Bon dia. That means good morning. Thank you, Brother Marvin. We are so glad to be here. We're so glad to have this church as partners in the ministry of reaching souls in Brazil. I am catching my breath. Our remote control didn't want to work. Then the computer didn't want to work. The only person that was wanting to work was me. and I can't project slides presentation by myself. We appreciate this church. We appreciate you, your faithfulness. We appreciate the fact that you even raised our support the last, I guess, year or so. You're a wonderful group of people. I don't want you to get really conceited, but we just really appreciate you. We'd like to give you an update, and I'll have Susan give most of that. And then I'd like to have a few words. That's relative, okay? And then we'll show the presentation. Then we have a PowerPoint to follow up on that. The presentation will be saying what God's done up to this point. And then the PowerPoint will be what we look to do from this point on and about needs. And then we'll be opening up the word of God. treating the subject of prayer in the harvest field. So that's what we got to do this morning, and I think it's going to be kind of exciting, especially to get all that done by 1030. So let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll carry on. Dearly Father, we thank you so much for all you are, all you've done, and even for the confidence, Lord, of all you will do. Lord, we serve a God that is not asleep, he's not dead, we serve a God that cares for his people. And we thank you for that, dear Lord. And we pray that everything we do today would be according to your perfect will, and that we would everything glorify your holy name for it's in Jesus name we pray amen a verse that God has given me this furlough has been 2nd Corinthians 111 and I read it to the ladies yesterday it says she also 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 and we want to thank you for this weekend and how you've taken such good care of us and and also how you've been so faithful in supporting us through these years. And we just give our thanks. And we just praise the Lord for the opportunity that we have to be your representatives down in Brazil. And if you haven't picked up our prayer card, please do. If you'd like to get our email, then our email address is on here. Just send us an email saying, put me on your list, if you don't already get it, so that you can be up to date on prayer requests. And we just want to thank you for it. An update on our kids, Susana Ruth is in Shelby, North Carolina. And as we say, she's our Brazilian-born American, and she married an American-born Brazilian. And so we just praise the Lord for her. They're active in their church and for our three grandkids. And our prayer is that if God will someday that they'll be back in Brazil, our son-in-laws, Parents just retired from here. They worked here in the states all these years for a Brazilian company and they've moved back to Brazil and our prayers that they would just follow God's will and Our son is in Brazil. He lives in Catalau And so that's been a blessing to have one of our children near and it's been a blessing this year while we've been away that there is some One there on the campground. We do have a caretaker, but a caretaker always needs a caretaker to oversee. And so we praise the Lord for that. And we are looking forward, as Bill said, I think it's 30 days and we'll be home. So we praise the Lord for that. A verse that has been, it's one of my favorite verses all these years, is Philippians 1.6. It says, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. All those years ago, 39, almost 40 years ago, when we started out on deputation, that that verse, that, you know, I claim that, that we can be confident, and you know, after all these years, we're still confident that God's going to continue working, and we've never doubted it, and through the trials, you know, sometimes missionaries do go through trials, but you know, it's just a privilege to know that God is taking care of us, and we just praise the Lord for that, and we praise the Lord for your support, and to realize that you are partners with us. In Philippians 4.17 it says, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Whatever fruit that's reaped on the mission fields around the world, if you've had a part in that missionary, it's your fruit also. And we just want to thank you for your part in our ministry. This is a special day. It's a special missions conference. Brother Dayton asked me, how does this missions conference compare to others that you have had? This is probably one of the most special ones. It's special because my friend Mark Vittori's back and here, and that's special. But it's even more special than that. 41, 42 years ago, I was praying. I'd been praying for three years, saying, God, what do you want me to do? I'll do anything you want me to do, but go to California. I will not do that. I was from there. I escaped from there. I never wanted to go back. Do we have any Californians here? You escaped too, didn't you? Yeah. Okay. I didn't want to go back. You know what God called me to do? Absolutely nothing. It wasn't until April 13th, 1975, that our pastor was preaching from 1 Corinthians 16, 9, that says, for a great door and effectual has opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. Our pastor said, God doesn't open up two or three doors and says, okay, my son, through your infinite wisdom, you choose which one you want to go through. He opens up a door and expects you to go through it. If you don't go through it, you're in sin. The Holy Spirit just really dealt in my heart, and I told my wife, let's go forward. She said, what for? I'll tell you later, I told her. And we went forward, and I just told the pastor simply this, I'm willing to go anywhere and do anything God wants me to do, if you'll just show me. Now, I was a physical education major. I was probably the worst physical education major Bob Jones University ever had. As a matter of fact, a few years after I graduated, they discontinued the program. I think I really discouraged them. However, I did get my black belt in karate, so I did do something on the physical education line. But we started praying, God, what do you want us to do? I sent resumes out to California. I said, God, I'm serious, you want me to go there, I'll go there, no problem. God didn't open that door. But we belonged to a very missions-minded church back in those days, that it was so missions-minded, when a missionary was coming in to Greenville-Spartanburg, everybody that was available would go to the airport. And when a missionary was leaving, everybody that was available would go to the airport to see him off. I even remember one time we went there and people said, wow, there must be some dignitary or something. Well, there sure was. It was one of our missionaries. One of those missionaries was Marv and Diane Frey. They had a daughter at that time, was needing a little bit of help in pronunciation. They asked my wife to help. And we were thinking about going to the mission field. I wanted to be a missionary. I wanted to go to Australia, Canada, or England. Why? They speak English. I've already told some of you. I'm a third-generation mechanic. When they started talking about conjugating a verb, I didn't know what they were talking about. When they started talking about personal articles, I thought that was those things you put in the underwear drawer, or personal articles. You say, Bill, you're teasing. I am not. I'm dead serious. One afternoon, when Susa had gone over to help Christina, Marv said, Bill, have you thought about Brazil? I said, they don't speak English there. I could never learn a language. He said, would you pray about it? I said, I most certainly will. Started praying about it. Then he went and said, would you like to see our presentation? I said, I'd love to. What for? That was it. Saw the presentation. God laid on my heart that it was Brazil. Now that's been, what, 40 years ago? And God has never taken that burden away from my heart. We love Brazil. Brazilians ask me, they generally say, you're not from here, are you? Well, how do you know? Well, your accent. And they say, you have an accent. I said, well, that's not my fault. And they say, whose fault is that? I said, my mother's. And they said, well, what did your mother do? I said, well, she gave me birth in the United States and raised me there. Had she given me birth in Brazil and raised me there, I'd not have an accent, except for I'd have an accent of that particular region. And then they would say, I said, but can you understand me? They said, yes, perfectly. Where did you learn how to speak Portuguese so well? Now, Brazilians have a habit of lying a little bit too. So you got to take everything with a grain of salt. But nevertheless, I give glory to God today that he not only gave us a heart for Brazil, but he also gave me the capacity to learn a language. that I did not have. You say, well Bill do you believe in the gift of tongues? Now I do, but not in the way that the neopentecostal movement does. I believe God capacitates those that he calls and we praise God and I praise God for people like Marvin Dye and Fray. It's a blessing to have missionaries be an example and to be willing to challenge people with the need of Brazil. Now I am one, and I'm going to challenge you with the need of Brazil. Like I said before, we'd like to do it in really in three stages. The first stage, we'd like to show you what God has done. We're not going to be showing you the Kiefer's ministry. This is your ministry. It's God's ministry in Brazil. And that's not just a platitude. It's true. We're laborers together in the harvest field. And I'd just like to show it six minutes and 38 seconds. There is one video on it. Please don't turn the volume down, because that's put there to wake everybody up about in the middle. Okay, you'll watch it and then afterwards I'd like to show the second part of the presentation. So if we could run that. Let's do this, we can have lights back on. We're gonna switch this thing around a little bit. Okay, let me show you the needs first. Your partners, our partners in Brazil, You've maybe never been there, we'd like to have you down sometime, that's no problem. You say, well, what in the world would I do? I got buildings you can paint, I got gardens you can weed. Listen, there's plenty to do down in Brazil. You're our partners with God. Everything starts with God. There's nothing we can do apart from our Lord and Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. We also have needs. You have needs. Everybody has needs. Where do you go with your needs? As a missionary, we ask God for provision. We have been praying about certain needs. I'm going to share those needs with you in just a few moments. We go to God. We don't go to people and say, please supply this need. We're not begonaries, we're missionaries, okay? But at the same time, we need to communicate. I'm not a George Mueller. I haven't obtained that type of faith where I can just pray to God and say, okay, God, I'm going to keep quiet about it and you do it. We communicate because Paul communicated. He told the Philippian church and other churches about the needs that they had. So that's what we're here for today is to praise God for what he's done and to communicate certain needs. Now, what do we want you to do? You say, well, you want us to give money. No, that's not what I want you to do. I want you to go to God. I want you to ask God, God, what do you want me to do as far as investing in this need? And then do what God wants you to do. That's sincerely what I want you to do. That way God can bless it and he blesses by supplying the need. Now, what are the needs? We need people. We sincerely need people. I am not old. I believe one of these days I will be old, but this summer I turned 68. We need people, younger people. 30s, 40s, I don't know what God wants to choose. But we need people that can come down and help us plant independent, fundamental Baptist churches. But at the same time, help us run Hope Ranch. Help us develop Hope Ranch. We need people. Maybe there's a person here, a couple here, that would say, here am I, Lord, send me. I will go. You may say, Brother Bill, I could never learn a language. You're talking to the wrong person. I've already explained that. Well, I just can't do stuff like that. You don't know. God capacitates those that He calls. Okay, we need people. We also need an activity center. I had a caretaker years ago that told me that I could really help support the camp if I invested in registered cattle, Brahma cattle, Nelor, they call them down in Brazil. Stupidest thing I've done in my life, I believe. I did that, and the Lord just put an exclamation point behind that word stupid. Now, some of you adults may be teaching your children not to use that word, so forgive me. Okay, that very unwise thing to do. How'd he do that? He sent a lightning bolt and killed 13 out of the 15. pretty easy. I was away preaching. Susan and I were away. I was preaching another camp, a retreat. That weekend normally I would have had a young people's retreat at the camp. That could have been 13 young people rather than 13 cows. we need the Activity Center, and we'd ask you to pray what God would have you to do. This is out of date, praise the Lord. We're now at 93% of our support, so we only need 7%. Pray about that. This church has been very generous and helped us along the way, even increased support. It's not every church that does that, and we truly appreciate it. So what do we want you to do? As a partner, would you pray? Would you ask God what you should do individually and as a church? And would you do what God wants you to do? That's simply what I want you to consider today. Pray and say, okay, God, the challenge has been put out. What do you want me to do? And then lastly, I want to thank you for being our partners, very sincerely. Okay? Now, if we can go to the other part. Do we have it working? This is really quite unbelievable. Let me just talk it through, just let it run. The Lord has allowed us to plant three churches down in Brazil so far. Our first church was in Ituiutaba, and once again, Brother Marfrey, I asked him where there was a church that didn't have an American. I was tired of Americans, and he showed me the city, Ituiutaba. Then we went to After Itu Itabu, we went to Catalão and started church there and started church in Araguari. Hope Ranch has been one of the major ministries of late, but as we go back, we'll be starting another church on the other side of Catalão. Catalão's a city of 100,000 people. I believe that we could easily plant three or four churches in that city. You see at the camp, young people, recreation, I want you to notice something very interesting. This kid, where is he? He always stays up in the air. We believe in having the right kind of activities and we also believe that eating ice cream is the right type of activity. We have five retreats at this time at Hope Ranch. We have the counselor training week, first week of January. Then we have the adolescent teen retreat, the second week of January. Then at carnival time, we have family retreat. And then at Easter time, we have couples retreat. Everything is converted at Hope Ranch, even our corral. We converted it into a human foosball court, and the Brazilians love it. Archery, we just started that this year, and that was a real test of patience for me. I learned that people don't listen to instructions. And if you let them do whatever they want to do, they'd end up killing somebody. But they love archery, and it's been a real good activity. Our young people, as well as the adults, they don't realize that our retreats, they're in the Bible five hours a day. They don't know that, and we don't really tell them. But in one way or another, they're in the Bible five hours a day. And you see, we're packed out, and we need. One of the other things we do, we make sure everybody gets tired. If they're tired in the daytime, they'll give you less trouble at night. Susan works with our cooks. She's our chief cook and bottle washer, and she has a group of volunteers. We never know what cooks are gonna come till the first morning the retreat starts. Imagine trying to plan on that. Actually, we don't even know how many people are coming to the retreat. We've done everything from give discounts to, oh, threatening everything else, and they just do not register early. Many of these pictures you see are people that accepted Jesus Christ their Savior at the camp. We believe in church planting, and we work hard at church planting, leading souls to the Lord. But we have seen the Lord do more things and more lives just in the short history of the camp, the ten years of the camp, than we saw in all the churches we planted. It's just God has really called people out. Music is a very important part, and I really praise the Lord for the good music we have experienced here. Not every church has such good music, I'll guarantee you. But as we work down in Brazil, we've actually seen through the camp churches that have kind of gone into a contemporary style music have come back to what we would consider a correct style. One year, at the end of the year, we went to, between the end of one year and the beginning of the other year, we went to seven weddings of people that either met at camp or became engaged at camp. So it's kind of a side ministry we have, matchmaking. I'll tell you a little story about that here in a few moments. Couples Retreat, we had 11 churches represented at our last Couples Retreat. And for Brother Marv, down in Sao Paulo, with all your churches there, that probably doesn't sound like a large amount. But in our area, people come from as far as 200, 250 miles away to the Couples Retreat. This church, for example, is from the state of Sao Paulo, Barretos, in the northern part of Sao Paulo. And these are kids that have gotten saved. This girl on the right, she's from a state of Minas Gerais. She came from about, what would it be, 160, 170 miles away from Uberaba. and got saved there at camp. Another part of the ministry is conference ministry. We could be out every weekend preaching conferences, and God has blessed this ministry too. I don't know if you've perceived it, but we have three full-time ministries down in Brazil. Conference speaking is one, church planting is another, and then the camp is another. We're planning on starting another church plant when we get back. We would like to ask you to pray when, where, and how. This is a church on one end of town. We go across the other end of town, and that's where our next church plant will be. 100,000 people. We need to reach them with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you for supporting the work, for your gifts, your prayers, and we just ask you, just don't stop now. Okay? Thank you. Thank you for working with us back there. I know that was hard. God's good. And to use people, I'm just amazed why God would use people. I'd rather work with bees than people. Bees will sting you, but, you know, at least they work. You don't have to keep prodding them on. They'll prod you. But people need to know the Lord. And I'm just excited that He can use common people. You don't have to have the great talents. You just have to be willing to work for the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you open your Bibles this morning in 2 Thessalonians 3, and we'll just take a look at verses 1-5. 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 to 5. At the beginning, you can actually look in chapter 1. And the writer says, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's 1 Thessalonians. Now 2 Thessalonians says, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Both these books, or both these epistles, are written around the same time. Logically, one after the other. But they're written close to the same time, because the same group, the same company, is mentioned. In 2 Thessalonians, the epistle specifically speaks of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 3 is under our consideration. And we notice that Paul gives five commandments, or five duties. He said the first in verses 1 and 2 is to pray. In verses 3 to 5 is to put confidence in the apostles' teaching. Verses 6 to 10 is to correct the disorderly. In verses 11 through 13 is to command the idle. And then in verses 14 to 15, it's to discipline the disorderly. Today, we just want to treat, to pray. You notice our verse. It says, pray the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into his harvest. Pray. The first word, at least in our English language, in this command. So what would be our duty today? You must pray. But what do you pray for? How many have ever prayed, Lord, bless all the missionaries? We all have. We all have. Lord, bless all the missionaries. Kind of an idle prayer. But if God honored that, I want to be blessed. That's not a problem. But we need to learn to pray specifically. What are you to pray for? Paul gives specific instructions on who must pray, and who is to be prayed for, and what is to be prayed for. And we're going to treat that this morning. Would you stand with me as we read II Thessalonians 3, verses 1-5. Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. For all men have not faith, but the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things that we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Let's pray. Dearly Father, we thank you for the reading of your Word. Now we pray that you would instruct us, help us to be hearers that will practice your Word, and not hearers that will forget your Word. Help us today, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. The first question we have before us is, who is to pray? I remember I used to… I've talked to many of my unsaved relatives, and I've talked to other people who say, well, I prayed, and it came to pass. Well, they're unsaved. And I would generally say, well, if it came to pass, it was just out of God's grace, and not because you particularly prayed, because you're not a child of God. Paul starts here, and he says, brethren, pray for us. People who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, remember that in verse 2, Paul says, all men have not faith. We have a lot of people that are practicing religion. I've often said that we have a lot of Christians that just need to get saved. And the world's full of that. People ask me down in Brazil, what is one of our major obstacles? The Roman church? No, actually, the Roman church is kind of a protectorate of us sometimes. Sometimes they persecute, but they're kind of a protectorate, because if the government has certain laws that go against the church, it'd have to be against the Roman church, too. And so, you say, does that really work? It sure does. Let me give you an example. Our church in Catalão, the Brazilian pastor was playing the piano, and we had some children up on the podium singing a song. The city government, the secretary of meio ambiente, environment, came, and she had a little meter, and she says, you're above the sound level. I said, is that right? He said, yes, I think it was 70 decibels or something. You've passed that. I said, well, I'll go and talk to the Secretary of Environment tomorrow, and we'll see what we can do about it. Well, you're going to have to close it all in, and put air conditioning in, and all this. I said, okay. Went. I had the Brazilian pastor go with me, because I wanted him to learn how to deal with these things. And we went in there, and I talked to the secretary of the… the lady that was in charge of all this. And she said, well, yes, you're going to have to insulate and close it all in and all this. I said, okay, that's fine. Of course, laws are to be equally applied to everybody, right? She said, oh, yes, everybody has to abide by this. I said, so, in October, the Catholic feast to the Virgin Mary of Hosadia, they're not going to be able to have all that this year, right? Because they'll pass that sound. Oh, well, we're studying that. Okay. What about the politics? They have these big meetings in the outdoors. They play loud music, and they just make a bunch of lying promises and all. I didn't say the lying promises part, because she's also… She's also a politician. But anyway, I said, they make all this noise. You're not going to have that this year, right? Because the law is equally applied to everybody. And she said, well, we're studying that too. I said, okay, then let's do it this way. I said, we have been in that location for over 25 years. Nobody has ever complained about anything. As a matter of fact, our neighbors come, and they may not come to church, but they say, thank you. I have one neighbor who's one of the richest men in town, and he came over, and I said, are we too loud for you? Are we bothering you? He said, no, you can be a little bit louder. No problem, because we respect our neighbors. So I told this lady this, and then I said, I'll tell you what I'll do. When you get all this stuff studied out, and apply it, everybody equally, well, then we'll do what we have to do. So we'll have a year to insulate everything. I said, that's fine, after everybody does the same thing. They haven't talked to us since. That's what I mean. Even the Catholic Church can protect us. But what is really a problem? The false gospel. Pentecostalism, neo-Pentecostalism. the modern, I don't know what to call it, community movement. You know, I call them the come-as-you-are and go-as-you-please churches. No commitment, just, they mess us up. Because people will try that, because it's fleshly, it's got the worldly music, the worldly show. They actually call them shows sometimes. And so, when people try that, and it really doesn't take care of their needs, and then you present the real gospel to them, they say, oh no, I've already tried that, it doesn't work. That's what we face. We need you to pray as brethren. There are a lot of people out there that don't know the Lord. Even Matthew 7 says, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of the Father, which is in heaven, many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have we not cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work, Iniquity. Anything you do apart from having Jesus Christ your Savior is sin. That's all we do is sin if we do not have Lord Jesus Christ. Who is to be prayed for? Paul says, pray for Paul needed prayer. Now, think about it. The Thessalonian church was, you might say, as my daddy used to say, they were poor as church mice, you know. They were poor. They were persecuted. And Paul says, pray for us. Why would you ask someone that's poor and persecuted to pray for you? They're probably already on their knees. They're already praying. They know how to pray. And Paul asked him, he said, pray for us. Galatians 6.2 says, "...bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Now, the context is talking about helping the weaker brother and all these things. But you can bear the burden of missionaries on the field, be they in Australia, in China, in Brazil, in England, in Canada, no matter where, in Flat Rock, instead of East Flat Rock, I mean, wherever. You can bear the burden by praying. Paul says, pray for us. And then, what is to be prayed for? Paul says that the word of the Lord may have free course. That means that it might run freely. He seeks the progress of the gospel. We live to see the gospel go forth. I would hope, and I keep forgetting to pick up gospel tracts, but I would hope that today, when you go out, you pick up gospel tracts. If you can't talk to somebody, at least give them a track. Give people the opportunity to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. But we pray that the gospel might have free course. Free course signifies that the gospel may run swiftly throughout the world. The ideas are rapid and victorious propagation of the gospel, even in times of great opposition. And are we not entering into those times at this present day? I mean, the opposition. Susan read on the Internet, and of course, you know everything on the Internet's gospel truths, okay? She read on the Internet that, how did Obama about Christians? Remember, he said that Christians are terrorists or something like that, are operating as terrorists. And I don't know if it's true that he really believes that or really said that or not. But we can see through laws and through our Supreme Court and everything that they're obviously against the gospel. But Paul says, pray for us that the gospel may run swiftly throughout the whole world, even in times of great opposition. Imagine a messenger that runs with everything he has to deliver a message. When I was studying this yesterday, I thought of 2 Samuel 18. The two men were Ahimaz and Cushie. Now, I slaughter. the language. I'm almost to the point where I can't speak Portuguese without an accent. I can't speak English without an accent. So, you just have to put up with it. But these two men, Joe Abbey, he sent one runner going, and I think it was Mayhaz or whatever his name is. He said, oh, let me run, let me run, let me run. If it were me, I'd say, no, I don't want to run. I don't want to run. Let me be right here. But he wanted to run to carry the message. And what was the message he carried? The first one didn't have any news about Absalom. And he came in, and David says, do you have any news about my son Absalom? What did he say? May all your enemies be the same as Absalom. That means, may they all be dead. That wasn't a real popular message. And I'll have to say, we don't have a real popular message today, but it's a necessary message the world must know. The Word of the Lord may be glorified even as it is with you. This is a mutual thing. It's not that we're just praying for missionaries. We need to pray for each other. All of us are to be missionaries. I did this with the men yesterday. I'd like everybody to put their hand on your nose, on your own nose. Now, young people, not in it, on it. Okay, everybody look over here towards the organ side. Now look towards the front. Now look over towards the piano side. Now look towards the front. Do you notice what happened to your nose? Mine starts itching. It always does this. It moved. Your personal growth, your personal relationship with Jesus Christ is behind your hand. where Peter says, we're growing grace in the knowledge, okay? In front of your hand, what is that? That's your mission field. You don't have to go to Brazil to be a missionary. I'd love it if you did. We need you. But you don't have to go to Brazil. But you do have to just go beyond the tip of your nose to talk to others about the Lord Jesus Christ. But he says a number of things. One of his prayer requests, that we may be delivered from unreasonable men. That means men out of step, men out of pace, or out of place. I can remember when we were in the military, we had this guy, we called him White Lightning. He was slower than a seven-year-age. I mean, it was awful. And he was white. I mean, he was just as white. He looked like he died a week ago. I mean, he was just so white. But, oh, we'd have to train marching, left, right, left, right, and all this stuff. We didn't have an IT. We had a TI. And, oh, my, this guy would get out of step. And what happens? When everybody's walking in the right step, It really is beautiful. But if one person gets out of step, he looks like a pogo stick. Pretty soon he's out of step, the guy behind him's out of step, the guy behind him's out of step. Pretty soon everybody's out of step and you got two more hours to do on Sunday afternoon on the prayer ground because of white lightning that we may be delivered from unreasonable men. Men that are out of step with God. Men that are out of place with God, we need you to pray for us. We need you to pray that we be delivered from wicked men, perverse men. And he says, men without faith. He said, for all men have not faith. At the same time that Paul asked prayer, he knows very well that not everyone believes. and that many reject." There are other requests in the Word of God, and our time is about gone. But there are other places. You can go through your Bible and see other prayer requests that are done by Paul. In Romans 15, 30, he says, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers. How many of you ever watched, tried to watch a rugby game? You ever see how they put their arms together and they all kind of just kind of push? I have never understood that game. I just look and then all of a sudden the ball's underneath and all of a sudden he throws it out and someone starts running again. Lord, what in the world's happening? This is striving together. We need you to strive together as if you're in a warfare. The warfare is one on our knees, praying one for another. Paul asks them, strive together with me in your prayers. As those that are in agony, it's actually a military word indicating a united effort in battle. Ephesians 6, 19 says, And 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. And this last phrase is so important to me, as I ought to speak. I don't know about you, but I can speak pretty boldly. But I don't always speak boldly as I ought to speak. We need to pray for each other. Some of us need to speak more boldly. Some of us need to speak boldly as we ought to speak. And we can only do that as we pray one for another. Hebrews 13, 18 says, pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. Now, I read that and I thought, yeah, pray for me that I'll work with a good conscience and that I'll live honestly before all men. And then finally, and this is where I really wanted to get, pray for laborers, Luke 10.2. Would you today sometime get on your knees and pray for laborers? But I have just a little bit of an advisory for you. If you do that, You may be, it may be that you'll get up off your knees being a laborer and serving God wherever He should take you. And our prayer is that He might take some to work with us down in Brazil. Pray for laborers. The harvest is great. We serve the Lord of the harvest, as we heard last night. The harvest is great. We heard about the big cities from Brother Marvin the other night. We need to pray that God will provide those labors for the harvest. You must pray. You must pray that the Word of the Lord may have free course, that it will be glorified, that the servant of the Lord will be free from attacks of men who have not Christ as their Savior. Let us fight the warfare for the souls of men on our knees, praying for one another. Let us use our lives, our mouths, our talents, and our resources to spread the gospel as it has free course to reach even unto the uttermost parts of the world. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're truly thankful for Your Word. We're thankful for the opportunity, Lord, just to be here in a free country, where we can be challenged to reach our mission field for You. Lord, You chose the foolishness of preaching. We don't understand why You did that, and we would never question Your wisdom in the matter. But nevertheless, You chose it, and You command us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. You command us to make disciples. God, would You help us? to obey those commands that You have given us so specifically. Thank You for this church. Thank You for the faithfulness. Help us to win souls. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.