We began together on Sunday morning in the adult Sunday school hour to develop our discussion of missions and the vital role that we play as believing people in the missionary movement and particularly in the missionary effort and ministry of the local assembly. We considered, first of all, the expected responses to missions based on Matthew 13, as the Lord Jesus prophesied for us, really, exactly how people would respond to the gospel. that there would not always be the same response, that there would not always be a positive response, there would not always be a negative response, and that the positive responses would vary in their intensity, in their fruitfulness. bearing 30-fold, 60-fold, and 100-fold. Then we turned our attention in the morning on the Lord's Day to talk about the heart of Christ for missions from Luke 15, verses 1 through 32. And we looked at the three parables of the lost things, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, sometimes called the prodigal son, that are presented one after another by the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 15, the longest passage in the Bible about having a heart for pursuing lost people. That being the very foundation, the very root, the basis on which not only local church evangelism occurs, but on which international evangelism occurs. Then Sunday evening, we turn to our attention to the great power for missions. What is the strength in the believer's life? And we begin by looking at 1 Corinthians 15, verse eight through 10, and noted that Paul said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And he continued to say that he labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. And this dear man spent 12 years traversing the Roman Empire, visiting 30 different cities and planting churches all over. And what did he say was the strength or the power behind that? It was the grace of God that was operating in his life, and we discussed how that grace is acquired as a believer, how it is developed as a believer, and how it results in remarkable impact and influence. Reality is, most of us don't go to the mission field. Reality is that we're all supposed to be great commission living people. We aren't all Pauls, but we are to be people who are fulfilling Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20, where we're told to go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things as we've been taught and as we've learned from the Lord according to what the scriptures teach. Now if that's our obligation, that we are to be people who are to be great commissioned people, what is the single most important ministry you can perform as a Christian person for the spread of the gospel, for the upbuilding and strengthening of those who actually are sent, those who actually do go. What is it you can do? I call this the hidden ministry of missions. And it's hidden in the sense that it is this ministry that is not done publicly before other people necessarily, not even in groups. It's a very much a private kind of ministry, but of incredible impactful significance. It's the ministry of intercessory prayer for those that are called by God to carry out the mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now you're looking on the screen and seeing a kind of strange word, epiphrastic intercession. You maybe have never heard that before. That's because I've made that word up. I made it up out of a name that occurs in the book of Colossians. And we're gonna look to the book of Colossians now this evening together in Colossians 4. and consider from Colossians 4 verse 12 and 13 some fascinating instruction about epiphrastic intercession as vital to the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a kind of intercession that we all can engage in and should engage in as believing people. The word epiphrastic comes from a character's name that's presented here in the passage we're gonna consider in Colossians 4, 12, and 13, epiphras. You know, we're blessed beyond measure, almost beyond belief with all that men have taught and what they have written about the ministry of intercessory prayer. To be honest, there's nothing that I hear pastors and evangelists and even good godly Christians generally bemoan more than the lack of serious, intense intercessory prayer among Christian people. It's just common. The subject comes up over and over again in conversation. And even as I say that, you might even in your own heart right now kind of shrink a little bit, kind of draw back a little bit because you say, you know, as a Christian person, I really love God and I love people and I want to obey those two greatest commandments in the scriptures. But I know that my ministry of praying for other people, I just am really not at all satisfied with it. It isn't in my view what it ought to be. You know, that's actually a good place to start. It's a good place to start if in fact that is true about you. To come to an honest assessment that there's some serious improvement that can be made. There's some serious change that can happen and I promise you that change happening will result in incredible change in the spread of the gospel, in the empowerment of men of God and women of God who are sent forth to spread the gospel. As I mentioned, there are many very useful books. I'm thinking of a little book called The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray, which actually, to be honest, more than the Bible itself, more than any other book other than the Bible, it reads like and feels like the Bible when I read it. I've read that book actually several times because of that. It is compelling. It is encouraging. Andrew Murray was himself a missionary, pastor, evangelist in South Africa, a man of tremendous vision in the 19th century, and spread the gospel far and wide throughout that part of the continent of Africa. But another really interesting book I read about intercessory prayer, prayer in general, but intercessory prayer especially, is a book by a man named G. Campbell Morgan, and it's called The Practice of Prayer. Now I'm mentioning these things because I want to get your curiosity up. I wanna think beyond what we're doing for the moments that we're here together tonight. I'm gonna talk for the next 35 minutes or so approximately, and then we're gonna be departing, and we'll be back together tomorrow evening, but I won't be talking about this anymore. There's a lot to know, a lot to learn, a lot to grow in concerning the subject of intercessory prayer. Campbell Morgan, in his little book, The Practice of Prayer, has a little introductory page. And it really caught my attention right off the bat when I first opened up that book. And here's how it reads. To Marianne Adlard, one of the hidden workers, who endures as seeing him who is invisible, and who in secret labors by intercession with those who preach the word. Now, it wasn't until later in the book, considerably later, near the end of the book, that I learned who this woman was, this one who labored in secret by intercession for those who preached the word. Turns out that Marianne Adlard was a member of Campbell Morgan's church. Morgan was pastoring in London, England at the time. She had been an invalid, bedridden, all of her adult life. because of illness. Early in her life, she was the member of a church pastored by a man named Lessie, Pastor Lessie. And it turns out that Mary Ann Adelard had gotten a hold of a Christian paper magazine, and she learned about the famous ministry of D.L. Moody in America and all the revivals that were occurring there, and she began to pray that God would send D.L. Moody not just to England, but to her church to preach the gospel, and began praying this fervently for a significant period of time. And yes, when Moody went to England, he did meet Pastor Lessee, and he did perform a preaching ministry there, crusade there, and at the conclusion of the time of his preaching, there were over 400 people that had been converted to Christ. He talked to the pastor and said, I've not seen anything like this in any single church this way. This is remarkable. He said, what do you attribute this to, pastor? He said, well, I think I can tell you what's behind this. It's Marianne Adlard. She's been praying for you to come here for a long time to preach the gospel. And later Moody testified that he was convinced that in fact, it was due to the prayers of that woman, not only that he came to England, but that he came to that church. And there was such a profound effect in the preaching of the gospel. Now, This happened many years ago. We're talking about something out of this century. We're talking about something pre-20th century. And when we tell old stories like that, I think there's a temptation to feel that we're kind of dealing with an antiquated subject and something that is really not as relevant and realistic as we would want it to be today. But I want you to consider the fact that the epiphrastic intercession, this kind of intercessory praying for the spread of the gospel is a timeless thing. Listen to the words of Paul that he states concerning the Romans in chapter one, verse eight. He says, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all. Who is he thanking God for? People that have been reached with the gospel as a result of his prayers. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 4, speaking to the Corinthians, he says, I thank my God always concerning you by Christ Jesus. He had gone to Corinth. He had preached the gospel. They had trusted Christ. In Galatians chapter six, verse two, he exhorted those believers who he had reached with the gospel, bear you one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Bear the burdens of others through prayer and through ministry. He said to the Ephesian believers in chapter three, verses 14 and 16, for this cause, I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, praying for those Ephesian believers who he had reached with the gospel in his missionary endeavors. In Philippians, he prayed for them according to chapter one, verse nine, and this I pray. that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. More people that had been reached with the gospel in the city of Philippi. He prayed for those Thessalonian believers that were reached through missionary endeavor. In chapter one, verse two, he says, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. He wrote to his protege in the faith, Timothy, in 1 Timothy 2, verse 1, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. First of all, I'm exhorting you, Timothy, and those that you teach to engage in a fervent ministry of prayer and especially and particularly intercessory prayer for the growth and building up of the body of Christ and the growth and building up of individuals and of course the reaching of people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mentioned Andrew Murray a moment ago in this little book called The Ministry of Intercession. Listen to something he says in that book. The model intercessor is the model Christian worker. First to get from God and then to give to men what we ourselves secure from day to day is the secret of successful work. Between our impotence and God's omnipotence, intercession is the blessed link. men and women, in other words, between weakness in missionaries and weakness in the spread of the gospel and great power and widespread effect and influence of the word as it runs rapidly, as it's proclaimed by missionaries, the connection, the link, the key is intercession upon by believers, most of whom will never leave their homes, their home churches, their own areas to do ministry. But you are the secret. You are the secret to God, strengthening and empowering those that are sent. The subject of our text tonight is one of these model Christian workers who was a model intercessor. His name is Epaphras. He's hardly, he's not mentioned a great deal in the New Testament. In fact, we do find him mentioned in Colossians chapter one, verse seven, and Paul describes him there as a fellow servant. Very interesting, in the book of Philemon, verse 23, Paul calls him a fellow prisoner. He was engaged in ministry somehow with Paul. Also in Colossians 1.7, he describes him as a faithful minister of Christ. For you are a faithful minister of Christ, he says. And he says he doesn't cease to pray for him. because of his faithful service. The limited information that we have about Epiphas is a powerful clue to us, folks, really is. To what we are to learn from him, there is an intense burst of biographical light about intercession. and it's about how to engage in intercession for the spread of the word of God and the upbuilding of the church. I like to call it, because of this man's name and because he's the one through whom we're learning this, epiphrastic intercession. Now, what is it that we do? What must happen for there to be a transformation in us so that we are powerful intercessors for the glory of God, for the spread of the gospel? Well, the first thing is we have to adopt a certain manner of life. You're turning to Colossians 4, 12, 13 with me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea and them in Heropolis. Now, what was it about Epaphras that made him so impactful in his ministry for other people? Well, you can think of intercessory prayer as kind of the top story of a building that is preceded by a whole lot else. It's like the successful close of a surgery by a surgeon. There's a lot of training and a lot of work that went on before that surgery gets closed in that surgical theater. There was a lot that went on in the life of Epaphras that made him a powerful intercessor. And there'll be a lot, that will need to go on in you if you're to take on this special missions ministry of praying for those that are sent to spread the gospel and build up the church of Jesus Christ. What's the first thing? What's the first part of the manner of life that should be true of you? Well, it's a spiritual intimacy with others who you are going to pray for. It says that Epaphras, if you look at the passage again carefully, was one of you. Epaphras, who was one of you. He was a Colossian. He knew these people. He knew them well. In fact, 1 7 says, as I noted just a moment ago, he was a faithful minister to the people there. He had a knowledge of their needs, physical and spiritual. He had a knowledge of the church, the body of Christ there. Let me extend this to your ministry to people within your own assembly. knowledge of your friends, your teachers, but especially knowledge, as we're considering this week, of those you support as missionaries. Today, as I was praying through your church directory, family by family and name by name, every one of you, and the missionaries that serve through this church, I was profoundly impressed how many missionaries you are supporting here through Hardingville Bible Church. But it's one thing for someone like me who really don't know you. I mean, I saw your names and I prayed your names and thought about the dynamics of your families and everything that's going on, you know, in your life and the missionaries as well. But most, all of you, most of you, I don't know well. I don't know the details. What really makes intercession powerful is when you do know, when you are one with people and that you are aware of what is going on in their life and there can be nothing more profoundly significant than that being true concerning the missionaries that you support. You know them, you know about their children, you know about the dynamics of their ministry, you know about their husbands, their wives, you know about the areas that they're serving in and the great and specific needs that they possess. I challenge you with the list of missionaries that are presented in your very thorough church directory. As you go down through those names, do you know these people? Have you emailed these people, talked to these people, read prayer letters by these people? One of the most profoundly impactful things to me personally in reference to missionaries who are serving on the field has happened to me with reference to one missionary named Kevin Jones. And immediately when our dear missionary brother who's here this week, who speaks, who serves the Russian speaking people, in New York City, my mind immediately went to Kevin because Kevin serves in Siberia with his family. He served there for almost 20 years in that I mean, we think of Siberia, we think of Soviet gulags, prisons, but there are big cities in Siberia and there are tens of thousands of people that live there. And Kevin and his family have served there faithfully and have a thriving church of well over 100 people in that city in Siberia. but getting to know the names of his family members and getting to know the dynamics of what's going on in his ministry. And those prayer letters come by email and I read those prayer letters and I shoot back a sentence or so to him and tell him that I'm thinking about him, praying for him. Thanks for sending me that information. Great prayer letter. And there's a relationship there as a result of that. It's a totally different dynamic. He's not just a name on a page. He's just not an unknown entity who's doing a magnificent, marvelous thing in Siberia. He's a real guy who's got a real family and real challenges and a real church with real challenges in a very difficult place. And the beauty nowadays with technology and communication is that we can have such ready and quick information like this from our missionaries so that we can be like Epaphras. We can have this manner of life that knows the people we are praying for. But there's something else about the manner of life of Epaphras. which should be true of us as well as we serve in this critical mission of epiphrastic intercession. And that is we have vision beyond our immediate ministry. Now look at verse 13 with me. It says, for I bear him record, Paul's saying about Epaphras, I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you, you in Colossae, and them that are in Laodicea and them in Heropolis. Well, all three of these cities. Colossi, Laodicea, Hierapolis were in an area called the Lysos Valley. It's in South Central Asia Minor in the first century. That's modern day Turkey. They were about six miles from each other, Heropolis and Laodicea. They were about 10 miles from Colossae. And of course, these distances are greater distances because of the nature of transportation in those days. But here's a man from Colossae who's preaching the gospel, who's shepherding those people, but he has a vision for people in communities that are outside his community. People who need the gospel and need to hear the gospel that have not heard the truth. You know, a limited view of ministry, a limited view of needs in other places, can result in real discouragement because we become so introverted and so focused on only what is going on in our small sphere of activity. and don't recognize that God has a great, vast harvest field that is white and ready for the harvest, and there are great needs there, and we need to lift up our eyes and look on the harvest that is white and really get serious and intense about praying for that harvest to be harvested. to be reaped and for God to send forth labors into the harvest. You know, that is one specific thing among many, but one very specific thing that Jesus said in the word of God in Matthew, where he says in chapter nine, that we are to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth labors into the harvest. Now there's something for you as an epiphrastic intercessor to do reference to the people that are sitting right here in this congregation. Lord, be working in the hearts of the people here at Hardingville Bible Church. Stir up the ones that need to be stirred up to go to the mission field, to go to the people who need to hear the gospel. That's a biblical prayer. That is a Christ-commanded prayer. And it's modeled for us by Epaphras in his praying. He was concerned for people in other communities for that harvest and laborers going there and reaping that harvest. Pray for missionary agencies. Pray for missionaries. Read the prayer letters. You know, another great exercise that you can engage in is to actually get a prayer map. where you take a map of the world and you pray for every country in the world for the spread of the gospel in that place. You pray for, when you use a map like that, you remember the missionaries that you know that are already there and you are stimulated to consider how needy the world is for the gospel all around the world. The world, here's a really profound comment, is a very big place. with a lot of significant needs. And getting our eyes up out of our own limited sphere and recognizing the vastness and the profound needs and what Jesus said, that the fields are white unto harvest, pray that he'll send forward labors in the harvest. Men and women, we have to believe that that will make a difference. We have to believe that will change things. It does change things. And I always marvel at the miracle of God's compelling call of young men and young women, and sometimes not so young, middle-aged people, into the mission field to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's, some might think it's sort of a mysterious thing. Why would someone ever want to leave their home culture, their home language, their families, and go to literally the other side of the world, well, that's an act of God. That's an operation of the Holy Spirit of God in the hearts of people. And it happens in answer to the prayers of God's people. Now, there's something else about the manner of this man's life. He not only was aware of and knew the people he was praying for and about, he not only had a vision beyond the immediate setting he was in, beyond Colossae to Laodicea and Heropolis, but he also was a man who was really totally devoted to the Lord. You know, you can't pray like this. unless your heart is really given into the hands of God and you are willing to do everything you can possibly do financially and personally for the spread of the gospel. You can't pray in this intercessory way unless that's true of you, otherwise it makes you really to be somewhat hypocritical. Look at verse 12. Epaphis, who is one of you, a servant of Christ. A servant of Christ, it says. Interesting description. The word servant means slave of Christ. That's humble devotion. In verse seven of chapter one, he is called a fellow slave. That's cooperative devotion. In verse seven, he's also called a faithful servant. That's consistently active devotion, humble devotion, cooperative devotion, consistently active devotion for the sake of others. Is that you? Does that describe you? Does that describe you now? here, in this place. That's part of the manner of life that actually turns you into an intercessor because if you're that kind of man or woman, you can pray for other people that they will be that way and that they will be used of God and that the word of God will run and have free course and people will be saved. If you're not fully devoted yourself, then you're always struggling with your own internal problems and weaknesses and failures and you're dominated always by your sin and your troubles and your problems. If we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in us. Of course, folks, we know that. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we can live that kind of Christian life where daily we are being cleansed, as Jesus said we need to be in John chapter 13, washed head to toe as believers and have a fresh start every single day and not be weighed down and drugged down and pressed down in our spiritual lives so that we really can't even think about other people. We don't think about other people. We don't think about ministry to other people. This is what I believe. I think I'm looking at an auditorium full of people who want in their heart of hearts, probably more than anything else, to be this kind of devoted person. Why would you be at a missions conference on a Tuesday night and on a weeknight if that wasn't your heart, that wasn't your soul? Well, pursue that. Pursue that level of devotion here and now in this place that you would have that manner of life along with that knowledge of others that vision beyond your immediate circumstances. But there's something else I want you to see about epiphrastic intercession and how this can happen through you. The person who's really a powerful intercessor understands the true nature of intercession. What is the true nature of it? Look at verse 12 again. Epiphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you. always laboring fervently for you in prayers, always. This is characteristic of intercessory ministry. It is ongoing, it is continual, it is regular, it is daily. Romans 12.12 calls this continuing instant in prayer. In Colossians 4.2, the same chapter, it says we're to continue in prayer. In Matthew 7.7, the Lord Jesus said, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. And the language there says, keep on asking, keep on seeking, Keep on knocking. The widow in Luke chapter 18 in the parable of Jesus was the unfortunate widow. She persisted in her requests of the unjust judge to be relieved in her difficulties. And Jesus said men are always to pray and not to faint, just like that woman didn't give up. Or like the friend in Luke chapter 11, who went at midnight to the house of his friend and said, please help me, give me some bread. I've got some visitors that have come to my house and I don't have any food to put before them. And it says, because he persisted, this friend gave him what he needed. You know, I mentioned the conversion of my father after many years in my own family. And what was at the root of that? The intercessory ministry of my mother was at the root of that for seven years. And the conversion of her own children as well, who were not Christians, myself, including my two sisters. Ongoing, always, it says in the text of Scripture, Ephesus is laboring fervently for you in prayers. But there's a little something else about this. about this true nature of intercession. It's not only continual, but it's intense effort with a specific goal, always laboring fervently for you. And then verse 13 says, he hath a great zeal for you. There's an intensity about this. In Romans 15, 30, Paul said, strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. It says, said of the Lord Jesus in Luke 22, 44, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. This is ongoing, this is continual, this is intense. Actually that terminology there, where it says that he labored fervently for you, Laboring fervently is actually one word in the language of the New Testament. I don't know if you like watching the Olympics. Most Americans I know do like watching some part of the Olympics, summer or winter Olympics. And I like watching the summer Olympics. I like to watch weightlifting. Believe it or not, there was a day when I lifted weights. Okay. That was shortly after Noah's flood that I did that. And so I have kind of a fascination with it. And I love to see those guys get a hold of those barbells and those huge weights on either end. And they reach down and they do the clean and jerk. You know what the clean and jerk is? OK. And up comes 500 pounds. And then whoo. And up it goes. And their arms are quivering. And they hold it up there. And then boom. OK. Very cool. OK. What's that about? That is precisely, in a pictorial way, what laboring fervently means. Straining every nerve. There's incredible focus and intensity. This isn't casual, this isn't laid back, this isn't relaxed. This is, well, maybe it'll be a good thing, maybe it won't be a good thing that'll happen, it's about a praying. No, it's God, I'm begging you, I'm praying, please do something in this situation. Make a change, make a transformation. And it's not only just occasionally, it's continually. So you are watching, you are waiting, you are checking, you're seeing what the outcome is. That's laboring fervently, laboring fervently with great zeal, with, we would add to that true nature of intercession, complete dependence on God. You say, well, where's that? Verse 12, laboring fervently for you in prayers, you say, That's about dependence upon God specifically? Yes, it is. That's really the focus. This is the most general term for prayer in the New Testament and the focus of that term is the one to whom you're praying and on whom you're depending. That's the emphasis of the meaning of the word among all the many words in the New Testament on prayer. Colossians 1, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are dependent upon God utterly, completely, totally for anything good to happen. You may have heard of the little book called The Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds. It's kind of a famous, very short little book on prayer. But he says in that book, talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still. And you know from the New Testament, I have to say that's absolutely true. I mentioned Campbell Morgan in his little book, The Practice of Prayer. He mentions there that prayer is the method of cooperation with deity. I love the comment by this well-known 19th century preacher, John Henry Jowett, when he said concerning prayer, we are expected to be children of an enormous God confidence. We're to be children absolutely assured we are in communion with Christ and even now are receptive of his grace. Enormous God confidence. So we bring the omnipotent one into life circumstances, into the lives of missionaries. And so when we read those prayer letters and they express concern for a man that had been visiting their church newly and who's lost, or some believer in the church where they have served and built a ministry, who's having great struggles or difficulties, we come to God with an enormous God-confidence, and we believe in the excellency of the power that it is of God and not of us, and we ask God to do something. We ask God to act. That isn't presumption. That's Christian faith. That's what that is. That's epiphrastic intercession. But in this passage of scripture, there beautifully is a final climactic element about epiphrastic intercession that makes for the spread of the gospel and the upbuilding of the church and the strengthening of missionaries and the sending of missionaries. And it is knowing the guiding priority of intercession. What is the guiding priority? What is the primary thing that we're really after, that we're really praying for? Look at 12, verse 12 again, and we're gonna get right to the end of the verse. A prophet who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluted you always, laboring fervently for you in prayers, that, key word, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, that ye may stand, praying for those missionaries that they would stand firm, they would hold their ground, they would stand fast, there would be no sliding back, there would be no stumbling, there would be no collapsing, that they would stand firm. but even more specifically that they would stand firm in perfection. And that means standing perfect as in maturity. Matthew 5, the Lord Jesus made an interesting statement in verse 48. He said, be perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect. That'll cause you to really ponder for a minute because God is God and we are men and we can't be perfect like God is perfect. But as one famous old theologian put it, Charles Hodge, who actually served right at Princeton Theological Seminary long, long time ago when it was, believe it or not, a conservative institution. He wrote that the Christian is to be perfect as man, as God is perfect as God. And the perfection of man consists in being full of God. You can chew on that one for a little bit, but the point is that we have, we can be more than we are, and we can stand firm in maturity spiritually as we should, and what is that? What is spiritual maturity? What really is it, exactly? Well, you know, it's being fully developed, or it's being what you ought to be. Listen to the words of Hebrews 5.14. but strong belong to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Who's of full age? Who is mature? Those who have exercised their senses to discern between good and evil, and they've embraced the good, and they've rejected the evil. And so we pray that those faithful servants of God who go to the mission field will stand firm and be mature in the sense of discerning and hold to what is good and reject what is evil and continue faithfully in the proclamation of the gospel and the presentation of the word of God to other people. In everything, be faithful. In disposition and attitudes and behavior for the glory of his name, and that they would then, verse 12 says, stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. We want missionaries and we want those who serve on the field to be people who are fully assured in the will of God. What does that mean? The revealed will of God, they labor to know it, to be thoroughly biblical people who are thoroughly versed in the scriptures, that they would be complete in the will of God in the sense of the obeyed will of God, that they are fully obedient Christians, and in the specific will of God, that they will do what in fact God wants them to do exactly, precisely. As Ephesians 2.10 says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That is what we are made for, maximizing our abilities, maximizing our opportunities, investing for the greatest possible return. We need to pray for those that God compels to the mission field that they will be maximal. in the will of God for them where they're serving. They may be all that they can possibly be as reflecting the image of Christ, and that they may not only be all they can be in reflecting His image, but they may actually reach as many people as they possibly can. I mean, what is the Great Commission heart when you think about it, folks? Is that the gospel will be heard and embraced by the greatest possible number of people and the greatest possible number of places on the earth. And where does that start? How does that happen? It happens when the hearts of those that go and that are sent rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit and are complete in all the will of God. They're Bible-saturated people, they're obedient people, and they are using their gifts and their abilities and their opportunities in the will of God to the best possible extent they can. Do you think that the missionaries that are listed at the back of your church directory can be better missionaries than they are today? Do you think they can improve? Do you think they can grow? I know you know that. You know the answer to that question. Of course they can, just like I can, just like you can. They need that. They need that motivation spiritually. They need that hunger and that thirst for God. They need that desire to be fully developed and mature. Where does that come from? How do they get that? They get that from you going to God as an intercessor and saying, Lord, please help this brother and this sister to be all they possibly can be. For the glory of God and their ministry in this far-flung place, can you think of anything sadder, anything more miserable than a person feeling called of God to go to the other side of the world? Let's say to Myanmar. That's the new name for Burma, okay? Leaving home, family, culture, there they are. They plop down in a city in Myanmar of a half a million people. and something goes awry. They're intimidated, they're fearful, they become relatively inactive, they aren't doing the work of the Lord on the field that they really ought to be doing. Does that really happen? Yes, brothers and sisters, that does happen to missionaries. But we are the secret to that not happening. by means of coming to God, going to God through intercessory prayer that the Lord would lift them up and use them. Intercessory prayer makes such a profound difference. It makes a profound difference by you for those in this fellowship concerning being compelled to the mission field. You know, it's very possible, even probable that there are people right here sitting tonight in this place who could be a chosen person of God to go to the mission field, to be somewhere other than where you are right now, to serve. And that's why praying for each other in this fellowship is so critical, that God would get hold, transform, and thrust out people into service. I mentioned my mother, who's now with the Lord. She went to be with the Lord in August this past year. She's 96 years old. For nearly the last 50 years of her life, after becoming a believer in middle age, early middle age, she was an incredible intercessor. My mother spent three to four hours a day in prayer and in the word. When I rebelled as a boy when she was a young Christian, she prayed for me. I knew she prayed for me, and I submitted. While I wandered away and lost in sin, she prayed for my salvation, and I was saved. When I trusted Christ, she prayed I would be called to the ministry. That was a regular, consistent prayer of hers. I was called to the ministry. While I trained, she prayed that I would learn, and I did my best to learn. And while I served all those decades with her alive, she prayed for strength for me, and I was strengthened. My mother was an intercessor, and it made all the difference. It always makes all the difference. And you can be that kind of person by adopting a manner of life that encourages intercession, by understanding the true nature of ideal intercession, by knowing the guiding priority of intercession, which is standing firm in the faith in maturity. You can grow to become a person of epiphrastic intercession. Father, I pray that you'd help us tonight. I pray that you, by your Spirit, would open our hearts, our minds, our eyes. Lord, help every man and woman here to resolve, to target the time, to have sufficient time to pray. Help them resolve to pray the right way, like Epaphras did, and pray for people. for the family and friends, their church, their pastors, and Lord, to pray for their missionaries who are doing great battle in dark places. Lord, help them. Work in them. So our heads are bowed just right now for a moment. You'd say, you know, Steve, I, I know that I am supposed to pray, and I do try to pray, and I pray even pretty consistently. But the kind of praying you're talking about is not something that is really happening in my life, and I am so hungry that it would become a part of my life, and I'm asking God by His grace to help me to make this a part of my life to be a person who engages in epiphrastic intercession for the service of others. That's your heart's cry. Lord, please help me. Give me grace to be this kind of person, this kind of intercessor. That's your heart's cry. You'd like to lift your hand to the Lord and just say, Lord, please help me. Amen. I see that. Amen. Amen. Amen. So many around the auditorium. Hallelujah. Amen. Lord, help me. Lord, I know this is part of what I am supposed to be and what I'm supposed to do, and it will make such a difference. Lord, this is what I want to be. So by your grace, help me. Anybody else? Lord, I just want you to know. Amen. Others.