Our last service together in 2024, I was thinking about that this morning as I was up and preparing for the sermon today. I thought 12 months, 52 weeks, all the days, 365 days, hours, minutes, all that's went by. They've come and gone, and time doesn't seem to slow down or stop at all, does it? I did think this morning when I was thinking about that, I thought there was one time in the scriptures, I'm not gonna preach on this, but there was one time in the scriptures when God did stop time. When Joshua prayed and God caused the sun and the moon to stand still in the sky for a full day, and so he stopped time then. But for us, we watch as time passes by. I got to thinking this morning, I wonder if this year will be any different than last year and if I was willing and if maybe any of you were willing to do anything differently than this year, than what we've done this year. And if so, I began to think about all the stories and the scriptures and my mind was a little bit scattered. But I started to write out, I started to think, I wonder, if there would be anybody this year, any of us, any men or women in the church who would say, you know what, this year I'm going to be an ambassador for Christ. Like I'm actually going to go out and do the work of spreading the gospel and I'll be a gospel prophet, so to speak, in my community. I want to make sure that I surrender my life fully to God and let God have my time and let God have my hands and my feet and my mouth, and let God have all those things. I wondered if there would be anybody this year who would get to that place in their walk with Christ. I wrote out, I thought, I wonder if there would be anybody who would say, I'm going to help grow the kingdom of God. I'm gonna lead souls to Christ. I'm gonna make sure that I make it my mission. And then when we get us somebody When we see somebody get saved and the Lord works in that person, I'm gonna disciple them and work with them and help bring them to maturity in faith. And I'm gonna come alongside the weak in faith and try to build them up and encourage them and do this gospel work. You know, we have work to do. There is work to do. We're called to spread the gospel, we're called to make more mature Christians to disciple one another, to encourage one another. We're not to be idle in the kingdom, amen? That's not what we're called to be. I've wondered if this would be the year that, by God's grace, that we would see churches begin to experience real revival and get back on fire with God. I think that's possible. I really do think it's possible. But I also know that it's very possible that things don't change if we don't change, that we'll continue to see churches slip away, and one by one, we'll see churches leave their first love, and we'll see professing Christians compromise, and their flame will go out, and I hope this year we can get more serious. I'm not saying you didn't get serious at all, that's not the accusation. But I hope we can get more serious about our walk with Christ. I heard Brother Potty during prayer, he said, he said, God, help us to be again, I want that. If you don't want it, something's wrong. You know that, right? If you don't want to get closer to God, if you don't want to dig in deeper, that means something is wrong. I believe, based on what I read in the scripture, that the church was formed. Back when Christ spoke of the church, he said, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. In other words, the church is called to go and to beat them down and to take the light of the gospel into the dark world. And I wonder if we'll do that this year. Think about all the people that we beat about. Don't you have a desire, a little bit of desire in you this morning that you think, I want to be like Moses. I want to leave my home and I want to leave the church and I want to do that in a way that God said of Moses, he was a humble man, a man that trusted God. We see Moses trusting God with his whole life. I wanna be that way. I wonder, can we be a Shadrach, can we be a Meshach and a Dednego, can we refuse to compromise with the world no matter what it costs us. Will we do that? Will we be that this upcoming year? Will that even be important to us? Would any of us be like David? And you remember David when he was out shepherding the fields and he was the smallest of all of his brothers and he came to the place to bring them some food at the battle lines there and he heard how Goliath was blaspheming God and coming against the children of Israel and challenging them And David was unafraid of that. David said, I'm not afraid to stand against this man because I know my God. I wonder if Will could be like that this year. Any of us could be that way. Or John the Baptist. As I begin to think about all these people, think about John the Baptist, how hard it must have been to come out of the wilderness there that he was in and to begin to preach the message of repentance and to stand in front of a world that didn't want to repent. and compel them to repent and to prepare the way of the Lord. Would any of us be willing to do that? Is there a Paul or a Peter among us who would give everything for Christ and the gospel and go out and declare it with boldness and power, who would count everything else as worthless in their life other than Christ and say, this is the one thing that's important to me? We need people like that. I thought about the women in the scripture. Is there a Mary? You remember when the angel came and told Mary that she was highly favored? And what did Mary do? She embraced that calling from God. She was going to have a hard job. but she embraced what God was giving to her. Would there be a faithful woman like Hannah in the scriptures? Remember, Hannah went to the Lord and she prayed and said, God, give me a child. She was barren. She said, give me a child. If you give me a child, I will dedicate my child to you. I'll make sure that my child is raised to serve you. And listen, God gave her a child and she kept her commitment to God. We need people like that. Esther, who stood boldly before the king, even though it could have meant her life. The Shunammite woman, remember her? Her son died and she left the house where her son laid to go find the prophet. And all along the way, people would ask her, how is it? And she would say, it is well. In the darkest days of her life, that woman trusted God. She trusted in him. Or a woman like Dorcas, remember Dorcas in the scripture? She loved others and cared for others and gave to them. And when she died, they grieved, but yet still they came and prayed and she was raised up. And the community, because of her great work, they saw her life for Christ. Priscilla, she opened her home along with her husband and helped train people up in the way of the Lord and to teach them and instruct them in the right way. She showed love and hospitality. Will we be that kind of Christian? You see, I don't think those people are in the scriptures because God wanted us to read about them and that's it. I don't believe that they're there just so God can say, oh, look at all the great things that happened back then. I believe those people are in the scriptures to be an example to us of what we're called to be, what we're supposed to be, what our lives should look like. And it made me think, as I said and thought about all those different people in the scripture, I thought if the Holy Spirit inspired someone to write a book about your life, how you live for Christ, What would, let's say that he did. Let's say the Holy Spirit inspired this book and it was all about your life. Your name was instead of Luke, instead of Timothy, it was your name at the top of that book. And all the Christians from this day forward would read that book. What would they learn? What would they learn? What would they see demonstrated We just talked about all the things we saw in these other people's lives. What would they see in yours? What would you teach them about living by faith? And I want us to think about that as we go into a new year. You're writing a book. Your life is a book. Your children are reading it every day. Your grandchildren are reading it every day. Your friends and family and co-workers They're reading it every day. What does it testify about Christ? Does that make sense? Now I want it to. I want you to understand what I'm trying to say to you this morning. I believe that this year, listen, there's nothing magical that happens when the calendar clicks over from another year. We were laughing at the house the other day. Every time we say something, we're gonna do something, April says, oh, here we go, new year, new me. It's not that way. It's not that way. Over the years, I've made lots of resolutions that I didn't keep. I said I'm gonna do a lot of things that I didn't do. Anybody else ever do that? I've done it a lot. You're not gonna get a fresh dose of self-discipline when the clock strikes 12.01. Nothing's gonna change unless you change it. Nothing's gonna shift unless you shift it. It's only gonna be different if you make it different. So go with me to Luke chapter 18 this morning. I want us to look at eight verses of Scripture here, and I'm gonna offer a challenge up to us this year. One thing that I had on my heart that I think we need to change. Luke chapter 18, verses one through eight. This is what it says. Then he, Jesus, spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me for my adversary. and he would not for a while, but afterward, he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard men, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she hear me. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God, listen, if the unjust judge was willing, now I just want you to understand this, if the unjust judge was willing to finally get justice for this lady. How much more so? And he says here, he says, if she did it, he said, shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him? Is God not more just than this unjust judge? Though he bears long with them, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. But listen at this, nevertheless, When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? This morning, I want to challenge us to do something different this upcoming year. And listen, I've been at this a long time. And I know with a pretty good degree of certainty, some of you will not accept the challenge. You'll pretend like the Lord doesn't want you to do it. You'll tell yourself, and make excuses for yourself to avoid it, you'll find a way to convince yourself that this isn't for you in this busy season of your life, all these things, I've said it all, you've said it all. But you'll know deep down in your heart with each day that passes that you made the decision not to, not because God didn't want you to do it, but because you didn't want to do it. Don't blame God for your unwillingness. Amen? There'll be some that say they'll do it, but just in a matter of a little time, if it starts to get a little bit difficult, if it starts to be an inconvenience, that commitment will fade, and then they'll find the reality of, at times, I found this in my life, and it's not a good thing, but they'll find that they don't have the self-discipline it takes to do it, and they'll quit. And then there'll be others who set their minds and bring themselves under subjection and they'll discipline themselves and they'll go after this. And listen, I believe those people that go after it, I have prayed and I believe by faith with all my heart that those that truly go after this will be rewarded in ways you can't begin to think or imagine. You're gonna grow from where you are today. You're going to be closer to God than where you are today. You won't do it perfectly, that's not the mission, but they'll pour themselves into it, they'll give their whole heart to it, and God will draw close to them as they draw close to him. And I hope that piques your interest enough to at least listen to what the challenge is this morning. This is not something I just made up. It's not some gimmick. It's not me trying to figure out a trick to get you to commit to something. This is something that I know with confidence, if you'll do it, it will change your life. It will change the future of our church. It will change our community. It will change our families, our walk with God. It will fill you, revive you. It will bring joy to your heart. It will strengthen you. And listen, it may sound easy when I tell you what it is, but it won't come easy. It won't happen without resistance. It'll come with spiritual warfare. the enemy of our soul will stand against it. And those who really commit to do it, they'll have to stand firm, as the scripture says, and resist him steadfast in the faith because the enemy will try to stop it. I promise you. But let me tell you what the challenge is. Some of you may say, well, I already do it, but I just want you to just hear me out. I'm asking If you, the believers, the Christians, if you will dedicate no less than 30 minutes every day to prayer this year. 30 minutes. Could be 30 minutes all at one time. It could be 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at night, 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the middle of the day, 10 minutes at night. But commit to 30 minutes of prayer every single day. I laid in the bed last night and I did the math. If 50 people did this, 50 people prayed for 30 minutes a day, that would be 9,125 hours of prayer. That's 380 full 24 hours a day, I mean full days of prayer next year. Now you think what a difference that could make. 9,000 hours of prayer. When we read that scripture in Luke together, did you hear what Jesus said? Jesus said, we ought always to pray and not lose heart, amen? Now think about that for a moment. Consider just for a minute the emphasis that God places on prayer in the pages of the Bible. Dude, I just want you to think about how important prayer really is. Philippians chapter four, verses six and seven, and I'll go through some of these as quick as I can. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, amen? Colossians chapter 4 verse 2. Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 16 and 18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Romans 12 and 12. Rejoice in hope. patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. Ephesians 6, 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 8, I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubt. Hebrews 4.16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. That is just a small sample of the scriptures that speak about the importance of prayer and the need for prayer. Can I say this this morning? You guys are real quiet, so I'll just get bold. I think that we have lost our sense of the need for prayer. I think we've become so self-reliant and so self-sufficient that we have become blind to our own need. And listen, I think we've become blind not only to our need for prayer, but I think we've become blind to our need for God. I think we depend on everything except God. And I think we depend on everything except prayer. And I think we neglect one of the greatest weapons, the greatest sources of power that God has given to man, the power of prayer. I don't think people believe anymore in the power of prayer. Not really believe. I know that you believe the stories that you read in the Bible. I know you believe that God, we spoke about the prayer that God answered for Joshua when he made the sun stand still. You'll say you believe that. You believe that God answered Hezekiah's prayer. Remember Hezekiah, it was time to die, and he prayed that the Lord would give him more life, and God gave him 15 more years. You believe that God did that. You believe that God did those things. It's not that I don't think you believe that God would answer for Paul or Timothy or Elijah or Esther or Hannah. You just don't think God will do it for you. You don't think what God did for them that God will do for you. Yet we read so clearly that God has told us, and not just them, but us, to not lose heart, to keep praying. to keep persevering in prayer, to come to Him in prayer, to make our request known to Him. And listen, God has made some big statements, some very big statements of what He will do if we will pray. He has said what He will do. Now listen at this, thank you, brother. Mark 11, verse 24. Just listen to a few of these. Therefore, I say to you, Jesus speaking, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. No, I don't believe that, preacher. Okay. I mean, all I can do is show it to you. I can't make you believe it. Amen. Luke chapter 11, verses nine and 10, he said, so I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. Everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, it will be opened. Amen? Matthew 6, verse 6. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who's in the secret place. And look, your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Jeremiah 33 verse three, he said, call to me. God said, call to me and I'll answer you. And I'll show you great and mighty things which you do not know. In John 15 verse seven, Jesus said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Not a lot of amens on these. You know why? Because we're not that concerned. We don't have much concern about getting our prayers answered. We've got everything we need already. That's what we think, isn't it? Oh, I don't have to pray that hard. Everything's good in my life. That can change. 1 John 5, verses 14 and 15. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him. If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. Psalms 145, verse 18. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him. To all who call upon Him in truth. James four and two, he said, yet you do not have because you do not ask. Back in Luke chapter 18, verse eight, Jesus said, when the son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? He links that with prayer. Our willingness to persist in prayer is evidence of our faith. Our prayer shows our dependency upon God and our trust in God. When we pray and we trust God, that's faith in action. And so Jesus asked this question, when I return, when I come back, will there be anybody left who really prays? Will there be anybody left who really, who has faith and comes to God and makes his request known to God? Will there really be anybody left, any prayer warriors when I come? You see, what I'm trying to show you this morning is that God wants us to pray. And church, if we pray, it will bring results. You can trust that. If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and heal their land. Amen? Forgive their sin. But I just don't know. I just don't know if people believe in the power of prayer anymore. If we really believe that prayer actually resulted in something, that it made a difference, would we not do it more? Would we not be people who desire to pray? I think about it. Listen, we have lost the reality of the power of prayer. I think about when Peter was in prison. Do you remember that story? It's in Acts chapter 12. Peter was in prison, but this is what the Bible says in verse five about it. It says, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. Think about that. Constant prayer was offered. And you know what happened? As they prayed, God sent an angel. to the prison to open the door, and Peter walked out of the prison. God did something because of their prayers. That is the power of prayer, and that power still exists today. It's not that it doesn't work. It's that we don't do it. Well, preacher, God has just blessed me so good, I just don't have much need. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me with that? When our families and our neighbors are going to hell? Dying and perishing for eternity? When our churches are falling apart? Do you not see that? Even here in our own county, churches falling apart? empty churches, can't find people to preach, can't find people to pastor, can't find people to labor, can't keep members, when there are false prophets and false teachers everywhere, when Christians are being deceived by false doctrine on every turn, when our communities and our schools are corrupted, When our nation has turned its back on God, when children are being slaughtered, when people are blaspheming God every single day, you don't think there's anything to pray about? When professing Christians are leaving the faith by the drones, they're forsaking the way of truth. When we're watching preachers that we had confidence in fall, We're seeing people who are self-deceived. When our brothers and sisters in Christ are overcome by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, when our children and our grandchildren are lost in sin, addicted to drugs, addicted to their phones, addicted to pornography, when moms and dads care more about TV and YouTube than they do about training their children up in the way of God. When families are falling apart, when disease and sickness is everywhere, when the harvest fields are ripe and there's no laborers, you don't think there's anything to pray about? 30 minutes? You couldn't pray about all those things in 30 minutes. Surely you can't believe that you're so blessed that you don't have to pray that much. That was the issue with the Laodicean church. Remember they said, we are rich and have need of nothing. And Jesus said, you can't even see that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Church, we cannot let ourselves believe that we don't need God's help. that we don't need God to intervene. We can't be so comfortable in this world that we don't want God to straighten it out. For us as professing Christians, listen, I'm not trying to be hateful this morning. I honestly am not. But there should not be a Sunday when we don't find ourselves at this altar praying to God and seeking His face. This altar should be wet with our tears week after week. Crying out for the lost, crying out for the church, crying out for our brothers and sisters who have need around us, crying out for our nation and the nations around us, crying out for our churches and our children. Church, listen, when the altar in the church is empty and dry week after week, that's when we know our church is dying. When we find ourselves standing out there watching other people pray and we're not praying ourselves, that's when we know we're dying. You say, ah Bill, we're not dying. Look around. There's plenty of people in here. We're blessed. Look at all the kids we've got. Look at all the people we've got. Let me tell you what, lots of people attend funerals. Amen. Just because you're here don't mean we're not dying. If we're not praying, if we're not seeking God, if we're not earnestly seeking His face, if we're not getting down and interceding for one another, if we're not seeking God's will through prayer, if we're just comfortable, we're dying. Don't you see it? We cannot let that happen. Jesus said this, He said, my house shall be called a house of prayer. Now you think about that church. This is not a condemnation, but it's something we have to think about. My house shall be a house of prayer. We sing more than we pray. We preach more than we pray. We talk more than we pray. Our announcements last longer than our prayer. Something's wrong. And the truth is, listen, what would happen? What would happen? What would church be like if people prayed before church? What would it be like when the church gathered, if all of us spent 30 minutes in prayer the night before saying, God, would you move tomorrow? God, would you be there? Would you come amongst us tomorrow? And would you touch every heart tomorrow? God, would you take the lost in the church tomorrow and break their hard hearts? God, would you speak to me? God, would you break up my heart? God, would you come and work in us and reveal to us what would it be like this morning if we had done that? If in unity, one mind, one accord, we ask God to move in mighty ways, what would it be like? The truth is, we have not, because we ask not in that. But I believe God is stirring hearts today. I believe God is telling us to get serious about prayer. And I believe if we will pray, God will do things right here in this church that are beyond what we think or imagine. Amen? Things that are beyond our plans. For too long we've operated on our plans. We need to operate on God's plan. But it will only happen through prayer. It will not come any other way. Listen, I can remember many years back, some of you weren't here then, but many, many years back on that board right over there that says he shall be called. We had, it was just a court board and we put yellow sticky notes on it with people's names and every Wednesday night we knelt before that board and prayed for those people. And some of those people are now sitting in this church and they weren't. That's the power of prayer. We had people's names on there who were lost and who were sick and some of them had been healed. I can remember years ago when at the beginning of each year the church fasted. They came together and we fasted together. And we said, God, we want you to move in the church. God, we prayed for our church. And listen, I know in those years that we did, we saw more souls saved and people grew stronger and closer together. And we need to get back to it. We've gotten too complacent. Where is our zeal? Where is our passion? And so I'm challenging you this morning to no less than 30 minutes a day in prayer. More if you will, but no less. Seven days, you say, well, what about when I'm on vacation? Yeah, even when you're on vacation. You see, that's the way we think. That's the way we think. I know, have a seat. Now, what should we pray about? What should we pray for? Well, there are certain things, and I'm gonna wind up here in a few minutes, but there are certain things we're told to pray about in the Scripture. We can pray about anything. The Bible says we should pray about everything. But let me show you some of the things that we're told to pray about in the Scripture. Maybe flip back to Luke chapter 11 for a moment, if you will, Luke chapter 11. Verses 1 through 4. Now, it came to pass as he was praying, Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. And I can't remember, I think it was Ravenhill that said, isn't it interesting that the disciples didn't say, teach us to preach. They said, teach us to pray. Amen. They said, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And this is what he said, so he said to them, when you pray, say, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Just in that little prayer right there, We're told plenty to pray for. There's lots to pray about there. Number one, pray that his name would be hallowed. That God would be glorified and that he would receive the worship he deserves. When's the last time you prayed for that? That you got down earnestly and said, God, more than anything else, more important than the healing of my body, more important than this or that, God, is this, that your name would be glorified and that you would receive the worship that you deserve. Man, we should pray for that. That your name would be considered holy and that it would be honored. Listen, we don't just need to pray that other people will do that. We need to pray, God, help me do that. God, help me. to seek your honor and your glory above everything else. God, help me worship you the way you deserve to be worshiped. Cause me to see your holiness, God. Listen, can you imagine how it would change your life if you had the experience that Isaiah had? Isaiah chapter six, I believe it is, I don't have it on the screen, but he said, in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. of his robe filled the temple. See, Isaiah got a vision, a glimpse of the greatness and the mighty and the holiness of God. You know what he had to say when he saw it? Woe is me. Woe is me. How good it would be for us if we could get a glimpse of the holiness of God. We could pray like Moses prayed. He said, Show me your glory. Show it to me. Show me. We're told to pray for not only that his name would be glorified, but we're told to pray for his kingdom to come. And listen, that's a warfare prayer. That prayer brings spiritual warfare, because when you say, God, I want your kingdom to come, at the same time you're praying, I want Satan's kingdom destroyed. God, I want you to establish your rule and your reign, and I want you to crush the enemy under your feet. Listen, that's warfare, and we need to get on the front lines of that. Our prayers shouldn't just be, help me with this and help me with that, and God, you know my job, and God, you know I need this. Listen, our prayers need to be warfare prayers sometimes. God, tear down the kingdom of darkness. God, destroy the strongholds that has so and so bound up. God, take down these things that are keeping my brothers or my sisters or my mom or my dad or my children Tear down those strongholds in their life. Help them to see you. God, destroy those gates of hell we talked about a few minutes ago. God, tear them down. And let us go through and shine the light of the gospel. God, build up your church. Strengthen it. Make it healthy. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. We should pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We should pray for God's will to be done. Think about the very example of prayer at coming up to the cross. Jesus went into the garden of Gethsemane. And what did he do? Did he preach? He prayed. He prayed. And he prayed Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. Your will. Gosh, we need to desire. We need to pray and ask God to give us the desire for his will and not ours. We need to want what he wants, amen? And listen, That prayer is a prayer of surrender. When you pray that, you say, Lord, use me to accomplish that will. Use me. We're told to pray for daily bread, day by day. We don't pray for riches. We don't pray for more than we need, amen? We pray for God to give us what we need for today. And in doing that, we shall be trusting for tomorrow. Amen? I like what it says in Proverbs. I don't have it on the screen. Proverbs chapter 30 verses 8 and 9. He said, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food allotted to me. Or if I had riches, I would be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? Or poverty, I would be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. Give me just enough for what I need. That's what I mean. God, give me the strength I need to make it through today. God, give me the patience I need to make it through today. Give me the encouragement I need to make it through today. The food I need today. The help I need for today. Give me this day, day by day, the daily bread. In other words, Provide what I need today because I know all things come from your hand. Everything. He said we should pray. Jesus told us here we should pray for the forgiveness of our sins. Amen? Sometimes we are way, way too comfortable with our sins. Way too comfortable. When we get down earnestly with God, when we pray, part of that prayer should be, God, I have sinned. I've come short. I need forgiveness. And God's Word tells us if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen? We don't just pray for the forgiveness of our sins, we pray for those who sinned against us. We pray for their forgiveness, amen? And we need to pray for our willingness to forgive them. Listen to what the gospel of Mark chapter 11, verses 25 and 26 says. This is important when it comes to prayer. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, now notice it doesn't say if you have a big thing. If you have anything against anyone, Forgive him that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But it's a big book right here. But if you do not forgive him, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Amen? Well, we don't like that scripture. Amen. Then we're told to pray. Lord, don't lead us into temptation. Don't let us be led to temptation, but deliver us from evil. This is another spiritual warfare prayer. Lord, don't let me be overcome with evil, but let me overcome evil with good. Lord, don't let me be tempted beyond what I'm able to bear. Lord, help me to see the way of escape from every temptation that comes my way today. so that I can walk in purity, walk in truth, walk in the light, so that I might not sin against you. Lord, don't let me walk, as it says in Psalms chapter one, don't let me walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of scorners, but let me delight in your law and walk in the truth. Do you pray like that? Or is it just, Lord, bless this food. Bless me and bless everybody I know, everybody I love. And then when you're done blessing me, wait a few minutes and bless me again. In James chapter five, verse 16, we're told to pray for one another. Amen? I'm just giving you some things that you can spend this 30 minutes on. Amen? We're told to pray for each other's healings. Do you know how many people are sick? I want to pray so hard. I really do. I hope I can. There are some people that are sick all the time, and I want to pray so hard that they don't have no excuse. Amen? Don't get mad at me. Some of them's like, hey, don't pray for my healing. That's how I don't have to go to church every Sunday. We should pray for the hurting. We should pray for the afflicted. We should pray for the downcast. We should pray for the grieving. We should pray for the lonely. And at any moment, at any time, somebody in this church is one of those things. We lift up their names to God. We ask Him to comfort, to heal, to encourage, to strengthen them. We see the examples of Paul's prayers in the Scripture, praying that believers would grow in knowledge. maturity and faith, praying that they would be filled with all the fullness of God, praying that they'd be strengthened in the inner man. And then Paul, when he was done praying for them, he would take time to pray and thank God for them. How thankful he was for their testimony, for their faith, for their faithfulness, for their gifts, for the things that they sent to him. He gave thanks to God. Listen, we're told in 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2 that we should pray for our leaders in government. Specifically, we're told that we should pray that we would be allowed to lead a peaceful and quiet life. That we could live it in all godliness and reverence. Amen? When's the last time you prayed? And listen, I'm uptight. I mean, I'm here to not try to dig it in. I'm trying to inspire you this morning to say, I need to pray to him. But I want you to think about this. We say all the time, we'll say, well, I just don't know how to pray. Well, right here, the scripture tells you exactly what to pray for. And we don't do it. So I'm not saying nobody does. We're told to pray for the lost. Just like Paul prayed in Romans chapter 10 verse one for Israel. He said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved, amen. Let me ask you, is your heart's desire and prayer to God for Clintonburg? For Haysi? Is it for Wise and Pound and Norton? Is it for your family? Are you praying for their salvation? Diligently, fervently praying. Another way we're told to pray for the lost and another prayer to pray that would help the lost is what Jesus said in Matthew 9, verses 36-38. He looked out in the multitudes. He was moved with compassion. He said they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. And then He said this to His disciples. He said, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord in the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Amen? That's something you can pray for. We're told to pray for those who are spreading the gospel, those that are preaching and pastoring and teaching. In Ephesians 6, 19, this is what he says. He said, he said, pray for me. Paul said, pray for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that in it I may speak boldly as I hope to speak. Amen. And there are more of them. There are so many more. If you can get in the Scriptures and dig around, just go on Bible Gateway or whatever and type in pray or prayer. I gave y'all New Testament. You can go back to the Old Testament and see many, many there as well. There's so many things we're told to pray for and to pray about. And listen, if you set your heart and mind to do this, You're going to find the same thing I find. There's going to be days when prayer pours out of you like water. And there's going to be days when you get on your knees and it feels like a desert. Dry and hard and not easy. I can't tell you why that is. I don't know. I don't know. But I will comfort you with this, when you don't know what to pray, Romans 8, verse 26, even if you get down for those 30 minutes and you can't muster up three words, but you choose to sit there on your knees and say, God, I'm broken, I don't know what's going on, I can't come up with the words. Likewise, the Spirit also helps us when we're weak, amen? For when we don't know what we should pray for as we are, the Spirit himself makes intercession for us. with groanings which cannot be uttered. What a God we serve this morning. Tells us to pray, knows how weak we are, and says, when you mess it up and can't do it, I'll pray for you. Amen? That's good, church. That's good. That's the goodness of God. So that's my challenge to us as we start the new year. Make the commitment. 30 minutes a day. Three 10-minute sessions. Two 15-minute sessions. I don't care how you do it. 30 minutes a day. Not just praying for the things we want, but praying for the things He tells us to pray for. Praying with thanksgiving and taking time to praise God and to worship God and to seek God in prayer. We need to make this year a year of prayer for our church. We need to mark it down. This year needs to be a year that our prayer life gets stronger. In fact, I was talking to Stacy back there a few minutes ago, and she asked me, what would our discipleship class be on? I'm leaning heavily towards our first discipleship class will be a class on prayer. Learning to pray. Not just learning how to, but working through how God wants us to. It needs to be a year where we draw close to God through prayer. I don't know why I feel that way, but I know I feel that way. Amen. So I'm sharing with you what I feel like the Lord has given to me. And so I'm done. I'm finished. As we stand up together, I'll offer it up again today here. Is there anybody who says, you know what? I'm going to ring it in. God is working in your heart this morning. You say, you know what? I need God to help me with this, but I'm interested. I want to pour myself into this if I can here. But you're like me. You'll need God's help. Amen? That's you. Find your way up to the altar this morning and begin to pray. Let's begin to pray. See God's face.