Yeah. All right, well, good morning, everybody. Good to see you. Welcome to Liberty Bible Church. We're so glad that you're here today. We usually extend a welcome to anybody who's visiting and those who are tuning in online. Also, I came in this morning and it was clearly the Sunday after the Beast Feast. If you're visiting here today and you came in and it smells like a barbecue place, it's because yesterday there was a lot of wonderful meat here at Liberty. It's a great night and we're just so thankful for the time that God gave us yesterday. We're going to begin today by looking to Ephesians chapter 1. So if you're able, would you stand with us? We're going to look at verses 7 and 8 to get us started this morning to kind of align our hearts and our minds with what is true. says this in him that is jesus we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace which he has made abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence we're going to begin by singing the song redeemed and as we do feel free to just take a few moments and say hi to those around you Sing along with us. Redeemed how I love to proclaim. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus No language my rapture can tell I know that the light of His presence is with me I think of my blessed Redeemer I think of Him all the day long I sing for I cannot be silent This love is the theme of my song Amen, please be seated. Good morning. As we transition to our prayer and offering time, just a sad bit of news. Some may have already known, but Mark Fleming, a missionary that's been with us for decades, has terminal pancreatic cancer. And this is on top of multiple myelomas that he already has and some are aware of that. And he's chosen not to be treated. So we just need to be in prayer for Mark and that time when he will be fully redeemed in that song that we just sang. I know Mark knows that truth and he's been bought by the blood of the lamb. And so we can just pray for Mark and Nancy as they go through this trial. and just that he'll know the comforts of God through this. So with that, let's go ahead and go to Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, do thank you for this day, Lord. What a privilege it is to be here as a body of believers and to be able to worship you in song, in study of your word, be together and encourage each other, Lord. I pray that you challenge us, as we talked in Sunday school, just to challenge each other to grow in our spiritual walk and to be able to have growth that is pleasing to you and that we would continually to seek after you, your word, be able to display that to our family, our church body, our community, and just a wonderful thing that would be to be able to just watch and see each other grow. and knowledge of you. So I thank you for that. I thank you for just the ability to be here today. Thank you for Dan and Mark Witt that were with us last night at the Beast Feast and such a clear presentation of the gospel message and all of those in attendance. I pray for those that may never have heard the gospel so clearly or in such a way that was impactful for them that through those professions that were present last night that you would be with them, continue to be in their lives that they would seek after you and ultimately have that relationship with you for eternity, Lord. So we just pray for those men that were there, and ladies as well, that that message would go forth, Lord. Do pray for Mark and Nancy as they transition to this time and their maturity in you. Know that Mark is redeemed and he's been bought with your blood, Lord. But just pray for their comfort, some of the uncertainties that come with this and just to rest in you and be with the time that he has here and just some of these things that they'll be going through in these next few weeks, Lord. So we do pray for Mark today. Also, Lord, I want to thank of all the other missionaries that go about and hearing the reports that we see weekly. and knowing it's just an extension of a little part that we're able to do here at Liberty Bible and extension of your church at large and to be able to see your work throughout the world and what a blessing it is. So I do pray for all the other missionaries that are serving throughout the world today, Lord, that you would bless them as well, bless their efforts to be able to serve you and serve you well, Lord. Last Lord, I pray for Pastor Tom, that he would be able to speak your word and truth, and do it in a way that we can learn from that, use it on our own lives, and share with others, Lord. So I just pray that you would be at the message this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Lord our God, to you we come. Will you still hide your face? We cry before you, and on our knees we pray. Our sorrows leave us weak and worn, surrounded by our fears. We look to heaven through feeble faith and tears. our eyes, and our faith is turned to sight, till our thirsty souls are satisfied. How long, O Lord, how long? Our foes and enemies Lord, we are shaken and we are losing strength And our faith is turned to sight, Till our thirsty souls are satisfied. But we will trust your steadfast love. Your grace will be our song. You bring new mercies with every rising sun. And our faith is turned to sight, Till our thirsty souls are satisfied. Scripture reading today is going to be found in John, but not that passage. We're going to do John 9, 24 through 34. And so as you find that, if you could please stand with me. Again, it's John 9, 24 through 34. Therefore, a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. He then answered, whether he is a sinner, I don't know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. So they said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I told you already and you didn't listen. Why do you want to listen again? Do you want to become his disciples too? And they reviled him and said, you are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he's from. The man answered and said to them, well, here's a marvelous thing, that you don't know where he is from, but he has opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is God fearing and does his will, he listens to him. Since the beginning of time, it has never been heard that anyone has opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered and said to him, you were born entirely in sins, and you are teaching us, so they put him out. May God add a blessing to the reading of his word. Please remain standing as we sing our next song, and children are not quite dismissed yet, as we are going to observe communion shortly. Thank you. Amen. Yeah, and as we prepare for communion, we're going to sing Before the Throne of God Above. Abby's going to lead us in singing the song, so sing along with us. Before the throne of God above. A grey-eyed priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me. My name is driven on his hand. Satan tempts me to despair is free Behold Him, dear, the Risen Lamb, my perfect, spotless righteousness, the great, unchangeable I Am, the King of glory and of grace. But with Himself I cannot die, my soul is With Christ my Savior and my God. With Christ my Savior and my God. When with Himself I cannot die, my soul is cursed. Amen. Please be seated. Amen. Good morning. It's good to see everyone this morning. We're going to celebrate the Lord's table now. We use these little communion sets. If you'd like to be part of this today, if you need one of these, please raise your hand and we'll get one to you right now. Just keep your hands up high so they can see them and they'll just kind of walk down the aisles and catch you on the way back. As most of you know, and we maybe have some visitors here today, we practice an open Lord's table at Liberty Bible Church. That means you don't have to be a member of our church, but you should be a believer in Jesus Christ. Communion is a very special ordinance given to the church. It's only for believers. There's no special graces offered by this. You're not saved by taking the Lord's table. You're not receiving any special graces by partaking of the Lord's table. But for us, this is a reminder. This is a memorial of what Jesus Christ has done for us in providing salvation for us. So when we partake of these elements, the bread and the juice, that represents the body of Christ and the blood of Christ, and we remember His sacrifice for us. But we also take time to do a self-reflection, as the Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians who were using this improperly, this ordinance, and many had grown sick among them. Some had even died because they were partaking of it improperly. So the Apostle Paul said that it's a good idea to do a self-reflection before we partake of these elements. In other words, we take time to just kind of look inwardly to judge ourselves, as the apostle said, so that we would not be judged by God. And so we always take that time for self-reflection as we begin this ordinance, and then we partake of the elements together. So we'll begin that way today. We'll start with that time of silent prayer when you can just speak to God and let God speak to you. His Holy Spirit's really good at communicating with his people. He convicts us of things we need to repent of, things that maybe God wants us to work on in our lives. And then we can confess those things if we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a wonderful promise that is to us that God's grace is always sufficient We're not perfect, we never will be, but God just continually restores us and makes us right when we have those hearts of confession. So let's begin with that silent prayer and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. If anything comes to mind, just confess that and then we'll partake of these elements together in just a minute. Let's pray. Oh God, we are so thankful for your son that you sent to be the satisfaction for our sins, who came to this earth as both fully God and fully man, yet lived his life without sin, went to the cross, and carried the burden that we deserved, providing eternal life Lord, I am grateful that even though we're born again, we still aren't perfect, and you continually are there to teach us, to challenge us, to rebuke us, to love us, to restore us. Lord, so many things that we need to be more like Christ, and you provide them all. I'm grateful for this ordinance that We take time out as a church to corporately give thanks for your mercy and your grace and what Jesus Christ has done for us. And as we come today, We pray that we would remember His body in an honorable way, the fact that He came and demonstrated for us how to live. He came and loved the unlovely and sacrificed for us. Lord, we're grateful for His blood that was shed to pay for the penalty for our sins so that we don't have to worry about bringing sacrifices to worship. but we just simply come and praise you and glorify you for who you are and for what you've done. Lord, I'm thankful for each one that this morning has confessed into you, and I know that there were many. And we pray that they would remember the words of that song we just sang. Lord, that your love is so sufficient, so great, you continually love and restore us. We can turn our eyes to you and focus on you, Lord. Thank you for that. I pray that they would be able to do that, that they would find victory as they keep their eyes on Christ. Thank you again for this ordinance. Thank you for each one partaking today. We give you the praise and the glory in Jesus' name, amen. Well, if you'd take your little container and open it up and take the little piece of bread out, as I prayed, this represents the body of Christ. Jesus Christ came to this earth physically as both God and man. He gave up some of the uses of his body. godly attributes, but he did not give them up. He was fully God and fully man at the same time. And he lived the perfect life. He took the ridicule, the punishment, the pain that we deserved in order that we might have salvation through him. So as we practice this ordinance, the Lord at that last supper with his disciples, he said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Then if you'll flip this over, your little set there, and carefully tear off the top. The juice represents the blood of Christ. Of course, at the Passover, that third cup represented the blood of the lamb that was shed and placed on the doorposts of the house of the Jews when they were in Egypt. They celebrated each year God's deliverance of the death of the firstborn by celebrating the Passover. But at this Passover feast with his disciples, The Lord talked about a new covenant, a new covenant in his blood, a new agreement that when we have this blood, metaphorically covering the doorposts of our lives, our hearts, that we will have eternal life and death will pass by us. When we leave this world, we enter immediately into the presence of Christ in a spiritual state until the rapture of the church when we receive our glorified bodies. But that's what we're remembering, the blood of Christ, the sacrifice that He made that made salvation possible for those who would believe. those that would choose to trust in him that his blood is sufficient. His blood is what provides for us that eternal life when we have faith in this and in this alone. So after the bread, the Lord took the cup and he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Amen. We will have one more song before the message, and the children and their teachers may be dismissed to Children's Church. Thank you. O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, greatest treasure of my longing soul, my God, like you there is no other. so well, too deep to fathom. Your love exceeds the heavens' reach. Your truth of fountain-perfect wisdom, my highest good and my O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, strong defender of my weary heart, my sword to fight the cruel deceiver, and my shield ♪ When tides of sorrow rise ♪ My joy when trials are abounding ♪ Your faithfulness my refuge in the night ♪ O Lord, my rock Gracious Savior of my ruined life My guilt and cross laid on Your shoulders In my place You suffered, bled, and died You rose the grave and bared the cross Amen. That should be all of our prayers. Well, we had a great night last night at the Beast Feast, and actually one of our speakers is still here. Mark at. There's Mark right there. Mark Witt, he was one of the speakers. The other was his brother, Dan. They kind of tag-teamed in a really unusual way, telling their story and then sharing the gospel. They do a wonderful job. This is the second time we've had them here, so if you get a chance after the service, greet Mark, and if you don't know their story, ask him about it. I'm sure he'd be happy to tell you. I think about several people came to Christ last night. They gave away about 25 Welcome to the family books that they have. We'll be following up on any of those names that we received from that this week. So it was a really good night. We had a group here from Gibson City Bible Church, a handful of guys that came up, drove up with Tom Bennett. And Tom had told them about this Beast Feast. Some of those guys came. I talked to one of them. They're interested. Their new pastor wasn't able to come, but they're interested in starting something similar to what we have at their church. And so we're gonna be connecting with them a little bit and seeing if we can help them get some ideas on how they could put together an outreach like that for their church. I think we had maybe, I don't know, I'm guessing 400 men and women here last night that were part of that, had lots of good food, gave away a lot of fun prizes and different things like that. So it's really a blessing to be able to go to that and invite some of your unsaved friends, coworkers, family, and they can come and hear the gospel. So I wanted to go on, and we're gonna finish our section we started on prayer last week, and I wanna make sure I really nail this down in the next 25 minutes or so. So I'm not gonna do a lot of review on that first half. I put those blanks on the notes for you, those of you that weren't here last week, so you can. look at that as we review through this here quickly. We started out with the question is how many of us are really satisfied in our prayer lives? And I think most of us, without raising our hands, would say we could do better. We could be better prayer warriors for the Lord. And so we were kind of looking at a few verses here in the gospel of Luke where the Lord was in the garden and he was praying on the night that he was going to be arrested and betrayed. And the first thing we talked about last time was the power of prayer. We talked about the power to overcome temptation, and it's really through prayer that we have that ability to do that. We have that unusual power from God anytime and anywhere. We don't have to be in a certain place. It doesn't have to be at a certain time. We don't have to go through anybody special. We can do it anytime and anywhere and the reason we can do that is because of this unique power that's granted to us by the Holy Spirit of God and because we have an intercessor in Christ. We have a unique person that's praying along with us and for us that sits at the right hand of God. And because we have that unique person, we can have a unique peace. We talked about that. Even though we're in the midst of trial, we're in the midst of chaos, we as believers in Christ can experience a unique peace because of Jesus. And then last we talked about the power to be bold, to be bold witnesses for Christ. How the Apostle Paul prayed for that power. He wanted other believers to pray for him to have that power so that even though he's in prison, he's able to have boldness and witness for Christ. So we've got this really unique power. that's granted to us as followers of Christ to pray. So that's kind of what we talked about in a nutshell, a real small nutshell, last week. And I want to go on today and talk about the pressure of prayer. the pressure of prayer. Now I want to talk to you about my prayer life before I was a Christian, because I prayed every day when I was a child. I was taught to pray growing up. So there were basically three prayers that I prayed as a child. The first one, and some of you may know these, there's the food prayer. Do you remember that, when we prayed for our food? God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food. By his hand, we all are fed. Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen. Anybody ever pray that prayer as a child? Anybody still praying that prayer today? I mean, theologically, it's not a bad prayer. I mean, when you break it down, just looking at that prayer theologically, comes kind of right from the Lord's prayer. I mean, just asking God to provide our daily bread and being thankful for that, that's not a bad prayer. But number one, I wasn't a believer. Number two, I just cranked it out because I couldn't eat till I said that prayer. And I probably said that prayer even after I was saved for a while when I was in the Air Force, because it just got me to the grub quicker, you know, because I just needed to be thankful for my food. Then the other prayer was the going to bed prayer. You know, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen. And then I would add on, you know, when I got spiritual and I got older, I'd add on God bless, you know, my mother and father, my sisters and brother, my grandpas and grandmas, my aunts and uncles, and I'd say that, and then I would say, Amen. That was my going to sleep prayer. So those two prayers were pretty much every day. That was the core of my prayer life. But then, being a good Lutheran, we also placed great value on the Lord's Prayer. And so we prayed the Lord's Prayer every Sunday in church. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, debts, whatever church you're from, right? So it's a little bit different. That always throws people, you know, because when you say debts, trespasses, I'm not really sure. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. a great prayer. Why is it a great prayer? Straight from the scriptures. That's what Jesus gave as a model prayer for his disciples. Teach us to pray, Lord. And he gave them that prayer to teach them to pray. Now, I think sometimes where we get a little bit off is we think, if we just pray that prayer, we're good to go. As long as we say that, that's all we gotta say. I got my food prayer, I got my sleep prayer, I got my church prayer, and after that, I don't really need any more prayer. And that's kind of what I was stuck in. Then I became a believer, and I went away to the Air Force, and I got involved with a group called the Navigators. And the Navigators were very challenging when it came to scripture memory and quiet times. I was introduced to that term quiet times, or we call them devotions, where you spend time with the Lord each day in studying the word and memorizing verses. and in prayer, and we had a day of prayer. I was introduced to days of prayer where we would go out and we would try to pray throughout the day, praying for anything that we could think of that God laid upon our hearts in preparation for that. And that's where I really learned about the pressure of prayer. It's not easy. It is a hard exercise. It is a very hard exercise. And I've learned over the years that I'm not alone. And I believe that this is probably one of the reasons why many Christians struggle with prayer is because it's hard. There's a lot of pressure that comes with prayer. So, let's talk about the pressure of prayer, and before we officially start here, I wanna pray. That's my intro, and I'm gonna pray, and we're gonna roll right through these two points, and we'll conclude this section. Lord, thank you for prayer. It is a great gift. It is a great tool. It is a great weapon. And it is a great challenge, Lord. Forgive us for not being as successful as we would like to be in it. Thank you for providing for us in our weakness the Holy Spirit who prays for us and groanings too deep for words. Thank you for giving us your son to sit at your right hand to be our advocate in prayer. Lord, you've provided as much easy tools that we need to pray, and yet we still sometimes let you down, and probably more than that, we're probably letting ourselves down, demanding more maybe than you even expect at times. But I pray that you'd help us to understand this today and help us to understand how we can strengthen our prayer life and really be satisfied with our connection with you in this most special and unique way. And we'll give you the praise in Christ's name, amen. Well, let's start with the fact that Jesus felt the pressure as well. I'm gonna go back to verse 39 and read up and then just jump right into verse 42 there. And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples also followed him. Now when he arrived at the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and began to pray, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Does that bother anyone? I'll have to be honest, that bothers me just a little bit, that Jesus, who knew perfectly well what he had to do, he knew perfectly well what he was here to do, why did he pray that? If it's possible, remove this cup from me, and I have found in reading that I am not alone. in asking that question. Let me answer it this way. I've already said today Jesus was fully man and he was fully God at the same time. Sometimes when Jesus is speaking, you can see God in him and sometimes when Jesus is speaking, you can see his humanity. and how real he really was, and why we can trust him to identify so well with us. He knew exactly what he was up against. but still he asked this question. But in this temptation, he never wavered at his commitment to the will of the Father. He didn't try to argue with God. He didn't try to change the plan. We just see a little bit of his humanity in his prayer when he says, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Then his next words were, yet not my will, but yours be done. You remember we compared Jesus a little bit to Adam last week, where Adam, the first Adam, was tempted in the garden and he succumbed to that temptation. The last Adam was tempted in a garden and he overcame his temptation. The first Adam brought sin and death. The last Adam brings eternal life to us. Unlike Adam who succumbed, Jesus was first and foremost committed to following the will of God. He chose to follow God's will, even though the pressure was so great upon him, the temptation was so great upon him. In verse 43, now an angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him. Only Luke, only in Luke's gospel does he record this part of the garden experience. We don't know specifically what the angel did or why Jesus needed that ministry. Perhaps it was to wipe him off. wipe the blood off of his brow that we're gonna talk about in just a minute, or maybe it was to give him a drink, we don't know. But we do know the pressure was great enough that God sent an angel to minister to him as he poured out his heart to his heavenly father before his arrest. And being in agony, he was praying very fervently, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Adam would survive by the sweat of his brow. Another comparison between the first Adam and the last Adam, Genesis 3.19, that was part of the curse on mankind. Adam, you will now survive by the sweat of your brow. You're gonna have to work to survive. Before you had the entire garden to eat from, but now you're gonna have to work by the sweat of your brow. Jesus would bring us life through his shed blood, which first was sweat out of his brow. I've heard some Commentators try to explain this away because Luke says it was like great drops of blood coming out of him. I don't think it was like drops of blood. I think it was drops of blood that Jesus was sweating because of the intense pressure that was upon him. So I look this up. And one of the simplest articles I found was on WebMD, and it turned up some interesting facts about how someone can sweat blood. It's called hematidrosis, or hematopoietic hemorrhage. Hematohidrosis, it's a very rare medical condition that causes you to ooze or sweat blood from your skin when you're not cut or injured. Doctors don't know exactly what triggers hematidrosis in part because it's so rare. They think it could be related to your body's fight or flight response. Tiny blood vessels in the skin break open. The blood inside them may get squeezed out through sweat glands or there might be unusual little pockets within the structure of your skin. These could collect the blood and let it leak into the follicles where your hair grows or on to the skin's surface. Yeah, it's possible. It's medically possible that Jesus' sweat drops of blood. Is it connected to your fight or flight response? Certainly that response in his human flesh would have been highly triggered on this night. We get a sense of the type of pressure that Jesus was under. from that statement, that he sweat great drops of blood. No doubt, this is why an angel was there to minister to him and to reassure him. Jesus was feeling intense pressure. So if Jesus over here on this side of the garden was feeling such pressure from his battle, then what were his disciples feeling on this side of the garden with their intense battle with temptation that they were facing? I mean, here's their Lord over here. Here's the Savior of the world doing battle with Satan himself. They're over here with their own temptations, their own battles that they're facing on this night. with no doubt some of Satan's minions. And in verse 45, Jesus is sweating blood. And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow. They were sleeping from sorrow. They had fallen asleep from, basically, the word is the word that's for depression. They were very, very discouraged on this night. Jesus had made it clear that this was going to be a difficult night for them all. They were going to betray him. He was going to die. Now they're in the middle of the night after a week, no doubt, when they have been exhausted from ministry, and they were discouraged. It was an intense battle for them as well as for Christ. Now, we might look at that and say, well, how intense could it be? They were sleeping. Why is it that when people are suffering from severe depression, they don't want to get out of bed? It drains the person emotionally, spiritually, and physically so that it becomes very difficult for them to function. And the disciples were there. They were succumbing to all of these temptations, including exhaustion, after their busy week, and now the middle of the night, they did not know what lie ahead. Jesus is praying and sweating great drops of blood. And they fell asleep. I'm not gonna judge them for that. I have before, I'm not gonna do that anymore. Is it a sin to fall asleep in the middle of prayer? Only one time. When Jesus asks you to pray and you fall asleep, then you're sinning in prayer. Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and you can't go back to sleep and you're just burdened with someone or something or some experience and then you pray for that? Because that's what you've learned as a believer when you're burdened about something, we pray. And then you pray. How many of you, when you don't, you don't have to raise your hand, but how many times when you pray during that, that after you've prayed a while, you find yourself waking up and it's morning, that you fell asleep during that prayer? I do that often. Often when I'm awake at night, I start to pray through the prayer guide that's just stuck in my head, and I can just look at each section, I can see the names, and I'm praying for those things, and all of a sudden it's morning, and I wake up. I think there's times when God calls us to pray when it's the middle of the night. Why does He do that? Why doesn't He let us sleep? It's hard enough to sleep as it is. Why does He do that? I think because that's when we're quiet. That's when our lives are quiet and we're not inundated with all this other information that's constantly pounding us, but we can just relate to God without the distraction of phones and kids and work and all of these other worries that we have jumbling up our lives from day to day. God will wake us up and say, pray right now about this. And so we pray and then we find ourselves resting. If you wake up at night and God places someone on your heart, don't turn away from that. Make sure you pray right then. And you might find yourself resting much easier. In verse 46 then finally, He said to them, why are you sleeping? Rise up and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Jesus is sweating great drops of blood. They fell asleep. They should have been praying along with him. They didn't. He questions them. This is the second time in this section that Jesus asked them to pray so that they may not enter into temptation. The more alert and prayerful we are during temptation, the better chance we have that we will not fall into sin. But we cannot sleep either when we're awake or physically when it's time to pray. We need to pray first, then rest. And it's hard. Prayer is hard. You're not going to walk away from this today and go, wow, he gave me the magic answers. I am now number one prayer warrior. That's not going to happen. I'm going to give you some ideas. but a lot of it comes from you and your connection with the Lord and those times you spend with him. So let's talk about some points where we can make prayer easier or more satisfying as we pray. We know there's great power. We know there's pressure. So how can we make sure that we're in a position to be successful in this? Number one, we need to make sure that God is listening. Wait a second, now you're talking gibberish to me. I thought God is everywhere at all times and there's nothing that passes him. That he's always there, he's always willing to listen. Well, I think he hears. But he doesn't always listen with the intent of acting. Because there are some stipulations. What prevents God from listening? Well, number one, if you're not a believer, God's not gonna hear your prayers. The only prayer that God is gonna hear of an unbeliever is a prayer of repentance unto salvation, where you repent of your sins, you change your mind about who you are, who God is, what Jesus did, he died for you, he rose again for your sins, and you receive him as your savior. God's all about that prayer. He wants to hear that prayer from an unbeliever. But otherwise, unbelievers that are just praying for disasters and tragedies because it somehow gives them a false sense of peace in the midst of it, or they can't understand why it doesn't or why God isn't answering, it's because they don't know Him. They don't know Him. They've never exercised faith in Christ. So that's a possibility. The other possibility is we're believers, but we've chosen a pathway of sin that has separated us from God, to where we have that broken relationship. We talk about Revelation chapter three, where Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door, knock. He's knocking on the door of Christians that have wandered away from him. He wants back into that fellowship circle. We've shoved him out of that circle. Let me read to you a few, just a few verses in John 9, verse 31. We read this this morning, it was part of our scripture reading. This is what the man who had been born blind and now could see shared with the religious leaders. He knew this truth from the scriptures, from listening as a blind man. In verse 31, we know that God does not listen to sinners. I don't know how it could be stated any plainer than that. We know God doesn't listen to sinners. But if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him. So those that are believers in God and do his will, God hears. Jeremiah chapter 29. This section is about the nation of Israel, but it's a good lesson for Israel to understand this. In Jeremiah 29, beginning in verse 11, it says, for I know the plans that I have for you, declares Yahweh, plans for peace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. You see, the nation was going to wander. They were wandering into sin. And God was not listening any longer to them. They were going to go into captivity and judgment because of their rejection of Yahweh. And they're turning away from Him. In John chapter 15 and verse 7. Jesus said, if you abide in me and my words, abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Two big statements there before ask whatever you wish. One is you have to abide in Christ, you're born again. Number two, it says that his words must abide in us, we're serving him, we're following him, we're in obedience to the word of God. Two big things before you can ask whatever you want. We like to look at the you can ask whatever you want, and we forget the first two. We can't forget the first two. Last one, Proverbs 28 verse nine. He who increases, excuse me, wrong verse. He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination. Because we've turned away from the law. We no longer want to listen to God. So if we wanna have robust prayer lives that are effective, we have to make sure that God is listening. We have to know Christ, we have to be willing to be obedient to Christ. Secondly, another way that we can, so you're doing those things, you're seeking to be obedient, you're a believer in Christ. Secondly, I think it's important when we're struggling to ask others to pray for us in our prayer. You know, pray that I'll have a better prayer life. or pray with us. Accountability is such a good thing when it comes to prayer, and not just hanging out on our own, but praying with other people. Even in our devotional times, it's good to have that accountability. You don't have to always pray out loud, but I think, it's been my experience in ministry, that many times, others are emboldened when they hear people pray for them. Who doesn't like to hear somebody praying for you? Is there anybody that really annoys you to hear somebody praying for you? Well then remember, everybody around you feels the same way. Why not be the person, when you know they're struggling, to step up next to them and say, let me pray for you. And let them hear you pray for them. Let them hear God's love for them. Let them hear your love for them. And even though they might be ones that struggle in prayer, you know what they're gonna learn? They're gonna learn how to pray from hearing you pray. I think it's so important that we're accountable to one another when it comes to prayer. Thirdly, When in a group, and I know a lot of people are intimidated by group prayer and we don't want to do group prayer because we feel like we have to pray out loud and we're afraid of it sometimes. And I understand that because I've been in that place before in my Christian life. But one thing that we like to do in my office sometimes when we pray on Wednesday night is we pray conversationally. Does anybody know what conversational prayer is? The guys that come and pray with me sometimes when we do that, you know what conversational prayer is. Conversational prayer is where you don't pray a big long list of things. You just pray for one thing. Just one thing. Maybe one sentence, maybe two, you're out. You're done. And then somebody else that has a burden to pray, they'll jump in with their their prayer, their request. And we can go through the prayer guide doing those just conversational prayers back and forth. And you're not done just one time. If you wanna pray twice, you can pray twice. You wanna pray three times, you pray three times. But there's only one time because I think sometimes we think, okay, I got the prayer mantle right now. I gotta pray for five minutes. I don't know if I can hold out that long. So nobody wants to pray out loud. Try just one prayer request, just one thing. Just try that, just start there with one request, and the whole group just does one request, and you do this conversational prayer. So you're talking to God and each other as you pray together, and it battles three Fs, the three Fs that kill prayer. You might wanna write these down, the three Fs that kill prayer. Number one is fatigue, fatigue. When you're tired. and you're in a room of 10 people, and it's nine o'clock at night, and you're praying together, and you start, you're number one, you pray for your three minutes, your five minutes, whatever, and then you got eight more people to go. You're in Z land in about two minutes. It's hard to keep that focus, right? Now, I know I'm not the only one that does this. So I know we can all, so conversational prayer battles that fatigue that you feel. Your sentences, so you keep more alert to what's happening and you're more attentive to the Holy Spirit and what he might be leading you to pray on. So that's the next F that becomes problematic at times, is focus. It's focus. We lose our focus, because now all of a sudden I'm thinking, okay, it's this time, I gotta go pick up my kids pretty soon, am I gonna make it? We start losing our focus, and when it's conversational, your focus stays more tight on what you're trying to do. And when you're having a conversation, if you need to get your kids, go get your kids. Just get up and walk out of the conversation, just like you would if you were having a conversation with people in the hallway. But when you're waiting for your turn, you're not sure they're even going to get to you to get that done. And so you feel bad if you leave or so maybe I should go first because I got to cut out or just do the conversational. You don't have to worry about that. You battle fatigue, you battle focus. The third is you battle fear. Fear is another one. Nobody can hold out praying for five minutes. but I can pray one request. I know I can do that. I can pray for one thing, and one thing then will lead to a second time you jump in, or maybe a third time. Before long, you find out you're praying five minutes on your own, or with your family, or whatever, because you've battled those three Fs with conversational prayer. Last one, and then we're out. The prayer guide, how many of you look at the prayer, don't raise your hands, I don't wanna know. But how many of you, not just take a prayer guide, but look at the link that I send out. If you get the emails, you get the link. You could get a link from two years ago and it's gonna take you to the most current request, which I just updated before I came out here this morning. I updated the prayer guide with new items. I try to do that every day or two. Cindy and I work together on that as we're probably in touch with a lot of people in the church where other staff will tell us, hey, did you hear this? And we'll get that on the prayer guide. And we'll work together on that. This becomes really, really a good tool to look at. We try to, the newer things are in red, the others are in black. Not unimportant, they're just been there longer. So we've got some things coming up this week. Dave Miller, our board chairman, is having surgery on Wednesday, getting a knee replacement. Bo, as he's still scheduled for Thursday this week, he's having surgery, Bo Reuter, to remove his gallbladder. We've got some things coming up in a couple weeks. I updated the Fleming one. That was really sad to hear about Mark, our friend Mark. What a wonderful, godly man, and he's getting an early reward. We've got Chris Karius on there. I see she's not here today. She's had a suspected blood clot. Some of our missionaries have some needs, some items on the other side. So if you're not on our prayer guide and you wanna pray for the church, just say, hey, here's my email, pastor, text it to me, email it to me, my email's in the bulletin, and say, put me on there, I wanna pray for people, send me that link, and I can get you that link, and then you can check that every couple days, and you can be praying for people in the church. It's a wonderful way to connect with our church. It really is, to get to know people as we pray for them. One last quote, and then I'm done, from Jonathan Edwards, a great preacher. In relation to prayer, he said this to his church. This leaves us without excuse for our failure to pray with both fervency and frequency in public, of course, but even more so in private. Only hypocrites Neglect to pray when no one is looking. They may continue for a while in the duty of prayer, yet, tis their manner after a while in a great measure to leave it off. Only hypocrites neglect to pray when no one is looking. That's Jonathan Edwards, said that. We want to do better at prayer. We all want that. I know I want that. What we need to do is admit that it's hard, get some help, and seek to improve. It's like all areas of our Christian life. If we don't do anything, nothing's going to change. And I think you'll find as you follow the Lord, and as you seek his will, prayer will become easier. And before you know it, you will be praying more, and you will find that you are more satisfied. So, very simply, Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the great gift of prayer. Forgive us when we fail. Forgive us when we're fearful. Just help us to just do it and learn from you and find the great joy and satisfaction that's found in communicating with you through prayer. Amen. How deep the Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That He should give His only Son to make As time turns space away As moons reach for the chosen one Bring many suns to I sit upon these shoulders Ashamed I hear my mocking voice It was accomplished This dying breath has brought me life I know that it's extremist I will As we conclude, just a few announcements. Missionary prayer reminders. If you signed up to pray for a missionary on a specific day, there are reminder cards in your mail slots, and if not, don't despair. There's a whole wall of missionaries back there. You can pull a card, put it in your vehicle for a commute, put it in front of your computer, and you can do the same. Tonight, or today, actually, the Fishers and Men, Adult Sunday School class, they began a new interactive expository study of the book of Isaiah. And they are looking at evangelism and discipleship. That would be in the room directly behind us. And then, likewise, the room that's above started a new study as well, and it's about growth, or Christian growth and sanctification. Tonight at 6.30, Family Bible Hour, Hebrews. No one said it would be easy. Monday, the Blood Drive will be here from 1 to 6. You can sign up on the bulletin board to help by volunteering at a specific time or bring a crock pot of chili. Tuesday, Life Club will be here at 8.30. And then Thursday, February 15th, Family Roller Skating Night, 6 to 8 at the Morton Roller Rink. And you can sign up on the bulletin board if you plan to attend, I believe. I am up here to introduce a couple new members, but I'm not sure that they made it. They were supposed to, but is Will here? Will Grock, you here? Okay, I don't see Will. What about Zach and Tara? They were having some physical things yesterday, so they maybe didn't make it. So, get them next time. Thanks. As always, elders will be in the room right behind us for prayer or questions after the ceremony. Amen would you stay with us for the benediction today? We're going to hebrews chapter 13 Verse 20 and 21 says this. Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. And everybody said? Amen. Have a blessed Lord's Day. You are dismissed. You're the resurrection that we've waited for You buried the night and came with the morning You're the King of Heaven, the praise is Yours