. How do you know? How do you know
she's alive? Well, the doctor inflicted a
little pain. You know, when we were born,
us older folks, I guess they whacked our behind. But they
just, the bottom of her little tender feet, they just flicked
the bottom of her feet. Not too much pain, just enough
to make her. And I didn't do it, I cried to
her. She's alive. She's alive. Alright, she cried. She wailed. And they gave her
to me and put her in my arm and I started talking to her. It's
okay, honey. Daddy's here. She stopped crying. She stopped crying. Her eyes
opened. She looked into my eyes. She's alive. That's what happens
when a child of God is born. Exactly. The Word is so. Conviction
of sin. Pain. Conviction on sin. Why? Calling on the Lord God
to be merciful and to be the sinner. Then you look into the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He says, It's okay. And you quit crying. He soothes
you. Prayer is crying. Now, we're told here in verse
2 to continue in prayer and watch and say with thanksgiving. Continue
in prayer. Our Lord spoke in Luke 18. We'll get to that eventually,
I guess. But he said, men ought always to pray. And he gave the
illustration of the importunate widow who kept coming to the
judge, who kept coming, kept coming, kept coming. Finally,
he said, I'm going to answer this thing. And he said, will
not God answer and avenge his very elect who cry unto him day
and night? Yes, he will. He hears every
prayer, every tear Levirat is in his mouth. That's what the
scripture says. He hears every prayer. And though
he doesn't answer immediately every prayer, he does hear them
and he will answer them one way or another. Like the woman he
seemed to ignore. Oh, he didn't ignore her. He's
testing her. Men ought always to pray. Continued
prayer. Pray without ceasing. Why? Because we're tempted without
ceasing. We're tried without ceasing. Our tempter, our adversary,
doesn't stop. He doesn't stop tempted death.
So in Ephesians 6, go back to Ephesians 6, it's very similar. Colossians and Ephesians are
just alike on Ephesians 6, verse 18. He says, and don't you love
this chapter? It talks about the armor of God,
shield of faith, sword of the Spirit. Verse 18, praying always
with all prayer, that is, in everything. He said that in Philippians,
in everything, by prayer and supplication. Supplication in
the Spirit, that is, in the name of Christ and asking the Holy
Spirit Watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all's sake, and remember this, he says, and for me that
utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly
and make known the mystery of the gospel. So he says, praying
always, continuing prayer, pray without ceasing. Can we pray
without ceasing? Can you pray all day? Every day, all day, can you?
Why does He tell us that? We can't be on our knees all
day long. The Lord knows that. He wasn't. He was on His knees
in private. And by the way, that is a good
posture at times to be on. Our Lord was flat on your face. Our Lord was when He fell on
His face. Have you ever been so low and
so needy that you lay on the floor? Don't tell anybody about
it. But have you ever been that low
where you thought, I prostrate at His feet? Daniel did. Our Lord did. Oh, that's sincere prayer, isn't
it? But you can't be on your knees all the time. Prayer is
not a posture. It's an attitude. It's a heart
and a will. It's the mind and the heart always
thinking of or going out to Thinking of calling on God. Being aware
of our Lord. And communing with Him. You can. You can. Now there are times during the
day, most of the day that is, that we're busy, we're working,
we have responsibilities that require our undivided attention. Right. The Lord knows that. The
Lord knows that. And yet, even in that we want
wisdom. And we call and we ask. Yeah,
it's an attitude. That's what it is. More than
action. It's not words, necessarily, but the outpouring of the heart
and soul. It's looking up to our Lord.
Lord, help me. Most of the time, I pray a three-word
prayer. Lord, help me. Don't you? Lord, have mercy. Three words. Will you hear that?
One of the greatest prayers ever prayed was Peter when he was
going down under the water. Lord, save me. He heard him. He heard him. Oh,
Lord, help me. Lord, have mercy. Lord, save
me. Us, us. So prayer is an attitude
of the heart and mind and will and soul going up to God. There's no life without it. No
one's alive that doesn't believe in their Lord. If you don't call
on the name of the Lord, you won't be saved. I tell everybody,
young and old, call. Who serves you? Call on the name
of the Lord. Get in your closet, get alone, and call on the name
of the Lord. Call, ask Him. Young ladies,
young men, call on the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call from the
heart in sincerity, he has, you have this promise, shall be saved. So is it simple as that? Well,
salvation is not simple. Simply, for us, we must simply
just call. Not do. Call. Not do. Look. Believe. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't the
Lord merciful and gracious? Don't. He's not saying find Mount Sinai. No. Just come. He's an ever-present
heaven. No union if you don't call. No
union if there's no communion. Alright. Rather than explain
prayer. I've read lots of books and good
books. Rather than try to define prayer or tell you how to pray. Let's just look at some prayers,
okay? Let's just look at what, how, when we look at these prayers,
we'll see how to pray and what to pray, okay? 1 Kings 8, we're
going to look at the prayer of a king. We've just looked at
the prayer of a prophet. Then we're going to look at that
again, back at another prophet. Then we're going to look at the
prophet, the priest, the king, how he tells us to pray to the
Lord. 1 Kings 8, many of you know that
this is the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple.
And every mention of the temple here is a type of Christ. Christ is who we pray to and
whose name we look to. It's a type of Christ. The temple
was where the Ark was, wasn't it? The Ark of the Covenant,
where the mercy seat was. We don't look to a box or look
to a place. We look to a person, don't we?
So, this is a type of cry. And every time he mentions looking
to this house, he's talking about crying. All right? 1 Kings 8,
look at verse 22. Solomon stood before the altar
of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel,
spread forth his hands toward heaven, and he said... Now listen
to the language. Listen to the fear. Listen to
the reverence. Listen to the repentance. Listen
to how he describes God. You won't hear this today. Someone
notified me recently of a national day of prayer they're going to
meet on the courthouse steps. I said, I'm not going. We pray
to a different God. Listen to the language of God's
praise. Lord, God of Israel. There's no God like Thee, in
heaven above or in earth beneath, who keepeth covenants. I've been
thinking about that message, too. Covenant and mercy. You
want to hear that one? I do. Who keepeth covenants and
mercy with Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their
heart. Verse 33, go down there now.
When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because
they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee,
and confess thy name." God won't hear prayer that's not in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll hear every prayer that's
in the name of the glory and honor of petitioning God for
Christ's sake. He'll hear that prayer. And confess
thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this
house, or toward Christ our Lord. Then hear thou in heaven, and
forgive the sin of thy people Israel." See the first thing?
See the thing that's most needful? When the Lord told Isaiah to
comfort God's people, the first thing he said for their comfort
was, the warfare is a comfort, iniquity is a martyr. This generation doesn't know
anything about that. God, we do. God's people. This
is the chief reason why we call on Jordan. Every time. And verse
34, "...bring them again into the land which thou gavest unto
their fathers." When heaven is shut up, there's no rain. Because
they've sinned against thee. If they pray toward this place,
or in Christ's name, confess thy name, and turn from their
sin when thou afflictest them, all afflictions are from God.
Basically, wrath is from the Lord. Why? Sin. Then hear thou in heaven, and
forgive the sin of thy servant, and of thy people Israel. that
thou teach them the good way, wherein they should walk, and
give rain upon thy land which thou hast given to thy people
for an inheritance, if there be in the land famine. If there
be pestilence, blasphemy, mildew, locusts, or if there be a caterpillar,
or if there are enemy besieges in the land of their city, whatsoever
plague, whatsoever sickness there be, what prayer and supplications
will ever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel,
which shall know every man the plague of his own heart? And spread forth his hands toward
this house, toward Christ. Then hear thou in heaven thy
dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man
according to his ways, whose hearts thou knowest. Thou even
thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men, that
they may fear thee all the days. that they live in the land that
thou gavest to our Father. Fear, confession of sin, praise,
honor, glory. Look at verse 44. If thy people
go out to battle against their enemy. Every day. Every day is a battle against
our enemy. And we're no match. wherever you send them, and they
shall pray toward the city in Christ's name, toward Christ
that thou hast chosen, toward thy house that you have built
for thy name. Hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication.
Maintain their cause. If they sin against thee, there
is no man that sinneth not. And thou be angry with them,
and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away
captive unto the land of the enemy, far and near, yet if they
shall bethink themselves." They'd forgotten, but then they'd remember. If they bethink themselves, if
they come to themselves, like the prodigal, whether you carry
them away and they make supplication and say, We have sinned and done
perversely, we have committed wickedness, and return unto thee
with all their heart and all their soul into the land of their
enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee.
Verse 49, Hear thou their prayer and our supplication in heaven.
Verse 50, Forgive thy people that have sinned against thee,
and all their transgressions, wherein they have transgressed
against thee. And give them compassion before
them who carry them away captive, that they may have compassion
on them. These are thy people, and I dare you. Is that your heart's prayer,
your cry? That was Daniel's prayer. Go
back to Daniel, okay? Let's look at that a little more
closely, Daniel. Isn't that what Daniel prayed
all the way through? Daniel was one of the finest
men to ever live. You can't find one fault in Daniel.
The Lord doesn't mention one fault. It's almost like he's
faultless. Because Daniel is such a type
of Christ. We've looked at that from the
very beginning. Daniel, the revealer of secrets. The one that the
Lord made ruler. He's such a type of Christ. But
he's a sinner. He was dead and trespassed in
sin at one time. Yes, he was. And the Lord revealed
himself to him, revealed Christ to him, forgave his sins, and
Daniel was a sinner to the day he died. Though not outwardly
and openly and immorally and all that, yet he knew the plague
of his heart. And the adversary, the devil,
tempted him constantly. Did he thank sin? Did he think
about it? He surely did. So he's a man of like passions.
He's a sinner. And he sent his face to the Lord
to seek by prayer. Our Lord said, seek and you shall
find. He said, if you seek me, you'll
find me when you search for me with all your heart. And with
fasting. The Lord hadn't done away with
fasting. And he said in verse 4, I prayed
unto the Lord my God. Now listen to his life. Listen
to his fear. Listen to his reverence. Listen
to how he calls God to death. Listen. And I made my confession
and said, Oh Lord, the great and dreadful God. Didn't our Lord say in Isaiah
8, Don't fear their fear, fear the Lord. Let Him be your dread. Don't dread getting the disease,
dread missing Christ. Let Him be your fear and your
dread. The only thing people fear today is this sickness. I fear this sickness called sin,
don't you? I fear for this nation, this
world, because of this sickness. The whole head is sick, the heart
is banked from the sole of their feet to the top of their head.
No sound is sent up. But in that same chapter in Isaiah
chapter 1, the Lord says, Come now, let's reason together. Come
where? Come to Christ. He sends me a
scarf to be washed. Now how? Christ crucified. Oh Lord, the great and dreadful
God. Here it is again. Keeping the
covenant. That just might be Sunday's message. Our salvation is by covenant
mercies. Many of you have read that book,
Mercies of a Covenant God by John Warburton. I better get off of that. To them keeping covenant and
mercy, to them that love Him, as the Psalm said, to them that
love His salvation, We love Christ. We've sinned. Committed iniquity. We've done it wickedly. We've
rebelled. Departed from thy precepts. We haven't listened to your prophet.
One person in here can say that they kept God's Word, and heeded God's
Word, and listened carefully and perfectly, and walked according
to His Word. One person in here. We'd never
fall if we did. Oh Lord, verse 7, righteousness
belongeth unto thee. I need it. I need righteousness
to get into glory, don't I? And I can't get there by mine
because I don't have any. And it belongs to the Lord. What
do we have? Confusion. Well, that doesn't
describe the day we live in. Confusion of faces. Daniel said,
as it is today. Everybody walking around in confusion. He said the men of Judah, the
inhabitants of Israel's religion today is just confused. They say God didn't have anything
to do with all this. Well, then who did it? Whoever's doing it,
they're going to pray to Him. Stop this. God did it. Why? S-I-N. Nothing's changed. God hasn't changed. These prayers
are the same. They're all the same. One thing is needful. Mercy,
maybe. Mercies of the covenant of God,
one thing. By us, all of us, Judah, Israel,
Jerusalem, everybody, we all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. The wages of sin is what? Death. But there's a gift. There's a
gift for the asking. Just for the asking. Like our
Lord told that woman at the well, if you knew, you would ask, and
he would give. If you knew who it was that was
speaking unto you, and the gift, you would ask, and he would give
to you. People are asking for everything.
But, one thing, is he not guilty? Are you guilty? Be glad. Be glad. Be thankful if you feel you're
guilty. Be thankful if you feel like
the chief of sinners. And why? That's who Christ came
to die for. I'm telling you the truth. Brother
Scott used to say, I'm not just preaching, I'm telling you the
truth. It's a faithful saint, worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
as a safe center, and Paul said, I'm the worst. And I'm a pattern. He said, I'm a pattern. He came
to save the worst. A blasphemer, an injurious, but
I have tamed mercy. Ask the thief on the cross. He'll
tell you. He'll say, the chief of sinners.
Just for asking. Lord, remember me. Okay? Today. Right now. Oh Lord. Confusion. We trespass. Verse 8. Oh Lord, to us belong
confusion of faith, our leaders, our princes, our fathers. Nobody
knows where to go. What to do. The Lord has turned
them inside out. Upside down. Why? Because they've rejected Him.
Because we've sinned against them. But to the Lord, verse
9, belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against
them. And so he goes on, he keeps going on. Don't you love the
end of this prayer, verse 19? Now don't you love this? Oh Lord,
listen to this. Oh Lord, hear. This is not what you'd call an eloquent prayer, and it is eloquent. Very simple. One or two simple.
Oh Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, hearken
and do. Defer not for thine own sake. Oh my God. If only everyone would say that
from a heart broken over sin. Call him in spirit and truth,
in the name of Christ. Oh my God. The Lord would have
great mercy. But they're not. But we are.
Don't you think? A little book of Habakkuk. Find
that today. Here's a one verse prayer. are the greatest in the Bible.
And what he asked for, the same thing. One verse in Habakkuk. It's really a psalm. The whole
chapter, verse 3, is a psalm. Give unto the saint, be some.
And it's a prayer, like the psalms are psalms, every one of them. And many, if not most, are prayers. All right, look at it. Habakkuk
3, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, upon Shegunah, that
is an instrument. O Lord, I have heard Thy speech
and was afraid. O Lord, revive Thy work in the
midst of the years, or these perilous times. In the midst
of the years, make known Make yourself known. Make the truth
known. In wrath, remember mercy. Nothing's changing. They regenerate. Now let's look
at how our Lord tells us to pray. Matthew 6. Remember the disciples came to
Him and said, Lord, teach us to pray. And that means not only
how to pray, Teach us to pray, that we need to pray. And he
did. He sent men always to pray. And this is how, this is to whom,
and this is what for, and for whom. Matthew 6, he said, he
began very plainly in this chapter to say, when you pray, don't
be like the hypocrites. They want to be seen. They want
to be seen. They want to be heard. They want
people to see them and hear them pray, that the people might know
their religion. When we pray, there's one person
we want to hear us. There's one person we want to
look upon us, don't we? In mercy. He tells us to enter in our closets.
But here's what he says. Here's how he tells us to pray.
Verse 9. After this matter, therefore,
pray ye our Father which art in heaven. He's talking to his
disciples. Everyone can't call him Father.
But those born of God, born of His Spirit, born of the Gospel. Christ is our salvation. God is our Father. Which are
in heaven. Hallowed. Holy. Be that name. Holy. Holy. Holy. Holy God. Holy Father. Oh, we
wouldn't dare call a man Holy Father, would we? Doesn't it
hurt your heart to hear somebody say that? Your Highness. Your
Majesty. Doesn't that hurt? Doesn't it
hurt? That's deserved for one person. Our Father in Heaven. Holy, holy, holy. Hallowed be
thy name. Holy Father, thy kingdom come. Come, Lord Jesus. Come. May the gospel come in power.
Thy will be done. We don't want our will, do we?
We don't have a free will. We don't want one. Don't let
me have my will. Thy will be done. In earth as
it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread. Now you know what bread he's
talking about. The bread of life. Man doesn't live by bread alone,
but by the word of God. That's what we truly live upon. We can go without bread many
days. We can't go without this bread one day. Or we'll be weak. And we'll fall. Give us this
day, our day of the grave, and forgive us. Give us and forgive
us our debts. Oh, our debts. Oh, how deep in
debt we are to our God. A debt of gratitude. The sin debt we owe. And I'm
here to tell you, the Lord Jesus paid it off. All the debt I owe. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. That's in that Psalm. Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors. He went on down to say, if you
forgive not men their trespasses, your Father won't forgive you. And notice he's telling us to
pray, not just for ourselves, but for our brethren. Isn't that
what Daniel did? Isn't that what Daniel did? Daniel's prayer was for himself
and all his brethren. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
They will prosper that love. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Pray for your brethren. Our Lord did. Forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not. Give us. Forgive us. Lead us. Lead us
not. Don't let us go into temptation. Our Lord said, pray that you
enter not into temptation. You're going to be tempted. We're
going to be tempted every day from the moment we wake up until
we go to bed. We're going to be tempted. Pray that we don't
enter it. that is indulgent or fall for. We're easy pickings for the God
of this world. Lead us not into temptation,
deliver us from evil. That's His name, Deliverer. He's
our Deliverer. But this is your kingdom. It's
your power and it's your glory forever. Will you say that? Amen. Amen. Now back to our text, and I'll
close this out. Our Lord, through Paul, says,
continue in prayer and watch in the same with thy good watch. Watch. What does that mean? Well,
just what it says. When you're on the watch, When
you're watching out, you have your eyes open, don't you? You're
on the lookout. You're being observant. You can't
sleep and be watchful. Can you? So over and over through the
scripture it says, let us not sleep as to others. And men and
women throughout this land have some kind of carnal sense of
security now that they've got their twelfth stimulus check. You'll be in the sleep. Let's watch and pray. This is
one of Satan's temptations, deceitfulness of principle, carnal security. Let us watch. Beware of the danger.
Ephesians 6 talks about putting on a whole armor of God that
you may be able to stand against the wiles, the trickery, the
craftiness, the traps, the snares, the lies, the deceptions of Satan,
who's the master, who tempted, And they fell that the first
man and woman, who were far superior in knowledge than you and me,
accept faith in Christ. We do know and believe Him. We have that knowledge. They
did after they fell. But Satan is a master of deception,
and he uses the flesh, The things of this world, the people of
this world, it's his art, it's his craft, it's his wiles, it's
his traps, it's his snare. Open your eyes. And often, always,
it's prayer and watch, prayer and watch, watch and pray, prayer
and watch. It's together. What we're praying for, Lord,
make me watch. Open my eyes. Let me see. Let me see, let me be watchful. Pray to watch and watch to pray. And one time, you remember, when
our Lord took his disciples and said, watch with me, I want to
go pray. He was always praying. And I
remind us that if our Lord was always praying, where does that
leave us? How much more should we pray?
But he took his disciples into the garden and he said, watch
with me. I'm going to go pray. For who? For them. And for the
work he was going to do on Calvary tree. I meant to look at, there's
not enough time to look at Daniel 9, was there? That's Christ crucified,
what Daniel saw. But anyway, he's going into the
garden to pray and he told them to watch with him. Watch with
him. Just before that, they all said,
we'll die with you. They couldn't even watch one
hour. Couldn't stay awake one hour. We're pitiful. And that's when
he said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is so weak. And
he kept coming back and said, couldn't you not watch with me
one hour? Not one hour. He said, pray that you enter
not into temptation. And they all did, you know. They
all didn't watch. They all didn't pray. And very
shortly thereafter, they're all running scared. And why? Fleeing
for their lives. They'd forgotten everything in
sin. They didn't watch with Him in prayer. So, they were scared
to death. They acted like they had nothing.
Nothing. Why? They didn't watch. They
didn't pray. And that's what he said, watch
that you enter not into temptation. And look at this, here in closing
he says, with all praying, always praying for us preachers, that
God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery
of Christ. And he says, I can't tell you
how many times he says this, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians,
Ephesians, on and on it goes. Pray for us, brethren, pray for
us, brethren, pray for us. Who? The preacher. Preacher of
the Word. Because the gospel is the power
of God and salvation. You need it. I need it. We need
this gospel to save us. Our children need it. Our grandchildren
need it. Our neighbors, our community,
our nation needs it. Pray for the Word. Pray for the
preachers, and pray that God would raise up laborers. A few may not be right with harvest,
but there's still somebody out there. Pray for the gospel. Use
these means. And pray for them. The Lord uses
them. All right, stand with me. Our Father, again, we thank You
for Your Word. Oh, how we need to approve, rebuke,
correction, instruction, and righteousness. How we need Thy
Word. How we need to be taught to pray. Not only urged and exhorted to
pray, but how to pray, what to pray. We know not what things
to ask for so much, but we know Thy Spirit. and we pray with
groanings that cannot be uttered, and though thou, Lord, are focused
on the heart, thou knowest. And so we call upon you, and
we ask, O Lord, to give us the desire to pray, give us the heart
to pray, cause us to pray, Lord, to seek thy faith, to be watchful.
Lord, open our eyes. Open our eyes. Let us see that
they that be with us are more than they that be against us.
Oh, let us see that all things work according to your will and
purpose and in your hands. Let us fear, not their fear,
but fear thee, and let you be our dread. Let us fear God and
not man. Let us believe our God. Let us
take you at your word. Let us walk according to it.
That's our prayer. It's so much more. We pray this
night that we give thanks in Christ's name. Amen.