So we open the Word of God this morning. We come to Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4 verses 2 through 4. And as we open this section of scripture, I want to ask a question to lead us into this text. What words characterize your prayer life? How would you describe your prayer life? What words mark my life of prayer? What words mark the life of the prayer of the church body? Do words like steadfastness, watchfulness, thankfulness, honest, wrestling, reverence for God, time with our beloved Father, are these words that would mark our prayer life? Or words like, if we're just totally honest, undisciplined, infrequent, irreverent, or only when I feel like I need it, be a more apt description. You see, prayer, if we're honest, is typically an area where most of us as believers come to the text of the scripture and we realize we need growth here, right? We need growth in our life of prayer. We need growth in living in humble dependence before the Lord and coming before Him in our prayers. Because we see the scriptures teaching and then we look and we see that our own prayer life is not yet what it is supposed to be. It's not what we would like for it to be and a desire according to the scripture. And if I had you here this morning, I want to encourage you that learning to pray and be faithful to God here is not the journey of a couple months, but of a lifetime of sanctification. It is the journey of a lifetime of growth in the Lord Jesus Christ, just as we spend our entire lives growing in the knowledge of the Word of God, so we spend our entire life as believers growing in prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is where we come to the text of Colossians 4, because in Colossians 4, Paul outlines the request of prayer that he has for the church in Colossae, and he instructs them in prayer. Truthfully, if you look over verses 2 through 6 of chapter 4, you're going to see much about speech, right? Both prayer to God, speech towards God, but also our speech towards others as well. And Paul begins this section by talking about prayer because, of course, the matter of first importance is our speech, is our speech directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope that as we study this passage, it would be an encouragement to us as Christians to understand the wonderful privilege that prayer actually is and to come before God with hearts of joy, making our requests known before Him and coming before Him in reverence and awe and worship and delight as a good gift given to us by the Lord Jesus. And so if you're able this morning, stand with me as we read this passage. Colossians chapter four, verses two through four. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. You may be seated. I want to break up this passage under four main points here this morning. Point number one, praying with steadfastness. You see this in the opening of verse two, continue steadfastly in prayer. Now I think that this helps us tremendously in orienting our hearts in prayer. Why? Because if you're talking about something that you need to be steadfast in, that's something you have to have perseverance towards, right? It's something that you actually have to endure in. You have to remain dedicated to this. You have to be devoted to it. You have to be intentional about it. You have to do it whether or not you feel like it. The idea here is diligence. It's constant adherence. And so this helps us to see that prayer is actually something that we need to be intentional about in our walk in the Lord. It's a priority in the Inspired Scripture that we have persistence in prayer. However, as we see steadfastness, persistence, the reality of what this text is getting at in the opening, we see that in this text and that immediately confronts us. Amen, somebody, amen, right? We see that and it begins to confront us to realize the devotion that we need to the Lord. Because we see steadfastness and then we look at this text and we realize that does not characterize our lives for many of us. That does not describe our life of prayer, that the temptation of the flesh is we only pray whenever we're in a situation where we feel like we need to pray. We don't actually pray intentionally. We don't pray purposefully. We don't realize our constant need of God. And on that point, I want to show you something that I think is encouraging for us. Look over with me at Matthew chapter 26. Because we see this call is said fastest. We realize, at least for many of us, this is a call for growth, right? That's not something that is new. That's not something that is unique. Matthew 26 is where we see Jesus going to the Gethsemane to pray. He's there and he asks Peter and James and John to go with him. Now this is right before the crucifixion. The disciples, they've been invited personally by Jesus to go to pray with him. Okay, just stop right there before we read this text. Imagine that. Jesus, the day before the events of the crucifixion unravels, invites you personally to go pray with Him. Do you think you'd be motivated? Do you think you'd be ready to spend time in prayer? Do you think you'd be ready to watch? You'd be steadfast? You'd be dedicated in this? Well, that's not the case for the disciples. Look at Matthew 26, verses 39-40. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but as you will. We'll do a sermon on that part another time, okay? This is the point here we're getting at today. And he came to the disciples, verse 40, and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, So could you not watch with me one hour? Ouch, right? Ouch. They fell asleep even after Jesus asked them to pray. So you see the perfection of Christ on the one hand, the dedication of Christ. He's the one who comes before his father. He's the one who's driven to the father. He's the one who has that perfect relationship and who, by the way, always lives to make intercession for the saints today. That should be an encouragement to us. We see that here. But then we see the disciples. Totally different story. Tired, undisciplined, unable to stay awake, unable to be devoted in prayer. And for us as believers, if we're honest, this so often marks our prayer life. New year, new ideas for growth, we're gonna pray hard, we're gonna pray long. Day one, we get there, the coffee hasn't kicked in yet, we go to sleep. Or we forget what we were gonna pray about, or our minds drift off. But I have good news for you this morning. Because these same disciples who could not be steadfast in prayer, who could not stay awake here in Matthew 26, you go to the book of Acts and you see something different. Right, go to Acts chapter 1. I want you to notice this. Acts chapter 1, verses 13 and 14. Acts 1, 13 and 14. And when they had entered, they went to the upper room where they were staying, notice the names, Peter and John and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer. together with the women and marry the mother of Jesus and his brothers." So many individuals are listed here, but specifically you see Peter, James, and John are devoted to prayer. Same thing in Acts chapter 2. You fast forward, it says the church, no doubt including these leaders, is devoted to prayer, including other things. There is a great change that happened in the lives of these disciples. Between Matthew 26 and Acts chapter one, there's a great change that happens where these men go from being unable, even at the personal invitation of Jesus, to stay awake for one night, to now all of a sudden being marked in the inspired word of God as devoted to prayer. What a powerful change. A resurrected Savior. A resurrected Savior. that he goes to the cross, he's buried, he rises again on the third day, the disciples see the glory of the resurrected Lord, they are personally taught by the resurrected Lord, and now they are marked by a devotion to prayer. Brothers and sisters, if we are gonna be, point number one, steadfast in prayer, we first have to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and be changed by him. We first have to see the glory of the resurrected Savior in the pages of his word so that we would desire to come before God in prayer, realizing the remarkable privilege that it is because our hearts and our souls have been changed. Right? Which means, first of all, before you can get to prayer, you have to be born again by the power of the gospel. You've got to be saved through faith and repentance in Jesus. But then furthermore, growth in prayer happens in the life of a Christian as they grow in sanctification, knowing more of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because if you're sitting here this morning and you're thinking, my prayer life is lethargic, I go to sleep, I lose focus, I don't know what to do, I'm more marked by Matthew 26, well the same Jesus who changed Peter and James and John is still changing the hearts and souls of His people today. And that is good news for us here this morning, that Christ indeed will work in us to grow us in himself, to have a heart of devotion, to bring our requests before him, to thank him, to praise him, to worship him, and to walk with him in life. And that fuels us to be steadfast. That fuels us to be persistent. That fuels us to be devoted. Now that brings us here to point number two in this passage. Praying with watchfulness, right? So look at the rest of verse two. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it. What does it mean to be watchful in prayer? John McArthur has a helpful definition of this word that it's talking about alertness. It's talking about alertness. You're staying alert both to the need to come before God in prayer and that which needs to be prayed about. Isn't it amazing how in our lives as believers, when we are in a situation where we see what's going on around us and we really feel helpless, we come to God in prayer, right? Isn't that amazing how we tend to do that? Like this situation where this family member, they may not recover and we can't do anything about it, so we come before God in prayer. The situation where this lost person over here, who we know, we want to be saved, we're powerless to do that, so we come before God in prayer. Well, the truth is, as we are more and more watchful and we have our eyes not only on the needs around us, but on Christ, we understand that we're actually utterly helpless every single day. We are utterly helpless every single day. Why? Because Colossians 1, Christ is the one sustaining our life. And if it were not for the sustaining power of Jesus, we couldn't even take the next breath. And so the more alert you are to the glory of Christ and to the reality of your own need, of your own helplessness, the more that you are going to come before God in prayer and be watchful bringing things before Him. That your eyes, first of all, are on God, you're looking to Him, you understand the desperate need that you and I have of His grace, His power, His glory, and that leads you to be attentive in prayer. And we get this at a human level. We get this at a human level, right? Something happens in your life and you want to tell so-and-so about it. Hopefully if you're married, that's your spouse, right? Hopefully if you're married, that's your spouse. Something hard happens, something exciting happens, you're like, I can't wait to tell my husband, I can't wait to tell my wife about that. Can't wait to tell this family member or this friend about that. You're driven because you see an event that happens in life to communicate that in human relationships. What Paul is calling on us is not only a watchfulness that would pertain to seeing God, it's also a watchfulness that is open to what's going on in the world around us, that then we have a desire not only to communicate with other human beings, but to come before God in prayer about that. Come before God in prayer about that. Okay, you want an example of that, look back with me at Colossians chapter 1. This is an example of the Apostle Paul hearing about something that's going on in the world, seeing a need in the world, and that prompts him to pray. Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 12. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. This is watchfulness in prayer. having your eyes on God, being alert to the reality of our need for God, but also being alert to needs in this world. And in this case, Paul doesn't even know the church face to face. He hears about them, right? And he begins to pray for them and their need to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not just something that he did one time. Right? This is something, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you. He is repeatedly coming before the Father with an awareness of the need that they have to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our eyes should be focused on God. Our eyes, we should be watchful, we should be alert to the needs that are going on around us. Spiritual and physical. spiritual and physical. Right. We see this friend over here who is trying to share the gospel with this loved one. And they've shared about that and they've asked us to pray for them. So we're praying for them. We know about this church over here who's going through something difficult. So we're praying for the Lord Jesus Christ to build them up in the knowledge of his grace and to grow them in the word. We're praying for our families. We're praying for our spouse. We're praying for our churches, for our leaders, for our four rows and positions of authority. but we're also praying for spiritual transformation. I want you to ask this question. So Paul is watchful. He's an example in Colossians chapter one, verses nine through 12. He's an example of having eyes towards God, being alert to the needs around him. How does he know what to pray for a body he's never met? Because he's also watchful to the word of God. Right? He is watchful to the Word of God, knowing what it is that every single church needs. He's already equipped. Don't get me wrong, we need to listen to people to hear about their prayer requests. But we're also equipped by the power of the Scripture, which is sufficient to grow us in our understanding to know how to pray for individuals and churches. That's how Paul knows they need to be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Every church needs that. Every Christian needs that. And so because Paul is watchful to God, he's watchful to the needs around him, and he's watchful to the word, he is equipped to know how to pray for others. He's equipped to know how to pray for others. And all of these things are involved in being watchful to prayer. Our eyes are on God, our eyes are open. not being self-centered, but being focused on the needs around us, and our eyes are equipped with vision by the word of God to know how to pray. And that brings me to my third point here this morning. We see it at the end of verse two, praying with Thanksgiving. Praying with Thanksgiving. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with Thanksgiving. This part about thankfulness is so important, right? It's so important. And it really marks the attitude that we are to have as Christians. Because the Christian can have thankfulness even in the midst of trial, even in the midst of suffering. Now, I want to be clear on this, especially because we're talking about prayer. You can go read the Psalms. You can go read Matthew 26 where Jesus is praying before the cross, right? Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but your will be done. And there are examples of individuals praying from agony, praying from grief, praying from heartache, praying when the heaviness of the suffering of this world crashes in. And if you're walking through that kind of a situation, good news, you don't have to hide your grief from God in prayer. Bring it to Him. Bring it to Him. Bring the grief, bring the hardship, bring the suffering to Him in prayer and ask for His grace, ask for His power, ask for His comfort. Don't hide those things from Him. But even in those times, what Paul says here in Colossians 4, verse 2, helps us to see that the Christian can have an abiding thankfulness even in times of suffering. And I want you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter four on this. Hebrews chapter four, I think, helps us to see what drives the thankfulness, especially in prayer, especially whenever we're praying. What drives thanksgiving? Hebrews four, verses 14 through 16. Since then, since then, This is good. This is good stuff. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Talk about driving thankfulness. Talk about driving gratitude. Talk about driving joy in prayer. We're thankful because we have a great High Priest. We have the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and who died and who rose again for us as his people, who paid the price for our sins so that we might be set free, that we might be redeemed, and that we might have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, you've not come to faith, you've not come to a point of repenting of your sins and turning to the Lord, this passage summarizes the great hope that we have. This passage summarizes the hope of the gospel and that it is Jesus Christ who pays the price for our sins. He takes the penalty on himself and through the gospel, through the good news of salvation, he gives us his righteousness. that we come to him as needy sinners, we come to him realizing we are wretches in need of salvation and we cast ourselves wholly on his mercy and grace and he is faithful and just to give it. So that's you this morning, you don't know Christ, see the glory of who he is, is the great high priest without sin, who bore the sins of his people so that they might be set free and come to him for the forgiveness of your sins. Come to Him that you might be given life everlasting. But the amazing truth that we see that drives Thanksgiving and our prayers is that you and I as believers, we have eternal salvation, amen. But we have open access before the throne of God every single second. There will never be a moment as a Christian, after you have been born again by the power of the gospel, where you will not have access to the divine throne room for all of eternity. For all of eternity. That's not something that you're waiting on. You're not waiting to get to heaven to have access. You're not waiting for Christ to return to bring in the new creation. According to this text, you have access now, today, through prayer, to come before your Father because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And not only do we have access, we go there and therefore we find out there's somebody else praying for us, right? It's like, okay, it's good enough that you have eternal salvation. And then on top of that, you have access to the Father uninterrupted. And then when you get there, you find out Jesus Christ is already interceding for you. What blessing we have as believers. What amazing grace we have been shown. And I don't know, every specific situation that every person in this room is facing last week, today, next week, right? But I know that if you are a born-again Christian, you have access to the God who is sovereignly in control of all things. And you have access to the God of all comfort who promises to be with you as his people through the Lord Jesus Christ, guiding you and directing you and equipping you. And that fills us with thanksgiving. Listen to this quote from Paul Miller. If God is sovereign, then he is in control of all the details of my life. If he is loving, then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for good. If he is all wise, listen to this, then he's not going to do everything I want because I don't know what I need. If he is patient, then he's going to take time to do all this. He's gonna take time to do all this. This Thanksgiving is connected to the watchfulness and the persistence. time, realizing God's not always going to answer every single prayer as you ask it. He's better than that. He's better than that. He has perfect wisdom. He has perfect wisdom. And so as we come before the sovereign God, he's not only sovereign, he's perfectly wise. He's perfectly wise. And so in every request, even the hard ones, we trust that wisdom. And we have eternal thankfulness, even as we know grief and the afflictions. We have eternal thankfulness because we know He does all things well. He does all things well. And that leads me to my fourth point here today. We pray for intercession. Praying for intercession. Look at verses three and four. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the Word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak." This text helps us to see that our prayers are not all for ourselves. You do need to pray for yourself. You need prayer. You need to pray for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, for a humble heart of submission to obey the word, to grow in understanding. But our prayers are not all about ourselves. Our prayers are not centered on ourselves. Our prayers are centered on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we must pray for others. We must pray for others. And Paul himself asked them to pray, and that shows us that praying for other people needs to be a priority. But let me also throw this in there. Asking other people to pray for us needs to be a priority too. Right? I think that's a part of this text that we kind of skip over sometimes. We jump immediately to, look, we need to be interceding in prayer. We're going to talk about it in just a second. We also need to be asking other people to pray for us. Right? The local church should be a place of open and honest relationship and community where you have brothers and sisters that you can call, you can text, you can meet with, you can share at prayer meeting and Sunday school. This is how I need you to be praying for me. I'm going to share the gospel of this family member. I'm struggling with this temptation. I'm fighting this battle. I'm going to this doctor's appointment. I need to grow here. Right? This is a place where we need to be able, like the Apostle Paul, to ask others to pray. If Paul saw the need to ask other people to pray for him, how much more do I need people to pray for me? Right? I mean, we need to see that here in this text. However, What he shows us here is also the value of other people praying for others, right? And as your pastor, I'll say this, this is an encouragement to me, that people come up to me and they say, I'm praying for you. I'm thankful for that. I'm grateful for that. I cannot tell you how much that means that saints are bowing before the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer. That's something I'm grateful for in the heart of this church and even other believers outside of this church who I know who pray for me in my ministry and in life. But Paul, he specifically has prayer requests here. Notice him. First of all, he asks them to pray for an open door. That God himself would open the door for effective ministry. There's no open door for the work of the Lord apart from the Lord. There is no door to effectively serve the Lord Jesus Christ apart from him opening it. It is only by the grace of Jesus Christ that a door will be opened for the word of God, for the gospel to go forth and actually do something, right? I actually heard an illustration of this back a couple of weeks ago. I thought this was pretty brilliant. A seminary professor closes his class on preaching by taking his students to a graveyard and asking them to preach. It's effective, right? And the point of it is, here's what you have the ability to do in your own power, right? You have as much ability to do spiritual good to your hearers as you do to do something effective in raising these people from the dead. You are utterly dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ and His power and His grace working through His Spirit according to His Word to do anything profitable in the preaching and teaching and ministry of the Word of God. And that is Paul's point here, that is why he asks for an open door, because it is Jesus who opens the door, who sustains you through the door, and who completes what he wants on the other side of the door, amen? And so he asks for that. And number two, he specifically asks, once the door is open, to declare the mystery of Christ. That door opens for a specific purpose, and it is the glory of Christ. Now what is that mystery? Look back with me at Colossians chapter one. Colossians 1, verses 27-28. This is what Paul is focused on. This is what Paul desires. He wants to preach Jesus. He wants to see the Lord Jesus Christ glorified as the truth goes forth. And of course, this is the gospel going forth to salvation, but this is primarily in the context of his request here in the life of the church, believers being brought to even greater maturity. It's both. It's both. Right? We give thanks to God when the word goes forth and souls are saved. But brothers and sisters, it is the divine sovereign work of the Lord when you look around you in the life of the church and you see other Christians growing in maturity. That is the Lord opening the door and the Lord accomplishing his purposes through the glorious mystery of the gospel. But of course, you realize that this is Paul's request. This is what he's asking. But there's something very interesting about this. Where's Paul as he's writing this? Look at the end of verse 3, right? He says he's in prison. Verse 18, he asks them to remember his chains. So he's in prison asking for an open door for effective service to the Lord. That's not what we would expect. We would expect him to say, pray for me that a door might open for me to be released. Pray for me that an open door might be made for me to escape. But it's pray for me that an open door might be made for me to preach the mystery of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether that's in prison or that's in freedom, he wants a door for effective service to the Lord wherever the Lord points him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it would have been wrong for Paul to ask for them to pray for his release. Praise God whenever he releases a Christian from prison. It's a gift from the Lord. But the point is, Paul has the ability to see that whether he's there or he's out, he can still serve Christ. And that's true regardless of whatever situation you find yourself in. And a primary purpose of your prayer, right, if you're sick, you can pray, Lord, heal me. But don't forget to pray, Lord, through this, open a door of effective ministry for me to minister to these souls that you're putting me now in contact with that I did not know before. Pray for me to be a testimony of faithfulness. Pray for me to be a testimony of the work of the gospel. And that's exactly the heart that we see here in the Apostle Paul. Because sometimes that effective door for service and ministry comes not only after the removal of the suffering, but through the suffering and through the season of adversity. And so we see that here in this passage, and that brings us here to Paul's final request for prayer. In verse 4, "...that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak." Clarity. Clarity in the service of the Lord. Clarity for preaching. Clarity for teaching. Clarity for one-on-one ministry. Right, if you wanna know how to pray for pastors, you wanna know how to pray for teachers of the word, even in Sunday school, that's it, right? Clarity, boldness, uncompromising. But brothers and sisters, this is what we should pray for every member of the church. Every member of the church. Because the mission of clearly speaking the truth of the gospel does not belong only to pastors and elders and teachers. It belongs to the entire bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. that every single one of us should have a devotion both in how we speak and in how we live to live out a clear testimony to the message of Christ and to the reality of who he is and to the truth of the gospel. And so this should be our prayer for those who are, of course, publicly preaching the truth, but also for every single member of the church, that we would be a church body that we would be individuals who speak the truth and who don't do so in a confusing way. Who live the truth and don't do so where people say, man, I see you over here saying this, but man, you're really living out something else over here. but that we would be those, like the Apostle Paul is seeking for, who speak and live with great clarity. And I want us to close here as we bring this passage to a finish. Because I'm guessing as we walk through this and as we see all these points, we're probably all sitting here seeing an area where we need to grow in this way in prayer, we need to grow in that way in prayer. You don't feel like you're alone in that. spent all week with this passage, so I certainly feel that as well, that these growth areas in prayer, we're all seeking to honor the Lord in these ways. But I want to direct you to a text that I think is encouraging for us as we close. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Prayer is an area that we need to pursue in the Lord, but the truth is more than that. We need the power of God at work in us that we might glorify Him in how we pray. That this is not just about you and I seeing this passage and walking away saying, okay, I need to make sure I carve out my 30 minutes a day to pray. Right? Amen. Spend time intentionally in prayer. But this is about us recognizing the utter need that we have of the power of God to be at work in us that then prompts us to pray for His glory. And look at 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16-18. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. You see, really, prayer is about constantly walking with your Heavenly Father, constantly walking in dependence of and joy in the reality of who God is, and seeking to come before him without ceasing. Valsesing doesn't mean that you literally do nothing else, it is an attitude of constancy in prayer. Right? That you're coming before God, and as you're going throughout your day, you're praying before Him, for His power, for His grace, for His direction, for His wisdom. You're carving out intentional times to study the Word and pray, and as you're reading the Word of God, you're prompted to pray for others, as you see the need around you. You're prompted to pray. This is about a life of constant communion with, rejoicing in, and submitting to God himself. Because you'll notice, prayer is listed in 1 Thessalonians 5 right beside joy in Thanksgiving. Right beside joy in Thanksgiving. And so even as prayer is a discipline, and prayer is intentional, and prayer is something we must be diligent to, Prayer is a joy. Prayer is a joy. It is a joyous privilege that we have this access with God. And I pray that as we studied this passage and as we see the reality of Christ opening up this access for us, that we would rejoice in the gospel, that we rejoice in Christ, our high priest, who has now given us eternal access to the Father's throne, and that we would have a renewed devotion to live a life of constant communion with God, in prayer. If you have any thoughts, if you have any questions, any areas of your life that you need to discuss this morning, any areas that you would need prayer for, it would be my privilege to meet with you after services today and to discuss whatever may be on your heart or your soul here this morning. I'm gonna ask Brother Doug, if you would, to come and lead us in our closing hymn. Let's bow together in a word of prayer this morning. Father, we thank you for your grace to us. Father, I thank you for the heart of this church body to pray. to be driven by the Word, to come before Christ together, publicly, in Sunday school classes, on Wednesday nights, but also privately. And Father, as we read this passage, we realize the privilege that prayer is. We realize the joy that prayer is. And yet, Father, we realize that our lives don't always measure up to that reality. And Lord, where that's the case, I ask that you bring change, that you bring transformation, but that that change and transformation be driven by an awe of the glory of who Christ is and the privilege that it is that we have to come before him in prayer. And Father, I ask you to give us a renewed sense of that and that we would be thankful, that we would be watchful, that we would be steadfast in prayer for the glory and praise of your name. And Father, as some may be here today who have not come to know you savingly, I ask that you would bring them to yourself, that you would let them see the glory of Christ, the high priest, the one who died for our sins, and let them flee to him, finding forgiveness. And it's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.