Turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 4, and we'll be picking up our text in verse 2. Are you thankful for the rain today? If I were to ask you why are you thankful for the rain, what would your response be? We need it, and somebody said flowers, and I'm pretty excited. Now, I'm affected by weather, and so when it's sunny, I'm jolly, I'm happy. When it's cloudy or it's raining, it affects me a little bit. But lately, I've been very excited to have rain. And you may say, well, why is that? Well, I just had some seeds put down from my lawn, revitalizing it from the winter. And when I see that rain and the grass growing, I get excited. It's kind of like, this is good, this is great. And the truth is, I wonder, it leads me to the question, how many of you have fruit trees on your property or perhaps berry bushes or tomato plants or vegetable garden? How many have that on their property? Good, a good number of you, and certainly we have a great environment here for it, good weather for that. And I have a pear tree, and I have a fig tree, and I have berry bushes, and there are tomato plants and different vegetable plants growing, and wow, they look Like we're going to have a real good harvest. Janet always gets excited when the pear tree begins to have little buds and then little peaches on them. And she's excited and I said, you know, just the way you're excited right now, there are squirrels all around us going, yeah, look at that. We're going to have a good, good spring. And you may have that problem as well. But I love this time of year. Things are in bloom and it's going to be a great harvest. And I'm excited about that. And the truth is, I shouldn't be that surprised by the fact that our fruit trees are bearing fruit. Truth is, I'd be disappointed if I had a fruit tree and it wasn't bearing fruit. And I think, in a very real sense, it's a reasonable expectation. It's a natural process. And I think that's something we can expect. I think it's similar when Paul addresses prayer here in chapter 4, that he would be disappointed if there wasn't the fruit of an effective prayer life for those who named the name of Christ. I think it is a reasonable expectation. I think it's a natural occurrence when you've been born again, when you've seen in Scripture how your Savior prays, that it prompts you to want to pray like Him. In Colossians chapter four, Paul gives instruction in verses two to six, revealing the fruit of a Christ-like heart. And that fruit is evident both in our prayer life and in our public life. And I think you would agree, to the degree that we pray, that's the effect it can have on our public life. And so we see some good instruction here. Follow along with me as Paul exhorts us in chapter 4, verse 2, as he says, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. In verse 5, speaking of the lost or those without Christ, he goes on to say, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to, or you ought to answer each one. Father, we thank you for your word today, and Lord, as we come to prayer, on the topic of prayer, Father, if we're honest, we need help. And we need to be exhorted to continue in prayer. Too often, Lord, we lose focus. And Father, our minds come off the things that are important to you. And so today, I pray you'd bless your word. Father, draw us closer to yourself and help us to have the heart of Christ when he prayed. And we'll thank you for it in Christ's name. Amen. And so as we talk about this matter of prayer, I want to speak about the Christian's prayer life. So how is it with you? How is your prayer life? Is it consistent? Are you spending time with God? Are you earnestly continuing in prayer? And I think all of us would agree, yeah, prayer is important. We know that. And truth is, many of us have experienced something spectacular as a result of prayer. And some of you may be thinking, wait a minute, spectacular as a result of prayer? Well, I hope that's true for you because I know it is for me. Think about it. It was spectacular that you came to know the Lord. And how do you express your faith to God? When you heard the gospel, you did it in a conversation with God, that's prayer. How did you repent of your sin and ask God to forgive you? In a conversation with God, that's prayer. How did you receive Christ and ask him to come into your heart? But by a conversation with God, that's prayer. And so yes, something spectacular happened as a matter of prayer. I think some of you here today can give a testimony of how you were healed by prayer. A number of years ago, Janet had a difficulty with a neck, and she went to a doctor, and he says, probably there's something out of whack, and it's going to require surgery. No one wants to hear that, but that's what she heard. And so, I think it was on a Wednesday, and that Wednesday night, we let our church know about that, and everybody prayed, Lord, heal her, if it be your will. And guess what? It was kind of miraculous. And suddenly she didn't have any more pain. She had an appointment to go back and they was going to schedule a surgery, but she went back and the doctor said, I'm not seeing any evidence of any problem. I don't get it. Well, I hope you get it because some of you have been healed as a result of prayer. Some of you have seen others healed. Some of you have seen others come to Christ as a matter of prayer. You've seen your children come to Christ because you prayed for them. God worked and they responded. I came to Christ as a result of my wife praying for me and others as well that I would come to know him. Some of you have testimonies of what God has done in your life and you have gotten through a seemingly insurmountable amount of difficulty as a result of someone praying for you so we know Prayer is important, but that's not enough. It really is not. And I'll give you an example of when something is important, but that's not enough. Think about exercise. We know exercise is important and some of you do that, but knowing it's important is not enough. If you just went out and bought some equipment and kind of tomorrow morning began working out, You can do yourself more damage than good as a result of that. If you showed up at the gym tomorrow and didn't get any information on how these machines work, and you just got on there and started working, you could do more damage than good. We know that vitamins are important, right? But you research what are the vitamins you should be taking. How is this going to benefit you? What is the balance that you should have? Otherwise, you do yourself more harm than good. I would say as well that investments are important. You should be planning for your retirement, thinking ahead. But isn't it true that if you are not wise in making your investment, you may get involved in something, and you say, wow, this market is doing great. I've got to get in and start saving for that retirement, and it's not too far off, so I'm going to get into something high yield, which, by the way, is also high risk. And with the pattern of where the market is in the cycle, you might be making a grave mistake and put everything at risk. that you're gonna need in years to come. And so the knowledge of something being important is not enough. You really need to know how is this important and how does it work and how should I function in this matter? And I think that was true. We can ask those questions about prayer. How are we to pray? What are the important ingredients to prayer? Think about the disciples when they saw Jesus praying. Can you imagine what that was like? two or three of them looking and saying, wow, listen to Jesus communicate with his heavenly father. I want to be like that. Lord, would you teach us how to pray? And so the importance of knowing how to pray and the ingredients that make prayer successful are so important. So let's talk about what are the ingredients? What makes prayer successful? And I think you would agree with me, there are some things that are not important when it comes to prayer. For example, the posture we take when we pray is not that crucial. I pray standing up. I pray sitting down. I pray on my face many times. And when we were visiting and flying to Israel last year, I got up at 4 a.m. in the morning to use the restroom and walked in the plane, and I was surprised at the number of rabbis that were standing in the corners, wherever they could find a quiet spot, and praying like this. And I'm told that's shuckling. And what that is, is it's a rhythm of their prayers to be able to concentrate more deeply on what they're saying. And I think concentration is important when we pray, but I don't think the posture is all that important. I think as well, when you consider, is the place where you pray important? Well, I pray in my car, I pray at home, I pray in my office, I pray here at this podium, I pray behind the administration building, and I do like being outside. There's just something natural about being outside and finding yourself feeling inspired, and in a sense, feeling maybe closer to God. I prayed where Jesus prayed. I prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. I prayed at the Sea of Galilee, and it was inspirational. But you know what? It wasn't really as important concerning the posture or the place where I prayed. But there are some ingredients that are important. And I think as we consider the reasons that we pray and the attitude we bring to prayer is extremely important. And as we see in verses 2 to 4, there are several characteristics that help us understand what an effective prayer life looks like. And so first of all, we will see that an effective prayer life consists of constant prayer. Being constant in our prayer, the New King James adds the word earnestly to indicate the depth of sincerity and feeling that the word continues, carries. And that's exactly the way we should be praying. In other words, the Christian who wants to be effective in prayer must not consider prayer a last resort, but a constant resource. We're to be going before the Lord and lifting up the needs that we have and others have. F.B. Meyer said this, the great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unauthored prayer. Too often we do give up, we lose that focus, we change our priority of urgency, and perhaps we even lose heart. Jesus said in Luke 18, 1 that we are always to be praying and not lose heart. In context, he was speaking about his return. And so while we wait for the Lord's return, we are to continue earnestly in prayer and what a difference it makes in our life and the life of others. Are you constant in prayer? Are you earnestly going before the Lord about this need that you're facing? Perhaps it's a healing and you're not experiencing that healing. Maybe God's telling you, you need to spend some more time with me. You need to believe that I can deliver you from that. Maybe it's discouragement or depression. And instead of going to the Word and going to prayer, you're running from it. And God's trying to teach you the importance of it. Maybe it's a job you're hoping for and praying for, but your prayers are kind of, well, I don't know if you're going to work that out, Lord. You know, we have to express faith when we're praying, as in any other time of life as well. Pastor Jerry requested that we pray for the search committee. Now, it's a year. that we're without a pastor. And I wonder, are we praying as we should be praying? And if you haven't been praying, I know many of you are. But get on board and be praying. It's a crucial time for our search committee and for us as a church to continue earnestly in prayer. James reminds us, you have not because you ask not. And that should not be us who name the name of Christ. And sometimes we fail to pray, once again, because things are going so well. And that's a big mistake, because you develop a false sense of security, and suddenly something happens, and guess what? Blows you away. And sometimes it's because too much is happening, and you're discouraged, but discouragement leads to doubt. And that will always lead to depression. Get back on your knees and begin to pray. So, we must be constant if we're going to be effective. And then as well, we must be alert when we pray. Paul reminds us to be vigilant. King James Version says, watch, keep awake. I know what this is, practically speaking in life, of being awake. Be an alert. When I was preparing for ministry, I took a job at the Kmart store in Greenville, right down the road from Bob Jones University. And I have a background in security, and I thought my hours would allow me to spend some time there. And so I went to find out if there was a need there. And I spoke to the manager, and the manager says, wow, do we have a need there. We're losing a million dollars a year in inventory as a result of theft. That's a lot of money in one store. And I said, well, I can help you with that. And they says, we've just about given up. We've had off-duty offices here the last couple of years. You know how many arrests we had last year? Two. I said, well, by ignoring it, you're not going to solve the problem. Truth is, as I was on my way to your office, I saw a couple of people cleaning out your store, so you need help here. And they hired me. And within that year to year and a half, I made 156 arrests. Brought the figure down $400,000. And the reason being is I was alert. I understood what to look for. I was keenly watching out for the bad guy. And it brought fruit. And we have to be mindful, even as Jesus spoke about the matter of praying and watching lest you fall into temptation. I wonder how many of us are falling as a result of failing to pray. We lose the idea of the importance and the spiritual warfare that's going on all around us. Think about Nehemiah when he was rebuilding Jerusalem's walls and all the spiritual warfare and resistance that was going on at that particular time. Their response is found in Nehemiah 4, 9. Nevertheless, we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night. They were alert, they were mindful, they knew what needed to be done. And so, being vigilant or watchful is really the opposite of slothfulness. It is prayer that is passionate. And once again, if we don't learn from Scripture the way our Savior prayed, we miss it. He was passionate when he prayed. Listen to what S.D. Gordon says in his book, Quiet Talks on Prayer. He notes how much prayer meant to Jesus. It was not only his regular habit, but it is a resort in every emergency, however slight or serious. When perplexed, he prayed. When hard-pressed by work, he prayed. When hungry for fellowship, he found it in prayer. He chose his associates and received his messages upon his knees. If tempted, he prayed. If criticized, he prayed. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, he had recourse to his one unfailing habit of prayer. Prayer brought him unmeasured power at the beginning and kept the flow of unbroken and undiminished. There was no emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield to prayer. And some of us have forgot that. Jesus prayed with passion from his baptism to the cross. And we should learn from his example. Have you lost that vision, that passion when you're praying for lost souls? And sometimes we give up. We come to that mindset, it's not going to do any good. It's not going to help. This person is not going to respond. Listen, it's not your responsibility to save someone. It is your responsibility to continue to pray for that soul that is lost. It is your responsibility to pray for opportunities that you can share the gospel. And when that happens, you'll be amazed of the doors God opens and the conversation he brings to you. He's looking for ready hearts that are constant, that are alert. and then those that are thankful, because that is another important element of our prayer life, being thankful. Someone may be here today and saying, well, you know, you don't know my life, and I'm not sure there's something I can be thankful for. Well, let me ask the question. Are you under house arrest? Probably not, since you're here. Are you concerned that you might be beheaded at any moment? More than likely not, Paul was. Paul was under house arrest. He wasn't sure when his life would end, but guess what? He didn't grumble and groan about it. He showed gratitude. Why? Because he got the picture of what God was doing in that situation in his life. God had a purpose for where he was at, and Paul was in the midst of it. Paul instructed the Colossians, pray with thanksgiving. And when we pray, we should find reasons to praise Him. And if you're saved today, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you should begin every prayer with, Father, thank you for saving me. Thank you, Lord, as a lost sinner, hopeless. And I realize that different ages that you may have come to know the Lord impacts your thought of it or where you are. But listen, reality is you are lost and going to hell. And God reached down in mercy and saved you. You ought to be praising Him for the salvation you enjoy in Christ Jesus. I think you should be praising Him for your family. And I know many of you, but I know I thank God for my family, for my children. who love the Lord, a servant of the Lord. I thank him for my grandchildren that we can spend time together and I can encourage them. My granddaughter is playing in the orchestra, headed off to a Christian college in August. I'm thankful for what God is doing in our family and I love the support and they're there for me. Not everyone is, my family is. They have my back, they pray for me, they love me and I love them. You should be thankful for your family. I hope you pray and say, God, thank you for the family you've given me. And for you who maybe have limited family here, thank you for the friends that are family. Thank you for the brethren that are family. We have so much to be thankful for. Are you thankful for the assurance you have of what is ahead? Whether that's tomorrow or 20 years from tomorrow? We have His Word that tells us what's waiting for us. And as I've shared with some folks recently who have lost loved ones, and they've shared with me, we know what's ahead. We know there's a reunion coming, and I'm comforted by that. We have so much to praise the Lord for. You know, when Paul told the Philippians, pray with thanksgiving, he followed with the thought, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The peace of God, that's pretty good results and worthy for the investment of prayer. Some of you are lacking peace. Are you praying with thanksgiving? Are you realizing how blessed you are? Are you constant in prayer and alert to what's going on around you? And when you think about thanking God for prayer, you might ask the question, does he really need that? Well, I don't know that he needs that. I know he looks for that. I know scripture tells us when he healed 10 lepers and one gave thanks, he asked the question, were not 10 healed? Where are the nine? When he looks over Calvary, And he realizes what he's doing in your life, and he says, did I not bless how many number? We're those that have been blessed and given thanks. We're reminded to give thanks, and a thankful heart blesses God and is beneficial to us. And then, if we're going to have effective prayer, we need to be specific when we pray. And the truth is, we can look at this Colossian epistle as a missionary letter because Paul was a missionary to the Romans, to the Gentiles. He was under house arrest in Rome, and knowing the importance of prayer, he solicited the Colossians to pray specifically that he would have evangelistic opportunities, and that he would use them wisely. And so our prayers for missionaries need to be specific. It's not enough to say, Lord, bless the missionaries, be with them, No, we need to know what's going on in their life. And I'm so thankful for our missionary lifeline partners who have signed up and are communicating with our missionaries to know what the need is. And you've heard from our missionaries not too long ago where they said and gave testimony. What an encouragement to know that we're kind of down and we feel like we're in this alone. And I get a call, I get an email, I get a letter. I'm praying for you. And how can I pray specifically? Thank you for that, but if you haven't signed up, you still can be praying with the knowledge of what is needed. Paul knew there were needs that other missionaries faced, and in verse three he tells us, pray for open doors. And what does that involve? Well, it involves certainly getting into nations and people groups, but doesn't it also pertain to open hearts? Shouldn't we be praying that the Lord opens those hearts so when they hear the Word, they respond to it. They're sensitive to the Word of God. He told the Ephesians to pray for boldness, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." Listen, we as ministers, and I include you in that, need boldness. We need to pray for each other, but we need to remember our missionaries that are in places that are difficult. And they, like us, are regular people who face fear of rejection. One of the reasons that we don't witness is we're afraid what someone's gonna say. Well, listen, they're in the same place. They're going through that same difficulty. How's someone going to respond? We need to pray for them that they'll have that boldness and that the Spirit will provide them with the words to communicate effectively, especially in a different culture, especially in a different where language is a barrier. Are you praying for the Evans as they're in language school? Asking God to bless them so they can effectively minister? How about the evil forces they face? We heard from our missionaries of the danger of that face, and at times it's pretty scary. Are you praying for safety for them? Paul told the Thessalonians, finally brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly. King James version uses the word free course or hastily is what it means and be glorified just as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for not all have faith that's what our missionaries are facing and the struggles and difficulty and the obstacles and the strength and stamina that they're zapped from they need us praying They need us representing them as they are on the front lines. We need to be asking God to change the hearts of those they're speaking to. And cooperation and partnership are essential to ministry and vital to the progress of their work and our work as well. You know, truth is we sometimes forget that they face many of the same difficulties we face in life. like the financial concerns or the relational concerns or the difficulties of being alone. Think about the many things that are overwhelming for them. Sometimes the workload is difficult. But here's the thing, when you go through difficulties like that, I hope you have brethren, family that encourage you and come around you and minister to you. I know so many of you here encourage me and say we're praying for you. I appreciate that and I feel that, I know that. But when our missionaries oftentimes go through the difficulty, you know what? They're going through it alone. And that's sad because they went off. They're the ones that went to the front line. They're the ones that gave up so much. And here we are, blessed the missionaries, Lord. Be with them. Thank you for you who signed up. And you can still sign up. You can get involved. You can go out to the Welcome Center today and say, hey, I want to get involved in that. And if you have a family and you're raising children, what a great way to disciple your family. What a great way to teach them to have a heart for missionaries and for souls so that you can be communicating with our missionaries and giving those prayer requests and reporting of what God did as a result of you all praying for them. And so, we recognize that God wants to do some great things as we minister to those. And so, Paul was a missionary, he was a man of prayer, he prayed for those without Christ, he prayed for the believers, he prayed for new churches, he prayed for those under his ministry, but then he said, pray for me. And we need to remember those that are out on the field. He exhorted the Romans, now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me. Paul knew that prayer would bring results. In 2 Corinthians 1-11 he said this, Another translation says it this way, He will rescue us because you are helping by praying for us. As a result, many will give thanks to God because so many people's prayers for our safety have been answered. Pretty cool. In his letters, he gave specific prayer requests for the believers. And don't miss it. If he's given that, we should be praying specifically that we can impact those that are around the world ministering to others, as well as here. Well, having exhorted the Colossians to pray right, he went on and urged them to live right. And we should never forget that. D.L. Moody said this, he stressed the importance of knowing two books, the Bible and the book of human nature. And isn't it true that we need to know what makes people tick? It's quite possible that he based his observation on a study of Paul's writings. Paul wanted his readers to rightly divide the word of truth, as he told Timothy. And then here in verse five, he counseled, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. The term those who are outside underlines the fact that non-Christians are outside of God's family. They're outside of God's fold. They're outside the church. And unless a non-Christian trusts in Christ, he will be eternally outside heaven. Isn't that sad? He will be eternally inside hell, and that's scary. Don't lose focus, don't lose hope. Continue in prayer, because it'll make a difference. But we need to know, how do people respond? How do we approach certain things? What's important to them? What are their goals? What do they care about? And the truth is, when you begin caring about what they care about, guess what? Comes right around to you back. They'll care about what you have to say. And in saying what the gospel communicates. And so, we're told to show that concern. We're told to understand who they are. Learn about their backgrounds. Learn about their children. Learn how you can be praying for them. And not only must we walk wisely, but certainly, he helped us to understand we need to talk wisely. You know, non-Christians observe our walk, but they also listen to our talk. What do we say? What do we mean? Is there genuineness of heart? Do we practice what we preach? You who are in business, may I encourage you to do what you say you will do? To return a call? When you tell someone, you will call them. I have a little area in my kitchen that got some water on it, and the wood kind of curled up, and interestingly, I've been trying to get someone to fix it, and it's kind of going back down. But I've spoken to numerous, Contractors or people that work with wooden floors and I'm amazed how many have told me I'm gonna get back to you and this week I'll be there I know it's a small job But I can do that and fit that in and I know they're busy and I don't have a problem with someone saying I don't have the time But when they say I'm gonna get there this week and then you don't hear from them and you text them what happened If you're a Christian and name the name of Christ Watch it talk be who you should be when you make a promise, because it affects people. It causes them to wonder about this matter of Christianity, and especially if they're lost. What does that say of what we believe? And so our talk needs to be in good taste. The words we use, and especially the evangelistic words we use when we're trying to reach somebody for Christ, We are to know, as Paul says, how to answer every man, in verse six. We are to know what phrases would work for this individual based on their knowledge and what things would fly over their head and they would have no understanding of what you're trying to say. I will encourage you, if you're serious about winning souls, to consider your testimony and how you can give it in just a few minutes. of what God has done in your life, where you were, what God used, and as a result, I'm trusting the Lord, and I love serving the Lord, and here's why. I know I'll be eternally with God. And when you share a testimony, as brief as that may be, just follow it up with a question. Hey, do you mind if I ask you a question? Do you have any spiritual interest? What about you? And let God do the work in the heart. But so many of us are fearing rejection and not praying for boldness that we're missing opportunities. Can I encourage you as well if you're serious about winning souls? Practice, so to speak, what you preach. In other words, get with somebody. And this is what we used to do when we trained people. We would get them together and let them go over their testimony and get into that question and answer. And you know what? God can use that as you prepare. Get a partner in ministry for this. It could be your spouse. It could be your schoolmate. It could be your friend. It could be anyone. Get together and say, hey, you know what? That spoke to me. I want to be more effective. Will you help me? And you know what? It could be as simple as the Romans wrote. It could be sharing Jesus without fear. It could go deeper, even like evangelism explosion. And I've taught all of those. I can help you. If you need material, I will help you. If you need one-on-one discipleship with that, I can help you. If you want to have a class on that and enough of you are interested, we're in this together, and there are souls out there that need Christ. Always sensitive to it. As we're praying for them, are we equipped to do what we should do? God wants you to touch the hearts that you love, but He also wants you to touch the souls that He loves. And those are people that He puts in our path. Close with an illustration that I heard and I think it's appropriate because sometimes we think like this. D.A. Carson shares an experience of some friends in his book Priorities from Paul and His Prayers. He talks about this couple that he knew were driving down the road and they noticed a late model Cadillac pulled to the side. It had its hood up and there was somebody just frustrated as can be and so they pulled over And they said, hey, what's going on? And he embarrassingly said, you know, I knew I needed gas and I knew I should have filled up because I come on this trip, but I have such an important business meeting that I thought and hoped that I would get to that business meeting without putting gas in the car. And they said, well, that happens sometimes. Well, they happened to have a gallon can in their car and enough gas to get him started. And they said, hey, just two miles down the road, there's a service station. This'll get you there. And so they put that gas in there and he sped off. And so they got back in their car and about 12 miles down the road, they see the same Cadillac on the side. And the guy's like, and they pull over and they say, what happened? Didn't you go stop at the service station? He says, you know, I foolishly thought that that gallon would get me to my meeting because I needed to be there. And here I am. And isn't that foolish to think sometimes we think like that, but before we're too hard on them, how often is it that we go from one agenda to the next and check it off and I got to do this and I got to get to that. And we don't take time to be refueled. We're just not in the habit of seeking God and seeking his face before we seek the face of others. So long ago, someone said, let your knees hit the ground before your feet so that you can seek me. before you seek others. And I literally made that my practice of just rolling out of bed and falling on my knees. I can't do that for two reasons right now. Number one, my knees aren't what they used to be. And number two, I sleep in a rice bed that's pretty high. So that's not practical. But I understand the significance of it and it has impacted my life to seek God before I seek others. Are you doing that? Jesus said we are to always pray and not lose heart. And as we have an invitation in a moment, maybe it's just time for you to get back on your knees. Maybe and ask God, forgive me, Lord. I've stopped praying for those individuals that I've lost heart about. I've stopped giving you thanks for what you've done in my life. I sometimes forget how beautiful and beneficial it is that I'm saved and know you. And Lord, today I'm committing myself to prayer once again. I realize I may be speaking to someone today that it's real hard for you to communicate with the Savior and maybe you just need to be introduced to the Savior. If you're just not 100% sure if you took your last breath right now where you would be in one second, settle that today. It's too important an issue for you to let it go by. As we talk about prayer, What a blessing it would be, angels would rejoice if you prayed the prayer of repentance and received Christ as your Savior. And I'll be here praying for you and for others, and I'll be at the hospitality table in just a little bit. And if you're without Christ today, please, please come and see me, talk with me. My heart's desire is for you to experience what we who know Christ are experiencing. And so will you bow your heads as we close in prayer? And perhaps today, that's you I'm speaking to. You're just not sure where you would be if you were to die. And maybe you're not ready to take that step. Maybe you're just still working through it, and I still think it's important to talk to someone about it. But if you want me to just pray and ask God to work in your heart, you're just not sure that you're saved, but you wanna know. I won't embarrass you, I just wanna pray for you. Just lift your hand up, and you can bring it back down. Raise your hand, bring it back down, and I'll pray for you. I'm just not sure of this matter about salvation. How about you in this matter of prayer? Are you praying as you ought? or you're losing heart. If you want me to pray for you about this matter of prayer and being more consistent, more alert, more specific, would you raise your hand that I might pray for you? God has spoken to you today. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Father, you know each heart here and you know the need. Father, for one that may be unsaved, Lord, that's my heart's desire that today they'd come to know you. Draw that one to yourself. Help, Lord, that thought to continue on their mind and heart until they settle it with you. Father, thank you for those that desire to be faithful in prayer. And so today, Lord, I ask you to encourage them. Thank you for their openness and heart to know you better, to pray specifically for these needs and to give you praise. And so at this time of invitation, Lord, we commit it to you. Have your will in way, and we'll thank you for it in Christ's name. Amen. And so as we pray, and we sing, bow the knee, perhaps that's exactly what you need to be doing. Just come and bow the knee, ask God to continue to keep your heart on fire about the things we should be praying for.