Amen. Amen. Thank you. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 7, please. As we continue our study in this morning, our concern is with the importance of persistence in our prayer lives. Our Lord Jesus Christ is bringing us near the end of this great sermon to once again emphasize the all-important matter of a life of intercessory prayer, which is to mark us quite clearly as followers of our Savior. Matthew 7, I wanna read like I did last time, the context that set us up, verses 1 through 14 of Matthew 7. Hear now God's holy word. Judge not that you be not judged, for with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Do not give dogs what is holy. And do not throw your pearls before pigs. lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good gifts, good things, to those who ask him? Before I go on, I want us to just leap real quick to Luke chapter 11. Because on the face of what I just read, especially verses seven to 12, you might think particularly, well, how do we know this is about prayer? So this is a harmonizing with the other well-known section in Luke 11. You'll see the clarity. I'll begin in verse five. And he said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has arrived on a journey and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within, do not bother me, the door is now shut, my children are with me in bed, I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence or persistence, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds. To the one who knocks, it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, Know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your heavenly Father give to the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this portion of the Sermon on the Mount and the section I just read from Luke. Lord, we ask it now that you would speak to us clearly about this matter of not just prayer, and the importance of it, but persistence in prayer. Help us, Lord. Guide us, speak to us, convict us, encourage us, equip us, Lord. And may those who are not savingly joined to Christ, may they see in here this morning that the mark of a believer, a true believer, is that he engages in intercessory prayer. You prompt that prayer, and You cause us, Lord, to love to speak to You. Help us now. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well over 150 years ago, there was a great movement of God across our nation that began as a result of a city missionary in New York City. His name was Jeremiah Lanphier, and New York City became a place of great awakening where hundreds of thousands of people were converted, beginning there and then spreading across the United States. It was astounding the record of how many exact prayers were proven out to be converted, I mean, answered immediately from the prayer time. When they put two and two together, they realized when they prayed in New York City on a certain time, say a Friday, then they were able to see that that same movement from God brought about conversions in California and so on. Powerful. But one of the tools that was used during that time was a booklet that we published in 1996 called A Call to Prayer by J.C. Ryle. He said this in the booklet up front, in the beginning part of the booklet, do you pray? And then he went on to say, I ask whether you pray because there is no duty in religion so neglected. When he says religion, he's referring to Christianity. No duty in religion is so neglected as private prayer. We live in days of abounding religious professions. There are more places of public worship now than there ever were before in our city. There are more persons attending than there were ever before. And yet, in spite of all this public religion and expression, I believe there is a vast neglect of personal, private, intercessory prayer. It is one of those private transactions between God and our souls which no eye sees and therefore one which men are tempted to pass over and leave undone in their personal lives. I believe that there are thousands upon thousands that never really utter a word of prayer by themselves at all. They eat, they drink, they sleep, they arise in the morning, they go forth to their daily labor, they return to their homes in the evening, and during that day they breathed God's air, they saw God's sun and felt it, they walked on God's earth, they enjoy God's mercies, they have dying bodies. They have judgment and eternity all before them, but they never truly speak to God. They live their daily lives like beasts that perish. They behave like creatures without souls. They have not one word to say to God in whose hand are their life and breath. They create, they act like creatures without souls. and from whose mouth they must one day hear an everlasting sentence from God. How dreadful this seems. But if the secrets of men were only known, how common it is, this neglect of prayer. Jesus said in Luke 18.1, he said, At all times, men ought to pray and not lose heart. That statement, at all times, is very similar to the one in Job 27, verse 10, where it says, the mark of an unbeliever is that he is not praying at all times. Very interesting. In Matthew 26, 41, Jesus gave further insight about prayer when he said this to his apostles. He said, and quote, keep watching and praying so that you may not enter into temptation because your spirit is willing but your flesh is weak. Here's a good question at this juncture. Do you realize how weak you really are? Paul said in 1 Thessalonians, therefore, pray without ceasing. Don't stop praying, pray at all times. Ephesians 5.20 says, giving thanks always about everything. Praying at all times is to be our calling. Prayer is then probably the most important feature of a Christian's life. My 40 years as a Christian, no doubt about it. That's what I've come to the conclusion in my own life, that prayer is the mark of a living, breathing being who loves Jesus Christ. It's the most important feature, I think, of the Christian life. If it is from the heart, it's spiritually to be all-consuming in our lives. Ryle said it's rare among those who profess faith in God. It's not just rare amongst those in the pew, but it also is rare amongst those in the pulpit. If you were to grab my preaching binder and peek at it this week, you'd see that in this binder I've got different reminders and quotations and stuff to myself that I often look at when I'm preparing my sermon. But one of the ones that is the most shocking, I like to have it sting me and remind me constantly, is a statement by the great Puritan John Owen who said this. He said, a minister may fill his pew, pack a church out, he may, also fill his communion role, qualify people for communion. He may fill the mouths of the public with his preaching, but what he is on his knees in secret before God, that he is and nothing more. There are many people that can preach a sermon. Even an Orthodox sermon. I remember years ago, John MacArthur, after the fall of Jimmy Swagger, MacArthur preached a sermon called Lessons to Learn from the Fall of Jimmy Swagger. It was stunning. Because of all the charismatic preachers out there, Jimmy Swagger was one of the most Orthodox, assembly of God, and he preached repentance. But his life was an absolute sham. What a stunning shock. It was, but I wonder how much he prayed. If he ever prayed, what kind of prayers did he pray? Prayer, we must live upon prayer. Prayer is us speaking to God. God speaks to us through his word. It's a sobering reminder. So I remind myself that numbers, the impact of a church's ministries and all that really could be produced by a marketing program if we're not in prayer. J.C. Rowell again said this, a man may preach from false motives. A man may write books and make fine speeches and sermons and seem very diligent in doing good works. Yet, at the same time, he could be a Judas Iscariot. I'll stop in just a moment before I go on with that quote. Here's what I read and I remind myself of this. Judas Iscariot had the best pastor, the best leader around him, the best advisor, and the best counselor, and yet he was the devil. Again, back to Ryle. He says, a man may write books and make fine speeches and seem diligent in good works, and yet at the same time be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his prayer closet and pours out his soul before God in secret unless he is in spiritual earnest. The Lord himself has his stamp on personal, private prayer as being the best proof of a true conversion, says Ryle. It's healthy to think through why prayer is so important. It's our spiritual breathing. It's the mark of a true Christian. That's why the apostles said this in Acts 6 forward. They said, but we then must devote ourselves to prayer and to the public ministry of the word. It says in Colossians 4, two through four, devote yourselves to prayer. Why all this talking? Because prayer is so vital. You see, the health of our private personal prayer lives play a crucial role in our living blessed and useful Christian lives. They strengthen us for and in the battle, spiritual battle of each day, as well as they move us to be joyful, often in the midst of trials. In fact, I believe it would be fair to say that the most obvious mark of a child of God is that he spends frequent time with God in prayer, personal, private, intercessory prayer. Prayer is so important, personal, private prayer. It's the mark of a believer's breath, he breathes. Reading scripture is a blessing, but what if you can't see the scripture? What if you're blind? You can pray. Hearing public preaching, sound preaching, is a treasure and a blessing, but what if you're deaf and you can't hear? You can pray. Prayer is the most important. It's the most accessible. So we're then, we're reminded here, in fact, Spiritist say it's the most obvious mark of a child of God. When we spend frequent time with the Lord in personal, private, intercessory prayer, prayer then is vital to our spiritual health. How much do you pray? Do you pray? Is the summation of your prayer life rub-a-dub-dub thanks for the grub? At a quick meal? Do you actually withdraw and get alone with God? Find time to get alone. Some part of the day, some portion of the day, seeking out time with God, to talk to God. This is so important. This is vital to the Christian life. It's so easy to get distracted. But notice here, in the Sermon on the Mount, up to this point, Jesus now is about to embark upon The third section in the Sermon on the Mount in which he emphasizes prayer. Look at the first one with me, chapter 5 of Matthew. Verse 44 and 45, he says this, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. That's the first portion of the Sermon on the Mount which he emphasizes. personal, private prayer. But notice chapter six, one in each of these three sections. Chapter six, notice where he says in verse five and following, he says, and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners and that they may be seen by others. But truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, so now he's instructing us to the second section, but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door, pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this. Now Jesus is instructing us and he says this, our father, In heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil or the evil one. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, Neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And now the third section, which is ours for this morning. Verses 7 to 12, chapter 7. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him? Wow, what a father. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is. The law and the prophets. This is the essence of what Jesus has been emphasizing. It all comes to a head here. This is the law, this is the teaching of scripture. The law and the prophets. This is the summation of all that he's talking about. Do you pray? Again, remember, you can be deaf and you can be blind, but do you pray? You can pray. All of us battle with prayerlessness. So important. Prayer is so vital to our living to the glory of God. Do we live to the glory of God? That's a question. Because he's warned us already in this section here of religious hypocrisy, of carnal anxiety, and also of individual hierarchy. In other words, pride and looking down on others who you think are not as spiritual as you. Three things that we see in this section here. First of all, in verse 7, in Jesus' instruction on persistence in prayer, the first thing is this, verse 7, be persistent in prayer. Verses 8 to 11, be paternal. That's another word of saying father, fatherly. Go to the father. Know how the Father operates. Pray then like this, our Father who art in heaven. He's gonna talk about it, will not the Father, if we ask Him, if we seek Him, if we knock, will He not respond? Yes, and He will respond to His people speedily. That's the lesson for us to take to heart. Notice with me then, verse seven. persistence in prayer. But let me read a poem at the beginning so it'll help us. Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring, for his grace and power are such, none can ever ask too much. God is a God, we can't ask him too much for things. He wants us to continually ask Him. In fact, what's clear in Scripture about prayer is this, is that God prompts prayer. Have you ever just been, for example, say, reading your Bible, or just kind of praying silently, and all of a sudden, someone's name, the situation comes into your mind? That's God, prompting prayer. Sometimes we just go, wow, that's, hope they're okay today, and we don't pray. It's God prompting prayer. God the Holy Spirit seeking to prompt us to pray. Thomas Manton the Puritan said, persistence is the issue here. Being persistent in our prayers. If we don't receive from God by asking Him, then let us seek God. If we don't receive by seeking what we've asked, then let us knock, but be persistent. Pray at all times, ask, seek, pray according to his will, knock, pray with persistence. Don't give up, don't let up, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, pray until you've prayed, as Bunyan said. Prayer is so vital. We can't afford to not pray. It's the mark of a Christian. Do you pray? How is your prayer life? Are you happy with it? Remember Billy Graham said at the end of his life, he said, if I could have done anything different, I would have prayed more and read my Bible more. That's the challenge I face, don't you? It's not that I don't love the word of God and love praying, it's the discipline of withdrawing and spending time alone with God is the mark of a believer. You're not saved by your prayer life, you're saved by grace through faith, but do you pray? Is it a concern for you to live upon prayer? The statement here, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. Those three Verbs are imperatives in the Greek commands. Ask is a command. Ask God. Keep on asking God. He doesn't get tired of us keep asking Him about many things. Ask Him. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness that all these things might be added to you. Seek first his kingdom, his righteousness, and knock, knock, be persistent. God loves to see us persist. So often we run out of gas. So often we fall off the wagon on the wrong side of it. And notice here he says, It's really only the people that ask are the ones who continually see their impoverishment apart from God. Go with me to Matthew 5 for a second. Remember in the Beatitudes? The first Beatitude, verse three of Matthew 5. Blessed or happy are the poor in spirit For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the poor, the impoverished in spirit. In other words, we come before God and we realize I can't save myself by being a good person. I can't know for sure heaven's mine even if I'm the nicest guy in the world and I help all kind of people. with all kind of things. In fact, there's nothing I could bring before God that would make Him accept me apart from the work of Christ on the cross. Jesus Christ is our hope. Jesus Christ is our life. Now Christ who is our life, Colossians 3, 4. He's our life. There's no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. When we see who we really are, and we're continually reminded of who we really are, like, remember the Pharisee and the Publican. The Pharisee thought much more highly of himself. The Publican couldn't even lift his eyes up. He said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Notice here, the Pharisee asked for nothing in that parable, but the Publican asked for mercy. Think about that. Do you see yourself as bringing nothing to the table but dependence upon the grace and mercy of God? That should be your attitude. If that's the case, that helps you frame your thinking toward prayer. I come before God, I say, God, give us this day our daily bread. If you don't feed me, I have nothing. I can do nothing. If you don't strengthen me and work through your word to empower me, what hope do I have? So seeing you're spiritually impoverished, you're poor, apart from God. And that moves us then to ask for the Holy Spirit. Now remember, the Holy Spirit at conversion draws us, awakens us, converts us, and then begins to live through us. We become the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's the mark of a believer, 1 Corinthians 6 and so on. But then, a lot of people, in reaction to the charismatic movement, they think, they forget, they act as if they don't have to ask God for more of the Spirit. Go with me to Luke 11, 13. In Luke 11, and look it, he's talking to his disciples. And he says in 11.13, Luke, if you then, the disciples, now how do I know it's the disciples? You back up. And you see in verse one, now Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples came to him and, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. So here they are asking, okay, and look, he ends it by saying this in verse 13. If you then, you disciples, if you then who are evil, now there's a moral evil like Hitler, or now Putin, with all the horrific injustices they've done, murderous actions. There's a moral evil like that. But there's also the evil that comes forth from sin, the marks of people who are sinners. That's really what he's saying here. The few then who are not God, my disciples, you who are evil, bent towards sin, that's what he's saying here. He's not saying you're all Hitler. He's saying you have the capacity to be a Hitler. But he's telling us and reminding us then, ask for the Holy Spirit. Continually ask, if you then or even know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Do you ever ask for the Spirit? I had a friend years ago, he's now in heaven, but I used to love being around him because he would say, Jerry, can we stop right now and let's ask for God to send the Spirit. I said, OK, brother. He'd lay hands on me, and we'd say, we'd pray, send the Spirit, Lord. Send the Spirit. He got it from Luke 11 and 9, 13. Are you asking for the Spirit to come empower? He's already living inside of you now, how about for His empowering grace to strengthen the preaching today, to enable God to bless and equip you to go forth and live for His glory. It's okay, it's biblical to ask for the empowerments from the Spirit. And that begs the question then, how are we to ask then? If we're to ask for the Spirit, how are we to ask? Look with me in 1 Peter 4, 7. We're looking at a number of verses. 1 Peter 4, 7, watch. We should ask, since we're supposed to ask, we should ask soberly. Verse seven. The end of all things is at hand, therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded. Why? Watch. For the sake of your prayers. Did you catch that? for the sake of your prayers. That is so powerful, think about it. Why should I be sober-minded in prayer for the sake of my prayers? God wants us to be very careful. Secondly, how should we ask? Not just soberly, how about obediently? First John 3.22. We should ask obediently. First John 3.22. He says, and whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. That's asking obediently. Lord, I'm ready to obey you and to do as you lead me and as you guide me. I wanna follow you, I wanna please you. That's the disposition. When we ask, it has all these different components. Ask soberly, ask obediently. How about this? Ask reverently. James. James 4. Notice here in verses two and three, you desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because, here it is, you do not ask, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. In other words, you're driven by lusting after things rather than what's most honoring to Jesus Christ. You're carnal minded in your thinking. There's no reverence, treating God as holy, there's simply, here's the shopping list, God, of what I want, I really want, I really need, instead of reverently coming before God and stopping and believing as you should. Go to Matthew 21. Matthew 21. We should ask believingly. Matthew 21, 22. Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. And we know without faith, it's impossible to please God. Luke 11, I'm sorry, Hebrews 11 and verse six. Now why does God do this? Why does God want us to ask? Because he's always training us as part of discipleship. Through the spirit of God, he's convicting us, guiding us, leading us through his power and direction that we might mature in Him. We are to, Ephesians 5, be imitators of God. Jesus said, for the Father knows what you need before you ask Him. So He knows what we need. He prompts us to begin to ask Him, and as we're asking Him in response to what He's called us to do, He's training us to keep on asking, to ask, keep on asking, and then seek, keep on seeking, and then keep on knocking. And that's why you have statements like this by William Hendrickson who said this. So therefore, asking is really acting. It's not just words, but it's with all these things we've been talking about, asking reverently, obediently, soberly, believingly, asking God to send his spirit to move us to pray as we ought to pray and pray until we have prayed. That's why Isaiah said in Isaiah 55, 67, seek the Lord while he may be found, while he is near. He's nearer in the preaching of the word, he's nearer in the praise of God and he wants us to look to him and pray that way. And not just ask, not just seek first His kingdom, but keep on knocking, knocking. I find it quite interesting when the first mark of Paul, after he was converted, look what it says in Acts 9 in verse 11. Verse 10, 9, 10 of Acts, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord. The Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarshish named Saul, for behold, he is praying. Paul was just freshly converted. What's his posture? He is praying. So we must be persistent in our requests for God to move powerfully through his word. He prompts us to pray, he knows what we need before we pray, and then he meets that need through creating and training us with hearts of obedience and reverence for him. Secondly, verses eight to 11, We must be paternal in our prayers. Let me read that section one more time, verses eight through 11. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be open. Or which one of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good gifts to those who ask him? John Piper made this comment about this passage. He said, this passage has proved in my experience to be one of the most motivating passages in all the Bible, to pray with this kind of confidence. Here's the argument, he says, even bad dads give good things to their children when they ask him. God is not a bad dad, he is the best dad. Therefore, much more will he give good gifts to his children when they ask. He says, I love this argument then. Jesus really did want us to feel hopeful when we pray. He is trying to overcome our skepticism by prayer. He wants us to see arguing from the lesser to the greater. Of course he's gonna take care of us. We can never ask him too much. There's a way of asking, though, remember I said before, you can ask from a grocery list of things, and that's all you pray about. God, can you give me this? God, can you do that for me? And never glorify Him, never worship Him. You could do that, or you can mature in your prayers, and your asking could be more and more maturing as you ask and seek and knock. But Calvin made this comment, he said, I think he's right, he said, nothing is better to excite us to pray than knowing that God will hear our prayers. Now there's a biblical reason and there's a logical reason. First of all, let's look at the biblical reason, and that is he hears us. We have access to God. I wanna show you two powerful passages that just are so precious in this whole matter of prayer and persistence that should stand out to you and give you great blessings. First, John 5, 14 and 15. Notice here, and this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him. God is a prayer-hearing God. as to whether he responds to your specific requests and the timing you desire and the way you desire, that's why we're told to keep seeking, keep knocking as we keep asking and persistently, and God then conforms us to what we're asking and prepares us to be able to pray and wait on him as we ought. He is not a bad dad. He's the best dad. He's the only dad. He hears our prayers. He knows what we want before we even ask him. He knows it all. He's training us to get on our knees alone. He wants to spend time with his people alone, individually. That's why he said in Matthew 6, when you go into the closet, shut the door. He wants you to get alone with him. You might say, well, that sounds kind of legalistic. I have to go into an actual closet? Well, the point is this. Go somewhere where you're undistracted, where you can talk freely to God, if needed, to talk audibly, out loud. I like that best. But you have to find a place, a time, And then seek God's face and pour out your heart before him on a regular basis. This is the mark of a believer. He speaks to God. He talks to God about everything. I remember when I met my wife many years ago, and by the way, we celebrated yesterday 39 years, all glory to God. Hallelujah. But I remember her telling me, her walk, before she met me, it doesn't mean that I pulled her down, but it's just saying, she said before she met me, when she had more time as a single person, and not be all consumed with me, what happened is she said, she talked to God all the time about everything. Now the challenge is, being married and still having the time They talk to God at all times about everything. You have to fight for that. Seek first God's kingdom. Go forward in faith and seek to pour out your heart before God. How about this passage? This has so blessed me. First Peter 3. Verse 12. First Peter 3, 12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." So God is for us, not against us. God knows what we need before we pray. God prompts prayer, God trains us in prayer. He says, pray then this way. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Et cetera. And notice he says, if you ask him for bread, will he give you a stone? If you ask him for fish, will he give you a serpent? How about also from the Luke passage, if you ask him for an egg, will he give you a scorpion? Of course not. Ask specifically. And then look for God to answer your prayer specifically. He's not gonna prompt you to pray and then mistreat you and be a bad dad in that sense. No, no, He wants us to ask, pour out our hearts before Him, talk to Him about everything. Our Heavenly Father deals with us in this way. He's not reluctant to help us. He's ready to bless us. It's the beauty of prayer. What a privilege prayer is, so powerful. It says in verse 11 of Matthew 7, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more will your heavenly Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask Him? Of course, God's gonna bless His people. He's gonna grow us through trials and challenges and tribulations and things we have to face in this fallen world. One day we see Him face to face. Until then, He's maturing us, growing us to draw near to Him. to depend on His word, to ask, to seek, to knock, and rest in Him, to rejoice in Him, knowing how much more will He give to those who He has saved and worked in their hearts. In verse 11, again, we're reminded again, if we're then evil. We know from Scripture we were conceived in sin, Psalm 51, 5. We know we're born in sin, Psalm 58, 3. We know that. We know there's not a righteous man on all the earth who doesn't continually sin, Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 20. But we also know that our hearts, Jesus knew what was in the heart of men, so we need to be wise and say, listen, our hearts can deceive us, Jeremiah 17, 9. He wants us to be aware that we can easily be pulled away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus Christ. He wants us this day then to pray then like those who look to God with persistence. In fact, look at this passage at the end of Luke 18. Let me draw to a close here in the last few moments. Luke 18. At the end of this parable on persistence, I'll pick it up in verse 6 of Luke 18. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? But notice here, he will give justice to them speedily. Have you not experienced, I trust you have, like me, that when I'm extremely diligent, but the Spirit prompted me, and I begin to go hard after God in prayer, as my desire all the time, and when I'm actually in the midst of all that, what I find is God conforms me in such a way to His will that I soon see speedy answers. But sometimes, not the way I initially had begun to pray, but He conforms me and molds me into what His will is as I pray, asking, seeking, and knocking in that way. So how do you view God at this point today? Do you see Him as a prayer-hearing God? Whatever you ask, He's hearing. Do you see Him as a God you can draw near who's ready to bless His people? How much more will He give good things to those who love Him, who call upon Him? Of course. And He'll do it speedily. Maybe not speedily in the way men count, like in the next two seconds, but He'll work powerfully to bring you to the point where He's shaped you and grown you Or you'll see when you look back, man, that came a lot quicker than I thought, as he's taught me much through all that. This brings us to our third point, and that is we must then be personal in our prayers. Persistent, absolutely paternal in our prayers, but also personal. Now, one of the great reminders I always love this passage, it's in our prayer sheet every month. They put it there, 1 Samuel 12. Prayer for one another is not some take it or leave it proposition. But one of the things we do by giving out the prayer calendar is to hopefully give you imagery by seeing names for each day and begin to take into account people you know from our church and then being mindful from the prayer sheet to help you remember to pray for those who are co-members with here in the church. But in 1 Samuel, chapter 12, notice here what it talks about failing to pray for God's people. It's pretty powerful. 12.23, 1 Samuel, it says, Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. But notice here, We're to pray without ceasing, but also, we can fail in that we pray with no direction. We pray with no game plan. And we can actually be prayerless, and yet be a friend of many people in this church. But never really pray for them, because you don't really know them, and you have not really engaged in this act of prayer. It's a reminder that it's a sin to not pray for anybody. It's a powerful reminder. And the other one is this. It's the New Testament counterpart, 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter one. I love this. Paul says to the Corinthians, you also must help us by prayer. Paul says, I wanna show you how you can help the brethren that you know and love in the church. How can you help them? Here's the best way. Pray for them. You must help them by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. God chooses to work through prayer. Second Corinthians 111. He wants us to be prompted to pray, to be knowledgeable about the prayer needs around us. That's why coming to prayer meetings is very helpful or being aware and receiving emails and different things that prayer needs is so important. That helps you stay in a mindset to begin to pray in such a way that we are helping the brethren and being helped by them. One of the most precious things I count As a pastor, as a believer, it was when people would tell me, and there's many people in the church here today, who often tell me, Pastor, I pray for you regularly. Some say they pray every day. Wow. But to know that there are people praying for me, they're helping me. As God chooses to work through that, and as I pray for you, I know God says He's gonna help, and I won't sin against you by not remembering to pray for you, but seeking to be conformed by prayer. God shapes you in your prayer lives, to be personal, not just persistent. but personal, personal, very intimate. And in closing here then, there's a final thought. After hearing this, will you determine then, by God's grace, by the strength that God supplies, will you determine to begin to rethink your personal, private prayer life? I hope you will. But if you're here without Jesus Christ, I wanna read a few things to you in closing. Bible says in Jeremiah 10, 25, pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, upon the people who do not call upon your name. See prayerlessness, God says, marks the ungodly. But if you're here today, someone's been praying for you. That's why you're here. If you're here without Jesus Christ, you're in the right place. God's been working to bring you to this point, to see your need to trust Him, to give your life to Him. Your parents have been praying possibly, or your spouse has been praying for you possibly. The reminder here is this, God says the ungodly are marked by never praying. The wicked don't pray at all times, says Job 27, 10. And the righteous seek God while he may be found. Right now, God can be found. Faith comes by hearing, the Bible says, hearing by the word of Christ. Have you received Jesus Christ? If you haven't, trust him right now. Turn from your sin, denounce it, your former life, and say, I give my life to Jesus Christ as my only hope. His salvation is mine. And then in Jeremiah 29, 13, I love this. You will seek me and find me when, when what? When will this happen? When you seek me with all your heart. Seek the Lord with all your heart. Seek him and you will find him. Today is the day of salvation, the Bible says. Determine now to respond to the message of grace by trusting Him, conforming to His will for His glory. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come before you as your people. We are great sinners, but you are a great savior. You're a merciful God who has changed our hearts, and now you have moved amongst us and called us to trust your ways about prayer. Lord, speak to us. Prompt us to pray. Teach us to talk to you. If necessary, audibly, quietly, alone. to find a place that will help us cultivate a deeper walk with you, to talk to you about all things persistently, diligently, regularly, lovingly, soberly, reverently. Lord, help us, Lord. Help us to commune with you. Help us to not be the prayerless. Help us to pray at all times about everything. Help us to walk with you, to rest in you, to trust you, to pour out our hearts knowing that you hear our prayers. You answer according to your perfect will and your perfect timing for your ultimate glory. Thank you for the privilege of prayer. Thank you how you caused us, Lord, to look to you as our only hope, our only strength. Thank you for this day, Lord. Give us a week full of prayer. Encourage us, Lord. Send thy spirit, we pray. Amen.