chapter number 11, you could remain seated while we read God's Word, but Luke 11, we have come upon this subject here this morning. In Luke 11, as we travel through Luke, a very important subject in our Christian lives, and that is the issue of prayer. We'll begin our reading in verse number 1. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, One of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This morning we'll be preaching a sermon entitled, The Lord's Teaching on Prayer. Let's bow for prayer now and ask his blessing on the service. Father, we do pray that you would help us as we preach your word on this important topic. I pray, Lord, that you would help me as I preach, and I pray, Lord, that everyone here today would be encouraged to be people of prayer. I pray for anyone who's lost today, that even today might be that day when they receive you as their Savior. And I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Yesterday night, the end of the World Series took place. I don't know, there's probably nobody here who's a Dodger fan or a Blue Jays fan, but it was quite an exciting baseball event, the World Series. It ended in extra innings, I believe. And one of the things that I did growing up was I was taught how to play sports. And my dad wanted me to be a ball player, so he taught me how to play baseball. And so when I was learning how to play baseball, he would teach me as I was running to first base to run as fast as I could and to run through the base and then take a turn to the right. Today I see little leaguers and they're not being taught the fundamentals. They don't get taught the simple things that they need to do in order to play the game. For instance, basketball has become a three-point shooting contest. You don't start shooting three-pointers if you're going to play basketball. You actually have to know how to dribble the ball. You have to know how to do the fundamentals and make layups and things like that. The fundamentals are what are necessary. And I think that as Christians today, I believe that nationwide, Worldwide I believe that Christians are no longer known as people of prayer We are a prayerless people We are people who have been inundated with busyness with social media There are people today who spend 12 to 20 hours a week on social media and sometimes more But cannot remember the last time they spent just 30 minutes praying to the Lord There was a time in the Lord's ministry in Luke chapter number six, before he chose his disciples, where the Lord himself spent, he remained all night in prayer to the Lord. And you say, all night in prayer? Who could spend all night in prayer to the Lord? Well, it just starts small. You know, last week we were in our men's prayer breakfast and we break out in small groups. And Brother Syons has a son named Julian who's a part of our youth department now, and I could tell that Julian had been taught to pray when we were together. This wasn't his first time praying out loud. How old are you, Julian? Thirteen. Thirteen-year-olds can be taught to pray. In fact, little small children should be taught to pray. If you're a dad here today and you're married, God wants you and even commands you to be a person of prayer. If there's a spiritual leader in your home, it should be you, sir. You should not only lead your family to pray, you should pray routinely for your wife and you should pray for your children. If you're a part of this church, you should pray for the church and pray for the salvation of souls. The Bible commands us, Jesus tells us as a part of a church that we're supposed to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into the harvest. These are commands for those who are a part of a church. The lord's prayer life was a powerful one so powerful that when his disciples heard him say his amen They said lord, would you teach us to pray now? The lord jesus was not the only person that taught others to pray we find in our text this morning that john That is a reference to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the one who came with authority to baptize, the one who was preparing the way of the Lord and making his path straight. He taught people to pray. May the Lord help us. I've had pastors that have taught me and even modeled in my life how to pray. We shouldn't just pray when we come to church. Although if there was ever a place to pray, this place right here is a place to pray. Because Jesus said, my house shall be the house of prayer. Daniel lifted up his eyes toward heaven and facing toward Jerusalem three times a day in his own house and prayed toward the Lord God of heaven while he was in exile in Babylon. May our houses and may this house of worship be houses of prayer. Now, you can learn a lot about a man by listening to him pray. If a man believes in prayer and believes in the one he's praying to, there will be a crying out to the Lord from his heart. Our prayers do not need to be eloquent or wordy, but it should express the desires of our soul, and they do reflect our heart. Some people pray in pretense. They're praying, and they're almost trying to fool people. who are listening to them pray. Some people are praying to be seen of men. Jesus mentions these type of men in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7. And basically he said, if you're praying to be seen of men, you have your reward right here on earth. We're not supposed to pray so that people would recognize us. we're supposed to pray and pour out our hearts to the Lord. Sometimes your prayers will lead you to be in tears. We have altars that are up here, and some of these altars are a little bit discolored, not from the coffee that people have spilled or their soft drinks up here, and one day we will replace our carpet. But up here, it's a beautiful thing if you've stained the altar with your tears. I used to know a man by the name of Arliss Moore who was one of the deacons in my home church. He had killed a bear and made it a rug. It was his prayer rug. He kept it in a closet in his home. And his family would tell us, and I've never seen the rug, but they said if you open my dad's closet where he prays for us kids, where he prays for his wife, the bear rug is tear-stained. Have you ever cried out to the Lord about someone or something that was special to you? And you cried out to the Lord, and you know, God can move our hearts to emotion during times of prayer. There's passages in the Bible that said that God's saving up our tears, that our tears are kept in a bottle, and the songwriter said that tears are a language that God understands. The disciples were so moved by Christ's prayer life that they asked him to teach them on the subject. I'll say this, and I believe it's true. Many Christians in churches today are weak because they do not resort to prayer first before they try to do their work for the Lord. I need people to pray for me, and I need to be a person of prayer before I come to this pulpit. I can't accomplish the will of the Lord in my life without prayer. Prayer should be the first thing. Now Jesus gave this teaching on prayer, and the first division that he gave us here in Luke chapter number 11 is found in verse number 2, which is how we should address the Lord and who the Lord is. Now, I'd like to say this as well. This is called the Lord's Prayer, and he was using this teaching to teach men and women how they are supposed to pray. But he was not telling the disciples to simply repeat this prayer whenever they prayed. He was teaching the disciple the manner in which they should pray. You should come before God reverently. Now, some churches and religions will teach you that you simply need to recite. The Lord's Prayer. We live in Texas. Texas is a place that's known for high school football. Friday night lights. Sometimes I see football teams coming together and before they go out to play their game, and I think it's a decent thing to do, they will recite the Lord's Prayer. But Jesus wasn't giving us something to chant or to recite. Now, there is a good thing in memorizing any scripture, but when it comes to prayer, our prayer should be authentic, and Jesus forbids in the Sermon on the Mount for our prayers to become repetitious. Jesus, in fact, said these words, use not vain repetitions in your prayer. Some churches are known for these very things. Here's a word of encouragement, not meant to be sarcastic at all. If the Bible says don't do it, just don't. If you go to a church who practices something that you find is not in the scripture Leave that church and go to a church that is practicing the truth and this issue of prayer is an important one now Jesus said that we're praying to God in verse 2 as our father which art in heaven and He is our Heavenly Father. In Deuteronomy 6-4, He is God. He's God alone. The words of Scripture, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Our prayers are directed to God, to the God in heaven. His dwelling place is in heaven. Now it's hard for us to comprehend where heaven is. Now, we live in a galaxy that is called the Milky Way. I won't be here with you too long trying to impress you with any knowledge I have. I really am not an astrologer, astronomer, or whatever you call someone who studies stars. But I know this, we live in the Milky Way and the sun is a part of our Milky Way. I looked up some truths today about the Milky Way. You know, we live in one galaxy. There could be up to 200 billion galaxies. We live in one of them. In one galaxy, there could be up to 4 billion stars. They haven't been able to count the number of stars in our galaxy. And nobody's really been able to escape the Milky Way. You know, they're trying to put men on, where are they trying to put men today? Where's Elon Musk gonna send his rocket? You know what they're gonna find on Mars? That this is the only place that we have life on Earth. Now if you're a Trekkie and you're out there today and you're a Star Trek person and you believe that there are people on other planets, you're welcome to put your faith in whatever you'd like. But God created this world and this world that we live in Jesus was sent here to this planet to die for the sins of all of mankind. He did not design those other places for human life. But even if you were to take the best and greatest rocket ship that you could build today and send it into outer space, you wouldn't even get close to the place called heaven. Not where God resides. We live in a vast universe created by God. If you've ever gone outside on a clear night, you should be mesmerized at his ability to decorate our sky with stars. And so when Jesus said, when you address our Father, it's our Father which art in heaven. The word Hallowood means holy. Our God's name is holy. It's not to be taken in vain. One of the Ten Commandments says, thou shalt not take unto thee, thou shalt not take the name Of thy of the Lord thy God in vain boy. I am getting old because I almost struggled reciting the third commandment I've been accused of having old timers. It's developing quickly But I can tell you this We need to protect the name of our God. Jesus is not a curse word and shouldn't be used as a curse word. The name of God is to be reverenced and set aside. This is God's house. This house should be reverenced. You shouldn't come into this house as if you're going to some other place. This is a set-apart sacred place. You know, when I sat up here a few years ago for our 100th anniversary in this church, this church began in 1923, not in this building, but the congregation known as the Metropolitan Baptist Church began in 1923. And as I sat up here, I didn't know a lot of the people who had come, because I'm just getting here. I said, how many of you were saved in this church? Hands all over the building were raised. How many of you were married in this church? Hands all over the building were raised. When people said, I got saved here. I got called to preach here. I was worked on by God here. You know what that says? This place is a sacred place. It's a holy place. It's set aside. Thank the Lord for his church. We thank the Lord for his name. Our God's name should be reverenced and we should address him properly as we are praying. He's not the man upstairs. I don't know who started that. You know, God is not like man. God's ways are above our ways. We should reverence the Lord when we come to Him and when we come into His presence. The Bible says in Psalm 100 that we should come into His presence with singing. It's one of the reasons we sing in the Lord's church. The second division of this prayer is, he says, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. We ought to be praying for the Lord's kingdom to come. Now you know the kingdom, the Bible says that the kingdom is within you. When you receive Christ as your Savior, you receive the kingdom. And we want the Lord's kingdom to come. There is a day when Jesus will rule and reign from a place called Jerusalem, the city of peace. And even so come, Lord Jesus. I look forward to that day. But Jesus said, when you pray, you should pray that the Lord's kingdom would come and that not your will be done. Now, some people would pray this way, my kingdom come, Lord bless me and let me become all that I, this whole self-focused prayer, my kingdom come, my will be done. No, it's not for your will to be done and that's a lot of people's problem with God. God doesn't always give you your way. He's not a cosmic genie to just do whatever you wish. He is God, and He is God alone, and He doesn't always answer our prayers the way we ask. But His will is being accomplished in our lives, and we believe that by faith. In fact, there would be no faith if God gave you everything you wanted. It's a royal telephone. The third division speaks of our personal needs. The Bible says this, in verse number three, give us day by day our daily bread. Men need food in order to survive. You can't survive very long without eating food. Some of us are thinking about food right now. Some of you, you're professionals. Even though you got an extra hour of sleep last night, you got some people that are always like this toward the end of the sermon. Some of you fall asleep before the sermon is over, and trust me, tonight we're going to see a lot of that going on. But they go like this if they think I'm preaching too long. Do I get that? You can either get an extra hour of sleep and still be telling me I'm preaching too long. Now if you say amen, I'll get through with the service much quicker. I'll tell you what, I know how to get amens in this church. Give us this day our daily bread. Thank the Lord that all of us have been fed. There have been times in my life when we were poor and we didn't have much to eat, but God always has provided food for us to eat. We should be grateful and thankful for everything we have. A quick way to fall out of favor with God is to forget to be thankful and grateful. Many of our children need to be taught how to say thank you, and they've forgotten these principles and truths that every day you ought to be thankful to God for what He's given you. And then he says in verse number four, which is also a forgotten practice, first of all, we should ask the Lord to forgive us of our transgressions and our shortcomings. The Bible says in 1 John chapter number one, If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Some people, maybe even in here, have not asked the Lord one time all week, Lord, forgive me of something I've done wrong. Forgive me for a hard attitude I've had. Forgive me for saying something I shouldn't. Forgive me for having a thought that I shouldn't have had. We always, as God's people, should be confessing our sins. And the Lord says in this prayer, we should basically daily ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins. And then the Lord confesses something that is not true in many Christians' lives, the subject of forgiveness. There are those in our culture, in our country today who have a long memory when it comes to those who have hurt them or wronged them, sinned against them. But Jesus says in this passage of Scripture, in verse number four, and forgive us our sins. And then he says this, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. We as God's people should be people of forgiveness. If you're married here today, you need to practice forgiveness. In fact, your marriage will not survive without it. It takes two people to make a marriage work. And marriage requires people that have learned to forgive. You'll never have a family without forgiveness. One of the, and I'll just run a little rabbit trail today. Young people, if you disagree with me politically, that's fine. I can still love people that I disagree with politically. The world here today is teaching people that if you disagree with somebody on who they voted for in the last election or if you don't share all my beliefs politically, I will hate you and I will boot you out of my life for the rest of your life. That's a wicked thing to teach a family. That's horrible. My marriage couldn't survive without practicing forgiveness. My family could not survive without practicing forgiveness. Sometimes I've needed to forgive my children for things they've done wrong. And you know what? Sometimes my children have needed to extend forgiveness to me for things I've done wrong. No family and no church would ever survive without people practicing forgiveness. And Jesus also says in verse number four, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We should not be putting ourself into a place of temptation. We should ask the Lord to deliver us from those places. Now it is not a sin to be tempted. It's a sin to succumb to temptation, and it is a sin to put yourself knowingly into a position of temptation. You should avoid it. You know, when Joseph found himself alone with a woman in the house, and she was encouraging him to commit adultery, he didn't sit there and tolerate it. He ran from that. There are some things in life you need to get away from. But when speaking about prayer, prayer is not preparation for the work. Prayer is the work. And we need to be better people when it comes to praying. As far as a preacher and his spiritual life, it is the channel through which divine power throws. Without prayer, all ministry will become mechanical, lifeless, and powerless. These are some quotes that you would have gotten about prayer from preachers who preached a hundred years ago. A preacher by the name of E.M. Bounds, preaching prior to the Civil War and even just after, would preach powerfully on the subject of prayer. And basically, he believed that prayer was the source of all godly power in a ministry, and I believe the same way. Prayer should be our priority. Many people do not set a time to pray. Our lives are muddled about with watching television, the phone, our business, our busyness at work. We need to make it a priority every day to pray. If you're a Christian, this is foundational. prayer. Prayer is not a part of ministry, it is the ministry. Jesus prayed before every decision He made. He prayed before selecting the 12. The apostles also practiced prayer when they said in Acts chapter 6 and verse number 4 that they would give themselves continually. The first thing that the leaders of the church said, we're going to give ourselves continually to prayer. and then to the ministry of the word, which is speaking to the effectiveness that we should have in preaching. But the first thing we have to do while preparing a sermon is pray. It's not just preachers that need to pray. Every Christian needs to pray. We teach our children the song in Sunday school, read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow, grow, grow. But many Christians haven't read their Bible once all week or prayed all week. My friends, if that's your story, I would encourage you to get right with God. You cannot be right with God living a prayerless life. Say, who are you quoting there? Me. My pastor said, I can't live a life that's right with God without prayer. I don't know who your pastor is, but he's right. I used to have a preacher that would preach, and he'd get to preaching, and if nobody said amen, he would turn around and start saying, amen, preacher! He'd say amen in himself. And I promised myself I would never beg for amens like that. In this church, all I got to do is promise a short sermon. Prayer. Prayer prepares the heart before the work. The great preacher of our generation who's now with the Lord, Adrian Rogers said, the greatest problem in prayer is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. There should never be a time when we come to church where we don't pray to God. There's gotta be something on your heart that you need to pray for. Some need to pray and ask God to forgive them today. that involved in things I shouldn't have done, and Lord, I haven't asked for forgiveness lately. I need to make today God's house a house of prayer. Some people need to offer prayers for their children and their family. Some people have been wounded and life isn't unfolding the way they thought. And you've become desensitized towards your broken heart. Can I encourage you that the Bible says this, the Lord's nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. In fact, God doesn't allow you to have a broken heart for no reason. He wants you to turn to Him in faith when you have a broken heart. It's actually an opportunity for prayer. When thinking about the priority of prayer, prayer must precede ministry, and prayer must precede everything that's going to be of value spiritually in our life. Now, when we speak of the person of prayer, our prayers are directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 that there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And every true Bible believer has always believed in one mediator. We don't pray to the saints. We don't pray to anybody who's not Jesus. That includes his mother. His mother is not the object of our prayer. Some of the people of old, I don't pray to St. Paul or St. Peter, and I don't pray to any of those that I find in the scripture outside of Jesus Christ because the Bible said there's only one person that we pray to, and it's Jesus who makes intercession to us between him and the Father. You say, oh pastor, I think you're preaching an exclusive type thing. If Jesus claims it was exclusive, you can trust Jesus Christ. I'm quoting him. Holiness and sincerity matter more above eloquence or the length of our prayer. Elijah prayed and the heavens obeyed. He was a man that was subject to like passions like we are. There was a power in prayer. You might find a story in the book of Isaiah where there was a king named Hezekiah, and the Lord had sent Isaiah, the son of Amoz, to him and say, hey, get your house in order. The days of your years are coming to an end. And the Bible said that Hezekiah wept. Turned his face toward the wall because he wanted to live more longer He wanted to see the Lord deliver him from the Assyrians and God told Isaiah to stop and say hey I've heard your prayer and I've seen your tears and I'm adding 15 years to your life. Don't tell me that prayer doesn't work We have people that are sick in our church And I'm here to tell you that my faith isn't in doctors and what the doctors have to say I've seen doctors overruled many times in my life now sometimes what the doctors tell you is true But I have a friend who's alive today was diagnosed with terminal cancer when he was in his teen years before he even reached high school and he's alive today and the best of the best doctor said you won't make it through high school and Doctors don't get that chance to say, hey, I got the final word on you. Hey listen, if a doctor gives you bad news, I want to introduce you to the great physician, the real physician, that is God in heaven. He's not going to take you into glory before you're ready, before he knows. Now the days of our lives are numbered, folks. We're not going to live outside the bounds of what God has for us in this life. But can I encourage you today? When God takes you home, He's taking you from this place that's full of heartbreak and difficulty and sorrow and burdens, and you're going to get taken to a place where the Bible said there'll be no more pain there. This week I visited with some people in our church who are in constant and difficult pain. Some people are taking medications to control your pain. Guess what? There's no pharmacy in heaven. There's no hospitals in heaven. There's no graveyards in heaven. There's never going to be another burden to bear in heaven, and thank the Lord for it. None of us should be threatened with heaven. If the Lord brings our life to an end, we'll be in the presence of Jesus. Now I want to live as long a life as I can, as healthy a life as I can. I want to enjoy all the things that God has in store for me, but when my great getting up morning is called and selected by God, He will know where to find me and He is my great shepherd, will shepherd me across that great divide into heaven. And I won't suffer anymore there. You can read Revelation chapter 21 and see that. Prayer is the channel through which God's power will work. We need to practice prayer. I want to encourage you today that if you're taking notes or you're trying to say, hey, I'm trying to develop my spiritual life, you need to set a time. If you don't set a time and make it a priority for prayer, you won't do it. Now, if you set a time to do it while you're driving, don't shut your eyes when you're praying. Some of you, I can't tell whether your eyes are shut or closed. But what I'm saying to you is you can pray in your vehicle and make that your sweet secret time with the Lord. But every Christian needs to have a place where they resort to to get help from God. I think every Christian should have a place at the altar that means something to them. They should have a place in their home where they're resorting to prayer. And I'm not just talking about praying for the food. I'm talking about setting a time and a place for daily prayer. Pray, you need to pray for your own advancement in holiness and righteousness. You should pray specifically for your family and your church. You should pray for the power of God on whoever God's trying to use you to minister to. I want to tell you, every one of us has people in our lives that needs to know we're a Christian. Every one of us has people in our lives that we need to be inviting to church. Oh If we would have a people that had a hope that if I bring somebody to church They could trust in Christ as their Savior Do you know what feelings of euphoria you would have as a believer? If God used you to bring a lost sinner to church and during the preaching of the gospel They were able to say hey, I need that Hey, I'm gonna tell you something you matter Your light and your light shining matters to God. Jesus said that we should be like a city that's setting on the top of a hill. There should be no mistake in your life. What comes first in your life should be the Lord. So I would encourage you to make a practice of prayer and make prayer the first act you do every day. You can pray on your way to getting your coffee. Lord, help me not to trip. And you know, I enjoy praying over my coffee. Some of you are energy drink people, and I believe you'll get right with God one day. One day, he'll make everything new, Jesus. We ought to keep a prayer list. We also ought to, and the Bible encourages us to fast on occasion. That means take some time off of eating. And when we would be eating, we should be directing our prayers to the Lord. Isaiah 58 speaks of this. Prayer is the great spiritual force that moves the Lord in the affairs of men. Now I just want to say this, as we close today's message, I want to encourage you, as Jesus taught his disciples to pray, if you're going to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to be in the practice of praying, not just when we come to church. We need to pray throughout the week. Now I, as a family man, I'm living far away from two of my children and my grandson. I separate a time every week on Sunday mornings when I take this phone and I text the people who don't live around me and even those who do live around me and tell them I love you and I'm praying for you and I have a special time of prayer for my family every week when I come into this place. I pray for them throughout the week as well. But I'm here to tell you folks, we as God's people must commit to be a praying people. If Metropolitan Baptist Church is going to continue on into the future and we're going to see people saved and get the blessing of God on our ministries, it's not going to start with work, it's going to start with prayer. It takes work, but you need to pray and trust the Lord. You may have something you need to pray about today and I want to encourage you. Won't you, as the songwriter said, take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. Let's stand together. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. Maybe you have something that you need to pray about. This is a time that we invite you. Hey, I've got burdens in my life. I've got things I'm desiring of the Lord in my life. We invite God's people to come to the altar and pray. You say, what will people think of me if I go to the altar? Don't you worry about what anybody will think of you. I can tell you in this church, as far as our membership goes, we're thankful when people respond to the preaching. You say, oh, pastor, I can't get down there. I'm physically challenged. You can make an altar out of your seat, You know, this could be your time of private prayer to the Lord. Maybe you need to pray for your mama or your dad. Maybe you need to pray for your son or your daughter. Maybe you need to pray for that friend at work who needs to be saved or pray that God would help you. I don't know what you're going through in life, but as we sing Just As I Am on page number 167, we want to invite you to come. Page 167, Just As I Am. As I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb Let's just have the piano play. Let's all bow our heads and take a time for prayer. Maybe you haven't had time this week or you haven't taken time this week to pray. Won't you take the next few moments as we're not singing, have this time to pray for God. Maybe there's something on your heart and you just want to lay it before him. Won't you do that at this time? Let's sing on verse number two, just as I am. not to rid my soul of wonder, but to Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot on Lamb of God. As the piano plays, we're going to sing verse number three in just a moment. Now, there's other things that people need to make decisions on when they come to church. First of all, God may be working on your heart to be properly baptized. You've never been scripturally baptized. That means you got baptized after you called on the name of the Lord to save you. You may need to get baptized. In order to do that, we need to talk about that. If you wanna come and say, pastor, I've never been baptized, I need to do that. Others may be a part of another church and God's leading you to join this church. If it's God who's leading you need to follow him if he's the one nudging you to do that We want every person who belongs in metropolitan baptist to be a part of this assembly But not before the lord makes it clear in your life. This is where I want you But the lord's working in your life about that This is your verse. Let's sing on this next verse Just Somehow with many a conflict, many a doubt, findings and fears within, without a lamp of God I come. One more verse. They all I need in Thee To find the Lamb of God I come, I come Amen and before we're dismissed today, why don't we sing that old song called? Thank you Lord if you're saved today sing this from your soul to the Lord Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me And all of God's people said Amen tonight at 6 p.m. We'll be back for our evening service Don't forget that we are going to be honoring miss Sandra for her years of faithfulness in our church and we want to invite you all to stay after the evening service tonight for fellowship and with Miss Sandra and the church family. And so please be back tonight. Brother Tim Abrams, if you would dismiss us in prayer, and also if you're going to the Cincinnati trip, leaving tomorrow, we need to meet with everybody to explain some things about the trip, housing and things like that. We'll be meeting right after the morning service over in the chapel. Brother Tim, would you come and dismiss us? 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 on prayer. And Lord, we thank you for allowing us to always, always reach out. And Lord, you're always a willing and able God to supply our needs, listen to our prayers, listen to our needs, and Lord, be our healer and physician. Lord, I pray that you'll bless each one that's here. Lord, we thank you for the many visitors. Lord, I pray that you'll bless us as we go our way this afternoon, and Lord, bring us back tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.