If you have your Bibles this morning, we'll be turning to Luke chapter number 11. Luke chapter number 11. And in our introductory remarks, I just want to say this, that this passage of Scripture was not written to an unbeliever. This, if you're lost today and you're without the Lord Jesus Christ, this teaching on prayer, it can be profitable to you, but this was written to Christians, to believers. The teaching on prayer that Jesus gave came from the disciples Believers on the Lord Jesus Christ followers of the Lord who said Lord after hearing him pray They said Lord teach us to pray and in the last several weeks we've covered Luke chapter number 11 verses number 1 through 4 and Well then Jesus transitions here in Luke chapter number 11 into a different aspect of prayer. First he shows us how to pray in verses number 1 through 4. Sometimes this is called the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer is not to be chanted. because the Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount that we're not supposed to use vain repetitions as the heathen do. Prayer is not chanting. It's not saying the same thing over and over again. Prayer is a direct speaking to the Lord on our behalf, and the Lord was giving us a model or instructions as how to where to approach the Lord. It's kind of like school. When they told you to address a letter, There was first the dear, whoever you're addressing your letter to, here Jesus teaches that when we address the Lord we should address Him as our Father in Heaven. or in this passage in verse 2, our Father which art in heaven. God is above us. God is not equal to us. He's not the man upstairs. He's not like unto man. He's our God in heaven. Heaven is a place that's above even the stars and the moon and the sun. Our galaxy is a vast galaxy. I mean if we started out to try to reach the sun today, first of all, we're not going to get very far because we will burn to death. Okay? We don't fly directly towards the sun because the sun as a star is burning and it's very hot. You realize today that scientists have discovered that if the sun was a little bit closer to the earth, we would burn up. And if it's a little bit further from the earth, we would freeze. I'm thankful the Lord made the universe. Now, you may do a little bit of freezing here in Texas, but certainly not as much as you do up in the north. When I left the north a few weeks ago, it was 45 degree winds and 26 degree weather, and it felt like one degree. And I want to tell you something, I am not built for that kind of cold without a coat anymore. I used to be able to handle it, but again, I'm a baby. Don't you start calling me names either, I know how this church is now. And so, but he tells us how to address the Lord, he tells us that the Lord's name is hallowed or holy. God's name is holy, it's set apart. God's name should not be taken in vain by his people. The third commandment in Exodus chapter 20 says, thou shalt not take unto thee, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. The Bible is very clear, this is a sin. It is not just any sin, it is a major sin. Now this world today and your television and everybody around saying OMG and all these other things, you need to cut that out as a Christian. Because God's name is set apart. It's not a flippant thing to misuse his name. When the Bible says, thou shalt not, He doesn't say, thou shalt not unless you're laughing. Or unless, you know, you think it's funny. It's not funny to take the Lord's name in vain. And by the way, Jesus' name, God's given Him a name that's above every name. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's the name of our Savior. That's the sweet, the precious name of Jesus. We ought to guard His name and set it apart. That's a holy name. And so, and then he talks about what to pray for through verse number four. Now, Let's begin this morning by reading in verse 5, and we'll read this important passage of Scripture where the Lord is illustrating a part of prayer that we're going to be getting into today. Verse number 5, and he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves? For a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Let's bow for prayer, and we're going to be considering this subject this morning called, Persisting in Prayer. Father in heaven, we pray that you'd bless the preaching of your word today. And Lord, if there are any people here who don't know you as Savior, I pray that today would be that day when you open their heart to the issues of salvation, that they would be willing to call on your name for the forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven when they die. But Lord, for this message for believers, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to see that when you delay an answer to us or when you tell us to wait, that Lord, you're not telling us no, but you're looking to see how serious we are. I pray, Lord, that you'd help us as we consider this aspect of prayer, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Again, we've already mentioned how this could be applied to anyone's life, however, this passage in the Bible was written to believers. If you are an unbeliever here today and you're not saved, you don't have Jesus in your heart by faith, the Lord wants all men to be saved, for the Scripture says that God is not willing that any should perish. but that all should come to repentance. Jesus died for all men, and he wants everyone to be saved. But once you get saved, the Lord wants you to live a lifestyle of prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5 and 17 says three words. Anybody want to give it to me? Pray without ceasing. That means that we as believers should be living a consistent life of prayer. One of my pastors would often say, I word my first prayer to the Lord before my feet hit the ground. He would still be laying in bed, and when he woke up, he would pray and ask the Lord to help him. We need prayer in our lives. We need to practice prayer, and here Jesus is teaching us about something about prayer we need to consider. Now, life does bring in, to every person's life, seasons of difficulty. Seasons of even embarrassment and desperation. Now Christ knew the frailty of man and the burdens of this fallen world and he taught his disciples not just how to pray, but how to persevere in prayer in this passage. Christ teaches that when life presses us into desperate places, prayer must become persistent. God doesn't just want you to pray in church, though he wants you to pray in church. This isn't the only place you should pray. If there was ever a place to pray, it should be here. But you shouldn't just pray here. You should pray in your house. If you turn your Bible back to Daniel and you find that story about how Daniel was threatened because people were trying to find something wrong in his life. And they went to the king there, Darius the Mede, and they said, Darius, we want to make this law that that no one can pray to anybody except for you for a period of 30 days. And the king thought, that is a good, that's really awesome that somebody would think of me in this way. They'd have to give their request to me. And the only reason they mentioned that is because they knew Daniel was a man of prayer and they were trying to have him thrown into the den of lions. And the Bible said that Daniel's custom was to go into his house with his windows open facing toward Jerusalem. And he prayed to God and he prayed morning, Afternoon and night now what do most modern-day Christians do morning? afternoon and night They scroll on their phones and go through their social media. Many Christians have traded prayer for social media. That doesn't work. You won't grow as a Christian unless you're faithfully praying. Brother Jeff said eat. Some of you are on a diet and you don't do that right now, but as a habit of life, typically people eat three square a day. There's a, I really love getting amens when I'm talking about food. I want to tell you something, that just shows we're a spiritual church, but food is good. And I will say that after having gained at least 50 pounds since being your pastor, I have made a renewed commitment to losing weight. And I am blaming all of you for all of the things you've brought to me. Some of you used to bring me salsa. Now you bring me sweets and treats and chocolates and things that are meant to kill me. You know, people know I'm a diabetic and bring me sweets. I love you. But I have to limit things. And so what I'm trying to say is this. Prayer should be a regular part of our day. Now in this particular passage in the Bible, there's some things that are mentioned that we should think about. I can distinctly remember times of my life when I dealt with something called embarrassment. You ever been embarrassed? You ever head in for a test and you were embarrassed that you forgot or did not study? you ever showed up to work late again, and when you came in, you were embarrassed because, hey, you overslept your alarm or something like that had taken place. There's times in life when we go through times of embarrassment. These times, I would say in my own life, I can remember distinctly times when I was embarrassed, times when I was unprepared or had made bad decisions. Times of embarrassment sometimes are humbling experience. when God is trying to teach you how to deal with life differently. More often than embarrassment in my life, I have dealt with something called difficulty. Life has been hard. In my life, my life has been hard. And I want to say this to all of you, all of you, your lives have been hard and they will be hard. Life will not be easy for anyone. In fact, parents who want their children to grow up without having any challenges to deal with are not preparing them adequately for this world. You know, now I'm not speaking to a spiritual nature here, but there was a quarterback who recently won six Super Bowls, and he went to the University of Michigan. And one of the things I remembered about his college years was they were allowed to compete with one another, and you may not know this, but Tom Brady wasn't always a very successful quarterback. In fact, he started as a backup. One time he was in third position. His coaches didn't recognize his talent. And he talks about his college experience having to work and work and work and work just to get to that starting position. Now his senior year, he actually did become a starter and famously he beat the University of Alabama in his last game. Come on Alabama fans, I'm sorry. I wish I had your coach though. But the issue now, he's talking about young people who right now we have this thing in college called NIL. And basically all college athletes have now become a free agent. If they get into a hard situation, when they're competing for a position, and the coaches choose someone else above them, they'll simply go somewhere else where it's easier, or where somebody promises them a starting position, and Tom Brady says that's not the right decision for children, and he even challenges parents to let their children go through things that are hard. Now he's not a Christian, I don't think, but the principle is there, that we as parents need to allow our children to actually face adversity and challenge and trial and difficulty, and they need to be practiced in overcoming and overcoming challenges in their lives, because our lives are not easy. They weren't meant to be easy. Now life was real easy in the garden before sin came. But once Eve took that fruit and gave it to Adam, and Adam plunged the whole race, the whole human race was plunged into sin. The Bible said, wherefore if by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Death is not easy, friend. We've just buried a few of our church members. That's tough, that's hard. But death is a part of this human existence. You cannot think about it, you can put it from your mind, but we are all headed for the grave. Yesterday me and Brother Wayne, they were heading out the door after Bible handout and we were just getting thawed out after being frozen out there talking to people and it was a blessing to get frozen together. But him and Susie were talking about our dear friend Scott Nutterville. Brother Nutterville has cancer in his tongue, he's got cancer throughout his body. They were talking about that he may not have very much longer to live and one of his preacher friends up in Bourbonnais, Illinois has him preaching right now at this very hour. This may be his last message that he's ever able to preach. Me and Brother Wayne got on the phone and you know what we were doing in spite of the fact that he has cancer and he's heading for the next life? We tried to encourage him. You know what I told Brother Netterville? You may beat us to heaven, but we won't be far behind. We'll be up there to greet you when we get there. You know, that's a comforting thing that in the days when you're heading towards death, that the devil cannot steal your salvation from you. That's a real blessing. And we as Christians can still be encouraged if we have the Holy Spirit within us. But life is going to be filled with difficulty, sorrow, and trouble. Many people in this room have gone through a great many things. Troubles, trials, great difficulty. Sometimes you don't even know who's sitting in church with you, and the trials that they have faced. The Bible says this in the book of Job, man that is born of woman, and by the way, there had no man ever been born from anything but a woman. Man that is born of woman is of a few days and full of trouble. My children, all of them were trouble. Every single one of them. Nothing but trouble. My daughter's got me a coffee cup for Christmas. It said, it said, Dad, I will always be, and it crossed out little girl and it said financial burden on the bottom. Whenever I grab that coffee cup it makes me smile about my daughters. And thank the Lord for my daughters. I love them, but I'd rather raise boys. I love you. What I'm trying to say is life is hard. And we laugh about it. We got people in here who've buried their spouse. They've buried the dearest on earth to them. They've buried parents. They've gone through cancer and other manner of disease. And life is filled with trials and difficulties. And you can turn to God in the midst of those. In Luke chapter 11, where we read in our text, Jesus begins this teaching on persistence and prayer. And he said, which of you had a friend who would come to him at midnight, you know, asking for some food because he had someone visit him and he had nothing to give him? Now in the ancient culture, hospitality was a sacred duty. If somebody came to your house late, you'd be obligated to entertain strangers and open your door and say, come on in, let me set up a place for you. Hospitality is still something that we as God's people should be known for. In fact, a pastor shouldn't be a pastor if he's not given to hospitality. We want to be a hospitable person. But this person in this ancient culture had nothing to give his friend who had visited him unexpectedly. So in his grief, in his embarrassing situation, you know, think about all the thoughts that come to your mind when you're going to approach your neighbor at midnight. You're probably not going to accept a pleasant response. You wouldn't expect a pleasant response. You would have the feeling of embarrassment. Somebody's come to me and I can't even feed him. And so you're leaving your house. That would require you to, in most cultures, maybe not this one, that would require you to get dressed. We don't see this very often at our local Walmart, where people are now attending in their pajamas, their PJs. But he would get dressed, and he would go over to his friend's house, and he would, you know, can you imagine the apprehension in his mind before he knocks on his friend's door at midnight? But he goes over there, and what is he doing? He's humbling himself. He's knocking on the door, and his friend's like, what do you want? Why are you knocking on my door? And he tells him the situation, and the Bible says that he may not be willing to give it to him because he's his friend, but because of his importunity. That's speaking about shameless persistence. You know, Christians need to learn to be shamelessly persistent when they pray. What's worth you being persistent in prayer about? Maybe your kids, your grandkids? maybe the salvation of their souls, maybe they're going through some manner of difficulty, and guess what? Dads, it's not always your job to solve the problem. Sometimes it's God who needs to solve the problem. We want our children to learn that there's a real God in heaven. Just as there is a real God for us, there's a real God for our children. He came at midnight, which was an inconvenient hour. He came empty-handed and he had nothing. He came humbled, asking what he couldn't provide himself. This is often where God allows us to arrive. We come to a place of insufficiency. We don't have what it takes. That's hard for us to acknowledge because we all want to be self-sufficient. Now as best as we can, we should provide for ourselves. But there is coming a time in life when you will not always have the same physical capabilities as you had in your youth. There may come a time in your life when somebody else has to help you. And you have to receive that help. But there are manners spiritual that we need to realize. We are insufficient for the problem. But God is the all-sufficient God. God often brings us to the end of ourself before he brings us to the beginning of faith. In today's world, we live with people who are living paycheck to paycheck. People who've exhausted their means, and they have a God they can cry out to. I want to say this to those of you who are struggling for finances. God will help those who are willing to work. Further, he will help those who are going to be obedient to them with their finances. I mention this pretty often, and it's real. I mean, there are people who struggle financially, and it seems like they go through the same problems over and over again. They get out of a problem. No sooner do they get out of a problem, they get back into a problem, because they're not using their finances properly. There's four things to do whenever you make money. Number one, you should give some. God sets some order for your finances. We believe that it's through the tithe and the offering to the local church in this particular age. God has always wanted an offering. Read the Old Testament. He required his people to give an offering for the tabernacle. He made a way for the people to give of their finances the tithes and the offering to provide for the Levites. They didn't have any inheritance. Just read the Old Testament and you'll see that God required the tenth. A tithe means a tenth. The first thing you should do when you make money is you should look through what you owe to the Lord by way of a tithe and an offering. The second thing you should do with money is you should save some. You know, if you save a portion of every paycheck, you will get to a place where you have one week's pay laid up in store against the time to come. Then you'll have two weeks laid up against the time to come. Our friend Dave Ramsey says you need to have an emergency fund with three months of expenses. Some people have never done that, they want to live paycheck to paycheck, never plan for tomorrow, because they have become very lazy in how they're dealing with their finances. Listen, you're either going to stay on top of your finances, or your finances are going to stay on top of you. We need, as God's people, to make a habit to give, we need to make it a habit to save, then we need to make a habit, and if you don't know how to do this, talk to your wife to spend some. You ought to give your wife an allowance of something to spend. Now, listen, you can't spend more than you have. But if you're looking at your finances and giving a tenth in an offering, and then you're saving some, then you're going to try to live on what you have left over, which is a great thing. Every time you make money, you ought to be able to spend some. Now, that's the good part. You get to go to the store. You get to buy sometimes what you want. But you should buy what you can afford. Some people can't afford going to an expensive restaurant, but they can afford the dollar menu. But some people want to go to the expensive restaurant when they can't afford it, when they should be on the dollar menu, and then they wonder why at the end of the month they're begging everyone else for money. You just need to deal with your finances the way God wants you to. And the last thing I want to say in this day and age is you ought to invest some. And I'm not talking about risky investments and things like that. You can just put your money into a high money market yield account with no risk whatsoever and get three and a half to four percent these days. You have no reason not to have your money in something that is paying you some interest. And this comes from the parable of the talent straight from the scripture. God can bless your life financially, but he'll bless you when you work and when you take ownership of your finances. And I'm only trying to help you. We meet a lot of folks that are always in crisis. You don't have to be always in crisis when you give your heart, your life, and you commit your ways to the Lord. He will give you a life of peace. It won't be free of trouble, but He will give you a life of peace. It was also a prayer not only of humility or embarrassment and a difficult time, it was a call to persistence in verse number eight. He says, I say to you, though he will not rise and give him because he's his friend, because of his importunity, the shameless persistence. He would not go away. He was tenacious in his request. When's the last time your prayer life could be described as tenacious? Some would like to get married. They would like God to place the right spouse in their life. I want to tell you how you can have that spouse. Tenaciously pray to the Lord to put the right person in your life. Ladies, do not settle for a pair of pants. Men, do not settle for some woman of the world. You will not be happy with Potiphar's wife. You will not be happy with Jezebel. Read about who Jezebel was. She stirred her husband to do wickedness. Read about who Potiphar's wife was. She couldn't be trusted when he was out working. And this world is great at producing people like that, but if you pray for the right spouse to come into your life, and by the way, that is God's plan for men and women to get married. Marriage is honorable and all, and the bed undefiled in Hebrews chapter number 11. God has a plan. If you have a desire for a relationship, God has a means by which that can be accomplished. And I want to encourage you to tenaciously pray for that. Parents tenaciously pray for your children. Persistence in prayer reveals a faith that refuses to quit. Faith directed toward God through persistent prayer works. That's what Jesus is teaching here. When we go to the Lord, you say, well is the Lord one of these people that's going to go, no I don't want to get out of bed. No, we know that God doesn't sleep. That's not the point of what Jesus said. The point of what Jesus said is this, you will come to God during times of desperation, times of humility, and times of embarrassment, and He is watching and seeing if we will be tenacious in our prayer life, persistent in our prayer life. You remember the story of Jacob who was wrestling with the Lord in Genesis 28? And it was Jesus who was wrestling with him and he said, let me go. Jesus said, let me go. And Jacob said, I will not let thee go until you bless me. And he said, what is your name? That was the first time Jacob ever responded with what his name was, and he said, my name's Jacob. He said, your name's no more going to be Jacob, I'm changing that name to Israel. And then God gave him, I mean we're still calling the name of Israel today. That's where our Savior came from. I just want to say this, that not only does it speak to the persistence in prayer and the setting of our prayers, but it tells us what prayer is and the pattern of it. Notice here in Luke chapter 11, and we'll close in just a few moments, the Bible says in verse number 9, it says, and I say unto you, ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. Asking is an expression of our need. Prayer involves asking. We come confessing that we cannot meet our needs. Lord, I have a need that I cannot meet, and prayer is asking the Lord to meet that need. Then prayer is seeking. Some people have no idea what this is. The Bible promises that if you seek the Lord, you will find Him. Now if you choose to leave, if you choose to leave without Jesus Christ and you say, well, I tried that and it didn't work, then you never sought the way you were supposed to. For those who seek the Lord, He will not hide in a corner. He will reveal Himself to you and help you. He promises in this passage, seek and ye shall find. Seeking implies direction, effort, and trust. God designed the soul of man to seek Him. Especially when circumstances confuse us and perplex us. How many of you have ever thought, man, what is holding up the answer to this? I've been praying for it. My encouragement to you is to keep praying. Jesus said this right here, ask and seek and knock. God is more interested in developing our faith than in displaying our comfort. Sometimes He puts you in uncomfortable circumstances so He can get glory from your life. And then He talks about knocking. There's a knocking. What is, you know, that's a historic, an ancient way to get somebody's attention or come to their door. Which of us would come to our neighbor's door and just barge into their house without knocking? No, I do know that this has happened in our house several times and has led to manners of embarrassment of all kinds. You should knock before you enter a room, okay? When you knock, they could say, don't come in. You know, sometimes parents will make a rule, don't come in my room unless you knock. Well, they're just teaching them respect, but the whole issue is this. He says, knock and it shall be opened. Our part is to knock at the door. Now sometimes as we're knocking at the door, God's telling us to wait, and that door isn't being opened. Maybe He's telling you to knock somewhere different. Maybe you're putting too much confidence in something you shouldn't be. I want to encourage every employed person today, do not trust in your employer. Trust in God. My trust is in God. My trust is not in my employer. My trust isn't from who, say, cuts the paychecks. I'm trusting in God to help me through. God can help you. But there will be times of your life when God wants to see you knock, and He wants you to keep knocking. Sometimes God is delaying the answer, the response, but He's not denying it. He's trying to prove our faith. He doesn't always answer the first time we knock, but He never ignores faithful knocking. And that's what this passage is talking about, being persistent and tenacious in our prayers. And there are some times where we're being tenacious in our prayers and we're persisting in prayer, but we're praying something that is clearly not what God has intended. Sometimes the fact that God does things differently than we want leads us not to trust in the Lord, and I'm going to here to tell you, you shouldn't want God to do everything you want. He's not a cosmic genie, He's your God. We have to trust Him when He doesn't give it to us the way we order. And you know, sometimes God has that for our betterment. Have you ever prayed that God would arrange something differently at your job, but God didn't want you to keep that job? And you were so focused on keeping that job, but God had something better for you. You know, sometimes pink slips are given and it opens doors for you to see how God can provide for you from there. I heard the one preacher say one time, have you ever got that pink slip or you got that note on your locker or whatever? He goes, don't be upset. He goes, God may be trying to elevate you. Thank the Lord. There's also a promise of a divine response in verse number 10. He says, everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be open. It's not always done in the manner in which we think it will be done, but God always answers our prayers, and he's certainly trying to prove our faith through persistent prayer. Now lastly, is before we close here, And I didn't get a chance to go through this whole thing, maybe we'd just make this a two-parter. But we see the goodness of our Heavenly Father. Now listen, here recently we've gone through Christmas. And maybe you got a gift and you wanted to see the reaction of somebody who you really thought about it and you got them a gift that you thought would be a blessing to them. And they reached back out or they told you or you just saw when they opened the gift that they were happy with it. I mean, sometimes, like my grandson, he's just interested in the color of the paper. He wasn't interested in the toy, he wasn't interested in what was in the box, just seeing that tissue paper was good enough for him to put it in his mouth and try to eat it. He was just so happy to see tissue paper that was red in color. Now sometimes people are interested in the outside of the box and even the box itself, and parents, the next time you overspend on your children, see how much time they spent just on the box and not on what you bought them. But dads and moms do want to please their children. And Jesus said, if you all are sinners and know how to please your kids, how much more will the heavenly Father grant the Holy Spirit or give good things to those that ask Him? Our God delights to answer persistent prayers. So if you need something from God, and some of you, you know, I have needs in my life, won't you change your mode and stop trying to solve all your problems and look to the great God in heaven to help you? God can help you with whatever you're going through today Now in the book of Revelation and we'll close with this in Revelation chapter 3 There was a church there where the Lord was telling he said behold I stand at the door and knock Jesus knocks He said if any man opens the door I will come into unto him and sup with him and he with me and I can remember that time in my life where it was Jesus who was knocking on my heart's door. He wanted to come in and And I said, okay, today, Lord, I want you to save my soul. And that day I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus sometimes will arrange circumstances in your life to show you that you're lost, and spiritually speaking, He's knocking at your door to try to get your attention. If that's you today and you're lost, can I encourage you, Jesus loves you. And all you need to do is trust Him with your heart. The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now there may be some believers here today, and this message was more to believers. That's who the church is. The church are the saved, the baptized people who have followed the Lord in that. And now we meet together to worship the Lord Jesus on Sunday. Now, I've challenged you in this area of persisting in prayer. Jesus wants you to understand that He's looking for those that will persist in prayer. He's trying to teach this here in this passage, and maybe something's on your heart and you've maybe even given up. or you're grown weary in praying, can I encourage you as your pastor, from the Word of God, would you don't quit, keep bringing these issues to the Lord, persist in prayer, and believe in God. Let's stand together as we prepare for our invitation. Maybe God's spoken to your heart today. As the musicians come, I'm gonna pray. We're going to ask God's blessings on this invitation. And while I'm praying, and as the pianist comes and begins to play, if God's spoken to your heart, even while I'm praying, I want to invite you to come to the altar. Father in heaven, we ask, Lord, now that you would bless these songs, these verses of invitation. We thank you, Lord, that you take us just as we are. You don't require us to clean up, or we know, Lord, that we don't even have the ability to make you, to please you in our flesh. But we know, Lord, that believing on Christ is something that pleases you as the Father. And I pray, Lord, that you'd bless today. Help us now, Lord, during the invitation. May people who've been worked on in the service respond in obedience. We pray this in the name of Jesus. As we sing, just as I am, won't you come today? Just as I am with... Won't you come today? If God spoke to you, don't feel embarrassed to come. The altar's here for you. Maybe you want to come and pray in a family. Say, me and my wife need to get to the altar and pray about this. Let God have His way in your heart and your life. Maybe you need to get saved today. If that's you, if you haven't believed on Christ, haven't been saved, won't you come today? Just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot, to Thee Whose blood can cleanse each funnel and of God I come. I come just as I am. With many a conflict, many a doubt, fighting and fears within. Without a lamb of God I come, I come. sight rich as healing of the mind. Yea, all I need in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come. I come. Another verse. Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, and relieve, because of God, I come, I come. Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come Let's sing this next verse without the piano. Just as I am and waiting not. to rid my soul of one dark blood, to Thee whose blood can cleanse each soil and of God I come, I come. Amen Thank the Lord for good services this morning and may God help those that are even still praying if you came forward today And you need spiritual help. I want you to know that's what the church is here for we are here we can set up meetings with you our office hours are normally eight to five every third on Monday to Thursday and During any of those hours we can set up meetings with you and even set up after hours or meetings on other days if you have questions about the Bible and If you're seeking the Lord, we want to be a help to you as you find him. And that's what we're here for, to show you the ways of truth, to show you the ways of the Bible, and God can help every person. We thank the Lord for his goodness today and even his working in the hearts of people today. We do have choir practice tonight, Brother John, at 545. And so if you're in the choir, 445, yeah, 545, that only gives us 15 minutes before service. Well, 445 choir practice, and then 6 p.m. evening service if you'll be here tonight. Sure appreciate it if you can be here. Brother Tim, if you'd come to the pulpit and pray and dismiss us. Don't forget to pray for Beth Vought, who is right now in the hospital, and we'll try to give an update to the church as soon as we receive one from Brother Dan. God bless you. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for allowing us to meet in your house today. Lord, we thank you for this message. Lord, I pray that you'll continue to work in each one of our hearts. Lord, bless this new year. Lord, help us to make, still make new resolutions, Lord, to serve you and love you more. Lord, we thank you for your son. We thank you for what, his salvation. And Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here that doesn't know you as their savior, Lord, that they'll accept you before it's eternally too late. Lord, bless each one that's here. Lord, we lift up Beth today, and Lord, I pray that you would just bless her and her husband, Lord. Just give the doctors wisdom. We pray for healing, whatever is needed there, Lord. Bless us as we go our way, and bring us back tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.