Good morning. It is always a joy and a pleasure to be able to bring the Word of God from the pulpit, but it's an extra joy to be able to do it at your home church. So I'm very thankful for the opportunity to this morning. Just a little bit of an update. Some of you might not know who I am. My name, as he said, is Josh Magner. My wife, Katie. We are missionaries to Mexico City sent out of Mount Zion Baptist Church. I do have a few prayer cards on me today. My wife has some as well. If some of you might not have one or you lost one or you want another one, that's totally fine. We have some with us this morning so you can have some prayer cards, be able to pray for us. A little bit of an update for a few minutes here briefly just of what God's been doing in our ministry through what we're on our deputation journey to be able to make it to Mexico City. We've recently just hit our 60% mark of our support level, so we're praising the Lord for that. When we had moved over here to Mount Zion back in April of last year, we were maybe 40%. maybe in the 30s somewhere. So the Lord's really blessed us in the last year to be able to raise a good portion of our percentage. So we're praying that we can raise the rest of our percent this year. Our goal is to be on the field this fall. I say this fall because our last meeting, our last scheduled meeting will be September 29th, and we've already scheduled that meeting. It's down in Alabama, and we are praying about the opportunity to be able to leave from that meeting in Alabama already have our stuff sitting at the border waiting for us and to just go from there and to grab our stuff at the border and go the rest of the way down to Mexico City. So if you would pray with us that all of the logistics of that will work out. We've got to figure out how we're going to do all that. Probably sometime in August we might drive our stuff down to the border and then fly back up and something like that. I'm not quite sure. how all of that will work out, but we know that the Lord already has that planned out for us. So we're just asking him to show us his plan through that. So please pray with us that we'll be able to raise the rest of our support throughout this year, leading up until September 29th, so that we'll be able to leave from there, from that meeting in Alabama. Also, some other prayer requests, if you would, some specific prayer requests we have. Pray for our car. It's doing well right now, and we're just asking the Lord to continue it that way, just that it will last us through the rest of our deputation journey. We put on I don't know, 40,000 miles or so last year and 40,000 miles the year before, so I'm sure we'll put on another 40,000 miles or so this year. So we're praying that it'll sustain, that the Lord will allow us to be able to not have to make a car purchase or anything like that this year. Our spring is pretty full with meetings. We're here until the end of this month. I think the last week of this month, we have a meeting down in Georgia. So then we'll be leaving, and you probably won't see us very often until the summertime, if you would pray. Our summer schedule has a lot of openings, and it's been like this all throughout deputation the last two years. It just seems we've scheduled just about all of our meetings within three to six months of that meeting. So it's been a constant grind. Just the Lord has used this time to teach us to continually every single week, every single day, just to trust in him for that schedule. And he's continued to fill it and continue to give us meetings. But we're praying that he'll give us our summer meetings, you know, the end of May, June, July, and August. Our September is a little full. We've got a few more openings, but June, July, August specifically, we'll be able to schedule some meetings during that time. For those of you that maybe don't know fully of our ministry, we're going to Mexico City. We're going to be working with the Allenson family, they're missionaries that are there now. They've been there 20 years. I know some of you in here have met them in the past and know them a little bit. We're going to be able to work with them. We're going to learn most of the Spanish language there in Mexico City. We've started learning a little bit now, just as some preparation for what God has for us this year with getting to the field, so that we'll be able to know a little bit of conversational-type Spanish when we get there. We're going to get a tutor and learn the rest of the language while we're there in Mexico City. There's an area, one of the suburbs of Mexico City, that the Lord has placed on our hearts to plant a church in. It's Lomés Verdes. If you'd like to write that down, you could just write down Green Hills. That's what it is in English. But Lomés Verdes there on the northwest side of Mexico City. The Lord, through interesting circumstances, brought this to our minds and we started researching it and praying about what God would have us to do to see the gospel go forward there in Lomas Verdes. We found that there was no independent Baptist church, no gospel preaching church in all of Lomas Verdes. To the best of our knowledge, we believe that there is somewhere between 3 to 5 million people three to five million people unreached right now in Mexico City. You know, often you hear, oh, another missionary going to Mexico. Well, Mexico's been reached. Mexico City has missionaries. Why do we need another missionary to Mexico City? Well, with such a large city with three million people, there's millions. Millions of people in that city still alone that do not have the gospel So, please pray for us as I go as we go, uh to mexico city pray for us Like I said about our car pray for safety as we travel and that the lord would fill our schedule for the year of 2024 If you would at this time take the word of god with me, please and turn to second timothy chapter number one Second timothy Chapter number one this morning I was reading in my devotions this week and praying about what the Lord would have me to share this morning in the Sunday school hour, and it seemed as every single time I would open the scriptures in the morning and read in the New Testament, I've been studying out Pauline's epistles, you know, being a missionary and going to the mission field and just having the opportunity to be able to read the letters that the Apostle Paul, the missionary Paul, was able to write and has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. I've been taking this year, I'm taking this year and studying out those epistles, those letters, that the missionary Paul has wrote to be able to glean wisdom of what the Lord will do in our ministry. But it seemed as every single morning, the word prayer or pray just kept sticking out to me. And the Lord was really working on my heart on my prayer life and how I need to pray more and pray more specifically. And then I came, I think it was Wednesday afternoon. I was reading here in 2 Timothy chapter number one. And this verse really, really stuck out to me. The Bible starts in verse number one. The Bible says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dearly beloved, grace and mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day. And that really stuck out to me that Paul, the missionary, who has an extremely busy ministry, just he had so much on his plate, so much that he had to do each and every day. And he says that he took time every single day, day and night to pray for Timothy. Timothy, of course, was someone that Paul had mentored and had set up at this time to pastor a church, but Paul was really Timothy's father in the faith. And here Paul is praying for Timothy. And it just really got me thinking about our pastor and how he often texts me, calls me, emails me, and tells me that he's praying for me, often. And it got me thinking about how I know that he prays for each and every one of you. Day and night, he was talking the other week about how even he wants to grow his prayer life more, more so in a way that maybe he's gotten away from, you were talking about how you got away from a little bit of having a list, right? That just so that you can just dwell upon what you know about that person and just bring it before the Father. And it really challenged me knowing that my pastor prays for me so much, that I need to pray for him. How much more can I pray for my pastor? How much more can we as a church pray for our pastor? So I did some research and I was studying out some different things about how to pray for your pastor, how you can pray for your pastor, the best ways to pray for your pastor. And I came across a list from one of my favorite preachers in the evangelist, Scott Pauly, many of you probably know him. And he put out a list many years ago of seven ways to pray for your preacher. seven ways to pray for your pastor and this morning i want to take that list that he had put out he put it out there with with the intent of churches being able to take this list and to teach it in a sunday school class like i'm going to this morning so that we as a church can better pray for our pastor so we're going to be looking at this morning seven ways to pray for our pastor. And it's the seven different times in the New Testament that Paul, well, one of them, the last one is in Hebrews, and I know that we don't know for sure if Paul had wrote the book of Hebrews or not, but the other six we know came from the mouth of Paul. And it's seven different ways that, seven different times that Paul had requested prayer for himself. seven different times that he had said, pray for us, pray for me in this way, that God would do this. And so if you would, if you'd take notes this morning, I know that we'd be certainly blessed by that, that with seven different ways, we can take one each day of the week. It's a challenge, something that I've taken upon my life just starting this week, to take one each day of the week and to pray for our pastor this way this day, and this way the next day, and this way the day after that. So just very briefly as a way of introduction of why should I pray for my pastor, you may say, well, that sounds ridiculous. We know we need to pray for our pastor. But the pastor goes through so many things that we don't even know about. He faces trials that we We have no idea about. Why? Because we're not the pastor. We're not the pastor of the church. We just don't know all of what he goes through. Yes, we know that he has a great responsibility given to him by God to pastor the flock and to be able to lead us through the scriptures of how we should go about our lives, what direction we should go as a church, but think about the responsibility that is. the responsibility on the pastor's shoulders, that it is his responsibility to study out the scriptures, to see what God has for the church, and to lead us in that direction. You know, one day he's going to stand before God and give an account for how he pastored the flock here. We need to pray for him, pray for him. The pastor faces burdens and battles that many other people do not. that many other people have no clue about. He's facing battles and burdens every single day that each of us don't have to face. Why? Because we're not the pastor. We don't have the church on our shoulders. We should pray for him because we love him. We're grateful for him. And because every time that you pray for your pastor, you enter into his ministry. Think about this verse. Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter number one, verse number 11, he says, ye also helping together by prayer for us, helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf. Look, because of our prayers, he is able to do what God has given him to do. why we should pray for our pastor and also because he prays for us, because he prays for you. That's what really challenged me because he prays for me, how busy he is. And like Paul said in 2 Timothy 1, verse three, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of thee in my prayers day and night. So seven ways that we could pray for our pastor. Number one this morning, turn with me to Romans 15. Keep your Bibles handy this morning. We're gonna be using them a lot. We're gonna have a different verse, a different portion of Paul's scripture. for each one, Romans chapter number 15, verse number 30. You're taking notes this morning. Number one, how to pray for your pastor. Pray that God will protect the preacher and his family from every enemy. Pray that God would protect the preacher and his family from every enemy. Here in Romans chapter number 15, verse number 30, The Bible says, now I beseech you brethren for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. Paul here says that you'd strive together in your prayers to God for me. Look at this verse number 31, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted. of the saints. Look, Paul, we know, had many people who were against him. Many people at that time who did not believe, who were under the Roman government or were under some other government and they were under some false religion. They were very hard oppressed against Paul. How many times you can read in Corinthians about how many times he was shipwrecked and how many times that he faced jail and was beaten and left for dead. Why? Because There were many people that were against him. Look, Paul had so many that were against him, the enemy that was against him. He says that you would pray for me, pray to God for me. That those who are in Judea, he's talking about those that don't believe, those who are against him. Anyone who takes a stand for Christ will have those who oppose them. We all know that when you take a stand for Christ in this world, especially, that there'll be those that will oppose you. At your job, you may be the only person who's a Christian. I'm sure many of you face that. And what? It's hard to take a stand. Why? Because there's those who oppose you. Well, imagine if every single tract that we gave out had your name on it. Everyone in this area knows who the pastor is. Look, we used to live in Denver. We lived here for, I don't know, three years maybe. And everybody knew about Mount Zion Baptist Church. This area knows who the church is. And more than that, people knew who our pastor was. Look, they know who he is. The devil knows who the pastor is. Imagine if the devil could get him off track. Imagine if the devil was to discourage this man. If the devil was to get him off track, what would happen? He would take the whole church with him. Listen, the enemy, you think the enemy is out to get you? He is. But imagine how much more the enemy is out to get our pastor. We need to pray for him. Pray for the pastor. Oh, and by the way, every pastor has critics. Don't be one of them. Don't be one of the pastor's critics. Look, we don't know of what he faces. We don't know what trials he goes through, what troubles he's dealing with at the time. We don't know the whole story. You know, sometimes it's easy as a member of the church to see something the pastor does or a way that the pastor handles it and to go, I would have done it differently than that. Well, you don't know the whole story. You haven't been praying for that situation the way that he has for months. You haven't been dealing with that person for months, dealing with that situation for days on end. Don't be the pastor's critic. He has enough outside of these walls. There are enough people outside of these walls that would love to tear our pastor down. Don't be one of them. Pray for your pastor that God will protect the preacher and his family, and his family. Why? Because they face a lot of trials too. They're going through the same things that he's going through oftentimes. Maybe not all of them, and they may not know all of it, but they see how their husband, how their father is struggling, how he's dealing with something that's very hard on his shoulders. Pray for them too. Look, if you can get the pastor's family away, then what? The pastor has to step down from the ministry that he's in to be able to minister to his family. Pray for his family. Number one, pray that God will protect the preacher and his family from the enemy. Number two, pray for God to prepare and use the preacher. Pray for God to prepare and use the preacher. Ephesians chapter number six. Ephesians, I must have the wrong verse there, because there's not six chapters in Ephesians, is there? Oh, that's Philippians. Ephesians chapter number six, verse number 18. Ephesians 6, verse 18. I need to speed it up here a little bit. We're looking at praying for God to prepare and use the preacher. Verse 18, the Bible says, And for me, here's Paul's prayer, that you would pray for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Paul here was saying, pray for me that when it's time to speak, that I will be ready, that when I have a chance, that I will speak with boldness. Pray for the pastor. for God to use him and to prepare him, that when it's time to speak, when it's time for him to stand behind the pulpit, that he's ready. Paul says that he would have utterance. that his word will go forward, that he'll have free course. We're gonna look at that in a moment. But saying, Paul here is asking for prayer that when he's given the chance to speak, which is often, listen, the pastor has oftentimes a chance to speak. Here, we're talking specifically here about behind the pulpit, that when it's his chance to speak, that God will have already prepared him and that God will use what he's saying. Listen, Saturday is a day off for most people, right? The world, just generally, Saturday is known as the weekend, Sunday, things like that. But Saturday is not a day off for the pastor. Listen, Saturday sometimes can be the hardest day for a pastor. Why? Because he's toiling over all that God has given him to say the next day. Listen, I know what it's like to preach three times. Well, he preaches four times, at least in a day. But I've had days where I've preached three times on a Sunday. That Saturday is not a relaxing day at all. Why? Because there's so much on your heart, so much on your mind that God has given you, so much that you want to be able to share with the people from God's word that you just wanna make sure that you have it all right. Listen, maybe Saturday is the day that we'll pray that God will give him utterance. Pray that the pastor will be prepared, that he will be used. Number two, pray for God to prepare and use the pastor. Number three, write this down. Pray for God to help the preacher as he deals with problems. Pray for God to help the preacher as he deals with problems. Philippians chapter number one, just one page over. Philippians chapter number 1 verse number 19 and 20 the Bible says for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed But that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be made magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death Verse number 19, Paul says, I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer. If you think about the book of Philippians, we know, of course, the book of Philippians is what? About joy, right? Paul is writing about having Christian joy. But if you ever really thought about the context of the book of Philippians, Paul writes that from jail, in bonds. And he says, he starts off the book saying, I know that this, my bonds, my chains that I have will turn to my salvation. How? Through your prayer. Listen, Paul had a trial at that time. Paul had a heavy burden. He was in jail. And he says, he asks the people of Philippi to pray that his bonds, his trial will be turned to salvation. Listen, we need to pray that God will help the preacher as he deals with problems. The preacher oftentimes has to deal with the problems of the people of the church. Look, who do you go to when you have something that you're struggling with? Our pastor. Yes, we take it to the Lord, but oftentimes we want to talk to someone here on the earth. And who do we go to? I hope you go to your pastor. That's what he's there for. But with that in mind, he has all these people that are coming to him with their burdens, with their trials. Paul here says, pray for me. that this will be turned to my salvation. For our pastor, most of his life is dealing with other people's problems. Much of the ministry is helping other people through their problems, things that you and I don't even know about. Listen, you will never know 95, 99% of the problems that the pastor has to deal with. But we need to pray for him, pray specifically that God will turn those circumstances. You say, Brother Magner, I don't know what the pastor is dealing with. I don't know these problems. I don't know that specific problem that he's struggling with, that he's working through at this time. You don't have to know. God knows. Bring it to him. Pray that whatever problem that the pastor is dealing with this week, listen, he's got also the counseling ministry that he's been growing. He's been talking specifically lately about how more people have been coming for counseling. Why? Because there's a lot of problems in the world today. There's much that needs to be dealt with. This is just more of a burden on him. He does it because he loves it. Because God has given him this ministry and he loves it, but it's hard on him. It weighs on him. Pray that God will turn those situations. Pray for the supply of Jesus Christ. Paul in verse number 19 says, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the only way that he can make it through, the only way that he can help others with their issues of life is through the supply of Jesus Christ, the supply of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. Also pray that underneath this, under praying for your pastor as he deals with these problems, pray that he'll keep his joy. Pray that he'll keep his joy. Why? Because imagine if you were to spend all day dealing with other people's problems, and maybe you do at work. I don't know what some of your jobs are. Maybe you've got a job. Listen, when I was a supervisor over at Denver Cold Storage, it seemed like all day, every day, all I dealt with was everybody else's problems. And you know what? By the end of the day, I wasn't joyful. I didn't wanna be there anymore. But think about your pastor, how people come to him every single day, every day of the week. with their problems. Pastor, can you help me through this? I'm going through this trial, what do I do? Pray that he'll keep his joy through it all. Number four, number four, pray for God to give the pastor divine appointments. Divine appointments, Colossians chapter number four. Just the next book of the Bible over, Colossians chapter number four. Here Paul again is in prison. He's in prison in Rome at this time. But he says in verse number two, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving with all praying also for us. that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Like I mentioned, Paul in prison in Rome at this time, but he wants God to use him where he is. Look, it didn't matter where Paul was, but he was always asking God to use him in that circumstance. And here he asks the people of Colossae to pray for him that where he is, that God would use him. Listen, silly people think that the only time, the only thing that a pastor has to do is to get two to three sermons a week, maybe four, and then the rest of the week he has nothing else that he's doing. Hopefully that's not true here, that we know that our pastor does so much more than that. But look, we need to pray that wherever our pastor is that day, whatever he has on his docket to do that evening, that morning, that afternoon, whatever it is, that God will give him divine appointments. Look, we've been oftentimes, I think even this morning's message is about it again, but we've seen the heart of our pastor this year has very specifically been for the salvation of others around us. He's been preaching on it. He's been putting it in his emails. And just, it seems like almost every single time we hear from our pastor, what do we hear coming out of his heart is that he wants to see souls saved. Listen, we need to pray that God would give him divine appointments wherever he finds himself. Maybe he's at the hospital that day. with the person that is in the hospital. Maybe he's at the funeral weeping with that family. Maybe he's in his office counseling someone, whether they're saved or unsaved. Maybe he's at the grocery store. I know when I lived in Denver, we used to run into you almost every single Monday, I think it was. No, Tuesday. Almost every single Tuesday, I'm giving away your secrets now. I'd run into him at Walmart almost every single Tuesday. It just seemed like we'd be there at the same time. Why? Because he's a normal person. He has daily tasks that he has to do outside of the ministry. We'll pray that God would give him divine appointments where it is. Number five, pray for God to give the preacher lasting fruit. Lasting fruit, 2 Thessalonians chapter number three. 2nd Thessalonians chapter number 3 write this down we're going to move through it quickly the Bible says in verse number 1 2nd Thessalonians chapter number 3 verse 1 finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you in that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith look Paul here says that the word of the Lord may have free course That free course there has this idea that it would run almost like a river. You know how the river just keeps going on and on and on and on. Pray that the pastor would have lasting fruit. That when he speaks, when he ministers unto us, that that fruit would last forever. That it would go on and on. That what he says here from this pulpit, that we would take it and apply it to our hearts and go out and to teach somebody else what we learned here. What is that that's lasting fruit? that it would have free course, that it would just run and run and run. Pray for the pastor to have lasting fruit. Number six, pray for God to lead the pastor as he leads others. 1 Timothy chapter number two. We're almost done, two more, this one and the next one. Pray for God to lead the pastor as he leads others. First Timothy chapter number two, verse number one, Bible says, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Oftentimes we come to this passage and we say, oh, we need to pray for those that are in office, right? We take that verse, pray for kings, and we go, oh, we need to pray for the president. We need to pray for the senators. And I agree, that's in there. We need to pray for those that are in those kinds of positions. But did you catch that verse two says, for king and for all that are in authority, for all that are in authority. That covers your pastor. He has authority. He is our authority as our pastor. God has placed him in that position. Now look, the pastor doesn't lead like the king, don't get me wrong. I'm not comparing him to the king there in that verse. No, if anything, the pastor is a servant. Our pastor is definitely a servant. Oftentimes I find him serving me. But it says for all that are in authority, The pastor does have authority over us. God has put him as an overseer of the flock of God. Pray for the Lord to give the pastor wisdom, wisdom for every task, wisdom for every decision, wisdom for what to preach. Pray that God will lead him. Look, pastor and I were sitting down Wednesday, I'm not gonna give the specifics, but we were talking about something. And I said to him, I said, that must be really hard for you because if you were to get up, it was something that he's praying about that God would give us direction in. And I said to him, cause it dawned on me that if he was to get up here and to say, look, I think we ought to do this because of our love for him, we would do it. He needs to know that God is leading him in that direction. Pray for wisdom for our pastor. Number seven, last one. I hope you have these all written down. If not, I can send them to you. Feel free to do that. Pray for the pastor's personal growth and blessing. Hebrews chapter number 13. Hebrews chapter number 13, verse number 18. The Bible says, pray for us. For we trust we have a good conscious in all things willing to live honestly. You must never forget that our pastor is also a follower of Christ, that he is also a human being, that also toils with the flesh like we do, that also faces trials and tribulations and troubles in this world like we do. Pray for his personal growth. Pray that he would have a good conscience. Here, the author says, pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience. Pray that our pastor will have a good conscience. Then he says, in all things willing to live honestly, pray that our pastor will live honestly. Pray for him because listen, any one of us at any time in our life are susceptible to falling into the wiles of the devil. any one of us, including our pastor. Remember, like Paul said to Timothy, how he toiled, how he ceased not to pray for Timothy day and night. I know that's our pastor as well. He ceases not to pray for us. I know how much he prays for me. How much more should we this year pray for him? Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for our pastor. Lord, I thank you for your word, Lord, that you can give us specific ways that we should pray for those that are over us, Lord, ways that we could pray for our preachers, pray for our pastor. Lord, I pray that you'll work in the hearts and minds of those here like you have in mind this week. Lord, that we will pray for our pastor more. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.